has been already forwarded to His Excellency the Governor General of India. 12. The specimens for Lahore have been forwarded under separate covers. REVIEWS. A Sketch of an Overland Route to British Columbia. By Henry Youle Hind, M.A., F.R.G.S., Professor of Chemistry and Geology in the University of Trinity College, Toronto. Toronto: W. C. Chewett & Co. 1862. Professor Hind has here brought together, from his own previous writings and personal knowledge of the country, and from the best authorities relating to that portion which lies beyond the limits of his own travels, an amount of useful information scarcely to be obtained elsewhere, and of the greatest importance to emigrants who are inclined to prefer the overland route. He has chosen what is really valuable, and given it in the most concise form, thus making his work at once portable and generally accessible. To the matter furnished by Professor Hind is added a letter of five and thirty pages, addressed to the author at his request, by Sandford Fleming, Esq., C.E., Engineer to the Northern Railway of Canada, containing "Practical Observations on the Construction of a Continuous Line of Railway from Canada to the Pacific Ocean, on British Territory." This is a subject of peculiar interest. It may seem to be specially pressed upon our attention at the present moment by the wants of emigrants seeking the Columbian gold regions, but its interest is really far higher in connection with the future course of an important part of the world's commerce, and with the settlement of a vast fertile region lying in the interior along and for some distance about the proposed line. Already the Red River settlement is becoming well known, and exciting no small attention. Its future is indeed not only most important to its inhabitants, present and prospective, but is eminently important to Canada and to the whole British Empire. It is so because the colony is sure to extend and increase in wealth, in pro ducts, and in wants; it is so also because upon it depends the continuity of the British Empire in North America, the communication within our own dominions between the Atlantic coast and the important and rapidly rising colony of British Columbia, and the prospect of a future intercourse, by the same route, with Japan, China, Australia, and India. If a good road from Canada to Rupert's Land is not speedily opened who can tell the effect on the minds of the inhabitants of seeming neglect on the part of the mother country and the great and advanced intervening colony, joined with habitual dependence on the United States for means of intercourse with the outer world and for all which they most want? We have no enmity against the United States. We admire much in their institutions, though, very naturally, we do not like them so much as our own. We esteem their people highly as friendly neighbours, and when some among them abuse and threaten us, we give the great majority credit for more just and reasonable sentiments. But there are those in the States who are ambitious of territorial extension, and who would not only offer to, but force upon others the institutions they themselves value, and if the affections of our countrymen were cooled by supposed neglect, or their interests be involved in a change of allegiance, it is not difficult to foresee that influences might be brought to bear upon them which we are convinced would not really favour their own welfare and progress, and which would most seriously affect the prosperity of the great empire of which the ignorant and thoughtless might account them an insignificant part. With these views, we cannot but feel how much is involved in the question of a practicable and not too difficult route from Canada to the Red River and thence to British Columbia, and accordingly we looked to the opinions of an experienced and able engineer like Mr. Fleming with more than curiosity. We were not surprised to find Mr. Fleming begin by pointing out the impossibility of proceeding at once with the construction of the great railway line, which he justly regards as the only really satisfactory means of communication across the continent. As this decision may cause disappointment to many, and might possibly lessen the public interest in what may be speedily accomplished, we first give our author's statement of the magnitude and cost of an undertaking, the importance of which he estimates so highly, that we cannot suppose any attempt to frighten us by an exaggeration of the difficulties: "Having determined the character of the means of communication most de sirable to be established, it may be well now to glance at the comparative dimensions of the proposed work, and to consider the cost of its construction, as well as the annual expense of maintaining it for ever afterwards. "Measuring on the map along the general route of the proposed line from the mouth of Frazer's River, through one of the best passes yet discovered in the Rocky Mountains, along the general direction of 'the Fertile Belt,' keeping south of the North Saskatchewan, crossing the Red River near the settlement, bridging the Winnipeg River at the north end of the Lake of the Woods, striking through the country to the most northerly bend of the shore of Lake Superior, thence in a direct line to a crossing on the French River west of Lake Nipissing, and from this point connecting with the existing railway system of Canada, either at the Town of Barrie, or at Peterboro, or at the City of Ottawa. The distance thus measured will be found to be in round numbers about 2000 miles ; and althongh a railway between the two oceans on British territory cannot be considered perfect without the completion of the road between Halifax and the most easterly extension of the Grand Trunk in Lower Canada, yet as there is some prospect of this section being made independently, it does not appear necessary to embrace its length in the present consideration. "That a just conception may be formed of the real magnitude of the project under discussion, and the means necessary to its attainment, attention may for a moment be drawn to a few leading details. The construction of 2000 miles of railway, measured by the average standard of similar works existing in this country, implies the performance of labourers' work sufficient to give employment to 1000 men for fifty or sixty years; it involves the delivery of 5,000,000 cross-ties or sleepers, and over 200,000 tons of iron rails for the 'permanent way; it comprises the erection of 60,000 poles, hung with 1000 tons of wire, for the telegraph; it necessitates the creation of motive power equivalent to over 50,000 horses, which power would be concentrated in 400 locomotives; it involves the production of from 5000 to 6000 cars of all kinds, which, coupled with the locomotives, would make a single train over thirty miles in length; and lastly, it implies a gross expenditure on construction and equipment of not less than $100,000,000.* "It will likewise serve as a salutary check on hasty conclusions, to weigh beforehand the cost of operating a truly gigantic establishment of the kind after its perfect completion. A few figures derived from actual results will shew that the first construction of a railway through the interior of British North America is even a less formidable undertaking than that of keeping it afterwards open, in the present condition of the country. For operating the line successfully, the fuel alone required in each year, and estimated as wood, would considerably exceed 200,000 cords; for keeping the road in repair, a regiment of 2000 trackmen would constantly be employed, in small gangs, throughout its "Major Carmichael-Smyth estimated the cost of building a line of railway from Halifax to the Pacific at £150,000,000 sterling,-equal to over $700,000,000; but then he computes the expenditure as on English railways, where more money has been wasted in preliminary expenses, and lavished on architectural monuments at stations, than would suffice to build an equal length of road in this or any new country." entire length. For the same purpose there would on an average be annually required 600,000 new cross-ties, as well as nearly 30,000 tons of new or re-rolled iron rails. The annual repairs of rolling-stock would not cost less than $1,000,000. Over 5000 employées of all kinds would constantly be under pay; and as these men would usually represent each a family, there would not be far short of 20,000 souls subsisting by the operation of the road. The aggregate amount of wages in each year, after the road was in operation, would swell out to nearly $2,000,000; while the gross expenditure for operating and maintaining works would annually exceed $8,000,000. "Again, if to this last sum be added the interest on first cost, it becomes evident that until the gross earnings of the railway in each year come up to the enormous sum of $14,000,000, it could not pay interest on the capital invested." Formidable as this statement may appear, and strongly as it brings home to us the absurdity of an immediate attempt by Provincial or even Imperial funds, and still more obviously by private enterprise, which for a considerable time could obtain no return, to carry out such plans, we think it may be well established that without any im practicable or pernicious expenditure a portion of the advantages sought-well worth great exertions to obtain-may be secured within a very moderate time, and (which deserves special attention) that the immediate benefit thus gained is not derived from a mere temporary substitute for what alone can fully satisfy our wishes, but results from preparations for and progress towards the grand scheme which should ever be kept in view as essential for our national development. Mr. Fleming's peculiar idea, and it is one which deserves much consideration, is that whilst vast works must necessarily be carried on gradually and completed as the several parts can be brought into profitable use, it is possible and most desirable in opening a new country to employ skill and foresight in determining the best positions for the main thoroughfares and giving them the direction which must ultimately be most advantageous. When a new country is gradually occupied without order or preparation, under the guidance only of individual fancy, roads as they come to be formed will represent the nearest available paths from one point to another, where a few people have collected together. Where the settlement of a country proceeds under the control of a government, the land is generally divided into suitable portions or lots, which are given or sold to settlers, road allowances being left according to a definite plan. This plan, in order to save expense and trouble, is a formal one, producing equal sized lots bounded by straight lines independent of the natural features of the country, with roads left at regular intervals which may be improved as they are wanted, but which are liable to pass through swamps or over steep hills and which have no reference to any particular place to be reached by them. Mr. Fleming contends that in laying out for occupation a country which is as yet a wilderness, it is of great importance to consider well the natural features of the country, the parts best fitted for immediate occupation and its relations with other neighbouring or connected countries, and to open roads and lay out lots in reference to these circumstances. He divides the roads required into three classes-the great leading roads, which ought to become railways, and which he would call "Territorial Roads;" the gravel or stone road, going through important parts of the country, and around which the first settlements would be made, which he proposes to name "Colonization Roads ;" and the earth roads, formed by a mere clearing of the forest, offering access to farms, but not needing any special efforts for their improvement, which may be denominated "Concession Roads." The following extract shews how these several kinds of roads should be formed : "In pre-arranging a system of internal communications for a new territory, it would be necessary to take a prospective view of the character of the traffic which might exist when, after a lapse of years, the district becomes populated. In this we might be guided by drawing a comparison between the natural advantages of soil, climate, and position of the section of the country to be colonized, with those of any similar section which has become occupied, and, to to some extent, developed. In this manner we could form some idea of the nature of the future commerce of the country, and consequently of all the classes of roads which would ultimately be required to accommodate it. The leading direction which traffic may seek, or the direction which, in a national or political sense, it may appear expedient to guide it, would prescribe the general direction of the main line of road through the territory, and the other consideration would determine its character. This is the first thing to be established, as upon it the direction and character of all minor lines mainly depend. Assuming the tract of country to be colonized is such as to justify us in the belief that in due time a railway may be constructed through it, the first step would be to lay out a 'Territorial Road' between the more important points in the general direction of traffic previously determined. The territorial road ought to be located with the utmost care, and in all that relates to curvatures and levels, the best railway location in an engineering aspect alone which the country traversed could afford. In this respect there would doubtless be less than usual difficulty, as there would be neither right-of-way obstacles to guard |