The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1894-11-24
ARABLE AREA OF CANADA.


Confined to . Narrow Strip Along the
Border Of tho 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 I
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 habitableexcept by Indians and
| Indan-French half-breeds, who eke
out precarious subsistence by fishing
| by the scanty proceeds from slaughter
| ing fur-bearing animals, and on meager
povernm ent rations. The arabic por-
| ton 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
3Ooyears ago, it's present population is
only about 5000, ,o00-fron the Atlantic
to the Pacifc-or over 250,o00 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-fifth the area of the little state OF
Vermont, and another, British Column
bia, a 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
8 by an excellent Scotch English people
a whose number is all but stationary OF
1 retrograde About one-half OF what il
claimed to be the Province of Quebec il
q sparsely inhabited by Indians, Cana
a dian-F French half-breeds and the hardi
est of ''habitans" Much of the re
:, mainder. on both banks of the Rive
= st. Lawrence and on the northeas
bank of the Ottawa river, is goo'
! quality of soil, and the greater part of
- is now densely populated by Canadian
o French
o A portion Of the province of Quebec
i consisting of about 100 townships
q called the eastern townships, lying be
- tween the parishes south of the 81
!. Lawrence and the northern boundarle
" of the states of New York, Vernon
~ and New Hampshire, is good genera
,t farming land, now in great part occ'
20 pied by mixed population compose
:" of ''o1d country" English-spealling Pc
pie, Canadian French and some d
scendants of the New England roya
% - lists of the last century. For man
~ years the English-spealing people hay
- been steadily nearing minorit,
=. There are at present but two cities
'o' any considerable size and business IL
~ portance in the whole of Canada-tl
one, Montreal, in the province
''e Quebec, making a population tabol
ne two-thirds Canadian-French)o of som
Iot what over 100000; and the other, I
at ronto, the capital of the province
DO Ontario, with a population GnoSt
Ia English spealSing) something belo
100000. There are also seven 9th
me considerable towns called ''citieS
ter ranging from about $4,000 to 6o,0o0
LED habitants; eleven from $4,000 to abo
oy 10000. and nearly TWENTY-FIVE of frc
'he 5000 to 10000 each These are neal
Up all the towns in Canada from ocean
Wo ocean; and not few of them {
the spoken of by the people Themselves
uid being stationary or decaying tow
Cd, The st. Lawrence Atlantic ports
nao Quebec and Montreal are arctic
H. bound about one-half the year.