1.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
2.
Manitoba
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Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three provinces and Canadas fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres with a varied landscape. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years, in the late 17th century, fur traders arrived in the area when it was part of Ruperts Land and owned by the Hudsons Bay Company. In 1869, negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba led to an uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada. The rebellions resolution led to the Parliament of Canada passing the Manitoba Act in 1870 that created the province, Manitobas capital and largest city, Winnipeg, is Canadas eighth-largest census metropolitan area. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, four of the provinces five universities and all four of its professional sports teams are in Winnipeg. The name Manitoba is believed to be derived from the Cree, the name derives from Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwa manidoobaa, both meaning straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit, a place referring to what are now called The Narrows in the centre of Lake Manitoba. It may also be from the Assiniboine for Lake of the Prairie, the lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies. Thomas Spence chose the name to refer to a new republic he proposed for the south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel also chose the name, and it was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act of 1870 and it adjoins Hudson Bay to the northeast, and is the only prairie province to have a saltwater coastline. The Port of Churchill is Canadas only Arctic deep-water port and the shortest shipping route between North America and Asia, Lake Winnipeg is the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Hudson Bay is the worlds second-largest bay, Manitoba is at the heart of the giant Hudson Bay watershed, once known as Ruperts Land. It was a area of the Hudsons Bay Company, with many rivers. The province has a saltwater coastline bordering Hudson Bay and more than 110,000 lakes, Manitobas major lakes are Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Winnipeg, the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Some traditional Native lands and boreal forest on Lake Winnipegs east side are a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. Manitoba is at the centre of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, with a volume of the water draining into Lake Winnipeg. This basins rivers reach far west to the mountains, far south into the United States, major watercourses include the Red, Assiniboine, Nelson, Winnipeg, Hayes, Whiteshell and Churchill rivers
3.
Burntwood River
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The Burntwood River is a river in northeast Manitoba, Canada between the Churchill River and the Nelson River. Outsiders may know it as the river passes through Thompson. It is over 320 kilometres long and flows mostly east to join the Nelson River at Split Lake, near its headwaters around Burntwood Lake, the Kississing Portage connects it to the Churchill River. The route was used by lighter Indian canoes to carry the rich Athabasca furs to Hudson Bay or, by going up the Nelson, the route was not much used by voyageurs partly because there was more Pemmican further south. Just south of the Burntwood, the Grass River, which ends at Split Lake, was a parallel canoe route. In 1790 the Hudsons Bay Company built Lakes House at the mouth of the Burntwood, in 1793 David Thompson followed a large part of the Burntwood. In 1825–26 George Simpson tried to use the Burntwood as a route from York Factory to the Pacific. Today it forms part of the Churchill River Diversion, the Wuskwatim Dam and Generating Station west of Thompson are expected to be completed in 2012. List of rivers of Manitoba Bois-Brûlés
4.
Grass River (Manitoba)
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The Grass River is a historically important waterway in the Hudson Bay drainage basin in the Northern Region of Manitoba, Canada. It begins at the Cranberry Lakes approximately 27 kilometres east of Cranberry Portage, the river was a critical route for earlier European explorers and was part of the Upper Tract of the fur trade into Canadian interior. The headwaters of the Grass River are in Third Cranberry Lake and it then flows north to Elbow Lake, and turns sharply south to Iskwasum Lake after which it continues easterly to Reed Lake. This portion of the river is within Grass River Provincial Park, after Reed Lake, the river enters Tramping Lake, followed by the Wekusko Falls, Wekusko Lake and eastwards to Setting Lake. The river then passes Sasagiu Rapids Provincial Park, and Pisew Falls Provincial Wayside Park and it then enters Paint Lake and the Paint Lake Provincial Park. Continuing in a northeast direction, the Grass River passes through several lakes before its confluence with the Nelson River near Kelsey. The river runs for 599 kilometres, and drains a watershed of 15,400 square kilometres, the shoreline is characterized by steeply sloping irregular rock ridges and poorly drained areas of muskeg. Typical of the Canadian Shield, the runs through rolling hilly terrain with abundant glacially scoured rock outcrops. Bird species include raven, common loon, spruce grouse, bald eagle, the Grass River area is largely pristine and home to moose, black bear, lynx, wolf, and beaver. There are also migrating herds of woodland caribou along the rivers length, many portions of the river are not easily accessible, but there is some trapping, hunting, and recreational fishing activity. The Grass River basin contains burbot, lake whitefish, northern pike, sucker, walleye, the Grass River was originally inhabited by the Shield Archaic peoples who migrated from the present-day Northwest Territories 5,000 years ago. The many petrographs located along the river date to this period, approximately 2,000 years ago, pottery was introduced to the region and the Woodland Cree emerged as the dominant culture in the area. In the 1700s, the became an important route for Cree hunters travelling to York Factory at Hudson Bay to trade their furs. The first recorded Europeans to travel the Grass River were the Hudsons Bay Company fur traders and explorers Joseph Smith, in 1763, from York Factory they travelled up the Grass River to Cranberry Portage and then over to Lake Athapapuskow and down into the Saskatchewan River system. Smith died on the return journey, in 1774, explorer Samuel Hearne paddled up the Grass River to establish Cumberland House. In the summer of 1794, surveyor and explorer David Thompson travelled up the Grass River for the first of many times in his career mapping the interior of North America, several fur trading posts were established along the river, most notably at Reed Lake House and Cranberry Lake. In the early 20th century there was a boom, which saw further exploration by prospectors. The course of the river was first noted in a 1760 map obtained by Moses Norton, the name Grass River was first documented on Samuel Hearnes map of 1776
5.
Lake Winnipeg
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It is the largest lake within southern Canadas borders, and it is part of the most undeveloped large watershed of southern Canada. It is the eleventh-largest freshwater lake on Earth, the lakes east side has pristine boreal forests and rivers that are being promoted as a potential United Nations World Heritage Park. The lake is elongated and is 416 km from north to south, with sandy beaches, large limestone cliffs. Manitoba Hydro uses the lake as one of the largest reservoirs in the world, there are many islands, most of them undeveloped. The lakes watershed measures about 982,900 square kilometres, and covers much of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, northwestern Ontario, Minnesota and its drainage is about 40 times larger than its surface, a ratio bigger than any other large lake in the world. Given the massive watershed and the small volume of water in the lake. It is not surprising to find it showing the effects of materials being added to it as a result of activities in the watershed. Lake Winnipeg drains northward into the Nelson River at an annual rate of 2,066 cubic metres per second, and forms part of the Hudson Bay watershed. This watershed area was known as Ruperts Land when the Hudsons Bay Company was chartered in 1670. The Saskatchewan River flows in from the west through Cedar Lake, the Red River flows in from the south, the Dauphin River enters from the west draining Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis. The Bloodvein River, Berens River, Poplar River and the Manigotagan River flow in from the side of the lake which is within the Canadian Shield. A number of beaches are found on the southern end of the lake. The phosphorus levels are approaching a point that could be dangerous for human health, the Global Nature Fund has declared Lake Winnipeg as the threatened lake of the year for 2013. In 2015, there was an explosion of zebra mussels in Lake Winnipeg. The mussels are devastating to the opportunities of the lake. Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba are remnants of prehistoric Glacial Lake Agassiz, the area between the lakes is called the Interlake Region, and the whole region is called the Manitoba Lowlands. It is believed Henry Kelsey was the first European to see the lake and he adopted the Cree language name for the lake, wīnipēk, meaning muddy waters. La Vérendrye referred to the lake as Ouinipigon when he built the first forts in the area in the 1730s, later, the Red River Colony to its south took the lakes name for Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba
6.
Hudson Bay
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Hudson Bay is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 square kilometres. Hudson Bays southern arm is called James Bay, the Eastern Cree name for Hudson and James Bay is Wînipekw or Wînipâkw, meaning muddy or brackish water. Lake Winnipeg is similarly named by the local Cree, as is the location for the city of Winnipeg, Hudson Bay encompasses 1,230,000 square kilometres, making it the second-largest bay in the world. The bay is shallow and is considered an epicontinental sea. It is about 1,370 km long and 1,050 km wide, on the east it is connected with the Atlantic Ocean by Hudson Strait, on the north, with the Arctic Ocean by Foxe Basin, and Fury and Hecla Strait. Geographic coordinates, 78° to 95° W, 51° to 70° N. Hudson Bay is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, sometimes the Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait basins are considered part of the Arctic Ocean even though their waters flow predominantly to the Atlantic. Some sources describe Hudson Bay as a sea of the Atlantic Ocean. English explorers and colonists named Hudson Bay after Sir Henry Hudson who explored the bay beginning August 2,1610 on his ship Discovery. On his fourth voyage to North America, Hudson worked his way around Greenlands west coast and into the bay, Discovery became trapped in the ice over the winter, and the crew survived onshore at the southern tip of James Bay. When the ice cleared in the spring, Hudson wanted to explore the rest of the area and they left Hudson and others adrift in a small boat. No one knows the fate of Hudson or the crew members stranded with him, in 1668, Nonsuch reached the bay and traded for beaver pelts, leading to the creation of the Hudsons Bay Company which still bears the historic name. The HBC negotiated a trading monopoly from the British crown for the Hudson Bay watershed, called Ruperts Land, france contested this grant by sending several military expeditions to the region, but abandoned its claim in the Treaty of Utrecht. See Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay, during this period, the Hudsons Bay Company built several forts and trading posts along the coast at the mouth of the major rivers. The strategic locations were bases for inland exploration, more importantly, they were trading posts with the indigenous peoples who came to them with furs from their trapping season. The HBC shipped the furs to Europe and continued to use these posts until the beginning of the 20th century, the port of Churchill is still an important shipping link for trade with Europe and Russia. HBCs trade monopoly was abolished in 1870, and it ceded Ruperts Land to Canada, starting in 1913, the Bay was extensively charted by the Canadian Governments CSS Acadia to develop it for navigation. This mapping progress led to the establishment of Churchill, Manitoba as a port for wheat exports in 1929. Due to a change in naming conventions, Hudsons Bay is now called Hudson Bay, as a result, the names of the body of water and the company are often mistaken for one another
7.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
8.
River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
9.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
10.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
