Year: 1862

from the Washoe Times, advocating the line
of the Middle Fork of Feather River, as the
most practicable route for the Pacific Rail
road. The imaginative editor of the Union
makes statements of the features Of that river
so remarkable. hitherto unknown, that We
should feel proud Of this canon," " one Of the
most fearful that man ever looked upon" if We
could only use it as fourteenth wonder but
the prosy facts of the case are such that thou
sands Of persons, who have at various times,
from 49 down TO the present, tlumed and wing
damned the bed, and picked and shoveled and
rocked the bars, and done other shockingly
familiar things with almost every hundred feet
Of this fearful chasm," from Oroville to Mel
sons Creek, can testify, that the gold being
extracted, the only practicable purpose we can
use it for is q railroad route across the Sierras;
and which We aver to be not only practicable
for that purpose " without doubt, but would
neither require the work of a generation, nor
consume untold millions"





should be impelled to hang veil over the
Unions irightful picture but as this line
presents a most available route for that all
absorbing work, the Continental Railroad q
common sense of public duty forbids that we
should let so fragrant an exaggeration go un-
corrected. Here is the Unions description


While Beckwiths the test by barometer
made about fifteen hundred feet lower than the
Truckee at the point where the middle fork of
Feather river-which heads 10 Long Valley
leaves that valley. After leaving the valley
the river falls gradually for thirty odd miles,
to Nelson's creek, at which point the river
enters rock canon, and does in fact force its
way through the Sierra Nevada mountains
below the deep snow line. Judah and Hunt
ington determined to explore that canon, a
feat, they were informed by those living along
the river, that had never been performed by
mortal man. They employed a Chinaman to
aid in conveying blankets and provisions
Thus prepared they entered the canon and
were seven days in working their way through
il. They found it to continue from Nelson's
creek to Bidwells Bar. distance of about
seventy miles, and for nearly the whole way
the canon is represented as one of the most
fearful man ever looked upon For the entire
distance it is through rock-grante, slate aud
marbe-the walls rising from two to three
thousand feet. In the terrible gulf thus crea-
ted by the action of the torrent FOR thousands
of years, those who explored it declare that
the canons of the forks of the American and
Yuba rivers, if dropped into the chasm, would
almost be lost to sight. The canon, too, is cut
through the mountains not straight. but on a
line extremely crooked, and containing angles
of every variety. Many of them we're so sharp
and the water so deep that the explorers were
forced to climb up the face of the wall as best
they might to get over them. Between thirty
and forty tunnels in solid rock would be requir-
ed in order to turn points, and the bed of a
railroad would have to be blasted in the wall
of rock for nearly the whole distance seventy
miles-from Bidwelrs Bar lin fact from near
Orovile) to Nelson's creek. TO accomplish
such gigantic undertaking would prove the
work of generation and consume untold mil
lions Of dollars. Between the points named
there are bars in the canon which have been
worked, in some instances for years by the
same men, but they are unapproachable with
horses or mules. Miners live up on the bench
eS and descend into the canon by steps, and
IN some cases by ropes. No trail practicable
for mules has ever been found across the canon
of the Middle Feather between Bidwells Bar
and Nelson's creek, as Judah ard Huntington
were Informed by the miners in the canon
They also assured them that the water rose
last winter fully seventy-ive feet, and passed
by their cabins with rumbling sound which
reminded them Of an earthquake This is the
route on which the reliable informant of the
Washoe Times assures the editor that rail-
road beV0ad q doubt" can be built below the
snow line. The truth is, doubtless, that from
the fact that for the first thirty miles after
leaving Long Valley no serious obstructons to
railroad line are met, men have concluded
that good line might be obtained the whole
distance TO Oroville. But an examination of
the canon demonstrated at once its utter I'M
practicability for railroad purposes"


Concisely, the sketch is this: Messrs Judah,
Huntington, and the Chinaman, found at the
mouth Of Nelson's creek, rock canon com
prised of Z" granite, slate, and marble, forming
walls from two to three thousand feet high on
either side for the entire distance of seventy
miles, from Nelson's creek to Bidwell's Bar,
extremity crooked. so that the explorers bad
frequently to climb the three thousand feet
walls to get over the crooks. Query did
they get down again on steps or ropes y
That 1t had never been penetrated by mortal
man, but that these gentlemen did penetrate
ii the entire distance in seven days, making an
average of ten miles a. day on foot, climbing
included.


Now, the facts are, that thousands of miners
have worked on the stream and on this fear
ful chasm," and we do not believe that there
is one foot of it that has not been traversed,
over and over again, yearly, from ls49 to the
present date, and is as well, continuously and
thoroughly worked as any other mining stream
in the State-s2y. for instance. the Yuba or
the American. 1t is true that. immediately at
the margin of the stream, are found rocks,
forming. as it were, a broken wall on either
side ynrviDr- in hirht from ono f,of To in -o,a