“When the town site of Mirror was first placed on the market—July 11 and 12, 1911—there were 577 lots sold at auction in 660 minutes. The aggregate purchase price of these lots was $250,000. That was the beginning. Many more lots have been sold since. Before Mirror was a month old it had two banks, five stores, three lumber yards, one hotel, three restaurants, two pool rooms, a sash and door factory and a newspaper. When it reaches the mature age of one year it will be a wonder. “The really important feature in all this town building is that conditions require it. The country is being thickly settled with prosperous farmers. Merchants, manufacturers, bankers, artisans, doctors, lawyers, ministers—all the factors in urban population—follow the trails the farmers blaze. It is their door of opportunity.” In Southern Alberta is the city of Medicine Hat, whose name is a constant joke to the Englishman who knows it only as a name. I must confess to sharing in the ribald joking until I made the acquaintance of Medicine Hat. Having seen it, how can I describe it? I had chaffed a London journalist—standing in the front rank of newspaper globe trotters—until he scowled savagely at the mention of it. I shall joke about it no longer. Medicine Hat has got to be taken very seriously indeed. Locally its name is familiarly shortened to “The Hat.” It gets its name from its extraordinary location. There is a large circular depression of the prairie, surrounded by sharply-rising sandy walls. The depression, with the prairie stretching out above from the rim of the walls, bears a rough resemblance to an inverted low-crowned hat, with an endless Quaker brim. Through the depression runs the broad silver belt of the South Saskatchewan River. The depression suggests a worn-down volcano crater, and the speciality of Medicine Hat confirms the suggestion. Underneath is pent up an inexhaustible storage of natural gas. The Indians knew of the gas, and associated it with magic and devilry, hence the name of “Medicine Hat.” Rudyard Kipling’s imagination was impressed by Medicine Hat, and he styled it “City born fortunate, built upon hell.” No wonder the hollow crown is being filled with huge flour mills and factories, while the brim is being eagerly snapped up for residential purposes. The gas is pure and ready for use to supply alike power, light and heat. There are “gas wells,” from which the gas rushes at a tremendous pressure, but it is tamed and made to do its work, at a cost to the consumer of only 7½_d._ per thousand cubic feet. That means to the householder fuel as well as light. Manufacturers are encouraged to settle in “The Hat” by the offer of “free power” for five years. As it costs nothing to generate the power, and the supply is unlimited, it pays the authorities to make the concession. Last winter four huge flour mills were to be put up by different companies, and about thirty factories are already at work, while inquiries are crowding in from other firms.