A Summer in Prairie-Land - Notes of a Tour Through the North-West Territory #267189

There are two routes by either of which the travel ler may proceed to the great north-west. Starting from Toronto, one may go by way of the Lakes as far as Duluth, at the extreme westerly point of Lake Superior, and from thence westward by the Northern Pacific; or, if time be an object, he may go by rail, via Chicago and St. Paul, intersecting route No. 1 at Brainerd or Glyndon. From the latter point the tra veller has again the choice of two routes: he may turn directly northward, bv the St. Paul and Manitoba Railway, and enter the country at Emerson or, keep ing on the line of the Northern Pacific Railway, he may go westward, through the territories of Dakota and Montana, enter Canadian territory a hundred miles east Of the Rocky Mountains, proceed northward as far as he wishes to go, and then strike east and south-east, coming out by way of Manitoba, and so on, as the surveyors say, to the place of beginning. For various reasons I chose the latter route, and it is of this tour, and of what I saw and heard, that I now propose to give some little account. After some con sultation I decided to join the Rev. John mcdougall, who was about returning from Ontario, with a band of missionaries and teachers, to his work in the Sas katchewan District, as I would thus have the advan tage of travelling, for a considerable distance at least, with one thoroughly familiar with the routes and with the modes of travel which the state of the country rendered necessary. The Mission party left Toronto on the 17th of June.