1. The new era that smiled on Canada with the grant of self-government, in 1841, was marked by a rapid growth of the population. So great was the number of emigrants who came flocking into the country that in the next quarter-century the population nearly trebled itself. Canada at that time, it must be remembered, was but a shred of the vast expanse that reddens the map of North America to-day. The settled part included the two provinces now called Quebec and Ontario, the three provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and the island of Newfoundland. The whole of the remainder--known as the great "North-West"--was, until 1870, the happy hunting-ground of the "Hudson Bay Company." 2. It is true that the Company did not, as did that great hunter, William the Conqueror, turn a peopled country into an uninhabited wilderness, but they took good care that the vast wilderness in their possession should not become a country inhabited by white men. Their whole territory was nothing but a vast game preserve from which all settlers were warned off. The red man was looked upon with favour, for he was as the game-keeper who trapped the fur-bearing animals and brought their skins to exchange for their masters' goods. Dotted over the Company's wide domains stood the log or stone forts where the furs were collected, and where lived one of the Company's factors--usually a Scotsman--to trade with the Indians. Around the fort no village was allowed to spring up. Some idea may be formed of the solitary life led by the factor, when we are told that the postman only visited him once a year. 3. The Company made enormous profits, for the goods they supplied to the Indians cost a mere trifle compared with the value of the furs they received in exchange. For a long time the nation, at home, was kept in the dark, not only as to the profits of the fur trade, but as to the real nature of the country from which the fur was obtained. The people, in fact, supposed that the fur country was an irreclaimable wilderness in which no white settlers could possibly make a living. At length it became known that in the great "North-West" there were immense prairies (over which roamed herds of buffalo) that would yield, if cultivated, rich crops of the finest wheat. When this discovery was made the country was thrown open to settlers (1870), and the province of Manitoba soon became the granary of Canada. 4. Another discovery had already led to the colonizing of British Columbia, the country beyond the Rocky Mountains. This was the discovery of gold (1858). The Indians, canoeing down the river Fraser, brought with them quantities of the precious metal which they had found along the river-bed. The men who had ransacked California for gold now rushed to the new gold country. The hardships they had to encounter were appalling.