Each of these sections is a timbered area; and each has contributed materially to the distinction earned by the Canadian Northern, of being the greatest Canadian carrier of forest products. Thirty per cent. of the capacity of all the lumber mills of Canada was on Canadian Northern lines. Thirty-two per cent. of the traffic created by Canadian lumber mills was water-borne; so that the C.N.R. competed for just about half of the rail-hauled lumber business of the country. Taking 1915-16 as a representative year, here are the figures of lumber hauled by the three great Canadian systems: Canadian Northern 3,883,739 tons Canadian Pacific 3,832,163 ” Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific 2,297,925 ” During 1917, the last year before nationalization, we hauled 3,850 cars, or eighty-five million feet, of lumber up the Fraser Canyon and over the Yellowhead Pass. The timber on territory tributary to the Canadian Northern main line in British Columbia was then figured at 30,380,000,000 feet; and on Vancouver Island, between Victoria and Alberni, at 25,000,000,000 feet. While my own work was in the operating and traffic departments, it was, of course, concerned with the fundamental features of the system as a whole. Grades are as much a part of traffic as cars and cargoes. When we began to emerge as a potential transcontinental, what was the outlook for ultimate prosperity, so far as it would be governed by ease of operation, and the magnitude of population to be served? Ease of operation is mainly a matter of low grades. The Canadian Northern main line from Atlantic tidewater to Pacific tidewater has better grades than all the other railways on the continent. The mountain sections, of course, are the most eloquent of grading advantage or disadvantage to the railways crossing them. The importance of low grades between the prairies and the Pacific was immensely enhanced by the Panama Canal, which has already made Vancouver a great grain port. The Canadian Northern maximum climb between Edmonton and Vancouver is four-tenths of one per cent., or twenty-six feet per mile. The Grand Trunk Pacific grades are almost equally good, but as they lead to Prince Rupert, 400 miles farther than Vancouver from the canal, the balance of advantage is obvious, as between the two junior routes. The C.P.R. was first projected to reach the Pacific through the Yellowhead Pass, which is by far the best for railway purposes between Mexico and the Yukon. But the main line location being changed, two climbs over summits were necessary before the long descent to the ocean down the Thompson and Fraser rivers could begin--over the Rockies, at the Kicking Horse, and over the Selkirks, by the pass Major Rogers discovered, forty-three years ago. The maximum altitude reached by the Canadian Northern is 3,700 feet. The maximum of the C.P.R. is 5,332 feet, with a drop to 2,443, and a second rise to 4,340 feet.