with the recommendation, emanating from Mr. TAYLOR, " that it would be an instance of well directed legislation for the Congress of the United States, and the Parliment of England, to unite in a liberal subsidy, say of $200,000 by each government, for the transmission of a weekly mail from the limits of navigation on the Mississippi river, and the British coast of Lake Superior, by an international route, to the centres of the gold districts of British Columbia and Washington Territory. Similar reciproc ity of action has led to unity of interests and sentiments on the opposite coasts of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, itself an effective bond of peace. Why not disarm the whole frontier of the North, by constant multiplication of such ties and guarantees of international concord ?" In Canada, the charter of the North-West Transit Company has not yet expired, and it is in contemplation to obtain a renewal with increased powers during the approaching session of the Provincial Parliament. The magnificent and eminently patriotic plans of the New Hudson's Bay Company, as described in their prospectus, for the construction of a telagraph, and the establishment of a postal communication across the continent, within the limits of British America, and to open for settlement the rich agricultural areas drained by Red River, the Assinniboine, and the Sasketchewan, are well known here, and require no reference at present. In 1863, the people of Red River Settlement presented a "Memorial to the British and Canadian Governments," praying for the opening of communication between Canada and British Columbia, entirely within British territory. This memorial, with remarks on the colonization of Central British America, and the establishment of a "Great Territorial Road," by Mr. SANDFORD FLEMING, C.E., was printed by order of the Legislative Assembly of Canada in 1863. It will thus be seen that great projects relating to Central British America are proposed by the Congress of the United States, the State Government of Minnesota, the Canadian Government, and the Hudson's Bay Company, and it now remains to consider the natural resources of that distant region, which it is intended to bring within reach of the great commercial centres. III.-The Agricultural Capabilities of the Red River and Saskatchewan Districts. In estimating the agricultural capabilities of the basin of Lake Winnipeg, I bring to bear on the subject the result of personal observation from the head waters of the Winnipeg River, 104 miles west of Lake Superior, to the elbow of the south branch of the Saskatchewan, (long. 108 W.) a distance, measured along the centre of the fertile belt of land which crosses the basin of the Winnipeg, from the Lake of the Woods to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, of about 750 miles. West of the forks of the Saskatchewan to the Rocky Mountains, about 300 miles-I have based my estimates upon the reports of Captain PALLISER and his associates, and upon other reliable sources. A residence of many years in Canada has afforded me, I venture to believe, sufficient experience to admit of me forming a tolerably correct opinion respecting the general features of soil, its fitness for cultivation, and the amount of labor required to make its cultivation remunerative. But when I say there exists within the basin of Lake Winnipeg an area of cultivable land greater than that which can be found within the province of Canada, I have in view the expenditure over a considerable area of an equal amount of manual labor, in one form or another, to bring it into a proper state for cultivation; the labor in Canada being devoted to clearing away the forests, in the basin of Lake Winnipeg to drainage. But there are many thousand square miles in the fertile belt of Central British America, fitted for the plough in their present natural condition. Those great advantages, which belong to a wide extent of immediately available prairie lands of the richest description, which have led to the rapid peopling of Illinois State, belong also to the Winnipeg and Saskatchewan districts, and the climate of those districts is in no way inferior to that of the central portions of Canada, where winter wheat is successfully grown.* The agricultural capabilities of the basin of Lake Winnipeg may be summed up as follows: On the route from Fort William, Lake Superior, to the Lake of the Acres. 200,000 51,200,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 Total area of land available for agricultural purposes. 54,400,000 Approximate area euitable for grazing purposes. 30,000,000 Total approximate area fitted for the abode of civilized man. 84,400,000 Approximate area of the basin of Lake Winnipeg, within British territory.. 199,680,000 Area fitted for the abode of civilized man.. 84,400,000 Desert area unsuitable for the permanent abode of man. 115,280,000 Comparing this extent of surface with Canada, we arrive at the follow ing results: Area of the province of Canada (340,000 square miles).. occupied by the sedimentary rocks (80,000 square miles).... If we suppose that one sixth of the area occupied by the crystalline rocks is capable of cultivation, as regards soil and climate (an estimate probably in excess), the total amount of land in Canada available for the purpose of settlement will be, approximately....... Showing an excess of land fitted for the permanent abode of man, in favor of the basin of Lake Winnipeg over the province of Canada, of...... Acres. 217,600,000 51,200,000 166,400,000 78,900,000 5,500,000 In Upper Canada, with a population of 1,396,091, there are 13,354,907 acres held by proprietors, of which only 6,052,619 acres are under cultivation, cropped, or in pasture. If the whole quantity of land fit for cultivation were occupied in the same proportion, the population of Canada would exceed eighteen millions. At the same ratio of inhabitants to cul * Winter wheat has been grown at Red River settlement with success, 1862. tivable and grazing land, the basin of Lake Winnipeg would sustain a population exceeding 19,000,000; or, leaving out of consideration the land suitable to grazing purposes, its capibilities would be adapted to support 12,000,000 people. If European countries, such as France and Great Britain, were taken as the standard of comparison, or even many of the States of the American Union, the number would be vastly greater. With reference to the climate of a large part of the Saskatchewan district, M. BOURGEAU, the accomplished botanist, who accompanied Captain PALLISER'S expedition, says :-" In effect, the few attempts at the culture of the cereals already made in the vicinity of the Hudson's Bay Company's trading ports, demonstrate, by their success, how easy it would be to obtain products sufficiently abundant to largely remunerate the efforts of the agriculturist. There, in order to put the land under cultivation, it would be necessary only to till the better portion of the soil. The prairies offer natural pasturage, as favorable for the maintenance of numerous herds as if they had been artificially created." IV. Their Mineral Wealth. I now proceed to glance at the mineral wealth of this central region of British America. The little that is known of it already establishes the great fact that within 100 miles of the entire length of Lake Winnipeg, on the west side, there are salt springs sufficient to produce as much of that important material, at a very small cost, as will be required for generations to come. Iron ores of the best description for common purposes are distributed over vast areas adjacent to workable beds of liguite coal. Some of the beds of coal are twelve feet in thickness, and have been recognized in the western part of the basin of Lake Winnipeg over several degrees of latitude and longitude. It is important to bear in mind that, with the lignite coal, the vast deposits of clay iron-stone are associated. These extend much further east than the lignite layers, which have been removed by denudation, and form a very peculiar and important feature in the rocks west and south of the Assiniboine, after it makes its northwesterly bend.* A large part of the region drained by the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan is underlaid by a variety of coal or lignite. On the North Saskatchewan coal occurs below Edmonton in workable seams. A section of the river bank in that neighborhood shows, in a vertical space of sixty feet, three seams of lignite; the first, one foot thick, the second, two feet, and the third, six feet thick. Dr. HECTOR, who made the section, states that the six-foot seam is pure and compact. Fifteen miles below the Brazau River, a large tributary to the North Saskatche * The vast deposits of iron ore belonging to the cretaceous series of the basin of Lake Winnipeg, acquire especial importance, in consequence of their being associated with equally widely distributed deposits of lignite, and are found not very remote from apparently inexhaustable stores of bitumen and petroleum (on Clear Water River), which, as a fuel adapted to raising elevated temperatures in a regenerating furnace, has no equal. "Proceedings of the Geological Society, 1861," p. 421. wan from the west, the lignite-bearing strata again come into view, and · from this point they were traced to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. On the Red Deer River the lignite formation was observed at various points. It forms beds of great thickness; one group of seams measured twenty feet, "of which twelve feet consisted of pure compact coal."-(Dr. HECTOR.) These coal beds were traced for ten miles on Red Deer River. A great lignite formation of cretaceous age, containing valuable beds of coal, has a very extensive development on the upper waters of the North and South Saskatchewan, the Missouri, and far to the north, in the valley of the Mackenzie. Colonel LEFROY observed this lignite on Peace River, and Dr. HECTOR recognized it on Smoking River, a tributary of Peace River, also on the Athabaska, McLeod's River and Pembina River, all to the north of the Saskatchewan; "thus proving the range of this formation over a slope rising from 500 to 2,300 feet above the sea, and yet preserving, on the whole, the same characters, and showing no evidence of recent local disturbance, beyond the gentle uplift which has effected this inclination." V.-The Winnipeg Gold Field, and the Saskatchewan Gold Field. I now approach a subject of especial interest, and I may be pardoned if I dwell upon it with some degree of minutness, and an appearance of individual interest, in the distribution and probable extent of the goldbearing rocks of the Winnipeg basin. In 1857, on my return from the Red River Settlement, I brought with me a small nugget and some particles of gold, which were given to me by a half-breed, who stated that they had been found in the bed of Sturgeon Creek, a small tributary of the Assinniboine. I submitted these specimens of gold to the proper authorities in Canada, stating, however, at the time, that I had no geological grounds for the belief that they were found, as alleged, in the vicinity of Fort Garry. On my return to Red River, in 1858, in charge of the Assinniboine and Saskatchewan expedition, I had the possible existence of gold-bearing rocks near lake Winnipeg, in view; and on the 28th of September of the same year quartz veins penetrating palæozoic rocks (Silurian) were discovered by ine, forming islands in St. Martin's Lake, some thirty miles west of Lake Winnipeg. Struck with their importance, I made a short but ineffectual search for gold, the season being too far advanced to admit of a prolonged investigation. I named these islands St. Martin's Rocks, and gave a tolerably minute description of them in my report, which was first published in Canada in 1859, again in London in 1860, in the form of a Blue Book, and also embodied in my narrative of the Canadian expidition, published by Longman, in the same year. In 1862 several members of the Canadian emigrant party, which left Fort Garry in June, 150 strong, traversed the valley of the Saskatchewan, crossed the Rocky Mountains by the Leather pass, descended the Frazer, and reached New Westminister in the autumn of the same year, discov Ibid., p. 420. ered gold in fine particles on the Assinniboine, the Qu'appelle river, near the Touchwood hills, on numerous tributaries of the North Saskatchewan, and in the flats of the great river itself. Having received information respecting these discoveries, on which I thought reliance could be placed, I drew up a paper, with illustrative maps, in June last, and submitted it to a member of the Canadian Government, explaining to him, verbally, my views respecting the origin of the gold on the Assinniboine river. In July last I was informed, by a gentleman holding a high and responsible office in the Hudson Bay Company, and who had just arrived from Fort Garry, that gold in scales had been discovered near Fort Ellice, a few miles from the spot where it had been found in fine particles by the Canadian emigrants. This additional evidence from an unimpeachable authority led me to append a note to the paper previously prepared, to the effect that I considered the discovery of gold in scales, near Fort Ellice, afforded complete scientific proof that there existed an eastern or Winnipeg gold-bearing area, wholly distant from the Rocky Mountain gold fields; that the St. Martin's Rocks formed part of this area, and that it extended in a north-westerly direction towards Lake Athabaska, in the form of a narrow belt of intrusive gold-bearing quartz veins, penetrating Silurian, and, probably, also, Devonian rocks, and resembling, in some important particulars, the auriferous region in Victoria, as described by the Government geologist of that colony. It is proper to state that the gold hitherto found over wide areas in the basin of Lake Winnipeg has been obtained solely from the drift, but the drift covering the valley of the Saskatchewan, west of Lake Winnipeg, even as far as 100 miles from the Rocky Mountains, has travelled in a south-westerly direction, and was derived, originally, from the eastern side of the Lake Winnipeg basin. Some of the gold found at Edmonton, also in many of the tributaries of the North Saskatchewan, has a Rocky Mountain origin; and auriferous alluvium on the banks of the rivers coming from that range, penetrates and overlaps the auriferous drift derived from the Winnipeg gold field. Already numbers of young men have left the Red River Settlement, and established themselves near Edmonton, where, I have been informed from a reliable private source, they were obtaining, in July last, $15 a day in fine gold, by simply washing the alluvial mud of the River Saskatch ewan. The existence of a Winnipeg gold field, acquires particular importance at the present time for several reasons, prominent among which is the certainty of American progress, westward of the 100th degree of longitude, being arrested by conditions of soil and climate, and its diversion northwards, towards and into the basin of Lake Winnipeg. (To be continued.) * Dr. HECTOR. |