ACROSS CANADA

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 138, 7 December 1935, Page 10

ACROSS CANADA

A GREAT HIGHWAY

ALL-BRITISH MOTOR ROUTE

LINKS TWO OCEANS

I have just returned to New York from t a motoring holiday in Canada, wondering whether English people realise how accessible and delightful to visit this spacious land is, writes A. H. Faulkner in the "Daily Telegraph." It is its accessibility for the British motorist with a month to spare that particularly impressed me, because this is something so recent that even Canadians do not seem to have recognised its significance. The trans-Canada highway, one of the world's most romantic roads, has been brought within a few hundred miles of completion this year. For the first time it is now possible to travel the 4000 odd miles from Atlantic to Pacific with a car without entering the United States during the journey. It is still necessary to take the steamer for 250 miles across Lake Superior and to board a train for 90 miles in British Columbia, but 4000 road builders are expected to complete the missing links within the next 12.months. • • ■ Many sections of the highway form part of the road system of provinces they traverse,.and have been in existence for years. Canadians are proud of the fact that there are only three countries in the world, the United States, Great Britain; and France, where more motor-cars are owned than in Canada. Naturally' Canada has miles of firs,t-rate.. roads. . Since' 1930, when trie idea of a continuous motor route from coast-, to coast first took definite shape, the huge task of joining up appropriate portions of provincial highway has been actively encouraged by the Dominion Government, which usually contributes 50 per cent, of the cost. Work has been provided in this, way for as many as 12,000 men at a time. These facts come to life when one visits the wild, almost completely unsettled region in Ontario, "where the winding thread of concrete and gravel breaks off and the task of the roadbuilder has yet to be completed. It is an awesome thing to see a good road run into the wilderness and come to an end. CHIEF GAP. The principal gap is a few miles from Sault Ste. Marie, at the southeastern end- of Lake Superior. The traveller who reaches it has already seen a good deal of Eastern Canada. If he came from Europe and disembarked at Halifax he will have traversed Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec Provinces, and a large part of Ontario. At preserit the only way to proceed is to take ship for Port Arthur, on the north-western shore of the lake, whence the road now goes with few interruptions over a section opened this summer to Winnipeg, in Manitoba; to Moosejaw, in Saskatchewan; to Medicine Hat arid Banff, one of Canada's famous beauty spots, in Alberta. A short distance beyond Banff, at Golden, in British Columbia, the transCanada highway again peters out for a few miles. A train now takes motorcars across the 90-mile gap to Revelstoke, whence driving can be resumed to Vancouver; on the Pacific. .' A road, which will be 180 miles in length, is under construction between Golden and Revelstoke. It goes round the "Big-Bend" in the Columbia River; where landslides have caused considerable delay. The Department of National Defence has been helping the roadmakers oh this stretch since last year. Although parts of the highway, and notably 460 miles from Quebec' City to Ottawa and beyond, are paved with concrete, most of it has a gravel surface. This can be very trying when it is not in perfect condition. Nevertheless, a beginning has been made, and improvements, will follow if enough motorists use this new line of travel. GREAT RANGE. It covers an enormous range of scenery, as it goes up. the mighty St. Lawrence, through the region of lakes and forests, over the prairies, across the Rockies, and down to the ocean. It is sufficiently far north to escape the terrific" heat of the central United States, and it.traverses no deserts or monotonous "bad lands." For these reasons, Canadians hope that Americans, who already drive more than 3,000,000 cars northwards the border every year, will make great use of this road in their travels from coast to coast. Canadian drivers will no longer have to go south of the Great Lakes into the United States to make long journeys from east to west or from west to east. To the English motorist who has, perhaps, grown a little tired of Europe, and who feels like an excursion into what is virtually virgin country, the road should prove a great temptation. Eight days, out of Southampton he can disembark at Quebec, and within another day or two he can reach a logcabin camp, or pitch his own tent in the heart of either Quebec or Ontario Province. It costs between £24 and £36 return ,for the car, according to its weight and the class of liner used. "■ Nowhere in Europe is it possible to enjoy the feeling of freedom and remoteness from civilisation that one has in these vast stretches of territory where so few people live. This summer I explored several side roads branching off in the direction of Hudson Bay on the north side of the transCanada highway. They plunge into the forests, wandering for a few miles amongst innumerable and very beautiful lakes, and then as often as not come to an end at a fire ranger's hut. The lakes and rivers abound in a wonderful variety of fish, which can be caught fifteen to the dozen by the merest tyro. EASILY FOUND. Places to stay in are easily found in this region, unspoiled though it is by the invading tourist. Many excellent camps are scattered along the banks of the broad Ottawa River, or perched on lake shores amongst trees where deer can be'seen at their salt licks as night falls. Friendly guides accompany visitors who wish to go far off the benten track on foot or by canoe. The houses of the French-speaking Canadians, who have almost the entire province of Quebec to themselves, are often flung open hospitably to the stranger; these "tourist homes." as they would be called in the United States, are both clean and exceedingly cheap. One can come into Quebec only a day or two after leaving the remotest backwoods, and from the historic hill towering above the St. Lawrence catch a glimpse of one of the ocean liners that make the Atlantic crossing. It would require a good deal of determination, I am convinced, to drive over the whole course to Vancouver Island and back, again. My own powers of endurance began to fail 250 miles west of Ottawa, where the road running.north from Toronto crosses the trans-Canada highway and the Dionne quintuplets have their model hospital. Without going beyond Lake Superior,