892 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



intact by representing it as a barren wilderness. 

 The most glowing reports were sent home, and were 

 published in the leading newspapers. The new 

 colony was represented as a very paradise for the 

 farmer, and many men went ont believing this, to 

 find bitter disappointment in the reality. Neither of 

 the tw^o accounts is correct ; the truth lies, as is usually 

 the case in like matters, between the two extremes, 

 and we have been induced to set forth the truth some- 

 what fully, from a desire to do away with the injurious 

 misconception which has prevailed on this subject. 



Although there is little land fit for agricultural 

 purposes within the boundaries of British Columbia, 

 the fertile belt of the Saskatchewan is separated from 

 it only by the barrier of the Eocky Mountains. Of 

 the beauties and resources of this pleasant land, we 

 have already made mention in these pages. The 

 rich prairies, with from three to five feet of alluvial 

 soil, are ready for the plough, or ofier the luxuriant 

 grasses, which, in the old time, fattened countless 

 herds of bufialo, to domesticated herds. Woods, 

 lakes, and streams diversify the scene, and ofier 

 timber, fish, and myriads of wild fowl. Yet this 

 glorious country, estimated at 65,000 square miles, 

 and forty million of acres of the richest soil, capable 

 of supporting twenty millions of people, is, from 

 its isolated position, and the difiiculties put in the 

 way of settlement by the governing power, hitherto 

 left utterly neglected and useless, except for the 

 support of a few Indians and the employes of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. And this rich agricultural 



