LETTER III. 41 



' You forget, madame, you're 5,800 feet above 

 sea-level yourself at the present moment.' 



I apologized and acknowledged that that was 

 an enormous height for a railway line to attain 

 to, but I rather agreed with my husband's growl : 

 * That onlv makes it about 13,500 feet altogether, 



v ^5 * 



and I don't call that much of a mountain.' 



Having traversed the Rockies, we crossed the 

 Selkirks a far wilder-looking chain than the first, 

 swooped down into the flat country again, knocked 

 the inside out of our engine against a boulder on 

 the track, had a car or two run off the line, but, 

 thanks to the excellent air-brakes, and a clever 

 and watchful pilot, came to no worse harm than 

 a few hours' delay ; were then, in recognition of 

 our valour, turned into a ' special,' which ran at 

 an increased rate of speed over places which would 

 have shaken less seasoned nerves, almost ran into 

 a splendid stag on the line above the Thompson, 

 and then stopped outside a tunnel while the line 

 was relaid, and a trestle bridge repaired which 

 connected two short tunnels in the cliff over- 

 hanging that grand river. But for this stoppage, 

 due to the vigilance of the line-watcher, we 

 should have taken a header of several hundred 

 feet into the river. After this the lands grew 

 level and more level, the timber thicker and ever 

 larger and larger, until we were amongst the 



