St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1873-07-25

on that road that the grade of ll6 feet
per mile was adopted by the United
States engineer and the government as
the maximum upon the Union and Cen
trail Pacific railroads, Those roads have,
however, been located, in fact, with a
maximum (if | recOllect right,) of not
more than l05 feet per mile, showing
the indispositiOn of their engineers to
avail themselves of the larger limits,
even among mountains far more for
midable than any east of the Mississippi
valley. The Pennsylvania Central
railroad has, upon the eastern slope of
the Allegheny mountains, a grade of
% feet per mile for some ten miles, ac-
cOmpanicd by curves of about 700 feet
radius. upon which the inclination is
reduced upon the compensatory prin-
ciple. All the other great east and
west lines across the mountains dividing
the Atlantic from the Mississippi slope,
have maximum grades considerably less
than the two mentioned"
In accordance with the successful ex-
pertinent of the Baltimore and Ohio
road, and in order to avoid the great
expense of tunneling. cutting, and fill
ing. which would he necessary in order
to reduce to 30 feet per mile the aver
age grade of the ten steepeSt miles de-
sccnding eastward from the gate of the
Notch, the eng gineer of the Portland aud
Ogdenshurg road, Mr.. John Anderson.
has located the road so that the maxi
mum grade for any considerable dis
tance will not exceed ll6. which is no
greater than the maximum grade on the
Mount Gems line, on the mountain
division of the railroad from Vienna to
Trieste, and at the crossing of the Andes
in Chill, between Valparaiso and San
tiago. The average grade for the ten
stcepest miles is, however, brought
down in the Notch to % feet. and for
eight continuous miles. in which all the
maximum grades are. the average is
but lO7 feet per mile, or eight feet less
than Mr.. Latrobe's grades. The eigh-
teen miles mentioned above as now
building do not quite meet this contin-
uOus eight miles of maximum grade.
the whole distance from North Conway
to the Crawford house being n little
more than 26 miles rs now located.
| suppose there is no reason
to doubt what Mr.. Latrobe said in $50.
that there is nothing in the character
of the mountain-sides on either hand,
inconsistent with the construction of a
safe and SOi'd road bcd." 1t will take
time and money to do it-but nothing
in comparison to what Massachusetts
has expended on the Il0osac tunnel
and when the Notch road is done it
will he as useful and almost as great n
triumph of engineering as the tunnel
The steepcst grade will he on the east
crn slope, down which thirds of the
freight carried over the road will have
to run, and the up grades from the
west, on the other side of the Notch
summit, will not exceed an average of
80 feet n mile for eight miles, the steep
est being 80 feet. 1t would he better,
of course, to have lighter grades for II
great freight road, hut they are not in
dispcnsihlc, as We see on the Pennsyl-
vania Central and the Baltimore and
Ohio roads. For passenger road steep
grades may he positive advantage.
for IL great many Americans would he
attracted to travel 10y such a line. on
account of the ascent and descent, and
the sharp curves, such as now vary the
monotony of the Pennsylvania Central
road. The views obtained in travers-
railroad grades will he finer than they
now are from the top of the stage
coachcs-hut the way will he less en-
powered in trees. and eventually the
railroad will disforest these mountains,
| suppose. as other roads are effacing
the woodlands on lower levels. Al
ready one hears much about the '.dc-
velopment of the lumber trade" here ::
the smoke of steam saw-mills and the
buzz OF saws begin to he seen and heard,
and soon the changes in the face of
nature will become more marked and
disagrecable.
One great object of Portland in lay
ing out So much money upon this rail
road is, indeed, to ''develop the lumber
country of New Hampshire, Vermont
and Canada. Portland has a large and
craving South American trade, and one
of the chief wants of South America is
lumber. Much will come down the
Portland and Ogdensburg road, when
completed no farther than Lake Cham
plain and if ever Sir Hugh Allen car
ries out his scheme for the Northern
Colonization railroad" running from
Montreal to Ottawa, through fine
lumber country, then great stores OF
Ottawa lumber will find their way to
Portland over that. This exchange OF
! lumber for South American hides in a
Maine SEAPORT is one of the curiosities
of commerce. The devastation of the
oak and hemlOck forests in southern
New England has driven the tanneries
back into the Maine woods, and they
are grouped along the line of the Eu-
ropean and North American railroads
at Winn., Vancehoro, etc. Hence comes
IA demand for hides in Maine, and Brazil
and BuenOs Ayres send them to Port
land, in order to bring them as near as
possible, by water, to where hemlocE
bark can he had to tan them. Lumber
is wanted in return, and Portland, hav-
ing exhausted the saw mills and forests
| of south western Maine, is now looking
to the White and Green mountains and
the Canadian wilderness to supply hel
return freights to the other side of the
tropics. Hemlock, find, is abundant
and of a very large growth, in these
primitive White mountain woodlands
it is used almost exclusively on these
new railroads for ties and sleepers
while the bark has value for the
tanneries.
Since beginning this letter, | have
come up through the Notch of the Twil
Mountain house, passing by the Craw.
ford house and the new Fabyan hotel
built on the "Giant's Grave" neal
which Fabyan's old hotel stood twenty
years ago. At this point, about Sly
miles from the Mount Washington rail
road station and four from the "Gatt
| of thn Notch - the portla and Opdens