"I thought there was some great commotion in the streets."
"It was merely an election meeting."
"For a commander-in-chief, no doubt?" suggested Mr. Fogg.
"Oh dear no," replied the man. "It was for a justice of the peace."
On this reply Phileas Fogg entered the train, which started almost immediately.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Showing how Mr. Fogg and Party journeyed in the Pacific Express.
"From ocean to ocean," as the Americans say, and this sentence is the
usual expression to intimate the crossing of the continent by the
Pacific Railway. That line is really divided into two, viz. the
Central Pacific, between San Francisco and Ogden; and the Union
Pacific, between Ogden and Omaha. There are five trunk-lines from
Omaha to New York.
New York and San Francisco are thus united by a continuous iron road more than three thousand seven hundred and eighty-six miles in length; between the Pacific and Omaha the railroad traverses a country still inhabited by Indians and wild beasts, and a vast extent of territory which the Mormons began to colonise in 1845, when they were driven out from Illinois.
Formerly, under the most favourable circumstances, the journey from New York to San Francisco occupied six months, now it is accomplished in seven days.