Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-11-06
Directors /:

GEORGE MUkRoE, ESQ., GEORGE MIcHIs Esd
y r. R,cu.nnso. IS9 T., W. r. Rowland, Esq, NJ
ANGUS ID. Mcdonnell, Esq., j. f. TURcoTre Eso NJ
J. G. Brown, Esq. GEORGE GLApx.s Eso
ADAM WILSON, Esq CLARK Ross ESQ
J. G. CHAPIAs, ESQ.,, NJ. P. WIN. KENNEDY, ESQ.
be reduced to ten after the First General Meetino
ofStOckholders)
sKcRsYARY-ANGUs d. MCDONNELL, ESQ.
SoLIcIroR-ADAM WILSON, ESQ.,
BAsKERs-THE BANK OF UPPER CANADA
Capital Stock, for trade, transport, and i'm
With power to increase the same for the above
purposes e2OO. 600
poses, at the rate of 1900 for every mile
(after five mles) of Railway constructed
Westward from Lake Superior
DIVIDED INTO Is SHARES
LIABILITY LIMITED.
This Company has been incorporated by an Act
passed during the late Session OF Parliament,
which, as may be seen, cOnfers the peculiar prvi
| leges and extraordinary powers necessary to en-
able them to extend their works according to the
| increase OF the trade and the development of the
| resources Of the country where their operations
The first object the Company have in view, is to
open out the route from Lake Superior to the fer
| tile praries of the Red River and the Saskatche-
wan The present trade of these countries is car
ried on by two opposite routes, the one passing
| some eight hundred miles, nearly due north to
York Factory on HudsOn's Bay, and the other
about seven hundred miles, nearly due South to
ST. Paul i'm the State of Minnesota both at right
angles to the general course and ultimate destina-
ton of the trade, while the Lake Superior route
(nOw proposed to be opened) passes between the
other two, almost in straight line into the centre
of the country.
1t is needless to allude to the practice of carrying
I goods round by HudsOn's Bay, from even within
the range OF steam navigation on the 81. Lawrence,
| further than as an exploded system which has
been kept up at great expense to suit particular
object while the route by ST. Paul, instead of be-
| ing an injury or rival-having main line,
about 420 miles against twill form most i'm
pOrtant feeder to the line of transport now pro-
posed, which was the first and only highway when
| the trade OF those countries was untrammelled
and found the natural outlet of great traffic by
! this route.
| The annual trade of which this route, when
| opened up, must, in defiance of all competition,
| become the channel even in the present state Of
| the country, amounts to nearly half half million
of pounds in value, and this with the rush of set
tiers to the fertile praries of the West, which it is
| evident will take place the moment it is made
practicable, will require all the means of transport
| the Company can create
| This Company had been projected-ndependen
| of the discovery of gold Fraser River-with
view to the extension OF its operations to the shores
| of the Pacific.
| That discovery must, however, accelerate opera
tions in that direction, and it will be apparent from
| glance at the map, that with a comparatively
| small outlay in making the pOrtageS practicable
for wheeled vehicles with small steamers on the nav
igabe waters of Rainy Lake and River, the Lake of
the Woods, &C., and the splendid navgable waters
| of Red River, Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatche-
wan, this route can, even SO early as next summer
| be made the quickest as it Is by thousands of
| miles the shortest way, over any route now used,
| to the gold fields.
The greatest present difficulty of reaching the
gold district to be the ascent of Fraser Riv-
/ er ! at cir
Gus route to the sources of some of its tributaries
by which the parties descend to the gold country
| mas been found the most practicable, thus showing
| an additional circumstance i'll favor of the Cana
| dian route, descending from the mountains, which
| are commonly crossed on horseback from the Sas-
| katchewan.
No rational man, at the present day. can doubt
the early construction, either on British Ameri
| can territory, of railroad to the Pacific COM
handing the commerce of Europe and Asia, an
| event not rendered more certain, though it must
be greatly expedited by the recent gold discov-
! cries. This CdnQdldn Company is Low in advance:
| 1t has the charter; it commands the position and
| 1t depends upon the energy and judgment of its
| projectors, and the views of those who may be-
| come stockholders whether, following with the
| construction of railroad in the wake of its pio-
neer operations In transport and trade,-it shall In
| fact become the Pacific Railway COmpany-and
| secure the speedy construction of that most i'm
portant of national highways within British terri
| tory.
In the building of a Railway, interest accumu
lates against the construction account without any
receipts until the opening OF the road but in this
undertaking there will be receipts, calculated to
| keep down such accumulation of interest even
| during the first seasons operations There is a
| steamboat now on the route to the head of Lake
| superior, In connection with a canoe mail service
| through to Red River, and soon as the Company
| can carry passengers, even to Red River the in
tense interest now taken III that part of the coun-
try will induce numbers to visit it, thus, with the
mail service and transport of freight, yielding an
| immediate revenue
Nor Is it the least promising feature that for the
| encouragement of this enterprise. Parliament
| has granted the right of trading not usually ac-
torded to companies of this kind, by which the
Company will enjoy the privileges of participating
n,-whlle 1T Is manifest they will have an advan-
tage over all others in prosecuting the valuable
trade of those countries of which, as soon as the
the route is opened, they must for themselves or
others, become the carriers.
The same may be said, as soon as the operations
of the Company reach Fraser River not only as
regards passengers and trade and the transport of
supplies, but also mail subsidy, which will I'M
doubleday be granted as soon the route proved
to be the quickest.
The objects OF the Company, it will thus be seen,
are threeiod-
1st The opening of route to the rich prairie
lands West of Red River, and thence to Fraser
River and Vancouvers Island. u
End Participation in the lucrative trade of those
countries, III which the Company will have an ad-
vantage as they must be for at least consider
able period, almost the sole carriers of the ex
ports and imports.
Sd. The construction of Railway, to be con-
tlnued as early circumstances will permit to
the Pacific
The first is necessary preliminary to the other
two. Trade may indeed be combined with the
whole progress of the works. But the construc-
ton of practical route is essential before Railway
operations could be proceeded with.
One of the great drawbacks to the construction
OF Pacific Railway through the United States,
consists in the difficulty OF access arising from the
want of navigable waters beyond the Mississinn |
on the course of any of the proposed lines there
BEN great breadth of arid country to be tray-
ersed, East of the Rocky Mountains, not practi |
cable Tor the transport of supplies for the purpose
of prosecuting the works at different points so
that operations could only be carried on from one
point accordingly the road was finished mile by
mile, and became itself the means of CARRYING the
material for its further construction.
On British Territory, on the contrary as soon as |
few comparatively insignificant links of road are
made to connect navgable waters there is at once
great highway, fit for travel the transport of
heavy material.
The operations proposed for the following season
ana the amount required to carry them out, would
therefore be as follows, viz:
F~st 10 construct the Portage roads between
Lake Superior and Red River, in all 14O miles of
wagon road, at e225 per mile, that amount being
found sufficient to make the best class of Unmacadam
lied roads in Canada. For the toughest parts this
sum would be indeed too small, but on the other
hand the longest link of road to be made 81 miles
from the Lake of the Woods to Fort Garry, is of
peculiarly easy construction, and thirty miles of it
prairie already passable by carriages.
Second To place four small steamboats, the
navigable reaches, three of them costing say 81,
500 each, and on the longest reach OF 6Omiles
on Rainy River and Lake Of the Woods, ca, 900
also several freight boats, be used as occasion
might require, and cared boats for part of the |
route yet ascertained to be fitted for steamer
say in all E10O0 A steamboat on Red River at ca
500, to run about $50 miles to the Rapids of the
portage road at the Rapids FL 900,
and another steamboat at Ga, 500 to run about $50
miles up the Saskatchewan.
The last point reachedby boat on the Saskatch-
evan is less than two hundred miles from the
Thomson and Fraser Rivers For ths-part of the
route no present estimate be made but its
thorough exploration early as the season will
permit, will be one of the first things undertaken
in the spring; but from what is already ascertain
ed it is known that there is great difficulty in