VISIONS OF RAILWAYS LOOMING UP. 73 



many of sturdy "old salts" were making themselves 

 comfortable homes, and while they were braving the 

 billows on the banks and their fish were drying on 

 the flakes, the fertile ground was growing crops. In- 

 stead of reaping the harvest from the sea alone, the 

 land also contributed to the support of themselves 

 and little ones, and the one avocation interfered but 

 little with the other. 



About this time a proposition was made by Mr. 

 Sanford Fleming, Engineer-in-Chief of Canadian rail- 

 ways, which helped to start the public mind to think- 

 ing of the possibility of constructing a railway across 

 the island. He published a paper in which he advo- 

 cated that the shortest route between America and 

 England was across Newfoundland. He suggested a 

 fast line of steamers from Valentia, Ireland, to St. 

 John's, Newfoundland, carrying only passengers, 

 mails and light express goods. Thence he proposed 

 to build a railway across the island to St. George's 

 Bay, where another swift line of steamers would ply 

 to Shippegan, in the Bay of Chaleur, where connec- 

 tion with American railways would be obtained. He 

 calculated that the ocean passage would not exceed 

 four days, and that passengers from London would 

 reach New York in seven days. So convincing were 

 his arguments that the Newfoundland Legislature ap- 



