Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/269

 tion the monopoly the company had on the Columbia, and with control now practically put in their hands on account of the distribution of the trustee stock in small lots among the hundreds of creditors of Jay Cooke & Co., the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company on November 17, 1876, ordered fifty pound iron rails, fish bars, spikes, etc., purchased and the prosecution to completion of grading, bridging, etc, as soon as possible.

The work now went on for five or six months, or until a condition apparently not noticed before this year became so serious that it was decided to halt the construction of the railroad. Quoting from a resolution adopted at a meeting of the directors held on May 5, 1877:

" * * * during the vigorous prosecution of said work in March and April of the present year, the chief engineer, J. W. Brazee, has repeatedly represented that the disturbed condition of the ground for two miles or more, over which said road must be built, caused by unusual slides from the mountains, is of so serious a character as to create doubts as to the propriety of grading until the ground shall show evidence of being undisturbed by further slides,' and whereas the president and vice-president of this company have personally inspected the ground and substantiated the chief engineer's report, and whereas the Government is about to construct a canal in front of the ground named, and proposes to build a seawall on the bed rock that may prevent further sliding of said ground, * * * * resolved, that further work on said railroad be suspended * * * *"

The material for two miles of track which president Ainsworth had ordered through Messrs. A. E. and C. E. Tilton of New York on the date of the passage of the November resolution arrived via Cape Horn in August and September, but was not applied to the construction of the Oregon Portage Raliroad. On December 26, "in view of the great increase of business on the river" the directors regardless of the condition of the ground, voted to resume construction, and to purchase rails for five miles of track.