The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-12

this careful estimate.
V. 1t will not be unjust to the two last roads
to claim that the land grant of the Northern
Pacific Railroad, by its fertility aud climate,
exceeds theirs in value. Ex-Governor Ashley,
who has travelled extensively over Montana,
Idaho, Oregon and Washington Territory, and
has studied the remarkable results of the iso-
thermal lines compares the climate Of Montana
to Pennsylvania, of Idaho and Eastern Oregon
to Virginia, and of the region beyond the Cas-
cade Mountains up to Puget Sound to North
Carolina; and my own observation of the latter
region comedies with his. Indeed, the Governor
General of Vancouver's Island told our party, in
1865, that summer flowers in their open gardens
were not injured by trosts one winter out
of fourl Minnesota, through which the first two
hundred and fifty miles of the road run, has cold
winters; but its reputation as a wheat-growing
region aud healthy climate are known of all men,
Professor Blodget, in his great work, "The Gil
matology of the United States" says that tue
whole of that immense portion of the Union west
of the 9Sth meridian and above the 43d parallel
(Which is almost exactly bisected by the North
ern Pacific line) sis perfectly adapted to the
fullest occupation by cultivated nations, and has
an immense and yet unmeasured capacity for
occupation and expansion" Hon. e. d. Mans
on statistical, Industrial, and eli
matte questions, SAYS 1.-THE climate
of the region from the Upper Missouri to the
aichawan northwest of Montaua) Is ex-
sctly that which in Europe is deemed the best
for grain-growing." And Hon. j. s. Wilson,
late Commissioner of the Land Office indorses
the opinion of Governor Stevens, that mot more
than one-flith of the land from Red river to
Puget Sound is unsuited for cultivation, and
that this fifth is largely made up of MOUNTAINS
covered with bunch grass and valuable timber
and filed with the precious metals" and Mr.. w.
himself adds:-"An immense agricultural area
is here awa aitng development. Each section of
the road, as completed, will, from local traffic
alone, find ample returns for its Investment"
VI. Valuable as this land grant is therefore,
as an ample security for the bonds based on it,
nd in ahd IN rift Of fhn naA
itself, it is even more valuable to the future of
the railroad as homes for the vast numbers of
people who are 10 furnish its local traffic. Over
o large portion of it cattle can roam unshetered
through the entire year, feeding themselves on
what is "grass in summer and cured hay in
winter" and their raising and shipment, always
lucrative business where the cost is low and
the market accessible and certain, will rauk next
to agriculture in its Importance to the reve-
nues of the road.
VII. will not make any estimate as to its
general way business, but merely throw to-
gether a few incidental references to it. The
trade of the Valley of the Columbia is already
large and steadily Increasing. The wagon SER
vice of the United States, in supplying its twenty
odd northern military posts, costs several mil
Pacific connects with steamboat navigation for
the fertile Pembina and Saskatcba wan regions
of the British Possessions. The navigable
streams which it touches or crosses on both
sides of the mountains give it the advantages of
branch lines for the concentration and dstribu-
ton of business. The mining interests of Mon
tana, Idaho, and Washington Territory, esti-
mated, even in their present inaccessibiity, at
twenty millions per year, will furnish heavy
business in freights, for supplies, machinery,
shipment of ores, etc And, without enlarging
on this head, the fact that in 1870 eighteen mil
lions of pounds of freight were wagoned four
hundred miles into Montana, over rugged
country, at q cost of fifteen cents per pound,
gives faint idea of the way y-busness already
waiting for the completion of this road.
no ht,cin of ., ,;s1 1ipnx xuilT
believe, exceed the moderate estimates of its
projectors. 1t has the advantage, at its eastern
terminus of its connection not only with the
railroad system of the Northwest at st. Paul,
but with the head of our chain of lakes (far
west of the longitude of St. Louis or Galena),
with their waterway, at cheap rates, during the
seven months of the year, from the very centre
| of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean. By the
| Central Pacific line it is twenty-four hundred
miles from Chicago, at the head of Lake Michi-
| gan, to San Francisco. By the Northern Pacific
| it is only two thousand Fom the head of Lake
Superior Gas near to Buffalo as is Chicago) to
| Cascade range it will be less than eighteen
hundred miles.) And at Puget Sound
vessels are at least two days nearer to China
| than at San Francisco The highest elevation
on the Northern Pacific line is five thousand
| feet above the sea. Where the Central line
crosses the Rocky Mountains the elevation is
| eight thousand, and at the Sierra Nevada seven
| thousand feet above the sea, with an ascending
| grade coming east, of over one hundred feel
| per mile for seventy miles This advantage OF
| distance and grades cannot fail to largely affect
the through freights from the far East, which
| are to cross our Continent on their road to the
interior, the Atlantic, or to Europe. Besides
this Asiatic trade, and the trade of the North
| Pacific coast, the salmon fisheries OF Puge
| Sound and the Columbia are absolutely eX
! haustless, as every one knows who has seen the
| innumerable quantities of them which literally
| crowd the water courses; and the shipment o
them in a cured state will doubtless be Immense
| TX. Finally, as the road will be pushed for
ward to completion as rapidly as judiciou
economy of means will allow, millions will no
be wasted in undue haste. The rapid construc
tion of the Central line, after the two compa-
nies building it were fairly under way, was al
most the wonder of the world. Each desired to
secure as many miles as possible, as the laV
enacted that wherever the iron rails met shoult
be the junction, each holding what it had bull
and no more and each receiving the suosid.
bonds and land grants accordingly. Never wa
such railroad building seen before. By night a
we'll as by day, in all weathers, at any cost AM
with supplies gathered from all parts of tn
United States regardless of expense, tn
two companies quickly =. neare
each other. Ten miles OF rall
were laid per day-an unheard-of feat be
fore. Hundreds of miles of the rival track
were graded side by side waiting for the tie
and the iron. All that monev and almost super
human energy could achieve were accomplished
And, at last, at Promontory Point, on the boz
ders of the Great Salt Lake, the locomotive
from the West and the East met on their path
ways, and the continent was spanned. But thi
contest of the giants necessarily cost millions o
millions. Even with all its prosperous future bt
fore itIthe Northern Pacific, free as tits from an
such costly competition, can afford to husban
its means, and construct its line rapidly, "
economically; and for this reason, as well q
those have really but glanced at in this article
l can answer the question with which opene