FOURTH EXPLORATION, 1880 161 



sary to span the river, for the width is about three hundred yards 

 on an average. 



In order that the magnitude of the undertaking in building 

 the Transcontinental Railway may be properly estimated, I will 

 give a review of what had been done during the eight years of the 

 surveys from their inception to the close of 1879. In June, 1871, 

 the country was still in the state it had been for ages. Annual 

 fires crossed the prairies ; periodical quarrels took place amongst 

 the Indian tribes; the buffalo came and went; and the long, cold 

 winters passed away and were succeeded by the genial warmth of 

 spring. In 1873, the Boundary Commission commenced opera- 

 tions at the Lake of the Woods and, in the two succeeding years, 

 continued their work west to the Rocky Mountains. Early in 

 1874, the Mounted Police were organized and sent out and at 

 once law and order reigned on the plains. 



The first money provided for the survey of the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway was in the session of 1871. Callander, close to 

 Lake Nipissing was the first point pitched upon. From this 

 point, the line was projected to go north of Lake Superior and, 

 from thence, passing the Lake of the Woods, reach the Red River 

 at Selkirk, near Winnipeg, on the prairie. From this point, 

 the line was projected to cross the narrows of Lake Manitoba, 

 pass through the low country lying at the base of Duck Mountain, 

 up the valley of Swan River and westward from Livingstone 

 (Swan River) Barracks to the Elbow of the North Saskatchewan 

 and thence west to Battleford, Hay Lakes (Edmonton) and so on 

 to the Rocky Mountains at Jasper House. 



In the spring of 1879, other surveys were made of the country 

 south of Lake Manitoba for the purpose of running the line south 

 of the Riding and Duck Settlement. Two summers were spent on 

 these surveys, and the line definitely located for two hundred miles 

 and one hundred of these placed under construction. 



In the early winter of 1879, I was summoned to Ottawa to 

 make my report and the authorities were so pleased with my work 

 that they asked me to remain in Mr. Fleming's office all winter 

 and revise the reports of the other parties as well as completing 

 my own. Mr. Rideout was the editor of the "Railway Report for 



