.THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 43 



the land, timber and minerals. Therefore it is only since 1889, 

 when the limits on the north and west were determined by Imperial 

 Act, that settlers, lumbermen and mining prospectors have been sure 

 of titles over a large extent of the region. And this is why it is 

 called the New Ontario. 



PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE COUNTRY. 



The physical features of the country cannot be accurately de- 

 scribed yet, because they are not sufficiently known. There is a 

 height of land extending westward from the Quebec boundary as 

 far as the 90th meridian, which forms the watershed between Hud- 

 son bay and the great lakes. There is another, running northward 

 near the 90th meridian from the American boundary to the 50th 

 parallel, and then turning north-westward between lake St. Joseph 

 and lake Seul, enters Keewatin territory and reaches Hudson bay 

 near the mouth of Nelson river. 



The first of these watersheds to the north includes the basin of 

 the Moose river, with its three large tributaries, the Abitibi, the 

 Metagami and the Missinaibi ; and a portion of the basin of the 

 Albany river, with the Kenogami as its chief tributary from the On- 

 tario side. 



South of the watershed are numerous rivers flowing into the 

 St. Lawrence system of waters, including the Montreal, which joins 

 the Ottawa ; the French, which drains lake Nipissing and its tribu- 

 taries, and lake Wahnapitae through a river of the same name, into 

 Georgian bay ; the Whitefish, Spanish, Mississaga and Thessalon, 

 into lake Huron ; and a number of rivers into lake Superior, the 

 largest of which are the Goulais, Michipicoten, White, Pic, Nipigon, 

 and Kaministiquia. 



The headquarters of those streams flowing north to Hudson bay 

 and south to the great lakes often interlace each other, and there are 

 a number of lakes on the tableland which discharge their waters 

 both north and south. Shoal lake, northeast of lake Nipigon, is one 

 of these. It is 300 feet above the level of lake Nipigon, to which it 

 sends a contribution of its waters down the Ombabika river, and 

 1,200 feet above the level of the sea, to which an equal contribution 

 is made through the channels of the Powitic and Albany rivers 

 " No portage occurs on the Ombabika for about nine miles before 



