The Question of Immigration. 535 



sixty or eighty wide, and between the Thompson and Frazer Rivers 

 there is an immense tract of arable and grazing land. The hills and 

 plains are covered with bunch grass, on which the cattle and horses 

 live all winter, and its nutritive qualities are said to exceed the 

 celebrated blue grass and clover of Virginia. 



His Excellency the Marquis of Lome, in a speech at Victoria, 

 made the following remarks : — " Throughout the interior it will 

 probably pay well in the future to have flocks of sheep. The 

 demand for wool and woollen goods will always be very large 

 among the people now crowding in such numbers to those regions 

 which our official world as yet calls the North-West, but which is 

 the North-East and East to you. There is no reason why British 

 Columbia should not be for this portion of our territory what 

 California is to the States in the supply afforded of fruits. The per- 

 fection attained by small fruits is unrivalled, and it is only with the 

 Peninsula of Ontario that you would have to compete for the 

 supplies of grapes, peaches, pears, apples, cherries, plums, apricots,, 

 and currants." 



But the question of immigration to Canada can be appreciated to 

 its fullest extent only in connection with what the world has learned 

 to call the great North-West. Here, indeed, are illimitable possibili- 

 ties ; here, in short, is a future greatness providentially hid from 

 mankind, but now gradually unfolding, that is destined to surpass 

 anything yet achieved in the world. 



