THE END OF THE TRIP 333 



of the largest districts of British Columbia. It is of 

 greater extent than the state of Pennsylvania, and yet 

 it polls less than 500 votes. This will serve to show 

 the sparseness of human life in this vast tract of mostly 

 undeveloped land. 



Cassiar district, still further to the northwest and 

 adjoining the territory of Alaska, is another region of 

 magnificent distances which the new Grand Trunk 

 Pacific Railroad will help to develop. Great fortunes 

 loom up as the reward for pioneers when this railway 

 is finally in operation. 



There are billions of feet of logs to be cut where 

 never a tree has yet been felled for shipment, and mil- 

 lions of tons of coal that now lie undisturbed in the 

 bowels of the earth. Enormous deposits of iron ore, of 

 copper ore and of gold will be opened up through the 

 magic influence of the steel rails which will connect 

 the forests and waters of New Brunswick and Nova 

 Scotia with those of the Frazer, the Peace, the Skeena, 

 the Parsnip, the Blackwater, the Stickine, and the 

 Thompson Rivers. 



The term " Northwest " gives but little idea of what 

 a vast stretch of country, mostly unsurveyed, it repre- 

 sents. In the official Bulletin No. 22, just issued by 

 the government of New British Columbia, the report 

 of a single one of its many expeditions sent out every 

 year to explore and write up the resources, characteris- 

 tics and possibilities of development of this far-off 



