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



before it could be inhabited. But the country to the south and east of the 

 northern branch of the Columbia was, he apprehended, of a very different 

 character. "Whether it was a country through which a railroad would be 

 carried in our time, was another question. As to the desirableness of opening 

 up a communication with Vancouver Island all would agree, especially as the 

 Canadians began to feel cooped up, and wanted a way to the west. The value 

 of Vancouver Island was becoming better known, and he anticipated great 

 advantages, commercial and otherwise, to result from Mr. Palhser's explora- 

 tions. The plains to the south of the Saskatchewan might supply Europe with 

 corn, brought down to Hudson Bay. A home voyage once a year was quite 

 another thing to keeping up a constant communication. 



Colonel Lefroy said with reference to the exportation of articles from the 

 Saskatchewan, there was a considerable amount of import and export going 

 along that line, inasmuch as all the goods brought in by the Hudson Bay 

 Company were carried by that route, as well as the furs which they obtained 

 in exchange. The price of the inland freight from York-Factory to the Red- 

 River Settlement, was 181. per ton, when he was in the country. 



Mr. J. Palliser, f.b.g.s., was inclined to think there was no pass known 

 within the English territory, except the Athabasca portage, which was con- 

 siderably to the north. There were two passes to the south which he believed 

 were both in the American frontier. Even Sir George Simpson himself, who 

 took the more northerly of the two, passed within the American frontier. Still 

 he had heard from conversation with the hunters and trappers — Red River 

 people — that there was a pass in the English teiTitory ; but he had only their 

 word for it. He crossed the frontier when he was at White-earth River, 

 the most northern part of the Missouri. But with that exception his 

 wanderings and hunting adventures were on the American side. Still, all the 

 nations in that part of the country might be said to belong to both English 

 and United States territory. For instance, the Assineboins, the people 

 he had most dealings with, wandered on both sides of the line. Also the 

 Black Feet and the Minatorees wandered backwards and forwards, though 

 their country was strictly speaking confined to the American side. The 

 Indians seemed to have a very greart; respect for the English. Whenever he 

 was pointed out as an Englishman, they used to pay him a sort of additional 

 respect. 



Mr. Banister, in reply, said that early last year he had been appointed 

 agent to parties in Vancouver Island, which brought him in connection with a 

 great number of persons who were intimately acquainted with the interior. 

 The natives on the coast of Queen Charlotte Islands were a very superior class 

 of people, in proof of which he would put into the hands of the President a piece 

 of sculpture cut from the tooth of a walrus or something of that sort. The 

 men of these islands were almost white. They were very robust. They made 

 fine sailors, as good as the New Zealanders. On one occasion they brought 

 down a vessel commanded by an Englishman. With regard to a pass being 

 found for the transit of merchandise within British territory, it was a matter of 

 great importance, and might throw the carrying trade between California and 

 the Atlantic States into our hands. The trade depended on the termini of the 

 route, rather than on the country through which it passed. At all events the 

 inquiry was well worthy of being made. A gentleman in a letter to him stated 

 that there was a pass up the Eraser River, where the mountains fell away, 

 that it was a very narrow passage without any obstructions, and led into the 

 valley of the Peace River. The communication, he proposed, might not be 

 entirely by railroad as in England, but partly by railroad and partly by 

 other means. In order to carry out the work, he did not see why the Govern- 

 ment should not employ criminals, and thus make them the pioneers of 

 civilization. 



Mr. Palliser thought it must depend upon astronomical observation to 



