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mountains until it reaches Missoule Mills, near the eastern line of Idaho, where the road will branch, one line keeping on northwest until, at the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, it crosses in a direct westerly line the northern end of Idaho and Washington Territories, crossing the Columbia river, and on to Puget sound, along the eastern shore of which it passes westward to the great coal regions of Bellingham bay, close to the British line. At Missoule Mills, in the western slope of Montana, where the road branches, one line turns a little south of west, crossing Idaho, and, at its western line, crosses the Snake river at Lewiston, where it enters Washington Territory, and at old Fort Walla Walla crosses the Columbia river, upon the western side of which it passes through the fertile and beautiful country of the Columbia for one hundred and seventy miles to Fort Vancouver, thence turning directly west, following the river, reaches Kalama, on the west bank of the Columbia, where it turns directly north through the rich valley of the Cowlitz to Olympia, where it joins the northern branch in its course westward to the British boundary: making the entire line, from Duluth, Lake Superior, by the branch via Vancouver, a total distance of two thousand miles to Puget sound, and by the northern branch, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five miles.

As a winter road, it is fair to conclude that no greater interruptions from snow will be experienced than prevail in any of the Atlantic States; the whole line of road, from Duluth to Puget sound, has but an average elevation of two thousand two hundred feet, and the fall of snow is much less than it is one thousand miles farther south. In the whole length of the Union Pacific

road, from Chicago to San Francisco, during the severe winter of 1871-2, the only obstruction by snow was in the range of the Rocky mountains, at an elevation of from seven thousand four hundred to eight thousand feet above the sea, not an hour's obstruction occurring on any point as low as the highest point on the line of the Northern Pacific road.

The national government, comprehending the importance of this international highway, has aided its construction by donating to it almost twenty-three thousand acres per mile, or fifty million acres of land in the aggregate.

The Northern Pacific road will make the route between Liverpool and the ports of Asia one thousand four hundred miles shorter than any line now travelled, and place the great lakes of the interior and the Pacific ocean almost seven hundred miles closer together than the line of the Union Pacific; and New York city three hundred and thirty-five miles nigher to Puget sound than to San Francisco. This northern road will be the natural outlet for the business soon to be developed in the rich valleys of the Red river, the head of the Missouri, Yellowstone, Assiniboin, and Saskatchewan, east of the Rocky mountains, and the rich fields of gold and agriculture in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington Territory; and its terminus at Puget sound will be the connecting link of the immense Asiatic and Pacific trade passing east of the Rocky mountains, which will include the whaling and other fishing interests of the Pacific, soon to find their natural depot in the splendid and genial harbor of Puget sound.

From Lake Superior to the waters of the Pacific in Washington Territory, on both sides of the Rocky mountains, is a vast region of unsurpassed fertility, where

wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, most of the hardier fruits, and every variety of berries and vegetables grow most abundantly: a deep, rich soil, millions of acres of which are ready for the plow; forests of beauty and value, wide grazing ranges, rivers, lakes, and mines rich in gold, silver, copper, coal, and other minerals, almost entirely unoccupied. Here new communities and new States must be built; here is room enough for fifty million people. Who can contemplate the future greatness of the new States of this region, and the national importance of its hidden treasures being brought close to our crowded centres by the tireless iron horse, whose ambition sets at defiance the rocks, ridges, and forests of the Rocky mountains!

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Geography-History-Hudson Bay Company-Area - IslandsMountains-Rivers-Lakes Forests-Climate-Agriculture— Valleys-Seasons-Rain-Bays-Harbors - Inlets-Natural resources-Gold and other minerals-Cities-Customs-Population -Natives-Commerce-Canadian railway.

BRITISH COLUMBIA is that portion of the Dominion of Canada lying west of the Rocky mountains, and washed on the west by the Pacific ocean. This is the only portion of the whole possessions of Great Britain on the Pacific, and embraces, besides the mainland of British Columbia, a number of islands in the Pacific, embracing Vancouver, in itself three hundred miles in length and sixty miles wide, Queen Charlotte, and numerous other islands, many of them of great size, and possessing valuable forests, a genial climate, abundance of fish in their waters, and game, and mines of gold, silver, copper, coal, and other minerals within their area.

The colony of British Columbia was formerly a portion of that vast region known as the Hudson Bay Company's territory, which extended from Lake Superior west and north to the Pacific and the Arctic oceans, and included at one time Oregon and Washington Territory, over all of which region the dominion of this once mighty company was absolute in commercial and military affairs, and in a portion of which the Hudson. Bay Company still conducts their fur trade to considera

ble extent.

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