266 Dr James Hector on the Capabilities for Settlement 
Three routes are at present in use by which the country is 
entered. One is from Hudson Bay, by a broken land and 
water carriage, rough and cumbrous in its nature, but which 
has hitherto been the one principally used by the Fur Com- 
pany. Even they, however, have almost abandoned it now in 
favour of the third route I shall mention. 
The second route is from Lake Superior to Lake Winipeg, 
and also involves many changes from water carriage to land 
transport, and never could be used for the introduction of live 
stock or the conveyance of heavy goods. The only advantage 
which either of these routes could possess for us is from their 
both being within British territory. 
The third route, which is undoubtedly the natural line of in- 
gress to the country, but, unfortunately for us, passes through 
American territory, is up the valley of the Mississippi River 
to the Red River settlement by way of St Paul’s, Crow Wing, 
and across the low-water shed which there divides the waters 
of the Mississippi from those flowing to Hudson Bay. 
A large portion of the rich fertile plains of Red River lie to 
the south of the boundary line, and are already being rapidly 
occupied by American settlers. An American steamer now 
plies on that river for a few trips each season, and a railway 
is projected, and the line partly surveyed, to connect St Paul’s 
with Paulina, where there is a new town situated on the 
frontier. This route, even at present, is extremely convenient 
and easy for the emigrant, as it passes through prairie country, 
so that he incurs no expense for the food of his animals when 
travelling. There can be little doubt, that if a railway is 
once constructed by this route, it will become a permanent, 
and doubtless the favourite, line of communication, and against 
it no other will be able to compete successfully. 7 
If there were a prospect of the western prairies being soon 
occupied by a producing population, it might in that case be 
remunerative to have a line of railway constructed entirely 
within the British territory that would have for its object the 
connection of Canada with our new colonies on the Pacific 
coast; but this would justly rank as a great national enter- 
prise, in value much beyond the more western extension of 
our Canadian provinces. 
From the large and flourishing agricultural! settlement of 
