CHAPTER XIV. 



CLIMATE, ETC. 



EMIGKATION to Canada has in times past been unfavour- 

 ably influenced by erroneous opinions that have prevailed 

 as to the severity of the Canadian climate. I have been 

 over the greater part of the continent of North America, 

 and have no hesitation in saying that in no other place is 

 the climate so healthy and conducive to length of life as 

 in Canada. The medical statistics of our army show that 

 there is no healthier station for a sound man throughout 

 the length and breadth of the British Empire than 

 British North America. I say for a " sound man," be- 

 cause I believe there are certain complaints of the lungs 

 and bronchial arrangements for which the great cold and 

 extreme changes of temperature are not suited ; but even 

 in these cases it is a question whether the Canadian 

 climate is more trying than the damp cold of our average 

 English winter. In a country as large as Europe, there 

 are of course varieties of climate ; but, as compared with 

 that of the British Isles, two general characteristics pre- 

 vail over its entire extent, viz. greater heat in summer 

 and greater cold in winter. Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, 

 and that part of New Brunswick bordering on the Bay of 

 Fundy, owing to their propinquity to the Arctic current, 

 combine the worst features of the Canadian and of the 

 English climates, viz. savage cold with rain and fog, 



