Much of the work in British Columbia and northern Ontario entailed blasting the grade through solid rock. On the NTC line, where this photograph was taken in 1907, the practice was to assign a gang of ten or twelve men to a cut until work was completed. Each gang was in the charge of a foreman, who also acted as the "powder-man." A teamster drove the "stone-boat"; two or three men acted as drillers; and the remainder of the gang loaded the broken rock or "trimmed" the dump.
