CHAPTER LVI. 



Immigration and the Hudson's Bat Route. 



contrast between travelling from europe to the north-west 

 by the st. lawrence and the hudson's bay route — the 

 advantages of the latter — the distance saved and the 

 pleasures enjoyed — proposed special immigration steam- 

 SHIPS. 



;ANY are the advantages to immigration that will be 

 enjoyed by the Hudson's Bay Route. As explained in a 

 previous chapter, the opening of the Canadian Pacific 

 " z ^^^~ Railway between the North- West and Atlantic seaports 

 will remove many of the obstacles now and hitherto experienced by 

 immigrants travelling from the Old Country to Manitoba and the 

 Prairie Region beyond, but this improvement, great as it will be, 

 cannot be compared to the advantages that will acrue with the 

 establishment of a transportation line between the Canadian North- 

 West and Europe via Hudson's Bay. Let us contrast the probable 

 experiences of immigrants journeying from Europe to the North- 

 West by means of Atlantic steamers to Quebec, thence to the Prairie 

 Country via the Canadian Pacific, with those travelling between 

 the same points through our northern waters. 



In the first place look at the time that would be occupied and 

 the hardships that would be endured by the St. Lawrence route. 

 After the stir, and bustle, and annoyance attendant upon embark- 

 ation, there would be three thousand miles of an ocean voyage* 

 without the sight of land to gladden the heart, to be worried out, 

 unless at its close, the exceptional occurrence of a lifting fog, reveal 

 a gloomy outline of the wretched coast of Newfoundland. Nine, 

 ten, eleven, perhaps twelve days, on the ocean, rolling and pitching, 



