224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to ascertain in how far it might be available as a field for settlement. 

 In fulfillment of this policy, Dr. Bell, Assistant Director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey, was sent up there with an exploring party for six suc- 

 cessive seasons, and his observations constitute some of the most inter- 

 esting portions of the reports of that survey. The vast importance of 

 this region rapidly dawned upon the public mind, when it became 

 known that here was an immense range of country, having a temperate 

 climate, a fertile soil, and boundless wealth in forest and mine, await- 

 ing the long-delayed advent of the farmer, the lumberman, and the 

 miner. And not only so, but the phenomenal development of the 

 great Northwest drew attention to Hudson Bay upon another and even 

 more immediately important ground. 



Entering as this bay does into the very heart of the continent, and 

 being connected by navigable rivers with a network of great lakes 

 which spreads out until it touches the western boundaries of Mani- 

 toba, the keen-eyed farmers of that fertile province espied in it a 

 hopeful solution of the vital problem how they should most cheaply 

 transport their grain to the markets of the Old World. By reference 

 to a map of the northern hemisphere it will at once be seen that the 

 shortest possible route between the Northwest Territories and Europe 

 lies through Hudson Bay. As the result of careful calculations, it has 

 been ascertained that even the city of Winnipeg, which is situated 

 in the extreme southeastern part of these Territories, is at least eight 

 hundred miles nearer to Liverpool, for instance, by the Hudson Bay 

 route, than by the St. Lawrence, while the difference in favor of the 

 former necessarily increases the farther we advance northwestward. 

 If, as Dr. Bell has so clearly pointed out, we take the central point of 

 the agricultural lands of the Northwest, we shall find that the distance 

 from it to Winnipeg is about the same as it is to Churchill, the finest 

 harbor in Hudson Bay. Now, the distance between Churchill and 

 Liverpool is a little less (about sixty-four miles) than it is between 

 Montreal and that great entrepot of commerce. The conclusion con- 

 sequently is that, as between the above-named center and Liverpool, 

 there is a saving of the whole distance from Winnipeg to Montreal by 

 the use of Hudson Bay. This saving amounts to no less than twelve 

 hundred and ninety-one miles by way of Lake Superior, and sixteen 

 hundred and ninety-eight miles via Chicago. 



The translation of miles into dollars and cents is an easy process 

 nowadays, and it has been estimated that the difference in freight in 

 favor of the Hudson Bay route is at least thirty-two cents on each 

 bushel of grain, or, in other words, means an additional profit of over 

 six dollars an acre to the farmers of the West. When this idea had 

 once fairly taken hold of the public mind, a profound interest was 

 awakened, not only throughout Canada, but also in England, where, 

 at the 1880 meeting of the British Association, Sir J. IT. Lefroy, Presi- 

 dent of the Geological Section, hesitated not to affirm that the natural 



