The Durham daily globe., 1894-11-03
h7AeLE AREA or CANADA.
: ,IIHed to Narrow Strip Along the
Border of the United States.

:.,IIHed to a Narrow Strip Along the
Border of the United States.
Some Canadians ostentatiously boast
that their colony is of greater area than
the republic of the United States, while
they quietly ignore the facts that about
One-half of their dependency is covered
with perpetual or all but perpetual
snow and ice, and that no small part of
the remainder is but sparsely inhab-
tied or habitable except by Indians and
Indian-French half-breeds, who exc
cat precarious subsistence by fishing,
by the scanty proceeds from slaughter
ing fur-bearing animals. and on meager
gOvernn ent ratiOns. The arabic por
tiOn of Canada, says the Springfield
Republican, is in general but very
broken and irregular fringe on the
northern boundary of the United
States; and although the European set
tlement Of the country began nearly
300 years ago, it's present population is
only about 1000, ,OO0-frOm the Atlantic
to the Pacifc-Or over $50, 900 less than
the population of the state of Pennsyl-
vania! Canada to-day consists of but
seven provinces. One of these, Prince
Edward island, is a little more than
one-ffth the area of the little state of
Vermont, and another, British Column
bia, sea of mOuntains-covering some
$50, 900 square mileS-cOntains less ara
BILE land than the comparatively small
contiguous state of Washington. The
desirable land for tillage in the three
small maritime provinces Of Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward island and
New Brunswick is now chiefly occupied
by an excellent Scotch English people,
whose number is all but stationary or
retrOgrade. About One-half Of what is
claimed to be the Province of Quebec is
sparsely inhabited by Indians, Cana
dian-F'rench half-breeds and the hardi-
est Of "habitans." Much of the re-
mainder, on both banks of the River
St. Lawrence and on the northeast
bank of the Ottawa river, is a good
quality of soil, and the greater part of it
is now densely populated by Canadian
French
a portion Of the province of Quebec
consisting Of about 100 townships.
called the eastern townships, lying be-
tween the parishes south of the St.
Lawrence and the northern boundaries
of the states of New York, Vermont
and New Hampshire, is good general
farming land, now in great part occu-
pied by mixed population composed
of ''old country" English-speaking peo-
pie, Canadian French and some de-
scendants of the New England royal
lists Of the last century. For many
years the English-speaking people have
been steadily nearing a minority.
There are at present but two cities of
any considera BILE size and business i'm
portance in the whole of Canada-the
one, Montreal, in the province of
Quebec, making population (about
tWO-thirds Canadian-French) of some
what over 10000 and the other, To-
ronto, the capital of the province OF
Ontario, with a population (mostly
English speaking) something below
200, 200. There are also seven other
considerable towns called "cities,"
ranging from about $4,000 to 6O,OOO in
eleven from $4,000 to about
10000, and nearly twenty-five of from
5000 to 10000 each. These are nearly
all the towns in Canada from ocean to
ocean; and not a few of them are
spoken Of by the people themselves as
being stationary or decaying towns.
The st. Lawrence Atlantic ports of
Quebec and Montreal are arctic ice
bound about One-half the year.