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Show THE THIRTY-FIFTH PARALLEL PARAL-LEL RAILROAD. The cjustuut liability to a winter blockade of the Union and Northern I'acitio railroads U attracting the attention at-tention of tho people of San Franciscc aud other places to the necessity ol building a more southerly route. St. Louis is especially interested in having an overland route which shall not lcav( her off the main line of travel, ant cwry intermediate community had ar iutcrest in keeping open a line o speedy communication b-'tweou the At lantie and Pacific coasts. Tho AU. California thus states tho case: On tho "7th of July, IjSGG, Con-re5 Con-re5 parsed an Act incorporating the Atlantic acd i'acitic Railroad Company, Compa-ny, aud granting to it ll'.SOO acres per mile in tho States, and 26.4U0 acres jier mile in the Territories. The franchise extends from tho Colorado river, where it is to connect near Fort Mohave with the Southern Pacific railroad of California, to Springfield, .Misouri. The road has now reached Yenita, near tho southwestern corner of Misouri, :o that the uncompleted portion of the route exteuds iVoiu Venita. in latitude Sl decrees to Foit Mohave, iu latitude do-jcrees. do-jcrees. Tho intervening dUtance i-i 1. HO miles in a direct line, including includ-ing c'JO miles in tho Indian Territory in I'cxa?, oa in 2s'ew Mexico, aud 3So in Arizona- Several hundred miles additional would have io bo allowed lor deviations to avoid mountains and to accommodate settlements. In California Califor-nia there are il'jJ unfinished miles, but these could ."-con ho hurried up if the Atlantic and and Pacific company wero likely to complete their work boon. Tho company, however, have mo to a standstill, because they havo reached the Indian Territory, which is c!ocd against settlement by whi'e men, and there i? no local trcdo. The con-b'.metioa con-b'.metioa of 2uO miles of road without subsidy and without a hono of local trade for any indefinite period wonld require more spare capital than the A?!n:uc and l'aeilie cum puny have. J ..ore pre-: 'it, iio lar?c and wealthy set''ei-;.r no the entire distance dis-tance of nnies, as the road will run between Missouri yud California. There is DO town on the lino in the fndi:!!) tenitory i.r Texas; none '-ave Anton Chieo and Albuquerque in New Mexico; and none in Arizona, unlets the survey should diverge thirty mile? to the southward of liie route hereto- ' fore recommended, for the purpose of pa.'-my through Prc-oott. There is, however, mueh cood soil on the line and no Mich t'Xifii.iivc de-.-rt as that on th; middle rouie. The thirfy fiitli parallel route tuti-.l have a railroad. The belt of country between latitude '-',2 and A 1 is f'00 miles wide, and however poor much of it may ha in agricultural or mineral resources, re-sources, it .still contains considerable areas of ood soil and valuable mining around. It must, therefore, be made accessible. Topographical considerations considera-tions would surest that the railroads should run with the meridian, but commerce, the more potent power, demands de-mands that they shall run the other way, and so they wiH, and one of them will be near the ihirty-lil'th parallel. |
