The Canadian Pacific Railway, crossing the Continent in the Dominion
of Canada, west of Winnipeg traverses the prairies of Manitoba and
Assiniboia until they gradually blend into the rounded and
grass-covered foothills of Alberta, finally rising nearly a thousand
miles west of the Red River into the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies.
This is the garden region of the Canadian Northwest for wheat-growing
and cattle-grazing, and it stretches in almost limitless expanse a
fertile empire far northward to Edmonton and Prince Albert, with
branch railways leading up there, the rich black soils testifying the
wealth in the land. At Regina is the capital of the Northwest
Territory, three hundred and fifty-seven miles west of Winnipeg, the
headquarters of the Canadian "North West Mounted Police," a superb
body of one thousand picked men who control the Indians and maintain
order in the Northwest Territory. The Lieutenant-Governor residing
here is a potentate governing a wide domain spreading out to the
Rockies and up to the North Pole. The town which is his capital is
scattered rather loosely over the prairie. In early times a hardy
pioneer came to this frontier, and at the crossing of a little stream
west of Regina his cart broke down. The Cree Indians watched him mend
it, and afterwards spoke of the stream in their language as "The creek
where the white man mended the cart with a moose jawbone." This
elaborate name has since been contracted into Moose Jaw, a town where
a branch line comes into the Canadian Pacific up through Dakota from
St. Paul and Minneapolis. The route farther westward is in the land of
the Crees, and crosses the South Saskatchewan River at Medicine Hat, a
settlement which the matter-of-fact people call "The Hat" for short.
The Indians say that the Great Spirit had a breathing-place in the
river nearby, where it never was frozen even in the coldest winters.
He always appeared in the form of a serpent, and once, when a chief
was walking on the shore, the serpent came and told him if he would
throw his squaw into the opening as a sacrifice, he would become a
great warrior and medicine man. He was ambitious, but did not wish to
lose her, so he threw his dog in, but the indignant serpent demanded
the squaw. The Indian told her of the conditions, she consented to the
sacrifice, her dead body was thrown in, and after a night of vigil the
chief received from the serpent a warrior's medicine hat, handsomely
trimmed with ermine, and was always after victorious. Thus the
locality became the Medicine Hat, and the Indians watch the river in
severe winters, glad to find the spot is not frozen and that the Great
Spirit still has his breathing-place and remains with them.
To the westward the snow-capped Rockies become visible, and here are
the reservations of the Blackfeet Indians, who were the most warlike
tribe of the region, and hunted the buffalo as far south as the
Missouri. The memory of Crowfoot, their leading chief, is preserved in
the name of the railway station. The Bow River, an affluent of the
Saskatchewan, is followed up to Calgary, the centre of the ranching
district of Alberta, a town at thirty-four hundred feet elevation,
having high mountains overhanging its western verge. Here are branch
railways north and south, leading along the eastern foothills of the
Rockies, which are filled with herds of cattle and horses, the roads
going up to Edmonton and down into the United States. The warm
"Chinook" winds from the Pacific coast, coming through the mountain
passes, temper the cold, making the balmy atmosphere favoring grass
and animals alike. The Pacific route follows the Bow River Valley into
the heart of the mountains, with magnificent snow-covered peaks all
about, their saw-like edges, gaunt crags and almost denuded surfaces
justifying their name of the Rockies.