Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1872.djvu/25

Rh the year. The location of the line of route has been greatly retarded at various points by hostile Indians. The company has this year surveyed and examined the Missouri Biver above the Great Falls, and determined that it is practicable for steamboat navigation up to Gallatin Forks, a distance of 220 miles. They have also found that a short railroad is practicable around those falls, at small expense. Thus the whole course of the Missouri River can be made available to commerce and to the settlement of the vast region it drains. Surveys have been in progress on the Salmon River line in Montana, making a connection therewith of the survey in progress on the Wisdom River line. The survey of the route from the Columbia River to Lake Pend d'Oreille is reported complete. It is also reported that 75 miles of the road from the Columbia River to Puget Sound will be in operation at the close of the season.

The road and telegraph of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company, from the southern line of Kansas to the Arkansas River, a distance of 86.76 miles, was accepted by you on the 17th May last. On the 28th of last March 1 accepted the first 50 miles of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad, extending" from a point on the north bank of the Arkansas River, opposite the city of Little Rock, called 'Argenta,' to a point fifty miles north, called 'Judsonia,' near Little Red River."

On the 13th of December last, the seventh section of twenty miles of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, in Nebraska, was accepted by you. This section extends from the end of the one hundred and twentieth mile of said road west of Plattsmouth. And on the 18th instant commissioners were ordered to proceed to the examination of an additional portion of 50¾ miles—from the one hundred and fortieth mile to a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad. Their report has not yet been received.

On the 11th March last you accepted the fifth and sixth sections of 20 miles each of the road and telegraph line of the Oregon and California Railroad Company. This portion, with the sections previously accepted, makes a length of line, already reported upon and accepted, of 120 miles, commencing at East Portland, Oregon, and ending at a station 2½ miles Northwest of Eugene City.

On the 16th February last I accepted the first section of twenty miles of the road and telegraph of the Oregon Central Railroad Company. This road is to run "from Portland to Astoria, and from a suitable point of junction near Forest Grove, to the Yamkill River, near McMinnville, in the State of Oregon."

The Architect of the Capitol Extension notices, in his report, the various improvements and repairs to the Capitol during the last fiscal year, and renders an account of the expenditures during the same period for that, as well as for the other public works committed to his charge. A large amount of earth has been deposited in the grounds