DAYS IN THE WOODS 275 



States Governments, regulating the rates to be 

 charged upon it, and, moreover, there is no 

 engineering difficulty whatever in constructing a 

 canal on the British side of the river. It is true 

 that the canal is closed by ice during the winter 

 months, but free navigation exists during the 

 greater part of the year, and the St. Lawrence is 

 also closed during the winter. Anyone looking at 

 a map of British North America will say at once, 

 " But neither of these routes is the natural geo- 

 graphical road in and out of this country. The 

 Hudson's Bay Company long ago discovered and 

 made use of the proper outlet, and the grain of 

 thousands and thousands of fertile acres will find 

 its way to London by the same means, and over 

 the same roads, as the skins of wild animals have 

 been brought to that market." I wish I could 

 think that was true. Then indeed would Manitoba 

 and the great North-West be the most favoured 

 country in the world — the earthly paradise of the 

 agriculturist. 



Hudson's Bay and the river flowing into it from 

 Lake Winnipeg form the natural gateway to the 

 great North-West, and Lake Winnipeg is the 

 natural centre of distribution and collection for a 

 large portion of that vast region. But there is an 



