. The making of a great Canadian railway ; the story of the search for and discovery of the route, and the construction 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 . SURVEYOK^i CaMI THE MOUNTAIN^ The rivers and lakes constitute the easiest highways for travel in the unknown west,where roads do not exist and horses are unavailable. Huge rafts are formed of deadtrees lashed or pinned together with wooden pegs, which the men load with theirc
. The making of a great Canadian railway ; the story of the search for and discovery of the route, and the construction 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 . SURVEYOK^i CaMI THE MOUNTAIN^ The rivers and lakes constitute the easiest highways for travel in the unknown west,where roads do not exist and horses are unavailable. Huge rafts are formed of deadtrees lashed or pinned together with wooden pegs, which the men load with theirclothes, provisions, and other Station Men at Work The line is pegged out in units of loo feet, each of which is called a station. The workmen,either co-operatively or individually, undertake to complete a section upon a kind of pieceworksystem. They live a dogs life, work from fourteen to eighteen hours a day, but earn from ^3 to {,\-iper week. FOREIGN WORKMEN 257 This system appeals to the foreign workmen, especiallyto the Galicians and Hungarians. These men, accustomedto small wages and the poorest of living for long hours ofhard work in their own country, can make large profitsout of a station, which to the average British labourerwould show the slenderest margin, if any at all. They areparticularly at home on the common, no matter howuninviting the task may be, such as, for instance, excava-ting to a depth of 10 or 12 feet through slimy muskeg. When they first assume the responsibility of building100 feet of grade they live a pitiable existence. They sub-sist on the plainest and cheapest of food, invariably po
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1912