are numerous saw-mills in various parts of the province, representing capital invested to about two million sterling. The allied industry of pulp production, for paper-making, has begun to forge ahead in British Columbia, and the geographical advantages of the region may be expected to augment this in the future. With enormous timber reserves on the coast, or on the lakes and rivers leading thereto, affording the cheapest means of transport to her deep-water harbours, the province might command half the world as a market either for wood pulp or for manufactured paper. Before her on the other side of the Pacific Ocean which she faces are the developing markets of the Orient-Asia, Japan, Australia; whilst far to the southward on the Great Pacific Coast are the expanding republics of Peru and Chile, which (except in the south) are without resources of timber on the Pacific Coast. For, whilst British Columbia, Oregon, California and parts of Mexico have forests down to the ocean's verge, the littoral of South America is not only treeless, for stretches of thousands of miles, but even verdureless.

The great areas of first-class building timber, the finest the world still contains (for the world's timber is rapidly going into smoke or decay), is a veritable imperial heritage, about which I beg to make, a little later, some imperial comment.

Of food supply for herself and other markets in sea and river fish the province has very valuable resources, and boasts that she even beats Nova Scotia as a fish-producing region; advancing now to the first place in the Dominion of Canada. Salmon, halibut, herrings, cod, sturgeon, trout and a variety of other fish, to the value of two million sterling, are produced in this bountiful region. British Columbia salmon are highly considered, and numerous ships and thousands of hands are employed in the fisheries. The canning industry is important, as much as one and a half million cases of salmon (of forty-eight pounds) being the output for good years in the canneries. Fishing as a sport offers many attractions: added to the scenic beauties of this part of the Pacific littoral.

As the traveller, from the comfort of his Pullman car on that wonderful railroad, the Canadian Pacific Line, traverses in the limit of a day and a half the three ranges of the

FOOD-PRODUCTS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA: UNLOADING SALMON ON THE FRASER RIVER,

Rockies, the Selkirks and the Cascades, the grandest mountain ranges of North America with their snow-capped peaks, and profound cañons through which the iron way is laid, he will gather the idea that British Columbia is only a land of mountain and flood, of glacier, gorge and beetling precipice, where Nature has not yet prepared her valleys and her plains for her human tenants and their agricultural operations. This idea will be natural but wrong. What has happened is that the constructors of the Canadian Pacific Railway pushed this stupendous highway by the shortest possible route to the Pacific Coast, crossing whatever barriers might be encountered rather than making détours through regions of more economical possibilities. Thus the fertile valleys and the plains in this great province are rarely seen from the railway, and the glimpses of arable land which are so encountered do not offset the impression gained of a country like a sea of mountains. Of scenic wonders along the route day after day will offer their varied and stupendous panorama-mountain scenery such as no part of the United States can show, not even saving the beautiful Sierra Nevadas of California to the south, which I have described elsewhere.

Among and beyond these volcanic-built or glacier-sculptured heights and chasms, however, are rich valleys of boundless agricultural possibilities, intersecting the country from north to south-lands for ranches and farms, and dairies and orchards such as could supply a population of millions of people of British with food products. Thus in the trail of the miner and the lumberman come the tillers of the soil, the real agents of food supply; and the value of land, formerly almost unconsidered, is rising rapidly now.

British Columbia is divided for purposes of Government and for topographical reasons into eight districts, whose names and areas are as follows

The character and resources of these districts are very varied, and I will quote from the publication made by direction of the Minister of the Interior of the Dominion Government at Ottawa, descriptive thereof

KOOTENAY DISTRICT (or, "The Kootenays") forms the southeastern portion of British Columbia, west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and is drained by the Columbia and Kootenay rivers. East Kootenay contains a large extent of agricultural land, much of which requires irrigation, but suited to fruit-growing and all kinds of grain and vegetables. Most of the land is well timbered, and lumbering is, next to mining, the principal industry. There are considerable areas of fertile land in West Kootenay, a good deal of which is being utilized for fruit-growing. The fame of the Kootenay mines is world-wide, the mountains being rich in gold, silver, copper and lead, and the eastern valleys are underlaid with coal and petroleum. British Columbia mining has reached its highest development in Kootenay, and, as a consequence, many prosperous cities and towns have been established. The development of the Crow's Nest coal-fields and the revival in metalliferous mining has caused a rapid increase in population, especially in East Kootenay, where it is estimated to have more than doubled since 1901.

YALE. Lying west of the Kootenays is the splendid Yale district, rich in minerals and timber and possessing the largest area of agricultural land in Southern British Columbia. It includes the rich valleys of the Okanagan, Nicola, Similkameen, Kettle River, and North and South Thompson and the Boundary, and has been appropriately named "the Garden of British Columbia." The main line of the Canadian Pacific passes nearly through the centre of Yale, from east to west, while the Okanagan branch and lake steamers give access to the southern portions. New branch lines are projected and some are in course of construction, which will serve to open up a very large mining and agricultural area. Cattle-raising on a large scale has been one of the chief industries, but many of the ranges are now divided into small parcels which are being eagerly bought by fruitgrowers and small farmers. The district is very rich in minerals and coal, but development has been delayed by lack