F CHAP. VII. PROPOSED BRITISH EMIGRANT AND POSTAL ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC POSTAL CLUSIONS ARRIVED AT. CENTURIES* have elapsed since England first entertained the dream of a north-west passage for her vessels trading to India and the China seas, and during no portion of that period was the search more energetically conducted than within the last thirty years. That dream is now dispelled; and in passing through those icy portals in 1850-'51, M'Clure, more fortunate than his gallant competitors, may be said, as far as mercantile interests are concerned, to have closed the gates behind him. The apathy that usually succeeds expectations disappointed, where every effort has been made to ensure success, did not in this case last long; for in 1857 our legislators and the public seem to have been struck with the fact, that in searching for a north-west passage in the Polar seas, they had overlooked the true northwest passage which exists in British territory, north of 49°, and that if a tithe of the exertion and expenditure incurred in investigating the former route had been applied to the latter, the original intention would long before this have been realised.† * 1495. The expenditure of Great Britain on Arctic expeditions from 1800 to 1845 alone exceeded 1,000,000l. sterling. H 98 A RAILWAY IMPRACTICABLE AT PRESENT. True, however, to the principle that inventions in their earlier stages assume the most complicated forms, every project that has been hitherto brought prominently under the notice of the public or of government, having in view the connection of the Atlantic with the Pacific, has been wanting in the essential requisite practicability, and has been set aside, not owing to want of interest in the subject, but to the complexity of arrangements involved. Reports of exploring parties sent out by our own and the Canadian governments, by the Hudson's Bay Company, and the United States, furnish us with evidence in itself sufficient not only to reason but, better still, to act upon; and, I shall endeavour to show how, by divesting this subject of the incumbrances which have been hitherto supposed properly to belong to it, the attainment of the desired end is quite within our reach, and that the communication to, and connection of, the north-west colonies, of the kind most required, can be effected at an outlay inconsiderable when compared with the great national interests at stake. It is hardly necessary for me to commence by stating, that, however desirable an interoceanic railway, passing entirely through British territory, might be, it is impracticable at present, and will continue to be so, until the population in the country through which it should pass shall be sufficiently numerous to justify its construction. At present the country north of 49°, through which it would have to pass, may be said to be uninhabited, and it would take a season to estimate how many years would elapse, and how many millions be expended, before such a work would be finished. Great stress has been laid on the advantage English merchants would derive from it, shortening, as it would, EMIGRANT ROUTE PROPOSED. 99 the route to China and the Asiatic coast by some 3000 miles; but it may reasonably be doubted whether to them the saving of interest on capital would not be more than counterbalanced by the additional cost of transhipping the goods, and of land carriage for 2500 or 3000 miles, and whether, after all, our teas and silks might not continue to be transmitted by sea. To the emigrant speed is not so much an object as certainty and economy. On the great overland route from St. Louis to California, fewer emigrants travel in the stages than on horseback, driving before them the cattle that are to stock their future farms; attending waggons carry the wife and children, and pack mules the provisions. They choose the best time of year, and the cavalcade proceeds leisurely along; double time is occupied in the journey, but the stock and merchandise which they take with them are worth more than double, when they reach the west coast, what they cost in the States, which amply compensates for the delay. The advantage of a railroad over a good waggon road, would be felt more by tourists than by emigrants; and with regard to postal arrangements, since in either case a line of telegraph would be established, the superiority of the railroad is, even in this respect, not so very considerable; and, lastly, for the conveyance of troops in the event of a war, so long a track would be so liable to interruption, that for war purposes a railway could not be depended upon. But since, from its utter impracticability at present, it is needless further to discuss the advantages or disadvantages of a railroad that cannot now be made, I shall proceed at once to describe, in a general way, the nature of the communication required to connect the colonies, how easily this might be effected, and then to n 2 100 MIXED CHARACTER OF PROPOSED ROUTE. explain in detail the grounds on which the opinions brought forward, or assertions made, are based. Looking at the map of the Canadas, their railroads extend westward as far as Sydenham on the Ottawa River and (the Grand Trunk) to Detroit, on the southern shore of Lake Huron; from this point a railway in American territory extends to La Crosse. Whatever line of communication is adopted, must pass through the Red River country, somewhere between Pembina and Lake Winnepeg. Assume, therefore, that Assinaboia is a point in this line of communication. As soon as it is a fact that the Red River and the Pacific are to be connected, the people of Wisconsin and Minnesota will lose no time in extending their communications to the junction of the Siouxwood River with the Red River, which, as the river is there five feet deep, we shall call the head of steam navigation. Put a few short river steamers, of the class that can be built from 1000l. to 5000l., on the Red River to connect these communications (180 miles) with Assinaboia. Open a waggon road, for which the country is particularly favourable, from Assinaboia, viâ Assinaboine River and Quapelle River and Lakes, to Elbow on south branch of the Sascatchewan River in lat. 51° long. 1071° (430 miles). Put a few steamers of the class before mentioned on the South Sascatchewan, to complete the communication (300 miles), to the base of the Rocky Mountain › ; here taking advantage of the Vermilion Pass, open a waggon road in the best route obtainable (400 miles) to Hopetown, which may be considered the head of navigation on the Fraser for steamers of at all considerable size. Such is the skeleton plan or bare outline of the DISTANCES AND TIMES. 101 proposal made, the distances and times being given in the following table :- In short, the advantages of this route might be summed up as follows:-that by opening it in the cheap way suggested, while you connect together all the colonies of British North America, an emigrant from England could reach Victoria in one week shorter time than he can now do by Panama, the quickest and most expensive route. I am confident that the roads on this route can be opened for traffic with 100,000l., and 100,000l. more ought to be ample to construct half-a-dozen river steamers (at 5000l. each) to build workshops, stables, and defences, sufficient to commence with, as well as to pay for superintendance of works in process of construction; the total estimate being 200,000l., the expenditure of which would be spread over an interval of three years. For, as I shall show, the link between Chicago and * At present two trains daily from Chicago to La Crosse (thirteen hours) connect with two lines of steamers on the Mississippi to St. Paul's, in summer; and in winter stage coaches on the roads replace the steamers. |