long voyages, may be advantageously fol- topographical advantage for its complelowed in travelling westward across Ameri- tion. ca. Communication with the East is made The great water systems of British Amershorter and shorter the farther north its line ica are an instructive object of study, of route is removed. The application of a and, as affecting the topic under considerastring to the measurement of the distance tion, have never received the attention they between two places on a geographical globe merit. The direction in which navigable will at once illustrate the system of sailing rivers flow usually indicates the course or travelling on "the spherical line of commerce will take in a country; and, as a shortest distance." The greatest breadth of rule, a railroad admits of easiest constructhe Western Continent happening to lie in tion through valleys scooped out by the British North American territory, here perennial action of streams. But to exe(paradoxical though it may seem, but never- cute a line across the direction of many theless in strict conformity with the princi- water-courses must be acknowledged to be ple just adverted to, which is universally a very cross-grained and expensive operaacknowledged in practical navigation) we tion. Now it is a curious fact in the geohave the shortest possible route from Eng- graphy of America that, in the direction of land to the East. It is surely an interesting the St. Lawrence, and there only, the rivers circumstance that where we desired the of America follow a course east and west. connection between Eastern Asia and The Mississippi and the Missouri, having Western Europe should be formed, through their courses close to the British frontier, America, almost every possible facility for disembogue into the Gulf of Mexico; the its formation is lavishly afforded. Our McKenzie, after winding its way through place of starting may be Europe, the west nearly sixteen parallels of latitude, discoast of Africa, the West Indies, or the charges into the Arctic Sea. On the other eastern coast of the North American Con- hand, in that tract which possesses the tinent; but if the East be our destination, climate most favourable for an overland our best route is unquestionably across the route, the waters of the St. Lawrence, the great plain of Central British America. penetrate well-nigh half-way across the There is the point of junction where all the continent. That river joins on to a chain traffic of the continent, south, east, and of lakes and navigable streams that north, most naturally unites, if its goal be yet farther west, till the eastern antipodes be reached. To this position we are inevitably shut up. It is, in fact, determined for us by the spheroidal conformation of the earth, and the relative distances thereby created. The long continuation of rainless deserts and passless mountains in the territory of the great Republic renders Yankee competition with us, as to facilities of overland transit, hopeless. Can it be uneconomic, then, to open a country having this generality of access, and yet holding such a monopoly of advantage? finally merge in the Winnipeg River, and by the branches of the Saskatchewan, this water system strikes into the heart of the Rocky Mountains, marking out the practicable passes through that otherwise stern barrier. As misrepresentations respecting the soil and climate of that section of British North America now under review have prevailed in this country, let a word or two suffice for the inquiry whether the nature of the country in these particulars is incompatible with settlement in, and transit through, it. The space between Fort If the utmost abbreviation of distance be William, at the head of Lake Superior, and our object, and the Far East the goal, by Fort Garry, Red River, comprises large and availing ourselves of the proper season we fertile tracts, varying from 20,000 to 200,may shorten the distance from Europe 000 acres in size. Sir George Simpson, in 1,500 miles, by proceeding across Hudson's his evidence on the subject given before a Bay. But from wherever we may come, Committee of the House of Commons, in we necessarily unite in the great stream of 1856, eulogises the qualities of the soil in traffic that, bound for the East, in future the valley of Kamenis Toquoiah. Every years will meet on the plains of the Red one of the ten thousand settlers already River or the Saskatchewan. In this region, cultivating the land in the Red River diswhere the climate is the most healthful trict is a witness to the abounding agriculon the American continent, and where tural wealth found there. For 400 miles the flag of England still waves, nature up the Assiniboine, to its junction with the has marked out the most expedi- Moose River, there is nothing to be seen tious line of route, and combined every but prairie, covered with long red grass. FOURTH SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. I. 15. "On the east, north, and south," says Sir | stated that on the 1st of May the SaskatcheGeorge, "there was not a mound or tree wan country was free from snow, and the to vary the vast expanse of green river half full of water; and Captain Palsward; while to the west were the gleam-liser records that on January 9th, 1858, ing bays of the Assiniboine, separated from there was little or no snow on the ground each other by wooded points of considera- from Edmonton to Rocky Mountain House. ble depth." The productiveness of Red The superiority of our advantages in River settlement may be inferred from the reference to the courses of rivers, and the yield of wheat there, as compared with the basins formed by them, has already been average in the adjoining States of America. touched upon. We also enjoy facilities imIn Minnesota it stands at 20 bushels to measurably surpassing those of the Amerithe acre, in Massachusetts at 16, and in Red cans in having convenient passes through the River at 40. The average weight, north of Rocky Mountains. The peculiar physical the States' boundary, is from 64 to 67 lbs. difficulties that oppose the construction of per imperial bushel, while that of the best an inter-oceanic railway through American Illinois wheat is from 60 to 65 lbs. per territory, as contrasted with the much bushel. M. Bourgeau, botanist to the Pal- fewer trials of engineering skill to be met liser expedition, in a letter to Sir William with on the British side, give us an opporHooker, writes thus in regard to the Sas-tunity of yet being first, if we will, to comkatchewan district :-"This district is much more adapted to the culture of the staple crops of temperate climates-wheat, rye, barley, oats. &c. than one would have been inclined to believe from its high latitude. The prairies offer natural pasturage, as favourable for the maintenance of numerous herds as if they had been artificially created. On the south branch of the North Saskatchewan extend rich and vast prairies interspersed with woods and forests, where thick wood plants furnish excellent pasturage for domestic animals."* A vast coal formation, too, has been traced from 49th parallel of latitude far beyond the 60th, which, with other elements of wealth in the soil, would seem to indicate that the region is designed to become a great field for human industry. In regard to the climate of the route, it may be stated generally that the ocean to the windward of America being larger and warmer than that which washes its eastern shores, and the inland waters being so extensive north of the boundary, the climate is tempered accordingly. The isothermal line therefore runs farther north on the west coast than on the east. That line starting from New York, for instance, and drawn across the continent, would pass through Lake Winnipeg to Fort Simpson, which is 1,000 miles north of the commercial capital of the United States. The northern shore of Lake Huron enjoys the mean summer temperature of Bordeaux in the south of France (70° Fahr.), while Cumberland House, in lat. 54°, long. 1020, on the Saskatchewan, exceeds in this respect Brussels and Paris. One of the witnesses before the House of Commons in 1856 * Explorations by Captain Palliser, p. 250. plete this enterprise, though the rival nation has so far got the start. Ever since the discovery of gold in Calfornia the ablest military engineers of the United States have been engaged in searching for a practicable outlet in the Rocky Mountains, but not a single pass has been detected for 1,000 miles south of the 49th parallel less than 6,000 feet high. Ten years ago, when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War, he said, "the only practicable route for railway communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts of North America is through the Hudson's Bay territory, on account of the desert land from the north boundary of the United States to the extreme south of Texas." In 1858 the Governor of Minnesota also admitted that a * great inter-oceanic communication is more likely to be constructed through the Saskatchewan basin than across the American desert." Depressions in the passes north of lat. 49° are generally manageable, numerous and so well distributed as to leave us at, no loss in entering whatever portion of British Columbia from north to south we may desire. Captain Palliser takes notice of eight passes, the altitudes of which were measured by him, the Vermillion Pass, 4,944 feet high, being the most convenient of ascent he had discovered. About three years after the explorations conducted by that gentleman, the Leather Pass attracted attention as the most favourable for wheel conveyances and as requiring the least expense for grading. It is situated in lat. 54°, is 400 or 500 feet lower than the Vermillion, and has a mean clear ascent of only from 34 to 34 feet in the whole distance from Fort Edmonton. It was crossed in 1862 by * Explorations, p. 14. ties successfully grappled with by Russia in opening up internal communications through her sparsley populated and much more inhospitable territory, and in extending her trade with China through the interior of Asia, those attaching to our overland enterprise are of the most Lilliputian character. several parties of adventurers bound for the mines of British Columbia, embracing more than two hundred persons in all. One of these companies travelled with one hundred and thirty oxen and seventy horses. From the lips of many of these emigrants I have received uniform testimony to the clear and level aspect of the country through But the grand question remains to be which they journeyed, and to the practica- answered. What would be the real gain bility of the Leather Pass for railway pur- to commerce by the proposed undertaking? poses. From the description given by Would it be satisfactory as an investment? Viscount Milton and Dr. Cheadley of their It is the opinion of those fully competent to travels through the Rocky Mountains, it deal with this practical bearing of the subwill be seen that these sublime heights, ject that the amount of direct traffic which covered with eternal snows, are no longer would be created between Australia, China, invested to the traveller with repellent India, Japan, and England, by a railway terrors. His lordship and his friend thus from Halifax to the Gulf of Georgia, would write : "From Red River to Edmonton, soon render the work a financial success. about 800 miles, the road lies through a The following table will illustrate the disfertile and park-like country, and an ex-tance and time in the Vancouver Island, or cellent cart trail already exists. From British Columbian route, from England to Edmonton to Jasper House, a distance of Hong-Kong, as contrasted with the present about 400 miles, the surface is slightly un- mail route via the Isthmus of Suez: dulating. From Jasper House the pass through the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains, about 100 or 120 miles in length-a wide break in the chain, running nearly east and west, offers a natural roadway, unobstructed except by timber. The rivers, with the exception of the Athabasca and the Fraser, are small and fordable, even at their highest. The ascent to the height of land is very gradual, and, indeed, hardly perceptible. to Tete Jaune's Cache west. The descent on the western slope, though more rapid, is neither steep nor difficult. From the Cache to the road might be carried in almost a straight line to Richfield, in Cariboo, lying nearly due This part of the country is mountainous and densely wooded, but the distance is not more than 90 miles, and a road has already been made from the mouth of Quesnelle, on the Fraser, to Richfield, through similar country." Engineering skill has already triumphed over natural obstacles infinitely more formidable than are here to be encountered, in cutting paths through the Alleghanies in the United States, the Sommering heights in Austria, and the Bhore Ghauts in India. The railway from Kan-Kan to the Deccan through the last-named mountains, had to contend with an elevation, in a very short distance, from a base 196 feet to an altitude 2,627 feet, with a gradient of 1 in 48. Twelve tunnels were formed, equal to 2,535 yards; also eight viaducts, eighteen bridges, and eighteen culverts, at a cost of £41,118 per mile, making a total of £597,222. In comparison, too, with the difficul Distance, overland by Suez, from Southampton to Hong-Kong, 9,467 miles, 50-60 days. Distance from Southampton to Halifax, 2,532 miles, 9 days' steam. Distance from Halifax to Vancouver Island 2,536 miles, 6 days' rail. Distance from Vancouver Island to HongKong 6.053 miles, 21 days' steam. Total 11,121 miles, 36 days. With a clear saving of some twenty days the route now advocated would combine the advantage of shortening the time now spent at sea on the voyage via Suez by the same number of days, and a large proportion of passengers who at present travel to China by that isthmus and the Cape of Good Hope, might be expected to select in preference the railway through British North America, as less trying to the constitution as well as more expeditious than the routes now in use. In these busy days, when the proverb, "Time is money," is more signally exemplified than ever, and when the six hundred millions of Orientals in China and India are becoming increasingly interested in our articles of export, an abbreviated communication with these countries cannot very much longer escape the attention of political economists and men of business. Large cargoes would probably continue to be conveyed by the Cape, but light freight, mails, treasure, the better class of passengers, and troops would be certain to go and come via the TransAmerican Railway. Nor is this all. Not to speak of the reduction of distance to Vancouver Island and British Columbia, in the great drama to be played there under which by this mode of transit would be 5,650 French appointment. The acute eye of miles as contrasted with 9,000 by the Pana- the Emperor cannot fail to discern that the ma route, consider the saving that would marvels of commerce and civilization by be effected in the passage to our South which so high a degree of lustre has been Pacific colonies. The route by the Isthmus shed on the European coasts of the Atlantic, of Panama is the shortest practicable one are about to be repeated with probably tenfold at present in existence, and a steam-packet greater brilliance on the American shores mail service is to be opened through it, at of the Pacific. He has deeply pondered the the beginning of 1866, to New Zealand history of Eastern trade, now flowing eastand New South Wales. But if the intended ward from Asia, while in the past it has onrailway were connected with a line of ly streamed westward. He sees the imperasteamers plying between Vancouver Island tive necessity of possessing an uninterruptand those colonies, Vancouver Island being ed route over soil of which he has absolute 900 miles nearer to Sydney than Panama is, command. Mexico affords this desired fathe time to Sydney would be reduced to cility, stretching as it does from ocean to 47 days, or ten days less than by steam ocean. A railway is in progress from Vera from Englad via Panama. Cruz, in the Gulf of Mexico, and now rapidly approaches the city of Mexico. Thence it is to be carried westward to Acapulco, the ancient port for Spanish trade with Manilla on the one hand, and Spain on the other. From Acapulco he has resolved that there shall be lines of French steamers in future years plying to China, Japan, the Sandwich Islands, and the more fertile portions of southern Polynesia. French interference in some of the islands of the Pacific of late has been specially noticeable. But the importance of this railroad scheme is enhanced when its political utility is taken into account. Military emergencies may arise, if not in our day, perhaps in some coming generation, when necessity for such a great highway to our Eastern possessions, wholly through British territory, may be strongly felt. Happily Great Britain lives at present on terins of amity with the rest of the civilised world. Can we be certain, however, that in the extension of French power eastward, British and French interests will never come in collision? Is it possible to predict what may be the issue of the noiseless but real aggrandising policy of France in seeking fresh acquisitions of territory in the Mediterranean, and in expending so vast an amount upon the formation of the Lesseps canal across the Isthmus of Suez? In the event of war with that or any other European power interrupting the existing overland passage from England by the Red Sea, it is almost needless to remark that our Indian empire would be placed in imminent jeopardy. Should we, under these circumstances, be destitute of those facilities for the expeditious transport of troops and military stores which the proposed line of railway could alone adequately supply, actum est would be aptly descriptive of all we hold dear in the East. We are the only first-rate power on the globe that is not striving to obtain ready access to the Pacific for commercial and political objects through its own territory. Mexico is virtually under the control of France, and Chevalier, in his recent work on that country, helps us to unravel the secret of Napoleon's conquest of it. The erection of a barrier against the application of the Monroe doctrine by the United States, and the development of the boundless resources of Mexico, are but subordinate acts Then Russia, whose aggressive policy was regarded by the first Napoleon with more apprehension than was felt by him in reference to any other single European nation, has recently established herself in great maritime strength on the banks of the Amoor River, in the vicinity of China and Japan. She alone of all the Powers of Europe has possessions extending in unbroken continuity from the European shores of the Atlantic, or at least the Baltic, to the Pacific, and all her energies are bent to the gigantic task of completing clear and easy transit from her Asiatic shores, via Siberia, to St. Petersburg. That she will eventually have a railway from the Baltic to the Pacific is beyond doubt. Already she is active in building a line of telegraph over this route, and at the present moment there is a fleet at Behring Straits engaged in surveys with a view to bringing that line from the Amoor River across to Sitka, or New Archangel, the capital of the Russian possessions in America. But how shall I speak of the indomitable and restless enterprise of the United States in this respect? The House of Representatives at Washington, several years ago, as is well known, passed a Bill for the completion of an iron road from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In spite of an exhaustive war, and the discouraging physical difficulties on the route which have been de scribed, the line has been steadily advancing to California, and another from the proposed terminus in that State is being formed to meet it. It is estimated that at the present rate of progress this entire railway will be finished in six years. With a view to the East Indian trade, and if she allow herself From The Fortnightly Review, 15th March. extension of commerce with China and Japan, the lion's share of which already falls to California, among countries on the western shores of the American continent, the government of the United States has just granted a subsidy to a line of steamers about to run between San Francisco and the coasts of Asia. So bold and liberal a measure must bring incalculable commercial THE striking fact in the late news from returns. Vancouver Island is 200 miles America is the flaming discord between the nearer the Amoor river, 300 miles nearer President and the Congress. For many Shanghai, and 240 miles nearer Canton weeks the Legislature and the Executive and Calcutta than San Francisco is. Yet have been in a state of chronic opposition. we are compelled to stand by and see a The President desires to see the Southern neighbouring country, much less convenient- States again fully represented in Congress. ly situated to Asia, carrying off the prize He considers that the revolution is at an that ought to be jealously guarded by our- end; that the Union is restored; and that selves. The young and thriving popula- the late "rebels," having complied with all tions that increase with such fabulous rapid- his conditions, ought to resume their funcity on the western shores of America will tions in the common Parliament just as if soon be found emulating the zeal and enter- nothing unusual had happened. All his prise of ancient nations, in regard to com- efforts during the autumn and winter were merce with the East, and that nation which directed towards the bringing about of happens to possess the greatest topographi- that consummation. He expected to see the cal advantages for uniting the two oceans representatives and senators admitted withby a railway, and is also quick to improve out further question, and he was chagrined these advantages, must become master of to find joint resolutions of exclusion barring the situation. The fear cannot be altogeth- the door. Congress thinks the South has er repressed, that notwithstanding the obvi- not, and the President thinks the South has, ously superior advantages presented by our given adequate guarantees of loyalty. territory for the execution of this noble and Nor is this surprising. President Johnson, desirable work, these may be nullified by although he refused to secede, and perilled our national indifference about the matter, life and limb in the Union cause, was and out designs forestalled by more progres- and remains a Democrat pur sang. State sive rivals. Would that the cogent appeal rights, as opposed to Federal or national of Lord Bury, some years since (a nobleman rights, are to him second only in importance who has no equal in the British legislature to the Union. And no doubt there is a in acquaintance with this subject), were du- good deal to be said for his view, which at ly considered by the government and the all events has the stamp of magnanimity. people: -"Our trade in the Pacific Ocean, But on the other hand, it should be rememwith China and with India, must ultimately bered, that if the Southern members and be carried through our North American pos- senators were to be admitted as if there had sessions; at any rate, our political and com- been no war of secession, they would come mercial supremacy will have utterly depart-in with a larger representation, proportioned from us if we neglect that very great and important consideration, and if we fail to carry out to its fullest extent the physical advantages which the country offers to us, and which we have only to stretch out our hands to take advantage of." Through the ignorance and neglect of her rulers twenty years ago, England threw away much rich territory on the north-west coast, and she has still much at stake in the Pacific. She once snatched from Holland the ately, than the loyal States, because the constitution as it stands enables them to include three-fifths of the negroes in the bases of representation; and they would come in to vote on questions affecting the very debt incurred to subdue them, and other matters of vital importance in the new state of things such as legislation on behalf of the freedmen, on military organization, and taxation. Therefore, although the policy of the President is the more magnanimous, it |