Which with Newfoundland forms British North America, occupies the northern third of the continent, stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the United States to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean; nearly as large as Europe, it comprises a lofty and a lower tableland W. and E. of the Rocky Mountains, the peninsulas of Labrador and Nova Scotia, and between these a vast extent of prairie and undulating land, with rivers and lakes innumerable, many of them of enormous size and navigable, constituting the finest system of inland waterways in the world; the Rocky Mountains rise to 16,000 ft., but there are several gorges, through one of which the Canadian Pacific railroad runs; the chief rivers are the Fraser, Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, and St. Lawrence; Great Slave, Great Bear, Athabasca, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario are the largest lakes; the climate is varied, very cold in the north, very wet west of the Rockies, elsewhere drier than in Europe, with hot summers, long, cold, but bracing and exhilarating winters; the corn-growing land is practically inexhaustible; the finest wheat is grown without manure, year after year, in the rich soil of Manitoba, Athabasca, and the western prairie; the forests yield maple, oak, elm, pine, ash, and poplar in immense quantities, and steps are taken to prevent the wealth of timber ever being exhausted; gold, coal, iron, and copper are widely distributed, but as yet not much wrought; fisheries, both on the coasts and inland, are of great value; agriculture and forestry are the most important industries; the chief trade is done with England and the United States; the twelve provinces, Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Manitoba, Keewatin, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Athabasca, each with its own Parliament, are united under the Dominion Government; the Governor-General is the Viceroy of the Queen; the Dominion Parliament meets at Ottawa, the federal capital; nearly every province has its university, that of Toronto being the most important; the largest town is Montreal; Toronto, Quebec, Hamilton, and Halifax are all larger than the capital; taken possession of by France in 1534, settlement began at Quebec in 1608; by the treaty of Utrecht, 1703, Hudson Bay, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland passed to England; the rest of French territory was ceded to England in 1763; constituted at different times, the various provinces, except Newfoundland, were finally confederated in 1871.