316 APPENDIX A 



to the region, their lives are adapted, and each thinks his own 

 surroundings not only normal, but the best. I knew of a num- 

 ber of Ontarians that tried Manitoba for three or four years, 

 then decided that it was too cold, and went off to Southern 

 California, but they all came back, largely from the influence of 

 the children who thought then, and still think, that the Mani- 

 toban climate is just right. 



We do not, indeed, expect Manitobans to find paradise at 

 the limit of trees, but there are in Europe thousands of Finns 

 and Scandinavians, white men, that are familiar with a similar 

 climate. They know the best ways of life for it — ^they have 

 their summer way and their winter way — they know already 

 how to be happy and prosperous under just such conditions, 

 and can teach other settlers the same lesson. They would, 

 indeed, find in the virgin possibilities of our new North-west 

 the land of the New Hope they have so long dreamed of. 

 How gladly they would come if only the way were opened! 



And what does opening the way mean. The way for Europe 

 is open. It is plain sailing to Edmonton. What is then needed, 

 I think, is the railway rushed through at once. The way to open 

 the Peace River Valley is to open the way to Peace River, and 

 the steamboats will do the rest. Then it remains only for us to 

 notify the man we need that we have cleared the way to the 

 land of the New Hope. 



And what is the ultimate race of the region to be? There is 

 a zoological maxim that suggests the answer: An animal finds 

 its highest development in the coldest part of its range where its 

 food is abundant. How true this is of mankind! The giant 

 races of America were from the North-west Buffalo Plains and 

 from Patagonia. The giant race of Africa is the Zulu of the 

 Cape; and the dwarf races the world over are from the tropics, 

 where they are overhot, or the poles, where they are underfed. 

 The highest product of civilisation we believe to have been the 

 white man of northern Europe — a product indeed of the snow. 

 This should help us to forecast the future of the North. 



Henry Ward Beecher, who visited this country some twenty 



