64 WESTERN INCIDENTS.

otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said Company
in lieu thereof, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in
alternate sections and designated by odd numbers, not more than ten
miles beyond the limits of said alternate sections.”

Tam not aware that anything further than an organization of the
Company has been effected up to the present time.

In addition to the above it may be proper to mention the old
organization known as the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was in-
tended to run from Memphis to San Diego, about which very little
has been heard for some years.

S. SEYMOUR,
Consulting Engineer, U. P. R. R.

GENERAL SIMPSON’S SPEECH.

The following speech of General Simpson, President
of the Board of Government Commissioners (copied from
the Chicago Tribune), delivered at Chicago, on the return
of the excursionists, will also be found to contain much

interesting and valuable, as well as later information upon
this subject :-—

Mr. Mayor, Lapizs anp GENTLEMEN :—

The interests of the Pacific Railroad have been ably pre-
sented by the gentlemen who have preceded me ; but as there
are some points upon which they have not touched, and it
may be expected of me, as the President of the Board of Com-
missioners on the road and its branches east of the Rocky
Mountains; and the officer to whom has been intrusted by the
President of the United States the charge of the road and its
branches, so far as concerns the General Government, to say
something in this regard, I trust I shall be pardoned for
making the following statement :—

MAGNITUDE OF THE ENTERPRISE.

Preliminary, however, to this, I cannot but generally
descant upon the magnitude and importance of this great en-
terprise. If we take a railroad map of our country, we