APPENDIX. 1 8 1 



THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY OF CANADA. 



IN 1859 I published a small volume on American 

 Prairie-farming, in which I gave the following account 

 of this region, which is now coming into prominent 

 notice : 



"There is a subject much agitated in Canada at 

 present, and which is also of national importance, the 

 opening of a direct route through the British territory 

 from Canada to the Pacific. Hitherto, the vast territory 

 proposed to be opened up by this route has been 

 represented to be unsuited by climate for settlement, 

 and capable of producing only furs and hides. It has 

 been so used by the Hudson's Bay and North-west 

 Companies ever since the French were expelled from 

 Canada. And the urgent efforts of Lord Selkirk, so 

 early as 1805, to colonise a tract which from his 

 personal knowledge he estimated as capable of sup- 

 porting thirty millions of people, were by a combination 

 of obstructions and disasters finally extinguished in 

 favour of the fur trade. More recent investigation has 

 shown that the climate is not unfavourable to settle- 

 ment, the summer temperature on the Saskatchewan 

 being the same as in the fertile region of Northern 

 Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, while the buffalo 

 winters in the belts of woodland on these northern 



