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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent etre film6s d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour etre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film^ d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY; liY GENERAL M. BUTT HEWSON, I Formerly, Originator mid J' romoter of the Meinphi}i and Loni«viUe Railroad; CliicJ Engineer [under Commisnion from the State of Minsin.iippi] on the Memphis and Charlenton Railroad; Chief Engineer of the Mixnissijjpi Centnd Railroad; Chief Engineer of the Arka nsas Midia nd Ra ilroad ; Considting Engi neer of the Missisnippi, Ouachita and Red River Railroad, etc., etc., etc ) :ONTO: PiBUSHER, 16 Francis Strket. F ,».* ^i ^. m^ THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY; BY GENEEAL M. BUTT HEWSON, (Formerly, Originator and Promoter of the Memphis and Louimnlle Railroad; Chie^ Engineer [under Commission from the State of Mississippi] on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; Chief Engineer of the Mississippi Central Railroad; Chief Engineer of the Arkansas Midland Railroad ; Consulting Engineer of the Mississippi, Ouachita and Red River Railroad, etc., etc., etc J > « ♦ » « TORONTO: Patrick Boyle, Printer and Publisher, 16 Francis Street. c u ir 4 > 24483S I ; i J- I *! ^ ♦ e f \ TO THE MEMBEKS OF THB BOARD OF TRADE or THE CITY OF QUEBEC THIS PAMPHLET IS INSCRIBED IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OP THEIR APPROVAL OF ITS VIEWS BY AN ACT OF PUBLIC HOSPITALITY TO The Author. "wapw* fjm^> ■—IWW-' PREFACE. The distances set forth in the following pages are taken by compass- steppings from the map. They are simply approximations. The statements of cost an; put in tlie sense that their amounts are suffi- cient to construct a railway, not by any means of the first class, but one which can be made to answer the expediencies of the case. They are stated on a general knowletlgc of the cost of railways in a new country, under similar physical conditions. As said in the text, the line laid down is laid down but as a basis of discussion. 1 find reason to think tliat investigation will lead to deter- mination of a line crossing the Nelson elsewhere than at Norway House. A survey made by the Pacific Railway service shows that between the heads of the River Sturgeon and the heads of Lake Nipe- gon, the country immediately north of the height of land for a length of nearly 400 miles is very poor. Dr. Bell's rei)orts lead me to the belief that that poverty continues at some i)oints down towards the banks of the Albany. They speak of the clay soil of the Nelson extend- ing as far south as Berren's River and also to what they call " the height of land" — a phrase which is wanting in that quarter in definite- ness. Other information concurs with these statements in leading me to think that the worthlessness, agriculturally, on the line between Lake Superior and Lake Winni2)eg, applies considerably farther to the North. There is some reason for the opinion that to keep the jjroposed route well within the rich soils of Rupert's Land, it must cross the basin of the Albany as rapidly as jiossible ; and follow the heads of the Equam, the Weemisk, the Deer, the Severn, &c. The undulations ii cident to that course are of but little moment in a country whose surfaces are so uniform. They offer no consideration worth a moment's thought in comparison with the advantage of a location which, running through fine soils, combines with it the most favorable possible acces- BOries of settlement — a system of water-ways. This pamphlet rests to but a small extent on my individuality. It takes its positions on other grounds by stating where their proof has been found. Its thinking rests on reasonings whose truth or falsehood the world can determine for itself without any reference to me. My personality and motive having, however, been dragged into the subject, it may be well to state both as they really are. VI PRKPACK. Though bound to the United States by many friendships and by the love I bear ray (ihildren, 1 am not one of its citizens. I liave never ceased to be a liritish subject. The military rank I have the honor to have held in tht; Tnited States wras obtained when the State in whose service 1 won it had been in ],rocesH of " reconstruction." It was obtained, therefore, outsiiie conditions which did not exist at the time within the limits of that State —outside conditions of citizenship. I give this explanation as a simple matter of fact, but certainly not in a sense of apology for my acceptance of a ilistinction whose obtainment is a subject of pride with better men. To satisfy further inquiry I beg leave to add that I am an Irishman. A Civil Engineer by jirofession, I have practised under Sir John McNeil, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Gravatt ; and also in the service of the Imperial Government. Twenty-odd years ago I lived for three years in Ontario, part of that time in promotion of a railway northerly from Whitby. Subsequently I went to the United States. In IS75 I returned to Canada, and from that to this have been led to hold myself secluded save when a few years ago I published a pamphlet on the Grand Trunk and a few months ago a pamphlet on the Pacitic Railway. Some people inquire into the motive of my pamphlet on the Pacific Railway. To the general one of making myself known in my profession , I add, in reply, the special one of breaking down a system which works the exclusion from the iJublic service of Civil Engineers who entertain similar views to mine on the independence of our profession. Sir John Macdonald made me an offer twelve months ago personally and sent me a repetition of the offer subsequently by Hon. John O'Connor, of profes- sional employment under the Crown. Even though the offer had been acceptable in all other respects — and it was one, I understand, of $3,(XX) a year — 1 would still have been unable to have accepted it, for the reason I assigned at the time, the reason that, unable to bend my professional judgment to the uses of jjoliticians, my acceptance would have been followed within a month by dismissal. A sufficient motive for my course on the subject of the Pacific Railway may, therefore, be found in my anxiety to show the character of its management in order to obtain some such modification of the public service as may enable Engineers to maintain their connection with the political power in the independence in which that connection is maintained by the bar. I have only to add my acknowledgements for cooperation in the pro- duction of this pamphlet to some gentlemen in Quebec. M. Tache, the Deputy Commissioner of Crown Lands in that Province, has kindly met my enquiries by supplying me with a map on which he had caused PRKFACE. VI 1 valuaVjle info.mation to ho placed in my liands at the cost of much labour. M. < 'lis. Edouanl (Janviii, a Provincial Land Siu'veyor, has shown his devotion to the national interests involved in the suhjeot hy giving his professional service in the production of the original of the map accompanying this pamphlet— giving that service gi-atuitously. Mr. Peverly, another Provincial Lantl Surveyor of Quebec, has also assisted me kindly by a highly interesting report on the subject of the country from Lake Mistassini to Lake Abittibi, near "the height of land." M. B. HEWSON. ERATTA. Page 2- line 43. For ''boundary" road "parallel " Page 21— line 39. For -' oats" read " barley." Page 26— foot-note. For " Nasse" read " Sestout " Page 28-line 20. For " somewhat" read " decidedly " Page 31— line 16. For "fine" read "good " Page 32-line 26. For " Wakanitche" read " Wakawitchie." i TH E CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. The choice of route for the Canadian Pacific luiilway applied over a vast hreadtli. With hut 10,000 peoi)]e in Britisli Cohimhia, and hut 40,000 en route, tliere was virtually no existing development to involve a restriction on the scope of the selection. But '' statesmen" with the contracted views incident to jniblic life in a struggling Colony, and advised hy a railway-experience which stands characterized by the general fact that not a railway in even the fair Province of Ontario " pays," have made that selection in, very naturally, the shore- keeping of little ships. They have hugged the few settlements on the coast of the Georgian Bay ; kept within sight of the handful of miners on the coast of Lake Superior ; passed within hailing distance of the town-lot speculators of Kaministiquia ; steered close to the insignifi- cant popidation of half-breeds and others in Manitoba ; and, finally, made for the shore where they saw a little village of whites and Chinamen on Burrard Inlet !''' The route which has Ijecn s(!lected has, in short, been selected in the narrow fashion of mere politicians, rather than at the ])rom])tings of bold thinking and broad practical intelligence. Based on Montreal, the line adopted for the Canadian Pacific, has its winter-outlet in the State of Maine. It traverses the valley of tlie Ottawa to Lake N'ipissing. Proceeding (under a declaration of Par- liament!) along the southern shore of that Lake, it follows the northern shores of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. Going on to the Province of Manitoba and traversing the country immediately South and West of Lake Winnipeg, it crosses the plains to the Rocky Mountains. Passing through that range by way of Yellow * The truly practical is neither timid nor purblind. It dares to " look beyond its nose." Now, what is the actual value of all the above adherence to actualities ? At the rate contri- buted by the people of Ontario to the railvvay-traftie of the Province — $0.8.^ per head — the ."iOjdOd people between NipissiinK and the J'acific would contribute to the Pacific Eailway J.'J.'iOjOdO a year. Equivalent to a capital of seven or eight millions of dollars, that item is certainly not an overruling consideration in a (|ue8tion involving, as the location of the Pacific Railway does, whetlier in reference to tlie accomplishment of its design or the cost of its construction, fifteen or twenty times that amount. But of the 10,000 people in British Columbia, not more than two or tliree tliousand reside on any line of the Pacific Kailway ; and of these, the proportion identified with the mining interests of Cariboo will contribute to a northern route as well as to a southern — a nortliern route commanding exclusively the business of the mines of the Omineca. The 3r),(!(.0 or 40,ii00 people of Manitoba were aa available for contributions to traffic whether the line went north of Lake Winnipeg or south ; and their shipments on the northern line would have given a jiowerful stimulus to settlement by a line of regular steam-communication for Hoo miles along the eastern border of " the fertile belt," between Winnipeg and Norway House. 2 Hfad Pass — latitnrlo 53*^ — it desconds thrnui^di the vallies of the 'I'hoiiipson and tlic Frascr to the Pacilic Ocean, at a i)oiiit (latitude 49^'-') on Burrard Inlet, about twenty miles from the frontier of the United States. For ahout a thousand miles between the valley of the Ottawa and the Province of Manitoba, the line just traced across the (!ontinent traverses a country whose areas fit lor farniinj^f are small and fevv. For that vast length the track lies throu<;h a region which is held in general acceptati(»n outside any necessity for recitals of evidence here, to present an almost continuous succession of swamps, denuded rocks and poor, if not absolutely soilless, ridges. Narrow vallies suited to agriculture offer here and there along that great division of the line; but not to an extent to bring in question the declaration that for a thousand miles out from its terminus in the woods of Lake \ipis- sing, the great Canadian highway offers little or no hope of reducing the burden of its cost to the tax-payers of the old Provinces by sales or mortgages of its lands. At the termination of the division just reviewed, the line enters rich soils. From the ninety-sixth meridian — in tiie Province of Manitoba — it extends for 400 miles through a country which, if not unequaled, is certainly unsurpassed on the continent of America as a field for the prodiiction of wheat. A survey by the Canadian (Jov- ernment has established that fact for a breadth of nearly 200 miles in the certainty of close and systematic exi)loration. 'i'he jiroduc- tiveness of these lands is shown on thousands of i'arius now under crop ; and in also an extensive movement into them from the Province of Ontario. The World's Fair at Philadelphia directed attention to these soils in the publicity it gave to the fact that they yield from | thirty to forty bushels an acre, of a wheat-grain so exceptional in '{ quality that it weighs between 04 lbs. and GS lbs. per bushel — be- I tween four and eight pounds in excess of the ordinary Aveight obtained I elsewhere; i At the end of the last foregoing division, the route leaves what is called the " Fertile Belt." It enters there a region in which the .; American Desert may be traced in gradual transition into the good '{ soils by which it is surrounded on the east and on the north and on J the west. That desert is shown on the latest map of the Chief l Engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway to present itself across the international boundary between the 108th and 111th meridians as a ^ "cactus plain," and between the 105th and 110th meridians as " extensive plains, more or less barren." On a map of the Surveyor General of Canada it is seen to cross the 49th boundary in a width — between the 103d and the 111th meridians— of 7^ degrees, and of a character which that officer assigns to it for nearly two degrees farther north, in the description : " generally barren lands." Captain Palliser places the American desert nearly as far west as the 113th meridian. His testimony completes the proof that that 3 sales vast traco crosses tlie })oun(lary in a widtli of twelve or thriteen (IcfTrees. Tlie Survevor-deiioral of Canada identifies it in " barren lands," extendinff nearly to the 51st paralhd of latitude. It can be traced beyond tlmt in gradual iiinditicatidu as far as tlie A.'^rd parallel, by its bonldei's ; its gravel ; its treeless surfaces ; its salt marshes ; its alkaline lakes : its coarse yrasses ; the rarity or theabsiMice of streams, of s|)rin,i;s. of jionds. Koi- four hundred miles, the route of the Canadian Pacilic b'aihvay lies within or near the ujiper edii'es of that dry, I)leak and ])oor re^^don. The country on the northern side of that section of the line is described by the Surveyor-General as " mixed prairie and timber ; soil rather li^dit ; but produces fair crops." The country on the southern side of it is described by the same official in the words : — " Open" (that is treeless) "plains ; poor foils ; possessing occasional tracts fit for settlement." All this comes under the corroboration of Captain Butler when he says, pages 351 and 357 of his " Wild North Land" (London 1874) : '• A line has been projected across the Continent which, if followed, must entail ruin upon the persons who would attempt to settle along it, upon the treeless prairies east of the mountains. * ■■'- • The present line through the Saskatchawan is eminently unsuited to settle- ment ; it crosses the bleak poor prairies of Eagle Hills, &c. • • • For all purposes of settlement, it may be said to lie fully 80 miles too far south during a course of 300 or 400 miles. * • • Kich soil, good water, and timber fit for fuel and building * * are almost wholely wanting along the present projected route through some 350 miles of its course." The foregoing general statements may be repeated with more point and force by citations from surveyors' reports. — Through a country wanting in wood, water or grass, the travellers' trail cannot be taken as an average representation of the whole. A selection of experience, it pursues a course on which these wants present themselves in the least degree. But surveyors' lines following fixed directions, exhibit such a region in severe truth. Some of these faithful insights into the character of the country on the route of the Pacific Kailway, shew that character in Keports of the Department of the Interior. Surveys (reported in 1877 and 1878) on " the lOth base" and on " the 11th correction line" — between the 103rd anil the 110th Meridians — follow the route of the Pacific Railway at a distance varying from a few miles north of it to 45 miles south of it. Applying closely to the country traversed by the Kailway for a distance of 300 miles, the following descrijitions of the ground tell their own story of the middle section of the plains, on the way to Yellow Head Pass. To Fishing J ake (Lon. 103|°) a distance of 19 nnles : " The soil tln-oughout tliis section is good sandy loam, and most of the timber of useful dimensions." To F>ig Quill Lake (Lon. 104|'''') a distance of 32 miles : " Well supplied with wood and water, having a soil sandy loam of fair quality, lying between Quill Lake and the Touchwood Hills. The Btreams running into Quill Lakes are all fresh water ; whereas tlie Lakes themselves are strongly alkaline." Turninj^f north for 20 miles to a point beyond ti c railway, the !| Snrv(!yor's line is reported thus : | " Tlie first .six miles are on the sandy alkaline stiip between Big and f Little Quill Lake. Some iair sized timber is found here, hut the soil is ' poor; and continues so through a more open country until within 3 miles of the ('. P. B. line, when we encounter rising grotind, densely ' wooded, with large poplar and numerous })onds." Turning westward on the lOth base, the survey proceeded at an . average distance ot about ten miles from the railway for a stretch of J| 180 miles. The Keport of 1877 says of that line : * '' The wooded and pond-country continues for about 27 miles, when \ the country becomes more open and inviting ; and continues so to the ^ 40th mile, when we gradually descend into an almost barren, rolling, J Alkaline, sandy plain. • * • For about 24 miles the line runs a through the same sandy, rolling plain. On the 13th mile we crossed I the Canadian Pacific Railway line where it deflects to the north, 2 miles 1 south of an alkaline lake." j The Eeport of 1878 continues to review the same survey line from | the close of the above. It says : | " I experienced great difficulty in making progress" (for 108 miles) :l " on the loth base owing to the want of wood and water, the country * along that line being almost destitute of both. On one section of it i water had to be carried for the party and wood for posts and fuel, in our carts, for a distance of 32 miles. The soil on the part surveyed of this line" (108 miles) "with the exception of some few miles in the Eagle Hills, is of a poor nature, being light and sandy and in most cases alkaline. In fact none of the country between the lOfith meridian and the point at which I turned northward" (an interval of over one hundred miles) '* is of any use for agricultural purposes." Turning northward at the end of the line just reviewed, the Sur- ■ veyor describes the country traversed (for 30 miles) thus : :. "Of a better nature than on the lOth base ; for though the soil is light, it is well watered and the pasturage is excellent. It is, however, i destitute of wood." \ From Battlelbrd to the llOth meridian, the line (75 miles in * length) is reported thus : ' " The soil generally is exceedingly poor ; and although improving a i; little in the immediate vicinity of Battleford, is even there very light > and sandy. * * From the Meridian Kanges 18 and 19 to the llUth | Meridian the country is decidedly more attractive. For the first 30 j miles there is a scarcity of wood ; but water abounds. Indeed as a rule ,5 this was the only country" (in a course of over 3(J() miles) " passed over | in which the water met with was not more or less alkaline. • • • | From the exceeding richness of its grasses and the special fitness of the ij kinds produced, 1 am led to believe that it" (a tract of 30 miles wide % near the 110th meridian) " excels as a grazing country anything 1 have i seen in Manitoba or the North- West Territories." | In summary of the foregoing and of otlier evidence on the subject, ^ it may be concluded that lor 400 miles across the plains the adopted I I 5 e Lakes ay, tl 10 Big and soil is within ii densely 'd at an A'iitch of 3s, when so to the , rolling, ne runs crossed I, 2 miles ine from 18 miles) country tion of it 1 fuel, in veyed of is in the in most meridian over one the Sur- le soil is however, miles in ery light he llUth 3 first 3U as a rule ssed over ess of the liles wide ng I have subject, > adopted i route, while presenting exceptions here and there, traverses a region whose soils and otlier circuiiistauiies may be said in general to be unsuiteil i'or agricultural settlement. Passing out of the region of desert-transition, the railway runs, according to the maps of Mr. ^larcus Smith and the Surveyor General for a hundred miles through excellent lands. At the end of that section it proceeds for a further length of 100 miles through a succession of iorest-swam^js. Leaving that district ot marshes, it enters the Rocky ]\lountaius ; and going on thence through the deep gorges and canons of the iiiver Thompson and of the Kiver Fraser to Burrard Inlet, traverses a region which, described by a Canadian orator " as a sea of mountains," offers no considerable breadths of land fit for cultivation. Mr. KSmith's map limits the surface not utterly worthless on the line west of the liockies to a width of about ninety miles — less than one-fifth of the whole length of that division of the railway. That area he describes thus : " High, undulating plateau between the Rocky and Cascade Moun- tains. The south eastern portion has" (that traversed by the adopted route down the Thompson and Fraser) "little rainfall; but produces luxuriant bunch-grass;'' and the bottom land and benches (where they can be irrigated) excellent wheat and other cereals, as well as vegeta- bles." In his IJcport of 1878, Mr. Acting-Chief-Engineer Hmith says further : "From Yellow Head Pass to a point within a few miles of the con- fluence of the two branches of the Thom{)son at Kamloops — about 2.'>o miles — the country is unHt for settlement. The Upper Fraser, All)reda and Thompson Kivers flow through narrow, deep and rock-bound vallies with scarcely an acre lit for cultivation.'' Speaking ot" the length of the line crossing the plateau or bunch- grass region, Mr. .Smith says in the same Kepurt : " In the bottom lands of the vallies and on the benches adjoining, the soil is very ricili, producing excellent wheat and other cereals as well as vegetables. Tiiese lands, however, are scattered throughout the ^ ateau in isolated patches ; and bear a very small proportion to tlie whole area, 'i'hey generally require irrigation, which can l)e obtained to a limiteritish Columbia: for 1,000 miles through the most difficult in Ontario. The lirst of tliese two sections costing .$02,000 a mil the through-working of the line, they must then proceed for thirteen lunulred niihis to Montreal empty ! Under such a state of things, it must be concluded that, the cost of construction unnecessarily heavy, the mechanics needlessly nifavor- al)l(', and the design in reference to trafhc one of recklessness, tlb Jiailway ucrijss British America compromises, if not Canadian credit, that low late of taxation which operates as a safe-guard against the forces of "annexation." The terminus of the British l-failway to the Pacific is planted — on Burrard Inlet — within 20 miles of the American frontier. Every part of the tra(3k for 70 miles on this side of that terminus, lies within a day's march of that frontier. The Asiatic intercourse which the line is expected to attract to British waters in competition with the United States, the route chosen assigns to a channel seaward, under guns of the United States. In short the Paciiic Itailway fixes the vitality of British development on the American shores of the Pacific within convenient clutch, on laml and water, by forces of the United States. It does this in rejection of the only opportunity that is ever again likely to otl'er for planting a n'jvfn't'-development of British power on the western shore of 2s ortli America, away horn the shadow of American belligerency. Not only in British Columbia does the route across the Dominion disregard the uses of the Pailway as a line of defence. It does so. if possible, more strikingly on the east of the Kocky Mountains. For a length of 100 miles between the capital of Manitoba — the City of Winnipeg — and Lake Su])erior, it lies within convenient access from the frontier of tlie United States — at no point farther than four days' march, at some points not so far as two. For 200 miles it offers several opportunities of seizure by parties making a raid of a few hours from vessels donnnating J.ake Huron and Lake Superior; and supplies thus a means of taking the defence of the Provinces of Ontario and (Quebec in reverse. Planted at ]\Iontreal, in a position not highly defensible l)y either land or water, the ver}'^ terminus of the line on Atlantic tide- water may be seized by a force from the United States within forty-eight hours of tiie concentration of that force, by railway from the south, on the border of the great State of Mew York. Though tlie Canadian highway to the Pacific has been assigned to a route in the foregoing surrenders of Imperial policy, it must still be regarded a subject of great interest to the Empire. Military and telegraphic and postal communication across the American Continent, ^^mt. . -flKUaBS 10 even wliiiii suLject to interruption by an enemy from the United States, is of jL,'reat importance to (Jreat IJritain. But the railway is of still {^rcatiiv importance as a means of sustaining,' the footin*,' of Great Britain against American enterprise and dijjlomacy in Japan and China. True : Asiatic commerce is regarded by some as outside the attractive energies of a trans-continental railway. In the sense of freights whose bulk or weight bear a high projjortion to tlieir marine insurance, that proposition is true. Once on the sea, that class <.f commodities will not go, en route, to the rail. Ships abhor short voyages. But the highway to the Pacitic through Britisli America opens a struggle vvith the highway to the Pacific through the United States, none the less real for traffic with Japan and Ciiina in such commodities as spices, drugs, tea, gold, silver, itc, as linen, calicoes, ribl)ons, cloths, &c. (fee. The Americans not only understand that fact, but they estimate it so highly as to have made it for several years past the l^asis of a policy of active aggression. Having completed one railway to the Pacific by Government subsidy, they are pressing forward two otliers by Gov- ernment subsidies; and have extended the attractive force of the track in operation by a line of steamships which run with the assistance of a Government subsidy, from San Francisco to Yokahama, Shang- hai and Hong Kong. From the time of the Burlingame-treaty until General Grant had been sent as a roving envoy to impart special energy to ordinary diplomacy in support of these powerful agencies, the great Eepublic has been working wisely and well to give full efiect to its geographical position as a means of commercial ascendancy in the Northern Pacific. In this point of view it is difficult to over-estimate the importance to England of tlie great Canadian Eailway as a means of foiling attack by planting the Pacific entrepot of at all events some of the intercourse of Japan and China Avith the Western World, in British waters. So great as tliis consideration is, so great as are the interests at stake in the political success and in the military defence of the dominion, and in the retention of English energies and resources within the scope of the Fmpire, that it becomes a (juestion of the very tirst im[)ortance wliether a route across British America cannot be found combining all these points of Imperial interest witli that prime necessity of Canadian credit in tlie construction of tiie line — that of supplying it to the greatest possible extent with convertible resources in lands along its route. Formerly the outlet of all the commerce of Kussia, the White Sea continues to this day to be a resort of merchant-ships. Its southern shore lies farther north than the northern limit of Hudson's Bay. The latter stops short of the advance of the White Sea into nortlieru latitudes, by five degrees ; and goes seven degrees farther to the south. And yet Hudson's Bay knows not, as the White Sea does, the ships and energies of its owners. British enterprise allows the 11 wealth of that inhviul ocean to lie untouched, while the enterprise of the Russian and the Swede and tlie Dane <,Mthers the riches of the Gidf of i)\n, every sc^uan? mile of which lies within the Arctic Zone, its mouth ei<,dit or ten de^'rees farther north than tlie mouth of Hudson's Bay. — Why is it that wliile tiiose watiM's of Russia are turned to the uses of mankind, these waters of England are allowed to remain untrodden and unknown by commerced Hudson's Bay Company's schooners nuiintain communication be- tween that monopoly's posts on tlie Bay, in sununer. Mr. Horetzky, who had ]>een stationed at Moose Fort for several years, says that tlie period of that service is two months and a half; but, he adds, that, in atteniling on the usual ship from England, the scliooners maintain navigation for a month longer — in all, three and a halt months. But the limit in tlie case may be supposed to be that of business, not of ice ; for even James' Bay, to which the facts apply, does not become frozen until tlie close of October. Mr. Horetzky s})eaks of a schooner which arrived at Moose Fort in time to be hauled out of "the fast- forming ice" iit the end of October. And Dr. Bell, of the Geologi- cal survey of the Dominion, says that the River Albany, which dis- charges into James Bay, is open for six months. Ellis says, in the account of liis voyage to Hudscjn's Bay, that the ice of Hayes' Kiver, in Avhich his vessels wintered, broke upon the 15th of May. Hearne gives us to understand in his journey to the Northern Ocean that on his return from Cumberland House to Fort York, the rivers flowing into Hudson's Bay were navigable for canoes on October 20th. On the faith of these facts tlie I3ritish American "White Sea" may be set down as open water in front of Fort York for live months. While there is some reason for believing that the Bay freezes for a greater widtli along its southern and its eastern shores, Hearne states in elfect that, except for a margin of " several miles from shore," it is always open Avater. In his book on Hudson's Bay, Kobson directed the attention of British statesmanship a hundred years ago to the importance of opening that shipless Ocean to commence. On pages 81 and 82 of his " Six Years' Kesidence," he says : "The countries surrounding Hudson's Bay and 8traits,have a sea-coast of 2,000 miles extent, * * great part of wliich is in the same latitude as Great Britain. Upon the sea coast are many broad and deep rivers tlie sources of which are several hundred miles di&tance, south, south- east and south-west of the Bay. * * The soil is fertile, and the climate temperate for the produce of all kinds of grain, and for raising stocks of tame cattle ; and the coasts abound with black and white whales, seals, sea-horses, and various kinds of small fish." In the dedication of his book to Lord Halifax, he adds : " The opening a new channel for trade to a \ ast country abounding with inhabitants" (Indians) ''and with many beneficial articles of com- merce, is a work that highly merits the attention of our wisest and greatest statesmen. • • • Whales and various other fish are so 12 plentiful in the Bay and in the inh^tH huulinR from thence to the West- v.Vi\ (»<('iin, that the natives, etc The land abounds with minua and minerals, and is also caiiahle of f^reat iinjtrovcauent \>y cultivation, and the climate within the country is veiy hal)ital)h^" in volume XII. of the -Journals ul' tiu! House of ( '(»iiMMonH of (.'anada ibr 1(S7H, lii^'hly imi)orlant testimony will he h)un(l on tli(! subject of intercourst! hetwecMi Hudson's Bay and the Atlantic. I'rot'cssor Hind, a {^'cntleman who has ])Iace(l the Minpirc; and tlie Dcnninion unchsr an ohli^'ation in Imvini,' brought tliat iiujiortant ([uestion t'oi-ward a;,Min, lias done so with the authority of one who combiners the knowledge ot" an exp«!rt in its practical considerations with elaliorate research. 'I'o that able man Indongs the honor of having awoke faith in the autici- ci]iation, which appears to he but a (piestion (;f time, in which hesays that Port Nelson, at the mouth ol' tlie outfall from Lake Winnipeg into Hudson's Bay, will bes of the Atlantic may count on the transaction of business within Hudson's Straits for three months, on the broader basis of prof)f, and on the less lu'oad but still ample basis, for four months.''' This conclusion api)lies to sailing vessels, leaving Professor Hind the remaining work of his labour of love in proving whether the Straits are ])racticable for four months contiiiiuilly, and proving how far that period may be extended by the special appliances and experiences of the seal-tishing steamer. In answer 5001 to a Committee of the Imperial Parliament (1857) the freight rates to or from London by the Hudson's Bay Company's vessels is seen to have been fixed by that monopoly for merchandise other than its own, at two pounds sterling per ton. That applied thirty years ago in an outcome of a grasping exclusiveness. It is hardly too much to say that the competition for the carrying trade "with Europe which would ap})ly in Professor Hind's British Ameri- can Arciiangel, would reihice that rate to or near the rate from Mon- treal and New York. That Colonel Crofton when on his way, in 1846, to what is now the Province of Manitoba, completed without difficulty a voyage from Cork by landing safely at Port Nelson with heavy guns, ordnance stores, 347 officers and men and 36 women * An official publication of the Interior Department cites a merchant of St. John, New- foundland, as authority for the statement that Hudson's Bay is accessible to ships for live months. 15 and children, is a fat^t ln'ought out hy tlie Parlianiontary Committee of 1857, one whicli speaks sug^fcstively of the adaptation of the southern shore of Hudson's Bay as a landin}f-i)lace for emigration and a base of defence. And the new Arcliangel whicli offers these oppor- tunities, offers more fortlie interests of the Empire in JS'orth America —offers a reversal of Canadian dependance on tlie United States for access to the sea, offers it from a sea-board so far to the west as to bring under economic attraction during, at all events, the period of navigation through Hudson's Straits, the Ocean-intercourse of tlie regions on tlie Ked Kiver, the Upper Missouri, the Yellowstone, the Platte — including the States of Minnesota, Nebraska, Dakota, Mon- tana. The Yenisei debouches into the Arctic Ocean in a latitude of about 72 degrees ; the Obi in a latitude nearly the same. Supposed to have been closed l)y an ice-bound sea. they had not been approached by shij)s until recently. Their wheat-surpluses supply freights now to (German and English commerce on the Northern Ocean. The Mackenzie is a J3ritish Kiver. As tine a water-course as either of those, it traverses a wheat-field unsurpassed in pniductive- ness. In vain does it offer to contribute to British wealth by depositing its riches on a seal)oard whose latitude is less than 6d^ — three degrees farther south tlian they. As the approacdies of the Yenisei and of the Obi have been supposeduntil a few years ago to be closed by ice, so that to the Mackenzie is still supposed to be. In his " Second Expedition to the Polar Sea" (i)age 34) Sir John Franklin corrected the latter mistake fifty years ago when, writing of the prospect from the mouth of tlie Mackenzie on the 16th of August, 1825, he said : " The Rocky Mountains were seen from the S.W. to W. ^N., and from the latter point around to the north, the sea appeared in all its majesty, entirely free from ice, and without any visible obstacle to navigation. Many seals and white whales were sporting on its waves." That Captain McClure saileil when making tlui North West pas- sage, through the waters described thus by Franklin, is a fact which might have aroused British enterprise to a truth which American enterprise has utilized for thirty years, gathering as Admiral P)eechy has told the Geographical Society, four millions of dollars per annum during all that period from the wliale-fisheries of the open sea north of the mouth of the Mackenzie. In answer 2595 to the Hudson's Bay Committee of the Imperial Parliament, Mr. Isbister testified in 1857 that the mouth of the Mackenzie is free from ice from the beginning of June to some time in October — about four months. At Fort Simpson, which is eight degrees of latitude up stream, he stateil that the ice in the Kiver breaks up in the beginning of May. Proceeding up the Mackenzie into its great affluent, the Peace, the length of the open season — ^'--'--- -'"'•r-Tir-' -I I 16 continues to increase. Speuking of tliat stream at its passage through the Kocky Mountains (latitude 5(5^) Sir Alexan»ler Mackenzie says on page 1.31 of his "Voyages," that the L'iver was altout to bec(»nie closed on the 20th of Noveniher, He leads to tlie conchision hy the resunii^tion of his journey, that it had become oi)en before the 10th of May. Professor Macoun says in one of his Reports to the Canadian Government that an average of ten years assigns the opening of the A, Peace at »St. John's (long. 121") to the 20tli of Ai)ril ; and that its navigation at that j)lace is good for seven months of the twelve. The basin of the Mackenzie includes liftecii degrees of latitude and eigliteen degrees of b)ngitude. The ]'iver-sysi;'iii of which it is the outfall, drains nearly one-half the area of the plains of the ^'orth VieH\j — an area much larger than the aggregate area of F>ance, liel- gium, Plolland, Switzerland and Germany, 'dr. Isbister says in his testimony that "the Mackenzie is a tine large river," and that " it is a beautiful river." Archbishop Taclie says (])age 31 of his "North Western America ") : " In s. In answer 2572 to the Parliamentary Connnittee of IS,)/, Mr. Isbister says that wheat can be yrown at Fort Lhivt], l)iit cannot be depended on. In answer 204 jxTcoptihlc, not only in till! ai)i)oaiini(!('. of the t-ountrv, Imt alsi) in tlu^ climate. • • Witliin an area liouiidod hy tlio Smoky h'ivor, tlileie witli the. finest wild IViiits jieculiar to hotli wood and i»lain. Jieiu'ath its sei'oiK! sky the lovely hills and dales, with many crystal mountain-fe'ood, watei-, climate, a high proportion of the whole surffice in soils unsurpassed on the (Jontinent of Amc^rica. One-half of the agi'icullural wealth of the ("anadian Xorth-West seems to be situatetl tlua'c; in a compact fonu, and a(!cessible throughout all its parts by means of a network ol' natural highways of s(;ttlement — river courses — which cannot be found in that North-West elsewhere. Navigation by steam is in actual ojieralion to-dny for about .'WO miles on oni; of thes(! water-ways — the Athabasca — along this region's eastern edge ; and on another — tho Peace — zig-/agging across it for seven hundred or (uglit hundred miles. Each of these two great channels is the artery of a river- system, some of whoso j)arts an; themselves arteries. One of the latter, tho Kongo, is as large as tho Thames ; and anothei', tho Smokoy, supplies outfall for several smaller water-ways whose lengths aggregate some hundreds of miles. I-ying on the threshold of a gateway through the Kocky Mountains which offers access to tho Pacific Ocean on tJic I'uic of lowest level, and at such a distance from the Atlantic terminus of the transcontinental railway that every acre of it put into production will contribute the highest possible amount to tho traffic-receipts, that vast and rich and finely-watered region on the way to the whale-fields at tho mouth of the Mackenzie, declares that one point on tno proper route of the Pailway is detorminiid, prima facie, by Peace lliver Pass, or its alternative, Pino Kiver Pass. Portland in the State of Maine is, at present, the Avinter outlet of all the Ocean Commerce of Canada, west of Montreal. So long and so far as Montreal is tho terminus of the inland carrying-trade of the Dominion, so long and so far will that harbor of the United States — Portland — hold excluded by virtue of prohibitory diifer- ences in length of transportation, tlio Canadian ports of St. John ^■k 26 and Halifax frnin tlio onjoyniont of tlie cnminproo of the Canadiaii Provinces w(!s( of Quclx'c. The selection of the, t^Tininiis ot thc! I'ucilic l.'ailway upon the. St. Lawrence settles the (juestion whether tlmt state of tliin<^s is to continue tor ever. If subordination in that instance to a t'oreij^n power is to be stojjpcd at all, tho sto])pa<,'e must be made by locating' with an eye to its winter-outhst, on tlio Atlantic, the aiterial cliannel ol' the (Canadian //////;v'. llalilax and kSt. .Fohn oirerin;^' alternatives for that escape from dependence, sound policy demands that the terminus of tla; I'acilic Railway on th(! St. Lawronci! shall be ])Ianted on the niof.t eastei'ly jioint at which that ]iiv(!r can be bridj^'cd — at or near the City of (.^Miebec. That jdace is, it is true, ab(Mit forty miles farthei' on a straif^dit line than Montn^al is from I'eacc^ or Pine I'ass ; but it is, «ni the othcM' hand, lu^arer to St. John by about 00 miles, nearcu'to Ifalifax by a railway-distance of 150 miles on one routt; and of 170 miles on the other. Placc^d at (jhiebec, a terminus of the great Canadian highway wouhl be sojuewhat nearer by railway to thc Atlantic at St. John, New Brunswick, than if l»laced at Montreal, it would be to the Atlantic at I'oi'tlane disctovered hy Hiictionin^^s alon;^ the transverse ridj^'es, reducin*^' tiie hi<,di('st altitude of the "short-eut" to 2r>()() or 2r)()() ft't't. But he that as it may, known facts leave no doul)t that two routes I'nnn the i^'ap at the source of the Kiver Pino can be f)btained from the summit of the Kockijs to the sea, that to I'ort Simpson bein^' of about the same len«,'th as the route adopted from the; summit of the Ruckles to Port iMoody on Burrard Inlet ; that to Kams([uot Bay, on J)ean Inlet, bein;,' abt)ut 180 ndh^s shorter. On the first of these two lowdevel lines — that to Port .Simpson — the aj,'j,M'ej,'ate h^igth Involving excessively heavy works is so much less a proportinu of the whole than In tiuMiase of the line from Yellow Head to IJurrard Inlet, tlii! cost of construction would be decidetUy less, lint waivint,' the proportion of that saving common to the two low-level lines under revitiw here, the saving on the line from Pine Pass to Dean Inlet, compared with the line from Yellow Head to Burrai'd Inlet, would be, by virtue of the reduction of the distance alone, 35 j)er cent. — ten to fifteen millions of dollars. The harbor-(piesti(»n has received in the consideration of route across British Columbia an importance beyond what it seems to be entitled to on its merits. I*ort Simpson may, however, be set down aj)art from that consideration as the best harbour on the mainland of British Columl)ia ; and no one who umlerstands questions of transportation practically, will entertain for a moment the folly of an alternative on Vancouver's Island. Dean Inlet is open, as all harbors are, to nun-e or less objection by sailors ; but that will disappear, no doul)t, as it has in the case of other harbors offering freights, when sliipping shall have found business on the two miles of deep- water-front at lvams([uot. If the connnerce of the Pacific should be attracted in any great extent to the highway across British America, that result will certaudy be one of slow growth. Inasmuch as the land necessai'y iov transacting the business incident to all that is likely to offer for a (quarter of a century, can be obtained at Kamsqout : and inasmuch, further, as water-accommodation can be found for it on the two-mile-front of Kamsquot, the question arises whether looking beyond the next twenty-live years is quite wise at the cost of a present unnecessary outlay of nine or ten millions. About two hundred miles of the line from Pine Pass to Kamsqout is common to the line from that Pass to Port Simpson ; and the abandonment of the IGO miles of extension from the divergence of the two to Dean Inlet, would be the ultimate cost of saving that expenditure now, until the '««H ^8 S-.ii time shall have conio to domand the superior advantages of Port Simpson. If thcro 1x3 any ovei'rulin.if reason for beginning the work on the Pacilie in anti('i})atiun ol' tin; rcgnlar eourse of extension from tlu! " paying" j)art of tlie route, in anti(;i[)ation of the regular course of the project as a developer of the countiy " ])aying its way" through the lands it o] ens up, every consideration of practical expediency demands that that work shall be begun on the Pacific at the })oint offering the cheai)est and the shortest line between tide-water and tide-water — Kanis(piot 1 >ay . The sul)stitutc for tlu; adopted route having been followed out from the St. Lawrence to the Pacilic, a review of its merits may be entered on now. In the Woodland Kegion the country along the new line is, however, still so completely under tin veil of misapprehension which had been drawn by the Hiulson's Hay Company over the whole region of the North and !Nortl'.-West, tliat it must be made, in the first place, a subjiict of special review. For GO miles out from (^ue])ec, the proposed route crosses the general direction of the water-courses. About 25 miles of that distance lie through vallies ; Itut the remainder i)ursues rolling surfaces involving works sonuswhat heavy. At the end of that section of 00 miles, it enters the basin of the 8t. Maurice. On the faith of a report juade by Mr. John IJignell, a Provincial liand-Surveyor, to the (!rown Lands Olfice (Ai)pendix W. AV. Joui-nal of the Legislative Assem])ly of Canada l{^r)0) the line may be said to enjo}^ from that point to the height "f land, at the cost of perha[)S a few crossings of the stream, all the advantages of the uniform surface fouml ordinarily along a river. The crossing of " the height of land" may be su2)posed to j)reseut but little difftculty. Mr. Jiichardson states on page 300 of the Geological Jieport of 1872 : " Following the St. Mmirice upward to the ujiper end of Lake Tra- verse, the country is co'.iiparativoly level, and the river for considerable disti.nces winds through extensive Hats. * * * In ascending the Clearwater Uiver, a tributary of the St. Maurice, to the height of land, the country bears the sann level character." At the end of about 275 miles the; ])roposed route enters the basin of Hudson's i^ay. For 1100 miles, to Norway House, it runs witliin that basin and through what has been known to the ollicers of the Hudson's Bay Company as " the level clay country of the Korth." A r:ap published by the Pacilic Pailway-service describes 400 miles of that region — between the Harricanaw and the Albany — as a "flat country ;" describes 500 miles more of it — between the Albany and the 2selson — as, by report, a " level country." 'J'hese facts are good in general for the conclusion that the route from the luuid of the St. Maurice to Norway House olfers a topograi)hy exceptionally favorable. Special information corroborates the general conclusion just laid down. The country under review here has been visited by explorers of «)» 29 at seveml ]M»iiil,.s Ix'twci'U Lake- Mistussiiii and tlio K'ivci' Nelson. At the lornier ol' these, it is (h.'sciiluMl by Mr. Kii'luirilson ((ieologi- cal iJepcji't of I.S7I, p.'ij^e ,'502) in these words: " Nortliward to the Lays of Lake Mistassini, the country is a level plain. "'• -'= Tlio surface is level, in no place that I observed rising more than iJO feet above the J^ake.'' Lake Abittilji is anotlier point at wliicli special light has been thrown on the topt)graphy of that country. In the (Geological Report of 1K72-.S, :\lr. McOuat says (page 134) : "The whole region examined" (from the height of hind, at the head of Lonely Kiver, a tributary of bake Temiscaniingue, to a ^loint 7 miles below the outtlow of the Abittibi Hiver from the bake) " may be pretty correctly described as a level clay 2)lain with a great number of rocky hills and ridges proti'uding through it. ='' On the lower levels, a good deal of the surface is j)rf)bably swam})y. '■'■'■ * Jiake Abittibi is surrounded on every side by levcd clay land. -<• ■ To the north, and esj)ecially to the northwestward, the clay level seems almost unbroken, and it is well known that it extentls in this direction to the shores of Hudson Bay." Of the country below Abittibi Lake we learn the billnwing IV(»in Dr. l^idl's statement on page iibi) of the Cieological ilepoi't for 1 river runs through a level region. * • lietween the great lakes and .lames Bay the coun- try is of a very ditlerent character in each of the two geological areas which it embraties. * ♦ Thi' former is somewhat elevated, undulat- ing, and dotted with lakes, while the latter is low and swampy, and, as far as known, free from lakes." From Long Lake House, near Lake .Sujierior, the Liver Kenoganii Hows northwardly into tlie Albany. In referiince to that stream iuul tW(j others on the same roub;. Dr. Bell says on pages 34U-3 of the Geological iieport of 1H70-1 : " English or Kenogami river flows through a level country all the way from Long Lake to the Albany. * * Tlie whole country exi)lored in connection with the Manitou-Namig and Ka vva kash-ka-ga-ua rivers is b^ 30 comparatively level. As illustrating the general level nature of a por- tion of this region, 1 may reier to the fact that we did not find it neces- sary to make a single portage on going all the way from English River to Head Lake, except the short one already mentioned." Of a line from the head-water of the Oinliabika Kivcr, on tlie height uf land north of Lake Ncftigon, Dr. Bell says in the Cieological Report of 1871-2, pages 107-8 : " We left Ogoke River * * and crossed the height of land which separates its waters from another tributary of tlie Albany lying farther north (the Ka-ge i-na-gami). * * Following this tributaiy northward, we reached the Albany at a lake called Abazotikitchewan. * * By the canoe route which we surveyed the distance is 142 miles. « » « The country traversed by this route presents a generally level aspect ; but the surface is rocky or swampy as far as we could examine it. * * Some sections are hilly, but the highest point seldom rises more than 50 or 60 feet above the general level." Speaking of the Albany between Makobatan Lake and Martin's Falls, a distance of 56 miles, Dr. Boll says on page 110 of the Geological Keport of 1871-2 : " The surface of the country on either side of this section of the river appears to be only slightly undulating. * * All the country around Lake Makobaten is so level that, &c." Applying to a stretch of 100 miles along the Albany, 1 )r. Bell says, in the Geological Beport for 1871-2 (page 111) : " All the way from Martin's Falls to the junction of the Forks" (junction of the Kenogami) " the Albany is flanked by steep banks, either immediately overlooking the water or rising a short distance back from it. In descending the River their general height increases gradually from forty toaV)out ninety feet. '■'■'• ■■'• 'fhe country on eitlier side of the Albany below Martin's Falls is quite level " The topograpliy of the region under review having been glanced at on the east and at the centre, now for some light as to its character at the western end. In the Geological Report for 1877-8, Dr. Bell says (page 13 c.c.) : •'The region through which the upper two thirds of the Nelson River flows may be described as a tolerably even Laurentian plain, slojjing towards the sea at the rate of about two feet in the mile." On pages 17-18 of the same report, the same authority states that : " The general aspect of the country along the upper part of the Nelson River is even or slightly undulating, the liighest points seldom rising more than thirty or forty feet above the general level. Whiskey Jack ' Mountain,' opposite the foot of 8ea river-falls, is only from thirty to sixty feet high. The * High Rock,' four miles above the entrance to the Echimamish, has an elevation of only about 50 feet. Such terms applied by the inhabitants to mere banks and hummocks indicate the general level nature of the country." The general and the special evidence given above covers expressly several great stretches of the region under review. But the country is so vast in extent that that evidence falls far short of the whole jm 31 field. A still wider breadth of veadinj,' than what has been oivon above shows that it contains many swamps, some small, some large, some very large. While tlu'se are known to exist eliietly in the valley of the Kiver Albany and on the southern shore of James Hay, the retentive charaeter of the soil overlying the rock-base, points to the supposition that swamps occur to a considerable extent in other parts of the region. Hubject to these facts and }>robabilities, there is in the foregoing citations, good ground for the general conclusion that a stretch of country so vast as that between the St. Maurice and the Nelson, can be found in but very few cases on the Continent of America so highly favorable t(jpogia])hically to the construction of a railway. Turn now to the question of soil. Along the line of the Quebec and St. John Eailway as far as ]^a Tu([ue on the St. IMaurice, the region traversed by the proposed route of the Pacilic K'ailway presents some fine soils. 'I'he Townships of (}(jslort for 1S7--.'), Mr. Mc( )uat says on pagel.'M : "Lake Abittihi is surrounded on all sides by level clay lany. The islands and maiidand about the mouth of the river consist of alluvial earth well suited for cultivation. * * 1 think the proportion of the whole area in which the rocks are exj)o ,ed is much less than is commonly supposed. This opinion is fornu d after having examined it in hundi-eds of places throughout an area of -J( (),(}( )0 square miles between the t)ttawa River and Lake Winnipeg. * * ♦ liOos(^ materials of some kind actually covers the greater i)roportion of tlie area, and in a very consitlerable percentage of it tiie soil is more or less suited to agriculture. * * As to the area within the palsezoic l)asin of .lames' Bay, a too level character of the suri'ace will jjrove rather a disadvantage than otherwise ; for, though tlu'. laml may be sufficiently elevated above the nearest river, it appears to be generally of a swampy nature, except a strip along the immediate bank of the river." Of 142 miles down the Umbabika from the height of land, to tlie Albany, Dr. Bell says (page 108 Geological Report of 1871-2) : *' The surface is rocky or swampy as far as we could examine it, with the exception of some small tracts of good land." Matthew Sargeant, speaking of the country inland from Moose and Albany, said to the Parliamentary Committee of 1749 : "There are vast tracts of land tit for cultivation." Of the Kenogami or i^nglish River, another tributary of the Albany, Dr. Bell writes on page 360 of the Gcolo'gical Report of 1870-1 : 34 " North-west of Long Lake House the country is overspread with a sandy and gravelly deposit which ajipears to be too light to form a good soil, except in some places. * * In a general way it may be said that the whole country examined" (on the exploration by way of the Kenogami) " is a sandy soil, generally dry, but in places inter- rupted V>y swamps and low rocky ridgos. The soil api)ears to be for the most part naturally poor. •• 'Phese sandy deposits • • are underlaid by a light-colored clay which occasionally comes to the sur- lace. * * The Hudson's Bay Company's farm at Long Lake House ig situated on this clay formation." The soils of the eastern and the middle sections of the country traversed by the proposed route liaving been touched on, now for the soils of the section on tlie west. Tlie Severn is said by Dobbs (Account of Hudson's Bay, pages 68-9) to be : '* A very fine river, well wooded, * * through a rich and fertile country." Dr. Bell states of Knee Lake (page 6 c. Geological Report of 1877-8): " The soil consists principally of light gray clav and brown gravelly loam ; but near the lake, on the north-west side of the lower expan- sion, most of it is sandy." On page 9, part III., of the Eeport of the Department of the Interior for 1878, Dr. JJell states : " The fine clay-soil along the upper half of the Nelson River lias been already referred to. All accounts agree that an equally good clay soil with occasional interruptions of rock, extends thence north-westward through the region drained by the Burntwood River, all the way to the Churchill. A similar country may be said to extend all along the boat- route" (by Oxford, Knee and Swampy Lakes and by Hill and Hayes Rivers; ** to York Factory * • Good land is reported to extend ov a considerable area southward from the boat-route" (which trends north-eastwardly) " including the country around God's Lake and the headwater of the Sev /n. That the soil is fertile is proved by the gardens at Norway House, Cross Lake and Oxford House. • * The general character of the country bordering on the Nelson River from Norway House to the Goose-Hunting River" (loU miles due north from Norway House) " is pretty much the same. The whole surface apj tears to be overspi'ead with light greyish clay which forms an excellent soil. • The soil is mostly sandy and poor all the way from Great Playgreen Lake to Cross Lake" (on west branch of the Nelson) " thus contrasting with the margins of the East River" (the east branch of the Nelson). " My track-survey did not extend much beyond Goose- Hunting River ; but a country similar to that explored above this stream is said to continue to Split Lake." In his book on Hudson's Bay, the Kev. Mr. liyerson says on page 142 : •' In the bounds of RvperVs Land, there are millions of acres equally rich and fertile"' (as the lands of Manitoba) " and equally suited * * for farminq and agricultural purposes,^^ 85 Dr. Bell writes (pp. 18 and 30, Oeoloaical Keport of 1877-8) : " The solid rocks of the re^rion are generally overspread with the prevailing grey clay which, in some eases, is liable to hjike and crack in the sun ; hut in others it forms a soft, mellow sn\\ of excellent quality. The prevalence of a light colored clay often constituting a good soil free from boulders, over such a large region, is a fact of much importance in regard to the future value of the country. The deposit is said to extend over the greater part of the region between the Nelson Ftiver and the Churchill and even beyond the latter. • The land would be easy to clear of timber ; and considering the unlimited supply of wood for building purposes, fuel, etc., the prevalence of good water in which a variety of excellent food-fishes abound, as well as the greater proximity to Europe, it offers .s'ow?e inducements tn inimiyrants which are not to be viet with in the greater part of the j)rairie country to the westward.^^ Applying in several quarters and for great lengths though the fore- going evidence does, it is, after all, insufficient ground for positive generalization over an area so vast. Subject to that drawback, it is good for the presumption that, with the exception of a considerable proportion of the section lying in the basin of the Albany and a pro- bably small proj)ortion in the basin of the Moose, the proposed line betAveen the 8t. Maurice and the >«elson, presents vast areas of excel- lent soil. The testimony points even still more strongly to the special presumption that that line traverses at its eastern end very great breadths of excellent land in Quebec, and very great breadths of excellent land in Ontario ; and at its western end very great breadths of land approaching in richness the tract known as " the fertile belt." Xow as to the point at which it becomes necessary to deal with a misappreheufcion which partakes of prejudice — that which insists that the climate of Hudson's Bay is tit for but Esquimaux and icebergs. The country around Lake St. John is distant on a line east of north, between 70 and 100 miles from the proposed route of the trans-conti- nental highway. The Keport of the Quebec and Lake St. John Kailway Company says of that region : *' The climate is milder; the snow-fall less ; and sowing and harvest- ing two weeks earlier than in the neighborhood of Quebec." Speaking of the Hudson's Bay Company's post near the height of land immediately above Lake Mistassini, Richardson gives an insight into the climate there when he says on page 297 of the Geological Report of 1870-1 : " The coarse grass was from three to four feet high, while timothy was two feet high, on the 9th of July. Blueberries were ripe on the 5th and 6th and raspberries on the 7th and 8th of July." A gentleman of Quebec gives some insight into the climate on Lake Mistassini when he says he found in the surrounding country quan tities of wild grapes. Of the east side of James' Bay, Dr, Bell says on page 25 c. of the Geological Report of 1877-8 : ti !• 36 "During; our Journey up tho coast and back in the months of July, August an Committeo : " At the bottom of the Bay" (mouth of the Moose) "the frost breaks the 3rcl or 4th of May." Gladnian says, page 390 of the Keport of Parliaiueiitary Committee of 1857, tliat at Fort Albany " the climate =-'= * does not differ much from Moose." Dobbs says (page 18) of Fort Albany : " The frost began in October, 1720. • • Tlie Creek near the Factory was frozen over on the Kith ; by the 21st there was a great rleal ot floating ice in the River ; by the 31st it was fast as far as Charles Creek; by the 5th of November the whole River was frozen over ; but not so strong as to bear. March • • to the 17th, tine, clear weather with some snow ; then to the 29th, clear weather, tolerably warm ; on the 30th a snow-storm ; and then it began to thaw in the middle of the day ; it continued thawing till the middle of April ; then two days frost; ♦ • . the 2yth the ice gave way to the head of the Island ; * • • the ice continued driving in the River until the 5th of May ; • • • • then the Kiver fell five feet by the breaking of the ice at sea ; the 8th the Indians came down in their canoes to trade ; the 16th they began to dig their garden; 22nd the tide began to flow regularly; • • flne, warm weather from the 11th of May to the middle of September." To the Parliamentary Committee of 1749 llobert Griffin said : "The land is cultivated for a mile round Albany Fort, being dug with spades upon the breaking up of the frost, which generally happens about the 20th or 27th of April." The climate of the Albany is described by Dobbs as " temperate" and " very tolerable." Of Martin's Falls, on that Kiver, Russell says on page 14 of his book : "Mr. Barriston, who resided there, says that it has the winter of Russia and the July and August of Germany and France ; that in tlie usual course of the seasons, the buds ot the trees begin to swell about the 12tli of May and leaves expand about the 2.Stb of May. * ♦ By the 1st of October foliage is yellow and faUing." In the Geological I{ei)ort for 1872-3, Dr. IJell says of the Albany : " I ascertained that the River between this point" (Martin's Falls) " and James Bay is open on an average six months of the year." Of Long Lake House, one of the sources of the ^Vlbany, Dr. Bell says (Geological Report of 1870-1, pages 350-1): " The potato-tops had not been touched by frost up to the time of harvesting, which was during the first week of October." Passing now to the west side of the country under examination, the Geological Report of 1877-8 contains, on pages 29 and 30, these words of Dr. 1 iell : " The forest and flora generally of the Nelson River region indicate a milder climate than that of the corresponding tract on the opposite side of the Bay. • • This condition of things also i)revents t)ie occurrence of summer frosts in the Norway llouse region, which appears to enjoy a climate fully as good as that oi" the Province of Manitoba. • * The Nelson River carries with it towards the sea the T 38 high temperature of Ij».ke Winnipeg, derived partly from rivers of the South and West. • • The cHmate of this region is pleasant in summer without an excess of rain ; and in winter, the weather although cold, is said to be bright and uniform with only a moderate amount of snow." Ballantyne says on pages 1 10 and 122 : " Norway House is jjcrhaps one of the best posts in the Indian coun- try. The climate is dry and salubrious, and although (like nearly all other parts of the country) extremely cold in winter, it is very different from the damp, chilling cold of the season in Great Britain. * ♦ The sun shines brightly in a cloudless sky, lighting up the pure white fields and plains with dazzling brilliancy." The following shows some heat-averages between the St. Lawrence and the ^'elson and others along the route from Ottawa to Winnipeg: Stations. (Quebec Ottawa f East Main Coast \ Moose Fort VFort William Norway House ... Winnipeg Average of Fahrenheit. .5 47. 7U 51.60 34.58 39.67 26.23 46.50 a B 01.40 64.00 02.20 59.94 59.87 60.30 a 20.40 26.20 37.80 29.93 17.10 66.10 68.50 65. 5(' 64.78 60.52 62.35 64.00 James' Bay. .Lake Superior. Lake Winnipeg. The above table shows that its two stations on Hudson's Bay enjoy during the ripening season, a higher temperature than either Fort William or Winnipeg. It says that the ISpring is earlier at Fort Wil- liam and Winnipeg ; but some of its story coupled with that positive fact at Norway House, points to the supposition that that disadvan- tage is met by compensations in a later Autumn. Norway House has, it will be observed, an Autum of considerably longer duration than that of the wheat-region around Winnipeg. In hue, while local circumstances such as proximity to the ice of James' Bay or the exist- ence of swamps, may, and if we are to conclude so from differences in ■ 89 the size of the trees, do^ disturl) tho (ioiiclusioii in some ])la(;e8, there seems to remain little oi' no doubt that the country h(!t\vln^'i(riil Kc|H)rt) siiys : "What iiinuunco th«^ cUinate may havo on ve^otation I am imahlo to (lotermino; and tho only f'ac^t J can ott'cr hearing npon this i.s that Mr. HurgesH • • CinnishiMl uh on the 7th of August with fair .sized jiota- toes, these Ixnng tlie only eioji at jnest^nt cultivated thero." A gciutleman of (JjiKfluiC (referred to Indore) states that ho found wild yiapes ;;ro\vin<,' near l.ak(! Mistassini. He asserts that the le^don from Lak»! Mistassini to the head of tlu^ St. Maurice is highly favor- ahle to the growth of all the cereals. Kifty miles north east from this section, at the site of an old Fort of the Hudson's Bay (-ompany, Afr. Richardson (Geological Report) speaks of timothy grass two feet high and of lipe hlueherriea and raspberries. Skotion 4. No particulars ohtained in ars practically engaged in tlie cultivation of the soil is worth recording and ought to be reliable." Skotion 6. Two hundred and lifty miles north-east of tins section lies Fort George — three and a half degrees of latitude more to the north than this section and seven degrees more to the north than the Gity of (Quebec. Mr. Bell says (Geological Report 1877-8, i>ages 29-50) : 41 "Tho gardens at • • Fort George show that potatoes and all the ordinary vogotaldus thrive v> . ^^ <• At Fort (Joorgo I saw a quantity ol'good Hi.rufo logs. ■'■• * Many of thorn mcasurod two foot in dia- uiotor at tho Ijutt." Oik: hundred and .seventy miles north-(uist of this soctittn, is Kast Main llouso. Uf that place, Dr. Boll says ((ieulogieal Keport 1877-8, page 25 c) : "Tho gard.'ns of ■■'■ * East Main show that potatoes and all the ordinary vogolahlos thrive well. Tho Hudson s Hay ('oinj)any's o.stah- lishniontat Kast Main is maintained for tho purjtoso of raising stock. The oattlo ami shoop which wo saw tiiero were in oxeollent condition." To the I'arliamiMitary (Jonimitt(M! of 17 lU Matthew ISargeant said : "East Main Factory lies on tho Slude. * * Ifas seen lir-tinihor there 3.S inches in diameter." Gladnum says of Kast Main (i)age 390, Report of Ifarliamentary Committee of 1857) : " Raised good p.otatoos, tm-nips and other vegetables ; * ♦ vetches grow wild on tho pcjint of the Kivor ; abundance of wild strawberries and currants." Mr. Russell says in his book : " Mr. Davis in an article read before the Literary and Historical So- ciety of Quebtur speaks of ♦ • tho Hamilton (East Main ?) Kivor, of its being woU-timborod • * and mentions the Hudson Bay Com- pany's farm whore cows, pigs and sheeij are kept." Moose Fort lies forty miles to the north-east oi this section. Mr. Glatlman who had lived there for several years, says (page '3[)2 of Rei)ort of Parliamentary ('ommittoo of 1857) : " Raised potatoes and other vegetables there in great abundance ; barley ripened well ; small fruits, as currants, goosebtM-rios, strawber- ries and rasjdiorries, i)lontiful; grow wild ; novor knew wheat trieiu [)articulars have been obtained in reference to this section. Sections 11 and 12. Two hundred and twenty miles north-east of section eleven, is Fort Severn. Krom that place to Severn Lake, 50 miles north-east of section 12, the Piver Severn extends above the proposed route of the Pacific Kailway. That stream is described by Dobbs (pages 68-9) as " well-wooded ''• * through a * '■' country full o^Jine 7i>oo(ls." ( )ne hundrcnl and sixty miles north-east of section 12 is liock House, at which vegetables may be said to grow, if we may so infer from mention by MacLeod's Simpson's Diary, of its '' gardens." Two hundred and seventy miles to the north-east of 44 section 12 lies Fort York. In his "Six Years Residence in Hudson's Bay" liobs(ni says (page 43) : " Upon Hayes River, 15 miles from the Fort," (York) • • «< after paling in some grountl for a coney-warren and for oxen, sheep and goats, I should expect by no more labor than would be projier for my healtli, to procure a desirable liveUhood, not at all doubting of my being able to raise i)eas and beans, barley, and probably other kinds of grain. * * Most kinds of garilen-stutf grow here to perfection, par- ticularly i>eas and beans. * * Gooseberries and red and black cur- rants are found in the woods, growing upon such bushes as in England." To the J 'arlianicj itary Inquiry of 1749 into the Hudson's Bay Company, Dr. Thompson answered : " He apprehended that corn would grow * * even as far north as Fort Nelson." To the same Committee, Matthew Sargeant said : " That it is the general ojoinion of the Factory at Fort York that the soil" (and climate ?) " is i)roper for wheat, barley, rye, oats ; that he has seen very good beans and peas grow there, but he never saw any corn there ; ♦ * that his messmate did sow some corn there which, though it grew a good height, never came to perfection." Section 18. About 100 miles nortli-east of this section, lies Oxford House ; and about eighty miles north-east of it, lies the Mission-farm. Of the first of these places the Eev. Mr. Kyerson says in his *' Hudson's Bay" (page 100) : "The premises of this" (Oxford House) "establishment cover several acres of land in a high state of cultivation, and upon which there are now growing in line order, barley, peas, potatoes, etc." Dr. Boll states (page 30, Geological Jieport 1877-8) : " At Oxford House, barley, peas, beans, root-crops, vegetables, and hay thrive very well ; and the surrounding districts might make a good dairy-farming country." Of the Mission-farm, Mr. llycrson writes (page 99) : "There are about 15 acres of land on the peninsula, all of which are mission-proi)erty. The land is of most excellent quality, producing abundantly all kinds of vegetables. There are now growing more than an acre of excellent potatoes, several i)atches of turnij>s and in the garden, beets, ijarsni2)s, carrots, onions, *kc., «fcc., in great abundance.'' Section 14. Rossville, Ross Island and Norway House are ou or near the route of this section. Of Rossville, Ryerson says : " The local situation is remarkably i)leasant aiul the land very rich and productive. The garden looks beautiful ; it is large and full of the most useful vegetables, all of which are in tine order and growing luxuriantly. There is also a field of potatoes that looks remarkably well." Dr. Bell writes (( Jeograpliical Report 1877-8, page 29) of Ross Island : " Even the most rocky tracts support a growth of trees large enough to be of value for many purposes should this great territory ever become inhabited by civilized men. * • Here many of the white spruces measure three feet in diameter." hesw 45 eral are ans of (laspe, with their bees and their sheep and their oxen and their cereals — tliose Townsliips including Gaspc Bay North, (Jape Rosiere, Muut Louis, Cloridorme. whose returns of production shew in the census ■>f 1871, so large* a proportion as from 21 percent, to 89 per cent, of the whole of their grain crop to be Avheat. On the other end of that sumnier-heat-average is Fort ('hip))ewayan ; and m>rf/i of that end is Fort Liard, Dunvegan, St. John's, Hudson's Hope — points which are known to yield Avheat. Now even though the sumfiiers on whose averages Professor JUodgett's generalization rests, were exceptional, even though his generalization rest on a breadth of data too narrow to give it any claim to accuracy, the fact that it runs parallel with the pro])oscd route of the Pacific Railway at a distance so great as 120 miles farther to the north, makes it still good for the conclusion that that route lies, if any authority attaches in the matter to a generalization from heat-averages, within the zone of that tender cereal, wheat. Obstinate misapprehension as to the country between the St. Maurice and the iNelson demanded correction at some length. That necessity of intelligent judgment on the route proposed having been 46 met, the review of the lands alonf; tliat route may now be entered on at other parts, he<^iiininf,' with the division west of the Rockies. Beyond Pine Pass, the " Central plateau" of British Columbia on the route proposed is not more attractive to agriculture than it is beyond Yellow Head Pass. " Pockets" or " fans" on the water-courses are the only instances in either case of good soil ; and the difference in their aggregate areas is iiardly woith consiihTiiig. The bunehgrass of the southern part of tlie plateau and tlic scanty supplies of rain in that region are drawbacks Avhidi do not apply in the c(tircsponding region more to the north. The improvement in the (piality of the grass and the more generous rainfall do not, howevcM', a))ply in a comparison of the two routes to an extent leaving a very consideraV)le difference in favor of the agricultural o]>|)oituuities on the route pro[>osed.''' There seems to be no ground wliatever on the line westward from Pine Pass or on that westwanl from Yellow Head Pass, for expecting any important reduction (jf the bunhms of the railway on the taxpayers froni the development oi the lands. On the eastern slo{)es of the Eockies, the lands along the ]U'oposed route have been examined above at some length. Ptn-urring t<> the statements made on that part of the country traversed l)y the direct line from Quebec, it will be seen that a vast s<[uare of great agricul- tural richness extends from the Mountains eastwanl, down the Peace and across the valley of the Athal)asca. l^assing on still eastvvardly, those fine soils are found to extend much farther. From their compact area on the Peace and Athabasca, they throw out two i>rongs, one extending at an angle of 80 degrees with the parallels {;f latitude to the rich wheat-fields of Manitoba ; and the other extending almost due-east in equal fertility, between the 5-lth and 55th parallels, as far as the western bank of the outflow from l.ake Winnipeg. The first of these has received general acceptaiu;e as " the fertile belt ;" but inasmuch as the other " fertile Ixdt" has not })een brought fully within p(jpular knowledge, it becomes necessary here to ])lace its existence on evidence as good, as specific, and })erhaps as full, as that justifying any of the soil-delineations of the official nuip. Mr. MacLeod says in his " Simpson's Voyage to Peace River," that the alleged limit of the fertile belt does not go far (juough north. Cumberland House shows that it does not g(» far enough easfc. That place is in latitude 54''', longitude 102". In his " ^.'arrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Sea" (pages LM and 5G) J)r. King says : *' The ground around Cumberland House is not only excellent but fit for immediate cultivation ; and exhibited a few years ago a very produc- tive farm. * * Of fruits, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries and a variety of gooseberries and currants, are found in vast quantities." * Macljcod differs from what sccnistobo the general opinion as to tlie central plateau even above the bunch-grasi region. In his Simpson's " I'eaoe Miver" he says: " Another fact to which I think it necessary to direct attention is that the great and beautiful and fertile plateau of middle and of northern British Columbia is not too high, nor too cold, nor objec- tionable ou any ■core, for settlement." i^i^.f ;« 47 In answers .5700 et seq. to the Parlianientary Committee of 1857, Dr. King states : " On approaching Cumberland Ilonse I fonnd a little, new colony established, of about .'lU persons, a Canadian, an Enj^lishman and half- breeds ; they had their fields divided into farms. * * It ai)pearc'd to me, g'^inu on their farms, that they were very highly cultivated ; there was corn, wheat and barley growing. * * I would iay that theie were 1,500 or 2,000 acres. The cultivation was quite successful : the wheat was looking very luxuriant. • * There were potatoes, harley, cows and horses." iVlcLoan's '• Hudson Bay" (page 224, Vol. 1) says : " Here" (Cumberland House) " I was cheered by the sight of exten- sive corn-fields, horned cattle, pigs and poultry, which gave the place more the appearance of a farm in a cultivated country than of a trading post in the far North-west." On page 392 of the Report of the Parliamentary Committee of 1857, Mr. (iladman states that the Indians at Cumberland House raise wheat, barley and all kinds of vegetables. Mr. John Fleming (Hind's Exp.) says : " The country around Cumberland is low and flat ; the soil in some places is a stiff clay | but in general it consists of a gravelly loam a few feet in thickness covering a horizontal bed of white-limestone. * • There are ten acres enclosed and under cultivation. • * I observed a field of barley and another of potatoes, both looking well ; and there is an excellent garden; the soil appeared rich and fertile, bearing an exuberant growth of rhubarb, cabbage, peas, carrots, and other vegetables." Dr. King bears positive evidence that the fertile lands which he had described in the basin of the Mackenzie extend to Cumberland House wlien lie said in answer 5667 to the Parliamentary Committee of 1857 : " The whole of the country at Cumberland House is entirely alluvial." And in answer 5669 that : " My enquiries at Cumberland House, at Norway House and at Athabasca were : 'To what extent does this' (the fert"'" belt) 'go?' Upon my enquiry at Cumberland House as well as at Atnabasca, they told me that the above line of country was precisely the same." The Pas Mission is situated at about one-fourth of the distance from Cumberland House on the line to Norway House. Mr. John Fleming says of it ( Hind's Exp) : " The river banks at Pas are 10 to 12 feet high, composed of light- colored drift clay holding pebbles and boulders of limestone ; the surface soil is a dark gravelly mould well adapted for cultivation. * • Barley and other crops growing here, looked well and were just ripening*" On the Saskatchewan, about midway between Cumberland House and Norway House, Captain Back saw an evidence of good soil, if, where the range of choice included any part of the fertile belt, the existence of a farm is good for that interpretation. He says on page 64 of his Narrative : 48 "In thoi T?ivor Saskatchewan T was not more pleased th. i surpi' '^d to l»oliol(l on tlio right liank, a laigr f'arnj liouse with hani! and fence enclosnre amid which were grazing eiglit or ton tine cows and three or fb"iir horses." (yoloncl Cruftun statin! in answer 3310 to the C'oniniittcc of 1857 tiiat corn may b(^ grown at Norway House — latituth! 5J5^'>', longitude ys^'. In answer 182, in- said he had seen rlinharl), peas, cahbages, and many other veg(!tal»k's, growing with success there. Jiallantyne says (]»age «'(U'way House." Clladman says on i>age 892 of the lieport of th(! Farlia- mentary Committee of 18r)7, that wheat may ]n' raised at Ts'orway House, and that the soil there Is good. And m answer 5(509 to that Committee, J)r. King testifies directly to the point that the rich tract hr saw in the basin of the Mackenzie continues all the way to ^^or- way House, when he says : " My enquiries at (,'uniberland House, at Norway Ilovse, and at Athabasca, were : * To what extent does this^ (the fertile belt) ' go ?' " Whatever be its width, an extension of the rich soils of the Peace and of the Athabasca may be concluded on this evidinice, Ui hold to the western bank of the outHow from Lake Wiiniipeg — an aggregate distance on a direct line from the Eockies, of 900 miles. The lands along the j)roposed route have been reviewed at some length. The results of that review may be now recapitulated. Beyoiul the Rockies, the country traversed offers little temptation to agriculture, though, perhaps, more to stock-raising. Immediately east of Pine Pass, the lands present a com])act b(xly which includes one-half the aggregate wealth of the ^'orth-West in soils. Tiiat vast area, consisting of lu.xuriant prairies, interspersed with forests, is draineil by a system of water-ways so distributed throughout the whole as to ofler the settler access to every part of it wluui a general line of inlet and outlet shall have been supi)lie(l to him by a l^ailway. The rich soils of that regiijn extend, according to (h^Iineations of the otticiiil map, for GOO miles along the proposed route : and according to the evidence cited on the subject above, extend 800 miles adilitional — to iSorway House. From Norway House — that is to say from Mossy Point, at the outflow from Lake Winnipeg — Dr. Bell's map shows banks for 25 miles to the westward, all of clay. ISimilai banks extend down the Nelson on the eastern side. The clay-soils of the Churchill are traced across Burntwood liiver to the ^Nelson, and across the Nelson for nearly 150 miles farther east- ward. Clay -soils the same in appearance, stretch on still more to the east ; ami are spoken of in several places and in great lengths, all the way to Lake Mistassini. TTTT 49 IS the ml ly- jlie r to Dual the '25 the are Isoii in if in isiui. At Knee Lake, at Oxford House, at the Mission Farm, ou Lonj,' Lake, on Lake Mattagaini, on Lake Missinaihi, on Lake Ahittibi, they are proved to be highly protluctivi! ; and that prodf is cxtcnilcd in its application by explorers' deserii)tions of many stretclu-s of the country between Norway House, across the heads of the St. Maurice, to the nigion as far eastward as Lake Mistassini. On a basis of evidence almost as broad as that on which the existence of a North- western fertile belt rests, that extension of " line clay -snils" from tlie western shore of Lake Winnipeg and the eastern bank of the Churchill may be described with strong presumptions of truth, in a similar generalisation to that accepted in tlie fertile; belt of the North-W est — one including breadths of swamp and of rock and of inferior soils — as, however different the degree of fertility uiay prove to be, " th(! fertile belt" of the North, The route up the St. Maurice may be said to lie through lands varying from fair to excellent, for an eejuivalcnt length of one-half the whole distance. But the existence of a stretch of 2000 miles of farming country alony the route proposed for the Pacific Kailway — a stretch of over 900 miles <)n the other side of the Nelson, beginning within three hundred miles of an emigrant-landing-place, at Port Nelson, and a stretch of over 1000 miles on this side of the Nelson, beginning within three hundred miles of an emigrant-landing place, at the City of Quebec; — tixi.'s the /t'ca/c of that Railway absoliitely under any polic}' which, looking in the face the danger of financial disaster in the undertaking, seeks to avert that danger by the conversion of the lands along the route. The topogra])hy of the two lines goes to the question of cost of construction, of working, and of maintenance. Save for 'M) or 40 niiles immediately back of Quebec, the substitute route is highly, is exceptionally, favorable as far as Norway House. West of that House the 900 miles to the gap at the head of I'ine Hiver may be set down as very much alike to the corresponding section of the adopted route — still favorable. Executed in accordance with the standard proper in a line of colonization, in a line which can go on to the standard proper to large traffic as the developmcuit of traffic creates the necessity and supplies the means, the pro})osed line can be con- structed from Quebec to the Kockies for thirty -five millions of flollars. West of Pine Pass the route runs across a rolling country and along water courses which offer very much shorter stretches of difficult work than those on the route to Burrard Inlet. The cost between the Mountains and the Sea will probably not average more than half that of the estimated rate on the latter line — not more than, say, $50,000 per mile.'''' That would make the cost from Pine Pass to Port Simpson about twenty-five millions — the cost to Kamsquot about sixteen millions. * The line from Yellow Head to Port Moody is set down in the worthless cstinmteH of the official reports at $62,000 a mile ; the above proceeds on a statement of better authority that the cost will be $UiO,(»00 a mile— the "ost, according to the lowest tender for one-fourth of the whole, amounting, for road-bed ouly. to $80,000 per mije. 50 flP-im. Some of tlie points presented above may bo summed up in general, til us : Adopted Route. Proposed Route. Heads of Comparison. Quebec to Port Moody. Quebec to Port Simpson. Quebec to Kamsquot. Total length in miles 3,015 500 1,000 1,650 500 2,150 2,650 $110,000,000 2,880 500 2,300 500 2,150 650 2,800 $60,000,000 2,700 Miles West of Rockies 320 Miles of Light Works 2,300 Miles of Heavy Works 320 Miles of Convertible Lands Miles of Inconvertible Lands.... Miles to be Constructed 2,150 470 2,620 Supposed comparative Cost $51,000,000 The line to Kams(]uot will he seen to be but one-half the cost of the line to Port Moody. It reduces the distance between tidewater and tidewater more than 300 miles.* It opens up four times the extent of good soils ; and much of the increased area being accessible from the seaboards by greatly shorter distances for emigration, it increases, therefore, the probability and the means of reducing the burden of the cost upon the people of these eastern Provinces. With better lines and planes ; with, at all events, some mechanical economy remaining to the credit of its lower summit ; with less cost for run- ning, less cost for maintaining and but one-half the cost for interest on construction-account, the line proposed to Kamsquot would save, in comparison with the adopted route to Port Moody, a burden to the taxpayers during the period of developing business, of from three to four millions per annum. And the hope of ultimate release from the remaining burden would not be, as in the case of the adopted route, open to doubt, if the business of Manitoba had not been drawn by suicidal folly into competition with water-carriage on Lake * A difference of 240 miles mentioned in a former pamphlet on this subject has been taken to apply between the adopted and the proposed route. It was intended to apply to the route from Quebec by way of Norway House to Pine Paes as compared with that to Pine Pais by way of Winnipeg. ^T!{S?T 51 taken I route PatB by Superior, it would all pass into that basin of many navigations, Lake Winnipot,', a contribution lor six months every year, to the trattic of the Railway from Xorway House to (Quebec. But that traffic now lost, its place will be taken by rapid develop- ment aloncj the great water-ways of Hudson Bay and of the North- West — ei'ery one of 7vhich the proposed route taps. The fishing, the shipping, the lumbering, the shipbuilding, which the Railway on the route from Quebec will start into vigorous life on Hudson's Bay, will supply it with large contrilnitions of way-business. 0[)eiung up the Harricanaw, the Abittibi, tlie Moose, the Albany, the Eipiam, the Deer, tlie Severn, the Weemisk, the Wastickwa, all navigable by some sort of vessel and all rich in timber and in clay-soils, it will receive from them in due time larj^e returns in freights. Carrvinj' emigrants to the prolific land of the Xorth- Western ''fertile belt," it will distri- bute th(!m to the right and to the left in the basin of Lake Winnipeg, the lower valley of the Saskatchewan, the valley of the Lac la Rouge, the valley of the Beaver, the valley of the Athabasca, the valley of the Peace, the valley of the Smokey, the valley of the Pine, to receive from them soon afterwards large volumes of freight which it will hold beyond reach of competition until it deposits them on the wharves of Quebec. Compared with the route adopted, the route proposed will involve during the development of its traffic, a pressure on Canadian taxation thirty-five or forty per cent, less ; and while the former operates on a comparatively small range of development and drops the result in traffic en route, the latter operates on a field of development made vast by its tributary navigations ; and clinging lirndy to the results in traffic up to the very end of its track, prouiises a release from that taxation beyond doubt of fulfillment, and at a time not by any means remote. The adopted route ignores all considerations of defence. The sub- stitute-route utilizes the Pacific l^ailway to the fullest possible extent as an inner line of military communications. Bc^ginuing at Quebec, one of the strongest positions in Canada in reference to its defence by land and water, it holds its way to the rear, until, at al)out 500 miles out, it reaches an alternative of ingress for men and material by way of Hudson's Bay. The branch proposed from that point of ingress up the Abittibi and down the Montreal t(j a junction of one railway now j)rogressing from Toronto with antjther now progressing from Montreal, supplies an interior line of defence, connecting Mon- treal and Toronto with that marine base. Opening means, with the assistance of navigation on Lake Winnipeg, of tiirowing troops from the old Provinces or from England into Manit(d)a, hy the route chosen by the Duke of Wellington, it passes on to the Pacitic, separ- ated from the American frontier by a roadless wilderness of a width never less than 300 miles. It discharges upon tlie Pacific at a point from which tlie development of British power will confront the menace, will reverse the strategy, embodiisd in the Russian transi'er of Alaska. At that terminus, the Asiatic commerce which iiiav bo 52 drawn hy a trans-continental railway in checkmate of the efforts of the United Hliites, to Britisli American waters, may be made safe by a navy operating on the Northern PaciKc from a base covered by a British population from landward approach, on one of tlie land-locked harbors of the wlieat-producing and coal and iron-bearing Islands of Queen Charlotte, Local interests are the guardians, as they are the exponents, of the general interest. The Pnjvince of Quebec will doubtless demand that she shall not be ignored, as she lias been, in tlie location of the Pacific Railway, (jspecially when the ignoring costs her the loss of 450 miles of railway development of her interior and the loss of the seat of Commercial Empire on this Continent — a seat which would be fixed within her borders by the discharge from the Pacific Railway of the surpluses of a boundless region of breadstuffs into the store- houses and ships of " the Ancient Capital." New Brunswick will hardly submit to an expenditure of her taxes on a railway binding the future commerce of this Dominion for ever to Portland — will hardly do so when that commerce may be tapped to the exclusion of Portland by a direct extension from Quebec to a connection at Houlton with the lines from St. Andrew's and St. John. And Nova Scotia will refuse her consent to the apjilication of her monies for the development of the Kliipping business of the State of Maine, while the freigiit-charge-reduction which Halifax has been demanding, may be effected by a continuation of the Qnebec-Houlton extension to a junction with the Intercolonial at Moncton, with the result of giving Halifax a riichiction of freight-charges on the healtliy basis of a rcnluction of distance, to tlic extent of 40 per cent. But what of the burden-bearer of the taxation of the Dominion — Ontario 1 Five hundred miles of back-country are available within this Province as a basis for the expansion of her Hamiltons, her Torontos, her l^ort Hopes, her Bellevilles, her Kingstons, her Brockvilles. The true route of the Pacific Railway leaves those centres in undisturbed enjoyment of that vast field for the growth of their business. It does more. It assists them in making it bear immediate fruit along the branch irom the Kiver Moose down the River iMontreal to Mattawa, a bra h which opens uj) one of most extensive, if not even the most productive, regions of " the level clay countrv of the north" — including the fine soils of the Montreal, of the Blanche, of Lake Temiscamingue, and of 150 miles of the upper, and perha|)s the better, reaches of the Ottawa. With such a vast basis of development at her service, with the opportunity of so powerful an agency for its iinmediati! utilization — 350 miles of railway running through it to a place from which that line will obtain discharge at half a dozen points on the Lake-front — the Province of Ontario may be counted on to protest against the employment of her taxes to cut her off from the enjoyment of her own inheritance, the employ- ment of her taxes to stop the growth of her commercial centres by draining off from them the business of the back-country in their ■'> Ia *f 63 •> almost immediate rear. Fully alive as she is to the importance of attracting the products of that re<^ion into her own store-houses ; and fully aware as .she is that they will never reach those store-houses across a line of railway raking away the business of her cities and towns along the edge of even present settlement, this Province will certainly insist that, instead of her taxes beine practice in the tJnited States, to less than $160,000. Tliat surveying' ilonc, niil way-routes projected under the lij^ht of its rtisults could ho culled out in tlie rcj^'ular profes- sional course of action, hy reconnoissances at a few of their points. Th«5 dehatahli! ground thus redu(!ed to the coin])uratively narrow linuts within whi(di the instrument must he caUed in to assist the eye, the ultimate decision on the route for the railway hctween (^uohec and A, Pine Pass might he made at a cost which ought not to exceed, with plan and providence, $100,000. All tliat has heen said on the suhj(»(rt ahovt3 does not alter the fact that, so vast as is the country hetween (^uehec, Norway House and Piue Pass, it is comparatively unknown. The presumptions which have l)een drawn in the foregoing as to its topography, soil, climate and growth apply to the whole n^gion, hecause of their localism, with a force wanting in positiveness. iJut much additional liglit is pro- bahly ohtainable from records of the Government; and still more may be brought out ])y a (Jommitteo of the House (>f Commons. These means may so fill out information on the sul)ject as to supply, in considciring the question of tiie exploration suggested, ample grouml for the strength of jjresumption proper as a basis of great outlays. If doubt preponderate after exhausting all sources of present knowledge on the subject, tlien ])ut little addition to the ultinmte cost of the whole field-work would follow by confining the first surveys to one of the four zig-zag lines suggested. Ten field-parties ought to be sufficient to run out that initial testdine in one year ; and to obtain thus — at a cost of about .$50,000 — a positive basis for determining the question of running out the others. If the four lines necessary to complete the exploration be pressed forward together, they should be carried on in connection with com- missariat posts at regular intervals along the lines of travel by canoe. A huntsman, a voyageur, and a man-of-all-work to clear and cultivate three or four acres, would be a sufficient staff at each of these — the huntsman and the farmer to keep up the supplies of food and the voyageur to forwanl tliem from time to time to tlui party operating from that voyageur's depot. These headciuarters of each section of the survey would supply an office to tlie fieldsmen for digesting their work in maps and notes during the winter. They would constitute astronomical stations, meteorogical stations, and a means of settling the question of soil and climate throughout the whole region, by tests of actual cultivation of garden and field. And besides the economy in supplies, these stations would effect a still greater economy in working result by keeping the parties on the ground ready to take the field at the earliest moment, and to hold it to the latest. Even the first zigzag surveydine would settle the question as to the character of the country sufficiently to decide the general expediency of the proposed route. That conclusion might be followed without mor(j ado by proceeding with location surveys from (Quebec up the St. Maurice, and from Norway House to what may be regarded a 66 si'ttled pdint on the route — the Suskat(;hewaii iit ]V\'^ lUuid. Hc^in- niiif,' (^oiiHtruction on i\w latter, so an to ojicii up tlui fertihj belt of //le North-West l>y <,'rii(Iuiil iidviUUKfini'iit of the riiihvay, siniultiiucouH couHtruction sliouM \w (•<)iiiiiii'iicr(l at (^Mu'Ihjc, mh a.s l(j i^ivt^ iimncdiate necess to the fiatile l)flt of the North. — The energies of the country should surely not he eonceutiatcd on a tield of agricultural devehtp- rnent 1,300 ndles away, wliilc they nii^lcct, while they pass by, a tield of a^'ricultural d(!V(do|)iut'nt within twelve; hours' run hy railway from the enuj^'rant ship, from the centre of ahiindant th)tnestic. re- sources of settlement. — The valley of the St. Maurict; penetrated at a dash to the (,'ateway into tlu^