The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-04-08

Further east the same interests. own
the Halifax & Southwestern railway,
which will give to the south shore Of
Nova Scotia a line extending from Hall
fax in the east to Yarmouth in the
west. At present the line is completed
Liverpool. A cross-country line is also
being operated from Bridgewater to
Middleton, where the line at present
connects with the Dominion Atlantic
railway. The Bridgewater Middleton
line will later be used as a connecting
link to reach Victoria Beach on the
north shore of Nova Scotia, a town
which will in the immediate future be-
come very aggressive competitor with
Digby from a shipping standpoint.
During the next season arrangements
will be made for fast passenger steam
ship service between New York, Boston
and other New England ports, and Var
mouth and Halifax.
Still farther east, in Cape Breton,
the Inverness Railway & Coal company,
consisting Of some sixty miles of rail
way and vast coal areas. The mines arc
being developed with considerable rap.
idity, and the output is now something
like 1900 tons day.
For One Vast System. .-.-
Having regard to the quiet but effec.
tive manner in which lines have been
acquired and absorbed into what is
known as the Canadian Northern sys-
tenn, and keeping in view the men be-
hind the. enterprise, it is no great
mediate future all these lines linked
together into what will be vast sys-
TEN, every section of which will serve
revenue-producing country.
As general proposition, prairie lands
are monotonous, and a granger line is
not necessarily scenic. The Canadian
Northern, in western Canada, is a nota-
BILE exception. While its right of way
abuts as many acres Of agricultural
line in America, the ride over this
new highway is by no means monoto-
nous The dread dead level Of the des-
ert, the fiat prairie, with its cherries
sameness, is not of the north country.
Here and there are wide reaches of
level plain, but always beyond the
The scenes shift with almost every
! curve Of the line. The downs are dim
| pied, and in these deep dimples lie
little lakes shaded by the shore trees
| and shimmering in the summer sun.
/ shall always be grateful for glo-
| rious drive I had overland, ahead of
the tracklayers. 1t is something to see
| this vast region in all its virgin wilder
ness, for this is our "last west"
| One point in particular l shall not
forget. It was the summit of a low
pass that seemed to separate two vast
wales. To the south some low bluffs
covered with poplar, just turning from
green to gold. To the north, perhaps
Hundred feet below us, and not more
than a mile away, lay Vermillion lake,
dotted with dark, wooded isles, and
along the further shore we could sec
the scattered houses of homesteaders
who had settled there.
! Be sure to look cut from the north
window when the trainmen call
"Dana," and you shall see what I have
seen. -
More such scenes there are, but most
men go west in search Of something
more substantial than scenery, and here
we have it. A gentle swerve, a grace
! full curve, the man calls "Vista -; an
| other lake lies below your window, then
"Vanda" flashes into view, set like
a jewel on the breast Of the billowing
plain. Then, gliding on past Aberdeen,
you glance back and mark that Dana
guards the gateway to the great Sas-
katchewan valley, "the breadbasket
| of the world.'