MANITOBA 



3626 



MANITOBA 



thirty-two feet thick, and the brine is pumped 

 through openings not more than six inches in 

 diameter. 



Besides the large salt and lumber indus- 

 tries, the city manufactures furniture, sole 

 leather and foundry products. The most no- 

 table buildings are the $80,000- Federal build- 



ing, an opera house, a $50,000 Carnegie Library, 

 the Masonic Temple, the Elks' Temple and a 

 fine courthouse. Features of interest in the vi- 

 cinity are Orchard Beach, a lake resort, with a 

 theater, and the Vacuum Pan Salt Works at 

 Eastlake, a suburb, said to be the largest salt 

 enterprise in the world. H.S.C. 



.ANITO'BA, the most easterly of 

 the western provinces of Canada, is situated in 

 the geographic center of the land mass of North 

 America, being about equally distant from the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Arctic 

 Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It is often 

 considered to be the gateway to the great Cana- 

 dian Northwest. The name comes from two In- 

 dian words, manito, meaning the great spirit, 

 and woban, meaning the narrows, the name es- 

 pecially applied to the narrow part of Lake 

 Manitoba. The wind, when rushing through 

 the Narrows, makes a peculiar sound; the early 

 Indians believed this to be the voice of God, 

 so they named the place Manito-Waban, or the 

 narrows of the great spirit. The name was 

 changed to Manitoba by the early settlers. 



The province extends 300 'miles along the 

 northern boundary of the United States, bor- 

 dering a part of Minnesota and North Dakota. 

 It extends northward to the 60th parallel of 

 north latitude; the line separating it from Sas- 

 katchewan on the west is 770 miles long, or 

 nearly twice the length of Illinois. Ontario 

 bounds it on the east, and the northeast corner 

 for more than 300 miles is washed by the waters 

 of Hudson Bay. The area of the province is 

 251,832 square miles, of which 19,906 square 

 miles are water. It is about the size of Alberta 

 or Saskatchewan. 



Previous to 1912 the form of Manitoba was 

 that of a square, and the area was a little less 

 than 74,000 square miles (see map, in illustra- 

 tions, page 3629). In that year the Dominion 

 government divided the territory of Keewatin 

 between Manitoba and Ontario, extending the 

 boundaries of the province to their present lim- 

 its. The addition is sometimes referred to as 



New Manitoba. Manitoba is larger than any 

 state in the American Union except Texas. It 

 is a little more than three times the size of 

 Minnesota and a little larger than Montana 

 and Colorado combined. Excluding the prov- 

 inces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hun- 

 gary could be placed in Manitoba with 10,000 

 square miles to spare. 



The People. There were but few white in- 

 habitants in Manitoba previous to 1870. Since 

 that date the population has increased rapidly, 

 and in 1911 the province had a population of 

 455,614, an average of 6.18 inhabitants to the 

 square mile. Since the census was taken a 

 large number of immigrants have entered the 

 province. Most of the older inhabitants are of 

 English and Scotch descent, but recent immi- 

 gration has added a number of nationalities 

 from Central and Southern Europe. In 1915 

 there were 11,000 Indians in the province. 



Religion. The population of Manitoba is 

 more evenly distributed among the leading re- 

 ligious bodies than in some of the older prov- 

 inces. The leading denominations in the order 

 of their membership are Presbyterian, Angli- 

 can (Episcopalian), Baptist, Roman Catholic, 

 Methodist, Lutheran and the Greek Church. 

 A number of o.ther denominations are repre- 

 sented, but their membership is relatively 

 small. 



Surface and Drainage. The eastern part of 

 Manitoba belongs to the Laurentian Plateau 

 and has a rocky, uneven surface, but no moun- 

 tains or high hills. It is well wooded and con- 

 tains numerous lakes. The remainder of the 

 province is a portion of the Great Plain of 

 North America. The southern and central por- 

 tions are believed to be a part of the bed of a 



