2

CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

the Atlantic, it is astonishing to find that you are
further from the Pacific coast of Canada than you
are from London, and that in front of you for over
3,000 miles stretches a vast expanse of forest,
prairie, and mountain, fertile and well watered,
varied in climate, abounding in timber, in mineral
wealth and in all the best products of agriculture. A
study of the map makes you wonder at the singleness
 of purpose which bas built a united and enduring
 nation out of the original fringe of settlements
along the international boundary. As new districts
were opened up the nation spread northward, and
thus along the northern boundary of the United
States the Canadian has carved himself a country.
His vast territory, occupying the larger part of
North America, was divided by Nature into three
almost entirely separate portions, and he has
linked them together by artificial means. First,
in the west there is British Columbia, a beautiful
country which is both fertile and rich in minerals,
and is by nature far more closely connected with
the Pacific States of the Union than with the rest
of Canada. It is cut off from the east by the
Rocky Mountains, which before the construction of
the Canadian Pacific Railway absolutely prevented
the flow of commerce east and west. Next, east of
the Rockies stretch nearly 1,000 miles of prairie,
which extend for something like the same distance
 north and south, though no man yet knows
how far north fertility ends. This is the “ North-West.”
 In the west it is still a ranching country