The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-11-09
Railroad to EJrope via Hulson's Bay
Straits Is Seriously Con
templated.
THE PLAN IS PR.CTICABl E
BY the Land Portion, But the Water
Route Is Open to Grave
Objections.

Hudson straits has queer sound, but
English and Canadian capital seems to
be at last interested to make such a
route familiar. A company just now has
Its representatives at Ottawa for the
purpose of getting charter to construct
a railroad from Winnipeg to the Sas-
katchewan, and thence to Fort Churchill,
on Hudson's bay, distance of 700 miles
in all.
The project is fully a dozen years old,
and as early SO 1884 the Dominion par
lament, in response to solicitations for
subsidy for the proposed new railroad,
sent out observation parties to report
upon the navigability Of Hudson bay
and straits. A section of railroad has
even been built north from Winnipeg for
many miles; but the idle rails have gath
cred rust and the ties are overgrown
with the grass Of the prairie. 1t was the
| first practical step taken in the early
days of the Hudson bay project, but it's
advocates have never quite lost heart in
spite of the difficulties of interesting
capital in it and now are pushing it in
earnest once more.
The central fact on which the project
depends is that the Hudson bay route to
Europe is the shortest for the grain and
food products, not only of Manitoba, but
Uncle Sans northwestern border. The
distance from Winnipeg to Montreal is
about l,400, while from Winnipeg to
Fort Churchill it is only about one-balf
as great; and as the remaining distance
from Liverpool to each is about the
same, there is evidently saving OF 700
miles by the new road. From Pembina,
in North Dakota. the distance is about
1000 shorter to Liverpool by way of
Hudson bay than by way of New York.
Winnipeg, too, is only the beginning OF a
large wheat area in Canada's northwest
territory.
COUNTRY TO OPEN UP.
Settlements are found scattered near
ly thousand miles west to Calgary, on
the Canadian Pacific road, and through
the North Saskatchewan region to or be.
yond Edmonton. The saving in dis
tance to Edmonton by the Fort Church
i'll route over the Montreal with proper
rail and river facilities, would be. it is
eaid, about l,300 miles. For grain could
come down by river TO Lake Winnipeg,
and only 400 miles Of rail would then be
required to reach Fort Churchill, the
point of shipment to Europe. All along
the valley Of the Saskatchewan river
this same double advantage would pre-.
vail. In some parts of North Dakota
and Montana, by connecting the Cana
dian Pacific railway to Winnipeg and
thence to Hudson's Bay the gain IN
distance over the New York route is
reckoned at nearly 1000 miles.
There are really two elements, how
ever, in the new undertaking. One is
the railroad, for the construction of
which the money is chiefly required,
while the other is the water route, on
which, after ali, the question of success
may chiefly turn. There are two rail
routes to the Hudson's Bay terminus,
one of them ending at Port Nelson, at
the mouth of the Nelson river, in lati-
tude 81 degrees, $50 miles from Winni-
peg, and the other at Fort Churchill. A
road built over the former route would
travel over barren wilderness but
would be easier of construction, while
the Fort Churchill route is through
country which offers opportunities of
development and consequent local
traffic.
NAVIGATION THROUGH THE STRAITS.
But the real question of practicability
for the new grain. carrying route is the
transportation by water rather than by
land. Hudson's bay, which is practically
great inland sea, having an area of
about half million square miles, or
half as great as that of the Mediterra-
mean, is too extensive to be entirely
frozen over throughout the year. But
the great trouble is with the compare
lively narrow Hudson straits. Repeated
observations show that at utmost the
straits, which at some points are less
than 70 miles wide, and are more than
800 miles long from Cape Chudleigh to
the bay, are navigable for only three or
four months each year. Reference has
been made to the observation parties
sent out by the Dominion government in
the Neptune in 1884.
They were stationed along the bay and
straits; by the following summer the
Alert, being sent to relieve them, was
caught in an ice pack near the entrance