Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/28

708 soil, quantity, and variety of mineral wealth, and all the elements nef cessary to the support of a dense population, there is no zone of similar extent and value between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean" as that "of the region lying between and contiguous to parallels 46 and 47 north latitude." The whole amount expended on surveys from the beginning of the work to the 1st of July last is $1,058,873.74. The ex- tent of line surveyed is 9,388 miles, and, in addition, 2,350 of river»re- connoissance. The amount received from passengers on the road (in Minnesota and in Washington Territory) is $153,551.97; for transporta- tion of freight, $393,549.23, which includes a few days of the earnings of June, 1873, in Dakota. The expense of the road and tixtures has been $20,092,380.09, and the indebtedness of the company is $29,309,337.40. The word " expense," as used above, is said by the company "to mean the cost of the road proper and its fixtures " only. The company’s re- port states that, on October 1, 1873, trains were running regularly, (both passenger and freight,) engaged in the general traffic from Lake Superior to the Missouri River, a distance of 453 miles, and from Kalama, on the Columbia River, northward, 65 miles toward Puget Sound. Beyond that, a distance of 25 miles of track has been laid, and 15 miles more nearly graded, which, when completed, (about the 1st of December, this year,) will make a continuous road from the Columbia River to Puget Sound, 105 miles. On the 6th of last Janu- ary you accepted the first 228 miles of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Minnesota, (from its junction with the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad, near Thomson, to the Red River of the North ;) and, on the 10th of September, 1873, 65 miles of the road in Washington Territory, " on its main line between the city of Portland, Oreg., and its western terminus on Puget Sound." The report of the commissioners appointed to examine the completed portion of the road (195 miles) in Dakota Territory has not yet been received.

On the 11th of March last you accepted 155, miles of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, from the 86 mile (south of the southern boundary-line of Kansas) to Red River, near Preston, Tex. Total num- ber of miles accepted 242 I accepted, on the 4th of September last, 84 miles of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad, lying between Little Rock, in Arkansas, and the southern boundary of Missouri. Application having been made for the examination of the portion of this road lying between Little Rock and Fulton, commissioners have been appointed for that purpose, but their report has not yet been received.

You accepted, November 4, 1872, the final portion (50¾ miles) of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, in Nebraska, reported on by commissioners on the 30th October of that year. This makes a total accepted line in that State of 190¾ miles.

That portion of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad from the West