WITH THE DEVELOPMENT Of the railroad network in the American Far West this region became readily accessible to the average traveler. In addition to the droves of Americans who took advantage of the new means of transportation there were numerous British subjects who were anxious to view this legendary land in relative safety and comfort. Their comments provide an interesting and instructive picture of the services provided by a rapidly expanding rail system in this relatively undeveloped part of the United States. To Victorian England, with capital to invest anywhere on the globe and with money to spend for world travel, the Pacific Railroad, completed in 1869, furnished something worthy of investigation. The main road itself provided a new and rapid means of transportation to the Orient and Australasia, while the feeder lines offered connection with parts of the American West which might be financially exploited. For these reasons the British Isles were soon literally flooded with travel accounts describing various opportunities in postwar America. In general, the British were impressed with the rapidity of American road construction but they did not feel that it compared in quality with their own.' They were aware, nevertheless, of the reasons for the difference. Charles Messiter, a sportsman who was at Cheyenne in 1868, saw something of the American methods. had an opportunity of seeing how quickly railways are made in Western America before I left, he wrote.