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of Aboriginal Canada, by Stephen Leacock

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Title: The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada

Author: Stephen Leacock

Editor: George M. Wrong
H. H. Langton

Posting Date: June 13, 2009 [EBook #4069]
Release Date: March, 2003
First Posted: November 3, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY ***

Produced by Gardner Buchanan. HTML version by Al Haines.

CHRONICLES OF CANADA

Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton

In thirty-two volumes

Part I

The First European Visitors

THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY

A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada

By

STEPHEN LEACOCK

TORONTO, 1915

CONTENTS

I BEFORE THE DAWN
II MAN IN AMERICA
III THE ABORIGINES OF CANADA
IV THE LEGEND OF THE NORSEMEN
V THE BRISTOL VOYAGES
VI FORERUNNERS OF JACQUES CARTIER
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHAPTER I

BEFORE THE DAWN

We always speak of Canada as a new country. In one sense, of course,
this is true. The settlement of Europeans on Canadian soil dates back
only three hundred years. Civilization in Canada is but a thing of
yesterday, and its written history, when placed beside the long
millenniums of the recorded annals of European and Eastern peoples,
seems but a little span.

But there is another sense in which the Dominion of Canada, or at least
part of it, is perhaps the oldest country in the world. According to
the Nebular Theory the whole of our planet was once a fiery molten mass
gradually cooling and hardening itself into the globe we know. On its
surface moved and swayed a liquid sea glowing with such a terrific heat
that we can form no real idea of its intensity. As the mass cooled,
vast layers of vapour, great beds of cloud, miles and miles in
thickness, were formed and hung over the face of the globe, obscuring
from its darkened surface the piercing beams of the sun. Slowly the
earth cooled, until great masses of solid matter, rock as we call it,
still penetrated with intense heat, rose to the surface of the boiling