A LAND OF WATERWAYS 3 



led into the heart of the continent, but con- 

 nected with every other system from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Tropics 

 to the Polar sea. Little by little the pioneers 

 found out that they could paddle and port- 

 age the same canoe, by inland routes, many 

 thousands of miles to all four points of the 

 compass : eastward to the Atlantic between the 

 Bay of Fundy and New York ; westward till, 

 by extraordinary efforts, they passed up the 

 giant Saskatchewan and through the mighty 

 ranges that look on the Pacific; southward 

 to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico ; 

 northward to Hudson Bay, or down the Mac- 

 kenzie to the Arctic ocean. . 



As settlement went on and Canada developed 

 westwards along this unrivalled waterway 

 man tried to complete for his civilized wants 

 what nature had so well provided for his savage 

 needs. There is a rise of six hundred feet 

 between Lake St Peter and Lake Superior. So 

 canals were begun early in the nineteenth 

 century and gradually built farther and far- 

 ther west, at a total cost of $125,000,000, till, 

 by the end of the century, with the opening 

 of the Canadian ' Soo,' the last artificial link 

 was finished and direct navigation was estab- 

 lished between the western end of Lake 



