Excerpt from Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 and of the Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858, Vol. 1 of 2 The trade of China and Japan, now on the point of being opened to British enterprise, the gold wealth of British Columbia, and the fertile belt forming the northern boundary of the great American desert, all give importance to the Basin of Lake Winnipeg, which in creases with our contemplation of its possible and indeed probable future. The illimitable wastes of Siberia, extending over eighty degrees of longitude, are traversed by Russian couriers in far less time than with all our appliances of steam and telegraph, we can receive news from China. The same postal system which there prevails can be far more easily maintained in British America, and with this vast advan tage, that from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Moun tains the route would lie through a tract of country not only remarkably fertile, but possessing rich stores of timber for fuel, lignite coal, iron, and salt - the most important elements of industry and wealth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.