464 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vincial revenues, or with a heavy provincial subsidy, from Winnipeg 

 to Fort Churchill. 



When this railway has been completed, and a line of steamers 

 placed upon the route from Fort Churchill to Liverpool, it is not diffi- 

 cult to foresee that within a comparatively short time a very large 

 proportion of the wheat of the Canadian northwest available for export 

 will gravitate toward this route ; and it would not even be too much to 

 predict that a considerable portion of wheat from Minnesota and the 

 Dakotas would also find its way to Europe via Hudson's Bay. A very 

 small difference in cost of transportation is sufficient to swing wheat 

 from one route to another; the difference depending partly upon dis- 

 tances, and partly upon rail or water routes, water transportation being 

 of course cheaper than rail. The following table will show at a glance 

 the advantages of the Hudson's Bay route over existing routes to the 

 Atlantic seaboard, so far as distances are concerned : 



Winnipeg via Hudson's Bay to Liverpool 3,626 miles. 



Winnipeg via Montreal to Liverpool 4,228 miles. 



Duluth via Hudson's Bay to Liverpool 3,728 miles. 



Duluth via New York to Liverpool 4,201 miles. 



St. Paul via Hudson's Bay to Liverpool 4,096 miles. 



St. Paul via New York to Liverpool 4,240 miles. 



It will be seen that the advantage in favor of the Hudson's Bay 

 route amounts to 600 miles in the case of Winnipeg, nearly 500 miles 

 in the case of Duluth; and 150 miles in the case of St. Paul. When 

 you add to this the fact that the Hudson's Bay route involves only a 

 comparatively short haul by rail, as compared with the existing routes, 

 it will be seen that the advantage is overwhelmingly in favor of the 

 former. 



Eeverting to the proposition first laid down — that the main Cana- 

 dian rail and water routes run east and west, it will be seen that this 

 is substantially correct. The only exceptions of any importance are 

 likely to be more in the nature of subsidiary lines than main arteries 

 of transportation. The proposed line from Winnipeg to Fort Churchill 

 is a case in point; another is the suggested branch from Edmonton 

 north and northwest to Dawson. Probably the most important of all 

 will be a line from Vancouver, the western terminus of the Canadian 

 Pacific, via Port Simpson, the western terminus of the Grand Trunk 

 Pacific, to Dawson and the Yukon. One other possibility of the future 

 is a railway from the city of Quebec, along the north shore of the 

 St. Lawrence, to the strait of Belle Isle; thence across the strait to 

 Newfoundland, where connection would be made with the existing 

 Newfoundland railway to St. Johns. This would give the shortest pos- 

 sible ocean voyage for Canadian and American passengers to England 

 and Europe, and would be of immense advantage for the transport of 

 the mails and of freight, where time is an important object. 



