PERMANENTLY APPOINTED TO GOVERNMENT 18? 



entered into the arrangement with every element in favour of the 

 'Syndicate' making a good bargain. Our own people had done 

 their best to show that the road would never pay running expenses 

 when built, and that the country through which it would pass 

 was, in many places, a howling wilderness and would remain so. 

 With these weapons in their hands and, in addition, with a know- 

 ledge of the country, which would carry everything before them, 

 (one section of our people had persistently rejected and refused 

 to build), the 'Syndicate' entered the fight. 



"The bargain with the 'Syndicate' was scarcely concluded 

 when they showed their determination to carry the road still 

 further south. Acting on my report of the preceding year, they 

 sent engineers south of the Assiniboine and examined the country 

 westward. The City of Brandon was located and their examina- 1 

 tion of the country was so satisfactory that they sent engineers 

 into the Rocky Mountains to examine the Bow River Pass, or, as 

 it is called in the reports, the Kicking Horse Pass. These en- 

 gineers have reported, and it is believed that the road may be 

 carried through the mountains at that point. At present, the 

 road is located from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw Creek; a distance 

 of four hundred miles. From this point they can go west to 

 Calgary or turn to the northwest in the direction of Battleford." 



At this time, I had an interview with Colonel Dennis and was 

 told that I might prepare myself for another expedition the 

 coming summer ; this year they were not going to send me to the 

 prairie but I would be asked to spend the summer on Lakes 

 Manitoba and Winnipegosis, and the rivers entering those lakes 

 and the Assiniboine River. I learned later that the Marquis of 

 of Lome was intending to make a tour through the North West 

 the coming summer and he asked me to lecture so that he could 

 gain information regarding his trip. Colonel Dennis informed me 

 that the Marquis wished to have me with him as guide, but he 

 also told me that the Government had decided that I must be 

 used this summer in the exploration I have mentioned above. 

 My next surprise was an invitation from Jim Hill, the railway 

 magnate, to go to St. Paul to meet the "Syndicate" in his office, 

 when I was on my way to the West. 



