The Portland daily press., 1872-02-27

above grants is about 81, and the average rate
per mile that these sales are realizing is $685.
3542 %. As the average cost of the construction
and equipment of railroads throughout the
United States it about S44, 900 per mile, it will
be seen that the land grant railroads are real
izing a return of four-ffth of the cost of their
roads. In some parts of the western country,
the cost of building and equipping road is not
over thirty or thirty-five thousand dollars per
mile, in such instances the amount realized
from q Immigrant of ten sections per mile, at
the average of 81 per acre, would be ten to fif-
teen thousand dollars exceeding the cost of the
road. ri TIA -t az 10
With respect to the grant of the Northern
Pacific Railroad and its prospective value
Congress granted to this company 1880 acres
of land to each mile of road, commencing on
Lake Superior and extending to the eastern
boundary line of Dakota, and 25,600 acres per
mile from that line to the Pacific coast. This
grant was to aid il the construction of a rail-
road from Lake Superior to Puget Sound
and the vicinity of Portland, Oregon, and
calls for about 58,000,000 acres or $4,000
York and Indiana together, or eleven and
half times Massachusetts, The route of this
road, commencing in Minnesota, on the shores
of Lake Superior, passes through the timbered
lands west of that lake, and over the region of
prairies, lakes and groves in western Minneso-
ia; thence it crosses the wonderful valley Of the
Red River Of the North, and strikes out over
the gently undulating and fertile prairies of Da-
kota, and crossing the Missouri river at the
mouth of the Heart, it extends to the beautiful
valley of the Yellowstone in nearly a straight
line; ascending this valley and passing through
belts of timber and rich rolling lands, it goes
through the Boseman Pass of the Belt Noun
tains into the central basin of Montana, and
crosses the fertile valleys of the Gallatin, Mad
ison and Jefferson Forks of the Upper Nilsson
ri; going up the valleys of the latter and Divide
Creek, it runs through Deer Lodge Pass at an
altitude under 5000 feet above sea level, and de-
sends the western slope by the valleys of Deer
Lodge Creek Hell Gate River and Clarks
the great grass plain of the Columbia to Wal
lula; thence it follows the Columbia River
through the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific
coast. The climate of this great land-grant
belt across the continent is bracing, and unusu-
ally healthful, being free from all peculiar
diseases. The SOIL as whole, is of excellent
quality, producing large crops of wheat rye,
oats, and barley; vegetables yield without
parallel in the history of horticulture in Amer
lea, and all kinds of small fruits, wild and Gull
tivated, yield the same as in the New England
States. The nutritious grasses, growing wild
on the eastern and western slopes of the Rocky
Mountains, and in the valleys, afford susie
nance for cattle the year round the climate be-
ing so mild as not to necessitate shelter for
stock in the winter, A large sportion of this
grant is covered with forests of an immense
growth, the like Of which cannot be found on
this continent. Fine building stone is found in
almost every variety and understandable in quan-
tity. The mineral wealth of this region seems
as yet to be hardly explored; at the present
time no portion of our country yield greater
amount of the precious metals than that
through which this road will run. Immense
coal deposits are found underlying great por-
ton of the grant. The committee on the Pa
cific railroad, in the United States Senate, m
their report February 10, 1869, say, s'Every ele.
ment of wealth, every condition of social
growth and prosperity, exists in superabqn-
dance and beyond exhaustion in the region ly-
ing between Lake Superior and Puget Sound.
For this immense country, railroads can do
more than they have done for Illinois" M