CANADA 



1102 



CANADA 



The prairies of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and 

 Alberta are almost treeless. Manitoba has 

 small areas of spruce, fir, cedar, poplar, paper 

 birch, ash and other trees, but they are of 

 little importance except locally. In Southern 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta the only native trees 

 are poplar, willow and cottonwood, and even 

 these are confined to the banks of the rivers. 

 North of the Saskatchewan River the vegeta- 

 tion becomes more plentiful, and from Hudson 

 Bay to the Rocky Mountains is a broad belt 

 of spruce, tamarack and poplar. The trees are 

 not as large as those of the Eastern sections, 

 nor are they as important commercially. A 

 few spring flowers, notably the crocus, flourish 

 on the prairies, but the dry summer heat seems 

 to prevent the growth of any later flowers, even 

 of the hardy daisy. 



The greatest forests remaining in Canada are 

 in the Pacific, or mountain, belt. There are 

 thousands of square miles of virgin timber, 

 giant trees, many of them 200 to 300 feet high. 

 Spruce, hemlock and cedar are most common in 

 these regions. 



The Animals of Canada. The animal life of 

 Canada, like the plant life, may be divided into 

 several belts, or regions. Roughly considered, 

 these belts are circumpolar ; that is, the animals 

 found there are of the same species as those 

 found in Europe and Asia at the same distance 

 from the North Pole. There, are no animals 

 which are distinctively Canadian and not found 

 elsewhere. The beaver, to be sure, is so com- 

 mon and so characteristic that it has become 

 the national emblem, but the beaver is also 

 found in other countries, though in ever- 

 decreasing numbers. 



Of the larger animals there is still a great 

 variety in the unsettled regions. The musk-ox 

 and the caribou are common in the Hudson 

 Bay region and farther south in winter, and 

 the woodland caribou is found in all the prov- 

 inces except Prince Edward Island. The stately 

 moose ranges the forests, and a few bison, the 

 American buffaloes, roam over the plains, once 

 the home of countless thousands of these char- 

 acteristically American animals. The Virginian 

 deer and the black-tailed deer are still plentiful 

 in all Southern Canada, but the wapiti, or 

 American elk, which once wandered in great 

 bands from Quebec to the Pacific and from 

 the Peace River far southward into the United 

 States, has been almost exterminated. Only 

 a few small bands still remain on the prairies. 

 The pronghofrn antelope is another native of 

 the plains. 



The black bear is common in nearly all parts 

 of Canada, except along the Arctic shores, 

 where the polar bear has his haunts. In the 

 Rockies and the other mountains in the West 

 there are many grizzly and brown bears. More 

 characteristic of the mountains perhaps are the 

 bighorn, or Rocky Mountain sheep, and the 

 Rocky Mountain goat, whose agility and sure- 

 footedness, even on the sharpest peaks and 

 the most precipitous slopes, protect them from 

 wholesale slaughter. Among the other large 

 animals still to be found in various parts of 

 the Dominion are the timber wolf, the coyote, 

 the puma (or cougar) and the red fox. Silver 

 fox, lynx, beaver, otter, marten, fisher, mink 

 and skunk are the most important and numer- 

 ous of the fur-bearing animals. Hares, rab- 

 bits and squirrels are plentiful in many parts. 

 All the fur-bearing and game animals are non- 

 protected by law from hunters during stated 

 seasons, but their number, nevertheless, seems 

 to be steadily decreasing, and the fur trade is 

 becoming of less and less importance. 



Birds. Although Canada has a few birds 

 which are unknown in regions to the south, 

 most of Canada's birds are migratory and are 

 well known in all temperate climates. Canada 

 is their breeding-ground, but when the cold 

 weather approaches they flock to the warmer 

 southland (see BIRDS, subtitle Migration of 

 Birds). The game birds, or wild fowl, are par- 

 ticularly numerous in the west, where their 

 breeding-grounds extend from Southern Mani- 

 toba and the Western prairies even to the 

 Arctic Ocean. Besides many ducks and geese, 

 there are gulls, cormorants, albatrosses, fulmars, 

 petrels and other sea-birds. Golden eagles, 

 bald-headed eagles, owls, hawks, ravens and 

 crows are common. In parts of Ontario the 

 wild turkey and quail are occasionally seen, 

 and in British Columbia the California quail 

 and the mountain partridge are found. There 

 are many varieties of grouse, including the 

 prairie chicken and the so-called partridge. 

 The Canada jay, the waxwing, grosbeak, 

 snow bunting and sometimes the raven re- 

 main in Canada throughout the winter. Song- 

 birds are found everywhere, especially in 

 regions which are still well-wooded; robins, 

 orioles, thrushes and catbirds sing as gayly 

 in Canada as anywhere else, and the English 

 sparrow, though only recently introduced, is 

 already a nuisance in many towns. One of 

 the prettiest of the birds and also the smallest 

 is the ruby-throated humming bird, which is 

 everywhere, even in the mountains. 



