IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) '/. s 1.0 I.I 1^ us US ■Ubu 1^ l^ ■^ IS 2.0 ■ 4 1.8 1-25 jU 11.6 ll-i-T Hill : 4 6" ► Photogmphic Sciences Corporatioii ■ without turning directly back again, I reached the settle- ment I was in search of, thanks to the carter who took out my tilings, and acted as my pilot. As it was too late in the season to commence upon hmd of my own, and a^ my little capital would have suffered no small diminution, had I gone about the country hunting for a farm — a practice as common as it is ruinous — after making some inquiries into the cha- racter of the inhabitants among whom my lot had thus accidentally been cast, I attached myself to the family of one of them, a substantial farmer, a native of the coun- try, being the son of an united empire' loyalist, as those who remained true to their king and country during the war with the North American Colonies, now the United States, were designalted. I did not actually hire myself as a labourer, but by making myself as useful as I could, I was to pay nothing for my board ; this was certainly a foolish bargain; but as I happened to fall into good hands, I suffered no loss by my imprudence ; for he gave me, in stock and seed-grain, as much as I could have expected, had I stipulated for regular wages. I thought, like all English farmers, I could tea<;h the people every tiling, and had myself nothing to learn ; but I must now confess, that I cannot help attributing all my subsequent success, to the knowledge and experience I obtained during this my year of probation. There were many things, it is true, I could have taught them, had they been as willing to learn as I was ; but they had no confidence in their teacher ; indeed, how should they, when he did not even know how to cut a tree down, or to hoe a hill of Indian corn, the very first things a farmer s boy, in this country, learns. In the following spring, I purchased in that neigh- bourhood, a farm of three hundred acres, about fifty of which was cleared, with a log-hut, as a dwelling-house, and a good frame barn upon it; the price was L.300, THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 9 L.lOO of which wjis paid at the time, and the remainder I was to pay in annual instalments of L.50, with interest (after the first year, which was free) at six per cent, being the rate allowed by law, till the whole was paid. This mode of paying for land is very connnon throughout every part of North America, and not unfrcipiently in the end, turns out to be more advantageous to the seller than to the buyer, as farms so sold, after a year's labour or more in improving them, sometimes revert back to the original proprietor from the purchaser's inability to complete his payments ; when ho loses besides, all he may have paid, such being a general condition of the bargain. I now bought a yoke of oxen for L.15, or sixty dollars ; three cows for L.15 ; ten sheep for L.5 ; and a horse for L.17 ; several implements of husbandry, some little fur- niture, a few kitchen and dairy utensils, pigs, poultry, &c. The first summer was spent in getting in a little crop, putting up fences, and in clearing up three-and-a-half acres of wood- land, which I sowed with wheat in Sep- tember, after my earliest crops were saved ; the rest of the autumn (here invariably called the fall) was occu- pied with my late oats, potatoes, and Indian corn. I then hired another man, and commenced clearing away the underbrush, and as soon as the snow came, I cut the trees down, and into lengths of from twelve to fifteen feet, for piling in heaps to burn : this work, by the 10th April, was completed upon about thirty acres, besides several hundreds of rails cut, split, and hauled out of the bush, as the woods are called, as well as my winter and summer fire- wood ; but as I intend to insert a whole year's diary,) for I have always kept one, and I would advise every farmer in any country to do the same,) I need not here enter into farther particulars. The produce of my farm this year did not amount to 10 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. '! mi more tlian was sufHcicnt to pay Its own expenses, and kcej) nie and my family until the following harvest, nor hardly lus nmch, as 1 had some provisions to buy. In the spring I bc«,'an to feel rather uneasy about my prospects ; my money was wasting away very fast ;* I had only about L./)() left, and still owed more than three times that sum for my farm ; and the thirty acres, my chief dependence for a crop, looked like any thing rather than producing one, covered as it was so thickly with felled timber and heaps of brushwood, as to preclude the possibility of passing through it; and to add to my apprehensions, the rain fell in torrents for nearly a fort- night, soaking it so completely, that 1 thought it would ne.ver dry again, not, at least, in time to be burnt over for a crop, and to perplex me still more, my horse died, and two of my sheep were killed by the bears or wolves, or perhaps by my neighbours* dogs ; but what annoyed * It is necessary to observe, that money is always reckoned here in Halifax currency, in which a pound is not quite eighteen shil- lings sterling.f My L..300 sterHng accordingly amounted to some- thing over L.333 in this money, besides some L.16 premium on my bills of exchange, in all about L.350, out of which I paid, For my farm when I bought it, . . L.lOO For my horse, oxen, cows, &c. For provisions, seed-grain, hay, &c. Besides what I bought in Montreal, as men- tioned in my diary of April 10, amounting to, Wages, ....,,.. Second instalment on my farm, 95 15 21 25 50 L.306 Leaving a balance of L.44, together with L.6 or L.7 of interest over and above what made up the amount of my passage out and travelUng expenses. See Note A, in Appendix. t Since the above was wiltten, an Act of the Legislature has made the pound, Halifax currency, exactly 16s. tivi sterling: thus, L.lOO sterling is now L.120 cur- rency. TIIR EMIGRANT TO NOllTII AMERICA. 11 mc more than Jill these, — porhapH because it was the la-st misfortune that befell me, or j)robably because we are more apt to l)e distressed at trifles, by not preparinpj our minds to bear up under them, whereas in ^'reater evils we rouse up our energies, j)lace our back against a rock, and resolve to overcome or In rather too warm for wheat, though wo do grow it in wmai) c). enti- ties ; but grazing is our chief dependence. 1 have ah'oady upwards of one hundred head of cattle, which did not coHt mo nmch :nore than half as many pounds. The climate is not so unhealthy as yoir fears have made it. Europeans generally, however, are subject, on their arrival, to slight attacks of ague and intermittent fevers. And in order that you nuiy not bo disappointed, if you should come, I will give you a faithful account of the few disadvantages we labour under, which you can balance against those of the country you now live in. The price of farming produce is certainly rather low, while clothing, and what you have to buy, is very dear ; but then an economical farmer will make his own clothes, and live within himself as much as possible. Labour ^s also very high ; indeed, such are the facilities for a man to set up the farming busincHS himself, it is hardly to be had at any price. We have also some few taxes, but where is the country without them 1 You have certainly one great advantage over us, in having a church in your neighbourhood, as we are, in this respect, totally destitute, and the demoralized state of society, 1 confess, is dread- ful : but recollect, we liavo none of the severities of your hyper- borean climate to contend with ; and if our produce fetch but a small price, it costs but little to raise it, and the market is at our doors, for we find a ready sale for every thing in the vessels as they descend the river to New Orleans, — therefore, sell every thing and come. I have written for Henry, in Ohio, and James in Upper Canada, and have little doubt but they will also come, as they both* seeji a little dissatisfied with the part of the country they have settled in. I rejoice in the prospect of our being again united, and living com- fortably together in this fruitful and happy count»'y. In the full anticipation of so desirable an object, I am, &c, George W . " Fruitful and happy country !" " none of the seve- rities of your hyperborean climate !" these two remarks * James's dissatisfaction, it appeared afterwards, arose simply from some trifling disappointments common to new settlers any where. u THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. h * ■; Mfl struck my mind very forcibly, and I could think of nothing else, overlooking all the drawbacks of agues, fevers, the demoralized state of society, &c. What a paradise. I said to myself, and what a fool I was to be so stubbornly bent jpon coming to this miserable country ; and had I met with a purchaser, at almost any sacrifice, I should certainly have taken my brothers advice, had there not been circumstances, with which the reader is acquainted, that prevented me from exerting myself t" accomplish an object, otherwise apparently so desirable : I might, it is true, have gathered from his letter quite enough to have deterred me from going there, but my mind was harassed and perplexed with difficul- ties I was just then labouring under, so that, at the moment, any change appenred likely to afford relief ; out it was well for me I did not take his advice. It was not until after this eventful period in my little history, that I heard of the death of my two brothers at Galena, on the Missouri, a circumstance I mentioned in a former page, and now only advert to it again, on account of the salutary effect the melancholy intelligence produced upon my mind at this particular juncture, which I may justly consider as the crisis of my subsequent fate ; for it opened my eyes, on reading George^s letter over again, to see in its true light the importance of the " disadvantages" be mentions, despite the colours in which his prejudices had portrayed them. But that I may not subject myself to the imputation of putting a construction upon it, twisted into accordance with this change in my opinions, I must give his own practical illustration of it, which T received from him five years afterwards in the following letter : — THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 15 Carlisle, Illinois, Sept. 5, 1826/ My dear Brother, — I have not written to you now for a long time — sorrow and sickness, and misery and disappointment, must plead my excuse ; and as they must have formed the only subject ot my letters, you may the less regret my silence. Indeed, I could not find in my heart to mar, with a detail of my own sufferings, so much comfort and happiness as seem to have fallen to your envied lot. My continued silence should still have saved you from the painful commiseration T know you will feel for me, had not the thought struck me that you might possiMy be able to find some one in your neighbourhood who would exchange farms, &c. with me here, if the rage for coming to this fine country has reached you, of which I make little doubt, as it seems to have reached every where. If I cannot dispose of my property in some such way, (selling it is out of the question,) I am doomed, I was going to say, to live in this country, but rather to die. I have had more than a hint of this during the summer : I have suflFered dreadfully — you would hardly know me — I am literally and really an old man. But this is not all ; my farm has been totally neglected, as I could do no- thing, and hiring being impracticable. I have consequently no crops, no hay saved for my cattle, of which I have more than 150 head]; and I cannot sell them — not even at 10s. a-piece : bread corn T can fjet, for my own consumption, as much as I want for nothing, as every body who has not been sick all summer like my- self, has more than they can sell, even at 7. Id. a-bushel, — I mean, of course, in the ear.f Last year, when it was a little more saleable, I had to give fifteen bushels for common cotton cloth enough to make me a shirt. We have no money in the country, and our bank notes but ill supply its place ; some of them are at seventy- five per cent discount, while others will not even pay a hopeless debt. I offered three bushels of Indian corn to the post-master in payment of the postage of your last letter, which he refused to * Tt may here be objected that a long period has elapsed since the date of these letters, during which, in a new country like that to which tliey refer, such great changes may have taken place, as to render some of the statements tJiey contain hardly applicable to its present state and circumstances. To this I liave to reply, that .:'>♦■ only was every word confi'-med by tin.-' very brother in a personal inter- view I had with him ten years later, but I have seen letters of a still more recent date, fully bearing me out in all I have said concerning the far west. t Indian corn is here meant, which constitutes the staple bread stuff" of that part of the country. A bushel in the year ia ouly half as much when thrashed, or shelled, as it is termed. MM HMM 16 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. - ,!''■' I Y. take, and I had to give him Is. 3d. in hard cash. I was at first entirely carried away with the fruitfulness of the country — the fineness of its soil — the cheapness of land, cattle, &c. as all Euro- peans are, without duly considering that they must also sell again at such low prices ; but the difficulty of selling at all is the prin- cipal obsi.icle. £ have lately heard from Henry, in the Ohio country, who had just returned from a visit to James in Upper Canada, who, he says, has actually made his fortune ; but not content with a comfortable independence, he has entered largely into the lumber trade, in which he has hitherto succeeded even beyond his most sanguine expectations ; but this, of course, is po news to you, who are, ac- cording to the way in which we measure distances in this country, in his immediate neighbourhood. Henry himself, I fear, is not doing well ; for all his letters, (and I hear from him frequently,) are filled with complaints ab'^ut the high price of laboiu*, the unhealthiness of the climate, and, above all, the enormous taxes he has to pay, which he describes, on com- paring them to what we paid at home, as equal in amount upon a man's capital to what they are there upon his income ; and, since his reiurn from the visit to Canada, he adds to the catalogue of his grievances, the want of markets and money. I have often wished to hear from you a detailed account of all the circumstances that led you to make choice of so happy a coun- try, maugre all the prejudices prevailing against it. I am, &c. G. W. I will take up neither my reader s time nor my own about this part of the country, longer than to make an observation or two upon the letters he has just read, trusting that he will already feel convinced that this is not the region of comfort and competency he is in search of. I am fully aware that there is a very different opinion so generally prevailing as to become (as my brother terms it) a rage, and people with such a bias, previously enter- tained, may fancy, on a cursory view of the last letter, which I consider conclusive, that it is only the ebullition of a mind struggling under disappointment, and sinking under bodily disease ; but let them compare this letter THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 17 with the former one, and they will find the principal facts mentioned in each, exactly to correspond, namely, the high price of labour and the low price of farming produce ; besides, even the first letter appears to me, and I do not think I judge too unfavourably, to give a clear and com- prehensive, although a succinct, account of the country, as adapted to farming purposes, evidently framed under a predisposition to view every thing in the most favourable light. Still he does look at every thing, but miscalcu- lates the chances against the fulfilment of his almost unbounded hopes, and the accomplishment of his exag- gerated expectations. In his second letter, admitting that he was equally predisposed to look at every thing in the most unfavourable point of view ; stiU again he does look at every thing. The same data are given in both from which very different deductions are drawn — as different as practical ones are from theoretical in a variety of other cases : and in none is this difference more manifest or more frequent, than when applied to farming, or settling in America. If I thought this was not sufficient to turn away any emigrant from that grave of Europeans, I could enlist under my banner a whole host of other evidence ; but this having come so immediately under my own notice, naturally forming part of these mei *ts, I mention it as such : I would not sully these sheets with garbled stories, about this or that country, framed perhaps at first, by speculators and land jobbers, to suit some interested pur- pose, and propagated afterwards by the ignorant and book-making traveller : l^t not this, however, be con- strued into an assumption of superior wisdom, to which I prefer no claim. At the time I received my brother's last letter, I could not help comparing m^^ circumstances with his ; not only as they then were, but as they would have been, had all the fine expectations in his former one been realized. B tf 18 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA, I ; ■ We had a church and a Church of Enghmd clergymau, in the settlement — not that every settlement has one, though few are destitute of the labours of a minister of some persuasion or other, and I would strenuously advise all well disposed emigrants not to overlook this circum- stance in deciding upon their location ; few there are, if any, who come to this country, having never been so situated as to be unable to attend the public worship of God, however negligent they may have been in availing themselves of the privilege, that would not feel most poignantly if they were deprived of the opportunity ; nor would they see without some annoyance, so little respect paid to that day, set apart for relaxation and rest from the cares and labours of life, even admitting they forgot the nobler purpose for which it was intended, and to which it ought to be devoted, because it would at least be a constant witness to them, on its weekly return, that they were, if not houseless exiles, strangers in a strange land. Indeed, I have myself seen men, whom I knew to have seldom entered the precincts of the sanctuary, travel, what in England would be considered an incre- dible distance, upwards of twenty miles, to attend divine service, or perhaps to get their children baptized, or the clergyman to visit the sick of his family, or to " bury his dead out of his sight," consoling himself in his affliction with the idea, that there was one so near. It is in cir- cumstances such as these that the heart of the exile yearns after his native land ; he therefore ought to secure to himself, in the home of his adoption, as many of those favourable features in the home he has left, as can possibly be found, and they will be to hir^ as household gods ; they bring with them associations that beguile into the tale of other years ; and if they do not revive in our memory those scenes of pure and unminglea happiness in the bright and buoyant season of youth, they occasionally throw a transient halo of delight over our existence by THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 19 leading us to forget that we are away from them. Every emigrant may feel assured, that however anxious he may 1)0 to leave his native country, and howe^'er much it may bo to his advantage to do so, he will retain a painful recollection of it to the latest hour of his existence ; no one brought up in a country like England, where such order and regularity prevail, can form any idea of the demoralized state of society in many portions of the United States ; whereas the part of the country where I had located myself, might challenge tli whole world for its superior in orderliness and morality. My brother mentions, as a disadvantage, some few taxes; I never heard from him a detailed account of these taxes, but I can give one from my other brother, in the State of Ohio, where they are lower than in almost any other portion of the Union : — there is first a tax for the support of the United or General Government ; then a State tax ; and a Town tax, exclusive of the Road duty, which must be a tax every where ; besides which he can- not well avoid paying something towards the salaries of the Minister and Schoolmaster, amounting, without the two last, to about one per cent upon his whole pro]3erty, or two shillings in the pound upon his annual income, supposing his property brings him ten per cent upon his outlay. I leave it to the Emigrant himself to compare this with the taxes he pays at home. In Upper Canada, I the taxes, to which I shall have occasion to advert here- i after, are much lighter, but in Lower Canada the case is very different : at this moment (1837) I have increased my property by care and industry, under the blessing of an overruling Providence, about nine fold, as I consider it [worth little less than L.3,000, and I might have made it [much more, if I had not remitted in my exertions to ic crease it, and indulged in more of the comforts and luxuries of life than were absolutely necessary; yet in dl the course of my progress to wealth and independence. 'If ■M MMMlM 20 thf: emigrant to north America. \*M< I never paid one far thing either of direct taxes,* or to Ministers' or Schoolmasters' salaries, which are pro- vided for from other sources, and all the indirect taxes would hardly amount to a moiety of what is thus paid by the inhabitants of any other civilized country upon earth. As to markets, a very material and important conside- ration, I may assert at once, without the fear of contra- diction, that Montreal is the best on the whole continent of North America. Sufficient proof of this is exhibited in the well known fact, that great numbors, from hundreds of miles within the limits of the United States, resort to it. Our produce fetches a fair remunerating price, and the necessaries we have to purchase are cheaper than any where else on this side the Atlantic. The facilities of conveyance to this market are very great, by roads toler- ably good in summer, superb in winter; by navigable rivers, canals, and one railroad ; and if we cannot grow so much upon an acre of land here, nor so easily, as in warmer latitudes, we can cultivate it at so much less expense, in consequence of the price of labour being so much more reasonable, so that if a farmer in this Province were to pay for the tillage of an acre out of its own pro- duce, he would have as much left, or nearly so, as a farmer in the Western States after doing the same thing, and it would sell for three or four times as much as it would in the West ; this also applies to the more distant parts of Upper Canada, though not to the same extent. The length and severity of our winters, of which so much is said, form generally the chief, if not the only argument ever attempted to be used against this part of the country ; and to look only at the state of the ther-f * This, since tlie union of the provinces, does not generally apply to the Eastern portion, direct taxes being now imposed by thcl Municipal Councils ; but as that body has refused to act in this! district, the assertion is still true, so far at least as the settler isj concerned. — Quebec Mercury. TIIR EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 21 monieter and the depth of snow, it would appear rather a formidable one ; but the thermometer and our feelings do not unfrequently measure heat and cold, especially the latter, very differently. — I have actually suffered more from cold in England, while closely shut up in a mail coach, during a night in July, when the thermometer could not be so low as the freezing point, than ever I suffered in this country when it has been near zero : and this is easily accounted for by the fact, that, in the one case, the atmosphere was saturated with moisture ; while in the other it was dry. From which it would appear that our feelings, as far as the cold is concerned, would correspond more nearly with the range of the hydrometer than with that of the thermometer. It must, how- ever, be admitted, that the thermometer is so low for a day or two every winter, as to indicate an intense de- gree of cold, requiring care to avoid suffering from its effects. As to the snow ; its depth and long continuance on the ground are such a convenience and benefit to the farmer, that he is anxious for its coming, and sorry when it leaves him ; it also acts as manure, and pulverizes the land, superseding in a great measure the necessity of fallowing. Half at least of what is said about this climate, has no other foundation than what is to be found in the imagina- tion and credulity of travellers ; according to these, to be frost-bitten is of so frequent occurrence as to become the subject of a necessary and almost daily salutation, " Sir, your nose is frozen \" I have been a farmer in this very severe climate upwards of twenty years, and have never seen nor heard of a single instance of material suf- fering from the cold : people may have lost their way in a stormy night, and perished ; but I do not consider these exceptions peculiar to this country, as such cases have happened in Great Britain, and even in Spain, as a sen- [rt i^ I. n 22 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. If tincl on duty at Madrid, was frozen to death in liis sentry box in 183G. Tlie length of our winter too, Iiaa been mucli exagpferated : while now writing, this 29tli Novem- ber, 1H27, ni}'- cattle are out grazing night and day, not yet having had any snow, and scarcely any frost ; 1 have .sometimes not been obliged to take them in or to feed them till a few days before Christmas, though this is rarely the case ; and by the middle of April we commence sowing our grain, so tliat our winter is on an average not of more than four oi* five months' duration, instead of six or seven, as people have been led to suppose. I am not prepared to give advice so well as the author of 07ie emigrant's guide, who states that he has read every- thing that has been published on the subject during the last ten years, whereas I have read scarcely any thing of the kind during a much longer period ; yet do I hesi- tate not to claim from the emigrant, for these observa- tions of mine, an equal, if not a greater share of his confidence and attention ; not because they are faultless — far from it, the writer is by no means blind to their blemishes — but be3ause of their plain practical truth; being the ungarnished history of many years' experience, with conclusions resulting from mature consideration. With such means and opportunities, another could un- questionably have produced something of the kind equally useful, and perhaps better calculated to answer the pur- pose for which this is designed ; but how difficult would it be to find a person, with the same opportunities of information that I have had the good or bad fortune to have had thrown in my way. One person makes a hasty journey through Canada, to the Western States, and back again, and publishes an account of it, as a guide to the poor emigrant with a large family to those distant regions : another, who was perhaps never out of his counting-house, or from behind liis counter, farther away from some large town in which WTT THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 23 he had resided from hia boyhood, than a Sunday morn- ing's ride into the country woukl take him ; and he, for- sooth, must needs point out to tlic weary pilgrim, the very spot, in this wild wilderness of woods, where his foot may rest : there are others still more likely to mis- lead emigrants, than either of the scribblers I have men- tioned, who, not satisfied with writing alone, have agents at every port to direct and cajole as many as possible into certain districts where they have large tracts of land for sale at a very cheap rate. The best and only remedy for all such evils would be found in the establishment of a board of emigration, an object no less desirable from other and more important considerations. See note B in Appendix. There is, I trust, another advantage, which this little work will be found to possess, at least over some of a more imposing appearance, in affording the emigrant, before he leaves his native country, what he has hitherto anxiously sought for, but in vain, namely, an idea of the every day transactions and occurrences of a settler's life ; the common trifles, that have never yet been thought worth mentioning by more learned writers, but which, notwithstanding, constitute the greater portion of our employment, and occupy most of our time. Indeed, what is it that renders the works of the most popular writers so interesting to men like me, but the happy talent they display of describing, so familiarly, the com- mon fireside nothings of real life ; but as I neither possess nor pretend to any such excellence, I must make up for the deficiency, as far as such a thing may make up for it, by giving an account of my daily occupations, during the first and most anxious year of my life, in the woods of Canada, as noted down by me at the time. Sometimes it will be observed that a few days are omitted ; this is generally owing to there being no variation in the work, or else that they were forgotten : — 2i THK EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. i April lOtli.* — Returned, with my hired man Richard, and a load, with a horse and ox cart, from Montreal, forty miles, two days on the road, which is very had, the frost not quite out of the ground — my loading all sjife, con- sisting of the following items; a plough, 17 dls. — 2 axes, 8s. each — harrow teeth — Ss. for a bush harrow, in shape of the letter A. — 2 logging chains, lOs. each — 2 scythes and stones, 9s. 8d. — 1 spade, 3s. — 1 shovel, 4s. — 1 dung-fork, 2s. Gd. — 2 steel pitch-forks, 3s. Gd. each — 3 augers, 1, 1^, and 2 inches, 15s. — 1 bbl. pork, 20 dls. — 1 bbl. N. shore herrings, 5 dls. — 2 bbls. flour, 27s. Gd. each — 20 apple trees, and G plumb trees, at 2s. each — 16 gooseberry bushes, and grape vines, at Is. 3d. each, amounting to L.21, 2s. 2d. Put my apple trees, (fee, into a hole in the garden — got a good cup of tea, saw my horse and oxen well taken care of, and went to bed — thus ended the first day of my new mode of life. April 11th. — My man Richard fed and watered the cattle — got breakfast with some difficulty, owing to the want of many things we ought to have got in Montreal ; we had no frying pan, for instance — herrings superb — being Sunday, went to church morning and afternoon. April 12th. — Up at daylight — reprimanded Richard for being out too late the night before, planted my apple, plumb trees, &c., in what had been an apology for a gar- den — mended the fence round it — broke open our pork barrel, found it good — had some for dinner — knocked the spout off the new tea kettle, of course cracked before — worse off than ever for cooking utensils — borrowed a frying pan, and boiled potatoes for dinner in a forty gal- lon pot — 2 cows calved, and a ewe yeaned 2 lambs. April 13th. — Got a supply of cooking apparatus at a * The 1st of this month may be considered generally as the- com- mencement of the agricultural year. THE EiMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 25 shop in tho nei^'libourin^ villa^'o — comnien('elr)ii^'h — Chjirlcs jiiid 1 t(\'iriii;r u]) tli(» loosened roots, jiiul nistinu: tlicin oil' into hr:i})s, to be burnt when dry, spending' a pjod d(;al of time also in ;;ettin;^^ out the oldest of the stuni])s, ^,■hi(•h w(>re sutKciently deeajed to bo eradicated without inir, but wait till they will come out like a ripo hazel nut from ItH husk. April 21st. — Finished .about four acres by noon, sowed it with oats and peas mixed, a common croj) in tliis country, and profitable for ])rovender for horses or workin;L^ oxen, and not amiss for fattening hogs with ; better at any rate th.'in oats alone. Ai)ril 22d. — liichard finished harrowing in the oats and peas — Charles and I at the sjime work as yesterday, as several roots were brought to light by the harrow which we had previously missed. April 23d. — Blasting a few large boulders in the corn land, which had been drilled by contract at three half- j)ence an inch, and drawing them off with the oxen on a stone drag, a machine made of plank about three inches thick, split out of a crooked ash tree, and hewed even with a curve of about six inches in its whole length, (five feet,) its breadth being about two feet and a half, the planks dowelled together, and a small piece of scantling pinned on across thr* '3nds, and along each side, to keep it firmly together, and to prevent the stones from rolling off. We made it in about four hours. April 24th. — Finished getting off the stones, although we had two of them to blast over again, or at least por- tions of them, which were too large to move — hard work — all went to bed very tired. April 25th. — Sunday, a very wet day, scarcely any body at church ; no sermon ; fine in the afternoon. April 26th. — Harrowed the corn and potato land, TIIK EMIORANT TO NORTH A:\n:iir( A. 27 wliicli, l)ein<( of a li^dit gravelly soil, wus dry onouo-h for the o})('r!ition. April 27tli. — Ciillod out by tlio Hiirvoyor of roads, (an otKcor a|)]><)inted in ovcm-v soetion of a parish or towii.shi[> l>y the |KM>i)lo them.selves,) to mend a very bad piece of road. April 2Sth. — Planted thn^e hu.shels of early potatoes — got out some flnnvood, which i.s always done tho winter before, but this being my first year, 1 had to , potatoes 5^ — in all, 23 acres — meadow 20, pasture 13, partially cleared 20, added to the 23, makes 76 acres. It may be remembered here, that I said my farm contained about 50 acres of cleared land, whereas I make out 76 acres, but I did not then take into the account either the 20 acres partially cleared, or the 6 or 7 I cleared myself. June 4th. — A holiday, which I have always kept in commemoration of the birth of good King George the III. of blessed memory. June 5th. — Went to a training, as it is here called. All the men in the country, with some trifling exceptions, between the ages of sixteen and sixty, capable of bearing arms, are obliged by law to muster once a-year ; and this constitutes the militia of the Province. June 6th — Sunday. — I witnessed on this evening a splendid and gorgeous sunset, far surpassing any thing of * This is a very sensible observation, and many would-be autlioi-s, who do most unmercifully " obtrude" themselves upon the public, would do well to take a hint from it. It reminds us of some very pertinent remarks in an article (on Deer Stalking,) in a late number of the Edinburgh Review. — Quebec Mercury. tm THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA, 33 the kind I had ever seen at home. Even a sunset in Italy, as a Commissariat Officer, settled on a farm near me, who had served in that country, declared, could not be compared to it. June 7th. — All hands cutting timber for making new fences, and mending old ones. June 8th. — Hauling out of the hush with oxen the timber cut yesterday, and my two men cutting more. June 9th. — Same work — This ought all to have been done in the winter on the snow, and I have taken care ever since to have it done thus. June 10th. — Still drawing fencing timber with oxen, but my men splitting it into rails, making blocks, pickets, or stakes, &c. June 11th. — Mending fences round my pasture, and on each side of a public road intersecting my farm a short distance from the front of my house. June 12th. — Making a small portion of new fence to prolong the line or division fence between me and my next neighbour, beyond my little new clearing, into the edge of a thickly wooded swamp, as all swamps are in this country, all, at least, that I have seen. This was what is called a log fence, such as is generally first made after clearing the land ; as many of the smaller logs sup- ply its material, hence its name. In after years, others of various descriptions are substituted. In Western Canada, seven or eight small rails, about twelve feet long, are piled up with their ends across each other at some- thing more than a right angle, but we in this part of the country, and good farmers every where, prefer a post and i'ail fence, not however such as is made in England ; the post is half of a cedar log, of about ten inches diameter, and six feet four inches long, with five holes, 3^ inches square, cut through it with a narrow axe called a post- axe, something like the felling-axe at home, but neither so long nor so heavy, and the rails are spliced in the c : i f ' ! I-'-' !-? ■ "V MMM 34 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 'f. ( t ! r. ■ holes, not on the top of each other, but side by side, and both the posts and rails are split or " riven," if the latter word, which is excluded from our vocabulary, may be used. The posts are put into holes about two feet deep. But when stones abound in the land, and have to be carted off, they are made into a rude wall about two feet high, in which case two rails can be dispensed with, and the posts need not be so long, as they do not require to be put so deep into the ground, owing to the support they derive from the broad-bottomed stone wall. This is decidedly the best fence that can be made. June 13th. — Sunday. June 14th. — Found a swarm of bees in a hollow tree in the woods, which was claimed by a bee-hunter, who however renounced his right to my superior title, he only having marked the tree, while I was the owner of it. Much as the habits of this wonderful and useful little insect have been studied, and that with the most success- ful results, there is one, and I have never seen it men- tioned in any dissertation on the subject, upon which the bee-hunter implicitly depends for his successful search after its honeyed treasures, and he is seldom disappointed. Whenever ne finds a bee, he catches it, and puts it into a little box with a glass cover to it, and keeps it there for a day or two, when he gives it as much honey as it chooses to take, and then opens the box, and allows it to fly away, but he marks the road it takes, and follows it, but days, or weeks, or even months may elapse before he does so, when he is almost sure to find its home, with a rich treasure there, sometimes of even a hundred weight of honey; but instances have been known when he has had to travel more than six miles before he reached the spot. From which it is evident that the bee, when starved for a day or two, and then filled with honey, and permitted to escape, literally, in the most exact sense of the word, goes straight home. Sometimes, and that not m THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMKRICA. 35 nil frequently, he finds that it takes its flight to a scttlod part of the country, but almost every scttlonient is bounded on one side or another by tlio wild intenninablo wilderness of woods, and in that direction alone does he follow it. — Cutting down the tree, cross-cutting it above and below the swarm with a saw, getting it home after being all of us well stung, setting it up as a hive, with a board at each end, and fomenting our swollen hands and faces, occupied the greatest part of the day, and, as it turned out, it was far from unprofitably employed, as I have now a valuable stock from it. June 15th. — Put up a small building behind my gar- den, which, although not always to be found on a farm- stead in this country, is not on that account the less necessary. June 16th. — Hoeing Indian corn — very, very hot. June 17th. — Bathed early in morning, a great luxury — hotter still. My men would eat no meat at dinner to- day, preferring milk and butter ; but nothing will ever induce working men in this country to forego their meat breakfast. I thought it very odd when first I came to see fat pork fried, and potatoes boiled, or warmed up, for breakfast. I once asked an Irishman I had working for me, why he would not live upon potatoes and salt in this country, as well as in his own ? his reply was, " An sure, and doesn't the hate of the climate require stronger food V Well, but in the winter, I rejoined, " An' troth, and don't ye thin want something substantial to keep the could away from your heart ?" — Still hoeing Indian corn. June 18th, — Finished hoeing corn — were something longer at this work in consequence of doling out a barrel of plaster-of-paris, or gypsum, which I got for a dollar from Gamanoque mills, upon an acre and a quarter of the poorest of it, by a table-spoonful to each hill. This is a manure which is very valuable in this country, not only in consequence of its cheapness and efficiency, ' ■! '.( ::il 36 TIIK EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. but chiefly from the little labour required in applying it ; a very material and important consideration when labour is dearer than land, a circumstance which exer- cises an overwhelming influence upon all agricultural operations. June 19th. — Harrowed my potatoes with a light English harrow, in the same manner as is done in the old country, as well as in this, when ploughed in, or in drills — Cattle broke out of the pasture, and consequently em- ployed the rest of the day in mending the fence. June 20tli. — Sunday. Thermometer, 86 in the shade. June 21st. — Sowed half an acre of Swedish turnips, (Ruta Baga,) on my new clearing, and hoed them in. This is necessary, as the scurf upon the new land cannot be sufficiently broken by harrowing to allow the root to expand, and ploughing being out of the question, owing to the ground being so matted, if I may so term it, with live or green roots, that two years must elapse before it can be at all scratched up with a plough : but the most profitable crops are obtained while the land continues in that state ; which, in the estimation of an old country- man, would be considered untillable and almost useless ; larger crops, it must be admitted, may be produced after every impediment to cultivation has been removed, but if the interest upon the capital sunk in bringing it into this higher state of culture be deducted out of its pro- ceeds, the assertion will be found a correct one. . June 22d. — Clearing up half an acre more for white turnips, (the globe.) It may be remarked from the little attention paid to this crop, that it is not considered of so much consequence as at home ; and this is really the case, as we cannot cultivate them to the same perfection, because the winter sets in too early, and is too severe to preserve them in large quantities without too much trouble. We therefore only grow a few for our cows, and 'i' W THE KMIGHANT TO NOUJ H AMERICA. .';7 owes in the spring, to assist in producing a supply of milk for their young before the grass conies. June 23(1. — Sowing and hoeing in the white turnips. June 24th. — An old rotten wooden conduit to convoy a little run of water across my road having broken in, we took it all out, and replaced it with a pennanent stone one. June 25th and 26th. — Finishing our hrldge across the road. June 28th. — Commenced hoeing potatoes, found them hardly large enough to hill up, and consequently ga> e up this work at night, in order to allow them a few days more. June 29th. — Making fences and a drain from the sink at the back door. June 30th. — Finished our drain with great satisfac- tion, as it did away with a nasty dirty mudholo — hoeing Indian corn the second time. July 1st. — Hoeing potatoes, which we found had increased in size wonderfully since Monday. July 2d and 3d. — Same work, with an extra hand, in order to finish before haying, which, however, we did not quite accomplish. July 4th. — Sunday. July 5th. — Wet day — ground scythes and hum/ them. July 6th. — Commenced mowing. July 15th. — Finished haying withouc a drop of rain — very hot. July 16th. — A fearful thunder-storm — burned a log- barn in the neighbourhood, or, as some suppose, the accident happened from a man going into it with a lighted pipe, to prevent which has been a great source of trouble to me whenever I have employed Canadian labourers — killed another fat calf. July 17th. — Finished off my hay-stacks. ' ■ 5' » 'tt" .S(S THE EMIOnANT TO NORTH AMF:UI(!.\. July 18tli — Sunday. — To cluircli — cler<;yinaii alwcut at a distant Hcttlemeiit — j)raycrs, and a sermon road l)y the selioolrnnHter — weather quite cool, as is usual after a violent thunder-atonn. duly lOth. — Commenced hoeing corn the third time, (»r ratlier cutting u]> with the hoe whatever weeds had grown since the last hoeing — sold SOOlbs. butter at 8d. jjor 11). — cut first cucumber. July iJOth to end of month. — Finishing hoeing corn and })otatoes — commenced clearing new land, by cutting d(»wn the under brush, and piling it in heaps ready for burning — this I did upon 30 acres of woodland, during the rest of the smnmer, when I found I could spare a day for that purpose, and in the winter cut down the large trees, and then into lengths for piling in heaps to burn. The sunmier is the best season for commencing to clear land, b cause the brush is in full leaf, which, when dry, helps to burn it, all which a person soon learns when he comes to the country, but would doubtless like to know something about it before. August 2d; — Attending a meeting of the principal inhabitants about repairing the roof of the church steeple ; gave a dollar towards the expense — bought a pew, L.G — The two men underbrushing — first new potatoes — bought a sickle and a cradle scythe — made the cradle, having had the fingers blocked out before — a very diffi- cult thing to make. August 4th to 7th. — Clearing part of the underbrushed land, for winter wheat — same until 10th, when I began reaping and cradling — continued till 21st — finished harvesting, except 1^ acre of late oats and the Indian corn — cut first melon, but I am very late. August 31st. — Resumed clearing land — killed a lamb. September 1st to 10th. — Same work, and sowed three acres of winter wheat — commenced making potash from the ashes I had saved when clearing the land. m TlIK KMItJRANT TO NOKTH AMEllKA. 39 September lltli to 22(1. — At tlie uu(lerbru.sliin,ir — continued ut the potaali till I made two barrels, wliicli I Hold for something' over L.l.O — my nei^rlibour's cattle broke into my Indian corn, but did little dania^^e. September 23d. — AVet day — thrcHhing and dressing up 1^ bushels wheat and 8 of oats — sent them to mill at night — oats weighed 48lbs, the bushel. September 24th. — Got home grist — oats produce with mce by shortly A^es his 3d and )ting to e in his ind the [ gears, he had en it at created ont. andun- oroners - ver- within the year ; indeed so many had not occurred before during the residence of the oldest inhabitants. November 8th. — A thaw — called upon my old neigh- bour and friend to ascertain if he would join with me in purchasing a Lieceste^shire ram, which he consented to do, and commissioned me to go off to a distant settlement where I had heard there was one for sale. His wife and daughter were busy sowing onions in the garden. — My men off on a hunting excursion, having heard of a * bear in the neighbourhood ; found him, and had a long but unsuccessful chase. November 9th. — My men off again after the bear — ne of them indeed did not come home, but had been watching for him with another young man of his acquaintance, all night ; and not being very busy, I did not care any thing about their losing a day or two, as they had been so dili- gent and attentive to their work, till the whole of my crops were housed — went after my ram, and bought him for fourteen dollars, and a splendid sheep he is. I also bought a three year old ewe of the same breed for eight dollp.rs. I may as well mention here, that I had very bad luck with this ewe and her progeny — the first year she had only one lamb, which was so very fat and lazy, that it was always the hindmost of the flock, and one day a mad dog came across my pasture, (a very rare occur- funeral Church nd edi- of life, Dm of a cometli ,s a sha- created nent, in accidenc * Some twenty years subsequently to this, a bear was seen trot- ting quietly along past my house, when three of my own boys, the oldest not sixteen years of age, and the only one with a gun or other weapon, offensive or defensive, star ed off after him in full cry, with the same fearlesy eagerness as, a pack of hounds after a hare ; one of the younger ones got a head of him, and by pelting him with stones, turned him from his course, but not in the direc- tion of his brother who had the gun, so he got off unscathed. Some old cor.ntryraen, under the influence of those billy prejudices imbibed at home, scampering off out of his way in the most abject fear, instead of joining the boys in their merry chase, constituted the most amusing feature in the seers. tl 44 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. !■ m ir'Mi rence,) rim after the slieep, and bit the first it could catch, which, of course, was my pet lamb, but the slight wound it inflicted healed up, and I thought it was doing well and past all danger, when, after more than a month had elapsed, it went mad and died — the following year she had no lamb, the next she had one, and I kept her two more without any farther increase, and then killed her — she was very fat, and weighed twenty-five pounds a quarter. Her daughter has a fine lamb this year, so that I hope yet to make amends for my bad luck. November 10th. — My men returned from their hunt not altogether unsuccessful, for although they did not succeed in killing the bear, they captured one of her cubs,, which was tamed and kept for some years, and became a great pet with the whole family. They also killed a racoon, which was very fat, and not of a bad flavour ; it weighed, I mean the meat, about 161bs. — little work done to-day. November 11th. — All commenced work again at the < nderbrushing with renewed alacrity, in consequence of our late negligence. One of my poorer neighbours had his house burnt, and lost his little all, as well as his other awlsy for he was ?. shoemaker. November 12th. — All hands, with the horse, went to a Bee, to assist in rebuilding the house burnt yesterday. It was a general rising throughout the settlement, even the women made themselves useful in preparing and bringing provisions to the place. One small party was in the woods cutting down the timber, followed by a couple of hands to line it out, then came the scorers and hewers, and at their heels again the teamsters, with oxen and horses to haul it to the place, where five men put it up as fast as it was brought to them, and after a day spent apparently more in fun and frolic than in hard labour, the out-shell of a capital log-house, with the exception of a roof, was put up. Nl THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 45 November 13tli. — Pichard went again to assist a few of the neighbours to put up the rafters of the house built yesterday, when they boarded it also, and cut out places for door and windows — some furnished boards, others shingles, a carpenter the door and sashes, and the store keeper the glass, putty, nails, &c., all of which the man paid for in work at his trade, in the course of the follow- ing six months. November 15th. — Richard made a new hog-trough, the old one being too small — myself and Charles under- brushing. At night all went to my friend's house to peel apples for drying. November 16th. — Banking up my house with sand, to keep the frost out of the cellar — my men cutting fire- wood, November 17tli and 18th. — Underbrushing for the last time this season, having thus gone over as much land as I think I shall be able to clear. This work cannot be done well when there 's any snow on the ground, and can- not be done at all when there 's much. November 19th. — The dark day, as it was afterwards designated in the almanack, as well ;w elsewhere, when- ever it has since been mentioned The sun rose in a dim yellov^ smoky haze, but wf could see that it had risen, or we migh^ fterwards have entertained a doubt on the subject ; about 10 > 'clock, \. m., th'(3 smoke, or whatever it was, but it looked like smok' became so dense that we could neither see the >un, nor ve me 511'ges yon, and toots the Lord's trumpet in a manner to .sliake the ramparts of Satan's kingdom, even as those of Jericho were shaken before the rams' horns of tlie ])riests carrying the ark of the covenant. In the after- noon, I attended the ministrations of Doctor Black, (I never could fathom the reason why, when ministers arc getting auld and doited, they aye call thom doctor,) who is equally orthodox, but not so awakening. I proceeded up the Lachine Canal, which takes us safely round a rapid, as they call it in this country, that is, where the river tumbles over rocks at the rate of tifteen miles an hour. It 's awful to look at, and to think of the danger of the poor creatures that bring down rafts of timber in such a torrent. After some other rapids, we came to Coteau du Lac, a French name, which I am told means a hill on a lake, but I could see no hill higher than a midden, (and they are higher here than ever I saw them any where else,) and as for a lake, it 's no broader than the rest of the river. I had now an opportunity of examing the soil, as 1 walked on t' e bank, while the French bodies pulled and shoved the fiat-bottomed boat, (which they, poor deluded creatures, in their barbarous lingo call a batto,) up the rapid. It 's no ill land yon — deep rich clay, which 1 would think must be dour of the tilth, but bears wonder- ful crops, considering that it has been cropped and cropped with white crops for a hundred years, and no a grapeful of dung laid upon it, nor a gr^en crop ever thought of. What would the folk of Dundonald, Saltcoats, or Irvine say, who live like the rabbits among the land, if they were to hear of folk calling themselves farmers, who, when their midden of horse-dung and cow-dung and straw became too large for their convenience, carted it aff bodily, and couped it into the river to get quit of it ? But that's the way here. At a place they call Lancaster, I had another opportu- i- (i4 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. nity of inspecting tlic country ; the land Is not so good, being stony here and there — hut if it was in the liands of skilful farmers, it might be brought to good purpose ; but the folk are Highlanders, so no good can be expected of it. About Cornwall the land is no that ill, but inland it gets it worse. We stopped at Brock viile to take in wood for the steamboat ; it is a flourishing place, but the people are Yankeefied, and remarkably hoggish in their manners. I met one decent man, however, their member, who is from Kilmarnock, and a remarkably good judge of night caps. From that to Kingston, the greater part of the way, the land is rocky and bad, covered with pine trees, which, I am told, are always found in a barren, sandy soil ; and, as for Kingston, if it were for us to presume to give oar thoughts on the judgment of Providence, we would say that certainly the land round it was formed whereon to place the wicked for the punishment of their sins. Tell Mary and the bairns that I arrived in Kingston safe from any attack of wild beasts. She was dreadfully frightened, poor thing, when a Serjeant's wife of the Tlst told her that her husband had written her home, that the road between Cornwall and Kingston was infested by a certain lang soo, which swallowed up many people passing — and so, to be sure it is, but it is not an overgrown brute of the swine tribe, as we thocht at the time, but merely one of these plunging rapids that drowns folks going down, and taigles them coming up. The sow's tusks, however, are like to be drawn by a Mr Killaly, who is cutting a canal through it, by order of the Govern- ment. I took tlie steamboat for Toronto, and we touched during the night at two places, Coburg and Port Hope, but I was asleep and did not see them. Next day, however, a fat Highlandman, with a reddish head, the colour of a fox, THK KMKiRANT TO XOllTII AMIIHICA. Gry ) good, hands rpose ; :pccte' men came out from Scotland together, and took adjoining farms ; and after they had built house«, and got things something purpose like, one of them, who had courted a lass in Scotland, went home to marry her and bring her out. Before starting his friend came to him and told him that he wanted a wife too, but he did not like the women of this country, for though the well was close to the door, they would take a tin trumpet and blow on their husband to come in from the plough to fetch water. So he requested him, when he was in Scot- land, to pick him out a wife and bring her out. Accor- dingly, he got a cousin of his own wife's to come out with him, and his friend met them in Hamilton, and got married off hand, and I am told there is not a happier couple in the district, which just shews that a great deal of time is lost in making love, and that folk had just a.-^ well begin where they mean to end. I spent two days among these folk, and very kind and civil they were to me. They have, however, rather an overly full way of living, eating no parritch, and very little kail, but flesh meat three times a day; they look strong and healthy though, nevertheless. I then proceeded to London. The township of Zorni is fine land, settled with Highlanders from the shores of the Frozen Ocean, being from Sutherland and Caithness — it has often struck me, from what I've read of, that the folk have a da^^h of the Esquimaux Indian in them, for they are a hard favoured generation, and rather savugo in their way. All this tract of country is good, but I was told that to the south was what they call the Long Point Country, which is sandy plains and barren. Sometimes the sand drifts like snow, and covers up a whole cleared farm, just as we are told it drifts in the Arabian desert. They uho green manure here, they sow buck wheat, (a grain I Til 12 EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. / / never saw before, but it is good for swine and hens, and makes special good pancakes,) and when it is in flower or coming intc t^eed, they plough it down and put in their fall wheat on the top of it, and this produces fair crops as lo ([uantity, and excellent as to quality. I think this might be done to advantage in many of the sandy soils on the Ayrshire coast. Besides this they have a kind of stone they call gypsum, (which, when burned in a kiln, makes the Paris plaster that they make the poll parrots and the Buonapartes, and the other stucco images out of, that the Italian boys sell,) and this laid on at so small a proportion as a bushel to the acre, (that is, one-fourth of a boll,) fertilizes the ground in a wonderful manner — it is also wonderful the extraordinary bounty of Providence, that whenever there is an extensive tract of sandy land, it is almost certain that there is a quarry of gypsum at no great distance. The land rather improves as we approach London, and is, in many cases, a tine clayey loam, exceedingly rich, and producing heavy crops of every thing — the potatoes, however, are wet, which I attribute more to their not changing the seed, than to the soil, for in the clay lands of the Lothians I have seen as good potatoes grown, as in the light soils of our own country. London is beautifully situated on the junction of two branches of the River Thames, which, from the high banks above them, looks as if all the three rivers were about one size. It is a thriving place, as the surrounding country is all good, and they send in a great deal of wheat and other produce, which in the sunnuer is shipped u Lake Erie, and in the winter time is taken in sleighs lovvn to Hamilton. This place maybe considered as the apital of that part of the province that borders on Lake () ci t^ne. It is from the wholesale dealers of this, that the smaller stores in the country jjarts receive their supplies, and to pay for these, they send in the produce they obtain 78 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. from their customers — besides, it is a country town and :i garrison, so it has a lively appearance with it. I staid three days in London, and visited its neighbour- hood. I find it all good land. There are many excellent farms — very extensive, and very well stocked and culti- vated. The people who came in here at first were mostly poor, and received their hind from government, gratis — but they have got on wonderfully, though they tell nic they had terrible hardships to contend with at first ; but on the whole, it strikes me that a man had better, if he can manage it, pay a good price for his land where thero are roads and mills, a market and a neighbourhood, than to get land in the wild bush for nothing. I remain, my dear John, with love to Mary and tlio bairns, your affectionate brother, R. S. London. LETTER VI. I My Dear John, I started from London on my way to Chatham. I wont through generally a rich clay land ; but when I crossed the Thames, it was rather sandy, but still not barren land, having a good deal of clay mixed with it, as is easily to be perceived, if you have to pass through it, as I had, aftor a shower, from the mud that sticks to your shoes. The land all along this road is a deep rich clay, and the farms are mostly well cultivated and extensive — a great deal of good has accrued to the country from the formation of Agricultural Associations, and the conse- quent cattle shows. — Stock has improved amazingly, — Tees- water cows — Lei'ster and South-down sheep — and Berkshire swine, that would not shame any agricultural show in the kingdom. THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 79 wri and u jighboiir- oxcellent nd culti- re mostly gratis — y tell nic irst ; but ter, if ho ere there ood, than ' and the R. S. I went crossed en land, easily to ad, after 1 lay, am dve — a roni the conse- ^giy? — — and cultural The River Thames is a fine stream from its source to Chatham. It runs rapidly over its rocky or gravelly bed, and would furnish mill power for the whole i)rovince, but unluckily it runs the wrong way — arising in the east at no great distance from Ontario, and running parallel to Lake Erie, it falls into Lake St Clair, so that no use can be made of it, for bringing produce to market ; for the farther down you go, the farther you are from your j)lace of sale. The only use, therefore, that is niude of it in this way, is to carry rafts of lumber down to Detroit and the neighbourhood, where pine is scarce. From Chatham, downward, it is a lazy, canal-looking river, with no perceptible current, but deep and navigable for any vessel that can sail these lakes. The land on its banks is about the richest I ever saw in any country. Six or seven feet deep of earth that would do for a garden, and extensive grass plains stretch- ing for miles into the country, without a tree, save here and there a small clump like an island in the plain — the grass, particularly that called blue joint, furnishes excellent pasture and hay. Indeed, your beasts, after they are weaned, are branded and turned out to pas- ture, and never reclaimed till wanted for use. Running water, however, is scant, and the people, from finding it so easy to scramble along after a fashion, are a lazy generation, and only half do their work. Their ground is generally foul, and their wheat, of course, mixed with the seeds of the weeds which are allowed to grow in such profusion among it. Add to all this, the stagnant water that is allowed to stand in these plains in the spring and fall (for they never dream of draining, though that would be easy) breeds fever and ague, so that on the whole I do not consider it a desirable location. When you get down to the lake at the mouth of the river, (which you do through a road, that when the lake is high, takes the horses up to their bellies in water,) you 80 THE EMIGRANT TO NOIITH AMKUICA. If: have the Haino low ^ra^js pluin land until you come witli- in a few niilos of the village of Windsor, wIkmi it improves, and is rather hi<,'her above the bed of the river. The villajL^e of Wintlsor is a new place, formed in con- se((uencc of the American tariff, to enable the inhabitants to smuggle British goods across the river. The village, therefore, consists of two classes of men, store-keepers and tailors, the former to violate the laws of the United States, the latter to evade them ; for a man coming over from Detroit buys cloth for a suit of clothes, gets them made, and then marches back to Detroit with the new clothes on his back, and the ohl ones in a bundle, under the very nose of the Collector of Customs. There is a settlement of industrious Irish in the rear of Sandwich, who, though their land was originally wet, have made it highly productive by draining. It is the most prosperous settlement I have yet seen in the Wes- tern District. I proceeded alongside of the river to Amherstburg. The land is low, and liable to inundation — but rich alluvial soil. Of Amherstburg may be said what the Irishman said of Lochmaben, it is a " finished town," for there is not a house built in it once a-year. Its principal trade is in tobacco, of which about 1000 hogsheau.. are raised in the neighbourhood yearly. I shall proceed to- morrow down the lake shore, and shall probably write when I get to St Thomas, on my way back to London. So, with kindest remembrance to all friends, I remain, &o. &c. R. S. THE EMIGRANT TO NOnTII AMERICA. 81 e witli- iprovos, in coii- ihitants villa^'O, keepers United ig vei- ls thoni ;lie new ', under rear of \y wet, t is the le Wes- :stburg. ut rich at the " for nncipal Eiu-i are eed to- Y write ondon. I. S. LETTER VII. My Dear Brother, I proceeded from Aniherstburg hi un easterly direction, along- the shore of the hike. For sonio way the hind is rich, and descends towards the lake with a very <^entl(^ slope — farther on there are high steep banks of hard clay, perhaps 100 feet higher than the lake; and here it is extraordinjiry, that the streams flow from the lake, as the top of these banks which overhang it are higher than the land in the interior — this has produced swamp, and creates a necessity for drainage, which is very easily accomplished by each man cutting a narrow ditch of sufHcient depth to cause a run on each side of his farm — these, when the snow melts, soon scour themselves to a proper width and depth, and in the course of a very few years, where they join the lake, cause a gully across the road that is difficult to bridge. To remedy this th(;y every two or three years remove the road a little back ; but the only way they can ever eti'ectually remove this obhl icle, is by at on< e putting the road back to the far end <»f the lot — tin > they will have only to bridge the ditch, not the ravine. This land is remarkably rich, but not farmed in the very best manner. I suspect the most of the inhabitants never were bred farmers. Through the Talbot settlement, — so called from having been settled by Colonel Tnlbot, and great credit is due him from having settled it so eflectually, — the land is generally qool, but after passing Dunwich, the soil is not so strong; tho plains commence, and chestnut, and other woods tha-: p dicate a light soil, appear. I took a day and a half's journey into the Long Point Country ; but I do not like it. The roads here, however, are good, F <*, 'At IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT.3) k // ^/ ^^ * I/. & ^ t 1.0 I.I us 1^ Uk us L. ^ IL25 ■ 1.4 6" 2.0 1.6 ^ ^ > <$• ^'^v^' '\^ '> Sci^ces Corporation ^^ iV •s^ :\ \ % V <«> <«^*«. ■•^^x ^.V \ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 "n I I c> % >mm 82 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. because the land is bad ; but they have this difficulty about them, that, like Hampshire in England, you have only t'^ drive a waggon forward to make a road, and by and by the wheels cut through the turf into the sand. Accord- ingly, every farmer leaves the main road at any angle that best suits his own convenience, so that every farm road looks as big as the main road, and I wandered a dozen times in the course of a few miles. I took my way, therefore, towards St Thomas — a very pretty village on a bank overhanging a river — and having staid there to see the country about, I proceeded towards London. The land round St Thomas is all good — some of it richer and some of it lighter ; but the folk there tell me that the difference in the production of the two kinds of land is made up, by the lighter being easier tilled. It may be so ; but I would prefer the rich land, though it may be no so free to the plough. On arriving in London, I found it was the quarter-ses- sions and a fair day. I went through among the beasts, itnd saw some very good Durham cattle, and Lei'ster and South-down sheep. I have my doubts whether Lei'stera and Durhams will do in this country after two or three generations. It 's the pasture that makes the breed, and I doubt if their new pastures are sufficient to support these large beasts. Sir James Graham tried them in Cumber- laud, and had to go back to the Cheviots and Ayrshires. Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford brought a very large breed of cattle from Rome, where they are fed in the salt marshes by the sea side, but they fell off '^very generation, and they are now not much larger than the common cattle of the country. As I was sauntering through the fair, who should 1 forgather with but my old friend Tam Kennedy ? Tarn came to this country ten years ago, and having no more than paid his passage, he went to service to the clerk of THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. this district, who is a wonderful agriculturist, and lias a noble breed of cattle. He has made a very useful dis- covery of how to know whether land is fit for barley in the spring. By rather a queer process he ascertains its temperature ; and, if it feels warm, he knows it is in a fit state for sowing. I 'm astonished he never published his discovery. Well, Tam was some years with him, and saved his wages till he could buy a farm and stock it, and he is now in a very thriving way, with a good farm and a good stock of cattle. I went out with Tam that night, for it is scrimp ten miles from London, and a snug bien place he has. When he began farming, he bee't to get married, so he got a farmer's daughter, from Fenwich, and a handy stirring lass she is, and a grand one for butter and cheese. Their oldest bairn (a lassie) is no six years of age yet, and it's wonderful how useful she is to her mother. It's astonishing how early in this country they make children useful. Boys are set to look after oxen at an age that in Scotland we would be afraid to trust them out of our sight, without somebody to look after them. I had a long crack with Tam about where to settle, and he advised me to buy a farm at Sheriff's sale, and he recommended me to one, only the fifth part of a mile from his own. He said I would not get better land in the district, and it had considerable improv^ements on it. Accordingly, next morning, when he went back to the court to be a something they call a grand juror, I went to look at the land. There is one hundred acres of it, and thirty of them cleared. It has a good barn upon it, and a fine young orchard close to the house. The house has been good, but has been sorely abused, the windows being broken and the water coming through the roof in two or three places, so that it would require a good deal of repair. The land is excellent, but has been neglected, briars and IMl^^ 84 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. raspberries being the principal crop. The fences are in bad order, and all the cattle in the country have been grazing in it for the last two years, or else it would have been a thicket of brambles. But as it never has been much wrought, and the grazing has given it a rest, it is in good order for the plough. The poor gomeril of a bodie that owned it was doing well as a farmer, and wanted to do better. So he neglected his farm, and took to lumber and potashes. This brought him in to giving bills and backing bills, and like all folk that take in hand a business they do not understand, he fell through with it, and seeing nothing before him but the tolbooth, he yoked his waggon one night, and put all his matters in it that would carry easily, and made a moonlight flitting of it to the United States. Tam tells me that that is invariably the end of a farmer who quits his own business, and takes to one he knows nothing about. When I got back to dinner, I found Tam there before me, there being no more business for the grand jury that day. I told him I liked the farm, and asked him what he thought would be the value of it. He said, were he valuing it between man and man he could not call it less than L.250. This was a sore damper, for I told him that besides what I had to bear my charges, I had only a letter of credit for L.150. He said he thought that might do, so I went to London with him, for that was the day of the sale. When it was put up, there was only one man bid against me, and that was a wee gleg-looking deevil they called Diggory, a storekeeper; he bid it up to L.105 ; I bid L.llO; he then turned round on his heel, and said, that that was thirty shillings more than it owed him ; so I was declared the purchaser, and I paid for it by a draft on the Bank of Scotland of L.91, 3s. 4^d., the difi'erence of exchange and currency making the odds. THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 85 are in 3 been i have LS been it is in i doing So he (tashes. lis, and do not lothing on one I carry United ; end of < one he ) before ry that tn what v^ere he 1 it less lim that a letter ight do, day of nan bid vil they .105 ; I ,nd said, lim ; so it by a |d., the lie odds. I have been staying with Tani for ten days. I bought a yoke of oxen for sixty dollars, and a prime yoke they are ; but every thing is cheap now, and luckily so for us new settlers, for you have had good harvests at home for the three past ytu.rs ; but I hope that the Lord, in his mercy, will send a blight or a dearth among you by the time I havj any.thing to sell, which will be next year !* I have hired a man to plough and summer fallow fifteen acres, which I mean to put in fall wheat, and then to plough the rest for a spring crop of wheat. I have to leave this to go to the district of Huron, because it was recommended as being good land, and 1 shall start to- morrow, as I behoove to see all the best parts of Canada, for the good of the folk at whose expense I came out. When I come back, I shall take charge of the farm myself. I am to live with Tam during the winter, and pay two dollars and a half a week for the board of myself and my oxen, and that 's no dear, considering the vittles they give. I hope to get the whole farm ploughed before the frost sets in, and Tam tells me that exposing the roots of the weeds and briars to the frost, is the best way to kill them, and clear the land. I shall then chop during the winter, and I hear that I may have enough to plant potatoes, oats, and barley, forby some turnips, before the fore-part of the summer is over. Tell Mary 1 11 be sure to have the house sorted for her and the bairns. She should come out in one of the * This honest aspiration of Robert Stevenson's reminds us of a story we have somewhere heard of a minister in the Hebrides, where the inhabitants depended, in a great measure, upon the winds and waves for their precarious subsistence, who, after a long season of calm weather, added the following to his usual prayer : — We do not pray that the vessels on the great deep should be wrecked ; but if they providentially should be, send them in merci/ upon these rocks ! — Quebeo Mercury, 8() THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. ciirlicst ships. Go to Mr Corbett's at Quebec, get to the head of Ontario, then through the Welland Canal, and I'll meet her, and blythe will I be to see her and the hnirns, on the banks of Lake Erie, and take them to their own home with the waggon and ox team. I remain, my dear brother, yours affectionately, R. S. Dunure House, July. LETTER VIII. I started from London, my dear brother, and proceeded into the district of Huron ; I found the land excellent. It is a curious tiling, and I never heard of it any where else, that the cattle here, turned into the woods, in the course of six weeks after the snow is gone, are fit for the luitcher. I stopped all night at a tavern kept by a Mr Balkwill, a Devonshire man, and there is a Devonshire settlement hereabouts, and very decent folk ; they are hard working, and have a great talent at building clay houses and chimneys. Farther on I met with Highlandmen, from Nova Scotia, and really, considering all things, they are getting on extraordinary. I then came on to the end of the London road, and went to the house of one Mr Cook, where I spent a very pleasant evening with many of the neigh- bours. The land through which I passed was all good till I came near to the town of Goderich, where it gets gravelly. (jJoderich is on a high bank, overlooking the River Mait- land, and Lake Huron, and a very bonny place it is. I here met with Dr Dunlop, and he asked me to come over and dine with him ; he has a bonny house on the top of a bank overlooking one of the finest holms I ever saw, with the River M^titland winding through it. He is a man of THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 87 most serious and devout manners, but not more so than becomes hi. station as a ruling elder of the Kirk. Indeed I am told he is a saint upon earth. We handled together divers spiritual matters ; and, I am happy to say, he is to the full as orthodox as his brother the advocate, who makes such a rippet in the General Assembly, and who is a well meaning young man, but not overburdened with brains, I 'm doubting. The doctor shewed me a statement, which was pub- lished by the Canada Company about two years ago, that astonished me much, as shewing the rapid advance- ment of the Company's settlements here, and which were only commenced in the latter part of the year 1829, before which period this extensive tract had not even been explored, and yet in the spring of 1840, their population exceeded six thousand, and the value of the improvements made upon their lands, and of the live stock which they had acquired, was L.242,287 ; and of this large amount, it is worthy of deep attention, that — L. 90,486 was acquired by five hundred and fourteen families, who had come into the settlement altogether destitute. L. 10,242, by sixty-one families, whose means were under L.IO. L. 40,52 6, by two hundred and fifty-four families, whose means were under L.50, and L.100,850, 17s. 9d. was accumulated by parties whose means, though small, were over that amount, but still they were so very limited, that they would not have been equal to securing for themselves at home one-fiftieth part of the independence that they now enjoy. What ample encouragement is here held out to the poor labourer and small farmer, who is struggling at home for a bare subsistence, to emigrate to a country where so much may be accomplished by honest industry, unaided even by any moneyed capital whatever ! It,!, r; 88 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA . The plans adopted by this company, at tlio commence- ment of their operations, were eminently calculated to produce this most satisfactory result ; and in a country such as Canada then was, they afford an example of the manner in which the wilderness can be opened to settle- ment, and, in all probability, of the only principle on which it can be done within a reasonable period. Abundant employment was offered in making roads, and all were allowed to take up lands upon the condition of actual settlement, and at the low price of a dollar and a half an acre, or at very low rates. No portion of the purchase money was required in cash, and, as a result, we find that in the short space of ten years, five hundred and fourteen families have thus, from their own labours alone, made clearings and improvements on the land, and acquired stock worth upwards of L. 90,000; or, if we were to add to this amount the largo sums paid on account of the purchase of the lands, where numbers are now freeholders, as well as the increased value given to their land over and above the cost price, by those im- provements, and by the settlement of the lands around, the amount would be immensely increased — for, as mere land, it has quadrupled in value, in many situations, and in all it has more than doubled. But the land being thus opened to settlement, the chief difficulties overcome, and the lots abutting on the princi- pal roads all occupied, this indulgence was discontinued, excepting in special cases, and a first instalment of one- fifth of the purchase money was required in cash, most probably under an impression, that since there was abun- dant employment for labourers at high wages, — and that, since every industrious labouring man could thus, in the course of a year, save sufficient from his wages to pay an instalment of ten or twelve pounds, and at the same time acquire a knowledge of the mode of managing farming operations in this country, — they were thus doing a real I fj^ , THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 89 kindness to the labouring classes ; and, by increasing: the number of applicants for labour, ])eneiitin<^ the farmers, by reducing the rate of wages, which for years have been much higher than the prices of farming produce would warrant. It is not to be supposed that tailors and shoemakers should all at once become expert axemen and good farmers, and it may be said that the mass of the people of Canada, since the manufacturing districts supph' the greatest number of emigrants, never held a plough, or worked upon a farm, till after their arrival in Canada, and yet one of these raw hands will spurn lower wages than are paid to experienced labourers ; and I am told, that although flour is now only 3^dls. a barrel, la- bourers* wages are just as high as when it was 6dls. or even 12dls. The Company have, however, now again returned to the old principle which was found to work so well, and poor people can obtain lands on a lease for twelve years, on the payment of an annual rent, commencing at L.2 per hundred acres, and gradually increasing to L.16, 10s. on the twelfth year, when the lessee is entitled to a deed in fee-simple, and then becomes a freeholder. The Huron tract contains about one million acres, of which about seven hundred thousand are still the property of the Canada Company, and the circumstance of there being so much unoccupied land at the back of these settle- ments, affords an immense advantage in their favour over the Government settlements for the encouragement of the emigrant, since the Company's lands are rather heavily taxed — at present one penny and an eighth of a penny per acre — the whole of which is expended on public improvements and in the discharge of the district expenses — the improvements being confined to the immediate neighbourhood^of the present settlements ; or, at all events, it is only reasonable to suppose that such should be the 90 TAE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. case, since the expenditure of the money and the levying' of the taxes, is in the han«ls of the District Council, or in fact in tlie hands of the very people, throu^^h their repre- sentatives, who "^ard of emigration, composed of plain practical men, well acquainted with the feelings and prejudices of the emigrant, and fu''y empowered to settle him in such a manner as would evidently be for his advantage. To this end a sufficient fund should be placed by the provincial government under proper and necessary precautions, at the dis- posal of such board, for the purpose of intersecting new townships with good roads, not to the extent of 150 miles, according to the ki' APPENDIX. NOTE 11. 101 I ; and rs of a s elegi- ly, and pital is e, or at a little account LRD OP joncern- sffect by ition, to yith the must be id to do, 1 of this jeive the lave the defeated, *mw out ;he same desirable ;ar, from ntertains ph, from ticipated. } efficient ision and d this, I >--»ard of ited with npowered } for his present mode of laying out a township 9 miles by 12, but 48, con- sisting of 4 roads from front to rear, upon which all the lots except the front would abut, which would not only bring such lauds to immediate sale, but would induce a higher and more respectable class to purchase them, by which means the greatest and most important obstacle in the way of carrying such a plan into success- ful operatiun would be effected, namely, the refunding of the money. Another beneficial effect would accrue from my scheme : the making of such roads will afford employment for the poor labouring emigrant, and enable him also to pay at least one instal- ment for his land, as in no case ought he to get it free. Many facts have come under my observation, which would illus- trate my meaning and give weight to my suggestions. I will therefore submit one of them to the consideration of the intelligent reader. A half-pay officer bought a block of land of 5000 acres in the tenth and eleventh concessions of a township in my neighbourhood for Is. 3d. an acre, while the lands in the ninth, eighth, &c., brought an increase of price'at the government sales in the ratio of their approach to the front, while those in the second concession were sold for 10s. and in the first, which a good road intersected, for from 5 to 6 dollars an acre, according to their quality. Whereas if half the labour had been expended in making roads from front to rear, according to my suggestion, which has been laid out in those running parallel with the front line of the township, this very block of land would have been worth, and would have sold for, ten times the amount. The following rude sketches of a portion of a township laid out, the first, according to the mode here suggested, and the second, according to the plan hitherto observed, will most fully illustrate my meaning : — provincial t the dis- townshipfl ng to the n 'I'l ll '1 102 r rHE : E M IGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. — r i 1 1!' i — d d! 'P < o •< < c \ PC »l a i 1 1 1 I TIOI articular branch of farming economy. In short, every prudent farmer ought always to have a ton or two of hay to spare. The settler's avocations during the winter months are generally confined to taking care of his cattle, thrashing his grain, getting it manufactured into Hour and oatmeal, for the summer's consump- tion, cutting and drawing home firewood, cutting and splitting rails for fences, and hauling them to where they will be wanted, all which nmst be attended to, and then, whatever time he can spare from his amusements, visiting, &c. is devoted to chopplntj on his intended new clearing, where the underbrush must luiv». been cleared away before the snow fell. His family within doors, when iudustrious, find their time fully employed in spinning, and other female occu- pations ; and when it is considered, that every article of convenience, not to say of luxury, must be made at home, or be dispensed with, it may easily be imagined that the duties of a farmer's wife and grown up daughters are numerous and unceasing ; for in proportion to their industry and abilities, will be their domestic comfort and happiness. In summer, from the scarcity of labour among poorer settlers, all assist in the fields, the child of even six years old being employed in some useful and healthy occupation befitting his age and strengtli. The vvild beasts of the forest constitute as frightful a bugbear in the minds of the ignorant as our winters. Although the wolves sometimes annoy the farmer by worrying his sheep, which puts him to the trouble of yarding them every night, and the bears and racoons too may make sad havoc in his Indian corn and late oats, especially if near the woods, yet as to any fear or apprehension being entertained for our own personal safety from their attacks, it is quite out of the question, as I never heard of a single instance of their behaviour being sufiiciently rude to warrant a conscientious man to swear the peace against them. ■ The game in most places is plentiful, consisting of deer and wild APPENDIX. A SI MMAflY VIEW. 107 ck in tlio 'I'Htood, and itH taniicr uii fii'hl I foilder till tho [•ops are re vails, roin tho farinin;^ ) have a encrally jttiiig it )iisuinp- iiig rails II wliicli Tom his ntcnded -'d away ibtrious, e occu- cnience, 3d with, ^ife and )portion ort and f poorer Id being his age bear in wolves ch puts ars and te oats, liension fit tacks, nstance eutious ad wild rabbits, partridges or wood grouse, woodcock, snipe, and plover, wild ducks, and geese. Wild turkeys and quails also are nunieror K tho most western parts of tho province. Fish of almost ever/ description abound in all tho rivers and lakes ; such as trout, bass, whltefish, dorys, pickerel, chub, sturgeon, eels, iS:c. ^Vc, as well aw salmon in the eastern parts of tlu! province, and salmon trout in tho western. The connnon trout is hometimes caught in the small lakes in the bosom of th'' mountainous districts, weighing as nmcli us 2.51bs. i have dwelt Ijngcr on this particular subject now, littlo as I have said upon it elsewhere, than my old neighbour I have so often mentioned thinks necessary, as he says that a man, though ho may be a good hunter, can at any time earn a quarter of beef in less time than it will tako him to get a haunch of venison, and I daro say, according to the stric*^^ rules of utilitarianism, ho is per- fectly right ; yet as wo old country emigrants do not always enact tho sportsman solely for tho pot, and being a source of amusement to even the most industrious settlors in this country, the intelligent reader who is fond of his gun, and whoso hair has not been blanched by the vicissitudes of so many seasons as have revolved over the head of my aged and esteemed friend, will thank me for these observation. The wages for a good agricultural labourer are from L.20, to L.22, 10s. a-year, and board, or from 8 to lOdls. a-month in sum- mer, and from 25 to .30 a-month in winter, (we generally divide tho year, in tliis country, into two seasons only, winter and summer,) they are somewhat higher when labourers are engaged for a less period than a year ; hence we often give from 28. to 2s. fJd. a-day, for daily labour. Mechanics, 6s. a-day, and board. Women ser- vants, from 12s. Cd. to 20s. a-month, and in towns a little more. As those emigrants who intend settling upon wild lands will have, in tlie first place, to build themselves some sort of a house to shelter them, until they can erect a better, as well as to buy their provisions during the greater part of the first year, or for rather - lore than a year, if they commence their operations at the best seaso. " )r doing 80, namely, in July or August, they would like to know something about the probable amount of expenditure required for these pur- poses, as well as the mode of accomplishing them. Suppose the emigrant's family to consist of a man and his wife, and five children, among these two well grown boys, (if the family be smaller, two should unite and help each other,) and that he takes a house or lodgings for his wife and younger children, as near his location as he can, and then purchases a few weeks' provisions, hires a good ax-man, whom he takes, with his two sons, into the bush, with what necessaries they may require for a stay of two or three weeks, or r 108 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. m ti more, according to the distance from the rest of the family. They then make a sort of cabin to sleep in, covered with bark, or with brushwood, if the season is too far advanced for the bark to peel, then clear a small spot for their house, which is made of unhewn logs, notched into, and across eaf'; other at the corners, and roofed with boards and hinglcs. The openings for doors and windows are then cat out with a saw, the uppermost log i»i each opening being half sawn through at the time of erection, before the next log was put on, in order to admit the saw to cut them out afterwards ; the joints or openings between the logs, when too far apart, are then chinked up with large splinters, and plastered with mortar, and the whole whit washed, the floors laid with unplaned planks ; and the family moves into the house, frequently without either doors, windows, or partitions, a bed-quilt or two, or a carpet, suspended across from the ceiling, being substituted for the latter, and any thing, or noilang, for the former, till they have time to get all finished ; the cost, besides their own labour, would be aboul L.12, 10s, for a house of this description, 17 feet, by 23 feet long exactly, so as two 12 feet boards will reach the whole length, and project 6 inches over each end. The co^t of provisions for a year, for such a family, will amount to L.50, with care and good manage- ment they might do with something less. I mean, of course, a family with a little capital, say L.150, to L.250 ; if with less, a much dieaper method would be resorted to. For instance, all the family would go into the bush at once, without a hired man, and erect a much less expensive house or hut, here called a shanty, and live chiefly upon oatmeal and potatoes, with a very little animal food, at a cost probably not exceeding L.20. The cost of household furniture depends upon the quantity and quality required ; no family could well do with less than L.5 worthy to be at all comfortable, and none would require to expend more than L.20 out of such limited means as I have mentioned. If they could afford more, it would be better to lay it out upon the house. Taxes are very trifling, and to an emigrant from home, or from the United States, are scarcely felt. As to markets, — the first thing an old countryman inquires after when he comes here, and the very last an old settler thinks about ; the fact is, farming produce 'oi' all kinds is always saleable it ou1^;» doors, with the exception perhaps, of a year of extraordinary de- pression like the present. The society, — and this is a matter of the utmost importance, however little attention is paid to its consideration by the emi- grant in locating himself : hav?ng always lived among people ot* habits and manners similar to hi^ own, he kuows not the value of APPENDIX. A SUMMARY VIEW. 109 y. They :, or with k to peel, unhewn id roofed idows are ng being ; log was irds ; the are then rtar, and Liks ; and er doors, uspended and any ;o get all be abouC feet long Qgth, and )r a year, . manage- course, a s, a much he family id erect a and live mal food, ntity and i.5 worthy nd more If they 3 house. , or from ires after lS about ; e at ouP-;» nary de- portance, the emi- people of value of such a blessing till he has irretrievably lost it. The Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman, may however settle in a neighbourhood where his own countrymen form the grea*. bulk of the population, but never without a sprinkling from almost all other countries. Churches, and other places of public worship are to be found in every settlement of any magnitude, as may well be inferred from the fact of there not being fewer than one hundred and aixty clergymen of the Church of England alone, in the province. Pres- byterians, under different names, are the next in point of numbers ; then the Methodists — I speak only of Protestant denominations. The Roman Catholics have churches in all the towns of any note, and in a few country settlements, bf sides, of course, the French Canadian portion of the country, which is inhabited almost exclu- sively by Roman Catholics. Schools were formerly'tobemet with almost'at every step, through- out the whole length and breadth of the country, supported in some measure by government, and are now being established again ; but during the late administration, or the greatest part of it, all government support was withdrawn ; and so many years were spent in the most expensive commission, to make inquiries upon which was to be founded a new and less imperfect system of general education, that one generation at least have had to be reared without the means of learning to read and write ; and the grand result has been an act of the legislature to establish them again, but so cumbered with burdensome machinery, that few can understand it, and fewer still obtain the benefit it was professedly intended to convey. We now, however, are led to entertain better hopes, which I doubt not will be realised. Fruit and garden stuffs are the same as in the south of England, but grow here in greater luxuriance, and melons ripen without glass, which, however, is mi ch used for hotbeds, owing to its cheap- ness, (100 feet for 5s.) Wild fruits and nuts of various descrip- tions, some of wliich are delicious, abound every where. There are many things which the stranger, on his arrival in the country, will view with wonder and astonishment, upon two of which, in particular, although'he may ha'^e seen the most lucid and graphic descriptions, he will find that he has formed no adequate idea. These are the woods and the waters. On the former, which has so intimate a connection with my sub- ject, I have already said enough, either to accomplish the difficult task of conveying to the mind of my reader, some competent idea of them, or, if I have failed, to satisfy him of my inability to do so. But on the latter, I have as yet said nothing, nor do I know 110 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. what to say. The ceaseless and eternal roll of waters, through the whole length and braadth of this immense territory, when col- lected together into one vast and immeasurable volume, which looks ai if the great Pacific had burst the bounds prescribed for it, by him who hath said " hither shalt thou come, and no farther," forced a channel across this great continent, and was emptying itself into the Atlantic, converting every valley, in its uncontrollable course, into an inland sea ; for some of these lakos are equal, while others are superior in superficial contents, to the whole of the island of Great Britain ; and fancying, now, such to be their source, the wonder would yet be, that they still flow on unexhausted and inexhaustible. Only imagine a river, and that only a tributary to this mighty accumulation of living waters, half a mile in breadth, rising 17 feet in perpendicular height, and necessarily widening out to a proportionable extent and that not for a day or a week, but for a month or more, with but a trifling variation, — and tht greatest wonder of all is, that when this tributary, large as it is, unites itself with the main river, it produces no visible effect upon its size ; and this is not all, for a hundred other tributaries, not of equal magnitude certainly, but which would in England be con- sidered largo rivers, are alike swallowed up by the majestic S* Lawrence, without bending her from her dignity to notice their union ; so that from the dizzy precipice at Niagara, over which she tumbles her waters, till she disembogues them into the ocean, the junction of all these immense branches makes but little apparent difference in her magnitude. The tide flows up this river more than 500 miles : at the distance of 400 miles, it son .times rises 16 feet. Before concluding this summary, I must say a word or two ttK (jentlemen farmers, although, in the Home acceptation of the term, they are not to be found in any of the colonies, malgre alPthat has been said to the contrary — all attempts to carry on farming upon a scale, and in the mode which the term implies, having sig- nally failed. It must not, however, be inferred from this, that people '^ this class could not better their circumstances by coming here witl: a capital of from 5 to L. 10,000, by laying out L.IOOO in the purchase of a good house with a farm, which would keep three or four horses, six or eight cows, a few sheep, and young stock, &c. sufficient, in short, to supply his establishment with all sorts of farming produce, and that in as great profusion as they could con- sume, enabling him to drive a pair of horses, and in every respect live as well as he could in England, with his| money out at interest at 10 per cent per annum. APPENDIX. Ill )ugh the hen col- j, which 3d for it, rarther," mptying itrollable e equal, le of the r source, 3ted and utary to breadth, widening a week, and the as it is, 3ct upon s, not of be con- jestic £* ice their krhich she eean, the apparent er more rises 16 two tOv he term, all 'that fariiing vmg sig- is, that r coming 00 in the three or ock, &c. sorts of >uld con- respect ) interest GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO EMIGRANTS. As a great many copies of this work will probably be sent, by settlers in this country, to their friends at home, — I have indeed already been applied to for numbers to be thus disposed of, — I there- fore here subjoin, for the information of such as intend to emigrate to this country, a few hints and directions which they will find useful, and would do well to attend to on taking their departure. Let them take their passage to Quebec or Montreal, it matters not which, provided there be a difference in the charge, of five per cent, as that would take them from the former to the latter town. If they find their own provisions for the voyage ; (say for one) let him take a couple of loaves of bread, 601bs. of well cured bacon or hams, as many of biscuits, lOlbs. of cheese, lib. of tea, 81bs. of sugar, 30 or 401bs. of oatmeal, 201bs. of salt butter, a bushel and a half of potatoes, two or three dozen eggs, and a leg of fresh mutton, or a small portion of other fresh meat, which he may con- sume while good, and above all, a good deal chest, and take care to keep it locked. A few bottles of ale or porter he would also find a great luxury. This is for a single man. With a wife and family, he may reckon upon about half the quantity more for each of the rest, even although they may all be nearly grown up, as a wife, in such cases, would manage things b .t^er, and make the provisions go farther. He ought also to provide himself with a good cod line or two, with hooks, with which he can in general adu materially to his stock of provisions on the banks, where vessels generally lay too, for a short time, for the purpose of fishing. When I came out, we lay to but 17 minutes, in which time, I caught three cods, one weigh- ing 391bs. He must choose a good tight vessel, and enter, in his agreement with the Captain, to be supplied with 3 quarts of good fresh water a day. See Passenger Act. The next thing ho will want, if a single man, will be a mattrass, a couple of blankets, and a coverlet, and let him take care that they are good, — the mattrass filled with curled hair, and it will serve as a bed for him for years after he gets to his destination. If any of his provisions should be left, after he lands, let him take them also with him wherever he goes, and they will be a great saving to him. 112 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. Whatever money he may have, let him take it to some bank which will give him a letter of credit on some other bank or merchant in Quebec or Montreal, keeping beside him, however, a few sovereigns in case of contingencies. When he arrives here, whatever doubts, and fears, ai^d misgivings he may have, and I can assure him he will have many, all he has to do, is to call at the offices of tho emigrant agents, and he will receive every assistance in his difficulties, and all the instruction and advice necessary for his guidance afterwards. Or when in the country, if he have no private friend with whom to advise, let him apply to the clergyman, if there be one, or if not, to a magistrate, either of whom will readily give him all the information he may require, and upon which he can depend. A TABLE Shewing the prices of conveyance to Quebec from the different ports mentioned below, in the cabin, with all necessaries except bedding, — and in the intermediate and steerage, the passengers to provide themselves with every thing. To Quebec Cabin. Intermediate. Steerage. From London, L.20 L.5 L.4 Liverpool, 18 3 2 j^ Leith, 12 2 10 Greenock, 15 4 2 Dublin, 11 25 I Belfast, 14 2 5 Londonderry, 12 J 2 10 Sligo, ^ 10 ■ 2 15 Limerick, 14 2 10 Cork, 14 2 20 List of the Government Emigration Agents in the United Kingdom Lieut. Lean, R. N., (Office, East Smithfield.) Lieut. Henry, R. N., Liverpool, (Office, 33, Union Street.) Lieut. Forrest, R. N., Leith. Lieut. Hemmans, R. N., Greenock. Lieut. HoDDER, R. N., Dublin. Lieut. Friend, R. N., Cork. Lieut. Starke, R. N., Belfast. Mr Lynch, R. N., Limerick. Lieut. Shuttleworth, R. N., Sligo. Lieut. Ramsay, R. N., Londonderry. ,e bank ank or vever, a sgivings I he has he will itruction ;n in the , let him Lgistrate, he may different !3 except engers to Peerage. A 2 2 10 2 2 5 2 5 2 10 2 15 2 10 2 20 Kingdom. eet.) APPENDIX. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. un These officers act under the immediate directions of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, and the following is a sum- mary of their duties : — They correspond with any magistrates, clergymen, parish-officers, or others, who may apply to them for information as to the facilities for emigration from their respective stations. They procure, and give gratuitously, information as to the sailing of ships, and means of accommodation for emigrants ; and whenever applied to for that purpose, they see that all agreements between shipowners, agents, or masters, and intending emigrants, are duly pe»'formed. They also see that the provisions of the Passengers' ict are strictly complied with, namely, that passenger-vessels are sea-worthy, that they have on board a sufficient supply of provisions, water, medicines, &c., and that they sail with proper punctuality. They attend personally at their offices on every week day, and, generally, they afford, gratuitously, all the assistance in their power to protect intending emigrants against fraud and imposition, and to obtain redress where oppression or injury lias been practised on them. Government Emigration Agents in Canada, Quebec, A. C. Buchanan, Esq., Chief Agent for Eastern Canada. Montreal, James Allison, Esq. Bytown, George Burke, Esq. Kingston, A. B. Hawke, Esq., Chief Agent for Western Canada. Toronto, Dr D. R. Bradley. CAUTION TO EMIGRANTS AGAINST REFUSING OFFERS OF GOOD WAGES, The following is an Extract of a Report from the Chief Emigra- tion Agent at Quebec, to the G over/ ior- General of Canada, dated Sl-st July, 1841. « The most important measure is, first, to endeavour" to undeceive the emigrants in the very erroneous ideas which they almost all enter- tain as to the remuneration which they will receive for their labour on arrival in this country. Instances occur almost daily, of persons who, in their own country (Ireland,) were glad to work for lOd. to Is. per day, refusing employment here at 3s., and they do not consider that, for the first season, until they become acquainted wiUi the labour of the country, their services are worth little more H 114 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. than one-half to the farmer. Many, to my certain knowledge, hav^e been offered advantageous engagements in this neighbourhood, but refused permanent employment, preferring to proceed, in hopes of better wages, but in which very many are disappointed. " Wages for agricultural labour in the eastern townships, and in almost every section of the western divif??on of the province, are higher than in the neighbourhood of Montreal : six to seven dollars per month is as much as farmers will or can afford to give to newly arrived emigrants, with board and lodging. Good hands, after a year or so of residence, will generally command from 10 to 12 dollars, and found. Labourers, who board themselves, receive here from 12 to 15 dollars per month. Day-labourers always get 2s. 6d. to 3s. and at this season oftener the latter than the former ; but if they possess the means of proceeding farther, they will seldom work for this. *•' It is most desirable to impress on the intending emigrants the necessity of their being in possession of sufficient means to enable them to proceed to where a demand for their labour exists, and it is extremely difficult, 1 may say impossible, when from 2000 to 3000, and in some instances 5000, people arrive here in a week, (as was the case this season for several weeks in succession,) that employment can immediately be found for all who stand in need. " Facilities have occured this season which were not formerly to be obtained in the neighbourhood of this city (Quebec) and Montreal, namely, immediate employment to all classes of emigrants on the public works and road improvements. This, however, cannot be relied on in future beyond another season." i DIRECTIONS FOR PROCEEDING UP THE COUNTRY. On arriving at Quebec, the emigrant should on no ac- count leave the vessel, unless it be to go with the long-boat direct with his luggage to the steamer for Montreal ; and not unfrequently the steamer comes alongside the emigrant ship, and thus facilitates the re-embarkation of the emigrant. The Captain of the ship can easily arrange this with the steamer. Very little difficulty is experienced by the emigrant at Quebec — a few hours suffice to provide his family with the necessaries of life, if his supplies are run Currency. APPENDIX. DIRECTIONS. 115 ;e, hav^e od, but opes of ps, and ice, are dollars newly after a t) to 12 ive here 1 2s. ()d. ; but if seldom ants the enable ;s, and it 2000 to week, (as •n,) that 1 need, •merly to )ec) and migrants r, cannot JNTRY. urrency. Currency, out. The steamboat goes up the river to Montreal in about 16 hours, a distance of 180 miles. The charge for deck passengers is 7s. Gd. and no charge is made for luggage, . . . . L.O 7 C Tho faro is reduced, when there is any competition. The emigrant, before going on board the steamer, should boil as much pork or beef as will serve him for a day or two, which he can do before leaving the ship ; in a few minutes he can procure fresh bread ; and if he has a large tin tea-pot, with a few tins, he can with ease get hot water in the steamer to make some tea, to refresh the members of his family on the way up. On his arrival at Montreal, he should, with as little delay as possible, get his luggage trans- ported to the barges of the forwarding company. He will find many carters in readiness for this pur- pose, and must take care not to be imposed upon by them ; Is. 6d. . . . . .016 should be sufficient to take all things to the station of tlie barges. Here the fare is, from Montreal to Bytown, per adult, 8s. Allowance for luggage, Icwt or l^cwt., free, . . . ..OHO and for any quantity over and above this, 2s. per cwt. The barges* arrive at Bytown about 60 hours after leaving Montreal. The same barges continue through to Kingston. The fare f-om Bytown to Kingston is, per adult, 10s. ; same allowance of luggage as above, 10 and 2s. 6d. for each cwt. extra : add Is. per day for meals from Quebec to Bytown, say 8 days, . .080 When the emigrant gets on board the barge at Mont- real, his luggage need not be moved until he readies Kingston. He will find utensils for cooking, and the female part of his family will find shelter in the cabin of the vessel. The barges there take seventeen or eighten hours in getting up to Greuville. On the way, the emigrant can buy a few potatoes from the farmers on the canal. The prices of provisions do not vary from Montreal to Kingston : potatoes. Is. 6d. and 2s. per bushel ; pork, 5d. to 7d. per lb. ; butter, 8d. to lOd. ; flour, 2 id. to 3d. * There are now several small steamers which go the whole distance, and in much less time. These are more comfortable, and the charges tlie same. 116 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. per lb. ; tea, 4s. per lb. ; sugar 6d. per lb. ; eggs, 6d, per dozen ; butcher meat, 3.^d. per lb. All these articles are easily procured on the way. From Grenville to By town is G3 miles, and the barges are towed by a steamer, and reach in about 15 hours. A great error is committed by the emigrant in asking exorbitant wages on his arrival ; he should content himself at Rrst with from six to seven dollars a month, with board, which is all he can expect for the first year. Many emigrants, on arriving; at Quebec and Mont' real, have not the means to carry them forward, but they find no difficulty in getting work, and are very soon enabled to lay up sufficient to carry them up the country. They should on do account remain in Quebec or Montreal during winter, as they would assuredly have much privation and hardship to con- tend with. However high the wages may be in tha busy season^ the winter presents to them a barren prospect. At Kingston, there are steamers for Toronto, distant 170 miles, and for Hamilton, at the head of Lake Ontario, distant from Kingston 210 miles. The time occupied at Toronto is 23 hours : the deck fare is usually 7s. 6d. Last season it was only 5s. .or each adult, exclusive of provisions. Two children under fourteen years of age are charged as one passenger. The distance from Quebec to Toronto is 606 miles. Time occupied in performing it about ten days. Total expense for e,<\ch adult including provisions, . • Currency. 7 G L.2 6 4 Mr Widder, one of the Commissioners of the Canada Company, lias furnished the following statement with reference to tillage, which he states he procured from a very intelligent and respect- able yoeman, settled in the London district. Western Canada, and it corresponds so nearly with my own experience, that it will ap- ply to both portions of the province ; — Cost of clearing 10 acres of heavy timbered land, in the usual Canadian fashion, with an estimate of the crops to be produced therefrom during the first tliree years after clearing : — APPENDIX. 117 rrency. 7 6 first year. Dr. Chopping, clearing, and fencing 10 acres, so as to leave it fit for the drag, at L.4 per acre, Seed, Ik bushel wheat to the acre, say 15 bushels, at 58. . Sowing and dragging, at 5s. per acre, . Harvesting, at 7s. 6d. per acre, . The value of the straw, tailing, wheat hulls, &c. on the farm, are supposed to be equal to the thrashing and cartage to the barn. To timothy and clover seed, at 2s. 6d. per acre, .... Cr. By 20 bushels wheat per acre — 260 bushels, a* 38. 9d L.37 10 second year. Dr. To mowing and taking off hay, at 7s. 6d. per acre, .... Cr. By 11 ton per acre of hay, at 6 dollars per to"j 22 10 L.40 3 15 2 10 3 15 1 5 3 15 .2 6 4 .ompany, tillage, respect- tada, and will ap- ^he usual produced third year. Dr. To mowing and taking off the hay, at 7s. 6d. per acre, 3 15 Cr. By li ton per acre of hay, at 6 dollars per ton- • . . . . 22 10 L.82 10 58 15 Balance in clear profit, 23 15 L.82 10 82 10 w ns THE EMKIRANT TO NORTH AMETIICA. ABSTRACT OF PASSENGER ACT. The following is an outline of the principal Regulations of the Passengers' Act, 5 and G Vict. c. 107, eo far aa relates to Toyuijes to North America: — No vessel proceeding to any place out of Europe, not being within the Mediterranean Sea, to carry more than three persons (master and crew included) to every five tons burden, nor, what- ever be the tonnage, more than one passenger to every ten clear superficial feet of the space appointed for the use of the passen- gers, under a penalty not exceeding L.5 for every passenger in excess. The lower deck must be not less than one and a half inch in thick- ness, and secured to the hold beams. The height between decks is to be six feet at least. There must not be more than two tiers of berths ; the bottom of the lower tier to be six inches above the deck. The berths not to be less than after the rate of six feet in length, and eighteen inches in width, for each passenger, and to be securely constructed. At least three quarts of water per diem to be issued to each pas- senger, and a supply of provisions, not less often than twice a-week, at the rate of 71bs. of bresid stuffs per week, half at least to be. bread or biscuit, the other half may be potatoes, of which Slbs. are to be reckoned equal to lib. of bread stuffs. The water to be taken in tanks or sweet casks, none exceeding 300 gallons in capacity. The length of the voyage to North America to be computed at ten weeks. Two children under 14 to be reckoned equal to one passenger ; children under 1 not to count. Provisions and water to be inspected and surveyed by the Government Emigration Agents, or, in their absence, by the Officers of Customs. Seaworthiness of vessels to be ascertained by those officers, who may order a survey, if necessary. Sufficient boats to be taken. Two copies of the Act to be kept on board, to be produced to the passengers on demand. A proper supply of medicines, &c., with directions for their use, to be provided for the voyage. The sale of spirits prohibited under a penalty not exceeding L.IOO. Lists of passengers to be delivered by the Master to proper officers, previous to clearance, and counterfeits to be deposited with Officers of Customs, or Consuls, at final port of discharge. Same regulations in respect of additional passengers taken on board after clearance. APPENDIX. AIJSTRACT OF PASSENGER ACT. 111> .f tho ,yaije9 being Draons what- 1 clear assen- •jer in . tliick- tom of hs not ghteen ructed. ch paa- a-week, e bread ;e to be ceeding uted at senger ; by the Officers rs, who d to the leir use, receding > proper ted with Parties contracting to find passages to North America, to give written receipts, in a prescribtnl form, for money received, under a penalty not exceeding L.IO, and forfeiture of license, if a I'ubbuge Broker. No person, except Owner or Master of the ship, to act as a Pas- sage Broker or Dealer, unless licensed by Magistrates at the Petty or Quarter Sessions, under a penalty of L.IO for each offence. Brokers liable to a penalty of L.IO and forfeiture of license, if they receive ptissage money as agents for others, without written authority from their I'rincipals, or if they fraudulently induce per- sons to engage passages. In case the contract for a passage is not performed on the ship- per's part, the aggrieved parties, unless maintained atthecontractor'H expense, and provided within a reasonable time with a passage to the same place, may recover, by summary process, before two Justices of the Peace, any passage money they may have paid, with a sum not exceeding L.IO as compensation. Passengers to be victualled during detention of ships ; but if de- tention (except caused by wind or weather) exceed two clear working days, to receive instead Is. per diem, unless suitably lodged and maintainted with their own consent by tho Contractor. Passengers not to be landed against their consent at any place other than the one contracted for. Passengers to be maintained on board for 48 hours after arrival, unless the ship, in the prosecution of her voyage, quits the port sooner. The Master is to afford every facility to the proper officers for inspecting the ship, communicating wiih the passengers, and ascer- taining that the Act has been duly observed. The Owners and Charterers, or, in their absence, some approved person on their behalf, and the Master of vessels carrying more than 50 passengers, must, before clearance, give bond without stamp, to the Crown, for the due performance of the Act. The Act extends to foreign as well as British ships, but not to vessels carrying fewer than 30 passengers, nor to cabin passengers. Passenger suing under the Act for money made recoverable to their use, not to be deemed on that account incompetent witnesses. Their right to proceed at law for any breach of con tract reserved. A penalty not exceeding L.50 imposed for the breach of any of the provisions of the Act, except in the five cases where specific penalties are affixed. The enforcement of this law rests with the Government Emigra- tion Agents and the Officers of Her Majesty's Customs ; and per- sons, therefore, having complaints to make of its infraction, should apply to those officers, who alone can enforce the various penalties. aken on i20 THK EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. Taui.k — Shewing the diffbronco of Mean Temperature in Eastorn and Western Canada, during one year, an July, and August, 3 99.33 58.83 77.67 75 17 Winter Months, . , 38.66 24.32 13.25 131 21 Snow. For the Year, . . , 62.25 11.75 42.1 309 56 Upper Canada. Max. Min. • * Rain or Snow. Mean. Fine days. For the months of June, ) July, and August, / 99 M 57.33 67.37 76 16 Winter Months, . . 46.33 14.67 below zero. 22.49 11.8 34 below zero. For the Year, . . . 73.8 25.72 48.37 276 89 FliilS.