Despite its remarkable serpentine character, however, the Brazilian engineers displayed marked ability in the original location, bearing in mind the state of railway engineering at the date these lines were undertaken. When Mr. Dickson appeared on the scene to straighten out the railway, the natives constituted his sole labour, and he found that the Brazilian engineers were adapted eminently to the work of surveying and locating, being possessed of a specially good eye for a railway line through difficult country. The labour, too, in general, was found to be of a high standard. The Chinaman is generally regarded as the best navvy, but according to this engineer who has had experience in railway construction in all parts of the world, his preference is overwhelmingly in favour of the Brazilian Portugee. He takes a pride in his work, is conscientious, and performs his task thoroughly. These traits stood the engineer-in-chief in good stead in his work of overhaul, for it enabled him to produce a line which, from the point of excellence and solidity, would be difficult to rival in more advanced countries. In the upkeep of the line the same characteristics are observable. The men are tidy, keep the track in excellent condition, and leave little cause for complaint in regard to the maintenance of the railway buildings, taking pride in their individual sections. They have proved first-class engine-drivers, displaying every care, for on a railway of this character, bristling with sharp curves and steep banks, accidents are liable to be caused from the slightest miscalculation. When disasters have occurred, it has been found that the causes have been quite beyond the men’s control. Under British management the railway has been rescued completely from its former moribund condition, greater stretches of fertile country have been brought under cultivation, and a general air of prosperity has been imparted to the territory which it serves. From the financial point of view the investment has proved a complete success, with the result that the Leopoldina railway to-day offers a most powerful example of the beneficial influences of English management among the railways of South America. CHAPTER XVIII THE FIRST CANADIAN TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILWAY As the railway expansion of Canada developed by leaps and bounds, ambitious spirits contemplated larger and larger conquests, culminating in a desire to build a link of steel right across the country from coast to coast. This feeling was natural. On the Atlantic seaboard, settlement advanced at a rapid rate in the Lower Provinces and forced its way steadily inland. On the Pacific side, civilisation firmly planted in British Columbia spread towards the Rocky Mountains. These two colonising forces, working in the same country, were as wide apart as if at the Poles, for the intervening plains stretching from the Great Lakes to the Rockies were considered useless.