June 25, I860.] LATEST EXPLORATIONS IN BRITISH N. AMERICA. 233 



this did not at all detract from the high credit due to these gentlemen, who 

 had confirmed the correctness of previous observations, and had added the very 

 valuable observations they had themselves made. At the time these passes 

 were first used by the Hudson Bay Company and the North- West Company, 

 there was not that interest in them that there is now, and there was no object 

 in view further than to carry the Company's goods from one part of the country 

 to another. But the Company had never withheld their observations from 

 any person who came with authority to ask for them. 



There was one point in which Captain Palliser had made a slight mistake. 

 He said he saved eight days by going by a steamer through Lake Superior. 

 Now, the usual time occupied by canoes going from Fort William along the 

 coast was five days. Sir George Simpson went in four or five days. 



The stoppage of supplies at Fort Colville did not arise from the Company. 

 He was at Bed River at the time, and much regret was expressed that they 

 were stopped. The order did not come from the Company, but from a higher 

 authority. The pass in our own territory was practicable, but it was 

 rough and not advisable, if a more favourable one could be had, which 

 does exist in American territory. He hoped the passes would not be opened 

 out, as it would only lead to a great waste of capital. There was no difficulty 

 in colonising the country ; but where was the market for the produce ? The 

 cost of transport was so heavy that the grain could never be carried into the 

 States to compete with American produce. The only thing that could support 

 the country was the trade of the Hudson Bay Company, and when that was 

 gone, the Eed River Settlement must go too, or the country must be gradually 

 settled up from the States. 



Mr. John Ball, f.e.g.s., observed that, as he had taken some share in the 

 arrangements for the expedition when at the Colonial Office, he felt the greatest 

 gratification at the general success which had attended the efforts of Captain 

 Palliser and his companions. Not that all the expectations originally entertained 

 had been fulfilled, because the case was otherwise ; but that the public mind had 

 been disabused of some errors, particularly the notion of the colonisation of the 

 southern valley of the Saskatchewan. Much future exertion and waste of capital 

 would be saved, and it would be due to this expedition. One statement made by 

 Dr. Rae he had heard with great surprise, viz., that the Hudson Bay Company — 

 considering the position they occupied with reference to the Government, the 

 Legislature, and the Public, as trustees for the British nation in that great conti- 

 nent — should not have communicated the information they possessed respecting 

 these passes. It was an act of simple justice on their part to give freely any in- 

 formation they possessed, so that the lives and labours of Britons might be saved, 

 and not thrown away on useless efforts. The conclusion to which his mind tended 

 at present was that neither England nor America would be able to claim exclu- 

 sive right over the route which would ultimately be the high road from Eng- 

 land to China. He believed the route would lie alternately north and south 

 of the boundary line ; that at the eastern end, from Lake Superior to Red 

 River, the route would lie north of the forty-ninth parallel and along the 

 northern branch of the Saskatchewan ; that it would then go southward into 

 American territory, and continue on American territory until, somewhere in 

 the direction of Fort Shepherd, the route again entered British territory. 



Mk. Colville, a Director of the Hudson Bay Company, said he was not 

 aware that the Company had ever withheld any geographical information from 

 anybody who applied for it. He believed the whole of the information they 

 possessed had been from time to time given to Mr. Arrowsmith, and that were 

 it not for the maps and plans prepared by that gentleman. Captain Palliser 

 would have had great difficulty in getting through the country. Indeed, he 

 thought they had heard sufficient from Captain Palliser to satisfy them that 

 the Hudson Bay Company had no wish to withhold either aid or information. 



