184 PERMANENTLY APPOINTED TO GOVERNMENT 



I now began to refuse offers from various incompetent men 

 to be attached to my party during the summer. As it was, I 

 chose three boys and took my nephew, David, as my man. The 

 three boys were, J. M. Macoun, my own son, George Moore, of 

 Winnipeg and Henry Williams, of Belleville. These three boys 

 were hardly twenty years of age and the exploration I was to 

 make, I learned later on, had been tried by three parties, all of 

 whom had failed and I was asked as a last resource. I have given 

 the composition of my party and, when I look back on what I 

 was expected to do, it was a wild adventure, and yet, the boys 

 came through it like men and did the best they could, but, oh! 

 when I think of their poling the boat up stream and their want of 

 success and chiefly failure, I feel that I was a very ill prepared 

 man for what I was expected to do. 



In due course, I reached St. Paul and met the "Syndicate," 

 with their engineer, who had charge of the railroad end. We sat 

 in Mr. Hill's office at a round table with maps spread out and, 

 amongst others, there were two gentlemen from Montreal, mem- 

 bers of the "Syndicate." The maps that were spread on the 

 table showed me that, at this time, the surveys had been extended 

 beyond Moose Jaw and they had already located the road to that 

 point, which was four hundred and four miles from Winnipeg. 

 At this time, there was no decision made by them as to what pass 

 the railroad should take. They were prepared to go to the north- 

 west to the Yellow Head, or west, to the Bow River, as the "Syn- 

 dicate" would decide. The engineer showed them that he had 

 been stopped by the South Saskatchewan, because its banks were 

 very high and they were of such nature that they were liable to 

 crumble and wash away at any time. As we talked, I told them 

 my experiences of the year before and told them of the easy road 

 that could be made from Moose Jaw, west to Seven Persons Coulee 

 (near Medicine Hat), and I told them of looking up the Bow River 

 Pass two years before and seeing a wide open valley. I told them, 

 also, that there were at least four hundred miles from Moose Jaw, 

 where there were no trees and scarcely a shrub, and I was asked 

 by the engineer where they could get the ties. I told him at once 

 that was not my business, it was his. After some more discussion, 



