long, with an average breadth of thirty-four miles. In general the land is very level, and being free from rock is easy of tillage and very productive. Immense quantities of potatoes are raised and exported to Boston and. other cities along the coast, where they bring ready sale at remunerative prices.

The climate of all three Provinces is alike as regards the autumn, which is delightful in the extreme. Nova Scotia has less extremes of heat and cold, but is more subject to chilling fogs than either of the others. New Brunswick has cold winters and late springs, but the summers are warm and growth is rapid. Owing to the insular position of Prince Edward Island, its climate is less liable to extremes than that of the other Provinces. As a rule, the air is dry and bracing, the winters are cold and the summers tempered by the sea breezes.

Quebec may be said to lie in the valley of the St. Lawrence. It extends from the mouth of the river to some distance west of Montreal. The 45th parallel separates it from the United States, while the Ottawa river is its boundary on the side of Ontario. Since its discovery, Quebec has been noted for its vast Pine forests, its noble rivers and lakes, and its magnificent scenery. The increasing trade of Montreal, owing to the development of the west, has caused business men to bestir themselves, so as to retain the traffic that is flowing to their doors, and a consequence of this action is the development of their railway system by which they are in communication with all points of the compass. The St. Lawrence has been deepened, and vessels drawing twenty feet of water come to Montreal to load.

. Besides the Western trade in grain and other products, the Ottawa and its various branches send large rafts of timber to Quebec, from whence it is exported to England. Much fertile land is to be found in Quebec, especially in

the Eastern Townships and in the Ottawa valley, and there are large deposits of iron, copper, and lead, which are worked with success in many parts of the Province. Many other minerals of use in the arts are obtained, but of late years, none have been more talked of than the Phosphate mines, north of Ottawa. Gold is obtained by washing in many streams to the south of the St. Lawrence, the principal of which is the Chaudière, near Quebec, where for a number of years, gold washing has been carried on.

Ontario presents the appearance of a triangular peninsula, and is bounded on the south and southeast by Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the River St. Lawrence, and on the west by a line still undefined. To the north and northwest, there are immense forests, which are now, and will be for years to come, a source of great wealth to its inhabitants, as all the public lands belong to the people of the Province.

The surface rises in no place into what may be called a mountain, but, as a rule, the whole of the country is undulating, and where not encumbered with rock, fit for the plough. It is only along Lake Superior and the Georgian Bay, where high rugged hills and precipitous cliffs give a barren and desolate aspect to the scenery that other than fertile lands can be seen. The Laurentian Hills run westward from the Thousand Islands, below Kingston, to the Georgian Bay, and continue northwestward by Lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods and Lake Winnipeg. North of this line of hills the country, instead of being continuously fertile, is much broken by rocky ledges, small lakelets, swamps, and sandy tracts; but, nevertheless, there is still much fine rich land throughout this region, and experience proves that the farmer can plough up to the rocky ledge without any difficulty.

All the rivers of Ontario flow either into the St. Lawrence or the Great Lakes. Owing to the diversified charac

ter of the country, these are numerous, but unimportant as regards internal communication. Besides rivers, many beautiful spring brooks traverse the country in all directions, and these connecting with multitudes of small lakes filled with the best of game-fish, enable the sportsman or farmer to have pleasure or profit, or both, without going far from home. The small clear streams spoken of are now becoming of great value and will be increasingly so in the future. Within a few years, cheese factories have become very numerous, and the manufacture of cheese a leading industry. Soon butter factories will be added, and then Ontario's rich pastures "by the brooks" will be valued as they should, and grain raising become a thing of the past.

Water power sufficient to grind all our wheat and manufacture all our clothing has been going to waste for ages, but now the spirit of enterprise has taken possession of our people, and manufacturing establishments are rising on every hand. On the Trent alone, there are over twenty miles of rapids, where innumerable mills could be erected for every purpose. At present, the Government contemplate the formation of a canal by means of this river, to connect the waters of Lake Ontario with the Georgian Bay, so that the grain of the West may find a sure and speedy transit to the East. Should this canal be built, manufacturing towns will, as a matter of course, rise along its track, and the dream of many will be a glad reality. To the capitalist, there is no better field on the American continent for investment, than is presented by Ontario to-day.

Minerals of almost every description are abundant in the Laurentian Hills. Silver mining on Lake Superior, gold mining in Madoc, iron mines in various places, of surpassing richness and great extent, would surely place Ontario in a prominent position as a mining country, yet these are not all; on the shores of Lakes Huron and St. Clair are large

deposits of salt and petroleum, which seem well nigh inexhaustible. Northeast of Kingston, phosphate is found everywhere. Lead, gypsum, marble, copper, graphite, lithographic stone, and numerous other metals and minerals exist in workable quantities in many places, but hitherto, the want of capital has prevented their development.

Of the fruits of the soil, Ontario may justly be proud; her apples to-day stand A 1 in the English markets. Peaches and grapes are grown in enormous quantities, and the latter are now raised without difficulty in every part of the Province. Barley grown along Lake Ontario is altogether superior to anything that can be produced in the United States, and always commands a good price. All other grains are raised in abundance. Ontario wheat has long been known as a first-class article, and is only excelled now by that of its sister Province, Manitoba.

Keywadin is a tract of rough, broken country, lying between Ontario and the North-West Territories. Its southern boundary is the United States, and its northern the shores of Hudson's Bay. This region is but little known in its eastern part, but may be characterized as a land of rocks, lakes, rivers, marshes, and muskegs, with occasional ISLANDS, or small patches, of good land intermixed. Along Rainy River, there is a belt of very rich land, but this is overshadowed at present by the fertile lands of Manitoba, which fill men's minds to the exclusion of everything else. The boundary question is not yet settled, but when it is, Keywadin will pass out of existence and become merged in Ontario and Manitoba.

Manitoba, by the Act of 1880, had its boundaries extended, so as to include the greater part of the existing settlements formed, during the past few years, along the western boundary. As now extended, it reaches from the Ontario boundary on the east to 101° 30' west long.,

and from the International Boundary on the south to the Saskatchewan and Lake Winnipeg on the north.

The North-West Territories extend from Manitoba westward to the crest of the of the Rocky Mountains. Where the Rockies cross the 120th Meridian, that line is taken as the eastern boundary of British Columbia. All the vast tract enclosed between these lines and extending indefinitely to the north, is known by the general term of North-West Territories. British Columbia is that portion of the Dominion which extends from the western boundary of the North-West Territories to the Pacific, and includes Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte's Islands. Its western boundary is the Pacific, from lat. 49° to the head of Portland Channel, in lat. 56°. From this point, the line passes at a distance of twenty-five miles from tide water, northwesterly, until it reaches the 143rd Meridian. The 60th parallel is its northern boundary. As a separate chapter will be written on this Province, I shall merely notice that, were it for no other reason than its position, British Columbia is a necessity to the Dominion. Besides position, it has forests of unsurpassed excellence, fisheries without a rival, coal fields unequalled on the West coast, a climate at once mild and salubrious, and rivers flowing over "golden sands." It is well known that from its southern boundary to its most northern explored point, gold in paying quantities has been found.

The North-West Territories and Manitoba may be characterized as a vast plain, gently sloping to the north and northeast. Its southeastern extremity (at Emerson), is about 700 feet above the sea, and rises gradually as we proceed west, until it reaches an altitude of nearly 4,000 feet at the base of the Rockies, on the International Boundary. Lake Winnipeg, which receives the waters of the interior is only 627 feet above the sea. It will be seen that from the Rocky Mountains to Lake Winnipeg, a distance, in