The postmaster-general has given special attention to the selection of portraits and historical scenes to be represented. His choice has been an excellent one.
The carrying out of the engraving part of the plan has been entrusted to Mr. Machado, of the American Bank Note Co., who, with keen artistic sense, has performed his part of the work with great success.
Excellent reproductions of this attractive series will be found as Nos. 46-53 on [Plate III].
The stamps were placed on sale at Ottawa on the 16th July. They are of the same shape as the Jubilee issue, though the dimensions are 1 mm. higher
and nearly 3 mm. longer. The designs are as already described, except that the legend "Partement pour l'ouest" does not have Champlain's name in it, and the dates 1608 and 1908 are placed in the upper corners. The colors do not wholly correspond with the regular set; the 1, 2 and 5 cent naturally conform, but the ½ cent is in a black-brown and the 7 cent in the fine olive green of the regular 20 cent. The 10 cent is also changed to a handsome violet, while the 15 cent is in orange and the 20 cent in a dark brown.
The stamps are beautifully engraved, as usual, and printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. Above the 5th and 6th stamps of the top row is the regular marginal imprint: "OTTAWA—No.—" and the figure representing the plate number. A peculiar variety has been recorded, however, in the sheets of the 2 cent value, some of those with plate numbers 3 and 4 having the imprint inverted in the bottom margin of the sheet.[187] As it occurs both ways, the only explanation seems to be that the plates may have printed two panes, which were afterwards separated into post office sheets of 100 stamps each, and that by error, perhaps, the imprint was inverted on one of these panes.
The plate numbers of the several values are as follows:—
| Plate No. 1. | ½c., 7c., 10c., 15c., 20c. |
| Plate Nos. 1, 2. | 5c. |
| Plate Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. | 1c., 2c. |
The stamps are on stout white wove paper and perforated 12.
It may not be out of place to further describe some of the designs of these stamps because of their historical interest. Of course the portraits of the British Royal Family are familiar, that of the Princess of Wales being the one used on the handsome 4 cent stamp of Newfoundland, and that of the Prince of Wales being from a photograph taken by W. and D. Downey of London, just before the Prince's journey to India in 1906. The portrait of Cartier will also be recognized as the one that appeared on the early 10d. stamp of the Province of Canada.