Studies in the South and West, with Comments on CanadaWarner, Charles Dudley
History
Studies in the South and West, with Comments on Canada
Warner, Charles Dudley
Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
We left Montreal, attached to the regular train, on the evening of
September 22d. The company runs six through trains a week, omitting the
despatch of a train on Sunday from each terminus. The time is six
days and rive nights. We travelled in the private ear of Mr. T. G.
Shaughnessy, the manager, who was on a tour of inspection, and took it
leisurely, stopping at points of interest on the way. The weather was
bad, rainy and cold, in eastern Canada, as it was all over New England,
and as it continued to be through September and October. During our
absence there was snow both in Montreal and Quebec. We passed out of the
rain into lovely weather north of Lake Superior; encountered rain again
at Winnipeg; but a hundred miles west of there, on the prairie, we
were blessed with as delightful weather as the globe can furnish, which
continued all through the remainder of the trip until our return to
Montreal, October 12th. The climate just east of the Rocky Mountains
was a little warmer than was needed for comfort (at the time Ontario and
Quebec had snow), but the air was always pure and exhilarating; and
all through the mountains we had the perfection of lovely days. On the
Pacific it was still the dry season, though the autumn rains, which
continue all winter, with scarcely any snow, were not far off. For mere
physical pleasure of living and breathing, I know no atmosphere superior
to that we encountered on the rolling lands east of the Rockies.
Between Ottawa and Winnipeg (from midnight of the 22d till the morning
of the 25th) there is not much to interest the tourist, unless he is
engaged in lumbering or mining. What we saw was mainly a monotonous
wilderness of rocks and small poplars, though the country has
agricultural capacities after leaving Rat Portage (north of Lake of the
Woods), just before coming upon the Manitoba prairies. There were
more new villages and greater crowds of people at the stations than I
expected. From Sudbury the company runs a line to the Sault Sainte Marie
to connect with lines it controls to Duluth and St. Paul. At Port Arthur
and Fort William is evidence of great transportation activity, and all
along the Lake Superior Division there are signs that the expectations
of profitable business in lumber and minerals will be realized. At Port
Arthur we strike the Western Division. On the Western, Mountain, and
Pacific divisions the company has adopted the 24-hour system, by which
a.m. and P.M. are abolished, and the hours from noon till midnight are
counted as from 12 to 24 o’clock. For instance, the train reaches Eagle
River at 24.55, Winnipeg at 9.30, and Brandon at 16.10.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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