Gold Run for six weeks, the passengers being carried in the meantime by saddle train from the railroad at Colfax to Dutch Flat. The building of the railroad during this time was prosecuted with energy but at much greater cost than would have been the case in the dry season. During the winter of 1866 and 1867 and the following winter of 1867 and 1868 there were unusually heavy snowfalls in the upper Sierra Nevadas, where the road was then under construction. The tunnels were got under way with as large a force as could be used on them, and the remainder of the force was sent to the Truckee Caņon on the east slope of the Sierras, where the snowfall was not so great as to entirely prevent grading during the winter, the total force being about 13,500 men at this time. The snows were so deep that it was impossible to keep the tunnel approaches clear, and we were compelled to make tunnels through the snow from the dump to the tunnel entrances. Snow tunnels were also required to get into camp. In many instances our camps were carried away by snow slides, and men were buried and many of them were not found until the snow melted the next summer. In the spring of each year the men were taken back from the Truckee into the mountains and an average depth of 10 or 12 feet of snow was cleared away before grading could be commenced.
The total snowfall of the season was about 40 feet, and the depth of hard, settled snow in midwinter was 18 feet on the level in Summit Valley and
