THE SCENE OF THE RUSH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 858, 2 July 1910, Page 5

THE SCENE OF THE RUSH.

SOMETHING ABOUT PRINCE ■SUPER!'. Prince Rupert, tho nearest centre to the sceub of the rush was this time last year a town in name only, for its site was still mainly a mass of evergreen trees, spruces, and cedars in the rocky edges of the great hills. The town lots were sold in London in October last and several plots, !iol't. by 130 ft., realised from SIOOO to .81800 apiece. The town is Prince Rupert, tbe coming, terminus of tho Grand Trunk Pacific, the new trans-continental railway of Canada. As late as 1904 Prince. Rupert was not even a, name. Five years hence it will, be as familiar to the traveller as Port Said or Yokohama. It will shorten the "journey . from Europe to the Far East by at least !t day, and when the line across tho .Rockies to it 1 is finished a new wonderland of the West will be opened up..

Describing'the locality in the "Daily Mail," P. A. M'Kenzie . said . that the route from Edmonton to Prince Rupert (along which the surveyors were working when they made their sensational discovery) is now practically impossible except to experienced travellers who have weeks to spare for the long journey over the lonely trail. Tho only practical approach so far is by sea, two days from Vancouver. The journey, through the amazing beauty of narrow channels by, the wooded and hilly islands of the Northern Pacific, is as though one were travelling .on an inland sea. The entrance to the port, leaving Digby Island to the left, shows a great natural harbour, ten miles in exlent, capable of taking any ship with a depth of 26ft. at low tide. At one side, at the foot of the mountains, is a wharf and landing stage, some 1500 ft, lung, with scattered wooden houses behind, covering an area, with a frontage of a mile. f by half a m'ile wide. It is rocky land everywhere, covered a clearing has been, made for the 'houses, the streets, and the works. The city is goiilg' tip as though by magic. At one point constant blasting operations are proceeding.. Jfen are clearing a space for the terminal yards of the new railway. There are four ships at the dockside unloading as fast as they can; others ,nre waiting in the bay> anxious to clear. All day long, seven days a week, the sound of the hammer is heard and the roar of dynamite.