The “Report of the Secretary of War on the several Pacific Railroad Explorations� is before us. It is an interesting and instructive document, embracing a careful review of the capabilities and drawbacks of the following routes, from the actual surveys:

First—The extreme northern route, (Major Stevens’,) between the 47th and 49th parallels of latitude, starting from St. Paul in Minnesota territory, and striking the Pacific at Puget’s Sound, or the mouth of the Columbia, in Oregon. This will require a road, allowing for ascent and descent, of 2,207 miles. Estimated cost, $130,871,000. The impediments in this route are the mountains to be tunneled, the numerous rivers to be bridged, the scarcity of timber, the coldness of the climate, and its proximity to the British possessions.

Second—Route of the forty-first parallel, (Mormon route,) commencing on the navigable waters of the Missouri, or on the Platte river, and striking thence over the Plains to the South Pass, thence to the Great Salt Lake, thence across the Great Basin to the Sierra Nevada chain, thence over that chain, and down to the Sacramento river, and down the same to Benicia, just above San Francisco, on the same harbor. Estimated distance from Council Bluffs to Benicia, 2,031 miles; estimated cost, $116,095,000. Obstructions same as in the first route, including wider deserts and deeper and rougher mountain gorges.

Third—Route of the thirty-eighth parallel, more familiarly known as Benton’s great Central route, pronounced utterly impracticable from its mountain obstructions. Estimated length from Westport to San Francisco, 2,080 miles. The topographical engineers gave up all estimates of the cost of a road by this route, in absolute despair.

Fourth—Route of the thirty-fifth parallel—(Senator Rusk’s route)—beginning at Fort Smith, in Arkansas, thence westward to Albuquerque on the Upper Rio Grande, thence across the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado of the West and great desert basin and its mountains, and the lower end of the Sierra Nevada chain to San Pedro, at the southern extremity of California, on the Pacific. This route is about as bad as Benton’s, although the engineers think that 3,137 equated miles and $169,210,265 might, perhaps, do the work.

Fifth—Route near the thirty-second parallel, or the extreme southern route, via Texas, New Mexico, El Paso and the Gila to the Pacific. Estimated distance from Fulton in Arkansas, to San Pedro on the Pacific, 1,618 miles—equated length, allowing for ascents and descents, 2,239 miles. Estimated cost, $68,970,000.

The advantages of this route are, that it is practically a third shorter than any of the others between the Mississippi and the Pacific—that it goes by the flank of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada chain, instead of going over or under them—that the route is over a region of elevated table lands requiring little or no grading—and that the soil is dry and free from snow from one end to the other, except occasional light falls in New Mexico.

RECAPITULATION.

ROUTES.Distance of
Routes.		Ascents and
Descents.		Length of
Level Routes.		Comparative
Cost.
Miles. Feet. Miles.
Extreme northern 1,864 18,100 2,207 $130,781,000
Mormon 2,032 29,120 2,583 116,095,000
Benton’s 2,080 49,986 3,125 [A]——
Albuquerque 1,892 48,812 2,816 169,210,265
Extreme southern 1,618 32,784 2,239 68,970,000

[A]The cost by this route is so great that the road is impracticable.

SUMMIT OF HIGHEST PASS.