Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-06-25
FAILURE OF ARTESIAN WELLS IN THE
OESEpT


We learn from the llizonian that Captain
Pope's expedition for the digging of Artesian
wells in the desert known as the Staked Plains,
having "utterv failed" he is about to abandon
the Undertaking The Captain, according to
the authority quoted, had been making prepa-
ration for final retreat His operations have
been carried on with energy and all the resour-
ccs and appliances of modern science, for five
years. large sums OF money have been expend-
ed, Congress having made two appropriations
in all Of the project the War Department un-
der Jefferson Davis, from which the design en-
anated, and which was entrusted with its exc
cution, equipped the party with every requisite
ard the general government furnished them
with all the facilities which it was in its power
to grant. Nothing was left undone which
might assist them in bringing their labors to
successful conclusion. They succeeded in bor-
ing to the depth of six or seven hundred feet,
hut the water came no nearer to the surface
than hundred and eighty feet. For any use
ful purpose It might as well ne IN Une Clouds VI
in the rock-sealed fountains OF the lower strata.
We need not observe that the enterprise was
exclusively sectional, and undertaken to estab-
llsh the practcability of a sectional railroad to
the Pacific. Could water depots be founded at
convenient intervals along the thirty-second
parallel, the construction and operation of
however impolitic in itself, and unjust to the
country at large. The attempt to supply this
desideratum OF water in the desert, was warm
ly urged and seconded by the Pierce Admins
tratioA, and especially by Secretary Davis. The
costly and protracted experiment Just closed,
demonstrates that the staked plains are in real
ity what they are reported to be--a parched,
arid, and naked wildcrncss-a Sahara impassa-
bic except by Bcdoueen flights between sun and
sun, and from one distant station to another
They cover an area of three hundred thousand
square miles, extending north and south thou
sand miles, and east and west three hundred
This dreary expanse intercepts the line of thr-
ty-second parallel, which has been bruited even
in Missouri, as the best route for railroad to
the Pacific. Whether this extravagant assump-
tion will be longer maintained, we are unable
to say, but no one can nationally doubt that the
failure to bring up water through the thirsty
sands, will convert "Southern Pacific Rail
road into a Southern folly, unless its direction
is changed or its construction discontinued at
some safe point in Texas. Should its managers
persist in carrying it forward on the thirty-sec-
ond parallel it will be arrested on the threshold
of the staked plains, just as an African river is
sometimes lost midway in its course. The
Southern sectionalists seem resolved to make
these plains the one overland avenue-the toll
Rulc W lut w uclllcT Tie TdllTOuuS
proposed in behalf of Southern interests, COM
mence in New Orleans or on the Missouri river,
the routes assigned them, converged in these
elysian fields where water is found six hundred
feet beneath the surface. Even the Butterfeld
mail is compelled to traverse them.
The contrast between the pro-Southern and
anti-Western policy of the National Democracy
is vividly recalled by this abortive boring expe-
dition. Since the discovery of gold in Caifor-
MIA, when it commenced, the overland emigra-
ton has pursued central route. Tens of thou
sands have travelled safely to and fro between
the shores OF the two oceans, with their wagons,
oxen, mules and horses. Settlement has fol-
lowed i'll their wake Nuclei of towns and ci-
ties are found along the road. Higher agencies
than those of man seem to have ordained the
rapid peopling Of the central continental re-
gions. The delusions of Mormonism have re-
deemed the valley of Salt Lake from sterile
wildness. The opportune discovery of gold in
the mountain ranges of the Platte and Arkan-
sas guarantees the speedy organization of q
State, west of Kansas and Nebraska. Fanati-
cism and the thirst of gold (good is educed
from eviD than which no stronger springs of
action are known to human nature, are precipi-
tatng human masses into those intermediate
plains and valleys, the climate of which is so
saubrious and the soil so well adapted for ag-
rlculture. A communication IN our columns
this morning compares the column of emigra-
tion to a vast army marching to assured victory.
All this the higher laws have done or are doing
for the West. What has the Federal Govern
ment, or rather the National Democratic party,
done? Nothing, except to thwart and battle,
as far as it could, those great Western move
ments. Instead of cooperating with that man
ifest destiny which the blindest must discern, it
has resolutely set itself against it, by refusing
free homesteads, and the Central Pacific Rail-
road, and by striving to plant slavery in the
Territories On the other hand let us glance
at its policy towards the South in this one as
pect. With territory vastly disproportioned
to our population, these very desert plains were
purchased at cost of eight millions of dollars,
with the view of furnishing a route for the
Southern Pacific Railroad Appropriations
were then made for conjurng water from the
bottom to the top; and an expedition was sent
out with steam engines and every other kind of