Navigation of Hudson's Bay and Strait 269 



height of land eastward of the Athabaska, and about 1,500 north 

 and south, or from the Bay itself far southward into the United 

 States. This basin is estimated to contain over 3,000,000 square 

 miles, and to embrace the largest area of good bread, beef and pork 

 producing lands in the world. It has been estimated that the great 

 fertile area in question is sufficiently productive of the staple foods 

 named to yield of them, under proper industrial cultivation, sufficient 

 annually to supply the whole world. 



When this wonderful expanse of productive soil — productive 

 alike of the three great staple foods of mankind — has been fully 

 peopled, it will sustain a commerce with the world outside of it 

 greater than the entire volume of trade of the United Kingdom of 

 Great Britain and Ireland to-day ; and I am justified in saying that 

 at least, two-thirds of the carrying trade of that commerce will find 

 a highway over the waters of Hudson's Bay and Strait. The 

 time is not far distant — it will be partly realized within the life- 

 time of the present generation, and fully before the middle-age of 

 the one succeeding it — when that which we now hesitatingly call 

 the " Hudson's Bay Route " will be the greatest artery of commerce 

 in connection with railways between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 



And not onl}' are these statements supported by facts, but the 

 resources of the waters of the Bay and Strait, in economic fishes and 

 oil-bearing animals, will, when developed, sustain a volume of trade 

 to the extent of millions of dollars annually. 



It will require some years and much practical demonstration to 

 remove existing prejudice against the Hudson's Bay route from the 

 minds of the Canadian people, especially the people of the eastern 

 Provinces ; and the citizens of the North-West will have much to 

 be grateful for, if the future long life of this prejudice is not dis- 

 covered to be founded upon a disposition to strangle the Hudson's 

 Bay outlet in its infancy ; sectional injustice alone can be guilty of 

 such a misfortune. 



Lest I should be thought over-enthusiastic on the possibilities of 

 this route, I will bring to my support the writings of Dr. R. Bell, 

 Assistant Director of the Geological and Natural History Survey of 

 Canada. Dr. Bell has devoted the best part of the past seven years 



