Westward with the Prince of WalesNewton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
History
Westward with the Prince of Wales
Newton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
Canada -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
During Saturday, September 20th, the train was yet in the mountains,
and the scenery continued to be magnificent. From Field the line works
down to the level of the Columbia River, some 1,500 feet lower, through
magnificent stretches of mountain panorama, and through breathless
gorges like the Palliser, before climbing again steeply to the highest
point of the Selkirk Range. Here the train seemed to charge straight
at the towering wall of Mount MacDonald, but only because there is a
miracle of a tunnel--Connaught Tunnel--which coaxes the line down by
easy grades to Rogers Pass, the Illicilliwaet and Albert Canyon.
Through all this stretch the scenery is superb. In the gorges and the
canyon high mountains force the river and railway together, until the
train runs in a semi-darkness between sheer cliffs, with the water
foaming and tearing itself forward in pent-up fury between harsh, rocky
walls. Sometimes these walls encroach until the water channel is
forced between two rocks standing up like doorposts, with not much more
than a doorway space between them. Through these gateways the volume
of water surges with an indescribable sense of power.
At places, as in the valley of the Beavermouth, east of the Connaught
Tunnel, the line climbs hugely upward on the sides of great ranges,
and, on precarious ledges, hangs above a gigantic floor, tree-clad and
fretted with water channels. The train crept over spidery bridges,
spanning waterdrops, and crawled for miles beneath ranges of big timber
snowsheds.
The train stopped at the pleasant little mountain town of Golden, where
the Prince went "ashore," and there was the ceremony of reception.
This was on the program. The next stop was not.
West of the Albert Canyon, at a tiny station called Twin Butte, we
passed another train standing in a siding, with a long straggle of men
in khaki waiting on the platform and along the track, looking at us as
we swept along. Abruptly we ceased to sweep along. The communication
cord had been pulled, and we stopped with a jerk.
The Prince had caught sight of the soldiers, and had recognized who
they were. He had given orders to pull up, and almost before the
brakes had ground home, he was out on the track and among the men,
speaking to them and the officers, who were delighted at this
unexpected meeting.
The soldiers were English. They were men of the 25th Middlesex, H.A.C.
and other regiments, four hundred all told. They had come from Omsk,
in Russia, by way of the Pacific, and were being railed from Vancouver
to Montreal in order to take ship for home. The men of the Middlesex
were those made famous by the sinking of their trooper off the African
coast in 1916. Their behaviour then had been so admirable that it will
be remembered the King cabled to them, "Well done, Diehards!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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