The New Student's Reference Work/Northwest Territories of Canada, The

Northwest Territories of Canada, The.  Since the creation in September, 1905, of the new provinces in the west of the Canadian Dominion — Saskatchewan and Alberta — together with the creation (June, 1898), of Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories have been considerably reduced in area.  As at present constituted, their area now is only 1,922,735 square miles, 51,680 square miles being water surface.  The territories are governed directly from Ottawa, instead of having a legislature and governor at Regina, as formerly, with representation in the Dominion Parliament.  In early years the region of the Northwest Territories, including Manitoba and the new provinces west of it, was under the direct control of the Hudson Bay Company, by whom it was treated as a vast hunting preserve.  Since the creation of the new western provinces and the erection of the separate Territory of Yukon, situated north of British Columbia and adjoining Alaska, the Northwest Territories embrace Mackenzie District (q. v.), through which Mackenzie River flows into the Arctic Ocean; Franklin District, comprising all the area around the Arctic seas; and Keewatin District, lying north of Manitoba, east of it as far as Hudson Bay and James Bay and south as far as the line of Albany River, the northwestern boundary of Ontario.  The northwest Territories also embrace those portions of the original territories of Saskatchewan and Alberta not included in them as provinces, in addition to the northeast District of Ungava situated north of Quebec and extending from Hamilton and East Main Rivers north to Hudson Strait and flanked by the Atlantic and by Hudson and James Bays on the west.