| I | BEFORE THE DAWN |
| II | MAN IN AMERICA |
| III | THE ABORIGINES OF CANADA |
| IV | THE LEGEND OF THE NORSEMEN |
| V | THE BRISTOL VOYAGES |
| VI | FORERUNNERS OF JACQUES CARTIER |
| BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE |
We always speak of Canada as a new country. In one sense, of course,this is true. The settlement of Europeans on Canadian soil dates backonly three hundred years. Civilization in Canada is but a thing ofyesterday, and its written history, when placed beside the longmillenniums of the recorded annals of European and Eastern peoples,seems but a little span.
But there is another sense in which the Dominion of Canada, or at leastpart of it, is perhaps the oldest country in the world. According tothe Nebular Theory the whole of our planet was once a fiery molten massgradually cooling and hardening itself into the globe we know. On itssurface moved and swayed a liquid sea glowing with such a terrific heatthat we can form no real idea of its intensity. As the mass cooled,vast layers of vapour, great beds of cloud, miles and miles inthickness, were formed and hung over the face of the globe, obscuringfrom its darkened surface the piercing beams of the sun. Slowly theearth cooled, until great masses of solid matter, rock as we call it,still penetrated with intense heat, rose to the surface of the boi