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Show AMERICAN FORK RAILWAY, Editors Herald: It may perhaps bo a difficult task to convince that portion of the public acquainted with the nature of tho Wasatch Wa-satch range of the llocky Mountains, that a practical railway is nearly completed com-pleted to a point in close proximity to the Miller mine, and that one-half the length of one of tho most rugged, tortuous tor-tuous and inaccessible canyons is al- ready traversed by a narrow gauge lo-: comotivc, with from six to eight cars attached. It may bo remembered that when the subject of railway communication with the summit of Mount Washington Washing-ton was broached in tho New Hampshire Hamp-shire legislature, on the application of its projector for a charter, the application applica-tion was received by that intelligent body with derision and ridicule. The charter was, howover, granted, but a partial success was only achieved. Yet with all of the recent triumphs of the Wltn ail oi mo receut ummpiia ui luu level and transit, and the writer is acquainted ac-quainted with somo of the most conspicuous con-spicuous in this country, it is his impression im-pression that no railway enterprise contemplated hero ever presented a task more difficult of performance, or furnishing a better opportunity for erasing tho word impossible from the vocabu'" ot American engineers. To enumerate tho obstacles peculiar to this enterprise would be to render this article tedious, for unforeseen to tho unpracticed eye, they present themselves at every point, apparently apparent-ly insurmountable. But the task seems to havo been entrusted to one unsurpassed in point of capacity, in tho person of H. Fairfax, Esq., Ibrmerly in command of one of tho regiments of Hood's division, and we bclievo it is not the first timo during tho colonel's personal experience that the right man has been found in the right place In order that an idea of the nature of the enterprise may be conceived, it is necessary to know that the terminus has an altitude oi nineteen hundred feet abovo the mouth of tho canyon, and is distant only eleven miles, thus necessitating an average grade of nearly two hundred Icet per mile. Tho bed of the canyon, confined within vertical walls of rock, winding with serpentine irregularity, must constitute tho foundation foun-dation of tho grade. Jutting promontories promon-tories intruding Iheir perpendicular height, like the bastions of an impregnable impreg-nable fortress, must be tunneled or blown down. An unmanagable water courso, savage and at times dangerous, must be bridged sixteen times during the first five miles, some of the bridges crossing tho creek at an elcvatiou of thirty feet above the bed of the stream. The sides of tho mountains, insecure in the foundations, or covered with float, have to be avoided by the track, or tho avalanches of winter would soon cause a suspension ofoperations. Above Deer Creek tbesides of the canyon, less prccipitious, give the first opportunity for leaving its bed, an advantage more than neutralized by the heavier tills and higher bridges, But unavoidable in consequence of the abrupt ascent and more frequent windings of tho i chasm. It ia hero that tho ability of colonel Grey and his subordinates has been most severely te?ted. AsUitd by an able corns of Mormon engineers, (and it pectus but justice to tho Mormons Mor-mons to say that they seem able to fur- ' nish talent f.jr every cmcrL'.-ncy) he run live dilll-rcnt Imo.i between Deer Crock and tho nurlter before the present ono was a-lopu-d, which, although al-though the nio.-l friable-, will rt'miro an amount of bla.-ting im-t incredible, incredi-ble, and the erection of a bri'k'c that will require in con.-truciion about half a million superficial i'ect ol' timber. Some of the rock cuts in the upper end of the road, at times', emit lLo fumes of a battle field; and tho hoarse, growling blasts of the railroad workmen, work-men, mingled with the sharper shots of the prospectors, reverberate through the canyon, recalling to the mind of many a dweller here some of the eventful event-ful hours at Vieksburg during the "on pleasantness. The question, will tho cnterpriso pay, is not properly mine to handle; but when your readers understand that a branch to Littlo Cottonwood is determined de-termined upon, and contemplate the Kuiim with her inexhaustable re-soureris, re-soureris, and the Miller with its twenty feet of solid ore, and that when finished the entire wealth of the Cottonwoods aud Ameiican Fork must pay tribute to this monument of extraordinary .-kill and energy, they can figure on and decide for themselves. J. A. B. |