Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-31
into her big blue. honest eyes, we did be-

lieve.
AS the afternoon wears away and we are
doing the last half of the last hundred
miles. there lies, on either side OF our
train, a land as fair as one VIII see IN
many days travel. Broad, lever Vaies.
dotted with clumps of willow, vast reaches
of rolling plains, whose downs are Dap,
pied with patches of wild bloom ana irihgeo
with poplar groves. Surely, here lies me
open space. from clump to clump, wiid
chickens are hurrying with their young
Whatever these vast regions hoid TOT IL
ture settlers, whether 1t be good land or
bad land, II is certainly glorious, inspiring
and fair to look upon "Fine stock coun-
try" said l. to the Yankee cattleman
across the aisle: 1T beats Texas. said ne
''as Texas beats h-n."
Chain of Ranches.
For hours we ride with long, low ridge
a miniature mountain range, beside US
bulking blue against the gray eastern SKY
Along the lap of this low range lies an al
most unbroken chain of ranches. TheS
seem, through the haze of siz or eight miles
of sunlit ether to sit on the slope like
painted pictures on easels. tipped to catch
the sun. Here. not many years ago, a
large land company secured strip or lana
eighteen by thirty miles, for which they
paid dollar an acre. 1t has all been sold
to settlers, and is now, thanks to the path
finders who built the railway, worth from
$40 to $50 an acre. l was told by trappers,
travellers and settlers that this ridge, or
range, is only from five to ten miles wide;
that il is full of COAL and that along the
eastern slope newcomers had marked out
new homes and were prosperous and happy.
All through this chinook, famed region
horses range the year round, cattle are fed
in winter-fed on wild hay-but are never
housed. Only the calves have an open
shed. Three years ago there was no
sleighing in northern Alberta. Last year
deep drifts were all melted by the LIST OF
February While the municipal snow plows
were bucking the beautiful from the choked
streets of the towns in Ontario, in the mid
die of April last, the farmers In the far
northwest were preparing to pillow their
fields-such is the far-reaching effect OF
the gentle japanese current, and the con-
sequent warm west wind.
Nearing the End.
The same natural changes noted by the
traveller southbound say on the Illinois
Central. are marked here by the traveller
northbound in Alberta. Now We pass
potato field in full bloom, and when
wag tells US that we are about to hit the
banana belt Of the Peace river, we are half
inclined to believe him.
The long. glad cry of the locomotive pro-
claims a stop and the trainmen, hurrylng
through, tell us this is Strathcona, the end
Of the track. The painting engine pauses
with her pilot near deep cash in the
plain. for here the great Saskatchewan
plows deep furrow In the face OF the
earth, 200 feet deep and mile wide There
are no steamboats, in sight, but many scows
are loading along the landing for Battle
ford and other points down stream.
Directly across the canon lies Edmonton,
the chief town Of the far northwest. Along
the river elevators, breweries, -four mills.
lumber yards and planning mills 1mmedi-
ately below the rim on which We stand,
but beyond the river, are the fair GROUNDS,
and here in this far away corner of the
EARTH in this new town, 10000 people are
gathered to see the art in the ree-for-all-
Through our glasses We gaze on the anil
mated seine Yes this is the real thing,
the old time country fair, with all its
trimmings. There are the country people,
country carriages, top buggies. the man
with the balloons, the fakirs, horses ana
ginger bread, everything, in fact, that We
had not expected. CY WARMAN-