very important spot in the Line proposed.
Let us see what Montgomery Martin says about it.[see Note 28]

The Bishop of Montreal, in 1844, says, "The soil, which is alluvial, is
beyond example rich and productive, and withal so easily worked, that,
although it does not quite come up to the description of the Happy
Islands--reddit ubi cererem tellus inarata quot annis--there is an
instance, I was assured, of a farm in which the owner, with
comparatively light labour in the preparatory processes, had taken a
wheat crop out of the same land for eighteen successive years, never
changing the crop, never manuring the land, and never suffering it to
lie fallow, and that the crop was abundant to the last; and, with
respect to the pasture and hay, they are to be had ad libitum, as nature
gives them in the open plains." Again, speaking of import goods: "All
these articles are brought across from Hudson's Bay, a distance of
several hundred miles, in boats, and these boats are drawn across the
portages on rollers, or in some places carried upon waggons; hence those
articles which are of a heavy description are charged at a price
seemingly out of all proportion to that of many others which may be
obtained at a moderate price: a common grindstone is sold for
20_s_."[see Note 29]

Now read again the description of Hudson's Bay, discovered by John
Hudson in 1610,[see Note 27] then look upon that picture, and upon
this; look upon that country that will give eighteen successive crops of
wheat, and look upon the difficult, dangerous, and tedious navigation of
that bay, whose _climate in summer and winter is horrible_, and through
whose waters the stores of this fine country are obliged to travel;
look at that picture, then look at this,--the easy, safe, and rapid
communication of a Railway,--and say if the time, health and money that
would be saved by its construction is not worthy the consideration of
Englishmen, and would not repay the constructors, even if that was to be
its last terminus.[see Note 54]

But when it is considered that the Main Line of Railway, in passing
through our own colonies, would skirt the shores of Lake Superior--rich
in mines of silver and copper[see Note 36]--and that the Red River
Settlement[see Note 30] would only be one of the many valuable towns and
districts that would be opened to trade and commerce, and only
contribute its mite to the profits to be obtained from the passage of
the Rocky Mountains to th