Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 1, Pt. 2

PARTIAL RESULTS OF EXPLORATION.
can be reached from the Bois de Sioux by crossing the Missouri and Yellowstone, and thus
abridging distance.
Winter examinations to be continued.
I will here observe that, through the Indian agents and sub-agents, I shall be able to get a large
-body of'meteorological observations with but little additional expense, except the cost of instrunlents. I will recommend that, whatever operations the department may think advisable to be
carried on, on this route, the operations of the fall and winter be restricted to the examination of
the lower Columbia and the line of the Snoqualme Pass, and that next spring and summer the
operations eastward be vigorously pushed.
I will state that, in coijnexion with the Blackfoot council, I shall make my arrangements to
leave the Sound in April, to reach Fort Benton late in June, and, remaining there six weeks, to
return and reach the Sound again in October. I refer to this to show with what ease I shall be
able to direct the operations in the field.
My feeble health, the last seventeen days, will explain the delay which has occurred in transmitting this report. It has only been within a day or two that I have been able to do much
work.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
ISAAC I. STEVENS,
Governor of Washington Territory, in Charge of Exploration.
Hon. JEFFERSON DAVIS,
Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
N. B.-Besides the railroad profile referred to in this report, I send the profiles of the route of
the main train. The railroad line was got in through the labors of the civil engineers, Messrs.
Lander and Tinkham, who were constantly occupied in side reconnaissances, and is the result of
the observations on the main trail; of careful observations, by the barometer, of prominent landmarks off the main trail; and of careful observations of the course of streams, and the general
trend of the country.
I send also the two sheets giving the work in detail. But I am now engaged in a careful readjustment of the latitudes and odometer survey to the longitudes determined by Wilkes and
Nicollet, which will occupy me some two or three days, and which will be made the basis of a
special report.
LIST OF LATITUDES.
Date. Place. Star observed. Deduced lati- Mean.
~~~~~~~~~~- tude.
0 o I II/ /
45 35 14.5
Camp Davis................................
Theta.. —--—....-.
Polaris............
Ford of Sauk river........................
Altair.............
Polaris.............
Theta..........
Camp Marcy, Pike lake..... -.....- a...........
Lake..............................
45 57 07.5
Wild Rice river.............................
Camp McClelland, Shayenne river-............-435
46 36 00.5
July 8............. Second Shayenne Crossing...................4
47 27 34.5
July 10.......... Lake Jessie..................
t
453
0 1 //
. 45 35 12
17
45 27 00
27 00
27 07
45 44 26
45 57 08
45 57 07
June 16 and 17......
45 27 02
Polaris.............
June 26............
Polaris... - - -..
Theta..............
Polaris.............
46 -35 58
36 03
47 27 36
33
Polaris.............