Some interesting facts about Canada ...

Did you know ...

* Approximately 30% of Canada's land mass is forest

* It is the garter snake capital of the world

"Narcisse Snake Dens is 130 km north of Winnipeg. Mid-April to early May you can see tens of thousands of garter snakes slithering from their dens. Viewing platforms are available for people to watch them from a distance."

If you are scared of snakes ... do NOT go to the National Geographic website link HERE

"Every year, thousands of snakes gather at the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba, Canada. It's billed as the largest gathering of snakes anywhere in the world. Manitoba’s climate and geology make it the perfect place for red-sided garter snakes to live and mate. It has become a tourist attraction, but it’s not for the faint of heart." National Geographic

* There are overpasses for wildlife

"In Banff National Park in Alberta, highways are designed to create the perfect marriage between passing vehicles and overpasses for the wildlife including; grizzly, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars, moose, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, wolverine, and lynx."

* Canada has more lakes than any other country (unless you listen to Finland - although many of what they consider lakes are far smaller than what Canada considers a lake - it is all in the definition of what is a lake).  Approximately 60% of the world's lakes are in Canada.

* Canada has one of the richest fossil beds of dinosaurs in the world (which is not surprising if you know how fossils form, how the continents have shifted in the last 65 millions years since the dinosaurs went extinct, and all that sciency stuff)

"Dinosaur Provincial Park [Alberta Canada], a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the richest dinosaur fossil sites in the world. Over 40 dinosaur species have been found and over 500 specimens extracted."

* The polar bear population is approximately only 25,000 individuals in the wild.  Of those, 60% of  live in Canada.  In Churchill, Manitoba you can even go polar bear watching - get more information HERE.

* Icebergs Ahead!

"Every spring, icebergs from Greenland float to Newfoundland and Labrador's coast. They are harvested to make wine, beer, vodka, and skin care products."

Unless otherwise stated, quotes are from http://www.lifebuzz.com/canada/

Plotting with history’s constraints, by Diane Scott Lewis

 

 

Writing historical fiction is not for the disorganized. I intended to specialize in one century and prefer the eighteenth century. I read numerous books on that period in preparation. However, my first novel was so complicated, and covered such a long period, I had to create a chronology of the years people were born, died, had children, and so forth, so I’d know how old people were and what event in history might be in the background.

I relied on libraries and reference books I'd collected. I studied so much on this time-period, I can pick out inaccuracies in other authors’ works, but I’m sure I’ve made several myself.

Now, with the internet there are so many sites, blogs, and documents that cover the Georgian era, it's much simpler.

I had a superb on-line diary to consult, written by a man in the eighteenth century, which told of government activities, agriculture, when the price of sugar soared, and so on. Then the web hosting service, GeoCities, was discontinued, and I lost that valuable resource. If it’s in their Archives, I can’t find it.

I have post-it notes all over my computer and desk to remind me of things to add to my various novels. I send myself emails from my phone when an idea strikes me and I’m not home.

When I started my story on New Brunswick, I began with my usual method—a pantser not a planner. No outlines for me! I write by the seat of my pants, then I go back and see what my characters require, because now I know who they really are. For this novel, I read the history of the colony and decided where to place who and which events would shape the characters in 1784 and a couple of years beyond.

Often you write something, then discover it couldn’t have happened at that time. I’ll mention a city, then find it wasn’t developed until twenty years later. New Brunswick has long, harsh winters, and I needed to work around that. I’m originally from California, where things rarely freeze, so it was a learning experience for me, and my bride, Amelia, who comes over from Plymouth, England. And poor Amelia has no central heating, electric blankets, or other modern conveniences. She doesn’t know how to gut animals for eating, and there are no supermarkets with fresh food. Still, I like that my characters can’t grab a cell phone to call for help; they must learn to use their wits, develop courage, or perish.

Just recently I realized I couldn't use the fort I'd chosen for an assailant to have been stationed. It hadn't been built until twenty-two years after the "assault". I dove in for quick rewrites.

As my writing continued, more ideas came for the story arc: what huge event would rock her world, historical or otherwise?  Which man will catch her fancy and change her life?

I have websites bookmarked, a map on my desk, books stacked up, and Nancy Bell to help with all the research required to sound authentic.

 New Brunswick’s history is fascinating and I hope I gave the colony a proper showcase as well as keeping readers entertained.

 

 

For more info, please visit my BWL Author Page

or my website: www.dianescottlewis.org

Researching New Brunswick- a surprising history




Available in Jan. 2018

When I was asked to contribute to the Canadian Historical Brides series, with the stellar help of Nancy Bell, I bought a book on the province’s history. I decided to set my story in the eighteenth century, a period I enjoy writing in, and picked the year 1784. From the book I learned that was the year the huge colony of Nova Scotia was divided in two, the western part to be called New Brunswick. This was my first surprise.



Coming of the Loyalists by Henry Sandham

Why the break? After the Revolutionary War, the numerous people who’d remained loyal to King George III had their property confiscated and risked arrest. Thousands of these Loyalists escaped north, into Canada, and the western portion of Nova Scotia. The colony swelled with a disgruntled population who needed land. They demanded their own colony, another capital.

 

 

I wanted to toss my characters into this morass, everything changing.

Nancy sent me several websites with old maps, documents on the settling of the Loyalists, so much to work in, or leave out.

Then I came across the history of the Acadian Expulsion, the original French settlers when the area was known as New France. Entire villages were slaughtered when the British took over. I just had to delve deeper into that period, and have an Acadian character, one whose mother lived through the expulsion.

Acadians by Samuel Scott

Of course, I couldn’t ignore the First People who were there when the French arrived, mainly the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet tribes. Every layer of settlement, wars, massacres, needed to be worked in without overloading the story.

The biggest challenge was to fit in my fictional characters with actual historical personages, the history timeline, and the extreme hardships of this as yet untamed wilderness. Also, what food was available in what season, and what items were shipped in. How did these people survive the long winters, and the political turmoil around them and I had to make sure I kept to the historical facts.

I hope my novel, On a Stormy Primeval Shore, will intrigue readers about New Brunswick and its varied history.

To find out more about my novels, please visit my BooksWeLove author page: BWL DS Lewis
Or my website: DianeScottLewis

Historical non-fiction writing by Ron Crouch

Embarking on this Brides of Canada historical novel with Kathy Fischer-Brown, has been a completely new adventure for me as a writer. All my previous novels, though based on some aspects of reality, have all been works of fiction. This project has required an enormous amount of time in research and countless hours of reading as well as time well spent in the library.


Probably, like most immigrants to Canada, I was very ignorant about the history of North America. Having been born and raised in England, the history lessons, as I recall began with the Stone Age, then the Saxons and the Celts, the Romans and of course the Battle of Hasting in 1066 when the Normans invaded from France under William the Conqueror … and as they say, the rest is history. I don’t have any clear recollection about North American history, I’m sure the subject was mentioned. I was brought up on Rule Britannia and Briton’s never, never, never shall be slaves. (Though the government at the time didn’t have a problem making citizens of other countries, slaves). No mention of what was done to the aboriginal peoples of not only North America, but to those around the world, even as far away as Australia.

Becoming involved in this project has been a complete eye opener for me. I had no idea how much influence the Hudson’s Bay Company had on the formation of Canada, having read one of Peter Newman’s books on the subject. Unbelievable that Canada was built on the fur trade, notably the humble beaver. What struck me the most was the resilience of the people, the hardships and suffering, the cruelty that they endured, both the people of the First Nations and the immigrants. The thought that people travelled thousands of miles across Canada in all weathers, enduring the brutality of long winters, the mosquitoes and blackflies in spring and summer and all manner of biting, stinging insects. As I researched North American history, it struck me how close Canada was to becoming part of the United States or the other way around.

I know firsthand how unforgiving the seas can be. To have boarded a sailing ship back in the late 1700’s, bound from England to North America, was to risk life before you even got there, assuming you got there. Imagine walking down the gangplank onto another continent back then. Unless you were one of the landed gentry, establishing a new life in North America would have been unbelievably challenging.

My grandfather told me an interesting story. I guess it would have occurred back in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. His mother-in-law, a young woman at the time, decided to board a ship from England bound for the United States. Her husband had already set out to make a new life for them over there. They missed each other terribly. It was to be a surprise. When she finally landed in the U.S. she learned her husband had taken another ship back to England to surprise her. Apparently the two ships must have passed each other somewhere in mid Atlantic, these two lonely souls unaware their sweetheart was aboard the other ship.

You know, you don’t have to be that old to recall childhood events, that to the so-called millennials, you’d have to have been at least a hundred years old, if not older to remember such things. I’m in my sixties, but can still recall as a small boy in England, having our milk being delivered to the house in glass bottles by horse and cart. To me, it’s incredible how far technology has brought us in such a relatively short space of time and where it is all going to lead us.

Thanks to Brides of Canada, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about my new country.

If you are interested in learning more about the Canadian Fur Trade and the Hudson Bay Company, check out this website from Canada Geographic.

Martha Black

In 1898, Martha Black participated in the Klondike Gold Rush.  She was the second women elected to Parliament.  And in between, she lived an exciting life.

Read about it here ... 

and here ...  

and here ...

Amelia Douglas

In addition to our brides, this month we are celebrating historic women of Canada.

Meet Amelia Douglas.  She was one of the founding mothers of British Columbia - in addition to being one of the most well-known women in fur trade society.

Read A Brief Bio Here

The Royal BC Museum has a virtual exhibit devoted to Amelia Douglas and her husband

Douglass College - named for Amelia Douglas ... check out more information here

Beauty of Canada—Northwest Territories/Great Slave Lake by Juliet Waldron

Canada—to this east coast American— is terra incognita. As a child, I visited Niagara, both sides, and Montreal, but otherwise was unfamiliar with my northern neighbor. Then my publisher, BWL, asked me to co-author a story with Canadian John Makowski (a First Nation gentleman who writes as Wisdomkeeper). I used to love Due South, and the fantasy Mountie hero of that TV show came from Nunavit. So when I was asked to choose, my impulse was “NWT.” Slowly, as John and I kicked ideas for our story around, we decided to move our story to the Great Slave Lake area. Now, I had my research cut out!

The first thing that struck me was the immensity of the lake and its surroundings. Geologically speaking, on the East, the Great Slave touches the ancient Canadian Shield, on the West, it rests upon the younger “interior platform” of the North American continent.   This affects the look of the place, the trees, the vegetation, the terrain. After being crushed by the glacier for thousands of years and then flooded by great rivers of run-off, the land is fairly flat. The dark spruce forests of the northwestern arm give way to praire. Other parts are filled with glacial pothole lakes, long stretches of muskeg, eskers, and everything you’d expect after thousands of years of icy burial and subsequent violent, watery resurrection.

This is a terrain, which, until a hundred and fifty years ago, was near primeval. The First Nation people and their furred, winged, and finned brethren had this vast landscape to themselves. Life went on just as it had for thousands of years, a nomadic cycle which followed the seasons. Sometimes there was feasting; sometimes, starvation.

The Great Slave Lake is one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. It’s deep, too, and cold and full of fish. These fish were the summer work of the First Nations, who both ate them and preserved them in great quantities for winter.  The Mackenzie River, which leaves the Great Slave Lake at the west end and heads north to the Bering Sea, will also be in our story, where the Fort Resolution Indian Residential School was situated. Here there are low spruce forests. In traveling north, in the general direction of Behchoko and Yellowknife you’ll find the muskeg swamps, glacier-scraped down to the bone. Bright lichens color the rocks above the peat bogs and the night sky, even in August, may flaunt the drama of a green/gold aurora. The stars, seen from here, are myriad, nothing like the hazy skies of my US backyard.

The more I learn about this part of the world, the more I would like to see it for myself, to walk the land and learn to know it.  Any time would be good—from the long darkness and ferocious cold of winter--all those radiant stars—to the summer, when everything green is in a big 100 day hurry, when the great lake thaws beneath those 20 hours of summer sun, and welcomes people to fish, boat, and swim.

Avalon

The Province of Newfoundland is Canada’s newest province and it is also home to the oldest settlement in Canada - Avalon.

PILLARS OF AVALON

Canadian Historical Brides (Newfoundland) 

by Katherine Pym, researcher Jude Pittman

Excerpt 1
Avalon as seen through the eyes of Sir David Kirke in 1629

“A dark smudge lay on the water under heavy clouds. As the sails filled and their ship gained speed, the spot grew larger, more pronounced. Icebergs floated north of them. A whale careened out of the water, its fins like arms straight out, then hit the surface with a mighty splash. David laughed, for he considered this a message from Lady Fate. Great things awaited him on this land.

Small, outer islands protected the mainland. Heavy mist clung to the cliffs, swallowed coves and inlets that lined the shore. Last year they’d provisioned at a fishing camp higher up the coast called St. John’s but as they sailed along, David noticed a better established colony. The barren, desolate land with few trees reminded him of the highlands in Scotland, which was a cold, unforgiving place.
Buildings hugged the coast, with a mansion on the lee of a grassy hill. Smoke rose from chimneys into the mist and low lying clouds.

‘’Tis a beginning town much like those in our West Country,’ Dawson remarked.

‘Aye, ‘tis very pretty,’ David thoughtfully answered, for he could smell opportunity. Fishing boats crowded along the grand banks. All he needed do was stretch out his hand and coins would fill his palm.

This plantation must have been sanctioned by their king. He recognized a fishery works, which would be a good business. He’d fill his ships with wine, goods and trade them for salted fish, sell them to merchants in Portugal and Spain.

‘We will go there,’ he pointed and Dawson nodded. ‘Seems there’s a protected harbour.’

As they sailed between a large island and a peninsula, the winds calmed. By the time they followed the long length of land and found themselves in a large pool, the waters were clear as a lake. The bells from fishing boats, and a tall ship dinged lazily.

People emerged from their dwellings of stone and from a longhouse built next to the water. They carried swords, cutlasses, Wheelocks and cudgels.

‘Drop anchor,’ Dawson ordered.

‘I’m going ashore to see what this place is about.’ David turned to see the other ships dropping their anchors. ‘Send messages to my brothers and bring about a pinnace.’

‘Not sure it’s a good idea, sir,’ Dawson calmly said as he gazed at the throng on shore.

David grinned. ‘It’ll be fine and dandy, Dawson. Don’t fret. If there’s trouble, burn the place to the ground. After all, we’ve the letter of marque stamped with His Majesty’s broad seal, which allows us free rein to do as we please.’

He grabbed the rope and lowered himself to the pinnace, almost stationary in the smooth as looking glass water. He gazed up at his first mate’s worried face and laughed.

As David and his brothers neared the dock, several men greeted them with scowls and threatening gestures. ‘Art thou filthy French pirates come to harass our good town?’ one asked and he shook his cudgel.

The pinnace bumped onto the pilings and a seaman jumped out to secure rope to a cleat. David climbed onto the stone wharf. ‘No French pirates, here. We are of God’s good England and we come in peace.’ He would not crouch and stood tall, even as those he walked up to looked menacing.
Shoulders relaxed. A disturbance rattled the group and people parted as an older gentleman stepped up to him. David was aware of his brothers climbing out of the boat and onto the wharf. With them beside him, nothing could go wrong.

The gentleman extended his hand. ‘George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, here. I welcome you to Avalon Province.’

Excerpt 2
Seen through the eyes of Sir David Kirke’s wife Sarah in 1632 as they approach the shores of Avalon 

At dawn the next morning, amidst what seemed hundreds of fishing ships and shallops along the grand banks, gulls screaming overhead, the Gervase left the fleet and rounded a spit of land. They meandered through a cluster of small islands and entered suddenly quiet water.

Fishing boats anchored nearby. People worked within and without the stone buildings that clutched the shore. Small rowing boats bobbed at the pilings.

‘We’re in the Pool,’ David said with a smile. As they glided toward a buoy, he breathed deeply. ‘All of this is the Province of Avalon. That there is Lord Baltimore’s mansion. Last time I was here, his lordship was in the process of vacating it.’ He wrapped his arm around Sarah’s shoulders.

Her gaze swept the grassy land toward the grey skies where sea birds soared in the wind currents. The house stood on the lee of a hill, a sprawling two-storied structure built of stone, the roof a combination of thatch and flags. Beyond the house rose grassy hills.

A cold, damp wind soughed off the Pool and up the barren hill. The ship’s bell clanged. The deck creaked. Chains and cables squealed as the sails furled.

The land was barren but had its own beauty. It made her think of the books she’d read on Northern Scotland, a brash, wild country by what they and others who’d been there said of it.  There were few trees, here, except those planted about the headland.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a long and colourful history. In fact, there isn't a rock, cliff, tree or cave around here without a legend attached. 

Description from Province of Newfoundland: 

Early Aboriginal Cultures

The rich and complex human history of this province can be traced to about 9,000 years ago when the first groups of a marine-oriented people moved into southeastern Labrador. By around 8,000 years ago the culture of those first groups had developed into what is now called the Maritime Archaic Indians. Around 7,500 years ago they buried a child in what is the oldest known funeral mound in North America. Around 5,500 years ago their descendants moved into Newfoundland. In the 1960s a Maritime Archaic cemetery was discovered in Port au Choix during excavations for a cinema. The cemetery is now a National Historic Site with a nearby Interpretation Centre which interprets the various pre-contact cultures of that area.

About 4,000 years ago, a separate and distinct culture arrived in northern Labrador. These arctic-adapted people we now call Paleoeskimos spread to the Island of Newfoundland where they lived until around 1,000 years ago.

Some 3,600 years ago a new culture shows up in the Labrador archaeological record. They are known as the Intermediate Indians. These people moved into central Labrador, and shortly after that the Maritime Archaic tradition vanishes from the archaeological record. It is not clear how or if the Intermediate Indians were related to the Maritime Archaic tradition.

Then, about 2,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Innu and the Beothuk are recognized in the archaeological record of Labrador and the island. These Recent Indians were more land-adapted than some of the earlier groups.

The most recent aboriginal group to arrive was the Thule people who migrated across the northern part of the continent from the Bering Strait to Labrador about 1,000 years ago. The descendants of the Thule are today’s Inuit.


The First European Visitors to North America

The oldest known European contact was made here a few thousand years later when Leif Eriksson and his crew of Vikings landed on the Northern Peninsula in 1000 AD. Although they didn't settle permanently, they left their mark on this part of the world at L'Anse aux Meadows – now a National Historic Site and UNESCO World Heritage Site – where you can explore an ancient Viking landing site and recreated sod huts.

Fast forward hundreds of years to 1497, when Italian-born Giovanni Caboto – more commonly known as John Cabot – dropped anchor in Bonavista and "discovered" the New World.


Arrival of Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English migratory fishermen

In the sixteenth century, Basque whalers established the first industrial station in the New World at Red Bay in Labrador to process whale oil. The site was chosen because whales migrated – and still do today – through the Strait of Belle Isle. In June 2013, this mythical place was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of three such designations in Newfoundland and Labrador.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, fishermen from France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and eventually England arrived to feed on the fish of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of the early permanent settlers came from southwest England and southeast Ireland, with the majority emigrating between 1750 and 1850 prior to the Great Irish Famine.

Although Newfoundland was England's oldest overseas colony, France played an important part in helping shape our history. French explorer, Jacques Cartier, arrived in 1534 and eventually the French established a colony in Placentia in 1662. By then, tiny settlements popped up around Placentia Bay, the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon – still a colony of France today – and beyond the Burin Peninsula into Fortune and Hermitage Bays. During the 17th century, Newfoundland was more French than it was English. Oddly enough, by the middle of the next century, French settlement had disappeared mostly due to military success elsewhere in North America.


Canada's Youngest Province

Before 1949, Newfoundland had a history as a British colony, Britain’s "Grand Cod Fishery of the Universe", eventually becoming equal to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as a full Dominion of the British Empire. Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada on 31 March 1949 and the next day, the leader of the Confederation campaigns, Joseph R. Smallwood, became the new province’s first Premier.

Today, even though we're the youngest province in Canada, we're considered one of the fastest growing in the country with booming oil and gas, mineral exploration, and marine and IT industries. On the cultural side, St. John's is brimming with musicians, artists, writers, dancers, and craftspeople from the province, throughout Canada, and around the world – and all are drawn to Canada's eastern edge by our inspiring natural beauty. In fact, it's been said the city has the highest concentration of artists per capita in Canada.

Top 10 Canadian Lakes

From the website incredible places to see in your lifetime comes a listing of the Top 10 Incredible Canadian Lakes.  You can find out information about each of these lakes by reading the article, and also by clicking the links following some of the images.

10. Lake Superior

9. Lake Ontario

8. Abraham Lake, Alberta -- this incredible lake is the subject of an upcoming Feb 10th post - so check back!

7. Waterton Lake, Alberta

See a post devoted just to this lake ...

6. Lake Louise, Banff National Park

5. Berg Lake, Mount Robson Provincial Park

4. Azure Lake, British Columbia

A post about Azure lake ...

3. Peyto Lake, the Rocky Mountains

A post about Peyto lake

2. Moraine Lake, Banff National Park

A post about Moraine lake

1. Garibaldi Lake, British Columbia

You can find out information about each of these lakes by reading the Top 10 Incredible Canadian Lakes article or following the post links about some of the individual lakes.

Viewing the Northern Lights (Aurora borealis)

The Canadian Geographic website has a really nice interactive map where you can pinpoint the best spots to see the eerily beautiful Northern Lights.  Click on the image to go to the interactive website.

THE AURORA BOREALIS AND AURORA AUSTRALIS

The following information is quoted from the NOAA website:

"The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) are the result of electrons colliding with the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. (Protons cause faint and diffuse aurora, usually not easily visible to the human eye.) The electrons are energized through acceleration processes in the downwind tail (night side) of the magnetosphere and at lower altitudes along auroral field lines. The accelerated electrons follow the magnetic field of Earth down to the Polar Regions where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in Earth’s upper atmosphere. In these collisions, the electrons transfer their energy to the atmosphere thus exciting the atoms and molecules to higher energy states. When they relax back down to lower energy states, they release their energy in the form of light. This is similar to how a neon light works. The aurora typically forms 80 to 500 km above Earth’s surface.

Earth’s magnetic field guides the electrons such that the aurora forms two ovals approximately centered at the magnetic poles. During major geomagnetic storms these ovals expand away from the poles such that aurora can be seen over most of the United States. Aurora comes in several different shapes. Often the auroral forms are made of many tall rays that look much like a curtain made of folds of cloth. During the evening, these rays can form arcs that stretch from horizon to horizon. Late in the evening, near midnight, the arcs often begin to twist and sway, just as if a wind were blowing on the curtains of light. At some point, the arcs may expand to fill the whole sky, moving rapidly and becoming very bright. This is the peak of what is called an auroral substorm.  Then in the early morning the auroral forms can take on a more cloud-like appearance. These diffuse patches often blink on and off repeatedly for hours, then they disappear as the sun rises in the east. The best place to observe the aurora is under an oval shaped region between the north and south latitudes of about 60 and 75 degrees. At these polar latitudes, the aurora can be observed more than half of the nights of a given year.

When space weather activity increases and more frequent and larger storms and substorms occur, the aurora extends equatorward. During large events, the aurora can be observed as far south as the US, Europe, and Asia. During very large events, the aurora can be observed even farther from the poles. . Of course, to observe the aurora, the skies must be clear and free of clouds. It must also be dark so during the summer months at auroral latitudes, the midnight sun prevents auroral observations."  

Source:  http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/aurora

Here be dragons ... maybe, we aren't quite sure.

Old maps are, quite simply, fascinating.  They are a glimpse into the past, often while cartographers were trying to look into the future (and figure out just what is beyond the horizon).

Let's start our journey today with a visit to the Library and National Archives of Canada's website, and a wonderful article on early cartography.

I love this line from the article:"Few cartographers saw first-hand the regions they were expected to map".

A fascinating look into the history of cartography wasn't it?  I loved the information on the early 17th century and why so many old maps have such breathtaking detail along the margins.

Earlier this year, the Toronto Public Library had an exhibit of The Art of Cartography, and had on display maps from the 16th to the 19th century.  It is now off exhibit, but you can visit a digital archive of the exhibit.

Not all of the maps are the typical country maps you might be thinking of.  One of the incredible pieces shown was this map of plans for Toronto, circa 1848.

(Click on the images to view them in full size.)

Probably my favorite from the exhibit was this one, hailed as "A new and most exact map of America" from 1668.  Notice how the western half of the continent of North America is just kind of missing?

After you are done checking out the 55 maps the Toronto Public Library had on display, swing by the the Canadian Geographic Society for an in-depth article about the exhibit.

You can read more about some of these maps, including this beauty - the first map of the North Pole, in which Mercator "envisioned the Arctic as four mountainous islands surrounding a black magnetic rock, itself surrounded by a whirlpool and river rapids".

Need just one more map?

Check out the first map of Canada's West, circa 1857 and read the accompanying article.

Still can't get enough maps?  Then I strongly suggest you check out the Library and National Archives of Canada virtual collection, starting with the Map of the World, circa 1508.  Each map has an accompanying description and details. The Newfoundland, 1775 is worth taking a look at.  As is the Canadian Arctic, 1853.