and sides of the principal peaks, such as those of the Hermit, or Mount Stephen, or Mount Macdonald, are simply superb. Sunset, sunrise or a snow-storm produce the most beautiful effects in colouring at the hands of nature-the greatest master of all art. Green

and brown, purple and black, blue and white, are developed according to the weather and the time of day and sometimes all at once. Intensely dark and sombre and gloomy is the scene, or beautiful in the most varied, fantastic and splendid forms. The transformations are never-ending. Here, perhaps, will be visible upon a dark mountain side lines of low trees, or shrubs, scattered amidst the forests of pine and looking like rivers of grass; there silvery streaks of snow. Here, a huge glacier of eternal ice; there something looking like a vast pile of coral heaped in gigantic shapes by some demoniac or fantastic god of ancient mythology. Everywhere are the banks of rushing rivers the Bow, the Kicking-Horse, the Columbia, the Beaver, the Illicilliwaet, the Eagle, the Thompson, or the magnificent Fraser.

Running down the mountain sides, skipping in merry cascades and myriad colours across or beside the railway, tearing wildly down steep inclines, rushing over huge rocks or precipices, roaring between massive stone-walls-turbulent or peaceful, grand or beautiful-these rivers and streams present a thousand varied charms. The scenery along the Fraser is simply matchless. In many places the great river is forced between cliffs, or vertical walls of rock and foams and roars like some imprisoned giant of nature fighting to be free. The railway is often cut into the cliffs hundreds of feet above and tunnels pierced through solid rock follow each other in rapid succession. After passing Yale the mountains moderate in size and grandeur, the Rockies and the Selkirks gradually become things of the past—lingering forever in the memories of the traveller-and the beautiful valleys and villages and fruit-farms of the coast region come into view.

Such are some of the scenes and obstacles which marked the labours of construction and stamped the event with elements of greatness which led the London Times to delare * that the conception of this trans-continental line was "a magnificent act of faith on the part of the Canadian Dominion" and that the small population of the country spread, as it was, over so vast a territory, had "conceived and executed within a few years a work which a generation ago might well have appalled the wealthiest and most powerful of nations." With the completion of the railway, four years before the original contract had called for it, there ended the prolonged political fight over its construction. In the words of Mr. Blake at Vancouver on April 30, 1891: "When the railway was built and finished I felt, myself, that it was useless to continue the controversy longer in deference to the whole country which Canada had risked so much to retain."

LATER POLICY OF THE COMPANY

Much more remained to be done, however, before the through line which had required so much of persistence, pluck and financial and engineering skill to construct, could be a dividend-paying concern. One of the first steps was to gradually acquire a number of smaller lines for the purpose of feeding the main railway or facilitating its trans-continental business. The Canada Central, the North Shore Line, the New Brunswick Railway system, the Montreal and Ottawa, the Atlantic and North-West, the Credit Valley, the Toronto, Grey and Bruce, the St. Lawrence and Ottawa, the Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie, the Manitoba and South-Western, the Calgary and Edmonton, the Minneapolis and St. Paul, and a score of others were amalgamated or acquired in various ways until the total mileage had become over 7,000. Larger and better grain elevators were built; the sleepers on the entire line were made or owned by the Company

Editorial, June 30, 1886.

itself; splendid hotels were erected at Vancouver, Banff, Montreal, Quebec and other places; handsome Clyde-built steamers were put on the Great Lakes; the Empress Line of steamers was placed on the Pacific and run from Vancouver to Hong-Kong; another and similar Line was established between Vancouver and Australian ports.

All this was accomplished within a few years, though not without further difficulties of a political and financial nature. The latter were now easily overcome; the former included the prolonged struggle in Manitoba for the freedom of that Province from the so-called monopoly clause in the original contract. From 1880 to 1887 the agitation, in this connection, was continuous and the demand of Manitoba to be allowed to build its own railways as it liked was as energetic as the free air of the Western prairies could make it. The original protests against the clause had been forcible and the claim that the subsequent Dominion policy of disallowing any local railway charters which conflicted with it was crippling Provincial development and compelling the endurance of excessive rates, contained a sufficient element of fact to lend popularity to the continued protests. At the same time, the Dominion Government was bound by their arrangement and it had not really been an unfair one in the beginning.

The Company had a right in view of their difficulties, the Government a right in view of their responsibilities, to prevent injurious competition to the new railway for a given period. But young communities are like young men-sometimes hot-headed and not always appreciative of past obligations and benefits. Hence the controversy reached an acute stage, in 1887, over the Dominion disallowance of the Red River Valley charter; and the Provincial and Federal officials almost came to blows at the scene of construction. Finally, Mr. John Norquay, the Premier, accompanied by Mr. Joseph Martin, went to Ottawa and an arrangement was come to by which the