The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-26
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILRO lD.


importance and usefulness warrant free dis
tribution to all the readers of THE TELEGRAPH
therefore we make room for it to-day
CAMP No. Is, ON JoCKo RIVER Montana
Territory, Aug s, 1S69-Iat 47'20, Long 1141O
(about) ).-Messrs. Jay Cooke 81 Co., Philadel-
hia-Gentlemen-We are now about 4S6 miles,
by our train, from Walla Walla, including about
thirty miles along Lake Pend d'Oreille, on
which ourselves and animals were conveyed on
the steamer Mary Moody, which was generously
placed at the service of the party by the Oregon
Steam Navigation Company, through Mr.. Aims
worth, its liberal President.
My last letter to your firm was written at
Wolla Walla July Is. On the 2Oth we left there,
and we have since advanced at an average rate
of twenty-fOur miles day, which is considered
very good rate for pack animals.
have, ms we marched made many observa-
tons and taken numerous notes of the character
of the country passed through, both with refer
ence to railroad construction and railr Dad pabu
lum Our route lay ten or more miles north
west of Captain Mullans military road, in order
that we might see more of the rolling prairie
country letween Walla Walla and the Spokane
river. For over one hundred and fifty miles
the general character is much the same, a rolling
body of rich land covered everywhere with
bunch grass, excellent for cattle, and
remarkably favorable character, where gene
rally cattle range all winter without necessity
for other food or for housing, and where our
grains wheat rye, barley, oats, and all our
vegetables grow in great perfection, and where
apples, pears, plums and grapes, etc, attain
larger sizes and as fine flavor our own, though
ranging in latitude AZ deg. and 4S deg, or 4G
to 49 deg.
Hundreds of thousands of cattle may be fat
tened on these plains from the bountiful prOyi-
sion of nature as cheaply as in any part of the
world, not even excepting the pampas of the
Argentine Confederation. At present there are
at long distances apart ranches, with little i'm
provements enough to show that the country is
susceptible of fine agricultural development,
especially in the valleys. Between one
hundred and fifty and hundred and
sixty miles from Waa Walla we crossed the
Spokane rivera fine stream. Thence about
thirty-two miles over prairie, tmbered most of
the way to Lake Pend dOreille, a beautiful
sheet of water, which we spent day exploring.
have had no time to digest the notes taken on
our immediate route, and l prefer not to speak
definitely respecting the character of the ground
for railroad construction till have attained the
summit, and seen something of the passes
through the main body of the Rocky
Mountains. l not at all sure that
the particular route traced by will be
the best ground for the railroad. l must thor
oughly digest Captain Mullan's reports. !
must read myself and carefully consider Gov
enor Stevens reports. must study the charts
of the harbors of Puget and the straits of Fucu.
Then, with my own personal observations,
aided by additional information gathered as we
advsnce with our exploration, l will be pre-
pared to give an intelligent opinion on the
merits of routes proposed. l have taken my
own way of making notes and my own way
of rejecting upon the whole question of this
railroad route from the Pacific Ocean to the
summit of the Rocky Mountains; and l pur-
posely avoid sending you any random state
ments. In n general way may say that | am
satisfied that there is a practicable railroad
route from Puget Sound, and from the mouth Oi
Columbia river in the valley of Columbia, tc
this place. with favorable grades and cur
vature, without gerry great cost per mile
and that a large portion of the route
lies through or near to a country good either fO
the finest grazing or for agricultural purposes
and much of it through the best-timbered regior
have ever seen. Notwithstanding that an
prepared to make the above statement, it will bt
incumbent on me engineer to present tn,
matter much more in detail when treating o
routes: yet | regard the above us embracing al
important general fact
There are miles OF the road Wnlcn Will DC yer,
costly and troublesome, but there are so man.
favorable miles that | am warranted in going a
far as l have in the preceding statements; but
desire particularly that you should not under
stand me as expressing an opinion in favor o
any particular route.
The Clark's Fork of the Columbia alon
which we passed from its debouche into LAX
\ Pend dOreille to the mouth of Flathea
river one of its main branches, is noble river
averaging from seven hundred to one thousun
or more feet in width, and having even Mt ii
lowest stages an immense volume of water.
is as large as the Ohio between Pittsburg an
Wheeling, but it has very much more fall pc
mile, averaging about eleven feet, counting tn
rapids; so that to sustain navigation, n larg
volume of water is indispensable. My approx
mate estimates of the quantity passing at I'll
lowest stage enables me to state with certalnt
that it has more than sir times the low water flo
of the Ohio.
The Flathead river is from five hundred t.
seven hundred feet in width with volume
water in It's lowest stage more than three time
. the low water of the Ohio and, for about eight
miles in one stretch it is nayigable when Il
river is at a medium stage. There are tW
steamers on Clarks Fork in addition to Il
Mary Moody on the lake, built by mechanic
sent up from Portland, and they are intende
solely at present for the accommodation of IL
Packers and their trains. -Four thousan
animals per year have been carried around til
lake.
The completion of a railroad through the O.
lumbia valley will be the means of settling tn
country. Without railroad through It the sc
tlement will proceed CerY Stolcly, because will
out 1t produce has no active value, aud 1t
costly to get even cattle from this distant regio
ftO good market
With finished railroad through this region
favored as it is in many respects by nature
settlements and way business would follow frol