| Show A loar locomotive it sinks ahto the too far for the longest pole to reach lv kai beacon in the construction of the kan sas pacific and atchison topeka santa fe railroads said 11 L carter a railroad contractor of st joseph the other day one difficulty of frequent occurrence was wet with which as far as my ex ca goes is unilla in railroad history I 1 refer to the trouble from from western kansas to the mountains are to be found in nearly ever y stream nu r matter ho N small and to Es fully bridge them required an expenditure pend iture out of all proportion to t h e 8 ize or the stream to be crossed we t ried pile the long eat piles disappeared without touch ing bottom then with earth and stone was attempted and met with equally poor the quicksand sand was apparently capable 0 af swallowing the entire rocky mountains the only means of crossing a quicksand was found to be to build short truss bridges across them this was very expensive but was the only thing to be done As an instance odthe practically batom less nature of the I 1 may cite the case of an that ran off the track at river bend about dinely miles from deliver on the kansas pacific the engine a large freight fell iceo a quicksand aud in ten had entirely digap feared within two days the com pany sent out a daog of men and a wreck ilig train to raise the engine to their su ise they could not find a trace rr af pf it careful search was made magnified rods were sunk to the depth of sixty five feet but no engine cou id be fouad it bad sunk beyond human ken and from that day to this has never been dis covered cattle and horses are fre loiet the only animal that is oafs being a roule the only sol that never gets caught no greater instance of the intelligence of this macd maligned quadruped can be cited than the skill and care with which it avoids all unsound bottom As its boods are much smaller and narrower than those of a horse it would wire down in places where u borse could safely pass recognize ing i this fact whenever a mule feels the ground away under its feet it ur aws back instantly and be induced to advance a step although a whole drove of horbes ma have immediately preceded thy ese who think thava mule is stupid are very much mistaken |
