together, as if each were the echo of the other; one of them darts forward into the empty space formed by the excavation of the meeting gallery--the holes are filled with powder -the mine is fired-and when the explosion has taken place, and the smoke has cleared away, there is no longer a barrier to overcome, but the passage from France to Italy is open without obstruction from end to end! Then will have been accomplished an enterprise which, to use the words of M. Menabrea, when addressing the Italian Chamber on the 4th of March, 1863, 'will be for the glory of Italy and the greatest benefit to all her population.' And not Italy alone. The whole of Europe has an interest in the success of the tunnel through which will flow the stream of traffic from Germany and France. A few years ago the pass of the Mont Cenis glittered with the bayonets and resounded with the tramp of a French army marching on its way to rescue fair Italy from the grasp of the foreigner. Now a more peaceful conquest is going on over the obstacles which Nature has imposed, and the Alps themselves are yielding to the potent spell which science and art together are able to evoke. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the result; and if it is achieved, the Alpine tunnel will be one of the blessings of humanity, and exist for ages an imperishable monument of patient industry and engineering skill.

HISTORY OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.

'Good Words,' May, 1869.

A TERRITORY half as large as Europe stretches to the north and west of Canada, from the coast of Labrador, on the east, to the Rocky Mountains, on the south-west, and touching the Arctic circle on the north, reaches as far as the boundary line in the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude between British North America and the United States on the south. It embraces within its sweep Hudson's Strait, Hudson's Bay, and James's Bay-an expanse of waters equal to the area of the Mediterranean. From the south-west extremity, an irregular line, trending towards the north-east, divides it from that part of the British dominions which is generally known as the Indian territory. This contains the Great Bear Lake, the Great Slave Lake, and Athabasca Lake; the Coppermine, the Mackenzie, and the Great Fish rivers; and through it, on the western side, runs the mighty range of the Rocky Mountains, which extend from the Arctic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, and divide the Indian territory from British Columbia. A ridge of table-land running south-west from the coast of Labrador to the source of the Ottawa River, and forming the watershed of the rivers which on the one side fall into the St. Lawrence, and on the other into the Hudson's Bay, may be considered as the south-eastern limit of the territory, although neither on the west nor on the south-east has its boundary been ever accurately traced or defined. The whole of this vast region-by a very indefinite description, but under the name of Rupert's Land-was granted, by Royal Charter in 1670, by Charles II., to the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay,' familiarly called the Hudson's Bay Company, of whose history and policy I purpose to give some account in the following pages. But I

I will first endeavour to describe the natural features of the country itself, of which little more is generally known in England than that it produces the furs which are so largely used as articles of clothing, luxury, and ornament.

It is only on the southern part of the territory that cultivation is possible. This is owing to the rigour of the climate and the nature of the soil. The country to the north of the Saskatchewan River, Lake Winnipeg, and Lake Superior, has been described as a region of rivers, swamps, treeless prairies, and barren hills and hollows, 'tossed together in a wave-like form, as if the ocean had been suddenly petrified while heaving its huge billows in a tumultuous swell.' In the winter season almost the only means of subsistence in this dreary region is frozen fish. By far the greatest portion seems destined for ever to remain a sterile wilderness, tenanted by animals whose thick furs enable them to resist the cold, and roamed over by hunters, who, with guns and traps in their hands, pursue the bear, the beaver, the wolf, the fox, the martin, and the mink, and

Kill them up

In their assigned and native dwelling-place.

Hudson's Bay-which was discovered by John Hudson, in 1610 may be considered as the great basin into which the rivers of Rupert's Land flow. The largest of the inland waters is Lake Winnipeg, on the south. It is 300 miles long, and in some parts 50 miles broad, distant about 50 miles from the boundary line that divides Rupert's Land from the United States, and 500 miles from Lake Superior. The next two largest lakes are Lake Manitobah (the 'Evil Spirit' lake) and Lake Winnipegosis, to the west of Lake Superior, and together nearly of the same length. The Red River, which rises in the Otter-tail lake, in Minnesota, flows northwards into Lake Winnipeg; and to the north-east of it is the Winnipeg River, another affluent of the lake, which connects it with the Lake of the Woods, and this again is connected by Rainy River, with Rainy Lake, through which runs the boundary line of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. The country lying between Lake Winnipeg and the Red River on the east-the south branch of the Saskatchewan on the west-the main

stream of that river on the north--and the boundary line on the south-forms an irregular parallelogram, which is computed to contain 80,000 square miles-an area equal to that of Great Britain. And within this area there are upwards of I 1,000,000 acres of arable land, and an equal quantity fit for pasture.

It is on the banks of the Red River that the Red River or Selkirk Settlement, of which I shall speak hereafter, was formed. The soil is alluvial, and produces crops of wheat, but in the immediate neighbourhood most of the forests that formerly existed have been destroyed by fire, but there is still a large quantity of wood, especially on the east side. The timber, however, is nowhere of great size. It has been said, indeed, that there is not a tree of any description five feet in diameter in the Company's territory east of the Rocky Mountains, and the largest pines there seldom exceed three feet in diameter. But yet, on the other hand, one of the witnesses who was examined before a Committee of the House of Commons, in 1857, declared that in the vast area between the north branch of the Saskatchewan River and the Athabasca Lake, in the north, there are trees, 'vast and splendid in their growth,' which would bear comparison with the magnificent trees round Kensington Park.' There are, however, very few trees if any in the plains, and the buffalo hunters are obliged to carry wood with them for lighting fires. Between the Red River and Rainy Lake, to the east, there is an impracticable country full of deep morasses, of which it has been asserted that they never thaw, for below the moist surface there is a stratum of everlasting ground ice. But this, I think, must be a mistake, for the so-called permanent 'frozen district' begins at a higher latitude. Along the banks of the Red River for about the width of a mile there is a belt of land which has more or less been brought into cultivation, but beyond this the soil is extremely thin, and some idea of the nature of the country may be formed from the evidence of Sir George Simpson, who was for many years Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and who stated before the Committee of the House of Commons that he had paddled over some of the roofs of the houses there in his canoe. These were certainly 'lacustrine' habitations of a modern period.

Owing to the difficulties of the country the territory has not yet been fully explored, and actual knowledge of its features has been chiefly confined to the region that lies to the west of Red River and south of the northern fork of the Saskatchewan River; the two forks meeting at a place called Nepowewin or Fort à la Corne, and thence flowing in a united stream to Lake Winnipeg, which they enter near its head on the north-west side. An expedition to explore the country watered by the Assiniboine and the Saskatchewan was sent out by the Canadian Government in 1857, and its very interesting reports are to be found in a Blue Book published by order of the House of Commons in 1860.

The Assiniboine River flowing from the north, turns to the east five miles above Fort Ellice, about 360 miles from Fort Garry. Fort Pelly lies upon it to the north. For the first fifteen miles of its course the land of the valley is light and sandy clay, in many places pure sand covered with a low growing creeper. The grass is very short and scanty, and the aspens, which are the only trees, are small. Farther on the country improves for about sixty miles, but it abounds with marshes, swamps, and ponds, round which grow willow and aspen trees. From thence to Fort Pelly the country is densely covered with aspens and willows, but there are open spaces here and there, where, says Mr. Dickinson, one of the officers employed on the Canadian expedition, 'the wonderful luxuriance of the vegetation is beyond description. Lakes and ponds are very numerous throughout, encircled with large aspens and balsam poplars.' To the east of Fort Pelly lies the Swan River, which flows in a north-easterly course into Lake Winnipegosis. The valley through which it runs is described as containing all the requirements necessary for a settlement, and the timber is plentiful and of a good size. The land for the most part is sandy loam, and is traversed by numerous creeks.

The Qu'Appelle, or Calling River, flows from the west, and joins the Assiniboine five miles above Fort Ellice. It rises near the south branch of the Saskatchewan, at a place called the Elbow; and in the long, deep, and narrow valley through which it runs towards the east, there are eight lakes, of an aggregate length of seventy miles. A scheme has been