Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/135

* CANADA. 107 CANADA. !>riiinesota). the Winnipe;; River, and the lakes ihmitoba, Dauphin, and Winnipegoosis, which, to- gether, equal or exceed the bulk of Lake Erie. Lake Winnipeg itself is nearly as spacious as Lake Huron, and pours its waters through the great Nelson River, a series of rapids descending to Hudson Bay. The Saskatchewan and Red riv- ers were the former avenues of travel, and their valleys are now the seat of the principal popula- tion and industry in the Xortlnest. III. The mountainous western border of Cana- da consists of a lx>lt of snowy ranges from 500 to liOO miles in width. On the east are the Rocky Mountiiins. continuous with those of Mon- tana, which consist of gigantic uplifts and fold- ings of the strata. Hence the scenery presents series of vast beilded clitfs, and weather-worn, jagged sumniits. instead of the roimded domes and slopes familiar in the southern Rockies. The ranges run northwest in approximately parallel lines, which are capped with snow and glaciers. This is due to their high latitude rather than to altitude, since there are but few peaks that ex- ceed 11,000 feet, except between latitudes .52° and 53°, where a number of peaks have recently been described whose elevations appear to exceed 13,- 000 and 14,000 feet. Mounts Columbia, Forbes, Bryce. Alberta, and Freslilield are seemingly the highest of these. A somewhat distinctive range west of the first is the Selkirk, in which are the headwaters of the Columbia River, and which carries the (ireat or lllecilleweat glacier. Then conies the Gold or Columbia Range, while farther west lies a broad, elevated plateau valley, drained by the Thompson and Fraser rivers, and forming the centre of British Columbia. Between this valley and the Pacific Coast extends a belt of intricate coa,«t ranges, which northward form the boundary mountains between Canada and Alaska, and whose outermost summits consti- tute the line of islands — Vancouver, Queen Char- lotte, and the Alexander Archipelago — which characterize that coast. (See British CoLrM- DIA and AI.ASKA.) It is through these coast ranges that the Fraser River (about equal to the Ohio) cuts its way in a series of magnificent canons. These orographic features have had a very important bearing on both the climate and the economic value of this part of the country. Climate and Soil. The difficulty which meets one at the outset who attempts a brief generali- zation of Canada in any of its broader aspects is well stated by (me of the latest essayists in this direction. "To characterize in a few lines," he re- marks, "a country covering more than half the continent of North America, and reaching from the latitude of Constantinople to the North Pole: .a country whose circuitou.s coast line on the Atlantic measures 10.000 miles, and whose western shore upon the Pacific, studded with islands and indented by secure harbors and deep inlets, attains almost an equal length; a coun- try where maize and peaches are staple crops, and where vegetation fades out ujmn the deso- late and melancholy shores of the Arctic Ocean — to characterize such a country by a few general phrases is evidently impossible. If we look at the eastern portion alone, we see the greatest forest region in the world. If we consider the central portion, we are regarding the great prairie country: but if we cross the passes into the Pacific Province, we enter up(m that 'sea of mountains' compared with which the most moun- VOL. IV.— ». tainous country in Europe is of limited extent." In the northeastern region, the 'Hudson Bay Country,' the characteristics are Arctic or sub- Arctic — a brief, warm summer and a long, cold winter, with much fog at all seasons on the ice- bound coast. The current of cold water flowing down that coast past Greenland keeps the en- trance to Hudson Bay frozen nearly two-thirds of the year, and often packs ice along the coast of Labrador so persistently as to make it inaccessible until midsummer; while the region of the Gulf of Newfoundland abounds in fog, and the air of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is surprisingly cool, Avith much rain and snow. In the northern interior dry and severe cold prevails ever half of the .vear, the mercury, even as far south as ^lanitoba, frequently- dropping to 50 degrees below zero of the Fahrenheit scale. The climate of the .Saint Lawrence Valley, however, is excellent — cold, dry, and bracing, with much snoAv and occasional severe cold in winter, and in summer heat without much moisture, but usu- ally an abundance of rain for crops, which are also nourished by the moisture given to the ground by the plentiful snow. In the Maritime Provinces the neighborhood of the ocean modifies the extremes both of winter cold and summer heat, but causes more rain and fog. As for soil, north of the Laurentian Hills, and through the Hudson Bay and Labrador regions, it is scanty, and little except garden vegetables can be grown, because of the lial)ility to summer frosts. In the valley of the Saint Lawrence, however, a belt of alluvial lowland near the river is extremely fer- tile; and the whole of southern Ontario, by rea- son of its moderate climate and varied " soils, largely the result of glacial deposits, is exceed- ingly well adapted to agriculture in all its phases, and to the raising of all the hardier fruits. The grain crops and apples of Ontario are famous. There is little space among the rocky hills of northern Ontario for agriculture, and the winters are rather too severe north and west of Lake Superior : but when the plains of Manitoba are reached, highly favorable conditions for agi-iculture are again encountered. The soil of the Red River Valley, including the valleys of the Assiniboine and Souris (Mouse), is a deep black prairie loam of the highest fertility. The same may lie said of the whole plains region, even on the high western steppes, where only water is needed to insure great productivity, and of all the valleys of British Columbia and its coast. The climate of the more southerly, habitable part of the Canadian Northwest is "much more favorable to life than one wouid suppose from a knowledge of its latitude merely. The isotherm of 5° V. mean summer heat, which is that of the St. Lawrence Valley at Quebec, cuiTes north- ward along the south shore of Lake Superior and through Manitoba and Assiniboia to north- ern Allierta. This increase of warmth west- ward and northward, as the mountains are approached, is due to the effect of the mountains upon th(? prevailing air-currents. There, as else- where, the usual winds blow from the west, and come to the coast expanded and saturated Avith warmth and moisture, after flowing for thousands of miles across the Pacific, w-Iiose waters are twenty degrees warmer than are those of the North Atlantic. Vancouver Island and the coast of British Columbia have a climate, in con- sequence, much like that of the south of England,