ADVANTAGES OF F. WILLIAM AND AKROW LAKE ROUTE. 221 



Columbia, of paramount interest to the Imperial Govern- 

 ment, if British laws, institutions, and civilization are to 

 stretch across the American continent, and connect the 

 eastern with the western hemisphere. As an emigrant 

 route, the outlay of a few thousand pounds can make it 

 available for summer communication. An emigrant could 

 then start from Liverpool and proceed to Quebec by steam 

 (eleven days), from Quebec to Collingwood, Lake Huron, 

 by rail (two days), from Collingwood to Fort William 

 by steamer (three days), and from Fort William to Fort 

 Garry via Arrow Lake and the Boundary Line (six days), 

 or twenty-two days in all from Liverpool to Selkirk 

 Settlement. The route through the United States, via St. 

 Paul, cannot offer greater advantages as a summer emi- 

 grant route than those presented by the Chain of Lakes* 

 along the Boundary Line to the north-west corner of the 

 Lake of the Woods, if improved and served in accordance 

 with the suggestions contained in the Appendix to this 

 volume.f Cattle and live stock generally, will necessarily 

 pass to and from the United States over the prairies of 

 Eed Eiver, where food is abundant, and can be obtained 

 without cost, but there is no reason why heavy goods 

 should not in process of time be shipped at Liverpool and 

 proceed direct to Fort William on Lake Superior without 

 transhipment, passing through the magnificent chain of 

 Canadian canals, enumerated on page 16 of the first 

 volume, and thence to Eed Eiver, through British territory 

 via Arrow Lake, Eainy Eiver, and the north-west corner 

 of the Lake of the Woods. 



* See profile of the Chain of Lakes on the Old North- West Company'.s, 

 or the Pigeon Eiver route, according to Mr. Dawson's survey j also plan of 

 the route published in the Blue Book, August, 1860. 



t Remarks on the Pigeon River route, with an estimate of the cost of 

 opening the communication from Fort William to Fort Garry. Appendix, 

 Vol. II. No. 12. 



