348 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 



and Colonization," delivered in the Mechanics' Institute, TorDiito^ 

 1847. It will be seen that in 1847 he had a very clear view of 

 the capabilities of the then almost wholly undeveloped ISTorth-West. 

 "I dare say by this time," Mr. Sullivan said, in the course of his 

 address, " I have established my character for being visionary and 

 over-ardent, and impatient; but I have to lead you yet farther. Just 

 take the map of Canada — but no ! that will not do ; take the map of 

 North America, and look to the westward of that glorious inland 

 sea, Lake Superior. I say nothing of the mineral treasures of its 

 northern shores, or those of our own Lake Huron, but I ask you to 

 go with me to the head of Lake Superior, to the boundary line. You 

 will say it is a cold journey ; but I tell you the climate still improves 

 as you go westward. At the head of Lake Superior we surmount a 

 height of land, and then descend into the real garden of the British 

 possessions, of which so few know anything. Books tell you little of 

 the country, and what they do say will deceive and mislead you. _ I 

 tell you what I have heard directly from your townsman, Mr. Angus 

 Bethune, and indirectly from Mr. Ermatinger, very lately from that 

 country : — A little to the westward of Lake Superior is Lake Win- 

 ,nipeg, and into Lake Winnipeg runs the Saskatchewan River. It 

 .takes its rise in the Rocky Mountains, and the Lake Winnipeg dis- 

 charges its waters towards and into Hudson's Bay. This river runs 

 from west to east fifteen hundred miles without an obstruction ; it is 

 navigable for ba its carrying ten or twelve tons. It runs through a 

 country diversified with prairie, rich grass, clumps of forest, and on 

 one of the branches of the river are coal-beds, out of which coal can 

 be obtained by any one with a spade in his hand or, without ; and 

 the plains are covered with the wild bufiialo of America. I am told 

 that you may drive a waggon from one end to the other of the 

 country of the Saskatchewan ; and I am told, moreover, that it is 

 superior in soil and equal in climate to any part of Canada, and that 

 it produces wheat, barley, oats, potatoes — -in short, all the crops of 

 temperate climates — in abundance." Now that Manitoba has been 

 orgunized, and a beneficent civilization is beginning to spread itself 

 thence far out over the broad Saskatchewan valleys, destined soon to 

 meet influences of a similar kind emanating from British Columbia, 

 the forecasts of a thoughtful, ardent mind in regard to these regions 

 some thii'ty years ago are interesting to read ; and they may help us 

 to realize and measure the progress — material, social, and m.oral — 

 which has been made in that interval of time. 



