dian Pacific Railway, with its numerous branches, its large traffic and its connecting steamships on the lakes and on the Pacific, is now one of the most important lines in the world. Then again, the Grand Trunk has gradually obtained the control of many lines formerly independent, the most important being the Great Western and its connections. These two companies—the Canadian Pacific and the Grand Trunk—now control nearly all the roads in Canada, except the Intercolonial, which was built by the Government, at a great cost, to connect the Western provinces with those down by the sea.
Canals, too, have been deepened, widened, and straightened; the new Welland Canal, constructed by the Mackenzie Government, being a very important public work. Great harbour works have been undertaken and built, and lake and ocean vessels have been wonderfully improved, although Canada has as yet no line of fast steamships crossing the Atlantic. in all our cities and larger towns Street Railways are to be found; while electric lighting, and machinery worked by electricity are among recent industrial changes.
Turning to the farms of Canada, we find that the most fertile portions of Ontario and Quebec have been cleared and tilled, and that thousands of the farmers of the older Provinces are finding their way to the rich prairies of Manitoba and the North-West, where the forests are few and the soil easily brought into cultivation. Large towns and villages now dot the face of Ontario, while the two cities of Montreal and Toronto are rapidly increasing their population, wealth, and trade. The population of Canada has increased until it is now estimated at five millions, and of this Ontario is thought to have two millions. This is a part of the bright side of our material condition. Against it we have to place the tendency of so many of our young men to leave Canada for a home in the United States; the increasing difficulty our farmers experience to make farming pay; and the want of a large foreign market for our manufactures.
8. Literary and Social Progress.—Perhaps it is because the energies of the Canadian people have been directed so largely towards overcoming the difficulties met with in settling a new country, that we have so few great writers of prose or verse. Our
