142 REPORT—1868, 
had satisfactorily solved this question, and that a practicable line, even for a rail- 
road, had been found to exist from the plains of the Saskatchewan through Yellow 
Tlead Pass and across the central plain of British Columbia to Bute Inlet. The 
latter, which penetrates the coast about 100 miles to the north-west of the Frazer 
River, had moreover the advantage of possessing a fine and secure harbour, and of 
being accessible to vessels all the year round. The author pressed the great prac- 
tical importance of this subject, owing to the approaching completion of the creat 
Pacific Railroad through the United States, which would lead to the transfer of 
the China and Hastern trade from Europe to the New World, whilst at the same 
time a shorter and a better. route through British territory could be shown to 
exist. The result of the author’s geographical investigations was to prove that 
the physical difficulties standing in the way of a railroad-undertaking through 
British ground were not of great magnitude. It had, in the first place, been 
hitherto generally believed that the country north of Lake Superior was broken 
and barren in the extreme, thus rendering it totally unfit to serve for an over- 
land communication with the West; so that the only feasible road to connect 
Canada with the north-west territory and the Pacific must be through Min- 
nesota. But the explorations which were made last year by the Canadian Go- 
vernment showed that a vast tract of level country lies to the north of the hills 
which surround Lake Superior, and that good crops of wheat are raised in this 
region, in lat. 49°. From Ottawa to the mouth of the Montreal river, 280 miles, 
the country presents no serious obstacle. The ground hence to within a distance 
of 280 miles of the River Nipigon, in long. 88° 25’, was found to be ‘‘ most favour- 
able.’ Further west there is a considerable amount of sterile country ; but beyond 
the Lake of the Woods commences the great plain of the Saskatchewan, which 
extends to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and presents one thousand miles of 
easy ground for the construction of a railway, besides possessing a fine climate and 
a fertile soil. Unlike the arid American desert further south, through which the 
Pacific Railroad of the United States has to pass, the British lme would pass over 
one of the richest countries in the world, and one of the best adapted for settle- 
ment. The most practicable and suitable line for crossing the mountains was the 
northern route, by the Yellow Head Pass and over the Caileoaten Plain, which 
led to the road explored and opened by the author to the Pacifie port at the head 
of Bute Inlet. Thus the road throughout lay at a considerable distance from the 
United States boundary. The distance across the continent, from Montreal to 
Bute Inlet, by this line was almost exactly 3000 miles, whilst the distance from 
New York to San Francisco by the Pacific Railroad was 3230 miles, In winter, 
when access to Montreal by the St. Lawrence is prevented by the ice, the starting- 
point would be Shippigan, which would reverse the difference by 359 miles in 
favour of New York. The whole country, from Ottawa to the Rocky Mountains, 
along which the proposed railway would run, is fertile, and fit for settlement, 
except some portions of the interval of 285 miles between the Nipigon and Wini- 
peg rivers, which are composed of Silurian rocks, and are comparatively sterile. 
The difficulties in regard to climate are not so great as they have been supposed to 
be. As a general rule, railway trains run regularly all winter, with the exception 
of an occasional snow-storm; and further to the west the quantity of snow in 
winter diminishes with the decrease of atmospheric moisture. On the plain of the 
Saskatchewan snow does not pack more than 14 inches thick, and evaporates 
quickly. The isothermal lines, indeed, in crossing the North American continent, 
curve northwards towards the Pacific coast, and show an increase in mean tem- 
perature over the Atlantic coast equal to 11° of latitude. At Victoria, in Van- 
couver’s Island, snow rarely falls, and the Arbautus grows in the open air to the 
size of a tree, the climate resembling that of Nantes in France, owing to the 
direction of the trade-winds in the Northern Pacific. Vancouver’s Island lies 
nearer Kastern Asia, at least to sailing-vessels, than California; for, according to 
Capt. Maury, “the trade-winds place Vancouver's Island on the wayside of the 
road from China and Japan to San Francisco so completely, that a vessel trading 
under canvas to the latter place would take the same route as if she were bound 
to Vancouver’s Island; so that all return cargoes would naturally come there, in 
order to save two or three weeks, besides risk and expense.” The author concluded 
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