416 A GLANCE AT THE POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 
commercial communication between Canada and Central British 
America, in the absence of correct knowledge of the physical fea- 
tures of the country. The utmost length of the barrier which 
_requires the construction of a road, scarcely exceeds 200 miles. From 
its western extremity there is an unobstructed navigation, with but 
one break, to the edge of the fertile prairies of Central British 
America via Rainy River and the Lake of the Woods ; and its eastern 
extremity is connected uninterruptedly with the sea by the Great 
Lakes and the St. Lawrence. The highest point over which the 
road from Lake Superior to the northern indent of Rainy Lake must 
pass, is not 900 feet above Lake Superior ; and for the first 30 miles 
it would traverse a country susceptible of tillage for several miles 
on either side. Then follows a sudden rise, marked by the great 
Drift bank of Dog Lake, which forms the Eastern limit of a Drift- 
covered country stretching in a north-east and south-west direction, 
and having a breadth of about ninety miles where the road would 
cross it. This accumulation of Drift covers the height of land to a 
depth certainly exceeding 150 feet, as shown by the hills at the 
‘summit level at Prairie Portage, 885 feet above Lake Superior, and 
the highest point on the line of road. There are no serious physical 
impediments to overcome between Lake Superior and the northern 
indent of Rainy Lake, either for a waggon road or a railway ; and 
this short link of 200 miles completed, the distance between Fort 
William on Lake Superior and the commencement of the arable 
prairies of the valley of Red River would be reduced to 200 miles . 
of road or railroad, and 180 miles of steam navigation. Here, then, 
we see no formidable impediments, which an impression derived from 
the custom of traversing the country in canoes through the rocky 
channels of rapid rivers or hill-embosomed lakes, had created in the 
minds of the few who have traversed that region ;—impressions 
which, too eagerly accepted by the public, notwithstanding the im- 
perfect knowledge of the physical conformation of the country, 
which a rapid journey without special geographical objects in view is 
fitted to obtain, have retarded the settlement of the fertile prairies 
of Red River. 
The communication between Central British America, British 
Columbia, and the Pacific Ocean, is the next point to be considered. 
The recent successful journey across the Rocky Mountains of the 
Canadian emigrant party of 1862, by an old and long unused trail, 
