, 1889-03-07
RECKLEs RAILWAY RUMOI,S.

How the Manitoba is to Make "Bee-
Lines" to the Coast.
The Oregonian prints telegram from
Tacoma dated the 4th inst. in regard to
proposed railroad. According to this
dispatch the Manitoba road has won
derfully communicative representative
"now at Elensburg," and it would seem
that impenetrable mountain ranges stand
ing between that city and Tacoma are to
count for nothing. Spokane Falls is
left out of the pathway Of this
proposed road which must be constructed
at once to save the company from bank
ruptcy. 1t is to make q bee.line to the
Cowlitz pass from EllensburR when in re-
ality all persons acquainted with the
topography of the country know that this
would be physical impossibility and that
road through the Cowlitz pass could not
under any sort OF torturing 60 through
EllensburR, which lies far to the north of
that pass and in position to be wholly
inaccessible therefrom owing to great
mountains lying between them. This
dispatch is a good illustration of the wild.
cat rumors gotten up for the purpose of
booming and creating sensations. 1t is as
follows
A statement has been made by an even
ing paper here that Major Rogers, the
pathfinder Of the Canadian Pacific and who
has been working for some time in the
Cascade mountains, trying to find another
feasible pass, he supposedly in the interest
of the Manitoba road, is now ut Elens-
burg with large surveying party and
states that the road 10 heading this way.
The following is the statements made by
the paper in question; major Rogers,
chief of the preliminary surveying party
of the Manitoba road, is authority for the
statement that that road is headed this
way and that it is the purpose Of jim Hill
to make the vicinity Of Tacoma the wes-
that the road must be pushed through to
the coast or 90 into bankruptcy. AS Ma
jor Rogers says, nine or ten million dol
lars will Rave to be raised in Europe on
bonds and the road built through within
the next two years, or the road will have
to 60 into the hands of receiver. Every
effort to create an interest in the road
among emigrants and investors has thus
far been futile, and the road can never
transcontinental or trunk line. The line
by which the road expects to
reach Tacoma, or more prop
erly speaking. Steilacoom. for
that is the objective point, according to
Major Rogers, is from Butte City, its
present terminus, through Lolo pass, in
the Bitter Root mountains. and the Nez
Perce Indian reservation to Lewiston,
Idaho, from which point it follows the
Snake river ON the north bank TO some
poiut near Grange City, from which 1t
| makos a hoa,liua for anahurch From,
Ellensburgh 1t makes another bee-line to
Cowlitz pass, and then IL strikes out for
Steilacoom, and from Steilacoom 1t is not
difficult matter to surmise its ultimate
terminus. All roads lead to Rome, and
Tacoma 10 the eternal city of the Western
Mediterranean. These statements are all
made on the authority OF Major Rogers,
who il at the head of the surveying party
now at Ellensburgh, and who performed,
it 10 claimed. the difficult feat Of locating
the Canadian Pacific.
The route mentioned by the major will
be found 70 be almost an air line from
Butte City to Tacoma. and will be several
hundred miles shorter than the Northern
Pacific.
II is generally believed in railroad cir
cles that sooner or later the Manitobu
road must extend its line across the state
of Washington to coast connection, and
there is little doubt that plane with this
J object in view are now In contemplation
The dispatch sent out froal Tacoma on the
4th inst, tends to confirm this belief, al
impracticable in many respects and will
have to be changed.
Prospecting for Timber.
A party Of fifteen men started yesterday
, 10 wagons for trip over the supposed