Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 273 mouth of the Beaver, where Rogers Pass com- mences, in the year 1884. The perilous adventures of those who located the line have been described. What of the months of patient labour endured by those who followed to carry out their bidding ? The same writer who has described the building of the prairie sections draws a picture of the life of those who, while intent only on their own needs, yet supplied the labour that made the idea a reality, earning for themselves, as has been finely said, the “ bare wages of heroic toil.” “ In the gray half-light of the early morning but little imagination would have been needed to believe that the dimly-seen forms which peopled the rocky river banks Räil- were the advance-guard of an in army making its laborious way Mountains towards some naturally forti- fied stronghold. So at least it seemed to me as each morning I pursued my difficult and often dangerous path to the particular part of the work on which I was engaged. Here, in the mountains, the right- of-way followed the river canyons, sometimes close down to the edge of a torrent, again passing high up on the side of some tremend- ous valley, every here and there crossing a deep ravine, mere clefts in the gigantic tower- ing bulk of rocks, at the bottom of which, perhaps hundreds of feet below our path, ran turbulent, brawling streams of wonderfully clear, ice-cold water. “ Looking ahead, it would seem as if the grade must inevitably run straight into some one of the stupendous mountains which barred its progress, but inevitably Terrific there was some way around. Obstacles. Perhaps the river would be crossed suddenly, and the road lie along the farther bank, only to recross the stream a few hundred yards farther on, seem- ing to spring from the last foothold on the steep slope, ending in a sheer precipice, to the rocky abutment on the farther side which offered a fresh chance of clinging to its weather- beaten crags. Or perhaps a tunnel would have to be cut through a seemingly impassable spur of rock overhanging the river bed itself, and again a new valley would open up for the road to follow. Here, in the mountains, the work proceeded in the winter as in the summer, but with increasing discomfort. Steadily, steadily, every day, the white soft snowflakes fell, so soft, so wet, and so impalpable that one hardly knew whether it was snowing or raining except that, as one climbed wearily over the path back to camp in the dark, an incautious misstep proved that the depth was greater than in the morning. “ Earlier in the season the timber had been cleared from the right-of-way, and the work now consisted mainly of blasting out the stumps that remained, then picking loose and shovelling away the earth that covered the rock, and drilling and blasting out the solid rock itself down to the required level. “ Our camp was built on a sand-bar in the river bed, which in the summer months was covered deep by the water from the melted snows, but which now, in the winter, was high and dry. Built of long logs of cedar and Douglas fir, it was about 80 feet long and some 20 wide, contained two long double tiers of bunks with a narrow passage between, and provided sleeping room for about one hundred men. It was neither so comfortable nor so clean as our prairie camps. There we had our two-man tents ; but here we were all crowded so closely that there was only just room to sleep, and no provision at all for cleanliness or comfort. The roof was made of “ shakes ” (long rough boards split from straight-grained cedar logs with axe and wedge). The warmth from within melted the snow, which lay several feet deep above us, making it necessary in soft weather A Mountain Construction Camp. (1,408) 18