56 HIS FIRST JOURNEY ACROSS THE PRAIRIES 



crossed it in a scow and walked up to Fort Garry, which was to 

 be our home during our stay, one altogether too short. 



Captain Palliser in his exploration, 1857-1862, seemed to have 

 adopted the views of the American people, who, at that time, had 

 condemned the whole of the centre of the United States, from the 

 hundredth Meridian to California, to sterility and called it "the 

 American Desert." And the desert was said by Palliser to extend 

 northward of the 49th parallel to the Saskatchewan. Such a view 

 was adopted at this time by our Government, and, when we reach- 

 ed Winnipeg, all the leading men were discussing the subject, pro 

 and con. Archbishop Tache' took a leading part on one side and 

 a Mr. Taylor, the American Consul, took the other side. While 

 in Winnipeg, or at Fort Garry as it was known at that time, this 

 was the constant theme of discussion. Archbishop Tach£ spoke 

 of a "fertile belt" extending from Winnipeg northwestward to 

 Edmonton, but maintained that the Saskatchewan country was a 

 dry, poor affair and it was "not fertile." In 1868, Archbishop 

 Tache had published a pamphlet at Ottawa, in which he stated 

 this very thing, that the Saskatchewan was not fertile but that a 

 belt of country extended from Winnipeg to Edmonton in which 

 wheat and other cereals would grow. At this time, the Canadian 

 Government believed that the "Great American Desert" extended 

 into Canada north of Latitude 51° and hence the only part of the 

 country of value would be that from 52° northward, hence the 

 term, "Fertile Belt." 



Consul Taylor, on the other hand, lived most of his life in 

 St. Paul, Minnesota, and knew the value of the prairie country, 

 and, having heard great accounts of the black soils to be found in 

 the Saskatchewan Valley, he maintained that in the future it 

 would be the wheat producing country of the American continent. 



I heard both expositions and thought little about the results, 

 as ,at that time, I had no idea of the country talked of. 



After leaving Fort Garry, we travelled nine miles beyond 

 Portage La Prairie and stopped there over Sunday. The after- 

 noon we left Portage La Prairie we had an awful storm and, to 

 show what a storm on the prairie really is, I make the following 

 extract from "Ocean to Ocean": "At 4 p.m. we started for Rat 



