THE PROVINCES OF THE NORTH-WEST.
The boundary-line which marks the southern limit of British territory
divides the continent into two not very unequal portions. On one side
stretches out the vast area covered by the United States--the home
of fifty million people--the seat of the manifold industries which
their energy has called into existence. On the other side there lies
a yet wider expanse of territory, whose development is still in the
future. Northward and westward of the original line of settlement in
the valley of the St. Lawrence the possessions of Great Britain are
nearly equal in extent to the whole of Europe. Towards the Atlantic
vast pine-forests cover the ground. Towards the Pacific are great
mountain-ranges, rich with mineral treasures, destined to yield wealth
to the men of future generations. The central portion of the continent
is a vast expanse of rich farm-land, where the slightest efforts of the
husbandman yield lavish increase.[20] Great navigable rivers, which
take their origin in the Rocky Mountains, traverse the continent, and
wait, silent and unused, to bear the traffic which coming years must
bring. The Saskatchewan, after a course of thirteen hundred miles, and
the Red River, whose sources are very near those of the Mississippi,
after flowing nearly seven hundred miles, pour their ample floods
into Lake Winnipeg--a vast sheet of water, covering an area equal to
one-third that of Scotland. The Nelson River carries the waters of Lake
Winnipeg into Hudson Bay by a course of three hundred miles, which
could easily be rendered navigable for ships of large burden.
Lake Winnipeg is in the latitude of England; but the genial influences
of the Gulf Stream do not visit those stern coasts, whose temperature
is largely governed by the ice-cold currents of the Arctic Ocean. The
climate is severe, the winter is long. During five or six months of the
year the country lies under a covering of snow; river and lake are fast
bound by frost; the thermometer occasionally sinks to fifty degrees
below zero. This stern dominion does not pass gradually away; it ceases
almost suddenly. The snow disappears as if by magic; the streams resume
their interrupted flow; trees clothe themselves with foliage; the
plains are gay with grass and flower. At one stride comes the summer,
with its fierce heat, with its intolerable opulence of insect life,
with its swift growth and ripening of wild fruits, and of the seeds
which the sower has scattered over the fertile soil.
At the coming of Europeans into America this magnificent region was
possessed by numerous tribes of Indians, who gained their food and
clothing almost wholly by the chase. In course of years the white man
found that the Indian would sell, for trivial payment, rich furs which
were eagerly desired in Europe. The Indian came to understand that
he could exchange his easily obtained furs for the musket which the
strangers brought and taught him to use, for the beads with which he
loved to ornament himself, for the seductive liquors which quickly
asserted a destructive mastery over his savage nature. Out of these
experiences there arose trading relations between the Indians of
the North-West and the adventurous Europeans who from time to time
made their way into those mysterious regions. A sagacious Frenchman
perceived the advantage which was to be gained by an organized and
systematic prosecution of this lucrative commerce. [Sidenote: 1668
A.D.] He proposed the enterprise to his countrymen, but it failed
to command their support. The baffled projector made his way to
England, and obtained access to Prince Rupert, to whom he unfolded his
scheme. A quarter of a century had passed since the fierce charges of
Rupert’s cavalry swept down the troops of the Parliament at Naseby
and Newark, since he himself had been chased from Marston Moor by
the stern Ironsides of Cromwell. The prince was now a sedate man of
fifty. The vehemence of his youth had mellowed itself down to a love of
commercial adventure. He lent a willing ear to the ingenious Frenchman.
His influence with the public procured the formation of a company,
whose paid-up capital was £10,500. His influence with his cousin,
King Charles, sufficed to obtain a charter. [Sidenote: 1670 A.D.] The
liberal monarch bestowed half a continent upon these speculators, on
no more burdensome terms than that they should pay two elks and two
black beavers to the sovereign whensoever he visited their territory.
“The Governor and Company of Adventurers trading into Hudson Bay”
were endowed by this liberal monarch with “all countries which lie
within the entrance of Hudson’s Straits, in whatever latitude they may
be, so far as not possessed by other Christian States.” Thus largely
privileged, the adventurers entered upon a career of unusual success.
In a few years they paid a dividend at the rate of fifty per cent.; a
little later they trebled their capital out of profits, and paid to
shareholders twenty-five per cent. upon the increased amount; still
later the capital was once more trebled from the same source, without
diminution of the rate of dividend.
The fur trade was one of the most lucrative of which merchants had any
experience. The savages who overthrew the Roman empire had introduced
to Southern Europe the beautiful furs of the north. Henceforth the
article was in urgent demand. Great ladies sought eagerly, for purposes
of ornament, such furs as those with which the northern savage clothed
himself and his children--sought eagerly, but often unsuccessfully, for
demand outstripped supply. It was certain that Europe would purchase at
liberal prices all the furs which the adventurers were able to bring.
The Hudson Bay Company entered with vigour upon this inviting field.
They established a fort near the coast, and made it known among
the Indians that they were prepared to trade. With as little delay
as possible they pushed their settlement far into the interior.
Scattered at great intervals across the continent arose the little
trading-stations. They were composed of a few wooden huts, with a
strong surrounding palisade or wall; with well-barred gates; with
loop-holes, from which, in case of need, the uncertain clients of the
Company could be controlled by musketry. These posts were ordinarily
established near rivers, accessible to the savages by canoe or by
sledge. Their loneliness was extreme. For hundreds of miles on every
side stretched the dense forest or the boundless prairie, untrodden by
man. At fixed seasons--once or twice in the year--the natives appeared,
bearing the spoils of the chase--skins, oil, the tusk of the walrus,
feathers, dried fish. Ordinarily the entire tribe come on this great
mission. They encamp before the fort. An officer goes forth, and the
gate is jealously barred behind him. Gifts are exchanged and speeches
effusively affectionate and confiding. Within the fort are stores
filled with wares, which the Company has brought from afar,--blankets,
beads, scalping-knives, fish-hooks, muskets, ammunition, tea, sugar,
red and yellow paints for purposes of personal adornment. These strange
traders enter in groups of three or four, for they cannot be trusted
in larger numbers. They deposit the articles which they offer; the
Company’s servants put a value upon these, and hand over an equivalent,
according to the choice of their customer. Money, until lately, would
have been worthless to the Indian, and none was offered. At one time
spirits were supplied, with frightful results in uproar and violence;
but this evil practice has been discontinued or carefully restricted.
When the negotiation is concluded, the Indians withdraw and resume
their wanderings.
The Company supplied such government as the unpeopled continent
required. They had many rivals in the lucrative commerce which they
carried on, and it was often needful for them to defend by arms their
coveted monopoly. The French strove during many years to drive out
the English and possess the fur trade. French ships of war appeared
in the bay; French soldiers attacked the posts of the Company.
Scarcely had those angry debates been silenced by the victory of
Wolfe, when a yet more formidable competition arose. [Sidenote: 1784
A.D.] Some enterprising Canadians founded a rival Company, and traded
so prosperously that in a few years they had established numerous
stations, and possessed themselves of much of the trade which had
hitherto been enjoyed by the older Company. Perpetual strife raged
between the servants of the rival institutions. Battles were fought;
much blood was shed; the revenues of the Hudson Bay Company decayed;
its rich dividends wholly ceased. [Sidenote: 1816 A.D.] At length a
union of the Companies closed these wasteful feuds, and restored the
almost forgotten era of prosperity.
For a century and a half from the formation of the Company there was no
attempt to colonize the vast region over which its dominion extended.
The Englishmen and Scotchmen who occupied the trading-stations were the
only civilized inhabitants of the North-West. The stations were in
number about one hundred; the entire white population did not exceed
one or two thousand. There were stations on the Mackenzie River,
within the Arctic circle, where the cold was so intense that hatchets
of ordinary temper shivered like glass at the first blow. There were
stations on the Labrador coast, and twenty-five hundred miles away
from these there were stations on the Pacific. The Company did not
desire to carry civilization into this wilderness. The interests of
the fur trade are not promoted by civilization. That industry cannot
live within sound of the settler’s axe, or where the yellow corn waves
in the soft winds of autumn. It prospers only where the silence of the
forest is unbroken; where the fertile glebe lies undisturbed by the
plough. The Company gave no encouragement to the coming in of human
beings, in presence of whom the more profitable occupancy of beaver
and bison and silver fox must cease. At length, and for the only time,
the traditional policy was departed from. [Sidenote: 1812 A.D.] While
the struggle with the rival Company still raged, Lord Selkirk, who was
then chairman of the Hudson Bay Company, bethought him of sending out
a number of Scotch Highlanders to found a permanent settlement, and
thus give preponderance to the interests of which he was the guardian.
At that time the Duke of Sutherland was in process of removing small
farmers from his estates in Sutherlandshire, in order that he might
give effect to modern ideas on the subject of sheep-farming. Lord
Selkirk collected a band of these dispossessed Highlanders, and settled
them in the solitudes of the Winnipeg valley. The point which he
selected was near the confluence of the Red River and the Assiniboine,
and forty miles from the lake into which these rivers fall. It was many
hundred miles from a human habitation; this lonely colony was the only
seat of population on all the northern portion of a vast continent. But
the soil possessed remarkable fertility; and the Scotchmen were robust
and industrious. Gradually they were joined by other adventurers to
whom the severity of the climate was without terrors. Ejected Highland
crofters, soldiers disbanded after Waterloo, sought in little groups
this remote and dimly-known region. The retired servants of the
Company came to spend the evening of their days in the settlement. A
line of block houses and of cultivated farms stretched for many miles
up the valleys of the Assiniboine and Red River. A cluster of wooden
huts received the name of Winnipeg, and started upon its career as a
prairie town at a rate of progress so leisurely that in 1871 it held
no more than four hundred inhabitants. Fort Garry, the chief seat of
the Company’s authority, added to the dignity of the colony, which soon
became the recognized metropolis of all the north-western region. Its
growth has not been rapid, but it has been steady; and the population,
if we accept the mean of very diverse estimates, is probably now
about fifteen thousand souls. These are largely Scotch; but there
are also French and Indians, and there has been a copious admixture
of the European and native races. There are Scotch half-breeds and
French half-breeds, in whom the aspect and the qualities of both races
are combined, and many of whom are not inferior in intelligence and
education to their European parentage.
In course of years political government by trading companies became
utterly discredited in England. The government of the East India
Company had long been regarded with disapproval; after the great mutiny
of 1857 occurred, it was felt to be intolerable. No voice of authority
was raised in favour of its longer continuance, and the political
functions of the Company were extinguished as inconsistent with the
general welfare. The Hudson Bay Company was not more fortunate in its
rule than the great sister Company had been. Latterly it had failed
to maintain order among the scanty population over which it presided.
Occasionally, when its officers pronounced an unacceptable sentence,
the friends of the offender forced the prison-doors, and set the
prisoner free. The Company was willing to be relieved from the burden
of an authority which it was no longer able to exercise. The new
Dominion of Canada desired to add to its possessions the vast domain
of the Hudson Bay Company. [Sidenote: 1869 A.D.] A transfer which was
sought for on both sides was not difficult to arrange. The Company
received the sum of £300,000 and certain portions of land around its
trading-stations. All besides passed into the hands of the Canadian
Government.
The authorities who negotiated this transaction seem to have thought
mainly of the land, and very little of the people who dwelt upon
it. The people now claimed to express themselves, and they did so
by methods which were rude and inconvenient. The French and French
half-breed population refused to concur in a transfer which they
regarded as injurious to their rights. They were sensitive on the
subject of their title to the properties which they occupied; and with
reason, for many of them had no claim excepting that which occupancy
may be supposed to confer. It was rumoured among them that their new
rulers intended to eject them from their holdings; and the entrance
upon the scene of various surveying-parties was accepted as evidence of
this purpose. [Sidenote: 1869 A.D.] The excited people took up arms,
and formed a provisional government. Their leader in the rebellion
by which they hoped to throw off the authority of Canada and Great
Britain, and establish themselves as an independent nation, was Louis
Riel, an ambitious but reckless young French Canadian. Riel became
President of the new Republic, and gathered an armed force of six
hundred men to uphold the national dignity. He turned back at the
frontier the newly-appointed Governor; he seized Fort Garry, in which
were ample stores of arms and provisions; he imprisoned all who offered
active opposition to his rule. The distant Canadian Government looked
on at first as amused with this diminutive rebellion. They did not
think of employing force to restore order; they sought the desired end
by persuasion. The Roman Catholic archbishop of the district was then
in Rome, occupied in solving the problem of papal infallibility. He
was invited to desist from the absorbing pursuit; to return to the Red
River and incline his erring flock to thoughts of peace. He made the
sacrifice; he left Rome, and arrived in Canada. But while he was still
toiling homewards across the snowy wilderness, events occurred which
fatally complicated the position and rendered an amicable solution
impossible.
A party of loyal inhabitants made a hasty and ill-prepared rising
against the authority of the provisional government. They were easily
beaten back by the superior forces under Riel’s command, and some of
them were taken prisoners. Among these was a Canadian named Scott, who
had distinguished himself by his obstinate hostility to the rule of
the usurpers. Riel determined to overawe his enemies, and compel the
adherence of his friends by an act of conspicuous and unpardonable
severity. [Sidenote: March, 1870 A.D.] Poor Scott was subjected to
the trial of a mock tribunal, whose judgment sent him to death. An
hour later he was led forth beyond the gate of the fort. Kneeling,
with bandaged eyes, among the snow, he was shot by a firing-party of
intoxicated half-breeds almost before he had time to realize the cruel
fate which had befallen him.
This shameful murder invested the Red River rebellion with a gravity of
aspect which it had not hitherto worn. There arose in Canada a vehement
demand that the criminals should be punished and the royal authority
restored. The despatch of a military force sufficiently strong to
overbear the resistance of the insurgent Frenchmen was at once resolved
upon.
Unusual difficulty attended this enterprise. Fort Garry was twelve
hundred miles distant from Toronto. One-half of this distance could
be accomplished easily by railway and by steam-boat; but beyond the
northern extremity of Lake Superior there were six hundred miles of
dense and pathless forest traversed by a chain of rivers and of lakes.
On these waters, broken by dangerous rapids and impassable falls, no
vessel but the light birch canoe of the Indian had ever floated. By
this seemingly impracticable route it was now proposed that an army
carrying with it the elaborate equipment of modern war should make its
way to the valley of the Winnipeg.
Happily there was at that time in Canada an officer endowed with rare
power in the department of military organization. To this officer,
now well known as Sir Garnet Wolseley, was intrusted the task of
preparing and commanding the expedition. No laurels were gained by
the forces which Colonel Wolseley led out into the wilderness; for
the enemy did not abide their coming, and their modest achievements
were unnoticed amid the absorbing interest with which men watched the
tremendous occurrences of the war then raging between Germany and
France. Nevertheless the Red River expedition claims an eminent place
in the record of military transactions. It is probably the solitary
example of an army advancing by a lengthened and almost impracticable
route, accomplishing its task, and returning home without the loss of
a single life either in battle or by disease. And the wise forethought
which provided so effectively for all the exigencies of that unknown
journey is more admirable than the generalship which has sufficed to
gain bloody victories in many of our recent wars.
[Sidenote: May 21, 1870 A.D.] In little more than two months from the
commission of the crime which it went to avenge, the army set forth. It
was composed of twelve hundred fighting men, of whom two-thirds were
Canadian volunteers, and the remainder British regulars. Two hundred
boats, a few pieces of light artillery, and provisions for sixty days,
formed part of its equipment. The expedition passed easily along Lake
Huron and Lake Superior, and disembarked in Thunder Bay. From this
point to the little Lake Shebandowan was a distance of fifty miles.
There was a half-formed road for part of the way, and a river scarcely
navigable. So toilsome was this stage of the journey that six weeks
passed before those fifty miles were traversed. At length the boats
floated on the tranquil waters of Lake Shebandowan. In an evening of
rare loveliness the fleet moved from the place of embarkation, and the
forest rung to the rejoicing cheers of the rowers.
Thus far the troops had been toiling up steep ascents. Now they had
reached the high land forming the water-shed, from which some streams
depart for Hudson Bay, others for Lake Superior and the St. Lawrence.
For many days their route led them along a chain of small lakes, on
which they rowed easily and pleasantly. But at the transition from
lake to lake, there ordinarily presented itself a portage--a name of
fear to the soldiers. At the portage all disembarked. The innumerable
barrels which held their supplies, the artillery, the ammunition, the
boats themselves, were taken on shore, and carried on men’s shoulders
or dragged across the land which divided them from the next lake.
Forty-seven times during the progress to Lake Winnipeg was this heavy
labour undergone. But in the face of all difficulties the progress was
rapid. The health of the men was perfect, their spirits were high, and
their carrying power so increased by exercise that they were soon able
to carry double the load which they could have faced at the outset.
No spirituous liquors were served out, and perfect order reigned in
the camp. The heat was often oppressive; the attacks of mosquitoes and
similar insects were intolerable. But the forethought of the general
had provided for each man a veil which protected his face, and each
boat carried a jar of mosquito oil to fortify the hands. In the early
days of August the boats passed along Rainy Lake, a beautiful sheet of
water fifty miles in length, and entered the river of the same name.
Rainy River is a noble stream, eighty miles in length, and three to
four hundred yards in width. The scenery through which it flows is of
great beauty. Oak-trees of large growth, open glades stretching far
into the forest, luxuriant grass, flowers in endless variety and rich
profusion, all suggested to the men the parks which surround great
houses in England. Helped by the current, Rainy River was traversed at
the rate of five or six miles an hour, and the expedition reached the
Lake of the Woods. Issuing thence, it entered the Winnipeg River.
Here the difficulties of the expedition thickened. The Winnipeg is a
magnificent stream, one hundred and sixty-three miles in length--broad
and deep, flowing with a rapid current, often between lofty cliffs of
granite. In its course, however, there are numerous falls in which
boats cannot live. Twenty-five times the stores were unshipped, and the
boats drawn on shore. Frequent rapids occurred, down which the boats
were guided, not without danger, by the skilful hands of the Indian
boatmen. No loss was sustained, and after five days of this toilsome
and exciting work the boats entered Lake Winnipeg. For one day they
steered across the south-eastern portion of the lake; for one day more
they held their course up Red River. They left their boats at two
miles’ distance from Fort Garry, and under rain falling in torrents,
and by roads ankle-deep with tenacious mud, they advanced to seek the
enemy.
Colonel Wolseley had used precautions to prevent any knowledge of his
approach from being carried to the fort. He was unable to learn what
Riel intended to do, and the men marched forward in the eager hope
that the enemy would abide their coming. As they neared the fort, the
gates were seen to be shut, and cannon looked out from the bastions
and over the gateways. But on a closer view it was noticed that no
men were beside the guns, and the hopes of the assailants fell. A
moment later, and the fort was known to be abandoned; men were seen at
a little distance in rapid flight. Riel, it appeared, had meditated
resistance, if he could induce his followers to fight. He had been
able to build some hope, too, upon the six hundred miles of almost
impassable country which lay between him and Lake Superior. [Sidenote:
Aug. 24, 1870 A.D.] Soothing his anxieties by this dream, the President
of the Red River Republic breakfasted tranquilly on this closing day of
his career. But just as his repast was ended there were seen from the
windows of the fort, at a distance of a few hundred yards, and marching
with swift step towards him, the twelve hundred men who had come so far
to accomplish his overthrow. The blood of Scott was upon his guilty
hands. The wretched man saddled a horse and galloped for life; and the
victors did not seek to interrupt his flight. The Red River rebellion
was suppressed, and British authority was restored in the valley of the
Winnipeg.
Until very recently the vast wheat-field of the North-West was almost
worthless to man; even now its development has only begun. It is
difficult to over-estimate the influence on the future course of
human affairs which this lonely and inaccessible region is destined
to exert. In the valleys of Lake Winnipeg and its tributary streams
two hundred million acres of land, unsurpassed in fertility, wait
the coming of the husbandman. Its average production of wheat may be
stated at thirty bushels per acre--more than double that of the valley
of the Mississippi, and rather more than can be gained from the soil
of England by careful and expensive cultivation.[21] Great Britain
imports annually one hundred million bushels of wheat--scarcely more
than one-sixtieth part of the production of the Winnipeg valley were
its enormous capability fully drawn out. The soil is of surpassing
richness, and yields its ample fruits so easily that in an ordinary
season the cost of producing a quarter of wheat is on an average no
more than thirteen shillings. Port Nelson on the Hudson Bay--the
natural shipping point of all this region--is eighty miles nearer than
New York is to Liverpool and the markets of England.
The valley of the Winnipeg has been hitherto practically inaccessible.
The Red River expedition spent three months on the journey. Many of
the settlers had required even longer time to reach the secluded
paradise which they sought. To a vast majority of the British people
the existence of this territory is still unknown. The boats of the
Hudson Bay Company formed its only medium of communication with the
outside world. Until the Winnipeg valley has been opened by railway or
by steam-boat, it must remain valueless for any better use than as a
preserve for the wild creatures which yield fur, and as a home for the
Indians who pursue them.
But the needful facility of transport is now being gained; the distance
which has shut out the human family from this splendid domain is now
in course of being abridged. Winnipeg, now grown into a town of about
twelve thousand inhabitants, and rapidly increasing, has a direct
railway connection with St. Paul, the chief city of Minnesota. The
Northern Pacific--a line whose progress was delayed for years by
financial disaster--is now advancing westward from its starting-point
on Lake Superior, and will soon be opened through to the western ocean.
The Canadian Pacific, largely subsidized by Government, is pushing
its way westward towards Columbia and the ocean. The obstacles to
navigation in the Nelson river have been carefully examined with a view
to their removal, so that vessels of large size may pass from Lake
Winnipeg to Europe.
These increased facilities of transport have produced their expected
result. A large inflow of settlers began two or three years ago, and
continues year by year to increase. Many thousand immigrants came
to the Winnipeg valley in 1877-78. Up to the present time over four
million acres of rich wheat-lands have been taken up--an area capable
of adding to the supply of human food a quantity almost equal to
the entire British import of wheat. The new settlers are, for the
most part, experienced farmers, who have been attracted hither by
the superior advantages of the soil. Some of them come from Europe,
but a larger number come from the old Canadian provinces and from
those States of the Union which lie near the frontier. Most of them
are men who have sold the lands which they formerly owned, and come
with capital sufficient to provide the most approved agricultural
appliances. The price for which land can be obtained is inconsiderable;
and while the average holding does not exceed two hundred acres, many
persons have acquired large tracts.
The rapid settlement of this central territory of Canada is one of
the great social and political factors of the future for Canada and
for Europe. The development of the vast resources of Manitoba must
hasten the progress of the Dominion to wealth and consideration. To
the growers of food on the limited and highly-rented fields of Europe
it furnishes reasonable occasion for anxiety. To those who are not
producers, but only consumers, it gives, in stronger terms than it has
ever previously been given, the acceptable assurance that the era of
famine lies far behind--that the human family, for many generations to
come, will enjoy the blessing of abundant and low-priced food.
* * * * *
Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific there lies a vast tract of
fertile land, possessing an area equal to six times that of England
and Wales. This is British Columbia--the latest-born member of the
confederation, which it entered only in 1871. The waters of the Pacific
exert upon its climate the same softening influence which is carried
by the Gulf Stream to corresponding latitudes in Europe, and the
average temperature of Columbia does not differ materially from that
of England. Gold is found in the sands of the rivers which flow down
from the Rocky Mountains; coal in abundance lies near the surface;
large tracts are covered with pine forests, whose trees attain unusual
size;[22] many islands stud the placid waters which wash the western
shores of the province; many navigable inlets sweep far into the
interior--deep into forests, for the transport of whose timber they
provide ample convenience. In the streams and on the coasts there
is an extraordinary abundance of fish; on the banks of the Fraser
River the English miner and the Indian fisherman may be seen side by
side pursuing their avocations with success. The wealth of Columbia
secures for her a prosperous future; but as yet her development has
only begun. Her population is about twelve thousand, besides thirty
thousand Indians. Her great pine forests have yet scarcely heard the
sound of the axe; her rich valleys lie untilled; her coal and iron
wait the coming of the strong arms which are to draw forth their
treasures; even her tempting gold-fields are cultivated but slightly.
Columbia must become the home of a numerous and thriving population,
but in the meantime her progress is delayed by her remoteness and her
inaccessibility.
Columbia herself feels deeply this temporary frustration of her
destiny. Her recent political history has been in large measure the
history of a grievance. [Sidenote: 1871 A.D.] When she entered the
Confederation, the Dominion Government engaged that in two years there
should be commenced, and in ten years there should be completed, the
construction of a railway to connect the sea-board of Columbia with
the railway system of Canada. In that time of universal inflation
such engagements were contracted lightly. A little later, when cool
reflection supervened, it was perceived that the undertaking was too
vast for the time allowed. Canada took no action beyond the ordering
of surveys; Columbia, in her isolation, complained loudly of the
faithlessness of her sisters. The impracticable contract was reviewed,
and a fresh engagement was given to the effect that the work should
begin so soon as surveys could be made, and should reach completion
in sixteen years. [Sidenote: 1874 A.D.] The work is now in progress;
and Columbia, not without impatience and some feeling of wrong, has
consented to postpone the opening of that era of prosperity which she
full surely knows to be in store.
[Sidenote: 1881 A.D.] [With a view to the prospective
development of the Hudson Bay route, a charter was recently
obtained for the construction of a railway, to follow the line
of the Nelson River, from Norway House on Lake Winnipeg to York
Factory on Hudson Bay, thus connecting the over-sea navigation
available from the latter point with steam-boat lines plying
inland from the former. There would still, however, seem to be
considerable diversity of opinion among people on the spot,
as to whether the route in question can successfully compete,
at least for a good many years to come, with the facilities
which will soon be offered by the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company. The line now being built by that enterprising body of
capitalists has already been carried about 250 miles west of
Winnipeg, and is expected, by the close of next year, to have
reached the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. At present,
there is an outlet from Manitoba, by rail, to Duluth on Lake
Superior and to Chicago on Lake Michigan; but the opening,
which cannot now be long delayed, of the Canadian Pacific
line between Winnipeg and the west end of the former lake, in
conjunction with the enlargement of the Welland Canal, so as
to enable large vessels to pass the Falls of Niagara, will
provide a new rail and water route to Montreal, by which, it
is believed, wheat may be carried that distance for something
less than the nine shillings and sixpence per quarter which it
now costs by Duluth. The construction of the railway along the
north side of Lake Superior, which the Canadian Pacific Company
is taken bound to complete within ten years, will ultimately
afford all-rail communication right through to the eastern
sea-board: and it remains to be seen whether, with such means
of transit at command, any considerable proportion of traffic
will follow a route which, it is alleged, can only be depended
upon for three months in the year, and which, in the opinion
of some seafaring men, may occasionally be found difficult
to work even during that period from the presence of ice in
Hudson Strait. On the other hand, there comes, of course,
the consideration that, if the development of the north-west
should answer the expectations generally entertained, there may
by-and-by be sufficient surplus produce for exportation to keep
a Hudson Bay railway and steam-boat line, as well as all the
other practicable outlets of that vast region, in remunerative
operation.--ED.]