Portal:Canada/Selected introduction/4

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Canada. Canada comprises the northern half of North America. To its south it borders the United States, to the east, the Atlantic, to the west the Pacific and Alaska and to the north the Arctic Ocean. Its area is 9,984,670 km², making Canada about 350,000 square kilometers bigger in area than the United States and nearly equal in size to Europe. From Halifax on the Atlantic to Vancouver on the Pacific is 6,000km (3,740 miles) by rail. From Victoria on the Pacific to Dawson on the Yukon River is 2,500km (1,550 miles) by ocean and river steamer and rail. From the head of Canadian navigation on Lake Superior, by the water way of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, to the tidal seaport of Quebec is 2,250km (1,400 miles), and from Quebec city to the extreme Atlantic coast, at the Straits of Belle Isle, is 1,350km (850 miles). Its most southerly portion is in the latitude of northern Spain and Italy, and the most northerly portion is in the latitude of northern Norway.

Older and Newer Canada. The eastern and older part of Canada occupies chiefly a vast peninsula lying between the water-system of the St. Lawrence on the south and the Hudson Bay on the north. This peninsula is of very irregular shape, and is 3500km (2,200 miles) in length from east to west, with a breadth of from 500 to 2,000 kilometers. The western or newer, and much the larger, portion of Canada is compact in form. It extends from the western end of the Great Lakes and the west shore of Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean, a distance of 2,400km (1,500 miles), and from the United States boundary (the 49th parallel of latitude) to the Arctic Ocean, a distance of 2,600km (1,600 miles).

The provinces and territories of Canada may be grouped as maritime, eastern, central, western and northern. Maritime: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The easterly portion of the province of Quebec on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence may be included as a part of maritime Canada. The eastern provinces are Ontario and Quebec, which lie along the St. Lawrence River and its Great Lakes, and extend along Hudson Bay as shown on accompanying map. The central provinces are Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, which occupy the prairie area lying between the wooded region of eastern Canada and the Rocky Mountains. The western or Pacific province is British Columbia, which lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. Northern Canada is the territory lying between the northern limits of the eastern, central and western provinces, already mentioned, and the Arctic Ocean. ^{Adapted from The New Student's Reference Work, 1914.}