CROSSING THE ROCKIES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 219, 20 October 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

CROSSING THE ROCKIES.

The prowess of the Canadian troops on tho fields of Flanders gives a special interest to any publication that records tho early history—in reality comparntively recent—of the Land of the Maple. The history of Canada has been described as "A Story of Romance 111 Action," and it contains no more romantic chapter than that concerned with the engineering difficulties 'nvolvcd in carrying the steel rails fro.n ocean to ocean, now graphically described in "The Story of tho Canadian Pacific Railway, by Mr. Keith Morns. The traveller who in luxury, eorniort. and safety crosses those mountain gorges can have only a vague conception of the difficulties that had to he overcome by engineers who had first to find a route and then prepare it for the rails. Sandford Fleming wrote thin in his diary"The trail now takes a ,- other character. A .series of precipices run shoer up from the boiling cu?. rent to form a contracted canyon. A path has, therefore, been traced along to hillside, ascending to the elevation of some seven or eight hundred feet. For a long distance not a vestige ■>" vegetation is to be seen. On the steep acclivity our line of advance is nairow, so narrow that There is scarcely :t foothald; nevertheless we have to "follow for some six miles this thread o'.' trail, which seemed to us by no means in excess of the requirements of the chamois and the mountain jjoat. W>> cross clay, rock, and grav,el slides at ft giddy height. To look down gives one an uncontrollable dizrness, to make the head swim and the view unsteady, even with men of tried nerve. X do not think I can ev.er forget that terrible walk; it was the greatest trial J ever experienced.