On The Essential Question
Of The Pass In The Rocky Mountains, In British Territory, Most Adapted
By Nature For The Passage Of A Road Or A Railway, All The Evidence
Which I Collected Tended To Show That The Passage By The "Tete-Jaune
Cache," Or "Yellow-Head," Pass, Was The Best.
The Canadian Pacific
Company have adopted the "Kicking Horse" Pass, much to the southward of
the "Yellow-head" Pass.
Again, it became clear to me that the whole
Rocky Mountain range was rather a series of high mountain peaks,
standing on the summit of gradual slopes, rising almost imperceptibly
from the plains and prairies on the eastern side, and dropping
suddenly, in most cases, towards the sea-level on the western or
Pacific side, than a great wall barring the country for hundreds of
miles, as some had dreamed. Every inquiry from trappers, traders,
Indian voyageurs, missionary priests of the Jesuits, and from all sorts
and conditions of men and women, made difficulty after difficulty
disappear. The great work began to appear to me comparatively easy of
execution between Fort Garry, or the lower town of Selkirk and British
Columbia; the cost less; and, owing to facilities of transport,
especially in winter, the time of execution much shorter than had been
previously assumed. In addition, an examination into the physical
conditions of the various routes proposed through the United States,
convinced me that here again the difficulties were less, and facilities
for construction greater, than I and others had first imagined. In
fact, I came rightly to the conclusion that the more southerly the
United States route, and the more northerly the British route - while
always, in the latter case, keeping within cultivable range - the
better. Still, at this time there was much to find out. As respects
real knowledge of the country to be traversed, the factors of the
Hudson's Bay Company knew every fact worth divulging, but they were
afraid to speak; while the Catholic missionaries, accustomed to travel
on foot in their sacred cause over the most distant regions, possessed
a mine of personal knowledge, never, so far as I could learn, closed to
the Government of Canada or to any authorized inquirer.
Prior to my sailing to New York, en route for Canada, to fulfil
my mission for the Grand Trunk, in 1861, I had a long interview with
the Duke of Newcastle, as Colonial Minister. He had seen, and we had
often previously discussed, the questions raised in the article above
quoted, and which he had carefully read. The interview took place on
the 17th July, 1861. Every point connected with the British Provinces
in America, as affected by the then declared warlike separation of the
northern and southern portions of the United States, was carefully
discussed. The Duke had the case at his fingers ends. His visit to
America with the Prince of Wales, already alluded to more than once,
had rendered him familiar with the Northern Continent, and its many
interests, in a way which a personal study on the spot can alone bring
about; and he declared his conviction that the impression made upon the
mind of the Prince was so deep and grateful, that in anything great and
out of the ordinary rut of our rule at home, he would always find an
earnest advocate and helper in the Prince, to whom he said he "felt
endeared with the affection of a father to a son." I called the Duke's
special attention to the position and attitude of the Hudson's Bay
authorities.
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