342 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 116. 



of the same class have quite lately been placed 

 on the South Saskatchewan ; and it is proposed 

 to employ these in the present emergency in 

 carrying supplies from Medicine Hat, where 

 this river is crossed by the Canadian Pacific 

 railway, to the vicinity of Prince Albert. 



This portion of the interior of the continent 

 was reached in the days of the fur companies, 

 either by the canoe route from Lake Superior, 

 or by ascending the Nelson River from York 

 Factor} 7 on Hudson Bay ; and it was by the 

 first-mentioned that Sir Garnett Wolseley, with 

 his little force, penetrated to the valley of the 

 Red River in 1870. When St. Paul had be- 

 come a commercial centre, the Hudson-Bay 

 company began to bring the greater part of 

 its goods from the south ; while in later years 

 the police-posts, settlements, and cattle-ranches 

 established in the far west were supplied from 

 Fort Benton, on the Missouri. The Canadian 

 Pacific railway, pushed with unexampled ra- 

 pidity from Winnipeg across the plains, and 

 completed to the summit of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains about eighteen months ago, has, how- 

 ever, completely changed the old lines of travel. 

 The time-honored trail from the Red River by 

 Forts Carleton and Pitt to Edmonton — a 

 journey of nearly nine hundred miles, requir- 

 ing, with loaded carts or wagons, under the 

 most favorable circumstances, nearly fort}' 

 days — need no longer be followed. The 

 points above mentioned, with other isolated 

 little settlements of more recent date along 

 the North Saskatchewan, are now reached by 

 new trails from the nearest stations to the 

 south on the railway ; and a system of telegraph- 

 lines, constructed and operated by the govern- 

 ment, unites the more important of them. 

 After leaving the railway, however, the dis- 

 tances to be traversed in the old-fashioned 

 way, before the more remote settlements are 

 reached, are still very considerable. Thus to 

 Carleton and Prince Albert, from Qu'Appelle 

 station, the trail-distances are 228 and 253 

 miles respective!}' ; from Swift-Current station 

 to Battleford, 202 miles ; and from Calgary to 

 Edmonton, 191 miles. 



The length of this note does not admit of 

 any detailed description of these and other main 

 roads. It may be remarked, however, that 

 while the trail from Qu'Appelle toward Carle- 

 ton and Prince Albert, as far as the crossing 

 of the South Saskatchewan, is generally through 

 an open country, groves and belts of aspen 

 are not infrequent in its vicinity. The longest 

 stretch quite without timber is that known 

 as the salt plains, about thirty miles only in 

 width. 



The country in the vicinity of Carleton, 

 Prince Albert, and Duck Lake, is rolling, or 

 characterized by low hills with numerous and 

 in some cases extensive groves ('bluffs') of 

 wood. The settlement is of a scattered char- 

 acter, but for the most part confined to the 

 point of land between the two branches of 

 the Saskatchewan, the total population being 

 probably about three thousand. 



At the crossing of the South Saskatchewan, 

 by the trail from Swift Current to Battleford, 

 there is a good ferry. This trail, to within 

 about twenty miles of Battleford, is entirely des- 

 titute of wood. Battleford was at one time 

 selected as the seat of government of the North- 

 west territory, but, since the definite location 

 of the railway, has been abandoned in favor 

 of Regina. There are scattered settlements of 

 half-breeds and whites in the neighborhood, 

 and several Cree Indian reserves. The trail 

 from Calgary to Edmonton crosses the Bow, 

 Red Deer, and Battle rivers, and several 

 smaller streams flowing from the foot-hills and 

 mountains. Ferries exist where necessary; and, 

 should these not be destroyed, a rapid advance 

 by this route would be easy. For sixty miles 

 there is no wood on this trail : beyond that 

 point timber is abundant. Edmonton is a 

 somewhat important centre, with a number of 

 little settlements of whites and half-breeds sub- 

 sidiary to it. George M. Dawson. 



THE GLOW-LAMP. 



It was stated not long ago that the number of 

 incandescent lamps in this country alone is over one 

 hundred thousand. Such a success as this warrants 

 a glance at the history of the lamp, which is given by 

 A. Gelyi in the London electrical review. 



While the arc-lamp emits twenty-two hundred can- 

 dle-light per horse-power, and the glow-lamp gives 

 but a hundred and twenty, it is the possibility of so 

 reducing the light to a minimum that has brought 

 the latter system forward; for, although it is true that 

 the arc-light may be considered capable of a division 

 into lamps of intensities varying from twenty to ten 

 gas-flames, that minimum is in many cases, especially 

 for domestic purposes, a great deal too high, whilst 

 the regulating apparatus is expensive. 



But two substances are known which possess such 

 properties as are indispensable for the production of 

 the glow-light; namely, platinum and its alloy with 

 iridium, and, secondly, carbon. The former has the 

 advantage, that, when heated to whiteness, it does not 

 consume away even in the air: but, in a no less 

 important respect, that metal is far behind carbon, 

 for it is by no means capable of sustaining such a 

 degree of heat without fusing; and this is of vital 



