Canada
From LoveToKnow 1911
CANADA. The Dominion of Canada comprises the northern half of the continent of North America and its adjacent islands, excepting Alaska, which belongs to the United States, and Newfoundland, still a separate colony of the British empire. Its boundary on the south is the parallel of latitude 49°, between the Pacific Ocean and Lake-of-the-Woods, then a chain of small lakes and rivers eastward to the mouth of Pigeon river on the north-west side of Lake Superior, and the Great Lakes with their connecting rivers to Cornwall, on the St Lawrence. From this eastward to the state of Maine the boundary is an artificial line nearly corresponding to lat. 45 0; then an irregular line partly determined by watersheds and rivers divides Canada from Maine, coming out on the Bay of Fundy. The western boundary is the Pacific on the south, an irregular line a few miles inland from the coast along the " pan handle " of Alaska to Mount St Elias, and the meridian of 14r° to the Arctic Ocean. A somewhat similar relationship cuts off Canada from the Atlantic on the east, the north-eastern coast of Labrador belonging to Newfoundland.
| Table of contents |
Physical Geography
In spite of these restrictions of its natural coast line on both the Atlantic and the Pacific, Canada is admirably provided with harbours on both oceans. The Gulf of St Lawrence with its much indented shores and the coast of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick supply endless harbours, the northern ones closed by ice in the winter, but the southern ones open all the year round; and on the Pacific British Columbia is deeply fringed with islands and fjords with well-sheltered harbours everywhere, in strong contrast with the unbroken shore of the United States to the south. The long stretches of sheltered navigation from the Straits of Belle Isle north of Newfoundland to Quebec, and for 600 m. on the British Columbian coast, are of great advantage for the coasting trade. The greatly varied Arctic coast line of Canada with its large islands, inlets and channels is too much clogged with ice to be of much practical use, but Hudson Bay, a mediterranean sea 850 m. long from north to south and 600 m. wide, with its outlet Hudson Strait, has long been navigated by trading ships and whalers, and may become a great outlet for the wheat of western Canada, though closed by ice except for four months in the summer. Of the nine provinces of Canada only two have no coast line on salt water, the western prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan; but Manitoba and Ontario have a seaboard only on Hudson Bay and its southern extension James Bay respectively, and there is no probability that the shallow harbours of the latter bay will ever be of much importance for shipping, though Churchill Harbour on the west side of Hudson Bay may become an important grain port. What Ontario lacks in salt water navigation is, however, made up by the busy traffic of the Great Lakes.
The physical features of Canada are comparatively simple, and drawn on a large scale, more than half of its surface sloping gently inwards towards the shallow basin of Hudson Bay, with higher margins to the south-east and south-west. In the main it is a broad trough, wider towards the north than towards the south, and unsymmetrical, Hudson Bay occupying much of its north-eastern part, while to the west broad plains rise gradually to the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, the eastern member of the Cordillera which follows the Pacific coast of America. The physical geography of Canada is so closely bound up with its geology that at least an outline of the geological factors involved in its history is necessary to understand the present physiography. The mountain structures originated in three great orogenic periods, the earliest in the Archean, the second at the end of the Palaeozoic and the third at the end of the Mesozoic. The Archean mountain chains, which enclosed the present region of Hudson Bay, were so ancient that they had already been worn down almost to a plain before the early Palaeozoic sediments were laid down. This ruling geological and physical feature of the North American continent has been named by E. Suess the " Canadian Shield." Round it the Palaeozoic sands and clays, largely derived from its own waste, were deposited as nearly horizontal beds, in many places still almost undisturbed. Later the sediments lying to the south-east of this " protaxis," or nucleus of the continent, were pushed against its edge and raised into the Appalachian chain of mountains, which, however, extends only a short distance into Canada. The Mesozoic sediments were almost entirely laid down to the west and south-west of the protaxis, upon the fiat-lying Palaeozoic rocks, and in the prairie region they are still almost horizontal; but in the Cordillera they have been thrust up into the series of mountain chains characterizing the Pacific coast region. The youngest of these mountain chains is naturally the highest, and the oldest one in most places no longer rises to heights deserving the name of mountains. Owing to this unsymmetric development of North America the main structural watershed is towards its western side, on the south coinciding with the Rocky Mountains proper, but to the northward falling back to ranges situated further west in the same mountain region. The great central area of Canada is drained towards Hudson Bay, but its two largest rivers have separate watersheds, the Mackenzie flowing north-west to the Arctic Ocean and the St Lawrence north-east towards the Atlantic, the one to the south-west and the other to the south-east of the Archean protaxis. While these ancient events shaped the topography in a broad way, its final development was comparatively recent, during the glacial period, when the loose materials were scoured from some regions and spread out as boulder clay, or piled up as moraines in others; and the original water-ways were blocked in many places. The retreat of the ice left Canada much in its present condition except for certain post-glacial changes of level which seem to be still in progress. For this reason the region has a very youthful topography with innumerable lakes and waterfalls as evidence that the rivers have not long been at work. The uneven carving down of the older mountain systems, especially that of the Archean protaxis, and the disorderly scattering of glacial material provide most of the lake basins so characteristic of Canada.
Lakes and Rivers
As a result of the geological causes just mentioned many parts of Canada are lavishly strewn with lakes of all sizes and shapes, from bodies of water hundreds of miles long and a thousand feet deep to ponds lost to sight in the forest. Thousands of these lakes have been mapped more or less carefully, and every new survey brings to light small lakes hitherto unknown to the white man. For numbers they can be compared only with those of Finland and Scandinavia in Europe, and for size with those of eastern Africa; but for the great extent of lake-filled country there is no comparison. From the map it will be noticed that the largest and most thickly strewn lakes occur within five hundred or a thousand miles of Hudson Bay, and belong to the Archean protaxis or project beyond its edges into the Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks which lean against it. The most famous of the lakes are those of the St Lawrence system, which form part of the southern boundary of Canada and are shared with the United States; but many others have the right to be called " Great Lakes " from their magnitude. There are nine others which have a length of more than Ioo m., and thirty-five which are more than 50 m. long. Within the Archean protaxis they are of the most varied shapes, since they represent merely portions of the irregular surface inundated by some morainic dam at the lowest point. Comparatively few have simple outlines and an unbroken surface of water, the great majority running into long irregular bays and containing many islands, sometimes even thousands in number, as in Georgian Bay and Lake-of-the-Woods. In the Cordilleran region on the other hand the lakes are long, narrow and deep, in reality sections of mountain valleys occupied by fresh water, just as the fjords of the adjoining coast are valleys occupied by the sea. The lakes of the different regions present the same features as the nearest sea coasts but on a smaller scale. The majority of the lakes have rocky shores and islands and great variety of depth, many of the smaller ones, however, are rimmed with marshes and are slowly filling up with vegetable matter, ultimately becoming peat bogs, the muskegs of the Indian. Most of Canada is so well watered that the lakes have outlets and are kept fresh, but there are a few small lakes in southern Saskatchewan, e.g. the Quill and Old Wives lakes, in regions arid enough to require no outlets. In such cases the waters are alkaline, and contain various salts in solution which are deposited as a white rim round the basin towards the end of the summer when the amount of water has been greatly reduced by evaporation. It is interesting to find maritime 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 cases the lakes of Canada simply spill over at the lowest point from one basin into the next below, making chains of lakes with no long or well-defined channels between, since in so young a country there has not yet been time for the rivers to have carved wide valleys. Thus canoe navigation may be carried on for hundreds of miles, with here and there a waterfall or a rapid requiring a portage of a few hundred yards or at most a mile or two. The river systems are therefore in many cases complex and tortuous, and very often the successive connecting links between the lakes receive different names. The best example of this is the familiar one of the St Lawrence, which may be said to begin as Nipigon river and to take the names St Mary's, St Clair, Detroit and Niagara, before finally flowing from Lake Ontario to the sea under its proper name. As these lakes are great reservoirs and settling basins, the rivers which empty them are unusually steady in level and contain beautifully clear water. The St Lawrence varies only a few feet in the year and always has pellucid bluish-green water, while the Mississippi, whose tributaries begin only a short distance south of the Great Lakes, varies 40 f t. or more between highand low-water and is loaded with mud. The St Lawrence is far the most important Canadian river from the historic and economic points of view, since it provided the main artery of exploration in early days, and with its canals past rapids and between lakes still serves as a great highway of trade between the interior of the continent and the seaports of Montreal and Quebec. It is probable that politically Canada would have followed the course of the States to the south but for the planting of a French colony with widely extended trading posts along the easily ascended channel of the St Lawrence and the Great Lakes, so that this river was the ultimate bond of union between Canada and the empire.
North of the divide between the St Lawrence system and Hudson Bay there are many large rivers converging on that inland sea, such as Whale river, Big river, East Main, Rupert and Nottaway rivers coming in from Ungava and northern Quebec; Moose and Albany rivers with important tributaries from northern Ontario; and Severn, Nelson and Churchill rivers from the south-west. All of these are rapid and shallow, affording navigation only for canoes; but the largest of them, Nelson river, drains the great Manitoban lakes, Winnipeg, Winnipegosis and Manitoba, which are frequented by steamers, and receive the waters of Lake-of-the-Woods, Lake Seul and many others emptying into Winnipeg river from Ontario; of Red river coming in from the United States to the south; and of the southern parts of the Rocky Mountains and the western prairie provinces drained by the great Saskatchewan river. The parallel of 49° approximately separates the Saskatchewan waters from the streams going south to the Missouri, though a few sn1all tributaries of the latter river begin on Canadian territory.
The northern part of Alberta and Saskatchewan and much of northern British Columbia are drained through the Athabasca and Peace rivers, first north-eastwards towards Athabasca Lake, then north through Slave river to Great Slave Lake, and finally north-west through Mackenzie river to the Arctic Ocean. If measured to the head of Peace river the Mackenzie has a length of more than 2000 m., and it provides more than 1000 m. of navigation for stern-wheel steamers. Unfortunately, like other northward-flowing rivers, it does not lead down to a frequented sea, and so bears little traffic except for the northern fur-trading posts. The Mackenzie forms a large but little-known delta in lat. 69°, and in its flood season the head-waters pour down their torrents before the thick ice of the lower part with its severer climate has yet given way, piling up the ice iii great barriers and giving rise to widespread floods along the lower reaches. Similar flooding takes place in several other important northward-flowing rivers in Canada, the St Lawrence at Montreal affording the best-known instance. Second among the great north-western rivers is the Yukon, which begins its course about 18 m. from tide-water on an arm of the Pacific, 2800 ft. above the sea and just within the Canadian border. It flows first to the north, then to the north-west, passing out of the Yukon territory into Alaska, and then south-west, ending in Bering Sea, the northward projection of the Pacific, 2000 m. from its head-waters. Of its course 1800 m. are continuously navigable for suitable steamers, so that most of the traffic connected with the rich Klondike gold-fields passes over its waters. The rest of the rivers flowing into the Pacific pass through British Columbia and are much shorter, though the two southern ones carry a great volume of water owing to the heavy precipitation of snow and rain in the Cordilleran region. The Columbia is the largest, but after flowing north-west and then south for about 400 m., it passes into the United States. With its expansions, the narrow and deep Arrow lakes, it is an important waterway in the Kootenay region. The Fraser, next in size but farther north, follows a similar course, entering the sea at Vancouver; while the Skeena and Stikine in northern British Columbia are much shorter and smaller, owing to the encroachments of Peace and Liard rivers, tributaries of the Nelson, on the Cordilleran territory. All of these rivers are waterways of some importance in their lower course, and are navigated by powerful stern-wheel boats supplying the posts and mining camps of the interior with their requirements. In most cases they reach the coast through deep valleys or profound canyons, and the transcontinental railways find their way beside them, the Canadian Pacific following at first tributaries of the Columbia near its great bend, and afterwards Thompson river and the Fraser; while the Grand Trunk Pacific makes use of the valley of the Skeena and its tributaries. The divide between the rivers flowing west and those flowing east and north is very sharp in the southern Rocky Mountains, but there are two lakes, the Committee's Punch Bowl and Fortress Lake, right astride of it, sending their waters both east and west; and there is a mountain somewhat south of Fortress Lake whose melting snows drain in three directions into tributaries of the Columbia, the Saskatchewan and the Athabasca, so that they are distributed between the Pacific, the Atlantic (Hudson Bay) and the Arctic Oceans. The divide between the. St Lawrence and Hudson Bay in eastern Canada also presents one or two lakes draining each way, but in a much less striking position, since the water-parting is flat and boggy instead of being a lofty range of mountains. The rivers of Canada, except the St Lawrence, are losing their importance as means of communication from year to year, as railways spread over the interior and cross the mountains to the Pacific; but from the point of view of the physical geographer there are few things more remarkable than the intricate and comprehensive way, in which they drain the country. As most of the Canadian rivers have waterfalls on their course, they must become of more and more importance as sources of power. The St Lawrence system, for instance, generates many thousand horse-power at Sault Ste Marie, Niagara and the Lachine rapids. All the larger cities of Canada make use of water power in this way, and many new enterprises of the kind are projected in eastern Canada; but the thousands of feet of fall of the rivers in the Rocky Mountain region are still almost untouched, though they will some day find use in manufactures like those of Switzerland.
The Archean Protaxis
The broad geological and geographical relationships of the country have already been outlined, but the more important sub-divisions may now be taken up with more detail, and for that purpose five areas may be distinguished, much the largest being the Archean protaxis, covering about 2,000,000 sq. m. It includes Labrador, Ungava and most of Quebec on the east, northern Ontario on the south; and the western boundary runs from Lake-of-the-Woods north-west to the Arctic Ocean near the mouth of Mackenzie river. The southern parts of the Arctic islands, especially Banksland, belong to it also. This vast area, shaped like a broad-limbed V or U, with Hudson Bay in the centre, is made up chiefly of monotonous and barren Laurentian gneiss and granite; but scattered through it are important stretches of Keewatin and Huronian rocks intricately folded as synclines in the gneiss, as suggested earlier, the bases of ancient mountain ranges. The Keewatin and Huronian, consisting of greenstones, schists and more or less metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, are of special interest for their ore deposits, which include most of the important metals, particularly iron, nickel, copper and silver. The southern portion of the protaxis is now being opened up by railways, but the far greater northern part is known only along the lakes and rivers which are navigable by canoe. Though once consisting of great mountain ranges there are now no lofty elevations in the region except along the Atlantic border in Labrador, where summits of the Nachvak Mountains are said to reach 6000 ft. or more. In every other part the surface is hilly or mammilated, the harder rocks, such as granite or greenstone, rising as rounded knobs, or in the case of schists forming narrow ridges, while the softer parts form valleys generally floored with lakes. From the summit of any of the higher hills one sees that the region is really a somewhat dissected plain, for all the hills rise to about the same level with a uniform skyline at the horizon.
The Archean protaxis is sometimes spoken of as a plateau, but probably half of it falls below 1000 ft. The lowland part includes from zoo to Soo m. all round the shore of Hudson Bay, and extends south-west to the edge of the Palaeozoic rocks on Lake Winnipeg. Outwards from the bay the level rises slowly to an average of about z 500 ft., but seldom reaches 2000 ft. except at a few points near Lake Superior and on the eastern coast of Labrador. In most parts the Laurentian hills are bare roches moutonnees scoured by the glaciers of the Ice Age, but a broad band of clay land extends across northern Quebec and Ontario just north of the divide. The edges of the protaxis are in general its highest parts, and the rivers flowing outwards often have a descent of several hundred feet in a few miles towards the Great Lakes, the St Lawrence or the Atlantic, and in some cases they have cut back deep gorges or canyons into the tableland. The waterfalls are utilized at a few points to work up into wood pulp the forests of spruce which cover much of Labrador, Quebec and Ontario. Most of the pine that formerly grew on the Archean at the northern fringe of the settlements has been cut, but the lumberman is still advancing northwards and approaching the northern limit of the famous Canadian white pine forests, beyond which spruces, tamarack (larch) and poplar are the prevalent trees. As one advances northward the timber grows smaller and includes fewer species of trees, and finally the timber line is reached, near Churchill on the west coast of Hudson Bay and somewhat farther south on the Labrador side. Beyond this to the north are the " barren grounds " on which herds of caribou (reindeer) and musk ox pasture, migrating from north to south according to the season. There are no permanent ice sheets known on the mainland of north-eastern Canada, but some of the larger islands to the north of Hudson Bay and Straits are partially covered with glaciers on their higher points. Unless by its mineral resources, of which scarcely anything is known, the barren grounds can never support a white population and have little to tempt even the Indian or Eskimo, who visit it occasionally in summer to hunt the deer in their migrations.
The Acadian Region
The " maritime provinces " of eastern Canada, including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, may be considered together; and to these provinces as politically bounded may be added, from a physical point of view, the analogous south-eastern part of Quebec - the entire area being designated the Acadian region. Taken as a whole, this eastern part of Canada, with a very irregular and extended coast-line on the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Atlantic, may be regarded as a northern continuation of the Appalachian mountain system that runs parallel to the Atlantic coast of the United States. The rocks underlying it have been subjected to successive foldings and crumplings by forces acting chiefly from the direction of the Atlantic Ocean, with alternating prolonged periods of waste and denudation. The main axis of disturbance and the highest remaining land runs through the south-eastern part of Quebec,forming the Notre Dame Mountains, and terminates in the Gaspe peninsula as the Shickshock Mountains. The first-named seldom exceed 1500 ft. in height, but the Shickshocks rise above 3000 ft. The province of New Brunswick exhibits approximately parallel but subordinate ridges, with wide intervening areas of nearly flat Silurian and Carboniferous rocks. The peninsula of Nova Scotia, connected by a narrow neck with New Brunswick, is formed by still another and more definite system of parallel ridges, deeply fretted on all sides by bays and harbours. A series of quartzites and slates referred to the Cambrian, and holding numerous and important veins of auriferous quartz, characterize its Atlantic or southeastern side, while valuable coal-fields occur in Cape Breton and on parts of its shores on the Gulf of St Lawrence. In New Brunswick the Carboniferous rocks occupy a large area, but the coal seams so far developed are thin and unimportant. Metalliferous ores of various kinds occur both in Nova Scotia and in this province, but with the exception of the gold already mentioned, have not yet become the objects of important industries. Copper and asbestos are the principal mineral products of that part of Quebec included in the region now under description, although many other minerals are known and already worked to some extent. Extensive tracts of good arable land exist in many parts of the Acadian region. Its surface was originally almost entirely wooded, and the products of the forest continue to hold a prominent place. Prince Edward Island, the smallest province of Canada, is low and undulating, based on Permo-Carboniferous and Triassic rocks affording a red and very fertile soil, much of which is under cultivation.
The St Lawrence Plain
As the St Lawrence invited the earliest settlers to Canada and gave the easiest communication with the Old World, it is not surprising to find the wealthiest and most populous part of the country on its shores and near the Great Lakes which it leads up to; and this early development was greatly helped by the flat and fertile plain which follows it inland for over 600 m. from the city of Quebec to Lake Huron. This affords the largest stretch of arable land in eastern Canada, including the southern parts of Ontario and Quebec with an area of some 38,000 sq. m. In Quebec the chief portion is south of the St Lawrence on the low plain extending from Montreal to the mountains of the " Eastern Townships," while in Ontario it extends from the Archean on the north to the St Lawrence and Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron. The whole region is underlain by nearly horizontal and undisturbed rocks of the Palaeozoic from the Devonian downward. Superimposed on these rocks are Pleistocene boulder clay, and clay and sand deposited in post-glacial lakes or an extension of the Gulf of St Lawrence. Though petroleum and salt occur in the southwest peninsula of Ontario, metalliferous deposits are wanting, and the real wealth of this district lies in its soil and climate, which permit the growth of all the products of temperate regions. Georgian Bay and the northern part of Lake Huron with the whole northern margin of Lake Superior bathe the foot of the Laurentian plateau, which rises directly from these lakes; so that the older fertile lands of the country with their numerous cities and largely-developed manufactures are cut off by an elevated, rocky and mostly forest-covered tract of the Archean from the newer and far more extensive farm lands of the west. For many years this southern projection of the northern wilderness was spanned by only one railway, and offered a serious hindrance to the development of the regions beyond; but settlements are now spreading to the north and rapidly filling up the gap between east and west.
The Interior Continental Plain. - Passing westward by rail from the forest-covered Archean with its rugged granite hills, the flat prairie of Manitoba with its rich grasses and multitude of flowers comes as a very striking contrast, introducing the Interior Continental plain in its most typical development. This great plain runs north-westward between the border of the Archean protaxis and the line of the Rocky Mountains, including most of Manitoba, the southern part of Saskatchewan and most of Alberta. At the international boundary in lat. 49° it is 800 m. wide, but in lat. 56° it has narrowed to 400 m. in width, and to the north of lat. 62° it is still narrower and somewhat interrupted, but preserves its main physical features to the Arctic Ocean about the mouth of the Mackenzie. This interior plain of the continent represents the area of the ancient sea by which it was occupied in Mesozoic times, with a more ancient margin towards the north-west against the Archean, where undisturbed limestones and other rocks of the Silurian and Devonian rest upon the downward slope of the Laurentian Shield. Most of the plains are underlain by Cretaceous and early Tertiary shales and sandstones lying nearly unaltered and undisturbed where they were deposited, although now raised far above sea-level, particularly along the border of the Rocky Mountains where they were thrust up into foot-hills when the range itself was raised. These strata have been subjected to great denudation, but owing to their comparatively soft character this has been, in the main, nearly uniform, and has produced no very bold features of relief. Coal and lignitic coal are the principal economic minerals met with in this central plain, though natural gas occurs and is put to use near Medicine Hat, and " tar sands " along the northeastern edge of the Cretaceous indicate the presence of petroleum.
Its chief value lies in its vast tracts of fertile soil, now rapidly filling up with settlers from all parts of the world, and the grassy uplands in the foot-hill region affording perennial pasturage for the cattle, horses and sheep of the rancher. Though the region is spoken of as a plain there are really great differences of level between the highest parts in south-western Alberta, 4500 ft. above the sea, and the lowest in the region of Lake Winnipeg, where the prairie is at an elevation of only Soo ft. The very flat and rich prairie near Winnipeg is the former bed of the glacial Lake Agassiz; but most of the prairie to the west is of a gently rolling character and there are two rather abrupt breaks in the plain, the most westerly one receiving the name of the Missouri Coteau. The first step represents a rise to 1600 ft., and the second to 3000 ft. on an average. In so flat a country any elevation of a few hundred feet is remarkable and is called a mountain, so that Manitoba has its Duck and Riding mountains. More important than the hills are the narrow and often rather deep river valleys cut below the general level, exposing the soft rocks of the Cretaceous and in many places seams of lignite. When not too deep the river channels may be traced from afar across the prairie by the winding band of trees growing beside the water. The treeless part of the plains, the prairie proper, has a triangular shape with an area twice as large as that of Great Britain. North of the Saskatchewan river groves or " bluffs " of trees begin, and somewhat farther north the plains are generally wooded, because of the slightly more humid climate. It has been proved, however, that certain kinds of trees if protected will grow also on the prairie, as may be seen around many of the older farmsteads. In the central southern regions the climate is arid enough to permit of " alkaline " ponds and lakes, which may completely dry up in summer, and where a supply of drinking-water is often hard to obtain, though the land itself is fertile.
The Cordilleran Belt
The Rocky Mountain region as a whole, best named the Cordillera or Cordilleran belt, includes several parallel ranges of mountains of different structures and ages, the eastern one constituting the Rocky Mountains proper. This band of mountains 400 m. wide covers towards the south almost all of British Columbia and a strip of Alberta east of the watershed, and towards the north forms the whole of the Yukon Territory. While it is throughout essentially a mountainous country, very complicated in its orographic features and interlocking river systems, two principal mountain axes form its ruling features - the Rocky Mountains proper, above referred to, and the Coast Ranges. Between them are many other ranges shorter and less regular in trend, such as the Selkirk Mountains, the Gold Ranges and the Caribou Mountains. There is also in the southern inland region an interior plateau, once probably a peneplain, but now elevated and greatly dissected by river valleys, which extends north-westward for Soo m. with a width of about ioo m. and affords the largest areas of arable and pasture land in British Columbia. Similar wide tracts of less broken country occur, after a mountainous interruption, in northern British Columbia and to some extent in the Yukon Territory, where wide valleys and rolling hills alternate with short mountain ranges of no great altitude. The Pacific border of the coast range of British Columbia is ragged with fjords and channels, where large steamers may go 50 or Too m. inland between mountainous walls as on the coast of Norway; and there is also a bordering mountain system partly submerged forming Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands. The highest mountains of the Cordillera in Canada are near the southern end of the boundary separating Alaska from the Yukon Territory, the meridian of 141°, and they include Mount Logan (1 9,54 o ft.) and Mount St Elias (18,000 ft.), while the highest peak in North America, Mount McKinley (20,000 ft.), is not far to the north-west in Alaska. This knot of very lofty mountains, with Mount Fairweather and some others, all snowy and glacierclad for almost their whole height, are quite isolated from the highest points of the Rocky Mountains proper, which are 1000 m. to the south-east. Near the height of land between British Columbia and Alberta there are many peaks which rise from 10,000 to 12,000 ft. above sea-level, the highest which has been carefully measured being Mount Robson (13,700 ft.). The next range to the east, the Selkirks, has several summits that reach 10,000 ft. or over, while the Coast Ranges scarcely go beyond 9000 ft. The snow line in the south is from 7500 to 9 000 ft. above sea-level, being lower on the Pacific side where the heaviest snowfall comes in winter than on the drier north-eastern side. The snow line gradually sinks as one advances north-west, reaching only 2000 or 3000 ft. on the Alaskan coast. The Rockies and Selkirks support thousands of glaciers, mostly not very large, but having some 50 or 100 sq. m. of snowfield. All the glaciers are now in retreat, with old tree-covered moraines, hundreds or thousands of feet lower down the valley. The timber line is at about 7500 ft. in southern British Columbia and 4000 ft. in the interior of the Yukon Territory. On the westward slopes, especially of the Selkirks and Coast Ranges, vegetation is almost tropical in its density and luxuriance, the giant cedar and the Douglas fir sometimes having diameters of 10 ft. or more and rising to the height of 150 ft. On the eastern flanks of the ranges the forest is much thinner, and on the interior plateau and in many of the valleys largely gives way to open grass land. The several ranges of the Cordillera show very different types of structure and were formed at different ages, the Selkirks with their core of pre-Cambrian granite, gneiss and schists coming first, then the Coast Ranges, which seem to have been elevated in Cretaceous times, formed mainly by a great upwelling of granite and diorite as batholiths along the margin of the continent and sedimentary rocks lying as remnants on their flanks; and finally the Rocky Mountains in the Laramie or early Eocene, after the close of the Cretaceous. This latest and also highest range was formed by tremendous thrusts from the Pacific side, crumpling and folding the ancient sedimentary rocks, which run from the Cambrian to the Cretaceous, and faulting them along overturned folds. The outer ranges in Alberta have usually the form of tilted blocks with a steep cliff towards the north-east and a gentler slope, corresponding to the dip of the beds, towards the south-west. Near the centre of the range there are broader foldings, carved into castle and cathedral shapes. The most easterly range has been shown to have been actually pushed 7 m. out upon the prairies. In the Rocky Mountains proper no eruptive rocks have broken through, so that no ore deposits of importance are known from them, but in the Cretaceous synclines which they enclose valuable coal basins exist. Coal of a bituminous and also semi-anthracite kind is produced, the best mined on the Pacific slope of the continent, the coking coals of the Fernie region supplying the fuel of the great metal mining districts of the Kootenays in British Columbia, and of Montana and other states to the south. The Selkirks and Gold Ranges west of the Rockies, with their great areas of eruptive rocks, both ancient and modern, include most of the important mines of gold, silver, copper and lead which give British Columbia its leadership among the Canadian provinces as a producer of metals. In early days the placer gold mines of the Columbia, Fraser and Caribou attracted miners from everywhere, but these have declined, and lode mines supply most of the gold as well as the other metals. The Coast Ranges and islands also include many mines, especially of copper, but up to the present of less value than those inland. Most of the mining development is in southern British Columbia, where a network of railways and waterways gives easy access; but as means of communication improve to the north a similar development may be looked for there. The Atlin and White Horse regions in northern British Columbia and southern Yukon have attracted much attention, and the Klondike placers still farther north have furnished many millions of dollars' worth of gold. Summing up the economic features of the Cordilleran belt, it includes many of the best coal-mines and the most extensive deposits of gold, copper, lead and zinc of the Dominion, while in silver, nickel and iron Ontario takes the lead. When its vast area stretching from the international boundary to beyond the Arctic circle is opened up, it may be expected to prove the counterpart of the great mining region of the Cordillera in the United States to the south.
Climate
In a country like Canada ranging from lat. 42° to the Arctic regions and touching three oceans, there must be great variations of climate. If placed upon Europe it would extend from Rome to the North Cape, but latitude is of course only one of the factors influencing climate, the arrangement of the ocean currents and of the areas of high and low pressure making a very wide difference between the climates of the two sides of the Atlantic. In reality the Pacific coast of Canada, rather than the Atlantic coast, should be compared with western Europe, the south-west corner of British Columbia, in lat. 48° to 50°, having a climate very similar to the southern coast of England. In Canada the isotherms by no means follow parallels of latitude, especially in summer when in the western half of the country they run nearly north-west and south-east; so that the average temperature of 55° is found about on the Arctic circle in the Mackenzie river valley, in lat. 50° near the Lake-of-theWoods, in lat. 55° at the northern end of James Bay, and in lat. 49° on Anticosti in the Gulf of St Lawrence. The proximity of the sea or of great lakes, the elevation and the direction of mountain chains, the usual path of storms and of prevalent winds, and the relative length of day and amount of sunshine in summer and winter all have their effect on different parts of Canada. One cannot even describe the climate of a single province, like Ontario or British Columbia, as a unit, as it varies so greatly in different parts. Details should therefore be sought in articles on the separate provinces. In eastern Canada Ungava and Labrador are very chill and inhospitable, owing largely to the iceberg-laden current sweeping down the coast from Davis Strait, bringing fogs and long snowy winters and a temperature for the year much below the freezing-point. South of the Gulf of St Lawrence, however, the maritime provinces have much more genial temperatures, averaging 40° F. for the year and over 60° for the summer months. The amount of rain is naturally high so near the sea, 40 to 56 in., but the snowfall is not usually excessive. In Quebec and northern Ontario the rainfall is diminished, ranging from 20 to 40 in., while the snows of winter are deep and generally cover the ground from the beginning of December to the end of March. The winters are brilliant but cold, and the summers average from 60° to 65° F., with generally clear skies and a bracing atmosphere which makes these regions favourite summer resorts for the people of the cities to the south. The winter storms often sweep a little to the north of southern Ontario, so that what falls as snow in the north is rain in the south, giving a much more variable winter, often with too little snow for sleighing. The summers are warm, with an average temperature of 65° and an occasional rise to 90°. As one goes westward the precipitation diminishes to 17.34 in. in Manitoba and 13.35 for the other two prairie provinces, most of this, however, coming opportunely from May to August, the months when the growing grain most requires moisture. There is a much lighter snowfall in winter than in northern Ontario and Quebec, with somewhat lower temperatures. The snow and the frost in the ground are considered useful as furnishing moisture to start the wheat in spring. The precipitation in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta is much more variable than farther east and north, so that in some seasons crops have been a failure through drought, but large areas are now being brought under irrigation to avoid such losses. The prairie provinces have in most parts a distinctly continental climate with comparatively short, warm summers and long, cold winters, but with much sunshine in both seasons. In southern Alberta, however, the winter cold is often interrupted by chinooks, westerly winds which have lost their moisture by crossing the mountains and become warmed by plunging down to the plains, where they blow strongly, licking up the snow and raising the temperature, sometimes in a few hours, from 20 to 40° F. In this region cattle and horses can generally winter on the grass of the ranges without being fed, though in hard seasons there may be heavy losses. Northwards chinooks become less frequent and the winter's cold increases, but the coming of spring is not much later, and the summer temperatures, with sunshine for twenty hours out of twenty-four in June, are almost the same as for hundreds of miles to the south, so that most kinds of grain and vegetables ripen far to the north in the Peace river valley. Though the climate of the plains is one of extremes and often of rather sudden changes, it is brisk and invigorating and of particular value for persons affected with lung troubles.
The climate of the Cordilleran region presents even more variety than that of the other provinces because of the ranges of mountains which run parallel to the Pacific. Along the coast itself the climate is insular, with little frost in winter and mild heat in summer, and with a very heavy rainfall amounting to ioo in. on the south-west side of Vancouver Island and near Port Simpson. Within ioo m. inland beyond the Coast Range the precipitation and general climate are, like those of Ontario, comparatively mild and with moderate snowfall towards the south, but with keen winters farther north. The interior plateau may be described as arid, so that irrigation is required if crops are to be raised. The Selkirk Mountains have a heavy rainfall and a tremendous snowfall on their western flanks, but very much less precipitation on their eastern side. The Rocky Mountains have the same relationships but the whole precipitation is much less than in the Selkirks. The temperature depends largely, of course, on altitude, so that one may quickly pass from perpetual snow above 8000 ft. in the mountains to the mild, moist climate of Vancouver or Victoria, which is like that of Devonshire. In the far north of the territories of Yukon, Mackenzie and Ungava the climate has been little studied, as the region is uninhabited by white men except at a few fur-trading posts. North-west and north-east of Hudson Bay it becomes too severe for the growth of trees as seen on the " barren grounds," and there may be perpetual ice beneath the coating of moss which serves as a non-conducting covering for the " tundras." There is, however, so little precipitation that snow does not accumulate on the surface to form glaciers, the summer's sun having warmth enough to thaw what falls in the winter. Leaving out the maritime provinces, southern Ontario, southern Alberta and the Pacific coast region on the one hand, and the Arctic north, particularly near Hudson Bay, on the other, Canada has snowy and severe winters, a very short spring with a sudden rise of temperature, short warm summers, and a delightful autumn with its " Indian summer." There is much sunshine, and the atmosphere is bracing and exhilarating.
Flora
The general flora of the Maritime Provinces, Quebec and Eastern Ontario is much the same, except that in Nova Scotia a number of species are found common also to Newfoundland that are not apparent inland. Professor Macoun gives us a few notable species - Calluna vulgaris, Salisb., Alchemilla vulgaris, L., Rhododendron maximum, L., Ilex glabia, Gray, Hudsonia ericoides, L., Gaylussacia dumosa, F. and G., and Schezaea pusilla, Pursh. In New Brunswick the western flora begins to appear as well as immigrants from the south, while in the next eastern province, Quebec, the flora varies considerably. In the lower St Lawrence country and about the Gulf many Arctic and sub-Arctic species are found. On the shores of the lower reaches Thalictrum alpinum, L., Vesicaria arctica, Richards, Arapis alpina, L., Saxifraga oppositifolia, L., Cerastium alpinum, L., Saxifraga caespitosa, L. and S. have been gathered, and on the Shickshock Mountains of Eastern Canada Silene acaulis, L., Lychnis alpina, L., Cassiope hypnoides, Don., Rhododendron laponicum, Wahl, and many others. On the summit of these hills (4000 ft.) have been collected Aspidium aculeatum, Swartz var., Scopulinum, D. C. Eaton, Pellaea densa, Hook, Gallium kamtschaticum, Sletten. From the city of Quebec westwards there is a constantly increasing ratio of southern forms, and when the mountain (so called) at Montreal is reached the representative Ontario flora begins. In Ontario the flora of the northern part is much the same as that of the Gulf of St Lawrence, but from Montreal along the Ottawa and St Lawrence valleys the flora takes a more southern aspect, and trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants not found in the eastern parts of the Dominion become common. In the forest regions north of the lakes the vegetation on the shores of Lake Erie requires a high winter temperature, while the east and north shores of Lake Superior have a boreal vegetation that shows the summer temperature of this enormous water-stretch to be quite low. Beyond the forest country of Ontario come the prairies of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. In the ravines the eastern flora continues for some distance, and then disappearing gives place to that of the prairie, which is found everywhere between the Red river and the Rocky Mountains except in wooded and damp localities. Northwards, in the Saskatchewan country, the flora of the forest and that of the prairies intermingle. On the prairies and the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains a great variety of grasses are found, several years' collection resulting in 42 genera and 156 species. Of the best hay and pasture grasses, Agropyrum Elymus, Stipa, Bromus, Agrostis, Calamagrostes and Poa, there are 59 species. Besides the grasses there are leguminous plants valuable for pasture - Astragalus, Vicia (wild vetch), Lathyrus (wild pea) of which there are many species. The rose family is represented by Prunus, Potentilla, Fragaria, Rosa, Rubus and Amelanchier. About the saline lakes and marshes of the prairie country are found Ruppia maritima, L., Heliotropium curassavicum, L., natives of the Atlantic coast, and numerous species of Chenopodium, Atriplex and allied genera. The flora of the forest belt of the North-West Territories differs little from that of northern Ontario. At the beginning of the elevation of the Rocky Mountains there is a luxurious growth of herbaceous plants, including a number of rare umbellifers. At the higher levels the vegetation becomes more Arctic. Northwards the valleys of the Peace and other rivers differ little from those of Quebec and the northern prairies. On the western slope of the mountains, that is, the Selkirk and Coast ranges as distinguished from the eastern or Rocky Mountains range, the flora differs, the climate being damp instead of dry. In some of the valleys having an outlet to the south the flora is partly peculiar to the American desert, and such species as Purshia tridentata, D.C., and Artemisia tridentata, Nutt., and species of Gilia, Aster and Erigonum are found that are not met with elsewhere. Above Yale, in the drier part of the Fraser valley, the absence of rain results in the same character of flora, while in the rainy districts of the lower Fraser the vegetation is so luxuriant that it resembles that of the tropics. So in various parts of the mountainous country of British Columbia, the flora varies according to climatic conditions. Nearer the Pacific coast the woods and open spaces are filled with flowers and shrubs. Liliaceous flowers are abundant, including Erythoniums, Trilliums, Alliums, Brodeaeas, Fritillarias, Siliums, Camassias and others.
Fauna
The larger animals of Canada are the musk ox and the caribou of the barren lands, both having their habitat in the far north; the caribou of the woods, found in all the provinces except in Price Edward Island; the moose, with an equally wide range in the wooded country; the Virginia deer, in one or other of its varietal forms, common to all the southern parts; the black-tailed deer or mule deer and allied forms, on the western edge of the plains and in British Columbia; the pronghorn antelope on the plains, and a small remnant of the once plentiful bison found in northern Alberta and Mackenzie, now called " wood buffalo." The wapiti or American elk at one time abounded from Quebec to the Pacific, and as far north as the Peace river, but is now found only in small numbers from Manitoba westwards. In the mountains of the west are the grizzly bear, black bear and cinnamon bear. The black bear is also common to most other parts of Canada; the polar bear everywhere along the Arctic littoral. The large or timber wolf is found in the wooded districts of all the provinces, and on the plains there is also a smaller wolf called the coyote. In British Columbia the puma or cougar, sometimes called the panther and the American lion, still frequently occurs; and in all parts the common fox and the silver fox, the lynx, beaver, otter, marten, fisher, wolverene, mink, skunk and other fur-bearing animals. Mountain and plain and Arctic hares and rabbits are plentiful or scarce in localities, according to seasons or other circumstances. In the mountains of British Columbia are the bighorn or Rocky Mountain sheep and the Rocky Mountain goat, while the saddleback and white mountain sheep have recently been discovered in the northern Cordillera. The birds of Canada are mostly migratory, and are those common to the northern and central states of the United States. The wildfowl are, particularly in the west, in great numbers; their breeding-grounds extending from Manitoba and the western prairies up to Hudson Bay, the barren lands and Arctic coasts. The several kinds of geeseincluding the Canada goose, the Arctic goose or wavey, the laughing goose, the brant and others-all breed in the northern regions, but are found in great numbers throughout the several provinces, passing north in the spring and south in the autumn. There are several varieties of grouse, the largest of which is the grouse of British Columbia and the pennated grouse and the prairie chicken of Manitoba and the plains, besides the so-called partridge and willow partridge, both of which are grouse. While the pennated grouse (called the prairie chicken in Canada) has always been plentiful, the prairie hen (or chicken) proper is a more recent arrival from Minnesota and Dakota, to which states it had come from Illinois and the south as settlement and accompanying wheatfields extended north. In certain parts of Ontario the wild turkey is occasionally found and the ordinary quail, but in British Columbia is found the California quail, and a larger bird much resembling it called the mountain partridge. The golden eagle, bald-headed eagle, osprey and a large variety of hawks are common in Canada, as are the snowy owl, the horned owl and others inhabiting northern climates. The raven frequently remains even in the colder parts throughout the winter; these, with the Canada jay, waxwing, grosbeak and snow bunting, being the principal birds seen in Manitoba and northern districts in that season. The rook is not found, but the common crow and one or two other kinds are there during the summer. Songbirds are plentiful, especially in wooded regions, and include the American robin, oriole, thrushes, the cat-bird and various sparrows; while the English sparrow, introduced years ago, has multiplied excessively and become a nuisance in the towns. The smallest of the birds, the ruby throat humming-bird, is found everywhere, even up to timber line in the mountains. The sea-birds include a great variety of gulls, guillemots, cormorants, albatrosses (four species), fulmars and petrels, and in the Gulf of St Lawrence the gannet is very abundant. Nearly all the sea-birds of Great Britain are found in Canadian waters or are represented by closely allied species. (A. P. C.) Area and Population.-The following table shows the division of the Dominion into provinces and districts, with the capital, population and estimated area of each.
1 The census is taken every ten years, save in these three provinces, where it is taken every five. Their population in 1906 was Manitoba, 360,000; Saskatchewan, 257,000; Alberta, 184,000.
2 The areas assigned to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia are exclusive of the territorial seas, that to Quebec' is exclusive of the Gulf of St Lawrence (though including the islands lying within it), and that to Ontario is exclusive of the Canadian portion of the Great Lakes. About 500,000 sq. m. belong to the Arctic region and 125,755 sq. m. are water.
In 1867 the Dominion was formed by the union of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec (Lower Canada) and Ontario (Upper Canada). In 1869 the North-west Territories were purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company, from a corner of which Manitoba was carved in the next year. In 1871 British Columbia and in 1873 Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion.
The islands and other districts within the Arctic circle became a portion of the Dominion only in 1880, when all British possessions in North America, excepting Newfoundland, with its dependency, the Labrador coast, and the Bermuda islands, were annexed to Canada. West of the province of Ontario, then inaccurately defined, the provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia were the only organized divisions of the western territory, but in 1882 the provisional districts of Assiniboia, Athabasca, Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed, leaving the remainder of the north-west as unorganized territories, a certain portion of the north-east, called Keewatin, having previously been placed under the lieutenant-governor of Manitoba. In 1905 these four districts were formed into the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Keewatin was placed directly under the federal government. In 1898, owing to the influx of miners, the Yukon territory was constituted and granted a limited measure of self-government. The unorganized territories are sparsely inhabited by Indians, the people of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts and a few missionaries.
Population.-The growth of population is shown by the following figures:-187r, 3,485,761; 1881, 4,324,810; 1891, 4, 8 33, 2 39; 1901, 5,371,315. Since 1901 the increase has been more rapid, and in 1 9 05 alone 1 4 4,621 emigrants entered Canada, of whom about two-fifths were from Great Britain and one-third from the United States.
| Area in sq.m. | Population. | Official Capital. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1881. | 1901. | |||
| Provinces- | ||||
| Ontario. .. . | 260,862 | 1,926,922 | 2,182,947 | Toronto |
| Quebec. .. . | 351,873 | 1,359,027 | 1,648,898 | Quebec |
| Nova Scotia.. . | 21,428 | 440,572 | 459,574 | Halifax |
| New Brunswick. . | 27,985 | 321,233 | 331,120 | Fredericton |
| Manitoba. .. . | 73,732 | 62,260 | 255,2111 | Winnipeg |
| British Columbia . | 372,630 | 49,459 | 178,657 | Victoria |
| Prince Edward Island . | 2,184 | 108,891 | 103,259 | Charlottetown |
| Saskatchewan.. . | 250,650 | 91,460 1 | Regina | |
| Alberta.. . | 253,540 | 25,515 | 72,8411 | Edmonton |
| Districts- | ||||
| Keewatin. .. . | 516,571 | 8,800 | .. | |
| Yukon. .. . | 196,976 | 27,219 | Dawson City | |
| Mackenzie.. . | 562,182 | 30,931 | 5,216 | .. |
| Ungava . | 354,961 | 5,113 | ||
| Franklin. .. . | 500,000 | .. | .. | |
| The Dominion . | 3,745,5742 | 4,3 2 4, 810 | 5,371,315 | Ottawa |
The density of population is greatest in Prince Edward Island, where it is 51.6 to the sq. m.; in Nova Scotia it is 22.3; New Brunswick, 11.8; Ontario, 9.9; Manitoba, 4.9; Quebec, 4.8; Saskatchewan, 1 oi; Alberta, o 72; British Columbia, o 4; the Dominion, 1 8. This is not an indication of the density in settled parts; as in Quebec, Ontario and the western provinces there are large unpopulated districts, the area of which enters into the calculation. The population is composed mainly of Englishor French-speaking people, but there are German settlements of some extent in Ontario, and of late years there has been a large immigration into the western provinces and territories from other parts of Europe, including Russians, Galicians, Polish and Russian Jews, and Scandinavians. These foreign elements have been assimilated more slowly than in the United States, but the process is being hastened by the growth of a national consciousness. English, Irish and Scots and their descendants form the bulk of the population of Ontario, French-Canadians of Quebec, Scots of Nova Scotia, the Irish of a large proportion of New Brunswick. In the other provinces the latter race tends to confine itself to the cities. Manitoba is largely peopled from Ontario, together with a decreasing number of half-breeds-i.e. children of white fathers (chiefly French or Scottish) and Indian mothers-who originally formed the bulk of its inhabitants. Alberta and Saskatchewan, particularly the ranching districts, are chiefly peopled by English immigrants, though since 1900 there has also been a large influx from the United States. British Columbia contains a mixed population, of which in the mining districts a large proportion is American. Since 1871 a great change has taken place throughout the west, i.e. from Lake Superior to the Pacific. Then Manitoba was principally inhabited by English and French half-breeds (or Metis), descendants of Hudson's Bay Company's employes, or adventurous pioneers from Quebec, together with Scottish settlers, descendants of those brought out by Lord Selkirk (q.v.), some English army pensioners and others, and the van of the immigration that shortly followed from Ontario. Beyond Manitoba buffalo were still running on the plains, and British Columbia having lost its mining population of 1859 and 1860 was largely inhabited by Indians, its white population which centred in the city of Victoria being principally English.
French is the language of the province of Quebec, though English is much spoken in the cities; both languages are officially recognized in that province, and in the federal courts and parliament. Elsewhere, English is exclusively used, save by the newly-arrived foreigners. The male sex is slightly the more numerous in all the provinces except Quebec, the greatest discrepancy existing in British Columbia.
The birth-rate is high, especially in Quebec, where families of twelve to twenty are not infrequent, but is decreasing in Ontario. In spite of the growth of manufactures since 1878, there are few large cities, and the proportion of the urban population to the rural is small. Herein it differs noticeably from Australia. Between 1891 and 1901 the number of farmers in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces decreased, and there seemed a prospect of the country being divided into a manufacturing east and an agricultural west, but latterly large tracts in northern Ontario and Quebec have proved suitable for cultivation and are being opened up.
Religion
There is no established church in Canada, but in the province of Quebec certain rights have been allowed to the Roman Catholic church ever since the British conquest. In that province about 87% of the population belongs to this church, which is strong in the others also, embracing over two-fifths of the population of the Dominion. The Protestants have shown a tendency to subdivision, and many curious and ephemeral sects have sprung up; of late years, however, the various sections of Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists have united, and a working alliance has been formed between Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists. The Methodists are the strongest, and in Ontario form over 30% of the population. Next come the Presbyterians, the backbone of the maritime provinces. The Church of England is strong in the cities, especially Toronto. Save among the Indians, active disbelief in Christianity is practically non-existent, and even among them 90% are nominally Christian.
Indians
The Indian population numbers over ioo,000 and has slightly increased since 1881. Except in British Columbia and the unorganized territories, nearly all of these are on reservations, where they are under government supervision, receiving an annuity in money and a certain amount of provisions; and where, by means of industrial schools and other methods, civilized habits are slowly superseding their former mode of life. British Columbia has about 25,000, most of whom are along the coast, though one of the important tribes, the Shuswaps, is in the interior. An almost equal number are found in the three prairie provinces. Those of Ontario, numbering about 20,000, are more civilized than those of the west, many of them being good farmers. In all the provinces they are under the control of the federal government which acts as their trustee, investing the money which they derive chiefly from the sale of lands and timber, and making a large annual appropriation for the payment of their annuities, schools and other expenses. While unable to alienate their reservations, save to the federal government, they are not confined to them, but wander at pleasure. As they progress towards a settled mode of life, they are given the franchise; this process is especially far advanced in Ontario. A certain number are found in all the provinces. They make incomparable guides for fishing, hunting and surveying parties, on which they will cheerfully undergo the greatest hardships, though tending to shrink from regular employment in cities or on farms.
Orientals
The Chinese and Japanese numbered in 1906 about 20,000, of whom, three-quarters were in British Columbia, though they were spreading through the other provinces, chiefly as laundrymen. They are as a rule frugal, industrious and lawabiding, and are feared rather for their virtues than for their vices. Since 1885 a tax has been imposed on all Chinese entering Canada, and in 1903 this was raised to £100 ($500). British Columbia endeavoured in 1905 to lay a similar restriction on the Japanese, but the act was disallowed by the federal legislature.
Finance
Since 1871 the decimal system of coinage, corresponding to that of the United States, has been the only one employed. One dollar is divided into one hundred cents =$4.863). The money in circulation consists of a limited number of notes issued by the federal government, and the notes of the chartered banks, together with gold, silver and copper coin. Previous to 1906 this coin was minted in England, but in that year a branch of the royal mint was established at Ottawa. Though the whole financial system rests on the maintenance of the gold standard, gold coin plays a much smaller part in daily business than in England, France or Germany. United States' notes and silver are usually received at par; those of other nations are subject to a varying rate of exchange.
The banking system, which retains many features of the Scotch system, on which it was originally modelled, combines security for the note-holders and depositors with prompt increase and diminution of the circulation in accordance with the varying conditions of trade. This is especially important in a country where the large wheat crop renders an additional quantity of money necessary on very short notice during the autumn and winter. There has been no successful attempt to introduce the "wild cat " banking, which had such disastrous effects in the early days of the western states. Since federation no chartered bank has been compelled to liquidate without paying its note-holders in full. The larger banks are chartered by the federal government; in the smaller towns a number of private banks remain, but their importance is small, owing to the great facilities given to the chartered banks by the branch system. In 1906 there were 34 chartered banks, of which the branches had grown from 619 in 1900 to 1565 in 1906, and the number since then has rapidly increased. The banks are required by law to furnish to the finance minister detailed monthly statements which are published in the official gazette. Once in every ten years the banking act is revised and weaknesses amended. Clearinghouses have been established in the chief commercial centres. In October 1906 the chartered banks had an aggregate paid-up capital of over $94,000,000 with a note circulation of $83,000,000 and deposits of over $553,000,000.
There are four kinds of savings banks in Canada: - (1) the post-office savings banks; (2) the government savings banks of the Maritime provinces taken over at federation and being gradually merged with the former; (3) two special savings banks in the cities of Montreal and Quebec; (4) the savings bank departments of the chartered banks. The rate of interest allowed by the government is now 3%, and the chartered banks usually follow the government rate. The amount on deposit in the first three increased from $5,057,607 in 1868 to $89,781,J46 in October 1906. The returns from the chartered banks do not specify the deposits in these special accounts.
The numerous loan and trust companies also possess certain banking privileges.
| 1873. | 1905. | |
| Gross debt . | $129,743,432 | $377,678,580 |
| Assets | 30,894,970 | 111,454,413 |
| Net debt . | 98,848,462 | 266,224,567 |
| [COMMERCE |
The federal revenue is derived mainly from customs and excise duties, with subsidiary amounts from mining licences, timber dues, post-office, &c. Both the revenue and the expenditure have in recent years increased greatly, the revenue rising from $46,743,103 in 1899 to $71,186,073 in 1905 and the expenditure keeping pace with it. The debt of the Dominion in 1873 and in 1905 was: - While the debt had thus increased faster than the population, it weighed less heavily on the people, not only on account of the great increase in commercial prosperity, but of the much lower rate of interest paid, and of the increasing revenue derived from assets. Whereas in 1867 the rate of interest was over 4%, and interest was being paid on former provincial loans of over 6%, Canada could in 1906 borrow at 3%.
The greater part of the debt arises from the assumption of the debts of the provinces as they entered federation, expenditure on canals and assistance given to railways. It does not include the debts incurred by certain provinces since federation, a matter which concerns themselves alone. A strong prejudice against direct taxation exists, and none is imposed by the federal government, though it has been tentatively introduced in the provinces, especially in Quebec, in the form of liquor licences, succession duties, corporation taxes, &c. British Columbia has a direct tax on property and on income. The cities, towns and municipalities resort to it to supply their local needs, and there is a tendency, especially pronounced in Ontario on account of the excellence of her municipal system, to devolve the burden of educational payments, and others more properly provincial, upon the municipal authorities on the plea of decentralization.
Commerce and Manufactures
Since 1867 the opening up of the fertile lands in the north-west, the increase of population, the discovery of new mineral fields, the construction of railways and the great improvement of the canal system have changed the conditions, methods and channels of trade. The great extension during the same period of the use of water-power has been of immense importance to Canada, most of the provinces possessing numerous swift-flowing streams or waterfalls, capable of generating a practically unlimited supply of power.
In 1878 the introduction of the so-called " National Policy " of protection furthered the growth of manufactures. Protection still remains the trade policy of Canada, though modified by a preference accorded to imports from Great Britain and from most of the British colonies. The tariff, though moderate as compared with that of the United States, amounted in 1907 to about 28% on dutiable imports and to about 16% on total imports. Tentative attempts at export duties have also been made. Interprovincial commerce is free, and the home market is greatly increasing in importance. The power to make commercial treaties relating to Canada rests with the government of Great Britain, but in most cases the official consent of Canada is required, and for many years no treaty repugnant to her interests has been signed. The denunciation by the British government in 1897 of commercial treaties with Belgium and Germany, at the request of Canada, was a striking proof of her increasing importance, and attempts have at various times been made to obtain the full treaty-making power for the federal government. The great proportion of the foreign trade of the Dominion is with the United States and Great Britain. From the former come most of the manufactured goods imported and large quantities of raw materials; to the latter are sent food-stuffs. Farm products are the most important export, and with the extension of this industry in the north-west provinces and in northern Ontario will probably continue to be so. Gold, silver, copper and other minerals are largely exported, chiefly in an unrefined state and almost entirely to the United States. The exports of lumber are about equally divided between the two. Formerly, the logs were shipped as square timber, but now almost always in the form of deals, planks or laths; such square timber as is still shipped goes almost entirely to Great Britain. Wood pulp for the manufacture of paper is exported chiefly to the United States. To that country fresh fish is sent in large quantities, and there is an important trade in canned salmon between British Columbia and Great Britain. Few of the manufacturers do more than compete with the foreigner for an increasing share of the home market. In this they have won increased success, at least five-sixths of the manufactured goods used being produced within the country, but a desire for further protection is loudly expressed. Though the chief foreign commerce is with Great Britain and the United States, the Dominion has trade relations with all the chief countries of the world and maintains commercial agents among them. Her total foreign trade (import and export) was in 1906 over £100,000,000.
Shipping
The chief seaports from east to west are Halifax, N.S., Sydney, N.S., St John, N.B., Quebec and Montreal on the Atlantic; and Vancouver, Esquimalt and Victoria, B.C.; on the Pacific. Halifax is the ocean terminus of the Intercolonial railway; St John, Halifax and Vancouver of the Canadian Pacific railway. Prince Rupert, the western terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific railway, was in 1906 only an uninhabited harbour, but was being rapidly developed into a flourishing city. Though Halifax and St John are open in winter, much of the winter trade eastwards is done through American harbours, especially Portland, Maine, owing to the shorter railway journey. Esquimalt, Halifax, Kingston (Ont.) and Quebec have wellequipped graving-docks. The coast, both of the ocean and of the Great Lakes, is well lighted and protected. The decay of the wooden shipbuilding industry has lessened the comparative importance of the mercantile marine, but there has been a great increase in the tonnage employed in the coasting trade and upon inland waters. Numerous steamship lines ply between Canada and Great Britain; direct communication exists with France, and the steamers of the Canadian Pacific railway run regularly to Japan and to Australia.
Internal Communications
Her splendid lakes and rivers, the development of her canal system, and the growth of railways have made the interprovincial traffic of Canada far greater than her foreign, and the portfolio of railways and canals is one of the most important in the cabinet. There are, nominally, about 200 railways, but about one-half of these, comprising five-sixths of the mileage, have been amalgamated into four great systems: the Grand Trunk, the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian Northern and the Intercolonial; most of the others have been more or less consolidated. With the first of the four large systems is connected the Grand Trunk Pacific. The Intercolonial, as also a line across Prince Edward Island, is owned and operated by the federal government. Originally built chiefly as a military road, and of ten the victim of political exigencies, it has not been a commercial success. With the completion of the Grand Trunk Pacific (planned for 191 1) and the Canadian Northern, the country would possess three trans-continental railways, and be free from the reproach, so long hurled at it, of possessing length without breadth.
At numerous points along the frontier, connexion is made with the railways of the United States. Liberal aid is given by the federal, provincial and municipal governments to the construction of railways, amounting often to more than half the cost of the road. The government of Ontario has constructed a line to open up the agricultural and mining districts of the north of the province, and is operating it by means of a commission. Practically all the cities' and large towns have electric tramways, and electricity is also used as a motive power on many lines uniting the larger cities with the surrounding towns and villages. Since 1903 the Dominion government has instituted a railway commission of three members with large powers of control over freight and passenger rates and other such matters. Telephone and express companies are also subject to its jurisdiction. From its decisions an appeal may be made to the governor-general in council, i.e. to the federal cabinet. It has exercised a beneficial check on the railways and has been cheerfully accepted by them. In Ontario a somewhat similar commission, appointed by the local government, exercises extensive powers of control over railways solely within the province, especially over the electric lines.
Despite the increase in railway facilities, the waterways remain important factors in the transportation of the country. Steamers ply on lakes and rivers in every province, and even in the far northern districts of Yukon and Mackenzie. Where necessary obstacles are surmounted by canals, on which over £ 22,000,000 have been spent, chiefly since federation. The St Lawrence 1 In Canada a city must have over 10,000 inhabitants, a town over 2000.
river canal system from Lake Superior to tide water overcomes a difference of about 600 ft., and carries large quantities of grain from the west to Montreal, the head of summer navigation on the Atlantic. These canals have a minimum depth of 14 ft. on the sills, and are open to Canadian and American vessels on equal terms; the equipment is in every respect of the most modern character. So great, however, is the desire to shorten the time and distance necessary for the transportation of grain from Lake Superior to Montreal that an increasing quantity is taken by water as far as the Lake Huron and Georgian Bay ports, and thence by rail to Montreal. Numerous smaller canals bring Ottawa into connexion with Lake Champlain and the Hudson river via Montreal; by this route the logs and sawn lumber of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick find their destination. It has long been a Canadian ideal to shorten the distance from Lake Superior to the sea. With this object in view, the Trent Valley system of canals has been built, connecting Lake Ontario with the Georgian Bay (an arm of Lake Huron) via Lake Simcoe. In 1899 and subsequently surveys were made with a view to connecting the Georgian Bay through the intervening water stretches, with the Ottawa river system, and thence to Montreal. In 1903 all tolls were taken off the Canadian canals, greatly to the benefit of trade.
Mining
The mineral districts occur from Cape Breton to the islands in the Pacific and the Yukon district. Nova Scotia, British Columbia and the Yukon are still the most productive, but the northern parts of Ontario are proving rich in the precious metals. Coal, chiefly bituminous, occurs in large quantities in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and in various parts of the north-west (lignite), though most of the anthracite is imported from the United States, as is the greater part of the bituminous coal used in Ontario. Under the stimulus of federal bounties, the production of pig iron and of steel, chiefly from imported ore, is rapidly increasing. Bounties on certain minerals and metals are also given by some of the provinces. The goldfields of the Yukon, though still valuable, show a lessening production. Sudbury, in Ontario, is the centre of the nickel production of the world, the mines being chiefly in American hands, and the product exported to the United States. Of the less important minerals, Canada is the world's chief producer of asbestos and corundum. Copper, lead, silver and all the important metals are mined in the Rocky Mountain district. From Quebec westwards, vast regions are still partly, or completely, unexplored.
Lumber
In spite of great improvidence, and of loss by fire, the forest wealth of Canada is still the greatest in the world. Measures have been taken, both by the provincial and the federal governments, for its preservation, and for re-forestation of depleted areas. Certain provinces prohibit the exportation of logs to the United States, in order to promote the growth of saw-mills and manufactures of wooden-ware within the country, and the latter have of late years developed with great rapidity. The lumber trade of British Columbia has suffered from lack of an adequate market, but is increasing with the greater demand from the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. A great development has also taken place in Ontario and the eastern provinces, through the use of spruce and other trees, long considered comparatively useless, in the manufacture of wood-pulp for paper-making.
Crown Lands
Large areas of unoccupied land remain in all the provinces (except Prince Edward Island). In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, the so-called railway belt of British Columbia and the territories, these crown lands are chiefly owned by the federal parliament; in the other provinces, by the local legislatures. So great is their extent that, in spite of the immigration of recent years, the Dominion government gives a freehold of 160 acres to every bona fide settler, subject to certain conditions of residence and the erection of buildings during the first three years. Mining and timber lands are sold or leased at moderate rates. All crown lands controlled by the provinces must be paid for, save in certain districts of Ontario, where free grants are given, but the price charged is low. The Canadian Pacific railway controls large land areas in the two new provinces; and large tracts in these provinces are owned by land companies. Both the Dominion and the provincial governments have set apart certain areas to be preserved, largely in their wild state, as national parks. Of these the most extensive are the Rocky Mountains Park at Banff, Alberta, owned by the Dominion government, and the "Algonquin National Park," north-east of Lake Simcoe, the property of Ontario.
Fisheries
The principal fisheries are those on the Atlantic coast, carried on by the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and the eastern section of Quebec. Cod, herring, mackerel and lobsters are the fish chiefly caught, though halibut, salmon, anchovies and so-called sardines are also exported. Bounties to encourage deep-sea fishing have been given by the federal government since 1882. In British Columbian waters the main catch is of salmon, in addition to which are halibut, oolachan, herring, sturgeon, cod and shellfish. The lakes of Ontario and Manitoba produce white fish, sturgeon and other fresh-water fish. About 80,000 persons find more or less permanent employment in the fishing industry, including the majority of the Indians of British Columbia.
The business of fur-seal catching is carried on to some extent in the North Pacific and in Bering Sea by sealers from Victoria, but the returns show it to be a decreasing industry, as well as one causing friction with the United States. Indeed, no department of national life has caused more continual trouble between the two peoples than the fisheries, owing to different laws regarding fish protection, and the constant invasion by each of the territorial waters of the other.
Education
The British North America Act imposes on the provincial legislatures the duty of legislating on educational matters, the privileges of the denominational and separate schools in Ontario and Quebec being specially safeguarded. In 1871, the New Brunswick legislature abolished the separate school system, and a contest arose which was finally settled by the authority of the legislature being sustained, though certain concessions were made to the Roman Catholic dissentients. Subsequently a similar difficulty arose in Manitoba, where the legislature in 1890 abolished the system of separate schools which had been established in 1871. After years of bitter controversy, in which a federal ministry was overthrown, a compromise was arranged in 18 9 7, in which the Roman Catholic leaders have never fully acquiesced. In the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, formed in 1905, certain educational privileges (though not amounting to a separate school system) were granted to the Roman Catholics.
All the provinces have made sacrifices to insure the spread of education. In 1901, 76% of the total population could read and write, and 86% of those over five years of age. These percentages have gradually risen ever since federation, especially in the province of Quebec, which was long in a backward state. The school systems of all the provinces are, in spite of certain imperfections, efficient and well-equipped, that of Ontario being especially celebrated. A fuller account of their special features will be found under the articles on the different provinces.
Numerous residential schools exist and are increasing in number with the growth of the country in wealth and culture. In Quebec are a number of so-called classical colleges, most of them affiliated with Laval University.
Higher education was originally organized by the various religious bodies, each of which retains at least one university in more or less integral connexion with itself. New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba support provincial universities at Fredericton, Toronto and Winnipeg. Those of most importance 1 are: - Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. (1818); the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B. (1800); McGill University, Montreal, Que. (1821); Laval University, Quebec, and Montreal, Que. (1852); Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. (1841); the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. (1827); 1 The date of foundation is given in brackets.
Trinity University, Toronto, Ont. (1852); Victoria University, Toronto, Ont. (1836); the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont. (1848); the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man. (1877).
Of these McGill (see Montreal) is especially noted for the excellence of its training in practical and applied science. Many of the students, especially in the departments of medicine and theology, complete their education in the United States, Britain or Europe.
Most of the larger towns and cities contain public libraries, that of Toronto being especially well-equipped.
Of the numerous learned and scientific societies, the chief is the Royal Society of Canada, founded in 1881.
Defence
The command in chief of all naval and military forces is vested in the king, but their control rests with the federal parliament. The naval forces, consisting of a fisheries protection service, are under the minister of marine and fisheries, the land forces under the minister of militia and defence. Prior to 1903, command of the latter was vested in a British officer, but since then has been entrusted to a militia council, of which the minister is president. The fortified harbours of Halifax (N.S.) and Esquimalt (B.C.) were till 1905 maintained and garrisoned by the imperial government, but have since been taken over by Canada. This has entailed the increase of the permanent force to about 5000 men. Previously, it had numbered about 1000 (artillery, dragoons, infantry) quartered in various schools, chiefly to aid in the training of the militia. In this all able-bodied citizens between the ages of 18 and 6!o are nominally enrolled, but the active militia consists of about 45, 00 0 men of all ranks, in a varying state of efficiency. These cannot be compelled to serve outside the Dominion, though special corps may be enlisted for this purpose, as was done during the war in South Africa (1899-1902). At Quebec is a Dominion arsenal, rifle and ammunition factories. Cadet corps flourish in most of the city schools. At Kingston (Ont.) is the Royal Military College, to the successful graduates of which a certain number of commissions in the British service is annually awarded.
Justice and Crime. - Justice is well administered throughout the country, and even in the remotest mining camps there has been little of the lawlessness seen in similar districts of Australia and the United States. For this great credit is due to the " North-west mounted police," the " Riders of the Plains," a highly efficient body of about seven hundred men, under the control of the federal government. Judges are appointed for life by the Dominion parliament, and cannot be removed save by impeachment before that body, an elaborate process never attempted since federation, though more than once threatened. From the decisions of the supreme court of Canada appeal may be made to the judicial committee of the imperial privy council.
Authorities
- The Canadian Geological Survey has published (Ottawa, since 1845) a series of reports covering a great number of subjects. Several provinces have bureaus or departments of mines, also issuing reports. The various departments of the federal and the provincial governments publish annual reports and frequent special reports, such as the decennial report on the census, from which a vast quantity of information may be obtained. Most of this is summed up in the annual Statistical Year Book of Canada and in the Official Handbook of the Dominion of Canada, issued at frequent intervals by the Department of the Interior. See also J. W. White (the Dominion geographer), Atlas of Canada (1906); J. Castell Hopkins, Canada: an Encyclopaedia (6 vols., 1898-1900); The Canadian Annual Review (yearly since 1902), replacing H. J. Morgan's Canadian Annual Register (1878-1886); Sir J. W. Dawson, Handbook of Canadian Geology (1889); George Johnson, Alphabet of First Things in Canada (3rd ed., 1898); A. G. Bradley, Canada in the Twentieth Century (1903); Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada (yearly since 1883); R. C. Breckenridge, The Canadian Banking System (1895); A. Shortt, History of Canadian Banking (1902-1906); Sir S. Fleming, The Intercolonial (1876); John Davidson, " Financial Relations of Canada and the Provinces " (Economic Journal, June 1905); Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, passim, for valuable papers by H. M. Ami, A. P. Coleman, G. M. Dawson, W. F. Ganong, B. J. Harrington and others; also articles in Canadian Economics and in the Handbook of Canada, published on the occasion of visits of the British Association.
(W. L. G.) Agriculture Canada is pre-eminently an agricultural country. Of the total population (estimated in 1907 at 6,440,000) over 50% are directly engaged in practical agriculture. In addition large numbers are engaged in industries arising out of agriculture; among these are manufacturers of agricultural implements, millers of flour and oatmeal, curers and packers of meat, makers of cheese and butter, and persons occupied in the transportation and commerce of grain, hay, live stock, meats, butter, cheese milk, eggs, fruit and various other products. The country is splendidly formed for the production of food. Across the continent there is a zone about 3 500 m. long and as wide as or wider than France, with (over a large part of this area) a climate adapted to the production of foods of superior quality. Since the opening of the 10th century, great progress has been made in the settlement and agricultural development of the western territories between the provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia. The three " North-West Provinces " (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) have a total area of 369,869,898 acres, of which 12,853,120 acres are water. In 1906 their population was 808,863, nearly double what it was in 1901. The land in this vast area varies in virginal fertility, but the best soils are very rich in the constituents of plant food. Chemical analyses made by Mr F. T. Shutt have proved that soils from the NorthWest Provinces contain an average of 18,000 lb of nitrogen, 15,580 lb of potash and 6,700 lb of phosphoric acid per acre, these important elements of plant food being therefore present in much greater abundance than they are in ordinary cultivated European soils of good quality. The prairie lands of Manitoba and Saskatchewan produce wheat of the finest quality. Horse and cattle ranching is practised in Alberta, where the milder winters allow of the outdoor wintering of live stock to a greater degree than is possible in the colder parts of Canada. The freezing of the soil in winter, which at first sight seems a drawback, retains the soluble nitrates which might otherwise be drained out. The copious snowfall protects vegetation, supplies moisture, and contributes nitrogen to the soil. The geographical position of Canada, its railway systems and steamship service for freight across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, are favourable to the extension of the export trade in farm products to European and oriental countries. Great progress has been made in the development of the railway systems of Canada, and the new transcontinental line from the Atlantic to the Pacific, passing through Saskatchewan via Saskatoon, and Alberta via Edmonton, renders possible of settlement large areas of fertile wheat-growing soil. The canal system of Canada, linking together the great natural waterways, is also of much present and prospective importance in cheapening the transportation of agricultural produce.
Of wheat many varieties are grown. The methods of cultivation do not involve the application of so much hand labour per acre as in Europe. The average yield of wheat for the Crops. whole of Canada is nearly 20 bushels per acre. In 1901 the total production of wheat in Canada was 552 million bushels. In 1906 the estimated total production was 136 million bushels. The total wheat acreage, which at the census of 1901 was 4,224,000, was over 6,200,000 in 1906, an increase of nearly two million acres in five years.
Up to the close of the 19th century, Ontario was the largest wheat-growing province in Canada. In 1900 the wheat acreage in Ontario was 1,487,633, producing 28,418,907 bushels, an average yield of 19.10 bushels per acre. Over three-quarters of this production was of fall or winter wheat, the average yield of which in Ontario over a series of years since 1883 had been about 20 bushels per acre. But the predominance in wheatgrowing has now shifted to the new prairie regions of the west. A census taken in 1906 shows that the total acreage of wheat in the North-West Provinces was 5,062,493, yielding 110,586,824 bushels, an average in a fairly normal season of 21.84 bushels per acre. Of this total wheat acreage, 2,721,079 acres were in Manitoba, 2,117,484 acres in Saskatchewan, and 223,930 acres in Alberta, with average yields per acre at the rates of 20.02 bushels in Manitoba, 23.70 in Saskatchewan and 26.49 in Alberta. In these provinces spring wheat is almost universally sown, except in Alberta where fall or winter wheat is also sown to a considerable extent. Summer fallowing for wheat is a practice that has gained ground in the North-West Provinces. Land ploughed and otherwise tilled, but left unseeded during the summer, is sown with wheat in the succeeding autumn or spring. Wheat on summer fallow land yielded, according to the NorthWest census of 1906, from 2 to 8 bushels per acre more than that sown on other land. Summer fallowing is, however, subject to one drawback: the strong growth which it induces is apt to retard the ripening of the grain. Canada is clearly destined to rank as one of the most important grain-producing countries of the world. The northern limits of the wheat-growing areas have not been definitely ascertained; but samples of good wheat were grown in 1907 at Fort Vermilion on the Peace river, nearly 600 m. north of Winnipeg in lat. 58.34 and at Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie river in lat. 61.5 2, more than Boo m. north of Winnipeg and about moo m. north of the United States boundary. As a rule the weather during the harvesting period permits the grain to be gathered safely without damage from sprouting. Occasionally in certain localities in the north-west the grain is liable to injury from frost in late summer; but as the proportion of land under cultivation increases the climate becomes modified and the danger from frost is appreciably less. The loss from this cause is also less than formerly, because any grain unfit for export is now readily purchased for the feeding of animals in Ontario and other parts of eastern Canada.
Suitable machinery for cleaning the grain is everywhere in general use, so that weed seeds are removed before the wheat is ground. This gives Canadian wheat excellent milling properties, and enables the millers to turn out flour uniform in quality and of high grade as to keeping properties. Canadian flour has a high reputation in European markets. It is known as flour from which bakers can make the best quality of bread, and also the largest quantity per barrel, the quantity of albuminoids being greater in Canadian flour than in the best brands of European. Owing to its possession of this characteristic of what millers term " strength," i.e. the relative capacity of flour to make large loaves of good quality, Canadian flour is largely in demand for blending with the flour of the softer English wheats. For this reason some of the strong Canadian wheats have commanded in the home market 5s. and 6s. a quarter more than English-grown wheat. At the general census of 1901 the number of flouring and grist mill establishments, each employing five persons and over, was returned at 400, the number of employes being 4251 and the value of products $31,835,873. A special census of manufactures in 1906 shows that these figures had grown in 1905 to 832 establishments, 5619 employes and $56,703,269 value of the products. There is room for a great extension in the cultivation of wheat and the manufacture and exportation of flour.
In the twelve months of 1907 Canada exported 37,503,057 bushels of wheat of the value of $34,132,759 and 1,858,485 barrels of flour of the value of $7,626,408. The corresponding figures in 1900 were - wheat,16, 844, 6 50 bushels,value, $11,995,488, and flour, 768,162 bushels, value, $2,791,885.
Oats of fine quality are grown in large crops from Prince Edward Island on the Atlantic coast to Vancouver Island on the Pacific coast. Over large areas the Canadian soil and climate are admirably adapted for producing oats of heavy weight per bushel. In all the provinces of eastern Canada the acreage under oats greatly exceeds that under wheat. The annual average oat crop in all Canada is estimated at about 248 million bushels. As the total annual export of oats is now less than three million bushels the home consumption is large, and this is an advantage in maintaining the fertility of the soil. In 1907 the area under oats in Ontario was 2,932,509 acres and yielded 83,524,301 bushels, the area being almost as large as that of the acreage under hay and larger than the combined total of the other principal cereals grown in the province. Canadian oatmeal is equal in quality to the best. It is prepared in different forms, and in various degrees of fineness.
Barley was formerly grown for export to the United States for malting purposes. After the raising of the duty on barley under the McKinley and Dingley tariffs that trade was practically destroyed and Canadian farmers were obliged to find other uses for this crop. Owing to the development of the trade with the mother-country in dairying and meat products, barley as a home feeding material has become more indispensable than ever. Before the adoption of the McKinley tariff about nine million bushels of barley were exported annually, involving the loss of immense stores of plant food. In 1907, with an annual production of nearly fifty million bushels, only a trifling percentage was exported, the rest being fed at home and exported in the form of produce without loss from impoverishment of the soil. The preparation of pearl or pot barley is an incidental industry.
Rye is cultivated successfully, but is seldom used for human food. Flour from wheat, meal from oats, and meal from Indian corn are preferred.
Buckwheat flour is used in considerable quantities in some districts for the making of buckwheat cakes, eaten with maple syrup. These two make an excellent breakfast dish, characteristic of Canada and some of the New England states. There are also numerous forms of preparations from cereals, sold as breakfast foods, which, owing to the high quality of the grains grown in Canada and the care exercised in their manufacture, compare favourably with similar products in other countries.
Peas in large areas are grown free from serious trouble with insect pests. Split peas for soup, green peas as vegetables and sweet peas for canning are obtained of good quality.
Vegetables are grown everywhere, and form a large part of the diet of the people. There is a comparatively small export, except in the case of turnips and potatoes and of vegetables which have been canned or dried. Besides potatoes, which thrive well and yield large quantities of excellent quality, there are turnips, carrots, parsnips and beets. The cultivation of sugar beets for the manufacture of sugar has been established in Ontario and in southern Alberta, where in 1906 an acreage under this crop of 3344 yielded 27,211 tons, an average of 8.13 tons per acre. Among the common vegetables used in the green state are peas, beans, cabbage, cauliflowers, asparagus, Indian corn, onions, leeks, tomatoes, lettuce, radish, celery, parsley, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash and rhubarb. Hay, of good quality of timothy (Phleum pratense), and also of timothy and clover, is grown over extensive areas. For export it is put up in bales of about 150 lb each. Since 1899 a new form of pressing has been employed, whereby the hay is compressed to stow in about 70 cub. ft. per ton. This has been a means of reducing the ocean freight per ton. The compact condition permits the hay to be kept with less deterioration of quality than under the old system of more loose baling. Austrian brome grass (Bromus inermis) and western rye grass (Agropyrum tenerum) are both extensively grown for hay in the North-West Provinces.
| [AGRICULTURE |
The almost universal adoption of electrical