One can not but be struck with the lack of enterprise and enthusiasm which marked the relations of Great Britain to her American possessions during this period. The spread of United States settlements had necessitated the establishment of an international boundary line, and in 1818, the 49th degree of north latitude had been fixed by treaty as the limit between the Western States and British America, the St. Lawrence and its lakes remaining, as before, the boundary between Canada and the Eastern States of the Union. But another half-century elapsed before any attempt was made by the British Government to survey and mark this new boundary line. The outlying colonies struggled on, some of them almost entirely cut off from intercourse with the outer world, and many a noble life was lived and lost in the vain struggle for existence. Meantime, as we have seen, the United States were being intersected by railways, and their ocean boundaries were connected by iron bands. California――youngest state of the Union, and a few short years before but an unknown desert――had become the golden link between the East and the West. Yet the owners of a territory as vast, and perhaps as full of great possibilities as the mighty republic itself, still remained in ignorance of the true character of their possessions. Maps there were, but maps made up of sketches filled in on hearsay Indian evidence, and calculated only to mislead the unhappy explorer who should attempt to guide his course by their vague delineations. A change soon came, however, and one as rapid as the course of events which led up to it had been slow. This change may be said to have been inaugurated in 1857, when Captain Palliser started on an expedition, which occupied three years, and resulted in the thorough and just assessment of the economic value of the districts, extending from the United States boundary in N. lat. 49° to the chief rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. Illustration: SASKATCHEWAN STEAMER.