8 WESTERN INCIDENTS.

Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, in the magnificent
Directors’ car, which was kindly placed at the disposal
of the Government Directors by Mr. Dunlap, the Gen-
eral Superintendent, and which conveyed us to the end
of the track, a distance of about four hundred miles west
of Chicago. From this point we were compelled to make
the balance of the distance to Omaha, about ninety miles,
by stage. The rails are to be laid, however, upon this
portion of the route by the 1st of April next.

We arrived at Omaha, the eastern terminus of the
Union Pacific Railroad, on the morning of the 10th, and
spent the day in examining the extensive shops of the
Company, which have all been constructed within the
past year.

DEPARTURE FROM OMAHA.

On the morning of the 11th, the Directors accom-
panied by Gen. G. M. Dodge, Chief Engineer, Major
Bent, Major Chesbrough and myself, took a special
train, in charge of Mr. S. B. Reed, the General Super-
intendent, for the end of the track, which was then laid
two hundred and seventeen miles westward, in the Great
Platte Valley. We arrived opposite Fort Kearny at four
P. M., having passed over two hundred miles of road in
eight hours, or at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour.

_ dt may not be improper to state in this connection,
that only forty miles of track were laid on this road dur-
ing the latter part of 1865. And the balance, or about
one hundred and eighty miles, has been laid during the
present season ; and the track-laying is now progressing
so rapidly that it will reach the crossing of the North
Platte river, a distance of two hundred and eighty-five

miles from Omaha, by the Ist of November.
_ The law requires the President of the United States to