As for the schools and churches, conditions are much the same (except where the smaller “ready-made farms” give more chance of social life) as those in Saskatchewan; but in Alberta a school district may be formed for the benefit of eight instead of twelve children. Primary education is free and compulsory, but there is difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply of teachers, and many of those now teaching have come from Eastern Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. The salaries paid are generally good, and the work of teaching a very small school is not arduous, unless, as sometimes happens, the children understand little or no English. Even in such a case, however, the children pick up the new language surprisingly quickly. The University of Alberta, at Edmonton, has begun its work with the faculty of arts and applied science, but other departments will be added. Alberta appears to be peculiarly rich in combustible materials beneath the soil. Coal of all grades, from lignite to anthracite, is found, and is mined at Bankhead and Canmore in the Rocky Mountains, at the Crow’s Nest Pass, at Lethbridge, at Medicine Hat and near Edmonton. In 1911, one hundred and twenty collieries, with an output of three million tons, were in operation, employing about seven thousand workers. Coal may be bought at a very cheap rate at the pit’s mouth, which is a great boon to settlers within reach of the mines. Natural gas and petroleum are also abundant in different parts of the province, from Medicine Hat to the Pelican river, far north of Edmonton. Once upon a time a “paying quantity” of gold used to be obtained from the Saskatchewan at Edmonton and other places, but, with the exception of coal, the chief mineral products at present being turned to account are its building stones and clay, which is being manufactured into brick at Calgary, Edmonton, and some smaller centres. Calgary, with a population of considerably over sixty thousand, is the largest of Alberta’s five cities; but Edmonton, in a more central position, is the capital, and now comes a good second in population, having recently absorbed the town of Strathcona, on the opposite side of the Saskatchewan. Much might be written of the numerous smaller towns and villages, which are nothing if not “progressive,” but we must pass on, only stopping to remark that Alberta may also claim the epithet of “progressive”—especially from a political point of view—for the principles of co-operation, of public ownership of public utilities, and of taxing the land—not improvements—to prevent speculators holding it in idleness are in this province practised as well as preached. [Illustration: 1. MAKING A STREET, PRINCE RUPERT, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 2. MIRROR, ALBERTA—A PRAIRIE TOWN IN ITS FIRST SUMMER. 3. SCHOOL HOUSE IN PRINCE RUPERT.] [Illustration: HOT SULPHUR SPRING, BANFF, ALBERTA.] XIV BRITISH COLUMBIA, THE PACIFIC PROVINCE