New line to Sudbury.
Canadian Northern Railway route open.
The original James Bay Railway scheme so far completed—Moose Mountain Iron Mines linked to Toronto by the new line.
Sudbury, July 3.—The special train over the Canadian Northern Railway line in Sudbury, which left the Union Station, Toronto, this morning at 8, arried here this evening, after a pleasant run. The journey was broken at Parry Sound, where the visitors were dined at the Balmoral Hotel. Mayor McLeod presided. Speeches were made by Messrs. D. B. Hanna; Joseph Oliver, Mayor of Toronto; R. C. Steele, Toronto; Controller Hocken, Toronto; A. Purvis, W. Walton, W. Haight, Parry Sound. At 2 p.m. thet start for Sudbury was made. On arrival here the townspeople, headed by the Mayor and other leading business men, extended a very cordial welcome to the visitors. At the banquet in the evening, the Canadian Northern officials were heartily congratulated on the enterprise they have displayed in completing the extension to Sudbury, and the further extensions promised were all said to be necessary in the interests of the town and district.
The Moose Mountain Mines will be visited in the morning, and then the return to Toronto, where it is expected the party will arrive about 9 p.m. Saturday.
The new line of the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway between Parry Sound and Sudbury, which opens to-day for general business, practically completes the first great link that will connect Toronto with the second greatest system of the west, and completes the enterprise which was originally provided for as the James Bay Railway. For not only is the line actually constructed between Toronto and Sudbury, but there is almost completed a line to Moose Mountain and a branch to Key Harbor—the new Georgian Bay port whence the product of the great Moose Mountain iron mine will be shipped to the big smeling ports.
The development of these immense iron ore deposits at Moose Mountain will follow rapidly on the opening of the new road, and Toronto can reasonably anticipate considerable advantage from the resulting extension of industry.
Besides being a long step towards giving a second important connection with western railways—the distance, already rail-spanned, between Toronto and Moose Mountain is 299 miles, leaving but 350 miles to be built between the latter point and Port Arthur—the Canadian Northern Ontario is remarkable in that it has two points from which it will draw business to Georgian Bay ports, and it will presently haul raw material for a series of new industries to Toronto. The railway between Parry Sound and Sudbury, as well as the line from Toronto to Parry Sound, has been of the best possible construction, 80-pound rails being used to meet the requirements of heavy mining traffic. As there is but a very small population between Parry Sound and Sudbury, the opening will be of more immediate interest to the fisherman, camper and tourist, and perhaps the prospector. The construction of the railway has involved much more than an average amount of bridge work, all the important openings being spanned by steel bridges. From Parry Sound north the line is never any great distance from the Georgian Bay. For instance, Key Inlet is crossed at its head over a very narrow channel, and is approached by the valley of the Little Key, which begins almost immediately at the crossing of the Still River. The Still River, winding through a grand timber-covered gorge, is crossed by a fine steel viaduct, 280 feet long and 100 feet above water level. From the crossing of Key Inlet it is only ten miles to Key Harbor. Not only is that journey easily and agreeably made in launches, but it can be continued to the mouth of the French River and thence eastwards to bridges which span those outlets of the Lake Nipissing, to the south the River Pickerel, and the French River to the north. The Pickerel bridge is a fine steel structure of one through span 296 feet long, 50 feet above the water level, with a central height of 52 feet. The bridge is the work of the Toronto Construction Company, and it is interesting to note that the falsework was daringly constructed upon the ice last winter. The Pickerel is a noble stream, its vistas east and west being scarcely equalled in Ontario. The French is bridged at its most advantageous point, there being a deck lattice girder bridge over this wider watercourse, each span of which is 110 feet wide and the central concrete pier is built upon the solid rock of an islet which rears above the swirling flood of the river. Further north the Wahnapitae is followed, and the two splendid waterfalls, Ragged Falls and Burnt Chute, about a mile apart, are passed quite close at hand. At places the river is full of logs, and for long stretches the track closely skits the stream, the cuttins in the rock giving their own touch of the picturesque to this trip through unfamiliar country. Where the steam is crossed some miles before reaching the Coniston—the point at which the main line of the C.P.R. is transected—there are views both up and down stream scarcely inferior to those on the Pickerel and French Rivers. There is a certain unfamiliar romance about these more northerly rivers which will appeal more particularly in this the year of the tercentenary of the founding of Québec by Champlain. Here it was that Champlain journeyed across Lake Nipissing and down [article ends without continuation]