THE TWO GREAT RAILROADS. 1

an interest in the greatness, the grandeur, and the boundless
resources of our national heritage.

THE TWO GREAT RAILROADS.

It is rather an awkward and embarrassing circumstance that
the road which runs up the valley of the Platte, and that which
runs up the valley of the Kansas, should both bear nearly the
same name. The first is the Union Pacific Railroad; the other
the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division. This sameness of
name arose out of the original programme, which was, that the
Kansas road should be carried up the Republican Fork of the
Kansas river, thence across the Platte river at the 100th meridian,
and there unite with the Platte road. But by Act of Congress,
of July, 1866, the Kansas Company were authorized to build their
road up the Smoky Hill instead of the Republican, and make
their junction with the other road at Denver, or that vicinity, at
about the 105th meridian. This change retarded the work on the
Kansas road considerably; but it greatly shortens the line to
Denver, and leads the road through a much better country —one
of good soil, abundance of water, and through a section abound-
ing in coal and pine timber.

But what is of still more importance, the road by the Smoky
Hill route has a slight southern bearing as far as the western line
of Kansas, at which point, or near it, it is in contemplation to
change the direction of the main line to the southwest, through
the southeastern corner of Colorado, and thence, through New
Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California, to San Francisco.
The original plan, however, of pushing on to Denver, is to be car-
ried out. The feasibility and the advantages of this southwestern
route, around the mountains instead of over them, are fully dis-
cussed in my concluding letters; and I trust the reader, who will
favor me with an attentive perusal of the facts and arguments
offered, will agree with me in the opinion that this is by far the
better route to the Pacific.

RAILROADS A NECESSITY IN THAT COUNTRY.
To subdue and occupy such a country as that beyond the Mis-
sissippi, will require greater forces than were employed in the
conquest of the section of our country east of that river, where,