88 HUNTING CAMPS. 



knew nothing of the silences of solitude, for in the little 

 room of the railway agent the telegraph machine never 

 seemed to cease its clatter for ten minutes, day or 

 night. Such was Terra Nova in 1903, but since then a 

 lumber mill and the men employed in its working have 

 altered the place a good deal. 



I found that my men had not yet arrived from 

 Alexander Bay, but was not much surprised, as they 

 were to come by an "accommodation." The trains 

 run by the Reid Company are of two kinds the 

 express and the accommodation. How the latter came 

 by its name I do not know, unless it be that it is the 

 duty of an accommodation train to accommodate ; 

 but, to judge from the opinions freely offered by its 

 passengers, it does not altogether achieve success in 

 this respect. Its speed rarely averages fifteen miles an 

 hour, with further delays of stoppages to collect or to 

 set down freight, or to allow the express to pass 

 delays which sometimes run into hours, a hardship not 

 a little accentuated by the fact that nothing in the 

 shape of food is procurable on board. There is, I have 

 heard, a rule on the Reid line that any train twelve 

 hours behind the scheduled time becomes a special 

 a great many accommodations must become 

 specials ! Many people, especially sportsmen, grumble, 

 which is, after all, rather absurd, as they always have 

 the alternative of the express, which, considering the 

 route, is punctual and certainly most comfortable. It 

 would be just as reasonable of a traveller in England who, 

 choosing a goods train, felt himself aggrieved because it 

 failed to run mile for mile with the Scotch Express. But 

 it is the fashion to deride the accommodation ; and what 

 has justice to do with a time-honoured joke ? 



