506 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN iNSTllUTlON, 1916. 



know. Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Victoria are flourishing cities; 

 the whole habitable country has been more or less explored and 

 provisionally mapped, partly by individual explorers but mainly by 

 the Canadian Survey ; w^aving fields of wheat have taken the place of 

 the rank grass of the prairie ; great cattle ranches reach to the foot of 

 the Kocky Mountains; coal mines are being worked in the east and 

 west. The area of settlement and of agriculture has been pushed 

 some degrees farther north and northwest; the British Atlantic has 

 been connected with the British Pacific by railways which make 

 Britain independent of all foreign routes. 



The caterpillar shading which indicated the Rocky Mountains 

 from Alaska to California has given place to complicated ranges, 

 with characteristic buttressing features, great plateaus with many 

 offshoots, and beautiful coast ranges. All the vastly increased 

 knowledge of Canada has led to the development of its resources 

 at a constantly increasing rate. The whole country has l^een united 

 into one great Dominion, divided into many Provinces, in place of 

 the Upper and Lower Canada of half a century ago. The popu- 

 lation has increased from 3,000,000 to over 8,000,000, but Canada is 

 capable of sustaining ten times that number. Over 110,000,000 acres 

 of land are occupied, and of this 10,000,000 acres are under wheat 

 and an equal area under oats. The annual value of the mineral 

 products alone amounts to about 30,000,000 sterling, and of manu- 

 factures to 240,000,000 sterling, while the total exports approach 

 closely to 100,000,000. I give these figaires as affording some idea 

 of the vast progress made by Canada in the half century in expand- 

 ing this great country and obtaining a knowledge of its resources. 

 But there is ample room for still further exploration and develop- 

 ment, and more detailed and accurate mapping ; during tlie next half 

 century the progress achieved must be much greater than in the past. 



What Canada has done in the north the United States has done 

 on a much greater scale in the south — naturally so, when one con- 

 siders the difference in climate over the whole area. Not to men- 

 tion the work of individual explorers, the survey men have pene- 

 trated into the remotest regions; have told a wondering world of 

 the canyons of the Colorado, those 5, 000 -feet- deep gorges which are 

 matchless specmiens of nature's sculpture; of the gorgeous beauties 

 of the Yellowstone Park; the witcheries of the Yosemite; the great 

 deserts Avhich the coast ranges deprive of moisture; and the Rocky 

 Mountains themselves with their picturesque peaks and rich upland 

 parks. 



As a result of all this activity the whole of the 3,500,000 square 

 miles of the Republic has been occupied; with the exception of 

 remote Alaska, all the old Territories have been organized into 

 States; the population has risen from 30,000,000 to over 100,000,000; 



