The first terminus of the C. P.R. on the Pacific coast was Port Moody.
An inlet from English Bay runs up for several miles, and Port Moody
was the nearest salt water. The road was extended and the town of Van-
couver came into being. The bush was all around it and in a year or so the
town was destroyed by a forest fire, with considerable loss of life. The
smoke had been so dense for days that nothing was visible, and suddenly
the fire leaped as it were out of the bush taking the townfolk unawares.
Thus did the now great and wealthy city of Vancouver receive its infant
baptism in fire. After the C. P. R. had been completed from the head
of the Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, it was impossible to run through
trains from coast to coast, because the heavy North Superior and Rocky
Mountain sections were not completed. In 1885 there was a daily train
from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw, but it did not go farther than Regina
Saturdays. There was no business on the prairie beyond to the Moun-
tains to call for a regular train service. In the early summer of 1886
an express train was put on between Winnipeg and Vaucouver; and
in the fall the first through train was routed from Montreal to
Port Moody. The first report of Superintendent Abbott, of the Pacific Di-
vision, made after the opening stated that the through traffic was excel-
lent. On the 15th of July the first train from Winnipeg carried seventeen
through passengers; and picked up and set down 70 local passengers
between points. On the 16th there were 10 through passengers and 35
local; on the 18th 21 through and 70 locals, and on the 19th 14 through
and 24 locals. We are not able to state what the freight was, but the
reader is invited to reflect on the fact of 198 passengers having to pay
the expense of running trains from Winnipeg to the Coast over 1500
miles of railroad, besides paying the cost of maintenance. And this was
officially described as "excellent." Mr. Sidney Porter, the first deputy
minister of railroads and telephones in Saskatchewan, told the story in
the press of an experience when he was a baggage man on the C. P. R.
A standard passenger train was crossing the plains going east on Christ-
mas day. It was a standard train of six carriages. There was one soli-
tary passenger aboard. The train was in plenty of time, and a halt was
made for Christmas dinner to which the dining car conductor invited the
crew. The crew invited the solitary passenger. Imagine the financial
condition of a railroad that sometimes was called upon to provide a sleep-
ing coach, a day coach, a colonist car, mail car, baggage car and dining
car for the accommodation of one passenger. The one great excuse for
the more or less ruthless way in which the company's monopoly was
exercised for many years lies in the fact that if the settlers were hard
up the C. P.R. was as hard up as they were. The difference was simply
the difference between wanting a few dollars to buy a side of bacon and
a sack of flour, and wanting a few millions, more or less. In the early
days of the railroad the great plains between Moose Jaw and the Rockies
were practically empty. If a sporting passenger saw anything to shoot,
he fired from the train without let or hindrance. When we crossed in
1887 we rather looked for quick time to be made. Not so. The track
was not in shape for rapid travelling. The train meandered along. For
fifty miles perhaps one would not see a human being except the section
men, whose plight seemed rather pitiable, living an isolated existence,
with their sole excitement the arrival of the train.