Litchfield enquirer., 1858-08-05
LTTCHFIELD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1858.
NEW ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC.

The new route which it s proposed to oper would appear to be very feasible It would seem to present not only much the shortest
 but, as soon as the proposed arrangements snail be completed, the easiest means of reaching the new gold fields. From St. Anthony, the Mississippi is navigable for large steamers as far as the Sank Rapids. Thence to Brecken ridge, at the head of navigation of the Red River of the North, is distance of l25 miles This part of the journey must be made ove, land, but already this district is being fast oc cupied by settlers and good road may be easily constructed At Breckenridge settle ment has also been established. Here com. mences the fertile valley of the Red River, and from this point, as appears from Capt. Pope's survey, the river. which runs due north, is nav igable for steamers all the ways to it's mouth, at the southern extremity of Lake Winnipeg. It begins with four feet of water, and gradu- ally deepens to fifteen feet. Lake Winnipeg, which is long, narrow and deep, receives near
 its northern end the Saskatchewan, flowing from the west and having it's sources in the Rocky Mountains. This river and the coun- try on its bauks have recently attracted atten- tion as we'll fitted for colonization. Taking the climate of the eastern portien of the conti- nent and of the region round Hudson's Bay as standard, it was long supposed that all the
 interior of North America beyond the forty eighth or forty-ninth degree of north latitude was too cold to produce grain crops, and un- fit therefore for the habitation of ciyilize d men, Recent investigations, however, have fully es- tablished the curious and very important fact kl,-& # @lo loe oLro rior, at about the hundredth degree of west longitude, remarkable change begins to take place in the climate, to such an extent that, as we proceed westward, the limit of veget- able growth and of the production of grain is extended far to the north, so as to include the whole Valley, of the Saskatche wan, which is re- presented as in other respects well fitted for settlement The Saskatchewan is river lar ger and longer than the red River of the North, and, according to Gov. Simpson of the Hudson Bay Company's service, in his notes on its exploration, it is navigabe by its north ern branch, with only one rapid to ob- struct navigation for seven hundred miles in a direct line to the foot of the Rocky Moun- tains. How serious an obstruction this may be, does not clearly appear. It can hardly be a perpendicular fall, since, according to Gov. Simpson, canoes and aat-5oats pass over it in safety. From the head of navigation, it is only about two hundred miles across the Rocky Mountains, of which the elevation here is much less than in Oregon and California, to the new gold dggiugs on Thompson and Frazer Rivers.
 The distance from Breckenridge to the mouth of the Red River is estimated at four hundred and fifty miles, Thence through Lake Winnipeg to the mouth of the Saskatchewan is two hundred miles. Allowing for windings, the navigation by that river may be set down at thousand miles. Add hundred and twenty-five miles of land carriage at one end of the route, and two hundred at the other,. making in the whole distance of about two thousand miles from the starting point on the Mississippi.
 So fully impressed are some enterprising people of Minnesota with the practicability and advantages of this route, that measures have already been taken for building steam CT at Breckenridge, designed to navigate the waters of the Red River, Lake Winnepeg and the Saskatchewan, and to be ready for that purpose by the opening of next Spring. Mean while. as the greater part of the route is with in the territories of the Hudson's Bay Com pany, steps have been taken to open commu- nication with the Governor of that Company, and with other persons likely to assist in put ting a line of steamers on these waters At all events, we are in a fair way 70 obtain some distinct and positive knowledge of wide ex- tent of country, as to which our certain in- formation is still very limited, though great expectations have lately been raised in regard N it.-Iribame.