LOCATION OF THE LINE. , 225 



length of the Intercolonial, and built mile for mile at one- 

 half the cost. Probably the fertile valley of the St. John 

 would have been chosen, and in all probability a line will 

 soon be constructed here, which on reference to the map 

 will be seen to form the diameter of a circle, of which the 

 Intercolonial is the semi-circumference. On a former 

 occasion the blundering diplomacy of England had lost to 

 Canada an immense tract of the present State of Maine 

 which abuts on the St. John valley. This tract of land, 

 which Lord Ashburnham probably thought of no value, was 

 eagerly seized by the smart Yankee. It pushes in like a 

 wedge into the Dominion frontier, and renders the valley 

 of the St. John unsuitable for a military road. So Canada 

 in this instance, as in many others, has to pay for the 

 blunders of the mother-country. 



But though in a commercial point of view the prospects 

 of the Intercolonial are not very promising, it will be un- 

 questionably during the summer months a great boon to 

 the tourist. Through its instrumentality, the dried-up 

 New Yorker can in less than forty-eight hours breathe 

 about the most bracing air in the world ; and the English 

 tourist, fresh from the trim fields or smoky cities of the 

 old country, can in ten days without hardship or fatigue 

 make the acquaintance of the illimitable wilderness. 



The distance from Quebec to Halifax, N.S., via the 

 Intercolonial, is nearly 600 miles. For the first 200 miles 

 the railroad follows the river and gulf of St. Lawrence 

 along the south shore. This district is thickly settled by 

 French Canadians. These people, who marry young, rear 

 families in the shortest possible space of time ; and, unlike 

 the American or Western Canadian, seldom migrate from 



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