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WITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS ~ -^^r^ ' THE RELIGIOUS TRACT- SOCIETY . 56, Paternoster Row ; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard AND 164, Piccadilly. 1891. f/RGHLL, J, 68789 LONDON J PSINTKD BT WILLIAj* CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFOltD STKEET AKD CHARIKQ CROSS. m i i* PREFATORY NOTE. Tins book is taken from the larger work by the Marquis of Lome, entitled "Canadian Pictures.*' No alteration has been made in the text ; but there have necessarily been very considerable omissions, and only six out of the original ninety illustrations are given. The desire has been to give in a compact, readable form, a general description of the life and scenery of our great colony, making especially prominent those parts that refer to the natural resources of the country, and the advantages it offers to new settlers. CONTENTS. OHAFTER I. The Climate of Canada II. The Maritime Provinc£3 ... III. Ontario ... ... ^ ... IV. Quebec ... V. From Lake Huron to "WiXNirEG VI. The New Territories ••• PAGE 7 18 47 88 123 156 VII. British Columbia •t* •t* ... 176 CANADTAK LIFE AND SCENEEY. -♦o^ CHAPTER I. THE CLIMATE OF C.VNADA. Comparison between the English and Canadian climates —Canadian Winter—Fuel— Climate of British Co- lumbia— Emigration— Its facilities and advantages. THE climate of Canada has honest heat in cummer and honest cold in winter. The sun is seldom hidden, and men see many seasons, and are healthy, strong, and active. The air is drier than in Europe. Sometimes the thermometer indicates 90° Fahrenheit in August, and 30° below zero iq January. These extremes of temperature are only seen during a few days of the year, but they are not unpleasant. During most of the months the weather is delightful. In a word, the climate is bracing and excellent. I remember visiting a place in the plains of the , central part of Canada, where perhaps the cold causes the mercury to fall to the lowest point it reaches in the Dominion. I was met by a number of the residents, who were good enough to come to tell me of their experiences in their new homes. With settlers from >■ 8 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCHNEtlW •4 : I II ! I - ■. > \ ii. ! / the Eastern rroviiiecs were miiij];le(l otlicrs who hailed from England, Ireland, and Scotland. 1 had received Batisfactory accounts of the year's excellent crops from all, and then put questions to them as to the advantufjjo tiY disadvantage of the climate as compared with that of other places. Several had borne evidence of the healthfulness and purity of the air, and to their prefer- ence to it as compared to that of any region they had known, when up pushed a sturdy Irishman, who said, "I want you to tell this to my people at home. I come from the County Armagh, and I was thatching my house last year in the cold weather, and I felt it far less than I did the last time I thatched my house in Armagh." When agents of railway companies, and men in- terested in the South, try to persuade settlers to go down to the South, and settle in some parts which are notorious for their cyclones, snakes, and centipedes, or for ague and fever, it is well to remember how healthy the conditions of life in the North are, and to what a great age men usually live. Where, as in the case of some English and many of the French, a number of generations have lived on Canadian soil, we see the race more vigorous, if possible, than in the days of the first settlers. Cold the weather certainly is during five or six months of the year ; but the cold, except upon the sea-coasts, is dry. The saying of the old Scotchwoman is literally true. She wrote home to her people to say, " It was fine to see the bairns play in the snow without getting their feet wet." It is only near the sea that the bairns can make snowballs, until the spring thaws come to *> a THE CLIMATE OF CAXADA. 9 help them. Throughout the winter the snow is (hy and powdery. The Canadian Beasons are very certain. It is sure to bo steadily cold in winter and steadily warm in summer, and throughout the twelve months a bright sun gives cheerfulness to the scene. ^ There is a severe, but extremely healthy winter of less than six months, and a summer with sunshine so ardent and so certain, that almost any fruit and crops are raised. Where Voltaire said there was nothing but a few acres of snow, you may see each summer along the verdant and populous shores of the St. Lawrence in the little gardens of the yeomen proprietors fine plants of the broad-leaved tobacco, and the Indian corn raising its yellow crown above its sword-shaped leaves, while the sweet water-melon is abundant, and grapes will ripen in the open air. In Ontario, near Niagara, peach orchards cover the country, and wine is made from the vineyards. Strawberries, raspberries, currants, and many small berries are native to the land. Some of these grow on bushes. There is one in the west called the " high bush cranberry," whose red clusters of fruit cling near the stalks of the shrub, which has pretty silver-tinted green leaves. An ex- cellent jelly is made from the fruit, and we found the ladies of the garrison of an American fort in Montana great proficients in making preserves from it. The size of the wild black-currant is extraordinary. In the Qu'Appelle valley 1 have seen them as fine as in any English kitchen-garden. At the school established for the half-blood French-Canadians at that place, the fathers had planted a few months before our arrival flome of these plants taken from the woods, and it !h i h H !|. 10 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEIIY. would have been difficult to believe, had one not seen the wild currant, that these were not from European stock. Hops thrive everywhere. Roots of all kinds grow to monstrous weight on the prairies. If the power of a country can be measured by its food-pro- ducing capacity, it is difficult to limit the imagination in estimating the number of souls Canada's vast areas may support. To an Englishman, the want of some of the familiar growths of his own land seems strange. For instance, that it should be so rare to see ivy able to survive the winter; to see no wallflowers, or daffodils, or rhododendrons, or azaleas, seems at first almost a hardship. Jhe English hawthorn will thrive, as will ivy, in parts of Ontario. But although the foxglove is missing, there is the beautiful^ "golden rod," and throughout the woods there are masses of calmia and other flowers, the lictrim especially making gay many a vista of the woodland. The season being severe for a portion of the year, the question of fuel is an all-important one. Well, let us see if this is met by the conditions of the country. It is most fully met. What is known as Old Canada — namely, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, Ontario, and Quebec — is a vast region of wood- land now largely cleared of forest, but having an abun- dant supply of wood for fuel within the reach of every place where man has settled or may settle. Enormous stores of coal are being actively worked in Nova Scotia, the output of whose mines is daily and hourly increasing, and is at present immense. You may see in the mines near Pictou galleries twenty feet in height, hundreds of feet below tl^e ground, worfepd in the solid coal, There^? t THE CLIMATE OF CANADA. U foro, ns far as Old Canada is concerned, there never was any lack of fuel. At first, when the new territories received their earliest emigrants, tho question of the supply of fuel was thought to be more serious in those regions, for the timber line of firs and pines is crossed near Winnipeg ; and although there is a vast semicircle of such heavy woods to the north, the farther end of the arc coming down south again near the Kocky Moun- tains, there is little but poplar in the space through which the new railways had begun their progress. The lands are of what geologists call the tertiary formation — that is, of a late age — and no very good coal could be expected. There were beds of lignite found, and these have been discovered in greater quantity of late ; but the lignite, although very useful for household purposes, and giving fair heat when it is of good quality, cannot be compared with the true coals on account of the quantity of water it contains. It was a matter of anxiety, therefore, to find better fuel. Farther west- ward it was known that the tertiary, or recent geolo- gical formation, gave place to beds of an older character, and that the more ancient cretaceous measures ap- peared. In crossing the rivers which flow down from the mountains and cut their way through higher lands, rounded boulders of coal have been observed, and in some places the high bluffs were seen to be streaked with dark bands of colour. And now it is proved that throughout a great area there are abundant indications of the presence of coal ; and, still better, the coal which has been seen cropping out in various localities has been tried and found to be excellent for all purposes. The new province, recently christened Alberta, will " V J 1 ! '.' ..J ' a ms 12 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. be the " black country " of the central continent. An- thracite exists in thick seams. The railway engines already use nothing but the coal of the district. From north to south for a distance of four hundred miles, and along a tract at least two hundred miles in width, experts believe that coal in any quantity exists beneath the long undulating swell of the prairie. E"en if we had not found this exhaustless supply, the settler in the north- west would not have had long to wait, for the railway would have brought him the coal of British Columbia. Away beyond the mountains and the Pacific Coast we come upon a country whose climatic conditions are totally different, namely, a land called British Columbia — ^an jmirense land of mountain, forest, and flood, the Alpine ranges soaring hi some of their peaks to the height of Mont Blanc — a land in the main so deeply and wonderfully forested that you may, on its sea coast, cut timber thirty and forty inches square of a uniform size for one hundred feet — a coimtry where the rivers rush impetuously through tremendous gorges to run in shorter navigable reaches into harbours which are defended by a gigantic natural breakwater by the long rocky island of Vancouver. Here, on this island, we have a climate like that of the South of England. The shrubs which are familiar to all in the gardens about London, and many more which would be too delicate to grow there, thrive in this favoured island. A great deal of it is mountainous and practically unknown. To the north of it lie other great groups of islands and more mountainous coast, and the climate is again mild, but the rainfall is heavy. In the mainland interior of tlus CaQadian Switzeiland you have strange variations THE CLIMATE OF CANADA, 13 of climatic condition within narrow areas ; you may have a farm in a beautiful rich valley, suiTOunded by magnificent woods, and five miles off you may go and pay a visit to your friend who has another farm, and find that his place has such dryness that not only will it not support the heavy timber growth with which you are familiar on your own homestead, but your friend has even to bring waters to irrigate his garden, which, with this provision, will produce even more richly than your own. A word before passing to the general features of the countrj'' as to emigration. Excellent steamers ply between Liverpool and Halifax in winter, and between Liverpool and Quebec and Montreal in summer. The winter passage takes from eight to ten days — the summer passage is usually performed from land to land in six days. No one doubts that very many in our large towns can benefit themselves ' y moving. Veiy many in the country can do so also, although for my part, and speaking more in the interests of England than of Canada, I would rather see departures from the towns than from the country, for there are but few country districts whose population is too dense. In any case, what we desire is that the advantages of Canada should be known, so as to induce men to weigh them as compared with the United States. I, from personal knowledge, believe that Canada can more than hold her own in the comparison. In climate she has in her various provinces vast areas as agreeable to men of our northern races as any the United States can offer. Her soils are as rich, her govomment is more free, and the opportunities presentedi not onl^ 14 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEIiY. for making a comfortable living, but for the attainment of comparative wealth, are as good. Sudden fortunes are, it is true, not so often made ; but, on tKj other hand, there is far less poverty. There is an equality of fortune, taking the people as a whole, which can hardly be matched elsewhere. Opportunities for the killing of game are usually better than in the United States. All emigrants should go out in the spring. Now, taking first the inducements offered to emigrants who desire to procure manual labour. The cost of a passage is only £3, and it costs £3 more to reach Winnipeg. Any one knowing the trade of a blacksmith, a mason, a bricklayer, or willing to work as a hired man on a farm, has the best chance of emploj'^ment. Young men who wish to lead a town life had best stay at home. The town life as compared with country life gives fewer opportunities, for the cities are, relatively to the population, small. The rural population is about 4,500,000 against about 500,000 represented by the towns. I would, therefore, on all accounts, advise young men to look to country life. If they go and have no experience of agriculture they should hire th'^mselves out for a year. The position of such a man is by no means unpleasant. He shares the hfe ol the farmer, and is treated as one of the family. For farmeio there is the powerful attraction of homesteads of all sizes. I have known very many men who have succeeded well, and who have begun with nothing, or next to nothing. But I should counsel all who con- template emigration, and the taking up of farm life, to have, if single men, f om £50 to £100, exclusive of the i ■ I THE CLIMATE OF CANADA. IS t cost of the journey, and if married from £150 or £250 to £500. There are good vacant places to be had almost anywhere. In the north- west you can get 160 acres of excellent land for £2. The land regulations under which these grants are made are to the full as favourable is those of the United States, and in some respects are to be preferred. For the north-west people of good physical ability only should be sent. If a couple go, man and wife should both be able to work and have £60 to £75, exclusive of cost of journey, at the least, if they have no knowledge of farming. If they have children, they should be provided with £12 more per head. If the children are able to work, £6 extra per head might suffice. Fine ladies and fine gentlemen will find themselves altogether out of the race. At the same time, there is abundant scope for gentlemen's sons having modest fortunes, say from £200 to £500 a year, for these men will have opportunities of making their hving and of procuring sport which they cannot realize at home. It is most remarkabh that of such men and of such women as those I have mentioned, one almost always hears that they have liked tiieir new life. For one letter containing the complaints ot a grumbler I have seen six dozen speaking of the fullest contentment; indeed, so curiously rare has any complaint been that I have taken some pains to investigate a few cases of alleged failure ; and I am sorry to say that in the case ot several of these I have come upon indubitable evidence to show that they were trumped up by in- terested parties, and were not bona fide at all. But let this be clearly understood— that wliat Canada offers 16 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. IS not an El Dorado, such as that which inspired the dreams of the Spanish followers of Cortez and Pizarro, who went to the South American shores expecting tribes of docile Indians to meet them bringing heaps of gold and silver utensils and curious works of art, and whose dreams were in many cases wonderfully near the truth. It is not such an El Dorado that Canada offers. Her offer is this : a comfortable home on his own soil to any man who has a good pair of hands and a decent knowledge how to use them ; if he have something of his own to start with, so much the better will it be for him. For women there is plenty of space and places ; but women who will succeed must be women who will work. They who wish to go out as teachers, gover- nesses, etc., had best stay at home. The Ladies' Committee of the Women's Emigration Society of Montreal told me lately that they could at once place 1000 girls of good character, if sent out to them, and that the demand for them was so great that they would be sorry to see them go past Montreal on to Ontario. But the ladies at Toronto are equally solicitous to procure good servant girls, who are excellently well treated in Canadian families. Even this excellent treatment is not sufficient to prevent them from marrying, strange to say, and the demand for wives fully keeps pace with the demand of house- wives for servants. Indeed, the number of girls who keep to the first resolution they may have formed to get as far as Winnipeg is small indeed, for if they loiter by the way they take up situations in the cities along the road to the west. I have often tried to keep i <# TEE CLIMATE OF CANADA. n a household together when obh'ged to take them on distant journeys ; but it is surprising to see how the female members of it are now scattered in happy home- steads stretching between New York and Victoria, British Columbia, a distance of 4000 miles. In short, this imported European article is so popular that no government has dared to fix any tariff rate upon it, but the local authorities have been obliged to help in getting it by giving " assisted passages " to women as well as men. If girls are sent, they should always be under some person's guidance, or have some lady to whom they may apply. Societies and clergymen can easily cor- respond with Women's Emigration Societies at Mon- treal and elsewhere, and only send the number required. The clergy may be relied on to report wisely and kindly as to the chances for working women, and the Canadian report can be acted on by the clergy at home, who can raise funds to help deserving women. The cost of reaching settlements where there are no railways is unfortunately great, but if £8 can be given to take women on from Winnipeg to places like Prince Albert they are certain to bo welcome there. # l:.^k ')g CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEEY CHAPTER II. THE MARITIME PROVINCES, The Bay of Funrly — Annapolis — Louisbrrg — Ship- building in Nova Scotia — New Brunswick— The Cascapedia — Prince Edward's Island — The Fisheries — Newfoundland. A WELL-KNOWN book, entitled " Sam Slick;' tells the story of a shrewd and enterprising clockmaker who goes about Nova Scotia selling his wares and turning a penny to his own advantage, but not always to that of his customers in the old province by the sea. In comparison with the push and go- aheadism of New England, he finds the provincial people but slow-coaches, and declares they are always talking of doing a thing, and never doing it. Since his day the character of the country and of the country people has considerably altered, and the railway loco- motive may be seen ringing its bell and steaming through woodland villages and over fertile meadows and past rough forests,, where even Sam Slick himself would not have thought it would be worth while to push a track. Before touching upon the newer regions of Canada, it is needful to refer to the country first seen after making a voyage to Canada; and to show hew, with- out going far from England, and while keep'ng within the reach of the daily post, of the telegraph line, mi THE MARITIME PtlOVtNCtlS. 19 of the bi-weekly or tri-weekly communication with England, and at a distance of only ten days' journey from London, fair lands with fair opportunities for Bettlement can be found. Let us, then, take one or two scenes in each of the old provinces which are so easily reached. As John Bull, when he becomes a tourist, is always fond of getting up to the top of a hill to look around him, let me take you to the top of a steep isolated cliff at the end of a long ridge of volcanic rock which is covered with pine woods, and which overlooks a gulf of the sea on one side, and a fair, wide, and green valley, twenty miles in width upon the other. If you wait until the tide ebbs, you will see that it leaves a vast stretch of red sand, for the tide goes back very far. It will come back again over those sands with a rush which sends the water up as fast as a horse can gallop, until it surges against a long line of earth entrenchments like the Dutch dykes, which prevents its further advance. If you look carefully upon the country mapped out beneath your feet, you may see certain other ridges which look like old earth walls. They are some dis- tance inland now, and but just visible amongst villages, orchards, and country studded with white comfortable- looking wooden farmhouses having verandahs and gardens around, and you would be right in supposing that these old walls are ancient dykes. Formerly the mighty tide of the Bay of Fundy, now restrained by the outer walls, swept up to them. The inland dykes were made in old days — days which have been ren- dered familiar to many by the genius of Longfellow, who wrote the story of a time when the happiness of 20 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEM. the old French Acadian dwellers in this valley had come to an end, and the war which had raged between England and France had touched them too, and had compelled them to leave to others the well-loved Grand Pr^, or Great Meadow, which they had tilled in security for some generations. In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand Pre Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward. Giving the village its name, and pasture to flecks without number. Dykes that the hands of the farmers had raised with labour incessant. Shutout the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the flood-gates Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows. West and south were fields of flax, and orchards and corulields Spreading afar and unfenced o*er the plain ; and away to the northward Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft in the mountains Sea fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended. Longfellow's Evangeline, This valley is oi^ly two or three hours distant by rail from Halifax, one of the winter ports of the Dominion of Canada, a port to which steam vessels from the Mersey sail every week. Its white farm- houses and its orchards are types of many others to be found in various portions of the province of Nova -I 1 < < 22 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEItY. Scotia, which is a province singularly rich in varied geological formations, and having, with a httle gold,' what is far more valuable than any gold-field, great fields of coal. If wages were only as low in Nova Scotia as they are in England and Scotland, one of her ports— the port of Pictou — would soon rival Glasgow or Belfast or London as a great iron ship- building port. Near it are mines almost as vast as those of Lanarkshire. Close to the water arc these great veins of coal of twenty or thirty feet in thickness, and the galleries of the mine are so spacious that full- grown horses are used, while the miner swings his pick, not crouched or cramped in a bending attitude, but standing at his full height. Close to the sea also, and close to the coal-mines, are hills full of excellent iron ore. Around almost every town in Nova Scotia farms may be had where the head of the family may be sure to have excellent schooling for his children, a church service exactly like his own at home to attend, and a ready market for any produce he may raise. The rich red soil is as deep and good at the head of the Bay of Fundy, where a comparatively narrow strip of land separates its waters from those of Northumberland Straits, as the Sound is called which separates the mainland and Prince Edward's Island. Very many of the apples which come to the English market, and are sold as American apples, come from Canada. How delicious is this fruit, in the hot autumn days, and the appearance of the great orchards, when spring spreads a cloud of blossom over the luxuriant grass chequered with pleasant shade I The inland countries are rich in apple crops also, but there is no 1 THE MARITIME PROVINCES. 23 better tract than the Vale of Annapolis, fltretchinp; from Windsor south-eastward behind the sheltering hills which hide it from the northern winds. The little town called after Queen Anne, which gives its name to the valley, and is situated at its end at the head of a beautiful land-locked bay, has interest- ing associations with the past. It at one time had the dignity of being the capital town of Nova Scotia, and our governors used to reside there, troops occui>i(^d a carefully built fort, now in ruin, and the British squadrons rode on the bay. It is now shorn of its glory. It seemed to me to possess some wonderfully well-preserved old ladies, as well as many pretty young ones. Among the things told me by one of the former, were recollections of the days when she used to dance with the Duke of Kent, and when she remembered seeing a negro slave-woman bound to one of the trees near the court-house to receive a whipping! The school where a promising lad used to receive his lessons and an occasional birching was pointed out, for the boy became Sir Fenwick Williams, the brave defender of Kp^s in Asia Minor against the forces of the Russian General Mouravieff, in the war of 1854. But Annapolis can tell, although not through the mouth of her living citizens, of other warriors. Above the present town, on the slope of the hills to the south, are the remains of an old earthwork. It ia all that remains of a French fort, and from the gi'ass- covered rampart was dug not long ago one of the most beautifully shaped and wrought arrow-heads ever carved by man. It was cut from a perfectly pure piece of trtvnsparent quarts?, ancl^as finished like a 24 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. gem. Point and sharp barbs and short shaft were all as perfect as on the day when it left the old Indian artist's hand, and was fixed to the feathered wood to be shot from a bow against the earliest white settlers. It must have missed the armour of the soldier against whom it was aimed, and have pierced only the turf, and there remained hidden until brought to light by the English farmer. Against whom was it thrown? Probably against the palisades and ramparts erected by De Poitrincourt, Seigneur under the lilies of France of the Valley of Port Royal about the year 1610. Delighted with the fair harbour and pleasant neigh- bourhood, a military colony was here established ; but the natives for several years were unable to brook the presence of strangers, and skirmishes were frequent. As with the Spaniards in the ^south, the first care of the Catholic adventurers was to beat the Indians, and then to persuade them to adopt the true faith. To the ceremony of the surrender of the Indians succeeded the ceremony of their admission within the pale of the Church. The savages remained on the side of the French in the wars afterwards fought with the British, who in the time of Queen Anne conquered Port Royal and changed its name in honour of their Queen. This is the story which is repeated with varying incidents through all the long-drawn coasts of old Acadia. We 30 first the forest village of the Red Indians, with its stockades and patches of maize around it; then the landing from the ships under the white flag sown with golden lilies, of armoured arquebussiers and spearmen ; the skirmishing, and the successful French settlement, to be followed by the coming of other sliips, with tho THE MAntTlME PnoVIKCES. 25 red cross floating over the high-built Hteriis, and then the final conflict, and the victory of the British arms. Leaving the richer parts of Nova Scotia's territory, let us look at a spot on tlic eastern sliore of its great island. Cape Breton. This is Louisburg, of old a fortress called after the French king, and defended by some of the best regiments of France. The shores are low and rocky, and the gi'owth of wood in the neigh- bourhood does not show mucli fertility of soil. A few fishermen's houses at the head of a semicircular bay, guarded by low ridges of rock which just peep above the sea, alone show that men now care to live there. But there is a regularly shaped embankment at one place to the left as our vessel casts anchor, and on landing we find ourselves in the centre of a space yet hemmed in by the remains of a great rampart and ditch. Ruins of strong casemates, shattered vaulted buildings, and the traces of the foundations of many structures are before iis. These are all that remain of the key of New France. '■ Some of our party went by rail to examine the fine coal-mines near Sydney, some miles away, and others took to digging for relics of old fights. A plentiful harvest of these was soon secured, and a curious collection it was. There was a copper coin of Louis XIIL and soldiers' buttons and buckles. There was a portion of an exploded hand-gienade, the remnant of an old sword, the brass- work of which around the • hilt was unimpaired, although green with age ; there * was even the breech piece of a small cannon, and the - barrel of a musket. Had these lain buried ever since ' the day that saw the arrival of General Wolfe and the ^.ih ■ 2G CAKADtAlf LtFM AJSfD SCEi^£!liy, fleet bringing him to conquer in the enterprise which assured to him the command in the weightier operations undertaken subsequently against Quebec ? We tried to realize amid the present loneliness and peaceful desolation the animated scene of the attack. We fancied the ramparts around us again square and trim with their masonry and earthworks. We watched the cannoneers and infantry massed in rear of the forti- fications and alert behind the parapets and traverses. Again the British fleet, with high sterns and crowded sail, and accompanied by an armada of small craft, camo gallantly into the bay. Then from the cloud ot smoke vomited from the French lines and the towering sides of the ships flew the hail of rushing round-shot. But the water between the shore and the fleet is now alive with boats, and the patter of musketry is succeeded by a roar and rattle of guns which drown all other sounds. No one can hear liis comrade's voice. The rain of fire has sunk several boats, and the surf on the beach will surely prevent a landing. But no ! a slight figure stands up in the leading barge and waves his cocked hat. His companions in crowds leap into the white foam and, landing, form under the little cover afforded by the first ridge of soil above the sands. More and more succeed in effecting a lodgment. Tho French have lost their opportunity, and on the blood- stained beach the English are firmly established. The fall of the town is only a question of days ; and the surrender of Louisburg gives over all but the St. Lawrence to the Anglo-Saxon rule. It was not long before the place was found inferior to Halifax, where 4i a harbour which is never closed by ice has since become a flourishing town. ^ THE MARITIME PEOVINCES. 27 The present capital of Nova Scotia has been retained as a station for imperial troops. A regiment of the line, with some artillery and engineeis, are there at present, and the forts commanding the entrance from the sea are mounted with heavy guns, well protected. From the presence of the fleet in summer, and tlic residence of many officers, the society in the city is very pleasant, and nowhere are the winter sports of toboganning and skating carried on with greater zest. Other sports are followed with a success obtained with difficulty elsewhere, for within a day's walk of railways there is good chance of getting a shot at moose. This immense deer, ugly in form, but furnished with fine broad palmated horns, often five feet six inches in their lateral spread, was rapidly becoming extinct in the province, but a law prescribing a close time has led to their increase. Of the nationalities whose members established the first settlements, there are communities around Lunenburg largely German in their composi- tion ; and on the north shore, between Weymouth and Yarmouth, a colony of Acadians keep very much of their early manners and customs. The Highlanders, who are numerous in many places, and especially near the Straits of Canso and in the Island of Cape Breton, retain tlie Gaelic language in great purity. Sometimes an Acadian is to be found with a German wife, both using a queer English dialect, as might be expected, and one case is mentioned in which a man speaking only Italian vas married to a woman who spoke only Gaelic 1 Among natural curiosities the locality known as The Joggins is the best worth visiting, as showing in great 28 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. >^%. perfection sections of the coal-meesures, where great trees have been perfectly preserved, and may be ex- amined along with the beautiful ferns and other plants which flourished in the hot marshes of the days when as yet the Northern Continent had a climate warmer than that of Central America. Land is not dear in Nova Scotia, and a good farm may be had for £200 or £300, while tenancies can be had cheaply, the occupier having only to pay from two to five dollars per acre for the land. The industry of shipbuilding still occupies many skilful hands ; but it is likely to employ fewer as iron ships come more and more into use. There is yet a vast number of vessels sent out, so that the Dominion stands fourth among nations in the possession of tonnage. Every few miles along the coast may be seen vessels in all stages of progress, and of all sizes, from the small yawl to the clipper of fifteen and six- teen hundred tons. The wharfs at St. John, New Liverpool, Lunenburg, and Yarmouth are crowded with home-made craft, smart, and stoutly built. You may even see largo boats building in the back gardens of men whose ancestors came from Devon or other English seafaring counties, and whose workmanship will now stand the test of the rudest gale. Let me now take the reader across the gulf into whose rushing tides we looked from the heights of Blomidon to its northern shore, and 'on inland, past the ridges which shelter it from the sea, to a great valley, called the Vale of Sussex, In the province of New Brunswick. Beautiful trees are scattered in groups, such as those you see in an English park, ovey <€ THE MAIilTIME PHOVINCES. 29 meadows and cornfields bright and golden under the unfailing August sun. Here, too, you have beautifully situated lands for sale, because the young man who owned them has taken a fancy for wilder life and still larger returns on the north-western prairie; and yet you wonder he could leave a plo.ce so enticing by its beauty, and so certain to give the comforts and requisites of domestic family life and of a civilized community ; and as you go on down this valley to the south, and arrive at another great harbour which is never sealed in winter, and which is surrounded by the buildings of the flourish- ing and enterprising town of St. John, you marvel yet more at the restlessness of mankind, so conspicuously ehown by your own race, which seems never to be content unless it is browsing like a horse against the wind, and will go on moving westward until it knocks its head against the Rocky Mountains ; and even then is not content, but wanders farther westward yet, until it comes to the distant Pacific shore, and there, finding often that it cannot go farther westward without be- coming sea-sick, returns by the nearest train again eastward. But there are fortunately many left who have not been invaded by the restless spirit, and who prefer their ease in older settlements, and are content with being the heirs of the labour of generations who have gone before them. Of such, perhaps, the reader may be one, whom I would ask to accompany me for a moment up the river which flows up the harbour of Bt. John, as far as the to^vn of Frederickton. This is ^ (}§lightfwj little city, pynamented ^rith ma^iflcent 80 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. willow-trees in its principal streets, and having a beautiful, broad, and clear-watered river running past its comfortable and cleanly houses. The settlers round about have excellent lands and are mostly of British descent ; but farther up stream you may see a most flourishing community of Danes, who, finding all they want here, have, like sensible people, recently settled down, and have written to many of their friends and kinsfolk to come out to them and do as they have done. Frederickton is ninety miles from the sea. Above the capital steamers may navigate the stream for about seventy miles further. The great cataract of the Grand Falls, where the river plunges down in "clouds of snow-white foam " a distance of eighty feet, is well worth seeing ; but the distance is somewhat great, as one has to travel 225 miles from the river's mouth to see its floods take their headlong leap among the upper forests. By canoe it is possible to cross from the parent sources of the St. JMhn River to those of the streams which flow into the Bay of Chaleur, at the other extremity of New Brunswick, with a compara- tively short portage. The pleasure of such an expedi- tion in fine spring or autumn weather is very great. When the waters become too strong for the canoe to be "poled up," or dangerous in their descent, the voyager lands and m;ikes a " portage ; " that is, the canoe is hauled out, and, placed on an Indian's back, is borne at a trot through the shaded parts of the wood to the next piece of water where it can again be safely launched. The camp fire at night throws out into relief the straight stems of the fir trees, and the showers THE MARITIME PROVINCES. 81 1 of sparks which start from tae red logs whenever fresh fuel is added, rise to fade away overhead among the thick branches, through which the stars look down on the mysterious gloom of the forest, which hems in the little circle of life and light around the camp fire. The silence of these woods is remarkabb. In sharp frost you hear the trees crack, as though pistol shots had been fired ; but at all other seasons you might imagine yourself the sole living thing in that green world of verdure. The feeling of such solitude is oppressive, and one is glad to sleep near the music of running water. In travelling far, it is well to take plenty of food, for there is none to be obtained from any botanical studies of moss, roots or grass. Berries may be found, but they will not sustain life. Professor Logan, in making such a journey, was nearly stai-ved to death, and had it not been for the good luck of shooting a fisher or otter, might have left his bones in the woods. Where there is '::ood soil, the hard-wood trees, such as maple, elm, ash, and birch, abound, and marvellously beautiful is the autumn colouring of many of them. The maple especially flaunts her boughs in the most vivid green, crimson, gold, and scarlet. So intense are the colours that if attempted to be rendered by painting, the picture looks unnatural. Sometimes the trees seem literally on fire ; but often you will see one part of the foliage of a tree still wearing its summer tint, while the leaves born by other branches are blazing with saffron and vermihon. The oaks are not so often met with, but when they occur they wear a claret-coloured autumn dress, whUe the birch and poplar and elm 82 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEliY. prefer a light yellow. The effect of this colouring is wonderful, especially when repeated in the still waters of a lake, and seen from your canoe, as your men, noiselessly dipping their paddles, keep you gliding over a surface which is dyed in all the hues of these gorgeous groves. Some of the readers of this book who are interested in geology, and who may have read Hugh Millar's works on the old red sandstone of Scotland, should visit, near Campbeltown, the quarries, where splendid specimens of fish have been taken from the Devonian measures in that neighbourhood. These fish belong to the great family which were provided with armour^ somewhat in the manner of the modern sturgeon, and in these New Brunswick heda each plate and joint of their curious structure has been perfectly preserved. New Brunswick's fair lands are by no means con- fined to the St. John's and Sussex valleys, but belt the whole province along its seaward face wherever the forest has been cleared, or the rivers, filled with salmon and sea-trout, run into the narrow seas facing the fertile island of Prince Edwai d, or northward into the bay whose summer warmth made the first French dis- coverers call it the Heated Gulf. It is often supposed that the winter of these maritime provinces makes it imj ^ssible for the farmer to do much durin;^ the cold season — that during that time he is shut in by the frost and the snow. A great deal of snow certainly does fall, and the more the snow falls the more certain it is that the crops will not suffer from severe frosts, but will be kept warm and well manured by it until in April or May it suddenly disappears, and the won- Mi? MAltlTlME PMOVtNCM 83 drously quick growth of verdure and of flowers takes its place. There is by no means nothing to be done in the winter time. The animals have to be looked after^and fed, the wood has to be cut and hauled in sledges over the snow ; there is plenty to occupy time, and when there is a spare day or two for friendly visits to neighbours, or for the healthy amusements of that time of the year, the farmer, who has during the summer to work from tlie early morning until the evening, is by no means sorry for the variety afforded by a little leisure. There is a curious legend among the Milicites of the southern coast, of the visit of big, pale-faced strangers in ages long past. The story tells that these came and drove away the sons of the forest, and built for themselves houses of stone on the shore ; that tliey drank from horn cups, shouting as they drank; and finally, that by the results of an earth- quake, which changed the course of the St. John river, they were overwhelmed by its flood and perished. This may be a tradition of the first landing on the American continent of the Scandinavian warriors, ol whom we have traces in some rock carvings in New Englanl, and whose voyages are mentioned in the northern sagas. There is a terrible memory of a catastrophe of our own days among the people on the baidis of the Miramichi. Before the trees were so much cleared away as they now are, the villagers had often seen fires in the woods, but little thought of the disastei which a dry season and the summer winds were to bring upon them. One night a cry arose that a great conflagration was goming down upon them. The 84 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. whole sky waH red with the glare from the rushing flames, which caught the tir branches and leaped on with incredible rapidity towards the little town by the river. Fiercer and hotter grew the blapc, and men, women, and children, crowding from the houses, knew they could not save their property, and thought only of preserving their lives. As the blaze encroached yet more upon them, they waded into the river, the waters of which had in their upper course become so warm that the fish died in numbers. .But even the stream proved no refuge for the despairing people, for the dense volumes of pungent smoke descended on them, and lay along the water, and suffocated hun- dreds. A more awful visitation can hardly be con- ceived ; but it was repeated a few years ago in Michi- gan, where families were found smothered in clearings several acres in extent. The Atlantic shore is fiat, but inland there are tracts of most picturesque country, where the clear streams run among hills clothed in charming natural variety, with birch, poplar, fir, pine, and maple. One of the best salmon rivers in the world is that named the Restigouche, which forms for part of its course the boundary line between this province and that of Quebec. In one pool three canoes can sometimes be seen in June, July, and August, fishing with success for the immense salmon which come up from the Bay of Chaleurs. The average fish are from twenty to thirty pounds in weight, but forty to forty-five pound fish are not uncommon. The Cascapedia, on the upper shore of the Bay of Chaleurs, is perhaps the best salmon stream in the world. - - - nj..™^- - THE MAniTIME PliOTINCES. 35 The only drawback to the pleasure of Canadian sport in summer consists in the number of flies. There is a minute sand-fly which appears to enjoy its sport in feeding on man and other animals for an hour or two each sunrise and sunset, and makes the skin of the afflicted feel as though it were burning. There is the black fly, which has the sense to go to sleep at night, but which is very lively during the day. It is somewhat smaller than the common English house-fly, and enjoys its repast by taking a tiny bite of a wedge shape out of the flesh, and draws blood. Then there is the sleepless and scientific mosquito, with its odious pinging flight, and quiet settling on the part chosen by it for the insertion of its sucking proboscis and the pushing home of this implement of toilure. Lastl}-, there is a formidable apparition, called the moose-fly, which one of our friends declared seemed to him so big that when one came into the canoe at one end ho felt he must get out at the other, as there could not be room for both. The moose-fly, too, has great power of satisfying his appetite ; but in the case of all these pests, habit does a great deal to reconcile the fisher- man to his lot, and with veils and tar-ointment he may defy the insect persecution. But it is worth while to experience some inconvenience, if accom- panied by such enjoyment as that which can be gained by living for a time in summer among these beautiful wildernesses. \/hat greater pleasure can man have than to recline in his canoe whfle his sturdy Indians propel the light craft up the stream ? The clear current allows everv stone under it^^ /,'lldlng suj'fuoo to bp distli^ctly «een, Ol'tcu it U tQO 36 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEIIY, Htrong to allow any but the Blowest progress to be made against it, but by taking advantage of the side eddies, and then deftly fronting the impetuous rush over gravel bank or rock ledge, the traveller is brought past the difficulty, and another quiet reach opens before him. And now he has time to look around him and to watch a couple of eagles, which have been soaring in circles high in the blue heaven, descend to perch on the withered top of a tall fir. Soon one swoopa down to the shallows and darts at something in the water. There is a splash, a violent flapping of wings, and a desperate struggle, which ends in the great white-headed bird dragging to land a fine salmon. As the canoe swings along under the bank the grey kingfishers forsake the hanging thuya boughs on which they have kept their watch, and with a chattering cry pass over to the other sicje. You can hear the big owls lamenting from the thickets, and from the same quarter comes the loud drumming sound from the grouse as he stands flapping his wings, making music with them for his mate as she sits on her nest. The heron, with his great eye of crimson and handsome plumes of white and black, is a more constant fisher than any furnished with rod, reel, and artificial flies, and his leaden wings carry him with slow flapping away in front of you. There are mosquito hawks wheeling with pointed wings in sharp twists and curves, and our wishes go with them that they may catch plenty of the common enemy. But there are many smaller birds of much beauty, the lovely vireos, warblers and fly-catchers, and the crimson finch and his smaller cousin, the indigo bird, decked oi^t in THE MAltlTIME PROVINCES, Zl m PniSRian blue, and, if the eye bo looking for them, the ruby-throated humming-bird may bo detected perched on Home branch end and seen against the sky. On one of the few bare spots on the hill-side where grass and copse are visible there are some dark specks moving, and these are bears, who are impertinent and hungry enough occasionally to come down to the camp kitchen. They are often caught in an ingenious trap. Within an enclosure to which there is but one entrance, a bait of honey is fixed to a piece of wood, which, when pulled, brings down on the head or neck of the bear a heavy cross-bar weighted by thick logs, thus either killing or capturing him. But there is another kind of "large game" more easily secured, namely, the cariboo or reindeer. These may be seen singly or in pairs during the hot weather drinking at the river-side, their palmated horns curving prettily for- ward, and tJieir coat, dark-brown at this season, show- ing against the background of ferns and mosses on the bank. They have indeed here a sylvan paradise ; and if there are disagreeable insects, are there not also others of rare beauty? The yellow butterfly, with black markings, known in England as the " swallow- tail," may be seen in great numbers, groups of from ten to one hundred being often clustered together on some rock where they have found food. The Cam- berwell beauty and other kinds are common. Nor are flowers wanting in the rich grasses under the whitewood and mountain ashes. There in the spring may be seen the lovely triilium, with its triple-leaved blossom sprangling with white stars the moist and shady ground. Later in the year ';* f''^. 88 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEI17. prcat yellow marigolds rise nt the water's edge, and further up among the tangled jungle of the steep bank the white and crimson lady's slipper may be seen, with anemones and the ivory-like flowerets of the Indian tea or partridge berry. Alas! most of the Canadian flowers are scentless, and, beautiful as they are, they cannot compare with the wealth of Kngland's spring in violet, primrose, foxglove, and hyacinth. It is now time to take a look at the island, famous for its horses and its oats, which lies at the other side of the narrow sea called the Straits of Northumberland, an island named after the Queen's father, Edward, Duke of Kent. A summer voyage thither is a pleasant experience ; but an expedition across that same strip of sea in the winter time can hardly be recommended as an amusement. ^The tides are strong, and the northern current brings the ice down in thick masses. The ice blocks float along, often piling up against each other, jamming and cnmching in white hummocks which remind one of pictures in the Arctic voyages of Franklin, Parry, and McClure. A fine steamer, sheathed with iron, was built some years ago, and this vessel makes the passage tediously, but generally with success, so that it is no longer necessary to trust to the disagreeable and uncertain mode of transit used in former days, when an open boat was hauled over an ice raft to be launched in the next clear lead of water, and then again tugged out, to be again launched, \mtil the perilous passage had been accomplished. There are now over 110,000 people on the island, and no pleasainter place can be desired for a summer stay, U la QQnsidored pertain ft^t improve^ mmm 9f TllE MAlilTlME rliOVINCES. 89 », and bank seen, if the >f tho i they laiuVa 1. amous IT side •rland, Iwanl, easant e strip lended id tho lasses. it each imocks oyages earner, 0, and lerally trust t used over ead of nched, lished. d, and r fltay, m 9f Communication will be devised for this winter passage ; and as at one point there are only nine miles of water to bo traversed, it will be surprising if this is not secured, for tlie ice never forms a bridge across, but is 8wci)t backwards and forwards by tho strong tides. In summer the fresh breezes from the ocean insure coolness, and the long stretches of white sands give excellent places for bathing. A railway runs tho whole length of the land, which is excellently culti- vated, and many a hard-worked professional man forgets his toil and renews his energy among the swelling fields and picturesque coves near Summerside, or on the breeze-swept dunes of Rustico. In the bays and little river estuaries, the inhabitants have found a mine of wealth in the so-called mussel mud. This is a deposit varying from five to twenty feet in depth, formed by decayed oyster, clam, and mussel shells. Rich in the remains of these shell-fish, this mud has proved a most admirable manure, and it is regularly dug out and carted on to the fields, whose crops and pasture show how well the care bestowed on them has paid the farmer. Charlotte Town, the capital of the little province, has fine wide streets, as yet in- sufficiently planted with trees, and a pleasant neigh- bourhood. There is a good deal of trade with the United States and Newfoundland, as well as with the opposite side of the Straits. The fisheries are well served by all our maritime population, who take naturally to the salt water. The chief catch is of mackerel and cod. The amount of these annually taken is enormous. Perhaps the best fitted vessel^^ ■r 40 CAnaMan liPe and ^ceMr^. for this fishery are the schooners which come frofH Gloucester in Massachusetts ; and it is to be desired that our people would imitate more the co-operation which makes the use of such fine boats profitable. The cod are dried and pressed and sent to South America and to the southern lands of Europe, where the consumption of them among the Roman Catholic population is very large. The mackerel is somewhat uncertain in its habits, frequenting certain parts of the sea in countless shoals for many years, and then often disappearing for a time, to re-appear again as before. In this it resembles tlie herring, which swarmed on some banks off Sweden, making towns which sent out its people for them prosperous. Suddenly, the herring vanished, and the towns decayed. Lately these towns have again seen trade revived, for the herring have again come, and are as numerous as before. So with the mackerel At present the Massachusetts banks enjoy their presence, but they will return to their old quarters, and it is on this account much to bo desired that regulations be made which shall preserve them for the benefit of the fishermen both of Canada and the United States, and that an international agreement be arrived at, which shall under specified conditions throw open the fisheries to seamen of both nations. The lobster is in great demand, and the capture of these again requires regulation, for in some localities their breeding season varies from what it is in other places. The factories where this crustacean is pre- pared for the market dot the coasts. They are caught in creels placed in comparatively shallow water, and THE MABITIME PROVINCES. il le frofH desired peration ofitable. ) South }, where Catholic \ habits, s shoals g for a sembles Sweden, ir them and the lin seen tne, and ackerel »y their [uarters, ed that I for the ind the nent be IS throw )ture of ocalities in other is pre- i caught ter, and are brought to the houses, where large vats await them. In these they are boiled, their meat extracted, and packed in hermetically sealed tin cases. The carapace is too often thrown away, for it makes capital manure, and the gravel or sand of the sea- Bhore is reddened in many spots by the cast-away armour. Off Prince Edward's Island there are capital beds of an oyster smaller than that procured further south, but of excellent quality. A commission composed of scientific men is wanted to go round among the fishermen and others interested in the canning and fishing, to inquire as to the best means of preserving these valuable supplies of food. But there is another island to tlic north which we must not leave without notice, although, strictly speak- ing, it does not come within our range in speaking of the Dominion. This is the great island of Newfound- land, having a surface as great as that of England. She has not yet joined the Canadian union, showing the influence in this exerted by the " dividing seas ; " and although her progress has been great, she naturally suffers from the want of stronger backing than her own, to carry out the public works necessary for the development of her remarkable territory. People tliink of this country as a bare littoral, swept by glacial seas, and inhabited only by a few fishermen. Nothing can be further from the truth — to be sure, she does smell of fish ; and a very good thing this is for her. But in the years to come she will have great mining communities, for copper, iron, lead, silver, and goal ftfe a)l stored jn good (juan^itj' beneath her soil. 42 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEHT. She has large areas of fine land, beautifully varied hy her woods and streams. Gj^sum is found on her western side, where the scenery is of peculiar interest. Long arms of the sea indent the coast, which is graced by the covering of pine and fir. Elsewhere on the American continent the Atlantic seaboard is tame and fiat, but in Newfoundland the shores are bold and rocky, like those on the north of the St. Lawrence, and no man need complain of the tameness of the aspect. The colony has long burst the bonds which would have tied her down to be a mere producer of stock fish and seal oil. Yet, strange to say, this was the fate which was deliberately sought to be imposed upon her by her early governors. They would not allow the erection of houses without written permission, and this prohibition was maintained up to 1811. In the year 1790 Governor Milbanke wrote to Mr. G. Hutchins : " I have considered your request re- specting the alteration which you wish to make to your store-house near the water-side, and as it appears that the alteration will not be in any way injurious to the fishery, you have hereby permission to make it. As to Alexander Laig's house, which has been built contrary to His Majesty's express commands, made known to the inhabitants of this place by my procla- mation of the 13th of last month, it must and shall come down. I shall embrace this opportunity of warning you against making an improper use of any other part of (what you are pleased to call) your ground, for you may rest assured that every house or other building erected upon it hereafter, without the ) M THE MARtTLMB PROVINCES. 43 permission in writing of the governor for the time being, except such building and erection as shall bo actually and on purpose for the curing, drying, salting, and husbanding of fish, must unavoidably be taken down and removed, in obedience to His Majesty's said commands. And it may not be amiss at the same time to inform you, I an:» also directed not to allow any possession as private property to be taken of, or any right of property whatever to be acknowledged in, any land whatever, which is not actually employed in the fishery." The next governor, named Walde- grave, writes in 1797 to the sheriff: "Your having suffered Thomas Nevan to put up what you are pleased to call a few sheds is clearly an infraction of my orders ; vou will therefore direct him to remove them immedi- ately ; which if not complied with, I desire that you will yourself see the order executed. You will take good care that Jeremiah Manoty and John Fitzgerald do not erect chimneys to their sheds, or even light fires in them of any kind." And even now the same almost incredible state of affairs exists along what is known as the *' French Shore." This " French Shore " is nearly the whole of the coast-line facing tlie St. Lawrence Gulf, namely, the western shore. By the treaties with France, the French have the concurrent right to use the shore for the purpose of drying and curing their fish. Neither they nor the Newfoundlandens are allowed there to erect dwelling-houses, except as necessary for the fish- curing operations. No settler may have his farm on that forbidden territory, for it " would intenere with the fisheries." It is needless to go into the many 44 CAKAPtAN LtFP. AND SCENERY. disputes which have arisen from this intolerable arrangement. Naturally, the French have striven to get all they can, and have interpreted the words of the treaty to mean that they possess rights of exclusion of the natives, wliich could never have been intended. The evil is a great one, and most detrimental to the progress of the colony. The best plan would be to buy the French rights, or, if this cannot be arranged, certain definite spots should be given to them absolutely, as we left Pondicherry to them in India, and as the islands off the Newfoundland coast of Micquelon and St. Pierre were left to them. Such stations would serve their purpose- in encouraging the fishermen of St. Malo to cross the seas in pursuit of their industry, and would free the remainder of the country from a con- dition of affairs through which it cannot be profitably used by any one. Where else in the world can it be found that it is considered necessary to keep a shore a desert in order that fisheries may not be interfered with? The capital, St. John's, has an excellent harbour, the entrance to which is in a gap in bold masses of rock, which rises abruptly from the sea. About 30,000 people inhabit the place. In exchange for their dried fish they get from Portugal the best port wine ; and it is really only in Newfoundland or from Newfoundland that the Englishman drinks the purest wine of this kind, unless he takes especial pains to procure it direct. Brazil and the Roman Catholic states of Europe all take large quantities of the island's fish ; but its exports ought to be far larger, considering the excellence of much of its land, its undoubted riches in metals, and I, 3 Tn£! MAUITIMM PJiOVlNCEg. 45 t the shortness of the sea passage to Europe. It was from Ireland to Cape Trinity that the first Atlantic cable was laid ; and it is across Newfoundland that the cheapest and quickest route must always be obtained. Whittier finely expressed the hopes of the nations when the electric wii'e was first made to bind together the two worlds. O lonely Bay of Trinity, Ye bosky gihores untrod, Lean breathless to the white-lipped sea. And hear the voice of God I Fiom world to world His couriers fly, Thought-winged and shod with fire ; The angel of His stormy sky Ridea down the sunken wire. What saith the herald of the Lord ? The world's long strife is done ; Close wedded by that mystic cord, • The continents are one. And one in heart, as one in blood, Shall all the people be ; The hands of human brotherhood Are clasped beneath the sea. Through Orient seas, o*er Afric*s plain, And Asian mountains borne, The vigour of the northern brain Shall nerve the world outworn. From clime to cliiiae, from shore to shore, Shall thrill the magic thread ; The new Prometheus steals onge more The fire that wakes the dead. Throb on, strong pulse of thunder ! beat From answering beach to beach ; Fuse nations in thy kindly heat, And melt the chains of each ! -■rx-aitc^mm i6 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEIIY. Wild terror of the sky above, Glide tamed and dumb below ! Bear gently, Ocean's carrier dove, Thy errands to and fro. Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord, Beneath the deep so far, The bridal robe of Earth's accord, The funeral shroud of war! For lo ! the fall of Ocean's wall. Space mocked, and Time outrun ; And round the world the thought of each Is as the thought of one ! t The poles unite, the zones agree, The tongues of striving cease ; As on the S6a of Galilee . The Christ is whispering, Pcaco ! ■i C ^7 ) CHAPTER III. ^ I' ONTARIO. Ontario— Niap;ara— Ottawa— Kingston — The Thouaand Islands— Toronto — Miss Rye's Home — Religion iii the Province — The Fair at Toronto — Ontariar Agri- culture—Food and Fruit Supply — Duck Shooting — The Beaver — Western Ontario. LET us now look at a view in the great Provinco of Ontario, 900 miles to the west, a provinco which is by far the wealthiest and the most populous of any province in the Confederation. It has two millions of people, chiefly descended from English and Scottish stock. We will, if you please, place ourselves on a height not far from the famous whirl- pool in tne Niagara Rapids where poor Captain Webb met the death which it may be almost said he courted, for no living being has ever come from those rapids alive. The roaring river flows along in a deep and wide charm upon our right, and we aro standing on a ridge which dips down to lower land along the river side in steep cliffs fringed with cedar and rther wood. A tall monument in the shape of a gigantic column crowned with a statue is behind us. This was erect-^d in memory of General Brock, who gallantly led a force of Canadian militia and regulars against the steep heights on which were standing the Americans, who had crossed and got 46 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. -# possession. It was necessary to dislodge them, and, like most British attacks of former days, it was delivered full in front. The General fell at the head of his troops before the ascent had been begun, but they, infuriated at V > loss, swarmed up and gained the battle of Queenst own Heights. From where we are, and still better from the top of the column, to which a staircase gives access, a Wonderful view is obtained over the surrounding country. Looking up the river, we can see over wide stretches of orchard and woodland a vapour-'hke stream rising. This is the smoke-spray ascending from the great falls. Looking down the river, we see it flowing a few miks farther on into a wide stretch of water, whose horizon, blue and distant, looks as though it belonged to the ocean itself. This is the Lake of Ontario, which, great as it is, is among the smallest in that group of vast inland seas called the Great Lakes of America. Right and left along its shores the country has evidently been cleared of its forests, now only remaining in picturesque groups, and is smiling with cornfields, apple and peach orchards, and pasture. Far away, thirty miles off, we may just discern the smoke as of a city, and the dim gleam as of many houses. This is Toronto, one of the most pro'sperous of the young cities of the continent. It has 100,000 people, is becoming the centre of a rapidly extending network of railways, and has an import- ance already great, and which must become far greater in the future. And what is the condition of the people occupying this great territory, which, although it waa replaime^l ONTARIO. 49 only eighty years ' ago from the primeval woods, is already as strong in population as some of the small European States, and is sending out its multitudes annually to people the Far West, while the places they have left are being filled by the settlers from the Old World? It is a people essentially British in character, having an intense pride in the successes which have hitherto crowned their efforts and blessed their province, and possessing a very perfect system of self-government, providing admirably for the train- ing of its youth. There is not a school throughout its broad expanse which is not placed under the super- vision of a master specially traiijed in the art of teach- ing at two great central institutions, called Normal Schools, at Toronto and Ottawa. Each district U assessed in a school tax, always cheerfully paid, and insuring for all the children the benefits of a free education. The Central Government has nothing to do with education in Canada. This is a matter which is entirely left to the Provincial Parliaments, and regu- lated by them as they think best. With this uni- versal assessment the rights of the Roman Catholic minority are carefully guarded. If at any place the Roman Catholics can show that they have a sufficient number of children to form the classes of a school they receive an adequate amount for the support of their separate educational establishment. No children are compelled to attend, but practically all do so, because men wish to obtain the benefit of the assess- ment they are compelled to pay. The universities of this If^ndj although too numerous, are good^ and ■' .- 50 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENFItY. the University of Toronto bids fair in time to become sufficiently wealthy to attract the best professors, and to be fully equal to the demands made upon it by the rapidly increasing numbers of students, many of whom live in denominational colleges around, and receive the benefit of its examinations. Niagara has been so often described that we will only advert here to the plan now proposed to form an international park on both sides of the river near the cataract. On the American side many ugly buildings have been erected, and some of these can- not be hidden by any scheme of tree planting. The great hotels are so placed that no one can look from the Canadian shore at that part of the falls which comes over the ledge of rock on the American side of Goat Island without seeing them. But many other structures could be hidden by a fringe of trees being allowed to possess the cliff edges. The island which separates the waters is clothed with fine timber, and has only to be left alone. If a strip on each side of the river were taken by the Canadian and United States Governments respectively, all buildings not necessary for the accommodation of visitors could be removed, and the dollars now exacted from all and sundry who may wish to see the falls from various points of view would no longer be levied. No one can visit this wonderful bit of scenery with- out desiring that some such arraingement may be made. It is provoking enough now that, when you wish to watch undisturbed the resistless blue sea which comes foaming over the limestone edges, to precipitate itself in a long curving ridge into the gulf ONTAlilO. 51 full of thunder and of spray, the enjoyment of the sight should be interrupted by the reminder from touts that an oilskin suit awaits you, if you will pay a dollar to descend to the Cave of the Winds. If a man desires to get a conception of what the contem- jKjraries of Noah must have feL ♦\rhen the open flood- gates of heaven sent the deluge over the land, let him place himself as near as he can to the spot where the waters strike with a ceaseless reverberating roar the rocks at the foot of the great Canadian Fall. He will then see the mass of the river apparently toppling upon him from the skies, and will have borne in on him an impression of the sublime strength of Nature's forces as successfully as if he had been witness of an earthquake. The summer time is the best for seeing the falls, for in the winter, wonderful as is the display of arcades of icicle and grottos of glittering ice stalactite, the falls are too much hidden by the load of ice which clings to every place where spray can reach, and leaves open only the parts where the rush of waters is too heavy to allow the encroacliing frost to have much eflect. Great hummocks heap themselves along the base of the cataract, and a complete bridge of hillocky ice fonns below the great cauldron. It is said that the river froze to such an extent during one winter that the " ice jams ** consequent on the spring thaws took up for a while the whole river channel above, and that so little water came down that a daring man ran out on to the limestone ledge a third of the way over to Goat Island and got back in safety before the river resumed its full wndth. So many " tall stories" 52 CANADIAN llFlC AND ^CENimY. are told at Niagara that one must accept all with caution. Let the Federal capital claim our notice here, as the oflicial centre of this province, although a town con- nected with it on the opposite side of the Ottawa river is in Quehec. Now distant only two ai?d a half hours by rail from Montreal, Ottawa is easily reached, and during the session of the Federal Parliament, from January to April or May, is crowded with legislators and others from all i)arts of the Dominion. It was of old a mere station wliere the Hudson's Bay voyageurs halted on their annual trips to the forts of the north, when they went to tak^ supplies, and to bring back furs collected during the winter. Excellent timber was, and is still, obtained from the country above it, and its first importance was derived from the lumber trade. It was ''^lled Bye Town, after a General Bye, but was a small place of no special attraction. The jealousy between its bigger sisters Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto, when, in 1867, each of these cities desired to be named the capital of the newly formed Dominion, induced the British Government, to whom the Canadians referred the question, to name Bye Town or Ottawa as the best and most central situation for the assembling of the Federal Parliament. The city is placed on the banks of a broad stream, which narrows at one spot above the town and pours over a steep ledge of rock, to expand immediately afterwards, to flow on in a channel navigable except at one place where there are rapids, until it empties itself, about eighty miles away, into the St. Lawrence. a I S 54 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, Forty miles to the south, the last named mighty river is the l)Oundary between Canada and the State of New York. To the north-west, the Ottawa stretches on far into tlie wilds, hp.ving its head-waters on the height of land which divides the basin of the St. Lawrence from that of Hudson's Bay. The Houses of Parliament are of good design, their outline of towers and high-pitched roofs being parti- cularly effective at a little distance, for they are built on a cliflf jutting out into the stream. They contain a fine library, the chambers of the Senate, and the House of Commons, and the offices for the use of the ministers, and the stafifs of the various departments of the government. These buildings will remain and be increased in number as long as the Canadian Parliament meets in the city ; but will the other buildings which we see by the Chaudi^re Falls, a few hundred yards away, long remain? These structures are the saw-mills, which worV all night and all day during the spring, the summer and ihe autumn months, cutting the logs which are floated down to them into planks, for ship- ment to Montreal. These planks are stacked in thousands of square piles, many acres of ground being covered with them. It looks as though there were enough of them to rocf in the whole world. But the wood of which they are cut has come from far, and each year sees a lesser number of " sticks " of con siderable size. There is enough to last for our gene- ration, but the service'^ble trees within reach of the upper water-courses must diminish, as year by year the army of the lumberers work through the winter ^' ONTARIO. 55 in felling tliem, and in dragging them to places where they can be floated off by the spring freshets. The Federal legislators have nothing to say in the matter. The conservancy of the forests is, with all legislation affecting property, the affair of the local authority of each province ; but it would be we)l if some plan like that followed in India and in parts of Germany could be imitated in Canada, and the tracts be regularly cropped, and the laws which do exist against the felling of small trees were more strictly enforced. Meanwhile Ottawa is one of the greatest centres in the North American continent for the dis- tribution of lumber. It is a picturesque sight to see the men guiding the trees as they come down the swift currents, to their doom of mutilation under the merciless saws of the mill. We will go a few miles up the Gatineau, a stream which joins the Ottawa opposite to the residence of the Governor-General. There are fine foaming rapids alternating with deep pools under the bluffs clothed with the fresh green of the young birch, the rose colour of the budding maple, and the scattered blos- soms of the wild cherry. The ice L 'S departed only three or four weeks ago, and the stream is beginning to swell high with the water from th** snows which are melting in the iiorth. Booms stretch out from the banks, and on thf^se are men with long nailed boots, and holding in their hands steel-pointed poles with a hook at the end. They watch the stream as it carries to their feet logs of all sizes, some with their bark entirely gone, from their rude contact with the rocks, some still sheathed in their rough covering, and all mmmmm \¥ 56 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. marked with a hieroglyphic which tells the practised eye to what mill they are destined. Accordingly they are either shoved further into the current to he caught at other booms place<^ further down, or they are tackled and drawn into the water lead which carrieg them to a side dock where are piled close against each other masses of logs, so packed that more men have to be detailed to detach single pieces and push them to the inclined planes, which, running under the water, are furnished with iron-toothed cradles. These take up the floating trunks of pine and fir, and in another minute they are sundered at once by a dozen vertical saws into fair four or two-inch planks. Besides the stacks of wood on the side of the Ottawa may be observed confusedly heaped quantities of a green-blue stone, evidently placed to await shipment. It may naturally be expected by the stranger that this country of hard old Silurian rock, with its covering of thin soil and grey clay, might produce the minerals which are found so Vrequently in Canada, namely, a little gold, much iron, and veins of silver or lead ; but these heaps of pale-green stuff have proved as remu- nerative a produce of these old rocks as any. They are the broken remnants of great crystals of phosphate of lime, which are found projecting inwards at right angles to the line of the vein in which they have been formed and are well worth excavating, for they make an admirable fertilizer for the land. So much valued is this mineral manure, that it is exported in large quantities to the British Isles and to other countries. We might be tempted to follow the Ottawa north- wards, in order to enjoy for a time the ]\\\\j scewery ontahio. 57 througk wiiicii the Canadian Pacific Hallway is taken, until we leave the valley, and crossing slightly higher ground covered with the ever-green mantle of fir, reach the big Nipissing Lake, with Its tufted islands and wild north shore ; but more ancient paths demand our presence, and we will enter a canal which, in a series of locks, descends near the Government buildings. This is the Kideau Canal, constructed by the Royal Engineers in days when it was considered important to have an interior line of water communication be- tween Ottawa and Lake Ontario. It traverses a series of lakes, and emerges at Kingston, a place worth visit- ing on account of its memories of Frontenac, of the war of 1812-13, and for the Military College founded in 1375. Kingston is one of the pleasantest of Canada's towns, enjoying a good winter and cool summer temperature, from its neighbourhood to the lake and river. Its old importance, both as a military post and as a political centre (for it was once a capital), has now passed away; but the country around is so agreeable, and the society of the place is so varied, although limited, that it will always be a favourite residence. The Queen's College — a Presbyterian University — has a large stafif of Pro- fessors. There are many clergy, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. A bishop of this communion resides here. The Grand Trunk Railway passes through it, and the steamers from Montreal call at the port. Picturesque martello towers rise from the water, and are posted along the environs of the town to where Fort Henry, on the hill to the southward, dominates the landscape. The streets of the limestone-built city ^ 58 CANADIAN LIFE AND SOENHM. are well planted. Ship and boat-building, with the several manufactories, and the stir at the wharves caused by the trans-shipment of grain, keep a good deal of life in the locality, deserted as it is by troops and politicians. The traces of the old French fort built by Frontenac are yet visible. It was a stone-built fortification, and, like so many other military posts, was alternately in the possession of French and English, with the Indian allies of each party, until, in 1758, it was destroyed by the force under Colonel Bradstreet. A building now used as a hospital was the meeting-place of the Houses of Parliament when legislation was alternately conducted for 'the benefit of the United Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, at Quebec, Montreal, and Kingston. It had for many years the distinction of returning Sir John A. Macdonald, long Prime Minister, to the House of Commons. At the Military College, which is supported by the Dominion Government, young gentlemen receive for four years an excellent military education, which provides them with knowledge alike useful to them if they wish to become soldiers or civil engineers. Some commissions are granted to them annually by the home authori- ties, which enable them to follow a career in the imperial army. From Kingston the so-called "thousand islands" may be seen by taking the steamer down the river to Montreal. It would be a pity to see the islands only, and not the whole river course between these points, for the rapids are well worth seeing, and the sensa- tions experienced in rushing down their foaming wavea , ONTAniO. 59 are more novel than are those felt when traversing the archipelago formed by the St. Lawrence. The width of the stream near Kingston is about seven miles, and the whole area for many miles down is a labyrinthine maze of water, the rocky wood-clad group of islets separating the deep, strong-running cbannels. Each island is much like its neighbour, differing only in size and shape. Each is lovely in the summer season, when countless pleasure-boats and yachts dot the surface of the waters, and merry parties, escaped from the heat, turmoil, and restlessness of New York, find breathing-space and hisure to enjoy the quiet beauty of each little paradise set in the silver currents. I prefer the archipelago of the Georgian Bav of Lake Huron, for the same beauty of wood and rock fastness may be seen there, but the forms of the islands are often bolder. But, for those who love to see nature while they enjoy civilized com- fort in sumptuous hotels and lodging-houses, there is no region more attractive than the "thousand islands." Below these the steamers run several rapids, the Cedars being the most exciting, until Lachine U reached ; an Indian pilot is then taken on board, and some marvellous steering has to be accomplished before the big vessel has safely passed the ledges over which the cataracts roar in angry floods, and is safe beneath the arches of the Victoria firidge. At one point the rocks are passed so near that it seems as though they could be touched with a boat-hook. No accidents have occurred in recent years, but one wonders at the temerity of the man who first projKiseil to take a vessel loftdcd with psacpgors down this brpad stair uf -A'^ 60 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. \\ waterfalls. Whoever he was, it was not he, but his successors, who reaped the reward in many passengers' fares, and if he be still alive he may console himself with the thought that his case is that of most in- ventors, and especially of the ingenious projectors of new things in America. The first combination too often consists of men who are ruined by laying founda- tions on which others successfully build. Both here and at Toronto the sport of ice-boat sailing is enjoyed in the winter. A cutter's rig is put on a horizontally placed triangle of wood furnished with metal runners. The speed attained when there is a good breeze is very great, and the amusement, though a cold one, is very popular. The slopes around Port Frederick, an old citadel commanding Kingston Harbour and town, are capital for tobogganing, or snow-sliding. The toboggan is formed of thin planks of wood, curved up in front, and made to allow two or five persons one behind the other on the cushions placed on the slender boards ; the man placed last steers by his hands or by one foot trailed in rear of the flying snow-sled. No runners are used with the toboggan. A yet faster but more dangerous instru- ment for sport is furnished by the bob-sleigh, which is like a cushioned ladder placed on runners fore and aft. A number of persons can be thus accommodated, but the speed attained makes steering a difficult task", and accidents are not infrequent. The ice so quickly gets thickly covered with snow that it is only occasionally that an extended space of good ice can be had, and the variety of figure-skating to be seen in Canada is owing to the restricted are? ' 4^ % t ONTARIO. 61 available in covered rinks. Perhaps the most graceful skating in the world is to be seen in London at the Regent's Park Club, for there the strictest rules are practised with regard to attitude. In the Dominion the heels are not kept so carefully together, wide curves are not so much practised, and a bent knee is not con- sidered a defect. But the number of men and women who are perfectly at home on the steels is of course far greater, the intricacies of the figures far more astound- ing, and there are always many in the company present who can take part in complicated combined movements. There is no prettier sight to be met than a great night f^te during the carnival time in the towns. Six or seven hundred figures, clad in various costumes, can then be seen at one time upon the ice, and country dances, valses, and the pretty evolutions known a^^ the May-pole dance, are performed with perfect accuracy and certainty. But there are other points of interest, as may be well imagined, about this flourishing city. It was only incorporated in 1834, and had then about 15,000 inhabitants. It has now over 100,000, and is rapidly increasing. There are many fine buildings and broad handsome streets, well paved, kept, and lighted. As in most of the Ontarian towns, brick is chiefly used, but there are stately fabrics of stone, as in the case of the numerous churches and colleges, and the fine mass of the Law Courts. New Parliament buildings are being erected, and these great public edifices well in- dicate the activity of the religious communities, and the pride the men of this province feel in their limited, but sufficient system of "Home-rule government." CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. The park, although small, is very prettily wooded, and contains a monument to the memory of the brave students of the university who perished in resisting the iniquitous Fenian raid in 1866. A double avenue leads to the park from King Street, the greatest and longest of the goodly highways of the " Queen City." Trinity, Knox, and Upper Colleges, as well as the normal schools, should all be examined, to gain an insight into the excellent system of education. There are other institutions near Toronto which deserve notice, and which do not receive it from the guide-books. Among these is Miss Rye's home for girls, thirty miles away by steamer across the lake. Miss Rye and Miss MacPherson have both shown how thoroughly successful such a system as theirs may be, wheu carefully worked. Personal care is essential, but how many ladies there are, both in Canada and England, who could well aiford time to follow their example ! Provided that the children are brought to Canada when young, and that proper establishments under good supervision be provided for them, too many camiot be sent. I have on several occasions visited the Home, and nothing can exceed the cleanliness and healthi- ness of the house and its situation. The girls looked as vhough they thoroughly appreciated the good done them, in the happy life they were leading. It promised to make them useful members of society, and from the accounts received of the pupils who had been already placed with families in town and country, the promise had the security of the experi- ence of the past, to induce the liellef that the careful Individuftl attention nnd Uvo bciitu^vtvl \\o\\\i\ noi, ONTAlilO. C3 be thrown away. The official inspection had proved that the Government authorities were well satisfied with the institution. The place where the house is situated is about a mile from the neat village, which is built near to the outflow of the river into the lake. Peach and apple orchards, groups of pine, hickory, walnut and oak, are scattered over the charming neighbourhood. The visitor cannot help regretting that there are not many more such "Homes" to which the uncared-for children in our great towns might be sent, with the prospect of becoming the wives of independent yeomen, instead of being allowed to grow up among the many dangers of the confined alleys of the crowded districts of our smoky cities. Among the subjects of general interest there is none more engrossing to our gooil people at home than the efforts of the Churches to cover the ground occupied by the advancing settlements, so that the consolations and guidance of religion may accompany the pioneers of civilization. The first Christian missionaries to the aborigines of Canada were the members of the Society of Jesus, and other religious orders who accompanied the early French colonists, and many of whom were most earnest and self-denying men. Owing to their labours a large proportion of the remaining aborigines of the country prefer the Koman Catholic faith, though there are also many communities of Protestant Indians, and active missionary work is being carried on among the remaining heathen tribes. One of the most re- markable and successful Protestant missions is that of Mr. Duncan's at Metlakatla, in British Columbia. The ^/ 64 CANADIAN ItFM AND SOMMY, French colonization gave to the Rolnan Catholic Church the priority of occupation. It is true, however, that there were Huguenot colonists, as well as Roman Catholic ; but this clement Was before long eliminated by the action of the French Government and of the clergy and leading men of the colony, so that only a few traces of it survive here and there. But although Roman Catholics were first in tho field, hard upon them have followed the clergy and ministers of the Protestant denominations. The Pres- byterians have been especially active, and the Church of England and others have manfully entered into the work. Although in the long-settled portions it may be expected that the contributions of local Churchmen shall suffice, yet there are not funds enough to send ministers to the scattered abodes of men in the back- woods and in the new clearings on the fringes of the provinces. Much work of the highest importance ic done by the missionary agencies of the varioua Churches, and such societies as the British American Book and Tract Society ^ whose agents scatter copies of the Bible and New Testament, tracts, and religious books, over the widely separated villages of the Mari- time provinces ; and this agency is largely and liberally aided by The Beligious Tract Society of London, who do not confine their aid to any one channel, but also help to the full extent of their power 'Jl sections of the Protestant Churches in their efforts to bring all British North America under the power of the Gospel of Christ. In the lumber-men's camp, among the ■' great gangs of labourers on the railroads, in the isolated colonist's log-hut, the visits of the representatives of ! ONTAUIO. 65 the Church are eagerly looked forand warmly welcomed. It is therefore a duty on the part of Christian j)eople in Great Britain to assist in giving their countrymen vo Canada that needed aid without which rural work can- not be carried on by the Church in the Dominion. The labours of many of the bislujpsand missionaries is indeed very great. They are obliged to be per- petually un the move in order to attend to pastoral duties in outlying places. Long and weary journeys have to be undertaken, and it is not posnible to visit all the numerous stations during the best time of year for travelling. Often winter storms must be faced, and wrapped in what warm clothing he may have, the minister of the Gosi)el must keep his ap- pointment, in spite of all difficulties of weather and distance. A friend of mine, a bishop in Ontario, travelling alone in a gig, and driving his horse, found himself one evening, when the cold had become in- tense, so benumbed that he could not hold the reins. He got out and ran, but when again seated the numb- ness returned, and he finally lost consciouiriess, his last recollection being that he had no feeling of pain from the cold, but of great weariness. The horse pur- sued his way, his unconscious master retaining his seat in the half-covered vehicle. The animal stopped, after what must have been the lapse of two or three hours, at a small wooden house, and the settler, coming out, found the bishop frozen and apparently dead. He was brought in and revived with great difficulty, the frozen limbs being rubbed with snow and the coldest water. My friend described his return to life as the most agonizing experience. The pain was in- G CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. tolerable. II Ls face, eyes, and limbs wore racked with torture, and ho never quite recovered the effects of that nio;ht drive. There are still immense tracts in this province, as well as in many other provinces, where similar suffer- ings might be endured unless precautions are taken. But, to have proper precautions, it is necessary that the number of workers should be largely increased and more abundant funds supplied, for the means of travelling, as well as for the alleviation of the many wants constantly brought to their notice among the poorest of their widely distributed flocks. Each man gladly contributes what he can to the comfort of his visitor, but all he can do is to provide him food and lodging, and he can often give nothing for his support except when under his own roof. Money must be got elsewhere, that there may be a man to pay the visit which is so welcome. None of the Churches are rich, although the Roman Catholics in certain parts of the country have good endowments. The Anglican Church now shares with its brethren the provision made in early days for the sustenance of the clergy; but tl amount is small whcH looked at with the expanding needs of half a continent, and the constant calls for men and the erection of buildings. Everywhere it is the clergy who are seen taking the lead ; and although primary education is usually given to mixed classes of children of all denominations, the colleges and academies are often under the ministers of religion, while there are large numbers of divinity students under instruction. -i The devotion shown by the mass of the men who ONTAItlO. 67 i have entered into the ministry is very admirable, and they are led by good officers. The present Bishop of Algoma gave up all that a worldly man most values in place, pay, and society to take up the work in his wild diocese along the north of Lake Superior and the Georgian Bay of Huron. In Canada, as in Africa and the South Seas, the Gospel of Christ has won victories over ignorance and sin. Tlie preaching of redemption through the death of Christ on the Cross has touched and cleansed savage hearts, and the Indian manifests, no less than the white man, the power of th^ Spirit of God. The Ojibbeway Indians were the most numerous people along these shores. Heathen savages as most of them are still, the labours of ihe mission have met with very fair success, and on Mamtonlin Island there is a flourishing community of native Christians. A touching story was told to us of a squaw, the wife of one of the chiefs. She had wandered too near the; edge of the shore-ice at a time when thaws had loosenee high quality of its produce. Unfor- tunately, however, this is one for which she gets far less credit than she deserves. Nearly all the Canadian fruit reaches us under the general description of American fruit, and consequently the United States ONTABIO. 75 4f popularly receives the credit for the fruit sent from both countries. This may api^ear to be a matter of small importance, but it is far otherwise. Fruit which is so growi. that it has attained a rich and luscious condition, with a powerful natural aroma, indicates two very important conditions of growth, a good soil and a good climate, coupled with skilful management. Upwards of £90,000 worth of fruit was exported from Canada in 1882. In the last Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (xxxviii.), Mr. Whitehead gives a very able article upon fruit farm- ing, from which the following quotation will be interesting : — * Very fine apples are grown in Ontario, better, it is alleged by Canadians, than those that are grown in the United States. . . . Canadian apples have undoubtedly a great reputation in the English markets. Not only do the Canadians exercise the greatest skill in the cultivation of apples, but they understand the art of storing them.' " .. ; But to return to our exhibition. A quantity of wire of various patterns curiously barbed is shown to the passer-by. This is to fence in the pastures. Out- side we can see plenty of fine stock. High-priced cattle are being shown, many of them but lately im- ported from England. There are many splendid horses, used for the trotting-track, for general pur- poses, as beasts of draught, or for riding and carriages. The display of machinery for the farm is of amazing completeness, and showing implements for the saving of that labour which, fortunately for the labourer, commands so good a price. We have but little time to admire the great show of carriages, of poultry, imd • 1 i I 76 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. of honey. Other fairs are being held in every con- siderable town throughout the country. The epidemic oi fairs is a wholesome one, and let us hope that the value and variety of objects, already so great, will annually increase. One kind of exhibition common to all towns should not be neglected by the visitor, .and this is the food market. Here also he 'will get much malght into the habits of the country folk, and the kinds of fish and fowl to be found in the land. He will note that the grain is chiefly wheat, and very good wheat is still raised in Ontario. I say still, for it has become so much the fashion to speak of the wonderful crops of the newer country, that there is some danger lest justice be not done to the moro settled parts. It is true that the soil does not yield what it once yielded, when the woods were first cleared, but this is only because people were wastefully neglecting to use manures* Many a farmer has continually cropped his furrows without giving anything back to them; but better customs have now been introduced, for a gradual im- poverishment was necessarily visible under the old system, or rather want of system. But it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, and harum-scarum agricul- ture, and consequent loans borrowed from trust com- panies, have sent many a good man on his march to the west, thus leaving a vacant place for the British settler, who finds the land still in good heart, and facilities in school and church neighbourhood which make the old homestead a place to be easily pur- chased. Another grain much used is rye, and the whisky usually drunk is made of this. It is not so *M ONTARIO. 77 ^^ strong as that familiar to the Scot and Irishman, and sometimes the refuse of the still is given to cattle,, which thrive upon it. Buckwheat is also largely grown, and much of what is emphatically called " com," namely, the maize. This is seen of a golden and a white colour, and rarely of a black tint. Of roots we have any number, of gigantic proportions ; if it be the autumn season, baskets full of many varieties of wild cranberries and blueberries, or, as they are called, " huckleberries," of delicious flavour. Fruits abound, grapes and sweet water-melons being of good quality ; and most interesting of all, to the sportsman, is the supply of game, fish, and birds. There are salmon, but they probably come from streams more distant than the city of Quebec. There are trout, and some of these very fine, from the lakes to the north ; and there is another species of the order of SalmonidiBy which has white flesh, and scales rather of a grey colour than of a silvery tinge. This is the famous white-fish, common to all the great inland fresh waters, and one of the best fish in the world for the table. Mightiest of its kind is the sturgeon, and there are many of these. Oddly enough, the taste for its roe, called caviare in Europe, has never developed itself here, and although, from a London, Paris, or St. Petersburg experience, a person would suppose that it would be eagerly sought and prepared, nothing is done to bring it into the market. Black bass, a capital game fish, must not be overlooked. There they are fresh from the swii!ing currents of the great river, in which at certain seasons they rise fast to the fly. Specimens may be seen of the ouaniche, or so- 78 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. i\ called land-locked salmon. Theory says that these are salmon which have been unable to get back to the sea, and have acclimatized themselves to their altered conditions, and have become peaceable but voracious citizens of the fresh water. Be that as it may, they are a very acceptable addition to an inland dinner, for they are five to eight pounds in weight, and oi excellent flavour. Of wild fowl there is a great variety. The mdst striking to the stranger's imagination is the wild turkey — now becoming every day more rare — a fine bird, with its beautiful bronze plumage. A, some- what distant excursion has to be undertaken to pro- cure them, but they are still numerous in parts of tho country, and were as common as is tho wood-grouse or Its darker and smaller cousin the " spruce partridge." There are woodcocks in long strings but the bird is smaller and redder than that known in England. They and snipe are common, and they are to be met with until you get far west. There, strangely enou;;h, their flight seemed stopj^ed by the mountains, and it is declared that no woodcock live on the Pacific coast. I once met a man who said he had seen one in Oregon, but his story was frowned upon by his friends, and he confessed he had not shot the bird. Yet the " Pacific sloj^e " would appear to be the best part of tlie whole continent for these worm-feeders, for there the ground fringing the sea is hardly ever frozen, and their long bills could bo thrust into an abiding paradise of mud. Such fastidiousness in ; iocality is inexplicable. The ducks have no such ^ peculiarities. The members of their family are among %i ONTAIilO. r the wiliest rangers known to orrithology. Many afe common to Europe, Asia, and America. Indeed, like most of the birds which breed in tlie sub- Arctic regions, they find land over which they can journey southwards over the greater part of tlio northern hemisphere. If even Lapland buntincfs and the snow- finch, with their siuall power of lii.s^ht, can make themselves at home on both continents, why not the stronger-winged ducks ? Still, there are some which are not known in England. The little teal, with the blue on their wing-coverts, is one of these. The red- head and his congener, the canvas-back, althougli seen in the London poulterers' shops, are not native, nor is the dusky or black duck. The canvas-back is supposed to be the best ; but where there is abundance of wild celery and wild rice, on which the birds may feed, there is no great difference. The celery gi-ows so well if tnansplanted, and spreads so rapidly, that we may expect to have the English park-fed ducks have the flavour hitherto considered the peculiarity of the Canadian and American rivers and lakes. Loveliest of all is the summer or wood duck, with his iridescent head with hanging plumes, his white mark* igs like a harness of snow, and his maroon-ti '^ a . -east. ; : • i • ■ : Some of the best duck-shooting to be had in the world may be enjoyed along the northern shores of the great lakes, and the marshes which in places are formed along the low coasts of Ontario and Erie are among the favourite feeding-grounds of the ducks when they halt for a few days* rest on their autumn migration to the south. There is one long promon- ^. 80 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, tory, twenty miles in length, which juts out into Lake Erie, and is called Long Point. This ground has been taken by a club, who have a charter from the Ontario Government, enabling them to preserve tlie game. The head-quarters of the club are situated several miles from the further end of the curious narrow ridge of land and marsh which forms the territory which is the proj^erty of the members. It is reached by stea'mer from Port Dover, and the voyager sees as he starts nothing but tlie blue horizon of the lake before him. By and by dots are seen on the surface of the water, and on nearing them they are seen to be trees standing on the highest ground of Long Point. Far as the eye can see on either hand are great beds of high reeds ; among these stands a little village, consisting of the sportsmen's huts, placed, like the houses of the old lake-dwellers, on platforms supported on piles driven into the shallow water. The platforms are connected by wooden causeways. Each morning the members breakfast in a common room, and draw lots for the stations each shall occupy during the day. Then, getting iito their punts, each sportsman proceeds with his punter and his wooden decoy birds to his allotted place. The pole man shoves the light boat across the rustling beds of wild rice, and after half an hour's labour, during which time the ducks rise on each side from the thick mass of sedge around, an oi)en place is reached. I'he decoys are then carefully scattered within easy gun- shot, some sedges are pulled and stuck upright round the gunwales of the boat, which thus, completely concealed, looks like a natural tuft of sedge in tht § i d ONTARIO. 81 liarc space of water. The birds now rise quickly, for other guns are at work, and teal in flights and the other ducks singly or in small parties are constantly flying overhead, seeking where they may again settle in safety, and seeing the decoys they swoop down, and it is not uncommon for one gun to bag over 100 birds during the day. Although Long Point is reserved, there are plenty of other places where similar sport may be enjoyed. Before we quit the subject of the natural historjr of Ontario, a word should be said about the animal which has been adopted as a national crest for Canada, namely, the beaver. On the Canadian union jack he is seen at work, and fitly wreathed with a circle of maple leaves. For any one curious to see the labours of the beaver, a journey to the backwoods is necessary ; but on thousands of streams their opera- tions are yet visible, although the trapper hac greatly diminished the numbers of the Castor Americanus. There is only one other larger rodent animal now living, and that is the capybara of South America. The average weight of a beaver is about thirty pounds. The length of the body is usually forty inches, and the tail has a length of nine inches, with a circum- ference of eight. The fur is long, with a thick under- down, which is exposed by the plucking out of the longer hairs when the skin is sold for trade purposes. It is easy to see where the beast has been at work, for if a back-water or small stream be traced up its course it will be found barred across at certain inter- Tals by embankments made of mud, branches, or large sticks and scattered stones. The water standi • I i i!!^' 82 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEBY, at ilifferent levels in these chains of artificially broadened reaches. The dam is usually so con- structed that a low^r space is left in the centre, so that the water may run through without injuring the dyke on either side. The stems of the branches are laid as a rule up dtream, and they are so inter- laced and filled in with mud tliat it is occasionally possible to drive a waggon over the hard-pressed earthwork of an old dam. In reaches containing islands I have seen the island cut clean through by a water-ditch, so that the animals and their young could swim from the pool on one side of the island to that on the other. It is remarkable that although a regular system of embankments may be seen, showing that work must have been continued on them so as to keep them in repair and add to them for very many years, one family alone is usually seen in possession of an ey tensive lacustrine domain. Their habitation is probably placec^ in some large pond near the centre or uprxjr portion of the scries of works. A beehive-shaped mound is seen rising above the water and covered with sticks. The entrances to it are often three feet below the water level, and the reason of the care taken to repair the dams is to be found in the necessity of preventing the surface of the pond becoming so low as to leave bare the entrances in summer droughts, or to close them jvith ice in winter. There are usually two sub-aqueous entrances six to teii feet in length. An inclined plane leads up to the chamber, which is often six or seven feet in length, and of a round or oval shape. The floor of this little hall is made hard, and is raised ONTARIO. 33 a few inches above the poors level. The height from floor to roof is at most eighteen inches. The passages leading outwards are but just wide enough to allow one animal at a time to pass, and the course ot one of the corridors is made straight, so as to allow of the provision of green sticks being brought into store in the central chamber. These sticks, after having been l)eeled of bark, are used for roofing or on the dams. It is said that the roof is sufficiently porous to allow of some ventilation, and that the snow on the top of ** the lodge " is melted by the heated breath of the animals rising through the ro;if, the smnmit of which is not, like the sides, thickly plastered. Sometimes the beavers burrow in overhanging banks, and the arrangements are then much the same. As with the English badger, grass is carried into the abode for bed- ding. There is no sleeping through the winter months lis with bears, so that the beaver must lay in sufficient nourishment for the whole of the season when snow is deep on the ground. He seems to thrive upon the wood as well as the bark, and it is not only to keep his teeth in proper order that he undertakes to cut down and carve round with wedge-shaped incisions sticks and standing trees. These last he sometimes fells in order to help him in his dam-making. Often ho makes heaps of brush in the water, fixing the ends in the.mud, as though to make a store outside of his house in the water. Sometimes the use of the canals they dig is not apparent. These are cut from a lake, and run up into the land as far as the flat ground extends, sometimes for hundreds of feet. It has boen supposed that this 84 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. is to give them a frontage along the hard-wood groves, 80 that when beavers cut trees and bush they may transport the parts they can carry by water. Stones; they are said to carry with their paws if small, and roll or push the larger ones with shoulders or tail. We must trust to the Indians for observation of the animal, for it is extremely difficult to watch them. Another way in which the earth and stuff is reix)rted to bo taken is to load the tail, as a workman would n hod lor his matt. I confess that I shall not believe this until I see it done. They have several young at a birth, and the little ones take, after a few weeks, to feeding on bark, and the parents are reported never to allow them to remain in the old lodge for more than two summers after birth, so that it is rare to find as many as ten in one house. The natives will tell you that lazy members of the family who will not work are driven forth into exile, and these outcasts are called " bank beavers," because they lead a solitary life, and live in holes on the river side. They are probably in- dividuals of an independent turn of mind, who desire to have time for reflection and travel before they choose a wife and undertake all the cares of house- keeping and the consequent responsibilities. The Canadian, like the beaver, loves to pair, and to pair when young. He too travels much and lumbers often. Each of them works hard and happily in the healthy winters of his native land. Both of them are fond of turning the water "privileges" which so copiously abound throughout their vast territories to the utmost use. We see, therefore, that the beaver is appropri- ately found sharing the honours of the national blazon. ' ONTARIO. 85 J Near Port Dover is the prospering town of St. Thomas, dignified with the title of " city," a name given to all towns in Ontario which have a population over 10,000. The country in its neighbourhood is like that of a great part of the peninsula between Erie and Huron. Very fertile, and originally covered with a fine growth of maple and other hard-wood trees, it has now been carved out into excellent farms, occu- pied by people mainly Scots and English in descent. The whole of this part of the country furnishes a type of the best parts of Ontario's magnificent province; easy railway communication; enterprise and energy circulating through village, town and city; healthy rural and thickly settled townships, sending their bronzed and manly farmers to the markets which give them their first markets ; a measured and widely dis- tributed condition of comfort, visible in the number of wheeled private vehicles, of horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry — at all points the school-house, the church, and the evidences of the care for law and order. Who with heart, muscle, and brains, would not esteem his lot a happy one if cast among such a people and in such a country ? London, called after its great namesake, is not for off. They who sigh for the original will find a lovely river called the Thames, a Hyde Park, a St. Paul's Church, and, if low spirits supervene ion seeing that these are not quite so dingy as at home, they may cure their spleen by a consci- entious course of white sulphur baths, which London, G. B. (Great Britain), has not! Here are a great number of factories, turning out refined petroleum, iron manufactures, agricultural machines, mills, brewe- m- u] II H CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERT, ries, leather fabrics, and carriages, with many more ^results, the products of the industry of about 20,000 people. IngersoU, Guelph, Woodstock, Stratford, Whiioy, Walkertown, although smiiller, are busy centies, having populations of from ten to five thousand. In or around each is plenty of room for emigrants from the Old World. Cheese-making is an art on ^;hich some of these places much pride themselves, and with justice; for although the American and Canadian cheese has not yet seriously menaced the sale of Clieshire cheese, the home farmer must look to his laurels if he does not wish to be distanced in his own market. Guelph has an admirable Agricultural Col- lege, where instruction in the theory and practice of fp.rming is given to a number of students. CoUingwood, Owen Sound, and Barrie are towns in the north-west of the province, on or near the Georgian Bay. New- market should be mentioned with them, if only because l^eople make money there instead of losing it, as they do at its Cambridgeshire namesake! Around th "-^ places the country is generally more broken into low hill and fruitful dale, and near Barrie the pine or fir takes the place of the hard-wood trees of the south. Lake Simcoe, on the banks of which the last-mentioned city stands, is a fine sheet of water, now well provided with steamers. * To enumerate all the Ontario towns must be a task left to the guide-books, of which there is an unfailing and excellent local supply. We have hardly space to do them justice, but Belleville, Cobourg, and Hamilton, must not be passed over, for the two 'first are most charmmg places on the north of Ontario's ) I I ONTARIO. 87 lake, and the last, which is near Niagara, it) a very important place, having about 40,000 |)cople, who are determined to make their city rival Toronto. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic and of an Anglican bishopric. There is a considerable German element here ; but where the children of the Fatherland are most numerous is at Berlin, where it is usually found that all the municipal officers are Germans. It is much to be desired, seeing how satisfied their country- men are with their lot, that more Germans should go to Canada instead of to the States. No one travelling through Ontario, and observing the manner in which its wide surface is now so thickly studded with people, can fail to marvel at the work wrought in so short a space of time. The whole settlement of the coimtry only began with the flight of the American Tories, or, as they were called, " United Empire Loyalists," at the time of the war of the Revolution. Born in hardship and suffering, the life of the province has exhibited an ever -Increasing energy and success. i -. i\ ' . £ 88 C AX AVIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. CHAPTER IV. QUEBEC. Quebec from the Heights of Abraham— Montmorenci Falls— Early Buildings— The Iroquois Indians— The Lake St. John District— Agriculture about Lake St. John- -The Saguenay — The Gulf of St. Lawrence — The Porcupine — Montreal — The McGill University — The Winter Carnival — Ice Harvesting- The Vic- toria Bridge. BEFORE quitting the old provinces let us take a look from another height, on a scene celebrated in story and in song. We look down this time from no elevation guarded and crowned with verdure and forest, but from a great cliff circled with ramparts, which defend a citadel fashioned, indeed, according to the ancient system of fortifications, with ditches, glacis, and casemated walla wrought in heavy masonry, but yet even now, and against modern arms, a place of strength. Past us and below us flows a river witli a flood hardly less rapid than that of the Niagara, and far wider, and bearing on its stream many vessels. Steamers are there from many a European port, and a large fleet of sailing merchantmen crowd the wharves and coves along the shore, wnere they are loading with timber. On a point of land formed by the wedge- shaped cliff*, and along its flanks, is crowded a con- siderable town, the houses built chiefly of stone, and the roofs covered with plates dipped in tin, which QUEBEC, 89 makes them shine like silver in the sun. There arc here many churches and religious buildings, from which at morning and evening the sound of many bells rises. To the right the eye looks over leagues of country imtil it rests upon some low and distant hills, which we are told are near the American frontier. Below the city, across the great river, we see the northern shore upon the left, shining greea and gold. It is dotted with many white houses, and beyond is a back- ground of mountains whose azure colouring is often broken, with tints of green, when the sun brings out in stronger relief some shining forest-covered slope, for all these mountains are covered with wood even to the very summits. A white patch in the cliff-line of the shore shows where a hill-torrent leaps in foam over a height greater than that of the Falls of Niagara, to the sea-like river beneath. The scene we are looking at is that which met tlie eyes of Wolfe, before he fell in the moment of victory on the famous Plains of Abraham, and this fortress city is Quebec. But girt as it is with rampart and embrasure, with bastion and ancient cannon, modern Quebec gives more attention to arts than to arms. But the ''arts" are those of learning, and not of painting or of sculpture. In the tall pile surmounted by the lantern towers which dominate all but the citadel, we see the university called after the Archbishop Laval. There is here a large school of medicine; and theology, law, mathe- matics, and the classics have each their followers. The students' dress, usually so sombre, is agreeably relieved when they attend the classes by long coloured ribbons, denoting the faculty to which each man bilongp- 'f 4 90 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, K-l There is a good library and museum, and ample lodging for the students. The building is joined to several more, the cathedral, the archbishop^s palace, and the seminary or high school being all connected, so that one can traversiS some miles of corridor without emerging into the open air. One end of the great terrace is not a hundred yards from the archbishop's abode, the other ending only under the walls of the citadel. No city has a more charming promenade, or one where a purer air and a more striking view may be enjoyed. As you descend into the streets and listen to the talk of the people, you will hear sometimes an Irish accent, but as a rule the language spoken will be tlie tongue of Old France. It is not the speech of the Paris of to-day, but it is the speech heard among the fishermen who visit our English coasts from the neigh- bouring shores of Normandy and Brittany. Their race, represented at the time of our conquest of Quebec by a bare sixty thousand, counts now over a million and a quarter. Their increase is so rapid that they have invaded like a flood the old Puritan districts of New England, in many of which the Puritan Church and congregation have wholly vanished, to give place to the richer ritual favoured by the Romish religion. The number of children in the villages around is indeed astonishing;. It is said that as it is the custom of the country to give the twenty-sixth part of everything to the Church, the twenty-sixth cliild of the family is often the portion of the parish priest ! It is a l^oroughly loyal and contented community — ^loyal to ft system which respects the old treaties that in the QUEBEC. 91 day of the conquest of the province of Quebec assured to the French race their laws, their institutions, and their language. They demand little, and are not so restless as the people of our stock, who keep perpetu- ally pressing westward, in hopes of gi*eater gair. It would indeed be a sad thing if all Uic people were to rush away to the west, and leave the beautiful shores of the St Lawrence depopulated. To be sure, tlie land will not now produce much wheat, and the crops chiefly raised are buckwheat, potatoes, and oats ; but all kinds of fruit belonging to a northern climate are grown. The French Canadian is a wise man to be con' out to remain in his home, in the country where the insti- tutions he loves are carefully preserved, where the church in which he worships is ministered to by a priesthood singularly earnest and pure, and where ho will not be disturbed by the competition of many Americans, English, or Scotch. It is well for us that, instead of being a desert, the ^ittoral of the St. Law- rence is garrisoned for us by a population so orderly, contented, hardy, and enduring. Among them also we find the toleration in religious matters (as shown in the education of the young), which prevails amongst their fellow-countrymen in Ontario. Here the Roman Catholics have a large majority, and even a more extended toleration prevails, for all Protestant denomi- nations may have the school assessment devoted to their use, if they have to provide for a certain number of children. There are districts in this province where there are still a large number who speak English, as, for instance, the portion of the country near the frontier i 92 CAXADIAX LIFE AND SCENERY. of Vermont, known by the name of the " Eastern Townships." The scenery there is singularly attractive, and its fascinations, together with the good quality of the soil, have been sufficient to prevent the exodus to the west which has been so remarkable elsewhero. But for tiie visitor on pleasure bent there is no better residence than Quebec itself. Its neighbour- hoc^ has everything which makes a landscape beau- tiful ; great rivers and lakes, fine forests, waterfalls, valleys full of cultivated farms, lofty hills, and happy villages in turn delight the eye. For ten or twelvo days in succession it is on each day possible to make an excursion in a different direction, and it is difficult to determine which road is the most beautiful. There are fair roads traversing the country on both sides of !he river and along its banks. Steam ferry-boats make the transit of carriages and horses easy. The clean little inns, neatly kept by the thrifty Canadian housewives, invite the traveller to luncheon, where ho may enjoy the trout he has caught in the lake during the morning, or feast in a grove of maple on syrup of that tree, eaten as a relish to the wholesome buck- wheat bread, or lie may prefer the well-made pancakes of his hostess, and the dish of freshly plucked wild strawberries. In the winter there is peculiar tobogganing to bo enjoyed at Montmorenci. The spray from the falls gradually freezes as the cold increases, until in January there is a huge cone of ice, seventy or eighty feet iiigh. Steps are cut in the ice, if there be not enough anew to make the ascent easy. Little sledges fitted with two metal-clad runners, and long enough to QUEBEC. 03 it allow the greater part of the body to h'e on them, are prepared. A companion u od to the exercise shows tJie way, and lying down hke a seal, shoots instantly out of sight over the doom of the ice-cone, and ahnost i/istantly afterwards is seen gliding rapidly with the impetus of his fall away over the fro7.en flat below. It is difficult for a beginner not to feel a little nervous at first, but once the venture has been made, there aro few who do not wish to repeat it agaii il again. Although many are found to enjoy thih favouril pastime, Quebecers ara heard with a sigh of regret to recall the days when the presence of a garrison of British regulars supplied numbers of young men who could devote their days to such amusements, and very gay were the parties whose members flew down the white slopes until evening came, and time was found for a dance and supper at a country auberge before the homeward sleigh drive had to be undertaken over the moonlit fields of the shore-ice of the frozen St. Lawrence. Several of the remarkable large stone buildings in the city date from the days of the early history of the French colony. Such are the Hotel Dieu and the convent of the Ursulines. The first military adven- turers, fired with the desire to discover new lands, and to place these under the dominion of the French crown, sought also the conversion of the heathen. Wlierever they founded colonies, the religious com- munities came in their wake, sending forward devoted missionaries, and ifounding houses for sisters, where the sick might be tended and the children instructed. Of singular interest is the establishment under the Ursulines, where most of the young ladies of Quebec i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 1.25 i:S|M |2.5 ^ li£ IIIIIIO 1.8 U 11116 III ^ ^h /. t? m Hiotographic Sciences Corporation ^v •^^ i\^ A /H o iv o^ "^,* ■<^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SS0 (716) S72-4S03 '^ ^5. i» I'- t 91 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. receive tlieir education. The skull of the Marquis Montcalm is reverently kept within these walls, and in the chapel is a n?onnment to him. The buildings have high rooft pierced with little gabled windows, and the long conidors and panelled halls and rooms of the interior look on to courts where the children play during their daily rest from study. As in the case of most of the convents, the chapel which is open to the public is divided by a gilded lattice screen from the part of the church occupied by the sisters, who are buried under the flagstones on which they have knelt at prayer during their life. Of even greater interest, on account of the memorials it contains of olden days, is the " House of God " which overlooks the town rampart, where the cliff line allows it to have a full \iew of the river as it widens to girdle the Island of Orleans. In the Hotel Dieu, the marks of British cannon Vails may yet be seen in the rafters in the passages. A fine bust of one of the first martyrs slain by the Indians, named Brebeuf, in silver, and autographs of Vincent de Paul and Francis de Sales, and of other great men who ocnt forward on their successful campaigns the soldiers of the Cross, are preserved. The names of each of the sisters who have lived here since the time of the foundress, the Duchess D'Aiguillon (whose coat of arms and portrait are conspicuously displayed), are written on tablets kept since fhe first of her followers died. Devoted to the cause of God, and intent on sending out missions, she and other women of her day appear to us now as among the brightest and best of the children of France of the time of Louis XIII. „^^v I i H %' A STIiEET IN QUEBEC. M' I 9C CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, It is difficult at this day to realize the dangers to %yhich the first colonies here and m New England were exposed by the incursions of the savage Indians. Here it was the Iroquois whose threats of massacre kept the garrison at Quebec in alarm, and who became so bold that a large party of Hurons was actually attacked by them on the Isle of Orleans; and the invaders passed the French town with the bleeding scalps of their victims displayed from the canoes as they paddled again up-stream. A state of siege was not uncommon. It was rumoured that the savages meant to destroy the town and carry away the sisters, who, for safety, were ordered to be lodged in the fortress of the Jesuit quarters in the square near the cathedral. The mother superior wrote, " We are between life and death. No one can be assured of safety from the fury of the barbarians. All this, I assure you, givfes me no fear. I feel my neart disposed to bear and to suffer all that it may seem best to the good Lord to send to me. He knows what I am able to endure, and I have faith that He will not permit anything to happen which shall not be for the best." Tales were told, amid the distress of the colonists, of the power of religion. " Two French soldiers had been surprised in the woods by a party of Iroquois near the hamlet of Three Kivers, and carried off to captivity in their country. One of the soldiers had, in defending himself, received a bullet which had remained deeply imbedded in his body. An Iroquois warrior, ' in the hope of taking him alive to the tribe, so that he might there undergo the refinements of cruelty which were inflicte(^ on the prisone^G, probed the wound, and QUEBEC. 07 lit j)lS jto lin le making an incision, extracted the bullet with a dexterity unsuspected in a savage. He then bound up the wound, applying wild herbs to it, and tended him so well, that before the end of the journey was reached the wound had closed, and was in a state which promised a complete cure. On the approach of the party to the Indian quarters, one of the band was sent ahead to give notice of their arrival. All the Indians poured forth, and ranged themselves in two lines at the entrance of the place. The two unhappy prisoners were, according to custom, divested of their clothing, iind made to run the gauntlet of these two lines amid a hail of blows. They were then left on the ground covered with blood and almost dead. "At nightfall tliey saw furtively passing a human being, in whom they recognized a Huron Christian, who had been for two years with the French. He came to them and exhorted them in words of admirable faith to endure their pains with patience, and to recommend themselves to the care of the God who had so marvellously protected himself. He then added that the time of their suffering was nearly past, and that they would soon receive their recompense. * For,' said he", as he departed, * your fate has been decided ; to-morrow at dawn you will be burnt alive. Be of ' good courage until the end, and remember me when you are in heaven.' " The exhortations of this convert gave consolation to the two victims, and made them look at their fate with resignation, for death seemed infinitely prefarable than to live in such torment. They passed the rest of the night in prayer, and in mutually encouraging 98 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. till each other to suffer martyrdom for the love of Christ. At length came the dawn. The sun rose and the morning wore on without any unusual movement taking place in the village. The prisoners marvelled at the cause of the delay. Aa envoy from the district of Montagud had arrived during the night. He had assemblpd the chiefs, and had with all his eloquence endeavoured to persuade them to deliver the two soldiers to his tribe, to be used as a help in procuring a treaty with the French. Boih prisoners were brought before the council, and heard with astonishment that instead of being tied to the stake to be roasted, they were to receive their liberty. • • ' ' • " But they had hardly escaped from their first danger before another renewed their fears. The authority of the chiefs vras seldom accepted without question among the tribes. An Iroquois warrior, furious at hearing that the prisoners were to escape, went in pursuit of them, tomahawk in hand; and they would certainly have perished had not a friendly Huron given them shelter and hiding in his hut. When this new peril was past, they were conducted out of the village, and pursued their way to Montagu^. " The first days of the march were uneventful. The two Frenchmen, in spite of the fatigues of the journey, : their weakness, and the wounds with which they were covered, thanked God that the end of their captivity was near, when one morning, on awakening, they foimd to their consternation that their guide had deserted them. The savage who had served tHem as guide had thought that his companions might assassi- nate him when alone in the forest. Haunted by this QUEBEC. 99 hey had as issi- this idea, he had taken advantage of the shadows of night, and had fied. Not knowmg in what direction to proceed, the two soldiers became lost, and walked on at random, a prey to terrible anxiety, to privation, and to cold, for the time of the year was November. After wandering long they found themselves near a camp, which they saw was full of Meionts, a tribe fiercely hostile to the French. Trembling lest they should be discovered, they entered a hut which seemed to them abandoned by its owner. They were about to hide in it when they found that it was tenanted by a squaw, who, at first surprised by their hurried entrance, recognized them, when she looked at them, as fugitives, and received them with kindness. "With great astonishment they heard her address them in good French. She told them to fear nothing, and that she would take them under her protection. This Indian woman was named Margaret, and had been a Christian captive taken from the poor Hurons, who were at the time scattered among their enemies. She had formerly received instruction from the Ursuline sisters at Quebec ; often in her girlish days she had entered into the Hotel Dieu, and had been, witness of the motherly care accorderJ to the patients in the hospital. Profoundly moved by the sight of tWs exercise of Christian charity, she had resolved to imitate tlie sisters, and so to earn grace in the eyes of God. She hid the Frenchmen from all curious eyes in a comer of the hut, and carefully nursed them. She warmed their frozen Hmbs by lighting a fire, gave them nourishing food, and applied to their wounds the medicinal plants of which she well knew the virtue. *■«■ 100 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. While so engaged she would constantly speak to them of what she had seen in Quebec, and of the nursing practised by the religious women The memory of such an example was, she would repeat, her chief incentive to persevere in the Christian faith. But their presence in the village was suspected at last, and their retreat was discovered. But, wonderful as it seemed to them, they were well treated by the tribe, who had never been friendly to a white man before, and were conducted to the borders of Montagu^. There they came under the authority of a great chief, whose policy it was to be friendly to the French ; and he gave over to the governor, De Mdsy, who was then at Montreal, the men who had so often given themselves up as lost." Very full accounts of the Iroquois are given by the old voyagers. We can imagine from their recitals their whole mode of life, as well as that of northern ravages to the south and east. Some led a life giving them food only as they were successful in hunting and fishing, but others had settled habitations. In 1608 Champlain describes them in the neighbourhood of Quebec as catching fish from September to October and making a winter store by drying the fish. In January or February they hunted the beaver, the moose, and other wild animals. He represents them as reduced sometimes to great straits by hunger, and obliged to eat their dogs, and even the skins which they used as clothing. They were reputed to be great liars, and very revengeful. The Christians were much shocked at hearing that they had no special form of prayer, but that each one prayed according to hiis own '• QUEBEC. 101 liking. Priests or medicine men among them were reported to have direct communication with the Devil, and no enterprise was undertaken without consulting the Author of all Evil. All dreams were considered to be revelations and realities. Half clothed in summer, they possessed excellent furs for winter wear, among which the skin of the seal is specially mentioned. They believed in the immortality of the soul, and carefully Juried with the dead all the arms and other articles which belonged to him, a custom followed, as we shall see later, by other tribes now living. A feast was held two or three tii les a year around the grave of a departed chief, and his friends danced and sang in his honour. But there were villages inhabited by others who must have been well able to support themselvefi. They are uniformly described as of good stature. The head was shaved around the temples and high on the forehead, leaving the hair on the crown to fall in a long tuft, garnished with feathers, very much as many of the nomad tribes have shaved until quite recently. Like the present wild Indians, these also had the face painted with red and black. They planted the maize. They sowed in May and reaped in September. They burnt the trees of the forest, just as a modem settler does, in order to procure ground for planting, and sowed the seed among the charred stumps. They showed forethought also in sowing more than was required for one season, lest a bad year might come and no crop be gathered. The village itself consisted of wooden huts, surrounded by a strong palisade, behind which in case of trouble they retired, and 102 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. discharged clouds of arrows on tlie assailants. Their arms were clubs, bows and arrows, and lances, and I hove nowhere seen that the sling was in use with them, although it was a favourite weapon of the South Americans, for the Spaniards were much harassed by the fire of stones slung by the Aztecs during the wars of Cortez. The good Brittany soldiers thought the savages' dance was very much like one they had at home, called the Trioly de Bretagne. Their mode of fighting was of course no match for that of the Europeans, who, armed with arquebuse and in armour, were able to defeat greatly superior numbers. It is remarkable how the overflow of the population has not gravitated only into the New England States, but also northward. Up the tributaries of the Ottawa, the Riviere Rouge, the Li^vre, and others, colonization roads are being constructed, and a good soil with heavy wood has tempted many a stout habitan. But by far the most successful instance of fresh colonization is to be met with in the district about 100 miles to the north of Quebec, along the southern side of the Lake of St. John. This is a big sheet of water. On the north the country is higher, but stretching along the other side, from the point at which the waters are discharged into the Saguenay river, there is a vast amount of flat land, capable of keeping 150,000 to 200,000 souls, as it is estimated. Probably there are 20,000 there already, although these hive found then- way up the water-channels, there being no other road. A railway is now projected, and is already partly built. In 1851 the first tree was cut where new stands a thriving village. . »»'-.' ■.^«« i,i.jiiy-f^ A-»-iia*»vi QUEBEC. 103 . " The case of the first settler at St. Jerome may be taken as a sample of what nearly all had to undergo. Charles Cauchon left Chateau Richer, near Quebec, in 1862, with £2 in his pocket, accompanied by his wife and a family of five little children. By the time he reached Lake Kenogami his little stock of money was exhausted, and he had to give a week of his labour to pay the passage of his family in canoes — then the xmly means of communication — to the southern end of Lake St. John, where he established himself and founded the flourishing parish of St. Jerome. It is unnecessaiy to rehearse all the hard- ships and privations endured by Cauchon; he reaps his reward from the rich soil he has cultivated, and he now owns a good house, large bam, and an excellent farm, well fenced and drained. This year (1883), although only one-fourth of his farm is imder cultiva- tion, he has raised 250 bushels of wheat, 200 bushels of oats, 150 bushels of pease and buckwheat, 240 bushels of potatoes, and other vegetables in abundance. His bam is full to repletion, and he speaks in the highest terms of the productive nature of the soil, which yields twenty-five bushels of wheat to the bushel sown, and twenty-five bushels of pease, or thirty-five of oats, per arpenf^ This is just the country the thrifty Canadian likes ; and the gentleman who reports on M. Cauchon's farm continues: — " The lands on the Kiver Peribonca, on the north side of the lake, have heretofore been considered unfit for settlement. A govemment surveyor has just completed a thorough survey of them, and I am fold. / 104 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, reports that fully ten parishes, if not more, can ho established there, on the best of land. From tho Peribonca to the Grande Dechargo the soil is also said to be good ; in fact, the north side of the lake is said by some to be superior to that already settled on. The country is so flat that it is generally impossible to judge of its extent, but at one point, a hill overlooking the village of St. Prime, an excellent view can be had. From this point, looking west and aorth for probably 100 miles, or as far as the eye can reach, not a hill is to be seen, nothing but one vast wooded plain — watered by noble rivers, the Ashuapmouchouan and the Mistassini, eac^ of them from half a mile to a milo in width — of the richest soil, only the fringe of which has been touched by the new settlements of St. Prime, St. Felicien, and Normandin. One cannot but bo Btruck by the vastness of this grand territory; and everything goes to confirm the estimate made of its extent by Mr. Tache, the Assistant-Commissioner of Crown Lands, whose reports indicate that it contains three million acres of arable land — an area greater than all the occupied lands of the maritime provinces. Truly the district is a province in itself. " The climate of the Lake St. John region is said to be that of Monireal ; there is no doubt of its being superior to that of Quebec. The snow-fall is certainly less; protected from easterly snow-storms by the great range of the Laurentides, which intervene between the lake an^ the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the quantity of snow is said to be moderate. In fact, farmers complain that they do not get good sleigh roads till late in the winter. On the 25th of September QUEBEC, 105 lid ng ily the Ine [he rh this year, I remarked that the leaves of the trees were very Httle tinted, and potato stems were still green. Wheat and all grains ripen and produce luxuriously, I was assured by a number of farmers that wheat can be sown up to the 15th June, and some years even as late as the 20th June, with the certainty of its ripening in the fall. " The soil is almost universally composed of a rich grey clay, and in the few places where this is not exposed, and where the surface appears sandy or of yellow loam, the clay is not more than three or four inches below. The land seems to be inexhaustible. At Pointe-aux-Trembles I was shown a field of wheat which had been producing that grain for the last fifteen years without the application of any manure, and the grain I saw thia year was as fine as any to be found in this district. Truly one is struck with wonder at the richness of the soil, for I believe there is none richer in Canada. "Lake St. John is a magnificent sheet of water abounding in fish, such as the ounaniche (land-locked salmon), pike, dore, and other smaller kinds, for which there will be a ready sale in Quebec, when the railway reaches the shores of the lake. " Only on a very fine day can the other side of the lake be seen; at all other times it conveys the im- pression of an inland sea. On a calm day its bosom is like a mirror; but let a stiff north breeze blow for a couple of days, and white caps will be seen every- where, and breakers roll on its shores which would do credit to the Atlantic. Following up the west shore of the lake, the scenery is very fine. A distant blue 106 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. point, hardly visible at first, gradually Resolves itselt into a long coast-line, dotted with farms, villages, and churches, reminding one of the St. Lawrence below Montreal, The eye never tires of the beautiful land- scape — on one side fields of wheat, rising gradually from the border of the lake, on the other the broad expanse of the lake. "Potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables yield abundantly and of immense size. " Wheat is of course the great test of the soil and climate of any agricultural country. Let us then compare its production at Lake St. John with the best portions of the province, viz. the Eastern Town- ships, and we find that the census shows in 1881 : — Bushels, Bushels per 1,000 County. Population. Wheat. of population. Chicoutimi . 32,400 164,589 4,800 Compton . . . 19,581 34.181 1,800 .. Stanstead . . . 15,656 37,727 2,400 Huntington . • 15,495 24,378 1,600 ' " The rapid increase .of dairy products is very striking. Already there are in the comity of Chicoutimi no less than four cheese factories, and one for the manufacture of butter. The district bids fair to out- strip any other part of the province in this important product. " Farming is carried on on a scale which would not a little surprise our farmers in the district of Quebec. One farmer in the neighbourhood of Chicoutimi has about 400 acres under cultivation, and raised this year some 4000 bushels of ,^ain alone— his enormous bams evidence the confidence he has in the productiveness i I I QUEBEC, 107 Is of his land. A business is carried on in raising live- stock, and the Saguenay steamers bring a full comple- ment of excellent cattle to the Quebec market. " The great, in fact, almost the only drawback, is the want of means of communication. The cost of cartage from Chicoutimi, the head of navigation, to Lake St. John is enormous. To St. Felicien, a distance of about 100 miles (and not the most distant point, for there are settlers twenty miles further in^ and will be a hundred miles still iurther), it costs from $1 to $1*50 per 100 lbs. for cartage. This is a terrible tax, es- pecially on heavy and bulky goods, and on all produce ; for example, coarse salt, which is worth from 6i)c. to 60c. per bag in Quebec, sells at Hebeiiville for $1*60 to $2, at St. Jerome for $3*25, and at St. Prime and St. Felicien for $3*60 per bag, and has even sold as high as $6. Iron and molasses are similarly affe< ed. Potatoes, when they can be sold at all, go for 20c. per bushel, and the best butter can be bought there for 16c. a pound, payable in store pay, on the encouraging basis of prices given above. In fact, if the soil were not extremely rich, it would not be possible for the people to live without better means of communication. "The railway from Quebec will of course change all this, and it is eagerly looked for by the peopie. Its advent will give an impetus to the settlement of this great country, whioh will exceed anything east of Manitoba." ^ '^ '' Yet, in spite of the disadvantage arising from the lack of roads, the problem of successful settlement here has been solved, and this part of Canada will no longer consist only of the St. Lawrence valley and its I 108 CANADIAN LIFJS AND SCENERY, southern adjuncts^ but will have a second line and an interior defence and resource. So the years pass, and northward and westward the living stream rolls into new regions, each race finding the place assigned and taking its appointed share of the possession reserved for it from all time in the destiny of Providence. The Saguenay, which has hitherto formed the only appro&ch to this fair back- country, is a most curious chasm in the land. It is far deeper than the St. Lawrence, and flows in its lower course through sterile rounded hill masses, often abruptly broken into precipices 1200 feet in height and descending into 100 fathoms of water. It has been said that this gateway through the walls of the Laureritian range is lifeless. But if the traveller looks not only at the savage rocks around, but at the dark-blue tides, he will see their surface often broken by a white mass which appears, and as suddenly vanishes. The white porpoise is the person guilty of intrusion on this sophisticated dream cf death. There is abounding life in reality below and above. If this singular creature alone were there, its presence would be suf- ficient to redeem the landscape from this charge against it. A most useful animal is this snowy whale. It is found only in the gulf and in the Saguenay. In the shallow bays of the southern gulf it is caught and the oil used for tiie eiigines and grease-boxes of the trains. The method of its capture is ingenious. A row of bushes is planted in the mud across one of the bays. At flood-tide this is invisible, and the white porpoises swim past it and disport themselves near the shore, tumbling through the tide, and rising momentarily to QUEBEC. 10» ». ^''blow." But the sea ebbs, and the row of branches show their waving twigs above the surface, moved by the movement of the water. The porpoises begin to think it is time to retire. But just in the path which their instinct tellij them is the way back to the depths there is a puzzling fence of nodding trees. What can it mean ? They go near it, and the nearer they go the more they dislike the look of it. So they circle round, and, hesitating, they are lost. There is soon not enough water for them, and when they are help- less, out come the fishermen and slaughter them. Eastward from the Saguenay, the gulf is well worth a study. As a rule the northern side is uncultivated and wild, and the south is well settled. For a yachting voyage no pleasanter cruise can be obtained than here. Of the settled paits we need not now speak so par- ticularly. The character of these is the same. The lands are often divided so much among the families that each individual has only a very narrow strip. Potatoes and buckwheat with oats are the chief crops. Of the unsettled and less inviting parts on the north the chief features may soon be mentioned. A dense growth of under-sized forest clothes most of it. Through this small fir thicket the rivers run, full of sea-trout and salmon. An Indian tribe called the Montagnais come here in summer. It is a race which annually moves from these to the Hudson's Bay shores, and the same people are found near the Athabasca, in the far north- west. They are a hardy, hunting race, happy enough, unless the small-pox gets among them. When this happens, as in the case of all savages, the disease takes y ■#• \i\ U 110 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. a specially virulent foi'm, and they die helplessly. They make little birch canoes ; and one of our party purchased one of these for a seal hunt. Paddling along and looking after seals, which are common, and of which we obtained several, it was curious to see how the terraced ledges with which the shore coast descends into the river bottom were strewn with gigantic boulders of rock. These were probably brought by the winter ice. They are of hugh dimen- sions, often as big as a small house, and at half tide are only partly submerged. Further out into the stream, the canoe voyager looks down through the clear water and sees the next ledge below him equally strewn with these enormous blocks, often patched in fantastic forms with seaweed, looking as though some bear-skin or black robe were thrown over them* Before the days when lighthouses were planted, as they now are on every projecting promontory, this was a terrible coast for ships. A whole squadron of English men-of-war and transports lie buried at one place, and even now ships' bells and other relics of the disaster are fished up. The excellent arrangements of the Dominion Government have now made the channel as well lighted as are the streets of any great town. Pleasant enough places in summer are these light- houses. Then there is plenty to do in trimming the lamps, in keeping watch upon and reporting the vessels as they steam or sail in or out from the great estuary. The fleet of fishing schooners from New England, intent upon the mackerel catch, the souare-rigged ships coming and going with timber, the great Trans- ■^^\ QUEBEC. / 111 f ^'. atlantic liners all glide by, or dot the sea-line expanse with their sails. There is shooting to be had in the woods also, and one keeper whom we visited had a menagerie of tame porcupines. He had amused him- self by hunting these with dogs. The porcupines take to the trees, and become an easy prey, provided tl>e man be armed with good gloves. But woe to him, and more especially to his dogs, should the attack be carelessly made. Although the Canadian porcupine's quills are not so thickly set over his body, and are not so strong and handsome as in the case of his southern cousin, yet he has plenty of them, more especially on the lower part of the back, and he knows well how to use them. Erecting them into a palisade, he can de- tach them when he gives his body a jerk towards the enemy, so that the legend nas arisen that he can throw them. The jerk has this effect, and directly the nose and mouth of the pursuing dog are thus met by a backward jerk of the animal's rump, the pursuit is effectually stopped, for the dog's head is full of quills, which give great pain, entering easily into the flesh, and then being very difficult of extraction, because they are barbed with minute back-set hairs. A gush of blood follows the extraction of each. When in captivity the porcupine becomes very tame, eating greedily apples or any vegetable given to him. ^ Our friend the lighthouse-keeper was very proud of his porcupines, and insisted on our taking a pair of them away as presents. But his sports in winter he com- plained of as being much curtailed, ana his loneliness often most hard to bear. Yet he shot partridges among the fir thickets, starting them out of J^ D 112 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. powdery dry snow in which they burrow; and then seal-hunting was often exciting, but very cold work- Out at the edge of the shore ice was his hunting- ground for seals, and in one winter he had managed to secure fifty, which was worth the trouble, for they brought as a rule a pound a piece in the Quebea market. It is noteworthy that with the efficient but cheaply conducted lighthouse system here, there are only two keepers to each station. It was formerly the system also in England to have a couple of men only ; but where men had disappeared, suspicion attached some- times to the survivor, and it was thought best to have three in each tower. The only case among the light- keepers I have heard of as suspicious of murder in Canada occurred where there were three men. A father and son and the father's assistant lived to- gether. It was winter time, and the station was one on the south shore, near settlements. All three were out seal shooting, and the assistant arrived home alone. His story was that the other two, although it was known that they were better clad than himself, hac! become benumbed with cold, that he had tried to assist them, but that they had laid down, and been swept oflf the ice-raft on a broken piece. They were never heard of again. The survivor applied for the appointment held by the father. Suspicion was strong against him, and he was dismissed the service; but there was no evidence, and the real cause of the dis- appearance of his two companions remained a mystsry. We will now ascend this wide and illuminated channel, and pass Quebec and go onward throu^ I 4 I V , QUEBEC, 113 Lake St. Peter, and on until we reach the end of the- navigation for ships of over 1400 tons, at Montreal. Here is a goodly city. If tlie approach to it be made by night, a long line of electric lights marks the quays. But we would rather come up the stream in day-time, when the rapid river gleams bright and blue, and tho Royal Mount behind the city shows itself fair and green in its bravery of maple and elm. A pretty island lies moored in mid-stream, and beyond, the Victoria Tubular Bridge, looking like a mere tliiii rope, tightly stretched from the tops of short posts, spans the great distance to the further bank, seen low and far across the water. Crowds of shipping lie along the heavily built stone wharves. Steamers nearly 6000 tons in burden are there, and fleets of three-masted sailing ships ; but from ;/ear to year the steamers increase in number, and it is evident that the sailing vessels are doomed in public favour. The most prominent buildings on shore are the two tall square towers of the Catholic Cathedral, and a great market and customs building — a minor Somerset House. In almost all the buildings the grey lime- stone used gives an air of massive stren^h and a solidity and statelinass very different from the tem- porary appearance of the structures of many American towns. There is plenty of bustle and activity visible in the streets, and animation prevails in all the thoroughfares near the water-side. Away from that quarter, where all the business seems to be transacted, tiie avenues of trees planted before the houses denote that greater space can be given, and more attention paid, to purposes of adornment and pleasure. Many I J 114 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. churches, handsome hotels, and well-built detached residences denote the district inhabited by the more wealthy of the citizens. Scattered among these are vast structurec which are devoted by the Roman Catholic Church to the use of nuns, who are formed into communities having important duties assigned to them in the education of children and the care of the sick. Mdlle. Lajeunesse, known to p.U the musical world as Madame Albani, was trained in the largest of these, the immense building known as the Villa Maria, placed on the s'.te of Lord Elgin's old house of " Monklands." . The memory of a stormy political scene is associated with Lord Elgin's residence at Montreal. When the Parliament met there, a Bill had been passed through thi legislature, settling the claims of those who had lost property during the troubles of the rebellion of 1837-38. It was considered by the party whose strength lay in Ontario, that too much was done for those who had recently been insurgents, and they declared that the Governor-General should not assent to the Bill. Lord Elgin, resolutely abiding by the rule of constitutional government, announced his intention of acting on the advice of his ministers, and thus rendering the measure an Act of Parliament. He set out from Monklands with his staff, and was mobbed before entering the House, and again on leaving, so insolently, that his brother, Frederick Bruce, had his head cut by one of the stones thrown at the carriage. It was a happj accident that the Governor-General hfanself escaped unhurt. As soon as he was gone, the mfob stormed the House of Assembly, and burnt it to the ground. QUEBEC. 115 1 As a loyal demonstration the tumult was a failure, but it was successful in banishing the seat of government from the commercial capital. A seat of learning, well worth visiting, is McGill University, whose honoured principle. Sir J. W. Daw- ' son, is well known to the men of science of Europe and America. By the generosity of Mr. Redpath, an excellent building has recently been added as a museum, in which may be studied all that is mof " remarkable in the geology of Canada, as well as a collection of the implements, weapons, and carved pipes of the abori- gines. K the visitor wishes to see what is supposed to be the oldest created thing preserved for us in the rocks, he may here satisfy his curiosity, and decide for himself whether the coral-like structure distinctly to be traced in the interesting specimens in the cases is a mere accident of mineral form, or shows one of the family of marine insects which has built up a great part of the land we live on. McGill is a very popular university, with an ever-increasing roll of students in all the faculties, and fortunately also, with an ever-in- creasing roll of endowments. Besides the illustrious name of Dawson, those of Logan and Carpenter are connected with it. Formerly the National Museum of Geology was placed at Montreal, but it has now been removed to Ottawa, where additions to the collection have been recently made from Alberta, some great saurians* bones being especially remarkable. * Manufactories flourish at Montreal, but these are necessarily like manufactories elsewhere; and if the traveller wishes to be amused by a sight very unique on the American continent, he should attend a fox hunt, :**^: 116 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. I and see the Hunt Club. The members indulge in no idk mockery after a drag, but are successful in per- suading the farmers around to let the chase be one after wild foxes. During many seasons there are as many foxes killed as there are hunting days. At the club house are excellent stables and kennels, where horses and hounds enjoy the sensation of being brushed with rotatory brushes, as though they were New York or London dandies at a barber's shop. The animals appreciate the luxury, the hounds especially, scratching at the doors to be let out to get to the brushing-place when the hour comes round. The winter carnival at Montreal gives enjojonent to thousands of strangers who come to see the sports. If they choose to have the unwonted sensation of steaming in a railway train over the ice, they may take passage in the cars running across the frozen St. Lawrence to Longeuil. If they desire to see fairyland on earth, they should be present at a masquerade ball in the great skating rink, or watch the fetes given in and around the palace built of ice-blocks. If they wish themselves to share in exercise for which much practice is not necessary, they should join one of the merry parties of the Snow-shoe Club, and clad in coloured blanket coat, blue " Tuque " cap, and mocassins, tramp away into the country over the bright and powdery enov^ coming home with their blood tingling from the healLiy exhilaration of the keen and taintless air. There is no need to fear insufficient accommodation either here or at Toronto, for the hotels of both cities are excellent. Almost every town in Canada, and the States, too, at QUEBEC. 117 ©ne time or another, has suffered from fire. Montreal, although 80 solidly built, has been no exception. The quantity of wooden buildings in most of the cities sufficiently accounts for these conflagrations, and to this cause must be added the heating of the houses during winter with stoves and long hot-air pipes, making the temperature very high, and drying up every- thing in the dwelling. The water supply is too often insufficient, and the flames have their way, rushing before the wind, flying from roof to roof with the whirl- ing shingles and burning debris, roaring with a continu- ous thunder whose monotone is only broken by the louder crash of falling roofs. Such a conflagration is a grand spectacle, and a melancholy one. I remember one instance where the people had piled their goods in the only comparatively open space available before a church. Articles of all kinds were heaped on the steps of the great central door, as though near the sanctuary a refuge might be found ; the alarm bells were pealing from the church towers, and it was not until everything around had fallen that the people fled, and the priests i-ang a last tocsin from "^he spires only a few minutes before the whole fabric descended in ruin. During the winter when the river is so well covered with strong ice that a railway is laid upon it, and passengers and goods are taken across to the opposite bank at Longeuil, the operation of the ice harvesting may be watched. As the summer is warm enough at Montreal, and as its heat through the whole of New York State and the country to the south is most trying, a vast amount of ice is required for the markets. A mild winter brings dismay to those who are accustomed 118 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. i to get a " good ice-cup " from the fine waters of the Hudson. But a sure supply of thick, well-frozen ioe may always be obtained from Canada. The harder the winter, and the greater the cold, the better is the quality of the ice. Men with saws and ice-cutters may be seen carving square blocks from the white floor on which they stand and placing them on sledges for conveyance to the store-houses. In January the Montrealers erect a wondrous structure of towers, battlements and glisten- ing wallsj inclosing stately halls, of thick ice-blocks. Water poured over the fabric, which is built up to the height of a hundred feet, cements into one solid mass the translucent stones of crystal. The effect of such a building when lit from within iS) very striking and beautiful. Handsome as is the city of Montreal, the most popu- lous in the Dominion, it cannot boast of more than 150,000 — a small number compared with those of the great Australian centres of commerce. Yet in Australia there is not half the total population there is in Canada. Is not this in favour of the northern colony, showing as it does how large a proportion of her people live on her land, rather than in her streets? Montreal has more of the dignity of years than any white man's settlement, for of old it was Hochelaga, an Indian town, circled with palisades. Its people grew com, and made pottc y of a rough kind, and fashioned pipes skilfully enough ; but their art and their works, like those of all the Red races of the far north, were neither beautiful nor enduring. In the Montreal of to-day art holds her own. There is a good picture gallery and art school, and several of the citizens have fine houses adorned QUEBEC, 119 altogether by Montreal artisans and artists. We shall probably see towns as wealthy arise in Canada, for the country is fast gaining in wealth. One of the chief objects of interest at Montreal is the Victoria Tubular Bridge, a wonderful structure, into which the Prince of Wales drove the last rivet in 1861, this ceremony being the signal for the opening of the great viaduct to traffic. The winter cold and summer heat makes the iron-work contract and expand, and skilful provision is made for tliis in the building. When the train passes its cavernous entrance, and speeds on through the dark and sounding avenue, glimpses are caught through side openings of the mighty river hurling its currents through the abutments of the piers below. The Roman Catholic Church is dominant in the Province of Quebec, where it possesses much property held from the days of the ancien rSgime of France, and continued under British rule by the acquiescence of the majority as represented in the local legislature. In other parts of the Dominion it is in a minority, but everywhere has the independence accorded in Canada to all sects of Christians. The number of its adherents, according to the last census, was 1,792,982. " . The Wesleyans and other Methodists rank next in numbei. The Wesleyan Methodists have a General Conference and six provincial conferences, and the Episcopal Methodists and Primitive Methodists are also considerable bodies. The Wesleyans number 682,963, the Episcopal Methodists 103,272, the Primi- tivo Methodists 25,680, and pther bodies 3,830, or 715 745 in all. "- ^^-^''^^^ ^''^^^^^' *^ iiasr"U;j.a* i.-;:^iiii 120 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, Next in numerical importance are the Presbyterians> the greater part of whom belong to the Canada Presbyterian Church, which has a General Assembly and five synods. Few congregations are connected with the Established Church of Scotland, a still smaller represents the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and there are a few Presbyterians not connected with any of these. The adherents of the Canada Presbyterian Church number 629,280, those of the Church of Scotland 32,834, the Reformed 123945, and the others 1106, or 676,165 in all. Next in order of relative number is the Church of England, which, in Canada^ constitutes an independent body, having its own episcopate and synods distinct from those of the mother country. It has nine dioceses, and adherents to the number of 574,818. The Baptists number 275,290 ; the Lutheran Church, which is principally composed of German colonists and their descendants, 46,350 ; the Congregationalists amount to 26,900. The whole Protestant population of British North America may thus be reckoned at 2,436,334, and if to this we add 70,000 belonging to various denominations not previously mentioned, and a proportion of the 89,000 who are entered in the census as not having stated their religious belief, and of whom it is probable the greater part were Protestants, it might not be un- fak to rate the whole Protestant population as some- what over two millions and a half. All of the larger Protestant bodies have theological schools, many of them well equipped and attended by large numbers of students, and all have home and ^ QUEBEC. 121 foreign missionary organizations, many of which are Tery active and useful. Owing to the special circum- stances of Canada, and to the rapid increase of new settlements, large demands are made on the congrega- tions of the older districts for missionary work within tfie Dominion, and for this reason less proportionally has been done for foreign missions than in some older countries, but there are nevertheless missionaries sustained by the Canadian Churches in most of the leading mission fields. Much importance is also attached in Canada to the operations of religious societies. The British and Foreign Bible Societv has numerous auxiliaries and branches throughout the Dominion. The Religious Tract Society and Sunday Scliool Union have also done useful work, and in recent years the operations of Young Men's Christian Associations have assumed large dimensions, while Young Women's Associations exist in the more important cities and towns. As in the United States, Sunday schools are imiversal, and are conducted with great spirit and success. Throughout the Dominion, except in a very few newly settled districts, Christian worship is main- tained in every village and settlement, and even in the smallest and newest settlements the Sunday school affords means of religious instruction, and supplements the visits of travelling missionaries or of the ministers of adjoining centres cf population. " On the whole," writes a friend, " there are few c^imtries where the truths of the Gospel of Christ are more generally diffused or more accessible, and it has not been found that the absence of an established 122 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. Church has tended in any way to diminish the Christian privileges of the people. On the contrary, there is an active competition between the different bodies for the possession of new localities, and a strong spirit of emulation with reference to the financial and spiritual prosperity of the several churches. There is also a healthy spirit of mutual helpfulness, or at least of for- bearance and toleration between the different denomi- nations, and where controversies and differences have occurred this has more usually been among the different schools of thought in the same denomination than between different denominations. " There is as yet but little in Canada of open opposi- tion to Christianity or advocacy of infidelity, and such influences when they exist are most usually represented by lecturers introduced from without. The churches are well attended, and desecration of the Sabbath has not assumed very large proportions even in the cities. It is to be hoped that this state of things may be permanent, and that the motto of Canada may be, ' Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord.' " To my friend's remarks I may add that, while the Churches are not " established " in the English sense by tjie State, both Protestants and Catholics have been allowed to reteJin large endowments. » . ; V ■ . • t '■ • ' • ..; .^i ■::>''^y\S['^j^^M l'.I \:> nt"].*'Lj :>jlj- ^.tt''-^i> ■^.Ai^i^^::^ '{' ( 123 ) ....^^/ 0' »' '-•■'- CHAPTER' V. •' mux; vf'Miv; --,.:,;: ITROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. /n-^O-': . The Water-way from Montreal to Lake Superior — Al^ma and Manitoulin-^Winnipeg — ^I'he Manitoba Univer- j ^t Bity-— The Red-River Settlers — A Day'tt Journey in ^v the North- West — ^Mr. Peacock Edward's Report on ^ , the North- West — The Canadian Pacific Railway. ^ A LARGE revenue for the exigencies of public works in Canada is necessary. Where you have a region of such tremendous extent, and an enterprising people pushing settlement here, there, and everywhere into the wilderness, and making that same wilderness into flourishing districts, you will have demands for roads, telfegraphs, and post-oflBces. We have scarcely space to show how these demands have been met in Ontarioi That province is now so well filled with people in the districts lying between Erie and Huron that the communities are self-support- ing. Barrie, CoUingwood, Newmarket, Brantford, London, Samia, St. Thomas, and Hamilton are names of well-kncwn flourishing centres whose sons are form- ing fresh counties in the backwoods with every decade. But there are always heavy charges, which must be met throughcat the whole country by the National Tnjasury. Some of these, and forming the principal items of ^pense, are great charges for the lighting of coasts, deepening and making of harbours, increase in the capacity of water channels^ the construction of 124 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. canals, and the guiding by dams and dykes the currents of the different streams. Nothing gives a better idea of this than the ordinary hoUday tourist's journey, undertaken by so many who wish to see part of the States and of Canada, and who ascend the St. Lawrence and go as far as Chicago. As they approach the shores from the sea, light after light beckons them on up the wonderful avenue of water, until the great river looks like some wide street in a well-lighted town, and the ship arrives at Quebec ; but she does not stay her course, but proceeds onward through the street of light-houses, passing Lake St. Francis, whose whole central channel has been artifi- cially deepened, until she arrives at the head of un- interrupted navigation at Montreal. But here, again, if she be a ship under one thousand four hundred tons, her journey need not be terminated. Rapid waters flash over the rocky ledges in the stream above, and the continuation of these rapids, which are often almost cascades, bars her direct pro- gress ; but at each and all of these she finds magnifi- cent canals constructed, with fourteen feet of water over the sills of all the locks, and she can proceed until the majestic waters of Lake Ontario allow her again for 150 miles to proceed upon her course. Then, when the steam of the Fallo of Niagara rises above the plains which seem to shut out further advance, she slips quietly into the Welland Canal, which carries her over thirty miles, until she passes out again upon the shallowest of the great lakes. Lake Erie. Onwards for another 140 miles, and then through similar works she reaches Lake Huron. Through a wonderful archi- FWM LAKE EUnON TO WINNIPEG. 125 ce, 63 n ds Iks 1- pelago of islands, scattered on the water on its northern shore, she wends her way, until the old French post, called the Rapids of St. Mary, is seen upon the low and wooded shores. Here for the first time in her long inland voyage she has to leave Canadian territory, for the canal which takes her onwards is built on American ground. A grand work it is. And now at last she will have arrived at the ulti- mate stage of her wanderings, for before her stretch the 400 miles of the deeps of Lake Superior, 600 feet above the level of the sea. It is from thence that vessels take in an ever-increasing amount of grain from the exhaustless granaries of the interior, to the markets of Europe. One of the toughest jobs which the Canadian Pacific Railway has to encounter is to be found in the rock-bound and precipitous coast on the north of this vast lake. In a year or two the traveller l^ound for the West will go by the Canadian Pacific Railway along the upper courses of the Ottawa River, and, crossing over the wooded ridges, will traverse the deeply forested country above Lake Nipis- sing. He will see nothing of Huron, for the line is some considerable distance from the Greorgian Bay, and he will only see Lake Superior when nearly one- half the distance of its north shore has been traversed. When he arrives on its shore line he will not again quit it until he gets to Port Arthur, whence he will strike inland through Keeway tin to reach Rat Portage and Winnipeg. If he prefer to see some of the northern country, and yet not to miss the voyage on Superior, he will be able to take the branch line which, from a point west of Nipissing, will take him to Sault Ste. Marie. 126 CANADIAN/ LIFE AND SCENERY. r We have passed quickly, in a sentence or two, ovei* a vast amotrnt of ground ; and we will look a little more in detail at the, as yet, scarcely inhabited region called Algoma. Ontario claims it all as within her province. As we have seen, it is probable that a strong second line of population will exist in Quebec around Lake St. John and in the valleys of the northern tributaries of the Ottawa, so it is very satisfactory to hear from good judges of land, that a good back country extends all along the Upper Ottawa, around Lake Nipissing, and along French Eiver — the stream which carries the Nipissing waters into the Georgian Bay. Protected by the continuation jof the Laurentian Eange, a great barrier of old racks give it some shelter from the north, v^^f^fi «?>i ¥.i:\\ 'rtwb'rM r^vihvH nivAA'nv^.J ^^Ar r. When one considers how, on the poor soils of Nev.' England, remarkable States distinguished for the physical and mental capacity of the people have arisen, can we doubt that they who will settle here also will succeed in founding communities able to make their voice heard in the councils of their nation? It is computed that there are six millions of acres between the Ottawa and the Georgian Bay and south of Nipis- sing which may be profitably used. Everywhere, however, the clearing of the woods must precede culti- vation. Men from the Swiss cantons are actively promoting emigration from their country, and enthu- siastically declare that their wines may be grown here also. These are parts where hard-wood takes the place of firs; and although these inner recesses of Canada's old provinces are only now being opened up jthere is no reason to doubt that they will, before FROM LAKE EVRON TO WINNIPEG. 127 another half-century has passed, be reckoned as con- taining many counties equal in importance to the most favoured in the " Peninsula," which was itself fifty years ago in the present condition of Eastern Algoma. The early settler's hut, the shanty of the railway navvy or lumber-man, the trapper intent on fox, marten, and beaver, will, before very many years are passed, have given way to the galleried farm-house and the well-cleared fields of the Ontarian farmer. It is perhaps pleasanter for the emigrant and tourist that the route is not an all rail one. For twelve dollars the settler may now be conveyed from Quebec to Winnipeg, and he will find it more agreeable in the warm May weather, that he has some change during the journey, and that a well-equipped steamer awaits him at Gravenhurst or Collingwood or Owen Sound, and that he is thus allowed to inhale the breezes which play over the lakes in summer instead of being obliged to submit without a break to the monotony of railway travel. After treading the very pictiu^esqae maze of islands of the bay, he will probably find that the vessel stops long enough at some point of Maitoulin Island to allow him a run on shore. He will probably see fishing-boats at the quay full of splendid white fish, for numbers are sent hence to the southern markets. The Indians catch these in the strong currents as the fish head up-stream. Keeping the canoe end on to the rapid, the men watch their chance, and with spe id and remarkable certainty plunge a big " landing- net " beneath the canoe over the head of the fish, and with a rapid twist the net's mouth is closed, and the 128 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, I i i P i s prize hauled on board. Manitoulin, called after Manito, the \juiversal Indian name for the Great Spirit, is one of a group. The largest has some good land, and is 100 mile s long, very irregular in shape, with an estimated area of 1600 square miles. With a mild winter and cool summer, its advantages had already in 1881 attracted 9000 whites, and there are large Indian reserves, on which between 2000 and 3000 natives — Ojibbeways — live. Their chiefs keep up much of the old state, and here, for the first time on the journey westward, docs the traveller see pure-bloodtd Indians. They have given up their heathen practices, and if there be curiosity to see feasts whose chief delicacy is the broth made of a white dog kept for sacrifice, such customs must be looked for further on, among their brothers in Keewaytin. But here fine men may be seen, with the true bold type of features of the Redskin, and the friendly smoke of tobacco is still offered to the stranger from pipes whose stems are curiously wreathed and twisted. The missionaries have indeed been singularly suc- cessful in Manitoulin — a forecast of their success along the whole of the north of the lakes as soon as the sinews of Christian warfare be provided by the sub- scriptions of friends at home. Among the Anglicans, the Bishop of Algoma, who lives at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, has charge of this district, and there are many Methodist and Presbyterian ministers who may be helped by forwarding money to their respective head-quarters at Toronto. Garden River and Bruce Mines are places where halts are usually made by the \;m m UNADUN LIFE ANV SCENEBT. . it^CMels, and you will always hear from the hopeful *;. settlers that there is a good prospect of the enlarge- *«lient of their little colony, that the farms are doing iwll; but as yet the content grows from little, for Numbering to procure wood for the towns on the American shore, and the raising of cattle and cereals for their own use, is all that is attempted. About Algoma Mills and Sault Ste. Marie there will probably "be considerable towns, as they are on the straightest road from east to west. The general characteristics of the scenery along this route, are the loveliness of the wooded islands, the shores low and rough and wooded, and northward the , lower ridges of the hills, which stretch unbrokcnly from Nepigon to Quebec. The Americans have a military post at "the Sault," and after passing this \ place, Michipicoten Island, of which the engraving on I the previous page gives an idea, is the first land seen on ; Superior. But if it can be managed, the captain of i the steamer should be prevailed upon to make a slight 1 change in the coiu'se, in order that the fine cliffs of 'Nepigon Straits may be seen. There the columnar .' basalts, which are very remarkable further on, are 1 first observed. The rivers falling into the bay are full of ; excellent trout, and no better fishing can be had. From a point not far from this is the shortest road to James's Bay, at the head of Hudson's Bay. This will, however, not be the way by which that outlet for grain will be reached by rail. The mountain bar- , riers are too formidable. From Winnipeg Lake by i the Nelson Kiver there is no such obstruction, the country being very flat, and it may be confidently FROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG, 131 expected that a line will put the prairie country into communication with the gulf. The basalt and trap hills which form so grand a gateway to Nepigon rise to still greater heights, and are seen in more striking forms where they are broken into islands guarding Port Arthur. Whoever has seen the Treshnish group of the Hebrides and the headlands of Mull, can form some idea of the appearance of Thunder Cape and its sister island. The Canadian trap formations are grander in scale, but they can show no such perfect gem of basaltic structure as Staffa. The copper mines around Lake Superior are the richest in the world, and have every kind of that ore. The best is that in which the copper is not in great masses of pure metal, for when found in this state it is most difficult to work, and the expense of labour greatly diminishes the value. At Michipicoten Island, and other places on the north shore, the percentage of ore is very large, but the stuff is procured in easily wrought rock. The races who in old days inhabited this country knew of the mines and worked in their rude fashion at them. Ancient shafts exist, and in these rude stone hammers, marked round the centre with a groove for the reception of the thong which attached them to a handle, are found. But the metal when procured was beaten only into rude plates, or used for roughly shaped vessels. ^r >• ■ It seems that silver was not thought worth getting. It does not shine in gold-like masses as does the copper when cut, or seen in the many-coloured beauty of green, purple, bronze, oi yellow in the surfaces ex- posed to the action of the atmosphere. Yet silver, as ^^ 132 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. shown in such ore as that procured from spots near the Kaministiquia Kiver, is sufficiently striking in appearance. Often it exists in branch-like threads or strings of pure metal which, ductile and firm, cling like hemp strands to the portion of rock which has- been broken off. Close to Port Arthur is a tiny islet called Silver Island. Before it was known as rich in silver some men bathing from its scanty ledges picked up a small piece of ore. The discovery became known, and a few gentlemen at Montreal formed a company to explore the place. Jt became necessary to have some crib-work put up to continue operations- Four of the gentlemen demurred to the expense, and thought the cost would not pay. One only remonstrated against this view, and against the proposal to get rid of the whole concern by a sale. He was over-ruled, and some Americans bought the property. In less than twelve months not only was the additional space gained by the crib-work on which to plant engines> houses, etc., paid for, but rich lodes had been struck and a small fortune had already been made. The further they dug, the richer was the silver. It came up in moss-like branches running through a white stone ; it was found in blocks of grey ore, and in thick sheets of solid silver, so that it was often worth 12,000 to 20,000 dollars per ton. Bitterly did the Montrealers bewail their own want of confidence ; but it was too late. Silver Island had become the most noted mine of the lakes, but it was no longer theirs ! Beautiful was the old canoe route through Keeway- tin to the Lake of the Woods. It was that taken by dir Clamet Wolseley's expedition. The Kaministiquia FROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. 133 River is famous for some fine fulls, and each of the myriad lakes of Keewaytin is an enchanted spot. Almost all of them are ornamented with islets, on whose breasts the wood, untouched by the fires which have too often desolated the forest on the lake sides, remains in its first loveliness. From lake to lake the canoe is carried, and as it is again launched on another piece of clear water, time is given to watch the in- numerable host of lilies encamped on the still surface of the inlets, the blaze of generous sunlight on the broad fringes of white pine, or the red stems of those called Norwegian. Often as the canoes proceed the voyager threads passages so narrow that the boughs almost meet overhead, and the bushes, mosses and lichens on the ripple-worn rocks, sprinkled with bright flowers, are so close that each may be distinctly recog- nized. A night-camp among such scenes, when the tawny birch-bark flotilla just floats with the painted prows resting on clean sands, and the fire's glow falls on the nearer pines and firp, and a clear moon shows the more distant forest slopes backed by some huge crag, remains in the memory as a joy for ever. These canoe voyages are only memories, for nowa- days at Port Arthur we enter the railway cars, and after passing for four hundred miles through a wooded and rocky region we suddenly emerge upon the endless meadows of Manitoba. For miles and miles we now see the long grasses wave, and out of the treeless land rise the spires of the churches of the new city of "Winnipeg. As we approach this creatipn of the last half-dozen years we cross a river which, like the Tiber at Rome, rolls rapidly in a turbid, tawny flood. We 134 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. see that it is joined within the limits of the city by another stream, not quite so large but equally muddy. These are the Red Eiver of the north and the Assini- boine. New cities are all much alike in general plan on this continent. There are the same very wide streets, showing how prodigal the community may be of land. There are the same rough buildings of boards, with thv front run up in a square shape, hiding the gable be- hind, which it would be much the prettier thing to show, but it is hidden because the square boarded front gives more room for some largely written name or advertisement. There are the same pretentious, and sometimes very handsome "blocks," where a wealthy firm or an enterprising speculator has put his capital into brick, stone, and lime. There are the same variety of hotels, some great, some small, but all furnished with the largest bar-room and entrance hall they can afford to have. There is the same wooden " side-walk " along both sides of tht street, the same car-tramway on the roadway, the same flight of light springy gigs or buggies, with their tall thin- spoked wheels, making it necessary to climb over the spider work before the passenger can be seated in the vehicle. There is the same lumbering along the highways of loaded van and waggon. But two peculiarities Winnipeg has, the one a rem- nant of bygone days, the other a proof of how her citizens can well use the latest result of tolerance and culture. I allude to the Red River cart, and the Manitoba University. Let us look, first, at the cart. It is a very rough structure, but ingeniously made, for FJROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. 135 its wheels are put together without one piece of iron. There is neither nail nor metal lire. The thing creaks horribly, but answers its purpose well. Cara- vans of these conveyances have for the last thirty years taken the half-breed's goods by the prairie trails to all parts of the great valleys, and often occupy ninety days in getting to Edmonton. Let us look, secondly, at an institution whose wheels, we hope, will never creak. This is the university. The governing body comprises Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Baptists, Metho- dists. Each religious communion has its own college, and they are all affiliated to the university in this, that the students all get their degrees through ex- aminations approved by th«) heads of these colleges. The system has as yet worked admirably. It a^}- proximates to the plan adopted by the University of London, and is well worthy of the close attention of the stranger to Winnipeg. It is the most striking product of this productive land. If this institution last, as all most hope that it will last, the combination of the various religious bodies will prove most effec- tive for the purpose of securing united contributions for the funds, without which it is impossible to secure the services of good professors. The fault in many cases of the university system in Canada is that the degree-giving establishment is supported only by the co-religionists of its founders, and they in most places cannot afford to give large cndowmentg. Some earnest, eloquent, and influential men arises among the Anglicans or other religious voommunity. He suc- ceeds in obtaining enough to start a college; and all 136 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, must be glad thai; he does so. But his establishment is likely, unless it has relation to others, to survive his life as a comparatively weak institution, having often the right, through provincial legislative sanction, to confer degrees, but having, owing to the want of funds, a band of instructors whose attainments are necessarily commonplace. Higher education suffers from this. If the Manitoba model were generally followed, a long step would be taken towards the improvement of the universities. The provision for primary and generally for secondary schools is excellent throughout the whole country, and in the north-^est one-eighteenth of all the land was originally set apart for school purposes. Many speak as though the experience of farming in the province of Manitoba dated only from yester- day ; but this is not the case, for Lord Selkirk many years ago brought in a colony consisting of Scotch- men from his estates in the north, taking them by Hudson's Bay up the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg, and then settling them not far from "where, the present city stands (then called Fort Garry), at a place named Selkirk. It is curious how few of the members of that force under Sir Garnet Wolseley which put down the Half-breed insurrection in 1870 seem to have been sufficiently impressed by the experience of the Selkirk tsettlers, for the soldiers were not desirous to take up the land allotment which was offered to every member of the expeditionary corps. Yet if they had remem- bered how the early pioneers had told them that the wheat grown on their lands came to a total of about thirty bushels per acre in each year, and that these crops were raised giving the land a time of rest every FBOM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG, 137 fifth year onlyj ;f they could have realized within how short a time those "^places which they themselves had reached with so much toil by march and canoe portage through woods and endless lakes, would not only be reached by railways, but become great rail- road centres, they would not so carelessly have thrown away their chance of making a fortune. When I was at Winnipeg in 1881 the city had scarcely 10,000 people ; now it has 30,000. The streets are ^ull of life. Excellent shops, large warehouses, and some handsome churches have been erected. The great want is a good pavement, for the soil is a tena- cious black stuff which clogs and sticks to everything it touches after rain. Fortunately it soon dries, and in the neighbourhood of the town the prairie sod gives good surface for anything but heavy traffic. To the north and north-west are the lakes of Winnipeg and Manitoba, both great inland seas, the first of which is connected by the .Nelson River with Hudson's Bay. It is proposed to export wheat during the short season of autumn, when the straits which give access to the bay are not full of ice. The time during which n^,vigation is certain must be very ]'n:iited, but it is possible t^iat, as in the case of i.r Mangel, it may be worth while to run steamers to Port Churchill, to carry away grain brought thither by rail. Around Lake Manitoba there is plenty of timber in forests, which stretch thence in a wide arch to the forks of the Saskatchewan, and thence north- ward until the pine and fir belts descend again, in the neighbourhood of Edmonton, to fill the valleya of the Rocky Mountains. 138 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEBY, But we are wandering in our survey too far aMeld, and for the present let us see how some men who are not of our race, and who entered the country with but few of the appliances brought or bought at once by the English, Scotch, or Canadian settler, have found a prosperous home in the plains of the Red River. You see neatly made houses covered with a heavy thatch along the railway line to the south, homesteads which are evidently occupied by farmers in comfortable circumstances, who have their cow-bvres and other outhouses neatly arranged in order near their dwell- ings. On a pole in the centre of the rustic courtyard hangs a bell, which is placed to summon the labourers from the fields for the noonday meal, or homeward when work is over for the day. If you go to their houses you will be hospitably welcomed, but the speech you hear is not your own ; it is German, and yet these men are not Germans. Their history is a remarkable one. Their ancestors lived under the Great Frederick in Brandenburg, in Pomerania. They had taken to the tenets of one Simon Menno, who preached, as did the great Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, that war is a crime. He went further, for he would not suffer his people to take arms in their hands even for the purposes of civil order. The sect increased, but you may imagine how distasteful these maxims were to the cast-iron military rule of the conquering Frederick. He would have none of them. What was the use of a man who would not even become a policeman ? And so away from home and kindred they had to go, and finding in the Emperor Paul of Russia a man FBOM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG, 139 who could value them as good agriculturists, and who invited them as such to his Courland provinces, they settled down as suhjects of the Czar. But as their numbers increased so did also the military systems of the Great Powers; and where every man must bo a soldier, to refuse to wear the uniform of the country is to be a neglecter of the first duty of a citizen. So thought the Kussian Government, and again these people were obliged to move, this time across the whole width of European Russia to the shores of the Sea of Azov, near the Crimea, where they were again allowed to settle upon lands in what at that time was but little better than a Tartar wilderness. Here again they throve and tilled and " replenished the earth," till " the desert blossomed like the rose." In recent times, however, the demand for military service in Russia determined the Mennonites — such is the name of this sect — to send pioneer colonists to make a greater journey than any heretofore accomplished; for this time they were to cross Europe and the ocean and half the continent of America, and find freedom beneath the flags of the kindred peoples who have fallen equal heirs to the grand liberty of the Far West. Some settled in Minnesota and some in Manitoba, Where the land on which any of their villages had been built needed drpvaing they, with true German energy and thoroughness and true Russian perseverance, set about the work; and no- where will you see better cared for settlements, though perhaps on rather a humble scale, than among the Mennonites. , 'v. ^1 Most comfortable are the interiors of their houses, I r. 140 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, though the floor is often only the hard-pressed earth ; but there is a cleanliness about walls, floor, and furni- ture, which tells of the presence of an excellent housewife. China in a corner cupboard, and books in another, add to the appearance of the apartment. As the wood was scarce a few years ago where they were, they largely used straw as fuel, and I was assured by one of the men, who like all his neighbours spoke excellent German, that they had never suffered in the least from any winter cold, having with a very little wood and much straw as fue? obtained more heat than they wanted in the house. Although sub- ject to, and willing to obey, the laws of the Dominion of Canada, there is practically no occasion on which these are enforced amongst them, for they have their own system of justice. A religious and God-fearing people, crime is rare with them, and when it occurs it is dealt with among themselves. The roads they have made from village to village, and their whole sys"^ m of rural economy, are excellent, and they form by far the most satis- factorj*^ instance of any aggregation in one place of men belonging to a foreign race. Their villages generally number from thirty to forty families, and it is their invariable custom on securing their lands to hold a council, at which they decide what portions of all the lands belonging to each head of a family are best adapted to the growth of wheat, potatoes, and the various other crops. By this method all the wheat is gi'own in one large tract, and so also with the potatoes, corn, and other crops — in short, the land is treated as being the property of the community ... FROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. 141 Tatlier than of the individual. Out of this huge wheat- field, or whatever crop it may be, each family is assigned one long strip, to be cultivated by that par- ticular family; and when the harvest is reaped tho whole result is *' pooled," and divided equally between the families comprising the community. Their cattle also are all herded in common in one huge pasturage by a herdswoman, who is one of the two persons to whom these curious people pay a s. lary, the bishop, or elder of the village, being the other. In the summer all hands, the bishop and the chil- dren included, engage in the farm work. These latter are always dressed in clothes which, being of tho exact pattern, even to the hats and bonnets, of those worn by their elders, give them a very grotesque appearance, especially in the case of the babies. Of course in a country with such ample space as tho north-west, where, if they become crowded in one part, they have only to move on and occupy another, such a system may be pursued with far less evil occurring from subdivision than in a little country largely peopled, as is the case with many a European land. There is anotlier foreign colony, consisting of Icelanders, who, however, have not had at home the experience which makes men successful in husbandry ; the girls, however, make excellent servants, and many of them are now distributed through the households of "Winnipeg in that capacity. In 1881 I passed through two to^vns, one called Portage la Prairie, the other Brandon, which have now 3000 and 5000 people, but then there were only 200 to 300 in each, if so many. A broken band of 142 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. I Sioux at tlie first named came hideously smeaied with crimson and yellow ochre, and used insolent language on the subject of imaginary giievances. Only ten years ago these fellows would come uninvited into houses at Fort Garry. Now t^ey are heard of as little as are the remnants of the Iroquois in Western Ontario. As there is virtue in many witnesses, let me cull from the journal of my friend. Dr. McGregor, vvho was with me in 1881, a note of one day's journey in this part of the north-west. - ' ** We camped on the banks of the Little Saskatche- wan (this stream has no relation to its big brother of the north) on the 1 1th August. We were up at four, and ofFbefore six in a heavy shower of rain, the only rain we had yet seen. The road lay up a gentle ascent, through knotty or humpy gi-ound, on to a rich rolling land, with bogs or muskegs in the hollows. Stopped at the settlement of D. D. from Huron. Has 9G0 acres of what he thinks the finest land in the world. He says that labouring men coming here will get work tho whole year without difficulty, but the best class to come is the small farmer who has a little means. * Send us as many Scotch farmers as possible,' he says ; *we will get on with them.' This is tue universal testimony. I have inquired particularly what money a man should have clear on arrival to get on com- fortably. I find that about £100 is the least sum they mention. Some have stated it lower than that. Of course with nothing, or next to nothing, a willmg work- man will get on here, but it will be a hard struggle for some years. The best time for coming is the mohth FROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. US of June. The roads are clear. There is time to look about for land, to make hay, to break up a few acres against spring, to build a house (which is there a very humble affair), and to make ready against winter. Mr. St. J., who has 1280 acres, says that the soil is a clay loam six feet thick, and that you can dig ten feet with- out a pick. The snow is not more than one foot thick. The climate is dry and bracing in winter; not a drop of rain falls from Qctober to March. He says that labourers can get $25 to $30 a month and board, and can work at lumber in winter. Servant girls who know dairy work are in great demand, and get $10 a month and board. There is no summer frost. We drove this day for hours through a country of marvellous fertility, not an acre of whic. was tilled. Hour after hour the circle of the great plain keeps widening around, far advancing as you advance. There seem to bo hayfields here enough to supply the world. At twelve noon the barometer marked 400 feet above RapiJ. City. Everywhere we see, where the grass is especially green, the process by which the soil was made. Silt forms on the surface of the waters in the hollows, grass begins to grow, and gradually a deep black soil is formed. In passing the gullies the black soil sticks to the wheels like glue. Here, as elsewhere, a notable feature of the prairies, in striking contrast with all I have seen of the forest, is the abundance of bird life. The loneliness of the woods is terrible, but here great buzzards and hawks are almost never out of sight. They tell their own tale. We come almost daily across bittern, snipe, widgeon, teal of two varieties, many kinds of duck, prairie hen or sharp -tailed grouse, 141 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, l)lovcrs, and coot. . There are great flocks of a species of starling. The gopher, or ground squirrel, is met with every day. Scarcely a lake we pass but has the dome-shaped dwelling of the musk rat, of which 70,000 skins were delivered last year at Carleton Fort alone. The flesh is eaten by the Indians, and the skins often form the * sealskin ' coats of ladies in London and Paris. At 1.20 we were passing Salt Lake, a beautiful sheet of water, but alkaline. These alkaline lakes are of frequent occurrence, the white salt showing in the soil. At 3, we camped at Shoal Lake. Such grass, such vegetables, such potatoes, I have never seen as those in a garden at that place ; — the soil a black loam as friable as sand. " The settlers came to see the governor. I have their names, but it is enough to say that their state- ments tallied exactly with those already recorded. One of them gave thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre, seventy-five of oats, and said that the potatoes were an enormous crop. I have learned that hail- storms, though very limited in their range, were very destructive. They are one of the worst evils that settlers have to contend with. I could not fiid any who had suffered from locusts. Next day found us in a rolling plain, the view in all directions interrupted by clumps of poplar. M. R., a typical farmer, had come from Ontario fourteen months before. He came in June ; broke in twelve acres from the sod, and eighteen in the spring, all now under crop; expects thurty bushels of wheat and seventy of oats from this new-turned land. I measured his oats, and they had Btrong straw four and a half feet high, with well-filled t .» « ^. U6 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. cars. His house, and especially steading, which was formed of logs piled one on the other, and covered with his winter store of hay, were certainly plain enough. But they served his purpose, and his house was commodious enough to be used as a sort of run. lie built them both with his own hands at a cost of $30. He gets watar at twelve feet, likes the climate, and thinks it better than that of Ontario. He says that the heights are warmer and more fertile than the hollows. The settler can dispose of all the grain he grows for seed to the new-comer. " In the afternoon we descended to the green and beautiful valley of the Birtle, whose opposite slopes were indented with wooded ravines. Some twenty houses nestling sweetly at the bottom of the long- drawn vale, which is sixty miles 'n length, constitute the little village, a year and a half old, with a mayor, a Presbyterian minister, a hotel, a general store, and a — town house. There were all the inhabitants assembled with an address, and heartily singing *God save the Queen ' — a well-dressed company of ladies and gentle- men, a clear-flowing river passing their doors, and they themselves rejoicing in an unbounded hope in the future greatness of Canada and Birtle. .*; ** I am not sure that my eyes ever looked on a fairer [and than that on which we gazed soon after leaving these friends. I was on the edge of a vast plateau. The ground sloped evenly and gently down for about two miles to the Assiniboine, 350 feet below, and on the high bank overhanging it were the white houses of Fort Ellice. A long, dark belt of wood, lost on either hand in the distance, marked the course of the river^; it FROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG, H7 'V. f while beyond it there stretched what looked like tho finest plain in England, a light and sunny land, that has been waiting through all these long centuries to bless men with its wealth. There was the river which had cut that deep, broad groove for itself out of tho level prairie, a tangle of ash, elm, and maple growing on its banks. And there, in very heart of this lono land was a three-decked, stem-wheeled steamer of 2G0 Ions, which runs regularly from April to November, but takes a week to accomplish the 800 miles of tortuous watercourse between this and Winnipeg." Lines are being constructed to the north-west and south-west, and it is manifest that there is plenty of room, and a necessity for more railroads, for it is only by means of them that the farmers can bring their grain to market. The quickness wiui which even the least experienced in prairie farming can provide for himself is well illustrated in the case of the Highland crofters sent out in 1883 by Lady Cathcaii;. Mr. Peacock Edwards was requested by her to visit them, and this is the account he gave by my request to a great meeting at Glasgow, of his impressions of tho country and of the condition of the settlers : — "I am satisfied, from personal observation, that a technical knowledge of farming, however desirable, is not absolutely necessary for new settlers in the north- west. The soil is so rich that it only requu-es to be scratched and the seed 'sown to yield an abundant harvest. In the course of my travels I met witJi men, formerly occupied in a variety of trades and professions, successfully carrymg on farming operations. Among others I met a gentleman who had been in a bank at 148 CANADIAN LIFS AND SCENEBT. h Sheffield, and after visiting South Africa, had ultimately settled in the north-west, and was successfully working u farm there with his own hands. Another, who had heen a Methodis^; clergj'man for twenty-one years in Ontario, had como up with his sons, and we found them reaping a fine crop of wheat on the farm on which they had settled. Another was an engineer who had not succeeded in business, another a Coffee planter fron Ceylon, and, indeed, men who had been in almost •every trade you could mention — all successfully carry- ing on farms, contented with their lot, and full of hope for the future. So that, in order to succeed in the north-west, a practical knowledge of farming, such as is required in this coimtry, is not at all necessary. No fertilizers are used, and, consequently, the farmer has not to balance nicely the relative vtjues of dissolved bones and guano, nor has he a manure merchant's bill to meet when he sends his wheat to market. Machinery iias been broug'^t to such a degree of perfection that manual labour is reduced to a minimum. Everywhere tin self-binding reaper is in use, and the plough has a raised seat, on which a man or boy is placed, driving it like a waggon team. I have seen a good deal of the practical operations of farming in this country, both on large and small holdings, aiid I can confidently assert, from personal knowledge, chat the labour of the farmer in Canada is much lesR arduous than in this country. Canada tbjs offers a comfortable home and an assured livelihood not only to those of the agricultural classes who cannot gain a living here, but also to the unem- ployed mechanics and labourers m our great cities, who, as I have said, can snccessfully undertake farming with- FROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG, 149 out previous experience, and who only require to cross the Atlantic to find themselves prosperous members of a rising community m this Land of Promise. "This leads me to the important question, what means should each family or individual contemplating a move to Canada possess? I observed that Lord Lome, in his lecture at Birmingham^ stated that a single mail should have from £50 to £100, exclusive of the cost of the journey ; and if married, from £200 or £250 to £500 ; and I quite agree that such means would be sufficient, and insure the settlers immediate comfort and success, though I think he, speaking with official reserve and caution, probably stated the figures at a higher sum than is absolutely necessary. In carrying out the practical details of Lady Cathcart's coloniza- tion scheme, I found that the average expense of trans- mitting a f'^ mily of five (including infants) from Glasgow to Winnipeg was £22, being £4 8s. per head, and with £100 additional to start with on the free homestead farms, I believe each family cov.ld make a very fair start, though it certainly would be better if they had from £150 to £200 to commence with. In regard to a single man I should say £50, exclusive of the cost of journey, should be suhlcient. He can always nnd em- ployment at high wages, jind has not the same necessity for at once entering upon a homestead. During my travels through the country, I met with numerous in- stances of farmers now well-to-do who had settled on the homesteads with practically nothing ; but, in order to start comfortably, I should say £100 in addition to the expense of passage out to be very desirable for an ordinary family." The new Canadian route by the lakes 150 CANADUN LIFE AND SCENERY. is cheaper than that mentioned here, for Lady Cath- cart's people went via Chico go. .' . " The correctness of thcoe figures has been proved by actual experience. Lady Cathcart advanced to each of the families that left her estates in spring the sum of £100 to enable them to start in Canada, and that sum, with the little they possessed of their own, has been sufficient to enable them to settle in the north- west in comfort and independence, and with an as- surance of prosperity. I saw sixty of these people leave the Broomielaw one misty April morning in the present year, with careworn looks that told of a hard struggle for existence in the crowded island homes they had left; and I again saw them five months afterwards in their new homes in the north-west of Canada, and I could not have believed the change, had I not seen it. There we found them located in a fertile and beautiful country, raised at once into the position of considerable proprietors, and though it was the end of May before they settled on their locations, they were already surrounded by fine crops ripening to harvest. I shall never forget the scene as I approached this new settlement, on a bright, sunny morning. It resembled a gentleman's park in this country, with ornamental clumps of plantations, and lakelets here and there interspersed through the landscape, as if laid out by a skilful landscape gardener, with the temporary turf houses of the settlers under the shelter of some wood, and the more permanent dwelling-houses in the course of erection. A considerable extent of groimd was already un4er cultivation, and potatoes planted on the 4th of June were ready for use in seven FBOM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. 151 weeks and four days thereafter, excellent alike in quantity and quality. The careworn expression these settlers had when I saw them here was changed for one of bright, cheerful contentment, and they were full of gratitude to Lady Cathcart for this great change for the better in their condition. Here I may say that the Celtic settlers showed the greatest energy, and told us they could do double the amount of work in their new homes that they could in the old country, and with less sense of fatigue. This may be attributed mainly to the superior cHmate ; the sense that they were working on their own lands had probably something to do with it also." In speaking of the crops harvested, I put the amount modestly at twenty bushels of wheat to the acre — ^that is, speaking of good land. Even this, which is often below the mark, sounds a large quantity, but from the new soils of Canada it has been frequently won. It is now only on virgin ground that, as a rule, such an amount of produce can be expected. But there are tracts where an even greater yield can be had from dry soils to which irrigation can be applied — a system used in some places in British Columbia. A greater yield has also frequently been won from the Red River Valley of Manitoba. In that rich loam, often four, five, and six feet in depth, very heavy crops have been regularly raised, the wheat producing more bread for its weiglit than any other. " Mr. Ogilvie, an extensive miller in Winnipeg," so says Mr. Carling, Postmaster- General, to me in a recent letter, " declares that a barrel of Manitoba flour, made from hard fyfe wheat, will make four loaves of four pounds each more than I 152 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. can be made out of a barrel of Ontario flour ; " and lie adds, " very much better bread." He also says that the diifei'ejfice from flour made of good Canadian spring or red winier wheat would be from two to three loaves more per barrel in favour of that grown in Manitoba. In the district round Selkirk the land has been annually cropped with wheat, leaving it alone every fifth year. The cultivation has thus needed no manure. All kinds, of roots attain to a wonderful size. As a rule, indeed^ agriculture, both in the States and in Canada, has up to within the last few years been conducted on the system of " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Men, knowing that they could proceed to other lands, should their own give out in fertility, have cropped recklessly and regardless of the waste of tho properties inherent in the land. There is many a gigantic tract in the States whose wheat-bearing capaci- ties have not, indeed, been worked out, but which have been seriously diminished. This has tended to in- crease the westward movement amongst farmers. In Canada, throughout the old provinces, gi'eatly increased attention has been given to the manuring and treat- ment of farms, and the crop of wheat, although by no means so heavy as when the land was first cleared, i& still very good. At the same time, no man must expect tiie gigantic crops procurable from the newly broken prairie to be his if he takes possession of an old farm. But he has compensating advantages if he settles in Old Canada, for he has that which he cannot find except in a long civilized country — that is, a con* tinnation of home life and traditions in his surround- ings. In the north-west, rich as is the provision norf FROM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. 153 made for education, he cannot hope to find so fully developed and admirable a system of sohool instraction for his children as that which prevails in the older provinces; he cannot, except in the newly-founded towns, find the ministrations of the Church so amply provided for as he can in countries east of the shores of Lake Huron. It cannot be too often repeated that both in the east and the west of Canada a comfort- able living can be had for a farmer who desires to live on his own land, and has £200 to £500 to spend in procuring outfit. Men can go with only a few pounds, and, hiring themselves to farmers, may in time win enough to buy an outfit for a farm for them- selves. The great point in conducting such settlements as Lady Cathcart's, is to have all arranged beforehand where you wish your friends to go. Don't let them remain at Winnipeg or elsewhere wasting their sub- stance in looking round them. If you wish to help any man with £100 to go, see that he is told where to go at once, so that he finds his land, and if possible a small frame house and store ready waiting for him. There are many who have lost what they brought out because they were uncertain where to go. Good local guidance is a necessity. You can now get plenty of land from several companies, but the Government lands are as yet the cheapest. Do not let any one imagine that he will rapidly make a fortune. Both south of the Pacific Railway and to the nortn there is plenty of land to be had at varying prices, from the 160 acres of Government land to be had for $2, to other lands given at higher rates by other owners. The flat landscape is by no means always to 154 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, I j I be met with. Within the bounds of the province there is a considerable diversity. Sometimes the poplar woods grow pretty thickly. In other localities there are plains twenty miles in width without them. Some- times oak and a kind of maple are found, and about Turtle Mountain and Touchwood Hills the ground is much broken, and, for those who love variety, of greater attraction. Indeed, the sameness of the land- scape is often the only complaint of those who have gone from the old provinces, although to be sure, othem may be heard lamenting that there is not more society and better opportunities for church, school, and market. These are evils inseparable from all first settlement ; they do not much affect the young man, and he will dwell in conversation only on the superiority of the crops he has to those he remembers on his father's farm. We will move on westward, and take the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Excellently laid over flat or rolling prairie, a train can proceed at almost any speed ; but as we proceed along the solidly-laid track we can take some notes. As we again take the "cars" and until we reach the Assiniboine, on the frontiers of the province of Manitoba, we see on our horizon-line, and usually nearer to us, clumps and bands of poplar wood. There are also many lakes and lakelets — pretty ponds, for few are so large as to be worthy of the name of lake ; ponds where numerous wild fowl seem to be for ever swimming about among the rich reeds on the margin, ponds aroimd which deep rank grass rises higher than anywhere else on the level summer meadows. There is many a tract where the meadow appears still untouched by the ^^. FBOM LAKE HURON TO WINNIPEG. 155 •sr hand of man ; yet it has long ago, depend upon it, been bought, and bought for a good round sum, and is now being held for a further advance in price. Why should a further advance be expected ? The answer is simple. You need only look north, east, south, and west, and everywhere you will see the wooden-planked house of the emigrant. Often a great patch of yellov; wheat-field is bowing in the breezes ; each train along the line you are following has, during the summer months, been canying hundreds into Winnipeg, and hundreds away from Winnipeg to the west. Hundreds more have taken the trails over the prairie for points to v/hich railway companies are already directing their attention, and to which lines are already projected or in process of completion. The arrival of yet more and yet more, and the conse- quent rise in the value of the lands, is looked upon as a certainty. Last year 40,000 to 50,000 entered this land of promise, and this year it is probable that the number has been yet greater. Never was a railway better endowed for the purposes of its existence, for the Canadian Pacific Railway has about 25,000,000 of acres in this fertile belt, and of this vast amount they still at the present moment hold at least 17,000,000; and having the power to choose the good lands, and being able to reject those which may be inferior, they became possessed, when they undertook the line, of a land-for- tune which, with the $25,000,000 in cash, was one of the greatest dowers ever granted. The line is the shortest from Europe to Asia by at least 1000 miles. There are 2700 miles of track from Montreal to the Pacific. Truly a stupendous and most essential enterprise I 156 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENEIIY. CHAPTER VI. THE NEW TERRITORIES. The Stern-wheel Steamer — Prince Albert — Fort Edmonton — The Peace River — Athabasca — The Bell Farm — The System of Land Appropriation in the North- West— Comparative Production of the North-West and other Parts — ^Alberta — Buffalo Herds. BEFORE we go further along the Canadian Pacific Railway line, it will be well to take a passing look at the two great provinces which lie to the north, namely, Saskatchewan and Athabasca ; called after the great rivers which, flowing from the Rocky Mountains, join their waters near Prince Albert, and pour their united flood into Lake Winni- peg. Each of the Saskatchewan River branches is roughly 800 miles in length, and when united they have a course of some 900 miles to run before they reach the lake. The province called after them has an area of 100,000 square miles. A railway will soon give access to the districts around the lower parts of these streams. Steamers have navigated for some years the North Saskatchewan, and on the southern branch more vessels are now being placed. The river rises in spring after the ice has broken up, an event which takes place about the 23rd of April. Until October THE NEW TERTtlTOniES, 157 ;h the vessels can find water, but in the autumn the stream becomes very shallow, and the numerous and ever-shifting sand-bars cause much delay. The Missouri and the upper portions of the Mississippi are very similar in this respect, and the difficulties in the latter are well known through Mr. Clemens' (Mark Twain) able writings. The first thing which seems odd to a European is that there is only one paddle wheel, and this single wheel is placed at the stern, so that the craft looks like an upturned wheelbarrow. The feature which will, secondly, seem the oddest is a curious erection of beams on the forward deck. Two things, like the gyns used in lifting heavy weights, are placed on each side. The heavy weight to be lifted in this case is the vessel itself. As soon as very shallow water is struck, two long beams are nut over the side, the wheel astern chums up the water, and the ship is fairly lifted on these, as a lame man is on crutches, for a few feet over the obstacle. The poles are then hoisted, and put forward again into the sand, and another step onward is made. Where such a rig is not provided, the only means of making progress consists in getting out a hawser and attaching it to something on the bank. The capstan is then manned and the hawser hauled upon, and with much shouting, rocking of the boat, and con- vulsive effort of the engines, step by step, way is gained, until deeper water is reached. Much time used to be lost in old days from the absence of the electric light on board. The want of such means of illumination made it necessary to "tie up" every evening at sundown, and remain stationary under 158 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. the bank until morning showed the pilot the surface of the stream. To men to whom time was not a matter of'importance these halts were not unpleasant. It gave time for an excursion on shore, for the shoot- ing of the sharp-tailed grouse of the plain, or possibly for a shot at bear or buffalo. All big game have now vanished from the frequented routs, and the utmost excitement enjoyed by our dogs was a night chase around the state rooms after a flying squirrel, which bad come on board from a neighbouring poplar thicket. Prince Albert is already a well- settled place. A Highlander, Bishop MacLean, from the Isle of Mull, is the Anglican bishop. Parallel with the Saskatche- wan and to the south flows the Carrot River, along whose valley there is abundance of fine land. Here» too, we meet the forest, which exists for 700 miles near the great river to the north, coming down to clothe its banks again in the neighbourhood of Edmonton. The bishop points out his first " palace," a little log-wood shanty. Nor is his present abode imposing. But there is real grandeur in the work he and his colleagues of other denominations have set themselves to do, and have already succeeded in doing so well. These early evangelizers and priests of the wilderness can often speak several Indian dialects. They have peacefully prepared the mind of the red man for the greater changes yet to come. Their place is no sinecure. Long before the,^ can even hope to have civilized towns and farms around them, they must be prepared to undertake long journeys, and to toil ceaselessly with no expectation of any reward other than that their consciences must give them. THE NEW TEItniTOIilES, 159 And it has been for this only that they have striven.' Now that Providence has directed towards their lonely habitations the throng of emigrants, they havo an additional responsibility, and one that they will meet and accept, and a reward for which they havo indeed unconsciously worked, for it was never expected. We will hurry on to Edmonton, and hear the reports there. Many men from Ontario have got property here, and there is abundance of coal as well as of timber in the vicinity. Horses do well when left out in winter. This is now comparatively well- known ground, but there may ba some interest in endeavouring to see what lies beyond the paths which are already more or less beaten tracks. There is no stranger sensation than that of camping night after night in meadows which are full of such good grass that you feel inclined to look round for their owner and to ask his leave. But there have been none from the beginning of time to say to you " nay." Even the savage has here never molested the pioneer. No one having a taste for exploration, for sport, or for settlement in some far-away but fair region, where he may live as pioneer of a community on land certain to rise in value, need fear to pursue his object on account of any native's hostility. There is no one to hinder him, if he wishes to break the soil where the great Peace River forces its way through the grand masses of the mountains, or settle near the Hudson's Bay Company's posts further down along the banks of the deeply-wooded stream. There is a singular charm injhus being among the first in a new land. «V' « poured wesfw r. w«l sT^'' "^ emigration fellow onward until bo reLJJ- «^ """"J' » '"o>'t from which he may see he I f ^ '''"• *•« form, «nd peaks of the CkJ Mn /"'^ "^^^'''ed ridg.s "'ear and distinct^ da kbW """""" '"'"• «^V. "'t sunset light. '''"*' "Samst the western jnonton. They were If ' ?'" "'^«^ fr^m Ed- lo«t three out of rheTrS?'"**^ '" ^""^^ b"' having being able to get in J e'?.'' °!t '^' '"?' """l not -ere unable t'o dl anythS The'f Z^^*"'^' '"^y '^ere compelled to come back in !, /'* «"n,mer, and start. They are very much nl f^' '° e«* » "ew «nd climate, and 00017^2'"^ ''''^ *>>« country They had e^cted a stn. ^d T"" '° ^'^'"°"'-- on a claim a few miles frln ^°"* '*""« ''reakint; two men remained on it until .^0!!? '''^' fo"- '"d -hen one left for Edmonton Th ®"' 5 ^"'''"''ry, «tormyand cold in Januar; „^''! -^'"her was very <3own to 56° and 57° hT'^' "'* 'hermometer going the middle of the mon^h ^r "" *"^ ''"^^ '»-"" feet deep in the laUer end oTf l'' ""^ '''^"' "'ree letter part of February and all M "r^J ^"""S "'« ^ery fine. Snow be"[n " Jl „^u "^ ""^ -«*«>er was March, and the ground w«/k ?'^"' ">« "'ddle of April. A very^ard cr^?r V^' ''"' -eek o March, but this did not n "'^^ "^ ^^^ ^""^ in Comi«ny'sherd of ho°^sS' "" ^"'l^O"'^ Ba; from doing well. ThTkept 1^7.'''°'*""^ °«' ey Kept along the north bank THE NEW TERRITOItlES, ICI of the river, where the sun has more effect on the snow than on the plain behind. The Peace River broke up about the middle of April, and grass began to turn green in the latter end of the month. 'J ho spring was somewhat later than usual. No horses died during the winter. **Th« piece of breaking, about three acres in extent,, which had been done last fall was sown this spring with wheat, barley, and oats, and the grain was up on the 10th of May. The crop sown at Dunvegan was also up at that time and looking well. ** Rabbits and chickens are plentiful all over the* country, also ducks and geese wherever there are any lakes or ponds. Of large game, bears, both black, brown, and grizzly, are the most plentiful. The grizzly is generally found near the mountains, and the black bear on the plains. Moose are not as common as a few years ago, and are found principally around Fort St. John. There are a few timber wolves. Foxes, both red, cross, and grey, are very numerous, also marten and fisher. The claim was left in charge of one of the men, who went to Peace River in 1883, and intends to reside there permanently. He left Dun- vegan on the 10th of May on a ra!*t loaded with Hudson's Bay Company goods for Battle River, which comes into the Peace below the mouth of Smoky River. The trip to Smoky River occupied :a, day. ** The Peace is a grand stream, being half as wide again as the Saskatchewan at Edmonton, very deep, with a strong current and a few islands on it. The banks are very high and slope back from the river. 1G2 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. the northern being all prairie and the southern all timber. There are no high-cut banks, as on the Saskatchewan. The Smoky River is nearly as largo at its mouth as the Saskatchewan.'' This letter refers to regions which are as yet far removed from any considerable settlement ; but, from the accounts received, the Province ol Athabasca — such is the new name given :o a country as large as France — will be one of the finest in the CanadUn Union. To reach Edmonton it required, a few years ago, nmety days of travel across the prairies from Winnipeg. Slowly the old caravans of Red River carts traversed the trails over the sod of the vast plains. But, unless it were in places where small watercourses made a marsh, the trails formed good loads. J3y these or by the river, people have still to travel to Edmonton ; but one of the proposed rail- ways, which is certain tc pay well, will be that which shall proceed by the forks of the Saskatchewan up the northern branch of that river, and proceed from Edmouton to Dunvegan, on the Peace River, and open up that great grain country. It is impossible to estimate the amount of wheat which must be raised in the lifetime of many now here from these parts of the central continent. The dryness which is present sometimes in the south is wholly absent from the richly grassed steppes that lie in an immense arched zone from Edmonton to Prince Albert, having on its northern edge the spruce forests, which end only when the sub-Arctic circle is reached. Athabasca has 120,000 square miles within its limits. As long ago as the days of Fnmklin's journey ■4 TEE NEW TERRITORIES, 1G3 across these plains, Tticbardson. who travclleJ with hiir. as catiiralist to his expedition, was struck with the fair soil, and the evidence of a comparatively warm climate in winter, along the banks of the vast Mackenzie River. It is evident that where a heavy wood growth can live by the water's edge, that there wheat can he grown. But as yet it is a land of much mystery. Hunters tread its vast woods and prairies for the sake of the fur-bearing animals, notably fox, fisher, marten, lynx, mink, wolverine, musk-rat, beaver, v7olf, bear, and musk-ox. Thi*^ last is a creature almost as grotesque in appearance as is the buffalo. It has much of the sheep in its character- istics. Its horns are sheep-like, in their rising from flat bases spread across the forehead, but tlic animal is a huge one, with a coal, of hair six inches in length on the back. The colour ia dark, with a light patch on the back. Curious, too, are the fish of these countries, most of them well and truly described by old Richardson. To the list of natural features we must probably add the presence of i)etroleum. It is said that along the River Athabasca men have seen cliffs which for eighty miles are full of this precious oil. We have seen something of the Indians of Assini- boia. Let us now examine the early results of the industry of the white man in that province. It is a magnificent sight to an eye loving agriculture to see some of his farms. A recent letter K])eaks of a visit to the Bell Farm, not far from the charming village of Qu'Appelle. This is an entcrpri*«« but lately begun, and everything that is now to be seen upon it nas 164 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, been done within twelve months. Listen to the aspect of it in 1883. " The dwelling-house or head-quarters of the farm stands about a mile and a half back from the railroad. It is a plain, substantial building of stone. Sur- rounding it are a granary and store-house, a large stone stable for horses, a blacksmith's shop, a shed for cattle, an ice-house, a dog-konnel, etc. The granary and store-house are capable of holding 30,000 bushels oi wheat, besides all the stores and imple- ments for the use of the farm. In one compartment alone of this granary I saw 8000 bushels (and then it was not half full) of the finest fyfo wheat, yellow and pure as gold, without dirt or weed seeds of any kind. This year, when the haixest has all been ingathered, there will be 30,000 bushels of the same. It will weigh sixty-seven pounds t<» the bushel, and average twenty-two bushels to the acre. The yield of oats will be 70,000 bushels — ^all the produce of 3000 acres of land this year. This wheat will all be reserved for next year's seed, both f-jc their own use and the use of all farmers who may desire to purchase it. The company intend to establish a No. 1 grade, that they call *Qu'AppelIe wheat,' which will bo unsurpassed for quality on the whole of the vast continent, if not in the world at large. The stable is a circular stone building, with square holes at intervals all round it, for light and ventilation. There are stalls for thirty-six horses in this building, and it is as clean as a parlour. The £eed is kept in the upper story, and is conveyed through a chute to the lower. One man attends to the whole stable. TEE NEW TERRITORIES. 165 le 31 i. r- d e t 1 r L The cattle shed is capable of holding 200 head of stock, and is open on every side all round, the roof resting on heavy piles. The stock are to be left free in this inclosure, so that they may be allowed to rub themselves against the posts. There are twenty-six self-binder reaping-machines on the farm, and it is a sight worth beholding, all these machines marching by, as if in battle array, attacking the standing grain, laying it low, gathering it into sheaves, binding it, and then casting it forth on the ground without a single mishap or failure. They have fifty sulky ploughs ; each plough is required to travel twenty miles a day, and then its work is done. Two steam threshing-machines are now at constant work ; eighty- seven men are employed ; there are forty stations on the farm; ninety-n?ne work horses are owned, and sixty head of milch cows. Ten thousand acres will be put into seed next year. The farm is ten miles square, and there is being planted a grand avenue of 10,000 poplar trees, ten miles in length. Some of the trees were planted last year and are healthy, and average from twelve to fifteen feet in height. The company is cuttini 800 tons of wild hay for the use of the stock during the con ing winter. It would cost $70,000 to do the fencing ol " is establishment alone. Instead of leaving the grain when cut to stand ex- posed in stooks on the field, as I notice that many of the farmers do, thus risking the loss of it from bad weather, it is hauled off as soon as possible and stacked neatly and safely away, six stacks in a place, to await the coming of the threshing-machicep. Twenty- five portable granaries are being constructed on the 166 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. farm, to hold 1000 busfiels each. They are monster barrels, with a square hole cut in the side for the grain to pass through into them from the thresher. They are supported on heavy sleds, and will bo movable to any part of the farm. The Bell Farm Company pays their employes $35 a month, about £80 a year, and settle with them punotually on the 20th of every month. There has been an expenditure aliealy of $250,000 on the farm. The town of Indian Head contains a population of from 100 to 200. It is built on the land belonging to the Bell Farm. This town is to be beautifully laid out and planted by the farm company with shade trees. The main street is to be the same width as Main Street in Winnipeg. 1 could take up much further space and time in describing this immense undertaking, but this will sufiSce for the present. Let me, however, before concluding, say a word or two about some samples of grain that Major Bell has been collecting on the farm for the Central Pacitic Ilailway Company, to be sent as exhibits to Londou, England. One of these is a sample of oats, the product of one single germ seed. It is composed of thirty stalks, more like young canes than oat stalks. It is estimated that there are 10,000 seeds of grain on these stalks. Another is ft sample of 'soft wheat, Red River variety.* There are thirty stalks, and 1200 seeds of grain attached to them. A third sample has eighty-tliree heads of the fyfe variety, containing 3000 pickles of the finest wheat. The Yankoea boast that they can beat all creation, but here is something in the nort^ -west that can beat the Yankees. They have in St. Paul a THE NEW TERRITORIES. 167 sample of wheat with eighty-one heads, and they have offered $500 for anything that can beat it in the States. But if Major Bell was only allowed to carry the war across the boundary Ane, or past this Ameri- can Chinese wall into the enemy's country, he would beat them all into a cocked hat in no time/' Thii system of laying out the land in Llaaitoba and the Canadian north-west is most simple. The land is divided into townships, six miles square, con- taining thirty-six sections o; 640 acres each, which are again subdivided into quarter sections of 160 acres. A road allowance having a width of one chain is provided for on each section line running north and south, and on every alternate section line running east and west. The following diagram shows a township with the sections numbered— "W 31 32 33 34 35 36 30 29 28 27 26 25 19 20 21 22 23 24 E 18 17 16 15 14 13 7 8 9 10 11 12 6 5 4 3 2 1 s T-i: The sections are appropriated as follows :-— Open for Homestead and Pre-emptions. — Nos. 2,4,69 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 28, 30, 32, 34, 30. _j 168 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. belonging to the Canadian Pacifio Railway. — No8. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27. 31, 33, 35. Nos. 1, 9, 13, 21, 25, 33 along tho main lino Winnipeg to Moose Jaw sold to the Canada North- West Land Company, tho balance of their lands being in South Manitoba. Hudson's Bay Company*8 Lands. — Nos. 8, 26. School Sections. — Nos. 11, 29 (reserved by Government solely for school purposes). Here is a statement of comparative produce in the north-west, and other countries; but it is by no means to be assumed that all the country yields twenty-nine bushels ; — WHEAT. Manitoba, average yield per acre . 7 29 bushels^ Great Britain and Ireland . . . 28*5 Minnesota (the Empire Wheat State of the Union . . . . . , 1451 United States 12*3 Ontario 11*5 ^outh Australia 8 The same, though to a less extent, applies to barley and oats. The averages of barley are : — BARLEY. Manitoba, average yield per acre Minnesota ^ „ . Wisconsin ^ ^ Iowa Ohio Indiana Illinois » n n n n »» n >» OATS Manitoba, average yield per acre Minnesota Iowa Ohio : . It ■m- 39 bushels. 25 »r 20 >» 22 »» 19 n 19 n 17 ff 57 bushels. 37 )) 28 » 23 n TEE NEW TEBRITORIES, t 169 nU ith nt he QO da This remarkable growth is accounted for by the fact that the cultivated plants yield the greatest pro- duct near the northernmost limit of their growth. Hence the perfection of wheat in Manitoba, where, instead of being developed too rapidly, as is the case further south, the undue luxuriance of the stem or leaf is restrained by the cool, late spring, and the chief development of the plant thrown into the ripening period. The assertion of the distinguished American climatologist, BloJgett, " that the basin of the Winnipeg is the seat of the greatest average wheat product on this continent, and probably in the world," has been proved correct by the record of a yearly average of over twenty-nine bushels per acre from 1876 to 1882. The following comes from the Canadian Pacific Railway's Handbook, and is useful, being accurate. An approximate estimate of the first outlay, in a moderate way, of the settler who has more than £100 capital : — Provisions for one year, say .... £50 Yoke of oxen One cow . Waggon. Plough and harrow Sundry implements Cooking stove, with tinware Furniture, etc., say Sundry expenses, say . 37 7 16 7 2 5 15 10 £149 To the above must be added first payment on land, unless he takes a homestead and pre-emption ; but an energetic man will find time to earn something as an It* 170 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERT. offset to a portion of his first expenses, either on the railway, or by working for neighbouring farmers; and in addition to this there is the chance of obtaining a partial crop the first year, A settler, therefore, who can boast of having £500 on his arrival in Manitoba is an independent man, and cannot fail to succeed, with ordinary care and energy. Many settlers on arrival have not a tenth part of the sum, and yet they succeed. The cost of breaking, ploughing, sowing, and harvesting is estimated on good authority at from £2 48. to £2 16s. per acre, which, of course, includes the settler's own labour and that of his family. The settler from older countries should be careful to adapt himself to those methods which experience of the country has proved to be wise, rather than try to employ in a new country those practices to which he has been accustomed at home. For instance, with respect to ploughing, or, as it is called, " break- ing'' the prairie, the method in Manitoba is quite dififerent from that in the old country. The prairie is covered with a rank vegetable growth, and the question is how to subdue this, and so make the land available for farming purposes. Experience has proved that the best way is to plough a shallow furrow, and turn over a furrow from twelve to sixteen inches wide. It is especially desirable for the farmer who enters early in the spring to put in a crop of oats on the first breaking. It is found by experience that the sod pulverizes and decomposes under the influence of a growing crop quite as effectually, if not more so, than when simply turned and left by itself for that purpose. There are also fewer weeds, which is of THE NEW TEBBIT0BIE8. 171 very great importance, as it frequently happens tliat the weeds which grow soon after breaking are as difficult to subdue as the sod itself. Large crops of oats are obtained from sowing on the first breaking, and thus not only is the cost defrayed, but there is a profit. It is also of great importance to a settler with limited means to get this crop the first year. One mode of this kind of planting is to scatter the oats on the grass, and then turn a thin sod over them. The grain thus buried quickly finds its way through, and in a few weeks the sod is perfectly rotten. As for fuel, specimens of coal have lately been taken out from various parts of the country, and the analysis and experience in the burning of the mineral show that although the coal of the tertiary formations in Manitoba and the eastern part of Assiniboia will provide fair fuel, it is not to be mentioned in the same breath with the coal found from Medicine Hat onward to the mountains, and northwards along the line near their « foot-hills." Alberta has 100,000 square miles, and was named aftei the Princess Louise, one of whose Christian names is Alberta. It is the great region embracing the head-waters of the two Saskatchewans. Its surface is, in the south and centre, a rolling prairie, treeless except near the water-courses. On the west side of the foot-hills of the mountains, among the gorges, and in the north, there is a rich growth of spruce and pine. Anthracite has been found in a vein five feet thick in one of the ^lens, and veins of excell'jnt coal of the cretaceous period of geology seem to underlie the whole country near the mouxi* 172 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. tains. Excellent mines have been opened near Medicine Hat. The one great necessity of the settler is thus bountifully supplied by Providence. There is also plenty of good clay for brickmaking. Principal Grant, in his interesting account of his journey from "ocean to ocean," thus speaks of the coal in the north and of the scenery. He knew only the stuff found on the surface or rolled in the streams, and says that the " men he met had been in the habit of making fires with it whenever they wished the fire to remain in all night. The exposure of the coal on the Pembina River was a mere nothing to that on the north fork of the North Saskatchewan; that there the seams were eighteen feet thick ; that in one canyon waa a wall of seams so hard that the weather had no effect on them ; and that on all the rivers east of Edmonton, and west to the Rocky Mom tains, are abundant showings of coal." In the vai> y of the Athabasca Paver, which flows through part of Alberta, he describes the view near the Roche Rondc, which is a type of many others. ** Roche Rondo was to our right, its stratification as distinct as the leaves of a half-opened book. The mass of the rock was lime- stone, and what at a distance had been only peculiarly bold and rugged outlines, were now seen to be the different angles and contortions of the strata. And such contortions! One high mass twisting up the sides in serpentine folds, as if it Imd b^en so much pie-crust; another bent in great wavinp; lines like petrified billows. The colouring, too, was all that the artist could desire. Not only the dark green of the spruce in the corries, which turned into black when TUE yEW TEBnnOlUES. 173 far up, but autumn tints of red antl gold as liigh as vegetation had climbed on the liill-sides ; and above that streaks and patches of yellow, green, rusty red, and black relieving the grey mass of limestone ; while up the valley every shade of blue came out, according as the hills were near or' far away; and summits hoary with snow bounded the horizon." Some time will pass before travellers see these northern mountains, fir the Inter-Oceanic Line, which was to have i)assed by the Tete Faune Cache Pass, has been taken far to the south, through the Kicking Horse Pass. Wo will follow the lino from the frontier ot Assiniboia. Soon after crossing the South Saskatchewan on a long wooden bridge, we shall see upon the prairies herds of cattle, for the Government has leased tracts of grazing laud extend- ing over all the south-west corner of the territory near the mountains. Many of the beasts arc of the best English stock, Mr. Cochrane and others having given large sums for high-grade bulls. The bulk of the herds are from the Western States. The ranch- men, as the lessees and owners of bi^ cattle farms are called, will tell you in the United States that it will not pay to have cattle where they must be fed in winter, and e^ do' ' it is far less expensive to licep them in districts v,Iiere it is not necessary to collect winter fodder. But forage is easily procured, and shelter not difficult to provide, so that we may expect cattle-keeping to become an extensile business. As we have seen, horses can live out thrtugh the winter easily enough, and for them the area Oi good country is much greater than for unhoused cattle. Throughout 174 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. this country wo saw, in 1881, the dung of buffalo, although wo only mot a small herd of thirteen young bulls. Dr. Macgrcgor correctly describes "tho boundless hay-fijlds, overywht.j pitted with buffalo wallows; seamed by furrow-like and parallel buffalo trails, and thickly sprinkled with buffalo * chips' and their whitening bones. You can never go far without seeing the horned skull of this onco famous dweller of the prairio bleaching in tho sun. Tho wallows are saucer-like depressions in tho ground, mado by the buffaloes rubbing themselves; and so densely were these prairies at ono time filled by these innumerable herds, that in many places you will find those wallows every few yards. They are an especial characteristic of tho country, and will always be found to bo deepest around a largo stone, which is invariably utilized by tho bull buffaloes for sharpening their horns for battle. Tho narrow trails beaten by their hoofs as they follow each other in line of march from one feeding-ground to another, and from lake to lake, are also of very frequent occurrence, as ono painfully learns from tho rough jolting they cause. Any one in difficulty about water can always find it by follow- ing these trails. Buffalo herds onco on the move are difficult to turn aside. They have been known to go riglit through an encampment, and oven to have broken a lino of mounted policemen." When the herds of these creatures were so numerous that tho earth was black with their moving masses, a ride among them and the slaughter of the bulls must have been exciting work; but to run down o THE NEW TEItltlTOniES. 175 a scattered band may bo amusing at first, but is a sport which must soon pall on a man, fur it is so easily accomplished. A good horse will always out- run a buffalo, and can easily lay his rider alongside of him, and then it is impossible to miss the huge, ungainly brute. When wounded ho is formidable only to a dismounted man. Another denizen of these territories is as graceful as the buffalo is ungainly. This is the two-pronged antelope, a lovely animal. They are seen in com- panies, usually from six to twenty or more in number. Cursed with an insatiable curiosity, they cannot resist examining every strange object, and it is common to attract them by a handkerchief on a stick, whih; the hunter lies among the grass awaiting their ap- proach. A little grey wolf, called the coyote, is common. A most impudent "beast he is, prowling round the camps, and possessing himself of any ■wounded game left unguarded. A ride after one usually results in failure to get within shot of him. With a native horse or " bronco," riding over the grassy plains is very pleasant ; but a strange horse from the east is apt to put his foot into one of the countless holes and roll over. These holes are the result of the united labour of several varieties of ground squirrel and of a little grey badger, and until these are exterminated there will be many a "cropper" for the horseman. They say that the "badger's hole is a sure proof of water existing not far from the surface. If so, the augury is a happy one, for their dwellings are numerous enough. 170 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. CHAPTER VII. BRITISa COLUMDIA. Across the Ilockica— The Gold Country—Kamloops — Tho Cascade Mountains — Salmon Fisheries — Van- couver's Island — Nanaimo — Victoria — Esquimault— Concluding Summary. "TTTE will anticipate matters a little, and rapidly VV perform tho railway jourDey to the sea, for the reader must be impatient of being kept so long behind the barriers of British Columbia. Giving tho rein to our fancv, wo see tho train crossing one or two beautiful rivers, whose waters as wo near the Alpine ranges are clear and azure, an'? the forest, which we have so long left behind us near Winnipeg, again appears in scattered clumps of iir and pine, tho land is swollen into great hills, and we enter tho defiles. Above us ri.sd enormous rocky masses with precipices hundreds of feet in perpendicular height, and tho train slackens its speed, for wo are ascending a steep gradient. Higher and higher yet we mount, until tho aneroid barometer announces that we have risen 5000 feet above the sea level, and at last wo are on tbo top, and are now commencing the descent, which will ultimately laud us on the shores of tho Pacific. But more mountains have yet to be traversed, and when we arrive at tho bottom of tho valley, after passing the first great range, and cross the great > 4 \ ^ > v X. BRITISH COLUMBIA. 177 Columbia River, we find that our engine has still hard work of it, and must again mount. Everywhere around us now the woods are rich, and the trees increase in size as we proceed. Some hours of ascent, and the task is accomplished, and again we rush downwards until the second b?nd of the Columbia is crossed, and the still hilly but less formidable country is gained. Beautiful lakes are now seen shrined in their surroundings of forest, and then an upland region of grass flats, evidently refreshed by less moisture than those we have cpiitted, spreads out before us, and we are in the very heart of the province of British Columbia^ on the sliorcs of a lake •ailed Kam loops. And vow the last stage of our journey has been reached, and it is perhaps one of the most remarkable in regard to the engineering difficulties that are now boing successfully encountered by the railway con- ti'actor^. Strong rivers bounding with impetuous energy through tremendous ravines seem to be our guides, for we follow their course. Faster and faster yet the torrent rages its way through the ravines and g rges of magnificent hills. We are told that the river we are now following is the Fraser, and that 1.30 miles from this it empties itself into the sea. The line now winds along immediately over this flood, creeping around the gigantic buttresses of rock which are too steep to give sustenance to the trees, and have only their ledges and summits covered with the deep green of the Douglas fir. More and more remarkable become the steep needle-pointed summits tliousands of feet above our hcuds ; but the descent ^ 178 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, is no longer so steep, and after passing mighty groves, every tree in which rises to a height of from 150 to 200 feet, we find ourselves on the shores of a deep inlet, and the water we see is salt water. Wo have reached the ocean ; we have dropped down from cloudland to the rippling and sun-kissed surface of the great water which can bear us, if wo so will, to the shores of Asia. Along this route before \ery long the traveller will look on rocky peak, glucier, snow-field, and primeval thicket of giant tree growth, from his comfortable seat in a " Palace Car." He will be able to see the operation of quartz crushing and gold extraction near stations on the line. The old gold mines are chiefly to the north, partly in the mountain region named Cariboo, partly still further northward at Cassiar, where the elevation of the land above the sea level is so great that there are at least eight months of winter. The mines hitherto worked are gravel mincf, the gold being found, not in veins in the rock, but loose in the sand and gravel. Sometimes it is present only in grains the size of a pin's point, when miners speak of it as " colour " in the washing-pan, sometimes in lumps like wheat, sometimes in nuggets of considerable size, pieces worth from 300 to 600 dollars having been procured. One such was shown to us lately. The miner's pick had struck it, deeply indenting the soft metal, which was beautiful in its burnished and bossy surfaces. There is no doubt that there are immense riches of this ore still to be discovered and worked in quartz- rock, and largo areas are already known to possess . I I ! I y L^f > BRIT IS n COLUMBIA. 179 them ; but tlie difficulty of carrying crushing machinery into such a country has hitherto pro- hibited systematic working, and many of the best gravel creeks first found had tlieir treasure trove quickly extracted. The rush of miners from Cali- fornia twenty years ago, sent at least 30,000 into the country. They travelled by perilous trails up the Fraser, and for two or three years gold dust and nuggets were as plentiful in Victoria as are *' coppers" in London. The reckless gambling, crime, and all the evils rampant in such mining communities, began to appear, but were sternly dealt witli by the local judges, with Sir Matthew Begbie at their head. This wholesome severity, together with the great difficulty malefactors found in escaping, owing to the small number of practical paths leading out of the country, soon introduced an amount of order to which the visitors had hitherto been strangers. This crowd has now ebbed back whence it came, not more than two or three hundred remaining where there were thousands. The open country about Kamloops has arouna it the Nicola and other valleys, giving good pasturage to cattle and sheep on the famous bunch grass. No better beef was ever sent to market than that raised on the summer pasturage of the Cliilcoaten plains, or indeed generally in the interior, wherever an excessive moisture has not made the forest cover everything. The contrasts in the character of soil and climate to be met with between the Selkirk range and the Cascade range near the sea are most remarkable. There is, unfortunately, but too little land which can 180 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCLNKIiY. l)c cultivated. Wherever it does occur, it is of excel- lent quality, and it may occur with great dryness close to a forest district where the rainfall is evidently heavy and the vegetation luxuriant. In the space of five miles you may see a farm which requires irriga- tion, and has upon it the signs of a dry climate in the j^rowth of artemisia and the sage plant, and another farm on ground which is evidently an old lake bottom, and requires no artificially brought moisture, but has on its ancient shore land a heavy growtli of Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. For a hundred miles north of the boundary line, the height above the sea is not great enough to make the winter severe, and men say they only have four months of cold. Settlers in these valleys desired nothing but better communication. Their wheat and roots were magnificent ; the presence of the coyote wolf as a pest for sheep and poultry, and the loneliness of the mountain valley, formed their only grievances. There has been for many years a good road from Kamloops Lake down the South Thompson toLytton, where it joins the Fraser Kiver. Thence the waggon road on one side, and the Canadian Pacific on the other side of the canyon, lead to the flats of the delta, which afford the most accessible arable land in the whole province. Along the gorges of these two streams the so-called terraces, or ancient lake levels, are most remarkable. There are usually three of these lo be traced on the mountain side. The first is per- haps not more than one o** two hundred feet above the stream, and frequently has a large acrea.':;e of flat, ■while the second has. as a rule, very little level space, ^ ^: BJtlTISn COLUMBIA. 181 ^ and the third and highest stiil less. Slips oco ^r iu the mass of the lowest, and a whole field which had fine crops of iK)tatoes on one side of tho "iver was bodily transferred on one occaaion by fiuch a move- ment to the other side of tho valley, of c(iarse, damming for a while the torrent,, which was too strong to be long pent up, and soon forced itself a channel. The pines which in the drier country stand liko sentries on the ledges, or as skirmishers scattered singly along the ridges only, come down into tbo Cascade gorges, and cover, in close and dense array of dark green, the lower zone of the steep hills whoso summits never lose the snow. The Cascade range does certainly not yield ui beauty and grandeur to any other in this country of sublime scenery. The mighty rock masses are thrown against the sky in spire, tower, ruined wall, and snowy dome in wild confusion ; the torrents arc hurled more furi- ously down the deep clefts; and this range has wliat the others have not in the presence of the sea, whic'.i comes twining around its forest-covered feet, repeat! usj in the shadowed and sheltered depths each and all of the wonders arrayed in the air above. It is diiliculfc •which to admire most — the approach to British Columbia on the one side from the prairies, or that to her alpine rampart where poised above the Pacific Ocean. And what marvels of marine wealth choke the estuaries and swarm up the water courses! The annual migration of tlie salmon from the ocean to the far interior is a thing which almost requires to be witnessed to be believed. It is not a movement I 182 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, like that of the Atlantic fisb, whoso progress to the spawning beds occurs in the spring, or whenever the rain floods the stream, but it is a continuous move- ment of apparently various tribes* of salmon, lasting from the spring until late in the autumn. There is but little pause between the various " runs." People on the spot will tell you that there are at least seven dififerent varieties of fish. Perhaps it will be found that five kinds can bo scientifically separated. The pools are so full of the salmon that the appearance of the water can only be compared to that on our English coasts when the herring fry are forced ashore and wedged together in the shallows, floating so closely that a bucket put down among them would be filled with fish. Tho size of the Pacific fish is on an average smaller than that of those caught in the Canadian Atlantic. They average from ten to fifteen lbs. Their flesh is pinker, but has not so good a flavour as that of their eastern congeners, but is much appreciated when " potted ; " and the " canneries,** or factories where the fish is brought to be boiled down and sealed in hermetically-fitting air-tight canisters, are a profitable source of revenue. It is the local tradition that the fish never get back to the sea, that they ascend to the inland spawning-beds, and after depositing their eggs, die. This is ro doubt the case with very many, and with all those which ascend very far ; for they become exhausted with their battle against the currents, their skin is hurt, and they shrivel into blackness and emaciation, and find them- selves hundreds of miles from the life-giving brine, and die in thousands. But with many a safe return I BBITI8H COLUMBIA, 183 to the sea is possible. In the month of October I examined a net at New Westminster, not far from tho river's mouth, and found meshed in the net, on ono side salmon fresh run from the sea, and on tho other side fish which had evidently been long in the river, and were on their way down. In the Thompson River, above Kamloops Lake, we saw hundreds of tlio feebler fish. The gravel on the river's bed was grooved across the direction of the current by the spawning fish, which had laid their roe in the furrows. In tho Columbia, in the Stickeen, and ether rivers, the sanio enonnous migration occurs. There seems no limit to the swarms whicli come year after year from the ex- haustless sea. The best are the spring salmon. Thero is one ugly race called " the humpbacked,'* apparently a very distinct kind from the others. Of otljor fish there is also abundance. The herring appear in great shoals, and deposit their spawn on anything in tho tidal bays. The natives put bushes in the shallows at low tide, and the herring attach clusters of eggs to them; then the roe is taken and made into food. Another fish, called the candle-fish, or oolaken, is also very common. It is said to be so oily that a half- dried specimen will burn like a torch. It is fitting that we should keep to the last a notice of Vancouver's Island, if it be fitting to reserve for tho last what is most delicious, for much of that beautiful country possesses attractions which will make it the favourite residence of Canadians. With about half the area of Ireland, it has a climate far more favour- able, and resembling that of the south coast of Eng- land. It is very mountainous, the chief districts 184 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. where there is much agricultural land lying along the railway route from Nanaimo to Victoria. The vege- tation is very luxuriant, owing to the largo amount of moisture during the winter months and the pleasant sunshine of the summer. The thermometer seldom shows more than a few degrees of frost, and the heat is so tempered by the sea that the mercury does not rise above B0° Fahrenheit in the hottest summer day. Thick woods cover the hills and lower ground, tht Douglas fir being the commonest. Towards the south fine oaks and a singularly graceful arbutus, known by the Spanish name of madrona, fringe the shore line. The arbutus has an oval leaf, about the size of a hen*s egg, and the trunk of the tree is of a fine red colour. The undergrowth of glossy-leaved shrubs, or of high fern, adds much to the beauty of the " bush.'* Nothing can be more beautiful than the effect of the evergreen raadronas mixed with the firs, and overhanging the calm waters of the gulfs lying between the great island and the main shore — r. sea full of lovely islands of all shapes and sizes. Imagine several of the Outer He- brides linked together, and covered with fine wood — the inner isles similarly adorned — and the Scots main- land magnified into a Switzerland, and you have the British Columbia coast. Vancouver acts as a vast breakwater to the mainland shore, and keeps from it the fury of the western gales of the ocean. It was discovered first by Juan de Fuca, a Greek, in 1592. Cook visited it in 1778, and imagined it to be mainland. Vancouver, after whom it is now named, saw it in 1792, and examined all the coast, bringing home singularly accurate maps. In 1849 M BJlITISll COLUMBIA, 185 J the Hudson's Bay Company became possessed of it but in 1859 a Crown Colony Government was estab- lished, and finally, in 1871, it became part of the Dominion. It can be reached by steamer in two hours from the railway terminus at Burrard's Inlet, and no more enjoyable voyage can bo undertaken. The steamer leaves the wharves at the head of the steep inlet, ruul, clearing out with the strong ebb tide, proceeds into the open waters of the Straits. In front of her tlio islands dot the sea, which to the north is observed to lap the base of the mountains guarding, in varied array, the forest-girt lochs. • The first point touchea at on Vancouver is the head- quarters of the coal trade, the village of Nanaimo, The story of the discovery of the most productive of these mines is an odd one. Mr. Dunsmuir, now ono of the wealthiest and most respected men in the Do- minion, was many years ago employed by the Hudson's Bay Company to " prospect " here for coal. He had found some slight indication of what he searched for, and put a small "shot" of powder to blast away the surface. This was in a dense v/ood near the sea. Ho and a negro attendant walked away a short distance into the bush to wait until the charge ignited, and Mr. Dunsmuir wandered further than he had intended, and fell in the thicket over the trunk-roots of an up- torn pine. In rising again he grasped at the soil on the roots, and found that his hands had become black- ened. He sank a shaft at this place, and found the first surface seam of what has become one of the richest mines on the continent. Although the measures of rock existing here are notj)f the carboniferous era, but 186 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY, of tlio cretaceous period in geology, the coal is as good as man can desire. In the San Francisco market it obtains the highest price, and computes more than suc- cessfully with the imports from Australia. It is a strange sight to see a mining community, and the great black heaps of refuse from the shafts, in the midst of the primeval woods. Most of the miners are Scots, and one of the best-danced reels I have ever witnessed was joined in by all present at a ball given here. The rail from this place to Victoria traverses coun- try only partially cleared, but which will support many people, and being well situated, both as regards climate and the ease with winch its products can be taken by rail or ship to market, will be much sought after. The capital itself has wide streets, and comfortable, although unpretentious buildings, good shops under WOOL n arcades, some prosperous factories, notably for cigars, soap, furniturCi and matches, plenty of churches, a pleasant society, and mixed white population of Europeans, Canadians, and Americans, with a larger number of Indians and Chinese. It will be the favourite abode of the wealthy who desire to pass the winter in a mild climate, where daisies, roses, and laurestinus may be seen in flower at Christmas. The rich marine life of the Pacific gives endless matter of interest to the naturalist, and for the yachtsman and sportsman the country is perfect. Close to Victoria lies the quiet little narbour of Esquimault, the winter station for vessels of our Pacific squadron. There is a fine dry dock hidden away in a branch inlet, and a dockyard well provided BRITISH COLUMBIA. 187 with spare stores. Nowhere are the officers and men of Her Majesty's Navy happier than hero, for the hospitality of the Victorians knows no bounds. Within five minutes' journey from the anchorage in a steam launch, lies a strip of shore with a salt water lagoon behind it, where excellent duck shooting may be enjoyed every evening, and there are other places like it only a little further away. It is a i)ity that the Navy does not use the fine ** sticks " to bo procured in British Columbia. Although "the ma ts r»f some tall admiral" are now of iron, there is pie: ty of use in smaller vessels for the wonderful wood of this northern colony of ours. Nanaimo and Esquimault might be made strong places, and Nanaimo especially is easily defensible, and of much value as a coaling station. The capital itself is built along the shores of a secure but small harbour, from the mouth of which one sees across the straits, named after Juan de Fuca (here sixteen miles wide), the lofty Olympian range in Washington Territory. These have very fine outlines. Towards the east they sink to lower levels, as they near the gre{\t inlet of Puget Sound, on whose further side again, yet more to the left, can be descried above the sea the needle-like summits of some of the Southern Cascade chain ; while nearer and soaring above all across the island-studded gulf, is the magnificent white cone of Mount Baker, nearly 11,000 feet in height. These peaks have evidently been parts of old volcanoes, but they have slept long, and their brethren far away to the south in the same earth-spanning chain — they of the Cordilleras — are the only active fire-hills of the western world. But IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) < <;? fe / ^ /a 1.0 !4i|2^ 12.5 |50 *"■ IM^S ^ 1^ iim 1.1 i.-^i^ •UUU 18 1.25 1 U |,.6 41 6" ► p /i <^ /^ >^ o / /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation f\ ,v ^^ ^\ 6^ '^J* <^>' 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) S73-4S03 ■^^ %■ fe cS^ 188 CANADIAN LIFE AND SCENERY. the earths agonies of those old days are seen in the contorted strata, in the masses of granite upheaved here and there, in the lava flows and the strange collection of measures on the edges of many rock basins, where you will see the newest and the oldest lying in torn patchwork side by side. In taking such a rapid review as that we have now completed of the provinces of the Dominion, it is felt how little ot this magnificent country we have even glanced at. Any such account must be a mere skeleton outline, to be filled in by local books, giving fle.-h and blood to the meagre knowledge any rapid survey can afford. In each part there is abundant JBcope for tresh examination, tor the discovery of fresh resources, and for the certainty that they will give large populations an assured support and comfortable homo. Yet we have taken a view of each, and have spoken at some tength on their different character- istics. They afford a great variety or domicile, and (heir riva\ claims to attention are beingr liberrlly examined and appreciated. Together they form a united country for there is not any serious cause for discontent and quarrel among any of the members of this great family. They have a population of about five millions, and soon will possess a far greater number — indeed, it has been calculated that in all probability within the next hundred years they will have more people than we have in these islands to- day They are thoroughly devoted to the connection which exists between them and the mother country, a parent land which has allowed to its children the BRITISH COLUMBIA. 189 utmost liberty. If it had not been so, they would long ago have cast off the allegiance of which thoy are now proud, and which is so useful to them, and will in the future be of such value to orrselvcs. It is our duty to cherish and to foster to the utmost those feelings of regard and loyalty which they ex- press. They entertain these because their union with us is one of perfect freedom. We should remember at home what a strong nation their descendants must become, and how it' is for our interest to make them satisfied to live under the flag we serve, for commerce always follows the flag; and a greater commerce, both for them and for us, will be obtained by an adhesion to the sentiment which made them one with ourselves. Their countries offer to our youth, unable to find a proper outlet at home, an unfailing field for success. There is hardly a man who has left these shores and has cast in his lot with them who has not found it to his benefit. With the single exception of the comparatively few Chinese upon their Pacific coast— a number certain to decrease, because the advent of the. Celestials is not encouraged — their population consists of the elements which have made our own so strong, and exhibits the blended blood of the strongest European races Almost everywhere our own tongue predominates and our own customs are observed. With the Dominion of Canada ana the Australian continent in close relation to England, she need never fear that the proud position she has gained in the world can oe shaken or even questioned. British Columbia, by far the. most beautiful of the Canadian provinces, has, as may be inferred from 190 Canadian life and sceneby. what has been said of it, tracts of land which are as rich as man can desi'-e ; and fortunate are they who may secure them, for there are not too many to be had. The mountains, valuable as they are for minerals and wood, prevent the agricultural area from being large. Yet there are many spots along the glorious coast with its temperate climate where settle- ments will be thickly populated, and the inland higher areas about Kam loops, with their network of open grass-grown straths, will always be favourite pasture grounds. The province is a most necessary adjunct of the Canadian Confederation, giving, as she does, access by excellent harbours to the wide Pacific. Like its sisters, it has now heartily and loyally entered into the new national life of the Dominion, determined to work out for the best the destiny which has given it an important place in the greatest colonial union in the world. Making use of a local government for provincial affairs, this union has placed all power for national purposes in the hands of the Federal authorities. Let us share in the firm belief of these our cousins, that, successful and united as they now are, they will march on from strength to strength, strong in their mutual reliance on each other, and proud to be members of our mighty empire. A few years ago it was thought that the influx of emigrants into Canada was unusually large if mo^-e than 30,000 or 40,000 entered during one year. How different is now the report of the minister charged with the ^numeration of the numbers of those who, on their entrance into the country, declare their in- tention to settle within its borders ! During the last BRITISH COLUMBIA. 191 two years Canada has seen over 100,000 and even over 130,000 souls come to share the fortunes of her people within a twelvemonth. The stream is now directed to her shores, and fewer than before go to America, vast as the tide is which pours into Castle Garden. Men spoke much in England of the phe- nomenon of the rush into Kansas in the days pre- ceding the great war; and of the quick civilization of Illinois and Ohio. Mr. Bright has said, and said truly, that every schoolboy should know the history of the marvellous progress of Chicago. Let every Englishman look with pride at the wonder of the settlement of Manitoba and of the Canadian North- West — at the spreading of the railway system of the Dominion — at the order and security existing among the 40,000 tt 50,000 new-comers who have made their homes in these lands in each year — at the marvel that with so g.eat a number of strangers arrived at a new home there has not been failure of success to the extent of even one per cent. — at the fact that these great territories are now attracting the Americans from the south. Finally let those who see the misery, the hopelessness, the ovet crowding, and the unhealthiness of the thronged quarters of our great cities, rejoice that within fourteen days of London, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchesterp land and healthy life can be provided for all sound in health and limb. Let them aid all less fortunate than them- selves to get together the little money sufficient to ensure a new start in the New World of the north, where in another century will be a nation powerful as that of Britain in numbers and resource. '.€ ■M: I I LONroN : PBIKTCD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SON^, T.lMITr.D, STAMFORD STKEET ASt, CHAIilh'G CEOSS. « i <-■' :> 1 .«!''•