The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-20 00:00:00

NG, MARCH 20, 1868.

has an almost uniform descent for fifty miles. For
100 miles east of this river there is no opportunity
of grading, if we rquired it, as the surface is gra-
dual with light grades, except for three or four
miles in crossing a divide to reach the Wallipi val-
ley, where work something like that at Harker will
be required, and perhaps the maximum grade for
four miles. But the 100 miles should be completed
in the first year, as pine timber exists within 15
miles, on the Wallipi range, for crossties in abun-
dance. Our iron will cost about as much here as it
has been doing in Kansas, unless we can reduce it
by owning the boats. " I hope we shall obtain the
subsidy next spring. If we do, the completed road
can be run over in four years from to-day. It
would be sheer laziness that would prevent it."
As regards the roadfrom the Great Lakes through
British Columbia, the following is an epitome of the
paper read at the ordinary meeting of the Geogra-
phical Society in London last Monday, entitled
"The Geography and Mountain Passes of Bri-
tish Columbia, with reference to an Overland
Route," by Mr. A. Waddington, a gentleman
who has devoted many years in exploring,
personally or by his agents, the different valleys
and passes, in order to ascertain which is the most
practicable far a waggon-road and railroad from
the Pacific across the Rocky Mountains. In ex-
plaining the nature of the country, the author said
that the two mountain ranges—the cascade, or coast
range, having an average width of 110 miles, and
the Rocky Mountains a width of 150 miles—nearly
meet on the southern frontier of the colony, but
diverge farther north, and leave a fertile, central
plain 120 miles wide. • In the southern part of the
country all attempts to discover practicable passes
had been in vain, and no through route was possi-
ble by way of the mouth of the Fraser River. He
had examined the various long inlets or fiords to
the northward, and found Bate Inlet to be by far
the most suitable as the Pacific terminus of the
future overland road. He had discovered a river
flowing into the head of the inlet, and had planned a
dray-road through the narrow valley thus formed
through the whole width of the coast range. The
road that he had projected ran north-easterly across
the plain, and struck the Upper Fraser opposite
the mouth of the Quesnelle River. The Fraser is
here a navigable stream, and affords a route to the
Yellow Head Pass of the Rocky Mountains, which
leads to the rich level country on the eastern side of
the range, extending towards the Red River settle-
ment. The Yellow Head Pass is, according to Dr.
Rae, 3,760 ft. above the sea level ; the central plain
is 2,500 ft. in its southern part, and the Bute Inlet
trail runs across it between 51. deg. and 53 deg. N.
lat. ; the pasture is excellent, and the cereals (in-
cluding wheat) can be grown. Mr. Waddington
stated that the Canadian Government had already
begun to construct the eastern end of the overland
waggon road between Lake Superior and Red River,
but that no arrangement had yet been entered into
with regard to the other sections, and he urged the
importance of the undertaking on political and com-
mercial grounds. The president, Sir Roderick Mur-
chison, bora testimony to the great geographical
value of the map constructed by Mr. Waddington,
on which all his various explorations west of the
Rocky Mountains were recorded.
Mr. Wilson, the United States Commissioner,
remarks on the advantages of the Pacific Railroad
to New York :—The travel from Japan, Russian
Asiatic possessions, Philippine Islands, Eastern
India, the Indian Archipelago, and Australia, to
Europe, must prefer the route by San Francisco and
New York, if only on the score of economy in time.
For the lighter and more costly articles of trade, the
transportation of which furnishes but a small pro-
portion of the price, the facilities afforded by our
ocean and continental lines will largely supersede
even the continuous navigation of the Suez Canal
route, which at any time is liable to interruption
by European hostilities. The rapidity of transit
will, in a large number of instances, counterbalance
the higher rates of railroad transportation and the
double transhipment, first at San Francisco, and
then at New York. It may be expected that a
very considerable portion of the teas and silks of
China will reach England and France after transit
over our railways, and a corresponding amount
of their higher-priced exports will reach Asia
by the same route. The teas and silks imported
nto the British Islands during the five years
ending in 1864 amounted to 441,428,239 pounds,
valued at over $206,000,000. The foreign trade of
Japan is of recent development, but rapidly grow-
ing in importance. The Colorado on her recent
return trip brought to San Francisco a freight
nearly three times the value of the entire trade be-
tween that place and Japan during the first quar-
ter of the year 1866, while our direct trade with
China for 1866 was more than three times that of
the previous year. The precious metals, which in
times past, for greater promptitude and safety,
went to the Oriental ports by way of London, will
be sent by our own more direct and speedier ocean
routes, at a saving of half the cost of transmission,
beside the English insurance from London to
China. This direct treasure shipment will make
San Francisco and New York the financial centres,
the clearing-houses of the world's trade, control-
ling as they do the production of its metailic cir-
culating medium. —Anylo-American 2 imes.