south. There are the three great peaks, Mount Brown, Mount Hooker, and Mount Murchison, all nearly 16,000 feet high. We don't attempt to climb them, but wind our way by the valleys and passes, where, some day, the Canadian-Pacific Railway will be carried. 5. "Now fancy that we have crossed the mountain-chain-(there's a watershed for you, Johnny, 16,000 feet high!)—we have found the sources of the Fraser river, the only one of any size, and follow it through British Columbia to its mouth at New Westminster, on the Gulf of Georgia. 6. "On the opposite side of the Gulf is Vancouver's Island, now joined to British Columbia, with Victoria, the capital, at the south-east corner. A little to the north is Queen Charlotte Island. 7. ""A fine, fertile country, full of woods and forests, plains and valleys. But it is richest in minerals. Gold-digging again, Charlie! Gold first made it into a separate colony; great quantities of it were found in the bed of the Fraser and other rivers, as well as in the rocks; and, now that gold is scarcer, there is plenty of coal, and silver, and copper, if only there were people enough to work the mines." 8. I went to bed, with Mr. Campbell's tales in my head, and dreamt some funny dreams. I thought I was riding on a buffalo, in chase of you, Johnny, on a grizzly bear, and we all tumbled headlong into a gold mine! I woke, to find Mr. Campbell standing over me, and shouting in my ear: "Now, old buffalo, it's time to be up and starting!" IX. HUDSON'S BAY. I. 'WE followed the course of the Saskatchewan, getting pleasantly over the prairie in a light cart, made chiefly of buffalo skins. There were no roads, but the ground was dry, and the grass light and springy. 2. "A few weeks later," said Mr. Campbell, "and these tracks we are following would be heavy mud, and, a little later still, all would be covered with snow, and our only chance would be in a sleigh. But then we need not have taken the trouble of coming, for the bay would be locked fast in ice!" 3. 'We reached the mouth of the Saskatchewan, near the northern end of Lake Winnipeg. Keeping to the edge of the lake, we came to its outlet into the Nelson river, and this led us to Port Nelson, on the shores of Hudson's Bay. 4. "No ice yet, I'm glad to see," said Mr. Campbell," and we're before the Captain for once. I've time to say one parting word, before we leave the Dominion. You saw the grand crops in Manitoba, and on the prairie-farms to the west of it, and I showed you how easily they were raised. Yet it is not very cheap, when it reaches England. Can you guess why this is so?" 5. 'I thought for a little while; and then I remembered how my father used to say that his crops would pay him much better, even if he sold them for less money, if his farm were nearer to a railway station. So I said: 6. "I suppose it costs so much to convey the corn to England, because they have the long sail down the lakes, before it reaches the sea." 7. "You're quite right. It is the 2,500 miles ⚫ from Winnipeg that makes the cost so heavy. But I hope, before long, they will have a railway from Lake Winnipeg to Port Hudson: for five months in the year, the bay would be clear of ice, and steamers could pass out freely with cargoes for England. 8. "But here comes the 'Saucy Sally'! We're before you for once, Captain!" "All the better!" shouted my uncle; "I found some floating ice outside the straits, which bothered me. Half-an-hour and I'm off; for there's no time to lose," 9. "Come then, Charlie," said Mr. Campbell: "we'll finish off our letters, and post them. They'll catch the steamer at Halifax, and perhaps steam may beat sails for once!" 10. "We'll see about that," answered my uncle. "Let me once be fairly in the open, with a good start, and I'll say as the Arab said of his horse, 666 'Away! Who overtakes me now, may claim thee for his pains."' |