The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1871-10-21
MORE SNOW ON THE U. P. THAN THE n. P.
An Omaha telegram of the 10th saws:

An Omaha telegram OF the 10th says:
| The snow storm of Thursday last very
Near Bawlins the three and four feet deep
The passengers train report that they were de-
layed twelve hours with nothing to eat and but little
fuel.
1t is hardly a supposable case that trains
on the N. p r. r. will ever have to pass
through "three or four feet" of snow on the
18th Of October, in any year, but if the
above dispatch is true that must be done on
the Union Pacific road. Cold does not al
ways increase as we go north, on account
Of various compensating influences, as warm
does increase in exact proportion to the de-
gree of elevation above the level of the sea,
and that is the trouble with the Union Pa
cifc as compared with the Northern Pacific
r. r.
From the highest point of the n. P. route
(the Deer Lodge Pass Of the Rocky Noun
tains) let line be run horizontally in a
southeastward direction till it touches the
Black Hills in the latitude Of the Union
Pacific crossing, and an observer at the end
of that line would see the town of Sherman
with its passing trains, over 5000 feet above
him, perpendicular measurement. Or to
make the difference even more plainly seen,
let it be imagined that a man left a Union
Pacific passenger train at the town of Sher
man, and moved enthusiastically in bal
loon, on dead level with the train he had
left, until he stood over the highest point
Of the n. p. route at Deer Lodge Pass.
He could not take the nearest passenger
train without dropping down over half a
mile in a perpendicular line! He left a
train that was over mile and a half above
the level of the sea, and took one again
that was not quite amle above the sea level.
But that was at the very summit OF the
Northern route. The trains can soon
sweep over it and sink to lower altitude,
whereas there is one stretch of between
four and five hundred miles west of Chey-
enne on the .. Z. that not only does not
sink below that highest point of the Nor
thern Pacific, but actually towers the fifth
Of a mile higher for the whole distance.
The corresponding portion of the N. P.
lying in the Yellowstone valley is over
5000 feet lower, that is considerably over
half mile. In next $50 miles of distance
west of the above on each road, the n. p.
will average full 5000 feet lower than the
Union road. So that for about 900 miles
west of the Missouri river, or for one-half
the length of the road, the Northern road
will run almost three -ffths Of mile lower
and nearer the sea level than the y. p.
This more than counterbaances the diff
ference in latitude, and makes sure that
there will be less snowfall on the northerly
thoroughfare than the Central. 1t is a
most singular fact, but facts are stranger
ottentimes than fiction, and it would seem
that everything conspires to favor the
northernmost route. Comparatively speak
ing, the Union Pacific runs on the top of a
long, wintry, barren mountain range, while
the Northern Pacific takes a short cut
| through a mild and fertile valley from half
mile to nearly a mile below. Indeed the
n. P. comparatively is a Southern Pacific
r. r.