Ee
PROVINCES AND TOWNS
chewan, originally owed its settlement to the advantages of cattle-
ranching offered by the natural pastures to the east of the Rocky
Mountains (1246), but it is rapidly attracting agricultural settlers
who grow more oats than wheat, though even winter wheat is pro-
duced in rapidly increasing quantity, no doubt through the favour
of the chinooks. In the south sugar-beet is grown under irrigation.
The capital is Edmonton, at the head of steamer navigation on the Sas-
catchewan River, and at a point to which railways are giving increased
importance (1252). The province is very rich in coal, which is mined
near Edmonton, at Anthracite and Canmore west of Calgary, and
round Lethbridge. Natural gas is abundant and is used extensively,
and oil has been discovered 60 miles to the south of Calgary. In
this province, round Banff, is the Rocky Mountains Park, 260
square miles in extent, with numerous hot springs and natural
beauties.
1267. (9) British Columbia is a province four times the size of Great
Britain, comprising on the mainland the area from 350 to 400 miles in
width between the coast and the Rocky Mountains, composed of high
sablelands and lofty mountain-ranges separated by deep and narrow
valleys, but also including Vancouver Island and the coastal archi-
pelago to the north as far as the Queen Charlotte Islands inclusive.
[ts wealth consists chiefly in its minerals, forests,2 and fisheries (501).
The discovery of gold first brought a rush of settlers here in 1856, but
the deposits then discovered were worked out. Since 1895, however,
gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc mining have all been carried on,
on a large scale, in the extreme south along and near the route of the
southern branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The chief mining
district is the Trail Creek division of West Kootenay, where the mining
for all three metals in quartz rock is carriéd on. The principal mining
centre is Rossland. A bounty is granted by the Dominion government
“0 encourage the smelting of silver and gold, and coal is now largely
mined and converted into coke at Fernie in the Crow’s Nest coalfield
for use in the smelters that have been erected in the Trail Creek district.
Copper is also mined on Texada Island, where there likewise exist
2xtensive deposits of iron ore. The oldest and most important coal-
mines of the province are those of Nanaimo on the east side of
Vancouver Island, and Comox, further north. Coal is also mined
in the Nicola Valley and in the country traversed by the Tula-
meen and Similkameen Rivers. British Columbia is steadily
DD
o
oo
O {
Ap
ao
< g
wi
0 £&
oa =
¢
0
1®]
t
n
—
~~?
1s
i
«=
oO
N
oO
}:
M0]
jo
J)
>
>
J
1
2
ds,
jo
I
a
-—
0
—
~
—
0
—
=}
~J
1 In 1905, area under wheat, 107,000 acres (of which 32,000 winter wheat) ;
in 1915, 2,138,000 wheat (40,000 acres winter); in 1919 the total wheat, 4.283,000
41,000 winter).
? During the last decade British Columbia’s proportion of mineral wealth has
risen to upward of 25 per cent. of the total production of the Dominion. Its
forests are providing large supplies of paper pulp.
Edmonton (1921)
30 O00
: Calgary (1921)
AR ha
f
3
3]
£)
i
{)
nN
).
NI
20)
N
2)
T—
= 5
Y
