"That so much of section fourteen of said act as relates to a branch from Sioux City, be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: That whenever a line of railroad shall be completed through the state of Iowa, or Minnesota, to Sioux City, such company now organized, or as may be hereafter organized, under the laws of Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, or Nebraska, as the president of the United States, by its request, may designate, or approve for the purpose, shall construct and operate a line of railroad and telegraph from Sioux City, upon the most direct and practicable route to such point on, and so as to connect with, the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific railroad, as such company may select, and on the same terms and conditions as are provided in this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, for the construction of said Union Pacific railroad and telegraph line, and branches; and said company shall complete the same at the rate of fifty miles per year. Provided, that said Union Pacific railroad company shall be, and is hereby, released from the construction of said branch. And said company constructing said branch shall not be entitled to receive, in bonds, an amount larger than the said Union Pacific railroad company would be entitled to receive if it had constructed the branch under this act, and the act to which this is an amendment; but said company shall be entitled to receive alternate sections of land for ten miles in width on each side of the same, along the whole length of said branch; and provided further, that if a railroad shall not be completed to Sioux City, across Iowa or Minnesota, within eighteen months from the date of this act, then said company designated by the president as aforesaid, may commence and complete the construction of said branch, as contemplated by the provisions of this act. Provided, however, that if the company so designated by the president as aforesaid, shall not complete the said branch from Sioux City to the Pacific railroad within ten years from the passage of this act, then, and in that case, all of the railroad that shall have been constructed by said company, shall be forfeited to, and become the property of, the United States."