CANADA 



1108 



CANADA 



one-fifth of the area of Canada's fresh-water 

 lakes. The most important fresh-water fishes 

 are whitefish, trout, pickerel, pike and sturgeon. 

 The fresh-water fisheries also include many 

 spots in which game fish abound. Canada, in 

 fact, is the fisherman's paradise, for every part 

 of the Dominion except Southern Alberta and 

 Saskatchewan offers him unending opportunity. 

 Trout, salmon, pike, pickerel, muskelunge and 

 bass are the most numerous of the game fishes. 



Value of the Fisheries. The market value of 

 all kinds of fish and fish products taken by 

 Canadian fishermen averages $33,000,000 a 

 year; the biggest catch ever taken was in 1912, 

 when the total was $34,667,000. The table 

 on page 1107 shows the catch and the capital 

 invested by provinces, according to the reports 

 of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, 

 both for the largest year and for 1914. The 

 latter year, it will be noted, fell far behind. 



Mining 



It has long been known that -Canada is rich 

 in mineral deposits, but only in recent years 

 has the approximate extent of this resource 

 been determined. As explained above (see 

 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS), the Eastern and 

 Western sections of the Dominion are geo- 

 logically a continuation of the mountain sys- 

 tems of the United States, and it is now known 

 that the minerals found in the Appalachian 

 chain and the Rocky Mountains and Coast 

 Ranges exist in the corresponding parts of 

 Canada. There is a third mineral-bearing area, 

 the Lake Superior region, almost midway be- 

 tween the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. While 

 the existence of these mineral deposits was 

 known for years, peculiar conditions prevented 

 development. In the first place, without trans- 

 portation facilities it was impossible to mine 

 profitably. Then the mining regions had a 

 sparse population, and, except in Nova Scotia, 

 extended over a large area. The severity of 

 the climate doubtless discouraged some pros- 

 pectors, but the chief difficulty was that the 

 great coal supplies, necessary for smelting, were 

 in Nova Scotia, while the richest ore deposits 

 lay 2,000 miles or more away. 



Coal is by far the most valuable mineral 

 product at present, although gold held this 

 honor at one time. Nova Scotia for many 

 years has produced an average of 6,000,000 to 

 7,000,000 tons a year, approximately half of the 

 total for the Dominion. British Columbia, 

 with an average output of 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 

 tons, and Alberta, with an output which has 

 several times touched 4,000,000 tons, are the 

 only other important producers. Most of the 

 coal of these provinces is bituminous, or soft 

 coal, of fairly good quality, but small pockets 

 of anthracite have been opened near Calgary 

 and on Queen Charlotte Island. Anthracite 

 has also been found in Northern Ontario, along 

 the Albany River Small deposits of bitu- 

 minous coal exist in New Brunswick, but in 



the other provinces only lignite of various 

 grades is found. The total coal production of 

 the Dominion now averages 14,000,000 tons a 

 year. 



Gold. The gold production of Canada 

 reached its highest point in 1900 and 1901, when 

 the placer mines (see GOLD) of the Klondike 

 were being worked to their fullest capacity. 

 Gold has been mined in small quantities in 

 Nova Scotia almost from the days of the 

 pioneer settlers, and small deposits are known 

 in Quebec. Placer mining in British Columbia 

 was also an early industry, but the gold output 

 had never reached a total value of more than 

 $1,500,000 until 1895. In that year it was just 

 over $2,000,000; in 1897, the year of the great 

 Klondike strike, it was over $6,000,000, and by 

 1900 it reached $27,000,000. During the Klon- 

 dike excitement the introduction of lode and 

 hydraulic mining in British Columbia in- 

 creased the output of that province from an 

 average of less than $500,000 to one of $5,000,- 

 000. After 1900 the output of the Dominion 

 slowly declined until the opening of the Porcu- 

 pine district in Ontario in 1911, when it quickly 

 rose from its low average of $9,000,000 to a 

 new level of $15,000,000 or $16,000,000 a year. 

 See KLONDIKE; PORCUPINE. 



Silver and Lead. During the nineteenth cen- 

 tury silver was mined in small quantities in 

 Ontario and Quebec and to a trifling extent 

 in British Columbia. The deposits were not 

 known to be large or valuable, and little was 

 done to develop them until the end of the 

 century. British Columbia's output increased 

 from 77,000 ounces in 1892 to 5,472,000 ounces 

 in 1897, but now averages only 3,000,000 

 ounces, worth about $1,750,000. Most of Can- 

 ada's silver production is in Ontario, where the 

 metal was discovered in the Cobalt district in 

 1904 and 1905. That district alone now yields 

 over 95 per cent of the output of the Dominion. 

 In nearly all parts of the Dominion where 



