CONFIGURATION. 175 



tude, has a somewhat compKcated physical configuration. The 

 maritime provinces, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New 

 Brunswick, as well as the part of Quebec south-east of the 

 St. Lawrence, are hilly, though the highest points do not reach 

 any great height. There are coal measures at the bottom of the 

 valleys which in Nova Scotia extend a considerable distance under 

 the sea. Prince Edward Island has gentle, rounded hills with rich 

 soil and low shore chft's. There are extensive areas of low lands 

 in the St. Lawrence valley, as well as in the southern part of 

 Ontario. These lowlands extend over 35,000 square miles and 

 support 4 out of the 7 milHon inhabitants. 



Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and the eastern part of the Terri- 

 tories are arranged around Pludson Bay. All around the latter, 

 enormous areas of lowlands are found, but on receding from the 

 bay the ground rises, though only exceptionally to 1,500 or 

 2,000 feet above sea level. In these areas, situated in Quebec 

 and Ontario, the great forest wealth of Eastern Canada is 

 found. 



On going west towards Winnipeg the prairie country is reached. 

 These plains extend for some 800 miles westward to the foot of 

 the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. The plains are, however, not 

 quite level ; at Winnipeg the prairie is 700 feet above sea level, 

 while Calgary has an elevation of 3,400 feet, showing an average 

 rise westward of over 3 feet per mile. The rise is not uniform ; 

 in the southern part, two abrupt rises occur so that three distinct 

 sections can be observed at the average elevations of 800, 1,600 

 and 3,000 feet above sea level. These differences are much less 

 distinct in the north ; indeed, there is a slow descent, so that 

 Edmonston lies 1,200 feet lower than Calgary. There occur also 

 numerous local elevations over the general level. On going west 

 the plains pass gradually into the foothills and then into the Rocky 

 Mountains, which here form the south-western boundary of 

 Alberta. They extend from the 49th degree for at least 1,100 

 miles in a north-western direction, and they are continued for 

 an additional 500 miles by the Mackenzie Mountains to the Arctic 

 Ocean. Between the eastern chain of Rockies and the Pacific 

 coast lies a broad belt of mountainous country called the 

 Cordillera, which extends south through the western United 

 States and on to the Andes of South America, though they differ 



