enger, like-minded, was companion of his ramble.

'I fear it is but a utopian scheme to dream of bridging such a flood as
this,' observed Holt. 'No piers of man's construction could withstand
the force that is in motion on the river to-night. I fear the promoters
of the Victoria Bridge are too sanguine.'

'Well, I could pin my faith upon any engineering project sanctioned by
Stephenson,' rejoined the other. 'We had him here to view the site, just
a mile out of Montreal. He recommended the tubular plan--a modified copy
of the English Britannia Bridge. And Ross, the resident engineer, has
already begun preliminaries, with cofferdams and such like mysteries.'

'It will be the eighth wonder of the world if completed,' said Mr. Holt,
'and must add immensely to the commercial advantages of Canada.'

'My dear sir,' quoth the other impressively (he was a corn merchant in
Montreal), 'unless you are in trade you cannot duly estimate the vast
benefits that bridging the St. Lawrence will confer on the colony. For
six months of the year the river is closed to navigation, as you are
aware, and the industry of Canada is consequently imprisoned. But this
noble highway which the Grand Trunk Railway Company have commenced will
render all seasons alike to our commerce. Consider the advantage of
being able to transport the inexhaustible cereals of the Far West,
"without break of bulk or gauge," from the great corn countries of the
Upper Lakes to the very wharves on the Atlantic.'

Mr. Holt was not surprised to hear, after this, that the speaker was a
heavy shareholder in the Grand Trunk Railway, and placed unlimited faith
in its projects. Whether, in subsequent years, its complete collapse
(for a time) as a speculation lowered his enthusiasm, we cannot say;
perhaps he was satisfied to suffer, in fulfilment of the superb ambition
of opening up a continent to commerce.

The corn merchant had got upon his hobby, and could have talked all
night about the rail and its prospects in Canada. 'The progress of the
Province outstrips all sober calculation,' said he. 'Population has
increased twelve hundred per cent. within the last forty years; wherever
the rail touches the ground, an agricultural peasantry springs up.
Push it through the very wilderness, say I; there is no surer means of
filling our waste places with industrial life; and the Pacific should be
our terminus.'

This design has ceased to be thought extravagant, since Professor Hin