River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-02-25
FROM" OUT WEST"
The Canadian Northwest Terri
tories.

the mountains, a straight-line dis
lance Of $50 miles and railway
mileage of 500, the local traffic of
the Canadian Pacific is very light.
There are few settlements in this
region from the nature of the case.
In the northern trend of the railway
the line is $50 miles from the
boundary. Spur tracks run from
Revelstoke and Sicamous into the
mining regions near the Washing
ton boundary where the road re-
ceives considerable business in the
mountain regions. A road has re-
Gently been built through the Rocky
mountains nearer to the boundary.
This road leaves the main line of
the Canadian Pacific at Medicine
| Hat in Assiniboia and runs directly
west through the Crows Nest pass
over into the Kootenai mining re-
gions. The Grows Nest is less
than fifty miles from the boundary.
This road by spur lines connects
with the Great Northern in Montana
at Shelby from Lethbridge; at Jen-
nings by line from Fernie and at
Spokane, Washington, by I. line
from Nelson, near its western ter
minus. When the promoters of the
Canadian Pacific determined to build
to the Pacific they instructed their
chief engineer to lay the track SO
near the boundary that competing
lines in the states could secure none
of the trade of the mining regions of
British Columbia. After w h 1t
seemed to be thorough examina-
ton the engineer said it was impos-
sible to build railway through the
Crows Nest and laid the line from
100 to $50 miles north of the
boundary. In the meantime the
trade of the mining regions went to
Spokane, where it will remain, as
that trade was permanently estab-
lished before the Grows Nest road
which was found to be of easier
grade than the main line-was built.
Coming east through the noun
tains on the Canadian Pacific rail-
way you emerge at Banff upon the
margin of plain thousand miles
wide and extending north and south
from the Dakotas to the Arctic
ocean. This was the bed of an in
land ocean, with soil of great pro-
ductiveness, silt deposited through
the ages.
We shall speak at this time only
of that portion of this plain adjacent
to the Canadian Pacific railway and
its branches.
Great efforts are being made to
promote immigration to this country
and the inducements to this end are
exploited at great pains and with
large expense. Before discussing
the claims of the country to favor
able consideration as an agricultural
region let us take cognizance of
some natural conditions, facts that
initiate against the country as de-
sirable residence. First, the whole
country is in high northern lati
tude, its southern boundary being
the 4oth parallel, four degrees fur
Their north than St. Paul. The
western half is in high altitude
from 1000 to 1900 feet above the
sea level, a fact taken in connection
with the high latitude that aggra-
Yates the cold of the long winters.
In this high altitude frost may be
frequently expected in the summer.
By far the larger portion of the
country is in the semi-arid belt.
Nature has set limitation to the
growth of agricultural crops below
the tooth meridian, a line that passes
through central Kansas, Nebraska,
South and North Dakota and west
ern Manitoba. Assiniboia and AL
berta are wholly above this line.
Old residents of Calgary say the
country above the Tooth meridian is
subject to cycle of moisture and
of dry years. This cycle is about
IS years, during seven years of
which there will be moisture enough
to warrant the sowing of grain.
The past five or six years were in
the moist period of this cycle and
fair crops have been grown in As
siniboia, western North Dakota and
eastern Montana, but there will be a
period of twenty years when there
will not be sufficient moisture to in
sure a crop.