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Strung out in a tliin line along the vast extent of coast betsveeu jSTew Bninswiok .•uid Florida, if they had been given inde- pendence freely and separately, they would, in all likeliliood, liave failed to find any internal grouiid for confeder- ftion. The union which aros'' lietwoou them was a [)roduet of common danger. Their sub.scquent consolidation into a n itionality followed from the impetus of that force after it had ceased to operate, on the declaration of peace. If the i»assions of the American revo- lution had lieen allowed to pass away previously, that consolidation would probably have been found impossible, because of the differences of habits and sympathies between the Puritiins of New England and the Southern caval- iers. But a controlling element pre- sented itself to give their union of a convenience already satisfied, perman- ence. From the day at which the Thirteen Colonies had expanded in thought and feeling to the dimensions of the common inheatance which ex- tended in their r(^ar, they felt the in- stinct of a common destiny, the prin- ciple of a national life, in a snise of Empire — in such a fraternity of ambi- ' Reports on the Canadian Pacific Railway. By Sandkord Flkmi.nu, C.M.O., En}>iiiocr-iti-Cliief, Ot- tftW.a. 1870. Noten on the Canadinn Pncifle Rnitinaii. Ity Ooiioral M. HrTT IIkwson, f.iriiiorl.v Oritriiiiitur and IVoiiiDti^r of tlio Moin])liis mill t.oiiisvilli' IJiiilr'-'nd ; Chief Engineer (iiiTf illustration. The broken country back of Quebec demands, probably, that the route be thrown as soon as may bo into the valley of tho St. Maurice. Passing out of that into the rainshed of Hudson Pay — at a maxinuim elevation of, perhaps, 1,400 feet— it should be directed upon tho Abbittibi and the Moose with a view to connection with- out any considerable increase in length of track, with navigation by ships or steamers from Hudson Bay Proceed- ing, tapping on its way the Albany lliver, tho Weemisk River, the Was- tickwa River, etc., it would tap the na- vigation of Lake Winnipeg from the south, and of Nelson River from the npin<,' interests of that I'roviiice the opportunity of competing for tho winter freights of half a Contin- ent, at St. John. * What interest has Nova Scotia in a railway discluirging Canadian freights for Europe at Porthmd / Quebec made the terminns of the Pacific Railway on summer-tide-water, a chord-line across the bow-line of the Intercolonial will sprini? into existence, reducing the dis- tance to Halifax to 510 miles ; and thus will the establishment of the terminus at Quebec give the shipping interests of Nova Scotia, sidiject to the drawback of transportatioji over 220 miles of rail- way, the great advantage of their geo- graphical position in competition with St. John for the winter- freights of the British North American Empire of the future, at Halifax.' The Canadian Pacific discharging at Quebec, direct lines would follow under the necessity of things from Quebec to St. John and to Halifax. A trunk involving no considerable addition to the length of rail to either port, would apply for about 170 miles out of Quebec — to a connection with the New Brunswick and Canada Railway at Houlton. Following the Houlton branch of that line to De- bec junction, it would fork there, ex- tending on the one hand, in about 160 miles, to Painsec junction on the In- tercolonial ; and on the other hand, in about 120 miles, to St. John. This would give Quebec one outlet on the Atlantic at the cost of transportation over 290 miles, to St. John ; and an- other offering more favourable con- ditions in reference to Euroi)ean com- merce, at the cost of transportation over 510 miles, to Halifax. But fur- ther advantages of the jjroposed change of location are pointed out in the pamphlet thus : ' Five or sLx hundred miles of railway running up the St. Maurice and down to tho Moose, would tap Hudson B.y. That line once ready to discharge upon the St. Lawrence at Quebec the trea- sures awaiting to be claimed by enter- prise on and around that great sea, it would quicken the latent energies of tho French Canadian population by direct- ing a powerful stream of industrial blood into its heart. The timber, the soil, tho minerals, the fisheries — with their whales and their seals and their salmon and their caplin and their cod — thrown open by that line even to Hud- son Bay, would fix the Canadian Pacific firmly in the local interests of Quebec and the Maritime Provinces, by placing new openings for industry and wealth at tho service of their lumbermen, their farmers, their miners, their sailors, their ship-carpenters, their merchants, their capitalists. ' ( )n neither the route adopted, nor on tho route proposed in the following pages, does the Pacific Railway obtain a broad basis in the special interests of Ontario. While meeting that expedien- cy, a further development of the Impe- rial and of the National character of the enterprise may be obtained in the case of the line proposed in this pamphlet by constructing from its crossing of the Moose, a branch-line of 350 miles up the Abittibbi and down tho Montreal River to a junction with two lines con- verging on a point east of Lake Nipis- sing — one of these lines progressing now by way of Ottawa from Montreal, the other pi gressing now from Toronto. The point of junction of that Pacific Railway branch with these two lines from the south being retired some eight)'^ miles inland from the Georgian Bay, and in a country highly defensible, this ex- pedient would supply an interior line of conununication in direct connection with a base upon Hudson Bay ; and while giving about 700 miles of Railway to local development in Ontario, would give that Province at its great railway-cen- tre, a terminus of the Canadian Pacific. Montreal would continue to enjoy the present — its canals, its lakes, its Grand Trunks — and being provided, like To- ronto, with one terminus of the Pacific Railway, would be asked by the proposed change of route but to divide the future, in a highly expedient distribution of the industrial and commercial vitality of tho country, with that centre of French Ca- nadian life, ' the Ancient Capital.' G TUE CANADIAN PACIFIC IlAILWAY. ' TIio political policy wliicli Eiighind has ]ilacu(l on triiil in tho creation of tlio Doniiuiou of Canaila involves a great ]}ritish interest. In the fore-front of tliat policy lii!S the ('aliuiliiili I'.icilic Railway. liased on Halifax, its mnn- nier-outlet at the fortresH of (^hiehec — on tho defensible waters of tho .St. Law- roiico — and opening,' up ccjnnininication from the rear with Europe by way of Hudson Bay, and perhaps by way of Mackenzie River, it supplier a lini^ of transportation three hundred miles north of the frontier, for maintaining^ the de- fence of British interests on the great lakf'" and on the Northern I'acitic. Giving to English counnerco and enter- prise the vasi wealth of land and water within the basin of a great inland sea ; grasping the fisheries of tho Northern Ocean for a hardy population south of them ; opening, jirobably, a direct rijuto by way of that ocean between England and the boundless wheat-region drained by the Mackenzie ; and planting British power in a position on the .shorea of the Pacific from which it can overshadow rivalry in the surrounding waters, the Canadian Pacific Railway stands in rela- tion to Imperial policy in the creation of this Dominion, as an essential base of its development, the very sjjinal column of another North American Empire ! The route suggested above places that great enterprise fairly within the objects of British statesman shij) ; and raising it out of the Colonial into the Imperial, makes it a legitimate subject for Impe- rial support.' The mistake that has been made in the location of the Pacific Kailway is vital. That a mistake has been made is a conclusion which, after seven years of ' exi)lorations' in that part of British Columbia whicli has been described as a ' sea of airr.ntains,' begins to take form in tho public mind. And now that tlie world is about to conclude that it is cheaper to carry inter-oceanic freights over an eleva- tion of 1800 feet than over an eleva- tion of 3700, bhat a railway through the rich soils of the Peace is nior(! likely to obtain freights and jironiote settlement than one through the nortliern limits of the great American desert, the said world settles down to the belief that the pro])or crossing of the Ptocky Mountains is that of Pence lliver Pass ! P)iit it has no sooner sat down to cousi('.er that conclusion, tluin it has become startled by tln^ de- claration of the map that,, of all parts of British Columbia, tlui part north of ' the sea of mountains,' the part offering the strongest ])resumption8, jjriiiKi funic, of the best extension to tide- water of the Pacilic, is ' unex- plored!' ' Explorations ' are in progress at last for testing the route by Peace lliver Pass. But they h.ive been be- gun in adherence to the blunder of the present location thi'ough Manitoba; and promise, therefore, to i)rove, as all the previous explorations hav(! proved in fact, to be a waste of time and money. A glance at the ' Report on the Canadian Pacific liaihvay by Sand- ford Fleming, C.M.G., Engineer-in- Chief, Ottawa, 1879,' shows strikingly that, including all the contributions to the subject by travellers, seven years of Pacific Railway explorations, at a cost of four millions, have left us with very little knowledge of the North- West. Even a breadth of tinting which the actual range of the informa- tion does not justify, fails to di.sturb the conclusion from the laborious studies en diodied by Mr. Kidout on the ma}) which accompanies Mr. b'leming's last report, that w(^ know to-day but little of tlie North-West — know no- thing of it in the way proper for pre- senting to men of sense so gi'ave a pro- position as the construction of the Pacific Railway in consideration of a grant of lands along the line. 'Notes on the Canadian Pacific Railway' advises that the present sys- tei \ of explorations be stopped. It is certainly high time to consider the ad- vice wlien that system can he studied under the light of the fact that it hari nothing to show— cei'tainly nothing of any value — to die country for so vast an ex[)enditure as four millions. The ' Notes ' says : THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. ' The gonoral consiiU'rutioiis whicli HHjjgest tho route by Norwiiy lloUMe bring ill i|Uu.stii)n till) aiitocL'tlent prociuMliiigs. 'i hilt four millions of doUiU'H — nt'iirly ^2,000 j)or niiiu of lailwiiy — have been oxiiendod on surveys wliich have steadily ignored what aeenis, on pritaa jarie evi- dence, to bfi the true line until the C')n- trary shall have been established, is a fact so grave aa to set niou thinkiiiLC ra- dically. But, is the uhkU: of exi)loratioti pursued the best — the most economical, tho broadest I Colonel Dennis, the Ca- nadian Survoyor-General, nuiy be sup- posed to have answered that question in his adoption of the snrvey-system under whi'ih tho G(jvernment of the United States makes the work of exploration subserve the uses o/ settlemn.f. It is proposed here that that system shall be extended to the region traversed by the route suggested above for the Pacitic liailway, bo that tho moneys sjtent on the latter service in future shall accomplish a permanent result by cstablisliing in the held, in the note-book, and on the map, a fixed guide for tho sale and the settlement of the Crown Lands. If the four millions of dollars expended up to this time on Pacitic Riiihvay surveys where facts may — in all likelihood ivill — prove these expenditures to be mere waste of money, had been expended on section-line surveys after the American system adopted by Colonel Dennis in Manitoba, Canada would be in possession to-day of an immense breadth of accurate knowledge of the t(jpogniphical and aL-ri- cultural facts of her great Isorth-West. And these surveys embodied in such a map as the Surveyor-General's map of Manitoba, the determination of the best route for the Pacific Railway could be made by I'unning across the continent live or six thousand miles of experimental lines at a cost not exceeding a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.'* Mr. Sandford Fleming seems to feel the insulticiency of the present mode of ' exploration.' He says in the Ke- port under consideration in this article : * This assumes, iiiiiler the hf;ht of extensive prac- tical expurleiice, a rato for these ciii^iiieeriiij,' sur- veys (if from .'*25 to #30 per iiiile. Tlie I'acifif Kiiil- way lines have, it is true, cost !f<)4 per mile ; hut hues much more elaliorate than they- tliose of t.'ol. Dennis's ' blocli'-survt'ys in Manitoba and thoNorth- West— have cost much less - S37 per mile. What are called ' Staridurd ' lines of the section-survey.s of the United Slate^ are run out at a cost varyiny from 110 to ilii per uilu. ' I have endeavoured to collect all known information respecting tho coun- try withui tho limits (»f the Prairie llo- gion. To make it oa.sy of reference, the whole region has been subdividrd into blocks, bounded by each 8e[iaiMio parallel of latitude and longitude. 1 have placed side V)y side tho descriptions of scientific travellers, ariecitic knowledge. A personal exiuniiiation of half a dozon points — known to i^iiginocrs in tlio United States as ' ruling points' — on trie lines laid down thus, will be suflicient for tho rejection of the more unpromising of those projected routes. The few whose relative merits cannot be deter- mined by this recoiinoisauce may then bo subjected to instrumentation. That experimental survey may be made in the case of the Canada Pacilic at a special cost which ought not to exceed ^loO.OOO— a cost suthcient in conjunction with the permaiiont work of tho settleinent-sur- j veys, to determine not only a good route, : but a route based on such a fulness of | knowledge that it may be proiiouncod \ with confidonce to l)e the hcst route. ' Another reason why the system of single line-explorations should bo aban- doned for that of section-line surveys, rests on that necessity of the Pacilic Railway, the utilisation of its ricli lands as a convertiblo resource. The last report of tho Chief Kngineor of tho railway presents strikiiiudy the utter poverty of the information wliicli has hoon colLctod, HO fur, as to the chaiaeU'r of thoHo l.iiuls. Hali-a-dozon profcMHora of Hotaiiy iiiii,dits|.cnd tho natiiial tonus of their lives in (lying visits along In- di ,11 trails in tho North-Wost witliout supjilying knowledgo of tlie soils of that region in the way necessary for its pro- sentation to investors in tho regular course of business. Tlio section-line survey supplies inforiiuition in a very ililierent way. Used as they are now in every land-otlico of the United States as a basis of its sales, and used as they iiavo been in the land of the Illinois Central Railway as a basis of its sales and "t its credits, !>ooks of maps and tield- otes compiled from .section-liiio- siine>s are very necessities for the ntili.^atioll of the magniticont lands of tho Nitrth-Wost as a moans of obtaining money for the I'acilic Railway.' The ' Notes ' add :— ' It is proposed here that " explora- tions." whether topographical or botani- cal, on special routes for the Canada Pacilic, shall bo stopped. Instrumenta- tion, whether on trial or on location, involves, when made in advance of geiieml knowledge of tho country, a still more costly waste. " Sectit)n "-line- surveys — at intervals of a mile apart — are hardly necessary for guiding the determination of the proi)er route of the Pacific Railway ; for " Township "-line- surveys — at intervals of six miles apart — will probably be found suthcient. It is suggested, therefore, that these latter be run out, " blazed," noted, and ma:ipeil, along the proposed route from Quebec, by way of Norway House and Peace River Pass, to the Pacific. The breadth of the survey at the eastern end may be narrow, the east and west lines, or " base "-line-s, being " otfsetted " on meridians w'lerever necessary to con- form to the general direction of the proposed route. Beyond the Rocky Mountains these surveys — in the region marked on tho map as "unexplored" — would take a wide range, so as to om- l>race the lacustrine plateau between the Rockies and the Cascades for, say, three degrees of latitude. The " Township " lines having supplied the facts, agri- cultural and physical, somewhat goner- THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILW 1 Y. ally, it might bo found :. .« wry eubso- • inontly, to till the iiiterviiU iit some places with " Hectiun "-lin«H so ag to obtain those; facta in Hpocilirarion. Hut, bo tlio (lotall in which the work may be uarrioil out wiiatovcr oxperiunco .shall donia'id, ovory dollar Bpont on it would bo spent on aresuit of p^jrmanonco, on a very nocossity which must bo niut sooner or lator, as a basis of agricultural sottlo- niont. ' About 400 niilos of the bolt proposod above for settloinont-siirvoy lio within Qr.jboc. Tho cost of that part of tho whole would bo chargeable in fairnoss to tho Crown Lands Department of tho Govcrniuont of that Province. Ontario would, doubtless, meet the obligation of paying for the survey of her laiuls lying within tho proposod belt, for a length oi about 300 miles. The COO miles remain- ing east of Norway House applying to lands of tho Dominion, would constitute a legitimate charge upon tho Dominion. If the [mperial Government accept tho fact of its deep interest in this great British Railway, it will not hesitate to make the proposed surveys from Nor- way House to the Pacific, itself. A company of the Royal Engineers set at that work, its completion would place before the English people the ofiFer of fifty millions of acres in a preciseness of knowledge as to the character of the land and us to the ccjustruction of the railway — in substitution for mere gene- ral statements as to the soil and to the topograpliy— which is absolutely neces- sary to supply satisfactory grounds of consideration for an acceptance involv- ing so grave a commitment.' An expenditure of four millions of dollars having been made under the present system of explorations and sur- V jys, the fact that that expenditure is chargeable on the face of its results with being a mere waste, demands that its continuance shall be stopped until, at all events, the merits of a substitute system slmll have been considered. Passing now to tlie mode of construc- tion, tlie attentioii of thoughtful men becomes startled when called on to con- sider that the country has entered on the construction of roo or 2,800 miles of raihvay at a cost, on the sec- tions now under work, of from $27,000 to 183,000 per mile ; on the I sections next to come under work — those in British Columbia— of from !?5!),000 to $84,000 per mile ! ITn-h-r this head of its subj.rt, the 'Notes ' say.s : ' Tho Canadian Pacific Railway shoidd not cost at first a dollar more tlian necessary to make it passable by trains. Interest kept down thus, tho opening should take place as soon as possible so as to begin the process of developing business. Running tliroiigh a ccmntry perfectly new, it will not require at tho outset the class of works proper lo great traffic. The bridge-piers a) in truf':, tho only construcjtions that demand permanence. Its road-bed high, wcdl- drained and well cross-tied, it can dis- pense as long as necessary with ballast, fe'iccs, cattlo-guards, road-crossings. Except at such places as the intersection of rivers, station-buildings will not . u necossary. A colonization road whose object at first is that of simply opening up the countiy for settlement, it may resort freely to undulating grades, sharp curves, wooden bridges, and almost un- broken stretches of single-track-embank- ment. Rock-work, deep cuts, high em- bankments, etc., being all avoided by, where unavoidable otherwise, substitu- tions of one sort or another, the road and rolling-stf>ck ought not to cost for the purpose of opening for traffic be- tween Quebec and Peace River Pass, more than $15,000 or §10,000 per mile. Any subsecpient addition of ballast, substitution of trestling by filling, re- placement of undulating gradients by heavy work, etc. . etc. , may be made in employment of idle rolling-stock — made by degrees at the charge of revenue and in the continued production of revenue, by a system of labour associated with the encouraj, anient of settlenient.' It says on the same head, this : — ' The mode of construction adopted for the Canadian I'acific deu)ands recon- sideration. I do not roiiiemlx-r to Juive seen any estimate of its cost on tho Prairies ; but recollect that the figures for British Columbia are set at about $75,000 a mile. Between Lake Superior and Manitoba they go up to about §83,- 000 a mile ! Such sums as these repre- sent for a railway through a wilderness, are open to grave (juestioii — going as t hoy do to tho practicability of construct- 10 THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWA Y. ing tho line without danger to the credit of the country. If the $20,000,000 being invested in the railvay between Lake Superior and Manitoba had been appli- ed to the railway — the colonization line at a cost of about §15,000 a mile — pro- posed in the following pages, it would have connected Quebec with Hudson Bay ; and have carried the railway seven hundred miles farther westward — com- pletely through "the woodland region " to the threshold of the western granary, at Norway House. There that expenditure \v "Id, in any event, have flung open the gate of the future greatness of the country ; and would have brought the l)roject to a stage at which, tliere is very little room for doubt, the offer of aland- ';rant of fifty millions of acres made in the businesslike way of presentation under the specifications of secti'iii-line surveys, would enlist British c-j _tal in the extension of the line to tho Pacific. A contrast of the results that mi(//(' have been accomplished thus for t!.e same amount of money, with the results that will have been accomplished in the case of the expenditures between Lake Superior and Manitoba, supplies not only a striking commentary on the route adopt- ed, hut also a startling comparison of the cost of the mode of construction with the expediencies of the case.* The ' Notes ' urge that this great enterprise be entered on Je navo ; and that the commitments to the present blunder be boldly disregarded, so as to carry out the road on the high ground of Imperial and National inter- ests. It says : ' Yellow Head Pass should, it seems to me, never have been thought of as a point on the Pacific Railway while a pass half tho height oli'ers at the dis- charge through the Rocky Moinitains, of Peace River. In this and other points glanced at iu the following pages I cannot avoid setting down tho pre- sent locatiiu of the National Railway as an error. The plea set up in a[U)looy for that mistake, that the Canadian * At the rate on tlie nmte between Lake Superior anil Manitolia, tlie ccinstriietion oastwnriiiy in cx- ten.-uin uf that route to tlie valley of the Ottawa, Would oosl as much ;« the eonstruetion, on tlie hasis proposed in the ' Notes,' of the line from Quehec by Hudson Hay, Norway House, anil Peace River I'luss, o the ifold flelUs of the Omineca ' North- West will be crossed hereafter by several lines to the Pacific, supplies, as- suredly, no reason why the Jirst should be fixed on the route which is the most objectionable. Nor is the investment of twenty millions in the blunder which evidently has been made, good reason why a hundred millions more should be invested in continuation of that blunder. Indeed that commitment ought not to count for anything against the overrul- ing expediency of placing the Railway ■ '11 an Imperial and National plane — certainly ought not to count so when it is considered that those twenty millions supply a distinct want of the day, in giving access for even six months of the year to the lines f)f emigrant distribu- tion centering at Winnipeg in the navi- gation of Red River, of the Assinaboine River, of Lake Manitoba, of Lake Win- nipegosis, of Lake Winnipeg, of tho River Saskatchawan.' The ' Notes ' deals with its subject without any consideration for parties. It goes forward as in a great |)ractical business ; and in the firm belief that the country will suffer very much more by the course marked out for the location and construction of the Canadian Pacific than if the leaders of botli its political parties and all the interests they represent were sunk to the bottom of tho sea. It offjrs the following apology : ' I went into studies of the I'acifio Rail- way to employ idle hours. The results are given to tho public in obedience to an old Engineer's sympatliy with a great Engineering enterprise. And vievi of a pertinent '.xperience presented inde- pendently of the political authority may, perhaps, prove to be of mon; or less ser- vice to the country. It may be well to add that in dealing witii the question I have nt>t intended to retlect on either in- dividuals or governments. Indeed, I had been restrained for a 1 mg time in giving my views on the subject to the jmhlic by the unavoidable .seeiaing of discourtesy to tho engineer in charge of tlie railwfiy. But the extent to which I have seen what I must suppose to be mistakes of the management carried, has led me io reflect that that seeming is not real. The [loints ii.volved nro seldom or never strictly prt.fessii-'ial ; THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 11 and whore they are strictly professional, they may bo preanmed to tind their ex- planation in political pressure. In speci- fying acts of Governments, I have had no thought of discrimination between the Government of Sir John Macdonald and that of the Hon. Mr. Mackenzie. Both Cabinets are responsible for errors in the management of this great practical enterprise ; and because of, simply, the conditions of their existence. ' And now that great, that ruinous, blunders have been committed in the case of the Pacific Railway, there is hope for its future in the considera- tion that these blunders are charge- able fairly to both parties. Where both are not responsible in common, the aggregate responsibility in the case of either is about evenly balanced by the aggregate responsibility of the other. There is, therefore, no reason why the corrective shall not be ap- plied patriotically and boldly with tlie approval of both. On the contrary, the responsibility of each for the mistakes already committed, places on each the obligation of earnest concurrence in the conclusion that the location* and construction of the Pacific Railway — being properly outside the functions, as they are certainly outside the in- telligence, of Ministries— ought to be l)laced in the hands of a commission of specialists removed beyond the em- barrassments of factious carping. If the voice of party would but remain silent in the event of a transfer of the work to a non-political body occupy- ing the proper relation to the ministry of the day, no happier selection for the management could be made than the Deputy Minister of the Interior, the Deputy Minister of Railways, and the Deputy Minister of Immigration. *The section-line surveys proposed in the text can be confined to routes of prninise. Eocli would roiiuire two lines of |)arallcl— one as a base lino and the other as a cheek. To conform (fcnerally to their route, thcHe parallels should be olfsetted, at inter- vals, on meridians. All that would remain to be done then, would be the running' out of meridian- lines of such lengths, and at such distances apart, lus would bp necessary to shew the route for a suftieicnt width, ni crdns-aection. This work could bo .nado available subsequently, by filling in, for the pur- poses of settlement ; but the lines suggested would be sultieieiit for railway exploration ; and could bo curried out to any extent likely to be required for that purpose in, at most, three years,