CHAPTER L. 



Opening the Hudson's Bay Route. 



cost of the proposed enterprise — the lines from winnipeg 

 and prince albert to churchill — one thousand miles — 

 twenty wooden steamships — thirty millions of dollars 

 — proposed land and cash subsidy — a hudson's bay 

 syndicate wanted. 



ET us now consider the cost of opening the Hudson's Bay- 

 route, and the best methods that may be employed to accom- 

 plish so great an undertaking. Even in looking at the 

 tJ ^ ?5 railway necessary to be constructed as an initial outlet, we 

 must not confine ourselves to a simple line. It is probable that the 

 idea of running a road to Hudson's Bay, east of Lake Winnipeg, 

 will be abandoned, as that route would be located too far east to 

 properly accommodate the prairie country. But a road from Mani- 

 toba, passing northward between Lakes Winnipegosis and Winnipeg, 

 would properly join a line from Prince Albert, where the former 

 would cross the 55th parallel of north latitude, so that from that 

 point to Churchill, a distance of about three hundred miles, both 

 points would be served by one railway. 



Take a point where the 55th parallel intersects the 100th merid- 

 ian of west longitude, and the distance from it to Winnipeg is about 

 three hundred and fifty miles, to Prince Albert it is about three 

 hundred miles, and to Churchill about the same distance. A railway 

 from Winnipeg to Churchill, with a line from Prince Albert to join 

 it at the convenient point indicated would involve nine hundred 



and fifty miles, or say one thousand, as follows : — 

 3 i 



