EDMONTON. Capital of the Province of Alberta, Canada. Pop. (1901) 2,65 2 ; 79,197. The city takes its name from Fort Edmonton, a Hudson Bay Company post built in 1795, 20 miles further down the North Saskatchewan River, where the great rival fur company, the North West Fur Company, also had a fort called Fort Augustus. Both forts were destroyed by the Indians in 1807 and the companies built new ones with the same names on the present site of Edmonton. The rapid Saskatchewan, flowing, as is usual with the rivers of the Prairie Provinces, in a wide trench, was navigable with difficulty up to Edmonton, which was near the southern limits of the Bush country, and became important as a supply and receiving point for the fur trade of the far North-West. Some miles due west of Edmonton the Bush begins. The C.N.R., which reached the city in 1905, heads straight for the valley of the upper Athabasca, and the easiest of the Rocky Mountain Passes—the Yellowhead. The old north ern fur trade connections have their counterpart in the line to Grande Prairie and the Peace River settlements, and that to the navigable Athabasca at Ft. McMurray. Precipitation is heavier at Edmonton than in Southern Alberta, and it is the centre of an important and growing district of mixed and dairy farming. The Provincial Parliament buildings are well situated high above the north bank of the river, while in Strathcona, on the south side, is the University of Alberta with, inter alia, important depart ments of Agriculture and of Medicine. The city is the centre of an important coal mining district and has also a supply of natural gas from the Viking field, 8o miles to the east. Manufacture is rapidly developing and the city maintains, with modern connec tions, its old role of distributing centre. Meat packing, butter making (in large creameries), flour and cereal food production, lumber, furniture and brick making, are all important industries.