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Title page to Reports of
Progress ... on the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition
1859,
by Henry Youle Hind
Hind's final report described what everyone had hoped
he would find: a vast "fertile belt" which
extended in a northwest direction, all the way from
Red River to the Rocky Mountains. With very little scientific
data available, Hind concluded
that "no other part of North America [has] this
singularly favourable disposition of soil and climate."
Decades later, advocates of western expansion would
use Hind's report as justification for Canada's acquisition
of Rupert's Land and for the settlement of the Northwest
by European immigrants.
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