WESTERN INCIDENTS.

56 miles of road have since been completed and accepted by the Gov-
ernment. Seventeen additional miles of grading are now completed,
and the balance of the grading is well under way. The line, as estab-
lished by the Company, intersects the easterly boundary of California
in the valley of the Truckee River.

7. The Western Pacific Railroad of California, extending from Sac-
ramento to San Francisco, by way of San José, a distance of one hun-
dred and seventy miles. This is also a State organization, and receives,
through an assignment from the Central Pacific Railroad Company:
which has received the sanction of Congress, the same aid from
the Government as the Union and Central Pacific Companies. The
line from San José to San Francisco, a distance of fifty miles, is com-
pleted. From San José eastward, twenty miles are about completed,
and the iron for the balance of the distance to Sacramento is already
purchased and going forward. The grading is entirely out of the
way.

8. The Southern Pacific Railroad of California, extending from the
bay of San Francisco to the port of San Diego, and thence to the east
line of the State of California, a distance of about four hundred and
twenty miles. Capital $30,000,000. This is a State organization, and
receives no aid from the General Government. Very little, if any, work
has been done up to the present time.

9. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company, extending from the head
of Lake Superior to Puget Sound, “with a branch via the valley of
the Columbia River to a point at or near Portland, in the State of Ore-
gon.” Capital stock $100,000,000. This Company was chartered by
Congress in 1864. The Company receives from the Government
“every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by
odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile on
each side of said railroad line as said Company may adopt, through
the Territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections per
mile on each side of said railroad whenever it passes through any
State, and whenever on the line thereof the United States have full
title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free
from pre-emption or other claims or rights at the time the line of said
road is definitely fixed, and a plan thereof filed in the office of the
Commissioner of the General Land Office ; and whenever prior to that
time any of said sections or parts of sections shall have been granted,
sold, reserved, occupied by homestead settlers, or pre-empted or