BRISTOL
269
BRITISH COLUMBIA
is a considerable industry in boat-building. It is situated 13 miles south-southeast of Providence, and 7 miles southwest of Fall River, Mass., and is reached by the New York New Haven & Hartford railroad. The peninsula, it is thought, was the Vineland of the Norsemen, and near by were the hamlets of the Narragansett Indian chiefs, Massasoit and King Philip. The place has an early history, the charter of the town dating from the year 1680. It has a number of good schools and a handsome public library, while its industries, besides yacht and boat building, include woolen and cotton mills and rubber works. During the Revolutionary War the town was entered and considerable damage done by the English. Population (1910), 8,565.
Bristol, Tenn. and Va., a consolidated dual city, the seat of Sullivan County, Tenn., and of Washington County, Va. (Bristol of the latter State being formerly named Goodson). The division line between the two states runs along the main street of the now common city. Though settled in 1851, the present town charter was adopted in 1898 and revised in 1901. There is one mayor, but separate town councils for the two (now united) cities. It is reached and served by two railroads, the Southern and the Norfolk & Western road. Its industries embrace furniture, pulp, lumber and flour mills, a tannery and ice and tobacco factories. It is the seat of King College (Presb.), Sullins College (M. E., So.) and the Southwest Virginia (Bapt.) Institute for women, besides a normal school for negroes. Population (1910), 13,395; Bristol (Tenn.), 7,148 and Bristol (Va.), 6,247.
Brit'ish America is the whole of North America north of the United States, under the British flag, except Alaska. It includes almost 3,696,146 square miles. It is divided into the Dominion of Canada, its provinces and territories, and Newfoundland; population, 7,429,869. See CANADA.
British Columbia, Canada's maritime province on the Pacific Ocean, is the largest in the Dominion, its area being variously estimated at from 372,630 to 395,610 square miles. It is a great irregular quadrangle, about 700 miles from north to south, with an average width of about 400 miles, lying between latitudes 40° and 60° north. It is bounded on the south by the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the States of Washington, Idaho and Montana, on the west by the Pacific Ocean and southern Alaska, on the north by Yukon and Mackenzie Territories, and on the east by the Province of Alberta. From the 49th degree north to the 54th degree the eastern boundary follows the axis of the Rocky Mountains and thence north to the i2oth meridian. Pop. 502,283.
The province is traversed from south to north by four principal ranges of moun-
tains—the Rocky and the Selkirk on the east and the Coast and Island ranges on the wesft. The Rocky Mountain range preserves its continuity, but the Selkirks are broken up into the Purcell, the Selkirk, the Gold and the Cariboo Mountains. Between these ranges and the Rockies lies a valley of remarkable length and regularity extending from the international boundary line, along the western base of the Rockies northerly 700 miles. West of these ranges extends a vast plateau or table land with an average elevation of 3,500 feet above sea level, but so worn away and eroded by water courses that in many parts it presents the appearance of a succession of mountains. In others it spreads out into the wide plains and rolling ground, dotted with low hills, which constitute fine areas of farming and pasture lands. This interior plateau is bounded on the west by the Coast Range, and on the north by a cross range which gradually merges into the Arctic slope.
Rivers and Lakes. One of the noticeable physical features of British Columbia is its position as the watershed of the North Pacific slope. All the great rivers flowing into the Pacific Ocean, with the exception of the Colorado, find their sources within its boundaries. The more important of these are the Columbia (the principal waterway of the state of Washington), which flows through the province for over 600 miles; the Fraser, 750 miles long; the Skeena, 300 miles; the Thompson, the Kootenay, the Naas, the Stikine, the Liard and the Peace. These streams with their numerous tributaries and branches drain an area equal to about one tenth of the North American continent. The lake system of British Columbia is extensive and important, furnishing convenient transportation facilities in the interior. Some of the principal lakes are Atlin, area 211,600 acres; Babine, 196,-ooo acres; Chilco, 109,700 acres; Kootenay, 141,120 acres; Upper Arrow, 64,500 acres; Lower Arrow, 40,960 acres; Okanagan, 86,-240 acres; Shuswap, 79,150 acres; Harrison, 78,400 acres.
Many of the smaller streams are not navigable but these furnish driveways to the lumbermen and supply power for sawmills and electric plants and water for irrigation. Water power is practically unlimited and so widely distributed that no portion of the province need be without cheap motive power for driving all necessary machinery.
Climate. Varied climatic conditions prevail in British Columbia. The Japanese current and the moisture-laden winds from the Pacific exercise a moderating influence upon the climate of the coast and provide a copious rainfall. The westerly winds are arrested in their passage east by the Coast
