The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-02-17
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY II, 1859.

Notwithstanding the rigor of the climate, the
fertile intervales of Minnesota and the extensive
pyairies of the Red River country, are beginning
attract public attention. In a commercial,
as well as an agricultural point of view,
that portion of the North West territory
which lies between Lake Superior and the Rocky
Mountains, has never until now been properly ap-
preciated. The settlement of Oregon and Wash
ington territories on the Pacific, and the steady
progress of Canadian emigration Westward, have
given unusual importance to Minnesota, from her
central geographical position, and as Offering the
nearest outlet to market for the products of the
interior. Nor are the people of that State insen-
sible to the advantages they possess, or slow to
profit by them. Already they have expended a
considerable sum, in building a railroad, sixty
miles in length, to connect ST. Paul with Brecken-
ridge in the direction of the Selkirk settlement
They have, also, offered bonus of fifteen hundred
dollars to the owner, or owners of any three
steamboats, that may be launched on the Red River
of the North, during the coming summer, and an
additional reward of one thousand dollars, ITO
"any person who will run steamboat, of one
'hundred tons burthen, on Red River, on or be-
Store the LIST of June next" Having thus full
filled, to the best of their ability, the Injunction
of HERCULES, by first putting their own shoulders
to the wheel, they now approach Congress,
through their representative Mr.. CAvANAUGH,
with memorial, asking for an appropriation of
six hundred thousand dollars, annually, to aid in
establishing postal communication between Lake
Superior and the Pacific; and, at the time,
to open up to commerce the navigable streams in
the Basin of Lake Winnipeg and the British
American territory, adjacent to Minnesota. With
out entering upon the question, at this time, as to
whether Congress ought, or ought not to grant
the subsidy asked for by the petitioners, brief
sketch of the Report-whch accompanied the
memorial-"On the River system of British Cen
'tral America and the facilities which that
system presents for inland navigation to the base
of the Rocky Mountains, may not prove wholly
uninteresting. From that Report, we learn that
the cultivable and inhabitable area lying on this
side of the Rocky Mountains, may be roughly es,i-
mated at five hundred thousand square miles, that
the climate does not exceed in severity that of
many parts of Canada and the Eastern States, and
that the greater portion of the soil is of extraord-
mary fertility. Of the river system, by which
this immense area is drained Lake Winnepeg
may be regarded as the base; its chief tributaries
being the Red river of the North aud the
Saskatchewan. The Red River is said to be navi-
gable for steamers, drawing less than five feet
OF water, for distance of five hundred and
seventyfve miles. The ailments of the latter are the
Shayenne, which is navigabe for hundred miles
of its course the Assnboin, which can be assembled
by steamers for distance of two hundred miles
and the Red Lake river, which is too much OBJ
structed by rapids to be rendered useful for pur-
poses Of transportation. But the most important
river of the remote Northwest is the Saskat-
chewan, which is navigable by boats more than
seven hundred miles in direct line, but by the
course of the stream, nearly double that distance.
The main stream is much INSTRUCTED by rapids
above Fort Edmonton-within sight of the Rocky
Mountains-the only other impeachment to free
navigation being the Grand Rapids about two
miles above the entrance of the Saskatchewan into
Lake Wnnepeg, where there is n portage of
eighteen hundred yards in length 1t is to the de-
velopment of the resources of this vast territory
that the merchants of ST. Paul are now directing
their attention. The communication which they
on the North, has already concentrated at St.
Paul large amount of the valuable peltries
collected by the agents of the Hudson's Bay Com
pany, and which now reach Europe by way of the
Mississippi instead of taking, as of old, the over
land route to Lake Superior and across the Canadas
The value of this trade to ST. Paul. last year, was
not less than one million of dollars, and from the
encouragement hold tn a,,,icronts IN eottlo in
the valley of the Red river since it has been pro-
posed in the British Parliament to abrogate the
charter of the .Hudsons Bay Combany, and to
form that portion of the Northwest Territory,
which is drained by the Saskatchewan and Red
rivers, and their tributaries, into an independent
colony, the growth of population is said to have
been steady and rapid. With regard to the posi-
bility of extending the navigation of the Saskat-
chewan to the system of rivers west of the Rocky
Mountains, the Report states that connection
could readily be established by means of few
short links of canal which would connect the Sas-
katchewan with the Athabasca and Peace rivers
-navgable tributaries of the Mackenzie river
and that the sources of Frazer river are separated
from those of Peace river by the distance of only
seventeen hundred yards. Lord BURY predicted
not long since, that the day was not far distant
when a canal would be cut through the gorges
of the Rocky Mountains and an unbroken line of
water communication would be established be-
tween Lake Superior and Puget's Sound. Strange
as it may appear, the surveys which have been
made under the auspices of the Canadian Govern
ment, prove that such feat is by no means diff
cult of accomplishment. The knowledge of this
fact gives additional Importance to the efforts now
making by the people of Minnesota to secure to
themselves all the commercial advantages of a re-
gion of country which has been but recently
opened to settlement and whose river system may
be made to constitute, in the course of few years.
one OF the main avenues of travel and traffic
between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.