DAYS IN THE WOODS 271 



Fort Garry is submerged and overwhelmed by a 

 mass of civilisation ; Manitoba is a province, and 

 a growing and prosperous one. One of the finest, 

 if not the very finest, agricultural districts in the 

 world has been opened up to man. It is a district 

 capable of producing the choicest wheat in practi- 

 cally limitless quantities. It is blessed with many 

 advantages, but it also labours under certain dis- 

 advantages which must not be overlooked. Three 

 great rivers flow into Lake Winnipeg — the Red 

 River, the Saskatchewan, and the Winnipeg. The 

 latter river is magnificent so far as scenery is con- 

 cerned, but it is full of dangerous rapids, and will 

 never be of any great commercial value to the 

 country. The Red River is navigable for steamers 

 for a distance of six hundred miles. One hundred 

 and eighty-five miles only of its course lie in 

 British territory ; the remainder of the distance 

 it traverses the state of Minnesota. The land it 

 drains is rich alluvial prairie. At a distance of 

 forty miles from its mouth it receives the waters 

 of the Assineboin, a river flowing entirely through 

 British territory ; it is said to be navigable for 

 three hundred miles. The two Saskatchewans rise 

 in the Rocky Mountains about thirty miles apart, 

 and pursue slightly diverging courses, till they 



