Transactions . %\r. v. Procession of Adventurers Crossiny Chilcoot Pass in 1898. of adventurers perished in the endeavor to reach the new Eldo-rado of the Klondike. The canon is narrow and precipitous and the steep railway-gradehas been cut far above the oldtrail, in the granite, crossingat one point, by means of asteel cantilever bridge, a lat-eral ravine, through which atumultuous cataract plungesto join the main stream. Stillhigher are the snowy summitsand glaciers. The sublimityof these surroundings placesthis line among the foremost scenic railways of the world,and disposes the tourist to
Transactions . %\r. v. Procession of Adventurers Crossiny Chilcoot Pass in 1898. of adventurers perished in the endeavor to reach the new Eldo-rado of the Klondike. The canon is narrow and precipitous and the steep railway-gradehas been cut far above the oldtrail, in the granite, crossingat one point, by means of asteel cantilever bridge, a lat-eral ravine, through which atumultuous cataract plungesto join the main stream. Stillhigher are the snowy summitsand glaciers. The sublimityof these surroundings placesthis line among the foremost scenic railways of the world,and disposes the tourist to re-gard its construction as a greatfeat of engineering. But, infact, to the eye of the engineer,the work appears to have pre-. PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH COLUMBIA MEETING. XC111 sented no great difficulties, apart from its cost. For it involvedsimply the cutting of so much rock from a solid mass whichwould not cleave or slide, the building of a few culverts andretaining walls, and one bridge. Once done, it was good for-ever; and its maintenance is a matter of trifling cost. Thegreat expense of keeping the line open in the winter (whichrequires the continuous use of a large number of rotary snow-ploughs) belongs to the summit-plateau, where snow lies deep,and not to the precipitous sides of the canon, where snow canscarcely accumulate at all. Compared with railways in lessimposing surroundings,which cross moun-tain-sides having what has been aptlycalled finger-structure (, frequentlyalternating ribs and ravines), necessitat-ing innumerable tunnels and fills orbridges, and liable to slides of loose rock,the White pass road must be confessedto be easy. But engineers are human;and the engineers of this party
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectmineralindustries
