As far as the masses of the people are concerned, skiing, snowshoeing, and coasting are the chief winter sports, and in them nearly everybody takes part. In Montreal, toboggan slides are built on the sides of Mount Royal, and its slopes are covered with young men and women on snowshoes and skis. Montreal used to build an ice palace every winter. Then the business men feared the city was acquiring an antarctic reputation that would discourage visitors. Consequently, organized exploitation of winter sports fell off for a time, but this fall a fund of thirty thousand dollars is being subscribed to finance them on a large scale. CHAPTER X CANADA’S BIG BANKS There are more than eight thousand national banks in the United States, but Canada has only sixteen. While new ones are organized in our country every month, the number in Canada tends constantly to grow less, and to-day is not half what it was twenty years ago. The banking system of the Dominion is patterned somewhat after the Scotch, and was worked out largely by men of that shrewd, hard-headed race. The people think it suits their conditions better than any other. Certainly it is true that while Canada has had its ups and downs, the people have suffered far less than we from bank failures and panics. One might think that with all the banking business of Canada monopolized by only sixteen institutions, they might make fabulous profits. However, such is not the case. I have before me the current monthly statement which the government publishes regarding the condition and operation of each bank. This shows that all are making money, but their dividends range from six to sixteen per cent., and the Bank of Nova Scotia is the only one that paid the highest rate. Nine of the banks paid twelve per cent. on their capital stock last year, while the shareholders of five got less than ten per cent. In the United States a handful of business men can start a bank on a few thousand dollars. Here it is not so easy a matter. Canadian law requires a minimum capital of five hundred thousand dollars, half of which must be paid in, before a bank can be chartered, and there are other conditions to be met that make the establishment of a new bank a big undertaking. The smallest bank in Canada, at Weyburn, Saskatchewan, is the only one with a capital of less than one million dollars, while the largest, the Bank of Montreal, has paid-up stock amounting to twenty-seven and one quarter millions. The total combined capital of all the banks is one hundred and twenty-three millions.