Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-03-30
From the New York Independent.
The Northern Pacific Railroad.
BY SCHUYLER CoIFAx, vICE-PREsIDEST OF

Midway across the continental the
head of twelve hundred miles of Lake
navigation-a thousand miles from
Buffalo, the western terminus OF the
Erie Canal, and as near to it by water
as Chicago hundred miles west OF
the longitude of st. Louis or Galena-
is the young city of Duluth, the initial
point of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
That great work, so magnlticently en-
dowed by the Government, IS already
being pushed rapidly westward, under
its energetic controllers; and before the
snow flies next Fall, it will be compile
ted to the western line OF Minnesota,
where it crosses the Red River OF the
North-which runs northward to Lake
Winnipeg-and one-eighth of its dis
lance to the Pacific Ocean will have been
accomplished. Commencing, too, this
season on its western line, the work will
be prosecuted from both directions, and
long before the nation celebrates its
Centennial Anniversary of Independ-
ence, the Lakes will be united by iron
bands with that Mediterranean OF our
Northwest, Puget Sound.
OF the suspicious influence OF this
enterprise, which but few wears ago
would have been considered 50 daring,
the most sangaine of its friends have
scarcely yet full realization. Even
taking Chicago as starting point, it
will be (Uio st. Paul, where an arm of
the Northern Pacific Railroad is reach
ed) two hundred miles less to Puget
Sound than to San Francisco. Besides
this, vessels from the Golden Gate to
China sail on what is called the grand
circle, instead OF in straight line :;
and anyone testing this by string on
globe will be surprised at the result,
if they have not previously studied the
effect of the rotundity of the earth, and
its diminished protuberance as you go
northward towards the Pole. Hence.
when they have sailed eight hundred
miles from San Francisco they are only
one hundred miles from the entrance
to Puget Sound and this striking fact
shows the advantages this route will
have in commanding the through traffic
of Asia with our Atlantic states, or
that portion of it which will pass over
t4lt SUI VI lliS uttlOu o1l ltS lOuli W
Europe.
Nor is this all Development is the
great duty of the Republic, after all its
recent trials. Resources are the gift
of the Creator. Developing them de-
ponds on the work of man. Along the
line of the Northern Pacific Railroad,
as it follows up the water-courses, the
Missouri and the Yellowstone on this
side, and descends by the valley of the
Columbia on the other, vast body of
agricultural land is waiting for the
plough, 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 nat
ural result, when railroad facilities
open this now isolated region to settle
ment, will soon be seen waving grain
fields, and happy homes, and growing
towns while ultimately Gordon of
prosperous states, teeming with popu-
lation, and rich in industry and conse-
quent wealth. will occupy that now I'm
developed and almost inaccessible por-
ton of our continental area.
But this road is fortunate also in its
pathway across the two ranges OF
mountains which tested so severely the
Pacific Railroads built on the central
line, and the overcoming Of which re-
fiected such well-deserved honor on
their energetic builders. At the Deer
Lodge Pass, in Montana, where it
crosses the Rocky Mountains, its alti-
tude above the sea is $500 feet less
than the Union Pacific Railroad at
Sherman, which is said to be the high
est point at which locomotive can be
found in the world And on the Pacific
side of the continent it is even more
fortunate. From Arizona mp to the
Arctic Circle the Columbia is the only
river which has torn It's way through
that mighty range, the Andes OF North
America, which in California is known
as the Sierras, but which in Oregon
changes its name to the Cascades
Nature has thus provided pathway for
the Northern Pacific Road through
these mountains, the scaling of which,
on the other line, at an elevation of
over seven thousand feet Ga most won
derful triumph of engineering), cost
the Central Pacific company millions of
dollars, and compelled them, for sew
enty miles, to maintain grade of over
one hundred feet to the mile--twice the
maximum of the Northern Pacific at
the most difficult point in 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 nayigable
shore-line measures seventeen hundred
and sixty miles, dotted with lovely
islets, with e-;e>ntic trees almost to the