264 BANISTER'S PROPOSED COMMUNICATION [Jan. 12, 1857. 



Francisco. Third. Route of the 38th parallel, or Benton's. Fourth, 

 Route of the 35th parallel (Rusk's) to San Pedro, on the Pacific. 

 Fifth. Route of the 32nd parallel, or the extreme southern route, 

 via Texas and New Mexico, to the Pacific. The third and fourth 

 routes are considered next to impracticable ; while the three others 

 are attended with great difficulties and expense. Mr. Banister con- 

 siders that the routes through British North America are not only 

 the most practicable, but also, in a national point of view, the most 

 important. He proposes starting from Fort York on Hudson Bay, 

 and proceeding westward as far as Puget Sound, opposite Vancouver 

 Island. The Hudson Bay Company have certain interests, but the 

 Crown has never abandoned its sovereign rights over these territo- 

 ries. The Company deserves credit for its conduct, and for impor- 

 tant things it has carried out; but the time has arrived for the 

 Government to consider, whether the interests of the empire do not 

 demand a reconsideration of the whole subject of the colonisation, 

 &c., of the regions on the west coast of America from Hudson 

 Bay. 



Mr. Banister had derived information from a gentleman who had been 

 many years in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, and had passed along 

 the line, as well as from others acquainted with the country. He had been 

 induced to make the proposition by the great demand for a passage across 

 North America, evinced by the efforts made by the Government of the United 

 States to find such a passage in their own territory ; and he looked at the ques- 

 tion as it affected British interests. The late jDroceedings in Canada, the open- 

 ing of the Grand Trunk Eailway, the passage into Lake Superior and Lake 

 Michigan, the rise of Chicago, a city of yesterday, with a population of 100,000 

 inhabitants — all showed the rapid advance of those regions. The evidence was 

 all in favour of the northern country becoming habitable. The travels of Sir 

 George Simpson, Sir John Franklin, and others, were conclusive as to tlie 

 riclmess of the country in mineral as well as agricultural produce. A gentle- 

 man, Mr. Low, had informed him that the natives on the eastward of these 

 mountains possessed horses, and lived out in the open prairie in winter. 

 Horses would not exist on the east coast, and that was a proof of the mildness 

 of the climate in the interior. He was satisfied that the evidence was in favour 

 of the necessity of the line he had proposed ; and he brought it forward with 

 the view of the Society inducing the Government first to take measures to 

 ascertain the practicability of the country ; secondly, if practicable, to decide 

 upon establishing the line of communication ; and thirdly, to devise the mode 

 of carrying the scheme out. 



The President was of opinion that the communication opened out very 

 broad and important views for the consideration of geographers and statesmen. 

 The meeting was, fortunately, attended by gentlemen who were well acquaiiited 

 with these portions of North America ; and with reference to the boundary 

 line, the 49th degree, they had recently brought before them a project from 

 Mr. Palliser, which had already been approved by the Council, for an exami- 

 nation of all the region from that line to the Saskatchewan, as well as the 

 rocky and elevated region to the west of the Prairies, in order to see whether it 

 be practicable to form a good road for British subjects without deflecting into 

 the American territory. Mr. Palliser was in the room ; and, having lived a 



