136 Bird-Nesting 



seven hundred miles due north of the United States boundary 

 line, " took the bronze medal at the Centennial in Philadelphia 

 in 1876." 



The Peace river country is so far to the north that it is diffi- 

 cult to think of it as suited to the growth of cereals ; but it is 

 still more difficult to reject the testimonies of its fitness, and 

 the vastness of its undeveloped wealth. 



" A Canoe Voyage from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific," by the 

 late Sir George Simpson, edited with notes by Malcolm Mc- 

 Leod, is very full of facts, taken from the journals of re- 

 sponsible officials, all showing that " behind the north wind," 

 or beyond the North-West of which we have been speaking, 

 extends a new region, equally vast and promising, wheat and 

 pasture-lands, well timbered, well watered, and abounding in 

 coal, bitumen and salt. The country swarms with caribou, 

 musk ox, deer, wild fowl, and small game. Prof. Macown de- 

 clares that this is the richest region of Canada. The mean 

 temperature of the seven months from April to October at 

 Dunvegan is higher than at Halifax, Nova Scotia, almost a 

 thousand miles nearer the equator. Already the advance 

 guard of an invading host, armed with ploughshares, and ac- 

 companied by wives and children, and domestic cattle, have 

 reached Edmonton. Very soon their horses and herds will 

 cross the Athabasca, and crop the rich herbage that covers the 

 banks of the Smoky and Peace rivers. 



While the Hudson's Bay Company held sway over the 

 North- West, it was the fashion to represent the country as 

 utterly and hopelessly hyperborean. Echoes of the stories told 

 in those days, of the ground remaining frozen all summer, still 

 float in the air, and make men unable to believe, in spite of all 

 that has been recently written, that it can be anything better 

 than an arctic region. Calumnies die hard. The emigrant 

 will find difficulties in every country to which he goes. The 

 climate is not very different from that of Eastern Canada, and 

 is even more healthy. The winter is colder, but on account of 

 the dryness of the air, the cold is not so much felt. The sum- 

 mer is warmer, but the evenings are cool. April and May are 



