XLIV THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Looking back into the abyss of past time, we find that that part 

 of North America which we now call Canada originally consisted of 

 three widely separated land areas rising from the waters of the primeval 

 ocean. These areas are sometimes termed the pro taxes or primitive 

 axes of North America. I refer to them at the present time because, 

 while the eastern and western protaxes, marking the lines along which 

 our mountain ranges were subsequently developed, became more or 

 less buried beneath the blanket of sediments which filled in this early 

 outline of the continent; the great northern protaxis, composed of 

 the hard granite and crystalline schists of that ancient time, has re- 

 mained exposed to the present day. Its enormous expanse of 2,000,000 

 square miles represents more than half of the whole area of the Domin- 

 ion of Canada. Driven down like a wedge into southern Canada, 

 it separates the older settlements of eastern Canada from the new 

 provinces of our west. Owing to its peculiar and more or less barren 

 character it has in this way exerted a most potent and in some respects 

 sinister influence in the development of our Dominion. It will be 

 noted that this northern protaxis or " Canadian shield," as it has been 

 called by the great Austrian geologist Suess, barely passes south of 

 the Canadian boundary line. The problems which it presents in 

 Canada, are, therefore, non-existent in the United States. 



Canada falls naturally into the following physiographic divisions: 



The Canadian Shield — to which reference has just been made. 

 This is a great plateau with an average elevation of about 1,500 feet 

 above sea level. A somewhat undulating, rocky country, in the south 

 well wooded but containing little farming land. 



The Appalachian Mountain System — represented in Canada by the 

 Notre Dame and Shickshock Mountains — which crosses the boundary 

 line from New Hampshire and runs in a curving north-easterly course 

 through the province of Quebec to the extremity of the Gaspé peninsula. 



The Area of the Maritime Provinces — This lies to the east of the 

 Appalachian Mountain System — a diversified tract of country con- 

 taining considerable areas of good farming land and with important 

 coal deposits. 



The Great Plain of Central Canada — This lies along the southern 

 margin of the Canadian Shield and stretches from the Appalachian 

 Mountains on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west. Its 

 eastern portion lies in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, its western 

 and larger portion separated, however from the eastern portion by 

 the northern protaxis in the lake Superior region, forms the greater 

 part of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta. It contains 

 most of the farming land in the Dominion. 



