HE 
 
 f'*: 
 
•*^0^ 
 
 
i 
 
 (QMlMMMliMM 
 
 Pmlt§ H§llw-' 
 
 m 
 
 'MmWM. 
 
 ii#i^ 
 
 flit lutg Met mi 
 
 m. % 
 
 Fraser Yalley and Burrard kbl leite I®, ij 
 
 COMPARED A;< TO TllK ADVANTAGES 
 
 AFFORDED BY EAOH TO THE 
 
 DOMINION AND TO 
 
 THE EMPIRE. 
 
 U WM. FKASER TOLMIE, M. 1\ P. 
 
 YICTOIUA DISTKICT, V. I., BlUTISH COLUMlilA. 
 
 VICTORIA : 
 
 COLONIST STEAM PRESSES 
 1877. 
 
h L K b ■ j 
 
 18m 
 
 
 W/lc7/r^ 
 
 c/^/MM 
 
2M*^IE©®W(Sl'©M'r3 mT<Q. 
 
 -oH^-«- 
 
 Less a two years absence, the writer of what 
 follows has, since 1833, resided in these parts, 
 having the previous year entered the service of 
 the Hudson's Bay Company as surgeon and 
 clerk. He has since been stationed at various 
 points at or near the Pacific coast from Oregon 
 to Alaska. 
 
 At the H. B. post, Port MacLoughlin, Milbank 
 Sound, having for tAvo years incited the natives 
 to search for that mineral, he had the good for- 
 tune in 1835 to ascertain the existence on the N. 
 E shore of Vancouver Island, of good bitumin- 
 ous coal, which was tested less than a year 
 after on board the Company's new steamer Bea- 
 ver just out from London. 
 
 He has by land and water travelled over the 
 great Northwest from Jasper's House to Winni- 
 peg; has been more than once through the 
 Walamet Valley, Oregon, and has seen a great 
 part of the beautiful bunch grass ccantry of 
 British Columbia south of N. lat. 51 "^^ . 
 
 Later in life, when resident at Victoria and 
 concerned in the management of the Company's 
 business in British Columbia, the writer had 
 much occasion and opportunity of acquiring in- 
 formation regarding tlie coasts and harbors of 
 our iuland seas, as well as of the farming and 
 grazing capabilities of the trans-Cascade main- 
 land north and south. 
 
 Since a few years ago— retiring from the Com- 
 pany's service — he has, from every available 
 source, collected facts bearing on the subject in 
 question, and for such information has been in- 
 debted to many. He has now specially to thank 
 Captain Devereaux for essential aid often and 
 freely rendered. To Captains Pamphlet, Rud- 
 lin and otliers too numerous to name, his thanks 
 are also resptctfully offered. The statements of 
 fact and opinion in this pamphlet have been 
 made in as moderate a fashion as seemed com- 
 patible with a fair presentment of the case advo- 
 cated. Many of tlie same iacts and conclusions 
 have been clearly set forth in the substantially 
 unassailed speech of the Hon. A. deCosmos, dur- 
 ing the first day (April 20) of the long debate on 
 the "Pacific Kailway" in the House of Com- 
 mons, Ottawa, session of 1877; but this was un- 
 known to the writer, until the conclusion of his 
 pamphlet was in type; then, obtainhig perusal 
 of Hansard, he was rejoiced to find that during 
 the debate there had been unanimity regarding 
 the pressing need of the Pacific Railway, as the 
 threat means of Canada's further development 
 and expansion. 
 
 Thoroughly persuaded, as the writer is, that 
 adoption of Route 6 will be largely conducive to 
 . the general good, he the more earnestly desires 
 that every settled section of our Province should 
 be placed in the way of well-doing, by such aid 
 as the Dominion and Provincial Governments 
 can afford. 
 
 Seven years ago, the historian Froude urged 
 our British rulers to avail of the calm, sure to 
 follow the close of the Franco-Prussian war, to 
 bring to a more definite and satisfactory con- 
 
 dition her then and still anomalous relatiotis 
 with the Colonies. A year ago a Canadian writer 
 of ability, "A. M. B., Ottawa," in the Canadian 
 Monthly of Nov. '76, referred to Scottish experi- 
 ence since 1707, and to Canadian of later date in 
 proof that our English friends need to be im- 
 portuned by complaint and remonstrance, ero 
 they will do or concede anything. "A. M. B." 
 last year urged that Canada should take the in- 
 itiative. 
 
 When the present Eastern war comes to an 
 end, another calm may ensue, during which 
 action should surely be taken and the great Wes- 
 tern question treated as its importance warrants, 
 Canadians must cheerfully assume a fair share 
 of the financial responsibility involved in closer 
 connection with the Parent State, in view of the 
 multiform benefits thence to accrue to all con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Premier Mackenzie must have uttered the 
 sentiments of his adopted countrymen, when at 
 Dundee, Scotland, in July, 1875, he said in pub- 
 lic. "I believe that the Colonies are essential to 
 British supremacy in the world. I don't say so 
 because we are desirous of the slightest favor fi- 
 nancially from Great Britain. We are able and 
 willing, God knows, to bear ouv full share of all 
 Imperial responsibility whenever required for 
 tlie common interest, and we are doing so at the 
 present moment." 
 
 Further on in Mr. Mackenzie's reported speech 
 explanation is given of what he meant by British 
 supremacy. It cannot prove ofiensive to any, 
 being "universal freedom, emancipation from 
 everything degrading." Soon may such be the 
 case, wherever the flag flies— at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 "A. B. M." and others, thotigh ardent for 
 Imperial federation, admit that Canada's ma- 
 terial interests would benefit by annexation to 
 the United States. That may be a general 
 opinion, but ncvt rtheless closer connection with 
 the Parent State is preferred. Sentiment, as the 
 venerable Carlyle has truly said, always rules 
 great movements; religious and political, and 
 not "the checks and balances of profit and loss." 
 
 It may be well for civilized communities gen- 
 erally, and in particular for the timid in Eu- 
 rope, that in the New World, two distinct ex- 
 periments in Democracy- should amicably 
 advance side by side; while amongst older na- 
 tions, Britain and France progress carefully and 
 deliberately, but unfailingly in the same direc- 
 tion. England must reconsider her free trade 
 theories and practices to which other peojiles 
 have not given the expected adhesion. 
 
 America, which appears to have taken a "new 
 departure" for good objects, should, with her 
 accustomed forecast, weigh- well the possible 
 future effects of the "Chinese wall of protection" 
 now suri'ounding her. 
 
 A kind and frank interchange of ideas on 
 commercial and tariff matters between Britain, 
 America and Canada seems now a great desider- 
 atum. Why not a conference of delegates to 
 meet either at London or Washington. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/canadianpacificrOOtolmrich 
 
— OF THE — 
 
 
 A VOICE FROM THE OCCIDENT 
 
 Canadian Pacific Railway Routes. 
 
 The Bate Inlet and Esquimau Route fNo.6) 
 and the l:<'ru8er Valley and Burrard In- 
 let Bonie (No. ti) compared an to tbe ad> 
 van<ag'e8 offered by each to tlie' Domin- 
 ion Rud to tlie Kmpire. 
 
 2>s^o. 1. 
 
 [June 30th, 1877.] 
 
 Editor Colonist:— I have for some time 
 past thought of v.riting on the railway routes 
 and have been induced to ofifer the present 
 communication to your widely read paper, by 
 perusal of the speech of Mr. Dewdney, M. P., 
 at Ottawa, 24ih April last, correctly produced, 
 it is presumable, in your issue of the 24th 
 inst. It may be inferred that when Mr. 
 Dewdney had the floor at Ottawa his fellow- 
 members from Columbia, having previously 
 taken part in the debate, were precluded 
 from reply. 
 
 Alluding to a recent contention in the 
 House between himself and the member for 
 Victoria, Mr. DeCosmos, as to whether the 
 population along the Fraser route exceeded or 
 not that on the Bute line, and in which the 
 Victoria member read from the voters' list in 
 proof that the larger population was on the 
 latter route, Mr. Dewdney did not attempt 
 contradiction; but, in military parlance, 
 manoeu\Ted into a new position— to a certain 
 extent, "changed the subject" — and adroitly 
 avoided the real issue by an elaborate show- 
 ing in figures that in 1875 the number of 
 records under the Land Act of 1870 was on 
 the Bute line, including Vancouver Island, 
 89, "while on the Fraser River route, the 
 number was 551, out of which there were in 
 the New Westminster and Yale districts 
 through which the hne ran 479." "In 1876 
 (according to Mr. D.) there were on Vancou- 
 ver Island and Bute Inlet route 42 records; 
 and on the Mainland 378, of which 312 were in 
 the districts of Yale and New Westminster. 
 Mr. Dewdney claimed a triumph from these 
 showings. I have not verified, neither do I 
 call in question his figures as presented, nor 
 yet have I been at the Land Office to find how 
 
 many of the records mentioned are those of 
 absentee land speculators who may not yet 
 have paid up. I shall presently submit to 
 Mr. Dewdney, and to your other readers 
 evei-ywhere, facts and figures "galore" on 
 the matter of present relative Mainland and 
 Island populations, to which, although the 
 Island has the preponderance in number 
 more importance seems to be attached at 
 Ottawa than it merits as a factor in the great 
 questions of route and terminiis. 
 
 Mr. Dewdney, who, I will say, is an able 
 and untiring advocate of what he considers 
 Mainland interests, at the outset of his speech 
 claims to be a "British Columbian knowing 
 his province thoroughly, probalily as well as 
 any man in it." He nevertheless showed 
 lack of knowledge or political smartness — 
 it is for himself to say which — in omitting 
 mention of the fact — all important in con- 
 nection with his figures — that, since the 
 summer of 1873 the best and most attractive 
 lands on the Bute Inlet line and those nearest 
 the already existing settlements, have been 
 ont of the market. I do think that in the 
 heat of debate Mr. Dewdney must have over- 
 looked this. As others besides himself may 
 have forgotten, or do not know the fact, I 
 will now mention that when in 1873 the Mac- 
 donald administration, not without knowledge 
 or in any haphazard fashion, but with the 
 surveys of 1871 and 1872, and correct infor- 
 mation about harbors, before them, decided 
 to locate a railway line from Esquimalt har- 
 bor to Seymour Narrows," a belt of public 
 land between these points and along the East 
 Coast of Vancouver, twenty miles wide was 
 reserved from "sale or alienation." What 
 sort of land this is, I will let the geologist, 
 Mr. James Richardson, say. Mr. Richardson 
 in his able repoi-jt on the coal measures of the 
 Island examined by him contained in the 
 report of Progress of ■ the Geological Survey 
 of Canada under A. R. Selwyn, Esq., for 
 1871-72, speaks of the coal deposits of this 
 district as extending from the vicinity of 
 Cape Mudge (near Seymour Narrows T.) on 
 the north-west, to within fifteen miles of Vic- 
 toria on the south-east, with a length of about 
 
130 miles." Bef erring to this tract, which 
 he thoroughly examined, Mr. Kichardson 
 adds ' 'it possesses generally a good soil, and 
 may hereafter be thickly settled. It is mostly 
 covered with forest, but in some parts pre- 
 sents a prairie or parklike asjDect with grass- 
 covered ground, studded with single trees or 
 clumps of them, and offers great encourage- 
 ment to agi'i cultural industry. 
 
 Like the Fraser valley west of the Cascade 
 mountains, the valuable agricultural country 
 just described will need clearing, and its tim- 
 ber will be saleable ; but unlike many of the 
 best parts of the Fraser it will nowhere require 
 the very costly process of dyking, etc., nor 
 like the arable lands of the settled upper 
 country — (New Westminster and Yale dis- 
 tricts) — will it want the not inexpensive work 
 of irrigation.' 
 
 Better than all, our East Coast farmers will 
 in the coal towns, and in the iron-smelting 
 and manufacturing towns, and villages of tne 
 future, have a home market for all they can 
 produce, not omitting sawlogs and firewood, 
 and, when their fully developed ability fails 
 to meet the ever-increasing demand, it will, 
 by railway, be supplied from the Columbian 
 and Saskatchewan Mainland, so that even- 
 tually a great interchange ef products will 
 ensue; thus affording local business to the 
 railway in addition to what, in no inconsider- 
 able degree, would, from the first, arise be- 
 tween Esquimau and the coal mines and 
 agricultural districts north of it. 
 
 The foregoing is quite relevant to the pop- 
 ulation question; now for the facts and figures 
 thereanent promised in a preceding para- 
 graph: 
 
 First, however, let it be premised that 
 others besides the Mainland M. P. need to be 
 set right in this matter. How it comes, per- 
 haps Mr. Dewdney can tell; the strange 
 belief has recently found utterance in Ottawa 
 and Toronto, that of the sparse poi:)ulation 
 of this Province as a whole the greater part 
 is to be found in Mr. Dewdney 's pet districts 
 already named. A leader in the "Weekly 
 Globe" of 27th April last has the following — 
 "What there is of population in British Co- 
 lumbia is located chiefly along the Fraser and 
 Thompson Valleys, ' ' and the usually accurate 
 and cautious Premier Mr. Mackenzie in the 
 Commons at Ottawa, 20th April last, speak- 
 ing on the Pacific Eailway, said — "There is 
 no doubt the bulk of the population of British 
 Columbia is settled in the Fraser Valley." 
 
 The facts are decidedly against this state- 
 ment, as will now be proved in more ways 
 than one. 
 
 The electoral districts of New Westminster 
 and Yale are vast in extent, including the 
 greater part of the as yet settled Fraser Val- 
 ley, and all of the Thompson Valleys north 
 and south fit for arable farming, besides to 
 the south, the settlements of Okanagan, 
 Nicola Valley and Similkameen, and on the 
 coast the Burrard Inlet sawmills and logging 
 camps. These districts in 1858 and succeed- 
 ing years offered the greatest attraction to 
 immigrants of any part of the Province, as 
 
 on the Fraser bars, and the Thompson and 
 Similkameen mines, gold in paying quantities 
 was found. These locaUties have always (un- 
 like the east coast of Vancouver for the four 
 last exciting years) been open for st ttkoneut 
 without let or hindrance; yet, for all this, the 
 B. C. voter's list of 1876 shows for these two 
 Mainland districts 851 voters, and for the 
 compact districts of Victoria Disti'ict and Vic- 
 toria City 1057 voters, or a difference of 25 
 per cent, in favor of the Island. Adding to 
 the two Mainland districts 118- voters for New 
 Westminster city electoral district, we have a 
 total of 909; and adding to the total of the 
 two Island districts, named as a foreshadowing 
 of what Vancouver's east coast will yet be, 
 338 voters for Nanaimo district we have a 
 total of 1395, or about 50 per cent excess for 
 the Island. The 44:5 voters for Cariboo and 
 the voters of Lillooet and Kootenay help up 
 the Mainland count; yet notiwthstanding the 
 disabilities pointed out the whole' Island ex- 
 ceeds the Mainland by about 9 per cent. For 
 lack of a census of population the voters' list 
 has to be referred to. The Provincial census 
 of school population for 1876 throws other 
 light on the question at issue. It indirectly 
 points to the comparative number of married 
 couples and families on the Island and Main- 
 land, thus to a certain extent indicating how 
 far each population may be counted on as 
 fixed. On the Island the census gives 
 1790 as the number of children of school 
 age of whom a few are from the 
 Mainland attendiug the higher public and 
 private schools of Victoria. The whole Main- 
 land has 700 as its school population. 
 
 The imposition and collection of assessed 
 and school taxes for the year 1876-77 affords 
 yet another way of viewing the matter in 
 dispute. The revenue from the Island under 
 
 this head comes to $31,364 
 
 and from the Mainland to 19,269 
 
 Showing in favor of the Island an 
 
 excess of $12,095 
 
 I halve been careful as to the accuracy of 
 the facts and figures herein presented, and 
 upon them rest the case for the Island as 
 against the statistics above quoted from Mr. 
 Dewdney's speech, and the erroneous asser- 
 tion copied from the Toronto "Globe," that the 
 bulk of Columbia's population is along the 
 Fraser and Thompson valleys. 
 
 In a further communication I will deal 
 with more serious matters, on which I am 
 compelled to differ with Mr. Dewdney and 
 some other Mainlanders. 
 
 :sro. s. 
 
 [July 16th, 1877,] 
 Editob Colonist: — Under the above head- 
 ing in a letter of 30th June last in your paper, 
 facts and figures were adduced by me to prove 
 the preponderance of population in this 
 Province to be on the Southeast and East 
 coast of "Vancouver Island and not in the 
 valleys of the Fraser and Thompson, as had 
 mistakenly bee^ aflirmed in the House of 
 Commons, Ottawa, and within the columns 
 of the Toronto Globe. 
 
This superiority, it was sliown existed, not- 
 ■witiistancling the fact — all importaut in view 
 of the aforementioned comparisons made iji 
 Ontario — that, since 1873, the public lands of 
 Vancouver on the East and South Coasts had 
 been reserved from sale or alienavon in con- 
 sequence of the decision, that year, of the 
 Macdonald administration to "locate a rail- 
 way line from Esquimalt harbor to Seymour 
 Narrows." 
 
 Now must briefly be noticed a few of the 
 manj' matters — mostly irrelevant — brought up 
 l>y the Mainland G^uardian, in its two eJi 
 torials on that letter. 
 
 EIVAL KOTTTES. 
 
 The Guardian %iews the subject of rival 
 routes "as worn threadbare; as to the mind 
 of any intelligent person, the question has 
 been linally settled." Not so have I read the 
 last report of Engineer-in-Chief Fleming, on 
 the Canadian Paciiic Railway, 1877. Not so 
 have I understood the purport of the two last 
 pubhshed dispatches to our Government from 
 Earl Carnarvon. 
 
 ACCURACY. 
 
 It matters not where any particular Island- 
 er, or any one or more Mainlanders, may have 
 their personal interests. All are alike bound 
 to aim at stiict accuracy in statements public- 
 ly made on the railway terminus question, 
 and it is the imperative duty of any one, 
 aware that, on such a vitally important ques- 
 tion, inaccurate and misleading representa- 
 tions have been published, to call these in 
 question, in order that, by free discussion, 
 the truth may be elicited and if necessary 
 "proclaimed from the house tops." There is 
 no earthly nerd of, as rhe Guardian hints, 
 stii-ring up sectional strife. Nothing is more 
 undesirable or ridiculous. There need be no 
 strife save that of sound argument based on 
 the inexorable logic of such facts as "wiuna, 
 ding and daurna be disputed." 
 
 MISTAKES OR INACCURACIES. 
 
 An inaccuracy to be noted occurs in the 
 Torouto Weekly Globe. Ai*ri. 13,1877, p. 
 256, under the caption "Pacific F.ailway." 
 The real choice (says the writer) "will to all 
 appearance, lie between Bute Inlet and Bur- 
 rard Inlet, each of which haf; some advantages 
 in its favor. If the railway is ever to be con- 
 structed to Esquimau along Vancouver Island, 
 it becomes a matter of necessity to adopt Bute 
 Inlet as the present tei*minus. As a military 
 road this line would be the most serviceable, 
 since a Hne along the Eraser valley would be 
 for a considerable distance in close proximity 
 to the Canadian frontier. But the latter has 
 the advantage in respect both of distance and 
 the harbor at Us terminus.'^ The italics are 
 mine. 
 
 The author of the foregoing leader in the 
 Globe had probably read a letter in the 
 London Times of last January or early in 
 February, dated New Westminster, British 
 Columbia, December 4th, 1870, and signed 
 •*01d Settler." The Globe scribe had al^o, 
 perhaps, heard or read the statement in the 
 House of Commons, Ottawa, by Mr. Dewdney, 
 
 M. P., on the Gth April, 187G, that (his words 
 are quoted) "the navigation from the south- 
 ern extremity of Vancouver Island to Burrard 
 Inlet is excellent, ' ' ' 
 
 "Old Settler's" letter does not overflow 
 with the milk of human kindness towards 
 Victoria or Victorians; but let that alone as 
 far as may be. The following quotation is, 
 however, unavoidable. "A good route (O. S. 
 says) has been found pasaing through, or 
 clolse to, the settled j^arts of the Province, and 
 terminating at the magnificent harbor of Bur- 
 rard Inlet — a harbor capable of containing all 
 the na\'ies of the world, v.ilh plenty of room 
 to spare; a harbor which Victorians in their 
 bUnd rage stigmatize as difhcult and danger- 
 ous of access, but into which sailing ships 
 have been brought under sail and without a 
 pilot." 
 
 ATTEMPTED CORRECTION OF MISTAKES. 
 
 Now will "Old Settler," over his "nom de 
 plume," or, as he may prefer, kindly inform 
 the readers of The Colonist, how many ship- 
 masters,in the last twelve years he has known 
 to bring their vessels into Burrard Inlet from 
 the Fucan Straits without a pilot ? how many 
 of these to go out without a pilot, and how 
 many to repeat the venture of sailing in from 
 the Straits, through the intricate channels of 
 the Haro Archipelago, across the GuTf of 
 Georgia and through the dangerous Narrows 
 at the entrance of the Inlet — but 300 yards 
 wide at one place ? Since 3871 I have sought 
 informati(m from every source, relative to the 
 principal harbors of this Province, that prima 
 facie, seemed suitable for the Western termi- 
 nus of the British Transcontinental llailway. 
 As to the sailing of ships from Boyal Roads 
 to Burrard Inlet with or without a pilot, two 
 instances thereof have come to my knowledge, 
 but these vessels, small in size, were piloted 
 if not towed out. There may have been a few 
 other Hke cases. I have been told of ship- 
 masters having come to giief in making the 
 attempt. The rule now is for vessels to be 
 towed to and fro. Far indeed is Burrard In- 
 let from being the extensively capacious har- 
 bor ' OidSittier. the Guardian editor . diiidi 
 others would have the world imagine. Instead 
 of, as they assert, having room for the navies 
 of the world, it has of good anchorage at 
 Granville, or Coal Harbor, only about 1 square 
 marine mile in extent, and, off Moodyville, 
 north shore, only about ^ a square marine 
 mile in extent. In English Bay there are 
 about 3 square marine miles; but that road- 
 stead is exposed from W, S. W. to W. N. W., 
 whence the strongest winds blow from the 
 Gulf of Georgia, and, with northerly winds, 
 there is a long fetch of sea in from the Gulf. 
 Here ships anchor vrith their tugs, while 
 awaiting turn of tide, ere they pass through 
 the Narrows to Burrard Inlet. 
 
 The remaining space or mid-channel of the 
 Inlet outside the second Narrows is unsafe for 
 anchorage owing to the strength of its tidal 
 currents and eddies. It is from about 20 to 
 30 fathoms in depth. 
 
 Esquimau has, with the exception of a few 
 spots, some day to be dredged, of safe anchor- 
 
age about* 3 squai-e marine miles in extent, 
 and of wharf frontage about 4% miles in ex- 
 tent. Its adjacent outer harbor, Royal Roads, 
 has 3 square marine miles of good holding 
 ground, where well found ships, such as 
 Plimsoll would apjDrove of, ride out S. E. 
 gales, the only wind this roadstead is exposed 
 to. 
 
 JS^o. J3. 
 
 [August 13th, 1877.] 
 
 ESQUIMALT HARBOR. 
 
 Editor Colonist: — On the 26th ult, it was 
 in /our columns made to appear that, despite 
 of sundry boastings to the contrary, Esqui- 
 malt has of safe anchorage about thrice the 
 extent possessed by Granville, Burrard Inlet, 
 and t^vice as much as there is in the whole 
 expanse of the Inlet, inside the first and out 
 side the second Narrows. 
 
 VICTORIA. HARBOR. 
 
 In connection with the comparison as to 
 extent of safe anchorage in Esquinialt and 
 the "Inlet" it is proper to mention that Vic- 
 toria harbor, not long since by a facetious 
 correspondent of tlie Mainland "Guardian" 
 termed "a mudhole in a rock," can by 
 dredging and by the blasting of two rocks, 
 each smaller than the already broken up 
 ' 'Beaver rock, ' ' have a wharf frontage of 
 about six miles in all, equal for acc;o:nmoda- 
 tion of merchant shipping to the enclosed 
 artificial docks of older countries. At the 
 shallowest part of the entrance of Victoria 
 harbor, the depth at low water will be about 
 24 feet on completion of the dredging; now 
 on account of hard times, temporarily sus- 
 pended by the Dominion Government. 
 
 At high water in ordinary tides the depth 
 at the entrance, now 20 feet, will then be 24, 
 and ships of the latter draught of water can, 
 after harbor dredging, lie afloat at the 
 wharves. That such dredging is practicable 
 has been by boring satisfactorily proved. 
 
 Where else on this coast anywhere can such 
 a contiguity of good safe harborage and an- 
 chorage be found so near to and so accessible 
 from the ocean as at Royal Roads, Esquimalt 
 and Victoria ? To what other places are the 
 sea approaches nearly so good as to these ? 
 
 Appendix V of Mr. Fleming's last Railway 
 Report to January, 1877, consists of letters 
 and statements by "master-mariners, pilots 
 and others resident in the Province or locally 
 engaged." 
 
 SEA APPROACHES. 
 
 First in this appendix is a letter dated Vic- 
 toria, 6th February, 1877, from Captain James 
 Cooper, of Victoria, to the Governor-General 
 "respecting the sea approaches to British 
 Columbia, and certain of the harbors on the 
 coast." In said letter Cpatain Cooper's first 
 position is indisputable and will surely have 
 the fullest consideration from those on whom 
 may at length devolve the grave responsibility 
 of selecting the western terminus of the Can- 
 adian Transcontinental Railway. "Sea ap- 
 proaches," Cooper says, "are in my judgment 
 the first essential consideration in finally decid- 
 ing upon a terminus site. ' ' Although this afl&r- 
 
 mation is by him made only in reference to 
 the seven Mainland inlets categorically in- 
 quired about at the Admiralty by Mr. Fleming, 
 it is clearly as applicable to Barclay Sound 
 and Esquimalt on the West coast of Vancou- 
 ver's, as it is to the more inland and unap- 
 proachable waters, of which Burrard Inlet 
 seems, as far as is yet known, to be the most 
 eligible. 
 
 How as to sea approaches and other essen- 
 tial conditions for a terminal harbor the three 
 localities just named compare, will be scon as 
 we proceed. 
 
 Treating of the inland* navigation north of 
 the Fucan strait, Captain Cooj^er says, 
 "Vessels do, however, frequently make the 
 passage to and from the lumber and coal 
 depots without the assistance of steam." In 
 this I am at issue with the Captain, for as 
 stated in my last letter in the Colonist "The 
 rule now is for -essels to be towed to and 
 fro." Captain Cooper justly condemns Mil- 
 bank Sound, the main entrance from the sea, 
 leadingto Dean's Canal, Gardner's Inlet, &c., 
 
 "FOR THE WANT OF SOUNDINGS AND THE DAN- 
 GER OP THE SEA APPROACHES." Bear this in 
 mind, my readers, "having in view (the Cap- 
 tain considerately adds) the purposes for 
 which this Inlet tniJit be beletted." Italics 
 mine. 
 
 PORT ESSINGTON. 
 
 Captain Cooper next presents much against 
 the northern route to Skeena. Port Essing- 
 ton he says is a bar harbor and freezes hard 
 in winter. 
 
 BURRARD INLET. 
 
 "It has been demonstrated (he says p. 306) 
 that Bun-ard Inlet is a safe and" commodious 
 harbor, for, since the establishment of the two 
 large sawmills in that port, the first in 1864, 
 at least six hundred ships of large tonnage, 
 to say nothing of local and smaller crafts, 
 have entered to load aud have left the port, 
 not one of which received any damage; and 
 the dasualties incident to navigation in the 
 inland waters would compare most favorably 
 with any part of the world." 
 
 WESTERN HARO CHANNEL. 
 
 At p. 307 the Captain states as follows: — 
 "One common road for the inland navigation 
 from the Straits of Juan de Fuca, \Tia the Haro 
 Straits, which has two separate and distinct 
 navigable channels, through both of which 
 any sized ship could pass. The channel 
 nearest to Vancouver Island, which could be 
 used if required, would lead a ship at a mini- 
 mum distance of 4t% miles from the American 
 possessions) continuing through Active Pass 
 direct into Burrard Inlet." ^ 
 
 MARINE MISHAPS. 
 
 Investigation of the comparative merits of 
 rival routes, in which I have been' engaged, 
 necessarily involved ascertainment of the 
 marine disasters on each proposed line during 
 a given period. 
 
 Between Royal Roads and the Ocean there 
 has not been disaster to shipping, since, in 
 1860, Race Rocks Light first guided the mari- 
 ner to safe anchorage at the Roads, or thence 
 
to that wide and safe passage to the Ocean' 
 De Fiica Strait. 
 
 For six years between 1868 a^d 1874, four- 
 teen (14.) <?asna]ties are said to have occurred 
 between Eoyal Koads and Burvard Inlet, and 
 eighteen (18) between the Eoads and Na- 
 nainio. The worst mishap on the Inlet line 
 was the wTeck of the barque "Cornelis." 
 Next was the sale of a ship, stranded while 
 steam aided. Another stranded ship had to 
 sacrifice her deckload ere getting afloat. Seven 
 vessels struck and got oif in the Burrard In- 
 let Narrows, and four in the Haro Strait. Of 
 the number of nan-ow escapes little is known. 
 The foregoing does not accord with Captain 
 Cooper's herein quoted statement regarding 
 "casualties incident to navigation." On the 
 Nanaimo line four ships have been wTecked 
 when unaided by steam, and three when thus 
 assisted. Three steamships of war struck and 
 got off. The same happened to live ocean- 
 going steamers of the m'^T'cantile marine. 
 One ship had two anchors down in seventy- 
 five fathoms of water and got off, after the 
 mastr, had been cut away. One was ashore 
 and got oft' and another vessel struck and got 
 off. 
 
 CONTBADICTORY STATEMENTS. 
 
 And yet this Nanaimo roate is "the channel 
 nearest to Vancouver Island" through which 
 Capt. Cooper, as above quoted, has reported 
 to the Governor-General that "any sized ship 
 could pass." 
 
 In addition to the various dangers in this 
 channel so clearly described in the pages of 
 the "Vancouver Island Pilot," there is said to 
 be, in some patches of it, only two and three 
 fathoms of water. How would this suit the 
 largest ocean-going ships by night, or in fog 
 or storm, navigating to and from the ter- 
 minal harbor, in the days when the Cana- 
 dian Pacific Eailway will be "an accomplish- 
 ed fact?" 
 
 "Active," better known as "Plumper's 
 Pass," is not suited for (to borrow the words 
 of Mr. Fleming in his former Railway Report, 
 Jan., 1874,) "the largest ships that now or 
 hereafter may navigate the Pacific. ' ' In July, 
 1860, H. M.^S. Termagant, dramng 18 feet of 
 water, struck so severely in this passage, and 
 that, be it observed, with a favorable tide, 
 that after repairs, <fec., in San Francisco cost- 
 in git is said, £30,000 sterling, she was, on 
 reaching home, at once condemned and sold. 
 Admiral Richards and Staff Commander Pen- 
 der, R. N., have each had a practical experi- 
 ence of years in the survey of the southern 
 and middle coasts of this Province. The re- 
 sults of their work up to 1864 are given in the 
 "Vancouver Island Pilot," which from p. p. 
 1 to 70 treats of the Fucan Strait and the Haro 
 Straits west of the international (sea) boun- 
 dary line, marked on recent maps. Both of 
 these ofl&cers have furnished answers to the 
 twenty-eight (28) questions. submitted by Mr. 
 Fleming to the Lords of the Admiralty. 
 
 Question 9 is as follows: — "At what mini- 
 mum distance would vessels have to pass San 
 Juan Island, or other islands on the coast of 
 
 the United States, in their passage by the 
 southern channel to Burrard Inlet, &c., &c.?" 
 
 To this Admiral Richards replies : — Vessels 
 need not pass mthin three miles of San Juan, 
 but they must pass within two miles of Stuart 
 and Patos Islands, unless indeed they take 
 the inner channel along the coast of Vancou- 
 ver Isla2id; and the passages from these 
 channels to the Strai! of Georgia are dan- 
 gerous:, and they would not he used tmlessin 
 case of emergency. ^^ Italic-^ min-. 
 
 How completely the opinion of Admiral 
 Richards just quoted runs counter to that of 
 Captain Cooioer, as above given in his own 
 words. 
 
 Desiring only that the "Truth, the whole 
 Truth, and nothing but the Truth," should 
 be elicited by the disciission invited in this 
 and previous letters, I now respectfully ask 
 Captain Cooper to set me right, if now o.i 
 heretofore, as he may think, I have aught 
 misstated. 
 
 No. 4. 
 [August 28th, 1877. J 
 
 Editor Colonist:— First, I must brief- 
 ly notice Cuptaiu Cooper's polite and 
 cleverly devised letter in The Colonist. 
 of the 20th inst. Therein the Captain, in 
 true "Sir Oracle" fashion, declines dis- 
 cussing in "a newspaper controversy" his 
 soidisant "unassaible" position as to the 
 fitness of the western Haro Channel for 
 navigation by night, and in fog or storm 
 by the largest sailing ships or steamers. 
 Railway routes, and the comparative mer- 
 its of harbors, as projected termini, being 
 the chief subjects of his letter to the Gov- 
 ernor-General; this is what bis assertions 
 therein must mean. They can have no 
 other plain meaning. 
 
 The words in the commuDication to 
 His Excellency, (re the Haro Channels,) 
 "through both of which, any sized ship 
 could pass" being without the slightest 
 qualification as to times or seasons, it 
 must be obvious to a gentleman ofCaptain 
 Cooper's well known acuteness that he 
 cannot get off by the hackneyed expedient, 
 the stale strategy, of imputing obtuseness 
 to his controversial antagonist and im- 
 plying that his own meaning has hence 
 been misunderstood. In this matter the 
 good Captain's zeal seems to have outrun 
 his discretion. 
 
 The availability, for shipping, of any 
 inland channel, has to be judged of, not, 
 as it may be, under summer skies with 
 smooth seas, but, as it presents under the 
 worst conditions of weather and darkness, 
 known to occur in the locality; just as the 
 strength of a hawser or chain cable — can- 
 not safely be reckoned ag greater than is 
 the resisting power of its weakest part. 
 That Captain Cooper's assertions as to the 
 channel in question are quite untenable, 
 has in my last, been demonstrated as well 
 by reference, to the highest authorities 
 
in print, as by meDtion offacts, verifiable 
 by every shipmaster and pilot acquainted 
 with our inland waters from Clover Point 
 toNauaimo. 
 
 As to tbe good Captain's pleasantry 
 about my having a "nautical ally," I glad- 
 ly avow -having had not merely one, but 
 many such, — men of varied position, ex- 
 perience and nationality, with whom I 
 have often bef n conferring since in 1870- 
 71, the investigation, forming the subject 
 of these letters, was commenced. Such 
 of these worthy persons, as are still "to 
 the fore" and happen to be here, concur 
 in the estimate of the Western Haro Chan- 
 nel presented in my last. 
 
 SEA APPBOACHKS. 
 
 As the consideration of these is so in- 
 tensely important,and as Captain Cooper's 
 position thereon is so thoroughly "unas- 
 sailable ' a reproduction of his words in 
 large type seems warrantable. "Sea ap- 
 
 PBOAGHEB ARE (he SajSJ IN MY JUDGMENT 
 THE FIRST ESSENTIAL CONSIDERATION IN 
 FINALLY DBCIDINO UPON A TERMINUS SITE." 
 
 From the valuable appendix V. of Mr. 
 Fleming's oft cited report p. 308 quota- 
 tion is now made out of a document enti- 
 tled "Statement by Captain John Dever- 
 eux respecting harbors in the Straits of 
 Georgia, and on the West Coast of Van- 
 couver Island." 
 
 Capt. Devereaux. long and favorably 
 known in Victoria, is the only master- 
 mariner resident in the Province, who, in 
 addition to a practical knowledge of this 
 coast acquired in command of coasting 
 steamers, has brought to bear on tbe 
 queetion of sea routes to the projected 
 western termini of the C. P. R. R. a most 
 nseful insight, gained by years of service 
 as an officer in the ocenn mail steamers of 
 the Old Country. Some of my nautical 
 allies have had experience in Her Majes- 
 ty's naTy, in command of coasting steam- 
 ers and of ocean-going sailing ships as 
 well as of coasters and pilot boats. 
 
 "Burrard Inlet (Devereaux states) has a 
 safe and commodious anchorage two mixes 
 inside the first narrows at Coal Harbor, 
 also another seven miles inside the second 
 narrows at Port Moody, twelve miles from 
 the entrance; but there is one great ob- 
 jection to either of these places, viz: both 
 the first and the second narrows respect- 
 ively are but about about a cable and a- 
 half wide, through which the tide runs 
 about nine knots an hour, creating whirls 
 and eddies and rendering it unsafe for 
 large steamers to enter or leave port at 
 night, or at certain stages of the tide, 
 leaving out altogether interruption by 
 fogs and thick weather, which occur more 
 frequently inside than out." 
 "Next is the outer harbor of Burrard In- 
 let, known as English Bay; there, at a 
 
 place marked on the chart as Gov6»rnment 
 Reserve, is a good anchorage with every 
 facility for a breakwater, or even doek^i, 
 both wet and dry, and by erecting a light- 
 bouse on Passage Island, euti.tnce to 
 Howe Sound, one on East Pomi, one on 
 Turn Point and another on Discov- 
 ery Island, the largest sbipd in the world 
 might be conducted tbither in safety; but 
 there are three months in ths year, viz: 
 from part of August to tbe sarae time in 
 November, when this coast is bubj'ct to 
 dense fogs, rendering it unsafe, if not nt 
 terly impossible to navigate Haro Strait 
 and the Gulf of Georj^ia with large steam- 
 ers such as the Royal Mail, Cunard, and 
 Pacific Mail Company's ftbips." 
 "This point will, I think, bo conceited 
 by all who know anything about such 
 ships, and the straits in qut stion where 
 the tide runs from font to six knots an 
 hour, with boiling ripH ana overfalls, 
 narrow channels and outlying reefs, deep 
 water, and no anchorage that could be 
 reached in such weather; and to stop a 
 steamer in such a plight would simply 
 mean to the mariner to lose his reckoning, 
 as he would be Cirried off by the tide and 
 not know whither to go. On tlie other 
 hand if the engines of a large ship were 
 kept going like those of the small steam- 
 ers on this coast 8he would neither answer 
 to her helm nor turn astern quick euough 
 to avoid running a«bore, as it frequently 
 happens the fogs are so denne here that 
 land cannot be seen one hundred yards 
 off." 
 
 The eastern Haro or boundary channel 
 is the one referred to in the foregoing 
 quotation from Captain Devereaux. Its 
 depth where ships must pass is from sixty 
 to one hundred and eighty fathooLS, and 
 its anchorages, difficult of approa h iu 
 thick weather, do not afibrd swinging 
 room enough for ships of from three to 
 four thousand tons burthen. Such as 
 these, and larger craft, will in "the good 
 time coming, " be resorting to the terminal 
 harbor, if quite accessible at all eeasous 
 from the oeean. If otherwise, their des- 
 tination may be to American ports; for 
 commerce ever seeks the safest routes, 
 and those where delay need not be in- 
 curred from any bad weather short of 
 hurricanes, or from other causes such as 
 waiting for tides, for daylight or for lift- 
 ing of fog. 
 
 About eight hundred tons may be con- 
 sidered as the average size of lumber ships 
 now going to the Inlet. A few of from 
 twelve to sixteen hundred tons have been 
 there. 
 
 In the eastern Haro Strait, between 
 Turnpoint, Stuart's Island, U S.A., and 
 Cooper's Reef, B.N. A., ships would have 
 to pass within less than two miles of pos- 
 sibly hostile batteries. 
 
What has been or may be ^tated about 
 Burrarfi Inleb aud its approaches from 
 Royal Roatls cauDot dispurage the prespnt 
 nndispu^ed commercial importance of 
 that place as the site of two large saw- 
 mills. 
 
 These statements are set forth simply in 
 view of the possible purposes for which 
 this inlet might be selected. They receive 
 the strongest coufirmalion frwm Staff 
 Cammander Pender, K N., who in one 
 pithy sentence thns summarises his 
 opinion in reply to Mr Flemiijg's last 
 and twenty-eighth question: "For reasons 
 given {says Commander Pender, p. 300, 
 report cite<<) ir No. 27, Burrard Inlet is 
 in my opinion preferable to either of the 
 places named (the other six mainland in- 
 lets inquired about by Mr Fleming, T.;) 
 it is also the most easy of access from the 
 ocean, but even heee the iJigKS attend- 
 ing NAVIGATING WITH LARGE STEAMSHIPS 
 AGAINST TIME AMONGST THK ISLANDS LYING 
 BETWEEN I'UCA STRAIT AND THE STRAIT OF 
 GEORGIA ARE TO ME VERY GRKAT." 
 
 In his letter to the Governor General 
 Captain Cooper lofeibly dilates on the 
 manifold risks to be incurred "in a gale of 
 wind aud thick weather" off Milbauk 
 Souud, or thence to Kamsquot, head of 
 Dean's Canal, "by a steamer having on 
 board Her Majesty's mailts and probably 
 several hundred passengers bound east" 
 "with scarcely an anchorage for the whole 
 distance thai the commander of a valu- 
 able steamship would risk his ship to 
 swing in." "It is questionable (adds the 
 Captain) whether any insurancie offices 
 would take th<? risk on such navigation " 
 
 Outside Milbunk Souud such a ship in 
 stormy weather might get to sea. Inside 
 her plight would be unpafe indeed. At 
 the best there would be serious and vexa- 
 tious delay, causing passengers to chafe 
 and to declaim against such a dangerous 
 route. 
 
 And now with a deep sense of tlieir im- 
 portance, and with due regard to Imperial 
 or in other words, general, inieiests, let 
 me ask Captain Cooper, how it would fare 
 with his large mail steamship in a S. E. 
 gale and thick weather, or, in oue of our 
 long enduring and densest autumnal fogs, 
 suppesing her course to be from Trial 
 Island, Haro Straits to Burrard lulet. 
 Would not her risks be n(^arly as great in 
 the latter direction as in the former ? Ac- 
 cording to the quotation just made from 
 Commander Pender's evidence and to 
 merchant-seamen recently consulted by 
 me, they certainly would. Such a large 
 mail steamer as is mentioned, would ne- 
 cessarily be navigating against time. 
 
 Again, supposing our transcontinental 
 railway to terminate so far from the ocean 
 as at Burrard Inlet, how many casualties 
 
 to ocean steamers or huge sailing ships, 
 how many alarms and narrt w escapes, 
 how many even of atinoying detentions 
 involving, no one could teil, how much 
 loss to the diverse large ir^tt^rests ot stake, 
 how many of suftb mi'>bap8 coi^Jd occur 
 on this line, without inevitably diverting 
 |fa^'senger and troods traffic, express busi- 
 ness, correspondence, and evo^rything else 
 from East and West, to foreign railway 
 termini on or near the Fuc»n Straits ? It 
 is for tlie Captain to respond, or tj adhere 
 to the Carlylean maxim that "Silence is 
 golden, "<fec. 
 
 autumnal fogs. 
 The prevalence of fogs on tbis coast m 
 autumn is in their answers dwelt upon by 
 Admiral Kichards and Stuff-Commar/der 
 Pender. It is also noticed, I think, by 
 Captain Cator. In September, 1868, 
 coasting steamers were by fog for ten days 
 confined to Victoria harl)or. In Novem- 
 ber, 1869, as nearly as I can ascertain, 
 several steamers were fog bound in Nau- 
 aimo harbor, and am( ngst others the "old 
 Beaver," in wliich Commander Pender. 
 B N., was thea bringing to a close his 
 valuable labors on this coast. At thi.^ time 
 the commander of an ocean-goiog Ameri 
 can steamer, doubtle&s mere pressed for 
 time than the others, ventured out first, 
 and wrecked his bdat. This shipwieck was 
 omitted in the detail given in a former 
 letter of casuMlties on the route from Roy- 
 al Roads to Nanaimo. 
 
 RIVAL FOREIGN RAILWAY ROUTES. 
 
 Wlietber British and Americans are 
 hereafter always to be friends is beyond 
 human ken. Often the unexpected hap- 
 pens in national, a.'- well as in indivi<iual 
 affairs. The future being hidden, due 
 precaution in selecting the railway route 
 and terminus on strategical consideration 
 should be exercised by, those having the 
 guidance of Imperial interests in this 
 quarter of the world. Americans and Eng- 
 lish have long been keen commercial riv- 
 als and are likely to continue so. Not- 
 withstanding this, and the irritations it 
 usually engenders, they have lately, like 
 sensible kinsmen, become better friends. 
 On the Fucan Straits, almost opposite 
 Esquimau, an^l seventeen miles distant,i.s 
 the much prized American harbor, by 
 Vancouver named Ediz Hook, now better 
 known as Port Angeles, and jocularly- 
 termed " ('herbourg." This port is, at 
 p. 188 of the U. S. Pilot (Washington 
 Territory) termed ** an excellent and ex- 
 tensive harbor." At page 190. of the same 
 authority, is the stat,ement that " coal of 
 fair quality is reported to have been 
 found within three miles of the harbor 
 Port Angeles could by a railway of from 
 150 to 175 miles to Tenino, be joined to 
 the line going south from Tacoma to Kal 
 
a ma, Washington Territory, U.S.A. This 
 line, it is said, will ultimately be joined 
 in California to the Central Pacific Trans 
 continental line. Between Kalama and 
 Portland thecoouection is m ide by steam- 
 er on the Columbia and Walaraet rivers, 
 but Irom the latter town southward a rail- 
 way route is in operation throughout the 
 length of the WaLimet valley to Rose 
 burg in the Urapqua valley, a disance of 
 about 170 miles. 
 
 OTHEB AMEKICAN POKT^ IN WASHINGTON 
 TEERITOKY. 
 
 Afewyeirs ago American capitalists 
 projected the North Pacific Railway to 
 connect with lines in the Enst. They ex- 
 plored extensively in Washington Terri- 
 tory, finding the most favorable opening 
 through the Cascade Monnt^iins at Sno- 
 qualimi Pass; and their terminal point at 
 Holmes' barbor. sixty miles southeasterly 
 of Port Angeles and facing < n the east- 
 ern, or more inland shore of Wbidby Is- 
 *land. 
 
 Land at and around this Ideality of 
 course rose greatly in value. For the 
 sake of reaching this harbor, it was then 
 proposed to bring the railway, by a long 
 circuit, north to opposite Fidalgo Island, 
 thither by bridge, tbence south, and by 
 bridge across Deception Pass to Whidby 
 Island, and on to Holmes' harbor, which 
 was, by a short ship canal, to be connect- 
 ed with Admiralty Inlet, the straight, and 
 comparatively safe, southern furcation of 
 DeFuca Strait. 
 
 A point in some degree suitable might 
 perhaps have been found at Mukilteo, ur 
 elsewhere on Possession Sound, in a west- 
 erly and more direct course from the Cas- 
 cade mountain pass; and, on the mainland 
 shore, are Simiamo, Birch, and Bel ling- 
 ham Bays, all like Bnrrard Inlet (i». C ) 
 separated from the Fucan Strait by the 
 islands of the Haro Archipelago. From 
 the nearest to the Strait of these, Belling- 
 ham Bay, where, says the W.T. Pilot, the 
 anchorages are "from 4 to 20 fatho.„s in 
 good sticky bottom," coal has in sailing 
 vessels been for years exported. The cap- 
 italists mentioned nevertheless seem to 
 have been resolved to get to the east 
 shore harbor, most accessible from the 
 Fucan Strait, and the costly operations 
 contemplated, in order to compass this 
 end, clearly indicate the paramount im- 
 portance attached to it. 
 
 If it be of extreme consequence to Am- 
 ericans to have railways from the East 
 terminate on the seaboard at the points 
 most accessible from the Pacific Ocean, 
 must it not, in equal measure, be so, Mr. 
 Editor, for the widespread British peo- 
 ple. The whole Empire is interested in 
 having the best selection made. 
 
 No. o. 
 [October 13th, 1877.] 
 
 Editob Colonist: True it is as stated 
 in my last that the selection of the best 
 route for the Canadian Pacific Railway is 
 of vital import not only to the United 
 Kingdom and the Dominion but likewise 
 to all British inter< sts, present and pros- 
 pective, in Polynesia, Australasia and 
 Eastern Asia. It cannot be doubted 
 that "the h^gh contracting parties" to the 
 original railway compact fully agreed 
 that the line should pass where it would 
 afford the most widespread advantage to 
 the varied interests of the several divis 
 ions of British North America, settled and 
 yet to be sett'ed; and. on the Pacific sea- 
 board, lead to tne harbor in every respect 
 most eligible for commerce — aye and for 
 defence — but not for defiance, save to a 
 foe. 
 
 The recent newspaper advocates of Bur- 
 rard Inlet as the terminus .set much store 
 on its value a< a hiding place, but even in 
 this respect beini; by laod so easily as >ail- 
 iible it could only he made to afford tlie 
 sort of safety the ijuijued ostrich has been 
 said to seek by concealin,::: its head amid 
 the scant herbage of the desert. 
 
 In the just quarrels for which alone Bri- 
 tons now feel it a duty to fight, may the 
 day never arrive when they will he-itafe 
 to "meet the enemy in the gite," y-a, and 
 outside of it too, if they can have at him 
 on "the mountain wave" the scene of yoie 
 of BritanniVs gr<^atest triumphs — tri- 
 umphs, too, let the nations rememtjer, 
 which early in this century so much tend- 
 ed to relieve a large portion of Europe 
 from apprehension of an abhorred foreign 
 despotism. 
 
 New Westminster editors, but without 
 a particle of proof thereof, continue to in- 
 sist that the choice of the powers that be 
 has already, for route and terminus, fallen 
 on routo No. 2. Firmly persuaded that 
 according to Earl Carnarvon's despatches 
 to our Grovernment, the question is still 
 open, I ask our New Westminster friends 
 to calmly consider the following quota- 
 tions from Mr. Fleming's last report pub- 
 lished some four months ago,and referred 
 to in my previous letters. 
 
 At page 65, Mr. F. says: "It is most 
 desirable that the railway should termi- 
 nate on the coast at a harbor which from 
 its general excellence and geographical po- 
 sition would be best calculated to accom- 
 modate the shipping of the Pacific and at- 
 tract commerce from distant countries. 
 This question has an important bearing 
 on the choice of route." Then at page 66, 
 Mr. Fleming dwells on the importance of 
 selecting such a route and terminus for 
 the railway "as would best attract ocean 
 trafliic and would admit of successful com- 
 petition with foreign lines." Again at 
 
 I 
 
pase 71, be says: "An unbroken line of 
 railway from the eastern Provinces of the 
 Dominion to one of these harbors on the 
 outer coast of Vancouver Island would be 
 excecdiiigly desirable. Kish the diffi- 
 culties OF NAVIGATION TO BE ENCOUN- 
 TEKED IN EEACHING THE MAINLAND FEOM 
 THE OCEAN WOULD THEN BE AVOIDED." 
 
 (Emphasising mine ) It must also in 
 fairness be stated that in tbe same page 
 Mr. Fleming adds "the bridging from the 
 Mainland to Vancouver's would be un- 
 precedented in magnitude and its costs 
 would indeed be enormous." 
 
 But as Mr. Fleming, at page 72, says: 
 "By extend ing the railway along tbe wes- 
 tern side of Bute Inlet and thence across 
 to Frederick Arm— a feasible scheme but 
 one exacting a heavy expenditure, ' 'Nod- 
 ales channel," a completely sheltered and 
 an easily navigated sheet of water is 
 reached . This channel Uf reported to be free 
 from strong current'^, sh( xls, or other dijffi- 
 culties, and could be used by a railway ferr^ 
 at all seasons of the year.'" (Italics mine 
 
 As to the proposed bridging being of 
 magnitude unprecedented — what wonders 
 in the way of unprecedented achievements 
 engineering and other, has not the world 
 within the last century witnessed, say 
 since 1777, when the sick and grief-worn 
 Earl of Chatham in a last bootless appeal 
 to his infatuated sovereign ere the news of 
 Saratoga had reached home, urged the 
 staying of fra.ricidal strife by an offer of 
 federal union, between England and her 
 American colonies. 
 
 Bridging can be dispensed with for 
 some years. Tbe excellent ferry-line from 
 some point on Frederick Arm to the snug 
 harbor O^ter Cove,Vancouvei*'8,will serve 
 every purpose until, owing to tbe great- 
 ness of "through traffic" and tbe wants of 
 the millions yet to occuj^y our country 
 west of Ontario, through railway connec- 
 tion may be deemed essential. 
 
 The navigation of the Frederick Arm 
 and Nodales channels is by nautical men 
 considered as safe as that on the Thames 
 between Blackwall and Gravesend, or on 
 the Clyde between Broomielaw and Dun- 
 barton. At a convenient point fronting 
 on the south shore of the ferry channel. 
 Chameleon harbor, easy of access, offers 
 safe and good anchorage which on emer- 
 gency might be of great avail. This good 
 and conveniently placed harbor will yet 
 be tbe site of sawmill and other industries. 
 
 One more quotation. At page 74, Mr. 
 Fleming's remarks on tbe "Route via Bute 
 Inlet:" "If it bo considered of i^aramount 
 imi^ortance to carry an unbroken line of 
 railway to one or more of the harbors on 
 the western coast of Vancouver Island, 
 and there is a likelihood that this project 
 will, regardless of cost, hereafter be ser- 
 
 liously entertained, then Route No. 6 be- 
 I comes of the first importance and really 
 I the only one open for selection." 
 
 BEIDGING. 
 
 When bridging is to be a necessity much 
 depends on how soon the mother country 
 and the Dominion learn to work heartily 
 and unselfishly together in fairly propor- 
 tioned joint outlay, for, amongst other 
 things the settlement of the vast and fer- 
 tile though yet unpeopled wastes of the 
 great North-west, soon sorely to be to the 
 British Isles "the butchers' and bakers' 
 department" with "an Imperial coopera- 
 tive store." These words are from 
 the very able pamphlet by Captain Co- 
 lomb, R.M. A., already quoted from in The 
 Colonist and entitled "Imperial and Co- 
 lonial Responsibilities in War." 
 
 Of course Colomb thinks tbe Imperial 
 government should take prominent part 
 in the constructi'^n of the Canadian Pa- 
 cific Railway. He speaks well of what 
 Canada has already done in the way of 
 defence, saying at page 16: "Considering 
 that an Englishman in Canada bears a far 
 greater military burden than an English- 
 man in the United Kingdom, surely in 
 common j^ustice we would be bound to 
 sacrifice our whole naval power rather 
 than permit her being invested by block- 
 ade." At page 19, Britifh Columbia is 
 mentioned as "tbe North Pacific gem, set 
 as it is with black diamonds," and of 
 great strategical value to the Empir6,wbile 
 the neglect of Columbia's defence is con- 
 demned. At page 20, the Canadian Pa- 
 cific R'ulroad is said to be "the short cut 
 from Britain to the infinite supply depart- 
 ments of Australia, Tasmania and New 
 Z aland." 
 
 There is much of deep interest to us all 
 in Colomb's pampbh t. It is circulating 
 in Victoria and should, by such as feel in- 
 terested in federation of the Empire, be 
 carefully read and pondered over. This 
 Pan-Britannic unification, tbe dying de- 
 sire of the great Chatham, the sentiment 
 for which united empire Americans ai 
 century ago sacrificed home and kindred, 
 this noble aspiration is now becoming' 
 more deeply felt, and its realization more 
 longed for by English-speaking peoole at 
 hoEMB and abroad. It is for the United 
 Kingdom and the Dominion to take the 
 initiative. The Australian colonies will- 
 soon join in and Colomb's most Sensible 
 and i3ressing suggestions will be carried out 
 , in their entirety while yet there is time. 
 Enlightened Americans of the United 
 States, well aware that they already have 
 enough of social and political problems to 
 work out, look with favor on this British 
 federation mo vement,knowingthatBritona 
 are their own co-workers in all that tends 
 to the upraising of humanity; and that 
 
10 
 
 each of the great kindred Acglo-Saxon 
 Dationalities learniog. one from the other 
 what to imitate and what to avoid, may 
 th»\8 "strive together in well doing," 
 while having no othei contention. Eli- 
 hu Burritt, the well known learned and 
 philanthropic New Englander, has in the 
 Canadian Monthly/ for August last an arti 
 cle on the "Integration of the British Em- 
 pire" that does him infinite credit. There 
 is more pith in this short essay than in 
 Sir Francis Hincks' recent lukewarm 
 dealing with the great subject in the same 
 periodical ; or than in tomes of able and 
 well-meaning Goldwin Smith's thooiisiug 
 about disintegration in other monthlies. 
 Mr. Editor, I may in part of the fore- 
 going have seemed to digress, but the di- 
 gression, if any, has been more seeming 
 than real. The Canadian Pacific Railway 
 by the best possible route from ocean to 
 ocean, and soon to be completed by "a 
 strong pull and a pull altogether," is in- 
 deed the first step and the sine qua non to 
 the much needed consolidation of the em- 
 pire. 
 
 No. 0. 
 [November 5th, 1877.] 
 
 Editob Colonist: — Inasmuch as Etig- 
 • land, after all the good she has for some 
 three hundred years past been effecting 
 in North America, is likely through what 
 seems the ''manifest destiny" of Imperial 
 Federation to be an abiding power on 
 this continent, it has happily ensued, in 
 the Divine order of events, that on the 
 Pacific she owns the Northern, while her 
 first born and biggest daughter, the Unit- 
 ed States, possesses the southern shore of 
 that great inland sea, the Fucan Strait, 
 vhioh presents more advantages to the 
 mariner than any other inlet on the An- 
 glo-American Pacific Coast; aye, or from 
 the Magellan to the Bbering Strait. 
 
 The Fucan Strait, extolled above all 
 others on our coast by the naval authori- 
 ties consulted by Chief Engineer Flem- 
 ing, is excellently described by Captain 
 Devereni, p. p. 309-10 of Fleming's Re- 
 port, 1877. Although from August to 
 November it is occasionally subject to 
 fog, "sometimes very dense over tke en- 
 ■' '" trance for days together," 'Hhese are not 
 nearly of such frequent occurrence as on 
 the neighboring coast of California, where 
 they prevail almost uninterruptedly dur- 
 in^the summer, and as late as the middle 
 ^^ K<i^^®^* ' ^^*^ *^^® foregoing extracts 
 areThcom the Vancouver Island Pilot, p. 
 5. ' The United States Pilot for Califor- 
 nia, Oregon, and "Washington, at p. 69, 
 mentions the sunset fogs on the San 
 Francisco bar and outside of it as of fre- 
 quent; eccurrence in summer. At p. 70 
 the same authority states that "during 
 heavy Southeasters the sea breaks upon 
 the San Francisco bar, clean across the 
 
 entrance, presenting a f' arful sight." The 
 sound can be heard at the anchonige in 
 front of the city." At p. 183, referring to 
 the Fucan Strait, the Coast Pilot mentions 
 that "in winter the S.E. winds draw di 
 rectly ont, and create a very heavy cross 
 sea off the entrance, the great Southwest 
 swell meeting that rolling out. In such 
 cas-es trading vessels try to gain Neah Bay 
 or San Juan Harbor and remain at anchor 
 until the wind changes." Both these har- 
 bors need breakwaters to make them 
 thoroughly effective for shelter; but that 
 for each country is a work of the future. 
 An immediate and pressing want on the 
 British side of the Strait is telegraphic 
 extension to Cape Beale lighthouse in or- 
 der that sailing vessels, now occasionally 
 delayed outside by calm, fog, or foul 
 wind, may thence indicate their arrival 
 and need of a tug. 
 
 DEEP SEA SOUNDINGS. 
 
 Owing to the fortunate irregularity of 
 soundings, and variety of bottom on the 
 ocean banks reaching for more than forty 
 miles outside Fuca Strait,powerful steam- 
 ers can enter during dense fog, or during 
 a S. E. gale with its usual attendant, 
 thick weather. 
 
 This being in either case impossible off 
 San Francisco bar, it is obvious that from 
 the nautical point of view ports on the 
 Fuca Strait are better suited for commerce 
 than any to the Southward. This strait 
 will yet be a great highway for British 
 and American trade, and the Empire must 
 have its chief North American port there- 
 on,ju8l as necessarily as that a London mer- 
 chant prince must be established for busi- 
 ness within hearing of Bowbells, and not 
 at Islington or Croydon. 
 
 The time occupied in land travel by 
 rail, and in ocean travel by steamer, can 
 approximately be calculated^ but the de- 
 lay and risks caused by the intricacies of 
 inland navigation cannot be reckoned on. 
 
 POGS. 
 
 In this quarter fog may last from half- 
 a-day to more than eight days, that being 
 a much longer period than is occupied in 
 crossing the continent by railway. In dry 
 seasons, fog is more enduring, being then 
 prolonged and intensified by the smoke of 
 extensive forest fires. The early rains, in 
 September, have this autumn prevented 
 such a combination of the "powers of 
 darkness." Fog is not unknown in Brit- 
 ish waters, and it must have been in avoid- 
 ance of this and other dangers incident, 
 less or more, to all inland navigation that 
 at home the points of arrival and depart- 
 ure for ocean-going mail steamers hav^-i 
 since the Atlantic was first steamed across, I 
 been gradually shifting ocean-wards from i 
 London, until, at length, the ultimates of / 
 Cork and Falmouth have been reached, r 
 
11 
 
 
 WHAT OCCUKEED DURING OUR RECENT FOG 
 AND ITS TEACHINGS. 
 
 Not long ago the large American steBm- 
 er Alaska, bound from Puget Sound to 
 Esquimau for the British Columbia out- 
 going mail p.nd passengers, was fog-bound 
 thirty honrs in one and sixteen hours in 
 snother United States port; besidf-s, as 
 the fog continued, having been navigating 
 slowly and with circumspection in her 
 course towards Esquimalt. Now, let us 
 uppose, 
 
 i^r5^— That transcontinental railways in 
 opeiation terminate at Port Angeles,W.T, 
 and English Bay, B.C., respectively-. 
 
 Second — That each cf equiU speed, and, 
 during fog, proceeding towards the ter- 
 mini just named, an American (A) and a 
 British mail steamer (B) at the same time 
 enter the Fucan Strait and that while A is 
 landing mails, passengers and specie at 
 Port Angeles, B— unable to proceed fur- 
 ther with safety in sucli weather — is seek- 
 ing anchorage in Esquimalt Roadstead. 
 
 In such case, and from what has in pre- 
 vious letters been set forth, is it not an 
 obvious conclusioa that, should our sup- 
 posed fog — by no means a "yain imagina- 
 tion'' — last as long as the real one which 
 lately delayed th^Alaski^' passengers. etc., 
 by the line from Port Angeles, would be 
 considerably more than a thousand miles 
 advanced on the journey eastward, 'ere 
 those bound for English Bay, Golf of 
 Georgia, could set foot in a railway car? 
 
 It has been well remarked by a late 
 American writer that "Commerce, a? 
 every one must realize, who carefully 
 considers modern methods, depends upon 
 speed and regularity of communication, 
 not merely in the movement of goods, 
 but far more in the carrying of mails. The 
 merchant who can get in his order, his 
 oflFer, or his remitt^pe most promptly 
 gets the cream of the market." 
 
 This is perfectly true, and in view of 
 th© varied commercial competition in all 
 likelihood yet to ensue on the Pacific be- 
 tcen Britons and Americans, it ought now 
 to be keenly appreciated by all whose in- 
 tere«ta lie north of the United States 
 boiindary. 
 
 The Imperial and Dominion authorities 
 cannot, in the general interest, neglect to 
 avail to the utmost of every natural ad- 
 vantage our province possesses, and the 
 harbor and roadstead of Esquimalt on the 
 Pucan Strait are amongst the greatest of 
 these. 0m^ 
 
 Esquimalt roads (or on the chart Jloyal 
 Bay) is becoming more and more resorted 
 to by ships seeking freight. Here they 
 can anchor free of pilotage or other 
 charge, and from Victoria, some five 
 miles off, telegraphic communicatio» can 
 be had to the more important parts'^ the 
 world, while within less than a hundred 
 
 miles are tbe lumber ports of Pnget Sound 
 and Burrard Inlet, on the continent, acd 
 the coal depots cf Nanaimo and Departure 
 Bay on Vancouver. 
 
 Great, indeed, will be tbe attraction to 
 EsquimaJt and its roadstead after the 
 graving dock there is ready for the repair 
 of merchantmen, and when the largest 
 sailing ships afloat can at its coalbic^ be 
 expeditiously laden with the coal brought 
 from the north by railroad. tVhen ships off 
 Cape Beale lighthouse can telegraph their 
 arrival to Victoria and, if necesssry, be 
 towed in, the inducement for large ships 
 to take a coal cargo from Esquimalt will 
 be much strengthened. 
 
 Merchantmen from San Francisco sail 
 to Royal Bay in from six to ten days. 
 Sailing up the Straits is so far the rule. 
 A wheat cargo can only in season be ob- 
 tained in Oregon and California ports. It 
 takes considerable time to obtain and ship 
 a lumber cargo, but coal could, from 
 properly constructed bins in Esquimalt, 
 be poured in fore and aft so as to shorten 
 the trimming process and let large ships * 
 off with a cargo in a very few days. The 
 advantages of this are obvious. 
 
 Now, with the probability of a wide- 
 spread war, in which England, and of 
 course her dependencie8,c&n hardly escape 
 being involved, the coaling of Her Ma- 
 jesty's ships at Esquimalt in the safest i 
 and speediest manner possible miist I 
 surely be a consideration of pressing im- ' 
 port. So, likewise, must be the prepara- 
 tion of the graving dock for the prompt- 
 est repairing of these ships during war. 
 In commerce, time judiciously saved is 
 always money gained. In war, time sav- 
 ed is often money saved, and that besides 
 which, to Britons the world over, is much 
 more precious. It is indeed fervently to 
 be desired that the solemn and not over- 
 charged monitions of Colomb as to the 
 existing lack cf land defences in British 
 dependencies are having due attention 
 from our rulers at home. Time and tide 
 wait neither for man nor nation, and his- 
 tory abounds in proofs of the truism that 
 * 'opportunities lost can never be recalled." 
 
 :n"o. 7. 
 
 [December 14th, 1877.] 
 Editor Colonist :— As promised in the 
 sixth paragraph — headed •*Sea Ap- 
 proaches"-— of the third letter of this 
 series, brief comparison must now be 
 made between Esquimalt and Uchuk- 
 leist, Barclay Sound, recommended p.p. 
 298-9 of Fleming's report by Capt. Cator, 
 B.N-, as the fittest point for our railway 
 terminus in the west. Thereanent no 
 better referee can be found than Admiral 
 Eichards, in the Vancouver Island Pilot. 
 Except its two good, but by no means 
 extensive, anchorages, "Snug Basin" at 
 
12 
 
 the head and "Green Cove" at the en- 
 trance, the soundings in Uohuklesit vary 
 from twenty to forty fathoms. Depth of 
 water is a»i objection to the greater p&rt 
 of Barclay Sound. Three mileej long, 
 Uchuklesit is but half mile wide, and not 
 one and half miles, as stated by Capt. 
 Cator, F. E. p. 299. 
 
 WEST COAST OF VANCODVEK's, 
 
 In the V. I. P., p, 181, Richards, treat- 
 iner of the island ocean shore, north of 
 "Fuca Strait to Sydney Inlet," says "the 
 coast is fringed by numerous and hidden 
 dangers, especially Bear the entrance of 
 the Sound, and the exercise of great cau- 
 tion and vigilance wiil be necessary on 
 the part of the navigator to avoid them, 
 even with the present admiralty charts." 
 The nature of the bottom where there are 
 deep sea soundings is so uniform '* as 
 (p. 182) not sulficieutly to afford any 
 guide for ascertaining a vessel's exact 
 position on the coast." 
 
 As to Barclay Sound specially, Richards 
 (p. 184) says : " Off the entrance, and in 
 the southern part of the Sound, are in- 
 numerable rock« and islands with naviga- 
 ble channels between them," and (same 
 page) "the three navigable channels into 
 Barclay Sound all require great caution 
 in navigating." 
 
 The Provincial Government steamer 
 
 • Sir James Douglas, owing to the uni- 
 i formity of soundings as to depth and 
 
 * character, has, as lighthouse tender, been 
 in fog compelled to anchor with a 
 kedge within a few hundred yards of C^pe 
 Beaie lighthouse, her officers being unable 
 
 to ascertain either the position of the 
 light or of the entraoces to Barclay 
 Sound. See Devoreux, p. 309, F. R. 
 on Uchuklesit and the west coast of Van- 
 couver's generally north of Fuca Strait. 
 
 Obstructions in respect of sea ap- 
 proaches added to some sixteen miles of 
 intricate, and, in bad weather, dangerous 
 inland navigation, relegate to their proper 
 level in the scale of fitness, the harbor in 
 question and Barclay Sound, irrespective 
 of their comparative inferiority, as re- 
 garded from the commercial and other 
 points of view. 
 
 A digression is here necessary, as an 
 editorial in the Mainland Guardian of 
 New Westminster (Dec. 5, 1877) without 
 shadow of proof, stigmatises as "un- 
 doubtedly false" i^ome unspecified state- 
 ments in a pamphlet on the railway ques- 
 tion recently published in London, and 
 with which I have hai to do. Most of 
 the statements in the pamphlet have been 
 at greater length reproduced in the fore- 
 going letters, with ample reference to 
 authorities. The Guardian editor has it : 
 "He says the tides rush at the rate of ten 
 knots an hour through the first Nar- 
 
 rows I" Thi3 is a quotation shamefully 
 garbled. At p. 8 of the pamphlet, par. 
 4, occurs the following : "For two hours 
 spring tides are said by experienced men 
 to average ten knots an hour through 
 the Narrows." This has been proved in 
 the following way : A master mariner, 
 commanding a boat capable of run- 
 ning ten knots an hour in still, 
 smooth water, has, when under orders to 
 proceed with all speed lor the Inlet, been 
 for two hours steaming againf^t the tide 
 in the first Narrows without gaining an 
 inch." This happened in January, when 
 and in June the strongest springtides run. 
 
 At p. 110, V. I. P., Richards states 
 "the strength- of the tide in the narrowest 
 part of the first Narrows is from 4 to 8 
 kno^s. Admiral Richards, let it be 
 noticed, does not here specify spring 
 tides. 
 
 Unless the tidal currents and eddies of 
 the first and second Narrows, as well as of 
 Burrard's Inlet, mid-channel, were the 
 ever-recurring obstacles to "navigation 
 against time," they are in this quarter of 
 the Dominion well understood to be, why 
 should Captain Cooijer, at p. 307 of 
 Fleming's report, at the end of the 21st 
 paragraph of his already quoted letter 
 to His Excellency the Governor-General, 
 as a "m^ans of reducing the current at 
 the entrance of the Inlet probably one- 
 half or two-thirds of its present velocity," 
 modestly have suggested the Cyclopean 
 and perhaps ^'mpossible under1>aking of 
 "blocking up" the n()rth arm of said 
 Inlet, and why should another gigantic / 
 work have bern spoken of, to wit : The i 
 dredging of the first Narrows. A third \ 
 project that has been mentioned is the j 
 construction of a breakwater in English j 
 Bay, which, although, like the Inlet, dilfi- J 
 cult to approarh from Fuca Strait during i 
 a fog or storm, has been talked of as a | 
 possible site for the terminus. Spanish : 
 bank (see chavt) a prolongation around f 
 Point Grey of the Fras^r &and heads, j 
 would, in the roadstead, be the only site 
 shallow enough for such a costly trec- 
 tion, if it afforded a sufficiently solid j 
 foundation ; but on two occasions a mer- | 
 cbant steamer aground on the bank ' 
 through the action of her propeller dis- 
 placed so much sand as to have been 
 afloat before the rise of the tide enabled 
 her to move over the rim of the basin 
 thus scooped out. Spanish bank may be 
 more solid elsewhere. 
 
 THE BlVAIi ROUTES COMPARED ON THE 
 MAINLAND. 
 
 In continuance of the investigation,^'^ 
 from the first contemplated in these let- 
 ters, Routes 2 and 6 must now be regard- 
 ed otherwise than merely in respect of 
 the n^-utical, commercial, strategical, and 
 
13 
 
 geograpbical disabilities or advantages 
 inherent in each. Either line proceeding 
 eastward must reach Edmonton on the 
 North Saskatchewan. From Edmonton 
 westward towards ''the most eligible har- 
 bor on the Pacific Coast," that line must, 
 if reai^on ru^es, be adopted, whinh, in the 
 immediate future, in continnation of 
 existing settlement'^, will be the most 
 densely peopled, and that which on the 
 mainland has, north and south of it, the 
 largest extent of country suitable for 
 colonization. Such a railway line can 
 yet by land and water from various 
 points have connections greatly increas- 
 ing its wayside and export traffic. 
 
 From Edmonton, via Leather Pass to 
 Fort George, there is not much farming 
 land. Neither can much be found from 
 Edmonton by way of the North Thomp- 
 son to Kamloops br Savons, most of the 
 productive districts of the mainland up 
 to N. Lat. 51 ° lying south, east, or west 
 these localities. Nor yet is there much 
 cultivable country from Savona along 
 Route No. 2 to Chilli whack on the lower 
 Eraser. 
 
 At page 68 of the Geological Report of 
 Progress, 1875 and '76, occurs the follow- 
 ing from the pen of the well known Mr. 
 Selwyn, F.R.S , Director of the Geologi- 
 cal Survey of Canada : — " Taking Edmon- 
 ton, on the Saskatchewan, and Foit 
 George, on the Fraser, as the initial 
 points, it will, I believe, be found that by 
 Pine River Pass the line could not only 
 be carried almost the whole distance 
 through a magnificent agricultural and 
 pastoral country, but it would actually be 
 shorter than the Leather Pass route, and 
 it would probably not present any great- 
 er engineering difficultiei !" Mr. Selwyn 
 tays much more on this most important 
 matter ; but the permissible limits of this 
 letter forbid further quotation. Let 
 Columbians and others feeling more than a 
 passing interest in the subject refer to 
 the report itself, and to all that in their 
 fevtral reports is stated by Professor 
 Macoun, Mr. G. M. Dawson, and others 
 about this vast north and west country in 
 respect of fitness for settlement, iti 
 wealth of timber, its wealth of fisheries, 
 and its promise as to metals and mine- 
 rals. 
 
 Commencing beyond the 51st paralel 
 of latitude, or say 51 ° 30, it constitutes 
 with the mainland west of the Cascade 
 Diount'ains, Vancouver's and the other 
 islands, about three-fourths of the area of 
 the province. It contains in greai^est 
 abundance our three most important re- 
 jpnrces, namely, those of the mines, the 
 •forests and the fisheries, and it wUljua— • 
 questionably always have^^he preponder- 
 ance of population and wealth. 
 
 Anonymous writers and others uphold- 
 ing route and terminus No. 2 have erred 
 in assuming the whole mainland to be as a 
 unit for the railway line of their choice. 
 There is manifest improbability in su«h a 
 supposition. The farmers and miners 
 north of Lat. 51*^ 30 declare fcwr route 
 No. 6 as best for their own and the gen- 
 eral interests. 
 
 The adoption of the Edmonton-Fort 
 George line suggested by Mr. Selwyn, 
 besides afifording wayside traffic through- 
 out would supply the most direct outlet 
 towards the Fuca Sti'ait and Pacific for 
 the great country of Peace River. 
 
 Even connected with Edmonton by the 
 other route. Fort George will be an im- 
 portant centre of farming and pastoral 
 country as well aa of water stretches 
 north, west and south, when rendered 
 suitable for light draught steamers. 
 
 Improvement of the Fraser for such 
 navigation, perhaps from Boston Bar to 
 above Fort George, would be a natural 
 sequence of the construction of the rail- 
 way via Bute Inlet. The canyon at Big 
 Bar, two miles long, would perhaps best 
 be passed at first by a rail or tramway. 
 Mr. G. B. Wright has, after careful sur- 
 vey, reported elaborately to the Dominion 
 Government on the obstacles to naviga- 
 tion and supposed cost of their removal. 
 Three hundred and sevetit;' miles of the 
 river, if not more, could be rendered trav- 
 elable for steamers whereby wayside and 
 export traffic by the railway would be 
 greatly promoted. Mr. Wright states iu 
 some valuable notes furnished me that a 
 great proportion of produce from a coun- 
 try bordf'riug the Fraser could at or near 
 Fort George be taken from the deck of the 
 steamer to the railway cars He says 
 "extensive farming lands near Lillooet 
 would furnish their quota, and even the 
 productions of Bonnaparte and Cache 
 Creek valleys would seek this cheap and 
 speedy method of transport to the sea, 
 while the mines of Cariboo and Omineca, 
 rendered profitable by the influx of low- 
 priced food and labor, would again yield 
 their tribute as in former years." 
 
 Mr. Wright's own words are given, as 
 he knows the upper country as well as 
 most men. The crushing of quartz in 
 Cariboo, a new industry there, will, if 
 productive, vastly add to the importance 
 of all that northern region. Successat 
 Cariboo may lead to similar and success- 
 ful ventures at Omineca and Cassiar, 
 which are also permanently habitable, 
 should mining attractions suffice. Sev- 
 eral parts of Cassiar abound in summer 
 grass, and that means a good deal. 
 
 A gentleman, acting as surveyor for the 
 Western Union Telegraph Company, some 
 ten years ago, and who had previously 
 
14 
 
 been over most of the southern mainland » 
 considers the lands extending north-west 
 of Westroad Rivor, embracing an area of 
 about five million acres, and including 
 most of the ''lake country," at least as 
 good as any in the province for stock and 
 farming purposes. See, in their reports, 
 what Messrs, Selwyn, Macoun and G. M. 
 Dawson have set forth about this country 
 as to its agricultural value, &c. On the 
 long valley of the Wastonqua, a tributary 
 of the Skeena, my informant found goose- 
 berries and strawberries as large as gar- 
 den sorts, and in a few places the red cur- 
 rant similar to the cultivated kind. The 
 haughs and braes of the Wastonqua, the 
 delight of cattle drovers to Cassiar, wave 
 in summer with luxuriant grasses and 
 vetches, The stream flows sluggishly, 
 and could, it is said, at small outlay, be 
 rendered navigable for river steamers. 
 
 The lakes and streams of the north 
 country abound in excellent fish. Its 
 climate is suited for the growth of tur- 
 nips, being moister in summer than that 
 to the southward. 
 
 The northern limit of fall wheat growing 
 in the Dominion has yet to be skilfully 
 tested from Norway House, if not further 
 east, to Fort Stager, N. Lat. 55 © . 20, if 
 not beyond. There, in 1866-67, a bullock 
 wintered out, and was found in spring in 
 fair condition. 
 
 It is very gratifying to observe that 
 the value of our province as a whole is 
 becoming better and better appreciated 
 throughout the Dominion. Cordiality 
 should prevail between east and west, 
 and, above all, amongst ourselves. Vic- 
 torians desire the real welfare of the 
 southern mainlanders. As an evidence of 
 what a careful observer and close reasoner, 
 Principal Dawson, of Montreal, thinks of 
 our province as a whole, I ask you to 
 print as an appendix to these letters when 
 issued from The Colonist press in pam- 
 phlet form, the accompanying extract 
 from Dr. Dawson's address (18th May, 
 1877) to the Natural History Society of 
 Montreal. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 EXTRACT FEOM ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 
 
 PKINCIPAL DAWSON, L. L. D., F. K. S., 
 
 — AT THE — 
 
 Annual Meeting of the Natural Historj^ Society of Montreal, 
 
 May 18, 1877. 
 
 k "I have reserved to the last some remarks 
 {connected with the subject of my own paper 
 pn the Geology of the Intercolonial Kailway, 
 mnd which subject I desire here to refer to in 
 somewhat broad and discursive manner, de- 
 manded I think by the present condition of 
 science and the industrial arts in this country. 
 I would in this connection desire to direct 
 your attention to the immense importance of 
 that great public work, and to the effects 
 which world flow from a further extension of 
 similar enterprise in the west. I can remem- 
 ber a time when the isolation of the Maritime 
 provinces from Canada proper was almost 
 absolute. There was a nearly impassable 
 'Wilderness between, and no steamers on the 
 • waters, and the few whom business or adven- 
 ture caused to travel from Halifax or St. John 
 to Quebec or Montreal, had to undertake a 
 costly and circuitous journey through the 
 United States, or to submit to almost intermin- 
 able staging through a wilderness, or-i;o the 
 delays of some saihng craft on the St.Lawrence. 
 . In later times steamboats have supplied a less 
 i tedious mode of communication, and now we 
 ■ see placards informing u« that the Intercolonial 
 carries passengers from Quebec to Halifax in 
 twenty-six hours. But it has done more than 
 this. The traveller may now see the coal of 
 Nova Scotia travelling upward to Quebec, and 
 the fresh fish of the Atlantic coast abundantly 
 supplied in our markets, while the agricultural 
 products of the interior travel seawards in 
 return. This is however but the beginning 
 of a great change. A delegation of coal 
 owners was in Ottawa endeavouring to attract 
 the attention of members of the Legislature to 
 the fact that Ontario might be cheaply sup- 
 plied with coal from Nova Scotia in return for 
 her farm products. The representation led 
 to no immediate practical results, but it 
 foreshadows a great future change. Living 
 as we do on the borders of that great nation 
 without any name, except that ol America, 
 which does not belong to it, and which builds 
 an almost impassable wall of commercial 
 restriction along its frontier, we cannot long 
 endure the one-sided exchange of commodities 
 which takes place at present so much to our 
 disadvantage. The Nova Scotian cannot buy 
 
 flour and manufactured goods from a people 
 who refuse to take his coal and iron in ex- 
 change; and the Ontarian or Qu checker 
 cannot afford to have the commercial connec- 
 tion with the mother country severed in favour 
 of a nation which will not take the products 
 of our fields, our forests, our mines or our 
 granaries in exchange. We shall have in 
 self-defence to cidtivate our own internal 
 trade, and even if we must bring the products 
 of the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts across a 
 whole continent to meet each other, this will 
 be cheaper in the end than to sacrifice our 
 own interests and those of the empire to the 
 Chinese policy of our neighbours in the South. 
 
 The diversities of products in countries 
 depends much on differences in latitude, but 
 there are also diversities depending on longi- 
 tude, and, fortunately our country possesses 
 these in no small degree. On our Atlantic 
 coast we have rich fisheries and minerals not 
 possessed by the interior regions. In these 
 last, through all the great regions extending 
 from Quebec to the Eocky Mountains, we have 
 vast breadths of fertile soil besides many of 
 the elements of mineral wealth, and varied 
 kinds of manufactures are growing up both 
 on the coast and inland. What is to hinder 
 a direct exchange of commodities within our- 
 selves instead of an indirect exchange under 
 the most serious disadvantages with the 
 United States. Further, such direct exchange 
 would increase our trade with Great Britain 
 and the West Indies, and bind together the 
 somewhat divergent sections of our own pop- 
 lation. The opening up of railway communi- 
 cation across the great western plain might do 
 for us what a similar process has done for 
 New York. But from a railway terminus on 
 the Pacific shore we could stretch our com- 
 mercial relations over that great ocean, and 
 bring all the treasures of the Orient to enrich 
 our markets. Further in establishing com- 
 munication with British Columbia, we are not 
 merely establishing a landing place on the 
 Pacific, though this would be an inestimable 
 advantage. British Colmnbia is the mining 
 point of view, one of the richest portions of 
 the earih's surface. It is ol more value acre 
 
16 
 
 for acre than any portion of the Eastern States 
 or of Canada proper. In an appendix attach- 
 ed to a recent report on the Pacific railway, 
 Mr. G. M, Dawson has collected some details 
 as to the mineral wealth of this region. He 
 mentions gold-fields yielding now more than 
 a million and a half dollars annually. In 
 eighteen years British Columbia with only 
 10,000 inhabitants has exported gold to the 
 amotmt of 40,000,000 of dollars; and it is no 
 exaggeration to say that with a larger popu- 
 lation and better means of conveyance this 
 •yield might be increased twentyf old. • 
 
 Coal exists on Vancouver's Island and the 
 neighboring mainland in inexhaustible 
 abundance, and of exceUent quality, and re- 
 presents the sole supplies of that mineral on 
 the Pacific coast of North America. British 
 Columbia might supply the whole Pacific 
 coast and a vast interior region, and might 
 produce many millions of tons annually. 
 
 Iron, silver and copper are known to exist 
 in productive quantities, and there is reason 
 to believe that mercury, lead, and platinum 
 might be added. 
 
 In short, British Columbia possesses all 
 that mineral wealth which has enriched . Cali- 
 fornia and the States adjoining it; and the 
 opening up of communication between it and 
 other parts of the Dominion would be the 
 beginning of a series of events that would 
 build up great and wonderful cities and pop- 
 ulous seats of industry in a region now 
 scarcely inhabited, and cut oflf from direct 
 intercourse with the other provinces political- 
 ly connected with it. 
 
 What the Intercolonial has begun to do for 
 our relations with the Atlantic provinces, the 
 Canada Pacific must do for our relations with 
 the Pacific province; and if I could present 
 before you in a prophetic picture all that 
 would follow from the establishment of such 
 a connection, and the trade of the great sea 
 and lands beyond, which might flow through 
 our coTintry, you as citizens of a commercial 
 city, as well as in the capacity of votaries of 
 science and scientific art, would at once say 
 
 that at almost any sacrifice this great work 
 should be executed. The difficulties in the 
 way are undoubtedly great — so that this gene- 
 ration of Canadians should scarcely be called 
 upon to overcome them unaided, but they are 
 not insurmountable, and the mode of meeting 
 them is certainly at present the greatest pub- 
 lic problem that our statesmen have to solve. 
 It is further undoubtedly the duty of those 
 whose scientific studies show them the gran- 
 deur of this great question and the nature of 
 the practical results of its solution, to aid in 
 every way that they can the progress towards 
 an unobstructed highway through the territory 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 If it is in our power thus to bring together 
 the resources of the whole breadth of the 
 Continent, we may hope to consolidate our 
 connection with the Mother Country by mak- 
 ing ourselves indispensable to her interests, m 
 (to relieye ourselves from the galling commer- 1 
 cial yoke laid upon us by our neighbors, to/ 
 provide homes and work for the surplusf 
 population of our older provinces, to build 
 up the wealth of great trading centres, and to 
 render vast and naturally wealthy regions 
 productive of subsistence for millions of men. 
 
 When I look forward to the future of thia 
 country and base my anticipations, not on the 
 merely human elements of to-day, but on the 
 geological treasures laid up in past ages, I see 
 the Dominion of Canada with a population as 
 
 I great as that of the United States, and with , 
 some of the greatest and wealthiest cities oi i 
 ^this continent in Nova Scotia and BritisH J 
 Columbia. Geologists are not merely prophets J 
 of the past, they know something of the 
 future as weU. It might perhaps be well if we 
 could inoculate our statesmen with a healthy 
 belief in the geological future of Canada, or 
 I even with some faint idea of the billions of / 
 ' dollars of accessible treasures that lie beneath / 
 the soil of Nova Scotia and British Columbia. I 
 We might then see them put forth some effort! 
 to realize this El Dorado within the time of 
 those now living, rather than contentedly 
 allow it to wait the action of men wiser and 
 more energetic than ourselves." 
 
Syracuse, N. V. 
 ' PAT.JAN.21,t908 
 
 
 
 ^'<^i}^w^ 
 
 ij^ 
 
 /v