TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 885 



3. On Single-Trade Railways. By W. K. MuiR. 



4. On American Permanent Woaj. 

 By Joseph Wilson, A.M., 3LInst.CE. — See Reports, p. 593. 



5. On the Canadian Pacific Railway. By Vernon Smith. 



The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway was the outcome of an agree- 

 ment entered into by the Dominion of Canada with the province of British Columbia, 

 under which on July 20, 1871, the latter became one of the confederated provinces 

 of Canada. By this agreement the Dominion guaranteed the completion within 

 ten years of a trans-continental railway from the Pacific to the Atlantic. No great 

 progress was made, however, in the carrying out of the works until the incorpora- 

 tion of the present Company on February 1, 1881, when it was found necessary to 

 further extend the time for its completion to 1891. When the Company took 

 possession of the road in 1881 , only 176 miles of the railway were in a position to hand 

 over to them ; but by the end of the year 599 miles were in complete working order, 

 to which 783 miles were added in 1882, and 1,581 in 1883 ; making a total of 

 2,963 miles of railway in operation, as the result of three years' work of the Com- 

 pany, a record that so far has not been approached by any existing corporation. The 

 important part of this system, and the section, the rapid construction of which made 

 the whole possible, was the prairie portion between Winnipeg and Calgary at the 

 foot of the Rocky Mountains, 677 miles of which were completed by Messrs. Lang- 

 don & Shephard in a little over fifteen months, which included a winter, when 

 nearly all the work was necessarily suspended for over four months. Most of the 

 work was completed at the rate of about three miles per day during the year 1882, 

 and a still greater average was reached in 1883, the maximum daily allowance being 

 six miles. It is believed that this rapidity of construction is unparalleled, and the 

 details of the arrangements by which it was effected possess, therefore, unusual 

 interest. 



A comparison of the alignment and geographical and engineering features of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway as compared with the American trans-continental fines 

 is in every respect in favour of the former, and taking the ocean and railway speeds 

 respectively at 15 knots and 30 miles per hour, the advantage in distance and time 

 by the Canadian route over its rivals amounts, in a journey from England to Japan, 

 to a saving of fully three days. The paper concludes by pointing out the fact that 

 between England and her Pacific antipodes, at either end of the railway and in 

 Australia are immense deposits of coal in the most favourable position for the 

 supply of the steam marine that must eventually work in connection with this line, 

 and that both on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans these vessels may be coaled at the 

 minimum of expense, whilst by the eastern passage from England there is no inter- 

 mediate supply, excepting from depots furnished at great expense from the English or 

 Australian mines. This Canadian line, therefore, has the great advantage not only 

 of being nearer and quicker than rival routes, but also of being able to offer cheap 

 fuel to the ocean steamers working from either end over the two great oceans be- 

 tween England and the Pacific dependencies of Great Britain. 



FRIDA Y, A UG UST 29. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Theory of the Steam-Engine. 

 By Professor Robert H. Thurston. — See Reports, p. ^69. 



