On the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway the company formed a line of freight and passenger steamers of their own, consisting of the _Algoma_, the _Alberta_ and the _Athabasca_. The _Algoma_ had sailed the lakes previous to this under different names. The other two are fine steel ships, built by Aitken & Co. of Glasgow, in 1883. They are each 270 feet long and 2,300 tons burthen, fitted with all modern improvements in their machinery and with excellent accommodation for a large number of passengers. They commenced their work in 1884 and have been very successful and popular. The _Algoma_ was unfortunately wrecked off Isle Royale in Lake Superior in November, 1885, during a fearful snow-storm that swept over the lake, when many lives were lost. She was replaced by the _Manitoba_, a very fine vessel built of steel at Owen Sound by the Polson Ship-building Company. The _Manitoba_ is the largest Canadian steamer on the lakes, being 300 feet long and 2,600 tons burthen. By means of these steamers a regular and most satisfactory summer service is maintained once a week from Windsor and Sarnia, and twice a week from Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie to Fort William. Their capacity for the transportation of grain is about 400,000 bushels a month. The Montreal Transportation Company, founded in 1868, is the oldest of the existing forwarding companies, and does the largest amount of business. Their fleet consists at present of three steamers, six tug-boats, six lake barges and thirty-two river barges. Two of the steamers, the _Bannockburn_ and the _Rosemount_, are first-class steel ships, built at Newcastle-on-Tyne, about 250 feet in length, 40 feet beam, with a carrying capacity of 75,000 bushels of wheat. The lake barges play an important part as “consorts” to the steamers. They resemble in appearance so many large dismasted schooners, and serve their purpose economically and well so long as they keep in tow, but when they break loose, as they occasionally do when overtaken by a gale of wind, they become unmanageable and are apt to come to grief. This company with its present equipment handles about 250,000 bushels of grain per month. The North-West Transportation Company, dating from 1871, and otherwise known as the “Beatty Line,” has two fine passenger and freight steamers, the _Monarch_ and the _United Empire_, of 1,600 tons and 1,400 tons respectively, forming a weekly line from Windsor and Sarnia to Fort William and Duluth, in connection with the Grand Trunk Railway; they forward about 200,000 bushels of grain per month.