prove of incalculable benefit to Manitoba and the north-western prov- 

 inces of Canada. These districts are now almost shut out from the 

 markets of the world on account of tbe lou-- railway haul, which is now 

 an essential function in the marketing of their products. Their wheat,, 

 their cattle, their lumber, must now be transported over the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway, which has no competitor in that region. So bitter 

 and intense is the feeling in many places in these districts, on account 

 of the seclusion, that threats are frequently made by prominent men, 

 of organizing a movement of secession from the Canadian confedera- 

 tion and of joining the United States. In fact the confederal ion bus 

 been of very little benefit to any of the provinces except Ontario and 

 Quebec. Manitoba, the north-western territories and the maritime 

 provinces have derived very little advantage from the union, and the 

 Government has been obliged, in various ways, to yield to the demands 

 of these provinces in order to keep the peace. 



The expeditions of 1884 and 1885, which the Canadian Government 

 sent out to Hudson's Bay, were organized principally at the urgent 

 entreaty, I might say almost imperative demands, of the north-western 

 provinces. 



A select committee of the House of Commons was appointed at the 

 session of Parliament, in 1884, to inquire into the navigation of Hud- 

 son's Bay. They had full power to send for persons and papers, and 

 they made an exhaustive study of the problem. They were so con- 

 vinced of the importance and practicability of the project, that they 

 submitted a report to the House, in April of that year, in which they 

 recommended that a surveying and. exploring expedition be sent to 

 Hudson's Strait and Bay; that stations be established at important 

 places in the Strait where meteorological and magnetic observations 

 should be made, various physical phenomena studied, such as the cur- 

 rents, temperature of waters, the tides, the movements and nature of 



