346 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 
This work was commenced a year or two ago as a government enterprise, but 
the Ministry have apparently become somewhat frightened at the magnitude of 
the task or have become discouraged by the absence of aid from the Imperial 
Government which was expected at the inception of the undertaking. Be the 
cause what it may, it has been determined, if the proper parties come forward, to 
hand over the work to a public company; assistance and inducements being offer- 
ed to promoters, as was done in the case of the transcontinental lines on the other 
side of the boundary. ‘The total length of the projected system is 2,200 miles, 
of which it may be said 600 miles are either completed or under construction. 
The Government it is announced, are prepared to grant asubsidy of $20,000,000 
in cash, payment to be spread over the period of ten years assumed to be neces- 
sary for the construction of the line, an amount equal to $10,000 per mile or 
about one-third of the estimated cost. A further grant will be made of 35,000,- 
ooo acres of land, to be located in alternate sections along the route, as was done 
in the case of the Union and Central Pacific companies. The 600 miles under 
construction will be handed over to the company without cost. 
The history of the undertaking, so far under the direct control of the Cana- 
dian Government is as follows: ‘The first expenditure on construction was toward 
the end of 1874. Contracts were then entered into for the telegraph from Lake 
Superior to British Columbia along the line of the railway, including the clearing 
of the forest land to a width of 132 feet. The line was divided into four sections, 
on three of which the work was prosecuted with vigor and the telegraph com- 
pleted from Fort William to Edmonton, 1,200 miles, so that messages could be 
transmitted. The remaining section across the mountains to British Columbia re- 
mains incomplete. In the same year (1874) the grading of the Pembina branch 
for sixty-three miles north of the international boundary was commenced. In 
1877 the grading was extended to Selkirk under the same contract, and in 1878 
the track was laid on the whole length—eighty-five miles. In 1874 the exten- 
sion of the Canada Central Railway to the eastern terminus, near Lake Nipissing, 
was subsidized. Early in 1875 the sections were placed under contract—the one 
from Fort William, thirty-three miles to Sunshine Creek, and the other east from 
Selkirk, seventy-six miles to Cross Lake, an extension east of Cross Lake, 
thirty-six miles to Keewatin, at the outlet of the Lake of the Woods, was 
placed under contract in January, 1877. In 1876 a contract was made 
for an extension from Sunshine Creek west to English River, eighty miles. 
In 1878 the Georgian Bay branch was undertaken; but this work was subsequent- 
ly abandoned. For the spring of 1879 the line between English River and Kee- 
watin, 185 miles was let in two contracts, and in the summer following a section 
of 100 miles west of Red River, including a branch from the main line to the city 
of Winnipeg, was placed under contract. At the British Columbia end of the 
line, ground was broken toward the close of last year, when the grading, bridg- 
