CHAPTER XXXIV. 

 From the Pacific to Hudson's Bay. — Continued. 



FROM THE PINE RIVER PASS TO CHURCHILL — A VIEW OF THE GREAT 

 FERTILE PLAINS OF THE NORTH-WEST — THE PEACE RIVER COUNTRY 

 — THE ALLUVIAL PLAINS OF THE ATHABASKA — THE FIVE FUTURE 

 PROVINCES OF THE NORTH-WEST — TRANSPORTATION — THE HUD- 

 SON'S BAY ROUTE — DISTANCES. 



WN the previous chapter we have taken a hurried glance at 

 the country from Port Simpson, on the Pacific, eastward 

 to the Pine River Pass of the Rockies, en route to Hudson's 

 *sF Bay. In the present chapter we will complete that journey. 

 From The Pass we will travel hundreds of miles through the 

 finest agricultural country in the world. The descent from the 

 summit is gradual toward the great plains. But looking from it 

 eastward the prospect is fraught with many wonderful character- 

 istics. The great fertile valley, or lower plain, with its mighty 

 rivers, its pure lakes and innumerable streams, stretches away to- 

 ward Hudson's Bay for more than six hundred miles ; northward to 

 our left for nearly five hundred miles to Fort Simpson on the Mac- 

 kenzie River and beyond ; southward for more than seven hundred 

 miles to Fort Hamilton and the sources of the South Saskatchewan ; 

 and south-eastward for more than two thousand miles to the great 

 lakes. The area comprises over 300,000,000 acres of rich productive 

 lands belonging to the Canadian North-West, and there is nowhere 

 else upon the earth's surface such an extensive tract of wealth- 

 producing territory. 



Down to our left, on the broad plains of the Peace River country, 

 in the valleys of the tributaries of that stream, there is the climate 

 of the most favoured portions of British Columbia, with the finest 



