276 Our North Land. 



s em as if they had been destined by nature for carrying down live 

 stock to the head of the Nelson Valley, from which the animals 

 could be driven along a common road, or carried by a comparatively 

 short railway to Churchill Harbour. This business, or even the 

 export of dead meat, by the cool northern route, is probably destined 

 to give great additional value to the north-western prairies and the 

 stock-raising country northward of the region in which wheat may be 

 grown. Apart from the difficulty as to the great distance for send- 

 ing live stock to Europe through the older provinces or the United 

 States, should any of the diseases which occasionally afflict these 

 •animals be prevalent in these countries and not in the North- West, 

 the Hudson's Bay route might be available when all others were 

 closed. 



" For heavy or bulky imports, the short route by Hudson's Bay 

 would stand unrivalled. For example, most of the railway and 

 other iron and of the coal required in the North-West would be 

 brought in by this route, the vessels taking back agricultural produce, 

 of which in the future vast quantities will be seeking an outlet. 

 Experience shows that the price of coal in any part of the world 

 depends not so much upon distance as upon the exigencies of trade. 

 Coal from Britain might be laid down cheaper in the North-West 

 prairies than from any other source. 



" The increase in the value of such immense tracts of land, which 

 would be due to cheapened transportation is a matter well worthy 

 of the consideration not only of the Government but of all parties 

 interested in real estate in the North-West. 



" For immigrants to the Canadian North-West this route presents 

 advantages offered by no other. To say nothing of the saving in 

 time and money, it is really the only independent route to these 

 territories which we possess. The original colonists and traders of 

 Manitoba came this way, and it has been found throughout America 

 that the course of trade and travel pointed out by nature, and first 

 adopted by the pioneers, is sure to become eventually the great high- 

 way of the region. Immigrants destined for our North-West Terri- 

 tory, in passing through the United States, as is well known, are 

 induced in large numbers to abandon their original intention aDd 



