In March, 1863, a Select Committee was appointed by the Legislative Assembly to investigate the subject of a navigable line between Montreal and Lake Huron, by the Ottawa and Matawan Rivers, Lake Nipissing, and French River. That Committee reported that there were no engineering difficulties to interfere with the opening of this route for vessels of every class up to the draught of twelve feet, and that it would shorten the line to Chicago 350 miles, the exact difference in favour of the Ottawa communication from Montreal to Mackinaw being 68 miles. In point of time there would be a reduction of 47 hours. The trade between the Western States and the sea has increased to such an extent during the last four years, that 120,000,000 of bushels of wheat and grain stood in need of transport, according to the last calculation; and even with its present communications, Montreal is second only to New York as a grain-exporting port, the quantity shipped last year from it being over 15,000,000 of bushels. The Ottawa route would actually be the shortest line of communication between the ports on Lake Michigan and New York itself by 150 miles, when the Champlain Canal shall have been made, and the Northern Canal enlarged. The tract through which the proposed line would pass, exceeding in area the whole of the five New England States, is covered with a wealth of timber surpassing belief; and the forestless prairies would furnish a market valuable as gold itself to the lumberer. Vessels going down and discharging their cargoes would return with cargoes of timber, the demand for which in the West is so great, that the city of Chicago consumes alone 100,000_l._ worth in the year. Canadian pines would be in demand to construct the new cities which are rising in the Prairie State, and to keep the hearth fires alight through their rigid winters. The effect of such a line in developing local traffic, agricultural improvement, commercial enterprise, and the spread of civilisation, cannot be over-estimated. In reference to the military advantages to be derived from its construction, the Committee makes but a meagre reference; but it is obvious that by securing such a route, far removed from a foreign frontier, between the sea and the western lakes, the means of defence and of transport in war would be very much strengthened and improved.