The Great North- West 387 



But while Mr. Fleming was telling the Royal Colonial Institute, 

 of London, England, these magnificent truths, Prof. Hind, before a 

 Committee of the Commons of Canada, was urging that " In view 

 of the growing interests of the North-West, from whatever point 

 these may be regarded, the time for enquiry has arrived whether 

 communication with the Atlantic Ocean, with Port Nelson as a 

 starting point, may not be made safe, speedy and economical. The 

 enquiry has become a natural consequence of the extended know- 

 ledge now made public respecting the vast area in the North -West, 

 suitable for grain growing and pasturage, which the Government 

 surveys have supplied. It is also encouraged by the great changes 

 which have taken place during the last ten years in the prosecution 

 of the sealing industry, which have established the fact that 

 properly constructed vessels of large capacity are, in skilful hands, 

 perfectly adapted to push their way through ice-encumbered seas. 

 It has been pressed forward by the new industry, so rapidly rising 

 into importance, which gives additional wealth to the prairies of the 

 west and south-west in the United States, by the European demand 

 for their live products as well as for their grain. The establish- 

 ment of a cheap and speedy means of communication between the 

 North-West and the open Atlantic, via Hudson Straits, would not 

 only secure the rapid settlement of Manitoba, but open to success- 

 ful immigration a fertile area twenty times as large as that 

 Province. The proximity of this vast extent of country to its own 

 seaboard would, under such conditions, also secure the carrying 

 trade of its own productions under one and the same flag." 



Time has, perhaps, shown that Mr. Fleming and Prof. Hind 

 should have substituted Churchill for Port Nelson. I do not, how- 

 ever, despair of Port Nelson altogether. It is possible that a fairly 

 good harbour may be established at the mouth o'f the Nelson, and 

 that, for small craft, a port ma} 7 be found at the southern extremity 

 of James's Bay ; but the great western anchorage and the future 

 commercial port of Hudson's Bay must necessarily be at the mouth 

 of the Churchill. 



With a contemplation of the Hudson's Bay Route, the possibili- 

 ties of the Canadian North-West are greatly enlarged, and there 



