All of our efforts to save distance, by deviating, temporarily, from the immediate valley of the river, involved either the use of high gradients, not justified by the distance saved, or an increased cost that was equally unwarranted. The beautiful valley of the Kishacoquillas offered the greatest temptation to leave the river route; but here we would have had to encounter gradients, in both directions, of 26-4/10 feet per mile, a bridge over Mill creek, 1,200 feet long, 111 high; another over a small tributary of the Juniata, 850 feet long and 150 feet in height, together with several others, or embankments of great magnitude, across ravines in the north slope of the river hills. These difficulties, added to 342 feet of additional elevation to be surmounted at the Allentown summit, so greatly overbalanced the small increase of curvature and distance (7/10 of a mile), by the river route, that it could not be adopted. It was also ascertained that by the _use of the maximum gradients_ required on the valley route, the shortest line could have been procured by the river, and at the least cost. A fact, conclusive in itself, as to the proper route. I deemed it unnecessary to make further instrumental examinations of the Stone mountain route, feeling satisfied that even if a line could be obtained in that direction which would approximate to an equality, in an engineering point of view, with the route selected--which, from a reconnoissance of a portion of the line and an examination of the plots of Mr. Schlatter's surveys, I should consider _quite_ improbable--that its additional cost would entrench so much upon the means of the Company as to place it entirely out of the question. A line was traced from Huntingdon to the Frankstown branch of the Juniata, below Williamsburg, across Tussey's mountain, by which a saving of distance could have been made nearly equal to the Stone mountain route, but its high gradients, cost, and the length of time that it would require to build the road over it rendered it equally objectionable. The valley of the Frankstown branch was also surveyed; the route by it joining the Little Juniata line at Robinson's ridge, but it proved both longer and more expensive than the latter. The searching examinations made of the whole region offering any chance for a more practicable route, on the north or south of the Juniata, leaves no doubt upon my mind but that the best line has been procured for the eastern division. Its comparatively easy curvature and low gradients, adapted in their inclination to the direction of the largest business, and extending from the eastern terminus of our Road to the foot of the great barrier that divides us from the west, give it advantages that are not equaled by any other route proposed, between the east and west, and can not be too highly appreciated by the Company.