Frank Dawson Adams and William Lawson Grant

“ The whole country is exceptionally well watered and abounds in numerous large rivers, bays and lakes. The principal river is the St Lawrence, which flows through the entire length of the province. A short distance above Montreal it receives from the north-west the Ottawa, a large and beautiful river over 600 m. in length with many tributaries, among which the most important are the Gatineau, the Lievre, the North, the Rouge and the Kinojevis. The St Lawrence is navigable for large ocean steamships as far as Montreal, beyond which place navigation is interrupted by rapids. ”

“ Agriculture.—The French Canadian is a thrifty though somewhat unprogressive farmer, and loves the land with an even greater attachment than do the peasants of old France. Till recently his agriculture was of a very domestic character. ”

“ Of the original inhabitants about 8000 Indians remain, chiefly on reserves in the neighbourhood of Montreal and Quebec. Though quite peaceful, they are on the whole less civilized than those of eastern and southern Ontario. The capital is Quebec, with a population of about 70,000, which increases but slowly. The largest city is Montreal, the commercial and shipping centre of the Dominion, at the head of ocean steamship navigation, with a population of about 350,000. ”

“ It is throughout a practically level plain of very fertile land, on which are situated the chief towns and cities of the province, and on it also are settled the majority of the rural population. These lowlands are bounded on the north by the Laurentian plateau, and on the south by the Notre Dame Mountains, which physical features gradually converge, the latter mountains reaching the shore of the river St Lawrence a short distance to the east of the city of Quebec. ”

“ In the cities of Quebec and Montreal the schools are efficient and the teachers well aid; but in the rural districts the schools, especially those of the Catholics, are often inadequate, the buildings being poor, and the teachers receiving a mere pittance, in some cases less than £20 per annum. Over 95% of the teachers in the primary schools are women. ”

“ Most of the butter is made in well-equipped creameries, in the number of which Quebec exceeds any other province; in exports of cheese she equals Ontario. In the production of fruit she ranks second to Ontario, Nova Scotia coming third. Perhaps the most typical Canadian industry, the making of syrup and sugar from the sap of the maple tree as it rises in the spring, centres in this province. Over two-thirds of the tobacco grown in the Dominion is raised in Quebec, about 10,000 acres being under cultivation. ”

“ The French, Irish and Indians are almost entirely of the Roman Catholic faith; a majority of the English are Anglican, with some Methodists; the Scots are Presbyterian. The Roman Catholic Church enjoys extensive rights and privileges, and nowhere in the world is devotion to that faith more widespread or more unquestioning. ”

“ There are a number of large and fine lakes in this district, among which may be mentioned lakes Metapedia, Temiscouata, Memphremagog, Aylmer, St Francis and Megantic. In the belt of the Notre Dame Mountains the country is not in the strict sense of the term a mountainous one, but rather a rolling country containing much good farming and pasture land, while the Eastern Townships is a fine agricultural country, embracing some of the best farming and grazing land in the Dominion. ”

“ No coal occurs in the province of Quebec. In the region of the Notre Dame Mountains and the Eastern Townships there are great intercalations of ancient volcanic rocks and many important mineral deposits. ”

“ In reality the lieutenant-governor is a. figure-head, and power is in the hands of the legislature, which consists of two houses, a Legislative Council, appointed nominally by the lieutenant-governor, really by the premier, and an Assembly, chosen by what is practically manhood suffrage. ”

“ The general climatic conditions are much the same as in Ontario, and the crops are similar. All the chief cereals are successfully cultivated, oats being the chief crop. The wise care of both federal and provincial governments has fostered the dairy farming of the province. ”

“ The municipalities have large powers of local government, which are used with more or less efficiency, the predatory tendencies of the ward-politician being sometimes apparent, though of late years an improvement has been effected. ”

“ They are known as the Monteregian Hills and rise to elevations of 560 ft. to 1600 ft. above sea-level. From the summit of Mount Royal, at the foot of which lies the city of Montreal, all the other Monteregian Hills are plainly visible, and the margin of the Laurentian Highlands may be seen bounding the horizon some 30 m. to the north, while southward the Green Mountains, and the Adirondacks in the state of New York, are distinctly visible on a clear day. ”

“ The asbestos deposits are the most extensive and most productive in the world, the chief centre of asbestos mining being at Thetford Mines. A large part of the country, more especially on the lower levels, is covered with Pleistocene deposits of the so-called Glacial age. ”

“ By the extension given to them in 1898, the province has an area of 351,873 sq. m., of which 341,756 sq. m. are land and 10,117 sq. m. are water. This estimate includes the islands of Orleans, Anticosti, and the Magdalen group, but not the gulf of St Lawrence or the territorial seas. In 1901 the population was 1,648,898, 992,667 being classed as rural and 656,231 as urban. Since 1891 the rural population has increased but little, but there has been a growth of about 11% in the population of the towns and cities. ”