The Great North- West— The Territories. 411 



us stretched a level prairie, whose difference in character as well as 

 height from the prairie of the previous steppe was at once apparent. 

 South and west stretched a great yellow circle, but with no wooded 

 purple ridge, as formerly, on the horizon." 



Speaking of the section of country where the cattle ranches are 

 situated, on the third prairie steppe, Dr. McGregor says : — " The 

 whole of this region may be said to be more or less under the bene- 

 ficent influence of the warm winter winds, known as the ' Chinooks,' 

 whose true physical explanation has not yet been accurately ascer- 

 tained, but of whose extraordinary effects in tempering the cold 

 winter there can be no manner of doubt. It is owing to these winds 

 that snow never lies to any depth, and as a consequence cattle and 

 horses find food and shelter for themselves all the winter through. 

 The result is that ranching or stock-raising on a colossal scale has 

 already begun." 



The following is an extract from a letter of the Hon. Horatio 

 Seymour, late Governor of the State of New York. It is interesting 

 as containing an American opinion. Writing of what he saw in 

 Manitoba and the Canadian North-West, the Hon. Mr. Seymour 

 says : — " I saw thousands and thousands of acres of wheat, clearing 

 forty bushels to the acre, weighing sixty-three and sixty-five pounds 

 to the bushel, and was assured by undoubted authority that, on Peace 

 River, one thousand two hundred miles north-west of where I was, 

 wheat could be produced in immense quantities equal to the best I 

 saw in Winnipeg, while great herds of cattle were being fed with- 

 out cost on as fine grassy land as the world affords. In short, 

 between our north-western line of forty-five degrees and fifty-four 

 degrees forty minutes (General Cass's fighting point), there is a 

 country owned by England with greater grain and stock-growing 

 capacity than all the lands on the Baltic, the Black Sea and the 

 Mediterranean combined. The land laws of Canada are now as 

 liberal as ours as to the homestead, pre-emption, and free claims. 

 People are crowding there rapidly and towns are springing up as if 

 by magic. Their great railway will reach the Pacific before our 

 Northern Pacific will, and it will be extended eastward promptly 

 to Montreal. The distance to Liverpoool will be six hundred miles 



