Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/205



1. Dominion of Canada.—If we take a map of North America we shall find that by far the greater part of its northern half is named the Dominion of Canada. On the east there is the Atlantic Ocean, on the west the Pacific, on the south the Great Lakes, and on the north the Arctic Sea. The only parts of this vast territory not in Canada are Alaska, a portion of Labrador, and the Island of Newfoundland. Its area is about 3,500,000 square miles, and is somewhat larger than the United States lying south of it. But the name Canada, has only very recently been applied to this territory, for less than twenty-five years ago that name was used to point out the Provinces marked Quebec and Ontario on the map. Then the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and British Columbia were from time to time added, and these with the great North-West Territories make up the present Dominion of Canada.

2. Early Inhabitants.—Who the first inhabitants of America were, we do not know, but we do know that they were not English, French, or the ancestors of any of the white or black people now living in Canada and the United States. Nor were the people now known as North American Indians the first to inhabit this Continent, as many remains exist of a more civilized race. Heaps of earth of curious shapes are found all over North America, (many of them in the neighborhood of Lake Superior) and these “mounds,” as they are called, contain the bones of men and other animals, stone axes, copper tools, well shaped pottery and a variety of other articles, made with a great deal of skill and taste. Then on the shores of 13