But I
consoled myself with the reflection, that if we had not gained the
best, we had secured the next best, grand scheme - a scheme which, as
time goes on, will be extended and improved, as the original Pacific
Railways of the United States have been.
The sea service between "Port Moody" and "Victoria," Vancouver's
Island, is well performed; and Victoria itself is an English town, with
better paved streets, better electric lighting, and better in many
other ways that might be named, than many bigger American and English
towns I know of. I spent four delightful days in and about it,
including an experimental trip, through the kindness of Mr. Dunsmuir
- the proprietor of the Wellington Collieries, a few miles north of
Nanaimo - over the new railway from Victoria to Nanaimo, constructed,
with Government aid, by himself and Mr. Crocker, of San Francisco. I
had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Sir Mathew Begbie, the
Chief Justice of British Columbia, to whose undaunted courage
Vancouver's Island and British Columbia owed law and order in the
dangerous and difficult times of the gold discoveries.
Upon the question of relative distances, engineering, and generally
what I saw between Port Moody and Chicago, I again take advantage of
Mr. Edward Wragge's excellent notes.
"Table of Distances between Liverpool and China and
Japan, via the Canadian Pacific Railway, through Canadian
territory, and via New York and San Francisco, through United
States territory: -
"ROUTE THROUGH CANADIAN TERRITORY.
"Summer Route MILES.
Liverpool to Quebec, via Belle Isle 2,661
Quebec to Montreal 172
Montreal to Port Moody 2,892
Port Moody to Vancouver 12
Vancouver to Victoria 78
Vancouver to Yokohama 4,334
Vancouver to Hongkong 5,936
"Winter Route MILES.
Liverpool to Halifax 2,530
Halifax to Quebec 678
Other points as in summer.
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.
