Concluding remarks on Canada - Territory - Climate - Capabilities - Railways
and canals - Advantages for emigrants - Notices of emigration - Government -
The franchise - Revenue - Population - Religion - Education - The press -
Literature - Observations in conclusion.
The increasing interest which attaches to this noble colony fully
justifies me in devoting a chapter to a fuller account of its state and
capabilities than has yet been given here.
Canada extends from Gaspe, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to Lake Superior.
Its shores are washed by the lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, and by the
river St. Lawrence as far as the 45th parallel of latitude; from thence
the river flows through the centre of the province to the sea. Canada is
bounded on the west and south by the Great Lakes and the United States; to
the east by New Brunswick and the ocean; and to the north by the Hudson's
Bay territory, though its limits in this direction are by no means
accurately defined. Canada is but a small portion of the vast tract of
country known under the name of British America, the area of which is a
ninth part of the globe, and is considerably larger than that of the
United States, being 2,630,163,200 acres.
Canada contains 17,939,000 occupied acres of land, only 7,300,000 of which
are cultivated; and about 137,000,000 acres are still unoccupied.