The Palliser Expedition: The Dramatic Story of Western Canadian Exploration 1857-1860. 2nd ed.

W.J.C. Cherwinski is a professor of history at the Memorial University
of Newfoundland and the co-author of Lectures in Canadian Labour and
Working-Class History.

As British North Americans from Canada West cast covetous eyes on
Rupert’s Land in the 1850s, they first had to determine whether
westward agricultural expansion was the dream of fools or a viable
option for a people with visions of greatness. Hard information
carefully assembled was essential, because opinions on the West’s
potential differed widely: was it arid desert or Arctic tundra? To find
the answer, two expeditions combed the area between the Shield and the
Pacific in 1857—one under Canadian sponsorship and led by Professor
Henry Hind, the other backed by the British government and led by the
aristocratic explorer Captain John Palliser.

First published in 1963, this book takes the reader from the creation
of the research team, through its three-year sojourn in British North
America’s West, to the publication of its final report in 1862—a
report that confirmed the existence of both a fertile belt and a vast
arid triangle to the south, which bears Palliser’s name. Generous
excerpts from the journal Palliser kept during the expedition enliven
what could have been a tedious study. Harsh terrain, capricious weather,
and hostile Natives were among the problems encountered by the research
team.

Read in conjunction with Douglas Owram’s Promise of Eden, this book
is a valuable key to our understanding of the expansionist movement that
led to systematic prairie settlement.