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Show CHAPTER XXXVI. MINING IN 1882. MAY, 1869, was rendered memorable by the opening of the first through railway line across the Continent; the spring of 1881 wit-nessed the opening of the second ; but it passed almost unnoticed, while that of 1869 was the occasion of a national jubilee. In a former chapter the reader will find some account of the projected 35th parallel road . and my journey over a portion of its line. The Northern Pacific is of national fame. The Texas Pacific, or 32d parallel, road was to run near the boundary between us and Mexico. But all these were outdone by the Southern Pacific of California, which was started to give San Francisco direct railroad connection with Arizona and New Mexico, and once fairly started was pushed forward towards Texas with amazing vigor. Meanwhile, the Atchison, . Topeka, and Santa Fe line was pushed on from La Junta, Colorado, its objective point being Guayamas, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Thus its line crossed that of the California road, at an acute angle, in the Florida Pass, New Mexico; and at that meeting they decided to make it one line for through business. So the first train, from ocean to river, on the new trans- continental, reached Kansas City almost unheralded and unnoticed. It is but a question of a few years when both roads will be completed to their original destinations, and the Northern Pacific will be pushed through ; then four lines will connect us with the Pacific, and nearly one- half of the Wild West be abolished. Scarcely had the two roads touched their boundaries when the mineral wealth of New Mexico and Arizona was shown to be great; but other matters are of more immediate interest. First to be noted beyond La Junta is Trinidad, and sixteen miles beyond it a tunnel 2,000 feet long, through which the railroad penetrates the Raton, over which I staged with such difficulty^!! 1872. Here the formation is carboniferous, and from immense mines coal is loaded on the cars at eighty cents a ton. Thence straight southward to Las Vegas, near the old stage line, the road running conveniently near to the great Hot Springs, which have already acquired fame as a sanitarium. From Galisteo a branch road runs up a canon to Santa Fe ; and so the queer old city has a railroad at last, though I was positive, in 1872, from its position, that it never would have. From Albuquerque AM) |