The Attraction of the North. 19 



Commerce, the sure passport to national greatness, is destined to 

 set up a throne of universal empire in Canada, because the immense 

 volume of transport traffic passing from the eastern shores of China 

 and Japan to the western shores of Europe, which has hitherto 

 cast its wealth into the coffers of the United States, will soon seek 

 the shorter and less expensive routes about to be opened up across 

 the continent through Dominion territory. It is probably by 

 solving the one question of transportation that Canadians will 

 overcome the last obstacle to their material progress, and a solution 

 of this is already at hand. 



I will submit a few figures of distances in this connection, that 

 will explain to some extent the northward inclination of latitudinal 

 transportation, and give you the reason why, just now, so man}^ 

 eyes are turned toward the north; why the Canadian Government 

 Expedition was sent out to Hudson's Bay and Strait, and why our 

 north land is destined to attract so much attention in the future. 

 These figures are given in respect of transcontinental lines and of 

 lines proposed as direct outlets from the fertile prairies of the 

 North-West. 



If we take Yokohama, a central point in Japan, and Liverpool, 

 the great commercial centre- of Europe, it will be an easy matter to 

 find the shortest lines between the two. 



LINE NUMBER ONE. 



Yokohama to San Francisco (nautical miles) 4,470 



San Krancisco to New York (statute miles) 3,390 



New York to Liverpool (nautical miles) 3,040 



Total navigation and railway distance 10,900 



LINE NUMBER TWO. 



Yokohama to Port Moody (nautical miles) 4,374 



Port Moody to Montreal, C.P.R. (statute miles) 2,885 



Montreal to Liverpool (nautical miles) '. 3,000 



Total navigation and railway distance 10,259 



