From Ottawa westward the route lies through a famous "timber" country, with no charms for the farmer, but rich in lakes and streams, and abounding with fish and game. At the head of Lake Nipissing is North Bay Junction, where passengers from Toronto join the transcontinental trains. At Sudbury and other points along the line, very valuable mineral deposits have been discovered. Nickel has been found in quantities unequalled in any other part of the world. Iron, silver, and other minerals are also abundant.

For two hundred miles the road skirts the north shore of Lake Superior, that vast fresh-water sea whose cool breezes refresh the traveller in the hottest days of summer. It required skill, courage, and ample financial resources to build a railway through a territory so rocky, so mountainous, so barren. The mineral wealth of this belt will, it is hoped, amply repay the country for the cost and risk it has incurred. Besides, a railway connecting the western provinces with the older portion of the Dominion is essential to its national existence.