A few days ago I was talking with that genial and experienced railway man (now retired) Mr. E. A. James, in Vancouver. Mr. James when a lad was the private telegraph operator for that master railroad builder, Van Horne, and went with him on a trip to the West Coast when the end of steel was not to its present terminus. Mr. James relates that one day Mr. Van Horne, Mr. L. A. Hamilton, and himself, were standing on rocks and stumps where Hastings and Granville Streets now intersect at the Post Office, in the business heart of Vancouver. Mr. Van Horne took out a piece of paper and sketched the location. Mr. James, a mere boy, had nothing wherewith to purchase any rocks and stumps and ventured a rather sceptical opinion as to the future of a city in such a locality. Mr. Van Horne said, “My boy, there will be a very great city here. To this place will come steel tracks carrying endless trains of passengers and freight. And from this place, an all-the-year-round port, will sail fleets of vessels engaged in trade all over the world.” Now, since the Panama Canal has been opened, it is evident that trains of wheat will come to the Pacific in ever-growing number from some economic watershed on the plains. Outlets, both East and West, will be increasingly necessary to carry the produce of the vast prairie section to the food markets of the world. For many years Fort William and Montreal have struggled to handle the immense burden of this growing wheat traffic. Now the Pacific route has come to relieve the abnormal pressure on Eastern ports and lead to further developments in agriculture on the prairies. And from Vancouver and other points on the West Coast this wheat will go by vessels of all kinds to the ends of the earth—to the over-crowded centres of Europe and Asia and Africa, as well as to the islands of the sea. Thus shall the forecast made that day on the site of Vancouver City by Mr. Van Horne, the builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, be justified, even though that forecast was made at the rough-looking outpost of “A great new land, Half-wakened by the wonder And the prophetic thunder Of triumphs yet untold.” CHAPTER XVIII Special Features