The Northern Pacific Railroad

From the Xi:w Vork riidcTK'ndcnt. Midway across the continent- at tlie hoad of' twelve hundred milos of Lake navigation - a thousand miles from }iuü'alo, the western terminus of the Erin Canal, and as near to it by water as Chicago - a hundred miles west of the longitude of St. Louis or Galena - is the young city of Duluth, the initial point ot' the Northern Pacific Bailroad. That great woik, so magnificently endowcd by the Government, is alrcady beingpushed rapidly westward, under its energetic controllers ; and bcforo the snow nies next Fall, it will bo completed to the western line of Minnesota, where it crosses the Eed Itiver of the North - which runs northward to Lakn Winnipeg - and oneeighth of its distance to the Pacific ocean will havo been aceomplishod. Commcneing, too, this season on its western line, the work will be proseeuted trom both direetions, and long before the nation eelebrates its Centennial Anniversary of Independenee, the Lakes will be unitcd by iron bands with that Mediterranean of our Northwest, Pugct Sound. Of the auspicióos influence of this enterprise, which but a few years ago would have been considerad so daling, the most sanguine of its friends have scarcely a full roalization. Even taking Chicago as the starting point, it will be (tw St. Paul, ,,-],liri, 11T. ....... ..+' +1... V. ...tl....... l...,ji:.. less distant to Puget Sound tBWB to ban Francisco. Besides this, vessels froni th. Golden Gate to China sail on what is called the grand circle, instead of a straight line ; and any one tcsting this by a string on a globe will be surprised at the result if they have not previously stud'ed the effect of the rotundity of the ear'h, and its diminished protuberaiiee as you go northwards towards the Pole. Henee, wben thcy have sailed eight hundred miles from San Francisco, they are only one hundred miles from the entrance to Puget Sound ; and this stríking fnct shoiys the advantages this route will have in commandintr tbc through traffic of Asia with our Atlantic States, or that portion of it which will pass over the soil of this nation on its roart to Europe. Nor is this all. Development is the great duty of the Republic, after all its recent trials. Resources are the gift of n,, Proatnr T)cvolor)iii!r them dcuends VLt3 -7 Ksiv fcv - v . _ „ A on tho work of man. Along the lino oi the Northern Paoiiic Itailroud, as it fol[o-ws up the watvr-courses, tho Missouri and the Yellowstone on this side, and duseends by the valley of the Columbia on the other, a vast body of agrieultural land is waiting for the plough, with a cliniate almost exactly the same as that of Xew York, except that, with less mow, cattle, in the largor portion of it, can sulwist on the open range in winter. Bfepe if cliniate and fortility of soil produce their natural rosult, vhen railroad facilities open this now isolated región to settlement, vill soon be seen waving flolds, and happy homos, and growmg towns ; whilc ultimatoly a cordon of proeperous States, teeming with population, and rieh in industry and consequent weulth, will occupythivtnowundevelopod and alraost inaccossiblo portion of our continental area. But tlris road is fortúnate also in its pathway across the two ranges of mountains which tested so sevcrely the Pacific Railroads built on the central line, and the overconiing of which reflectcd suoh well deserved honor on their energetic builders. At the Deer Lodge Pas.s, m Montana, whore it crosses the Koeky Mountains, its altitudo above the sea is 3500 feet less than the Union Pacific railroad at Sherman, which is eaid to be the hi"-hest point at which a locomotive can be found in the worldi And on the Pacific side of the Continent it is even more fortúnate. Froin Arizona up to the Arctic Cirelo the Columbia is the mly river which has torn its way through tli.it mighty muge, the Andes of Nortn Amorio which in California isknownas ttte Sierras, but whii-h in Oiegoh chang?8 iti name to thO Cade8. Nature has thua providod a pathway tot the. Northern Pacilic Road through these ïnounbiins, the BcaJing of wliich, on the othrr line, t an clevation of over seven thousand feet (a most womlcrful triumph óf engineering), eost the Central Pacific oompany millions of dollars, and eompelled thom, fov sevenv ,ii!i,.s. to mamtain a erado of aror one bundred feet to the mile- twice Üre maximum of the Northern Paoitic ut the most diffioult póint on ita entíre route. It is fortúnate, also, in ita terminus on tho Pacific coast. No one who luis not been thevo can reaUse tihe liciuty of Pueet Soumi and ita Buiroundings. One Eündred mil.-s long, but so t'ull of in] ets and straite that it navigable Bhore line measures sewnteen hundred and sixty miles. (Icitti'd with lovely isU-ts, witli gigontio trees abnost to the water's edge, with safe anehorugo everywhore, and Btrotching snuthwiinl, without shoala Ot bars, from the Strait-s of Fuca to theoapit:il and (■.■utre f Washington Tenitory, it wül be a magniflotint entrepot for the oommeroe of that grande oooan of tho woria, the PteotÉfo. ïho Lmd örant of tho United States, tsxeeeding Fifty Millions of twrea in the wiutcr-whrat región of OUT nation (ten times m Iftrge as the area of Maesachut, kdoubtloss gnffloient forthocomp'o.ion of the road ; but, besidesthis.millions of private meara aro aflieady inTest6d in it. Tho bonds baMd on the Land Cirant, and a mortíro on t'ir Rota itaatf in iiililition, ttttbeuageoldaa rajadly aa the money iffbeeded; and, ment, yielding about oight por cent. par yoar in curreney, rank already with the best class of railroad securities. And tbus the good work will go on with unchecked Stop to its final oonsummation, carrying the blessings of settlemont, dovelopment, eivilization, and Christianity with it in its progress, und litorully causing the wilduniess to blossom as the rose.