Montreal lies outspread between the river and the towering heights of "Mount Royal." From this "mountain" behind the city the tourist may enjoy one of the finest views imaginable. At his feet, on the flanks of the hill, are stately palaces, the residences of the merchant princes of Montreal. The fair city extends for miles before him. In the distance he sees thespreading river spanned by Victoria Bridge, over two miles in length. A few miles above is the airy modern structure of the Lachine Bridge, which also spans the river. The foreground is occupied by churches, colleges, convents, the tall chimneys of factories and grain elevators, long streets of handsome dwellings, quays and wharfs crowded with steamers, railway trains and canal boats bringing from the west the products of the wheat-fields of Manitoba and Ontario, huge warehouses filled with merchandise for whole provinces.
The country traversed abounds with scenes of deep historic interest, covering a period of more than two centuries. Here planned and struggled Jacques Cartier, Champlain, Wolfe, and Montcalm, and many others, and here are the battlefields of two great and gallant nations who strove during a hundred years for the possession of a continent. There are also traces of a more recent struggle, when Canadians sprang to arms to repel invaders from the powerful Republic to the south of them. Happily "Peace hath her victories no Less renowned than war," and the people of Canada have conquered for themselves and for the travel and traffic of two continents a highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In this magnificent achievement, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, an inestimable boon was conferred on those who desire a safe, rapid, and comfortable journey "round the world."The pioneers who explored Canada thought the St. Lawrence would lead them to China, and that the river above Montreal was the gateway of that country. Hence the name "La Chine." The forecast of those men was in a sense realize, the shortest route to China being by Montreal and "La Chine."The Ottawa pours its dark waters into the clear flood of the St. Lawrence, partly above the city and partly below it. Montreal is thus built upon an island; and near the centre of the island rises the "mountain" which lends to the fair city so much of its loveliness. A journey of three or four hours takesthe traveller from Montreal to Ottawa, the capital of the Canadian Dominion. Here the Chaudiere Falls will attract attention and admiration. A group of elegant and substantial public buildings adorns the city, and indicates where the legislature of the Dominion sits, and where the Executive Government transacts the public business of the country.
From Ottawa westward the route lies through a famous "timber"country, with no charms for the farmer, but rich in lakes and streams, and abounding with fish and game. At the head of Lake Nipissing is North Bay Junction, where passengers from Toronto join the transcontinental trains. At Sudbury and other points along the line, very valuable mineral deposits have been discovered. Nickel has been found in quantities unequalled in any other part of the world. Iron, silver, and other minerals are also abundant.
For two hundred miles the road skirts the north shore of Lake Superior, that vast fresh-water sea whose cool breezes refresh the traveller in the hottest days of summer. It required skill, courage, and ample financial resources to build a railway through a territory so rocky, so mountainous, so barren. The mineral wealth of this belt will, it is hoped, amply repay the country for the cost and risk it has incurred. Besides, a railway connecting the western provinces with the older portion of the Dominion is essential to its national existence.
Thunder Bay, at the head of Lake Superior, presents very bold and beautiful scenery. Fort William and Port Arthur, in the vicinity, are the headquarters of an important lake traffic energetically prosecuted during the summer. Immense elevators receive millions of bushels of grain to be transferred to steamers and borne down the lakes, the canals, the St. Lawrence, and at last perhaps across the Atlantic to supply the markets of the British Isles.
A little over four hundred miles westward from Port Arthur stands the young and handsome prairie city Winnipeg, thecapital of Manitoba, and the chief centre of trade for the great Canadian West. In 1871 Fort Garry, a trading-post of the Hudson"s Bay Company, and the humble dwellings of a score of half-breeds, occupied the site of this busy and well-governed city of 180, 000 inhabitants. Here the Assiniboine and the Red River of the north unite their turbid waters and hasten through the fertile plain to Lake Winnipeg.
We are now in the prairie-land, seemingly level and boundless as a sea. In summer it is richly clad in verdure, brightened with the gayest wild flowers. In winter it is covered with snow, but not to such depth as to prevent herds of buffaloes and cattle in the ranches from feeding on the frozen grasses. Only in the coldest weather do the herds on the ranches require to be sheltered or fed in barn or storehouse.
The settler"s plough has transformed many a league of North-West prairie into the finest wheat-fields in the world. The process of settlement is going on with increasing rapidity. Hamlets, villages, and towns are rising where the conditions are favourable. The church and the school-house, unfailing signs of religion and civilization, appear at frequent intervals. There are many "junctions" where branch railways start from the main line, in order to render available for settlement millions of acres, fertile, well-watered, richly wooded, inviting the husbandman with the promise of abundant harvests.