CANADA 



1094 



CANADA 



of the total population, live in towns or cities 

 having more than 5,000 inhabitants. The total 

 urban population is 3,280,964 and the total 

 rural population is 3,925,679. 



Their Origins. The Dominion of Canada, 

 like the United States, includes people from 

 all parts of the civilized world. This varied 

 stock has come more recently than in the case 

 of the United States, and the process of absorp- 

 tion is comparatively slow. The French were 

 the first settlers, and to this day, in the prov- 

 ince of Quebec, there are hundreds of com- 

 munities which are as French as they were 

 150 years ago. French is still the native tongue 

 of nearly all Quebec. In Nova Scotia the early 

 settlers were mostly Scotch, whereas in New 

 Brunswick, Ontario and the eastern townships 

 of Quebec the first important settlements were 



(o) Canadian citizens born in the United 

 States are classified in this table according to 

 the country from which thejr ancestors came. 



(6) Includes 5,619,682 born in Canada. 



(c) Includes Polish and Russian Jews. 



(d) Includes 303,680 born in the United States. 



made by United Empire Loyalists from New 

 England. The Western provinces also have 

 their share of Scotch, Irish, English and French, 

 as well as a larger proportion of other nation- 

 alities. The table in column one shows the 

 birth or descent of the most numerous foreign 

 elements. For the purposes of this table, which 

 is based on the census of 1911, the original 

 Canadians, the Indians, are included. 



Their Religions. The Dominion has no State 

 Church, although in Quebec the Roman Cath- 

 olic Church has certain privileges which it has 

 held since the days of French rule. The Ro- 

 man Catholic Church was for a long time the 

 only Church in Canada, and it still has the 

 largest number of adherents, the Roman Catho- 

 lics comprising about forty per cent of the pop- 

 ulation. The Roman Catholics are strongest 

 in Quebec and are of least relative importance 

 in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. The Pres- 

 byterians, Methodists and Anglicans rank next 

 in order in the number of members. The 

 table below shows the membership of the 

 leading denominations at the census of 1911 : 



Physical Characteristics of the Dominion 



The physical features of Canada are com- 

 paratively simple and easily understood. 

 More than one-half of the total surface slopes 

 gently towards Hudson Bay. To the east and 

 west are higher lands, rising in the west to 

 some of the highest mountains in North Amer- 

 ica. The interior is not so much a valley as 

 a great trough, irregular in shape, but con- 

 siderably wider at the north than at the south. 

 Although the .whole of this interior might be 

 expected to drain into Hudson Bay, two low 



heights of land are sufficient to turn Canada's 

 largest rivers, the Mackenzie and the Saint 

 Lawrence, into smaller troughs of their own; 

 the Mackenzie flows northwest to the Arctic 

 Ocean and the Saint Lawrence northeast to 

 the Atlantic Ocean. 



For purposes of study, then, the surface may 

 be divided into these three regions: (1) The 

 hilly eastern half, including the Laurentian 

 plateau and the extension of the Appalachian 

 system east of the Saint Lawrence Valley; 



