Ocean to ocean : Sandford Fleming's expedition through Canada in 1872

CHAPTER I. Page

.. 17

FROM HALIFAX, NOYA SCOTIA, TO THUNDER BAY, LAKE SUPERIOR,

Chapter II

Halifax. — Intercolonial Railway.— Moncton. — Miramichi. — Resti* gouche. — Matapedia. — Cacouna. — Lord Dufferin. — Riviere du Loup. — Quebec. — Montreal. — Toronto. — Collingwood. — A man overboard. — Owen Sound. — Steamer Frances Smith. — Provoking delays. — Killarney. — Indians.’ — Bruce Mines. — Sault Ste. Marie. — Lake Superior. — Sunset. — Full Moon. — Harbour of Gargantua. — The Botanist. — Michipicoten Island. — Nepigon Bay. — Grand Scenery. — Sunday on Board. — Silver Islet. — Prince Arthur’s Landing 26

Chapter III. From Thunder Bay To Fort Garry

Shebandowan Road. — Rich Vegetation. — Rivers Kaministiquia and Matawan. — Shebandowan Lake. — Luggage. — Emigrants. — Canoe Train. — Iroquois Indians. — Sir George Simpson’s Guide.

— Lake Kashabowie. — The Height of Land. — Lac des Mille Lacs — Baril Portage and Lake. — First Night under Canvass. — Lake Windigostigwan. — Indian Encampment.— Chief Blackstone’s Wives. — The Medicine Man. — Lake Kaogassikok. — Shooting Maligne Rapids. — Lake Nequaquon. — Loon Portage.

— Mud Portage. — American Portage. — Lake Nameukan. — Rainy Lake. — Fort Francis. - — Rainy River. — Hungry Hall. — Slap-jacks. —Lake of the Woods. — The North-West Angle. — A Tough Night. — Oak Point. — First glimpse of the Prairies. — Floral Treasures. — The Dawson Route. — Red River 41

Chapter IV. Province Of Manitoba

Extent. — Population. — Land Claims of Original Settlers.— Sale of Lots in Winnipeg. — Hudson’s Bay Company. — Clergymen of the Settlement. — Military Camp. — Archbishop Tache. — United States Consul. — Conflicting opinions respecting the Fertile Belt. — Our outfit for the Prairies. — Chief Commissioner Smith. — Hudson’s Bay Company. — Lieut. -Governor Archibald. — Departure from Silver Heights. * — White Horse Plains. — Rev. Mr,

IV.

CONTENTS.

McDougal. — Portage la Prairie. —The Last Settler.— Climate, etc., of Manitoba, cnmpared with the older Provinces. — Sioux Indians in war Paint. — General remarks on Manitoba. — Emigrants and the United States’ Agents. — Treatment of the Indians.. 75

Chapter V. From Manitoba To Fort Carlton On The North Saskatchewan

Pine Fertile Country. — The water question. — Duck Shooting. — Salt Lakes. — Camping on the Plains. — Fort Ellice. — Qu’Appelle Valley.— “ Souzie.” — The River Assiniboine. — The Buffalo.- — Cold Nights. — Rich Soil. — Lovely Country. — Little Touchwood Hills.

— Cause of Prairie Fires. — A Day of Rest. — Prairie Uplands. — Indian Family. — Buffalo Sculls.- — Desolate Tract, — Quill Lake.

— Salt Water. — Broken Prairie. — Round Hill.— Prairie Fire. — Rich Black Soil. — Magnificent Panorama. — Break -neck Speed. —The South Saskatchewan, — Sweethearts and Wives. — Fort Carlton.— Free Traders. — The Indians. — Crop Raising 108

Chapter VI. Along The North Saskatchewan To Edmonton

The Thickwood Hills.-— The Soil. — Slough of Despond. — Bears’ Paddling Lake. — Indian Missions Result. — Pemmican. — Jack-fish Lake. — The Crees and Blackfeet. — Change in Vegetation. — Resemblance to Ontario. — The Red -deer Hills. — Rich Uplands and Valleys. — Fort Pitt. — The Horse Guard. — Fresh Buffalo Meiat, — Partially Wooded Country. — Cree Guests. — Shaganappi. — Glorious View.— Our Longitude. — The Isothermal Lines.

— Scalping Raids. — The Flora. — Victoria Mission. — Indian School. — Crops Raised. — A Lady Visitor. — Timber. — Horse Hill. — Edmonton. — Coal. — Wh^at and other Crops. — Gold- W ashing, — Climate. — Soil. — Indian Races. — Water. — Fuel. — Frosts 143

Chapter VII. From Fort Edmonton To The River Athabaska

False Report. — Souzie’s Farewell. — St. Albert Mission. — Bishop Grandin. — Small-pox. — Great Mortality. — Indian Orphans. —

The Sisters of Charity. — Road to Lake St. Ann’s. — Luxuriant Vegetation. — Pelican. — Early Frosts. : — Pack Horses.— Leaving St. Ann’s. — Indians. — Vapour Booths. — Thick Woods. — Pembina River. — Coal. — Lobstick Camp. — Condemned Dogs. — Beaver Dams. — Murder. — Horse Lost. — A Birth- day. —No Trail. — Muskegs. — Windfalls. — Beavers. — Traces of Old Travellers.— Cooking Pemmican. — Crossing the McLeod. — Wretched Road. — Iroquois Indians. — Slow Progress. — Merits of Pemmican.— Bad Muskegs. — Un Beau Chemin. — A Mile an Hour.

— Plum-pudding Camp. — Ten Hours in the Saddle. — Athabaska River. — The Rocky Mountains. — Bayonet Camp 188

CONTENTS.

Chapter VIII

y.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

The Flora. — The Mountains. — Prairie River. — Grilled Beaver.— Roche a Myette. — Roche a Perdrix. — Roche Ronde. — Jasper House. — Roche Jacques. — Roche Suette. — Roche Bosche. —

First Night in the Mountains. — Crossing the Athabaska. — Magnificent Mountain Scenery. — Pyramid Rock. — Jasper Lake.

— Snaring River. — Jasper Valley — We meet Pacific Men. — Hyiu muck-a-muck ! Hyiu iktahs ! — Old Henry House. — The Caledonian Valley. — A Rough Trail. — Desolate Camping Ground. — Good Cheer. — The Trail Party. — Yellow Head Pass.

— Namel^bs Mountain Peaks. — Sunday Dinner in “ The Pass.” 227

Chapter IX. Yellow Head Pass To The North Thompson River

Plants in Flower. — The Water-shed. — Entering British Columbia.

— Source of the Fraser River. — Yellow Head Lake. — Serrated Peaks. — Benighted. — Moose Lake. — Milton and Cheadle. — Relics of the Headless Indian. — Columbia River. — The Three Mountain Ranges. — Horses Worn Out. — First Canyon of the Fraser. — The Grand Forks.— Changing Locomotion Power. — Robson’s Peak, — Fine Timber. — Tete Jaune Cache. — Glaciers.

— Countless Mountain Peaks. — A Good Trail. — Fording Canoe River. — Snow Fence. — Camp River. — Albreda. — Mount Milton. — Rank Vegetation. — Rain. — A Box in V’s Cache for S. F.

- — The Red Pyramid. — John Glen. — The Forest. — Camp Cheadle 251

Chapter X. Along The North Thompson River To Kamloops

Breakfast by Moonlight. — The Bell-horse. — Mount Cheadle. — Blue River and Mountains. — Goose Creek. — The Headless Indian. — Porcupine Breakfast. — The Canyon. — Mule Train. — At Hell Gate, meet Friends. — Gathering at Camp U. and V. — Good Cheer. — Still Water. — Round Prairie. — Exciting News two months old. — Change in the Flora. — Bunch Grass. — Raft River.

— Clearwater. — Boat to Kamloops. — Assiniboine Bluff. — Last Night under Canvass. — Siwash Houses. — Signs of Civilization.

— Stock Raising. — Wages in British Columbia. — Arid Aspect of Country. — Darkness on the River. — Arrival at Kamloops. ... 275

Chapter XI. Erom Kamloops To The Sea

Under a Roof again. — Kamloops Beef. — Sermon. — John Chinaman.

No Letters. — Lake Kamloops. — Savona’s Ferry. — A Night Ride to Ashcroft. — Farming Country. — Sage Brush. — Irrigation. —

A Broken Leg. — The Judge and the Miners. — Gold Mining. —

VI.

CONTENTS.

Si washes and Chinamen. — Indian Graves. — The Waggon Road.

— Canyons of the Thompson. — Big-hugs. — Lytton. — The Bush to the Gold Mines. — Obstacles to Settlement. — Effects of Uneducated Salmon. — BostonBar. — Jackass Mountain. — TheRoad along the Canyons. — Grand Scenery. ^ — Suspension Bridge. — SpuzzunTs Creek. — Yale. — Letters from Home. — Travelling by Steam Again. — Steamer 4 ‘Onward.” — Hope. — The Judiciary of British Columbia. — New Westminster. — Salmon. — Assaying Office. — Burrard’s Inlet. — Grand Potlatch.— The “Sir James Douglas. ” —General Remarks 295

Chapter XII. The Coast, And Vancouver’s Island

On the Waters of the Pacific. — Bute Inlet. — Valdes Island. — The Fiords of British Columbia. — Waddington Harbour. — Glaciers.

— Chilcoten Indians. — Massacre. — Party X. — Salmon. — Arran Rapids. — Seymour Narrows. — Menzies’ Bay.- — Party Y. — The Straits of Georgia. — New Settlements on Vancouver’s Island.

— Nanaimo. — Coal Mines. — Concert. — Mount Baker. — Pujet Sound. — San Juan Island. — The Olympian Mountains. — Victoria.— Esquimalt Harbour. — A Polyglot City. — The Last of Terry. — The Pacific Ocean. — Barclay Sound. — Alberni Inlet. — Sunset on the Pacific. —Return to Victoria.- — The Past, Present, and Future. — The Home-stretch. — The Great American Desert 322

Conclusion

Crossing and recrossing the Continent. — Writers on the North-west.

— Mineral Wealth behind Lake Superior. — The “Fertile-belt.”

— Our Fellow Travellers. — The “Rainbow” of the North-west.

— Peace River. — Climate compared with Ontario. — Natural Riches of the Country. — The Russia of America. — Its Army of Construction. — The Pioneers. — Esprit de corps. — Hardships and Hazards. — Mournful Death-roll. — The Work of Construction.— Vast Breadth of the Dominion. — Its Varied Features. —

Its Exhaustless Resources. — Its Constitution. — Its Queen 349

Appendix

Delays in Constructing Canada Pacific & Intercolonial Railways. First Link of the Canada Pacific. — Yellow Head Pass. — Difficulties in the Cascade Range . —Population required for local traffic. — Causes of delay in settling the North- west. — The grasshoppers. — Utilization of water stretches. — Telegraphic Communication. — Productiveness of Manitoba in 1876. — Surveys. — Red Deer and Bow Rivers. — Place River as seen in 1875. — Water supply. — Treeless areas. — Indian Question. — Mounted Police. — Treaties. — True Indian Policy, — Indian troubles in British Columbia. — Character of the Indians on Pacific Slope and Coast. — Progress.,. 369

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

Shooting the Rapids Frontispiece*

Sault Ste. Marie (from South Side) 19

Thunder Cape, entrance to Thunder Bay . . * 29

Buffalo Skin Lodge and Red River Carts 123

Fort Edmonton 171

Skull of the Headless Indian 275

The Hamathco, below the defile 329

OCEAN TO OCEAN.

THROUGH CANADA. IN 1872.

CHAPTER I. Introductory

Travel a thousand miles up the St. Lawrence ; another thousand on great lakes and a wilderness of lakelets and streams ; a thousand miles across prairies and up the valley of the Saskatchewan ; and nearly a thousand through woods and over great ranges of mountains, and you have travelled from Ocean to Ocean through Canada. All this country is a single Colony of the British Empire ; and this Colony is dreaming magnificent dreams of a future when it shall be the Greater Britain, and the highway across which the fabrics and products of Asia shall be carried, to the Eastern as well as to the Western sides of the Atlantic. Mountains were once thought to be effectual barrriers against railways, but that day has gone by ; and, now that trains run between San Francisco and New York, over summits of eight thousand two hundred feet, why may they not run between Victoria and Halifax, over a height of three thousand seven hundred feet ? At any rate, a Canadian Pacific Railway has been undertaken by the Dominion ; and, as this book consists of notes made in connection with the survey, an introductory chapter may be given to a brief history of the project.

For more than a quarter of a century before the Atlantic was connected by rail with the Pacific public attention had been frequently called, especially in the great cities of the United

OCEAN TO OCEAN.

States, to the commercial advantage and the political necessity of such connection; but it was not till 1853 that the Secretary of War was authorized by the President to employ topographical engineers and others “ to make explorations and surveys, and to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi Piver to the Pacific Ocean.” From that time the United States Government sent a succession of well-equipped parties to explore the western half of the Continent. The reports and surveys of these expeditions fill thirteen large quarto volumes, richly embellished, stored with valuable information concerning the country, and honestly pointing out that, west of the Mississippi Valley, there were vast extents of desert or semi-desert, and other difficulties so formidable as to render the construction of a railroad well nigh impracticable. Her Majesty’s Government aware of this result, and aware, also, that there was a fertile belt of undefined size, in the same longitude as the Great American Desert, but north of the forty -ninth degree of latitude, organized an expedition, under Captain Palliser, in 1857, to explore the country between the west of Lake Superior and the Pocky Mountains; and also “ to ascertain whether any practicable pass or passes, available for horses, existed across the Pocky Mountains within British Territory, and south of that known to exist between Mount Brown and Mount Hooker,” known as the “ Boat Encampment Pass.” It was unfortunate that the limitation expressed in this last clause, was imposed on Captain Palliser, for it prevented him from exploring to the north of Boat Encampment, and reporting upon the Yellow Head Pass, which has since been found so favourable for the Pail way and may soon be used as the gateway through the mountains to British Columbia and the Pacific. The difficulties presented by passes further south, and by the Selkirk Mountains, led Palliser to express an opinion upon the passage across the Mountains as hasty and inaccurate as his opinion about the possibility of con-

4,

SAULT STE. MARIE {from the South Side.)

INTRODUCTORY.

necting Ontario or Quebec with the Keel River and Saskatchewan Country is now found to be. After stating that his expedition had made connection between the Saskatchewan Plains and British Columbia, without passing through United States Territory, he added : — ■“ Still the knowledge of the country, on the whole, would never lead me to advise a line of communication from Canada, across the continent to the Pacific, exclusively through British Territory. The time has forever gone by for effecting such an object ; and the unfortunate choice of an astronomical boundary line has completely ' isolated the Central American possessions of Great Britain from Canada in the east, and also almost debarred them ’ from any eligible access from the Pacific Coast on the west.” The best answer to this sweeping opinion, is the Progress Report on the Canadian Pacific Railway exploratory survey, presented to the House of Commons, in Ottawa, in the Session 1872, in which the advantages of the Yellow Head Pass over every other approach to the Pacific are shown ; and as complete an answer to the second part is to be found in subsequent reports. The journals of Captain Palliser’s explorations, extending over a period of four years, from 1857 to 1860, were printed in extenso by Her Majesty’s Government in a large Blue Book, which shared the fate of all similar literature. There are, probably, not more than half a dozen copies in the Dominion. A copy in the Legislative Library at Ottawa is the only one known to the writer. They deserved a better fate, for his own notes and the reports of his associates, Lieutenant Blakiston, Dr. Hector, M. Bourgeau and Mr. Sullivan, are replete with useful and interesting facts about the soil, the flora, the fauna, and the climate of the plains and the mountains. M. Bourgeau was the botanist of the expedition. On Mr. Sullivan, an accomplished mathematician and astronomical observer and surveyor, devolved the principal labours of computation. Dr. Hector, to whose exertions the success of the expedition was chiefly owing,

OCEAN TO OCEAN.

had the charge of making the maps, both geographical and geological; and, whenever a side journey promised any result, no matter how arduous or dangerous it might be, Dr. Hector was always ready. His name is still revered in our Northwest, on account of his medical skill and his kindness to the Indians, and most astonishing tales are still told of his travelling feats in mid- winter among the mountains.

After printing Captain Palliser’s journal, Her Majesty’s Government took no step to connect the East of British America with the Centre and the West, or to open up the Northwest to emigration, although it had been clearly established that we had a country there, extending over many degrees of latitude and longitude, with a climate and soil equal to that of Ontario. In the meantime, the people of the United States, with characteristic energy, took up the work that was too formidable for their government. Public-spirited men, in Sacramento and other parts of California, embarked their all in a project which would make their own rich State the link between the old farthest East and the Western World on both 'sides of the Atlantic. The work was commenced on the east and west of the Pocky Mountains. Congress granted extraordinary liberal subsidies in lands and money, though in a half sceptical spirit, and as much under the influence of Pings as of patriotism. When the member for California was urging the scheme with a zeal that showed that he honestly believed in it, Mr. Lovejoy, of Illinois, could not help interjecting, “ Does the honourable member really mean to tell me he believes that that road will ever be built Vf “ Pass the Bill, and it will be constructed in ten years,” was the answer. In much less than the time asked for it was constructed, and it is at this day as remarkable a monument to the energy of our neighbours as the triumphant conclusion of their civil war, or the re-building of Chicago. Three great ranges of mountains had to be crossed, at altitudes of eight thousand two hundred tad forty, seven

INTRODUCTORY.

thousand one hundred and fifty? an^ seven thousand feet ; snow sheds and fences to be built along exposed parts, for miles, at enormous expense ; the work, for more than a thousand miles, to be carried on in a desert, which yielded neither wood, water nor food of any kind. No wonder that the scheme was denounced as impracticable and a swindle. But its success has vindicated the wisdom of its projectors ; and now no fewer than four different lines are organized to connect the Atlantic States with the Pacific, and to divide with the Union and Central Pacific Pailways, the enormous and increasing traffic they are carrying.

While man was thus triumphing over all the obstacles of nature in the Territory of the United States, how was it that nothing was attempted farther North in British America, where a fertile belt stretches west to the base of the Pocky Mountains, and where river-passes seem to offer natural highways through the mountains to the Ocean ? The North American Colonies were isolated from each other ; the North-west was kept under lock and key by the Hudson Bay Company ; and though some ambitious speeches were made, some spirited pamphlets written, and Bulwer Lytton, in introducing the Bill for the formation of British Columbia as a Province, saw, in vision, a line of loyal Provinces, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the time had not come for a consummation so devoutly to be wished. Had the old political state of things continued in British America, nothing would have been done to this day. But, in 1867, the separate Colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, became the Dominion of Canada ; in 1869 the Hudson Bay Company’s rights to the North-west were bought up ; and, in 1871, British Columbia united itself to the new Dominion ; and thus the whole mainland of British America became one political State under the segis of the Empire. One of the terms on which British Columbia joined the Dominion was, that a railway should be constructed within ten years

OCEAN TO OCEAN.

from the Pacific to a point of junction with the existing railway systems iu the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and surveys with this object in view were at once instituted.

What did this preparatory survey-work in our case mean 'l It meant that we must do, in one or two years, what had been done in the United States in fifty. To us the ground was all new. Few of our public men had ever looked much beyond the confines of their particular Provinces ; our North-west, in some parts of it, was less an unknown land to the people of the States along the boundary line than to the people of the Dominion ; and, in other parts, it was unknown to the whole world. No white man -is known to have crossed from the Upper Ottawa to Lake Superior or Lake Winnipeg.. There were maps of the country, dotted with lakes and lacustrine rivers here and there ; but these had been made up largely from sketches, on bits of birch-bark or paper, and the verbal descriptions of Indians, and the Indian has little or no conception of scale or bearings. In drawing the picture of a lake, for instance, when his sheet of paper was too narrow, he would without warning, continue the lake up or down the side, and naturally an erroneous idea of the surface of the country was given. A lake was set down right in the path of what otherwise was an eligible line, and, after great expense had been incurred, it was found that there was no lake within thirty miles of the point. In a word, the country between Old Canada and Fed Eiver was utterly unknown, except along the canoe routes travelled by the Hudson Bay men north-west of Lake Superior. Not many years since, a lecturer had to inform a Toronto audience that he had discovered a great lake, called Nepigon, a few miles to the north of Lake Superior. When so little was known, the task was no light one. Engineers were sent out into trackless, inhospitable regions, obliged to carry their provisions on their backs over swamps, rocks, and barriers, of all kinds, when the Indians failed them ; with instructions simply

INTRODUCTORY.

to do their best to find out all they could, in as short a time as possible.

Far different was it with our neighbours. They could afford to spend, and they did spend, half a century on the preparatory work. Their special surveys were aided and supplemented by reports and maps extending back over a long course of years, drawn up, as part of their duty, by the highly educated officers of their regular army stationed at different posts in their Territories. These reports, as well as the unofficial narratives of missionaries, hunters, and traders, were studied, both before and after being pigeon-holed in Washington. The whole country had thus been gradually examined from every possible point of view ; and, among other things, this thorough knowledge explains the success of the United States’ Government in all its treaty-making with Great Britain, when territory was concerned. The history of every such treaty between the two Powers is the history of a contest between knowledge and ignorance. The one Power always knew what it wanted. It therefore presented, from the first step in the negotiation to the last, a firm and apparently consistent front. The other had only a dim notion that right was on its side, and a notion, equally dim, that the object in dispute was not worth contending for.

Was it wise, then, for the Dominion to undertake so gigantic a public work at so early a stage in its history ? It was wise, because it was necessary. By uniting together, the British Provinces had declared that their destiny was — not to ripen and drop, one by one, into the arms of the Republic — but to work out their own future as an integral and important part of the grandest Empire in the world. They had reason for making such an election. They believed that it was better for themselves and for their neighbours ; better for the cause of human liberty and true progress, that it should be so. But it is not necessary to discuss the reasons. No outside power has

OCEAN TO OCEAN.

a right to pronounce upon them. The fact is enough, that, on this central point, the mind of British America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is fixed. But, to be united politically and disunited physically, as the different parts of Prussia were for many a long year, is an anomaly only to be endured so long as it can not be helped ; and when, as in our case, the remedy is in our own hands, it is wise to secure the material union as soon as possible.

On the twentieth of July, 1871, British Columbia entered the Dominion. On the same day surveying parties left Victoria for various points of the Rocky Mountains, and from the Upper Ottawa westward, and all along the line surveys were commenced. Their reports were laid before the Canadian House of Commons in April, 1872. In the summer of the same year, Sandford Fleming, the Engineer in Chief, considered it necessary to travel overland, to see the main features of the country with his own eyes, and the writer of these pages accompanied him, as Secretary. The expedition started from Toronto on July 16th, and on October 14th, it left Victoria, Vancouver’s Island, on the home stretch. During those three months a diary was kept of the chief things we saw or heard, and of the impressions which we formed respecting the country, as we journeyed from day to day and conversed with each other on the subject. Our notes are presented to the public, and are given almost as they were written so that others might see, as far as possible, a photograph of what we saw and thought from day to day. A more readable book could have been made by omitting some things, colouring others, and grouping the whole ; but the object was not to make a book. The expedition had special services to perform in connection with one of the most gigantic public works ever undertaken in any country by any people ; it was organized and conducted in a business-like way, in order to get through without disaster or serious difficulty ; it did not turn aside in search of adventures or of

INTRODUCTORY.

sport ; and therefore an exciting narrative of hair-breadth escapes and thrilling descriptions of “ men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders ” need scarcely be expected.

Chapter II

From Halifax , Nova Scotia, to Thunder Bay, Lake Superior.

Halifax. — Intercolonial Railway. — Moncton. — Miramichi. — Restigouche.- Matapedia. — Quebec. — Montreal. — Toronto. — Collingwood. — A Man Overboard. — Owen Sound.— Steamer Frances Smith. — Delays.— Killarney.— Indians. — Bruce Mines— Sault Ste. Marie. — Lake Superior. — Sunset. — Full Moon. — Harbour of Gargantua. — The Botanist.— Michipieoten Island. — Nepigon Bay. — Grand Scenery — Sunday on Board — Silver Islet. — Prince Arthur’s Landing.

1st July, 1872.— To-day, three friends met in Halifax, and agreed to travel together through the Dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific. All three had personal and business matters to arrange, requiring them to leave on different days, and reach the Upper Provinces by different routes. In these circumstances it was decided that Toronto should be the point of rendezvous for the main journey to the Far West, and that the day of meeting should be the 15th of July. One proposed to take the steamer from Halifax to Portland, and go thence by the Grand Trunk Railway via Montreal ; another, to sail up the Gulf of St. Lawrence from Pictou to Quebec ; and it was the duty of the third — the chief of the party — to travel along the line of the Intercolonial Railway. This narrative follows the footsteps of the Chief, when more than one path is taken. But, though it was his duty to make a professional examination of all the engineering works in progress on the Intercolonial, — the Eastern link of that great arterial highway which is to connect, entirely through Canadian Territory, a Canadian Atlantic port with a Canadian Pacific port, — the reader would scarcely be interested in an account of the culverts and bridges, built and building, the comparative merits of wooden and iron work, the pile driving, the dredging, the excavating, the banking and

HALIFAX TO THUNDER BAY.

blasting by over 10,000 workmen, scattered along 500 miles of road. The Intercolonial links, with rails of steel, the Provinces of NT ova Scotia and Hew Brunswick with the Province of Quebec ; the Grand Trunk unites Quebec and Ontario ; and the Canadian Pacific Railway is to connect the latter with Manitoba and British Columbia, as well as with the various unborn Provinces which, in the rapid progress of events, shall spring up in the intervening region. But the work of actual railway construction is an old story ; and, if told at all, must be served up at some other time in some other way. It has now been told by Sandford Fleming, the Engineer-in-chief, in an interesting and well written volume, “ The Intercolonial ; a Historical Sketch of the Inception, Location, Construction, and Completion of the Line of Railway uniting the Inland and Atlantic Provinces of the Dominion.” The object of the present narrative is to give an account of what was observed and experienced in out-of-the-way places, over a vast extent of Canada little known even to Canadians. It will be sufficient for our purpose, therefore, to begin at Toronto, passing over all that may at any time be seen on the line from Halifax to Truro, and northerly across the Cobequid Mountains to Moncton. From Moncton, westward, there is much along the line worthy of description the deep forests of Hew Brunswick, the noble Miramichi river with its Railway bridging on a somewhat gigantic scale, the magnificent highland scenery of the Baie des Chaleurs, the Restigouche, and the wild mountain gorges of the Matapedia. But, without delaying even to catch a forty or fifty pound salmon in the Restigouche, we hasten on with the Chief up the shores of the great St. Lawrence. Passing the cliffs of historic Quebec, we cross the broad St. Lawrence by that magnificent monument of early Canadian enterprise and triumph of engineering skill, the Victoria Bridge. Two days are necessarily spent at Ottawa in making final arrangements, and Toronto is reached at the time appointed for the rendezvous.