Manitoba.—The next province westward is Manitoba. It extends from the inter national boundary on the south to Hudson Bay and the 60th parallel of latitude on the north. It is bounded on the east by Ontario and on the west by a line running north and south, coinciding with long. 102° in its northern portion as far as lat. 56°, but from there south trending slightly eastward until it intersects the international boundary in long. 101° 20'. The southern part of the province is one of the chief wheat-growing districts of Canada. It consists of a perfectly level plain, the alluvial bed of a former lake, through which winds the Red River. This first prairie steppe is bounded on the east by the Laurentian plateau which covers all the eastern part of Manitoba beyond Lake Winnipeg. Westward, an escarpment, nowhere rising higher than 500 feet above the level of the first steppe, runs in a northwesterly direction and marks the beginning of the second prairie steppe, which presents a more undulat ing surface. The area covered by water is considerable. Lake Winnipeg, a very large lake, is within the boundaries of Manitoba, as are also Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis, with others of smaller size. The chief river of the southern part of the province is the Red River which enters Manitoba from the south and empties into Lake Winnipeg. At Winnipeg the Red River is joined from the west by the Assiniboine, which with its affluents waters all the southwestern part of the province. The northern portion of the province, added in 1912, contains the lower course of the Churchill River and the whole of the Nelson River which flows out of Lake Winnipeg. These are the two largest rivers of the province. The Saskatchewan also, which flows into Lake Winnipeg, and thus may be considered as the upper course of the Nelson River, passes through Manitoba in the latter part of its lower course. The predominating interest of the province is agriculture, The large terri tory recently added to the area is forested to a considerable extent and may prove to con tain valuable minerals. But ,at present both lumbering and mineral industries in the prov ince are in their infancy.
Saskatchewan.—The province of Saskatche wan, established by Act of Parliament in 1905, is bounded on the south by the international boundary and on the north by the 60th parallel of latitude, and extends from the Manitoba boundary westward as far as the 110th meridian. It is thus a huge rectangle about equally divided between prairie and wooded country, the limit of each lying northwest and southeast across the province. Most of the northeastern half is comprised within the Lau rentian area, where the forest is scantier and the trees more stunted than in the belt of wood land contiguous to the prairie section. In the northern portion there are several very large lakes, such as Lake Athabasca, Rein Deer Lake, Wollaston Lake, and the chain of lakes which constitute the head waters and upper course of the Churchill River. The Saskatchewan River flows through the middle region of the prov ince, and the Qu'Appelle River waters the prairie section farther south. The general slope
being from west to east, all the rivers flow across the province to the east or northeas4 except in the extreme northwest where the slope is north toward Lake Athabasca and the Mackenzie River basin. The prairie section comprises all of the second prairie steppe not included in Manitoba and a portion of the third and highest. The escarpment of the latter runs northwest, appearing from the lower level like a range of low hills. When the crest is reached the third socalled steppe is found to be a much more irregular surface than the rolling plain below. Certain portions of it form small isolated plateaus, standing as high as 2,000 feet above the surrounding country. Saskatchewan is emphatically an agricultural province. The production of wheat is even now more than twice that of Manitoba, and although settlement has been extraordinarily rapid in the southern or prairie part there are still large areas in the central and more wooded portion which are just as well adapted for cultivation of grain or stock raising. Lignite coal is almost the only mineral known and it is mined in the southern part of the province to some extent.
Alberta.— Adjoining Saskatchewan on the west is a second province, Alberta, established by Act of Parliament in 1905. Like Saskatche wan it extends from the international boundary to the 60th parallel of latitude. Its western limit is the summit line of the Rocky Mountains from the international boundary to the point where that line crosses the 120th meridian of longitude, very nearly in hit. 54°, and from this point the 120th meridian to lat. 60°. Alberta, like Saskatchewan, is divided almost equally between prairie in the south and woodland in the north. Its prairie land is altogether within the limits of the third prairie steppe described above; much of it constitutes a semi-arid dis trict, not suitable for agriculture except by the aid of irrigation, but making excellent pasture land. The extreme northeastern corner of the province touches upon the rocky Laurentian area, but the rest of the northern half of the province is well-wooded country, broken by prairie openings, with abundant streams and small lakes, suitable alike for grazing or crops. The Peace and Athabasca are the main rivers in this half of ,the province, while the North and South Saskatchewan rivers with numerous small affluents rising amid the mountains and foothills cut their channels deeply into the rolling prairie of the southern portion. The climate of Northern Alberta is much milder than the latitude would indicate, and wheat can be grown successfully in the valley of the Peace River near the northern boundary of the province. Besides agricultural possibilities, there are mineral resources of great value as yet only partially developed. Coal is found throughout a large area, and in various for mation, from anthracite to lignite. Bitumen (in the star sands' of northern Alberta), oil and natural gas are also important assets.