France under the Treaty of Paris, signed Feb. 10, 1763. Vancouver Island was acknowledged to be British by the Oregon-Boundary Treaty of 1846, and British Columbia was occupied in 1858.
As originally constituted, the Dominion of Canada was composed of the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. They were united under the provisions of an act of the imperial Parliament passed in 1867 and commonly cited as The British North America Act 1867. Provision was made in the act for the admission of British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland into the Dominion. Newfoundland alone has not availed itself of such provision. In 1869 the extensive region known as Rupert's Land, the Hudson Bay Territory and the Northwest Territories was added to the Dominion by purchase from the Hudson Bay Company. The province of Manitoba was set apart out of a portion of it, and admitted into the Confederation on July 15, 1870. On July 20, 1871, the province of British Columbia and on July 1, 1873, the province of Prince Edward Island, respectively, entered the Confederation. The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed from the provisional districts of Alberta, Athabaska, Assiniboia and Saskatchewan, and were admitted to the Union as provinces on September 1, 1905.
The Dominion adopted the same form of government as existed in the mother-land. There are a governor-general appointed by the king to represent him, two houses of parliament and a cabinet. As each province has a legislature of its own to manage its local affairs, it is as if England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland had separate parliaments in addition to that at Westminster. Canada has thus become really a daughter-nation of Great Britain. The mother-land leaves her free to manage all her own local affairs.
For fuller details concerning Canada, her educational equipment and natural resources, see Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, MacKenzie, Yukon, Ungava, Labrador and Franklin.
Canadian Northern Railway, The. Its main line from Winnipeg to Edmonton enters the province of Manitoba on the east 160 miles north of the boundary, running across the province a little north of west and crossing the Regina-Prince Albert branch of the same road at Warman. It crosses the North Saskatchewan twice before leaving the province at Lloyd-minister, a noted English colony. The Prince Albert branch of this railway is further north, leaving Manitoba at its northwest corner and running almost due west to Prince Albert. The Regina-Prince Albert branch, recently acquired by this company, runs from Regina in a northwesterly direction via Saskatoon to Prince Albert.
Canadian Pacific Railway, The, crosses Canada from east to west. Its completion saw the beginning of the real development of Canada. It enabled those who lived in eastern Canada to realize that our western prairies and unexplored northwest comprise a rich tract of about 600,000 square miles. The train of inflowing settlement since 1900 has become a rush. Each year thousands of well-to-do immigrants from all lands reach this great fertile country via the C. P. R. Along its main line are rapidly growing cities, and its branch lines are bordered with thrifty and growing settlements. In three provinces alone crossed by this road, viz. Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, the population has grown from 420,000 in 1901 to 1,322,000 in 1911. The railway management is enterprising and progressive. Some years ago its directors decided to undertake the irrigation of a tract 30,000,000 acres in extent, 40 miles wide and extending 150 miles east of Calgary (Alberta). Construction was well-begun in 1904 on this work which, when completed, will be the largest irrigation system on the American continent. The settler pays 50 cents an acre for the water his land requires. About one third of the work is now satisfactorily completed. Along the main line of this road we reach North Bay, Port Arthur, Fort William, Kenora, Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage La Prairie, Banff, Regina, Kamloops, Medicine Hat and Vancouver and other well-known prosperous places.
The Canadian Pacific also has a magnificent steamship service on both oceans (Atlantic and Pacific). Its steamships on the Montreal-Liverpool route are palatial. It furnishes a highway round the world.
It has a coast fleet including 15 vessels plying between coast points from Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Nanaimo, Ladysmith, Crofton and Comox to northern British Columbia and Alaskan ports. Its royal-mail “Empress” liners make regular trips from British Columbia to China and Japan, and its Canadian-Australian boats serve Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.
Canal, an artificial water-course. Canals are used principally for navigation, but also for drainage, for irrigation and for supplying cities and towns with water.
Navigation canals are of two kinds: (a) ordinary canals which are only a few feet deep and are traversed principally by special canal boats and barges, and (b) ship canals which admit sea-going vessels. A canal must be built in a series of level stretches. Where a change of level is made, the boats are generally raised by means of locks, but sometimes by lifts and cars. Canals for inland navigation
