across the country at all as the engineering triumph of my life.

On May 20 a genuine blizzard set in, lasting 24 hours, snowed five inches,
and froze the sloughs over with half an inch of ice, a decidedly
interesting event to the writer, as he was 18 miles from the nearest wood,
therefore lay in his blankets and ate hard tack. I stabled my ponies in
the cook tent, and after they had literally eaten of the sod inside the
tent, I divided my floor with them.

On 28th day of May I saw the first contractor, who broke ground at station
7,150. On the 1st of June I was relieved from this division, and ordered
to take the next, 50 miles west. On the 13th day of June ground was broken
on this division, at station 8,070, or only about 62 miles west of the
east end of the 500-mile contract. It looked at this time as though they
might build 150 miles, but not more. But from this time on very rapid
progress was made. On July 17 the track reached station 7,000, making
however up to this time but about 50 miles of track-laying, including that
laid on the old grade; but large forces were put on to surfacing, and the
track already laid was put in excellent condition for getting material to
the front. The weather from this until the freezing-up was all that could
be desired. Work ceased about the 1st of January, 1883, for the season,
and the final estimate for the work was as follows: 6,103,986 cubic yards
earth excavation, 2,395,750 feet B.M. timber in bridges and the culverts,
85,708 lineal feet piling, 435 miles of track-laying. This work was all
done in 182 working days, including stormy ones, when little, if anything,
could be done, making a daily average of 33,548 yards excavation, 13,150
feet B.M. timber, 471 feet piling, 2-38/100 miles track-laying. We never
had an accurate force report made of the whole line, but roughly there
were employed 5,000 men and 1,700 teams.