Page:The West Shore volume 15 number 6.djvu/7

 THE WEST SHORE.

Fifteenth Yeau.

JUNE, 1889.

NuMIIEli G.

THE PROVINOB OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

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]R1TISII Columbia is one of the provincee of the Uoininion of Canada, and is destined to occu- py the same position with refer- ence to her sister provinces on the Atlantic slope that Oregon, Washington and California will to the states east of the Rocky mountains. Its great area, mild and equable climate, and vast wealth of natural re- sources, more varied and more valuable than those of any other portion of the dominion, will in future years render it the richest and most populous of all the provir "es embraced in the confederation. These thing., ^eing true — and there is no disputing the evi- dences which point to them by one who has given the question even a superficial examination what an in- vitation she extends to young men to employ their capital, brain and physical energy in building up the great empire which must surely be developed on this western coast! A generation hence, the youth of the land will not have this grand opportunity now offered their fathers, to begin life for themselves in a new country teeming with the natural wealth that has lain dormant since the foundation of the world. Through years of toil and privation the pioneers of this region have prepared the way, and the man who now comes to the western slope will find ample scope for his best conceptions and his greatest eiTorts.

The province embraces all that portion of North America lying north of the United States and west of the Rocky mountains, except the Alaskan penin- sula and the small strip of Alaska lying along the coast as far south as latitude fifty-four degrees and forty minutes, an empire seven hundred miles long and five hundred wide, containing about three hun- dred and forty-one thousand square miles of territo- ry. It consists of two distinct divisions, the coast re- gion and the interior, each having characteristics pe- culiar to itself. Tho former comprises the fringe of

small islands lying along the coast, omb/acing a large area in the riggregate, and that portion of the main land west of the Coast mountains. In this region the rainfall is large and the climate is mild, (-(juablo and inexpressibly lovely. The great Japan current, which BO modifies the temperature even on the far northern shores of Alaska, here exerts its benign iuthienco to its fullest, and the result is a climate where the mer- cury seldom falls below the freezing point in winter or rises above ninety degrees in summer, while tho warm and gentle rains promote tho growth of vegeta- tion. In the interior the influence of this ocean river is not so great, and the winter climate is somewhat more rigorous, but even there the temperature does not get so low, nor does the winter season last so long, as in the eastern provinces of the dominion. The snowfall there is not so great as on the Atlantic slope and the spring opens much earlier. In fact, cattle gra/.e on the open ranges all winter, subsisting on the dried bunch grass, which is as nutritious as the best cured hay.

The coast region, owing to its greater humidity, is densely covered with timber of giant proportions, chief of which »re tho Douglas fir and red oodar. Here is a mine of natural wealth that will not bo ex- hausted for a great many years. Lumbering enter- prises aro carried on quite extensively, and have been for many years, but tho greater development of this business is one of the brightest outlooks of the fu- ture. Heretofore tho market has been chiefly a for- eign one, but the development of tho province is steadily increasing the importance of the homo mar- ket. Certainly British Columbia ofTers unrivaled in- ducements to the lumber manufacturer. The interior, from the Coast mountains to tho Gold mountains, contains but little timber, but on the Gold, Selkirk and Rocky mountains there are great ranges of splendid forests, which, owing to tho unsettled condition of the region, are still practically untouched, though a fow mills have been nibbling at them for several years.

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