General Conditions. 349 



Much of the northern country remains unorganized 

 and the vast North West Territory (2,665,000 square 

 miles) between Hudson's Bay and the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, as well as Labrador, are for the most part unin- 

 habited except by Indians and a few military and 

 trading posts. 



The central interior region, dotted with lakes and 

 intricate river systems, is a continuation of the forest- 

 less, arid and subarid, plains and prairies of the country 

 West of the Mississippi River, toward the north 

 changing by steps into lowlands studded with open 

 treegrowth, and barren tundra frozen all the year, a 

 million square miles answering to this last description. 

 The Pacific Slope is a rough and lofty mountain country, 

 the extension of the Rockies and Coast Ranges, with 

 humid and temperate climate, more or less heavily 

 wooded, about 600,000 square miles, with the Frazier 

 River in the South forming the most important 

 drainage. 



The Atlantic portion, south of the plateau-like, bare, 

 or scantily wooded Hudson Bay and Labrador country, 

 is formed by the slopes of the watersheds of the Great 

 Lakes and of their mighty outlet, the St. Lawrence 

 River and its Gulf; the slopes rising gradually north- 

 ward to the low range of the Height of Land, a plateau 

 with low hills, not over 1500 feet elevation, which cuts 

 it off from the northern country and forms the limit of 

 commercial forest. This region, the bulk of the 

 provinces of Ontario and Quebec — a belt of not ex- 

 ceeding 300 miles in width and about 1500 miles in 

 length, altogether 300,000 square miles— with 93,000 

 square miles of the maritime provinces, around 250 



33 



