The account of Mr. Bourgeau, the botan- | Government, or a well-organized Company, ist to this expedition, is very conclusive. would be indispensable."

He considers the Saskatchewan district much more adapted to the culture of staple With respect to the means of access which crops of temperate climates, such as wheat, exist for British emigrants to reach the Red barley, rye, oats, &c., than would be ima- River settlement, Captain Palliser states gined from its high latitude. As it is between that there are none to be recommended latitude 52° and 54°, this is not so excep- save those through the United States. The tional as it appears at first sight, for although this is the latitude of the southern part of Labrador and Newfoundland, the isothermal line runs, as we have seen, in a curve from the East coast towards the North; so that the line of annual mean temperature of 32° (the_limit of wheat), which commences on the East coast, under the influence of the arctic ice-stream, about latitude 50° or 51°, turns rapidly to the North through latitude 55° and 56° in the Saskatchewan district, or north of the northern limit of this portion of the Fertile Zone, and ends on the Pacific coast in latitude 64°.

Mr. Bourgeau tells us that the few attempts to cultivate cereals already made in the vicinity of the Hudson's Bay Company's trading-posts demonstrate by their success how easy it would be to obtain products which would well repay the agriculturist. The prairies offer natural pasturage as favourable for the maintenance of numerous herds as if they had been artificially created. There would be abundant material for building, both timber and stone, and clay for bricks. He speaks highly of the land in the neighbourhood of Fort Edmonton, and alone the south side of the North Saskatchewan, where extend

"Rich and vast prairies, interspersed with woods and forests, and where thick-wood plants furnish excellent pasturage for domestic animals. Two vetches found here are as fitting for the nourishment of cattle as the clover of European pasturage. The abundance of buffalo, and the facility with which the herds of horses and oxen increase, demonstrate that it would be enough to shelter animals in winter, and feed them with hay collected in advance. "The harvest could in general be commenced by the end of August, or the first week in September, which is a season when the temperature continues sufficiently high, and rain is rare. In the gardens of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts, and still more in those of the different missions, vegetables of the leguminous family, such as beans, peas, and French beans, have been successfully cultivated, also potatoes, cabbages, turnips, carrots, rhubarb, and currants.

The only difficulty which would oppose agricultural settlements is the immense distance to traverse over countries devoid of roads, and almost uninhabited. The assistance of

manner in which natural obstacles have isolated the country from all other British possessions he considers almost beyond the remedies of art. The road to the settlement, in his opinion, is obviously through Minnesota by the Valley of the Red River. Dr. Hector, the geologist of the expedition, speaks highly of its mineral wealth, and amongst other products he found clay ironstone in abundance, and large beds of tertiary coal.

Mr. Hind, who was appointed as geolo gist to Canadian expeditions which were sent out with the twofold object of ascertaining the practicability of a route direct from Canada to Red River by way of Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods, and of ascertaining if the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan districts were adapted for settlement, was greatly impressed by the magnificent country he found on the banks of the Red River, the Assiniboine, and the Saskatchewan, although his exploration extended westward only to Fort Carlton, near the junction of the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan; and per haps the finest portion of the whole Fertile Belt, four hundred miles in length, lies between this point and the Rocky Mountains. He describes how he found extraordinary wheat crops at Red River, yielding in one instance fifty-six bushels to the acre; Swede turnips so large that four weighed 70 lbs., and two others 31 lbs. The potatoes he never saw equalled either in quantity, quality, or size; roots turned up haphazard yielded thirteen to sixteen potatoes each, averaging 3 inches in diameter; Indian corn, melons, onions, seemed to flourish equally well. The remark of a successful farmer, Mr. Fowler, states very clearly the value of the land, and the real cause of the slow growth and improvement of the settlement to be the want of means of communication with the rest of the world:

"Look at that prairie; 10,000 head of cattle. might fatten there for nothing. If I found it worth while I could enclose 50, 100, or 500

acres, and from every acre get thirty to forty bushels of wheat. I could grow Indian corn, barley, oats, flax, hemp, hops, turnips, tobacco, any thing you wish, and to any amount; but

of only 730 feet above the sea, and the Sas katchewan of from 1,200 to 1,600 feet, accounts to some extent for their high spring and summer temperature, and also perhaps for the fact that there is a far greater rainfall along the Fertile Belt than even in Upper Canada, which is one cause of its vast superiority in point of fertility to the great American desert to the south. The soft westerly breezes passing through a great depression in the Rocky Mountains which occurs in this latitude bring heat and mois

Mr. Hind states that in this one district of the Red River and Assiniboine millions of acres of land which cannot be surpassed for fertility, being composed of rich prairie mould from 18 in. to 2ft. deep, lie free and unoccupied, inviting settlement. He no-ture from the Pacific, while up the Valley tices the discontent prevailing in the colony of the Mississippi to that of Red River, amongst all who were not in some way con- stream warm and humid currents from the nected with the Company, but refrains from Gulf of Mexico. These genial winds about passing any remark upon the influence of this point from time to time encounter the the Company on the condition and progress north-easterly blasts which come keen and of the Settlement, although he alludes to cold from arctic regions, and chilled by the the extraordinary deeds by which land is contact the excess of moisture is discharged granted. With respect to the practicability in refreshing showers over the favoured of establishing a road from Lake Superior zone. Colonel Lefroy noticed that the to Red River he entirely disagrees with thermometer rose rapidly at Fort Simpson Captain Palliser (who had not explored the whenever the wind changed to the southroute) as to its extreme difficulties, although west from an easterly direction, the warmer he admits that it is the chief and indeed air of the Pacific being carried across the only obstacle to an easy passage across the Rocky Mountains without much loss of temcontinent through British territory; assert-perature, and this explains in great measure ing from personal observation that the outlay of a few thousand pounds would make the route available for emigrants, and the journey practicable in from three to six days according to the line selected, which will bring the Red River settlement within twenty or twenty-two days of Liverpool. In such case, however, the way would lie near the boundary line, no route having been explored in a direct line north of the frontier, although it is probable this might prove very difficult, from the ranges of hills which would have to be crossed at right angles to the axes of the chains.

Of the climate Professor Hind speaks as favourably as Dr. Hector. The summer temperature is high, and the winter cold of great severity, but the absence of late spring and early autumn frosts, with an abundant fall of rain during the agricultural months, are distinguishing features, while the fact of the melon and Indian corn ripening by August and September are strong proofs of the almost uniform absence of summer frosts, and the intensity of winter cold is of comparatively small moment. A comparison

between the climate of Toronto and Red River shows that the temperature of the latter ranges three degrees higher in summer and two degrees lower in winter than the former, giving a mean temperature of one degree higher in favour of Red River. The low elevation of the Red River prairies,

the rapid improvement of the climate to the west of Lake Superior. The plague of locusts which is instanced as one of the great drawbacks to the cultivation of the soil in Red River, has only occurred in 1818, 1819, and 1857. Minnesota suffered in the same way, and in New England their ravages have at times been so great that days of fasting and prayer were appointed on account of the calamity.

Floods have occurred twice since the foundation of the settlement fifty-five years ago, and caused great loss, houses and barns and cattle being swept away, and the country changed to one great lake for many miles on either side the river. But the rarity of their occurrence places the Red River settlement in no worse condition than many districts of France, and even some places in our own country. The Saskatchewan district, too, the largest and richest portion of the Fertile Belt, appears to be as free from floods as it is from the plague of locusts.

We cannot sum up Mr. Hind's conclusions better than his own words :

"North of the great American desert, there is a broad slip of fertile country, rich in water, wood, and pasturage, drained by the North Saskatchewan, and a continuation of the fertile prairies of the Red River and Assiniboine. It is a physical reality of the highest importance to the interests of British North America that

route would thereabouts be found.

this continuous belt can be settled and cultivat- | Yellow Head Pass, which forms a natural ed from a few miles west of the Lake of the roadway through the chain, and the utmost Woods to the passes of the Rocky Mountains; height of which is 3,760 feet, thus verifying and any line of communication, whether by Captain Palliser's prediction that a good wagon road or railroad, passing through it, will eventually enjoy the great advantage of being fed by an agricultural population from one extremity to the other. No other part of the American continent possesses an approach even to this singularly favorable disposition of soil and climate; which last feature, notwithstanding its rigor during the winter season, confers, on account of its humidity, inestimable value on British America south of the fiftyfourth parallel. The occupation and government of the basin of Lake Winnepeg has already become a serious question, and, even before the rising generation succeed to the responsibilities of those who now rule the destinies of this great empire, they may have occasion to lament a lost opportunity of inestimable worth or rejoice in the extension of British dominion over loyal populations extending in an unbroken series from the eastern to the western hemisphere."

Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle, who traversed the Fertile Belt throughout its whole length, spending the greater part of two summers and a winter there, and who visited the great forest to the north of it, the vast prairies to the south, and penetrated through the Rocky Mountains, speak with unqualified admiration of the beauty and fertility of this Belt of park-like country:

With respect to the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company on the country, they have no hesitation in declaring that their interests are opposed to its development, and it is their policy to discourage immigration, and keep the country as one vast preserve for the fur-growing animals. Lord Milton and his companion agree also with Mr. Corbett and Mr. Isbister that the authorities of Rupert's Land prevent freetrade as much as possible; and since the failure of their attempt to enforce the monopoly by arrest and imprisonment, they have put every obstacle in the way of the freetrader by tabooing such offenders, refusing to furnish them with any thing out of their stores. They remark upon the ill-feeling this obstructive policy has caused among the independent population, who naturally enough have little faith in the justice of laws framed, as they believe, for the protection of the Company rather than the public good. While giving all credit to the great Fur Company for the justice and kindness of their dealing with the Indians, and the exercise of their absolute power righteously and wisely until an opposing element in the free settlers of Red River arose, they ex-press a hope that the power may now pass. from the hands of a community so wedded to one sole object - the promotion of the fur trade. They urge the formation of a

with the exception of one or two rocky and precipitous bluffs, there are no engineering difficulties of any importance in the way of making a highway from the Red River settlement to the centre of British Columbia.

"Rich prairies with from three to five feet of alluvial soil are ready for the plough, or offer the luxuriant grasses which in the old time fat-road across the continent; and assert that, tened countless hands of buffalo, to domesticated herds. Woods, lakes, and streams diversify the scene, and offer timber, fish, and myriads of wild fowl; yet this glorious country, estimated at sixty-five thousand square miles, and forty millions of acres of the richest soil, capable of supporting twenty millions of people, is, from its isolated position, and the difficulties put in the way of settlement by the governing power, hitherto left utterly neglected and useless, exexcept for the support of a few Indians and the employés ofthe Hudson Bay Company."

They point out, moreover, that this fine agricultural country lies close to the goldfields of British Columbia, to which it is the very supplement required, for British Columbia has little land fit for cultivation. They demonstrated by their journey across the Rocky Mountains which separate the Fertile Belt from the gold-fields (in the part where Dr. Hector failed to get through) that communication could be easily established in a direct line by the Leather or

LIVING AGE. VOL. VI. 182.

Having gone through the evidence furnished by the books before us, we are enabled to come to a tolerably definite conclu-sion upon the value of the country, its present condition under the sway of the Company, and the practicability of its being developed into a prosperous colony, which would form an important member of the projected British American Confederation. In spite of the disparaging estimate of Mr. Edward Ellice and Sir George Simpson, and the unfavourable impression of the territory which has been so industriously propagated by the Hudson's Bay Company, we are compelled to believe on overwhelming testimony that the Fur Company possess, or claim to possess, a grand estate larger than most kingdoms, and a great portion of it of un