Beyond the West: containing an account of two years' travel in the other half of our great continent far beyond the old West, on the plains, in the Rocky mountains, and picturesque parks of Colorado. Also, characteristic features of New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho ... Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and ... California, the end of the West ... the great continental railroad, together with the ... most wonderful natural scenery in the world .../ by George W. Pine.

THE CONTINENTAL RAILROADS.
obtain either entcouragement or aid, and his project
failed. Thomas H. Benton, twenty years ago, advocated and urged this work upon the country, with
an eloquence worthy of the man. Would that we
had space to quote some of his own beautiful language, in his address before the first National Convention, held at St. Louis, in 1819, to consider the
subject of a railroad to the Pacific.
Hon. Thomas Allen, of Pittsfield, made the call for
this Convention, addressed to the people. He wrote
also the address of the Convention to the Nation-also
the Memorial to Congress, urging them to donate
land and bonds. His plan was ultimately adopted,
and was the basis upon which the Pacific Railroads
were built. Benton introduced the first bill in Congress on this subject, and pleads that the Nation
shall construct the road from the Missouri to the
Pacific. He went further, stood higher, than any of
his associates in his able speach; he goes back three
centuries and a half, and views Columbus searching
for the East by traveling West. He finds him stopped by a Continent which he discovered-yet his
great thought —" find the East by going West"-ohas
never died. Franklin, Kane, and many other navigators, sacrificed their lives in attempting to solve
the problem. But it seemed to be left for our people and this Republic to accomplish the far-seeing
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