La Verendrye himself thought that this would prove to be the
best route by which the French could reach the Western Sea.

By this time the French Government was becoming alive to the
importance of these discoveries, and it conferred a decoration on La
Verendrye, and allowed him to hope that he might be furnished with
means for further exploration. But he died soon afterwards, at the
close of 1749, and after his death his sons were treated with gross
ingratitude and neglect. The self-seeking Governor of New France
endeavoured to secure the fur trade for his own friends, and sent an
officer with a terribly long name--Captain Jacques Repentigny Le
Gardeur de Saint Pierre--to continue the exploration towards the
Pacific. From 1750 to 1763 the French occupation of this region of the
two Saskatchewan Rivers was extended till in all probability the
French got within sight of the northern Rocky Mountains in the
vicinity of Calgary. Then came the English conquest of Canada to stop
all further enterprise in this direction, and the story was next to be
taken up by English, Scottish, and Canadian explorers.

It will be men with English and Scottish names, mainly, who will
henceforth complete the work begun and established so magnificently by
Cartier, Brule, Nicollet, Jolliet, La Salle, du L'Hut, and La
Verendrye, though the French Canadians will also play a notable part,
together with "Americans", from New England.

CHAPTER VI

The Geographical Conditions of the Canadian Dominion

Before we continue to follow the adventures of the pioneers of British
North America, I think--even if it seems wearisome and discursive--my
readers would better understand this story if I placed before them a
general description of what is now the Dominion of Canada, more
particularly as it was seen and discovered by the earliest European
explorers.

The most prominent feature on the east, and that which was nearest to
Europe, was the large island of NEWFOUNDLAND, 42,000 square miles in
extent, that is to say, nearly as large as England without Wales. It
seems to bar the way of the direct sea access by the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the very heart of North America; and, until the Straits of
Belle Isle and of Cabot were discovered, did certainly arrest the
voyages of the earliest pioneers. Newfoundland, as you can see on the
map, has been cut into and carved by the forces of nature until it has
a most fantastic outline. Long peninsulas of hill