Page:The Selkirk mountains (1912).djvu/33

Rh The driving of the last spike (1885)—Sir Sandford Fleming, in an interesting paper, prepared for the Royal Society of Canada, entitled "Expeditions to the Pacific," describes the dramatic ceremony at Craigellachie—the driving of the last spike and the passage of the first through train over the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885:—

"On the evening of October 27th, when the regular Winnipeg train left Montreal, a private car, the "Saskatchewan," was attached, with the design of proceeding to Port Moody, at that date the terminus, the new city of Vancouver having no existence. The car contained seven persons; five came the whole way from Montreal, one joined at Ottawa, and one on their way to Port Moody..........The train beyond Calgary became a "'special" and reached the western crossing of the Columbia in fifty-six hours after leaving Winnipeg. The gap, however, was not closed; the work having been retarded by incessant rains, the train could not proceed farther. Early on the morning of the 7th the junction was verging to completion, and at 9 o'clock the last rail was laid in its place. All that remained to finish the work was to drive home one spike.

"By common consent the duty of performing the task was assigned to one of the four directors present, the senior in years and influence, whose high character placed him in prominence—Sir Donald Alexander Smith. No one could on such an occasion more worthily represent the Company or more appropriately give the finishing blows, which, in a national sense, were to complete the gigantic undertaking. (The other Directors present were Messrs. Van Horne, Harris and the writer.)

"Sir Donald Smith braced himself to the task, and he wielded the by no means light spike hammer with as good a will as a professional tracklayer. The work was carried on in silence. Nothing was heard but the reverberation of the blows struck by him. It was no ordinary occasion, the scene was in every respect noteworthy, from the group which composed it and the circumstances which had brought together so many human beings in this spot in the heart of the mountains, until recently an untracked solitude. Most of the engineers, with hundreds of workmen of all nationalities, who had been engaged in the mountains, were present. Every one appeared to be deeply impressed by what was going on. The central figure in the group was somewhat more than the representative of the Railway Company which had achieved the triumph he was consummating. His presence recalled memories of the Mackenzies and the McTavishes, the Stuarts and McGillivrays, the Erasers, Finlaysons and McLeods and McLoughlins and their contemporaries, who first penetrated the surrounding territory. From his youth he had been connected with the Company which for so long had carried on its operations successfully from Labrador to the Pacific, and from California to Alaska. To-day he was the chief representative of that vast organization which, before the close of the last century, had sent out pioneers to map out and occupy the unknown wilderness and which, as a trading association, is in the third century of its existence. All present were more or less affected by the formality which was the crowning effect of years of labour, intermingled with doubts and fears and oft-renewed energy to overcome what at times appeared unsurmountable obstacles. Moreover, was it not the triumphal