140 SANDFOED FLEMmC4 ON 



last moment, had struggled to do their part, aud who were now mute lookers ou at the 

 siugle individual actively engaged — at one who in his own person united the past with 

 the present, the most prominent member of the ancient company of " Adventurers of 

 England," as he was the representative of the great Canadian Railway Company. 



The blows on the spike were repeated, until it was driven home The silence 

 however continued unbroken, and it must be said that many a more solemn ceremony 

 has been witnessed with less solemnity. It seemed as if the act now performed had 

 worked a spell on all present. Each one appeared absorbed in his own reflections. The 

 abstraction of mind, or silent emotion, or whateAa^r it might be, was however of short 

 duration. Suddenly a cheer spontanously burst forth, aud it was no ordinary cheer. 

 The subdued enthusiasm, the pent up feelings of men familiar with hard work, now 

 found vent. Cheer upon cheer followed as if it was difficult to satisfy the spirit which 

 had been aroused. Such a scene is conceivable on the field of a hard fought battle at 

 the moment when victory is assured. 



Not unfrequently some matter of fact remark forms the termination of the display of 

 great emotion. As the shouts subsided, and the exchange of congratulations were being 

 given a voice was heard, in the most prosaic tone as of constant daily occurrence, " All 

 aboard for the Pacific." The notice was quickly acted upon : in a few minutes the train 

 was in motion. It passed over the newly laid rail, and amid renewed cheers sped on its 

 way westward. 



On the same night a telegrain was sent to Ottawa and published in the eastern 

 Canadian newspapers. It ran : — 



"The first through train from Montreal is approaching Yale, within a few hours of 

 the Pacific coast. The last spike was driven this morning by Hon. Donald A. Smith 

 at Craigellachie in Eagle pass, three hundred and forty miles from Port Moody ; on reach- 

 ing the coast, our running time from Montreal exclusive of stopi^ages will be five days, 

 averaging twenty four miles per hour. Before long, passenger trains may run over the 

 railway from Montreal to Vancouver in four days and it will be quite possible to travel 

 on special occasions from Liverpool to the Pacific coast by the Canadian transcontinental 

 line in ten days. All are greatly pleased with the work done. It is impossible fully to 

 realize that enormous physical and other difiiciTlties have been overcome with such 

 marvellous rapidity, and with results so satisfactory." 



The train arrived at Port Moody the following morning, November 8th. On the 

 succeeding morning the principal newspapers in England published the substance of the 

 above telegram, with the additional important fact that the first through train from 

 Montreal had actually arrived at the coast. 



The party embarked in a steamer to cross to Victoria. They touched near the mouth 

 of Burrard Inlet, the site of the city of Vancouver, then an unbroken forest. In a few 

 hours the vessel entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca ; the name of the channel recalled 

 the memory of the Greek adventurer of three hundred years ago, and with it the painful 

 record of the more honest seamen, whose names will for ever be associated with the heroic 

 yet fruitless efforts to discover a new route, in the northern hemisphere, to hold in posses- 

 sion the commerce of Cathay. 



It is difiicult to believe that to-day the efTorts to obtain this result have been crowned 

 with success. It is quite true that the passage for ships, sought for in vain by every 



