There is by no means the same unanimity of opinion regarding the country from Moose Jaw to Calgary. Travellers and land jobbers in Winnipeg described it to me as a semi-desert. I came to a different conclusion. I was surprised, from what I heard, to find the soil such as I have described it. I am satisfied that the same land in the climate of the farming districts of England and Scotland would produce the most luxuriant crops. I will not compare it in character to the land away to the north on the route by Edmonton. In many places I found the pasture short and dried brown, as it is often to be seen in the best districts of Ontario at the end of August, the period of the year I passed through the North-West. The fears which I heard expressed respecting an insufficient rainfall exacted more attention, for without moisture even good soil will bring only indifferent crops. This important consideration, however, will soon be brought within the domain of fact. The railway company has commenced a series of experimental operations, breaking up the land and bringing it under cultivation in the neighbourhood of the stations in those localities where any doubt has been expressed of the character of the soil.
I have crossed the continent on the four different lines now known, and to a certain extent can contrast the features of the country and its fertility as they are represented on each line by such an examination as I could make. We have, likewise, the known opinions of each separate route by those familiar with it. So some fair ground of comparison exists as to their characteristics:—
1. The Central and Union Pacific from Omaha to San Francisco;
2. The Northern Pacific from St. Paul via Portland, Oregon, to Puget Sound;
3. The Canadian Pacific from Lake Superior to Port Moody by the Kicking-Horse, Rogers and Eagle Passes;
4. The line originally surveyed from Lake Superior to Port Moody by the North Saskatchewan and Yellow Head Pass.
Speaking generally, the country traversed by these lines is the least valuable on the most southern and increases in value as the lines run through the more northern country.
The best land is undoubtedly to be met on the line through the valley of the North Saskatchewan, leading to the Yellow Head Pass. The most indifferent is the Central Pacific at the south. The Northern Pacific line passes through a better country than the latter, but is again greatly inferior to the land between Winnipeg and Calgary, which I cannot recognize as so good as on the more northern route.
The engineering character of the four trans-continental routes may in some respects be judged by the mountain summits passed over.
The Central and Union Pacific Railway passes over four main summits at intervals apart of from 300 to 400 miles; the lowest of which is 6,120 feet, the highest is 8,240 above sea level.
The Northern Pacific line passes over two summits 120 miles apart, reaching elevations of 5,547 and 5,572 feet.
The Canadian Pacific Railway, by the route followed on the recent journey, has the Bow River summit, 5,300 feet, and the Rogers summit, 4,600 feet above sea level. The latter summit may, however, be entirely avoided by following the River Columbia, a detour which would somewhat lengthen the line.
The one main summit on the line by the North Saskatchewan is at the Yellow Head Pass, 3,720 feet above tide water.