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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre fiim^s d des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul ciichd, il est tiimd d partir de I'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cossaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. rrata o nelure, 1 d *- D 32X 12 3 '■ T-" ■ 2 3 4 5 6 P!^ni r m c m -r'.. :":'>■ ^■•:.-'v*'V"? ,'r . M \i 'J TITE CLIMATES, PliODUCTIONS. , AND RESOURCFS OP CANADA. By J, BEAUFORT IIURLBERT, M.A., LL.D., eOaBESrONDINO MBMBKU of the U. II H., T.O;i[.(, X, AL'TIIDll OF "mUTAIN AND HKB COLONICS," " KOUE81VS O.,' OA.VAUA," " FlliLD AND b'ACWKV," tTC rf' With Coloured Maps showing the Chief Zones of the Grains, Grasses, &e. TENTH THOUSAND. llontreal: PRI.VTED Br JOUN LUVELL, ST. NICHOLAS iJrRKKT. 1872. • -' '*•'•] Hight i/ IraiuUUion leHrtud. *! t:M 'n DR. HURLBERT'S BOOK. The Climatcit, Productions, aiul Kesourcet of Canada. By J. Beaufort Hnrl- bc -t, M.A., LL.D. This work has, within a month, reached ten thousand copies. The Govern- ments, Dominion and Local, are circulating large numbers of it. The Ottawa Citizen says : — We called attention -to this work when the Department of Agriculture first ordered its publicution, and we now give the opinions of gentlemen, the best qualified to judge of its merits. The.se gentlemen are themselves authors, and one of them has written a valuable work upon the " Red River and North West Territories." The maps are a new and importJint feature, and worth more than the price of the work, showing the vast areas in Canada of the best agricul- tural lands — mere than 1,000,000 square miles of wheat land, and more than 2,000,000 .square miles adapted to pa.stures, meadows, and ihe coarser grains. The work is divided into twenty chapters, and written in a clear, simple, forcible style. The scientific parts of the work are treated in a manner to bring them with^a the comprehension of the unscientific reader. The following opinions are all from well-known Ottawa gentlemen : — From Alpheus Todd, Librarian of Parliament and author of Parliamentary History. Ottawa, 19th April, 1872. My dear Dr. Furlbert, — T have examined the proofs of your work on the " Climates and Productive Resources of the Dominion," and account it to be a most instructive and valuable publication. It is calculated to be of the first importance to intending immigrants and settlers, as indicating, at a glance, the agricultural capabilitiea of every part of Canada, and justifying the high expec- tations ftiat are entertained of the inexhaustible fertility of our viist western country. Believe me, dear Dr. Sincerely yours, Alpheus Todd, Librarian of Parliament. From Lieutenant- Colonel Dennis, Surveyor General of the Dominion Lands. Dominion Lands Office, Ottawa, May 16, 1872. My Dear Sir, — Aa one of those who, having t.een in manuscript your Pam- phlet on the Climates and Resources of Canada, urged its speedy publication, 1 have only further to say that I consider it a very valuable work in a public point of view, cdndensing as it does, in a small space, a great amount of inform- ation respecting the most importint interests of the Dominion. It makes it.^ appearance at a most opportune time. The valuable and interesting knowledge i Coptimud oii hack covtr. ,fcj!- :.i ■ f; ' ' ifi'' «.♦, • Jiam ¥ )/ y . \.r - AND TMt -1-1.- f! \ IT K JJ^ STATKS . If".! <1 !•■ I..lh Mlllllll'jJ ^^„,rrH AMKK,(,^ > li- .,4!vji«s3»B;»»^-'pssf;^*?3Ki^lR? THE > I ^ 4r; MKKl(.^ ^ CLIMATES, PRODUCTIONS. AND RESOURCES or CANADA. By J. BEAUFORT HURLBERT, M.A., LL.D., OORRBBPONDINa MSMBBR OP THK R. H. 3., LONDON, AUTHOR OF "BRITAIN AND HKR COLONIKS," " F0KKBT8 OF CANADA," " FIKLD AND FACTOHT," KTO. With C!oloured Maps showing the Chief Zones of the Graios, Grassss, &e. TENTH THOUSAND. llonttfal: PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET. 1872. Siffht qf translation reiened. j. mmm^vmm I ^^^!^^^^^^^ Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, In the year one thousand eight hundred and Beventy-two, by J. BBAnFORT Huklbbrt, M.A., LL.D., in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. PREFACE. Ddred iter of "Many and grave errors are entertained in reference to the climates and productions of Canada. For a more correct appreciation of the agricul- tural capabilities of this great country, wo must compare the loss known regions in the New World with the avoII known corresponding parts of the Old ; western coasts with western, eastern with eastern, and interior divi- sions with interior. The several processes of reasoning here followed out, each independent of tiic others, lead to the same conclusions, namely, that there are vast areas in the New Dominion with climates and soils the best adapted for the great staples of the temperate zones. The maps are a new feature in the work, elucidating more clearly the subject, and shorten- ing the explanations. From these it will be seen that the chief zones of the grains and grasses on the eastern continent, have their corresponding positions on the western ; again, from the temperatures and rain-fall in the best regions of those staples in Europe, we can lay down on the maps the zones with similar conditions of climate in America, and these are chiefly in Canada; experiment has also corroboi-ated the inferences drawn from the zones and climates as stateu above, and proved that Canada, extend- ing from the latitude of Rome in Italy to that of North Cape in Nor- way, embraces the better part of the temperate zone and the chief regions of the cereals, coarser grains, and grasses ; and is the appropriate home of the ox, sheep and horse — animals most useful to man ; it is, too, in the cooler latitudes where manufactures, commerce, wealth and power are fo and in the Old World. For these great staples of the temperate zones, Canada, as a whole, is as far superior to the United States as the Southern country is to the Northern for subtropical plants ; yet even in the New Dominion the grape, maize, and the whole family of cucurbitaceae, or gourds, mature over immense areas east and west, and over twelve degrees, •or more than 800 miles of latitude ; in the southern province the peach, quince and apricot readily ripen in the open air. Canada also embraces within her territories the climates most favourable for the apple, pear, plum, cherry, and the smaller fruits. In general terms, it may be stated that the Republic, in position on the globe, in climates and productions, is similar to China, Independent Tartary, Palestine, and Northern Africa ; and Canada, to Central, Western, and North- Western Europe. Some of the topics named in the contents, and noi: part of the main object of the treatise, are referred to in very few words. Montreal, 1872. CONTENTS. 1^ PAGCi Preface 3-' IxjtliuiatioB of the maps 5 I. Superficial area of Canada 7 11. External nspccta 7 III. Position on the globe, region of summer raina 8 IV. Latitudefl— from 42" to the Arctic 'J V. Climates, temperature.-*, iind rainfall 10 VI. Woodland, prairie, and desert \ 12 VII. Natural productions indicating climates 1« VIII. Canada compared with Europe and the United States 17 IX. Influences of climate on the races of men 23 X. Desert areas of the United States 26 XI. Climatoligical Range of cereals, coarser grains, grasses and plants of tropical and semitropicai origin 33 XII. Geographical distribution of plants 34 XIII. Comjiarison of interior and oceanic climates 34 XIV. Causes of interior arid areas 35 XV. Canada — geographical, agricultural, and mineralogical 36 XVI. Population 40 XVII. Fisheries 42 XVIII. Canals and Railways 43 XIX. Shipping, Trade, and Banks 44 XX. Military Position 45 Conclusion 45 Tables of Climates, Population, and Shipping, 47-8- / EXPLANATION OF THE MAPS. I'AOCi .. 3.- 5 .. 7 7 8 ,. !f . 10 . 12 .. 1(> . 17 . 23 . 26 . 33 .. 34 , 34 .. 35 ,. 36 . 40 .. 42 . 4a • *4 . 45 . 45 .47-8 The broad belts of green ocross the maps of North America represent the chief zones (f the grains and grasses. They correspond in position on this Continent with the chief zones (drawn in green) of similar products in the Old World. This is also the region of summer rains in contrast with that of summer droughts to the south of it and west of the 98th meridian, represented by the light shade on the map of the western half of the United States and the south-west of Mexico, The area over which there is an insufficiency of rain in summer for the cultivable grasses and for the profit- able growth of grain, extends far east of the 98th meridian, expecially in the latitude of Missouri, Kansas and Illinois. At the 97th Meridian this arid region extends from the Gulf of Mexico (Lower Texas) to British America, over 25 degrees of latitude. A 'ine drawn from the middle of the southern part of Michigan, through the Mississippi at its confluence ■with the Ohio, to Texas, would roughly sketch the eastern border of the region deficient in summer rains. East of this are heavy forest lands, with more rains and less evaporation in the summer months. West of it the forests are at first broken, chen found only along the rivers and on soils .retentive of moisture, and finally disappear altogether, their place being taken by the cactus and sage of the desert, true emblems of a region devoid of summer rains. The grains and grasses in the New as in the Old World, find their appro- priate climates in the higher latitudes of the temperate zones, where the summers range from 5T^ to 70° Fahrenheit, and where the rain-fall is more uniform and copious. South of this belt the j^rains and grasses fail, either from too high temperatures or an insufficiency of rain accom- panied with rapid evaporation and a dry atmosphere durin'^ the agricultural jnonths, or from both these causes. East of this, in the south-eastern partg I V?K;! it fi of the United States (the deeper shade on the maps), the temperatures- are semitropical and too high for the profitaKv growth of the grains and grasses. These green belts on the Continent of North America, cover the zones which have climates and productions similar to those of North, West, and Central Europe — the British Islands, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Germany^. Denmark, France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Northern Italy. , In examining the maps it must be remembered that the grains produce • more abundant, surer and better crops near their Northern Lmits ; wheat,, barley, oats, p<>as, &c., yiela more per acre in Canada than in any part oi the States j more in England and Prussia than south of these countries y and even maize produces more per acre in Massachusetts, New York, and in some districts north ,f the St. Lawrence, than in Illinois or farther South in its native climates. To show more conveniently the continents, side by side, and the zones; of grains and grasses on each, with the intervening oceans and their warm and cold currents described in the work, the maps are necessarily drawn on Mercator's projection, which, assuming a given scale for the equator, enlarges the parts of the earth to the North and South. This, however^ need not mislead even the unscientific reader ; besides, the areas of Canada,, the United States and Europe are given in the text. It. drawing the zones of the grains and grasses in Canada, the author- has consulted the published works of the explorers of those regions, and. has also availed himself of the testimony of travellers, residents and . employees of the Hudson Bay Company, whom he has met, and with whom he has been in communication for many years ; but, in describing the desert areas and the regions of insufiScient rain, and in tracing their: outhnes, his authorities are American standard authorS; including travel- lers, &c. .M^ CLIMATES, PRODUCTIONS, AND RESOURCES OF CANADA. I. SUPERFICIAL AREA. The superficial area of Canada* is about 3,500,000 square miles ; that of the United States (including Alaska), 3,390,000; of Europe, 3,650,000. This immense country lies between the 53rd and the 14]ist meridians f west, and extends from the latitude of Rome in Italy to the Arctic Ocean. We cannot form a correct estimate of the agricultural capabilities and the varied resources of this vast territory without referonce to the bays, arms of the sea, and to the great and innumerable small lakes, such marked characteristic features of the Country ; for these great bodies of water add immensely to the value of our possessions, climatologically and agriculturally. Without them we should have vast regions of com- paratively little value, as in Africa, Asia, and the United States west of the Mississippi, where large tracts of land, far from water — either of those inlets from seas or from great lakes and rivers — are arid deserts, made such through protracted nummer droughts and the absence of humidity in the air ; but we have not included tliese waters in the area given above. The fisheries in these and on the coasts make them more valuable than an equal extent of agricultural land. They are, too, the finest nurseries for seamen ever possessed by a nation. II. EXTERNAL ASPECTS. The external aspects of this immense territory are of the most favourable description. It is washed by the three great Oceans, — Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic, — giving, in its deep indentations around tlie shores of its islands, gulfb and bays, a sea-coast of eleven thousand miles, abounding in the most prolific fisheries, from the vaat gulf of our own magnificent St. Lawrence and the banks of Newfoundland, along the shores of Labrador and Hudson's Bay, through the Arctic and down the Pacific coast, over seas more thickly studded with islands than the Graecian Archipelago, to Vancouver, the Queen of the Pacific. These oceans, too, by their winds, vapours and currents, have a moat favourable influence upon the fertility and salubrity of this portion of the Continent. • Canada now embraces the whole of British America cxoept Newfoundland anu Prince Edward Island. t The boundary between Canada and Alaska is the 141st meridian (w.) and along^the coast south to the point where Portland Channel touches the 5(jth lat. -thence down the channel. The line runs along the summit of the mountains, but is never to'go more 'han 10 leagues (marine) from the coast. (Ball's Alaska, p. 245.) The gulf or tropical stream of warm water — the temperature of which is 20 to 30 degrees above that of the surrounding ocean — flowing upon the western coast cf Europe, causes, with the south-west winds which blow off its surface, an elevation of the temperature of the west of Europe above that of the eastern coast of America (the temperature of which is depressed by the Arctic current) in similar latitudes, of eight degrees in latitude 41*^, eleven and a half in latitude 51*^, and twenty-five in latitude 58°. Similar causes in operation in the Pacific give an equal elevation of temperature to the Pacific over the Atlantic coasts, — the Arctic currents of wind and water chilling the one and the tropic currents warming the otner. From Vancouver, in latitude 49*, to Sitka, in 57°, the temperature is as high and as uniform as in corresponding latitudes in the west of Europe, except where the vicinity of mountains may modify the prevailing climaio- logical conditions. Sir John Richardson says " the climate of Sitka is much warmer than that of Europe in the same parallel." (Arctic Expedi- tion, vol. ii, page 279, quoted from Bongard.) III. ITS POSITION ON THE (iLOBP:. I7 we were entirely unacquainted with the country lying north of the United States, the first impression produced upon the mmd of a geogra- pher, in looking over a map of North America, would be, that a territory embraced between the same parallels as Europe, from Rome to the arctic seas, warmed by the same sun, and similarly situated with respect to the oceans, must possess vast tracts of land valuable for agricultural purposes, must, in fact, be not much dissimilar from Europe in climate and soil. The geographer would picture to himself great rivers and lakes of the purest water and frequent summer showers, because it is the region of summer rains in conCrast with the rainless regions to the south-west ; extended forests and prairies of luxuriant grasses, because he is accustomed to find these in similar positions on the Eastern Continent. The forests and grasses are the necessary fruits of the heat and humidity of the summers, as the desert areas to the south, between the Mississippi and the Pacific, are the results of the normal conditions of climate, the absence of summer rains being the chief deficiency. Canada is in the latitudes of the mott valuable cereals and grasses, and, consequently, where the appropriate food, and in the greatest abundance, is found for man and beast. It is, in -^l' mates and productions, similar to the region in the old world, most favourable for the ox, the sheep and the horse. It is the latitude, too, in which nan attains the greatest energy of body and mind. It is the latitude fn m which have sprung the con- quering races, and the races that rule the rest of the world. It is the latitude from which the migrating races in modem as in more ancient times have come, for as man is here most robust, so here he multiplies most rapidly. While the more feeble races of the south of Europe scarcely keep good their numbers, the northern nations are constantly sending; out their surplus population by thousands and even by hundreds of thousands. The inhabitants of the British islands, including those Avho migrate, and their natural increase, double their numbers in 25 years, the Germans in 76, the French in not less tljan 136, the Portuguese in 238, and the Turks in 655. The north-west of North America resembles in climate and soil the north-west of Europe, and Europe has a population of 80 to the square mile ; at this ratio British America could sustain a population of 280,000,000, that of Europe being 300,000,000. England has 400 and Belgium 430 to the square mile. But, instead of taking 80 to the square mile for Canada, one-fifth of that of England, if we reduce this one-half, we shall still have a territory capable of sustaining a population of 140,000,000. These are merely possibilities ; but we believe we are not over-estimating the capabilities of Canada, for she resembles Europe in position, in climate, and in the races which do now and are likely to inhabit her fertile provinces. If it be said that large areas of the north and north-east are sterile through the cold, we reply that within the United States there are even more extensive territories rendered inhospitable from the absence of sum- mer rains. That half of the Republic lying west of the hundredth degree of longitude, except portions on the Pacific, is one of the most hopeless deserts on the globe. The prolific fisheries off the coasts of the sterile portions of the Dominion, are, to a great extent, a covapensation for the barren- ness of the soil ; for there is a broad border of ocean more valuable than the most fertile land ; but neither on nor around the dosert areas of the United States are there any redeeming features except minerals, in which our own barren lands are reported equally rich. IV. LATITUDES. Canada extends from the latitude of Rome in Italy to that of Noith Cape in Norway, and has the climates of Europe from the Medi- terranean to the Arctic. The peach, plum, quince, apricot and grape, readily ripen in our southern province in the open air. In general terms, it may be stated that our climate resembles that of Central, Western and North-Western Europe, wHh a higher summer temperature and more sum- mer rain ; the spring and early summer months being cool, favour the cereals and grasses, and the high summer temperatures the seraitropical plants and fruits ; hence the great variety of our products, and the great fertihty of the soil. The whole family of the cucurbitaceae — the squash, the pumpkin, the melon, the cucumber, &c. — come to maturity in the open fields throughout the valley of the St. Lawrence and lakes, as also on the Red, Assiniboine and Saskatchewan rivers. Indian corn, or maize, which 10 I will not ripen in England and seldom in Paris (lat. 48'' 50'), is a field crop over vast areas in the valley of the St. Lawrence and even in the nor'h-west matures as high as latitude 54'', north of the parallel of Liverpool, — and this cereal requires a summer temperature of 65° degrees with one month at 67° : so exacting is it as to temperature, that it often fails to ripen ia the north of France through a deficiency of half a degree. V. THE CLIMATES OF CANADA.— TEMPERATURE AND RAIN-FALL. How the widespread erroneous opinions as to the climates of Canada could have originated or been entertained, has always appeared quite unaccountable. If its position on the globe — its southern portions in the same latitudes as Corsica, the northern provinces of Spain, Italy, and Turkey, farther south than Austria, France, Sardinia, Lombardy, Venice or Genoa — were not sufficient to save even the unscientific from mistakes on this subject, the vegetable products of the country are a simple and sure index of its climates. Besides those plants named in the previous chapter, and the abuniant crops of the great staples of the temperate zones, the reader will find in another place a brief list of the natural flora of the country, which will show more forcibly than a volume of argument the chmatic conditions of Canada. Southern Illinois is in latitude 37°, and Central in 40° ; Kansas lies south of 40°, and Missouri, the next State on the east, from latitude 36° .0 41° ; London (England) is in lat. 51° 29' ; Liverpool, 53° 25' ; Edinburgh, 56° 5'; Paris, 48° 50'; Prussia, north of 50° ; the northern part of Africa, Cape Bon, 38°; the great desert of Sahara, between the parallels of 20° and 38'^ ; and the great American desert, between 23° and 48"^. The desert area of the Eastern Continent would, doubtless, even in Europe, extend us far north as the American, were it not checked by the Mediterranean. East of that sea it rises in Independent Tartary and Mongolia as high as the American desert. Fully one half the area of the United States lies west of the 98th meri- dian. Having four to five months — the agricultural months, be it remem- bered — without rain or with an insufficiency, it is mostly devoid of vegeta- tion except the cactus in the south, and artemisia, or sage of the desert, in the north — true indices of a rainless region. As an agricultural country it is worthless, except where artificial irrigation can be made to supply the deficiency, supposing water coald be got for that purpose. Even then the saline properties of the soil would, over vast areas, be destructive of vegetation. Professor Wharton, an American writer, some fifteen or twenty years since, maintained that they had reached the limits westward of arable land ; and this is the testimony of every traveller over those regions. Emigration must now turn north-westward, from the country of 11 summer droughts to that of summer rains in the great fertile valleys of British America. Sir John Richardson (Arc. Exp., vol. ii., p. 267) informs us that wheat is grown with success in latitude 60*^ 5', near the borders o*' Great Slave Lake, where the summer temperature is 65°, that of London being 6V.* Bishop Tach6 found it growing up to 62° on Great Slave Lake, and farther west it ripens at a higher latitude. It grows freely on the banks of the Saskatchewan in latitude 54°, and luxuriantly in the valleys of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. Sir John Franklin found Indian corn ripening in latitude 54°, west of Winnipeg. Barley ripens well at Fort Norman in latitude 65* (400 miles north of the Orkneys and the capital of Sweden, and 350 miles north of the capitals of Norway and Russia), South of latitude 60* 5', where " wheat ripens well," we have an area ia Canada probably greater than the entire arable land of the United States, and yet, 5° north of this, barley ripens, potatoes and turnips grow, and the luxuriant pastures invite the bison and the deer. No doubt when these northern countries shall have been cleai-ed of the forest and the land drained, these plants will here, as in Europe, go to a much higher latitude. We know that where wheat ripens in such a climate, we have the best region for the grasses, cereals, coarser grains, and root crops generally^ It is true that the climates east of these posts, nearer Hudson's Bay, are less propitious. The cold arctic currents which sweep around that bay and down the coast of Labrador, lower the temperature. But these arctic streams come to us burdened with a superabundance of food in the count- less swarms of fish which, after feeding their numerous enemies in northern seas, supply luxuries for millions of the human family in the temperate zones. We surely have enough agricultural land, and can well afford these north-eastern preserves for fishing and hunting grounds, and as nui*series for hardy seamen. The summer isothermal of 70", which at the Atlantic coast crosses Long Island in latitude 41°, passes through Pittsburg (Pennsylvania), lati- tude 40° 32', Cleveland, latitude 41°, and Chicago, 42°, rises, on the Saskatchewan, to latitude 52° (in long. 110°), but sinks again on the high plateau of the desert areas of the United States to latitude 35°, in long. 105° ; rises to lat. 47° in Oregon, and falls again to lat. 30° through California. The isothermal of 65°, for the summer, which, on the Atlantic coast, is off Boston (in lat. 42°) rises through Canada to north of Quebec (and Quebec is in lat. 46° 49'), crosses the Red River at lati- tude 50° on the 97th meridian, and Mackenzie's River near the 60th parallel. The summer temperatures are those of chief importance for agricultural purposes. The cold of winter has no effect upon those annuals for which * Wheat will ripen in bigb latitudes inland with a summer at 60°, one month bei!)g at 4)3°, and even at 68° in England and British Columbia. ft 12 ■■:\ the summers are long enough and warm enough to secure their maturity. But the frosts of winter have a powerful effect in pulverizing the soil, and the snowy covering protects the ground from the winds and sun of the late months of winter and early spring ; then the gradual melting of the snow fills the soil with moisture so necessary for seeds and plants, pre- senting such a contrast to many countries in the south of Europe and many western States, where the ground, exposed for months without such a cover- ing, is too dry for vegetation. Our forest trees — some of them almost semi- tropical, as the tulip (lireodendron) , pepperidge {nygsa multijlora), both larf^e forest trees, the grape-vine, &c. — have stood the frosts of centuries and still flourish, for some of these monarchs of the woods have been found five hundred years old. In running the eye over the table of temperatures and rain (Appendix A), it will at once be seen what extended areas in Canada have climates not much dissimilar from Western and Central Europe ; the chief difference being more heat and more rain in summer — all important elements in climates. Toronto has nearly the summer of Berlin and Paris ; Hamilton (lat. 43''), Montreal (45'"'), and Quebec (47*^), that of Bordeaux in the south-west of France (lat. 44^*). But the summer rains in Canada (see App. A) are at least one-third more than in Western and Central Europe — Berlin seven inches, Paris and London six. Throughout the valley of the St. Lawrence we may put the rain-fall for the three summer months at from eight to ten inches, many parts of it, with Manitoba and British Columbia, having nearer twelve than ten. With the greater heat which cause* a rapid evaporation, these copious rains are of vast importance, and explain the extraordinary growt)*, of vegetation throughout these countries. VI. WOOD-LAND, PRAIRIE, AND DESERT.* That portion of the North American continent extending from the Atlantic more than 3000 miles in the latitude of Canada, but much less south of this, and from the Gulf of Mexico for 1500 miles northward, is covered with a mixed forest of coniferae and deciduous trees, which is unparalleled in extent, and in the variety and value of its woods. The most remarkable part of this great mixed forest occupies the valley of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries. These forests, so beautiful and grand in their primitive state, have a value quite independently of their money worth. They have a most powerful and fr.vourable influence upon the climates of the country, check •evaporation, and keep the water longer in tht^ soil, thus supplying the roots of plants, feeding the springs and streams, &c. In France, Germany, Austria and Russia — in truth, in most countries of th > Old World, the governments, This should be read in connection with Chapter VII. •If '. i 13 on the recommendation of commissions of scientific men, have ordered the re-setting of forest trees. West of this vast forest, within the area of the United States, is the treeless region. The Mississippi may be taken as near the boundary of these two zones marked with such different features, the forest in many places not reaching that river, in others extending beyond it, and again reappearing on the Pacific coast. East of the Mississippi trees appear first along the water-courses and on soils retentive of moisture, being still absent on the uplands and sandy plains. To the north, this immense treeless region runs, in the country of the upper Missouri (longitude 110** wesl), north of latitude 50". Lieut. Butler, in his report just published, speaks of these sandy plains as a part of that great desert extending thence to Texas through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, 1,400 miles. Throughout these immense areas there is either a total absence of rain in summer, as in the desert parts, or an insufficiency, as on the prai- ries. The grasses which cover these dry up in summer, but their roots, forming a deep matted sod, have vitality enough to put forth fresh shoots under the rains of spring and autumn ; trees, however, which are withered up by the droughts and arid winds of summer, have no such vitality. Vast portions of America, Africa, Asia and Australia are destitute of trees, while other equally extensive regions are covered with forests. These treeless zones lie in similar positions on the Continents, except where modified by physical conditions, beginning near the same latitudes on the western coasts and running north-eastward in the Northern Hemisphere and south-eastward in the Southern, in the direction of the prevailing winds. In the Old World (for Europe, Asia and Africa must, in considering climates, be taken as one body of land) these treeless and mo inly desert regions begin on the west coast of Africa, north of the twentieth parallel, and run north-eastward or east by north, 9000 miles over Africa, Pales- tine, Northern Arabia, and Independent Tartary to latitude 5^)" in Mon- golia, ending in the great desert of Gobi or Manshire Tartary. m North America we have a similar desert- treeless region, beginning in Old and New California and on the coasts of Mexico (iu the same latitudes as the African desert), and extending to the Mississippi and beyond it, on the east, and to British America on the north. The winds over thcde desert areas on both Continents blow almost invariably in summer from some point near the south-west towards the north-east. These portions of the Continents are destitute mainly of summer rains, but have high summer temperatures. North of these are the regions of summer rains — Canada (under this name we include the whole of British America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific) in the New World and Europe in the Old. Upon the modifica- tions caused in these desert areas by the high lands of Mexico and the vast Mediterranean Sea we cannot here enter, but may merely state that the 14 m n i mountains of Mexico limit the deserts there, and that great sea north of Africa causes a more humid ai"* in the touth Oi Europe limiting the deserts in that direction ; yet Spain, Italy, Sicily, and the whole country north- eastward into Hungary, frequently suffer from summer droughts. The reason, as a permanent cause, often assigned for these portions of the Continent being destitute of trees— namely, the prairie fires — cannot for a moment bear investigation. *' Remove the cause — the fires — and trees will grow up," say land speculators ; and every year the seeds of forest trees are sown, and saplings in thousands taken from Canada are planted, in the vain attempt to produce what nature has denie(| them, or what would perish even if it existed, except in favoured localities. Fires were naturally suggested to the first rude settlers, to whom the evidence of sight is the chief guide, as the only cause. In many parts of the African, Asiatic and American deserts and prairies there are no fires ; still they are treeless. In other countries fires are as frequent where forests are permanent, or, if burned down, as during last year in some parts of Canada, young trees immediately grow up again. The existence of forests over a region of 2000 miles by 1000, and their failure where, and only where, the summer rains fail and the arid winds prevail, ought to have suggested the explanation. That the prairie fires, sweeping over extended areas, may have k^pt trees from some localities, near rivers or on reten- tive soils, is possible ; but such exceptions, limited and local, have no weight in opposition 'o the fact that millions of square miles have remained, through all the ages of history, desert and treele.«;s on the boilers of other equally extensive avas covered with dense forests. The climates which have produced these two distinct results over those regions have remained permanent for ages, and will remain permanent in the future, unless changes supervene in the entire solar system ; but for the calculation of such imaginary phenomena, astronomy furnishes no data. ' We may infer, therefore, that those conditions of climate — heat and humidity in the one case, and heat and aridity in the other — remaining the same, their effects — forests and treeless regions — will be permanent expressions of those fixed efficient causes. We append a few thoughts naturally suggested by what has been said or as applications, limitations, or modifications of the facts and arguments here adduced. < 1. It is questionable whether there is an acre of what a Canadian or English farmer would call good land for wheat and the cultivable grasses between the Mississippi and the Pacific slope. Climate, not soil, is the chief consideration ; and the want of rain , the remarkable aridity of the air, saline soils, cold nights, ^.o , render it impossible that it could, for the grains and grasses, equal Canadian and English lands. No doubt, as we go north into Minnesota and Wisconsin, these deteriorating agencies 15 are less potent. Prairies in high latitudes, where, as in Manitoba,* the rain-fall is greatly in excess of the evaporation, have usually sufficient moisture in the ground, with the frequent copious rains, for agricultural purposes. 2. Some cultivated grains have so great a range, north and south, by a proper adjustment to the earlier or later months of growth, that they may be produced in climates quite inferior. Bit plants which require the summer for their growth and maturity, and especially pastures and meadows, must fail in such climates. 3. Wheat and other grains produce twice as much in England as in Central France ; wheat, barley, oats, peas and the grasses, yield much more in Canada than in the best agricultural districts of the States. The crops, too, are surer and of better quality. 4. The grasses almost entirely fail — as cultivated grasses (pastures and meadows) over the western prairies, and, furthe. sout? timothy runs to a coarse cane ; even maize produces less in its native climates than near its northern limits, running in the south more to cane than to grain. 5. Wheat will ripen in a summer temperature of 57^, with one month at 58°, as at Aberdeen, in Scotland. In interior climates, as on the Sas- katchewan and Mackenzie rivers, it requires a summer of 60'' to 65°. In England it ripens at a temperature of 60*^ , at Kasan, in Russia, (near lat. 66'^), at 60° 9' ; with a temperature above 70° it fails to fill, and soon ripens or dries up. Maize requires a summer of 65°, with one month at 67° (the most favourable climate for both maize and grapes) ; hence the immense districts in the North-West, in Canada, favourable for wheat, oats and peas — barley, rye, the grasses, and many root crops going five to seven degrees farther north than wheat. Great Britain, one of the most favoured regions for these products, has a summer of about 60° to 62° (London, 61° 9', Glasgow, 60°, Swansea, 62°, Dublin, 60°, Liverpool, 57° 6', the central counties of England, 62°). Canadian summers, necessarily varied over such a vast region, may be stated at 60° to 70° (Halifax, 60° 8', Fredericton, New Brunswick, 64° 6', Quebec, 69° 1', Montreal, 70° 8', Toronto, 67° 8', Ancaster, near the head of Lake Ontario, 65° 1', the Muskoka country, 100 miles north of Toronto, 68° to 69°, Manitoba, 67° to 70°, Vancouver, 61° 5'). The summers of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and the whole country east and north-east of the deserts, are ten to fifteen degrees higher than the best districts for the grains and grasses. Central Illinois has a summer of 74° ; Ohio, 70° to 74° ; Iowa, 72° to 78° ; Kansas and Missouri, higher still. These temperatures are ten degrees too high for wheat, barley, &c., and the cultivable grasses. Hence the beginning of the summer heat is the end of the further growth of these plants ; they immediately wither up. 4}' I 'There are 120,000 square miles of Prairie in and west of Manitoba. 16 Add to this the summer drouglita, arid wiiids^ and the other attendants of such prairies, and we have a climate destructive of the great staple* of the temperate zones. By reference to the maps the reader will see the most favoured regions for wheat, grain, grasses, and, of course, for pastures and meadows, in a broad zone extending from south-east to north-west across the Continent in the direction of the summer isothermal lines, and in the same position and near the same latitudes as the chief zone for these great staples in the Old V/orld ; the best part, and vastly the greater part of this zone, is in Canada. VII. THE CLIMATES OF CANADA AS INDICATED BY HER NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. WiiEKE certain forest trees, vines and plants have fastened themselves without the c re of man, they give us the best proofs of those uniform conditions of iio.it and moisture favourable for their growth. Many of the trees in the forests of Canada, the most remarkable forests of deciduous, or leaf-falling trees on the globe, require a summer temperature of 67° of Fahrenheit and a copious fall of rain. The western coasts of both Con- tinents, in the Old and New Worlds, in high latitudes, have the necessary moisture, but not the summer heat ; hence the absence there of leaf-falling trees, except certain species and in favoured localities. The praix'ies, both east and west of the Mississippi, as also the deserts of the Old and New Worlds, have the required summer beat, but not the moisture ; and those regions are destitute of all trees. Climates fatal to forest trees could not be favourable for fruit trees, nor indeed for any agricultural products. Hence the absence of orchards and the frequent failures of crops throughout the Western States from the deficiency of summer rains. The high summer temperatures and abundant summer rains in Canada are unquestionably those conditions of climate necessary to produce these pecu''\r trees. W^e take the sugar maple (^aoer saccharinum) as our starting point for illustration. This forest tree is found over the greater part of the valley of the St. Lawrence up to latitude 49°, in the Red River north of 49°, and the ash-leafed maple {n. fiaxinifolium) on the Saskatchewan, lat. 54°. It requires a summer of from 65° to 67°, and copious rains. The summer temperatures of England and the north of France are too low for this tree (London, 61", Liverpool, 57°, Paris, 64°). The British Islands have the necessary rain but not the heat ; the western prairies have the heat but nut the rain. This beautiful tree attains over much of the valley of the St. Lawrence, a height of 60 to 90 feet, and 4 to 8 in circumference, and is found 120 feet high and 12 in circumference between lakes Ontario and Huron. Besides the sugar maple, there are four other varieties, one especially (a. dasycarpum) , nearly as large as the one described above. -(;■'. !' ■ ;■:;.■■'..■,• 17 HER Wherever the maplo grow8, the wild vino may be found running to the tops of ordinary forest trees, and in favourable localities sometimes attaining six inches in diameter. This may be taken as a rough estimate of the extent of country— twice the size of Great Britain in the valley of the St. Law- rence alone — in which the grape may be cultivated, for our vine growers are getting hardier varieties, based op the native vine. The Canadian forests are made up of some sixty trees, with numerous shrubs. We name only a few. The black walnut (^juglana nigra), m the western and south-western parts of Canada, has an average height of 120 feet, and 70 to the first limb. Trunks six feet in diameter and 18 in circumference were not uncommon in the pristine forests. The chestnut (^caatanea vesca) attains a height of 100 feet, and three in diameter; the butternut (juglans cinerea) is also one of the largest forest trees, widely diffused over Canada, with 60 to 70 feet of trunk free from limbs. The gigantic oaks and elms are too well known to require description, and are sometimes fou.id 18 and even 22 feet in circumference. The plane-tree (platanua occidentalis ), is found in the southern part of the Dominion 60 inches in diameter and 60 fe«t to the first limb ; the white wood (liriodendron tulipifera) , a, variety of the gorgeous magnolia, equal in height and size to the last-named ; the pepperidge, or sour gum tree (^nysia multijhra), 100 feet high ; the flowering dog wood (cornm florida), 30 feet high and 8 inches in diameter ; the red cedar (Juniperus virgdni- ana), 24 inches in diameter ; the sassafras («. officinale), 60 feet high ; — the climate that produces such forests, with a hundred varieties of trees and shrubs, needs no further defence with the botanist, nor even with those but partially acquainted with the productions of the earth and the localities where they grow. The author, in 1862, made a very full collection of the woods and plants of Canada for the International Exhibition in London, with a view to correct the erroneous opinions so widely entertained as to our climate. Several eminent botanists, amongst others Sir William Hooker, director- of the Kew Gardens, and Mr. Lindley, made special reference to the collection, as illustrating this very subject. Samples of some sixty varieties of Canadian woods were presented to the Kew Gardens, the British Museum, the Admiralty, to Lloyd's in London, the Industrial Museum of Edinburgh, and to the chief governments of Europe. These were highly prized as most irrefragable proofs of a high summer tempera- ture, as well as for their commercial value. VIII. CANADA COMPARED WITH CORRESPONDING REGIONS OF THE OLD WORLD AND WITH THE UNITED STATES. The productions of Canada are mostly similar to those of Western,. North- Western, and Central Europe, the great staples being those of the middle and higher parts of the temperate zones. The cereals^ J r If 18 graesofl, root crops and hardier fruits of Europe, find hero, more than ia any other part of the American Continent, their appropriate climates. The throe decennial census of Canada show that we produce more abundant and surer crops of the cereals, grains, grasses and root crojjs, and those of better quality, than any of the States of the Republic. This is true of wheat, oats, bariey, pern, rye, most of the ordinary root crops (as pota- toes, turnips, boots, carrots, &c.), and the hardier fruits. The Canadian Census of 1851 shows that Canada even then produced one-sixth as much -wheat as all the thirty-one States and four territories, one-half as much peas, more than one-seventh as much oats, more than one-fourth as much barley, and nearly one-eighth as much hay as the entire Republic. The census of 1860 and 1861 was still more favourable to Canada ; for in wheat, she had one-sixth, in oats one-fourth to one-fifth, in barley a third, and in peas nearly equalled, the 34 States and seven territories. Any one acquainted with the agricultural products of Europe, and with the climates adapted to them, will at once see the cause of this. The parts of Europe north of the parallel of 45° (and Canada goes to 42°) em- brace the British Islands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Lombardy, part of Sardinia, and most of France and Russia. The whole of the American Union, east of the lakes, is south of 45°, except that part of Maine surrendered under the Ashburton Treaty. Very small portions of Wisconsin and Michigan, and part of Minnesota, are north of this parallel. If it be said that America ia very different in climate from Europe, we answer, that that difference is unfavojrable to the United States and favourable to Canada, as the facts stated below will show. America, it is said, is colder than Europe. It would be difficult to state the climatal conditions of the two Continents more loosely and erroneously. From the influence of the tropical currents of water and wind, the western coasts of both Continents are warmer than the eastern ; but the summer temperatures, which are of chief importance in agriculture, are higher, as we get a little from the Atlantic coast, in America ih&n in Europe, and too high throughout the United States for the great staples of the temperate zones. The summer of the British Islands is from 57'^ to 62° ; the summer of Illinois is thirteen degrees 'her than this ; Ohio has a summer of 70® to 74° ; Iowa, still higher, 78° ; Kansas and Missouri, higher still. it high temperatures and a burning sun are not the only enemies ,^ which the agriculturist so far south has to contend, — the want of rain is another and even mere grievous defect in the climate in those parts of the United States ; for high su nmer temperatures, with heavy rains, are conditions of climate favouring tropical plants, but high tempera- tures, without rain, are destructive of all vegetation ; and high tenipera- tui 1 1 4 of Sy the I H: 19 i i tures, with an insuflBciency of rain, give only imperfect crops. Those parts of the States just named very much resemble Palestine, Arabia, Persia Syria, and Indcpemlent Tartary. Both regions are similarly situated on the Continents, both are in the zones of the summer droughts, high torn- peratiires, arid winds, and rapid evaporation, but, with this important feature in favour of the Asiatic countries, they lie near the ocean and Mediterranean Sea, which render the atmosphere more humid, and modify the droughts. Nor would the effects of the want of summer rains bo fully stated with- out rofcrenco to the rapid evaporation in countries situated like those namod. In England the evaporation in summer is from 40 to GO per cent. of the rain-fall, leaving from 60 to 40 per cent, in the soil, affording mois- ture to plants while working its way slowly to the rivers. In Baltimore (lat. 39^^ 18'), although near the ocean, the evaporation in summer is double the rain-fall. Inland, in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, and tho whole region thence to the Pacific, the evaporation is much more rapid than on the sea coast. These States, too, lie east of the groat desert ; And semi-deserts, stretching from the 98th meridian (the western bound- ary of Iowa and Minnesota) to the Pacific. The prevailing summer winds on this part of the Continent, being from the west and south-west blow almost uniformly over tho States lying eastward and north-eastward and being arid burning winds, parch the land and wither up every green thinij . Minnesota and Wisconsin are less, but only less, affected by tho5o winds for they border on those immense inland seas, whose waters, from their great depth, being cool even during the summer months, check the evapor- ation and increase the rain-fall. We need not here refer to some portions of the middle States, which from their altitude or other causes, have cooler climates, or to California where the winter and early spring are favourable for the growth of wheat but not for the other grains, the grasses, or roots. We are not dealing with exceptional cases. The greater portions of the States east of the Mississippi lie too far south for the chief staples of the temperate zones. We make very little account, agriculturally, of the regions in the Repub- lic west of that river, for reasons elsewhere stated. As a general rule, the grasses (the timothy, clover, &c., and gfasses that make our pastures and meadows) fail south of latitude 39° east of the Mississippi, and even to lat. 50^ west of it ; and where the grasses fail, the dairy, the sheep, and herds of cattle, with all their accompanying blessings, must be given up as a chief element in farming; for the wild prairie grasses of those regions, when ploughed up, cannot be re-set, and therefore are of no value as cultivable grasses. Hence the farmer from the higher and middle latitudes of Europe must, in ^"oing to the western and south-western States, submit to great changes in his mode of agriculture. M h 11 m 20 EXTRACTS FROM BLODGETS '' CLIMATOLOGY ^ POTS " GUIDE TO CANADA:' A -VT) pzr/i- The cultivated cereal grains and grasses ( ^xcept Indian corn) all come to us through the cool and humid equable climates of the west of Europe. For this reason their most successful districts are in the eastern parts of the United States, and we have nothing which will bear the heat of the Southern States for th ummer, the grains ripening before it (the summer boat) comes on, and the grasses being destroyed by it." — p. 445. " The grasses are nearly equal to the grains in economic importance [probably quite equal, if we take into account the flocks, herds, and dairy,] and nearly all the cultivable forms are derived from Europe. They find decided limitations, consequently (in the Unitfjd States), and are far from supplying the full requirement here. The cultivable turf (pastures and meadows) belongs most decidedly to the districts of equally disj- tributed rains above the 39th parallel [the latitude of the central parts of lUinois, IndKna and Ohio, and the northern part of Missouri and Kansas], and it is lare from Baltimore [lat. 3fe'' 18'] to Washington [although both are near the Atlantic] , unless carefully preserved, as also at all points near this latitude east of the Mississippi. Within the area north of the 39th parallel there a^e many limitations ; and it may be more 'precisely set down as coincident with the lunvy mixfd forest, failing where that fails either on the sandy tracts or prairies. In sandy plains in New Jersey, and in soma parts of New England, the English grasses (the grasses that make our pastures and meadows) fail. But on the prairies of some of the States east of the Mississippi, the climate* assists to limit them throu; \ high summer temperature and Jong periods of droughts. West of the Missis- sippi che climate is still less favourable ; and, as the soil has less of the retentive character in receding from the Mississippi, the favourite culti- vated turf almost wholly fails west of Minnesota, as high as the 49th paral- lel."— p. 449. " In Central Russia, near Kasan in the Baltic Provinces, [on the Volga, lat. 55^ 48', with a summer temperatare of G2^, 4'] in the British Islands, and in the Canadas, the capacity (for wheat) is most fully tested for com- mercial purposes, and the most ample quantities are grown. Probably the plains of the Saskatchercan and the Pacific coast at Pitget Sound and Van- couver's Island, will furnish similar districts." — p. 446. "I know of no better field for the industrious emigrant [than Canada], and this not only on account of its nearness to the mother country, but I think its climate and the occupations engaged in by the colonists are more thoroughly adapted to the Englishmaii tlan those of any other country." — H. J. Philpot's " Guide to Canada," p. 7. > f i 21 f» D PHIL- ) all come f Europe, parts of at of the e summer ). aportance erds, and :)e. They id are far (pastures lally dis- parts of Kansas] , although all points ;h of the precisely (hat/aila f Jersey, Lsses that le of the t?iroti> \ e Missis- iss of the ite culti- th paral- e Volga, Islands, tor com- >ably the md Van- ?anada] , ry, but I ire more Duntry." 4 Nor can we admit the forc^ of the objection that such comparisons are fallacioUb. The orange, the lemon, aid certain plants of Southern Europe, will not live through a Canadian winter, and, therefore, it is said, a com- parison drawn from latitudes has no weight. The temperatures of the summer months are those of chief importance in agriculture and horticulture. The winters have no unfavourable effect upon ^Jants for the maturity of which the summers are long enough and warm enough ; nay, the intervention of winters, such as prevail throughout Canada, with the temperature low enough to secure a covering of snow, is good both for the plant and the soil. The frosts of winter, too, says a Scotch agriculturist, who also had long been a practical farmer in Britain, leave the land in a very friable state and in better order than any number of ploughings could make it. The winter grains, the grasses, the roots of trees, and especially of shrubs, are protected from the wind and the sun ; the soil, too, being covered with snow till the sun is warm enough to start vegetation, is not dried up, as we find it in Southern Europe, in late winter and early spring. Then the gradual melting of the snow fills the earth with moisture, so necessary for the germination of seeds ani plants. The rains of spring and early summer follow : these favouring circumstances, accompanied by moderate temperatures, render (^^anada, as a grazing and grain-growing country, immeasurably superior to Southern Europe. '* Canadian wheat," says Marahall, p. 76, " is one of the finest in the world ; oats, barley, maize, and other grains, yield excellent crops. " These grains, with the rich pastures and meadows, herds of horn-cattle, sheep and horses, are not the great staples along the shores of the Medi- terranean, as in Canada. After the cool months of spring and early summer, so favourable fc r the hanlier grains and grasses, the high temperatures of July and August mature even subtropical plants throughout the valley of the St. Lawrence and far up into the north-west. The melon, pumpkin, squash, tomato, cucumber, &c., come to great perfection in the open air. Hence the great Tariety of vegetable products in Canada, from the tender plants of tropical and semi-tropical origin to the hardier ones of the middle and higher temperate zones. In countries such as those of Southern Europe and the Western States, the ground is usually ^dried by exposure to the sun and winds before the wermth of spring starts vegetation ; this is often followed by great heat, summer droughts, arid winds and rapid evaporation, parching the land and withering the plants. Besides, climates favourable for the orange, lemon, and snch tropii il fruits and plants as find a genial home around the shores of the Mediterranean, are destructive of others even more valuable. 22 I • i 1 i''' m m '4 if The long and severe winters of Canada are, by strangers, supposed to- be almost insuperable obstacles to keeping large herds of cattle. We cannot here discuss the question farther than .to refer to the facts that Canadian fanners keep more stock than American, that immense numbers of horn-cattle, sheep and horses, are exported every year to the United States, and that hay, from low down the St. Lawrsnce, is sent, more than a thousand miles, to Chicago, on the borders of the great prairies of the west. In Northern Eu'-ope, even where there may be po snow, grasses grow very little or not at all during that part of thp year covered with snow in Canada ; and it would no doubt be better both for the soil and plants in those countries had they a similar protection from the winds and Bun of winter and spring. Marshall, in his work on Canada, says he found " excellent Durham, Devon, and Ayrshire cattle ; Ootswold and Leicester sheep ; Essex, Suffolk and other well-known breeds of pigs ; and many excellent draught and road horses. I was not prepared for the evidence of such widespread interest in this branch of the farmer's occupation, and such general excellence of results as I iound here." — p. 77. In this connection it should not be forgotten that the chief grazing and grain-growing countries of Europe are in the iiigher parts of tlj| temperate zone, and must, from similar causes, be in corresponding parts in America j in other words, in Canada. The length of winter in such climates, it is often said by Europeans, limits very much the period of out-door operations. Professor Johnson quotes the opinion of sixty-two experienced farmers to this effect — that the frosts of winter open and make friable the soil to such a degree that the labour expended upon it goes much farther than in England ; that one ploughing is, in fact, so far as the mechanical loosening of the soil is concerned, equal -o two in countries without such frosts ; that the raias in Canada falling more in short showers than in protracted rams, as in Great Briiain and Ireland, the number of working days is greater in the spring months in the former than in tht iatter country ; that thr rapidity with which crops come to maturity leaves a longer period for ploughing and out-door work, both before the seed is sown and after the crops are reaped ; that by stabling and keeping together the stock, more manure is saved. Finally, there is much work which can be far better done in winter than in summer, as the felling and cutting of trees, so much easier with the frost in the wood, clearing the laud, hauling manure to the remoter parts of the farm, fencing and wood from swamps and places difficult of access in summer, conveying prouuct to market at distances with a speed and in quantities which would uot be practicable on wheels, and many other things known only to those living in such countries. 23 I i i IX. INFLUENCES OF CLIMATES ON THE RACES OF MEN. Heat and humidity are the chief agencies in rendering climates and soils favourable for the productions of the earth, and these have remained per- manent throughout all the ages of history, Laplace has demonstrated that the temperature of the earth could not have changed during the vast periods over which astronomical calculations have been extended, and that none can occur without affecting the movements of the entire planetary system. Climates are permanently the same, and their effects upon the animal and vegetable kingdoms in the Old World will be reproduced in the New. Climates, here as there, will have the same effect upon the features, complexion and general physique of man. Those regions in the Old World lying in latitudes and in position similar to the greater part of the United States are inferior, for the abode of man, to those which correspond with Canada. Time has not yet been given in ihe New World to show the full effect*; of the causes which have produced those marked and permanent characteristics in the Old; but here, as there, similar causes must be followed by corresponding effects. It might be a bold prediction to assert that another China in the mould and features of its inhabitants will be I'eproduced in portions of the United States. In latitude, in climates, in position on the Continent, and in natural productions, they are the same, and climates have as uniform and powerful an influence over the animal as over the vegetable kingdom. Throughout extended districts of the United States, and especially on the borders of the desert areas, the lapse of a few generations has shown a marked change in the race from their European ancestors, in their thinner busts, smaller heads, slender and more elongated forms. Yet the full effects of climate cannot be wrought out till that roaming life so productive of a nardy race shall have been superceded by the peaceful pursuits of industry. " Let any one," says a recent traveller, and we have often observed the same, " take his stand at any railway station in the west on the borders of Kansas [lat. 37° to 40°], and mark the robust full form and florid com- plexion of the Canadian going west, in contrast with the emaciated appear- ance of the inhabitant of the west going east," and ask himself what changes half a dozen generations even v/ould produce upor the permanent inhabi- tants of those regions. The world over, on and around the desert areas of the earth, we have a peculiar type, of which the Bedouins of Arabia, the inhabitants of Palestine, Independent Tartary or Northern Africa, are ihe unvarying embl^s. Their attenuated forms, their small and wiry limbs, seem made rather to move with the drifting sands than to perform the labours of industry. Without steady habits, they have no great manufactures or commerce, little accumulation of wealth, and, as a necessary consequence, no high civilization, but a semi-barbarism rather in all their ages of history, f 'W- 24 and in all similar regions of the globe'. One half the superficial area of the United States is a desert or serai-desert, and the whole too far south to make it permanently the seat of power or of empire on this Con- tinent. That the south of North America was settled before the north , and is still the destination of most European emigrants, is what any one acquainted with history would have predicted. Europe was first settled in the south; and even subsequently every swarm which went out from those overflowing northern hives turned their faces southward. But here in time, as in Europe, population, manufactures, commerce, wealth, high civilization and power, will be found in the north. Twenty-five thousand beef-eating Englishmen, of a younger civilization by many centuries, brought into subjection a hundred millions of rice-eating Hindoos. Power, the amount of lifein the few, tri;imphed over the many. Military discipline and superior arms, it is true, gave Rome, a southern country, the ascendancy over Gaul, Germany and Britain ; but eventu- ally Rome conquered the north by northern men, and she herself in turn yielded to the north. The greater amount of life in the northern charac- ter is seen in their valour in war, in their energies in peace, in manufac- tures, in commerce, and in all the walks of life. Harvey J. Philpot, M.D., Assistant Surgeon to Her Majesty's Forces in the Crimea and Turkey, says, in his " Guide Book to Canada " (London, 1871), p. 67: '^ Canada is an exceptionally healthy country. I do not hesitate to make the statement after seven years in the country engaged in an exten- sive medical practice. As a race the Canadians are fine, tall, handsome, powerful men, well built, active, tough as pine knot, and bearded like pards. The good food upo.i which they have been brought up [with the invigorating climate] , appears to develop them to the fullest proportions cf the • genus homo.' '' Marshall, in his recent work on Canada, says, " I am persuaded that, uespite its severity, the climate of Canada is one of the healthiest in tue world. It is expressly fitted to develop a hardy race. For the bringing up of a young family, it is to be preferred very decidedly to the climate of almost all the states of the Union south of the chain of Canadian lakes. The fact of the generally healthy condition of the people, the splendid development of the men, the preservation of the English type of beauty of the women, may be taken in proof of the excellence of the climate." — p. 237-8. " The Canadian, whether English, Irish, or Scotch, is well propor- tioned and vigorous, often tall, with bi-oad shoulders, sinewy frame, and capable of great endurance. He is qui.^k of resource, enterprising, sober- minded, persistent and trustworthy. The races of the British Isles and of Norway have certainly aot degtncrated here." — p. 5. t:yV.-[ 25 *' The American and Canadian peoples are fast becoming sundered bj the development of distinct types of national character. Two races are here forming side by side. The Canadians are still strictly Anglo-Saxon [or Anglo-Norman]. In so far as the climate is changed at all, it is by a return to the severity of northern regions, from which the Scandinavian peoples came. The old race bids fair to attain a new vigour. The Cana- dians, as a rule, are hardy, well developed, fresh-coloured ; thoy love the oountry and the life of a farmer [the Canadian farmer is mostly a land- owner, and not like a European farmer] ; they are fond of field sports and of vigorous exercise ; they are all born soldiers, and learn to handle the rifle well. They are like the English of past generations." " They are the most military people on the globe, with the doubtful exception of Prussia." " The Aiaerican people, though distinctly Teutonic, is ceasing to be Anglo- Saxon or English. It v.'ill soon become, if indeed it is not already, a nationality of more mingled elements than ever the world has known before. It is im- possible to travel east and west without perceiving that changes from the old English type have taken place." Some of the causes for such changes Mr. Marshall gives : — " 1. An enormous immigration of Irish, Germans, South Germans and Swedes has been attracted from the Old World. The English are lost in the multitude of other races. " 2. The new comers rear large families, of eight, twelve, sixteen children ; the native American, the descendant of the English race, chooses to have but one or two. " 3. In estimating the growing divergence of type of the American and Canadian peoples, account should be taken of the difference of climate of the two countries. " This difference, acting persistently as it does, and upon every indivi- dual of the masses, must exercise a great though insensible power in modifying the physioue and the character. And, singularly enough, the operation of this cause appears to be directly in the line of those already indicated. Climatic influences tend to intensify the differences created by divergence of race. " The Canadians are eminently English. Thoy speak the language as we do, with no noticeable change of accent. They are jealous to a fault of the English honour, and proud of the English fame and power. In race they ai'O wholly one with us. Climate has fostered, not changed, the national characteristics. They are conservative of the old traditions of English liberty, and honour, and national greatness. They are tha English of the English."— p. 245-8. " The type of b^^auty in Canada is particularly English. The women are well proportioned, well developed, often very fair, and sometimes stately and tall. There is a greater admixture of Scotch blood than is found in most parts of England proper. In the city of Toronto especially 26 I was struck with the large number of beautiful women with golden hair. I believe that this is due to the purely Saxon origin of many of the families settled there."— p. 284. In his report on the Canadian Militia to the Dommion Government, in March 1870, Col. P. Robertson-Ross, says— " The rural battalions are almost entirely composed of the agricultural population, the bone and sinew of the land who have a stake in the country, and in many instances are the proprietors and sons of proprietors of the land ; and it is impossible to see a hardier race, or finer material for soldiers. In many instances their physique is most remarkable, and they all appear imbued with a spirit of great loyalty to their Queen and country, and the same spirit and aptitude for military service are exhibited by the city battalions." (Quoted also by Marshall, p. 257). " I attended," says Mr. Marshall, " a volunteer corps shooting match at Ottawa. I remarked particularly the splendid physique of the men. The stalwart farmers, backwoodsmen, and lumberers of the country would produce the finest army conceivable. ' Great heavens !' exclaimed an English officer at the sight of those tall, broad-shouldered, resolute-looking men, ' what superb fellows I would make of these, if I might only lick them into shape.' " — p. 258. These are the opiniona of well informed Englishmen, whose knowledge of the peoples in the several countries of whom they speak or write, should give weight to their views. X. DESERT AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES.* Our comments here refer chiefly to the following points : — 1st. That the country/ ivest of the 9Sth meridian, within the United States, is mostly a desert, made such by the absence of summer rains. Let the reader examine the map, and he will find that one half of the Republic lies west of the meridian of Minnesota. This is the region of summer droughts, four to five months — the agricultural months — without rain. Where there may be rain in summer, as on the eastern and north- eastern borders of this immense area, the evaporation is so great and the atmosphere so dry as to render it a very inferior agricultural country. These desert and semi-desert areas correspond in position on this conti- nent with the deserts of the Old World, with this difference — the desert of Sahara being checked in its northern sweep by the Mediterranean Sea, the arid region does not rise so high in Europe as in America, which has no such water to the north ; but east of the Mediterranean the desert * From the advice of friends in whose judgment he has confidence the author has added this chapter, stating more fully the remarkable difference b tween the climates and capabili- ties of ( luicommon for a voyageur to see the bottom to the depth of 50 feet, an >''-ii^ much on Lake Superior say to the depth of 200 feet. The St. la > ■ e \nd its lakes are estimated to contain 12,000 cubic miles of water, -j. >' .>rc than half the fresh water on the globe. This is exclusive of the rivers and lakes of the north-west, some of which — both lakes and rivers — are in extent, although not in volume of water, equal to the St. Lawrence and its lakes. These vast bodies of water have a great and beneficial influence in tempering the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Their waters are remarkably pure and wholesome, being every where used for drinking, as also for culinary purposes. In exam 'ng any good map of North America, the observer will be struck w>i he thousands of lakes in Canada, and their almost entire mrjfiTi^^- 38 absence in the United States, except in the northern part and that >- nected with the St. Lawrence. West of the Mississippi, especially througk all the central parts of the Continent, there are no fre.a water lakea durir^g the 3'.iinmer ; while in Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,, they are everywhere met with, beautifying the scenery, supplying whole- some water, and abounding in excellent fish. The volume of water ir the lakes and rivers of a country is a somewhat^ accurate measure of the rain-fall over the evaporation. The great desert of Sahara i.« almost entirely without rivers and lakes, and is also called the " riverless region." In the deserts and in the districts of summer droughts, within the United States, the rivers, in summer, are dry or very low, and the few lakes mostly salt. In such regions the evaporation in summer exceeds the rain-fall. This contrast is attributable to causes favourable to the health and. af^ricultural capabilities of the northern country ; these are, the greater and more uniform fall of summer rain, and the more moderate summer temperatures. These lakes and rivers add greatly -, the salubrity of the climate, the cool, humid breezes from which modii_^ ' '3mper the heat of summer;, and the larger ones never freezing, softt e severity of winter. Nor- should we be insensible to the groat beauty ot landscape from these numer- ous lakes and rivers of pure clear water. ISo country presents a greater variety of lovely and magnificent scenery than this land of a thousand lakes. The numerous lakes and rivers in Canada are the expression, the index, of the surplus of the rain-fall over the evaporation. Even east of the Mississippi, in the latitude of Baltimore and Wasliington, where the rain is 10 to 13 inches in summer, the evaporation is so great, twice the amount of rain, that the smaller streams and springs fail ; but in the more moist cool atmosphere north of the St. Lawrence, the water remaining in the ground from the melting of the snows in spring, with the summer rains, supplies moisture to the roots of plants and trees, while at the same season of the year the ground is dry and parched in the countries just, named. The position of the valley of the St. Lawrence is most favourable for the great staples of the temperate zone. It lies in the chief region of the grains and grasses — the region of summer rains and moderate summer temperatures. It is, too, but little elevated above the level of the sea, the tide rising at Three Rivers, 90 miles West of Quebec, and. 600 miles from the sea. Lake Ontario, the head of which is more thaa. 1000 miles from the ocean, has an altitude of but 232 feet, making a. difference of less than one degree of Fal renheit ; and Lake Superior, 2000^ miles inland, is but GOO feet above the .-ea level. '.M* . 39 The Canadian part of the valley of the St. Lawrence hes between latitude 42° and 52°, and is celebrated for the splendid crops of wheat, barley, oats, peas, rye, roots, fruit, and the luxuriant grasses and meadows. We give a few facts, taken at random, from the eastern, central and western portions of this great valley. Professor Johnson, honorary member of the Agricultural Society of England, and well known as an authority on agricultural matters, in his Report on New Brunswick, gives us this table of averages : — New Brunswick. New York. Ohio. Wheat per acre 20 bushels. 14 bushels. 15 bushels. Barley " 29 '• 16 " 24 " Oats " 34 " 20 " 33 « Indian Corn " 41 " 25 " 41 Potatoes " 226 " 90 " 69 " Turnips " 460 " 88 The central and western parts of the great valley of the St. Lawrence give a similar superiority in thf staples of the middle and higher tem- perate zone, over the United States, In some of the chief wheat-producing districts in Canada, this cereal has been grown for twenty successive years on the same land ; the first crops yielding an average of forty bushels per acre ; ou new land fifty bushels is not uncommon. The average now — twenty-two bushels in some counties and twelve in others — does not give the capabilities of the soil. But this apparently " stupid husbandry" does not arise so much from ignorance as from necessity — wheat being the only marketable product in remote districts. Beyond this valley and throughout vast areas of the north-west, the grains and grasses still hold their superiority over the south. Minnesota, the only state bordering on 49°, is confessedly the first in the Union in wheat, yet the statistics give this result : — Red River Spring wheat, 40 bushels per acre. Minnesota " " 20 " " Wisconsin " " 14 " " Pennsylvania " " 15 " " Ohio " » 15 " " The variety and extent of the mineral resources of Canada are so great that to give anything Uke a full description of them would be quite inconsis- tent with our purpose. The beautiful maps of Sir William Logan give the outlines of the geological features, and the reports furnish descriptions of some of the economic materials with which Canada abounds. Large deposits of coal are found in the Atlantic and Pacific Provinces, and i F'f 40 p: M'^p'' also over extensive areas in the North- West Territories. Throughout Canada proper, to which chiefly the geological survey has been coniined, the Laurentian, Silurian and Devonian formations prevail ; but on the south of the St. Lawrence, in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and west of Lake Wiuuipeg, and again on the Pacific coast, the carboniferous appear. The chief minerals of economic importance found in the reports are classed as follows : — 1. Metals and their Ores. — Iron bog ore ; red hematite ; magnetic ore ; ilmenite or titaniferous ore ; lead ; copper, sulphurets and native ; nickel and cobalt ; silver ; gold ; platinum and iridosmine. 2. Minerals applicable to chemical manufactures. — Chromic iron ; molybdenite ; cobaltiferous iron pyrites ; dolomite ; magnesite ; petroleum ; bituminous shale ; phosphate of lime. 3. Refracting materials. — Soapstone or steatite ; potstone or chlorite ; mica rock ; crystals of mica ; plumbago (graphite) ; asbestus or amianthus ; friable sandstone ; fire clay. 4. 3Iineral8 applicable to construction. — Limestone; dolomites; sand- stones ; Labradorite ; gneiss ; syenite ; granite ; marbles (found in many places and in great variety — wliite, black, red, veined with white, darK and light green, brown, brownish black, grey, &c,, fee.) ; serpentines ; roofing slates ; flagstones ; hydraulic cement ; lime ; brick clays ; drain tiles. 5. Grinding and polishing minerals. — Whetstones ; hones ; grind- stones: millstones. 6. Mineral manures. — Gypsum ; marls ; calcareous tufa. 7. 3Iineral paints. — Iran ochres ; sulphate of barytes. S and 9. Minerals applicable to the fine arts and to c^nament. — Lithographic stones ; agates ; Labradorite ; albite (peristerite) ; ortho- clase (perthite); jasper conglomerate ; epidosite. IG. Miscellaneous minerals. — Feldspar ; sandstone for glass ; moulding sand ; peat. Petroleum or rock oil in large quantities. Salt, recently discovered near Goderich, and very successfully manu- factured. Supposed to be in inexhaustible quantities. XVI. POPULATION. The population of Canada is now (1872) about 4,000,000 ; we include in this estimate ail British America. In Appendix B. we have given the numbers at different periods since 1760. Previously to 1850 the figures, although approximations only, are near tl e true ones. By 1875 it should be more than 5,000,000 at the rate of increase since 1840. By reference to Appendix B. it will be found that the population of the United States has 41 doubled every twenty-five years since 1775. This, considering the enor- mous immigration, shows a small natural increase, as the population of the British Islands, including those who emigrate and their descendants, doubles, from birt'is alone, in that time. From 1850 to 1870 the rate has been much less (about 82 per cent, for 25 years), but was enough from 1825 to 1850 to make up the deficiency. Turning to Canadian statistics (App. I3 , we find the increase about one-third more. In these comparisons we have included, from the first, the Maritime Provinces. It must be remembered that the United States embraced in 1775 only the 13 States on the Atlantic coast ; in 1803 they bought Louisiana from France, and, in 1820, Florida from Spain, and from 1835 to 1850, added, of Mexican territory, Texas and California, with immense regions intervening, and got from Canada part of Maine and vast territories to the west of the Lakes. It was during this period that their increase was greatest. If we begin with Canada proper in 1800, and add, after the example of the United States, the other Provinces as they have been incorporated, the comparison will be much more in our favour. From 1800 to 1825, the increase would be 303 per cent. ; from 1825-1850, 191 per cent., and from 1850-1875, 204 per cent. — the same rate being assumed as during the previous ten years. We do not, of course, overlook the objection suggested to the mind of the statist, that the absolute increase in Canada has been small in compa- rison with that in the States, and that the higher percentage is due, it may be urged, to the small number upon which it is based. We would state in reply — 1st, That the natural increase, it may be assumed, will keep pace with the population ; 2nd, That one chief cause limiting the emigration from Great Britain and Gei.:iany (within given numbers, of course) has been the ability of new countries to absorb and give employment to the new comers, and that this ability increases faster than the population ; 3rd, That the United States (with the exception of the one decade stated) have as high a percentage of increase upon a large as they had upon a email population, and, upon the principle just stated (No. 2), have given employment every decade to enormously increased numbers of immigrants. In the ten years ending 1860, they received nearly 3,000,000 immi- grants ; the previous ten years, less than 1,500,000 ; and the ten preceding, only half a million; thus, while their population increased only 32 to 35 per cent, in each succeeding ten years, the immigrants increased from 100 to 300 per cent. The elements of increase in our favour in the future will be,l8t. The Republic is not likely to add any moro foreign territory, and by this means swell her numbers ; 2nd, The U:::jited States hairing reached the Western limits of arable lands, immlgradoQ, an agency so efficient in their increase in wealth and population, must now turn more towards Canada ; 3rd, The 42 m '■ in if ^ natural increase, upon which the Republic must hereafter chiefly depend, is much greater (about double) in Canada. Deducting the immigration* into the States from 1860 to 1870, tlie increase (by births) would be only about eleven per cent. In 1800, the population of Canada was, compared with the States, as on 3 to thirty-five, and including all the Provinces, as one to fifteen nearly ; in 1870, as one to ten. From the circumstances in our favour referred to above, the attractions presented in our new territories, and the public works which must be undertaken, we may confidently rely upon an increase in our population in the future, unparalled in our past history. During the last ten years we see a diminution in the population of New Hampshire and Maine, and the whole of New England nearly at a standstill. The increase, 7,091,000, between 1860 and 1870, is 1,094,000 less than between 1850 and 1860, and only 904,000 mo.e than from 1840 to 1850. The smaller increase shown by the last decennial census cannot be attributed so much to the war as to the causes referral to above. In i XVII. FISHERIES. Our fisheries, ocean and inland, are of inestimable value, both as a source of wealth and as nurseries for seamen. The chief of these on the coasts of North America are in Canadian waters ; those otf the coasts of the United States, being in warmer waters, are of much less value. From the banks of Newfoundland and the Atlantic Provinces, over the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, along the coasts of- Labrador and Hudson Bay, around the shores of the three great oceans down to Vancouver, through innumera- ble straits, seas and inlets, thickly studded with islands and archipelagos on the grandest scale, we possess eleven thousand miles of sea coast, swarming with the most prolific fisheries. The Minister of Marine, in his last Report, makes their value some $17,000,000 a year, even in their present state, with all the carelessness and waste incident to an undevel- oped industry of such vast extent, surrounded with so many elements of confusion. But we have not yet availed ourselves of a third of them. At the mouth of Mackenzie's River, and at the 70th degree of north latitude, the Americans stated, many years ago, that they had taken in one season * The Bureau of Statistics (Washington) values overy immigrant at $800 to $1,200 ; this would add $350,000,000 to the wealth of tiie Republic in 18G!i from this valuation alone — not including the money brought by each immigrant — and $8,000,000,000 (eight thousaurt. millions of dollars) in the last lifty years, during wl ich there have been 8,000,000 of immi- grants to the United States. This sum equals half -lie value of all the real estate in tho Republic in ISrfO, as given in the census. The mone' and material brought by the immi- grants, the sums invested by foreigners in various i 'ays, the money borrowed by States, com{ianies, &c., make, by a careful computation, anotLer eight thousand millions and more, taken chiefly from England, and added to the wealth of the Republic since 1820. 43 f 8,000,000 to $10,000,000 worth of fish. When Hudson Bay, the Arctic and Pacific fisheries, rich as those of the Atlantic, are reached, wo may value them at fifty millions annually. Then their importance as nurseries for seamen is beyond all price. Already we have 80,000 hardy mariners on our waters. To Britain they are of even greater value than to us, for she makes all her calculations upon being able to keep command of the sea. Our inland fisheries, too, are of great value. Apart from the lakes on our southern boundary, in which the chief fishing grounds are in our waters, we possess nearly all the lakes on the continent (excepting those bordering and south of Lakes Superior and Ontario), and innumerable rivers swarming with excellent fish. Being now the third amongst the nations in the tonnage of our shipping, and nearly equal with the United States, with these fisheries protected, we would soon rank as the second maritime power, and with the same per- centage of seamen as now, we would, with a population of ten millions^ have 200,000 mariners. By the treaty of 1818, the United States have the right to take fish on some 380 miles of the south and west coasts of Newfoundland, from the Rameau Islands on the south to Quirpon Islands on the north, on the shores of the Magdalen Islands (in the Gulf of St. Lawrence), which have 100 geographical miles of coast, and indefinitely along the shores of Labrador.* But the treaty gave them no such rights in Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, or Prince Edward Island. The cession to the United States, of the right to fish on these coasts also, is made in the Treaty of Washington, July 1871, not yet ratified. This treaty allows Canadians, down to latitude 39" on the coast of the United States^ the same rights as Canada grants to the fishermen of the States ; and to compensate us for the superiority of the privileges ceded, commissioners are to be appointed to award us what they may estimate the amount of the diflFerence. XVIII. MEANS OF TRANSIT— CANALS AND RAILWAYS. From Belle Isle, an outer island in the mouth of the St. Lawrence, in longitude 55° 30' (west from London) and latitude 52°, to the head of Lake Superior (long. 92'^ and lat. 47''), a distance of 2,400 miles, there are but 72 miles of canal, from Belle Isle to Montreal there is river navigation of 700 miles for the largest ocean steamers. The railways of Canada are some 3,150 miles in length, and cost $160,471,000. Those under contract (of which the Intercolonial, 560 miles long, is the chief) swell this sum to $200,000,000 invested in rail- For the surrender of these, of almost priceless value, we have absolutely no compensa<- 41ou. n y pi 'wr^w 44 ways. Of this the Government have advanced 121,000,000, not including the Intercolonial. The much talked of Pacific Railway would bo less than 2,000 miles from the head of Lake Superior to Vancouver. Its advantages over any route through United States territories would be, 1st, a shorter line ; 2nd, a fertile country in contrast with a desert south of 49^ ; 3rd, less snows ; 4th, a level country ; 5th, less grade, with 1,500 to 2,000 feet lower passage through the Rocky Mountains ; 6th, coal along the line, and at Vancouver ; 7th, and, when desired, 2,000 miles of navigation to Lake Superior. The estimated distance from Liverpool through Canada to Vancouver is 5,749 miles, and via New York to San Francisco, 6,280, or, from England to the Pacific, 631 miles in favour of the Canadian route. The construction of a railway to the Pacific is one of the conditions on •■ffhich British Columbia has been admitted into the Dominion. Twenty miles of land on each side of the line may be set apart for such road, the Government retaining every alternate section. In the length of railways Canada stands tenth amongst the nations, and nearly equal with Austria, Spain, and Italy, and seventh in the length of telegraph wire, having three times more than Bavaria or Belgium, coun- tries with about the same population as Canada. XIX. SHIPPING, TRADE, AND B '.NKS. In the tonnage of shipping Canada* is third amongst the nations. At so early a period in our history, it promises well for our future that we have outstripped in this all the renowned, ancient, and powerful countries of Europe, except Great Britain. The two chief lines of ocean steamers — the Cunard and Allan — are of Canadian origin. The " Allan Line" num- bers twenty-two steamers — one of 4,200 to\d, others 3,600, 3,400, 3,250 3,000, &c. They have 79,251 tons in their ocean lines ; of these, 53,234 tons are steamers, and 26,017 tons sailing vessels. The two splendid lines of steamers on Lake Ontario and the St. Law- rence above (and all those below) Montreal, are Canadian, while the Republic, so much lauded at our expense, has no passenger steamers below Lake Erie, and no ocean line between Europe and America. The trade returns for the year ending 30th June, 1870, show $148,387,829 worth, imports and exports. Adding pro rata the trade for British Columbia, the Hudson Bay territories, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, the imports a id exports of the Dominion would be about 1170,000,000. • Great Britain has 5,027,500 tons, the United ttatea (English measurement), 1,579,694. Canada, 1,029,764.— See App. C. . 45 The total liabilitioa of the banks are 182,202,672 ; assets 1129,658,517 The paid-up capital and deposits in the chartered Banks wore — Capital. Dcposita. 1 862 126,060,062 $18,644,557 1871 86,415,210 65,763,066 Additional deposits to the end of 1871 2,126,819 Deposits in Savings Banks 10,500,000 Total deposits 168,489,885 which equal witliin less than . a is < I o e CO : :(s : : :RSSS33a8SSS| : iS 2 >- a tcctooowoocc .ooocooro 6 Ml ■c U9 f-i ^H to ■ ■j25J^*'-''oMi»c!i-ooi-ic>oe4?j • 00 16 1- c4 »a I'- lo I— 1-» i-» i-^ -*1 H ^ a bo a a. o 1^ be (a o B «. i-.fHC>(3>o>CTWi~'x;'*>oe«>-M*ooo>-HM«i-N*eo ;Oi oDi-eON 'U5000 .«p* •Seossoi ■ :RgSf2 : :8|||S - •.SS;3S52S;SSS§S?;a8S^'j;SS882S ■■?, :? :55 '£2222582:2 • rH ^ CO CO r^ ^ • CQCQ ^ ^TOCO a- 3 fc « 'fe-SS : 1^ Itfl 1 f i. 48 APPENDIX B. POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. Year. United Stati ts. Increase per cent 1776 ]«00 1825 1850 1870 2,600,000 5,305,000 10,63? TPl 23,256,972 38.5B8,153 104.00 100.4!> 118.(i9 65.70 Canada and Haritihk rBoviNCES. Year. 1760. 1775.. 1800.. 1825.. 1850... 1871.. Increase per cent 65,000 100,000 375,000 (?) 276.00 907,000 140.1? 2,337,862 157.75 3,817,213 63.20 APPENDIX C. SHIPPING. Tons. Great Britain 5,627,500 United States* 1,579,694 Canada 1,029,764 France 985,235 Sweden and iVor«'ay 760,028 Italy 700,000 Netherlands 554,244 Spain 307,790 Ens3ia 36.5,759 Greece 300,000 Prussia 292,256 Hamourg 239,766 Bremen 200,324 Austria _ 211,287 Denmark 143,320 APPENDIX D. Revenue, Canadian, all from indirf^t taxation, 1871 $19,335,560 Expenditure 15,623,081 Which gives a u.-plus of n(,arly one dollar Cor every inhabitant of Canada, and equal to a sui-plus for Gnat Britain and Ireland of. 30,000,000 Public debt of Canada $20 per head. Public debt of the United States $60.80 per head, exclusive of State debts,"r'hich have nothing to comspond with theui in Canada. Expenditure in Canada, $4.00 per L'.'ad. Expenditure in the United States ; Pe^'^'-a'^a^ ^'lO'-'M $21.83 per head. In State of New York 11.55] *^ The census, too, gives more property in Canada according to population than in the United States. •According to British measurement, from vhi> h all these estimates are made. m 4ii^^ -^~- ~ 'V'lAtr.sAi.-naHttJVMiVieiaaAatx-i'U^^'^'UHW^. ^^tL^,^j^ai.j.!j^~^E ■>. ■^^^•piBaHail :3. crease it ceut. 75.00 40.10 57.75 63.20 it affords of the attrnctlre and immense field for Immigration nnw • Believe me, dear Sir, Respectfully yours, J. S. Dennis, Surveyor General. Hudson Bay .„d N«!. W« Terr' toril" "" "°'' "'"' ^°"°"^' " A well-timed, well-grounded, and ablj-writtan work." Also the followinff:— Ottawa, 17th April, 1872. Dear Sir,- 1 re^^et that I am prevented from writing to you as fuilv an th. Yours very faithfully, Dr. Hurlbort, Montreal. ^' '^^ ^^'^^E^i- Fm.WJ I ;™'^''*'^° ** ^*^^* ^^'h^'- 1« transmit cq; ies of it to the different ^tz^zr"^-- ''-- ^^- -'--' - - - ^— - Every member of the British Lords and Commons should be place i in possession of a copy of this work, which brings out in broad and distt eha racters the enormous importance t« England, of drawin, closer the rektts have h. herto been placed at the double disadvant.^e-that, while great railway corpo..at.ons m the Unitc^d States, subsidised by e««rmo;s l.nd'grantcl^ agents to Europe and citvnlated glowing accounts of the exuberant fertility of the Western States, an^I the boundless regions fitted for agricultural industries ^'W -■'■:'':w. ' "TTIK"^""' with mjip.s which ahiiost ignored our existence, or consigned us the frozen and iiihoHjiitilile regions, we have neglected to })ut forth, under authority, anything in the shape of iliuntratioiw of the vast territory we j)os.sesH suited to the habits and industries of Northern nations. This want has been amply provided ibr in the present wo'k. We have nothing to fear from the most searching criticism and investigation. If we cui but gain tiie attention of the British public, and make them compreliend that the D^iiniiin inclu(U'S the most Valuable portions of the continent; that it is more favi>rable t« health than the United State;* ; and that it contiins tlie widest area adapted to the growth of grains and grasses, then the current of emigration would seek these r.hores. The chief merit of this w»rk is tliat, with its iharts of isothrrmal lines and its zones of griip. and grass bearing lands, it esttblishes on indisputdjle datu, that nearly one-halt the United States are doomed to eternal sterility; that bey»nd the 97th meridian, extending from Mexico into the N«rth West, a barren, rainless region <.xtends, effectually excluding all possibility of settlement. \Vost of the Mis- s ippi the tide of emigration must be arrested and the current deflected to the Saskatchewan. T» th*- n»rth of our boundary line the vegetation is always juxuriant and abundant, save that p)rtion where the great Auierican desert is prolonged north of the boundary line, fringing the El»cky 3I«uutains, and a|)proaching the S;wkat('hewan. The w»rk in ([uestiou gives the J)»minii«»n i-levcn thousand miles of aia coasts, including indentations rouinl the shores of its islands, gulfs, and bays, abounding in the most prolific fisheries. Th«! writer, drawing his analogies i'rom history, points out that Northern nations have ever been the hardiest, m«»t enterprising and vigorous, ana cfntends that in future the I)»»iHini(»n must becwnie dominant on this continent. It is im[i«.>^.-ible to follow his statistics, and his copious (juatations from authors of admitted veracity, witlK.ut bicoming impressed with the glorious destiny awaiting the D»mini»n, and feeling proud of an inlieritance so richly endowed with the gifts of nature. This work appears at a singularly opportune moment, when the suicidal policy of severing the connection with the Mother Country finds favor with thar" Pm :: , MJL J IC I an IS m the Zone iiuiicaled, as necessary for their Qrr)\vi.h. M GI£Sla jt>i i*-!ini'«Mat.i\ros Zonr"- of Grams and (J-Taswee. ' region ol' iJ^mrun^n draughts and h\^M summer 90 K \^.- I -j5s^ii.'^:JEC^: te Hg ». V *iw rf ft*iSKa»*gWW«*g<»»»» ■MP naHM «f^ A P OF THE OEOORAP7d[ICAI. DISTRIBUTION OF THE GRAINS AND GRASSES ^,..! IN NOBTM A lOA Drawn from the culture of these Planis m the Zone indicated, as also fronri thei efimatal Conditions necessary for their growth. Region of Sammer Rnius and jTindorftt(» Rumnipr ((Jtnppratnres. - Zones of QraiiiR and OraaHes. From the Pacifip to thp !)6ih Mi^ridian is th^c Tegion of iSummei clr»U£hts »n(< high xnmmer temiieraturi',— Dcct'.-l and •emi-desort aii-a'* o" \^\f tliiitcd Staif'«. I^eeioii of sutnmor rains mid hii:?h aummer temperatures itmi-tropical - Sonih-nantirti i>art oT tht) ITnitt'd States; tfrnpcrfttureutoo hiph for grain* and B;raiui«a in 'lie South ind too iiigli for their profitabio ciillnro in th'? North. Oomplotod Southern I'acifio R«ilway. _a_ji I --,, I— Projected Contiftl racific Railway. — + _ .f — * — Projected Canadian Facifii' RailWay 'tntittUi (joes turUter South ,^ than frunce omL ia the hiililiiih- t>f /ivmc LE6G0&C? S:EAM-UTh MONTR >m. U' l2» -v*",. ■HO 17 aSHaaBBBi I t M'^ f ", & «'' '17( tmsamsmmm wm ■ei iVHi^ > kA, rVr^ -^*S1^ rjy>' ^'a v m ^Jtttii ••JfrA*!*" :!;;;;iiV iUl P^ •.•inv-a :'!S)ii:^;' m ^, 100 i^: -^ .v« ■^ Cii H U O S O N BAY iJAM|t (I l^Jl ^'V JML JSk. Ml TBZ OEOORAPHIOAl ]>| GRAINS AN ITVl '(i? EUROPE A] Drawn ft*om the culture of these .. V ^ also from the ol .matal conditioi Region of Sumiaer Bains and moderate nni ^?^^^'>!es jartlier i'oiilh than Emncc wuL to tlu> Latitude, of Home ^^^^tmm ^ A P C^ F THE OEOORAPHZGAL DIBTRZBTTTZON OF THE GRAINS AND GRASSES iiv lUROPE A -\ ' Draw^n from the culture of these Plants in the Zones indicated, as also from the climatal conditions necessary for* their growth. Region of Summer Rains and moderate sTimmer temporatures,— Zones of Grahifi and Qrasseo. '::0:i^ui: From the Pacific to the 98th Meridian is tlje region of Summer draughts and high summer ':i0?xi;-ii' temperature, — Desert and semi-desert areas, of tli<' tlnited Stales ;_ ^i Regioti of summer rains and high summer I temperatures, scmi-trppical — South-eastern part » oT the United States ; temperatures too high for grains and grasses in the South and too high for their profitable culture in the North. I — I— i*-i— I— i -« K— »— »— H— It Completed Southern Pacific BailWay. Projected Centitd Pacific Kadway. .^...^^.^.^^ Projected Oanadian Pacific R^I way . Cu lO ed, as and G-rasses. igh sitramer •eastern part % and too high 4, -•' Mo m^ ^ ^">,- \, V JisboJ '0 V. A C K