There Were, Also, Howson,
Wright, Wainwright, And Barker; Subsequently, Wallis.
Mr. John Taylor,
who acted as my private secretary in my previous visit, I had left
behind, much to
His distress at the time, much for his good afterwards.
Mr. Barker is now the able manager of the Buenos Ayres Great Southern
Railway, a most prosperous undertaking; and poor dear, big, valiant,
hard-working Wallis is, alas! no more: struck down two years ago by
fever. These old friends, still left in Canada, are leading honorable,
useful, and successful lives, respected by the community. To see them
again made it seem as if the world had stood still for a quarter of a
century. Then, again, there was my old friend and once colleague, the
Honble. James Ferrier, a young-minded and vigorous man of 86: who, on
my return to Montreal, walked down to the grand new offices of the
Grand Trunk, near Point St. Charles - offices very much unlike the old
wooden things I left behind, and which were burnt down - to see me and
walked back again. Next day I had the advantage of visiting the
extensive workshops and vast stock yards of the Canadian Pacific, at
Hochelaga, to the eastward of Montreal, and of renewing my acquaintance
with the able solicitor of the Company, Mr. Abbot, and with the
secretary, an old Manchester man, Mr. Drinkwater. Then on the following
day Mr. Peterson, the engineer of this section of the Canadian Pacific
Company, drove me out to Lachine, and took me by his boat, manned by
the chief and a crew of Indians, to see the finished piers and also the
coffer-dams and works of the new bridge over the St. Lawrence, by means
of which his Company are to reach the Eastern Railways of the United
States, without having to use the great Victoria Bridge at Montreal.
This bridge, of 1,000 yards, or 3,000 feet, in length, is a remarkable
structure. It was commenced in May and intended to be finished in
November. But the foundations of the central pier, in deep and doubtful
water, were not begun, though about to begin, and this, as it appeared
to me, might delay the work somewhat. The work is a fine specimen of
engineering, by which I mean the adoption of the simplest and cheapest
mode of doing what is wanted. All the traffic purposes required are
here secured in a few months, and for about 200,000l. only.
The "Victoria" bridge at Montreal is a very different structure. A long
sheet-iron box, 9,184 feet in length, with 26 piers 60 feet above the
water level, and costing from first to last 2,000,000l.
sterling. The burning of coal had begun to affect it; but Mr.
Haunaford, the chief engineer of the Grand Trunk, has made some
openings in the roof, which do not in any way reduce the strength of
the bridge, and at the same time get rid of, at once into the air, the
sulphurous vapours arising from coal combustion.
Mr. Peterson told me that their soundings in winter showed that ice
thickened and accumulated at the bottom of the river. This would seem,
at first sight, impossible. But experiment, Mr. Peterson said, had
proved the fact, which was accounted for by scientific people in
various and, in some cases, conflicting ways. May it not be that the
accumulation is ice from above, loaded with earth or stones, which,
sinking to the bottom by gravity, coagulates from the low temperature
it produces itself? Mr. Peterson is not merely an engineer, and an
excellent one, but an observant man of business. His views upon the
all-important question of colonising the unoccupied lands of the
Dominion seemed to be wise and far-sighted. He would add to the
homestead grants of land, an advance to the settler - a start, in fact
- of stock and material, to be repaid when final title to the property,
were given.
Taking leave of my old friends, I left Montreal at 8 p.m. on the night
of September 15th, in the ordinary "Pacific Express," on which was
attached Mr. Van Horn's car, in charge of James French. I went by
ordinary train because I was anxious to have an experience of the
actual train-working. Mr. Edward Wragge, C.E., of Toronto, an able
engineer of great experience, located now at Toronto, has sent me so
concise an account of the journey of this train, and of the general
engineering features of the line, that, anticipating his kind
permission, I venture to copy it: -
"Leaving Montreal in Mr. Van Horn's car, the 'Saskatchewan,' by the 8
p.m. train on the 15th September, we passed Ottawa at 11.35 p.m.
"During the night we ran over that portion of the Canadian Pacific
Railway which was formerly called the Canada Central Railway, and
reached Callander (344 miles from Montreal), the official eastern
terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at 8.30 a.m. 13 miles from
this, at Thorncliff is the junction with the Northern and Pacific
Junction Railway, which forms the connection with Toronto and Western
Ontario, being distant from Toronto 227 miles. At North Bay, which is a
divisional terminus, the line touches Lake Nipissing, where there is a
flourishing settlement, the land being of a fair quality. The line is
laid with steel rails, about 56 lbs. to the lineal yard, and with ties
about 2,640 to the mile. For the first 60 or 70 miles from Callander
the line is ballasted entirely by sand, and, with the exception of a
few settlements, is entirely without fencing. Most of the bridges are
of timber; but there are one or two of the larger ones of iron or
steel, with masonry abutments.
"At Sudbury is the junction with the Algama Branch, not yet opened for
traffic. This is 443 miles from Montreal. After leaving Sudbury the
character of the country changes, and is alternately swampy and wild
rocky land.
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