FROM FAST TO WEST.   307

Canadian canals was declared free to the inhabitants of both countries. It was also agreed, as has already been mentioned, that the Emperor of Germany should be asked to decide the San Juan dispute, and that the Alabania claims should be settled

by an arbitration board,

which met in Switzer-   t.
land in the following

year and awarded to the   y

United States a sum of

c over ST 5.000,000.,,

British   In 1866 the

Columbia.   t w o prov-

inces of Vancouver and British Columbia had be-come one. But the united

province had no assem-

bly, and the people soon began to agitate for some change which would give them a larger share in the government. 1lany, indeed, w i s li e d for a union Nyith Canada, in

spite of the immense dis-   FELLING A DOUGLAS PINE IN

tance between British   BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Columbia and the older provinces, and late in 187o delegates were sent to Ottawa to discuss terms of union. The result was that British Columbia was admitted into Confederation in July, 1871.

One of the conditions agreed upon was that the Dominion government should build a railway across the continent to the Pacific coast. This great work was to be begun within two years, and finished within ten; but many people shook their heads and declared that this was impossible.