GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR
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GRANT
reduced its population to its present small numbers. Population 75,054. See Pres-cott's Ferdinand and Isabella and Washington Irving's Conquest of Granada.
Grandfather's Chair, two series of stories for children, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1841 and 1842. They are chiefly about persons and events well-known in connection with early life in America.
Grand Forks, North Dakota, a city which almost doubled its population between 1890 and 1900 and has now 12,478 people, lies at the junction of the Red Lake River and the Red River of the North. The city was founded in 1871; and in 1884 became the seat of the state university. It may be reached by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. Grand Forks is the center of a district rich in timber and in grain, The water-supply and electric light plants at Grand Forks are the property of the township.
Grand Rapids, the second city of Michigan, is situated upon both sides of the rapids of the Grand River. A dam has been constructed across the river at this point, and the water-power derived from it is considerable, although at present it furnishes but a small percentage of the power used in the city. The chief industry is the manufacture of furniture, and Grand Rapids has become the leading furniture-city in the United States. Twice a year — in January and in July — wholesale buyers from every state come to Grand Rapids to place their orders. The population is 112,571.
Grand River, in southern Ontario, empties into Lake Erie at Port Maitland, and is navigable for a considerable distance. Flora, Paris, Brantford, Cayuga and Dunnville are on its banks. In early days, when the whole country was wooded, small vessels made use of it in carrying merchandise and farm and timber products. It waters a fertile and quickly settled country.
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company. This company, incorporated in 1903, agreed with the government of Canada to construct and operate a railway across Canada wholly within Canadian territory, the estimated mileage of the main line being 3,600 miles. Important branch lines are also building. One will extend southerly 199 miles from the main line to Fort William and Port Arthur on Lake Superior, to reach navigation on the Great Lakes. Another will run southerly from the main line 229 miles to North Bay or Gravenhurst in Ontario, to connect with the lines of the Grand Trunk Railway. Including branch lines, the total mileage will be 5,000 miles.
The prairie section is built through the great wheatbelt of the northwest, an area believed to be four times as large as the wheatgrowing area of the United States. The Pacific terminus (Prince Rupert) will
be so much farther north than any existing port, that the distance between Europe and Asia will be shortened by at least two days. This, the newest transcontinental road, will have steamship lines on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Its importance in developing the resources of Canada cannot be overestimated. Considerable work on both sections has been done. Gran'ite. Granite is a crystalline, igneous rock composed chiefly of quartz and feldspar, with which are associated mica or hornblende or both. Other minerals are sometimes associated in small quantities. The lava which became granite was not poured out on the surface, but cooled and crystallized far below the surface under great pressure. If it now appears at the surface, as it does in many places, it is because the rock which originally overlay it has been removed by erosion. Only those lavas which have such composition as to give rise to the above minerals produce granite, and these only when the lava solidifies under the proper conditions. Granite contains 62 to 75 per cent, of silica. Granite belongs to no particular age, but has originated in all ages and may be forming now, far beneath the earth's surface. Granites usually are grayish or reddish in color. The red color is due to the feldspar, which sometimes has this color. If this mineral be v/hite, its combination with the black or dark colors of the mica and hornblende produces a grayish effect. Granite is extensively used for buildings and monuments, its value depending on its durability, color and susceptibility to polish. Its hardness and the consequent difficuLy and expense with which it is worked prevent its use for the commoner sorts of stone-work. In the United States granite is extensively worked in New England, but it also occurs and is worked to some extent in many states. (See Mineral Resources of the United States, published in the Annual Reports of the United States Geological Survey; also, Stones for Building and Decoration by G. P. Merrill.)
Grant, George Monro, D.D., Canadian educator and clergyman and principal of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, was born near Pictou, Nova Scotia, Dec. 22, 1835, and educated at Pictou Academy and at Glasgow (Scotland) University, where he carried off the Lord Rector's prize and high honors. In 1860 he was ordained a minister of th e Church of Scotland and had appointments at Georgetown, Prince
GEORGE M. GRANT
