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CHAPTER XII.

GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA

-RESOURCES-TRADE.

CANADA extends from Gaspé, in the gulph of St. Lawrence, in the east, to Sandwich, at the end of Lake Erie, in the west, a distance, as the crow flies, of about eleven hundred miles. Throughout this whole length, the shores are washed, to the west by Lake Huron, to the south-east by Lakes Erie and Ontario, and by the St. Lawrence, as the boundary, to the forty-fifth parallel of latitude; thence the great river flows through the centre of the province to the sea. From the Indian village of St. Regis, where this

parallel meets the St.

Lawrence, it is the boundary for three degrees eastward, to Hereford; thence, the division between Canada and the United States is an irregular line in a north-easterly direction, partly regulated by the summits of a range of heights, and partly merely arbitrary, to about forty-seven and a half degrees north latitude, and within thirty miles of the St.

Lawrence; from this point it turns in a very curved form till it meets the boundary line of New Brunswick, from which province Canada is separated, at the eastern extremity, by the Bay of Chaleurs and the river Ristigouchi.

To the north, no boundaries have been traced between Canada and the Hudson's Bay territory, nor are any ever likely to be.

Many magnificent rivers flow into the St. Lawrence in its course: the principal are the Saguenay and the Ottawa from the north, and the Richelieu from the south. As yet, but a small portion of this great country is even partially peopled; the inhabitants are merely crowded along the banks of the great river, its tributaries, and the lakes. East of Montreal lies the widest part of the occupied lands, but nowhere do they reach the breadth of more than a hundred miles. Extensive though may be this splendid province of Canada, it is yet very different indeed from what it originally was. In the fourteenth year of the reign of George the Third, the boundaries of the province of Quebecas it was then called, were defined by an act of the Imperial Parliament. By that act it included a great extent of what is now New England, and the whole of the country between the State of Pennsylvania, the River Ohio and the Mississippi, north to the

Hudson's Bay territory, where now a great portion of the rich and flourishing Western States add their strength to the neighbouring republic. By gradual encroachments on one hand and concessions on the other, by the misconstruction of treaties and divisions of boundaries, have these vast and valuable tracts of country been separated from the British empire.

Throughout all the extent of Canada, from east to west, nature and art have bestowed extraordinary facilities of navigation. The shores of the waters and a large portion of the interior are fertile, in some places to an uncommon degree. All the land was originally covered with a magnificent forest, but, acre by acre, a considerable extent of this has been cleared away, and replaced by towns, villages, and corn-fields. There are no very high mountains, but it can boast of the largest lakes in the world, and of Niagara. The country seems deficient in coal and not very plentifully supplied with minerals; but in its agricultural capabilities it is not inferior to any part of the old or new Continent.

From the north-eastern point, chilled by the winds of the Atlantic, to the south-western, five degrees lower and approaching the centre of the Continent, there is considerable variety of climate. However, in all parts the winters are very severe,

to us.

and the heat of summer but little inferior to that of the tropics. Nearly everything that grows in England flourishes here also, and the country possesses various productions which nature has denied The climate has in a slight degree changed since the tolerably extended cultivation, but to this day Quebec must rank among the coldest and hottest places in the civilized world. In spring and autumn the variations of the temperature are great and sudden; at noon you will fain hide from the heat of the sun, and at midnight the earth is bound up in frost.

To people naturally healthy the climate will be found healthy too, but to the rheumatic, consumptive, and feeble, it is a severe trial. It is remarked that a great number of children die in infancy in this country, particularly among the French-Canadian population; the weak in years seem injuriously affected, as well as the weak in constitution.

With the exception of a very few bitterly cold days in winter, that season is far from being disagreeable; the pure, dry, frosty air has at times a most exhilarating effect, and the blue unclouded sky above relieves the eye from the almost painful monotony of the snowy earth. The long duration of this sleep of nature is, however, very wearisome; after the third or fourth month the longing for

green fields and leafy woods, becomes intense and harassing, and the frozen pleasures of the winter have lost all their novelty and zest. While the snow is melting away in spring, the weather is usually beautiful and very warm; but the roads and fields are in an indescribably disagreeable state, and travelling is almost impossible. But, when the young summer fairly sets in, nothing can be more charming than the climate-bright and warm during the day, with the air still pure and clear as ever; and the transition from bare brown fields and woods to verdure and rich green foliage is so rapid, that you can almost fancy you see its progress; while, at night, light frosts refresh the atmosphere, and brace the nerves relaxed by the delicious warmth of the day.

To this succeed July and August, almost terrible in their intense heat; the roads and rocks at midday so hot as to be painful to the touch, and the strength of the direct rays of the sun even greater than in the tropics; but the night always brings a re-invigorating coolness, and the breezes of the morning are as fresh and tempered as in our own favoured land. The autumn-or the "Fall," as they love to call it here-rivals the spring in its healthy and moderate warmth, and far excels it in the beauty of the colouring which it bestows.

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