128 THROUGH CANADA 



still, the wilderness into a fruitful plain. It aflfords 

 facilities for the opening up of markets, the transpor- 

 tation of agricultural implements which are absolutely 

 indispensable in a region where labour is scarce at 

 best, and at times altogether unavailable. Without 

 the railways, the wealth of the prairies, as well as of 

 forest and mine, is a locked-up good, as unreachable 

 as the gem of " unfathomed caves of ocean." Men 

 may buy the land, sell it, gamble in it, but it does not 

 become a workable asset until it is linked up with 

 the towns and cities near and far. The great water- 

 ways, valuable as they have been, can never become 

 substitutes as a means of transit. The method is 

 slow, and if it affords easy access to a district, it is in 

 the same proportion difficult of egress. A farmer 

 may look at the golden grain and the smiling fruit, 

 and the fattening kine, and eat his heart out for the 

 long-delayed opportunity of exchange, which is the 

 basis of all commerce. 



The Canadian Northern Railway, extending from 

 Port Arthur to Edmonton via Winnipeg, has opened 

 up important territory. The effect was to be noticed 

 in the activity at every stopping-place along the line. 

 There were houses newly erected, and others in the 

 course of construction. Barn-like structures adver- 

 tised themselves in large letters as hotels. Telephone 

 wires stretched from hut to hut, and agricultural 

 implements, fearfully and wonderfully made — at least 

 to the lay mind — were piled near the stations. 



