CANADA'S GREAT RIVER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 494, 24 August 1912, Page 7

CANADA'S GREAT RIVER.

Canada's Great river, the St. Lawrence, from source "to soa, is over two thousand miles in length, and it carries to the ocean an amount of water exceeded by no other river on the globe except the Amazon. Ordinarily, however, the name of St. Lawrence ii only applied to the seven hundred miles between Lake Ontario and the Gulf. The river is navigable for large seagoing vessels to Montreal, a distance of nearly six hundred miles, and below Quebec it has a width of from twenty to thirty miles.

Historically the St. Lawrence is of much interest. It was by means of its waters that early adventurers from Europe first penetrated the country, and its banks were the scenes of many sanguinary struggles, first with the Indians and then

between France and England. When finally Canada passed into the hands of England there were those who thought that France had not lost much. It was Voltaire who said: "France and England are at war for several acres of snow, and are spending in the fight more than the whole of Canada is worth." Afterwards he described the country as "covered with snow and ice for eight months of the year, and inhabited by barbarians, bears, and beavers." When England became supreme there was only a population of seventy thousand. To-day the city of Montreal alone can boast of over four hundred thousand inhabitants. As regards the climate, about the rigours of which we do not hear quite so much now as formerly, the remarks of a Canadian probably present fairly the general opinion of the permanent resident. "No matter how cold it is," said this individual, "I can work every day, and I feel in the mood for working too. That's more than the people can say who live in warmer regions, where they don't have a good, snappy winter. I wouldn't want to exchange our climate for any other ; and yet I tell you it looks well in the spring, when the frost weakens its grip and the snow melts, and we begin to sse ths brown of the fields." Tourists to Canada are now a rapidly growing number, and whether they go in summer or in winter they cannot fail to be impressed by the' St. Lawrence. zette." "*■