THE ROMANCE OF ALBERTA.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12398, 13 November 1908, Page 5

THE ROMANCE OF ALBERTA.

The story of tho development of Alberta as told recently by a settler of fivo and forty years' standing, makes; fascinating reading. In tlie sixties you might travel -in the region for many days on. horseback or by dog trahij' and outside of your own party never see a human being. There were no waggons and very few carts. The streams. of Alberta wore without cither ferries or bridges. There was one packet in.- the twelve months, and only letters "wore carried in this packet. Tea, salt! and tobacco were a dollar a pound. Sugar and flour were not for sale. . The great majority of tho inhabitants had not tasted flour or sugar or syrup, and only a very few had begun to drink tea. The transport power was either horses, oxen, or dogs. Tho Hudson Bay Company used small boats in the North Saskatchewan; those wore propelled by man-power. Alberta has now two railways creeping through her territory, east and west, and .in* the southern portion, arid in the central part, two more transcontinentals arc building. The province has, indeed, over 1300 miles" of railway completed or at present building, "and contracts given and surveys taken could speak of many hundreds of miles in- the near future. Besides many stage lines carrying mails and passengers have been put on the roads of Alberta, and even tho outlying settlements have been brought into tho range of communication by weekly and bi-monthly mail service. The population has increased from 20,000 in 1883 to a quarter of a million. In the course of some reminiscences, the writer, the Roy. Dr. John McDougall, says that in 1873 his wife - was tho only white woman in all Alberta, and the .second white woman was the wife of his brother David, who arrived in:'. tho following year. For many years Dr. McDougall ate bread only as an occasional luxury. To-day there are in Alberta flourmills. by the score. In 1864 the young divine brought the first dairy stock into Alberta riortheast of Fort Edmonton. It consisted of four, cows and one bull, and he drove thorn from the Red River Val-J ley. In 1906 there were ■in Alberta* 226,534 horses, 950,000 cattle, 154,226 Dr. McDougall first went to the province in - 1862 : there was but , one school- in Alberta. "To-day Alberta has over 1000 schools and two colleges, and is organising a university.