218 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



North- West Transit Company, on certain conditions, for 

 the purpose of opening the communication between Lake 

 Superior and Eed Eiver. It is not yet determined 

 whether the Company will adopt the route by Mille Lacs 

 and the Seine or the Fort William and Arrow Lake route. 



COMMUNICATION WITH THE UNITED STATES. 



The summer and winter routes between Fort Garry 

 and Crow Wing are described in preceding chapters. 

 As the importance of this communication progresses the 

 journey will be made with horses and stage coach 

 throughout the winter months by the summer road. 

 During the period of navigation the distance between St. 

 Paul, the present head of navigation on the Mississippi, 

 and Fort Garry, is accomplished in nine days ; six days 

 being required to travel from St. Paul to Georgetown, on 

 Eed Eiver, by stage coaches, and three days by steamer 

 from Georgetown to Fort Garry. Mr. Burbank's com- 

 plement of 100 waggons, in brigades of twenty-five each, 

 are now running from St. Paul to Georgetown, conveying 

 the freight of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company, for which 

 service Mr. Burbank has a contract for five years, whereby 

 he is bound to carry 500 tons annually for that period. 

 The Hudson's Bay Company have relinquished their 

 northern route via Hudson's Bay, York Factory, and 

 Lake Winnipeg, and adopted the route through the 

 United States, via St. Paul and Georgetown on Eed Eiver 

 to Fort Garry.* 



* " On the first day of June next (1860) a new era will open for St. Paul and 

 the north-west. On that day will commence the regular trips of Burbank 

 and Co.'s express, coach, waggon, and steamboat lines between St. Paul and 

 Fort Garry on the Red River of the north, in the Hudson's Bay territory, 

 for the year 1860. 



" The first experiment in far north-western passenger and freight transpor- 

 tation was made by Burbank and Co. last year, the result of which is, that 



