Ontario

the leading province of the Canadian Dominion. It was formerly known as Upper Canada and West. It has a territory of 260,862 square miles, including waters. It extends from Hudson Bay to the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes and may be said in general to lie between the Ottawa River and Manitoba. A triangle at the junction of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence belongs to the province of Quebec. Toronto is the capital. Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion, is also situated in the province of Ontario. A glance at the map of Ontario shows that few sections of the world have a greater water frontage in proportion to area. In this respect it reminds the student of Greece. Over one-half of the province is still covered with forests. The northern and northwestern portion is a region of pine, spruce, and tamarack. The section bordering on Lake Erie and Ontario is a hardwood country. The oak, hickory, and other timbers for which Ohio and Michigan are noted grow to perfection. The evergreen forests are still the haunt of the trapper. The mink, otter, muskrat, fox, marten, weasel, and other fur-bearing animals are still numerous. There are still a few colonies of beavers. This section is also popular with hunters of the moose, caribou, and Virginia deer. Rabbits, partridges, wood grouse, and waterfowls are abundant. The fisheries of Ontario are important. Lake trout, whitefish, fresh water herring, pickerel, crappies, bass, and other game fish are taken to the value of a million and a half annually.

Ontario is rich in minerals. Coal only is lacking. Quarries of building stone, chiefly granite and limestone, are practically inexhaustible. Iron, cobalt, copper, lead, plumbago, arsenic, antimony, and gypsum are found in working quantities. The deposits of cobalt are among the most important in the world. There are also veins of gold and silver on the northern shore of Lake Superior. The vicinity of Sudbury is one of the chief sources of the world's supply of nickel. The shoulder between Lake St. Claire and Lake Huron is one of the richest petroleum fields in America. It yields about 30,000,000 gallons a year. Seemingly inexhaustible brine wells on the east shores of Lake Huron rival those of Michigan. There are also gas fields near Niagara and Detroit from which these American cities are supplied. The annual mineral output of the province is reckoned at about $25,000,000, one-half of which is silver. Nickel is produced to the amount of $1,866,000 annually.

The climate of the south or settled portion of the province is, of course, much like that of northern New York and of Michigan. Farming is the principal occupation of this section. Wheat, oats, barley, corn, potatoes, and even tobacco thrive. Stock raising is an important industry. Dairying and gardening predominate near the cities. Wool to the annual value of $6,000,000 is produced.

Lumber, including sash, doors, firkins, barrels, and other wooden products, is the leading manufacture of the province. There are also cotton and woolen mills, tanneries, furniture factories, paper mills, and machine shops on an extensive scale. Locomotives and cars are made. The province is well supplied with timber and wood, but is obliged to import coal. In 1902 $85,000,000 was sent abroad for this article alone. Experiments in the use of peat have been carried on by the government. Southern Ontario is provided with a network of railways. The Canadian Pacific follows the valley of the Ottawa on its way from Montreal to the Pacific coast. This road has erected the largest wheat elevator in the world at Port Arthur on Lake Superior.

The province was settled first by the French. Progress was retarded by frequent wars with the Iroquois, or Five Nations of New York. Ontario passed into the hands of the English in 1763. It was separated from the Province of Quebec in 1774. At the close of the American Revolution, a large body of Royalists, finding New York uncomfortable, migrated to Ontario. Their descendants are still staunch upholders of the British flag. They have no liking for the stars and stripes.

The province is noted for an efficient public school system. There are common schools, high schools, and a university,--the latter at Toronto. There are twelve normal schools and fifty-five county schools for teachers. There are one hundred seventeen free libraries. In religious matters the province follows the example of the United States rather than of England. There is no state church. In numerical strength the leading denominations are Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Church of England, and Baptist. The population in 1901 was reported at 2,167,978, an increase of little more than two per cent in ten years. The small increase may be attributed to the tariff laws of the United States, which shut out Ontario manufacturers, and to an extensive emigration partly to the United States, but particularly into British Columbia, Manitoba, and the provinces of the northwest. There are 21,000 Indians for whom eighty-one public schools are maintained.

See Ottawa; St. Lawrence; Huron; Superior; Sault Ste. Marie