Xvi PREFACE. 



had in view lias been to draw attention to tlie 

 vast importance of establishing a highway from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific through the British posses- 

 sions ; not only as estabhshing a connection between 

 the different EngUsh colonies in North America, 

 but also as affording a means of more rapid and 

 direct communication with China and Japan. 

 Another advantage which would follow — no less 

 important than the preceding — would be the 

 opening out and colonisation of the magnificent 

 regions of the Red River and Saskatchewan, where 

 65,000 square miles of a country of unsurpassed 

 fertility, and abounding in mineral wealth, lies 

 isolated from the world, neglected, almost unknown, 

 although destined, at no distant period perhaps, to 

 become one of the most valuable possessions of 

 the British Crown. 



The idea of a route across the northern part 

 of the Continent is not a new one. The project 

 was entertained by the early French settlers in 

 Canada, and led to the discovery of the Rocky 

 Mountains. It has since been revived and ably 

 advocated by Professor Hind and others, hitherto 



without success. 



The favourite scheme of geographers in this 

 country for the last three centuries has been the 



