206 REVIEWS — OVERLAND ROUTE TO BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



of the colonial empire, than any other means of communication between the 

 two oceans. 



" 3rd. That although the magnitude of the scheme for a railway across the 

 Continent is very great, yet the vast importance of the work, — in a commercial, 

 military, and national view, — would demand its construction were the resources 

 of the country and the traffic sufficiently developed. 



" 4th. That the immediate completion of this work cannot he seriously enter- 

 tained in the present condition of the country, the cost of maintenance, with- 

 out sufficient traffic, being so very great ; and that therefore, to be constructed 

 at all, the railway must be a work of time. 



" 5th. That the Canadian road and railway system has illustrated the advan- 

 tages which may be derived from the adoption of a comprehensive road scheme 

 in laying open new districts for settlement. 



" 6th. That a scheme which embraces the ultimate completion of railways and 

 less perfect lines of communication, by a progressive system of construction,, 

 ■possesses many features favourable to the first settlement as well as the future 

 requirements of the traffic of new territories. 



" Tth. That the system proposed for the development of the highways of a 

 new country, by progressive stages corresponding with the progress made by 

 the country itself in general advancement, is one peculiarly applicable to the 

 case under discussion ; and while it might be expedient, in the first instance, to 

 employ some of the natural water channels as a means of introducing settlers 

 and labourers along the line of road, until the latter became in some degree 

 serviceable, it would not be advisable to incur any great expenditure on works 

 beyond the limits of the great thoroughfare ultimately in view. That the first 

 effort should be made to construct an electric telegraph along the precise line of 

 the future railway ; that the telegraph should be the precursor of other means 

 of communication, beginning, it may be, with a bridle path or Indian trail from 

 post to post, and ending with a perfect line of railway when the traffic of the 

 country or the interests of the nation required the most rapid means of steam 

 communication." 



We select also a few paragraphs respecting the mode of proceeding 

 with the work : — 



" The first step required is the location of what has been designated a ' terri- 

 torial road' between all the more important or governing points on the line of 

 route. Commencing at the western terminus, these points would probably be : 

 the mouth of the Frazer River, or the best harbour on the Pacific coast north of 

 the 49th parallel ; the best pass which has been or may be discovered across the 

 Rocky Mountains contiguous to a line which would run along the general direc- 

 tion of the ' Fertile Belt ' of the interior ; the most southerly bend of the North 

 Saskatchewan River ; the best crossing of Red River between its confluence 

 with the Assiniboine and the southerly end of Lake Winnipeg ; the best crossing 

 of the River Winnipeg near the north end of the Lake of the Woods ; the most 

 northerly bend of the shore of Lake Superior ; the best crossing of the French 



