The morning call., 1890-08-27
sHoRr OCEAN LINES.

The story that the Lord Mayor of Lon
don, tie Dominion Minister of Public
Works, the Commissioner of Canada in En-
gland, and other high aud mighty person.
ages have combined to build railroad from
Quebec to point OH the coast Of Labrador,
there TO connect with line of steamers TO
sail to Milford Haven in Wales, the entire
trip to consume not over three days and
half may safely be pronounced a roorback
of the finest water
The distance from Quebec to Cape st.
Charles, which is to be the western terminus
of the new steamship line, and the eastern
terminus of the railroad, is much nearer
800 than eighty miles as the dispatches state.
The country between these two points Is
one of the most difficult and forbidding In
the world The course of the st. Lawrence
from Quebec to the Straits of Belle Isle Is
nearly due northeast. Each flood tide pOurs
into the estuary a stream of icy water which
makes the climate arctic. From the main
range of the Laurentian Mountains count
less spurs run south to the river, breaking
I'D the surface of the earth so that it has
been difficult to maintain ordinary high
roads and communication from the river
side villages is mainly kept up by boats.
The idea of building railroad through
such country would only have occurred to
a mailman. AS to the Atlantic terminus,
ST. Charles Bay, there are only few weeks
in each year when an ocean steamer could
make landing there; it IS generally
blocked by ice; the tremendous sea which
breaks on the rocks when it blows from the
northeast warns mariners to give that in
hospitable shore wide berth.
The most feasible scheme for shortening
the voyage between the Atlantic States
and England was advocated twelve or fif-
teen years ago by Austin Corbn. His
western terminus was to be at or near
Montauk Point, on Long Island, to which
point passengers were to be conveyed from
New York by swift trains on the Long
Island Railroad. His eastern terminus
was to be Milford Haven, in Wales, a sea-
port which has no bar and in which there
is uniform depth of water of from fifteen
to twenty fathoms. He proposed to run
10,0Oo-ton steamers. But the scheme never
got beyond the stage of a project mainly
because the owners of ocean steamship
lines did not care to desert a port where, in
case of necessity, they could always fill up
their ships with odds and ends of freight.
This was a difficulty which Corbin with ali
MS hDOWieuSt duQ an HIS suIeNuutS> Hti
not foreseen. He was like some people
who are occasionally heard from on this
Coast. He figured on the map that from
Montauk to Milford Haven the distance is
much less than from New York to Liver
pool, just as some of our friends keep on
figuring that line from Vancouver or
Tacoma to Yok ohama is shorter than a
line from San Francisco to the same point;
and he therefore reasoned, as our friends
in the north reason, that the shorter line
would supersede the longer. The reason
ing is based upon the notion that distance
is everything, which it is not. 1t is not
profitable to run vessel to a port where
she will have TO fill up with ballast and
where there is no market for the goods she
may bring. 1t pays better to make longer
run to q port where she can always get
some paying freight and where some price
or other can be realized for any surplus
cargo she may have on hand.