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\o^^ \e.^^uG'cC

V-]

way,

Century ll&gfizlne, Oot, 1^^5

By G.M, Grant, of '^ueen'a University, Klnp-

THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY.

WHAT tempted the people of Canada to
undertake so gigantic a work as the
Canada Pacific Railway ? The difficulties in
the way were great, unprecedented, unknown.
Had they been known beforehand, the task
would not have been attempted. We were
under the inspiration of a national idea, and
went forward. We were determined to be
something more than a fortuitous collocation
of provinces. That the difficulties were faced
and overcome as they emerged, great temp-
tP.tions to halt or retreat being tjuietly set
, aside, proves that we, like our neighbors and
progenitors, are not easily discouraged. Our
ultimate destiny will be none the wcrse be-
cause we have — not unwillingly — made sac-
rifices in order to make ourselves a nation.

Roughly speaking, the new country through
which the great railway runs consists of three
sections, — about a thousand miles of forest
from the upper Ottawa to the Red River of
the North ; then a thousand miles of alluvial ;
and then five or six hundred miles of moun-
" ' tains, from the first chain of the Rockies to
r where the waters of the Pacific are sheltered
_ by the breakwater of Vancouver Island. The
, total length of the line from Montreal to the
Pacific terminus is 2895 miles. The first sec-
tion was long considered impracticable for a
T~railway, and the expense of construction has
""been enormous. The rocks at the back of
Lake Superior are the oldest known to men
of science and the toughest known to engi-
neers. But dynamite, if there be enough of it,
can do anything. This part of the line was
opened last spring most dramatically, it being
used before actual completion to transport
our militia to put down the half-breed and
Indian rising in the North-west. No amount
of champagne-drinking and of driving last
spikes of gold could have called the attention
of the country so emphatically to its impor-
tance. The second section runs through what
promises to be the great granary of the world.
The third is being pushed across a sea oi
mountains. Thousands of navvies of all na-
tionalities are swarming in the valley of the
Columbia, and thousands of Chinese are
f working on the grade easterly. When this sec-
{ tion is completed, and the shortest of all
.- transcontinental railways opened for traffic
J from ocean to ocean, Canada will have attained
to unification, so far as links of steel can unify.
The work is so completely a political neces-
sity that — along with the Intercolonial Rail-
way, which binds the Atlantic provinces to

old Canada — it may be called the symbol of
our national existence. Whether it will pay
the company financially or not is a question
on which experts differ. That it will develop
the country, and thus at any rate pay indirectly,
seems to me unquestionable. The Intercolo-
nial was run for a time at a cost to the Domin-
ion of over half a million dollars annually. It
now pays its way ; and though shorter through
lines are to be built, the increasing local traffic,
the best indication of the real value of the
road to the country, will keep it running. So,
too, the first section of the Canada Pacific
pierces a wilderness that wise men said would
not furnish business to pay for greasing the
wheels ; but it gets freight enough in the shape
of lumber alone to pay for the wheels as well
as the grease. It is revolutionizing the mode
of lumber transportation on the upper Ottawa
and to the West. The lumber kings find thiU
time is money. It is more i)rofitable to send
on logs to market by rail than to continue the
tedious plan of floating them, from the banks
of far-away lakes and nameless streams in the
interior, down countless rapids and slides to
unbroken waterways. The danger now is that
our timber limits, which constitute an essential
part of the national capital, may be exhausted
within a measurable time. With regard to the
rugged Laurentian regions to the north of
Lake Superior, unexplored as yet by men of
science, there are grounds for believing that
they will turn out to be as rich in mineral
wealth as the southern shores of the lake ;
and no business pays a railway so well as that
which a mining community supplies. Then,
the fertile plains of the North-west are certain
to yield harvests that will tax to the utmost
the carrying capacity of branch as well as
trunk lines.

These plains extend for eight hundred miles
west of Winnipeg. Originally a north-western
in.-iicad of a western route from Winnipeg had
been chosen for the railway, because every one
said that the only " fertile belt " was in that
direction. This " l)elt," or rainbow, of fertile
land swept semicircularly round a su iposed
great wedge of the American desert. Lut the
company came to the conclusion that the
plains west of Winnipeg had been belied, and
that the rainfall was sufficient for the growth
of cereals or root crops. Singularly enough,
their faith has been vindicated ; it turns out
that we have no desert. This fact is a physical
reality of the greatest importance with regard
to the area in the North-west available for

236ol 8

THE BOSTONIANS.

88 1

things, asked herself whether they were what
he was thinking of when he said, for instance,
that he was sick of all the modern cant about
freedom and had no sympathy with those
who wanted an extension of it. What was
needed for the good of the world was that
people should make a better use of the liberty
they possessed. Such declarations as this took
Verena's breath away ; she didn't suppose you
could hear any one say that in the nineteenth
century, even the least advanced. It was of
a piece with his denouncing the spread of
education ; he thought the spread of education
a gigantic farce — people stuffing their heads
with a lot of empty catchwords that prevented
them from doing their work fjuietly and
honestly. You had a right to an education
only if you had an intelligence, and if you
looked at the matter with any desire to see
things as they are, you soon perceived that an
intelligence was a very rare luxury, the attri-
bute of one person in a hundred. He seemed
to take a pretty low view of humanity, any-
way. Verena hoped that something really
pretty bad had happened to him — not by way
of gratifying any resentment he aroused in
her nature, but to help herself to forgive him
for so much contempt and brutality. She
wanted to forgive him, for after they had sat
on their bench half an hour and his jesting
mood had abated a little, so that he talked
with more consideration (as it seemed) and
more sincerity, a strange feeling came over
her, a perfect willingness not to keep insisting
on her own side and a desire not to part fron.
him with a mere accentuation of their differ-
ences. Strange I call the nature of her re-
flections, for they softly battled with each
other as she listened, in the warm, still air,
touched with the far-away hum of the immense
city, to his deep, sweet, distinct voice, express-
ing monstrous opinions with exotic cadences
and mild, familiar laughs, which, as he leaned
towards her, almost tickled her cheek and ear.
It seemed to her strangely harsh, almost

brutal, to have brought her out only to say
to her things which, after all, free as she was
to contradict them and good-natured as she
always tried to be, could only give her pain;
yet there was a spell upon her as she listened;
It was in her nature to be easily submissive,
to like being overborne. She could be silent
when people insisted, and silent without acri-
mony. Her whole relation to Olive was a
kind of tacit assent to perpetual insistance,
and if this had ended by being easy and
agreeable to her (and indeed had never been
anything else), it may be supposed that the
struggle of yielding to a will which she felt to
be stronger even than Olive's was not of long
duration. Ransom's will had the effect of
making her linger even while she knew the
afternoon was going on, that Olive would
have come back and found her still absent,
and would have been submerged again in the
bitter waves of anxiety. She saw her, in fact,
as she must be at that moment, posted at the
window of her room in Tenth street, watching
for some sign of her return, listening for her
step on the staircase, her voice in the hall.
Verena looked at this image as at a painted
picture, perceived all it represented, every
detail. If it didn't move her more, make
her start to her feet, dart away from Basil
Ransom and hurry back to her friend, this
was because the very torment to which she
was conscious of subjecting that friend made
her say to herself that it must be the very
last. This was the last time she could ever
sit by Mr. Ransom and hear him express
himself in a manner that interfered so wi^h
her 'ife ; the ordeal had been so familiar and
so complete that she forgot, for the moment,
that it was also the first time it had occurred.
It might have been going on for months. She
was perfectly aware that it could bring them
to nothing, for one must lead one's own life ;
it was impossible to lead the life of another,
especially when the person was so different,
so arbitrary, so inconsiderate.

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worll

0"o be continueii.)

Henry James.

88i

t only to say
:e as she was
itured as she
ive her pain;
she Hstened ;
y submissive,
uld be silent
without acri-
Olive was a
il insistance,
ig easy and
J never been
bed that the
:h she felt to
s not of long
le effect of
he knew the
Dlive would
still absent,
again in the
her, in fact,
osted at the
et, watching
ling for her
in the hall.
It a painted
nted, every
iiore, make
from Basil
friend, this

which she
riend made
e the very
could ever
im express
ed so wi^h
miliar and
e moment,
! occurred,
mths. She
ring them

own life;
f another,

difterent.

James.

THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY.

883

settlement. That area is now known to be
practically illimitable. The waves of a great
human sea will in a short time roll steadily on,
without break, from the boundary line to the
prairies of the mighty Peace River, That new
North-west of ours will a century hence have
fifty millions of people, and they will raise
enough to feed themselves and the rest of the
world, if need be.

Manitobans, it may be said here, have also
great expectations of being able to export
directly to Liverpool by Hudson's Bay, and
of being thus independent of Chicago and
Montreal alike. Should such an alternative
route prove a reality, it would serve the whole
Red River valley, as well as the Saskatchewan.
Last year the Dominion (lovernment sent out
a well-etjuipped vessel to ascertain definitely
for how many months in the year the Hudson's
Bay Straits are navigable, and other facts
bearing on the question at issue. Parties were
left at different points along the coast to
winter, and make all needed observations.
We shall soon know whether it is worth while
constructing a railway to Fort Churchill.
Dr. Robert Bell, Assistant Director of the
Dominion Geological Survey, is sanguine that
the produce of the North-west will have a new
outlet in this dir-ction. If so, it will be a potent
factor in the development of those far inland
fertile wildernesses. But this line to Hudson's
Bay is as yet in the air. For years to come the
North-west must be served by tht Canada
Pacific Railway. But how came it that the
greater part of the country directly west from
Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains was once
supposed to be semi-desert ? Captain Palliser,
who was sent with a well-organi::ed expedition
by Her Majesty's Government, in 1857, to
explore the country between Lake Superior
and the Rocky Mountains, found it rainless
and condemned it. Superficial observers who
visited it subsequently, and looked only at
the short russet-colored grass that covered its
illimitable, treeless, terribly lonely plains, had
no hesitation in confirming his oj)inion. But
five or six years ago Mr. John Maccoun. an ac-
complished practical botanist, after exploring
it lengthways and crossways and thoroughly
examining soil, flora, and fauna, gave testimony
of ail entirely opposite character. He was de-
rided as an enthusiast or worse, but his opinions
had probably something to do with determin-
ing the new route taken by the Canada Pacific
Railway; and in 1881 and 1882 setders, ignor-
ing the proved fertility of the " fertile belt,"
or postponing its claims to a more convenient
season, took up land along the railway almost as
fast as it was constructed. They found that the
soil was actually better for their purposes than
the heavy tenacious loam of the Red River

valley, just because it was lighter. Population
flowed for some four hundred miles west of
Winnipeg to the little towns of Regina and
Moosegaw. There the masses of drift that
constitute the " Coteau " of the Missouri show
themselves, and there it was then said the
good land ceased. The railway was built in
the early part of 1883 four hundred miles
farther west, and soon after Mr. Sandford
Fleming and myself had sufficient oppor-
tunities of examining the nature of the soil.
Far from being barren, " it resembles," says
Mr. Fleming, " in color and character that of
the Carse of Gowrie in Perthshire," notoriously
the most pr^. ductive district in Scotland.

But why, then, had those vast plains been
condemned ? Because there is very little rain
in the summer months ; and because observers
could not fail to notice that the grass was
light, short, dry, and apparently withered.
To their eyes it contrasted most unfavorably
with the luxuriant green herbage of the well-
watered belt along the North Saskatchewan.
It did not occur to them that the grass of the
plains might be the product of peculiar atmos-
pheric conditions, and that what had been
food in former days for countless millions of
buffaloes, whose favorite resorts these plains
had been, would in all probability be good food
for domestic cattle. The facts are that spring
comes early in these far western districts, and
that the grass matures in the beginning of
June, and turns into nutritious hay. If burned,
there is sufficient moisture in the soil to i)ro-
tluce a second growth. We saw at difterent
points, towards the end of August, green
patches where Mttle prairie fires had run <;ome
weeks previously. If there is enough moisture
for such a second crop, it seemed clear to us
that there must be enough for cereals. The
fact is that the roots of wheat penetrate to a
great depth in search of moisture or nutriment.
The intense cold of winter, instead of being a
drawback, acts in the farmer's interest. The
deeper the frost goes, the better. As it thaws
out gradually in the summer it loosens the
sub-soil, and sends up the needed moisture to
the roots of the grain. Coal, too, of cretaceous
age, being abundant, no one who is at all
robust objects to the intense dry cold. Suf-
ficient moisture being all but certain, the
lack of rain makes harvesting sure, while
the purity and dryness of the air and the con-
tinual breeziness render the climate most
healthful and pleasant. But, notwithstanding
these facts, the impression was general that,
at any rate from le grand Coteau dti Missouri
to the Rocky Mountains, the country was
worthless. The company, therefore,determined
to try experiments that would be conclusive.
Late in the autumn of 1883 men were sent

884

THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY.

out with instructions to plow up a few acres
at intervals of about twenty miles along the
line. This work was done, necessarily, in
rough-and-ready fashion. The sod was turned
up, and then the teams, put on board the next
train, were moved on to another point. The
following March seeds of various kinds were
sown on the plowed sections and roots
planted. No attempt at cultivating, cleaning,
or protecting could be made, and yet the
result was a magnificent crop on the experi-
mental " farms." Every one who knows any-
thing of prairie farming will acknowledge that
a more rigorous test could not have been tried.
The south of the beautiful Bow River is the
chosen country of o"r cow-boys, a race — from
Texas to the North — free, fearless, and pe-
culiar, to whom all the rest of the world are
" tenderfeet," and in whose eyes horse-stealing
is the unpardonable sin. 'Fhe transport to
England of cattle from this district, and ul-
timately from the adjoining territories of
Montana and Idaho, is certain to supply steady
business to the railway; and the transport of
coal on a large scale to Manitoba from the
vast deposits which are being opened up near
Medicine Hat and the head-waters of the
Saskatchewan is still more certain. The Bow
River, which takes its name from its repeated
windings and doublings like an ox-bow,
guides the railway into the mountains. The
wide valley, inclosed by foot-hills, not very
long ago the favorite haunt of the buffalo, is
divided into ranches. These and all other
industries in southern Alberta converge at
Calgarry, an enterprising little town, once a
Hudson's Bay fort, on a site of ideal beauty.
It fronts the illimitable plains; snow-peaked
mountains. Devil's Head preeminent, tower
up behind; and two impetuous glacier-fed
streams meet in the natural amphitheater
that has been scooped out of the surrounding
hills to give it ample rodn to spread itself.
Forty miles farther up the river, and so much
nearer the best hunting-grounds in the moun-
tains, two villages of Stonies have gathered
round the Methodist Mission of Morley, — a
brave and hardy triba of mountaineers who,
like their while neighlors, are taking to stock-
raising, as they can no longer live by hunting.
The railway climbs the valley of the Bow,
crossing and recrossing, past Morley, past the
mass of rock five thousand feet high called
Cascade Mountain, where anthracite coal has
been discovered, past the chiseled turrets of
Castle Mountain, and into the core of the
range, till within six miles of the summit, where
it abandons the river and strikes up the bed
of one of its tributaries.

The railway terminus in September, 1883,
being Calgarry, tourists generally stopped

there ; but our party determined to push on
to the Pacific. Four ranges of mountains in-
tervened — the Rockies, the Selkirks,the Gold,
and the Cascades. One engineer told us that
it was prol)lematical whether we should get
through. Another said that we should not.
We determined to try, and we now congratulate
ourselves that we were the first to cross from
one side of the four ranges to the other side, on
' he line on which the railway is constructed.

It was a journey to be remembered. I have
seen many countries, but I know none where
there are such magnificent rock-exjjosures
for a hundred miles continuously as up the
valley of the Bow, from Calgarry to the sum-
mit of the Rockies. The general elevation of
the valley is between four and five thousand
feet, and the mountains on each side are
only from one to six thousand feet higher;
consequently, the beauty does not consist in
the altitude of the mountains. Beside the
Andes or even the Alps they are hardly worth
speaking about; but nothing can be finer than
the distinct stratification, the variety of form
and clearness of outline, the great masses of
bare rock standing out as if piled by masons
and carved and chiseled by sculptors. Pho-
tography alone could bring out their amazing
richness in detail. Scenes of gloomy grandeur
present themselves at every point for several
miles along the summit ; and down the west-
ern slope the views at times are even more
striking. But our journey down the Kicking
Horse should be read in the " England and
Canada " of the distinguished engineer with
whom I traveled, by those who wish to know
more of our experiences.

When we crossed the Rockies the hitherto
nnconciuered Selkirks rose before us. To un-
derstand the position of this range, take a
map and look for the springs of the Columbia.
This greatest of salmon rivers rises in Canada,
and runs north-west so persistently that it
appears doomed to fall into the Eraser. But,
reaching the neighborhood of Mounts Brown
and Hooker, it seems to have had enough of us,,
and accordingly, sweeping right round in a
" Big Bend," it makes straight for Washington
Territory, cutting through all obstacles, the
Dalles with the significant Dalle de Mart, and
then spreads out into long, broad, calm expanses
known as the Upper and Lower Arrow Lakes.
\Vithin that great loop which it makes on our
soil are inclosed the Selkirks. As they extend
only to the Big Bend of the Columbia, our engi-
neers had no concern with them when it was
supposed that the Canada Pacific Railway
was to run farther north ; but when the com-
pany decided that they must have as nearly
as possible an air-line from Winnipeg west
to the ocean, the question of whether a pass.

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THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY.

885

1 to push on
lour.tains in-
ks, the Gold,
■ told us that
; should get
should not.
congratulate
cross from
ther side, on
nstructed.
■red. I have
none where
:k-exposures
f as up the
to the sum-
elevation of
/e thousand
h side are
"eet higher;
t consist in
Beside the
ardly worth
)e finer than
ety of form
t masses of
by masons
)tors. Pho-
sir amazing
ly grandeur
for several
n the west-
even more
le Kicking
gland and
neer with
to know

le hitherto
To un-
take a
Columbia.

Canada,
that it
iscr. But,
Its Brown
ugh of us,,
und in a
ishington
icles, the
Mart, and
expanses
w Lakes.

s on our
y extend
our engi-

n it was.

Railway

he com-
nearly

eg west

r a pass.

"■e

could be found across the Selkirks became
important. If no pass could be found, a ilc-
tour must be made away to the North by the
Big Bend. Passes were known to exist through
the other three ranges that rise between the
plains and the Pacific. The Rockies proper, the
backbone of this continent, are cloven north
of the boundary line by half a dozen rivers,
along the valley of any one of which a railway
could be carried with ease to a summit where
another stream is generally found beginning
its course down the western slope. Then, the
two ranges nearest the Pacific have also open
gates wide enough for a railway. But between
the Gold Mountains and the Rockies rose the
Selkirks, apparently without a break. When
asked about a pa.ss here, the Indians shook
their heads ; so did the engineers, Mr. Walter
Moberly excepted. He knew something about
the Selkirks ; but though he pointed out the v/ay ,
to another fell the honor of solving the problem.
Moberly had discovered a first-rate pass in
1865 through the Gold Mountains, greatly
to the satisfaction of himself and all British
Columbia. Gold had been found by enterpris-
ing prospectors at the Big Bend, and the pro-
vincial government, anxious to have a trail cut
from the navigable waters in the heart of the
colony to the new Eldorado, sent Moberly,
then assistant jurveyor-general, to explore.
One day, not far from Shuswap Lake, among
tangled mountains choked with dense under-
brush and fallen timber, valleys radiating to
every point of the compass, but leading no-
where, he saw an eagle flying to the east up
one of the valleys. Accepting the omen, he
followed and discovered the pass which he
calledafter the eagle, though it mightmore fitly
be called by his own name. Previous to this the
Gold range had been supposed to be "an un-
broken and impassable wall of mountains," but,
thanks to Moberly, a wagon-road could now
be made from the settled part of the province
to the Columbia, to be followed — he was con-
vinced — by a railway that would in due time
extend to the fertile plains of the North-west.
If a pass could only be found across the Sel-
kirks, he felt that his work would be completed.
He sent one and then another of his statit'to ex-
plore, but their reports were discouraging.
His Indians knew nothing, except thai iliey
could not take their canoes that way. When
they wished to get to the other side of the
range, they descended the Columbia, and
then crossed over to its head-waters by the
Kootenay River. To them time was no object.
Indians will go a hundred miles in a canoe,
or ride across a prairie for the same distance,
rather than cut through a mile of brush. In a
forest they will walk for a hundred yards
round a fallen tree, and others will continue

for years to follow the trail, rather than be at
the trouble of cutting through the obstruction.
Moberly did not despair. He saw a fracture
in the range, almost corresponding to the
fracture of the Eagle Pass in the Gold range.
Crossing the Columbia, though it was late in
the season, and entering the mouth of this
fracture, he forced his way up the banks of a
stream called the Ille-Cille-Waet, chocolate-
colored from the grains of slate it holds in
solution. Twenty or thirty miles from its
mouth the Ille-Cille-Waet forked. Trying
the north fork, it led him into the slate range,
intersected by innumerable veins of promising-
looking quartz that prospectors have yet to
test, but to nothing like a pass. His Indians
then struck. He used every means to induce
them to go with him up the east fork, but
in vain. The snow had begun to fall on the
mountains, and they said that they would be
caught and would never get out again. Re-
luctantly Moberly turned back, and as the
colony could afibrd no more explorations,
the Big Bend diggings not turning out as had
been anticipated, he had to content himself
with putting on record that the easterly fork
of the Ille-Cille-Waet should be examined
before a route for a transcontinental railway
was finally determined on.

Thus it happened that up to 1881 no man
had crossed the virgin range. It was covered
with heavy timber almost up to the snow-line.
Without let or hindrance herds of noble car-
ibou trotted along ancestral trails to their
feeding-grounds or to water. Bears — black,
brown, cinnamon, and grizzly — foundin shel-
tered valleys exhaustless supplies of the
berries on which they grow fat. From the
opposite flanks of the range, east and west,
short swollen streams rush down to join the
Columbia, their sands often indicating gold ;
while on the south, where the drainage flows
into the Kootenay Lake and River, which also
feed the Columbia, rich mines of argentiferous
galena are now being worked. But no one
knew of a pass.

In February, 1881, the Syndicate appointed
Major A. B. Rogers, C. E., engineer of the
Mountain Division of the Canada Pacific Rail-
way. He seemed about as unlikely a man for
the work of ascertaining whether the Selkirks
problem was soluble as could have been
chosen. He knew Httle or nothing of moun-
tains; his previous experiences had been in
States where there is no counterpart to the
characteristic scenery and difliculties of Brit-
ish Columbia. But Major Rogers, like a true
descendant of the Pilgrim or Puritan fathers,
is a man who goes to the particular wilder-
ness to which he may be appointed, asking
no questions. Naturally intense, self-reliant,

886

THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY.

and scornful of appearances, the opposite
schooling of an old-fashioned Down-Kast
training, the rough experiences of engineer
and frontier life have made him so downright
that he is apt to he appalling to ordinary
mortals, I'hougii between tifty and sixty
years of age, hair and beard now white, no
youngster in his ])arty will plunge into the
grimmest mountain ranges with as little thought
of commissariat or as comjjlete a contempt
of danger, and no Indian will encounter fa-
tigue or famine as stoically. Hard as nails
himself, he exjjects others who take service
with him to endure hardness; and should there
be shirking, he is ajit to show his worst side
rather than be guilty of what he has scorned
as hypocrisy in others. He fitted out at Kam-
loops for his first attempt on the Selkirks.
The wonder is that he did not start with ritle
on shoulder and a j)iece of i)ork in his pocket,
two or three Indians pcrha])S carrying blank-
ets and a few fixings; for at that time he
thought that a gun ought to feed a party.
He does not think so now. Man can have
but one paradise at a time. If he goes into
the mountains to hunt, he can do that ; if to
prospect, he can do that, with a slightly dif-
ferent outfit ; if to discover a pass or to get
through to a given point by a given date, he
may or may not succeed, — but it is (juite cer-
tain that he cannot combine the three char-
acters, or even two, on the one expedition.
A bear or caribou may lead you miles from
your course ; and if you shoot him, your In-
dians have a capital excuse for delay, while they
regard the meat as simply so much "kitchin"
to their stock of pork and bacon.

irhe Major and his nephew, Mr. Albert
Rogers, hiring at Kamloops ten Shuswap In-
dians from the Roman Catholic Mission to
carry their jjacks, started in April to force their
way to the east. They succeeded in reaching
the core of the Selkirk range, by following the
east fork of the Ille-Cille-Waet ; but, like
Moberly on the north fork, they got only to a
cul lie sac, and their packs having become
ominously light, they — heavy with the con-
sciousness of failure — came to the conclu-
sion that retreat was inevitable. Before
retracing their steps, however, they climbed
the divide to see if any break could be detected
in the range. Yes ; a valley appeared in the
direction of an unexplored little affluent of
the Ille-Cille-Waet, and, apparently connected
with it, a depression extending to the east.
Everywhere else, all around to the horizon,
nothing but "snow-clad desolation." The
result of five or six weeks' endurance of almost
intolerable misery was this gleam of hope.

Our journey enabled us to understand what
they must have suffered. The underbrush is

of the densest, owing to the ceaseless rain
Black flies or mosijuitoes do their part un
weariedly. What with fallen timber of enor
mous size, i)recipices, prickly thorns, beave
dams, marshes full of fetid water to be wade<
through, alder swamps, lakelets surrounde(
by blufts so steep that it would almost puzzl
a chamois to get over or around them, we ha(
all we wanted of the lUe-Cille-Waet and tht
Kagle Pass. But they had started too earl;
in the season. The snow was not only deep
but it was melting and rotting under sprinj
suns and rains, and therefore would not bea
their weight. Down they sank at every step
and often intc the worst kind of pitfalls. A
first their loads were so heavy that they ha<
to leave part behind, and then, after campin;
early, return wearily on their tracks for th
second load. The Indians would have de
serted them a dozen times over, but the Majo
had arranged with the Mission that if the
returned without a certificate they were to gt
a whipping instead of good pay. Nothing bu
pluck kept them pegging away ; but in spit
of all they failed that year. The following Ma
the Major made his attack from the other sid
of the range, and again he was unsuccessfu
Swollen torrents and scarcity of supplit
forced him back to his base, at the poir
where the Kicking Horse River joins th
Columbia. On this occasion, had it not bee
for the discovery of a canoe, he and his part
would have starved. Sorely against their wi
he had put them on half rations, but he glac
dened their hearts one morning by announcin
that it was his birthday, and producing a litt!
sugar to sweeten their tea.

Nothing daunted, he started again th
same summer, in the month of July, from th
same base, and succeeded. Proceeding u
the valley of tlni Beaver, a large stream thi
enters the Columbia through an open canoi
and then following the course of one of i
tributaries a])propriately called Bear Creel
he at length found the long-sought-for pas
He saw the mountain from the summit c
which the year before he and his nephew ha
noticed the depression extending to the eas
Not content while anything remained undon
he made for the Ille-Cille-Waet, and followir
it down to the north fork, ascended it to
to ascertain if its head-waters would conne
with a tributary of the Beaver, and so perha
afford something better ; but nothing bett<
or rather nothing at all, was found. The Si
kirks have only one pass, but it is better th;
the western slope of the main chain by t
Kicking Horse. And an American has h
the honor of finding that one on behalf
Canada ! All honor to him I

Compared with our experiences down t

iO
JUt!

:an(

Dftl

The
over

i)Ott

endi
Bea\
then
dens
of th
Our
fit-lo(
down
Majo
T]ie>-
and h
been ]
Jiarty
beside
seen a
ziy. I
confid(
are sti]
to do 1
the sui
such a
the traj
high bJ
black bj
grapes,
we colli
ing. tI
cluster^
ered th]
dar thai
feet, if
garden]
surely
open m|
Major
party
pointedl
Summi(
posiie el
our ye\J
cheer ii|
moss-gi
the storl
of morij
not be
hotel ! 'j
AmericJ
glaciers]
above t|
having i
giving

THE CANADA PAC/F/C JiAIl.lVAY.

887

s rain

irt un
I' enor
heave
wadec
ounde<
t puzzl
we hat
and th'
)o earl;
ly deep
r sprini
not bea
ery step
falls. A
they hat
campin;
s for th
have dt
;he Majo
It if the-
ere to gt
)thing bu
Lit in spit
wing Ma
other sid
successfu
f suppli*.
the poir
■ joins th
it not bee
d his part
St their wi
ut he glai
mnouncin
cing a litt

again tt
.y, from th
ceeding u
stream th:
jpen canoi
(f one of i
Bear Creel
;ht-for pas
summit t
nephew ha
r to the eas
ined undon
ntl foUowir
nded it to
ould conne
d so perha
iihing bett(
lid. The St
is better th;
chain by t
ican has h
on behalf

:es down t

kicking Horse, the ascent of the eastern sloi)e
)f the Sclkirks was remarkably easy. The

alley of the Beaver contracts near its mouth,
io it is no wonder that observers from the
jutside formed an incorrect idea of its impor-
;ance. The llle-C'ilie-Waet on the other sitle
Df the range ends its course in tlie same way.
The two streams by which the Sclkirks are
overcome are thus something like two long
bottles with their narrow necks facing antl
ending in the Col il)ia. The trail uj) the
Beaver led througli lorests of great cellars, and
then of noble spruce, hemlot k, antl j)ine, so
dense that il was impossible to get any views
of the range before reaching the Rogers Pass.
Our first evening was spent with a ])leasant,
fit-looking lot of fellows, who were working
down from the summit under the leadership of
Major Critchelow, a West Point graduate.
They did all they could for us, sharing tents
and blankets, as well as porridge, as if we had
been life-long comrades. Major Critchelow's
party hatl been at work for three months, and,
besides caribou and other large game, had
seen about fifty bears, chiefly black and griz-
zly. I can, with a reasonable measure of
confidence, assure sportsmen that the bears
are still there, for the engineers were too busy
to do much hunting. We saw on our ride to
the summit next morning why the jilace was
such a favorite bear center. On both sides of
the trail grew an extraordinary i)rofusion of
high bushes laden with delicious wild fruits,
blackberries and gooseberries as large as small
grapes, and half a dozen other varieties, that
we could i)ick by handfuls without dismount-
ing. The rowan-tree droojjed its rich red
clusters over the bushes, and high above tow-
ered the magnificent forest primeval, one ce-
dar that we passed having a diameter of nine
feet. It was like riding through a deserted
garden. Emerging from the forest, after a lei-
surely three hours' ride, into a saucer-shajied
open meadow covered with tall thick grass,
Major Rogers, who had kindly joined our
party at the mouth of the Kicking Horse,
])ointed to a little stream, saying, " That is
Summit Creek, and there," pointing totheop-
jiosile end of the meadow, " is the summit where
our yew stake is planted." We gave a hearty
cheer in his honor, and taking our seats on a
moss-grown natural rockery, heard him recount
the story of the discovery of the pass. A scene
of more mingled grandeur and beauty could
not be desired. " Such a spot for a summer
hotel ! " would, I think, be the first cry of an
American tourist. Snow-covered mountains,
glaciers accumulating in lofty comb, and high
above the snow, the looser shales of the peaks
having weathered off, fantastic columns of rock
giving to each mountain form an individual-

ity that stam|)sit permanently on the memory;
while we in the sunny valley at their feet tlineil
on wiltl fruit, and our horses rolled contentedly
among the deep succulent grasses ! Syntlicate,
thetlistinctive peak among the mountains at the
summit, is a veritable CanatlianMatterht)rn,bul
it is not seen till you begin the western descent.

The Selkirks tlid ntu let us off so easily as
we hatl hoped from our experience of the as-
cent. Where the trail ended the Major gave
us his nephew as a guide antl half a dozen atii-
letic, obliging young men to carry our i)acks
to the second crtjssing of the Columbia. I
shall never attempt to jjioneer through a wil-
tlerness again, much less to carry a pack ; and
(if all wiltlcrnesses, commend me to those t)f
British Columbia as the best possible .samples
to test wind and limb. It would simply weary
readers to go into details of struggling through
acres ot tlensest untlerbrush where you cannot
see a yard ahead, wailing through swamjjs antl
beaver dams, getting scratched from eyes to
ankles with jmckly thorns, scaling ])recipices,
falling over moss-coveretl rocks into pitfalls,
your ])acks almost strangling you, losing the
rest of the j^arty while you halt to feel all over
whether any bones are broken, and then ex-
periencing in your inmost soul the unutterable
loneliness of savage mountains. Those who
have not tried would not understand. It ttjok
us five days to make seventeen miles, and we
did our best. Right glad were we to see the
Columbia again, a river now twelve hundred
feet wide, full from bank to bank, sweeping
])ast this time to the south with a current of
six or seven miles an hour. We struck it nearly
opposite the Big Eddy, and one or two tents
and a group of Indians among the aspens on
the bank a little farther down comforted us
with the thought that we could at any rate
get what man considers the one thing neetl-
ful in the wilderness — a supply of food. It
might have an evil smell, but it would be food ;
and starvation, at any rate, was now out of the
question. Back a little from the noble river
rose the (iold Mountains, cloven almost to the
feet by the P2agle Pass.

The Indians came across in their canoes
and ferried us over; and we spent the night
on the river bank, well to windward of Camp
Siwash. Under a half-moon shining in a blue,
cloudless sky, a great glacier on our right re-
flected a ghostly light, and every peak came
out clearly defined in the pure atmosphere.
The rush of the great river and the muffled
roar of the distant falls of the Ille-Cille-Waet
alone broke the perfect stillness. Four or five
camp-fires seen through the trees, with dusky
figures silently flitting about, gave life to the
scene. Reclining on spruce boughs, softer and
more fragrant than beds of down, we felt the

8H( 888

THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY.

nn(

sch
tra'
an(
tha
mo
yej
yo

Kn
of
of

ti«
hit
wi
be
ra'
as
loi
Tl
or
x\\
et
th
H
In
til

P'
fe

tl-

111

tc
ai
h

y
d

ri
t(

P
d
c

charm of frontier or backwoods life. Two or
three hours after, awakened by rain first pat-
tering on tent and leaves and then pouring
down in earnest, the charm was forgotten.
One had left his boots outside, another had
hung his clothes near the camp-fire, and we
knew that the men were lying on the ground,
rolled in their blankets, and that to-morrow
every pack would be fifty per cent, heavier to
carry. We were still in the rainy region. P2ve
night but one since leaving the summit oft
Selkirks there had been rain with thunder anc.
lightning; and yet, in spite of the discomfort,
not a man showed a sign of discontent. Syb-
arites still growl over their crumpled rose-
leaves, but the race is not deteriorating.

Before leaving Winnipeg Mr. T'leming had
telegraphed to Hudson's Hay officials in Hrit-
ish Columbia to send a party from Kamloops
to meet us with provisions at some point on
the Columbia near the mouth of the F'.agle
Pass. When we saw the Indians every one
was sure that the Kamloops party had reached
the rendezvous before us. Our disappointment
was brief, for the same evening half a dozen
men were heard hallooing and struggling
through the pass. This was our eagerly ex-
jjected party, and great and natural was the
delight at making such wonderfully close con-
nections in a trackless wilderness ; but our
countenances fell when, asking for the provi-
sions, the leader simply handed us a large
sheet of foolscaj) on which was inscribed in
fine legible hand a list of supplies cached at a
distance of some days' journey ! They had
been able to carry barely enough for them-
selves, and had we not wisely husbanded
our pork and flour, they and we might have
starved.

Next morning we started up the Eagle Pass,
with our sheet of foolscap and the Kam-
loops men. They brought us good news at
any rate. In three or four days we should get
to horses and supplies, and in a day or two
thereafter to a wagon-road that had been
commenced from Lake Shuswap by the com-
pany that is working the silver-bearing galena
mines on the Kootenay. It turned out as
they said. We found the horses, and a wealth
of good things ; cups and saucers of crockery
were included, to our infinite amusement.
The horses were of little use except to carry
the packs, for better speed can be made walk-
ing than riding, and walking is safer and mucn
more pleasant — if there can be pleasure on
a trail along the Eagle River. We reached
the wagon-road, Mr. G. V. Wright, in the
center of a canvas town, superintending its
construction, and ready to do anything for us.
We sat luxuriously stretching our legs in the
spring wagon in which he sent us on the

beautiful star-shaped Lake .Shusw.Tp — last of
a series of lakes strung like beads on the river
that drains the western slope of the Eagle
Pass. There the Hon. Mr. Mara, having
heard of our a|)proa(h, had kindly kept the
steamer JWHcss waiting for us. The dangers
and the toils of our journey were over.

With regard to the s( enery in the Selkirk
and Cold Mountains little need be .said. Rain
or snow falls almost unceasingly. The clouds
from the Pacific shed some of their contents
on Vancouver Island and the Cascades;
then, rising high above these coast mountains,
they float easterly over a wide intervening
region, and empty their buckets most bounti-
fully on the (Jold range. A moss carpet sev-
eral inches thick covers the ground, the rocks,
the fallen timber, in every direction — mosses
extjuisitely delicate, as thickly and uniformly
sown as if green showers had fallen silently
from the heavens to replace the deep white
snow of winter. From the branches of the
trees hang mossy streamers. Softer than vel-
vet is the coating of every bank. Dense un-
derbrush and ferns from four to six or seven
feet high fill the narrow valleys, save where
the prickly devil's-club and enormous skunk
cabbage dispute the ground with the ferns.
I'lmerging from the dark-blue waters of Lake
Shuswap and sailing the South Thompson,
the air, the soft outlines of the hills, the park-
like scenery recalling " the upper portions of
the Arno and the Tiber," we come upon the
intervening region of elevated broken plateau
that extentls from the Gold range west to the
Cascades. Its physical character is the exact
opposite of the humid mountains left behind.
Low rounded, russet-colored hills, and benches
covered with bunch-grass, or, where that has
been too greedily cropped, with sage and
prickly pear, take the place of lofty, rugged
peaks and valleys choked with heavy timber.
This intervening region that extends to the
Cascades has everywhere a dry, dusty, Cali-
fornia look, except where some little creek has
been made to do duty in the way of irriga-
tion. Then we have a garden plot, a field, or
a ranch converted into a carpet or ribbon of
freshest green contrasting beautifully with the
surrounding gray or russet. These bits of
green are like oases in the desert. They yield ;
abundantly every variety of fruit or grain. {
Tomatoes, water- and musk- melons, and ;
grapes ripen in the open air. Wheat, as in the j
most favored spots of Oregon and Washington \
Territory, yields from forty to seventy bushels \
to the acre. At Lytton the Eraser comes
down from its long circuit round the far north
country, through gorges inclosed by snow-
crested mountains, to receive the tribute of
the united Thompson. The clear blueThomp

THE CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY.

889

iwap — last of
Is on the river
of the Eagle
Mara, having
ndly kept the
'The dangers
re over,
in the Selkirk
be said. Rain
yr. The clouds
their contents
he Cascades ;
)ast mountains,
le intervening
;s most bounti- I
OSS carpet sev-
und, the rocks,
ction — mosses
and uniformly
I fallen silently
the deep white •
ranches of the
Softer than vel-
ik. Dense un-
to six or seven
;ys, save where
normous skunk
with the ferns,
waters of Lake
uth Thompson,
; hills, the park- ;
iper portions of ;
come upon the
broken plateau
inge west to the
:ter is the exact
ains left behind,
ills, and benches
where that has
with sage and ;
of lofty, rugged
h heavy timber,
extends to the
dry, dusty, Cali-
e little creek has
e way of irriga-
i plot', a field, or
pet or ribbon of
lutifuUy with the

These bits of
sert. They yield j

fruit or grain. \
sk- melons, and ;
Wheat, as in the
and Washington
) seventy bushels
; Fraser comes
nd the far north
dosed by snow-

the tribute of
ear blue Thomp-

son flows into the turbid Fraser, and the
swollen torrent, deep, narrow, swirling, eddy-
ing, resistless, cuts its way through the granite
of the Cascades to the sea. In this mountain-
ous region, again, the farmer is no longer de-
pendent on irrigation, and wherever there is
soil anything can be raised. The Lower Fra-
ser or New Westminster district is not ov\y
the most valuable in Hritish Columbia, agri-
culturally, but the river is full of salmon and
sturgeon, the country abounds with game,
and the timber along the coast would furnish
masts for all the ailmirals in the world.

But what will a railway get to do in this
great sea of mountains ? P'or along those
five hun<lred miles of road on the mainland,
constructed at so enormous a cost, the popu-
lation, not counting Indians and Chinamen, is
less than ten thousand. The British Colum-
bians claim that a portion of the Asiatic trade
will come their way, especially as the com-
pany that is building the road has announ'-ed
its intention of putting on steamers to con-
nect the Pacific terminus with the ports of
Japan and China ; and they also point to
their fish, their mines of silver and gold, and
their forests, as the comj)lement of the prai-
ries of the North-west. AH their hopes and
dreams cluster around the railway, and
those whom it does not enrich will feel that
they have a right to be disappointed. They
ignore the fact that the people of the North-
west or any other country can afford to pay
only a certain price for fish or flesh, galena,
gold, or anything else, and that if it cannot
be supplied at said price it must be for them
all the same as if it were non-existent. They
fancy that the difficulty the province has to
contend with is not the comparatively small
amount of arable land, or the necessity for
irrigation in districts otherwise good, or the
intervening mountains, or the canons that
prevent river navigation, or the cost of trans-
])ortation,or the great distances, but simply the
presence of some thousands of industrious
Chinamen. If Chinamen could only be kept out
white people would come in, and wages would
go up and keep up. Good prices would then
be obtained for everything, and every one
could live comfortably.

A most obliging merchant in Kamloops
informed me that it would be as well for him
to shut shop, because it was impossible to do
business any longer. A few Chinamen had
come to the place, and beginning as cooks,
waiters, barbers, washermen, had at length
opened some small shops, and were fast getting
hold of the entire trade of the country. Nobody
else had a chance with them, he said. I asked

Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.

why. " Oh," was the answer, given in i)er-
fect simplicity, " they are satisfied w ith small
|)rofits and (juick returns, and they make no
losses, for they refuse to give credit." lie had
not so learned business. His former custom-
ers, who were now buying goods at reasonable
rates, agreed with him that it was a shame.
I am sorry to seem to reflect on any of my
British Columbian friends, or rather to reflect
on their notions of commercial or political
economy. They were kindness itself to me, as
they are to all travelers. " They are a real
nice people," said one of the engineers we
fell in with; "they do cheerfully what you want,
either for nothing or for an enormous price."
That hits the mark. Their hospitality is be-
yond praise ; but when they charge, you are
likely to remember the bill. Three of us hired
a wagon one afternoon. The boy drove us
twenty-three milesinfourhours, and the charge
was thirty dollars. On another afternoon we
engaged a man to row us in his little boat to
a steamer on Burrard Inlet. It took him an
hour, and we had to ])ay four dollars for the
use of his boat and the pleasure of his com-
])any. A friend wished to negotiate for the
removal of some lumber. Finding that the
cost of a team was fifteen dollars per day, he
preferred to do without the lumber. That such
costs and charges ])ut a stop to industrial de-
velopment, that they are ecjuivalent to total
prohibition of intercourse or exchange, does
not occur to the average politician. Abun-
dance of labor is the one thing absolutely in-
dispensable in British Columbia. Pretty much
the only labor attainable on a large scale for
many a year is that of Chinamen. Far from
welcoming the labor, almost every one's face is
set against it, even when necessity forces him
to take advantage of it for the time. But this
is not the place to discuss the Chinese prob-
lem. I have alluded to it simply because the
railway has forced it upon our attention, and
it presses for solution.

Since the Dominion was constituted the
political life of Canada has centered about
the Pacific Railway. Now that it is on the
eve of completion, we see how great was the
task that three millions of people set themselves
fourteen years ago to accomplish. The work
is imperial in meaning as well as magnitude,
though the cost has been wholly defrayed by
Canada. It is our contribution to the organ-
ization and defense of the empire. It has
added to our public burdens, but our credit is
better than when it was commenced. When
we are told that it has cost fifty, sixty, or a
hundred millions, what need one say but that
it was a necessity, and that it is worth the cost ?

G. M. Grant.