AMERICAN RAILROAD   JOURNAL.
STEAM NAVIGATION, COMMERCE, MINING, MANIIFAIHIIIIES.

ESTABLISHED IN 1881.

PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY J. H. SCHULTZ & 00., AT NO. 9 SPRUCE ST., NEW YORK, AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.

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_  The 1l_4eclLam'caZ Ew.gi7z.ee7"£7tg‘ department of
this paper will be under the charge of Mr. ZERAI-I
UOLBURN.

PIRINCIPAL CONTENTS:

Pacific Railroad . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .762

Hollow Railroad Axles . . . . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . .’. 756
Motive Power on the Broad Gauge . . . . . . . . . . 759
Virginia Central Raiiroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759
Indiana and Illinois Railroad . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .759
Stock ar_d Money Market....   .. .. ..760
Covington and Lexington Railroad . . . . . . . . . . .760

753

Earnings of Railroads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .761

Lexington and Big Sandy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76:.

Indiana Central Railroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..763

Cleveland and Toledo Railroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763

Finances of Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .763

Journal of Railroad Law. . . . . . .765

In Inn: 00001:

American Railroad Journal.

Punmsnnn Br J. H. SCHULTZ so 00., No. 9 Srnuon sr.

Saturday, November 26, 1853.

Exrnnnn according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by

EDWIN F. JOHNSON, in the Clerk’s Ofrice of the Dlstrrct Court
of Connecticut.

Railroad to the Pacific--Northern Route.
Its Ge-neml Cimracter, Relative Mclrits, etc.
BY EDWIN F. JonNsoN, C. E.

(Continued from Page 742.)

OBSTRUCTIONS rnom snows.

Objections have so frequently been raised to a.
route for a railroad to the Pacific, lying so far to
the north as the one proposed, in consequence of
apprehended greater obstructions from snows in
winter,as to make it proper to devote some space to
the subject.

In passing from the equatorial to the polar re-
gions the rain and snow which falls annually is
found to decrease in quantity, and a similar result
follows in respect to places in the same latitude in
passing from the seacoast into the interior. The
density‘ or rarity also of the atmosphere and its tem-

perature have both much to do with its capacity

for retaining moisture.
In ascending from the level of the ocean, a re-
duction of temperature usually accompanies the

decrease in density, and both-are unfavorable to
. the retention of moisture, and hence, where there
-is at very Wide extent of elevated country, the

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER ‘.26, 1853.

rains are often precipitated soon after entering the
elevated region and the winds pass on over the re-
maining portion of the surface, incapable ol‘con-
tributing the rains which are needful for vegeta-
tion. .

These causes conspire to produce a great dimi-
nution in the fall of rain and snow in the interior
of continents compared with the quantity which
falls in the regions near the sea coast, or in the
vicinity of the larger lakes.‘

In very wide continents, this diminution is so
great as to give to the interior often the charac-
ter of a Desert.

Under the equator the annual fall of rain :-
mounts to an uniform depth on the surface, as com-
puted by Humboldt, for the mean of both conti-
nents of 96 inches.

In lat. 19°....   ..80 inches.
“ “ 45° . . . . . . . . . . . . ..29i “
“ “ 69° . . . . . . . . . . . . ..17 ‘-“

The above is the estimated average for the lati-
tudes named, varying of course in particular pla-
ces from local causes and includes both rain and
snow.

The portion of the proposed route extending from
the Haut Teri-es of the Mississippi to the Pacific,
being the part which will probably be considered
the most exposed to be obstructed by snows in
winter, is situated in latitude 48° N. nearly, where
the average annual fall of rain and snow by the
above would be about thirty inches, add.
ing four inches for the greater amount which
falls on the continent of America compared with
Europe, as ascertained by numerous observations;
a quantity which if uninfluenced by other consid.
crations than that of the latitude would give about
six inches in depth derived from the snow alone
that being the proportion as ascertained by obser-
vations in the latitude of Vermont. It has also
been ascertained that about twelve inches ot‘new-
ly fallen dry snow gives about one inch in depth
of water. This makes about six feet f snow for
the entire fallthrough the winter; a quantity which
if not dissipated by the occasional thaws and rains
will give when compacted by lying along time on
the surface, a depth of not more than 2 to 3 feet.

The actual fall of rain and snow throughout the
region, is not correctly known from observation

and can only be obtained approximately from such

a.

 

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[WHOLE No, 919, VOL. XXVI.

evidence as is within reach.

At Fort Brady, Sanlt Ste. Marie, outlet of Lake
Superior, lat. 46ls° N ., the mean for six years, of
rain and snow is 2958 inches. At Prairie du
Chien, on the Mississippi, lat. 43° N., it is thirty
inches. At the mouth of the St. Peter’s itis a lit-
tle less than this, while at Green Bay on Lake
Michigan,it is thirty-five inches, owing to its posi-
tion on the lake.

Observations made inlllinnesota, show that the
prevailing winds in winter, are from the north and
west, occasionally from the south, but very rarely
from the cast. This is doubtless true of the coun-
try wcst to the mountains.

The northerly winds at that season bring no
moisture the entire surface to, and including the
Arctic sea, being fast bound in ice,

Those from the west and south—west, which are
frequent in winter west of the mountains, bring
with them from the Pacific a large amount ofrnois.
ture, but meeting near the coast the snow capped
summits of the Cascade mountains, the moisture
is condensed rapidly, and falls the most of it in
rain on their western slopes. Hence the winter in
Oregon and Washington, as in California, is the
rainy season, in which but very little snow falls
in the region adjoining the coast, even as far
north as the latitude of 50.° L

Whatever moisture is not condensed inupassing
the Cascade range is probably mostly precipitated
on the higher points [of the Kooskootskie or Sal-
mon River mountains, so that to the east of them
in the vicinity of the Rocky mountains, on‘ the
route of the proposed railroad, and especially up-
on the plains of the Upper Missouri, it is fair to
conclude,‘that but little snow or rain falls in win-
ter, which can properly be consideredas the re-
sult of the evaporation on the Pacific.

When the winds are southerly, as they are at
times in the winter in the region in question, as
elsewhere, the humidity with which they may be
charged, if not condensed on the high plains ofthe
Great Basin, the Colorado, the Del N orte, and Up-
per Arkansas, within the limits of which areimany
mountain ranges of great elevation, are very- com-
pletely deprived of their moisture, by the cordon
of mountains stretching from the Cascade R,_an'ge
of Southern Oregon to ,the‘Great Bend of the Min.

souri, including the Blue mountains, the Green