544 Our North Land. 



ferred that of Toronto. You will, therefore, see how what is some- 

 times called the very unequal criterion of right and justice, a large 

 majority, determines this question. Now, although we are at present 

 in Manitoba and Manitoba interests may dominate our thoughts, yet 

 you may not object to listen for a few moments to our experience 

 of the country which lies further to the west. 



" To the present company the assertion may be a bold one, but 

 they will be sufficiently tolerant to allow me to make it, if it goes 

 no further, and I, therefore, say that we may seek for the main 

 chance elsewhere than in Main Street. The future fortunes of the 

 country beyond this Province bear directly upon your prosperity. 

 Although you may not be able to dig for four feet through the same 

 character of black loam that you have here when you get to the 

 country beyond Fort Ellice, yet in its main features it is the same, 

 right up to the forks of the Saskatchewan. I deeply regret that I 

 was not able to visit Edmonton, which bids fair to rival any place 

 in the North- West. Settlement is rapidly increasing there, and I 

 met at Battleford one man who alone had commissions from ten 

 Ontario farmers to buy for them at that place. Nothing can exceed 

 the fertility and excellence of the land along almost the whole 

 source of that great river, and to the north of it, in the wide strip 

 belting its banks and extending up to the Peace River, there will be 

 room for a great population whose opportunities for profitable culti- 

 vation of the soil will be most enviable. 



" The netting of wood of which I have spoken as covering all 

 prairie between Winnipeg and Battleford is beyond that point 

 drawn up upon the shores of the prairie sea, and lies in masses of 

 fine forest in the gigantic half circle formed by the Saskatchewan 

 and the Rockies. It is only in secluded valleys, on the banks of 

 large lakes, and in the river bottoms that much wood is found in 

 the Far West, probably owing to the prevalence of fires. These are 

 easily preventible and there is no reason why plantations should 

 not flourish there in good situations as well as elsewhere. Before I 

 leave the Saskatchewan let me advert to the ease with which the 

 steam navigation of that river can be vastly improved. At present 

 there is only one boat at all worthy of the name of a river steamer 



