Summer Route, Liverpool To Yokohama 10,071
Winter Route, " " 10,618
"ROUTE THROUGH UNITED STATES TERRITORY.
Liverpool to New York 3,046
New York to Chicago, via N.Y.C.
and M.C. Railways 961
Chicago to San Francisco 2,357
San Francisco to Yokohama 4,526
San Francisco to Hongkong 6,128
Liverpool to Yokohama 10,890
"For distance to Hongkong, add 1,602 miles to the distance to Yokohama.
"Note, - Distances by rail are statute miles. Distances by sea,
geographical miles.
"ESQUIMALT AND NANAIMO RAILWAY AND COAL MINES AT WEST
WELLINGTON AND NANAIMO.
"The Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway runs from West Victoria, near
Esquimalt, to Nanaimo, which latter place is a small mining town in the
Island of Vancouver, lying on the east coast, on the shore of the
Straits of Georgia, nearly opposite Burrard Inlet, from which it is
distant about 28 miles.
"The line is well constructed with a good and substantial road-bed;
steel rails, weighing 54 lbs. per yard (except a few miles near
Nanaimo, where they are 50 lbs. per yard); well ballasted, and well
tied; the bridges and trestles are all of timber, of which material
there is about 1,000,000 cubic feet employed altogether. The steepest
grade is 80 feet per mile rising towards Nanaimo, and 79 feet per mile
rising towards Esquimalt; these grades are rendered necessary to enable
the line to overcome the summit lying between the two places, and which
is 900 feet above the level of the sea. Running, as the line does,
through a rugged country, there are a good many sharp curves rendered
necessary. The distance from Esquimalt to Victoria is 75 miles. The
line was not quite completed when we went over it; and the buildings,
turn-tables, &c. were not yet erected, although some of them were under
construction.
"The traffic on the line will be light, the country being sparsely
settled. It will consist to some extent of coal; but there is water
competition for the carriage of this article of merchandize; and the
station at Victoria is too far from the town at present for much of it
to come by rail for consumption in the town. There is a wharf in the
harbour of Esquimalt, at which coal can be delivered to men-of-war
lying there. Mr. Dunsmuir, of Victoria, is the chief proprietor of the
railway, and he has associated with him Mr. Cracker, President of the
Southern Pacific Railway, and others.
"The Government of Canada gave a bonus of $750,000 (say
150,000l.) in aid of the construction of the railway, and a belt
of land, with the minerals under it, of 10 miles in width on each side
of the line.
"During the afternoon of the 23rd of September we visited the West
Wellington Coal Mines, 4 or 5 miles beyond Nanaimo, and to which the
railway is to be extended, work on the extension having just been
commenced. The mines are owned by Messrs. Dunsmuir & Sons, and at the
present time they are working at five shafts, the output for the month
of August being 17,000 tons. We went down the shaft of No. 5 pit, which
was 240 feet deep, and found the seam was very thick, from 10 to 11
feet, but not very solid block coal, having apparently been crushed.
The mines are all connected with wharves on the coast at Departure Bay
by a three-feet gauge railway; the lines around the mines were all in
fair order. The line is worked by small locomotives, six wheels coupled
and no truck, of the Baldwin Locomotive Company's manufacture, the load
handled by them being 15 cars, each containing 3-1/2 tons of coal, and
averaging in dead weight 1-3/4 tons each. The grade down to the port is
very steep, and the heaviest work for the engines is in taking the
empties back again.
"The coal is mined by white miners, who employ each of them a Chinese
labourer; they employ gunpowder for blasting purposes, chiefly Curtis &
Harvey's make, and use naked lights of oil. The miners are found in all
tools except their auger drills, which they all use, and which cost
some $30 each. Each miner has an allowance of one ton of coal per month
for his own use. There was a little drip at the foot of the shaft we
went down, but otherwise the mine was quite dry. The mode of unloading
the cars at the wharf was rather primitive, but at the same time simple
and ingenious. When the car has been weighed it is run forward by five
Chinamen to the end of the wharf, the front end of the car being hinged
at the top, with a catch opened by a lever, a short piece of track
sufficiently long for the car to stand upon is built projecting beyond
the wharf and over the hold of the vessel, this piece of track is laid
on a framework, which is hinged to the wharf in front so as to tip up
from behind, to it is attached a long wooden pole as a lever, round the
end of which is a rope, made fast to the wharf by a belaying pin; as
soon as the car is on the tipping track, the lever on the front end of
the car is knocked up so as to allow the coal to fall out, and the end
of the long wooden pole is allowed to rise slowly by the rope being
loosened, the coal then shoots out of the car. When empty the Chinamen
weigh down on the pole and bring the track, with the car on it, back to
its former position, making the rope fast to the belaying pin, and the
car is run back to make way for another. We were told that in this way
five Chinese have put 1,000 tons of coal on board a vessel in a working
day.
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