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OUR LAND OF PROMISE: 
 
 A RUN THROUGH THE 
 
 \ 
 
 CANADIAN NORTH-WEST 
 
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 ^ i 
 
 1.1^ 
 
 Count de Bouthillier-Chavigny. 
 
 MONTREAL : 
 The Gazette Printing Company. 
 
 
Entere.3 aooording to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one 
 thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, in the office of the Mister of 
 Agriculture, by Count deBouthillier-Ohavigny. MiniBter ot 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 Thanks to a wise and far-seeing policy, Canada has 
 for twenty-five years been advancing with giant str^-'^ea 
 in the path of progress. 
 
 To realize the nature and extent of the progresn and 
 to appreciate the prodigious economic development of 
 the Dominion, one has only to take his valise and to sot 
 out for the Canadian North-West. It was my good for- 
 tune to take this trip and it has been for me a veritable 
 revelation. On my route from Montreal to the Bocky 
 Mountains I learned everywhere what the will can 
 accomplish when it is guided by practical intelligence 
 and a lofty sense of patriotism. 
 
 In Manitoba, all through the Territories, and in that 
 wonderful British Columbia, of which by-and-by I will 
 have occasion to speak at some length, I ascertained 
 what grand results this patriotism had brought to pass. 
 The work to which these results are due is life-giving in 
 its energies ; to-day it is the honor, to-morrow it will be 
 the safeguard, of those young countries. 
 
 In the course of my journey — which was far too rapid 
 for my taste — I collected certain data and experienced 
 certain impressions, in the publication of which I believe 
 that I am discharging a duty. In my judgment, every 
 
 2.7G 9 2. 
 
traveller, however modest he may be, has a mission to 
 instruct those who cannot follow in his steps. In acquit- 
 ting himself of this task, he not only renders a service 
 to his neighbor, but he also pays a debt of gratitude to 
 the country which yielded him so much pleasure. 
 
 For my own part, therefore, I publish these notes 
 without the least hesitation. It is my assured convic- 
 tion that of all the regions of the world, there is not one 
 at this moment that offers to private initiative so fruit- 
 ful a field of activity as the Canadian North-West. In 
 that Land of Promise the hope of success never betrays 
 the patient and industriors settler. ^ 
 
 present the reading public with my observations and 
 
 iections just as they were jotted down, as circum- 
 stances and chance encounters with colonists suggested 
 them. I claim for them but one merit— that of sincerity ; 
 and I cordially hope that the perusal of them may lead 
 to a just appreciation of the grand young country for 
 which Providence has prepared destinies second to none 
 on the American Continent. 
 
 Be Bouthilliib-Chaviont. 
 
 {*) 
 
 2 
 
 In 1868 the total amount of Imports and 
 
 In 1880 
 In 1892 
 
 Exports was 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 
 $ 131,027,532 
 174,401,205 
 241,369,443 
 
 In 1868 the total value of Exports of Can- 
 adian produce was - - $ 48,604,899 
 In 1880 do do 72,89C,697 
 In 1892 do do 99,338,913 
 
6 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 The Interprovincial Trade is estimated at $ 90,000,000 
 
 In 1868 there was in operation in Cana^ 
 
 da, miles of railway ... 2,258 
 
 In 1875 do do 4,826 
 
 In 1892 do do 14,588 
 
 In 1875 the railways transported, passeng's 5,190,416 
 do do tons freight 6,670,836 
 
 In 1892 do . do passengers 13.533,414 
 
 do do tons freight 22,189,923 
 
 In 1875 the proportion of expenses to receipts 
 
 was 81 % 
 
 In 1892 do do 70" 
 
 The mercantile marine of Canada is the Fifth In the 
 world. 
 
 In 1868 the deposits in the Chartered 
 
 Banks of Canada amounted to 
 In 1880 do do 
 
 In 1890 do do 
 
 In 1891 do do 
 
 In 1892 do do 
 
 The increase in 1891 over 1890 has been 
 
 do 1892 1891 do 
 
 This will give a total increase in 2 years of 34,969,538 
 
 In 1892 the total amount of deposits in 
 the Chartered Banks, Post Office and 
 Government Savings Banks, Montreal 
 and Quebec Savings Banks and in the 
 hands of loan cocipaniea was 
 
 The increase over 1891 being 
 
 In 189!^ the amount deposited in Postal 
 
 Savings Banks only, was - - $22,298,401 
 
 $ 32,808.103 
 
 84,818,804 
 
 136,187,515 
 
 149,431,573 
 
 171,157,053 
 
 13,244,058 
 
 21,725,480 
 
 $241,498,900 
 23,698,160 
 
 These figures require no comments. 
 
\ 
 
EN ROUTE FOR MANITOBA. 
 
 Some eight years ago the tourist who desired to reach 
 the North-West of Canada had his choice of two routes. 
 He might, passing through Toronto, the capital of On- 
 tario, get on board at Owen Sound, Georgian Bay, of one 
 of those splendid clippers of the Canadian Pacific Com- 
 pany, and after crossing the broad expanses of Lakes 
 Huron and Superior, disembark at Port Arthur, a little 
 Canadian town on the western shore of the latter lake, 
 where he would find awaiting him the cars of the trans- 
 continental line. Or, again, he might make his way by 
 the American railways to Saint Paul, the capital of 
 Minnesota, and from there betake himself to Winnipeg, 
 the chief town of the Province of Manitoba. But the 
 lake route was closed all winter, so that the United 
 States route could alone be depended on all the year 
 round. The commercial relations between the east and 
 the west of the Dominion were thus at the mercy of our 
 neighbors' good-will. 
 
 Since 1885, however, the Canadians have been masters 
 of their own domain. They can freely traverse their 
 magnificent country from one end to the other without 
 passing through a foreign custom-house. The Parisian 
 who starts for Marseilles flatters himself that he is under- 
 taking a great journey. Sometimes he makes his will 
 
8 
 
 before leaviDg home, and in any case takes precautions 
 which would cause a smile on this side of the Atlantic. 
 The distance from Paris to Marseilles is only 800 kilo- 
 metres, while from Montreal to Yancouver, on the Pacific 
 Ocean, by the north of the Great Lakes, it is 2,906 miles I 
 Tet in Canada no one thinks it out of the way to under- 
 take so long a journey. It is true that modern inven- 
 tion has so marvellously perfected the means of locomo- 
 tion in the New "World that six days of railway travel 
 are more endurable than a few hours spent in the 
 cramped boxes of Hlurope. 
 
 Most people have read an account of those Ruperb 
 sleeping cars which penetrate to all parts of the Ameri- 
 can Continent. In their luxurious apartments the 
 traveller, for a sum comparatively trifling, may live as 
 comfortably as in a first-class hotel. He has at his 
 disposal a bufifet well supplied, a good library, a smoking 
 room, and even a bath-room. 
 
 Nor are the immigrants less carefully provided for. 
 The wagons set apart for thorn by the Company are 
 really sleeping cars without their luxurious acpessories. 
 The dimensions and arrangements are the same. On 
 both sides of the central aisle are placed movable seats 
 which, joined in pairs, form excellent beds for the future 
 colonists to dream of the fortunes in quest of which they 
 have come so far. At the two extremities and in com- 
 partments perfectly isolated two enormous stoves are 
 permanently installed. One serves to heat the wagons 
 in winter ; the other, always lighted, is placed gratui- 
 tously at the disposal of the immigrants for the cooking 
 
 
 \ 
 
of their meals. The smokers also have their special 
 den. And if it be added that to each of these wagons 
 are attached special employees, as well as inter- 
 preters, all charged with the duty, according to their 
 respective spheres, of watching over the well-being 
 of the passengers, it will be easy to understand that 
 everything in the arrangements is adapted to give the 
 new-comer a favorable impression of his as yet unknown 
 destination. 
 
 On the day of mj'^ departure the rain fell in torrents, 
 and the wind blew in vehement gusts. I consoled my- 
 self for this contretemps by remembering that in four 
 days I could have my lungs full of the life-giving air 
 of the great western plains. 
 
 We are ere long approaching Ottawa, the federal 
 capital of the jDominion. The moon has risen. In the 
 light of her rays we perceive, perched on its promontory, 
 which commands the grand Ottawa Valley, the sleeping 
 city. The sombre mass of the Parliament buildings 
 stands boldly out on the background of a sky spangled 
 with countless stars. We remain a few minutes and 
 then with full steam pursue our nightly course. Carle- 
 ton, Almonte, Benfrew, Pembroke, which we pass during 
 the night, are described in my guiv;e-book as important 
 industrial centres. Yesterday they were but humble 
 villages. They owe not a little to their situation on the 
 banks of the Ottawa or its affluents, and are thus in the 
 commercial artery of that Grand North, which will one 
 day rival the older portion of the Province of Quebec. 
 The region which bears this name has an area of more 
 
 / 
 
10 
 
 than a hundred thouBand square miles extending from 
 the Saguenay to the Ottawa, while its northern limits 
 touch the wooded solitudes that stretch towai*ds Hudson's 
 Bay. Mighty rivers, the St. Maurice, the Eivi^re Bouge, 
 the North River, the Lidvre, the Gatineau, the Coulonge ; 
 lakes that are truly inland seas, such as Lakes St. John, 
 Nominingue, Temiscamingue, contribute to the fertility 
 of the country and serve as a means of communication 
 where the iron horae is not yet at work. The soil is of 
 marvellous fecundity, the surface largely undulating, 
 and the land is adapted to all kinds of culture. Wood is 
 found in abundance and the pastures rival in richne^^s 
 those of the North-West. 
 
 At Chalk River, one of the divisional points of the 
 line, nature assumes a wilder aspect. Habitations be- 
 come few and far between ; the horizons are of greater 
 amplitude, and on the surrounding hills beauliful trees 
 raise to heaven their plumy heads. They do not 
 dream, these denizens of the forest primeval, that Pro- 
 gress is advancing from the east with giant pace and 
 that ere long they also will vanish by are and fire, those 
 soldiers of destruction, the vanguard of unresting pro- 
 gress, from whose coming there is no escape. 
 
 Mattawa, which we pass at full speed, was a few years 
 ago a simple post of the Hudson's Bay Company ; it is 
 now a sturdy infant city of 2,000 inhabitants. The head 
 of the Lake Temiscamingue Colonization Railway, it is 
 destined to become a great entrepdt of trade to a terri- 
 tory of more than 600,000 square miles in extent. 
 About ten years ago a Colonization Society undertook 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
11 
 
 the settlement of the Jjake TemiBcamin^ae region, and by 
 dint of persevering efforts has succeeded in overcoming 
 the indifference of some and the incredulity of others. 
 To-day on the shores of the lake, which has an area of 
 300 square miles, and along the rivers that issue from it, 
 some six hundred families have their homes, and the 
 colonization movement is constantly yielding results. 
 The land is remarkably fertile and, what is calculated to 
 surprise the uninitiated, the climate of this northern 
 region is more temperate than more southerly parts of 
 the Province. Communication between Mattawa and 
 Lake Temiscamingue was far from easy. The Ottawa^ 
 which traverses the lake through its whole length, is 
 not navigable along its entire coui*se, and between the 
 lake and Mattawa numerous rapids intercept navigation. 
 It was necessary, therefore, before 'undertaking to push 
 immigration with energy in this direction, that a road 
 should be opened. The company did not delay. It was 
 decided that where navigation was impracticable short 
 lines of railway should Is built along the river. The 
 work was at once begun and before the end of two years 
 the road was finished. 
 
 I need not enlarge on the colonization of Temisca* 
 mingue. The single fact that the Canadian Pacific 
 Company has just acquired the line f\*om the Mattawa to 
 the lake evinces the company's confidence in the future 
 of the district ; ana this confidence ought surely to be a 
 sufficient guarantee to those who hesitate to try their 
 fortunes in this part of Canada. 
 
12 
 
 What a scene is this ! Nature in a state of topsy- 
 turviness : as far as the eye can reach, a chaos of rocks 
 of every form and hue. In places one catches u glimpse 
 of a ''ew square feet of yellowish soil, covered with 
 meagre brush and blanched and shrunken shrubs, the 
 growth of which has for some reason been arrested. 
 Such to the traveller is the appearance of the environs of 
 Sudbury, only yesterday a spot lost in the vast solitudes 
 of the North, and of which the fortune has been made by 
 the timely pickaxe of a laborer ! Here, indeed, by one 
 of those sublime fancies which the savants will never 
 succeed in explaining, in the midst of this nature appar- 
 ently so inhospitable, Providence left a cacJie of incal- 
 culable treasures. The deposits of copper and nickel in 
 Sudbury are deemed the most important in the world. 
 The place itself is as yet but a little village of 1,500 
 inhabitants, situated on the main line of the Canadian 
 Pacific, 40 miles north of Georgian Bay and 440 from 
 Montreal. But already Progress has touched it with 
 magic fingers, and in ten years the population will have 
 risen to 20,000 souls. It is destined to be the centre of 
 one of the richest mining districts on the American con- 
 tinent. Even now the land is of considerable value. 
 Within a radius of six miles on each side of the railway 
 it has been taken up by English, American and Canadian 
 companies. Prospectors in search of new deposits must 
 now bend their steps northwards. And, in fact, in rear 
 of Sudbury, in the direction of James Bay, the lands, 
 according to the statement of the Government geologist, 
 are of unrivalled richness in minerals of all kinds, do- 
 
13 
 
 posits of copper, nickel and argentiferous lead seeming 
 to predominate. 
 
 From Sudbury extends in the direction of Lake Su- 
 perior one of the most important branches of the Cana- 
 dian Pacific — a line which connects the Canadian trans- 
 continental system with that of the United States 
 railways, and assures the Dominion, in a near future, 
 the control of the traffic of the Western States. In this 
 colossal enterprise of the Canadian Pacific, not less 
 admirable than the boldness of the engineers who 
 planned it is the assured foresight of the men who, from 
 the moment of its inception, were able to establish on 
 the surest foundations the economic future of the work. 
 The question to be solved was not merely the construc- 
 tion, through a country three-fourths wilderness, of a 
 railway 4,000 kilometres long. By means of dollai*s 
 and of dynamite it was easy enough to overcome natural 
 obstacles. But when the road was completed it was 
 necessary to provide for its traffic until the country to 
 which it was to give life should itself be in a position to 
 support it. It was also indispensable to secure the 
 young enterprise against American competition, while 
 preparing for the struggle that must take place in a not 
 distant future. The surest way to attain this twofold 
 object was to anticipate on its own ground the rivalry 
 which was apprehended. The scheme was a daring one, 
 but the directors of the Canadian Pacific did not hesitate 
 to put it into execution. And the most complete success 
 baH justified their boldness. Conjointly with the build- 
 ing of the transcontinental, the Company undertook the 
 
u 
 
 construction of a whole network of secondary lines, 
 which were laid out in such a way as to he feeders to the 
 main line, while at the same time they attracted to 
 Canada a considerable portion of the commerce of the 
 Western States. All these projects were pushed on so 
 rapidly that towards the middle of 1888 the Canadian 
 Pacific Company, in addition to the 4,675 kilometres of 
 the main line, possessed already 3,900 kilometres of 
 secondary roads, which penetrated from all directions to 
 the centre of the richest agricultural and industrial dis- 
 tricts of the United States. 
 
 The McKinley bill may be regarded as the reply of 
 the Americans to the challenge of their young and enter- 
 prising northern neighbor t 
 
 In some quarters the audacity of the Company has 
 provoked criticism, accompanied by various charges. If 
 the present position of the affairs of the Company did 
 not furnish a complete refutation of such charges, it 
 might be opportune to recall that in the latter months 
 of 1884 the Company had already applied thirty-seven 
 millions of dollars of its capital to works not stipulated 
 in the contract, but which nevertheless were deemed 
 absolutely indispensable for the success of the enterprise. 
 I give this information simply to show how much the 
 pi'omoters of the road were influenced by patriotism and 
 public spirit, and how utterly false were those who 
 accused them of making a monopoly with the public 
 funds or of speculating for the benefit of foreigners with 
 the money of Canadian taxpayers. 
 
15 
 
 Daring seven months of the year, from the beginning 
 of May to the close of November, the Eiver St. Lawrence 
 is f^ee from ice. Montreal is during this period the 
 maritime port of North America that is nearest to Eng- 
 land. £y the Strait of Belle Isle the distance from that 
 city to Liverpool is 2,660 miles. From Boston to the 
 same seaport the distance is 2,950 miles, or 290 more 
 than from Montreal. The problem, then, that the 
 Canadian Pacific had to solve was to endeavor to turn 
 the export traffic of the Western States to the greatest 
 possible advantage of Montreal. To attain this object 
 the Company had only to conform to the indications of 
 nature herself, which seems to have framed the hydro- 
 graphy of North America with the single aim of favoring 
 the economic interests of Canada. While the configura- 
 tion of Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario facili- 
 tates in a large measure the development of commercial 
 relations between this country and the United States, 
 that of Lake Michigan, on the contrary, forms a natural 
 obstacle which the western traffic of the States must get 
 round in order to reach the coast of the Atlantic. In 
 other terms, Lake Michigan intercepts the direct line 
 from the great agricultural centres of the West to the 
 Atlantic Ocean. This straight line, again, that is, the 
 shortest route from the centres of production in the 
 Western States to the nearest ocean port, passes between 
 Lakes Michigan and Superior and ends at Montreal. 
 Of this very route the Canadian Pacific assured itself 
 the control by means of the " Soo " branch. It now lies, 
 therefore, with the Federal Govei*nment and the people 
 
16 
 
 of Montreal whether the ancient city of Maisonneuve 
 becomes what nature intended it to be — the most im- 
 portant maritime city in North America. 
 
 In short, the economic policy of the Canadian Pacitio 
 may be summed up in two lines. It has not only tha 
 control of the shortest route across the continent of North 
 America, but it virtually commands the traffic of all tho 
 Northern States. And these results were attained, after 
 ten years of ©flfort, by a people of scarcely five million 
 inhabitants. Is not this fact worth reflecting on by 
 those who are tempted to imagine that the banks of the 
 St. Lawrence are only peopled by annexationists of the 
 Gold win Smith type ? 
 
 All morning we have been advancing along the shores 
 of Lake Superior. The sky is overclouded, and the 
 snow-flakes, driven by a violent gust from the souths 
 have enveloped our train in a white whirlwind. We are 
 running at full steam along a precipitous highway 
 carved by dynamite from the flanks of a wall of granite. 
 To the right, a hundred feet below, one sees through the 
 storm the waters of the lake. The wind, which blows 
 tempestuously, seems to be urging them to assault the 
 rock at the summit of which the genius of man has 
 cleared a way for progress and civilization. The scene 
 is hardly perceived till it has vanished. The granite 
 wall opens and the train ventures at full speed upon a 
 long wooden bridge of giddy height. We are simply 
 astride a valley, to the bottom of which descend the 
 tumultuous waters of a torrent. Now and then, through 
 rents in the storm, we catch glimpses of the billowy 
 
ineuve 
 ►st im- 
 
 Pacific 
 aly tha 
 •North 
 all the 
 i, after 
 million 
 on by 
 I of the 
 \ of the 
 
 I shores 
 nd the 
 souths 
 We are 
 ghway 
 ranite. 
 gh the 
 blows 
 tit the 
 n has 
 scene 
 ranite 
 pon a 
 imply 
 d the 
 rough 
 llowy 
 
 17 
 
 surface of Lake Superior. It is a weird track. Here 
 we skirt along abysses, there we cross the long trestle 
 bridge, below which or not far off we guess, through the 
 fog, the agitated waters of the bay. At last the train 
 rounds a ridge, and wherever the eye is turned the 
 waves of the lake spread out before us. 
 
 The weather has become fine, the wind is calmed, and 
 standing on the rear of the train I take note of the 
 enormous difficulties surmounted by the engineers in 
 the construction of this part of the road. After passing 
 Schreiber, one of the divisional points of the line, the 
 track enters a sort of channel hollowed by dynamite in 
 an enormous mass of red granite. To the right- and to 
 the left two walls of rock raise themselves to peaks. In 
 some places they are from a hundred to a hundred and 
 fifty feet high. More than ten miles are thus traversed, 
 the waters of the lake appearing only here and there. 
 
 Port Arthur is a pretty little town on the western 
 shore of Lake Superior. It rises into an amphitheatre 
 on the flank of a wooded hill and commands a view of 
 Thunder Bay. Formerly the place where it stands was 
 only visited occasionally by Indians or a few minei*s in 
 quest of lodes of gold or silver. The harbor is well 
 sheltered from the southerly blasts by the heights of 
 Pic, Welcome, Thunder Cape, and by He Royale, the 
 lofty clifl's of which may be seen some ten miles out on 
 the lake. The commercial movement here is consider- 
 able. Port Arthur is indeea the head of the internal 
 navigation of Canada. Some fifty steamers, besides the 
 
 splendid packet-boats of the Canadian Pacific, put the 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 I I 
 1 
 
 town in communication with Owen Sound, Collingwood, 
 Sarnia, Duluth, Chicago and all the great maritime 
 centres of the lakes. In 1882 the Canadian Pacific Com- 
 pany established a steamboat service between Owen 
 Sound on Lake Huron and Port Arthur. This line was 
 intended to place the Eastern Provinces of the Dominion 
 in communication with those of the West until the com- 
 pletion of the railway north of Lake Superior. The trip 
 on these magnificent steamers takes two days, and it 
 •offers all the incidents of an ocean voyage, while the 
 scenes that are unfolded before the eyes of the tourist 
 through the whole extent of Georgian Bay and in the 
 approaches to Sault Sainte Marie are of fairy-like beauty. 
 Besides, the furnishing of these boats yields in no 
 lespect for comfort and even luxury to the most 
 renowned trans- Atlantic steamers. They register 2,500 
 tons, are built of steel and are excellent for speed. The 
 cuisine is good, the service well ordered, the oflScers are 
 mariners accustomed to all the surprises of the lakes. 
 It is not generally known that the navigation of the 
 North American lakes is extremely dangerous, and that 
 the tempests that arise on these vast stretches of water 
 of more than 100,000 square miles are of a violence on'y 
 equalled by the hunicanes of the English Channel. 
 Although \ }W that the route to the north of the lakes is 
 opened the demand for the steamers of the Canadian 
 Pacific is no longer so urgent, they might have to play 
 an important r61e in case of complications with the 
 United States. For they could easily be converted into 
 fast cruisers for the protection of the northern shore of 
 
19 
 
 Lake Superior from a surprise by the Americans. In 
 any case they would form the nucleus of a fleet that 
 England could rapidly concentrate on the lakes for the 
 protection of the most vulnerable portion of the gieat 
 strategic artery of the Dominion and of the Empire. 
 The prosperity of Port Arthur is not only due to its 
 privileged position on the lakes; it has another origin. 
 The district of which this city is the centre abounds in 
 deposits of argentiferous^re. Several mines are in full 
 operation in the country around and every year new 
 veins are discovered. Although they have been opened 
 only a few years, these mines have already made the 
 fortunes of several proprietors. 
 
 The star of Port Arthur is, however, threatened with 
 eclipse by that of a small city situated some miles to the 
 south of it, on the banks of the Kaministiquia, and 
 which has been making undoubted progress. It was at 
 the mouth of this river that General (now Viscount) 
 Wolseley, in his campaign against the half-breeds of the 
 North-West in 1870, established the centre of his com- 
 missariat. There stands now the city of Fort William, 
 the home of a population of three thousand souls.* It is 
 the terminus on the lakes of the western division of the 
 Canadian Pacific Eailway. The city derives its chief 
 importance from the immense elevators constructed by 
 the Company and capable of containing more than three 
 
 * Fort William may claim to have been founded by Dulutb, 
 whose name is borne by an American city further south, on the 
 shores of the same great lake. It was formerly the metropolis 
 of the fur-trading Nor'Westers. 
 
I I 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 million bashels of wheat. Fort William is destined to 
 become in the near future the great entrepdt of the 
 grain trade of the Canadian West. 
 
 Although civilization has barely penetrated to the 
 shores of Lake Superior, electricity in its various forms 
 has already made its appearance ; the telephone is at work 
 everywhere, and the two cities just mentioned have been 
 placed in communication by a service of electric tram- 
 ways. 
 
 From Fort William to Winnipeg nature is out of 
 humor. The landscapes, which I contemplate by moon- 
 light, are as desolate as those in the environs of Sudbury. 
 Here, as there, nature's forbidding aspect hides away 
 beneath the soil incalculable wealth. The explorers 
 sent by the Federal Government to survey the country 
 found all over it deposits of gold and silver of unrealized 
 value. Every day some new mine is taken up to be 
 worked, and in the train of the miners progress makes 
 its way into the heart of the wilderness. 
 
 It is 7 o'clock in the morning, and the sun shines forth 
 with all his splendor, flooding with his rays the lake, the 
 wooded islets and all surrounding nature. The sky is of 
 an absolute blue without a spot of grey, as far as the eye 
 can reach. The surface of the gi'ound, the roofs of the 
 houses and the trees are covered with a thin robe of 
 snow. The city is still sleeping, but columns of smoke 
 that ascend straight upwai*ds indicate that some house- 
 keepers are already at their tasks. Kot a sound breaks 
 the deep and far-spreading silence save the measured 
 breathing of the engine. We stop for a few moments 
 
21 
 
 and I descend from the train. A slender layer of snow 
 crackles under my feet : the thermometer of the station 
 mai'ks 14 degrees below zero. Bat not a breath of wind 
 stirs the air. Ere long I feel that peculiar sensation 
 which is so well known to those who have spent a winter 
 in Manitoba — a sensation of physical and moral well- 
 being which I cannot describe. It seems as if a weight 
 were lifted off the shoulders and my spirits are corre- 
 spondingly elevated. And this is just the beneficent 
 effect which the cold of Manitoba exercises on the organ- 
 ism. It is dry, tingling, and seems to infuse into the 
 blood a fluid that increases its vigor tenfold. The cold 
 in the Eastern Provinces tends to stupefy, and, being 
 saturated wii^h humidity, provokes rheumatism. That 
 of Manitoba, on the other hand, cures that malady. 
 
 Rat Portage is to-day part of the Province of Ontario, 
 a commission of arbitration having so decided, in spite 
 of the dissatisfaction of Manitoba. The struggle between 
 the two provinces lasted long, and was pushed to an ex- 
 treme, as is usually the case in new countries. At one 
 time it became critical, when each province appointed 
 its own magistrates at Bat Portage. Every office had 
 two functionaries, with the result that by-and-by there 
 was neither police nor justice. This state of anarchy 
 did nut, howevei:, last long. Calm was restored. Eat 
 Portage, forgetting its former quarrels, is advancing 
 rapidly on the path of progress, and therefore of pros- 
 perity. 
 
 Five years ago the present city was only a village. 
 To-day the population is beyond 3,000 souls. Numerous 
 
{' 
 
 22 
 
 saw-mills, grist mills and fishing establishments are rising 
 up on the borders of the lake as well as at Keewatin, 
 which is some seventeen miles distant. Auriferous de- 
 posits have been discovered in the environs of the city 
 and have begun to be worked. High furnaces are in 
 process of construction. During the summer a line of 
 steamers put Eat Portage in communication with the 
 American cities on the frontier. 
 
 After leaving Rat Portage the country undergoes a 
 transformation. Clumps of trees become more and more 
 scarce ; .the ground undulates — the undulations diminish- 
 ing gradually until at Beausejour the prairie makes its 
 appearance, not to be left behind till we reach the Rocky 
 Mountains. 
 
 Soon, in the distance spires of churches and factory 
 chimneys are vaguely outlined on the blue background 
 of the horizon. We approach Winnipeg, the Queen of 
 the Prairies of the Canadian West. We are now 1,424 
 miles from Montreal and 1,482 from the Pacific coast. 
 
 ■— «x^^^^^^>^— 
 
MANITOBA. 
 
 "Winnipeg is the capital of the Province of Manitoba, 
 and, although it numberB only twenty years of existence, 
 it can proudly claim to be the metropolis — the mother 
 city — of all the young cities of the West. 
 
 In ISTO it was a modest village, partly Indian, partly 
 half-breed, yet in 1881 had 7,985 inhabitant?. At the 
 last census (1891) its population was said to be 25,642 
 souls, an increase of 221 per cent, in ten years. These 
 figures need no comment ; they indicate of themselves 
 the prosperity of Winnipeg and the future reserved for 
 it. Notwithstanding this prosperity, the history of the 
 capital of Manitoba may serve as a lesson to those who 
 are liable to lose their heads in view of the great natural 
 wealth of the country. A too ambitious anticipation of 
 riches almost plunged the nascent city a dozen years 
 ago in irretrievable ruin. In 1882 the Canadian Pacific 
 Company had made the banks of the Bed River the 
 headquarters of its operations in the West. Already 
 Winnipeg was in communication with the Eastern 
 Provinces, and the railway advancing rapidly towards 
 the Eocky Mountains. Immigration assumed consider- 
 able proportions. A brilliant future seemed in sight. 
 The moment seemed opportune for speculation. Winni- 
 peg became the rendezvous of "boomers" of both the New 
 World and the Old. In a few months the population 
 doubled. The houses constructed were not sufficient to 
 
3!i 
 
 ! I 
 
 24 
 
 accommodate the influx of new-comers, and tents wore 
 erected in streets, gardens, and all the surroundings of 
 the city. A blast of folly (the worst of all follies is the 
 mania for gold) swept over the young city. A few re- 
 sounding blows of the hammer of the land auctioneer 
 sufficed to turn the heads of the whole community. The 
 Queen of the Pi-airies was to inaugurate her reign by a 
 boom of prodigious significance, but alas ! a crash of 
 dii^aster of corresponding amplitude was to follow on its 
 heels. The crisis began quickly. Every one was gnaw- 
 ing his strength. The sellers of property were still 
 timid, the buyers cautious. But ere long timidity and 
 prudence had vanished. Little by little the small fry of 
 speculation became excited as its upper hierarchy made 
 some clever hits. The fever of stock-jobbing was slowly 
 developing. Then all at once it declared itself in its fViU 
 force and became epidemic, not only in Winnipeg, but 
 over a considerable portion of the Dominion. 
 
 From day to day the price of land attained fabulous 
 figures. A lot sold in the morning for a thousand dol- 
 lars was sold again at noon for five thousand and in the 
 evening for ten thousand. An agitated, delirious multi- 
 tude of people jostled each other day and night in the 
 streets. There was no cessation to the business ; when 
 the sun rose it began, when the lamps were lit it was 
 continued over the champagne. The walls of houses 
 were covered with placards of enormous size, indicating 
 in big letters the numbers of the lots that were for 
 sale. At the corners of the thoroughfares the auction- 
 eers vociferated to a breathless crowd the wildest figui'es. 
 
25 
 
 Fortunes made one day crumbled into nothingness the 
 next. The telegraph employees were completely 
 knocked up. Everywhere orders were coming in for 
 purchase or sale. From London, from New York, from 
 Paris even, despatches followed each other without inter- 
 mission. Everyone wanted to have a lot in this city of 
 Winnipeg which, it was predicted, would in a few months 
 leave Chicago far in 1 he rear. This delirium of covetous- 
 ness lasted for some weeks. Then came a rude awaken- 
 ing. One fine morning, as if by enchantment, alarming 
 news began to circulate, spread doubtless by some 
 glutted speculator who thought it time to retire. The 
 fever abated suddenly, and everyone began to count his 
 gains or — losses. The results were most disastrous. 
 The first runs of speculation had swallowed up the 
 money in circulation. Before long business was con- 
 ducted by verbal promise, credit or paper. When the 
 hour for settlement came there was no money in hand. 
 Thus it happened that on the day after the crash pro- 
 perty that had been quoted at a hundred thousand dollara 
 the Jay before was scarcely worth a few thousands. The 
 consequences of this " boom " were ruinous, not only for 
 those who had allowed themselves to be duped by it, 
 but for the city itself For long years it tended to com- 
 promise the course of business and had a singularly 
 depressing effect on the value of property in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Winnipeg. Still the energy of real men of 
 business got the better of all embarrassment. Discour- 
 agement is an infirmity from whioh few suffer in the 
 West. In fact, I recognized nowhere during my visit 
 
26 
 
 any evil results from that wild speculation. The 
 ** boom " proved in the end simply a salutary warning, 
 not only for Winnipeg, but for the whole North- West. 
 To-day the capital of Manitoba is a great city in every 
 sense of the word. It is built at the confluence of the 
 Eed Eiver and the Assiniboine — water-ways that aie 
 both navigable and form commercial arteries of the first 
 order; the Red River especially, which in its course 
 traverses more than three hundred miles of American 
 territory and discharges itself into Lake Winnipeg, com- 
 mands the whole interior navigation of the North-West. 
 Into Lake Winnipeg empties also the river Sas- 
 katchewan, navigable for more than four hundred miles 
 from its mouth and whose two branches water the most 
 fertile region in the North-West. 
 
 In 1881 the value of real estate was estimated in 
 Winnipeg at nine million dollars ($9,000,000) in round 
 numbers. In 1890 this sum had risen to nineteen mil- 
 lions ($19,000,000). The city is handsome and well situ- 
 ated and built on the American plan. The streets are 
 of extraordinary breudth ; they cross each other at right 
 angles. Above the houses, along their fronts, from 
 street to street, thousands of interlacing telegraph wires 
 indicate the extent of the business transacted. The pub- 
 lic buildings are of cut stone or brick. The English 
 style of architecture everywhere prevails. Certain 
 blocks appear like fortresses of the middle age, with 
 their low doors, their turrets and their quasi donjons, 
 above which floats the British or Canadian flag. If the 
 taste is doubtful, the solidity of these houses is beyond 
 question, and is not that the main thing? 
 
27 
 
 Winnipeg is for the West the grand centre of distribu- 
 tion. Its commercial ramifications extend from Lake 
 Superior to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and regions 
 that touch the Arctic. It is in direct communication 
 with all the great centres of the United States. The 
 business men of the city are full of enterprise and 
 push ; their confidence in the future of the city having' 
 been justified, their ardor for work joined to their un- 
 ceasing good humor are the truest guarantees of the 
 success of their efforts. I was, besides, struck at Winni- 
 peg with the spirit of solidarity that animates the popu- 
 lation. Politics apart, which here as elsewhere has its 
 divisions, everyone, while working for himself, gladly 
 takes his share in every undertaking that tends to pro- 
 mote the general prosperity. No one keeps himself in 
 isolation from the general interests of the country. Not 
 a day passes on which citizens of influence do not come 
 together to uiscuss some question relative to the welfare 
 of the community. These discussions are sometimes 
 heated, but their warmth is a manifestation of energy 
 that is not without its good results. 
 
 At the time of my arrival at Winnipeg the question 
 most discussed was the construction of a new railway — 
 that to Hudson'8 Bay. This project would connect the 
 net-work of the Manitoba linos with the waters of the 
 great bay by means of a road running directly north- 
 wards, passing between lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba, 
 and following the courses of the rivers Nelson and 
 Churchill to the mouth of the latter. Acoording to the 
 promoters this line would shorten, by several hundred 
 
!: ' 
 
 l : 
 
 m 
 < 
 
 itlii 
 
 i 
 
 28 
 
 miles, the distance from Winnipeg to Liverpool. From 
 Fort Churchill, one of the most ancient fur-trading posts 
 of the West, steamers would carry merchandise to Eng- 
 land, passing through Hudson's Strait. There is really 
 nothing new in this scheme. It was this route that the 
 powerful Hudson's Bay Company used formerly for its 
 trade. By this same route Lord Selkirk's settlers pene- 
 trated to Manitoba in 1812. Hudson's Bay is open to 
 navigation the greater part of the year ; it is the strait 
 only that is closed by the ice for six or seven months of 
 the year. The construction of this line naturally raises 
 the expectations of the people of Manitoba to a high 
 pitch. Great hopes are based on Ogures that are not 
 without their value. At the same time one may question 
 the timeliness of an undertaking so considerable. Sub- 
 sidized as it is by the local Government, it involves the 
 province in large outlays at a moment when all the 
 efforts of its public men should be devoted to the task of 
 colonizing the country and developing, to the utmost ex- 
 tent possible, the local industries. The promoters of the 
 project, whose energy is beyond all praise, maintain that 
 the future of the province is intimately bound up with 
 that of their railway. They predict that the latter, once 
 in operation, will create a revolution in the trade of 
 Western America. They anticipate the day when all 
 the grain of the Northern States will pass through Win- 
 nipeg to Hudson's Bay. In theory these prophecies 
 have tlieir attraction. It remains to be seen what will 
 be the issue in practice. 
 One thing is admitted — that, even if the line wore com- 
 
29 
 
 pleted, it could only be used for exportation during four 
 or five months in the year, during the period, in fact, 
 in which Hudson's Strait remains open and navigable. 
 For seven months it will be simply a local line travers- 
 ing immense solitudes which will berf service for colon- 
 ization only after the fertile plains of the North- West are 
 burdened with a surplus population I Manitoba already 
 has a net-work of railways adapted to the needs of the 
 province. Would it not be more prudent for the prep 
 ent to be satisfied with these lines and to utilize, for the 
 development of agriculture and other industries, the im- 
 mense sums of money that must be swallowed up in 
 fresh railway enterprises ? 
 
 In Manitoba the population is constantly on the in- 
 crease, and the improvements are every year more and 
 more numerous. Is it not time that the Government set 
 about creating now industries so as to diminish the cost 
 of living ? Agriculture works rapid progress and from 
 day to day the pobition of the settlers grows better. Still 
 these settlers have to spend large sums for agricultural 
 implements which as yet can only be obtained from On- 
 tario or the United States. Now, if these implements 
 were manufactured within the limits of the province, 
 they could be procured much more cheaply by the set- 
 tlers, to whom the discount would be of considerable 
 advantage. 
 
 At Winnipeg complaints are heard of the scarcity of 
 capital. A merchant once said to me, "Our province is 
 young ; everything has to be brought into being. A 
 thousand enterprises could be initiated at once if we 
 
lilili 
 
 30 
 
 flli 
 
 ■ fM h 
 
 ii !i 
 
 only had the capital. But of foreign capital we have 
 absolutely none. The industrial resources of our pro- 
 vince have not been sufficiently brought to light. The 
 wondrous wealth of our minerals has been emphasized at 
 the expense of our northern forests and oar unlimited 
 water-power. British, French, German capital is con- 
 centrated in the States, whereas, if invested with us, it 
 would yield dividends at least as remunerative. Now, 
 our Govei-nment ought to try and remedy this state of 
 things. Its first duty is to do for our industries what 
 it has done for railways. Let our i-ulers offer bonuses 
 sufficient to make profitable the first efforts, and you 
 will see how immediately manufactures will start to life 
 all over the province. Most assuredly the Government 
 which will succeed in establishing in the midst of our 
 population manufactures of cloth, of shoes, of hats, of 
 agricultural implements, of paper (paper mills), of lea- 
 ther (tanneries) — in a word, which will encourage our 
 industries and thus shape its policy to the benefit of the 
 consumei", will have done more more to assure the wealth 
 and prosperity of the province than the administration 
 that gives us a Hudson's Bay railway." 
 
 And this merchant was undoubtedly right. It is not 
 enough that the farmer should grow rich on these fertile 
 prairies ; it is also of importance that his money should 
 remain in the province and multiply to its benefit. I 
 only wish that the Government of Manitoba shared in 
 my opinion, and that the energetic population of that 
 fair province, whose claims 1 am fain to present ^o the 
 reader, might thus be the gainer. 
 
31 
 
 n. 
 
 The province of Manitoba is but a very small portion 
 of that immense Canadian North-West, whose limits are 
 the river Albany, on the east ; on the west, the Rocky 
 Mountains ; to the south, the American frontier, to the 
 north, the Polar solitudes. Omitting the lakes, the 
 North-West, as thus delimited, has an area of 1,588,947 
 square miles. The area of Manitoba is only 64,000 
 square miles — an area double that of the Kingdom of 
 Portugal. It occupies nearly the geographic centre of 
 North America, equally distant from Atlantic and Paci- 
 fic, and, as we have seen, it possesses all the conditions 
 desired to make it the most thriving agricultural centre 
 in the world. The Canadian Pacific Railway passes 
 through it, thus marking from Winnipeg to Brandon 
 the two chief agricultural zones of the country. West 
 of Brandon is unfolded the richest stretch of wheat-land 
 in America, perhaps in the world. 
 
 I have already spoken of the climate of Manitoba, but 
 this is a point which the enemies of Canada select so 
 often for their attacks, that it may be well to say once 
 more what 1 think on the subject. It is the Manitoban 
 winter that these adverse ciitics have delighted to paint 
 in deterrent colors. /*.nd yet it is just this season which, 
 by its imcomparablo charms, offers so remarkakle a con- 
 trast. True though it be that for four months of the 
 year the thermometer occasionally descends to 30 or 40 
 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit), the cold nevertheless 
 has no other effect than to stimulate the activities of the 
 
 ^I'i 
 
 ii), 
 
 I!' 
 
32 
 
 ill: 
 
 iM 
 
 III 
 
 i I 
 
 inhabitants. The nips of Jack Frost are taken in good 
 part and borne with the utmost good humor. Never^ 
 indeed, have I seen the joy of living more fully exempli- 
 fied than among the ''blamole'is Hyperboreans" of Mani- 
 toba, in the very heart ot their winter seasons. For, if 
 the cold is intense, the sky is ever blue and the atmos- 
 phere is of a limpidity comparable to that of Algeria. 
 The snow that falls is inconsiderable, the depth varying 
 in different districts from 12 to 18 inches — a phase in 
 which Manitoba's winter differs from that of Eastern 
 Canada. On the 1st of April, 1891, the average depth 
 of snow on the prairie was only 2 inches. At the same 
 date it was 7 inches in the Province of Quebec, 11 in 
 that of Ontario, and 16 in New Brunswick ! In Mani- 
 toba, ' the number of rainy days in the year is, on an 
 average, 54 ; in Ontario, 88 ; in Quebec, 91 ; in the Mari- 
 time Provinces, about 95. In W"e8tern Canada, there are 
 properly speaking, only four months of winter, Decem- 
 ber, January, February, March. 
 
 The fall is long and dry. 
 
 On my return from British Columbia, on the 20th of 
 December, the farmers were threshing their grain in the 
 open air along the whole extent of the prairie, nor was 
 there a trace of snow, save in the neighborhood of Win- 
 nipeg. 
 
 Moreover, the winter in Manitoba and in the whole of 
 that great West is not a dead season. It is the time 
 when the farmers transact their business. The snow, 
 hai*dened by the fVost, places at their disposal excellent 
 
33 
 
 roads. Activity is general, and all carrying is done by 
 means of traineaux especially made for use in the coun- 
 try. The salubrity of the climate is due to the dryness 
 of the atmosphere. Chest diseases are quite unknown in 
 Manitoba, and obstinate colds rare. One has only to 
 look at the children, and there is no lack of them, to ba 
 assured of the healthiness of the region. The best ad* 
 vice to give to new-comers is to conform in every respect 
 to the habits and usages of the country people — a pre- 
 caution, unhappily, often neglected. Some settlers per- 
 sist, in spite of warning, in acting differently from their 
 wistr neighbors. These self-willed people bringing 
 with them the customs of the land which they have left, 
 clothe themselves and build their houses after the fash- 
 ion of their kinsmen over the sea and by and by begin 
 to complain of the severity of the climate. These are 
 the witless people who succeed just as well, and no bet- 
 ter, in Manitoba as they did in their native land. 
 Every climate has claims on the good sense of those who 
 make experience of it, and these can only be forgotten 
 at great risk. 
 
 One thing is worth noting — Europeans settled in the 
 North-West seldom feel the rigor of the first winter that 
 they pass in the country. I do not pretend to explain 
 this phenomenon, but content myself with pointing it 
 out for the benefit of the immigrant who may read these 
 pages and to whom I say : Distrust your own sensations 
 and, though you may feel that they are not necessary, 
 wear such wraps as you see your neighbors using from 
 
 the beginning of the cold weather. You will thus escape 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 I9ii 
 
 84 
 
 serious deception and a surprise which may, in your 
 second winter, take the form of pulmonary disease. 
 
 In 1834 the population of what is now called Manitoba 
 was 3,300 souls. In 1861, it had risen to 8,0C0; in 1871, 
 to 12,000 ; in 1881, to 62,210. The census of 1891 indi- 
 cates for the province a population of 108.640 inhabi 
 tants. In ten years, therefore, the population has in- 
 creased at the rate of 145 per cent. 
 
 Some pessimists maintain that these figures are not 
 satisfactory. One may hold a different opinion without 
 posing as an optimist. In order to appreciate them at 
 their true worth, it would be necessary to compare the 
 extent of the Province of Manitoba with that of the 
 other countries of the globe which likewise £.ttract im- 
 migration, and to compare their respective methods to 
 secure it. It would also be well to take into account the 
 dates at which each of those countries entered this new 
 kind of tournament, in which the ambition of each par- 
 ticipant is to surpass all his rivals in progress and civili- 
 zation. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that if all these points were 
 carefully weighed, the issue would be in favor of Mani- 
 toba. 
 
 The first feeling I had on getting out of the train at 
 Winnipeg was one ot astonishment. The information 
 that everyone is so eager to give the new arrival tends 
 to make Manitoba an agricultural ElDorado ; the samples 
 of cereals that are put in one's hands and stuffed into 
 one's pockets are so fine, so heavy, so granular ; the gen- 
 eral activity is so sincere, so natural, so fruitful that it 
 
35 
 
 I) 
 
 will be readily acknowledged how difficult it is for a 
 Htranger to attain a calm and impartial appreciation of 
 the facts. 
 
 The wisest plan to gain a just idea of the country is 
 perhaps to follow up the course of its colonization. The 
 Eed River Valley was the first field of settlement, and 
 in this fertile district, therefore, we may begin our en- 
 quiry. This river is for Manitoba the main artery of 
 navigation. It takes its rise in the United States, ad- 
 vances directly north and empties itself into Lake Win- 
 nipeg. This lake is a small inland sea of more than 
 4000 kilometres in area. 
 
 It may, indeed, be said, in parenthesis, that every- 
 where in America nature is on a grand scale; and, as for 
 lakes and rivers, there are few countries so well sup- 
 plied. The Canadian waterways have from time im- 
 memorial been the routes of natural communication by 
 which missionaries, explorers, trappers and voyageurs 
 crossed the country in every direction. 
 
 The soil of the Red River Yalley is eminently well 
 adapted for all sorts of culture. In most of the locali- 
 ties that I have visited it is black, rich in organic 
 matters and easily worked. In fact, this land is the 
 product of the decomposition of vegetable refuse during 
 a long series of centuries. It therefore comprises all the 
 fertilizing elements which elsewhere the farmer is 
 obliged to provide artificially. So productive is it that 
 the manure heap is considered nothing better than a 
 nuisance and is destroyed by fire. Only a few far-seeing 
 colonists turn it to account, well aware that, with what- 
 
 
 i!i 
 
i 
 
 II! 
 
 iii 
 
 36 
 
 ever degree of fecundity a soil may be endowed, a day 
 will come when impoverishment must begin. 
 
 The oldtSst agricultural district on the Red River is 
 that of which Winnipeg is the centre. The value of 
 property is considerable. The country is wooded and 
 well watered. 
 
 The means of communication are numerous and well 
 cared for. The inhabitants are, with few exceptions, 
 Scottish half-breeds, descendants of the first colonists 
 brought to the country by Lord Selkirk in 1812. The 
 bulk of immigration does not come this way, the price 
 of land being [too high. I would, nevertheless, advise 
 immigrants who, though not rich, are good gardeners, 
 to examine this district attentively. By leasing an acre 
 or two in the vicinity of the city, they would soon be 
 able to improve their position. 
 
 Yegetables of all kinds grow in Manitoba with extra- 
 ordinary vigor, and attain great proportions without 
 losing their flavor. The yield of potatoes, carrots, tur- 
 nips, beetL, etc., is something marvellous. It is no 
 uncommon thing to see an acre of land produce 300 
 bushels of potatoes or 800 bushels of turnips or 60 bush- 
 els of peas and all early. I have seen potatoes weighing 
 three pounds each, turnips weighing twenty-five pounds, 
 carrots from seventeen to forty-nine pounds, and whose 
 diameter was over two feet, onions of a pound-and-a- 
 half, etc. Asparagus, tomatoes, tobacco grow in the open 
 air. Melons succeed wonderfully. I have seen some of 
 more than thirty inches in circumference. 
 
 As one ascends the river, a change is observed in the 
 
 iililii 
 
37 
 
 nature of the country. Gradually the woods disappear 
 and give place to the prairie. On the prairie the soil 
 retains the same note of fertility as on the lands along the 
 river courses. It is still the same vegetable loam, 
 friable, easily cultivated and abounding in nitrogen. Be- 
 fore 1879 a few of the settlers entered Manitoba by the 
 United States route. The railway carried them to St. 
 Paul, Minnesota, whence they reached the Canadian 
 frontier by descending the Eed River. These settlers 
 travelled by short stagcb, in big covered waggons drawn 
 by oxen. Some of them used the old " Eed River cart" 
 still in vogue among the Mdtis. This cart does not 
 <iontain a morsel of iron. Wooden spikes are used in- 
 stead of nails, and the wheels hardened by fire have no 
 rims, and it is worthy of note that the axles of these carts, 
 as old as time, are never greased. These structures are 
 of immemorial use on the prairie and, in spite of their 
 appearance, their solidity has stood every test. 
 
 The journeys accomplished by these early settlors 
 were long, sometimes dangerous, on account of the bands 
 of Indians who scoured the prairie. Still, with hope 
 for guide, they reached their destination beyond the 
 frontier. 
 
 Some pursued their way along the Red River, whilst 
 others ascended the course of the Pembina or the Assini- 
 boine, attracted by the fertility of the plain stretching 
 out as far ar the eye could reach. Painful enough were 
 the experiences of these pioneers. Remote from the 
 great centres, without direct communication and obliged 
 to go long distances for the timber to build their houses, 
 
 I 
 
 i* 
 
 Is I 
 
 -')i 
 
 f;' 
 
38 
 
 these hardy settlers had to depend on their courage and 
 endurance. Perseverance conquered, however, and they are 
 to-day the men of means among ^he farmers of the province. 
 The opening of the railway from St. Paul to Winnipeg 
 gave an impulse to the moveinent of colonization ; hut 
 this movement did not attain its complete development 
 until about 1883. The influx of settlers at this period 
 owed its origin to the rapidity with which the Canadian 
 Pacific Company opened up the country and to the un- 
 wearied energy with which it gave practical contradic- 
 tion to the misrepresentations spread by its adversaries 
 in England. Convinced that colonization would progress 
 in proportion as railway's were extended over the agri- 
 cultural zone, the Company had no sooner terminated 
 the main line than it began the construction of a net- 
 work opening out the province through its whole extent. 
 Some persons, less prejudiced than jealous, have denied the 
 Company's colonization work, but this work is confirmed 
 by eloquent figures. In the valley of the Red River, 
 and in the portion of the province between the rivers 
 Pembina, Assiniboine and Souris, there are at present 
 11,977 farmers, witiiiii a territory of about 9,000 square 
 miles, throe-fifths of which are still at the disposal of 
 immigrants. These farmers sowed in 1891, 527,010 
 acres in wheat, 137,477 acres in oats, 51,665 acres in 
 barley. The total of their harvest amounted to 1,333,- 
 262 bushels of wheat, 8,378,940 bushels of oats, and 
 1,839,273 bushels of barley. These figures show a yield 
 per acre of 26 bushels of wheat, 44 bushels of oats and 
 24 bushels of barley. 
 
39 
 
 The southern portion of Manitoba is not only adapted 
 for cereals, but natural hay is produced in great abund- 
 ance. Every farmer has an ample crop of it to winter 
 his live stock. In 1890 the yield per acre of prairie hay 
 was about 3,000 pounds an acre ; in 1891, about 4,000 
 pounds. The healthiness of the climate, the abundance 
 of water-power and above all the excellent quality of 
 the hay make cattle-raising in this region one of the 
 most remunerative of the farmer's sources of income. 
 
 In 1883 there were in the south and east of the pro- 
 vince only a few thousands of horned cattle, and horses 
 were for the most part Indian ponies. In 1891 the 
 farmers of the same regions possessed 47,786 milch 
 cows, 17,396 mares and 1741 stallions of every race from 
 that of the English thoroughbred to the Scottish Clydes- 
 dale and the Percheron of France. 
 
 The dairy industry has taken a corresponding develop- 
 ment. Butter and cheese manufactured in this country 
 are of good quality, and command in foreign markets, 
 higher prices than similar articles of American make. 
 
 The increase in value in landed property is an infal- 
 lible index of the country's prosperity. In the part of 
 Manitoba under review, this increase has been constant 
 during the last ten years. In 1880, the average value of 
 an acre of land was about a dollar ; now it is ten dollars. 
 In order to give their true significance to these figures, 
 I would here make a remark. The area of the Innd 
 now occupied by the settlers in southern Manitoba is 
 about 67 per cent, of the total extent of territory. 
 Everywhere and especially along the brunch lines of the 
 
 : 
 
 lii 
 
 
40 
 
 I ■''"' 
 
 ,. « 
 
 Canadian Pacific the emigrant can to-day procure excel- 
 lent land at a rate varying from two to ten dollars an 
 acre. These prices are not based on ^he fecundity of 
 the soil (which is virtually alike everywhere) but sim- 
 ply on the distance of the lots from the nearest railway. 
 Some colonists prefer to buy land at a low price in order 
 to be able to procure a larger extent ; but they make a 
 mistake wh'ch cannot be two strongly insisted on. In 
 agriculture, the saving of time is a factor of the utmost 
 importance. If this truth is in conformity with the 
 practice of mankind in all parts of the world, it is of 
 special importance in a new country where competition 
 in the markets is increasing. If we compare, for in- 
 stance, a settler who cultivates a hundred acres not far 
 from a gi ain elevator, and one who cultivates two hun- 
 dred at thirty miles' distance from it, the advantage is 
 assuredly with the former, The out-of-the-way farmer 
 must calculate to lose a third of his time in the trans- 
 port of his products and all that he can do will hardly 
 compensate for this loss of time. 
 
 A couple of years ago the Canadian Pacific opened to 
 oolonization the greater part of the Souris Valley — one of 
 the riches regions in Manitoba, and to which goes no 
 small share of the immigration. Important centres of 
 population grow up as if by enchantment. Thirteen 
 grain elevators built this year along the railway, attest 
 the energy and success with which agriculture is devel- 
 oping in this part of Manitoba. 
 
 This Souris Valley is indeed destined in a near future 
 to have a very real importance, industrial as well as 
 
41 
 
 agricultural. Nature, with generous forethought, has 
 stored up in the centre of this fertile region rich deposits 
 of coal that can be worked without difficulty. The land 
 is peculiarly fitted for wheat culture. The average 
 yield per acre of all the cereals is higher than in any 
 other part of Manitoba, being respectively 28 bushels 
 for wheat, 49 for oats and 35 foj' barley. The average 
 value of land in the Souris District is thiee dollars an 
 acre but in five yeai's this rate will be decupled. 
 
 The colonists brought out by Lord Selkirk in 1812 
 settled on the lower course of the Red River and there 
 they fairly prospered. The emigrants who came later 
 to try their fortunes in Manitoba, penetrated the same 
 valley but farther south. Little by little as the current 
 of immigration swelled, the colonists passed over into 
 the adjacent valleys, but always with a tendency west- 
 ward. Thus these settlers, guided solely by the fertility 
 of the soil, rapidly colonized the southern region of Man- 
 itoba. The opening of th<" transcontinental railway was 
 destined, by modifying the economic condition of the 
 country to impart a new direction to this immigration, 
 which, henceforth, instead of concentrating itself within 
 a small area, was about to plant itself wherever the rail- 
 way gave It access. The emigrants, moreover, had the 
 guidance of a powerful Company to which their satisfac 
 tion and prosperity were of the deepest interest and 
 which both helped them in their choice and encouraged 
 them in beginning their new life. 
 
 The prairie between Winnipeg and the foot of the 
 Kockj^ Mountains rises in sucoessive terraces or tablelands 
 
 f 
 
IFil 
 
 42 
 
 h ^'^ 
 
 ■I , ■ 
 
 The first of these through which the line of the trans- 
 continental railway passes, forms the great wheat re- 
 gion of the province of Manitoba. Thither for some 
 years immigration has been directed by preference, as 
 the flourishing districts of Portage la Prairie, Carberry, 
 Brandon, and Virden sufficiently show. It is, in fine, on 
 these plateaux that extend without a break in their uni- 
 formity as far as the eye in pierce, this Beauce of colos- 
 sal proportions, that th« «^oil is so marvellously fertile, 
 yielding a hundredfold i e grain that the farmer places 
 in earth's bosom. 
 
 In the districts just named, 4797 farmers sowed in 
 1891, 336,015 acres in wheat, and harvested 8,501,780 
 bushels of grain. The harvest of oats was so favorable 
 that whereas in December last year it was sold in the 
 Brandon market at 39 to 40 cents a bushel, it was sold 
 this year (1892) in the same month at 15 to 20 cents. 
 
 I had already passed through Manitoba in the sum- 
 mer of 1885 — eight years ago, when the settlement of 
 the country was only beginning. Everything then was 
 tentative, and people lost their heads to some extent in 
 presence of that tine loamy land which stretched away 
 as if to infinity and of which a lot could be acquired for 
 a merely nominal price. What a change today ! From 
 Winnipeg to the furthest limits of the province, a dis- 
 tance of 211 miles, rise at intervals of seven miles or 
 so, large towns, with here and there a few cities, 
 populations varying from 2.000 to 5,000 inhabitants. On 
 each side of the railway, as far as the eye can reach, the 
 prairie is covered with thousands of ricks, symmetrically 
 
43 
 
 arranged by groups of a dozen. Scattered over the 
 plain, out to the very horizon, are hundreds of steam 
 threshing-machines at work. Nor will they rest during 
 the winter. I emphasize this detail, for it proves what 
 the climate of Manitoba really is, in opposition to mis- 
 conceptions of its character. During the months of 
 December, January, February and March the grain that 
 id not threshed remains in the open air in ricks. Often 
 after the process is finished, it is put into sacks which 
 are left on the prairie all winter piled up and covered 
 with straw. 
 
 Brandon is the great wheat market of Manitoba. It 
 is a town of comparatively recent foundation, having 
 had no existence in 1881. In 1889 it was a city only in 
 name — a name rather pretentious for a place of three 
 streets, a single avenue aiid a few modest hotels of wood. 
 
 To-day, Brandon has an area of foui* square miles and 
 the houe'^s are built of cut stone. It is lit by electricity 
 and its public buildings are of superior style. It is 
 situated on the south slope of the Assiniboine Valley 
 and on the main line of the Canadian Pacific Eailway. 
 Its market commands the trade of the upper course of 
 the Assiniboine, of the Souris Valley and of a wheat 
 district of more than forty thousand square miles. Seven 
 elevators stand in line at the foot of the city along the 
 sidings. At the doors, as I leave the train, are long files 
 of wagons awaiting their turn to discharge their load of 
 wheat. The utmost activ'ty reigns in the city. The 
 stieets are invaded by the farmers of the sun'ounding 
 country who take advantage of the exceptional fine 
 
 U 
 
% kl 
 
 44 
 
 weather to dispose of as much of their grain as possible. 
 
 At the door of my hotel stands a big wagon painted 
 blue and hainessed to two sturdy Clydes with glossy 
 skins. The metal of the harness glittered ; the whole 
 rig was evidence of the owner's prosperity. 
 
 The fine style of the horses, vehicles and harness of 
 the North-West farmers strikes those who visit the coun- 
 try. On tho roads, in winter as in summer, in the fields 
 at sowing, plowing and harvest, this get-up is only sur- 
 passed by that of the drivers. In fact, on the plains of 
 the North-West, the farmer has a high sense of his self- 
 respect. He considers himself a gentleman farmer. He 
 does not believe that, in order to till the ground, one 
 must dress in rags. He I'espects his work as that which 
 leads him to fortune and nsvor begins it unless he is 
 well clad. Here we see no laborers barefooted and in 
 filthy tatters. The pioneer of the West wears a broad- 
 brimmed felt hat, a colored flannel shirt, a belt of the 
 same material and roomy trousers, stuffed into boots 
 that reach to the knee. And it is only just to add that 
 the man whom we meet on the prairies in this pictu- 
 resque garb is ever courteous, eager to serve you and 
 always ready to offer you pot-luck. In his belt you 
 do not see those murderous pistols which, in illustration^, 
 distinguish the Yankee ranchman or cowboy of the Wild 
 West. Nor is this absence of the pistol so commonplace 
 a matter as certain readere might be inclined to consider it. 
 
 It is tho complete security in which the Western 
 Canadian farmer passes his life which peculiarly cha- 
 ractei izes the country. From the shores of Lake Supe- 
 
45 
 
 rior to the shores of the Pacific ; from the United States 
 frontier to the Arctic Ocean, the traveller may pursue 
 his way without the least feai* through the boundless 
 prairie, or the vast solitudes of the far North. No 
 matter where one encamps, the sleep is never troubled 
 by the howling of coyotes or the hootings of the birds 
 of darkness. The Canadian North-West is as vast as ^' at 
 of the States. While the latter is every day the stage 
 of darkest tragedies, the former is, on the other hand, 
 inhabited by a peaceful population in the midst of which 
 desperadoes would cut a poor figure. 
 
 Only an imaginary line separates one country from 
 the other, and yet how marked is the difference of moral 
 standard and practice ! To what is this contrast to be 
 assigned ? By and by I may suggest some other cause 
 for it, but meanwhile I content myself by the indication 
 of a couple of reasons. For one thing, the Canadian 
 North-West has for more than a hundred years been fre- 
 quented by the hommes de la jon^re— the missionaries, 
 and the rdle of these missionaries has always been that 
 of peace and good will. With the coureurs de hois in the 
 service of the fur companies, they were the pioneers of 
 these regio^iS. Their only arms, whether of offence or 
 defence, were persuasion, mildness, confidence. Was 
 it not natural then, tha^ the civilization of which they 
 were the forerunners should be imbued with their 
 example and teachiag ? 
 
 The United States far West never profited to the same 
 degree by the benefits of evangelization. The Indian 
 tribes who roamed there had never, during the long 
 
 i ■ 
 
 li 
 
 \' 
 
46 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 centuries heard other accents than the agonizing cries 
 of a wretched people massacred by the whites. Is it 
 not permissible to suppose that the remembrance of the 
 crimes committed by the Spaniards in Mexico and their 
 other new-world colonies may have left its impress on 
 the traditions bequeathed from generation to generation 
 by the aborigines of America ? If such be the case, can 
 we wonder that the Indian tribes scattered through the 
 Western States have always pursued with their hatred 
 the cruel Pale-faces ? 
 
 The security enjoyed by the settlers in the Canadian 
 North- West is also due to another cause. For more than 
 fifty years the exodus from Europe was directed to the 
 United States, before it came to be Canada's turn to 
 open her doors to the new-comers. This delay was the 
 salvation of the Dominion. The current of population 
 that carried towards the gold fields of California, Neva- 
 da, Montana or Colorado, the plains of Texas or Arizona, 
 all the adventurers of Europe had run its course when 
 Canada became a field for immigration. That current 
 did not deviate from the route that led to its destination. 
 Such is still the impetuosity of its movement that the 
 United States authorities, in spite of their reotrictions on 
 iTimigration, have not succeeded in arresting it. The 
 United States, in fine, notwithstanding all the eflTorts of 
 the Washington government, will remain the refugium 
 peccatorum of the globe. They will continue to mono- 
 polize the sad privilege of retaining within the* • bound- 
 aries all the cut-throats and train-robbers ^/ho could 
 never gain right of citizenship in Canada. 
 
47 
 
 ';!■ 
 
 But to return to Manitoba, the progress of agriculture 
 is perhaps more remai-kable than the increase of popu- 
 lation to which I have called attention, for it unables us 
 to regard the future with confidence. In 1882 the pro- 
 vince comprised only 2,250 farmers. These farmers 
 had sown an aggregate of 182,250 acres of wheat, and 
 harvested 4,974,200 bushels of grain. In 1891, 18,937 
 farmers harvested 24,000,000 bushels of wheat and the 
 extent of land thus put under cultivation was 916,664 
 acres. These figures show an average yield for the pro- 
 vince of 25J per acre. In France the average yield per 
 acre is not more than 17 bushels. By dividing amongst 
 18,937 farmers the area of land sown in wheat it is evi- 
 dent that each farmer must have sown an average of 
 48J acres of wheat. Every farmer in the province, 
 therefore, will have produced (48.5X25.6) 1,236 bushels 
 of grain in round numbers. Again, if we allow to the 
 bushel of wheat an average value of 80 cents, then 1236 
 bushels will represent a gross gain of 889 dollars. 
 
 But in Manitoba the cultivation of a bushel of wheat 
 atands the farmer about 32 cents. Every farmer will 
 therefore have spent about $395 to bring a harvest of 
 1,236 bushels. The net gain in each case will therefore 
 be about $493, or $10 for every acre devoted to wheat, 
 
 I may add that the manager of one of the banks of 
 Brandon told me that in his district several farmers had 
 this year, with the proceeds of their crops, paid up in 
 lull for their property. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to repeat that these figures 
 have to do solely with a single crop, and the reader 
 
 ]■ 
 
 
 r 
 
48 
 
 must not forget that the proportion of land cultivated 
 to the total area of Manitoba was one to seven. Seven 
 million acres of the most fertile land in the world are at 
 this moment unoccupied, and may be acquired for a 
 merely nominal price. 
 
 A noteworth}^ phenomenon has been observed in the 
 culture of wheat in America, the knowledge of which can- 
 not but increase the confidence that Manitoba inspires 
 in the grain markets of Europe. I mean the northward 
 tendency of the growth centre of this cereal. Thirty 
 years ago, this crop was almost entirely concentrated in 
 the States of Illinois, Iowa and "Wisconsin. To-day it is 
 Minnesota, Dakota and Montana that constitute the 
 great wheat centres of the United States. Still, in these 
 States the yield per acre of the soil is much less than in 
 Manitoba and the Canadian North-West. The average 
 yield in Illinois is not more tLan 8 bushels an acre, 11 
 in Wisconsin, 13 in Minnesota and North and South 
 Dakota. In Manitoba it is, as we have seen, 25 bushels. 
 
 Another cause tends to deprive the Americaa farmer 
 of the supremacy in the wheat markets of Europe. I 
 mean the competition in these markets of Eussian, 
 Indian and Australian wheat. In 1885 the United 
 States exported 81,628,478 bushels of wheat to Europe, 
 whilst India exported only 29,550,t41 bushels. In 1886 
 these figures had sensibly modified. The United State* 
 exported only 53,025,938 bushels, against 39,312,969 
 exported by India, 
 
 The McKinley bill, besides, does not tend to ameliorate 
 the fortunes of American farmers. It rather tends, on 
 
49 
 
 the contrary, to exhaust, in a near future, all the sources 
 of public wealth which were once fostered by agiicul- 
 ture. Fox several reasons Canada need not fear this 
 foreign competition, so far an her wheat is concerned. 
 In the first place, for many years, the local consumption 
 will almost absorb the entire crop in Manitoba. This 
 will happen, on the one hand, through the needs of 
 immigrants, and, on the other, because in the eastern 
 provinces farmers will give up wheat-growing to devote 
 themselves to stock-raising. 
 
 On the other hand, the wheat of Manitoba has a repu- 
 tation that increases from day to day. It commands on 
 the English markets high prices, and by its qualities 
 defies foreign competition. Neither must we lose sight 
 of the new line of steamers which connects Vancouver 
 with the shores of China and brings Asia within twelve 
 days* distance from Canada, opens to Canadian cereals a 
 new and boundless market, of which the trade of the 
 country may easily secure the control. 
 
 The moment is now come to say a few words about 
 the premature frosts as to which the enemies of North- 
 West colonization make so much noise. That in the 
 last weeks of August, or from the 1st to the 15th of 
 September, strong hoar-frosts descend on the crops yet 
 standing, ia only too true. But it^ is only the improvi- 
 dent who suffer from these frosts, which do not affect 
 the great mass of North-West farmers. This statement 
 requires a word of explanation. In every new country, 
 where the price of land is only nominal, the new-comer 
 is exposed to a dangerous temptation — that of theambi- 
 
 ( I 
 
 i 
 
 
 j; 
 
 t !■ 
 
 
 III 
 
 ; I 
 
50 
 
 % 
 
 h I 
 
 tion to become all at once n great proprietor. Every- 
 thing conspires to make him yield to this temptation — 
 the smallness of the price of the land that he covets, the 
 facility of becoming a proprietor on credit, and finally 
 the fear lest the price of real estate should augment and 
 become too great for his means. His very desire to suc- 
 ceed thus, in this case, plays him an ill turn. Some- 
 times the settler, in his natuial impatience to grow rich 
 without delay, is deceived as to his own strength. He 
 forgets that the power of working has a limit which 
 «annot be tjansgressed with impunity. He ploughs 
 ^when he ought to harrow ; he harrows when he ought 
 to be sowing; he sows when he ought to be rolling. 
 The result is that his crop is scarcely ripe when it is 
 nearly time to cut it. It is the farmers of this type who 
 fall victims to the early frosts, which attack only those 
 crops that are still unripe in the last week of August. 
 These farmers suffer from having misunderstood the 
 burden of the proverb, Qui trop embrasse mal itreint. 
 # The early frosts, which are employed as a bugbear to 
 frighten European emigrants, are innocuous for farmers 
 who follow certain conditions. For instance, let them 
 sow each year only the exact extent of ground that is 
 pioportioned to the workmen that they engage; let 
 them plough and hanow their land in the fall, to the 
 exclusion, if necessary, of all other work; finally, let 
 them use the first fine days in spring for sowing, and on 
 no account defer the operation. 
 
 In Manitoba the sowing begins generally towards the 
 end of April, and continues to the 15th of May. In 
 
51 
 
 some parts of the North-West, as at Maple Creek and at 
 Calgary, the grain is put in the ground in the closing 
 days of March. 
 
 One fact will confirm these remarks. At the outset 
 of colonization in Manitoba, the settlers took no notice 
 of what are called eaily frosts. Small proprietors, for 
 the most part, they had ample time to cultivate their 
 farms. Besides, the grain ripened in time to defy those 
 unlucky frosts, which only began to have victims when 
 farmers allowed ambition to get the better of their 
 prudence. 
 
 The regions of northern und north-western Manitoba 
 have ft physical aspect quite diffeicnt from those that 
 we have been describing. On the boiders of Lakes 
 Winnip..g and Manitoba the country is flat, covered 
 with prairie grass, and well wooded. The land is fer- 
 tile. Slill, in this district more work and also more 
 knowledge are required of the farmers than in the 
 neighborhood of Brandon, for instance. This is owing 
 to the lowness of the land, which is sometimes flooded. 
 Drainage and other precautions, not dreamed of in the 
 central portion of the province, are therefore nocoBsary. 
 The country is admirably adapted for mixed farming. 
 Although the land is cheap, as yet colonization hfis not 
 progressed very rapidly, owing to the general prefer- 
 ence for the wheat-lands, the idea naturally prevailing 
 that on the latter labor will win quicker and more 
 remunerative returns. 
 
 The chief centre of settlement in this district is the 
 town of St. Laurent, situated on the shores of Lake 
 
 ' \' 
 
52 
 
 Manitoba. This was formerly a Roman Catholic mis- 
 sion, and this mission, indeed, still exists, fiat around 
 its modest church are grouped numerous families of 
 half breeds and immigrants. The country is becoming 
 rapidly cleared, the plain is well cultivated, and stock- 
 raising is carried on on a large scale. 
 
 From Portage la Prairie a line of railway extends to 
 the north-west of the province — the Mr.nitoba & North- 
 Western Eailway. As one looks to the light and to the 
 left of the route, after reaching a short distance from 
 the Portage, there is nothing to recall the plain that 
 has been left behind. To the broad undulations of land 
 succeed pretty valleys, separated from each other by 
 slight ridges of hills covered with wood and pasture. 
 Everywhere water flows in abundance, and numerous 
 falls enable one to foresee, in a future not very distant, 
 an important centre of manufacturing industry. Along 
 the Manitoba k North- Western colonization is mak- 
 ing rapid progress. Several colonies of Hungarians, 
 Scandinavians and Icelanders have been founded. They 
 are prosperous, and their success is the best advertise- 
 ment in favor of Manitoba as a field of immigration for 
 the poorest class of farmers. 
 
 In every direction, in this fair province, progress ad- 
 vances with giant strides. Every year the country 
 undergoes a new transformation, and each of these 
 transformations is a stage in the path of prosperity. 
 
 W" 
 
53 
 
 V. 
 
 The Canadian North-West and the Province of Mani- 
 toba, which is geographically part of it. constitute a field 
 of immigration without rival in the world. This field is 
 immense, beinsr in extent equal to the half of Europe. 
 If twenty millions of people took possession of the soil 
 from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains and the 
 American frontier to the Arctic zone, there would still 
 bo scope for immigation for years to come. By one of 
 those marvellous coincidences of wiiich Providence 
 alone has the secret, Canada opens the doors of its half 
 continent of territory to colonization and progress just 
 at the moment when an economic crisis of gravest char- 
 acter is embarrassing the nations of Europe. Just when 
 the landed proprietors of the Old World are abandoning 
 the cultivation of the soil through discouragement at the 
 rivalry from over the sea encountered in their own mar- 
 kets ; just when the agricultural population of France, 
 of Germany, of Belgium, of Italy, is deserting the coun- 
 try lo flock to the towns ; just as, in the Old World, the 
 value of land is lowering from day to day, there aiises, 
 in the fullness of its vigor, a young country, whose soil 
 has for ages been holding in reserve its life-giving sap^ 
 where nature has laid up treasures inestimable, and 
 whore the land, marvellously fruitful, can be obtained at 
 a merely nominal price. In this chapter I would like to 
 say a few words about this question of emigiation — u 
 question at once vital and delicate, since thereon depends 
 the happiness of thousands of individuals, who from year 
 to year exile themselves in seaich of it. 
 
 ') I 
 
iii 
 
 
 ^ -1 
 
 !'»i 
 
 h 4 
 
 54 
 
 Of all men the emigrant is the one whose head is 
 most a prey to illusions. This is doubtless natural and 
 quite excusable, and fortunately these illusions last with 
 the majority only for a short time ; they vanish in con- 
 tact with reality. Beason in time gets the better of 
 imagination. There are others, liowever, in whose 
 minds these illusions remain in spite of dearly bought 
 lessons. The latter can never prosper. Success flies 
 from them to attach itself to their more provident neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 In conversing with immigrants I have learned that 
 with some of them success means a well-filled purse, an 
 error which the true friends of colonization should not 
 hesitate to combat. The determination not to be dis- 
 couraged by any obstacle; the resolve firmly taken to 
 conform to the usages of the country in which they have 
 made their homo — in these qualities, rather than in 
 quickly won gold, lies the future prosperity of the 
 immigrant. 
 
 Whether ho be the son of a humble artisan or a scion 
 of nobility, the settler should bear in mind that monoy 
 may facilitate his eiiterprisos, but only in energy and 
 ability will he find the key to abiding success. In the 
 present chapter I have to do only with the bond fide im- 
 mifirrantu, those who came to Canada to make their live- 
 lihoodoutofthosoil. In the West, indeed, there is noplace 
 for office clerks, salesmen or professional men. Such as 
 these emigrate only at the j-isk of losing their money, 
 their time and thoir energy. Nevertheless, if among 
 this class there are any courageous enough to serve an 
 
65 
 
 apprenticeship to a new occupation and to devote them- 
 selves resolutely to the culture of the soil, let them, after 
 testing their strength and health, come along and with 
 perseverance they too may find prosperity in this Land 
 of Promise. In the Canadian North- West, the fertility 
 of the soil is so great, the ground is so easily worked 
 that tillage is reduced to the simplest of acts. But suc- 
 cess does not depend merely on the extent of the faim- 
 er's agricultural knowledge ; rather it lies v\ theaptitudo 
 for work and in the faculty, well exercised, of accom- 
 modating his labor to the exigencies of climate. A 
 notary's clerk, for instance, will probably find himself 
 on the street if he tries to live by his profession, but if 
 he is intelligent, patient and observing, and takes an en- 
 gagement on a farm, he may in a few months have 
 mastered the business and be in a position to rival his 
 more experienced neighbors. 
 
 The great mass of those who emigrate may be divided 
 into two classes, the more numerous the poorer element, 
 endowed with no means but their energies nnu who 
 possess on their arrival not more than a hundred dollars. 
 The tf^econd class consists of those who came to Canada 
 from Europe, afier having turned all their worldly goods 
 into hard cash. These latter intend to begin anew 
 the struggle of life and to attach themselves to the soil, 
 if fortune smiles on them. In general, they possess 
 I'rom five hundred to two thousand dollars. Those who 
 are first-class farmers ought not to hesitate a moment 
 on their advent in the West, but go lesolutcly to work 
 without losing a day. Lot them not dream ef settling 
 
 
56 
 
 Jl^ 
 
 on a farm w ith a hundred dollais. Though some have 
 made the venture and succeeded, they form the ex- 
 ception and to imitate their example is to challenge 
 fortune. The object of every immigrant is to make his 
 future independent. This is the dream of every new- 
 comer, and in Canada it can always be realized, and some- 
 times by the man without resources in preference to the 
 man with well-stocked purse. The best plan for the 
 poor man is to seek at once employment on a farm. To 
 that end he should consult the local agent of the 
 Government or 0. P. E., who, on learning his circum- 
 stances and needs, will give him all the information that 
 he wants. 
 
 A word of warning may at this juncture not be out 
 of place. Many immigrants, having made their de- 
 mand, set out for a tour through the city and thus incur 
 two dangers. The first is to miss the chance of a suit- 
 able berth ; the second, a graver risk, is to fall into the 
 hands of fc^ome of those confidence men who lie in wait 
 for new-comers, who drink at their expense and who some- 
 times succeed in making them lose not only their heads but 
 their savings. The immigrant cannot be too emphatic- 
 ally advised to trust implicitly to the agent, unless he 
 has rela^^ives who are expecting him. It is the mission 
 of the agent to look after the immigrant's interests, and 
 it is the misfortune of many new arrivals that they 
 do not follow his counsel. Trusting to their own judg- 
 ment they have been grievously deceived. Ninety-nine 
 times out of the hundred this is what happens when 
 they rely on themselves and chance acquaintances, rather 
 
67 
 
 Iher 
 
 than on the immigration agents^. An immigrant who is 
 willing to work is always sure of remunerative employ- 
 ment. From March to November the demand for labor- 
 ers in the immigration offices is constant. During my 
 trip, I met all the way fi'om Montreal to the Eocky 
 Mountains gangs of laborers from the eastern provinces 
 who we rereturning home after spending seven months in 
 Manitoba or the Territories, assisting the farmers in 
 their work. The average wages realized by these men 
 varied from 250 to 340 dollars. 
 
 In the West, a farm hand, engaged by the year, re- 
 ceives from twenty -five to thirty dollars a month, besides 
 being fed and lodged. At harvest time the wages are 
 are higher. 
 
 A laborer will make from forty to forty-five dollars a 
 month. The average rate per day for a man's work in 
 Manitoba varies from $1.50 to $2.50. 
 
 Women can as easily find employment as their hus- 
 bands. In all the cities of the West the demand for 
 female cooks and nurses is unceasing, wages ranging 
 from $15 to $30 a month. 
 
 During my stay in Manitoba I gave much attention 
 to the position of the immigrants arriving in the country 
 with no other fortune than that which they owe to the 
 vigor of their arms and the strength of their wills, and 
 the conclusion forced on me is that they never fail to 
 find work — remunerative work which enables them in a 
 couple of years or so to realize the longing of their 
 hearts and to become proprietors. I do not fear more- 
 over to affirm that of all the settlers that I met the 
 
 
 , I 
 
.58 
 
 most prosperous were exactly those who had begun their 
 career in the service of othero. 
 
 The immigrant who, though poor, is determined to 
 work and who hires himself out for a few years before 
 setting up an establishment of his own, has an advantage 
 over his wealthy companion, who can only begin his 
 new career by more or less expensive experiments. 
 While making money he is winning an experience which 
 will be of the utmost value when he becomes his own 
 master. I will now state the conditions on which the 
 immigrant who hires himself out may lay by in two 
 years sufOicient to establish him on a farm of his own. 
 
 Above all he must be a man of stability, and not to be 
 turned aside from his purpose. He must be observant 
 and study the country from which he expects to derive 
 a livelihood and perhaps the status of a man of wealth. 
 He must assimilate himself to the usages of the commu- 
 nity in which his lot is cast, and never forget that eveiy 
 dollar spent needlessly goes to retard him in his advance 
 to independence. In fine, his motto should be : perrie- 
 verance, industry and economy. 
 
 Every year a crowd of young men, English, French 
 and German, go to the North-West to make their fortune. 
 Most of them have a little money ; many of them, more 
 than is good for them. The aspirants to the life of the 
 colonist sometimes have their heads full of illusions 
 which the reading of some of the pamphlets put in their 
 hands does not tend to dissipate. My advice to these 
 young men, whatever may have been their social position 
 before, however well stocked their purses, is to imitate 
 
69 
 
 be 
 
 without the least hesitation, for a time at least, the im- 
 migrants of whom I have already spoken. Let them 
 hire themselves to farmers and, while working for others 
 they will serve a profitable apprenticeship to the occu- 
 pation which is to be their life's work. Once on the 
 prairie, let them forget their past or only recall it to 
 derive courage from it, to conquer the future. Let them 
 avoid surrounding themselves with helpers when they 
 have started in earnest as farmers, but learn to depend 
 on themselves in tending the soil that is to enrich them. 
 This will pay better than beginning by having a good 
 time. In the West the only social distinctions are those 
 which are based on industry and success, and it is foolish 
 to ignore this fact. 
 
 The second class of immigrants is composed of all 
 those who go to the West to invest their capital to advan- 
 tage. The causes which determine persons of this class 
 to seek the great West are three-fold : the constant fall 
 in value of property in Europe, the corresponding in- 
 crease in the cost of living, and the overwhelming bur- 
 den of taxation, which absorbs so large a portion of 
 their income. Nowhere can they seek a remedy for 
 these ills with more reasonable hope of success than in 
 the Canadian West. For here the value of property is 
 increasing daily ; living is not costly, if the settler is 
 satisfied to live modestly, and, as for taxation, save a 
 municipal tax on real estate, it does not exist at all. 
 The conditions of success are identical for all immigrants 
 whether they be rich, have merely a competency or are 
 at the star^ actually penniless. These are prudence and 
 
 II 
 
ill. 
 
 60 
 
 economy in the purchase of land according to the means 
 8t their disposal and the same qualities after they have 
 begun their new life. 
 
 The first question to be decided is the class of agricul- 
 tuie to which the settler desires to devote himself, 
 wheat-growing or mixed farming. The latter is what 
 every man of experience will advise him to choose. 
 
 The making of cheese and butter is constantly eularg- 
 ing its limits in Manitoba. It is really all the more 
 profitable an industry that it can be carried on with virtu- 
 ally no extra outlay. The farmer takes his milk to the 
 factory and at the end of the season he is paid. His 
 main object is to so feed his cattle as to make them es- 
 sentially milkers. 
 
 This question of the kind of farming settled, let the 
 new-comer reckon up the funds at his disposal before re- 
 pairing to the Crown Lands office and let him make up 
 his mind beforehand as to whether he wants to obtain a 
 homestead or to purchase lots. In either case ho must 
 cai'efully calculate bis budget, and make sure that the 
 total amount of his outlay does not exceed two-thirds of 
 his entire capital. I would especially emphasize this 
 point. For too often the immigrant spends on his instal- 
 lation in his new home all the money he hay in the 
 world, leaving himself absolutely nothing for unforseen 
 contingencies. The result, not unnaturally, is often the 
 greatest embarrassment. 
 
 Another serious mistake is to acquire more land than 
 the settler can cultivate. A good many thus undertake 
 a burden which ei'e long crushes them to the ground. 
 
61 
 
 The true principle, based on years of experience and the 
 judgment of expert settlers, is not to purchase more 
 land than what the owner can, without outside aid, put 
 under cultivation in the course of four years. 
 
 Another point to be borne in mind is that, whatever 
 his previous record, however wise his experience in his for- 
 mer position, the settler in the prairie must undergo a 
 probation, must become acquainted with the climate, con- 
 ditions and method of culture of the new country, under 
 penalty, unless he do so, of paying dearly for his neglect. 
 It is, therefore, only common prudence to husband his 
 resources until his knowledge of soil, climate and 
 methods has made him master of the situation, and then 
 he can lay out his means in the assurance of good re- 
 turns. For the colonist w J has not more than from 
 0400 to 0600 a homestead will be the wisest choice. But 
 he who has a few thousands at his command may pur- 
 chase a property and make of it what employment he 
 pleases. In either case nearness to a line of railway is 
 an advantage not to be foregone. Finally, as I have said, 
 the new-comer must conform to the usages of his milieu, 
 and, if he is wise, he will pose neither as a critic nor a 
 reformer till he has won the honor of citizenship and 
 furnished evidence of his personal worth. Courtesy and 
 modesty in word and deed are virtues that have their 
 value among the settlers of the North-West as elsewhere 
 in this world of strife. If the settler only observes the 
 conditions that I have here set down, I do not shrink 
 from assuring him the success that is his due. 
 
 But it is not to the settler only that the Canadian 
 
 ? 
 
C -f- if:'- 
 
 m 
 
 62 
 
 North- West offers a field of fi-uitful endeavor : it also 
 places within reach of the European capitalist opportu- 
 nities for investment that are practically limitless. 
 Needless to enter into details as to the sources of revenue 
 which with judgment and discernment may be profitably 
 developed. In a word, everything awaits the head and 
 hand of enterprise in thie immense country, and what- 
 ever be the path of enterprise pursued, the goal is suc- 
 cess, if only prudence be the guide and the motto, festina 
 leni6 1 Of course for some years to come, of all these 
 various paths of enterprise, those that are based on the 
 cultivation of the soil must be tha most remunerative. 
 
 In this connection it is important to bear in mind that 
 an economic evolution of considerable range is about to 
 begin. Of this development the origin is to be looked 
 for in that two-fold movement disclosed on the one haod 
 by the progressive depreciatior of land in Europe, and 
 on the other, by its constant rise in value in the New 
 World, and especially in the new provinces of Canada. 
 This movement of simultaneous rise and fall in the value 
 of property on both sides of the ocean is a sure indica- 
 tion of the coming crisis. 
 
 Whilst in Europe the land is almost everywhere ex- 
 hausted and can supply men's needs only when it is aiti- 
 ficially revived, in Canada more than 160,000,000 acres 
 of black loam, the fructifying properties of which half 
 a century of culture could not exhaust, are to be had at 
 a merely nominal price. Whilst in Austria, in 1 Vance, 
 in Italy the average yield of an acre of itind is not more 
 than 14, 17 and t) bushels of wheat respectively, and this 
 
 J 
 
s-i ; 
 
 63 
 
 notwithBtanding the enormous outlay of sumw for fertiliz- 
 ers, in Manitoba the virgin soil produces 25 bushels an acre. 
 Moreover, whereas at this moment a third of the land 
 property in Europe is allowed to lie waste, every year, 
 hundreds of thousands of acres are, on this side of the 
 Atlantic, opened to cultivation. The day is not far dis- 
 tant, therefore, when the European farmer, seeing the 
 circle of operations gradually contracting around him, 
 will realize that every stroke of the spade given by the 
 Canadian settler in the prairie deepens the abyss of ruin 
 towards which he is inevitably drawn. 
 
 The continental powers of Europe are not insensible 
 to this state of things, and they have summoned to their 
 aid protection in all its forms. But though this policy 
 may palliate the evil, it brings no permanent remedy. 
 A customs tariff can no more restore its vigor to the ex- 
 hausted soil than it can prove an effective barrier to pro- 
 ducts the cost of which in their native home tends con- 
 stantly to diminish. But the European producer may 
 protect himself by turning to his own profit the econo- 
 mic crisis that threatens him. To that end let him 
 extend his radius of action and entrench himself in the 
 centre of the outside competition which he finds so ruin- 
 ous. In other words, let the great landed proprietor of 
 Kurope take his place as a cis- Atlantic producer. 
 
 That this transformation is not impossible is quite 
 clear from what Englishmen have already accomplished. 
 Men of means and enterprise belonging to that nation- 
 ality, have in considerable numbers taken up tracts of 
 land in the North-West, which they either work them- 
 
 L 
 
 I ■; 
 
 i: 
 
64 
 
 selves or put in charge of competent agents. For their 
 lands they have paid from two to ten dollars an acre. 
 The expenses are not great, while the returns are ad- 
 mittedly large. In assuming the rdle of land-owner in 
 the North- West, the European farmer or capitalist not 
 only improves his actual position, but, through the con- 
 stant increase in the value of his lands, he makes an 
 investment which is both advantageous and certain. In 
 1890 the value per acre of cultivated land in Manitoba 
 was about nine dollars. In the ensuing year the value 
 was estimated at $10.85. In 1890 in the same province, 
 108,'7'72 acres of new land were under cultivation; while 
 the extent of new lands cleared in the course of 1891 
 was 178,350 acres. 
 
 It is also to be considered that in Europe a vague un- 
 easiness has invaded the public mind. Social questions 
 of the most complicated character occupy the attention 
 of many. Statesmen, economists, members of the middle 
 and artisan classes, workingmen in city and country, are 
 all, according to their interests, their lights or their 
 leanings, seeking to solve this formidable problem of 
 socialism, which raises a threatening head in face of the 
 scepticism that gave it birth. On the prairie these per- 
 plexities are unknown. There everyone is engaged 
 in working to-day to make provision for the future. 
 The hearts of all are full of courage because they are 
 full of faith. Socialism has there no business, so far at 
 least as it stands for injustice or immorality, the supreme 
 law of productive toil levelling all classes of society and 
 making misery unknown. The sole questions that en- 
 
65 
 
 ire. 
 
 are 
 
 ^r al 
 
 )nie 
 
 land 
 
 en- 
 
 gage the pioneers of the West relate to the means by 
 which their prosperity is to be secured, and of this pros- 
 perity they are themselves the conscious arbiters. As- 
 suredly, unless they were assiduous in their daily tasks 
 and mindful of their social and moral obligations, no law, 
 however cunningly devised, could further their well- 
 being. 
 
 ! ■ 
 
 r 
 
 )er' 
 
 / l} \ 
 
66 
 
 THE TEERITOEIES. 
 
 I. 
 
 
 .'■ 
 
 Before proceeding on our i^nrney through the prairie 
 region, it may be well to give the reader some idea of 
 the extent of the Canadian North-West, the most 
 fertile regions of which we have just been traversing. 
 Away north-west of Manitoba stretches an immense 
 district known as Keewatin, the area of which exceeds 
 that of the Austrian Empire. Covered almost through 
 its whole extent, by thick forests, for the most part of 
 pine, this territory is destined to become the great forest 
 reserve of Manitoba when the population of that pro- 
 vince has attain J its naximum density. We:jt of 
 Manitoba extends the distrct of Assiniboia, with an 
 area equal to that of half of Spain. To the north lie 
 the fertile valleys of the district of Saskatchewan, with 
 an area equal to that of Italy, while bey o id Assiniboia, 
 westward, stretching to the foot-hills of the Rocky 
 Mountains, beyond which again are the fertile valleys of 
 Bi'itibh Columbia, are unrolled the rich pasturages of 
 Alberta, equal in area to the half of France. North, 
 again, of Alberta lie thf 150,000 squa'*e miles of Atha- 
 basca which offer to ine venturesome immigrant vast 
 solitudes asyet scarcely explored — lands that,fbr fertility, 
 do not yield to those of Manitoba or the richest zones of 
 the more southerly T«>rritories. These four Districts, 
 which constitute the Territories so far organized, are 
 
67 
 
 boixlered on the north and east by a mighty expanse of 
 more than 800,000 square miles of as yet unexplored 
 forest land watered by magnificent rivei*s and lakes 
 whose dimensions are in keeping with the vast propor- 
 tions of the country. In 1881 the population of the 
 districts of Assiniooia, Alberta and Saskatchewan was 
 estimated at 25,515 souls. In 1891 the increase of popu- 
 lation in these districts was 16,524 souls, thus giving in 
 ten years an augmentation of 64.76 per cent. Daring 
 the last two years, colonization has overflowed to the 
 north and south of the line of the Canadian Pacific, and 
 the company has spared no effort or expense to favor 
 this movement by opening up new routes to the centre 
 of the Saskatchewan and Alberta districts. A dozen 
 years ago the journey from Winnipeg to the Rocky 
 Mountains was a veritable expedition, lasting in general 
 five weeks, and accomplished mainlj^ by Red River carts 
 or on horseback. The traveller had to take with him 
 provisions, cooking apparatus, and, in fact, all the mate- 
 rial for camping out, and to follow the trails or prairie 
 tracks made by the Indians and hunters. Now and then 
 a buffalo was outlined on the horizon, the apparition 
 causing all the more joy, as at that time thone monarchs 
 of the plain had almost entirely vanished from the scenes 
 where they were once so populous, — the Indians having 
 sacrificed them for their flesh, the whites for their hides. 
 At last, after long days of marching across the seemingly 
 bo landless prairie, the long file of carts and horsemen 
 arrived in sight of the Rockies, their destination. To* 
 day, on the other hand, the journey from Winnipeg to 
 
 u 
 
68 
 
 Calvary is made in thirty-two hours, and the Company 
 put at the disposal of the passengers all the delicacies of 
 modern comfort: the best of viands, of wines, of beds, 
 bath-room, and library well stocked with literature for 
 instiuction and entertainment. Nature does her share 
 for the tourist by unfolding scene after scene, the charm 
 of which makes ennui impossible from start to terminus. 
 On leaving the limits of Manitoba the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway enters the district of Assiniboia, which it crosses 
 from east to west. Prom the twofold standpoint of coloni- 
 zation and agriculture, this district is divided into two 
 Bections, of which nature herself has undertaken the 
 determination. The eastern portion, extending from the 
 confines of Manitoba to the foot of the Missouri plateau, 
 forms the second of the three successive terraces that 
 partition the route from Winnipeg to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. It comprises on the north the valleys of the 
 Assiniboine, the Qu'Appollo and their tributaries; on 
 the south, those of the Pipestone, Moose Mountain 
 Creek, the Souris and Long Creek. The character- 
 istics of this portion resemble those of Manitoba, the 
 soil being lighter, though not less fertile. The ground 
 is more varied, especially towards the north, and more 
 wooded, and is favorable for mixed farming. The settle- 
 ment of it is advancing rapidly. Whilst towards the 
 south, on the borders of the Pipestone, the settlers are 
 largely Knglish or Scotch, towai*ds the north, especially 
 in the rich valley of the Qu'Appelle, the population in- 
 cludes a considerable French-Canadian element. Some 
 English companies have founded agricultural settlements 
 
69 
 
 in the district of Assiniboia, and they have been remark- 
 ably successful. The basis of organization is simple, 
 and the results have been satisfactory. A certain extent 
 of territoiy is purchased and divided into lots of uniform 
 area, about 160 acres. The immigrants who take these 
 lots are generally found in England, their passage out is 
 paid, and the company also advances them sums of money 
 langing from £80 to £120 sterling! To guarantee re- 
 payment, the company takes a mortgage on the pro- 
 perty of the settler, and the settler pays 6 per cent, a 
 year interedt on the loan. Among the advantages that 
 this system offers, one may be mentioned : that of 
 uniting, for the pursuit of a common aim, resources and 
 energies that would otherwise be frittered away, per- 
 haps, in isolated efforts, for lack of sufficient means. In- 
 deed, the pioveibial strength of unity is perhaps more 
 conspicuous in agriculture than in any other industry. 
 
 Under wise direction, the spirit of association fruit- 
 fully stimulates the ambition of settlers, enlarges their 
 field of operation, and it is to bo hoped that these coloni- 
 zation societies will multiply to the advantage of the 
 North-West. Their constitutions may vary according to 
 the end in view, but, when conducted with prudence, 
 they form a fine class of farmers, while at the same time 
 they afford a profitable investment to the originators. 
 
 Two important centres^of population that we pass 
 during the night are Broadview and Indian Head. It is 
 at the latter place that the line crosbes the famous Boll 
 
70 
 
 Farm — an enterprise of colossal proportions, being a 
 hundred miles square, and a veritable factory of wheat 
 on a grand scale. The administration is carried on with 
 military order and precision. The extent of the wheat 
 fields is proportionate to that of the farm. The furrows 
 are sometimes miles in length, and to trace two of 
 them is considered a day's work, after which a man may 
 sleep with a good conscience. The small farmer of the 
 Old World who patiently and laborious ly ploughs his 
 modest parcel of ground, urging before him his yoke of 
 oxen, would scarcely recover from the shock if, by some 
 magic, he were transported to one of these grand wheat 
 fields of the North-West. If he got over his surprise, he 
 would not care to retrace his steps and resume his old- 
 fashioned ways. What would be his astonishment on 
 seeing the long line of ploughs, reaping and mowing 
 machines, with their drivers seated comfortably in front, 
 attacking fields of two or three square kilometres ? Per- 
 haps it would come home to him, in presence of that 
 wondrously organized industry, how it was that he had 
 been at such dreadful pair.s to struggle against the 
 rivalry, in his own markets, of new-world producers. 
 
 Qu'Appolle is destined to play nn important r6le in the 
 colonlisation of the North-west. Its development has 
 been rapid. The town is the headquarters of one of the 
 most fertile regions in Assiniboia — the valley that bears 
 its name. This valley runs from west to east in a 
 
•71 
 
 direction almost parallel with the Canadian Pacific Bail- 
 way and its fertility depends on its topographical confor- 
 mation. Deeply entrenched in the prairie and protected 
 from the north and south winds by high banks, its clim- 
 ate is relatively mild. The plowing, sowing, harvesting 
 are respectively a fortnight earlier than in the other 
 parts of the West. Stock-raising, especially sheep-rear- 
 ing, is in great favor with the farmers — the animals re- 
 maining on the pastures the greater portion of the 
 winter. 
 
 A like conformation, only less marked, prevails in the 
 other valleys of the North- West. They are for the most 
 part ravines on a gigantic scale, dried-up beds of once 
 mighty rivers, the bottoms of which have became land 
 of amazing fertility. Between Qu'Appelle and Regina, 
 the face of the prairie changes, rising gradually. The 
 line, making long circuits, ascends the first slope of the 
 Missouri table-land, the heights of which show them- 
 selves indistinctly on the horizon to the right. Ere long 
 the train enters a level plain, that immense plateau 
 stietching westward to the Dirt Hills, in the midst of 
 whiuh is situated the capital of the Territories, Eegina 
 — a not unhandsome city built of wood, the official home 
 of the Governor. 
 
 On the platform of the Regina station are grouped a 
 few Indians. Crouching on their heels, wrapped in their 
 long woollen blankets, which they draw close over their 
 chests to ward off the cold, they solicit the passengers 
 to purchase little objects of their own workmanship. 
 There is nothing to inspire terror in these somewhat 
 
■12 
 
 degenerate descendants of BlackBird and Hawke's Eye. 
 One of them, who wears blue spectacles, walks alongside 
 the train holding in his hand a pair of buffalo horns 
 mounted with some originality and which he is a»;xiou8 
 to dispose of He does not seem very robust and totters 
 as he walks. He goes from group to group without 
 uttering a syllable, merely holding out the object that 
 he has to sell. Though he does not succeed, his failure 
 does not seem to trouble him. From the bottom of my 
 heart I pitied this unfortunate and in him his whole ill- 
 fated race. God made the Indian master of the plains 
 of the New World : colonization has come to dispossess 
 him of his rights. Did he revolt against the invaders of 
 his country ? In the name of civilization he was mas- 
 sacred, as in the south. Did he claim his property from 
 the avarice of the trader ? He was throttled with fire- 
 water so as to bring him the more easily to conviction 1 
 In a word, this civilization, mother of all kinds of pro- 
 gress, had for centuries but o^e object in certain portions 
 of America, to wipe out from the face of the earth the 
 first possessors of the soil by annihilating them physi- 
 cally and morally. 
 
 In Canada the case has been different, as I have already 
 pointed out, and Holigion has raised its voice of pity on 
 behalf of the Indians, and has on the one hand, succeeded 
 in calming their minds, and, on the other, in promoting, 
 with the aid of the Government, their well-being and 
 education. 
 
 The first step taken by the Government to rai8 3 the 
 moral statuE. of the Indians was to place them under 
 
 
73 
 
 the coiil/icl of special agents charged with their super- 
 vision. These agents, assisted by the^missionaries, have 
 endeavored to awaken in their minds some elementary 
 notions of civilization. After having set apart the re- 
 serves on which they were to reside, the government 
 made provision for their subsistence by distributing 
 among them at regular intervals, rations of food. Their 
 immediate wants being thus supplied, they were gra- 
 dually accustomed, in spite of themselves, to a settled 
 mode of living. 
 
 The task of the agents was difficult and ungrateful. 
 On some occasions it called for all their energy to res- 
 train within the limits assigned to them those turbulent 
 children of the prairie, long accustomed to reign, as 
 masters, over those vast solitudes. For several years, 
 kept by main force on the reserves, they passed their 
 time in idleness, hunting little and depending wholly for 
 maintenance on the rations furnished by the Government. 
 Then at last a reaction set in and the fever of unrest 
 began to subside. The moment for submission had 
 arrived — the moment for which the Government had 
 been waiting to put to the test a project which aimed at 
 nothing less than the complete transformation of the condi- 
 tions in which the Indians had hitherto lived. This plan 
 was to convert the ancient piairie-rangers into farmers 
 and thus to make them share in the development of the 
 country. Inspectors were appointed to teach them the 
 rudiments of agriculture, while at the same time imple- 
 ments of husbandry, seed grains and animals were dis- 
 tributed among them. The early essays were full of 
 
 
 4 
 
!f» 
 
 
 •74 
 
 difficulty, laziness, ignorance and above all, superstition, 
 having to be first subdued. But statistics justify the 
 government's policy. In 1881, the 20,900 Indians 
 scattered through Manitoba and the Territories culti- 
 vated hardly 3,000 acres of land ; they possessed about 
 6,000 head of cattle and employed about 12,000 agricul- 
 tural implements of u.11 It? up. In 1889, in the same 
 regions, the Indian uopalr^^'on had risen to -24,522 
 souls. It had cultivated i iOiii s-res of land, possessed a 
 little more than 13,000 animals and employed 33,516 
 agricultural implemontn. Again in 1890, at the annual 
 exhibition of the Agricultural Society of Assiniboia, 
 the first prize for the cultivation of wheat was awarded 
 to an Indian of the Crooked Lake reserve. 
 
 The Government is not only desirous to improve the 
 material condition of the Indians, but has also endea- 
 vored to raise their moral level by developing their 
 intellectual faculties. Elementary and industrial schools 
 have been opened at various points in the Territories, 
 and these training establishments have been entrusted 
 to the missionaries, Catholic and Protestant, of the coun- 
 try. Beading, wrriting and arithmetic are taught at 
 these schools, and the boys are also apprenticed to differ- 
 ent trades, and thus put in the way of earning their own 
 living. At the start, the Indians manifested character- 
 istic repugnance to this discipline, and many of them 
 refused to send their children, but ultimately good sense 
 triumphed over traditional prejudice. To-day these 
 schools are attended by numerous pupils, and some of 
 them become skilful artisans. In 1881, in the North- 
 
•75 
 
 West Territories and Manitoba, 971 cliildren were on the 
 roll. In 1887 the number had risen to 2,687, and in 
 1890 to 3,268. Thus, instead of trying to exterminate 
 the native race, the Canadian Government has done all 
 in its power to preserve the Indians and to better their 
 condition. It has placed within their reach all the 
 resources of civilization, instead of using these resoui'ces 
 to destroy them. The excellence of the methods em- 
 ployed for their improvement has, moreover, been amply 
 justified by results, and the future, there is et\ n to 
 hope, will show still grander fruits of a hur ^ne Micy 
 which does tho utmost credit to the per» 'e «nd the 
 Government of Canada. 
 
 Eegina is the starting-point of the brH '♦h Une that 
 helps to colonize the fertile regions watered oy the great 
 Saskatchewan. Of this region the resources are many 
 and manifold, but different in some particulars from 
 those of the prairie-land through which we have just 
 been passing. The Saskatchewan district is woo^ 
 abundantly provided with water, and its climate is, . i- 
 the most part, milder than that of the other portions of 
 tho North-West, with the exception of Alberta. While 
 Winnipeg, for example, has an average wii.ter tempera 
 ture of two degrees above zero, at £attleford, on the 
 Saskatchewan, tho average during the months of Janu- 
 ary, February and March is 12 degrees above zero. 
 From the configuration of the country, the nature of the 
 soil, the great richness of its natural meadows, it is emi- 
 nently adapted to mixed farming. Immigrants of small 
 means would do well to turn their steps in this direction. 
 
 ' 
 
 ^'.\ 
 
'?:: >fr, 
 
 76 
 
 i\ 
 
 11 
 
 In consequence of the comparatively recent opening up 
 of the country, they would have a wider choice in fixing 
 upon their homesteads, while the abundance -of wood for 
 building would diminish, in a large measure, the first 
 necessary outlays. 
 
 The chief town of the district is Prince Albert, a small 
 town situated on the north branch of the Saskatchewan. 
 The colonization is developing rapidly. The population 
 of the region is in a great part composed of half-breeds 
 and French-Canadians. The river Saskatchewan is open 
 to navigation through nearly its whole course. There 
 is a regular service of small steamboats, which bring all 
 the settlements spread over an extent of more than 800 
 miles into easy communication. 
 
 I had occasion to point out with what rapidity the 
 Canadian Pacific Company had urged on the work of 
 building its line to the north of Lake Superior. On the 
 prairie, between Winnipeg and the Eocky Mountains, 
 it was no less expeditious. The following statistics will 
 help to explain the rapid development of Manitoba and 
 the North- West, besides being of interest as part of the 
 story of a great enterprise of imperial importance : 
 
 On this portion of the line, the company had to con- 
 fltruct 962 miles of road. In 1881 it completed 165 
 miles; in 1882, 419; in 1883, 376. In 1882, 134 miles 
 were completed in 42 days. The work at this time was 
 being prosecuted at the rate of 3 J miles a day. In 1883 
 thi's rate was surpassed. In the course of the year the 
 workmen in 48 days completed 166 miles of road — the 
 average being 3 J miles per diem. 
 
7T 
 
 DuriDg the whole period of construction, the men 
 charged with laying the rails kept up with those who 
 built the road. Every heart was inspired by the same 
 energy; everyone connected with the enterprise was 
 eager to see it brought to a successful conclusion. The 
 directors of the line mingled with the workmen and 
 thus stimulated their zeal. Nor did the rapidity affect 
 the solidity of the work. From first to last the line 
 was built in such a way as to merit the praise of all the 
 engineers of both hemispheres who had an opportunity 
 of inspecting it. In the task of embankment an average 
 of 16,300 cubic meters of earth per mile was employed. 
 These embankments, which could, at need, be dispensed 
 with through the whole course of the prairie, were 
 adopted for the sole object of avoiding the snow-drifts in 
 winter and of doing as much as possible without trenches, 
 which would have become veritable reservoirs for the 
 snow to accumulate and block the trains. The plan also 
 gave the road a minimum of gradient — the mean inclin- 
 ation of the line from Winnipeg to the mountains being 
 about forty feet to the mile or 1 foot for every 132 feet. 
 
 To have an exact notion of the marvellous rapidity 
 with which all these works were pushed on, it must be 
 borne in mind that they were conducted in the midst of 
 an absolute wilderness, and that every passing day 
 carried the workmen farther from civilization and all 
 that it meant for them. Nevertheless, so well provided 
 was the commissariat that during their three years of 
 service, the workmen were not for a single day deprived 
 of anything nr jessary for their subsistence or comfort. 
 
 !l 
 
78 
 
 At distances of 130 miles, stores, shelters for locomotives, 
 shunting tracks for trains, repair shops, coal depots and 
 reservoirs of water were stationed, and the telegraph 
 was always in advance of the workmen. Just as a 
 section of 100 miles was completed, all this material, 
 apparatus and supplies were despatched forward. The 
 workmen's dwellings were in compartments and could 
 he taken asunder. At the first signal they were taken 
 down, laden on numbered wagons, and, in a single day 
 were set up again at a fresh stage 100 miles further on. 
 
 The plateau of Regina has the reputation of being arid 
 and unfit for culture. But this is really a mistaken 
 notion which it is only fair, in the interest of the 
 country, to dispel. The aridity of the plain is only 
 apparent, for in whatever locality the plough pierces 
 the superficial crust and turns it over and exposes the 
 lower strata of the soil, the earth presents ample 
 evidence of the utmost fertility. In fact it is eminently 
 suitable for the raising of cereals, and especially of 
 wheat. 
 
 This plateau is a favorite resort of sportsmen. We 
 pass near numerous lakes around which game is found 
 in abundance. On the shores water-hens, ducks, wild 
 geese, pelicans, plovers, are gambolling in myriads, all 
 these winged creatures seeming to live in perfect 
 intimacy. From time to time an antelope passes within 
 range of vision, stops a moment and casts toward the 
 train a look of alarm. A few coyotes, scared by our 
 passage, steal away among the high grass and are lost 
 to view in the nearest couUe. As a sail on the horlz )n 
 
79 
 
 
 bringB on deck all the passongers of a steamship, so on 
 the prairie, the sight of the smallest living thing suffices 
 to awaken the cariosity of thoeio who are rushing at full 
 speed through the solitude of the West. 
 
 The present delimitation of the provinces or districts of 
 the Canadian North-West is entirely conventional, and 
 in a future reasonably near, a more rational subdivision, 
 in harmony with topography, climate and nature's own 
 dividing lines, may be reasonably looked for. For 
 nature has not only intended this part of Canada to be 
 the first agricultural country in the world, but has also 
 partitioned it into regions where distinct communities 
 may find homes according to their needs. Such a read- 
 justment might include the eastern portion of Assiniboia 
 in Manitoba and the western in Alberta, while its north- 
 ern part would go to Saskatchewan and thus form a 
 province clearly distinct from the other districts by 
 climate and physical characters. Thus reconstituted, 
 Manitoba would become the wheat granary of the world, 
 while Alberta would be the chosen home of the stock- 
 raisers. The Saskatchewan valleys, with their incalcul- 
 able forest wealth, their mighty force of water-power, 
 their deposits of coal, of gold and other minerals, would 
 be among the most prosperous industrial centres of 
 North America. At later stages of the development, 
 other regit ns further north would be organized into 
 pi'ovinces, the abodes of hai-dy settlei-s of generations yet 
 to come. 
 
 A century, perhaps, will have passed away before the 
 peopling of these immense regions is an accomplished 
 
 111 
 
80 
 
 fact. Daring half that period the product of the soil 
 will exceed the wants of the inhabitants for local con- 
 sumption. From day to day the means of communica- 
 tion will become more numerous over the whole vast 
 extent of territory, the means of transport more rapid^ 
 more direct and at the same time more economical. The 
 surplus of production will be despatched to the European 
 markets, in spite of theories and plans. For no human 
 la 97 can prevent the economic transformation that is in 
 process of taking place, and of this transformation no one 
 can to-day foresee the consequences. The soil of the 
 Old World being exhausted, the generation now growing 
 up there will, in defiance of all artificial restrictions, 
 come and take possession of the rich new lands that 
 await them on this side of the Atlantic. There lies the 
 salvation of a considerable portion of the peasantry of 
 Europe. R'lined by competition, by the sterility of their 
 worn out lands and by the depreciation of values. Provi- 
 dence offers them half a continent of incomparable fer- 
 tility ; and the social question will be in a large part 
 solved the moment these classes, with their penates, 
 come to plant new roots of humanity in the great plains 
 of free Canada. Then will disappear the hatreds born 
 of rivalry and the misery due to lack of the means of 
 subsistence. 
 
 There are, it is true, certain governments that endea- 
 vor to repress the movement of emigration in their 
 respective countries, while, notwithstanding, their legis- 
 lators are helpless to provide bread for the needy multi- 
 ti' le. Their attempts, like new Pharoahsi to prevent ft 
 
81 
 
 of 
 
 Lea- 
 ieir 
 
 ;i8- 
 [Iti- 
 
 t a 
 
 divinely appointed exodus will be overcome by a wisdom 
 superior to their own. For it is really impossible not to 
 see the hand of Providence in this timely opening-up of 
 new fields of fruitful activity juwt when the social ques- 
 tion is assuming grave and alarming phases even in states 
 of recognized stability. 
 
 The vast plain that stretches out from the western 
 'slope of the Missouri plateau to the foot- hills of the 
 Eocky Mountains, and which is crossed by the Canadian 
 Pacific Eailway, is one of the richest stock-raising re- 
 gions in North America. This plain encloses the south- 
 western part of Assiniboia and the southern part of 
 Alberta. It has an area of 65,000 square miles. Numer- 
 ous rivers water it, such as the Saskatchewan, the Bow, 
 the Belly, etc., and a multitude of secondary waterways 
 that take their rise in the Cypress Hills or in the num- 
 berless gorges of the Bocky Mountains furrow it in 
 every direction. Over its whole extent the prairie is 
 covered by a peculiar grass, which constitutes its special 
 wealth. The inhabitants call it buffalo grass. Timber 
 is found in abundance along the water-courses, and the 
 sub soil contains rich deposits of coal, which will become 
 in future j^ears one of the country's most important 
 sources of wealth. In the midst of these natural mea- 
 dows wander from year to year countless herds of 
 hordes, cattle and sheep, to which nature supplies abun- 
 dant and substantial fodder, of the reproduction of which 
 'it also assumus the responsibility. The climate on this 
 vast prairie-land is temperate. At Medicine Hat, Cal- 
 gary and MoLeod, the three most important centres of 
 
 6 
 
 ii 
 
82 
 
 •I'ii 
 
 1^ ;'V 
 
 population in this great dietiict, the mean temperature 
 in January, February and March is, respectively, 13, 12 
 and 21 degrees above zero, Fahrenheit. The snowfall 
 rarely exceeds a height of eight inches. This relative 
 mildness of the climate is due to the beneficent action of 
 a wind known under the name of chinook — a warm 
 breeze that rises at certain periods of the year on the 
 coasts of the Pacific, crosses the Rocky Mountains and 
 sweeps the prairies of Alberta and Western Assiniboia. 
 In a few days, sometimes in a few hours, under its influ- 
 ence the snow disappears, the temperature modifies and 
 the thermometer rises several degrees. 
 
 Before the opening of the Canadian Pacific, the whole 
 western portion of the Dominion through which we have 
 been passing was closed to civilization and progress. 
 Only the Indians, a few fur-traders and the missionaries 
 crossed its vast solitudes. Even as late as ten years ago 
 the shortest route to these regions was through the 
 United States. Travellers bound for the western prairies, 
 who 8'irank from a long canoe voyage by the great 
 lakes, betook themselves by railway to Bismarck, in the 
 State of Dakota, there got aboard a steamer and ascended 
 tbe upper Missouri to Fort Benton. From that fort they 
 continued their journey across the prairie by caravan. 
 At present in four days one may travel from Montreal to 
 Calgary. 
 
 The view that is unfolded on the left side of the care 
 between Swift Current and Medicine Hat soon makes 
 one forget the seeming aridity of the Begina plateau. 
 In the distance, towards the south, the Cypress Hills 
 
83 
 
 display their sombre mass against the clear blue of the 
 sky. One can easily distinguish their deep gorges and 
 the beautiful pine forests that cover their northern slope. 
 Between the base of these mountains and the line of the 
 railway extend rich pasture lands, in which at intervals 
 appear numerous herds of hoi'sea, around which may be 
 seen galloping men attired in "cowboy" guise, mounted 
 on native ponies. Sometimes the train pasises through 
 countless flocks of sheep, in no wise dismayed by the 
 noise of the speeding train. At intervals we have a 
 glimpse of a cluster of farm-houses surrounded by trees — 
 farms which prove, what is generally ignored, that the 
 west of Assiuiboiais as favorable to wheat-growing as to 
 cattle-raising. Settlers of modest means prefer Mani- 
 toba and the valleys east of the Missouri cdteau, but this 
 is mainly because western Assiniboia is not so well 
 known as it ought to be, and perhaps because hitherto 
 stock-raising has been the chief industry, and thus an 
 impression has gained ground that it was not adapted 
 for cereals or mixed farming. But this micsconception 
 will correct itself in time. 
 
 The entire region lying between the Missouri cufeau to 
 the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west, the 
 American frontier to the south and the Alhiibasca to the 
 north, contains the richest carboniferous deposits in 
 North America. Here again nature has favored Ctinada 
 by placing within her reach an element of wealth which 
 she has denied to the Western States of the Unioii. It 
 is estimated that the extent of this coiil-boaring r9gion is 
 not loss than ()6,000 square miles, and the (juantity of 
 
m 
 'illi 
 
 fj'iii 1 ■ 
 
 pi 
 
 If -M 
 
 84 
 
 accessible coal is calculated to be 6,000,000 tons per 
 square mile. The extraction of this coal is everywhere 
 comparatively easy, the vein not being deep, and its 
 inclination with the surface of the soil not exceeding an 
 angle of ten degrees. The thickness of the different 
 strata varies from six inches to twenty-five feet. Those 
 that are being worked are from four to twelve feet thick. 
 The quality of the coal is variable. In the west of 
 Assiniboia, in the vicinity of Medicine Hat and in the 
 upper valley of the Deer river, lignite is found in great 
 abundance. In the neighborhood of Lethbridge and 
 Calgary, as well as in the Edmonton district, the beds 
 are formed of bituminous coal. Near the Uocky Moun- 
 tains, on the other hand, the coal is pure anthracite. 
 Numerous companies have been formed to utilize this 
 new source of wealth. The two most important of these 
 companies have their seat of operations, the one at Leth- 
 bridge, in Alberta, the other at Anthracite, on the slope 
 of the Rucky Mountains. Besides, wherever a natural 
 opening in the ground has exposed the mineral, the set- 
 tlers work it for their own benefit. At Edmonton, for 
 instance, of which we shall have occasion to speak again 
 by-and-bye, the inhabitants make use of the coal, which 
 they collect themselves by means of shafts made for this 
 purpose, some of them under the town itself. It is 
 almost needless to say that tho Canadian Pacific Com- 
 pany turns to account whatever deposits of coal nature 
 has ,;laced in its way, and the saving thus effected is 
 cons "iorpo;3. Not one of the great United States rail- 
 way lin- htXBix like advantage. Every one of them has, 
 
85 
 
 at great cost in time, mnteiial and money, to establish 
 aFi along its course numerous centres of coal and water 
 supply for the service of its trains. 
 
 In some parts of the North-West natural gas issues 
 forth in abundance. At Langevin station the Company 
 has for several years used it for lighting and as the 
 motor of a machine for raising water to the reservoirs. 
 The application of this gas to the needs of industry is 
 only a question of time. What doubt can there be as to 
 the future of a country where nature seems to have 
 accumulated all the sources of wealth which elsewhere 
 she only places piecemeal at the disposal of mankind ! 
 Under the action of an admirable climate, the earth 
 brings forth a hundred-fold. Nature herself takes charge 
 of the cattle that stray at will over her prairies. Under- 
 neath, the soil is everywhere a store of natural richness. 
 Millions of persons in this generation and in ages to 
 come will draw thence the fuel necessary not only for 
 their own use, but for the operation of all the industries 
 that they may establish. In contrast with the state of 
 things in the Western States of tie Union, hero the 
 greater portion of the soil is covered wit! 
 sand, there is not a corner in the whole of t 
 North- West which cannot be utilized by af 
 other form of industry. 
 
 Yet, this Land of Promise is still, as 
 virtually unoccupied, and all the phases of vju'ious 
 wealth, of which, current?, calamo, I hav«^ attempted to 
 outline the value, are placed within reach of the bold, 
 uteady, industrious settler. 
 
 jserts of 
 
 Canadian 
 
 culture or 
 
 population, 
 
 '1 
 
86 
 
 in. 
 
 "We reach Calgary about two o'clock in the morn nft. 
 The night is clear. On the horizon the sombre mass of 
 the Bocky Mountains stands out in bold relief against 
 the deep blue background of a sky brilliant with stars. 
 The "Alberta" is a fine hotel of cut stone which would 
 not suffer In comparison with the best hotels of eastern 
 cities. Like all the city it is lighted by electricity. Just 
 as I enter it, an alarm of fire is sounded and in less than 
 two minutes the firemen pass before me, their horses at 
 the gallop. These fine buildings all around me, this 
 electric light, this steam fire-engine of which I catch a 
 glimpse, all carry me buck in imagination to the obscure 
 tradiog-post of a few years ago. Only yesterday it 
 seems, for indeed the city only dates from 1882. In 1885 
 when I visited it for the first time it was still in ti uth 
 only a village with a few dozens of woudon houses, an 
 hotel of like material, and the Indians' camps sca:'cely 
 distinguishable from it. To-day it has a population of 
 over 4,000 souls, and the value of real estate is estimated 
 at 15,000,000 francs, while its annual trade exceeds 
 twelve millions. 
 
 The city rises on the banks of the Bow river, which 
 has its source in the !Rocky Mountains, is both broad 
 and deep, and waters the most fertile portions of Alberta. 
 Its ample water-power will make of Calgary before 
 many years an important industrial centre. The situa- 
 tion of the city is Bxceptional. Surrounded by circular 
 hills which guarc' it from the violent north and south 
 winds, it suffers from extremes of temperature neither 
 
8fr 
 
 in summer nor in winter. Daring the months of July 
 and August, the mean temperature is 55 degrees Fahr., 
 whilst at Fort McLeod or Medicine Hat this mean rises 
 to 62 degrees. 
 
 Five years ago Calgary had only two small counting 
 houses. To-day the greatest hanks of Canada are repre- 
 sented by branches. When I asked the manager of the 
 Bank of Montreal his impression as to the future pros- 
 perity of the town, he replied with a smile, that when 
 he came there, he was able unaided to attend to the 
 business of the bank, but that now he was assisted by 
 five clerks. " Can 1 say more," he added, ** as to the 
 increase which our business has undergone ? " The 
 president of the Calgary Board of Trade also gave me 
 some interesting information. The pr» of land in the 
 city and its environs increases in propoition to the de- 
 velopment of the country and without respect to the 
 spirit of speculation. These rates range from $75 to 
 $lt5 per acre within the limits ot Calgary. Within a 
 radius of four miles around the young city one may 
 procure land at the rate of from $20 to $50 an tfcre with 
 a river front. The price of land offered for sale by the 
 Canadian Pacific Company varies from $3 to $6 per acre. 
 Nature has spared noting in facilitating the development 
 of Calgary. The town is in the centre of a rich carbon- 
 iferous dietrict and in its neighborhood important stone 
 quarries are being worked. Every spring the watei's of 
 the Bow deposit at the doors of the city immense quan- 
 lities of building timber from the lofty woodland of the 
 B^cky Mountains entrusted to the current and thus 
 
t i 
 
 . 88 
 
 transported to the sawmills. The land in the environs 
 of Calgary is remarkably fertile and the market gardens, 
 the products of which are ever in demand in the city 
 have been remarkably successful. 
 
 *' We have no poor in our city," said the mayor to me, 
 and the statement might be applied to the whole North- 
 West. '' Fveryono who comes here in robust health and 
 with i. fair stock of good-will can find work from day to 
 day at all e-easons of the year. With economy he may 
 in two or three yeais create for himself an independent 
 position." The average of wages at Calgary is two 
 dollars a day On this pay a steady worker, while living 
 comfortably enough may lay aside a dollar at the end of 
 each of his working days. The newly arrived immigrant 
 must not restrict his energies to anj'^ one class of work. 
 He must not say, 1 will be a gardener, or a joiner, or a 
 mason, etc., but must simply accept with good will what- 
 ever work is offered him, whethei* it is in exact accord 
 with his tast' w or not. The opportunity will in time 
 present itt^elf of finding a better place, if he is intelligent, 
 saving and sober. In the West the workman soon gets 
 to be known, and, then while he is not dreaming of it, 
 he is observed and studied by men who need help, and 
 who, if he is deserving, ^fill soon ascertain it and make 
 him advantageous offers. The field of business in the 
 West is a neutral ground on which men of social condi- 
 tions apparently the most opposite may elbow each 
 other. Here the younger son of an English peer may 
 become the partner of a humble plebeian whom the con- 
 tact with aristocracy neither surprises nor frightens. 
 
 --^it- 
 
89 
 
 The great law of the struggle for life levels all distinc- 
 tions of origin, and those who refuse to bow the head 
 befoi'o this law condemn themselves to helplessness when 
 they do not expose themselves to ridicule. The first 
 condition of success is to leave far behind the spirit of 
 caste and to attain the conviction that work alone and 
 its fruits will be the umpires of merit and consideration. 
 This equality joined with the principle of fair play in- 
 nate in every true-born Briton, has one result which 
 eveiy impartial traveller must acknowledge: it shuts 
 the door against mean jealousies which in many commu- 
 nities, oppose an impassable barrier to progress. Where- 
 avor I went in the North-West, I never once found rival- 
 ries or hatreds existing between settlers or merchants. 
 Everyone tries to do better than his neighbor, to surpass 
 him if he can, bat rarely does this competition trans- 
 gress the bounds of courtosy and justice. 
 
 Calgary, which is now the commercial centre of all 
 Alberta, will ere long be the general entrepot for the 
 traffic of the Territories with the Pacific coast. Its dis- 
 tance from Winnipeg is 840 miles, from Vancouver 642 
 miles. The town is also the terminus of two important 
 railways — that of Edmonton, in the north, which draws 
 towards the Canadian Pacific all the trade of a region of 
 more than 60,000 square miles, and that of McLeod, 
 which traverses the rich highlands in the south of 
 Alberta. 
 
 The relations that exist, through the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway, between the different provinces of the Domin- 
 ion, justify the foresight of the Fathers of Oonfedera- 
 
90 
 
 1 
 
 i^ 
 
 iS 
 
 tion. They laid the foundation of a proi^perity, which 
 it is the task of Canadian industry to favor. The devel- 
 opment of Canada, with the manifold resources comprised 
 in its vast territory, will be sufficient for herself on the 
 day when European immigration is convinced that no- 
 where else can it find a field of labor more productive, 
 and when the great manufacturers of Eastern Canada 
 understand what advantage it would be to them to ex- 
 tend their radius of action from ocean to ocean. Every- 
 where, indeed, from Winnipeg to Vancouver, I became 
 aware of the earnest desire of the local municipalities to 
 see the development of new industries in their respec- 
 tive centres. There exists, I know, in certain quarters, 
 a strong prejudice against the protectionist policy 
 adopted by the federal Government in 1878, on the 
 ground that it favored certain pi'ivileged industries at 
 the expense of the general interest and of that of the 
 agricultural class especially. In the United States with 
 65,000,000 inhabitants, protection has been u source of 
 enterprise, industrial energy and wealth, and those who 
 compare the regime that preceded with that which 
 followed 1878, must, if they answer honestly and 
 without bias, concede that it has also benefited Can- 
 ada. A great country without manufactures is doomed 
 to certain decay. But a country like Canada, con- 
 sisting in part of long settled provinces, and in 
 part of new, recently organized territories, requires a 
 wise distribution of industrial enterprise in order to 
 equalize its advantages. For instance, certain articles 
 of common consumption are dear in the North- West, such 
 
as garments, boots and agricaltnral implements, for the 
 simple reason that the retail merchant has to pay not 
 only the manufacturer in the eastern provinces, but the 
 cost of transport, etc. This would be remedied by the 
 great manufacturers establishing branch factories for 
 the supply of places along the line of settlement west- 
 wai*d and northwards — a course which would add to 
 their own profits, while benefiting the settler. "Wool, 
 leather, wood, coal, iron are found in abundance all over 
 the North-West. There is a wealth of excellent water- 
 power, and all the young and rising cities offer special 
 privileges and exemptions to the manufacturers who 
 throw in their lot with them. The growth of the popu- 
 lation promises sure outlets for the native fabrics. Yet 
 strange to say, few have as yet made the venture and 
 manufactories are few and far between beyogd Lake. 
 Superior. It is to these timid manufacturers that the 
 agricultural classes of the praii'ies owe the grudge 
 which they mistakenly pay out to the protectionist 
 policy. 
 
 I am well aware that I will be told in reply that it is 
 capital that is lacking, and that, besides, the creation of 
 new industries would necessitate the presence of com- 
 petent foreign workmen who would be unwelcome to 
 the working population of Canada. I will reply further 
 on to the first of these objections. As for the second, I 
 will content myself by remarking that a young country 
 like Canada, ambitious to attain to the summits of pro- 
 gress, cannot suffer any injury by appealing to all kinds 
 of intelligence. A government anxious, as is that of the 
 
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92 
 
 Dominion, to promote the public weal in this matter, 
 should take an energetic stand, even though, for the 
 gr inter good of the entire country, it should wound, for 
 the moment, the susceptibilities of a feeble minority. 
 
 To retui-n to Calgary, the physiognomy of the citv 
 does not lack originality. On all sides the activity is 
 pervading and constant. In the streets there is an 
 unceasing movement to and fro. Every one is wrapped 
 up in his own business and meddles little with that of 
 others. There are no loafers even in the hall of the 
 " Alberta." I have visited some of the finer stores, 
 especially that of the Hudsons' Bay Company. All are 
 well supplied with all kinds of goods, <\nd, a detail not 
 without significance, they are mainly lighted by elec- 
 tricity. In the streets I encountered a large num- 
 ber of ranchmen. Their dark mahogany complexions, 
 due to a prolonged out-door life on the prairie, the 
 broad felt hats, the long boots — these alone indicate 
 their occupation. They have nothing of that sloven- 
 liness which some of the Eastern papers attribute 
 to them. Sometimes a few Indians mounted on ponies 
 made their appearance. Wrapped in their many 
 colored blankets, with carabine slung across the saddle, 
 they pass along, calm in the midst of the crowd. They 
 belong to the powerful nation of the Blackfeet, formerly 
 absolute masters of this region. Their reserve is about 
 twenty miles to the south of Calgary. There, under the 
 vigilant supervision of special agents, they allow them- 
 selves to be initiated gradually into the beneficent meth- 
 ods of civilization. There are in Calgary' two public 
 
93 
 
 schools one of which is a noble structure in the centre of 
 the town. 
 
 The Catholic missions directed by a holy and distin- 
 guished Oblat priest, Father Lacombe, have charge of the 
 instruction of Indian and half-breed children. It would 
 require a volume to do justice to the work ff Father 
 Lacombe and his associates in this portion of the great 
 "West — a work of self-denial, charity and civilieation. 
 Father Lacombe and his illustrious chief pastor, Arch- 
 bishop Tach^, have been the two apostles of the country. 
 More than once thej have both been all but martyred in 
 the service of the sacred cause which they defended. 
 The name of Father Lacombe is a symbol of peace in 
 the most of the Indian tribes. His influence has not 
 only profited Christianity, but has also potently aided 
 the federal Government in establishing in the North- 
 West the mild and merciful sway that it has exercised 
 for over forty years. The name of this humble servant 
 of God is not only venerated in the scenes of his labors, 
 but is known and honored in the highest circles of the 
 East. Touching, indeed, and not without great lessons 
 was the spectacle of the most powerflil dignitaries of the 
 state, the " magnates " of the Canadian Pacific — and 
 those Protestants — inviting to their table, on the most 
 special occasions, and offering him the place of honor, 
 this humble missionary, who has grown grey in the 
 service of God and of civilization. In the delightful 
 little book of the Countess of Aberdeen, "Throagh 
 Canada with a Kodak," mention is made of Father 
 Lacombe, as one of the guests gathered around the 
 
94 
 
 hospitable board of Sir Donald A. Smith, when that 
 munificent Nor-Wester entertained our present Governor- 
 General and His Excellency's gracious and gifted con- 
 sort. Nor has the " Kodak " forgotten to capture the 
 missionary's impressive features. 
 
 The lino of the Canadian Pacific delimits with con- 
 siderable accuracy the two great regions of Alberta. To 
 the south down to the United States frontier and to the 
 lofty chain of the Eockies on the west, stretch out the 
 richest pasture lands in America. Northwards, an 
 elevated track, cut into deep valleys, bounteously 
 watered, well wooded, and having a soil of incomparable 
 activity, offers for mixed farming an exhaustless field of 
 operations. As to climate, these two regions enjoy 
 almost identical advantages. The town of McLeod is 
 the centre of the Southern district; Edmonton, on the 
 Upper Saskatchewan, is the metropolis of the North. 
 The mean temperatures summer and winter at McLeod 
 are respectively from 62 to 21 degrees Fahrenheit. At 
 Edmonton, these means are 65 and 11 degrees respect- 
 ively. As in the Province of Manitoba and all Assini- 
 boia, the atmosphere in Alberta is dry and of a limpidity 
 unknown to the older provinces. The vicinity of the 
 mountains makes it the healthiest country on the 
 American continent. It imparts a renewal of vigor to 
 all who plant their tent there. A disciple of iEsoulapius 
 told the writer that it took the physician's place to a 
 large extent and was often a surer healer than the 
 man of drugs. 
 
 Ten years ago the prairie of Alberta belonged to the 
 
95 
 
 i^ 
 
 1 
 
 Indians, the traders and a few herds of buffalos that as 
 yet had escaped massacre. Today there are more than 
 a hundred ranches scattered through its whole extent, 
 without counting the numerous farms that dot the 
 banks of the water-courses so abundant in this country. 
 More than 35.000 horses, 12,000 milch cows, 40,000 oxen, 
 60,000 sheep, roam at liberty all the year through. In 
 the plains of Assiniboia, it may ^e added, which were 
 alike closed to progress ten years ago, the number of 
 horses and cattle respectively was estimated last year at 
 22,000 and 63,000 head. This alone is an answer to 
 those who pi etend that the North- West is stationary. 
 
 To a Scotchman, Dr. McEaohran, and a Canadian, 
 Senator Cochrane, is due the honor, I had almost said 
 the glory, of having started the stock-raising industry in 
 the plains of Alberta. Towards 1881, when the con- 
 struction of the Canadian Pacific had been definitely 
 undertaken, these gentlemen, accompanied by a few 
 friends, set out for the North- West. After having 
 ascended, in a steamboat, the Missouri Biver as far as 
 Fort Benton, they began to cross the prairie on horse- 
 back. In three weeks after leaving Montreal, they 
 aiTived at Fort McLeod, the centre of fat pastures, 
 which their intelligence and energy were soon to trans- 
 form into a great natural park for stock-raising. 
 
 Under this timely impulse the ranching industry 
 rapidly developed. English and Canadian capitalists 
 chose lands suitable for their stock, imported largely 
 tvom Montana, while United States cattlemen quickly 
 recognized that Alberta was destined to become the 
 
96 
 
 most important centre for the production of low-priced 
 meat, and, in order to share in its advantages, began to 
 send their cattle northwards. The Federal Government 
 did not give them leave and in that it did right. In 
 noticing, en passantf this movement from the Western 
 States into the Canadian North- West, it may suffice, by 
 way of showing their bad faith, to mention how for 
 political ends, they paint in falsest colors the Dominion 
 in general, and in particular the new regions opened up 
 to colonization. 
 
 The completion in 1885 of the Canadian Pacific Bail- 
 way gave a fresh impetus to the development of the 
 stock-raising industry. Not only did the herds increase 
 in number but the type of the animals improved. Bulls 
 of Durham breed were imported at great expense from 
 England, and thus judicious crossing was introduced into 
 the ranches. At first horned cattle monopolized 
 attention, but it was seen before very long that no slight 
 profit lay in horse-breeding as well. Horse ranches 
 were established and have been all along successful. Great 
 English land-owners sent out valuable stallions and a con- 
 siderable number of mares, and to day all the best known 
 British .breeds are well represented in the country, 
 and the native animals sprung from the imported sires, 
 show to excellent advantage, the climate imparting to 
 them a vigor even greater than that of the ancestral 
 animals. The horse has been found more easy to natur- 
 alize than the bovine race. When in seasons of rare 
 severity, mortality invades the herds, the horses suffer 
 less than the kine, the losses standing, on an average. 
 
9^ 
 
 at 5 per cent for the latter when they are only 2 percent 
 for the former. ' 
 
 The Edmonton district comprises all the north of 
 Alberta, extending from the Canadian Pacific to Atha« 
 basca on the north. It has an area of about 50,000 
 square miles, and in this area nature has united all the 
 elements of wealth that are likely to attract immigration. 
 The latter is not holding back indeed, for during the 
 last three years, close columns of settlers have been 
 advancing to tarke possession of these territories. The 
 aspect of the Edmonton district differs from that of 
 which the town of McLeod is tho centre. Furrowed in 
 all directions by broad and deep nv^ers, amply wooded, 
 largely undulating, the country offers to the traveller 
 an unbroken succession of fresh landscapes that are 
 restful to the eyes after the monotony of the great 
 plains that we have lately traversed. 
 
 The two great essentials of wood and water abound 
 everywhere in this region. To the north the valleys 
 watered by the Athabasca, the McLeod, and the Pem- 
 bina are cohered by deep forests of pine, balsams and 
 poplars, which grow to a considerable size and furnish 
 building timber of excellent quality. On the banks of 
 the Saskatchewan, and to the south, in the valleys of its 
 tributaries, the Battle and the Deer, wood is not so 
 plentiful. But ten generations of settlers will not 
 exhaust the forest reserves of this part of the country. 
 
 The climate of the Edmonton district leminds one of 
 that of the elevated valleys of Switzerland, nor does the 
 
 resemblance between the two countries end at this point. 
 
 •7 
 
98 
 
 In the valleys of the Saskatchewan, the Deer and the 
 Battle Bivers, the snow disappears generally at the end 
 of March or middle of April, the melting of it going on 
 rapidly and the soil drying with equal rapidity. Until 
 about the 15th of May the nights are cool, sometimes 
 even cold, but, by way of compensation, the days are 
 warm, and under the influence of the sun's rays the 
 thaw proceeds apace. Vegetation begins to show in the 
 last week of April, and in the latter days of May it is 
 flourishing. During the month of June, which is gener- 
 ally rainy, and of July the growth of all green things 
 is amazing. Crops sown from the 25th of Api:il to the 
 15th of M!ay are ripe in the middle of August. After 
 the 15th of September hoar-frosts are occasionally' seen, 
 though the meadows preserve their verdure to the 
 middle of November, when the first snow-falls are regis- 
 tered. Although for a day or two the thermometer may 
 fall at Edmonton to 40 degrees below zero, the winter 
 on the whole is less rigorous than in Manitoba. Snow- 
 storms, frequent in the East, are unknown north of Cal- 
 gary. This comparative mildness is due to the beneficent 
 action uf the chinook winds already mentioned, as well 
 as to the forests which serve as wind-breaks. The 
 mean depth of winter snow is about 18 inches, sometimes 
 less. In 1886 it did not exceed six inches. 
 
 With the exception of milch cows, the animals are 
 allowod to remain out-doors all winter. During the 
 night they find shelter in the sheds, while in day-time 
 they find abundant fodder by scratching away the snow. 
 The soil of the Edmonton district is a rich black loam, 
 
/ 
 
 99 
 
 with sub-soil of clny. The cultivable land has an aver- 
 age depth of three feet, and it is noteworthy that the 
 rich black loam is thicker on the heights than in the 
 valleys. 
 
 Most of the rivers or torrents that water the country 
 take their rise in the Bocky Mountains. In their head- 
 long course these streams carry with them in the spring 
 the debris of silicious clay which tends gradually to take 
 the place of the black loam, so that the lands bordering 
 the rivers, though retaining their fertility, need the aid 
 of fertilizers sooner than the highlands. Farmers in the 
 Edmonton district unfortunately make the same mistake 
 as those of Manitoba in neglecting their manure heaps, 
 which lie in the farm-yards unused and well nigh for- 
 gotten. It is only now and then that a farmer applies a 
 few barrows full to accelerate the growth of the vego 
 tables in the garden attached to his house. This con- 
 tempt of nature's fertilizing materials does honor assur- 
 edly to the fecundity of the soil, but it shows a culpable 
 lack of foresight on the part of the farmers, who ought 
 to know that there is no land, however productive, that 
 does not, in the long run, become exhausted, and that in 
 sparing themselves a little exertion, they are bequeathing 
 to their children a tenfold labor in restoring to the soil 
 its lost vitality. However that be, the soil, still in the 
 acme of its vigor giy es back a hundredfold the seeds 
 that the farmer entrusts to it. There is no corner of 
 Manitoba or Assiniboia, however favored by nature, that 
 equals in fertility the valleys of the Deer, the Battle, and 
 the north Saskatchewan rivers. The average return 
 
100 
 
 per acre in the Edmonton district is for oats 52 minots, 
 the minot weighing from 46 to 52 pounds. Barley yields 
 from 45 to 55 minots, the weight of the minot weighing 
 from 54 to 57 pounds. The yield per acre of wheat is 
 more considerable than in Manitoba. The length of 
 wheat stalks and oat stalks gives new evidence of the 
 fertility of the soil. I have seen at Calgary stalks of 
 wheat that measured six feet two inches in height and of 
 which the heads attained a size of 4^ to 5 inches. 
 
 The price of land in Edmonton is still merely nominal^ 
 if one takes into account its almost incredible fertility 
 and the precious advantages which the country offers to 
 the colonist, in the richness oif the wood and water 
 supply. Besides, here as all over the North- West the 
 value of lands depends less on their fertility than on their 
 less or greater distance fi*om the railway. On this point 
 I would hazard a remark : Those whose resources enable 
 them to invest in land a considerable part of their dis- 
 posable capital may indulge in this expensive choice of 
 lands in the vicinity of railways. But those whose 
 means are more modest would be wise to content them- 
 selves with those parts of the district that are not yet 
 settled. They will thus become land-owners at a mini- 
 mum outlay, and moreover, will not have long to wait 
 till a railway is neai* their doors. 
 
 Hitherto the local market has been amply sufficient 
 for disposing of the surplus products of the farm, a fact 
 easily explained by the rapid growth of population every 
 year. During the last lustrum, thousands of immig ants 
 have come to pitch their tents in the Edmonton district. 
 
 ' 
 
101 
 
 bt 
 let 
 
 is 
 
 These new settlers require seed grains, wheat for domeH- 
 tic use, hay for fodder, and of course, it is fi'om the farms 
 of their predecessors that they obtain their supplies. 
 The surplus of the crops is always bought up on the 
 spot by the traders who traverse the country every fall. 
 Kdmoiiton, the administrative and commercial centre 
 of the district, that bears the name, is situated on the 
 north bank of the Saskatchewan River, its history is 
 that of all the other cities of the West. In the latter 
 years of the 18th century, the Hudson's Bay Company 
 erected on its site a fort which became in a little time the 
 headquarters of the fur-traders of the region. Soon not 
 far from the tort, there rose a church, served by Catholic 
 priests. The influence of these devoted apostles of civi- 
 lization soon made itself felt among the aboriginal 
 tribes, and counterbalanced, on the character of the 
 Indians, those germs of demoralization which are always 
 disseminated wherever the passion for gain, combined, 
 as in too many instances, with blameworthy practices, 
 takes possession of their minds. The construction of 
 the Canadian Pacific Railway was the starting-point of 
 Edmonton's fortune. The news spread that the pro- 
 moters of the trans-continental line purposed bringing it 
 through the Saskatchewan valley, and Edmonton became 
 the destination of a crowd of speculators. The price of 
 lands augmented rapidly ; houses were built in all dir- 
 ections and soon a miniature city was founded on the 
 banks of the Saskatchewan. But the engineers of the 
 road having fixed upon a new pass in the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, furthur south, it was decided that the line should 
 
102 
 
 be by way of Calgary, instead of Edmonton, two hundred 
 miles further north. This decision dispelled the dreams 
 of the speculators and retarded the development of the 
 young city for some years. The real friends of colon- 
 ization have not, nevertheless, complained of the change. 
 For, as I said before,' the Edmonton district, being 
 essentially adapted for immigrants of modest means, the 
 settler finds there land at a trifling cost, with abundance 
 of wood and water, whereas, had the railway passed that 
 way, the district would have been overrun with specu- 
 lators, who would have demanded exorbitant prices, 
 which would have deterred the very class for which the 
 country is best adapted. I have already referred to the 
 disastrous results of speculation at Winnipeg. Not far 
 from that city there is at this moment an expanse of 
 100,000 square miles, in the direction of Portage la 
 Prairie, the soil of which is of marvellous fertility, and 
 yet it remains unproductive, just because it is in the 
 hands of speculators. Although 5,000 farmers could 
 easily and prosperously live there, the region is held 
 fiom bond fide purchasers by men who have thus deliber- 
 ately obstiucted the settlement and progress of the 
 country for more than twenty years. Their action, 
 moreover, tends to encourage in the minds of Europeans 
 that false notion that the larger part of the great West 
 is in the hands of financial agents, who will only sell at 
 enormous profits. This system is a veritable plague^ 
 especially in new countries, the success of which depends 
 on colonization, and it is the duty of governments to 
 spare no constitutional exercise of authority to nullify 
 its evil influence. 
 
 II 
 
 \ 
 
103 
 
 \ 
 
 For two years Edmonton has been in regular oommun- 
 ioation with Calgary by a line of railway 200 miles long. 
 Before the construotion of this line, the immigrant spent 
 six days in overcoming this distance. Now he can 
 travel from Edmonton to Montreal or vice versa in the 
 same period. Its situation on one of the most important 
 of north-western rivers, its proximity to the great 
 forests of the north, its vantage-ground in the centre of 
 one of the richest coal-bearing districts in the world, 
 assure Bdmonton of a great future, as the metropolis of 
 an agricultural and industrial region second to none on 
 the continent. , 
 
 To have a just idea of the progress achieved in the 
 provinces of Western Canada in recent years it will be 
 well to look back and see what their condition was over 
 fifteen years ago. 
 
 On the eve of the accession to power of the Conser- 
 vative party in 18t8, the Confederation of the North 
 American colonies was a little more than eleven years 
 old. AH the living forces, all the energies formerly 
 scattered, without any bond of common interest, over a 
 terj'itory as large as that of Europe, had now rallied 
 around a single flag, that of the Dominion, and still, 
 notwithstanding the robust energy of its people and the 
 good will of its political leaders, Canada was at this 
 period, on tLe point of seeing its future irremediably 
 compromised. An economic crisis of deep significance 
 affected all parts of the country. The causes of this 
 unhappy situation were manifold. One of them exceeded 
 in gravity any of the others. Neither life nor progress 
 
104 
 
 had as yet penetrated the solitude of the great West, to 
 develop for the benefit of the whole community the 
 incalculable wealth that nature had lavished on that 
 part of the Dominion. To the east of the region of the 
 great lakes, the old provinces of Canada, Ontario, Quebec, 
 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, 
 had the social, commercial and industrial movement of 
 the Dominion all to themselves. Manitoba and the 
 Territories of the North-West, more extensive than 
 Russia in Europe, were separated from the sister pro^ 
 vinces by a '•hain of lakes, as large as seas and by more 
 than 600 miles of unexplored territory covered by 
 seemingly boundless forests. From the western end of 
 Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains, over a stretch 
 of some 1200 milen, in this same year 1878, there was 
 but a single town at all worthy of the name, the city of 
 Winnipeg, which had then a population of about 5,000 
 souls. Beyond Winnipeg and its little French-Canadian 
 suburb oCSt. Boniface, the Canadian North-West was at 
 that time almost a wilderness. The missionaries, the 
 tiapperF. in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, a 
 fewsettiei's here and there and the remnants of the once 
 powerful Indian tribes, alone inhabited that great 
 region. 
 
 All over this fertile prairie, in the midst of which we 
 have just been visiting brilli nt cities, with broad 
 streets, lined by richly stocked stores, and lighted by 
 electricity, we should in 1878 have found but the mission- 
 ary's tent, the trappist's hut and the Indian's wigwam, 
 those itinerant habitations which for more than two 
 
 
 : 
 
 
106 
 
 . 
 
 : 
 
 h 
 
 centuries have traversed in company the great plains of 
 North America. There as elsewhere, Faith has been 
 the trusty mediatrix between charity on the one hand, 
 and on the other, ignorance and barbarism. Beyond the 
 Bocky Mountains, then as now, lay between its mount- 
 ainous girdle and the breakers of the Pacific, that pearl 
 of the Dominion, the Province of British Columbia, 
 more than 2000 miles away from the Provinces of the 
 Bast. The whole Dominion overflowed with natural 
 wealth ; the soil was of surprising fertility ; the popu- 
 lation was sprung from two of the most highly gifted 
 and most enterprising races in the world, and still, not- 
 withstanding all these advantages, the country was 
 declining. The Confederation seemed to be dying of 
 poverty of blood and consequent lack of vitality ! In 
 1871 the Commons of Canada bad, with one voice, voted 
 for the construction of a Canadian transcontinental 
 railway. The preliminary studies for this gigantic 
 undertaking had been promptly begun, and then, all at 
 once, the political horizon grew dark and overcast, the 
 central power changed hands, the works of the trans- 
 continental line almost stood still and this delay was 
 destined to retard for ten years the entrance of the 
 country upon the path of progress. Whether or not the 
 government of the day lacked confidence in itself, certain 
 it is that the financial markets of Europe lacked confi' 
 dence in the means at its disposal. The result was that 
 when in 18t8 the Conservatives resumed control of 
 aftairs, the work of the railway had hardly made any 
 progress. The situation was most critical ; the work 
 
106 
 
 / 
 
 accomplished in 1867 was threatened with ruin. The 
 provinces of the East and those of the West were still 
 without any direct means of communication with each 
 other. The first settlers sent by the Central Govern- 
 ment to Manitoba had to go by the United States ; and 
 a good many of them, sauced by the fallacious promises 
 of American immigration agents, stopped on the way in 
 Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota. This was 
 a state of things that must, at all costs, be remedied. 
 Only by repairing, without delay, the mistakes of the 
 past could the threatened present be protected and the 
 imperilled fhture be secured. Under penalty of seeing 
 the great work of confederation undone, it was essential 
 that all the energies, all the resources of the country 
 should be concentrated on the completion of the trans- 
 continental railway. It was necessary in fine (and the 
 task was no easy one) to awaken again in the people the 
 consciousness of its strength and to revive on the markets 
 of Eui*ope an assurance which would restore to Canada 
 her forfeited credit. This heavy charge of responsibility 
 the Government of 1878 did not shrink from assuming. 
 Sir John Macdonald and his colleagues went resolutely 
 to work from the very day of their advent to power to 
 effect the economic resurrection of the country. Again 
 adopting the Conservative programme of 1871 they 
 assured the people that they would restore the country's 
 prosperity. They appealed to all its patriotic, honor- 
 able and earnest men to aid them in their undertaking. 
 The response was favorable. The people had confidence 
 in them and they were able to keep their promise. 
 
107 
 
 . 
 
 Inspined by the principles of an illustrious Canadian, 
 their former colleague^" Canada pour les Canadiens et 
 par les Canadiens " — they made this motto their own. 
 On the first page of this programme was inscribed the 
 Transcontinental Eailway, and rightly, for on its con- 
 struction depended the safety of the Federation. To 
 postpone it would have been to set public opinion at 
 defiance and to put themselves on the same footing of 
 helplessness oefore the financiers of Europe on which 
 their predecessors had stood. On the other hand, to 
 undertake so gigantic an enterprise in the actual econ- 
 omic condition of Canada, seemed like a challenge to the 
 fate of the party. But boldness, when combined with 
 genius, has rarely foiled, and Sir John Macdonald was 
 not deceived in his plans and forecasts. The most 
 critical duty that fell to his lot was to find men who 
 would accept the colossal task and incur all the risks 
 connected with it in exchange for reasonable compen- 
 sation. 
 
 The new syndicate of the Canadian Pacific was com- 
 posed of men of broad views and of exceptional energy 
 and force of character. From their own treasury or 
 that of powerful capitalists whom they associated with 
 them they were able to bring large resources to the 
 enterpriHC, and the well known patriotism of the chief 
 partners \:&b a guarantee of the integrity of their 
 intentions. In the month of October, 1880, a contract 
 was signed between the Canadian Government and the 
 syndicate of the Canadian Pacific. In June, 1881, the 
 workmen were apportioned their stations along 4000 
 
 
108 
 
 
 kilometers of the projected line. On the Tth of Novem- 
 ber, 1885, the whole line was an accomplished fact. In 
 the early days of June, 1886, the first passenger train 
 left Montreal and crossed the continent. In the course 
 of the same year, the company discharged towards the 
 Dominion Government all the obligations which it had 
 contracted. At the present moment the Canadian 
 Pacific Company controls more than 6000 miles of rail- 
 road ; it possesses on the Pacific Ocean a fleet of power- 
 ful steamships, and the different lines of its network 
 radiate to all the principal points of the Western States. 
 It would be imposbible to exaggerate the breadth and 
 elevation of view which have always characterized the 
 relations between the Company of the Canadian Pacific 
 Eailway and the federal Government of Canada. No 
 better revelation could be offered of the clear-sighted 
 patriotism that should guide public men than the rail- 
 way policy of the government of Sir John Macdonald 
 and Sir John Abbott and Sir John Thompson during 
 the last fifteen years. Tbey foresaw the future reserved 
 for their country and they devoted all the talent and 
 energy with which heaven had endowed them to its pre- 
 paration. They recognized that the line across the 
 . continent must be the keystone of the Canada of their 
 dreams, and they shrank not from the responsibility of 
 constructing it. This responsibility was enormous, but 
 they assumed it with the determination either to conquer 
 or to resign their positions and leave the government of 
 the country to others. Taday when their work shines 
 forth in all the splendour of its maturity, only political 
 
109 
 
 fanatics of the worst type can doubt its utility. As for 
 Its results, it has been my privilege to endeavor to lay 
 them before the impartial reader, and it is for him to 
 judge of their range and character. If I have succeeded 
 m helping others to form a fair estimate of their worth, 
 my object in writing these notes will have been attained'