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THE

COMING CANADA

BY

JOSEPH KING GOODRICH

Sometime Professor in the Imperial
Government College, Kyoto

WITH 40 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

CHICAGO

A. C. McCLURG & CO.

1913

COPYRIGHT, I913
BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS

PUBLISHED, OCTOBER, IQIS

Copyright in England
AH rights reserved

THE'PLIMPTON«PRHSS
NORWQOD'MASS'U'S'A

PREFACE

I WISH to express my thanks to the heads and sub-
ordinates of the various departments and bureaus
of the Dominion Government, at Ottawa, for the assist-
ance rendered in procuring afresh much of the material
used in preparing this book. I add my thanks to many
officials of provinces and cities who displayed kindly
interest in my effort and also gave assistance. The
number of individuals who helped me in many ways is
too great for me to name all of them; and if I mention
Arthur George Doughty, Esq., C.M.G., LL.D., Deputy
Minister and Dominion Archivist, and Martin J. Griffin,
Esq., C.M.G., LL.D., Parliamentary Librarian, it must
not be assumed that the others are not gratefully remem-
bered. Let me say "Thank you" to the Canadian
people.

The officials of the great railway systems have been
most liberal in supplying the photographs which have
been reproduced as illustrations, and most generous in
allowing me to make such use of the pictures. In the
list of illustrations letters indicate from whence the origi-
nal photographs came. Here I say that D.I. indicate
those reproduced by permission of F. F. C. Lynch, Esq.,
Superintendent, Railway Land Branch, Department of
the Interior; I.C, those reproduced by permission of

4 «.

VI PREFACE

the Intercolonial Railway of Canada ; G.T., those repro-
duced by permission of the Grand Trunk or the Grand
Trunk Pacific; C.P., those reproduced by permission
of the Canadian Pacific; C.N., those reproduced by
permission of the Canadian Northern. That they add
much to the interest of the book need not be stated.

I wish I could feel that I have done justice to my
subject; I can truthfully say I have done my best.

J. K. G.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Early History i

II. Colonisation — The Folklore of Canada 17

III. The Beginning of New France ... 27

IV. The Great Hudson's Bay Company . . 47
V. Conflict: Wars in America between

France and England 64

VI. The Dominion of Canada 83

VII. The Government of Canada and Cognate

Subjects 94

VIII. The Wealth of Canada no

IX. Physical Canada 127

X. Ca-nada for tite Tourist and the Sports-
man 138

XL Canada and the United States . . . 150

XII. The Lure of Canada 164

XIII. Development of Railways i77

XIV. The Great St. Lawrence Basin . . . 192
XV. The Canadian Rocky Mountains ... 205

XVI. The Hudson Bay Territory 215

XVII. The Canadian Wheat Fields .... 229

XVIII. A Model Province: Manitoba .... 239

vii

Viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XIX. Canada in Winter 249

XX. Some Canadian Towns 261

XXI. A Few Canadians 271

XXII. Reciprocity . . . . .^ 281

XXIII. Canada and the British Empire ... 291

Bibliography 301

Index 3^5

ILLUSTRATIONS

Turn Turn Range. Canadian Northern Railway . . . Frontispiece

Boat Landing, Tete Jaune Cache, Fraser River, British
Columbia. Grand jyiuik Pacific Railway . . Facing page 6

Laying Rails, Tete Jaune, British Columbia, July 17, 191 2.
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 6

Restigouche Club House, Metapedia River, New Brunswick.
Intercolonial Railway 10

Entrance to Resplendent Valley, British Columbia, Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway 16

** Pierced Rock." From Steamer, Intercolonial Railway ... 24

Preparing Fish, Pierced Rock, New Brunswick. Intercolonial
Railway 24

Meadow Land, British Columbia. Canadian Norther 71 Rail-
way 34

Fording Moose River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway 34

Canadian Northern Railway Elevator, Capacity 7,500,000
bushels. Port Arthur, Ontario 44

Beach at Little Metis, Quebec Province. Intercolonial Rail-
way 44

Prince Rupert Harbour. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway ... 60

On Moose Trail River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk
Pacific Railway 60

Farm Scene, Bic, Rimouski County, Quebec Province. Inter-
colonial Railway 68

Orchards at Summerland, British Columbia. Canadian
Pacific Railway 84

Mount Robson and Berg Lake, British Columbia. Gratui
Trunk Pacific Railway 92

Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick. Intercolonial Railway . . 100

Wheat Field and Summer Fallow, Saskatchewan. Grami
Trunk Pacific Railway 110

X ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Berg Lake, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 120
Mount Robson, altitude 13,700 feet. Grand Trunk Pacific

Railway 128

From Echo Rock, Lake Cecebe. Grand Trunk Railway

System 140

Fishing Camp, Northern Quebec Province. Canadian

Pacific Railway 146

SpeckJed Trout Fishing, Algonquin National Park. Grand

Trunk Railway System 146

Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Grafid Trunk Pacific

Railway 150

Fossil Hunting, Mt. Robson District, British Columbia.

Grajid Trunk Pacific Railway 158

Transport, Athabaska River, 56 40' N 160

Transport, Athabaska River 160

Typical Saskatchewan Valley Homestead. Canadian

Northern Railway 166

Portage La Loche, Peace River Country, Athabaska . . . .194

Potato Crop, Lake La Loche, 56 30' N 194

Hudson Bay Post, Lake Athabaska, 59 N 224

Clearwater River, Athabaska River, 57 N 224

Reaping Oats, Western Canada. Canadian Pacific Railway . 228
Waterfront Terminals, Port Arthur, Ontario. Canadian

Northern Railway 240

Ploughing at Fort Smith, 60 N 250

Smith Landing, Great Slave River, 60 N 250

Empress Hotel and Plarbour, Victoria, Vancouver Island,

British Columbia. Canadian Pacific Railway 26S

On Skeena River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific

Railway 268

Mt. Stephen and Mt. Stephen House, Field, British Columbia.

Canadian Pacific Railway 270

Emperor Falls, Grand Fork River, British Columbia. Grand

Trunk Pacific Railway 280

THE COMING CANADA

CHAPTER I
EARLY HISTORY

I DO not intend to limit myself to the Canada of
which most people think when they hear or speak
the word. That narrow use of the name generally
includes no more than the eastern provinces, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, etc., the lower St. Lawrence
basin, and a strip of indefinite width, north of the United
States boundary, reaching westward to the province of
British Columbia and the Pacific shores.

The Dominion of Canada, to my mind, includes the
whole of the 3,603,910 square miles, approximated, from
the long Atlantic seaboard, stretching from Cape Chud-
leigh, at the extreme northern end of Labrador, to Cape
Sable, the southernmost end of Nova Scotia, to the
Alaskan boundary, and from the United States frontier
northward far into Arctic regions.

I shall, probably, include the island of Newfoundland
in my consideration of the early history of the Dominion,
because that island is so intimately associated with the
beginnings of European effort to establish colonies in
the New World. It is true that Newfoundland is not
a part of the Dominion, and, if I may depend upon the

2 THE COMING CANADA

vehement declarations of the islanders with whom I
have discussed the possibility of entering the Dominion,
as well as those of many other Canadians, it is extremely
unlikely that the island will give up its semi-independ-
ence.

In this broad view of the Dominion of Canada, we
must, of course, think of the bleak, inhospitable Labrador
as being a part thereof, and its earliest history antedates
that of what I may, just for convenience, call Canada
proper. Yet, at the very outset, I must say that obser-
vation and investigation, as well as the statements of
others, justify the opinion that Labrador may erelong
prove to be not altogether the abomination of desola-
tion that the name usually connotes.

The historian may well take a good deal of comfort
from the fact that recent research and effort have tended
to increase our knowledge of what the brave, indeed
venturesome, sailors of northwestern Europe did several
hundred years before Christopher Columbus sailed from
Palos, Spain, on the 3rd of August, 1492, to try to find a
direct westward route to the Far East. Reference to
the bibliography at the end of this volume may serve
to emphasise what I have just written, and the titles
of some of the books there mentioned may prove an
incentive to learn yet more of these earliest precursors
of Columbus, the discoverer of the New World, and of
Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada.

It has long been admitted by historians that sailors
from the north of Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean,
at least as far as Iceland, several hundred years before
the beginning of the eleventh century of our era. That

EARLYHISTORY 3

island had, of course, long been known to Europeans,
even when the Irish Culdees, those primitive and
enthusiastic monks, made their way across the sea in
the sixth or seventh century, seeking to secure abso-
lute solitude for their meditations. If those monks
carried with them a form of Christianity untainted by
the influence of the Romish schism, the purity cannot
have persisted very long. The hope, cherished for some
time, by certain Protestants — Presbyterians especially
— that in Iceland there had been preserved an abso-
lutely primitive Christianity, has long since been dis-
pelled. Just when Rome asserted supremacy in those
regions, then so remote from European centres, is not
clear, but in 1492, the very year of Columbus' first
voyage. Pope Alexander VI issued a Bull * appointing
a bishop of the see of Gardar, in Greenland. From
about the middle of the eleventh century, Iceland had
two bishops and doubtless from them went forth the
influence into Greenland. But inasmuch as the entire
population of the island now belongs to the Lutheran
Church, it is evident that shortly after the Reformation
the Roman Church lost its hold in Iceland.

From Iceland to Greenland is such a short span, it
is inconceivable that those hardy Norsemen did not

* Bulla; the most authoritative ofl5cial document issued by the pope
of the Roman Catholic Church, or in his name. It is usually an open
letter containing some decree, order, or decision relating to matters of
grace or justice. It derives its name from the lead seal (Latin bulla)
appended to it by a thread or band, which is red or yellow when the
bull refers to matters of grace, and uncoloured and of hemp when it
refers to matters of justice. On one side of the seal is the name of the
pope who issues the bull, and on the other are the heads of Saints Paul
and Peter,

4 THE COMING CANADA

soon cross the intervening sea. But even after it was
discovered, Greenland was for a long time supposed to
be a remarkable extension westward of the continent
of Europe; and this belief was, for some centuries,
strengthened rather than refuted by the experience
of the explorers who, in the early years of the sixteenth
century, reasoned that because the coast trended back-
ward, that is towards the east, from Cape Dan, it would
eventually join the European mainland.

Greenland may have been seen by the Norwegian
Gunnbjorn, son of Ulf Kraka, very early in the tenth
century; at least he is alleged to have declared he did
so. It is admitted that in 982 a.d., "Eric the Red
{Eiriki hinn raudi Thorvaldsson) sailed from Iceland to
find the land which Gunnbjorn had seen, and he spent
three years on its southwestern coasts exploring the
country." Eric returned to Iceland in 985, and there
is no accepted tradition that he or any of his followers
crossed Davis Straits; but from what we know of the
habits of the Greenland Eskimo, it is not unreasonable
to suppose that those people knew of the land to the
westward and told Eric about it.

But his son, Leifr Eriksson (Leif Ericsson of history)
visited the Court of Norway in 999, when King Olaf
Tryggvason was on the throne, and told the monarch
about the new land in the far west. When Leif left
Norway the king commanded him to proclaim Chris-
tianity in Greenland; the name having been chosen
with the purpose of deceiving people into believing that
the new country was an attractive place for colonists.
It was on this outward voyage in 1000 a.d., when

EARLYHISTORY 5

bound for Greenland direct, without touching at Ice-
land, that Leif's ship was driven out of her course by
heavy weather, and eventually reached the continent
of North America, where he found wheat growing wild,
vines, and ''mosur" (maple ?) trees. To this yet newer
land he gave the name "Vinland," ''Vineland," or
^'Wineland the Good."

It is, however, to the account of Thorfinn Karlsefni's
(flourished 1002 to 1007) expedition and his attempt
to establish a colony somewhere in the region of Nova
Scotia, that we must turn for the most plausible story
of these early Norse discoverers. This twentieth century
has added considerably to the literature that deals with
the subject of the Saga of Eric the Red, and that known
as The Flatey Book. The former is the more consistent
of the two, and may now be read in an English transla-
tion, accompanied by copious notes. These sagas are
supplemented, and their history measurably verified,
by the narrative of Adam of Bremen, a student of history,
who ''visited the Danish Court during the reign of the
well-informed monarch Svend Estridsson (1047 to 1076)
and writes that the king ' spoke of an island (or country)
in that ocean discovered by many, which is called
Vinland, because of the wild grapes i^oites) that grow
there, out of which a very good wine can be made.
Moreover, that grain unsown grows there abundantly
(fruges ibi non seminatas abundare) is not a fabulous
fancy, but is based on trustworthy accounts of the
Danes.'" * This passage offers important corroboration
of the Icelandic accounts of the Vinland voyages, and

♦ J. E. Olson, Enc. Brit. Xlth, ed.

6 THE COMING CANADA

is, further, interesting ''as the only undoubted refer-
ence to Vinland in a mediaeval book written beyond
the limits of the Scandina\qan world." *

It is contended by some writers that these Norse
discoveries exerted no real influence upon European
knowledge of the world's geography in the Middle
Ages, and that undoubtedly is a fact. It is declared
that whatever information there was about new lands
in the remote west (from Europe) was hidden away in
sagas which very recent research has brought to light,
translated, and edited so that we of the twentieth
century possess knowledge which was not imparted to
many Europeans of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
This, too, is quite correct; but if Adam of Bremen,
''beyond the limits of the Scandinavian world," knew
of Vinland, there was no substantial reason why others
should not have had the same knowledge.

The suspicion is growing unto something approxi-
mating conviction that the famous navigators of the
south of Europe ignored the efforts of the Norsemen,
and persistently held that the Western Ocean washed
the shores of Asia and that it was a determination to
demonstrate the correctness of that opinion, thus refuting
the Norsemen, which influenced them. I am not dis-
posed to belittle in any way the grand achievement of
Christopher Columbus, nor would I detract at all from
the credit due to Giovanni Cabot; but I do think that
had the exploits of Leif Ericsson and Thorfinn Karlesfni
been given the publicity in Europe that they deserved,
both the Italians, who have been named, would have
* John Fiske, The Discovery of America.

Boat Landing, TiIte Jaune Cache, Frasek Ri\er, B. C

Laving Rails, Tete Jal ne, B. C, J

LEV 17, igi2

EARLYHISTORY 7

been in possession of information that would have
assisted them materially. I do, however, take the
responsibility of contradicting Mr. H. P. Biggar's state-
ment, ''The European explorer who at the close of the
fifteenth century first sighted that portion of North
America subsequently called Canada, was Giovanni
Cabot, of Genoa." *

It may be objected that I am trying to judge Europeans
of the fifteenth century from the standpoint of one who
has all the advantage conferred by the knowledge gained
in the whole of the intervening four hundred years.
This I disclaim, although — as a matter of fact — I
do not see how we to-day can have any real information
about the earliest visitors from Europe to our North
American shores, which might not have been secured
by the European who would take the trouble to get it.
We must remember, however, that towards the end of
the fifteenth century all of southwestern Europe, includ-
ing England, was keyed up to the highest pitch of
excitement concerning geographical discoveries, and
especially over-seas exploits, while there was strange
apathy as to this subject when the Norsemen sailed
across the Atlantic. Conditions were exactly reversed
from what they had been about the year looo a.d. It
was then northwestern Europe that was interested,
while England, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy were
indifferent. These states of affairs would tend to make
the Norsemen's discoveries pass almost unnoticed;
while they assured for Columbus' and Cabot's the
utmost enthusiasm and publicity.

* The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, Ottawa, ign.

8 THE COMING CANADA

Is it, furthermore, absolutely certain that those
earliest Norse adventurers left no traces of their visits
to North America? In 1908, Dr. Vilhjalmar Stefansson,
of Norwegian ancestry although a Canadian by birth,
and educated at Harvard, went down the Mackenzie
River to its mouth; thence into Victoria Land, along
both shores of Dolphin and Union Straits and Corona-
tion Gulf, well to the eastward. In Victoria Land,
almost the most inaccessible part of the Arctic Dominion,
he found a previously unknown band of about two
thousand blonde Eskimos; many of them have blue
eyes, light eyebrows, and the men sandy beards. Their
whole appearance differentiates them distinctly from
the typical Eskimo. Their presence in that remote
region — for it is alleged that their existence was not
even suspected by the Dominion authorities — may be
accounted for in several ways. Dr. Stefansson's own
opinion is that they are descendants of the lost Scandi-
navian colonists who had settled in Greenland about
the year 1000 a.d. He admits the possibility that these
people may owe their being to the visits of whalers and
sailors to the Greenland coast in modern times; but he
discredits this theory because *'in the summer time, when
vessels were enabled to reach these regions, the Eskimos
had pushed farther inland." Another cogent reason for
giving these people a beginning far back of recent times,
is the fact that they show no traces of European influ-
ence, either physical (that is, disease,) or mental (that
is, language). The former of these is, unhappily, the
most conspicuous evidence of foreign association wliich
ethnologists now find among uncivilised peoples.

EARLYHISTORY 9

We must respect the recognised histories of Europe
and admit that nothing was done towards western
exploration for nearly five hundred years after the
Norsemen had found Greenland and Vineland. If the
curtain was raised for a moment, it was allowed to fall
again so promptly and so effectually that the good lands
were so completely forgotten as to make it seem as if
they had never been known.

The incentives to go out into the Western Ocean
appear to have been the same with several would-be
explorers, and it was a desire to secure a share of the
rich trade with the Indies that seemed likely to be held
as a monopoly by the Portuguese, now that they had
succeeded in finding a sea-road to the Far East.

Before passing on to the facts accepted by historians
of the discovery and occupation of Canada, it will be
interesting to discuss briefly the efforts which were made
prior to 1492 to discover something in the Atlantic
which myth and legend declared to be there. In 1480
an expedition was sent from Bristol, England, to dis-
cover, if possible, the Island of Brazil, or the Island of
the Seven Cities, or Antilia (Atlantis). Again, in 1491
and 1492, vessels were sent from that same port for the
same purpose. This last mentioned expedition, there
is good reason to believe, was placed under the command
of John Cabot. It gave him his English name. That
nothing came of these efforts need not be stated; but
they indicate clearly the opinion which prevailed in
Europe in the fifteenth century as to there being some
wonderful islands in the ocean far away from the main-
land. So firm was this conviction that it was not until

lO THE COMING CANADA

1876 that ''the official sepulture of the old tradition of
the Island of Brazil took place."

Returning to history, we find that in March, 1476,
Giovanni Cabot was given the privilege of citizenship
(we should call it ''naturalised"), both internal and
external, by the City of Venice, after fifteen years resi-
dence. Inasmuch as the same privilege was granted his
sons, the brothers Giovanni, Sebastiano, and Stephano,
on the 28th of September, 1484, only six years later,
it is reasonable to suppose that the father Giovanni was
born some years before Christopher Columbus, whose
birth year is usually accepted as having been 1446
(although we do not know this).

Both Columbus and Cabot were firm believers in the
theory that the earth is round. It will be remembered
that this idea was not then endorsed by all navigators
and cartographers: the religious danger of insisting
upon it will also be known to all. Those two men were
equally convinced that the rich merchandise and the
coveted gems of the farther Indies, might be brought
to western Europe in vessels crossing the Western Ocean
direct from Asia.

Cabot's conviction was based upon something more
practical than Columbus' speculations. In a letter
which Raimondo di Soncino wrote to the Duke of Milan,
1 8th December, 1497,* there is given a brief account of
Cabot's reasons for his belief. He claimed to have
visited Mecca, ''which city was then the greatest mart
in the world for the exchange of goods of the west for

* Original in the Reali Archivi di Stato, Milan. Translation in H. P.
Biggar's Tlie Precursors of Jacques Car tier.

EARLYHISTORY II

those of the east." There is no doubt but that Cabot
did make several trading voyages to the Levant, and that
he inquired whence came those precious wares. He
was told that they were brought by caravans from north-
eastern Asia. Arguing that this meant Cipangu (Japan),
he wished to make the attempt to reach that country
by sailing westward from a port of Europe.

The same reasons were assigned by Columbus for his
desire to sail to the west, and with precisely the same
results so far as reaching Japan was concerned ; although
the Indies which Columbus discovered served better
to satisfy the preconceived notions of Cipangu, than did
anything which Cabot found in the bleak north.

Columbus' return in 1493 ^-nd his report that he had
reached the Indies, created a great sensation at the
English Court, and on the 5th of March, 1496, letters
patent were issued by Henry VII granting to John Cabot,
Lewis (the first son, otherwise known as Giovanni 2d),
Sebastian, and Santino, his sons, authority to sail "to
all parts, countries, and seas of the East, of the West,
and of the North, under our banners and ensynes,"
but "upon theyr own proper costs and charges." They
were to take possession of all newly found lands in the
king's name, and "as often as they shall arrive at our
port of Bristol, at the which port only they shall be
holden to arrive," they were to pay unto the king, after
deduction of their necessary expenses, "the fifth part of
the gain of all fruits, profits, gaines and revenues accruing
from said voyage." Comment upon the Uberality (?)
of this concession is unnecessary.
. Columbus having returned in June, 1496, from his

12 THE COMING CANADA

second voyage with much gold and valuable merchan-
dise, the English king and the merchants who financed
the enterprise, were hopeful that Cabot would meet with
like success. On the 2nd of May, 1497, Cabot sailed
from Bristol in a small vessel, the Mathew, with eighteen
men in his company. Much controversy has been had
as to the time and place of Cabot's landfall; but I think
the Rt. Rev. M. F. Howley, Bishop of Newfoundland,
has satisfactorily demonstrated that it was June 24th,
1497, and that — after sighting Cape Farewell, Green-
land— he steered westward (as he thought), but be-
cause of the remarkable variation of the compass needle,
being then 66 f° West, and of the set of the ocean cur-
rent, he actually took the true course from Cape Fare-
well to St. John's, Newfoundland, although he supposed
he was saiHng due west. This statement directly con-
tradicts Mr. Biggar, who thinks the landfall was Cape
Breton, but I must give my allegiance to the Bishop.

Cabot was convinced that he had reached the north-
eastern extremity of Asia, but conditions disappointed
him greatly. He cruised to the southward and a little
to the westward along the southern coast of Newfound-
land. From Cape Race he shaped his course for Eng-
land, arriving in Bristol harbour on Sunday, August
6th, 1497. His enthusiasm led him to promise that on
his next voyage he would reach Cipangu, and then
** London would become a greater depot for species than
Alexandria itself."

In May, 1498, the second expedition, two vessels and
three hundred men, sailed from Bristol. In their com-
pany were several vessels that were engaged regularly

EARLY HISTORY I3

in the Iceland trade, fishing smacks probably. With
Cabot was a Portuguese, Joao Fernandez, called Llav-
rador, who had been from Iceland to Greenland in 1492.
Early in June the east coast of Greenland was sighted,
and inasmuch as Fernandez was the first to report the
landfall, Cabot named the country ''The Labrador's
Land." The ships first cruised to the northward, but
the increasing cold, the ice, and the fact that the land
bore ofT to the eastward, discouraged Cabot and he
turned westward again.

After rounding Cape Farewell, he went up the west
coast of Greenland to the Sukkertoppen district, in
latitude 66°, and was again blocked by the ice. Altering
his course once more, he sighted Bafhn's Land, passed
into Hudson's Straits, and then turned back and went
along the coast of modern Labrador. The Strait of
Belle Isle, between Labrador and Newfoundland, was
assumed to be a bay, and the east coast of Newfound-
land merely a prolongation of the Labrador coast. Some
parts of the country that had been seen on the first
voyage, were revisited; but the disappointment, at
finding no evidence of the Wealth of Ind, was even greater
than it had been before, although the expedition went
as far south as 38°, nearly opposite the Capes of Chesa-
peake Bay. Thence the course was shaped for home,
and the reception accorded the explorers on their arrival
at Bristol was nearly as frigid as the Greenland icebergs.
The English king and merchants were disgusted with
American exploration, and no further expeditions were
sent from Bristol until 1501, and that was not led by
the Cabots.

14 THE COMING CANADA

The Portuguese enterprise in 1500, under the command
of Caspar Corte Reale, achieved practically nothing
new, and about the only evidence remaining of it are
some geographical names. We may, too, pass by the
Bristol venture of 1501, since it accomplished nothing
beyond \dsiting Newfoundland. In 151 1, Spain entered
the list of those seeking advantage in these northern
parts of the North American continent, and during the
next decade many European fishing vessels made yearly
voyages to the Newfoundland Banks.

In 1520, a Portuguese, Joao Alvares Fagundes, of
Vianna (probably Vianna do Castillo in the province of
Entre-Minho Eduardo) explored the coast of Nova
Scotia as well as Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. He
missed the chance to identify the Culf of St. Lawrence
and perhaps discover the river. King Manoel gave
Fagundes title to the islands from Chedabucto to Pla-
centia bays; a grant that was simply productive of
needless compHcation. In 1524-5, the Portuguese,
Stephen Comez, although in command of a Spanish
vessel, applied to the Spanish Court for permission to
seek, between Newfoundland and Florida, for a passage
to the East Indies. He explored the coast as far south
as the island of Nantucket, at least, and then went
south to Santiago in Cuba, where he replenished his
stores and then sailed for Corunna, reaching that port
in June 1525.

In 1527, two vessels, the Samson and the Mary Guild-
ford, fitted out at London to try to find a northwest
passage to the Far East by way of Davis Straits. The
former ship probably foundered with all on board, since

EARLYHISTORY 15

nothing was ever heard of her. The latter did nothing
to add to our fund of information, and when she returned
to England is not known. From 1527 until Jacques
Cartier began his explorations in 1534, fishing vessels
visited the coasts of Canada, Newfoundland, and Green-
land annually; but there are no authentic records of
further attempts to find a northwest passage from the
Atlantic to the Pacific until Cartier's effort. Although
unsuccessful in his prime desire, yet he was really the
first European to discover the territory which was the
nucleus of the great Dominion.

In 1534, Jacques Cartier (sometimes written Quartier),
an experienced navigator of St. Malo, France, was
recommended to Francis I, King of France, as being
competent to secure for his sovereign some advantage
from the effort of his predecessor, Verrazzano. I have
omitted previous mention of this man, because on his
expedition of 1524, for Francis I, he discovered nothing.
He *' approached to the lande that in times past was
discovered by the Britons," and after *' being furnished
with water and wood," he sailed away to Dieppe. Later,
when pilot of the Mary Guildford, he was killed in a
fight with some Indians.

On the 20th of April, 1534, Cartier's two small vessels,
the combined crews numbering some one hundred and
twenty men, sailed from St. Malo. Little was accom-
plished on that first voyage. In the second, which
sailed from the same port on the 19th of May, 1535,
there were three ships, one hundred and ten sailors and
a number of *' gentlemen volunteers." The great river,
St. Lawrence, was discovered and ascended to Hoche-

l6 THE COMING CANADA

laga; that is, modern Montreal. To the hill from which
he had a grand view that assured him of the rich possi-
bihties of the surrounding country, he gave the name of
Mont Royal, around which has grown up the city of
Montreal, one of the world's great ports. Limitations
of space forbid carrying on the historical record, and
already we have reached the time when Canada began.
It is interesting to note that the Indian word Canada
meant simply a village. That it has developed into an
Empire, almost, is one of the astounding facts of history.

CHAPTER II
COLONISATION — TEE FOLKLORE OF CA NADA

ON May 23, 1541, Cartier sailed again from St.
Malo upon his third voyage to Canada. He had
been commissioned Captain-General, and the phrase-
ology of his appointment indicates the French King's
appreciation of the discoverer's merits, for tribute is
paid to ''the character, judgment, ability, loyalty,
dignity, hardihood, great diligence, and experience of
the said Jacques Cartier." While, as his title implies,
the actual navigation of the fleet was entrusted to
Cartier, yet the chief command of the expedition was
given to Jean-Francois de la Roque, superior of Roberval,
who by a royal commission dated January 15, 1540, was
appointed Viceroy and Lieutenant- General of Newfound-
land, Labrador, and Canada. He was empowered to
engage volunteers and emigrants, and if these did not
come forward in sufficient numbers, he might take
persons from the prisons and hulks.

Roberval could not complete his arrangements in
time to satisfy Cartier's impatience, who sailed without
his superior officer. When the two met in the harbour
of St. John's, Newfoundland, the Captain-General
homeward bound after a very trying winter for which
he held the other responsible, and the Lieutenant-
General outward bound to take up his work, Cartier

l8 THE COMING CANADA

deliberately disobeyed the order of his superior to return
with him to the St. Lawrence.

Thus it seems that about sLx years after the French
had formally taken possession of Canada, an attempt
was made to colonise this New France. It was a failure,
however, as were others until the time of Samuel de
Champlain who made his first voyage to the St. Lawrence
in 1603. In 1604, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, sailed
from France with four vessels, well manned and supplied
with whatever was required, both for carrying on the
fur trade and for starting a colony. Two ''were destined
to commence the traffic for the company in peltry
at Tadousac; thence proceeding to range the whole
seaboard of New France, and seize all vessels found traf-
ficking with the natives, in violation of the royal pro-
hibition. The two other vessels were destined to bear
the colonists embarked to such landing-places as should
be agreed upon, and to aid in suitably locating them
afterwards. Several gentlemen volunteers, some soldiers,
and a number of skilled artisans, were embarked in these
vessels." *

De Monts was a Huguenot, and it was ordered that
all French Protestants were to enjoy in America, as in
France at that time, full freedom for their public
worship. It was distinctly asserted, however, that they
should take no part in native proselytising; the privi-
lege and duty of converting the Indians being reserved
exclusively for the Roman Cathohc clergy.

Under De Monts, who had been appointed Lieutenant-
Governor by King Henry IV, were de Champlain, Pont-

* History of Canada, Andrew Bell, Vol. I, p. 74-

THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 19

Grave (a mercenary wretch), Poutrincourt, a nobleman
who had decided to take his family and settle in America,
and a lawyer who was subsequently to become a cele-
brated historian, Lescarbot. This expedition did not
go direct to the St. Lawrence, or Canada proper, but to
that part of New France then called Acadia (Nova
Scotia). Even this beginning did not develop into a
colony without undergoing many discouraging vicissi-
tudes, and later attention was almost concentrated in
the valley of the St. Lawrence. It must be admitted
that so far as Canada was concerned, the French did
not display great ability in colonisation; for on the loth
of February, 1763, when by the terms of the Treaty of
Paris, all French possessions in North America, east of
the Mississippi were transferred to Great Britain, the
navigation of the river being thrown open to the subjects
of both Powers (the city of New Orleans was excepted),
the total population of New France did not much exceed
80,000 souls, and even this estimate is declared by some
authorities to be over liberal. When from that number
are subtracted those representing the civilian officials
and their families, the members of the rehgious orders,
the officers and men of the army and navy, and the many
others who cannot be classed as immigrant settlers, the
number of actual colonists is reduced to insignificant
proportions.

These French settlers, habitants they call themselves,
brought from their European homes the folklore tales,
songs, legends, etc., of their native places. While these
have, naturally, undergone some modification, they
even now betray distinct signs of their origin, so that

20 THE COMING CANADA

as Dr. Benjamin Suite says, when a person listens
attentively to the stories told at the hearth of the
habitant's home, he can quickly determine from what
part of Old France the ancestors of that particular farm
or hamlet came, centuries ago.

As a consequence, therefore, none of the French Cana-
dian folklore gives any suggestion of originality or
spontaneity. It is all exotic; but it has frequently
been given a touch of local colouring which may readily
deceive the uninitiated into assuming that the stories
are indigenous. Hence it is not surprising that in the
different districts of the province of Quebec, where the
direct descendants of the original French colonists are
more numerous than in any other part of the Dominion,
there are variations of the story of Le Loup Garoux, that
French tale which either owes its being to the influence
of the old Norse legend of ''The Were Wolf," or which
had its origin in the same primary source.

Conditions of life in the earliest days of New France
were just such as would tend to make the unlettered
peasants find in their surroundings everything needed
to bring up the machinations of a fiendish Indian to take
upon himself the shape of the Were Wolf and bring
terror to themselves. There was the snow of winter;
there was the mysterious death of someone who ventured
into the forest; there were the bloody tracks of the wolf;
and there were the prints of other, human, footsteps.
Perhaps, too, even one of their own people might have
committed some crime that, until expiated and absolved
by the priest, would condemn the unfortunate person
to carry out all the horrible details of the dreadful

THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 21

story. It is, perhaps, a little too much for one who has
not had the opportunity for thorough study, to say that
the preponderance of the weird and alarming in the
French Canadian folklore is noticeable; yet such has
seemed to me to be the case.

I have never known people who are seemingly so con-
tradictory as the Canadian habitants. They are friendly,
polite, hospitable, and industrious of course. They give
a welcome to any stranger who can converse with them
in the language they still love, even though they are
loyal British subjects; and rarely have I found any of
them who have the slightest desire to return to French
allegiance. Upon the possibility of transfer to citizen-
ship in the United States, they look with scorn and horror.
But he who wishes to get them to talk about themselves,
their myths, and their interesting folklore, must prove
himself to be a Frenchman or a very exceptional English-
man, and then make it clear that his sympathy is the
sterling article.

If the folklore of the Canadiens is rarely anything
more than the transplanted legends of northwestern
France — Brittany most especially — there are some
stories which these people still tell that have a distinctly
local origin and colouring. When sailing up or down the
St. Lawrence River below Quebec, the steamer passes,
about thirty miles down stream from the old city, a
group of islands, most of them small. As these are just
about the middle of the stream, it is very necessary to
navigate cautiously and the attention of the pilot is
therefore concentrated upon the task in hand. But
when he has a few minutes leisure, and if he is a French-

22 THE COMING CANADA

Canadian (as is very likely to be the case), he will
doubtless tell the following story.

The largest one of the group of islands is now called
Crane's Island, and from a time in the early days of
New France until not so very long ago, there was a
handsome chateau near the western end of the island.
At least it was, no doubt, a handsome structure when
first built; but after the episode, upon which this tale
is founded, it was neglected by everybody and the habi-
tants looked upon it as haunted. Therefore they shunned
it, and as there was no one to care for it, it must have
gone to ruin very fast so that there is now no sign of it.

When New France was beginning to lose some of its
horrors, and had gained a somewhat better reputation
than it had had in the days of Jacques Cartier and his
immediate successors, the attention of even the French
nobility was sometimes turned towards America. One
of these courtiers was a young nobleman who is said to
have been very handsome, very popular at Court, and
very gay; and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
that meant a good deal at the Court of France.

This gay young courtier married a lady of good family.
She was his equal in rank; she was renowned for her
great beauty; but she was equally famous for her
imperious disposition. She would not put up quietly
with the pointed and open attentions that her husband
showed the other ladies of the Court, and she took her
lord sharply to task for his unseemly behaviour. He met
her complaint with the rather startling proposition that
they leave Old France and settle in New France, where,
he said, there would be little danger of anything happen-

THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 23

ing in the way of gallantry to arouse the jealousy of
either one.

To his surprise, and quite likely to his disappointment,
the lady accepted the suggestion and they soon sailed
for Quebec. As they passed up the beautiful St. Law-
rence, the romantic wildness of the valley fascinated
the lady, and she chose the Isle des Grues, only a short
distance below the much larger Isle d' Orleans, as the
place for their future home. In due course of time Le
Chateau le Grand, as they called it, was finished and the
couple took possession.

For several years the idyllic beauty of the spot, the
novelty of the Hfe, and the occupation of conquering
wild Nature seemed to satisfy both Monsieur and
Madame; but bye and bye her ladyship came to note
that her husband was frequently absent from home at
night, and although his reasons for doing so appeared
to be plausible, Madame was not satisfied with them,
therefore she determined to find out something for
herself.

One evening she followed him to the southern shore
of the river and found him taking part in an Indian
dance accompanied by decidedly Bacchanalian revels,
and disporting himself in an altogether unseemly fashion
with an Indian beauty. Madame had partly disguised
herself with a long cloak, and as she stepped into the
circle of dancers, the Indians thought her something
uncanny and every one of them fled, leaving my lord
and my lady facing each other and alone. With her
characteristic imperiousness, but without speaking a
wordj she waved her hand towards the river bank and

24 THE COMING CANADA

he followed her to the boats. They returned to the
chateau where Madame exacted from her lord a promise
that he would never again leave the island. He agreed,
and there they lived for the few years that remained of
the man's life. But the place was no longer the bower
of bliss it had been and they were unhappy. When
the husband died, the widow promptly returned to
France and the chateau was abandoned. The Indians
looked askance upon it, and their prejudice was com-
municated to the French immigrants, so that even to
this day Crane Island is not liked so well as the neigh-
bouring country. Mothers sometimes quiet fractious
children by threatening to leave them at the end of the
island where there are ghosts.

Then, still farther down the river, indeed now well
into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is another spot
about which les habitants tell a weird story. South of
Gaspe Peninsula, near the shore of the bay where Jacques
Cartier planted a cross in 1534 and took possession of
the whole country in the name of the Kjng of France,
there is an enormous rock called Le Roche perce, because
the breakers have bored a hole through it, leaving an
arch which easily suggests the name, ''Pierced Rock."
It is some two hundred and fifty feet or more high, and
between live hundred and six hundred feet long. The
top is fairly level and the sides are very steep, almost
perpendicular. Of itself, the rock is sufficient to attract
attention, and it lends itself readily to the strange
stories that are told about it.

One of these is that among the members of one of
Cartier's later expeditions, there was a young man of

"PlLKClJ) KoCK," I KOM SniAMER

Preparing Fish, Pierced Rock, N. B.

THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 2$

Brittany who was engaged to a maiden at home. He
did not care to take her with him when he first went to
America; but upon arriving in Canada he concluded
that it was quite safe for her to join him, and so he
wrote for her to come to Quebec.

She compHed promptly; but the vessel on which she
took passage was captured by a Spanish pirate and
every soul on board, except herself, was put to death.
The Spanish captain was so enamoured with her beauty
that he vowed she should be his wife. The girl refused
to listen to him, and then the brute declared he would
sail up the St. Lawrence right past the town of Quebec,
and there, where her lover could see, he would kill her.
This fiendish threat so affected the maiden's mind that,
as the ship came near the mouth of the river, she threw
herself into the sea. The Spaniards lowered boats and
tried to save her but she had disappeared and they put
the ship on her course.

Presently, however, a sailor reported to the skipper
that he could see the form of a woman swimming ahead
of the vessel and drawing it off the course towards a
great cliff. All effort on the part of the helmsman to
hold the ship away from the rocks was unavailing, and
in spite of all that the officers and crew could do, the
vessel crashed against the cliff and instantly ship and
crew were all changed into stone and became a part of
the great rock itself.

The people of the neighbourhood will tell the visitor
that until not very many years ago the shape of the ship
could be distinctly seen on the face of the cHff. They
still declare that one bit of rather pointed rock is the

26 THE COMING CANADA

bowsprit of the vessel of that Spanish abductor who,
with his cowardly crew, was so justly punished, hundreds
of years ago. The faithful maiden's ghost is declared
to haunt the spot; yet — strange as it must sound —
this wraith is not thought of or spoken about as some-
thing awful by the habitants. They say she is very
beautiful, but sad, of course; and when the last trace
of the unlucky ship disappears, the ghost will be seen
no more. She appears at sunset only; for that was the
time of day when she threw herself into the sea. The
Gaspe folks declare that no fisherman would dare to
set a line for fish at that hour; because if he did mis-
fortune would be sure to follow.

Of the folklore of Canadian Indians and Eskimos,
there is such an abundant supply in English translations
at the command of my readers, that I shall not introduce
any here. The field has not yet been exhausted, how-
ever, because there are still some which have not been
put into English; while there are others that are yet in
French only. As acquaintance is made with Indians
and Eskimos of the far north, who have not hitherto
been visited by competent observers, we shall probably
have interesting additions made to our stock of folklore.
Those who desire to pursue this entertaining subject,
are referred to the bibhography, wherein they will find
a number of titles of books which will fully satisfy them.
So far as purely Indian folklore alone is concerned, it
must be remembered that there is much mingling of
myths and legends of the Indians in the United States
with those of the Dominion.

CHAPTER III
TEE BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE

FRANCIS PARKMAN, in his volume Pioneers of
France in the New World, devotes ten chapters
to the European explorations into the southern part of
the continent of North America, and especially to vari-
ous sections in the southern portion of what is now the
United States. These chapters cover the period from
1512 to 1574 A.D.

In the second part of the same volume, Parkman,
taking the general title of Cham plain and His Associates,
discusses traditional French discoveries as far back as
1488, and continues his narrative down to the death of
Champlain at Quebec, on Christmas Day, 1635.

It should be borne in mind that several recent Cana-
dian historians differ somewhat from Parkman as to
statement of facts; and some of these take issues openly
with him as to the correctness of conclusions drawn.
These Canadians are not in the least influenced by
patriotic jealousy; they write or speak with the more
exact knowledge gained from superior opportunity. As
a concrete example of this, may be cited the credit that
Parkman seems to give to Father Marquette, in his
volume La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West. All
competent authorities with whom I have conversed on
this subject, Frenchmen and Englishmen, Anghcans

28 THE COMING CANADA

and Romanists, are vehement in denouncing the palpable
effort of the priest to magnify his own importance in
the expedition which Louis Joliet undertook, in 1672-3,
for the discovery of the Mississippi River, and in which
he was successful. Marquette does not explicitly claim
anything; but he is thoroughly Jesuitical in his narra-
tive, Voyages et decouverte de quelques pays et nations de
VAmerique Septentrionale, and makes collaboration con-
spicuous. Whereas the fact is that he forced himself
upon Joliet, who was thoroughly trained for his enter-
prise ; while Marquette was constantly an embarrassment
and impediment to the real explorer and discoverer. To
Joliet and to him alone belongs the credit of having dis-
covered the Mississippi. The claim at one time brought
forward in La Salle's behalf has been sufficiently and
finally discredited.

But with Parkman's book to give a general outHne
and many interesting particulars, it is hardly necessary
to do more here than run rapidly over the list of those
whose names are conspicuous among the pioneers of
France in trying (most of them unsuccessfully) to gain
possession of the great territory which had been added
to French dominions, north of the St. Lawrence River
and the Great Lakes. Besides, it is not so much my
purpose to discuss further the scanty successes and the
greater failures of the French, as it is to attempt to deal
with the more successful efforts of the British to create
the Dominion of Canada.

Roberval, the first to give what was apparently any-
thing but serious attention to the scheme of colonising
New France, had a string of grandiose titles conferred

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 29

upon him, and he was, moreover, aided in his enterprise
by a substantial grant from the royal treasury of France.
Yet, looking back upon the record of his acts, it is now
a simple matter of fact to say that his efforts resulted
in absolute failure. This is not surprising, for Roberval
manifestly possessed none of the attributes of a successful
pioneer and coloniser of the wild region which Canada
was in the first half of the sixteenth century; even when
we restrict that name to the shores of Nova Scotia,
Acadia, and the narrow fringes along the St. Lawrence
River hardly reaching beyond Montreal.

Roberval was totally devoid of tact. He was a stern
man without proper control of his temper, as is clearly
indicated by his cruelty to his own niece, Marguerite.
This young woman, to be sure, had passed beyond the
bounds of decorum in her love for a gentleman in her
uncle's company. This was a grave offence, and her
punishment was to be marooned on the dreaded Island
of Demons in the Straits of Belle Isle; a lonely spot
that was supposed to be the haunt of evil spirits and wild
beasts. It was intended to leave her there with only
an old nurse who had lent her assistance in promoting
the illicit intercourse of the young people. Her lover,
however, followed her by swimming to the island. He
died, as did the child who was born, and the old nurse,
leaving Marguerite alone. After an experience which
is horrible in the narrative, she was at last rescued and
returned to France.

It is certain that Roberval's effort to plant a colony
at Cape Rouge, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence,
was a ghastly failure; whether we accept Thevet's

30 THE COMING CANADA

account in his Cosmographie or the more lenient one of
others. The iron hand of the Viceroy bore so heavily
that ''even the Indians were moved to pity, and they
wept at the sight of the colonists' woes." The King of
France, Francis I, needing the services of Roberval,
sent Cartier to fetch him home in 1543. *'It is said that,
in after years, the Viceroy essayed to re-possess himself
of his Transatlantic domain, and lost his life in the
attempt. Thevet, on the other hand, with ample means
of learning the truth, affirms that Roberval was slain
at night, near the Church of the Innocents, in the heart
of Paris." *

For many years after this disastrous failure, nothing
was done to develop New France. Then, in 1598
according to the best authorities, Marquis de la Roche
made a bargain with the King of France, Henry IV,
by which he covenanted to colonise New France in
return for a grant of the monopoly of trade. As usual,
the concession from the king was accompanied by a
profusion of worthless titles and empty privileges. We
may gain a very good idea of what was likely to be the
result of La Roche's effort, when we know that his
colonists were a gang of thieves, murderers, and first-
class villains, dragged from the prisons of France and
left on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. Per-
haps it was an accident that La Roche's ship and his
few reputable followers were driven out to sea and clear
across the Atlantic; but we may have our doubts. The
outcasts were rescued in September, 1603, but only
eleven survived.

* Parkman, op. cit.

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 31

The expedition of Pontgrave and Chauvin was not
a serious attempt at colonising: it was simply a com-
mercial venture. A company of sixteen men was landed
at Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay River, and
left there with the expectation that they would accu-
mulate a large number of furskins. This was in the
autumn, and being insufhciently supplied with stores
and having no adequate means of contending with
disease — the scurvy especially — a number of them
died during the winter. In the spring all the rest went
into the forest and were cared for, after a fashion, by
friendly Indians.

With the advent of Champlain (in Canada 1603 to
1635), whose untiring efforts at exploring, surve>ang,
and sounding were the beginning of Canadian cartog-
raphy, we may say that the colonising and developing
of Canada commenced. It was, however, a very feeble
effort as compared with what was soon to be done by
the English in their colonies to the southward. Indeed,
there runs through the whole of the history of the French
regime in Canada, a complaint of lack of well-directed
colonising effort on the part of the home government;
of rapacity by civiHan officials in New France; and of
seeming inability on the part of the colonists themselves
to adapt themselves to new and strange conditions of
life. All these combined to retard colonisation and to
make the limited success more conspicuous by contrast
with the mammoth failures, than because of their own
merit. French historians do not hesitate to declare
that English effort, in colonising North America, was
far more successful than that of their own countrymen;

32 THE COMING CANADA

and this not alone because of an advantage for the
former m situation and climate.

Remembering the zeal displayed by the Roman
Catholic Church in the matter of religious propaganda
amongst the heathen peoples in all parts of the world
to whom access had been given its missionaries by the
discoveries and explorations of the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth centuries, it is a little surprising that
in none of the earliest companies of adventurers going
from France to North America, were there any priests
or evangelists.

Apparently, not until April, 1615, when Champlain
sailed from Harfleur on his third voyage does it seem
that there was any effort made to spread a knowledge
of the Christian religion among the Indians. What is
more astonishing, however, is that the small companies
of traders and settlers which had gone to America before
that date, seem to have been neglected in this important
matter.

When Champlain left France at that time, there
were in his company four members of the subdivision
of the Franciscan order of monks. This branch were
called Rccollets. They were noted for the great strict-
ness which ruled their lives, and especially for the im-
portance which they attached to preaching the Gospel
as well as ministering to the body and soul. The Recol-
lets who accompanied Champlain at that time were
declared by him to be the most intelligent persons in
the colony. They took with them all the appurtenances,
ornaments, and sacred vessels needed for use in the
permanent places of worship which they intended to

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 33

establish at once. They had, besides, other similar
material for the portable chapels they would take with
them into the wilderness. Champlain at once gave
consent to the opening of regular Church services at
the three principal trading posts of the colony, Quebec,
Three Rivers, and Tadousac.

From that year, 161 5, the history of the French colony
in Canada, as well as that of the gradual extension of
discovery and occupation westward, is closely con-
nected with the efforts of the Roman Catholic mission-
aries, to whose ministrations alone — it will be recollected
— was entrusted the sacred privilege of trj'ing to convert
the Indians. The colonists themselves were permitted
to conform to any ritual they chose; but no Protestant
was officially deemed competent to proselyte.

One of the RecoUets, Rev. Father Joseph le Caron,
was sent, soon after his arrival, into the distant regions
held by the Huron tribes, a section of the continent that,
until then, had never been visited by Europeans. When
Le Caron started from Quebec on his mission, Cham-
plain accompanied him for a time. But the mission
of the Viceroy was not of the same peaceful nature as
that of the priest. Champlain went for the purpose,
he hoped, of chastising the Iroquois, and this was the
third expedition against these troublesome natives.

We may well read a lesson in this singularly contra-
dictory aUiance, for it is typical of the whole history of
Canada until well into the nmeteenth century. The
missionary was to preach the doctrine of peace; the
soldier was attempting to control or punish the Indians
with sword and shot. There is temptation to dwell

34 THE COMING CANADA

Upon the respective rights of white man and red; the
latter dispossessed of his estates by the former without
adequate compensation: but history has been made,
and history repeats itself all the world over.

Le Caron's first mission outpost was probably at the
northern end of Lake Simcoe, which is connected by a
broad channel, or river, with Georgian Bay of Lake
Huron. It was at or near the modern village of Orillia.
Here he settled down to study the Indian language and
to do what he could, through example, to interest the
natives in the services of his Church. It was a most
intrepid thing to do; many would then have called it
foolhardy, just as some do similar effort to-day.

In going by the Grand Trunk Railway from Toronto
north to join the Canadian Pacific's transcontinental
line at North Bay (before the latter had built its own
connection from Toronto to Romford Junction), I
passed through the territory in which the priest Le
Caron had laboured nearly three hundred years previ-
ously. Shorn as all that part of the Province of Ontario
now is of timber, and traversed by railways or abundantly
supplied with good roads, it was impossible to form
even a faint idea of the difficulties which that missionary
must have overcome; first to reach that remote out-
station, and second to maintain himself and his mission.

It was a comparatively easy matter to go from Quebec
to Montreal by canoe or larger boat, provided no war-
party of the Iroquois molested. Above Montreal, it
was difficult to get past the Lachine Rapids, although
it was done frequently; and until reaching about to
the site of the present town of Prescott, navigation was

Meadow Land, B. C.

Fording Moose River, B. C.

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 35

not altogether easy. But after that, by the river,
through The Thousand Islands and along the northern
shore of Lake Ontario, the voyage was again easy. But
from the lake shore, even the forty miles to the southern
end of Lake Simcoe was, in 16 15, a task from which most
people would recoil. Because, not only was there an
almost impenetrable forest, but the swamps and numer-
ous watercourses added enormously to the difficulty.

A few years later, the Recollet mission was strength-
ened numerically by the coming of more priests and
some lay brothers, who pushed forward to stations
even beyond Lake Simcoe into the remotest Huron
settlements. One of these newer priests was the Rev.
Father Gabriel Sagard, who later wrote a history of
Canada. To the efforts of those two, Le Caron and
Sagard, was due the measure of success which was
achieved in securing peace between the Iroquois and
the Hurons, and, incidentally, reheving the French
settlements for a time from the depredations and mur-
derous onslaughts of the former.

The Recollets — for the branch was a mendicant
order — were hampered by their poverty; and when
the Due de Ventadour obtained King Louis XIII's
authority to assume temporarily the viceroyalty of
New France, a union was effected between the Recollets
and the wealthy Jesuits. In the first company of the
latter that went to Canada, was the famous Charles
Lallemant (variants of spelUng), who became the inti-
mate friend and spiritual adviser of Champlain when
he was again made viceroy. Lallemant attended his
patron and charge at the time of his death.

36 THE COMING CANADA

The reception given the Jesuits when they landed at
Quebec was extremely cool. On arriving in June, 1625,
no one offered to shelter them, and they were on the
point of accepting the offer of Emery de Caen, then
Governor of Quebec, to send them home. But at last
the Recollets tendered them hospitality, and very soon
they set about creating their own establishment, chapel,
residences, fields, orchards.

In 1629 Champlain was compelled to surrender Quebec
to the three English brothers. Sir David, Louis, and
Thomas Kirke, who promised that the churches, build-
ings, and property of both Jesuits and Recollets, as well
as certain other property of exceptional non-combatants,
should be respected and protected. Three years later,
when by treaty with England New France was restored
to France, the great Cardinal Richelieu decided that it
was not expedient to have in the colony more than a
single order. Preference being given the Jesuits, the
Recollets withdrew for the time being.

It is a heavy indictment against our much vaunted
civilisation, but we must admit that we have to skip
over three centuries, before we find any great deal
of fairness in the treatment which Europeans generally
gave to the Indians of North America. There are, it
is pleasing to admit, several exceptions to the rule.
Those will at once be recalled by students, but they
seem to make the general fact all the more discreditable
and unsatisfactory. For the last hundred years, it is
to Canada's credit that official, collective, and individual
treatment of the Indians has been in nearly every way
better than the similar record in the United States.

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 37

We speak of "The Noble Red Man" as if that descrip-
tive title had been devised originally by Europeans.
But the appellation ''Red Man" or ''Red People" was
used by the American savages long before the arrival
of the white men, who are admitted by all historians to
have been the first European visitors. Passing by every-
thing that the Norsemen may have done in bestowing
names which described people or places, it is clear that
when the first French explorers came in touch with the
Beothiks or Red Indians of Newfoundland, they already
called themselves "Red." The title is a translation of
the Micmac name for themselves, Maqnajik, which
means "Red Men" or "Red People."*

If, and the fact is hardly to be disputed, Verrazzano,
Cabot, and others perhaps, made the acquaintance of
the North American Indians, they did very little that
redounds to their credit when dealing with the naked
savages. So far as Canada is concerned, we may say
that Jacques Cartier's act on Friday, the 24th of June,
1534, was the beginning of actual intercourse between
civilised Europeans and wild Americans.

The episode is treated in the most opposite ways by
historians; some condemn, others approve. The fact
seems to be that, after ha\dng explored the coast of
Labrador as far north as a place he called Bld7ic Sahlon
(probably the narrow strip of sandy beach below the
mouth of the Hamilton River), discovered the insular
character of Newfoundland, seen Cape Breton and New
Brunswick, Car tier passed along the southern coast of

* Conf. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Sec. II, 1891. Rev. George
Patterson, D.D., The Beothiks or Red Indians oj Newfoundland.

38 THE COMING CANADA

Gaspe Peninsula. He was so much better pleased with
the appearance of the country and the character of the
soil including even the Magdalen Islands, that he said
of Isle Byron, " one acre of it is worth the whole of New-
foundland." Of Labrador, he had declared *'it might,
as well as not, be taken for the country assigned by God
to Cain."

He concluded that it was his duty towards his king,
as well as in the interest of religion and for the welfare
of the savages, to take formal possession of the whole
country, and he probably had in mind all there was of
the New World to the north and to the west. To what
extent he recognised the claims of others to the south-
ward, is not very clear.

He therefore had a great wooden cross, thirty feet
high, raised at the entrance to the Bay of Chaleurs.
Many Indians witnessed this ceremony and looked with
astonished interest upon the three fleurs de lys, which
were carved on the cross, and the inscription "Vive le
Roy de France,'' that was cut in the wood. The French-
men all fell on their knees in a circle about the cross and
united in prayers, raising their hands towards Heaven,
"as if to show that by the cross came their redemption,"
that is, to the heathen savages.

After the Frenchmen had returned from tliis ceremony
to their vessel, some of the natives went alongside in
their canoes, among them being the chief, his three sons,
and his brother. The cliief protested, as well as he
could, against the act of the strangers, and indicated
by his gestures that he and his people owned all that
territory. He made it clear that the Indians considered

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 39

the French had no right to plant that cross and seem to
take possession of everything.

Whether, as some authorities state, Cartier placated
this chief and persuaded him to allow two of his sons to
accompany him to France, in order that they might be
shown at Court and trained to act as interpreters; or,
as the less charitable contend, he forcibly abducted the
two young men, is not clear. It is agreed by all, however,
that two young Indians did go to France when Cartier
returned from his first voyage to Canada, and that it
was from them he heard of the great St. Lawrence River.
His effort to confirm or disprove their statement led to
the discovery on the next voyage, when the two Indians,
now. competent to act as interpreters and guides, were
returned to their friends.

Again Cartier was received amicably by the Indians,
(a fact which tends to discredit the statement that he
had used force and treachery to get possession of the
two young men), and at first he himself seems to have
tried to give the natives no good reason to fear the
Europeans. Yet he mistrusted the Indians, and prob-
ably that mistrust was reciprocated by the savages, for
they kept a close watch upon the intruders.

But at the conclusion of his second visit, Cartier
abandoned his policy of uninterrupted kindness; for
in May, when ready to sail for home, after another
cross-planting and possession-taking, he induced a chief
— who is called Donacona — and several others to go
on board. Then he seized him, the two interpreters,
and seven warriors, whom he proposed to carry off to
France to present them to the King. This was a piece

40 THE COMING CANADA

of crass stupidity, and utterly obliterated the good effect
of whatever tact, prudence, and sense of justice Cartier
had previously displayed.

As all the captives had died in France, when Cartier
returned to Canada after an absence of five years, the
reception given him by the Indians was distant, sullen,
defiant, as was but natural on learning that their chief
and their friends had not been returned to them. I pay
no attention to the dissimulation about the fate of those
Indians which Cartier is said to have resorted to.

If that was the beginning of intercourse between
Frenchmen, contemplating settlement in New France,
and the natives, we have no reason to be surprised that
the success which marked the effort was as small as it
is stated to have been. Whichever record we read, we
must admit that intercourse was, as a rule, not happy.
The constant effort of the missionaries may have been
along better lines; and there are exceptionally bright
cases among the officials; but the motives which gov-
erned the average Frenchman, and the inherent character
of the Indian, made assimilation and concord as difficult
as is the mingling of oil and water.

When British rule in Canada was firmly established,
and after the Indians were chastised into showing fear
and respect for the power of their conquerors, condi-
tions mended. The Dominion Government has for a
very long time exercised the most admirable care in
protecting the Indians, in trying to elevate them socially,
and to preserve them physically. It is, however, an
almost hopeless task. For one reason, the average
Indian maiden, if she possesses any charm of mind or

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 4I

manner, is sought in marriage by white men, and when
allowed to make her own choice gives preference to the
white man over her own people. The Noble Red Man
does not always thrive in modern civilisation, and slowly
but surely the pure strain of blood is flowing away.

The behef — or perhaps it would be more charitable
and equally exact to say, the hope — that the much
desired passage to the East Indies, might yet be found
through or around America to the northward, obsessed
the French Canadians for a very long time. Even
Champlain, practical as he was in most matters, listened
only too willingly to the declaration of the impostor,
Nicolas du Vignau. This fellow declared he had, in
part, discovered such a route in 161 2, by going from
Lake Nipissing to Hudson's Bay.

Champlain, on the strength of this statement, went to
the lake determined to prosecute the search. But the
friendly Indian chief, Tessouat, proved conclusively that
Vignau was a liar, and he demanded that Champlain
punish the deceiver with death. The governor con-
tented himself with administering a sharp rebuke, and
then he returned disappointed to Quebec.

Yet it could not be that the French would remain
passive while there stretched before them the great
western and northern parts of the continent. It would
be tedious to mention all the efforts of the colonial
government in erecting frontier forts, those of the mis-
sionaries in establishing remote stations, and of the
coureurs des hois, as well as other traders, in making
more or less permanent trading posts. All of these
were gradually pushing forward the line of civilisation.

42 THE COMING CANADA

The most important move in conquering the wilder-
ness, was the discovery of the Mississippi River. Joliet,
with his Httle company, including Father Marquette,
descended the great stream to the mouth of the Arkansas.
It may be interesting to note here that had Joliet's right,
as discoverer, to christen the river been recognised, it
would now be called the Colbert River, for, when mak-
ing his report to Governor Frontenac, he wrote, ''this
great river, which bears the name of Colbert, from having
been discovered lately in consequence of the orders
given by you, passes from beyond lakes Huron and
Michigan, and flows through Florida and Mexico into
the sea, intersecting the most beautiful region there is
to be seen in the world." The name was, of course, a
compliment to Jean Baptiste Colbert, the French states-
man and financier.

If we deny to Robert la Salle the honour of discovering
the Mississippi, by that means being the first to know
the stream, we cheerfully accord him the distinction of
being the first to navigate the river from far in the north
to the sea, in 1682. It was he who claimed the entire
basin for his King, and in honour of that sovereign, he
named it Louisiana. La Salle also established many
outposts and greatly extended French importance
among the western Indians.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, unmis-
takable signs of friction between the French and English
became evident, and this prevented official effort to
extend western exploration. It was about this same
period, too, that the family name, Le Moyne, appears
conspicuously in Canadian records. While the two

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 43

brothers, Charles and Jacques, born in France, were
the Canadian progenitors of tliis remarkable family
and themselves entitled to much commendation, it is
to the members of the second generation in Charles'
family that most credit is due. There were fourteen
children in this brood, all of whom achieved fame or
died gloriously in the cause of their country. To each
of the eleven sons was given, in addition to the family
name, a surname taken from a village or noted place
near Dieppe, the ancestral home. It is the third, Pierre
Le Moyne, as Sieur d'Iberville, who has been given, by
an admiring historian, the added title of ''The First
Great Canadian." The Le Moynes, however, had less
to do with extending the frontiers of New France than
with defending the borders from what they considered
to be unlawful incursions by other European nations;
as will be seen in the next chapter.

The progress made by the French in proper western
extension, was exceedingly slow. When the historian
and Jesuit missionary, Pierre Frangois Xavier de Charle-
voix, visited Canada in 1720, and after giving a consider-
able time to carefully observation, he stated that the
colony was virtually restricted to narrow fringes along
both shores of the St. Lawrence River and the few
settlements in the maritime provinces. Above Montreal,
he declared, the country was entirely unsettled by
Europeans, excepting some small, inadequately fortified
posts and blockhouses; such as Frontenac, at Catara-
coni, just below the present Kingston, Niagara, at the
mouth of the river, Detroit, and IMichillimakinac, on
the St. Mary's River where it empties into Lake Huron

44 THE COMING CANADA

from Lake Superior. Of the character of the people
in the towns and settlements along the St. Lawrence,
this entertaining observer writes intelligently and in
quite a complimentary manner. The comparison which
he draws between EngHsh and French colonists is not
only correct, but instructive. He probably did not
reaHse, when he penned his analysis, that the very
traits which he lauds in the French and condemns in
the English, thrift, acquisitiveness, energy, were to be
the potent factors in the downfall of French Canada.

About the middle of the eighteenth century, there
were three recognised lanes of communication between
Canada and Louisiana. One went from Lake Erie by
the Riviere aux Boeufs and the Allegheny River to the
Ohio, and down that stream to the Mississippi. Another
left the southern end of Lake Michigan, at a point about
where Chicago now stands, and after a portage to the
navigable waters of the Illinois River, followed that
stream to the Mississippi. The third passed from Green
Bay, Lake Michigan, into Fox River, and by portage
from Lake Oshkosh and its tributaries, reached the
Wisconsin River and so into the Mississippi very far up
stream.

Fort de Chartres, in the vicinity of the present town of
Chester, Illinois, some distance north of the Ohio's
mouth, was the most advanced outpost of the Louisiana
settlements. The first of the intercommunicating lanes
which have been mentioned, and by far the most im-
portant, was protected by a number of fortified posts,
stretching southward and westward from Lakes Ontario
and Erie; and it was along this road that troubles were

^''''P^'jkJaj^=iJg^5rr"^I2r

Canadian Northern Railway Elevator, Port Arthur, Ont.
Capacity, 7,500,000 bushels

Beach at Little Metis, Quebec Province

BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 45

doomed to occur very soon between the French and the
EngKsh. It will be c\ident, however, that the most
westward forts of New France had not begun to reach
half way across the continent.

In 1 73 1, the Canadian authorities determined to put
into effect a plan that had been discussed as far back as
1 7 18. This was an attempt to send an expedition
overland to the Pacific. Governor de Beauharnais,
after consultation with Pierre- Gauthier de Varennes,
Sieur de la Verendrye, appointed him to take charge of
the venture. This was not only because of the gentle-
man's personal traits, but for the added reason that
experience in trafficking \nth the western Indians had
brought him considerable knowledge of that remote
country. In an incidental expedition, before the main
object had been fairly undertaken, the eldest son of
M. de la Verendrye, the Jesuit priest Father Alneau or
Auneau, and twenty voyageurs were murdered by Sioux
Indians on an island in the Lake of the Woods. But
the remainder prosecuted the exploration, and on Janu-
ary I, 1743, they were the first Europeans to see the
Rocky Mountains: thence they returned to Quebec.
The expedition had lasted from April 29, 1742, to July
2, 1743. Although the senior Verendrye endeavoured
to push his claim to be allowed to continue the explora-
tion, it was disallowed. So far as the French were con-
cerned, it does not appear that they went to the top of
the mountains, or beyond them.

This is a very brief, but reasonably complete sketch
of French effort at western exploration. The more
successful attempts of the British will appear from time

46 THE COMING CANADA

to time in subsequent sections. But I cannot close
this chapter without reference to Mr. Lawrence J.
Burpee's paper, The Lake of the Woods^ Tragedy,* and
his monograph on La Verendrye and the discovery of
the Rocky Mountains, one volume in the forthcoming
History of Canada, now being written imder the direc-
tion of Dr. Arthur G. Doughty, C.M.G., Dominion
Archivist, as editor in chief. To the latter monumental
work, all students of American history will be ever-
lastingly indebted.

* Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Sec. II, 1903.

CHAPTER IV
THE GREAT HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

BEFORE discussing the English company, it is
interesting to consider the efforts of the French
and others to reach the North Sea, as they called Hud-
son Bay. Sebastian Cabot discovered this body of
water in 15 12, but after that it was so completely for-
gotten or overlooked, that it is said to have been re-dis-
covered by Henry Hudson in 16 10, when he was trying
to find a northwest passage through to the Pacific Ocean.
It was not on Hudson's first voyage to this part of the
world that he pushed as far westward as the bay which
deservedly bears his name. In 1607, he had made, in
the employ of the Muscovy Company, an unsuccessful
effort to get round Greenland.

At that time his vessel was the Hopewell, sixty tons
burden, and carrying a crew of ten men and a boy.
This little craft had been to the same region twenty-
nine years before, under Sir Martin Frobisher's com-
mand. The temptation to dwell upon Frobisher's
voyage must be resisted; for while it is interesting, it
is somewhat irrelevant. In 16 10, Hudson made another
attempt. This time his vessel was the Discoverie, of
seventy tons and with a somewhat larger crew than the
EopeweWs. He reached the bay; but the next summer
the majority of his crew mutinied, put liim, his son,
and seven men into a small boat and set them adrift.

48 THE COMING CANADA

What became of these unfortunates no one knows, but
imagination can readily supply the conclusion of the
awful story. The leaders of the mutiny and most of
the remainder of the men died, but the Discoverie safely
reached England, and she was again used by Sir Thomas
Butler in a similar enterprise a few years later. Again,
in 1 6 13 and 16 14 Hudson Bay was visited by English-
men, and the place surveyed.

In 1 65 1, the Jesuits, after having gone up the Saguenay
River to Lake St. John four years before, made their
way overland from the lake to a point about half the
distance to James Bay, the deep, southern bight of
Hudson Bay. Their object was to reach the natives
who had asked that missionaries be sent to them. In
1 66 1, the unsuccessful expedition under M. la VaUiere,
Father Dablon, and others, was sent to try to reach
Hudson Bay by the same route; but the dread of the
Iroquois discouraged the Indian guides, who pretended
ignorance of the country, and the party returned. In
1656, Jean Bourdon, in a small craft of only thirty tons
burden, had entered Hudson Bay and reached the
southern extremity, where he trafficked with the natives.
His success seems to be reflected in the narrative of the
next venture to be mentioned.

There is some doubt as to whether or not Pierre-
Esprit Radisson, a voyagetir, reached James Bay; but
some Canadian students who have given careful atten-
tion to the subject, are of the opinion that he did. Dr.
Benjamin Suite* says: *' Whatever may be said of the

* Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Vol. X, Sec. II. Radisson in the Northwest,
1661-63.

Hudson's bay company 49

whereabouts of Chouart (Radisson's brother-in-law)
and Radisson during the summer of 1662, whether they
went to James Bay or to Lake Winnipeg, is open to
discussion, although I believe they visited James Bay."
This assumption is based mainly upon the fact that
Radisson declared the people of Chagouamigon (on the
northern shore of Lake Superior?), where he spent the
winter of 1662-63, "after his return from James Bay,"
had been told by him of his promise to ''the Indians
of James Bay of his intention to go back to them by the
Atlantic Ocean, as they occupy the territory of the
beaver, par excellence ^

It is but right, however, to give what Dr. Suite him-
self quotes and says, which seems to contradict his own
opinion. Father Jerome Lallemant, in the Journal des
Jesuites says: ''I left Quebec on May 3rd, 1662, for
Three Rivers. I came across des Groseilliers, who was
going to the North Sea. He passed during the night
before, Quebec, with ten men, and, having arrived at
Cap Tourmente, he wrote to the Governor." Dr.
Suite adds: ''If the date of this note is correct, the
voyage of Radisson may be open to doubt." Father
Louis Hennepin, in his edition of 1698 (Nouveau Voyage)
writes: "The Great Bay of the North was discovered
by Monsieur Desgroseliers Rochechouart (sic.) with
whom I often travelled in canoe when I was in Canada."
But Father Hennepin is not absolutely infallible as an
historian. The claim which he puts forward in his
Nouvelle Decouverte d'un tres grand Pays, of ha\ing
descended the Mississippi, in 1680, is known to be
false.

50 THE COMING CANADA

M. Talon arrived in Canada in 1665 bearing the
appointment of Royal Intendant. By provisions of the
French Constitution of 1663, this ofhcial was placed in
charge of the police, finances, and general administra-
tion of justice throughout the whole colony. Talon
was called ''The Colbert of Canada," and this sobriquet
indicates something of his ability. He is described as
a man of high character and an official of lofty probity.
He is credited with having promoted expeditions for
extending the boundaries of New France towards the
northward and westward. These efforts, it is declared,
subseque7itly resulted in the discovery of the North Sea;
as if the success were something new.

On June 28, 1672, one expedition which Talon pro-
moted, went from Quebec by way of Tadousac, the
Saguenay River, and Lake St. John to the southern
shore of James Bay. The leaders of this company were
St. Simon and La Couture, with whom there was Father
Charles Albanal. They found the country to be a
desolate region, yet they took possession in the name of
the King of France; and in proof of this, they buried a
brass plate, on which were engraved the royal arms.
This act, confirming the previous assertion of proprietary
rights by France to all the continent, certainly north-
ward from the St. Lawrence Basin and the Great Lakes
— if nothing more — was the ground upon wliich the
French took their stand before long in almost constant
efforts to dislodge those whom they called "English
intruders;" until the peace of Utrecht, April 11, 17 13,
confirmed the title of Great Britain to the Hudson's
Bay Territory.

Hudson's bay company 51

In 1670, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, and
sixteen other noblemen and gentlemen received from
Charles II of England a charter creating "The Gover-
nor and Company of Adventurers of England trading
to Hudson's Bay." The charter seems to have been
all that monopoly could ask: ''the sole trade and com-
merce of all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes,
creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall
be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly
called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands and
territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of
the seas, bays, etc., aforesaid, that are not already
actually possessed by or granted to any of our subjects,
or possessed by the subjects of any other Christian
prince or state." Besides the fullest governing and
administrative powers over these undefined regions,
''which the Company finally agreed to accept as meaning
all lands watered or drained by all streams flowing into
Hudson's Bay," and a good deal more, the Company
was given the right to "the whole and entire trade and
traffick to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers,
lakes, and seas into which they shall find entrance or
passage by water or land out of the territories, limits,
or places aforesaid."

A map drawn some time ago of "British America to
illustrate the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company," *
shows a line lea\ang the head of Committee Bay and
going southwesterly to Wallas ton Lake, around the
headwaters of all streams flowing east into Hudson

* See Canada tinder British Rule, 1760-igoo, by Sir John G. Bourinot,
p. 222.

52 THE COMING CANADA

Bay. Thence, inclining more to the west, it reaches
the summit of the Rocky Mountains at the source of
the North Branch of the Saskatchewan River. Then
south along the crest of the main ridge, extending about
one hundred miles into the United States. It then
turns to the northeast and re-enters Canada, but soon
bends south and re-crosses the boundary in order to
take in the headwaters of the Red River of the North.
It then follows the divide of the Great Lakes and St.
Lawrence to the headwaters of the Saguenay River,
and thence bears up sharply to the north, reaching the
ocean again at Cape Chudleigh, Labrador. Within this
area there are millions of square miles.

In this immense region, which was called Riiperfs
Land, in honour of the prince concessionaire, the first
attempts at settlement were on the shores of James
Bay and the mouth of the Churchill and Hayes (or
Nelson) Rivers. Had it not been for the attacks of
the French and the heavy losses they inflicted, the
profits of the Company would have been so enormous
from the traffic along shore, that it is probable no
attempt would have been made to exploit the interior.
So negligent was the Company in this respect that, in
1749, some envious people attempted to secure the
passage of an act of parliament, forfeiting the charter
on the ground of " non user." This attack was thwarted,
by means that are not unfamiliar to the champions of
*'big business" to-day; but the investigation that was
forced developed the fact that the Company had less
than a dozen trading places, called — and not altogether
without reason — *' forts." These were all scattered

HUDSONS BAY COMPANY 53

along the coast and were maintained by a few regular
employees, who resided in them throughout the winter,
and were aided in the ''open" season by the crews of the
visiting ships. These vessels were always heavily armed.

It was inevitable that individual fur-traders and small
companies should attempt to break in upon the monop-
oly of the great Hudson's Bay Company, and these
in turn effected a combination to work territory which
they justly claimed was outside the concession of their
predecessor. The competition which this developed
was, for a time, most disastrous, and after varying
vicissitudes, the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1838, again
secured a monopoly; this time over the whole of Canada.

The Company's licenses to trade, which had never
been affected, were transferred, in a manner, to the
British Government in 1869 for the sum of £300,000,
and a shareholder's interest of one-twentieth of the
entire grant. Even to-day, the traveller's eyes fre-
quently fall upon the sign "Hudson's Bay Company"
over a furrier's shop in some city, or a ''general store"
in a small place far out west. If he has taken more
than superficial interest in the history of the Dominion,
these signs will recall some stirring scenes in the past,
and will bring to mind the names of many true heroes.

But let us first turn to some of the encounters between
the Frenchmen who made life a burden for the Hudson's
Bay Company people, at the stations along the coasts
of Hudson Bay. In this connection, we must almost
necessarily think of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iber\ille.
Governor Frontenac was in most ways an admirable
official — invaluable, in fact, as we know because of

54 THE COMING CANADA

re-appointment; but he was rather arbitrary and dis-
posed to arrogate to himself authority which was properly
deputed to others, who claimed the right to administer
certain affairs of the colony. He got into disputes with
the clergy and laity as to the relative powers of the
three important officials, Governor, Bishop, and Inten-
dant. He was disposed to usurp wholly the functions
of the intendant, and he refused to permit the clergy
to have anything to do with civil affairs, even when such
came properly within their province: the liquor traffic,
for example.

Matters came to such a pass that the Bishop, Laval,
a name that is now held in high esteem by all Canadians,
went to France to try to sustain his position. Fron-
tenac, however, had influential friends at Court, and the
appeals of both parties were almost negative in their
direct results. The upshot of the matter was that the
Court, being unable to effect harmony, recalled both
Frontenac and Duchesneau, the Intendant; the Bishop
it could not touch.

M. de la Barre was appointed governor and M. de
MeuUes intendant. The former was before long suc-
ceeded by M. de Denonville. In 1683, the great
Colbert was succeeded in office as Minister of Marine
by his eldest son, Jean Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de
Seigneley, who held office until his death in 1690. Inas-
much as the colonies were all under the control of this
department of the French administration, de Seigneley
interested himself, both from necessity and because of
personal ambition, in the affairs of Canada.

He gave orders to Governor Denonville to take active

Hudson's bay company 55

measures to decide the long standing dispute as to the
rights of France or England in the territory around
Hudson Bay, which was by him considered to include
all of Labrador as well as the precise Hudson Bay basin.
The French government looked upon this region as of
great importance strategically; but of greater economic
value on account of the fur- trade. Whether Radisson,
who has been mentioned, actually made his way to
Hudson Bay or not, it is certain that it was because of
his representations and persuasions that ''The Com-
pany of English Adventurers " came into corporate being,
and estabHshed trading posts at places where the very
best of fur-trade was exploited. These "forts kept the
current of skins flowing steadily toward England."

Radisson was supposed to be a Frenchman; and of
this there is little doubt, even if his original Journal is
written in quaint old English. He had a position under
the French colonial government, but he betrayed his
post and an entire shipload of valuable furs to the
English. It was this particular act which roused the
indignation of the Canadians, and made them call upon
the Home Government to bestir itself in asserting and
upholding French rights in the Hudson Bay territory.
Erelong a number of Quebec merchants formed an
association which they called, "La Compagnie du
Nord." The promoters intended, with government aid,
to attack in every way the monopoly of the great Hud-
son's Bay Company.

Just at that moment, it happened that France, under
King Louis XIV, and England, under James II, were
officially at peace. But the former argued, not un-

56 THE COMING CANADA

naturally, that inasmuch as he was giving the latter
large sums of money each year, in satisfaction of the
terms of what was then a secret agreement between the
two monarchs, mainly in the interests of the Roman
Cathohc Church, his beneficiary would hardly resent
militantly the attempt of the patron to occupy the dis-
puted Rupert's Land.

Besides, there was a semblance of right on the French
monarch's part. Hudson, it is true, was the re-discoverer
in 1610; but Cabot was the original discoverer, and
nobody from England, or anywhere in Europe for that
matter, had taken the slightest notice of this God-
forsaken land for nearly eighty years after Hudson had
told about it. At length Radisson and Groseilliers,
Frenchmen, made an establishment at the mouth of
the Hayes River, 1661-1663. That was from five to
eight years before the English had founded a trading
station on Rupert River, 1 668-1 669; and from seven to
nine years before the Hudson's Bay Company was
chartered.

There were, however, other reasons more cogent than
the peltry trade, enormously profitable though it was,
which doubtless influenced the French King in his
desire to get the English away from Hudson Bay. His
servants in New France were looking with alarm upon
the fact that English settlements were likely to press
upon Canada from both south and north, if the trading-
posts on Hudson Bay were permitted to remain and to
follow the natural law of extension. It was not so very
far from the head of James Bay to the St. Lawrence
watershed, and each year it would be easier to pass from

Hudson's bay company 57

the Hudson Bay posts into Canada. Of course at that
time, the much easier routes by the Severn or the Nelson
River and Lake Winnipeg, were not open.

In obedience to Seigneley's orders, Governor Denon-
ville mobilised at Montreal a company of regular soldiers
and voyageurs, thirty of the former and seventy of the
latter, under the command of Captain de Troyes, an
officer in the celebrated Carignan Regiment. There
were, besides, a large body of Indians, guides, canoe men,
and hangers-on generally. Among the Canadians were
three young members of the Le Moyne family, de St.
Helene, that is Jacques, the second son, dTberville,
Pierre, the third, and de Maricourt, the fourth. They
had volunteered to act as guides, interpreters, and scouts ;
but they were very quickly made leaders; and before
long Pierre was next in command to De Troyes.

There were then — as, indeed, we may say there are
now — three canoe routes, in the right season not
involving any exceedingly difficult portages, betwxen
the St. Lawrence River and Hudson Bay (briefly — the
Saguenay River; the St. Maurice River; and the Ottawa
River — Lake Abillibi). This ^'troup of daredevil
bushrangers sweeping down the forested waterways of
the North," chose the third; hoping to keep the English
from getting warning in advance, and also to evade the
watchful eyes of any wandering band of Iroquois.

The time, the circumstances, and the customary
hap-hazardness of such enterprises being considered,
this expedition was remarkably well organised. Every
white man was a fighter, first of all; but each one had,
besides, some accomplishment or trade that was to be

58 THE COMING CANADA

useful in carrying out the minor object of the enterprise,
that is the establishing and maintaining permanent
stations after the main purpose of dislodging the English
had been accomplished. The full narrative of this
expedition is absorbingly interesting to adults; while it
makes the heart and muscles of a strong, venturesome
boy tingle to-day; and it is not surprising that it has
been given in detail.*

The full company heard mass early in the morning of
March 20, 1686, and then "departed bravely through
the eager throng of relatives and friends who collected
at the shore to look long and anxiously after them as
they ascended the frozen channel of the river." On
June i8th, they were within sight of Hudson Bay. "In
three months the hardy voyageurs had covered six hun-
dred miles of new trail, through a most rugged part of
Canada by snowshoes." It was not in midwinter, as
some writers state; for at that season it would really
have been an easier task — so far as actual travel is
concerned — than the one they performed in the late
winter and spring, when the snow was soft and the ice
breaking.

At that time the English had but few posts along the
Hudson Bay Uttoral: Moose Factory, called Fort Mon-
sipi by the Indians and Fort St. Louis by the French,
at the mouth of Moose River, southwestern end of James
Bay; Fort Rupert at the southeastern corner of the
same bay; Fort Kitchichouane or Fort Albany, at the
mouth of the Albany River, called Fort St. Anne by

* Charles B. Reed. The First Great Canadian: the Story of Pierre
Le Moyne, Sieur d' Iberville.

Hudson's bay company 59

the French; New Savanne or Severn, at the mouth of
the Severn River, called by the French Fort St. Therese;
and Fort Nelson, afterwards Fort York, which the
French called Fort Bourbon. This last named was the
strongest and best of all, and its location, at the mouths
of the Hayes and Nelson Rivers, the most important
strategically and economically at that time, as it has
always been ever since. Radisson and GroseilHers had
made a station near this same place and it was this fact
which gave the French the only basis for their claim to
the territory.

The French, under the direction of DTberville and De
St. Helene, attacked Moose Factory and were promptly
successful, although the commandant. Governor Bridgon,
had left the previous evening, June 17, 1686, with fif-
teen men for Fort Rupert. The Frenchmen followed
them, and it is said that DTberville, with only a small
squad, opened a trail across the neck of land — between
Hannah and Rupert Bays — that is used to this day.
The attacking party covered the one hundred and twenty
miles in five days. Again they were at once successful,
and after resting four days, they returned to Moose
Factory, and thence went on to Fort Albany.

When the French arrived before this post, the garrison
had been informed of the impending attack by some
friendly Indians, and should have been prepared to
resist. Partly because of the fierce assault, but mainly
through treachery within, the governor, Sargeant, was
compelled to capitulate, and for his weakness was
severely censured later by the directors of the Hudson's
Bay Company. But apparently he had no alternative.

6o THE COMING CANADA

This victory gave the French large supplies of pro-
visions, trading stores, ammunition, and a ship loaded
with fifty thousand valuable furskins. It also made
them masters of Hudson Bay. The ship and most of
the Englishmen were sent to France in charge of a prize
crew.

Although not yet officially constituted by royal charter,
^'The Governor and Company of Adventurers trading
into Hudson's Bay" seems to have been at that time
an organised body; for on receipt in London of the news
from the bay, the directors sent a petition to King James
praying for redress because "the French of Canada,
this yeare, have in a piraticale manner taken and totally
despoyled youre Peticioners of three of theyre Fortes
and Factories on Hudson's Bay, three of their shypes
or vessels, Fifty Thousand Beaver skins, and a grete
quantity of provisions, stores, and marchandises laid
in for manye yeares trade, and have in a small vessel
turned out to sea above Fifty of Youre Majestic 's sub-
jects who were then in youre Peticioners service, to
shifte for themselves or perish miserably, besides those
whome they have kylled or detayned Prisoners."

It was some years, however, before anything was even
contemplated. When ships were sent to attempt the
recapture of Fort Nelson, news of the expedition was
communicated to the French authorities in Canada and
to D 'Iberville, who not only harassed the English, but
by a clever coup gained possession of the vessel that had
the cargo of furs and carried her off to Quebec; thus
further "despoyling" the Company.

When Frontenac was again sent as Governor to

Prince Rlpert Harbour

On Moose Tkaii. Ri\er, B. C

Hudson's bay company 6i

Canada, in 1689, William of Orange and Queen Mary
were on the English throne, and all pretence of friend-
ship between the English and French Courts had ceased.
It was the beginning of the long struggle between New
France and New England, and the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany was made to bear its full share of the burden. The
Peace of Utrecht brought a little respite, so far as open
hostilities went; but it was not until the transfer of
Canada to Great Britain, 1763, that the Company was
relieved from all anxiety due to French interference and
depredations.

But there came other causes for anxiety. The Hud-
son's Bay Company maintained its American head-
quarters at York Factory (Fort Nelson) ; its employees
going along all the shores and as far inland as necessary
to gather up the pelts. In 1783, The North West Com-
pany was organised by some Montreal merchants, most
of whom were Scotchmen. They contemplated working
in the North West Territories, going in from the south
and diverting a part of the furskins from going north
into the Hudson's Bay Company's hands. Its adminis-
trative headquarters were at Fort William on the
Kaministiquia River. This name has disappeared from
our modern maps, but the location of Fort William, on
Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, is readily established, and
its advantages as a shipping point are conspicous.
The North West Company's men became explorers of
the then unknown lands away off to the Pacific and the
Arctic Oceans.

Alexander Mackenzie, afterwards knighted, was the
first white man to follow the great river which bears his

62 THE COMING CANADA

name, from its source to its mouth. He was, too, the
first European to cross the Rocky Mountains and reach
the Pacific shores in that latitude. Another employee
of the Company, Simon Fraser, in 1808 found the river
which bears his name, and which, for a long time, was
confused with the Columbia, or at least supposed to
be an affluent of that stream. Later, David Thompson,
whose name is given to another important river in
British Columbia, crossed the Rockies farther south of
]\Iackenzie's trail, and descended the Columbia to its
mouth. He also was probably the first European to
see Puget Sound.

These are but a few of the pioneers; yet their exploits
give an inkling of what competition the Hudson's Bay
Company was made to face. The culmination of the
rivalry was reached about 18 18, and is attributable to
the effort of Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk, to
establish a colony in the Red River of the North basin.
His settlers were under the protection of the Hudson's
Bay Company; while opposed to them were squatters
and others, "Northwesters," who were supported by
the North West Company. Governor Semple, of the
Selkirk colony, and twenty-six persons connected there-
with, were murdered by half-breeds, and justice was
thwarted by false swearing.

Then, in 182 1, the North West Company made over
all its property to its rival, and thus were the fortunes
of the Hudson's Bay Company retrieved, and prosperity
came again to its shareholders, but it was at the expense
of the public. Practically all clearheaded Canadians
(who were not personally interested in the company)

Hudson's bay company 63

saw that its monopoly was acting as a serious deterrent
to the proper development of the west and north, and
a movement was started to break up the monopoly.
The Company's directors were sagacious enough to see
that they could not indefinitely withstand public senti-
ment, and this facilitated the negotiations between Sir
George Cartier and the Hon. William Macdougall,
Colonial commissioners, and representatives appointed
by the Company. These brought about a transfer of
all the Company's imperial domains, excepting small
areas at factories. Into further details I cannot go,
although there is yet much of interest to narrate.

CHAPTER V

CONFLICT: WARS IN AMERICA BETWEEN
FRANCE AND ENGLAND

FOR the causes of the really important wars between
France and England in North America, we must
of course look to conditions in Europe. But there were
sundry minor belligerent affairs in the earlier years of
Canadian history which demand a few minutes consider-
ation.

From the time of the settlement at Jamestown, Vir-
ginia, 1607, England claimed the whole territory of
northeastern America from the Florida seaboard up
to the 45th parallel of North latitude. That line takes
in about one-half of Nova Scotia, the southern one-third
of Maine, is the northern boundary of Vermont and of
New York east of the St. Lawrence River at Cornwall,
Ontario, includes more than one-half of the province
of Ontario as it was until recently, cuts across the tip
of the southern peninsula of Michigan, bisects Green
Bay, and passes west through St. Paul and Minneapolis.
France, however, contended that her rights extended
down to the 40th parallel : that is to say, to Philadelphia,
Wheeling, West Virginia, Columbus, Ohio, Quincy,
Illinois. It is for convenience only that modern names
are used, because they help the reader to understand
more clearly the conflicting claims of the two Powers,

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 65

France and England, in the beginning of the seventeenth
century.

Upon the strength of France's claim, an expedition
under the command of La Saussure headed for the
Penobscot River, with the intention of establishing a
colony of Jesuits and their followers. But the foggy
weather that is so prevalent in that section during the
summer, prevented their finding the mouth of the river
and a landing was made on Mount Desert Island, where
a settlement was begun and called Saint Sauveur. It
was a thrifty colony for a time, but it was crushed out
of existence by the English before long.

The English declared that the central portion of
Acadia belonged to them, and Mount Desert of course.
Capt. Argall appeared off the coast of the island, in a
vessel mounting fourteen guns, and demanded the sur-
render of Saint Sauveur. Some sHght show of resist-
ance being made — so he claimed — he assaulted and
sacked the place, taking most of the inhabitants prisoners
while a few escaped in a small boat.

Argall deliberately stole La Saussure's commission and
then declared that he and his people were unaccredited
adventurers. There is not space to give full attention
to the consequences of this cruel and dishonourable act;
but when the facts became known to the English gov-
ernment of Virginia, it was necessary either to support
Argall or repudiate him as a pirate. The former course
was chosen and it was determined to drive all French-
men from every post occupied by them south of 45°
North latitude.

Sainte Croix and Port Royal were destroyed and

66 THE COMING CANADA

Acadia was devastated. Poutrincourt, the founder of
Port Royal and even of Acadia itself, fled to France.
Some compensation for the loss inflicted by the illegal
acts of Argall and the other Virginians, was subsequently
made by the British government. The episode can
hardly be dignified by the appellation of *'war, " yet it
served to show the jealousy between the peoples of the
two nations which early asserted itself in North America,
and that feeling never was allayed until one of the Powers
was driven out.

After Argall had razed Port Royal, the English left
Acadia without maldng effort to substantiate their
claims to any part of the region. In 162 1, Sir William
Alexander, afterwards Earl of StirHng (by which title
he is better known), was given a grant of the province
by James I of England. The next year a company of
emigrants left Scotland with the intention of planting
permanent colonies in the section which thereafter was
to be called Nova Scotia, ''New Scotland." As they
arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, late in. the autumn,
they were obliged to pass the winter there. In the
spring of 1623, their vessel sailed again and they coasted
along the southern shore of Acadia to Cape Sable. The
Frenchmen being again in full possession, the Scots
turned about and returned home.

In 1626, Alexander received from King James a grant
conferring upon him "the Lordship of Canada." This
was at the time of the war in France between Roman
Catholics and Huguenots. To understand clearly the
bearing of this matter upon Canadian liistory, careful
attention should be given to the siege of La Rochelle,

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 67

and the anger of the English Duke of Buckingham at
the relief of the town by Cardinal Richeheu, as well as
to Buckingham's success in persuading the King of
England to declare war against Louis XIII of France.
Hostilities speedily spread to America and a naval
expedition, under command of David Kirke — with
whom were associated his brothers, Louis and Thomas
— appeared in the St. Lawrence and Quebec surrendered
in July, 1629; but was promptly restored to France upon
re-establishing of peace between the parent countries.

During this time it was not only the English from
whom the Roman CathoKc French in Canada suffered
attack (religious freedom was \irtually suspended in
1628); but there were French Protestants who harassed
them. The most formidable of these was Claude de La
Tour, a ''baronet" of Nova Scotia by letters patent from
the English king. His ships flew the English colours
and were manned principally by EngKshmen.

A sentimental episode in connection with this enter-
prise is the fact that when La Tour arrived before the
French fort at Cape Sable, it was commanded by his
own son. The father tried to persuade the son to accept
the same favours from the King of England that had
been bestowed upon the senior; and then he sought to
induce his son to hold the fort as an English possession,
not French. The young man refused to do anything of
the kind. After a few feeble and unsuccessful attempts
at assaults, the elder La Tour gave up the task. But
he dared not return either to England or France, so he
simply deserted, letting his ships make their way back to
England as best they could. The son refused to admit

68 THE COMING CANADA

his father into the fort, but he erected for him a small
house nearby which he furnished completely. There his
father and his stepmother, who had been a Maid of
Honour to the Queen of England, lived for several years.

The demand for the restitution of Quebec was not
favoured by all members of the French council of state,
and for some time the fate of New France trembled in
the balance; but probably the argument that carried
most weight with those who were disposed to give up
the attempt to create a realm in that inhospitable region
of ice and hostile Indians, was the declaration that it
was of the utmost importance to retain possession of all
of New France in order to counterbalance the increasing
importance which England was gaining through the
expansion and increase of population in her American
plantations.

The demand was therefore pushed \agorously. Car-
dinal Richelieu, to stimulate negotiations, equipped a
fleet of six men-of-war, which he put under the command
of Admiral de Razilli, and let it be known throughout
France and in England that they would soon sail for
the St. Lawrence, if negotiations were not speedily and
satisfactorily brought to a conclusion. The treaty of
St. Germain-en-Laye was signed March 29, 1632. By
its terms England renounced all pretensions which had
ever been made by her subjects, and promised not to
permit them to interfere with French administration
in Canada, so long as peace lasted.

The historian Chalmers, when discussing this episode,
says: ''We may date from this treaty the conmience-
ment of a long series of evils for Great Britain and her

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 69

colonies, the difficulties with the provincials afterwards,
and, in some measure, the success of the American
Revolution." It is probable that this event had some
influence in weakening the allegiance of the British
colonies in North America to the mother country. There
is strongly suggestive evidence of this in the fact that
in 1648 an envoy from New England arrived at Quebec,
charged with a proposal to negotiate, between the
British colonies in North America and the colonial
administration of New France, independently of their
respective Home Governments, a treaty of commerce
and perpetual amity between the two sets of colonists.

The most important suggestion was that both French
and English subjects in North America should remain
neutral in all quarrels between their respective mother
countries, and, so far as the two colonists were able to
do so, not permit European quarrels to be fought out in
America. Although the proposal was seriously con-
sidered by the French, the negotiations ended in failure
to accomplish anything. The main reason for this was
the counter proposal of the French, who demanded that
a special alliance should be entered into by the two
contracting parties to punish the Iroquois and reduce
those pestiferous savages to absolute harmlessness. It
is suggested by some writers that the French even insisted
upon the absolute extermination of the Iroquois.

The comment of the New England envoy upon this
miHtant proposal is entitled to consideration. It was
that such action would seem to stultify the declaration
of perpetual amity by compelling the two parties to the
compact forthwith to engage in war, although against

70 THE COMING CANADA

a third party. Yet in view of the damage to life and
property which those Indians were constantly inflicting
upon the French, it is not altogether surprising that the
latter should seek to secure relief through the co-operation
of their proposed allies. We must, however, remember
that the Enghsh settlers in New England and New York
were disposed to look rather leniently upon the depreda-
tions upon the Canadians by the Iroquois, provided
their own settlements were not molested.

We may pass with little more than mention, the civil
war in Acadia about 1647. Isaac de Razilli had been
appointed governor-general of the three subdivisions:
first, Port Royal with all the territory westward as far
as New England (an indefinite line of demarcation, as
we know from negotiations in the nineteenth century);
second, the country between Port Royal and Canso, the
extreme eastern end of Nova Scotia; and third, the rest
of Acadia, from Canso to Gaspe, Chevalier de La Tour
and M. Denis being lieutenant-governors of the second
and third. De Razilli no doubt committed an overt
and unfriendly act in taking possession of the fort at
Pemaquid, on Booth Bay, Maine, which the Massa-
chusetts colonists had built as a storage place for their
furskins. This act the New Englanders justly resented,
and when La Tour and de Charnisey (who had suc-
ceeded de Razilli, after the latter's death) disagreed
to the point of fighting, they promptly acceded to La
Tour's appeal for assistance. Ohver Cromwell also
took a hand in an attempt to recover Acadia; but the
effort and its negative results can hardly be said to have
attained international importance.

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 71

In spite of the unsatisfactory conditions which are
indicated by the minor episodes that have been men-
tioned, and other similar affairs which may be passed
over, the two nations, France and England, maintained
the peace contemplated by the treaty of St. Germain-
en-Laye until 1689. On the 12th of May in that year,
an alliance between the Emperor of Germany, William
III of England, and the Dutch States-general was
concluded at Vienna; and as a result war was declared
between France and England.

In 1688, Major, afterwards Sir, Edmund Andros was
appointed governor of New England with New York
included in his jurisdiction. Of Andros' character much
might be said, but it is sufficient to state here that most
historians describe him as tyrannical, vindictive, and
implacable in his hatred of the French. Certainly, the
annexation of New York to the neighbouring colonies
was particularly odious to the people of that colony.
Andros is not to be blamed for the fact, however just
it may be to criticise adversely the interpretation he
put upon his authority and powers. He followed the
policy of his predecessor. Col. Richard Nicolls, in his
treatment of the Indians. Not only did he foment
the deadly enmity of the Iroquois for the Canadians,
but he tried, unsuccessfully, to detach the Abenaquis
(Abnakis) from their allegiance to the French.

''For this people honoured the countr>TQen of the
missionaries who had made the Gospel known to them,
and their nation became a living barrier to New France
on that side, which no force sent from New England
could surmount; insomuch that the Abenaquis, some

72 THE COMING CANADA

time afterwards, having crossed the borders of the
English possessions, and harassed the remoter colonists,
the latter were fain to apply to the Iroquois to enable
them to hold their own." *

The retort of the French was a suggestion of Chevalier
de Callieres to Governor Denonville that an assault be
made upon New York. This would divert invasion by
a direct attack upon the enemy; a popular device in
certain circumstances. In order to secure the sanction
and support of the government at Paris, de Callieres
sailed for France to assure the King, Louis XIV, that
it was the only way to save Canada to France.

For several years there had been quiet in New France,
and incompetent officials had failed totally to compre-
hend that the calm was portentous. A storm was
gathering and in August, 1689, it broke. A band of
I4CX5 Iroquois warriors fell upon the little hamlet of
Lachine, at the western end of Montreal Island, and the
frightful "Massacre of Lachine" was perpetrated.

On the 1 8th October, 1689, de Frontenac, accompanied
by de Callieres, landed at Quebec and found himself,
upon taking up again the administration of the colonial
government, obliged to contend both with the English
colonists and The Five Nations. Later, about 17 13,
the Tuscaroras were received into the Iroquois con-
federacy, which was thereafter called *^ The Six Nations."

France, in Europe, was now engaged in conflict with
other Five Nations at once. Great Britain, the German
Empire, Holland, Spain, and Savoy; because the Revo-
cation of the Edict of Nantes had aroused the Protestant

♦ Bell, Hist, of Can.

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 73

nations to action against France.* The French-Cana-
dian colonists had no personal interest in that European
contest, but they were expected to render assistance,
and did so, by fighting with the New Englanders, who,
on their part, were but too willing to attack New France.

De Callieres' plan was put into operation, and Admiral
de la Caffiniere, with two men-of-war, was ordered to
scourge the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence
to New York, inflicting whatever damage he could to
shipping and settlements. He was then to blockade
the port of New York, "and there wait the results of
an invasion of the province, on the land side, by the
Canadians. If, as was expected, the province of New
York fell into French hands, its Roman Catholic inhab-
itants were to be allowed to remain, after having sworn
fidelity to their new masters; but the chief functionaries
and principal colonists were to be kept prisoners till
they were ransomed. As for the commonalty, they were
to be transported to New England and Pennsylvania.
De Callieres was then to be installed as governor of the
province." f

One of the ghastly incidents of the campaign from
the north was the assault and massacre at Schenectady
(Corlaer) in reprisal for the Lachine Massacre. Another
was the attack upon Salmon Falls (New Hampshire).
A third was the expedition from Quebec to Casco at
the mouth of the Kennebec River. Subsequently came
the renewal of attack upon Quebec, and the siege of that

* I do not take time to explain the seeming incongruity of Roman
Catholic Spain joining a Protestant coalition against France. She did
not remain long in that opposition. J. K. G.

t Bell, op. cit.

74 THE COMING CANADA

place by a fleet under command of Sir William Phipps,
a New England born British subject, after his capture
of Port Royal in 1690. Appearing before the town on
the 1 6th of October, he sent to de Frontenac a somewhat
bombastic summons to surrender. To this the governor
returned a very tart reply and the attack began: but
nothing important was accomplished, and after a few
days the British fleet sailed away, October 21st.

When Phipps' ships opened the bombardment of
Quebec the batteries in the lower town promptly returned
the fire and fairly effectively. ''Some of the first shots
fired brought down the flag of Pliipps' own vessel.
Seeing this, some of the men on shore swam out and
fished up the prize, despite a discharge of small arms
directed on them by the enemy. This flag, which was
afterwards suspended to the ceiling of Quebec Cathedral,
as a trophy, there remained till the edifice was consumed
during the siege of 1759."

With the characteristically varying chances of w^ar,
this conflict in North America lasted until the Peace of
Utrecht. The Hudson Bay campaign has been already
alluded to. French historians claim, and this is not
seriously disputed by English authorities, that de Fron-
tenac's energy and skill overcame all obstacles; ''that
the war was most glorious for the Canadians, so few in
number compared with their adversaries; and that,
far from succumbing to their enemies, they carried the
war into the adversaries' camp, and struck at the heart
of their most remote possessions."

Were space available it would be proper to discuss
other events until "The Treaty of Ryswick" (September

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 75

21, 1697), which really brought about no substantial
cessation of hostihties between the French and English
in North America. The powerful fleet of warships and
transports carrying five regiments, sent from England
to Canada by way of Boston, in 171 1, was to have
co-operated with a land force of several thousand New
England regular and irregular troups, with Indian aUies,
who were to march by way of Lake Champlain, and all
combine for an attack upon Quebec. The fleet, how-
ever, met w^ith serious misfortune almost immediately
upon entering the river, and what vessels escaped ship-
wreck returned home with their own crews and the
few who were saved from the ships that had been
driven on the rocks. When the land forces heard of
the disaster that had befallen the fleet, they too retraced
their steps.

Thus Canada was saved from further invasion for
the time being, and in January, 1712, negotiations for
peace were commenced. These were procrastinated
until March, 17 13, when the plenipotentiaries of France
and Spain on one side, and those of England, Holland,
Prussia, the German States, Savoy, and Denmark,
signed the ''Treaty of Utrecht." It is declared by some
writers that the important matter of definite boundaries
of French and English claims in North America was
intentionally left undecided in this treaty, in order that
this omission might serve as a pretext at any future
time for going to war again in that part of the world.
This seems hardly to be a fair view of the matter. In
the first place it is extremely doubtful if either England
of France gave much concern to such limitations; and

76 THE COMING CANADA

in the second place, neither one probably knew just
what it did claim.

In the year following the execution of that treaty,
France gave great attention to fortifying Louisbourg,
and it is said that the equivalent of something like ten
million dollars were spent upon this undertaking. The
place certainly was, after Quebec, the strongest fortified
seaport in America, and when the British forces under-
took to capture it in 1745 and 1758 immensely powerful
fleets and armies were fitted out, indicating the opinion
strategists held of it.

In 1744, France again declared war and the American
colonies, both French and British, were speedily involved
in the conflict. A force from New England, militia,
artisans, and farm hands, attacked Louisbourg and
secured its capitulation, in April, 1745- This was in
retaliation for the capture and burning of the British
settlement at Canso (Canseau), Acadia, by Duquesnel,
governor of Cape Breton. The conquest of Louisbourg
was due more to lack of discipline, absence of competent
commanders, and inharmony within, than because of
effective attack from without. France made several
ineffectual attempts to recover tliis important post,
which was, however, restored to her by the Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle, October, 1748, much to the disgust of
the New England people.

In 1753 may be said to have begun the hostilities
which were to culminate in the expulsion of France
from North America. It began through disputes as to
rights in the Oliio Valley, from which region the French
strove to exclude English traders; wliilc English colonists

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 77

persisted in assuming that it was British territory. It
was at this time that George Washington made his
appearance. He was then an officer in the Virginia
militia and only twenty- two years of age. But Wash-
ington's regrettable attack upon M. de Jumonville, as
well as his subsequent discomfiture at Fort Necessity,
with many other episodes, must be passed over.

It is well, however, for the reader, who wishes to
understand clearly the details of this final conflict be-
tween France and Great Britain in North America, to
know something about the various posts held by the
contending parties; from Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to
Louisbourg on Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island). Also
of the many frontier forts from Lake Champlain through
New York to the Lakes and down into the Ohio Valley
at Duquesne (on the site of the present city of Pittsburg:
a part of the old fort is still standing). This was the
nearest to the British posts. Fort Necessity and Fort
Cumberland, on the Potomac River. Also the French
posts along the north shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie,
and those which served to keep open the line of com-
munications between the Lakes and the first outpost
of Louisiana, Fort de Chartres.

Montreal was scarcely furnished with any fortifications
at all. ''The city has notliing but a terraced wall, built
for the sole purpose of preventing a surprise or coup de
main, and quite incapable of resisting artillery." Quebec
was, however, considered by the French to be virtually
impregnable.

The plan of campaign decided upon after Gen. Brad-
dock's arrival in 1754 to take supreme command, was

78 THE COMING CANADA

to despatch four expeditions: the first to the Valley of
the Ohio; the second against Fort Niagara, at the mouth
of the river; the third to Lake Champlain, with the
intention of capturing Crown Point; and the fourth to
drive the French from those parts of Acadia which
remained in their possession.

The French resolved upon counter attacks. One of
these was to drive the EngHsh back from the south
shore of Lake Ontario by a furious rush against Oswego.
All commanding officers at military posts throughout
French territory were instructed to be vigilant and, in
case of attack, to maintain their position to the last
extremities.

Because of ^'Braddock's Defeat," as his failure is
commonly called, the second of the English expeditions
hkewise failed to accomplish its purpose. That against
Crown Point was partly successful; while the Acadian
enterprise was entirely so; the forts surrendering with
scarcely a pretence of resistance. As one of the conse-
quences of this British success, came the deportation
of the Acadians. Of Longfellow's use of this episode
in his poem, Evangeline, nothing need be said; but a
more practical aspect of it is one that is not so well
known. "Scarcely had the Anglo-American troops dis-
charged the lamentable duties which had been assigned
to them, when the soldiers were struck with horror at
their situation. Standing surrounded by rich and well-
cultivated fields, they found themselves, nevertheless, in
the midst of profound sohtude. They beheld no enemy
to attack, no friend to succour. Volumes of smoke
ascending from the sites of the burnt habitations marked

WARS or FRANCE AND ENGLAND 79

the spots where, a few days before, happy families dwelt.
Domestic animals, as if seeking the return of their mas-
ters, gathered and moved uneasily around the smoking
ruins. During the long nights the watch-dogs howled
among the scenes of desolation, and uttered plaintive
sounds, as if to recall their ancient protectors and the
roofs under which they had been sheltered." *

The campaign of 1755 was, in its general results, not
unfavourable to the French. They were undisputed
masters of the Ohio Valley, and they still held their
positions at Niagara and Crown Point. The most
disastrous effect of the campaign upon the English
came as a consequence of Braddock's defeat; because
during the winter and spring of 1755 and 1756, war-
parties, composed for the most part of Indians, went
from Fort Duquesne to ravage the settlements in Penn-
sylvania and Virginia. The English colonists were most
cruelly treated: more than a thousand of them, men,
women, and children, were killed or carried into captivity
that was worse than death.

The economic condition of the French colony was at
that time most unsatisfactory. The Intendant Bigot
and his creatures were administering affairs solely for
their own pecuniary benefit, and prices of food stuffs
were raised by Bigot, who had the power to fix prices,
until the common people could scarcely buy anything.
As for government stores, including suppHes for the
army and navy, ammunition, etc., the rapacity of these
leeches was insatiable.

After Gen. Dieskau had been defeated at Fort Carillon
* Ferland et Laverdiere, Cours d'histaire du Canada.

8o THE COMING CANADA

(Ticonderoga) by Gen. Johnson, the French officers
reported to the Home Government that their effective
force of regulars was reduced to 1680 men, and they
added most discouraging statements about the colony.
The French Government responded by sending one
thousand regular troops and over a million and a quarter
francs in money. With these soldiers and supplies there
came to Canada the famous General, De Montcalm, and
in his staff were a number of distinguished officers.

Montcalm promptly decided to carry out the plan
of attacking Oswego, and this was successfully accom-
plished, the result adding greatly to his prestige. In
1757, the French captured Fort William Henry, on Lake
Champlain, and the English were subjected to all the
horrors of Indian warfare. In 1758, Louisbourg was
taken by the English under the command of Gen. Wolfe,
and then Montcalm began to realise that the dreams of
generations of Frenchmen of establishing the trans-
Atlantic "Empire of New France" were never to become
anything tangible.

There were, to be sure, some successes by the French
arms, but they were not sufficient to check the tide of
defeat. In 1759, it may be said, France abandoned
the colony to its fate; that is, to fight for its own exist-
ence. Most of the Indian allies had been seduced from
their allegiance to the French; frontier posts had been
captured by the British or abandoned by the French,
and slowly but surely the war was narrowing down to
the short stretch of the St. Lawrence River from Quebec
to Montreal.

The naval contingent furnished to effect the capture

WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 8l

of Quebec comprised a fleet of fifty vessels, commanded
by Admirals Saunders, Holmes, and Durell; the fighting
force consisting of 7600 regulars and 1000 marines. On
land, Wolfe — then only about thirty-two years of age
— was in supreme command as Major-General, and
under him were Brigadier- Generals Monckton, Town-
shend, and Murray. There were eight full regiments of
the line, two battalions of Royal Americans, companies
of light infantry, grenadiers, engineers, artillerymen,
and some more marines. For a full account of the siege
of Quebec, the reader must refer to some other authority,
in which all the intensely interesting episodes are given
in deserved detail; it is too long to insert here.

Montcalm refused to be drawn from his fortifications
until that memorable scaling of the clifi's by the British
troops, who made their way up from the river by what
was assumed to be an impassable trail. Then the
French were compelled to leave their fortifications,
being threatened in their rear, and there ensued the
battle on the Plains of Abraham, September 13, 1759, in
which both commanders lost their lives.

Although not strictly the end of the war, nor indeed
of French offensive, that battle put the seal upon New
France's fate. Quebec was surrendered to the British
on September 18, 1759; but in the following winter the
new garrison was in rather sore straits; not so much for
want of supplies, but because of the rigorous chmate
to which the British were not enured. The troops suf-
fered much more, on account of necessary exposure,
than did the supernumeraries and the women.

Chevalier de Levis, upon whom devolved the chief

82 THE COMING CANADA

command of the French after Montcalm's death, harassed
the British; and there was considerable fighting the
next year, the French essaying to re-capture Quebec.
On April 28, 1760, the battle of Sainte Foye, some-
times called ''The second battle of the Plains of Abra-
ham," was fought. The French were victorious; but
were not able to follow up their success with the re-
capture of the town. De Levis besieged Quebec for
eighteen days, until May 17th. On the 9th of May,
however, it began to look very dubious for the French,
because a British warship appeared below the place.
On the 15th, the first division of the fleet came up the
river, and on the 17 th arrangements were made to raise
the siege; de Levis retiring to Montreal. In September
that place capitulated, upon honourable terms, and thus
ended the French regime in Canada. The resident
population, although chagrined as to the failure of
French arms, were not at all displeased to be relieved
from the burdens of active warfare, even if it did mean
their transfer from French to English allegiance. The
active military forces and the civil authorities who
decHned to take the oath of allegiance to King George
II were sent to France. The war in Europe continued
until near the end of 1762. Negotiations for peace
were then entered upon with such favourable results
and prehminaries were so promptly agreed upon, that
on February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed
by Great Britain, France, and Spain.

CHAPTER VI
THE DOMINION OF CANADA

KING GEORGE II, who was on the throne of Great
Britain and Ireland when the French regime in
Canada ended, died on the 25th of October, 1760, and
was succeeded by his son, George HI. The latter issued
a proclamation on the 7 th of October, 1763, which was
intended to give vitality to the terms of the Treaty of
Paris, February loth of that year. In this document he
constituted ''within the countries and islands, ceded
and confirmed to Us by the said treaty, four distinct
and separate governments, styled and called by the
names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and
Grenada." We have to do only with the first of these;
yet it may interest the reader to know that ''the govern-
ment of Grenada was in the West Indies, and the govern-
ments of East and West Florida, excluding a debatable
strip of territory which was annexed to the State of
Georgia, were co-extensive with the new province which
had been acquired from Spain." *

The student who thinks of Canada as the great
dominion which it now is, will be surprised when he
looks at a map of the Government of Quebec for which
that proclamation provided. Towards Labrador, it

* A History of Canada 1763-1812. Sir C. P. Lucas, K.C.M.G., C.B.
1909.

84 THE COMING CANADA

was bounded by the river St. John, a small stream which
empties into the St. Lawrence opposite the western end
of Anticosti Island. From the headwaters of the St.
John a straight line was drawn to the southern end of
Lake Nipissing, passing through Lake St. John, whence
issues the Saguenay River. It may be remarked that
as a geographical or surveyor's feat, this is impossible.
It was manifestly the intention to have this line approxi-
mately parallel to the St. Lawrence River. From
Nipissing, the line turned sharply to the southeast and
crossed the St. Lawrence some distance above Montreal,
at about the present town of Cornwall. Then it fol-
lowed the 45th parallel of North Latitude, across the
outlet of Lake Champlain, across Lake Memphre-
magog and the headwaters of the St. Thomas River to
**The Land's Height;" that is the watershed between
the lower St. Lawrence and the Atlantic basins, to the
Restigouche River, which is followed to the head of
Chaleur Bay, and along its north shore to the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. The government included Gaspe Penin-
sula; but excluded Anticosti Island, which, together
with all the Labrador country east of the St. John River
and northward to Hudson Strait, was placed under the
jurisdiction of Newfoundland. Practically, then, this
government was about the same as the province of
Quebec until greatly enlarged two years ago.

The territory which subsequently — for a short time
— came to be known as British America, was not an
acquisition to the British Empire that was gained with-
out a struggle. British Canada was not born without
severe pains of parturition, and the Dominion did not

THE DOMINION OF CANADA 85

attain maturity without ills in childhood and adolescence.
Nor was its development into what it is, geographically,
to-day an absolutely peaceful progress of events. Prob-
ably the record of ills and struggles which mark its
history from 1763 to 1867 and again from that latter
year until the present time, have had much to do with
moulding the character of the people.

It must not be understood that this Government of
Quebec is all there was of Canada in 1763. Cape Breton
Island, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward's), New
Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were already in a separate
government styled the Government of Nova Scotia.
The northern limit of the province of Canada marched
with the boundary of Rupert's Land, under the adminis-
tration of the Hudson's Bay Company, yet reckoned a
part of the imperial domain.

Canada did not, therefore, in 1763 really extend west of
the western boundary of this Government of Quebec ; for
no provision had been made for administering the great
territory which included the whole basin of the Great
Lakes and reached thence down to the Mississippi River.

Although issued in October, 1763, the proclamation
did not reach America and become operative until
August 10, 1764. Inasmuch as the document made
no mention of the great country west of the Alleghany
Mountains, which Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other
colonies claimed with practically no western limits until
the shores of the Pacific were reached, the proclamation
was far from being satisfactory to the Atlantic coast
colonies; that is New England, New York, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia.

86 THE COMING CANADA

Within Quebec itself, too, the proclamation was calcu-
lated to do much harm, and scarcely any good. For
while religious liberty was guaranteed to all the inhab-
itants, yet an oath was required in certain circumstances
which, it will presently be seen, no Roman Catholic could
possibly take. The governor was ordered to summon a
general assembly '4n such manner and form as is used
and directed in those colonies and provinces in America
which are under Our immediate government," as soon as
the state and circumstances of the colony admitted.

Yet persons who might be elected to serve in such
an assembly were required, before they could sit and
vote, to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and
sign a solemn declaration against the doctrines of tran-
substantiation, the adoration of the Virgin, and the
Sacrifice of the Mass. This effectually excluded the
men of the seventy thousand French-Canadian Roman
Catholics, and would leave the government in the hands
of the Protestants, who then numbered, men, women,
and children, only about three hundred souls. Further-
more, the governor was authorised, until the afore-
mentioned assembly could be called, to create courts
for the trial and determination of all civil and criminal
cases, "according to law and equity, and as near as may
be agreeable to the laws of England." This was a
measure extremely offensive to the French people: to
the Romanists on the ground of religious discrimination;
to the few French Protestants because of loyalty to their
compatriots.

Just about this time, in 1766, Gen. Murray, who had
been in Canada since Wolfe's arrival, and in command

THE DOMINION OF CANADA 87

after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, was made
provisional governor by royal warrant. He gave his
approval to the election by the chapter of the Roman
Catholics of Quebec of Monsigneur Briand to be the
Bishop of the newly created Government. This was a
most politic measure; it went a long way towards recon-
ciling the French Canadians to their changed conditions,
and it led them to think that in time they might receive
full consideration in other important matters.

It is hardly necessary to state that in the ten years
which followed the creation of the bishopric of Quebec,
the British Government was greatly concerned about
the condition of affairs in the English colonies south of
Canada. I cannot do better than to quote again from
that eminent historian Sir C. P. Lucas: ''It was said
of the Spartans that warring was their salvation and
ruling was their ruin. The saying holds true of various
peoples and races in history. A militant race has often
proved to be deficient in the qualities which ensure
stable, just, and permanent government; and in such
cases, when peace supervenes on war, an era of decline
and fall begins for those whom fighting has made great.
But even when a conquering race has capacity for gov-
ernment, there come times in its career when Aristotle's
dictum in part holds good. It applied, to some extent,
to the EngUsh in North America. As long as they were
faced by the French on the western continent, common
danger and common effort held the mother country
and the colonies together. Security against a foreign
foe brought difficulties which ended in civil war, and the
Peace of 1763 was the beginning of dissolution."

88 THE COMING CANADA

In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the
Home Government could not give sufficient attention
to its newest American colony, and that, as a consequence,
conditions in Canada were far from being satisfactory
to all interested parties. There was every disposition
on the part of the British Secretariat of Colonial Affairs
to do for Canada whatever might be for the good of all.
It meant, of course, a blending of English and French
laws in a manner that was an exceedingly difficult matter
at times.

The Quebec Act of 1774 was a most important law
passed by the British parHament, and it ''has always
been considered the charter of the special privileges
which the French Canadians have enjoyed ever since,
and which, in the course of a century, made their province
one of the most influential sections of British North
America." *

The preamble of that Act made radical changes in
the extent and boundaries of the former Government of
Quebec. Eastward, it was made to include all that
portion of the mainland (Labrador) which had previ-
ously been assigned to Newfoundland. To the west
and southwest, the Ohio and Mississippi regions were
included, so that the older colonies' claims were now
delimited at the crest of the Appalachians. This action
roused much protest from the colonies which had asserted
a right to territory westward perhaps to the Pacific
Ocean, and their cause was championed by the Earl of
Chatham, William Pitt, who had assumed to make
himself the advocate for the older colonies.

• Bourinot, op. cit.

THE DOMINION OF CANADA 89

It was considered inexpedient just then to convoke
a general assembly for Quebec, and accordingly the
administration of the province was placed in the hands
of a governor and legislative council, the latter com-
posed of twenty-three members, residents of the province.
Both governor and council were to be appointed by
the sovereign. Sir Guy Carleton was the first governor
under the Quebec Act. He returned to Canada from
England in September, 1774, but the legislative council
associated with him was not appointed until the follow-
ing August. Among its twenty-two members were eight
French Canadians whose names appear conspicuously
in the contemporaneous history of Quebec Province.

The first meeting of the council was held on the 17th
of August, 1775, but it was compelled to adjourn on the
7th of the following month because of the invasion of
Canada by troops of the Continental Congress from the
thirteen colonies then in open revolt, but not yet fight-
ing for Independence.

This is not the place to discuss the War for American
Independence; yet a calm and dispassionate view of it
in the light of history, compels the admission that had
there been energy and ability in the British leaders, the
result (that is victory for the United States) would have
been greatly deferred, or the war would have involved
more of Europe than it did. As it was, during the last
years of the war, Great Britain was compelled to fight
not only the American colonies, openly assisted by
France, but France, Spain, and Holland as well; and
in all Europe, Great Britain had not a single ally. It
was a condition of affairs which amply justifies the

go THE COMING CANADA

declaration of all patriotic citizens of the United States,
that the God of battles was on the side of their fore-
fathers from 1775 to 1783. In the success of the three
millions of people armed in the sacred cause of Liberty,
we must recognise the hand of Providence, or else we
must impugn the sincerity of the British statesmen and
commanders, by declaring that they were not fighting
to win.

But we must give some thought to the connection of
the War of American Independence with Canada. Great
Britain had no reason to thank her sovereign or his
ministers for saving Canada in 1775. The credit for
that was due only to the sentiment of the colonists them-
selves and to the calmness and good judgment of Gov.
Carleton. The lack of policy in coupling the Quebec
Act in parliament with the obnoxious Boston Port Bill,
and other measures especially intended for the discom-
fiture of Massachusetts, amounted to crass stupidity.
All the colonists, save the Loyalists (a very large pro-
portion, it must be admitted), looked upon this group
of parliamentary measures as indicating a fixed policy
of the British Government to crush the English-speak-
ing colonists in North America. The invasion of Canada
by Benedict Arnold in 1775 was, therefore, a very
popular effort with all revolutionists in the older colonies.
Chambly and St. John's, the keys of Canada by the
way of Lake Champlain, were captured and Montreal
surrendered. The governor retired to Quebec, and
there made preparations for a vigorous defence.

Just at this critical moment Bishop Briand issued an
episcopal letter in which he drew the attention of the

THE DOMINION OF CANADA QI

French Canadians to the many benefits they had derived
from British rule, and he called upon his followers to
unite with the English in defending the province. The
effect of this monition was excellent (from the British
point of view) and rendered totally ineffective the effort
of Chase, Franklin, and the Carrolls of Maryland to
persuade the Roman Catholic French in Canada to
give their support to the revolutionary colonists. It
must not be forgotten, however, that many individual
habitants gave material assistance to the colonial in-
vaders; yet this was entirely a sordid matter.

"The Fourteenth Colony" was saved to Great Britain,
and it is probable that few even patriotic Americans
now regret it. At the close of the Revolutionary War,
many who are called United Empire Loyahsts left the
United States and settled in Canada; others went back
to England. Their loss was a serious one to the new
nation, for as a rule they were people of substantial
means.

After the Revolution, when Canada's independence
of the United States was assured, the development of
representative institutions was rapid. The provinces
of New Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada were
created: the first on August i6, 1784, the other two on
March 7, 1791. The progress of political development
in Canada, from 1792 to 181 2, was not absolutely peace-
ful, and there were premonitions of that racial strife
— between the weak French majority and the strong
British minority — which later caused serious trouble.

The statesmen and historians of Canada look upon
the war of 18 12 with anything but a kindly feeling, and

92 THE COMING CANADA

with satisfaction that the attempt to conquer their
country was so unsuccessful. After that unpleasant
episode, the development of Canada was rapid, although
as long ago as 1789 Chief Justice Smith, first president
of the legislative council of Lower Canada, wrote to
Lord Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton had been raised to
the peerage with that title), sketching a plan for uniting
all the provinces of British North America under one
general administration. Other Canadian statesmen and
jurists expressed themselves as in favour of such a
movement and gradually the desire for fusion came to
be something more tangible than merely ''in the air."

In 1 86 1 the maritime provinces. Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, took active
measures to effect union; and in 1864 a convention was
called at Charlottetown, P.E.I. , to arrange for this.
Canada sent a delegation and to its representations of
the desirability of the larger scheme, of union of all the
provinces, favourable consideration was given. In 1864
a general convention at Quebec passed seventy-two
resolutions which formed the basis of the Act of Union,
subsequently passed by the imperial parliament, West-
minster.

Addresses supporting the resolutions to Queen Victoria
were submitted to the legislature of Canada in 1863, and
passed by large majorities. The progress towards com-
plete union was not absolutely clear and free; but there
is not space to consider all the difficulties. On the 17th
of February, 1867, a bill entitled ''An Act for the Union
of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the
Government thereof, and for purposes connected there-

THE DOMINION OF CANADA 93

With," was submitted to the British House of Lords by
the Earl of Carnarvon, then Secretary of State for the
Colonies. It passed both houses with but little dis-
cussion, and on March 29th received Queen Victoria's
signature as "The British North America Act, 1867."

The Dominion of Canada thereupon stepped into the
list of the federal states of the world on July ist, 1867,
when the Act was promulgated throughout all the
interested provinces. British Columbia held back for
a time, until given assurance of railway connection with
the eastern provinces. Prince Edward Island was for
a time outside the Dominion, and the great North West
Territories remained to be organised. In 187 1, British
Columbia threw in her lot with her sisters; in 1873,
Prince Edward Island followed suit; and gradually the
organisation of all British possessions on the continent
of North America, save the little strip of Labrador
littoral which is still politically annexed to Newfound-
land and excepting, too, the great island itself, came
into the list, and the administration of the Dominion of
Canada was perfected.

CHAPTER Vn

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA AND COGNATE

SUBJECTS

OTTAWA, the capital of the Dominion, is one of
the most attractive cities in North America, but
in its physical and social aspects it will be considered
in a later chapter. The place dates from the year 1826
only. At that time Col. By, of the Royal Engineers,
commenced the cutting of the Rideau Canal, which
connects the Ottawa River with the St. Lawrence at
Kingston. This canal makes use of the chain of lakes
and small streams which intervene between the two
greater rivers.

The little hamlet which naturally sprang up and
gave shelter and habitation to the force of workmen,
was at first called By town; but this name was changed
before long to Ottavra. It owes its promotion to the
dignity of being first the colonial and then the dominion
capital to circumstances that were not altogether cred-
itable.

When the union of Upper and Lower Canada was
effected in 1840, Kingston was made the provincial
capital. After a while the seat of government was
transferred to Montreal, and that city held the honour
for some time. But while parliament was sitting at
Montreal, a bill was passed which provided for compen-

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 95

sation for damages unflicted upon those whose property
had been destroyed or injured during ''the patriots'
rebellions."

There were two of these unpleasant episodes. The
first broke out in Lower Canada soon after the close of
the war of 181 2-1 5, and culminated under the leadership
of Louis J. Papineau in 1837. The second was in the
following year, and occurred in Upper Canada. Both
were in the nature of turbulent protest by the French
Canadians against what demagogues led them to believe
was unfair and unlawful race discrimination. The first
was for some time a very serious matter, causing —
directly or indirectly — the loss of many lives and the
destruction or injury of much property: the second was
less important and was promptly suppressed.

In 1839, the special council of Lower Canada and the
legislature of Upper Canada, passed acts providing for
the compensation of those loyal inhabitants of these
provinces who had sustained loss during the rebellions
and because of those outbreaks. Eventually a com-
mission was appointed to consider the claims, and it
reported favourably upon a considerable number of
them. Inasmuch as the Treasury funds did not permit
of an appropriation in money, provision was made for
paying those approved claims by the issue of debentures
to the amount of $400,000. The bill was passed by the
legislature by a large majority and Lord Elgin, then
Governor-General, signed it on April 25, 1849, ^-nd
affixed the great seal. The bonds were promptly taken
up and it looked as if all were going well. Suddenly,
however, a fierce storm of opposition broke out. A mob

g6 THE COMING CANADA

insulted the Governor-General and even threatened his
life. It broke into and practically destroyed the house
of parliament — which had formerly been St. Anne
Market House — and with it the State papers and many
precious relics, valuable books, pictures, etc.

Montreal could no longer be permitted the dignity of
being the capital, and the seat of legislature became
peripatetic for five years, meeting alternately at Toronto
and Quebec. When Queen Victoria was requested to
designate a fixed capital, she chose Ottawa, in 1857.
The place had grown to be a lumber town of some impor-
tance, but the situation is such a splendid one that all
concurred in approving the wisdom of Her Majesty's
choice. In these incidents, we have a very clear hint
at the progress of the great Dominion development; and
it is hardly necessary to state that there has been much
of storm and stress.

A brief summary of the original elements of the
Canadian State, and its development into the Dominion,
is advisable. At first there were Upper and Lower
Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, created under
the Act of March, 1867. Provision was made in the Act
for a constitution ^'similar in principle to that of the
United Kingdom." The executive authority is vested in
the sovereign of Great Britain, and it is carried on in his *
name by a Governor- General and a Privy Council. The
legislative power is exercised by a Parliament of two
houses, the Senate and the House of Commons.

* The Salic Law not having been adopted by Great Britain, the
masculine pronoun includes the feminine, as is provided in all laws, I
believe. J. K. G.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 97

Provision was made for the admission of Prince
Edward Island and British Columbia, the North West
Territories, and Newfoundland. As has been stated,
Newfoundland is the only one of these which has not
availed itself of this privilege, and it is not likely to do
so. In 1869, the great North West Territories were
admitted into British North America by purchase from
the Hudson's Bay Company. From a portion of this
acquisition, the province of Manitoba was created and
admitted into the confederation on July 15th, 1870.
On May i6th, 1871, Prince Edward Island was admitted
by an Imperial Order in Council (London) and British
Columbia on July 20th, 187 1.

Certain other provisional districts were created out
of the southern portions of the purchase from the
Hudson's Bay Company, Alberta, Athabaska, Assini-
boia, and Saskatchewan. These were later combined
into the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan,
wliich were admitted into the Dominion on Septem-
ber I, 1905.

The Dominion Senators are appointed for hfe ''by
summons of the Governor-General under the Great
Seal of Canada." Provisions for their impeachment for
cause and cancelling of their appointment are made.
There are now 87 Senators, 24 from Ontario, 24 from
Quebec, 10 from Nova Scotia, 10 from New Bruns-
wick, 4 from Manitoba', 3 from British Columbia, 4
each from Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and Saskat-
chewan. It will be seen at once that the composition
of the Upper House of the Dominion Legislature is very
different from that of the United States Senate, and that

98 THE COMING CANADA

it is not representative of provinces or population in
the same sense. Each Senator must be thirty years
of age. He may be either a native born or a naturalised
British subject. He must be an actual resident of the
province from which he is appointed, and therein be
possessed of property, real or personal, of the actual
value of $4000. Change of residence of course operates
de facto to invaHdate his appointment.

Members of the House of Commons are elected by
the people for a term of five years, unless ParHament
is sooner dissolved, when a new general election is
ordered by the Governor- General's writ. At present,
the ratio of representation in this Lower House is one
member for 25,637 of population. The province of
Quebec is always to have 65 members, and the other
provinces proportionately, according to their popula-
tions at each decennial census. At this time, the House
of Commons consists of 221 members: Ontario 86,
Quebec 65, Nova Scotia 18, New Brunswick 13, Manitoba
10, British Columbia 7, Prince Edward Island 4, Saskat-
chewan 10, Alberta 7, Yukon Territory i. As the popu-
lation of those portions of the Dominion which are
entitled to be represented in the House of Commons is
only about 5,500,000 (an approximation that is some-
what hazardous, because the immigration has been very
great during the past two years), it must be admitted
that the complaint that the body is cumbersome and
disproportionately large in numbers, seems to be well
taken. The 48 States of the United States have a
population of something like ninety millions, and the
members in the House of Representatives number 400.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 99

In the Dominion the ratio is one to 25,637; in the United
States it is one to 193,284.

"The members of the House of Commons are elected
by constituencies, the electors of wmch are supplied by
franchises under the control of the several provincial
assembhes. The qualifications for voting at pro\dncial
elections vary in the several provinces. Voting is by
ballot." There is a small property qualification for
the right of suffrage; it varies in the different provinces
and territories. In the North West Territory there is
no property qualification. The Speaker of the House
of Commons (elected by the members) receives an
annual salary of $4000, and each member an allowance of
$2500 for the session, from which, in the case of ordinary
members, a deduction of $15 a day is made for absences.
One curious phase of emoluments is that the Leader of
the Opposition is paid $7000 in addition to the allowance
made for the session. This important official is also
recognised in other ways that are quite novel to states-
men and politicians of the United States. He has his
own private office in the Parliament building, as well as
his own corps of clerks and messengers. The Speaker
and members of the Senate have the same allowances
as are made to the members of the Lower House; but
they receive no extra allowances.

The present Governor- General is His Royal Highness
the Duke of Connaught and Stratheam, brother of the
late King Edward of Great Britain and Ireland and
Emperor of India, and therefore uncle of the reigning
monarch, .King George V. The Governor-General's
Privy Council comprises the Premier and President of

lOO THE COMING CANADA

Council, the Secretary of State and thirteen other
Ministers; their portfolios are Trade and Commerce,
Justice and Attorney-General, Marine, Fisheries and
Naval Service, Railways and Canals, Militia and Defence,
Finance, Postmaster-General, Agriculture, Public Works,
Interior, Customs, Inland Revenue and Mines, Labour.
There is besides, a SoHcitor-General who is adviser to
the Governor- General, but who is not in the Cabinet.
Furthermore, there is a Department of External Affairs,
whose head is Hkewise not a Cabinet officer, which has
charge of all Imperial and inter-colonial correspondence
passing between Ottawa and Downing Street, a name
which has come to connote the British administration.

It must seem to the American publicist that there is
needless differentiation in this multipHcity of Cabinet
officials. I fear the alleged British fondness for red-
tape and its tendency to circumlocution assert them-
selves in the composition of the Governor-General's
Privy Council. Just why the functions of the Depart-
ments of Trade and Commerce, Fisheries and Marine
Service; or those of Railways and Canals, and Public
Works; or those of Finance, Customs, and Inland
Revenue and Mines, should not be consoHdated into
three offices, it is not easy to see.

Each of the nine existing provinces has its own separate
parliament and administration, at the head of which is a
Lieutenant-Governor appointed by the Governor-General.
The provinces have full powers to regulate their own local
affairs and to dispose of their own revenues, provided
always that there shall be no interference with the action
and policy of the central Dominion Government.

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THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA lOI

Quebec has two Chambers, a Legislative Council and
a Legislative Assembly, and a responsible Ministry.
Nova Scotia has the same. The oiher provinces have
but one Legislative Assembly, and a responsible Ministry.
All readers are probably famiHar to a certain extent with
the working of such a government as that of Great
Britain and other States wherein there is a '^responsible
ministry." Such readers may have noted that when the
Cabinet of such a country is defeated by the legislature
in the vote upon a bill which it has introduced, the
Cabinet resigns en bloc, and somebody from the Opposi-
tion is called upon to form a new Cabinet. It is doubtful,
however, if all comprehend just why this is so, and what
a ''responsible ministry" is: the responsibility is to the
State not to the ruler. In such a nation, or state, or
province, the official head, be he king, president, gover-
nor-general or lieutenant-governor, is assumed to be
without political affiliation. Furthermore, he is entirely
relieved of all responsibility for the actual legislation.
When a general election has declared the wish of a
majority of the electors, the head of the State calls upon
the leader of the party in the majority to form a Cabinet,
and it is assumed that the head of the State will approve
of the selection of individual members, no matter how
distasteful to his personal views may be the poHtical
opinions of the majority: as an example, refer to Queen
Victoria and Mr. Gladstone. This being done and (if
provided for by constitution or according to custom)
the Cabinet being confirmed by the legislature, the head
of the State is personally irresponsible for all legislation.
Taking a concrete example: "as now interpreted, the

I02 THE COMING CANADA

leading principles of the British constitution are the
personal irresponsibility of the sovereign, the responsi-
bility of ministers [Cabinet officers], and the unquestioned
and controlling power of parliament." If the ministry
fails to receive the support of the national legislature,
its power is at an end and it must resign. This rule of
a responsible ministry holds good in Canada, from the
Dominion Government at Ottawa to every province
which is politically and independently organised. It
even exercises surprising influence in smaller political
divisions and in municipalities.

The North West Territories, comprising all the regions
formerly known as Rupert's Land; and the North
Western Territory, excepting the provinces of Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta; the district of Keewatin; *
and the North West Territory, are governed by a com-
missioner and council of four appointed by the Governor-
General, by and with the consent and approval of his
Privy Council at Ottawa. The Territory of Yukon is
governed by a Commissioner and an executive council
of ten members, elected by the people. In the Domin-
ion, the appointments made by the Governor- General
are not submitted to the Senate for confirmation, as
would be the case with corresponding Presidential ap-
pointments in the United States. The Governor-Gen-
eral's appointments may, however, be reviewed by the
King and his Privy Council, and they may be thus
revoked; but there are few (if any) instances of this
action.

There is a Supreme Court at Ottawa having appellate,
* Keewatin and Ungava have disappeared.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 103

civil, and criminal jurisdiction in and throughout Canada.
There is an Exchequer Court, whfch is also a colonial
court of admiralty, exercising povvers as provided for
in the Imperial *' Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act,
1890." There is a Superior Court in each province;
County Courts, with Hmited jurisdiction, in most of
the provinces; some of the judges of these courts are
appointed by the Governor- General; the minor ones
by the Dominion parliament. The latter, even, cannot
be removed unless by impeachment before the parHa-
ment. This involves an elaborate process which has
not yet been attempted, although it has been threatened
more than once. Police Magistrates and Justices of
the Peace are appointed by the governor of the province.
The dispensing of justice in the Dominion is marked by
a promptness which might well be emulated in her
southern neighbour. Mr. Albert J. Beveridge — for-
merly U. S. Senator from Indiana, in 1910-11 prepared
a series of articles about ''Our Northern Neighbors"
for The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, in which
he discussed, as a competent jurist, the methods fol-
lowed by the Canadian Courts in such important matters
as controlling trusts, etc. Those articles were most
instructive and illuminating.

To Canada's credit it may truthfully and cheerfully
be said that the law is effectively, promptly, and im-
partially administered throughout the entire Domin-
ion. It would be, I think, impossible for the most
searching investigation to reveal a state of affairs in the
courts of Canada, such as has seemed to justify the
attacks upon the bench in the United States of America

I04 THE COMING CANADA

which have appeared in some of the magazines of the
latter country within the past year or two.

In consequence there is, even in the remotest mining
camps of the Yukon Territory or among the rough
lumbermen of other regions, less turbulence than is
often reported from similar districts in Australia or the
United States. A concrete comparison might be drawn
between conditions in the mining camps of the Yukon
Territory and those in Alaska, which would be not at
all unfavourable to Canada. In the distant western
and northwestern portions of the Dominion, great credit
for general order, security of Ufe and property, and the
prompt arrest, conviction, and punishment of criminals
is due to the North Western Mounted Police, also called
"The Riders of the Plains," who are entitled to more
consideration than the limitation of space puts upon
me.

This is an efhcient body of picked men, preference being
given to those who have had some military training,
although this is not considered absolutely essential.
But strong, healthy, resourceful, tactful, courageous,
and good horsemen they must be. The full force com-
prises 700 men and officers, under the control of the
Dominion government. They are well paid and are
given such effective support that the esprit de corps is
very high.

Roughly speaking, they patrol the entire territory
north and west of Ontario and Quebec provinces
(although they are not, I believe, supposed to go into
Ungava and Labrador). That is from Hudson Bay to
the Rocky Mountains and including all of Yukon Terri-

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA I05

tory, and from the United States boundary all the way to
the northern limits of the Dominion in Arctic lands.
This great bailiwick, not very much smaller than the
entire area of the United States, is apportioned — for
police service — into twelve divisions with a superin-
tendent for each. These divisions are further subdivided
into one hundred and fifty smaller administrative
districts, in charge of lieutenants or sergeants, or it
may be just a corporal.

The functions of these Mounted Police are most
varied. Not only are they first and foremost preservers
of the peace and effective executors of justice, but they
are also census officers, registrars, rural postmen, etc.;
they may be called upon to record a birth, or register a
marriage, or certify a death, wherever there happens
to be no competent civil official. Many an outpost of
civilisation would be entirely without means of com-
municating with the rest of the world, were it not for
the occasional visit of a, Mounted Policeman. One
must know from actual experience of the winter in
Canada's northwest how to appreciate what such a
visit sometimes means; and at that season the visiting
policeman is not mounted.

Versatile they are, of course: expert horsemen, crack
shots, good on snowshoes, skilful with a paddle and in
managing a canoe, in fact handy at everything. Besides
all these things, they are constantly engaged in breaking
out new trails, in recording experiences and observ^ations
which are valuable or suggestive to scientists in deter-
mining the agricultural, grazing, mineral, lumber value
of new territory. To their efforts is due much of the

Io6 THE COMING CANADA

credit for pushing back the line which had previously
marked off the ''unexplored" regions of the north. An
entire volume might be filled with accounts of the
bravery and self-sacrifice of these men.

As the traveller by train sees an occasional Mounted
Policeman at a station, he may often be inclined to mis-
judge their ^' smart" appearance as indicative of fop-
pishness which strives to imitate the gorgeousness and
manner of the regular army. But let a call come to arrest
a drunken bully who is threatening to "paint the town
red" and shoot at sight; or let it be a summons to head
off a band of turbulent Indians, or to fight a prairie fire,
or any one of a hundred other things which demand
quick judgment, prompt action and entire forgetfulness
of self, and the seeming fop is instantly metamorphosed
into a vigorous, self-reliant, absolutely fearless upholder
of the peace, or a kind-hearted rescuer of the suffering.

After the transfer of French control in 1759 or 1763,
the British Government maintained garrisons at Quebec
and Hahfax for a time, as well as smaller contingents at
a number of posts. Still later, Esquimault, Vancouver
Island, British Columbia, was made a large and impor-
tant naval base and dockyard. Quebec was the first of
these to be transferred to the confederation: more
recently, 1905, Halifax and Esquimault were also handed
over to the Dominion's care.

The sovereign of the British Empire is nominally
commander-in-chief of all the military and naval forces
of Canada; but the actual control rests entirely with the
federal parliament. Until 1903, the mihtary forces of the
Dominion were commanded by a British regular army

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 107

officer; but in that year the service was reorganised and
locaHsed, the command being given to a military council,
of which the Minister of Militia and Defence became
president.

When Halifax and Esquimault were transferred to
the Dominion, it became necessary to increase the
militia by about 5000 men, in order to provide the neces-
sary garrisons at the three important strategic points
and the few forts that are still maintained. On a peace
footing, however, the Canadian army is not a great
burden on the finances, being only about 6000 all told,
including the three principal branches, infantry, artillery,
and cavalry. The former one thousand were mostly
commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the
regular (British) army who were occupied as instructors
of the militia.

All male citizens between the ages of eighteen and
sixty are nominally enrolled for militia duty, and may
be called to the colours at once should occasion demand.
It may be noted that the maximum age indicates the
conviction that a man retains his vigour longer in
Canada than he is assumed to do in some other countries.
The actual militia, regularly drilled and given practical
training in camp and the like, comprises about 45,000,
officers and men; all of whom are volunteers. The
service is a popular one and not seriously engrossing.
The government has no difficulty in keeping the ranks
of the militia companies filled.

This militia cannot be called upon for active duty
outside the Dominion; but we know that there have
been several occasions when special corps Lave volun-

I08 THE COMING CANADA

teered for foreign service; the expense attending this
has usually been borne by patriotic citizens. In 1883,
a company of Canadian wyageurs offered themselves for
service in Lord Wolseley's Nile expedition. These men
were of the greatest assistance in helping the army to
pass the Rapids, as well as in other ways because of
their general handiness; a characteristic which is
declared to be not marked in the average "Tommy
Atkins." Again, during the South African War, 1902-4,
several contingents of Canadian troops were enlisted
and gladly accepted by the Imperial War Office. These
troops gave an excellent account of themselves, and
their action, taken in connection with the manner in
which the heavy expense of their equipment and main-
tenance was provided for, as well as the expressions of
sentiment by the French-Canadian (Sir Wilfred Laurier)
who was then Premier and who spoke for all his fellows,
went a long way towards strengthening the bonds which
unite the Dominion to the Empire,

After the close of the South African War, another
thorough reorganisation of the militia took place, and it
is now considered to be in excellent condition both as to
efficiency and popularity. The Royal Military College
at Kingston is well attended and admirably conducted.
Each year, a certain number of the successful graduates
are given commissions in the Imperial army of Great
Britain. Nearly all the schools in cities of size, as well
as some of those in smaller places, have their cadet corps,
neatly uniformed, carefully drilled by competent militia
officers, and supplied with arms and ammunition, either
by the central or the local government.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA lOQ

The Dominion government maintains an arsenal and
factories for the manufacture of rifles, small arms, and
ammunition at Quebec. The arsenal is within what is
popularly known as ^^The Citadel;" but for a time the
other useful estabHshments, as well as a rifle-range that
was constantly in use, were allowed to encroach upon
what all loyal Canadians consider to be the sacred Plains
of Abraham; but this profanation has been stopped,
and the most hallowed portion, the eastern end where
stand the monuments, on the actual battlefield, is now
preserved as a pubhc park.

There is no State Church in the Dominion; although
in the Province of Quebec certain religious privileges
have been permitted to the Roman CathoHcs ever since
the conquest in 1759, and these have brought about
conditions which seem to suggest an estabUshed church.
The Church of England has two archbishops (Rupert's
Land: archbishop, metropolitan, and primate of all
Canada; and Ontario: archbishop and metropoHtan),
nineteen or twenty bishoprics, and something over 1000
clergy. The Roman Catholic Church has one cardinal,
seven archbishops, 23 bishops, and about 1500 clergy.
The Presbyterian Church has about 1400 ministers, and
maintains some 2500 churches and stations; the Metho-
dists 1950; and the Baptists 500. Besides the older
divisions of the Christian Church, there are almost
innumerable sects. The utmost freedom is permitted,
and Russian dissenters are made to feel as much at home
as are the strictest churchmen.

CHAPTER VIII
THE WEALTH OF CANADA

BEGINNING in the extreme eastern part of the
Dominion, with Nova Scotia, I purpose giving a
very little attention to Canada's mineral wealth, because
it seems to me that this is not now such an important
factor as is that other which is to be taken from the
surface of the ground. In agricultural products, live
stock, and kindred industries, I am convinced, the
greatness of The Coming Canada is to consist, and that
conviction is strengthened by what I have seen and heard
during another visit to the Dominion which I have
recently made.

It is not because I do not appreciate fully Canada's
mineral wealth, but because I believe more in something
else. With the natural products of the ground, I shall
class the marine products in this hasty and general pre-
liminary sketch. All who have enjoyed the delight of
coasting along the shores of Nova Scotia, New Bruns-
wick, Prince Edward Island, Anticosti, eastern Quebec,
and even the bleak Labrador, as well as other parts of
Canada's littoral, Atlantic or Pacific, have been impressed
with the economic and financial importance of the
fisheries; both those of the deeper seas and those of
the lobstermen in the bays and bights of the east. Or,
jumping across the continent, the salmon fisheries of

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THE WEALTH OF CANADA Til

British Columbia have interested every visitor. The
fishing industries bring to the people of the Dominion
many millions of dollars every year. Of the river and
lake fishing, I shall speak in another ^place.

In Nova Scotia there are great coalfields, and Sydney,
Cape Breton, is one of the most important coal-shipping
ports on the Atlantic coast. Twenty million dollars a
year is said to be the amount which this one industry
represents. Naturally, since the other required raw
material, iron ore, is at hand, this little town is also a
producer of iron and steel; the place has aptly been
called ^'A transatlantic Birmingham" ; and indeed, it
is not quite so absurd as it sounds to liken the com-
paratively new, Httle Nova Scotia town of a few thou-
sand population, with the long established Midland city
of half a million. The rest of this Acadian region is
rather poorly off in minerals. The Cape Breton coal
seams re-appear as far north as the St. Lawrence River.
The coal seams of New Brunswick are thin and unim-
portant. There are some fairly productive veins of
quartz bearing precious metals. The southern part
of Quebec pro\dnce is placed by geologists in the Acadian
region; in that part are some copper and asbestos
properties of value.

Geologists consider the Dominion as dixided into five
areas. One has been barely alluded to; but there is
little more to say. The next is an enormous territory,
technically designated as the Archaean protaxis. Within
its boundaries there must be more than two million
square miles. In the east it embraces Labrador,
Ungava, and most of Quebec province; its southern

112 THE COMING CANADA

boundary may be defined by a line including the northern
part of Ontario province; while west its limits run from
the Lake of the Woods northwesterly to the Arctic
Ocean near the mouth of .the Mackenzie River. What
the northern limit is, it would be venturesome to say; it
certainly includes many of those bleak, ice-bound islands
which intervene between the mainland of the North
American continent and the North Pole. Hudson Bay
is at about the centre of this gigantic V; but even on
the latest maps which the Dominion Government has
prepared, giving data to the end of 191 1, vast tracts are
yet branded as unexplored, or as barren. Much of the
foundation is Lauren tian gneiss and granite; but there
are other rocks which bear deposits of most of the im-
portant minerals; principally iron, nickel, silver, copper.

If Ontario has been almost deforested — and the
lumbermen long since passed into the newly created
northern section — there yet remains in the cobalt
mines of the province a source of great wealth which is
being realised very rapidly. From those silver-bearing
ores something like forty million dollars' worth of metal
have been extracted. The range of these ores has
recently been demonstrated to be much wider than it
was supposed to be. The nickel mines of Ontario are
extremely valuable; so much so indeed that those at
Sudbury are said to produce a large proportion of the
whole world's output. Of the 87 million dollars which
all Canadian mines produced in 1909, Ontario's cobalt-
silver and nickel mines represented nearly thirty millions.

The next geological area, the Interior Central Plain,
would not naturally be considered of importance for its

THE WEALTH OF CANADA II3

minerals. There is some coal and lignite, and as one
draws towards the Rocky Mountains, near Medicine
Hat, a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway in Alberta
province, for example, natural gas-wells have been bored
and the gas put to use as fuel. In certain places, the
presence of '' tar-sands" indicates that petroleum exists,
but these ''prospects" have not yet been followed
up. In the northern part of Alberta natural gas has
been found and there must be a good deal of this
natural asset all along the eastern foothills of the Rocky
Mountains.

In the western mountain region, The Cordilleran
Belt, as it is technically called, large fields of coal, both
bituminous and semi-anthracite, have been opened.
The mines supply fuel for the different railways, for the
settlers along the lines, and for the cities and towns
farther to the east. The best coal, down to the present
time, is found on the Pacific slope. From the mines of
that region comes the coking coal which supplies fuel
for the famous Kootenay district in extreme southern
British Columbia, and to the mines and smelters of
Montana.

The Selkirk Mountains and the Gold Range are two
short chains parallel to the main Rockies, in southeastern
British Columbia. In these two ranges are, at present,
the most important gold, silver, copper, and lead mines
of the Dominion; and their output has placed British
Columbia far in the lead of all other provinces as a
producer of the precious and useful metals.

In the early days of the province's history, the placer
mines along the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, in southern

114 THE COMING CANADA

British Columbia, and in the lower parts of the Yukon
Territory in the north, attracted much attention; but
in these districts the precious metals are now almost
entirely mined from lodes and reduced by smelting. The
placer mines of the Klondike, still farther north, have
furnished many million dollars' worth of gold, and will
doubtless continue to be productive for some time to
come.

The mineral wealth of the Canadian Rockies has not
yet been determined. Geological and mineralogical
surveys are being made yearly; but this research into
the material wealth of the Dominion is being directed
more towards the soil in its various phases. Gold mines,
working either on ledges or by hydrauKc washing, are
to be seen along many river bottoms. From them gold
to the value of hundreds of million dollars has been taken.
Who will dare to guess at the milHons upon millions more
that may be extracted? Yet, again, who will tell just
what each dollar's worth of gold has cost? Economically,
morally, physically, socially — gold mining is more
costly than wheat growing!

Other parts of British Columbia are so rich in metals
that one writer asserts, ''corundum and nickel seem to
be the only mineral products that are not found in this
highly metalliferous region." Several towns in this
province have gained a reputation that is world-wide
because of the great value of their metal output, precious
or merely useful ; and the plants of some include smelters
that are among ''the largest and most complete of their
kind in the whole world!" All the British Columbian
littoral as well as the adjacent islands seems to be rich

1

THE WEALTH OF CANADA II5

in minerals, from the prosaic coal to the ghttering gold.
The total output of the mines has reached hundreds of
millions of dollars in value. Besides great wealth in
the ground, this Pacific province has enormous wealth
above ground, for there is the greatest compact area of
merchantable timber in North America. But it is not
only in mines and lumber that the extreme western
section of the Dominion possesses great wealth; there
are other sources which are really more satisfactory and,
in the long run, more remunerative to labour and to the
State: of these I shall speak presently.

We may say of the Cordillera belt, as a whole, that
within its borders are most of the best coal mines in
Canada; that there are also immense deposits of the
precious and some of the useful metals, for iron-ore of
a good quality and readily mined has not yet been found.
But our knowledge of this great Cordilleran belt is still
anything but complete. It extends from the United
States boundary far into the Arctic regions, and from
the eastern foot of the Rocky IVIountains to the Pacific
Ocean. Explorations are being prosecuted, and it is
not unreasonable to expect that this great area will
prove to be ''the counterpart of the great mining
region of the Cordillera in the United States to the
South."

If confirmation were demanded for the statement
that the government of the Dominion of Canada looks
more favourably upon the development of those resources
which depend upon the soil, rather than upon the ex-
ploitation of mineral wealth, it is to be had in the suc-
cessful efforts which have been made to increase the

Il6 THE COMING CANADA

population and to extend the area under cultivation in
the great Interior Central Plain.

Less than forty years ago, our school atlases showed
British North America to be practically a complete blank
from the Great Lakes to the Pacific, from the Inter-
national boundary northward indefinitely. Prior to
1858, the Hudson's Bay Company had a trading-post
where Victoria on Vancouver Island, B. C, now stands.
The city was incorporated in 1862. In 1886 its popula-
tion was 14,000, and this included Chinese and a large
number of Indians; now there are 50,000 inhabitants.
In 1870, Winnipeg began its existence as a village. Prior
to that date there had been at least five fur-traders'
*' forts" on sites that are now within the city's limits.
In 1873, it was incorporated as a city, and in 1881 the
population was 7985, now it is over 200,000. Scarcely
another one of the innumerable, flourishing cities and
towns were in existence forty years ago.

In the northern sections of this great area, it was the
dotted line which confesses geographical ignorance that
map-makers were compelled to use. Here and there,
at wide intervals, *' forts" were marked. These denoted
trading stations of the Hudson's Bay Company, or — ■
very rarely — posts where small garrisons were main-
tained for the purpose of keeping a watch on the Indians
and checking their disposition to go on the war-path.
Now, the maps which the Dominion Government issues
to show the land that is available for homestead pre-
emption in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta
provinces, indicate that agricultural and stock-raising
settlers in great numbers have availed themselves of the

THE WEALTH OF CANADA II7

opportunity to secure homes upon the favourable terms
that are granted.

This, however, is not at all astonishing, because the
land is good, the climate healthy, even if the winters are
rigorous, the faciUties of access are satisfactory and are
being rapidly extended, and the advantages of schools
and social intercourse are admirable. These, and other
phases of life in those western provinces, will be con-
sidered more fully in the chapter, ''The Lure of Canada."

What is amazing, and it is something which strongly
emphasises the importance of agriculture as the leading
factor of Canada's wealth, is the story told by a map
of the Dominion to show points far to the north of what
was for a long time considered the limit of the grain belt,
where wheat has been grown. The most northern of
these points is Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie River
in the North West Territories, lat. 61° 8'. Here barley
always ripens and wheat is sure to mature four seasons
out of five. Melons, if started under glass, ripen well
and frost seldom does them much damage. One visitor *
wrote: "While at this post we enjoyed the fine potatoes,
carrots, parsnips, cabbage, and peas grown in the Com-
pany's garden. They were as large and as fine flavoured
as the best in any part of the country. Barley is yearly
grown here and it may be said successfully, for any fail-
ures have been due to drought or too much rain of tener
than frost. Wheat has been tried several times, often
successfully, but as it cannot be utilised except through
grinding with a handmill, it is not considered desirable
to grow much of it,"

* William Ogilive, In Northern Wilds.

Il8 THE COMING CANADA

At Fort Providence, on the same Mackenzie River,
but near its exit from the Great Slave Lake, lat. 6i° 4',
on July 15th, 1906, an inspector reported *^the garden
contained peas fit for use, potatoes in flower, tomatoes,
rhubarb, beets, cabbages, onions. Besides vegetables^
there were cultivated, flowers and fruits, such as red
currants, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, and
sackaloons. But most surprising of all was a small field
of wheat in the milk, the grain being fully formed. This
was stated to have been sown on May 20th, and harvested
before July 28th, slightly over two months from sowing.'*

In 1905, in the vicinity of Fort Vermilion, on Peace
River, northern Alberta, lat. 58° 4', 25,000 bushels of
wheat were raised. There is a modern equipment (roller
process), electric-lighted flour-mill at this place. At
that time the capacity of the mill was 35 barrels per day;
but the wheat crop in the neighbourhood has been so
much increased, and the promise of permanency is so
good, that this mill has been enlarged and now its
capacity is 125 barrels of flour a day. The quality of
this flour is declared to be fully equal to that of any
produced in other parts of the world.

There are a number of other places north of the 54th
parallel of latitude, where wheat has been successfully
raised, while barley and oats actually thrive. Fruits
and vegetables, such as have been already mentioned,
are grown at nearly all of these far northern posts.
Experiments were made during the summer of last year
(191 2) at some stations even farther north than Fort
Simpson. The results of these tests are not available
at the time of writing; but officials of the departments.

THE WEALTH OF CANADA II9

Ottawa, expressed themselves with pleasing confidence.
What has been said of Siberia * of the power of the sun
during eighteen to twenty hours of cloudless days that
are the rule during the short summer, applies with equal
force to Canada.

For the purpose of visual comparison, an outline of
the Russian-Siberian Government of Tobolsk has been
superimposed upon this map in its correct position as
to latitude. Its southern point reaches down nearly to
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Province: its northern limit,
nearly 70°, corresponds to the southern portion of Vic-
toria Island, Wollaston Land, in the Arctic sea. In
1907, Tobolsk produced 11,779,000 bushels of wheat,
4,344,000 bushels rye, 829,000 bushels barley, 13,818,000
bushels oats. In 1901 there were nearly four million
head of live stock, and from the Kazan district, in the
extreme southwest along the line of the Trans-Siberian
Railway, nearly twenty million pounds of butter were
shipped, most of it being sold in the markets of Great
Britain. Now, the cultivated sections of Tobolsk are
all well to the south of the 58th parallel of North lati-
tude, and the northern boundary of Saskatchewan,
Alberta, and British Columbia is the 6oth parallel. The
arable and grazing lands of the Siberian pro\'ince are
considered to extend not much to the north of the town
of Tobolsk, 58° 20' N., and then only in exceptional
places. Whereas, it is being demonstrated more and
more each year that the North West Territories of
Canada can successfully produce grain north of the 6oth
parallel.

* See Russia in Europe and Asia.

\

I20 THE COMING CANADA

In the provinces of Manitoba (its area was much in-
creased towards the north by the Boundaries Extension
Act of 191 2), Saskatchewan, and Alberta, the area under
grain cultivation in 1909 was 11,960,000 acres; the
wheat area was 6,878,000 acres, and the total wheat
produced was 147,000,000 bushels. All of these figures
must be greatly added to for the current year, 191 2.
In this year it is estimated that the grain acreage in
those three provinces alone was 15,728,900 acres; the
area under wheat cultivation was 8,951,800 acres; the
wheat crop 189,585,400 bushels. The total wheat crop
for the whole Dominion was estimated at 216,498,000
bushels, because Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime
provinces all contribute an appreciable quantity.

That the interest, which newly arrived settlers who
contemplate engaging in occupations that are connected
with the cultivation of the soil or stock raising, is great
and increasing as the influx of new-comers grows, is
shown by the fact that a report upon lands in north-
western Saskatchewan Province, of investigations made
there in 1908, was in such demand that the large issue,
printed for public information and gratuitous distribu-
tion, was speedily exhausted. This report was reprinted
in 1910, and with it was incorporated another similar
report of investigations made in 1909. Copies of this
double report are not now easily procurable because
the demand for them has been so great.

They deal with those portions of Saskatchewan and
Alberta Provinces north of the surveyed area, up to "the
Clearwater River [say lat. 55° N.], and extending from
Green Lake, the Beaver River, and connecting waters

THE WEALTH OF CANADA 121

as far north as Portage la Loche, on the east, to the
Athabaska River, on the west." It should be explained
that ''surveyed area" means land which has been marked
out by townships of thirty-six sections; each section
being one mile square, and each section subdivided
into quarter sections of i6o acres each. The town-
ship is, therefore, six miles square; its lines run north
and south, or east and west; and the system corre-
sponds closely with the public lands surveys in the
United States.

The area, covered by the two reports which have been
mentioned, is approximately thirty-four miUion acres,
and the greater part of this enormous tract is shown to
be admirably suited to mixed farming. Scattered over
the map which accompanies the combined reports are
such legends as, ''prairie; very good soil," "rolling land;
good soil," "barley, oats, and good gardens," "burnt
over; good soil," "well timbered." There are abundant
natural resources of timber, hay, fish, and game, which
are of much value to intending immigrants. A good
many of the early settlers have practically given up the
cultivation of grain and devote their energies to cutting
and curing hay, for which the local demand is so great
as to ensure large profits.

Results of actual operations in cattle raising are of a
most encouraging nature. In Saskatchewan Province,
as far north as about the 52nd parallel of latitude, there
are large herds of cattle and good-sized droves of horses
in a thriving condition. Similar reports are made from
various other parts of this same region.

The Dominion Department of Agriculture, through its

122 THE COMING CANADA

Bureau of Plant Industry and its Experimental Farms
Branch, has made investigation of wild grasses growing
in Siberia, Mongolia, and Northern Manchuria. Three
varieties of yellow-flowered alfalfa, called also lucern,
lucerne, and luzerne, were ''found growing and thriving
in a wild state under conditions of climate much more
severe, both as to cold in winter and snowfall, than are
to be found in any part of Northwestern Canada as far
north as there are any claims made as to probabilities
of settlement. It may therefore be considered reason-
ably probable that whatever advantages alfalfa has over
our native grass as fodder are assured for all habitable
parts of our north country."

A careful perusal of these two reports which have
been mentioned certainly gives a very different idea
of Canada's northern land than that which most people
have hitherto had. A number of illustrations from
photographs of actual fields, etc., tend to emphasise the
astonishment that farming can be possible so nearly
up to the Arctic Circle. One of the reproductions shows
a field of oats at La Plonge Mission station, about 56° N.
lat. A man, nearly six feet tall, stands among the
stalks, the tops of which come to his chin. This is
mentioned as an example of what has been actually
done, and much other evidence of arable land in regions
that were, but a few years ago, looked upon as desolate
and practically uninhabitable, might be added.

While grains are undoubtedly the main factor in
Canada's agricultural wealth, there are other crops which
are exceedingly profitable. Fruits of various kinds are
one source of revenue which is already large and is

THE WEALTH OF CANADA 123

steadily expanding. Apple orchards are being set out
farther and farther north each year, and the extreme
limit at which this fruit can be advantageously grown
has not been finally determined.

London, Eng., now takes a large part of Nova Scotia's
milHon barrels of apples. This is now considered an
average crop for the province, with probabilities of
material increase. In the St. Lawrence Valley, although
apple-trees are fairly plentiful and fairly proKfic even
in the lower parts, among the habitants, it is not until
one reaches the Lake Ontario region that the orchards
become conspicuous. In the Niagara district, from the
river to and around the western end of the lake, and
spread out well towards the west, there are miles of
thrifty peach and apple orchards, and acres upon acres
of luxuriant vineyards.

If the fruit orchards are found to be not continuous
as the traveller passes across the great prairies from
Winnipeg to the foot of the Rockies, it is not because
fruit will not thrive there, but for the reason that the
farmers have elected to concentrate their efforts upon
growing grain or raising stock. But when once the
southern Rocky Mountains region is entered — and one
must deflect to the southward from the main Hne of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, taking the new branch —
orchards re-appear.

The Okanagon Lake district is deservedly famous for
its orchards. "Along the beautiful sheet of water lie
the new fruit growing centres of Kelewna, Peachland,
Summerland, and Penticton — musical names all. To
be privileged to eat real apples from a British Columbia

124 THE COMING CANADA

orchard, or to pick real rosy-cheeked peaches from a
Peachland tree, to see pear and plum trees laden to
their limit, and flourishing amid their irrigation channels,
is to be impressed with the fact that in this great timber
and mining province of Canada fruit-growing is already
an established industry, where you may pay up to 500
dollars an acre for choice orchard lands." *

In 1903 the experiment of shipping apples from British
Columbia abroad was first tried as a commercial venture,
although I know — from delightful personal experience
— that the C. P. R. steamers have been bountifully
supplied with apples and other fruit for many years.
Some were sent to Glasgow, carried well across the conti-
nent and the Atlantic, and sold profitably. Some went
to Australia, and some gained a gold medal at a London,
Eng., exhibition. However, the home demand is not
yet so over-supplied that orchardists need send their
apples all over the world to find a market.

There is one Canadian fruit that is peerless of its kind;
only it must be eaten on its native heath to get all the
delight for the palate that it holds. This is the ''Mon-
treal melon." Its 'appearance tends rather to dis-
courage the American epicure who has for his ideal the
rough, rusty little canteloupe, because the Montreal
melon is somewhat suggestive of the poorer quality
of muskmelon. But when once the gourmet listens to
the praise of the waiter who places the half of one of
these melons before him and tastes — he is a convert
at once and a devotee forever after. It is a pity this
fruit will not stand transportation when ripe, else would

* Frank Yeigh, Through the Heart of Canada.

THE WEALTH OF CANADA 125

its sale in cities of the United States add many a dollar
each year to Canada's wealth.

Of the Dominion's wealth in timber and merchantable
lumber, there are abundant evidences on every hand.
At the docks of Montreal and all river ports where
deepwater craft can load, the immense piles of sawn
lumber, vanishing by day to be replaced by others in
the night, speak for themselves. It is true that each
year adds a little to the cost of producing this lumber,
because the lumbermen must go a little farther away
for the logs, and in many places the deforestation has
been shamelessly complete.

Statisticians claim to have fixed the limit of time for
the best Canadian white pine to be procurable, unless
the government gives great attention to conservation
and reforestation. Officials have taken these matters
well in hand and the Forestry Bureau of the Interior
Department is now organised and vested with authority
to preserve and renew.

It seems hardly necessary to dwell at any length upon
the Dominion's wealth in fur-bearing animals. It is
still great, but not comparable with what it was in the
halcyon days of les voyageurs et les coureurs des hois. That
there is profit in the fur business, and revenue for the
government, are clearly indicated by the competition
which private firms and indi\iduals are now waging
with the Hudson's Bay Company.

There is little danger that the profit-yielding shore
and deep-sea fisheries will greatly decrease; because of
Nature's generosity in replenishing the supply. His-
torically, the beginnings and growth of the earliest

126 THE COMING CANADA

trading companies of New France — those that had to
do, first with the cod-fishing on the Newfoundland
Banks, and later with the fur-trade — are subjects of
great interest, and the stories are filled with incidents
that are distinctly thriUing.* The Coming Canada has
little to fear for its future wealth, if the present intelli-
gence in developing now displayed is maintained, and
the prosecution watched by competent officials.

* H. P. Biggar. The Early Trading Companies of New France.

CHAPTER IX
PHYSICAL CANADA

THE eastern three-fourths of the Dominion, from
Labrador in the northeast to Nova Scotia in the
southeast, and westward until the great central plains
have been crossed, have no mountains of very great
altitude. I should, perhaps, say ''excepting the extreme
northern part of Labrador." But our knowledge of
that peninsula is still far from satisfactory. Indeed, I
do not hesitate to say that beyond a smattering of
information along the coast, we do not know anything
at all about that region. It may be — as has been
asserted — that there are peaks which rise to a height
of from 7000 to 8000 feet above sea-level; but from the
best information I could gather, I am rather incHned to
doubt it.

In the extreme southeastern section of Canada, the
highest peak is Bald Mountain, in New Brunswick,
2460 feet. Besides this there are rarely any hills w^hich
attain to 3000 feet above the sea. The Shicksock moun-
tains of the Gaspe peninsula attain to 3000 feet in certain
peaks.

If it does not tower to great heights, yet the Lauren-
tian plateau, along Georgian Bay, the upper end of Lake
Huron, and the whole of the north shore of Lake Superior,
is extremely interesting to the geologist, since it is con-

128 THE COMING CANADA

sidered to represent the oldest rock formation of the
globe. In this aspect of the relative ages of the two
hemispheres, it is manifestly a misnomer to call America
^'the New World." This hard, close-grained Lauren-
tian rock presented a very serious problem to the engi-
neers who built the first trans-continental railway in
Canada, the Canadian Pacific. It was a most difficult
matter to cut the road-bed; because the charges of
explosives, no matter how carefully set and tamped, blew
straight out of the drill-holes as from a gun-barrel,
without shattering the adamantine rock at all. It was
only when heavy charges of nitro-glycerine were used
that the work was successfully accomplished. When I
passed around the southern end of Lake Baikal, Siberia,
by the Trans-Siberian Railway, I was reminded con-
stantly of this section of the Canadian Pacific. Con-
ditions were singularly parallel in both places. The
almost imperative necessity for double-tracking the
Canadian line, eastward from Port Arthur, in order to
facilitate the getting of the yearly increasing grain-crop
of the North West to market, when navigation on the
Great Lakes is closed, is a task from which the engineers
of the Canadian Pacific naturally shrink : but it has got
to be faced and accompHshed.

It is not surprising that this Laurcntian belt for a long
time presented a serious obstacle to the development
of regions to the west thereof; and it was many years
before settlements began to spread northward from the
one available thoroughfare. But now that it is found
that regions which had been considered too remote, too
unsuited to husbandry, and too inhospitable for perma-

PHYSICAL CANADA I29

nent settlements are really desirable in many ways, the
newer railway lines, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the
National Trans-continental, and doubtless others have
been or will be located north of the Laurentian belt.
Construction will be a much easier problem than was
that which faced the Canadian Pacific engineers.

When the Rocky Mountains are reached, there is
presented to the visitor's eyes a wealth of mountain
scenery that is with difficulty matched in any other
part of the world. From the International Boundary
along the main range away up to Mackenzie Bay, in the
extreme north of Yukon Territory, above the Arctic
Circle, and in the whole of British Columbia, including
the islands off the coast, there is *'a world of mountains."
There are, besides the parent range, the subordinate
chains, the Selkirks, the Coast, the Cascades, and spurs
that bear local names. In the first are peaks such as
Sir Donald, over 10,000 feet; and glaciers such as the
Illicillewait. Here is a Hst of names of mountain peaks
in the Canadian Rockies, any one of which will give all
that alpinists can ask in the way of difficulties to sur-
mount, and a reward that thrills: Aberdeen, Assiniboine,
Baker, Cathedral Spires, Cougar, Logan, Robson, St.
EHas, Temple, Vice-President, Victoria. But I wish
to give a full chapter, later on, to this subject of the
Canadian Rockies.

Canada is most bountifully supphed with lakes and
rivers; taken together, these afford facilities for inland
navigation and intercommunication that are almost
unique. Most of the lakes have outlets, and therefore
their waters are fresh; but in the southern part of

130 THE COMING CANADA

Saskatchewan Province is one of the very excessively
dry regions; here there are some lakes which are not
drained. The water is strongly alkaline and the shores
of these land-locked lakes are heavily incrusted with
mineral deposits. ''It is interesting to find marine
plants, such as the samphire, growing on their shores a
thousand miles from the sea and more than a thousand
feet above it." In many places the water, which settles
in one basin to form a small lake, overflows and meanders
down the next lower level until again it settles into
another lake. There is not always a well-defined channel.
As a consequence, the river systems are frequently
complex and tortuous. The successive links between the
lakes have been given different names by the Indians
or the European discoverers, and this adds to confusion.

The Great Lakes, with the St. Lawrence River, are
deferred to another chapter. A glance at the map shows
that Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan
and Alberta, and the whole of the North West Territories,
are honeycombed with lakes. Indeed the low and
generally level character of the land, which make these
lakes and rivers inevitable, is one of the embarrass-
ments that confront the Dominion Government. The
waterlogged land is dif!icult to drain, and yet the soil
itself is admirably suited to husbandry and stock-raising.

In the Canadian folk-lore, there is hardly a lake, from
St. John, in eastern Quebec, to the Great Bear, in the
North West Territories and crossed by the Arctic Circle,
that has not figured in one or more of these stories.
There are besides these many historical tales which
relate the hardships borne by coureurs des hois or mission-

PHYSICAL CANADA 131

aries in their efforts to conquer the wilderness or uplift
the savage inhabitants: all are pathetic; many are
tragic.

I cannot imagine a more tempting summer expedition
for strong young men who love to get back for a while
to Nature now and then, than to start from Winnipeg,
Manitoba, go by canoe the full length of Lake Winnipeg,
because its shores give the most entrancing spots for a
camp; then make their way by the smaller lakes and
charming connecting streams, with here and there a
portage that adds spice to hfe, to Nelson River, and
down that stream to its mouth in Hudson Bay. Once
there, I should not be happy unless I could take a good
look at the two shores of the bay. For those who like
to combine exploration with recreation, there are excellent
opportunities, especially on the eastern side of the bay,
north of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at the mouth
of Great Whale River. Some way of getting round the
Ungava peninsula and Labrador will present itself; and
at the end of the summer, I should return to dull civi-
lisation by way of Newfoundland.

But the Canadian lakes are not all in the low country:
some of them are so high up in the Rocky Mountains
that they are truly amongst the clouds. Travellers by
the Canadian Pacific Railway get ghmpses of some of
the mountain lakes while comfortably seated in a palace-
car, or while eating a most delicious breakfast in a dining-
car as it runs along the shore of Kootenay or Sicamous
lake; and it is not unUkely one item of the meal will be
fresh fish taken just a few minutes before from one of
those lakes. I have many times had that tantalising

132 THE COMING CANADA

pleasure; and always there has been a fierce protest that
the demands of profession or business prevented my
leaving the sybaritish luxury of the train that I might
tramp and climb and for an indefinite period live. One
envies the surveyors and builders of the railway who
first forced their way through some of these mountain
canyons, past the lovely lakes, along the tumbling
streams. Remnants of their trails are here and there
to be seen, and often they make one catch one's breath,
when they seem to be just scratched on the face of a
precipice.

After having crossed the continent by every one of
the principal lines of railway, both in the United States
and in Canada, I still thinlc there is less of monotony
along the Canadian Pacific Railway than there is in
the United States west of the Mississippi until the Rocky
Mountains are reached. When the Grand Trunk
Pacific is finished it will, probably, make the prairie lose
even more of its dreariness and sameness.

Although the traveller reaHses some time before
reaching Winnipeg, westward bound, that the mountains
and hills have been left behind, he does not really begin
to see ''the boundless prairies" until after passing well
to the west of Winnipeg. When I first made that
journey, I must admit that the settlements were few and
far between: now they are many. Yet even twenty-
five years ago, it did not seem tedious to cross the
prairies. The railway was rarely a long straight stretch,
so long that the rails seemed to come together in the
distance as I looked back from the rear end of the train.
It wound about the low, rolling mounds that seemed to

PHYSICAL CANADA 133

be like billows of a great green or brown sea, suddenly
deprived of motion.

There was plenty of vegetation and the wild flowers
were innumerable. In the lush grass there were herds of
antelopes feeding, or frightened into panic by the noise
of the swiftly moving train. But even then the buffaloes
had been so nearly exterminated, or driven far away by
the advance of civilisation, that nothing remained as a
reminder of them but skulls and heaps of bleached
bones. Coyotes, jack rabbits, prairie-dogs, and other
smaller animals were plentiful, and the co-tenants of the
prairie-dogs, the owls and the rattlesnakes, were to be
seen whenever we passed a ''colony." So that had the
land itself been entirely uninteresting — and it was
rarely that — there was sufficient Kf e to make the trip
anything but tedious and monotonous. Always there
were the most wonderful atmospheric effects; deceiving
the eye as to distances. Now the settlements are so
numerous that the express trains pass many stations
without stopping — something that was never done
twenty-five years ago — and farmhouses are rarely out
of sight. The prairies are great grain fields or stretches
of grazing land. The latter, however, are yearly shrink-
ing in size along the railways; for to the husbandman,
the bona fide householder especially, is given the right
of way, precedence, and government protection against
aggressive stockmen.

But the most conspicuous change in the Canadian
prairies is the development of railways throughout
southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and almost
equally so in Alberta. Where, only a very few years

134 THE COMING CANADA

ago, there was but one railway in this entire region, the
main line of the Canadian Pacific, there are now three
trunk lines, the C. P. R., the Grand Trunk Pacific, and
the Canadian Northern, to the eastern slope of the
Rocky Mountains; while Manitoba and Saskatchewan,
as far as Regina, are almost as much cut up by subordi-
nate and branch lines as is the state of Indiana.

Inasmuch as railways are not often built merely for
the pleasure of constructing them, and because there is
no strategic demand for any of the numerous tributary
lines, the fact that there are so many in this region
indicates more clearly than words could how complete
has been the transformation of the prairies, from lonely
desolation to active life.

Aside from the economic aspects of Canada's coasts
and bays, these outlying bounds demand a little atten-
tion because of their association and physical features;
more than I can give, I am sorry to say. Sufl&cient has
been said of the history of the eastern part of the Domin-
ion, although that little can give but a hint of this inter-
esting subject. It is perhaps unwise to say that it was
the fisheries of the American coast which first directed
considerable attention to the New World; yet it is
certain that the efforts of the first trading companies
of New France did something to stimulate further
exploration and effort to maintain possession of new
territories. It is rather with physical features that we
are now to deal.

The province of New Brunswick has something like
four hundred miles of coast, sometimes rocky, in other
places marsh. The local names recall the aborigines,

PHYSICAL CANADA I35

who are now of really small importance in the active
life of the province. Some of the place names remind us
of the struggle between France and England: struggles
that ended only a century and a half ago, and yet how
dim is their history!

The coast of New Brunswick, especially along the
shores of Passamaquoddy Bay, is very popular with
Canadians who wish to get away from the cities during
the summer; and not a few citizens of the United States
have followed the lead of their northern neighbours
in establishing summer homes in New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia. There would probably be more, were it
not for the annoyance to which they would be subjected
by U. S. Customs officers when they return in the
autumn.

St. John, christened by Champlain, and the oldest
incorporated city in Canada, is of most importance as
a commercial centre. It is at the mouth of the deep
estuary which penetrates far into the province, to
Queens, Sunbury, and York counties: a trip by steam-
boat up this estuary — called St. John's River — to
Fredericton, the provincial capital, is a popular excursion ;
the quaint old town of Fredericton being attractive in
many ways. St. John's River is bordered with villages
and towns of some importance. Many visitors are seen
there during the summer.

The feature of this part of the coast which is most
famous is the Bay of Fundy, about 170 miles long and
from thirty to fifty miles wide. Its greatest fame, with
boys and girls studying geography, is its rushing tide,
rising some sLxty to seventy feet. At the northern end

136 THE COMING CANADA

of Chignecto Bay, an arm of Fundy, stands the town
of Amherst. From this place across to Port Elgin Bay,
off Northumberland Sound (which is between the main-
land and Prince Edward Island), the distance is only
about fifteen miles; and yet the tides on the Sound
show nothing of the surprising phenomenon that is
witnessed in Fundy waters.

Nova Scotia's southern coast is indented by many
estuaries; the most important being Halifax Harbour,
on which stands the city that was for a long time a port
of call for so many lines of trans-Atlantic steamers. It
is still an important place, but its glory has been tem-
porarily dimmed since the large steamers pass by with-
out stopping for coals and water. As it is open all the
year round, Halifax's importance is likely to be recov-
ered as the Dominion's maritime trade expands. As
a strategic point its value will always be great. The
coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador, and the
north must be passed by; not because they are not
important — at present or prospectively — but for lack
of space.

The coast of British Columbia, from the southern end
of Vancouver Island to the 55 th parallel of North latitude
(where it joins Alaska), is an extremely interesting
section. The scenery is grand, the natural resources
wonderful, and the natives are still a subject that claims
the attention of ethnologists. The student of mankind
will find the Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands
an attractive subject, even if their arts have been greatly
modernised. The totem-posts and huge canoes, most
elaborately and symbolically carved, are familiar objects

PHYSICAL CANADA 137

in all ethnological museums. After what has been said
of the natural wealth, this part of the Dominion is
especially interesting to the tourist and the sportsman,
whose claims are to receive attention in the next
chapter.

CHAPTER X

CANADA FOR THE TOURIST AND
SPORTSMAN

1MUST ask pardon of my Canadian friends for appro-
priating the word '' American" to designate specific-
ally the citizens of the United States. I fully respect
the right of those who were born and brought up in the
Dominion to consider themselves as much "American"
as anyone hailing from the southern side of the St.
Lawrence River or the International Boundary. Most
Canadians are willing to let their ''Yankee" friends call
themselves "Americans" and to speak of them as such.
I differentiate for convenience only, and I do not wish
to hurt anyone's feelings. After all, I have noticed
that a good many faithful subjects of His Gracious
Majesty King George, sojourning in Canada, insist upon
being differentiated as "Enghshmen," "Scotchmen,"
"Canadians."

A tourist may be defined as one who travels for the
pleasure of doing so merely to widen his horizon or with
a dilettante desire to increase his fund of information
about the world and its inhabitants. This description
being accepted, the American tourist is too prone to
consider it his duty to rush over to Europe. As soon as
Fortune has smiled upon him so kindly as to leave him
with more ready money than suffices to provide abun-

TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 139

dantly for those dependent upon him, he books his
passage for the Old World, before he knows anything
about his own country. Very often it is a teacher who
turns tourist during the summer vacation, in which case
the pronoun must, more than half the time, be made
feminine, or inclusive of both sexes, if a general state-
ment is made.

I remember being told by the captain of a Pacific liner,
that long experience and close observation justified his
saying that very few Americans (and he meant both
Canadians and people from the United States) had
earned the right to travel abroad, because not one in a
hundred knew his own country at all. On the voyage,
when he made that remark, there were a number of
tourists on board the steamer, going to Japan, China,
the Philippines, the East Indies, British India, on to
Europe by the Suez Canal, and then home to settle
down again.

As I was disposed to think as the captain did, we
agreed to interrogate our fellow voyagers to see how
much they knew of their respective countries by actual
travel. I must say, on my own behalf, that the captain
had previously admitted I had gained the right to see
all the rest of the world, because I had already been in
all but two or three of our states at that time, as well as
into the four divisions, Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona, and
New Mexico, which were then territories, but have now
been admitted into the Union of States. I had, too,
been in Canada, from east to west.

When we compared notes towards the end of the
voyage, I was astonished to find that not one American

I40 THE COMING CANADA

or Canadian had travelled anytliing like thoroughly in
North America. Most of my fellow passengers had
seen Niagara Falls; one or two had entered the Mam-
moth Cave; a few had crossed the Mississippi River;
several had been to the Yosemite Valley; one or two had
gone through the Yellowstone Park; not one, besides
myself, had been in the Gulf States, and therefore they
knew nothing about New Orleans. Many of the Ameri-
cans had never been to their National Capital, Wash-
ington. Few of the Canadians had travelled in the
United States. Not any of the Americans had ever
been in the Dominion until they joined the Canadian
Pacihc train at Montreal, North Bay, or Winnipeg, or
boarded the steamer at Vancouver or Victoria. Yet
those who were really tourists seemed to feel that they
must go abroad in order to see something of the world.

I am now more than ever convinced of the wisdom of
that captain's remark, because I have had greater oppor-
tunities to widen my own horizon, and to observe my
fellow countrymen as tourists in many parts of the
world. American tourists (the word is now used in-
clusively) have a great deal to see and do between the
Isthmus of Panama and the Arctic Ocean, before they
need cross either the Atlantic or the Pacific for the mere
pleasure of traveUing.

Of course I would not be understood as being disposed
to hinder the student or the teacher from going to the
Old World for research, experience, or broadening;
the personal pleasure and benefit are compensated by
the ability to help others. I am speaking of the tourist,
the "globe trotter." It is not my province just now

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TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 141

to discuss the enormous wealth of material for the tourist
in the United States of America. But even the Ameri-
can who has fairly well explored the States, has yet a
good deal that he may do in the Dominion of Canada,
before he has exhausted the resources of home, and must
turn to Europe, Asia, or Africa for new worlds to conquer.

Several suggestions have already been given in these
pages; but perhaps the touring that they connote may
be a little too strenuous for the average traveller who
is solely on pleasure bent. For such, there is hardly a
railway line in the Dominion which does not offer
attractions. Every one of the principal railway com-
panies advertises summer, or winter, or all the year
round resorts that are alluring, and the corporations have
made effort to enhance natural charms by providing
facilities for getting to these places, and for looking
after the creature comforts of patrons. As yet, the
Canadian Pacific Railway is in the lead, with Banff,
Revelstoke, Glacier House, and minor points on the
main line, or newer ones on some of the branches. But
the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Canadian Northern, the
Intercolonial, and other lines now offer their attractions,
and these are being added to each year.

There are several sections of the Dominion that
possess great attraction for the tourist and the sports-
man. Some of these I wish to discuss specifically in
separate chapters, such as the Great St. Lawrence Basin,
from the Httle lake. Bear's Head, to the Gulf of St.
Lawrence; the Canadian Rockies; the Hudson Bay
territory, and the pro\'ince of Manitoba. But there is
much left even after cutting off such large slices.

142 THE COMING CANADA

The tourist who takes his pleasure in yachting has
almost infinite possibilities along the eastern coasts of
the Dominion, where there are plenty of good harbours,
excellent fish, and suppHes of all kinds to be had for
reasonable prices. Such a traveller should prepare him-
self for the cruise by reading about the places he is going
to visit, for they are rich in history and sentimental or
romantic association. If the land of Evangeline has
been transformed beyond physical recognition, there
still remain the romance and perfume of bygone times.
Grand Pre is still on the shore of Minas Basin, Nova
Scotia: to be sure, it is now a railway station and the
forest primeval has disappeared forever.

A word of warning, based upon personal experience,
may not be out of place here. It is, to watch the
weather carefully, especially if cruising in a sailing
craft. In the summer, when the yachtsman is sure to
seek the Canadian coast, the fog often comes in quickly
and is so dense as to make navigation exceedingly
dangerous. Then, too, the wind frequently plays
awkward tricks, either in rising to a sudden gale, intro-
duced by violent squalls, or in dropping to a calm just
when the sailing craft is in a tight place.

The important provinces. New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, and Newfoundland of course, have been so
thoroughly described, that all needed information is
readily procured; but one of the most attractive bits
of the Dominion, for the tourist, is not so well known
as are the other eastern portions. Just about the
centre of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is a group of
thirteen rocky islets, the Magdalen Islands. They are

TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 143

fifty miles from Prince Edward Island to the eastward;
and Newfoundland is ninety miles still farther east.
Although these seemingly bleak rocks have a popula-
tion of some eight thousand souls, they are not well
known and are rarely visited. Yet their history is
interesting, ''for they were involved in the various
conflicts between England and France, and were fre-
quently the subject of treaties and conventions between
the two Powers."

It is not impertinent to remark here that some WTiters
still insist upon speaking of Newfoundland as the oldest
British colony. That honour, I am sure, belongs to the
Bermudas. Newfoundland came into the British colonial
system at the same time as Nova Scotia, not earlier than
162 1. On a Spanish map of 151 1, the Bermudas are
marked as a British colony. E. J. Payne, a careful
student of British North American history, says of the
Bermudas: "EngHsh colonists estabhshed themselves
on St. George's Island in 161 2 under a grant from the
Virginia Company. Fresh relays of colonists arrived
and after the settlement of a large body in 161 9, the
administration became vested in a governor, council,
and elective assembly." The visitor to the Magdalen
Islands who is so fortunate as to make friends with any
of the older residents, will gain a rich reward in the tales
of the sea which most of those folks can tell.

It will be the sportsman, probably, who is more likely
to push his way up the Labrador coast, for to that
country more and more fishermen are going each sum-
mer. The accounts of sociological and ethnological
study with which we have been favoured by several

144 THE COMING CANADA

writers lately, indicate that the good work of evangelisa-
tion and civilisation, already more than well begun,
offers a rich field for the philanthropist. It would be
ungracious not to mention the name of the Rev. Wilfred
Thomason Grenfell, to whom not only I am greatly
beholden, but all who have visited Labrador are equally
indebted.

The northern portions of the Dominion offer endless
attractions to the tourist. Not only is the scenery
varied and rarely tame, but the successful effort which
is being made to extend the limit of the inhabited and
cultivated zone far into those north lands appeals
strongly to all visitors. By the time this book is in the
hands of readers, it will probably be possible to go by
train from Winnipeg all the way to the shores of Hudson
Bay. It will almost certainly be possible to cross the
Rocky Mountains by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
through the more northern pass which it has selected
for its right of way. Besides, there will be other branch
lines of the various great railway systems built into
this Wonderland of the North. With all these facilities
at his service, the tourist or sportsman will have his
horizon much expanded.

It is a httle difficult to write of the attractions which
British Columbia holds forth to the tourist and the
sportsman, without seeming to indulge in extravagance
which taxes the credulity of those who have not had
actual experience. Mountains, lakes, glaciers, canyons,
babbling brooks, mighty rivers, primeval forests, land-
scape and marine view, all phases of natural scenery are
presented in magnificent quantities. Then the pleasing

TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 145

results of man's effort in availing himself of agricultural
possibilities have developed great orchards and culti-
vated fields which speak for themselves.

Of big game and little game, feathered and four-
footed, there is an abundance; although, as is but
natural, each year necessitates going a little farther
afield to secure the gratification of killing the big ani-
mals. The ambitious tourist who likes to blaze his own
trails will find that a considerable part of extreme
northern British Columbia has not yet been explored
thoroughly. He may easily add a valuable page or
two to the records which will hereafter be utiHsed by
writers who will do justice to the trails among the world
full of hills within the Hmits of British Columbia.

There may yet be glaciers hidden away in those
mountains that are not known, but a word may be said
of one which is easily accessible. Soon after the traveller
by the Canadian Pacific line has crossed the crest of
the Rockies and entered the Selkirks, the train stops
at Glacier House, usually for a meal, because the heavy
gradients and sharp curves make it unadvisable to add
a dining-car to the weight of the train, and whether it
be breakfast, dinner, or supper, the meal is a good one.

From the station platform or the hotel verandah, one
sees a great glacier stretching back far into the moun-
tains; and in summer it looks rather grimy for each
passing engine adds a Httle to the soot upon it. This ice-
river, like all those on the western slopes of the Cordil-
leran system of which we know anything, is technically
said to be ''in retreat." That is, it is evident, from the
moraines which continue far down below the present

146 THE COMING CANADA

end of the ice, that all these glaciers formerly reached
down much farther than they do now. The slow
movement downward is not sufficient to compensate
the loss by melting. Unless conditions change, all these
glaciers will disappear. The great Muir Glacier in
Alaska may be an exception, but I am not certain; it
gives birth to a goodly number of icebergs each year!

It is astonishing how the ice-river at Glacier House
holds the gaze of those who look at it for the first time,
particularly young people and children, as if they were
fascinated. I have known such to stand gazing in
silent wonder until the bell rang for passengers to entrain,
and thus miss the meal that had been waiting for them.
I have known, too, older passengers who were booked
for passage to Japan or China by the connecting steamer,
to telegraph to Vancouver to transfer their reservation
to the next steamer, a fortnight or three weeks later,
in order that they might stay and make the intimate,
famiUar acquaintance of the glacier.

In the summer, when the salmon are running, there is
good sport for the fisherman in all the lower reaches of
the British Columbia rivers. As this is the season when
the ablebodied men and women are likely to be engaged
in the hop-fields or other harvesting work, the sports-
man may have to depend upon an old squaw to take
him in a canoe. I remember an amusing incident which
came as part of my first summer in British Columbia
waters. It was August and the salmon were plentiful
and in prime condition as they came in from the sea.
The old dame who had contracted to paddle while I
trolled, when she found that her ''King George Man"

Fishing Camp, Nokthern Quebec Province

Speckled Trout Fishing, Algonquin National Pari

TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN I47

(the Chinook, lingua franca, for an EngKshman and
therefore all white men) knew how to wield a paddle,
was inclined to shirk her duty. When called upon to
resume her paddle, which she had laid down for a few
minutes to tidy up the little craft, at first she attempted
by pantomime to flatter. That failing, she demurred
volubly and vehemently, but unavailingly. She had
to paddle and let the King George Man fish!

The visitor to the remoter sections of Canada, those
which are really the most attractive to the thorough
tourist and keen sportsman, will surely have the pleas-
ure of making acquaintance with some of the Mounted
Police, those original ''Rough Riders" from whom
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt borrowed the title for his
regiment during the Spanish-American war. They
know the country as no other man can; they are ac-
quainted with the best hunting, shooting, and fishing
grounds, and willingly give useful "tips" to anyone
who asks for information. If the visit of the stranger
happens to be at a time when the demands of duty are
momentarily relaxed, no guide can be found comparable
with a Mounted PoHceman: they are experts in every
art which contributes to the gratification and comfort
of tourist or sportsman. Then too, if these guardians
are not of direct, personal aid to the visitor, the influ-
ence of their presence is felt everywhere and contributes
greatly to his comfort. This is illustrated by the state-
ment that on the three hundred mile road from White
Horse to Dawson, the traveller is as safe as in any part
of Canada. I wish the same thing might be said of the
Alaskan side of the Klondike region.

148 THE COMING CANADA

If anyone can read Mr. Frank Yeigh's account of a
trip along the trail from Glacier House station, Cana-
dian Pacific Railway, to the Cougar Caves, without
longing for the opportunity to enjoy that experience
for himself, I shall be greatly surprised. From the
railway a small mule pack-train starts for Deutsch-
man's Cabin far away to the north, near the head of
Cougar Valley. It descends into the Illicillewaet River
gorge, and then goes up and up to the cabin. Thence a
stiff scramble brings one to the caves, bored by the
rushing river deep down through the limestone.

It is said that until Charles Deutschman discovered
these Selkirk caves in October, 1904, the one natural
curiosity that the Dominion seemed to lack was caves.
The stigma is now completely removed, for the three
superimposed sets of caves, at different levels, are not
by any means contemptible rivals of the Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky, or the Luray Caverns, Virginia. ''One
of the three series of caves is, curiously enough, practi-
cally filled with ice, and this fact produces some striking
effects. Instead of limestone stalactites, here there are
stalactites of purest ice and of wondrous beauty, espe-
cially when illuminated with the magnesium light. Ice
deposits fill the crevices of the rocks, making other
strange animal and bird forms. One such ice-bank
resembles a gigantic sea-lion vainly trying to scale the
dark wall overhead. From a cavernous opening there
hung suspended an ice Niagara — a fall transfixed in
the grasp of the frost king, and a more beautiful object
could not well be imagined in the thick darkness beneath
or in the sunlit world above. One ice-filled gallery

TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 149

ended in a perfect fireplace, as if to mock the chill of
the glacial interior." *

These wonderful caves are still inaccessible to all
save those who are able to rough it and do some very
hard climbing. I must bring this chapter to a close
with a recommendation to both tourist and sportsman
to make personal acquaintance with the Mackenzie
River and all the streams of British Columbia. All of
them will well repay the labour involved in getting to
them, and they are sufficiently off beaten tracks to give
the compensation of novelty wliich most travellers
enjoy.

* Through the Heart of Canada.

CHAPTER XI
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES

IF there were sufficient space at my disposal, I think
it would be right to begin this chapter with some
consideration of the intercourse between the British
colonies in North America, from the founding of Virginia
and the landing of the Pilgrims, and the French colony
in Canada until the transfer of France's rights, in 1763.
There should then follow a discussion at some length of
the relations between the older and the newer British
colonies during the brief interval until the breaking out
of the War of American Independence in 1775. Limi-
tations are put upon me, however, and I must pass over
those most interesting one hundred and sixty-eight years.
The action of the General Congress of the thirteen
colonies, in October, 1774, presaged the independence
which was soon to follow, and I think this may be taken
as a starting point for a discussion of the intercourse
between the United States and Canada. It is not at
all surprising that British writers call John Dickinson's
address to the inhabitants of Quebec '*a high sounding
appeal." Dickinson was a member of the first Conti-
nental Congress, when the people were already girding
up their loins for a struggle with England. He drew up
a communication from the colonists to their "friends

CANADA AND UNITED STATES 151

and fellow subjects" inviting the Canadians to join in
opposing English tyranny. But if we put ourselves, as
much as possible, in the position of the American colonists
at that time, we cannot endorse this severe criticism.

It was, I admit, rather grandiloquent, yet thoroughly
consistent with forensic eloquence of the time, to depict
the shade of the great Montesquieu as saying to the
Canadian habitants: ''The happiness of a people in-
evitably depends upon their Hberty and their spirit to
assert that liberty. The value and extent of the ad-
vantages tendered you are immense. This work is not
of man; you have been conquered into hberty, if you act
as you ought. Seize the opportunity presented to you
by Providence itself. You are a small people, com-
pared with those who, with open arms, invite you into
fellowship. The injuries of Boston have roused and
associated every colony from Nova Scotia to Georgia.
Your province is the only Unk wanting to complete the
bright and strong chain of union. Nature has joined
your country to theirs; do you join your political inter-
ests; for their own sakes, they never will desert or
betray you."

The appeal failed entirely in its object, even if the
American leaders had reason to expect a different result
by arguing from the first display of feeHng on the part
of the French Canadians, immediately after the break-
ing out of hostihties in New England. Canada was
almost totally indifferent when the Revolution com-
menced, and therefore the Continental commander,
General Richard Montgomery, wdth a body of troops
from New England, had httle difficulty in invading

152 THE COMING CANADA

Canada, capturing Chambly and Montreal and carry-
ing the attack right up to the walls of Quebec.

During this episode many French Canadians and even
some British malcontents, openly or secretly gave
assistance to the Americans; "but even then the large
majority of the French Canadians remained neutral,
and, if some joined the ranks of the invaders, others,
including especially the higher ranks of the population,
supported her cause. Here was a people lately con-
quered, under the rule of an alien race. A golden
opportunity was given them, it seemed, to recover
their freedom. Why did the French colonists not
throw in their lot whole-hearted with the EngHsh
settlers in North America? Why did they prefer to
remain under the British Crown?"* The eminent
authority answers his own questions, and all students
of Canadian history concur in saying that in those few
years of British domination, the habitants had already
learnt what freedom and sympathy meant as they had
never known under French rule. They were too con-
tented to take any risk by changing masters!

It is lamentable that even in the remote times of one
hundred and forty years ago, there were unmistakable
signs of animosity between Britons on the Canadian
side of the border and their fellows on the southern side
thereof. Those Canadian French "did not love the
English from England; they loved less their English
neighbours in America; and they were not disposed
to overthrow the British Government in order to sub-
ject themselves to the rule of the English colonists."

* Lucas, op. cit.

CANADA AND UNITED STATES 153

Yet a little comfort is to be gleaned from even this
unsuccessful effort at diplomacy; and it is that there
appeared a disposition to lessen, if not to wipe out
entirely, the prejudice on the part of the Puritans against
the Roman Catholic religion. Of the three commis-
sioners sent as avant courriers to induce les habitants to
join in revolt, one was a Quaker and two were Romanists.

The War of American Independence actually, if not
avowedly, began with the famous skirmish at Lexington,
April 19th, 1775. Between that date and the first real
battle of the war. Bunker Hill, June 17th of the same
year, there was begun the effort to effect the conquest
of Canada. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, both on
Lake Champlain (and considered, as has been already
pointed out, the ''Keys of Canada's southern gate"),
were surprised and captured without much difficulty,
because they were in wretched condition and inade-
quately garrisoned and supplied. Governor Guy Carle-
ton (afterwards Lord Dorchester) had urged the repair
of these posts, and their equipment or abandonment.

It was through Carleton's effort that the siege of
Quebec failed, and while that siege had lasted five
months, he took justifiable pride in the fact that all
attempts of the besiegers had been defeated. From the
Canadian's point of view, too much importance can
hardly be attached to Carleton's success at Quebec.
Americans, when considering this important episode,
cannot but regret that Benedict Arnold, who had ''dealt
the hardest blow to the British cause in Canada," did
not share the fate of his associate, ^lontgomery, who was
killed in an attempt to capture Quebec by creeping along

154 THE COMING CANADA

the river bank from Wolfe's Landing, under Cape
Diamond into the lower town.

There is little more to be said about relations between
Canada and the United States during the rest of the
Revolution. A few engagements took place, but they
were of no importance, and the close of the war left the
boundary practically as it now is from the Great Lakes
to Passamaquoddy Bay, except that the Ashburton
Treaty of 1842 allowed the state of Maine to project
farther to the north in the provinces of Quebec and New
Brunswick than Canadians declared it should do.

By the Treaty of Paris, September 3rd, 1783, the
Mississippi River was accepted as the American boundary
on the west. I refrain from commenting at length upon
the anomalous condition which has arisen because of
the declaration that the northwestern point of the Lake
of the Woods shall be *'the northwestern point of the
United States." The result is that a piece of the state
of Minnesota is detached from the main body, and is
a sort of ''No Man's Land." From that corner of the
Lake of the Woods, the boundary was to be drawn "on
a due west course to the River Mississippi." All the
parties in interest and the plenipotentiaries were labour-
ing under the mistake that the source of the Mississippi
was very much farther north than it is. Consequently
this determination of the prolongation of the boundary
called for a geographical impossibility. Probably there
was confusion of the Red River of the North with the
Mississippi. The determination of the frontier from
the Mississippi westward to the Pacific is likewise a
matter which must be deferred for the moment.

CANADA AND UNITED STATES 155

The second article of the treaty of 1783 reads: "And
that all disputes which might arise in future on the sub-
ject of the Boundaries of the said United States may be
prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the
following are and shall be their Boundaries." All who
are specially interested should read the treaty: it is
enlightening to see how small a part of the present
domain was included in the United States of 1783. That
simple adjustment was but a momentary affair. The
control of North America west of the Mississippi River
in the United States, and beyond the very vague bound-
ary of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory in the
north, was entirely unprovided for. That was an almost
unknown wilderness. To be sure some of the American
colonies, newly born States, claimed jurisdiction west-
ward to the Pacific Ocean between certain parallels of
latitude or assigned lines which were their northern and
southern boundaries. The deHmitation of boundaries
as between the United States and Canada was com-
plicated by almost indescribably vague conditions.
Therefore the "first settlement of the quarrel between
Great Britain and her old North American colonies
left an aftermath of troublesome questions, causing
constant friction, endless negotiations, and a succession
of supplementary conventions." *

The first boundary dispute was the determination of
just which one of three rivers, all emptying into Passa-
maquoddy Bay and each claimed to be the St. Croix of
Champlain's days, was actually that stream. The
boundaries that have been mentioned begin "from the

* Lucas, op. cit.

156 THE COMING CANADA

North- West Angle of Nova Scotia, viz., the Angle which
is formed by a line drawn due North, from the source of
St. Croix River to the Highlands." John Jay, then
special envoy to the Court of St. James to negotiate
with the British Government for more friendly relations,
concluded a treaty on November 19th, 1794, by the fifth
article of which this matter of determining the source
of the St. Croix River was left to three commissioners,
one to be appointed by each Government, and the third
to be chosen by the other two. The treaty was ratified
in August, 1795, and in the following year the commis-
sioners began their work; the two appointed by the
respective Governments choosing an American jurist as
their associate. Another, explanatory treaty had to
be signed by the two Governments to absolve the com-
missioners from responsibility beyond their specific duty
of fixing the river's source. When the boundary was
defined, a considerable area was cut off from New
Brunswick; naturally to the dissatisfaction of the
inhabitants and Canadians generally. This, however,
did not settle the boundary disputes in this region,
because although the commissioners identified the St.
Croix River from its mouth to its source, they did not
actually define the boundary down the course of the
river and out to the mouth of Passamaquoddy Bay, nor
did they attempt the impossibility of estabhshing that
line ''due North from the source of St. Croix River to
the Highlands"; because those hills do not extend far
enough east to meet such a right fine. The dispute
about this last mentioned line nearly brought on war
between Great Britain and the United States. The

CANADA AND UNITED STATES 157

boundary was not settled until sixty years later. Igno-
rance of geography that any schoolboy to-day ought to
be ashamed to display, was responsible for all this
trouble. I have gone into details to show how compli-
cated have been these boundary disputes; but I have
not given all the particulars of this case.

Ashburton's treaty, by which — on January 28th,
1847 — the northeastern boundary between Canada and
the United States was delimited, has always been
declared by Canadians to give the latter country terri-
tory to which Great Britain had an incontestable claim.
The determination of the ownership of islands in Passa-
maquoddy Bay was another cause of dispute. So far
as the islands alone are concerned, the question was
settled by arbitration in November, 181 7, but the actual
boundary between the two countries out into the Bay
of Fundy has not yet been delimited. This awaits
action under the Treaty of April 11, 1908, for the de-
limitation of International Boundaries between Canada
and the United States.

In the west, the dispute over lands in the Oregon or
Columbia territory was bitter, and the slogan ''54-40
or fight" indicated the American feeling. Calm com-
promise or friendly arbitration allayed the tension —
even if either rarely gave satisfaction. In time, the
extreme northern parts of the International Boundary
were delimited. The Klondike dispute was likewise
settled without recourse to extreme measures, even if
Canada was far from satisfied. The delimitation of
the boundary between Yukon Province and Alaska was
marked by a joint commission in 191 1 only. The

158 THE COMING CANADA

transfer of Russia's rights in Alaska to the United States,
March 30, 1867, gave rise to disputes as to fishing-rights
in Behring Sea. Arbitration decided that the United
States has no exclusive rights.

''The last phase in the evolution of the Boundary
line between Canada and the United States is the Treaty
of nth of April, 1908, 'for the delimitation of Inter-
national Boundaries between Canada and the United
States,' by which machinery is provided 'for the more
complete definition and demarcation of the International
Boundary,' and for settHng any small outstanding
points such as, e.g., the boundary line through Passa-
maquoddy Bay." *

From the close of the War of American Independence,
1783, until President Madison, in 181 2, issued a procla-
mation which brought on the "War of 181 2" between
the United States and Great Britain, the principal
feature that marks the intercourse between Canada and
the United States was the action of those who were
called United Empire LoyaHsts and their treatment,
not only by Canada and the British Government, but
by the Government of the United States as well.

When the Revolution broke out, with the firing of
that first shot by "the embattled farmers" at Concord
and Lexington, it was estimated that of the entire white
population of the thirteen American colonies, fully one-
third, or about seven hundred thousand, were actively
or passively loyal to Great Britain. There were fairly
reUable authorities who put the number at even higher
figures; declaring that they decidedly outnumbered

* Lucas, op. lit.

Fossil Hinting, Mt. Robson District, B. C

CANADA AND UNITED STATES 159

those who were opposed to British methods and eventu-
ally in favour of separation from the Mother Country,
even if that action involved war.

It is certain that a preponderance of those Loyahsts
was in New York, the capital of which colony was in
possession of the British from September, 1776, until
its evacuation after the surrender in 1783. A majority
of the white citizens of Pennsylvania, as well as those of
South Carolina and Georgia, also were Loyalists; and
in all the other colonies a very large number of the
better classes of citizens were British sympathisers.
Probably there were over thirty thousand of the men in
regularly organised military companies, besides those
who carried on a guerilla warfare in South Carolina and
other colonies.

Americans have come only lately to look upon these
*' Tories," as they were called contemptuously, with
that fairness to which most of them were entitled.
Surely no one will charge such a man as the late John
Fiske with disloyalty to American institutions; yet he
and other reputable writers compare the Loyahsts of
1776 with the Union sympathisers in the Southern
Confederacy during the Civil War of 186 1-5. Others
refuse to see anything good in the Loyalists and measure
,them entirely by their participation in such outrages as
the Wyoming Valley massacre and similar acts which
were brutal and indefensible.

A long list might be given of names which command
respect; men who deprecated separation. It is an
interesting fact that the relations between Great Britain
and the Dominion of Canada are now regulated by just

l6o THE COMING CANADA

such principles as were urged in the interests of England
and her thirteen original colonies a hundred and thirty
odd years ago. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, a great
LoyaHst, to whom tardy justice has recently been done
by impartial historians in the country wherein his
motives and acts were for so long misunderstood and
misrepresented, took that position.*

During the war both Revolutionists and Loyalists
displayed bitter hatred of each other. The latter's
estates were confiscated, individuals imprisoned, banished,
disquahfied from holding office, and some who ven-
tured to return after the war were subjected to severe
penalties provided for by legislative enactments. The
VI th article of the Treaty of Paris reads: ''That there
shall be no future confiscations made, nor any prosecu-
tions commenced against any person or persons, for or
by reason of the part which he or they may have taken
in the present war; and that no person shall on that
account suffer any loss or damage either in his person,
Hberty or property, and that those who may be in
confinement on such charges at the time of the ratifica-
tion of the Treaty in America, shall be immediately set
at liberty, and the prosecutions so commenced be
discontinued."

In spite of that obligation, those Loyalists who re-
turned failed to secure return of confiscated estates or
any generous treatment, and there was nothing for them
to do but leave the United States. More than thirty-
five thousand went to Canada, and with them a large
number of faithful negro servants. Most of the latter
* Cf. Canada, lydg-igoo, Sir John G. Bourinot.

Transport, Athabaska River, 56° 40' N.

Transport, Athabaska Ri\er

CANADA AND UNITED STATES l6l

were subsequently deported to Sierra Leone, Africa. A
majority of the whites settled in New Brunswick; others
in the St. Lawrence Valley and along the shores of the
Great Lakes. The British Government tried to do its
best to compensate these Loyalists for the loss of their
property, by making liberal grants of land. Later some
of the original refugees, or the descendants of others,
made their way back to the United States; while many
of the best famiHes in the Dominion trace their ancestry
back to these United Empire LoyaHsts.

Very briefly stated, the causes which led up to the war
of 1812-15, between the United States and Great Britain
were, first; the right of search of neutral vessels in time
of war for contraband articles; and second; impressment
of British sailors who were members of neutral vessels'
crews. The United States, with abundant reason,
contended that Great Britain was carrying out her
alleged rights in these matters with absolute disregard
for the rights of others. War was declared and although
ultimate victory was gained by the United States, yet
the main principles at issue were not formally decided.
Impressment has long since been discontinued; but the
right of search has not yet been positively fixed.

Canada suffered more than did Great Britain in the
War of 181 2, and Canadian pubHcists have justly con-
tended that it was not fair to attack the proxinces
because of faults for which the Canadians were in no
way responsible; but this was a weak position. The
white population of Canada, in 181 2, was estimated at
half a million; that of the United States at six and a
half miUions. Yet the results of some of the land

l62 THE COMING CANADA

engagements were not at all discreditable to Canada.
During the war the United Empire Loyalists contributed
much to the effectiveness of the provincial militia and
to the successful defense of their country. Peace was
welcomed by all in America, whether Canadians or
citizens of the United States. One of the notable effects
of that war was the solidifying of the various racial
elements in Canada; all classes, Gaul or Briton, united
in support of continued connection with Great Britain.

During the Civil War in the United States, the senti-
ment of the Canadian people was generally against the
Federal Government. Although no open assistance
was afforded the Confederacy, yet we know very well
that the privileges of Halifax and other harbours were
granted to Confederate privateers in contravention of
neutrality. Many Canadians looked upon all this as
a fair requital for invasion in the past; and their acts
did not make for friendly relations.

Although a patriotic and loyal citizen, I have no
excuse to offer for the failure of my Government to pre-
vent the Fenian raids of 1866. In the month of April
of that year, a small body of Irishmen made a demon-
stration on the New Brunswick frontier. It had no
effect in the way the aggressors had hoped; but it did
contribute towards rousing into activity the movement
for confederation which ere long resulted in the creation
of the Dominion of Canada. In June, 1866, a number
of Fenians crossed the Niagara River at Buffalo and
gained an insignificant victory over a small force of
"Toronto Volunteers" (mostly students). A few days
later they surprised and defeated a small detachment of

CANADA AND UNITED STATES 163

militia. But upon learning that a considerable body
of regulars and volunteers under competent officers was
coming against them, these Fenians scattered and
returned to the United States, where the ringleaders
were arrested by order of the Government. Similar
raids were made in the eastern townships of Lower
Canada, and were equally unsuccessful. The Canadian
authorities displayed admirable clemency in their treat-
ment of captured bandits; not one of whom was executed,
as all might lawfully have been. No indemnity was ever
made by the United States for damage inflicted and
expenses incurred by a neighbour, although the police
responsibihty was indisputable. I am sorry that I
must close this chapter by saying that, in my opinion,
while personal relations are most friendly, others have
not been so since 1775, and a good deal must be forgiven
and forgotten on both sides before they can be.

CHAPTER XII
THE LURE OF CANADA

SOME of the attractions of Canada have been already
mentioned; but they were of a different nature
from the one which is to be discussed in this chapter.
We are now to consider a very practical matter; one that
has greatly affected the United States and is likely to
do so even more, unless measures are taken to counteract
the lure of Canada.

Investors who seek opportunities to exploit mines,
build railways, or engage in any other industrial or
commercial enterprise, are made welcome in the Domin-
ion and are afforded the fullest protection by the laws,
as well as equal opportunity by the people. But the
policy of the officials is not to make any stupendous
effort to attract such investors; whereas every allure-
ment which can be fairly set forth and brilliantly pic-
tured is being held up to induce settlers from the United
States, from Europe, or from any other part of the
globe to come in and possess themselves of some of
the millions of acres which are awaiting the farmer or
the stockman. These lands are represented, and quite
truthfully, as merely waiting to be tickled when they
will laugh with plenty.

It may be contended that the effort which the Depart-

THE LURE OF CANADA 165

ments of the Interior and of Agriculture, especially, are
making to induce immigration from the United States,
contradicts a statement of the last chapter that there
is in Canada a lack of friendhness for her neighbour,
to be detected in certain matters. Yet I think such
a possible charge will be withdrawn when conditions
are carefully considered. After all, is there anything
altruistic in drawing away from the United States
175,000 people in one year, as was done by Canada in
191 2? These figures, and they are rather appalhng,
represent the emigration from the States into the
Dominion, and the people themselves were, without
exception, the kind that the United States could least
afford to lose. They were nearly all from the territory
west of the Mississippi Valley, principally from the
northwestern states; and if they did not actually
abandon farms, homesteads, or ranches, they certainly
left a gap to be filled by people who are, for the moment
at least, less desirable than the emigrants, if they are
not absolutely undesirable. In newspaper comment
upon the scarcity of farm hands in the Middle West,
insufficient importance has been attached to this flow
of farmers and the like into Canada.

As has been said, the pubHc lands of Canada are
surveyed in almost precisely the same way as is the
similar domain in the United States; technically by
base and meridian, township and range. That is,
townships six miles square are laid off by Hnes running
as nearly true north and south and east and west as
may be. This township is marked off into sections of
one mile square (640 acres), and the section is sub-

l66 THE COMING CANADA

divided into quarter sections. A quarter section is
taken as the unit for preemption. Of the thirty-six
sections in a township, two are reserved from homestead
entry, and are designated ''School Sections." That is,
the 1280 acres which these sections contain are sold to
cash purchasers and the money received is held as a
fund to build school houses, maintain them, and generally
to defray all the expenses of public, absolutely free
education.

There are, too, certain sections withdrawn from public
entry, because they were granted as a subsidy to rail-
ways. The railway lands are sold by the grantee upon
favourable terms and the proceeds go into its treasury.
In the case of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the original
land grant was extremely liberal, and without it the
building of the line would have been greatly delayed,
if it had not been rendered impossible thirty years ago;
but this subject of railway lands economically con-
sidered belongs in a later chapter.

The public land surveys have not yet been extended
north of a hne drawn from the middle of the east bound-
ary of Manitoba, northwesterly to the 56th parallel
of latitude in Alberta; and there are some unsurveyed
tracts in southwestern Alberta. That is to say, only
about the southern one-third of these three provinces,
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, has been sur-
veyed and made available for preemption entry. The
total area of Saskatchewan and Alberta is 504,190 square
miles. What the area of Manitoba is, since its northern
boundary was thrown much farther north, I do not
know; previous to that it was 74,000 square miles. Not

THE LURE OF CANADA 167

all of the public land within the surveyed districts is
open to homestead entry. The Dominion Government
has set aside certain tracts as reservations for Indians,
or for forest preserves, or public parks, or experimental
stations. But all agricultural land in Manitoba, Sas-
katchewan, and Alberta which has been surveyed (and
not actually occupied or reserved) is open to preemption
as homesteads.

Every person who is the actual head of a family, and
every single man over eighteen years of age, may preempt
one quarter of a section (160 acres), provided that person
is a British subject, or has declared his intention to be-
come such. When making the entry for this preemption,
a fee of $10 must be paid, and if the preemptor compHes
with the regulations, to be mentioned presently, this is
the only money payment required for a bona fide home-
stead entry. The provision that the applicant for such
entry must be the sole head of a family, manifestly
permits a widow, having minor children of her own
dependent upon her for their support, to take up a
quarter section.

The appHcation for this homestead entry is supposed
to be made in person at the local Land Ofhce, principal
or subordinate. These offices are established through-
out the three provinces so numerously as to obviate the
necessity for travelhng any great distance: this is a
most important consideration. An entry by proxy,
upon certain Hberal conditions, may be made by the
father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister of the
intending homesteader. Provision is also made for
the preliminary entry to be forwarded by telegram, in

l68 THE COMING CANADA

case of urgency, the necessary formalities being attended
to in person later on.

The homesteader acquires no title to his land at once,
and he may not dispose of his rights. Cancellation of
the entry is provided for in certain circumstances and
upon completing proper formalities. The preemptor
gets a patent, conferring absolute rights in fee simple,
when he has held the homestead for his own exclusive
use (or as the head of a family) for three consecutive
years from the date of the original entry; provided he
has resided thereon at least six months in each of those
three years, or from the date when he commenced his
residence; provided, also, that he has erected a habit-
able house on the quarter section; provided, also, that
he has cultivated so much of the land each year as is
satisfactory to the Minister of the Interior, the fact
being determined by duly appointed inspectors; and
provided, finally, that he is then actually a British
subject.

Actual residence upon this particular quarter section
is waived in case the homesteader has been residing on
a farm of at least eighty acres in compact area, which is
within nine miles of his homestead. Such farm must
have been owned and occupied by himself, or by his
father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister. Tliis
liberal provision secures to a purchaser of a farm his
homestead rights, and it also permits a newcomer to
make his home temporarily with relatives. There are
some districts, where the population is sparse or the
preemptions not numerous, in which a homesteader may
secure another quarter section of public land adjoining

THE LURE OF CANADA 169

his homestead, upon payment of $3.00 per acre. But
to secure this privilege, certain duties are required: the
applicant must complete the formalities required to
secure a patent (title) for his original homestead, before
a deed for the additional quarter section is given him,
although he may enter upon possession thereof; he must
have resided on his homestead or on the additional pre-
emption for at least six months of each six years subse-
quent to the date of entry upon his original homestead;
in addition to the cultivation requirements upon his
actual homestead, he must have cultivated fifty other
acres satisfactorily, either on his homestead or on the
preemption.

Furthermore, in certain districts and in particular
circumstances, a homesteader may obtain a purchased
homestead, upon payment of $3.00 per acre. In this
case, the specific duties required are : residence upon the
quarter section so entered for sLx months in each of three
years subsequent to the date of such entry; cultivating
fifty acres thereof in a satisfactory manner; erecting a
house of the value of at least three hundred dollars
thereon. This, it will be understood, permits of an aHen
acquiring a homestead upon very favourable terms.
In the case of a British subject, he may secure the privi-
lege of a purchased homestead provided he resides on
his patented homestead, within nine miles of the pur-
chased one.

By a combination of all these methods of acquiring
public lands, it is a simple matter to secure an estate of
640 acres, or one full section. Thus it will be seen the
first lure to the intended settler is made as attractive as

170 THE COMING CANADA

possible, in that the possession of a farm is provided for
upon easy terms. Before leaving this subject, however,
it is pleasing to say that those settlers who have been
in residence long enough to secure their patents, have
built their residences and farm buildings, and become
forehanded through successful cultivation, are always
most kind in extending a helping hand to the new-
comers who are without the ready cash to purchase
building material, implements, and live stock immedi-
ately required. I have known of many such cases of
disinterested kindness in Alberta province, in the
neighbourhood of Calgary and Edmonton. In an
emigrants' sleeping car on the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way, I once found a number of Welsh people who were
going to settle north of Regina and Moosejaw, Saskat-
chewan Province. Not one family head had sufficient
ready money to do more than pay the preHminary fee
for homestead entry and keep souls and bodies together
for perhaps a year. But the man who was in charge
of the party, himself an old settler, assured me that
nobody would come to want; because building materials,
farming implements, seed, etc., could he had on credit
and upon reasonable terms when he and other home-
steaders who had received their patents, stood security.
Every resident would lend a hand to put up houses for
the newcomers, who, until their own dwellings were
ready, would be cared for on the established ranches and
farms.

A specific case or two will be interesting, and I give
them in Mr. Frank Yeigh's words,* although I have

• Op. cit.

THE LURE OF CANADA 17I

myself heard these very same stories from acquaintances
in Canada. "In the year 1883 a young man took up
a homestead not far from the southern boundary of
Manitoba. This was in the early days of the province,
when opportunities were not so numerous as now, and
wheat brought only forty cents a bushel, compared with
nearly three times that price to-day. After locating
his quarter section and paying the land fee, the settler
in question had scarcely a cent left. By working for
a neighbouring farmer, enough money \/as earned to
build a shack and buy a supply of provisions. During
the first year, five acres of land were broken, a neigh-
bour's horses being borrowed for the task. The second
year the would-be farmer was able to buy a yoke of
oxen, working during the summer for the same farmer.
By the third year, however, he put in all his time on his
own homestead; at the end of the year his patent was
secured and he thus started on a career of independence.
Now the settler is worth seventy-five thousand dollars,
all made on his quarter section homestead that cost
him originally but the ten dollar Government fee.
Essential, however, to his success was a determination
to win, a pluck that overcame obstacles and a spirit
that refused to be daunted by disappointments and
discouragements. This t^'pe of settler will always win
a competence in Western Canada."

Another young man settled in the Riding Mountain
district, Manitoba. ''Neighbours assisted in the erec-
tion of the Httle structures that did duty as house and
barn for the first season, for the settler in this case was
practically penniless, besides carrying the burden of a

172 THE COMING CANADA

large and growing family. The successive years in-
volved struggle and endurance, but happily in ever-
lessening degree, until prosperity had fully come, making
him the owner of six hundred and forty acres of choice
land and a splendid brick house with suitable outbuild-
ings, a property valued at twenty-five thousand dollars.
One of the daughters has won honours in a Western
college, which she entered from the little prairie public
school. Before this particular homesteader came to
Canada, he was a huckster in an English city, where he
gained a most precarious living, with absolutely no pros-
pects for an improved condition. But possessing the
qualities of frugality, industry, and perseverance, and
with no capital except health and strength, yet having
a determination to win out, he has proved what is within
the range of possibility for others similarly situated.'*
Twenty-five or thirty years ago, it was exceedingly
difficult and expensive to get building materials to these
prairie farms in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the
Land office authorities were very liberal in construing
the regulations defining the habitations. Very often
the first residence was a sod-covered roof and the house
mostly below the surface of the ground. This, however,
rarely served after the first year, during which the settler
almost always managed to get enough lumber to build
a rough shack for himself and family, if he had one.
As human beings can, when needs must, better put up
with rough quarters than will farm animals, the settler
often seemed to give first thought to housing comfort-
ably his span of horses or yoke of oxen. When the three
years were passed and he came into possession of his

THE LURE OF CANADA 1 73

patent, he at once had an asset upon which to raise
needed funds. The banks in these cases have always
been extremely liberal, and their consideration has been
rewarded with prosperity; not only for themselves, but
in the rapid development of the country. The astonish-
ing number of branch banks throughout the agricultural
sections testifies not alone to the need of facilities for
moving the crops, but equally to a determination to
help the development in every way.

The right type of settler will demand something more
than his quarter section of land, his residence and farm
buildings, his live stock, and his implements. He will
think of his children's future; and throughout these
agricultural provinces (as in Canada almost everywhere)
ample provision is made for education. There is but
one school system in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and
Alberta, that of the free public schools. All these
schools are free to all children, whether their parents
are British subjects or not, between the ages of five and
fifteen. Attendance is not yet absolutely compulsory,
yet very few heads of families ever neglect to avail them-
selves of the great privileges offered their children. In
some localities where there are colonies of peasants who
do not speak English, the limit of age is conveniently
stretched to let older children, and even their parents,
get a conversational acquaintance with that tongue.

In no settled district is the school house more than a
mile or a mile and a half from the home, for the school
laws provide that a new school district shall be formed
wherever eight or ten children are unprovided with
pubHc school advantages. In many districts where

174 THE COMING CANADA

farms are farther apart, an omnibus or wagon of some
kind is sent around every school day to gather up the
boys and girls, and at the dose of school, whether it be
one long session or two short ones with noon intermis-
sion, the pupils are taken back home. In Manitoba,
private schools, business colleges, and public libraries
are numerous, and they are quite as well equipped as are
those to be found in any similar communities. Of this
province specifically I purpose writing at some length
in a later chapter.

Until about 1900 the settlements in Saskatchewan
Province were practically restricted to the belt varying
from fifteen to twenty-five miles in width along the
main Hne of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was
built through this region in 1882. As the land grant
gave each alternate section to the railway — the width
of the belt varying according to the character of the
country and the ease or difficulty of construction — it
was necessary to survey this broad belt in order to
determine the railway sections. For this reason it
came to pass that settlers could make their choice of
homesteads definite and get title promptly, as could not
be done on the unsurveyed lands. Government sur-
veys subsequently were extended into other districts
and at present about one-third of the province, from the
International Boundary northward, is now surveyed.
In the southeastern quarter of the province practically
all the land has been taken up either by homesteaders
or by purchasers of railway lands. North of the first
section, surveys have been gradually extended, and there
are now thousands of homesteads on arable land avail-

THE LURE OF CANADA 175

able for entry. The rapid development of railways —
trunk lines or feeders — has invariably preceded the
coming in of settlers, and it has been aptly said that
settlement invariably proceeds from railway lines like
the unrolling of a carpet. Lumber is readily procurable
and coal is mined in abundance in the southern part of
the province. It is claimed that Saskatchewan, with its
broad acres of prairie in the south and its prairies with
their park-like homesteads in the central portion, has
within its borders the greatest wheat-producing area of
the Dominion. Wheat and beef-cattle are exported.
Horses are not yet so numerous as to leave a suqjlus
after the home demand is supplied; because a team is
one of the first requirements of the new settler. Other
farm products are required for local consumption and
settlers find a ready market for anything they raise.
Saskatchewan has an area of 250,650 square miles,
8,318 square miles being water surface, for the northern
half abounds in lakes and rivers. This northern section
is not yet very well known, and its systematic survey
must naturally be a slow process. There are great
forests and open glades, and it is the home of fur-bearing
animals. The hunting of these gives sport to many, as
well as some wealth to those who prefer a hunter's Ufe.
Alberta Province is bounded on the south by the
United States; its eastern boundary is the i loth meridian
of longitude west from Greenwich (in common with
Saskatchewan); its northern boundary is the 60th
parallel of latitude, where it marches with the North
West Territory; and its western boundary is the crest
of the main range of the Rocky IMountains from the

176 THE COMING CANADA

International Boundary till that crest intersects the
1 20th meridian, W., which it follows to the 60th parallel.
The whole of the western boundary marches with
British Columbia. This province is naturally con-
sidered in three great belts or districts, southern, central,
and northern. The first two are of interest to the settler,
the southern prairie section especially. This southern
belt, from the United States to about one hundred miles
north of Calgary, was a great ranching country. For
a long time farming could not be considered sufficiently
safe to induce agricultural settlers because the rainfall
is light. But since great irrigating ditches have been
constructed, bringing an abundance of water from the
mountain streams, farming has increased amazingly.
The soil, when irrigated, yields splendid crops of grains
and vegetables of all kinds. The central belt is particu-
larly attractive to settlers who contemplate mixed or
general farming. Northern Alberta is undoubtedly a
land of great possibilities. Each year is bringing evi-
dence that agriculture and stock raising can be success-
fully carried on, probably all the way to the northern
boundary. The area of Alberta is 253,540 square miles.
These three provinces constitute the section to which
the Dominion Government is directing its special atten-
tion and making every efTort to attract settlers. Experi-
mental farms are estabhshed at numerous points, and
every information that they are able to impart is at
the service of settlers, without fee. Somewhat similar
effort on the part of the Central Government is being
made to show settlers that British Columbia possesses
for them great opportunities.

CHAPTER XIII
DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS

NO new country ever felt more promptly the urgent
necessity for railway facilities than Canada did
after that modern method of transportation became
available in the middle of the last century. As soon as
the development of the wonderful resources in forests,
mines, agricultural lands, and other productive indus-
tries had passed beyond the narrow strips which border
the St. Lawrence River and fringe the easternmost of
the Great Lakes, became known, this necessity asserted
itself with an insistence which could not be disregarded.

Although Canada is possessed of a wonderful system
of internal waterways, rivers and lakes — and these
natural reservoirs in Canada are estimated to represent
fully one-half of all the fresh water in the world — yet
these same promptly proved to be inadequate for the
traffic which immediately developed upon the opening
up of the wonderful western section of the Dominion.
Besides, although the rivers may be broad and deep and
while the lakes seem to afford ample transportation
faciUties, yet these waterways are rendered unavailable
for several months because of ice, and that, too, just at
the time when much of the grain crop is seeking an
outlet to deep water.

The Canadian captains of industry promptly realised

178 THE COMING CANADA

that this new method of transportation — the steam
railway — was to be of incalculable benefit to them, and
as early as 1835 a charter for a short line was granted;
while during the succeeding decade a good many other
short lines were so seriously considered that their possi-
ble promoters asked for legislative permission to build.
But the economic conditions were unsettled and the
rebellion of 1837, which has already been mentioned,
had a deterrent effect, so that in 1850 there were but
fifty-five miles of railway in all Canada, while now there
are over thirty thousand miles and the annual increase
in trackage is measured by the thousand miles or more.
In 1850, when railway construction really began
seriously, it was the Northern Railway, connecting
Lakes Huron and Ontario, that was first built. In
1852 the Grand Trunk Railway was incorporated —
under British charter — and the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks,
then Prime Minister and Inspector-General of Canada
(as the Minister of Finance was then called), that same
year went to England to urge the granting of a guarantee
to the Intercolonial Railway. He made arrangements
with the Peto, Brassey, Betts, and Jackson Company,
contractors and builders, which eventually brought
about the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway,
1,100 miles of single-track line, with necessary sidings,
and the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence at Mon-
treal. The railway itself was completed and opened
for traffic in 1855; the Victoria Bridge was used for the
first time in i860, when it was described by the Ameri-
can Consul at Montreal as ''the greatest work of the
age." The actual task, both as to building the railway

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 1 79

and throwing the bridge across the river, is a monument
to the skill and energy of Thomas Brassey, who planned
and directed the entire enterprise, which was super-
intended by Robert Stephenson.

A most appaUing commentary upon the construction
methods of that time is found in a comparison of the
cost of that Grand Trunk bridge and another, only a
few miles farther up stream, which was built long after
for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Both serve precisely
the same purpose and one does not seem to be any better
than the other; yet the Grand Trunk's cost $6,300,000,
while the Canadian Pacific's was built for less than
$1,000,000. Those first Canadian railways were built
by British engineers who brought into the new world
precisely the same methods as they and their fellow
craftsmen had followed in laying railways between the
populous cities of Great Britain. Those engineers were
without an inkhng of what were the needs of the sparsely
populated regions of the New World, where it was far
more important to be able to haul freight cheaply than
it was to carry passengers quickly and comfortably.
Those British constructors built their Hnes permanently,
but it was done at an expense which prevented the
shareholders seeing any return for their investment in
the way of dividends for many years.

While the Grand Trunk was under construction, the
main line of the Great Western Railway was opened for
traffic, January, 1854, and that company continued to
build until it had 360 miles of track. These larger
enterprises and a number of smaller ones brought up
the total railway mileage to about 2,500 when the

l8o THE COMING CANADA

Dominion of Canada was created in 1867. Other short
lines, here and there, were built with local capital helped
out by British funds; but I fancy that practically all
the railways in Upper and Lower Canada that were
opened before the consolidation of the Dominion are
now to be found in the Grand Trunk system.

As soon as the Dominion was an accomplished fact,
it became advisable, if not absolutely essential, that the
maritime provinces should no longer be cut off from
the rest of Canada, even if the linking up necessitated the
building of a railway through what was then a trackless
wilderness. There was danger that those outlying
units of the Dominion, unless tied firmly by bands of
iron to the larger provinces, might be compelled through
force of circumstances to ally themselves with the
United States. The Trent affair of 1861; the numerous
episodes connected with the Confederate privateers, and
other unpleasant matters, threatened to bring about
hostilities between Americans and Britons. If that had
occurred, undoubtedly the scene of the land battles
would have been laid in Canada, and almost certainly
the already semi-detached maritime provinces would
have been cut off from the Dominion.

The Imperial British Government, when all these
dangers had been demonstrated and conditions clearly
explained, granted a loan of the three million pounds
sterling needed to build the Intercolonial Railway, from
the St. Lawrence River, at Montreal, to Halifax, Nova
Scotia, with branches to St. John, New Brunswick, and
North Sydney, Cape Breton Island, as well as the Prince
Edward Island Railway. It was stipulated that the

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS l8l

line should follow a strategic route. It must be laid
sufficiently far from the International Boundary to
ensure reasonable freedom from a sudden raid by Ameri-
cans in case hostilities broke out.

As a financial investment this railway has not yet
been remunerative, and as a commercial or industrial
enterprise it is only of recent years that it has promised
to be successful. Undoubtedly both imperial and
federal poHtics affected it adversely; yet it must be
remembered that it was built for a specific purpose which
has -been achieved, and it gave the Dominion Govern-
ment at Ottawa access to seaports which are open all
the year round, and that, too, across its own territory.

The two chief problems which faced the Dominion
Cabinets for the first twenty years of their official exist-
ence, were the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Tariff.
This combination emphasised a very curious state of
affairs both pohtically and economically. The advo-
cates of the railway (which was to be built, it will be
remembered, in fulfilment of a promise to British
Columbia) were supposed to be Conservatives and
Protectionists; and they were under the leadership of
Sir John Macdonald, Prime Minister 1857-58, 1868-73,
and 1878-91. Yet they were contending for a most
progressive matter and to accomplish their purpose they
were willing to open the gates sufficiently to let in from
the United States material and suppHes for the railway
free of duty. The Liberals, who were cautiously opposed
to any hasty action as regards the transcontinental rail-
way, were then Free Traders.

To anticipate a little, because of direct bearing upon

l82 THE COMING CANADA

the subject now under consideration, I quote from a
manifesto which Sir John addressed to the Electors of
Canada, February 7, 1891, when there seemed to be
danger of his political discomfiture, but not of his death,
which occurred on the 6th of the following June. After
touching upon the prosperity which followed the inaugu-
ration of Protection, or the National Policy as the Con-
servatives called it, as against the United States, and
the Government's abiHty to carry out the promise to
British Columbia, he said: *'To that end we undertook
the stupendous work, the Canadian Pacific Railway,
undeterred by the pessimistic views of our opponents;
nay, in spite of strenuous and even indignant opposition,
we pushed forward that great enterprise through the
wilderness north of Lake Superior, across the western
prairies, over the Rocky Mountains, to the shores of
the Pacific, with such inflexible resolution that in seven
years after the assumption of ofifice by the present
Administration the dream of our public men was an
accomplished fact, and I myself experienced the proud
satisfaction of looking back from the steps of my car
upon the Rocky Mountains framing the eastern sky.
The Canadian Pacific Railway now extends from ocean
to ocean, opening up and developing the country at a
marvellous rate, and forming an Imperial highway to
the East over which the trade of the Indies is destined
to reach the markets of Europe."

In 1870, the great North West Territories were dis-
posed of by the Hudson's Bay Company, as has been
stated, and the extreme southeastern portion thereof
came into the Dominion as the Province of Manitoba.

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 183

A year later British Columbia, which had long been a
province with an organised government, although very
sparsely settled by white men at least, agreed to listen
to Dominion overtures, provided an assurance was given
that a railway should be speedily built to the Pacific
coast. The promise was given and British Columbia
was admitted; but the delay which politics and various
other causes made inevitable, so disgusted the people of
the Pacific province that they threatened to secede from
the Dominion because of broken promises.

No thought seems to have been given by the British
Columbians to what seemed at the time, to all but the
most enthusiastic, a mad undertaking. It meant 700
miles through the rocky, uninhabited wilderness which
lay between Montreal and Winnipeg and where — as
has already been told — the engineering difficulties were
colossal and the construction frightfully expensive.
After that came 800 miles across prairies where, at the
time, there were practically no settlements and nothing
upon which the railway administration could depend
for patronage; and then were the hundreds of miles
through the Rockies, the Selkirks, and other mountain
ranges almost to the water's edge on the Pacific. For
it must be borne in mind that this railway had to be
built far enough from the International Boundary to
give it protection as a mihtary and strategic line.

The Canadian Pacific Railway became the chief topic
of conversation throughout Eastern Canada, and it
would be untrue to say that the discussion did not
bring out some poUtical scandals; but they belong in
past history and are not pertinent to the Coming Canada.

184 THE COMING CANADA

On October 21, 1880, a contract was signed for the
construction of this railway, but it was not practicable
to begin active work for several months. On the 2nd
of May, 1881, the first sod was turned and on the 7th of
November, 1885, the last spike was driven in what was
then, and which is even now, the only absolutely trans-
continental railway in America, north of the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec. On the 13th of January, 1886, the
first through train left Montreal for Port Moody, which
place was, for a short time, the western terminus; the
line was soon extended to Vancouver.

As we look back upon the history of that remarkable
enterprise, we cannot but be much impressed by the
unwavering faith of the men who gave their fortunes
to build the line and their unstinted labour to carry their
plans to success. Sir John Macdonald, who had been
the prime mover in bringing about Federation, that is
the Dominion of Canada, was also a champion of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. With him were associated
two men who were afterwards raised to the British
peerage as Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal and Lord
Mountstephen; these three were the Hfe and soul of the
enterprise. Sir John lived just long enough to see the
work completed, for he died in 1891. Strathcona and
Mountstephen have not only seen their pet prosper and
pay good dividends, for the shares were raised to a ten
per cent, dividend basis in January, 191 1 ; but they have
realised, long ago, that the development of the Domin-
ion, certainly stimulated by the Canadian Pacific, has
gone beyond the capacity of one transcontinental rail-
way system to supply its needs.

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 185

This corporation has many advantages. Its capitali-
sation is less, in proportion to the physical valuation of
its properties, than that of any other well-known rail-
way and steamship system in the world. It has been
fortunate (but in this it is not remarkable as regards all
the great railway systems of Canada) from the very
beginning in having men to control its interests who
were and are conspicuous for energy, integrity and
ability. It is true that the breath of slander has not
absolutely spared the promoters of this great enterprise;
but time showed that the allegations had no substantial
foundation in fact, and the future of the Canadian Pacific
is very bright. It is prosperous now and will doubtless
continue to be so as the Coming Canada advances along
the pathway which is manifestly marked out for it.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 191 2, the gross
earnings were $123,319,541.23; the working expenses,
$80,021,298.40.

The Grand Trunk Railway was, in the early sixties
of the last century and for many years, satisfied to limit
its expansion to the older regions of Quebec, Ontario,
the Maritime Provinces, and to connections with Ameri-
can Knes. It was not very long, however, until the
promise of remuneration induced the directors to extend
their system westward in Canada itself. Beyond
Toronto, the lines of this corporation come under the
management of a semi-independent board, the Grand
Trunk Pacific. Its lines, with those of the Canadian
Pacific and the Canadian Northern, form a network
with a mesh so fine as to cause amazement when one
remembers that the pioneer railway Une in this region

l86 THE COMING CANADA

was opened for traffic only in 1886. The whole district
east of the Rocky Mountains and south of the advanced
line of settlements is already well supplied with rail-
way facilities. The Grand Trunk Pacific will cross the
Rockies through the Yellow Head Pass, 200 miles north
of the Canadian Pacific, and at a much less altitude
than that to which the latter climbs. Once through the
mountains, the Grand Trunk bears northwestward
through the centre of British Columbia to the Pacific
Ocean at Prince Rupert, 400 miles north of Vancouver;
but, due to the influence of the Pacific currents, not
likely to be inconvenienced by ice more than is Van-
couver.

At present this region is truly a rugged wilderness,
where there are plenty of bears, mountain sheep, moose,
wapiti, and other big game to attract the sportsman.
Within the sphere of the Grand Trunk Pacific's influence,
the mountains are not quite so high as are the loftiest
peaks of the Swiss Alps. In the extreme northwestern
part of this province, British Columbia, there are moun-
tains rising to 19,000 feet, and that section is one where
the desolation and absence of human Hfe strike the occa-
sional lone visitor most impressively. If history repeats
itself, it will be but a few years before even that desola-
tion will have been succeeded by a measure of human
life and activities which shall transform it completely.

The Grand Trunk receipts for i860, the first year
after the completion of the line as originally contemplated
were £682,658, say $3,304,164. For the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1912, the gross receipts were $3^834,-
328.19 and the working expenses $2,793,285.19.

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 187

The Grand Trunk Pacific is treated under two great
divisions, eastern and western. The former, Moncton,
N. B., to Winnipeg, 1800 miles; the second, Winnipeg
to Prince Rupert, 1756 miles. The main Hne of the
eastern division is being built by the Dominion Govern-
ment and will be leased to the company for fifty years;
all branch lines of this division are to be constructed by
the lessees. The western division is being built by the
company, the Dominion government guaranteeing first
mortgage bonds to the amount of $13,000 per mile in
the prairie section and for three-quarters of the actual
cost in the mountain section; that is, from the eastern
foot of the Rockies through to Prince Rupert. Inas-
much as this company is still being operated under con-
struction account, there are, of course, no statistics of
gross receipts and expenses to give.

There is but one other railway system in the Domin-
ion to which attention need be given here. That is
the Canadian Northern, for I look upon the Inter-
colonial as a government enterprise whose fate is not
directly dependent upon public patronage. The Cana-
dian Northern, which is to-day a great railway in a
great country, had a very humble beginning. In 1889
the Dominion Parliament granted a charter for the
construction of ''The Lake Manitoba Railway and
Canal Company." As the original grantees had been
unable to do anything with their charter, its rights and
privileges were transferred to a small company of
optimists, and from that small beginning has grown what
is to-day, in mileage and scope, the fourth (if we separate
the Grand Trunk and the G. T. Pacific) railway system

l88 THE COMING CANADA

of the Dominion. It is not necessary to follow the
details of an interesting narrative which tells of the
vicissitudes of this company, since they are matters of
the past and we are concerned with the present and the
future. In 1897 the first link of the Canadian Northern's
chain was forged. It was a little line from Gladstone
to Dauphin, 85 miles, in Manitoba Province; and this
little was accompKshed only with the greatest difhculty.
Had not the provincial legislature guaranteed the bonds,
it is certain they would not have been sold in London,
and it was impossible to float them in Canada or the
United States. In 1901, the first year of this 20th
century, and only four years after that modest begin-
ning, the Canadian Northern had 1200 miles of line in
operation. On the 30th of June, 191 2, it owned and
operated, including leased lines, 4316 miles.

As the name impHes, it is to the purpose mainly of
developing the prairie and northern regions of the
Dominion that this corporation is directing its energies,
and a glance at the map shows how much has already
been done; although the scope has spread into the
provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and
Alberta, the territory of Keewatin, and the State of
Minnesota, Lake Superior is joined to Hudson Bay (or
will be in a short time), and the three central provinces
of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are served
from east to west and far towards the north. This
last fact has contradicted absolutely the contention
that a railway which is virtually restricted to the prairies
cannot be considered a profitable investment.

But a few years ago, the Vice-President of tliis com-

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 189

pany made public some statements which showed that
the Canadian Northern's earning power had steadily-
increased with expansion in just that discredited region.
Some 2500 miles of lines west of the Great Lakes and
Lake Winnipeg had been guaranteed by either the
Dominion or Provincial governments; but, he declared
— and his declaration seems to have been verified by
facts — *'no one of those Governments had, or ever
would have, to pay a dollar on account of those arrange-
ments.'^

The confidence of Canadians in the management of
the various railways which have been built, in the
prairie and mountain sections especially, is admirably
illustrated by the experience of the Canadian Northern:
in 1909 the Central and Provincial governments united
in granting two million acres of land, the proceeds of
which were to be used in constructing a railway between
Sudbury and Port Arthur. In the same year the Prov-
ince of Saskatchewan gave a guarantee of $13,000 a mile
for the construction of 11 75 miles of main line and
feeders, the work to be finished in three years. Alberta
Province gave a similar guarantee for 920 miles of the
same sort. Manitoba guaranteed $30,000 per mile
for 210 miles, the work being considerably more difficult
and expensive. This guaranteed work has all been
completed and a good deal besides.

In British Columbia, the Dominion government has
agreed to guarantee bonds to the amount of $21,000,000
for 600 miles of line from the crest of the Rockies, in
Yellow Head Pass, by way of Vancouver (ferry to
Victoria) to Nanaimo on the western shore of Vancouver

IQO THE COMING CANADA

Island. With this work carried out and the Nova
Scotia lines connected with the main system at Quebec,
a third ocean to ocean railway will be opened in Canada.

The Canadian Northern owns two or three large
steamers which are running regularly between Bristol,
England, and Halifax and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
The management has declared that just as soon as this
company is prepared to give railway service to the
Pacific coast, it will launch first-class steamships, equal
— all things being considered — to anything afloat on
either the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. Although
simply astonishing, yet the following figures have been
audited by the Dominion government and may be
depended upon implicitly: on June 30, 191 2, the
Canadian Northern's gross earnings for the preceding
year were $20,860,093.63; the operating expenses
$14,979,048.52. In 1897 the Gladstone-Dauphin line,
the nucleus of the company, earned $60,000.

Of the two hundred odd railway companies which
have received charters, more than one-half have been
amalgamated with one or another of the great systems,
the Grand Trunk, the Intercolonial, the Canadian Pacific,
the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Canadian Northern.
There seeems to be no objection to one company acquir-
ing competing fines; but this apparent disposition to
facifitate the monopoly of great railway systems is not
likely to bring disaster, for the Dominion and Provincial
legislatures are so constantly on the watch and are
armed with such disciplinary power — backed by means
to enforce mandates — that conditions can hardly
become subversive of pubHc rights.

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS I9I

In closing this chapter, I refer to an article in the
Toronto News for March 31, 191 1, giving the following
reasons for the advance in Canadian Pacific Railway
Company's shares, and other things being equal, a
similar advance in Canadian railways generally. First,
the company has advanced its dividend rate from seven
to ten per cent. Second, the company's possessions in
lands and other property are enormously valuable.
Third, the company is undisturbed by the pursuit of
American courts and legislatures to which United States
railways are subjected. Fourth, these conditions have
led to a gradual transfer of investors' money from United
States railways to Canadian Pacific.

CHAPTER XIV
THE GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN

IT is no doubt correct to say that the St. Lawrence
begins at Kingston where the shores of Lake Ontario
draw in and a broad river is born; but there are many
miles to be travelled westward before we come to the
little lakes, Bear's Head, whence issues Embarrassment
River, and Beaver Lake, the apparent source of the
Saint Louis River, in the State of Minnesota: these
are the actual beginnings of the St. Lawrence Basin.
In that section of Minnesota, it is evidently a difhcult
matter for a drop of rain water to determine whether
it will go east or north. Separated by a ridge so low as
scarcely to be perceptible, are streams which flow in
exactly opposite directions: on the east they run south
until they bend and mingle with others making their
way into Lake Superior: on the west and but a few rods
away, they take a northerly course, reach Vermilion
Lake and thereafter are a part of the Hudson Bay Basin.
It is there we should look for the beginning of the St.
Lawrence Basin and its end in Labrador, on the north
side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Gaspe Peninsula
on the south.

If we were to measure from the entrance to the Straits
of Belle Isle, which separate Newfoundland from Lab-
rador, and take the middle of the true St. Lawrence

GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 193

River, then follow the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie,
Huron, and Superior, up the httle St. Louis River to
its very source, we should have an approximate length
of the St. Lawrence Basin of something like three thou-
sand miles. But it is not necessary to be so precise as
that.

Within the great St. Lawrence Basin, taking the phrase
in this most liberal sense, there are physical variations
so numerous as to be indescribable. At its remotest
beginning this great basin is in a region which geologists
describe as having sunk so rapidly from its former
elevation that the animals had to skurry away to higher
lands to save themselves from being caught in swamps
and tamarack bogs. Of course this is a bit of extrava-
gance, yet it is geologically certain that not very long
ago Minnesota was higher than it now is; and it is true
also that only in the northern section have the rocks
been hard enough and sufficiently high to resist the
rubbing away which has converted so much of the rest
of the state into the level that is generally conspicuous.
The forests of Minnesota must have been grand at one
time, or until the state dropped from being the third
in output of lumber to fifth. The subsiding and wear-
ing away which have just been mentioned were not so
absolute as might be inferred, because Minnesota's
position as a contributor to the iron ore supply of North
America is a most important one, and this fact gives to
the very beginning of the St. Lawrence Basin a place in
the economics of Canada as well as the United States.

I must, for several reasons, keep myself to the Canadian
side of the great Basin. When the Httle St. Louis River

194 THE COMING CANADA

has emptied itself into Lake Superior near Duluth, we
pass along the northern shore of the lake and having
left the United States, we presently come to two towns,
Fort WiUiam and Port Arthur, which are the termini
of several railways, and they are, from the beginning
of harvest until the frost has closed navigation on the
lakes, among the greatest grain shipping ports in the
world. Back of them, or near them, are famous lakes,
the Lake of the Woods and Nipigon, and from the former
there is a chain of waterways which make the line that
separates the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay basins very
faint indeed.

But soon the north shore of Lake Superior takes on
a vastly different appearance as we come to the stern,
dark, forbidding Laurentian rocks, through which the
railway lines have been bored with infinite trouble and
enormous expense: as the trains pass along this section
the reverberation is deafening. When the Laurentians
are passed and the eastern part of Ontario Province is
reached, again it is apparent that the line of demarcation
between the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay basins is
not at all sharply drawn. There are several streams
which may be ascended in canoes almost to their head-
waters; and when such navigation becomes no longer
possible, there is but a short portage to some other
stream which carries the canoe down — although north-
ward — to James Bay.

In the province of Quebec the St. Lawrence Basin
widens at first very much, and the land is generally
level, although not prairie-like in its smoothness. Now,
the basin includes both shores of the river which has

Portage La Loche, Peace River Country, Atiiabaska

Potato Chop, Lake La Loche, 56° 30' N.

GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 195

grown to be a mighty stream; for at Montreal begins
the navigation which permits large ocean-going steamers
to make use of it. I suppose we must conform to
general usage and say that when we have reached Gaspe
Peninsula, or certainly Anticosti Island, we have come
to the eastern end of the St. Lawrence Basin; but as a
matter of fact all the north shore of the gulf should be
included in it.

From the beginning of French occupation until some
time after the transfer to Great Britain, the civilisation
of Canada kept so closely to the basin of the St. Law-
rence, in its restricted sense, that back of a fringe of
widely separated settlements right on the banks of the
river up as far as Montreal, there was no European
population at all. Conditions during this long period
have aptly been likened to the civihsation of the Nile
valley by the Egyptians from prehistoric times even to
the present day; and it was truly on the St. Lawrence
banks that the life of the infant Canada beat.

I shall mention here an anomalous state of affairs
which existed for a while in the St. Lawrence Basin
because of the provisions of what was known as Lord
Stanley's Act of 1843. Canadian wheat and flour were
admitted into British ports at a nominal duty. ''This
made it profitable for Canadians to import from the
United States grain which was then ground into flour
in Canada and shipped to the Enghsh market. For this
trade large mills and storehouses had been built in
Canada, and a very considerable trade had grown up.
It was an advantage also to the provinces, since western
produce gravitated to the St. Lawrence, with a corre-

196 THE COMING CANADA

spending increase in canal dues." * But in 1846 the
British Parliament passed the Imperial Free Trade Act,
and immediately all those artificial advantages were
cut away; many commercial men were ruined; the
capital invested in mills, etc., was threatened, and the
merchandise reverted to its natural channels. This is
but one instance of the vicissitudes of commerce in the
St. Lawrence Basin.

The scenery of this great region is of a character
which tends to increase the scepticism of the reader
directly as the description is accurate. Going back
again to the western end of Lake Superior, the coast
line along the northern shore is generally of the boldest
character. A most striking object is the Great Palisade.
This is thought by many to have been, probably, a huge
detached rock standing alone, when the waters of the
lake stood at a higher level than they now have. It is
from nine hundred to a thousand feet high, and the top
is covered with trees.

As the traveller by steamer passes on towards the east,
the beauty and wonderful features of the shore continue
to grow until it becomes difficult for the eyes to take in
all that is presented. The face of the shattered cliffs
is often dressed with trees which cHng in the most sur-
prising way; frequently these grow right down to the
water. Sometimes the precipice is rent from top to
bottom and a deep, narrow gorge is formed. As the
steamer slips past one of these ravines, the visitor gets
a glimpse of a foaming torrent plunging down to the
lake. The largest of these streams is called Beaver
* W. L. Griffith, The Dominion oj Canada, igii.

GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 197

River, Lake county, Minn., and at its mouth is Beaver
Bay, one of the very few harbours on the north shore.

At the entrance to Thunder Bay, on which are the
towns of Port Arthur and Fort William, stands Thunder
Cape (sometijnes called "Thunder Head"), which rises
sheer to a height of very nearly 1400 feet above the sur-
face of the lake, and the water at its foot is probably
deeper than in any other part. It is not surprising that
the Indians had a wholesome dread of Thunder Cape.
They gave it a wide berth, for the wind plays mad tricks
about it, and the dashing of a frail canoe against that
grim basaltic precipice meant certain death to all on
board.

On still farther east comes the river to which the
Canadians give the name of Nipigon, as well as to the
lake from which it flows; but some who Uke to be very
precise in their terminology and who, not improperly
it must be admitted, contend that if an Indian name is
to be appropriated it should be the correct one, say that
this name must be Alemipigon, which means " the lake
of the myriad rocks." It is an appropriate title, for
there are almost innumerable small islands scattered
all over it. In some there are caves, large or small,
into many of which it is possible to take a canoe; but
this is rather risky, because when the breeze is strong
the waves rush in and imperil a birch bark canoe that is
easily upset or more easily punctured by a projecting
rock. As the waves rush into these caves they make a
booming sound which is reverberated from the walls
and roofs in a most eerie fashion that would fill the
superstitious Indians with panicky fear.

198 THE COMING CANADA

From my own experiences and observations of Lake
Superior, I am strongly inclined to add my testimony to
that of Mr. Paul Fountain * when he says: ''So far as
I can discover there is very little recorded of Superior
and some of that does not quite agree with my experi-
ence. For instance, an American writer says that the
navigation of Superior is not so dangerous as that of
the other great lakes, and says that there is more 'sea-
room ' here than in the other lakes. I can say, from my
experience, that this is not correct. Superior is cer-
tainly by far the largest of the five great lakes, but its
larger islands are so placed that there is less actual
sea-room, as understood by sailors, than in either
Michigan or Huron. As to storms, they are as violent,
but I think not more so, as in any of the other lakes;
that they are more frequent I am sure. As I have
already said, I do not think that dangerous gales are ever
absent, in winter time, from some part of the lake."
Besides Thunder Cape, there are a number of cliffs on
the north shore of Lake Superior which rise, more or
less sheer, to a thousand feet or over.

What a change has come in the opinion which Cana-
dians hold of the country north of the great lakes and
tributary to them. I can remember when it was all
considered a sort of desert, certainly uninhabitable
because assumed to be unproductive; now the rail-
ways have stations at short intervals and those stations
are used by farmers who have a surplus to sell. As this
region becomes better known, it is certain to be more
and more attractive because of its scenery.

♦ The Great Northwest and the Great Lake Region of North America.

GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN I99

Excluding the Laurentian district, there is very little
of Ontario Province that is not arable land. When the
War of American Independence had been fought and
the United Empire Loyalists betook themselves to
Canada, it was to the unbroken forest region of bleak
and unattractive Ontario that a large number of these
refugees were compelled to go because, with the best
intentions as to hospitality and generosity, it was
impossible for the Colonial government to make pro-
vision for them elsewhere. At that time it was con-
sidered a great hardship; to-day Ontario is the most
populous province of the Dominion, yet comparatively
few of its two and a half or three million souls hve
beyond the St. Lawrence Basin. The peninsula bounded
by Georgian Bay, Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie, and
Ontario, and the connecting river, is the garden of the
Dominion. Its scenic attractions are not remarkable,
but the evidences of thrift, comfort, and culture are
most pleasingly apparent. Statisticians quite logically
and very consistently consider this great province, which
is 1000 miles east and west and a thousand miles north
and south, in three sections — eastern, western, and
northern. The eastern embraces all the land between
the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario; the western Hes
north of Lakes Erie and Huron until Superior is reached.
Northern Ontario, or as it is sometimes called "New
Ontario," is all the rest, from the Quebec boundary to
James Bay, along Keewatin to Manitoba and Minnesota
and Wisconsin; but of course some of northern Ontario
is not in the St. Lawrence Basin. It would be somewhat
difficult to say just what — of the products of land and

200 THE COMING CANADA

fresh water — Ontario does not possess; but it is reason-
ably safe to declare that husbandry is going to continue
the important enterprise. Yet this occupation must
be considered in its widest aspect — grain, fruits,
vegetables, dairy products, Hve stock — must all be
included. These, directly or indirectly, require the
co-operation of all kinds of manufacturers, and as a
consequence, the cities are in eastern and western
Ontario. These are, after Montreal and Quebec, the
largest and most important places in the Dominion —
Toronto, Hamilton, London, Kingston, Brantford, and
others.

The latest report of the Department of Indian Affairs *
gives the number of Indians in the Dominion as 104,956.
Of these the 26,393 who are residing on the twenty-
three reservations allotted to them in Ontario, or culti-
vating (with official permission) their own farms, are
the most advanced in every way. A great many of
them are Chippewas or Ojibbewas; but a good many
are survivors of the Six Nations, those Iroquois who,
it will be remembered, were so much dreaded by the
French and afterwards by the English, until they were
effectually crushed in the i8th century. In his annual
report for 1884, Sir John Macdonald, then premier,
referring to these Indians, said: ''Many of their farms
are well cultivated and the products of the soil and
dairy exhibited at their annual agricultural exhibits
command the admiration of all persons who attend

*This is for the year ended March 31, 1912, and I am indebted to
the courtesy of Robert Rogers, Esq., Superintendent General of Indian
Affairs, and Frank Pedley, Esq., Deputy Superintendent General, for
a copy.

GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 20I

them. Their exhibit of this year was remarkably suc-
cessful, and they combined with it the centennial cele-
bration of the grant made to them by the Crown of the
tract of land of which their reserve forms a part, in
recognition of their loyalty and valour as practically
proved on numerous occasions on the field of battle in
defense of the British flag." It would be an unpardon-
able omission not to mention these Indians as an ethno-
logical feature of the St. Lawrence Basin.

As an indication of the ease with which the St. Law-
rence and Hudson Bay blend, it may be stated that
Chapleau, a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway's
main line, Ontario Province, is a post of the Hudson's
Bay Company. It is on the waterways which flow
through Moose River into James Bay. The country
lying between Lake Superior and James Bay is one of
the best regions for the trapper, and the Hudson's Bay
Company is naturally availing itself of all the facilities
which the railway affords for getting into these hunting
grounds.

If the many interesting and attractive islands of the
Great Lakes which are within the Dominion borders
are passed by, it is not because they do not appeal to
tourist and sportsman, but because of the limitation of
space.

When the geographical St. Lawrence River begins,
at the outlet of Lake Ontario, the Basin narrows very
much. Here, in the opinion of those who are specially
seeking the picturesque, commences the most attractive
part of the valley. The Thousand Islands of the St.
Lawrence are so well known, either by actual acquaint-

202 THE COMING CANADA

ance or by description, that little remains to be said about
them. It is estimated that there are upwards of Two
Thousand of these islands and islets, instead of a
thousand. If we accept the statement of some authori-
ties, then Wolfe Island, just south of Kingston, is the
largest, while the smallest are ''mere dimples on the
surface of the broad river and supporting not the least
verdure on their barren rocks," serving no purpose save
that of being a danger to navigation. Many of the
islands are the private property of Canadians or Ameri-
cans who have their summer homes thereon, and find
the situation one which contributes much to pleasure
and recuperation. To the average traveller, the modest
shooting-box is more in harmony with the surroundings
than is the would-be grandeur of an imitation of an old-
world castle.

The section of the St. Lawrence River, from Lake
Ontario to the last of the Thousand Islands, was called
by the Indians Manatoana, ''The Garden of the Great
Spirit." That it is brimming over with legend, need
not be afhrmed.* The last of these islands are a small
group which is called "The Three Sisters," from their
resemblance to one another and because they are so
close together.

Not far below The Three Sisters the rapids begin:
the Gallops, Rapides du Plat, the Long Sault, Coteau,
Cedar, Split Rock, Cascade, and finishing with Lachine.
When this last one is passed, the steamboat is at Montreal
and the most romantic parts of the river are behind the
tourist. These rapids do not come quite so consecu-

* Conf. Clifton Johnson, The Picturesque St. Laurence, chap. II.

GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 203

lively as their enumeration might suggest. Between
some of them are long stretches of clear water and in
places — such as Lake St. Francis, just below the Long
Sault, and Lake St. Louis, below the Cascade, the river
spreads out to such width as to make the names quite
appropriate.

It is impossible to do more than give a suggestion of
the Saguenay River, the lovely Lake St. John from
which it flows, and the country tributary to lake and
river. As a freak of Nature, the rift in the black rock
down which the stream flows is one of the most marvel-
lous things I know. Probably the most effective brief
description of the Saguenay is contained in these woods:
Is it a disappointment, or is it overwhelming? This is
the question that nearly every visitor asks himself after
going up to the lake and returning. The answer comes
slowly but surely and the remembrance of that strange
river never leaves one; its awful immensity and majesty
grow forever. One writer contends that there is reason
to believe the old Iberian ships were on the Saguenay
before Christ was born.

''The climax of this awe-inspiring scenery is reached
at Trinity Bay, where the stupendous height of Cape
Trinity frowns down upon the intruder, a bare wall of
limestone that towers nearly two thousand feet into
mid-air. Its frowning brows, thrust out three hundred
feet over the water, give the beholder a dread lest it
tumble upon him. Rent asunder by some far-distant
glacial power, the great column is really made up of
three sections so placed that at first sight they look Hke
huge steps leading to a mighty flight of stairs, such a

204 THE COMING CANADA

ladder as the ancient Titan, warring here against the
elements, might be expected to climb in his ascent to
strive with the gods for a supremacy. In marked con-
trast to this gloomy giant of Three in One — a trinity
— stands Cape Eternity, within a hundred feet as high
as its sombre brother, but clothed in a warm vesture
from foot to crown, and looking calm and peaceful.
Wrapped in never-fading vestments drawn closely about
its huge body, well may it defy the storms of this wintry
region for all time." * Only a mere suggestion of the
Great St. Lawrence Basin has been given in this chapter;
for there is not one of its three thousand miles that does
not offer some attraction.

* George Waldo Browne, The St. Lawrence River.

CHAPTER XV
THE CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS

THE region which I have chosen to include in this
chapter has, along the International Boundary,
a broad base which measures something Hke ten degrees
of longitude, if we include the Cascade Mountains of
British Columbia, and this may very properly be done.
It is not always safe to depend upon whatever atlas or
book of reference comes to one's hand, for informa-
tion about countries which have not yet been settled
as to boundaries and fixed as to government. I hap-
pened, when looking up some data pertinent to this
chapter, to turn to Col ton's Atlas of the World, bearing
the date of 1856. That was only fifty-seven years ago,
and yet there is hardly any name on the map of Canada
— beyond the limits of Canada East, Canada West,
and the Maritime Provinces — which is to be found in
any atlas now used in the public schools of the Domin-
ion; or in the United States, for that matter. British
Columbia, which is of so much importance when we
think of the Canadian Rockies, is called New Georgia
on that old map; the central prairie section and the
northern districts are chopped up into a great number of
small tracts that are given names so fantastic that I
am sure the draughtsman who prepared that map
simply let his pen run riot and gave free rein to his

2o6 THE COMING CANADA

imagination. Very few, of what I suppose were intended
to be political divisions, were ever known to the Cana-
dian officials by the names which appear on that map.

From the broad, yet not continuous, base along the
American frontier, the mountains trend off towards
the northwest, and they include of course the Selkirks,
the Cascade Range, many spurs in the south, and the
semi-detached range of the St. Elias Alps of southern
Alaska. Broadly speaking, the Canadian Rocky Moun-
tain system embraces the mountains of the islands
stretching along the coast of British Columbia: the
system finally runs out in the remotest Klondike district
of the Yukon Territory. The average width of the
mountain belt, from the International boundary to the
Yukon Territory line, is about four hundred miles, and
in the south it takes in pretty nearly the whole width of
British Columbia. The tallest peaks in the whole
section are found near the southern end of the boundary
— determined by jo'nt commission only a couple of
years ago * — separating Alaska and Yukon territories.
In Canadian territory there is Mt. Logan, 19,540 feet;
while Mt. St. Elias, 18,000 feet, from whose summit
starts the international boundary along the 141st
meridian west of Greenwich, is common property. It
is hardly fair to include Mt. McKinley, 20,000 feet, in
this knob of mountains, for it is ten degrees west of the
boundary and in Alaska. But the group may properly
include Mt. Natazhat and Mt. Wrangle; nevertheless
it is fully one thousand miles northwest of the Rocky
Mountains proper. All these peaks I have just named
* See American Geographical Magazine for September, 1912.

CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 207

and others in their immediate or proximate neighbour-
hood, are encoated with glaciers and snow-capped
perennially, save in a few open nooks looking towards
the south.

In the Rocky Mountains proper, the southern section
along the boundary between Alberta and British Colum-
bia, there are peaks cUmbing up to ten or twelve thou-
sand feet above sea-level; but they are not covered with
snow all the year round, and while there are plenty of
glaciers, most of them are small; while even these must
be rather exceptionally located. Owing to the influence
of the mild air from the Pacific Ocean, the snow line in
southern British Columbia is remarkably high, and
even in what we think of as '^ Arctic Alaska" it is from
two to three thousand feet above the sea. For the
same reason, the British Columbia timber line is high,
7500 feet in the south, and 4000 feet in Alaska. Indeed,
the western slopes of the Canadian Rockies — especially
the Selkirks and the Coast Range — show a vegetation
that is almost tropical in its luxuriance and density.
The grand cedar forests, as well as those of the Douglas
fir, are well known to all botanists and lumbermen, and
they have justly aroused the admiration of all visitors.
Many of those trees are quite ten feet in diameter and
they tower up as straight as a ship's mast to the height
of one hundred and fifty feet.

Throughout the whole region that is included witliin
the bounds of the Canadian Rockies, it is no exaggera-
tion to say that everyone whose interest or occupation
is related to the earth itself may find a place where his
particular bent can be followed to the fullest extent.

2o8 THE COMING CANADA

The lower valleys offer to the husbandman farms, vary-
ing in extent from a few acres up to wide domains which
satisfy the ideals of the most ambitious ranchman. The
foothills of the western slopes have already been demon-
strated to be as well adapted to the fruit grower's needs
as any part of the world. The miner has a choice
amongst such a variety of metals and minerals as
scarcely admits of enumeration. The lumberman, as
has been stated, may still wield his axe in what is the
largest tract of virgin timber to be seen in North America,
and therefore in all the world. The trapper may yet
pursue his avocation most profitably.

But I imagine that it is for the tourist the Canadian
Rockies will be an attraction par excellence; although
of course the sportsman will demand the right to share
the privileges with the visitor who is mainly on pleasure
bent. Until the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is pre-
pared to run passenger trains into and through the
Rocky Mountains along its more northern pass, the
stations of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Banff,
Laggan, Field, Donald, Glacier, Revelstoke, Kamloops,
and doubtless some others, will be the objective point
of tourists and sportsmen who contemplate excursions
into this world of mountains.

Banff is, however, the most important and popular
of these places, because it is the central point of the
Canadian National Park. Within easy reach of this
station there is so much charming scenery and natural
beauty that the Dominion Government, co-operating
with the Railway Company, has set apart a tract of
about 260 square miles for the purposes of this Park.

CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 209

Good roads have been made to all places which are
accessible by wheeled vehicles; and to those that are
in wilder districts, bridle-paths have been cut. A
detachment of the efficient Northwest Mounted PoUce
maintains order and watches the careless visitor to see
that fires do not spread and that wanton destruction
is not committed. It is a strange commentary upon
human nature that some people who are so well provided
with means as to be able to take these excursions, must
nevertheless be watched to see that they do not deface
Nature. One would naturally suppose that at least a
measure of culture and consideration would go with
ability to travel; but it is starthng how often there is
an absolute lack of such blending. In the summer
Banff is, in a small way, one of the most cosmopohtan
places. Travellers bound for the Far East often give
themselves an extra day or two for the overland journey
to Vancouver, in order that they may ''stop over" here;
while those who have come from Japan are seldom in
such a desperate hurry to go on to eastern Canada, the
United States, or Europe, as to be unable or unwilUng
to lay over here and rest or revel in the nearby attrac-
tions. Then, too, the number of those who have come
here specially is always considerable in summer.

In July and August, Banff is one of the most delight-
ful places in all North America. It stands 4500 feet
above the sea and in that latitude this ensures cool
nights; and cool days, too, for it is unusual for the
mercury to go as high as 80° F. in the shade. During
midsummer there is very little rain, and for this great
dryness one is sometimes punished because of the smoke

210 THE COMING CANADA

which blows down into the valley from forest fires that,
despite the care of guards, do ravage the timber. This
smoke sometimes becomes so thick that the mountains
are obscured and through the yellow pall the sun shines
in an uncanny way.

When the weather is clear, the atmosphere plays some
queer tricks upon the strangers; what is really very
far away seems to be brought quite near; and the in-
experienced tourist, who refuses to Hsten to the advice
of guides, will tramp off to ascend a ''nearby" mountain
to return for lunch, when the experienced know that the
jaunt is really a three days' trip. Mr. Walter Dwight
Wilcox * tells of some visitors who started from Banff
Springs Hotel one afternoon to ascend Cascade Moun-
tain, which does seem to be very near, and return the
next morning. They refused guides, and at the end
of three days turned up begrimed with soot and dirt,
having wandered about in the burnt timber without
even getting near to Cascade. This experience can be
matched by similar ones of those who have been deceived
by the clarity of Colorado's atmosphere.

Lake Louise is well said to be one of the most beauti-
ful sheets of water in the Canadian Rockies, and it is
just sufficiently difficult to get to it to add zest to the
undertaking. It is only a mile long and at its widest
only a quarter of a mile across. The forests surround it,
coming down to the water's edge save for the merest
fringe of shingle. The brilliant green water is so clear
that the sand and stones and the sunken logs at the
bottom can be distinctly seen. Through a deep notch
* Camping in the Rockies.

CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 211

at the lower end of this lake, Mount Lefroy pokes its
head high up into the sky; this is one of the boldest
peaks of the great central watershed. The melting
snow and the rain on its eastern sides run off into the
Saskatchewan River and thus reach Hudson Bay; while
the western side is drained by streams which eventually
carry their waters to the Pacific Ocean.

Within a few miles of Mt. Lefroy and Lake Louise
there are many other peaks and mountain tarns which
make this little section one well worthy the careful
attention of travellers. Although far from being abso-
lutely difficult of access, the district is not at all well
known, and indeed one may truthfully say that from
the original line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, that
which still uses the Kicking Horse Pass, southward to
the new route which is to avoid some of the heavy
work of the present main line, and to the American
boundary, there yet remains something for the explorer
to do.

A careful observer has said that in mountainous
regions, where the air is very dry, as in Colorado or in
certain parts of the Andes, there is a wide belt, some-
times a thousand feet of altitude or more, between
timber line and snow line. In that belt there is not
sufficient moisture to develop tree growth, and yet not
enough snow falls to admit of glacier formation. In the
Canadian Rockies the air is wet enough to let these
lines, timber and snow, approach; and in the Selkirks
the humidity is so great that the snow line actually
intrudes upon the timber. In these conditions, it is
not surprising that in the western valleys of the Canadian

212 THE COMING CANADA

Rockies there are many glaciers already known, and it
is reasonable to assume that there are more which have
not yet been discovered; but with such exceptions as
the glacier at Glacier House on the C. P. R. most of
these Canadian ice-river? are small.

If my reader wishes to get an idea of how much there
is for the adventurous tourist to do in the Canadian
Rockies, or for the careful, scientific explorer to discover,
let him read some books like those which have been
mentioned (and made use of) in these pages, and then
turn to what is claimed to be a fairly up-to-date map of
the Dominion. He will learn that even in the southern
part of the Cordillera Belt, the writer is far ahead of
the cartographist. As to the northern part, the little
information we have is that to be gleaned from an
occasional book telling of some small section.

Saint Piran is a mountain peak, of no astonishing
altitude, 8000 feet only, but interesting because it was
a useful triangulation station for the engineers who laid
out the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies;
and doubtless the survey and location reports for the
Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern will
add something to our fund of information concerning
mountain peaks and other matters of importance.
Saint Piran has further interest because its round dome-
like summit, far above the timber Hne, is, like many
another ''Bald," a favourite haunt of butterflies. Some
of the rarest and most beautiful of these creatures gather
here in great numbers during the long, bright, sunny
days of summer, attracted by the gaudy alpine flowers
which have devoted all their plant energy to producing

CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 213

large, brilliantly coloured blossoms that lure and nourish
the various winged creatures.

Not far from Laggan, a small station thirty-seven
miles west of Banff, is a mountain with a depression
between its two peaks; one of which is higher and sharper
than the other. The conformation gives the appearance
of pommel and crupper, so that the mountain is called
The Saddle. A trail has been cut and this topical
alpine, or elevated mountain, meadow is a popular jaunt
with tourists. The ''long, rich grass waves in the
summer breezes, beautified by mountain flowers,
anemones, sky-blue forget-me-nots, and scarlet castil-
leias. Scattered larch-trees make a very park of this
place, while the great smiHng slopes rise in graceful
curves toward the mountain peaks on either side."
About three miles beyond The Saddle stands Mount
Temple, the highest peak at all near the C. P. R. Its
summit is 11,658 feet above the sea, and because the
mountain is surrounded by valleys that are rarely more
than 6000 feet, its appearance is rendered all the more
effective. The precipitous walls breathe defiance to
even the most adept alpinist on all sides save the south;
and even there the ascent may not be made too easily.
The partly melted and re-congealed snow has made a
remarkable glacier on the summit, and because there is
no overhanging peak from which may fall stones and
debris, the ice is of singular purity. "On the west face,
the glacier overhangs a precipice, and, by constantly
crowding forward and breaking off, has formed a nearly
vertical face of ice, which is in one place three hundred
and twenty-five feet thick. I have seen passengers on

214 THE COMING CANADA

the trains who were surprised to learn that the ice in
this very place is anything more than a yard in depth,
and who regarded with misplaced pity and contempt
those who have any larger ideas on the subject." *

In confirmation of what I have said about the possi-
bilities for explorers and tourists, I add that in 1895
only, Mount Assiniboine (some insist upon the older,
Indian, form Assiniboia), a remarkable peak south of
Banff, was stumbled upon by chance. Its height has
not even yet been accurately determined, and from the
few accounts given of the wonderful mountain, it is
not likely to be done by actual ascent very soon. It is
probably the highest peak that has yet been found
between the International Boundary and Mounts
Brown and Hooker (52° 30' N.). The mountain is so
unusually steep on all sides that no one has yet, I believe,
gained the top. There are so many small, beautiful
lakes in the neighbourhood that the locality — it is
five or six days by camping and pack outfit from Banff
— must be exceptionally attractive. The trail which has
already been made from the main line of the Canadian
Pacific Railway is said to -lead through meadows that
are carpeted with wild flowers in summer, and among
them are some rather rare orchids, the Calypso for
example. The view of Mount Assiniboine from Summit
Lake must be most exhilarating, and the excellent
photogravure in Mr. Wilcox's book very distinctly recalls
the Matterhorn by its sharp pinnacle form.

* Wilcox, op. cit.

CHAPTER XVI
THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY

A GOODLY portion of this formerly great domain,
almost imperial in its dimensions, has recently
been annexed to the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and
Manitoba. Some was previously set off as the provinces
of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The remainder is now
included in the North West Territories and Yukon
Territory. The geographical names, Ungava and Kee-
watin, have disappeared from the map, if not perma-
nently, at least until development and increase of
population justify the Dominion Government's creating
additional political divisions.

If I were a cartographer, I should hesitate a long time
before designating any part of this earth's surface as
desert, or inhospitable, or barren; unless it were such a
section as Arabia, the African deserts — Sahara and
Libya — and others, concerning which our information
is adequate and precise enough to justify the condem-
natory designation. I make this prefatory remark
because on the maps that I studied as a schoolboy, and
even on those which were given to children of the gener-
ation following me, much of this great Hudson Bay
Territory was branded inaccurately because of the
ignorance of those who were required to make maps,

2l6 THE COMING CANADA

and yet were not furnished with proper data for carry-
ing out their work correctly.

The portion of the Dominion which is to be considered
in this chapter is really that territory which was included
in the original charter of the Hudson's Bay Company,
or appropriated by the Company's officials without
precise warrant. For rather more than half of the
territory over which the Company eventually claimed
jurisdiction, their title was legally only that of squatters;
but it was found easier to recognise that title than to
incur the expense of disputing it. I was much surprised
to be told by the Right Honourable Sir Wilfred Laurier,
who was for many years — and until two years ago —
Prime Minister of Canada, that the history of the Hud-
son's Bay Company is but little known; and yet, when
I came to investigate the subject, I found the statement
to be quite accurate.

Undoubtedly there is a great deal of interesting infor-
mation hidden away in the archives of England and
Canada, that is waiting for some competent scholar to
digest and publish it. When this is done, we shall be
astonished more by the delicacy and precision of the
internal mechanism than by any external aspects of
the giant monopoly. It was certainly one of the most
perfectly organised commercial enterprises that ever
existed. Although the Company came to be, in the
i8th century, perhaps the biggest bone over which
France and England contended, yet its inception was
undoubtedly due to explorations and activities of the
French.

Very few of the French people who left Europe in the

THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 217

17 th century to make for themselves new homes in
America, settled down as farmers or tillers of the soil
in any way, or as tradesmen. Nearly all of the men,
and I believe I am correct when I say all the young men,
became hunters and trappers; and for this avocation
the young French immigrants displayed remarkable
qualifications. They appear to have adapted them-
selves more readily to the ways of the Indians than did
any other Europeans; and it cannot be denied that, at
first certainly and for a long time, the French were more
successful in gaining the friendship and confidence of
the savage Red Men than were their EngUsh competitors.

In the introduction which Sir Wilfred Laurier wrote
for the second volume of Mr. J. Castell Hopkins' En-
cyclopaedia of Canada, he makes a statement which I
think no competent observer will deny: ''It would seem
that the very wildness of the forest exercised a strange
fascination over the men of the Gallic race, which made
them cling to the adventurer's life for the very love of it,
when it had been first embraced for profit and lucre.
There sprang into existence a class of men who became
and have remained famous all over the continent under
the name of coureurs des hois; rovers of the forest, im-
patient of the restraints of civilisation, delighting in the
freedom of the Indian whose hut they shared and whose
garb they adopted — a garb under which there often
coursed the best and proudest blood of old France."

When Radisson and de Groseillier came back to Quebec
after having made their way to James Bay (Hudson
Bay), they offered to take ships through Hudson's
Straits into the very heart of the fur country; for it

2l8 THE COMING CANADA

will be remembered that Radisson had declared the
streams which empty into James Bay to be the beaver
country par excellence. Had the offer been accepted,
not only would the difficult and dangerous canoe route
by way of Lake Superior, or the shorter but rather more
hazardous one from the Ottawa River, have been
avoided, but the priority of occupation thereby gained
for the Frenchmen would have prevented, in all prob-
ability, the expense, destruction of property, and loss
of life which the subsequent rivalry between the English
and French caused.

The plan of the voyageurs was rejected in both Canada
and France, and therefore the two men went to London,
because the British ambassador at Paris told them they
would be reasonably sure to gain a favourable hearing.
The proposition was entertained, and a preliminary
expedition was sent to Hudson Bay by some merchants
then connected with the Newfoundland trade. This
initial venture was so very successful that the incorpora-
tion of the Hudson's Bay Company promptly followed.
It was a long time, however, before the Company was
firmly estabHshed throughout the vast region which came
to be known as Rupert's Land, and later The North
West Territories; but eventually all the continent from
Canada west to Russian possessions was appropriated.

Hudson's Bay Company's posts, or ''forts," were to
be found along all the northern coast of the mainland,
and upon some, at least, of the Arctic islands, as well as
on the Labrador coast. From the icy streams which flow
into the Arctic Ocean and their tributaries, those posts
spread out over the great territory, and were pushed on

THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 219

and on until they were to be found on the Pacific's
shores, in regions that even the wildest fancy of H. R.H.
Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, and his titled or
humble colleagues of the ''body corporate and politic"
styled "The Governor and Company of Adventurers
of England trading in Hudson's Bay," had never in-
cluded within the scope of their monopoly.

When, after the middle of the nineteenth century, the
Company had attained its widest range and most com-
plete organisation, all its parts were working with that
precision which can be secured, in the affairs of such a
gigantic enterprise, only when the controlling power is
absolute and either individual or corporate in the closest
sense of that word. Doubtless a very large part of the
Hudson's Bay Company's success was due to the fact
that every one of its post traders (or Company's agents
or factors) had been born in the Company, so to speak,
or had gone to America from the northern part of Scot-
land as a lad, had toiled steadily, grown old, and been
forever faithful to the interests of the great corporation
whose servant he was.

"Connecting all these posts was a vast, complete,
sure system of communication. Furs were collected
from post to post, provisions and merchandise dis-
tributed, and mails conveyed and distributed, with less
celerity, no doubt, but with as much security as in the
most advanced times of our own country in our own
day. Dog teams were in constant motion during winter,
flotillas of birch canoes during summer. For two hun-
dred years or more a ship especially constructed for the
hardy service and as regularly as the course of the

220 THE COMING CANADA

planets, crossed and re-crossed between England and
Hudson's Bay, bringing with it provisions and articles
of exchange, taking to England the furs collected from
all over the continent. What a fascination there is
in that history! Of what development it is susceptible!
What a strange alliance it exhibits of cold, systematic
organisation and of adventurous, romantic experience!" *

Exceptions could hardly be taken, with propriety that
is to say, to considering the Hudson Bay Territory as
identical with the claims of the Company; for when the
final negotiations were carried out it was the ''North
West" — or, in other words, the territory of the Hud-
son's Bay Company which was transferred, and it was
looked upon as including practically everything north
and west of Quebec and Ontario Provinces to the North
Pole, exclusive of Greenland, to the Pacific Ocean and
the Alaskan frontier. It had reached out far beyond
what was originally contemplated; because in 1814,
when there was a dispute as to the rights of the Com-
pany in the Red River of the North Valley, an opinion
was given by learned counsel which, in part, read thus:
''We are of the opinion that the grant of the soil con-
tained in the charter is good, and that it will include all
countries the waters of which flow into Hudson's Bay;
that an individual, holding from the Hudson's Bay
Company a lease or grant, in fee simple, on any portion
of their territory, will be entitled to all the ordinary
rights of landed property in England."

Either as servants originally and continuously of the
Hudson's Bay Company, or because of their association

* Laurier.

THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 221

with that Company after the absorption by it of the
North West Company — for some time a most formi-
dable rival in the peltry trade — there are several men of
importance to be mentioned. Donald A. Smith, after-
wards first Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal; Alex-
ander Mackenzie, afterwards Sir Alexander; James
Douglas, afterwards Sir James; The Right Honourable
Edward Ellice; Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk,
Simon Eraser, and others. Individually some of them
will be mentioned again in a later chapter. Just here
it is sufficient to note that they were influential in expand-
ing British authority throughout the great region of the
Hudson's Bay Company.

At the time of the transfer of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany's titular rights to the Colonial Government, when
the North West Territories became a part of the official
British possessions in North America, this vast region
was looked upon as truly an unknown land, and as such
was spoken of by all. It was assumed to be an inhos-
pitable country, adapted solely to the Indian amongst
human beings as a place of residence, and yet of some
economic value by reason of the buffalo, other game, and
many fur-bearing animals. It is needless to say that its
purchase was vehemently opposed by many Canadians.

Yet as soon as the Dominion Government had made
even a little progress in its systematic explorations and
surveys, it was found that much of this inhospitable
region is admirably suited to agricultural and pastoral
pursuits. It is very surprising that the topographical
and meteorological conditions are comparatively Httle
varied, when we bear in mind the great differences in

222 THE COMING CANADA

longitude and latitude. Even what were long called
the monotonous stony tracts and mossy wastes of frozen
soils, known comprehensively as "The Barren Grounds,"
are not so utterly devoid of economic possibiHties as
was at first assumed. The grass covered plains of the
southern sections quickly came to be known the world
over, and their advantages promptly proved to be
attractive; while experiment and practical demonstra-
tion have pushed northward and still farther north the
bounds set upon the farming lands of the North West.

A glance at the map will reveal the fact that the
Mackenzie River and its tributaries drain a very large
part of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory. In
1888, a select committee of the Dominion Parliament
was appointed to enquire into the resources and eco-
nomic value of the great Mackenzie River Basin. The
report submitted as a result of this committee's investi-
gation is a tremendously bulky document and is remark-
ably thorough in scope and incisive in detail. The
committee undertook, successfully, to give information
relating to a tract amounting to one million two hundred
and sixty thousand square miles in area, yet did not
include any of the islands in the Arctic Sea, although
some are so near the mainland as to make them seem to
come within the realm of the report.

To the Basin a coast line was assigned of about 5000
miles on the Arctic Sea and Hudson Bay, but excluding
all inlets and deeply indented bays; and more than one-
half of this coast is readily accessible by whaling and
sealing craft, as well as by merchant steamers. The
lake area is estimated as exceeding, in the aggregate,

I

THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 223

that of the Great Lakes. 2750 miles of the Mackenzie
Basin rivers are navigable in a way: 1360 miles for
small sea-going steamers, 1390 for light draft stem-
wheel steamboats.

One paragraph of the report affirms that there is a
possible area of 656,000 square miles fitted for the growth
of potatoes; 407,000 square miles suitable for barley;
and 316,000 square miles, adapted to wheat. 860,000
square miles are well suited to stock raising, 26,000 of
which are open prairie with occasional clumps of trees,
the remainder being more or less wooded. 274,000
square miles, including the prairie, may be considered
arable land. The committee gave it as their opinion
that 400,000 square miles, or one-third of the total area
comprehended in their report, is useless for the pasturage
of domestic animals or for cultivation; this area compris-
ing the so-called Barren Grounds and a portion of the
lightly wooded region to their south and west.

In the arable and pastoral areas, latitude seems to
have no direct connection with the summer isotherms:
the spring flowers and the buds of deciduous trees appear
as early to the north of the Great Slave Lake (say lat.
60° N.) as they do at Winnipeg, St. Paul and Min-
neapolis, Kingston or Ottawa, and earlier along the
Peace, Liard, and some minor western affluents of the
^lackenzie River, where the climate resembles that of
Western Ontario. The native grasses and food-plants
(vetches) are always equal, where they grow, to those
of Eastern Canada, and in many districts they are
decidedly superior. The prevailing southwest summer
winds bring the warmth and moisture wliich make it

224 THE COMING CANADA

possible to cultivate cereals at points which seem to be
abnormally far north; they likewise affect the cHmate
as far north as the Arctic Circle, and eastward to the
very limits of the Mackenzie Basin.

Subsequent experience has shown that the general
tone of this report was over-conservative, for the opinions
and forecasts have been rather more than confirmed by
practical efforts of agriculturalists and stockmen. Some
of the ''useless" square miles have been made to yield
fairly remunerative returns; and this being the case,
it is not altogether unreasonable to expect that intelli-
gent effort will result in changing some of the legends on
maps of the eastern parts of the Hudson's Bay Territory,
now northern Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, possibly
up to the Labrador border: the most favourable term
formerly applied to these sections was hardly com-
mendatory; the general one was condemnatory. If a
quarter of a century has sufficed to show that much of
what was considered ''impossible" land in central and
western Hudson's Bay Territory is not such; it may be
that there is hope for what was until recently Ungava.

There remains one section of the Dominion (it was
a part of the Hudson's Bay Company's jurisdiction)
concerning which I wish to say something more. It is
now called British Columbia; but it was formerly —
and I bcHcve originally, so far as Britons were concerned
— given the name of New Caledonia; in imitation, one
is disposed to think, of the title which was devised for
the bonnie province at the other end of the American
possessions. Nova Scotia. I am indebted to the Rev.
A. G. Morice, O.M.I., who expanded an original paper

Hudson Bay Post, Lake Athabaska, 59° N.

Clearwatek Rivek, Athabaska River, 57° N.

THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 225

on Aboriginal History into an interesting volume of
several hundred pages filled with information about
British Columbia.* It is unnecessary to name Mr.
Morice's ecclesiastical allegiance; but I may say that
he writes with no sectarian prejudice. So far as a some-
what extensive experience enables me to check his
statements, I find him remarkably accurate.

I am truly sorry to admit that Mr. Morice is quite
correct when he says, in his Preface, " The record of those
times and ways of life which are irrevocably past has
never been written, not to say published, and the only
author who has ever touched on some of the events
with which we will soon entertain the reader, Hubert
Howe Bancroft, is so irretrievably inaccurate in his
remarks that his treatment of the same might be con-
sidered well-nigh worthless." North of the International
Boundary, Bancroft's information seems to have been
gathered from strangely unreliable sources, so that the
volumes of the series. Native Races of the Pacific Coast,
which deal with British Columbia, etc., are in unhappy
contrast with the rest of the great work.

It has been intimated herein that some time before
the province of British Columbia consented to cast in
its lot with the rest of the Dominion, there had been a
provisional form of government; but according to ^Ir.
Morice very few citizens knew that long before Victoria
(chartered 1862) and New Westminster (dates from
1859, incorporated i860) had been called into existence,
the province had been settled in a way, and had possessed

* The History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, formerly
New Caledonia, 1660 to 1880.

226 THE COMING CANADA

a regular capital — at Stuart Lake, in the southern end
of what is now Cassiar County, and far away from the
present settled portions of the province. At that
post a representative of the British people ruled over
reds and whites.

One would naturally suppose that the officials of the
Hudson's Bay Company, still in corporate existence
and very active and prosperous, would know something
of the history of their own Company, or would, at least,
not permit any statement to be made officially without
estabhshing its accuracy; and yet, according to Mr.
Morice, in 1905 it issued a pamphlet at Vancouver con-
taining this statement: *' Although McKenzie came
west in 1793, it was not until thirty years later (or in
1823) that the first post was established in British Co-
lumbia." Now, in the first place, the famous explorer's
name was not McKenzie but Mackenzie; and in the
second place, long before 1823 six of the most important
Hudson's Bay Company's trading posts had been
established in the northern part of New Caledonia,
and their contributions to the stocks of the Company
were such as to make the province one of the most
valuable districts in the Company's territory.

On June 9, 1793, Mackenzie fell in for the first
time with some Sekania Indians. They had heard of
white men but had never before seen any, and they at
once ran away. When Mackenzie sent men to parley
with them, the strange Indians were very boisterous and
wary; but presently their fears were allayed and the
explorers discovered that they had some iron implements.
They said they got iron from other Indians living up

I

THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 227

the valley of a large river; these obtained it from others
who lived in houses; and these last procured the metal
from men who were Kke Mackenzie. The river Indians
were Carriers; those who had houses were Coast Indians,
and the great river was the Fraser, as it was to be called
later. A Sekania agreed to go with the strangers to
act as guide; but he promptly bolted and Mackenzie
was left to get along as best he could.

Mr. Morice gives almost the full account which
Mackenzie himself wrote of his first encounter with the
fierce Carriers; and I should like to insert it here, but
it is too long. It shows the man's intrepidity and also
his success in gaining the confidence of these people
which later he secured by going alone and unarmed into
their midst. Eventually, and without coming to blows
with any of the natives, Mackenzie and his whole party
reached an arm of the sea, now called Bentinck (Dean)
Inlet, where he cut this legend on a rock: "Alexander
Mackenzie from Canada by land the twenty second of
July one thousand seven hundred and ninety three."
Thence the party returned to Fort Chippewayan (Chipe-
wyan, on Lake Athabasca, Alberta Province), which
they reached on August 24th. It will thus be seen that
it is not correct to say, as do some writers, that "Simon
Fraser . . . appears to have been the first white man
to cross the Canadian Rockies in charge of an expedi-
tion." * Nor is it any more accurate to say "the
Rocky Mountains formed an impassable barrier until
Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed them in //po."

* Dr. A. Rattray, History of the S. S. "Beaver," Vancouver Island
and British Columbia.

228 THE COMING CANADA

In 1809 Simon Fraser descended the river which bears
his name, from Fraser Lake (Lat. 54° N. Long. 126° W.)
to the Gulf of Georgia, and ascertained that the river
he explored empties itself into the ocean, about four
degrees of latitude north of the Columbia's mouth. It
was his purpose to distinguish the two streams; and
that he accomplished. David Thompson, for whom
another important British Columbia river is named,
discovered the upper Columbia, and on July 9, 181 1,
near the Snake River set up a pole to which be afiixed
half a sheet of paper bearing this notice: *' Know hereby:
this country is claimed by Great Britain, and the North
West Company from Canada do hereby intend to erect
a factory on this place for the commerce of the country.
D. Thompson."

CHAPTER XVII
THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS

AN idea of what the title to this chapter means, and
an inkling of what it may indicate within a very
few years, are very neatly put by Agnes Deans Cameron.*
*' Place a pair of dividers with one leg on Winnipeg and
the other leg at Key West, Florida. Then swing the
lower leg to the northwest, and it will not reach the
limit of good agricultural land." It would be rash to
say that the prime wheat fields of the Dominion are to be
defined by the eastern boundary of Manitoba Province.
What may be the possibilities in regions that are now
condemned as severely as was so much of the whole
North West only a few years ago, it is not for me even to
guess. But I may take for my beginning that Vv^hich
now marks the eastern boundary fence of "Canada's
One- thousand-mile- wheat-field." At Winnipeg there is
now a choice between three trunk lines which cross or
skirt this pretty little tract; while of shorter lines that
penetrate it for from a few scores of miles up to several
hundreds, there are so many that their time-tables add
just so many more to the puzzles which these well-
meant (but often badly executed) helps to the traveller

* The New North, Being Some Account of a Woman's Journey through
Canada to the Arctic, igio.

230 THE COMING CANADA

create. The southern border of this huge wheat field
may be called the International Boundary. Its western
runs along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Its
northern: well that is something for our grandchildren,
or perhaps our great-grandchildren to determine; and
if the next century holds within its still sealed up
mysteries as many surprises as the nineteenth gave
to humanity, it may be that the sons of the present
Canadian's grandchildren will be holding the plough —
or whatever "sharp-edged instrument with which the
Theban husbandman lays bare the breast of our good
Mother" — along the very shores of the Arctic Seas
themselves !

I wonder if Gen. Wilham T. Sherman would have
injected quite so much of annoyance and sarcasm into
his synonym for Canada, "the sleeping nation beyond,"
as he did when he spoke it thirty or forty years ago,
were he alive to-day? In its way, the awakening of
Canada and the lure which she is holding forth to our
husbandmen, are capable of doing us more harm than
could a successful war: but is that fact one which can
be resented by armed force? If "we are on the heels
of the greatest economic treck this world has ever seen,"
it would be churlish on the part of the people of the
United States to harbour any hard feelings if it means
still further drawing off of a population which they
most regret to see going over to an economic competitor;
but one who will not, I feel sure, ever be more than a
very strenuous and (may be) troublesome agricultural,
industrial, and commercial rival.

As an illustration of the hazard which attends the

THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 231

limiting of these agricultural possibilities, I quote from
Mr. John Macoun * who wrote just thirty years ago.
"If 150,000,000 acres be given as the approximate
number of acres suited to wheat culture, another 100,-
000,000 acres could be added if the raising of barley be
taken into account." The estimates of the Dominion
Department of Agriculture for the season of 191 2 gave,
as was stated in Chapter VIII, the area under grain
cultivation as 15,728,900 acres in the three provinces of
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and the same
Department estimates the arable land in those provinces
at upwards of 300,000,000 acres.

In what was the Territory of Ungava, now northern
Quebec and Ontario, and including that portion of
Labrador which belongs in the Dominion, experts in
matters pertaining to agricultural possibiHties are satis-
fied to say that while vegetables are successfully grown
in certain places, and that in the middle of the Labrador
peninsula there is some fairly good agricultural land,
yet on the whole the climate is considered too cold for
successful agriculture. In the former Territory of
Keewatin, which has had to bear a very bad reputation,
it has been ascertained that there are over 6,000,000
acres adapted to agriculture. Wheat has been grown
successfully as far north as Norway House, about 53°
20' North lat. As to the vast region north of the Saskat-
chewan Valley and west of former Keewatin, which may
be described somewhat broadly as the Great Mackenzie
Basin, thoroughly authentic and well substantiated
evidence shows that this section is much more valuable
* Manitoba and the Great North West, 1883.

232 THE COMING CANADA

agriculturally than was supposed. It is capable of sus-
taining a large, prosperous, and permanent population.
As yet the settlements in this distant region are insignif-
icant in number and ridiculously disproportionate to
the area of the Basin; nevertheless they are of impor-
tance as indicating practically and unquestionably the
great possibilities of this region as an agricultural and
industrial community.

These known conditions emphasise the necessity for
technical investigation and of surveying such areas as
are likely to attract the stream of settlers who are
bound to go there soon. According to one witness, who
had had exceptional opportunities for famiharising him-
self with the country and its resources, there is, in the
Peace River Valley, as much good agricultural land
suited to the settler's needs and not yet occupied, as
there has been taken up by homesteaders and purchasers
in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Provinces.
Mr. W. F. Bredin, who was examined before a Senate
committee, resides near Lesser Slave Lake. After a
careful computation, he estimated the area of agri-
cultural lands available in Mackenzie territory and in
northern Alberta (not yet surveyed and thrown open
to settlement), say north of the 55th parallel of lati-
tude, at not less than 100,000,000 acres.* It will be
remembered that the Arctic Circle is 66° 31!' North
Latitude, or 691! geographical miles north of 55°, and
it has already been stated, in a previous chapter of this

* See Canada's Fertile Northland. Evidence heard before a select
Committee of the Senate of Canada during the Parliamentary Session
of 1906-7, and the Report based thereon. Edited by Capt. Ernest
J. Chambers, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.

THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 233

book, that much farther north than that parallel, wheat
has been successfully grown.

What a contrast do the methods employed by the
newly arrived settler present to those which the estab-
lished husbandman follows! In a former chapter it
was shown how generously the Dominion Government
permits a widow, having minor children dependant
upon her, to take up a homestead. This is a verbal
picture of one such mother going to work to secure a
home for her flock: *'As day breaks we catch a glimpse
of a sunbonneted mother and her three Httle kiddies.
An ox is their rude coadjutor, and through the flower-
sod they cut their first furrow. It is the beginning of
a new home." But almost better yet is it to think of
the crowded cities of the Old World; and may we not
say of the New World too? In both there are so many
prematurely old men and women; so many anaemic
children; such sweltering, fetid slums! '^Surely in
bringing the workless man of the Old World to the man-
less work of the New, the Canadian Government and
the transportation companies are doing a part of God's
work."

Now to carry out the contrast. It sounds a little
Miinchhausen-like to say that on some of the great
estates, the gang-ploughs, drawn by a dozen horses,
deploy off en echelon after breakfast and make but one
furrow out and another back in the forenoon, getting
home in time for dinner, and another pair of furrows in
the afternoon; yet the exaggeration gives an idea of
what is the size of some of the great Canadian wheat
fields. But in all parts of the three great grain prov-

234 THE COMING CANADA

inces, steam is largely replacing animal power, not only
in ploughing but for reaping and harvesting. The
usual way of handling this motive power, is for two
traction engines to pass along parallel borders of the
tract to be treated, and to haul, by long steel ropes, the
great gang-plough back and forth, or the harvester, or
the combination reaper, thresher, and binder. When a
grain field is a mile square (and there are plenty which
are much larger than that), it is easy to see that the
apparent expense of such methods is quickly offset by
the economy of time and manual labour. Further-
more, the work is better done!

The province of Saskatchewan was either untilled
prairie or unbroken wilderness only a few years ago; but
thousands of industrious immigrants have transformed
great tracts into fruitful farms which are principally
devoted to wheat. In harvest time it is an exhila-
rating sight to look at the machines passing through
the great fields, in which the wheat ears stand up to
the horses' shoulders. Not only in Saskatchewan, but
in Manitoba and Alberta, of course, are such scenes
common.

Forty bushels of wheat to the acre is not too high an
average to put upon the crop of Canada's wheat fields;
that is, in the west and northwest. After all expenses
have been met and the grain delivered at the ''elevator,"
when it is paid for and the farmer receives the reward
for his toil, there will be from $15 to $17.50 per acre
for him. I should not like to say how many cases in
the western provinces are similar to this one, I know
there are many: one man, the fortunate possessor of

^~

THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 235

some ready money, secured a farm of 640 acres at a
cost of $5,000. In three years' time he had cut from it
sufficient wheat to repay him in full; and all the while
it gave him and his family a most comfortable hving,
besides leaving a surplus which enabled him to buy
adjoining land. It is not surprising that land in the
southern half of those three grain provinces is so valu-
able that it rarely changes owners, and that already the
quarter sections available for homestead entry are scarce
indeed.

Someone has said that the distinguishing mark of an
EngHsh city is the consecration of a Bishop of the
Church of England. I do not believe I should dare
to make a guess as to what distinguishes the American
city; and as for the town in either country, it would be
difficult to say just what is the trademark. But in the
wheat field regions of the Dominion, after the railway
company has knocked together the Httle shanty, which
at first does duty as a station, and built the long plat-
form for the accommodation of — no, not passengers
at all, my readers — but the freight cars that are to
be loaded with sacks of grain; the next thing to appear
is the red grain-elevator. It will usually precede the
canvas hotel; there is rarely a store until some time after
the elevator has been in commission; and, best of all,
the gin-palace that may be looked for with entire confi-
dence in an American frontier settlement as the next
human sign after the railway station, is not seen in
Canada until the place has attained some size and the
populace persuades the county officials to grant — what
is not easy to get — a license.

236 THE COMING CANADA

If the traveller is so fortunate as to pass through these
great Canadian wheat fields when the grain is in full
head and coming to richest maturity, because of the
long, bright, sunny days and cool nights (that meteoro-
logical combination which is ideal for ripening and
mellowing), it will be no uncommon sight to see the
sturdy grain stretching away to right or left from the
railway's right-of-way until its farther limit seems to
blend with the horizon, and apparently not coming to
an end even then.

A few words should be said about a grain crop in these
prairie provinces which has already attained great
volume and is certain to be of even more value to the
farmers than it now is. It is barley which, as a crop,
cannot be over-estimated in its economic values when
writing of this section; for in spite of the increasing
employment of steam, the growing number of motor-
cars, and the other apparent causes for the passing of
the horse, that animal is increasing in numbers and barley
is considered as being as good food for the horse as oats.

The successful cultivation of wheat may be problemat-
ical in some parts of that northern belt which experts
have agreed is the probable limit of this crop economi-
cally; but in that same section and even farther north
there is no doubt about barley being a profitable crop.
It is essentially a northern grain, and in the far North
West it attains its highest development. It ripens, as
a rule, fifteen days earHer than wheat and resists the
frosts of early autumn better. In the Peace River
Valley, and even farther north, barley weighs nearly, or
quite, sixty pounds to the bushel (the maximum weight

THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 237

of barley, given in Haswell table, is fifty lbs. per bushel
for California grain), and it is so plump and firm
that it is attractive to everyone. Brewers have said
that barley from Manitoba is, for malting purposes,
fully equal to that from any other part of the world,
and if this is true of the Manitoba barley, it must surely
apply to that which comes from still farther north.

Experts say that barley in the United States is ripened
by the great heat of the sun before it has reached full
maturity, and therefore the grain is somewhat shrivelled.
This objection cannot be raised against barley from
North Western Canada, because there the sun's heat
during the long bright days and the short cool nights
operate to bring the grain to fullest development and
yet cause it to ripen slowly.

The valley of the Red River of the North was thus
described in 1874: ''Of the alluvial prairie of the Red
River, much has already been said, and the uniform
fertility of the soil cannot be exaggerated. The surface
for a depth of from two to four feet is dark mould com-
posed of the same material as the substratum, but
mingled with much vegetable matter. When the sod
has rotted, the soil appears as a light, friable mould,
easily worked and most favourable for agriculture. The
marly alluvium underlying the vegetable mould would
in most countries be considered a soil of the best quality,
and the fertility of the ground may therefore be con-
sidered as practically inexhaustible."

With reasonable allowances for local conditions, this
description may be appplied to most of the hundreds
of million acres of the arable soil in Canada's Fertile

238 THE COMING CANADA

Northland. But that same characteristic of seeming
inexhaustibleness was likewise attributed to California
wheat fields, to Virginia tobacco lands, and to other
agricultural regions, not only in America but in other
parts of this Earth as well. Yet carelessness in culti-
vating, disregard of rotation, constantly taking away
and never restoring, neglect to let the fields lie fallow,
have proved disastrous elsewhere; and the same mis-
fortune must follow even in the fertile North West of
Canada, if the same course is followed.

CHAPTER XVIII
A MODEL PROVINCE: MANITOBA

THE first permanent white settlement in the district
which is now the Province of Manitoba, was the
Selkirk Colony which was founded by immigrants from
Europe; most of them being Scotchmen. It was located
on both banks of the Red River of the North, a short
distance below the centre of the present city of Winnipeg,
and at that time, 1812, was called Fort Garry. Many
lineal descendants of those first Selkirk settlers still
live on the homesteads which their ancestors acquired
a century ago; but their comfortable dwellings and the
spacious appointments of their households are in marked
contrast with the conditions under which the Earl of
Selkirk's immigrants at first struggled.

I do not overlook the fact that nearly eighty years
before Lord Selkirk commenced his colonising efforts,
Pierre-Gauthier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye,
had made his way northward and westward from Lake
Superior, reaching Lake Winnipeg in 1733. One year
later he built a fort near the site of the present Fort
Alexander, which is just up from the mouth of Winnipeg
River, that empties into Travers Bay, the southeastern
part of the lake. Four years later, October, 1738,
Verendrye established another trading post, which he

240 THE COMING CANADA

called Fort Raye, at the junction of the Red and Assini-
boine rivers, on the site of the present city of Winnipeg.

After the transfer of proprietorship from French to
British hands, 1763, this nearer region of the west rapidly
developed as a fur-trading centre, and it was there that
the rivalry between the Hudson's Bay and the North
West companies was probably as keen as in any part
of British America. There were a very few traders,
both French and British, the latter mostly Scotchmen,
in the region. Gradually, however, other immigrants
who were satisfied to make their living by farming came
into the Red River region. These men frequently took
Indian girls as their wives (the word is used somewhat
euphemistically) and from these unions sprang a race
of Metis, or half-breeds.

The Hudson's Bay Company had been very gentle
in its treatment of all people within its jurisdiction,
whether European, Indians, or half-castes; but when its
rule was supplanted by that of the Canadian officials,
the zeal of these last led them to act somewhat hastily,
causing eventually a revolt of the Metis under the
leadership of one of their number, Louis Riel. The
*'Riel Rebellion," as it is called, had much influence
upon the early history of Manitoba (and it contributed
not a Httle towards strengthening the bonds of the
then newly founded Dominion). It would be interest-
ing to consider the rebellion fully here, but space for-
bids; yet I recommend my readers to look it up.

Through its resident agent at Fort Garry, the Hudson's
Bay Company continued to exercise control over the
Selkirk colony (as well as over all its vast possessions)

d

A MODEL province: MANITOBA 241

until 1870, when the whole northern and western parts
of British North America, excepting British Columbia
which had already attained the dignity of being an
independent colony, came under the control of the
Dominion Government. The colony (Manitoba) was
then known as Assiniboia (a name which was subse-
quently applied, for a short time, to part of the country
immediately west) .

The Hudson's Bay Company received a million and
a half dollars for its landed rights; but it stipulated for
two sections (one mile square each, i.e., 640 acres) in
each of the six-mile square townships which were to be
surveyed and set off in thirty-six sections as the basis
of title for private ownership in the future. It was also
given small tracts at each of its trading-posts. Thus,
in addition to its liberal money indemnity, the Company
retains, in the enormous territory over which it was
permitted by the terms of an elastic charter to exercise
proprietory rights, about one-fifteenth of the land all
told, and much of Manitoba is in this chain of title.

When Manitoba was made a Province in 1870, and
became a political unit of the Dominion, its area was
much smaller than it now is. Indeed, the boundaries
have been changed several times in these forty-three
years. At present they are: on the south, the 49th
parallel of N. lat., which divides Manitoba from Minne-
sota and North Dakota; on the west, the meridian of
ioi°2o' W. northward to the 60th parallel of lat.; on
the north, that 60th parallel to Hudson Bay, the shore
of which is followed southeasterly until the northwestern
boundary of Ontario Province is reached, at a point

242

THE COMING CANADA

which is about 56° 40' N. and 89° W. The line then
goes southwest to the meridian of 95° 12' W., and thence
the eastern boundary goes due south to the Lake of
the Woods, and the United States.

This very great expansion, whereby the area of the
Province is nearly quadrupled, was made by the Domin-
ion Government in 191 1, and has not yet appeared on
the general maps. The area of the Province, before the
expansion, was 74,000 square miles; about one-fifth
was water; what it is now has not yet been accurately
determined, but it must be considerably over one-
quarter of a milHon square miles.

^'The name Manitoba sprang from the union of two
Indian words, Manito, Hhe Great Spirit,' and Waba,
* the Narrows ' of the lake which may readily be seen on
the map. The well known strait was a sacred place
to the Crees and Saulteaus who, impressed by the
weird sounds made by the wind as it rushed through
the narrows, as superstitious children of the prairie,
called them Manito-Waba, or 'The Great Spirit's Nar-
rows.' The name, arising from this unusual sound, has
been by metonymy translated into 'God's Voice.'
The word was afterwards contracted into its present
form." *

The general physical character of the Province is
that of a level plain sloping gently towards the north.
The whole district, of which Manitoba forms but a
part, was evidently at one time a vast lake basin. The
present rich soils, which are such an important factor
in the economics and wealth of Manitoba, were derived

* Enc. Brit., nth ed.

A MODEL province: MANITOBA 243

from the silts deposited during that long period of time
when even what is now dry land was under water.
Apparently somewhat incongruous as it sounds, yet there
is undoubtedly much logic in the statement that the
cause of the poor water and alkaline soil in numerous
locahties can be traced, in every instance, to the exceed-
ing richness of the soil; and so long as it retains its salts,
so long will it be noted for fertility.

It is amusing to recall the fact that less than a score
of years ago, there met in the city of Chicago a com-
mittee of wheat growers who gravely, but no doubt
honestly, recorded their opinion that ''Our Northern
tier of States is too far north to grow wheat successfully,"
and yet they spoke from experience. Now, about a
decade before that Committee put itself on record, a
competent observer had expressed his opinion of the
Red River of the North Valley thus: "Take one-half
of the entire area, or 3,400 square miles, equaUing
2,176,000 acres, and for simplicity of calculation, let it
be supposed to be sown entirely in wheat. Then, at
the rate of seventeen bushels per acre, which, according
to Prof. Thomas, is the average yield for Minnesota —
the crop of the Red River Valley would amount to
40,992,000 bushels." But the experience of twenty
years and longer has proved that when intelHgence is
combined with energy in cultivating this land, the
average crop of wheat runs higher than seventeen
bushels to the acre; and what is more important, the
northern limit of wheat cultivation has been pushed so
much farther north that the conclusion of the committee,
to which reference has just been made, seems almost

244 THE COMING CANADA

laughable. Mrs. Cameron * says: *'For years Winnipeg
was considered the northern limit of wheat-growth, the
Arctic Circle of endeavour. Then the line of Kmitation
was pushed farther back until it is Edmonton-on-the-
Saskatchewan that is declared ' Farthest North. ' To-day
we are embarking on a journey which is to reach two
thousand miles due north of Edmonton."

Impossible is an elusive word when we wish to Hmit
man's potentialities in some directions, even if he is a
miserably weak creature with but a brief span of life;
and this province of Manitoba stands out conspicuously
as a monument to what man's determination, when
pushed along the line of little (not least) resistance, can
accomplish. A Winnipeg policeman gave a pithy and
characteristically witty definition of that success when
he answered an Englishman's drawled out question:
^'What makes Winnipeg?" The visitor's astonishment
at the size and activity of the "city in the wilderness"
could not be suppressed, although he had tried hard to
do so. Bobby looked at his interlocutor with a quizzical
smile, stooped to scrape a lump of mud from his boot-
heel, and replied: ''This is the sordid dhross and filthy
lucre that kapes our nineteen chartered banks and their
wan-and-twinty suburbhan branches going! Just be-
yant is wan hundred million acres of it; and the dhirty
shtuff grows forty bushels of whate to the acre. Don't
be Hke the remittance man from England, son," with
another quizzing look at the checked suit of his ques-
tioner; "shure they turn up the bottom of their throwsies
so high that divil a bit of the dhross sticks to them

♦ Op. cit.

A MODEL province: MANITOBA 245

anywhere!" I may explain that a ''remittance man"
is usually a younger son who has been shipped away
from England to get him out of bad company. He is
provided with sufficient money just to clothe and feed
him; and ninety-nine out of a hundred never amount
to anything. Manitoba owes no part of her importance
to the ''remittance man."

The staunch Canadian does not adopt the Encyclo-
paedia's phraseology when discussing Manitoba and call
it one of the western provinces of the Dominion. He
speaks of it as the middle one or the middle western
one, or "The Model Province." When it was admitted
into the Dominion in 1870, it was the fifth province in
numerical order. It then had an area of only 13,500
square miles, and extended just far enough northward
from the International Boundary to take in the southern-
most bights of lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba; its popu-
lation was then but about 12,000, and nearly all of them
were Indians or Metis. There must now be well on
towards half a million inhabitants (quite likely more,
since the increase in size), and the Indian element has
so shrunk in ratio that it is almost negligible.

The government of the province is administered by a
Lieutenant-Governor, who is appointed by the Governor-
General for a term of five years. With the lieutenant-
governor is associated an executive council of six
members, selected by himself with the approval of the
Ottawa Government, who are responsible to the local
legislature. This is a single body chosen by the franchise
holders, and at present consisting of forty- two members;
but this number will doubtless be increased in order to

246 THE COMING CANADA

permit of representation from the great territory which
has been added. Manitoba sends four members to
the Dominion Senate and ten representatives to the
Dominion House of Commons. What provision will
be made for readjusting the provincial representation
in the Dominion Parliament, now that the areas of
Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba have been so greatly
increased, I am not prepared to say at this moment.

The province's position, both socially and pohtically,
is almost unique. Because of the astonishing mixture
of nationalities which the population indicates and the
consequent differences of religious belief, either intense
or mild, there have been frequent explosions which have
had wide-reaching influence. Furthermore, because of
the geographical position, making the province truly
the gateway to the great west, there have been many
political agitations which have made the district a veri-
table storm centre. Added to these facts is the further
one that the phenomenal progress during the last decade
or so has raised up many important local economic
disputes which have yet to be solved — education,
municipal ownership, further railway and waterway
expansion are some of these.

The development of Manitoba, region and province,
from the very beginning of British administration was
rapid; but as soon as the building of the Canadian
Pacific Railway was assured, progress in every aspect
became so phenomenal as to make conservative people
gasp. The Fort Garry of less than half a century ago
has been transformed into the City of Winnipeg with a
population of over 100,000, which presents in its streets,

A MODEL province: MANITOBA 247

buildings, municipal facilities, industries of every kind,
railways — for the city is now a division headquarters
for the three great transcontinental systems discussed
in a previous chapter — and in fact every essential, all
the aspects of a city which is, and is recognised as, an
important economic centre.

This importance of the capital is reflected in many
ways throughout the entire province, only two of which
I shall mention. Since grain, and especially wheat, is
the foundation of the province's prosperity, we find
innumerable elevators and flouring-mills in all parts;
even the smallest town is, in its way, a miniature Win-
nipeg. The local branches and agencies of the char-
tered banks are so numerous in the smaller places
that they indicate somewhat of the volume of busi-
ness. An illuminating evidence of Manitoba's mate-
rial development is to be found in the fact that in
1906 a pamphlet of some thirty pages, illustrated with
several scores of plates, was issued to show the ^'Pub-
lic Buildings erected and improved by the government
of Manitoba."

A few of the widely scattered fur-trading posts of
half a century and more ago have been developed into
towns besides the provincial capital. Brandon is
approaching the 25,000 mark. Portage la Prairie
and St. Boniface will soon have more than 10,000 each;
and a number of towns along the railways, the Grand
Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern especially,
are growing so rapidly that statistics cannot be penned.
One of the most pleasing evidences of the well-being
of this province, is the fact that while there is a strong

248 THE COMING CANADA

liking for municipal ownership of various public utilities,
the tax rates are still comparatively low.

I do not wish to intimate that pleasing hospitality is
not a conspicuous trait with all Canadians — my own
experiences and the testimony of many others would
contradict any such imputation, were it made. But
I have good reason for saying that throughout Manitoba,
and especially at Winnipeg, the stranger who brings
letters of introduction is received with open arms and
the entertainment ofifered will be hearty and varied.
Whatever the visitor's particular taste may be, there
will be found plenty of ways to cater to it. If it is
outdoor sport, there is fishing, shooting, big game hunt-
ing, coursing, and cross-country riding, at the proper
season. If the guest's taste inclines towards athletics,
in summer there are cricket, lacrosse, golf, baseball, all
the games that appeal to the younger; but cricket in
Canada, as in Great Britain — and indeed throughout
the British Empire — is not at all monopoKsed by the
youngsters. One often sees men whose years are counted
by the three score or more, batting, bowling, and field-
ing with the best. The winter sports are all that the
Dominion can offer, as will be suggested in the next
chapter. The clubman can have no cause to com-
plain of lack of opportunity at Winnipeg. The scholar
and literary man will be sure to make the acquaintance
of congenial spirits. Those who like to sip from the
cup which the frivolous forms of society hold forth, are
welcomed and may dance and flirt to their heart's con-
tent. In fact, Manitoba is a surprise and a delight
in every way.

CHAPTER XIX
CANADA IN WINTER

IT is, I think, recognised as a fact that if the stranger
wishes to see the people of a given country in their
true social environment, he must visit that country
during the season in which the leisure or semi-leisure
classes, *' society" in one word, give themselves up to
social gatherings and festivities which are either im-
possible or unpopular at other times. This rule, if it
is admitted to be such — and I am assuming it, at any
rate — applies to regions of the globe in which there
are marked climatic changes. In the tropics, there is
practically no such change: there may be a rainy season
alternating with a dry one. During the former the
natives may or may not be active, but it is usually not
the time to see equatorial regions in the greatest luxury
of their vegetation, when fruits are ripe and the people
are enjoying the good gifts which bounteous Nature
lavishly bestows upon them.

I know, from personal experience, that the most
favourable time to visit the semi-tropical regions is mid-
summer; while to study the life of those people in Russia
and Canada who figure in society, the proper season is
precisely the opposite one; in other words, it is mid-
winter. I am quite aware that some peoples exactly
reverse this order of procedure, fl>ing from Russia, when

250 THE COMING CANADA

the first hard frost and snow come, to the soft, balmy
airs of the Mediterranean Rivieras, and seeking winter
sunshine on both coasts of the tideless sea, even going
well into Africa in their quest. I know, too, that some
Canadians and New Englanders seek reHef from the
bitterness of winter in their homelands, by going to
Florida, California, Mexico, or elsewhere. But it needs
no declaration from me to show that these quests are
entirely subjective; they do not contemplate mingling
to any great extent in the life of the peoples amongst
whom the seekers are to sojourn for a short time in their
selfish desire to secure personal comfort. Let us entirely
leave out of consideration the unfortunate invalid who
must try to escape the clinching, shrivelling chill of
winter or the enervating heat of summer.

The peoples of both Canada and Russia who are able,
because of wealth and position, to make society, are the
very ones who go away from their homes during the
short summer. They do this for two reasons: first,
because in that brief summer the heat is often trying
and not infrequently the physical arrangement of
domiciles makes it difficult to be really comfortable at
home; second, that is the time when travelKng is least
liable to the interruptions of the weather which the
gales and snowstorms of winter often bring. I know
that many of my countrymen go to Canada for the
summer to the coolness, comfort, and freedom of out-
door life. I have done it myself several times; but it
is not the right time to see any of the Canadian social
centres at their best.

The Dominion capital, Ottawa, is a pleasant place in

Ploughing at Fort Smith, 6o° N.

Smith Landi.ng, Great Slave River, 6o° N.

CANADA IN WINTER 251

summer; the days are warm (sometimes they are piping
hot!) and one can go abroad unhesitatingly, while the
nights are cool enough to make at least a thin blanket
agreeable; but there is Httle to be seen of the official
social life. Almost surely the Governor- General will
be absent; for at that season — when Parliament is
in recess — he is making official visits to the provinces
in order that he may see for himself — not how the
people hve and move and have their being — but how
the local affairs are being administered. The Depart-
ment Chiefs will equally surely be absent; either seek-
ing relaxation with their famihes at seacoast, lakeside,
or river resorts or in Europe, or imitating the example
set by their official head, and making tours of inspection.

The society leaders beyond the charmed circle of
department life follow these examples, and so it goes.

What has been said of the capital appHes, in a general
way, to the other cities: even the mere sightseer will
notice that in summer his opportunities to see the people
are not so good as in winter. Is it Montreal, the com-
mercial metropolis? The streets, the parks, the churches,
the resorts seem to be singularly deserted. Is it the
picturesque, quaint Quebec? There is a marked apathy
to be noticed in and about the citadel, and the crowd
on DufTerin Terrace is palpably not composed of resi-
dents. If there is a semblance of gaiety at other places,
it too often betrays the mark of ha\ing been arranged
for the special benefit of the tourist, who is expected to
pay for the extra effort : there is none of the spontaneity
of custom. Is it the active, scholarly Toronto? The
silence which overhangs the deserted University campus,

252 THE COMING CANADA

is to be noticed as spreading throughout the residential
sections, and even to penetrate into other parts of the
city. It is the same wherever the visitor goes. He can
see the country and the natural sights; the lakes, rivers,
waterfalls, mountains and forests, all such things will
be attractive; and because the farmers may have a
little leisure, perhaps the visitor will have the oppor-
tunity of meeting some of them, and they are always
interesting.

But there is another phase of social life which asserts
itself only in winter; this life does not appear in its
fullest glory until the snow has come in quantity suffi-
cient to make the roads fitted for the sleighs and the
hills ready for the toboggans. Then the bustle and
crowds in the city streets and along the suburban roads
are most exhilarating. The motor car is put out of
commission save when the street-cleaning force in the
larger cities has swept away the snow and such locomo-
tion is again possible. The horse comes once again to
his own, and it really seems as if he understands his
privileges and restored importance. From the dainty,
saucy cutter, drawn by a single steed, to the great omni-
bus-sleighs with two or four horses, or the even larger
box-sleigh piled up with straw and buffalo-robes, and
filled with a party of merry youngsters off for a ''straw-
ride," there is to be seen somewhere every conceivable
form of vehicle that can be put upon runners. The
princely sledge of the Court nobles in Russia, with tall
plumes waving from the sleigh itself and from the
shoulders of the three horses, driver and footman
resplendent in Astrakan and bright colours, is matched

CANADA IN WINTER 253

by the equipages of the Canadian official and aristocrat.
The liveries are as effective, even if widely different
in character. The furs of the occupants of the sleighs
are as luxurious at Ottawa as they are at St. Petersburg,
and the gaiety is equal in every way.

Every Canadian city asserts itself when the jollity
of winter is the topic of conversation; and in a way
each is right. But it has always seemed to me that
Montreal's claim has the most substantial foundation.
The business section may be made just as disagreeable
and quite as dirty by a fall of snow, as any place one
knows; yet Montreal is singularly fortunate in having,
almost at its centre, such a magnificent winter play-
ground as Mount Royal. The drives approaching it
and all round its sides are so nicely graded that when
the snow is properly packed, the cutters, family sledges,
box-sleighs, and all vehicles of the kind go spinning
along as if it were no effort at all for the horses to draw
them. Sometimes a reckless or incompetent driver lets
his horse go too fast along a downgrade at the end of
which is a sharp curve: then there is a spill, but inas-
much as the snowbank into which the occupants of
the sleigh are pitched makes a soft bed upon which to
fall, these mishaps are not often attended with serious
consequence.

The lower slopes of Mount Royal, in all directions,
are taken possession of by the children, who are con-
tented with mild coasting; but the more adventurous
youths of both sexes and indeed (ought it to be whis-
pered?) many grown men and women who might be
supposed to have reached such discretion as not to take

254 THE COMING CANADA

unnecessary risks, drag their toboggans far up towards
the summit of the mountain, where there is one of the
best sHdes in all the Dominion. It carries the toboggan
down the southern slope, that is for the most part gentle;
but there is a jump or two which make the novice catch
his breath as the sled plunges down. Long ago, this
slide used to reach far out upon the plain stretching off
towards the river; but the growth of the city and the
extension of tramway lines have necessitated restricting
it to Mount Royal Park; there is even yet enough of it
to give the rarest, most exciting few minutes.

One of the most popular and exhilarating winter sports
has been adopted from something which was a very
stern and hard necessity to traveller, voyageur, or coureur
des hois in former times. I mean snowshoeing. Every
village and town in the Dominion seems to have its
snowshoe club, and the larger cities count them by the
scores. There are more than twenty-five in Montreal
and its immediate suburbs. Each club has its own
distinguishing uniform. Most of us know what it is
generally: for the young women (because the club
membership is rarely restricted to one sex) there is the
long, Neapolitan, knitted cap which often pulls down
quite to the shoulders, leaving only a part of the face
visible; a thick, warm jersey; a jacket made from a
bright-coloured blanket, and a short, warm skirt. The
stockings, usually uniform in pattern and showing the
Club colours, must be thick and warm; and the feet
are encased in moccasins, because a stiff-soled boot is
an impossibility for comfortable snowshoeing. The
men are pretty much the same in appearance, so far as

CANADA IN WINTER 255

head and body go; but the skirt is replaced by warm
knickerbockers. Stockings and moccasins are again
similar. Nowadays, some of the most sensible girls
are wearing a regular bloomer costume. Snowshoeing
is a most delightful winter sport and frequently the club
will go out ten or fifteen miles in the afternoon, sup at
some jolly little country hostelry — or maybe the club
will "have its own clubhouse away from town for such
rendezvous — and come back in the dazzHng moonlight
or beneath the twinkling stars and the Aurora borealis
of a Canadian winter's night, with which nothing in
the south can compare in brilliancy.

Snowshoeing, with its shuffling, sliding motion, looks
to be a very easy tiling to do ; but let none of my readers
jump to the conclusion that it is something anybody
can do without half trying; although that is precisely
what every novice does. When a person has the snow-
shoes tied to his feet for the first time, his first convic-
tion is that the wretched things are insecurely fastened,
they wobble so at the heels, and he feels sure they will
come off at the first movement. When assured there is
no danger of this, he next proceeds to attempt to walk,
gets his feet hopelessly tangled up, and promptly comes
a cropper, while the experienced onlookers laugh in
pleasant derision. The necessary shuffle is one of the
most difficult feats to accomplish that feet ever essayed.
Once mastered, however, there are few motions so
delightfully exhilarating, and the speed with which one
can move over the snow, particularly when it is Hghtly
crusted over, is astonishing. I have known plenty of
men and women who think that snowshoeing is better

256 THE COMING CANADA

sport than skating. Certainly it possesses the great
advantage of having a much wider horizon than the
ordinary river, lake, or pond gives the skater. Ski-ing
(pronounced skee-ing, see dictionary) is, of course, first
cousin to snowshoeing.

Skating is so universal that I hardly take the trouble
to mention it. Not only on open ponds and rivers do
the crowds gather for this popular sport, but there are,
in the cities certainly, covered rinks which either belong
to exclusive clubs, or are reserved on certain afternoons
and evenings by a club for its members only. Of course
hockey asserts itself when skating is mentioned; and
other sports on the ice, such as Curling, are suggested.
It is presumptuous for an American to describe this
game, when competent Scots have exhausted their efforts
to laud it, both in prose and poetry. Yet since many
people do not know just what the game is, I give a brief
description. A rink is 42 yards long and 4 yards wide.
The tees, or goals, are 40 yards apart. The stones were
originally waterworn boulders or granite blocks bored
through to let the player's thumb get a grip. These
primitive stones are now replaced by beautifully rounded,
flattened, and highly polished ones into which a handle,
turned at a right angle to the diameter, is set. A stone
may not be more than 50 pounds in weight; the circum-
ference not over 36 inches; and the thickness must not
be less than one-eighth the greatest circumference.
These stones, for each player must be supplied with
two, cost, including handles, from $10 to $25 a pair. The
object of the game is to curl or slide the stone from
behind and to the side of one tee and make it stop as

I

CANADA IN WINTER 257

near as possible to the centre of a six-inch circle at the
other tee. Stones that go out of bounds or stop short
of the *' Hog-score," a line defining the limits of the tee,
are ''dead," and must be removed. It is a man's game,
and a strong man at that. Many songs have been
written in praise of it; the authors contending that it
is a promoter of mental enjoyment, bodily health, and
the best of good fellowship. Where the game originated
is not known; but it is associated in our minds with
Scotland, and it is in the land of heather that it is most
popular. There are so many Scots in Canada that it
is not surprising to find hundreds of curling clubs in the
Dominion. It will be noticed that I say nothing about
the ''Ice Palace" when writing of Montreal in winter.
The omission is intentional. The beautiful and novel
structure of crystal ice, reared at a great expense on the
frozen surface of the St. Lawrence River, was never a
profitable investment, and it advertised Canada in the
wrong way. It has not been made for several years and
I think will not be again.

If the visitor wishes to see the St. Lawrence River in
the perfection of its winter aspect, he will go to Quebec,
which is farther north than Montreal, and where the
cold is steadier and lasts longer. The ups and downs,
the ins and outs of the town lend themselves admirably
to picturesque winter effects; but they also add to the
difficulties of getting about by both man and beast;
how the horses manage to negotiate the steep and
narrow roadways is a marvel. Life is even now more
primitive in Quebec city and province than elsewhere;
few of the elegant sleighs of the political or commercial

258 THE COMING CANADA

capital are to be seen. In the country there are grand
opportunities for enjoyment, only the stranger must
be able to speak French if he is to get the best from the
habitants. The view (from Dufferin Terrace) over the
frozen St. Lawrence, rigid above the city, broken and
churning it may be below, is a rare one.

If the stranger seeks the American maxima in winter
scenery and snow effects, and has time and means, let
him take a Canadian Pacific Railway train and go well
into the Rocky Mountains or the Selkirks. He need
have no apprehension as to physical comforts. The
train is entirely vestibuled — for I am assuming that
the tourist travels by an express so that passing from
end to end involves no exposure. When there is not a
dining-car at his service, the train will halt at a station
where there is one of the Company's hotels or restaurants
which serve a meal to satisfy the veriest Lucullus. If
''Lucullus does not sup with Lucullus," the companion
at table will be an interesting feature of a remarkable
journey. Let the traveller aHght, to stay a day or two,
at one of the stations near the snowsheds. Here, again,
there is no danger that physical comfort will not be
admirably cared for, even if the accommodations are
not quite the same as those which the Chateau Fron-
tenac or the Place Viger supply.

Imagine, then, a rather steep mountain side covered
with snow so deep that all traces of the great snowsheds
are absolutely obliterated, the smooth white surface
spreading downward as if there were nothing to break
the contour, save the bushes and small trees which must
be pictured in fancy, for they are out of sight. Remem-

CANADA IN WINTER 259

ber that these snowsheds are built of heavy timber,
strong enough to support the weight of this mass of
snow and to resist the impact when the sliding snow
drives down in a tremendous avalanche. They are tall
enough and sufficiently wide to admit the largest engine
and the broadest coach or freight car, and yet leave
space above the smokestack to let sparks fly freely, and
for all ordinary oscillation. This gives an idea of the
size of these structures; and thus it is possible to con-
ceive of what must be the depth of snow to obhterate
them completely. There will be other awe-inspiring
snow and ice effects to interest the visitor.

There is little doubt that for the young and active,
and for the old who are vigorous and hearty, the Cana-
dian winter offers plenty of opportunity for sport and
pastime in the open. I imagine that many of my
readers will recall pleasing demonstration of this in
books and magazine stories which tell of Dominion
life in that season. Why Americans should go to the
Tyrol for winter sport, I cannot imagine.

But there is another phase of winter's social life which
appeals with almost equal force to old and young,
although of course each class looks upon interior festivi-
ties from a different standpoint. Winter is the time
when most Canadians are at home. I know there are
some who hke to get just as far away as possible from
the searching, marrow-curdling cold; but these are the
anaemic or sybaritish; and the true Canadian does not
hesitate to sneer at them. The capital, Ottawa, shows
many forms of winter's social gaieties. Around the
Governor-GeneraFs home gathers the exclusive and

26o THE COMING CANADA

official set: yet the democratic spirit has so pervaded
this circle, that it includes some who are not distinguished
by any high-sounding titles; and there is really less of
snobbishness about it than was conspicuous at the
''White House Court" within recent years. Americans
of social position and culture are made most welcome,
and I cannot imagine any more delightful winter life
than Christmastide at Ottawa offers.

As with the capital, so with all the large cities, only
there is lacking in each that special glamour which
shines from delightful Rideau Hall. There is, however,
just a suggestion of that semi- Court Hfe at each of the
Provincial capitals, provided the Lieutenant-Governor
is disposed to have it so. The residences of those who
make any pretence to social life are all well provided
with heating-plants; and there will always be found
that almost indispensable accessory to aesthetic comfort,
the open fireplace with its blazing logs, about which
hosts and guests gather when the function is of smaller
dimensions than a ball or rout. If the stranger is so
fortunate as to receive an invitation from a British or
French host who is interested in the history or folklore
of the Dominion, it will be round the hearth that the
past will be made to live itself over again. I know that
while I am always glad to go to Canada at any season,
it is upon my winter visits that I look back with greatest
pleasure and most satisfaction.

CHAPTER XX
SOME CANADIAN TOWNS

THE number of really old towns in the Dominion
is not very great. How could it be, when we
consider the methods followed by the French in their
attempt at colonisation? But if we bear in mind the
measure of interest that hangs round the half-dozen or
so places which are to be considered in this chapter,
there is material enough to fill a dozen volumes. Of
Quebec alone so much has been written — and the
subject has not yet been exhausted — that there are
books enough to fill a small bookcase. There is a period
of more than a century and a half from the date of
Quebec's birth, 1608, until — I am not going to say
death — her marriage to Great Britain, in 1763, by the
old custom of capture. The story of this " Great Mother
of Canada" is alive with thrilling, dramatic incidents
for the pen of historian, the verse of poet, the plot of
novehst. Individual impressions of to-day seem to be
but tame and uninteresting, when we have at our dis-
posal for a study of Quebec's creation, development,
and vicissitudes, such material as the Relations of Jesuit
Fathers, who were pioneers both in evangelisation and
in discovery. Of Francis Parkman's books, although
some of his statements are criticised adversely and his
conclusions disputed, it is but truth to say that they

262 THE COMING CANADA

did for Canada as much as Prescott's volumes did for
Mexico. I mention only a few more writers who have
gleaned from earlier ones, yet added picturesque touches
of their own: William Kingsford, Sir James Macpherson
Le Moine, Dr. A. G. Doughty, Sir Gilbert Parker.*
Beyond this I dare not go, for a complete bibhography
of Quebec alone would cover pages. Many important
names are omitted, not from lack of appreciation or
willingness to comment, but because of the limitations
of space. The narrative of the five sieges that the old
town has sustained — 1629, 1690, 1759, 1760, 1775 —
would fill several volumes; and that of probably the
most famous of all, the great Battle of the Plains of
Abraham, when both victorious and vanquished leaders
lost their Hves, is so overflowing with interest, event,
tragedy, victory, discomfiture, that it has served as the
subject for a whole volume unto itself. Still, is it not
correct to say that never yet has the fortress of Quebec
succumbed to actual capture by assault?

If Quebec no longer alone guards the gateway to
Canada, it is because the developments of the last quarter
of a century have opened to the visitor other means of
ingress than that of the St. Lawrence River; but if that
stream is ''the fife of Canada," as it has been aptly
called, it is at Quebec the pulse still beats; and there
need be little regret on the part of her citizens as they
see the trans-Atlantic steamers pass on their way to
or from the commercial metropolis of the Dominion,
Montreal.

If the birth of Quebec was in the year 1608, the con-

* For titles of their books, see bibliography at end of this volume.

SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 263

ception may be said to have taken place more than half
a century before, when, in 1535, Jacques Cartier wintered
at Stadacona. That was an event of great importance
for the future of Canada. It takes us back to a date
only forty-three years after Columbus' first memorable
voyage. It antedates by seventy-two years the found-
ing of Jamestown, Va. (it was nine years later than the
settlement of the Spanish colony on the site of James-
town, soon abandoned), by eighty-eight years the found-
ing of New Amsterdam (New York City). It was
before the date of St. Augustine, Fla., 1565. Quebec
has the right, therefore, to call herself one of the oldest
cities founded by Europeans in America, if she may
not boast of being the very oldest.

Certainly there is no city in North America that is
more famous historically, and in all the world there are
few more picturesquely located. From the promontory
where stands the Chateau Frontenac, one of the Cana-
dian Pacific Railway's hotels, and especially from the
windows of one of the towers, there is — on a fair day
— a view that is not surpassed easily and is rarely
matched. Down the river over Isle Royale, with a
hint of the Falls of Montmorency; across the St. Law-
rence into the rolling country that stretches away to
the Height of Land forming the International Boundary;
up the river past the Plains of Abraham; northward
into the Laurentian Hills; on every side there is scenery
in which grandeur and pastoral simplicity are blended
with historical recollections that form visual and mental
pictures of unequalled brilliancy.

The bold promontory, on which the Chateau stands.

264 THE COMING CANADA

naturally divides the city into two parts, the Citadel
and the Lower Town. If there is perhaps a hint at
regularity in the streets of the former, those of the latter
are a maze so intricate that none but the habitue can
safely trust himself alone in them. But getting lost
in the streets of Quebec is half the fun of a visit : the old
and the new jostle each other in strange propinquity,
and yet at every turn there crops up something which
recalls an event of years ago.

With modem Quebec is closely associated the history
of the reigning house of the British Empire, for the
Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father, when com-
manding the 7th Royal Fusiliers, Hved for four years in
the city.

It seems a pity that De Monts and Champlain should
have discarded the pleasing Indian name, Woolastook,
for the principal river of New Brunswick, and rechrist-
ened the stream St. John, just because they chanced to
discover it on the anniversary of St. John, June 24th,
in 1604, and that the English did not restore the original
name. Just where the town of St. John stands, river
and tide waters meet, and such is the strength of the
latter's flow — for it rises thirty-five feet in the har-
bour — that when nearly full it turns back the stream,
making even the river proper appear to flow upstream.
Near this intermittent fall or rapid is a promontory on
which stands the older and more important part of the
City of St. John. It extends onto other heights, and
St. John may truthfully be called a city built on hills.
From many points charming views are had of distant
heights crowned by buildings which recall old times.

SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 265

These vistas are rendered particularly effective when,
at sunset, the eyes look through the forest of masts,
spars, and rigging of the vessels in the docks.

Mr. Allen Jack writes: "It is almost, if not quite,
certain that for centuries before the coming of Europeans
the Indians, temporarily or permanently, used some
portion of the shores of the Harbour of St. John as a
resting or dwelhng place. The French, almost from the
discovery of the locality, occupied one or more sites
contiguous to the harbour, partly for commercial or
missionary purposes, but mainly for military reasons.
Of all the Frenchmen who lived there, the Sieur la Tour,
whose noble wife once fiercely defended, and afterwards
heroically failed in defence of, the Fort at St. John
bearing her husband's name, was probably the only one
who possessed true commercial instincts and capacity."

St. John's right to a place in this chapter comes as
much from the interest which attaches to its neighbour-
hood as from the record of the town itself. The real
history of the place begins with the arrival of some
United Empire Loyalists, about 5000 of whom came
there from the United States after the Revolution, 1783.
A number of St. John's citizens have achieved distinction
in Canadian society and politics. It is not a place of
conspicuous wealth, although many citizens are possessed
of means: on the other hand, there are few abjectly
poor. It is really amazing that, where there are at all
times sailors from all over the world, one policeman for
every thousand persons is sufficient to preserve the
peace.

Hochelaga, the Indian village which stood on the site

266 THE COMING CANADA

of the lower part of Montreal, but which disappeared
quickly, was known to the early French. It was intended
that Montreal should be "Ville Marie," when, in 1642,
Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, one of the
Associates of the Society formed to colonise the Island of
Montreal, and his companions, clerical and lay, took
formal possession. The most conspicuous feature in
Montreal's early history is the constant annoyance to
which the settlers were subjected by the Indians. In
1689, ^^^^ place the dreadful massacre at Lacliine, near
the upper end of the island, and the citizens of Montreal
were not permanently reUeved from anxiety caused by
threatened attacks upon themselves, until the Iroquois
were suppressed.

The antiquarian and historian find valuable material
in Montreal; yet its strongest claim upon our attention
is its remarkable growth as a commercial centre. The
figures which measure its trade cause those of pretty
nearly all the rest of the Dominion to sink into insignifi-
cance. I must, however, warn my readers that Mon-
treal's trade returns may include statistics of interior
towns; because grain, lumber, etc., destined for foreign
ports and transshipped here, can easily appear twice.

After the British conquest, the French population of
Montreal, relatively to the British, was very large; yet
to their credit let it be said that, in spite of the fact that
it was a very disorderly period, but few French names
appear in the magistrates' records. During 1775-6
the city saw many changes, and doubtless some of the
French hated to see the British flag flying where the
French had been; but before the score of years between

SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 267

the British conquest and the American Revolution had
passed, even these had come to reahse how much their
position was improved. ''They had better markets,
better crops in those days of peace, and securer privileges
every way, and now to be subjected to the sway of the
New England Puritan Colonists would be one of times
as bad as ever." Although this is the opinion of a
Canadian divine, the Rev. J. Douglas Borthwick, I
have no disposition to contradict him.

Halifax is the capital of the maritime Province of
Nova Scotia. It is undoubtedly now and will continue
to be the chief Atlantic seaport of the Dominion, because
it is "an all-the-year-round harbour"; for in spite of the
high latitude it is so free from ice that ocean-going
vessels may enter at all seasons. With Halifax are
associated in the history of Acadia, Louisburg, Annapohs,
Beausejour, and other places. When Louisburg was dis-
mantled, Halifax arose and from its birth its lullaby has
been martial music on land and sea, for the garrison
has never been discontinued, even if its maintenance
has been transferred from Imperial to Dominion charge.

The town stands on a pear-shaped peninsula about
five miles long and three wide. At Citadel Hill this
promontory rises to about 250 feet above the harbour.
It is rather a striking coincidence that Hahfax, on the
Atlantic, and Vancouver, on the Pacific, should both
be famous for their magnificent seaside city parks.

Ottawa is said to be the offspring of two very bad
parents, War and Political Faction: a suggestion of
what this means has been given in a previous chapter.
Yet had an alliance, itself displeasing, not brought about

268 THE COMING CANADA

this birth, it is certain that physical and industrial
conditions would have ensured the growth of a city on
this attractive site. The town stands on a natural
route from the middle St. Lawrence River to the upper
Great Lakes, as is evident from the fact that Indians
used it when only they and wild animals inhabited these
forests. If Ottawa was for some years Uttle more than
an enclosure for the Dominion Government buildings
and the homes of Civil Servants, it has passed beyond
that stage. It is a prosperous, progressive city of
100,000 inhabitants. Its lumber trade, including that
of the suburb, Hull, is about the only thing which gives
it commercial or industrial importance. It is essentially
a city of homes; but since ''homes" naturally means
children, and children require education, Ottawa offers
such attractions and advantages as would properly be
expected.

The piece de resistance is of course the Parliament
Buildings, three — the main, legislative assembly halls,
offices, libraries, etc., and two flanking edifices for the
headquarters of Dominion officials and others. These
three stand in a beautiful park on a high bluff above the
Ottawa River. Looking up towards the park from the
city along Metcalfe Street is a fine sight. At the other
end of that street, and about half a mile from Parlia-
ment Park, is the Victoria Memorial, in another park.
This is a Museum which promises to give citizens and
visitors admirable opportunities to study the natural
resources, natural history, ethnology, etc., of the entire
Dominion. The three Parliament Buildings are inade-
quate for all departments of government, and conse-

Empress Hotel and Hakholk, Viciohia, Va.ncolvek
Island, B C.

On Skeena River, B. C

\

SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 269

quently there are bureaus housed in public or private
buildings all over the city.

Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor-
General, is in the outskirts. It is a large, rambling,
but comfortable domicile and stands in well-kept grounds
which have not been shorn entirely of natural beauty.
The Hall overlooks the river, and the Laurentian
Hills are seen far away in the north; the views are
superb.

In the early years of the nineteenth century, the Hud-
son's Bay Company estabhshed a trading-post, Fort
Comosun, on the site of the present city of Victoria,
Vancouver Island, at almost the extreme western end
of what was to be the Dominion of Canada. In 1849
the island was formally proclaimed a British possession
and thrown open to colonisation; James Douglas, after-
wards Sir James, being the first governor. In 1856 he
called together the first Pro\dncial Parliament which
met in a room of the fort. To-day Victoria, "The
Queen City of British Columbia," is one of the most
beautiful and salubrious residential towns in the Domin-
ion. The rush of miners to the Fraser River gold fields,
in 1858, and lately a small part of a similar skurry to
the Klondike, have caused ripples upon the placid life
of the Httle city; but usually it has preser\'ed the
quiet of a combination business town and military post.
Many well-to-do families have made their homes here,
attracted by the natural surroundings, the commercial
and educational advantages, and the temperate climate.
Being a port of call for steamers to and from Asia and
Australia, there is always a sense of being in touch with

270 THE COMING CANADA

the world; and this is a satisfaction to those whose
affluence relieves them from active avocation.

Vancouver has lost the mushroom appearance it wore
for some years after the Canadian Pacific transferred
its western terminus to this place from Port Moody.
It is now the principal shipping port on the Dominion's
Pacific coast, and a substantial town of more than 100,000
inhabitants. It is admirably equipped with the facilities
that make life comfortable: its schools, homes, hotels,
churches, public and commercial buildings have a look
of permanency and prosperity that is pleasing; while
the captious critic can find little fault with its commercial
and industrial activity. Stanley Park, the complement
of the one at Halifax, is at the extreme western end of
the bold peninsula on which Vancouver stands: in it
are some of the largest trees in British Columbia; while
its fern-carpeted glades, traversed by excellent drive-
ways, bridle-paths, and walks, make it a most charming
city breathing-place.

From Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, up
the St. Lawrence to the lakes, and on at least as far
as Toronto and Hamilton, there are quite two score
places that I should like to mention in this chapter, for
they all deserve it; but I am not writing a book about
Canadian towns.

CHAPTER XXI

A FEW CANADIANS

TO do even scant justice to all Canadians who have
contributed much towards the conquest of the
Dominion, to its political creation, its development,
and who have marked out clearly the pathway along
which The Coming Canada shall progress to even greater
things than those which have been, so completely exceeds
the possible in one short chapter as to make the small
effort upon which I venture seem ridiculous. If I shall
be so fortunate as to secure some Canadian readers, I
beg that they will not consider the omission of very
many names which should be here, as altogether a
sign of ignorance, but attribute it to the limitations of
space.

I shall say no more of the French pioneers, both lay
and clerical, but pass on to the time when British policy
asserted itself, and then to the time when the conduct
of affairs was left entirely in the hands of Canadians
themselves. Naturally, then, the men who first made
known to their fellow countrymen something of the
magnitude and economic possibilities of the vast estate
which had fallen to them, claim precedence, and in Mr.
J. Castwell Hopkins' Encyclopaedia, I find abundant
material from which I have, in part, drawn.

Alexander Mackenzie (the name is sometimes im-

272 THE COMING CANADA

properly given as McKenzie) was probably born at
Inverness, Scotland, about 1755. He must have been
still very young when he yielded to the temptation to
leave home, because in 1779 he appears to have been in
Canada, for he entered the offices of the North West
Fur Company at Toronto in that year. In 1787 he was
entrusted with a small stock of goods which he took to
Detroit, and he was given permission to trade, provided
he penetrated into the Indian territory, beyond that
frontier, in the spring of the next year. He succeeded
in establishing barter with the Indians, although they
were disposed to resent his efforts.

In 1789, Mackenzie was sent to explore the un-
known region far to the North West, which was even
at that time supposed to be bounded by the Frozen Sea.
This expedition, which was much condemned at the
time, was looked upon as an exploit of sheer hardihood.
He accomplished it in less than three and a half months,
most of the time he and his companions being in birch-
bark canoes. He made his way to Great Slave Lake
and thereafter discovered the river which bears his
name. Having descended this noble stream to its
mouth, he returned to Toronto, where, for a short period,
he attended to post-trading.

In 1792, he began the expedition across the prairies
and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, which has
already been mentioned. From the Pacific shores, he
once more retraced his steps and again settled down for
a short taste of comfortable home life. The narrative
of his explorations in the North West, which he published
in 1 80 1 and dedicated to King George III, is most fasci-

^

A FEW CANADIANS 273

nating reading. The next year the King conferred upon
him the honour of knighthood.

Sir Alexander continued to be a partner in the North
West Company; yet with somewhat curious ideas of
commercial ethics, he organised a rival firm which was
called Sir Alexander Mackenzie & Co. The competition
did not last long, for in 1805 the firm was absorbed by
the older company. Like so many successful Britons,
Sir Alexander became possessed with a desire to sit in
Parliament, and for some years he represented Hun-
tingdon County, in the Provincial Parliament for Canada
East (now Quebec). During this time he was involved
in much litigation with Lord Selkirk concerning the Red
River Settlement in what is now the Province of Mani-
toba. In 181 2, Sir Alexander returned to Scotland,
where he purchased an estate at Avoch in Ross-shire.
On a journey to Edinburgh in 1820, he was suddenly
taken ill and died at Mulnain, near Dunkeld.

The narratives of Sir Alexander's two great expeditions
may be read by all who care to do so. The details show
the character of the man as an explorer, and as an adept
in accommodating himself to circumstances until he
could compel those circumstances to conform to his
wishes. They also indicate a remarkable capacity for
dealing with all classes of men; his own determined
fellow countrymen, Europeans of various nations, the
fickle voyageurs and coureiirs des hois, or the "^ily, cun-
ning, often tricky Indian. But another phase of this
man's character appears in the fact that he was made a
partner in the North West Company when comparatively
young. As Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal says:

274 THE COMING CANADA

''It was not an easy matter to obtain admission into this
partnership. It could be accomplished only by long
and arduous service; money was no object, abihty was
everything. It was what the candidate could perform,
not his relationship, which secured him the position."
It is little wonder that Canada pays high honour to the
memory of Sir Alexander Mackenzie.

At the same time that Mackenzie was cutting that
inscription on the rock at Dean Inlet, mentioned in a
previous chapter, another venturesome explorer, Capt.
George Vancouver, was making his way up the Pacific
coast of North America, less than two hundred miles
north of where the first Briton to cross the continent
had reached the strand. Vancouver had already
visited the very same spot that Mackenzie subsequently
reached; but he seems to have left no sign, and it is a
strange thing that these two explorers did not meet
each other in that remote region.

Thirteen years after Mackenzie reached the Pacific,
Simon Fraser crossed the Rocky Mountains, south of
Mackenzie's trail, and reached the river which was
named after him. It is hardly correct to claim that he
was its discoverer, but there is Httle doubt that he was
the first white man to descend it. As one gazes upon
the foaming rapids and boiling whirlpools of that wild
river, one can readily believe that Eraser's exploit has
not been repeated by many, even Indians.

One Canadian, however, George Simpson, Governor
in Chief of Rupert's Land and General Superintendent
of the Hudson's Bay Company's offices in North America,
who was afterwards knighted, took canoe at York

A FEW CANADIANS 275

Factory on Hudson Bay, in 1828. He went up Nelson
and Churchill rivers, reached Lake Athabasca, went
up the Peace River as far as possible, then carried his
light craft to the great northern bend of the Fraser,
down which he made his way safely to the Pacific.
Simpson made another famous journey in 1841. He
went up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, across
Lakes Nipissing, Huron, and Superior to the portage
between the affluents of the last and those of Lake
Winnipeg. Then he went up the Saskatchewan to its
headwaters, crossed over the Rockies, and descended
the Kootenay to the Columbia River. Of Simpson
"It is stated that he was the first Hudson's Bay Governor
who fulfilled, on behalf of the Company, the duty
imposed upon them by its charter — the task of explora-
tion and geographical discovery."

Turning from the brave explorers whose labours laid
the foundations of the Dominion, that is almost an
empire in itself, I mention the name of one who added
to that foundation a stone of great importance. I do
not know that I can correctly call the Hon. Sir Francis
Hincks the father of the Canadian banking system, but
he was assuredly an important factor of it. Nor would
it be truthful to say that the very foundations of that
system have never been severely shaken; for they have,
and sometimes the shock has been one from which the re-
covery was slow and discouraging. When such financial
disasters have come, they were always traceable to
causes which showed that Sir Francis' principles had
been departed from.

Canada presents to the obser\ing American a combi-

276 THE COMING CANADA

nation in one and the same man of politics and literature,
or finance, or commerce, or industry — or sometimes of
three or more of these together, which seems to be
undesirable south of the border. Sir Francis Hincks,
when a young man, was supercargo of a vessel to Bar-
badoes; then he went to Canada, "where he soon won
a high reputation in business circles, and a permanent
place in political councils." He was a member of the
Provincial Parliament, Canada West; afterwards Minis-
ter of Finance; and later Prime Minister. From Canada
he returned to Barbadoes as Governor, and was subse-
quently Governor of British Guiana. Before this he
had been intimately associated with Lord Elgin in
negotiating, at Washington, the famous Reciprocity
Treaty of 1854. In 1873, he retired from public life
after having had much to do with the moulding of
Canada's banking system.

So many prominent men have been associated with
the railways of Canada, that it is awkward to pick out
just a few for mention here. Perhaps it would be more
accurate to say that many Canadians have risen to
prominence because of their successful administration of
these great enterprises. Henry Fairbairn is a name that
is, I am sure, not known to all Canadians, and south
of the border it is practically unknown. Yet it was he
who, in 1832, made the statement: *'I propose: first,
to form a Railway for wagons from Quebec to the
harbour of St. Andrews upon the Bay of Fundy, a work
which will convey the whole trade of the St. Lawrence
in a single day to the Atlantic waters." He purposed,
further, extending the line eastward to connect with the

A FEW CANADIANS 277

railways of the United States. Bearing in mind that the
first railway of the world, the Stockton and Darlington,
England, was opened February 27, 1825, it will be
seen that some Canadians v/ere prompt to realise the
benefits of this new method of transportation. When
Fairbairn's suggestion was at length acted upon, it
gave rise to what is now known as the Intercolonial
Railway. With the name of Fairbairn should be coupled
that of the Hon. Edward Barron Chandler.

Sir Francis Hincks, who has just been mentioned,
had almost as much to do wdth the railway development
of Canada as he had with its banking and financial
system, and especially with the early history of the
Grand Trunk Railway. The Hon. John Ross, a Cana-
dian Senator, who was actively engaged in the organisa-
tion of that company and with the construction of the
Victoria Bridge, at Montreal, was an Irishman by birth.
He did not live to old age, but he did much for Canada,
and an appropriate monument to his memory stands
in St. James' Cemetery, Toronto. As part of the early
history of the Grand Trunk Railway, must be mentioned
the names of Walter Stanley, constructing engineer,
and Sir Joseph Hickson, President; and there are
others, too numerous to be mentioned.

Long before the project of laying a trans-continental
railway had taken form, in the building of the Canadian
Pacific, the desirability of such a line had been advocated.
In 1829, Mr. McTaggart, a civil engineer, had proposed
such a highway. In 1848, ^lajor Carmichael-Smyth
had recommended the construction by convict labour
of a railway to the Pacific by way of the Kicking Horse

278 THE COMING CANADA

Pass. While these names should be remembered, they
are not those of whom the Canadians speak as their
great men. In 1872, when Parliamentary action was
taken, the names of D. L. Macpherson, afterwards
knighted, and Sir Hugh Allan come to mind, with those
of the men who were mentioned when writing of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, in a previous chapter: all of
these are justly considered great in their way. Later,
when the construction along the north shore of Lake
Superior and the piercing of the Selkirk Mountains were
causing bitter discouragement, there were two men who
came forward and turned threatened defeat into glorious
victory. Mr. W. C. Van Home, afterwards Sir William,
and Major A. B. Rogers, whose name has been very
properly given to the pass through the Selkirks which
he found, appeared and made themselves masters of the
situation. In a way, the surveyors and constructors
of the railways which are penetrating the remote sections
of the Dominion, and crossing the continent by other
routes than the pioneer, are doing great work; but the
glory of initiative is not theirs.

If the demands of modern life give precedence to rail-
ways, because of the rapidity with which they carry
passengers and freight, it would be unfair to pass by the
names of some men who have increased the capacity
of the grand natural means of internal communication
which Canadian waterways furnish. To give credit
to all would logically require that the first who marked
out the useful portages, linking up the open streams or
lakes, be mentioned; but that is manifestly impossible
— partly because the names of many of those pioneers

A FEW CANADIANS 279

are not known; principally because there were too many
of them. The Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, after
sundry failures due to lack of technical skill in making
preliminary surveys, secured a charter for what is now
the Welland Canal, connecting lakes Erie and Ontario
and permitting vessels to pass round the impassable
Niagara Falls. From this beginning has grown the
system of canals which now permit ocean-going steamers
to load at Fort William, Port Arthur, and all the Ameri-
can lake ports; go down to the deep sea, pass onward,
and discharge cargo at any port in the world.

How fev/ people know that Samuel Cunard, erelong
Sir Samuel, Baronet, the founder of the great Cunard
Steamship Company, was a Canadian! Yet he was
born at Halifax, November 21, 1787; and what is more
interesting to Americans, he was the son of a Phila-
delphia merchant whose business connection took him
to the Nova Scotia town where he decided to remain.
When Samuel Cunard was fifty-one years of age, that
is in 1838, he interested British capitalists and succeeded
in having built four steamers of 1200 tons burden and
of 440 horsepower each. The first of these, the Britamiia,
made the voyage from Liverpool, whence she sailed on
July 4, 1840, to Boston, at which port she arrived
on the 1 8th. But this was not the first steamship to
conquer the oceans; and the honour of having accom-
plished this marvel also belongs to Canadians. In
1833, a vessel was built at Quebec and christened the
Royal William. William IV was then on the English
throne. The Royal William made the first complete
passage between the American and European coasts

28o THE COMING CANADA

of the Atlantic, under her own steam solely. In the list
of this steamer's owners appeared the names of Joseph,
Henry, and Samuel Cunard. She was designed by James
Goudie, who superintended her building, equipping and
launching, in the yards of Campbell and Black, Quebec.
Surely the pioneer of the builders and owners of the
Lusitania and Mauretania, who organised the com-
pany which was the prototype of the hundreds whose
steamers now cross the seas, may be given a place in
the list of a few Canadians.

I know that not one of the great Canadian states-
men is mentioned here. It is not necessary for me to
do so, because all know and honour them. My purpose
is to direct attention to a few who have done good work
for the Dominion in quiet ways that do not win the
vociferous applause of the world. I do not mean to
insist that those whom I have named, and the thou-
sands others like them, were absolutely altruistic; but
this I think: they were, or are, typical of that spirit
which has been conspicuous in a majority of Canada's
prominent men ever since 1763. It has led men to work
for the whole country, and if it is fostered it will make
the Coming Canada all that loyal Canadians wish.

CHAPTER XXII
RECIPROCITY

AFTER having had abundant opportunity to learn
the feelings of Canadians who are competent to
express an opinion upon this important subject, I feel
that I may safely say that a majority of the Dominion's
citizens would be glad to have a certain form of reci-
procity; one which would enure to their benefit, and at
the same time would, in their opinion, confer a com-
mensurate advantage upon citizens of the United States.
I may seem to wish to wound the vanity of my fellow
countrymen (although I deny any such intent) when
I say that they must not assume it is we only who would
be doing a favour in re-enacting a Reciprocity provision
which Canada would ratify; because American econo-
mists would not have advocated the measure of two
years ago, had they been altogether unselfish. Philan-
thropic sentiment has very little to do with such matters.
In the last chapter I expressed the opinion that most
Canadians are disposed to work for the good of their
whole country, and I think their action in rejecting the
Reciprocity Treaty does not at all contradict my opinion.
I am aware that there were some who took a perverted
view of their responsibilities when they insisted upon
distorting certain rather ill-considered (yet not inten-
tionally offensive) expressions by a few prominent

282 THE COMING CANADA

Americans, as indicating a desire on the part of the
United States to unite the Dominion to their own
country, and thus have one great Anglo-Saxon govern-
ment from the Mexican frontier away to the North
Pole.

So far as the Reciprocity Treaty of 191 1 was concerned,
there were not many Canadians who were not pleased
with the prospect of securing the commercial benefits
which it promised; it was the bad politics, infused into
the proposition by sensation-mongers south of the
boundary and timid alarmists to the north, which
brought about its rejection and the downfall of the
Laurier Government. After a reasonable time has been
permitted to elapse so that the influence of those bad
politics may pass away, there is no reason to believe
that a Reciprocity Treaty or Agreement, drawn up on
very much the same lines as those of the rejected one,
will not prove acceptable to the Canadians and bene-
ficial to all parties concerned. Canadian manufacturers
are pushing ahead most actively; yet there is not
apparent any marked tendency to the form of concentra-
tion or monopoly which our leading publicists (that is
the few who are really disinterested) deplore as threaten-
ing the democratic principles upon which our social,
economic, and political systems are supposed to be
based. . ' •

An indication of this seeming opposition to doubtful,
not to say dangerous, concentration may be seen in
the fact that the .Canadian Government and people are
firm in their opposition to allowing any single railway
system to exercise monopolistic or exclusive rights in

RECIPROCITY 283

a particular territory. If a railway map of the Domin-
ion is carefully studied, it will be seen that every one of
the three great private systems, the Grand Trunk, the
Canadian Pacific, and the Canadian Northern, is per-
mitted, and even encouraged by local or State aid, to
construct lines into regions which, but for this apparent
desire to discourage monopoly, might easily be con-
tended are in the nature of ''preserved domain."

I do not hesitate to say, and my conclusion is based
upon very close study of conditions in all parts of the
Dominion, that the Central Government and the people
themselves would not tolerate such apparent assump-
tions of exclusive rights as have been conspicuous in
various parts of the United States. To be specific, I
mention the successful efforts in the west to prevent
construction of parallel lines so close to established ones
as to furnish absolute competition; equally successful
efforts in the eastern states, Pennsylvania for example,
to exclude competitors from profitable territory; and
other similar cases might be cited, although I have no
doubt every reader will think of many.

It is impossible for any poKtical economist to conceive
of conditions in Canada parallelling the brazen monopoly
of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford system in
its appropriated territory, southern New England; or
the treatment of the city of Pliiladelphia by the Penn-
sylvania Railroad. Our apparent inability to release
ourselves from the clutches of the giant railway corpora-
tions is amazing to the Canadians, and their open derision
of the inefficient Interstate Commerce Commission is
humiliating. They say of this bureau that it is mani-

284 THE COMING CANADA

festly intended to give sinecures to political friends of
the administration, and to promote Ktigation so that
attorneys may have employment; that it accomplishes
aught for the real benefit of the public, they vehemently
deny.

Unless a remarkable change takes place in the views
of economists and the methods of doing business in
Canada, it is hardly conceivable that such monopolies
as the Standard Oil Company, the Steel Trust, the
Harvester Trust, and — to use a vague and rather
inaccurate term to denote a very tangible fact — the
Money Trust, could be organised in Canada. If Reci-
procity is again contemplated in which the initiative
must be taken by the United States, and the effort
should bring promise of greater success than marked the
last one, all these conditions will be thoughtfully con-
sidered by the Canadians, and every possible precaution
will be taken to make it impossible for these objection-
able combinations, in restraint of legitimate trade and
healthy competition, to find a loophole in convention
or treaty through which they may carry their operations
into the Dominion.

It is not, however, as producers of manufactured
goods that Canadians could be specially interested in
the re-enactment of a Reciprocity treaty: for in the
very nature of things it must be a long time before such
industries shall have developed sufficiently to make it
possible for Canadian goods to be sent profitably into
the United States, even if the present prohibitive Ameri-
can tariff were removed entirely or reduced materially.
It is from the United States into Canada that such things

RECIPROCITY 285

must pass, certainly until the number of workmen to
be herded in factories and trained to turn out great
quantities of all those articles for which the material
is to be had in abundance in the Dominion, has been
increased far beyond anything which the immediate
future promises. Furniture and woodenware of all
kinds are present exceptions to this statement.

Reciprocity means to the Canadian, the privilege of
sending raw materials into the United States, either
free of duty or at such a reasonable tariff as shall ensure
profit to the shipper; and the possibly greater privileges
of bringing the many manufactured articles from the
States which cannot yet be produced so cheaply in the
Dominion. Every American who has travelled in
Canada, or Mexico, or any other foreign country, knows
very well that there is hardly an American manufactured
article, from a steel pen or a watch to a combination
reaper and binder, which cannot be bought cheaper
abroad than at home, because those articles must meet
the competition of similar articles made in other
countries.

The travesty of **the export price" of our manufac-
tures, often less than one-half the home price, indicates
clearly that profits are illegitimate, or economic condi-
tions altogether distorted. I myself am wearing Ameri-
can underclothing which I bought in a foreign country
for about one-half the price that is demanded for it in
our retail stores. Such unfair profit wall not be permitted
in Canada, and Reciprocity will not be considered if
conditions are to be such as to make it possible. If the
Canadians should detect in any proposed movement

286 THE COMING CANADA

towards Reciprocity a possibility that such a concern
as the Harvester Trust might gain a footing, and be
enabled to dictate to the husbandmen of the growing
North West as it does to the American farmers, the
opposition to such a proposition would be far wider and
fiercer than was that displayed two years ago, and it
would not be necessary for political demagogues to assert
that there is a purpose hidden in the terms of the con-
vention or treaty which assaults the integrity of the
Dominion.

Reciprocity between the United States and Canada
would be of great benefit to both countries, if wisely
conceived and fairly worked out. The terms proposed
two years ago were generally satisfactory, although
experience will have taught how even that treaty can
be expanded and improved; and I fail to see any menace
to the agricultural, industrial, or commercial inter-
ests of the people on either side of the International
Boundary. Consequently, I am strongly in favour of
securing for ourselves whatever benefit such legislation
or diplomatic negotiation would bring; and of giving
to our northern neighbours whatever advantages can be
conferred by our longer established and more perfected
industries. It is, however, rather as an economic
proposition than as a political move that it should be
considered.

As for the annexation of the Dominion of Canada by
the United States of America, I cannot conceive of it
as possible, nor do I believe it is desirable in any way.
In 1783 the barrier was raised between the two countries
which I feel sure can never be thrown down. Even

RECIPROCITY 287

before the close of the War of American Independence,
British statesmen had come to see the folly of that
course which they had pursued towards those thirteen
American colonies until their stupid arrogance had
driven them into revolt; and they had already changed
in their attitude towards "The Fourteenth Colony,"
as Canada was then sometimes called.

The opposition of the French-English colonists in
Canada to the overtures made by the representatives
of the southern colonies; the vigorous and successful
effort to resist armed invasion from the American side
of the line and conquest by the belligerent colonists,
taught the Court at London that it was well worth
while to see to it that no conditions should arise which
might provoke the Canadians to assert their indepen-
dence as the lost colonies had done.

Canada remained British, the thirteen separated
colonies promptly developed new characteristics, be-
coming American. If in 1783, there was little if any-
thing in speech, habit of thought, social and communal
customs, and all else save political opinions, to distin-
guish the citizen in the United States from the subject
in Canada, that similarity was of but short duration.
With every year the lines of divergence separated more
and more until they may be said to have turned in
absolutely opposite directions — the Americans go their
way, the Canadians go theirs, and it is well for the
world, North America especially, that it should be so.

With the development of facilities for intercommuni-
cation and the ease with which the people of either
country pass over into the other, has come a semblance

288 THE COMING CANADA

of once more drawing together. This appearance is
merely social and commercial; there is nothing political
about it. One of the conspicuous features of this
seeming drawing together is to be noted in speech: the
people of either country pass over the border, unmarked
by armed sentries — as one often sees at European
frontiers — without detecting any great difference in
intonation or locution. If the American rarely evinces
any conspicuous tendency to be British in these traits,
it is very certain that the Canadian often seems to
speak ''United States" with precisely the same intona-
tion and forms as are used to the south of the border.

In commercial matters the Briton in Canada long ago
gave up the cumbersome sterling currency and now
thinks and speaks in dollars and cents, as regularly
converting pounds, shillings, and pence into the decimal
notation, in order to comprehend values, as does his
Yankee neighbour. In many other matters there is
little, often nothing at all, to differentiate the two
peoples; but the moment the realm of government and
political institutions is entered, it at once becomes
apparent that the two are farther apart than ever, and
that there is no likelihood of there being a revival of
the spirit which, perhaps, in 1849 murmured for annexa-
tion to the United States.

If there were no unyielding limit to the space which I
may give to this interesting subject, it would be prof-
itable to consider the seeming resemblances and the
apparent community of interests which deceive some
people in the United States (I doubt if there are really
any in Canada) into believing that the Canadians are

RECIPROCITY 289

disposed towards casting in their lot with the citizens
of the great and successful Republic on their southern
border. As a matter of fact nearly all of those appear-
ances are utterly fallacious: they are extraneous, not
fundamental.

In the matter of government, it would be well-nigh
impossible to convince a Canadian that he enjoys less
freedom than his American neighbour, because it would
be positively incorrect to make the assertion; the mere
fact that there is, in the ''British North American Act"
of 1867, of the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain,
which created the Dominion, a proviso that it shall be
administered in such a way as not to conflict with Eng-
lish law, amounts to nothing as limiting the power of
self-government in Canada. In the security which
Dominion and local government affords to life and
property, the Canadian will not be far wrong when he
contends that he is the better off of the two. If the
government of borough, municipality, township, county,
territory, and province in Canada is not as truly repre-
sentative — of the people, by the people, and for the
people — as is that of any commonwealth or minor
political subdivision in the United States of America,
I do not know what "representative government"
means. If Canada is wiser than the United States in
slightly limiting the suffrage, by property qualification
in some places, by a literacy test generally, and in mak-
ing it impossible for a batch of alien immigrants to be
marched to the polls within a month after their arrival
and for them to cast their ballots, this in no way im-
pugns her representative government; rather does it

290 THE COMING CANADA

make the government more lawfully representative:
it is an example that the elder republic would do well
to follow.

In the matter of the administration of justice and
court procedure, I am compelled to admit that the
Canadian is better off than I am; and I blush with
mortification as I pen the confession. As to promptness,
I recall a phrase in a magazine story I have just read
which exactly describes it: ^'They'd give you twenty
years for that job, and they'd do it in twenty minutes.
You buck against British justice up here!" An eminent
American jurist and statesman, Hon. Albert J. Beveridge,
in a series of articles which has already been mentioned,
has shown conclusively that in promptness of action
and in ability to enforce judgment, the Canadian courts
are far ahead of ours. These conditions give a sense of
security alike against highwaymen and grinding monopo-
lies, for Canadian judges are quick in harnessing trusts.

In the administration of public utilities, there seems
to be a similarity in methods on both sides of the border;
yet a superficial investigation of these services, let us
take a railway for example, shows that in Canada these
public servants do not dare to act in the autocratic
manner which is characteristic of all of them in the
United States. With pleasing resemblances in peoples
and customs in many ways, there is then a fundamental
difference between Canada and the United States which
will make annexation not only impossible but in nearly
every way undesirable so long as the British Empire
remains intact.

CHAPTER XXIII
CANADA AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE

I COMMENCE this chapter with an extract from the
Introduction to a very valuable and scholarly work.*
"In 1840, when responsible government may be said to
commence, there were prevailing two main principles
of law with regard to the position of the British Colonies.
In the first place, it was held by the Crown lawyers that
it was not possible to deprive an Englishman of the
inestimable advantages of English law, and that there-
fore, if he settled in parts abroad which were not under
a legitimate foreign sovereignty, he carried with him
so much at least of the English law as was appropriate
to the circumstances in which he found himself. But
obviously, the mere carrying with him of the pro\dsions
of such law would not have been adequate to meet the
circumstances of a new Colony. It was impossible to
expect the Parliament of England to legislate effectively
for distant territories concerning which it had, and
could have no information, and it was therefore necessary
that there should be passed by some competent authority
legislation adapted to the needs of the new Colony."

It is manifest at a glance that the writer of these
remarks had specifically in mind the Canadian colonies;

* Arthur Berriedale Keith, Responsible Government in the Dominions,
3 vols. 191 2.

292 THE COMING CANADA

and also that the British sovereign, parliament, and
statesmen were giving to those colonies a large measure
of careful consideration, because it needs no statement
by me to show that at that time, the British colonies
in other parts of the world had not attained the impor-
tance of Canada. Most of the others were "Crown
Colonies"; administered by Governors appointed directly
by the sovereign and responsible to him and his Privy
Council. These conditions indicate clearly the impor-
tance, as a unit of the British Empire, which Canada
held in the opinion of the Home Government, seventy
and more years ago.

In that same year, 1840, was passed by the British
Parliament the " Union Act" which united — only tem-
porarily, however — the two provinces of Upper Canada
(a part of what is now Ontario) and Lower Canada (the
southern portion of the present Quebec), under a repre-
sentative legislature. The political aspect of this Act
and its unsatisfactoriness have been considered in a
previous chapter.

But simultaneously a new start was given in constitu-
tional history by the enunciation and adoption of the
principle of responsible government. From that begin-
ning, as has been shown, the same principle was extended
to each of the provinces which were original, "charter,"
if I may use the expression, members of the Dominion,
as well as to those which have since been admitted; and
undoubtedly it will be applied to the territories when
population and development justify their promotion.
By responsible government in this sense is to be under-
stood: first, that the head of the executive government

CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 293

of a province, being, within the Umits of his jurisdic-
tion, the representative of the sovereign, is, through his
intermediary the Governor-General, responsible to the
Imperial authority alone. But this Lieutenant-Governor
cannot satisfactorily conduct the affairs of his prov-
ince without the assistance, counsel, and information
of subordinate officials chosen from the resident popu-
lation. Second, that these chief advisers of the Imperial
representative ought to have the confidence of the
people's representatives in the local legislative assembly.
Third, that the people of the province have the right
to expect from such provincial administration the
exertion of their best efforts that the Imperial authority
within its constitutional limits should be exercised in
the manner most consistent with their well-understood
wishes and interests.

It thus becomes evident that the Dominion of Canada
is looked upon by the Imperial government as an im-
portant factor in the British Empire. Nothing has been
done for more than half a century which might tend to
the arousing in Canada of the same feehngs which
incited the people of the thirteen southern colonies to
assert themselves so vehemently that opposition finally
led to revolt, revolt to war, war to independence,
whereby England lost her most valuable over-seas
possessions. It is not at all inappropriate to repeat here
that had the King of England, in 1773 to 1775, and
his immediate advisers been inspired with the same
feelings towards ''parts abroad which were not under
a legitimate sovereignty," and over which England
claimed dominion, as those which have influenced the

294 THE COMING CANADA

British Government since 1783, or certainly since 1840,
it is hardly too much to say that there would probably
never have been a Revolutionary War at all. That
those thirteen colonies would have demanded indepen-
dence eventually, was possibly inevitable, our fuller
knowledge of social, poHtical, and religious conditions
in the eighteenth century seem to justify that assump-
tion; but it would have come and probably been
granted without such serious rupture as is connoted by
a long war.

If the whole is equal to the sum of its parts; and if
those parts interact, the one upon the others; then if
by reason of her units in various sections of the world
Great Britain is a World Power, so Canada, too, is a
world power both directly and indirectly, and each year
seems to bring out more clearly the willingness of the
Canadians to accept the responsibility which the position
carries with it. To take for a pleasing illustration of
the sentimental bond by which the British Empire is
now tied together and the close intimacy which exists
between the English mother and the Canadian offspring,
I may refer to the fact that on October 21, 1909, the
Royal Edward Tuberculosis Institute at Montreal was
opened by King Edward in person, by means of special
electric connection between the Library at West Dean
Park, Colchester, England, and the Institute, thousands
of miles away at Montreal. By this wire a cablegram
was sent direct from King Edward, in which he de-
clared ''the Royal Edward Institute at Montreal is now
open." It may seem to be a small matter to mention
here, yet I think it is filled with suggestiveness.

CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 295

The keen and intelligent interest which the Canadians
took in the British general election of 1909 spoke for
the fact that the Dominion considers itself a part of the
Empire; while the respect shown by British statesmen
for Canada's opinion at that time was an admission that
the Dominion's assumption of sympathy and responsi-
biUty is based upon a sound foundation. . Certainly one
part of the definition which Mr. Asquith gave of Liberal-
ism, in a speech made before the " Eighty Club," London,
on July 22, 1909, met with cordial approval throughout
Canada. He said: "As regards the Empire, to secure
real unity by allowing the freest diversity and the
fullest liberty to self -development in all its parts."

That the Dominion of Canada holds a great position
and that it fills a wide arc in the Imperial horizon, was
demonstrated by the official and social events con-
nected with the coronation of King George V. More
than one hundred Canadians, officials and the wives of
those who were accompanied by their spouses, were
invited to Westminster Abbey. Sir Wilfred Laurier,
at that time Prime Minister, but very soon to be deposed
by Mr. Borden, was the only Canadian who was honoured
by being entertained as a Royal Guest. In this, however,
there was nothing invidious, for it was impossible to
extend the courtesy beyond Sir Wilfred without making
the list of those who were recognised as deserving it
altogether too large.

The importance which the Imperial Government
ascribes to the Dominion is indicated still further by
the gradual advance in rank and dignity of the person
appointed to represent the Home Government as inter-

296 THE COMING CANADA

mediary between it and the local administration. It
has now reached as high socially and officially as seems
to be possible. The present Governor- General is a
member of the Royal Family of Great Britain, the uncle
of the reigning monarch, the personage who, had the
late King, Edward VII, left no children, would now be
himself upon the throne. We cannot therefore wonder
very much that there are those, both in Canada and in
England, who have advocated making the Governor-
Generalship a permanent, life appointment, the post
to be filled by a member of the Royal family, probably
one who is not directly in the line of succession. From
what I have seen and heard, I think this would be a
mistake. The Duke of Connaught is immensely popu-
lar, I know, and remarkably affable, yet somehow I
doubt if the atmosphere surrounding him is just the
right one for the Canadians to breathe all the time. Yet
with this sentiment existing, be it powerful or weak,
developing or decreasing, there cannot be, I am sure,
any sincere desire on the part of even official Canada,
and certainly not generally, to have established in
Canada, at the Governor- General's residence, something
like unto — or imitative of — a Royal Court. It would
be difficult to persuade the present Governor- General,
Field Marshal, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Con-
naught and Strathearn, to lend himself to such a scheme.
He is a son of Queen Victoria, who was the very per-
sonification of conservatism in matters pertaining to
Court form, ceremony, and punctilio. But the Duke's
own tastes (and they seem to betray a trace of paternal
heredity), encouraged by his own experiences, convince

CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 297

many observers that he will be a democratic Governor.
A year's experience appears to have strengthened this
opinion, and there is throughout Canada a conviction
that the Duke's sojourn has tightened the bond which
unites the Dominion to the Empire. Everywhere, one
hears regrets that the Duchess' health demands that
she return to England for a time next year, and the
earnest hope that she may speedily come back for a long
stay in Canada.

Almost the first official utterance of the Duke, as
Governor- General, shows a combination of that demo-
cratic idea with an appreciation of the growing impor-
tance of the country which he had been appointed to
govern. At the luncheon given His Royal Highness
immediately upon landing at Quebec, October 13, 191 1,
and taking the oath of office, he said, in response to the
official welcome voiced by the Right Hon. Robert Laird
Borden, Prime Minister and President of the King's
Privy Council for Canada: "I have been specially asked
by the King, my nephew, to express to the Canadian
people a personal message of affection and ever abiding
interest in all that concerns the welfare of this great
Dominion. I am not certain of the number of times the
King has visited Canada, but certainly on many occa-
sions, and the last on the great historic occasion ^when
you celebrated the Quebec Tercentary. Each time
His Majesty's interest has grown, and I need scarcely
assure you he now takes the same profound interest,
but in degree ever increasing, and the most fervent wish
to-day of King George is that the prosperity of Canada
may continue and flourish more and more."

298 THE COMING CANADA

The Dominion of Canada is fully alive to its imperial
responsibilities. For a time, some other units of the
British Empire, the one which for so long was heralded
as the only one upon which the sun never sets, were
somewhat disposed to claim much for themselves be-
cause they had contributed directly to the defence of
the Empire by giving men-of-war. To this Canada
retorted that in providing means for crossing the conti-
nent rapidly on British territory, from Atlantic to
Pacific, she had not thought alone of her own material
development and commercial advantage, but had
thereby contributed a vital link in the All Red Route
which now encircles the Globe. Do all my readers
realise that a British subject can take a steamer at any
one of several ports in the British Isles, go to Canada,
cross the continent on British soil; take a steamer at
Vancouver or Victoria, and by way of Fanning Island
go to Australia; thence to Cape Town, South Africa;
up the west coast of Africa, touching at Wolfish Bay,
and perhaps other British colonies and Atlantic islands;
thus back to the port of departure, without having
entered a single port or set foot on land over which King
George does not reign? I think I am correct in saying
that it would be difficult, if not impossible for any other
national to do this; the necessity for a steamer coaling
being considered.

The Dominion of Canada justly takes pride in the
reflection that it is her transcontinental railway which
has contributed much to this possibility that is pleasing
to the patriotism of a loyal British subject. But Canada
recognises that her indebtedness to the Empire demands

CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 299

that she shall bear a greater share of the burden than
the building and maintenance of one or three or half-
a-dozen transcontinental railways. She has recognised
her obhgation by launching vessels of war, and by
agreeing to build, equip, and maintain several Dread-
naughts that are to be units of the Imperial Navy.

Not for years has there been in Canada any serious
talk of independence, although in the year 1849 some
discontented and disappointed people were disposed
to discuss the advisability of asking to be annexed to
the United States. I do not find, however, that even
then there were many who were willing to bear Canada's
share of the expense, in men and means, of the war with
England that would probably have been the outcome of
such a move. That evanescent murmur was due to
depressed agricultural, commercial, and industrial con-
ditions, and the added fact that the British Government,
by giving up a slight tendency towards preferential
tariffs in favour of the colonies, had seemed to desert
the young, weak, and struggling members of the family,
Canada being one of these.

Before long, however, British statesmen perceived
their mistake, and while they did not recede altogether
from their position apropos free trade versus protection
or preferential tariffs, they did set themselves to the
task of showing Canada, and not Canada only but,
other things being equal, all the colonies, that they were
considered members of what ought to be a happy family.

It should be noted that it had been prophesied by
many that the result of the British conquest of Canada
would be independence for the British North American

300 THE COMING CANADA

colonies. This prophesy was made to include even
Canada itself, and it has to be admitted that ^'the
Fourteenth Colony" was not saved to the British crown
without much trouble and expense. The lesson learnt
by the British Government was a profitable one, and
care was taken that Canada should not have the same
provocation to seek independence that the thirteen
colonies had.

I see no sign of Canada's wishing to be independent.
Those who really are at the head of local affairs seem
to me to echo, practically unanimously, the sentiment
of Sir John Macdonald: "A British subject I was born;
a British subject I will die!" When the question of
annexation to the United States is broached, many
Canadians now laughingly retort: ''When you Ameri-
cans really wish to come back to your mother, we are
ready to join your country to our own!" What a con-
trast is presented by conditions on our southern and
northern borders! Of the former who shall dare to say
what the outcome will be? Of the latter no one need
hesitate to prophesy a great future for The Coming
Canada.

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Bradley, Arthur Grenville. The Fight with France for North

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Brown, George Waldo. The St. Lawrence River. 1905.
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Bryce, George. The Scotsman in Canada. 191 1.
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Burpee, Lawrence J. The Search far the Western Sea.
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Butler, Sir William Francis. The Great Lmie Land. 19 10.
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Colby, Charles W. Canadian Types of the Old Regime , 1608-

1698. 1908.
Coleman, A. P. The Canadian Rockies. 191 2.
Copping, A. E. Canada To-day and To-morrow. 191 2.
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Costa, B. F. de. Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the

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Cox, J. J. The Journeys of Renh Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la

Salle. 1905.
Cran, Mrs. George. Woman in Canada. 1910.
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Dawson, Samuel Edward. The Voyages of the Cabots. 1896.
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INDEX

Abraham, Plains of, 8i
Acadia, civil war in, 70
Adam of Bremen, 5
Agricultural resources and develop-
ment, no, 116
Alberta Province, 175
Alexander, Sir Wm., Earl of Sel-
kirk, 66
Andros, Maj. Sir Edmund, 71
Annexation to U. S. A., 286
Antilia (Atlantis), Island of, 9
Argall's attack on Mt. Desert and

Acadia, 65
Army and Militia, 106
Assistance to railways, 189
Atlantic Islands, myths and
legends, 9

Bancroft, H. H., 225

Banff, 208

Barley, 237

Bay of Chaleurs, Cartier at, 38

Beauharnais, Gov., expedition to

Pacific, 45
Biggar, H. P., 7
Blending of St. Lawrence and

Hudson Bay basins, 201
Boundary disputes with U. S., 155
Braddock's defeat, 78
Brazil, Island of, 9
Bredin, W. P., 232
Briand, R. C. bishop, his caution,

91

Britannia, S. S., 279
British Columbia, 144, 224
British Government's attention to

Canada, 88
British treatment of Indians, 40
Bull, a Papal, defined, 3
Bytown, afterwards Ottawa, 94

Cabot, Giovanni, John, 6, 9, 10, 12

Cabot, Sebastian, discoverer of
"North Sea," Hudson Bay, 47

Cameron, Mrs. Agnes Deans, 229

Canada and Louisiana, communi-
cation, 44

Canada in 1763, 85

Canada's one-thousand-mile-
wheat-field, 229

Canada's relation to British Em-
pire, 291

Canadian geography, former, 205,

215
Canadian Northern Railway, 187
Canadian Pacific Railway, 181
Canadian towns, their develop-
ment, 235
Carleton, Gov. Guy, 153
Carmichael-Smyth, Maj., 277
Cartier, Jacques, 15, 17, 37
Chalmers, historian, 43
Chartres, Fort de, 44
Chateau le grajid, legend, 22
Christianity in Iceland, 3
Cities in winter, 251

3o6

INDEX

Civil war in U. S., 162

Coast scenery, 134

Columbus, C, 2, 6, II

Commercial methods, 288

Communication, Canada and Lou-
isiana, 44

Conditions in Canada, common
carriers, 283

Cordilleran Belt, wealth, 113

Corte Reale, Caspar, 14

Cougar Caves, 148

Coureurs des bois, 217

Courts of law, 102

Culdees, Irish, 3

Cunard, Sir Samuel, 279 •

Curling, 256

De Callieres, 73

De la Roche, P., 30

Demarcation, Can. and U. S., 154

De Monts, P., 18

Denonville, Gov., 55

Dickinson, John, address to Cana-
dians, 150

Discoverie, mutiny on, 48

Dominion, creation of, 92; defined,
i; responsibilities, 298

Doughty, Dr. A. G., 262

Douglas, Sir James, 221

Douglas, Thos., Earl of Selkirk,
62, 221

Duke of Connaught, Gov. Gen.,
296

Elgin, Lord, Gov. Gen., 95
EUice, The Rt. Hon. Edward, 221
England's claims in N. A., 64
English discoveries, 14
Eric the Red, Norse discoverer, 4;
saga of, 5

Eskimos, blonde, 8

European ideas of exploration,

loth and 15th centuries, 7
Expeditions to Hudson Bay, 57

Fagundes, J. A., 14

Fairbanks, Henry, 276

Fair profits, 285

Fenian raids, 162

Fernandez, J., Llavrador, 13

Fisheries, 125

Flatey Book, The, 5

Folklore, exotic, 20, 26

France's claims in N. A., 65

Eraser, Simon, 62, 221, 274

French at "North Sea," Hudson

Bay, 47
French colonisation, 18, 19, 28, 30,

40
French-English wars, causes of, 64
French reprisals, 72
French rights on Hudson Bay, 56
Friction, French and English, 42
Frontenac, Gov., 72
Fruits, 123
Fur- trade, 18

Garrisons, 106

Geological areas, iii

George III., constitutes and defines

Canada, 83
Glaciers, 145

Governments, a contrast, 289
Governor- General, 295
Grand Trunk Railway, 179
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 186
Great Lakes, 130
Great Western Railway, 179
Greenland, 4, 9, 13
GrenfeU, Rev. W. T., 144

INDEX

307

Groseillier, explorer, 217
Gunnbjorn, Norse discoverer, 4

Habitants, 19; traits, 21, 152

Halifax, 267

Hennepin, Father Louis, 49

Hincks, Sir F., 275

Hochelaga, Montreal, 16

Hopkins, J. C, " Canadian Ency.,"

271
House of Commons, 98
Howley, M. R., R. C. bishop, 12
Hudson Bay, 57; Jesuits on, 48
Hudson's Bay Co., 51, 52, 53, 54,

60, 211, 216, 218
Hudson, Henry, re-discoverer of

Bay, 47

Iberville, attacks on Hudson Bay
posts, 59

Iceland, Christianity in, 3

Immigration, 165

Independence, not considered, 299

Indians, 200; Carriers, 227;
Coast, 227; Sekania, 226;
taken to France, 39; treatment
of, 36, 40

Influence of early Norse discov-
eries, 6

Intercolonial Railway, 180

Interior Central Plateau, wealth,
112

Investors, foreign, 164

Jesuits, 35, 42, 48

Joliet, Louis, 28

Justice, administration of, 290

Karlsefni, Thorfinn, Norse dis-
coverer, 5

King of England, interest in

Canada, 294
Kingsford, Wm., historian, 262
Kirke, the brothers, 36

Labrador, 2, 127, 144

Lachine massacre, 72

Laggan, 213

Lakes, Fraser, 228; Louise, 210;

Nipigon, 194; of the Woods,

194; Stuart, 226; Summit, 214;

Superior, 198
Lakes and Rivers, 129
Lallemant, Father Jerome, 49
La Salle, Robert, 42
La Tour, Claude de, "baronet" of

Nova Scotia, 67
Laurentian Rocks, 128
Laval, R. C. bishop, 54
Le Caron, RecoUet missionary,

S3

Legislative council, 89

Leif Eriksson (Leif Ericsson), 4

Le Moine, Sir J. M., 262

Le Moyne family, 43

Lescarbot, 19

Louisbourg, 76

Louisiana and Canada, 44

Loup garoux, le, 20

Lucas, Sir C. P., historian, 87

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 61, 221,

271
Mackenzie River, basin, 223;

vegetation, 223
Macoun, John, 231
Macpherson, D. L., 278
McTaggart, 277
Manitoba, 173, 239, 245, 247;

derivation of name, 242

3o8

INDEX

Marquette, Father, not a dis-
coverer, 28
Merritt, The Hon. W. H., 279
Mississippi River, discovery, 42
"Model Province," 245, 247
Montreal, seat of government, 95
Mount Royal, Montreal, Hoche-

laga, 16, 265
Morice, Rev. A. G., 224
Mountain Peaks, Assiniboine, 214;
Lefroy, 211; Logan, 206; Mc-
Kinley, 206; Natazhat, 206;
St. Elias, 206; St. Pierre, 212;
The Saddle, 213; Wrangle, 206
Mountain region, wealth, 113
Murray, Gen, first provisional gov.,
87

Navigators, early, 2

Neutrality, France and England
in N. A., 69

New Brunswick, wealth, in

Newfoundland, discovery, 12; in-
dependent, i; not the oldest
Brit, colony, 143

Norse discoverers, 4, 5; influence,
6

North West Company, 61, 63

North West Mounted Police, 104,
147, 209

Northern grain and fruit sections,
117

Northern St. Lawrence basin, 199

Nova Scotia wealth, in

Ontario, etc., wealth, 112
Original elements of Dominion, 96
Ottawa, 94, 250, 267

Papal Bull defined, 3

Parker, Sir Gilbert, 262
Parkman, Francis, 27
"Patriots' Rebellions," 95
Phipps, Adl., Sir Wm., 74
Pont-Grav6, 19
Portuguese discoveries, 14
Poutrincourt, Gov., 19
Present government, 99
Provincial governments, 100
Provisional districts, 97
Public lands, how acquired, 165

Qualifications for civil office, 86
Quebec, 36, 68, 81, 261
Quebec, Act of, 1774, 88

Radisson, P.-E., 48, 55, 217
Railways, 178; development, 133
Rapids, St. Lawrence River, 202
Razilli, Isaac de, 70
Reciprocity with U. S., 281, 282,

284, 286
"Red Man," derivation of term,

37

Religious liberty, 86

Representative institutions, de-
velopment of, 91

Responsible government, 292

Richelieu, Cardinal, 67

Riel, Louis, his rebellion, 240

Roberval, 17, 28

Roche perc6, le, 24

Rocky Mountains, 206; scenerj',
129; in winter, 258

Rogers, Maj. A. B., 278

Roman Catholic missionaries, 33

Ross, The Hon. John, 277

Royal William, S.S., 279

Rupert, Prince, 51

Ryswick, Treaty of, 74

INDEX

309

Saguenay River, 203

St. John, town, 264

St. Lawrence River, 192, 201, 257;

discovery, 15
Saga of Eric the Red, 5
Salmon, 146

Saskatchewan Province, 174
Scenery on Great Lakes, 196
Schenectady, assault, 72
School houses, 173
Senators, 97
Settlers, early, 240
"Seven Cities," Island of, 9
Sherman, Gen. W. T., 230
Simpson, Sir George, 274
Skating, 256
Smith, Donald A., Lord Strath-

cona and Mt. Royal, 221
Snowsheds, 258
Snowshoeing, 254
Snow sports, 252
Social life in winter, 259
Soncino, Raimondo di, 10
Successful labour, 170
Suite, Benjamin, 20, 48
Summer expedition, 131
Stefansson, V., recent explorer, 8
Stories, Chateau le grand, 22;

Le Roche perc6, 24

Talon, Royal Intendant, 50
Tardiness in evangelising, 32
"The Barren Grounds," 222
"The Fourteenth Colony," 91

Thirteen Colonies and Canada, 150
Thompson, David, 62
Thousand Islands, 202
Thunder Bay, 197
Timber, 125; line, 207, 211
Tobogganning, 253
Toronto, 96

Tourist in Rocky Mts., 208
Travelling in eastern Canada, 142
Treaty of 1783, Paris, 155, 150

United Empire Loyalists, 159
Utrecht, Peace of, 74

Vancouver, 270

Vancouver, Capt. George, 274

Van Home, Sir William, 278

Varennes, P.-G., 45

Verendrye, discoverer of Rocky

Mts., 45
Victoria, Fort Comosun, 269
Vineland, 9

War, 1744-48, 76; 1753-63, 82;

of American Independence, 89,

153; of 1812, 92, 161
Western exploration, 41
Wheat crops, 231, 233, 236, 243
Wheat regions, 120
Wilcox, Walter D., 210
Winnipeg policeman, 244
Winter in Canada, 249

Yeigh, Frank, 148