White Bluffs Spokesman

Growing Canada

Two Canadian Old-Timers With a Season's Catch of Beaver and White Fox.

(Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.-WNU Service.)

With new regions being opened by airplane routes, Canada reached by new roads, railroads and ports an increase of nearly one-fifth in population during the past decade. According to a recently completed census there are 10,353,778 inhabitants in the Dominion.

The story of the discovery, exploration, settlement and development of Canada from the days of Jacques Cartier (1534), Samuel de Champlain (1603), and Henry Hudson (1610) down to the advent of the railroad in the middle of the last century, is one of travel by sea, river and lake.

The waterways of Canada provide easy access to the heart of the continent. Nearly half the area of the Dominion, excluding for the moment the District of Franklin, comprising the Arctic islands, is drained by majestic rivers-on the Atlantic coast, the St. Lawrence; on Hudson bay, the Nelson; and on the Arctic, the Mackenzie. No great natural obstacles divide these river basins, and passage from one to another is easily made by short portages. Travel by boat or canoe throughout the northern and eastern parts of Canada though slow, has always been easy.

Until the railways were built, settlement and commerce were largely confined to the seacoast and the territories adjacent to the great rivers and lakes of the interior. The age of railway expansion followed the confederation of the colonies of British North America into the Dominion of Canada and made possible the settlement of the extensive farming districts on the prairies of that region, hitherto without access to any market.

Airplane Being Used.

During the past decade, a widely extended use of the airplane has been developed in the remoter parts of the Dominion where modern facilities for travel are nonexistent and the alternatives are the canoe in summer and the dog team in winter.

Its use by foresters for fire patrol and timber cruising is now well established, while the modern surveyor, with his aerial camera, flying 5,000 to 10,000 feet above the ground, produces a complete photographic record of the country for many miles on each side of his line of flight, from which can be plotted, with simple traverses on the ground for control, all the natural features of the region.

Regular air routes between large Canadian cities are in the making. That phase of development must necessarily be slower than in Europe or the United States, where the population is denser, the traffic heavier, and climatic conditions less severe. To see Canada from the air today, one is dependent on the courtesy and hospitality of the services maintained by the Dominion and provincial governments and by commercial firms.

The greatest percentage of increase in population, shown by the census, was in the province of British Columbia where there are nearly one-third more inhabitants than there were ten years ago. Quebec and Saskatchewan provinces increased by more than one fifth.

Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Hamilton are cities of more than 100,000 population. Ottawa is the capital of the Dominion. Queen Victoria was well advised when she named Bytown, as it was then called, the seat of government, after confederation in 1867. Few capitals have a finer natural location.

The houses of parliament and surrounding government offices are built on a high bluff on the south bank of the Ottawa river, just below the Chaudiere falls.

Rivers and Canal at Ottawa.

To the north, forested spurs of the Laurentian mountains extend almost to the river bank, while on the Ontario side of the river the city is surrounded by a fine farming country.

Since the days of Champlain, the Ottawa river has been the main highway from the sea to the West. Permanent settlement in the district, however, only began in the first decade of the Nineteenth century. After the War of 1812 the British government, looking for a strategic route from the sea to the Great Lakes, which would avoid the international waterway of the St. Lawrence, decided on the construction of the Rideau canal, which would give an alternative waterway from Montreal to Kingston, on Lake Ontario.

The canal was built by the Royal engineers in the third decade of the last century and is still in use, a monument to their skill and workmanship.

With the opening of the canal the little settlement grew in importance, and was called Bytown after Colonel By, commanding the Royal engineers. It soon became the headquarters of the thriving Ottawa valley lumber industry.

Beautiful driveways and natural parks line the banks of Ottawa's rivers and canal; and, though it is essentially a city of homes, many industries congregate there attracted by the cheap water power developed by Chaudiere falls. The original parliament buildings were burned in 1916. A magnificent Gothic structure has risen on the old site, crowned by a central spire, Victory tower, 385 feet high, built to commemorate Canada's part in the World war.

Montreal, the largest of the Canadian cities, was a desolate St. Lawrence river bank three hundred years ago. It was first visited by Jacques Cartier: the first settlement on the site rose in 1642. Few cities have greater natural advantages. At the head of ocean navigation, yet almost 1,000 miles from the Atlantic, it is a natural gateway for the commerce of the continent.

Her merchants have not been slow to take advantage of the situation. Unlimited water power drives her industries' wheels.

Next to Montreal, ranks Toronto, capital city of the Province of Ontario, the most thickly populated province of the Dominion. Nearly one-third of the Dominion's inhabitants live within Ontario's borders. Toronto is a worthy capital of a great province, a financial and industrial center, and the seat of the largest university in Canada.

For the next largest city, one must jump half way across the Dominion to Winnipeg, the distributing center of western Canada and, as it were, the neck of the bottle, where the railway lines converge. Although slightly more than a century old, its rapid growth has taken place during the past two generations. Now it is a city of fine streets, well-timbered parks, and beautiful driveways along the Assiniboine and Red rivers.

This is a leafy city, far removed from one's idea of a drab, treeless prairie. The noble parliament buildings of Manitoba, are worthy of the province. Growing with the great Canadian west, Winnipeg's future is assured. Some 900 miles west is Calgary.

Two Big Cities in the West.

Vancouver with 120,000 inhabitants and Victoria are in the spotlight among the leading cities of the Pacific coast. Victoria, clinging to the southern end of Vancouver island, is the first city of the province of British Columbia. It was first settled in 1842 by the governor of the Hudson's Bay company. It is perhaps the most English town outside of England. Its situation is delightful and the absence of the rush and hustle of other western cities, its beautiful gardens, fine buildings, drives, and splendid climate, all lend it an attraction for those who wish to lead a quiet, out-of-door life and escape the rigors of the sterner climate of other provinces. Esquimalt, the naval base, situated in a nearby bay, is of importance strategically and the headquarters of the Royal Canadian Navy and Imperial fleet on the Pacific coast.

Vancouver contrasts sharply with Victoria. It is the metropolis of the Canadian Pacific coast, a thriving city, still in the making, each year increasing its importance. A generation ago tall pines grew where it stands; in 1923 its shipping trade was second only to that of Montreal. With the wealth of mines, timber, fisheries, and agriculture not only of British Columbia, but of the western prairies behind it, it cannot be otherwise than one of the great trading ports of the world. It is the terminus of two major railway systems of Canada.

Just under the 100,000 population mark is Quebec which no narrative of the Dominion fails to mention. No city of the world has a more romantic history than the old French capital, nestling below the cliffs of the Citadel, and the Plains of Abraham, where was finally decided in 1759, the great struggle between France and England for supremacy in the western hemisphere.