necessary for replenishing the engine stores, would
have been impossible. The Grand Trunk, spanning the breadth of the more
favoured provinces of Ontario and Quebec, leaves New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia without other means of intercommunication than is afforded by its
many rivers and its questionable roads. For many years Canadian
statesmen, and all others interested in the practical confederation of
the various provinces that make up the Dominion, felt that the primary
and surest bond of union would be a railway. The military authorities
were even more urgent as to the necessity of connecting Quebec and
Halifax, and at one time a military road was seriously talked about.
Long ago a railway was projected, and in 1846-8 a survey was carried out
with that object. From that date up to 1869, when the road was actually
commenced, the matter was fitfully discussed, and it was only in 1876
that the railway was opened.

It is only a single line, and as a commercial undertaking is not likely
to pay at that, passing as it does through long miles of territory where
"still stands the forest primeval." It was made by the Dominion
Government in pursuance of a high national policy, and it adequately and
admirably meets the ends for which it was devised. The total length from
Riviere du Loup to Halifax is 561 miles. There is a spur running down to
St. John, in the Bay of Fundy, eighty-nine miles long, another branch
fifty-two miles long to Pictou, a great coal district opposite the
southern end of Prince Edward Island; while a third span of eleven
miles, branching off at Monckton and finishing at Point du Char, meets
the steamers for Prince Edward Island, making a total length of 713
miles. The rails are steel, and the road is, mile for mile, as well made
as any in England. The carriages are on the American principle--the long
waggons capable of seating fifty or sixty persons, with an open passage
down the centre, through which the conductor and ticket collector
periodically walk. The carriages are heated to distraction by means of a
huge stove at either end. It is possible to open the windows, but that
is to be easily accomplished only after an apprenticeship too long for
the stay of the average traveller. After a painful hour one gets
accustomed to the atmosphere of the place, as it is happily possible to
grow accustomed to any atmosphere. But the effect of these fierce stoves
and obstinate windows must be permanently deleterious.