178 FOURTH EXPLORATION, 1880 



the lake had no existence for he had men looking for it the whole 

 summer and no one of them had found it. I calmly said that 

 they did not know how to look and then he turned his attention 

 to me. At this point, Mr. McDonnell took me aside and told me 

 that the gentleman who had dined with us was the Police In- 

 spector from Shoal Lake, who had come up to make an examina- 

 tion of the facts as Mr. Smith had sent a courier to him at Shoal 

 Lake to take the men prisoners who were now on their way to 

 Winnipeg. 



As my trip for the year was nearly over, I may as well say 

 a few words in regard to the surveys and railway questions that 

 had been considered up to this time. My earlier reports on the 

 value of the prairie country had been causing considerable dis- 

 cussion between the Liberal party and the Conservatives for some 

 years. The Liberals, of course, held with Mr. Mackenzie, whose 

 idea was to build the road in parts and have water connections 

 in other parts. This idea of his led to the first survey being made 

 across the narrows of Lake Manitoba, and the extension of 

 the railway to the northwest by Livingstone and onwards 

 in the "fertile belt" to Edmonton. About 1874, Mr. Horetzky 

 began to talk of a road through the pass that he and I found 

 in 1872 (the Pine Pass). His idea was to run north and across 

 the Saskatchewan at Fort-a-la-Corne and on by way of Lac La 

 Biche, then cross the Athabasca and take the north shore of Little 

 Slave Lake, and so cross to the Pine Pass. Marcus Smith also 

 advocated this route, but Mr. Fleming decided, in 1872, for the 

 Yellowhead Pass and all his efforts in succeeding years were to 

 carry out that idea. 



My early reports had influenced many people, but the politi- 

 cians were still in opposition to each other and my report of 1877 

 seemed to have caused some doubt even in the mind of Mr. Mac- 

 kenzie because certain modifications were made in 1878 that were 

 carried out later. 



In the spring of 1879, Mr. Fleming gave notice to the people 

 at Portage la Prairie that the railway would certainly go to that 

 point, showing that Mr. Mackenzie's plans, made the year before, 

 were thrown aside. When I was going west in 1879 most of the 



