New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-12-21

ately becomes its tributary. In short, were we
to state all or half the grand facts which favor
the enterprise in hand, the prodigious sum OF
that which is possible, and may be accom-
plished, would startle the imagination. Out OF
the territories of the United Statesl it seeks to
develop, eleven great States will be added 10
the Union, containing some of the richest MIN
eral districts on the continent. Montana, Idaho,
and Dakota give as yet but a bare promise
of the future. While politically the British
Possessions are the property of another power,
commercially they are ours, if we choose to
make them SO; and this fact is one of stipend
Gus Importance, whether we consider their ex-
tent, their natural capabilities, or the trade
they are destined to maintain. From the Brit
ish line to the sources of the Mackenzie,
stretches a magnificent wheat country thou
sand miles in breadth; much of it open prairie,
and ready for the plOw.
Lake Superior projects into the far North
West several hundred miles further than any
other navigable water and at its head there
will be seen city rivaling any of those which
in the ages gone by had enjoyed the commerce
of the East before it. West and northwest of
it, the mighty area we have described, mex
hqustible in its minerals and its agricultural
productiveness, will pour its unimagined wealth
of exchanges into and through it. With fifty
bushels of wheat to the acre, as we find it on
the Saskatchewan, what may not be predicted
of the point which, by geographical necessity, is
to handle the products of region so vastg
Here will be the largest grain elevators ever
seen, and that trade which has built so many
flourishing cities will build another where
nature has made a depot for the most extern
sive grain growing country on the globe. In
the Bay of Superior, at the mouth of the ST.
Louis, we have the largest harbor on the
Lake, land-locked and perfectly sheltered.
1t now admits lake-boats Of the heaviest tun-
mage, and to what extent it may be artificially
improved we do not know; but an apprOpria-
ton for this purpose was made by the last
Congress. A city, on the point OF land formed
by the ST. Louis and the Nemadji, has an ele-
walton of thirty-fOur feet, and will possess
nearly forty miles of water-frOntage, where
vessels may discharge their freights on all the
four sides of a square. The distance TO st.
Paul, the center Of Northwestern railways, Is
only hundred and thirty-fye miles, while
from Chicago it is over three hundred and nifty;
and when you are at Chicago yOu are no nearer
to Europe or the Atlantic ports than when at
Superior. Various railroads are projected, OF in
course of construction, to connect tie Upper
Mississippi with the head of the lakes, and the
work on the ST. Paul end of the ST. Paul and
Superior road is rapidly progressing.
In view of the facts that We are an essentially
pioneer people, that we plant and build wher-
ever nature permits, and especially where she
invites, and that we are annually reinforced
by an increasing proportion of immigrants from
the northern ATTITUDES of Europe peculiarly
fitted for the settlement of the Northwest, it Is
fair to presume that this generation will see
completed what we have only faintly sketched
the commerce of Asia and Europe passing
over grand highway connecting the Atlantic
and Pacific, Lake Superior and Pugets Sound,
the head-watcrs of the Mississippi, the Missouri,
and the Columbia, with cities at either ter
minus. whose importance can only he measured
by that of the trade they will control.