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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Eocky Mountains, she has provided for the country's second trans- 

 continental a route, farther north, remarkable for its exceptionally low 

 gradients, and including the easiest pass to be found in the whole length 

 of the Kockies. 



The natural waterways of the Dominion have been developed and 

 improved systematically for many years past, until this great work has 

 come to be regarded as a fixed national policy, which no government, 

 even though it were so inclined, would have the hardihood to abandon. 

 Up to the present time Canada has spent upon her canals over one 

 hundred and seven millions of dollars, and is likely to expend many 



Transportation Lines of Canada. 



times that amount in the years to come. The history of Canadian 

 canals goes back even to the French regime, when small canals and 

 locks were built to overcome the Lachine and other rapids on the St. 

 Lawrence. These were but canals in miniature— ditches, 6 or 7 feet 

 wide by perhaps 2y 2 feet deep, designed to meet the needs of the fur 

 traders' canoes. A similar canal was constructed by the Northwest 

 Fur Company, at Sault Ste. Marie, in the eighteenth century— the 

 earliest progenitor of the gigantic twin canals, American and Canadian, 

 of the present day, through which passes annually a much greater ton- 

 nage than that of the Suez canal. The 2%-foot Lachine canal of two 

 hundred years ago has grown to a depth of 18 feet on the sill, 45 feet 

 wide and 270 feet long, in each of five locks, the entire length of the 

 canal with the approaches being eight and a half miles. 



From the earliest history of the country the east and west trend 

 of transportation has been marked. The first railways of the country 

 were built to connect a handful of small towns, villages and settlements, 



