Special interest attaches to the experience of Mr. McInnes, because he zig-zagged across the actual ground to be crossed by the first half of the Hudson Bay Railway. The whole region from Split Lake to the Saskatchewan is, he said, a clay-covered country. In traversing that country he went by way of the Burntwood River and returned by way of the Grassy River, making a number of excursions between those two boundaries. After leaving Split Lake, he found the clay-covered country absolutely free from boulders and gravel. Even on the shores of the lakes, unless a height of about 800 feet were reached, no gravel bars were met with. “There is absolutely nothing to interfere with the cultivation of the soil,” testified Mr. McInnes. “The country has been repeatedly burnt over, and it is covered by a very open forest. Grasses grow fairly luxuriantly there, the blue joint grass and a wild rye being the prevailing species. I understand that these are a good meadow growth and make excellent fodder. While there in June, July and August I saw grass growing to a height of from eighteen inches to two feet.” Asked to indicate the extent of the country he was describing, Mr. McInnes computed it at about 10,000 square miles, adding that he did not mean to say the whole of that area was good agricultural land. This explorer’s testimony will enable the reader, without consulting a map, to have a definite idea of the nature of the land along the new route. The Pas, on the Saskatchewan River, to the north-west of Lake Winnipegosis, may be taken as the starting-point of the line, since a railway to that place has for some time been constructed as part of the Canadian Northern system. Setting out from the Pas, and proceeding towards Nelson, Mr. McInnes passed through about 140 miles of country underlain by the flat limestone of northern Manitoba. He walked for miles over bare hills that carried hardly any soil. Then he entered the clay belt previously mentioned. The railway, he explained, would traverse about 170 miles of those clay lands before it reached Split Lake.