REPORT TO HON. A. V. BROWN, POSTMASTER GENERAL, ON THE OPENING AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES OVERLAND MAIL ROUTE BETWEEN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, AND SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, BY I. C. WOOD, SUPERINTENDENT. WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., _March --, 1858_. SIR: In compliance with your request, I beg leave to submit the following report, showing the present condition of the mail stage line running semi-monthly between San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California, containing also extracts from the journal of my trip over the line and back. I have here grouped together observations, made from time to time, along the road, of the soil, climate, distances, deserts, mountains, supplies of wood, water, and grass, arable land, pasturage, and general character of the road we stage over. I have endeavored to avoid inserting anything except what I learned from the experiences of my trip; but the statements of the distances and altitudes are from government surveys, as I had neither time to measure the road nor to ascertain its altitudes. _Extracts from my journal._ _June 12, 1857._--The late James E. Birch entered into a contract with your department for the transmission of a semi-monthly mail to and from San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California. I had been laboring in connexion with Mr. Birch during the period in which the great overland mail letting was pending, and, in compliance with the understanding between us, I took charge of the execution of this contract. _June 15._--To-day I despatched a man from New York, with instructions to proceed at once to San Antonio, Texas, and there to purchase a suitable outfit with which to take the first mail, namely, that of July 9th, through to San Diego. That he might be able to transport the mail through in proper shape, and in schedule time if possible, I wrote a full authority for him to act in any emergency which might arise on the road, and also gave him the cash necessary to carry out these instructions. Never having travelled the road, I was of course unable to give specific directions to the first conductor, but depended, in a great degree, on his discretion. _June 20._--By the mail steamer to California to-day I forwarded full instructions to Mr. R. E. Doyle, of San Francisco, accompanied by an authority from Mr. Birch to him, in virtue of which he was to take the management of that portion of the mail line running west of Tucson. I instructed Mr. Doyle to start the first mail, if possible, on the 24th of July, from San Diego.