My subsequent and semi-official inquiries induced me to modify many of
the conclusions of the article quoted above. On the essential question
of the pass in the Rocky Mountains, in British territory, most adapted
by Nature for the passage of a road or a railway, all the evidence
which I collected tended to show that the passage by the "Tete-jaune
Cache," or "Yellow-head," Pass, was the best. The Canadian Pacific
Company have adopted the "Kicking Horse" Pass, much to the southward of
the "Yellow-head" Pass. Again, it became clear to me that the whole
Rocky Mountain range was rather a series of high mountain peaks,
standing on the summit of gradual slopes, rising almost imperceptibly
from the plains and prairies on the eastern side, and dropping
suddenly, in most cases, towards the sea-level on the western or
Pacific side, than a great wall barring the country for hundreds of
miles, as some had dreamed. Every inquiry from trappers, traders,
Indian voyageurs, missionary priests of the Jesuits, and from all sorts
and conditions of men and women, made difficulty after difficulty
disappear. The great work began to appear to me comparatively easy of
execution between Fort Garry, or the lower town of Selkirk and British
Columbia; the cost less; and, owing to facilities of transport,
especially in winter, the time of execution much shorter than had been
previously assumed. In addition, an examination into the physical
conditions of the various routes proposed through the United States,
convinced me that here again the difficulties were less, and facilities
for construction greater, than I and others had first imagined. In
fact, I came rightly to the conclusion that the more southerly the
United States route, and the more northerly the British route--while
always, in the latter case, keeping within cultivable range--the
better. Still, at this time there was much to find out. As respects
real knowledge of the country to be traversed, the factors of the