CANADA 



1096 



CANADA 



(2) the interior plains, characterized by their 

 lack of trees; (3) the mountains between the 

 plains and the Pacific coast, including the 

 Rocky Mountains and a number of smaller 

 ranges. Each of these sections is described in 

 detail below. 



1. Eas'tern Canada. In this part is included 

 all the territory from Hudson Bay to the 

 Labrador coast, as well as an area west of 

 Hudson Bay (see LAURENTIAN PLATEAU). In 

 this section the highest points, in Labrador, are 

 about 8,000 feet above the level of the Atlantic 

 Ocean. From Labrador westward the altitude 

 declines quickly, and the vast interior of North- 

 ern Quebec seldom exceeds 2,000 feet in alti- 

 tude. The interior is a succession of low 

 ridges of hard rocks, sometimes covered with a 

 few trees, but as often bare. Between these 

 ridges are lakes, swamps and rapidly-flowing 

 rivers. With the exception of the Saint Law- 

 rence, all the important rivers flow into Hudson 

 Bay, which also receives several large rivers 

 from the plains. The Hudson Bay basin is 

 bounded at the south by a ridge, hardly no- 

 ticeable; this is known as "the height of land." 



South of this ridge the rivers are tributary 

 to the Saint Lawrence, whose valley was the 

 most important physical feature in determining 

 the early course of Canadian history. Without 

 the Saint Lawrence River, French Canada 

 would probably have clung to the Atlantic 

 shores; but with it the early explorers, trap- 

 pers, traders and missionaries found an easy 

 way to the interior. It is not astonishing that 

 the Saint Lawrence Valley, including the fertile 

 plains of Southern Ontario, has always been 

 the richest and most populous part of Canada. 

 Though there are some deposits of petroleum, 

 natural gas and salt, the plains have no metals, 

 and the wealth of this section is based on its 

 fertile soil and temperate climate. The Saint 

 Lawrence Valley is essentially a farming sec- 

 tion, whereas the extensive areas of Northern 

 Ontario and Quebec are mainly unsuited for 

 cultivation. 



As the Saint Lawrence approaches its mouth 

 the valley becomes narrower and is shut in 

 by the rocky Gaspe Peninsula. This peninsula 

 and the Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, 

 Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island com- 

 prise the Acadian region. Taken as a unit this 

 region is a continuation of the Appalachian 

 highlands, which extend from Alabama north- 

 ward parallel to the Atlantic coast of the 

 United States: The coast line of these prov- 

 inces is long and irregular, both on the Atlantic 



side and on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Coal 

 and some metals are found in New Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia, and in the Gaspe Peninsula, 

 which belongs to Quebec, are copper and the 

 largest deposits of asbestos in Canada. The 

 surface of this section was once almost com- 

 pletely covered with forests, and large tracts 

 of timber still remain. 



Besides the Saint Lawrence basin and the 

 Acadian region, there is one other important 

 feature of Eastern Canada's topography the 

 Niagara escarpment (meaning a steep slope). 

 This is a line of cliffs forming a break in the 

 Saint Lawrence basin and it runs from Queens- 

 ton Heights west to the head of Lake On- 

 tario, near Hamilton, then northwest until it 

 forms the Bruce Peninsula, shutting off Geor- 

 gian Bay from Lake Huron. The Niagara 

 escarpment causes falls on the rivers which 

 plunge over it, Niagara Falls (which see) being 

 the greatest and most famous. 



2. The Interior Plains. Between Eastern Can- 

 ada and the mountains on the west is a vast 

 region of plains, about 700 miles wide from 

 east to west at the international boundary and 

 gradually narrowing to 400 at the Arctic Ocean. 

 These plains are a continuation of the great 

 interior plains of the United States, and in a 

 general way the two regions of plains are sim- 

 ilar, but the Canadian plains are more broken 

 and have more timber. The international 

 boundary, latitude 49 N., nearly coincides with 

 the watershed which divides the drainage into 

 Hudson Bay from the great Mississippi system. 

 From the international boundary the plains 

 slope gradually northward and from the Rocky 

 Mountains gradually eastward. The general 

 slope, therefore, is from southwest to north- 

 east. 



Some interesting estimates of the degree of 

 slope were made by George M. Dawson, while 

 he was director of the Dominion Geological 

 Survey. A line drawn northeast from the 

 intersection of the international boundary and 

 the mountains to a point on the prairie north 

 of Lake Winnipeg would have an average drop 

 of 5.38 feet per mile. A line drawn straight 

 east to the valley of the Red River would 

 have an average slope of 4.48 /eet per mile. 

 Southwestern Alberta has an altitude of 4,500 

 feet, whereas the lowest point in the Red 

 River Valley is only 800 feet above sea level. 



A considerable part of this difference in alti- 

 tude is due* to two escarpments, or sharp bluffs, 

 which break the surface and really form three 

 separate lands. The first level is the valley 



