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company Van Home was forced to swallow his words. It was a costly venture to build a track along the foresaken rocks of Superior, but it was well worth the effort. "Engineering impossibilities" it may have been, but for one who has travelled from coast to coast along that line, it is a most beautiful and breathtaking site, revealing itself through a maze of mist, deep blue waters, domineering rock, and tall, straight timber. When talk was heard of laying a railroad across the Dominion of Canada. Sanford Fleming, then field surveyor for government railways, plotted a route for the line which ran north, eliminating a line along the Canadian shore of Lake Superior. Another survey was to run the line through to eastern Ontario, south of the shield, into Manitoba and onto the Pacific coast, completely eliminating the north shore ol Lake Superior. This survey displeased Sir John A. MacDonald who wanted a truly Canadian railway that ran from coast to coast. In 1881. much to the dismay of the United States supporters, it was decided that the line would follow the north shore of Lake Superior. With the birth of construction, came the birth of a new community. Nestled in the stronghold of Lake Superior, Schreiber was first settled in the early 1880's as "Isbester's Landing".which is said to originate from the first Riel Rebellion when a Colonel Isbester landed troops at the Schreiber beach area, thus the name "Isbester's Landing". During 1883, the landing served as a construction camp and docking area for the Canadian Pacific Railway. The small settlement located on the bay of Schreiber Beach was an array of tents and log shantys. where supplies were brought in by barge along Lake Superior to be carried by mule drawn carts a short distance to the construction sites. During that year, the first steel was laid along the Lake Superior Section. Work trains sent out to build the track consisted of the necessary construction material, dynamite, log ties, steel rails, and stakes. Construction life was not glorifying to the men who laid the track, since the dangers encoun- tered would today be considered slaving or convict conditions. Job hazards were frequent - men were decimated by stray fragments of dynamite, or crushed by falling rocks. To save time and money, the general manager ordered three dynamite factories to be built between Coldwell and Jackfish. each with an operating capacity of a ton per day. Dynamite, nitro-glycerine, and black powder totalled a bill of seven and a half million dollars, to blast a way through the Pre-Cambrian Shield. Blasting of the rock was not only a great financial cost, but also a considerable cost involving the lives of many men. McKays Harbour (now Rossport) had a history of many accidents in this area. One man was crushed to death when a rock from a blast flew through his roof and pinned him to his bed. Harry Armstrong went camping in the summer of 1884, and whilst keeping his fire going with green boughs, to his horror discovered that the boughs included a half box of dynamite. He picked up-the box and hurled it into the lake. He was one of the luckier men to encounter dynamite by surprise. Sir Collingwood Schreiber In the same year as that of the divisional sections, the tent town settlement of "Isbester's Landing" became known as "Schreiber". The name we carry belongs to an important figure in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Sir Collingwood was born at Bradwell Lidge. near Colchester. England. In 1852. he came to Canada, with a civil engineering degree, wanting to engage in railway construction. His life story reveals a history of field surveying and administration in the era of Canadian railroad expansion, up to the point where he succeeded Sanford Fleming as C.P.R, chief engineer. In 1892, he was apppointed Chief Engineer of Railways and Canals. Then in 1905, he became General Cutting Engineer to the Dominion of Canada. Sir Collingwood passed away on March 22. 1918.