272 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



become separated hy a distance of nearly three 

 hundred miles. They then gradually converge 

 again until they join together at a distance of 

 about eight hundred miles from their head-waters, 

 and then after a united course of nearly three 

 hundred miles, discharge their mingled waters 

 into Lake Winnipeg. With the exception of the 

 last few miles of their course, these rivers are 

 navigable for steamers, the one — that is, the North 

 Saskatchewan — for one thousand, and the South 

 branch for eight hundred miles. Between them, 

 and on each side of them, lies the fertile belt, a 

 virgin soil of any depth. No forests encumber 

 the land. The farmer has but to turn up the soil 

 lying ready waiting for the seed. It is a mistake to 

 suppose that all this great Western country is good 

 land ; that is nonsense. There is good and there 

 is bad ; but it is true that there is little bad and 

 much good. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands 

 of acres of the best land in the world are lying 

 there idle, waiting for man. From the southern 

 boundary of the United States to the South 

 Saskatchewan, there is no such fertile tract as 

 this. It is like a huge oasis lying between the 

 parched pastures of the south and the frozen 

 solitudes of the icy north. Nor is the wheat- 



