558 Our North Land. 



These amusing and instructive objects will not have been fully 

 appreciated, and will not have ceased to delight and please the tired 

 immigrant when, let it be in the breaking forth of the morning, or 

 at high noon, or in the quiet splendour of the early evening, or even 

 beneath the resplendent aurora of that region, the eternal cliffs of 

 Wolstenholme, towering above the clouds, with their dizzy summits 

 crowned with blazing snow, and their ledges festooned about with 

 illuminated vapour-clouds will break into view, telling the gladdened 

 though weary pilgrim that he is entering Hudson's Bay. In vain 

 would he stay here and admire this giant wonder of nature, this 

 geological phenomenon, the like of which not even Gibralter can 

 boast, and before which the greatest mountain scenery of the 

 Rockies fades into dullness ; but the good ship speeds on, and before 

 his wondering admiration has had time to find suitable expression, 

 he is again astonished by the grand appearance of old Fort Prince 

 of Wales, and awakened out of pleasant reveries by the clanking 

 of the anchor chains in Churchill Harbour. The voyage which is now 

 over has been one of delight, and the short journey that is to come 

 will be one of pleasure. The train is at the wharf, the spacious cars 

 are soon filled, and all is ready for the start. Less than twelve days 

 before the shores of Europe were left behind. But three thousand 

 miles now intervene, the ninety-fifth meridian is almost reached, 

 and but a few miles are necessary to bring the immigrant to the 

 longitude of Winnipeg. When the latter is attained, say forty miles 

 southwest of Churchill, the distance between it and Liverpool is the 

 same as that between Montreal and Liverpool, and for that reason 

 about fifte'en hundred miles of tedious and expensive railway travel 

 have been avoided. 



The journey from Churchill to the borders of the fertile belt will 

 occupy no more than a night's rest, and with the rising of the 

 morning's sun the prospect of illimitable agricultural areas will be 

 everywhere present to gladden the intending settler. Three thou- 

 sand five hundred miles from Liverpool will, bring the immigrant 

 into the heart of the finest country under the sun ; whereas, if he 

 travel by the St. Lawrence route, it will require a journey of at 

 least five thousand miles to reach the same point. 



