Sons, New York.)—These two books form part of the library
of litera- ture which has already appeared in that latest effort of American enterprise, the Northern Pacific Railroad. The story of the Northern Pacific is on a par with that of its various promoters. It runs on the track which as long ago as 1803 was the first explored and the first selected for a trans-continental road ; which was also the first to be
advocated for a railway by a Missionary in 1835 ; was nearly being actually undertaken in 1848 ; and yet was, after all, destined to be nearly a generation behind the line of the Central Pacific, which was not thought of for half a century afterwards. Even in America, therefore, all great projects are not completed in a day ; though it must be admitted that this project, once taken thoroughly in hand, was carried out, if not in a day, yet in a period, relatively speaking, not very much longer. The 2,168 miles of railway were not begun till the summer of 1870, and in spite of three years of insolvency, the line was finished in 1882. The country through which it passes was a
wilderness when the line was began. Minnesota and Dakota are now the world's wheat-fields. There was not a single town on the track from Lake Superior to Paget Sound with more than ten houses ; now the population of Minnesota alone is 1,000,000. Minneapolis and St. Paul, the twin cities on either side of the Upper Mississippi, did not exist thirty years ago ; now they each have 80,000 inhabitants. Even at the extreme western end of the line, Portland, which in 1870 had 1,100 people, had 35,000 in 1882, and by now has probably 50,000; while all along the line, towns, ranging from 1,000 to 10,000, have sprung up like mushrooms. The scenery appears to be magnificent.. At the east end there is the Lake District, in which the lakes are so huge and so thiok-lain, that lakes
as big as Grasmere are far too small to be named. Then come the rolling prairie lands, with their rich soil ; then the "Bad Lands," a volcanic region twisted and broken into all kinds of fantastic forms,
and productive of such wild beauties as are more strikingly developed in the Yellowstone National Park, to which a branch line diverges.
Next come the mountains of Montana, with their splendours of scenery and of silver, the river valleys of the Willamette and the Colombia; and finally, the glory of glacier and mountain, of sea and forest, combined in Paget Sound. Altogether, the Northern Pacific Railroad well deserves to have its history written, as an instance of the extraordinary enterprise and energy of the American people, and of the extraordinary physical magnitude, variety, and magnifi- cence of the country.
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