350 



'The Progress of the New Dominion. 



Miirch 18^3- 



of the Dominion. The total vahie 

 of tho animal product of the Cana- 

 dian lisherios is over three million 

 pounds sterlint;;, of whieh ahout 

 one-half the value is exported to 

 otiior countries, or more than douhle 

 the export from the United States 

 of the same article of merchandise. 

 It is to the lisheries that ('anada 

 owes, to a larj^e extent, the im- 

 portant merchant tloet she now 

 possesses. The little province of 

 Nova Scotia owns more shipping;, 

 in [)roportion to population, than 

 any one of the great commercial 

 States of the American Union, 

 llor ships are seen in every port 

 of the globe ; and it was an ener- 

 getic Nova Scotian merchant who 

 established the first, and most suc- 

 cessful, stcamshij) - line between 

 Europe and America. The Do- 

 minion is now the owner of be- 

 tween seven and eight thousand 

 vessels, making an aggregate ton- 

 nage of over one million three hun- 

 dred thousand tons, and valued at 

 eight million pounils sterling. This 

 large tonnage enables Canada to 

 occuj)y the proud position of the 

 fourth, if not the third, maritime 

 State of the world — the United 

 States having only one million 

 tons, and Norway only one hun- 

 dred thousand tons, more than the 

 tonnage of the Dominion. Nor is 

 the spirit of marine activity con- 

 fined to the provinces by the sea. 

 Ontario has a marine comprising 

 nearly live hundred steamers, chieHy 

 "propellers." It says much for 

 the enterprise of the C'anadians 

 that they are fast outstripping their 

 American neighbours as a ship- 

 owning, shi{)->ailing people. Whilst 

 they continue to have this love for 

 the sea, they must sooner or later 

 obtain the maritime supremacy in 

 the waters of the western hemi- 

 sphere. The same courageous spirit 

 which animated 1^'robisher and Gil- 

 bert, and all the gallant sons of 

 Devon, still exists in its pristine 



vigour among the people of the 

 new dominion. That S[)ain, to 

 curb whose ambition Raleigh de- 

 voted his life — that S[)aiji, whose 

 richly laden galleons once crowded 

 the Spanish main, has now otdy 

 one-fourth of the tonnage of a 

 country which was a wilderness, 

 without a single lOnglish settle- 

 ment, in the days when Virginia, 

 "the Old Dominion," was founded 

 by the most famous Knglishman of 

 his time. 



The minerals of Canada are scat- 

 tered over H wide extent of terri- 

 tory. Gold, silver, copper, iron, 

 and almost everv mineral and stt)ne 

 of value to commerce, can be found 

 in some part of the Dominion, 

 though this source of national 

 ■wealth is still in the early stage of 

 development. 'J'ho Dominion Go- 

 vernment, following the example 

 of the American States, employs 

 the services of a largo and edicient 

 s. iff of geological experts, to ex- 

 plore, year by year, the mineral 

 districts of all sections, and there 

 are consequently fresh and valuable 

 discoveries made from time to time. 

 The coal-tields of Nova Scotia ex- 

 tend over a large area, and are not 

 likely to be exhausted for many 

 centuries, however extraordinary 

 may be the drain upon them. It 

 is worthy of notice, that on the 

 Atlantic, as on the Pacific coast, 

 we find provinces possessing valu- 

 able mines of coal to supply the 

 homes of the people with fuel, and 

 to feed the furnaces of the shi[)ping 

 of the empire. VaJicouver anil 

 Cape Jireton, the sentinel islands, 

 as it were, of the l^ominlon, seem 

 destined by nature to play no in- 

 signilicant part in the future com- 

 mercial progress, and perhaps in 

 the defence, of Canada. Coal of an 

 imperfect formation, known as lig- 

 nite, has also been discovered over 

 a larire section of the North-west, 

 and it is quite certain deep borings 

 will bring to light coal of the beat 



qualit 



ports 

 about 

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 the 

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ing 



