Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-04-14
from the New York independently
THE .vOR THBR.v Pacific R.sIL
RO.fD.

The following article on the Northern
Pacific railroad is from the pen Of Hon.
Schuyler Colfax, Vice President of the
United States:-
Midway across the continent-at the head
of 1900 miles of lake navigation-10O0 miles
from Buffalo, the western terminus of the
Erie canal, and us near to II by water as
Chcago-a hundred miles west of the long
itude of st. Louis and Galena-is the young
city of Duluth, the initial point of the North
ern Pacific railroad. That great work so
magnificently endowed by the government,
is already being pushed rapidly westward,
under its energetic controllers; and before
the snow flies next fall, it will be completed
to the western line of Minnesota, where 1t
crosses the Red river of the north-which
runs northward to Lake Winnipeg-and
one-eighth of its distance TO the Pacific
ocean will have been accomplished. Com
mencing, too this season on its western
line, the work will be prosecuted from both
directions, and long before the nation cele-
brates its centennial anniversary of indie
pendence, the lakes will be united by iron
bands with that Mediterranean of our
northwest, Puget Sound.
Of the suspicious influence of this enter
prise, which but few years ago would
have been considered so daring, the most
sangnino of its friends have scarcely yet a
full realization. Even taking Chicago as
the starting point, it will be (via st. Paul,
where an arm of the Northern Pacific rail-
road is reached) 200 miles less distance to
Puget Sound than to San Francisco. Be-
sides this, vessels from the Golden Gate to
China sail on what is called the grand cir
| Gle, instead of in straight line and any
one testing this by a string on globe will
he surprised at the result, If they have not
previously studied the effect of the rotund-
| ity of the earth, and its diminished protub-
erance as You go northwards towards the
pole. Hence when they have sailed 500
miles from San Francisco, they are only 100
miles from the entrance to Puget Sound 4;
and this striking fact shows the advantages
this route will lave in commanding the
through traffic of Asia with our Atlantic
States, or that portion Of it which will pass
over the soil of this nation on its road to
Europe.
Nor is this all. Development is the great
duty of the republic, after all its recent tri-
ais. Resources are the gift of the Creator.
Developing them depends upon the work
of man. Along the line of the Northern
Pacific railroad, rs ii follows up the water
course, the Missouri and the Yellowstone
on this side, and descends by the valley OF
II -
agricultural land is waiting for the pillow,
with climate almost exactly the same as
that of New York, except that, with less
snow, cattle, in the larger portion of it, can
subsist on the open range in winter. Here,
if climate and fertility of soil produce their
natural result, when railroad facilities open
this now isolated region to settlement, will
soon be seen waving grain fields, and hap
Ply homes, and growing towns; while ult-
mately Gordon of prosperous States, tenn
ing with population, and rich in industry
and consequent wealth, will occupy that
now undeveloped and almost inaccessible
| portion of our continental area.
| But this road is fortunate also in its path
way across the two ranges of mountains
roads built on the central line, and the
overcoming of which reflected such well
deserved honor on their energetic builders.
At the Deer Lodge Pass, in Montana, where
1t crosses the Rocky Mountains, its altitude
above the sea is $500 feet less than the I'm
ion Pacific railroad at Sherman, which is
said to be the highest point at which To-
connective can be found in the world. And
on the Pacific side of the continent it is ev-
en- more fortunate. From Arizona up to
the Arctic Circle the Columbia is the only
river which has torn its way through that
mighty range, the Andes of North Ameri-
ca, which in California is known as the ST.
erras, but which In Oregon changes its
name to the Cascades. Nature has thus
provided n pathway for the Northern Paci-
fic road through these mountains, the seal
ing of which, on the other line, at an eleva-
ton of over 1000 feet Ga most wonderful tri-
umph of engineering) cost the Central Pa
cific company millions of dollars, and conf
PEELED them, for 20 miles, to maintain u
grade of over 100 feet to the mie-twice the
maximum of the Northern Pacific at the
most difficult point on its entire route.
1t is fortunate, also, in its terminus on
the Pacific coast. No one who has not been
there can realize the beauty of Puget Sound
and its surroundings. One hundred miles
long, but so full of inlets and straits that its
navigable shore line measures 1850 miles.
dotted with lovely islets, with gigantic trees
almost to the waters edge, with safe an
chorage everywhere, and stretching south
ward, without shoals or bars from the
Straits of Fuca to the capital and centre of
Washington Territory, it will be magnifi-
cent entrepot for the commerce of the grand
est ocean of the world, the Pacific .
The land grant of the United States, ex-
ceeding fifty millions of acres in the winter
wheat region of our nation, (ten times as
large as the area of Massachusetts,, is doubt
less sufficient for the completion of the
road but, besides this, millions of private
means are already invested in it. The bonds
based on the land grant, and mortgage on
the road itself in addition, are being sold as
rapidly as the money is needed; and, as an
investment, yielding about per cent per
year in currency, rank already with the
hest class of railroad securities. And thus
the good work will go on with uncheck cd
step to its final contamination, carrying the
blessings of settlement, development, civ
ilization and Christianity with it in its pro-
gress, and literally causing the wilderness
to blossom AS the rose.
CoMMENDED TO HIS own LIPs.-The