Jan. 12, 1857.] THROUGH NORTH AMERICA. 265 



good deal in the country, mnst be able to speak to the practicability of the 

 proposed route, as well as of forming railroads. They had also present Colonel 

 Lefroy, who was twelve years in Canada ; he had enriched science by magnetic 

 and other observations, was an admirable geographer, and well acquainted with 

 these regions. It was seldom they had the opportunity of having a subject 

 better discussed. 



Colonel Lefroy, f.r.g.s., said, that Mr. Banister's scheme proceeded on the 

 assumption that whatever was not physically impossible, was commercially 

 possible. There was certainly not a physical impossibility in the formation of 

 this railway ; but it was under conditions entirely different from those which 

 attended the formation of railways in this country. Mr. Banister began by 

 pointing out the analogy of Hudson Bay with the Baltic. The Baltic had its 

 inlet on the south, Hudson Bay on the north, which made an important dif- 

 ference. Hudson Bay could only be entered two or three months in the year, the 

 Baltic at all times. In ascending between Fort York and Lake Winnipeg, the 

 traveller passed over a rugged and difficult country, of a spongy nature, 900 or 

 1000 feet high, until he came to Lake Winnipeg, which was itself 800 feet 

 above the level of the sea. He had then to go through a region without inha- 

 bitants — for the whole population of this vast internal region did not amount 

 to 100,000 souls — and then to pass over the Rocky Mountains. The general 

 character of the country up to the Bocky Mountains was a plain, ascending 

 gradually, intersected by extremely deep rivers. Tliere would be some tre- 

 mendous bridging required. A part of the district, which must necessarily 

 be passed, was a mere spongy, elevated table-land, from which rivers took 

 their source in all directions. It was not physically impossible to carry a rail- 

 road there, but it would not be commercially possible. Passing over the 

 Rocky Mountains, the traveller arrived at Fort M'Leod, considerably on the 

 west side of the mountains. That fort was the nearest station to the Hudson 

 Bay Company's line on the Pacific ; and such was the difficulty of communi- 

 cation, that the hardy traders in the employ of the Company, though they had 

 been trying several years to establish a communication with Fort M'Leod 

 from the west, had never, down to the period in which he visited the country, 

 — 1843-4,— succeeded in doing so. All these were reasons why he thought 

 this railroad, which had been urged on general grounds as a great necessity, 

 was not likely to be realised in our days. 



The Rev. Mr. Nicolay, f.r.g.s., agreed with what Colonel Lefroy had 

 said with regard to the northern and western portions of the country near the 

 sea. Although a railroad would be scarcely desirable in the direction indicated, 

 there was no reason why, in the time of our children, if not in our own, one 

 should not be carried across the plains to the south of the river Saskatchewan. 

 As far as he was aware, he believed no Englishman had ever crossed those 

 plains to the north of 49" directly to the Rocky Mountains. He hoped Mr. 

 PaUiser would be the first to do so. Supposing there should be no imjiedimcnt 

 in that direction, there would be no difficulty in crossing the Rocky Mountains. 

 The pass indicated by Mr. Banister had been more than once traversed by the 

 officers of the Hudson Bay Company, and he believed there were some in the 

 room, who had traversed it themselves ; it was not the best. From the ac- 

 count of his journey, given by Sir George Simpson, there seemed to be two 

 distinct ranges between which the river Kutani flowed to the south. There 

 was a pass to the south, leading into the valley between the two ranges, over 

 which the emigrants mentioned by him crossed — whether to the south or 

 north of 49" he was not prepared to say ; but that there was an easy pass in 

 that direction was well known. The difficulty in crossing from the northern 

 of these passes to the Pacific, as Colonel Lefroy remarked, was no doubt very 

 great. All this country was covered with small lakes — a network of lakes and 

 rivers, which at certain seasons must be untraversable, and it must be centuries 



