“Canada, be it remembered, has an area greater than that of the United States, and at the last census (that of 1901) the smaller country showed a population of eighty millions, as against the mere five millions at which the larger was registered. If, therefore, the resources of the larger of these two countries are relatively as great, the scantier population will admit of being increased fifteen times. The question of resources thereupon emerges, and before speaking of these in detail, it may be noted (1) that the soil here is as good as in other parts of the Dominion; and (2) that the winters are not more severe than those which are undergone in other portions of Canada. Six months, moreover, of open water may be reckoned upon—from the beginning of May to the beginning of November. The lakes and rivers abound with fish; there are inconnu, or Mackenzie salmon, whitefish, pike, and suckers, doré, trout, and herrings. The large inland sheets of water—such as Great and Lesser Slave lakes, Athabaska and Bear lakes—teem with fish, which forms to-day the staple food of the scanty inmates of these tracts. The fishing, indeed, would of itself be no slight asset were there any means of shipping the produce out of the country. “This brings me to the subject of transport. Population will not merely increase with, but will itself enable the increase of, THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. The two will advance, like a couple of boys playing at leap-frog, each by the aid of the other—and will advance, like those youngsters, ‘by leaps and bounds.’ As the settlers become more frequent the great waterways will be rendered navigable, and their banks, like the land abutting the railways that will make a trellis-work of the country, will be dotted with noble cities and with prosperous towns. There are at the present day three huge tracts that would quickly be inhabited were they invaded by the locomotive. A railroad from Edmonton to Athabaska river would give access to two hundred and ten miles of waterway, in one direction, up to Lesser Slave lake, and one hundred and sixty-five miles of stream running down to Grand rapids. A railroad from Edmonton to Peace river would open up six hundred miles of a river yet finer, and running through a finer country, than that approached by the first-named line. The third railway to be looked for would connect Athabaska river at McMurray with Prince Albert, hereby giving easy access to the name-sake lake from this fort. “It might be objected that there are no markets in this country, but this objection we have already virtually forestalled. Given the spread of railways and the inflow of settlers, the establishment of markets will follow as a matter of course. Let me conclude my statement of the country’s capabilities by mentioning its lime and stone, its oil and gas, its asphaltum, coal, and salt.