lack of a few hundred thousand dollars.
But by March 1886 every cent of the company's obligations to the
government was paid off, twenty millions in cash and the remainder in
land at $1.50 an acre.

The men behind the Canadian Pacific proved themselves possessed of
courage and determination such as will always win them honour. At more
than one critical stage they staked their all to keep the work going.
But the fact remains that the bulk of the resources utilized in the
original building of the road were provided or advanced by the people
of Canada. The Canadian Pacific is as truly a monument of public as of
private faith.

Meanwhile, the work of construction had been going ahead. Under
William Van Horne's masterful methods the leisurely pace of government
construction quickened into the most rapid achievement on record. A
time-schedule, {160} carefully made out in advance, was adhered to with
remarkably little variation.

Work was begun at the east end of the line, from the point of junction
with the Canada Central, but at first energy was devoted chiefly to the
portion crossing the plains. Important changes in route were made.
The main line had already been deflected to pass through Winnipeg. Now
a much more southerly line across the plains was adopted, making for
Calgary rather than Edmonton. The new route was shorter by a hundred
miles, and more likely to prevent the construction of a rival road
south of it later. For many years after the Palliser-Dawson-Hinds
reports of the late fifties, it had been assumed that the tillable
lands of the West lay in a 'Fertile Belt' or rainbow, following roughly
the Saskatchewan valley and curving round a big wedge of the American
desert projecting north. Certainly the short, withered,
russet-coloured grass lands of the border country looked forbidding
beside the green herbage of the North Saskatchewan. But in 1879
Professor Macoun's investigations had shown that the southern lands had
been belied by rumour, and that only a very small section was
hopelessly arid. With this objection removed, the only drawback to the
{161} southern route was the difficulty of finding as good a route
through the mountains as the northerly Yellowhead Pass route afforded,
but on this the company decided to take its chances.

Work on the plains was begun in May 1881, and by the end of the year
161 miles had been completed. This progress was counted too slow, and
under Van Horne's man