158 FOURTH EXPLORATION, 1880 



was much criticised, my statements and conclusions being at 

 variance with the popular opinion. Two more years passed away, 

 line after line had been surveyed, and knowledge had spread 

 regarding the country. I had been in British Columbia, had seen 

 the Peace River country in summer and had gone down the 

 mighty stream to Lake Athabasca. Again, I reported on the 

 country and this time stronger than before, showing at the same 

 time the products of the soil in testimony of my statements. 



In the spring of 1876, I was before the Committee of the 

 Dominion Parliament to give evidence as to the character of the 

 country to Winnipeg and the Pacific and, although held up to 

 ridicule by some of the members, Mr. James Trow, Chairman of 

 the Committee of Colonization, became interested and believed 

 the greater part of my apparent extravagances and, next year, 

 crossed the country to the Saskatchewan and saw for himself. 



By the year 1877, the surveys were apparently drawing to a 

 close, and this year I was invited to write a report on the whole 

 country for the information of Mr. Mackenzie, who was Minister 

 of Public Works, and cautioned, in plain words, not to draw on 

 my imagination. In response to this, I wrote as much truth about 

 the country as I dared, for I saw that even yet my best friends 

 believed me rather wild on the "illimitable possibilities" of the 

 country. When summing up various areas, I reached the enor- 

 mous figures of 200,000,000 acres and recoiled from making public 

 this number on the ground that the very immensity would deny 

 that amount of credence I desired so, as a salve to my conscience, 

 I kept to the large number of 200,000,000 but said that there were 

 79,920,400 acres of arable land and 120,400,000 acres of pasture, 

 swamps and lakes. At this time, there was so much to engross 

 the minds of the people; the surveys seemed endless; the expense 

 was enormous, that many Members of the House, and at least one 

 Leader, (Mr. Blake) became so conservative that he considered 

 British Columbia was bought at too high a price. My statements 

 appeared as those of an honest but cracked-brained enthusiast 

 and little attention was paid to them. The country was declared 

 to be largely an irreclaimable waste which was too arid for the 

 growth of grain, where there would be extreme danger from frost 



