Canada 100 Years Ago: the beauty of old Canada illustrated

Magnificent scenery–fast flowing rivers, towering mountains, endless prairies and dense forest–illustrate the pages of this late nineteenth century portrait of Canada. In this superbly illustrated volume, the reader is transported from the fishing harbors, of New Brunswick, via the spectacular waterway of the St. Lawrence, the prairies and the Rockies, to British Columbia itself “by far the most beautiful of the Canadian provinces.” In the 1880s Canada was still a young country, its huge potential barely touched: great forest, fishing and mineral resources awaited exploitation. Then, there were but five million Canadians a quarter of the present population, to occupy nearly four million square miles, stretching 3000 miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Small wonder that the author, the Marquis of Lorne, should write so enthusiastically in favor of emigration from the miserable overcrowding and unhealthiness of Britain’s cities to these wonderful, wide open spaces. Then, as today, Canada retained a distinctively different identity and culture from its southern neighbor, characteristics that the author explains on the journey. — Provided by publisher