What Can Possibly Keep Fort Fraser Back
with Such a Province as This Behind It?

of the early Canadian settler, save enough to produce him a living.

But with the dawn of railway construction, the exploitation of real
estate commenced with a rush. Subsequent development of the country,
particularly in the west, has been so rapid and so thorough that a won-
dering world does not hesitate to pour its funds into the fertile fields,
rich mines, new towns and cities, fisheries and forests of this vast land.
Sanguine prophets of a quarter century ago are amazed and no instance in the
world’s history parallels the advancement of Canada in so short a period.

British Columbia, the “Gateway of the West,” situated advantageously on
the Pacific Coast, has proven to be one of the brightest gems—if not the
brightest—in the Canadian coronet. It is the largest of the provinces, con-
taining 395,610 square miles, extending 700 miles from north to south, with an
average width of 400 miles. It occupies a position contiguous to thrifty Ameri-
can states, the Pacific Ocean, southern Alaska, the Yukon, MacKenzie territory,
and the Province of Alberta. é

Its resources are abundant. Whatever the other provinces in the Can-
adian federation may boast, this important Pacific section can likewise pro-
duce. In coal, British Columbia can yield enough to supply the world for cen-
turies; it possesses the greatest compact area of merchantable timber on the
continent. Its mines have produced nearly $300,000,000 already, and its fish-
eries are worth close to $8,000,000 per year, not counting the enormous salmon
canneries. Immense deposits of iron of finest quality are yet undeveloped, and
agriculturally, as well as in fruit lands, close to $8,000,000 has been made as
far back as the year 1907. Hardly one-tenth of the average land is yet settled
upon, much less cultivated, while the province has millions of acres of pulp-
wood to be exploited, not to mention petroleum deposits of recent discovery.

O WNERSHIP OF LANDS appears to have been farthest from the mind

The trade of British Columbia is, even at this early stage in history, the
largest in the world per capita. An immense volume of commerce is carried
on with the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic countries, the United States, South
America, the Islands of the Southern Seas, and interprovincially. A substan-
tial shipping has been fostered and in Jand transportation, the Canadian Pacific
Railway, the new trans-continental line of the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Can-
adian Northern, and other important lines traverse the province at all import-
ant points so far opened up. These railway systems are being elaborated with
great rapidity into numerous branch lines, touching newly-opened towns, farm-
ing and mining districts. Independent railway corporations are likewise de-
veloping the province.

The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific steamships ply
between Victoria, the beautiful capital of British Columbia situated on Van-
couver Island, also to Pacific Coast American ports and Alaska seaport cen-
tres. A very considerable volume of ocean traffic is carried through British
Columbian ports, which, with the completion of the Panama Canal, will be
augmented many-fold. The Canadian Pacific Railway corporation have ocean
greyhounds, trafficking to the Orient from the port of Vancouver, as well as
numerous craft furrowing the picturesque lakes of the mountain districts.

“Always have some resources left for bargains,’”—JAY GOULD.

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