The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-19


the devil or any other man to lay unholy
hands upon the printed word of God" Such
intemperate language is certain to damage
the cause in whose service it is used rather
than that to which it is opposed, and, uttered
by Christian minister and before Christian
congregation, it is doubly reprehensible.
Our Transcontinental Highways-An Inn
portant Suggestion.
The prolonged snow blockade on the
Rocky Mountains has practically divided the
country into two incommunicable parts
For several weeks we have had kilograms
of the most painful detentions and dis
appointments of hundred Of passengers on the
great thoroughfare Of transcontinental inter-
course. The government was obliged to
lntervene-as it did at Chicago-to relieve the
wants of those snow-bound travellers, and
accounts reach us of individuals on their way
TO California seeking the slow route by ship to
the Isthmus in preference to hazarding the
perils of the Pacific Railroad.
The latter idea is an excellent one, because
It takes the voyager by sea at one of the best
tropics are never invaded by the hurricane,
and when the balmy air through which he
passes is peculiarly grateful. But all this will
not satisfy the country for the sad
Failure of its great railway to perform
the mission originally assigned it, and
pur late experience proves the necessity of
Urging rapidly forward the construction of
pther highways of traffic. History records
some striking marvels of travel over the vast
snow-buried districts of the Old World, which
far surpass and eclipse the rapid transit by
rail over our Western mountains. The United
States needs at least one national highway to
the Pacific, and if we cannot have railroad
not subject to Interruptions all the winter
Jet us have a good national turnpike
over the Rocky Mountains It is useless
ever to expect the present Union and Central
Pacific Railroads. which cling with fatal
tenacity to the forty-frst parallel of latitude,
70 meet the growing and tremendous require
ments of the country in the winter and spring
seasons. Near the South Pass, on the Union
Pacific Railroad, Colonel Fremont observed
The formation of ice during almost every night
in the month of August. Twenty years ago
Blodget concluslvely showed that along the
aforementioned parallel on the Rocky
Mountains the snow fall reached the very high
Figure of sixty inches ''Below, or south of
the forty first parallel" he tells us, ''the
SHOWS are extremely irregular, and yet often
profuse and excessive, and more likely to
pccur in February and the spring months as
Extraordinary phenomena than in the early
part of winter, and instances are frequent of
profuse April SHOWS" The immense condensa-
zion on this parallel shows the presence of the
warm and vapor-laden air current from the
pecan, which is chilled against the high noun
Gains over which the Union Pacific passes, but
De not condensed farther north, where, accord
ing to Guyot Blodget and all our latest
bypsometrical authorities, the elevations are
gentle, and, consequently, comparatively
enowless. The geysers of the far-famed
Yellowstone, which flows to the northeast of
this region, and empties into the Missouri, in
Northern and Eastern Montana, are among
the beautiful and picturesque Characters
Lies of the country sloping towards
the latter river, and the thermic
nature of the soil in Western Mon
tana, and thence to Oregon, due,
perhaps in part to subterranean forces,
corresponds with the climate overhead. The
channel way of the great Missouri is evidently
that which nature has carved for the route of
franscontinental intercourse, and, while
bwaiting the completion Of the Northern
Pacific Railway, 1t would be an excellent plan
Do construct national turnpike, which sooner
pr later must be made. Mr.. Bodget tells us
THAT the snow fall in the valley Of the Upper
Missouri and the Saskatchewan and north
Westward is 80 small that in the severest
Reasons ever known travel In the ordinary
bnow sled is uninterrupted. Insignificant as this
humble vehicle may seem to us who are accus-
fomed to our palace cars, 1t Is not to be
hespised in our Western country. Peter the
Great of Russia once made journey in an
open sledge in midwinter from Moscow to
st. Petersburg-a distance Of four hundred
Ind eighty five miles-in forty-six hours.
The Emperor Alexander more than once made
il In forty-two hours under similar circum-
Stances, while ordinarily it takes an express
Railway train twenty-five hours to traverse
fhe same route. Such travelling by sledge is
Certainly far preferable to being snow-bound
et Rawlins' Station or on the mountain top;
and in the development of the new country
extending from Montana and Idaho to Wash
Ington Territory and the Pacific it must prove
pf the greatest utility.
The necessities of the peonle Mt all seaaons