ature of the St. Lawrence. First, the port
is closed by ice from November to April. Second, the St. Lawrence is
the drainage bed of inland oceans--the Great Lakes. Third, it passes
into the Atlantic at one of the most difficult sections of the coast.
South of Newfoundland are the fogs of the Grand Banks. North of
Newfoundland the tidal current beats upon an iron coast in storm and
fog. To save detour, St. Lawrence vessels, of course, follow the route
north of Newfoundland through the Straits of Belle Isle.

When Canada began dredging the St. Lawrence in 1850, the channel
averaged a depth of ten feet. By 1888, the channel averaged
twenty-seven and one-half feet at low water. To-day a depth of thirty
to thirty-one feet has been attained. At its narrowest points the St.
Lawrence has a steamship channel four hundred and fifty feet wide and
thirty feet deep from side to side. In the days when high insurance
rates were established against the St. Lawrence route, there was
practically not a lighthouse nor channel buoy from Tadousac to the
Straits of Belle Isle. To-day between Montreal and Quebec are
ninety-nine lighted buoys, one hundred and ninety-five can buoys;
between Quebec and the Straits, three light ships, eighty gas buoys,
one whistling buoy, seventy-five can buoys, four submarine bell ships,
and a line of lighthouses. Telegraph lines extend to the outer side of
Belle Isle, and hydrographic survey has charted every foot of the
river. In spite of these improvements, insurance rates are four to six
per cent. for lines to Canada, where they are one and one-half to two
and one-half to American ports.

II

What with three transcontinentals, a complete canal system from
seaboard to the Great Lakes and an outlet for western traffic through
Panama, one would think that Canada had made ample provision for
transportation; but she has only begun. If she is to be the shortest
route to the Orient, she must keep traffic in Canadian channels and not
divide it with Panama and Suez. If she is to feed the British Empire,
she must establish the shortest route from her wheat fields to the
United Kingdom; and if she is to overcome the disadvantage of harbors
open only half the year, she must secure to herself some other
advantage--such as access to the harbor having the shortest land haul
and therefore the lowest freight rates in America. There is another
consideration. If when Canada is raising less than three hundre