. The making of a great Canadian railway; the story of the search for and discovery of the search for and discovery of the route, and the constru ction of the nearly completed Grand trunk Pacific railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with some account of the hardships and stirring adventures of its constructors in unexplored country . like magic. Theiradvance was frantically heroic ! The horses were immersedup to their girths, the axles of the wheels could not beseen for slime, and the men themselves waded waist-high through the morass, adjuring their horses, andendeavouring to extend assi
. The making of a great Canadian railway; the story of the search for and discovery of the search for and discovery of the route, and the constru ction of the nearly completed Grand trunk Pacific railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with some account of the hardships and stirring adventures of its constructors in unexplored country . like magic. Theiradvance was frantically heroic ! The horses were immersedup to their girths, the axles of the wheels could not beseen for slime, and the men themselves waded waist-high through the morass, adjuring their horses, andendeavouring to extend assistance by shouldering thewheels. On the dry road they could count upon a steadymile or mile and a half an hour, but when they reached a bad place 100 feet in the same length of time was goodgoing. I saw one load of timber floundering in the gripsof a mud-hole, and the freighters were in a sorry bad place was barely 100 feet across, but whenthe centre was gained, nothing of the vehicle was to beseen. Only the baulks of timber indicated that somethingon wheels was underneath. A solid hour and a half hadbeen occupied in going 50 feet forward, and there thevehicle settled down. The horses were played out, andthe men were exhausted. The animals were unhitched andpulled, rather than led, from the bog on to dry land to ;<f^. iK?ii«-.^-^„^,^- .. ^ c u - c•5 = J= 9 J3 - O 3 A BAD PLACE 139 take a short rest, the men seizing the opportunity for ahasty meal to reinvigorate their expended energies. By the time they had decided to resume operationsanother laden vehicle had arrived on their heels. Thesituation was discussed, and the driver of the secondvehicle offered to lend his two horses in return for a similarcompliment. Thus four horses and four men essayed thetask of extricating the first vehicle. By dint of super-human pushing and pulling it was forced inch by inch tothe other side, but an hour was expended in the second waggon was then taken in ha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1912
