The Grand Trunk Railway has two important roads running from Montreal : one to Portland, in Maine, and the other to Chicago, by way of the Ontario peninsula, with the different parts of which the main line has many connections. Another company, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, closely connected with the Grand Trunk Railway Company, is with the assistance of the government, building a new trans-continental line, the projected route of which is as follows : from Moncton in New Brunswick it will run to the St. Lawrence, near Quebec, keeping within, but, for a consider able part of the way, near to, the Canadian frontier. Crossing the river above Quebec, it will strike westwards considerably to the north of the Canadian Pacific Railway. There will be con nections with Quebec, Montreal, and Port Arthur, but the first great town into which the main line will actually run is Winnipeg. From Winnipeg the railway will go by Saskatoon to Edmonton ; and from that town will be continued westwards towards the Yellow head Pass, by which it will cross the Rocky Mountains. It will then follow the Fraser as far as the great bend of that river to the south, and, crossing into the basin of the Skeena, will descend by its valley to the Pacific coast at Prince Rupert. This route, which is almost completed, will lie entirely within British territory ; it will, because of the more northerly position of Prince Rupert, offer a shorter sea voyage to Yokohama and Northern China than Vancouver does ; it will open up a part of the Laurentian Plateau hitherto untapped by railways ; and it will, because of its easy gradients, be able to convey grain from part of the Winnipeg Basin to the Pacific coast, whence it may be shipped either to the Far East, or by the Panama Canal to Europe.
The main line of the Canadian Northern Railway, which likewise aims at eventually becoming trans-continental, runs from Port Arthur to Winnipeg, passing to the south of the Lake of the Woods, and therefore entering the United States for a short distance, and from Winnipeg to Edmonton, on which part of the route it lies further north than either the Canadian Pacific or the Grand Trunk Pacific. Another of its lines runs west from Winnipeg to Regina, north by Saskatoon to Prince Albert, east to the vicinity of Dawson Bay on Lake Winnipegosis, and south-east to the Winnipeg-Edmonton line near Lake Dauphin. About 150 miles east of Prince Albert is Etomami, whence a line runs to The Pas on the Saskatchewan, the starting-point of the proposed Hudson Bay line, which, as at present determined, will go to Port Nelson. This railway is to be constructed by the Canadian Government with the object of offering an alternative and shorter route from the wheat-growing regions of Canada to the United Kingdom. From Montreal, and from Port Nelson, the distance to Liverpool is practically the same. At the present time, much of the grain going east is sent to Montreal by Winnipeg and the Great Lakes, but as Winnipeg is over 400 miles distant from the head of navigation on Lake Superior, and as there is, in addition to railway freight, the cost of conveyance down the Lakes, it is obvious that all places in the north-west which are not more than 400 miles, at the least, nearer to Winnipeg than to Port Nelson will find it cheaper, other things remaining the same, to export their grain by the Hudson Bay route. Under these conditions the hinterland of Port Nelson would include the greater part of the agricultural regions on the second and third prairie slopes. The difficulties in the way of the development of the route are connected with the navigation of Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. Neither of these, it is true, is ever frozen over ; but at most times of the year there is much floating ice, from which modern steel-built ships are peculiarly liable to receive injury, and special boats would probably have to be built for the trade. Moreover, the harbour at Port Nelson would be frozen up about the end of October, and, although it might be kept open a few weeks longer by ice-breakers, the period between the end of harvest and the close of navigation would necessarily be a short one. Notwithstanding these defects
the route may prove of considerable value, as it will relieve to a great extent the congestion which always occurs on the existing lines when the season's crop begins to move eastward in the autumn.
Of the waterways of Canada, the most important is that afforded by the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. The St. Lawrence has been dredged until it now has a minimum depth of thirty feet, which is being increased to thirty-five feet, from Montreal to tide-water. With the aid of a number of canals, of which the most important are the Welland, with a minimum depth of fourteen feet, between Lakes Ontario and Erie, and the Sault Ste. Marie—commonly known as the " Soo "—the minimum depth of which is about twenty feet, between Lakes Huron and Superior, navigation is possible as far as Port Arthur, a distance of 2,233 miles from the Strait of Belle Isle. Many of the other rivers of Canada, such as the Assiniboine, the Red River, and the Saskatchewan, are also navig able, but the traffic upon them is rather of a local character, and they are not of much use for the transport of grain.
Of the schemes under consideration at present for the improve ment of Canadian waterways, the most important is that for the construction of a route from Georgian Bay to Montreal by way of French River, Lake Nipissing, and the Ottawa. Such a route, which would shorten the existing waterway from Port Arthur to Montreal by about 300 miles, would have a length of about 440 miles, of which thirty miles would be purely artificial, eighty miles would consist of canalised lake and river, and the remainder would be entirely natural. As it is proposed to give the canal a minimum depth of twenty-two feet, larger boats could be used than those which at present make the entire journey between Montreal and Port Arthur, and, as the time required for each voyage would be reduced, the amount of freight carried would be increased and the cost of transport lowered. The great drawback would be that which is common to the whole of the lake and river system of Canada—the early-closing of navigation by ice. From about the beginning of the last week in November till the end of the following April, all shipping on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes has to be suspended, and the Georgian Bay Canal would, of course, form no exception.
The chief exports consist of agricultural produce, minerals, and timber. For the five fiscal years 1906-10 (four years and nine months owing to a change in the date of the termination of the fiscal year) Timber is sent to the United States and Great Britain, the former country taking the larger share. Wheat, cheese, cattle, bacon, wheat flour, and fruit find their chief market in the United Kingdom, though a certain amount of wheat flour goes to the Far East. Gold, silver, and copper are exported to the United States, where they can be refined, and that country is also the chief pur chaser of Canadian coal. Fish are sent to various countries, while wood pulp goes mainly to the United States.
Of the total exports of Canadian produce during the same fiscal years the United Kingdom has taken 52 per cent. and the United States 36 per cent.
About two-thirds of the imports into the country for home consumption consist of manufactured goods. The percentage of total imports of the more important articles is as follows :— Of iron and steel goods by far the greater part comes from the United States, which also supplies the coal imported by Canada. The United Kingdom is the chief source of cotton and woollen goods. Sugar is obtained from the West Indies, and drugs, raw cotton, and maize from the United States.
Of the total imports into Canada for consumption in the country, the United States supplies 59 per cent. and the United Kingdom 25 per cent. Of manufactured goods the United Kingdom supplies about one-third.
The chief ports of the Dominion are Halifax and St. John, through which the Atlantic trade is carried on during the winter months ;