Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-25

LAKE IL pay.
To make things worse for the advo-
Gates of the building of the Hudson Bay
Railroad, it was pointed out that the
roadbed would have to be laid for some
hundreds of miles through the muskee
and spruce, over a level country that
would not require much blasting. 1t is
true. but through territory great deal
of which was under water or cut by
wide, deep streams and rivers.
These waterways and sheds were un-
der ice and snow nearly seven months
in the year. Gravel roadbeds would
have to be piled up and long hauls were
necessary to bring in the gravel. Many
bridges and treStlings would have to be
constructed and many wide and rapid
rivers spanned.
Dock Building Expensive.
Most expensive and dificult Of all. q
port would have to built complete, with
waterways, docks. warehouses, grain ele-
vators, etc, Sufhcient to accommodate
ocean-going steamers and load them
with wheat, cattle and freight. This
would have to be constructed some
where on the west coast Of Hudson Bay
and at that time there were not more
than a couple of dozen houses on the
whole west coast of that enormous body
of water.
The heavy and bulky material for the
construction OF the port would have to
be shipped in through Hudson Strait
many hundreds of miles to the north
and all the way from Eastern Canada
or the United States.
But, since most of the supplies to the
Northwest territories and the northern
parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta, as well as all along the shore
of Hudson Bay. came in through the
straits, most Of the people In these sec
lions Of Canada advocated the building
of the railroad.
Work Started In 1911.
Accordingly in 1911 work was actually
started at the Pas, which up to that
time was the lend Of steel" and also the
termination of the rich farm and prairie
district. The war did not stop it, fol
construction was continued by the
Canadian government until the armi-
stice, with the idea In mind that should
German submarines practically close the
southern routes between Canada ano
England. Canadian materials, food and
troops for the allied cause could be
shipped via Hudson Bay through the
strait. north Of Newfoundland, to Liv.
erpool.
The war over. the Canadian govern
ment inaugurated policy OF retrench-
ment and work on the Hudson Bay
Railroad was abandoned. During the
10 years that followed what had been
done on the Sc miles of railroad went to
rack and ruin. The roadbed had sunk
into the muskeg. The ties had decayed
1t was impossible for anything heavier
than handcar drawn by dogs to run
over 1t. Many Canadians thought II
would never be rehabilitated.
During that interval. too, the sands al
the mouth of the Nelson River. where
the construction of the port had already
been begun and where bridges and docks
had been built, had shifted, indicating
that these waterways would have to be
dredged continuously to make them nav
igable for ocean-going vessels. It was
discovered also that ice and snow lin
gered longer at Port Nelson than at
Churchill, some so miles up the coast.
Get Unbiased Opinion.
But the advocates of the railroad got
the Canadian government to make an
appropriation to have the whole project
-esurveyed and an impartial English
expert on railroads and docks brought
over to give an unbiased opinion on
"1ASIAACA ~ WOutO NC WlSCI W COuIRICGS
the railroad or abandon 1t forever
Frederick Palmer was the man ap-
pointed by the British railroad experts
for the job.
This was early in 1927, before the
Spring breakup Of ice and snow. A
year would be saved If Mr.. Palmer, his
surveyors and linemen and their in
struments, tools and food supplies could
be got to Port Nelson at once Dog
teams could take them over the 500
miles OF ice and snow, but it would be
q matter Of weeks both ways. What
was to be done? The airplane fitted
with skis could cover the distance in
five hours.
At the same time another very i'm
portant survey had to be made hundreds
of miles farther north to determine
when the flow of ice began to leave the
Hudson Straits, how long it was free of
ice. how many months ocean-going
ships could sail through it, and when It
began to freeze up. The points that
had to be surveyed so that an answer to
these questions could be found were
more than 1000 miles beyond the end
OF the railroad.
In both instances food, fuel. clothing,
tents. medical supplies, tools, instru-
ments for surveying and other supplies
would have to be transported over ice
and snow through billiards with a DOS
sible temperature of so degrees below
Dogs could have been used to haul those
things. but this would have meant ship
ping them in small quantities, and 1t
would have taken months to do It, Ships
also could have transported all those
things up to the straits, but they would
have had to wait until Summer.
Worst of all, the Hudson Straits are
$50 miles wide and 200 miles long. Its
southern extremity is far north of IS
degrees. The whole section is sub-Arc-
tic. No vessel could live in that broken
ice for months making surveys or get
ting all the information about the ice
drifts.
Airplane Was Answer.
Again the airplane was the answer
It could fly with skis when the ice and
snow was hard enough to hold it, with
pontoons when the water was free OF
ice, and with wheels in between seasons
When the Hudson Bay Railroad was
abandoned in 1918 the airplane was
full-grown eagle with proved record
of 3,0O0-mile nonstop flights and the
circuits of the world to its credit. II
had assembled nearly miles in the all
and into an atmosphere where bird
could not live.
In Canada itself the airplane had al
ready proved itself in Winter and in
Summer flying. When the gold rush
was started into the Red Lake district
l25 miles beyond steel, the whole mining
camp had been flown over, impenetrable
forests and muskeg, In sunshine, rair
and snow. and literally dropped from
the heavens. Indeed. men, supplies
tolls and luxuries had been transported
there before the railroad ever got in.
Canadian pilots and passenger car
riers had flown from one end Of the
transported the mail to the southern
parts of Pelle Island. They had TAXED
prospectors to the Yukon and Ungava
They had carried passengers from the
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