water-parting, and thus streams gather almost at their very shores, and flow to feed the Mississippi or the Saskatchewan. In spite of this, the excess of rainfall over evaporation in the basin of the St. Lawrence is so enormous, that the river carries as much water to the sea as the Mississippi, whose drainage area is four times as large. The river and the lakes together contain 12,000 cubic miles of water, or more than one-half the fresh water on the globe. The lakes diminish in size and decrease in altitude from west to east. Lake SUPERIOR, the most westerly of the five great inland seas, with an area of 31,500 square miles, is the largest and also the most elevated of them all-its surface being about 630 feet above the sea. It is the largest expanse of fresh water on the globe, being 420 miles in length, 160 miles in greatest breadth, and having a circuit of 1,750 miles. It is fed by over 200 impetuous torrents, and is connected by the St. Mary River with Lake Huron. The shores and islands of Lake Superior are rich in minerals, especially copper, silver, and iron, The picturesque rapids of Sault Sainte Marie have been turned by a navigable canal on the United States side, and also one on the Canadian side, Lake HURON is scarcely two-thirds the size of Lake Superior, but is quite as deep (mean depth 1,000 feet). Its shores are extremely irregular-Georgian Bay, a great inlet on the Canadian side, is almost cut off by a long peninsula and the chain of the Manitoulin Islands. Off Saginaw Bay, on the United States side, the depth is 1,800 fect, or 1,200 feet below the level of the sea. The waters of Lake Huron are remarkably pure, clear, and sweet, and the scenery in some parts is magnificent. It receives on the north the surplus waters of Lake Superior by the St. Mary River, and those of 3 Lake MICHIGAN, the only one of the Great Lakes that is entirely within the United States, by the Strait of Mackinaw. This lake is about the same size as Lake Huron, but its shores are much less indented. The traffic on it-to and from CHICAGO and MILWAUKEE, the great grain and provision ports of the West Central States-is enormous. Lake Huron overflows into Lake ERIE by a channel 100 miles long, formed by the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, and the Detroit River. Lake Erie, the fourth in size, is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, the maximum depth being only 270 feet; but the populous States to the south, and the prosperous Province of Ontario on the north, render it of immense importance as a commercial highway. The descent from Lake Superior, through Lake Huron, to Lake Erie, is very gradual and comparatively slight, but between the surface of Lake Erie and that of Lake Ontario it amounts to more than 300 feet, and the River Niagara, which connects them, is precipitated midway between them over the great Falls of Niagara-the grandest and most awe-inspiring of all the wonders of nature. The Falls and the Rapids below them are avoided by the Welland Canal, by which vessels pass directly from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. 1. The mean discharge of these great rivers is estimated at between 500,000 and 600,000 cubit feet per second. surpasses that between two oceans, whose traffic is almost as old as the world, and contributions to which are made from every country and cline on 2. Some idea of the magnitude of the trade and the globe. And this is so, in spite of the fact that industry of the surrounding country may be gained the water communication of the lakes is con from the fact that the tonnage and value of the pro-peted with by the most perfectly-equipped railway ducts which pass through the Saulte Sainte Marie systems of the age, while the commerce of Suet Canal, compressed within 7 months of the season is practically without a competitor. of navigation, exceed those which pass through the Suez Canal in the entire year. Here, in the northern part of North America, between two inland lakes, with only one shore of these developed, a commerce has been created, which 3. Lake Huron is said to contain above 3,000 islands, most of them well wooded. 4. The Cataract is divided by Goat Island inta two falls-the Horse Shoe Fall on the Cana fia side, 178 feet high, and the American Fall, 130 (eet, Lake ONTARIO, the most easterly of the Great Lakes, is the smallest of them, its area being not more than 5,400 square miles. Ontario is much deeper and lower in level than Erie, and it is also safer, but all the Great Lakes are subject to fearful storms, and some of the most awful disasters have occurred on them. The shores of Ontario, like those of Erie, are dotted with flourishing villages and many large towns. On the Canadian side are TORONTO, the capital of the Province which owes its name to the lake, KINGSTON, HAMILTON, PORT DALHOUSIE, and NIAGARA; on the American side are OSWEGO, CHARLOTTE, the port of ROCHESTER, &c. The shores of Ontario are bold and regular, except on the north-east, where Prince Edward Island and other islands and the adjoining coast are deeply indented. At Kingston, the waters of Lake Ontario flow into The River St. LAWRENCE, which, between KINGSTON and BROCKVILLE, some 40 miles below, is a broad expanse, studded with innumerable clusters of the most lovely islets. This "Lake of the Thousand Isles" is the most exquisitely beautiful lake within a river' in the world, and below it are other beautiful lake expanses and some of the grandest and most extensive rapids imaginable. The "run' over the boisterous Long Sault, the picturesque Cedars and Cascades, and the terrible Lachine Rapids,' where it seems as if the vessel must be dashed to pieces among the breakers, is most impressive. A few miles above MONTREAL, the steamer gets into smooth water, and, passing under the magnificent Victoria Bridge, steams alongside the quay of this historic city, the commercial metropolis of Canada, and now accessible by ocean steamers. Montreal stands at the junction of the St. Lawrence and its noble tributary the Ottawa. Another great tributary, the Richelieu from Lake Champlain, joins the St. Lawrence just before it expands into Lake St. Peter, the last of the lakes in its passage to the sea. Below Three Rivers, where the excessively rapid St. Maurice falls into the St. Lawrence from the north, the banks gradually increase in height, rising at Quebec into the magnificent Cape Diamond, upon which the farfamed citadel is built. The scene from the citadel or from Pointe Levis, on the opposite side of the river, is said to be, in picturesque beauty, the finest in the world. Below Quebec are the Montmorenci Falls, which are higher than those of Niagara, and the beautiful Isle of Orleans. Thence the river broadens out, receiving from the north the Saguenay, an immense river, over a mile in width and 1,000 feet in depth, which rises in Lake St. John and is navigable for the largest vessels from TADOUSSAC at its mouth to HA HA BAY, a lumbering port 70 miles up the streami. The river is now 20 miles in width, and at Cacouna, a bathing place on the southern side, the water is quite salt. From Tadoussac all the way down to the sea, the villages, churches, telegraph stations, mills, and farmhouses, all painted white, produce a dazzling contrast to the dark woods which clothe the rising grounds in the distance to their very summit. When we reach the island of Anticosti, at the entrance to the Gulf, we have covered the whole sweep of the mighty St. Lawrence, navigable for the largest ocean steamers as far as Montreal, 1,000 miles from the sea; and by a system of canals, engineered to overcome the St. Lawrence Rapids and the difference in the levels of the Great Lakes (600 feet), there is, for vessels under 14 feet draught, uninterrupted navigation from the sea to the head of Lake Superior, a distance of 2,400 miles, of which only about 70 miles are canals. 1. To avoid the Lachine Rapids, the Grenville Canal was constructed, by which vessels can reach Ottawa, where they enter the Rideau Canal which extends to Kingston on Lake Ontario. Crossing the lake, they enter the Welland Canal near the mouth of the River Niagara, and thus escape the Niagara Falls and Rapids, and reach Lake Erie In the Great Plains, which extend from Lake Superior to the Arctic Ocean and westwards from Hudson Bay to the foot of the Rockies, there is a perfect labyrinth of lakes and watercourses, connected together by cross channels, or separated only by short portages. In the Saskatchewan-Nelson River-system, Lake Winnipeg, an immense sheet of water 240 miles long and 55 miles wide, is, as it were, the central reservoir, as it receives the great navigable streams of the Red River, the Assiniboine, and the Saskatchewan, besides the overflow from Lakes Manitoba and Winni pegosis, and finds an outlet by the Nelson River into Hudson Bay. The Saskatchewan is formed by the junction of two streams, both of which rise in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta-the North Branch' having a course of 772 miles, and the South Branch about 810 miles, before they unite. From their junction, the main stream has a course of 282 miles to Lake Winnipeg. Besides the enormous mass of water brought down by this great river, Lake Winnipeg receives the drainage of an immense region by the Assiniboine from the prairie-lands of the south-west, by the Red River from the south, and the Winnipeg River from the Lake of the Woods on the south-east. The Assiniboine joins the Red River at WINNIPEG, about 40 miles from Lake Winnipeg. Both are navigable for hundreds of miles-steamers ascend the former as far as FORT ELLICE on the western border of Manitoba, and the latter, which rises within 10 miles of the Mississippi, forms an admirable water. way through North Dakota, Minnesota, and the southern part of Manitoba. The tortuous course of the Winnipeg River is broken by a succession of magni. ficent cataracts, tumultuous cascades, and foaming rapids, and it frequently expands into large lakes studded with islands. The immense mass of water thus poured into the lake finds an outlet by the Nelson River, one of the great rivers of the world, which flows into Hudson Bay by an estuary 6 miles broad. A narrow tongue of land, on which stands YORK FACTORY, separates the mouth of the Nelson from that of the Hayes River, which, with the Severn, the Albany, and other streams, drains the desolate territory between Lake Winnipeg and James Bay. The navigation of the Nelson is unfortunately obstructed by rapids and shallows, but riversteamers can ascend it for about 100 miles from the sea. It is not likely, however, to be even partially utilized, the grain and other products of Manitoba and the North-West, shipped by the Hudson Bay Route to Europe, will be brought to the seaboard by the railway that is being built from WINNIPEG to PORT NELSON. The Churchill, another river of great volume and length (over 1,000 miles), enters Hudson Bay to the north of the Nelson, and receives the overflow of an extensive system of lakes and channels in the belt between the SaskatchewanNelson and the Athabasca. Further north, the Great Fish River and the Coppermine River inundate the dreary tundras of the Arctic Coast in summer, while their lakes and expansions are frozen over during the long winter. 1. The North Branch of the Saskatchewan has the South Branch discharges more water that the greater volume of water than the Khone, while Rhine. The rest of the Great Central Plain, to the north and west of the rivers already named, belongs to the immense basin of the Athabasca Mackenzie. The MACKENZIE is by far the largest river in the American section of the Arctic river-system. Measured from the source of either of its main tributaries-the Peace River or the Athabasca--this great river has a length of not less than 2,500 miles, of which not less than 2,000 miles are navigable for steamboats, while its drainage area, estimated to embrace more than half-amillion square miles, is double that of the St. Lawrence. The Peace River, which rises in British Columbia, on the western side of the Rocky Mountains, and is noted for the boundless resources and wonderful fertility of its valley, is regarded as the main branch of the Mackenzie, but the Athabasca, the most southerly tributary, is not inferior to the Peace, either in length or volume. This great river rises on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and flowing through the Athabasca Pass, west of Robson's Peak and Mt. Murchison, the culminating points of the main ridge of "the backbone of the North American continent," it enters the great Central Plain and flows northward to Lake Athabasca, an irregular expanse of water, 230 miles in length, the principal outlet of which-the Stony River-is joined, 30 miles north of the lake, by the Peace River. The united stream, now called the Slave River, runs north for 300 miles before it enters the Great Slave Lake, from which it issues as the Mackenzie; and, after receiving from the west the Liard River, which, like the Peace River, rises to the west of the Rocky Mountains, and from the east the Great Bear River, which brings the overflow from the Great Bear Lake, the mighty stream enters the Arctic Ocean by several channels. There are innumerable islands at its mouth, some of them well grassed and wooded, although they are within the Arctic Circle, and as far north of Manitoba as Florida is south of the "Prairie Province." The Pacific slope of the Dominion is drained by the Upper Columbia and the Fraser in the south, and by tributaries of the Mackenzie and the Yukon in the north. The Columbia, the largest of the Pacific rivers of America, rises in the Columbia Lakes, on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. It has a total course of about 1,400 miles, nearly one half of which is through British territory. The upper courses of two of its tributaries-the Kootenay on the east, and the Okanagan on the west (both of which flow through, or discharge from, long lakes of the same names)-are also north of the International Boundary (49° N. lat.). The principal river of British Columbia is, however, the FRASER, which is entirely within the Province. Like the Columbia, the Fraser rises on the western side of the main ridge of the Rockies, and, curiously enough, both run north-west for about 180 miles, and then both make a sharp turn, generally known as 'The Big Bend,' to the south, flowing almost due south and nearly parallel with each other for 350 miles-the Fraser to HOPE, and the Columbia to COLVILLE-whence they each reach the sea by almost rectangular bends to the westward through profound gaps in the coast range." In the case of the Fraser, this gap or gorge extends from LYTTON to HOPE (60 miles), but steamers can ascend the river from its mouth to YALE, 13 miles above Hope; above Yale 1. The Mackenzie River is so named after Sir Alexander Mackenzie, who discovered it in 1785, and followed it to the sca in 1793. He accomplished " the whole distance, from Fort Chippewyan to the it is unnavigable even for canoes. The main western branch, the Nechaco River, and its tributary the Stuart River, bring down the waters of a long chain of lakes. On the east, the Quesnelle from the Cariboo Gold Fields, joins the Fraser at QUESNELLEMOUTH, and the Thompson from Lake Kamloops, at Lytton. 200 miles lower down. North of the Fraser, the largest rivers in British Co lumbia are the Skeena and the Nasse, both navigable for stern-wheel steamers for some distance inland. The immense and almost unknown area beyond the Stikeen River (which enters the sea 120 miles south-east of Sitka), between the Rocky Mountains and the eastern boundary of Alaska and extending north to the Arctic Ocean, is drained principally by the Liard River, a tributary of the Mackenzie, and by the Pelly and other tributaries of the Yukon. The Pelly River alone flows for 700 miles through British territory before it enters Alaska. CLIMATE: The Dominion of Canada, extending from the lati tude of the North Cape in Norway to that of Rome, naturally exhibits a great variety of climate. Generally speaking, it is severe and "formidable" in the north, but genial and temperate in the south. The summers in all parts of Canada are finer and hotter than those of England, but the winters are far colder. But in winter the air is dry, bracing, and exhilarating, and the climate of Canada is, on the whole, one of the healthiest and most favourable in the world to the highest development of man. The Dominion, from its vast extent, has been truly said to possess all the climates of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Ocean. The Gulf Stream in the Atlantic and the Japan Current in the Pacific are both singularly favourable to the maritime portions of Canada, while in Ontario, the portion enclosed between the Great Lakes, in particular, enjoys a temperate and a delightful climate. In Quebec, the winter is long and severe-the St. Lawrence 's frozen over and closed to navigation for about 140 days every year. But during the greater part of this time the sky is clear and the cold healthy and invigorating. The Maritime Provinces-New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island-have, of course, a milder and more equable climate; and while Manitoba and the North-West have a "continental" climate-a hot summer being followed by a cold winter, and spring and autumn being of ex ceedingly brief duration-the coast region of British Columbia possesses an insular climate, having all the advantages of that of England without any of its disadvantages. East of the Cascade Range, the climate is drier and more extreme, and on the higher lands the winter is as severe as in Eastern Canada. PRODUCTIONS: Immense forests, luxuriant pastures, fertile wheatlands, inexhaustible fisheries, and vast stores of mineral wealth-these are the most important of the rich and varied resources of Canada. Canada possesses thousands of square miles of the finest forests, and forest products constitute one of her main sources of wealth. Canadian forests are rich in a great variety of the most useful and valuable trees, which yield lumber of many kinds for building purposes, for furniture and, in many parts of Canada, for fuel. Among the varieties are the maple, elm, ash, cherry, beech, hickory, ironwood, pine, spruce, balsam, cedar, hemlock, walnut, oak, butternut, bass wood, poplar, chestnut, mountain ash, willow, black and white birch, and many more. |