Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

1901 TO 1914 205one first-class passenger coach and a number of freight cars,and made 190 miles in twelve hours. Even then passengershad to disembark at Strathcona, on the side of the riveropposite the town, and travel two miles in an omnibus over aThere was usually amud road, crossing the river in a ferry.race from the railway station for places on the ferry to avoidwaiting for a later trip, and many upsets were the result.Between the railway tracks grass grew rankly in summertime,and the condition of the road-bed would cause a generalmix-up of the contents of the passenger coach as the trainrounded the numerous curves. Now Edmonton has excellentrailway connections, and the Canadian Pacific Railway fromCalgary reaches it over a magnificent high-level bridge. In1902, three banks were already on the spot and there seemedhardly room for a fourth, but the bank's representativesdiscerned that Edmonton would one day be the metropolis ofa vast agricultural country to the north, and looking to thefuture, as at Calgary, they decided that the town should beoccupied. Edmonton has since grown from an outpost townto a substantial city of over 50,000 inhabitants.The primitive conditions which still existed on the branchlines of western railwayswere demonstrated to the travellerson the return trip from Edmonton to Calgary. The train wasdue to arrive at the latter point at 8 p.m., but near Didsburythe evening dew had bent the grass growing to a height of twoor three feet between the railway tracks so as to cover the railsthickly. The train was brought to a stop by the slipperygreen grass, and it was not until next morning that assistancearrived from Calgary to take the passenger coach to its destination.At this period similar conditions were to be foundon the Prince Albert branch and on most of the other "feeders"to the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. An excursionto the country south of Calgary, in the region ofMacleod and Lethbridge, went to show that the climate madewheat-growing hazardous, and that the country was predestinedto cattle ranching. Yet the experience of settlers,