EOADS AND IIAILAVAYS. 61 



.diameter of the railway umU'r constrnctioii. Impartial and 

 competent judges wlio have visited and examined the line are 

 unanimous in piououncing it one of the liest new roads ever laid 

 clown. No rtiiusy work is to he found on it ; all is solid and 

 .calculated to last. Tlie road-ljed is unsnr])assed ; the rails heavy 

 and of excellent material and shape ; the ties or sleepers most 

 .suljstautial ; the bridges and culverts nf granite and steel of 

 supi'rior (|uality. The passenger cars are of the same style as 

 tliose used on the Canadian Pacific line. The trains run so 

 -moothly tliat the traveller has some difficulty in realizing that 

 lie is imssing over a road just carved out of "the forest jirimeval." 

 All avei'age speed of thirty miles an hour could lie safely reached 

 .011 such a road, so that the short-route iiroblem hetween America 

 .and Europe may yet lie solved heiv. It is difficult to fancy an 

 ex])ress train with magnirteent Pullman sleeping and dining 

 .cars, within tMo years from this date, rushing through the very 

 lieart of tliose Terra Nova solitudes, where the deer, the wolf, 

 •the liear and tlie fox were till recently the only dwellers ; yet, 

 by the close of 1895, these fancies will be translated into solid 

 facts. Five hundi'ed and titty miles of railway froui St. John's 

 •to Port-aux-Bas(pie will lie in active operation. A short run of 

 .one liuudi'ed miles aei-oss the Gulf of St. Lawrence, will place 

 traxellers iu connection with the Continental railway-system ; 

 .and Xewfoundland will almost cease to be an island. Such are 

 tlie magical effects of a lailway in a new country. "What the 

 ■Canadian Pacific railway has done for the Dominion, the Xew- 

 foundland Northei^n and Western railway is destined to do for 

 this island in coming years. Its dormant resources will be 

 brought to light an<l its iiathless wildernesses converted into 

 ■"the liap2)y homes of men." 



ROUTE OF KAILAVMY. 



From Placentia Junction, seven miles from "Whitbourne, the 

 new line runs northerly, crossing the istlimus wliicli connects 

 the Peninsula of Avalon with the main body of the island, which 

 yit its narrowest part is but three miles wide. On either side of 



