Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-08-02
The New Northwest.

The New Northwest.
Far away in the northwest, as far be-
yond ST. Paul as ST. Paul Is beyond Chi
cago, stands Winnipeg, the capitol of
Manitoba, and the gateway of a new
realm about to jump from its present state
of trackless prairies, as yet almost devoid
of settlement, to the condition of our
most prosperous western states. Here,
bounded on the south by Dakota and Mon.
tana. west by the Rocky mountains, north
and cast by the great Peace river and the
chain of lakes and rivers that stretch from
from lake Athabaska to ' innipeg, lies a
vast extent of country, estimated to con.
tain 100000 acres, or enough to make
eight such states as Iowa or Illinois. Not
all of it is fertile, it is true, yet 1t may be
safely said that two-thirds of 1t are avail
able for settlement and cultivation.
In fact, the extent of the available land
in these new countries is apt to be under
estimated, for if the traveller does not see
praires waist deep in the richest grass,
he is apt to set them!down as barren lands; |;
and if he crosses marsh he at once
stamps it as land too wet for cultivation.
Those, however, who remember the early
days of Illinois and Iowa have seen lands
then passed by as worthless swamps now
held at high prices as the best Of meadow
land. This is q land of rolling prairies
and table lands. watered by navigable
rivers, and not devoid OF timber.
Its climate is hardly such as one would
select for lazy mans paradise, for the
winters are long and cold. and the sum-
mers short and fercely hot, though this
shorness is in some measure compensated
for by the great length of the midsummer
days. Nevertheless, it is a land where
wheat and many other grains and root
crops attain there fullest perfection, and is
well fitted to be the home of vigorous
and healthy race. Manitoba, of which we
hear so much now, is but the merest frac-
ton of this territory, and, lying on the
southeast corner. is as yet the only part
accessible by rail.
Over this vast region, and indeed all
that lies between it and the Arctic ocean,
for two hundred years the Hudson bay
company exercised territorial rights. L i'll
within few years it was practically un
known except as preserve OF fur-bearlng
animals; and prior to 1870 it was hard 10
find any information as to its material re-
sources or its value. The company dis
couraged every sttempt that threatened to
interfere with the fur-bearing animals or
the Indians who trapped them; still it be-
came known that some of this vast reg ion
was not utterly worthless for other pur-
poses; the soil looked deep and rich in
many places, and in the western part the
buffalo found winter subsistence, for the
SHOWS we're seldom deep, and in the pure
dry air and hot autumnal sun the grasses,
instead OF withering, dried into natural
nav. The early explorers, too, had brought
back reports OF noble rivers, of fertile
prairies, OF great beds of coal, of belts ol
| fine timber. But what care the company
for these? The rivers, it Is true, were the
homes of the otter, the mink, and other
fur bearing animals, and furnished fish
for their employees and highways for their
canoes. For the rest they had no use. Al
last, in 1870, seeing that they could nc
longer exclude the world from these fer.
tile regions, the Hudson bay company
sold their territorial rights to Canada
which now began to see its way to rail
road across tho continent. to link the colo
nies from Nova Scotia to British Colum
ba.
Now it is evident that the growth of this
region will be rapid, probably more rapid
indeed, than that of our western states tha
lie beyond the lakes; for in them there
had been slow but steady increase o
population from u comparatively early
day, and when the railroads begun tc
gridiron the country from the great lakes
TO the Rocky mountains, the states of the
Missouri already possessed considerable
population.
In the northwest, however, we see
land that has remained isolated from tn,
rest of the world, untrodden except by th'
Indian or the trapper, suddenly thrown
open for settlement, and on terms as liber
al as those offered by our government O
land grant railroads.
The Canadian Pacific railway is alread,
completed l50 miles west of Winnipeg
which is already connected with our north
western railroads, and it is hoped, no
without reason, that another 500 mile
will be completed towards the mountain
the present year. 10 build two or evcl
three miles day across such a countr,
us this division traverses would be no ex
: traordinary feat in modern railroading
! Branches, too. north and south, will b
rapidly constructed, not to accommodate eX
isting traffic, but to create it. Now
seems as if nothing short of some tinan
cial panic, some gross laundering or stu
pidity, could delay the construction of th
railroad, or check the flood of emigration
! that must surely pour in. Can It be thai
. with the government Canada enjoys, ont
q as free aud fully as democratic as our own
the shadow of monarchy will delay the oc
q cupation of this land by other races tha
' that of the Britain?
Here we shall have chance'to see hoy
Canadian enterprise compares with ou
v own. The northern Pacific railway ha
# its agents far and wide trying to induc
q :, settlers to purchase its lands and furnis
. traffic for its lines. The two railroad
q are not far apart, and the Canadians hav
= quite as good, if not better, lands to offe
! Will they be as energetic, as successful
= as their cousins across the line?
# The climate of this region is far frol
= what one would expect from its norther
= latitude. While it cannot be said to /