Page images
PDF
EPUB

To show the development that has taken place in the agricultural exports of Canada, it is only necessary to say that in 1868 they were valued at $19,000,000 (£3,800,000), while in 1898 they were $77,365,000. No doubt the feeling is becoming prevalent in the United Kingdom that if agricultural produce must be imported, it is advantageous to the Empire that it should come from the colonies, as increased supplies from those sources must lead to the development of the colonial markets for the manufactures of the United Kingdom. In Canada the Government takes a paternal interest in the development of agriculture, and in the welfare of its farmers. There are experimental farms established in various parts of the country at the public expense, affording object lessons to the farmers, and centres where interesting experiments may be tried.

Canada, from her varied geological formation, has the reputation of being immensely rich in minerals, although their exploitation is only just commencing. An American authority has said that "to particularise the undeveloped mineral wealth of this northern land would require volumes." In Nova Scotia coal, gold, and iron are found. Gold also is worked in smaller quantities in the Province of Quebec, and there are other valuable minerals, such as iron, phosphates, and asbestos. In Ontario iron and copper are abundant, and the gold industry is expected to become an im- ' portant one in the district north of Lake Superior, and in the country between that great fresh-water sea and the Lake of the Woods. Mines are being worked there now of considerable promise, and fresh discoveries are frequently reported. There are large deposits of silver also, and they can be worked at a profit even at the present prices. Coal has been discovered in the neighbourhood of Sudbury, where very large quantities of nickel also exist. If the deposits of

coal should turn out to be of a valuable nature, the discovery is bound to have most important results in the development of the Province of Ontario. In Manitoba and the North-West Territories coal is found all over the country, of qualities ranging from lignite to bituminous and anthracite; and other minerals, including iron. The rivers in the northern part of the Territories all show deposits of gold, some in sufficient quantities to make it profitable for men to work at the gravel during the summer months. But it is British Columbia which probably contains the greatest of the mineral wealth of the Dominion. Minerals of all kinds are found in the fastnesses of the three ranges of mountains which form the province, and coal of good quality, and in immense quantity, is found both on the mainland and on Vancouver Island, the latter containing the best coal on the Pacific Coast. You have all heard of the gold-mining boom in British Columbia forty years ago, when the country was practically inaccessible; and it is worth recalling that law and order were upheld there, and justice properly administered-a very different state of things from that which prevailed in the neighbouring States. In modern days, since the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the development of local navigation, the air has been full of rumours of what might be expected from the province. Immense deposits of silver are known to exist, and are being worked; while gold mining in Southern British Columbia, in the Kootenay district, and in Cariboo, is now attracting attention all over the world. Towns of from 3000 to 5000 people have sprung up in the last two years. American capital is pouring in for the development of the mines, and the matter is also receiving the consideration of financiers in the United Kingdom and in other countries of Europe. Mining experts, who have visited both South Africa and Western Australia, have formed opinions of

the value of the British Columbia deposits as highly favourable, to say the least, as of the deposits in those countries. It will be remembered that the mountains which in the western portion of the United States have been so prolific a source of wealth, run for many hundreds of miles through Canada. The deposits have only been exploited here and there, and if the indications they give of mineral wealth should be realised, as it is quite expected they will be, British Columbia will in the near future be known in every civilised country. The value of the mineral production of Canada in 1898, published by the Geological Survey, was $37,757,197 (£7,551,400), including gold, $13,700,000; silver, $2,583,298; coal, $8,227,958; copper, $2,159,556; nickel, $1,820,838; lead, $1,206,399. Of coal the deposits are estimated to cover an area of 97,200 square miles. The pig-iron and steel industries are expanding rapidly, and, in fact, Canada is now in a fair way to derive much benefit from the bountiful stores of valuable minerals of all kinds which Providence has placed within her boundaries for the use of the world.'

Canada is the land of the forest. In all the eastern

The discovery of the Klondike gold diggings in 1896, and the proof of the existence of gold over a large area in the Yukon district of Canada, has been of the greatest importance in attracting attention to the Dominion. The output of gold in that part for the season of 1898 is returned approximately at £2,000,000, and there is every reason to believe that enormous quantities will be obtained from these phenomenally rich placer mines during the next few years, as the country is rendered more accessible by lines of communication, and the cost of living reduced to a reasonable point. Last year over 30,000 persons crossed the coast range on their way to the gold-fields, and Dawson City, the chief centre of distribution in the district, is credited with a population of 20,000. The Lake Atlin region, in the extreme northwest corner of British Columbia, is another promising alluvial goldfield discovered in 1897 and 1898. The gravel deposits here are shallow summer diggings, but they cover a wide area, and can be worked a month earlier and a month later than the more distant Yukon goldfields. The region can be reached from Skaguay in three days.

provinces the pleasant farms of the present day have mostly been hewn out of the virgin forest. The emigrants who go out now to the provinces of the west have little idea of the hardships that had to be endured by the early pioneers of Canada, who had to clear the land of the trees before it became available for agriculture. Immense areas of timber land still exist in all the eastern provinces, and the lumber industry is a most important one, the exports in 1898 being of the value of nearly $27,000,000. There is an immense stretch of land in Manitoba and the NorthWest Territories, the fertile prairie land, unencumbered with trees, which are only to be found in clumps or along the river banks. This, of course, makes the land easily adaptable for agricultural purposes, but the settlers realise not only the climatic importance of trees, but their utility and beauty, and their efforts in planting them round their homesteads are receiving hearty support and assistance from the Government experimental farms. But even in the territories north of the great river Saskatchewan there are immense forests stretching away for hundreds of miles. In British Columbia everything is on a large scale. The province covers an area of 383,000 square miles. Its rivers are large, and so are its mountains, and it probably has some of the finest timber on the face of the globe. In the Stanley Park at Vancouver, fir and cedar trees may still be seen with a girth of from 40 to 60 feet, some distance from the ground, and British Columbia toothpicks, as they are called (timber 2 to 3 feet square and 60 feet long), are exported all over the world. The lumber industry is as important in British Columbia as it is in Eastern Canada, and the trade is rapidly developing to large dimensions. There are

about 100 varieties of timber trees in Canada, the most important being the pines, spruces, firs, and cedars. But there is also a great variety of valuable

1

hardwood, which supplies the domestic consumption, and contributes largely to the exports. The woodworking industries are naturally extensive and important. They represent an invested capital (1891) of nearly $100,000,000, the yearly wages paid amount to $30,680,000 (£6,136,000), and the product is valued at $120,415,000 (£24,083,000). The wood - pulp industry, and the export of wood for pulp-making, have come into prominence in recent years, and in the opinion of experts Canada is bound to secure, in the future, a dominant position in this business.

The immense coast line on the Atlantic and on the Pacific of at least 15,000 miles carries with it large and valuable fisheries. They provide employment for many thousands of hardy fishermen, who form a great reserve of maritime and naval strength for the Empire. Canadian codfish is well known in Europe and South America, and large quantities of other fish are also exported. At the present time it is the Atlantic fisheries which attract the greatest amount of attention; those on the Pacific are equally valuable, and are only waiting for markets to be developed. Canned salmon from the Pacific, and canned lobsters from the Atlantic, the product of the waters of the Dominion, are popular commodities in the United Kingdom. Not only are the salt-water fisheries of the Dominion extensive, but the rivers of Canada teem with fish of many kinds. Salmon and trout are found almost everywhere. The great lakes, the parts of which belonging to Canada are estimated to cover an area of 36,350 square miles, afford excellent fishing, including the exceedingly delicate white fish, and trout and salmon of the largest kinds are abundant in the rivers of the Pacific slope. During the run of salmon up the Fraser River, it is not an uncommon spectacle for the river to be so full of fish that some of them are really forced out of the water upon the banks by the pressure.

« PreviousContinue »