THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE FERTILE BELT. 235 



humidity, inestimable value on British America south of 

 the 54th parallel. 



The natural resources lying within the limits of the 

 Fertile Belt, or on its eastern borders, are themselves of 

 great value as local elements of future wealth and pros- 

 perity ; but in view of a communication across the con- 

 tinent they acquire paramount importance. 



Timber available for fuel and building purposes ; lig- 

 nite coal, though not equal to true coal, nevertheless suit- 

 able for many of the different objects to which true 

 coal is applied ; iron-ore widely distributed, of great 

 purity and in considerable abundance ; salt in quantity 

 sufficient for a dense population. All these crude ele- 

 ments of wealth he within the limits or on the borders 

 of a region of great fertility, and drained by a river of the 

 first class, navigable by steamer during several months of 

 the year for five hundred miles of its course, and by 

 batteaux for nearly double that distance. 



The position which the colony occupying the basin of 

 Lake Winnipeg may assume at the close of the next 

 decade, few will be prepared to define. Bounded on 

 the west by British Columbia, whose gold-wealth will 

 ensure her a marvellously rapid progress, and on the east 

 by the powerful, energetic, and loyal colony of Canada, 

 which now, in conjunction with the sister provinces, con- 

 tains a population exceeding by one million that of the 

 thirteen United States during the revolutionary war, is it 

 likely that British enterprise and patriotism will permit the 

 intervening country to remain a wilderness, or pass into 

 the hands of a foreign government ? 



It is to be earnestly hoped that the attention of far- 

 seeing, thoughtful, and loyal men will be directed to the 

 present relations of the new colony, its possible future, and 

 the opportunity it presents to plant British institutions and 



