“The plains rise gently as the Rocky Mountains are approached, and at their western limit have an altitude of 4000 feet above the sea level. With only a very narrow belt of intervening country, the mountains rise abruptly from the plains, and present lofty precipices that frown like battlements over the level country to the eastward. The average altitude of the highest part of the Rocky Mountains is 12,000 feet (about lat. 51 deg). The forest extends to the altitude of 7000 feet, or 2000 feet above the lowest pass. “The _fertile belt_ of arable soil, partly in the form of rich, open prairie, partly covered with groves of aspen, which stretches from the Lake of the Woods to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, averages 80 to 100 miles in breadth.” Dr. James Hector, and all the explorers, agree in their descriptions of this region. It is difficult to reach; but is it so difficult to reach as the shores of America itself were, 300, or 200, or 100 years ago? We cannot conceive what a century has done in America, or at home. How little, then, can we conjecture what the next fifty years will effect in these distant lands! The map, which now is crowded with the names of cities where red men roamed _in terra incognita_ so recently as the beginning of this century, should reprove any incredulity. The nations are like water. When a country is filled above its capacity, its surplus overflows. As soon as all the eligible districts of Canada are occupied, the streams of settlers will pour westwards; tracks and roads will be made; and, if the land be good, it will soon be filled with people. As to the great regions which lie to the west, and open on the Pacific, it can only be said that they are to us what California was to the United States on the first discovery of gold; and that after fifty years they may be less than California is now, if steps be not taken to bind them up with British interests, and to oppose the Americanisation with which they are threatened. Without reference to the Far West, or the Far North-West,--without regard to the Red River and Assiniboia or to British Columbia, there is before us the great fact, that out of the Canadas, and the British North American Provinces and dependencies, can be created a powerful Confederation attached to this country, and capable of the grandest development in spite of climatic influences. We have already given a slight sketch of the extent and capability of these provinces, and hinted at the difficulties that may arise in the working of the Confederation. Canada is now more than threatened with the loss of the advantages which were supposed to depend on the Reciprocity Treaty, and Great Britain is formally warned that she must prepare to meet Federal encroachments on the Lakes. Mr. Galt, in a very elaborate speech, exhaustive of the topics connected with the financial aspect of the future Confederation, lately laid before his hearers a series of calculations which