Gulfs and bays. Severn and Albany Rivers, which flow into Hudson's Bay. In Ontario and Quebec the St. Lawrence, with its tributaries the Ottawa, St. Maurice, Richelieu and Saguenay. In New Brunswick the St. John, Restigouche and Miramichi Rivers: and in British Columbia, the Fraser River, which flows into the Gulf of Georgia, the Peace River which rises in that Province and flows into the Mackenzie River, and the Columbia River, over 1,230 miles in length, which flows through the United States into the Pacific Ocean. 10. The coast line of Canada is very much broken and contains several large gulfs, bays and inlets, besides innumerable smaller ones. On the east the principal indents are the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy and Bay of Chaleurs; on the north, Hudson's Bay, which is really a large inland sea, being 1,000 miles long, and 600 miles wide, with an area of 350,000 square miles, Baffin's Bay, the Gulf of Boothia, and Melville and Lancaster Sounds; and on the west the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Gulf of Georgia and Queen Charlotte sound. Islands. 11. The largest islands on the west are Vancouver, and Queen Charlotte Islands, the former is about 300 miles in length, has an area of about 20,000 square miles and contains Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, and on the east, Prince Edward Island, which forms the Province of that name, Cape Breton, which is part of the Province of Nova Scotia, being separated from the mainland by the Gut of Canso, and Anticosti, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on which the Dominion Government have important signal and wrecking stations. A great network of islands the limits of which have not been well defined, extends along the entire north coast of Canada. It is known generally as the Arctic Archipelago. Physical features. 12. The whole of the eastern part of Canada, from the Atlantic to the north-west boundaries of Ontario was formerly one vast forest, and is still very extensively wooded, timber in various forms being one of the principal exports of the country. In the southern part of the centre of the Dominion is a vast tract of prairie land, while the northern portion is principally forest, and is inhabited only by a few tribes of Indians, and by officers of the Hudson Bay Company in their most advanced posts. The prairie land is covered with soil of great richness, and is adapted for the raising of cereals and roots of all kinds, while for grazing purposes it is unsurpassed, the climate being suitable for stock breeding, and the pasturage excellent, and almost unlimited. West of the Rocky Mountains is another great tract of forest land, the timber on which is invaluable, while the soil is very fertile, and the country as it becomes cleared, is found to possess great agricultural capabilities. British 13. The timber in British Columbia attains in many cases Timber in to an enormous size, specimens of the Douglas pine being Columbia. among the largest trees in the world. The following illustrations will give some idea of their great size, square timber has been cut from the Douglas pine, measuring eight feet by one hundred and five feet in length, and from one log no less than eight pieces of timber have been cut, each piece measuring 12 inches by 12 inches and fifty feet in length. Cedar trees also have been found 24 feet in diameter and 300 feet high. 14. The climate is dry, healthy and invigorating, and climate. owing to the great area of the country extending over 20 degrees of latitude, or from the latitude of Constantinople to the North Pole, has a wide range of temperature. The extreme dryness of the atmosphere, however, makes both cold and heat less acutely felt than the readings of the thermometer would lead people to expect. In the Maritime Provinces the climate somewhat resembles that of the British Climate. Temperature and Isles; in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba the summers are warm and the winters cold, but the cold is pleasant and bracing, and the snow that generally covers the ground during the winter is of the greatest benefit alike to the farmer, the lumberman and the merchant. In the NorthWest Territories cattle graze at large all through the winter months; and on the Pacific slope west of the Rocky Mountains, the climate is milder than in any other part of the Dominion. 15. The popular idea in other countries for a long time was, and indeed to a certain extent still is, that Canada is a country of perpetual winter, and normally covered with snow, and Canadians themselves are to a large extent to blame for the continuation of the idea, by almost invariably representing Canadian winter scenes in their pictures, by writing descriptions of winter amusements and pastimes alone, and, if desirous of sending their portraits to friends in other countries, by being always taken in winter costume, with probably a snow covered forest or frozen lake in the back ground. The facts are, that the average winter is about four and a half months, and though the spring may begin two or three weeks later than in England, the conditions for rapid growth-warm sunshine and rain-are so favorable that the crops of the two countries are about equally advanced by the middle of July, and as during the last few years the country has become better known, it is beginning to be understood that though the winters are at times severe, they are healthy and enjoyable, while the summer weather is not surpassed in the most favoured parts of Europe. That the climate is superior to that of England is admitted by all who have experienced both. 16. The report of the meteorological service for 1884, which rainfall for some reason was not published until late in 1887, affords the latest available information in any complete form, and from it the following summary of observations taken at ninety-seven stations has been compiled, and it is believed that a very fair idea of the variations of temperature in different parts of the Dominion can be gained therefrom. TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL IN CANADA, 1884. |