220 
Canadian Agriculture. 
Pacific, whose southernmost point extends as far down as the 
latitude of Rome, while its northern limits are lost amid the 
ice-fields of the Arctic seas, and whose area is nearly equal to 
that of Europe, must necessarily possess many and striking 
variations in its physical features. And yet, in a few words, it 
may be said that the eastern part of the Dominion — -the pro- 
vinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario — 
is forest ; the western portion, British Columbia, is mountain ; 
Avhile the intermediate area of vast plains with their woodland 
borders constitutes the prairie region of Manitoba and the 
North-West Territories. 
" To characterise in a few lines a country covering more than half the 
continent of North America, and reaching from the latitude of Constantinople 
to the North Pole — a country whose circuitous coast-line on the Atlantic 
jneasures 10,000 miles, and whose western shore upon the Pacific, studded 
with islands and indented by secure harbours and deep inlets, attains almost 
an equal length — a country where maize and peaches are staple crops, and 
■where vegetation fades out upon the desolate and melancholy shores of the 
Arctic Ocean, — to characterise such a country by a few general phrases is 
evidently impossible. If we look at the eastern portion alone, we see the 
greatest forest region in the world. If we consider the central portion, we are 
regarding the great prairie country ; but if we cross the passes into the Pacific 
Province, we enter upon that ' Sea of Mountains,' compared with which the 
most mountainous country in Europe is of limited extent. 
"And yet, there are aspects in which, when British Columbia is excepted, 
this great countrj^ may be apprehended by a wide generalisation. It is a 
country of broad lakes and flowing waters. A country where the abundance 
of streams and the regularity of summer rains preclude the possibility of 
drought. It is a land of grass and forest. A country containing by far the 
largest portion of fresh water upon the globe ; where, 2000 miles from the 
ocean, the traveller may lose sight of land and be prostrated by sea-sickness. 
A land containing tlie most extensive water-ways in the world; where 
thousands of miles of navigable rivers may conduct commerce into the 
remotest corner of the continent at its widest part. The slope of the land 
from the Pocky Mountains is so gradual that the rivers flow with an even 
stream, and their souices are so certain that they flow with an equable 
volume. The only abrupt fall of land from Edmonton to the sea is the terrace 
at Niagara. That fall, and the minor rapids of the St. Lawrence, are overcome 
by the most complete system of canals in the world, and, with one tranship- 
ment at Montreal, goods can be landed at the head of Lake SupcriorMn the 
centre of the continent, 2384 miles from the Straits of Belleisle. Of tliis dis- 
tance, 1500 miles arc in fresh water ; but if we turn farther north, and enter 
Canada by Hudson's Bay, tlie ocean ship will reach, at Port Nelson, the out- 
let of a river system stretching out with few interrujitions to the very 
backbone of tlie continent ; and draiinng an interior basin, remoter than the 
St. Lawrence basin, of over 2,000,000 square miles in extent. This ])rofound 
penetration and ]iermeation of the coimtry by water-ways is the great 
characteristic of Canada. Erom Port Nelson to Liverpool is 2941 miles — 
from New York to Liverpool is 3040 miles. It is difficult to realise the fact 
that there, in the very centre of America, an Euglishmau is 99 miles nearer 
home than at New York." * 
• 'Hundbook for the Dominion of Canada.' Dawson Bros., Montreal, 1884, 
p. 4. 
