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diff --git a/old/62632-8.txt b/old/62632-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2b8fb5b..0000000 --- a/old/62632-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9907 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Canada the Spellbinder, by Lilian Whiting - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Canada the Spellbinder - -Author: Lilian Whiting - -Release Date: July 13, 2020 [EBook #62632] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADA THE SPELLBINDER *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines - - - - - - - - -[Frontispiece: SALMON FISHING IN THE FAR WEST (MORICETOWN, BRITISH -COLUMBIA)] - - - - - CANADA - - THE SPELLBINDER - - BY - - LILIAN WHITING - - - - WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS - IN COLOUR AND MONOTONE - - - - LONDON & TORONTO - J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. - MCMXVII - - - - -_All rights reserved_ - - - - -TO - -CHARLES MELVILLE HAYS - -whose foresight and energy, whose courage and genius lifted Canada's -pioneer railway to a very high level of service and success; extended -its operations from the Atlantic to the Pacific; opened thousands of -miles of new scenic beauties and prepared a region which will ere -long become a vital centre of population and strength to the British -Empire; and whose passing to the larger and more significant -activities of "the life more abundant" (by the tragic wreck of the -s.s. _Titanic_, April 15, 1912) has left an unforgettable breach in -the official family of the Grand Trunk System, an irreparable loss to -his associates, to whom he was a beloved, constant, and forceful -inspiration--this effort to interpret something of the romantic charm -and richness of the resources of the Dominion is inscribed by - -LILIAN WHITING. - - - "The shadow of his loss drew like eclipse - Darkening the world. We have lost him; he is gone; - We know him now; all narrow jealousies - Are silent; and we see him as he moved, - How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, - With what sublime repression of himself." - TENNYSON. - - - - -CONTENTS - -CHAP. - -I. The Creative Forces of Canada - -II. Quebec and the Picturesque Maritime Region - -III. Montreal and Ottawa - -IV. Toronto the Beautiful - -V. The Canadian Summer Resorts - -VI. Cobalt and the Silver Mines - -VII. Winnipeg and Edmonton - -VIII. On the Grand Trunk Pacific - -IX. Prince Rupert and Alaska - -X. Prince Rupert to Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, and the Golden Gate - -XI. Canada in the Panama-Pacific Exposition - -XII. Canadian Poets and Poetry - -XIII. The Call of the Canadian West - -Index - - - - -List Of Illustrations - - -Salmon Fishing in the Far West (Moricetown, British Columbia) .... -Coloured Frontispiece - -Falls on Grand Forks River - -Cape Santé (Quebec), St. Lawrence River - -Sunset on Canyon Lake - -A Canoeing Party, Ontario - -Dufferin Terrace, Quebec, from the Citadel - -Harbour of St. John, New Brunswick - -Interior of Notre Dame, Montreal - -Montreal City - -Ottawa--Showing the Parliament Buildings and Château Laurier - -The Bigwin Inn, Lake-of-Bays, Ontario - -Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle and Party - -View in Jasper Park - -Cobalt, Ontario - -Union Station and Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg - -Mount Edith Cavell and Cavell Lake - -Charles Melville Hays - -Hudson Bay Mountain and Lake Kathlyn, Bulkley Valley - -Indian Totem Pole, Alaska - -Junction of Skeena and Bulkley Rivers, British Columbia - -Indians spearing Salmon in Bulkley Cañon - -Prince Rupert, British Columbia - -Pure Bred Jerseys, Western Canada - -Mount Robson, British Columbia - -Looking towards Mount Munn from the Valley of Flowers - -Bulkley Gate (150 feet high), Bulkley River - -Canoeing on the Fraser River - -Breaking Camp - -Mount Robson, at a Distance of Ten Miles - -Mount Robson Glacier - -Farming in Shellbrook District, Saskatchewan - -Threshing Wheat, Manitoba - -After the Bear Hunt--Moose River Forks - - - - -{1} - -CANADA THE SPELLBINDER - - -CHAPTER I - -THE CREATIVE FORCES OF CANADA - - "All parts away for the progress of souls, - All religion, all solid things, arts, governments--all that was or - is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches - and corners before the procession of souls along the grand - roads of the universe. - Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand - roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed - emblem and sustenance." - WALT WHITMAN (_Song of the Open Road_). - - -"The flowering of civilisation is the finished man, the man of sense, -of grace, of accomplishment, of social power--the gentleman. What -hinders that he be born here? The new times need a new man, the -complemental man, whom plainly this country must furnish.... Of no -use are the men who study to do exactly as was done before, who can -never understand that to-day is a new day."--EMERSON. - - -Against a background of bewilderingly varied activities which -projects from the earliest years of the sixteenth well into the -twentieth century and reveals itself as a moving panorama of -explorers, pioneers, adventurers, traders, and missionaries, there -stands out a line of remarkable personalities whose latter-day -leadership has largely initiated as well as dominated the conditions -of their time and the bequest of century to century. {2} Among these -were men, lofty of soul and tenacious of high purpose, who saw the -potential Empire in a vast and infinitely varied region which seemed -compact of unrelated resources. They were kindled by the growing -achievements of the constructive genius that had already projected -the wonderful steel highways carrying civilisation into the trackless -wilderness. This constructive genius bridged the mighty rivers; -created extensive waterways by means of canals connecting lakes and -flowing streams; in still later years this genius commanded the -cataracts and rapids to transform their ceaseless motion into motor -power for traction, and lighting, and other service of industrial and -economic value. - -Each successive civilisation of the world, indeed, has shown an -unbroken line of exceptional personalities in whom has been focussed -the power of their epoch. They are the centres through which this -power becomes manifest in applied purposes and special achievements. -Civilisation itself is but the evolutionary representation of -successive conditions of increasing enlightenment. With each -succeeding age does man recognise more and more clearly his relation -to the moral order of the universe. The guidance of unseen destiny -leads him on, and in the records of no country is this working out of -the invisible design more unmistakably shown than in those of the -Dominion of Canada. This golden thread discloses itself to -retrospective {3} scrutiny through a period of three centuries of -time. "Man imagines and arranges his plans," says Leblond de Brumath -in his biography of Bishop Laval; "but above these arrangements -hovers Providence whose foreseeing sets all in order for the -accomplishment of His impenetrable design.... Nor must man banish -God from history, for then would everything become incomprehensible -and inexplicable." - -The creative forces of an Empire include various and varying -agencies. If to the courage and heroism of the original discoverers -of the land too great recognition can hardly be given, yet to those -who have made these discoveries of value by bringing the resources of -a continent into useful relations with humanity recognition is not -less due. John and Sebastian Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Champlain, -Mackenzie, Fraser, and La Salle, were great pathfinders. But the -very greatness of their achievements required such men as James -McGill, Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal), Sir George -Etienne Cartier, the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald, -Sir Charles Tupper, and others, to stamp the early life of the -pioneer with the seal of statesmanship and education. Here were vast -areas of land; enchanting rivers, noble lakes, majestic mountains; -untold wealth in minerals and in the boundless potentialities of -agriculture; a marvellous country that is not only a land of promise, -but a veritable Promised Land. Yet are {4} its possibilities like -those of the ether of space, until it is rendered accessible to -restless, struggling humanity by the indomitable power of great -spirits, of wise and forcible leaders of progress who are perhaps the -pioneers of the physical world in a degree similar to that of lofty -beings in the realms unseen. It is such as they who create the -conditions which render all these immeasurable resources of practical -value to humanity. Such men as Sir William Cornelius Van Horne and -Charles Melville Hays; men who have courage as well as vision; who -see beyond all barriers; men who dare do that which weaker souls fear -to attempt--such men are as truly among the creative forces of their -country as are its original discoverers. - -[Illustration: Falls of the Grand Forks River] - -Little reference to these earliest years of Canadian history could be -made, even in the mere outline which alone is possible in these -pages, without a vivid recognition of episode and adventure so -startling, so often brilliant and romantic, so often tragic in its -heroic endurance and ultimate fatality as to illuminate the horizon -of history with a flame not unlike the dazzling lights in Polar -skies. There were miracle hours that condensed experiences as -significant as those often diffused throughout an entire cycle of -time. Mingled with these were the long, slow periods of patient -labour. It is not with sudden leaps and bounds alone that life -progresses, but by the steady, normal advance of persistent -endeavour. Nor can demands for improved {5} conditions be always -unmingled with some measure of judicious compromise. James Mill, -referring to his experiences while in the London office, engaged with -the affairs of India, says: "I learnt how to obtain the best I could -when I could not obtain everything. Instead of being indignant or -dispirited because I could not entirely have my own way, to be -pleased and encouraged when I could have the smallest part of it; and -when that could not be, to bear with complete equanimity the being -over-ruled altogether." Something of this philosophy the makers of -Canada were compelled to accept. The incomers from France, the -incomers from Great Britain, represented two distinct, even if not -unfriendly nations. There were differences of race, of language, of -creed. There were differing convictions as to institutions and laws. -Until the Confederation the interests of the people were largely -local rather than united. The unifying of a country of such enormous -geographical extent and including such vital differences among its -widely scattered inhabitants, must always prefigure itself as one of -the signal feats in the statesmanship of the world. - -The very magnitude of the resources and the infinite riches of Canada -presented themselves in the guise of difficulties and obstacles to be -conquered. Nature provided the vast systems of lakes and rivers; but -these required vast schemes of engineering construction to render -them of fullest service as continuous waterways. The broad rivers -{6} must be bridged. Triumphs of construction have arisen, such as -the Victoria Jubilee Bridge across the St. Lawrence at Montreal, a -marvellous feat of engineering, and the splendid steel arch bridge -over the Gorge of Niagara. Again, in the interests of -transcontinental transit, the mountain ranges, whose peaks seem to -pierce the sky, must be overcome. Unmapped tracts of almost -impenetrable forests; wastes of rocks, and swamps, and the -treacherous muskeg; or immense plains, still inhospitable to the -destined tide of settlers, must all be subdued in the interests of -the advancing civilisation and the development of a country bordering -upon three oceans with an extent of coast-line exceeding that of any -other country in the world. Then there were incalculable mining -possibilities, precious metals, copper, iron, coal; there were -unlimited resources of lumber, but the trees must be felled, and -there must be railways or waterways to transport the timber. Canada -offered water-power enough to turn the wheels of all the -manufactories of Europe, but this power was useless until harnessed -by the constructive genius of man. Another valuable asset was the -pulpwood, the vastness of which suggested this country as the very -centre of the pulp and paper manufacturing industry; but between the -thousands of acres covered with white spruce trees, and the lakes and -rivers contiguous ready to furnish the power, what marvels of -mechanism must be duly constructed to bring {7} the pulpwood and the -water-power into service of man. As an indication of the proportions -to which this industry has already grown it may be cited that for the -fiscal year ending on June 30, 1916, the Canadian pulp print -papermakers shipped to the United States alone seven hundred and -ninety-four and a half millions of pounds, an increase of one hundred -and eighty millions over the amount shipped to the States in the -preceding year. - -Here, indeed, was a country rivalling any other in the world in the -largess of nature, but whose every aspect was a challenge to the -constructive enterprise of man. Nature, with unsurpassed lavishness, -presented the raw material; it rested with man to stamp it with -value. Thus the stimulus to industrial and commercial activities was -second to none other in the history of nations. - -These were the conditions that confronted, as well as rewarded, the -early discoverers and pioneers. Did some prescience of all this -potential wealth awaiting the centuries to come drift across the -ocean spaces and touch minds sensitive to its impress? - - "The Future works out great men's purposes." - -John and Sebastian Cabot were impelled by a destiny as unrevealed to -them as was that of Columbus. Each bore a magic mirror turned -forward to reflect the promise of the future. In the hand of each -was carried the lighted torch. It was passed {8} from each explorer -to his successor. Cartier, who navigated the St. Lawrence to Quebec -and then on to Hochelaga (the name given to the primitive Indian -village on the site of which now stands the stately and splendid city -of Montreal), carried the lighted torch still farther, and passed it -on to Champlain who, three-quarters of a century later, came to found -a trading-post on the island of Montreal--"La Place Royale" it was -then called, the picturesque mountain that rises in the midst of the -modern city of to-day having been named by Cartier "Mont Royale," -from which is derived the present Montreal. There followed La Salle, -Marquette, Joliet, and others. Sieur de Maisonneuve consecrated the -site of Montreal as the first act of his landing. It is little -wonder that the visitor to this entrancing city to-day feels some -unanalysed and mystic touch pervading the air, something that must -forever haunt and pervade his memories of stately, magnificent -Montreal. No other city on the continent has this indefinable -element of magic and of charm. - -The seventeenth century was an almost unbroken period of bold and -daring adventure and of missionary activities. All over the world, -at this time, was there manifested the passion for exploration. It -prevailed over the entire continent of Europe. It recorded its -progress on the new continent of North America. - -The discovery of Hudson Bay has been placed by {9} some statisticians -as early as 1498, when it is surmised that Cabot may have reached it; -but the absolute and authentic date still lingers somewhat in the -region of conjecture and mystery. It was in 1607 that Henry Hudson -is known to have first seen it as he sailed in search of the North -Pole. Intrepid adventurer! He found, not the goal of his quest, -but, instead, that "undiscovered country" we shall all one day see. -"Hudson's shallop went down in as utter silence and mystery as that -which surrounds the watery graves of those old sea Vikings who rode -out to meet death on the billow," says a Canadian historian. Hudson -Bay became a centre of intense interest to all the exploring -navigators. Admiral Sir Thomas Button sailed in search of Hudson, or -of some tidings of his fate. He returned without the knowledge he -sought for, but with much information regarding all the western -coast. Still later came Foxe and James. In 1631 Foxe discovered a -fallen cross which he judged had been erected by his predecessor, the -English Admiral, and he raised it and affixed an inscription and the -date. - -An organisation that was pre-eminently one of the creative forces of -Canada was that of the Hudson's Bay Company, which traces its origin -to a voyage of adventure made by two Frenchmen, Pierre Esprit de -Radisson and Menart Chouart sieur Degroseillers, who were allured by -rumours of the "inexhaustible harvest of furs" that awaited -enterprising traders. Baffled for the time by {10} obstacles that -seemed insurmountable, they returned to England to ask the assistance -of King Charles II., and in 1666 was formed a company that included -Prince Rupert (a cousin of the king), the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl -of Craven, Sir George Carteret, and other noblemen and merchants, as -the incorporators, to whom, in 1670, the king granted a charter to -comprise "the whole trade of all the seas, bays, rivers, and sounds, -in whatever latitude, ... and territories of the coasts which are not -now actually possessed by any of our subjects, or by the subjects of -any other Christian prince or state." In the following year two -vessels were sent out within a short period and there sprang up a -group of trading posts. Radisson remained for life in the service of -the Company. - -Against the living background of Canadian history in all its varied -activities, no one contributing factor stands out with such -prominence as that of this Hudson's Bay Company which, for two and a -half centuries, dominated the country and whose commercial importance -played so large a part in her development. Let no one mistake the -purpose of the Company, however, as one inspired by purely -philanthropic or patriotic ardour. The dominant aim was by no means -primarily that of the development of the new and almost unknown -country. The servants of the Company were not braving the terrors -and hardships of the wilderness on exclusively altruistic -inspirations. On the contrary, it was {11} their policy to conceal -the existence of the vast riches of the land and to represent it as -inaccessible to any one beyond Indians and hunters. Even as late as -the comparatively recent date of the decade of 1860-70, the pupils in -Canadian schools were taught that all the Hudson Bay region was -uninhabitable; that it was a desolate "No Man's Land," so to speak, -covered with ice and snow. No effort to change this impression was -made by those concerned with the administration of the Company, but, -rather, they were more or less untiring in assisting to confirm it. -They had their occult reasons for not being averse to the -representation of the entire North-West as being quite valueless for -the purposes of civilisation. The impression, if not the conviction, -was well authorised that the climate rendered the region quite -impossible for habitation; and the region in which now lies the most -wonderful wheat-growing belt of the world, and whose fertility under -cultivation renders it capable of supporting a population as large as -that of the entire United States at the present time (estimated at -one hundred millions), was assumed to be a region only capable of -sustaining wild animals, Indians, and the most hardy hunters and -traders. Now it is traversed by three transcontinental railways -which have opened an immense business of travel and traffic; and -beside dozens of prosperous young towns and villages it contains -Winnipeg with its quarter of a million people; Edmonton, Calgary, -Saskatoon, {12} Regina; the important new terminal seaport of Prince -Rupert, and the still older and more developed port of Vancouver; to -say nothing of the scenic grandeur through all the Mount Robson -locale, that has captured the enthusiasm of the world. The tradition -of the rigours of climate has become so popularised that even as late -as the summer of 1915 a New England tourist faring forth for a trip -through the great North-West of Canada was urged to provide himself -with furs and rugs enough to fit out an expedition to the Polar -regions. As a matter of fact the only embarrassment encountered as -to temperature was that of trying to discover sufficiently thin -clothing for Winnipeg in the opening September days, where the -sunshine poured down just then with a flood of radiance that fairly -rivalled that of a summer in the Capital city of the United States. -Yet, even in all this splendour of sunshine and discomfort of heat, -that wonderful quality of the Canadian air was not wanting--a -peculiar invigoration which one who has visited the Dominion misses -for a long time after leaving the country. Edmonton repeated the -same wonderful luxuriance with the same delicious coolness at night; -and the journey on through the magnificent mountain scenery to Prince -Rupert had the exquisite temperature of an Italian spring. - -The Hudson's Bay Company, however, was not organised on the basis of -a bureau of publicity for {13} the general benefit of the country and -of posterity. Their aim was the gaining of wealth and it was one -signally successful. Immense quantities of valuable furs were -shipped homeward every year; the shares in the Company became more -and more valuable as magnificent dividends were continually declared. -They controlled a territory exceeding an area of two million square -miles. It was peopled only by the Indians. Yet all through the -seventeenth century run the records of that self-sacrificing and -heroic band, the Jesuit missionaries, whose devotion to the Christian -ideal led them on with a faith and fervour that consecrates their -memory. - -[Illustration: Cape Santé (Quebec), St. Lawrence River] - -The ambition of the Company to extend their trading posts still -farther and farther inland incited still more explorations into the -unknown North-West. They builded better than they knew, for while -their aim hardly went beyond that of increasing their own revenues, -the results were inevitable factors in the development of the -country. That this is true is not in any wise, as has already been -said, to be regarded as in the nature of philanthropic or patriotic -zeal. They regarded the country and its wealth in the light of a -personal perquisite for their exploiting and financial benefit. They -circulated the information that this was a "Great Lone Land," as -undesirable as it was inaccessible. From motives of self-interest, -if not entirely those of humanity, the Company had treated the -Indians with kindness and justice and had thus made the British flag -something {14} to be held in respect by the tribes. Thus they had -built up a strong reliance for themselves of friendliness on the part -of the dusky natives. One of the eminent historians, George -Bancroft, of Boston, U.S.A., calls attention to this attitude of the -Hudson's Bay Company, saying that both the officers and the servants -of the corporation "were as much gentlemen by instinct in their -treatment of the Indians as in their treatment of civilised men and -women." Thus, whenever they should wish to exclude, as enemies, -those who came among them representing any other enterprise, they had -strong supporters and coadjutors among the tribes. "No trespassers -allowed" was practically their motto. Explorations, or the extension -of trade, were alike vigilantly discouraged. "Notwithstanding the -efforts put forth by the Company," says one chronicle, "it was -realised that unless the active co-operation of the Indians could be -secured, white trespassers would inevitably make inroads into the -trade of the Territory. Steps were therefore taken to unite the -tribes against all whites not officially connected with the Company. -The means adopted were worthy of the object desired, but could only -have been the outcome of an extraordinary disregard of the ordinary -amenities of life. The Indians were told that these outsiders would -rob and cheat them in the barter of their furs." Still, the very -prominence of the Company was its own enormous and inevitable -advertisement, so to speak, of untold {15} resources connected with -the mysterious regions, and both trade and further exploration were -stimulated. - -The first quarter of the eighteenth century had but just passed when -(in 1727) Pierre Gaultier de Varennes (Sieur de la Verendrye), who -was stationed on Lake Nipigon, became imbued with ardour regarding -the great question of the day, the North-West Passage; and in 1731 -he, with his three sons and an armed force of about fifty men, left -Montreal for the West, reaching the shores of Lake Superior within -two months, and pushing on--trading and exploring meanwhile--through -the all but impenetrable wilderness until he sailed up the Red River, -and in the autumn of 1738 established a fort near the site now -occupied by the city of Winnipeg. - -The great profits accruing to the Hudson's Bay Company inspired -rivalry, and in 1795 its keen competitor, the North-West Company, was -formed under the leadership of Simon M'Tavish, a Scottish Highlander, -of "enormous energy and decision of character." Still another -company came into being, organised by two merchants of Montreal, John -Gregory and Alexander Norman McLeod, which during its brief life was -known as the X Y Company, to whose purposes was attracted a young -Scotsman who was destined to be immortalised by his remarkable -explorations and his discovery of the great river which perpetuates -his name. This young man was Alexander Mackenzie, who came to Canada -in 1779, and immediately entered the fur trade. He became {16} -connected with the North-West Company and the X Y Company and left -for the west to take charge of the Churchill River district. Later, -owing to personal dissensions and conflicts of the Company with -another of its agents, Mackenzie was commissioned to the Athabasca -district, and it was there, apparently, that his project of -exploration to the Arctic Ocean took possession of him. From the -Indians he heard traditions of a mighty river like that of the -Saskatchewan, and in June 1789 he had crossed Athabasca Lake and -reached the Peace River which "displayed a succession of the most -beautiful scenery," as he recorded. He journeyed to Great Slave Lake -after encountering immense difficulties--rapids, long portages, -boiling caldrons, and treacherous eddies that threatened to engulf -his barque; but at the end of the month he found himself on the river -that now bears his name, and on the 12th of July he first sighted the -Arctic Ocean. Then there intervened a visit to England before his -second expedition in 1792. His memorable inscription on a rock, on -the coast near Vancouver: "Alexander Mackenzie from Canada by land, -22 July, 1793," tells its own story. It is not, however, with the -long-familiar details of his expeditions that we are here concerned, -but with the recognition of their result as one of the constructive -factors of the Dominion. The story of these undertakings, of the -adventurous journeys of the many explorers, inclusive of Hudson, La -Verendrye, Mackenzie, {17} Henry, Thompson, Fraser, Franklin, is a -part of the story of Canada. To trace out the contributing causes -and the influences investing each of these would be to throw a new -illumination on the inter-relations of the factors that have sprung -into activity over a long series of years as involved in the -evolution of a wonderful country whose great destiny impresses the -civilised world. - -[Illustration: Sunset on Canyon Lake] - -The opening years of the nineteenth century were marked by a noble -project that apparently ended in failure at the time and yet whose -significance is not lost. In every worthy purpose, cosmopolitan, -national, or individual in its scope, there is the germ of vitality, -and dying in one form it is resurrected in another. Truly of such -purposes may be said, in the sublime words of the apostle, that they -are "sown in weakness, but raised in power." - - "The good, though only thought, has life and breath." - - -Such a project was that of the Earl of Selkirk to assist numbers of -his poorer countrymen by founding a colony for them in the Hudson Bay -Territory, where they should find homes and engage in pleasant and -profitable agricultural work. With Lord Selkirk it was not the -dazzling opportunities of the fur trade that impelled his journey, -when, in 1815, he with Lady Selkirk and their son and two daughters -landed in Montreal, having already sent out three parties of his -country people to the tract of land whose area was that of a hundred -and ten {18} thousand square miles which he had purchased in the Red -River Valley. His scheme for the betterment of these people included -free transportation and temporary support for the settler until he -could begin to make his own way, together with a free gift of the -land. It was in 1810 that Lord Selkirk had matured his scheme and -purchased the land; but on arriving with his family he found himself -assailed with charges of conspiracy, condemned to the payment of -fines that he contended were totally unjust, and confronted with a -strange network of alleged misrepresentation and accusation. It -would seem that his chief desire was that of generous and noble aid -to his countrymen. His experience is not without its parallel -pervading all history in the lives of men whose single-hearted aim -has been to make the world a better place. Who shall penetrate the -spiritual mystery in that he whose efforts are noble and unselfish -not infrequently confronts the same results as might properly belong -to him whose objects were quite the reverse of these? "And that all -this should have come to you who had meant to lead a higher life than -the common, and to find out better ways," exclaims George Eliot's -Dorothea to Lydgate, in the great novel of _Middlemarch_; and the -heroine adds: "There is no sorrow I have thought more about than -that--to love what is great and try to reach it and then fail." - -Lord Selkirk took this experience greatly to heart. However much to -be regretted is the failure of {19} sufficient courage and faith to -enable one to stand strong, "and having done all, still to stand," -before a flagrant injustice or the pain of misconception, it is yet -hardly to be wondered at that a sensitive spirit, conscious of its -own integrity and unmeasured good-will, falters and faints before so -unfortunate an experience. To the Scottish Earl it seems to have -been more than he could endure. In 1818 he returned to Scotland, and -soon after died, at the early age of forty-nine, in Pau, having gone -to southern France in search of renewed health. The Red River -settlement that he founded was in the neighbourhood of the present -city of Winnipeg. - -Historians differ, however, as to the motives of Lord Selkirk, some -authorities taking a view quite opposite to the one cited here, and -gathered, too, from trustworthy sources. The truth may lie somewhere -between the two extremes. It is as unnecessary as it would be futile -to endeavour to invest every leader of a movement with a golden halo -like that of the mediæval saints of the Quattrocentisti. The world's -progress has always been carried forward by mixed forces and both -ideas and institutions owe their vitality to complex aims and to a -variety of conditions. - -In the spring of 1821 the Hudson's Bay Company and the North-West -Companies united. This marked an epoch in Canadian progress; and in -1838 occurred another event, unnoted as of any significance at the -time, yet which proved to be the advent of one of the {20} greatest -of the creative forces of Canada. "Any one watching keenly the -stealthy convergence of human lots," says George Eliot, "sees a slow -preparation of effects from one life on another, which tells like a -calculated irony on the indifference or the frozen stare with which -we look at our unintroduced neighbour. Destiny stands by sarcastic -with our _dramatis personæ_ folded in her hand." Surely the arrival -at Montreal of a Scottish lad of seventeen years of age could hardly -be held as bearing any direct relation to the future development and -the cosmopolitan importance of Canada. Yet what a romance of history -lies between the unnoticed landing of Donald A. Smith, in 1838, and -the solemn grandeur of the scene in Westminster Abbey, in January of -1914, when representatives of the Crown, with the peers, the -statesmen, the scholars, the social leaders of London; with a great -concourse drawn from all ranks, met for the memorial service for -Donald Alexander Smith, first Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal. "The -memory of ten centuries of England's illustrious dead haunted the -scene." - -Donald Smith crossed the Atlantic in a small supply craft belonging -to the Hudson's Bay Company and took up his duties as a clerk in one -of the most unimportant branches of the service. He made the 1200 -miles' journey from Montreal to Labrador. He was stationed in a -place where only once a year could any tidings reach him from the -outside world. Was he lonely in this exile? He himself said that he -{21} never knew what the feeling of loneliness was. He had books; he -had thoughts. Such a psychologist as the late William James, who to -his profound grasp of psychology and philosophy added the unmapped -power of spiritual divination, would have found, in these long, -solitary years of meditation and thought, the key and clue to the -lad's future greatness. In the infinite and unmeasured force -generated by thought-vibrations lies power that may transcend a -universe. "Mind with will is intelligent energy," declares a recent -scientific writer, who adds: "intelligent energy is enough to supply -a cause for every known effect within the limits of the universe." - -Sir Oliver Lodge has recently said that life is simply "utilised and -guided energy to produce results which otherwise would not have -happened." If the distinguished British scientist had been seeking a -phrase to define the life of Donald Alexander Smith he could hardly -have created one more felicitous. That the results that were called -into activity for a period of over fifty years, of momentous -importance to Canada, by the causes set up by the young Scotsman, -matters that would never have happened but for him, is evident to all -who study closely the modern history of the Dominion. Lord -Strathcona's biographer, Mr. Beckles Willson, introduces the reader -to a long record of interesting details of the early years of Donald -Smith, all of which contributed to the development and the {22} -nurture of the marvellous qualities which rendered him one of the -most determining of the forces that shaped the destiny of Canada. -The brilliant John Jay Chapman, writing of the remarkable man who may -be said to have initiated the abolition of slavery in the United -States, remarks of his subject: "Garrison plunged through the icy -atmosphere like a burning meteorite from another planet." Not thus, -however, did Donald Smith enter on his great career. Exiled in a far -and frozen region, his service in Labrador lasted for thirteen years -"with no companionship save a few employees and his own thoughts, -learning the secrets of the Company, how to manage the Indians, and -how to produce the best returns."[1] Thirty years had passed since -his landing in Canada when, in 1868, on the death of Governor -Simpson, of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose office was in Montreal, -Mr. Smith was appointed by the London office to succeed him. He was -then in his forty-ninth year. Born on August 6, 1820, he died on -January 21, 1914, in his ninety-fourth year. The forty-five years -which preceded his passing from the physical realm were the years in -which Canada entered on her great destiny, and of this momentous -period Lord Strathcona might well have said, "All of which I saw and -part of which I was." His devotion and loyalty to the Empire was as -intelligent and wise as it was ardent and powerful. The history {23} -of Canada and his personal biography during those years might almost -be interchangeable terms. The Hudson's Bay Company, although -organised and conducted on a financial basis, was the soul of loyalty -to the Empire. The splendid courage, endurance, and persistence that -characterised its entire tenure entered into the very structure of -the nation. - - -[1] _Lord Strathcona; The Story of His Life_. Beckles Willson. -Methuen and Company. London, 1902. - - -About the middle of the nineteenth century a man who has been termed -"an uncrowned king" by some of the more enthusiastic, if not more -discriminating of his followers; a man who was, at all events, an -influential political leader and who especially espoused the cause of -Upper Canada, opened a crusade for the acquisition on the part of the -government of all the territorial rights of the Hudson's Bay Company. -This man was George Brown, the founder and at that time the editor of -the Toronto _Globe_. He was a member of Parliament, and he was also -one of the band of great editors in which the journalism of that -period found its most potent expression. This order of editorial -influence was represented in the United States by Horace Greeley of -the New York _Tribune_; Charles A. Dana of the New York _Sun_; and -Samuel Bowles of the Springfield (Massachusetts) _Republican_, whose -spirit and influence continue to manifest themselves in the high -quality of that journal to-day. This dominant editorial influence -still survives in the States, in the {24} personality of the -brilliant and splendidly-endowed Colonel Henry Watterson, the -proprietor and editor of the Louisville (Kentucky) _Courier-Journal_, -and it was evident in the New York _Evening Post_, under the conduct -of Horace White, whose death (in September, 1916) was a signal loss -to the American press. - -There is ample authority for the assertion that George Brown's -newspaper "had an influence on the populace such as no other had in -Canada." It was under his administration of the Toronto _Globe_ that -this journal issued its first bugle call regarding the desirability -that Canada should possess herself of all the wide sweep of the -Hudson Bay territory of the west. This demand aroused from the -Company a storm of emphatic declarations that the "Great Lone Land" -was not worth the acquisition of the state; that its climate and its -conditions rendered it forever useless to the interests of -civilisation. Through nearly two decades had this agitation -continued; but in 1869 the Government purchased the vast holdings of -the Company at the price of three hundred thousand pounds and the -further grant of one-twentieth of the fertile belt of land, and of -forty-five thousand acres in addition adjoining various -trading-posts. This transaction threw all the North-West into an -excited state and Governor MacDougall was sent out to Fort Garry to -still the commotion. Then came on the Rebellion incited and led by -Louis Riel, the story of which is so familiar {25} to all readers of -Canadian history. The conditions became disastrous and alarming, and -Governor MacDougall was not permitted to move on to his appointed -post. Under these circumstances Donald A. Smith decided to go -immediately to the Red River country. He was not the man to hesitate -when he heard the call of duty. He was at once invested with the -authority of Commissioner by the Dominion Government, and the story -of his success, and of the end of the first rebellion under Louis -Riel, is too well known to require extended allusion. Soon after -this Mr. Smith was elected to Parliament as the first representative -from Manitoba. It was to his astute knowledge, his skill as a -tactician, the great confidence that he inspired, and to his ability -as a Parliamentarian that the successful settlement of the affairs -between the Government and the Hudson's Bay Company was primarily -due. Meantime the problem of the consolidation of the Provinces -became more evident as one that focussed the interest of the time. -The epoch-making solution of this problem came in 1867 when the -Dominion was formed. - -Canada was fortunate at this critical time in having a Premier of -remarkable qualities, who was the man for the hour. John Alexander -Macdonald (afterwards knighted and invested with the honour of a -Grand Cross of the Bath) was a Scotsman by birth whose family removed -to Canada in his early childhood. With the sturdy qualities of his -race he {26} thus united the influences of Canadian environment and -training, the family arriving in Canada in 1820, when the future -Prime Minister was but five years of age. In his earliest youth, as -a lad of fifteen, circumstances forced him into the world to earn his -living. Life itself became his university. He developed in his -first contact with the world that initiative, that instant perception -of the situation and the facility to meet it, which so signally -distinguished his statesmanship in after years. The family had -landed at Quebec and journeyed to Kingston where they settled and -lived until the death of the elder Macdonald in 1841, leaving the -household in straitened circumstances. The Ontario of those days was -very different from the smiling and prosperous Province of the -present time. All Upper Canada (as it was then known) was covered -with dense forests, and all means of transportation were primitive -and slow. "Railways, of course, were unknown," writes Sir Joseph -Pope, the authorised biographer of Sir John Alexander Macdonald, "and -macadamised roads, then looked upon as great luxuries, were few and -far between. The climate, too, was more severe than, owing to the -cultivation of the soil, it has since become." In 1842, at the age -of twenty-seven, Macdonald made his first visit to England, largely -for the purpose of purchasing his law library. Quoting a letter -written by him at this time to his mother, his biographer (Sir Joseph -Pope) adds: - -{27} - -"Forty-two years passed away and again John Alexander Macdonald stood -within the portals of Windsor Castle; but under what different -circumstances! No longer an unknown visitor, peeping with youthful -curiosity through half-open doors; but as the First Minister of a -mighty Dominion, he comes by the Queen's command to dine at her -table, and, in the presence of the Prime Minister and of one of the -great nobles of England, who alone have been summoned as witnesses of -the ceremony, to receive from the hand of his Sovereign that token -and pledge of her regard which, as such, he greatly prized--the -broad, red riband of the Bath." - - -An omnivorous reader and endowed with a winning and impressive -personality, Macdonald at once became a significant and an -influential figure in Canadian life. Among the creative forces of -his adopted and beloved country he holds a place never to be -forgotten. He first took his seat in the Assembly of 1844; the new -Parliament met in Montreal in the November of that year. Complex -problems confronted the sessions of that period, in that Canada felt -she had no potential voice in the administration of affairs. Every -measure of the Assembly must secure the approval of the Legislative -Council, the members of which were appointed for life by the -governor-general, and added to this the measure must then receive the -royal assent before it became operative. The conditions were also -aggravated by the large majority of Canadians of French descent, -sensitive and high-spirited, who rebelled against the invariable -English rule of an English governor-general. These questions and -other agitations made the political life on which {28} the young -member entered one of peculiar intricacy. The Canada of that day was -one of undeveloped resources and of internal dissensions. It -consisted only of those territories which we know as the Provinces of -Ontario and Quebec. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward -Island were in the same position politically as Newfoundland is in -to-day, while the North-West provinces were a wilderness. With -Macdonald's rise to prominence in the political world the idea of -confederation began to engage the attention of all those who had at -heart the good of the country. The far-seeing leader of the -conservative party began a campaign for the confederation of Quebec -and Ontario with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward -Island, believing that the best course was to bring about this -preliminary union, leaving it open to extension if time and -experience should prove it to be desirable. Owing to the closeness -of party divisions, successive governments vainly attempted to carry -on the work of the country. It was a critical period, and the manner -in which a solution for the national troubles was found will remain -one of the most striking episodes in the history of the times. - -Sir John Carling was the means of bringing together the conflicting -elements. He was a power in the affairs of Ontario and an -enthusiastic supporter of Macdonald, while he also enjoyed the -friendship of the Honourable George Brown, who was recognised as the -Liberal leader of Upper {29} Canada, and who, for many years, had -been the opponent of Macdonald. But the veiled and shrouded figure -of Destiny hovered near. Did she bear a magic wand, concealed but -potent? At all events she ordained that Brown and Carling should -journey together from Toronto to Quebec on their way to attend a -meeting of the Legislative Council. In their discussion of public -affairs George Brown remarked: "Macdonald has the chance of his life -to do great things for his country and these can only be done by -carrying confederation." To this Sir John rejoined: "But you would -be the first to oppose him." To Carling's surprise Brown replied: -"No, I should uphold him as I feel that confederation is the only -thing for the country." What a significant moment was this in the -history of the future Dominion! Forces, determining but unseen, were -in the air. The finely-balanced mind of Sir John Carling instantly -grasped the importance of this psychological moment. "Would you mind -saying to John A. Macdonald what you have just told me?" eagerly -asked Sir John. "Certainly not," replied George Brown, and his -companion lost no time in bringing the two leaders together. The -result is well known to all; the coalition ministry was framed and -carried to a successful conclusion the great task with which it had -been entrusted. - -From that time until his death on June 6, 1891, the energy, the -genius, the influence of John Alexander Macdonald were among the most -potent of {30} the creative forces of Canada, and for the proud -position that the Dominion holds to-day she is largely indebted to -this great leader. One of the most important of his powers for -national service lay in his ability to co-operate with strong men. -When the movement for confederation was initiated the situation was -extremely critical, and it was to the personal influence of the -eminent French-Canadian, George Etienne Cartier (who was born in St. -Antoine, Quebec, in 1814 and who died in 1873), that the support of a -reluctant Province was won for the unification of Canada. Cartier -was educated at the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Montreal; he was called -to the bar, and as a follower of Papineau he fought against the Crown -in 1837, and for some time after sought refuge in the United States. -On the restoration of peace he returned to Canada and resumed his -practice of law, attaining a high position, and subsequently he -became the attorney for the Grand Trunk Railway. He was elected to -Parliament in 1848 as the recognised leader of the French-Canadians -and when, in November of 1857, John Alexander Macdonald succeeded -Colonel Taché as Premier of the Province of Canada, Cartier was -invited to a place in his cabinet. Later he was created a baronet of -the British Empire. From 1858 to 1862 the Cartier-Macdonald ministry -held its onward course, though steering its way through quicksands -and tumult. - -To Sir George Etienne Cartier is ascribed valuable {31} aid in the -construction of the Grand Trunk Railway and the Victoria Bridge, -important influence in the promotion of education, and signal service -in bettering the laws of Canada. When, in 1885, a statue to his -honour was unveiled in Ottawa, Sir John Macdonald in his address said -of him: "He served his country faithfully and well.... I believe no -public man has retained, during the whole of his life, in so eminent -a degree, the respect of both the parties into which this great -country is divided.... If he had done nothing else but give to -Quebec the most perfect code of law that exists in the entire world, -that was enough to make him immortal...." To Lord Lisgar the Premier -wrote of Cartier: "We have acted together since 1854 and never had a -serious difference. He was as bold as a lion, and but for him -confederation could not have been carried." - -Another of the strong forces in constructive statesmanship was Sir -Charles Tupper, who, almost unaided, engaged in the great struggle to -overcome the opposition of Nova Scotia, his own Province, to the -scheme of confederation. In this famous group of colleagues, Sir -John Alexander Macdonald, Sir George Etienne Cartier, Sir Charles -Tupper, and the Honourable George Brown, conspicuous ability and -wonderful directive power were united with an optimistic courage, a -depth of conviction in the success of important measures for the -country, that rendered them practically invincible among the creative -forces of Canada. Nor could any mention {32} of this progress be -complete that did not include the name of Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, -many years Minister of Finance, a worker for confederation, whose own -distinction of character and tenacity of purpose determined the -attitude taken by his Province of New Brunswick in her wavering and -tardy decision, only crystallised into adherence by the patriotic -zeal of Sir Leonard. "It is perhaps the highest of all tributes to -the genius of Macdonald," says George R. Parkin,[2] "that he was able -to draw to his support a group of men of the weight and worth of -Cartier, Tupper, and Tilley, and retain through a long series of -years their loyal devotion to him as a leader. Each in his own way a -commanding personality, they were of one accord in following -Macdonald with unswerving fidelity through all the vicissitudes of -his fortune. Along with him they grasped and held tenaciously the -idea of a great and united Canada forming an integral part of the -Empire, and to that end devoted the work of their lives." - - -[2] "Sir John A. Macdonald," _The Makers of Canada_. Morang and -Company, Limited, Toronto. - - -An interesting and graphic picture is preserved, in the literature of -the time, of the visit of Sir John Macdonald, in 1879, to Lord -Beaconsfield at Hughenden. He was received as Canada's most -illustrious citizen and leading statesman. After dinner Lord -Beaconsfield conducted his guest to the smoking-room at the top of -the house which was hung with {33} old portraits of former Premiers -of England. The host and his Canadian guest exchanged fragments of -personal reminiscences and experiences, and Lord Beaconsfield greatly -interested Sir John by his brilliant description of some of the -notable personalities whom, in former days, he had met at Lady -Blessington's, who had a matchless gift for drawing around her the -celebrities of her time. In bidding Sir John good-night, at the end -of a long and delightful evening, Lord Beaconsfield said: "You have -greatly interested me both in yourself and in Canada. Come back next -year and I will do anything you ask me." The next year duly came, -but Beaconsfield had passed away, and Gladstone was the Premier. It -was during this visit that the classics were discussed somewhat at -length between Beaconsfield and his guest, the Premier of England -dwelling, in the most fascinating manner, upon the poets, -philosophers, and orators of Greece and of Rome. - -[Illustration: A Canoeing Party, Ontario] - -For nearly fifty years the influence of Sir John Macdonald was a very -pillar of the Dominion. He represented a united Canada that forms so -important an integral part of the mighty British Empire. Lord Lorne -said of him that he was "the most successful statesman of one of the -most successful of the younger nations." - -On his death Canada paid him her highest honours. Queen Victoria, -most gracious of Royal sovereigns, wrote a personal letter of -condolence to Lady Macdonald, and caused her to be elevated to the -peerage {34} with the title of Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe. An -impressive memorial service for the dead Premier was held in -Westminster Abbey, and later his bust was placed in St. Paul's and -unveiled by Lord Rosebery. Almost every large city in the Dominion -is adorned with a statue of Sir John Macdonald. - -One of the most important services to Canada, on the part of the -Premier, had been his early recognition of the immeasurable -possibilities of the North-West. As early as in 1871 he saw that the -construction of a railway to the Pacific coast was a matter -absolutely essential to the Dominion for the development of this -portion of the country. In April of that year, while Sir John -Macdonald was absent in Washington (U.S.A.) attending the proceedings -of the Joint High Commission, Sir George Cartier moved a resolution -in Parliament for the construction of such a road. The resolution -was supported by Sir Alexander Galt and was carried. Sir Hugh Allan -and Donald Smith had long held commercial relations, and the -extensive and accurate knowledge of all this region that Mr. Smith -had acquired was of inestimable value to the project. Into this -intricate problem attending the decision and the subsequent -fulfilment of it in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway -(completed on November 7, 1885) entered a group of important and -forceful men. The magnitude of the work offers material for many -chapters of Canadian history. Among this group {35} of dominant -personalities stands out that of William Cornelius Van Horne -(afterwards knighted) and who was particularly well characterised by -James Jerome Hill who said of him: "There was no one on the whole -continent who would have served our purpose so well as Mr. Van Horne. -He had brains, skill, experience, and energy, and was, besides, a -born leader of men." The completion of this great highway was -another of the events that closely linked the life of Canada's great -Premier with the forces that were creating her destiny. The first -through transcontinental train on this line left Montreal on June 26, -1886, for its journey of 2905 miles through what was then an almost -trackless wilderness. On the completion of the road Queen Victoria -had sent a telegram characterising the achievement as one "of great -importance to the British Empire." - -The Grand Trunk was, however, Canada's pioneer railway and it was the -first railway in the British Empire outside the United Kingdom. One -of the leading factors in the varied group of the creative forces of -Canada, it is one of the monumental illustrations of her claim to -foresight and enterprise in thus early recognising that the art of -transportation goes before and points the way for advancing -enlightenment. The transportation service is, as one of the eminent -officials of this line has said, "the advance guard of education." -In 1914 the Grand Trunk System, led by the vision {36} and foresight -of Charles Melville Hays, completed its transcontinental lines. -President Hays had predicted that the Grand Trunk would be able to -handle the harvest of 1915, and his prediction was realised. His -forecast for the future included steamer lines from Prince Rupert to -Liverpool, by way of the Panama Canal, and further extension of lines -to Australia, Japan, China, and Alaska. In fact, the Canadian -prevision of unmapped possibilities of commerce that would be -afforded by means of the new canal that thus connected two oceans was -far more alert and engaging than that of the United States. - -Beside the great enterprises involved in the conquering of nature, -there were others, not less important, that contribute to the -building up of human life. The claim of industry and economics is -not greater than the claim of intellectual development, of -scholarship, of that knowledge and refinement that leads to the -highest social culture of a nation. - -When the Honourable James McGill of Montreal left at his death (in -1813) a large bequest to found the university that bears his name he -added another to the galaxy of Canada's benefactors and creators. -Mr. McGill had amassed large wealth in the fur industry, and the -college, after encountering some years of difficulty, entered in 1885 -on an era of prosperity that has continually increased as the years -have gone by. This era of prosperity was largely due to the securing -as Principal a gifted and {37} remarkable young man, John William -Dawson, who is now so widely known to the world of science and -scholarship as Sir William Dawson. For thirty-eight years he served -as Principal of McGill. He found it a struggling college with less -than a hundred students. He left it with more than a thousand -students and with from eighty to ninety professors and lecturers. -Finding it with three faculties, he doubled that number, and as -within fifteen years he recognised the necessity of higher education -for women, there was opened (in 1883) the Donalda Department, -generously endowed by Lord Strathcona, which has since developed into -the Royal Victoria College. Lord Strathcona gave, first and last, -many millions of dollars to McGill; Sir William Macdonald gave to the -Engineering department one million, including with this the schools -of physics and chemistry, and he also equipped the Macdonald College -at Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue which is incorporated with McGill. Peter -Redpath, a public-spirited merchant of Montreal, presented the museum -that bears his name (now rich in collections) and he also gave the -Library building which houses, for McGill, the largest library in -Canada save that of Parliament. These liberal gifts of Mr. Redpath -were still further increased by Mrs. Redpath's generous -contributions. The unsurpassed opportunities at McGill place her -graduates on equality of scholarly prestige with those of Oxford and -of the other great universities of the world. No {38} consideration -of the creative forces of Canada could fail to include this -inestimable contribution that makes for nobler life offered by McGill -University. - -To the intellectual development and liberal culture of the Dominion -the universities of Toronto and of Laval render priceless aid. The -former is noted somewhat at length in a subsequent chapter. Laval -University, founded in Quebec in 1852, by the Quebec seminary, dates -back, through that institution, to its founder, François de -Laval-Montmorency, the first Bishop of Quebec, who landed in Canada -in 1659, and founded the seminary in 1663. This great -French-Canadian university, fairly enshrined in sacred tradition and -archaic history, is an object of pilgrimage to all visitors in -Quebec. To its vast resources of scholarship it adds the -perpetuation of the name of one of the most remarkable prelates that -the world has known. A son of the crusaders, a true successor of the -apostles who shared the life of Jesus Christ, a man of boundless -charity, of intrepid heroism, of a life so consecrated to the Divine -Service that its passing from earth in the May of 1708 cannot efface -the vividness of his image nor dim the brightness of the atmosphere -which enshrines his memory, he was deeply concerned with the -education of his people. Monseigneur Laval specified that he desired -that his seminary should be "a perpetual school of virtue." The Abbé -de Saint-Vallier of France bequeathed to this Seminary in 1685 the -sum of forty-two thousand francs, and {39} Bishop Laval himself left -to its maintenance his entire estate. The museums, lecture halls, -and the library of Laval University are open to visitors. It is rich -in historic portraits and in many fine examples of French art. On -the visit of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII.) to Canada in -1860, the heir to the British throne founded the Prince of Wales -Prize, which has remained one of the features of the university. - -In the equalisation of educational opportunities to an unusual degree -Canada is especially strong. While the fiftieth anniversary of the -consolidation of the Dominion will not be celebrated until July 1, of -1917, and while as a nation she is not yet half a century old, her -educational privileges are recognised as among the best in the world. -Not a single province is without its fully equipped educational -system. Free public schools, high schools, colleges, and -universities abound. There are already twenty-one universities in -Canada. The standard of instruction is very high; the schools of -applied science, law, medicine, and technical instruction are among -the best in the world. They offer all late modern appliances for -chemical, metallurgical, and electrical experiment: civil, mining, -and electrical engineering are offered with unsurpassed opportunities -for practice and research. The Royal Military College at Kingston -presents a complete course in Engineering and in all branches of -military science. The Royal Naval College at Halifax offers {40} -equally complete opportunities for naval training. - -Not even the most fragmentary survey of the creative forces of the -Dominion could fail to emphasise the notable and beneficent work of -Archbishop Taché, who, born in Quebec in 1823, became identified with -the Far West in 1845, where he remained, an heroic and impassioned -figure, until his death, in 1894. The Archbishop's mother was a -daughter of Joliet, the explorer; the same intrepid spirit that led -this pathfinder on through the wilderness characterised the great -prelate in a remarkable degree. At the age of twenty-two he had been -admitted to the priesthood; he received his training in Montreal and -was, from the first, "stirred to the soul by missionary zeal"; he -eagerly embraced the call to the hardships, the most insurmountable -difficulties, of the pioneer missionary. He traversed the country -for four hundred miles around from St. Boniface (across the river -from Winnipeg) where he was stationed; his journeys were by canoe and -dog sledges; he encountered physical hardships which seem incredible -for human endurance. When the slender financial support of his -mission threatened to fail he pleaded that just sufficient revenue be -continued to provide bread and wine for the sacrament, saying that -for himself he would "find food in the fish of the lakes, and -clothing from the skins of the wild animals." In his later years he -was made the Bishop of Manitoba and he was present, a venerable and -honoured figure, on the opening of the first Assembly {41} of that -Province in 1870-71. Archbishop Taché was one of the nearer friends -and associates of Lord Strathcona, also when the latter, as Donald A. -Smith, was so long the dominating personality in the North-West. The -life and work of this great Archbishop of the Catholic faith are -forever bound up with the history and development of Manitoba. There -are other notable Catholic prelates, a remarkable group: his Eminence -Cardinal Taschereau, the first Canadian prelate to become a Prince of -the Church; Archbishops Bourget and Fabre of Montreal; Archbishops -Lynch and Walsh of Toronto; Archbishop Cleary of Kingston; and Bishop -Demers of Vancouver are all among the great religious leaders whose -influence for the general advancement of the people, as well as for -the progress of religion, has been wide and invaluable. - -Bishop Strachan of Toronto, a priest of the Church of England, whose -life fell between 1778-1867, was a strong force both in church and -state. No servant of God within the entire Dominion has left a -nobler record. When (in 1832) the scourge of Asiatic cholera swept -over Canada, it was he who inspired courage, administered the -sacraments to the dying, and sustained the survivors. His aid, both -legislative and otherwise, to the cause of education, and his -activity in promoting all progress in Ontario, are among the most -precious records of that province. One passage from his personal -counsel may well be held in memory: - -{42} - -"Cultivate, then, my young friends, all those virtues which dignify -the human character, and mark in your behaviour the respect you -entertain for everything venerable and holy. It is this conduct that -will raise you above the rivalship, the intrigues, and slanders by -which you will be surrounded. They will exalt you above this little -spot of earth, so full of malice, contention, disorder; and extend -your views, with joy and expectation, to that better country." - - -Nothing in all religious advancement is more impressive than the -great work of the Methodist denomination in Canada. Their vital and -fervent spirit has kindled the zeal of the people with the flame of -the living coal on the altar. One of the remarkable contributions to -the lofty order of creative forces was made by the Reverend Doctor -Egerton Ryerson, the celebrated Methodist leader, and the organiser -of the Public School System of Ontario. In 1841 Doctor Ryerson -became Principal of Victoria College; in 1844 ne was appointed -Superintendent of Public Schools in Upper Canada, and he brought to -bear upon educative work the enduring impress of his ideals. "By -education I mean not the mere acquisition of certain arts," he said, -"but that instruction and discipline which qualify men for their -appropriate duties in life, as Christians, as persons in business, -and as members of the civil community." Doctor Ryerson lived until -the year 1882, and he thus was enabled to see much of the fruit of -his wise and untiring endeavour. - -Although the Right Honourable Sir Wilfrid Laurier is still, happily, -dwelling among his countrymen {43} and lending to many notable -occasions the rare distinction and the prestige of his presence, the -gratifying fact that he is a factor in the life of the hour cannot -constrain one to fail to express the recognition of Canada's -indebtedness to his splendid services during her more recent past. A -native of Quebec (born in 1841) his unqualified devotion has been -given to the Empire without regard to restriction of race or -language. His political career as a member of the House opened -before he was thirty years of age; six years later he was called to -the Cabinet; and in June, 1896, at the age of fifty-five, he became -the Premier of the Dominion. When the Diamond Jubilee of Queen -Victoria was celebrated, one special feature was the invitation -extended to all the Prime Ministers of the British Empire to honour -it by their presence. Among these Ministers Sir Wilfrid was singled -out for many special attentions. He was distinguished by being made -a member of the Imperial Privy Council; he was appointed a Knight of -the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George; he was -invested with honorary degrees by both Oxford and Cambridge; he was -made an honorary member of the Cobden Club which awarded to him a -gold medal "in recognition of exceptional and distinguished services -to the cause of international and free exchange." Sir Wilfrid -Laurier visited President Faure and the President of the French -Republic named him as a Grand Officier of the Legion d'Honneur. {44} -In 1902 Sir Wilfrid was invited to the Coronation of Edward VII. and -his presence at this imposing ceremonial reflected distinction of the -highest order on Canada by his brilliant and impressive addresses -made on Imperial interests and affairs. England could not but -realise that in the Parliament of the vast country over the sea there -were orators who would add new lustre to her national eloquence and -splendid traditions. - -Well, indeed, has Canada been called the country of the Twentieth -Century. To no inconsiderable extent the appliances that introduce a -new order of life have been either invented or first experimentally -considered in the Dominion. Indeed, as if already under the spell of -Destiny, these great modern miracles of communication--the railways, -telegraphs, and telephones will be forever associated with the name -of Canada; the country that cradled James Jerome Hill and Samuel -Rogers Calloway; in which William Cornelius Van Horne and Charles -Melville Hays gave the best years of their lives to building and -improving transportation facilities; in which Alexander Graham Bell -initiated his experiments and where he still makes his summer home; -and in which Thomas Alva Edison worked as a telegraph operator on the -pioneer railway, where he printed and issued _The Grand Trunk -Herald_, the first newspaper ever printed on a railway train. - -In the light of the eventful period that has passed since that -momentous date of August, 1914, it would {45} seem to be a curiously -prophetic glimpse that rose, like a mirage on the far horizon, before -Sir Wilfrid Laurier when, in response to a toast at the banquet given -on June 18, 1897, by the Imperial Institute in London in honour of -the Colonial premiers, he said: - - -"... England has proved at all times that she can fight her own -battles; but if a day were ever to come when England was in danger, -let the bugle sound, let the fires be lighted upon the hills, and in -all parts of the Colonial possessions whatever we can do shall be -done to help her.... I have been asked if the sentiments of the -French population of Canada were those of absolute loyalty towards -the British Empire. Let me say ... it was the privilege of the men -of our generation to see the banners of France and of England -entwined together victoriously on the banks of the Alma, on the -heights of Inkermann, and on the walls of Sebastopol." - - -Seventeen years had but passed--from 1897 to 1914--when again the -banners of France and England were intertwined; and since that -fateful midsummer's day what treasure and sacrifice has not Canada -poured out with a courage and unflinching heroism for which words -furnish no adequate interpretation. The future of the Canadian -Dominion is seen, in the words of the poet, as "along the grand roads -of the universe." Her citizens realise that "To-day is a new day" and -the hand of Destiny is leading her on to exemplify to the world a new -and a more glorious civilisation. - - - - -{46} - -CHAPTER II - -QUEBEC AND THE PICTURESQUE MARITIME REGION - -The Maritime region of Canada embraces only, strictly speaking, -Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; although Quebec -is sometimes thought of as being included in this historic portion of -the Dominion, because of its geographical situation. The city of -Quebec has always been a favourite point of pilgrimage, and when Mr. -Howells, in his early youth, enshrined it in a half-romantic -narrative, as the scene of _Their Wedding Journey_, its attractions -were heightened by his facile and charming pen. The old French city -dates back to 1608, and its history, for more than a century and a -half, is really the history of Canada as well. All the maritime -provinces of Canada take a prominent place in poetic legend and lore -as well as in historical associations. When, in 1845, the poet -Longfellow wrote his tender and touching, though historically -misleading poem, Evangeline, the poem focussed the general attention -on Acadia (the modern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), and particular -attention on the little village of Grand-Pré, which, - - "... distant, secluded still," - -lying in the fruitful valley, invited many excursions {47} of those -who delight in pilgrimages to poetic shrines. For - - "Plant a poet's word but deep enough," - -and woodland or hill, mountain or shore, are thereby enchanted. The -Maritime region, still vocal with the dreams and discoveries of -adventurous spirits; where all pledge and prophecy still linger in -the air; where impassioned endeavour, long-patient endurance, faith -to break a pathway through to untrod regions with some Ulysses to -inspire a faith that it is never too late to seek a newer world--how -wonderful is the spell this province weaves around the wanderer! - -The noble St. Lawrence is a river that fairly fulfils the purposes of -a sea, with its kaleidoscopic shore lines, now bold and forbidding, -now dreamy and undefined with their fleeting, ethereal beauty; and -all the maritime land is pervaded by memories and associations of the -brave Cabot who first sighted Nova Scotia on June 24, 1497, the date -of the special festa of his native Italy--this festival of San -Giovanni, when all Venice is on the Grand Canal in the fleets of -gondolas; all Florence illuminated at night, a resplendent spectacle -from her surrounding hills and her background of purple amethyst -mountains; and when Rome, at night, disports herself in a thousand -ways upon the Campagna Mystica. It was a fitting date for Cabot, the -Venetian, to discover the new land. Voices unheard by others had -called to him; hands, from starry {48} spaces, beckoned and led him -on. What was there in the air but - - "Winged persuasions and veiled destinies," - -and all the past that came thronging to meet all the future? Cabot, -Venetian born, English by adoption, was followed by several other -intrepid explorers, and not to insist too much upon chronological -order, what a group of wonderful names are associated with all the -province of Quebec! Cartier, Champlain, Frontenac; Sir Humphrey -Gilbert of the Elizabethan period, whose brave expedition was -engulfed by winds and waves and went down in the great deep off -Campobello. - - "Alas, the land-wind failed. - And ice-cold grew the night, - And never more on sea or shore, - Should Sir Humphrey see the light." - - -But the high ideals these heroes brought did not go down nor become -extinguished in the storm-tossed waters. - - "Say not the struggle naught availeth!" - -The struggle always avails, and leaves humanity better and farther on -than the effort finds it. Then, too, came a band of holy women, the -Ursuline nuns, and the sacred zeal of the novitiate lent its vital -power. What is there not of spiritual nobility, of sublimest -self-sacrifice, of thrilling ideals, of a truer life, associated with -the early history of Canada? This is all a part of her spellbinding -power; it has {49} left its significance on the air, its impress in -wave and tree and flower; its exaltation in every heart. - -Quebec city is now becoming an attractive winter haunt as well for -those who love out-of-door sports in the snowy carnival and who find -themselves so comfortably domiciled in the Château Frontenac. The -esplanade of Dufferin Terrace commands delightful views across the -St. Lawrence as far as the Isle d'Orleans. The Citadel, the -Parliament Buildings, the Ursuline Convent, the Basilica, and the -palace of the Cardinal; together with the libraries, Laval -University, the drives to the old battle-grounds, and the excursion -of twenty-one miles to the shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré, provide -the visitor with abundance of interest. - -The Ursuline Convent covers seven acres of ground in almost the -centre of the city of Quebec. It is the largest convent on the -continent, and it dates back to the July of 1639, when Marie Guyart, -and three other sisters of the Ursuline order, under the protection -of the Archbishop of Toulouse, were led by Divine guidance to the new -country of Canada and entered on their work. Marie Guyart, the -foundress of the convent, was the daughter of a silk merchant of -Tours, France, and her childhood is invested with legends similar to -those that are associated with the name of Catherine of Sienna. She -married one Joseph Martin, but at the age of twenty-three she was -left a widow, and soon became a novitiate of the Ursulines, rising to -be the {50} Mother Superior of her convent. At the age of forty, -through the instrumentality of the Duchesse D'Aiguillion, a niece of -Cardinal Richelieu, she came to "New France," and as recently as the -August of 1911 this remarkable woman was canonised by the Sacred -College of Rome and named as a saint under the title of Marie de -l'Incarnation. For thirty-three years she pursued an exalted life in -the convent of her founding, and died at the age of seventy-two, in -the May of 1672. - -A much-sought shrine is that of Saint Anne de Beaupré, easy access to -which is gained by the electric railway, and in the summer it is a -pleasant local sail down the St. Lawrence. The legend runs that a -group of Breton mariners, in the early years of the seventeenth -century, found themselves almost engulfed in the river in the sudden -violence of a storm, and that they called upon _la bonne Saint Anne_ -for deliverance; earnestly declaring that if she would save them they -would erect to her a shrine at whatever point she should bring them -to land, and that this shrine should be sanctuary forever. The good -saint was merciful to their entreaties, and guided them safely to -land. According to their promise they at once built a small wooden -chapel, very near a spring whose waters are claimed to possess a -miraculous power for healing. Since that remote time three larger -churches on this site have successively replaced each other, the -latest of which dates only to 1878. The primitive little chapel is -{51} still preserved, even as at Assisi the Portiuncula of San -Francisco is preserved near the magnificent church of Santa Maria -degli Angeli. - -That marvellous ministry of San Francisco (who is more familiarly -known to us as Saint Francis of Assisi), which was initiated in the -thirteenth century, love and sacrifice being the supreme ideals, is -recalled to mind by many of the legendary incidents relating to Saint -Anne de Beaupré. The mystic pilgrimage to Assisi, the "Seraphic -City," is to some extent paralleled by the latter-day pilgrimages to -the shrine of Saint Anne. "Any line of truth that leads us above -materialism," said Arch-deacon Wilberforce of Westminster Abbey, -whose passing on to the life more abundant at the date of this -writing is but the larger inflorescence of his beautiful and -consecrated life--"any line of truth that forces us to think and to -remember that we are enwrapped by the supernatural, is helpful and -stimulating. A human life lived only in the seen and felt, with no -sense of the invisible, is a fatally impoverished life; a poor, -blind, wingless life." Such is the deep, perpetual conviction of -mankind. "The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are -not seen are eternal." The mystic union of the soul with God is the -one underlying and all-determining truth of life. - - "Oh, beauty of holiness! - Of self-forgetfulness, of lowliness." - - -The latest church erected here as the shrine of {52} Saint Anne was -not completed until 1889, and it was then proclaimed a Basilica by -Pio Nono. It is one of colossal space and splendour, a remarkable -triumph of the Corinthian architecture, and between the two towers of -the front a superb statue of Saint Anne rises above the façade. The -interior is rich in paintings, sculpture, and mosaics, and on a -column of onyx is another statue of the saint in whose name the -church is built. It has also a Scala Santa, as has the vast Basilica -of San Giovanni in Rome. Thousands of suppliants annually visit the -shrine of Saint Anne. The church has a superb chasuble, the gift of -Anne of Austria and Queen of France, the mother of Louis XIV. On -either side of the entrance are huge piles of canes and crutches and -other discarded appliances left as visible testimonials that the -efficacy of prayer at this shrine enabled their possessors to -dispense with adventitious aid. - -[Illustration: Dufferin Terrace, Quebec, from the Citadel] - -A little book that is for sale by the Redemptorist Fathers, who -occupy the monastery connected with this basilica, gives much curious -information regarding Saint Anne. She is represented as being of the -tribe of Judah and of the royal family of David. Her husband, -Joachim, was of the same family, and of the same tribe, and the -Blessed Virgin was their only child. This little record further -narrates that the body of Saint Anne was originally buried in -Bethlehem; but that it was brought to France by Lazarus, who, after -being raised from the dead by the Saviour, became the first Bishop of -Marseilles. {53} The body of Saint Anne was then committed in burial -in the village of Apt, and when Charlemagne came to celebrate the -Easter feast--so runs the story--a man who was blind, deaf, and dumb -came to the ceremonies, and was instantly restored. The first words -he uttered were: "This hollow contains the body of Saint Anne, Mother -of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God." With the clue given -in these words the hollow in the rocks was then opened and the body -disclosed. This took place in the year 792, and from that remote -date to the present time the church of Saint Anne at Apt has been a -notable place of worship and of pilgrimage. - -In the Basilica of Saint Anne de Beaupré there are some rich and -massive reliquaries of gold, inlaid with jewels, in which the holy -relics of the Saint are enclosed. All the gold and the jewels are -votive offerings left by grateful pilgrims to this shrine who have -been restored to health. It is said that there are literally bushels -of watches, chains, bracelets, rings, and all manner of personal -adornments that have been given in gratitude for blessings received. -Large gifts of money are also among the never-ceasing stream of -accumulating wealth. Twelve large chalices of gold, valued at ten -thousand dollars each, have been constructed from the rings and -personal articles left by the devotees. The church is fairly lined -with the evidences of grateful appreciation and the tributes of -enthusiasm. Each chapel {54} is a memorial gift of personal -gratitude; the altar, organ, and the electric light plant are also -personal gifts, and to these there is a rather curious story attached. - -Over a long period of years the newspapers of the United States -printed advertisements of a widely-known patent-medicine lady who -brewed her concoctions, and either by means of their intrinsic worth, -or by the credulity of her customers, accumulated a large fortune. -It is said that this lady made a journey to the church of Saint Anne -out of curiosity, alone, but was suddenly stricken with a severe -illness; that she was cured by faith, and that, through the direct -influence of Saint Anne, she then became a Catholic and was baptised -in the Basilica. She at once abandoned her pursuit and expressed her -desire to devote her fortune to good works, in honour of the Saint; -and it was she who presented the altar, the organ, and the electric -light plant as well as other rich and valuable gifts. - -Around the shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré has grown up a village of -some two thousand people, with hotels that accommodate hundreds of -guests. There are two convents, several schools, a hospital -(providing for the accommodation of the poor who come to be healed), -and the monastery already mentioned. The Sisters of the Rosary have -also established an academy for young women; the Sisters of Saint -Francis have built a convent for {55} their order, and the -Redemptorist nuns have their own convent, while there is also a -seminary for the education of priests that has about three hundred -students. - -The sermons of the Fathers who conduct the services in the Basilica -are preached in both French and English. Sixteen priests hold -continual devotions from four in the morning until nine at night. -The number of annual visitors is estimated as being nearly two -hundred thousand, representative of almost every nationality and -language. An American publicist asked one of the Fathers whether -every one who came was cured. "By no means," replied the priest; -"although the miracles are many." When asked how he accounted for -the failures the Father replied that he was not able to account for -them; that a failure might be due to lack of faith, or to some other -reason not disclosed to them. Faith is always to be reckoned with as -a condition through which alone the Divine energy can flow. - -In the vicinity of Saint Anne there is some beautiful -scenery--Montmorency Falls, and other points of interest; Quebec, -too, is almost as much frequented in winter as in summer, the bracing -air being to many the very elixir of life. - -Quebec Province has always kept a distinctive atmosphere of its own, -due largely to the preponderance of the French-Canadian element and -to climatic and topographical conditions. Advantages and {56} -privileges are constantly increasing. Macdonald College, at Saint -Anne de Bellevue, founded by Sir William Macdonald, admits women on -equal terms with men, and beside the School of Agriculture, it has a -training institution in Domestic Science and a school for training -teachers. The Department of Domestic Science is free to all Canadian -girls, and students from outside of Canada pay a small tuition fee -and a modest fee of some three dollars and a half a week for -board-residence. On this great college Sir William Macdonald's -initial expenditure was five millions of dollars. Five hundred and -sixty acres were secured for the farm, of which nearly four hundred -are devoted to the live stock and grain department, while the -remainder is divided between vegetable, poultry, and bee culture, -with a liberal share allotted to horticulture. - -It is to Quebec that the middle west of the United States must look -for the early history of its own great explorers, missionaries, and -pathfinders; for it was from here that Champlain, La Salle, -Marquette, Joliet, and others fared forth on their pioneer journeys -through the Mississippi basin. Champlain died in Quebec on the -Christmas Day of 1635; but his burial-place is still undetermined. -The Jesuit College in which Père Marquette was domiciled ante-dated -Harvard by one year, having been founded in 1635. Here Marquette -made his plans for tours along the Great Lakes and down the -Mississippi, with the object of converting the Indians. This {57} -Jesuit College bears the signal honour of being the first institution -for higher education on the North American continent. - -Something of the unique and exceptional character of the great -Cardinal Richelieu, whose tomb in the Pantheon in Paris is an object -of continual pilgrimage by the visitors in the French capital, seems -to invest Quebec, the city of which he was the real founder. The -convent and hospital of the Hotel Dieu were due to the solicitude and -enterprise of his niece, the Duchesse d'Aiguillion, whose interest -centred in the promulgation of religion and charities, and these -institutions are still preserved as memorial monuments to her -fervour. Quebec is pre-eminently a city of churches and the old -French Cathedral dates back to 1647. The interior is enriched with -several paintings of especial value, among them Van Dyck's -"Crucifixion," which was painted in 1630, and which, in the -Revolution of 1793, was purchased in Paris by the Abbé des Jardins of -Quebec, and presented to the cathedral. In the sacristy are two -large vaults filled with sacred relics. The vestments belonging to -this cathedral are superb. - -An interesting church is the Anglican Cathedral, standing in the -centre of the city, to which the late King Edward VII. presented an -exquisite Communion service. - -For the celebration of the tercentenary of Quebec, Cy Warman, that -genial poet (who has set so much {58} of Canada to music), wrote an -ode in the dialect of the habitant, of which two stanzas run: - - "How you kip yourself so young, - Ol' Quebec? - Dat's w'ats ax by all de tongue, - Ol' Quebec; - Many years ees pass away, - Plaintee hair been turn to gray, - You're more yo'gker ev'ry day, - Ol' Quebec. - - Som' brav' men hees fight for you, - Ol' Quebec; - Dat's w'en Canada she's new, - Ol' Quebec; - De brav' Wolfe, de great Montcalm, - Bote was fight for you, Madame, - Now we're mak' de grande salaam, - Ol' Quebec." - - -The traveller with an impassioned devotion to what he fondly calls -"the quaint" may be signally gratified in Quebec. In the business -section there will be found one street only four feet in width, quite -rivalling the famous _via d'Aura_ in Genoa, the "Street of -jewellers," where one can stand in a shop on one side and almost -reach his hand into the shop opposite. - -The Legislative Buildings are as delightful as those in the other -capitals of the Provinces of Canada; and on the brow of the high -bluffs are a group of notable buildings of architectural beauty--the -splendid Château Frontenac, with its view of thirty miles up and down -the St. Lawrence valley; flanked by monasteries, churches, and -public {59} structures. The citadel that crowns the height is -extremely picturesque to visitors who have all the enjoyment, while -the Canadian Government has the doubtful felicity of keeping in due -repair this enormous fortification. It was begun two hundred and -fifty years ago, and reconstructed in 1823, on plans approved by the -Duke of Wellington, at a cost of twenty-five million. - -It is not so well known that the Duke of Kent, the father of Queen -Victoria, was in command of the garrison of Quebec for several years; -that the old-fashioned building in which he lived was restored by his -royal daughter, and that his grand-daughter, the Princess Louise, -Marchioness of Lorne (later the Duchess of Argyle), when living at -Rideau Hall, Ottawa, during the period of the Marquis of Lorne's -Governor-Generalship of Canada, laid the foundation stone of this -restoration. Moreover, the Princess herself, with that versatility -of gifts which characterised Her Royal Highness, devised the -architectural plans for the new structure. Nor must the ancient -gates of the old wall of Quebec be ignored in any tribute to her -picturesque attractions. - -Laval University in Quebec is a resort of many students, on account -of the numerous manuscripts of historical value deposited there, many -of them containing graphic narratives of thrilling experiences -undergone in the pioneer days of the Dominion. - -To turn from Quebec to the Maritime Provinces {60} proper, they are -not by any means all scenery, or historic and legendary atmosphere. -Nova Scotia has large lumber interests, with fisheries, mineral -wealth, and great iron and steel manufactures; and New Brunswick has -ever been the home of the great timber and now of pulpwood so -precious in these latter days. Prince Edward Island has a vast -amount of red sandstone, and in the regions adjacent to the Bay of -Fundy an enormous yield of hay is a feature of resource. The -position of the Maritime Provinces is particularly noted by Mr. J. -Castell Hopkins, in an extended account of these regions, and he -speaks of the climatic peculiarities as one of the things with which -the inhabitants must reckon. They have a great coast-line in -proportion to their area. The extensive bays and harbours suggest -future increase of ocean commerce and travel. "Prince Edward Island -is in reality all seacoast," writes Mr. Hopkins, "for no matter how -far into the interior one may get, an hour's drive in any given -direction will almost invariably discover salt water. There are bays -which deserve special mention, one, the beautiful Bay de Chaleur, -between New Brunswick and the Gaspé Peninsula, without rock, reef, or -shoal in its ninety miles of length and forty-five of breadth, is -unique in its safety to navigators, while the Bay of Fundy, between -Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with its mouth wide open to the -south-west, has features which are peculiar only to this {61} bay. -Lying funnel-shaped toward the great tidal movement from east to west -it gathers from the incoming tide a great deal of water that does not -belong to it, and then gradually compressing it between narrowing -shores, piles it up in places sixty feet in height, and this gives -rise to many peculiarities. This rush of tide twice a day has formed -enormous areas of marsh land and the process is still going on. The -great rise and fall of water in this bay has also a climatic effect -in it that keeps the air continually moving, and in the regions about -its head there is probably a cooler summer climate than can be found -anywhere in the same latitude." - -[Illustration: Harbour of St. John, New Brunswick] - -This peculiarity unfits the climate for fruit-raising, but is -especially favourable for live stock. The production of hay is very -large. The water supply is inexhaustible, and water-power is always -at hand to grind grain or to transform trees into lumber. The spruce -and fir are found here in great abundance. The Maritime Provinces -have practically no mountains, although a few heights approaching two -thousand feet may be seen. Of late years the people of this region -have been urged to develop agriculture to a greater extent. It is -already demonstrated that wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, and corn -can be cultivated with profit; potatoes and carrots also thrive. In -New Brunswick, apples, pears, grapes, and cherries do well; and every -one knows of the apple orchards of Nova Scotia. The dairy industry -is one of the greatest sources of {62} revenue. Factories for the -making of cheese and butter are numerous; and quite apart from the -home market, the facilities for export to Europe and to the markets -of the South are one special factor in the conditions for profit. -Agricultural schools, a feature of the Dominion, have a particularly -good representative at Truro, and the Federal Government has -established experimental farms and stations throughout the Dominion, -while the provincial authorities have also organised similar -enterprises under their own jurisdiction. The Provincial Government -of Ontario, in particular, has devoted large sums to the -encouragement of agriculture, having three experimental farms, one of -these being devoted to fruit. - -The Central Experimental Farm of the Dominion Government is at Ottawa -and there are branch farms at Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island; -at Fredericton, New Brunswick; at Nappan and Kentville, Nova Scotia; -at Saint Anne de la Pocatière, Cap Rouge, and Lenoxville in Quebec; -at Brandon, Manitoba; at Indian Head, Rosthern, and Scott, -Saskatchewan; at Lethbridge and Lacombe in Alberta; and also at -Agassiz, Invermere, and Sidney in British Columbia. Sub-stations -have also been established at Fort Vermilion in the Peace River -District, at Grouard near Lesser Slave Lake, Grande Prairie, and -Forts Resolution and Providence--all these being in northern Alberta. -At the Central Experimental Farm (at Ottawa) {63} much attention has -been paid to tests, as to the growing of oats, barley, varieties of -grass, and turnips and mangels. Nor has the culture of ornamental -shrubs and trees been neglected; and orchards of various kinds of -fruit have been planted with watchful care. Potatoes, too, have -received special attention as one of the most profitable products of -this region. - -The picturesque attractions of the Maritime Provinces, moreover, tend -to make them each year a summer resort for increasing numbers of -people from the United States and elsewhere. Mail routes are well -extended; the postal service is good; and the improvements in -navigation have included the erection of many lighthouses on the -prominent headlands and in the harbours, so that the scenic panorama -at night witnessed by those on or near the coast is often most -fascinating, and the presence of these aids to navigation is full of -practical reassurance to those who travel by water. - -Halifax is important not only as the capital of Nova Scotia, but as -the leading seaport of Canada on the Atlantic coast. It has a -magnificent harbour whose even depth is a joy to the navigator; it is -curiously free from extremes of temperature, the coldest day of one -average year being but eight degrees below zero (in February), the -warmest day falling in early September when the mercury registered -eighty-seven degrees. The evenings are always cool. The city has -its citadel, its rocky areas, {64} and beside its university -(Dalhousie) there are colleges doing various special work, -institutions for the defective classes, and several libraries, that -of the Institute of Science and History being consolidated with the -Library of Parliament. In the magnitude of its exports Halifax -stands next to Montreal. In its imports it ranks third, Montreal and -Toronto alone taking precedence of the Nova Scotian capital. - - - - -{65} - -CHAPTER III - -MONTREAL AND OTTAWA - -Montreal, the metropolis of Canada; Ottawa, the Capital; each a city -supreme in a certain individual type; within three hours of each -other by rail, are closely inter-related, as are New York and -Washington in the United States. In England, and in France, the -Capital and the metropolis are one; but there are certain advantages -to a country when its legislative centre may be kept apart from the -engulfing life of its commercial metropolis. It was one of the -felicitous inspirations of Queen Victoria when she chose the little -village that had been known as Bytown (in honour of Colonel By, the -builder of the Rideau Canal) to be the capital of the Dominion and to -be known as Ottawa. For many years the parliamentary sessions had -alternated between Montreal and Quebec. The foundation stone of the -new Parliament Building was laid by the Prince of Wales (later Edward -VII.) in 1860, when the youthful prince made his memorable tour of -the Dominion and the United States. Some seven years later the first -parliamentary session was held in the new capital. A most -significant session it was, as it marked the date of the complete -{66} federation of all the Canadian Provinces then existent and -ushered in the Dominion. - -It is an anomaly that Montreal, a commercial metropolis of the most -prominent and pronounced type, should be the one Canadian city that -most lends herself to idealisation. One treads her thoroughfares as -if under the spell of some Merlin of old, and sees the moving -panorama of life as if in distance and in dream. - -One is led on by invisible hands; he is haunted by voices that for -centuries have been silent on earth; beckoned by some inconceivable -sign and signal in the dreamy blue of the distant horizon, in whose -shades phantom forms are vanishing. - - "Flitting, passing, seen, and gone," - -baffling all recognition, yet beckoning by mystic flash from the -ethereal realm. Was it one of these vanishers, questioned the -observer, as a gleam passes in the distance, or was it instead a -flash from some electric circuit, to be scientifically accounted for? -One is steeped in bewilderment, for who indeed may interpret this -legend-haunted air? The life of the dead centuries presses closely -upon the life of the throbbing hour. - -The visitor to Montreal instantly feels that anything might be -possible in the strangely fascinating atmosphere of this old-world -city. One has more than crossed the border line between the Dominion -and the United States; one has crossed the border {67} line of -centuries. Is it 1535 or is it 1915? The twentieth century clasps -hands with some dim historic period. The result is bewildering. All -modern beauty of vista, of groups of sculpture, or the architectural -magnificence of stately and splendid public buildings, of magnificent -private residences, of cathedral and churches, of great institutions, -of all latter-day conveniences and luxuries of life--all these, as -one would find in New York or Paris; yet with them, as an intangible -and invisible scenic setting, an impalpable atmosphere lingers, that -haunting impress of the far-away past, of historic associations that -persist with singular vitality; of great personalities who trod these -regions where now stretch away the handsome modern streets; of -intense purposes borne on the air, purposes that struggled to -fulfilment, or went down to temporary defeat in darkness and -tragedy--all these seem to throng about the visitor who for the first -time finds himself in Montreal. - -Montreal may be entered by many ways, by land or by sea; but she is -very conveniently entered from New England. - -It is a picturesque trip, that between Boston and Montreal, and as -the sun journeys onward to the horizon line the purple valleys and -the rose and amber that tinge the summits of the Green Mountains -afford luxurious contrasts of colour. In the late evening the -brilliant illuminations of Montreal at the west side of the Victoria -Jubilee Bridge, {68} spanning the St. Lawrence River, come into view. - -In all Canada, perhaps, there is no more beautiful view than that of -Montreal lying under the white moonlight with Mount Royal in the -shadowy background, as seen from the railway train crossing the -Victoria Jubilee Bridge. The broken reflections of the moon are seen -in a wide track in the rippling, dancing waters in the middle of the -river, while every lamp of the long rows that border each side of the -bridge is repeated in the river below. The water front of the city -is all aglow with brilliant lights; backward, in the soft, receding -shadows, gleam points of light from myriad homes, and the long lines -of street lamps make illuminated avenues of the thoroughfares. The -moon, like a silver globe, hangs over Mount Royal, while floating -clouds imprison the radiance for an instant and then, relenting, set -it free again. - -[Illustration: Interior of Notre Dame, Montreal] - -Nor is the view by daylight less to be remembered. The mighty river -sweeps under the massive and majestic structure, while hundreds of -steamers, sailing vessels, steam tugs, craft, indeed, of every -description, are plying the waters of the St. Lawrence opposite the -harbour, and the vast city of Montreal in its transcendently -beautiful location at the base of the mountain completes a picture -never to be forgotten. For miles the harbour is lined with imposing -stone structures, the city's warehouses; and the numerous -manufactories, with their tall chimneys {69} sending out great -volumes of smoke, stretch away on the shores of the St. Lawrence as -far as the eye can reach, with their story of the wonderful -commercial metropolis of the Canadian empire. The picture is one to -enchain the artist and the social statistician as well. It is of -itself a study in economics and commercial development. - -From an engineering standpoint this bridge ranks with the foremost -structures of contemporary achievements. The Victoria Tubular Bridge -which it replaced was built in 1860, and was at that time considered -the eighth wonder of the world; but it became insufficient to meet -the increase of traffic, and in October of 1897 the work of building -the present stupendous structure was inaugurated. The chief engineer -was Mr. Joseph Hobson, whose ingenuity and skill contrived to utilise -the tube of the old bridge as a roadway, on which a temporary steel -span was moved out to the first pier, the new structure being then -erected outside the temporary span. Begun in 1897, it was completed -in 1899, and during its construction the enormous traffic of the -Grand Trunk System was delayed very little, a remarkable fact when it -is realised that while the old bridge weighed nine thousand and -forty-four tons, the new one weighs twenty-two thousand tons, and -while the width of the former was but sixteen feet, the width of the -new bridge is sixty-six feet, with a height of from forty to sixty -feet, while the one it replaced was but {70} eighteen feet high. The -old bridge was built for seven million dollars, while the new one -cost two million pounds. The latter carries trains in both -directions at the same time, trains with two consolidation engines -and tenders, coupled, whose average weight is five thousand two -hundred pounds to each foot of length, with a car-load of four -thousand pounds to the foot; and a moving load on each carriage way -of a thousand pounds a foot. Nor is there any limit prescribed for -the speed of either railway trains or carriage and motor car -crossings. - -This magnificent structure is, indeed, a marvel of the age. There -was a pretty scene that lives in memory which marked the date of -October 16, 1901. On the very spot where the Prince of Wales (later -King Edward) stood when he drove the last rivet in the old Victoria -Tubular Bridge in 1860, stood their Royal Highnesses the Duke and -Duchess of Cornwall and York (now King George and Queen Mary), with a -group of the officials of the railway, thus linking into succession -notable events separated by more than forty years. - -As one of the wonderful achievements of the opening year of the -twentieth century, this bridge draws thousands of sightseers, every -year, to study its beauty and marvellous efficiency. - -The scenes that Cartier saw fade from the eye, and one sees the solid -and splendid business quarters of Montreal, the charming and enticing -residential sections. Yet again an anomaly--a mountain in the {71} -heart of a city! And it is ascended, not by climbing over -perpendicular rocks, but by an easy gliding car that makes its ascent -as much a part of a pleasure drive as might be the drive in Hyde Park -or in the Bois du Boulogne. Mount Royal suggests in some way the -Monreale of Palermo, save that it is crowned by no cathedral, but -from its height of a thousand feet it offers a panorama of city and -river and wood and mountain ranges that is indescribable. What must -be the influence on a city's life of having such a resort as this? -It is in itself a prospect of unique and unrivalled beauty; it is a -playground for all forms of recreation, _al fresco_; it is spiritual -sanctuary. Again, the mystic vanishers beset one's footsteps, and -signals beckon from the vast azure sea of the air. The sunset -splendours glow and deepen over Westmount, Montreal's most beautiful -suburb, which climbs up the mountain side, with such views, such -charm of outlook, as one might well travel many a league to find. - -It is again in that realm where nothing is but what is not, that one -is led to that haunt of the student and the antiquary, the Château de -Ramezay, built more than two hundred years ago by Claude de Ramezay, -then governor of Montreal. And if the American Congressional -Commission, comprising Franklin, Chase, and Carroll, who sat there -for days and nights arguing, pleading, insisting that Canada should -unite with the thirteen states in their rebellion and defiance of -King George, had prevailed, {72} had the Canadians yielded, what -would the course of history have been? How would its trend of events -have contrasted with the present? It is an interesting and curious -speculation not without historical value of its own. - -The Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Montreal acquired the -Château de Ramezay in 1895, after the building had passed through -several vicissitudes of ownership, to make of it an Historical -Portrait Gallery and Museum. One finds here a copy of the old -painting in oils of the first Ursuline Monastery in Quebec, which was -built in 1640, and destroyed by fire a year later, the original work -being in the Ursuline Convent in Quebec. In the foreground of the -picture is the house that was occupied by Bishop Laval in 1699. A -large number of interesting old portraits are here, the gifts of the -descendants or adherents of the sitters themselves; and -coats-of-arms, antiquities, documents, and other matters of interest -make up a valuable historical museum. - -Montreal is enshrined in legendary lore. The Ile de la Cité, in -Paris, is hardly more entangled in mystic story than is the -metropolis of the Dominion. The tale that has come down the ages -that the martyred preacher Saint-Denis walked from the heights of -Montmartre, near Paris, to the Ile de la Cité, carrying his severed -head in his hands, does not more challenge one's confidence in its -authenticity than do many of the legends that haunt the {73} -imagination of the visitor in Montreal. About the middle of the -seventeenth century a permanent settlement was founded in La Place -Royale, near where the old Customs House now stands. Upon a -warehouse in close proximity is placed a tablet with an inscription -to the effect that on this site stood the first manor-house of -Montreal, which from 1661 to 1712 was the seminary of St. Sulpice. - -The story of the settlement of La Place Royale is one of the mystical -tales to be found in the Relations des Jésuites, and it tells that -Jean Jacque Olier, an Abbé of France, suddenly experienced a deep -religious re-awakening, and gave himself with ardour to devising and -carrying out new projects in connection with the education and -training of young priests in St. Sulpice, Paris. Hearing of the -settlement on the island of Montreal he conceived the idea of -founding a mission there. The Sieur de la Dauversiére, of Brittany, -had conceived a similar project, and the two men met, by chance, as -strangers at Meudon. Although they had never seen each other before, -they fell into each other's arms and related their plans; they -obtained the aid of Madame de Bullion and other influential leaders -at court, and formed a society known as the Compagnie de Notre Dame -de Montreal. It is further related that about this time a young nun, -Jeanne Mance, had a vision in which she was called to go to the same -place and found a convent. A French writer records that then a -miracle took place: "God, lifting {74} for her the veils of space, -showed her while yet in France the shores of the island and the site -for Ville Marie, at the foot of the mountain." The little company -landed from the St. Lawrence on May 18, 1642, and at the first -religious service held, Father Vimont said, "You are a grain of -mustard seed that shall rise and grow till its branches overshadow -the earth. You are few, but your work is the work of God. His smile -is upon you." - -Thirty years later the first streets were laid out in Montreal. -Religion and education went hand in hand. In 1721 the population had -increased to three thousand; steam navigation was initiated in 1809 -by the second steamboat built in America (the first being that of -Robert Fulton which plied on the Hudson in 1807) and the steam river -traffic between Montreal and Quebec was thus begun. Navigation -across the Atlantic from Canada opened in 1831; the first railroad -was successfully started in 1836; and Montreal was incorporated in -1832. The Lachine Canal had been completed in 1825. From the first, -Montreal has been prosperous, and the present metropolis, rapidly -nearing a population of three-quarters of a million, with its nine -miles of river front, its fifty public parks, its admirable municipal -improvements in all modern appliances, stands as a monument to the -faith and devotion of its early founders led to the wilderness as by -vision. - -Montreal has an Art Gallery, of Greek Ionic {75} architecture, built -of Vermont marble, the entrance hall lined with Bottichino marble, -with handsome staircases, and numerous salons. The collection of -pictures and sculpture is already an interesting one, and an annual -Loan Exhibition is made possible by the generous enterprise of the -citizens, many of the private collections being very rich in artistic -treasures. Nor is music neglected in Montreal. The organ recitals -at Christ Church Cathedral are famous far beyond the city. - -Women's work in Montreal is a very prominent and valuable feature of -the city's life; including much social service work and the promotion -of guilds of various orders. The Canadian woman, indeed, plays an -important part in the entire life and progress of the Dominion. The -churches of Montreal include many of great beauty, such as Notre -Dame, St. James' Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, and others. The -Grey Nunnery, covering an entire block, and the Royal Victoria -Hospital are impressive buildings; and the banks and office -structures of the city are in many cases very imposing and seem to -duplicate the stately and impressive architecture of London. - -There is no Canadian industry that is without representation in -Montreal markets, and her manufactures have a world-wide repute. -Montreal is the greatest grain port of America, taking precedence of -New York in the quantity of grain handled at her port. - -{76} - -Situated on an island thirty-two miles long and from four to eight -miles wide, at the junction of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, -Montreal is a seaport, although a thousand miles from the sea; for -the construction of a thirty-foot channel enables the largest ocean -vessels to sail to her docks. The Canadian canals enable the -steamers of the Great Lakes to sail to the harbour of Montreal, where -they transfer their cargoes to the ocean steamers. Montreal has, -indeed, almost unrivalled facilities by both rail and water. Her -harbour is under the control of a Board of Commissioners appointed by -the Government of the Dominion, and twenty-seven millions of dollars -had been spent in providing the most approved modern facilities up to -the beginning of 1916, with nine millions more for the same purpose -already available. Both her export and import trade have been -increasing so rapidly that even these liberal endowments are taxed to -the utmost. - -With this commercial supremacy, the City of the Royal Mountain offers -educational advantages and scientific culture of the highest order. -The great value of the McGill University is not only the distinction -of its intellectual position, or the high quality of its work, but -also its guarantees of equality of educational opportunity to all -whose career comes within the sphere of its influence. The princely -endowments of the late Lord Strathcona and of Sir William Macdonald -provided a {77} foundation whose far-reaching value can hardly be -estimated, and the university has been singularly fortunate in the -character and endowments that have graced her staff of professors. -While McGill offers special training of the most advanced type in -preparation for the various professions, and for the acquirement of -technical qualifications, she has never yielded to any purely -utilitarian standards. She has held to the ideal that Education is -primarily for the soul herself, and not, as said the Grecian -philosopher of old, "to be undertaken in the spirit of merchants and -traders, with a view to buying or selling." It is the glory of -McGill that she sends forth, not only culture and trained skill, but -men prepared for the duties of citizenship, and the obligations, the -privileges, the responsibilities that await them as members of -society. - -[Illustration: Montreal City] - -McGill celebrated in 1904 her seventy-sixth anniversary, and in the -lofty and glowing address made on that occasion by Principal and -Vice-Chancellor Peterson, we find him saying-- - - -"Manners are formed and personality is built up in the school of -life,--even the student school. Honesty, purity, reverence,--all the -moral virtues, in fact,--are just as important for the youth of the -country as are learning and scholarships. We want to have a -hall-mark for McGill men by which they may be known and recognised -the world over. It lies with our students themselves to set the -standard. 'How truly it is in man,' as Mr. Gladstone said to the -students in Edinburgh, 'in man, and not in his circumstances, that -the secret of his destiny resides. For most of you that destiny will -take its final bent towards evil or {78} towards good, not from the -information you imbibe, but from the habits of mind, thought, and -life that you shall acquire during your academic career. In many -things it is wise to believe before experience; to believe until you -may know; and believe me when I tell you that the thrift of time will -repay you in after life with an usury of profit beyond your most -sanguine dreams, and that the waste of it will make you dwindle, -alike in intellectual and in moral stature, beneath your darkest -reckonings.'" - - -There was one little incident in the scientific history of McGill -that is not without its special interest to-day in the safe-guarding -of human life. This was the first application of wireless telegraphy -to the operation of moving trains. Many people now believe that in -the wireless control of moving trains lies in the future the most -effectual protection against railway accidents. It was in 1902, just -six years after Marconi made his successes in England, that the -experiment was first tried. Professor Ernest Rutherford, now of the -University of Manchester, and Professor Howard T. Barnes, both of the -Macdonald physical laboratory of McGill, were invited to accompany -the American Association of General Passenger and Ticket Agents, who -in that year held a convention in Portland. The Grand Trunk provided -a special train from Chicago to Portland, and on this train, when -moving at fifty miles an hour, signals were exchanged with a given -station, and with the comparatively simple apparatus installed it was -found possible to keep the train in communication with a station for -a distance of eight or ten miles. - -{79} - -Ottawa was obviously created to be the capital of the Dominion. Her -interesting history, initiated by the choice of Queen Victoria, the -glory of whose long reign is a priceless possession of the Dominion, -attracts careful study; and the first view over the charming city and -its equally charming environment, is one to linger for a lifetime. -The majestic beauty of her Parliament Buildings - - "Set on the landscape like a crown;" - -towers and bastions and buttresses clinging to the height on which -they are built above the river; and the exquisite outline of the -turrets and high-pointed tower of the magnificent Château Laurier all -silhouetted against the western sky-- - - "Dim in the sunset's misty fires," - -offer a pictorial enchantment to linger in the memory. This young -city, with hardly more than half a century's life behind it, has made -itself a distinctive point in the States as well as in the Dominion. - -"Have you seen Ottawa? Have you stayed in Château Laurier?" are -interrogations not unusual among us in the States when Canada is -discussed. Is Ottawa, with its artistic Château Laurier, the -Carcasonne of the newer world? For surely no guest of the Château -Laurier quite dreams of classing it among ordinary hotels; in it he -tastes a flavour of something a little apart, of life in an -artistically appointed palace which he enters from his railway train -through a brilliantly lighted marble {80} corridor reminding him of -the entrance to Bertolini's on the terraced hills of Naples. The -Ottawa Grand Trunk Station itself, built of white marble with its -pillared façade, is like a Greek temple, and the richly decorated -corridors and salons of the Château are as reminiscent of Venice as -of France. This magnificent hotel was of course named after Canada's -great statesman, the Right Honourable Sir Wilfrid Laurier, G.C.M.G., -whose bust in marble adorns the entrance corridor. The decorations -are of the François I. period; the building is absolutely fireproof, -and the luxurious furnishing suggests that of private palaces rather -than of an hotel. - -One of the most interesting places in Ottawa is the Archives, a -handsome stone building completed in 1906. The extensive records of -Canadian history under the able and courteous administration of Dr. -Arthur Doughty, Keeper of the Archives, are made accessible to -scholars and research students; and this building has become one of -the haunts of the savant. Numerous glass cases are filled with -valuable manuscripts and documents; historic souvenirs abound; the -library contains over twenty thousand books; and there are many -beautiful paintings and engravings in the various rooms, illustrating -important epochs in the history of the Dominion and also including -many portraits of value and interest. - -[Illustration: Ottawa--showing the Parliament Buildings and Château -Laurier] - -The Experimental Farm, three miles out of Ottawa, covers nearly five -hundred acres of land, and it is one of the chief attractions, -offering, as it {81} does, so much efficient instruction in the -seeding, culture, and harvesting of agricultural products, and the -care of live stock. Not far from this Farm is the Royal Astronomical -Observatory, built in Romanesque style, with a central octagonal -tower under a revolving hemispherical dome, containing the telescope. -The Observatory comprises an astronomical library, photographic and -lecture rooms, and a reading-room. - -Ottawa is a growing city and is one of the beautiful capitals of the -American continent with the population now approaching the one -hundred and fifty thousand mark. There is much of old-world ceremony -in the city. - -Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor-General (at the time of -writing, the Duke of Devonshire, who succeeded His Royal Highness the -Duke of Connaught and Strathearn), is a rambling grey stone -structure, with ample grounds, comprising some eighty-five acres. -The gracious character of all ceremonial courtesies and hospitalities -at Rideau Hall are deeply appreciated by the people of the Dominion. -The Duke of Devonshire is the head of one of the greatest of English -families, the Cavendishes, and his appointment was a popular one with -Canadians. The Duchess of Devonshire is the daughter of a former -Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and is no -stranger to Canada. - -In an address given by the Duke of Connaught {82} before the Canadian -Club, his Royal Highness thus alluded to the position of -Governor-General of the Dominion:-- - - -"I do not know of a prouder position for any Englishman to hold than -that of his Majesty's representative as Governor-General of Canada. -When my late brother, King Edward the Seventh, asked me to accept -this high post, an offer which was renewed after his death by our -present gracious Sovereign, I felt great doubt as to whether I could -do justice to so high a position. I had no doubt that I should be a -friend of the Canadians to-day as I was forty-three years ago. Since -I have been in Canada the last year and a half, I have felt more and -more that I have been able to gain the keen sympathy and, I venture -to say, the affection of the whole Canadian people. I am sure you -will believe me when I say that I never spent a happier year and a -half. To Englishmen who have not been in Canada, I say the sooner -they go the better. It is moving with leaps and bounds." - - -The Parliament Buildings occupy a commanding site near the park in -which the Château Laurier is built, thus sharing the advantage of all -the lovely grounds. The Rideau Canal, with its locks, joins the -Ottawa River in this park, under the very shadow of Parliament, -offering a picturesque feature as it passes to the Rideau Lakes. The -extensive Library of Parliament is, happily, open to the people, and -its generous hospitalities and rich resources have been of themselves -a signal attraction to scholars and literary workers. Fortunately -the greater part of this library escaped destruction in the fire of -1916 that partially destroyed the Parliament Buildings, although as -they will be restored with increased {83} facilities, the calamity -was not wholly evil in its results. - -The Library of Parliament is built upon the lines of some of the -famous old chapter-houses in England attached to a noble cathedral. -The interior is circular, with a dome of forty-two feet in height, a -vaulted roof and rich carvings. It is an interior rich in the -revelation of all that is best in the realm of thought, all that -touches human interests and makes for those nobler ideals which are -the real resources of life. - -The beauty of the Parliament Buildings in the early dawn has been -celebrated by an Ottawa poet, Duncan Campbell Scott: - - "Fair, in the South, fair as a shrine that makes - The wonder of a dream, imperious Towers - Pierce and possess the sky, guarding the halls - Where our young strength is welded strenuously; - While, in the East, the star of morning dowers - The land with a large tremulous light, that falls - A pledge and presage of our destiny." - - - - - -{84} - -CHAPTER IV - -TORONTO THE BEAUTIFUL - -Toronto, city of education, culture, religion; a city of homes with -all that makes for the beauty and the happiness of family life; -Toronto, with her noble University whose enrolment of students -exceeds in number that of Oxford, her conservatories of music, her -impressive cathedrals and churches, her splendid Parliament -Buildings, and her classic Public Library with its numerous -branches--the capital of the rich province of Ontario, this beautiful -and inspiring city of Canada provides, indeed, an ample basis for the -enthusiasm and devotion of her citizens. No city could be more -advantageously located, seeing that she commands the blue waters of -Lake Ontario. Toronto is the centre from which radiate several of -the most picturesque excursions into the western continent. The -world-wonder of Niagara Falls is in her near neighbourhood. From -Toronto all the summer "playgrounds" of Canada may be reached with -the utmost convenience and readiness; or the tourist may make that -picturesque sail down the St. Lawrence; or, again, would he be like -Wordsworth's _Stepping Westward_, he may take train and embark at -Sarnia for the tour of the Great Lakes, ending at the terminal of -Fort William, {85} whence again he may wander into all the scenic -glories of Canada. - -At Toronto the holiday-maker may board the luxurious train for -Huntsville, where he takes the steamer for that idyllic cruise by the -chain of lakes that lands him at the fascinating Hotel Wawa; or gives -him access to any one of a myriad resorts in the unique Lake-of-Bays -region. Algonquin Park, the Muskoka Lakes, all these "Highlands of -Ontario" which are attracting throngs of summer wanderers, are within -easy reach of Toronto, to all of which, indeed, the city is the -gateway, and the distributing centre as well. The playgrounds of the -Dominion are much appreciated by the great nation lying on her -southern border. New England and the West have long been -increasingly familiar with the allurements of a Canadian summer; and -now the southern states, on and near the Gulf of Mexico, are sending -out for information of the facilities for vacation sojourns amid the -parks and lakes and shining rivers of Canada. Those far-famed -Canadian resorts, comprising not only the Lake of Bays, Algonquin -Park, and Muskoka, but Timagami, Kawartha Lakes, French River, Lake -Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, all lie north of Toronto, and these -resorts, some of them over eighteen hundred feet above sea-level, -with their invigorating, balsam-laden air, are a revelation to the -visitor from the heated South. - -The Southerner finds himself especially enthralled by Canada's long -summer days and lingering {86} twilights, with their ethereal and -almost unearthly beauty of amber lights and evanescent shadows, a -beauty that has hitherto been rather exclusively associated with -Scandinavia, the land of the midnight sun. What an hour for a -twilight paddle across some crystal lake, in turning homeward after -an idyllic day. Canada has been fortunate in keeping her wilds -singularly unspoiled, for practically only one railway line extends -into all these romantic regions, that of the Grand Trunk System, -which has been the means of the multiplication of delightful summer -hotels and rustic camps. These Canadian resorts (whose range of -prices is so moderate as to amaze the people from the States) are as -socially delightful as they are in scenic charm. They are -characterised by the refinement of courtesy and generous hospitality -that is the hall-mark of the Dominion. - -Toronto is one of the most accessible centres of the North American -continent, being only three hours from Buffalo, one night from New -York and Boston, and fourteen hours from Chicago. - -Does all this enumeration of her charms only have to do with getting -away from them? The citizen of this beautiful city on the lake will -assert that there is another equally spellbinding range of charms to -be enjoyed without wandering far away from Toronto itself. - -The harbour of Toronto is one of the most beautiful of any of the -water-front cities. It has a rather {87} curious configuration -formed by a picturesque island of more than two thousand acres that -forms a species of breakwater. In the summer the waters near the -island are alive with craft. Every kind of sailing boat, canoes, and -yachts, as well as motor and steam launches, may be seen riding the -waves. The island itself is utilised in much the same fashion as -Coney Island in the New York harbour, as a resort for popular -amusement. With this inland sea of Lake Ontario at its doors, with -its fine architecture, its development and culture of the arts, -professions, and industries; with such picturesque treasure as that -of the Rosedale ravines, the Humber valley, the Don River, and the -gentle hills, Toronto is well calculated to be one of the embodied -inspirations of the Dominion. - -It is claimed that there are more homes, each with its green lawn and -its garden--homes owned by their occupants--within the thirty-six -square miles that comprise Toronto than in any other city on the -American continent. Toronto is truly a thing of life in its -expansion. The construction of streets and buildings is in constant -progress and the residential limits are being carried many miles into -the country. Within the past decade the city has crossed two rivers, -marched up a hill, and clambered over two ravines, all of which give -the residential region an aspect of romantic beauty. The -architectural charm of the city impresses the stranger; especially -the cathedrals of St. James and St. Michael {88} and the University -of Toronto, that great Norman pile, dignified and with its old-world -atmosphere. Surrounding it are the colleges--Victoria, with its -Gothic dining-hall and residences; St. Michael's, Knox, and -Wycliffe. Soon Trinity will join the ranks of college settlements. -McMaster, the Baptist University, is at the northern edge of the -campus, and not far away are the great medical schools, the School of -Science, the Conservatory of Music, the University Library, the -Dental College, and the many college residences. The University of -Toronto is perhaps the largest English-speaking University in the -British Empire, and the year 1916 found two thousand five hundred of -her sons fighting for the Empire. The Royal Ontario Museum, with its -Oriental and Indian collection, lies to the north of the campus, and -the great General Hospital as well as a special hospital for children -are adjacent. Many of the churches are of real beauty--St. Paul's -Anglican, a structure which cost one and a half million dollars; the -Eaton Memorial on the hill; the Metropolitan Methodist, owning ground -estimated as worth over two millions; and the parish church of St. -James, with its tower over three hundred feet in height. The -Margaret Eaton School of Literature and Expression is an institution -of great value, attracting students from all parts of the Dominion. -As a theatrical and a musical city, Toronto shares with New York, -Boston, and Montreal many of the most noted dramas and {89} musical -entertainments. As a musical centre herself, Toronto ranks fourth -among the large cities of the continent; and she has an annual -average of four thousand musical students. Her own Mendelssohn Choir -is not only conceded to be the finest in America, but one of the best -in the world. - -Nor are the graphic arts neglected in Toronto. There are already two -leading organisations, the Ontario Society of Artists and the -Canadian Art Club. A College of Art was founded in 1912; there is a -Women's Art Association, an Arts and Letters Club, which has issued a -very creditable Year Book of Canadian Art, as well as a Heliconian -Club, composed of women engaged in artistic and literary work, and -who, presumably, quaff the living waters of Helicon to reinforce -their energies. - -In her Public School System, with an enrolment of thirty-five -thousand pupils, Toronto employs many of the most advanced -educational methods of the day. - -If the visitor in Toronto were to ask for what is perhaps the most -really significant factor in the city's life, and one which is likely -to be missed by the surface observer, the answer would be that this -factor would be found in the Public Library System, so splendidly -administered by the Chief Librarian, George H. Locke. A Canadian, a -native of Toronto, Mr. Locke was allured for a few years by Harvard -University and the University of Chicago; but fortunately for his own -city, he has {90} chosen to devote himself to her development and -culture through the medium of library work, in a manner whose -original genius for relating literature to the needs of the people, -and more especially to the youth and the children, is making itself -felt in the Dominion as well as in the city. - -In many aspects of his manifold and remarkably adjustable system, Mr. -Locke creates his own precedents. In any survey of the processes in -many of the noted libraries of the past, the chief aim, if not -regarded as the chief duty, of the keeper of books has seemed to be -that of protecting them from popular contact. The books were to be -safeguarded from too familiar approach as are the works of art in the -great galleries and museums. In every case they did not, it is true, -imitate the methods of the Laurentian Library in Florence and chain -the books to the desks, but something of the spirit of the stern -custodian was in them all. Mr. Locke at once outlined his policy on -the basis of his conviction that books were made for the people, and -not the people for books, and that opportunities for more knowledge -and greater intelligence should be provided. More especially he held -that books had indispensable messages for the youth of a great city. -The adult readers were welcomed and accorded every possible -opportunity and privilege; but the children were not to be merely -welcomed, they were to be enticed by the very attractiveness of the -surroundings to come in from the highways and the {91} byways to the -feast of literature provided so lavishly for them. - -Assisted by a staff of one hundred young women whose enthusiasm leapt -up to meet his own, young women with wit and initiative of their own -as well, all of which their chief especially encouraged on their -parts, the work went forward. "If you think you have a good plan," -Mr. Locke says, in effect, to his staff, "try it. Don't come to me -about it. If it is successful, then let us talk it over. If it is -not, bury it quietly and don't put up any monument to it." - -The Central Library, with its fourteen branches, works as a unit; yet -not as the unit of a machine, but in a unity of spirit and purpose -inclusive of many individual variations. One feature of the system -of the highest value is that of the open shelves. Nothing so -educates the child, in all that most essential development of what -Matthew Arnold so well terms the humanities, as the habit of browsing -at will among books. From the official report made by Mr. Locke for -the year 1915 the following extract is taken, as it illustrates -clearly one novel and invaluable feature of the work-- - - -"The work with the children, which showed such a remarkable increase -last year, has shown even greater results, and we see new -possibilities for the coming year. This department is decidedly -aggressive in its methods, and no phase of public social service in -this city has awakened such wide interest. The Story Hour, already -popular, was given a decided help onwards by the series of lectures -{92} which the Children's Librarians arranged for during October and -November, when Miss Marie Shedlock, of London, England, spoke to five -delighted audiences on 'Story Telling.' That part of the Story Hour -which is devoted to Canadian historical characters is really a -National Movement, for it supplies to the children, many of whom are -of foreign parentage, a Canadian historical background, something -much needed in a new country with its great problems to be solved by -those who now are but children. This year there were 12,671 children -in the Story Hours and 249,260 books were circulated among boys and -girls." - - -The "Story Hour" is a semi-weekly feature of the library work, and -one which has developed unmeasured ardour on the part of the youthful -auditors. - -Another signally refining and helpful influence is that of the -culture of flowers; a garden plot, or beds of flowers, being a -feature of the grounds surrounding each of the fourteen libraries. -The children are encouraged to aid in this care of flowers, and seats -placed in the gardens enable summer readers to pursue their work amid -this beauty, and in the invigorating air. - -The "J. Ross Robertson Historical Collection," housed in the -Reference Library, is as a gallery of Canadiana of the utmost value -to the student of the history of the Dominion. The collection -numbers already three thousand two hundred and twenty-nine pictures, -and in the year of 1915 alone, it was visited by more than twelve -thousand people. These pictures tell the story of the development of -Canada from the forest, lake, and prairie, with {93} tribes of -wandering Red Men, into the land of fruit, grain, and manufactures. -Mr. Robertson has proved a real benefactor to the entire province as -well as the Dominion, for students come from all parts of the country -to study this collection. - -Toronto is constructively much like London, in that a number of -separate communities are federated to form one city. In nearly every -one of these separate and component parts a branch of the Public -Library is established, taking the name of the specific centre, such -as Wychwood, Dovercourt, and Yorkville. The latest of these -branches, that at Wychwood, is a perfect architectural reproduction -of the Shakespearean period, thus celebrating the tercentenary in -1916 in a tangible manner, and its Elizabethan charm attracts -numerous appreciative visitors. One typical instance of the library -spirit is that of taking a primitive and discarded little church, -fitting it up with books, and with light and heat and flowers (for in -every library interior beautiful flowers are an unfailing ornament) -making of this a small branch in an undeveloped part of the city, and -forming it into a notable centre of joy, helpfulness, and inspiration. - -In addition to the University of Toronto, and in close alliance with -it, is University College, a state institution, in which languages -and the liberal arts are taught; and this notable university system -in Toronto is inclusive of a number of other affiliated institutions, -in which the students may avail {94} themselves of the university -examinations and degrees, among which are the Toronto College of -Music and the Conservatory of Music. There are four university -museums, the Mineralogical and the Geological, the Archæological and -the Biological; and there is also a Gallery set apart for -Palæontology. A stately and impressive building, the School of -Domestic Science, presented by Mrs. Massey Treble, is the centre of -instruction as useful as it is important. No visitor in the Dominion -can fail to perceive how Canada is especially a home-building, -home-conserving country. If one were called upon to define the -Canadian nation in a phrase, it would be that of a home-building -people. That the home, in all the purity and sanctity of family -life, is the unit of civilisation is an article of faith in Canada. - -The Royal Astronomical Society of Toronto is an association of much -importance in the scientific world. In May, 1916, it had the honour -of being addressed by an astronomer whom it is no exaggeration to -term the most brilliant figure of the age in interstellar physics. -This was Doctor Percival Lowell, whose brilliant and original -investigations have thrown great light upon the evolution of the -planets, and whose especial discoveries (as they may now be claimed) -of the conditions on Mars have arrested the attention of the entire -scientific world. It was on this theme, including aspects of Mars -developed in observations made as recently {95} as in January and -March of 1916, that Doctor Lowell addressed the Society.[1] - - -[1] Dr. Percival Lowell died November 13, 1916, at Flagstaff -Observatory, Arizona, U.S.A. - - -The population of Toronto is already over the half million mark, the -city directory for 1915 recording a population of 534,000, and the -number is said to increase on an average of thirty thousand a year. -It is a great manufacturing city, which has been able to harness a -waterfall, even the mighty cataract of Niagara, into its daily -service. Is it that the twentieth century calls from the fabled past -those genii and magicians who can command and control the forces of -Nature? The result would almost confirm that fascinating -speculation. Apparently the Torontian is more fortunate than one -individual who is said to have been enabled to send the broomstick to -fetch water, but forgetting the incantation necessary to stop it, he -was drowned. Toronto apparently knows the secret of controlling her -almost unrivalled water-power. There are in and about Toronto more -than nine hundred factories that number over sixty-five thousand -employees, with an annual pay-roll of twenty-nine millions, -representing a capital of seventy-five millions. The electric power -from Niagara Falls is supplied at moderate rates, and thus the -extension of manufacturing plant is encouraged to the advantage of -the city itself. - -The illumination of the Toronto streets by night is {96} a feature of -no little interest. The use of hydro-electric power has permitted -the lighting by means of cluster lights, a system of unique beauty -and incomparable service, and of great decorative effect as well. -This power is supplied from the main station located at Niagara -Falls, on the Canadian side, which itself is supplied directly from -the cataract, with a high voltage of electrical energy. - -The annual Canadian National Exposition held in Toronto during the -last week in August and the first in September is considered to be -almost a barometer of the progress of the world in general. Its -promoters point with pride to the fact that this Exposition was the -first to introduce the dawn of the Electrical Age to Canada; the -first to introduce to general knowledge Marconi's wireless -telegraphy; the first to demonstrate the uses of the telephone, and -the advantages of the electric car service, and has thus, for a long -series of years, made itself an important factor of contemporary -progress. - -[Illustration: The Bigwin Inn, Lake-of-Bays, Ontario] - -This Exposition is held in a natural park of some two hundred and -sixty acres, sloping from the blue and sparkling waters of Lake -Ontario, with a water front of nearly two miles in extent. The -grounds are made a very "garden-city," with wide, paved streets and -walks; with vistas of emerald turf enriched with shrubs and flowering -plants and trees, amid which the permanent State buildings, graceful -and rich in architectural detail, reveal themselves to great -advantage. This Exposition is justly held {97} throughout the -Dominion as an annual focussing of the latest inventions and -appliances, as a gauge of productive power in every direction, and it -draws over a million visitors to the city every season. - -As the Capital and metropolis of the rich and important province of -Ontario, Toronto can hardly be adequately considered without some -outline of the activities of the Province as well. The Parliament -buildings occupy a prominent site in the city, and the Commissioners -who are lodged in their various departments represent every important -industry and interest in Ontario. Among these interests are the Good -Roads Association, the Vegetable Growers, the Game and Fisheries, and -the Women's Institute of Ontario, under the head of the Minister of -Agriculture. Ontario has its Agricultural College at Guelph with the -Macdonald Institute for girls in which homemaking as well as -housekeeping is taught and which is the inspiration centre of the -Women's Institutes of the province. The system of travelling -libraries is of unsurpassed aid in the disseminating of information. -The Women's Institute and the Farmers' Institute co-operate to the -mutual advantage of each. Among the topics discussed in the former -are "Discipline for Children," "Problem of the Farmer's Wife," -"Furnishing a Living-room for Comfort," "Old-Fashioned Hospitality," -and "The Value of Pleasing Manners." The activities of this -Institute radiate an influence and suggest {98} a series of standards -that is little less than invaluable in its effect on the general -rural life. The Institute has a membership of more than twenty-five -thousand women; they represent some eight hundred and fifty branches; -and their influence easily reaches twice the number of the -membership. Courses of lessons in Domestic Science are given in -stated centres; special instructors in cooking, dairying, -poultry-raising; and topics relating to household labour of all kinds -are assigned for discussion from time to time, the meetings always -drawing large and eager audiences. The entire instruction is -eminently practical, and in one Report made to the Minister of -Agriculture the programme of lessons offered as typical included -"Invalid Cookery," "Table Seating and Serving," "How to Spend the -Winter Evenings," and "Wholesome Reading for Boys and Girls." It -will readily be seen how extremely valuable is such a range of -discussion as this, in a comparatively new country, where each -household must so largely depend upon its own resources. "The -strength of the Empire is in the homes of her people," said one -lecturer, and the opinion is wide-spread. This Association further -urges that its prevailing spirit shall know no distinction of class -or creed; that it shall reach and include, with cordial, gracious -welcome, every woman who is inclined to come into it. The motto of -the Institute is, "If you know a good thing, pass it on." The -Ontario Vegetable Growers' Association is another {99} energetic -organisation, whose aim is to "plant and make things grow." - -The importance of social welfare is very fully recognised in Canada. -"We are not here simply to make a living, to spend all our days in -work," states one leading member; "we are here to enjoy life, and I -believe that God intended that every one should enjoy a well-rounded -life, with time for recreation and for mental and spiritual -development." - -In the prominence given to social service in the Dominion, a new and -distinctive profession is opened, and one especially fitted for -educated and cultivated young women. Various spheres of work are -open, as those of assistants to city pastors, and as nurses, park -attendants, health inspectors, police matrons, school inspectors, and -as officials in the many charitable and educational institutions. -Friendly visiting is not the least of these many channels for aid to -social betterment, and for the extension of sympathies and the -promotion of the higher life. - - - - -{100} - -CHAPTER V - -THE CANADIAN SUMMER RESORTS - -Canada is Nature's pleasure-ground. The ineffable spell of beauty -enchants the entire Dominion. It is not difficult to recognise the -sources of her poets' inspirations. The wanderer in all this -bewildering loveliness can say with the singer: - - "I bathe my spirit in blue skies - And taste the springs of life." - -How Lampman has painted the very atmosphere in the lines: - - "I lift mine eyes sometimes to gaze, - The burning skyline blinds my sight; - The woods far off are blue with haze; - The hills are drenched in light." - -Never was there beauty of Nature that so transmuted itself into -vitality. The air is the very elixir of life. It is the infinite -reservoir from which untold measures of energy may be drawn and -stored up for the future. One does, indeed, "taste the springs of -life" in actual experience. - -The colossal scale of the summer resorts of Canada suggests the -haunts of the Titans. The Maritime Provinces have long been a -recognised locality for vacation days; but the region of central -Canada, from Lake-of-Bays and Algonquin Park to Minaki, {101} on the -lakes east of Winnipeg, opens a new world to the summer visitor. It -invites the seeker after health, rest, sport, or artistic enjoyment; -it offers ideal conditions for the writer or the student, as well; -but all this terrestrial paradise requires a clearly-defined -geographical presentation in order to be at all adequately -comprehended. In a country stretching over three thousand seven -hundred miles from coast to coast; and in which the pleasure grounds -already opened to easy accessibility by rail or steamer are thousands -of miles in extent, a clear idea of their relative aspects in -geographical space is an initial requirement. Canada is a -Wonderland, but she is not an untraced wilderness. - -Take, for example, Lake-of-Bays! Poetic, bewitching, star-crowned -Wawa! The instant devotion inspired by this fascinating fairyland -is, like beauty, its own excuse for being. As the visitor steps, in -the brilliant sunshine of a late afternoon, upon the beach at Norway -Point he finds himself within two hundred yards of the hotel. Here -is a splendid dock with shelter rooms and baggage rooms, and here are -porters from the Wawa, and his impedimenta having been handed over he -turns to look at the oncoming sunset over the lake and over wooded -islands, the colour-scheme changing in the flitting, opalescent -lights, the cloud-shadows drifting over the green of island trees and -vegetation, with a fringe of pine and balsam along the shores of the -lake offering their refreshing shade for the saunterers {102} and the -bathers. The dancing pavilion is not far away at one end of the long -piazza, and strains of music from the orchestra are floating out on -the wonderful air. On a plot of verdant grass a group of white-robed -children are dancing like a very fairy ring; and the western sky -which the Wawa fronts is aglow with the sunset splendours. - -Or, perchance, one arrives in the morning (for there are three -steamers a day) in the pure, transparent light which plays such -optical tricks with distance. There may be illusions similar to -those that beset, and delight, the visitors to the Grand Canyon in -Arizona. One stands on the brink of that titanic chasm and seeing an -enticing point apparently close at hand he remarks that he will just -step over to it. "How far do you think it is?" questions the habitué -with secret delight; "that point is two miles away from us," he -continues with due enjoyment in his companion's discomfiture. -Something of the same illusions of the air beset one at Norway Point, -on which the Wawa stands. This point is a favourite with an -increasing number of summer colonists as the numerous cottages and -picturesque camps suggest. - -Not the least of a summer's enjoyment here is the charm of the trip. -It is very easy, but it is also very picturesque. North from Toronto -at a distance of some hundred and forty-six miles is the pretty -little village of Huntsville, nestled among lakes and hills. Here -begins the Lake-of-Bays region. {103} The locality is one of the -loveliest in Ontario; the lakes are dotted with islands and connected -by winding rivers, with luxuriant growth of woodlands; the surface of -the water is covered with lilies, the hills are dark with their -sombre pines, and the entire landscape is fascinating. At this point -the traveller is transferred from the railway to the waiting steamer -on which he gaily steps for a sail on this unique series of lakes. -The steamer glides to the end of one and enters a river; and the -craft pushes on through it while branches of trees and tangled vines -sway so near, on either side, that they may be almost grasped by the -hand. What will happen next? one mentally questions. How will a -steamer ever thread this wildwood? For apparently there is but an -unmarked stretch of woodlands ahead, and even the steam launch of an -enchanted journey can hardly be expected to navigate forests. Like -most difficulties, however, this one comes to a satisfactory solution -when another lake that has concealed itself behind a grove is now -revealed and the steamer sails on. - -But when she meets solid land how is she to negotiate the portage? -It is then that the genius of the lamp appears, which one has but to -rub in order to attain to the realisation of any of his earthly -desires, and the touch on the lamp, as Aladdin holds it up for the -passengers, produces, not the Amazon nor yet the Mississippi, but a -mile of railroad, the shortest railroad in the world, bridging the -portage {104} between the lakes. Into the cars throng the passengers -for the swift transit around the hills to the lake and the other -steamer waiting. "Lake-of-Bays," indeed! Lake of a myriad bays, for -the entire shores are indented with the inlets bordered by firs that -mirror themselves in the water. It is through all this shining -pathway that the tourist makes his triumphal progress and arrives at -length at Norway Point. When one realises that all this Wonderland -is, after all, only nine hours from Buffalo, one sees how easily -accessible from the States are Canada's most charming summer -districts. The romantic journey would almost be worth the taking -even if one remained but a single night. For the beautiful hours of -life are not over when they have passed; they linger in memory; they -pervade all the quality of life. - -It is in the climate that the very concentration of vitality lies, -and a night's sleep at Norway Point seems to transform one's entire -being with a renewal of life. What a view it is at night from the -upper piazza when the powerful searchlight of the hotel is turned -over lakes and woods and clustered islands; and the evening steamer -coming in, gay with flags and pennons, with snatches of music and -light laughter borne on the evening air. The searchlight on the -hotel, the lights on the boat, flash their signals back and forth. -For a moment the visitor is again on the Swiss lakes where boats and -inns call to each other in signals of light. {105} For some years -past the custom, familiar to the sojourners in Geneva, Lucerne, and -Vevey, has been adopted as one of the novel and amusing features at -the Wawa. Of all the fair lands ever dreamed, is that which is -revealed (or is it half created?) under the swiftly moving wave of -light, that flashes its high illumination over the lakes, near and -far, that gleam like silver. The searchlight brings out the forests -in their dark and massive shadows, revealing, too, the numbers of -little boats and canoes, with their firefly lights, dotting the lake. - -Behind the hotel there rises a densely wooded bluff, some two hundred -feet high, from whose summit alluring views attract the lingerer on -the hillside. On this height is the reservoir that supplies the -hotel, the altitude giving great momentum to the running water. The -grounds comprise some three hundred acres--everything is on a -generous scale in Canada--and over these grounds are scattered -pergolas and rustic seats that offer their enticing ease to the -strollers in the open air, who perhaps agree with Walt Whitman that -it is in open space in which "all heroic deeds are conceived, and all -great poems, also." - -It is not surprising that hotels and cottages spring up around these -lakes, and that campers find here a favourite haunt. An immense new -hotel, the Bigwin Inn, has been completed on Bigwin Island, the -enterprise of one of the foremost citizens of Ontario. The Bigwin is -something novel in design, the dining-hall {106} occupying one -building (with entrancing piazzas and balconies towards the lake) -while other buildings house the private rooms for the guests, the -Social Hall, Office, and dancing pavilion, though all these are -connected by covered corridors. The Bigwin will be one of the -greatest summer hotels on the continent, and its establishment is one -of the evidences of the increasing popular recognition of the charm -and beauty of the Lake-of-Bays country. The hotel is picturesquely -situated on Bigwin Island, a tract of two-and-a-half miles in length, -densely wooded, and with easy approach. The swift communication -rendered possible between The Bigwin and The Wawa, by means of motor -boats and steam launches, will enhance the enjoyment of each. The -new hotel will be a temple of festivities and gaiety. The dancing -pavilion has every late luxury of device for the dancers, and for -those interludes of "sitting out" a dance for which the revel itself -is made. There are palm corners; there are balconies overhanging the -waters until one might well believe himself in Venice; and there are -supper rooms, card tables, and provision for necessary music as well -as for the onlookers. - -The steamers of the Lake-of-Bays Navigation Company will make the -Bigwin one of their ports of call, thus assuring a triple service -every day, and rendering easy all arrivals and departures. The -steamer-landing is near the hotel, and the entire island furnishes -the grounds for the Inn. The pretty {107} Italian custom of building -the dining-rooms of the hotel so as to overhang the water is one of -the noteworthy features of the Bigwin. At Bertolini's, in Naples, a -similar effect is attained by the glass-enclosed terrace, in the air, -so much in use for afternoon teas and festive occasions. At the -Bigwin the _salle-a-manger_ actually projects by some feet above the -water, and its circular form and artistic architectural design render -it a unique spectacle from the decks of the steamers as they traverse -the lake. The Inn, which will open at the end of the War, will -accommodate six hundred guests. - -The evolution of summer resorts would alone make up almost a social -history of the past three-quarters of a century. It is a far cry to -the days when, in the United States, Saratoga and Niagara Falls, with -a small contingent at Newport, held the exclusive fashionable -prestige for summer life. New England had its North Shore, to which -Boston largely transferred itself when the summer opened. The White -Mountains have always retained their clientele composed for the most -part of people to whom the seclusion and pure air ministered rather -to the carrying on of their studious pursuits than to the abandonment -of them. Newport came to have a formidable rival in Bar Harbour. -The opening of luxurious railway facilities to the Far West, and the -provision of beautiful hotels in Colorado, at the Grand Canyon, in -California, the Yellowstone Park, and other localities have made all -those regions {108} a land of summer. There are few, now, that are -not familiar to the travelling public, and so the unparalleled summer -resorts of Canada open a new range of attractions and experiences. - -Apart from the two dominating hotels, the Wawa and the Bigwin, the -Lake-of-Bays offers numerous other centres for vacation days in -smaller hotels, cottages, and camps. Grunwald, perched on the west -shore of Lake Mary; Dwight Bay, Point Ideal, Bona Vista, Britannia, -and many other inviting nooks are discovered. - -And when the season at enchanting Wawa is over? Then, again, the -sail through Peninsula Lake, through Fairy River and Fairy Lake, to -the wharf at Huntsville again, where the train awaits the traveller. -Alas! for the perfection of connections. One has no excuse for -lingering longer. Yet so early in the September days, to many -sojourners the best of the season is yet to come. North of the -Lake-of-Bays is Algonquin Park. This government reservation of -nearly two million acres, with the comfortable and commodious -Highland Inn perched on a high terrace looking out on another of the -great lakes over the islands and dense woodlands, is to many visitors -the most alluring place for out-of-door life in the whole of Canada. -The Highland Inn offers much that is not set down on the bills. To -find in this sportsman's paradise hotel accommodations that satisfy -the typical demands of twentieth-century civilisation; {109} to find -homelike rooms, with books and papers and magazines in plentiful -profusion; with a writing-desk well stocked with stationery near -one's elbow at every turn; spacious piazzas on which to dream; an -hotel under the same management as the palatial Château Laurier, the -magnificent Fort Garry in Winnipeg, and the hardly less imposing -Macdonald in Edmonton--to find these things is to be at once assured -of the perfection of every detail. The traveller, only too ready to -take the goods the gods provide, accepts this felicitous dispensation -as a part of the boundless benevolences of the universe. If he is a -sportsman, the world is indeed at his feet. He may secure his canoe -and his guide and fish all day in any one of the many lakes; as there -are two thousand in all, he may be said to have a range of choice. -In the life-giving air, two thousand feet above sea level, he may -enjoy indefinitely long tramps, studying, at close range, the wild -animals in the Park. For more than twenty years they have been -protected from harm by the law that forbids carrying firearms within -the reservation limits; and the mink, the beaver, an almost -innumerable variety of birds, with squirrels and the graceful and -friendly deer are found in abundance in Algonquin Park. The camp -sites are unsurpassed and the hospitalities of the campers are as -ready as they are ample. The gypsy kettle is always swung, the camp -fire is burning, and the lovely nymphs of the lake and woodland who -flit about in picturesque {110} garb are ready to offer the impromptu -guest almost any order of refreshment at a moment's notice. - -The true camper, like the poet, is born and not made. It is an -instinct, a gift, a grace, to adapt oneself to the simple life of the -woodlands, which is, however, not without its creature comforts. -Lady campers may invite one, with traces of housewifely pride, to -glance at the interior of their spotless tents; an interior little -used save for sleep or for shelter in sudden storms. They take pride -in the beds of springy balsam well covered by blankets; and the -little tables with a few books and a chair or two. A bed of balsam -boughs; a breakfast of trout freshly caught in the lake, with coffee -made over the camp fire, combined with youth and health and keen -interest in the world in general, and what more could one ask? And -if one is not acclimated to the system of domestic life as ordered by -the livers in the open air, then he may enjoy in the Highland Inn all -the regulation viands and appointments of the highest civilisation, -with his breakfast of grape-fruit, cereals, delicious coffee not made -over a camp fire; trout, hot cakes, and the wonderful maple syrup of -the land of the Maple Leaf. With these he will have his matutinal -paper, with the latest news of the universe, that has come up from -Toronto at night, and for the day before him relays of attractions, -each more delightful than the other, beckon to him. - -{111} - -In the vast woodlands one may encounter many happy couples strolling, -not invariably side by side, for there is no surplus space beyond the -width required for the single pedestrian. As they fare forth in true -Indian file, He calls to Her, "Come on"; or occasionally, by way of -special conversational brilliancy, he exclaims in a friendly tone, -"Are you there?" They are possibly making their way over a portage. -The guide has the canoe, reversed, on his head. As they wind along -intricate paths, He goes in advance, and She faithfully follows. -There is all the charm of conversational entertainment when He looks -sideways over his shoulder and exclaims, "Getting on all right?" She -would be ashamed to confess she was not! When their canoe-trip was -projected that morning She, who did not know a canoe from a -constellation, was quite in rapture. As a tenderfoot, as yet -unprofited by the proximity of the wilderness, She descended from her -bower equipped with a parasol for the sun, an umbrella for possible -rain, a handbag duly supplied with pencil, notebook, violet water, -and various feminine conveniences; a volume of her favourite poet in -her hand that He may read aloud to her, and a novel for her own -private delectation, in case He should be oblivious of poetic -ecstasies and like a mere man prefer to smoke and ... dream. But He, -who has seen the wilderness before in the course of his august -career, and to whom canoeing is no mystery, regards Her with -unaccustomed {112} severities and austerities. "You can't take those -things," he laconically observes, with one finger designating her -numerous impedimenta; "upset the canoe." Poet and novelist, to say -nothing of lace-trimmed parasol, are banished; and She receives the -first intimation of an idea that there is some necessity of -equilibrium connected with canoeing. - -Between the two extremes of the campers in the open and the guests of -the Highland Inn, Algonquin Park offers another mode of living that -has caught the fancy of the public. This is the provision made by -two log cabin camps which the Grand Trunk System has built in -picturesque places in the Park. Nominigan Camp ("camp amid the -balsams") is seven miles from the Highland Inn, and is reached either -by the stage, which makes the trip every day, or by the more romantic -way of canoeing over the lakes, and walking over the connecting -portages. The site of Nominigan Camp is one worth going far to see. -On the shore of one of the most beautiful lakes it was ever the -happiness of man to behold, with a vista of hills and woodlands, the -spot is wildly beautiful. And the camp itself; imagine a large -central log house with abundance of rooms, and great fireplaces in -which to burn logs and sit and wonder; with radiator heating also, -and electric light, and bathrooms with running water; with a large -dining-room and admirable food; with a great salon where every one -may {113} gather; and with several log cottages adjacent where -families or parties, or the single traveller, can have sleeping -rooms, coming to the central house for meals; the high standards of -comfortable and refined life maintained and yet offering this idyllic -freedom--could there be a more inviting combination? It is no wonder -that an eminent guest who had passed some time at Nominigan wrote: - - -"To put a camp of this kind deep in the heart of the wilderness, and -touch the wild life of the forest and lake with a most acceptable bit -of civilisation in the form of grate fires, running water, bath-tubs, -and inside toilet arrangements is decidedly a feat worthy to be -spoken of when summer resorts are mentioned. To likewise supply a -crowd of seventy-five guests with such an excellent table as we found -provided for us, and to serve it so acceptably as to make one for a -moment forget that he was beyond the bounds of civilisation, was -likewise a feat of which the management should be proud." - - -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lady Conan Doyle were guests at Nominigan -in the summer of 1914, and the creator of "Sherlock Holmes" proved to -be as ingenious in entering into the diversions of the locality as he -is in the field of romance he has made so especially his own. Lady -Conan Doyle, who developed a genuine gift for fishing, caught an -eight pound salmon trout. Equal in beauty is Camp Minnesing ("Island -Camp") on the shore of Island Lake. - -Between the Highland Inn and the Nominigan and Minnesing camps there -is daily stage connection, {114} and it is thus easy to unite both -the comfortable living in a well-ordered hotel, in touch with daily -papers and several daily mails, with constant excursions into the -wild territory, with canoeing, fishing, or walks and tramps through -the interminable forests. Of all the Canadian parks, Algonquin Park -is the most accessible from the United States and Eastern Canada. At -the Algonquin Park station one may take a train in the morning for -Rock Lake, a distance of twelve miles, where there is a famous -fishing region for black bass, and where boats and canoes and all -necessary outfit may be obtained. In Cache Lake the black bass also -abound. At White Lake are salmon trout, and a canoe trip over one or -two other of the smaller lakes brings the angler to Little Island -Lake, noted for its speckled trout. But there are some two thousand -lakes in the Park, so your choice of fishing grounds is unlimited. - -Not the least among the interests of a sojourn in Algonquin Park is a -visit to the home of Mr. G. W. Bartlett, the Superintendent of the -Park, whose house is within a stone's throw of the Highland Inn. -Among his treasures is a remarkably fine collection of wild animals -and birds, prepared by the art of the taxidermist, and the government -of Ontario has also inaugurated a "Zoo," which has already a small -collection and which will be constantly increased. - -The amateur photographer finds great interest {115} in this Park as -the animals, accustomed only to kindness, are easily approached, and -the "bits" of forest scenes, of silver-shining waters, of giant rocks -jutting out from the hillside, offer unlimited material for the -artist to compose. Landscapes for the asking surprise the eye; and -if Algonquin Park is the more obviously and more familiarly known as -the sportsman's paradise, it is none the less the happy -hunting-ground of the artist. The colour effects are something with -which to conjure. The scarlet glow of the sunsets suddenly make a -towering rock seem to leap into the air to a height undreamed of; -while over the still, solemn pine trees the sky turns to flame; rocks -and jutting hillsides take on the effect of colossal sculptures; the -clouds resolve themselves into spectral angels watching over the -world, and the forests take on a grace of line that holds the gazer -with its wonderful spell of beauty. - -From June until into September the days are long in the Algonquin -Park country; they dawn in rose and wane in gold. The air is all -vitality with its filtering through millions of acres of pine and -balsam and spruce; the sunshine of the days is radiant; the moonlit -nights are cool. Wandering through Algonquin woodlands one seems to -hear borne on the air the poet's haunting lines: - - "Along the sky, in wavy lines, - O'er isle and reach and bay. - Green-belted with eternal pines, - The mountains stretch away. - -{116} - - Below, the maple masses sleep - Where shore with waters blends, - While midway on the tranquil deep - The evening light descends." - - -This wonderful Park is very popular for its summer camps for girls -and for boys, located on the lakes in close contact with the hotels. -Here young people can be sent under the supervision of college men -and women, thus enjoying all the freedom and wild charm of the summer -life with every protection and safeguard thrown about them. Camp -Minne-Wawa is one of these; a summer camp for boys and young men -established in 1911 by Dr. Wise, of the Chair of English Language and -Literature at the Bordentown Military Institute, New Jersey, assisted -by a staff of notable educators. The aim of this culture is -described as that of "Right Thinking and Character Building." The -Minne-Wawa is on the Lake of Two Rivers in the southern portion of -the park. The trains make a special stop for this camp; and the -tents, all on raised platforms, with the natural life, the physical -and intellectual training, and the careful supervision of Doctor and -Mrs. Wise; with the provision, too, that the selection of applicants -is restricted to those whose conduct is that of gentlemen--all these -conditions render this a valuable and interesting feature of vacation -life in Algonquin. - -The Timagami region is one of great scenic beauty and it is also of -special interest to the geologist. Through rail service from Buffalo -to the station of {117} Timagami renders the journey an easy one from -the States, while the district is also in still closer touch with -Toronto. The lakes and the surrounding hills are of the Laurentian -formation. There is very little disintegration, and therefore little -mud or sand. There is rock; there is water; and very little shading -between. The crystal clearness of the water is famous, and one can -gaze into it for a depth of from twenty-five to thirty-five feet. -The atmosphere is so clear and dry that conversations can be carried -on over a mile of distance. The echo phenomena all about these -islands rivals that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or as under the -dome of the Taj Mahal. "Anywhere between the islands you can get as -many as six distinct repetitions of the echo," writes an _habitué_, -and adds: - - -"Some August night when the moon is sailing through fleecy clouds and -the planets shine like points of light in the crystal depths below -your canoe, let a clear baritone voice roll out a flood of song among -Timagami's islands, and you might think the gods themselves had -awakened, and that every rock and islet was the home of some musical -spirit voicing the theme of the night in a thousand silvery, -reverberating melodies." - -[Illustration: Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle at Party] - -Very engaging is all this country of the Highlands of Ontario made so -easy of access. Allandale (always associated with its alluring -lunch-room), Barrie, the pretty town on a crescent of Kempenfeldt -Bay, busy Orillia, with its numerous beautiful residences, on to -Gravenhurst at the foot of Lake Muskoka, the journey is one of -perpetual delight. Muskoka {118} wharf is but a mile from -Gravenhurst, and the trains run directly to the steamer. - -The Canadian lakes are a marvel in themselves. The entire country is -literally and lavishly strewn with them. Their abundance modifies -the climate perceptibly. They range from lakes 300 miles long and -600 feet deep to the small lakelets hidden away in the trackless -forests. There are at least nine lakes more than 100 miles long, and -there are more than thirty-five over fifty miles long. Many of these -are still further elongated by the bays that indent their shores, and -they are so connected by rivers that almost continuous canoeing for -scores of miles is sometimes practicable, with only occasionally a -mile or two of portage. In connection with such a multitude of lakes -there are some very interesting geological facts. - -In the Muskoka region there are more than one hundred hotels, from -the Royal Muskoka, accommodating three hundred guests, to those of -the simplest, yet entirely comfortable order that can receive only -fifteen or twenty guests with prices often as low as six dollars a -week. The month of September in the Muskoka Lakes is particularly -delightful. It is estimated that there is an annual transient summer -population of not less than thirty thousand every year of people from -both the States and the Dominion. Many of the romantic islands in -the lakes are owned by wealthy people who have built charming summer -villas upon them. There are {119} between four and five hundred of -these islands, the largest of which consists of over eleven hundred -acres, and on many of which any one is at liberty to build. The -generous attitude of the Ontario Government is always a fact with -which to reckon. There are very beautiful places in this Muskoka -district: the "River of Shadows" (apparently a subterranean forest, -so perfectly is every leaf and branch mirrored in the water), the -Moon River, and the Falls of Bala. It is of the strange, wild beauty -of Muskoka that Lampman wrote: - - "When silent shadows darken from the shores, - And all thy swaying fairies over floors - Of luminous water lying strange and bright - Are spinning mists of silver in the moon; - When, out of magic bays, - The yells and demon laughter of the loon - Startle the hills and raise - The solitary echoes far away; - - O Spirit of the sunset! in thine hand - This hollow of the forest brims with fire, - And piling high to westward builds a pyre - Of sombre spruces and black pines that stand, - Ragged, and grim, and eaten through with gold. - The arched east grows sweet - With rose and orange, and the night a-cold - Looms, and beneath her feet - Still waters green and purple in strange schemes, - Till twilight wakes the hoot-owl from his dreams." - - -All these Highlands of Ontario are a part of the vast Laurentian -range and they are characterised by a singular type of rugged and -stately beauty. They are densely wooded; and the luxuriant maples in -all their golden-green, that wonderfully vivid {120} emerald with a -hint of gold caught from the sunshine in the summer, and their -brilliant scarlet and amber in the early autumn; the fragrant -balsams; the giant hemlocks; the tall pines that almost lead one to -question George Eliot's assertion that "Care is taken that the trees -do not grow into the sky," for the Canadian pine seems almost to -pierce the sky--all this marvel of forest, with the shining lakes and -sunlit glades, renders the Highlands of Ontario one of the wonders of -the world. From Buffalo and Toronto to North Bay on Lake Nipissing, -this entire region is traversed by the Grand Trunk System carrying -summer wanderers through this enchanting scenery--hills, and lofty -peaks, and woods, variegated with the silver expanse of lakes and -flowing rivers; and if, perchance, one is travelling by night, it is -rather delightful to raise the heavy curtain of the large window of a -Pullman sleeper and watch the stars, and the sky, and the often weird -effects of chiaroscuro. They not unfrequently suggest artistic -creations. By night or by day it is all a spellbinding land, the -celestial heavens glittering by night, the sunshine flooding the -world with illumination by day; and silver mists, and ethereal -shadows lurk in the deep pinewoods. To the initiate there are magic -guides in all these haunts, unseen save of him who hath the -"spirit-gifted eyes." The light of all the constellations that have -ever looked down on earth since the morning-stars sang together is in -these Canadian skies. For always is it true that - -{121} - - "The Muse can knit - What is past, what is done, - With the web that's just begun." - -Not only the romance of Canada, but the tangible realities of her -prosperity are disclosed to the eye of the traveller. Farms in a -high state of cultivation; comfortable, alluring farmhouses, with -their lawns, and gardens, and parterres of flowers, and a rustic seat -here and there are in continual evidence. The refinements of life, -from the neatness and grace of rural homes to the beautiful little -railway stations with their attractive architecture, their plots of -greenery, their brilliant beds of flowers, are impressive to the -onlooker, and do more to convey to travellers a true concept of the -character of the Canadian people than can be fully estimated. The -gratification of one's sense of beauty in these charming little way -stations along the route adds immeasurably to the enjoyment of the -journey. - -Then, too, what can be said of that sail among the thirty thousand -islands in the Georgian Bay? In colour and idyllic charm this sail -rivals the famous cruise among the Ionian Islands: - - "The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece, - Where burning Sappho loved and sung," - -and all the summer resorts of this region, Minnecoganashene, Sans -Souci, Rose Point, and various nooks of verdant charm are peopled by -their summer lovers. - -The Great Lakes, shared alike by the Dominion {122} and the States, -offer a delightful cruise between Sarnia (Ontario) and Duluth -(Minnesota) with calls at Fort William and Port Arthur, and a further -excursion to the Falls of Kakabeka, a cascade higher than that of -Niagara, which are near Port Arthur. - -Lake Nipissing and the French River are attractive grounds for the -camper and the canoeist; but they are not suited to the "tenderfoot." -It is amazing that a region which can be reached with ease is yet so -absolutely a place where the lover of Nature in her wild solitudes -can absolutely secure a vacation from relentless Time! In the Lake -Nipissing land he may elude the postman and the telephone. Doubtless -by 1920, some invading airship will drop a voluminous mail at his -feet when he is out in his canoe; but at the present time the -sojourner here is immune from cables, telegrams, Marconigrams, -long-distance telephones, special deliveries, messenger boys, and all -this incubus of what we call civilisation. If radiograms fall upon -him they must needs come from the solar system alone. Emerson, even -in the prehistoric period of the nineteenth century, declared -solitude a thing impossible to find. - - "When I would spend a lonely day - Sun and moon are in my way," - -he complains. The lingerer camping out on the French River has no -green-shaded electric reading-lamp at his elbow; no electric bell -summons his {123} servitor. He "catches" his breakfast in the deep -waters of the lake; he concocts his matutinal coffee over a -camp-fire. No ingenious victrola enchants his evening with the lyric -melody of Melba or Caruso; but instead, the strange cry of the loon -echoes startlingly through the silences. And so it falls out that -the hardy devotees of the chase and the camp hail this region as -their El Dorado. - -Unlike the Nipissing, Timagami, as before noted, may be considered to -be the earthly paradise of those to whom the necessities of life -consist in the modern luxuries; those who would quite sympathise with -John Lothrop Motley; who remarked that if he had the luxuries of life -he could get on very well without the necessities. - -Nibigami, "country of lakes," is a new outing ground in Canada now -made accessible by the Canadian Government Railways; and all this -hitherto unknown wilderness is enlisting the devotion of thousands of -hunters, of fishermen, and hardly less of the artist and student. - -Three hours east of Winnipeg is Minaki, the "Beautiful Country" of -the Indians, at which station passengers may disembark to step into a -steam launch for a sail of twenty minutes to Minaki Inn. This is a -large and charmingly appointed hotel, accommodating three hundred and -fifty guests, with its annex, Minaki Lodge, affording rooms for -seventy-five in addition, located in a natural park of fourteen -acres, every room having its own outlook {124} over lakes or -woodlands. With its spacious piazzas, its artistic furnishing, its -admirable management, it is little wonder that the Minaki Inn has -leapt into popular favour, not only for season guests, but also for -travellers en route for the Canadian Rockies, for Jasper and Mount -Robson Parks, or Prince Rupert, and for all those who find the Minaki -a restful place at which to break the journey. The hotel is woodland -embowered and lake mirrored. It is supremely comfortable. - -Around the lakes on which the Inn is placed is a large and constantly -increasing number of cottages, very artistic in architectural detail, -built by wealthy people of Winnipeg and elsewhere for their summer -homes. They are by no means primitive in construction; the latest -devices in heating, lighting, and household conveniences as well as -luxurious furnishings are in evidence; and at night from the piazzas -and balconies of the hotel the circle of these friendly illuminations -around the lakes is fascinating to the gazer. - -[Illustration: View in Jasper Park] - -Jasper Park, lying west of Edmonton, in the foothills of the Rockies, -is another National reservation included among the Playgrounds of -Canada; and it has an area half as large as that of the kingdom of -Belgium, comprising some 4400 square miles. The Government will keep -this in its natural state for all future time, so that, as the -country becomes more settled, and the features peculiarly Canadian -become obliterated, Jasper Park may reveal to {125} coming -generations the nature of the primæval wilderness. Jasper Park is -invested with historic interest, as it was the scene of the fierce -commercial conflicts between the Hudson's Bay and the North-West -Trading Companies. It is also rich in Indian legend and tradition. - -Jasper Park is, however, not filled with game as is Algonquin. It is -said that a century ago it teemed with bear, mink, beaver, elk, and -caribou--but since that time the resident Indians have devastated the -animal life; and when they learned that the Dominion was about to -take over the entire tract for a permanent reservation, they embarked -upon a wholesale slaughter of the animals. The Park is now made by -Government decree a safe and friendly region for the wild game, and -it is thus confidently hoped to gradually increase the animal life of -the preserve. - -The flora of the Park is so varied and so unusual as to make it an -important locality to the botanist. Not only is there an infinite -variety of flowers, many of which are not found elsewhere on the -continent, the aquilegia, the mampanula, the moon-daisy, and endless -variations on the chrysanthemum; but also the strange grasses, -mosses, lichens, and curious shrubs, all combine to enlist and hold -the curiosity of the student of nature. - -The steel highway has brought this Alpine region, on the western -border of Alberta, into easy and swift connection with the travelling -world. Already {126} the Grand Trunk Pacific is projecting hotels of -the same exceptional character as those with which Algonquin Park is -so well provided. At present there is the unique feature of a "tent -city," which renders a sojourn of any length one that is entirely -comfortable and provisioned with the amenities of life. It is one to -rather enhance, indeed, the ordinary experiences of travel. The -sleeping tents (as separate as rooms in an hotel) are all fitted with -board floors and are equipped with comfortable beds and every -convenience. There is a large central marquee for the dining-room, -and all this comfort, to say nothing of glories of scenery undreamed -of, is offered at the almost nominal rate of two and a half dollars a -day. The town site commands a magnificent view of Athabasca Valley. -The Athabasca river expands, at intervals, into lakes, of which Brule -Lake, Jasper Lake, and Fish Lake are notable. At the juncture of the -Athabasca and the Maligne rivers stood formerly the headquarters of -the North-Western Fur Company; while the old Jasper House, the -Hudson's Bay Company's post, now in ruins, was in close proximity. -The site is now defined only by a pile of stones and by several -graves, with mouldering crosses, that suggest the close of the drama -of earthly life for those who lived and toiled here, unconsciously -aiding to build up the future. The very atmosphere is pervaded by a -sense of heroic effort. - -One of the delightful excursions for sylvan {127} wanderers is that -of the trail to Maligne Lake, a beautiful sheet of water some thirty -miles distant; and in Maligne Canyon, only eight miles from Jasper, -are two comfortable shelter-houses for the free use of all tourists; -each house divided into three parts, with one large room for ladies, -one for gentlemen, and a central hall fitted with a range and other -conveniences, where impromptu cooking may be conducted with -successful results. These shelter-houses provide one more -illustration of the way in which the tourist is safe-guarded all over -the Dominion, even in what would seem her most impenetrable -localities. So swiftly are modern conditions of comfort on their -winged way that the refinements of life fairly spring up in the -wilderness and almost every conceivable need or requirement of the -traveller is anticipated. - -The Canadian summer resorts are destined to play an important part in -sociology. They attract sojourners from widely separated localities -and promote interchange of views, of valuable knowledge, of ideas, of -sympathies, that form an interchange of the utmost significance in -its influence and determining effect upon the general international -life. The summer allurements of the Dominion are to be increasingly -appreciated by the civilised world, as they open up new realms -teeming with new inspirations. - -The beauty of Banff and Lake Louise is already known to the tourist, -but it is, rather especially, the {128} wonderful region opened to -travel by the extensions of the Grand Trunk System that is so -unusually spellbinding. The grandeur of these majestic -mountain-peaks; the valleys and plateaus amid the gleam of lake and -river; the brilliant foliage; the rich scheme of colour of purple and -vermilion cliffs; the glint of blue waters through overarching -trees--Ah! Land of the Maple Leaf, how fair is thy heritage! - - - - -{129} - -CHAPTER VI - -COBALT AND THE SILVER MINES - -The famous Cobalt Silver Mines naturally focus the interest of the -capitalist and the financier in any tour across the great Dominion. -While British Columbia and the Yukon have been called the -"Wonderland" of Canada, not alone for their mineral possibilities, -but for a great wealth of other natural resources besides, and -because many millions of dollars have been extracted by placer miners -from rivers and streams, yet Ontario is found to exceed all other -provinces, so far as yet developed, in the volume of mineral -production. The Klondyke gold discoveries in the Canadian Yukon -became a romance which has fairly rivalled the Tale of the Golden -Fleece. Yet when in the year 1903 the copious and apparently -unmeasurable deposits of silver-cobalt ores containing an -extraordinarily high percentage of silver were discovered in the -district of Cobalt (not far to the west from Lake Temiskaming), this -event sent a thrill of sensation through the world of mining and -mineral interests that left little to exceed, in romantic ardour, in -the poetic legends of the Yukon: - - "Steeped in eternal beauty, crystalline waters and woods." - -[Illustration: Cobalt, Ontario] - -Since the discovery of silver in 1903, Cobalt has {130} produced -$130,000,000 worth of the white metal. Dividends totalling over -$60,000,000 have been paid to shareholders of twenty-four mines. One -company alone has distributed among its shareholders in dividends -nearly $15,000,000. - -In some of the Cobalt mines the ores that contained such phenomenal -quantities of silver have been depleted, and ores of lower grade are -now being worked, so that a much larger mass of ore, more machinery, -and a larger force of working-men are now required to produce the -same amount of silver. - -The geological intervention of radioactivity is believed by -physicists to have a determining influence upon the development of -subterranean resources as well as upon the surface features of the -earth and the formation of mountain chains. Vitality is another -ever-increasing phenomenon, but the bewildering abundance of life -that confronts the student of nature is no more inciting to research -than the mystery of metals deposited far in the ground. The natural -resources of Canada are so vast that even yet, as Dr. W. J. A. Donald -asserts, "the greater part of three million six hundred thousand -square miles of the Dominion is still _terra incognita_ as regards -its mineral resources, or even its geological features." - -During the present war all enterprises are, more or less, and, -indeed, largely, in abeyance in the Dominion; but the present is -always compact of the {131} future, nor can any strictly dividing -line be drawn. "Even in the midst of the greatest tragedies," said -Sir Clifford Sifton in his address before the Canadian Club of -Montreal on January 25, 1915, "while we are trying to do our duty in -the greatest crisis of life, we still must speak, act, think, and do -in reference to the ordinary affairs of life; and the better we think -and act and do in regard to these affairs, the better we shall act in -these crises and the better we shall discharge our duty." Canada -will never be numbered with those nations regarding whom the words -were said of old, "Where there is no vision the people perish." - -There is no lack of vision in the Dominion. The splendid loyalty of -Canada, not only to the Empire, but to the cause of righteousness, is -beyond all estimate in words; as the Right Honourable Sir Robert L. -Borden has so finely expressed, there can be only one conclusion -regarding the present tragedy of conflict. "To overthrow the most -powerful and highly organised system of militarism that ever existed -must necessarily entail terrible war and perhaps a protracted -struggle. We have not glorified war or sought to depart from the -paths of peace; but our hearts are firm and united in an inflexible -determination that the cause for which we have drawn the sword shall -be maintained to an honourable and triumphant issue." - -This is the spirit of the Dominion. But all conflicts must have an -end, and when the end of this struggle {132} comes there is a -marvellous future awaiting the Dominion. The future of a nation as -well as that of an individual is not merely, nor even mostly, to be -mechanically surveyed. It is not a definite geographical region with -boundaries that can be located and crossed with a clear knowledge of -the line of demarcation. The future is something that is created by -men's thoughts. It is made, not found; it is constructed, not -discovered. And thus, even while all internal industries are -somewhat in the grasp of an enforced pause, yet new plans and -projects for the future are in order. The mineral resources of -Canada are incalculable. But that they will form one of the most -remarkable factors in her future prosperity and importance is a -practicable certainty. - -It was somewhere as early as 1846 that the veins of silver were -discovered in the region adjacent to Port Arthur on Lake Superior; -and twenty years later that ore was actively producing silver which -it continued to do until 1903. On a small island, near Thunder Cape -(known as the Silver Islet), was the most famous and the richest of -these mines, and the ore, interlined with veins of quartz and -carbonates, was found in a wide area. It traversed a large belt of -diabase, and only where the vein transversed the diabase was it -richly infused with silver. Otherwise, it bore galena alone. As -early as 1884 the mine had carried to a level of nearly two thousand -feet, and it was estimated that not less than three million two {133} -hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of silver had been extracted -from it. - -When the Cobalt silver mines began to be worked, Canada took her -place as the third silver-producing country in the world; and this -distinction must be largely attributed to the richness and copious -output of these particular veins. - -Cobalt is about 330 miles north of Toronto, on the Ontario Government -Railway, and four hours south of Cochrane. At Cobalt the mines are -clustered all around and beneath the town, a lake in the centre -having been drained to facilitate the search for ore. To the -south-east these mines are distributed over a distance of four miles. -While the Cobalt silver district proper is comprised within this -area, other mines, and productive ones too, have been found in the -farther outlying country. London is the chief silver market of the -world. Much of the bullion shipped from Cobalt is sent directly -there, and London is also the basing point of prices. - -The vast mills of Cobalt, transforming the crude ore into bullion, -and the hydraulic plant on the top of a hill, where one man -manipulates power sufficient to wash down huge rocks and to uproot -and send down large trees and stumps, open out to the uninitiate a -new idea of the way in which man contrives to control Nature and -force her to do his bidding. - -At Cobalt the "silver sidewalk" is not only an {134} actual and -visible spectacle, a solid surface on the level ground of shining -silver from one to three feet in extent, but it is an indication of -untold possibilities. Still, up to this time, the richness of the -veins has been found to be rather in their number than their depth. -These deposits are found in association with the pre-Cambrian rocks -which, according to the geologists, belong to the Huronian and the -Keewatin formations, through which a later diabase has been intruded -in the form of a sill. This is not held to be necessarily the source -of the ore deposits, but rather the means of opening the way for -their introduction from other sources. A large majority of the -productive veins, some eighty per cent., in fact, occur solely in the -Huronian formation. The remaining twenty per cent. is divided -between the Keewatin and the later diabase. As has been said above, -these deposits are not especially deep, most of them being found -below the sill within a depth of two hundred feet. The ores from all -the Cobalt region include white arsenic, cobalt oxide, and nickel -oxide, as well as the fine silver, and not infrequently a -semi-refined mixture of the cobalt and nickel oxides. - -If silver were the magnet that first drew the attention of the miner, -the prospector, or the capitalist to Cobalt, it is not the only -encouragement to the settlement of all this beautiful region. A few -miles out from Cobalt is the pretty suburb of New Liskeard on a sheet -of the bluest water, sparkling in the sunshine and the transparent -air; {135} where numbers of artistically designed cottages have -sprung up; where the business street reveals a thriving trade; where -one or two newspapers are published; and where the seeker after the -occult may find his palmist and his mental healer as well as his -dentist and his physician. Electric cars connect this idyllic little -village with Cobalt, and motor cars dart about in a way which -suggests that this region is by no means outside of the cosmopolitan -luxuries of life. The country is one of great scientific interest. -The geologist may find new data; the botanist and ornithologist new -fields for observation. - -Cobalt is recognised as a permanent silver camp, and as one of the -richest on the entire American continent. At first the stories told -of silver paths, brilliant and shining in the sunshine, were regarded -as part and parcel of the usual myths that spring up in mining camps. -But the "silver sidewalks" were there. They were the most palpable -of facts. A hundred miles to the north of the town of Cobalt, on -Porcupine Creek, the prospectors found gold. Specimens of the -alluring yellow ore may be seen in glass cases in the corridor of the -King Edward Hotel, Toronto. In that city many of the miners may be -met, for mining is now a scientific pursuit rather than merely an -industry, and whether the miner takes his ease in cosmopolitan -centres and gives his mines "absent treatment," after the convenient -fashion of Christian Scientists, or whether he is less remote {136} -from his interests, does not seem to affect the results in a vital -manner. - -During the year 1915 thirteen mines in Northern Ontario produced -gold, and many of these are now making alterations and additions to -their plants which will enable them to largely increase their output. - -The following table shows the steady advance of the Porcupine gold -camp since its discovery in 1910:-- - - Value of - Year Production - $ - 1910 35,539 - 1911 17,187 - 1912 1,730,628 - 1913 4,284,928 - 1914 5,203,229 - 1915 7,580,766 - ---------- - Total 18,852,277 - - -To find this possibly incalculable wealth in the densely wooded -wilderness is a continually increasing surprise. The Porcupine -district, as well as the Cobalt region, is reached by the Temiskaming -and Northern Ontario Railway, a line of two hundred miles in length, -built by the Province of Ontario, and furnishing connection between -the Transcontinental line from Quebec to Winnipeg, north of the -lakes, and the cities in the southern portion of the provinces of -Ontario and Quebec. The construction {137} of this connecting line -led to the discovery of Lake Timagami (one of the popular summer -resorts), and about thirty miles north of the lake the first -indication of silver was accidently found by a workman who hurled his -hammer at a scampering rabbit and hit a rock instead, chipping off a -layer that disclosed a vein of almost pure silver. This initiated -the famous La Rose mine, taking its name from the man who made this -fortunate throw of his hammer, and within the succeeding four years -this immediate region was capitalised at some five hundred millions. -While the Cobalt silver mines, then, owe their discovery to this -employee on the line, the engineers prospecting for the grade of the -Grand Trunk Pacific accidentally uncovered vast coal-fields in -Alberta. - -This Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway connects the Grand -Trunk System at North Bay with the Canadian Government lines at -Cochrane. The opening up of all this country has not only resulted -in the exploiting of these famous mines, but has brought to knowledge -the existence of the largest tract of pulpwood in the world. The -belt of these forests extends from Ontario to Quebec and westward to -the prairies of Manitoba, a thousand miles of almost unbroken -woodland. - -The hydraulic mechanism used in prospecting for ore is one of the -marvels of inventive genius. One man can operate the powerful lever -that turns on a torrent of water against trees, huge stumps, vast -rocks, and sends them rolling down the hillside. {138} All -obstruction, indeed, the very hill itself, is washed down. The -twentieth century will always stand out as a remarkable era for the -invention of mechanism to harness and utilise power hitherto undreamt -of for practical application. These inventions are securing the -increasing spiritual liberation of man. When he is enabled to -harness the powers of the ether; to send the lightning on his -errands; to bridle a force that no man ever saw or touched; when he -can cause the waves of the ether to serve his chariot wheels, he has -indeed transformed the world in which he finds himself. - -There are rumours of a recent invention made by Mr. Asa Thurston -Heydon in the Yukon that may largely revolutionise the mining -industry. It was in the middle 'eighties that Mr. Heydon began -studying the primitive divining-rod, the use of which he was inclined -to believe was based upon some germs of scientific truth. He thought -it possible that some natural law lay hidden in the garments of -superstition. For thirty years he experimented and observed. This -research has led him to what he believes is a series of discoveries, -one of which is his invention called the clairoscope, which is the -diviner for substances that are in the earth. Fitted with one or -another substance attached, it turns to that which corresponds with -the given thing attached. He calls the instrument the clairoscope -and the result obtained the clairum. The clairum, Mr. Heydon -explains, is the counterpart {139} of the spectrum. The latter is -limited to the luminous, the former to the non-luminous, rays. The -spectrum exemplifies one pole of the spherical organisation of -energy, and the clairum exemplifies the opposite pole. Mr. Heydon's -researches are based on his conviction that everything, organic and -inorganic, from electrons to the mighty universe itself, is -surrounded by a sphere; that these spheres blend and combine "in -accordance with the laws of force-centres," but that in all -combinations "they retain their identity as do rays of light." This -interesting speculator holds that the non-luminous rays are constant, -changing only from attraction to repulsion, and that they are the -radii of the spheres. He believes that the distinctive energy that -operates the clairoscope is a higher dynamic energy; nothing less, -indeed, than that vital force which is characteristic of all life. -"A name must be found," he says, "for this vital force which is -rhythmically circulating throughout the universe, forming the pulse -of existence. The dream of the alchemist is founded in the nature of -things," continues Mr. Heydon, "and will be realised when mankind -shall have discovered the simple process of polarising and -depolarising electrons at will. This will induce the polarisation of -the correlated material sphere, and an electron of the desired -element will awaken from its slumbers." - -To what degree Mr. Heydon's theories will bear the test of his future -investigations it is impossible {140} to conjecture; but it is -already true that the clairoscope is being used to some extent to -locate minerals and has proved useful. - -To descend into a mine, down to a three hundred and fifty feet level, -and see the strange panorama of life that is before one's eyes, is a -novel experience. Into the cage steps the little party, and the -downward journey begins. All is dark save for the lamps of the -miners, affixed to their caps, and the lights that are swung give a -fitful and weird illumination. Through the narrow aisles on every -level push-carts are passing, and the visitor must pack himself into -as little space as possible as he stands against the wall to let the -traffic pass by. Everything is dripping; one walks in mud and water, -and sees the glisten of the wet walls. The air is cold and damp. It -seems inconceivable that men can work under such conditions, yet the -visitor is assured by some of the workmen themselves that they prefer -this labour to any of the employments open to them on the surface of -the earth. This subterranean world incites curiosity, interest, and -still the onlooker is not sorry when he finds himself again in the -air and sunlight above. - -On the hills about Cobalt are perched attractive cottages and -bungalows, and the quiet, pleasantly social little town bears no -trace of the traditional atmosphere of the mining-camp of that -peculiar order that has been most vividly derived from the pictures -in the novels of Bret Harte. - - - - -{141} - -CHAPTER VII - -WINNIPEG AND EDMONTON - -The traveller whose imagination had vaguely pictured Winnipeg as a -fur-trading station somewhere toward the North Pole would be aroused -from such reveries by the spectacle of this brilliant and -cosmopolitan centre, with its beautiful architecture, its broad -boulevards, the magnificent Fort Garry Hotel on the site of the -ancient fort, and the civic centre in the Free Exposition building, -where specimens of all the great products of the Canadian West are -displayed. Winnipeg, which in 1870 had a population of two hundred -and fifteen people, in 1917 records its quarter of a million. It -grows at such a rate that it is unsafe to prophesy to what degree -these figures may be increased in the immediate future. A -representative of Baedeker, who had been sent to the United States to -prepare a volume on its western regions, complained to a -fellow-voyager on the ocean steamer, when returning to his own -country, that it was mathematically impossible to cope with the Far -West with any accuracy. "Why, I prepare the exact population of a -town--Seattle, for instance--and before I can get my report into -print the population has doubled." This was naturally a tangible -grievance, and one which was {142} extremely difficult for the -statistician to meet. Possibly the same baffling problem of accuracy -confronts him who would record the population of Winnipeg. - -From the tower of the Fort Garry Hotel there is revealed a scene -hardly to be compared with any other on the continent. The spectator -can see broad boulevards, many of which are a hundred and thirty-two -feet in width; an electric railway, operating hundreds of cars, whose -service is said to be the most perfect of that of any city in the -States or in Canada; streets paved with asphalt and macadam; -extensive parks, where equipages not less fine than those of Hyde -Park or the Bois de Boulogne, are seen rolling along the smooth, -winding roads; churches, numbering nearly two hundred; the University -of Manitoba; the art school; and the unexcelled beauty of miles of -residential regions, laid out in those graceful curves and crescents -so familiar in the West End of London--all these are indicated in -this great centre of commercial, industrial, and social life. - -To those who had thought of Winnipeg as being remote, if not -inaccessible, it is rather surprising to find that this metropolis of -Western Canada is but twenty-seven hours from Chicago and but -forty-five hours from Washington. At the time of the Chicago -Exposition of 1893, one of the most popular routes between Boston and -that city was through the Hoosac tunnel, on which the passenger -boarded {143} his train in Boston at seven P.M., and arrived in -Chicago at seven the second morning after--a journey of thirty-six -hours, which no one at that time regarded as being too long. Nor -does it require the memory of that traditional being, the "oldest -inhabitant," to recall that when the Pennsylvania Railroad succeeded -in reducing the time between New York and Chicago to twenty-five -hours, it was then held to be much more of a marvel than is now the -eighteen-hours' journey of the Twentieth-Century Flyer. Winnipeg is -forty-eight hours from Montreal, fifty-three from Quebec, and only -forty-five from New York. No city on the western continent is more -splendidly equipped than Winnipeg for business enterprises, great -conventions, and large convocations of all orders. Besides the -spacious and superb Fort Garry Hotel, she has more than fifty other -guest-houses and one of the largest departmental stores on the -continent; she has parks covering more than five hundred acres; she -has more than twenty banks; and in a single year these banks did a -business of almost one billion seven hundred million dollars. All -the grain business of the Canadian West centres in Winnipeg. In the -magnificent Union Station of white marble, costing some two millions -of dollars, there are twenty-seven railway tracks, long distance and -local, all of which radiate from the city. The Winnipeg River offers -unmeasured facilities for power, a total of sixty thousand -horse-power being already developed, {144} which is sold to -manufacturers and other consumers at the cost of production. There -are over four hundred successful factory plants in operation, -employing twenty thousand factory workers. Thus told in bald -statistics alone, the story of Winnipeg is singularly impressive; but -these facts and figures are but the mere skeleton of the story of -Winnipeg. In this northern metropolis the polarity of life in -general is changed. - -[Illustration: Union Station and Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg] - -A signal aim in this city is the culture of beauty. In the laying -out of streets and avenues the question of vista and the composition, -so to speak, of the landscape has received unfailing consideration. -All the country about is finely wooded, and with its rolling -declivities offers cool and shaded nooks and spaces for summer -outings. Here and there are lofty elms, and occasional wooded areas -of many acres in extent. These are a surprise to the traveller whose -conceptions of this region have been those of a bare and more or less -desolate prairie land. The nature of the soil of the neighbourhood -is a factor of determining importance. The clay belt begins at -Cochrane, the junction of the Transcontinental line with the Ontario -Government Railway, and it extends for three hundred miles to the -west, affording a tract with plentiful water and with every -productive condition. The provision of population for this clay belt -is now a foremost question in Canada and engages the attention of -both the Province of Ontario and of the Transcontinental Railway. -The {145} generation that cleared the bush lands has almost passed -away, and the present settlers have different ideas of pioneer life. -One age does not repeat itself. The continual invention of machinery -that liberates human life has its dominating influence, and all signs -of the times point to new methods of entering on new settlements. -The British settlers who arrive are not accustomed to the clearing of -timber-lands, yet this clay belt has probably resources to sustain a -population of from one to two million people, and the climate is no -more severe than that of Quebec or of northern Maine. The -transformation of this region of wilderness into a well-populated -country would provide a much-needed link between Eastern and Western -Canada. The distances, as we have seen, between Winnipeg and other -of the great centres both in the Dominion and in the United States -are by no means appalling; and with the splendid railway facilities -now provided by the new Trans-continental route between Winnipeg, -Toronto, and Montreal, by way of Cochrane, Cobalt, and North Bay, -across New Ontario, and through the Highlands of the same Province, a -route that only opened on July 13, 1915, this region is abounding in -attractions for the new settler. - -There are two sources of revenue which are of unmeasured value; one -is that of pulpwood which can be advantageously disposed of, and the -other that of employment in constructing government roads. Another -inducement will be that of the {146} "ready-made farm." This scheme -has been utilised to some extent in Alberta and in New Brunswick as -an inducement to colonists. Thousands of these farms, on which -buildings have been erected and a small area placed under -cultivation, with stock and farming implements furnished, have been -placed at the disposal of settlers, each for a small cash payment, -and with the conditions of subsequent payments made most liberal and -lenient. In Ontario the scheme has not yet been worked out in -detail; but the government of the Province is favourable toward -adopting a similar system, building a house and barn and clearing ten -acres on a farm of a hundred and sixty acres, as well as advancing a -limited sum of money for the purchase of stock. The Ontario -government also propose arrangements for assisting the farmer in -marketing his pulpwood. - -All these conditions of the surrounding country are of vital -importance to the city of Winnipeg. The settlement of wild lands, -the development of industrial resources, centres of population -springing up in new sections--all these directly contribute to the -growth and importance of the metropolitan centre. The civilisation -of Canada has proceeded more rapidly in the transformation of the -wilderness into populated lands than did that of the western part of -the United States. Four years after the formation of the Dominion -(July 1, 1867) Canada had extended across the entire continent. By -the conditions of the time, both in applied inventions {147} and in -the degree of progress achieved by man, Canada has escaped the -disadvantage that the long efforts of pioneer life entail upon a -nation. The new towns and cities begin with well-paved streets, -electric lighting, and electric transit. - -Winnipeg, since 1899, has owned and operated its own water system, -which is the hydro-electric power plant. The architecture is largely -of a permanent nature, the designs following the latest developments -of taste, skill, and efficient construction. Much of it compares -favourably with the best architecture of New York or Washington. The -blocks of handsome residences; the architectural taste of the public -buildings; and the constant series of lawns, with their flowers and -plants, leafy shrubs and luxuriant trees, make the city one of -exceeding beauty and attractiveness. Churches, schools (and they are -among the best in Canada), theatres, and lecture halls abound; the -libraries are particularly enlightened and helpful and their growth -and extension are only comparable with the library developments of -St. Paul and Minneapolis, of Los Angeles and other young cities of -the most advanced degrees of progress. "The world of books is still -the world," wrote Mrs. Browning; and the community that renews its -resources from the best that has been thought and said in the world, -as it is conserved in literature, will be that which is the more -efficient in all that makes for human advancement. Familiarity with -the best literature has the {148} most potent of influences for good -taste, good manners, high ideals of conduct, mutual courtesy, and -self-respect. - -Canada cannot afford to ignore Matthew Arnold's wise warning not to -mistake material achievement for civilisation. In its true and full -significance, civilisation means "the humanisation of man in society; -his making progress there towards his true and full humanity. We -hear a nation called highly civilised," Mr. Arnold proceeds to say, -"by reason of its industry, commerce, and wealth, or by reason of its -liberty or equality, or by reason of its numerous churches, schools, -libraries, and newspapers. But there is something in human nature, -some instinct of growth, some law of perfection, which rebels against -this narrow account of the matter. Do not tell me, says human -nature, of the magnitude of your industry and commerce; of the -beneficence of your institutions, your freedom, your equality; of the -great and growing number of your churches and schools, libraries and -newspapers; tell me also if your civilisation--which is the grand -name you give to all this development--tell me if your civilisation -is interesting." - -Carlyle, as Matthew Arnold reminds us, once wrote to a younger -brother who thought of emigrating to the United States: "Could you -banish yourself from all that is interesting to your mind, forget the -history, the glorious institutions, the noble {149} principles of old -Scotland--that you might eat a better dinner, perhaps?" - -Mr. Arnold hastens to disclaim any sympathy with the idea that young -men should not emigrate; it was the term "interesting" that caught -his eye in Carlyle's counsel, and it is for that element that he -makes his eloquent plea. It is that element, moreover, which the -young and splendid city of Winnipeg may well reckon as one of its -fundamental characteristics. In the _Journal Intime_ of M. Amiel, -the reader finds him saying that "the human heart is, as it were, -haunted by confused reminiscences of an age of gold; or, rather, by -aspirations toward a harmony of things which every-day reality denies -to us." In all the appointments of wealth and luxury, M. Amiel made -an effort to realise or to approach this ideal, and thus finds in -this order of life one form of poetry. Society demands distinction -and beauty as a component part of human nature's daily food. - -Obviously, a new country cannot offer archives of long centuries of -history, nor ruined castles, nor an assortment of myth and tradition. -These may and do have their part in that atmosphere of interest which -is the nurture of the intellectual powers; but the Future is no less -stimulating than the Past; prophecy is not less alluring than -history. The art of life itself is the finest of all the fine arts -and to the seeing eye may invest a city with as much fascination as -is to be derived from the galleries of the {150} Louvre or of the -Vatican. The spiritual life of all the ages is preserved in -libraries, and the youngest of cities may well be heir to the records -of this life. "No matter how poor I am," said William Ellery -Channing; "no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not -enter my obscure dwelling--if the sacred virtues will enter and take -up their abode under my roof; if Milton will sing of Paradise; and -Shakespeare open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of -the human heart; if Franklin will enrich me with his practical -wisdom--I shall not pine for intellectual companionship, and I may -become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best -society in the place where I live." - -It is not only noble art and beautiful architecture combined with -historic and social traditions that appeal to all that is best in -life. What could more readily appeal to the imagination than that -visible expression of faith in the future of the Great Dominion, the -completion of a new great transcontinental line making possible -direct transit across Canada from ocean to ocean? What could more -appeal to the imagination than the marvellous invention of the -wireless control of moving trains as has been already described in a -previous chapter? - -What can, indeed, be a feature of greater interest than the practical -creation of a new world; the power of man conquering and transforming -the domain of Nature? Do not Romance and Poetry {151} spring up here -anew? Science and the Muses have a subtle basis of understanding. -James Russell Lowell has interpreted this mutual comprehension in the -lines: - - "He who first stretched his nerves of subtle wire - Over the land and through the sea-depths still, - Thought only of the flame-winged messenger - As a dull drudge that should encircle earth - With sordid messages of Trade, and tame - Blithe Ariel to a bagman. But the Muse - Not long will be defrauded. From her foe - Her misused wand she snatches; at a touch - The Age of Wonder is renewed again, - And to our disenchanted deity restores - The Shoes of Swiftness that gave odds to Thought; - The Cloak that makes invisible; and with these - I glide an airy fire from shore to shore." - - -Winnipeg has an interesting centre in the Industrial Bureau and -permanent Exposition and Public Service Building, located in the -leading business street and contributing in many ways to the swiftest -means of unfolding industrial opportunities and to the most liberal -development of the city. Both the Dominion and the Province of -Manitoba, beside all the railways centering in Winnipeg and thirty -western Boards of Trade, have installed attractive and extensive -exhibits of the natural resources, so extensive, indeed, as to be -practically complete in their revelation to the visitor of every -variety and quality of the country. The manufacturing interests of -the city are represented by eighty-five practical exhibits of -articles "made in Winnipeg." There is also a museum with a large -{152} collection of mounted birds and wild animals of Canada; and -there are historic relics and curios; as well as collections of -economic minerals and other exhibits of various interest. Winnipeg -has also, in this building, the first Civic Art Gallery in Canada, -and it is wisely made free to all. In connection with the Gallery is -an Art School where painting and drawing are taught. In this Public -Service centre is a Convention Hall that will seat four thousand -people and a smaller lecture or banquet hall seating about four -hundred. There are also other accommodations for meetings, large or -small gatherings, as may be, that are so numerous in business, -social, industrial, or educational activities. Over seven hundred -meetings were held in this building within the first ten months after -it was opened. Adjoining Convention Hall is the Central Farmers' -Market, where citizens conveniently find the produce of farm, market, -or garden. The Industrial Bureau, which has its quarters in this -building, is a thoroughly representative one, incorporated under -Provincial Government Charter, with a directorate elected from -appointed representatives of twenty-nine public bodies of the city, -grouping together the best talent, administrative, professional, -educational, and industrial, which could be brought together for the -work of public service. The Bureau organisation is non-partisan, -non-sectarian, and has no axe to grind other than that which concerns -the benefit of the whole community. It is the Civic Bureau of {153} -Information for citizens, visitors, and outside inquirers. - -The Fort Garry Hotel is a social centre of Winnipeg. Its imposing -architectural effects render it a landmark in the panoramic view of -the city. Its walls, of buff sandstone, rise to a height of fourteen -stories, and the copper roof and lofty pinnacles are transformed to -molten gold when the sun shines on them. The majestic structure is -an adaptation from the period of François I., with something -reminiscent of the old chateau in Touraine and Normandy. In the -standards of elegance and beauty in all entertainments, these Grand -Trunk hostelries--the Château Laurier, the Fort Garry, the Macdonald -of Edmonton--all introduce standards of polite life that are of -incalculable benefit to the community and which have hardly before -been approached in the Dominion. In elegance and refinement, both of -appointments and of service, these hotels rival, if indeed they do -not almost excel, the choicest luxuriance and beauty of Paris and New -York. One block to the east of the Fort Garry is the magnificent -Union Station in which the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific -centre, and which has every convenience and device up to date; and -between the station and the Fort Garry Hotel is a wide boulevard with -a double row of trees in the centre, and a little park, under the -very shadow of the house, has its picturesque approach through the -ivy-clad ruins of the old gateway to the fort; an historic reminder -{154} of the time when, a century ago, this entrance was built by the -Hudson's Bay Company in a turbulent period. The contrast between the -sense of peaceful though intense activity, under the brilliant -sunshine over the broad, beautiful streets, whose smooth pavement is -a joy to motorists, with that time when savage assaults must be -defended by the forces within Fort Garry, is a contrast to incite a -train of speculative reflection. There were "sceptred spirits" in -those days whose heroic deeds shine through all the years between -their time and our own. The history of the Hudson's Bay Company is, -in itself, one of the most thrilling chronicles of the Dominion. - -From the windows and balconies of the Fort Garry Hotel the view is -magnificent--St. Boniface, with its splendid cathedral group, -Assiniboine Park, and the Legislative Buildings, with two rivers -winding away into the vast spaces of the prairie--all make up a -panorama never to be forgotten. The interior of this alluring house -is singularly charming to the eye. The furnishings are rich and yet -have that air of simplicity that appeals to the artistic sense--grey -marble floors with soft rugs and the main dining-room all in cream -and gold. The foyer and loggia connecting the banquet and ball rooms -suggest the ancient cloister with their vaulted ceilings and the -mediæval lanterns for electric lights. The café has marble -wainscoting, suggestive of some old baronial castle, while in the -grillroom there is oak panelling {155} that would delight old -England. There are three hundred rooms, two hundred and thirty-five -of which have private baths while the others have easy access to -bathrooms. What a contrast of living is thus revealed between the -fastidious and luxurious life of the twentieth century and that of -the primitive days of a hundred years ago when the old Fort Garry -occupied the site of this hotel! - -For fully fifty miles west of Winnipeg extends a belt of land some -300 miles in width, provided with good water found at reasonable -depths, which is the marvel of the world for grain raising. This Red -River Valley is the great wheat-producing region of the continent, -and the journey of nearly eight hundred miles from Winnipeg to -Edmonton reveals vast fields of golden grain, while along the route -the colossal elevators loom up in the level expanse like some -colossal fortifications. - -Winnipeg has been from the first a predestined centre of commerce. -It is the metropolis of the transcontinental lines and is the one -supreme gateway through which all travellers and all traffic from -ocean to ocean must pass. No other city on the western continent has -such an absolute monopoly of all transit from the east to the west, -or the reverse. - -Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, most attractive in its beauty of -locality, stands on the bold bluffs of the Saskatchewan. The railway -bridge spanning this gulf is one of the finest on the continent, with -its imposing piers of hewn stone, over a hundred feet in {156} -height, with trusses of steel. Two bridges at the level of the river -provide for other traffic, with the novel arrangement that heavy -vehicles are lifted and lowered from the surface of the bluff to the -river by means of colossal elevators. The elevator is a municipal -institution, and municipal ownership is the general rule in Edmonton, -the city owning and operating the trolley lines, the electric light -plant, the water-works, and the telephone system. Edmonton would be -the earthly paradise of the disciples of Henry George, for it is a -single-tax town. The University of Alberta with its splendid campus -of three hundred and fifty acres, fronts the impressive capitol, of -cream-hued sandstone, which stands on the Edmonton side of the river. - -The capitol is four stories in height, with classic portico and a -dome surmounted by a tall lantern, while the building is rendered -still more beautiful by its artistic approach; wide terraced steps, -with balustrades, ornamented with heavy bronze lamps, the effect of -which, when lighted at night, is not without reminiscences of Paris. -The Hotel Macdonald has a charming situation on the high bank of the -river, within a few minutes' walk of the centre of the town. The -traveller enters by the spacious court and covered loggia, passing -thence into the great rotunda, with its floor of pink Levantine -marble and its ceiling of solid oak. Adjoining this is a lounge, -opening on a terrace 50 feet wide, overlooking the river, and the -palm-room (octagonal in form, {157} with its dome decorated in -Wedgwood designs), as well as a beautiful dining-room, a café, and -other public rooms. As one walks through all this magnificence in -the place so recently occupied by Indians, hunters, and trappers of -the frontier trading posts, he begins to realise something of that -almost incredible rapidity of growth and development that -characterises the great North-West. - -The Canadian Women's Press Club in Edmonton is an organisation that -delights the heart of the modern woman, to whom her clubs are the -very breath of being; and its President, Mrs. Arthur Murphy, is well -known to the world of letters under her _nom de plume_, "Janey -Canuck." Mrs. Murphy is one of the most famous of Canadian writers, -and has contributed much to the general knowledge of the Dominion. -Her work has received very high praise. "She has opened a new path -in Canadian literature," says an eminent critic, "and her _Open -Trails_ and _Seeds of Pine_ will inspire many other writers." - -Mrs. Murphy is the wife of the Rev. Arthur Murphy, D.D., who at one -time was the chaplain to the Empress Frederick. Her work has -attracted much attention in England, and _The Bookman_ of London, in -a critical review of her books extending into several pages, said: - - -"The work of 'Janey Canuck' has the optimism of the true lyric; the -song of the open road. The refrain of the windswept spaces was never -set to a better tune.... It {158} is not style that matters in the -work of 'Janey Canuck' any more than it matters in the work of Walt -Whitman--a kindred philosopher. She comes scattering seeds of -gladness in our mist, and lo! our gloom is gone like a black cloud -that breaks before the April sun. She is the philosopher of gladness -and content and common sense, a philosophy as durable as Bergsonism." - - -Mrs. Murphy has been honoured by King George by the decoration that -entitles her to be known as a "Lady of Grace," an appropriate title, -indeed, for so gracious a lady. - -Edmonton is the gateway to the Yellowhead Pass; and the beauty of its -location, the charming nature of its people, and the vastness of the -territory of which it is naturally the centre, all conspire to incite -dream and prophecy of the future of this young city of University -ideals and marked intellectual and literary quality. - - - - -{159} - -CHAPTER VIII - -ON THE GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC - -One of the most enchanting pleasure trips that can be enjoyed on the -North American continent is that from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert -through regions of scenic glory - - "Where all wonder tales come true"; - -where one journeys to the accompaniment of a bewildering series of -surprises that open vistas of new interests and enjoyments never -dreamed of before. It is one of the signal charms of a journey -through regions of majestic beauty and of scenic enchantment that it -is not over even when it is past. Such a trip is a treasure laid up -in life for future enjoyment without limit. - -It is only some five hours from Edmonton before one begins to enter -on this wonderland of romance. It is so new that the world of travel -has not yet realised the marvel and glory of this trip. When it is -stated that even the first surveying for this transcontinental line -began only in 1910, it will be readily seen that in this region is -opened up an absolutely new part of the world to general travel. The -anomaly of traversing these primeval wilds in a train so luxuriously -appointed as are the limiteds {160} on the Grand Trunk Pacific -appeals to the comprehension of man's conquest over nature. To -travel in the comfort of these commodious coaches, equipped with a -richly-furnished drawing-room, an admirable dining-car, an -observation car with a spacious balcony platform at the rear and -fitted with writing-desks, stationery in abundance, books, magazines, -and newspapers, is to enjoy a journey on a flying hotel. - -"Here is a train worth while!" wrote Sir Arthur Conan Doyle after the -conclusion of the extensive trip that he and Lady Conan Doyle enjoyed -over the Dominion: "it is the latest word in comfort, in luxury, in -safety, in speed. The dining-car is never taken off. The -observation car is a pleasant club. The road is as smooth as -polished marble, with heavy rails well ballasted, no smoke or -cinders.... It has the highest maintenance of track and rolling -stock.... It runs on a marvellous line, destined to a mighty future." - -[Illustration: Mount Edith Cavell and Cavell Lake] - -The entrance to the Wonderland begins, as was said, some five hours -from Edmonton. The best plan is to leave this thriving young capital -of Alberta by a late evening train, and waken in the morning to find -one's self in a region where the peaks to the south of the Yellowhead -Pass begin to appear on the horizon. He who understands the romance -of railroad travel will raise the heavy blind of the windows of his -lower berth or his drawing-room, so as not to miss the strange -panorama of the night. Indeed, if {161} we compare the romance of a -night on shipboard with that of a night on a flying railroad train, -the latter is incomparably the greater. The first requisite is an -added relay of pillows--all that one wants, and all that one does not -want, so to speak--pillows on which to prop one's self up to the -proper angle of altitude that he may lie at ease and watch that -marvellous moving panorama of forest and glade, of starlit sky, or of -the hills flooded with moonlight; with flitting gleams of shining -silver as the train glides past lakes, or along the course of a -winding river. It is the realm of fäery, where nothing is but what -is not. Is there a moon? There are a dozen moons! There is one in -the south, but a moment later it appears in the far east--no -well-regulated moon would career about in the heavens in so erratic a -manner, therefore there must be another; and when, at the next -glimpse, it again appears at some different point of the compass, -one's conviction that the earth must have as many moons as Jupiter is -reinforced. The vast forest solitudes are all strange; to waken -suddenly and find one's self flying through these unreal regions is -an experience never to be forgotten. It is an experience entirely -lost save to one who unveils his windows to the mystic scenes rather -than sleep in the darkness of drawn blinds. The elusive fascination -possible to the nights on a railway train is a chapter of life in -itself. It recalls to one the dictum of Socrates that all exact -inquiry into such matters as the movements and nature of {162} the -sun and the moon should be excluded from too close investigation! - -From Winnipeg the traveller speeds over fields of emerald or fields -of gold, according to the season; the harvest time is a world of gold -and resplendence; and ere the grain ripens it forms an infinite -expanse of tender green. The economist would see in these -far-reaching fields of growing grain a theme for his statistics and -practical deductions as to their contribution to the world's wealth; -but the eye of the pleasure-traveller regards them solely in the -light of æsthetic effect. Wheat or oats, grass or anything else, it -is all one to him as long as the colour scheme enchants his eye. As -he approaches the mountain region the scene is etherealised. Away on -the horizon are illuminated points, but whether on earth, or in the -heavens, who can tell? One begins to enter into the atmosphere that -pervades mountain solitudes. It eludes all analysis, but it is the -most potent of impressions. The gateway to the mountains prefigures -itself as the portal to some trackless spaces not of earth. The -peaks shine with a celestial light. Snow-capped, catching the -morning sunshine in dazzling splendour, they rise as a very wall -beyond which mortal may not pass. Is the wall as impenetrable as it -seems? How can a railway train dash itself through the palisades of -bewildering mountain peaks, clustered in their shining splendour? -And what world lies beyond? - -The grandeur grows more impressive. And as {163} among the problems -of life, so among mountains, there is usually a way out. In this -case it is the Yellowhead Pass. In the preliminary survey and -construction of the railroad this Pass was chosen by the skilled -engineers who at once recognised its striking characteristics, for it -permitted the railway to take its line across the Rocky Mountains at -the lowest altitude of any transcontinental line on the continent. -The swiftly flowing waters of the Athabasca River mirror the towering -peaks above. The Pass grows wider; again, there is a narrower curve -as it deftly penetrates its way between the vast heights. The -tourist has of course betaken himself to the outside platform of the -observation car. Here is a spacious balcony, with projecting roof to -shield from sun or wind; a space ample for some sixteen seats, which -offers a moving picture that reveals the handiwork of Nature as -distinct from that of Art. Here the traveller sits, with all the -majesty of the mountain contours about and above him. - -This Yellowhead Pass had been, for some generations, the great -natural highway of the fur trade. The Hudson Bay post was -established here as early as in 1800, and the name of a yellow-haired -trader, known to the Indians as "Tête Jaunne" (otherwise Jasper -Hawes), led to the present name of this historic spot. One cannot -but dwell a little on the Yellowhead Pass itself, as one of the -special features of the trip; not merely a passage-way to traverse, -but as a region rich in novel points of beauty, never {164} twice the -same, but varying with every atmospheric change and from every new -angle of vision. Traverse the Yellowhead Pass by day in the -brilliant sunlight; or on one of the marvellous moonlit nights, when -every peak rises in silver sheens; when the stars look down as if -they were great globes of light near at hand, and the walls of sheer -rock are so softened under the mystic light as to be no more mere -rocky precipices, but the field of the weird dances of the Brocken. -Gnomes and sprites emerge from some unseen caverns; the cliffs tower -into the sky and bring the stars down to earth, so as to make them -seem as accessible as electric lights. There are projecting -balconies far above where perhaps the Spirits of the Solitudes -congregate. - -The eastern approach to the Yellowhead Pass is guarded by the Boule -Roche and the Roche à Perdrix Mountains, these marking, also, the -entrance to Jasper Park. The fabled Valley of the Cashmere is hardly -less familiar to the great tide of summer travel than is this -Yellowhead region. In a preceding chapter (on the summer resorts of -Canada) the pleasure resources of Jasper Park were somewhat -suggested, and Mount Robson Park will doubtless also become one of -the great favourites of the world. The great natural reserve of -Jasper Park comprising 4400 square miles is one that for all time -will be preserved in its absolute integrity. No spoliation will be -permitted. It is not only a national but a continental -pleasure-ground for all time. Mountain-climbers {165} will find here -the fullest scope for their prowess. More and more will the -Mountaineering enthusiasts of Britain be allured to Canada instead of -to Switzerland--a part of the great Empire, calling with a thousand -voices to every trueborn Briton. To many visitors the best use they -have for a mountain peak is to look at it rather than to ascend it. -Why tramp about when the eye registers all its supreme splendour and -the tourist may luxuriate in the shaded portico outside his camp and -revel in the changeful panorama of colour and beauty? Or he may -stroll in fertile valleys, brilliant with flowers; he may ride, or -drive, along good trails with new enchantments meeting him at every -turn. - -Two beautiful lakes, Pyramid and Patricia, are in the very shadow of -Pyramid Mountain, only four miles from Jasper station. At this -station are the Park superintendent and his staff, who are ever ready -with help and information and who effectually banish from the mind of -the tourist any fear of strangeness or solitude. While hunting is -not permitted in Jasper Park, the angler may, if he likes, fish all -day in the clear lakes. They are well stocked with trout. The -complete ban upon hunting or any use of firearms is a great safeguard -to the wanderer through woods and valleys, making accidents of this -nature impossible. Maligne Cañon and Maligne Lake have been already -discussed in the chapter already alluded to on summer resorts, but no -description could convey any idea of the spectacular {166} beauty of -the excursion leading past Lakes Edith and Beauvert, through dense -forests of spruce and cottonwood, with the walls of the cañon rising -300 feet in height on either side. Here is a trip of thirty-five -miles from the cañon to Maligne Lake, that sheet of pure, emerald -water--an excursion amid such magnificence of beauty as to defy -adequate description. - -Jasper Park is now enriched by the presence of an imperishable -monument that will endure throughout the ages; one to which thousands -of travellers, in the years to come, will make their pilgrimage as to -a shrine. It is a memorial that not only lends its glory to the -Dominion, but to the entire continent as well; for not unaccompanied -by faithful hearts from her great sister nation across the border -shall Canadians seek this mystic altar to which every wind wafts -aromatic fire. For it is a shrine consecrate to all that is noblest -in womanhood, all that is most heroic and divine in our common -humanity. The Dominion, the States, are at one in their reverent -appreciation of the greatness of simple fidelity to duty. He who -keeps faith with his ideals is the true hero. It is he who enters -into the fellowship of the mystery. He may go down to death in -apparent darkness and defeat; he rises in eternal glory. For to be -spiritually-minded is life and peace, even the life eternal. - -It is fitting that Edith Cavell, who gave her life for her country; -who died the death of the martyr {167} rather than betray her trust, -should be commemorated with a memorial whose monumental grandeur -exceeds that of any Egyptian king or Assyrian monarch of remote -antiquity. - -A marvel of glory is this mountain peak now christened Mount Edith -Cavell. It rises in solitary majesty out of this morning-world, -lifting its head into the faint, transparent azure of ethereal -spaces, while its base is rooted amid the rocky fastnesses of the -great range. The naming of Mount Edith Cavell is the tribute of the -Dominion to one great-souled woman, and thus to all that makes for -the greatness of womanhood. On its precipitous slopes may be read by -all who have the inner vision the scroll of human fate. - -The peak is calculated to enchain the eye by its towering height and -faultless symmetry. Did Nature herself design and fashion it for its -strange destiny? Was it indeed reserved for its present -consecration? Who may know? Life is a chain of sequences divinely -ordered. It lieth not with man to direct his steps. - - "The shuttle of the Unseen powers - Works out a pattern not as ours." - - -In the matter of naming new places in Canada the Geographic Board is -the governing body. It was at their meeting in Ottawa in March 1916 -that the decision was made that this peak should immortalise the name -of Edith Cavell. The suggestion had previously been made that the -name of {168} Mount Robson should be changed to that of Mount Cavell, -but this would have been so inevitably confusing all over the world -that it was thought wiser to select a peak hitherto unnamed. To Dr. -E. Deville, the Surveyor-General, the Geographic Board therefore -made this announcement much to the gratification of that well-known -official. Thus is a woman's life of simple faithfulness to duty -lifted into immortal resplendence. What a monitor suggesting -unfaltering devotion to great issues will Mount Edith Cavell remain -to the throngs of passengers on this Grand Trunk Pacific line, who -will watch for its appearance on the horizon, and gaze, with -steadfast view, until it fades in the far distance. For several -miles can it be seen, and what traveller will gaze on this height -without feeling it to be one of the spellbinders of the Dominion? or -without finding himself involuntarily recalling those wonderful lines -of Emerson? - - "Inspirer, prophet evermore! - Pillar which God aloft hath set - So that men might it not forget; - It shall be life's ornament - And mix itself with each event. - By million changes skilled to tell - What in the Eternal standeth well!" - - -Brulè Lake, in Jasper Park, is an expansion of the Athabasca River, -and the railroad line follows the east bank of the lake. Canada -would be the paradise of Undine, the water sprite of La Motte -Fouqué's famous story, for rivers broaden into {169} lakes, and lakes -connect themselves by a chain of rivers, until the continuous -possibilities for inland navigation appeal to the geologist as a -problem of the ages to be solved. Many theories are evolved; even as -they are in Arizona, as to the origin of that apparently impenetrable -mystery, the petrified forest. - -At the station of Miette Hot Springs another excursion may beckon to -some travellers in that up the valley of Fiddle Creek, which flows -into the Athabasca River. There are a number of basins encrusted -with yellow from the sulphur that abounds in the water, which has -strong medicinal properties, and which ranges from a hundred and -eleven to a hundred and twenty-seven degrees in temperature. - -Then, too, there are the Punch Bowl Falls, reached by an attractive -trail from the station known as Pocahontas. Jasper Park extends to -the boundary line which marks the division between Alberta and -British Columbia; and crossing this boundary the traveller finds -himself in another of Canada's gigantic reserves, that of Mount -Robson Park, with Mount Robson itself as the centre dominating the -entire region. The train stops at Mount Robson station, and one -seems to enter a new world in this near approach to that king and -monarch of the Canadian Rockies, the peak of Mount Robson towering -upwards for 13,068 feet in the clear air. Of his first view of this -peak Lawrence J. Burpee, F.R.G.S., writes: - -{170} - -"... Almost without warning it came. We rounded the western end of -the Rainbow Mountains and looked up the valley of the Grand Fork. -'My God!' some one whispered. Rising at the head of the valley and -towering far above all the surrounding peaks we saw a vast cone, so -perfectly proportioned that one's first impression was rather one of -wonderful symmetry and beauty than of actual height. Then we began -to realise the stupendous majesty of the mountain...." - - -It is not only that Mount Robson is supreme in the range of the -Rockies in Canada, but it is one of the notable mountains of the -world. In its peculiar beauty of form and proportion it is hardly -surpassed by any known peak. It has many aspects and phases--it is -clearly seen in brilliant sunshine, it is dimly discerned when it -enwraps itself in clouds and ethereal mists, it is seen again by -resplendent moonlight--and one finds each phase has its own -enchantment. Its glistening crest is visible for twelve miles after -the train pulls out from the station. Its colossal glacier tumbles -masses of ice-fields down into Berg Lake at the foot, and these -masses of ice continue to drift on the surface of emerald water that -holds its colour in the same strange way as do the waters of the Gulf -of Corinth. - -The Alpine Club of Canada has made excursions to these places, and of -one quest on Berg Lake a member writes: - - -"... I shall not soon forget that first day when we came up the trail -and, looking through as far as the eye could reach, saw countless -blossoms--brilliant crimson Indian paintbrush, pale pink columbines, -and mauve asters, their stems imbedded in the softest and greenest -{171} of foliage and moss; nor another day, when on the side of -Rearguard, we came upon a garden of blue forget-me-nots.... Whilst -we lingered amongst the flowers that first day, an avalanche crashed -into the lake and the big waves came rolling across until they -reached the shore above which we were standing, while broken ice -floated out as miniature icebergs upon the milky blue surface of the -lake. And Lake Adolphus, across the Pass--I could not find a word to -describe its indescribable blue. Seen from camp or through the trees -from the side of Mount Mumm, it was absolutely lovely. Then there -was the Robson Glacier, in plain view of camp and only a few minutes' -walk distant, a never-ending source of interest, with its ice cave -and its seracs and crevasses." - - -As the train sweeps on the tourist sees, from his comfortable seat on -the platform of the observation car, a myriad rocky pinnacles -silhouetted against the heavens. The peerless grandeur of these -peaks, snow-crowned and glistening with glaciers; of emerald lakes at -the foot mirroring overhanging crags; of unmeasured wastes of -windswept snow-fields; of ethereal solitudes and depths unfathomed, -in the wild gorges, where, for all the eternities, only the stars -have looked down; and the isolated grandeur of Mount Robson itself -lifting its glittering summit into the skies--all this amazing wonder -enters with new force and richness into life itself. Half a century -ago Milton and Cheadle christened it "a Giant among Giants, -Immeasurably Supreme." The first ascent of Mount Robson was made -only as recently as in 1909 by the Rev. George Kinney and Mr. Donald -Phillips, their final success being the outcome of a trial of twenty -days, during which {172} they were continually baffled and driven -back by adverse and seemingly impossible conditions. But the -difference between success and failure may be accurately defined as -persistence of energy. He who gives up, fails; he who does not give -up, succeeds. It is only a question of time and of tenacity of -purpose. Two unsuccessful attempts to ascend to the summit of Mount -Robson had been made in 1907-8. There is a trail leading to the -north side of Mount Robson, along the Grand Fork River, skirting the -shore of Lake Helena and up through the Valley of a Thousand Falls, -with the celebrated Emperor Falls within view, and thus on to Berg -Lake and to Robson Pass. The trip to Berg Lake can be made within -one day, and it is an excursion into regions of such marvellous -beauty that can never be translated into words. In all this -bewildering sublimity the spellbound gazer can only question, with -Robert Service: - - "Have you seen God in His splendours? heard the text that - Nature renders?" - - -Such fantasies of combination, too, as meet the eye: castles, towers, -fortresses, that glow like opal and ruby and topaz; walls of sheer -glaciers rising in dazzling whiteness like a spectral caravan; -formless solitudes fit only for the abode of the gods! The spirit of -the mountains is abroad on her revels; ice peaks 10,000 feet in the -upper air are her toys; the winds are her Æolian harp; the Valley of -a Thousand Falls is her theatre for pastime. Neither the Swiss {173} -Alps, nor yet that mysterious chain of the Tyrol, haunted by drifting -cloudshapes and vocal with rushing waterfalls, can compare with the -colossal scale of this splendour of all the Mount Robson region. It -is the encountering of an entirely new range of experiences. It is -Service again who interprets one's emotional enthusiasms in the -stanzas: - - "Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else - to gaze on? - Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore, - Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets - blazon, - Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar? - Have you swept the visioned valley with the green stream - streaking through it, - Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost? - Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God's sake go - and do it; - Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost. - - "Have you known the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed - twig a-quiver? - (Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies), - Have you broken trail on snow-shoes? mushed your huskies up - the river, - Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?" - - -Strangest of all, in these stern mountain solitudes, with their -glittering crevasses of ice, there are sheltered valleys all aglow -with myriads of flowers in brilliant and gorgeous hues; and here, at -sunset, peaks touched to gold and crimson are seen looming up in the -transparent air against a background of intensely blue sky, a -spectacle to inspire both painter and poet with its unearthly beauty. - -To traverse such a region as this amid the luxury {174} of the -appointments of the Grand Trunk Pacific's transcontinental trains -seems at first an anomaly; nothing is primitive save the forests -primeval; nothing wild but the scenery. It is all a new universe, -somewhere between the once familiar earth and the dream of -Paradise--something by which to set the compass of life to a new -polarity. - -An intrepid mountain climber, Miss Mary L. Jobe, F.R.G.S., made a -wonderful quest into these Canadian Rockies recently, and explored a -region 100 miles north-west of Mount Robson. Of one scene there Miss -Jobe writes: - - -"A massive white peak shot into the blue from a walled fortress of -rock. Two colossal rocky towers stood guard over a file of lesser -peaks; multi-coloured masses of granite, glacier-hung, glowed with -irridescent tints, while down a valley rushed a foaming river to meet -the cascades of colour pouring from the mountain...." - - -Between Mount Robson and Prince George (from which young city a -railway will soon be completed linking it with Vancouver) the route -on to Prince Rupert follows the Fraser River, the waters of which are -a chrysolite green, the furious current flecked with foam, while the -Fraser, at one point, transforms itself into a lake, seven miles -wide, with that easy power of compassing transformation scenes, -lightning changes, so to speak, of which the rivers of the Dominion -appear to hold the secret. When a Canadian river grows tired of -running, it immediately turns itself into a lake. When a Canadian -lake becomes tired of staying in the same place, {175} it at once -proceeds to become a river. Just what species of genii control the -wilds of Canada has not yet engaged the attention of her -statisticians. The great Fraser River has its headquarters in the -Yellowhead, and flowing through a broad valley, watering large -fertile tracts of land, it makes its progress to the Pacific 800 -miles away. The view of this wonderful river from the railroad, as -the line passes high above the swirling waters, is a magnificent one. -The Fraser has a beautiful bend at Prince George, turning sharply to -the south, while the railway proceeds through another smiling valley, -the Nechako--a valley which is rich in plateau lands favourable for -agricultural uses, and along whose course are numberless sylvan -scenes that lend to it great beauty. Vanderhoof, the gateway to all -the region of lakes of British Columbia, is the capital of the -Nechako Valley. The railway again enters into the mountains, the -Coast Range, in the Bulkley Valley, and for a distance of 200 miles, -between Smithers and Prince Rupert, the view is diversified by -mountain peaks. The Nechako and Bulkley Rivers water fertile valleys -of more than 6,000,000 of acres, easily cultivated and offering a -scenic setting unparalleled in the world. Hazleton is a prosperous -and growing centre with an assured future. From this city the -railway route follows the Skeena River, which also has a trick of -widening at intervals. The splendid train glides on and on, and is -it on the air that one seems to hear echoed: - -{176} - - "There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star a-gleam to - guide us, - And the wild is calling, calling ... let us go!"? - - -The onward route is enthralling. There comes in sight La Riviere au -Shuswap, a tributary of the Fraser, with a vanishing view of three -peaks close together, far up the valley, as the train rushes past. -For it is not every mountain that can have a station to itself, as -has Mount Robson, thus giving the passenger time to see its wonders -with no little satisfaction. Before the junction of the Bulkley and -the Telkwa Rivers is reached, the railway passes Lakes Decker and -Burns; and at the junction of the rivers mineral deposits of copper, -silver, lead, and coal have been discovered that promise rich -leading. Hudson Bay Mountain is a prominent peak, 9000 feet in -height, and in this mountain also silver and silver lead, copper, and -anthracite coal are found; and the Hudson Bay Glacier lies only four -miles from the railway track, easily reached on horseback. The train -runs close to the shore of Lake Kathlyn, a lake filled with a -black-spotted trout, and Hudson Bay Mountain is repeated in the lake -as in a mirror. - -[Illustration: Charles Melville Hays] - -Bulkley Gate is something to see, if one may judge by the contagious -enthusiasm of the young train agent who proceeds to announce it, with -the pride of a showman displaying his wares. By just what necromancy -a railroad system magnetises every employé, from the most important -officials to the youthful recruit, with its own courtesy and {177} -unanalysable charm in all the relations of service, may not be -revealed; but the result is very much in evidence. - -In all the hotels of this line, as well as upon railroad lines, the -duty, grace, and charm of courtesy of manner are constantly -inculcated. To make the service the best on the continent seems to -be the ideal of the staff through every grade and department. -Bulkley Gate proves itself quite worthy of its young champion--a -wonderful gate indeed, formed by a dyke that formerly crossed the -valley, and at last gave way before the power of the river. The -Skeena and the Bulkley Rivers unite near Hazleton, and in close -vicinity is the Rocher Deboule Mountain, which is known as the -Mountain of Minerals. It is extremely rich in copper ore, large -quantities of which have already been taken from it. All along the -picturesque and turbulent Skeena River are quaint Indian villages, -with the totem poles of their tribes. Here also mountain peaks are -much in evidence, and in the spring of 1916 one of these, 9000 feet -in height, was chosen to bear the name of Mount Sir Robert, in honour -of the Premier of the Dominion, Sir Robert Borden. A large glacier, -which seems to be at least a mile in width, has been named Borden -Glacier, and both the peak and the glacier can be seen from Doreen -station. - -Thus is the entire route one of exceptional beauty and never-failing -interest. From the first to the last there is not a dull moment. -And in crossing the {178} wonderful bridge that connects Kaien Island -(on which Prince Rupert stands) with the mainland, the traveller -finds something to enlist his enthusiasm for science as well as that -enlisted for nature. This bridge is nearly a thousand feet in -length, and includes six spans, two of which are of two hundred and -fifty feet each. The engineers encountered great difficulty, because -of the furious racing of the water through the channel, so that at -times the divers could not descend. The conditions not unfrequently -reduced the working hours to little more than three out of the -twenty-four. - -The construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific that extended the western -lines of the Grand Trunk System from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert was an -epic story of the Dominion. For it was really one of the determining -events of British Empire history, as well as an exceptionally potent -factor in the contemporary development of Canada. It has not only -changed the map of the country, but also takes its place in -international advancement. To open a new and vast territory whose -splendour of scenery, incalculably marvellous resources, and climatic -conditions are such as to invite and sustain immigration is an -achievement that brings to bear a signal influence upon the peoples -of the entire European continent and even upon the Orient. It was at -once the opening of a new realm for human life. Education and -culture are invited to enter. It is hardly possible for the mind to -grasp, or for {179} the imagination to picture, all the possibilities -of the future that are initiated by so great an enterprise. The -Indian trail, the packhorse, the canoe, gave way to the steel tracks, -the luxurious trains of vestibuled cars laden with civilisation -advancing into the wilderness. A great Canadian railway is not built -to meet the recognised demands of settlement. It has to act as -pioneer and create the conditions that make settlement possible. Its -construction is, literally, the manifestation of belief in the things -not seen. It is a creative power prospecting for paths of national -destiny. - -The story of that reconnaissance through hundreds of miles of an -apparently impenetrable wilderness is one to haunt the imagination. -It is a story of hardships and of heroisms. Emerson declares that - - "The hero is not fed on sweets." - -The pathfinder shares the usual experience that invests heroism. - -It is to Charles Melville Hays that the conception of thus extending -the Grand Trunk System is primarily due. Mr. Hays was endowed with -the "seeing eye." He was gifted with that penetrating order of -comprehension that swiftly discriminates between the possible and the -impossible, and sets the key of achievement accordingly. He was not -infelicitously called "the Cecil Rhodes of Canada." With that same -brilliant capacity to conceive new combinations that build up new -orders of life, {180} Mr. Hays had that tenacity of purpose which -alone renders such conceptions available, and he had an even larger -power than that of the Empire builder in Africa for relating his -dream to definite conditions. - -It is recorded that there came a morning in Canada when the Dominion -awakened "to experience a thrill of excitement from the Atlantic to -the Pacific." For the newspapers had announced that a new -Transcontinental railway was to be undertaken, and that the Grand -Trunk System was the initiator of this stupendous scheme. It seems -that Mr. Hays himself had conveyed to the press merely this laconic -statement overnight, and it was the spark that incited a very -conflagration of discussion. There was an instantaneous public -clamour whose geographical limits were only defined from Halifax and -Vancouver, from Dawson to Hudson Bay. But when the morning dawned, -and the startlingly interesting news incited the pursuit of the -President of the Grand Trunk System for fuller information, that -distinguished official had already boarded his steamer and was fairly -off on the high seas for Europe. The man at the head of a railway -system that, by the addition of its new western lines, attains to no -less than 8115 miles in extent, with its inestimable potentialities -of service, may well be accorded rank among the notable figures whose -genius and courage have helped to shape the destiny of the Dominion. - -In the work of constructing this great {181} trans-continental road, -Mr. Hays called as his lieutenant, in 1909, Mr. Edson Joseph -Chamberlain. Mr. Chamberlain was Vice-President and General Manager -of the Grand Trunk Pacific for three busy years, and after the -tragedy of the _Titanic_ in 1912, he was called to succeed Mr. Hays -as President of the Grand Trunk System. - -The chief engineer in charge of the construction of the Grand Trunk -Pacific was Mr. J. B. Kelliher. With him went a party of gentlemen -to make the preliminary exploration after the surveyors had made -their pioneer report on the possibilities of the route. While they -had secured a general impression of the topography, the problems that -remained were intricate and manifold. - -[Illustration: Hudson Bay Mountain and Lake Kathlyn, Bulkley Valley] - -"In order to obtain a faint idea of the prospect that confronted -those entrusted with the reconnaissance," writes Frederick A. -Talbot,[1] "conceive a vast country rolling away in humps, towering -ridges, and wide-yawning valleys as far as the eye can see, and with -the knowledge that the horizon can be moved onward for hundreds of -miles without bringing any welcome break in the outlook. On every -hand is the interminable forest, a verdant sea, except where here and -there jagged splashes of black betoken that the fire fiend has been -at work. The trees swinging wave-like before the breeze conceal -dangers untold beneath their heavy, blanket-like branches.... Here -is a swamp whose treacherous {182} mass stretches for mile after -mile.... There is a litter of jagged rock ... here a maze of fallen -tree trunks, levelled by wind, water, and fire, piled up beneath the -trees to a height of ten, fifteen, and twenty feet in an inextricable -mass, over which one has to make one's way...." Mr. Talbot -graphically describes that silence of the trackless solitudes: "Not a -sound beyond the sighing of the wind through the trees, the -rifle-like crack of a dead, gaunt monarch as it crashes to the -ground, or the howl of a wolf." At night the party slept in -sleeping-bags; they had scant provisions, too, because to carry an -adequate supply would have been an impediment to progress; and after -the quicksands, the impenetrable forests, they would suddenly -encounter some mad river or vast lake; and at one cache where they -arrived, famished and weary, they found that wild animals had broken -in and destroyed the store of dried fruits, fish, and canned food -they had expected to find. What a story is this record of pioneer -work for the selection of the route and the discovery of the most -favourable Pass for the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific! -There were many possible Passes investigated before the decision was -gradually arrived at, by the process of elimination, to choose that -of the Yellowhead. The number was first reduced to four; the Wapiti, -Pine River, Yellowhead, and Peace River, and then Mr. Hays decided on -that of the Yellowhead. - - -[1] _The Making of a Great Canadian Railway_. London: Seeley, -Service and Company, Limited. - - -"Our engineers have secured so easy a grade {183} through the -Yellowhead Pass," said the Chairman of the Board of Directors, "that -when the traveller takes the trip he will be no more conscious of -crossing a big mountain range, except for the magnificent scenery, -than he would be when he travels by the London and North-Western or -by the Great Eastern Railway." - -One interesting fact in connection with the enormous enterprise of -constructing this road was the installation of temporary telephone -facilities, linking together the long line of construction camps that -trailed from Winnipeg to the coast. - -Something of all this wonderful story comes fragmentarily to the -passenger whose interest is aroused by the splendid construction of -the road, on which no effort was spared to secure permanence and -safety. One feature that is always a noticeable one to the traveller -is that of the "milestones," so to speak; the tall signs clearly -inscribed with the figures registering the miles as they are so -rapidly passed over. - -Not only flowers and glaciers, sunsets and tumbling cataracts, rocky -pinnacles and frowning ramparts, enchant a journey unrivalled on the -continent, but in the palace-train, whose cars are a series of -drawing-rooms in their luxurious appeal, there are varied -opportunities for studies of humanity, human interest, and sympathies -as well. For example, in one corner is an aged French Abbé, absorbed -in his breviary and in a richly bound volume which reveals {184} -itself as the meditations of Fénelon. The air of detachment and -scholarly isolation that he contrives to throw around himself forbids -even much speculation as to whence he came or whither he is going--as -if even one's mental questioning might be an intrusion. - -At one little station, as the train stops, its resplendent comfort -contrasting strangely with the primitive life of the newly-fledged -village, there enter a man and woman who have been attended to the -very steps of the vestibule by a throng that apparently represents -the entire population of the town. They are all singing, and the man -and woman linger in the vestibule joining in the song. The man is in -the uniform of an officer of the Salvation Army; the woman, -sweet-faced and smiling, is also costumed in this order, with the -usual Salvation Army bonnet projecting over her serene and pleasant -face. The refrain of the song floats out on the air: - - "Yes, we'll gather at the river, - That flows by the throne of God." - -There is something in the time, the place, the isolation in the new -and just-opened country through which the train is passing, the -on-coming darkness, and the penetrating cadence of the trite and -familiar melody that touches every heart. Every one joins in the -melody; and as the train begins to move, the outer throng withdrawing -into safer distance, the man and the woman still leaning from the -door of the vestibule, there is a waving of hands, and a {185} chorus -of farewells from the vanishing group left behind, and the train -flies on to the benediction of song that still pursues it on the air: - - "God be with you till we meet again!" - -The man and the woman catch up the line; they are singing with -melodious voices, the magnetism enchains the passengers, and the -cadence echoes again through the railway car: - - "God be with you till we meet again!" - - -It was one of the little episodes that transcend conventionalities -and make strangers into friends. The darkness is coming on; various -nationalities, various individualities--the elaborately outfitted -English tourist, the Reverend Abbé, the pioneer settlers, the stately -official on some mission of Government, the college Professor with -one eye on the landscape in scientific scrutiny--yet all meeting for -the moment in a sense of their common heritage as children of the -Divine Father. - -Later it was learned that the Salvation Army officer and his sweet -Scotch wife were none other than Commissioner and Mrs. Charles -Sowton, who were on their way to open meetings in the little Indian -village of Metlakatla, near Prince Rupert, going on later to -Vancouver and Victoria. The Salvation Army is one of the features of -the great North-West. A new territory had been created, and -Commissioner Sowton was appointed to superintend all the activities -of the army in the {186} country west of Port Arthur. For more than -thirty years the Commissioner had been engaged in Salvation Army -work, during which period he and Mrs. Sowton had been stationed in -the British Isles, Norway, India, and the United States in turn. On -their arrival in Victoria on this trip, Commissioner and Mrs. Sowton -were given an official reception, the Mayor and the City Council -joining with the people of the City to welcome these faithful helpers -of humanity. In Vancouver, also, a large meeting was held in the -Pantages Theatre in their honour, Mayor Taylor presiding and many -representative citizens being present. - -Nor did the passengers on that particular train fail to make friends -with the wounded Canadian soldier, a brave youth who had lost one arm -in service at the front, and thus crippled for life was returning to -his home at Prince Rupert. To one passenger who was deeply touched -by his courage, his youth, and his patriotism, he was moved to show a -little talisman that he carried in his pocket, an envelope containing -the prayer written by Lord Roberts for the soldiers at the time of -the South African war: - - -"... If it be Thy will, enable us to win victory for England, but, -above all, grant us a better victory over temptation and sin, over -life and death, that we may be more than conquerors through Him who -loved us, and laid down His life for us, Jesus, our Saviour, the -Captain of the army of God." - - -To his new friend the lad handed his signed card {187} of -"Self-control; The Sake of Others, and for Love of Christ and -Country," the promise to abstain from all intoxicating liquors, and -to do all in his power to promote good habits among his comrades. -And there was his little card of personal prayer: - - -"Almighty God, Grant me Thy power, and keep my heart in Thy peace, -help me to avoid evil, and be with me in life and death, for Jesus' -sake." - - -And the two, strangers but an hour before, were drawn near as sharers -of a common hope, a common faith in the Divine care and leading. - -On the arrival at Prince Rupert the populace came out to meet the -young soldier. In him they honoured all Canadian soldiers who were -offering their lives that their Empire might live and that the -freedom of humanity from Prussian tyranny might be preserved. There -was more than one band of music at the station, and musicians, -soldiers, and people joined in the war song: - - "When my King and Country call me and I'm wanted at the front, - Where the shrapnel shells are bursting in the air; - When the foe in fury charges and we're sent to bear the brunt. - And the roll is called for service,--I'll be there! - - "When the Kaiser's lines are broken and his armies out of France, - When the Belgian desolation we repair; - When the final muster's ordered and the bugle sounds 'Advance' - May the God of Battles help me to be there! - - "When for me 'Last Post' is sounded and I cross the silent ford, - I've a Pilot who of 'mine fields' will beware; - When 'Reveille' sounds in Heaven and the Armies of the Lord - Sing the Hallelujah chorus,--I'll be there!" - -{188} - -No literature relating to the terrible struggle could have brought -home such an intense realisation of the significance of the war, and -the indomitable courage and splendid loyalty of the Dominion, to the -passengers on that Grand Trunk Pacific train as did these personal -contacts and experiences. Canada is not a military nation. She -desires to follow the paths of peaceful progress and noble -development. She has no enmities toward any race, but she sees -clearly the utter demoralisation of the entire world if militarism -and armaments are not exterminated. "The people of the British -dominions are animated by a stern resolve that there shall be no such -outcome," said Premier Borden in an address before the New England -Society, "and they believe it possible to create a well-ordered world -whose harmony shall be based on a mutual respect for common rights." - -[Illustration: Indian Totem Pole, Alaska] - -The wonderful journey, whose majestic splendour so impressed itself -upon individual life that, in a sense, it could never be over, had -its termination at Prince Rupert. There, again, one may watch the -rose and flame of dawn and the glory of colour from terraced heights -over-looking sea and land; and in all the play of colour reflected -from a thousand waters he may almost find prefigured the twelve gates -of the Heavenly City that were all of pearl; and the foundations of -the wall which were garnished with precious stones--jasper and -sapphire, emerald and chrysolite, and last--an amethyst! - - - - -{189} - -CHAPTER IX - -PRINCE RUPERT AND ALASKA - -Mrs. Carlyle declared that when Robert Browning's poem of _Sordello_ -appeared she read it through twice with the deepest attention, but -that at the conclusion of the second reading she was utterly unable -to determine as to whether "Sordello" was a tree, an island, or a -man. Somewhat of the same bewilderment has beset many people of late -years in regard to any mention of Prince Rupert, the young seaport of -the great North-West. One citizen of the United States to whom a -rather unusual degree of cosmopolitan travel had been allotted by the -Fates that appointed his not undistinguished destiny, and who enjoyed -the well-earned admiration of a host of friends as being -pre-eminently entitled to speak with authority on many abstract -matters for which those less erudite cared little and, alas! knew -less, assured his votaries, on inquiry, that Prince Rupert was a town -somewhere in the "Dolomites" and that its title should be spelled -with a final "z"; while another cheerfully relegated Prince Rupert to -the maritime provinces of Canada. Still another, who was nothing if -not historical, connected the name only with that of the son of -Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine, who was created Duke of -Cumberland in 1644 and who so distinguished himself in scientific -pursuits that he {190} was rewarded with a tomb in Westminster Abbey -(somewhere about 1682). His portrait, painted by Sir Peter Lely, is -in the National Portrait Gallery at London. Not to prolong mere -pleasantries, however, the Prince Rupert whose citizens forecast for -it the future of the "Liverpool of America" is really the terminal of -that vast and splendid new transcontinental highway, the Grand Trunk -System. - -Prince Rupert was really created in Boston (U.S.A.), for before the -dense forest covering the rocky island with an almost impenetrable -growth was felled, the town was laid out by Messrs. Brett and Hall, -one of the most distinguished firms of landscape architects in the -United States. As a result it is one of the most charmingly designed -cities of the entire northern continent. The scenic setting of -Prince Rupert is one of incomparable beauty, with its ineffable glory -of sea and sky, its hills and cliffs, with terrace above terrace, a -scenic setting that suggests, and even rivals, that of Algiers, or -Naples, or Genoa, in that unique order of picturesque loveliness -investing the cities that rise from terraces above blue seas, with -architectural splendours silhouetted against the sapphire sky. - -Kaien Island, upon which the main part of the city will stand, -comprises some 28 square miles lying 550 miles north of Vancouver. -From the magnificent harbour the island rises imperiously, dominated -by its central peak, Mount Hays, which towers to some 2300 feet in -the clear air, with a {191} grandeur of outlook that the artistic -genius of Messrs. Brett and Hall admirably utilised in a way that -insures the young city so novel and delightful a background. From -Mount Hays the view over the harbour, the islands, and the far waters -of the Pacific, and over lakes, forests, and rivers on the mainlands, -is a view to be included among the noblest scenic delights of the -world. No more romantic panorama discloses itself from Amalfi, Hong -Kong, or from the Acropolis of Athens. Nor is Prince Rupert icebound -and stormbound in the winter, for the Japanese current that washes -the shores insures an open harbour all the year round. The entrance -to the bay is singularly commodious and is usually free from fog. -The harbour of Prince Rupert has every claim to be considered one of -the finest in the world. - -The task on which Messrs. Brett and Hall entered was a novel one. It -was nothing less than the creation of a city seen in ideal vision. -On the actual site was a waste and wild of rocks and stones, of -tangled undergrowth and huge stumps of trees that had been felled. -The mountain, also, had to be reckoned with, and even if the Boston -landscape experts had possessed that traditional faith which is said -to be able to remove mountains, they did not wish to remove Mount -Hays. Like Mount Royal, in stately, splendid Montreal, the mountain -was the most picturesque of assets. Here and there some giant tree -had escaped the fate of its companions, and stood as if contemplating -their fate. The uncompromising debris, the {192} rocky sub-stratum, -the abounding mass of loose stone, all combined to present -difficulties. "Prince Rupert! A town hewn out of solid rock," has -since that day been the description of the new city, quoted with -appreciative interest. - -How did Messrs. Hall and Brett attack the problem? It was a -complexity of topography that baffled, if it did not defy, solutions. -But Nature yields, perforce, to the necromancy of genius, and the -initial achievement was to create a series of planes, planes level, -planes inclined, and they then discovered that the trend of all these -was, naturally, from north-east to south-west. Nature smiled upon -them to the degree of establishing the means for all these planes to -be, approximately, parallel in direction. Doubtless these landscape -creators (being Bostonians) congratulated themselves in true -Emersonian phrase on the truth that: - - "... the world is built in order - And the atoms march in tune." - - -This stupendous work was first entered upon by the architects in -January of 1908, the preliminary hydrographic and topographic surveys -having been made in the two previous years by a large engineering -force under the direction of James H. Bacon, the Harbour Engineer of -the Grand Trunk Pacific. The planes being appropriately parallel -allowed rectangular systems of blocks for building, thus offering the -best facilities for traffic; and the lie of the land permitted the -splendid, spacious avenues with {193} charm of vista and vast -perspective, in combination with curving streets of limited -crescents, so attractive for the residential part of the city. -Beside Mount Hays Park, other plaza reservations were made, squares -and playgrounds being especially considered. Along Hays Creek was a -wonderful natural park which was utilised, and there has perhaps -seldom been a combination of art and nature more artistically blended. - -For the most beautiful residential section the eastern end of Kaien -Island was selected. Connecting this residential region with the -business section was a broad highway called Prince Rupert Boulevard, -which also formed a link in a circular drive of twenty miles, -extending around the island. There is a superb view obtained from -here over Lake Morse and Lake Wainwright, and in this transparent -air, under a glowing sky, this view alone would be a signal -inspiration to painter or poet. For Prince Rupert is one of the most -ideally enchanting places to be found on any shore; and one of the -notable drives of the world, hardly even excepting that picturesque -and romantic pilgrimage route between Sorrento and Amalfi, is found -in Prince Rupert Boulevard in its connection with Lake Avenue. These -shores of all the marvellous North-West are only comparable with -those of Italy in their ineffable charm. - -It is not alone, however, for the romance of beauty that Prince -Rupert is notable. This brilliant young city is destined to be a -traffic centre of great {194} proportions and of cosmopolitan -importance. It will inevitably become the emporium of Alaska and of -all the great Northern region. The port is but thirty miles south of -the Alaskan boundary, and it is thus the natural starting-point for -Dawson, Nome, and other of the Alaskan and Yukon centres. From -Prince Rupert to New York or to Boston or to Chicago there is now -this direct line through Edmonton and Winnipeg, and thus it cannot -but become a great international port. Prince Rupert is four hundred -miles nearer to Yokohama than is Vancouver, and it is six hundred -miles less than by way of San Francisco. Since the completion of the -Grand Trunk Pacific this route has offered the shortest and most -direct route to the Yukon and to Alaska. The first train over the -new extension of the Grand Trunk from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert -arrived at this port on April 9, 1914, a date not unimportant in the -history of progress in Canada, as it initiated conditions which -inaugurate an entirely new era in its prosperous development. - -This romantic young city has the distinction of having had more time -and money devoted to its design than has perhaps ever before been -bestowed upon a town seen only in vision. Henri Bergson might almost -point to it as an illustration of his creative evolution. Before the -opening of the town site, plank sidewalks and roadways, sewers and -water mains, and other municipal facilities for the sanitary welfare -and the comfort of ten thousand {195} people were constructed. At -the present time in this city, which only celebrated its ninth -birthday in January 1917, there are already seven thousand -inhabitants. There are three daily newspapers, the _News_, -_Journal_, and _Empire_. There are five banks, branches of the Bank -of Montreal, Canadian Bank of Commerce, Union Bank of Canada, the -Royal, and the Bank of British North America. Two clubs, the Prince -Rupert and the Pioneer, have each attractive houses of their own, and -include in their membership the leading professional and business men -of the city. - -The harbour is equipped for the most modern and exacting -requirements. It might well be called the harbour for the ships from -the Seven Seas. The Grand Trunk Pacific Steamship Company have also -established a splendid service between Skagway, Prince Rupert, and -Seattle, the _Prince Rupert_ and the _Prince George_ providing all -the comforts of the best ocean liners, and offering scenery on the -voyage that is so resplendent a feature with its perpetual surprises. -Prince Rupert has an exceptionally high order of population, people -of education, refinement, energy, and enterprise. Churches abound; -the schools are the pride of the city; the social life is interesting -and especially distinctive in having so large a preponderance of -cultivated people. - -The fishing industry at Prince Rupert is already one of the most -important and the cold storage plant is one of the largest on the -continent. There is {196} a vast cannery interest, for the salmon -pack of the Skeena River has established itself with the public as -being of a finer order than salmon caught farther south. Prince -Rupert is already the acknowledged centre of the Skeena salmon -fishery, there being twelve manufactories on the river, employing -twelve hundred boats in constant service and more than five thousand -labourers, women as well as men working in this industry. The -halibut landed at the port in the first nine months of 1916 amounted -to 11,667,300 lbs. - -Prince Rupert has, also, another important commercial asset in its -pulpwood. Untold quantities of valuable timber are at its very -doors. Mining industries, too, are forecast, as it is believed that -there is much rich ore in the adjacent region, and a smelter is -already projected. All these, however, are held as subordinate in -any case to the commercial possibilities of the city which promise an -undoubted destiny. The Skeena River is one of the invaluable assets, -increasing all traffic conveniences for fruit-raising and -agricultural production, and offering a waterway delightful for -excursions and explorations. The completion of the Grand Trunk -Pacific has brought the eastern portion of the United States and -Alaska forty-eight hours nearer to each other through Chicago, and -has greatly enhanced the commercial interests between the two -countries. The climate of Prince Rupert has a remarkably even -temperature, averaging in summer {197} about seventy-seven degrees, -and the coldest record in any winter (this one being exceptional) was -that of eight degrees below zero. As a rule the winter temperature -does not reach so low a degree. The climate thus permits much -out-of-door life and is perhaps not an altogether negligible factor -in the easy grace of social intercourse. The town has the beginning -of a library, and more than one magazine and reading club. "To open -a door, to widen the horizon, this is human service of the highest -order." The creation of Prince Rupert is well calculated to rank -high in this service. - -[Illustration: Junction of Skeena and Bulkley Rivers, British -Columbia] - -One of the interesting features of this town, which is one full of -surprises lying in wait for the alert and expectant traveller, is the -great dry dock of the Grand Trunk Pacific and Ship Repair Company, -which has cost something like three million dollars, and was -completed in 1915. This ship-building and repair plant is virtually -three docks in one; and it can handle a ship of twenty thousand tons -displacement and a length of six hundred feet, drawing thirty feet of -water; moreover, it can deal with three ships at a time. It has -derricks that can lift out, for repair, boilers weighing sixty tons, -and after passing them through the shops replace them in the ship. -It also furnishes power, light, compressed air, with wharf and -storage space. The dock, in conjunction with the machine and the -repair shops, can handle any class of work, wood or steel, boilers or -any kind of mechanism. During its construction {198} over a hundred -and fifty men were employed, with a pay-roll that ran to some twelve -thousand dollars a month. The inestimable convenience of such a -plant for vessels in these waters in need of repair can hardly be -over-estimated. - -In June 1915 the great enterprise was undertaken across the harbour -opposite Prince Rupert of clearing seven hundred acres for -residential use. Within three months one hundred acres of this was -prepared, but from causes connected with the war, and temporary -conditions of finance, the entire completion of the work is delayed -for a time. In Prince Rupert the site for the magnificent terminal -station is already cleared; and when the war shall be ended and -conditions in the Dominion resume their prosperity, these buildings -will be erected. The telegraph service of Prince Rupert is -admirable. There is a direct service establishing through -communication with the East, and the rates between Prince Rupert and -Vancouver have been reduced to one dollar for a ten-word message. -There is direct communication by telephone with Hazleton, Skeena -Crossing, and with the mine of the Montana Development Company at -Carnaby. - -The civic affairs of Prince Rupert are well administered. The city -has adopted the single-tax plan. It owns its electric lighting and -power, its telephone and water systems. The fire department is -equipped with the most modern appliances. It has twenty-one miles of -planked roadways; it has five miles of {199} plank pavements for -pedestrians; and has already three miles of sewers. Five parks -aggregate nearly a hundred acres of reservation for the city's -recreation. - -The lumber industry in British Columbia is one of the utmost -importance as the northern part of the province alone produces an -annual output of some twelve million feet. The southern portion of -the province also makes considerable shipments. The Forestry -Department of the Provincial Government of the Dominion report that -there is available, in Prince Rupert district, twenty-five million -acres averaging over fifteen thousand feet to the acre. In addition -there is a tract which will be available for commercial purposes, -within the next half century, of an area of seventeen million acres. -About half this timber is spruce, red cedar and hemlock come next in -order, and there is perhaps ten per cent. of balsam and yellow cedar. -The cannery repairs and boxes required for the salmon pack and for -the halibut trade make enormous demands on lumber. This branch of -commerce was completely transformed by the completion of the Grand -Trunk Pacific. It enabled Prince Rupert to compete on an equal basis -with many other points, for a direct railroad line running through -the centre of the Prairie Provinces to Winnipeg, and especially a -railroad that has a better grade and shorter haul than any other with -which it competes, places Prince Rupert on a fortunate basis with -regard to markets. - -{200} - -It is hardly possible to estimate the future that lies before Prince -Rupert. As tributary resources it has an ocean and an Empire. To -its port will come the ships from all countries. They will bring -products from the East, of the various far-off continents, and they -will sail away laden with lumber and the rich exports of the vast -North-West. Never was a city more skilfully planned. The Dominion -Government's Hydrographic Survey had made a complete survey of Prince -Rupert Harbour and its approaches, discovering that from the entrance -to the extreme end, a distance of fourteen miles, it was entirely -free from rocks or obstructions of any kind, and that the depth -afforded ample anchorage. The Provincial Government of British -Columbia appropriated two hundred thousand dollars for preliminary -improvements, in the construction of roads and pavements, of sewers -and water mains, before the town site was opened. While the -Provincial Government makes Prince Rupert its headquarters for the -northern part of the Province, with a court-house and buildings for -offices, the Dominion Government is erecting a permanent and handsome -post-office and customs house. Surrounded by a country whose -richness and variety of resources are beyond comparison, its rapid -growth is inevitable. - -The easy proximity of Prince Rupert to Alaska is one of the most -important things in connection with this unique and brilliant young -seaport of the Pacific. Seattle and Skagway are 1000 miles apart, -{201} and thus the round trip between Seattle and Skagway is 2000 -miles; but from Prince Rupert to Skagway is of course a sail of far -less distance. The trip is one of entrancing scenery, fiords, bays -all mountain-locked in supreme majesty and beauty, arms of the sea -extending into coast indentations with an unexcelled panorama of -glancing lights, play of colours, and moving-picture panoramas of -grandeur and picturesqueness. Between Seattle, Prince Rupert, and -Skagway the entire round trip occupies some eleven days. It is a -voyage unmatched on the entire globe. In the distance the towering -peaks clothed in snow of dazzling whiteness rise beyond the mountain -ranges in their royal purple with evanescent flitting gleams of gold -and rose from the brilliant sun; the green water of the bays is alive -with thousands of leaping salmon; and the shores are defined by the -dark pine forests, standing in an impenetrable tangle of ferns and -trailing undergrowth. Through this "Inside Passage," as it is -called, a fleet of steamers has been employed by the Grand Trunk -Pacific in a splendid coast service between Seattle and Skagway. "I -am in the writing-room on the upper deck of the _Prince George_ -sailing amid such ineffable glory that I only write about one word to -every ten minutes," said an enthusiastic voyager in a personal letter -to a friend in the early September days of 1915; "only one word in -ten minutes will be allotted to you, for I must LOOK! It is the time -of my life, and I can write letters (at {202} all events to you, to -whom they write themselves) anywhere. But this voyage--it is the -dream of a lifetime! I have sailed the enchanted Mediterranean with -our rapturous callings at Algiers, rising on terraced hills in her -unspeakable beauty; at Naples, with all the Neapolitan coast a very -vision of the ethereal realms; I have sailed on to Genoa, with -Ischia, dream-haunted by Victoria Colonna, Italy's immortal -woman-poet, and made my pilgrimage to the island and over the ancient -Castel d'Ischia by local boats from Naples; I once sailed through the -Ionian Isles in the late afternoon of a May day that was all azure -and gold; I have sailed the Italian lakes and cruised about on the -Alpine lakes of Switzerland: but it still remained for this one -enchanted voyaging to give me that thrill of untranslatable ecstasy. -This combination of the sea and mountains in what they call the -'Inside Passage' is simply superb. And the _Prince George_ is -perfectly ideal in all conditions. - -"I have a large, beautiful state-room alone--every state-room on -these steamers is an outside one; the entire steamer is richly -carpeted in soft moss-green; finished in the native woods, polished -till you could use the woodwork for a mirror (and if it reflected you -how decorative it would be!); beside that, there are mirrors galore, -of the regulation order, and a news-stand with all the world's -literature, so to speak; the most delightful bathrooms, but I don't -spend the entire time at sea in salt baths, as you unkindly {203} -assert; the table is excellent, being rather noted, I am told, for -its fine cuisine, and there is to me a very direct connection between -delicious coffee and various accompaniments, and feeling 'up' to -things for the day; anyway, everything is delicious, and the -splendid, spacious decks to enjoy a paradise of walking on; -writing-desks well stocked with stationery at every turn, on every -deck; and these steamers are 'twin-screw' if you know what that -means! I confess I don't! but apparently people who do know consider -a 'twin' screw as of far more importance in the universe than one -lone, lorn screw; and they are equipped with wireless telegraph (I do -know what that means) and with oil engines, and every modern device -of safety, and with fairly luxurious comfort; and, indeed, the whole -voyage is ideal and has only one fault--alas! alas! that it will -come to an end. If only it would never end! I count off the flying -hours as a miser counts his gold, I can hardly bear to sleep to miss -one hour of its glory and loveliness, yet sleep, too, is a joy in -this magical air, and, at all events, this voyage will not be ended -when it is over. I shall have it all the rest of my life ... to live -over again and again 'in the ethereal,' where all outer experiences -find their record. I am quite sure the Recording Angel sets this -down in illuminated pages." - -From Puget Sound 500 miles of the voyage is through Canadian waters, -so vast is the Dominion. For one hundred and twenty miles the -steamer is {204} sailing through the Straits of Georgia, which -separates the main land of British Columbia from Vancouver Island, -with the range of the Olympic Mountains astern, from whence the gods -look down on mortals. Do they not, indeed, dwell on Olympian -heights? Passing into the Seymour Narrows from the Georgian Strait, -the Channel is hardly more than one third of a mile wide, and the -rocky walls with the lofty mountains just behind are so overgrown -with trees as to present an almost solid wall of emerald green, -tempting the passenger to reach out his hand and grasp the cedar -needles that seem so near. On sunny days the reflections in the -water are bewilderingly clear, and here and there pour down rushing -cataracts of foam-crested water from the melting snow of the -mountains. - -[Illustration: Indians spearing Salmon in Bulkley Cañon] - - -"Queen Charlotte Sound," writes Ella Higginson,[1] "is a splendid -sweep of purple water.... The warm breath of the Kuro Siwo, -penetrating all these inland seas and passages, is converted by the -great white peaks of the horizon into pearl-like mist that drifts in -clouds and fragments upon the blue waters. Nowhere are these mists -more frequent, nor more elusive, than in Queen Charlotte Sound. At -sunrise they take on the delicate tones of the primrose or the -pinkish star-flower; at sunset, all the royal rose and purple -blendings; all the warm flushes of amber, orange, and gold. Through -a maze of pale yellow, whose fine, cool needles sting one's face and -set one's hair with seed pearls, one passes into a little open -water-world where a blue sky sparkles above a bluer sea, and the air -is like clear, washed gold. But a mile ahead a solid wall of -amethyst closes in this brilliant sea; shattering it into particles -that {205} set the hair with amethysts instead of pearls.... It is -this daily mist-shower that bequeaths to British Columbia and Alaska -their marvellous and luxuriant growth of vegetation, their spiced -sweetness of atmosphere, their fairness and freshness." - - -[1] _Alaska; the Great Country_, by Ella Higginson. New York: The -Macmillan Company. - - -Forty miles north of Prince Rupert is Dixon's Entrance, that marks -the international boundary between the Canadian and Alaskan waters. -Some haunting impress left upon the air by the great navigators who -made their pioneer voyages in these intricate waterways--Perez and -Valdez, Duncan, Vancouver, Meares, Caudra--their dauntless courage -and their perils fling spectra on the passing winds and waves. The -scenic effects grow more and more sublime as the steamer advances. -At a distance of about seventy-five miles north of Prince Rupert the -traveller comes in sight of a remarkable series of mountain terraces, -rising more than six thousand feet into the air, with sheer walls and -castellated summits. - -The first call at port after Prince Rupert is at Ketchikan, seven -hundred miles from Seattle, with a population of some two thousand -people, the distributing point for the mines and fisheries of -Southern Alaska. On its crescent-shaped harbour and with its eternal -guard of mountains, with its lake and its falls and its wonderful -gorge, three miles distant into the woodlands, it is a picturesque -town, and with its electric lighting and steam heating it leaves -little to be desired for comfortable residence. Between Ketchikan -and Wrangell are {206} the Wrangell Narrows, a channel where ethereal -vapours, many-hued, like tropical flowers, are breeze-blown in the -air; and the long, green moss, on the trees on either side, sways -like drapery. Miss Scidmore, writing of Wrangell Narrows, thus -pictured it with her fascinating pen: - - -"It was an enchanting trip up that narrow channel of deep water, -rippling between bold island shores and parallel mountain walls. -Beside clear emerald tide, reflecting tree and rock, there was the -beauty of foaming cataracts leaping down the sides of snow-capped -mountains and the grandeur of great glaciers pushing down through -sharp ravines and dropping miniature icebergs into the sea. Touched -by the last light of the sun, Patterson Glacier was a frozen lake of -a wonderland, shining with silvery lights, and showing a pale -ethereal green and deep, pure blue in all the rifts and crevices of -its icy front." - - -From Wrangell on to Juneau the entrance to Taku Inlet is passed. The -far-famed Taku Glacier is differentiated by the extreme brilliancy of -its colouring from all other glaciers of the Alaskan regions. Taku -Inlet, with its forty-five ice streams, is a fitting approach to this -marvel of Nature. Every blast of the steamer's whistle is as the -call of a giant monster which is answered by masses of ice that, -detached by the vibration, plunge headlong into the sea with a noise -like thunder. "That day on the Taku Glacier will live forever as one -of the rarest and most perfect enjoyment," again writes Alaska's -vivid interpreter, Miss Scidmore: "The grandest objects in Nature -were before us, the primeval forces that mould the face of the earth -{207} were at work, and it was all so out of the every-day world that -we might have been walking a new planet, fresh fallen from the -Creator's hand." The Taku Glacier has a sheer, precipitous front -three hundred feet high, the colour making it seem one gigantic -sapphire, so intense is the blue. Yet again there are glints of -green and rose and gold that flash out as if a casket of jewels had -been flung over it, or an avalanche of star-dust, windswept, from the -far spaces of the universe. John Muir, the great naturalist, whose -vision was that of the artist and whose spirit was always open to the -message of the eternal world, was deeply impressed by Taku and by -Sundum fiords, and in one allusion he says of Taku: - - -"A hundred or more glaciers of the second and third class may be seen -along these walls, and as many snowy cataracts, which, with the -plunging bergs, keep all the fiord in a roar. The scenery is of the -wildest description, especially in their upper reaches, where the -granite walls, streaked with waterfalls, rise in sheer massive -precipices, like those of Yosemite Valley, to a height of three and -four thousand feet." - - -The poetic eye of John Burroughs keenly recognised the grandeur of -all this voyage and the especial splendour that lies between Prince -Rupert and Skagway; and of the gleaming brilliancy of the glacier -regions he said that it was as if "the solid earth became spiritual -and translucent." - -This new route to Alaska, which is under the auspices of the Grand -Trunk Pacific, has greatly increased the tourist travel, as the -safety of the {208} "Inside Route," combined with the luxurious -conditions and the ineffable panorama of beauty, render the journey -as easy and feasible as it is delightful. There is a saving of three -days by journeying over the Grand Trunk Pacific to Prince Rupert and -there embarking for Alaska. In January of 1916, the well-known -traveller and writer, Mr. Frank G. Carpenter, made this trip of which -he wrote: - - -"... I despair of giving you any idea of the beauties of this voyage, -they are so many and so varied. Now you have the wonders of the -Swiss Lakes, now those of the Inland Sea of Japan, and now beauties -like those on the coasts of New Zealand. There are all sorts of -combinations of sea and sky, of evergreen slopes and snow-capped -mountains. The colour effects are beyond description and the sunsets -indescribable in their changes and beauties. The islands are of all -shapes and sizes and they float upon sapphire seas. Many of the -islands have snow-capped mountains that rise in green walls almost -straight up from the water, and their heads are often crested with -silver." - - -Juneau, the capital and principal metropolis of Alaska, is on -Gastineau Channel, which is eight miles in length and more than a -mile wide at the entrance, gradually growing less as it nears the -mainland, till it becomes like a narrow avenue of blue water through -which the sunset pours in the late afternoon with an almost unearthly -beauty. Mount Juneau, in the centre of the town, rises to a height -of 3000 feet, with sloping sides of a pale green down which rush -numberless cascades of silvery, sparkling water. Juneau is already -an important {209} business centre, with incalculably rich mining -properties tributary to the city, and with almost every branch of -business and the industries represented. It is the commercial supply -centre of all the camps; it is on the direct line of travel from -Seattle to the Upper Yukon, and has its banks, assay laboratories, -transportation facilities, and good schools, while it is the -residence of the Governor of Alaska and the seat of all the Federal -offices. There is a Chamber of Commerce, and there are women's clubs -and imported gowns. The hospitalities of Juneau are already famous, -and social life rises to a gaiety and whirl that leaves the Parisian -life, as it existed in its social tide before the war, quite in the -shade. The Parisienne is seldom reckless in her extravagance; a -certain well-adjusted economy is a part of French life, even among -the most fashionable and wealthy. But economy can hardly be said to -have achieved much for itself in Juneau. Is not Alaska stuffed with -gold? Not a few of its residents live as if that conviction were -their financial basis. The entertaining is on a lavish scale; the -women are dressed so smartly as to put a modest traveller quite to -rout; and money is apparently regarded as something to be put into -immediate circulation. - -Life is at high tide. Juneau has a creditable library, it has -several cleverly edited newspapers, and the general vitality of the -social and commercial life is not unworthy of the sparkling -splendours of the scenic setting. As Juneau was founded in 1880, its -{210} initial mining camp developing towards a town, the period of -its existence that antedates the dawn of the twentieth century is -regarded by its up-to-date residents as ancient history. The Rome of -the fifth century is not more remote from the Rome of 1916 than is -the decade of the 'eighties from Juneau. The people are the true -"futurists" in every sense. No grass grows under their glancing -feet. They drive, and dress, and dine, and dance. They begin where -the older cities leave off, so to speak. If they are remote from the -great world centres, so much the worse for the same centres! Life is -perpetually _en fête_ in Juneau. The vital exhilaration, the -sparkling energy, the eye on the future, and the disregard of the -past, are characteristics of the general march of progress. - -It is interesting to recall that the first book ever written on -Alaska was by Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore of Washington, the capital of -the United States, a book published by the Lothrop house in Boston -(U.S.A.) early in the decade of 1880-90. Miss Scidmore was the first -American woman to visit Alaska, sailing from San Francisco by a -freight steamer some time before any passenger service was -inaugurated for that wonderful voyage. An adventurous spirit, her -eager imagination always flitting before to penetrate some unknown -region, Miss Scidmore thus began, in her early girlhood, the -extensive and somewhat remarkable travels which have been continued -in her picturesque life. Since {211} those days of her first -youthful achievement her name has flown widely on the wings of fame -as that of one of the most brilliant and able women writers of her -country. Taking the Orient for her happy hunting-ground, Miss -Scidmore has made numerous voyages over the Pacific, with many -prolonged sojourns in China, Japan, and India; making a pilgrimage to -Java and writing of its old temples and mysterious customs in a -richly illustrated paper that appeared in the _Century Magazine_ and -which attracted wide attention. Among her books _A Winter in China_ -and _Jinrikisha Days_ have come to be regarded as almost -indispensable handbooks for travellers as well as the enchanters of -the fireside or the summer piazza; and by means of many years' -residence in Tokio and Yokohama, Miss Scidmore has become an -acknowledged authority on Oriental art, a connoisseur whose judgment -has been sought by more than one of the great art collectors in the -States. With her keen intellectual grasp she has also entered into -the politics of the Far East; and to _The Outlook_, and other leading -reviews in both London and New York, Miss Scidmore has contributed -articles so able in their discernment as to be widely quoted and -discussed. - -Miss Scidmore's initial trip to Alaska, interpreted in a book -offering a series of singularly vivid impressions, combined, too, -with a study of facts and prevailing conditions, and fascinating -pictorial descriptions of this "water-colour land" as she {212} -termed it, from the faint evanescent hues of sunshine on the -glaciers, perhaps contributed more than any other single cause to -stimulate the demand for passenger excursions to this country. - -Miss Scidmore's description of Muir Glacier, an exquisite piece of -word-painting, has often been reproduced; and of her last, lingering -view of this spectacle she wrote: - - -"The whole brow was transfigured with the fires of sunset; the blue -and silvery pinnacles, the white and shining front dreamlike on a -roseate and amber sea, and the range and circle of dull violet -mountains lifting their glowing summits into a sky flecked with -crimson and gold." - - -Somewhere about 1889 another gifted American woman, Kate Field, -author, lecturer, and a charming figure in society, visited Alaska; -and to Miss Field belongs the honour of having delivered the first -lecture ever given in that country. It was in Juneau, in a primitive -and unfinished room, that Miss Field gave this lecture, utilising a -rough table as a platform. Her audience included miners in their -working garb, prospectors, many of the usual camp-followers, a few -Indians, and several of her fellow-passengers from the steamer. Her -theme was that of good citizenship, and one of her hearers afterwards -reported that she gave them wholesome truths with characteristic -vehemence and earnestness. Miss Field was rewarded by being -presented with the "freedom" of the town (then hardly more than a -mining-camp), with a pair of silver bracelets made by the Indians, -{213} a bottle of virgin gold, and a totem pole. These picturesque -tributes were highly valued by their witty and graceful recipient, -and she often displayed them with pride and pleasure to her friends -in Washington, New York, Paris, or London. Visiting the Muir Glacier -at this early period when its unequalled grandeur was at its -perfection (for of late years earthquakes and devastations have -changed its contour) Miss Field thus described it: - - -"Imagine a glacier three miles wide and three hundred feet high, and -you have a slight idea of Muir Glacier. Picture a background of -mountains fifteen thousand feet high, all snow-clad, and then imagine -a gorgeous sun lighting up crystals with rainbow colouring. The face -of the crystal takes on the hue of aquamarine--the hue of every bit -of floating ice that surrounds the steamer. This dazzling serpent -moves sixty-four feet a day, tumbling headlong into the sea, -startling the air with submarine thunder." - - -[Illustration: Prince Rupert, British Columbia] - -Miss Field's experience in Juneau must have been, indeed, a contrast -to the scenic setting of her girlhood, when, in Florence, Italy, she -studied music and art; where Walter Savage Landor taught her Latin -and wrote classic verse to her; where Robert and Elizabeth Barrett -Browning welcomed her to their poets' home in Casa Guidi; and where -she met George Eliot, whose genius kindled her own. With her -literary talent stimulated and all aglow in this radiant atmosphere, -Miss Field wrote that exquisite series of monographs on Landor, Mrs. -Browning, Madame la Marchesa Ristori, and several of the Italian -poets, which were published in the _Atlantic {214} Monthly_ (then the -magazine which was the very arbiter of American literary destiny), a -series that has been often erroneously attributed to the eminent -sculptor and poet, William Wetmore Story, as in those days the -_Atlantic Monthly_ preserved the silence of the gods regarding the -identity of its contributors. - -It is something to have passed one's early youth in Arcady; and -between those Florentine days, and her appearance as the first -lecturer in Alaska, there lay a series of richly varied years and -achievements. Kate Field seemed to be always winging her shining -way, and it was during an interlude in Hawaii, whose beauty steeped -her in gladness, that she fared forth, on a golden day in the Maytime -of 1896, on still another journey; a mystic journey into those realms -of the Life More Abundant, and entered on a new phase of experiences, -even those of the Adventure Beautiful. - -From Juneau the Grand Trunk Pacific Line of steamers proceeds to -Skagway, through the Lynn Canal, considered, all in all, the most -beautiful of the fiords of Alaska. Skagway rejoices in the poetic -designation of "the flower City of Alaska" from the amazing -luxuriance and loveliness of the riotous floral growth in the gardens -of the town and also in the outlying country. Skagway is the gateway -to the Yukon, and the tourist who wishes to visit Canada's portion of -this great Northland embarks on the White Pass and Yukon Railway, -which affords easy access to Lake Atlin and down the Yukon to Dawson, -the capital of Yukon Territory. - -{215} - -The future importance of Skagway depends largely on the success of -the White Pass and Yukon Railway. Of this, however, there is -practically no question. Skagway has a population of more than two -thousand; and it is splendidly equipped with cable, telephone and -telegraph services; with electric lighting; with good schools and -churches; and with shops and stores furnishing an adequate assortment -for all needs of utility and of taste and beauty; it has a very -attractive resident region, and its gardens are already famous. -During the Klondike excitement of 1897-98, Skagway was the base of -operations for many thousands of prospectors who thronged this -region. It is especially attractive to the devotees of ethnological -science, as it is near some of the more interesting Indian villages, -and it has supreme attractions for the artist. The glaciers of -Davidson and Mendenhall are near, and nowhere are the enchantments of -a summer in the far northlands more alluring and spellbinding to the -lover of flowers and fragrances, of stars and sunsets, of the beauty -that flashes from solid mountain walls of opal pinnacles and -glittering palisades, in an atmosphere prismatic in colour--nowhere -are there more lovely "lands of summer beyond the sea" than in and -around Skagway. - -It has been more or less generally supposed that the climate of -Alaska was inevitably severe and fairly arctic in its character. On -the contrary, the mean temperature of Juneau for July is fifty-seven -degrees and the thermometer often ranges from {216} seventy to even -ninety. Thus the mean temperature of Juneau for July is only one -degree less than that of San Francisco for August. The equability of -the temperature in Southern Alaska is a feature of importance. The -entire land, in summer, is covered with a dense vegetation. - -One of the great marvels of nature in the Alaskan and Yukon regions -is that of the matchless spectacle of the Northern Lights. Not even -the glacier can rival Aurora Borealis. It is Robert Service who is -the bard of the mystic illuminations that are fairly before the eye -of the reader of that scintillating poem, the "Ballad of the Northern -Lights." - - "And soft they danced from the Polar sky and swept in the - primrose haze; - And swift they pranced with their silver feet, and pierced with - a blinding blaze. - They danced a cotillion in the sky; they were rose and silver - shod; - It was not good for the eyes of man, 'twas a sight for the eyes - of God. - - "And the skies of night were alive with light, with a throbbing, - thrilling flame - Amber, and rose, and violet, opal and gold it came. - Pennants of silver waved and streamed, lazy banners unfurled; - Sudden splendours of sabres gleamed, lightning javelins were - hurled; - There in our awe we crouched and saw with our wild, uplifted - eyes, - Charge and retire the hosts of fire in the battleground of the - skies." - - -Prince Rupert and Alaska! They offer the traveller the very glory of -the world and of all the heavenly spaces. - - - - -{217} - -CHAPTER X - - PRINCE RUPERT TO VANCOUVER, VICTORIA, SEATTLE, - AND THE GOLDEN GATE - -The voyage from Prince Rupert to Alaska is unparalleled in its glory -of scenic enthralment; it is a trip unique and, indeed, quite -unrivalled by any that this terrestrial sphere has disclosed to the -wanderer over her spaces; yet hardly less interesting in a different -way is that lovely sail of two days and two nights from Prince Rupert -to Seattle, with calls at the ports of Vancouver and Victoria. The -one enchants the imagination; the other relates itself to the great -social order of human life. The latter reveals the vast resources of -British Columbia; the almost infinite possibilities for the -transcendent future of a new and still higher civilisation; the -regions of the homes, the development, the nobler and still nobler -culture of life in its evolutionary progress. - -The comfort and beauty of these Grand Trunk Pacific steamers are, as -noted in the preceding chapter, responsible for much of the enjoyment -of the voyage. To be comfortable--even to have the senses gratified -with beauty in one's immediate environment--is by no means the chief -end or aim {218} of life, but it is assuredly a means to an end; -after that other things. He who is - - "Alive to gentle influence - Of landscape and of sky, - And tender to the spirit-touch," - -can hardly escape the immediate sense of a reinforcement of energy by -the subtle charm of a pleasing environment. It is like the influence -of music, harmonising and co-ordinating all one's powers of -achievement. - -The coast of British Columbia, stretching away to the southland, has -its own order of beauty, as has already been described in the -description of the voyage which begins at Seattle extending to -Skagway. The two days of return from Prince Rupert are only too -brief for the traveller with an eye for the singular beauty of -precipitous cliffs, forest-crowned, that rise, from the shores, -brilliantly diversified with the waterfalls, islands, and glimpses of -hanging glaciers, now and then seen under radiant skies. - -For tourists who, arriving at Prince Rupert, are not able to make the -Alaskan voyage, this sail to Seattle will yet hold so much of majesty -and beauty that, while not fully compensating for the northern -cruise, is yet singularly satisfying in itself. Leaving Prince -Rupert at nine in the morning the steamer calls at Vancouver at four -in the afternoon of the next day; and hardly is she at her dock -before the enterprising municipal motor car company sends a -representative on board to announce a "one-dollar-an-hour-and-a-half" -{219} trip about the city in a number of spacious motor cars in -waiting, which offers to all who embrace the opportunity the interest -of seeing the famous Stanley Park, covering a thousand acres, -together with the Shaughnessy Heights, the marine drive, and all -points of interest, with the sightseers assured that they should be -delivered at their steamer in good time for its departure. - -Vancouver's growth has been truly remarkable. It began thirty years -ago with a few log-cabins in a clearing overlooking Burrard Inlet. -In 1901 the population of the city was about 27,000; to-day, 200,000 -people are citizens of Vancouver and suburbs. Its wharfs are crowded -with shipping, more than 18,000 vessels using the port in a single -year, while its customs revenue amounts to five millions of dollars -annually. - -The business and residential sections of Vancouver are extremely -interesting and no tourist would willingly miss seeing something of -the largest Canadian city on the Pacific Coast. On the evening of -February 14, 1916, the first long-distance telephone conversation was -held between Vancouver and Montreal. Previous to this, telephonic -communication had been opened between New York and San Francisco, a -distance of 3400 miles; but on the occasion of the opening between -Montreal and Vancouver the human voice was heard at a distance of -4227 miles! - -The marvellous progress made in telephone service {220} is -illustrated by some records dating back more than forty years. It -was in Boston in the spring of 1875 (March 10, 1875, to be exact), -that Professor Bell was first able to send an intelligible sentence -from one room to another in a building at No. 5, Exeter Place, in -that city. This message to the next room was to Thomas Augustus -Watson, and consisted of the words, "Mr. Watson, Mr. Watson, I want -you; come here." In the summer of 1915, Professor Bell sent the same -message from New York to Mr. Watson who was in San Francisco. - -[Illustration: Pure Bred Jerseys, Western Canada] - -Miss Kate Field, the brilliant American critic and lecturer, was -among those fascinated by Dr. Bell's initial experiments of 1875 -demonstrating his new invention. Miss Field, while residing in -England, took an important part in bringing the telephone to public -notice. In the biography of Miss Field there appears a number of -extracts from her diary of this period, of which one, under the date -of January 14, 1878, runs as follows: - - -"Drove early to Osborne Cottage (Isle of Wight) where Sir Thomas -Biddulph invited me to come in the evening. Arrived there all fine -in my new gown at 8.30 P.M. Met Lady Biddulph, Sir Thomas, General -Ponsonby, Mrs. Ponsonby, and others. Very polite and very courteous -about telephone. I sang Kathleen Mavourneen to the Queen who was -delighted and thanked me telephonically. Sang Cuckoo Song, Comin' -Thro' the Rye, and recited Rosalind's epilogue. All delighted. Then -I went to Osborne House and met the Duke of Connaught. Experiments a -great success." - - -So comprehensive were Miss Field's convictions of {221} the wide -scope and resistless nature of scientific advance that she once -remarked to a friend, "I look to see science prove immortality." Her -faith in immortality was not wanting, but she believed it to be -within that order of truth which might actually be demonstrated by -science. - -Victoria is only some six hours' sail from Vancouver--beautiful -Victoria, worthy of the greatest queen of the ages whose name the -city so proudly bears. Not only for its signal attractions, but as -the capital of British Columbia, Victoria has especial interest, and -the tourist who is wise will disembark and remain in this delightful -city until the next steamer arrives continuing the voyage to Seattle. -An English city dropped into the American continent is Victoria. It -is neither Canadian nor yet of the United States, but it is -practically an English city located on Vancouver Island. It is -already an important port, and the equable climate attracts residents -and visitors from the entire continent. - -It is called, indeed, "the city of sunshine," and it has both wealth -and health in measure to impress the visitor, if it does not -transform him into at least a temporary resident. The aristocratic -residential district has entrancing views of the sea, islands, bays, -and mountains, and more than three miles of coast line. The beauty -of the architectural effects, the equable climate, the delightful -drives afforded by the wide asphalt-paved boulevards, and the variety -of amusements and entertainments--yachting, golf, {222} fishing, -country clubs with all manner of sports and games, together with its -good schools, numerous churches, and library, attract a population of -refinement and of a notable order of intellectuality. - -To arrive at Seattle in the early dawn is to arrive at the -psychological moment. - - "If them would'st view fair Melrose aright - Go visit it by pale moonlight," - -counsels Sir Walter; and to view Seattle at her most typical and -representative moment one should see her first in the golden glow of -a morning, that illuminates all her crescent harbour and reveals her -streets alive in the new energy of the day. Seattle is known as "the -Seaport of Success." She takes the opposite pole from the motto -Dante saw over the red city of Dis. Far from any abandonment of hope -by "those who enter here," the very spectacle of her eager, intense -life reinvigorates the newcomer. Has he not entered the Seaport of -Success? "If you want success--Succeed!" counsels Emerson. Of -course one will succeed in Seattle. That is what he is there for. -He is "born for the job." Seattle is the marvel of the day. One -quite sympathises with the citizen who met a press correspondent from -New York on a train and begged him to include Seattle in his glowing -interpretations. "But I was in Seattle last week," rejoined the -writer. "Oh, but you should see Seattle _now!_" replied the -up-to-date resident. - -{223} - -Seattle has a population of nearly three hundred and fifty thousand; -she has four transcontinental railways; and fifty-seven steamship -lines. Lake Washington, lying just outside the city, a sheet of -water twenty-five miles in length and averaging three miles in width, -offers one of the most ideal and poetic regions for suburban homes, -and one whose privileges are apparently appreciated. The beautiful -residences that adorn its shores render it a locality well worth -seeing. The lake extends to the foothills of the Cascade range, -whose peaks, perpetually covered with ice and snow, are from five -thousand to more than fourteen thousand feet in height. With this -majestic mountain range on one hand, and Puget Sound on the other, -Seattle has an environment that rivals, in natural beauty, any other -city of the world. The boulevards of Seattle are famous, and of -these ex-President Taft declared that they formed one of the most -magnificent combinations of modern city and mediæval forest. From -these boulevards of thirty miles in extent, connecting a chain of -thirty-eight parks, there are continual vistas of lake, and sea, and -snow-capped mountains, and the drive is often among arbours and -flowers and shrubs revealing rare skill and taste in gardening. - -The State of Washington has wisely inaugurated a system of splendid -roadways, whose skilful engineering has rendered the broad -boulevards, the country highways, a veritable paradise of comfort to -motorists. More than fifty thousand miles of such {224} road -thoroughfares stretch in all directions from Seattle. Four of these -great highways, those of the Pacific, Sunset, Olympic, and National -Parks, were built and are maintained at the expense of the state. -One important feature of these is the Pacific Highway, a thoroughfare -of 2000 miles in length, connecting British Columbia with the -southern limit of California. It is the longest drive of the world -and has a picturesque beauty unsurpassed by that of any known region. - -Nor are the ardent residents of Seattle in any way inclined to -reticence regarding her allurements. To one voyager on board, who -was a native of the States, but who had been so spellbound by her -first wonderful trip through Canada that she longed to "assume a -virtue, though she had it not" and pass herself off as a native of -the Dominion--to this tourist a Seattle lady rather importunately -insisted that she ought to remain at least a week in the "Seaport of -Success" and revel in its amazements. "You would see parks of -hundreds of acres," exclaimed the loyal resident of the capital city -of the State of Washington, among other enumerations of the glories -to be revealed. "Oh, is that all?" unkindly responded the voyager. -"Why, in Canada we are accustomed to parks of over four thousand -square miles." The devotee of Canadian landscapes endeavoured to say -this with the air of one born and bred in the Dominion, and she was -quite charmed with her evident success when the Seattle lady {225} -replied, "Oh, you are a Canadian? I thought you were one of our own -people." "Did you, indeed?" returned the masquerading Canadian, -non-committantly, with the most innocent and unconscious air that it -was possible to assume. - -[Illustration: Mount Robson, British Columbia] - -It is an interesting and picturesque trip by rail from Seattle to -Portland (some seven hours) and from Portland out to its port, -Flavell-Astoria, is another picturesque little journey, some two -hours by rail. Here awaits one of the Pacific steamers of the Great -Northern Company, with its top deck glass-enclosed, making the vast -sweep of ocean view possible in all weather; with four other -promenade decks, with its ballroom, its conveniences for games of all -sorts, and its enormous crowds of gay passengers. The sail from -Flavell-Astoria to San Francisco is only thirty-six hours; too brief -for a lover of beauty, yet a great deal of enjoyment can be crowded -into that time by those who surprise the secret. - -It was not only the ideal way by which to approach the Panama-Pacific -Exposition of 1915, but it remains the ideal way in which to approach -San Francisco. The first instinctive thought of the tourist is that -he can only enjoy this approach if he arrives from Hawaii, or Japan, -or some port in the Orient. On the contrary, he can enjoy one of the -great and one of the most picturesque trips that the resources of -this world afford, by journeying to California, via Prince Rupert, -and on, by sea, by land, by sea again, through Vancouver and Seattle; -{226} thence by way of Portland, and Flavell-Astoria, to the -triumphant entrance by the Golden Gate. It was a marvellous tour for -the vanished Exposition summer of 1915, and it will remain marvellous -for all the summers to come, growing as the years pass more -beautiful, more feasible, and more familiar to the travelling public. - - - - -{227} - -CHAPTER XI - -CANADA IN THE PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION - -The year of 1915 will forever remain illuminated in the history of -Canada and of the United States as that of the celebration of two -momentous events: the completion of the Panama-Pacific Canal, uniting -the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans; and the bridging the entire -continent, from Montreal to Vancouver, from New York to San -Francisco, by human speech. The achievement of the Panama Canal was -at a cost of three hundred and ten millions of dollars; the -achievement of "the voyage of the voice" across the continent, by the -Bell telephone system, cost that company twice the amount of the -expenditure demanded by the canal. During the next decade, the Bell -Company propose to expend an even greater sum in the perfecting of -all the future possibilities that may arise. - -The completion of the Panama Canal is one of the signal events in the -world's history. It changes the great currents of commerce; it has -reduced the distance between the central points of the Atlantic and -the Pacific coasts from 13,000 to 5000 miles, and it will greatly -reduce the cost of coaling on voyages from coast to coast. From -Colon, on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus, to Balboa, on the Pacific -side, {228} was formerly, by the water route around Cape Horn, a -distance of 10,500 nautical miles; through the canal the distance is -44 miles. The time required between these two points formerly -approximated to 126 days; now the distance between is but one day. -These elementary statistics reveal to some degree the inestimable -value of the achievement to all the nations of the world. - -It was fitting that such an achievement should be celebrated with an -exposition of the arts, the resources, the productions, and the -inventions of the civilised world. It was the vivid drama of -international achievement. There were more than eighty thousand -single exhibits, and groups of related exhibits, representing every -phase of the highest efforts of man in contemporary progress. -Industries and economics, inventions and discoveries, arts and -sciences, education and ethics, met under the striking architectural -beauty and in a scenic setting never before equalled in any land. -Against a background of the blue Pacific lying under a glowing -western sky, with a splendour of decoration hardly paralleled, the -scene was one worthy to be forever perpetuated in the world's -history. It struck the note of a new life. The contrast between -this illustration of the development of the arts of peace--the vision -of the spirit that united East and West in the common cause of all -that ennobles and exalts--and those awful scenes of carnage that were -raging in central Europe on the other side of {229} the globe, was a -contrast that might well employ the genius of Thucydides to depict, -with a pen lighted from the living coal on the altar. Yet, such is -the leading of divinely-guided destiny, each was doing its work in -the regeneration of the world. The seemingly irreparable calamity of -the war was sweeping away old conditions that the new life of -spiritualisation should enter in; it was the preparing the way of the -Lord and making His paths straight. Faith constantly discerned the -triumphant exhortation: - -"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting -doors; and the King of Glory shall come in!" - -More than three hundred congresses met in these palaces under the -shadow of the Tower of Jewels; in the halls of music, of art, or in -the terraced pavilion of the Court of the Universe. All were -welcomed with that royal hospitality that has ever characterised the -generous heart of San Francisco. These congresses dealt for the most -part with the vital topics of the day. They concerned themselves -less with the life of literature and more with the life of nature; -less with the life that takes note of abstract and profound -intellectual problems and more with the practical applications of -ethical truth. The congresses thus discussed open-air life, foods, -clothing, motoring, the political enfranchisement of women, new -theories in education, hygiene, economics, charities. In the -building of Liberal {230} Arts there was one exhibit from the -Observatory on Mount Lowe, labelled by the director of that -institution, as the stuff of which the universe and man were made: -that of electrons and mentoids. The distinctively new note of the -twentieth century was everywhere in evidence. The Exposition planted -its standard in an approaching Future, not in a receding Past. By -this standard alone could it be truly judged. The salons of fine art -did not measurably offer, in any extent, the quality of art displayed -at Chicago in 1893, nor was it comparable with that transcendently -superb collection of paintings and sculpture that concentrated the -inspiration of the centuries in the Paris Exposition of 1900. -Naturally, there were physical barriers of space and the barriers of -war conditions that effectually determined this. It was easy for -Europe and the Orient to send to Paris their most adequate -representation. And France, alone, is so rich in her national -treasures of art, both of the past and of contemporary work, that her -own display alone would have made a profound impression. For San -Francisco, in 1915, conditions effectually debarred her from securing -much of the great art of the world. Very wisely, she did not dash -herself blindly and unavailingly against destiny, but wisely struck -the key of desire from a new centre. The result was in that the -Exposition suggested its own ideals with but slight reference to -traditions. - -Singularly fortunate was it, indeed, in its administration. {231} -President Charles C. Moore seemed the man best fitted for the high -and responsible place that he so ably filled. Never was a great -world-exposition conducted with a more remarkable combination of -wisdom, courtesy, admirable judgment, and comprehensive treatment. -Not less fortunate was the great undertaking in its vice-presidents: -William H. Crocker, R. B. Hale, I. W. Hellman, jun., M. H. De Young, -Leon Sloss, and James Bolph, jun., while Dr. Frederick J. V. Skiff, -as Director-in-Chief; George Hough Perry, at the head of the -Publicity Department; and Mr. A. M. Mortesen, as Traffic Manager, -were all felicitously equipped for their special service. - - "The Future is our kingdom," - -said George Sterling, the poet of the day, whose poem entitled _The -Builders_ was read by George Arlett, a member of the California State -Commission, at the closing ceremonies. - -Mr. Sterling struck the keynote of the splendid enterprise in these -stanzas: - - "We do but cross a threshold into day. - Beauty we leave behind - A deeper beauty on our path to find - And higher glories to illume the way. - The door we close behind us is the Past; - Our sons shall find a fairer door at last. - - "A world reborn awaits us! Years to come - Shall know its grace and good, - When wars shall end in endless brotherhood - And birds shall build in cannon long since dumb. - Men shall have peace, though then no man may know - Who built this sunset city long ago." - -{232} - -Only nine years had passed since San Francisco had been practically -destroyed by a sudden and terrible calamity. But the spirit of the -Golden Gate laughs at calamity and with a magician's wand transmutes -it into success. Only two years after this devastation San Francisco -raised millions for the exposition she had planned. No earthquake -could entomb her spirit, nor could it be drowned by any tidal wave -that the Pacific is capable of providing. With that lofty poet, -William Vaughan Moody, who, alas, "died too soon" for the nation -which his lyre entranced, San Francisco might well declare: - - "From wounds and sore defeat - I made my battle-stay; - Winged sandals for my feet - I wove of my delay." - - -The Panama-Pacific Exposition opened on February 15, 1915, and closed -on December 4 of the same year. It was participated in by the -Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa -Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Equador, France, Guatemala, -Haiti, Holland, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, -New Zealand, Panama, Persia, Peru, Portugal, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, -Uruguay, and Venezuela. - -This enumeration of the countries participating will of itself -suggest the somewhat new class of exhibits, as differing from those -of older countries in former world-displays. The Panama-Pacific was -thus its own precedent. Its claims to the novel and {233} the unique -were extremely well sustained. It was the second exposition held on -the Pacific coast, and it had the longest duration by four months of -any ever held before. - -The grounds comprised over 600 acres, with a water-front of two and a -half miles, on San Francisco Bay, just east of the Golden Gate. On -the other three sides they were partly enclosed by hills, thus -forming a natural amphitheatre. There were eleven colossal palaces -with many lesser buildings. These palaces were grouped in a series -of rectangles connected by courts and arcades with an Andalusian -charm. The courts fascinated the eye by their colonnades, arches, -domes, and glittering minarets. They were adorned by mural paintings -of symbolic significance, by fountains, sunken gardens, and -sculptured art, with niches and restful seats. Festival Hall, with -its superb organ, where a concert was held every day, contained an -auditorium seating three thousand people, and there were also ten -smaller halls. The National Government staged its own special -exhibit on a ten-acre space, appropriating two million dollars for -this purpose, and this exhibit included a representation of the -building of the Panama Canal. - -In all this imposing world-panorama of twentieth-century exhibits, -Canada led the procession. Whatever the enthralling nature of -spectacles offered by other nations, it was the Dominion that set the -pace. Canada, an entrancing, garlanded figure, {234} aglow with her -abounding enthusiasms; her resistless energy; her dreams of a future -that crystallise themselves in her all-conquering empire -building--Canada the Spellbinder assumed her place as if by divine -right, and certainly by common consent, as the very Winged Victory -flying on into a golden future. The Canadian Building, whose classic -beauty would have done no discredit to the Parthenon had it also -occupied a place on the "Holy Hill" that overlooks all Attica; this -structure, so simple yet so rich in architectural effect, her main -portal guarded by great lions sculptured on either side, was one of -the most impressive creations of the entire Exposition. With a -singular comprehensiveness of grouping, the exhibits in this building -represented the Dominion in her completeness. It was no one province -that engaged the attention to the exclusion of another; it was the -Dominion herself, in the unity of her vast empire, rather than any -merely tributary feature of the country. In the inscrutable magic -that wrought this effect lay the secret of its spellbinding quality. -It was a power that enthralled every visitor who crossed the -threshold, and brought him back to study it again. - -How was this result achieved? The question was in the air. Every -one asked it. No one could exactly answer it, but every one shared -the wonder. The statistical data of the Dominion was impressive -enough for almost any commensurate influence; yet mere facts and -figures could give little clue to the {235} mysterious effect on the -throngs of visitors. One might read that the population of Canada -had increased from five millions to seven millions in ten years; and -that fifty-five per cent. of this population was engaged in -conquering Nature, and transmuting her plains into golden harvests as -a granary of the world; that her Government is expending ten millions -a year in agricultural instruction alone; that her root and fodder -crop each year is valued at almost two hundred millions of dollars, -representing an area of nine million acres, and that the value of her -field crops annually is five hundred and fifty millions of dollars. -One might read that her live stock, valued at a given time at seven -hundred millions, increased a hundred and fifty per cent. within one -decade only. This visitor might recall the shrewd assertion of James -J. Hill that "there is land enough in Canada, if thoroughly tilled, -to feed every person in Europe"; and that, while at present only -thirty-six million acres are under cultivation, there are four -hundred and forty millions, thirty per cent. of her entire area, that -are available for agricultural use. Yet not all these impressive -statistics can alone account for the innate magic, the indescribable -witchery, that Canada flings about all who come to look upon these -marvellous panoramas in her building. Statistical data have their -uses and inspire respect, while one cons them by heart and feels sure -he is thereby equipped to give a reason for the faith that is in him; -but in {236} his heart he knows that all the figures in the realm of -mathematics could not really account for his consciousness of the -fascinations of the Dominion. A leading journal of San Francisco, -advocating the desire that the Californian exhibit should be made a -permanent one, proceeded to point the moral and adorn the tale by -pointing to the Canadian exhibition. The editorial argument thus ran: - - -"Canada, with her complete exhibit, has won much praise from -Exposition sightseers and has set the precedent for a permanent -exhibit. One reason why our northern neighbour was able to make such -a splendid impression at the Jewel City from the first was because, -as its display was permanent, much of it had been installed in a -European exhibition and had come directly here from across the -Atlantic. The packing cases were ready to be opened and the best -arrangement for the resources of Canada had been determined by -experience. - -"California needs to be an active participant in future expositions, -as active as the Dominion of Canada. - -* * * * * * * * * - -"With a permanent exhibit California will be ready at the first sound -of an exposition reveille to rush to the front, full panoplied in -luscious armour of golden butter, armed with 42-cm. cases of -preserved fruits and with glittering shields of virgin gold. - -"Then bring on your Canada!" - - -The skill with which the Canadian exhibit was grouped impressed -itself first as a work of art, and only secondarily as a thing of -commercial value. This skill in presentation was not the least -element in its attractiveness. Here was Dawson, shooting out rays of -violet, vermilion, and orange, myriads of lights in all the colours -of the spectrum. A panoramic {237} view of a wheat belt that would -feed the world; Vancouver, with the great elevator at the water's -edge; and with that, was Vancouver's prophetic dream of 1923, when -three hundred millions of bushels of grain will be sent from Canada -to Europe by the way of the Panama Canal; again there were the homes -of farmers, attractive and realistic; an orchard scene introducing -real fruit, and where realism ended and art began it was difficult to -discover; the trees were laden with fruit; apples lay in heaps under -the shade of the trees; young men and maidens were gathering the rosy -and the golden fruit, tripping over the green turf so naturally that -one half wondered if they as well as the apples were not actual? -Here was a section out of British Columbia showing a sportsman's -happy hunting-ground; there were snow-capped mountains, but with real -water trickling down; an eagle, fierce, tempestuous, with widespread, -flapping wings, is hovering in the air in a manner that would do -credit to Heller, the wizard of necromancy on the stage. From -yawning crevices bears emerge, until the visitor instinctively -shrinks away, and the beaver is seen constructing his dam. Was it -Governor Frontenac who recommended to the King of France that the -beaver should be adopted as Canada's trade mark? - -There are mounted duck, grouse, elk, buffalo, and sullen, scowling -carabou gazing at the surging throng. There are buffalo from the -Peace River region, a thousand miles north of the {238} border -between Canada and the States, where these hordes formerly ranged in -countless droves, and which to-day is one of the finest of -wheat-growing regions. - -Nothing is more interesting to the curious visitor than are the views -of typical Canadian homes. Some that are shown are but the growth of -twelve years; from the time of the first turning of the plough in the -prairie soil to completion of the two-storied, balconied house, with -its broad piazza, set in the pretty grounds whose shady trees were -planted as seedlings, with gay parterres of flowers in and around the -curving walks and paths. The facilities for thus acquiring a home, -by taking up the usual allotment of a hundred and sixty acres of -land, which can be done on such favourable terms, turned the -attention of many visitors toward the Dominion. - -Another exhibit of great interest was that of power plant models, for -every industrial centre in Canada has this abundance of power at very -low rates, owing to the enormous supply of water power in the -country. The canneries, too, form one of the most important -industries, and their extent is well illustrated in the display made -in the Canadian building. - -There are cases upon cases of specimens of Canada's precious -minerals: gold from British Columbia, silver ore from Cobalt, gold -from the Yukon, and copper and various other minerals, with -representative specimens of coal deposits. Other glass cases {239} -again display much of the flora of Canada, in a profusion of flowers -whose rich and brilliant colouring attracts attention; and there are -curious grasses and rare plants and foliage. - -In one corridor are a group of life-like portraits in oil of King -George and Queen Mary, of several of the Governors-General of the -Dominion, and of many of the Government officials, Sir John A. -Macdonald, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and Premier Borden. In this -connection it is rather interesting to recall that the appellation of -the term Dominion to the country was due to a member of Parliament -who, after Sir John Macdonald had arranged for the confederation of -the nine provinces, and a name was being discussed, said that he had -that morning read in his Bible the words: "His Dominion shall be from -sea to sea," and the happy augury was seized and the term applied to -the vast and splendid country. - -Colonel William Hutchinson's hospitable offices were a favourite -rendezvous for appreciative visitors. Here gathered Canadians and -Canada-lovers to discuss the latest news from the Dominion. So -largely, however, had Colonel Hutchinson's life been passed in the -noted national and international expositions of the world that for -fifteen years he has hardly been more than three months at a time in -his home in Ottawa. - -The Grand Trunk building offered, daily, a moving picture exhibition -that attracted many onlookers, and so real were the effects that when -in {240} one a torrent of water came rushing over a cataract, the -visitor near involuntarily turned for a seat farther back. In this -building, as in the national one, the Dominion was laid under tribute -in representation that interpreted the essential life of Canada. - -The superb collection of photographs of the scenic mountain route of -the Grand Trunk Pacific was a perennial attraction to visitors in the -exhibit made by this transcontinental railway. It revealed anew how -the completion of the Grand Trunk System is an achievement which in -its daring, its magnitude of interests, and the enterprise involved -was one of the great twentieth-century events, and one only to be -compared with the opening of the Panama-Pacific Canal itself. - -[Illustration: Looking towards Mount Munn from the Valley of Flowers] - -The Reverend Arthur Barry O'Neill, C.S.G., after visiting the -Exposition, wrote that he considered the Canadian and the Grand Trunk -buildings as instances of "artistic genius beyond all praise," and as -a "lasting honour and credit to the Canadian Government." In a -sonnet in which Mr. O'Neill celebrates the youth of Canada, the brave -lads who have gone to the front, and who - - "... have writ a score - Of valour true, surpassing old romance. - And lent new pride to each Canadian's glance," - -the poet adds: - - "And here, as well, where contests fair of Peace, - The nations wage along the Golden Gate, - Huge throngs acclaim the Maple Leaf, nor cease - The chorused praise that makes our hearts elate." - -{241} - -It is not the aim in this chapter to describe the whole of this -interesting and beautiful Exposition, but only the contribution made -by Canada; yet one can hardly refrain from noting the charm of the -Alaskan exhibit with its panoramic presentation of the Muir glacier; -nor that of the Santa Fe Railway in the "Zone," where the very -realistic and wonderful portrayal of the Grand Canyon in Arizona was -one of the great attractions of the entire grounds. - -The Palace of Transportation was one of the extremely interesting -features of the Exposition. Here could be studied the latest -scientific methods of the day in many details not familiar to the -general public, as, for instance, the method of handling mails on -fast trains and the delivery at stations while the full speed of the -train is maintained; many types of marine transportation; and still -more of aircraft, the navigation of the air being one of the things -constantly demonstrated to throngs of people who were absorbingly -interested in the possibilities of aerial flight. - -The experimental panorama of the Panama Canal itself was an -appropriate feature. At the Exposition in Paris in 1900 the journey -on the Trans-Siberian Railway was produced with extraordinary -realism. The traveller entered a luxurious train, a very real train -comprising drawing-room and dining cars, as well as a library car, -and the passing of the long panorama of the entire scenery of that -noted route gave a very vivid idea of what one {242} would see in the -actual journey. The California Exposition arranged a similar exhibit -of a journey through the Panama Canal. The voyager was invited to -the deck of a steamer, and ingenious illusions illustrated the -sailing from ocean to ocean. - -San Francisco was a gala city through the entire summer. Not the -least of the enjoyments were the sails in the splendid local boats, -with glass-enclosed decks, across the Bay to Oakland and to Berkeley, -the latter city the seat of the University of California. There were -excursions for every day in the week for those who wished to vary the -scene, and the Exposition itself constantly presented new attractions -and new features with the great number of congresses, the numerous -lectures, and perpetual fêtes. - -The close of the Panama-Pacific Exposition was a scene worthy to live -in historic pageantry. The day was one of June dropped into the -heart of December. The sun was burning against a cloudless sapphire -sky. Within the very radiance of the Tower of Jewels, on one of the -terraces of the Court of the Universe, was erected a stand on which -were assembled the Directors, the Commissioners of Foreign -Governments, the representatives of the Army and Navy of California, -and the representatives of the City of San Francisco. From the -arches of the Rising and the Setting Sun the sculptured figures -looked down. There was orchestral music, and the reading of Mr. -Sterling's poem from which lines have been quoted in preceding pages. -The {243} message of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, -was flashed around the world at the moment it was given to the -Exposition. President Wilson well expressed the significance of the -undertaking as one "eloquent of the new spirit which is to unite East -and West and make all the world partners in the common enterprises of -progress and humanity." - -The guards marched away; the sailors fired a salute; the Exposition -banner descended. President Moore's pictorial words have -immortalised the scene: - -"Night came on, and the world's wonder of lights; the Exposition -lights that would never shine again--a red glow on Kelham's towers, -rose flame in the porches of the Machinery Palace, dim reflections in -the Lagoon of the Palace of Fine Arts and the broad basin in the -Court of the Four Seasons, the splendour of the giant monstrances in -the Court of Abundance, the silver phosphorescence of the Adventurous -Bowman on his column and the Lord of the Isthmian Way on his -rack-o'-bones horse, the tremulous frosty shimmer of the hundred -thousand jewels of the great spire; and over all, the long bands, -like lambent metal, of bronze and crimson and green and blue, from -the forty-eight searchlights on the Yacht Harbour Mole, bands that -barred the heavens so far that they deceived the eye and in the -south-east appeared to converge beyond the hills of the city. - -"Not abruptly, but slowly and gently, the lamps {244} grew dark, the -beams of the searchlights faded, and arches and courts and colonnades -and towers and sculptured forms of men and women and angels and great -beasts receded into the friendly night, lighted now by the glimmer of -the winter stars, Orion and Sirius, Aldebaran and the Hyades. And -through the starlight 'Taps' dropped in liquid notes from bugles high -on the Tower of Jewels." - -[Illustration: Bulkley Gate (150 feet high), Bulkley River] - - - - -{245} - -CHAPTER XII - -CANADIAN POETS AND POETRY - - "My guide is but the stir to song." - - "But Love must kiss that mortal's eyes - Who hopes to see fair Arcady; - No gold can buy you entrance there,-- - No wisdom won with weariness." - - "''Tis strange you cannot sing,' quoth he, - 'The folk all sing in Arcady.'" - - -Arcady, or Canada, are they one and the same? The pipes of Pan echo -throughout the entire Dominion. The Poet-- - - "Born and nourished in miracles," - -writes his scroll by every shining lake, in the deep, dim interior of -the forest, on every majestic mountain height. He renders constant -service to the inward law, and it is the poet who is the real -historian of his country. It is he who immortalises her heroic -deeds; who paints her landscapes in unfading colours; who -crystallises her greatness into song. One line of the poet's may -outweigh a volume of descriptive prose. - - "His instant thought a Poet spoke - And filled the age his fame." - -It would be a marvel if the Canadian colour and atmosphere did not -produce a choir of singers, if not, {246} indeed, a nation of poets. -Nor can national poetic feeling be measurably restricted to the -comparatively few greater poets in any land or literature; to the -supreme masters in the lyric art. The greatness of Wordsworth, -Landor, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, of the Brownings, Tennyson, and of -Swinburne, does not detract from, even though it overshadows, the -charm of a score of the lesser poets, each of whom has his individual -place. Had the lives of Browning and Tennyson been of the -comparatively brief duration of Stephen Phillips, how much of their -noblest work would have been unwritten? Had not Wilfrid and Alice -Meynell, with angelic goodness, rescued Francis Thompson from -destitution, what might not the world of poetic literature have -missed? It is not alone by the standard of Dante, Shakespeare, -Goethe, or Petrarca that the art of poetry should be estimated. To -no inconsiderable degree the number as well as the quality of the -poets of a nation are typical of the national inspiration. - -The fact that Canada, as a country that looks back to hardly more -than a century and a half of organised life and whose literary -expression has been almost entirely within the past half century, -should have produced a body of poetry that has just claims to being -considered national literature is as impressive as it is interesting. - -"Has Canada a voice of her own in literature distinct from that of -England?" questions Thomas Guthrie Marquis. "In Poetry, at least," -he adds, {247} "the Canadian note is clear and distinct, and of -permanent value." There was little Canadian verse produced until -well within the nineteenth century; and the first poem of real claim -to distinction was the "Saul" of Charles Heavysege, published in -1857, a poem written "in the grand manner," the author presenting his -ideas "with a dignity, austerity, and epic grandeur that are found in -few poetic compositions." It was, however, with the decade of -1880-90 that the era of the modern and artistic poetic literature of -Canada really opened, its keynote sounded by a poet, then hardly -twenty years of age--Charles George Douglas Roberts--whose name has -come to be widely known as that of one whose lips have been touched -with the divine fire. His initial volume, _Orion and Other Poems_, -revealed something in the quality that established his right to -poetic rank. His very crudities, faults of construction inevitable -to youthful ardour and inexperience, were still more suggestive of -promise than higher technical excellence that might be recognised -among contemporary verse. The classical tendency and temperamental -assimilation were very obvious; the young man was evidently a devotee -of Shelley and Tennyson; but he might easily have had worse masters. -Six years later came his second volume of verse, _In Divers Tones_, -that at once laid special claim on lovers of poetry; and when, in -1893, his _Songs of the Common Day_ appeared, with its exquisite -_Ave_, commemorating the centenary of Shelley, many people felt that -{248} a new star had arisen to shine with permanent splendour in the -poetic firmament. There are lines and stanzas in the _Ave_ that are -worthy to hold their immortality so long as the art of poetry lives -to bless and ennoble and inspire life. Shelley-- - - "the breathless child of change, - Urged ever by the soul's divine unrest." - -And again: - - "But all about the tumult of his heart - Stretched the great calm of his celestial art." - -And this stanza: - - "Thyself the lark melodious in mid-heaven; - Thyself the Protean shape of chainless cloud. - Pregnant with elemental fire, and driven - Through deeps of quivering light, and darkness loud - With tempest, yet beneficent as prayer. " - -And the breathing line: - - "And speechless ecstasy of growing June," - -condensing in itself all the rapture of summer hours; or the -beautiful stanza: - - "O heart of fire, that fire might not consume! - Forever glad the world because of thee; - Because of thee forever eyes illume - A more enchanted earth, a lovelier sea! - O poignant voice of the desire of life, - Piercing our lethargy, because thy call - Aroused our spirits to a nobler strife - Where base and sordid fall, - Forever past the conflict and the pain - More clearly beams the goal we shall attain!" - - -Perhaps the most perfect lyric of Charles G. D. Roberts, and one -that, while in no sense an imitation, {249} yet suggests the _Break, -Break, Break_ of Tennyson, is that entitled _Grey Rocks and Greyer -Sea_: - - "Grey rocks, and greyer sea, - And surf along the shore-- - And in my heart a name - My lips shall speak no more. - - "The high and lonely hills - Endure the darkening year-- - And in my heart endure - A memory and a tear. - - "Across the tide a sail - That tosses, and is gone-- - And in my heart the kiss - That longing dreams upon. - - "Grey rocks, and greyer sea, - And surf along the shore-- - And in my heart the face - That I shall see no more." - - -One of the stirring poems is that of _An Ode for the Canadian -Confederacy_, in which occur the lines: - - "Awake, my country, the hour of dreams is done! - Doubt not, nor dread the greatness of thy fate." - -The lyre of Charles G. D. Roberts is one of many strings, and the -temptation is rather irresistible to quote from him at still greater -length. - -Within the opening years of the decade of 1860-70 were born Charles -G. D. Roberts, William Wilfred Campbell, Archibald Lampman, Bliss -Carman, George Frederick Scott (now Canon Scott), and another who, -though bearing the same name, is only related to the Reverend Canon -by the ties of poetic brotherhood, Duncan Campbell Scott. William -{250} Henry Drummond (known especially as "The Poet of the Habitant") -and Isabella Valancy Crawford belonged to the preceding decade, and -although ranked as Canadian poets, were born in Ireland, coming to -the Dominion at an early age. - -William Wilfred Campbell is the poet both of Nature and of human -interests. No adequate view of an art so many-veined and so fine as -his can be presented within the limited space of these pages, but -from his noble poem on _England_ this stanza is taken: - - "And if ever the smoke of an alien gun - Should threaten her iron repose, - Shoulder to shoulder against the world. - Face to face with her foes, - Scot and Celt and Saxon are one - Where the Glory of England goes." - -And this from _The Hills and the Sea_: - - "Give me the uplands of purple, - The sweep of the vast world's rim, - Where the sun dips down, or the dawnings - Over the earth's edge swim, - With the days that are dead and the old earth-tales, - Human, and haunting, and grim." - - -A discerning critic says of Mr. Campbell that his poems are -"something akin to the whisper of silence, the magic of moonlight, -the sadness of art." Yet perhaps more than all one finds the tender -human strain, as in _The Last Prayer_, of which these stanzas are -representative: - -{251} - - "Master of life, the day is done; - My sun of life is sinking low; - I watch the hours slip one by one - And hark the night-wind and the snow. - - * * * * * * - - "And must thou banish all the hope, - The large horizon's eagle-swim, - The splendour of the far-off slope - That ran about the world's great rim, - - "That rose with morning's crimson rays - And grew to noonday's gloried dome, - Melting to even's purple haze - When all the hopes of earth went home? - - * * * * * * - - "Yea, thou mayst quench the latest spark - Of life's weird day's expectancy, - Roll down the thunders of the dark - And close the light of life for me. - - "Melt all the splendid blue above - And let these magic wonders die, - If thou wilt only leave me, Love, - And Love's heart-brother, Memory." - -His _Canadian Folk Song_ has become a popular favourite. The last -stanza runs: - - "The firelight dances upon the wall, - Footsteps are heard in the outer hall, - And a kiss and a welcome that fill the room, - And the kettle sings in the glimmer and gloom-- - Margery, Margery, make the tea, - Singeth the kettle merrily." - - -It is in the setting of Canada's wonderland to music that much of the -best work of Mr. Campbell lies; in his _Manitou_, _The Legend of -Restless River_, _Dawn in the Island Camp_, and the musical _Vapour -and Blue_. He has made himself the interpreter of Nature in all her -moods, as has also Archibald {252} Lampman, of whom William Dean -Howells said that his pure spirit was electrical in every line; and -that "the stir of wing, of leaf, of foot; the drifting odours of wood -and field," thrilled his readers in his verse. - -[Illustration: Canoeing on the Fraser River] - -In his _Passing of Autumn_ Mr. Lampman gives this delicate picture: - - "The wizard has woven his ancient scheme-- - A day and a star-lit night; - And the world is a shadowy-pencilled dream - Of colour, and haze, and light." - - -And who would not turn to his _April in the Hills_ to greet the -springtime? - - "I break the spirit's cloudy bands, - A wanderer in enchanted lands, - I feel the sun upon my hands; - And far from care and strife - The broad earth bids me forth. I rise - With lifted brow and upward eyes. - I bathe my spirit in blue skies, - And taste the springs of life. - - "I feel the tumult of new birth; - I waken with the wakening earth; - I match the bluebird in her mirth; - And wild with wind and sun, - A treasurer of immortal days, - I roam the glorious world with praise, - The hillsides and the woodland ways, - Till earth and I are one." - - -Mr. Lampman was a master of the sonnet and one of these entitled -_Outlook_ touches a high note, while another, _The Railway Station_, -so interprets the poetic side of common experiences as to be rather -distinctive among all his work and so claims reproduction here: - -{253} - - "The darkness brings no quiet here, the light - No waking; ever on my blinded brain - The flare of lights, the rush, the cry, and strain, - The engines' scream, the hiss and thunder smite: - I see the hurrying crowds, the clasp, the flight. - Faces that touch, eyes that are dim with pain: - I see the hoarse wheels turn, and the great train - Move labouring out into the bourneless night. - So many souls within its deep recesses, - So many bright, so many mournful eyes: - Mine eyes that watch grow fixed with dreams and guesses; - What threads of life, what hidden histories, - What sweet or passionate dreams and dark distresses, - What unknown thoughts, what various agonies!" - - -Bliss Carman has long been recognised by the critical lover of poetic -art as a poet of unusual distinction and grace. When, in the days of -his early youth, his poem _Low Tide on Grand-Pré_ appeared in the -_Atlantic Monthly_, all connoisseurs in poet-lore felt the magical -touch. Over all the barren reaches on which the sun had gone down -the poet saw the "unelusive glories": - - "Was it a year or lives ago - We took the grasses in our hands. - And caught the summer flying low - Over the waving meadow lands, - And held it there between our hands? - - * * * * * * - - "And that we took into our hands-- - Spirit of life, or subtler thing-- - Breathed on us there, and loosed the bands - Of death, and taught us, whispering, - The secret of some wonder thing." - -That the poem is faintly, vaguely reminiscent of Swinburne's _Félise_ -is only an added charm. Like a refrain of music lingers the last -stanza: - -{254} - - "The night has fallen, and the tide ... - Now and again comes drifting home, - Across these aching barrens wide, - A sigh like driven wind or foam: - In grief the flood is bursting home!" - - -Mr. Carman has kept faith with the poetic dreams of his youth. Could -there be found in the songs of any land a lyric more subtle, more -delicately exquisite in expression, than this which he calls _The -Unreturning_? - - "The old, eternal spring once more - Comes back the sad, eternal way; - With tender, rosy light, before - The going out of day. - - "The great white moon across my door - A shadow in the twilight stirs; - But now, forever, comes no more - That wondrous look of Hers!" - - -Master of many and varied orders of song, Mr. Carman has the rare art -of the ballad; and his blank verse, as his lyrical, is enticing. A -series of the daintiest lyrics, _Songs of the Sea Children_, call up -a very fairyland in which to wander. One of these (the lyrics form a -sequence) thus portrays the mysteries of spring: - - "In the blue mystery of the April woods, - Thy spirit now - Makes musical the rainbow's interludes, - And pink the peach-tree bough. - - "In the new birth of all things bright and fair, - 'Tis only thou - Art very April, glory, light, and air, - And joy and ardour now." - -{255} - -Bliss Carman is a word-painter as well as a poet in his lyrical work. -With what fairy-like magic he pictures the landscape, the colouring, -the very breath of the summer wind, the rustle of leaves, and the -swaying of the flower on its stem. - -From a multitude of examples, here is one poem, entitled _The Dance -of the Sunbeam_: - - "When morning is high o'er the hilltops. - On river and stream and lake. - Whenever a young breeze whispers, - The sun-clad dancers wake. - - "One after one upspringing, - They flash from their dim retreat, - Merry as running laughter - Is the news of their twinkling feet. - - "Over the floors of azure - Whenever the wind flaws run, - Sparkling, leaping, and racing, - Their antics scatter the sun. - - "As long as water ripples - And weather is clear and glad, - Day after day they are dancing, - Never a moment sad. - - "But when through the field of heaven, - The wings of storm take flight, - At a touch of the flying shadows - They falter and slip from sight. - - "Until, at the grey day's ending, - As the squadrons of cloud retire, - They pass in the triumph of sunset - With banners of crimson fire." - - -Mr. Carman is pre-eminently the poet of nature, as how else could he -be when, in _The Breath of the Reed_, he makes this appeal? - -{256} - - "Make me thy priest, O mother. - And prophet of thy mood, - With all the forest wonder - Enraptured and imbued"; - -or when he thus expresses himself in _The Great Return_? - - "When I have lifted up my heart to thee, - Then hast thou ever hearkened and drawn near, - And bowed thy shining face close over me, - Till I could hear thee as the hill-flowers hear. - - "When I have cried to thee in lonely need, - Being but a child of thine bereft and wrung, - Then all the rivers in the hills gave heed - And the great hill winds in thy holy tongue-- - - "That ancient incommunicable speech - The April stars and Autumn sunsets know-- - Soothed me and calmed me with solace beyond reach - Of human ken, mysterious and low." - - -Mr. Carman is, however, more than a writer of exquisite lyrics, more -even than a painter and hymner of nature in its various aspects and -moods. He is more deeply concerned with the mystery which we call -life than with anything else, and again and again seeks to understand -and express his sense of that mystery. His _Behind the -Arras_--described by a recent writer as the most distinctive book of -poems issued in English in the past quarter of a century-- is a -record of such attempts. We quote here the opening verse of _The -Players_: - - "We are the players of a play - As old as earth, - Between the wings of night and day, - With tears and mirth." - -{257} - -And here the first verse of _In the Wings_: - - "The play is life; and this round earth - The narrow stage whereon - We act before an audience - Of actors dead and gone." - -And here are some lines from _Beyond the Gamut_, which for -philosophic insight are surely hard to equal in modern poetry: - - "As all sight is but a finer hearing, - And all colour but a finer sound, - Beauty, but the reach of lyric freedom, - Caught and quivering past all music's bound; - - "Life, that faint sigh whispered from oblivion, - Harks and wonders if we may not be - Five small wits to carry one great rhythmus, - The vast theme of God's new symphony. - - "As fine sand spread on a disc of silver, - At some chord which bids the notes combine, - Heeding the hidden and reverberant impulse, - Shifts and dances into curve and line, - - "The round earth, too, haply, like a dust-mote, - Was set whirling her assigned sure way, - Round this little orb of her ecliptic - To some harmony she must obey." - - -The temptation to go on quoting from Mr. Carman's work (which is more -varied and touches more chords than most persons--even among those -who endeavour to keep in touch with the poetry produced in our -day--are aware) has to be resisted, but space must be found for a -portion of a recent poem, _A Mountain Gateway_, in which, in beauty -and clarity {258} of thought and expression, the poet reaches perhaps -his highest point: - - "I know a vale where I would go one day, - When June comes back and all the world once more - Is glad with summer. Deep with shade it lies, - A mighty cleft in the green bosoming hills, - A cool dim gateway to the mountains' heart. - - "On either side the wooded slopes come down, - Hemlock and beech and chestnut. Here and there - Through the deep forest laurel spreads and gleams, - Pink-white as Daphne in her loveliness-- - That still perfection from the world withdrawn, - As if the wood gods had arrested there - Immortal beauty in her breathless flight. - - * * * * * * - - "And where the road runs in the valley's foot, - Through the dark woods a mountain stream comes down, - Singing and dancing all its youth away - Among the boulders and the shallow runs, - Where sunbeams pierce and mossy tree trunks hang - Drenched all day long with murmuring sound and spray. - - "There, light of heart and foot-free, I would go - Up to my home among the lasting hills, - - * * * * * * - - And in my cabin doorway sit me down. - Companioned in that leafy solitude - By the wood ghosts of twilight and of peace, - While evening passes to absolve the day - And leave the tranquil mountains to the stars. - - "And in that sweet seclusion I should hear, - Among the cool-leafed beeches in the dusk, - The calm-voiced thrushes at their evening hymn, - So undistraught, so rapturous, so pure, - It well might be, in wisdom and in joy, - The seraphs singing at the birth of time - The unworn ritual of eternal things." - - -In the Reverend George Frederic Scott, D.C.L., F.R.S.C., Canon of the -Cathedral in Quebec since {259} 1894, Canada has a poet of high -poetic seriousness of especial distinction, and with just claims to -more than a national recognition. A long poem entitled _Evolution_, -written by Canon Scott in 1887, stands as something unique in -English-speaking poetry, in its presenting a great scientific truth -with poetic expression. Of this some stanzas follow: - - "Life out of death, death out of life, - In endless cycles rolling on, - And fire-gleams flashing from the strife - Of what will come and what has gone. - - * * * * * - - "But what art thou and what am I? - What place is ours in all this scheme? - What is it to be born and die? - Are we but phases in a dream? - - * * * * * - - "And we are present, future, past-- - Shall live again, have lived before. - Like billows on the beaches cast - Of tides that flow for evermore. - - * * * * * - - "That may be so; but to mine eyes - A being of wondrous make thou art-- - The point at which infinities - Converge, touch, and forever part. - - "Thou canst not unmake what has been, - Nor hold back that which is to come; - We dwell upon the waste between - In the small 'now' which is our home. - - * * * * * - - "But in the ages thou shalt be - A link from unknown to unknown, - A bridge across a darkling sea, - A light on the world's pathway thrown. - - * * * * * - - "And we must pass--we shall not die; - Changed and transformed, but still the same. - To grander heights of mystery, - To fairer realms than whence we came. - -{260} - - "God will not let His work be lost; - Too wondrous is the mind of man, - Too many ages has it cost - The huge fulfilment of His plan. - - "But on we pass, for ever on, - Through death to other deaths and life; - To brighter lights when these are gone, - To broader thought, more glorious strife, - - "To vistas opening out of these; - To wonders shining from afar. - Above the surging of the seas, - Above the course of moon and star; - - "To higher powers of will and deed, - All bounds, all limits left behind; - To truths undreamt in any creed; - To deeper love, more God-like mind. - - * * * * * - - "Great God! we move into the vast; - All questions vain--the shadows come! - We hear no answer from the past; - The years before us all are dumb. - - "We trust Thy purpose and Thy will; - We see afar the shining goal; - Forgive us, if there linger still - Some human fear within the soul! - - * * * * * - - "But lo! the dawn of fuller days; - Horizon-glories fringe the sky! - Our feet would climb the shining ways - To meet man's widest destiny. - - "Come, then, all sorrow's recompense! - The kindling sky is flaked with gold; - Above the shattered screen of sense, - A voice like thunder cries, 'Behold!'" - - -In Canon Scott's _Requiescat_, in memory of General Gordon, is one of -the thrilling lyrics of memorial verse: - -{261} - - "O thou twice hero,--hero in thy life - And in thy death!--we have no power to crown - Thy nobleness; we weep thine arm in strife; - We weep, but glory in thy life laid down. - - * * * * * * - - "Saint! hero! through the clouds of doubt that loom - O'er darkling skies, thy life hath power to bless; - We thank thee thou hast shown us in the gloom - Once more Christ's power and childlike manliness." - - -A quatrain on Darwin's tomb in Westminster Abbey is worthy to be held -in memory: - - "The Muse, when asked what words alone - Were worthy tribute to his fame, - Took up her pen, and on the stone - Inscribed his name." - - -Full of tender and beautiful feeling is this little lyric of Canon -Scott's that he entitles _Beyond_: - - "My heart it lies beyond, dear, - In the land of the setting day, - Where the whispers are soft and fond, dear, - Of the voices that pass away; - And oft, when the night is falling, - And a calm is on the sea, - I fancy I hear them calling - From that far-off land for me. - - "It is only idle dreaming - But the dream is full of rest. - And up where that glory is streaming - From the gates of the golden west, - I wander away in spirit, - With a mingled joy and pain, - Till I almost seem to inherit - The sweet dead past again. - - * * * * * - - "Yes, my heart it lies beyond, dear, - Where that sun is burning low, - And were you not so fond, dear, - I might perhaps--but no! -{262} - Are you weary already with walking? - And tears! What tears, dear, too! - How selfish of me to be talking, - My darling, in this way to you!" - - -One of the most widely known and frequently quoted of the poems of -Canon Scott is the _Van Elsen_: - - "God spake three times and saved Van Elsen's soul: - He spake by illness first, and made him whole; - Van Elsen heard Him not, - Or soon forgot. - - "God spake to him by wealth; the world outpoured - Its treasures at his feet, and called him lord; - Van Elsen's heart grew fat - And proud thereat. - - "God spake the third time when the great world smiled, - And in the sunshine slew his little child; - Van Elsen like a tree - Fell hopelessly. - - "Then in the darkness came a Voice which said: - 'As thy heart bleedeth, so My heart hath bled; - As I have need of thee - Thou needest Me.' - - "That night Van Elsen kissed the baby feet, - And kneeling by the narrow winding-sheet, - Praised Him with fervent breath - Who conquered death." - - -Canon Scott, who may well be recognised as the most spiritual of -Canadian poets, has published five volumes of poems, _The Soul's -Quest_, _My Lattice and Other Poems_, _The Unnamed Lake_, _Poems Old -and New_, and _In the Battle Silences, Poems Written at the Front_. -There is a depth of thought, an {263} appealing grace and tenderness -of feeling in his work that insures his poems a treasured place in -Canadian life. - -Duncan Campbell Scott has the fascination of the spontaneous singer, -and how all the entrancement of the Dominion is caught into these -lines: - - "Oh, Land of the dusky balsam, - And the darling maple-tree, - Where the cedar buds and berries, - And the pine grows strong and free! - My heart is weary and weary - For my own country." - - -Something in this song recalls, like remembered music, Katherine -Tynan's (Mrs. Hinkson) haunting poem, _Homesick_, of which two lines -run: - - "But my heart flies back to an Abbey gray - Where the dead sleep sweet, and the living pray." - - -The professional critic could find many poems of Mr. Scott's with -intrinsically greater claim than this lovely little chanson, _To B. -W. B._ (now Mrs. Duncan Campbell Scott), but something in the -lilting cadence enchains the reader: - - "The world is spinning for change - And life has rapid wings; - Oh, one needs a steady heart - Not to falter while he sings. - - "But this is made for my Dear One - When we are far apart, - That she may have, wherever she goes - A song of mine in her heart. - - "A song that will serve as an anchor, - Compass, and pilot, and chart, - A song that will bid her remember - That Love is the crown of Art. - - * * * * * - -{264} - - "With a star from her open window - When the cuckoo wakes with a start: - Oh, can she ever forget me - With a song of mine in her heart?" - - -In _The Voice and the Dusk_ what a play of colour: - - "The slender moon and one pale star, - A rose leaf and a silver bee - From some god's garden blown afar, - Go down the gold deep tranquilly. - - "Within the south there rolls and grows - A mighty town with tower and spire, - From a cloud bastion masked with rose - The lightning flashes diamond fire." - - -A poet's _nom de plume_ is that of "Katherine Hale," so well known in -private life as Mrs. John W. Garvin, who to her own charm as a poet -must add still another as the wife of a poet and a critic of -distinction as well. The gods endowed "Katherine Hale" with a -resplendent lyre, and her poems have flown to many lands. Perhaps no -poem of the war has more closely touched the universal heart than has -"Katherine Hale's" poem, so intense in its restrained power, entitled -_Grey Knitting_, so widely known that from it only these three -stanzas will be given: - - "All through the country, in the autumn stillness, - A web of grey spreads strangely, rim to rim; - And you may hear the sound of knitting needles. - Incessant, gentle--dim. - - "A tiny click of little wooden needles, - Elfin amid the gianthood of war; - Whispers of women, tireless and patient, - Who weave the web afar. - - * * * * * * - -{265} - - "I like to think that soldiers, gayly dying - For the white Christ on fields with shame sown deep, - May hear the fairy click of women's needles - As they fall fast asleep." - - -What a spell of potent witchery she weaves in her song _I used to -Wear a Gown of Green_: - - "I used to wear a gown of green - And sing a song to May, - When apple blossoms starred the stream - And Spring came up the way. - - "I used to run along with Love - By lanes the world forgets, - To find in an enchanted wood - The first frail violets. - - "And ever 'mid the fairy blooms - And murmur of the stream, - We used to hear the pipes of Pan - Call softly through our dream. - - "But now, in outcry vast, that tune - Fades like some little star - Lost in an anguished judgment day - And scarlet flames of war. - - "What can it mean that Spring returns - And purple violets bloom, - Save that some gypsy flower may stray - Beside his nameless tomb! - - "To pagan Earth her gown of green, - Her elfin song to May-- - _With all my soul I must go on - Into the scarlet day._" - - -The poets have been the celebrants of many of the historic epochs of -Canada and the recorders of her great names; and in this especial -line John Daniel Logan has rendered an interesting service in his -_Songs of the Makers of Canada_. In these Dr. Logan has celebrated -Cartier as the "dauntless {266} discoverer," Champlain as the "first -Canadian," Laval as "the high-priest of knowledge," Wolfe as the -"illustrious victor," Brock the "valiant leader," Drummond the -"indomitable soldier," Ryerson the "renowned educator," Howe the -"champion of self-government," Macdonald the "great -confederationist," Laurier the "prophetic imperialist." Such a -collection, in its vigour and vividness of personal characterisation, -is the very intellectual panorama of Canada. Of Macdonald, the -"great confederationist," the First Premier of the Dominion (1867), -we find Dr. Logan saying: - - "Macdonald, though thy soul hath passed away - From wonted wolds in our Canadian land, - Where thou wast chiefest of the fervid band - That sought to give the people fullest sway - O'er their own destiny, thy spirit goes - Triumphant in this Canada of ours - Resplendent now before the elder Pow'rs - Who mark how virile our young nation grows! - - "Thy wisdom was the vision of a seer - Who knew the meaning of the pregnant days - Which gen'rous Time should father into ways - For unity...." - - -In the memorial lyric to William Henry Drummond, whom Dr. Logan -enshrines as "Sovereign of Joy and Prince of Tears," the poet touches -perhaps his most musical note in the lines: - - "O Lost Canadian Singer of the winsome lays, - How farest thou along the Elysium ways,-- - Art thou companionless as we - And sorrowing? - - * * * * * * - -{267} - - "O gentle heart, we wonder if thou farest happily - With Homer and the Attic strain, - With Milton and the Tragic train." - - -Among the younger Canadian poets are two sisters, Annie Campbell -Huestis and Ethel Huestis Butler, who have each won distinction. One -little lyric of Mrs. Butler's, _On Life's Highway_, is singularly -poetic in its motive, contrasting the experiences of walking as -companioned with Grief, or with Joy, and is expressed with much -tenderness of feeling. The work of Miss Huestis suggests that she -makes her pilgrimages to the "holy hill," and brings away with her -all the fragrance of the thyme. A poem of hers entitled _Aldaran, -the Singer_, has somewhat of that sustained sweetness and music that -so signally characterised Mrs. Browning's _Catarina to Camoens_. -From Miss Huestis's _Aldaran_ are these extracts: - - "Aldaran, who loved to sing, - Here lieth dead. - All the glory of the spring, - All its birds and blossoming, - Near his still bed - Cannot waken him again. - Cannot lure to hill and plain, - Aldaran, the Singer, - Who is dead. - - "Aldaran, who loved to sing, - Here lieth low; - Not again his heart shall spring - At the time of blossoming, - Ah, who can know? - Still at dusk or break of day, -{268} - Some can hear him on his way, - Aldaran, the vanished one, - Walking, hidden, in the sun; - Moving, mist-like, by the streams - When the early twilight dreams; - Speeding on his quiet way, - Never seen by night or day, - - "But in pity drawing near - To the help of those who fear. - To the beds of those who die, - Singing low their lullaby, - Singing still, when they are far - Where the mist and silence are, - Singing softly still that they - May not fear the hidden way. - So, to those whose day is sped, - In the hour lone and dread, - Cometh Aldaran, the Singer, - Who is dead!" - - -For her _Magdalen_, whose beauty of phrasing attracted attention when -published in a leading critical review of New York, and in which -there is a haunting reminiscence of Christina Rossetti, room must -here be made, as it represents Miss Huestis in what is perhaps her -most artistic mood: - - "'Where are you going, weary feet. - Feet that have failed in storm and flood? - 'I go to find a flower sweet - I left, fresh growing, near a wood. - The winds blow pure from many a hill, - And hush to tender stillness there. - Shall not this restless heart be still, - And grow more innocent and fair?' - '_Not so; for sin and bitter pain - Can never find Youth's flower again!_' - - "'Where are you going, wistful face, - Face with the mark of shame and tears?' -{269} - 'I go to find a quiet place - Where no one sees and no one hears. - The beauty and the silence there - Shall thrill me through and still my pain. - Shall touch my hardness into prayer, - And give me back my dreams again.' - '_Not so; for Sin has closed the door - On Youth's fair dreams forevermore._'" - - "'Where are you going, heart of woe. - Pitiful heart of fear and shame?' - 'A strange and lonely way I go, - Where none shall pity, none shall blame. - Far with my sin and misery - I creep on doubtful feet, alone; - No human heart can follow me - To mark my tears or hear my moan.' - '_Nay; but the never-ceasing sting, - The clearness of remembering!_' - - "'What do you see, O changing face, - Alight with strange and tender gleams?' - 'I near the hushed and holy place - Of One who gives me back my dreams.' - 'Where are you daring, eager feet, - Feet that so wild a way have trod?' - 'O bitter world, no scorn I meet. - Sinful and hurt, I go to God! - _On my dark sin, forevermore, - A sinless Hand has closed the door._'" - - -Miss Huestis dons her singing-robes too infrequently; but who may -venture on any prediction regarding the poetic production of one who -is still on the threshold of achievement? For the poet, himself, -least of all, may foresee his own future, nor is it given to those -who love his songs to discern his future in the magic glass. The -poet is ever a subject in a kingdom of untraced laws and unmapped -territory. - -{270} - - "For voices pursue him by day - And haunt him by night; - And he listens, and needs must obey - When the Angel says 'Write!'" - - -Forever does he await the Voice and the Vision. - -Louis Frechette is the French-Canadian Laureate, who was crowned by -the French Academy, in 1881, for the striking merit of his tragedy, -_Papineau_. Doctor Frechette (born in 1841) has contributed greatly -to the fame of his country. In his _La Decouverte du Mississippi_, -and in _Le Drapeau Anglais_, _Saint-Malo_, and others, is his real -distinction felt. His poems are so long and so closely woven as -hardly to lend themselves to extracts. - -Thomas O'Hagan is one of the favourite poets of the Dominion, and -aside from his own notable contribution to poetry, he has done and is -doing a wonderful work in his scholarly and critical lectures on -poets. His published lectures interpretative of Shakespeare, of -Dante, and of Browning, Tennyson, Longfellow, and others, are in -constant demand. In _A Gate of Flowers_, _An Idyll of the Farm_, -_The Bugle Call_, and the timely production _I Take Off my Hat to -Albert_, are poems that inspire the popular favour; and in a lyric -entitled _Ripened Fruit_ these stanzas are especially calculated to -awaken response: - - "I know not what my heart hath lost; - I cannot strike the chords of old: - The breath that charmed my morning life - Hath chilled each leaf within the wold. - -{271} - - "The swallows twitter in the sky, - But bare the nest within the eaves; - The fledglings of my care are gone, - And left me but the rustling leaves. - - "And yet, I know my life hath strength, - And firmer hope and sweeter prayer, - For leaves that murmur on the ground - Have now for me a double care. - - "The glory of the summer sky - May change to tints of autumn hue; - But faith that sheds its amber light - Will lend our heaven a tender blue. - - "O altar of eternal youth! - O faith that beckons from afar. - Give to our lives a blossomed fruit-- - Give to our morns an evening star!" - - -Very distinctive is the work of Doctor William Henry Drummond, the -poet of the "habitant" life. _De Nice Leetle Canadienne_ and _Leetle -Bateese_ have become household songs. In the former one stanza runs: - - "O she's quick, an' she's smart, an' got plaintee heart, - If you know correc' way go about; - An' if you don' know, she soon tole you so. - Den tak' de firs' chance an' get out; - But if she love you, I spik it for true, - She will mak' it more beautiful den, - An' sun on de sky can't shine lak' de eye - Of dat nice leetle Canadienne." - - -_Leetle Bateese_ is a favourite with reciters who master the dialect, -and who frequently delight their audiences by the mingled humour and -tenderness of the picture: - -{272} - - "Too sleepy for sayin' de prayer to-night? - Never min', I s'pose it'll be all right; - Say dem to-morrow--ah! dere he go! - Fas' asleep in a minute or so-- - An' he'll stay lak dat till de rooster crow, - Leetle Bateese! - - * * * * * * - - "But, leetle Bateese! please don' forget - We rader you're stayin' de small boy yet, - So chase de chicken an' mak' dem scare, - An' do w'at you lak wit' your old gran'pere - For we'n you're beeg feller he won't be dere-- - Leetle Bateese!" - - -John W. Garvin, who has manifested his devotion to the muses by -compiling a notable anthology of Canadian poets (recently published), -is also a poet of recognition, and one of his productions, entitled -_Majesty_, is especially original in conception. Mr. Garvin's -devotion to the poetic literature of his country has rendered great -service in the way of making the poets known to the general reading -public and bringing together, within convenient limits, much that is -best in poetic art. - -The names come to mind of Alfred Gordon, a young and gifted English -poet now a resident of Montreal; of Ethelyn Wetherald, Robert -Norwood, E. Pauline Johnson, the daughter of Chief Johnson of the -Mohawks; of Virna Sheard, Alma Frances McCollum, Albert D. Watson, -William McLennan, and William Douw Lighthall (whose recognition -extends far beyond his native country); of Charles Mair, whose -_Tecumseh_ contains much that is excellent in poetic lore. Marjorie -L. C. Pickthall has already {273} established a claim to the wide -recognition that opens before her, and her poem _The Lamp of Poor -Souls_ must be especially remembered. Jean Blewett is one of the -most thoughtful and beautiful of the present choir of singers. Mrs. -Blewett is Canadian born, and something of the high seriousness of -life that characterises the Reverend Canon Scott seems reflected in -the poems of Mrs. Blewett; as in the following, entitled _Discontent_: - - "My soul spoke low to Discontent: - Long hast thou lodged with me, - Now, ere the strength of me is spent, - I would be quit of thee. - - "Thy presence means revolt, unrest, - Means labour, longing, pain; - Go, leave me, thou unwelcome guest, - Nor trouble me again. - - "Then something strong and sweet and fair - Rose up and made reply: - Who gave you the desire to dare - And do the right? 'Twas I. - - "The coward soul craves pleasant things, - Soft joys and dear delights-- - I scourged you till you spread your wings - And soared to nobler heights. - - "You know me but imperfectly-- - My surname is Divine; - God's own right hand did prison me - Within this soul of thine, - - "Lest thou, forgetting work and strife, - By human longings prest, - Shouldst miss the grandest things of life, - Its battles and unrest." - -[Illustration: Breaking Camp] - -Helena Coleman has much of that spiritualisation {274} of vision -which was so evident in Adelaide Proctor, and which was exalted to -the supremest poetic art by Mrs. Browning. From Miss Coleman's -_Love's Higher Way_ these stanzas are taken: - - "Constrain me not! Dost thou not know - That if I turn from thee my face - 'Tis but to hide the overflow - - "Of love? We need a little space - And solitude in which to kneel - And thank our God for this high grace - - "That He hath set His holy seal - Upon our lives. My heart doth burn - With consciousness of all I feel - - "And own to thee, and if I turn - For one brief moment from thy gaze, - 'Tis but that I may better learn - - "To bear the unaccustomed blaze - Of that white light that like a flame - Thy love has set amidst my days." - - -Of Isabella Valancy Crawford, who flashed like a glancing star across -Canadian skies, and whose death in 1887 (at the age of thirty-six) -was a signal loss to her adopted country, Mr. Garvin, at once her -biographer and the editor of the complete edition of her poems, well -says: "A great poet dwelt among us and we scarce knew her." William -Douw Lighthall pronounces Isabella Valancy Crawford the most -impressive Canadian poet next to Roberts. "This wonderful girl, -living in the 'Empire' Province of Ontario, early saw the -possibilities of the new field around her, and had she lived longer -might have made a really matchless name. It was {275} only in 1884 -that her modest volume came out. The sad story of unrecognised -genius and death was re-enacted." - -This volume of Miss Crawford's was handicapped by an infelicitous -title. _Old Spookses' Pass; Malcolm's Katie, and other Poems_, was -hardly a description to invite further investigation. The book -passed almost unnoticed, and within three years its author died. "She -was a high-spirited, passionate girl," says Mr. Lighthall, "and there -is little doubt that the neglect of her book was the cause of her -death. Afterward her verse was seen to be phenomenal.... It was -packed with fine stuff." - -_Malcolm's Katie_ is the story of a man and a maid, the man going -forth in the woodlands to hew a home with his axe, and the maid -remaining in faith and devotion in her home. It is a long poem in -blank verse, strewn with occasional lyrics, of which one runs: - - "O Love builds on the azure sea, - And Love builds on the golden sand, - And Love builds on the rose-winged cloud, - And sometimes Love builds on the land! - - "O if Love build on sparkling sea, - And if Love build on golden strand, - And if Love build on rosy cloud, - To Love these are the solid land! - - "O Love will build his lily walls, - And Love his pearly roof will rear - On cloud, or land, or mist, or sea-- - Love's solid land is everywhere!" - - -Mr. Lighthall is himself a poet of distinction and {276} one of the -best translators of French poetry. Among his finest work is a poem -on Homer, breathing the very spirit of classic ages. Another is -entitled _Canada Not Last_, a sonnet series to Venice, Florence, and -Rome, the concluding sonnet, which follows, relating to Canada: - - "Rome, Florence, Venice--noble, fair, and quaint, - They reign in robes of magic round me here; - But fading blotted, dim, a picture faint, - With spell more silent only pleads a tear. - Plead not! Thou hast my heart, O picture dim! - I see the fields, I see the autumn hand - Of God upon the maples! Answer Him - With weird, translucent glories, ye that stand - Like spirits in scarlet and in amethyst! - I see the sun break over you; the mist - On hills that lift from iron bases grand - Their heads superb!--the dream, it is my native land!" - - -Another genuine poet is Peter McArthur, one time editor of New York -_Truth_ and now farming at his old home in Ontario. Mr. McArthur has -published but one volume of verse, but that volume is enough to place -him securely well up among the truly authentic voices in the Canadian -choir. Everything he writes has a markedly individual quality. -There is nothing in him, as one writer has said, of the mere æsthetic -or dilettante; he is alive to his finger tips. Mr. McArthur has a -keen eye and ear for the common things of the life about him, as -witness _A Thaw_: - - "The farmhouse fire is dull and black, - The trailing smoke rolls white and low - Along the fields till by the wood - It banks and floats unshaken, slow; -{277} - The scattering sounds seem near and loud, - The rising sun is clear and white. - And in the air a mystery stirs - Of wintry hosts in coward flight. - - "Anon the south wind breathes across - The frozen earth its bonds to break, - Till at the call of life returned - It softly stirs but half awake. - The cattle clamour in their stalls, - The house-dog barks, he knows not why. - The cock crows by the stable door, - The snow-birds, sombre-hued, go by. - - "The busy housewife on the snow - To bleach lays out her linen store, - And scolds because with careless feet - The children track the spotless floor. - With nightfall comes the slow warm rain, - The purl of waters fills the air, - And save where roll the gleaming drifts - The fields lie sullen, black, and bare." - - -But Mr. McArthur does not write simply of the life around him; the -life within is of greater import to him. Here, as evidence of this, -is a fine sonnet of his, entitled _Summum Bonum_. Mr. McArthur, it -might be noted in passing, is a real master of the sonnet for all his -few accomplishments in that form of verse: - - "How blest is he that can but love and do, - And has no skill of speech nor trick of art - Wherewith to tell what faith approveth true - And show for fame the treasures of his heart. - When wisely weak upon the path of duty - Divine accord has made his footing sure - With humble deeds he builds his life to beauty, - Strong to achieve and patient to endure. - But they that in the market-place we meet, - Each with his trumpet and his noisy faction, -{278} - Are leaky vessels, pouring on the street - The truth they know ere it hath known its action: - Yet which, think ye, in His benign regard, - Or words or deeds shall merit the reward? - - -Agnes Maule Machar is another of the group of patriotic poets whose -theme is often that of the Empire. She discerns the imperial -conditions, and she is intensely in sympathy with the richness and -beauty of the land. In Miss Machar's _A Prayer for Dominion Day_ -these fine lines occur: - - "O God of nations, who hast set her place - Between the rising and the setting day, - Her part in this world's changeful course to play, - Soothe the conflicting passions that we trace - In her unrestful eyes--grant her the grace - To know the one true, perfect love, that may - Give noble impulse to her onward way-- - God's love, that doth all other love embrace!" - - -Lloyd Roberts, one of the young poets of the Dominion, the eldest -living son of Charles G. D. Roberts, is true to his poetic -birthright, and is the author of an impressive war poem, _Come -Quietly, England_, which opens as follows: - - "Come quietly, England, all together, come! - It is time! - We have waited, weighed, and blundered, wondered - Who had blundered; - Stared askance at one another - As our brother slew our brother, - And went about our business, - Saying, 'It will be all right--some day. - Let the soldiers do the killing-- - If they're willing-- - Let the sailors do the manning, - Let the cabinets do the planning. - -{279} - - Let the bankers do the paying - And the clergy do the praying. - The Empire is a fixture, - Walled and welded by five oceans, - And a little blood won't move it, - Nor a flood-tide of emotions.' - Well, now we know the truth - And the facts of all this fighting; - How 'tis not for England's glory - But for all a wide world's righting. - - * * * * * - - "What Washington starved and strove for - In the long winter night; - Lincoln wept for, died for,-- - Do we doubt if he were right? - - * * * * * - - "And who would fear to follow - When Nelson sets the course? - And who would turn his eyes away - From Wellington's white horse? - Not one, I warrant, now-- - Not one at home to-day; - In England? In Scotland? - In the Green Isle cross the way? - No, nor far away to Westward - Beyond the leagues of foam-- - They are coming, they are coming, - Their feet are turning home. - In Canada they're singing, - And love lies like a flame - About their throats this morning - Their sea-winds cannot tame. - Africa? Australia? - Aye a million throats proclaim - That their Motherland is Mother still - In something more than name! - - "It is time! Come, all together, come! - Not to the fife's call, not to the drum; - Right needs you; Truth claims you-- - That's a call indeed - One must heed! - -{280} - - Not for the weeping - (God knows there is weeping!) - Not for the horrors - That are blotting out the page; - Not for our comrades - (How many now are sleeping!) - Nor for the pity nor the rage, - But for the sake of simple goodness - And His laws - We shall sacrifice our all - For the Cause!" - - -One of the most brilliant of Canadian poets is Arthur Stringer, -though he is more widely known as a novelist, his _Silver Poppy_ and -_Wire Tappers_ having been the successes of their day. Mr. -Stringer's poetic work is striking for its variety and range. He has -written lyrics and sonnets of almost Keats-like quality, and with as -ready facility has written poems in the most modern form of _vers -libre_. Then he has turned to the literature of ancient Greece and -given us such things of pure beauty in blank verse as _Hephæstus_ and -_Sappho in Leucadia_, which do not shrink in comparison with any -other modern work of their kind; and again has presented us with such -pitilessly realistic and convincing pictures as _The Woman in the -Rain_. He has also written verse of the Celtic order, his volume of -_Irish Poems_ being a well of true Irish humour and feeling. And -yet, withal, Stringer is Canadian in every nerve and fibre of him. -Listen to his _Going Home_: - - "I tread each mountain waste austere, - I pass dark pinelands, hill by hill; - Each tardy sunrise brings me near, - Each lonely sunset nearer still. - -{281} - - "Sing low, my heart, of other lands - And suns we may have loved, or known: - This silent North, it understands, - And asks but little of its own! - - "So where the homeland twilight broods - Above the slopes of dusky pine, - Teach me your silence, solitudes; - Your reticence, grey hills, be mine! - - "Whether all loveliness it lies, - Or but a lone waste scarred and torn, - How shall I know? For 'neath these skies - And in this valley I was born." - - -Here is a characteristic poem of Stringer's entitled _War_, written -years ago, and yet reading as if the ink in which it was written were -still wet: - - "From hill to hill he harried me; - He stalked me day and night. - He neither knew nor hated me; - Not his nor mine the fight. - - "He killed the man who stood by me, - For such they made his law. - Then foot by foot I fought to him, - Who neither knew nor saw. - - "I aimed my rifle at his heart; - He leapt up in the air. - My screaming ball tore through his breast, - And lay embedded there. - - "Lay but embedded there, and yet - Hissed home o'er hill and sea, - Straight to the aching heart of one - Who'd wronged not mine nor me." - - -As a specimen of Stringer's skill in handling of blank verse, here is -a portion of the farewell between Sappho and Phaon in _Sappho in -Leucadia_: - -{282} - - _Sappho_. But you,-- - You will forget me, Phaon; there the sting. - The sorrow of the grave is not its green - And the salt tear upon its violet; - But the long years that bring the grey neglect, - When the glad grasses smooth the little mound,-- - When leaf by leaf the tree of sorrow wanes - And on the urn unseen the tarnish comes, - And tears are not so bitter as they were, - Time sings so low to our bereavèd ears,-- - So softly breathes, that, bud by falling bud, - The garden of fond Grief all empty lies - And unregretted dip the languid oars - Of Charon thro' the gloom, and then are gone. - - _Phaon_. Red-lipped and breathing woman, made for love, - How can this clamouring heart of mine forget? - - _Sappho_. You will forget, e'en though you would or no, - And the long years shall leave you free again; - And in some other Spring when other lips - Let fall my name, you will remember not. - - _Phaon_. Enough,--but let me kiss the heavy rose - Of your red mouth. - - _Sappho_. Not until Death has kissed - It white as these white garments, and has robed - This body for its groom. - - -Another characteristic poem of Stringer's, entitled _A Prayer in -Defeat_, will bear comparison with William Ernest Henley's famous -_Unafraid_: - - "Still hurl me back, God, if Thou must! - Thy wrath, see, I shall bear-- - I have been taught to know the dust - Of battle and despair. - - "Bend not to me this hour, O God, - Where I defeated stand; - I have been schooled to bear thy rod, - And still wait, not unmanned! - - "But should some white hour of success - Sweep me where, vine-like, lead - The widening roads, the clamouring press-- - Then I thy lash shall need! - -{283} - - "Then, in that hour of triumph keen, - For then I ask thine aid; - God of the weak, on whom I lean, - Keep me then unafraid!" - - -Space cannot be found for it here, but following are a few verses -from another beautiful poem, _St. Ives' Poor_. The idea of this poem -is found in the old saying that in the giving of alms the Christ is -revealed: - - "For O, my Lord, the house-dove knows her nest - Above my window builded from the rain; - In the brown mere the heron finds her rest, - But these shall seek in vain. - - "And O, my Lord, the thrush may fold his wing, - The curlew seek the long lift of the seas, - The wild swan sleep amid his journeying; - There is no place for these. - - "Thy dead are sheltered; housed and warmed they wait - Under the golden fern, the falling foam; - But these Thy living wander desolate, - And have not any home." - - -And here is an exquisite poem, _The Immortal_, which is full of Miss -Pickthall's own music: - - "Beauty is still immortal in our eyes, - When sways no more the spirit-haunted reed, - When the wild grape shall build - No more her canopies, - When blows no more the moon-grey thistle seed, - When the last bell has lulled the white flocks home, - When the last eve has stilled - The wandering wing, and touched the dying foam, - When the last moon burns low, and, spark by spark, - The little worlds die out along the dark-- - - "Beauty that rosed the moth-wing, touched the land - With clover-horns and delicate faint flowers; -{284} - Beauty that bade the showers - Beat on the violet's face, - Shall hold the eternal heavens within their place, - And hear new stars come singing from God's hand." - - -We cannot resist, before leaving Miss Pickthall, quoting a lovely -little lyric of hers called simply _Serenade_: - - "Dark is the Iris meadow, - Dark is the ivory tower, - And lightly the young moth's shadow - Sleeps on the passion flower. - - "Gone are our day's red roses, - Lovely and lost and few, - But the first star uncloses - A silver bud in the blue. - - "Night, and a flame in the embers - When the seal of the years was set; - When the almond bough remembers - How shall my heart forget?" - - -Passing mention has been made of the names of Ethelwyn Wetherald and -Pauline Johnson, but the work of these poets is too distinctive to -avoid some reference to it. Miss Wetherald has published some -half-dozen books of verse, all made up chiefly of short lyrics, and -all possessing an individual quality which may well be called unique. -Here is one of her strongest poems, entitled _Prodigal Yet_: - - "Muck of the sty, reek of the trough, - Blackened my brow where all might see, - Yet while I was a great way off - My Father ran with compassion for me. - - "He put on my hand a ring of gold - (There's no escape from a ring, they say); - He put on my neck a chain to hold - My passionate spirit from breaking away. - -{285} - - "He put on my feet the shoes that miss - No chance to tread in the narrow path; - He pressed on my lips the burning kiss - That scorches deeper than fires of wrath. - - "He filled my body with meat and wine, - He flooded my heart with love's white light! - Yet deep in the mire, with sensuous swine, - I long--God help me!--to wallow to-night. - - "Muck of the sty, reek of the trough, - Blacken my soul where none may see. - Father, I yet am a long way off-- - Come quickly. Lord! Have compassion on me!" - - -It has been indicated that Pauline Johnson, whose death a few years -ago is still fresh in the memory of those who knew her and her work, -was Indian by birth and her poetry is marked by the vigour and -virility which such a fact would imply. _How Red Men Can Die_ and -_The Cry of an Indian Wife_ are perhaps her best-known poems, but -they are too long to quote here. Following, however, is a little -poem, _The Honey Bee_, which shows Miss Johnson's keen feeling for -colour, as well as her fine lyric quality: - - "You are belted with gold, little brother of mine, - Yellow gold, like the sun - That spills in the west, as a chalice of wine - When feasting is done. - - "You are gossamer-winged, little brother of mine, - Tissue winged, like the mist - That broods where the marshes melt into a line - Of vapour sun-kissed. - - "You are laden with sweets, little brother of mine, - Flower sweets, like the touch - Of hands we have longed for, of arms that entwine, - Of lips that love much. - -{286} - - "You are better than I, little brother of mine, - Than I, human-souled, - For you bring from the blossoms and red summer shine, - For others, your gold." - - -The poet has no country save that of the kingdom of song, or rather, -all countries are his own, and while Canada cannot claim Robert W. -Service by birth, it is he who has so made himself the poet of her -scenic grandeur and her primitive human experiences in the deepest -emotions of life, love, death, sacrifice, revenge, that no sketch of -Canadian poetry could omit the name of one who has made the Dominion -known, in its grandeur and its mountain solitudes, the world over. -Mr. Service has inevitably been much quoted in these pages; no one -can travel in Canada, no one can write of Canada, without this -perpetual consciousness of the vivid way in which he has translated -her landscapes and her life. What a ring of the vitality that -conquers the wilderness is in his _Call of the Wild_! - - "Have you suffered, starved, and triumphed, grovelled down, - yet grasped at glory, - Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole? - 'Done things' just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story, - Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul? - Have you seen God in His splendours, heard the text that - nature renders - (You'll never hear it in the family pew), - The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do - things?-- - Then listen to the wild--it's calling you. - - "They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with - their preaching, - They have soaked you in convention through and through; -{287} - They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their - teaching-- - But can't you hear the wild?--it's calling you. - Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us; - Let us journey to a lonely land I know. - There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to - guide us, - And the wild is calling, calling ... let us go." - - -In _The Law of the Yukon_ we find: - - "This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain; - 'Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and - your sane; - Strong for the red rage of battle; sane, for I harry them sore; - Send me men girt for the combat,--men who are grit to the core; - Send me the best of your breeding, lend me your chosen ones; - Them will I take to my bosom, them will I call my sons; - Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my meat; - But the others, the misfits, the failures,--I trample under my feet. - - * * * * * * * * - - "'I am the land that listens, I am the land that broods; - Steeped in eternal beauty, crystalline waters and woods. - Monstrous, moody, pathetic, the last of the lands and the first, - Visioning campfires at twilight, sad with a longing forlorn.' - - * * * * * * * * - - "This is the law of the Yukon, that only the Strong shall thrive; - That surely the Weak shall perish, and only the Fit survive; - Dissolute, damned, and despairful, crippled and palsied and slain, - This is the law of Will of the Yukon,--Lo, how she makes it plain!" - - -Robert Service has many moods, and in the tender little lyric -_Unforgotten_ he dramatises the way in which one's real life lies in -his consciousness rather than enchained with the bodily presence: - - "I know a garden where the lilies gleam, - And one who lingers in the sunshine there; - She is than white-stoled lily far more fair. - And oh, her eyes are heaven-lit with dream. - -{288} - - "I know a garret, cold and dark and drear, - And one who toils and toils with tireless pen, - Until his brave, sad eyes grow weary--then - He seeks the stars, pale, silent as a seer. - - "And ah, it's strange, for desolate and dim - Between these two there rolls an ocean wide; - Yet he is in the garden by her side - And she is in the garret there with him." - - -One of the wonderful poems of Mr. Service is that of _My Madonna_. -The artist "haled" him "a woman from the street" for his model; he -painted her: - - "I painted her as she might have been - If the Worst had been the Best," - -and she "laughed at the picture and went away," but a connoisseur -came and exclaimed: - - "'Tis Mary, the Mother of God." - - "So I painted a halo round her hair, - And I sold her, and took my fee, - And she hangs in the church of Saint Hilaire, - Where you and all may see." - - -[Illustration: Mount Robson, at a Distance of Ten Miles] - -No attempt to transcribe any impressions of Canada could attain to -success that did not include some reference, even one so slight and -imperfect as this, to her poets. Any adequate comment on her poetic -literature would fill more than one volume of itself. They who make -the songs of a people are traditionally held to be not less in -influence than are they who make her laws; and that the future will -be still more enriched with the enthusiasms and the strange and -thrilling elements of the life of the Dominion is a foregone -conclusion. - - - - -{289} - -CHAPTER XIII - -THE CALL OF THE CANADIAN WEST - -The call of the Canadian West is far less the call of the adventurer, -of the speculator, of the seeker of vast and sudden wealth than it is -the call to carry an enlightened civilisation into the vast new -region that beckons to humanity invested with all the alluring glory -of the Promised Land. It is nearly three hundred years ago that the -Pilgrim Fathers landed in New England to conquer the wilderness. But -the Pilgrims did not find that the railways had gone before and -prepared the way with luxurious trains of Pullman cars, or that -telegraph and telephone service, in all varieties, to say nothing of -Marconigrams, daily mails, motor cars, and various other amenities of -life, were awaiting them. The New England of to-day is more indebted -to the past half century for its advance than it is to the preceding -two and a half centuries. So it may be fairly claimed that the -Canadian West begins with the degree of progress, so far as -mechanical conveniences and resources go, to which older countries -have but just advanced. It is the heir of all the ages. - -In normal times, before the War, there was an annual immigration into -Canada that approximated {290} to the number of four hundred thousand -people, of whom more than fifty thousand were from the United States. -There was said to be in round numbers from fifty to seventy thousand -who were neither from the States nor from the British Isles, while -the remainder were chiefly from England, Scotland, or Wales. The -Irish immigration is more attracted to the States, as more than -twelve millions of their race are already incorporated into the -population of that country. - -Two leading factors produce this large immigration into the Dominion. -One is that Canada is a country whose richness of resources, climatic -conditions, and scenic beauty are incomparable; the other is that -there are wise and liberal provisions made by the government to offer -desirable and attractive conditions and judicious inducements to the -right sort of men to establish their homes in Canada. Thousands of -prosperous farmers already scattered over Western Canada began, not -many years ago, with inconsiderable capital, but their intelligence, -industry, and integrity have carried the way and developed conditions -of living that are eminently satisfactory. - -The excellent character of the land in Western Canada is well -displayed in the great region opened up by the Grand Trunk Pacific. -Following for fifty miles the valley of the Assiniboine River, the -line of railway goes through the drainage basin of Qu'Appelle River, -and on into the great basin of the south {291} Saskatchewan River, -crossing it at Saskatoon, the width of this basin being some 200 -miles. Then on through the western part of Saskatchewan and the -eastern part of Alberta, the railway makes a gradual ascent through -sandhills and ridges until crossing the third steppe it proceeds for -the remaining 130 miles, to Edmonton, over a level country. With the -exception, and that an inconsiderable one, of these sandhills and -ridges, there is no waste land between Winnipeg and Edmonton. - -In the whole region now opened to civilisation by the Grand Trunk -Pacific, there extends a belt of rich farming land from 300 to 500 -miles in width from north to south and some 1000 miles in length from -east to west. From Winnipeg to the west, the physical properties of -the land are found by trained experts to be exceptionally -advantageous for the growing of wheat, oats, barley, and flax; "in -fact," says Professor Clifford Willis (a recognised authority on soil -physics), "the yields of small grain of this type were the best that -I have seen anywhere in the best tilled fields of the United States." -Professor James H. Pettit, of Cornell University, who won his -doctor's degree from the University of Göttingen for work in soil -fertility and bacteriology, finds that this recently opened up region -possesses some of the richest soils, and that this is due to the -alluvial deposits of the large area once covered by the old glacial -Lake Agassiz. These deposits have left a soil of silt and clay that -is capable of producing {292} thirty-five or forty bushels of wheat, -and eighty or ninety bushels of oats to the acre. - -To "mixed farming" as well as to the production of grain alone, or of -live stock, all this enormous region lends itself. Before the -country was opened and rendered accessible by the Grand Trunk -Pacific, the region was practically a wilderness. The land was -fertile, the numerous rivers and the lakes provided a sufficiency of -water and generally promising conditions, but until transit was -provided all these were unavailing. Prosperous towns have now sprung -up all along the line of the railway, and the settlement of the -country progresses with incredible swiftness. The settler arrives -with his twentieth-century equipment. The contrast between the -manner in which Canada is being gracefully and luxuriously settled, -and that of the mid-nineteenth-century settlement of the western part -of the United States, is something with which to reckon. The -Canadian pioneer arrives in his Pullman car instead of the "prairie -schooner" that slowly and wearily traversed the plains west of the -Mississippi. He starts a steam engine to plough the land, and if -trees or stumps come in his way he exterminates them with celerity by -machinery. When the harvesting time comes, wonderful mechanisms cut -the grain and bind it, while his trucks are perhaps equipped with -motor power and swiftly carry the grain direct from the -threshing-machines to the elevators, from which it is shipped to -market. {293} Wherefore, indeed, should he taste drudgery? Is he -not the heir to all the ages? - -The marked liberality of the Canadian Government in its universal -provision for higher education is one of the features of the Dominion -that can never be too deeply emphasised. Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and -Edmonton are all seats of universities, whose privileges are open to -women on equal terms. At both Winnipeg and Saskatoon are also -agricultural colleges, offering practical instruction in scientific -farming, and the ways of wealth are at once made plain for the youth -of the region. - -[Illustration: Mount Robson Glacier] - -The telephone service is practically universal, welding into unity -all the labour on a great farm of hundreds of acres, and enabling the -farmhouse to be in touch with city and town. Appreciating the -importance of this, the government of each province lends substantial -aid in the instalment of telephone service, and the main telephone -lines in these three western provinces are owned and operated by the -government. Thus all agricultural communities are linked together in -close contact and communication. - -Social conditions thereby establish themselves on a satisfactory -basis. The comfort of the rural home is assured. There is no -isolation to be encountered. Good roads, railway facilities of the -best order that the world can afford, telephones, and telegraphs make -possible a social life impossible under former pioneer conditions. - -{294} - -Churches spring up wherever there are people, for religion and -education go hand in hand in Canada. - -The garden facilities are not the least of the attractions to -settlers. The abundance with which garden stuff of all -kinds--potatoes, peas, beans, onions, turnips, pumpkins, and squash, -as well as lettuce, radishes, rhubarb, and small fruits--grow in all -this region is something to see. - -This agricultural empire is so great in its promise for the future, -so interesting and enchaining in its present development, that there -is hardly a limit to the imagination regarding its importance in a -not distant period. - -The "great North-West" is a term which has been commonly employed to -designate the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the -northern part of British Columbia. It is rather a vague term; yet it -indicates, if it does not exactly define, a region of unrivalled -scenic grandeur, and of such potential resources and favourable -conditions of climate as to virtually add a new continent to the -world. Such is the march of progress, however, that at the time of -writing the "North-West," strictly speaking, is that portion of the -land north of these provinces stretching eastward to Hudson Bay and -northward to the Arctic Ocean and including that part of the Yukon on -the Canadian side of the Alaskan border. This definition is -according to Watson Griffin's map of the Dominion of Canada in {295} -his accurate and authoritative work, _Canada of the Twentieth -Century_, which appeared in May, 1916, bringing all matter pertaining -to the country up to date with statistical accuracy. It is pointed -out by Mr. Griffin that in the older provinces, such as Quebec and -Ontario, the climate has been virtually transformed by the culture of -the soil. In southern Manitoba it is also on record that while the -early settlers lost their crops by summer frosts, no such disasters -are now experienced. The experiments in agriculture have proved that -the soil under cultivation stores up the heat received during the -long, bright days, and that the radiation of this heat at night -prevents the fatal frosts. Climatic conditions are not, therefore, -arbitrary and fixed beyond control, but are largely amenable to -civilisation. It is this fact that lends probability to the -expectation of creating prosperous conditions for living in the -region north of the sixtieth parallel. "In fact," says Mr. Watson -Griffin, "at some of the Hudson's Bay Company posts in these -territories the clearing, draining, and cultivation of the land has -already had a remarkable effect, and if this is true where very small -areas have been brought under cultivation, it is conceivable that the -cultivation of wide areas might have a very great influence in -preventing summer frosts." If well-cultivated soil does receive and -store the sun's heat it seems reasonable to suppose that in these -northern districts, where the summer days are so long, the general -opening of {296} the soil to the sun and air should have a marked -effect. - -The most reliable experts unite in the conviction that the Mackenzie -Basin is capable of supporting an agricultural population. The soil -is rich; and in that part of the Basin alone, lying between Athabasca -Lake and the Arctic Ocean, there is a belt of land 940 miles long and -over 60 miles wide. Ninety miles south of latitude sixty-three ripe -strawberries are found. A little farther to the south currants and -other small fruits grow luxuriantly. There are already scanty -settlements, remote and apart, in this country, and an increasing -population of huntsmen, fur-traders, and tourists to whom sport is -the attraction; and the first consideration that would occur to the -traveller, or to any student of this almost unmapped region of -infinite space, would be as to the ways and means for safeguarding -human life and for the maintenance of law and order. For untold -centuries this region has been the home and haunt of the Indians and -of wild and ferocious animals. The Indian tribes possessed all this -district in which to roam at will. Their means of subsistence were -hunting and fishing, and their resources for clothing consisted in -the skins and furs of captured animals. Any adequate conception of -the wildness of this unbroken wilderness is almost impossible to -grasp. The primæval forests impenetrable with their dense growth of -underbrush, fallen trees, colossal rocks washed bare by the beating -storms of {297} centuries, with uncounted and fairly innumerable -leagues of lakes, rivers, swamps--how unconquerable this primitive -world of Nature! Yet the call of the North-West, even this remote -and unknown North-West, has sounded, and the ear of poet, prophet, -and priest is that which registers the cry unheard and unheeded by -others. - -It is a significant commentary on human life, in its assertion of -that divinity which man feels within him, that the first white men to -fare forth to penetrate this wilderness were the French missionary -priests, and that the intense motive that drew them into hardships -and dangers incredible was that of the love of God and the longing to -make known to the untamed Red Man the help and comfort of the Divine -Power--to bring to these children of nature something of the message -of a diviner destiny. "To Pierre Radisson and his comrade, the Sieur -Groseillers, belong the credit of having first penetrated this vast -tract of undiscovered country," writes Mr. A. L. Haydon in his -remarkable book, _The Riders of the Plains_. No romance was ever -more enthralling than this volume, nor would it be possible to offer -any adequate interpretation of the great North-West that did not take -account of Mr. Haydon's work. With the thrilling adventures of these -French missionaries all students of history are acquainted; and it is -such a chapter in life and in literature that any transcription of -the experiences would of itself make a volume. In its fulness it can -only perhaps {298} be found in the pages of the Recording Angel. -"They plunged into the unknown," says Mr. Haydon; "took the daring -leap that all such pioneers are called upon to take; and along the -paths they blazed followed a host of others hardly less intrepid. He -who would read of the further discovery and exploitation of the -North-West of Canada must study the glowing life-stories of -Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, De la Verendrye, and others." - -There were also temporal as well as spiritual leadings. The -adventurous fur-traders pushed further and further into the primæval -wilderness and established forts as centres of supplies and as -definite places for their barter with the Indians. Two separate and -important companies entered on this quest, the famous Hudson's Bay -Company and the North-West Fur Company. The outposts that each of -these energetic associations established were like lighted torches -into the darkness; even this untrodden wilderness began to respond to -the first conquest of humanity. Myths and traditions also led on. -There were rumours in the air, whisperings of voices on the wind, -that some vast and unknown sea lay between the western coast and -Japan. The Pacific Ocean was known, but these nebulous intimations -pointed to a body of water never yet discovered. In 1731 the Sieur -De la Verendrye, as gallant a gentleman as ever sought his fortune in -the new world, started gaily from Montreal upon the quest for this -great sea. With his company he took the route up the {299} Red River -to its junction with the Assiniboine, making camp at Fort Rouge, the -site of the present city of Winnipeg. Rumours still haunted the air -of "mighty waters beyond the mountains," and over the infinite and -trackless expanse of prairie they still further extended the march, -but the formidable foothills of the Rocky Mountains proved too great -a barrier, and it was due to the persistence, and probably, too, also -to the greater physical vigour of a young fur-trader, Alexander -Mackenzie, of the North-West Company, that the mysteries of the -mountain ranges were penetrated, the foothills crossed, and the river -traced that now bears his name. - -These two fur-trading companies became important factors in the -development of the North-West. There was an intense rivalry between -them, yet the very intensity of the discord and ill feeling became an -added impetus in the rivalry of exploration. Many and diverse -qualities are brought into play in the conquering of a wilderness. -Evil and good are always sown together like the wheat and the tares, -and even the evil has its part to play and its work to do. Of this -fierce rivalry between the two was born that activity which created -so large a number of trading-posts, and the energy that founded -numerous settlements, many of which are now recognised as prosperous -centres. - -In 1670, under the patronage of Prince Rupert, there was incorporated -the "Honourable Company {300} of Merchant-Adventurers Trading into -Hudson's Bay," which developed later into the Hudson's Bay Company. - -Pierre Radisson and the Sieur Groseillers, both among the most daring -and heroic explorers the world has known, excited a wave of -enthusiasm in England by the reports of the wilderness they carried -back with them. For more than a century the Company under the -patronage of Prince Rupert continued to carry on a prosperous -business, and after this was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company, -and again after the two rival associations united, a splendid -business was developed. But while the rivalry had conduced to -enterprise and exploration, the monopoly was as naturally concerned -in not making too widely known the rich resources that might thus -serve to attract other competitors. - -[Illustration: Farming in Shellbrook District, Saskatchewan] - -Early in the nineteenth century a large Scotch settlement, under the -auspices of the Earl of Selkirk, was established in the Red River -region. They encountered almost every phase of hardship and trial. -Great floods devastated their land and ruined their attempts at -agriculture. The severe winters, with their enshrouding snow-drifts, -their icy blasts, the imprisoning character of the elements, the -remoteness from any vestige of human habitations or contact with -civilisation, went far towards annihilating even the most persistent -efforts to found a settlement that should withstand these conditions. - -By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the {301} settlements of the -great North-West had become so numerous that there began to be -requirements for larger means of protection. The Hudson's Bay -Company, at this time, held territory to the extent of over two -million square miles. All this expanse was admitted into the -confederation, to the reassurance and great satisfaction of the -settlers scattered over this wide region; but to the alarm and -prevailing dissatisfaction of another order of the inhabitants, the -French half-breeds, who were themselves a force with which a -reckoning had to be made. Their alarm culminated in the Rebellion of -1869, an outbreak suppressed by Colonel (later Lord) Wolseley. Soon -after this outbreak was quelled there came the formation of the -Province of Manitoba, and from this event there dated a new epoch in -the history of this part of the country. The conditions grew worse -rather than better. The United States were also a contributing -factor to greater discord. The treatment of the Indians by the -government of the States had apparently left much to be desired (to -put it mildly) and the turbulent warfare that went on almost -continually in the western part of that country drove many of the -Indian tribes into frenzy. Many of these tribes now crossed the -border line into Canada to seek British protection. There were at -this time in Canada some seventy thousand Indians to whom the -Imperial government had promised protection, and the coming of these -fresh tribes from the States, largely, too, {302} in conditions of -revolt and resentment at what they felt to be unjust and cruel -treatment, could not but be regarded with grave apprehensions by the -white settlers. They were alarmed at the close proximity of these -unknown savage tribes as well as apprehensive of the effect they -might produce on the Canadian Indians. - -In the summer of 1872 the Canadian Adjutant-General, Colonel -Robertson-Ross, was dispatched by the Government of the Dominion to -make a tour of inspection through the North-West. He found that a -party of lawless traders and smugglers from the States had -established a trading-post which they had named Fort Hamilton, about -sixty miles north of the border-line between the Dominion and the -United States; and that they were conducting a species of barter with -the Blackfeet Indians, supplying them with firearms and with ardent -spirits, in direct opposition to the laws of both countries. They -were paying no customs duty for the merchandise they were thus -introducing into Canada. Colonel Robertson-Ross found the -demoralisation that they were working to be very great and of great -injury, not only to the Indians, but to the entire country. "At Fort -Edmonton," said the Adjutant-General in his Report, "whisky was -openly sold to the Blackfeet and other Indians trading at the Fort by -smugglers from the United States, who derived large profits -therefrom, and whom, on being remonstrated with by the official in -charge of Hudson's Bay {303} Post, coolly replied that they very well -knew they were defying the laws, but as there was no force to prevent -them they would do as they pleased." - -All this inciting to intemperance and brawling led to other offences -against law and order. The Indians took to horse-stealing, and the -entire population of the North-West was at their mercy. Neither -property nor life was safe. On dishonesty and robbery followed -murder as a not uncommon occurrence and other crimes of a serious -nature were not infrequent. Sir John Macdonald was at this time the -Premier of Canada. It was on his initiative that Colonel -Robertson-Ross had been sent on this reconnaissance to find out to -what extent the lawless marauders were demoralising the entire -country and the nature of the protection and safeguards that should -be instituted for the population. The Adjutant-General earnestly -recommended the establishment of a trained and disciplined military -body, to be subject to its own rules, and to be distinct from any -civil force, though acting as an addition to whatever civil force -might also be formed. "Whatever feeling may be entertained toward -policemen, animosity is rarely, if ever, felt toward disciplined -soldiers wearing her Majesty's uniform in any portion of the British -Empire," stated Colonel Robertson-Ross, and he added: "In the event -of serious disturbance a police force, acting alone and unsupported -by a disciplined military body, would probably be overpowered in a -{304} province of mixed races, where every man is armed, while to -maintain a military without any civil force is not desirable." - -Colonel Robertson-Ross also urgently recommended that a chain of -military posts should be established from Manitoba to the Rocky -Mountains; that a stipendiary magistrate for the Saskatchewan should -be appointed, who should also act as an Indian Commissioner and who -should fix his residence in Edmonton. "The individual to fill this -post," he said, "should be one, if possible, already known to the -Indians, and one in whom they have confidence." He also pointed out -that this Indian Commissioner should always be accompanied by a -military force. "A large force is not necessary," he said; "but the -presence of a certain force will, I believe, be found indispensable -for the security of the country, to prevent bloodshed and preserve -peace." - -This is the story of the way in which the Royal North-West Mounted -Police of Canada came into being. These "Riders of the Plains" stand -alone and unparalleled in the world in their organisation, their -peculiar field of work, and the nature of their control over the vast -region entrusted to their care. This Mounted Police Force comprises -about six hundred officers and men, whose territory is an area as -extensive as all Central Europe, or a region five times as large as -Great Britain; extending for two thousand miles from east to west, -and a thousand {305} miles from north to south. In this great area -are twelve divisional posts and one hundred and fifty detachments. -The organisation of this body was carried out in the autumn of 1873. -The first one hundred and fifty of the Mounted Police were stationed -at Lower Fort Garry in Manitoba. They were under the command of -Lieutenant-Colonel George A. French, an officer of the Royal -Artillery who had been the Inspector of Artillery at the School of -Gunnery in Kingston, Ontario. Colonel French at once, on arriving in -Manitoba, urged upon the Government the need of strengthening the -force by at least doubling the number of men. Two hundred more were -enlisted in Toronto, and the expedition to the Far West was fixed for -an early date in the spring. - -The picturesque aspect of the Royal North-West Mounted Police is -notable. It was Sir John Macdonald's idea that the dominant note in -their uniform should be scarlet as "this colour conveys the strongest -impression to the mind of the Indian, through his respect for 'the -Queen's soldiers.'" To accentuate the military character of the -force and to distinguish them from the blue-coated soldiers of the -States was a point of real importance. - -This first detachment of the Royal Mounted Police made an expedition -in the summer of 1874 into the very heart of the Blackfeet country, -and returned to Dufferin in November, having made an effective -campaign in the interests of law and order, {306} from which very -important and momentous results have ensued since that time. That -the small body of less than seven hundred men should exercise such -control, not only over so vast an area of almost unknown wilderness, -inhabited by such a diversity of human beings scattered widely apart, -is practically an isolated fact in all history. To this magnificent -Force is largely due, to-day, the conditions that invest the -North-West with such promise and prosperity. - -"The Force may be said to have largely completed the work it -originally set out to do," writes Frank Yeigh[1]; "so far as the -frontier provinces are concerned, a work that is worth many times its -cost, as an object-lesson of the power and authority of government -existing behind all real civilisation." - - -[1] _Through the Heart of Canada_. T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1910. - - -Still, the task of the mounted patroller is by no means yet -completed. The present force costs the country nearly three-quarters -of a million dollars a year. Their outposts are being set farther -and farther afield. Thus, from the promontory of Cape Chidley, at -almost the most northerly point of Labrador, the barracks overlook -Hudson Straits; another guards Hudson Bay, while a third protects the -Arctic seaboard, and the most western post serves to protect the gold -land of the Yukon. It is a fact, and a striking one, that on the -three-hundred-mile road from White Horse to Dawson the traveller -{307} is as safe as in any part of Canada. Of the life of this Royal -Force Mr. Haydon says: - - -"The stories of the daily life of these rough-riders of the plains -are the very essence of romance, of high courage, of Herculean tasks -performed and great difficulties overcome. The Mounted Police kept -down lawlessness when the Canadian Pacific Railway was being built, -they fought bravely during the Riel Rebellion of 1885, they kept well -in hand the gold rush to the Klondyke in 1889-90, and not a few -served in South Africa during the Boer War. But the deeds of the -individual men call for high praise. Their qualities of fidelity, -devotion to duty, and their fearlessness are constantly being -exemplified. A thousand miles on the ice, 'mushing' by dog-team and -komatik, through unexplored haunts of bear and wolf, is a common -marching order for these splendid pioneers." - - -One individual instance among the many that might well be related to -add to the annals of human heroism is the remarkable journey made in -1906 by Constable Sellers, who, with an interpreter and an Eskimo, -drawn by a dog-team, left the west coast of Hudson Bay in February of -that year to discover the locality of a Scottish ship in the Arctic -waters, to collect the customs due, and to inspect the conditions of -this region. The trip lasted two months, and before his return in -April Constable Sellers had experienced all the hardships of an -Arctic winter. Many pages might be filled with the thrilling -accounts of the adventures and the noble and self-effacing sacrifices -of these brave defenders of the law, these magnificent protectors of -human life and property, the very guardians of all that makes for -civilisation and lends value and {308} significance to life. Mr. -Yeigh's description of the conditions of life of the force on -Herschell Island is extremely graphic. He says: - - -"The life of the Mounted Policeman on Herschell Island presents many -features of interest. Stranded in this far-off corner of the -Dominion in the Canadian 'Land of the Midnight Sun,' he lives as near -the North Pole as possible. It is a circumscribed island home, -moreover, with a shoreline of only twenty-three miles, and with -cliffs rising five hundred feet from the Arctic Sea. Though so far -north, in latitude 69°, Herschell Island is covered with a luxuriant -growth of grass and carpeted with innumerable wild flowers. The -island possesses the one safe harbour in all these northern waters--a -harbour in which fifty ships could safely winter." - - -This island is distinguished as the centre of the whaling grounds of -the Arctic regions. - -No adequate interpretation of the conditions that prevail in the -Dominion could be possible that did not include some account of the -"Riders of the Plains." The service of these faithful guardians is -by no means exclusively limited to their official responsibility; -they add to this that of being the friends, the helpers, of the -settlers, under all the new unforeseen conditions that confront them -in the new country. All over the Canadian land the watchword "Safety -first" meets the eye. The watchword "Humanity first" seems to be -that of the Royal Mounted Police. Their careful and tender -ministrations are given to the invalid and the helpless; they risk -their lives to warn and save settlers when a raging fire is sweeping -over woodlands or prairie; they aid the new arrival to set up {309} -his camp the first night; they help him to repair vehicles or -mechanism that has given out; they assist him to build his first -primitive shelter, and even to cook his meals and to care for his -live stock. The safety of the incoming inhabitants, the essential -conditions that render possible their establishment of a home, have -depended so essentially on the protection and the safe-guarding -afforded by the "Riders of the Plains" that their splendid service is -not only a fundamental factor in Canadian life and history, but is a -shining page in the records not made with hands. - -A touching incident has been narrated in the chronicles of the -Mounted Police Force. It was required some years ago to send -dispatches to a distant post during the severest rigour of winter -weather. A young constable, a University graduate, gently born and -bred, set out with these dispatches, but days passed into weeks, and -weeks into months, and no trace of him could be discovered. At last, -in the following spring, a storm-worn uniform and the bones of a -human body were discovered by a patrol in a secluded spot, and on the -order he was carrying was scrawled: "Lost--horse dead. Am trying to -push ahead. Have done my best." Who could read with eyes undimmed -by tears such a testimony as this to the young constable's high sense -of honour and utter sacrifice of anxiety for his own personal safety? -No soldier at the front ever more gallantly faced death in the -discharge of his duty. {310} Indeed, the stranger who comes to -Canada and enters with any degree of sympathy and understanding into -the national life is more impressed with the unwritten watchword of -"Duty first" than with the legend of "safety" that meets his eye. Is -it too much to say that the Dominion is the nation of heroes? It is -certainly no exaggeration to say that heroes abound in this country -where the unmeasured richness of the resources of Nature is yet far -exceeded by the nobility of man's mind. - -The growth and expansion of Canada has proceeded very rapidly within -the first part of the twentieth century. The problems involved in -this swift expansion have increased in number and importance. They -assume a varied character, because the vast extent of the empire -inevitably raises such diverse questions of political, educational, -and social requirements, that of the bi-lingual problem being not -least in importance. Then there are the problems of immigration, of -transportation and communication, including matters of railway -highways, inland navigation, foreign commerce, and postal facilities. -Sir James Grant, speaking before the Empire Club of Toronto in the -December of 1915, reviewed the remarkable development of Canada since -about 1850, and said that, marvellous as was this record, it would be -exceeded by the tremendous developments of the immediate future. Of -the new territory in northern Ontario, opened on the clay belt, Sir -James predicted that it would be settled {311} by thousands of -people, and that it would become one of the most attractive parts of -the country. In this region the supply of wood and water is -practically inexhaustible, and the splendid transit facilities bring -it into easy communication with the markets. Apart from the -agricultural, there is the mining outlook. - -Even the great and disastrous war that began in August, 1914, will -not be wholly disastrous, or even antagonistic, to the future of -Canada. Great trade facilities will be opened between Russia and -Canada. Vast numbers of British soldiers who have left their -industrial occupations for the front will have so accustomed and -acclimatised themselves to open air and exposure that they will look -for life in the open rather than to any return to shops or -manufactories. Canada confidently anticipates at least a million -settlers from among these ranks. They would be particularly -qualified for the order of life required for the hardy pioneer of -that North-West defined by Mr. Watson Griffin as lying north of -Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and stretching -eastward to Hudson Bay and northward to the Arctic Ocean. They would -be prepared to bring to this rigorous and exacting part of the -country a hardy vigour and invincible courage in the conquering of -nature in a degree quite in excess of that now demanded in the more -settled regions. The young and eminently enterprising western -Provinces have already made the establishment of {312} Winnipeg as -one of the greatest wheat markets in the world an accomplished fact. -"In 1904," asserts a New York financial journal, "they raised -fifty-eight million bushels of wheat in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and -Alberta; five years later the yield was one hundred and fifty million -bushels, and in 1913 the crop approximated to two hundred millions of -bushels of wheat. At this rate of progress," continued this journal, -"Canada must soon pass France and India, and stand third in the line -of wheat producers. Ultimately she will dispute with Russia and the -United States for the first position. Wheat has been the pioneer of -our development, and undoubtedly it will prove the same with -Canada.... No vivid imagination is needed to see what the future -development of Canada means to the people of the United States." - -That the great problem of food for the people of Europe will largely -devolve on Canada and the States for many years after the end of the -war is quite evident. - -The Minister of Public Works, the Honourable Robert Rogers, in an -interview with a press representative, said not long ago: - - -"The prairie country will do its share in saving Canada when the war -is over.... There will be a vast tide of immigration. Where will -the European emigrants go? Will they go to foreign lands, lands -where they will be lost forever to the Allies, or will they come to -Canada, where they will be under the British flag? That is the vital -question for Canada, for the Empire, for the Allies, for civilisation. - -{313} - -"We want to be able to go practically to the door of every European -who is thinking of a home elsewhere, and show him the Canadian -West--tall wheat, ample railway connections, growing cities and all. - -"It will be the finest thing in the world for him and the -satisfaction of Canada. Moreover, it will be the solution of most of -the problems which now confront him, as, for instance, how to make -our transcontinental railways paying propositions; how to enable our -industries to find new tasks when the war orders stop; how to adjust -our mercantile system to the changed conditions; how to till our farm -lands and start again the late lamented boom.... - -"The West is empty. Its natural resources are inexhaustible. We -could take care of the entire British white population there. And -think what it would mean for the West, and so for all Canada, if we -got five million new people out there after the war? Winnipeg, -Brandon, Regina; Prince Albert, Calgary, Edmonton; Medicine Hat, -Portage la Prairie, Dauphin, Saskatoon, Lethbridge, Swift Current, -and many other centres would become great cities. The salubrious -British Columbia coast would seethe with new activity and new -populations; our railways would become great earners; industries -would spring up all over the West. The industries of the East would -find a new market within their own tariff fence. Banking would boom, -wholesale trade would flourish, young clerks in the East would become -prosperous proprietors in the West." - - -In the eager and many-sided activities that are springing up and -fairly treading upon each other's heels in Canada, Technical Schools -hold a distinctive place. The late Lord Strathcona was a zealous and -influential advocate of trade and technical schools as one of the -most effective means of bettering the condition and elevating the -life of the working-man. The great West is not behind in the -establishment of these. - -[Illustration: Threshing Wheat, Manitoba] - -Now as to the conditions that await the settlers in {314} western -Canada. The land is fertile; the climate, the water supply, and the -transit and traffic facilities are of the best. But favourable -conditions do not of themselves work miracles, and pioneer life has -its difficulties. Prosperity is not magically invoked by any -entreaty of the gods, nor does it fall down out of the blue sky upon -its votaries. But with health, integrity, and a reasonable amount of -capital, the achievement of prosperous and happy living is possible -within a comparatively short time. It is related that after the -annual harvest there are people who go on pleasure trips to New York -and San Francisco, and "think nothing of expending thousands of -dollars before their return." There are farms where the owner has -his motor car; his house, commodious and handsome, is steam-heated -and electric-lighted, as he generates electricity from his own plant. -There is a music room with a grand piano, and perchance a violin for -the music-gifted young son or daughter as well; there is a library -with a good and always growing collection of books, for it is -realised that reading is not a mere passive entertainment but a -creative activity as well. A good book sets the entire mental -mechanism in motion. It is as a motor force, a power, applied to the -mind. To give one's self to intervals of reading is not merely to be -borne through the realms of thought in a golden chariot, but is, -rather, the conquering of a region of new capabilities and powers, -applicable to the entire range of the problems {315} of life. "The -key to every man is his thought," says Emerson. Books are food for -the mental and spiritual life, and from all good reading there -results a certain transubstantiation into energy that refines and -exalts the quality of life. The broad piazzas, the shaded lawns, of -these prosperous farmhouses are a revelation to the traveller and -their own commentary on Canadian conditions. - -Not longer ago than 1900 agriculturalists contended that wheat could -not be grown north of the fiftieth degree of latitude. The best -quality of the grain is now raised in the regions north of the -fifty-fifth degree. All the vast expanse of the Peace River country, -for some 700 miles or more north of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, -offers rich and attractive soil that well repays cultivation. As has -been noted in preceding pages, regions that were formerly supposed to -be adapted only to the most primitive conditions of life--to hunting, -fishing, canoeing, or dog-sledging--are now found to be entirely -amenable to ordinary life and pursuits, with a climate even less -rigorous than is sometimes experienced in the winters of northern -Dakota or Minnesota. The Japanese chinook wind that blows in tempers -the air, and many of these northern lakes are now free from ice, for -the most part, during the winter. This change of the climate has -largely been brought about by the opening up of forests and dense -undergrowth, which so intercepted the sun's rays that ice would be -found at midsummer in the dense shades. - -{316} - -The valley of the Athabasca, stretching away from the portals of -Jasper and of Jasper Park, is an Alpine wonderland; it is enshrined -in legendary history; it is unrivalled in splendour of scenery and -richness of colour; and traversed as it is by the most modern of our -transcontinental lines, it becomes as easily accessible to tourists -as are the romantic mountain haunts of Colorado. No more beautiful -summer resort could be dreamed than that afforded by this valley. It -is destined to become one of the famous mountain haunts of the world. -Fine carriage roads are being constructed in Athabasca Valley that -will add to the famous drives of the world, and rank with that -never-to-be-forgotten drive from Sorrento to Amalfi, or that of the -Corniche road on the Riviera. The Athabasca Valley and Jasper Park -and Mount Robson Park will be developed into places of great -international resort, as are the Yellowstone Park, the Grand Canyon -in Arizona, and the Yosemite in the United States. - -[Illustration: After the Bear Hunt--Moose River Forks] - -In the _de luxe_ conditions of travel through all these regions -to-day, it is as difficult to realise the conditions that prevailed -there before the arrival of the railway line as it was for the little -lad at school to transport himself into the pre-historic days before -the telephone had established its universal sway. Reproved by his -instructor for not knowing the date on which Columbus discovered -America, he replied that he could not find it. "Not find it!" {317} -replied the irate master, "there it is, right before your eyes, -1492!" The lad looked at it. "Why, I thought that was his telephone -number," he rejoined. It is quite as difficult for the traveller -to-day to project himself backward, even into the environment of only -a past century. The world into which we are born seems to have -existed forever. It is a curious fact, but one that seems borne out -by experience, that any event which just preceded one's own -consciousness and memory is practically as remote as if it were many -centuries away. This truth regarding the phenomena of consciousness -might well enlist the scrutiny of that analyst of Time and Memory, -the brilliant Henri Bergson. - -Is it amid all the transcendent beauty, all the scenic glory of the -great North-West that one shall listen for the call and watch for the -beckoning to the Promised Land? Its prairies and valleys provide -every resource for the support of life, its forests offer the most -incalculable yield in lumber, its lakes and rivers teem with fish, -its mountains are rich in mineral wealth, it has water power to be -utilised in manufactures, lighting, and traction to an extent that -defies prediction; there is every contributing cause for great cities -to arise, with universities, with their laboratories and -observatories for science, while, with such a port as that of Prince -Rupert, the commerce of the world will be brought to these shores; -nor does it require any undue effort {318} of imagination to see, as -in a vision, the libraries, the conservatories of music, the museums -of art that will arise, the splendour of cities "with room in their -streets for the soul." The Call of the North-West is to art, to -science, to poetry, to religion. It is the call to the great -spiritual realities of the spiritualised life, "the power of conduct, -the power of intellect and knowledge, the power of beauty, and the -power of social life and manners." The real task of man is that of -the discerner of spiritual truth. "The universe is the -externalisation of the soul." And in this eternal quest man shall -press forward "without haste, without rest," consoled by his -divination of spiritual ideals; a dweller in the atmosphere of -spiritual splendour expressed in those immortal lines: - - "I will wait heaven's perfect hour - Through the innumerable years!" - - - - - -{319} - -INDEX - -Agriculture, 293, 315 - -_Alaska, the Great Country_ (Ella Higginson), 204 - -Allandale, 117 - -Alpine Club of Canada, 170 - -Archives (Ottawa), 80 - -Arlette, George, 231 - -Art Gallery, civic (Winnipeg), 152 - -Aurora Borealis, 216 - - - -Bacon, James H., 192 - -Bancroft, George, 14 - -Banff, 127 - -Barrie, 117 - -Beaconsfield, Lord, 32 - -Bell Telephone Company, 227 - -Borden, Sir Robert L., 131, 188 - -Brett and Hall, Messrs., 190, 191, 192 - -Brown, George, 23, 28 - -Bulkley Gate, 176 - -Burpee, Lawrence J., F.R.G.S., 169 - -Button, Admiral Sir Thomas, 9 - - - -Cabot, John and Sebastian, 3, 7, 9, 47 - -Campers, the true, 110 - -Camps: Minnesing, 113; Minne Wawa, 116; Nominigan, 112, 113 - -Carling, Sir John, 28 - -Carlyle, Thomas, 148 - -Cartier, Sir George Etienne, 3, 30, 34, 265 - -Cartier, Jacques, 3, 8 - -Chamberlain, Edison J., 181 - -Champlain, 3, 8, 56, 266 - -Château Laurier, 79 - -Clairoscope, the (Heydon), 138 - -Climatic conditions, 295 - -Club, Canadian Women's Press, 157 - -Cochrane, 144 - -Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur, 113, 160 - -Connaught, Duke of, 81 - - - -Dawson, Sir William, 37 - -Degroseillers, Menart Chouart, 9 - -Deville, Dr. E., 168 - -Devonshire, Duke of, 81 - -Donald, Dr. W. J. A., 130 - -Doughty, Dr. Arthur, 80 - - - -Exposition, Canadian National, 96 - - - -Falls: Bala, 119; Emperor, 172; Karabeka, 122; Punch Bowl, 169; -Thousand, 172 - -Farm, Central Experimental, 62, 80; branches, 62 - -Farming land, 291, 314, 315 - -Field, Miss Kate, 212, 220 - -Fiddle Creek, 169 - -Flavell-Astoria, 225 - -Foxe (1631), 9 - -Fraser, 3 - - - -Galt, Sir Alexander, 34 - -Georgian Bay, 121 - -Geographic Board, 167 - -Glaciers: Borden, 177; Muir, 212, 213, 241; Taku, 206 - -Golden Gate, 226, 232, 233, 240 - -Gravenhurst, 117 - -Gregory, John, 15 - -Griffin, Watson, 294, 295 - -Guyart, Marie, 49 - - - -Halifax, 63 - -Haydon, A. L., 297, 298, 307 - -Hays, Charles Melville, President, 4, 36, 179 - -Hazleton, 175 - -Herschell Island, 308 - -Heydon, Asa Thurston, 138 - -Higginson, Ella (_Alaska, the Great Country_), 204 - -Hill, James H., 235 - -Hopkins, J. Castell, 60 - -Hotels: Bigwin Inn, 105; Bulkley Gate, 177; Château Laurier, 153; -Fort Garry, 141, 142, 153, 154, 155; Highland Inn, 108, 110; -Lake-of-Bays, 108; Macdonald, 153, 156; Minaki Lodge, 123; Royal -Muskoka, 118; Wawa, 101, 105, 106 - -Hudson's Bay Company, 9, 19, 23, 125, 126, 154, 300, 301 - -Hudson, Henry, 9 - -Huntsville, 102, 108 - -Hutchinson, Colonel William, 239 - - - -Immigration, 290 - -Indians, relations with, 301, 302, 303 - -Inside passage, 201, 203 - -Institutes (Toronto), 97, 98 - - - -James, 9 - -Jasper House (Hudson's Bay Company), 126 - -Jesuit missionaries, 13 - -Jobe, Miss Mary L., F.R.G.S., 174 - -Joliet, 8, 56 - -Juneau, 206, 208, 214 - - - -Kaien Island, 178, 190 - -Kelliher, J. B., 181 - -Kempenfeldt Bay, 117 - -Ketchikan, 205 - -Kinney, Rev. George, 171 - - - -Lakes: Athabasca, 16; Avenue, 193; Beauvert, 166; Berg, 172; Brulè, -126, 168, 170; Burns, 176; Cache, 114; Canadian, 118; Decker, 176; -Edith, 166; Fairy, 108; Fish, 126; Great, 84, 121; Great Slave, 16; -Helena, 172; Jasper, 126; Kathlyn, 176; Lake-of-Bays, 100, 101, 102, -103; Little Island, 114; Louise, 127; Maligne, 127, 165, 166; Mary, -108; Morse, 193; Muskoka, 117, 118, 119; Nipissing, 120, 122; -Ontario, 84; Patricia, 165; Peninsula, 108; Pyramid, 165; Rock, 114; -Timagami, 137; Two Rivers, 116; Wainwright, 193; White, 114 - -Lampman (see Poets), 100, 119 - -La Place Royale, 73 - -La Rose Mine, 173 - -La Salle, 3, 8, 56 - -Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 42, 80, 239, 266 - -Laval-Montmorency, François de, 38, 266 - -Laval University, 59 - -Library of Parliament (Ottawa), 82, 83 - -Library (Toronto), 89, 93 - -Locke, George H., 89, 90, 91 - -Lodge, Sir Oliver, 21 - -Lowell, Dr. Percival, 94, 95 - -Lumber industry, 199 - - - -Macdonald, Sir John, 3, 25, 32, 239, 303 - -Macdonald, Sir William, 56 - -MacDougall, Governor, 24 - -Mackenzie, 3, 16 - -Mackenzie Basin, 296 - -Mance, Jeanne, 73 - -Marconi, 78 - -Marquette, 8, 56 - -McGill, James, 3, 36 - -McGill University, 76, 77 - -McLeod, Alexander, 15 - -M'Tavish, Simon, 15 - -Methodists, the, 42 - -Miette Hot Springs, 169 - -Mill, James, 5 - -Minaki, 123 - -Mines (chap. vi.), 129 - -Minnecoganashene, 121 - -Moore, President, 231, 243 - -Mortesen, A. M., 231 - -Mountains: Hudson Bay, 176; Juneau, 208; Laurentian, 119; Mount Edith -Cavell, 167; Mount Hays, 191; Pyramid, 165; Robson, 168, 169, 172; -Roche à Perdrix, 164; Roche Deboule, 177; Rocky, 163; Sir Robert -Mount, 177; White, 107 - -Murphy, Mrs. Arthur (Janey Canuck), 157 - - - -New Brunswick, 60 - -New Liskeard, 134 - -Niagara, 6, 95, 96 - -Nibigami, 123 - -North-West Company, 15, 16, 19 - -North-West Passage, 15 - -North-Western Fur Company, 126 - -Norway Point, 102, 104 - -Nova Scotia, 47 - - - -Olier, Jean Jacque, 73 - -O'Neil, Rev. A. Barry, 240 - -Orillia, 117 - - - -Parks: Algonquin, 85, 100, 108, 109, 112, 114, 115; Jasper, 124, 125, -164, 166, 168, 169, 316; Mount Hays, 193; Mount Robson, 164, 169, 316 - -Passes: Peace River, 182; Pine River, 182; Wapiti, 182; Yellowhead, -158, 160, 163, 182 - -Perry, George H., 231 - -Phillips, Donald, 171 - -Pioneers, 3-8, 297-299 - -Poets, Canadian: Blewett, 273; Butler, Ethel Huestis, 267; Campbell, -William W., 249, 250; Carman, Bliss, 249, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257; -Coleman, Helena, 274; Crawford, Isabella V., 250, 274; Drummond, Dr. -William Henry, 250; Frenchette, Louis, 270; Garvin, Mrs. John -(Katharine Hale), 264; Garvin, John W., 272; Gordon, Alfred, 272; -Heavyserge, Charles, 247; Huestis, Annie C., 267; Johnson, E. -Pauline, 272, 284; Lampman, A., 100, 119, 249, 252; Lighthall, -William Douw, 272, 274, 275; Logan, J. D., 265; Mair, Charles, 272; -McArthur, Peter, 276; McCollum, Alma Frances, 272; McLennan, William, -274; Machan, Agnes Maule, 278; Norwood, Robert, 272; O'Hagan, Thomas, -270; Pickthall, Marjorie, 273, 283; Roberts, Charles G. D., 247, 248, -249; Roberts, Lloyd, 278; Scott, Canon, 249, 258; Scott, Duncan C., -83, 249, 263; Service, Robert, 172, 216, 286, 287, 288; Sheard, -Virna, 272; Stringer, Arthur, 280; Warman, Cy., 57; Watson, Albert -D., 272; Wetherald, Ethelyn, 272, 284 - -Porcupine Creek, 135 - -Porcupine Gold Camp, 136 - -Portland, 225 - -Prince George, 174 - -Prince Rupert, 174, 175 - -Puget Sound, 223 - -Pulpwood (industry), 145, 146 - - - -Queen Charlotte Sound, 204 - - - -Radisson, Pierre Esprit de, 9 - -Railways: Canadian Government, 123, 133, 137; Canadian Northern, 153; -Canadian Pacific, 34; Grand Trunk, 35, 86, 120, 132, 126, 128, 137, -153, 239; Northern Ontario, 136, 137; Ontario, 144; Temiskaning, 136; -White Pass and Yukon, 214 - -"Ready-made Farming," 146 - -Rebellion of 1869, 301 - -Redpath, Peter, 37 - -Rideau Canal, 65 - -Rideau Hall, 8 - -Riel, Louis, 24 - -Rivers: Assiniboine, 290, 299; Athabasca, 126, 163, 168; Bulkley, -175; Don, 89; Fairy, 108; Fraser, 174; French, 122; Grand Fork, 172; -Maligne, 126; Moon, 119; Peace, 16; Qu'appelle, 290; Red, 15, 18, 25, -155, 299, 300; Saskatchewan, 155, 291; Shadows, 119; Skeena, 175, -177, 196; St. Lawrence, 47; Telkwa, 176; Winnipeg, 143 - -Robertson, Colonel Ross, 92, 302 - -Rosedale Ravines, 89 - -Rose Point, 121 - -Royal Mounted Police, 304-309 - -Ryerson, Rev. D. Egerton, 42, 266 - - - -St. Anne de Beaupré, 50 - -Salvation Army, the, 185, 186, 187 - -Sans Souci, 121 - -Scidmore, Eliza Ruhamah, 210, 211, 212 - -Seattle, 195, 200, 201, 209, 225 - -Selkirk, Earl of, 17, 19 - -Sellers, Constable, 307 - -Seymour Narrows, 204 - -Sifton, Sir Clifford, 131 - -Silver Islet, 132 - -Simpson, Governor, 22 - -Skagway, 195, 200, 201, 214, 215 - -Social conditions, 293 - -Sowton, Mr. and Mrs., 186 - -Station, Doreen, 177 - -Steamship Co., Grand Trunk Pacific, 195, 201-218 - -Steam navigation, 74 - -Sterling, George, 231 - -Strachan, Bishop, 41 - -Straits of Georgia, 204 - -Strathcona and Mount Royal, Lord (Donald Smith), 3, 20, 21, 25, 37, -41, 76 - - - -Taché, Archbishop, 40 - -Taku Inlet, 206 - -Talbot, Frederick A., 181, 182, 183 - -Telephone, first experiments, 219, 220 - -Tilley, Sir Samuel L., 32 - -Timagami, 116, 117, 123 - -Tupper, Sir Charles, 3, 31 - - - -Universities: California, 242; Manitoba, 142; Toronto, 88 - -Universities and schools, 39 - -Ursuline Convent, Quebec, 49 - - - -Valleys: Athabasca, 126, 316; Nechako, 175; Thousand Falls, 172 - -Vanderhoof Gateway, 175 - -Van Horne, Sir William Cornelius, 4, 35 - -Varennes, Pierre Gaultier de, 15 - -Victoria Jubilee Bridge, 67-70 - - - -Warman, Cy., 57 - -Walterson, Colonel H., 24 - -White, Horace, 24 - -Whitman, Walt, 1, 158 - -Willson, Beckles, 21 - -Wilson, Woodrow, President U.S.A., 243 - -Wireless telegraphy, 78 - -Wise, Dr., 116 - -Women and their work, 75 - -Wrangell Narrows, 206 - - - - -The Temple Press, Letchworth, England - - - - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Canada the Spellbinder, by Lilian Whiting - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADA THE SPELLBINDER *** - -***** This file should be named 62632-8.txt or 62632-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/6/3/62632/ - -Produced by Al Haines -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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