Having satisfied his curiosity on that point, I ventured to remark that they were working late. “Late!” he protested. “It ain’t late. Why, they’ll be here till eight or nine to-night—Sir Thomas and the rest of ’em. And me, too! There’s always a lot to do on Saturdays.” In a few words I told him of the week-end institution that had taken deep root in business circles on British soil. “That wouldn’t suit us,” declared the C.P.R. office boy emphatically. “What! Go off pleasuring when there’s work to be done? Not likely!” ----- Footnote 1: “The Riders of the Plains.” (Andrew Melrose.) [Illustration: SUNFLOWERS GROWING ON THE PRAIRIE AT VERIGIN: FOOD FOR THE DUKHOBORS] CHAPTER X THE NEW HUDSON BAY ROUTE In the preceding chapter I showed how a huge stretch of Western Canada was opened up to civilisation and settlement by a railway. Another momentous development within the Dominion is about to occur. I refer to the project (now in hand) for constructing a railroad that will link Winnipeg with Port Nelson, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, and so give Central Canada a seaport—a seaport open seven months in the year. The 397 miles of rails that remain to be laid will provide a shorter and cheaper route between the prairie provinces and Europe. In mere distance, the journey from the Manitoba capital to Liverpool will be reduced by about 900 miles. But that fact indicates the least part of the boon that is promised to commerce. The cost of carriage by land is considerably higher than the cost of carriage by water; and along the new route grain from Winnipeg will reach the steamship after a railway journey of 582 miles, instead of, as at present, a railway journey of either 1,422 or 1,904 miles. Yet the new line is chiefly important for a reason apart from the reduction in freight and the revolution in trade which it is likely to effect. That line will unlock a new territorial treasury of natural resources, and open to the settler a region (known now as Keewatin) much larger than the Province of Manitoba. It will, moreover, be the first stage in the development of Northern Canada—those wonderful realms of long days which I am convinced are destined, by reason of their high agricultural potentialities, to strike the imagination of the world with the force of a great geographical revelation. Here, then, and in certain subsequent chapters of this book, I definitely pass from one phase of my subject to the other. Yet, since forecasts are vain unless supported by facts, I shall make Canada of “To-day” throw light on Canada of “To-morrow.” Things heard and things seen—just a stray fact or two—awakened my curiosity, and I went from end to end of the Dominion in a spirit of inquiry. Calling on all the provincial governments in the West, I pointed my finger to blank spaces on the map and asked: “What do you know about them?” This led to some significant experiences.