Canoeing on the Fraser River Breaking Camp Mount Robson, at a Distance of Ten Miles Mount Robson Glacier Farming in Shellbrook District, Saskatchewan Threshing Wheat, Manitoba After the Bear Hunt--Moose River Forks {1} CANADA THE SPELLBINDER CHAPTER I THE CREATIVE FORCES OF CANADA "All parts away for the progress of souls, All religion, all solid things, arts, governments--all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the universe. Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance." WALT WHITMAN (_Song of the Open Road_). "The flowering of civilisation is the finished man, the man of sense, of grace, of accomplishment, of social power--the gentleman. What hinders that he be born here? The new times need a new man, the complemental man, whom plainly this country must furnish.... Of no use are the men who study to do exactly as was done before, who can never understand that to-day is a new day."--EMERSON. Against a background of bewilderingly varied activities which projects from the earliest years of the sixteenth well into the twentieth century and reveals itself as a moving panorama of explorers, pioneers, adventurers, traders, and missionaries, there stands out a line of remarkable personalities whose latter-day leadership has largely initiated as well as dominated the conditions of their time and the bequest of century to century. {2} Among these were men, lofty of soul and tenacious of high purpose, who saw the potential Empire in a vast and infinitely varied region which seemed compact of unrelated resources. They were kindled by the growing achievements of the constructive genius that had already projected the wonderful steel highways carrying civilisation into the trackless wilderness. This constructive genius bridged the mighty rivers; created extensive waterways by means of canals connecting lakes and flowing streams; in still later years this genius commanded the cataracts and rapids to transform their ceaseless motion into motor power for traction, and lighting, and other service of industrial and economic value.