-

able for entry. The rapid development of railways trunk lines or feeders has invariably preceded the coming in of settlers, and it has been aptly said that settlement invariably proceeds from railway lines like the unrolling of a carpet. Lumber is readily procurable and coal is mined in abundance in the southern part of the province. It is claimed that Saskatchewan, with its broad acres of prairie in the south and its prairies with their park-like homesteads in the central portion, has within its borders the greatest wheat-producing area of the Dominion. Wheat and beef-cattle are exported. Horses are not yet so numerous as to leave a surplus after the home demand is supplied; because a team is one of the first requirements of the new settler. Other farm products are required for local consumption and settlers find a ready market for anything they raise. Saskatchewan has an area of 250,650 square miles, 8,318 square miles being water surface, for the northern half abounds in lakes and rivers. This northern section is not yet very well known, and its systematic survey must naturally be a slow process. There are great forests and open glades, and it is the home of fur-bearing animals. The hunting of these gives sport to many, as well as some wealth to those who prefer a hunter's life.

Alberta Province is bounded on the south by the United States; its eastern boundary is the 110th meridian of longitude west from Greenwich (in common with Saskatchewan); its northern boundary is the 60th parallel of latitude, where it marches with the North West Territory; and its western boundary is the crest of the main range of the Rocky Mountains from the

International Boundary till that crest intersects the 120th meridian, W., which it follows to the 60th parallel. The whole of the western boundary marches with British Columbia. This province is naturally considered in three great belts or districts, southern, central, and northern. The first two are of interest to the settler, the southern prairie section especially. This southern belt, from the United States to about one hundred miles north of Calgary, was a great ranching country. For a long time farming could not be considered sufficiently safe to induce agricultural settlers because the rainfall is light. But since great irrigating ditches have been constructed, bringing an abundance of water from the mountain streams, farming has increased amazingly. The soil, when irrigated, yields splendid crops of grains and vegetables of all kinds. The central belt is particularly attractive to settlers who contemplate mixed or general farming. Northern Alberta is undoubtedly a land of great possibilities. Each year is bringing evidence that agriculture and stock raising can be successfully carried on, probably all the way to the northern boundary. The area of Alberta is 253,540 square miles.

These three provinces constitute the section to which the Dominion Government is directing its special attention and making every effort to attract settlers. Experimental farms are established at numerous points, and every information that they are able to impart is at the service of settlers, without fee. Somewhat similar effort on the part of the Central Government is being made to show settlers that British Columbia possesses for them great opportunities.

N

CHAPTER XIII

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS

O new country ever felt more promptly the urgent necessity for railway facilities than Canada did after that modern method of transportation became available in the middle of the last century. As soon as the development of the wonderful resources in forests, mines, agricultural lands, and other productive industries had passed beyond the narrow strips which border the St. Lawrence River and fringe the easternmost of the Great Lakes, became known, this necessity asserted itself with an insistence which could not be disregarded.

Although Canada is possessed of a wonderful system of internal waterways, rivers and lakes and these natural reservoirs in Canada are estimated to represent fully one-half of all the fresh water in the world — yet these same promptly proved to be inadequate for the traffic which immediately developed upon the opening up of the wonderful western section of the Dominion. Besides, although the rivers may be broad and deep and while the lakes seem to afford ample transportation facilities, yet these waterways are rendered unavailable for several months because of ice, and that, too, just at the time when much of the grain crop is seeking an outlet to deep water.

The Canadian captains of industry promptly realised

that this new method of transportation — the steam railway-was to be of incalculable benefit to them, and as early as 1835 a charter for a short line was granted; while during the succeeding decade a good many other short lines were so seriously considered that their possible promoters asked for legislative permission to build. But the economic conditions were unsettled and the rebellion of 1837, which has already been mentioned, had a deterrent effect, so that in 1850 there were but fifty-five miles of railway in all Canada, while now there are over thirty thousand miles and the annual increase in trackage is measured by the thousand miles or more.

In 1850, when railway construction really began seriously, it was the Northern Railway, connecting Lakes Huron and Ontario, that was first built. In 1852 the Grand Trunk Railway was incorporated under British charter - and the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks, then Prime Minister and Inspector-General of Canada (as the Minister of Finance was then called), that same year went to England to urge the granting of a guarantee to the Intercolonial Railway. He made arrangements with the Peto, Brassey, Betts, and Jackson Company, contractors and builders, which eventually brought about the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway, 1,100 miles of single-track line, with necessary sidings, and the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence at Montreal. The railway itself was completed and opened for traffic in 1855; the Victoria Bridge was used for the first time in 1860, when it was described by the American Consul at Montreal as "the greatest work of the age." The actual task, both as to building the railway

and throwing the bridge across the river, is a monument to the skill and energy of Thomas Brassey, who planned and directed the entire enterprise, which was superintended by Robert Stephenson.

A most appalling commentary upon the construction methods of that time is found in a comparison of the cost of that Grand Trunk bridge and another, only a few miles farther up stream, which was built long after for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Both serve precisely the same purpose and one does not seem to be any better than the other; yet the Grand Trunk's cost $6,300,000, while the Canadian Pacific's was built for less than $1,000,000. Those first Canadian railways were built by British engineers who brought into the new world precisely the same methods as they and their fellow craftsmen had followed in laying railways between the populous cities of Great Britain. Those engineers were without an inkling of what were the needs of the sparsely populated regions of the New World, where it was far more important to be able to haul freight cheaply than it was to carry passengers quickly and comfortably. Those British constructors built their lines permanently, but it was done at an expense which prevented the shareholders seeing any return for their investment in the way of dividends for many years.

While the Grand Trunk was under construction, the main line of the Great Western Railway was opened for traffic, January, 1854, and that company continued to build until it had 360 miles of track. These larger enterprises and a number of smaller ones brought up the total railway mileage to about 2,500 when the