CONCLUSION. 



I HAVE thought it most convenient to the reader to unite 

 ■with the text, as it passes in description from place to place, 

 what knowledge of the agricultural and other resources of 

 the country was obtainable at the time. The reader is prob- 

 ably weary of description by this time; but, should he make 

 a similar journey, I am convinced he would not weary of the 

 reality. Travellers, however, differ strangely in perception. 

 Some are observers, with imagination to brighten and judg- 

 ment to weigh, and, if need be, correct, first impressions; 

 whilst others, with vacant eye, or out of harmony with novel 

 and perhaps irksome surroundings, see, or profess to see, 

 nothing. The readiness, for instance, of the Eastern " fling " 

 at Western Canada thirty years ago is still remembered, and 

 it is easy to transfer it to the North. 



Those who lament the meagreness of our records of the 

 fur-trade and primitive social life in Ontario, for example, 

 before the advent of the U. E. Loyalists, can find their almost 

 exact counterpart in Athabasca to-day. For what that Pro- 

 vince was then, viz., a wilderness, Athabasca is now; and it 

 is safe to predict that what Ontario is to-day Athabasca will 

 become in time. Indeed, Northern Canada is the analogue 

 of Eastern Canada in more likenesses than one. 



That the country is great and possessed of almost unique 

 resources is beyond doubt ; but that it has serious drawbacks, 

 particularly in its lack of railway connection with the outer 

 world, is also true. And one thing must be borne in mind, 

 namely, that, when the limited areas of prairie within its 

 borders are taken up, the settler must face the forest with 

 the axe. 



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