A CHRISTMAS JAUNT 



the quiet village street; the Murray 

 River, once in a land of salmon-streams 

 called in preeminence "La Riviere 

 Saumonais," is dammed for pulp and 

 power, and a farcical fish way, as useful 

 for its purposes as an attic stair, pre- 

 tends compliance with the law. And all 

 this for what? The country produces 

 and is able to produce little or nothing 

 for export but wood and its products. 

 Can these sustain a railway which is 

 said to be costing nearly forty thousand 

 dollars a mile, which must compete in 

 summer with water-carriage, and in 

 winter will be operated with difficulty 

 and at great cost ? Wild talk there is of 

 building through the mountains, cross- 

 ing the Saguenay and marching down 

 the Labrador to a winter port, hundreds 

 of miles through a barren land where no 

 man is. One must ask leave to doubt 

 that any promoter competent to form an 

 opinion honestly holds the view that 

 such a road could possibly succeed. 



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