Full text of "Canada & Newfoundland"

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STANFORD'S COMPENDIUM

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

(NEW ISSUE)

STANFOKD'S
COMPENDIUM or GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL

(NEW ISSUE)

NORTH AMERICA

VOL. I

CANADA & NEWFOUNDLAND

EDITED BY

HENEY M. AMI

M.A., D.SC, F,G..S., F.R.G.S., F.R.S.C.

MaT^ JN D ill I '■^TP.A TIOITS

SECOND EDITION, KEVISED

44984

LONDON: EDWAED STANFOED, LTD.

12, 13, & 14, LONG ACRE, W.C.
1915

DEDICATED

TO THE MEMORY OF
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

BAEON STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL

G.C.M.G., (J.C.V.O., ETC.

WHO PLATED SUCH A CONSPICUOUS PART IN

THE RECENT SOCIAL, COMMERCIAL, EDUCATIONAL,

AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF CANADA

PREFACE

Omnes artcs inter se continentur. — Cicero.

In time of war, as in time of peace, a thorough know-
ledge of the geography of a country is of prime importance.
To be acquainted with all the detailed facts regarding
the face of the earth in a given war zone furnishes a
true and rational basis, as well as a key, for the solution
of many military problems. So also a detailed know-
ledge of the geography of British North America, involving
detailed information on the face and crust of that portion
of the earth which appertains to the Dominion of Canada
and to Newfoundland, bathed by three oceans — the
Atlantic, the Arctic, and tlie Pacific — has much to do
with a successful solution of numerous human problems
embodying economic as well as social relations.

An accurate knowledge of the geography of Canada
to-day involves a knowledge of many sciences which
are so intimately linked together as to form a chain of
information of endless value, whether we deal with the
earth's crust and surface features in which geology,
orography, hydrography, and topography are deeply
involved ; or whether we deal with a knowledge of
the distribution of life in zones or provinces in which
the various subdivisions of biology are concerned.

X COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TEAVEL

Many changes have taken place in the geography of
British North America since the last edition of this
work was issued. The Dominion of Canada now com-
prises nine organised provinces : Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario,
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia,
and two territories, the Yukon Territory and the North-
West Territories, the last mentioned including the whole
of the Arctic Archipelago. The North- West Territories, as
well as several provinces, have undergone marked changes
in their boundaries in recent years, readjustments having
taken place in 1905, when Alberta and Saskatchewan
were erected into provinces; and in 1912, when the
areas of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba were greatly
increased. For the sake of reference it seems reasonable
to suggest the restoration of the three names applied to
three old subdivisions of the North -West Territories,
namely, Mackenzie, Keewatin, and Franklin.

Formal possession and control of all the islands of
the Arctic Archipelago was taken by Commander A. P.
Low, in the name of the Crown and by order of the
Parliament of Canada, confirmed by the Imperial Order-
in -Council of 1st September 1880. The Canadian
Government has established customs and inland revenue
stations throughout arctic and subarctic Canada, where
officers and men of the Ptoyal North - West Mounted
Police maintain order, collect federal dues, and effect the
permanent occupation of northermost Canada, whose
natural resources are known to be of enormous value.

The boundaries of the province of British Columbia

PREFACE xi

and of the Yukon Territory have suffered change accordino-
to the terms of the Canada-Alaska award of London in
1903. The precise delimitation of the 141st meridian
across the sea of mountains occurring along the Alaska-
Yukon boundary, and the careful survey of that narrow
irregular strip of United States coast opposite the British
Columbia mainland as far soiith as the Portland Canal,
were entrusted to a joint international body of United
States and Canadian astronomers and geographers, who
have carried out the terms of the " award " in the precise
spirit as well as the letter of the Treaty, and according
to the latest and most approved scientific methods.

Since the last edition of Stanford's Compendium oj
Geography and Travel . North America, Vol. I. (Canada
and Newfoundland), by Dr. S. E. Dawson, C.M.G., British
North America has made such rapid strides, knowledge
concerning its geography has so greatly increased, that
the chapters dealing with the geographical features of
the provinces of the Dominion and of Newfoundland had
to be practically all rewritten, and entirely new chapters
prepared dealing with the new provinces organised in
1905 and the extension of three old provinces in 1912.

A complete revision of facts and figures respecting
the size, areas, and boundaries of the provinces, the
lands, rivers, and all natural phenomena as known in
1897, has been made, whilst most recent available
statistics as to the geographical distribution of plant
and animal life, of population, agriculture, trade, and
commerce, as well as other questions of human interest,
have been embodied in the text.

xii COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL

The settlement of the " French shore " controversy in
Newfoundland has paved the way not only for better
understanding and good mutual relations between the
French nation and Great Britain, but also among the
various Colonies and representatives of these throughout
the world. In the great war of 1914 the entente cordiale
so thoroughly established through the good offices of
King Edward VII. has been further strengthened, and
in Ontario and Quebec provinces English- and French-
speaking Canadians have gone to the front in support
of their two mother countries with a willingness and
courage worthy of their sires.

Since the last edition of this Compendium was issued
our knowledge of the geography of Canada has greatly
increased. The establishment of a Geodetic Survey of
Canada, the enlargement and continued good work of
the Surveyor-General's office and staff, the Chief Geo-
grapher's branch of the Department of the Interior,
together with the excellent work of the Geological
Survey and the work of explorers in the Arctic and
Eocky Mountain regions of Canada, have made known
the greater half at least of the 1,000,000 square miles
of Canada which were still unknown in 1895 when
Dr. George M. Dawson w^rote his summary of the
" larger unexplored regions of Canada." The Depart-
ment of Militia and Defence has also issued a most
important series of topographical maps of great accuracy
and value. Many other departments of the Government
service in Canada carry on geographical or cartographical
work.

PREFACE Xlll

Canada's railway mileage has increased enormously
of late. Whereas it had 19,431 miles of railway in
operation in 1904, there are more than 43,000 miles
in 1915. The total tonnage hauled by Canadian
railways in 1913 was 23,032,951,596 tons. The third
of the transcontinental railways of Canada is now
practically completed as this book goes to press ; the
driving of the last (golden) spike at the western end of
the line is to mark the completion of this great highway
which opens up many new sections and belts of country
possessing great natural resources.

Since the last edition was issued the old districts of
Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Athabasca, which
had been carved out of the North-West Territories, have
been deleted from the map, and two provinces, Saskat-
chewan and Alberta, erected in their stead. These,
however, are not co-extensive with the limits of the old
districts. In contrast with these two new provinces
occupying part of the great central prairie region, the
province of Manitoba was very small, and the promises
made to extend its boundaries were effectively carried
out in 1912. Ontario and Quebec also had their
boundaries extended on the north.

This new edition of Stanford's Comiyendium of Geo-
graphy and Travel for Bi-itish North America (Canada
and Newfoundland), though considerably enlarged, is, at
best, a condensed account of the leading characteristics
of two portions of the British Empire whose position
between western Europe and easternmost Asia makes
them a natural highway of commerce and travel, as well

xiv COMrENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

as a bond of union of great importance between the Far
East and the Near West.

This volume is also intended to be of special interest
and use to travellers. " How to travel " is both a science
and an art ; for a knowledge of the ground, or information
respecting the country traversed, is a necessity, whilst a
useful selection of suitable routes and localities to visit,
adds nmch to the enjoyment and educational value of
the journey. Viscount Bryce's recent utterances on the
subject before the Eoyal Geographical Society are particu-
larly timely, and his suggestions are strongly recommended.

My grateful thanks are especially due to Dr. Samuel E.
Dawson, C.M.G., F.E.S.C, etc., who was the author of
the last edition, for having allowed me full privilege to
use any portion of his 1807 text as mine in the present
1915 edition. Dr. Dawson's keen love for the history
and geography of Canada has marked him out as one
of our foremost contributors on these subjects, his
writings on the St. Lawrence River and the Cabots
constituting w^orks of reference of great value. Of the
latter, Fridtjof Nansen stated : " It is the very best and
most reliable treatise on the subject."

My best thanks are due to the Director of the
Geological Survey of Canada for the use of photographs
illustrating northernmost Canada, also for valuable in-
formation and courtesies received on numerous occasions
during the preparation of this work ; and from my own
former colleagues in the same department. The illus-
trations on pages 651, 698, and 868 are reproduced
by the courtesy of the Emigration Branch of the

PREFACE XV

J 'epartineiit of the Interior, while those on pages 818,
821, aud 822 are from photographs kiiuUy lent by
the Agent -General for British Columbia. I desire to
aeknowledge with thanks valuable assistance from the
executive as well as the political heads and officers of
numerous departments of the Civil Service of Canada
and Newfoundland, including those of the Interior,
Marine and Naval Service, Militia and Defence, Mines,
Agriculture, Fisheries, Finance, Indian Affairs, and others
residing in Ottawa ; also for similar assistance from the
executive heads and officers in the various departments
of the provincial Governments of Canada from Halifax
to Victoria. Special thanks are also due to numerous
individuals — geographers, explorers, and authors — -for
information without which this edition would have been
lacking of many facts and figures of special interest and
value ; Prof. Velain, Prof. Joubin, Dr. Gentil, Baron
Berget, and others of the University of France ; Dr.
Scott Keltic, of the Eoyal Geographical Society of
London ; the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies,
London ; Col. C. E. Hutton, Messrs. John Howard, J.
Obed Smith, D. Lewis Poole, and others of London,
England. To Dr. A. H. MacKay, F.R.S.C, of Halifax,
Nova Scotia ; Prof. H. T. Barnes, F.E.S., of M'Gill Uni-
versity, Montreal ; Dr. A. G. Doughty, C.M.G., Dominion
Archivist, Ottawa ; James White, Esq., F.R.G.S., etc., of
the Conservation Commission of Canada ; Messrs. Fridtjof
Nansen, Eoald Amundsen, J. B. Tyrrell, R G. McConnell,
Omer Senecal, J. E. Chalifour, W. J. Sykes, Dr. W. F. King,
Dr. E. Deville, D. B. Dowliug, James Robertson, C.M.G.,

XVI COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL

E. H. Campbell, Charles Camsell, and to all who have
so generously assisted me I desire to return sincere
thanks. To my brother, Samuel T. Ami, Cliief Editor
of Parliamentary Documents at Ottawa, I owe an especial
debt of gratitude for help in revising the work when
Hearing completion, and for valuable suggestions during
its preparation.

To the great railway companies of Canada, which
have done so much to develop and point out in a
practical way the resources of the Dominion, I desire to
express my indebtedness for numerous favours in the
form of information regarding routes of travel and
settlement, pleasure and profitable resorts in the numer-
ous scenic and beauty spots of Canada, whether in the
better known East or in the fascinating West, with its
numberless attractions of prairie, virgin forest, alpine
and mountain scenery, or in the delightful fjords, bays,
inlets, and waters of the Pacific coast. The Canadian
Pacific Eailway Company's officers, both in Canada and
Europe, President Chamberlin, and many other officers
of the Grand Trunk Eailway Company, have generously
furnislied me with views and information that have
proved useful in the preparation of several portions of
the text ; whilst the Government railway officials at
Ottawa and those of the Canadian Northern Eailway
Company have also been most kind in furnishing views
or desired information. To all of them my best thanks.

H. M. A.

" ITlLLSIDK," StRATHCONA PaRK,

Ottawa, Canada, July IS 15.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Introductory

PA OK

Chief Sources of Infonnation — Explorers .... 1

CHAPTER n

Threshold of the New AVorld

Indications of Land — Rivers of the North Athuitic — Tlie Gulf
Stream — Tlie Arctic Current — Banks of Newfoundland —
The Grand Bank — The Smaller Banks — The Procession from
the North ....... 5

CHAPTER m

Dominion of Canada

Characteristics common to the whole Dominion — Extent — Area —
Great Landmarks of the Empire — Boundaries — Description
and History — Relief of the Land — Nucleus of the Continent —
Characteristics of the Laurentian Area — Hydrograpliy — The
Atlantic Basin — The Pacific Basin — The Arctic Basin —
The Hudson Bay Basin — The Lakes — Evolution of the Great
Lakes — Water Powers — Climate — Rainfall — Forests — Fauna
— Aboriginals — Political Divisions — Population — Com-
munications — Government — History— Trade and Commerce —
Financial ....... 13

xvii

XVlil COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TP.AVEL

CHAPTER IV

History of Acadia

PAGE

Historic Unity of the Acadian Provinces — Early Voyages — Nortli-
men — Yarmouth Rune-stone — Discovery — Portuguese —
Bretons — Settlement — Port-Royal — Overlapping Charters —
Beginning of the Great Struggle — Dissensions — Cession of
Acadia — English in Acadia — Acadian French — -Frontier and
Indian Wars — Political Vicissitudes — The Oath of Allegiance
— Settlement of Halifax — Strained Relations — Ex]iulsion
of Acadian French — Loyalist Settlements — Formation of
Provinces . . . . . • ,157

CHAPTER V

The Maritime Provinces

General View — Physical Characteristics — Geological Structure —
Population — Component Nationalities — Climate — Tempera-
ture — Humidity — Forests — Trees of each Province . . 187

CHAPTER VI

Nova Scotia

Area— Boundaries — The Atlantic Coast — Bay of Fuudy — Minas
Basin — Geology — Minerals — Coal — Iron — Gypsum — Gold-
Character of the Land — Soil — Government^ — Education —
Cities — Communications — Forests — Commerce — Cape Breton ] 95

CHAPTER VII

New Brunswick

Boundaries — Area — Campohello and Grand Mauan — Bay of Fundy
— High Tides — The Bore — Fogs — Contour of the Land —
Hydrogra])hy — Geologjf — Minerals — Agriculture — Govern-
ment — Education — Cities — Communications — Resources —
Fisheries — Game — Climate ..... 231

CONTENTS

CHAPTEE VIII

Princk Edward Island

I AOB

Situation — Area— Geology — Fariuin<; — Soil — Climate — Coast-line
— Harbours — Communications — Cities — Government — Edu-
cation — Statistics — Exports ..... 260_

CHAPTER IX

Old Canada — The St. Lawrence Provinces

General Cliaracteristics — Origin of the two Provinces — Climate —
Tables of Temperature — Rainfall — Winters — Cold Snaps —
Forests^ — Lists of Trees — Forest Products — Hudson Bay
Watershed ....... 209

CHAPTER X

Quebec — The Ancient Province

History — Early Explorations — Cartier^First Settlement — Cham-
plain — Foundation of Quebec — Indian Wars — Foundation of
Montreal — French Expansion — Frontenac — Vicissitudes of
the Final Struggle — Capture of Louisburg — Montcalm —
Wolfe — Battle of Quebec — Cajiitulatiou — The Quebec Act —
War of 1812-U ...... 281

CHAPTER XI

The Province op Quebec

Boundaries — Area and Extent — Contour of the Land — Gulf of
St. Lawrence — River St. Lawrence — Geology — Population —
Education — Government — Communications — Agriculture —

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL

PAGE

Forests — Manufactures — Minerals — Fisheries — Sub-divisions
of the Province — South-Eastern Quebec — Saguenay Region —
Ottawa and St. Maurice Districts — Gaspe District — The
Eastern Townships — Quebec and the Quebec District — Mon-
treal and surrounding Territory — The City of Montreal —
Other Cities — The Labrador Peninsula — Climate — Forests —
History ....... 302

CHAPTER XII

The Province of Ontario

Boundaries — Contour of the Land — Hydrography — Geology — The
Great Lakes — Ontario — Niagara Falls — Erie — Huron —
Superior — Sault Ste. Marie^Natural Beauty — Population —
Government — Education — Agriculture — Field Crops — Climate
— Temperature — Central Ontario — Forests — District of
Patricia — Ontario Fisheries — Mineral Resources — Manu-
factures, Finance, etc. — Railways, etc.— Cities . . 437

CHAPTEE XIII

Central Canada and Territories

History — La Verendrye — Establishment of Trading Posts — Fur
Trade — Wars — Rivalry of Trading Companies — Settlers at
Assiniboia — Insurrection — Execution of Louis Riel . . 548

CHAPTER XIV

The Province op Manitoba

Boundaries, etc. — Physiography — Hydrography — Drainage —
Rivers — Lakes — Climate — Geology — Mineral Resources —
Agriculture — Soil — Cereals — Fisheries — Forests — Wild
Animals — Flora— Railways — Manufactures — Population and
Settlement— Law and Order — Cities, Towns, etc. . .561

CONTENTS XXI

CHAPTER XV

The Province of Saskatchewan

PAGE

Boundaries— Characteristics — Prairie Zone — Prairie and Woodland
Zone — Dense Forest Zone— Sparse Forest Zone — Physiography
— Hills and Streams — Drainage Basins — Rivers — Lakes —
Climate— Chinook Winds— Rainfall and Temperature— The
Soil— Geology — Mineral Resources — Fisheries — Fur-bearing
Animals — Lumber — Population — Chief Cities — Railways-
Local Government — Education . . . .618

CHAPTER XVI

The Province of Alberta

Boundaries — Physiography — Prairie Zone — Park Zone — Hydro-
graphy — Rivers, Lakes, etc. — -Hills — Climate — Soil — Flora —
Geology — Mineral Resources — Parks — Agriculture — Popula-
tion — Cities and Towns — Education — Railways— Telephones 662

CHAPTER XVn

British Columbia

Boundaries — Area and Population — Physical Features — Mountain
Ranges — The Cordillera — Hydrography — Discovery and
Development — -Railways — Steamboat Travel and Routes —
Vancouver Island and Coast — Climate — Forests — Geolog}' and
Mineral Resources — Coal — Wild Animals — Fisheries— Agri-
culture — Discovery, History, and Development — Population,
Cities, etc, — Trade and Commerce — Education . . 701;

CHAPTER XVIII

The Yukon Territory

Area and general description — Contour of the Land — Physio-
graphy — Mountains — Hydrography — Climate — Geology and

1 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPIIY AND TRAVEL

PAOE

Resources — Klondike District — Gold Production — The Gold
Rush — Economic Geology — Fisheries — Fauna — Forests —
Agriculture — Communications — Discovery and Settlement —
Towns — Government ... . . 831

CHAPTER XIX

The North-West Territories

The Hudson Bay Basin — The Coast— Drainage Basin — Geology —
Minerals — The Strait — Navigation — Climate — History — The
Barren Grounds — The jMackenzie Basin — Geology — Physio-
graphy — Hydrography — -Tlie Mackenzie River — Resources —
Agriculture — Climate of Mackenzie Basin — Settlements-
History — Arctic Canada — Icebergs — Winds — Temperature — •
Flora and Fauna — Exploration — The Pole — The North-West
Passage — The Coast -line — Fisheries — The Archipelago —
The Eskimo — Arctic Exploration — Movement of Ice — Earl
Grey's Tour — Unexplored Areas . . . .871

CHAPTER XX

Newfoundland

Area — Coast-line — Chief Characteristics — Bays — Harbours — The
French Shore — Geology — Interior — Hydrograjihy — Principal
Lakes — Lumbering — Climate — Government — Trade and
Resources — Population — Education — Industries — Mineral
Resources — Game — Communications — History — Discovery
— Colonisation — Period of Repression — Organisation of Civil
Society — St Pierre and Miquelon .... 973

BIBLIOGRAPHY .... . . 1025

INDEX ........ 1055

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. rarliament Buildings, Ottawa .

2. Cape Race, Newfoumilaiid

3. St. Elias Range and Hubbard Glacier

4. A Corner of Lake Timiskaming .

5. Lift-Lock on Trent Valley Canal

6. Croji of Maize, near Ottawa

7. Vineyard near Ottawa .

8. Douglas Firs, near Vancouver, B.C.

9. Head of Prong-horned Antelope

10. Head of Elk or Canadian Stag .

11. Bison at Silver Heights, Manitoba

12. Rocky Mountain Sheep .
1.3. Head of Musk-Ox

14. Crowfoot, the Great Chief of the Blackfeet

15. Indian Boy before being sent to School .

16. The same Boy in the LT^niforni of the Government

17. Stone found near Yarmouth

18. Halifax, Nova Scotia

19. A Minas Basin Vista

20. Grand Pre, Nova Scotia .

21. Strait of Canso ....

22. Mount Blomidon, Wolfviile, N.S.

23. View in the Public Gardens, Halifax

24. Halifax Memorial Tower

25. Baddeck, on the Bras D'Or, Cape Breton

PAfir

. Frontispiece

105

106

nt School

107

160

196

200

202

204

207

219

220

225

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

26. Sydney, Cape Breton

27. The Bore, Petitcodiac River
2S. Kennebecasis River

29. Falls of the St. John River

30. Bathurst, N.B. .

£1. Partridge Inland and Bell Buoy .

32. Fishcuring Plant, St. John, N.B.

33. Clark's River, Prince Edward Island

34. Turner's Farm, Vernon .

35. Junction of Restigouche and Matapedia

36. Tadoussac

37. Capes Trinity and Eternity

38. Head of Gaspe Basin

39. Perce Rock, Bay Chaleur

40. The Matapedia River, Quebec

41. View of Richmond, Eastern Townships

42. Pulp Logs, Windsor Mills

43. Quebec from Levis

44. Chateau Frontenac, Quebec

45. Montreal ....

46. Varennes, near Montreal

47. Harbour of Montreal

48. Fours Rapids, Rupert River

49. Mouth of Wiachuan River

50. Rapids on Clearwater River

51. Clearwater Lake .

52. Stillwater River .

53. Nachvak Inlet

54. Dr. Grenfell's Herd of Reindeer .

55. Gorge at Narrows
66. Gorge at Elora

57. Abitibi District : Railway Line .

58. General View of Niagaia Falls .

LIST OF ILLUSTliAJ'lONS

59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.

Thunder Cape, Lake Superior

Grain Elevators at Fort William

Among the Thousand Islands

Falls on Blackwater River

Market Day at Hamilton, Out. .

University of Toronto

Railway Line east of Cochrane

Part of Toronto .

King Street, Toronto

Chaudiere Falls, Ottawa

Victoria Memorial Museum

Ottawa ....

Old Fort Garry .

The Prairie, Manitoba

View down Great Churchill River

Nelson River

Great Dyke, Nelson River

Looking down Red River

Indians camped at Jack Fish River

Site of Fort Dau})hin

Running Rapids on Hayes River

]\loderu Methods of Threshing .

3500 Bushels waiting for the Thresher

Beach, Clearwater Lake .

Limestone Cliff, Cormorant Lake

Main Street, Winnipeg .

Brandon, Manitoba

Running Rapids, below Oxford House

Cattle Round-up, Touchwood Hills

Small's Point, Foi't Qu'Appelle .

Little Manitou Lake, Watrous .

Rcgina, Capital of Saskatchewan

Saskatoon

PAGE

481
482
487
490
493
497
506
536
537
539
540
541
553
567
573
574
575
576
579
581
589
595
596
606
607
613
614
616
621
623
624
651
653

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL

92. Lake near Nokomis

93. Lake near Touchwood .
9i. Cutarm Trestle, Qu'Appelle Valley

95. Mount Assiniboine, Alberta

96. Rundle Mountain, Banfi'

97. Farm near Edmonton, Alberta .

98. The North Saskatchewan

99. Louise Lake, Rocky Mountains

100. Bison in Rocky Mountains

101. Punch Bowl Falls, Jasper Park

102. Edmonton, Alberta

103. Calgary, Alberta

104. Royal North-West Mounted Police

105. Rocky Mountains from Bauif Springs Hotel

106. S.S. Prince George leaving Prince Rupert, B.C

107. Otter Tail Range, Rocky Mountains

108. Mount Robson, British Columbia

109. Peaks of the Selkirks .

110. Mount Dawson and Glacier

111. Mount Macdonald

112. The Hermit Glacier, Selkirk Range

113. View in the Coast Range

114. Rochers Deboules Mountains

115. Thompson River, British Columbia

116. " Boom " of Cedar Logs

117. The Gap : Entrance to the Rockies

118. Mount Stephen at Field

119. The Heart of the Selkirk Mountains

120. The Great Glacier

121. niecillewaet Glacier

122. Pack Horses at Glacier, B.C.

123. Great Loop in the Selkirks

124. Four Tunnels, Fraser Canon

LIST OK ILLUSTKATIUNS

V2!J. 'l'iiniiel.s on C. 1'. Jvaihvay

12(3. Indian Chiel's Hut, Fiascr Uivev

127. Head of Portland Canal

128. Indian Village, Cannery, etc. .

129. Ladoski's Grave, on Fraser Kiver Bank
i;30. Head of Bute Inlet

131. Lumbering, Southern British CoJiunbia

132. Salmon Cannery

133. 400-acru Orchard, Kelowna

134. Victoria Harbour

135. Legislative Buildings, Victoria

136. Hastings Street, Vancouver

137. English Bay Beach, Vancouver

138. The Cathedral, Stanley Park .

139. Prince Rupert Dock, British Columbia

110. Looking up the Pelly River, Yukon

111. Hill's Landing, Porcupine River

142. Eldorado Creek, Yukon

143. Forty-Mile Creek and Town

144. Coal Creek

145. Modern Methods of Hydraulicing

146. Hay-field near Dawson .

147. Norway House .

148. Foot of Gull Rapid, Xelson River

149. View of Marble Island .

150. Herd of Caribou, Barren Grounds

151. Musk-Ox {Ovibos Moschatus)

152. Gravel River, High Peak

153. Near the Mouth of the Mackenzie River

154. Peace Riier

155. Cape Haven Whaling Station, Batiin Island

156. Contorted Gneisses, Fullerton .

157. A Small Glacier, Bylot Island .

PAGE

751

752

753

754.

755

759

768

790

796

817

818

821

822

823

824

836

843

850

853

855

860

868

876

878

886

901

902

918

919

924

938

939

957

XXviii COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

158. Port Burwell, Moravian Missionary Settlement

159. Mouth of the Humber River

160. View on the Humber Kiver

161. Entrance to Harbour of St. John's

PAOE

970

978

985

1002

LIST OF MAPS

The Gulf Stream

A Map of British America 1915 ....

The International Boundary at Lake of the Woods
Archaean Nucleus of the Continent
Drainage Basins ......

Successive Positions of Ice Border ....

Sketch Map of the Glacial Great Lakes of North America
Mean Annual Temperature .....

Mean Annual Rainfall ......

Forest Map of Canada ......

Sault Ste. Marie Canals ......

The Chief Trunk Railways of the Dominion of Canada

Northern Part of the United States .
Shortest Route, Liverpool to Eastern Asia
Coal Areas ....

The Maritime Provinces .

Halifax Harbour

St. John, New Brunswick

Parts of Quebec and Ontario .

The Environs of Quebec .

The Environs of Montreal

Niagara Falls

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba Provinces

Topography of the Plains : Winnipeg to Calgary

British Columbia Province

Map of Part of the Cordillera .

The Kootenay District .

Yukon Territory

Newfoundland

and

Facing 5

Facing 29

. 76

. 117

of the

Facing 121

. 122

Facing 137

,, 187

219

. 253

Facing 303

369

381

. 474

Facing 561

. 565

Facing 705

,, 715

„ 737

831

,, 973

THE DOMINION OF CANADA

AND

NEWFOUNDLAND

CHAPTEK I

INTRODUCTORY

A COMPENDIUM of the geography of British America
must be prefaced by a disclaimer of all pretension to
originality. Such a book can only be a presentation in
logical order of an immense number of facts recorded
and observations made originally by explorers and found
in books of travel or in official reports. To give credit
in due proportion to each of the authorities from which
this work has been compiled would be an impossible
task, and, if it were possible, would confuse the reader
with unnecessary details ; moreover, many works of
authority are themselves built up on the labours of
officials whose names have been merged in the routine
of their duties. A short list of authorities, where fuller
details of the subjects herein treated may be found, is
given at the end of the volume ; but it will be con-
venient here, at the commencement, to acknowledge the
main sources from whence the information given has
been derived.

2 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

First, and before all, no treatise on the physical
features of British America can be written without draw-
ing largely from the reports of the very able staff oi
scientific men who have been connected with the
Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, from
its inception under Sir William Logan down to the
present day. Before his death the main physical facts
concerning the two provinces of old Canada had been
collected in the great report of 1863. About the time
of the appointment of Dr. Selwyn came the necessity
of extending the operations of the Survey over the im-
mense and little -known region of the North-West. It
seems almost invidious to make special mention of any
single memljer of a staff which has collectively done so
great a worlc, for the gaps on the maps of the Dominion
have been necessarily filled up by those to whose lot it
fell to work in the newer territories.

In this way it has happened that the name of Dr. G.
M. Dawson, Director of the Survey from 1895 to 1901,
has become bound up with the geography and geology ot
British Columbia and the adjacent territories to the
north, as well as with the belt along the 49th parallel.
The regions round Hudson Bay will always be associated
with the name of Low and Bell, and the Eocky Mountains
and sources of the Mackenzie with that of Mr. E. G.
M'Connell. Mr. J. B. Tyrrell's explorations in northern
Manitoba and Ontario, and in the Barren Grounds must
always be referred to when writing about those regions,
and Messrs. Low and Eaton, in a two years' exploration
attended with great hardships, have filled up the map of
central Labrador, previously less known than the interior
of Africa. Similarly, the geological resources of the
maritime provinces have been described by Messrs. E. W.
Ells, Hugh Fletcher, and E. E. Faribault ; and those of

INTRODUCTORY 6

Ontario and Quebec by Uavlow, Ells, Adams, besides
Coleman, IMiller, l^arks, Walker, etc., of Toronto.

The Dominion Lands Branch of the Department of
the Interior, under the direction of the Surveyor-General,
Doctor Deville, has been doing, in addition to its more
prosaic task of settlement surveys, a large amount of
scientific exploration. The most inaccessible recesses of
the mountain ranges at the w^est are now being mapped
by a method of photographic survey first introduced in
this department. Mr. William Ogilvie has, through a
series of years, made many most arduous explorations
in the immense territories about the Yukon and
Mackenzie rivers.

To the labours of Mr. James White, formerly Chief
Geographer of the Department of the Interior, now
Assistant to the Chairman of the Conservation Com-
mission of Canada, we owe the Atlas of Canada, a treasury
of most valuable information, presented in graphic form.

In like manner the Acadian provinces of the
Dominion can never be studied without reference to the
classic work of Sir William Dawson, Acadian Gcoloijy, for
therein is to be found the most complete collection and
statement of the geographical and geological facts concern-
ing the provinces on the Atlantic seaboard. The natural
history, and especially the botany, of the Dominion have
been the life study of Professor Macoun, whose published
papers must be referred to on these subjects.

In treating upon the separate divisions of British
America older names must be mentioned. It will be
impossible to write about Quebec without allusion to
La Salle and Jolliet, the discoverers and pioneers of the
Great West, and to La Verendrye, who carried the French
flag to the Eocky Mountains, or about Montreal without
allusion to Sir Alexander Mackenzie and the darino; and

4 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

liardy north-westers who found the way overland to the
Polar Ocean and the great South Sea.

Nor should David Thompson be forgotten, the
astronomer of the North-West Company, who explored
so many of the passes across the mountains in the early
years of last century, and was the first wliite man on the
Upper Columbia. The Thompson river recalls his name.
Many have profited by his labours, but he died in poverty
at Longueuil near Montreal at an advanced age. The
Yukon will always suggest the name of its discoverer,
Eobert Campbell, and recall his wonderful journey of
9700 miles, and his snow-shoe tramp of 3000 miles,
through the wilderness. He was the pioneer in that
remotest north-west.

Hudson Bay must of necessity recall the explorations
of Hearne and Dease, and Simpson and Eae, and other
officers of the great fur company of the North ; and the
Arctic regions of the Dominion are for ever associated
with memories of Franklin, Eichardson, and Back.

Parry, " the prince of Arctic navigators," must be
mentioned whenever the farthest north is spoken of. The
western shores of the Dominion will ever be associated
with the name of Vancouver, whose exact and thorough
surveys are still the basis of all our maps.

To the late Sir John Murray, Amundsen, Scott
Keltic, Hjort, His Serene Higlmess the Prince of Monaco,
Joubin, and Velain, geographers, oceanographers, and
workers in the science of geography, we owe special
acknowledgment of help and encouragement.

It would, however, be a heavy task to attempt
to make mention of all those whose labours, and whose
lives even, have been expended in the exploration of the
northern half of this continent ; it must suffice to make a
general acknowledgment of indebtedness once for all.

THE GULF STREAM &9

To face- page, 5,

SO'^ Stanford's Geoqf £sta6* Lo

London : Edwai'd. Stanforcl.Ltd.^l^.l^J.i't 14, Loa^* Acre, Vr.C-

CHAP TEE II

THE THRESHOLD OF THE NEW WORLD

The westward voyager in the higher latitudes of the
North Atlantic will meet with many indications of the
western continent long before he sees its shores.
Suddenly, almost as if at a definite line between
30° and 40° west longitude, the ship will pass from
the warm and deep blue water of the Gulf Stream into
the light green of the colder current flowing from the
far North. These two great ocean streams are such im-
portant factors in the climatic conditions of the countries
on the opposite sides of the North Atlantic that it is
necessary to dwell for a short time upon their direction
and characteristic features ; for they are the great ther-
mal influences which differentiate the climates of north-
east America from that of countries in north-western
Europe situated under the same parallels of latitude.

The Gulf Stream, gathering its momentum in the
tropical basin of the Gulf of Mexico, transfers by its
heated waters to the shores of Europe warmth generated
in the western hemisphere which softens the climate of
western Europe. New York city is in the latitude of
Naples, St. John's, Newfoundland, in that of Paris, and the
Strait of Belle-isle in that of London, Vessels sailing
westwards cross the Stream at a higher or lower latitude,

b COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

according to the season, for its northern limit is not
constant. Taken at the meridian of Cape Eace its
northern edge is at 40° to 41° in winter, while in Septem-
ber, when the sea is warmest, it stretches up as far as
45° or 46° north latitude. The difterence in temperature
in the depth of winter off the Grand Banks of New-
foundland between its waters and those of the surround-
ing ocean ranges from 20° to 30° Fahrenheit.

This remarkable current, after issuing from the Florida
Strait, flows north -eastwardly, following the general
direction of the American coast but at a distance from it ;
for the colder Arctic water runs inside in a contrary
direction along the land. About the latitude of Cape Cod
the Gulf Stream curves more outwards and flows across
the ocean. In longitude west about 20° it divides — one
branch envelops the British Isles, the other flows more
to the north, prevents the lakes in the Shetland and
Faroe Islands from freezing, keeps the harbour of
Hammerfest, the most northern port in Norway, open
all winter, and makes its influence felt as far north as
Spitzbergen. To steer westwards against this drift is, in
sailor's language, to sail uphill, and the usual ocean routes
cross its course. The Gulf Stream and its attendant fogs
acted as a veil which hid America through long ages from
the sailors of western Europe in those latitudes where,
from the converging of the meridians, the distance
between the two worlds grows continually less and less.

Such are the benefits which the old world had been
unconsciously receiving for ages from the unknown and
hidden western continent. On the north-west coast of
America the Japan current tempers the climate of
Vancouver island and the whole coast of British Columbia
generally ; but here on the north-east coast the provinces
of British America and the north-eastern United States

THE THRESHOLD OF THE NEW WORLD 7

are affected unfavourably as to climate by this ocean
circulation. The Arctic current tlows along their coasts
in a southerly direction and washes the whole eastern
shore of the continent down to Florida, flowing inside
the Gulf Stream as a river of cooler water of varying
surface-width, and dipping finally under the Gulf Stream
in its course to the Equator to renew the circuits of the
oceans. The Gulf Stream, originating in the tropics where
the diurnal motion of the globe is swiftest, passes to the
slower moving regions of the north and, by its accunni-
lated momentum, is projected towards the east, while the
Arctic current, originating in the polar ocean, starts with
a deficiency of momentum and, as it flows southwards, is,
from the same cause, thrown westward upon the eastern
coast of the western continent. Other conditions no
doubt exist — conditions of varying specific gravity, of
varying heat and prevailing winds — which operate to
modify or intensify the interaction of these great rivers
of the North Atlantic ocean ; Init the dominant cause of
the opposite direction of these currents is now admitted
to be the varying speed of the surface of the globe
revolving on its axis upon water unequally heated and
flowing northward and southward towards an equilibrium.
It is the existence of this south-west Arctic current which
render^ credible the voyages of the Northmen to America
in the tenth and eleventh centuries ; for, by means of it,
they could sail from Greenland or Iceland, as it were
downhill, along the coasts of Newfoundland, and in rear
of the veil which was to hide the new world for four
more centuries from the enterprise of nations less advan-
tageously situated in that respect.

Without, however, diverging to discuss the inviting
problem of the Viking discoveries, the reader's attention
must be strongly directed to this Arctic current and its

8 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

wide-reaching effects upon the American continent. The
polar overflow seeks the south in several convergent
streams. The current which flows out of Baffin Bay
is reinforced at Cape Farewell by a strong current down
the eastern shore of Greenland. A current is also laid
down on some charts as issuing from Hudson Strait ;
but, from the report of Lieutenant Gordon, R.N., it would
seem that bergs from Davis Strait are often seen to pass
in along the north shore of Hudson Strait, almost as far
as the Bay, and out again along the southern shore ; the
strong tidal currents, moreover, confuse the problem and
render it uncertain how far the outward current on the
south shore of the Hudson Strait is or is not a swirl of
the current from Baffin Bay. However this may be,
the currents east and west of Greenland unite to form
the great stream of cold water which is thrown upon
Labrador, and is often called "the Labrador current."
Down this stream pass a stately procession of icebergs,
and, in the proper season, immense masses of field ice.
The bergs are the product of the glaciers of the Green-
land ice-cap and of the high polar sea. These continue
steadily on their southward course into the Gulf Stream,-
where they melt, impelled onward into the warmer waters
by the deep-down current from the north still acting upon
the submerged seven-eighths of their bulk, and carrying
them steadily across the eastward flowing surface stream.
Other indications of the western world soon present
themselves to the observant traveller long before land is
seen. In longitude 48" west the ship commences to cross
the submarine threshold of America — that remarkable
plateau known as the " Banks of Newfoundland." Signs
of the change will not be wanting. The largely increas-
ing number of sea-fowl will, during the fishing season,
proclaim some unusual condition ; but chiefly will be

THE THRESHOLD OF THE NEW WORLD 9

remarked the persistence of fogs caused by the contact
of opposing currents of water very different in temperature.
In summer the Gulf Stream Hows over the southern end
of the Grand Bank with a velocity of one knot an hour,
and laps along the eastern border of the Arctic current
at no great distance from the outer edge of the Bank
along its whole length. At the line of contact of these
currents, even in the quietest weather, a disagreeable
tumbling sea is experienced ; but over the Grand Bank
itself the sea is not so heavy as outside. Among sailors
the Gulf Stream is called the " weather breeder " of the
North Atlantic, and the records show that the great
hurricanes have usually followed its course. The Trench
fishermen in the last century called it " the storm king,"
roi des temjjetcs, and when they found the sea very heavy
they supposed they were " debanked," and used to say
that they had got " away from home," qitils ne sont pas
cliez e.iLX. These, with many similar sayings of men
whose lives are spent among the dangers of these seas,
go to show that the sea upon the Banks is quieter than
outside, although a landsman may not be able to detect
much difference. It will appear then that the conditions
which produce vapour are never far distant, and, in fact,
any wind in which east or south preponderates in ever so
small a degree will bring upon the banks and neighbour-
ing coasts dense and persistent fogs. The colour of the
sea over the banks is a characteristic li^ht green, not
only because the water is shallower, but because, from
the melting of enormous masses of ice, it is distinctly
less salt than the deep blue water of the profounder ocean.
According to Schott the average salinity of sea water
at the surface is 35 per cent. From results obtained for
the Atlantic waters along the coasts of Baffin Island,
Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New

10 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL

Brunswick, 3 2 per cent of salinity is given ; and
precisely the same figure was obtained for the coast of
British Columbia and Vancouver island in the Pacific.
The enormous addition of fresh-water, in the shape of
melted ice in the north, accounts for the diminution of
the salinity in those regions.

It has been supposed by some writers of weight that
the Banks are the result of detritus carried down by the
secular stream of Arctic icebergs and deposited at their
melting — that they are, as Eeclus expresses it, "the
general moraine for the glaciers of Greenland and the
polar archipelago " ; but, if that were the case, the edges
of the plateau might be expected to slope gradually down
to the deeper abysses. On the contrary these uplands of
ocean terminate, at their eastern and southern edges
especially, in veritable submarine precipices over which
the sounding line drops from a depth of 22 or 32 fathoms
to one of many hundreds. The outline of soundings is
most marked around the whole contour of the plateau, as
well as over its surface, and the lead line is an infallible
guide to the sailor in ascertaining his position. The
bottom also is very characteristic, consisting of sand,
gravel, and broken shells, with mud only occasionally in
some channels or deeper valleys.

Smaller marine plateaus lie out before the coast of
Nova Scotia and New England, and, in long. 44° 38' west,
there is an outlier called " the Flemish Cap," extending
60. miles north and south by 25 miles broad, upon which
the soundings are less than 100 ftithoms. There is also
an elevation of the ocean bed along the whole North
American coast, due probably to the secular waste of the
continent ; but the bank off Newfoundland is known as
the " Grand Bank," because of its immense area and
strikino; characteristics.

THE THRESHOLD OF THE NEW WORLD 11

The Grand Bank of NewlbiuuUand extends from 43"
to 48° north latitude and from 48' to 55" west longitude.
It outlies the coast-line of Newfoundland from Cape Bona-
vista on the north-east round by Cape liace and along the
south as far as the Eamea islands. It is practically one
and the same plateau, although portions of it are designated
by special names, as the St. Pierre Bank, the Green Bank,
the Ballard Bank, and are separated by channels of some-
what deeper water. The usual depth over the Bank is
from 30 to 45 flithoms. On the southern edge it de-
creases to 22 fathoms, and at one point, not far from
Cape Bace, submarine reefs of small extent occur known
as the " Virgin Rocks." Over the highest peak of this
ridge the water shoals to 3 fathoms. These rocks are
recognised, in heavy weather only, by the sea breaking
over them. The Grand Bank is approximately 300
miles from north to south and 280 miles from east to
west ; its area is therefore equal to that of the whole
island of Newfoundland.

Across this plateau in the spring and summer the
Arctic current sweeps large numbers of icebergs in slow
procession from the far north. These islands of floating
ice are sometimes 100 feet high out of the water, and, as
only one-eighth of their bulk is visible, they frequently
ground in the shallower places. They all are of clear,
clean ice and show no marks of carrying detritus of any
kind. They are all of fresh water and in the cavities on
their surfaces are ponds of fresh water. During dense
fogs these ice islands are a continual source of anxiety to
the careful navigator to any port of British America or
the northern United States, for fogs and icebergs are by
no means limited to the Banks of Newfoundland. The
bergs travel far south, and the Gulf Stream is everywhere
fruitful in fogs which require only appropriate winds to

12 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

waft them in any direction. The only drawback pecuUai
to the coasts north of Halifax is the field ice in spring.

It is in this region that the cold Arctic current,,
flowing through a deep submerged valley between
Greenland and northernmost Canada, bearing an abundant
cold water fauna, meets the warm waters of the Gulf
Stream freighted with Antillean types of marine
organisms. Here, at the contact of these two currents, a
veritable catastrophe is continually going on. The Arctic
fauna is suddenly thrust into the warm waters from the
south, and vice versa ; and there results an abundant
supply of excellent food for the cod, and similar eurytherm
fishes which varying temperatures do not in the least
inconvenience.

Off the coast of America and continental shelf there
is the Valley of the west Atlantic, beginning at the Gulf
of Greenland and extending south-easterly between the
most southerly point of Greenland and the Labrador
coast, in a direction parallel to the latter as far as New-
foundland, where it takes a sweep and bends in a south-
westerly direction, and proceeds in a straight line to a
point due east of the southern extremity of Florida —
thence in a south-east line generally parallel to the coast
of South America.

Although, as described above, the two great rivers of
the North Atlantic flow on their great courses, there are
many local currents, eddies, and indraughts well known
to skilful sailors, and these are affected by the prevailing
winds and by the tidal wave in the infinite diversity of
circumstances which surround its progress and recession.
All of these are laid down in charts and sailing directions
compiled by highly skilled and scientific sailors, and will
be found in publications specially issued for the use of
mariners.

CHAPTER Til

DOMINION OF CANADA

The continent of North America is most conveniently
considered in three divisions. The most southern, or
Spanish, consists of Mexico and the other Spanish
American republics (953,930 miles) and the colony of
lUitish Honduras (7562 miles), containing a total area
of 961,492 square miles. The central consists of
the United States proper between Canada and Mexico
(2,973,890 miles), to which must be added Alaska
(590,884 miles); for Alaska, though on the extreme
north-western corner of the continent, is a territory of
the United States, j)urchased from Eussia in 1867 —
the aggregate area of this division is 3,564,774 square
miles. The British, or northern division, consists of the
Dominion of Canada (3,729,665 square miles) and the
island of Newfoundland (42,734 square miles), with the
p;i ■ "^ Tfibvador belonging to it, making a total area
ot square miles. It would appear, there-

ff tish America is the largest of the three.

T region is all subject to the British Crown,

s 1 islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, on the

A Newfoundland, which belong to France,
volume will be devoted exclusively to an
.' the geography and resources of this last

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPvAVEL

division. The extent of this region is within five per
cent of the area of the entire continent of Europe, and
as the aggregate area of the whole British Empire with
its protectorates is 11,429,078 square miles, the North
American possessions of the Crown are not far from one-
third of the whole. At the farthest east the landmark
is Cape Eace — one- third of the distance across the

CAPE RACE, NEWFOrNDLAND.

Atlantic — the most salient headland of the continent, at
long. 53° 4' 20"; and on the farthest west the gigantic
mass of Mount St. Elias marks the limit of British rule
as by a beacon 18,024 feet high at long. 141° W.
Between these two points are eighty-eight degrees of
longitude, almost one-fourth of the entire circuit of the
globe; and, in latitude, from the parallels of 42", 45°, and
49 Canada extends to the unknown regions of the Pole.
Much of this territory is, no doubt, inhospitable ; but there
is a belt, on an average 500 miles in width across the
whole, available for settlement. The extreme distance
from east to west being 3400 miles, there is, therefore.

16 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

an area, roughly approximating, of 1,800,000 square
miles, suitable to be the home of a settled, civilised, and
prosperous people. This last area is as large as all
Europe with the omission of Eussia.

The colony of Newfoundland has not yet joined the
confederation of British American colonies ; and, as the
Dominion of Canada is enormously the larger, it will be
more convenient to commence with it and to dwell upon
its more general characteristics before considering the
separate provinces of which it is composed.

Boundaries

The boundaries of British America are, on the north,
the Polar Ocean, and on the east the Atlantic Ocean,
Davis Strait, Baflin Bay, and Smith Sound to the
Arctic Sea. On the west the Alaskan boundary starts
from Demarcation Point on the shore of the Arctic Ocean
at long. 141° W. and follows that meridian southwards
until it strikes the summit of the mountain range. This
intersection occurs at Mount St. Elias, which is just within
Canadian territory. So far the boundary is an astro-
nomical one ; the remainder has been ascertained with
scientific precision, and is being marked by monuments
and posts. From the summit of Mount St. Elias, in a
south-easterly direction to the Portland Canal, the
boundary is that contained in the terms of the award
of the Convention of October 20th 1903, when the
dispute as to the divers boundaries claimed by Great
Britain and Canada on the one hand and the United
States on the other, was definitely settled. Since that
date, the International Commission appointed to delimit
the new boundary line has been actively engaged in the
work entrusted to them.

DOMINION OF CANADA 17

The southern boundary of Canada is 3260 miles long,
and is remarkable for many reasons, and among others,
because it won for its negotiator the thanks of the
Imperial Parliament, and for the state of Maine so large
a portion of Canadian territory as to have retarded for
forty years the union of the British provinces. This
most untoward result ought not, however, to be attributed
to the United States people, inasmuch as President Andrew
Jackson, in 1835, offered a fair and equitable solution of
the questions in dispute. This was refused, and the
golden hour of sweet reasonableness passed away never
to return. The thanks of Parliament were equally due
to many others who contributed to shape this boundary.
Indeed, almost everybody seemed to have had a hand in
it — provided he was not a Canadian — for the time of
the Canadians had not then come.

The boundary between French Canada and the old
colonies of England was well enough known to the
voyageurs and borderers of old colony days. It was
taken to be the water-parting between the streams
falling into the Atlantic and those falling into the St.
Lawrence river. The boundary between Acadia and the
English colonies was supposed Ijy the French to be the
Penobscot and by the English to be the St. Croix. The
general idea was that the boundary should be the water-
parting of the streams flowing into the Bay of Fundy and
those flowing into the main ocean. When, in 1783,
England divided her possessions in America with her
revolted colonies the treaty of peace was negotiated by
Franklin, Jay, and Adams for the United States — all
three perfectly acquainted with the question. The
boundary line between Eastern Canada and the United
States, commonly known as the " Maine Boundary," was
in dispute almost from the date of the Treaty of Paris in

18 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

1783 until 1842, when it was finally settled by the
Asliburton Treaty. The first point to determine was the
identification of, and " the source of the St. Croix river."
This was determined by the Jay Treaty of 1798. The
territory, later in dispute, included an area of 12,000
square miles, drained by the St. John river, and lying to
the west of the " due north " line from the source of the
St. Croix. The Ashburton Treaty awarded 5000 square
miles to Great Britain and 7000 square miles to the
United States. The intention was clearly to reserve
in their entirety Canada and Acadia to England. The
treaty recognised the watershed of the Atlantic as
distinct from that of the Bay of Fundy. It marked the
termination of the Atlantic at the St. Croix river.
Beyond that point was the Bay of Fundy. The natural
division was simple — the St. Croix was to be the
boundary of the United States on the east, and the St.
Lawrence watershed the boundary on the north. These
natural features, however, are not conterminous, for the
drainage basin of the St. John, falling into the Bay of
Fundy, runs round the head of the St. Croix and the
water-parting between the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic
does not extend so far east as a line due north from the
head of the St. Croix. This fact was not known at that
time, for the region was a wilderness and the maps
were inaccurate ; but the treaty is not difficult to read
in the light of the knowledge of that period. The
northern boundary was a fixed line, " the highlands
which divide those rivers that empty themselves into
the Eiver St. Lawrence from those which fall into
the Atlantic Ocean." The eastern boundary had also a
natural object as a mark, to wit, the St. Croix river to
its source, and a line was to be drawn from one to the
other ; but, unfortunately, the treaty said the line was to

DOMINION OF CANADA 19

be a " north line," and a due north line from one
to the other is not possible, for the termination of
the highlands is not north but north-west from the
source of the St. Croix. Hence the difficulty wliich
arose.

The Ashburton Treaty defined the boundary as a due
north line from the source of the St. Croix river to
intersect with the St. John river, thence up the St. John
river to the mouth of the St. Francis, thence up the St.
Francis to the outlet of Pohenagamuk lake, thence
south-westerly in a straight line to a point on the north-
west branch on the river St. John, which point should be
ten miles distant from the main stream of the St. John,
thence in a straight line on a course about south 8"
west to the point where the parallel of 46"" 25' north
intersects the south-west branch of the St. John river,
thence southerly by the south-west branch to its source
in the highlands at Metjarmette ]3ortage, thence following
the Height-of-Land between the waters that flow into
the St. Lawrence and those that flow into the Atlantic
to the head of Hall stream, a branch of the Con-
necticut river, thence down the latter to approximate
latitude 45^ thence following the old "Valentine and
Collin's line" in approximate latitude 45°, to the St.
Lawrence river near Cornwall.

The basic idea in drawing this line was to give us
the due north line to the St. John, and the St. John and
St. Francis rivers as a boundary, except that, from a
point on the St. Francis about half-way between its
confluence with the St. John and its source, an arbitrary
line was drawn to intersect the Height-of-Land, thus
giving Canada an area of 900 square miles in the basin
of the St. John river above its confluence with the St.
Francis, this being the area gained by Lord Ashburton

20 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL

over and above that awarded to British America (Canada)
hy the king of the N^etherlands.

The line of 45° intersects the St. Lawrence at St.
Eegis, and from thence, westwards, the boundary follows
the mid-channel of the connecting rivers and the middle
of the lakes. This part of the boundary was settled in
1822 by commissioners, but they did not get past the
St. Mary's river near the Sault Ste. Marie. There a
difficulty arose, and the delimitation was postponed, un-
fortunately, until 1842, for the Ashburton treaty. In this
case the geography of the treaty of 1 7 8 3 was far wrong. The
boundary, as specified in the treaty of 1783, was to pass
from Lake Superior through Long Lake to the north-west
angle of Lake of the Woods, and thence to the Mississippi.
But there is no Long Lake, and the source of the Missis-
sippi is far south of Lake of the Woods. By the Asli-
burton treaty the line is carried, according to its real
intention, along the Pigeon river, and the portages and
small lakes to Lake of the Woods. Then it runs north-
west across the lake to a bay, whence it drops due
south to the parallel of 49°, snipping off on the way a
little promontory projecting from British territory. This
projection into Canadian soil is indescribable without a
map on a large scale. After this sortie into Canada the
line does not go south into the United States to seek the
source of the Mississippi, which also was expressly made
a point in the treaty of 1783, but continues along the
parallel of 49° to the Strait of Georgia, and thence by
the Haro Channel to the Pacific Ocean. This part of the
boundary is more particularly described in the chapter on
British Columbia. One little projection, not visible save
on a map of a very large scale, just large enough to be a
foothold for impartial smugglers into both countries, is
cut off here, and then the Haro Channel, of three

THE INTEHNATIOXAL BOl'NDAKY AT LAKE OF THE WOODS.

22 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

navigable channels the nearest to Canada, is followed to
the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Such is the southern boundary
of Canada.

Relief of the Land

The nucleus of the continent of North America is an
enormous area of Azoic rocks, called Laurentian by the
Geological Survey of Canada, because of their immense
development north of the St. Lawrence. The name is
now accepted everywhere to denote the series of primitive
crystalline rocks which probably underlie all formations.
They are found in detached areas in the state of New
York and elsewhere in the United States, in the west of
Scotland, in Scandinavia, in Bohemia, in Central and
Eastern Asia, and in South America ; but nowhere else
are there such extensive and continuous exposures of
these rocks as in Canada. This Laurentian nucleus is
V-shaped on the outer margin, and the remainder of the
continent has grown upon it while still preserving the
same angular shape. The later ranges of the Eocky
Mountains and Appalachian chain run at the same angles,
and the coast-lines run parallel to these, forming triangles
within each other, based on the north and having their
apexes to the south. The sketch shows in an approxi-
mate way the gradual growth of the continent as well as
its Laurentian core, contained almost wholly within the
Dominion of Canada.

Commencing in the far north-west of the continent,
the outer edge of the Laurentian area skirts the valley of
the Mackenzie river in almost its whole length. It
commences near the Arctic coast and passes through
Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake, and includes almost
all of Lake Athabaska. The line then passes, still to the
south-east, to the head of Lake Winnipeg, and includes

DOMINION OF CANADA

the eastern shore of that lake. It iucludes the northern
shore of Lake Superior, the northern part of the province

SlaH/uid' i Oc.'j.'.' listabi

of Ontario, and touches the St. Lawrence at tlie Thousand
Islands, where it throws out across the river an outlier
into the state of New York. The Thousand Islands are

24 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL

of this formation, and are the southern apex of the
triangle ; the line then turns away to the north-east,
crosses the Ottawa, and follows the general course of this
river and the St. Lawrence at varying distances, until it
comes out on the St. Lawrence river and Gulf below
Quebec City, some thirty miles, forming high and pre-
cipitous cliffs at the mouth of the Saguenay, till it
reaches the Atlantic coast in Labrador. Nearly the
whole of the Labrador peninsula is of this formation.

While it is quite true, speaking in a general way, to
call this immense area Laurentian, there are within it
large areas of more recent formation. On the margins
and throughout its extent are wide bands of Huronian
rocks, a series generally metalliferous, so called from theh'
great development on the north shore of Lake Huron. In
the valleys of the rivers and on the plains of western
Ontario are later formations, but behind all these the
Laurentian formation forms the main mass.

This V-shaped nucleus is frequently described as the
Laurentian mountains. The word is a little strong,
because the height of the plateau is not more than from
1000 to 1600 feet above the sea. It is a country, several
hundred miles wide, of rounded, weather - worn hills,
densely wooded and abounding with lakes and sti'eams.
In remote geological ages these most ancient of all hills
were doubtless high mountains, but they have been worn
down to their present moderate height by the wear and
tear of countless ages. Their outline is characteristic,
and they bound the horizon with undulations rather than
with peaks. The rivers have not cut deeply into these
liard rocks. They flow with currents brimming between
their banks, fed perennially by the highland streams
which hurry down their clear and bright waters to the
greater rivers. There is no malaria in the Laurentian

DOMINION OF CANADA 25

country. Every brook may be drunk of with impunity^
and the clearing up of new land generates no fevers. In
the extreme east the mountains of Labrador attain in
some places a height of 6000 feet, but the mountains
farther west become more like a hummocky plateau. The
mountains on the Saguenay are 1500 to 1800 feet high,
and Trembling Mountain, north of Montreal, rises to a
height of 2380 feet. These are the highest summits of
this formation near the settlements, and none higher are
recorded in the territory to the north. When the height
of land is reached the country slopes down to Hudson
Bay with a gentle descent, and, though the surface may
be broken with rocks and streams, the portages from
stream to stream are low.

Parallel to the coast-lines, on both oceans, two great
mountain systems preserve the original type of the con-
tinent ; the ranges of the Pacific Cordillera running
north-west and south-east, and the Appalachian ranges
running north-east and south-west. These are both of
later date than the Laurentian plateau, and rise to a much
greater height. The mountains on the Pacific coast will
be described in the chapter on British Columbia. The
Appalachian ranges on the Atlantic side cross into Canada
from the states of Vermont and New Hampshire, where
they are known as the White and Green mountains.
They cross the south-eastern corner of the province of
Quebec with a much lower elevation until they strike the
St. Lawrence where, under the name of the Notre Dame
mountains, they follow down the shore into the Gasp^
peninsula and form a table-land of an average height of
1500 feet. Here they are known as the Shickshock
mountains, and rise to elevations of 3000 to 4000 feet.
Where these mountains cross the eastern townships of
(Quebec they make a rolling hilly country, suitable for

DOMINION OF CANADA 27

agriculture and pasturing ; but the interior of Gaspe is a
rough and mountainous plateau.

The maritime provinces of the Dominion form a group
by themselves and belong to the Appalachian system. A
range of hills runs from Cape Chignecto on the Bay of
Fundy to the north-east point of Nova Scotia, and is con-
tinued, through Cape Breton Island, to its extreme point
at Cape North ; but their elevation is not greater than
1200 feet. In New Brunswick two ranges of hills from
500 to 1000 feet high diverge from the south-west corner
of the province. One runs up in a north-east direction to
the Bay Chaleur, and the other is a lower hilly tract, with
no conspicuous peaks, running in the general direction of
the shore of the Bay of Fundy. These may all be con-
sidered as outliers of the Appalachians. The province of
Prince Edward Island is a gently undulating country — a
garden land where rock or stone can seldom be seen. All
the Maritime provinces lie outside of the Laurentian
nucleus.

The Dominion of Canada, then, presents to the east
the Atlantic provinces with a rocky coast-line and an in-
terior contour diversified with mountain and river and
farm land. The provinces of old Canada form the basin
of the St. Lawrence — in Quebec a broad and rich valley
between mountain ranges — in Ontario a broad plain
from Lake Ontario to the Laurentide hills and a fertile
peninsula inclosed by three great lakes. This passes into
the broken Laurentian region north of lakes Huron and
Superior. Then commences the great interior Cretaceous
and Tertiary plain stretching to the Rocky Mountains
and the Polar Sea ; and, lastly, the Cordillera or
mountain region of British Columbia.

28 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Hydrography

The history of Canada is explicable only by its water-
ways. There is nothing which so impresses the mind of
an intelligent traveller as the prodigality with which
Providence has endowed the Dominion of Canada with one
of her choicest gifts. It is above all others the land of
abundance of water. Thousands of miles of deeply in-
dented sea-board extend along the Atlantic and thousands
along the Pacific, with harbours on both oceans u.nrivalled
in the world. Both oceans search far into the land — the
Gulf of St. Lawrence and the great mediterranean sea
of Hudson Bay, on the east, and the Strait of Georgia,
with the deep fiords of British Columbia, on the west.
It is a country of broad lakes and flowing waters ; a
country where the abundance of streams and the regularity
of summer rains preclude the possibility of drought, and
secure the widest area of vegetable growth, a land of
grass and forest containing by far the larger portion of
all the fresh water of the globe, where, 2000 miles from
the ocean, the traveller may lose sight of land and be
prostrated by sea-sickness ; where thrilling adventures
and shipwrecks may occur in mid-continent — in the very
heart of North America at its widest expansion.

This description applies more especially to the great
central provinces ; but New Brunswick has a most
extensive river system of its own ; and, for Nova Scotia
and Prince Edward Island, the Atlantic Ocean and the
Gulf of St. Lawrence are the waterways. While mountains
and a deeply indented coast-line are the peculiar character-
istics of the Pacific province, old Canada contains the
most extensive system of interior waterways in the world,
and such breaks as occur in their continuous navigation
are overcome by a series of canals, so that with only one

DOMINION OF CANADA 29

transhipment at Montreal, freight from the largest ocean
steamships may be carried to the head of Lake Superior
2384 miles from the Strait of Belle-isle.

Tliere are four - great drainage basins in Canada,
exclusive of that small tract of country covering some
12,3 Go square miles of Southern Alberta and Southern
Saskatchewan, south of Medicine Hat and Swift Current
respectively, which drains into the Gulf of Mexico
basin by way of the Mississippi.

These four basius are as follows : —

Square miles.
I. Tlie Atlantic Basin .... 5f;4,000
11. The Pacific Basin .... 387,000

III. The Arctic Basin .... 1,290,000

IV. The Hudson Bay Basin . . . 1,486,000

The Atlantic Basin

The Atlantic basin, exclusive of Hudson Bay and its
enormous drainage areas from the Eocky Mountains to
the Atlantic Ocean, covers 554,000 square miles, and
includes portions of Labrador, the entire St. Lawrence
river sub-basin, and the Acadian sub-basin with rivers
flowing into the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and the Atlantic Ocean — covering generally the mari-
time provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and
Prince Edward Island. The Hamilton river, of Labrador,
whose length is 350 miles to the head of Lake Ashuanipi,
has a drainage basin of 29,100 square miles, whilst the
Miramichi and St. John rivers of New Brunswick have
drainage areas, 5400 square miles and 21,500 square
miles respectively forming part of the Acadian sub-basin.

The St. Laidrcncc sub-basin. — The area drained by the
St. Lawrence river basin comprises 309,500 square miles.

30 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

whilst the Saguenay river with its source in Lake St.
John has a drainage basin covering 35,900 square miles,
the St. Maurice 16,200 square miles, the St. John 21,500
square miles, and the Miramichi 5400 square miles.

Farther west, the following rivers and their tributaries
constitute minor basins as follows : —

Siiuare miles.

The Ottawa river basin 56,700

The Lievre ,, 3,500

The Gatineau ,, 9,100

The French ,, 8,000

The Nipigon ,, 9,000

The St. Lawrence river, whose total length from its
source to the sea is 1900 miles, is essentially a northern
river ; for all its large tributaries fall in from the north.
It flows on the southern side of its drainage basin, and
Lakes Champlain and George, and their outlet, the Kichelieu
river, are the only important contribution it receives from
the south. The Eiver St. Louis, which falls in at the
head of Lake Superior, close to Duluth, in Minnesota, is
taken as its source, and it widens out into the most
remarkable sequence of ocean-like lakes in the world.
It is known by various names throughout its course —
the Eiver St. Mary, the outlet of Lake Superior; the
St. Clair river, from Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair ; the
Detroit river from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. The
outlet of Lake Erie is the Niagara river, and it is only
from the outlet of Lake Ontario that it is called the St.
Lawrence ; to the older French writers it was also known
as the Cataraqui. The total length of navigation to Port
Arthur, in Ontario, from the open ocean at the Strait of
Belle-isle, is 2264 miles. As far as Montreal, 986 miles
are navigable for the largest ocean steamships. A few
miles above Montreal is the Sault St. Louis, or Lachine
Eapids, the first break from the ocean. This, and all

DOMINION OF CANADA 31

subsequent impediments, are overcome by a series of
magnificent canals with an aggregate length of 74 miles,
so that steamers 255 feet long and drawing 14 feet may
pass up the whole distance, 1278 miles, from Montreal
to I'ort Arthur and Fort William on Lake Superior.
Duluth, at the head of the lake, is 124 miles farther.

The width of the St. Lawrence varies very much, for,
besides the immense expansions of the upper lakes, it
widens into Lake St. Francis (5 miles), St. Louis (7
miles), and St. Peter (9 miles), on its course north-east
from Lake Ontario. The average width of the river proper
is about a mil©- and three-quarters, and the narrowest
point on its whole course is at Cap Eouge, a few miles
above Quebec. Below Quebec it widens to 20 and 30
miles, and across its mouth, at the west point of Anticosti
where it is considered to end, the distance is 100 miles.

The lakes of the St. Lawrence system, as before stated,
contain more than one-half the fresh water of the globe.
The water in them is clear and bright, for they are the
gigantic settling basins of the upper streams. At Three
Elvers, half-way between Montreal and Quebec, the
influence of the tide ceases, about 30 miles below
Quebec the water becomes brackisli, and at the mouth
of the Saguenay it is salt. The aggregate area of these
fresh-water seas is 101,058 square miles, and the total
fall, from Lake Superior to tide water at Three
Rivers, is 602 feet, half of which is in the Niagara
river. The St. Lawrence is thus a broad and deep
avenue to the very heart of North America ; for the
central point of the continent is only 250 miles in a
straight line west of the head of Lake Superior. No
wonder the early French explorers were continually
dreaming of a passage to China.

The dimensions of the chief lakes of the St. Lawrence

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

system are given below ; Lake Michigan is included
though wholly in the United States. The Strait of
Mackinaw connects it with Lake Huron.

Table of St. Lawren'ce Lakes

Statute miles.

Area.
Square miles.

Average
depth.

Feet.

Height
above sea.

Feet.

Lakes.

Length.

Breadth.

Superior.
Michigan
Huron .
St. Clair
Erie

Ontario .
St. Francis
St. Louis
St. Peter
St. John
Nipigon .
Simcoe .
Timiskaniing

354

316

207

239

193

162

118

101

31,800

25,590

23,200

441

10,000

7,260

130

350

1,730

300

117

688
690

700

412

3 to 50

540

125

600

602
581
581
570
572
246
142
58

314
852
701
515

It will be seen by the above table that the bottoms of
some of tlie great lakes are below the sea-level, and the
surface of the highest is only 600 feet above the sea.
This great system of waterways is like an arm of the
ocean itself.

The river system tributary to the St. Lawrence is re-
markable for the length and number of its streams. As
before stated, the river Hows on the southern edge of its
basin, and all the great tributaries are from the north. It
is a Canadian river, for seven-eighths of its drainage is on
Canadian soil. It will be impossible even to mention
more than a very few of the tributaries of this immense
system. They will be treated of more in detail in the
chapters on the separate provinces to which they belong.

Commencing on the north, it must be noted that the
central plateau of Labrador is on an average 1800 feet

DOMINION OF CANADA 33

high, iiiid not far distant from the shores of the gulf.
The rivers are very numerous, but are not navigable ; for
many falls and rapids are encountered before the level of
the sea is reached. Almost the longest is the Manikuagan
(325 miles long), a rapid stream falling into the Eiver St.
Lawrence west of Pointe de Monts. Its source is a lake
with a double outflow — one by the Koksoak river to the
north into Hudson Strait, and the other to the south in a
course of 224 miles, with short reaches of lake, and with
much broken water. The Outarde, which falls in near it,
is 234 miles long. Farther west is the Saguenay, a
profound and gloomy stream like a Norway fiord, flanked
by precipitous cliffs. The largest man-of-war may steam
up for sixty miles between the mountains on its shores.
At Chicoutimi (71 miles) navigation is interrupted
by rapids. The Saguenay is the outlet of Lake St.
John, a lake 28 miles by 20, almost a circular basin,
which collects the water of several large streams. The
Ashuapmuchuan, one of its tributaries, leads up to the
portage to Lake Mistassini, whence Eupert river flows
into Hudson Bay. The length of the Saguenay from
the outlet of Lake St. John is 112 miles. Father
Albanel was the first white man to explore this route
when, in 1672, he followed it to Hudson Bay.

The Ottawa, with its total length of 685 miles,
is the most important tributary to the St. Lawrence.
The city of Montreal is built on an island, formed
at its confluence with the St. Lawrence where, flowing
in from the west, it strikes with its darker water the
clear flood of the larger river flowing in an acute angle
from the south-west. The waters do not mingle, but
flow side by side until they reach the tide. Navigation
on the lower Ottawa is obstructed by the St. Anne's
Eapids and the rapids of the Long Sault at Carillon.

34 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

These are overcome by short canals, and steamers may
go up as far as Ottawa city, where the falls of the
Chaucliere bar further progress. There are, however,
steamers on all the upper reaches of the river. The
Ottawa was the fur-traders' route to the great west. In
1615 Champlain went up the Ottawa and followed the
Mattawa, one of its tributaries, to Lake Nipissing.
From thence he passed down French river into Lake
Huron, and wintered there with the Hurons. A ship
canal has been projected to follow the same route, and
so cut off the peninsula of south-west Ontario. Such
a canal would lie on a direct east and west line from the
junction of three great lakes at the Strait of Mackinaw,
and would save 570 miles of navigation. In 1686 the
Chevalier de Troyes led an expedition up the Ottawa to
capture the English forts on Hudson Bay. He passed
up by the short portage leading to Lake Abitibi, which
discharges into Hudson Bay by a river of the same name.
The most important of the tributaries to Lake Ontario,
from the north, is the Eiver Trent, which opens up a world
of lakes in the heart of that province. In 1616 Cham-
plain came down with a great Huron war party from Lake
Huron by the River Severn, and Lake Simcoe, and over
the portage to the River Trent, into Lake Ontario. This
route is now being improved for modern business by
canals and dams. The largest lift-lock on the North
American continent has been constructed along the
Trent Valley Canal near Peterborough, Ontario. There
are no rivers of importance on the northern shores of
Lakes Huron and Superior, because the water-parting of
Hudson P)ay approaches very close to their shores. At
Michipicoton is the main route for the Moose river, and
at Nipigon is the route for the Albany river — both large
rivers falling into Hudson Bay. Their head waters are

DOMINION OF CANADA

close to tlift lake, and the portages to these waLeis have
been used Ironi the early times of" the fur companies.

lieturning now to the east and following the soutli
shore of the St. Lawrence, the tributaries are compara-
tively small ; but tliey are important because they open
up adjacent river systems to the south. At Eiviere du

LIFT-LOCK ON TRENT VALLEY CANAL, NEAR PETERBOROUGH, ONTARIO.

Loup the head waters of the St. John river of iSTew
Lrunswick are only 25 miles distant, and the old route
of the war parties of the Mohawks was from there to the
Madawaska. The Chaudiere river, falling in near Quebec,
rises close to the head waters of the Kennebec, and by
that route Arnold came in 1775 from Maine to besiege
Quebec. The Eichelieu river was called, in the early
French days, the Riviere aiix Iroquois, for it was the
track of their invasions. The Richelieu is navigable

36 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPxAVEL

for large vessels from St. Johns to the head of Lake
Champlaiu. A canal, 12 miles long, overcomes the
rapids and completes the navigation from the St.
Lawrence to Whitehall, in the state of New York, at the
head of the lake. The Eichelieu discharges the water
of Lakes George and Champlain, and down its valley
swept the tides of invasion to and fro in the wars of old
colony days. Crown Point and Ticonderoga were the
French fortresses, and Fort William Henry and Fort
Edward the chief English defences. The head waters of
the Hudson are very close to those of the Richelieu, and
they are connected by a canal. There was the most
vulnerable point both of the English and French provinces,
and nearly every headland and stream have romantic
historic memories. Fenimore Cooper has made this
region, as well as the route by the Mohawk river to
Oswego, classic by his " Leather Stocking Tales."

Farther west, from the south shore of Lake Erie, the
whole valley of the Ohio lay open from the St. Lawrence.
At Presqu'isle, on the site of the present city of Erie,
the head waters of the Alleghany river approach the
shores of the lake, and from this river the French had a
line of forts to the present Pittsburg, Fort Duquesne.
This is the region of Braddock's defeat, and of Washing-
ton's early services for the king. Where Toledo is now
built the Maumee river leads to the head waters of the
Wabash, which falls into the Ohio, and that was another
favourite route of the French.

From Lake Michigan the upper Mississippi lay open ;
for at Chicago the Des Plaines river approaches so close to
the lake shore, and the divide is so low, that it is proposed
to carry the city drainage, not into the lake, but into the
Mississippi. By that route, in 1682, La Salle led his
followers and, first of white men, traced the great

DOMINION OF CANADA 37

Mississippi to the Gulf of IMexico, and took possession
for the king of Prance of that magnificent valley now
the centre of the power of the United States. At the
foot of Green Bay, on the west side of the lake, the Fox
river falls in, from whose head waters a portage of a
mile and a half leads to the Wisconsin river. In 1673,
by this route, Louis Jolliet and Father Marquette reached
the Mississippi and followed it as far as the Arkansas.

These are the main portage routes, and they show how
the St. Lawrence valley cuts all the communications of
the interior of the continent with a transverse band of
deep and navigable water, and, although railways have to
a great extent superseded water-ways, these facts are yet
necessary to elucidate the history of North America and
show how it was possible for the small population of New
France to keep the English Colonies in check for so many
years. The settlements of the English colonists were taken
in rear, where they were weak and straggling, and the
incursions of the French and their Indian allies retarded
for a long time the advancing line of settlers westwards.

In the same manner to the south, the head waters of
the Red river lie far south of the source of the Mississippi,
and the divide is so low that in the glacial period the
whole outflow of the Winnipeg sub-basin was by the
Mississippi. Farther west the Souris river, a tributary
of the Assiniboine, affords access to the Missouri, and,
indeed, the basin of the Missouri actually enters Canada
in the province of Saskatchewan, whilst the main river
itself flows close to the international boundary of 4:9".
It was by the Souris that the Sioux used to send their
war parties into the Cree country, and the Eiver
Assiniboine means " River of the Stony Sioux " — a tribe
of the Dakota nation. The Saskatchewan sub-basin
continues to the Rocky Mountains, and the function of

4 (1 9 8 4

38 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

the St. Lawrence in the east is that of intervening
between the great southern and northern watersheds of
the continent and of supplying a key to both.

These two basins, thus traversing the water systems
of the continent, are not continuous ; for the height of
land of the Hudson Bay basin follows the north shore
of Lake Superior at no great distance, turns to the south
at the head of the lake, and reaches south, within the
United States, to gather in the waters of Eed river. To
pass from Lake Superior into the Winnipeg basin it is
therefore necessary to cross this height of land, which
is from 1500 to 1600 feet above the sea-level, and as the
watershed on the St, Lawrence side is narrow, the way is
rough and many falls and rapids have to be overcome.

The country between Lake Superior and Lake
Winnipeg is a tangle of forests and lakes and swiftly
flowing streams — a wilderness of rock and morass and
foaming rapids and precipitous waterfalls. It is the
summit level of four great watersheds. To the north-
east the Albany river drains directly into Hudson Bay ;
to the west the Lake of the Woods collects the waters of
innumerable streams to pour them down by the Winnipeg
river into Lake Winnipeg ; to the east are the streams
flowing into Lake Superior ; and not far away across the
border in Minnesota to the south, the head waters of the
Mississippi begin to form the great river which pours
its flood into the tropical basin of the Gulf of Mexico,
Kenora, formerly Eat I'ortage, at the outlet of the Lake
of the Woods, is a centre of business activity where there
are immense lumber and flour mills. This region is also
the centre of a number of gold-mining enterprises. A
long belt of good farm land runs along the north shore
of Bainy river, but the country generally can never be
other than a mining and lumbering region.

DOMINION OF CANADA 39

The great hydrographical feature of this country is
the Lake of the Woods. It is the pivot of that great
circle of lakes stretching down the St. Lawrence and
sweeping up past the Arctic circle to Great Bear Lake.
It is 70 miles long and 60 wide ; but its outline is
indented to an extraordinary degree, and its northern
portion is filled with islands. The water area is given
as 1851 square miles. The lake drains a basin of
36,000 square miles. Its main tributary is Eainy river,
a noble stream Howing from Eainy Lake. Steamers and
steam-tugs ply over it, and, if the lock at Fort Frances
were completed, there would be a continuous navigation
for steamers through Rainy Lake and river and the Lake
of the Woods for 250 miles. At the northern corner of
the Lake of the Woods is Kenora, where the Winnipeg
river commences its swift career and, through falls
and rapids, drops 300 feet in a comparatively short
distance.

Before the construction of the " Dawson Eoute "
through this territory there were but two great water
routes. One is now the line of the international
boundary, and was called the Grand Portage; and Grand
Portage Bay, still on the maps, marks its eastern end.
The other commenced at Thunder Bay, and was used by
the French fur-traders and adopted by the North-West
and Hudson Bay Companies. By the Grand Portage it is
only 60 miles to the height of land. The route is by
Pigeon river, and through a succession of lakes to South
Lake, 1535 feet above the sea, or 935 feet above Lake
Superior. Many laborious portages have to be made to
overcome falls and rapids, but the distance across the
summit to North Lake is very short. The descent is also
laborious through many lakes by Eainy Lake and Eainy
river to the Lake of the Woods. The fall from the summit

40 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

to the Lake of the Woods, which is 1057 feet above tbe
sea, is 516 feet. The remainder of the fall to the level
of Lake Winnipeg (3-47 feet) is by a series of falls and
rapids on the turbulent Winnipeg river in its course of
163 miles.

The fur-traders' route to the Lake of the Woods from
Fort William on Thunder Bay was the one adopted by
Colonel Wolseley in his expedition to Eed river, with the
difference that the old canoe route went up the Kaminis-
tikwia into Dog Lake, and up Dog river to the height of
land. He led his force of 1048 men up the Kaministikwia
and the Matawin rivers into Lake Shebandowan, and
crossed the summit almost at the shore of Lac des Mille
Lacs. From thence he followed the old canoe route, by way
of Sturgeon Lake and river, into Eainy Lake, and thence
by Eainy river into the Lake of the Woods. The divide
is 1570 feet high, about the same as on the other route,
but the main lift is in the 48 miles from Lake Superior
to Lake Shebandowan, which is 800 feet above it and
close to the summit portage. At Lake La Croix both
routes unite and pass by way of Eainy Lake into the Lake
of the Woods — the central basin.

It will thus be seen that a dividing ridge 1000 feet
high separates the navigable water of Lake Superior from
that of Lake Winnipeg, and that the whole band of inter-
vening country is studded with lakes and streams. The
distance is 400 miles, and no doubt the long stretches of
quiet water would have been utilized before now in some
system of communication had not the Canadian Pacific
Eailway intervened to make the required connection.
The days when the old fur-traders kept high state at
Fort William, and wlien these lonely river reaches were
vocal witli the songs of the voyagcurs, are gone ; but the
town of Ivenora is stirring with active enterprise, and

DOMINION OF CANADA 41

the railway has become the liuk between the two great
basins of the continent.

The St. Lawrence river basin has been described here
because it extends throughout the whole of old Canada
and cannot be treated of excepting as a whole. A brief
enumeration and tabulation of the other hydrographic
basins included within the Arctic basin and within the
Pacific basin are added, but a fuller description of these
will fall conveniently into other chapters — the Winnipeg
river system into the chapter on Manitoba and the
North-West, the Mackenzie valley in the chapter on the
Mackenzie ]>asin, the Hudson Bay, the Yukon, and
the Arctic in their respective chapters. The object of this
section is to show the paramount importance of the St.
Lawrence valley as the key to the wdiole inner continent.
In the far west of Canada there is a place with a radius
of not many miles where rise the sources of the Sas-
katchewan flowing east, the Mackenzie flowing north, the
Missouri flowing south-east, the Columbia flowing south-
west, and the Fraser flowing west. This is the critical
geographical point of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes's poem,
Tlie Tu:o Streams, from whence he has drawn a deep
moral lesson.

Yon stream whose sources run
Turned by a pebble's edge
Is Athabaska rolling toward the sun
Through the cleft mountain-ledge.

The slender rill had strayed,
But for the slanting stone,
To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid
Of foain-Hecked Oregon.

So from the heights of will
Life's parting stream descends.
And, as a moment turns its slender rill,
Each widening torrent bends.

42 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

From the same cradle's side,
From the same mother's knee,
One to long darkness and the frozen tide,
One to the Peaceful Sea.

Note. — In common with the United States to the
south, the Dominion of Canada shares equally in all
the benefits which accrue from those vast bodies of fresh
water known as the " Great Lakes," which form so potent
a factor for good in the economical development of both
countries. With much wisdom and forethought these
natural resources have been utilized, with other waters
and water-ways, as the International Boundary Line
under the special charge of a Joint non-political Water-
ways Commission, whose function is to guard the interests
of both peoples in an equitable and just distribution of
the valuable assets they represent.

Lake Winnipeg Basin. — This basin is 350,000 square
miles in extent, being nearly the size of France and
Spain, which have together a population of 58,000,000
souls. The Saskatchewan river, draining 158,000 square
miles of this basin, extends west to the Eocky Mountains,
and from Edmonton to the forty-ninth parallel. The
Winnipeg river has a drainage area of tlie same size as
that of Ottawa, namely, 55,000 square miles, equal in
size to England and Wales.

The Mackenzie River Basin has a drainage area of
nearly 700,000 square miles. The chief tributaries of
the Mackenzie are the Athabaska and Peace rivers.
Except at Grand Eapids and Fort Smith Eapids, naviga-
tion in this basin is uninterrupted from Athabaska Land-
ing to the Arctic, a distance equivalent to that from
Halifax to Winnipeg.

The prairie rivers of Manitoba, Saskatcliewan, and
Alberta drain a territory of nearly 1,000,000 square

DOMINION OF CANADA

miles, through two outlets, the Nelson and the Mackenzie
rivers.

British Culumbia. — The Fraser river, 400 miles loner;
the Okanagau river and lake, nearly 80 miles in length ;
the Columbia river and its expansions in the Arrow
lakes, some 200 miles, together with the Kootenay river,
form a series of parallel north and south valleys dividing
tlie mountains.

>S^^. Lawrence Basin. — The watershed area of the St.
Lawrence river is 550,000 square miles, one-sixth of
which is the water system of the Great Lakes, which
constitutes the most remarkable reservoir system in the
world. The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence afford
the greatest inland navigation route known. West of
Montreal a system of canals has been constructed at a
cost of $80,000,000, so that a 2200 -ton boat can
sail from the Atlantic 2264 miles into the interior of
the continent through St. Lawrence waters, whilst ocean
liners of thirty feet draught freely ascend to Montreal.

The Pacific Basin

The river basins included in the Pacific Drainage Basin
and the areas which they cover are here enumerated : —

Alsek river basin

11,200 square

miles

Blackwater ,,

5,600

Chilcotin ,,

7,500

Coluiabia ,,

39,300

Fraser , ,

. • 91,700

Kootenay ,,

15,500

Lewes ,,

35,100

Nacliako ,,

. 15,700

Nass ,,

400

Telly

21,300

Porcupine ,,

24,600

Stewart ,,

21,900

Stikine river basin

ftix am; i
300

vA V VuU

square miles

Skeena ,,

19,300

Taku ,, . . .

• . 7,600

Thompson ,,

. 21,800

White ,, . . .

. 15,000

Yukon ,, . . .

. 145,800

The Arctic Basin

The river drainage systems of the northernmost
portion of the Dominion discharge their waters into the
Arctic Ocean, and include the following : —

Athabaska river basin .

58,900

square miles

Back's ,,

47,500

Coppermine ,,

28,100

Hay „ . .

25,700

Peace ,,

117,100

Liard ,,

100,700

Mackenzie ,,

682,000

Part of the Arctic basin lies in the western half of
the great V-shaped mass of Archeean crystalline rocks,
in the Barren Grounds region west and north-west of
the Hudson Bay basin, where lakes and swift-flowing
rivers connecting them form a network of water-ways
of greatest value to travellers in those remote regions.
By far the greatest basin is that of the Mackenzie river,
with many large streams and tributaries flowing from
the Cordillera, some of which still await the explorer
and geographer for more accurate information than we
possess up to the present time.

The Hudson Bay Basin

North and west of the Atlantic basin, just described,
lies the great interior basin of Hudson Bay M'ith a total

DOMINION OF CANADA

drainage area of 1,486,000 square miles, extending from
the Rocky Mountains on the west to Cape Chidley on
the east (i.e. between 65" and 117° west longitude, and
from 46 north latitude on the south, in Minnesota,
to 72 north latitude in Cockburn Land). A low col
separates tlie waters of the Hudson Bay basin from
those of the Arctic basin, as represented in its most
important sub-basin of the Mackenzie river, so that the
great fur companies of the west had several ways of
ready and unobstructed access open to them to Hudson
Bay or to the Arctic Ocean.

The different river sub-basins of the Hudson Bay
basin include the following : —

River.
George .
Koksoak .

Big

Eastniain
Rupert .
Broad back
Nottaway
Abitibi .
Missinaibi
Moose
Kenogami
Albany .
Attawapiskat
Winisk .
Severn .

Square Miles.
20,000
62,400
26,300
25,500
15,700
9,800
29,800
11,300
10,600
42,100
20,700
53,800
18,700
24,100
. 38,600

River.
Nelson .
English .

Winnipeg . .
Red ...
Assiniboine .
South Saskatchewan
Belly .
Bow

Red Deer

North Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Churchill

Kazan , . .
Dubawnt .

Square Miles.

370,800

20,600

44,000

63,400

52,600

63,300

8,900

11,100

18,300

54,700

158,800

115,500

32,700

58,500

The climatic and physical conditions of the country
around Hudson Bay differ so much from those of the
rest of Canada that they must be considered in a separate
chapter ; nevertheless, as the great Laurentiau V-shaped
plateau has been shown to be the nucleus of the con-
tinent, so Hudson Bay, which occupies the interior of
the plateau, is, geographically, a most important feature

46 COMPEiSTDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

of the Dominion. South and south-east of it stretches
the St. Lawrence basin, to the south-west the sub-basin of
the Winnipeg system, and to the west the basin of the
Mackenzie.

The interior of the Laurentian nucleus is occupied by
the inland salt-water sea of Hudson Bay, and its outward
edge is encircled by a succession of immense inland ex-
panses of fresh water, extending from the Great Bear
Lake in the Polar circle on the west, round by the south.
The water-parting of the Hudson Bay basin is far within
the Laurentian plateau, and is not marked by bold high-
lands, but near it on both sides is an inner circle of
smaller lakes or lake-like expanses of the streams.

The Lakes of Canada

Canada is par excellence a country of lakes. Besides
the Great Lakes, Superior, Huron, St. Clair, Erie, and
Ontario, forming part of the St. Lawrence river system,
we have not only tlie innumerable series of large and
small lakes, dotting the Laurentide country as the
firmament is dotted with stars by night, but an almost
continuous zone of fresh-water lakes, varying in size from
a hundred square miles and less to upwards of 11,000
square miles, occurs along the contact of the disturbed
and contorted primitive crystalline rocks of the " Great
Shield " of Suess with the palteozoic and for the most
part flat-lying sedimentaries. In this zone are noted
Lakes Simcoe, Nipissing, Nipigon, Rainy Lake, Lac Seul,
the Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba,
Winnipegosis, Moose, Cumberland, Bear, Montreal, La
lionge, Dore, La Plonge, Clear, Buffalo, He a la Crosse,
La Cloche, Reindeer, Wollaston, Black, Athabaska, Claire,
Great Slave, and La Martre Lake, together with a double

DOMINION OF CANADA 47

chain of hikes, without names, extending to Great Bear
Lake. North of this latter lies another series of some
eighteen lakes extending towards Franklin Bay, also
unnamed, and varying in size from upwards of 400
square miles to less each. Then from Lake Ontario
north and eastward to Hudson Bay and the Atlantic
chains and zones of lakes occur in vast numbers, among
whicli are those of the Laurentide Hills and Labrador,
as well as those of the St. Lawrence river, which latter
form expansions of this great stream which flows to the
ocean as a highway of civilization and commerce in a
comparatively recent channel, lakes alternating with
rapids and shallows as is the case with young rivers.
Thus, from the city of Kingston, at the foot of Lake
Ontario to Montreal, by way of the Thousand Islands,
we have the Galops, Cedar, and Long Sault Eapids, Lake
St. Francis and Lake St. Louis, Lachine Eapids, and the
Hochelaga current with Lake St. Peter forty miles below
Montreal. At the head waters of the Eichelieu river
lies Lake Champlain, a magnificent sheet of fresh water,
the tercentenary of whose discovery was celebrated in
1910, whilst the eastern townships of Quebec, with their
superb well-wooded mountains and fertile valleys, have
charming lakes, of which Memphremagog,Brome, Megan tic,
and Magog are typical examples. Throughout its entire
area the Labrador peninsula, and south-westerly to the
boundary between Ontario and Quebec, is dotted with
lakes of considerable and small size, including Timis-
kaming, Abitibi, Grand Lake Victoria, Mattagami, Ex-
panse, Quinze, Mistassini, Albanel, St. John, Chibougamau,
Atikouak, Ashuanipi, Evans, and Lake Melville near
Hamilton Inlet.

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The North-West Territories, etc.

The lakes of these Territories given by White as
the most important, together with dimensions, are as
follows : —

lare miles.

Square miles.

Aberdeen . . . 515

Mac Kay ....

980

Apiskiganiish .

392

Maguse ....

490

Atikameg

Martre, Lac la .

1225

Aylmer .

612

Minto ....

235

Baker

1,029

Misliikaniats .

123

Cedar

285

Misliikamau

613

Clearwater

478

Moose

552

Clinton-Colden

674

Nichikun

208

Cormorant

141

North Indian .

184

Diibawnt .

1,654

Nueltiu .

303

Etawney .

625

Nutarauit

34 b

Franklin .

123

Payne

717

Garry

680

Felly

331

Gods

319

Playgreen

223

Granville .

392

Red Deer .

Gras, Lac la

674

Reeds

Great Bear

11,821

Richmond

270

Great Long

245

Sandy

245

Great Slave

10,719

Setting

Indian House

308

Shultz .

123

Island

551

South Indian .

1531

Kaminuriak

368

Tliaolintoa

184

Kaniapiskau

441

Todatara

208

Kiskitto .

Trent (English river)

134

Kiskittogisu

122

Ti'ent (Severn river)

233

Lansdowne

Upper Seal

270

Lower Seal

221

Wekusko .

MacDougall

319

Yattikyed . ,

858

British Columbia

The lakes of British Columbia are most picturesquely
situated amid a sea of mountains, with snow-clad peaks
and forested slopes, forming gems of beauty and purity
in a land of virgin grandeur. The following list is
selected from White's Atlas of 1906 : —

DOMINION OF CANADA

Siiuarc miles.

Squar

! miles.

Adams .

Ovvikano

Atlin .

343

Quesnel

147

Babine

306

Shuswap

124

Chilko

171

Stuart .

221

Harrison

123

Tagish .

139

Koot(;iiay

221

Taku .

135

Lower Arr

J\V

Teslin .

245

Okaiiagau

136

Upper Arrow

Nova

Scotia

Square miles.

Bras d'Or

. 230

Littl

e Bra

sd'O

. 130

These are the two largest bodies of water which
Nova Scotia can claim within its land surface. There
are, however, a number of lakes and lakelets as well as
ponds which afford excellent scenery and fine fishing in
many parts of this peninsula of Acadia.

New Brunswick

Grand Lake, 74 square miles in area, is the most
important body of fresh water in this province.

Romance of the Great Lakes

Campbell caught the true spirit of these inland waters
of Canada when he wrote : —

Domed with the azure of lieaven,

Floored with a pavement of jiearl,
Clothed all about with a brightness

Soft as the eyes of a girl ;

Girt with a magical girdle,

Rimmed with a vapour of rest.
These are the inland waters,

These are the lakes of the West.

Voices of slumberous music.

Spirits of mist and of flame,
Moonlit memories left here

By gods, who long ago came,
E

50 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

And vanishing, left but an echo

In silence of moon-dim caves,
Wliei'e haze-wrapt the August night slumbers,

Or the wild heart of October raves.

Here where the jewels of Nature

Are set in the light of God's smile,
Far from the world's wild throbbing,

I will stay me and rest me awhile,

And store in my heart old rnusic,

Melodies gathered and sung
By the genius of love and of beauty

When the heart of the world was young.

Lake Superior (Lac Bourbon of French explorers,
Gotchegarni and Missisagiegon of the aborigines) forms a
crescentio basin some 540 miles in length with a coast
line of 1700 miles, and is the largest body of fresh
water known at present on the surface of the globe,
covering an area of 31,800 square miles. "One is
impressed more and more with the lonely grandeur of
this vast reservoir of fresh water," Campbell writes,
"with its marine area of 32,000 square miles. It is
here alone among all the lakes that there is witnessed
that wild, rugged aspect of coast and lake scenery, which
belongs to this lake alone. Along its northern and
western shores, lofty cliffs and rock -piled headlands
loom in titan grandeur from their silent wilds of
unbroken forest, save where the pioneer has made his
presence felt in the wasteful destruction of Nature's
noblest resources." ..." Lake Superior has a fourfold
interest for the student of its waters and shores. To
the admirers of natural scenery it offers some of the most
sublime and picturesque coast-line and water expanse to
be found in either hemisphere. To the disciple of
history and exploration it has been the historic highway
and haunt of voyarfcur and explorer from Eadisson to

DOMINION OF CANADA 51

Henry. To the geologist and mineralogist it is a field
of perhaps the most wonderful deposits of silver and
copper ore known to the modern world, while its iron
and other mines are world -famed. But by far its
greatest importance to the true student is because of
its prehistoric remains of the ancient civilisation which,
at ti remote period, peopled its shores and sailed its
waters."

Witli the lakes of Canada Campbell holds converse in
the following illuminating words : —

You lie in inoon-whito siilenciour

Beneath the nortliern sky ;
Your voices, soft and tender,
In dream-worlds fade and die,
In whispering beaches, haunted bays and capes,
Where mists of dawn and midnight
Drift past in spectral shapes.

Beside your far north beaches

Comes, late, the quickening spring :
AVith soft, voluptuous speeches
The summer, lingering,
Fans, with hot winds, your breasts so still and wide,
When June, with tranced silence.
Drifts over shore and tide.

Here, the white winter's fingers
Tips with dull fires tlie dawn ;
Where the pale morning lingers
By stretches bleak and wan ;
Kindling the iced capes with heatless glow,
That renders cold and colder
Lone waters, rocks, and snow.

Here in the glad September,

When all tlio woods are red
And gold, and hearts remember
The gone days that are dead ;
And all the world is mantled in a haze ;
And the wind, a mad musician,
Melodious makes the days.

52 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL

And tlie nights are Htill, and slumber

Holds all the i'rosty ground ;
And the pale stars whose number
In God's great books are found,
Gird with i)ale flames the spangled, frosty sky ;
By white, moon-ciirved beaches
The haunted hours go by.

Of the beautiful and much-visited Muskoka region
in the highlands of Ontario, the same writer states : —
" This district is a vast stretch of country mostly rock-
covered with forest, and dotted over with Inmdreds of
picturesque lakes of all shapes, sizes, and depths, from
miles wide to mere ponds. It is many hundreds of
square miles in extent, and bears the same natural
characteristics as the great Laurentian range of which it
forms a part. It is rich in a magnificent forest of pines,
hemlocks, maples, and balsams, all of splendid growth.
Its fertile forest life on its stratum of almost nude rocks
is a marvel to the naturalist.

" Here are to be found those ancient primaeval

AValls of green where the wind and the sunlight stir,
Rippling windows of light where the sun looks through,
And spaces of day that widen, and blue beyond
Out to the haze-rimmed, purple edge of the world :

Aisles, whose pavements are etched with ghosts of moving
Leaves, and iihantom branches rafted above.
Wind-swayed ai'ches racking under the blue,
Breathing under the dim, stirred peace of the world.

" Here, to-day, in this seemingly wild region of water
and verdure-clad rocks, are some of the most delightful
and healthful summer resorts and retreats on the
American continent. All through the vast maze of
their islands and bays and capes, and curved shores, are
to be found secluded cottages, or summer hotels in some
instances reaching the palatial in their appearance,
equipment, and power of entertaining their guests. As a

DOMINION OF CANADA 53

rest-resort, especially for tired nerves and feeble lungs,
Muskoka has no rival anywhere."

About the lakes and in the forests of the " Algonquin
National Park " of Ontario, the sheltered and peaceful
home of the feathered tribe, the

Haunted niouarch of the drear,

Wide palaces of leafy gleams,
Swift of nostril, hoof, and ear ;

Who through a thousand years of fear
Hath fled the wolf-rack in his dreams,

no longer fears the chase — and " on its shores in the
rocks and woods, chickadees, nuthatches, brown creepers,
red-starts, woodpeckers, kingfishers,' and night-hawks, are
among the shy denizens of those remote haunts."

The song of the hermit- thrush is heard

By some grave gateway, large, of evening dream.

When all the sunset world seems ages old

In sad romance and aching of dead wrong ;

And all the beauty of life is poignant gold

In the herrnit-thrush's song.

By their shores, yellow, black, and white warblers are
heard and seen ; and the whip-poor-will utters at evening
its plaintive note ; while game, such as partridge and
duck, haunt the wood, roads, and the reedy shores ;
and on still early autumn days are seen and heard in
the hazy, marshy places the meditative crane, and

Here by some lonesome marshy lake
Is heard the loon's lone cry.

Evolution of the Great Lakes

The following sketch of tlie history of the Great
Lakes, giving their origin and extent as glacial lakes,
tlieir outlets, and various interesting phases through
which they passed during and subsequent to the glacial

54 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

epoch, as revealed in the phenomena surrounding them,
has been prepared from Professor Frank Leverett's hitest
pronouncement on the subject, the result of many years
of careful studies in the Lake region of Canada and the
United States.

The Great Lakes primarily owe their origin to
glaciation, nevertheless the factors of erosion and
chemical dissolution play a considerable part. The Ice
Age was preceded by high elevation in north-eastern
America, as attested by the presence of a deep submerged
valley in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and elsewhere, and it
is highly probable that this elevation also affected the
great Lake region from Superior to Ontario ; but no
bodies of water existed where the Great Lakes now
stand before the last Glacial epoch. The area, in all
likelihood, consisted in broad lowlands bordered by belts
of higher land. " The bed of Lake Ontario reaches now
the lowest altitude of any of the Great Lakes. This and
many features in erosion drift deposition, as well as
weighting and depression by ice accumulation in the
glacial and interglacial periods, present a succession of
events of great importance and value. The pre-glacial
valleys of this region were so modified by the invasion of
the ice sheet as to form peculiar basins which the melting
ice and snows of the warmer times that accompanied the
recession of the ice-mass filled, giving rise to the Great
Lakes, at first " glacial lakes " of varying sizes, and flowing
by different outlets in different directions at different times.

In the last stage of glaciation the Labradorean ice
sheet, defined by Tyrrell and traced in its shifting
centres of dispersion by Low, had a general and maximum
direction of movement to the south-west, whilst the
Keewatin ice mass moved in a southerly direction, but
anteriorly, so that the mantle of drift or " till " covering

Dia^amHLatic representation of

successive positions of ice border,

by Frank Lo-Terett &, Frank B. Taylor

1910.

(Data- for Eastern Wisconsin from Alden feWeidman)

To faccp.SS

Loadou . Edward Stanford, Ltd.42. 13, & 14-, Long Acre, W.C.

DOMINION OF CANADA 55

much of north-eastern America from tlie Labradorean
Glacier covered the sheet of Keewatin " till," or drift
deposits. A study of the succession and origin of the
Great Lakes during the recession of the Labrador ice
sheet sliovvs that there was " no great difference in the
dates of the beginning of the lakes in the soutli-west end
of the Superior, Green Bay, Lake Michigan, and Lake
Erie basins, whereas the lakes formed in the Huron and
Ontario basins were much later. A lake in the Saginaw
basin south-west of Lake Huron was earlier than in the
southern end of Lake Huron. The lake in the Ontario
basin came in the latest of any in the large basins, being
situated farthest north-east, and consequently nearest the
centre of dispersion of the ice."

LAKE SUPERIOR BASIN

Lake Superior waters began some time after a few
minor lakes had formed along the ice border, of which
"Lake Upham," in the St. Louis river district, constitutes
the first though transient body of water which occupied
the earliest part of the drainage basin of Lake Superior
after the melting of the ice sheet, and " Lake Si. Louis,"
a name applied by Winchell to a body of water formed
by the shrinking of the ice border, having a lower level
in the St. Louis river drainage basin. Later, again, " Lake
Nemadji" about thirty square miles only in extent, was
formed after a little more shrinkage of the ice border
some 500 feet above Lake Superior of to-day. During
the life of these latter the ice sheet still covered
completely the area of Lake Superior. " Lake Duluth." —
This lake came into existence as the ice fringe continued
to melt at the south-western extremity of the present
Lake Superior basin. A little farther east " Lake

56 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL

Otonagon " arose in the north-west portion of Michigan
while Lake Duluth was still young. A little more
shrinking of the ice mass made " Lake Duluth " and
" Lake Otonagon " one, the St. Croix outlet acting as
the line of discharge of the United Glacial Lake. The
highest shore of Lake Duluth is 1016 feet above sea-
level, whilst at Calumet it reached an altitude of
1303 feet above sea-level, due to a differential uplift.
With further withdrawal of ice on the southern part of
the Lake Superior basin, the waters became connected
with those in the Lake Michigan and Lake Huron basins
to form the Great Glacial Lake " AUjonquin" of which
more will be said later.

HUPtON-ERIE BASIN

Besides "Lake Maumee" formed by the waters of the
melting Huron-Erie ice sheet lobe, " Lake Chicago " came
into existence at the southern extremity of the Michigan
lobe by the surplus discharge of the waters of Lake
Mauraee through the Grand Imlay outlet formed south-
west of the Saginaw lobe of the ice sheet. " Lake
Arkona " is the name given to that large glacial lake
which preceded the advance of the ice. Its limits north
are not well known, though it probably included part of
the Saginaw basin and the district east of the Thumb,
and extended south and easterly beyond the site of
Buffalo — near Alden — where its beaches are well seen
duplicating the features observable on the Thumb.
"Lake Whittlesey," with the best-defined beach in this
basin, marks an advance of the ice sheet accompanied by
drainage through the Ubly outlet between the Saginaw
lobe and the Huron lobe of the ice front, covering a wide
area of Ontario, New York, Ohio, and Michigan. The
Ubly outlet discharged to a small lake — " Lake Saginaw "

"jketch map of the Glacial Great Laltes of North America, compiled from data by LevereU, Taylor and others

<Sk\

DOMINION OF CANADA 57

— in the portion of the Saginaw l)asin south-west of
Saginaw Bay, and thence througli tlie Grand liiver outlet
to Lake Chicago. " Lake Warren " was formed by dint
of a renewed recession of the ice border from the northern
part of the Thumb, when Lake Whittlesey abandoned
the Ubly outlet and the Huron-Erie waters joined with
those of the Saginaw. This lake covered a vast area
extending over the Finger lake region of Central New
York and " on all sides of Lake Erie." The ice prevalent
in the Ontario basin at this time prevented an eastward
discharge, and its waters flowed through the Grand Pdver
to Lake Chicago, "The water-level was sufficiently
high to submerge the site of Niagara Falls to a depth of
250 feet."

In the further shrinkage of the ice border in the
Ontario basin and the opening of passages eastward,
came an abandonment of the Grand River outlet through
the Mississippi basin to the Gulf of Mexico, and the
establishment of a new outlet for the Great Lakes
through the Mohawk Valley to the Atlantic Ocean by
way of the Hudson Valley, together with the inception
of the Niagara cataract due to a lowering of the water-
level some 150 feet below that of the crest of the Falls.
" Lake Erie." — Inasmuch as the eastern part of the
Erie basin had suffered considerable differential uplift
subsequent to the draining of Lake Warren, the
beginning of Lake Erie was a small body of water in
the eastern part of its basin, which has been extended
westward with the raising of the outlet.

ONTARIO BASIN

Zrt/jc Iroqiiois. — This lake began as a narrow strip
alonor the southern border of the ice sheet at the soutli

58 . COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

side of the Ontario basin, and expanded gradually north-
ward as the ice melted back. The discharge continued
through the Mohawk valley as the ice still blocked the
Frontenac Axis, preventing discharge to the sea by way of
the St. Lawrence valley. The level of glacial Lake Iroquois
was much higher than the present level of Lake Ontario.
CIoam2)lain Sea. — Further melting of the ice sheet to
the north-east allowed the Atlantic waters from the St.
Lawrence and Lake Champlain marine areas to come
into the Ontario basin, the level of the sea standing at
a level slightly higher than the present shore of Lake
Ontario ; " but in the remainder of the basin the old sea-
level shore passed beneath the waters of Lake Ontario.
The differential uplift subsequent to this invasion of the
sea has given Lake Ontario its present extent and level."

LAKE ALGONQUIN

" Upon the extinction of Lake Warren, and the with-
drawal of the ice from the vicinity of the Straits of
Mackinac and the Saint Mary's river, a single large river,
known as ' Lake Algo7iqui7i' occupied the basins of the
three upper lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, and
part of the intervening territory. Some time during the
life of glacial Lake Iroquois the ice uncovered the Trent
valley in Ontario, and gave an outlet for the waters of
Lake Algonquin into Lake Iroquois in the Ontario basin.
Prior to this the discharge had been either through the
Chicago outlet or through the St. Clair outlet, or perhaps
both of these outlets." Professor Coleman has noted
shore features on the north-east border of Lake Superior
basin up to an altitude of about 1400 feet above the sea,
or 800 feet above Lake Superior, which are thought to
represent the work of Lake Algonquin.

DOMINION OF CANADA 59

The Algonquin Lake stage was brought to an end by
this opening of an eastward passage along the ice border
into the Ottawa Valley, just as "Lake Warren " was
brought to an end by the opening of a passage along the
ice border into the Mohawk Valley. The Ottawa Valley
is several miles in width, and the ice border appears to
have shrunk across it from south to north so that the
earliest discharge was alons the face of the south blulf.

NIPISSING GREAT LAKES

These lakes, so called " because of the close association
of tlie Nipissing shore at its latest stage with the shore
of the modern lakes in the Huron, Michigan, and Superior
basins," began with the complete lowering of the lake
waters to the level of the low pass that leads from
Georgian Bay eastward past Lake Nipissing into the
Ottawa Valley. "The present small lake (330 square
miles), known as Lake Nipissing, lies near the head of
the old outlet." Uplift followed and progressed, accom-
panied by eastward discharge and subsequent resumption
of the St. Clair river outlet. The " Nipissing Beach" of
long duration, was formed after the lake had expanded
so as to have two outlets, (1) by the St. Clair, and (2) by
the Ottawa river. " It is therefore the beach of the two-
outlet stage."

The tilt-lines of the Nipissing and of the Algonquin
shores do not coincide, the amount of tilting in the former
beino; much less than that affecting the latter.

The horizontal portion of both beaches extends over
about the same area, including Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron,
two-thirds of Lake Michigan, and the tilting affects the
entire area of the Superior basin. There has been about
100 feet of uplift at the head of the Ottawa outlet since

60 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

it was abandoned. The abandonment of this (Ottawa)
outlet marks the beginnings of the modern Great Lakes.

The uplift, which Gilbert has determined to be still in
progress, and in about the same direction as that in the
Nipissing shores, that is, in a general north-north-east
direction, if extended, would naturally bring the waters
of Lake Erie to the level of those of Lake Huron and
Lake Michigan, the present difference of level being only
7 or 8 feet, and in the course of time would bring the
waters at Chicago high enough to flow once more into the
Mississippi basin. There might then be a two-outlet
stage (such as occurred in the case of Lake Nipissing),
one outlet as at present over Niagara Falls, and the other
outlet south-westward along the old Chicago outlet. A
further continuation of the uplift might result in the
abandonment of the Niagara outlet, as the rate of
uplift, determined by Professor Gilbert, is only '42
feet per 100 miles in a century, that is, somewhat less
than 2 feet in 100 years at the opposite extremities of
the Georgian Bay and Lake Michigan body of water.

THE NIAGARA GORGE

The gorge at Niagara bears on its sides earmarks of
the past history of the Great Lakes. When only Lake
Erie discharged over the Falls, the bed of the gorge was
excavated to a shallow depth, but when the abundant
discharge of " Lake Algonquin " was added, a deeper
excavation took place in the vicinity of the whirlpool.
Again, when the Nipissing Great Lakes had an eastward
discharge, and Lake Erie once more discharged alone over
the Falls, a shallow portion of the bed of the Gorge
between the whirlpool and the Suspension Bridge marks
the work done by the small Lake Erie outlet. Since

DOMINION OF CANADA 61

the modern Great Lakes came into existence at the
abandonment of the Ottawa outlet and tlie close of tlie
Nipissing Great Lakes, a deep excavation of the bed of
the gorge set in which continues to the base of the pre-
sent Canadian or Horseshoe Fall. The rate of recession
of Niagara Falls has been variously estimated. Professor
Leverett contends, and his determinations appear soimd,
that not less than 15,000 years as a minimum, and
perhaps 30,000 years as a maximum, have elapsed since
the cataract came into operation when Lake Warren had
given place to Lake Erie.

It would then follow that the time involved in the
entire lake-history from the beginning of glacial Lake
Chicago and Lake Maumee down to the present cannot
well be less than 20,000 to 25,000 years, and it would
considerably exceed 30,000 years on the basis of the
larger estimate of the recession of Niagara. " This places
the culmination of the last stage of glaciation back some
50,000 years or more," and serves to indicate in a rude
way the order of magnitude of the time involved in the
changes shown in the history of the Great Lakes which
owe their origin to glaciation as stated at the outset.

Water Powers

No accurate estimate has ever been made of Canada's
water powers. They are, however, very extensive and
widely distributed. The most reliable information avail-
able is that of the " Commission of Conservation for
Canada," as given by the Hon. Clifford Sifton, M.P., at
the First Annual Meeting of the Commission held at
Ottawa in January 1910, when the following figures on
this subject (p. 16) were submitted : —

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Possible
horse-power.

Developed
horse-power.

Yukon ....

British Columbia .

Alberta ....

Saskatcliewau .

Manitoba

North- West Territories .

Ontario ....

Quebec (exclusive of Uugava)

New Brunswick

Nova Scotia

470,000

2,065,500

1,144,000

500,000

504,000

600,000

4,308,479

6,900,000

150,000

54,300

3,000

73,100

1,333

18,000

331,157
about 75,000

13,300

Totals .

16,696,279

514,890

At 22 tons of coal per horse -power per annum
(24-hour clay), the total possible horse-power is equivalent
to 367,318,118 tons of coal per annum, so that actually
developed horse-power in Canada — 514,890 — used to the
full extent, replaces 11,327,580 tons of coal per annum.

Water Fovjicrs. — The Interior Department estimate
of Canadian water powers aggregates 25,682,907 horse-
power, of which only 500,000 horse-power is developed.
The largest power is that on the Hamilton river in
Labrador, where 9,000,000 horse-power are available,
whilst the Canadian or Horse-Shoe Falls at Niagara
comes next in order of importance. These powers are
divided as follows : —

Quebec

Ontario

British Columbia

Alberta

North- West Territories

Saskatchewan .

Manito])a .

New Brunswick

Nova Scotia

Of the above, the Ontario Hy
has the largest scheme of transm

Horse-power.

17,075,939

3,129,168

2,000,000

1,000,000

600,000

500,000

504,000

150,000

54,300

;lro-Electric Commission
ssion in the world, and

DOMINION OF CANADA 63

electric power can be transmitted at liighest voltage
known, 110,000. Fifteen municipalities have already
arranged for hydro-electric power in Ontario (January
1010), at an average cost to the consumer of $22 per
horse-power per year as against $60 per horse-power for
the same period, from coal or steam plant, for 2 4 -hour
day, thus effecting an annual saving of $1,039,300.

Engineer Coutlee of the Ottawa Storage Survey has
estimated that the Ottawa river drains an area of
55,700 square miles. Of these 10,000 lie to the
south, and are drained by the Madawaska, Mississippi,
Eideau and South Nation rivers. To the north, 40,000
square miles are drained by the Dumoine, Black,
Coulonge, Gatineau, Lievre, and Eouge rivers in the
corner basin, and the streams and lakes above Mattawa
comprise the upper basin of 20,000 square miles, with
Lake Victoria, Quinze, Expanse, Kamshigama, Kapitach-
uan, and Shoshokwan, to which must be added the areas
drained by the Kinojevis, Montreal, and Opasatika systems
of Lake Timiskaming, Lake Timagami, and Lake Kipawa.

The record of flow, storage, and estimated horse-power
available from the Ottawa river at and above Ottawa is
here given.

Extreme low-water flow near Ottawa

Extreme high-water flow near Ottawa .

Possible storage : Lac des Quinze and Lac
Expanse, 100 square miles, 20 feet deep

Possible storage: Lake Kipawa, 100 square
miles, 20 feet deep ....

Possible storage : Lake Timiskaming, 100
square miles, 20 feet deep

Present development, horse - power at
Ottawa (1910) .....

Possible develojjment at Ottawa, maxi-
mum when augmented by conserva-
tion reservoirs .....

Area drained by Ottawa river above con-
fluence with St. Lawrence at Montreal

15,000 cubic feet per second.
250,000

2,000 square-mile feet.

2,000

2,000 ,, „

50,000 horse-power.

160,000

55,700 square miles.

64 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TKAVEL

Climate

In a previous chapter it has been shown that the
Arctic current, in its south-western course, lowers the
temperature along the north-east coast of the American
continent, and that parallel geographical conditions exist-
ing in the Pacific Ocean elevate the temperature along
the north-west coast ; of necessity, therefore, the isothermal
lines cross the continent in a north-west direction. The
meteorological charts of Dr. Buchan in the Challenger
Report show a line of mean January temperature of +15°
Fahrenheit alike at Halifax in lat. 45° as in Alaska at
lat. 62°, and the mean temperature of the year is shown
to be nearly 45° at Montreal, not far from lat. 45 N., and
in Alaska at lat. 56°. The mean temperature of 70° in
July in like manner is shown to extend from Montreal
to lat. 55° in the far west. These figures are approxi-
mately correct ; the scale of the maps is too small to
show minor differences, but the main proposition is
confirmed that there are across the continent lines of
equal summer and of equal winter temperature as well
as a line of equal annual temperature extending north-
westwardly through fifteen degrees of latitude. In
central Canada these lines bend in waves of greater or
less amplitude according to local circumstances and as
affected by great bodies of water, or by such influences
as the Chinook winds, but the general result is that spring
opens as early on the Upper Peace river in lat. 56° as
at Montreal in lat. 45° 30', and the seeding time is
actually earlier.

The maps annexed are compiled from the recorded
observations of the Meteorological Service of Canada, the
result of many yeai's' work. They show the mean annual

DOMINION OF CANADA

isotherms and tlie total annual precipitation in inches
reduced to terms of rain.

In treating of the several provinces of Canada it will
be necessary to recur frequently to the question of climate
as it is affected by the different physical circumstances of
each. Many false ideas of the climate have been rooted

CROP OF MAIZE — NEAR OTTAWA.

in the minds of Europeans by the exuberant vitality of
the promoters of winter carnivals, who, in their anxiety
to show the pleasures of open-air life in winter, have
disseminated views of ice-palaces and such like things
until the name of Canada has in many minds become
indissolubly associated with ice and snow. Nevertheless,
a Canadian winter is " a thing of beauty and a joy
for ever," as Sir Wilfrid Laurier once remarked on

66 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND T[IAVEL

a July fkst celebration of the Canadian Coniedemtion in
a well-known London Hotel. And, even if Mr. Kipling
still persists in calling Canada " Our Lady of the Snows,"
no Canadian is offended or disapproves. It will, how-
ever, assist the reader to form a truer conception of the
climate of Canada if he will remember that maize, which
cannot be grown as a crop in any part of England, is a
staple crop throughout Ontario and Quebec. On page 65
is a reproduction of a photograph taken at the Central
Experimental Farm at Ottawa. The luxuriance of the
growth is shown by its proportion beyond the height of
a man of more than average stature standing in contact
with the plants. Neither melons nor tomatoes are grown
as crops in England, but they are extensively grown in
Canada. In many parts of Canada grapes are grown in
the open air. The illustration opposite is from a photo-
graph of a large vineyard near Ottawa. In the more
southern part of Ontario grapes are extensively grown for
the manufacture of wine, and the business of grape-growing
and wine-making has increased very rapidly during the
last few years, as may be seen in the chapter on the
province of Ontario. In the same province peach-growing
gives a livelihood to a number of people. There is nothing
wonderful or exceptional about this, for the Huron-Iroquois
Indians cultivated maize, pumpkins, and tobacco on the
site of Montreal and north of Toronto on the shores of
Lake Huron, before the arrival of the whites. In the
region west of Nottawasaga Bay, Champlain in 1616
visited a nation of sedentary Indians, who, because
of their extensive crops of tobacco, were known as the
Tobacco Nation — Nation du Pcfnn; but tobacco can hardly
yet be said to be grown in England. All of England is
north of 50° north latitude and southern Ontario is in the
latitude of Rome. The agriculture of a country does

68 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

not, however, depend entirely upon latitude, but rather
upon the degree of tlie summer isotherms. Melons,
maize, pumpkins, beans, and tomatoes are crops in Mani-
toba, and may be grown even in latitude 53° north, on
the North Saskatchewan.

These facts are also manifest by the high latitudes in
which wheat is grown. It is not suggested that settlers
should take up land on Lake Athabaska while millions
of acres of excellent vacant wheat-lands are waiting to be
tilled in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. These
more northern lands are the reserves of Canada coming
into use as the other provinces are filling up. It is
true, nevertheless, that wheat has been grown for one
hundred years at Dunvegan on the Peace river in lat.
56°, and that wheat grown at Fort Chipewyan in lat.
58° took a prize at the Centennial Exhibition held in
Philadelphia in 1876.

The climate of Canada is continental — one of cold
winters and warm summers. The average temperature
of July is the same, 70° Fahr., at Battleford on the North
Saskatchewan, at Montreal on the St. Lawrence, in the
Biscayan provinces of Spain, and throughout the plains of
Lombardy in Italy ; but the winter temperatures are the
same as those of Stockholm in Sweden, or of Riga on the
Baltic. It is impossible, however, to generalise upon the
climate of Canada, for the conditions vary over so immense
an area. South-west Ontario is a wine-growing country,
and grapes and peaches are staple fruit crops, while on
the Arctic coast vegetation fades out altogether. It will
therefore be better to refer questions of temperature to
the chapters on the separate provinces. From the winter
climate of the south of England to the Arctic night of
the Polar circle is a wide range.

DOMINION OF CANADA 69

Rainfall

Concerning the rainfall in Canada little need be said.
The hydrography proves that there can be no dehciency
in precipitation, for the innumerable lakes and streams
are constantly full. There is very little difference in this
respect between Canada and the countries of the centre
and north of Europe lying in the same latitudes. In
southern Alberta and Saskatchewan what is called the
" American Desert " projects north of the boundary over
an area of 20,000 square miles, and in the ranching
region of southern Alberta, while there is rain enough
for grass, irrigation is necessary to secure farming crops
with certainty. There are dry belts under the lee of the
mountain ranges of British Columbia, and a belt of
excessive moisture on the Pacific coast, but Canada is a
country of abundance of water. Grass and forest cover
it from one ocean to the other, and follow the Mackenzie
northwards to its mouth on the Arctic Ocean. The
immense areas of water in the great central lakes modify
the climate by imparting humidity to the air and
moderating those extremes of a continental climate which
are developed in the centre of northern Asia. In this
respect the immense inland sea of Hudson Bay, with its
enormous area of 567,000 square miles of water, is of
great benefit in preventing the aridity which obtains on
the plains to the south of the international boundary line
known as " the great American Desert."

Forests

It results, from the hydrographic and climatic con-
ditions before recited, that Canada is a land of forest.
At its discovery one dense continuous forest covered it

70 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPvAVEL

from the Atlantic to Lake Winnipeg ; and, north of the
great fertile prairies, the sub-arctic forest still sweeps
round until the head waters of the great western
rivers are reached, where the British Columbia forest
stretches southward and westward to the Pacific. All
the settled parts of old Canada and the maritime provinces
have been wrested from the forest, and the rivers were
the roads and lanes through the sylvan wilderness,
penetrating into its darkest recesses with threads of
silver. In summer the voyagcurs canoe, and in winter
the habitant's sleigh, made the mesh of water-ways avail-
able for locomotion long before the settler had time or
means to build roads or bridges.

The forests of Canada are beginning to receive the
care and attention they deserve. For nearly three
centuries the forest of Old Canada was considered the
enemy of the pioneer settler, and it had to go. To-day,
the forests of the Dominion are held to be one of its
greatest and most valuable assets, not only in supplying
fuel and building materials, but also tempering the
climate, holding back the waters that fall as rain and
snow, supplying streams with abundant water during the
summer and drier season, for the beverage of man and
beast, for irrigation purposes, water power and the
numerous industries depending upon this commodity for
the health and prosperity of the nation.

Six distinct types of forests are recognized in Canada,
which with their areas are as follows : —

Scinare miles.

1. The Cordilleran Forest 250,000

2. The Northern Forest, densely wooded . . 680,000

3. Tlie Northern Forest, not densely wooded . 800,000

4. The Southern Forest 200,000

f). Tlie Southern Forest, largely cleared . . 80,000

6. Mixed Prairie and Woodhnd . . . 7f),000

7. The Prairie 125,000

DOMINION OF CANADA 71

1. The Cordilkran Forest. — This type of forest
occupies the greater portion of British Columbia main-
land, Vancouver Island, the Queen Charlotte Islands, part
of Western Yukon Territory, and in its eastern extent a
small part of Southern Alberta. It has a great and
luxuriant forest growth peculiarly its own. In the humid
coast region the Douglas fir attains a height of 300 feet,
and a diameter of from 10 to 12 feet, and the Western
Cedar {Thuya gigantea) reaches even to greater propor-
tions. Ninety per cent of this forest is made up of Jive
species, namely, Engelmann's spruce {Picea Engelmanni),
black pine {Finns Murrayana), white spruce {Ficea
Canadensis), Douglas fir {Fseudotsuga Douglasii), and
balsam fir {Abies suhalpina).

Other trees of importance include : western white
oak {Quercus Garryana), peculiar to Vancouver Island
only, the broad-leaved maple {Acer macrophylluw), vine
maple {Acer circiiiatum), bearberry {Rhamnus Furshiana),
mountain fir {Abies amabilis), white fir {Abies grandis),
western yew {Taxus brevifolia), Menzies spruce {Ficea
Sitchensis), western bird - cherry {Frunus emarginata),
madrona {Arbutus Menzicsii), and willow, alder, and
cypress are also found along the Pacific coast.

From the southern interior of British Columbia in
the heart of the Cordilleran forest are found : western
larch {Larix occidentalis), western hemlock {Tsuga
Mcrtciisiana), mountain hemlock {Ts7iga Fattoniana),
yellow pine {Firms poiiderosa), western white pine
{Films monticokt), western white cedar {Thuya plicata^,
red cedar {Jimiperus scopidoruvi), and western balsam
poplar {Fopalus trichocarpa').

Besides the five species first cited from the Rocky
Mountain region and those of British Columbia generally,
the following additional species also occur : —

72 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Douglas fir ... Fseudotsucja vuvcronata.

Rocky Mountain pine . Pinus flexilis.

Black pine . . • ■ Fimis Murrayana.

White-barked pine . . Pinus alhicaulis.

Mountain larch . . . Larix Lyallii.

2. The Northern Forest,- densely wooded. — This forest
stretches from the Mount St. Elias Eange to Dawson
City in North-Western Yukon, as a zone upwards of 200
miles in breadth on the Yukon- Alaska boundary line,
south-easterly, through part of the Eocky Mountains,
across the continent to the shores of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, traversing Northern British Columbia, a portion
of Southern Alberta, Northern Saskatchewan, Northern
Manitoba, as well as portions of Ontario and Quebec,
together with the heart of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia.

Its greatest breadth lies between Eocky Mountain
Park,^ near Banff on the Canadian Pacific Eailway,
and Chipeweyan, on Lake Athabaska, more than 500
miles distant, beyond which it is suddenly pinched by
the zone of " prairie " and " prairie and woodland" country,
to the south and east in the provinces of Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, until it enters the province
of Ontario 400 miles broad, then narrows down to 200
miles, on the interprovincial line between Lake Abitibi
and the foot of James Bay, widening again as it proceeds
eastward in Quebec province, as far as Lake Mistassini,
diminishing gradually to a wedge on the St. Lawrence
river and Gulf between the Bay of Seven Islands and
Grand Mekattina, opposite the west face of Newfoundland.
This broad zone comprises not less than 680,000 square
miles of densely forested land.

^ This park, or forest reserve, lies immediately west of the jirairie and
woodland section, for the most part within tlie Cordilleran forest, but
one section in its north-east corner forms part of this northern forest,
densely wooded.

DOMINION OF CANADA

Some of the principal trees occurring in this zone iu-
chide the following species:
— Yukon Territory and
British Columbia: Balsam
fir (Abies halsamea),
Douglas fir (Pseudoisuya
mucronata), Engelmann's
spruce (Picea Engelmaimi),
black pine {Piyivs Murray -
«?irt), mountain larch (Larix
Lyaliii), aspen (Populus
trenudoides), Eocky Moun-
tain pine (Pinus fiexilis),
white-barked pine (Pimis
alhicaulis), mountain
balsam (Abies stibalpina),
tamarack (Larix Ameri-
cana).

Northern Alberta,
Northern Saskatchewan,
and Northern Manitoba :
Balsam ^r (Abies balsamea),
canoe birch (Behda pajjy-
rifera), ash-leaved maple
(Negimdo aceroides), aspen
(Populus tremuloides),
green ash (Fraxinus
lanceolata), red ash
(Fraxinus raceniosa),
black ash (Fraxinus nigra),
yellow birch (Betula lutca),
Ijlack l)irch (Betula fon-

^ . DOUGLAS FUIS, NEAR VANCOUVKR, B. C.

tiiialis), tamarack (Larix

Americana), black spruce (Pieea Mariana), white spruce

74 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

(Picea Canadensis), black pine (Finus MuriYiyana), Jack
or Banksian pine {Piiius Banhsiana), black cottonwood
{Po2ndus aiigustifolia), cottonwood {Pojjulus deltoides),
balsam poplar (Fopidus halsamifera), burr oak (Quercus
Tnacrocarpa), bird -cherry {Prunus Fennsylvanica) ; with
the following forms occurring; in Manitoba onlv : bass-
wood (Tilia Americana), white cedar (Thuya occidentalis),
white elm {ULmus Americana), and white pine {Finns
Strohus), with red pine {Finns resinosa), peculiar to the
south-eastern part of that province.

In Ontario and Quebec this zone of forest is traversed
for a distance of 1200 miles by the new National Trans-
continental Eailway, and the principal trees occurring
therein comprise the following species : —

Ijlack spruce {Ficea Mariana), white spruce {Ficca
Canadensis), white cedar {Thuya occidentalis), tamarack
{Larix Americana), Jack pine {Finns Banksiana), red
pine {Finns resinosa), white pine, occasionally {Finns
Strohus), white birch {Bctula popidifolia), white elm
{Ulmus Americana), balsam poplar {Foj)ulus halsamifera^
mountain maple {Acer spicatum), paper birch (Bctula,
papyrifera), balsam fir {Ahies halsamea), bird-cheriy
{Prunus Fennsylvanica), aspen {Fopulus trcmuloides).

In the Hamilton river basin of Labrador there is what
may be termed an outlier of this type of forest with a
growth of black spruce, white spruce, larch or tamarack,
balsam poplar, canoe birch, balsam fir, bird-cherry and
aspen, amongst the most characteristic and valuable
trees.

3. The Northern Forest, not densely wooded. — This is
in part the " Sub- Arctic forest " of Professor Macoun.
The line of its northern limit starts at about latitude 56^
in Labrador, and passes near Churchill on the west coast
of Hudson Bay ; thence it proceeds in a north-west

DOMINION OF CANADA 75

direction to the shore of the Polar Sea at the mouth of
the Mackenzie river. To the iiortli-east of this line is
the reij;ioii known as tlie Barren Lands. The sub-arctic
forest region varies in width, but it may be approxi-
mately given as from 200 to oOO miles, and this width
across the continent would make its area about 1,000,000
square miles. At its southern limit the coniferous trees
of the sub-arctic forest gradually change into the aspen
forests of the North -West Provinces, and the mixed
forests of ohl Canada and the maritime provinces. The
coniferous trees extend down along the Atlantic coast-
line under the cooler and moister conditions there
existing ; but, in the interior, the forest is made up
chiefly of hard- wood trees and of the more valuable
pines.

The sub-arctic forest, east of the Mackenzie, in what
is now designated as the North- West Territories, according
to Professor Macoun, is made up almost exclusively of
only eight species : —

Scrub or Jack pine .... Pinus Banksiana.

White spruce ..... Picea alba.

Black spruce Picea nigra.

Tamarack, larch .... Larix Americana.

Aspen ...... Po2)uius troauloides.

Balsam poplar Pojndus balsamifera.

Paper or canoe birch .... Betula 'pa'pijrifera.

Canada balsam tir .... Abies balsamea.

The lirst four of these trees are the most characteristic,
and they are the last to disappear on the barren grounds
at the north and east. They are not dwarfed, but retain
their size and importance to the last, only withdrawing
from the colder and wetter ground and occupying drier
and warmer oases of soil at their extreme northern limit
The trees change their character also. Thus the Banksian
pine along the northern shore of Lake Superior increases

i'vl C I F I a 't" O C E A N

DOMINION OF CANADA 77

in size, and in Northern Alberta attains a lieight of 100 feet
and a diameter of 24 inches. In the same manner the
aspen, of small account in the east, becomes in tlie west
an important tree. The forest of the Peace river valley is
composed of spruce and aspen, and this latter tree it is
which touches the edge of the prairies, making the oases
of woodland on the western plains, and penetrating the
coniferous forest at the north. It occupies dry situations,
and is considered to be an indication of good soil. The
region of aspen forest extends from Winnipeg to Edmonton,
a distance of 900 miles on a breadth of 50 miles, or
over an area of 45,000 square miles. Balsam poplar also
becomes a very large tree on the Mackenzie river and
its larger tributaries. This and the white spruce are the
cliaracteristic trees of the Mackenzie valley, and attain a
diameter of four feet and over. On the other hand, it is
in the forests of Eastern Canada that the paper birch
reaches its highest perfection. It is a much poorer tree
on the Pacific coast.

4. TJic Southern Forest. — This forest covers an area of
some 200,000 square miles, stretching across part of the
western boundary of Manitoba and Ontario, south to the
United States boundary line as far as Lake Superior and
the Georgian Bay, occupying the area of Archaean
crystalline rocks between the height of land on the
north and the edge of the more settled flat lands of Ontario
and Quebec to the south, eastwards as far as tlie Bay of
Seven Islands on the St. Lawrence, varying from a few
miles to nearly 300 miles in breadth.

This is the great White and Eed Pine Forest of Old
Canada, which has been the source of such valuable
timber for home consumption and exportation. Only
3 per cent is held to have been cut by man, whilst
forest fires have devastated enormous tracts — due either

78 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEArilY AND TUAVEL

to natural causes, such as lightning and rock slides,
or, more usually to carelessness on the part of settlers,
hunters, campers, locomotive engineers, etc. Fortunately
enough areas of forested pine country exist to seed the
remainder. The Laurentide hills are eminently suited
to forest culture, and it is pleasing to note that the
governments of the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and
New Brunswick, as well as the authorities at Ottawa,
are interested in this southern forest, with a view of
conserving and protecting it from fires by the employ-
ment of a large number of fire rangers, and establishing
fire roads, guards, etc. Tree-planting on the broad and
formerly treeless prairie is also in progress in the far {
West, but reforestation in the East is no less desirable |
and pursued. \

The principal trees of this southern forest comprise *
the oaks, maples, ash-trees, etc. Ked oak {Quercus 1
rubra), burr oak (Quercus macrocarpa), white oak
{Quercus alba), sugar maple {Acer saccharinum), red
maple {Acer ruhrum), striped maple {Acer Pennsyl-
vanicnm), white elm {Ul.mus Americana), slippery elm
(Ulmus fulva), rock elm {Ulmus racemosa), black ash
{Fraxinus nigra), white ash {Fraxinus Americana), red
ash {Fraxiiius Pennsylvanica).

Butternut {Jurjlans cinerea), iron-wood {Ostrya
Virginica), beech {Fagus Americana), white birch
{Betula 2>opiflifoli(i), canoe birch {Betula -pa^jyrifera),
black birch {Betula lenta), yellow birch {Betula lutea),
black cherry {Prumcs serotina), bird-cherry {Prunus
Pennsylvanica), aspen {Populus tremuloides), balsam
poplar {Populus balsamifera).

White pine {Pinus Strobus), red pine {Pinus resinosa).
Jack or Banksian pine {Pinus Banksiana), white spruce
{Picea Canadensis), black spruce {Picea Mariana), red

DOMINION OF CANADA 79

spruce {Picca riibcns), balsam fir (Abies halsamca), hem-
lock {Tsuija Canadensis), tamarack (Larix Americana),
white cedar {Thuya occidentalis), basswood (Tilia
Americans), and black willow (Salix nigra).

The above species of forest trees abound throughout
this wide area, and hard-wood as well as pine forest zones
dovetail into each other in sections where diversity of
exposure and soil furnish a suitable habitat. It is in the
Southern Forest that the maples, oaks, birches, and elms
with their beautiful and at times brilliant foliage and
graceful form attain their highest perfection.

All the species above enumerated belong equally to
Quebec and to Ontario, and also, for the most part, to
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, where, however,
basswood, butternut, and black willow are found, but
not in Nova Scotia.

5. I'he Southern Forest, largely cleared. — This covers
an area of nearly 80,000 square miles, and includes
those low-lying portions of Ontario, Quebec, and the
maritime provinces, which are most densely populated.
In the mild climate and rich soil of southern Ontario,
where forest growth is different from that of the zone
farther north, the black walnut, tulip tree, buttonwood.
chestnut, and hickories flourish. The following species
are recognised : — Blue ash {Fraxinus quadrayigidata),
black walnut (Juglans nigra), swamp white oak (Quercus
hicolor), scarlet oak (Quercus cocciriea), swamp oak
{Quercus palitstris), black oak (Quercus velutiTia), white-
heart hickory {Carya albct), small-fruited hickory (Carya
microcarpa), hog-nut hickory {Carya porcina), shellback
hickory {Carya ovata), bitter hickory {Carya amara),
cucumber tree {Asimina triloba), tulip tree {Liriodcndron
tidipifera), Kentucky coffee-tree {Gymnocladus Canadensis),
Judas tree {Ccrcis Canadensis), honey locust {Gleditschia

80 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TIIAVEL

tricanthos), crab -apple {Mains coronaria), June -berry
(Amelanchier Canadensis), cockspur thorn {Cratwyus
Crus-fjalli), downy-leaved thorn [Cratmjus tomentosa),
flowering dogwood (Cornus Jlorida), sour gum {^Nyssa
sylvatica), sassafras {Sassafras ojjicinale), buttonwood
{Platanus occidcntalis), chestnut {Castanca. dentata). In
the valley of the Ottawa and that of the St. Lawrence
above Quebec, as well as in other parts of Ontario,
the following species are recorded : — Nettle tree
{Ccltis occidcntalis), red cedar {Juniperus Virginiana),
blue beech {Carpimis Caroliniana), red -fruited thorn
( Cratcvgus coccii ica ).

In the maritime provinces, the maples, birches, elms,
and beeches are abundant, especially in the central parts
of New Brunswick, but on the sea-level of the Atlantic
and the Bay of Fundy the cooler climate brings back
the spruces and firs, and pushes the deciduous trees
away from the coast-line. The maple, the national
emblem of Canada, is widely spread from the Atlantic to
Manitoba in four species — the striped maple, mountain
maple, sugar maple, and red maple. Two species, the
broad-leaved maple {Acer macrophyllum) and vine maple
{Acer circinatum), are found in British Columbia.

6. Mixed Prairie and Woodland. — North of the tree-
less prairie (which forms part of the great wheat-
growing belt in the southern portion of the provinces of
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, comprising some
125,000 square miles, which in ages past supported a
luxuriant growth of conifers and deciduous trees, as the
rock-formations underlying it attest in a marked degree),
and surrounding it as a zone of semi-forested land, is
found a promising type of woodland prairie, covering
an estimated area of 75,000 square miles. It has also
been termed the aspen forest, which extends from

DOMINION OF CANADA 81

Winnipeg to Edmonton, a distance of 900 miles in a
breadth of 50 miles. Aspen poplar {Populus t rem iilo ides),
Jack or Banksian pine (Finns Banksiana), ash-leaved
maple {Negumlo aceroides), green ash {Fraxiims lanceo-
lata), black pine {Finns Murrayana), burr oak (Qnercus
macrocarpa) , white cedar (Thuya occidcntalis), and some
white pine (Finxs Strohus) occur here, the last two only in
the south-eastern portion of this zone or type of forest.

7. The Frairie. — The treeless prairie, treeless by
nature, except in the river valleys and sheltered spots
where the fatal fires have not destroyed its prospects,
covers an area of at least 125,000 square miles where
many species of shade and fruit trees have been and are
successfully grown. Much has been done in this respect,
especially as regards fruit trees, by Dr. Wni. Saunders
and the late Dr. Jas. Fletcher, of the Central Experi-
mental Farm at Ottawa, who have been superintending
the work of reforestation so hopefully begun, which, in
spite of reverses, is highly promising, and bids fair to
restore some day a primeval character to that land so
fertile and so rich in agricultural and horticultural
capabilities.

Froduction. — According to figures furnished by the
Interior Department Report, the total value of the output
of the forest products during the year 1912 was as
follows : —

Lumber, lath, and sliinglus . . . $84,000,000

Firewood 50,000,000

Pulpwood 12,000,000

Posts and rails 10,000,000

Cross ties 8,000,000

Square timber exported .... 1,900,000

Cooperage 1,700,000

Poles 1,200,000

Logs exported 1,100,000

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPIIY AND TIJAVRL

Tainiiijg material
Round milling timber
]\Iis:cellaneous exports
Miscellaneous products

Total

. $1,000,000
600,000
300,000

. 10,500,000

$182,300,000

The lumber products by s})ecies of ti'ees employed give
the following interesting items covering the same period: —

.Spruce

White pine

Douglas fir

Hemlock .

Cedar

Red pine .

Birch

Balsam .

Maple

Tamarack

Bull- pine

Basswood

Elm

Jack-pine

Beech

Western hemlock

Ash

Poplar

Western white pine

Oak

Chestnut

Hickory .

Butternut

Cherry

Julip

Walnut .

Forest Hcscrvcs.- — For

Fei't.
Boanl iiifiisure.

1,409,311,000

911,427,000

889,861,000

333,238,000

156,022,000

142,294,000

100,267,000

78,841,000

77,827,000

73,177,000

53,960,000

52,921,000

32,949,000

31,605,000

15,417,000

11,856,000

12,386,000

7,523,000

7,630,000

7,283,000

1,538,000

667,000

573,000

351,000

150,000

61,000

rest reserves have been created in
various portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and
British Columbia, as well as in the older provinces of
Ontario and Quebec. Large sections have been recently
added to the original reserves by an Act of Pnrliament,

DOMINION OF CANADA 8.3

ami tlio total area of forest reserves in the Dominion of
Canada is 150,000,000 acres. Among the most im-
portant of these forest reserves are: (1) the Rocky
Mountains lieserve, comprising the whole eastern slope
of the Eocky Mountains, an area of 13,000,000 acres,
forming the watershed for the prairies ; and (2) the
reserves in the province of Quebec, which include the
whole of the Great Laurentide ridge in that province.

Under the care and management of Mr, R. H.
Campbell, Director of Forestry, and under the general
supervision and interest paid to this branch by the
Honourable the Minister of the Interior, besides the
Prime Minister himself and His Excellency the Governor-
General, there is no doubt that a great interest has been
awakened within the Dominion, and the excellent work
done by the Canadian Forestry Association, as well as by
the Canadian Conservation Commission, with the Hon.
Clifford Sifton at its head, and Mr. James White, Deputy-
Head, will do much towards placing this great asset
of Canada's forests in the forefront, to the end that
permanent forests may exist and assist as they effectively
do in controlling rivers and streams, preventing floods,
and supplying fuel, and other materials for the manu-
facture of paper, lumber, and various other industries
into which woody tissues enter so largely.

The total area of wooded land in Canada has been
estimated at 1,248,798 square miles, or 5.35,000,000
acres; of this 70,000 square miles are white and red
pine lands in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario.

The yearly increasing use of wood-pulp for the
manufacture of paper, and of many other articles of less
extensive use, gives great importance to the immense
area of coniferous trees and poplars, and especially the
spruces. Areas of woodland passed over by the lumber-

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

men afford the precise kind of wood most desirable for
paper-making. Spruce is used almost exclusively for
mechanical pulp, and poplar, basswood, and Banksian
pine for chemical pulp. Almost anywhere at the edge of
the Laurentian plateau is an ideal situation for a pulp-
mill, with the forests in rear, and the water, for motive
power and washing, flowing rapidly down to the plain of
the St. Lawrence. Pulp-mills are being built in all the
provinces of the Dominion, and the industry is flourishing
in a marked degree.

In the year 1912 the province of Quebec provided
wood-pulp, chemical and mechanical, to the value of
$7,810,000; Ontario, $2,418,369; New Brunswick,
$501,925; Nova Scotia, $444,492; and British
Columbia, $429,318; in all, $11,604,104, this being
the latest return available. Wood blocks and other, for
pulp exported to the United States in 1913, amounted
to 1,003,594 cords, valued at $6,806,445.

Quantity and value of wood-pulp exported from
Canada during the fiscal year ended March 31, 1913,
was as follows : —

Countries.

Chemically Prepared.

Countries.

Meclianieally Prepared.

Cwt.

Great Britain .

United States .

Japan

Otlier Countries

Total .

322

1,055,380

54,027

2,728

643

1,995,817

99,148

5,234

Great Britain .
United States .
Japan

Total .

1,434,649

3,313,950

1,120

827,490

2,580,462

750

1,112,457

2,100,842

4,749,719

3,408,702

The conditions existing in Canada for the develop-
ment of the wood-pulp industry are the most favourable
that can be conceived.

DOMINION OF CANADA 85

The total yield of lumber for all Canada durini;- the
year 1913 was 3,810,042,000 board feet valued at
$05,796,438. Tvventy-iiiue native species were cut in
1912, out of which the first six were soft woods. Spruce
forms over a third of the total cut, whilst spruce and
pine together furnished a little over one- half of the
total. The output of Douglas fir in British Columbia
was little less than that of white pine. Up to 1907
white pine led in the production.

Fauna

The Dominion of Canada extends from ocean to ocean
along parallels of latitude, and the physical conditions of
the forest region of the east, the prairie region of the
centre, and the mountain region of the Pacific are
different ; but, now that the bison of the prairie country
has been almost exterminated, there is not the diversity
in the land animals which might be expected. The
sub-arctic forest region to the north is a bond of union
across the whole continent in which similar conditions
prevail.

Commencing with the animals of the widest range :
the moose (Alee Americanus) is common throughout the
forest regions of the east, in the forests of the Mackenzie
valley, and of the northern part of British Columbia.
The most accessible regions for moose-hunting now are
in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and in eastern
Quebec, but the moose may be found everywhere in the
northern forests. The woodland caribou (Eangi/er caribou)
is now almost extinct in Nova Scotia, but is found in the
forest regions of the Dominion from New Brunswick to
British Columbia. This animal should be distinouished

86 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TP.AVEL

from the Barren Ground caribou (Baiu/ifer Groenland-
icus) which roam in immense herds in the most northern
parts of Canada, on the Arctic coasts and islands, and in
northern Labrador. It is practically the same animal
as the reindeer of Lapland, and inhabits the treeless
plains of the uttermost north. The Virginia deer
{Cariacus Virc/inianus) is the deer still hunted in the
more southern forests of New Brunswick, Quebec, and
Ontario, and is found also sparingly in British Columbia.

Of the Carnivora the largest is the puma, cougar, or
mountain lion (Felis concolor), still met with occasionally
in the forest recesses of southern Quebec and in the
Eocky Mountains and Pacific regions. The wild cat
and Canada lynx are found throughout the wooded
country from east to west, and, in summer, the lynx
migrates down the Mackenzie valley to the Arctic coast.
The wolf {Canis lupus occidentalis) is another animal
found throughout the unsettled portions of Canada. The
variety found east of the Kocky Mountains is the grey
wolf It is almost extinct in the maritime provinces,
but is sometimes heard of in the wilder parts of Ontario
and Quebec, and in the North-West and Pacific terri-
tories. The black wolf is found from the Mackenzie
valley to the Pacific, and the white wolf inhabits the
barren grounds and the islands of the far northern
regions.

Many varieties of foxes (Vulpes vulgaris) occur in
Canada. Throughout the wooded regions are the red
fox, the cross fox, the silver or grey fox ; on the prairies
the prairie fox ( Vulpes macrourus) and the kit fox ( Vulpes
vclox) ; on the Barren Grounds and to the farthest north,
the Arctic or white fox (Vulpes lagopiLs) and the blue fox
[Vulpes fuliginosus). The wolverine (Gulo luscus) has
disajipeared in the maritime provinces, and is rare in

DOMINION OF CANADA 87

Quebec and Oiit;irio, but iu the wooded regious of the
North-west and British Cohimbia it is still comiuuu
enough.

The following are found everywhere in Canada from
ocean to ocean, and as far north as the forests reach : —
the fisher or pekan {Mmtela Pennanti), the marten, pine
marten {Mnstela Americana), the weasel {Putorius
vulgaris), the ermine (Putorius erminius), the mink
{Putorius lutr coins). The skunk {Mephitis mcphitica) is
also common throughout Canada, and, secure in its
unique power of defence, is often found close to the
settlements, where poultry are the objects of attraction
— a playful animal not in the least anxious to get out of
the way, and one which it is well rather to go round
than to hurry up. The otter {Lutra Canadensis) is found
also throughout the breadth of the Dominion, and far
north beyond the Arctic circle. The habitat of the
raccoon {Procyon lotor) is more limited ; it is found in
the eastern and Pacific provinces, but not far north nor in
tlie prairie regions.

Bears of several kinds occur ; the black bear ( Ursus
Americanus) is the common bear of the country, though
now it is seldom met with near the settlements. It is a
somewhat inoffensive animal when let alone, and prefers
wild fruits as a diet, though, if very hungry, it will
scarcely let anything pass. The grizzly bear (Ursus
horribilis) is a different animal, but its habitat is
restricted to the central part of British Columbia and to
the Kocky Mountains, though in fact it is not often seen.
This is the most formidable animal of the continent.
The Barren Ground bear (Ursus arctos) is accounted a
variety, for the common black or brown bear does not
stray far from the wooded country. The polar bear
(Thalassarctos maritimus) is a true carnivorous bear,

88 UOMPENDIUM or GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

for it can get no vegetable food, and lives upon seals
and upon fish. It is found on the coasts and islands
of the Arctic Ocean and on the shores of northern
Labrador.

The Eodentia occurring in Canada extend across the
continent, and there are many varieties, e.g. the deer
mouse, the wood rat, and meadow mice of several kinds.
Lemmings of two kinds occur north of latitude 56° — the
Hudson Bay lemming (Cunicuhis torquatus) from Labrador
to the Arctic coast and islands, and the tawny lemming
{Myocles Obensis) around Great Bear Lake and in the
liocky Mountain region. The musk-rat (Fiber zibethicus)
is met with everywhere throughout the Dominion, and
the beaver {Castor fiber) — the most important creature of
this order — is found throughout from east to west, and
as far north as the tree line extends. This very in-
telligent animal is the chosen emblem of Canada, for it is
at home both in the woods and waters. Hares are found
also in several varieties — the polar hare {Lepus timidus) in
the Barren Grounds and along the Arctic coasts, the prairie
hare or " Jack rabbit " {Lepus camptestris) on the western
plains, the rabbit {Lepus Amcricanvs) throughout the
whole country to the limit of trees, and the wood hare,
a grey rabbit {Lepus sylvatieus), common in Ontario.
The Canada porcupine {EretJiizon dorsatus) extends from
the Atlantic coast to the Mackenzie, and the yellow-
haired porcupine {E. epixanthus) from thence to the
Pacific.

Of the squirrels there are very many kinds. Those
chiefly met in Canada are the striped squirrel, chip-
munk {Tamias striatus); the grey squirrel or black squirrel
{Sciurus Garolinensis), best known in southern Canada :
the red squirrel {Sciiiriis Hudsonius) from the Atlantic to
the Kocky Mountains ; two varieties {S. Ixicliardsoni and

DOMINION OF CANADA

S. Dov{ilassi) continue tlui range of this squirrel to the
Pacitic ; the woodchuck {Ardomyfi munax), reaching from
the maritime provinces round the shores of Hudson
Bay to the Mackenzie river ; and the flying squirrel
{Sciuropteras volucella), which is found everywhere as far
north as Great Slave Lake.
Then there are the squirrels
of the Rocky Mountain region,
viz. Say's chipmunk {Tainias
lateralis) and those of the
western plains, viz. the grey-
headed spermophile and
Eichardson's spermophile ; and
the squirrels of the far north,
such as the northern chipmunk
( Tamias Asiaticus, var. horealis)
— Parry's spermophile (Sper-
mojiliilus c7n2Jctra) — these ex-
tend over the Barren Grounds
and beyond the Arctic circle.
There are also a few others of
a more limited range.

Of the Insectivora the
most widely distributed are

moles, shrews, and bats. The star-nosed mole, the marsh
shrew, and Foster's shrew are found from the Atlantic
to the Eocky Mountains. The red bat, the blunt-nosed
Ijat, and the silvery-haired bat are found all over the
Dominion, and other species of this order exist with
more local range.

Certain animals there are peculiar to central Canada ;
these are the mule deer {Cariacus macrotis), which extends
up to, but not beyond, the coast range of British
Columbia ; and the prong-horned antelope {Antilocapra

HEAD OF PRONG-HORNED
ANTELOPE.

COMPENDIUM OF GliOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL

Americana), which is a creature of the plains. The
American elk {Cervus Canadensis) was formerly found
in eastern Canada, but is only met with now from western
Manitoba to the Pacific and north of the plains. It is
the same animal as the red deer ; it is sometimes called

HEAD OF ELK OR CANADIAN STAG.

" wapiti," and is most common in British Columbia, for it
has been hunted to extinction almost everywhere else.
The pest of the prairies is the gopher {Thomomys talpoides).
There are several varieties of gophers and prairie dogs ;
they burrow in the ground and undermine the surface
with their colonies and villages, so that horses' feet break
throuo-h, and riding becomes in places unpleasant and

DOMINION OF CANADA

even dangerous. They are a great annoyance to farmers.
Badgers also are common on tlie plains. The coyote
{Canis latrans) is also an inhabitant of tlie western
plains.

The story of the bison, or western bulfalo (Bus Ameri-
canus), is disgraceful to civilisation. The animal is

BISON AT SILVER HEIGHTS, MANITOBA.

practically extinct. The Indians used to live upon
buffalo, and if they alone had hunted it the species
would still survive ; but the white men, when the rail-
ways crossed the plains, brought all the destructive
forces of civilisation to bear, and never rested until the
last accessible buffalo was killed. The bones of the
slaughtered creatures whitened the plains and were sold
for fertilisers and other purposes. A few individuals are

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

preserved on Lord Strathcona's farm, near Winnipeg, and
there are rumours of a few wood buffalo surviving some-
where in the Mackenzie valley. As late as 1858 a
traveller across the plains drove with ponies for ten
successive days through a continuous herd, and the
prairie was black with animals as far as the eye could
reach.

Some animals are peculiar to the Eocky Mountains and
British Columbia. The Kocky Mountain goat (Aplocertis

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP.

HEAD OF MUSK OX.

montanus) is still common on the mountains, and is
even increasing in numbers, as well as the Kocky
Mountain sheep or big horn {Ovis Tnontana). The horns
of this latter animal are curved like those of a ram and
are very large. It does not seek the highest peaks like
the "oat. Both these animals are limited in their range
to the Kocky Mountains, but the goat delights in the
precipitous cliffs and snowy peaks. There is also a
small deer {Cariacus Columhianus) met with on the
coast.

Besides these animals already mentioned as extending

DOMINION OF CANADA \) 6

their range beyoiul the Arctic circle, the musk ox (Ovibos
moschatus) must be mentioned. It does not conic soutli
of lut. 59°, and its range is through the Barren Lands to
and along the Arctic coast and over the islands of the
Arctic archipelago. The Eskimo dog must also be in-
cluded in any list of Arctic animals. It is found wher-
ever the Eskimos have been met with, whether on the
Atlantic or Arctic coast, or on the islands of the Arctic
archipelago.

The marine animals of Canada, on the Atlantic and
Arctic coasts, differ from those found on the Pacific.
Only one variety of seal — the harbour seal or fresh water
seal {Plioca vitulina) is found on both oceans. Its range
does not extend far north, but it is met with in Hudson
Strait. The other varieties extend from the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and the coasts of Newfoundland, far away along
the coast of Labrador, and along the Arctic coast and
islands. It is the main support of the Eskimo, and
provides his food and clothing, his light and warmth.
His canoes and all his implements of war or peace are
derived almost entirely from the seal. The ringed seal
(FJioca fa'iida) is most common in Hudson Strait. The
harp seal (Phoca Grcenlandica) is the most common seal
on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. The
hooded seal {Cystoplwra cristaia) is found from the Gulf
of St. Lawrence to the Arctic Ocean, and the bearded seal
{Erignathus harhatus) has the same range to the south, but
reaches far along the Arctic islands as well. Besides the
seals, the walrus (Odohcunus rosmarus) is a common denizen
of the Arctic seas of Canada. In the times of the early
sailors its range was as far south as Nova Scotia and the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. It has been driven by hunters
away north to Labrador, Hudson Bay, and the Arctic Ocean.

Althousrli these animals are found in the Polar ocean

94 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEArilY AND TRAVEL

as far nortli as explorers have penetrated, they do not,
save in the one instance above cited, extend down Bering
Strait into the Pacific.

The animals of the latter ocean are the northern fur-seal
(CaUorhinus ursinv.s) on the west coast of British Columbia;
the sea-lion {Eumatopms Stelleri), which goes north of
the fur-seal ; the California sea-lion, which has a farther
southern range ; and the sea otter {Euhydris lutris) on the
British Columbian coast. It was the trade with China in
the fur of this last animal that brought British Columbia
first into notice.

Birds

T)Oth Professor John Macoun, Dominion Naturalist, and
Montague Chamberlain, in their catalogues of Canadian
Birds, enumerate some six hundred varieties. These, for
the most part, migrate to the south in winter when the
streams and ponds freeze over and the ground is covered
with snow. They breed and rear their young in the
north, but must follow the open ground and water to find
their food. Those birds which live upon buds and
berries remain all winter.

Among the birds of prey are the golden eagle and the
bald engle, four varieties of gyrfalcon, twelve of hawks, and
twelve of owls. Some of these breed within the Arctic
circle and winter in southern Canada. Of the smaller
birds the woodpeckers are most widely extended and are
represented by nine varieties. The perchers are very
numerous, there being over a hundred varieties — thrushes,
warblers, jays, sparrows-^the most showy of these birds
are the belted kingfisher, the scarlet tanager, the
humming birds, and the orioles. Among the thrushes
are the sweetest singers — the robin or red-breasted thrush
is very common all summer in the parks and gardens of

DOMINION OF CANADA 05

tlie cities. Of gtillinacoous birds many varieties of
partridge, ruffled grouse, and ptarmigan are found
aljundantly over all Canada in summer and winter and
up to the Arctic circle. The passenger or wild pigeons,
which used to darken the air in their migrations, are now
very rarely met with, the wild turkey, which used to be
plentiful in southern Ontario, has also become very rare.
The waders are numerously represented by plover, snipe,
and woodcock, and by herons and bitterns. The great
blue heron is a common variety.

It is, however, in the order of Natatores that Canada
is pre-eminent — the ducks and geese are natives of the
northern part of the Dominion, and there they breed in
prodigious inirnbers on the thousands of lakes remote
from the haunts of men. In the fall they migrate
southwards, stopping on their way in southern Canada
until the lakes and streams begin to freeze, when they
go south as far as the southern states and the Gulf
of Mexico. As many as thirty varieties are enumerated,
and, to adopt the theory laid down by the United States
in tlie fur-seal controversy, they are all Canadian born
subjects visiting the south for a short time in winter, but
always animo rcvertendi ; for their domiciles are in
Labrador, Hudson Bay, and the great northern lakes.
The number of these birds shot for food in the north is
immense, and they form a large part of the staple food-
supply of the Hudson Bay posts. One of the old officers
of the Company calculated that 80,000 geese are annually
killed for the posts around the Bay alone, besides those
killed along the Mackenzie and in other parts of the fur
countries. They pass in inniiense numbers to the south
late in fall and return early in spring, generally flying very
high, and they come back invariably to the place of their
birth to breed.

96 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The coasts of the Dominion abound with waterfowl,
gulls, puffins, auks, guillemots, murres, besides ducks and
geese. The islands in the Gulf are clouded with sea-
fowl — the Bird Eocks, the Perce Eock, and the unin-
habited rocky islets of the long Labrador coast are the
breeding-grounds of almost every kind of water birds.
More than half of the fresh water of the world is in the
Dominion, and is gathered up in myriads of lakes from
the still pools of innumerable streams to the sea-like
expanses of the great lakes. There is no other country
like the Dominion for water, and it is not wonderful that
there is no other country like it for water-fowl.

Fishes

The sea-fisheries of Canada are well known. The
Atlantic coast waters abound with cod, mackerel, herring,
shad, haddock, halibut, and its shores with lobsters and
oysters. Some of the largest items of export from
Canada are products of the fisheries, and their money
values will be found in the tables of exports. Many
foreign vessels flock to Canadian waters to share in these
treasures, and the Dominion employs a regular fleet of
cruisers to enforce the fishing laws and to guard the
rights of Canadian iishermen. The I'acific waters of the
Dominion also swarm with food fishes. The prodigious
runs of salmon in the rivers of the Pacitic coast are
widely known by the immense quantities of canned
fish exported. Large numbers of salmon, identical in
species with the salmon of the British rivers, are caught
in the streams tributary to the river and gulf of St.
Lawrence. Many of the salmon rivers are leased to
fishing clubs of sportsmen, foreigners as well as natives,
who camp upon them in the summer.

DOMINION OF CANADA 97

While the wealth of the Dominion in its sea-fisheries
is well known, it is not so generally known that practi-
cally all the great lakes and rivers of the Dominion, up
to the Arctic coast, abound with food fishes. Lake trout,
salmon trout, speckled trout, and white-fish are caught in
the farthest north in great numbers by the Indians for
food and for the use of the Hudson Bay Company's
posts. In one season 75,000 white-fish were caught in
Great Slave Lake for the use of the Hudson Bay Com-
pany's post on the lake. The value of the fish caught in
the waters of the province of Ontario alone in the year
1912-13 was $2,842,878. In Manitoba, Alberta, Saskat-
chewan, and Yukon for the same period it was $1,074,843.
The production of British Columbia fisheries for 1912-13
was $14,455,488; with 15,167 men employed, and a
total value of equipment, including sealing fleet, of
$8,903,000. These were the produce of the settled
parts of Canada, but beyond them are the great northern
lakes, Athabaska, G-reat and Little Slave Lakes, and Great
Bear Lake, and all the far northern waters abounding in
fish. The total product of the fisheries of Canada brought
to market in the year 1912-13 was $33,389,464.

Great attention is given, not oidy by the Dominion
Government but by the provincial Governments, to the
protection of fish and game. The penalties for infringe-
ment of the close seasons are rigorously exacted, and,
warned by the fate of the buffalo of the prairies, public
opinion supports the laws. In some parts the number of
wild animals is increasing. Parties are not now allowed to
go into the woods and kill as many wild creatures as they
can. Indians are allowed a necessary latitude ; but the
wanton destructiveness of cultivated white men is held in
check. Fish-breeding establishments have been estab-
lished on the shores of the ocean and inland waters, and

98 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

lobster and oyster culture is also carried on under Govern-
ment officials supervised by a scientific officer. The attrac-
tions the Dominion offers to sportsmen in every one of its
provinces are very great, and the people everywhere are
alive to the importance of strictly enforcing the laws in
this respect.

Aborigines

The wild tribes of the western world are still known
by the general name, Indian, given them by the early
sailors who thought they had discovered the Asiatic
continent. Whatever vague traditions they have, all
point to the north-west as the direction from whence they
came, and to the north-west the spirits of the dead are
believed to travel on their journey to the abodes of the
departed. Without expressing any opinion as to the
tribes of Central and South America, it seems natural to
suppose that the Indians of northern America crossed
from Asia by Bering Strait, and the opening of trade
relations with Japan tends continually to confirm this
opinion, as greater opportunities are developed for com-
parison between the people on both sides of the Pacific.
The different tribes of Indians in the Dominion, excepting
the Indians of British Columbia, are grouped according
to affinities of language into the following families : 1.
Eskimo. 2. Algonquin. 3. Huron-Iroquois. 4. Chipe-
wyan. The island of Newfoundland was inhabited at
the time of its discovery by a race of savages, the
Beothiks or Eed Indians, who seem to have been superior
to the tribes on the adjacent coasts. They were ex-
terminated by the whites and by the Micmacs, who were
brought in by the French at Placentia, and the last of
them perislied some time about A.D. 1827. They had
been treated with such cruelty and treachery that they

DOMINION OF CANADA 99

retired into the inaccessible recesses of the centre of the
island, and would never trust the overtures of the Govern-
ment in its later attempts to make amends for past
injuries. There they passed away in silence, and their
last traces were found at Ked Indian Lake. The
Indians of North America are called savages, and were
cruel in war, but in America the whites have often
been cruel in war and peace, unjust, and relentless. From
the discovery of the continent they stole the unsuspecting
natives and sold them into slavery — the very first name
on the continent, Labrador, tells of man-stealing. What
poet or painter can ever depict the last remnant of the
Beothiks, which proudly and silently passed away on the
shores of Ked Indian Lake, spurning the proffered over-
tures of the whites who had persecuted them to the last
family with their superior weapons ! From the scanty
vocabularies which have been preserved it cannot be
pronounced with certainty whether or not they belonged
to the Algonquin race ; though the weight of authority
inclines to the belief they did.

The Eskimo — Innuits as they call themselves — extend
from northern Labrador to the northern shores of Hudson
Bay and along the coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean.
They seldom penetrate far inland or leave the haunts of
the seals that provide them with all they need — food,
clothing, and implements. At some not very remote
period the Eskimo crossed over into Greenland. From
Alaska, along the whole immense stretch of several
thousand miles of coast to Greenland, they all speak the
same language and are supposed to have crossed from
Asia by Bering Strait. They are a good-natured and
peaceful people, and, although their first contact with the
Europeans on the Labrador coast was hostile, it was the
fault of the whites, who, by their violence and cupidity,

100 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

alienated and terrified them. The natural disposition of
the Eskimo is seen by the assistance they have always
given to Arctic explorers, and by the fact that they have
never attacked isolated parties no matter how enfeebled
by hunger, and yet these starving and helpless white
strangers must have possessed many objects tempting to
the poor natives. They are intelligent and support
themselves with ease in those far northern regions where
white men, with all the resources of civilisation, have
seemed unequal to the task. They have much artistic
capacity. Eskimo, who had never before seen pencil or
paper, drew surprisingly accurate maps for Parry, Eoss,
and other Arctic voyagers. They are fond of music and
learn to sing in harmony, and to play on various musical
instruments with great readiness, and they alone of the
American tribes have trained an animal, the Eskimo dog,
to do their bidding. They are of middle stature, not
dwarfed, as often represented, square-shouldered and very
hardy beyond all other races. They are bold and daring
on the water, attacking alone in their frail kayaks on the
open sea the largest sea animals and yet always at peace
with each other. The Indians at the south have always
been their enemies. The name Eskimo is Algonquin and
means " eater of raw meat," as a term of reproach, and,
beyond doubt, whatever their artistic tastes may be they
have not been directed to the culinary art. The Moravian
missionaries have christianised the Labrador Eskimo, and
those around Hudson Bay, Baffin land, and the mouth
of the Mackenzie have come under the influence of the
Anglican missions.

The most widely distributed race of Indians in the
Dominion is the Algonquin. Tliis great family extends
from the Atlantic to the Kocky Mountains. In the
maritime provinces the Micmacs, Malicetes, and Aben-

DOMINION OF CANADA 101

akis ; in T.abradov and easteru Quebec the Naskapees
and Montagnais ; in western Quebec and Ontailo the
Mississaugas, the Ojibways, and the numerous tribes
which assisted the French in the old colony wars, gener-
ally grouped under the name Algonquin ; in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta, the Crees and Saulteux — all
these are Algonquins, and their languages are reducible to
the same stock. The Cree is the typical language of this
group and is a key to the others. This race of Indians
were great hunters and warriors, but had not the politi-
cal organisation nor capacity of some of the races
with which they came in contact. They stretched away
to the south along the Atlantic coast, and were the
kinsmen of the Delawares, Shawnees, and other tribes
in the present United States.

The Iroquois-Huron race and its varying fortunes are
inseparably interwoven with the history of Canada. A
few facts seem to stand out with sufficient distinctness
from the shadowy pre-historic traditions of this remarkable
race. When Cartier first opened up to Europe the valley
of the St. Lawrence, he found at Hochelaga (Montreal) a
fortified, palisaded town inhabited by a people who culti-
vated the soil. These were people of the Iroquois-Huron
race. The Algonquins roamed over the country to the
north, and probably to the east of Three Kivers ; and
there were even then hostile relations between the two
races, for the Quebec Indians sought to prevent Cartier
from going farther up the river by stories of the fierce-
ness of Indians, whom Cartier calls Toudamans, and in
fact a people of that name are placed on a celebrated
map of 1544 (Sebastian Cabot's map), near the site of
Hochelaga. That map was based upon information de-
rived from Cartier's voyages, but when Champlain arrived,
seventy years later, the town of Hochelaga had dis-

102 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPIIY AND TRAVEL

appeared — not a trace remained ; the Iroquois were
living in the region now known as northern New York,
and the Algonquins occupied the whole of the St.
Lawrence valley, if roaming over the territory in war
parties and hunting parties can be called occupation.
The country round Montreal was without inhabitants —
a debatable land — the border march of two hostile races.
The Iroquois, with their fixied abodes and more civilised
habits, had been driven away and Champlain had arrived
just at the time when they were recovering from their
disasters.

The Iroquois were the Eomans of this continent in
their genius for political government. Under their mis-
fortunes their spirit rose and they organised themselves
into a confederacy. There were five tribes at first — the
Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas and
the Senecas. These last are the Toudamans of the French
maps, and were called by the French Tsonnontouans in
after years. They were on the extreme west, near
Niagara, and the Mohawks were on the extreme east,
near Lake Champlain. The council house of the con-
federacy was in the centre with the Onondagas. The
Tuscaroras, a kindred tribe to the south, joined the
confederacy later, and it was thenceforth known as the
Six Nations, or generally as the Iroquois. This politic
people held the balance between the English and French
for many years. They were really six independent
republics, organised for united defence, and the un-
organised Algonquins were unable to bear up against a
policy so subtle and persistent. During the seventy
years between Cartier and Champlain some revolution
had occurred to alienate the Iroquois from the Hurons,
due, say the traditions of the Hurons (Wyandots), to a
dusky Helen (so history keeps repeating the old story),

DOMINION OF CANADA 103

aud the Hurons had been driven far away to the country
between Lake Sinicoe and Georgian Bay on Lake Huron.
They were pursued by the Iroquois with relentless hatred
and utterly destroyed as a nation. It was a political
maxim of the Iroquois, as of the liomans, never to carry
on more than one great war at a time and utterly to
crush and root out an enemy, so as never to have the
work to do over again. Having terrorised the Algonquins
and ruined the Hurons, they proceeded to exterminate
the Neuter nation and the Tobacco nation then living
in the peninsula of Ontario. Then came the turn of the
Eries and the Andastes, and their ruthless career was
only arrested by contact with the powerful tribes of the
Sioux, Their position was central. They were sur-
rounded on all sides by Algonquin tribes who had not
the political sense to unite and act in concert. The
Iroquois were a nation of orators as well as of warriors,
and they dissembled until they were in a position to
strike. For more than one hundred years they were a
terror to the surrounding tribes, an anxiety to the
English, and a menace to the Ei-ench. With most pro-
found policy they massacred all the adults of each tribe
they conquered and adopted the children, who grew up
as Iroquois, and thus their numbers were kept up.
Their warfare was cruel, but not more cruel than that
of Ciesar in his Gallic wars — not more cruel than that
of Simon de Montfort in Languedoc — nor than that of
Tilly and Wallenstein in the Thirty Years' War : nor more
cruel than the wars on the Turkish and Tartar frontiers
down indeed to our own time. A remnant of the Hurons
took shelter at Lorette near Quebec after the ruin of their
nation, and a few are left, but of mixed blood. The
Iroquois survive still on their reserves at St. Eegis, and
Caughnawaga in Quebec, and on the Grand river and

104 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Bay of Quinte in Ontario. Of the descendants of the.
Six Nations there are about 9000 surviving in Canada
and 7000 in the United States, without counting the
Cherokees, who are of the same race.

The language of the Iroquois-Huron race is more
musical than that of the surrounding people. To them
we owe many of our most sonorous names, such as
Toronto, Ontario, Niagara, and in their political con-
federacy was the germ idea of the union of the Englisli
colonies.

The fourth great group of Indian tribes is the Chipe-
wyan or Athabaskan, called also the Tinneh. These roam
over the region between the Algonquin Crees and the
Eskimo ; west of Hudson Bay and north-west of Little
Slave Lake and Lake Athabaska, including the interior of
Alaska and a part of British Columbia. The different
tribes are known as Dogribs, Yellow-knives, Slaves,
Hares, Loucheux, Sicannie, Nahanie — and there are many
others. There are outliers of this race to the south such
as the Apaches and Navajos, and one of the tribes of the
Blackfeet, the Sarcees, is of the same stock. In the north
these Indians are of a peaceable disposition, although the
Apaches and Navajos are the most untamable savages
of the plains. This group of Indians is inferior to the
Algonquin in intellectual capacity and civilisation as well
as in physical strength.

The four great races above described are grouped by
the affinities of language, although their habits differ
according to their surroundings. The northern Chipe-
wyans live on fisli and game and have no horses, while
the Apaches and Navajos are equestrian tribes. In British
Columbia are many smaller tribes differing in language.
In the northern part of the interior are the Tinneh al-
ready mentioned ; in the southern part are the Salish or

DOMINION OF CANADA

105

Shuswap, and in the south-east the Kootanie Indians. On
the coast the divisions are more numerous. The Haidas
occupy the Ci)ueen Charlotte Islands. Along the coast

Topley, Photo.
CROWFOOT, THE GREAT CHIEF OF THE BLxVCKFEET.

and on Vancouver Island are the Tahimsian, the Kuakiool,
the Bilhoola, and the Aht or Nootka Indians. These last
are the Indians known to the first traders. A more
general name, Kawitshin, includes several other tribes,
probably of Salish stock, living round the Strait of Georgia.

106

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Besides these are the Chinooks of the lower Columbia.
All these are maritime tribes and build good canoes, which
they manage with skill and are able to paddle almost any
distance along the coast of the Pacific. Many of these
Columbian Indians have settled down to steady work, and

INDIAN BOY, KIGHT YEAK;

HKFnitK liEINi

earn good wages at the salmon canneries along the coast.
They seem more adaptable to the methods of civilisation
than the tribes of the interior, and some even live in good
houses with furniture. Since the discovery of the country
a trade language has been developed known as the Chinook
jargon. It is a mixture of Chinook, English, French,
Nootka, and other tongues, corresponding to the pidgin-

DOMINION OF CANADA

107

English of the Chinese coast. By means of this " hotch-
potch " trade has been carried on along the coast since the
English fur-traders arrived. It is the iiwjua franca of
the Pacific coast.

The Dominion has relations also with some of the

THK SAME BOY, TWELVE YEARS OLD, IN THE UNIFORM OF THE
GOVERNMENT SCHOOL.

tribes of the great Sioux or Dakota race wliich overlap the
frontier along the Missouri Coteau. The Assinibomes or
Stony Sioux have given their name as before stated to one
of tlie chief rivers of Manitoba. The Blackfeet, a power-
ful tribal confederation of this race, have large reservations
in Alberta, and are still formidable as regards numbers.

108 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

After the great rising in Minnesota, some others of the
Sioux implicated removed into British territory, where
ever since they have peacefully resided.

Distribution of Aborigines

In the southern portion of Canada the natives are
living on reserves. The Iroquois occupy reserves in
South - Eastern Ontario and South - Western Quebec,
whilst the Algonquins occupy the eastern and central
provinces and Southern Ungava and Keewatin, and the
Eskimos Northern Ungava, Baffin Island, and a fringe of
the mainland from Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, to the Gulf
of Alaska. The Athabaskans occupy Central and North-
Western Canada between latitude 55° and the Eskimo
country on the north and south respectively. Note-
worthy is the small remnant of the once powerful Huron-
Iroquois at Jeune Lorette near Quebec city, also the two
small bands of Iroquois near Edmonton, and on the head-
waters of the Athabaska river, who are the descendants
of the hunters employed by the North-West Fur Com-
pany, and the remnant of Athabaskans, Sarcees, near
Calgary ; the isolated Sioux bands ; and the colony of
Shuswaps surrounded by Kootenays near Upper Columbia
Lake.

In dealing with the natives the Canadian Government
has acquired the land by definite purchase, granting certain
annual subsidies and making certain defined reservations
of land for their support and welfare. Great care has
always been taken to see that they are not cheated by
white people, and intoxicating liquors of all kinds are
excluded from the " Indian " reservations. Schools for the
young, and industrial schools for teaching trades to youth,
are carried on, and farm instructors are stationed on the

DOMINION OF CANADA

109

reserves to teacli the natives to cultivate the ground.
Good results have followed, and much greater success is
hoped for. The Dominion Government has now in hand
a capital sum of $7,287,1 53"24 belonging to the Indians
and administered for their benefit. Official returns
are made, from every agency, of the individual earnings
of Indians, and they amounted in the aggregate to
$5,666,085 for the year ending March 31, 1913.
This was earned throughout the Dominion by fishing,
hunting, lumbering, helping farmers, and acting as guides
or labourers, together with the sale of hay and other
produce raised by their own hands. In British Columbia
there are niany Indians in good circumstances, even from
a white settler's point of view.

Tlie last report of the Indian Department, up to
March 31, 1913, gives the numbers of resident and
nomadic Indians as follows : —

Indian Population of

Canada

Alberta ....

8,229

British Columbia .

. 25,172

Manitoba ...

. 10,822

Nova Scotia .

. 2,018

New Brunswick

. 1,920

Prince Edward Island .

292

Ontario ....

. 26,077

Quebec ....

. 12,842

Saskatchewan

. 9,699

North-West Territories .

. 8,030

Yukon ....

. 1,389

Total Iiiiiians in Canada

. 106,490

,, Eskimos ,,

3,447

109,937

There are 11,144 Indian young people subjected to
educational influences: 5631 males and 5513 females.

The Superintendent, Duncan C. Scott, assigns the
aborigines of Canada to the following religious bodies : —

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Religious body.

Adherents.

Anglicans

17,101

Bajitists

1,3.36

Congregationalists .

Methodists

13,058

Presbyterians

1,780

Romanists

41,918

Other Christian beliefs

1,001

Pagan .

9,428

Religious belief unknown

20,828

Total

106,490*

• Not including

Eskimos.

There is no justification, writes the Superintendent, for
regarding the Indian race as moribund in the Dominion.
From 86,379 Indians engaged in agriculture in 1909
the number increased to 9 7,0 71 in 1913; and upwards
of 65,000 acres of land were cropped, amounting in value
to $1,647,916 in 1913.

Political Divisions
The Dominion of Canada is composed of provinces,
each having a Government of its own, independent for
local purposes. It has also a number of territories, and
as yet unorganised areas. Commencing on the east, the
provinces are as follows : —

Provinces

1. Nova Scotia

2. New Bkunswick

3. Pkinck Edward Island

Capital, Halifax
,, Frederictnn
,, Charlottetown

These three form a group — the maritime provinces
— similar in climate, population, and general conditions.
They are the Acadia, L'Acadie of French history.

4. Quebec

5. Ontario

Capital, Quebec
,, Toronto

These are sometimes called Old Canada. They are
diverse in population and language, but similar in

DOMINION OF CANADA 111

climate and physical conditions. They are La Noitvelle
France of French history.

6. Maxitoba . . Capital, Winnipeg

7. Saskatchewan' . ,, Rcgina

8. Alberta . . ,, Edmonton

These constitute the three Central prairie provinces,
with remarkable agricultural possibilities, a fast-growing,
young, and vigorous population in the great wheat-belt
of the Dominion.

9. British Columbia . . Capital, Victoria

The Pacific province stretching from Alaska to the
United States. The Yukon Territory is under the care of
a Commissioner appointed by the Dominion Government
at Ottawa, as are also the North-West Territories and their
outlying posts in the unorganised portions of northernmost
Canada, where the Eoyal North-West Mounted Police con-
trol Customs and licences for trade and fisheries, besides
keeping order.

Population

From the first census of the Dominion in 1871 to the
fifth in 1 9 1 1, a period of 40 years, the population increased
from 3,689,257 to 7,206,(343, or nearly 100 per cent.

In Ontario, during the same period, the increase
was 902,423 ; Quebec, 811,716 ; Manitoba, 430,386 ;
British Columbia, 356,233.

Alberta and Saskatchewan, organised in 1905, show
for the former an increase from 1901 of 301,641, and
for the latter 401,153.

Nova Scotia shows an increase of 104,538 in 40
years, and New Brunswick an increase of 66,295 ;
Prince Edward Island's population in the same period
fell oft" by 293, and the decrease in the North-West
Territories is accounted for by the fact that Alberta and
Saskatchewan have been organised out of the territories.

112

COMPENDIUM OF CxEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The area of Canada, according to the Census tables of

1911, is 3,720,665 square miles of land and water,

which is 15,909 square miles less than in 1901. This

is partly due to the reduction following the award of the

Alaska Boundary Treaty of 1903, and also to new map

measurements.

Population per Square Mile

1911.

1901.

Canada

1-93

1-44

Alberta .

1-47

•28

British Columbia

1-09

■50

Manitoba

6-18

3-46

New Brunswick

12-61

11-83

Nova Scotia

22-98

21-45

Ontario .

9-67

8-37

Prince Edward Islaii

42-91

47-27

Quebec

5-69

4-69

Saskatchewan .

1-95

•36

In the Yukon and North-West Territories there were
lar^e decreases in the 1911 Census.

PopuL.vnoN BY Provinces

Provinces.

1911.

1901.

Iiici-fase.

Increase
per cent.

Alberta

374,663

73,022

301,641

413-08

British Columbia

392,480

178,657

213,823

119-68

Manitoba .

455,614

255,211

200,403

78-52

New Brunswick .

351,889

331,120

20,769

6-27

Nova Scotia

492,338

459,574

32,764

7-13

Ontario

2, .523,274

2,182,947

340,327

15-58

Prince Edward Island

93,728

103, -259

-9,531

-9-23

Quebec

2,003,232

1,648,898

354,334

21-49

Saskatchewan

492,432

91,279

401,153

439-48

Yukon

8,512

27,219

-18,707

-68-73

North-West Territories

18,481

20,129

-1,648

-8-19

Total for Canada

7,206,643

5,371,315

1,835,328

34-17

DOMINION OF CANADA

113

Classes.

Sex.

1901.

1911.

Single .
Married
Widowed

Male
Female

2,751,708
2,619,607

3,821,995
3,384,643

5,371,315

7,206,643

1,748,582
1,564,011

2,369,776
1,941,886

3,312,593

4,311,662

928,952
904,091

1,331,853
1,251,468

1,833,043

2,583,321

73,837
151,181

89,154
179,656

225,018

268,810

CifAes. — la the year 1911 the cities and towns of
Canada with a population of 4000 and over numbered
107; in 1901 they numbered 74, whilst in 187l there
were only 28. In 1871 there was only one city with
100,000 and over, the same number in 1881, two in
1891, two ill 1901, and four in 1911. There were two
with 200,000 and over in 1901 and 1911, two with
300,000 and over in 1911, and one with 400,000 and
over in 1911.

The city of Montreal made the largest gain in the
period of forty years, Toronto next, and Winnipeg third,
Vancouver's growth in less than thirty years was 100,401.

The population of the principal cities and towns of
Canada, according to the census returns of 1901 and
1911, is here added.

114

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL

Cities.

Provinces.

1911.

1901.

Montreal

Quebec

470,480

267,730

Toronto

Ontario

376,538

208,040

Winnipeg

Manitoba

136,035

42,340

Vancouver

British Columbia

101,401

27,010

Ottawa

Ontario

87,062

59,928

Hamilton

, ,

81,969

52,634

Quebec

78,710

68,840

Halifax

Nova Scotia

46,619

40,832

London

Ontario

46,300

37,976

Calgary

Alberta

43,704

4,392

St. Jolin

New Brunswick

42,511

40,711

Victoria

British Columbia

31,660

20,919

Regina

Saskatchewan

30,213

2,249

Edmonton

Alberta

24,900

2,626

Brantford

Ontario

23,132

16,619

Kingston

18,874

17,961

Maisonneuve

Quebec

18,684

3,958

Petei'borough

Ontario

18,360

11,239

Hull

Quebec

18,222

13,993

Windsor

Nova Scotia

17,829

12,153

Sydney

, ,

17,723

9,909

Glace Bay

16,562

6,945

Fort William

Ontario

16,499

3,633

Sherbrooke

Quebec

16,405

11,765

Berlin

Ontario

15,196

9,747

Guelph

15,175

11,496

Westmount

Quebec

14,579

8,856

St. Thomas

Ontario

14,054

11,485

Brandon

Manitoba

18,839

5,620

Moosejaw

Saskatchewan

13,823

1,.558

Trois Rivieres

Quebec

13,691

9,981

New Westminster

British Columbia

13,199

6,499

Stratford

Ontario

12,946

9,959

Owen Sound

12,558

8,776

St. Catherines

12,484

9,946

Saskatoon

Saskatchewan

12,004

113

Verdun

Quebec

11,629

1,898

Moncton

New Brunswick

11,345

9,026

Port Arthur

Ontario

11,220

3,214

Charlottetovvn

Prince Edward Island

11,203

12,080

Sault Ste. Marie

Ontario

10,984

7,169

Chatham

))

10,770

9,068

Lachine

Quebec

10,699

5,561

Gait

Ontario

10,299

7,866

The latest returns of the Canadian population by
race or origin are those of the fifth census : —

DOMINION OF CANADA

115

British

English .

Irish

ScQtch

Others
French
German

Aborigines, etc. .
Scandinavian
Russian
Negro
Italians
Dutch

Chinese and Japanese
Austro-Hiingarian
Jewish
Other races
Not specified

1911.

3,896,985

1,823,950

1,050,384

997,880

25,571

2,054,890

393,320

105,492

107,535

43,142

16,877

45,411

54,986

36,795

129,103

75,681

99,081

147,345

A comparative statement of the rural and urban
population of Canada for the years 1901 and 1911 is
given in the following table : —

Cla-ss.

1901.

1911.

Country
Town .

3,349,516
2,021,799

3,925,502
3,281,141

There is thus an increase of 17 "20 per cent of rural
population in the last decade, and of 6 2 "2 9 per cent for
the urban or city population of the Dominion.

A careful calculation has recently been made in the
department of census and statistics, and the population
of the Dominion has been estimated at 8,075,000 at the
end of March 1914.

The French language is, by law, upon an equal footing
witli the English in the Dominion Parliament, Members

116 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

may .speak in either language, and all public proceedings
and documents are printed in French as well as in
English. This is due to the fact that, excepting in
British Columbia, French was the first European language
spoken; the French having first explored and occupied by
settlements or posts every province in the Dominion
south of Hudson Bay from the Atlantic to the Eocky
Mountains.

Communications

The hydrography of the Dominion and its history
show that it is, by nature, a country of easy communica-
tions, and before the era of railways great efforts were
made to improve the water-ways by canals and develop
them to the utmost extent possible. The total expendi-
ture by Government for canals on capital account amounts
to $104,152,120 to March 31, 1913. There are three
chief systems : 1. The St. Lawrence system by canals
having an aggregate length of 74 miles. These have
been deepened to 14 feet. Their former depth was from
9 feet upwards as the work progressed. The locks
are 45 feet wide and 270 to 280 feet long. Ocean
steamers, drawing 32 feet, pass up to Montreal, 986
miles from the Strait of Belle Isle. From there to the
head of Lake Superior there are eight canals, with 48
locks in all, overcoming a total rise of 553 feet, and
rendering available to large inland steamers an additional
stretch of 1274 miles to Port Arthur. The Sault Ste.
Marie Canal makes a continuous connection throughout
on the Canadian side of the lakes. 2. The Ottawa and
Eideau system, giving an interior connection between
Montreal and Lake Ontario. 3. The Ilichelieu system,
rendering available by a few locks the whole course of

DOMINION OF CANADA

117

the Eicbelieu river into Lake Champlain. There are
other canals, but these are on the main arteries of
commerce.

In 1913, on the St. Lawrence Canals, 4,802,427 tons
were moved ; on the Welland Canal, 3,570,714 tons; on
the Ottawa Canals, 305,438 ; on the Kichelieu Canals,

Scale of Fee!

Stai:/^rSs Go'^ '.iiHabi

lOOO 2000 3COO 40OO 50eO 6w.'0

SAULT STE. MARIE CANALS.

555,602. On the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, 42,699,324
tons were moved, comprising agricultural products,
5,253,665 tons; animal products, 198 tons; manu-
factures, 733,910 tons; products of forest (lumber),
62,958 tons; and product of mines, 36,648,593 tons,
mainly iron ore.

On the Red river of Manitoba, 15 miles north of
Winnipeg, the St. Andrew's lock affords communication
between Winnipeg and Lake Winnipeg.

When the railway era began the water communica-

118

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

tions of Canada were complete to the head of Lake Huron.
The people saw the necessity of keeping up with the
advancing age, and the Government (for in Canada it
is a people's Government) has, over a period of more
than half a century, consistently and liberally encouraged
railway enterprise within the Dominion by large annual
subsidies. On a basis of population, Canada has the
highest ratio of railway mileage of any country in the
world. In 1850 there were 66 miles of railway in
operation, and in 191,3 there were 29,.303 miles in
operation and 12,090 miles of railway in course of con-
struction.

In 1836 "Lower Canada" had 16 miles of railway of
a most primitive character. To-day the Dominion has
the greatest railway mileage per head of population in
the world, namely, one mile of railway to 240 people;
in all (June 1913) 29,303 miles, not reckoning the
8919 miles of siding. Eailway mileage by province
is as follows : —

Ontario

9000

Quebec

3986

Manitoba .

3993

Saskatchewan

4651

British Columbia

1951

New Brunswick .

1545

Nova Scotia

1359

Alberta

2212

Prince Edward Island

279

Yukon (Territory)

102

In United States

225

Total

29,303

Of the total railway mileage there are 1742
miles of Government owned and operated lines cost-
ing $105,929,173. The capital expenditure on the
Eastern Division of the National Transcontinental

DOMINION OF CANADA 119

Eailway, which is being constructed by the Govern-
ment, amounted to $152,000,000 on December 31,
1913. Canadian railways received $2 17, 83 0^1 58 in
cash subsidies besides land grants of over 56,000,000
acres.

The capital invested, exclusive of Government rail-
ways, amounts to S1,588,'J37,52G, including stocks to
the value of ^770,459,351. The Federal Government
at Ottawa has granted subsidies to the amount of
$163,251,409, to which may be added $36,500,015
granted them by provincial governments together with
$18,078,673 from municipalities. The actual number
of miles in operation is (June 1913) 29,303, with
gross earnings amounting to $256,702,703, and work-
ing expenses $182,011,690 for a train mileage of
113,437,208 miles.

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. — The total mileage
from Halifax, on the Atlantic seaboard, to Prince liupert
on the Pacific Ocean on this trans-continental route, com-
pleted April 9, 1914, is 3746 miles as follows: —

1. Halifax to Moucton

2. Monctou to Quebec Bridge

3. Quebec Bridge to Vt'iunipeg

4. Winnipeg to Edmonton

5. Edmonton to Prince Rupert

Miles.
186
460

1345
793
962

Total . . . 3746

Of the above divisions, the Intercolonial, the National
Transcontinental, and the Grand Trunk Pacific Eailways
unite in forming one great highway across all Canada
from ocean to ocean without touching any territory
appertaining to the United States.

The Canadian Northern liailway extends from Winni-
peg to The Pas, on the Saskatchewan, a distance of 480

120 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

miles from Fort Churchill, and about the same distance
from Port Nelson on Hudson Bay.

From The Pas Station to a point east of Nelson
House to Port Nelson, on the bay, the Canadian
Government has undertaken the construction of a
line of railway with a view of giving a northern
outlet along the seaboard of Hudson Bay to the North-
West trade during the four months of open navigation
in that bay and through Hudson Strait. The sea-
voyage from Port Nelson to Liverpool is only 29 G6
miles.

The railways of Canada have a uniform gauge of 4 ft.
8^ in., and the great trunk lines are provided with
parlour, dining, and sleeping and colonists' cars, and all
other conveniences for the luxurious travellers of the
present day. The number of passengers carried in 1913
was 46,230,765, and there were 106,992,710 tons of
freight moved. The gross earnings were $256,702,703,
and the net earnings were $59,597,011. The total
paid-up capital invested in railways up to 1912 was
$1,588,937,526, of which amount about one-seventh
was supplied by state or municipal subsidies.

The building of the Canadian Pacific Eailway across
the fertile prairie regions of the west to the Pacific Coast
through the heart of the Cordilleran belt marked a new
era in the life of Canada. It bound the east and west
together into a homogeneous whole. The Grand Trunk
Pacific has completed, and the Canadian Northern will
shortly have completed its trans-continental system, and
are following up the settlement and colonisation through-
out the great wheat belt of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and
Alberta, also in the broad and fertile valleys of British
Columbia, where vast resources of an agricultural as well
as of a mining nature abound. This realises the aspirations

DOMINION OF CANADA 121

of every Canadian from Champlain down to onr own day
by opening np a western passage to the great South Sea
through its natural portal, the CUdf of St. Lawrence.
The following table of distances gives the length of the
chief routes from England to Shanghai, and it will appear
that not only is the route through Canada shorter in
summer, when the ocean steamers go direct to Montreal,
but that in winter, whether the traveller lands at Halifax,
St. John, Boston, or New York, the sliortest route is still
by way of Montreal, the Canadian I'acific and Grand
Trunk Pacific Eailways to Vancouver and Prince Eupert.

Distances from Liverpool to Shanghai

A. By the St. Lawrence route — steamer direct to Montreal.

Miles.

Via Canadian Pacific and Vancouver .... 11,065
,, Chicago, Noitlieiu Pacific, and Taconia . . . 11,387
„ Chicago, Union Pacific, and San Francisco . . 11,549

B. By Halifax, N.S., as the Atlantic port, and from thence by

rail to Montreal.

Miles.

Via Montreal, C. P. R., and Vancouver .... 11,504

,, Montreal, Chicago, N. P. R., and Tacoma . . 11,823

„ Montreal, Chicago, U. P. R., and San Francisco . 11,987

C. By Boston, Mass., as the Atlantic port, and from thence by rail to

Montreal or Chicago.

Miles.

Via Montreal, C. P. R., and Vancouver .... 11,556

,, Chicago, N. P. R., and Tacoma .... 11,723

,, Chicago, U. P. R. , and San Francisco . . . 11,885

D. By Nciv York as the Atlantic port, and thence by rail to Brockville in

Canada and Chicago.

Miles.

Via Brockvillf, C. P. R., and Vancouver . . . 11,586

,, Chicago, N. P. R., and Tacoma .... 11,770

,, Chicago, U. P. R., and San Francisco . . . 11,932

'^^b (/.Ji'-'J^OLOMBoCt^C f ^ ^Long.E.yb-uf Cj-ceuwkl)

SHORTEST ROUTE, LIVERPOOL TO EASTERN ASIA.

DOMINION OF CANADA

123

It will be convenient to record lor reference in this
coiinectiou the distances between some of the chief ports
of the world and Canada : —

Distances to -Points on thk Atlantic

Antwerp tu Halifax .......

St. John, N.B

Belfast to Quebec via north of Ireland and Belle-isle

Halifax

,, St. John, N.B

Cape Race to Halifax ......

St. John, N.B

Glasgow to Halifax .......

,, Quebec via north of Ireland and Belle-isle

„ St. John, N.B. . . . .

,, Sj'dney, Cape Breton ....

Halifax to Portland, Me.

St. John, N.B

Liverjiool to Boston, Mass., via north of Ireland and Cap

,, Boston, Mass., via south of Ireland and Cape Race

,, Halifax via north of Ireland and Cape Race

,, ,, south of Ireland and Cape Race

,, New York, average distance, mail steamers r

,, Quebec via north of Ireland and Belle-isle

,, ,, ,, ,, Cape Race

,, ,, south ,, ,,

,, St. John, N.B. , via north of Ireland and Cape Race

,, St. John, N. B. , via south of Ireland and Cape Race

,, Sydney, Cape Breton ....

Loch Ryan to Quebec via north of Ireland and Belle-isle
,, Halifax .....

,, Sydney, Cape Breton .

St. John, N.B

Milford Haven to Halifax

,, Quebec via Belle-isle
,, Sydney, Cape Breton
St. John, N.B. .
Quebec to Montreal (from the Market Wharf, Quebec, to tl
Allan Wharf, Montreal)

out I

Miles.
2767
3017
2521
2349
2590
470
720
2381
2564
2631
2212
336
277
2807
2830
2450
2475
3105
2633
2801
2826
2700
2723
2282
2513
2330
2161
2580
2353
2587
2186
2603

140

124

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Distances to Points on the Pacific

Liverpool to Hong-Kong via San Francisco
,, ,, Vanconver

San Francisco to New York
,, Boston .

Sydney to Liverpool via Vancouver .
,, ,, San Francisco

Miles.
12,883
11,649
3266
3370
12,663
13,032

Sailing Distances between Canadian and other Ports.
From Vancouver.

Miles.

To Adelaide .

7,753

To Montreal via Panama

,, Aden .

. 10,727

Canal . . . 8,500

,, Bombay

9,536

,, Montevideo

8,276

,; Buenos Ay res

. 8,336

,, Melbourne .

7,347

,, Calcutta

8,719

,, Havre

14,212

,, Cape Town

. 11,017

,, Genoa via (Suez)

13,530

., Colombo

8,586

,, Naples ,,

. 13,237

,, Copenhagen

. 14,830

,, Port Said

12,124

,, Hong-Kong

5,800

,, Swansea ,,

14,170

,, Madras

9,721

„ St. Paul .

1,226

,, Quebec

14,355

,, Dutch Harbour

1,726

,, New York City .

13,907

,, Kobe .

4,630

,, Suva, Fiji .

5,214

,, Nagasaki

5,028

„ Sydney (N.S.W.)

6,848

,, Honolulu

2,435

., Valparaiso .

5,938

,, Auckland

6,205

,, Yokohama .

4,280

,, Sitka .

808

,, Victoria

,, Rupert

210

,, Shanghai .

5,230

,, Tongas

515

,, Seattle

125

,, Essington

452

,, San Francisco

820

,, Skagway

900

,, Montreal via Magellar

I 14,490

,, Wraugel

630

From P)

incc liuper

and Port Simpson.

Miles.

To Hong-Kong

5,315

To Kobe . . . .4,145

,, Shanghai .

4,745

,, Nagasaki . . . 4,523

,, Yokohama .

3,795

Through the railway and steam navigation of Western
Canada access has been sained to the markets of China,

DOMINION OF CANADA

125

Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India and the Pacific
Coast of South America which had formerly been closed.

Distance Between Canadian and Other roiirs.

Via Strait of Belle Isle.

Mile.s.

Miles.

Montreal to Moville

2,583

uebec

to Moville .

2,448

,, Glasgow

2,693

Glasgow

2,558

,, Liverpool .

2,760

Liverpool

2,625

Belfast

2,645

Belfast .

2,510

,, Londonderry

2,596

'■

Londonderry

2,461

Via Strait

Cabot

Miles.

Montreal to Moville

2,820

lel

to Moville .

2,685

,, Crlasgow

2,930

Glasgow

2,795

,, Queenstown

2,779

Queenstown

2,642

,, Liverpool .

3,007

Liverpool

2,872

,, London

3,241

London .

3,106

,, ' Antwerp

3,281

Antwerp

3,146

,, Hamburg .

3,548

Hamburg

3,413

Miles.

Halifax to Quebec .

737

Halifax

to Sydney .

246

,, Montreal

872

Antwerp

2,759

,, St. John's, New-

St. Vincent

2,561

foundland .

540

Cape Town

6,423

„ Bristol .

2,462

Rio de Janeir

3 4,611

,, Glasgow.

2,408

Havana .

1,630

,, Hamburg

3,026

New York Cit

y 599

,, Liverpool

2,485

Boston .

369

,, London .

2,719

St. John

262

,, Queenstown .

2,255

Yarmouth

162

,, Louisburg

186
Mile-s.

-Miles.

Yarmouth to Portland .

183

irmoi

th to St. John

100

,, Boston

235

126

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Distances in statutk miles from Montreal, the head of

NAVIGATION for LARGE OCEAN STEAMSHIPS, TO DIFFERENT POINTS

WITHIN THE Dominion of Canada.

Montreal

Miles.

to Halifax .

758

Montreal to Winnipeg

1415

St. John .

481

Brandon .

1548

Quebec .

172

Prince Albert

1884

Toronto .

333

vSaskatoon

1885

Hamilton

372

Edmonton

2242

London .

448

Regina

1773

Ottawa .

111

Medicine Hat

2075

Port Arthur

992

Calgary .

2255

Foit William

995

Vancouver

2897

Montreal to Lethbridge

. . . 2176

statute miles.

Distances from Montreal and Halifax to various ports of the
United States, Western Europe, and Southern Europe.

Geographical
miles.

ntreal to Antwerp . . 3281

Halifax to Antwerp ,

2759

,, Bremen .

3530

,, Bermuda .

760

,, Boston .

1222

,, Bremen

3008

,, Cape Town

7108

,, Boston

369

,, Gibraltar

3194

,, Cape Town

6423

,, Glasgow .

2693

,, Gibraltar .

2671

,, Havre

3102

Glasgow .

2408

,, Liverpool

2760

,, Havre

2680

,, London .

3241

,, Liverpool .

2485

,, Marseilles

3884

,, London

2719

,, Naples .

4164

,, Marseilles .

3361

,, New York

1451

, , Naples

3641

St. John's

1025

,, New York.

599

,, Southampton

3062

,, St John's .

540

,, Southampton

2540

The distance from Churchill Harbour in Manitoba
to Liverpool in Lancashire is 2926 geographical miles,
and from Port Nelson to Liverpool 2966 miles. From
Montreal to Liverpool, via Strait of Belle -isle, 2760
miles, and via Cape llace, 2887 miles. From Quebec to
Liverpool, via Belle-isle, the distance is 2625 miles, and

DOMINION' OF CANADA 127

via Cape Race, 2752 miles. From Halifax to Liverpool,
2485 miles, and from St. John, New Brunswick, to
Liverpool, 2747 miles.

The main water route by Montreal is of necessity the
shortest, because the higher the latitude the closer are the
meridians of longitude, and the quicker will a traveller
reach the longitude of Shanghai. This is in effect the
passage to Cathay which Cabot set out to find some
four hundred years ago, for he first fully apprehended
the fact that the great circle on the globe from Europe
to Japan was by the north. The railway communications
of each province are given more in detail in the separate
chapters. Forthcoming years may prove the still shorter
route via Port Nelson to be quite practicable.

Government

The government of Canada is, like that of Great
Britain, monarchical in form but democratic in substance.
Theoretically the Crown with the Imperial Parliament is
supreme, and, on rare occasions, on petition of the colonial
governments, these supreme powers are put in motion ; as,
for instance, in the case of the British North America
Act, 18G7, which formed the separate provinces into a
confederation, and redistributed all their existing powers
into new groups. Practically, however, the Dominion is
self-governing, and the King and Parliament of Canada
carry on the government under all the forms, the implied
understandings, and the conventions, written or unwritten,
which obtain in the Mother Country, so far as they are
applicable. Precisely as the King by his ministers,
and together with the Imperial Parliament, governs the
British Isles, so the King's representative, the Governor-
General, by his ministers and with the Canadian Parlia-

128 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

ment, governs the Dominion of Canada. Both parhanients
enact the laws under similar forms, and raise and vote
away the taxes under the same safeguards. Both parlia-
ments have certain of their number, in form appointed by
the Crown, but responsible to parliament, who nominally,
as a committee of the King's Privy Council, but effec-
tually, as a committee of the majority in parliament,
administer the laws and collect and expend the revenues.
The parallel is precise as between the government of the
Mother Country and that of the Dominion.

Up to the Act of 1905, erecting the two new
provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, the Dominion
of Canada was a confederation of distinct colonies or
provinces, each of which had previously a constitution
of its own. At confederation the existing laws remained
in force in each province until altered by competent
authority ; but the political powers and capacities
merged for a moment into the central im2Jcrium immedi-
ately to emerge newly grouped. The powers of a more
general nature were vested in a new creation, to wit the
Dominion Government, and the powers of a more local
nature were re-granted to the provincial governments.
The provincial governments are presided over by lieu-
tenant-governors appointed by the Dominion Government,
and their proceedings and administration are carried
on under similar forms ; but whether the lieutenant-
governors are representatives of the King or of the
Dominion Government is a moot point in political
theory concerning which mucli has been said on both
sides.

The seat of the Government of the Dominion is at
Ottawa. The Government consists of the Governor-
General, appointed by the King in Council, the Senate
of 87 members, appointed for life by the Governor-General

DOMINION OF CANADA

129

on the recoianiendatiou of his I'rivy Council, and the
House of Commons of 234 members, elected for five years
by the people under a franchise so popular as almost to
amount to manhood suffrage.

The powers which reside in the Dominion I'arlia-
ment are such as relate to the regulation of trade and
commerce, the post-office, the customs and all indirect
taxation, militia and defence, navigation, banks, currency,
bills of exchange, interest, Indian affairs, the public debt,
the criminal law, naturalisation, patents, copyrights,
marriage and divorce, weights and measures, commercial
treaties, creation of provinces, sea -coast and inland
fisheries, and a general reserve of all powers not specially
allotted to the provincial governments.

WciglUs and Measures. — By Act of Parliament and
Amenthnents, the Imperial yard. Imperial pound avoirdu-
pois, Imperial gallon, and the Imperial bushel are the
legal weights and measures for the Dominion. Unless
a bushel measure be specially agreed upon, the weight
equivalent to a bushel of various products is as follows : —

Aiticle.

Lbs.

Article.

Lbs.

Article.

Lbs.

Wheat .

Beans .

Soft coal

Indian corn .

Flax seed

Castor beans.

Rve .

Clover seed .

Potatoes

Pease .

Hemji .

Turnips

Bailey .

Blue grass

Carrots .

Malt .

seed .

Parsnips

Oats .

Timothy

Beets .

Buckwheat .

Lime

Onions .

By the same Act of Parliament, Canada declared the
" hundredweight " (cwt.) to be 100 pounds and the " ton "
to be 2000 pounds avoirdupois.

The provincial governments consist of a lieutenant-
governor and a legislature of one or two chambers, for

130 COMrENDlUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

the provinces are not all alike in this respect. The
subjects under the control of the provincial governments
are — direct taxation for local purposes, the public lands
of tlie province, municipal institutions, property and civil
rights in the province, education, hospitals and charitable
institutions, administration of justice in the province,
and generally all matters of a local nature. The pro-
vincial governments make law^s, each for its own province
within the limits of their powers, and the Dominion
Government legislates in the subjects allotted to it and
its laws extend over the Dominion. The sum total of
political power may be considered as divisible into four
classes, (a) I'owers reserved exclusively to the Dominion
Parliament. (h) Powers reserved to the provincial
legislatures exclusively. (c) Concurrent powers. (d)
Pesiduum of powers unenumerated or unprovided for,
vested in the Dominion Parliament.

Two courts sit at Ottawa and have jurisdiction over
the whole Dominion — the Excheipier Court, having also
vice-admiralty jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court, to
which appeals may be carried from any court of the
country. Prom all the courts in Canada an appeal may
be taken to the Imperial Privy Council or, as it is called,
to the King in Council. The provinces differ in their
interior organisation ; some have excellent municipal
institutions, self-governing in matters of roads, bridges,
licences, and such like local matters, and otheis are not
so well organised. One important point must be noted,
that, as the Imperial Government has power to disallow
within two years any act of the Dominion Parliament, so
the Dominion Government has the power to disallow any
act of a provincial legislature.

The government of Canada, in its federal aspect, has
some points of resemblance to that of the United States ;

DOMINION OF CANADA 131

Init, in its spirit and administration, is tlm outgrowth of
the constitution and political genius of the Mother
Country. It is the aim of the members of all political
bodies in Canada to follow English parliamentary rules,
to quote English authorities, and to be guided by English
precedents. In its system of local self-government is
found the most practical method of governing the
enormcjus area of the Dominion, and every municipal
council is a school of instruction in jniblic administration.

While the fundamental political law of the Dominion
is, as above stated, the British North America Act of
18(57, the fundamental civil law in all the provinces but
one is the common law of England, and the fundamental
criminal law for all the provinces without exception is the
criminal law of England. In the province of Quebec, for
reasons stated in a later chapter, the fundamental civil law
is the law of France before the Eevolution, in other words,
it is the Eoman Civil Law as prevailing on the continent
of Europe, based on the code of Justinian, It happened
that tiie law of Quebec had just been consolidated into a
code by a commission of very capable lawyers, and the
province of (^)uebec entered confederation with this code
and, as property and civil rights are subjects reserved to
the provinces, the French law cannot be changed by the
Dominion Parliament. Many who have lived under both
laws prefer it to the English law, but the procedure is
more cumbrous.

The judges are appointed for life by the Governor-
General in Council and can be removed only by impeach-
ment. The civil service also is a body of permanent
officials as in Great Britain and all her colonies.

The militia force of Canada to-day consists of three
portions : the permanent force, the active militia, and the
reserve militia.

132 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

" All the male inhal)itants of Canada of the age of
eighteen years and upwards, and under sixty, not exempt
or disqualified by law, and being British subjects, shall
be liable to service in the militia ; provided that the
Governor-General may require all the male inhabitants
of Canada capable of bearing arms to serve in the case of
a levie en masse." Thus runs section 10 of the Keserve
Militia Act of Canada. Up to 1904 there was an
authorised strength of 1000 men in the established
permanent force, which has since been increased to
5000. In 1912 the actual numbers were: — 3118
officers and non-conunissioned officers and men. The
stations of the permanent force of Canada are : — Quebec,
Ottawa, St. Jean, Toronto, Winnipeg, Kingston, Halifax,
London, Fredericton. The active militia numbers at
present about 5000 men who drill only at schools of
instruction, or at regimental headquarters. The idea
is that with a partially trained force of this kind
there shall be an organisation which will allow of its
expansion to 100,000 should they be required for an
emergency.

In 1895, 19,000 men and 1125 horses were trained.
In 1911-12, no less than 66,000 officers and men, with
15,503 horses, went through a period of instruction.
The Eoyal Military College, Kingston, Ontario, is filled
to its utmost capacity, and its graduates now enter the
permanent militia force, as was originally intended.

For the youth of Canada, and to inculcate in them a
spirit of patriotism, the late Lord Strathcona founded a
Trust which provides military drill for boys and physical
education for both sexes. The Koyal North - West
Mounted Police has been in existence as a force of
military character since 1873, and under the control of
the Dominion Government. On September 30, 1912,

DOMINION OF CANADA 133

tlie strength of the force was 1000, with 54 officers, GOO
non-commissioned ofticers and constabk'S, and 586 horses,
whose detachments cover an enormous stretch of terri-
tory, includintf the new provinces of Saskatchewan
and Alberta, the Yukon territory, and the unorganised
districts of Mackenzie and Keewatin. Prior to the
formation of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta
out of the enormous stretch of territory between Mani-
toba and the Rocky Mountains, the maintenance of law
an,d order in that section of Canada rested with the
Royal North- West Mounted Police. By mutual agree-
ment between the new provinces and the federal
authorities the two provinces now contribute a portion
of the cost of maintaining the force, and this arrangement
has worked very satisfactorily.

The Naval Service of Canada was established by Act
of the Dominion Parliament in 1910. The Royal Naval
College of Canada, located at Halifax, was instituted for
the purpose of training naval cadets, and corresponds to
that of the Royal Military College at Kingston, only on
a naval basis. In 1912 the Right Honourable (now
Sir) Robert Borden and colleagues conferred with the
British Government and Admiralty upon the whole
question of naval defence, and the conditions confronting
the British Empire. To satisfy a long -felt want in
the hearts of all truly loyal Canadians, as well as
to be an earnest of their indebtedness to the Mother
Country, the Government of Canada decided to vote
$35,000,000 for the immediate construction of three
super-dreadnoughts as a contribution towards the de-
fences of the Empire. The Opposition, however, with a
majority of votes in the Senate, rejected the Govern-
ment's proposal, and the Bill consequently failed of
enactment.

134 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

A policy of closer relations with Great Britain and
the various members of the British Empire throughout
the world, for defence as well as for commerce, has been
steadily rising in Canada for the past fifty years — a policy
in which the very existence, interests, and welfare of
French-speaking as well as English-speaking Canadians
are fundamentally involved. In relation to the Empire,
Canada is bound by imperial treaties. It has, however,
been customary of recent years to call in the assistance
of Canadian representatives in the negotiation of all
matters affecting the Dominion, and Imperial conferences
have been held which are doing much to cement firndy all
the countries represented. Customs duties are imposed
by the Dominion Parliament, but on goods imported from
the Mother Country a preference of 33^ per cent is
given. A Zollverein of the Empire has been proposed, and
public opinion in its favour both in Great Britain and the
colonies is rapidly increasing in favour of closer relations.

BRITISH PREFERENTIAL TARIFF, 1898.

Its chief features were (1) a completion of the pro-
British tariff of 1897, provided that beginning on 1st of
August 1898 all imports from Britain shall come into
Canada on paying a duty of customs, twenty-five (25)
per cent less than that levied on goods from foreign
countries; (2) a provision to aid the West Indies by
admitting their products at the full reduction of 25 per
cent ; a similar provision for any other British colony or
possession the customs tariff of which is on the whole as
favourable to Canada as the British preferential tariff is
to such colony or possession ; provided, however, {a) that
manufactured articles admitted under such jneferential
tariff are huna fide manufactures of a country or countries

DOMINION OF CANADA 135

entitled to the benefits of such tariff, (h) that such benefits
shall not extend to the importation of articles into the
production of which there has not entered a substantial
portion of tlie labour of such countries, (3) a provision
that the reduction is not to apply to wines, malt liquors,
spirits, spirituous liquors, liquid medicines and articles
containing alcohol ; tobacco, cigars and cigarettes.

The following parts of the British Empire are included
in the liritish preferential tariff arrangement : — The
United Kingdom : liermuda. British West Indies :
Bahamas, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands, Leeward
Islands, Windward Islands, Barbadoes, Trinidad and
Tobago, British Guiana, British India, Ceylon, Straits
Settlements, New Zealand.

By the Budget of 1900 the preference given to the
above parts of the Empire was increased from 25 per
cent to 33^ per cent from July 1, 1900.

History-
While the separate provinces of Canada have histories
full of interest and romance, the annals of the collective
Dominion date only from 1867, when the British North
America Act came into effect. Since then the history
of the country's development has not been made up of
incidents either startling or picturesque in character. The
country has steadily advanced, and as each province cast
its lot in with the first four, national spirit grew, and, as
the provinces were knit togetlier by railways, and the
provincial delegates continued to meet at a common
centre and discuss measures for the general good, the
people of the provinces learned to know each other and
began to take pride in the potentialities of their common
country. Local jealousies began to fade away, and the

136 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

mental horizon of every man widened ont to the scope of
an enlarged citizenship. Two events are dominant in this
short period : the building of the Intercolonial Eailway
and the building of the Canadian Pacific Eailway. Without
these confederation would have been impossible, and to
secure them the people of Canada have made great
sacrifices. In despite of fears within and jealousies
without, the Canadian people went on in its own way to
fulfil its own destiny, and beyond doubt will go on to
perform the part assigned to it hidden in the counsels
of Providence, whatever that part may be. Only
Newfoundland stands aloof bearing her burdens alone.
Whenever she shall think fit to join the union of
sister provinces, the dream of many generations of
colonial statesmen will be realised.

Trade and Commerce

The resources of Canada have been developing rapidly
during the last few years. The Dominion possesses for
grazing and wheat lands the broadest prairies, for lumber-
ing the most extensive forests, and in its seas and lakes
the most productive fisheries in the world. It has coal
cropping out on the shores of the Atlantic, and coal
cropping out on the shores of the Pacific, and coal under-
lying large areas of the interior plains. The output in
1912 was 14,512,829 tons, valued at $36,019,044.
Gold has been mined in Nova Scotia, British Columbia,
and the Yukon for many years, whilst the nickel
deposits of Sudbury and Cobalt, silver ores of Ontario,
and the asbestos mines of Quebec, prove to be of
inestimable value. The total mineral production of
Canada in 1913 was $144,031,047. These are most
important factors, which are drawing the attention of

DOMINION OF CANADA

137

capitalists and others to the mineral resources of the
Dominion.

It was natural that the attention of the people should
in the first instance have been directed to the sea ; for
the deeply indented coast-line on the Atlantic is cal-
culated to be 10,000 miles in length, and the Pacific
coast in all its sinuous length is estimated at 7000
miles. Such a conformation of coast-line produces good
harbours, and the forests at the water's edge suggest
shipbuilding. Added to these conditions, the immense
inland waterways were, before the railway age, tlie only
lines of communication, and naturally the people turned
in the first instance to the water. The introduction of iron
for shipbuilding, and the adoption of steam as a motive
power struck a severe blow at the chief industry of the
maritime provinces, and the amount of registered tonnage
has been decreasing. In 1 878 it reached its highest point,
being then 7468 vessels, aggregating 1,333,015 tons.

C'anada, however, still holds a foremost place among
the nations as an owner of shipping.

The following tables give an idea of the activity of
shipping in the ocean and inland ports : —

The following table of the movement of shipping in
Canada in the year 1913 gives the total number of
vessels (sea-going and inland waters) arrived at and
departed from Canadian ports (exclusive of coastwise
vessels) : —

Countries.

N(i. of Vessels.

Tons Register.

British ....
Canadian ....
Foreign ....

Total

7,307
42,624
47,303

13,896,3.53
20,677,938
23,275,492

97,234

57,849,783

138

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The followino; is a statement of the total number of
vessels, British, Canadian, and Foreign, entered mwards
from sea, by ports and outports, etc., in the Dominion
of Canada during the year ended March 31, 1913, in
cargo : —

Countries.

No. of
Ve.sseLs.

Tons

Quantity of
Tons Weight.

Freight-
tons
Measure-
ment.

Crew
Number.

232,790
80,498
98,819

British

Canadian

Foreign

Total

2504
3150
4067

6,300,433
1,536,787
2,441,991

1,589,980

276,963

1,816,844

355,734

13,522

151,039

9721

10,279,211

3,683,787

520,295

412,107

The following statement respecting the same in
ballast is here given : —

Countries.

No. of

Vessels.

Tons Register.

Crew.

British ....
Canadian ....
Foreign ....

Total .

1431

2520

4415

1,433,461

543,509

1,319,012

51,529

23,758
55.740

8366

3,295,982

131,027

The two statements taken conjointly give an aggre-
gate shipping of 18,087 vessels, with 13,575,193 tons
register, manned by a crew of 543,134.

The following is a statement of the total number of
fjritish, Canadian, and foreign vessels entered outwards
for sea in Canada during the fiscal year ended March
31, 1913, with cargoes : —

DOMINION OF CANADA

139

Countries

No. of
Vessels.

Tons
Register.

Freight.

Crew.

Tons
Weight.

Tons
Measure-
ment.

Hritisli .
Canadian .
Foreign .

2,850
3,270
4,167

5,515,988
1,673,058
2,401,509

3,120,361

.566,369

1,243,658

977,672
219,374
690,947

187,429
82,255
79,830

Total

10,287

9,590,555

4,930,388

1,887,993

349,514

The same for vessels in ballast

Countries.

No. of
Vessels.

Tons Register.

Crew.

Britisli

Canadian ....
Foreign ....

522
2870
3900

646,471

777,481

1,641,398

28,770
33,048
73,2-37

Total

7292

3,065,350

135,055

Which two above statements taken together furnish
an aggregate number of 1 7,5 7 9 vessels, with 12,655,905
tons register, manned by a crew of 484,569.

Statement of vessels arrived and departed (exclusive
of coasting vessels) in Canada during the fiscal year
ended March 31, 1913:—

Sea-going Vessels — Inwauds and Outwauds.

Countries.

No. of
Vessels.

Tons Register.

Crew
Number.

British ....
Canadian ....
Foreign ....

Total .

7,307
11,810
16,549

13,896,353
4,530,835
7,803,910

500,518
219,559
307,626

35,666

26,231,098

1,027,703

Statement of vessels of the Inland waters plying
between Canada and the United States during the fiscal
year ending March 31, 1913 : —

140

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Countries.

No. of

Vessels.

Tons Register.

Crew
Number.

Canadian ....
Other Countries .

Total .

30,814
30,754

16,147,103
15,471,582

445,214
423,255

61,568

31,618,685

868,469

There were 324 steamers and sailing vessels, of 24,325
tons tonnage, built in Canada during the twelve months
ending March 31, 1913, and 328 were registered in
Canada with a total tonnage of 30,225 tons. Besides
these, 20 ships were sold to other countries during the
year, valued at $610,650, with a tonnage of 7976 tons.

The total shipping (exclusive of coasting vessels)
inwards and outwards during the fiscal year ending March
31, 1913, is as follows: —

Countries.

No. of

Vessels.

Tons Register.

Crew
Number.

British ....
Canadian ....
Foreign ....

Total .

7,307
42,624
47,303 .

13,896,353
20,677,938
23,275,492

500,518
664,773
730,881

97,234

57,849,783 1,896,172

The total tonnage of vessels entered inwards and
outwards, sea-going and inland navigation, exclusive of
coasting vessels, amounted on March 31, 1913, to
57,849,783 tons ; whilst the tonnage of vessels employed
in the coasting trade entered imvards and oukvards
amounted to 73,644,713 tons.

The total foreign trade of Canada for the fiscal year
ended —

March 31, 1909, was !|559,718,116
„ 1910 ,, 677,191,545
„ 1911 ,, 759,147,683

March 31, 1912, was 1862,699,832

1913 ,, 1,085,264,449

„ 1914 ,, 1,129,744,725

DOMINION OF CANADA

141

The aggregate trade of Canada with British countries
during the fiscal year ended Marcli 31, 1913, is as follows :

Countries.

Total Exports.

Total Impoits.

Total Trade.

British Empire —

Great Britain

$177,982,002

$139, 656,330

$317,638,3.32

Australia ....

3,996,387

438,669

4,435,056

Bermuda ....

438,511

34,736

473,247

Britisii Kast and We.st Africa

133,858

1,994

135,852

,, South AlVica .

3,340,513

267,689

3,608,202

,, East Indies, all other

7,243

1,727,028

1,734,271

,, West Indie.s .

3,960,625

6,058,959

10,019,584

,, Guiana .

630,480

3,384,434

4,014,914

Straits Settlements

228, 606

521,994

750,600

Hony Kong

776,613

895,488

1,672,101

India .....

226,600

4,673,279

4,899,879

Newfoundland and Labrador

4,728,142

2,058,097

6,786,239

New Zealand

1,698,093

3,066,585

4,764,678

Other British Possessions .
Total British Empire .

239,007

597,603

836,610

$198,386,680

$163,382,885

$361,769,565

Statement showing the value of goods exported from
Canada during the fiscal year ending March 31, 1913 : —

Products.

Value 1912.

Value 1913.

British Empire.

All other
Countries.

Produce of the

Mine

$41,510,582

$57,583,030

$13,245,339

$44,337,691

Produce of the

Fisheries .

16,815,192

16,442,822

6,326,531

10,116,291

Produce of the

Forest .

41,104,887

43,679,623

11,445,485

32,234,138

Animals and

their products

49,220,897

45,773,227

31,166,757

14,606,470

Agricultm-al pro-

ducts

115,454,486

158,955,695

120,163,369

38,792,326

Manufactures .

42,508,985

52,525,082

15,993,049

36,532,033

Miscellaneous .
Total

1,101,122

2,108,876

44,060

2,064,816

$307,716,151

$377,068,355

$198,384,590

$178,683,765

Coin and Bullion
Grand Total Ex-

7,601,099

16,163,702

2,090

16,161,612

ports

$315,317,250

$393,232,057

$198,386,680

$194,845,377

142

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The following statement gives the aggregate trade of
Canada with Great Britain and other countries on the
basis of goods entered for consumption and exported
during the fiscal years 1901 and 1913 respectively: —

Countries.

1901.

1913.

United Kingdom
United States .
France
Germany
Spain
Portugal .
Italy
Holland .
Belgium .
Newfoundland
West Indies
South America
China and Jajian
Switzerland
Other Countries

1148,347,120

182,867,238

6,979,352

9,162,957

897,893

181,707

642,424

984,840

6,634,592

2,886,067

4,707,677

2,567,278

3.149,591

o03,397

7,113,487

$316,743,570

608,252,975

17,944,367

17,616,941

1,307,598

392,391

2,319,304

5,851,267

8,829,175

6,785,110

16,814,434

10,699,890

6,137,859

4,312,054

44,742,161

Total Trade

$377,725,620

$1,068,749,102

The value of the total exports in the Dominion for the
fiscal year ended June 30, 1901, was $196,487,632 ; the
total imports covering the same period was $190,415,525.
The total value of goods entered for consumption was
$181,237,988, and the Customs duty collected for the
same year was $29,106,979-89.

Progress is shown in the 1913 returns, where the
total exports of Canada are valued at $393,232,057, the
total imports for the same period being $692,032,392,
whilst the value of goods entered for consumption alone
was $675,517,045, and the Customs duty collected
amounted to $115,063,687-93.

DOMINION OF CANADA 143

TaI'.I.K SHnWINf} TH K VaLUK OK Exi'OUT.S, ETC., 1!Y PllOVINCK.S, 19]3.

rrovinc{is.

Kxports.

Imports.

Eiitenil for
Coiisuiniilion.

Duty Colloctetl.

Ontario

$132,75(3,^:32

.$301,651,328

.$297,192,227

$44,808,591-20

tjiiL'bec

147,72.3,907

187, .301, 493

176,953,036

29,531,515-25

Nova Scotia

24,201,473

20,753,309

20,569,210

3,265,378-14

New iJiuiiswick

34,634,ir.6

14,445,811

14,410,406

2,303,246-34

Manitoba .

f), 259,436

58,898,284

58,581,587

12,475,110-12

Britisli Columbia

27,087.369

66,596,479

65,436,553

13,763,024-46

Prince Edward Island

573,078

975,683

978,055

147,445-80

Albfrta .

162,171

21,078,779

20,924,904

4,970,758-95

Saskatchewan .

17,153,688

19,011,005

19,138,507

3,611,030-70

Yukon

3,680,247

1,231,284

1,243,683

163,054-90

Territories

Total

$393,232,057

$691,943,515

$675,428,168

$115,039,155-92

British jnepaid postal

]) a r e e 1 s receive d

tiirough P.O. De-

]iartnient

...

88,877

24,532-01

Grand total

1393,232,057

$692,032,392

$675,517,045

1115,063,687-93

From home and foreign produce, as well as fiom coin
and bullion, merchandise was exported to the value of
$393,232,057, made up as follows: —

Home produce $355,754,600

Foreign 21,313,755

Coin and bullion 16,163,702

Total

. 1393,232,057

The value of the exports to different countries for the
year ending March 31, 1913, was as follows : —

United Kingdom

$177,982,002

Kewlbundland

$4,727,522

United States .

150,961,675

West Indies

6,237,468

France

2,564,603

Soutli America

3,721,798

Germany .

3,402,394

China and Japan

1,881,558

Spain

48,628

Australia.

3,996,387

Portugal .

49,142

Other Countries

. 29,502,451

Italy

605,719

Holland .

2,741,713

Total value of

Belgium .

4,808,997

Exports .

$393,232,057

144

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Canada's trade with the Empire has been on the
increase. In 1901 the value of imports into Canada
from all parts of the Empire totalled $46,000,000,
whilst in 1913 they amounted to $103,000,000.

The exports from Canada to various countries of the
Empire in 1901 totalled $130,000,000, whilst in 1913
they amounted to $198,000,000.

The value of goods entered for consumption in Canada
from various countries for the Canadian fiscal year ending
March 31, 1913, is as follows: —

United Kingdom . $138,761,568

Newfoundland

. 12,056,974

United States

. 441,142,593

W^est Indies

10,576,966

France

15,-379,764

South America

6,978,092

Germany .

. 14,214,547

China and Japan

4,256,301

Spain

1,258,970

Switzerland

4,296,702

Portugal .

343,249

Other Countries

27,408,002

Italy

1,713,585

Holland .

3,109,554

Total

. 1675,517,045

Belgium .

4,020,178

This trade is chietly with Great lUitain and the
United States, and, as the natural course of trade has
been deflected by outside legislation, it is necessary to
consider the items separately. The exports do not seem
to be much affected by the incessant efforts of the United
States Congress to check them by new customs duties,
for in fact most of them are of food and raw material.
It is very difficult for any country in tliis present age
completely to isolate itself. The trade of the Dominion
is steadily growing, and the hostile legislation which aims
to drive Canadian trade away from the United States
does not kill the trade, but simply diverts it into
new channels, and opens up wider avenues and safer
markets.

The Statistical Year Book of Canada (1912) shows
that while articles of agricultural and animal products

DOMINION OF CANADA

14i

make up 21"12 per cent of the imports into the United
States, they form but 11"58 per cent of the imports into
Canada ; the people of Canada raise all necessary articles
of food, but of course import tea, coffee, and raw sugar.
They manufacture cotton and woollen goods, boots and
shoes, soaps, paper, sugar, beer, whisky, agricultural im-
plements, furniture, and edge tools, with a large number
of other articles. The following classification of the
sources of their exports will show the way in which the
people of Canada procure such foreign goods as they
require : —

Chief Exports, showing Sources whence derived.

1908-00.

1911-12.

1912-13.

Produce of the Mine .
Produce of tlie Fisheries
I'roduce of the Forest .
Animals and their products .
Agricultural prodircts .
Manufactures

Totals .

$37,257,699
13,319,664
39,667,387
51,349,646
71,997,207
28,957,050

$41,324,516
16,704,678
40,892,674
48,210,654

107,143,375
35,836,284

$57,442,546
16,336,721
43,255,060
44,784,379

150,145,661
43,692,708

$242,548,653

$290,112,181

$355,657,075

The course and tendency of trade relations is shown
also by the following table : —

Exports of Total Merchandise the Pkodi'ce of Canada during
THE Year ended March 31, 1913

Britain $170,161,903

United States .... 139,725,953

Other Countries .... 45,769,433

Total .

$355,657,289

Value of Goods entered for Consumption at eighteen

Canadian Ports during the Year ended March 31, 1913

Dutiable goods .... $344,200,183

Free goods 159,285,443

Total .

$503,485,626

146

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL

For the fiscal year ending March 31, 1913, there
was imported as dutiable, free, or as coin and bullion,
merchandise to the value of $692,032,392, made up
as follows : —

Coin and bullion ' .
Free merchandise .
Dutiable merchandise

Total

$5,427,979
230,518,226
456,086,187

$692,032,392

The following figures bearing on tlie Trade and
Commerce of the Dominion during the year ended March
31, 1913, omitting the less important articles of value,
will give at a glance the export trade of Canada, not
only to Great Britain and the United States, its best
customers, but also to all other countries in the various
classes specified : —

Exports of Cakada to Great Britain during the Fiscal Year
ENDED March 31, 1913

Agricultural Products

—Total, $106,537,156

Apples

$3,804,967

Hay .

$759,241

Barley

3,315,172

Cereal foods

1,382,331

Wheat

. 74,978,155

Oatmeal

830,417

Flour of Wheat

. 12,442,479

Oats .

3,592,247

Clover seed

310,629

Peas (whole)

43,299

Flax seed .

4,537,360

Buckwheat

53,432

Cattle
Horses
Bacon

Anhnah and their Products : — Total, $30,335,784

$913,954

Hams

316,047

14,400

Cheese

. 20,497,195

5,313,711

Furs (undressed)

. 2,628,994

Lobsters
Salmon

Fisheries :— Total, $3,946,471

Fish oil (whale) •

83,120
2,668,678

$243,604

DOMINION OF CANADA

147

Forest Products -.—Tota.], $10,103,469

Deals, iiine . . $1,285,863 I Planks and Hoards . $1,825,549
Deals, spruce, and other 4,683,821 | Square timber . . 1,337,244

(Products of the forest imported from all countries and
entered for consumption during the twelve months ended
March 31, 1913, as free goods, lumber and timber to the
value of $15,983,456; wood for fuel, $149,677 entered
during the same period.)

Manufactures :— Total, $7,158,746

Agricultural implements $437,006

Drugs, chemicals, medi-
cines .... 521,566

Typewriters . . . 152,555

Books, jiamiihlets, maps,

etc 148,086

Aluminium, pigs, bars

ingots, etc.
Leather

Musical instruments
Paper, all kinds .
Woodware

$459,150

1,151,021

131,721

584,423

1,141,991

Nickel

Silver

Copper

Mineral Froducts :— Total, $12,066,622

$718,141

10,318,158

854,031

Asbestos
Mica .

^211,450
34,912

ExroiiTs OF Canada to the United States during the Fiscal
Year ended March 31, 1913

Agricultural Products : — Total, $27,215,879

Fruits

Grains (wheat, etc.)
Flour of wheat .
Bran .

$151,944

9,740,382

134,743

888,432

Hay .
Maple sugar
Clover seed
Vegetables

$2,978,682
100,419
292,801
348,700

Animals and their Products :— Total, $12,866,948

Cattle . . . $210,196

Horses . . . 473,025

Sheep . . . 29,982

Sheep (over one year old) 38,600

Meats

Furs (undressed)

Hides .

$85,835
2,184,275
7,162,287

1-18 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Codfish

Herring

Lobsters

Fisheries :— Total, |5,747,088

. $894,310 Mackerel . . . $298,692

329,103 Salmon . . . 208,557

1,478,874 Fish (other and fresh) 1,318,868

Bark for tanning

Logs, various

Spruce deals, etc.

Laths

Planks and boards

Forest Products:— T^otaX, $29,951,880

$29,842 Shingles . . . $1,374,569

950,630 Sleepers and railroad

743,561 ties . . . 195,901

1,743,248 Square timber . . 11,197

16,247,450 Wood for pulp . . 6,806,445

Agricultural implements $54,087

Iron and steel (manu-

Books, pamphlets, and

facture of)

$1,255,260

maps . . . 191,413

Liquors

. 842,461

Cordage, rope, twine . 7,112

Paper .

. 4,367,081

Drugs, chemicals, medi-

Wood-pulj) .

. 4,576,279

cine .... 542,179

Vehicles, all kinds

. 271,177

Fertilisers . . . 1,592,185

Mineral Products :— Total, $42,541,751

Asbestos

$1,965,246

Nickel

. $4,327,056

Coal . . . .

4,130,435

Silver

. 8,828,897

Gold-bearing quartz,

Mica .

282,063

nuggets, etc. .

11,169,239

Ores .

918,697

Gypsum

439,488

Pyrites

7,007

Copper

9,504,091

Sand and Grai

^el . 443,618

Exports of Canada to other Countries than Great Britain
AND the United States by Classes and Values during the
Year ended March 31, 1913

Agricultural Products -.—TotBA, $16,392,626
Animals and their Products : — Total, $1,581,647
Fisheries Products :—Tota\, $6,642,562
Forest Products -.—Tota,], $3,199,711
Manufactures :— Total, $15,212,504
Mineral Products :— Total, $2,834,173

DOMINION OF CANADA

149

Exports of Canada to all Countries for Year ended
March 31, 1913

A(jricultural Products : — Total, $150,145,661

Apples

Total Fruits
Barley
Oats .
Wheat
Flour of wheat

§4,047,806

4,679, 1S3

3,851,660

5,067,950

88,608,730

19,970,689

Oatmeal

Hay .

Clover, flax, aiiJ grass

seeds
Potatoes

Veijclables

$837,079
3,950,058

17,357,056
749,363

i,0:?4,no

Animals and their Products : — Total, $44,784,593

Cattle (over 1 year old)

Sheep . . . .

Bacou

Hams . . • .

Butter

$2,183,311

81,253

5,350,845

322,669

223,578

Cheese

Furs, undressed

Hides

Wool .

$20,697,144

, 5,150,833

7,196,250

193,500

Fisheries Products -.—Total, $16,336,721

Codfish

$4,416,621

Salmon

$4,027,977

Herring

908,463

Fish (other), fresh

1,318,868'

Lobsters

3,677,829

Whale oil .

532,396

Mackerel

•

352,764

Forest Products : —

Total, $43,255,060

Logs, various

$1,028,456

Shingles

$1,409,116

Pine deals .

1,386,708

Railroad ties, sleepers

195,901

Spruce deals

5,513,543

Square timber

1,363,200

Laths .

1,789,969

Wood for pulp .

6,806,445

Planks and Be

jards

20,839,098

lufuctures : — ''

rotal, 143,692,708

Agricidtural

iniple

Fertilisers .

$1,677,703

ments

. $6,365,824

Iron and steel articles

2,844,913

Aluminium, pigs, bars

Leather

1,423,583

etc. .

1,631,287

Liquors

1,348,646

Books, maps.

etc.

377,686

Musical instruments

254,012

Coke .

269,383

Oil cake

1,074,701

Cordage, rope

twine

31,282

Pajier .

6,324,810

Drugs, chemicals, inedi

Wood pulp .

5,509,544

cine

1,746,528

150

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL

icral Pivduds :-

-Total, $57,442

546

Asbestos

. $2,486,769

Lead .

$8,442

Coal .

. 5,555,099

Nickel

. 5,045,197

Gold .

. 11,226,573

Silver

. 20,202,559

Copper

. 9,551,899

Ores .

•

. 1,191,147

The steady progress in Canada's export trade will be
seen at a glance by the following table : —

Value of Expora's from Canada to all Countuies,

EXCLUSIVE OF BULLION.

1905

. $201,472,061

1910

. $298,763,993

1906

. 246,657,802

1911

290,000,210

1907 (9 months)

192,087,233

1912

307,716,151

1908

263,368,952

1913

. 377,068,355

1909

259,922,366

1914

455,437,224

The manufacturing interests of Canada have developed
very rapidly in recent years, not solely on account of the
natural advantages in water power, electrical energy, and
the like, but also by dint of the tariff regulations with
foreign countries.

In 1906 the Canadian Government altered the British
Preferential Tariff' from a flat rate of 25 per cent rebate
by particularising for every item imported, holding that
on the whole the preference to Great Britain was larger
than formerly. An intermediate tariff was also set up for
application to countries giving reciprocity to Canada. In
order to qualify for the British Preference, imports must
have 25 per cent of their value made up of British
labour.

On August 1, 1898, a rebate of 25 per cent was
given the United Kingdom and West Indies, and to such
other countries in the British Empire as accorded reciprocal
treatment to Canada. In 1900 the preferential treat-
ment was increased from 25 per cent to 33^ per cent.

A commercial Convention with France was signed

DOMINION OF CANADA

151

on September 19, 1907, ratified by Canada, April
3, 1908, and by France in 1909, giving Canada the
benefit of the French minimum tariff, and extending to
France the benefit of Canada's intermediate tariff for
certain products, and a special tariff for others. A
supplementary convention, signed January 1909, and put
into force in 1910, admitted certain French exports on
terms generally identical with and in some few cases
lower than those accorded to British goods by the pre-
ferential tariff.

Trade and commerce returns, giving in values the
exports which may be classed as manufactures, indicate
to what degree Canada is pushing her products in foreign
lands. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 1912, the
following fioures are given : —

Agricultural products $19,722,412
Animal products . 23,455,486
Fisheries . . 8,051,364

Forest products .
Mineral products

Total

. $32,441,533
. 25,312,637

$108,986,432

But the products of Canada as a nation, in its various
spheres of agriculture and manufactures, as recorded in
the last Census returns of 1911, furnish figures which
give the actual productivity of the country. The figures
for the last Census : —

Afjricnlturc :— Total, $782,298,569

Alberta .
British Columbia
Manitoba .
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia

$50,483,534
17,934,932
70,975,465
24,966,621
26,964,768

Saskatchewan . . $109,493,322

Ontario . . . 314,943,556

Prince Edward Island 11,967,425
Quebec . . . 154,568,936

Returns for the industries of Canada in 1911 give, as
value of the products, the figures $1,165,975,639 : wages
for labour $197,228,701 ; wage-earners 471,126 ; with a
capital outlay of $1,247,583,609 distributed in 19,218
establishments.

152

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

These are grouped as follows : —

Food products

Textiles .

Iron and steel products

Timber, lumber, etc.,

Leather .

Paper and printing

Liquors and beverages

Chemicals

Clay, glass and stone products

Metals and products (other tl

Tobacco .....

Vehicles (land transportation)

Vessels (water transportation)

Miscellaneous

Hand trades ....

an steel)

Total

$245,669,321

135,902,441

113,640,610

184,630,376

62,850,412

46,458,053

28,936,782

27,798,833

25,781,860

73,241,796

25,329,323

69,712,114

6,575,417

104,618,560

14,829,741

1,165,975,639

By provinces, the returns of values of products in the
industries for the year 1911 are as follows : —

Alberta .

British Columbia .

Manitoba

New Brunswick

Nova Scotia .

Ontario .

Prince Edward Island

Quebec .

Saskatchewan

$18,788,825

65,204,236

53,673,609

35,422,302

52,706,184

579,810,225

3,136,470

350,901,656

6,332,132

The total trade of the Dominion for the year 1914
amounted to $1,129,744,725, divided as follows: — Im-
ports $650,746,797, exports $478,997,928, showing
an increase of $44,480,276 over the figures for the
preceding twelve months, and creating a record figure
to that date.

Whilst there are no figures available for gauging the
growth of Canada's internal trade, there can be little
doubt, if the dealings of certain eastern houses with the

DOMINION OF CANADA 153

west be a criterion, tliat the increase for the past year
on this score is probably not less than 2 per cent above
that of the previous fiscal year.

The refusal, on the part of Canada, to adopt a
Eeciprocity Treaty with the United States is full of
significance for the future and progress of the provinces
of the Dominion. The very raison d'etre of this nation
implies a strong British policy.

Financial

The total net public debt of the Dominion is
$335,966,658. The revenue for the year ending March
31, 1914, was $163,174,394, and the total expenditure
$183,570,693, of which $127,353,981 was chargeable
to Consolidated Fund. The aggregate revenue of the
Dominion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1913,
was $168,690,427. The deposits in the Government
savings banks stood on the same date at $57,140,483, or
$7'37 per head of the population at its latest estimate.

The banking system of Canada is framed upon that
of Scotland, and is carried on by a comparatively small
nvimber of institutions with large capitals and having
many branches, so that every town of importance has
one or more banks to assist in developing its trade, while
each brancli has the entire resources of the central bank
to fall back upon, and its accumulated experience to guide
its operations.

The currency of the country is redeemable in gold.
The " Eoyal Mint" of England in 1901 established a
branch at Ottawa, with a deputy master as head, where
gold, silver, and bronze coins are struck in various
denominations. A new currency was establislied by Act
of Parliament in 1910. It provides that gold, silver, and

154 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

bronze coins, of specified weight and fineness, struck on
the authority of the Crown for circulation in Canada,
should be equal to and pass current for the sums in the
currency of the Dominion : — Twenty dollars, ten dollars,
five dollars, two-and-a-half dollars, fifty cents, twenty-five
cents, ten cents, five cents, and one cent ; that gold coin
should be a legal tender for any amount, silver coin for a
payment of not more than ten dollars, and bronze for a
payment of not more than twenty-five cents. The
British sovereign and half-sovereign were legalised as
currency, as were the gold coins of the United States of
America, the $5, $10, and $20 coins being declared to
be a legal tender and to pass current in Canada for
similar amounts. The currency in actual use, however,
is paper, and consists of notes issued by the Government
and notes of $5 and upwards issued by the banks. The
Government issues notes of many denominations, but has
a monopoly of notes under five dollars.

The banks may issue notes to the amount of their
paid-up capital, and these must be kept at par throughout
the Dominion. They are bound to make monthly state-
ments to the Government, certified under oath, of their
assets and liabilities. The statement is in considerable
detail, and all loans are classified under heads to show
their nature. The reserves are also set forth, with such
other information as may have any important general
bearing on the bank's business. These statements are
published in the official Gazette. Many other conditions
are laid down in the interest of the public, but these
are the most important.

The amount of Dominion notes in circulation in
December 1912 was $110,048,357, and the average
amount of the bank notes in circulation the same year
was SI 00,146,541. The aggregate paid-up capital of the

DOMINION OF CANADA 155

banks is $114,881,914. The leading bank is the Bank
of Montreal, which was organised in 1817 and has a
capital of $16,000,000, and a rest of $16,000,000. Its
total assets amount to $247,092,650. It is the
financial agent of the Dominion of Canada. The second
largest bank in Canada, the Canadian Bank of Commerce,
with headijuarters in Toronto, has a paid-up capital of
$15,000,000, and assets totalling $260,030,720. The
Royal Bank of Canada ranks third with capital paid-
up of $11,560,000 and its total assets amount to
$180,246,785.

Canadian Credit. — It is a long established practice
of Canadian banks to carry a large safety fund in the
shape of bank balances and call loans in London and
New York City. For example, in August 1912 Canada
had in net balances in London banks $13,805,601,
whilst the balances in New York City, Paris, and Berlin
combined amounted to $33,397,793, whilst the call loans
in London and New York City were $114,847,864,
making a total call or command over the resources of the
great markets of the world amounting to $162,051,258.
Besides this, Canadian banks held in August 1912,
$97,850,740 in investment securities, of which some
$60,000,000 at least probably had international value,
consisting of United States railway bonds, Dominion of
Canada bonds, some British Consols, Japanese Govern-
ment stock and Indian Government stock ; so that, all
told, Canadian banks could command some $220,000,000
of outside funds in the event of trouble.

The Dominion Government gold reserve is a factor
of strength to Canada's credit. The specie in the
Dominion Treasury at Ottawa rose from $43,705,485
on August 31, 1907, to $103,014,276 on August 31,
1912.

156

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The following table affords some evidence of the re-
markable expansion in Canadian banking business since
1869:—

Year.
1869

Authorised
Capital.

Paid-up Capital.

No. of
Banks.

Average Paid-up
Capital per bank.

$38,166,000

-127,663,367

$1,024,569

1874

76,566,666

63.212,035

1,580,300

1879

67,266,666

60,351,505

1.508,787

1884

71,896,666

61,605,520

1,540,138

1889

75,779,999

60,189,356

1,468,033

1894

73,458,685

61,669,355

1,622,877

1899

76,108,664

63,584,022

1,673,263

1904

100,546,666

80,055,596

2,354,572

1909

140,466,666

97,808,617

3,260,287

1910

154,266,666

99,676,093

3,417,003

1911

169,866,666

107,994,604

3,723,952

1912

196,866,666

114,881,914

4,254,886

There were 2968 branches of the chartered banks
throughout the Dominion on October 31, 1913.

A summary of Canada's industrial production for 1910
was issued during October 1912. The capital invested
in manufacturing industries is given at $1,245,000,000
as against $450,000,000 in 1900. The manufacturing
establishments number 19,202, employing 511,844
hands, who earned in wages and salaries the sum of
$240,000,000. Eaw materials valued at $600,000,000
were converted into manufactured products valued at
$1,165,000,000. These figures show enormous advances
on the position in 1900. There has been an increase
of the average wage earned per person employed of
$136 per annum, or 40 per cent over the year 1900,
while the value of the output of products per person
employed has risen from $1418 in 1900 to $2275 in
1910, an increase of $875 per head. (See pages 150
and 151.)

CHAPTEE IV

IIISTOHY OF ACADIA

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island
together cunstitute Acadia. The histories of the three
maritime provinces are inextricably interwoven. To the
general reader, familiar with narratives of the rise and fall
of great empires, the theatre may seem small and the
number of combatants insignificant, but the great duel
between France and England commenced in the forests
and harbours of Acadia, and there two different systems
of colonisation came into the strongest contrast. The
French system failed becanse the king was a human
being and had not supernatural powers of controlling
events occurring in a world utterly remote from any-
thing he or his courtiers could conceive of. The French
Government had regard primarily to the interests of
France. The English Parliament weie always content
if the colonies did not trouble them with their existence,
and the colonists carried on their affairs primarily in
their own local interests. There was no science or
political wisdom about it, but the English colonists,
living in the country, did what seemed necessary to be
done, while the French officials were toiling to get the
truth out of voluminous and contradictory reports. The
English Parliament meddled more with Newfoundland
than with any other colony in America, and the result is
manifest now to all.

158 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL

The combatants were indeed few in number, but the
stake was one of the greatest that was ever fought for by
two great nations. Had there been a succession of kings
of France like Henry IV. all North America would
probably have been at this moment French, and the
English people would be in the ideal position coveted by
some of their own statesmen : shut up in the two islands
to manufacture generally for well-disposed foreigners.
The battle on the heights of Quebec was one of the great
decisive battles of the world, and the first skirmish of the
conflict opened in Acadia.

The history of Acadia commences far back in the
times before the pacification of King Canute, during the
great overflow of the Scandinavian people. Step by step
they passed over the western ocean to Iceland in a.d.
874, to Greenland in a.d. 986, and to Acadia in a.d.
1000. Concerning this there can now be no dispute.
The Icelandic records are admitted to be genuine, and it
is now conceded that Helluland, Markland, and Vinland
were places on the north-east coast of America. Whether
we take Helluland to be Labrador or Newfoundland,
whether Markland be Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, or
whether Vinland be Nova Scotia or New England, on
any theory yet propounded by scholars some part of
Nova Scotia was seen by the Northmen in A.D. 1000.

There is nothing in the Norse voyages to America
beyond the ordinary achievements of these daring sea
rovers. From Greenland to Labrador is the same distance
on the chart as from Iceland to Scotland, and less than
the distance from Iceland to Norway ; and whether Leif
Ericson sailed from the east or the west coast of Green-
land, he would equally have had the assistance of the
Arctic current flowing on both sides of Greenland, to
impinge on the Labrador coast and follow down the coast

HISTORY OF ACADIA 159

of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. It is sailing down
hill all the way. The ships of the Northmen were fitted
to contend with the stormiest seas ; for, from Norway or
Iceland, across the Bay of Biscay and into the Mediterra-
nean sea, was a very frequent course of their piratical
expeditions. No more formidable seas are encountered
in the North Atlantic than tliose around the north of
Scotland and Norway, in the Bay of Biscay and on the
Atlantic coast of Spain. Their ships could make use of
oars as auxiliary to their square sails, and this was of
much assistance in their long coasting voyages.

The scope of this volume will not permit of a dis-
cussion of these early Norse voyages to America. It is
sufficient to point out that three steps upon the coast are
plainly indicated. If Labrador be the first, Newfoundland
is the second, and Nova Scotia the third. If, however,
Newfoundland be the first, Nova Scotia is the second, and
New England the third. It might well be that some part
of Newfoundland was indicated by the word Helluland.
In the saga of Eric the Eed, Leif Ericson is said to have
given the name on the spot because of the appearance of
the land. In Rafn's Antiquitates Americana: the passage
is translated from the Icelandic : jam terra: nomen imponam
et Hf.Unlandiavi {tcrram saxece planitiei) apjjeUaho. This
is not, as often translated, a land of flat stones, but a land
of stony flatness. So far as the name is concerned (and
there can be no higher authority than Rafn for the mean-
ing of it) it would apply to a long stretch of coast near
Cape Race. The very earliest Portuguese sailors on the
coast were struck by the peculiar appearance of that head-
land, and called it Cabo I\aso — the flat cape. At p. 14 is
an illustration, taken from a photograph. The name
appears on the King map of 1502 and has continued to
this day. ]\Iuch of the coast in that part of Newfound-

160

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

land is rocky talJe-land of the same cliaracter. One
merit of this tlieory is that it will enable Leif Ericson to
have reached ]>oston, where a statue has been erected to
commemorate his visit.

Turning away with reluctance from this enchanting
region of American history, it must be ol^served once
more that Nova Scotia is clearly witliin the scope of
these voyages, whether it be taken as Vinland or Mark-

STONE POUND NEAR VAKMOUTU, WITH SUPPOSED RUNIC INSCRIPTION.

land, and as, upon the coast of Massachusetts, the famous
Dighton rock with its inscription, convinced Professor Eafn
and some other scholars of the former presence of the
Northmen, so near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, a rock in-
scribed with characters supposed to be liunic was found
at the end of the last century, and has been the subject
of speculation among those who are interested in the
pre-Columbian discovery of America. As a matter of
antiquarian speculative interest, and because it has not
often been reproduced, a cut of the inscription is given
above. The rock is about two feet thick, with one
smooth surface, and was found at high -water mark on

HISTORY OF ACADIA 161

the shore of a small inlet at the head of the harbour.
Whatever these cliaracters may be, or may mean, the
curious inquirer may be sure that they are genuine and
that no fraud has been practised. The inscription was
never deciphered until a copy was sent to ]\lr. Henry
Phillips, an antiquarian scholar of Philadelphia, who,
after a study extending at intervals over nine years,
read it, Harkusscn men vara, " Harko's son addressed
the men." He made it the subject of a communication
to the American Philosophical Society in 1884, and
connected it with Hake, a Scotchman, who was with
Thorfinn on the voyage of a.d. 1007.

Without expressing any opinion as to either this or
the Dighton rock, and referring those readers who may
be interested in the subject to the authorities cited at
the end of this volume and to the rock itself, which is
carefully preserved at Yarmouth, it is necessary to pass
on to the voyages of the Cabots in 1497 and 1498.
The landfall of the first voyage has been the subject of
a long controversy as to whether it was at Labrador,
Newfoundland, or Cape Breton. Dr. Samuel Dawson
has stated the reasons of his conviction that tlie land-
fall was at the east point of Cape Breton, which has
given its name to the whole island. It is sutticient to
observe that beyond all question Cabot in the second
voyage, that of 1498, coasted along the shores of Acadia,
New England, and Virginia ; and upon these voyages
the English always based a claim by discovery upon the
mainland of America. It is necessary to remember t>hat
such claims must be read in the light of the notions
of international law existing at that period.

Tlie voyage of Verrazano in 1524, under a commission
from Francis I. of France, has also been the subject of
controversy, and has been disputed, but without reason-

162 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

able grounds. Upon this voyage the French founded a
right of discovery from 30° to 46° north latitude. In
1525 Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese sailor in the employ
of Spain, sailed along the coast from Florida to Cape
Eace, and the Spaniards also laid claim to the territory
up to 45° by discovery, although they did not press it as
against the Portuguese, inasmuch as the vague geographical
notions of the day drew Acadia and Newfoundland east
of the line of demarcation of Pope Alexander VI.

The more closely the early records are searched the
clearer it will appear that the Portuguese and French
were the first to resort regularly to the shores of Acadia
and the first to make attempts at settlement. The early
nomenclature of the coast bears witness to that, for
French and Portuguese names still linger along its whole
length. To these must be added the Basques, Spanish
and French, who were the most daring and skilful sailors
of that age. As late as the treaty of Utrecht the king
of Spain made claim to a share in the fisheries of southern
Newfoundland for the Basques of Guipuzcoa. From the
year 1504 French vessels from St. Malo, Dieppe, and
La Eochelle frequented the Acadian harbours and those
of southern Newfoundland. In 1607 Champlain met
on the coast an old sailor called Savalet from St. Jean
de Luz, who had made forty -two voyages to Acadia.
Lescarbot called the harbour where the old sailor was
fishing, Savalette. It was the present Whitehaven.
The English probably resorted more to Newfoundland,
for there are no clear records of their being on the
Acadian coast at so early a date. From the earliest
times the kings of Portugal claimed sovereign rights
there, not only under the Bull of Pope Alexander, but
because of the voyages of the Corte Eeal family in
1500-1 and 1502; and in 1521 the Portuguese court

HISTORY OF ACADIA 163

made a grant along the coast of Acadia to Joao Alvarez
Fagundez, who would seem to have made some attempt
to settle. Gradually, however, the Portuguese withdrew ;
for their richer possessions in the east absorbed their
energies, and the sixty years' domination of Spain cramped
their enterprise.

In 1534 and 1535 Jacques Cartier, under a com-
mission from Francis I., discovered the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, and sailed around it and up the river to the
site of the present city of Montreal. Not only did he
coast along Labrador and the western shore of Newfound-
land, but he discovered the islands in the Gulf and
touched the north shore of I'rince Edward Island, the
gulf shore of New Brunswick, and the shores on both
sides of the Bay Chaleur. He was the unwitting
discoverer of Prince Edward Island, for he thought it
was part of the mainland. The idea that Cabot discovered
it is an afterthought of recent years without solid founda-
tion. Neither Cabot, nor Corte Eeal, nor Verrazano,
nor Gomez, nor Fagundez, can be shown to have pene-
trated either the Bay of Fundy or the Gulf of St.
Lawrence ; and until Jacques Cartier's discoveries were
made known, the maps of America were drawn in such
a way as to prove that nothing beyond the Atlantic
coast was known.

As the English did not follow up the discoveries of
the Cabots for a long time so the French did not follow up,
by permanent settlement, the discoveries of Cartier; never-
theless fishermen and traders, unknown to fame, con-
tinually frequented the coasts and, year by year, the maps
became more accurate from their reports. In the mean-
time the whole energies of the European governments were
consumed in religious wars and internal dissensions.
What went on in American waters is shown by one salient

164 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

fact. The coast of Cape Breton was the favourite fishing
resort, and the old name for Louisburg was Havre aux
Anglais, and for Sydney, Havre aux Espagnols, while
St. Anne's Bay was the resort of the French. The fisher-
men fished in peace, and the different nationalities resorted
to different harbours. There were harbours and fish
enough for all.

France emerged from her troubles when Henry IV.
was settled firmly on the throne, and with his character-
istic breadth of mind he recognised the importance of
western plantations. In 1603 he gave to M. de Monts
a commission as governor of the country of La Cadia from
40° to 46° north latitude (from Philadelphia to Newfound-
land). In like manner the English monarch, James I.,
following his example, granted a charter to two companies to
settle " Virginia," extending from 33° to 46° north latitude,
that is from South Carolina to Newfoundland, thus the
whole coast of America, north of the part generally con-
ceded to Spain, was claimed by both powers before either
had sent out a single permanent settler. In 1620 King
James granted the country under the name of New Eng-
land, from the 40th to the 48th degree, in absolute pro-
perty to a company of noblemen. It is not necessary to
follow farther the history of these overlapping charters,
except to point out that Acadia was claimed by the
English as a part of northern Virginia, or New England,
and King James again, in 1621, set off from the New
England territory, under the name, then first used, of Nova
Scotia, all the country known as Acadia from the St. Croix
to Gaspe inclusive. The grant was made to Sir William
Alexander, Earl of Stirling, although at the time the
French were actually settled at Port Eoyal, Tadoussac,
and Quebec.

To return, however, to the grant of Henry IV. of 1 603 ;

HISTORY OF ACADIA 165

— in the following year de Monts sailed with two sliips, and
with liini were tlic Baron de Poutrincourt, Hcbert, Pont-
grave, and Chani})lain. Concerning the last many things
will require to be said elsewhere, for he is the true hero
of Acadia as well as of Canada. They sailed along the
coast of Nova Scotia, and most of the names they gave
still survive. La Heve, Port Mouton, Cape Negro, Cape
Sable, Long Island, St. Mary's Bay, and many others, are
either names then in use or given by de IMonts and
Champlain. The Bay of Fundy was named La Baie
Pranraise by de Monts and the name persisted on the
French maps. Champlain visited Annapolis basin and
sailed up to the head of the Bay of Fundy. He visited
and named St. John harbour, because he arrived there
on St. John's day, and went on to the river Schoodic or
St. Croix. On an island in this river, now called Neutral
(Douchet) island, de Monts built a fort, and the
Boundary Commissioners in 1798 found its remains and
thus identified the Schoodic river as the true St. Croix.
There de Monts passed a very uncomfortable winter. The
next spring the whole party moved across the bay to
the Annapolis basin. Champlain had been charmed
with this basin, and it was named Port Koyal. There
they settled, and thus, in 1605, was made the first
permanent settlement of Europeans north of St. Augustine,
for although the grant to de Monts was cancelled in 1607
and the adventurers returned to France, yet it was I'e-
newed in 1610, and they came back and found all their
buildings just as they had left them.

Two years later, in 1607, Jamestown in Virginia was
founded. It should be noted, however, that the first
Port Eoyal, that of de Monts and Champlain, was not
on the site of the present Annapolis but lower down on
the Granville side opposite Goat island. The Baron de

166 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Poutrincourt was so delighted with the place that he
procured a grant of it from de Monts and made up his
mind to settle there for life ; for the French of those
days could live happily out of reach of Paris. Game
was plenty, the Indians were friendly, and the adventurers
were full of resources.

After spending in all three and a half years in Acadia,
Champlain on his return gave up his Acadian connection
to found Quebec ; but Poutrincourt brought his son out
and continued the enterprise. Lescarbot, a clever Paris
lawyer, was out for a while. He wrote an account of
the country, and the first American poetry was Les Muses
de la Nouvelle France, meditated if not written at Gran-
ville on the Annapolis river. The little colony had
many difficulties but it gave promise of success.

There was peace at that time between England and
France, but the colonists at Jamestown, when they heard
of a settlement at Port Eoyal, sent Samuel Argall with
three ships to destroy it, under the pretext that it was
within the limits of the grant of northern Virginia. He
burned the houses, and the French took refuge with the
Indians in the woods. Whatever colour of reason may
have existed for the destruction of St. Sauveur on the
coast of Maine, the French were clearly within their
right at Port Eoyal, and with this wanton and unjustifiable
act commenced the struggle for supremacy in the new
world. Poutrincourt, ruined in fortune by the failure of
his colony, was killed in battle in Europe, and his son
Biencourt took his name, and it has been generally
supposed that with some companions he lived with the
Indians in different parts of Nova Scotia until his death,
but recent researches have thrown doubt upon this.

Sir William Alexander in the meantime was making
unsuccessful attempts to utilise the grant of 1621 when

HISTORY OF ACADIA 167

King Charles first instituted, in 1625, the order of
Baronets of Nova Scotia, and commenced to regrant the
country in tracts six miles long by three wide. The
western boundary of his charter of 1621 was that
intended by the treaty of 1783, and is so far of interest,
otherwise all these documents only demonstrate the
prevailing ignorance concerning the country. The
younger Poutriucourt had in some way conveyed to his
favourite companion, Charles de La Tour, all his rights in
Acadia, and his command as governor for the king of
France, when Kirke, in 1628, took possession of Port
Royal for Alexander, and planted there a colony of Scotch
settlers, without however troubling the other small posts
the French had in Acadia. Charles de La Tour was
then residing at Port La Tour near Cape Sable, and his
father, Claude de La Tour, had gone to France to obtain
a confirmation of his son's command. The elder La Tour
was taken prisoner while returning to Quebec in Eoque-
mont's fleet, and sent to England, where he forgot his
nationality, married an English lady of rank, and under-
took to hand over all Acadia to the English. Sir William
Alexander appointed him and his son baronets of Nova
Scotia, and, reserving to himself Port Royal, he
transferred to the La Tours his remaining rights in
Acadia. The son, however, resisted all the entreaties of
his father, held to his allegiance, and defeated an English
force led by his father to take the fort at Port La Tour.
The fate of the Scotch settlers is obscure. Some were
killed by the Indians, and some married and were
absorbed among the French and natives, and some doubt-
less returned when the country was given up, for in
1630 the treaty of St. Germain en Laye conceded to
France all Acadia, Cape Breton, and Canada, and closed
the first chapter of Acadian history.

168 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The second chapter opens with the arrival of a very
distinguished officer, the Commander Isaac de Eazilly,
alHed to the family of Pdcheheu. He was appointed
lieutenant-general in New Trance for the king and for
the Cardinal de Eichelieu, with a grant for himself of the
river and bay of St. Croix. There came with hun two
men, — Nicholas Denys, Sieur de Fronsac, and Charles
d'Aulnay de Charnisay, — and he found in Acadia Charles
de La Tour. The history of Acadia during a long
period is nothing beyond the history of these most
capable and energetic men. Eazilly fixed his residence
at La Heve, and appointed Charnisay and La Tour his
lieutenants. The peaceful Denys established a shore
fishery in partnership with Eazilly at Port Eossignol
(now Liverpool), and La Tour received a grant of the
territory at the mouth of the St. John river. There he
built a fort known as Port La Tour, and founded a
large fishery and trading establishment. It was in the
harbour of the present city of St. John, New Brunswick,
but its precise site is disputed by antiquaries. Charnisay 's
lieutenancy was along the coast of New Brunswick and
Maine, and La Tour's was in Nova Scotia, but La Tour's
grant on the St. John was expressly excepted from
Charnisay's jurisdiction.

De Eazilly seems to have died in Acadia, and an
internecine feud broke out between his two lieutenants.
Both were confirmed in their governments by the court
of France, but Charnisay had strong family influence in
France. Both were supported by companies of merchants
with which they were connected in their fishing and
trading concerns. Charnisay was bold and haughty, and
made aggressions on the New Englanders. He seized
Pentagoet at the mouth of the Penobscot and fortified it,
and maiutained himself there, making it his chief place

HISTORY OF ACADIA 169

of residence. On I'azilly's death he inherited the
establishments at Port lioyal and La Heve, and he
removed the former to the site of the present Annapolis.
These establishments were excepted from La Tour's
jurisdiction, so that Charnisay's posts were exemptions
in La Tour's goA'ernment and La Tour's post was an
exemption in Charnisay's government. La Tour's family
was Huguenot, and although Charles de La Tour was a
Catliolic his relations with the English were more friendly
than those of Charnisay.

The quarrel between these two lieutenants of the
French king assumed the intensity of a war, and many
romantic and interesting incidents occurred which are
related in the histories. Madame de La Tour joined her
husband at Fort La Tour in 1645 bringing supplies, and
Charnisay, finding out that La Tour had gone on an
expedition with most of his men, suddenly appeared before
the fort and summoned it to surrender. But Madame de
La Tour defended the place with a handful of men for four
days, until one of the garrison, corrupted by Charnisay,
turned traitor. Even then she held out and obtained
honourable terms of surrender. When Charnisay got
possession of the place he violated his promise and hanged
all the garrison save one whom he forced to act as hangman.
He compelled Madame de La Tour to witness, with a rope
round her neck, the execution of her followers. Three
weeks after the lady died broken-hearted with grief, and
Charles de La Tour retired to Boston a ruined man. For
five years Charnisay ruled alone in Acadia and distressed
the settlers by his harsh rule. In 1650 he died, and in a
short time La Tour was established in his government
and married his widow.

But there was not yet peace for Acadia. One Le
Borgne, a merchant of La Eochelle, was a creditor of

170 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Charnisay, and he proceeded to harass La Tour and Denys
who succeeded to the conduct of affairs by processes and
seizures. Denys had obtained from the government at
Quebec a grant of all the shore from Cape Eosier in
Gaspe to Cape Canso in Nova Scotia. He had establish-
ments at Chedabucto (Guysborough) and at St. Pierre and
St. Anne's Bay in Cape Breton. It was he who first
discovered and made use of Cape Breton coal. An
expedition under Le Borgne seized him, plundered his
chief post at St. Pierre, and forced him to retire to
Chedabucto. Under such circumstances as these Acadia
could not prosper, and in the midst of all these contentions,
while the French courts were considering the claims
and the French ministers were considering the reports,
Cromwell sent an expedition under Sedgwicke in 1654
and seized the whole country; together with M. Le Borgne
at Port Eoyal — thus closed the second chapter.

In 1656 a grant was made of Acadia to Sir Thomas
Temple, William Crowne, and Charles de La Tour ; for
La Tour had laid his case before Cromwell, showing in
full all his claims by inheritance and marriage. Their
justice was acknowledged and he was associated in the
patent with Temple and Crowne. Weary of strife, he
sold his interest to his associates and settled on a small
holding where he passed ten quiet years until his death
in 1666. Acadia was governed by Sir Thomas Temple
until, by the treaty of Breda in 1667, it was again
restored to France by Charles II., sorely against the will
of the New England people. This closed the third
chapter of Acadian history.

Acadia was now under French rule once more.
Governors were sent down from Quebec, and the officials
carried on their petty disputes in a double series of
recriminatory despatches to headquarters. The governors

HISTORY OF ACADIA 171

resided at first at Pentagoet and St. John. The settlers
were oppressed by the monopolies of the trading
companies, and no attempt was made to reinforce the
colony by sending out new settlers. The Intendant, De
Meules, who visited Acadia in 1686, was shocked by the
desolation he saw. The New England people encroached
on their fisheries, and there was no force to protect them
from the pirates wlio harried the coasts. In 1689
William III. became king of England, and war broke out
with France, and, as always, the poor Acadians had to
bear the brunt of it. Sir William Phips, with an
expedition from New England, seized and plundered Port
Iloyal and the other posts, but did not retain military
possession of the country, although the colonists of
Massachusetts claimed it as theirs. The French governors
retired up the St. John river to Jemseg and then to
Nashwaak opposite the present Fredericton ; from
tlience they incited the Indians to attack the English
colonies, and the most atrocious cruelties were practised
all along the frontier. The colonies had gained great
strength and the French were weak, but the Micmacs,
Malicetes, and Abenakis were numerous and they hated
the English colonists, whom they called " Bastonnais."
The English frontiers were wrapped in fire and blood.
The tomahawk and scalping -knife were busy, and
midnight attacks and massacres were continual. The
]\Tassachusetts colonists were exasperated to madness and
retaliated upon the Indians with desperate energy, and
adopted, moreover, some of the methods of their savage
enemies. Frontenac was also harassing the back settle-
ments from Canada in the same way. The English
colonists felt the French hand behind all these attacks
and the antagonism of Puritan and Catholic intensified
the feeling. All this prepared for the Acadians the

172 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

unique tragedy which they were to endure in after years.
An expedition under Iberville appeared on the coast and
reconquered their posts, but privateers and pirates still
harried them and, although Port Eoyal was fortified, the
farms were uncultivated and famine even threatened the
people. At last in 1710 General Nicholson, with a
formidable expedition from Boston, attacked and carried
Port Eoyal and seized the whole country. This time the
conquest was final. The remonstrances of the New
England colonies were successful and, at the treaty of
Utrecht, the whole of Acadia " in its ancient limits " was
ceded to tlie English, and the French retained only Cape
Breton and the islands in the Gulf. The fourth chapter
of Acadian history closes also with disaster.

At the period of the treaty of Utrecht there were no
settlements on the island of Cape Breton, save the fishing
establishments, under the grant to Denys, at St. Anne's
Bay and St. Peter's. When the French Government relin-
quished Newfoundland and the mainland of Acadia it
resolved to found a first-class fortress on the island to
guard the gulf and give a firm foothold for the power of
France in America. The place known as English Harbour
was chosen, its name was changed to Louisburg, the
island was called lie Eoyale, and during the following
years over thirty millions of livres were expended by the
French Government in fortifications. All the inhabitants
of Placentia in Newfoundland but four removed thither.
Few of the Acadians, however, could be induced to settle
anywhere on the island. They were not sailors and did
not care for the fisheries ; they were farmers, and Cape
Breton did not attract them.

Prince Edward Island was then called He Saint Jean.
For a long period it was not recognised as separate from
the mainland. Even as late as 1600 it was not known,

HISTOKY OF ACADIA 173

and on Champlain's two first maps it does not appear.
In his voyages of 1603 he seems to have heard of such
an island, and on his map of 1613 he has laid down a
very small island with that name, but it was not until
1632 that it appeared in its proper situation and pro-
portions. It is, no doubt, the fact that on the so-called
Cabot map of 1544 there is an island in the gulf named
St. John, but that has been shown to be in reahty the
Magdalen group, and the map itself is clearly based on
Cartier's discoveries. Cartier, as before stated, touched
the north shore of the island, but it has been demon-
strated that he passed over to the Miramichi shore,
supposing the strait to be a deep bay. In 1663 the
company of New France made a concession of the island
of St. John, the Magdalens, Brion island, and the Bird
islands to Doublet, and a company was formed to carry
on the fisheries. It was to be a sub-fief to the Miscou
company and the fur-trade was reserved. Later, in 1720,
these islands, together with Miscou, were granted to the
Count de St. Pierre, but there appear to have been no
settlements on the island of St. John at that time.
Attempts were made with more success to induce the
Acadians to settle there, and towards the year 1729 a
little colony was formed, at Port La Joie on the site
of Charlottetown. The Acadians removed very slowly,
but, about 1733, as Louisburg attained strength, a
garrison was sent and a fort and barracks were erected at
Port La Joie. After the dispersion of the Acadians many
settled on the island, so that in 1758, when the French
evacuated it, about 4000 souls were left. They had
been scarcely three years there when the fortune of war
again compelled them to leave.

In the treaty of Utrecht, when Acadia was ceded, it
had been stipulated that the Acadians were to have

174 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL

liberty to remove elsewhere within a specified period
with all their effects, but the documents show that the
English did not wish them to remove, and threw obstacles
in their way. The reasons are stated plainly. They did
not wish them to go to strengthen the new and threaten-
ing establishment on Cape Breton, and, moreover, if the
Acadians left, supplies would fail to the garrison at Port
Royal ; for English farmers could not be got to settle in
a country infested by Indians so bitterly hostile to the
English name. A few left, but by far the greater part
remained on their farms and increased in numbers and
prospered under English rule more rapidly than under
the government of the French court. The position was,
however, a very difficult one. The Acadians were the
only inhabitants, excepting the Indians, and although
they never had experienced any trouble from the Indians,
it was because they remained French. The Indians were
controlled entirely from Canada and Cape Breton, and, if
the Acadians had taken an active part against the French,
beyond doubt the Indians would have massacred them,
for the only force the English had in the country was
about 200 men in garrison at Annapolis, and in later
years a small garrison at Canso. Moreover, the Acadians
were Roman Catholics of the intensest kind and received
all their impressions through their missionaries, who were
sent from Quebec. They had no schools, and were so
ignorant that, in a document signed by 227 of the heads
of families in Annapolis, 160 signed with a cross, being
unable to write. Not knowing what was going on in the
world, save through Quebec, they expected that as Acadia
had always been restored to France before, it would be
so again, and besides, in their simplicity, they could not
imagine that any other power equal to France existed
in the world, and to take part against their own Catholic

HISTORY OF ACADIA 175

mother-land on behalf of a heretical people was utterly-
abhorrent to them.

On the other hand the English — and by English
must chietly be understood the colonists of Massachusetts
— had suffered greatly from the Indian tribes which the
French in Canada had incited to harry their frontiers.
In their common conversation the French and Indians
were always grouped in one phrase, and as they were
Puritan Protestants of the most intense type they looked
on the French with aversion, while for the Indian allies
of the French no words the English language possessed
were sufficiently strong to express their abhorrence.
They looked with suspicion on the missionaries and their
connection with Canada, and they endeavoured to exact
an oath of allegiance from the Acadians, which the latter
were obstinate in refusing to give. At last, after many
difficulties. General Phillips, the governor, obtained from
them a modified form of oath, which was accepted with an
understanding that they were not to be called upon to
bear arms against the French or Indians, This oath,
though the home authorities at first considered it not
quite precise enough, was nevertheless accepted, and so the
Acadians came to be called " the neutral French." The
understanding that their allegiance was a limited one is
nowhere recorded, but that it had some basis is evident
from the sequel of events.

They lived peaceably on the whole with the New
England garrison, although occasional friction would arise
between the governors and the priests ; but the Indians,
incited by the Canadian and Cape Breton French, kept
up an incessant warfare, and when the English complained
the French commanders affected to consider the Indians
as independent nations.

War broke out between England and France, and the

176 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

French and Indians made several unsuccessful attempts
to take Annapolis, until the Xew England colonies,
exasperated beyond endurance, undertook the hazardous
enterprise of attacking Louisburg, They raised an army
solely of provincial troops and put a merchant of Kittery,
William Pepperrell, in command. At the last moment,
and after the expedition had sailed, the English admiral
joined it, and the singular spectacle was presented of a
colonial army assisted by an English fleet attacking a
first-class fortress containing a garrison of regular troops,
and all without orders of the British Government. It
was an impromptu enterprise, but fortune favoured the
courage of the New Englanders, and religious enthusiasm
made it a veritable crusade. The New England troops,
4000 in number, landed on 1st May, 1747. Admiral
Warren intercepted succour from France and attacked
the town with his ships and on the l7th of June the place
surrendered. The garrison and inhabitants were sent to
France. There were 650 regular troops, 1310 militia,
and 2000 inhabitants in all surrendered. It was a very
brilliant feat of arms for men whose experience had been
gained only in border warfare and bush-fighting. The
New England troops remained to garrison the place. The
island of St. John was also seized and the inhabitants sent
to France.

Stung by the mortification of a defeat by colonial
troops, the French Government fitted out a formidable
armament for the recapture of Louisburg and the
conquest of Acadia. It consisted of 70 sail. There
were 11 ships of the line, 20 frigates, 5 bombs, and the
remainder were transports conveying 3150 regular troops,
all under the command of the Duke d'Anville, an
experienced and capable officer. But the stars in their
courses fought against him. He encountered storms of

HISTORY OF ACADIA l77

great severity. His fleet was scattered. Some ships
were disabled and were captured in trying to return,
some were wrecked, and the remainder reached Chebiicto
harbour (now Halifax) shattered by a passage of ninety days.
The duke died four days after his arrival and the next
in command killed himself. Pestilence broke out among
the troops and sailors and was communicated to the
Indians who had flocked round to co-operate. More
than one-third of the whole Micmac tribe perished.
Twelve hundred and seventy men had been lost at sea,
1130 had been buried at Chebucto, and all the rest were
weakened by disease. The remainder of the fleet returned
to France but received further damage in a terrific gale
off Cape Sable. So a great danger was averted from the
British colonies, and they were saved without striking a
blow for themselves.

By the treaty of Utrecht Acadia or Nova Scotia, in
its ancient extension, had been ceded to England, but the
French Government drew a distinction and insisted that
the territory ceded included only a part of the peninsula,
now Nova Scotia, and not any part of what is now known
as New Brunswick. They drew an imaginary line from
Cape Canso to the head of the basin of Minas (now Truro)
and sought to shut out the English from the richest part
of the peninsula. On the declaration of war in 1744, an
expedition from Louisburg seized the English fort at Canso,
and a large body of Indians under French leaders attacked
Annapolis before the English had received intelligence of
hostilities.

And now, when the supreme crisis of the struggle for
empire in America was imminent, and the anomalous
political relations existing in Acadia were to undergo the
severest strain, appeared the evil genius of the Acadian
people — the Abbe Le Loutre, missionary to the Micmacs

178 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

on the Sliubenacadie. If the Acadians had been let alone
they would gradually have become reconciled to English
rule, for they were naturally a peaceful and contented
people. They had increased in number and, secure from
the oppressive monopolies of the former regime, had
prospered greatly. They paid no taxes and enjoyed
absolute freedom of religion. The handful of soldiers
in the ruinous fort of Annapolis were the only English
among them ; for British settlers were deterred by the
incessant incursions of the Indians. Le Loutre at first
resided at Cobequid (Truro). His immediate care was a
band of 200 Indians, but his influence extended' over all
the Micmacs. He afterwards removed to Chignecto on
the border of the territory then in dispute and, provided
with abundant resources from Canada and France, he
exercised complete control over the Indians, and by their
assistance induced or terrified the Acadians on the border
to take up arms against the British Government.

In 1748 peace was declared, and the English Govern-
ment, resolving to colonise Acadia, sent out in 1749 a
strong colony and laid the foundations of Halifax at
Chebucto. The governor. Colonel Cornwallis, then called
upon the Acadians to take an oath of loyalty to the
English crown. Tliis they flatly and persistently refused
to do, in spite of repeated urging, unless with the reserve
that neither they nor their heirs should be called upon
to l3ear arms against the French or their Indian allies.
One sentence in an address, signed by 1000 of the chief
men among them, expresses the real underlying idea :
" What causes us all very gi^at pain is that the English
wish to live amongst us. This is the general sentiment
of the undersigned inhabitants." But the English could
not understand such a feeling, for Acadia had been ceded
to England for thirty-six years.

HISTORY OF ACADIA 179

The Acadians at Chignecto had renounced allegiance to
the English, and when the governor sent a force under
Lawrence to reduce them to obedience, they burned their
houses under the orders or threats of Le Loutre and
retired across the Missiguash to join the force from
Canada under the Chevalier de La Come, which had built
Fort Beausejour on the other side of the river, and Fort
Gasperaux on tlie shore of the gulf at Baye Verte. The
next spring Lawrence returned with a thousand men and
built Fort Lawrence on the Nova Scotia side of the
Missiguash. The Abbe Le Loutre with his Indians and
Acadians opposed his landing, but, after a sharp skirmish,
Lawrence was successful, and the Abbe with his following
retired across the river, where the French troops stood
ready to receive him.

There was ostensibly peace at that time between
England and France, but Le Loutre carried on, with his
Indians, incessant attacks on the English ; and the French
governors, when appealed to, protested that they had no
power over the Micmacs, who were an independent people.
These incursions exasperated the English beyond measure ;
for they consisted in scalping detached settlers and their
families around Halifax or Dartmouth, or any soldier who
might stray beyond the palisades of the forts. These
attacks were secretly encouraged by the French com-
manders, and a letter from the Intendant at Louisburg
to the minister at Paris reports that the Indians were
continually harassing the English and had brought to
Fort Beausejour eighteen English scalps, for which Le
Loutre had paid them 1800 livres. Le Loutre had been to
France, and was supplied with abundant funds for his
work. He so far lost all sense of moderation as to write
to the English governor and offer to divide the peninsula
with the English, the Micmacs to have what was really

180 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

the richest part of Acadia on which English forts were
tlien existing. In all these matters Le Loutre was acting
contrary to the instructions of the Bishop of Quebec, who
warned him of the wickedness and danger of compromis-
ing the Acadians.

In 1755 the decisive war broke out, and at first
fortune favoured the French in the west ; but, in Acadia,
Colonel Moncton captured Fort Beausejour. Three
hundred Acadians were taken, but the Abb6 Le Loutre
escaped to Quebec. He had to bear the reproaches of
his bishop for the ruin he had brought on the Acadians.
He was not, however, solely to blame, for the French
commanders and the government had supported him, but
he was a missionary priest and had disregarded the
injunctions of his ecclesiastical superior.

While the English were exasperated by these pro-
ceedings, the news of Braddock's defeat and the failure
of the western campaign arrived. The idea that nothing
but the deportation of the Acadians would secure the
safety of the frontier had previously suggested itself to
Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, but it had not been
entertained. The final resolution was taken by Governor
Lawrence and his council at Halifax in July, 1755, upon
the occasion of another formal and unanimous refusal of
deputies from all the French settlements to take an
unqualified oath of allegiance to the king of England.
It must have been a sudden resolution, for the governor
had received no orders from England. He had not formally
proposed it, although in one of his letters he expressed an
opinion that the Acadians were better away if they would
not take the oath, but he added he would do nothing with-
out submitting it to the approbation of the British
Government. That approbation cannot be found, nor even
any definite submission of a plan to the English authorities.

HISTORY OF ACADIA 181

The resolution was concealed vintil the Acadians had
got iu their crops, and then the blow suddenly fell.
Without inquiry, ,!^'uilty and innocent together, the people
were suddenly seized and put into transports and de-
spatched to the different English colonies. No prepara-
tion had been made for their reception, and some of the
coloilies refused to receive them. Families were sepa-
rated, and many were never reunited on this earth.
Many died of privation, exposure, and sorrow. In Acadia
the dykes Avere cut and the houses burned, and the
English found themselves alone in the province. The
charge that the ISTew England colonies instigated the
measure in order to obtain the lands of the exiles is
without foundation ; for it was a long time before settlers
could be induced to take up land in a province so harried
by Indian scalping parties. The settlers began to arrive
in 1760, and they came slowly, for there was an abundance
of laud in all the colonies.

Nothing in history is precisely like this pitiful exile,
for it was not the outcome of religious intolerance.
There never was any doubt of the free exercise of the
Catholic religion, excepting such apprehensions as might
be suggested to a simple and pious people by emissaries
who sought to shake their fidelity. Their ignorance was
profound, and while they may have had the petty faults
of peasants shut out from all real knowledge of the
outside world, the large majority of them were innocent
of treason to the English. Their longing for their
Acadian homes was like that of the Jews by the waters
of Babylon. Many found their way back coasting along
the shores of the colonies. Many hid in the woods or
escaped to Miramichi and the islands of the gulf. After
the peace they settled near Digby and Yarmouth and
around St. Mary's Bay. There are settlements of Acadians

182 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

also at Chezzetcook in the eastern part of the province,
and along the north shore of Prince Edward Island, and
in New Brunswick, especially on the Madawaska. Where-
ever they are found they retain their old simple habits
and manners.

All that can be said in respect to this tragedy must
be in palliation, not in justification. The English
Government is clear of blame, for nothing has been found
to show its complicity in the matter. The English
colonists, however, are not alone to be charged with
cruelty. It was cruel in the French Government — in
the French commanders — to use this simple people for
their political purposes, and exploit their blind attachment
to their king and their religion for temporary political
ends, and thus bring down upon them the anger of a
race not easily appeased when thoroughly aroused.
Those, however, who care to take all the circumstances
into consideration may look to Alsace and Lorraine, and
to Savoy and Nice, and ask how long the French and
German Governments would, even at the present day, en-
dure it if the people of those provinces were to declare
themselves neutral when war was on their borders !
Still, if such a measure as this were indeed necessary for
self-defence in time of war, the fate of the exiles might
have been greatly softened without prejudice to the result.

The events recited in the pages just preceding are well
summarised in the following figures showing the movement
of the Acadian population on the peninsula : —

1714. Population when ceded to England . . . 1773
1737. Population under English rule .... 7598
1749. Population under English rule estimated at . . 13,000

after the troubles about the oath commenced —

1752. Poiiulation dejileted by emigration . . . 9300

1755. Just before the expulsion ..... 8200

1756. Alter the expulsion, estimated at . . . . 1200

HISTORY OF ACADIA 183

SO that in all over GOOO souls were deported to different
destinations.

The history of Acadia is henceforth very simple. The
Micmacs continued their depredations and murders until
the complete triumph of the English arms left them no
support. A peace was concluded in 1761, and proved to
be final. Soon after, settlers began to come in to take up
the vacated land, and the successful revolt of the southern
colonies sent a large number of expatriated loyalists into
the province, who settled chiefly at Guysborough, Windsor,
Annapolis, and Shelljurne. The civil government went
through the usual stages of colonial evolution, until at
lust the province attained the status of a self-governing
colony. Cape Breton in 1784 was erected into a separate
government, and so remained until 1820, when it was
re-united to Nova Scotia. The little town of Halifax,
on account of its unrivalled harbour, became the
centre of operations of the Eoyal Navy in the western
Atlantic, and grew rapidly under the stimulus of the
war expenditure during the great wars of the American
and French Revolutions ; but the romance died out of
Acadian history, and its annals record commercial and
industrial events until in 1867 the province entered the
confederation of the Dominion of Canada.

The province of New Brunswick at the time of the
peace of 1763 was an absolute wilderness. Although it
was, in reality, included in the cession of Acadia at
Utrecht, the French clung to it to the last, though
they never colonised it in any effective way. Nicholas
Denys, under his grant of 1653 (confirmed later), had
establishments at Miscou, Miramichi, and Richibucto.
The French had also a fort at Nashwaak, opposite the
present Fredericton, and another at Jemseg at the outlet
of Grand Lake. They had a fort, also, at St. John, at

184 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL

the mouth of the St. John river, but it was often
abandoned because of incessant attacks from the English
colonies. They kept control of the Indians by means of
communications with Canada guarded by the two interior
forts.

The fort at St. Jolm was garrisoned by English troops
for some time after the peace. The first exploration of
the river was made in 1761, but the province of New
Brunswick is the creation of the American Eevolution.
In 1783 a fleet left New York with 3000 loyalists to
found at the mouth of the St. John river a new home in
the wilderness. The exiles were destitute of everything,
for their property had been confiscated, but they were high-
spirited and intelligent, because it was not the uninstructed
classes in the old colonies who sided with the king.
Some of the brightest names in the old colony annals
were among them, and Colonel Edward Winslow might
then have experienced some of the sorrows of the Acadian
exiles whom his uncle expelled from Grand Pre. They
were made of sterner stuff than the poor Acadians, and
with unconquerable energy they opened up the forest
wilderness, and soon their vessels sailed on every sea,
for the instincts of maritime adventure were strong in
them. The name of the settlement, at first Parr-town,
was changed to St. John. In 1784 the province of New
Brunswick, with its present limits, was set off from Nova
Scotia, and entered upon a course of peaceful progress.
During the wars with the United States and France these
provinces were not the theatre of conflict. An occasional
privateer was the only warlike excitement, and they
understood privateering as well as any other people, and
made more than they lost by it. During the war of
1812-14 an expedition from Halifax seized the coast of
Maine and held it until the peace. The original en-

HISTORY OF ACADIA 185

dowiueiit of Dalhousie College at Halifax was a sum of
£1)250, collected as customs duties at the port of
Machias while the British troops were in possession of
Maine. After the peace, as in the case of the other
provinces, the civil government gradually developed,
until New Brunswick became a self-governing colony.
In 18G7 it became one of the confederated provinces of
the Dominion.

Prince Edward Island was known as Isle Saint Jean
from the time it first appeared upon the map. There were
so many places of that name that confusion arose, and
in 1799 it was called Prince Edward Island in honour
of the father of the late Queen Victoria, who was then
commanding the troops in ISTova Scotia. The island
contained very little of the marsh land so dear to the
Acadians and few had settled there ; for it was covered
with forest and the Acadians did not like the labour of
clearing land. In 1749 the population was estimated at
1000 ; but, for a while, the ready market at Louisburg
for all kinds of farm produce induced settlers from Nova
Scotia, and in 1755 the number was rated at 3000.
The population increased rapidly in consequence of the
expulsion of the Acadians, and in 1758 it had increased
to 6500. When the English took possession they found
4100 souls on the island. Many of them left for the
mainland and some were deported, so that by the year
l77l the French population had decreased to about
1270.

In 1767 the whole island was granted in large
holdings to a limited number of persons, and a mischievous
system of absentee proprietorship was established which
led in after years to incessant trouble between the
tenants and landlords. The government w^as separated
from Nova Scotia in 1769, and remained separate until the

186 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

year 1873 when the province entered the confederation.
The land question was settled by the proprietors selling-
out under a valuation by a commission to the Govern-
ment, which then resold to the tenants on favourable
terms.

v„

THE MARITIME PROVINCES

CHAPTEE V

THE MARITIME PROVINCES

General View

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward
Island form a group of provinces on the eastern flank of
the Dominion which have many common characteristics
differentiating them from the provinces of old Canada.
They are sometimes called collectively Acadia — a
euphonious word derived from the old French name
L'Acadie, which itself is simply the Micmac cadie,
used in composition to signify a place where anything
expressed by the other word in the compound is found
in abundance. Such a word would naturally often occur
in the limited vocabulary of the natives in their early
communications with white men. The French took
it up and applied it to the whole maritime region. The
Malicetes, a kindred tribe to the Micmacs, pronounced
the same word quoddy, and it occurs in that form
frequently in New Brunswick and eastern Maine ; as
Passamaquoddy Bay and Quoddy Head. During the
French domination these provinces by the sea were ad-
ministered by officials, who, although in rank subordinate
to the governors of Canada, corresponded also directly
with the ministers of the king at Paris. When, by the
treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Acadia was ceded to the

188 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

English Crowu a coutention immediately arose as to its
true boundaries — the French seeking to narrow them to
one-half of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, and the English
to extend them to the utmost limit of the wording of the
treaty. The English used the name Nova Scotia as the
equivalent of Acadia and included the present New
Brunswick within its limits. The boundaries of Sir
William Alexander's patent of 1625 extended to Gaspe ;
but, since the setting off of New Brunswick, the name of
Nova Scotia has been restricted to the present province
of that name. The English claimed the country by right
of the discovery of the Cabots in 1497 and 1498, the
Erench by right of the voyage of Verrazano. If such
voyages as these could give a title, under the rudimentary
international law of that period, the Cabot voyages were
clearly the first, but the Erench title was by far the
stronger, because they made the first actual settlements.
After a struggle of one hundred and fifty years of varying
fortunes the question was decided by the sword.

The maritime provinces on the Atlantic correspond
in many ways with the province of British Columbia on
the Pacific. The Dominion of Canada widens towards
the north ; the coast-lines and mountain ridges in the
western province all trend south-east and north-west, and,
in the eastern province, they trend south-west and north-
east, in each case following the basic plan of each
respective side of the continent. The peninsula of Nova
Scotia, 268 miles long and connected midway with the
rest of Acadia, corresponds to the island of Vancouver,
285 miles long and connected, within only half a mile of
open channel, by the dense archipelago half way along
its coast, with the rest of British Columbia. As the
mountains of Vancouver Island are outliers of the
western Cordilleras, so the highlands of Nova Scotia

THE MARITIME PROVINCES 189

and its appendage, Cape Breton, are outliers of the
Appalachian system of the east. There is a singular
parallelism between the provinces on the two great oceans
which might be set forth at great length ; but no doubt
this will suggest itself in the study of their productions
and of the pursuits of their inhabitants.

The geological structure of the maritime provinces is
different from that of the adjoining province of Quebec.
The Laurentian system has very small space in the
geology of Acadia, and the Carboniferous system has no
place in the geology of old Canada. The centre of New
Brunswick is a great triangular basin of horizontal
Carboniferous rocks, faced on the Atlantic seaboard to
the south by a rampart of primordial rock, and flanked by
the Silurian of the north-western corner of the province
and of the adjoining province of Quebec. The northern
limit of the Carboniferous system touches the Gulf of
St. Lawrence at Miscou Head, and it sweeps along the
shore of the gulf, extends in a broad band along all the
inner coast of Nova Scotia and into Cape Breton, and comes
out near Sydney upon the shore of the Atlantic where
the waves wash the coal seams on the sea-shore. The
Carboniferous formation underlies the New Eed Sand-
stone of Prince Edward Island ; it is recognised in the
rocks of the Magdalen islands, and comes to the surface
again at the south-western point of Newfoundland where
a seam of coal three feet thick crops out near the shore.

The people of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are
seafaring by instinct, and turn to the ocean with the
hereditary impulses of many generations of sailors. The
adoption of iron has centred the shipbuilding industry in
the United Kingdom, but vessels from Halifax, Yarmouth,
and St. John will still be met with in every seaport in
the world ; for the people of these provinces have an

190 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

innate capacity for managing such property, and are able
to sail a ship at a profit where the merchants of other
nations are unable to meet the competition of the iron
steamships.

The people of the maritime provinces are alike in
their component nationalities. In all three provinces
over ninety per cent are Canadian-born. The inhabitants
of the eastern part of Nova Scotia, especially in the
counties of Antigonish, Pictou, and the island of Cape
Breton, are of Highland Scotch race, and Gaelic as well
as English is commonly spoken there. Nearly all New
Brunswick and many parts of Nova Scotia were settled
by loyalist exiles from the United States at the close of
the Eevolution. Of the six per cent not born in ,
Canada not more than one per cent were born outside :
of the British Empire.

Climate

The climate of the Acadian provinces is more equable
than that of the interior provinces of the Dominion, and
from the large extent of their sea-board, it is not so dry.
The latitude of Halifax is nearly the same as that of
Bordeaux, but, as explained in a previous chapter, the
Arctic current hugs the coast of America, and the warm
waters of the Gulf Stream are pushed out to a distance
of one hvmdred miles from the coast. The following
tables of the temperature and rainfall at the chief cities
of the three Acadian provinces are obtained from official
figures of the Meteorolofiical Oftice : —

THE MARITIME PROVINCES 191

Temperature in Degrees — Fahrenheit

Halifax. St. John. Cliarlottetown.

Mean annual temperature . 45 "81 42 '66 43 '64

Highest temperature during year 83'80 86 '70 80'80

Lowest „ „ -8-00 -12-00 -14-00

Mean Temperature by Seasons of Three Months

Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter.

Halifax, Nova Scotia . . 51-70 62-87 39-60 29-07

St. John, New Brunswick . 49-47 58-63 36-33 25-90
Charlottetown, Prince Edward

Island . . . . 51-20 62-83 36-43 24-10

Taking the month of January alone and comparing
the temperatures with well-known places in Europe,
Halifax and Warsaw, in Poland, have the same mean
temperature of 2 8 '9, and taking the month of July alone,
Halifax and Hamburg have the same mean temperature
of 63-9.

The Atlantic ports of Nova Scotia and New Bruns-
wick do not freeze in winter. Halifax, St, John, Yar-
mouth, and Louisburg are open all the year round.
Sydney is closed not so much by freezing as by the drift
ice setting against the coast, while Louisburg is sheltered
from drift ice by the conformation of the coast-line. The
tremendous tides of the Bay of Fundy prevent the forma-
tion of ice in the harbours of St. John and St. Andrews.
The ports in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are closed in
winter, and the climate on that side of Acadia is a little
more severe than upon the ocean coast. The central
parts of Now Brunswick have a continental climate like
that of Quebec.

Tables of temperature are insufficient to give an idea
of climate — humidity must be taken into account. The
following table gives the annual rainfall and the annual

192 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

total precipitation — snow being reduced into terms of
rain : —

Annual Rainfall in Inches.

Annual Total Precipitation

Halifax .

45-34

48-58

St. John .

31-75

37-75

Charlottetown .

26-71

32-45

The number of days on which rain fell at any time
during the twenty-four hours, was, in Halifax, 159 ; in
St. John, 119 ; in Charlottetown, 151. Halifax and
Yarmouth have a greater rainfall than any other points
on the Atlantic coast of Canada, and it is about the same
as that of New Westminster on the Pacific and of Pen-
zance on the coast of Cornwall.

In comparing these figures it must be remembered
that the interior parts of these provinces have a much
drier climate. Thus the rainfall at Digby, Nova Scotia,
is only 25 inches, not much more than one-half that of
Halifax, and at Bathurst in New Brunswick it is only
20-89 inches. For these reasons the continental climate
of the inland provinces of Canada is considered by
Canadians preferable in winter to the climate on any
part of the North Atlantic coast. Prince Edward Island
is low and is also nearly all coast-line, and therefore the
climate is everywhere the same as at Charlottetown.
Perhaps the best indication of climate is the fact that,
in the western parts of Nova Scotia and in the interior
of New Brunswick as in Prince Edward Island,
maize may be grown as a crop. The Atlantic coast is
unsuited to its culture. The greatest drawback to the
whole north-east coast of America is the fog generated
by the Gulf Stream, which often in summer sweeps in
from the sea along the Atlantic coast and the shores of
the Bay of Fundy. It never extends iidand more than a
few miles from the shore, and Prince Edward Island is

THE MAHITIME PROVINCES

193

largely exempt, but it is a frequent source of danger along
the exterior coast.

Forests

The forest trees are practically the same in all the
Acadian provinces. Along the coast of the Atlantic
Ocean and the Bay of Fundy the sea air and frequent
fogs favour the growth of birch, spruces, and firs, but on
the higher and richer soils the growth is maple, beech,
ash and birch, as well as spruce and pine. The nature
of the forest growth is determined by the drainage and
richness of the land, the hardwood trees preferring a
drier soil than the spruces. Along the rivers are found
elms and red maples. In Prince Edward Island the
hardwood trees grow nearer to the sea level than on the
mainland, indicating a drier climate and warmer soil.
The forest of the Acadian provinces consists according
to lists prepared by Professor John Macoun of the
following species : —

Sugar Maple
Red Maple
Striped Majile
Black Cherry
Bird Cherry
Black Ash
White Ash
Elm

White Birch
Canoe Birch
Yellow Birch
Red Oak
Beech

Aspen Poplar
Balsam Poplar
White Pine
Red Pine
White Spruce

Acer sacchariuuni.
Acer rubrum.
Acer Pennsylvanicum.
Prunus serotina.
Prunus Pennsylvanica.
Fraxinus sanibucifolia.
Fraxinus Americana.
Ulmus Americana.
Betula alba.
Betula papyrifolia.
Betula lutea.
Quercus rubra.
Fagus ferruginea.
Populus tremuloides.
Populus balsamifera.
Pinus strobus.
Pinus resinosa.
Picea alba.

194

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Black Spruce
Red Spruce
Balsam Fir
Hemlock
Tamarack
White Cedar

Picea nigra.
Picea rubra.
Abies balsamea.
Tsuga Canadensis.
Larix Americana.
Thuya occidentalis.

The following trees, in addition to the preceding, occur
in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick : —

Red Ash
Cherry Birch
Iron Wood
Black AVillow
Scrub Pine

Fraxinus pubescens.
Betula lenta.
Ostrya Virgiuica.
Salix nigra.
Pinus Banksiana.

The following additional species are found in the
interior of New Brunswick : —

Basswood
Butternut
Mossy- cup Oak

Tilia Americana.
Juglans cincrea.
Quercus macrocarpa.

These are the indigenous forest trees and are excellent
indication of soil and climate. " Everything will giow
in Acadia that grows in Frauce," said the old French
writers, " except the olive."

CHAPTEE VI

NOVA SCOTIA

This province consists of the peninsula of Nova
Scotia proper and the island of Cape Breton. The
peninsula is 268 miles long and varies from 60 to 100
miles in breadth ; the island is 108 miles long with a very
irregular breadth, and is hollowed out in the centre by a
remarkable arm of the sea — the Bras d'Or. The total
area of the province is 21,428 square miles. It lies
between the parallels of i'A^ 30' and 47° north latitude,
and the meridians of 59" 4 0' and 66° 20' west longitude,
and is connected with New Brunswick by a low isthmus
only 11^ miles broad at its narrowest point. It faces on
the Atlantic Ocean. On one side of the isthmus in rear
is the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the other is the Bay
of Fundy, well known for its high tides. Nova Scotia is
about two-thirds the size of Scotland.

The Atlantic Coast

West of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, a broad
and deep ocean channel or submerged valley with sound-
ings averaging 200 fathoms, leads through Cabot Strait and
the centre of the gulf far up into the river St. Lawrence.
South of this channel a series of banks extend off the
whole coast of Nova Scotia, between the inner edge of
the Gulf Stream and the land. They are known as the

196 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Banquereau, Misaine, Canso, Sambro, Lahave, Eoseway,
and Brown Banks and the jMiddle Grounds. There are 20
to 40 fathoms on these ocean plateaus, and narrow gulHes
of deeper water separate them from each other ; but their
edges on the landward side are not so clearly defined.
Midway in their length, but on the outer edge of these
banks, is Sable Island, lying south-east of Cape Canso at

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA.
Looking north from St. Matthew's Spire.

a distance of about 100 miles. This island of evil omen
is a bank of white shifting sand, without soil or trees,
rising in one place 60 or 70 feet high, and consisting of
a series of low sand dunes usually not over 20 feet high
and not easily distinguished in smooth weather from the
deck of a passing ship. The island itself is about 18
miles long by a little over a mile wide, and is a double
ridge containing a long shallow salt-water lake. Long
bars of sand extend from the island at each end, and
sandy ridges, with only a few feet of water, lie off the

NOVA SCOTIA 197

shores, so that, in heavy weather, the whole sweep of
the Atlantic surge curls up in a continuous line of
tremendous breakers fifty miles in length. The island
was known by the earliest sailors, and the Portuguese
left cattle upon it which ran wild and multiplied ; for a
coarse grass grows there, and there are fresh-water ponds.
In 1598 the Marquis de la Eoche landed 50 or 60 convicts
on the island while he sailed westwards to explore Nova
Scotia. A great storm drove his ship back to France,
and it was five years before relief was sent to these
poor wretches. Only 1 1 had survived ; for murderous
quarrels, as well as exposure, had thinned their numbers.
They had made shelters out of the timbers of wrecked
vessels, and had provided food and clothing from the
wild cattle and seals which were plentiful on the island.
In the gloomy annals of this " ocean graveyard " novel-
ists have a rich mine as yet untouched. The Dominion
Government has erected two powerful lights, and main-
tains upon it five relief stations with lifeboats and rocket
apparatus and every other life-saving appliance. The
stations are connected by telephone, and a permanent
staff of 18 men reside on the island with their families —
about 50 souls in all.

The coast of Nova Scotia is low, but rugged and rocky,
and studded with innumerable rocky islets. Mount
Aspotogan, a precipitous cliff on the headland between
St. Margaret's and Mahone Bays, is 438 feet high, and
the promontory of Cape Lahave is 107 feet high. They
are the most conspicuous points on the coast, and the
first is usually the first land seen by sailors. The western
shores are wooded to the water's edge, but on the eastern
coast there is only a scanty growth of birch and spruce.

The Atlantic coast differs from the inner coast by
being deeply indented with numerous excellent harbours.

198 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Commencing from the east, Canso harbour is a deep and
safe haven— a favourite one in the time of Champlain
and Lescarbot, and now used as the terminus of ocean
cables. The old sailors used frequently to make Canso
their rendezvous, and call tliere for water in going to and
from Europe ; and it was the central point for the best
fishing on the coast, being always thronged in the fishing
season. Following westwards are Country harbour,
Lescome harbour, Sheet harbour, Ship harbour, and Jedore
harbour, all safe shelters for large vessels. Then follows
Halifax harbour, one of the finest havens in the world,
deep, commodious, and easy of access. It is fourteen
miles long, with nowhere less than six fathoms of water.
Beyond the narrows, Bedford basin opens out in an area
of ten square miles of excellent anchorage, with water of
8 to 36 fathoms close to the shores. Westward are
the harbours of St. Margaret's Bay, Mahone Bay, and
Lunenburg. Lahave, Liverpool (tlie Port Eossignol of
Champlain) and Port Mouton are available for small
vessels only ; but the harbour of Shelburne is excellent,
and westward of it are the harbours of Pubnico and
Yarmouth. These are only a few out of very many, for
the coast is deeply indented and bold.

While the Atlantic coast of the province is protected
by a broad belt of hard Cambrian rock broken by erup-
tions of granite, the western, or Bay of Fundy, shore is
protected by a long and narrow rim of trap rock which
caps and covers the red sandstone cliffs from abiasion.
This guardian ridge rises several hundred feet, and, save
at one or two places where it is broken through, there
are no harbours throughout its length. St. Mary's Bay
is formed by a long projection of this wall of trap. The
bay is 30 miles long with deep water. The wall is broken
at Grand Passage, forming Brier island. Long island is

NOVA SCOTIA 109

formed by Petite I'assage, and Digby neck closes in the
rest of the bay. Annapolis, or I>igby Gut, is a remarkable
break in tlie barrier wall, opening into Annapolis basin.

xVnnapolis basin is an arm of the sea of very great
beauty, rendered historic by being the scene of the settle-
ment of de Monts, Ohamplain, Poutrincourt and Lescarbot.
It is five miles wide, bordered by highlands on either side,
and it narrows towards the end, as the North mountain
and the South mountain ridges draw together. There the
valley is about a mile wide and the Annapolis river falls in
— a tidal river, up which steamers go as far as Bridgetown,
returning by the same tide. The entrance from the Bay
of Fuudy is barely half a mile wide. It is two miles
long, and the basaltic trap rises sheer on either side to
heights of 500 to 700 feet. The water is deep and the
tides rush through very swiftly.

Farther up the Bay of Fundy the Minas Basin opens
up, marked on its southern shore by capes Split and
Blomidon, two grand headlands formed by the abrupt
termination of the North and South mountains upon the
basin. This beautiful sheet of water extends 60 miles
into the land, with an extreme breadth of 20 miles. As
it gradually narrows, it is called Cobequid Bay. All
along its northern shore runs the range of the Cobequid
mountains, clothed to their summits with beech and maple,
and, on the southern shore, are the rich dyked lands of
Grand Pre, made classic by Longfellow's poem of Evan-
geline. There dwelt the gentle maiden, the creation of
a poet's dream, and her people, faithful to France through
many sorrows. Near there flows in the Avon, a tidal
river like its prototype near Bristol, and the tides rise
here 38 feet, sweeping away into the country at their
flood, and exposing extensive tracts of unsightly smooth
red mud at their ebb.

NOVA SCOTIA 201

The Cobequid mountains terminate on the west in the
bold headlands of Cape d'Or and Cape Chignecto. Cape
d'Or is surmounted by trap, and derives its name from
masses of native copper found upon it. This region is
well known to mineralogists for its rare minerals. Both
capes are precipitous, and the whole region is one of
surpassing beauty and interest. Even the imagination
of the Micmac Indians has been impressed by the nobility
of the prospect, and has placed on these heights the abode
of Glooscap, the Algonquin Hiawatha, The majestic
dark red mass of Cape Blomidon was a fit abode for a
demi-god sent by the Great Spirit to teach the stiff-
necked Micmacs. Glooscap is gone, and the melancholy
and lonely call of the loons vainly beseech his return,
and the Micmacs are nearly all gone as well. They were
good Indians according to their lights. They were the
first converted to Christianity, and they scalped more
Englishmen than any other tribe on the continent. They
had a mythology of their own, and their legends are
associated with all the more remarkable localities in
Acadia.

From Cape Chignecto the Bay of Eundy extends for
fifty miles farther ; at first as Chignecto channel which
forks into two bays — Chepody Bay and Cumberland Basin.
The latter washes the coast of Nova Scotia, the former
is in New Brunswick. The rocks are softer and the coast
is not so bold. On Chignecto channel, at South Jogirins,
are the celebrated sections of the coal-measures, and the
rushing tides of the Bay keep on making new exposures
full of instruction. At the head of Cumberland Basin
are rich and extensive marsh meadows, and the little
river IMissiguash falls in — the boundary between Nova
Scotia and New Bninswick, famous in the border wars
which led to the expulsion of the Acadians. The con-

NOVA SCOTIA 203

nectino; isthmus is narrowest here, and this point is the
termination of the half-finished Chignecto Marine railway,
projected in order to haul ships across to the Strait of
Northumberland, as the prodigious tides of the liay of
Fundy prevent a canal being made.

The northern coast of Nova Scotia on Northumberland
Strait consists of a low shore behind which are seen in the
distance the highlands in the rear of Pictou and Antigonish
counties connecting the Cobequid mountains with the
mountains in Cape Breton. The whole stretch of country
is Carboniferous. The coast is indented by a number
of good harbours, as Pugwash harbour and Wallace
harbour ; but the finest harbour in the whole north
coast of the province is that of Pictou. Here the largest
vessels resort to ship coal from the adjacent mines. The
harbour forks out into three arms, west, middle and east,
and a river falls in at the head of each. The valleys
surrounding are fertile and with the highlands in the
distance make a scene of much beauty.

The eastern end of the peninsula is characterised by
two large bays connected by the Strait of Canso. Cape
George, a bold and precipitous headland 600 feet high,
marks the western point of a broad bay, St. George's
Bay, opening on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Antigonish
harbour running in from the bay is extensive but not deej).
At the eastern end of the strait, and opening on the
Atlantic, is Chedabucto Bay, 17^ miles wide and 26 miles
deep. Isle Madame is at the northern entrance, and
upon it is the town of Arichat with a capacious and
secure harbour. The island is inhabited chiefly by
Acadian French, and is a very important centre for
fishing vessels. The town of Guysborough is at the head
of Chedabucto Bay, and the harbour and town of Canso is
at its southern extremity.

204 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL

These two bays are connected by a very remarkable
passage, the Gut, or Strait of Causo. This is a deep lane
of water, available by the largest ships, between the
peninsula of Nova Scotia and the island of Cape Breton,
14^ miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide at its
narrowest part. It is much frequented by ships and.

STKAIT OF CANSO,

narrow though it is, the depth of water is never less than
15 fathoms. Both shores are bold. Cape Porcupine is
a precipitous headland on the Nova Scotia side, 640
feet high, and on the Cape Breton side are the mountains
which traverse that island. The headlands interlock so
as to conceal the through passage. The scenery is
exceedingly beautiful — the wooded shores, the green
clearings, the white villages, the deep water, the passing
ships, and the fringe of mountains present an unusually
attractive scene. For a long time after the discovery of

NOVA SCOTIA 205

America tliis passage was unknown to the cartographers
and they did not separate on their maps the island from
tlie peninsula. These seas were the best fishing-grounds
in the whole region. Privateers and pirates when
pursued sought refuge in their numerous shelters, and a
harbour half way through the strait is still called Pirate's
harbour. The French name was the Passage cle Fronsac,
from Denys, Sieur de Fronsac, who had his chief
establishment at St. Peter's, where a canal, less than half
a mile long, now leads to the Bras d'Or and the
interior of the island. It is more euphonious than the
present name, and Denys was one of the best and most
capable men who ever lived in Nova Scotia. His name
should be commemorated on the coast where he spent
his active and useful life.

Geology

If a line be drawn lengthwise through the centre of
the peninsula, from Digby Gut on the south-west to Cape
Canso on the north-east, it will very nearly mark off on its
outer or Atlantic side the Cambrian rocks and, on its
inner side, later formations of which the Carboniferous is
the chief. These may, for convenience, be called the
outer and inner geological areas of the peninsula. In
this general statement, however, an important modification
must be made — a broad band of intrusive granite extends
round in an arch from near Cape Sable to Chebucto
head near Halifax and touches with its apex the Annapolis
valley near Bridgetown. Detached areas of granite also
occur in the eastern extension of the Cambrian area and
a small outcrop appears at Cape Canso. The outer or
Cambrian area presents to the surges of the Atlantic a
low barrier of hard rocks, mostly slates, sandstones, and
quartz ites. These contain veins of quartz carrying gold.

206 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

and after making deductions for the granite outcrops
there remains a total area of about 3000 square miles of
Cambrian in which these gold-bearing veins may be, or
have been, found. This outer area, while it contains
occasional valleys of good farm land is not agricultural to
any considerable extent.

The inner geological area of the peninsula is very
different and, while it is in the main Carboniferous, there
are some important deductions to be made. Out of the
Carboniferous rocks rises the range of the Cobequid
mountains, consisting of slates and quartzites and in-
trusive rocks considered to be of various ages, and
extending through the hilly country of Pictou and
Antigonish to the Strait of Canso. There is also a narrow
band of Upper Silurian and of Devonian extending from
the head of tlie Minas Basin eastward to the head of
Chedabucto Bay and intervening between the Cambrian
on the Atlantic coast and the Carboniferous of the inner
waters. Along the northern shore of the Minas Basin
is a narrow strip of Triassic red sandstone, and this
formation extends also in a narrow band down the valley
of the Annapolis river and along the shore of the Bay
of Fundy. The valley is narrow, and while, on the inner
side, it is bounded by a range of hills called the South
mountain, it is separated from the Bay of Fundy on the
other side by a range known as the North mountain,
and the red sandstone in this last is capped throughout
its whole length, from Cape Blomidon to the extreme
end of the peninsula, by an outflow of trap rock. The
coast of Nova Scotia therefore presents on that side a
very bold outline of precipitous trap rocks forming a
rampart, sometimes several hundred feet high, of columnar
basaltic cliffs culminating at its eastern end on the Minas
Basin in the grand promontory of Cape Blomidon.

NOVA SCOTIA

207

The Carboniferous forniation extends from the high
land of Cape George westwards along the whole coast of
the peninsula on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and across the
country to Chignecto Bay and the Minas Basin, occupy-
ing Cumberland county and the greater part of Pictou,
Colchester, and King's counties. The thickness of this
forniation is estimated by Sir William Dawson at over
16,000 feet. At the Joggins on the shore of Chignecto

MOUNT BLOMID(JN, WOLKVILLE, N.8.

Channel is a unique natural exposure of a section of the
middle and upper Carboniferous, which gave Sir Wm.
Logan an actual measurement of 14,570 feet. It is a
classic region for geologists, and Sir Charles Lyell, who
examined it in 1842 and ] 845, pronounced it to be "the
finest example in the world of a natural exposure in a
continuous section ten miles long." Here Sir Charles
counted nineteen seams of coal from two inches to four
feet thick in vertical section, and the great range of the
tides revealed a horizontal section of 200 yards from the
base of the cliffs. Here he saw exposed to lull daylight

208 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL

fossil trees erect in ten distinct levels and terminating
downwards in seams of coal, and Sir William Dawson, he
says, has enumerated over 150 species of plants found
in this extraordinary section of the coal-measures.
The cliffs on the shore are from 100 to 400 feet
high.

The main geological formations of Nova Scotia are
continued in Cape Breton Island. The Cambrian of the
Atlantic coast extends in a band occupying the south-
east corner of the island as far as the cape from which
the island takes its name. West and north of that
is a wide area of Carboniferous rocks, and from Cape
Breton head to the entrance of the Bras d'Or they
crop out on the sea beach and the black bands of coal
may be seen, in the cliffs, from a passing steamer. The
long northern projection from the head of St. Anne's Bay
to Ca]3e North is formed of Laurentian gneiss — the only
place in Nova Scotia where that formation occurs. It
rises in a lofty irregular table-land, but a narrow fringe
of Carboniferous rocks extends almost all round the
margin upon the gulf shore.

Minerals

The chief resources of Nova Scotia, so far as worked,
consist of coal, iron, gypsum, and gold. Other valuable
minerals occur, but the above have been developed and
utilised. Coal is extensively mined in three chief
localities — Cumberland, Pictou, and Cape Breton. The
coal-field of Sydney, Cape Breton, extends along the
Atlantic shore for 32 miles and covers an area of over
250 square miles. Thirty-four seams occur in the section,
but only a few of them have been worked. Less extensive
coal-measures occur also on the west coast, at Cheticamp,

NOVA SCOTIA 209

and Maboii and at Port Hood, and on the south coast, in
Richmond county.

The Pictou coal-field (thirty-five square miles in ex-
tent) is remarkable for the great thickness of its seams.
In one section the main seam is 34 ft. 7 ins., and what
is known as the deep seam is 22 ft. 11 in. thick. Other
seams occur 5 ft. 7 in., 3 ft. 6 in., 3 ft. 3 in., 12 ft.,
5 ft., 11 ft., and 10 ft. thick, respectively — in all
107 ft. 10 in. of coal. The Cumberland coal-field has
an area of 430 square miles, and is worked chiefly at
Springhill, where eight seams occur, with an aggregate
thickness of 52 ft. 7 in. Mines have been opened at
several other places — at river Hebert, at Maccan, and
at the Joggins. All the coal of Nova Scotia is
bituminous, and the area of the known productive coal-
fields of the province is over 700 square miles. Coal
has been found in many other places, but there is no
profit in opening up new mines as those now in full
operation can supply the present demand. The total value
of the coal production of Nova Scotia for the year 1914
is estimated at $21,015,000.

Gold is mined in many places in the outer Cambrian
area throughout the whole length of the province on its
Atlantic side, and also in several localities in Cape
Breton. Gold has been found in numerous localities, and
mines are worked in Queen's, Guysborough, and in many
places from Halifax to Canso. The total product from
1862 to 1913 was 915,989 oz., value $17,403,804.
The highest values realised were in 1899 and 1902,
with $017,604 and $627,357 respectively. In 1911
the value was $160,854, and in 1912, only $90,638.
The area of auriferous rocks is very wide and extends
through the roughest part of the province. The forests
and swamps of the interior probably cover many rich

210

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

districts. The ores are low in grade, but the quantity is
very large and, by recent improvements in treatment, the
gold can be extracted from ores hitherto unavailable.
"The decline in the gold-mining industry must be attributed
to a combination of causes : insufficient capital, scarcity
of good labour, past wild-catting, unintelligent direction
of operations, cost of fuel, and lack of prospecting."

Iron

Iron ores of great value are found in a broad belt
through the whole length of the province and in Cape
Breton. Immense masses are found in the coal districts,
and the manufacture of iron and steel is carried on by
large companies in the Pictou district. There are ex-
tensive iron and steel works at Sydney and New
Glasgow, also near Londonderry, in the Cumberland coal-
field, where specular, magnetic, and haematite ores occur
in beds of immense extent. Some of the Nova Scotia
ores are unequalled except by the best Swedish ores.

The production of iron ore in Nova Scotia during
the years 1906-11 is as follows : —

Tear.

Tons.

Value.

1906
1907
1908
1910
1911

97,820
89,839
11,802
18,134
22

11151,386

137,161

17,620

40,478
50

There was no iron ore mined in the province in
1912. Wabana ore from Newfoundland is imported.

The production of pig-iron for the last few years
available, 1906-13, shows a marked increase over
former years. Whereas in 1896 returns gave the
year's output at 32,351 tons of pig-iron, valued at

NOVA SCOTIA

211

$400,829, the following table indicates the recent
production : —

Year.

Tons.

Value. '

1906

315,008

$3,439,217

1907

see.-jce

4,211,913

1908

352,642

3,554,540

1909

345,380

3,453,800

1910

350,287

4,203,444

1911

390,242

4,682,904

1912

424,994

6,374,910

1913

486,962

7,304,430

The Dominion Iron and Steel Company of Sydney,
Cape Breton, used 578,807 tons of iron ore (foreign and
Canadian), from which 2 7 7,9 51 '2 2 tons of pig-iron were
produced, for which a bounty was paid amounting to
1195,474-12. The same company used 279,651-44
tons of Canadian pig-iron, together with 95,346-60 tons
of other ingredients, from which it made 3 3 2,3 2 0*9 9
tons of steel, for which the Dominion Government paid
a bounty of $348,037-06.

The Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company, during the
same year, used 110,649 tons of foreign ore, from which
it produced 57,885 tons of pig-iron, and received a
government bounty of $40,519-50. The same company
used 52,006-42 tons of Canadian pig-iron and 20,966-45
tons of other ingredients, from which it made 64,239-94
tons of steel, for which it received a federal bounty of
$67,451-95.

The principal items of production of the Nova Scotia
steel works for the year 1910 are as follows : —

Steel rails . . 140,000 tons.

Steel wire rods . 79,000 ,,

Sulphate of ammonia 3,100 ,,
Tar . . . 3,900,000 gallons.

Coke

. 410,000 tons.

Pig-iron .

. 255,000 ,,

Steel ingots

. 304,000 ,,

Steel blooms .

. 268,000 ,,

Steel billets .

. 88,000 ,,

212

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

All the coke made is used in the works for smelting
purposes. Only a small proportion of the production of
pig is sold as such, the greater part being made into steel
ingots, which are all rolled into blooms. A considerable
tonnage is marketed in this form, but about eighty-five per
cent is advanced a further stage, and is sold in the form
of rails and wire rods.

Gypsum

The quantity of this mineral existing in the province
is incredible. Large masses showing exposures 50 feet
thick are frequently seen. On the shores of the Bras d'Or
it may be dropped into the holds of sea-going vessels from
the masses standing out white upon the green slopes of
the mountains, or forming part of their precipitous sides.
Gypsum has been exported from the region round the Minas
Basin from the earliest settlement of the country.

The output of gypsum in 1896 was 136,590 tons,
valued at $111,251; and the returns for the seven years
1906-12 give the following: —

Year.

Tons.

Value.

1906

333,312

1345,414

1907

357,411

380,859

1908

234,455

230,433

1909

345,682

364,379

1910

400,455

458,638

1911

353,999

406,457

1912

376,082

481,493

Coal

The output of the Nova Scotia coal-mines in long tons
for the years 1908-12 and its value is as follows: —

NOVA SCOTIA

213

Year.

Tons.

Value.

1908
1909
1910
1911
1912

6,076,330
5,106,135
5,817,109
7,004,420
7,783,888

$13,364,476
11,354,643
12,919,705
14,071,379
17,374,750

Tin ores occur in Lunenburg ; tungsten in Halifax and
Lunenburg; antimony in Hants; whilst oil-shales and
tire-clays occur with the coal ; and silver, lead, cement
materials, and brick clays occur at many localities.

Character of the Land

The peninsula has been, in the previous pages, roughly
divided into two parts almost equal in area. One half
facinfj the Atlantic and the other facing the interior
waters and, speaking in a general way, the first half may
be said to be rocky and barren, and the second for the
most part arable and fertile. The Atlantic half corre-
sponds to the region of hard Cambrian rocks and granite,
the other to the region of Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous,
and Triassic. The barren band along the coast is about
21 miles broad in its whole length.

The surface on the Atlantic coast at times is rocky,
at other times low, and it does not rise more than 200
or 300 feet in the interior. In the central part it is
traversed by broken and rocky ridges of very little
elevation and interspersed with numerous lakes and
streams, especially at its western end in rear of Yar-
mouth, Shelburne, and Liverpool. There are also many
bogs and barrens where the forest has been burned. The
country is a paradise for sportsmen where moose and
caribou are plentiful, and bears are also to be found, as
well as fur animals such as foxes, otters, and minks. The

214 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

numberless lakes are full of trout, and the rivers at the
coast abound in sea trout. Partridges, snipe, and wood-
cock are plentiful, and, in their season, all the waters,
streams, lakes, and bays are resorts of geese, ducks, and brant.
The whole country is covered with forest and, though in
the alluvial land along the streams there is agricultural
land, the interior is for the most part unsettled and wild.

On the side facing the inner waters of the Bay of
Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence it is far different.
There continuous hills clothed with beech, maple, and
other hard woods run in ranges in the general direction
of the coast-lines. The Annapolis valley is flanked on
both sides by two such ranges extending from the Minas
Basin south-westwardly to the extreme end of the penin-
sula. These have a general elevation of 500 to VOO
feet. Along the north shore of the Minas Basin are the
Cobequid mountains which continue along the northern
half of the peninsula to Cape George and the Gut of
Canso. The mountains are nowhere higher than 1200
feet, and are covered with fertile soil, or where uncleared,
with dense forests of hardwood trees. At the eastern
end of this region is a rich pasture country, and around
the Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay are the fertile marsh
lands formed by the tides of the Bay of Fundy.

Hydrography. — The rivers flow across the peninsula,
and necessarily are small from the narrowness of the water-
sheds ; but they are very numerous, and the tides running
up from the heads of the bays into which they fall make
them appear more important than their drainage area would
warrant. Many of the lakes in the interior are connected
by the rivers, so that it is easy to pass across the country
with canoes, for the portages are short. By the
Shubenacadie river and chain of lakes, the Micmac
Indians in the last century used to cross from the Minas

NOVA SCOTIA 215

Basin to the divide witliiu a few miles of Halifax,
and, after hitling their canoes, lurk in the woods round
Halifax, Lunenburg, and Dartmouth, waiting for the scalp
of any English settler who might he found off his guard,
or for the scalps of his wife and children if they were
alone in the house. From Liverpool and Lunenburg
similar chains of lakes with short poi'tages lead across
to the Bay of Fundy. Lake Eossignol and the Great
Shubenacadie Lake are the largest.

The most important of the rivers are the Shubenacadie,
which rises near Halifax and empties into the Minas
Basin, the Annapolis, which runs along the western edge
of the peninsula, the La Heve river, and the Pictou river;
but in a country of great rivers like the Dominion these
cannot count for much. The province of Nova Scotia is,
like its sister provinces, a land of abundant water.

Soil. — The agricultural lands, as before stated, face along
the inner bays. The valley of the Annapolis is celebrated
for apples, and during the year ending June 30, 1895,
285,884 barrels were exported, chiefly to England and the
United States. This valley, being sheltered throughout by a
double range of hills, is warmer than the rest of the province.
In Cumberland, Colchester, and Hants counties are the
chief part of the dyked lands which never require manur-
ing, and have produced large crops of hay for a hundred
years. All the inner counties of the province are pro-
ductive farnung districts, and wherever the tides of the
Bay of Fundy reach they have formed meadow land of
great fertility. Upon such land, wherever found through-
out the province, were the settlements of the French
Acadians. They did not clear land with the axe, but
took up these fertile meadows and extended them by
dykes (called ahoteaux) with sluices. Whenever these
were opened the water of the bay entering deposited a

216 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

thin dressing of red mud which renewed the fertility of
the soil.

The area of field crops in the province was 730,146
acres in 1900, 712,207 acres in 1910, and 711,387
acres in 1911. Farm lands and buildings were valued
in 1911 at $92,115,676, having increased in value
S33,363,292 in the previous decade. The total values
of farms and their products for the year 1911 amounted
to $140,270,293, whilst in 1901 they were $88,941,545.

Government

The government of Nova Scotia at first extended over
all Acadia. Prince Edward Island was erected into a
province in 1770, and New Brunswick was set off in
1784. Cape Breton was separated in 1784, but again
attached to Nova Scotia in 1820.

The constitutional history of this province passed
through the process of evolution usual in British colonies.
First came the royal governor, with a council nominated
by the Crown. The popular legislative assembly was
superadded in due course ; then ensued the usual struggles
between the nominated and elected bodies, until in 1847
what is called responsible government was conceded, that
is, the popular assembly obtained the dominant influence
corresponding to that of the British House of Commons.
The subsequent political history is not different from that
of other parliamentary governments, and consists of alter-
nate administration by two political parties. In 1867
Nova Scotia became one of the provinces of the Dominion.

It is now governed by a lieutenant-governor appointed
by the Dominion Government, a legislative council of
twenty members having a property qualification, appointed
for life by the Crown in theory, but practically by the

NOVA SCOTIA 217

government of the day, and a legislative assembly of
thirty-eight members, elected under a franchise narrower
than that of the other English provinces, but still on
a very popular basis. The executive government or
administration consists of eight members, and must be
able always to obtain the support of a majority in the
popular chamber.

The local government is carried on by the municipal
councils either of cities or of rural districts. The first
may be regulated by their own special charters or fall
under the general law, the second are under the general
municipal law of the province. Every electoral division
sending a representative to the provincial legislative
assembly is a municipality for its own local objects. The
municipal council is composed of councillors, elected by
the ratepayers, who choose a head — mayor or warden.

Education

The schools of the province are undenominational
and free, and the course extends from the primary
schools for children of five years to the high schools and
academies. The Government maintains a normal school
for the training of teachers, and schools for the deaf and
dumb and blind. The executive council (or administra-
tion of the day) is the supreme governing body, and
acts through the superintendent of education. It
appoints a board of examiners for teachers and a staff
of school inspectors. The province is divided into school
districts, for each of which a board of school com-
missioners is appointed by government. The districts
are subdivided by the commissioners into school sections,
and these are administered by a board of three trustees
elected by the ratepayers.

218

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL

The schools are supjDorted by legislative grants supple-
mented by statutory municipal taxation. When any
unusual amount is required, it must be voted by a meet-
ing of the ratepayers of the districts concerned. l>om
the high schools those who desire to pursue their studies
further may avail themselves of the University of
Dalhousie College at Halifax, which is undenominational ;
or King's College at Windsor, which is Anglican ; or
Acadia College at Wolfville, which is Baptist ; or St.
Francois Xavier College at Antigonish, which is Roman
Catholic. The aggregate amount expended on public
education in 1912 was $1,391,100.

Cities

The principal cities of Nova Scotia and their popula- ■
tion, according to the census records of 1911, are given i
in the accompanying table : —

Cities.

Population.

Cities.

Population.

Halifax .

Sydney . . .
Glaee Hay
Amherst .
Sydney Mines
Yarmouth

46,619

17,723

16,562

8,973

7,470

6,600

New Glasgow .
Truro .
Springhill
North Sydney
Dartmouth

6,383
6,107
5,713
5,418
5,058

Halifax, the capital of the province, is situated upon a
rising ground — a peninsula formed by Bedford basin (the
continuation of the harbour) and the North-west Arm, a
beautiful sheet of water (a quarter of a mile wide and
navigable for large vessels), running into the land in rear.
It is very strongly fortified, not only by the citadel, a
first-class fortress, which rises over the city, but by forts
at the entrance of the harbour which can cross their fire,
and by forts upon islands which can rake the channels of

HALIFAX HARBOUR

Tu lace, -paye 213.

Stanford^ GKog}£sia}fLandcn.
Loudon: EawBirl Stimfora,J.td.4-,rJi.*14,L.WAeic,W.C.

NOVA SCOTIA

219

approach from sea. The harbour has been noticed on a
previous page. The Halifax Gardens are the pride of
Nova Scotians and the admiration of all visitors.

The population of Halifax given in the census of 1911
is 4G,619, and the pursuits of its people are chietly
maritime. The total value of the cq^oris from Nova

A VIEW IN THE PUBLIC GARDENS, HALIFAX.

Scotia in the year 1913 was $24,201,473 ; the imports
amounting to $20,753, 369 — a total trade of $44,954,842.
Of this amount $27,577,305 passed through the port of
Halifax. Halifax is the winter terminus for the
Canadian Atlantic mail service — all mail steamers must
call there, and its harbour facilities are unsurpassed.

It is also the terminus of the Intercolonial Railway,
and by the Canadian Pacific Railway possessing running
powers over it, the distance to "Winnipeg by rail is 2172

220

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

miles, and to Vancouver 3656 miles, Halifax is a
fortified naval station and dockyard, being the head-
quarters of the Atlantic division of the Canadian Navy.

Halifax is the seat of the provincial government, and
the old province building suggests many memories of old

HALIFAX MEMORIAL TOWER.

colony days. Dalhousie College, a non-denominational
university with about 900 students, is at Halifax. It
was established in 1820, during the administration of the
Earl of Dalhousie, and is the chief educational institution
of the province.

It was in Halifax that the " First Colonial Parliament
of the British Empire" convened, October 2, 1758; in
commemoration of which a Memorial Tower has been

NOVA SCOTIA 221

erected from contributions by the different colonies, and
through the munificent gift of 100 acres of land by Sir
Sandford Fleming. The following is the inscription on
the Halifax Memorial Tower : —

MDCCLVIII— MCMVni.

This tower was erected to keep in the grateful memory of a loyal
people the grant of Great Britain of representative government in
Nova Scotia and in the other provinces of Canada, as well as in the
Dominions beyond the seas.

The foundation stone was laid by D. C. Fraser, < Lientenant-
(iovernor of Nova Scotia, October 2nd, 1908, the 150th anniversary
of the first meeting of the General Assembly in Nova Scotia. This
Assembly — -the first elected legislative body in Canada — was con-
stituted in accord and with the settled colonial Policy of Great
Britain, and in obedience to the terms of the Commissions issued to
the early Governors of Nova Scotia, and has met annually in Halifax
during the intervening century and a half. Erected by the Canadian
Club of Halifax, aided by contributions from the Canadian Clubs,
and Governments, Municipalities, corporations and individuals
throughout the Empire, the first Gift being the Park, One Hundred
Acres, in wliicli the Tower stands, from Sir Sandford Fleming.

"NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA."

Before a large concourse of representatives from the
Overseas Dominions, and especially from Canada, this
Tower was inaugurated in August 1912 by His Eoyal
Highness the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, K.G.,
etc.; etc., Governor- General of Canada, whose words of
wisdom and counsel on this and other occasions have won
the admiration and affection of the young and growing
Britisli Nation over whose destinies he governs so gently
and well.

Yarmouth has a population of 6600 of the most
enterprising people in the whole Dominion, shipping
being a peculiar gift of the people of this city. The
harbour of Yarmovith is not equal to many others in
Nova Scotia, and there is no back country to support it.

222 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The lakes in rear are beautiful, and the region is a
sportsman's wilderness and paradise, not a rich farming
country, yet Yarmouth is one of the most prosperous
towns in the east.

Truro, at the head of Cobequid Bay, is taking a lead-
ing place in the province as a railway centre. It is in
the heart of a rich farming district, and the provincial
Normal School is there. It is also the centre of some
important manufacturing industries. It is an exceed-
ingly pretty town. The population is 6107. Lunen-
burg, with a population of 2681, is a maritime town and
depends upon the fisheries, sending out 150 vessels to
follow the cod fishery on the banks. Amherst, at the
head of Chignecto Bay, is in a rich agricultural district,
the fen lands of the upper Bay of Fundy, and is a centre
of supply for the Cumberland mining district. With
thriving manufactures and noted workshops, its popu-
lation is now 8973. New Glasgow is the centre of the
Pictou mining district, whose population is 6383.
Pictou, the shipping port, has remained stationary ; the
towns closer to the mines grew at its expense. Windsor
(the Pisiquid of French and Indian history) is a small
town of 3452 inhabitants on the Avon, a tidal river
falling into the Minas Basin. Its people are large owners
of shipping. King's College, the oldest English college
in Canada, is at Windsor. It was founded in 1788 on
the plan of an English college, and is under the control
of the Anglican Church.

Sydney, a seaport town on the east coast of Cape
Breton island, possesses one of the finest and safest
harbours in the world, and is one of the principal coaling-
stations on the Atlantic coast. It is 277 miles from
Halifax, with which it is connected by rail, and steam-
ship service. It is the headquarters of the Dominion

NOVA SCOTIA 223

Steel Works. Sydney Miues is a coal-mining town and
industrial centre on the north side of Sydney harbour.
The Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company's coal-mines
and steel woi'ks are located here, employing 3000 men.
North Sythiey has large piers for the shipment of coal
and iron ore, with steamers plying regularly between it
and Sydney, Port aux Basques (Newfoundland), St. John
(New Brunswick), Charlottetown, Montreal, Quebec, and
Halifax. Thorburn, Westville, Stellarton, Port Hood,
Dominion, and Springhill are all coal-mining centres ;
Parrsboro, Canso, Digby, Annapolis, Louisburg, Shelburne,
Wolfville, Pictou, Liverpool, Bridgewater, and Windsor are
seaport towns and harbours of considerable importance.

Communications

The railway communications of Nova Scotia for the
most part form a portion of the Government line of the
Intercolonial railway. Halifax is connected by that line
with Windsor and Truro at the heads of the two great
arms of the Bay of Fundy. The same line connects with
Pictou and Sydney, Cape Breton, the centres of the two
great coal-fields, and, in passing over the isthmus to
connect with the main Canadian system, the line traverses
the Cumberland mining district. There is a line of rail-
way from Halifax to Chester, Lunenburg, Shelburne, and
Yarmouth, also from Truro to Windsor, and down the
Annapolis valley to Digby and Yarmouth, and a branch
connects the valley with the Atlantic coast at Lunen-
burg. There is a short spur from the Springhill coal-
mines to their shipping port (Parrsboro) on the Basin of
Minas, one connecting Oxford Junction wdth Pu^wash,
Eiver John, and Pictou, and another connecting the Cape
Breton coal-mines with Sydney and Louisburg. The

224

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Joggins coal-mines are reached by a spur from the Inter-
colonial railway from Maccan near Amherst.

Halifax is in communication with Europe by several
lines of steamships. The Allan line is fortnightly from
Norfolk and Baltimore, touching at Halifax and St. John's,
Newfoundland, to Queenstown and Liverpool. The Fur-
ness line runs from Halifax direct to London, the Hansa
line to Antwerp and Hamburg, the Allan line to Glasgow.
There is also a line to New York and one to Boston, and
lines of coasting steamers run to Canso and ports in the
gulf and round the coast westwards. Steamers run
regularly also to St. John's, Newfoundland, and to Sydney.

Forests. — Four hundred million feet of lumber were cut
in Nova Scotia in 1909. There are 12,109 square miles
of good timber land in Nova Scotia. Of these, there are
still 1,459,213 acres of Crown Lands in forest culture
as yet ungranted. A system of fire protection for the
forest was elaborated in 1904 and put into force.

The following table shows the exports of lumber from
the ports of Nova Scotia in 1911 : —

Feet.

Halifax

43,000,000

Ingram Docks

9,000,000

Lunenburg

48,269,113

Yarmouth .

13,597,452

Bear River

3,500,000

Colchester

70,000,000

Pugwash .

19,204,200

Windsor .

12,000,000

I iverpool .

5,954,000

Hantsport

4,500,000

Maitland .

5,147,744

Walton .

1,200,000

Pictou

12,227,164

Cheverie .

200,000

Sherbrooke

4,500,000

Parrsboro .

32,000,000

Weymouth

12,000,000

Commerce. — The following figures, latest available, give
at a glance the value of fishery, mine, and farm products : —

Value of produce of fisheries (1912-13) . . $7,384,055

Number of fishermen (1912-13) . . . 26,.'i38

Value of property (1911) . . . .1113,051,641

Value of farm products (1911) . . . $26,946,768

226 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL

Value of mine production (1912) , . . $18,922,236

Capital invested in manufactures (1911) . $79,596,341

Number of employed ..... 28,975

Value of products $52,706,184

Cape Breton

The island of Cape Breton is unlike any other part of
the Dominion. It has a beauty all its own — a beauty
of woods and mountains and sea and lakes in close
contrast, for the ocean passing through the narrow inlets
flows into the very heart of the island, and searches
out the innermost recesses of the two mountain ranges
which spread out like the letter V to the north and
north-east. The water is deep enough to permit vessels
of the largest size to lie close inshore, and there is not
sufficient range of tide to expose much beach, so the
woods come down to the margin of the Bras d'Or, as
this brimming loch is appropriately named. On the west
is a wilderness table-land of 1100 square miles and 1200
feet high, and the highlands on the outer side are bluff
on the gulf shore and on the inner descend steep down
to the Bras d'Or. On the east is a lower range, where
an occasional farm may be seen breaking the rounded
outlines of the forest-clad hills. At the extreme southern
point the Dominion Government has cut a canal only
2400 feet long with one lock, and opened out another
passage into the Atlantic, thus dividing the island into two
separate parts. The distance from the northern entrance
from the sea to the canal is 60 miles, and the Bras d'Or at
its widest is 20 miles across. The mountains are not
high enough to be gloomy, and they are covered with a
mixed forest of deciduous and evergreen trees. Of a
summer's day, when the sun shines from a clear blue sky,
it lights up the translucent water to the bottom, and the
medusae, or jelly-fish, float in shoals of delicate white, pink.

228 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

and purple discs, expanding and contracting with regular
pulsations in the warm sunlit waters. There is no stir
in this golden arm of the sea. The western plateau is an
unexplored wilderness, the home of the moose, the caribou,
and the bear ; occasionally a vessel is seen close inshore,
loading gypsum from a white cliff', or the steamer may
disturb some bird sitting out on a low branch fishing and
studying the clear water for a strike. The brooks and
streams falling in are full of trout, and all the fish of the
neighbouring coasts are found in the deeper waters. At
one point, where the Little Bras d'Or passes into the
Great Bras d'Or, all the lake closes in to the Grand
Narrows and there it is bridged by the Intercolonial
railway. Then it spreads out again in great stretches
among the hills — more beautiful, says Charles Dudley
Warner, than he had imagined a body of salt water could be.
In the fresh early morning when the loons begin to talk
about getting up, or in the still evening when the purple
of the hills begins to darken, or even in full mid-day
when the leaves rustle lightly overhead and the ripples
sparkle in the sunshine, the beauty of the Bras d'Or can
be expressed only by the opening stanzas of Thomson's
" Castle of Indolence " before the Knight of Industry broke
in upon the restful paradise.

The Carboniferous rocks of Nova Scotia continue into
Cape Breton island and form its centre in which, as in a
basin, lie the Bras d'Or lakes. Productive coal-seams
crop out on the edges of the island — at the west, on
the shore of the gulf along the base of the hills from Port
Hood to Margaree — in the south, near Port Hawkesbury
at the entrance of the strait of Canso — at the south-east,
along the banks of the river Denys ; and, on the north-
east, near Sydney, where they crop out on the sea-shore.
Along the south-east coast, from the Lennox passage to

NOVA SCOTIA 229

Scatari island, a continuation of the Cambrian belt of Nova
Scotia borders the low rocky shore. To the north the long
projecting plateau extending to the northern capes consists
of crystalline rocks classed as Archtean. All round this
plateau the coast is bold, rising to 1392 feet at Cape
Smoky. On the whole west or inner coast of the island
Port Hood is the only fair harbour, but on the Atlantic
side are many excellent harbours, foremost among which
is that of Sydney, one of the best in the world although
blocked by ice in winter. In the sixteenth century, fisher-
men from all the maritime nations of Europe resorted
annually to this coast, and the old names bear witness that
they resorted to different harbours. Thus, St. Anne's Bay
was called Port Dauphin and was a favourite rendezvous
of the French, Sydney harbour was called Baye des
Espagnols, and Louisburg, Port aux Anglais. Ingonish
or Niganis was, says Champlain, at one time a resort of
the Portuguese. Cape Enfume, Smoky cape or Baia des
fumos, derives its name from a very curious appearance
of smoke ascending from the shore up the face of the
cliff which led the old mariners sailing past to suppose the
place was inhabited.

The chief town of Cape Breton is Sydney, population
1 7,7 23. North Sydney, on the opposite side of the harbour,
has a population of 5418, and the population at the
neighboviring mines is 7470, in all 30,611 souls. The
harbour is very commodious, spreading out into two
deep arms. It is a favourite port of the French squadron
on the St. Pierre-Miquelon station. Its chief industries
are coal-mining, iron and steel manufacture, fisheries and
shipping. It is an excellent coaling station, and thither
many of the squadrons of the world — British, French, and
United States, and others — coal up at the mines them-
selves situated on the very shores of the Atlantic.

230

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Glace Bay, a few miles distaut, with a population of
16,562, is a thriving mining town, and near it is located
the celebrated Marconi wireless telegraph station. The
site of Louisburg is occupied only by a few fishermen
and the ruins of the old fortress city. The harbour is
small, but is open all the year. The Sydney-LouisVnirg
railway has been completed to it from the coal mines,
and excellent piers erected. During the last 150 years
there has been a strange desolation about this really fine
harbour, once the centre of the power of France in the
west. The fortress was blown up beyond all restoration
after its capture. The population of Louisburg counts
1005 souls, and devotes its attention to fishing and
shipping interests.

Meteorological Table

The mean annual temperature and average annual pre-
cipitation of moisture for different localities in the whole
province may be ascertained from the following records : —

Locality.

Mean Annual

Average Aunual

Temperature.

Precipitation.

Halifax.

44-3° Fahr.

56 inches.

Parrsboro

44-4° „

38 ,,

Pictoii .

43-2° ,,

44 ,,

Port Hastings

43-2° „

49 ,,

Sable Island .

45-5° „

44 .,

Sydney .

42-4° „

51 ,,

Truro

42-5° ,,

45 ,,

"Whitehead .

41-8° ,,

44 ,,

Yarmouth

40-2° ,,

50 ,,

As regards climate, and resources both from the earth
and the sea, including products of the soil, mine, forest,
and fisheries, Nova Scotia is one of the most favoured in
the Dominion.

CHAPTER VTI

NEW BRUNSWICK

The province of New Brunswick is almost square in shape,
and thi'ce of its sides front on the three great bays of the
Atlantic coast of the Dominion. On the north it is
bounded by the whole length of the Bay Chaleur and by
a part of the province of Quebec. From the head of the
bay the line follows the Eestigouche river and its tributary
the Batapedia as far as lat. 48°, which parallel it follows
westwards to the water-parting of the Eestigouche and
the waters flowing north into the river St. Lawrence by
the Piimouski. At that point the western boundary
commences. It follows approximately by straight lines
the water-parting of the Rimouski and St. John rivers
southwards to the south-east corner of the old seigneuries
of Temiscouata and Madawaska. Leaving these sei-
gneuries wholly in tlie province of Quebec, the line follows
tlieir southerly limit, and continues on in the same
general south-west direction to a point on Lake Beau,
where it touches the international boundary. From that
point it follows the international boundary southwards to
the mouth of the St. Croix river. The greater part of
the western boundary is, therefore, formed by the state
of Maine, and the rest by the province of Quebec. On
the south New Brunswick is bounded by the Bay of

232 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Fuudy and by the isthmus at its head — the little river
Missiguash being the line of separation from Nova Scotia
for almost the whole distance across the isthmus. The
eastern boundary is the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The province extends from 63° 55' to 67° 40' west
longitude and from44°35'to 48°north latitude, an extreme
distance of 200 miles from east to west, and 230 miles
from north to south, and its area is 27,911 square miles.
Two islands at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy belong
to it — Campobello and Grand Manan, both very important
to the . fishing interests of the province. Campobello
is 8 miles long by 3 in width, with very bold
shores, and is covered with forests of evergreens. In
1767 it was granted to Admiral Owen, and was held by
his heirs for 100 years. There are 1160 inhabitants on
the island, mostly fishermen. Grand Manan is 22
miles long by 3 to 6 miles wide, and has good
harbours on the east coast. The west and south coasts
are perpendicular clifts 300 to 400 feet high. The
surface is level and wooded, and the inhabitants, 2700 in
number, live by fishing. Both these islands are the
summer resort of many wealthy people from the south,
and of artists, who find abundant material for sketches
in their bold cliffs and picturesque marine scenery.

The exterior of New Brunswick on the west and south
will make an unfavourable impression, for the coast on
the Bay of Fundy is rocky and rugged though not high,
and the country on the eastern part of Maine and the
western part of New Brunswick, where the railways cross
the border, is a wilderness of boulders and of rock,
where the burnt forest has not found soil wherewith
to renew itself. These narrow barriers of barren and
rocky soil enclose a broad area of level and fertile country
extending away to the eastern and northern shores.

^EW BKUNaWICK 233

The Bay of Fundy

This broad arm of the Xorth Atlantic reaches eastward
towards the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and separates, excepting
for a low isthmus only ll|- miles across, the peninsula of
Nova Scotia from the province of New Brunswick on the
main continent. It is aljout 180 miles in length.
Opposite St. John harbour it is 45 miles wide, and
continues about that width until it forks into two great
bays — the Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay, which last
subdivides into Shepody Bay and Cumberland Basin, the
Beaubassin of the French. l)e Monts, in 1604, named
it La Baye Franoaise, and so it remained upon the French
maps ; but the English always called it the Bay of
J'undy — the corruption probably of an earlier Portuguese
name, Baya Fonda, or " the deep bay," for the Portuguese
were the earliest cartographers of this coast.

The tides of the Bay of Fundy are noted for their
height. In St. John harbour the spring tides rise 27
feet ; at Sackville, 45 feet ; at Fort Cumberland, 45 feet ;
at the mouth of Shubenacadie river in the Minas Basin,
50 feet, rising constantly higher towards the upper reaches
of the bay. The cause is apparent on the map. The
tidal wave sweeps in from the ocean with a broad front,
extending from Cape Sable in Nova Scotia to the Maine
coast, and, as the shores of the bay draw together and
the depth decreases in the upper reaches, the wave rises
in height, and its current becomes swifter. At Cape
Sable it runs at the rate of three miles an hour, but
rapidly accelerates its speed until, in Chignecto Bay and
the ^Vlinas Basin, it rushes at the* rate of six or seven
miles an hour with a bore or crest up the funnel-like
estuaries. The water in the upper reaches becomes
heavily charged with sediment. Tiie bore arrives suddenly.

234

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

the foremost wave curling some 4 to 6 feet high, and
it covers almost instantly the broad flats at the head of
the bay. The ceaseless scour has, in its lower courses,
deepened the bay and swept the shores. On the New
Brunswick side the rocks are hard Cambrian, and on the
Nova Scotia side a wall of hard trap protects the red
sandstone, but farther up the softer Carboniferous and red
Triassic rocks are corroded by the swift currents. At

Marshman, Photo.
THE BORE, PETITCODIAC RIVER, MONCTOX, NEW BRUNSWICK.
Height, 5 feet 4 inches.

such points as Windsor, or Moncton, or Amherst, the
spectator at low tide will see only a vast expanse of
smooth red mud, and far away in the middle little
rivulets such as the Salmon, the Avon, the Missiguash,
the Petitcodiac, trickling in a thin stream of fresh water.
Suddenly will arrive a rush of waters, and these little
rivers have spread out to a width of two or three miles,
and the water brims up in all the little brooklets and
ditches. Tide after tide deposits thin layers of red mud

NEW BRUNSWICK 235

on the flats, and they gradnally rise until only the
spring tides cover them, then tliey are dyked and become
rich hay meadows which a hundred years of cropping
will not exhaust.

The Bay of Tundy, in the months of summer, is very
subject to fogs ; for the wind at that season frequently
blows from the south, and almost any wind with south
in it will bring up fog from the Gulf Stream. Otherwise
there is no difficulty in navigating it. The coasts are
bold ; there are no shoals because of the ceaseless scour,
and the tides, if they are swift, are always the same.
There is excellent shelter for vessels along the New
Brunswick coast, and, after the islands off Passama-
quoddy Bay are passed, there are no rocks to endanger
navigation. Even when the fog is thick on the main
bay it does not extend inland, and the whole extent of
Passamaquoddy Bay may be clear over an area of 100
square miles of deep and sheltered water. Passama-
quoddy Bay contains many harbours, of which the best
is that of St. Andrews. Other excellent harbours on
the main Bay of Fundy west of St. John are : L'Etang,
Lepreau, and Musquash harbours, besides the harbours
and shelters of Grand Manan and Campobello islands.
On the Nova Scotia side the openings through the barrier
of trap are few and narrow, but the harbours of St. John
and St. Andrews are open all the year round with easy
access and simple navigation to the main Atlantic.
There is no other part of the western ocean where the
phenomena of the tides afford so interesting a study.

Contour of the Land

The whole southern border of the province fronting on
the Bay of Fundy is protected from the scour of the tides

236 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

by a narrow belt of ancient and partly metamorphoseil
Cambrian and Ordovician rocks extending from Shepody
Bay in a series of ridges of no great height ; Shepody
mountain (1050 feet) being the highest point. This
belt reaches almost to the south-west corner of the
province, and from that point a similar band of hard
rocks, largely granite, stretches away at an angle of about
45°, across the province to Bathurst on the Bay Chaleur.
Between the base line and this diagonal extends a wide
fan-shaped area of level land underlain by rocks of the
Carboniferous formation ; beyond the diagonal to the
north-west is a rolling country of Silurian age. The ,
diagonal stretch of highlands is the water-parting, sepa- i
rating the waters of the Miramichi and the Eichibucto, \
flowing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the waters ^
of the upper St. John and the Ptestigouche. The dividing •
ridge varies in height from 1000 to 1500 feet, and
detached mountains rise throughout this disturbed band
to heights from 1500 to 2000 feet, rendering broken
and confused the country about the bead waters of the
Tobique, Upsalquitch and Nipisiguit, Bald Mountain, the
highest point, is a mass of granite 2470 feet above
the sea, and the height of Blue Mountain is 1600 feet.
These ranges of hills are forested to their summits.
With the exceptions stated above New Brunswick is a
level plain, covered everywhere with forests, and large
tracts of it are yet unexplored ; a famous hunting
country for moose and caribou, bear and lynx, sable,
mink, and beaver. Under the operation of good game
laws these wild creatures are increasing rather than
diminishing in number.

New Brunswick has been well called the best watered
country in the world ; for it contains an unusual number
of rivers terminating at their mouths in estuaries

NEW BRUNSWICK 237

forming good harbours. These flowing through the
interior region of soft rocks have cut broad valleys ; so
that the country, which is really a plain only from 200
to 400 feet above the sea, seems to be a series of ridges.
The valleys are called intervales, and consist of low
alluvial lands flooded at the spring freshets or of terraced
land at different elevations above the streams. Such
lands are fertile and easily worked, and when not cleared
are clothed with a forest of hard wood — the elm and ash
growing on the lower levels, which are fertilised by the
spring floods. All the islands in the streams are alluvial
land of the same quality, consisting of rich loam on a
sub-soil of sand or clay. North-westwards of the diagonal
range of hills the Silurian plain is 500 to 800 feet above
the sea.

Hydrography

As stated above, the province is watered by numerous
rivers, and these spread out into a maze of innumerable
forks and branches, all of which have valleys of a similar
nature more or less wide, so that the aggregate of inter-
vale land is very large. Those flowing into the Gulf of
St. Lawrence terminate in wide lagoons protected by
sandy bars and spits ; for the coast on that side is low
although the water of the gulf is deep.

The chief river of New Brunsw^ick is the St. John— a
grand river draining one-half of the province. It rises
in the state of Maine, near the sources of the Penobscot
and the Chaudiere, and flows in a great curve of 450
miles first north, then south-east and south for about
300 miles in New Brunswick. It drains an area of
21,500 square miles. The head waters of the river in
the state of Maine flow through a country valuable for
its lumber.

238 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The St. John is a lumbering river of the first import-
ance, not only to New Brunswick but to Maine ; for
all the lumber cut on the upper St. John and its
tributaries in that state is floated down to the sea
at the city of St. John. For eighty miles of its course
the river is the international boundary, and does not
become a wholly British stream until a little above
Grand Falls. It is navigable for large river steamers
for 86 miles as far as Fredericton, and smaller steamers
may go up in spring and early summer 126 miles
farther to Grand Falls. Above that break it is navigable
for a further distance of 65 miles.

The upper stretches of the river flow through a
farming country where the Madawaska river falls in,
draining Lake Temiscouata — a fertile region settled by
Acadians driven out from their homes in the great dis-
persion, who returned to find them occupied by strangers,
and retreated far up into the wilderness where they found
an undisturbed retreat wherein to follow their own
customs in peace. At Grand Falls the river expands into
a broad basin preparatory to forcing its way in a swift
current through a narrow rocky channel down an incline
of 6 feet to a precipice of 5 8 feet, over which it falls into
a deep chasm 250 feet wide with walls of rock 100 to
250 feet high. Within the chasm the river makes a
further fall of 58 feet in rapids and eddies and whirl-
pools for a distance of a mile. This is the only obstruc-
tion to navigation above St. John harbour, and the river
resumes its tranquil course through a level and rich
farming country with much fertile intervale land, settled
after the Eevolution by expelled loyalists. It receives many
important tributaries in its upper course — the Aroostook
from Maine, the Madawaska and St. Francis from Quebec,
and the Tobique from near the shores of the Bay Chaleur.

NEW BRUNSWICK 239

Fredericton — the capital of the province — is 86 miles
from the mouth of the river. Opposite to it the Nash-
waak river falls in by which the French garrison com-
municated with Canada by way of Miramichi in the old
colony days. The tide rises to a point six miles above
the city, and at low water there is a depth of 8
feet that far. For more than 50 miles from its mouth
the river is 15 feet deep at low water. At ]\Tauger-
ville, the junction of the Oromocto, was a settle-
ment of English colonists in 1763, the earliest in the
province. It was from Massachusetts, and the only one
in the present Dominion which sided with the revolting
colonists. At Jemseg is the outlet of Grand Lake, an
expanse 30 miles long by 3 to 9 miles wide, into which
the Salmon river falls. Here was another French fort in
old colony days, the scene of many conflicts after 1654
when it was taken by Cromwell's expedition. Up to this
point the river flows through a level farming country
with wide borders of intervale and many islands. Below
Jemseg the banks become hilly and the river seems to be
a long succession of lake expanses. South of Jemseg the
Washademoak lake and river discharge their waters
among a multitude of alluvial islands. As the St. John
approaches the sea it passes through ranges of hills
parallel to the coast, and extends behind them in long
reaches of deep and quiet water through highlands clothed
with woods. Near the city of St. John such a reach
navigable for largfe vessels for 20 miles extends to where
the Kennebecasis flows in from behind the coast range of
hills. At the head of the harbour the river narrows and
flows in through a gorge between walls of rock 100 feet
high, and here is presented the unique phenomenon of a
reversible fall. The river, which at Fredericton is half
a mile wide, and in its lower stretches is much wider, is

NEW BRUNSWICK 241

here forced to flow for 400 yards through a gorge only
400 feet across. The tide in St. John Harbour rises 25
feet, and the gorge is so narrow that it can neither admit
the tide quickly nor discharge the river promptly ; for
the tide recedes faster than the narrow outlet can permit
the returning water to flow through. At low water the
level of the river is 11 to 15 feet above the sea, and at
high water the level of the sea is 8 to 12 feet above the
river. There are therefore two falls at every tide, one
in and one out. Four times in every twenty-four hours
there is for ten or fifteen minutes a period of equilibrium
when vessels can pass in or out. At other times the
passage is dangerous or impossible, according to the state
of the tide. The directions for this unique navigation
are peculiar enough to be repeated. " The falls are level,
or it is still water, at about three and a half hours on
the flood and about two and a half on the ebb, so that
they are passable four times in twenty-four hours, about
ten or fifteen minutes each time. No other rule can be
given, as much depends on the floods in the River St.
John and the time of high water or full sea, which is
often hastened by high southerly winds." The railway
crosses the chasm on a cantilever bridge 447 feet long,
and near it there is a suspension bridge for ordinary
traffic.

The St. Croix river is the western boundary of the
province. It is the outlet of extensive chains of lakes
and discharges into Passamaquoddy Bay, a magnificent
sheet of deep water with good anchorage all over, and
protected from the sea by the West Isles. The towns
of St. Andrew\s and St. Stephen are on the New
Brunswick side of the river. St. Andrews is indeed a
favourite summer resort because of its beautiful scenery,
its boating and fishing, and its perfect summer climate :

NEW BRUNSWICK 243

but its dilapidated wharfs, and its old-fashioned but
neglected mansions, tell of brighter prospects and of
better days. The St. Croix is navigable for large vessels
to the falls, a distance of 25 miles. The town of St.
Stephen, 17 miles from St. Andrews, is a stirring,
lumbering and manufacturing town.

The Miraraichi is the second river in importance in
New Brunswick. It is about 220 miles long and flows
into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, at right angles to the
course of the St. John, for a distance of 125 miles above
the forks, and searches out with its affluents all the
interior of the country. Near the coast its banks are low
and uninteresting, but its upper stretches and tributaries
flow through a rolling country. The tide goes up 15
miles beyond the forks and the river is navigable for
large vessels for 35 miles as far as Newcastle, at the
main forks, and six miles beyond Chatham. These two
cities, together with Douglastown, are the Miramichi
known to general readers, for there is no city of
Miramichi. They were very busy places in the old
days of wooden shipbuilding, and they still do a good
business in lumber and fishery products. The Miramichi
and all the rivers of the province flowing into the clear
waters of the gulf and the Bay Chaleur are famous
resorts for salmon.

Among the more important rivers on the eastern
coast is the Eichibucto. It has a good harbour at its
mouth, where a town of the same name carries on a good
business in fishing, lumbering, and canning lobsters.

The chief rivers falling into the Bay Chaleur are
the Nipisiguit and Eestigouche, noted salmon streams.
The Nipisiguit is a shallow turbulent river flowing on a
rocky bed, and with a fall of 140 feet higli, and is one
of the four streams which combine to form the harbour

244 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

of Bathurst. The Eestigouche Ibrins in the lower part of
its course the boundary between New Brunswick and
Quebec, but the upper part is wholly within the former
province. The river is 225 miles long and falls into
the head of the Bay Chaleur in a wide estuary, and
the largest vessels can pass up as far as Campbellton.
It has many atfiuents and drains an area of 6000 square
miles. The scenery on its banks is very beautiful, and
the country around is covered with a network of streams
abounding in fish. Campbellton and Dalhousie at the
mouth of the estuary are favourite summer resorts, and,
with Bathurst, are the entrances to the wild country in
the north and centre of New Brunswick, where large
game still have a retreat, and where streams are still full
of fish, and the lakes abound with wild -fowl in their
season. The Upsalquitch, one of its chief tributaries in
the province of New Brunswick, is a notable fishing
stream, rising in the high dividing ridge among conical
hills 1500 to 2000 feet high. Its source, Upsalquitch
Lake, is 750 feet above the sea, and not far from there
the river falls over 400 feet in a series of beautiful
cascades in a distance of less than two miles. Other
important tributaries are the Matapedia and Patapedia
from Quebec, and the Kedgwick from the New Bruns-
wick side.

All these rivers, excepting the main river St. John,
rise in the centre of the province and their affluents
overlap. There are very many other rivers, for New
Brunswick is a land of abundant waters, but these are
the most important.

New Brunswick as well as Nova Scotia possesses, at
the head of the Bay of Fundy, extensive areas of marsh
lands. The rivers Petitcodiac, Aulac, and Tantramar are
of themselves mere brooks ; but when the tide is up

NEW BRUNSWICK 245

they are broad rivers two or three miles wide. The
Petitcodiac flows eastwards behind the coast ridge, and
turning suddenly at a place called " the Bend " empties into
Shepody Bay. The tidal wave passing from the wide
mouth of the bay up the narrow funnel-like estuary
attains a height of 50 feet. The advance wave arrives
with a bore four to six feet high, and the vessels seemingly
asleep on their sides wake up, for the muddy valley
suddenly becomes a great arm of the sea.

Geology

New Brunswick presents to the geologist one great
obstacle to exploration in the dense forest covering its
surface, and the horizontal position of the rocks over a
great part of its extent. The main geological features
have already incidentally been indicated. The band
along the coast of the Bay of Fundy, while consisting
mainly of highly disturbed and contorted Cambrian and
Ordovician rocks, contains also, near St. John, small
areas of much -altered Carboniferous, Huronian, and
Laurentian. The city of St. John is built upon indurated
Cambrian slates, and these have afforded a series of
fossils of great interest to geologists, because of the
abundance of types representing the life of this ancient
period. Mention has already been made of a band
of granite and highly metamorphosed rocks stretching
in a chain of hills diagonally across the province, and of
a rolling Silurian plain beyond ; there remains only to
speak more particularly of the great fan-like area of the
coal-bearing rocks which occupy the centre of the country.
The pivot of the fan is a little west of Oromocto lake —
lines drawn from thence north to Bathurst on Bay
Chaleur, and east to the head of the Bay of Fundy,

246

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

would approximately include an area underlain by hori-
zontal beds of true productive coal-measures. Two seams
of bituminous coal have been found, but they are un-
fortunately thin, although extending over a wide area.
A seam of 22 to 30 inches is worked near Grand Lake.
It is, near the surface, never deeper than 45 feet, and
sometimes brought above the surface by inequalities of

BATHUIIST, N.B.

ground. An area of over 40 square miles has been
proved to exist in one locality. Coal has been found
also in widely distant places ; but so far, always in
thin seams. What may be concealed in the unexplored
lands of this extensive forest area it is impossible to
foresee, but geologists have, so far, given little hope of
the discovery of thicker seams. As before stated, the
Carboniferous area of New Brunswick is continuous
across the isthmus with that of Nova Scotia, so that
from Miscou on the Bay Chaleur, to Sydney on the
Atlantic coast of Cape Breton, the whole coast of

NEW BRUNSWICK 247

the Gulf of St. Lawrence is bordered by coal-bearing
rocks.

Minerals

Since the deposits of alhcrtitc from the oil-shales of
Albert County, New Brunswick, have ceased to yield
sufficient return to warrant furtlier search for the sub-
stance, this province has not developed any notable
mining interests. But the shales themselves, in which
the alhertite occurred, have been carefully studied and
tested, both in the laboratory and at the reduction works,
and the vast accumulations of these shaly strata of
Lower Carboniferous age must soon yield a fuel oil
which is considered far superior to either coal or wood
for steam or other purposes, and the shale deposits will
themselves prove of great value to that part of the
Dominion.

The Albert Mines of Albert County for many years
liad jdelded alhertite, a high illuminant, occurring as an
inspissated bitumen of great value, naturally distilled
from the adjacent shaly strata and segregated in pockets
and fissures of the highly inclined, folded and otherwise
disturbed measures. These shales have for many years
been known to contain hydrocarbons of high value. In
1895, several analyses of sliales from the fish-bearing
beds at the Albert Mines were made for the writer in
the laboratories of Queen's University, Kingston, which
gave an average of 39*5 per cent of hydrocarbons or
volatile materials — some running as high as 43 '7 per
cent.

The following results of more recent researches in the
field and in the laboratory combined, given in tabular
form from various localities, indicate the richness of the
discovery. The quantity of crude oil in imperial gallons

248

-COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

per ton, the specific gravity of the oil, and the quantity
in pounds per ton of sulphate of ammonia, as a by-
product, extracted from the shales, are included.

The following table serves to show the large values
of these shales, both in crude oil and in sulphate of
ammonia : —

Localities in New Brunswick.

Crude Oil,
Imperial
Gallons

Sp. Gr.
of Oil.

Sulphate of
Anunonia,

per Ton.

lbs. per Tun.

Shale retorted in Scotland from Irvings

opening .....

0-92

Geo. Irvings, by Dr. Baskerville .

0-895

Baizley's farm, Baltimore .

0-895

110

E. Stevens, Baltimore ....

0-892

Hayward brook, Prosser brook

0-895

Adams farm, Taylorville

0-90

A. Taylor's farm, Taylorville, No. 1 .

0-91

A. Taylor's farm, No. 2 . . .

0-925

110

Sample of 85 lbs., run in 1907, Baltimore

0-91

111

Agriculture

The agricultural resources of the province have never
been developed, because the energies of the people have
always found outlets on the sea or in lumbering and
fishing. It contains large tracts of very rich farming
lands along the valleys of the rivers and on tlie marsh
lands at the head of the Bay of Fundy. The marshes
of the Tantramar alone cover 40 square miles. They
are graphically described by Dr. S. E. Dawson : —

Miles on miles tliey extend level, and grassy, and dim,
Clear, from the long red sweep of fiats, to the sky in the distance
Save for the outlying heights, green-ram pired Cumberland point ;
Miles on miles outrolled, and the river-channels divide them —
Miles on miles of green, barred by the hurtling grass.

The country about and above Woodstock on the upper
St. John is rich farming land, but the finest farms are in

NEW BRUNSWICK

249

Sussex vale in King's County. The whole central area over
the horizontal Carboniferous rocks is suitable for agriculture.
The land along the coast of the Bay of Fundy is rocky,
and frequent fogs cool the summers and make the winter
climate raw ; but, in the interior, the climate becomes
more continental, and, without being quite as cold as at
Quebec in winter, or as warm as at Montreal in sunuiier,
the weather is bright and the sky is clear. The snow
is always sufficient for the winter roads, the summer rains
are abundant for the growing crops, and water is at hand
everywhere for cattle. Everything may be grown which
will grow in a temperate climate. Wheat has of late
years been unprofitable there, as elsewhere in the east,
because of the competition of the new western prairie
farms, and the farmers have turned their attention to
other crops and to dairying. Maize is grown in the
interior of the province away from the coast and is used
as fodder for cattle. It has been calculated that the
province contains 14,008,000 acres of arable land, a
great part of which has not yet come under cultivation.

The following table of farm products for the year
1912 will show the quantities grown and the average
yield per acre : —

Crops.

Acres.

Bushels.

Busliels
per aci e.

Wheat .
Oats

Buckwheat
Barley .
Potatoes .
Turnips .

12,400

186,000

60,500

2,500

42,300

8,800

225,000
5,359,000
1,474,000
69,000
7,387,000
2,506,000

18-11
28-81
24-36
27 -42
174-64
284-75

The total value of the field crops of New Brunswick
in 1912 was $16,300,300.

250 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

The total value of farm property and products for
1911 are as follows :—

Farm property $84,937,539

„ products 24,966,621

In 1911 there were 1158 factories with a working
capital of $36,125,012, where 24,755 persons were
employed, to whom $8,314,212 were paid in salaries
and wages, and the total value of the manufactured
products was $35,422,302.

New Brunswick is a forest province, and excepting
over a small area where the land is very rocky, was
densely covered with trees. Much' of the province has
been culled over by lumberers, and the best timber has
been cut. In former years, before wooden ships liad
been displaced by iron steamers, the forests were largely
drawn upon for shipbuilding, and the export of lumber
is still carried on very extensively. The forest renews
itself, and the smaller trees, spared by the axemen, grow
faster with more room and light. It is forest fires which
are most to be feared. A fire ever to be remembered
occurred in 1825 on the lower Miramichi, when 3,000,000
acres of forest were swept away, $1,000,000 of property
destroyed, and 160 lives lost. The town of Newcastle
was destroyed, and human beings and domestic cattle
took shelter from the heat in the rivers in company with
the wild creatures of the woods. The flames advanced
on a front of 50 miles, and the north-eastern part of
New Brunswick bears evidence still of its desolating
effects. This province has a total forest area of
12,000,000 acres, of which 2,400,000 are publicly
owned.

NEW BRUNSWICK 251

Government

New Brunswick is governed by a lieutenant-governor,
appointed by the Dominion Government, and by one
chamber of 48 members, called the legislative assembly,
elected on a very popular franchise. The executive
government consists of 7 members, and is responsible
to the assembly in the manner usual in the British
colonies.

There is also a system of local municipal government.
The unit is called a parish, and annually elects two
members to the County Council, which elects a warden.
Cities and towns are usually incorporated under special
statutes. The seat of government is at Fredericton, a
city of 7208 inhabitants, very quiet and very pretty.
The University of New Brunswick is at Fredericton.
On the opposite side of the river is Gibson, where are
large lumber and cotton mills. Fredericton is the
central point for sportsmen who desire to enter the
wilderness in pursuit of caribou or moose, or to fish in
the well-stocked waters of the interior.

Education

The Executive Council of the province, together with
the Chancellor of the University and the Superintendent
of Education, form a Board of which the Superintendent
is secretary and administrative officer. There is a
government normal school for training teachers, and
a staff of inspectors for supervising the teaching and
to see that the laws and regulations are carried out.
The schools are free and undenominational, and may
be primary, advanced, high, superior, or grammar schools,
according to the extent and needs of the district they

252

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

are provided for. They are supported by legislative
grants supplemented by local taxation voted in district,
parish, or county meetings of ratepayers. The schools
in the cities are managed by boards of trustees, one-
half appointed by the Government and one-half by
the City Corporations. The keystone of the system is
the University of New Brunswick, founded in 1828, an

PARTRIDGE ISLAND AND BELL BUOY. ST. JOHN HARBOUR, N.B.

undenominational institution to which a certain number
of students from each county are admitted without
payment of the usual fees, and which has the power to
grant university degrees. There were 2031 teachers and
69,580 pupils enrolled in the public schools of the
province in 1912,

Cities

The real centre of provincial life is at St. John, which
is situated on a fine harbour at the mouth of the river

NEW BRUNSWICK

253

St. John, open all tlie year round, for even if it were
cold enough to freeze, no ice can be formed strong

ig^/if F uis 17 miles
f^P Height 119 ft

steai^ihPartndge Island

histle'^f/^

Sheldon Pt.

BAY

lo 8 6 4

Scale.

Inner Mispech Pi.

'^,i>-'"^

F U N D Y

I Nautical Mile

Siai/oriCs Geoz'. Estab

ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK.

enough to resist the strength of tides which rise 25
feet. Partridge Island at the mouth of the harbour

254 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

protects it from the sea. The population of St. John is
•42,511. The pursuits of the people are mainly maritime,
and very many residents of the city derive their incomes
from the earnings of vessels which are trading in distant
seas. A large amount of shipping is owned there, and
St. John vessels may be met in every port in the world.
The chief industry in former years was shipbuilding.
From 1845 to 1895 ships to the value of eighty
millions of dollars were built, but the decrease in the
shipping interest is now being made up by the introduc-
tion of general manufacturing. The city is also a
centre of supply for a large extent of country, and does
a large business in lumber and products of the
fisheries. The exports during the year ending March
31, 1913, amounted to $34,634,156, and the imports
to $14,445,811, Exports and imports aggregated
$49,079,967. Steamers connect St. John with all ports
on the Bay of Fundy, and regular lines are established
with England, the West Indies, and the large cities of the
United States. Since the extension of the Canadian
Pacific railway to St. John its business as a winter
port has increased, and there are regular steamships in
winter to Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin,
and Aberdeen.

In 1877 the whole business part, as well as the
best residential part of the city, was swept away by a
great fire. In nine hours 1612 buildings were reduced
to ashes, and vessels in the harbour were burned before
they could loose from their moorings. Nine miles of
streets were swept clear to the bed rock, and from
twenty to thirty million dollars of value was destroyed.
The city has been entirely rebuilt.

Dutiable goods to the value of $5,416,463, and
free goods to the value of $4,428,758 were entered

NEW BRUNSWICK 255

for consumption at the port of St. John during the
fiscal year ended March 31, lOlo, making in all
$9,845,221.

There are few large cities in the province. Moncton at
the " Bend " of the Petitcodiac is the next in size. It is a
railway and manufacturing town with 11,345 inhabitants,
and is the headquarters of the Intercolonial railway system.
Cliatham, with 4666 inhabitants, and Newcastle six
miles away, with a population of 2945, are the chief
towns on the Miramichi. St. Stephen on the St. Croix
is a stirring, progressive town with 2836 people, and
Sackville at the head of the bay of Fundy has a population
of 2039 ; Mount Allison College, the chief educational
institution of the Methodist Church in the maritime
provinces, is situated there, and St. Joseph's College, a
Roman Catholic institution, is at Memramcook.

C ommunications

The aggregate railway mileage of New Brunswick is
1545 miles. Railways extend along the whole outer
coast. The Intercolonial railway runs along three sides
of the square of the province. The Canadian Pacific
railway follows the direct line to St. John and enters
the province on the west side, and passes through
the state of Maine. Fredericton is connected with
the Miramichi by rail and with central Canada by
another line through Edmundston on the upper St.
John, and by a branch with the Canadian Pacific system.
The Intercolonial railway has branches connecting with
Richibucto, Buctouche, and Shippigau on the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, with Quaco and Hillsborough on the Bay of
Fundy, and with Chipman at the head of Grand Lake.
St. John is connected on the west with two lines of

256

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

road. The Grand Trunk Pacific lias a terminal at
Moncton.

Resources

The province depends largely npon the products of
the forest and the sea. Its fisheries are extensive and
productive. The total value of the fisheries of New

FISHCUKINC; PLANT ST. JOHN. N.B.

Brunswick for the year 1912-13 was $4,264,054 — this
province ranking third in the Dominion. The chief items
were— smelts, $802,880; salmon, $238,167; sardines,
$688,220; herrings, $623,175; lobsters, $672,375.
The sardine fishing is almost peculiar to New Brunswick.
The fish are exported fresh to the United States, and on
account of the customs laws many canneries are kept going
at Eastport, Maine, with sardines caught in New Bruns-
wick waters. Manufacturing industries are extending.
The output of manufactured goods for the year 1911
is given at $35,422,302.

NEW BRUNSWICK 257

The Bay Chaleur — for so it is always called, though
Jacques Cartiev iu 1534 finding the weather very warm
there named it the Baye des Chaleurs — is a deep
extension of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, without a rock,
reef, or shoal to impede navigation, separating, as far
as it goes, the provinces of Xew Brunswick and Quebec.
The Indians called it "the sea of fish." It is 75 miles
long and from 14 to 25 miles wide. It is navigable
by the largest ships and has many good harbours.
The Restigouche river falls in at the head of the bay and
continues it by a deep estuary 2 to 3 miles wide for l7
miles farther. The land rises at a little distance up the
river valley, and the scenery on the Eestigouche and at
the junction of the Metapedia is very fine. On the
north side the hills rise from 1000 to 2000 feet; on the
south side, although the height does not exceed 815 feet,
there are, as elsewhere in the province, detached moun-
tains of considerable height. One of these — the Squaw's
Cap, near the mouth of the Upsalquitch — is 2000 feet
high.

Miscou, the extreme point of New Brunswick, upon
the bay, is a good harbour with four to six fathoms, but
Shippigan Sound not far off is secure for vessels of the
largest size. It has been proposed to make Shippigan
the terminus of a line of ocean steamers to Canada
connecting with the Intercolonial railway. Caraquet
and Bathurst both have harbours for vessels of moderate
draught, but Dalhousie at the head of the bay has a fine
harbour and is the shipping port of the lumber floated
down the Eestigouche.

Dalhousie is the last port of New Brunswick, and on
crossing the Eestigouche the province of Quebec begins.
The north shore of the bay is bordered by sandstone
cliffs and wide beaches of shingle. The high table-land of

258 COMrENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Gaspe rises in the rear. The shore is settled hj fisher-
men, for the fishery in the bay is still fair though
the great productiveness of former years has been
destroyed by recklessness. The sandstone formation is
connected with the Carboniferous of New Brunswick, and
thin seams of coal have been observed.

Game

The Dominion of Canada abounds in resorts for
sportsmen, but none of them are so attractive as the
province of New Brunswick. It is a great square and
the borders only are settled ; the interior is a wilderness
penetrated by streams of every size, affording access by
canoe and paddle to its wildest recesses. Here in the
summer may be seen many a sportsman's camp and many,
even with ladies and children, enjoying the healthful life
of the woods. The salmon fishing on the Eestigouche is
reputed the best in Canada. The fish are very large
upon it and its chief tributary, the Metapedia. All the
tributaries of this fine river are widely known salmon
streams. From the head of tlie Bay Chaleur the sports-
man may strike into the very heart of the wilderness
about the head waters of the Tobique, the Nipisiguit,
and the ]\Iiramichi. This region may also be reached
from Fredericton on the other side. Here moose and
caribou are abundant and of late years have been
increasing. Fine specimens of these and other species
may be seen in the Provincial Museum in Fredericton.
Many sportsmen come every season from every direction,
and wealthy people from the large cities have secured
leases along the rivers and have built hunting lodges
for their holiday convenience.

NEW BRUNSWICK

259

Climate

As for the climate it is one of exceptional healthfulne.ss.
There is not, in fact, any country more free fiom epidemic
diseases or where people live to such a ripe old age.
There is but a brief spring ; the summers are delightfully
warm, although not excessively so ; and the winters are cold
and bracing, and, especially in the interior, free from sudden
changes. The mean temperature of summer is 60 degrees,
while the mean temperature of winter is 20 degrees above
zero. The climate is specially favourable for the production
ill their best form of the ordinary crops of the temperate zone.
The seasons diifer from those of England or Ireland. Summer
soon follows winter, and the prolonged autumn constitutes
the most delightful months of the j'^ear. There is plenty of
sunshine at all seasons.

The regular and sufficient rainfall precludes any necessity
for irrigation. The mean annual temperature in degrees
and average annual rainfall in inches for different stations in
New Brunswick are given in the following table : —

station.

Mean Anni
Temperatvu

al : Average Annual
■e. Precipitation.

Moncton

43-0° Fal

IT. 47 inches.

St. John

41-3° ,

48 „

St. Stephen
St. Andrews

41-6° ,
41-4° ,

40 ,,
37 ,,

Sussex .

40-2^ ,

43 ,,

Fredericton

36-2° ,

36 ,,

Chatham

40-3° ,

43 „

Dalhousie

36-2'' ,

36 ,,

Grand Manan

40-5° ,

44 ,,

W. T. Macoun, Dominion Horticulturist, considers that
New Brunswick has the climate to raise the best quality of
apples, and he knows no part of Canada that can grow the
Mackintosh Red better than New Brunswick. It is estimated
that there are at least 5,000,000 acres of land in the province
eminently suitable for fruit-growing, and St. John, the chief
seaport, is only six days from Liverpool.

CHAPTEK VIII

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

This island is the garden province of the Dominion. It
is more like an English shire than a Canadian province.
Its inhabitants are for the most part farmers, and they
have cleared almost the whole island and brought it
under cultivation.

Prince Edward Island is situated on the south of the
Gulf of St. Lawrence in a great bay formed by the con-
cavity of the coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,
which, from Miscou Head to the North Cape of Cape
Breton, curve round it. The island adapts itself to its
position by curving to correspond with the encircling
shores of the sister provinces and its northern coast-line
presents to the gulf a parallel concavity.

The island is 145 miles long from East Point to
North Point, but is most irregular in width, varying from 4
to 27 miles across. It is exceedingly irregular also in
outline, for the land is penetrated by deep bays and tidal
streams to such an extent that it has barely escaped
being divided into three parts. From the head of Hills-
borough river a portage of one and a half miles would
place a boat in Savage harbour on the north shore and cut
off the whole eastern end of the island. Farther to the
west tlie distance between the heads of the creeks falling

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 261

into Bedeque aud Maljieque Bays is so sliort that it
measures only two miles on the map, and at high tide it
is really much less. This indentation almost separates
tlie western third of the island.

Nothing would be gained in clearness of conception
by considering the island in three divisions, for the whole
of it is of uniform character in every respect saving that
the nearest approach to a highland is in the central part
where the land rises on the West river into picturesque
wooded hills, but everywhere the country is rolling and
almost everywhere it is cultivated. This general uni-
formity is not monotonous, for there are always differences
in the undulations of the surface, differences in the little
streams running in the valleys to the sea, and differences
in the clumps of trees or patches of woodland which
conspire to give variety to what might otherwise be a
monotony of pleasing landscape.

The total area is 2184: square miles, and it is in-
habited by 93,728 people.

The surface is nowhere higher than 500 feet above
the sea. Th^ outcropping geological foimation is tlie
rermian and the rock is a bright red sandstone ; but ex-
posures are seldom met with, and consist of soft- weathering-
materials. These rocks are newer than the coal formation,
and productive coal-measures may be supposed to exist
there also, especially as coal is found on the adjacent
Nova Scotia shore. If, however, there be coal it is
believed by geologists to be very deep down. Boring
operations recently undertaken have reached a depth of
3000 feet and over, but no coal-bearing^ strata have so
far been reached.

The soil of the island is a rich sandy loam, of '.i
deep red colour, and the red soil, contrasting with the
vivid green of the nnJadows, gives a very dis'tfrictive

PllINCE EDWAKD ISLAND

263

character to tlie landscape. It is of all soils tliat best
suited lor oats and potatoes, and these are the staple
crops oi" the island. AVheat is still raised, but cannot
now be grown at a profit. The soil will, however, pro-
duce any crop wliich can be grown in a temperate
climate. Tiie farmers of recent years are commencing
to grow maize for fodder ; barley is also a favourite crop
and is extensively grown.

wai:Z

•»■ !» -Mt ^Hiligni

mL .

r ■« rn'/

h^4 m

' Ifc

■ ■^^^SBI

LiiLi

^^^

—

TURNER .S FARM, VERNON, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.
A typical Lsland scene.

A Provincial Government Experimental Farm has
been maintained for nearly half a century in which dairy,
stock, and horticultural experiments are made and applied.

There cannot be any general hydrographical system,
for the streams flow transversely and the island is narrow.
Tliey are all tidal and, the land being low, the tides flow
to the heads of the streams. Three beautiful rivers con-
verge in Charlottetown harbour — the Hillsborough, and

264 compi<:ndium of geography and travel

the West or Elliott, and the North or York rivers. The
Hillshorough rises close to the north shore and flows
across the island at its widest part. These rivers are all
deep and steamers go up the Hillsborough to its very head.

The climate of the island province is not so extreme
as that of some of the interior provinces, but yet it is
not a maritime climate ; for it is embayed and sheltered
from the influence of the outer ocean. There are few
fogs and the sky is clearer than on the Atlantic coast,
the summer is warmer and the winter is colder than in
parts of Nova Scotia. Spring does not come in, as in
Quebec and Ontario, with a rush, for it is retarded by
the floating ice of the upper waters on its way seawards.
The crops do not therefore start as early as in the St.
Lawrence valley or even in Manitoba or the far North-
west. On the other hand the fall lingers later. The
harbours are closed in winter by ice. That of Charlotte-
town freezes up between December 15 and 21 and opens
about April 7. The harbour of Georgetown on the east
coast is open longer than any other on the island.
The summer climate of the island marks it a paradise
for the tourist.

The Strait of Northumberland separates Prince
Edward Island from the neighbouring provinces. It
is from 9 to 31 miles wide. Tlie projecting capes,, of
Nova Scotia interlock with those of the island, so that
viewed from either end the strait seems to be a bay.
Jacques Cartier in 1534 coasted along the western
coast and crossed over to the Miramichi. He called
the opening of the strait the Bay of St. Luiiario, and so
it remained for sixty years longer, for it was not until
the time of Champlain that the island began to be
separated on the maps under the name of the island of
St. John.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 265

The coast is imiroriiily low. East I'oiiiL is a low cliff
of re(,l sandstone 30 to GO feet high, and Xorth iVnnt
the other extreme point, is precisely similar. Between
tliese points the concavity of the island forms a bay 91
miles long and 22 miles deep, and in its whole length the
north shore is a continuous series of sand beaches and long
spits or bars of line sand, beaten hard by the incessant
impact of the waves. The wide bays which on the north
penetrate the land are cut off from open water by long
narrow sandbanks with occasional openings, through
which small vessels may pass. These sandy beaches are
I'avourite resorts for bathing in summer, for they are
smooth and compact and the water deepens very gradually.
Two of these beaches are each 2 miles long. St. Peter's
Bay, Tracadie Bay, Eustico Bay, New London Bay, Pdch-
mond or Malpeque Bay, and Cascumpeque Bay are the chief
of these sand-locked bays. The sand-dunes are highest
near New London, where they are 40 feet high ; but as
a rule they rise to a height of 11 to 20 feet only. Close
behind these sandy beaches the forest stands protecting
the i'arm land. The sands are derived from the waste of
the soft red sandstone rock, but the oxide of iron is dis-
solved by the sea, and though the rocks are red the sand
IS white.

From North Point along the west coast to Cape Egmont
tliere are no harbours. The shore is of red clay or red
sandstone — low and with occasional beaches where boats
may land in fine weather. Cape Egmont on the south
shore is formed of sandstone clitls 50 feet high. It marks
one side of Bedeque Bay at the head of which is a good
harljour, that of Summerside, but somewhat intricate to
enter. Cape Traverse is the nearest point to the mainland,
for there the promontory of Cape Tormentine stretches
over fioni Nova Scotia to a distance of only nine uiilea

266 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

from the island, aud here it is that travellers cross in the
depth of winter if the harbour of Georgetown is frozen.

The harbour of Charlottetown is one of the best in
America and one of the most pleasing to the eye. Any
number of vessels of the largest size may find room in it,
and the three deep tidal rivers stretch up from it into a
charming country of cultivated farm and meadow land
with quiet rural scenery diversified by low hills clothed
with woods.

On the east coast is the harbour of Georgetown or
Cardigan Bay, second only to that of Charlottetown in
depth and commodiousness.

Communications

There is an excellent service of steamers connecting
Charlottetown and Summerside with Pictou in Nova Scotia
and Shediac in New Brunswick respectively, and after
these ports are closed a steamer runs to Georgetown.
For a few weeks Georgetown may be closed and then
travellers must cross in ice-boats from Cape Tormentine
to Cape Traverse. This is occasionally very disagreeable
when the ice is running with the tides and the weather is
thick. The distance is only nine miles, but such modes
of transit are not suited to modern ideas of comfort, and
a scheme is proposed to tunnel under the strait. If such
a feat of engineering skill be ever achieved it will remove
the only drawback to a residence on Prince Edward Island.
Regular lines of steamers also connect in the open season
with Quebec and Montreal, and with Boston and Halifax.
A railway, owned and managed by the Dominion Govern-
ment, runs from end to end through the island with
branches. It is 209 miles in length and almost every
hamlet on the island is reached by it.

PIUNCE EDWAKD ISLAND 267

Cities

Cliavlottetown is tlie capital of the province. It lias
a population of 11,198 and is the centre of supply.

Summerside is a town of about 2678 inhabitants,
with a considerable trade in exporting the produce of the
western part of the island. This part of the coast is noted
for its oysters. It is also a favourite summer resort.

Georgetown and Souris are small towns on the eastern
shore. Prince Edward Island is a country of farmers and
they live all over it. There is very little land not taken
up. The towns are necessarily few, for there are no
manufactures to attract the people into cities.

Government

Prince Edward Island is governed by a lieutenant-
governor appointed by the Dominion Government and a
legislative assembly of a peculiar nature. It is composed
of 15 councillors elected on a property qualification, and
15 members elected on a popular franchise. The executive
goverinnent consists of 9 members, and is responsible to
the assembly, and must always command a majority therein
as in the otlier provinces. There are no municipal insti-
tutions for local government.

It was by an Imperial Order in Council of May 16th,
1871, that Prince Edward Island was admitted into the
Confederation.

Education

The supreme authority is the executive council or
ndnistry of the day. The Superintendent of Education
acts as secretary of the board and administers the system
through school inspectors. There is a normal school for

268 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

trainiiiff teachers, and Prince of Wales college for liifrher
studies. The scliools are primary, advanced, and high
schools. The expenses are paid by government grants
supplemented by local assessments. They are unde-
nominational, but the children read the Bible at the
opening of the school. No comments are to be made,
and if their guardians object to the reading, children
need not be present at it.

Statistics

The total value of farm property on the island in
1911 was $41,816,072, and field crops as well as other
agricultural products amounted, for that year, to the sum
of $11,967,425. Fox ranching is a thriving industry.
The manufacturing establishments in 1911 numbered 442,
with a capital of $2,013,365, in which 3762 persons
were employed earning $531,017, and the value of
the products was $3,136,470. Oats were produced to
the value of $3,750,000 in 1914, whilst potatoes gave
a return of $1,508,000, and other roots an additional
value of $700,000. Horses and cattle of the island
are valued at $6,517,292.

The chief exports of the island are agricultural pro-
duce and fish products. Lobster canning is carried on
to a considerable extent. In 1913 some 29 vessels and
1974 boats were engaged in fishing. The value of fish
products exported in 1912-13 was $1,379,906. In the
year 1913 there was a total tonnage of 89,070 tons
cleared for sea from the port of Charlottetown.

CHAPTEE IX

OLD CANADA THE ST. LAWRENCE PROVINCES

Land of mighty lake and forest ;
Where the winter's locks are lioarest,
Where the summer's leaf is greenest,
And the winter's bite the keenest ;
Where the autumn's leaf is searest,
And her parting smile the dearest.

Alex. M'Lachlan.

The colony of New France was ceded to Great Britain in
1763, in its full extent, and included the whole basin of
the St. Lawrence system of lakes and rivers. In the
year 1791 it was divided with the object of forming a
new province for the United Empire Loyalists — a body
of refugees who, at the recognition of independence of
the thirteen revolted colonies, found themselves homeless,
their property having been confiscated and they them-
selves proscribed. The settled part of New France was
at that time occupied by French Canadians, who had
been continued in the full and undisturbed enjoyment of
their religion, language, and laws, so that even the tenure
of the land was feudal. It was intended to commence at
the western limit of the lands then actually held en
seigneurie, and to lay the foundations of an English
province, where all grants of land should be in free and
common socage, where the common law of England

270 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL

should be the basis of the organised coiumuiiity, and the
English language should be the language of the people.
The provinces so separated were called respectively
Upper and Lower Canada. In 1841 they were reunited,
and these divisions were called Canada West and Canada
East. When all the British American provinces were
confederated in 1867, these two became the provinces of
Ontario and Quebec, and entered into new relations with
each other. Thenceforward they ceased to be parts of
one province, and each became an integral province of
one Dominion.

While these two provinces are thus indissolubly united
physically, by the simple fact of forming part of the same
great valley, and although, down to the year 1791,
they had one history, they are socially very different,
on account of the circumstances above stated. It is
that very fact which gives special interest to the student
of political science ; for in Canada questions of the most
complicated nature have had to be faced and determined
without the possibility of shirking them or putting them
off upon a future generation. Plain men have come
from their farms and their businesses and have be-
come statesmen by successfully grappling with questions
which have agitated older countries for centuries. That
a people should be homogeneous over the whole extent
of its territory has, no doubt, many advantages and, to an
Englishman, it would seem an economy of time and
money if all the world were to speak English. Such
a world would be in danger of becoming excessively
monotonous. On the banks of the St, Lawrence, society
has an additional interest in the fact that two of the
leading races of Europe are strongly and well represented,
and each is striving to do its best for the development
and welfare of its country according to its ideals.

OLD CANADA THE ST. LAWEENCE TROVINCES 27 1

Climate

A glance at the map will show that the St. Lawrence
flows diagonally uortli-eastwardly from Niagara to Belle-
isle, and tliat, therefore, in the more southern counties of
the west the climate is milder. Nevertheless, there is
a general description possible which, with the modifi-
cations stated in describing each province, may be of
use to form a preliminary idea of the conditions of life
in old Canada. It is difficult to divide Ontario from
Quebec climatologically, because Ontario also stretclies
north to Hudson Bay and includes a region north of Lake
Superior, where the winters are as cold as anywhere
in Quebec. The climate of Ottawa, in eastern Ontario, is,
if anything, colder in winter than that of Montreal. The
range of temperature is almost the same at Sanlt Ste.
Marie as at the city of Quebec. That portion of Ontario
known as the " southern peninsula," lying between the
great lakes Ontario and Huron, with territory soutli of
the latitude of Boston, enjoys a milder climate than the
rest of Eastern Canada, and that portion lying along the
shores of Lake Erie and the Niagara river is still more
favoured. In order to show the variation, the following
table has been compiled from the meteorological returns,
and places have been selected on a great curve from
Quebec south-west to Niagara and north-west to Sault
Ste. Marie. This range will show the climate of New
France or Old Canada.

That the climate, since the discovery of the country,
has changed very little is clear from the reports of Cartier,
Champlain,and the "Jesuit Eelations" concerning the crops
grown by the Huron-Iroquois Indians. These were not
wandering tribes, but had permanent towns. The state-

272

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL

lueut lias beeu made, in places which should be sources of
more accurate information, " that corn is more a garden
vegetable than a farm product, excepting in southern
Ontario." Nothing could be more untrue, for every
student knows, that from the discovery of the country,
maize has been a staple crop from Montreal to Georgian
Bay. It was the staple food of the Huron-Iroquois at
Montreal in 1535, and the staple food of the Hurons on
Georgian Bay in 1615, and of their kinsmen the Tobacco
nation and the Neutral nation. Maize, pumpkins, and
beans were grown for food, tobacco for solace, and sun-
flowers for ornament. They had no other vegetable food,
and they raised large quantities of maize and stored it
for winter. There can be no possible mistake about a
fact as patent upon the pages of the old writers two
hundred years ago as it is in the agricultural returns and
the " Trade and Navigation " tables of to-day.

Meteorological Table for Ontario and Quebec.
Temperature in Degrees Fahrenheit

Mean in Quarterly Periods.

Annual
mean.

Highest.

Lowest.

Winter.

spring.

Summer.

Autumn.

Quebec .

. 36-58

86-0

-34-3

14-80

46-27

60-33

24-93

Montreal

. 41-03

88-8

-21-6

20-17

52-03

63-73

28-20

Ottawa

. 40-46

93-0

-19-6

19-57

51 -43

62-53

28-30

Toronto

. 45-03

89-4

- 2-7

28-37

52-53

63-10

36-10

Niagara

. 46-50

91-0

0-0

30-07

54-03

64-80

37-10

Sault Ste. Marie

38-82

87-0

-34-0

15-80

47-80

58-77

32-90

OLD CANADA THE ST. LAWRENCE PROVINCES 273

Meteorological Table for Ontario and Quebec.
Total PiiEciriTATioN

Inelies of
Rain.

Inches of
Snow.

Inches of Total

Precijiitatioti

reduced to terms

of Rain.

Quebec

31-74

133-5

45-09

Montreal .

33-97

114-5

45-42

Ottawa . r

25-25

71-3

32 38

Toronto .

32-12

62-6

37-38

Niagara .

35-75

35-7

39-22

Mean for Ontario

27-83

Quebec . 25-43

A description of the cliinute of the settled portion of
tlie province of Quebec is equally applicable to the climate
of Ontario, north of a line drawn west from Montreal
through Ottawa to the Muskoka district on Lake Huron.
The climate of the peninsula south of that line is indi-
cated by the figures for Toronto and Niagara in the
preceding table. In reading these tables it should l)e
remembered that, if the extremes are given as well as
the mean, these extremes do not endure for any length
of time. Week after week will pass while the ther-
mometer registers from + 15'' to +30°. Then a cold
wave will sweep eastwards and send the mercury down
below zero. Such " cold snaps " may last three days
and there may be three or four of them in a winter.
The sky is very blue, and at night the stars look large
and the snow creaks under the foot ; but these " spells "
soon pass away and the temperature returns to 10° or 15"
below freezing-point; but, after January, the bright
sun thaws enough at mid-day to make the roofs drop a
little on the sunny side of the streets and in sheltered
positions in the country.

Although in some years there may be two or three
days' thaw, the sleep of nature in winter is profound.

274 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

No dreams disturb her repose and waken her to pre-
mature activity. But when the warm white coverlet
begins to disappear she never hesitates or goes back witli
the provoking indecision of other lands, but spring comes
on with a firm and steady foot. The following is from a
poem descriptive of April in the country near Ottawa : —

In the warm noon tlie South wind creeps and cools,
Where the red-budded stems of maples throw

Still tangled etchings on the amber pools,
Quite silent now, forgetful of the slow
Drip of the taps, the troughs, and trampled snow,

The keen March morning, and the silvering rime,
And mirthful labour of the sugar prime.

The first Canadian nobleman (ennoliled by Louis
XIV) was Pierre Boucher, whose descendants are widely
spread throughout Canada to-day. He was governor of
Three Eivers in 1653 and defended the infant settlement
against the Iroquois at a very critical time. He died
at Boucherville, near Montreal, at the age of ninety-
seven, a standing testimony to the healthfulness of the
climate. Among innumerable other public services to
his country this gentleman wrote a Natural History of
New France, commonly called Ca.nada, and although, at
the time he wrote, Montreal was only a perilous outpost
in tlie Indian country, and the forest had not been cleared,
his description of the general conditions of life are still
to a great extent true. He says : —

" Speaking of New France as a whole, I may say that
it is a good country, and one that contains in itself a
good portion of all that can be wished for. The soil is
very good, it produces wonderfully well, and is not un-
grateful ; we have had experience of that. The country
is covered with dense and very fine forests, that are
stocked with numbers of animals of various kinds ; and

OLD CANADA^TIIE ST. LAWRENCE PROVINGKS 275

what is of still greater conseqiience is that those I'uiests
are intersected by large and small rivers of very good
water and have in them numbers of springs and fountains ;
besides which there are large and small lakes, bordered,
as well as the rivers, by fine large prairies which produce
as good grasses as there are in France. In these lakes
and rivers there are great numbers of fish of all kinds,
very good and very dainty; waterfowl are also to be met
with in great numbers on these lakes and rivers. The
country is a very healthy one ; animals brought from
France thrive very well in it. One sees here many fine
plants that are not to be found in France ; and there are
few plants that are injurious to man. . . . The climate
is different in different places ; but I may say in general
that in the coldest places here in winter, is a more
cheerful season than it is in France."

The translation quoted is by one of I'ierre Boucher's
descendants. The forest has been cleared over a wide
extent, and the descendants of the Iroquois, who howled
after scalps round the palisades of Boucher's little fort,
are now farmers on the Grand river ; but in the north are
still the forests where his description would hold in every
particular, and the climate is still the same.

Forests

The province of Quebec extends over so wide an area,
and the conditions of climate vary so much, that it is
not possible to make general statements applicable to the
whole province. The northern forest comes down to the
water-parting of Hudson Bay, and has been treated of in
Chapter III. The forest of southern Labrador consists,
for the most part, of northern species, as also the forest
on the high plateau of the Gaspe peninsula ; but through-
out the rich country bordering on the rivers — not only

276

COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL

the level plain of the St. Lawrence and Eichelieu, but
the Laurentian country to the north up to the water-
parting — and over the rolling pasture -lands of the
Eastern Townships, a different forest prevails — a forest
similar to that already described as existing in the inland
counties of the maritime provinces. At page 193 a list
of 32 species is given, and it is not necessary to repeat it
here. Besides these, the following additional species are
stated by Professor Macoun to occur iu the forests of
Quebec : — •

Acer dasycarpum.
Crataegus coccinea.
Ulmus fulva.
Ulmus racemosa.
Celtis oecidentalis.
Gary a aiiiara.
Carya alba.
Carpiniis Caroliniana.
Quercus alba.
Populns monilifera.
Juniperus Virginiana.

Tt is these mixed forests which give such a charm to
these provinces. When the work of the year is done,
when the forest has flowered and fruited and made its
growth, it retires to its winter sleep in such a blaze of
colour as no painter has ever dared to put upon canvas.
Those who have seen it all their lives look upon it with
unfailing admiration, and at every succeeding fall they
wonder whether the brilliant crimsons or the browns,
warmed with red and yellow, or the bright yellows, be
the most beautiful or the most effective contrast to the
deep green of the pines and spruces. Then the fair blue
sky and the sparkling of the flowing water, or the reflec-
tions in quiet lakes all through the autumn weather, and
the still and mysterious Indian summer at the end, throw
over the woods a wonderful charm, and make, as the poet

Broad Fruited Maple
Red Fruited Thorn
Slippery Elm
Rock Elm
Nettle-tree
Bitternut

Shell-bark Hickory
Blue Beech
White Oak
Cottonwood
Red Cedar

OLD CANADA THE ST. LAWRENCE PROVINCES

277

whose verse heads this chapter has well said, the parting
smile of nature as she sinks to rest, the dearest of all her
varied aspects.

In like manner, passing westward, the forest of the
province of Ontario repeats the species found in Quebec,
but, in the peninsula to the south-west inclosed by the
lakes, the milder climate favours new species, and we
pass into a region of oaks and hickories. I'ho trees
superadded to the lists previously given are these, to
quote again from I'rofessor Macoun : —

Cucumber tree
Tulip tree
Kentucky Coffee-tree
Judas tree
Honey Locust
Crab Apple
Cock-spur Thorn
Downy-leaved Thorn
June Berry
Flowering Dog-wood
Sour Gum
Blue Ash
Sassafras
Button-wood
Hog-nut Hickory
White-heart Plickory
Small-fruited Hickoiy
Black Walnut .
Chestnut

Swamp white Oak
Scarlet Oak
Swamp Oak
Black Oak

Asimina triloba,
Liriodendron tulipifera.
Gymnocladns Canadensis.
Cercis Canadensis.
Gleditschea tricanthos.
Pyrus coronaria.
Crataegus Crus-galli.
Crataegus tomentosa.
Amelanchier Canadensis,
Cornus tlorida.
Nyssa multiflura.
Fraxinus quadrangulata.
Sassafras officinale.
Platanus occidentalis.
Carya porcina.
Carya tomentosa.
Carya microcarpa.
Juglans nigra.
Castanea Americana.
Quercus bicolor.
Quercus coceinea.
Quercus palustris.
Quercus tinctoria.

The coniferous trees are not often found in the peninsula.
In the north of Ontario, as in Quebec, the " northern "
forest comes down to the water-parting of Hudson Bay.

278 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRArHY AND TRAVEL

Forest Products

The provinces of Ontario and Quebec still supply the
larger proportion of the total forest product of the
Dominion, and immense areas of these forests at the
north are practically untouched. The best of the more
accessible wood on the main streams has been cut ; pine
is getting scarce and oak is all gone, but the hardwood
forests of other species still remain, and the spruce at
the north is without limit. The governments of both
provinces are beginning to awake to the necessity of
taking precautions against forest fires, and of making
regulations to prevent the reckless waste which has gone
on for many years. Ontario is leading the way in this
respect, and tlie National Algonquin Park is not only a
reservation of the primeval forest but a school of forestry.
It is situated on the headwaters of the Madawaska, the
Bonnechere, the Petewawa, and other streams draining
into the Ottawa, and of the Muskoka flowing to Georgian
Bay. Very little of the land is arable, but it is admirably
6uited for the growth of trees. Land unsuited for agri-
culture is available for arboriculture, and under proper
regulations the forest will reproduce itself. Forestry as
a science is in its infancy in Canada ; still it must not
be supposed that the lumbermen denude any district
they go over. They cut only the trees above a certain
limit as to size, and leave the remainder to grow. Pine,
however, does not succeed pine on the same land, nor
oak succeed oak. There are some laws dominating the
reproduction of forests which have not yet been worked
out into a scientific system. The total forest product of
the Dominion may be estimated by the exports, and these
may be taken as three-fifths of the whole, the other two-
fifths being consumed in the country.

OLD CANADA THE ST. LAWltENCE PROVINCES 279

The whole subject requires careful exauiyiation by
impartial scientific experts, for the wildest statements
have been made concerning the exliaustion of the forests
and the ratio of their reproduction.

Hudson Bay Watershed

Up to recent years there were many differences of
opinion as to the resources of the territory belonging to
Ontario and to Quebec across the water-parting of
Hudson Bay. The parting is low ; for at high water
Summit Lake discharges both north and south — into
Lake Abitibi and into Lake Timiskaming. The main
facts seem to be that no white pine is met farther north
than six miles below Lake Abitibi, but there is abundance
of spruce, poplar, and birch northwards to the bay, of
which the spruce is large. At Moose river the spruce is
15 inches in diameter, and the balsam and poplar is of
fair size ; but there, and all round the shore of James
Bay, the trees, while quite suitable for building, do not
grow to any great size. As for agriculture, there are
gardens at all the Hudson Bay posts in the territory in
question, and potatoes and many other vegetables are
grown. Cattle are kept in considerable numbers, and
feed on the native grass and the hay cut on the meadows.
At the post on the East Main river there were fifty head
of cattle in 1890. In the basin of James Bay, where
the Albany, Moose, Harricanaw, and Nottaway rivers,
with their numerous tributaries, flow from the crystalline
Archtean axis of primitive rock formations (the home
of the pine forest, and forests generally), there are close to
250,000 square miles of arable land fit for cultiva-
tion, especially in Ontario, but also in Quebec. Ontario
counts 140,000 square miles where settlement has

280 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL

alread)^ grown to respectable proportions in the available
sections of the "great Clay Belt." The belt itself or
basin includes 16,000,000 acres where the climate is
favourable to agriculture, not severe in winter, and
temperate as well as bracing in summer. Fine wheat
ripened and was cut on the 11th of August 1908 at
Lake Abitibi. The writer wrote as follows in 1903 of
the resources of this new trans-Laurentian section of
Canada : — " The construction of the National Trans-
Continental Eailway, crossing the cereal-growing district
south of Hudson Bay, between the great lakes and the
foot of James Bay, will open up for settlement a generally
level tract of country, not only Avell timbered and well-
watered, but also producing a dense growth of plants
which predicates capabilities of an agricultural nature,
dairy, farm, and stock-raising products, which can support
a mixed population, including agriculturists, manu-
facturers, lumber merchants, and all those varied classes
of a community dependent on such natural resources as
are found within that basin. It is estimated that the
marine sediment of the Hudson Bay basin, consisting
of clay loam, sandy clays, and various other soils and
surface deposits fit for agriculture, is nearly twice the
area covered by the agricultural lands in Ontario between
Ottawa and Lake St. Clair."

CHAPTEE X

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT I'liOVINCE

History

Canada, in the restricted sense of the word denoting N'ew
Trance, represented now by the two St. Lawrence pro-
vinces, was discovered by Jacques Cartier, in 1534, for
Francis I. of France. He was the first who is recorded
to have entered tlie Gulf of St. Lawrence, and was
tlie discoverer of all the lands bordering on or contained
witliin it. What transpired upon the ocean-coast between
that date and the discovery of America has already been
discussed in the chapter on Acadia. On his first voyage
Cartier went no further than Gaspe. On his second
voyage, in 1535, he went up the Eiver St. Lawrence as
far as Hochelaga, the site of the present Montreal ; he
wintered on the St. Charles river, close to the present city
of Quebec, and returned to France on the opening of
spring. In 1540 Francis L created Francois de la Eocque,
Sieur de Eoberval, his viceroy and lieutenant-general in
New France, with many other high titles, and Eoberval
sent out Cartier in the following year, with five ships, as
his lieutenant, intending to follow with the main body of
settlers. Cartier built a fort at or near Cape Eouge, a few
miles above Quebec, but Eoberval did not sail as arranged,
and Cartier having sent two sliips back to France wintered

282 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

again in Canada in 1541-42. Little has been found con-
cerning the events of that winter. He named his fort
Charlesbourg Eoyal, and he would seem to have again
visited Hochelaga. On the return of spring he sailed
with all his people for France ; and, having put into the
harbour of St. John's, Newfoundland, on his way home, he
fjund Eoberval there with his belated expedition on the
way to New France, but having apparently had enough of
the country Cartier sailed during the night for home.
Eoberval continued on his way, and on arriving at Cartier's
fort, he enlarged it and changed its name to France Eoy.
He is reported to have explored the Saguenay, and to have
gone up the St. Lawrence at least as far as Hochelaga. Little
has remained to record his doings. He passed one winter in
Canada, and, in the fragmentary records which survive, it
would appear that Cartier was sent out to bring him and the
remains of his party back to France. It is, however, certain
that both were back in 1544, and from that time no
attempt to found a colony was made until 1608.

Although Canada was forgotten by the king and the
great noblemen, it does not follow that Cartier's discoveries
were not utilised by the merchants and sailors of France.
The gulf and river were, during the years of apparent
neglect, favourite resorts of the Basque whalers ; and there
are indications of traders having been not only upon the
coasts, but far up the river, although no explicit narrations
have been preserved of such voyages. Thus it happens
that with Champlain and Lescarbot commence the first
definite records of the History of Canada. Tadoussac was
the chief place of resort in those early days, and merchants
of St. Malo were trading there for furs in 1600, when
Canadian history properly begins, Champlain made a
voyage as far as Hochelaga in 1603, before he went to
Acadia, The merchants of St. Malo and Eouen were then

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PKOVINCE 283

conducting the i'ur trade in the river, either indivichially
or by a cunipany of partners, like the North-west Company
of 200 years later. The Canadian annals connnence with
such a company, of which De Monts was the head. After
his experiment in Acadia he decided on making a settle-
ment at Quebec, and in 1608 he sent out Champlain as
his lieutenant to found the settlement, and Pontgrav^ to
carry on the fur trade.

Quebec was thus a creation of the fur trade. Many of
the members of the company were Huguenots, Poutgrav^,
Chauvin, and De Monts among them ; and although Cham-
plain was a Catholic, and always took a deep interest in
the conversion of the savages, the merchants cared very
little about such matters, being anxious rather for good
returns in furs. Protestant and Catholic chaplains ac-
companied the earlier expeditions, but their polemics
scandalised the sailors, and gave little promise of success
in converting the Indians. So it came about very soon
that only Catholics were allowed to settle permanently in
tlie country.

There has been in Canada no dearth of remarkable men,
but of all who have left their traces upon her history none
have been endowed with a character so noble, so brave,
so loyal, so persevering, as Samuel de Champlain. The
amiability and grace of the French character was combined
with the sturdier elements requisite in a pioneer leader.
He was as much at home smoking the calumet in the
wigwam of a sachem on the upper Ottawa as he was in
Paris at the court of his patron Henry IV. His cheerful-
ness never failed him, nor did his faith in his adopted
country ever waver. He was patient and kindly without
})eing weak, and religious without being intolerant. It is
not the least among the privileges of Canada that her
history opens with a personality so sane and so sweet as

284 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

still to remain a type and ideal to shine as the guiding
star of successive generations of her children.

In 1608, then, Quebec was founded. The first " abi-
tation " was in the lower town, on the site of the present
market ; but soon after a fort was built on the cliff above,
on the site of Dufferin Terrace, not far from the Chateau
Frontenac. Chaniplain allowed Pontgrave to attend to
the fur business of the company, and he set himself to
establish a colony for France, and extend discovery to the
West, if haply that much-desired passage to the South
Sea might only be found. There is not space here to
recount the trials of the little settlement — how its founder
laboured in the colony ; how he pleaded its cause among
the great in France ; with what tact he conciliated the
jarring interests of the merchants of Rouen, St. Malo,
and La Eochelle ; and, after the English broke up his
colony and carried him away a prisoner, with what
patient courage he picked up the broken threads of the
enterprise, and, after the peace, commenced his work
anew.

Champlain has been blamed for having entered into
an alliance with the Algonquin tribes, and having thus
incurred the deadly hostility of the powerful Iroquois
nation. In reality he had of necessity to cast in his lot
with the tribes surrounding his colony. In a conflict so
deadly there could be no neutrals. The Neutral nation
in southern Ontario adopted the very policy which
Champlain is blamed for not following, and, after the
Hurons were crushed, the Iroquois exterminated them
with so ruthless a destruction that their very name
disappeared in blood and fire.

Slowly and painfully the little colony grew, and was
with difliculty maintaining itself against the Iroquois
who, after the assassination of Piskaret, the great war

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PROVINCE 285

chief of the Algonquins, raged up to the very jialisades
of the fort, when in 1641 there arrived at the little
settlement a party of forty men from France, headed by
a soldier, or rather a crusader, of commanding and
grave aspect — a man who really believed in something,
and such persons are always to be taken seriously.
With him came Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance and three
women companions, two of them wives of soldiers
Such an acquisition to the strength of the colony was
indeed welcome.

Now, writing at the beginning of the twentieth
century, it behoves one to be circumspect, lest in any
way he betray weakness for antiquated ideas of the super-
natural. Are they not visions, dreams, figments of
exalted religious enthusiasm without objective reality ?
Possibly ; but the present object is not to discuss them,
but merely to direct attention to the fact that out of
such visions and dreams has been w^oven the objective
reality of the beautiful city of Montreal. These people
had not come so far to dwell under the protection of the
fort at Quebec ; would not, in fact, stay there, but would
go when the spring opened to the island of Montreal —
that fair but fiend-haunted wilderness infested by devils
incarnate in Iroquois war-parties.

It came about in this way; a devout priest (Jean Jacques
Olier) and a devout receiver of taxes (Jerome le Eoyer
de la Dauversiere), strangers to each other, and living in
different cities, each received a divine mission, concerning
the reality of which they had no shadow of doubt, so
clearly was it marked by miraculous signs, to found an
order of priests to preach and minister, an order of nuns
to nurse the sick, and an order of nuns to teach — on the
island of Montreal and nowhere else upon the habitable
globe. They knew nothing of Canadian geography, but

286 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRA.VEL

this place they saw in a vision. They met by accident,
and each read instantly the other's secret. There is not
space to dwell upon these singular occurrences. Those
who are able to receive them may read about them in
other books, and those who cannot receive them will not
care to hear. Suffice it to say, that these two persons,
under the inspiration of these and many other such
influences, organised a company — the society of Notre
Dame de Montreal — obtained a grant en seigncurie of the
island of Montreal, and Paul de Chomedey — Sieur de
Maisonneuve — a soldier of experience in war, had come
out to take possession. In vain did the governor of
Quebec set forth the danger of their rash undertaking.
Maisonneuve replied simply, " It is my duty and my
honour to found a colony at Montreal, and I would go if
every tree were an Iroquois." So on May 18, 1642,
Montreal was founded, and mass was said on the site of
the present Custom-house. All the dreams of its founders
came to pass, and remain visible to this day. The semi-
nary of St. Sulpice, founded by Olier, still preaches and
ministers in the great parish church of Notre Dame ;
the successors of Jeanne Mance still nurse the sick at
the great Hotel Dieu ; and the sister Marguerite Bourgeoys
who came shortly after to join them, still teaches the faith of
the Iloman Catholic church by the mouths of more than a
thousand of her successors, not only in the beautiful pile
of buildings on the slope of Mount Eoyal, but in over
a hundred establishments to more than 20,000 children
throughout the Dominion, and in many cities in the
United States. Francis Parkman, a scholar trained in
the clear and dry light of Boston culture, asks, " Is this
true history or a romance of Christian chivalry ? " and
answers, " It is both."

With such a beginning, romance could not i'ail to

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PROVINCE 287

abound in the history of Montreal, and on it fell the
brunt of the Iroquois fury. Deeds of devotion and even
of self-immolation recur constantly in the history of this
little colony, and tlie halo of a deed worthy of Thermopyla;
lingers round the rapids near Carillon on the Ottawa.

The time came, however, when the growing strength of
New France not only made headway against the Iroquois,
but sought them out in their forest recesses, and destroyed
their towns. A life of incessant peril developed a rare
succession of partisan leaders and Indian fighters who
beat the Indians in their own methods of war. The
young men would leave the restrained life of the settle-
ments to follow the wild freedom of Intlian life in the
forests. In vain were laws enacted against these " coureurs
de bois," as they were called ; the more ad\'enturous youth
found the temptation too strong, and indeed they were of
use to the colony. They spread the influence of France
to the remotest tribes of the west ; they assisted as
interpreters, and became the pioneer fur-traders, and they
kept the governor informed of every stir on the remotest
borders ; many married Indian wives and bound the
tribes to the French interest. The Count de Frontenac
was the leading figure among the governors of those days,
and from 1(572 to 1698 uplield the prestige of France
in the New World. Under his guidance New France
passed from tlie status of a chain of trading and mission
posts to that of an organised political community.
Although the colony was small, great issues were raised
and contended for the mastery. Frontenac represented
Louis XIA^., and P>ishop Laval, the first Bishop of Quebec,
represented, fully and w^orthil}^, the Church. They were
both very able men and embodied types of two oft-
conflicting forces in society. The history of Canada in
their day is full of interesting disputes, recalling some-

288 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGPtAPHY AND TRAVEL

times the times of Pope Gregory VIL, and sometimes
the " Auchterarder case." The " officialite " of the
Bishop and tlie tribimal of the King's representative
were not always in accord, and appels comme cVabus
disturbed the little society on the St. Lawrence as well
as the great world of Paris. Neither the bishop nor
governor were endowed with yielding natures, and
Frontenac was recalled after the court was wearied with
their disputes ; but in seven years the colony sank so
low that he was sent back to save its falling fortunes.
On his return he adopted an actively offensive system
of defending the colony. He inaugurated what was
called " la petite guerre," to check the advance of the
English colonies at the south by harassing them with
incursions of Canadian militia and of Indians led by
daring and skilful partisan commanders. Such an
expedition it was which took Schenectady in a bitter
night in February 1690, and massacred many of the
inhabitants in their beds, and carried off the rest as
prisoners. Another, under Hertel de Eouville, destroyed
the village of Salmon Falls, and another harried the
town of Casco in Maine, Deerfield in Connecticut,
Haverhill in Massachusetts, and other towns were
destroyed ; generally fired at night and in the winter,
by parties of French and Indians on snowshoes. In
this way the frontier settlements of the far more populous
English colonies were kept in a constant state of alarm.
The captives, mostly women and children, were compelled
to march to Canada in the swift retreats of the invaders,
and the Indians would kill any who could not keep up.

Some really brilliant conunanders were produced
among the French colonists. All the family of Le
Moyne distinguished themselves, but chiefly Le Moyne
d'lberville. He it was who repeatedly conquered

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PROVINCE 289

Hudson Bay and Newfoundland, and kept the Atlantic
sea- board in tenor. He was a captain in the service of
the king, and commanded squadrons in the royal navy.

In the meantime great discoveries were being made
in the far west. There was no more daring explorer
than Champlain himself. He discovered the lake which
bears his name. He went up the Ottawa to the river
Mattawa and crossed the portage to Lake Nipissing. He
went down French river to Georgian Bay in Lake Huron
and remained a winter just south of the Muskoka country
north of Toronto, He went on a war party through Lake
Simcoe and down the Trent to Lake Ontario at the Bay
of Quinte and crossed the lake to attack the Iroquois
towns in western New York. Nicolet had been sent by
him among the Indians to learn their language, and this
young and enterprising explorer was able to tell Champlain
the year before his death of the Sault Ste. Marie and Lake
Michigan. Then came the Iroquois onslaughts. The
Huron missions were extinguished in blood, and all the
nations of the peninsula were exterminated. The trails
were deserted and overgrown. The lurid glare of the
flaming towns died down to blood-soaked cinders, and the
upper country was closed for many years. In 1663 the
regime of the trading companies ended, and under the
royal government, succour was sent to the failing colony
and discovery recommenced. Talon, the ablest intendant
ever in New France, encouraged exploration. In 1660,
Groseilliers and Kadisson were on Lake Nipigon, and in
1671 Father Albanel was on his way to Hudson Bay
by Lake St. John and Lake Mistassini. In 1665 Lake
Superior was explored in all its extent, and in 1669
Jolliet and Dollier de Casson were on Lake Erie ; for up
to that time all exploration had gone by the Ottawa.
In 1673 Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet reached the

290 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

Mississippi by way of Fox river and the Wisconsin, and
paddled down as far as the Arkansas, returning by the
Des Plaines and Chicago portage. The same year Fort
Frontenac was founded on its present site at Kingston.
Then La Salle leased the fort as a centre for western
discovery and trade. In 1679 he built the Ch^iffon at
Cayuga creek on the Niagara river, above the falls, and
the pioneer lake craft sailed to the site of Michillimackinac.
He went by the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers to the
Illinois, and from that year to 1682, Hennepin, Duluth,
and La Salle visited all the region of the upper
Mississippi. In the latter year La Salle followed that great
river down to its mouth. As the colony gained strength
the Canadians pushed westwards farther and farther. They
founded Detroit and St. Louis and their forts reached to
Hudson Bay. They pushed across the Winnipeg water-
shed, and founded posts on Lake Winnipeg and the
Saskatchewan as far as the Eocky Mountains. All these
enterprises emanated from Quebec and Montreal ; but the
latter city was the centre of the fur trade, and when the
narrow streets were filled with voyage^trs on the arrival
of the brigades of canoes with furs, and when the savage
allies of the French camped in the meadows near the
town, it required all the efforts of the good priests, the
seigneurs of the island, to keep the people in anything
like a tolerably religious frame of mind.

Meanwhile the English colonies at the south were
increasing very rapidly, but they had no cohesion. The
wars of the New England border, and of the back settle-
ments of New York, never disturbed the Virginians ; nor
were the New Englanders ever concerned when the
frontiers of Virginia were swept with fire and axe. The
Canadian French were, by the very fact of that centralisa-
tion which was their political weakness, better organised

QUEBEC TPIE ANCIENT PROVINCE 291

for war, because their leaders could act with decision and
promptness. Town meetings of citizens are useful for mak-
ing speeches, not for making campaigns ; while the military
spirit of the French rose high. The expedition under Sir
William Phips to take Quebec in 1690 was repulsed,
and in 1691 a strong expedition from New York, under
Schuyler, was defeated near Montreal. The French had
no difticulty in maintaining their position, and even
carried on an aggressive policy. There was never
lack of bold and skilful leaders among them. It was
a native-born Montrealer who settled the mouth of
the Mississippi, and another founded the city of Mobile.
As the great struggle for supremacy approached, the
French established a chain of forts from Canada down
the Mississippi valley, and on all the portages leading to
its tributaries north of the Ohio.

The history of Canada in those days is full of incident
and interest. The exertions and successes of this handful
of people in the north against the stronger English
colonies at the south are a surprise to the student oi'
history. The Seven Years' War, which broke out in
1755, was undertaken by the English almost solely on
behalf of the colonies, now the United States ; and twenty
years later they turned against the Mother Country,
which had saved them by her ships and troops from the
far-reaching enterprises of the French from Canada, and
placed them in a position of permanent security, at the
cost of an increase to the national debt of sixty -four
millions of pounds sterling. The struggle was, however,
inevitable, and the decaying monarchy of France could
not abide the shock. The luxury and extravagance of
the horde of peculators which crowded round the intend-
ant Bigot and acted as his jackals, plundered the king
and oppressed the people with impartial rascality. It

292 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL

was one of his creatures, Vergor, who surrendered Beau-
s^jour, and who had charge of the post on the heights at
Quebec which Wolfe's troops surprised in the night. One
sentence in a letter from Bigot to his protege when he
sent him to Beausejour tersely expresses the cause of the
collapse of the French power in America. " Profit, my
dear Vergor, by your position ; clip and pare, you have
every facility, and soon you will be able to join me in
France and buy an estate near me." The English
language possesses in its copious treasury no legitimate
word to set forth this intensity of decaying public honour,
and the low word " boodle " must be used to express that
debased ideal of politics which, with the cynicism of
Mephistopheles, took the heart out of a people and
dropped from the height of Champlain, Maisonneuve, and
Daulac, to the coward and sluggard who surrendered
Beausejour and lost the heights of Quebec.

It was in June 1755 that war was declared ; but
there had been hostilities on the Ohio for a year preced-
ing, and Washington had fired upon a party of Canadians
on May 28, 1754, and killed their leader, Jumonville.
The French were very indignant, and their histories still
apply hard names to the occurrence ; but, while it is not
necessary to go into this still burning question, it is
interesting to note that Washington fired the first shot of
the war. On 3rd July he capitulated to a party of
Canadians, and for the rest of the year the French held
the whole valley.

In 1755 war was formally declared, and the final
struggle began. The French, though inferior in numbers
and resources, and with very little aid from France, won the
first honours. In July, De Beaujeu, with 140 Canadian
militiamen, 60 regulars, and 600 Indians, attacked and
defeated General Braddock on the Monongahela. It was

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PROVINCE 293

a terrible defeat, and had it not been for Washington
and his Virginians, who covered the retreat, scarcely a
man of the English army would have escaped alive. All
the horses, equipment, cannon and baggage of an army
of 2000 men were captured, together with the military
chest of £25,000. One thousand soldiers were killed,
including the general and most of the officers. In the
same year Johnson, with colonial troops, defeated Baron
Dieskau near Lake George. In 1756 the Marquis de
Montcalm arrived in Canada — a soldier whose skill and
experience retarded for a few years the fall of the French
power. He defeated the English at Oswego, and captured
the place, and he invaded the colony of New York by
way of Lake Cham plain, and captured Fort William Henry
at the head of Lake George. The massacre of the garrison
by the Indians which occurred there, although against
his commands, has been ever since a blot upon his
reputation. In 1758, at Ticonderoga, he defeated Aber-
crombie and an army of 14,000 men, and although the
English were successful in some minor engagements, the
results of the first three years of the war were disastrous
to the English arms.

With the appointment as commander-in-chief of
General Amherst in 1758, the fortune of war changed.
Amherst did not himself display commanding military
genius, but he had with him a number of very capable
officers, and, chief among them. Major- General James
Wolfe, who led the attack on Louisburg, and captured
it after a brave defence. The following year the armies
of England began to close in round the hitherto victorious
French in Canada, and Montcalm drew in his garrisons
for a final stand. It was the end of June before the fleet,
under Admiral Saunders, having on board General Wolfe's
army, arrived at Quebec, and for more than two months

294 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

the town ws.s bombarded, and several unsuccessful attempts
were made upon Montcalm's position. At last Wolfe
withdrew most of his troops from the north shore, crossed
to Point Levis on the south shore, and began to march
up the river, watched by the French from the opposite
heights. On the night of the 12th of September, con-
cealed by the darkness, he dropped down the river and
effected a landing at a place still known as Wolfe's Cove,
and by daybreak his whole army was drawn up on the
heights of Quebec.

It is unnecessary to recount in this short sketch the
events which succeeded. The details of the battle are
well known — the success of the English arms, the heroic
death of Wolfe at the moment of victory, and the equally
heroic death of the chivalrous Montcalm in the hour of
defeat. A single shaft in a conspicuous position in the
upper city was erected, when the Earl of Dalhousie was
governor, to the memory of both, and the inscription
tersely sums up the result :

Mortem. Virtus. Oommunem

Famam. Hlstoria

monumextum. posteritas.

Dedit.

In Canada, to this day, it is debated whether Montcalm
exercised good judgment in accepting battle, seeing that
at the approach of winter Wolfe and the fleet would have
been compelled to abandon the enterprise. He is blamed
for detaching De L^vis, his best officer, and thus w^eaken-
ing his force. To this it may be replied that the defences
of the town were destroyed by the bombardment, and that
it was in nc position to resist attack from the land side,
that his force was still superior in numbers to Wolfe's,
and that his object was not to give Wolfe time to
establish himself. Montcalm was a soldier of great

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PROVINCE 295

experience and ability, and di)vil)tless knew all the circum-
stances better than the critics of to-day.

The fleet sailed away and left General James Murray
with a strong garrison in the ruined city, and for the
whole winter he was iu turn besieged by the active
De Levis who kept the field with troops from Montreal.
He was tempted out to meet De Levis in a battle on the
Ste. Foye road, and was defeated, but he held out until
the returning spring brought the fleet again with much-
needed reinforcements, and a combined movement of all
the English armies was made on Montreal. Amherst
assembled his troops at Albany and marched to Oswego
on Lake Ontario, from whence he moved down the river
in a large flotilla collected there in advance, — a perilous
passage enough, seeing that he had to run all the rapids
with an army of 10,000 men. Colonel Haviland moved
down the valley of the Eichelieu, the usual route of in-
vasion, and General Murray marched up from Quebec.
Amherst disembarked at Lachine, and united his forces
on the plateau west of the town. Eesistance to such a
force was useless, and the French governor, the Marquis
de Vaudreuil, capitulated and surrendered to General
Amherst the whole of Canada in its utmost extent.

Thus closed the history of the French monarchy in
Canada, and opened the history of the United States of
America.

The terms of the capitulation were generous, and the
treaty of cession confirmed them. After a period of un-
certainty the state of the country was settled by a measure
called "the Quebec Act," passed by parliament in 1774.
That statute confirmed the Canadians in the enjoyment
of their religion and their civil laws. The feudal tenure
of the land was continued. The religious comnmnities
were unmolested, and the Eoman Catholic religion received

296 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL

a quasi-establishment under which it collects tithes from
its own people to this day. The Jesuits were not allowed
to continue their institution, and about the same time the
Jesuit order was suppressed in Europe by Pope Clement
XIV. While the members of the order were expelled
from all Eoman Catholic countries, it is the fact that
those who remained in Canada enjoyed their estates under
English rule, until the last one died, when the property
was taken by Government for the support of education.

Scarcely was the treaty of cession concluded when
Pontiac's war broke out, and the whole western border
was desolated by fire and axe. It was a deep-laid
conspiracy of the western tribes, and all the forts of the
frontier but one fell — the most of them by stratagem.
Detroit alone held out. After Pontiac's defeat the fur
trade opened up again, and the English from Montreal
entered into it with vigour ; but the West remained un-
easy until after the murder of the great war-chief of the
Ottawas by an Indian enemy.

At the conclusion of peace in 1763 nearly all the
leaders of Canadian society had emigrated to France, even
those who, like the Marquis of Vaudreuil, were Canadian
born. Nearly all of the class designated by the name
" noblesse " left. The parochial clergy remained — the
clergy of the seminaries of Quebec and of St. Sulpice at
Montreal also remained, and, round this body of faithful
clergy, the abandoned and discouraged remnant of some
65,000 to 70,000 French Canadians clustered, and by
their ministrations and counsel the national fire was kept
alive. The Canadian people indeed needed support ; for
the English came in from the southern colonies as to
a conquered country, and, although under 400 in all,
claimed to be alone entitled to political rights, to serve
on juries, or have a voice in public matters. They

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PROVINCE 297

supposed tlie penal laws against lioman Catholics were
introduced into Canada, and one little knot of grand
jurymen even presented the whole native population as
papists, and, in the jargon of the period, declared that to
permit Eoman Catholics to serve on juries, or to hold
positions of trust, was " an open violation of our most
sacred laws and liberties." In the meantime, in the
southern colonies, the seeds of disaffection were being
fanned into flame, for the restraining fear of France on
the north was at last removed.

The Canadians call this period le temjjs de malaise,
but out of it was born in 1774 a measure so just, so wise,
so fraught with all that is noble and generous in states-
manship, that it attached at one stroke the affections of
the whole French Canadian people to the throne of Great
Britain. This measure — the Quebec Act — granted, as
above stated, to the Canadians their religion, not only
its toleration but its freest exercise, their civil laws, their
civil rights, their institutions and their lands ; and the
amazed people found themselves in a position, civilly,
religiously, and socially, vastly superior to that they had
been accustomed to under their old monarchs.

The Quebec Act was received with violent indignation
by the disappointed little band of English in Quebec, and
it raised a storm of invective among the revolutionary
leaders at the south, who made it a count in the indict-
ment of the Declaration of Independence ; but it was an
impregnable wall of defence to the Canadians, and to
its terms is due the fact that Canada is still British.
At the outbreak of the Eevolution the armies of the
Continental Congress invaded Canada, occupied Montreal,
and besieged Quebec. The investing force was about
3000 men under Montgomery and Arnold, and General
Carleton had as a garrison only one company of troops with

298 COMPENDIUM OP GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL

the seamen and mariners of a sloop of war and the
inhabitants of the town — not exceeding 1000 in all.
Montgomery fell in the assault on the night of December
31, 1775, and the siege lagged all through the long winter
of 1775-6, to be abandoned at the opening of spring.

In the meantime the Continental Congress was vainly
exercising its blandishments upon the French Canadians,
and endeavouring to show them under what fearful
oppression they were unconsciously groaning. Three
commissioners were sent to Montreal. Among them
were the astute Benjamin Franklin and Charles Carroll
of CarroUton. The latter w^as a Eoman Catholic, and he
brought with him his brother, a Jesuit priest, to assist in
moving the French clergy. Many interviews were held
at the Chateau de Eamesay in Montreal, but the French
were politely immovable. The fact was that the Con-
tinental Congress of 1774 had a great literary faculty
for composing addresses, and they prepared three — one
for circulation in England, where there existed a strong
Protestant prejudice against CathoHc emancipation ; one
for circulation in the English colonies, where the Quebec
Act was intensely unpopular ; and the third for circula-
tion among the French Catholic people of the province
of Quebec itself. These appear in the proceedings of
Congress, and a sentence or two from each in juxtaposi-
tion will explain the present position of French Canada
fully, without any added comment. It is no wonder that
even the ready and plausible Franklin, who, a few years
later, was to outwit the diplomats of England and France,
was nonplussed by the production of these three master-
pieces of political rhetoric, each so cogent and persuasive
to the sufferers for whom it was prepared. At the
present date the error of letting them all out at once
would be patent, for the press telegrams would publish

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT PROVINCE 299

tbeni ; but coiiiiuunications in those days were much more
difficult. One remark alone suggests itself in this connec-
tion, the simple historic statement that, alone among the
colonies of the New World, Canada stands proudly pre-
eminent, inasmuch as practically no blood was ever shed
in the name of religion to sully the white pages of her
annals. The only persecutors in Canada were the Iroquois
savages, and the only victims were Eoman Catholic
missionaries.

Extract from the Address of October 21, 1774, to the
'people of Great Britain

" Nor can we suppress our astonishment that a British
Parliament should ever consent to establish in that
country (Canada) a religion that has deluged your island
with blood and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution,
murder, and rebellion, through every part of the world."

Extract from, the Address to the people of the English
Colonies, October 21, 1774

" In the session of Parliament an Act was passed for
changing the government of Quebec, by which act the
Eoman Catholic religion, instead of being tolerated as
stipulated by the treaty of peace, is established, and the
people there are deprived of a right to an Assembly.
Trials by jury and the English laws in civil cases are
abolished, and instead thereof the French laws were
established."

Extract from the Address to the Canadian People, October
26, 1774

" And what is offered you by the late act of Parliament ?
Liberty of conscience in your religion ? No. God gave
it to you, and the temporal powers with which you have

300 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TEAVEL

been and are connected firmly stipulated for your
enjoyment of it. . . . We are too well acquainted with
the liberality of sentiment which distinguishes your
nation to imagine that difference of religion will pre-
judice you against a hearty amity with us. You know
that the transcendent nature of freedom elevates those
who unite in her cause above all such low-minded
infirmities."

These three addresses were drafted by a committee,
and adopted clause by clause in full session of Congress,
two of them on October 21, and the third on October
26, 1774. They are very long, and the contents of the
rest may be readily guessed. Their importance in this
connection is to account for the fact that in all the
extensive dominions of the King in the British Empire
he has no more loyal subjects than the French people of
Canada, and to show that this fact is mainly due to an
act of generosity, justice, and kindness granted to a
people in the deep discouragement of betrayal and
abandonment by their own proper leaders.

With this the history of French Canada may be
closed. Under the British Government the people by
degrees advanced towards the full development of
British political institutions. Only once since 1774
has the soil of the French province been invaded,
and then, at the battle of Chateauguay in 1813,
it was by a French commander with an army consisting
solely of French militia that the enemy were defeated.
It is on record in a Precis, printed in 1826, by order of
the Duke of Wellington, privately for official use, and
published many years after, that " not a single Lower
Canadian militiaman was known to desert to the enemy
during the three years of the war of 1812-14."

QUEBEC THE ANCIENT TROVINCE 301

In later years 1837-8 a small minority in the
neighbourhood of Montreal, dissatisfied with the slow
progress of political reform, took up arms against the
British Government, but some of the leaders were
English, and there was a similar attempt in Upper
Canada where the whole population was English. Both
movements w