[KicEiBu] I'RESIDENTEAL ADDRESS IS 



the Charlevoix road and Hull and Alymer railway, where water is doing 

 the work which has heretofore been done by coal. The chief obstacles 

 to an early change on the larger roads are the hundreds of millions in- 

 vested in locomotives, and the very large outlay required to equip exist- 

 ing steam roads with the electric system. The principal inducement 

 would be the passenger service, owing to the increased speed possible, — 

 it being confidently stated that, with electricity, a speed considerably 

 over one hundred miles per hour could be attained. Moreover there 

 woidd be entire abolition of the poisonous smoke which drops upon the 

 Pullman in preference to any coach ahead of it. 



AVhile the conversion of trunk lines would be attended with a cost 

 which is for the present prohibitory, this objection does not apply to 

 new lines which may be worked independently, or in connection with 

 electric ones. When the time arrives for such railways, water power 

 will have a field of usefulness of which we can at present form little con- 

 ception. Water wheels and wires would displace the coal docks, the 

 coal laden vessels, the huge coal yards, and the trains required for dis- 

 tributing their contents over hundreds of miles of lines. 



An interior line connecting Lake St. John, on the Saguenay, with 

 Lake Temiscamingue, on the Ottawa, which could ultimately be extended, 

 via Missanabi, Nepigcn, and Lac Seul to the Saskatchewan, would be a 

 colonization road — removed from the frontier — one which could be 

 worked possibly altogether by water power, and would open a virgin 

 tract in which electro-chemical and electro-metallurgical industries 

 might arise, as well as those connected with the products of the forests 

 and the mine. 



TRANSPORTATION. 



The more extended use of our water power, in the immediate future, 

 for manufacturing and mining purposes, especially for the electro-chem- 

 ical and metallurgical productions, naturally leads to the consideration 

 of the character of the output, especially with regard to markets, and 

 transportation problems generally. 



Transportation, next to production, is the most important commer- 

 cial question to a country of vast dit^tances, and low priced products 

 affording great tonnage such as we produce, and for which- we have ex- 

 pended hundreds of millions in canals and railways, harbours, light- 

 houses and steamers, — a sum disproportioned to our realized wealth, as 

 it certainly is to our population. But, noUesse oblige, we possess a vast 

 estate, are compelled to develop it — and await results. 



The question of transportation determines, to a great extent, the ex- 

 istence, or otherwise, of a possible industry, and enhances or diminishes 



