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Mepe, pietee. clierts. etc.. mey be filmed et different reduction redoe. Thoee too lerge to be entirely included In one expoeure ere filmed beginning in tlie upper left hend comer, left to right end top to bottom, ae meny fremee ee required. The following diegreme illuetrete die method: piendiee, talrieeux. etc., peuvent Atre film4e A dee teux do riduction diffArenta. Loraque la document eet trop grend pour itre reproduit en un aeul cliciid, 11 aat fiimA i pertir do I'engie aupMeur geuche, do geuche i droite, et da heut en bee. en prenent le nombre d'imegee nAceeaeire. Laa diegremmee suivente iUuetrent le mAthode. it :- * ■ 3 32X 1 a 3 - . # : i : « -. /^. REPORT OF PROGRESS OF EXPLORATION IN Til K COUNTRY BETWEEN LAKE ST. JOHN AND JAMKS BAY MADE UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF COLONIZATION AND MINES, QUEBEC BY HENRY O'SULLIVAN, D. L. S. & C. E. Mem. Can. Soo. Civh. Engineer & Insi'jxtoh ok Suiivkys, W f}. ->H4^>t^-Hf^ QUEBEC ^-1898 JX^ KXI RKPOHTOF PROGRESS OF EXPLORATION INTllliCOU.NTRY HETWEEX LAKE ST. JOHN AND JAM ES BAY MADE Ux\DER INSTRUCTIONS FROM TIIK DEPARTMENT OF COLONIZATION AND MINES, QUEBEC BY HENRY O'SULLIVAN, D. L. S. & C. E- Mr.M. Can. .Sor. Civii, Kngineer >t Insi-kctou nv Siuvkys, 1'. <). ■-^#^#-^^ QUEBEC 1898 «» .t li h: PORT OF PROGRESS OF EXPLORATION IN THE COUNTRY BETWEEN LAKE ST. JOHN AND JAMES BAY. k .. * ,t To the Honorable A. TuHGEOX, Minister of Colonization and Mines, Quebec. Srn. Jn accordance with instructions from your Department, authorizing me to make an exploration of the country between Lake St. John and James Bay and to examine the shore line and take the necessary measurments and sound- ings to find the most suitable harbour there, to take notes of the general topography and geology of the country : soil, timber, climato, &c., and to fuiDish your said Department with a plan, profile, and report of the same s'liiwiiig the ol)tainable grades and alignment, in view of future railway construction, for the development of that vast region, I have the honour to suhiiiit you the following report : In 1H72, my l>rt)ther, John H. Sullivan and myself, under instructions from the Department of Crown Lands, took the levels from Lake St. John to tide wnttr at Chicoutimi, and found the elevation of said Lake to be 300 feet above moan tide. Starting with this elevation, 300 feet above datum, sea level, an easy grail' of one per cent takes us from Hoberval Station, on the Quebec and Lake St. .lolm HaiUvfiy, over a j^ently rising swell, that attains mm elevation of 250 feet above the l..ake, a little .south of the division line between the parishes of N.-J). lie Hoberval and St. Prime, about five miles north of Roberval Village, 4 — Thfnce northward the land falls to less than a hundred feet ahove the level nf the lake, hefore reaching St. Prime, but by keeping a little farther west, a lower Huniuiit and more uniform grades can be had. Contiiuiing northward to St. Felicien, and onward along the west or right Imnk of the River Chamouchaouan to beyond the north western outline of the Township of Dutferin, any desirable grades and alignmont may be had with compiiratively light earthwork. Following the r^ver, there are several chutes and rapids, the most impor- tant ol' which is (treat Bear chute, shown by photo No. 3. Th)! total ditterence of level here, including the rapids and cascades, is 80 feet. Next comes Jiittle )Boar chute, giving a total fall of 42 feet, but there does not appear to be any corresponding depression in the land on either side, in fact, the country seems to be a gradual slope, gently ascending towards the northwest. The lower strati Jn the river Vmnks, are generally a good rich greyish blue clay ; but are often covered with layers of poor sand from 5 to 10 feet in depth, particularly along the Pemoka or level stretch above the chutes. Immediately above the north western outline of the Township of Duflferin, begin the long rapids on the Chamouchouan. For about t^ix miles here, the river is nearly a continuous rapid, varying from ten to thirty feet per mile fall, and, strange, it keeps its general width of live or six hundred feet right nlong, and spi ends evenly over its well paved bowlder bottom The only smooth water in a distance of six miles, that is, from the foot of the long rapids to the mouth of the Big Stony Creek, or " Riviere du Cran," is a short stretch of about a thousand feet at the mouth of the Little Stony, or Otter brook. This part of the line would be rather expensive, for the road bed would have to be cut out cf the solid rocky side hills, that rise, in some places, from the water's edge at an angle of 40". Although there is no unsurmountable obstacle liere, and easy grades and good aligjinient can be had, still perhaps an easier line may be had, by follow- ing the valley of either the Salmon and Dore, or the Poplar river, which run nearly parallel to the main river, on tlv west side. This will be referred to again further on. From the Big Stony River, up to the Chaudiere falls, a distance of about 13 miles, the river Chamouchaouan runs in a nearly straight line, between bold side hills on either side, but there is generally room for a good road bed all along. .. .. Upper Sturgeon Falls (Nottoway Watfis) Falls on Rupert River Lower Sturgeon Falls (Nottoway Wnters) Falls on the Rupert — 5 — Thn IJnt Hni»ifls, Wliito SpniCf Knpids mnl Hmvk Rnpids, with "Otiiw oth^r HtnRll rapids mill (Mirrcnts, in this «tr«'tch, jjfivn KM) fuft •litiVrentM' of level, or nltont S IV'ct, t<» th»' iiiih'. Mawk iiinunttiin. on th*> north cast siile, nlxtiit three miles holow the ('hauflii'nf falls, >h«)Wn \>y Photo No. 5, rises ii'M tVet ahovc the level of the river. Opposite there, on the south-west side, we must liegin to rise on the easy .<«ide-hills, to overcome tin; sudden elevation of the C'haudiere falls, which pive a total rise of 110 feet to the level stn-tch, at the mouth of tlie Kivor ("hi^ohiehi', where the el<\iitioii is 810 feet ahovo sea level, us shown i>y the accompanying plan and p.'olile. Wo exnniiiieoplar and bouleau, &c. Some of the spruce here is ovt.-r two feet in diameter, and from seventy- tive to ninety feet in heij^ht. Near its north eastern end, a lar;j;e river comt-s in from the south east. The Indians <,'o liy this river to the Hudson Bay Company's posts, on the River St. Maurife, and thej* say that there are more rapids and falls on it than on the river .,e descended, which would show that the land is higher in that direction My Indian jruides say that spring opens far earlier here than in the reht for the navij^ation of Hudson's B(iy could enter " s}iould he decidcwl on. Any way, the season wa.s too late for me to attempt rebelling James Bay with men who did nctt know the route l)y the .N'ottaw.iy, in time to take any soundinj^s or measurements there, and reach iiome licfore winter set in, and the iufonnation I had obtained from tlie Geological I)>!piutmenr,, regarding the country from Waswanipi to James Bay, via the Nottaway River, satisHed me that no .serious obstruction was likely to be met with in in that direction. I therefore sent back some of my Lake St. Joiin men, in chai-ge of one of my assistants, to c<)in[)lete the topography of the routj w-; had followed, an i I engaged new hands at Waswanipi, who knew tlie route from there t.> Rupert House. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter were exceedingly kind to us and rendereii us every Stir vice th'-y possibly could. I w*is plea.sed to see the interest that gentleman has taken in farming : it is not often that you find a Hudson Bay Company's man doing nnich in that line. Ceitainly, the man who chosed the site of the post had not that object in view. I told Mr. Baxter that if the Railway passed there, he would likely find his house taken away by a steam shovel some fine morning, for it is built on the finest gravel-pit I ever saw, and the whole knoll shown in photos Nos 41 and '16 is of the same material. Still it is surpri.sing to see the fine vegetables and grains he has grown there. I never saw better cabbage, cari'ots and turnips, and he gave me samples of wheat which he had grown from seed raised there the yult by the winter packet. Myself and assistants had a swim in Lake Waswuiiipi, nii the !)th Septem- ber, and found the water warmer than we found that of Lake Chigobiche, in the mitldle of August T r 1 t. ■ WASWANirV POST, HROM HAY I.ANDrXC., IIIDSON HAY CO. WASWAMPY POST AM) MOINI). llfDSON BAY CO. OUINANICHH FISHINT. OX NORTH OF I.AKK ST. JOHN CHITK GRAS, RIVKR CHIGOHICHH. 000.000. ''UB rr. P£n fNUre A T OfjniNftRY IQW w/Jrerf OlSCH/iRGC OOO cuts. FT. PCR ■''■£ /IT OfiDINflfir ;<7t*' \WJTER ANO i "mi —-'"»-•>»■ N«*TM SmOUC c DMmtu. PuaTO cmdUR, quehc HCFIIZ.IOrLLr TO 1 VERT. PROFILE OF ORGS S SHOTIOM O RUPERT RIVEI H B Cos SC/JLE HORIZ. h FEET TO 1 VERT. l9Htrr£ PR o r I L E OF CROSS SECTION OF T\ NOTTOWAY RIVEF IMMEDIATELY ABOVE HIGH TJDE FP OM riO TO///- 5 dZ/V VCY BV ''^X' R o s s s ■: c T I o M o r JPERT RIVER /Jr H B CoMf'-^ /■(/ rs ■ Po 5 7 rffOM /i::ruf^i SURVEY &Y DIS 'H/7RGr 3000.000. "'Uo rr. p£R KltNUTC A T OPmiNRRY LOW wRTert /J' tii^-rn 5Ho«tt R D r I L E S SECTION OF THE. OWAY RIVER rELY ABOVE HIGH TJDE /'' 'V DISCHflRGC ^.QOQ.OQO. CUO. FT PCR ■ MfNUTC RT ORDINftfir LOW WJJTER SVfi ff^Or^ 3,'f,-^K' .-fp. iGV^/N'/f LgWCL CLAy LAN3 C 0»imW, PHOTO C1I«»!UII, PMC MK. O'SUM.IVAN SWIMMING IN HUDSON HAY, OCTOBKR 3Rl>, i>)97. MR. & MRS. GORDON IN THEIR GARDEN AT Rl'PKRT HOUSE. nAi.H woi.K. HAM' i;syriMArr,T dogs at kuthrt hoi-sk. ■PH HUDSON BAY CO'.S KSTABMSHMKNT. RUPKRT HOrSE. r~" -■« te' 1 i 1 i"" ^' III- ' r ♦. ' ,;■ m. Ui lS^f;kW^ ^ft«im M ' HUDSON BAY CO'b SCHOONER "MINK" IN WINTER QUARTERS AT MOOSE FACTORY. — 9 — The country from Wasw viiipi to Rupert House will Vie fully described in a subsequent report as s(»on as my plans and profiles of tliut section are com- pleted. I transmit you, in the mean-time, souje photoorrapliic views I took along the route, which will show that there is no scarcity of water power in that region. .lAMKS BAY : • ' v *! The Hudson liny (/ompany's post, called Rupert House, situated on a rising ground, on the left or south bank of the Rupert River, about a mile east of the general shore line of the Bay, commands an excellent view of a great portion of the broad bay and surrounding country. This is the principal depot, from which the eastern and south eastern interior posts are supplieil. It is situated about midway between the head of tide water, and the open luiy, and the Hudson Bay Coujpany's schooner, called the " Mink ", shown by Photo No. 77, which to use the Commandant, Captain Taylor's own words " She can go around the world "ean enter here at all stages of the tide. Photo No. 69, which I took from the top of a haystack east of the post, will give you an idea of the extent of the establisment : and Photo No. 70, showing Mr. and Mrs. Goi-don in their garden, taken on the 29th of September, will show that the climate there is not so inhospitable as it is .sometimes rejire- sented to be. • . I began by measuring the ci'o.'^s-section of tlie river bed, opposite the Com- pany's store, and took the levels from extreme high water to low water mark, as shown by the accompanying profile. . , , The sectional area of flowing water at low tide, was I'jOOO feet, and the velocity, 200 feet per minute, which, with due allowance for friction, gives a fiow of at least 3,000,000 cubic feet per minute. I found, by a rr^ean of two observations, one of the sun at his meridian passage, and one of polaris at upper transit, that the latitu(ie of Rupert House is 51° 29' 25" North. The uianager of the est iblishiiiei)t, Mr. 1). McTavish, was absent, but his assistant, Mi-. Gordon and liis g lod wif'!, received us mo.st kindly. Good roa.sted wild geese, stock -ducks, wn\ios, snipe and plovor, with mealy potatoes, c.il)b;»ge, and other vegetables, washed down by a good pitcher of Bass's brown ale, go well, when one comes out of the woods. Mr. Gordon providetl us with a I irge four fatiiom canoe, and men who were well acquainted with tlie Bay fioiii Rupert House to Moose Factory, and on the 29th September, wc began taking .soundings and skt-tchiiig in tlie shore line from the Rupert to the mouth of the Nottaway River. 10 — Am Wi* |»r ol' thf shore liii»\ .shouM In- ('(tnHti'Uct<>)l t(» admit of jdafiti;^' the soiinK>ihly ay from Hannah Bay, 1 found the latitude 51' :i9' .'i'2 " Noi'th. We Were delaye 1 here by the wind, on the 3rd of OctoVjer, and I enjoyed a refreshing bath in the salt water, which, I must sa}', was not colder than I have often felt it at Tadoussac, Rimouski, and Ste. Anne des Moots, in midsunnner. W(i entcrerl llaniiMli 15ay at high tide : but before we could cross it, the tide was gone, and we could .see nothing but sand bars for miles all around • and at the mouth of the Moose Hiver, we were stuck on sand bars about seven miles out from shore. 1 believe that the l*ru\ ince of Uueliee holds the ke\ to the iiavigatiou of — 11 — thiiHo vrtst MdiLluTu WHttM's, I'or fr"iii wlmt I Iiiivf st'ou, I i.,,. ronfiik-iit that no port t'liii lit' fi)iiini lit Hiimmli Buy nr Mo'.)-.t' Kiu-tory, 'ml tlio iui»- mouth of tht! Clmn-hill Kivcr. 'I'hf t'xci.'lh'iil h'Vi'l (.'lay luii I f liiit l>onhT.s thi* .^niitli'Tu part otJaiiu-s Buy, from lii'voinl thi' Kii[)frt Uivfi-, Wf^twar I to Moose factory, ami f';s were daily taken, ami I j^ttve my assistants, whon> I left at Rupert Bay, particular instructions to continue those observations, and to take note of every thinjjf that might be of interest to the Department the amount of rain, hail or snow fall, winds, tides, tish« "fame, &c. The lowest thermojueter reading; we had on the whole expedition was 31 A" above zero Fahrenheit u|) to the 9th of October, when the thermometer fell to 27" above zero at Moose Factory. When this cold dip set in, \ left there in a hurry, for I had still about 340 miles of rivers, lakes and potatoes to cover before reatdiing Mis.<-anabie Station, the nearest point on the Canadian Pacific Railway to Moose Factory but the weather soon became mild again, and we reached the i'ailway in fourteen days. About 40 miles above Moose Factory, we passed through splen lid beds of gyp.sum. I regretted being unable to remain longer at Mo(jse, as much for the kind treatuient 1 received there, as for the interesting information they were ready to impart on every sid". The Right Revei-end Dr. Xewnham, resident Bishop, Mr. Broughton, the Hudson Bay Comjiany's head factor, a«»d ( 'aptain Taylor, who has been navigating Hutlson and James F>ay for the last thirty years, gave me every information they could, and did every thing in their power to make my sojourn there as phasaiit aii'l agreeable as po.ssible. I was pleased to see the interest the Lord Bishop has taken in firming and gardening Here is a list »jf some of his garden .stutf, wiiich the Right Reverend gentle- man gave me in his own hiuid writing, with Full liberty to use it »us I pleased: " Splendid celery, tomatoes, vt^grtaMe marrows 15 to 40 lbs. eacli, salsify, ' ^ ' !. ' . ■it^l — 12 — kolil nilii, ciuTots, parsnips, turnips, IxM'ts, [k'sis, Ikjiuis, all kinds of calibago, canlillower, rhubarb, red and black currants, luttueos, radishes, herbs : all a good size, some not to be beat anywhere.' In the foregoing pnges, I spoke of the spruce, and other indigenous trees met with after crossing the height of land ; in a snbse(|uent report, more detafls will b(! given of the general topography, Ksh,gaine, k'vjc, as soonas my returns are con>plet.f(I. In the virgin forest, spruce, fir, tamai-ac.and cypres, or Hanksian pine are the chief conifers, Mhile the deciduous trees ai'e limited to poplar of different varieties ; white birch, willow, alder, hazel, peiiibnia and similar undergrowth, with occa«ionlIy l)iack ash along the river and Ink*; shores. 1 saw no white pine, and although the cypres oi' Banksian pine is decidedly a native of tliat region, it is only in the dry burnt di'^tricts, and on the poorer hoiglits in the nivighbourhood of Lake Xemiskau, on the Rupert river, that it was seen in abundance, in fact, pine of any kind seldom flourishes on such rich clay soil as is found in the basin of the Nottaway. There is an abundance of spruce and taiiifirac, wherever the country lias not been burnt, but the larch tly is rapidly destroying the latter timber, and morrf so towards the height of land than in the vicinity of James Bay, Here and there, areas, more or less extensive, have been swept by tire, from 25 to 50 years ago, and are now well grown up with poplar, white birch, spruce, tamarac ami cypres of fair size according to age, insuring an abundance of pulp wood for ages to come Pulf) is the industry of the coining age, black spruce is the king of woods for pulp making, and this country is tlie home of the black spruce. We have a big country to develop, and our knowledge of it is very limited. Up to 1894 the resources of all that region bounded on the north by the Rupert Rivei , on the south liy the height of Land dividing the St. Lawrence from the Janu-s Bay waters, find on the west l»y the province of Ontario em- bracing an area of .some 50,000 squfire miles was practically unknown. Ml'. John Rignell on the part of the Quebec government and Messrs. Rielinrdsdii, Cochrane and ^IcOuat on the part of the geological society pene- trated a certain distance here and there beyond the water-shed, but not far enough to throw any light on what the cotintrv was likt. Ill 1S!)+. luider instructions from the depaiiment of Crown liands, I cro>seil the watershed from (Jraml Lake (jii the OttaWM and ))enetrated the opposite slojie to lieyond Waswjinipi, and nwiile known the existancc of the miirhtv rivers that drain the countrv there nnd llow by the Nottoway into Hupert Bay. Sec map of said ex])h)ration with accompanying outline map from Commissioners report of 1895, transmitted herewith. \ » I ' i x, le- lar l\i' <^^ itt) '^1 :!. il i! never b pany's, M. Rnpeit luli't, I. Ml' Liilinul Oiliei'wi a t>'ivjit knowie Mr Ottawa Eiigiiiet put ill I ami its Uuito.l least 5C an avei to 1S74 Nt-'l.SOll. one (hu It" in ami if we li tWC ('ill Lij found ( eoiil inji Vv ino- vfM' hay WW liy fros Nt the Tjai ^ iin{)ort; *- no t.loiil betweei minora — 13 — Tilt' yviw nftcr ( IS!>.") ])v Boll of tho Geoloijiciil Department, following? the samo route, t'oiiipU'tcil tlio .survey of the Nottoway down to its mouth, and with Mr. J>ruck as assistunt explored some of its brunche.s and connecting canoe routes in ISDli : Imt of tlie ()7,00(),00() acres additional area recognized as helonciiif to the provinet' 1 am safe in saying that more than half of it has never been seen by white man, if .1 t'xcept perhaps .some Hudson Bay Com- pany's, coun.'urs d(; Imis. in search if furs. Mess; s 'Tall)raitli, Tiiiw and Katon, have done considerable work on the Rupeit and Eiist main ri\ t-rs, and in other parts between there and Hamilton Inlet, Itut the nnex|»l(ired area is yet far in excess of what has been explored- Mr. A. I'. Low say-, on page .")'' ]j of In's very interesting report on the Lalirn(h)r peninsula, ilated Ottawa, IHdG : " Very little is known officially or otherwise concerning the fisheries of that great inland sea, Hudson's Bay, and a great ii mount <.>f wealth may l>e lying dormant in its waters for lack of knowledge ccmcerning its Hsheries." Mr. (». F. Baillarge, late Assist'Uit-Cominissionei" of Pui)Iic Woi'k-^, >it Ottawa, and his brother, Mr. Charles Baillarge, our indefatigable Quebec City Engineer, have given a gooil deal of attention to this subject, and have each put in pamf)h[et i'orni about all the information available concerning the bay and its environs. We find therein, auKtug other things, that according to the United States Conninssioners of Fisheries for 1875-7(i, their whalers nmde at least 50 trips to Hudson Bay, bringing home cargoes worth !?1, 37 1,000.00, or of an averag(! value of 8*27,240.00 per trip per vessel, during the eleven years prior to 1874. As many as 'KM white whales have been killed at one tide at Port Nelson, which, if valued at only $100 each, givt! $20,000.00, a nice figure for one day's catch. It takes these whah is two years for one cargo, for they are unable to pass in and out o|' the Hmlson straits and make their catch in the same year. While if we had railway c iiimuiiioiition, with whalers at Rupert Bay we could hivvc two (Virgoes the spring aixl I'all catch for each vessel every year. Lignite exists in rhr willey of the Moo-e Uiver, and anthracite has been found on an islanry distinct 1'n-^ils, f ludieve that some of the shoals or low islands in the bay must lie liinestonr beds, and that ]>ortions of the same are yearly detached by frost and arc i'ii hci-i- jind there along .shore liy the melting ice Nearly all the metals are found in the Huronian formation borderiiiir on tle> Laiireiitian, and although I diii not find any thing of sufHcieiitly remarkable importance to attn:ct puMic attention in this hour of Klondyk(i fever, I have no doubt thut a nioie thorough exa,mination of the country I passed through, between the InMght of land ami James Bay, will result in the v" iee Report of j e oast coast hay, to Cape *, in a tJHarly oint is north in thi3 same «y to Howe's these limits are partked the year, and If, within the e until Xo- is no great is 7 feet, and le. The day did not per- kving day the some ten or for several western shore Bay, for the e island, and ly flats that e tide where Bay, it !»lew perceive any lie reduction wrn Canada, 1 thi'i'eon in hicul Society of the month on. :lnpert, East- ffiS e« !- 1 M- I j / S^AtOS or JS«/-7/C£ mfl£.S &^ VlflSIN f I .i^ Lower Jumping Falls Catching White Pish at Lower Falls on Rupert River «■ 15 — Miiiii mill \V\<> iiiiu;lilv .HtiuiiniH, an<| otliurs of les.si>r iiut<\ can lie con- ct'iitrntcil lit tiitlifi* the nioiitli of tlio Nottiiway or Hiipurt RiveM. This (ihnio, witli tlie jjrciit area of jruoil chiy hinil, Kt for .scttluineiit on uithiT Mi(l»! of tht; hue should \m siiiKuient iiii|itciMiiL>nt to secure the construc- tion of the railway. I know that the country is wortliy of (leveloprnent, and that it can be more Rtlvantu^i'ously (lt;v(>lope(l hy the continuution of the Quehec anil Lake St. John Railwiiy, which line wouhl pass tlirough the centre of the most valnahje part of the newly ac<|uire(| territory, wiiile the others would, at most, only touch its western extremity. (intil a foot, of Laki! Winnipeg, would pass through the ifypsuin lieils on Moose River and j^ive aceess to ;» v>i,st area of lieli ngiicultural hin\y does not extend so far south east as is shown mi our plans of tlnit region. 'l'hi.s straight line continued would strike about the foi'ks of the Pe!iC(J and (Smoky riveis, whicli point is considered to be about the c ntre of tlni fertile northwest wheat growing region, and thence follow the viiileys of the Peace and Skeena rivers to the Pacific Ocean, crossing the Rocky Mountains, where the snnnnit i.s two thousand feet lower than that of the Canadian Pacific Rnilway. The resojirces of the Peace and McKenzie River basins were exaniineil liy a select co'^Mnittee of tlie ' Senate of Canada, ami a ropoiT of the same was published by the authority of the D:)niinion Parlianient, in ISSS. According to said report, there is a possible area of ()o(!,0Q0 .S(iuare miles along the McKen/ie river, suitable for the growth of potatoes, 407,0 )0 s^piare miles suitable for the growth of barley, and 'n(!,()Oi) st^uare miles suitable for the growth of wheat ; that there is a pastoral ait>a of iS(i(), ()()() squ tre mil'-s 26,000 miles of which is open prairie with occasional groves, the remainder being more oi' less wooded, and that 274,000 sfjuni'e miles including the prairie may be considered as arable land ; that the ditterence of latitude makes no corresponding difference in tl»e climate : Howers bloom as early in spi-ing and ns late in autumn, at (jlreat Slave Lake as at Winnipeg, or St. Paul and Minnea- polis : the prevailing southwest, or Chinook winds render the climate along the Peace and Liard Rivers as mild and .salubrious as that of Western Ontario. Wheat ripens along the McKenzie river under the Arctic circle, a thousanl miles faither noi'th than Rupert House. With this vast area open for settlement, it is needless to say that the shortest and best route thence to the European markets must prevail. The Husdon Straits, as already stated, are commercially imj)raticable. The defective woi-king of the com))ass, owing to its proximity to the magnetic pole, which, according to Causs, is in latitude 7-i'^ ;i-V North, and longitude 95' 39' West, the frequent fogs and mists that leave the mariner with only the sounding line to depemi on, to battle with the tlowing ice and ice-beigs of Davis Straits that block the entrance between Cape Chuilh'igh and R-.solution Island, in July, and sometimes, in August, and the fields of shoei- bl ick sheet ice, ten or more feet in thickness, that sweep down through Fox Channel and Idock the other entrance to the Straits nt Digges Island in SeptombiM', render the naviii'ation hei'c^ unsafe and uninsurable. ■ iiw iiiyiWin«Wir'" — 17 — -is t,(i ;i vMst of Ontario. I our plaii.s :; Peaci) ami ' tlui t'eitile if the Peace ains, where lian Pacitic :ainin(Ml liy e saiiio was HI are miles ,0)0 s(inare suitahle for |U ire mill's rciinainUer the prairie makes no i-int-; and as id Minnea- e along the ntario. a thousan 1 ,y that the il. ijiraticalile. e magnetic I longitude II only the co-herfjs of R ■solution il lelc sheet hannel and ler, render * See Lieutenant Gordon's reports published by the Dominion (iovernuient, in 1884-85-86. For similar reasons, no all, year-round available port can be had on the Labrador coast, and therefore, the shortest available route is via Qtiebec. Via Ha ! Ha ! Bay and the Saguenay, would be shorter, but the ice remain-i too long there in spring, and owing to the difficulty of getting return cargoes there, trading vessels might often have to go one way empty. These arguments have been very unjustly used against Quebec, but every spring, the Ocean steamers can load at the Quebec wharves, and cross over to Liverpool before the ice is off the Saguenay river, or oft the St. Lawrence River, between Quebec and Montreal, and in the autumn, these rivers are always closed in November, while there is seldom anything to hinder the largest ships in the world to ply between Quebec and the open ocean until Christmas. It is well known that when the ice takes early at the Chaudiere, our port is always clear the rest of the winter, and a bridge with good aiiut- raents at the narrowest part there would, I believe, secure this result every year. It is not unusual for ships to be detained a week, or a fortnight at the Quebec wharves, waiting for the ice to move off of Lake St. Peter. They might be here a month earlier, if they wanted to come. As regards return traffic, when cars have to be freighted to or from any place west of Montreal, the difierence of 170 or 180 miles on such level lines as the North Shore or Grand Trunk Raihvays, cannot be considered a serious obstacle to reach a port where the fleets of the world can ride in safety. Nature destined Quebec to be the emporium of trade between Europe and North America ; even from San Francisco, the distance is shorter to any European port via Quebec, than by any port on the United States coast. It is useless to work against nature. The more we denude the forests and the more we dredge and sweep tlie channel the more the water w^ill evaporate, and the sooner will it How off ; and the diversion of a good portion of our waters at Chicago will certainly not improve the shipping facilities on the St. Lawrence above tidal water. We have had examples enough, last summer to open the eyes of the general public. Nature has provided every thing for Quebec : A deep water shore line with very little interruption on either side of the river from the Louise Basin to Cap Bouge, a distance of nine miles : and if more room is re(|uired, a canal may be made along the St. Charles valley, giving wharfage room on both sides, right up to Cap Rouge, at moderate cost. This canal might lie fed by — 18 — the Des-Mores, St. Charles, Ancienne-Lorettc and Cap Rouge rivers, making Quebec, once more, an island, as it certainly must have been in ages gone l^y. The Jacques-Cartier, the St. Charles and Montmorency, on the north, ard the Etchemin and Chaudiere rivers, on the south, can furnish unlimit;ed electric power, &c., which, in this age of lightning and steam, is a necessary adjunct to a growing city. Frontenac, on arriving in Canada wrote home as follows : " Rien ne m'a paru si beau et si magnifique que la situation de la ville de " Quebec, (]ui ne pourrait pas ^tre mieux postee, quand elle devrait devenir un " jour la Capitale d'un grand empire." Which translated reads thus : " I have never seen anything so fair or so grand as the site of Qiiebec. " That city could not have been better placed, had it been purposily intended " to become the Capital of a great empire." The niore we study the geography of our country, the more strikingly true do we find the above prophetic words. The que.stion may however be asked that since Quebec has such natural advantages, why is her trade languishing, why are her wharves idle, in a word why is she at a stand still ? To this I would answer, that had our own representatives been true to their trust, had our capitalists been endowed with the same spirit of enterprise as those of our sister city, and had our people possessed a better knowledge of^ the geography of our country, Quebec the cradle of the Dominion woul^ still, be the Commercial Metropoles. It is the only port on the Atlantic slope that can rival New- York. It is' as close as the latter city is to St. Paul and Minneapolis, 300 miles- nearer to Winnipeg the centre of North America, and 469 miles nearer to Liverpool. With a bridge at Quebec, the winter traffic could continue on to the Ca- nadian seaports, via the Intercolonial, or still better by the proposed route that would leave the Intercolonial at St. Charles, and run directly by the valleys of the Rivers du Sud, Noire and St. John to Edmunston, and thence, via the Ristigouche, to any point on Baie-des-Chaleurs, that may be chosen in connecticm with the now strongly advocated Gal way route. The line from Edmunston to Moncton has been already surveyed, which together, with the direct line from Quebec and the North Shore Railway, would make the distance from Montreal to Moncton 150 miles shorter than via , making gone by. le north, jnlimited jecessary I yille de venir un ■ Quebeic. intended rikingly natural a word I true to terprise ledge of „ uld still K) loiles Mirer to bhfrCa. 1 route hy the thence, osen in which ailway, tan via o o o o o % M o o ^ o A / s i s th< CO of ev d tl c t ara^.aM»M«J>AHIM-iLCiL.Wi.f< >.' :r . — 19 — tlie Intercolonial, and some 40 or 50 milles shorter than by the so called short line via SherKrooke and Mattawamkeag. The accompaning profile shows the gradas of the said so called short line* compared with those of the projected line to James Bay. — See Sessional Papers of the Province of Quebec. No. 29, vol. 19-3 of 1880. Of course, if the much talked of blocking of the straits of Bellisle were ever carried out, the St. Lawretice would be, no doubt, navigable to Quebec all the year round. This is no idle dream : it is only a question of money. The building of a dike or dam nine or ten miles in length, with an average depth of 200 feet, where the most suitable material for the .same can be had on the spot, is not a veiy stupendous undertaking where three nations are con- cerned. If the combined interests of Great Britain, the United States and Canada were fully weighed, the money would soon be available, for the cost would be trifling, compared with the material benefits to be derived therefrom. As water must come to its level, so must the main current of through transcontinental traffic, sooner or later, follow this proposed lin i from Quebec to James Bay, and thence, to the mouth of the Skeena via the Peace River Valley. This northern crossing of the Rockies was strongly recommended by Marcus Smith and other engineers of high standing at the time of the con- struction of the C. P. R'y. The whole line will lie from three to four hundred miles north of the C. P. Railway, assuring a more uniform temperature for the transport of the cereals and other products of the West : it has 2,000 feet lower summit, easier grades, and better alignment, ic will develop a world of territory now inaccessible, and besides being so far from the frontier, it will form a safe Military line, in a word, a back-bone m the country', in case of ho.stilities ; and with all this, it will bring the distance from Great Britain to China and Japan, to be about 600 miles shorter than by any other practicable route. I know 1 will be criticised for this apparent digression, and some may think my is the Rocky Mountains, and we liave built one in Cana