ably develop the capacity of the country in its remunerating gold mines, and the survey of the boundary will also furnish some accurate information in regard to the silver, copper, quicksilver, platinum, lead, and sulphur known to exist along and south of the 49th parallel. The formation of this portion of the territory is similar to that of British Columbia, and the development of their mineral wealth will go on together.

Thus we find on the northwest a great inland sea, unsurpassed on the shores of all the oceans for the purposes of commerce, lending itself to the development both of these United States and of British America. What is the position of this great inland sea to Asia? If we look on the map, we will ascertain that it is the nearest point on our whole Pacific coast to the ports of Asia; but looking to the prevailing winds, it will be seen that it is nearer than San Francisco by the entire distance coastward between San Francisco and Puget Sound; for the prevailing winds are such, that vessels coming from Asia have to make our coast near the entrance of the Straits de Fuca, and proceed thence to San Francisco. Is it objected, or is it urged that San Francisco is the great commercial centre, and must for all time to come be the great commercial entrepôt of the Pacific, and that having the start of Puget Sound, no point on its waters can ever rise into importance? What is the history of that Mediterranean to which we have compared it? How many cities on its shores have risen and fallen, and given place to other cities, for century after century! And after the cities of the olden time had fallen into decay, people of enterprise founded a great city in a marsh, and made it the commercial mistress of the world; and that city has now in its turn given place to other cities. What is the experience of our own Atlantic seaboard? Was New York always the great metropolis of the Atlantic? Time was when Newport, in Rhode Island, was the commercial mistress of our thirteen colonies; and New York did not become first until after a struggle of more than a hundred years. But have we simply New York on our Atlantic seaboard? Where are Portland, and Boston, and Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and Norfolk, and Charleston, and Savannah-all commercial centres, and more than half of them larger at this present day than the city of San Francisco? Show me a spot that Nature has pointed out as fitted for the seat of commerce, and I will show you a point where the enterprise of the American people will found a great city, and establish a great commerce. It is simply a question of time. It is true that San Francisco occupies a more central position in regard to our territorial domain on the Pacific coast than Puget Sound. It is true that San Francisco is the centre of a much greater local population at the present time;

but as regards the great carrying trade across the continentone of the largest elements in maintaining a Pacific railroad--I am prepared to show that Puget Sound presents the greatest advantages, and is the most central. The following table* will show the distances from Puget Sound to the head of Lake Superior, to St. Paul, and to the principal cities on the Atlantic. and Gulf coasts; and also the distances of these same points from San Francisco by the central route:

This

The distance from Benicia to St. Louis is 2,482 miles. Thus the average distance from Seattle, via St. Paul, to the principal ports of the Atlantic and gulf, is 316 miles less than the average from Benicia via St. Louis to the same points. saving of distance via St. Paul ranges from 117 miles, as in the case of New Orleans, to 582 miles, as in the case of Portland. The following table* shows that the distances from San Francisco to Atlantic ports are much greater on the central than on the southern route:

Roads either constructed or in process of construction have been used to construct these tables. See Appendix to Address on the Northwest for the distances in detail.

Thus, the distances to Atlantic ports via the southern route, are 142 to 471 miles less than by the central route. The distances on the northern route average ninety miles less than on the southern route.

If equated distances are compared, the differences in favor of the northern over the central route will be increased 137 miles, and over the southern route 310 miles. And the average distance via the northern route to Atlantic ports will be 483 miles less than by the central route, and 400 miles less than by the southern route.

These water lines of the Gulf of Mexico and the great lakes are controlling facts in the location of a continental railroad. Both the northern and southern routes combine the advantages of a much shorter railroad connection with the great ports of the Atlantic and Gulf, and of striking their respective water lines at much less distances than the central route. Thus, the great lakes are struck on the northern route at more than seven hundred miles less distance than by the central route. Thus, whether the transportation from the Pacific to Atlantic ports be entirely by rail, or whether partly by water and partly by rail, (and it will unquestionably go both ways,) or whether the overland transportation to Europe strikes these water lines at once, and thence is had on shipboard direct to Europe, or, using the rail the whole distance to some Atlantic port, the shipment is thence made to Europe, in all the cases the advantage in the way of freight is invariably against the central route.

These facts show that not only is Puget Sound nearer to Asia than is San Francisco, but that the overland distances to the principal cities on the Atlantic coast, and especially the great lakes, is much less than the distances from San Francisco to these same points either by the central or southern route. Then it is obvious

that the whole trade of Asia which passes over our continent to Europe must go by the northern route. But this is not the full extent of the superiority of the northern route. On that route the grades are easier than on any other route; and the grade is one of the controlling elements in the cost of carrying freight. The cost of carrying freight on railroads varies from one-half a cent to two and a-half cents per ton per mile. Where a heavy business is done, and the grades are light, the cost has been as low as one-half a cent per ton per mile; but where grades are high, the cost will very rapidly increase, even in some cases as high as 21 cents per ton per mile.

Nearly the whole of the country on the northern route is susceptible of continuous occupancy by our people. There is no such thing as as a desert, properly so speaking, on the entire route. There are gaps or intervals, where it is simply a grazing country. There are portions of the country occupied by mountain ranges, which would not admit of profitable cultivation; but as a whole, the country is fitted for settlement and occupation, and must be settled and occupied at an early day. Or, to go more into details: From Breckenridge, on the Red river of the north, to the Divide of the Rocky mountains, the route passes through strictly a cultivable country, capable of continuous settlement except for about 150 miles, in three several sections of about equal lengths. On this portion you can plant agricultural settlements, at points sufficient for railroad or mail stations. From near the Divide of the Rocky mountains, the country is capable of continuous settlement to within twenty miles of the Divide of the Bitter Root mountains. eastern half of the great plain of the Columbia, the northern and the southern portions, consist of rich river valleys and fertile tablelands. A portion of the western half will not furnish arable land for continuous settlements. Between the Columbia and the Cascade mountains, the line is flanked on the south by a large body of fertile land, and passes immediately through a fine grass country, and for at least half the distance through an excellent cultivable country. From the Cascade mountains to the Sound, the line passes through a continuously cultivable country. The whole intermediate country between the headwaters of the Missouri and the great plain of the Columbia admits of continuous settlement, except about forty miles on the highest part of the Rocky mountains, and thirty miles in the highest part of the Bitter Root mountains.

The

The railroad line could be laid over the great plain of the Columbia so as to pass over a continuous cultivable country to the Columbia, except for a few miles; but to cross north of the mouth of the Snake river, which is desirable to avoid detour, it will pass

over about fifty miles of country not adapted to continuous cultivation. There are about fifty miles of uncultivable country between the main Columbia and Puget's Sound. Thus, in the

whole distance from Breckenridge to Seattle, a distance of 1,544 miles, the route passes through only about 320 miles of uncultivable country. East of Breckenridge, to St. Paul and Lake Superior, the country is exceedingly rich, and inviting to

the settler.

These views of the country, and which I have presented in my official reports, are being amply confirmed by experience; and the analyses of the soils procured by the recent geological examination of this country by Dr. Evans have demonstrated that it has all the elements required for crops. Indeed, generally speaking, there is an unusual quantity of fertilizing materials in the soil. On the upper waters of Snake river the formation is trap and basalt, and the soil is sterile and unfit for cultivation; but north of Snake river, in the parallels of the region whose waters flow into Clarke's Fork, there is limestone on both sides of the Rocky mountains, and westward, nearly to the great bend of the Columbia. The general character of the Flathead country, and the extraordinary change which takes place in passing from the northern route to Snake river, some two hundred miles distant, is shown in the following extracts from Lieut. Mullan's report:

"The valley and mountain slopes are well timbered with an excellent growth of pine, which is equal in every respect to the well known and noted pine of Oregon. The advantages, therefore, possessed by this section, are of great importance, and offer peculiar inducements to the settler. Its valley is not only capable of grazing immense bands of stock of every kind, but is also capable of supporting a dense population. The mountain slopes on either side of the valley and the land along the base of the mountains afford at all seasons, even during the most severe winters, grazing ground in abundance, while the mountains are covered with a beautiful growth of pine. The provisions of nature here are, therefore, on no small scale, and of no small importance; and let those who have imagined-and some have been so bold as to say it-that there exists only one immense bed of mountains from the head waters of the Missouri to the Cascade range, turn their attention to this section, and let them contemplate its advantages and resources, and ask themselves, since these things exist, can it be long before public attention shall be attracted and fastened upon this hitherto unknown and neglected region? Can it be that we should have so near our Pacific coast a section of country of hundreds of thousands of acres that will remain forever untilled, uncultivated, totally neglected? It cannot be. But let a connexion, and that the most direct, be made between the main chain of the Rocky mountains and the Pacific-and it can be done-and soon will these advantages necessarily thrust themselves upon public attention, and open to the industrious and persevering avenues to wealth and power. Again, this section connects with another of equal, if not superior, importance, that of the Coeur d'Aléne country, which again connects directly, by a beautiful section, with the country at and near Walla Walla; thus showing that from the main chain of the Rocky mountains to the mouth of the Columbia, we possess a rich, fertile, and productive area, that needs but the proper means and measures to be put forth, and manfully employed, to be turned to private and public benefit."

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