SOOKE LAKE, VANCOUVER ISLAND. 
DOMINION OF CANADA. 
Area, 3,470,392 square miles ; about as large as Europe, and Comprising nearly one-sixteenth part of the land surface of the 
globe. Greatest extent from east to west, 3,500 miles, and from north to south, about 1.400 miles ; population, 4,324,810. 
The Dominion of Canada is bounded on the north In the east, the great chain of Lakes marking the boun- 
by the Arctic Ocean and Baffın’s Bay; on the west by dary between Canada and the United States, containing 
the Territory of Alaska, belonging to the United States, nearly one-half of the fresh water on the globe, and form- 
and the Pacific Ocean; on the south by the United ‘28, with the River Se Lawrence, an unbroken chain 
of water communication for over 2,000 miles, 
States and the Great Lakes; and on the east by the In the eastern and western portions of the Dominion, 
Atlantic Ocean. the country is well wooded, and timber is largely ex- 
ported ; but the centre consists of an immense tract of 
level or gently undulating prairie land, with Only a few 
‘rees along the courses of the rivers, but producing abun- 
dance of nutritious grasses, 
Although comprising such an extensive area, the settled 
portion of the Dominion is very small, consisting chietly 
of a long narrow strip of land, seldom exceeding 100 
miles in breadth, along the Lakes and the River St. Law- 
rence in Ontario and Quebec; the maritime provinces of 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island; 
Manitoba, which was only admitted as a province in 
1870; Vancouver Island in the west, and a few settlu- 
ments along the course of the Fraser River in British 
Columbia. 
The prineipal mountain ranges of Canada are the 
Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range, in British 
Columbia; the Wotchish Mountains, between Quebec 
and the North-east Territory ; the Notre Dame Moun« 
tains, a continuation of the Appalachian chain in Quebee: 
The Dominion of Canada comprises the whole of British North 
Amerien, except the Island of Neowfoundland and the peninsula of 
Labrador, and cunsists of the Provinces ef 
Ontario, Prince Edward Island, 
Quebec, | Manitoba, 
New Brunswick, British Columbia, 
Novn Scotiu, i 
the Districts of Keewntin, Arsiniboia, Sasknichewan, Alberta, and Athn- 
basca, and the Narth-west and North-east Territories, formerly called 
the Hudson Bay Territorv. 
The chief physical features of the Dominion are : 
In the west, the Rocky Mountains, extending from 
the Arctic Ocean to the United States, from north to 
south, and the parallel range of the Cascade Mountains, 
near the Pacific Coast, both of which here attain their 
highest elevations, 
In the centre, the great northern slope towards the 
Arctic Ocean, with its numerous lakes, rivers, and marshy 
tracts, chiefly drained by the Mackenzie and Great 
Fish Rivers; and the large inland sea, Hudson Bay, 
from which that part of the country formarly derived its 
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