CHAPTER XLI. 



The Great North- West — Manitoba. 



the central province of canada — soil and productions of 

 the province — climate — the hudson's bay route — the 

 growth and probable future of winnipeg and manitoba. 



1PHE Canadian North- West has been divided into five districts) 

 viz., the Province of Manitoba, and the Territories of 

 Assiniboia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Athabaska ; and 

 ^* notwithstanding all we have said of the region as a 

 whole, it will be necessary to consider each of these districts separa- 

 tely, in order to form an adequate judgment of the extent and 

 varied resources of the whole country. First, then, as to the Prov- 

 ince of Manitoba, which Lord Dufferin said, " may be regarded as 

 the key-stone of that mighty arch of sister provinces which spans 

 the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Manitoba is situated 

 in the very centre of the continent, about midway between the 

 great oceans. Its southern boundary is a little to the south 

 of the parallel of Paris, or on a line with the southern portions 

 of Germany, and of course the Province has the same summer suns 

 as those most favoured portions of Europe, while the adjacent terri- 

 tories to the west and north-west, already named, are the equivalents 

 of both the empires of Russia and Germany on the continent of 

 Europe. Manitoba is bounded on the east by the Province of 

 Ontario, on the south by the International Boundary Line, on the 

 west by the Territories of Assiniboia and Saskatchewan, and on the 

 north by the Territory of Keewatin, and contains about one hundred 

 and twenty-three thousand two hundred square miles. Of this 



