onstituting the
breast-bone of the continent, and culminating at the north in the White
Mountains, describe a great curve southwesterly to the valley of the
Hudson; and it is between the ridge-like elevations of this range and
the older Laurentian Hills that we find the valley of the St. Lawrence,
in which lie the provinces of Quebec and Ontario.

[Illustration: View of Cape Trinity on the Laurentian Range.]

The province of Quebec is famous in the song and story of Canada;
indeed, for a hundred and fifty years, it was Canada itself. More than
a million and a quarter of people, speaking the language and {10}
professing the religion of their forefathers, continue to occupy the
country which extends from the Gulf to the Ottawa, and have made
themselves a power in the intellectual and political life of Canada.
Everywhere do we meet names that recall the ancient regime--French
kings and princes, statesmen, soldiers, sailors, explorers, and
adventurers, compete in the national nomenclature with priests and
saints. This country possesses large tracts of arable land, especially
in the country stretching from the St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain, and
watered by the Richelieu, that noted highway in Canadian history. Even
yet, at the head-waters of its many rivers, it has abundance of timber
to attract the lumberman.

The province of Ontario was formerly known as Upper or Western Canada,
but at the time of the union it received its present name because it
largely lies by the side of the lake which the Hurons and more famous
Iroquois called "great." It extends from the river of the Ottawas--the
first route of the French adventurers to the western lakes as far as
the northwesterly limit of Lake Superior, and is the most populous and
prosperous province of the Dominion on account of its wealth of
agricultural land, and the energy of its population. Its history is
chiefly interesting for the illustrations it affords of Englishmen's
successful enterprise in a new country. The origin of the province
must be sought in the history of those "United Empire Loyalists," who
left the old colonies during and after the War of Independence and
founded new homes by the St. Lawrence and great lakes, as well as in
Nova Scotia {11} and New Brunswick, where, as in the West, their
descendants have had much influence in moulding institutions and
developing enterprise.

In the days when Ontario and Quebec were a wilderness, except on the
border