THE DOMINION OF CANADA. The magnificent Dominion of Canada embraces the whole of the mainland of North America to the north of the United States, except Alaska and Labrador, and all the adjacent islands, except Newfoundland, St. Pierre, and Miquelon. This immense territory stretches right across the continent, from the Atlantic on the east, to the Pacific on the west, and from the Great Lakes and the 49th parallel of N. lat. (which divide it from the United States) on the south, to the Arctic Ocean on the north. The Dominion of Canada is a confederation of nine Provinces - Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia; together with the District of Keewatin, and the provisional districts of Ungava, Yukon, Mackenzie, and Franklin, which have been formed out of the North-East and North-West Territories. The formerly separate colonies of Canada (which included the present Provinces of Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, were united in 1867, and, two years later, the vast North-West Territory was added to the Dominion by purchase from the Hudson Bay Company. Manitoba, a Province formed out of a portion of it, was admitted into the confederation in 1870. British Columbia joined it in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905, so that Newfoundland alone still remains a distinct colony. The District of Keewatin was formed in 1876, and is administered by the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba; and the Districts of Ungava, Yukon, Mackenzie, and Franklin were created in 1895. The Maritime Provinces-New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island-are on the south side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ontario curves round the no thern shores of the Great Lakes, while the St. Lawrence runs through the Province of Quebec. British Columbia includes the broken country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast, together with the great island of Vancouver, the Queen Charlotte group, and other islands; while Manitoba and the immense North-West Terri.ories-the south rn portion of which has been divided into the two provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta-form the central or prairie section of the Dominion. The District of Keewatin lies to the north-west of Manitoba, and adjoins the western side of Hudson Bay. Ungava embraces the desolate peninsula on the east side of Hudson Bay: Mackenzie and Yukon occupy the basins of the rivers after which they are named; and Franklin includes the whole of the Arctic Islands. It should also be noted that British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, touch or border upon the United States, and that the International Boundary, from the Gulf of Georgia to the Lake of the Woods, is formed by the 49th parallel of North latitude, then by the Rainy River, Rainy Lake, and Pigeon River to Lake Superior, whence the line runs through the middle of Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, and along the St. Lawrence to the 45th parallel of North latitude, which it follows to the banks of the Upier Connecticut River, it then strikes north along the Green Mountains, and around Maine to the Atlantic Coast at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. Eastern Canada, in the following description, is taken as including the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island; Central Canada as embracing the Provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, the District of Keewatin, and the rest of the North-West Territory; while Western Canada is limited to the Province of British Columbia. Eastern Canada is the great WOODLAND REGION; Central Canada is the vast PRAIRIE COUNTRY; while Western Canada forms the MOUNTAIN REGION of the Dominion. EXTENT: It is difficult to convey any idea of the vastness of the Dominion of Canada. From the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west is a direct distance of more than 3,000 miles, while more than 2,000 miles of mountain and prairie extend betwen the International Boundary and the shores of the Arctic Ocean. With an area of 334 million square miles, the Dominion is nearly as large as Europe, and 31 times the size of the British Isles. COASTS: Bounded, as the Dominion is, by three oceans, it has, besides its numerous inland seas, many thousands of miles of sea coast. The older Provinces have 2,500 miles of sea coast and inland seas, while the sea coast of British Columbia alone is over 3,000 miles in extent, exclusive of minor indentations. Hudson Bay is a vast inland sea, 1,000 miles long and Coo miles wide, running south into the heart of Canada, midway between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and communicating with the Atlantic by Hudson Strait, a broad channel 400 miles in length. James Bay, the southern extension of Hudson Bay, is 300 nriles long and 80 miles wide at its mouth. The "Mediterranean of America," as Hudson Bay has been termed, is unfortunately icebound in winter. Ships enter it generally about the middle of July and leave about the middle of September. PORT NELSON, on the western side of Hudson Bay, is a hundred miles nearer to Liverpool than New York, and between Winnipeg and Liverpool, via Hudson Bay, there will be, when the new railway from WINNIPEG to this port is completed, a saving in inland carriage of about 2,000 miles as compared with the present routes via New York or Halifax. The Arctic Coast, on the north, is broken by numerous inlets and is for the most part skirted by "lands" and islands, the channels between which and the mainland are generally ice-bound, and are consequently of no commercial importance. On the east, are the great Gulf and Estuary of the St. Lawrence, opening into the Atlantic by the broad Cabot Strait, between Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. The narrow Strait of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and Labrador, and the still narrower Gut of Canso, between Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia, are the only other entrances. The cul-de-sac of the Bay of Fundy is also an arm of the Atlantic. The tidal wave, as it moves swiftly up this funnel-like inlet, sometimes attains the extraordinary height of 70 feet. The British Columbian Coast, on the west, is more deeply indented than that of Norway; it is, in fact, a perfect maze of inlets and islands, and its total length cannot be far short of 10,000 miles. Vancouver Island is separated from the mainland by a long channel known as the Juan de Fuca Strait in the south, the Strait of Georgia in the middle, and Queen Charlotte Sound in the north. Queen Charlotte Islands are separated by the Hecate Strait from the mainland and by Dixon Entrance from the Alaskan portion of the archipelago. RELIEF: By far the greater part of Canada is level-the only mountainous region is in the west, where the magnificent natural rampart of the Rocky Mountains forms the western boundary of the Prairie Region of Central Canada. Eastern Canada is in parts hilly; there are no extensive level plains and no high mountain ranges. The portion of the Rocky Mountains in Canada is about 1,500 miles in length, and culminates in Robson's Peak, 13.700 feet, about 280 miles north of the southern frontier of the Dominion, and gradually decreasing in elevation to the north, finally merges into the hills which divide the basin of the Lower Mackenzie from that of the Yukon River. Mount Logan, near Mont St. Elias, has an elevation of 19,500 feet. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast, and parallel with them, are other ranges-the Gold Ranges and the Coast or Cascade Range. The Gold Ranges, more particularly known as the Selkirk, Purcell, and Cariboo Mountains and the Gold Range proper, are about 80 miles in width. Between these mountains and the rugged Cascade Range is the interior plateau of British Columbia, with an average width of 100 miles and an elevation of 3,500 feet. The Cascade or Coast Range is also about 100 miles in width, and, as it receives on its seaward slope the moisture from the sea, it has a very luxuriant vegetation.1 The Pacific slope and the Atlantic slope of the Dominion are both heavily timbered, but the Great Prairies which extend from the Red River Valley to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains are almost treeless, though well grassed and with a soil of unsurpassed fertility. A remarkable feature of this great area is its division, along lines running generally north-west and south-east, into three distinct prairie steppes. The First Prairie Steppe, according to Professor Fream, includes the Red River and Lake Winnipeg, with the adjacent lands on the west. The average altitude of the plain is 800 feet above the sea, and it has an area of about 56,000 square miles. The Red River Valley itself is perfectly flat and undiversified, the most absolutely level prairie-region of America. This steppe is bordered on the east by the Laurentian plateau, and extends westwards as far as the first escarpment, marked by the Duck, Porcupine, and other hills which lie to the west of Lake Winnipegosis. When the summit of the first escarpment is reached in the neighbourhood of MACGREGOR, 80 miles west of WINNIPEG, a vast open country, called the Great Plains, forming the Second Prairie Steppe, is entered upon. This second steppe is about 200 to 230 miles in width, and its surface is not so even as that of the Red River Valley. Low hills rise from the prairie level in certain localities, such as Turtle Mountain and the Touchwood Hills, but neither of these rise over 500 feet above the prairie, which has an average elevation of about 1,600 feet, and is bounded westward by the remarkable Grand Coteau of the Missouri, which extends from south-east to northwest for a distance of about 800 miles, and is 30 miles wide under the 49th parallel. This coteau or hill slope of the Missouri, which is chiefly a great 1. "Agricultural Canada," by Prof. Fream 2. The surface of Lake Superior is 627 feet above the sea. mass of glacial detritus and ice-travelled blocks, and is perhaps the most re markable monument of the Glacial Period in the western plains, is about 400 miles west of Winnipeg, and fringes the eastern margin of the Third Prairie Steppe, which extends with a gentle ascent westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains. The average altitude of this third and highest prairie steppe is about 3,000 feet, though its eastern edge is generally not over 2,000 feet, while it attains an elevation of over 4,000 feet at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Its area, including the highland and foothills along the base of the mountains, is about 134,000 square miles, and of this by far the greatest part, or about 115,000 square miles, is almost devoid of forest. It is nearly 500 miles broad along the frontier, but it narrows rapidly towards the north. The total area of prairie country, including that of all the three Steppes, may be estimated at 192,000 square miles. Eastern Canada, as we have said, has no extensive plains or high mountain ranges. It has, however, a "Height of Land," insignificant in elevation, but of great physical and geological importance. The Laurentian Mountains or Laurentides, as this low and long range is called-their average elevation does not exceed 1,500 or 1,600 feet, and they really extend from the Atlantic to the shores of the Arctic Ocean-stretch from Labrador along the northern side of the St. Lawrence, diverging north about 50 miles below Quebec and running along the Ottawa on the north side for about 100 miles, "sweeping round thence to the Thousand Islands, near Kingston, from which they gain the southern extremity of Georgian Bay and continue along the eastern and northern shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior. The range then turns up to the north-westward, and, gradually diminishing in height to a tableland, ultimately reaches the Arctic Ocean.' The distance of the whole course of the Laurentian range from Labrador is about 3,500 miles. Its slopes are, in general, thickly covered with pines and firs, and the region through which it runs, and of which it forms the water-parting, is remarkable for an enormous number of lakes and pools, more than 1,000 of them being marked on the maps already published, although large portions of it are still unknown or but partially explored. 1 This Laurentian chain forms the water-parting between the basin of the St. Lawrence and those of the rivers flowing into Hudson Bay, except the Churchill and Saskatchewan, which pierce it and discharge into the Bay. Further north, it forms the "divide” between the Mackenzie on the west and the Coppermine and other rivers on the east. To the south of the St. Lawrence, the Acadian Highlands, as the various hill ranges of the Maritime Provinces may be termed, sweep through the centre of Nova Scotia and the northern part of New Brunswick. The Notre Dame Mountains run along the south side of the St. Lawrence and keep close to its margin as far as Kamouraska, 100 miles below Quebec, whence they diverge southwards, being opposite Quebec about 30 miles, and opposite Montreal so miles, from the river. The highest portion of these sub-Laurentian ranges are the Shickshock Mountains (3,000 to 4,000 feet), at the base of the Gaspé Peninsula, about 12 miles from the St. Lawrence. With regard to the "Relief" of the Dominion, Onésime Reclus says that, physically, its regions are six. British Columbia is the first, the heavily-timbered and well-watered 1. Professor A. R. C. Selwyn, F.R.S., Director 2. A Bird's-eye View of the World La Teneb of the Geological Survey of Canada. voi d'Oiseau). Pacific Coast and slope of the Rockies. East of this is the northern part of the great Central Plain of America, filled with a network of lakes and drained into the Arctic Ocean by the Peace and Mackenzie River system, and into Hudson Bay through Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson by the immense Saskatchewan system. This is the great wheat belt, rising in the centre and the west to a rather high latitude of habitability, owing to a dryness of air which makes the severe winters not quite unendurable; it shades by infinite gradations to the Arctic wastes. Eastward, along Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes, is a stony tableland of utter sterility, despite its situation between great waters, severe and permanently uninhabitable. Southern Ontario and Quebec are a well-timbered region, with much good land, the former exceptionally favoured, and the St. Lawrence forming virtually an ocean frontage for the latter. Fifth, are the Maritime Provinces along the Atlantic; and lastly, comes the sterile Peninsula of Labrador." RIVERS and LAKES: The splendid rivers and huge lakes of Canada, so easily interconnected by a few canals, form an unrivalled system of inland navigation, and powerfully influence the climate, productions, and trade of the Dominion. No lake system in the world, except perhaps that of Equatorial Africa, approaches the Great Lakes of Canada in magnitude, which, with the mighty St. Lawrence and its tributaries, contain more than one-half of all the fresh water on the globe. The drainage system of Canada is on the same extensive scale as the country itself. The valley of the St. Lawrence penetrates the continent by a navigable route to a distance of over 2,000 miles from the ocean. The rivers, which flow eastward into Hudson Bay, have their sources in the Rockies, 1,600 miles distant from their mouths. The northward-flowing rivers have a length of over 2,000 miles. There are four main river-systems in the Dominion: (1) That of the St. Lawrence, in Eastern Canada; (2) that of the SaskatchewanNelson, in South Central Canada; (3) that of the MackenzieAthabasca, in North Central Canada; and (4) that of the Fraser, in British Columbia. Of the numerous minor river-systems, the principal are the St. John, on the Atlantic Coast, to the south of the St. Lawrence; the Severn, Albany, East Main, and other rivers which discharge into Hudson Bay; the Coppermine and Great Fish River, in the Arctic Coast region, to the east of the Mackenzie; and the Stikeen and Skeena in British Columbia. The Basin of the St. Lawrence includes not only the broad belt of country drained by the noble stream itself and its tributaries, but also the GREAT LAKES,' of which it forms the outlet. These lakes-Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario-though of immense size (their united area is 90,000 square miles and exceeds that of Great Britain) have comparatively slight drainage areas, because of the nearness of the "Height of Land" and the southern 1. The following statistics, relative to the Great Lakes, are taken from the Canadian Handbook :— FievaDepth 21012 feet. jeet. 1,000 600 Length Brea ith mies. MLC.. Superior 420 170 of the scale of the lakes and rivers of Canada, the | student should compare the figures given with wellknown areas at home. Thus, Lake Superior equals Area in length the distance from Berwick to Land's End, sq.m. and has an area very nearly as large as that of Ire. 31,500 land, while the four smaller lakes would cover the whole of England and Wales and, with Lake Supe 22,400 rior, the while of Great Britain. The united length 21,00 of the five lakes 15 1,44 miles, which is almost ex9. ke actly 200 miles less than the distance between Gal 5,400 way and St. John's, N.F. In order to gain as adequate an idea as possible 576 Michigan 32).. 70 700 Huron Erie 280 .. 24) 1.5 1,000 Ontario 180 57 20 555 |