EXPLORATION OF THE PRAIRIES, 1879 133 



exactly opposite to those of Sir John A. Macdonald's party. Sir 

 John was determined to build the railroad from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific, and Mr. Mackenzie could not see any wisdom in 

 building a continuous railroad from Port Arthur to Port Moody 

 on the Pacific, and, hence, he favored the plan, which was then 

 called "Water-Stretches," owing to the report that Palliser had 

 made that the southern part of the prairie was all desert and that 

 the northern part, which was wooded, was fertile, and this northern 

 part was now called the "fertile belt", by everybody, hence, all 

 the survey parties sent out by Mr. Mackenzie aimed to proceed 

 through the fertile belt to British Columbia. 



At this time, the projected railway west of Winnipeg was to 

 cross Lake Manitoba at the Narrows, proceed up the Swan River, 

 and continue on the water-shed from there to Edmonton and so 

 on to the Pacific. Horetzky and I, having seen the two passes 

 to the north, were considered fit to give an opinion and he re- 

 commended that the railway be built past Lac La Biche and 

 north of Little Slave Lake and through the Peace River country 

 to Pine Pass or the Peace River Pass itself. Sandford Fleming 

 still recommended going through the Yellow-Head Pass and his 

 surveys culminated on the country west of the Yellow-Head. 

 This was the condition when I came to him in 1875. 



My report opened the eyes of many men throughout the 

 country, but had little effect in Parliament, as the two parties, 

 as usual, were fighting the usual game of ins and outs, and that 

 is the kind of thing that went on. 



I was frequently invited to go to cities throughout Ontario 

 to lecture and tell of my travels and what I had seen. These 

 lectures lifted me out of the rank of teacher and made me a public 

 man. 



In the autumn of 1875, I was asked to become Science Master 

 of Ottawa Normal School and my friends saw the Minister of 

 Education of Ontario and he said that he was in favor of my 

 appointment, but the Government always advertised for qualifica- 

 tions. The present Chief Justice Riddell, of Toronto, was then 

 teaching in the Normal School at Ottawa and offered to take 

 chemistry in which I was deficient and I would take algebra from 



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