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". ^i ''•^ntoni Iridge 'r^. ^^ Jllajitii- <'!hf^ • °7^ tir.F.«;^ liaxb.'. -f— 1—- r— ! — T— T— XT gitucie West 72 ' ofl <;re«itvri<'h fTavriiterul Inl. Hereford Inl '■ CMaj London! i\i.l]liah.ed. Isy Eidward Staoifbrdt 55 CJiarin^ Crost mmm if""" I Ik" •'; ^:. :•«> % "'- ^' "'v f-"^ %. '-■^x iK.r|,H ) L^ > IJ \ ■ , .liitfJImrJ /. I T I V "-^ \ 'A Yora -»-0 LiveTpo U =p^::=^=^ off <»re«5rtwi«!h >* L ''4- **^ V «>' i~iyr * 1 •<: '\. N T O fT"Ti ^^TTT °^ 1 rXTTTirn r~i r Tt°nTT rd, 65 Charing Cross, DecT l*^ 1876. '^ //y '^t- •'^- •i^ ^ fti *'' < -i, // ^'^ '*r'> SrtbW i«i'^^^ <^, <•-. R T H T 1 A MAP OF n i 1 It N u THE PROVINCES OF ONTARIO, QUEBEC. NEW BRUNSWICK. NOVA SCOTIA, and PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. m t\ iv Scalp of English Miles. ■Jo^^i A'""" " iko 4(i "" au CANADIAN RAILWAYS AND UNITED STATES LINES CONHE.CTING THCR &WITH, ARE. SHOWN BY RED LINCS 1 fTYTTrt-t- YTTTn- T ^ n rp-n-n ^ y-n ^TT^y^TTr StanforcLs Geog^ Estate Lcmdi* \ t. 1 s BKI ^flr^ e: ^ ^ \ THE EMIGRANT AND SPOETSMAN IN CANADA. SOME EXrEIflENCEH OF AN OLD CODNTRV SETTLEII. WITH SKETCHKH OF CANADIAN LIFE, SPORTING ADVENTURES, AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE FORESTS AND FAUNA. BY JOHN J. ROWAN. WITH MAP. LONDON: EDWAED STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 187G. PS~oiL ■ X 131827 )(i?ut='' /^ /■'■' O ,-i . 7 PREFACE, Portions of tliis work have appeared in the columns of the 'Field; with the nom-de-plume of 'Cariboo.' By the courtesy of the pubh'sher of that journal 1 am now permitted to republish my papers, together with fresh matter, in the present shape. It contains practical and, it is hoped, useful hints for emigrants and sportsmen, written by an emigrant and a spoi-tsman. Good books of travel are plentiful, and there is also a mass of published information specially written for emigrants of the working classes, but little or none for a class of emigrants for which Canada is a particularly suitable country; I allude to people of small fortune, whose means, though ample to enable them to live well in Canada, are insufficient to meet the demands of rising expanses at home. In the following pages 1 have eit deavoured to put together information for the latter class. K^ i \ '^i^WBaSHHlP CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Emigration Question ''*°" CHAPTER II. Ontario .. ' ■ 28 CHAPTER III. Quebec 75 CHAPTER IV. New Brunswick " *• ' 91 CHAPTER V. Nova Scotia ,. 124 CHAPTER VI. Cape Breton 167 CHAPTER VII. Prince Edward Island 171 Viii CONTENTS. CHAPTEK VIII. Anticosti *-*01 CHAPTER IX. ^ The Intercolonial Railuoad. The Bay of Chaleuk .. 223 CHAPTER X. The Fokests of Canada 262 CHAPTER XI. WlNTEU 288 CHAPTER XII. The Trapper 321 CHAPTER XIII. The Angler 3(7 CHAPTER XIV. Climate, Etc 419 mmmmmmmaasm 201 223 THE EiAIIGEANT Ai\D SPORTSiMAN IN CAKiDA. 262 288 321 377 419 CHAPTER I. THE EMIGRATION QUESTIOX. On the emigration question, as on most others, there is a considerable conflict of opinion. Some deplore the annual loss of the bone and sinew of the country, and fear that, owmg to the continued stream of emicrration from her shores, England will not be able to hold her position as the first manufacturing country in the world. Others maintain that were it not for the outlet thus afforded for the overflow of population in these little islands, famines riots, and epidemics would be the consequences of an overgrown population confined within too narrow bounds I would only observe on this subject that if a careful exammation were made, it would be found that those who are most vehement in decrying emigration are those who are most actively employed in enriching themselves by means of cheap labour. The cheaper the labour market, the faster they can make money. It is hardly decent for a man to say, ^'I am opposed to emigration, because I want to keep down the labouring dosses • I want to keep labour low in order that I may make money B J 2 THE EMIGPiATION QUESTION. quickly." So he takes a patriotic tone, and laments the loss to his country of so much vigorous and youthful life. Those who talk in this way of the emigration of British subjects from one part of the empire to another part are men of narrow views. England is their world, money is their god, and to the general interests of the empire they are altogether indifferent. It is all one to them whether men emigrate from their neighbourhood to foreign countries or to British provinces. In either case they have to pay their work hands higher. A certain portion of the old country press, which is in the pay of the manufacturers and tiie employers of labour, does not scruple to make use of gross misrepresentations — to use a mild word — in order to check emigration. Men, however, who take a broad view of the matter, and think of the welfare of others as well as of their own shops and mills, are glad to know that by emigration their fellow-subjects will not only better their own condition, but the condition of those they leave behind them. And they will con- gratulate themselves on belonging to a nation whose sons can emigrate to any quarter of the globe without changing their flag, their allegiance, or their language. An Eng- lishman beginning life has great advantages over the citizen of any other country. He has the choice of half- a-dozen splendid countries to live in, of every variety of climate ; he may choose according to his fancy, and re- main an Englishman always. At least I hope this is the case. All the best men in the colonies, and I venture to say the majority of Englishmen, would consider it a great misfortune if their magnificent colonies were reformed away out of the empire ; and I may here remark that if I WOULD-BE EMIG HANTS. d laments the I youthful hfe. don of British lothfir part are orhl, money is of the empire il one to thera ghbourhood to In either case iier. A certain is in the pay of labour, does not ;atious— to use a Men, however, nd think of the shops and mills, ir fellow-subjects |3ut the condition they will con- ation whose sons [vithout changing ;uage. An Eng- [utages over the |ie choice of half- every variety of is fancy, and re- hope this is the and I venture to onsider it a great Is were reformed remark that if I were asked to lay my finger on that spot of the map of the empire where the inhabitants are most loyal to their Queen and most attached to the institutions of the land of our common origin, I sliould not point to any part of the British Isles. I shall have something to say farther on as to the right class of men for emigration to Canada ; but I should first like to call attention to the mistalvo often made in think- ing that when a young fellow is unable to do anytliing at home he has only to bo sent off to the colonies in order to make his fortune. Anyone who reads the ' Field ' newspaper must be familiar with advertisements such as the following : — " A young gentleman of good family, a good rider, a first-class shot, and fond of country pursuits, would be obliged lor information as to what colony he would be most likely to succeed in as a farmer, «S:c., &c." An inquiry of this kind shows what erroneous ideas prevail among young gentlemen in England as to the qualitications required for colonial life. Probably, in addition to being a good rider and a first-class shot, this would-be colonist is also a good judge of sherry and a fair cricketer ; probably he knows to half a degree the tem- perature at which claret is most grateful to the palate, and can concoct a " cup," perhaps even cook an omelette at a pinch, and is altogether a pleasant companion on a yachting cruise, and a welcome addition to the party on the First. But I have no hesitation in saying that these accomplishments are so much dead weight on the emi- grant who, along with them, does not possess a good income. Men in good circumstances who may wish to I ' I 7 4 THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. leave the fatherland can travel, and select a cam[)iiig ground to suit their incomes and their wants. But it is only right that intending emigrants who will have to make their own way in the world should look the thing fairly in the face ; that they should know what qualifica- tions and what accomplishments will be likely to assist them in their new homes, and what, on the contrary, had better be left behind. To commence with the "good family." As our ad- venturer, in all probability, leaves many members of it behind him, let him also, in all fairness, leave his family arms, crest, cS:c., for the benefit of the majority. He should take with him, however, the pluck and energy and the honourable ambition which enabled his ancestors to found the " good family," leaving behind him — to be forwarded afterwards if required, together with the arms and crest — aristocratic prejudices, squirearchical stiff- backedness, and social exclusiveness. Not the exclusive- ues3 that leaves a gentleman to fight shy of snobs and blackguards, but the exclusiveness chiefly developed in the female side of the family, and which shows itself in the Smythes of Smythe Abbey losing no opportunity of asserting tiiat " we do not know the Brownes " of Haw- thorne Villa, though the latter very respectable old gentleman has dropped his H's for fifteen years at the Abbey gates, and Browne, juu., is at Eton, with the heir of all the Smythes. Now, as regards the " riding." It is good just so far as that a young fellow who rides well to hounds is probably possessed of good nerve, good health, fair strength and wind ; at least, horsemanship has helped to develop all XECESSAIiY QUALIFICATJOXS. a camping But it is ill have to c the thing \i qualifica- )ly to assist mtrary, had As our ad- mibcrs of it e his family iijority. lit' and energy his ancestors him — to be th the arms •chical stiff- le exclusive- )f snobs and leveloped in )W8 itself in iportunity of es" of Haw- pectable old years at the ith the heir just so far as is probably itrength and develop all tlieso qualities, and to make him a manly fellow, with heart enough for a colonist. The mere fact of being a good rider will not be of much service to him. Almost any Englishman with a little practice can stick to his horse in a gallop across a prairie. But if he is a good judge, and thoroughly understands the treatment and food of the animal in health and disease, can nail on a shoe, administer physic, saddle, harness, hobble, and handle a horse in every way — if he is horsey enough to do all this, the knowledge will stand hiui in good stead in some colonics. Provided always — and here is the risk — that he kee[)s his taste in horseflesh in its proper place, and does not allow it to divert him from his business, whatever it may be. As for the shooting, I am reluctantly compelled to admit that being a good shot is no more a qualification for being a good colonist than for being a good gio-^er, and in one case as much as the other is a terrible temp- tation to a man to neglect his work in the shooting season. Candour obliges me to confess that fresh deer-tracks led to the loss of the greater part of my grain crop one "fall;" and to the untimely flight of a flock of black ducks I attribute the loss of a valuable cow. I dare say a hundred years ago it was as essential for a colonist to be a good rifle shot as for an Irish " gintleman " to be a good pistol shot ; but at the present day life and property are as safe in any of her Majesty's colonies as they are in England — much safer than in Ireland. I may except, perhaps, the Gold Coast, a colony I could not conscien- tiously recommend, save to a reforming minister or two and a few elder brothers. 6 THE EMICIBATION QFESTIOX. ', H I 1 '1 I Tliore is no part of tlie world in wLicli a man can live, as an Englishman wants to live, on the products of liis gun and his rod. Such a paradise exists only in the drcnms of over-fed sportsmen ; but if there were such a plane, and I had the luck to find it, I fear I should be selfish enough not to share my happiness with my readers, f^elf-prescrvation is the first law of nature, and we all know the vast numbers of men who look upon shooting as the great aim and object of their existence — or, as it was forcibly jiut by the old keeper who heard the game laws were to be abolished, " Lord, save us, what icill ^the gentlemen do then ? " Let no one suppose from what I liave just written that I am not an advocate for emigration. Within the last twenty years the cost of living in the old country lias doubled, and a fierce war has sprung up between capital and labour which is paralyzing the manufacturers of England. Every day the line which separates rich from poor is getting broader and broader. Every day the rich man is getting richer, and the poor man poorer. Every day, owing to a fierce competition, the latter finds the difficulties which hinder him from rising in the social scale at home, more insurmountable. Nothing remains for him but to turn his thoughts to emigration. In this struggle for existence there is perhaps no class worse off than poor gentle-folk. As the line widens between rich and poor, they become more isolated and more helpless ; there is practically no place left for them in the old country. When I see all this, I would advise no Ibrtuneless young man to stay at home who has the right stuff in him to push his way in a new 'country; I would ■i ,« inn cnn live, diiots of liis only in the were such a I should be my readers. and we all 1 shooting as ■or, as it was B game laws iiat u'ill ♦the written that thin the last country has ween capital ifacturers of es rich from ery day the man poorer, the latter rising in the Nothing 3 emigration, aps no class line widens isolated and 't for them in lid advise no has the right try ; I would m GENTLKMEN EMIOnAXTS. 7 onlv try to disabuse his mind of the idea that ho will always find a venison steak at hand in the colony when he wants it. I would not take the responsibility upon myself of advising any young fellow to emigrate whoso education and '* bringing up" have made him a conventional English gentleman, and nothing else. It is a very good thing to be an English gentleman in the ordinary accep- tation of the word — a very good thing indeed, and it by no means disqualifies him from being a good colonist; but something more is needed. All public offices, all appoint- ments in the colonial military and naval services, together with professional appointments, commercial appointments, bank appointments, are as crowded and as eagerly sought after as in the old country. An outsider stands no chance whatever. The reason of this rush to the towns may be found in the dislike to country lite which is common to Americans and most colonists When a man makes money in the country, he likes to go to town and spend it, and, if possible, get into the House of Assembly and listen to his own voice. In this respect he is unlike the English- man, who, when he has made his money in the city, often moves into the country to spend it. In preparing, there- fore, for colonial life, the unprofessional Englishman must turn his thoughts to country pursuits, probably farming of some ^ort ; more especially so as the before-mentioned disinclination of colonial-born men to country life, while it overcrowds the cities, leaves all the more openings in the country. The question now arises, why should not a certain pro- portion of gentlemen's sons be educated specially for 8 77//; KM TO IJ ATI ON QUESTIOX. colonial life? This class cannot possibly bo all absorbed into the army and navy and learned professions. What is to become of all the drones, unless a bloody war breaks out? And assuredly the life of a sfpnittcr or a back settler is far before that of a loafer. \Vn<;es are very much higher in most colonies than they are at homo, mechanics', artiiicers', and tradesmen's wag(\s especially, a!id the demand for such men is nearly always greater than the supply ; so that the emigrant labourer or trades- man runs no risk. It is otherwise, however, \\\i\\ the penniless gentleman, who is at frrst unable to ^\ork with his hands, and has to endure much hardship during an irksome apprenticeship. In preparing young men for colonial life, in addition to their other education, they should each be taught thoroughly at least one trade or handicraft, such as carpentering, saddlery, turning, &c. ; they should be made to shear sheep with their own hands, feed stock, and acquire a practical knowledge of the hundred things which the squatter or backwoods farmer may any day have to turn his hand to. I do not pretend to be competent myself to prescribe an exact course of education for would-be colonists ; but I desire to direct attention to the necessity of some special training, in the hope 'hat a properly qualified person may be induced to tak « '.p the idea and elaborate it. Of this I am sure, that a trade or handicraft should form part of the curriculum of evei-y young man destine^ for colonial life, and I can speak strongly on this point, as I often felt the want of such myself. It would possess the double ad- vantage of ensuring its possessor against want, and would teach him early — and this is a great point — how to work. GENTLEMEN EM/tlRAXTS. 9 nil ubsorltod ons. What r war breaks :• or a back es are very ■0 at home, 3 especially, vavs greater er or trades- er, with the :o \vork with p during an ng men for icution, they one trade or urning, &c. ; r own hands, edge of the voods farmer to prescribe onists ; but 1 some special person may it. Of this form part of I for colonial s I often felt e double ad- t, and would low to work. lu the last CLMitury emigrants to the United States were sold as slaves on arrival at New York to defray the costs of tlieir passajrcs ; that is to say, they were indented to purchasers for such a term of years as, at a stii)ulated rate of wages, should clear their passage expenses. A writer on emigratiim of that day said that the most un- saleable articles in the market were "military oflicers and scholars." It may be said with truth to-day that military oflicers and scholars are the articles for which there is least demand in the colonial labour market. There are thousands of men in the old country who have not been brought up to work of any kind, and who consequently are unable to contribute towards their own 8Up[)ort. Many men of this class naturally turn their eyes to the colonies, and it is hard to have to tell them that their prospects of success as chance emigrants are not much greater abroad than they are at home. But I think that any man with a practical experience of colonial life will bear me out in the assertion that emigrants of this stamp are almost invariably disappointed. They arrive in the colony of their choice very often with little or no cajtital, and no plans beyond vague ideas that land is cheap, tliat farming is a thing that any fellow car. learn, and that " roughing it in the bush is a jolly sort of life, you know." I have no hesitation in saying that roughing it in the bush is a jolly sort of life to a man who takes off his ^ coat and works, who makes up his mind to leave England and English ways behind him, and who tries to adapt himself to the ways of colonial life and colonial people. Many Englishmen fail in these parti- culars. They try to take England along with them to ^mmm wmm I r ■!!i I 1:1 1;!! 10 THE EMIGRATION QUESTIOX. wliatever part of the earth they may favour witli their presence, and to ram English ways and English notions down the throats of the ignorant natives. It is not un- common to see a Britisher just arrived in the bush as- suming an air of superiority in all matters, great or small, and endeavouring to teach the old colonist everything, from milking his cow to governing his colony. In time he finds out his mistake, but often not before he has wasted all his money. Other men never get beyond the city. I once met a friend in the streets of New York, driving two old ladies and a Skye terrier in a one-horse brougham. He left the old ladies in a " store," boxed up the Skye, hung the old horse to a lamp-post, and we liquored up at a neighbouring bar. He informed me that he got thirty dollars a month and his clothes. He is on a surer road to success than he was when, some years ago, with the price of his commission and two imported thoroughbreds, he endeavoured to indoctrinate the Ameri- can mind with the superiority of real racing over trotting. Others, who have friends to fall back upon, return from the colonies, and spend the remainder of their lives in assuring their acquaintances that the "colonies are a mistake," and that " every man thinks he is as good as you are there." The colonies are not a mistake— they are a splendid reality ; but colonial men are hard to beat on their own ground, and the Englishman should know what he is about, who enters for colonial stakes. Englishmen are proverbially hard to get on with at first. They cannot get over their insularity. See at the railway station the swell who enters a first-class carriage ; he deposits his gun-case, &c., in the rack, he seats himself BlilTISII RESETt VE. 11 >ur witli their ifflish notions It is not im- the bush as- ^reat or small, st everything, ony. In time before he has fet beyond the of New York, in a one-horse ' store," boxed p-post, and we ormed me that othes. He is en, some years two imported ate the Ameri- over trotting, n, return from their lives in olonies are a is as good as mistake— they e hard to beat should know tkes. et on with at See at the class carriage ; 9 seats himself in the corner, his lower extremities wrapped in a robe of fur, and his whole person in a denser, thicker, more im- penetrable robe of British reserve. Another swell, simi- larly wrapped up in the opposite corner, shares the carriage with him. Each lights his unsocial weed, and pulls out his ' Field ' or his ' Pall Mall,' and in morose and gloomy silence these two very good fellows travel from Euston Square to Edinburgh. Perhaps they both belong to the same club, and have seen each other's faces for years, without ever having once during that time asked, or cared to ask, or even thought aboiit, each other's name. That is the way of the English. But this sort of thing would be torture to a cclonist. He of " Greater Britain " would prefer the society of a chatty lunatic, of a sociable convict, or even of a friendly nigger, to that of a British swell who from first to last would politely, but decisively, ignore his existence. English- men often complain of the freedom of colonial manners, but it is a question whether a little over-freedom is not preferable to an over-reserve. There is hardly any man, at home or abroad, from vihom the wisest of us cannot pick up some servicpa V ' knowledge. If your cole nil)' fell >\v- traveller asks your name, where you are bound • , and even what is your business, he is perfectly ready ic ft.iswer any question you may put to him. The Englt '.liinan who has passed his liie in a cer- tain corner of a certain coterie of a certain class, in one of the most densely-peopled and class-abounding f)pots of the globe, ought to make suine ullcwance for tbf inquisitiveness of the man of the thinly-populated couilry, where classes and class prejudices have not he J fine to '.^ke root. He I 1 ^'««11„ 12 THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. 6 perhaps has seldom had the opportunity of " interview- ing " a stranger, and a Britisher to boot. When such an opportunity does arise, he cannot be blamed for making the most of it. There are two very fatal errors into which emio-i-^-nts frequently fall. One is the hasty, precipitate investment of their capital. A arrives in the colony with the in- tention of settling on land. He hears of a tract likely to suit, and, after a brief and superficial investigation, sinks his small capital in purchasing and stocking a farm. At the time of the purchase the advantages are all j'^* ')e! .)re him in the clearest light; the drawbacks only L^ilold themselves one by one later on. Often many circum- stances which in his ignorance he classe.^ as advantages, will eventually, as he acquires experience, prove unmiti- gated disadvantages. Then he tries to sell, anc' finds he cannot do so without ruinous sacrifice. A loses heart, becomes a disbeliever in the colonies, and fails. B arrives in the colony of his choice with an amount of capital which, with energy, industry, and frugality, might enable him eventually to acquire a comfortable indepen- dence, if not wealth, and to bring up a family in the New World with every prospect of success. But B is unfor- tunately indoctrinated with that melancholy idpa of " keeping up appearances " so fatal to many of his class. Instead of taking off his coat and working with his own hands, he endeavours to act the gentleman farmer. He does not like to see men around him, his inferiors in birth and education, living like gentlemen whilst he works on his land. He forgets that these very men who are now able to live in luxury worked their own way up, and he fi I So MISTAKES MADE BY IMMIGRANTS. 13 31'view- uch an making lio-v^nts estment tbe in- ikely to in, sinks rm. At i^ 'lei .)re ' u^^iold circum- antagGj, unmiti- uQcls he s heart, nount of , might indepen- the New unfor- idpa of lis class, his own Iier. He in birth ,orks on are now , and he LS 3t does not know that they would respect him infinitely more if he showed a disposition to do likewise. That most ter- rible of misfortunes, genteel poverty, so prevalent in the old country, is almost unknown in the new. Keeping up appearances, so far from being of any use to him, damns our friend B. Colonists do not welcome the arrival of non- producers to their shores, and look with suspicion upon the little devices by which men without the reality seek to surround themselves with the semblances of comfort. It would be impossible to lay down a precise code of rules for the newly-arrived immigrant; but there are certain general maxims which under ordinary circum- stances, be he poor or rich, he will do well to recollect. In the first place, as we have seen, he should be in no hurry to invest his money in land or in any other specu- lation. If he belongs to the working classes, let him place his money (if he has any), in bank, and work for wages for a year or two. He will thus acquire experience at his employer's expense, and not at his own ; and at the con- '^lusion of a short period of profitable labour he will be ;■«,:■>•, if possessed of ordinary shrewdness, to invest his ouvmg,? to good advantage. The immigrant with capital /ill also find it to his advantage to spend a certain time ia lov kii;g about him before he makes his venture, and he must guard against allowing a comfortable house, a pretty prospect, society, sport, or any otlier non-essential, to in- fluence him in his choice of a homestead. It is no doubt very hard on the man who is fond of society to banish himself in the bush ^ ut the same necessity which drove him to emigrate ought to reconcile him to his banishment. Sv) it is hard for the sportsman to give up shootinj 'O ' m I • I t ■S it 14 THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. though we read and hear many glowing accounts of the wild sports of the colonics, I have come to the con- clusion that these are no more within the reach of the ordinary settler who has to make his own living, than a grouse moor in the Highlands or a salmon river in Nor- way are within the reach of the English farmer. In some localities the settler may get a day's sport now and again near his homestead, as the farmer does at home. And my rei. rks apply only tc the immigrant who has to make his ly in the world. The man who takes up his resideii ,. i a colony to make his means go farther than they would at home, will seek for society, sport, &c., according to his taste. This leads us to a third class of emigrants — neither the small capitalist nor the working man, but the man of small fixed income. To this class some of our colonies offer the greatest advantages. C, in the prime of life, with an income of say 300?. a year, finds himself utterly unable to bring up his family in England as he himself was brought up. Like most English gentlemen, he is fond of outdoor occupations. He hates the loafing life led by many of his countrymen in similar circumstances in cheap European watering places. As a last resource, he tears himself root and branch from the old soil, and transports himself to the colony. I think he does wisely lor himself and for his children too. In a comfortable cottage, situated, let us say, on the shores of one of the great Canadian lakes, he will lead a life more suited to the English temperament than he could do at Boulogne- Bur-Mer. The family will have a better opening in the colony than in the overcrowded parent land. C will find CO- OPERA TIVE EZIIGEA TION, 15 3 of the he con- i of the , than a in Nor- In some ad again And my to make s up his lier than ort, &c., ither the man of colonies of life, utteily himself he is fing life ustances resource, soil, and s wisely fortable e of the uited to oulogne- in the will find many places in the colonies where his income will go much farther than in England; he will find pleasant society, a little inexpensive sport, and he will not be oppressed with the riches of some of his neighbours, nor tormented by the poverty of others. The plan of settling down shiploads of poor emigrants in the wilderness has failed whenever and wherever it has been tried ; the process of gradual absorption has always been found to answer best. But I am inclined to think that many of the difficulties which beset the path of the better class of emigrant might be cleared away if these people went in batches. Suppose, for instance, that a dozen friends and acquaintances agree to form a settle- ment. They choose a colony where improved farms can be bought, and also where cheap Government land can be acquired. The man with 1000?. or 2000Z. can settle down comfortably at once on a made farm, while his poorer friend would content himself with uncleared land. It is not to be supposed that a dozen men will all grow rich together ; but if even half that number remain together, a pleasant society will grow up with the settlement. A society like this may take England with them, and indi- viduals will be spared the wrench of parting from all old friends. There is in Canada some subtle charm which appeals most strongly to the old country man — to the gentleman as well as to the working man. It has been said of Ireland that there is something in that country which rapidly converts strangers into Irishmen, " Hiberniores ipsis Hibernicis." The same may be said of Canada, with the addition that the latter country possesses also the power 16 THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. A denied to the former of moulding aliens into contented, law-abiding Canadian citizens. Witness the French, who are Canadians imr excellence. Witness also the old country settlers, \\\\o are more Canadian than the Cana- dians. There can be no doubt that an immigrant ought to identify himself thoroughly with the country of his adoption ; the more he does so the better he will succeed. The Englishman or the Scotchman who carries his in- sular habits about with him wherever he goes, and loses ...I opportunity of sneering at everything colonial, always remains a nobody. He has left one country behind him, nd ' i.. insular to attach himself to the land he honours with his presence. This is specially absurd in Canada, a country in many respects more English than England. But the men who do this are the exception, not the rule. Grumbling is an Englishman's privilege, and I have heard them exercise it unsparingly in Canada ; they " condemn " the climate, the people, the musquitoes, everything Canadian. They want to get back to old England. They go back, and they find they cannot live there at all. They liave become Canadians insensibly and against their will as it were. Much as they wanted to go home, they are twice as anxious to get back again to Canada. The following are among the reasons for this : 1. Any good man can be a somebody in Canada. 2. Any man can become a landed proprietor there. 3. There are fewer class prejudices and more friendli- ness and sociability than in an old country. 4. The climate, though severe, is infinitely more bracing, exhilarating, and enjoyable. 'W PnOPER PERSONS TO EMIGRATE. 17 ontented, inch, who the old he Cana- 011 ght to :y of his [I succeed, es his in- and loses ial, always ;hind him, le honours Canada, a . England. )t the rule, id I have tida; they ausquitoes, ,ck to old lannot live insensibly ley wanted :k again to for this : id a. there, ■e friendli- )re brachig, l 5. There is mom freedom of movement, as, for instance, .in the sport afforded, which, though very moderate, is % wild, free, and charming. 5 We have seen the sort of men who are not likelv to f make successful immigrants in Canada ; let us now en- 'deavour to ascertain the different classes who will be most likely to get on well — to enrich themselves in the first place and the Dominion in the second place. 1. Working farmers with ca])ital, be it more or less. 2. Farm-labourers and domestic servants. 3. Artisans and tradesmen ; but as the demand for such 8 limited, a tradesman, though eventually sure of remu- erative employment in his own particular line, should ybe willing and ready to turn his hand to the first occupa- Ition tiiat is offered to him on his arrival. 4. Capitalists. These I will divide into two classes. a. Men of small fortune, who find themselves unable to live as they would wish in an old country. The advan- tages Canada has to offer to such can hardly be over- •tated. Their money, invested with perfect security, will yield them double the income it would at home, and each shilling of their increased incomes will go twice as far iu providing the necessaries and comforts of life. h. Enter- prising and ambitious men of business, who, owing to over- competition, strikes, &c., have no opening in the old country. Canada possesses all the materials for becoming- It great manuiacturiug centre. Her geographical posi- tion and maritime facilities are unrivalled ; her supply of |:aw material is immense — practically unlimited — coal, n, wood, &c., &c. All she wants is capital and enter- se to develop her resources. I am as confident as I ■I (I 18 THE EM m RATION QUESTION. can be of anything, that many fortunes, both above and beneath the soil, are only waiting to be gathered in Canada. All attempts to force emigration have been attended with failure. Emigration, whether as regards the immi- grant himself or the new country in which he makes his home, in order to be successful, must be spontaneous. Emigration schemes that have been carried out for poli- tical objects or for trade-union objects, or by interested and unscrupulous emigration arrents, whether of a Govern- ment working out an emigration scheme for its own ends, or of a land company doing the same, have always been attended with much privation and hardship on the part of the immigrant, and have been, if not a positive loss to .the colony, at least a very doubtful advantage. The reasons of this are obvious. In the first place, as regards the immigrant himself; the very fact of his allowing himself to be herded, as it were, like a sheep, and driven off to a new pasture, shows that he lacks the very qualities most essential to the success of the settler in a country like Canada: I mean self-reliance and inde- pendence of character. He prefers to lean upon some one else for support, rather than to strike out a path for himself. It is almost invariably the case that the man who allows himself to be led out like a child or a domestic animal to a new country, makes a grumbling, useless, discontented settler, and is a burden rather than an advantage to the colony to which he goes. The following is an example of forced emigration. In the year 1861 a bad Old-World system of land tenure wa^ the means of forcing one hundred families of Acadian^ IIAUDHIIIPS OF EMJa RATION. 19 above aiul ithered in a attended tlie immi- niakes his pontaneous. ut for poli- j interested if a Govern- 3 own ends, Jways been ya. the part itive loss to itage. The 8, as regards lis allowing and driven :s the very e settler in e and inde- upon somo t a path for lat the man r a domestic ixm, useless, er than an gration. In d tenure was of Acadian> ; to emigrate en masse from the Island of Prince Edward to ; Canada. They were allotted a large tract of hardwood ; land— 100 acres to each male adult, if ray memory serves me right — to be paid for by simply making a road to their own settlement, which lies on hi'di table-land three miles from the Ilestigouche River. The immigrants arrived at their new homes in the early summer, men and women all on foot, and carrying their bundles on their backs. The men at once commenced to swing the axe, whilst the women looked after their chihlren and kept up a continual •^ smoke of cedar bark to drive away the flies from them, or felse sat down on the stumps to do their knitting. The |jneu chopped and burnt each an acre or so of forest, ami ifin the land thus cleareti the women planted a few seed ^potatoes with the hoe, and sowed a little buckwheat and- a few garden seeds in the blackened ground amongst the still smoking stumps. In the centre of each little clearing a log shanty, roofed with spruce bark, was 'Erected. The wealth of each family consisted of a slender itore of food, clothes, seeds, and yarn contained in a bundle, and of a few shillings in cash. As soon as possible the young men set to work to earn some money, and, a Government road and line of tele- graph happening fortunately to be in course of construc- tion between Canada and New Brunswick, many of them obtained employment. For this they received "store Ipay," i. e. goods out of their employer's stores ; and when SSunday came round these fellows, with their week's wages, Iconsistine: of flour, salt fish, a pork or a con pie of pernaps of their backs, trndger ounces some of tea done up in a bundle on 10, 15, or 20 miles to their 20 THE EM TO EAT ION QUESTION. 'I|!| ' . homes in the wilderness. Others made shingleh on the river's edge, and rafted them down to market. It is to be observed that all the industries the men had a chance of participating in were such as required some knowledge, more or less, of woodcraft and the use of the axe. The women made homespun cloth for the winter, attended to their gardens and home duties, and some- times picked berries. They all got on well enougli during the summer, notwithstanding the ceaseless tor- ments of the flies ; but when winter came round a despe- rate struggle for existence commenced. The young men without families did well enough. Used to logging, cooking, &c., they readily obtained employment in the lumber woods. Here they were comfortable and well fed; but, unfortunately, they were rarely able to assist their friends, owing to the distance, and to the fact that in those days wages in the lumber business were never paid till the spring. How the main body of the immi- grants, numbering over two hundred souls, managed to pull through that winter, they only can describe. Every morsel of food thev ate had to be carried on the backs, or " portaged " on the traboggens, of the men. They just kept alive, and that was all. Fuel was plentiful, and, literally buried in the snow, they lived like bears in their dens. In some cases two or three families were dependent on one pair of snow shoes for their daily bread. The other side of this picture is pleasanter. A short time ago I visited this Acadian settlement ; it is stil! embosomed in the forest ; no trace of it is visible from the outside world. On the forest road leading to it, wen . it not for the everlasting cow-bells, the traveller might % IfAIlDSmPS OF EMWIiATION, 21 lingleb on laikot. It men had a lired some use of the the winter, and some- ell enoiigli iseless tor- nd a despe- young men to logging, lent in the B and well >le to assist he fact that were never ' the immi- mauaged to ■ibe. Every le backs, or They just i^ntiful, and, ears in their e dependent I QY. A short it is still visible from g to it, were veller miglit imagine that lie had loft man and his works behind him, and that this wood road, like many another, only led to ^i the other end of nowhere. Quite the contrary ; a sudden y| turn opens up a large and fertile tract of cultivated land, i studded with snug homesteads— fields of wheat, of pota- toes, of oats, and of buckwheat smile upon him through the charred stumps. The crops are excellent, as they always are in Canada on new land. The Intercolonial Railroad, which crosses the Restigoucho at this point, affords lots of profitable employment to the men, and an excellent market for the surplus produce of the reformers. ;^ Tiiese Acadian emigrants, be it remembered, were liardy people, inured to the climate, accustomed to no food the year round but potatoes, salt herrings, and buck- Wheat cakes. The men were good axemen, and able to turn their hands to the hundred and one little jobs indis- Jjensable in backwoods life. , It must be conceded that a body of Englishmen in like Circumstances, unused to woodcraft, would have perished. I myself can remember the day when to be benighted in the Canadian forest in winter time would have been ceitain death ; now, given an axe, two or three matches, and supper, I should rather enjoy it than otherwise. I do not mean to say that emigrants of the present day would undergo such extreme hardships as these Acadians wen< through. Population has increased since then, railways "jhave doubled, the demand for labour is greater, and 'ages are higher ; but still, let a crowd of poor English- len with their families settle down together in any part )i Canada, where free or even very cheap land is attain- kk illi 22 T/f/-: KMK, RATIOS Ql h'STION. aide, mul their siiflcrings fur tlio firnt year or two must be extnniie. Tliero is room in Canada for any number of good farm- labourers, and for their sons and daughters ; niter serving their apprenticeship and learning the ways of tiie country, there is plenty of vacant land for them to settle on ; but for nevv-comer& to cluster together on one of the back townships is the very worst possible course for themselves, us it is for Canada also; for, if it conies to pass that new settlers undergo a tithe of the hardships 1 have indicated, their letters home will frighten many a gooil man much wanted by Canada. 'J'he capitalist and employer of labour, though a hcte noir to the working man, is nevertheless as necessary an institution in the new as in the old country. As regards the colony itself, it is a recognize . that when the stream of immigration to its shores is spon- taneous — the overflow of the population of the parent land — it is the strongest, most pushing, most enterprising, and most energetic men who leave the hive to carve out for themselves fortunes in the new country. The working man who has the pluck to emigrate to a new country, and who by hard work and thrift has been able to save out of his scanty wage even the small sum required to take him- self and family across the Atlantic, is, under Providence, sure to succeed in a country like Canada, and is as surely a valuable acquisition to the land of his adoption. Canada has never forced immigration, and has consequently only attracted the most adventurous, pushing, and energetic people to her shores. It may be said that she has got the very pick of the working population of England, Ireland, Ci- CArfTAIJSTS. 23 must bo ;oocl farm- niter ) ways of I- them to Lior ou Olio course for i comes to lardships 1 311 many a litalist and le working in the new . that es is spon- the parent nterprising, ,0 carve out 'he working ountry, and save out of o take him- Providence, is as surely on. Canada uently only d energetic has got tho ind, Ireland, and Scotland, and this partly explains the fact that of all England's cohmies she is the most loyal, and that in no other part of the world — not oven ni England itself — is '!■> life and j»roperty more secure. This laisser faire emigra- tion policy was until quite recently pushed too far in Canada. For although all forced emigration is bad, and although by far the best emigration agent is the letter of the thriving settler in Canada to the friends ho has left behind him, still in these times when so manv new conn- tries are jealously competing for immigrants to develo[> their natural resources, it is necessarv for Canada to set forth the advantages she lias to offer to industrious men. As far as I am able to judge, Canada is now doing this fairly enough. I have read some of the emigration pamphlets published by authority, and I have seen no- thing in them that a Canadian fond of his country might not have written with the most truthful intentions. Ill fact, as regards one class of immigrants, and that the one most wanting to develop the great natural resources of the country, I do not consider that these emigration circulars have put forward with sufficient distinctness the advantages tliat Canada undoubtedly possesses. I refer to capitalists large and small. The vast forests, the rich mines, the many favourable conditions for manufacturing, finch as water-power, cheap food, &c., the unrivalled faci- lities for moving and shipping goods, all these advantages have not been to my mind sufficiently demonstrated. At the moment I am writing these lines, I know old-country '^farmers who have their few hundred pounds in bank bear- ling the paltry interest of one and a half per cent. Such |inen in Canada could on their first arrival get six per cent. ::* 1*' III,. ■lir If 24 THE EMIOBATTON QUESTION. for their money on equally good security, and after they liad acquired a little experience of the ways of the country they could as easily get eight or ten per cent., and this in a land in which the necessaries and comforts of life are cheaper than in an old country where money is a drug in the market. One great advantage that Canada possesses over every other land to which emigration is directed is, that :t is near home. The intending emigrant may think that this is no advantage, that when he once emigrates he emi- grates never to return. If he goes to the antipodes pro- bably this will be the case. He must make up his mind never to see his Old-World friends again. Quite the con- trary in Canada, which is in point of time and personal fatigue no farther from London to-dav than Ireland and Scotland were fifty years ago. The wish to see old friends and old faces will surely come back to the immigrant some dav or other, and if Canada is his new home he can gratify tliis wish at a trifling expense and at a loss of but little time. By the Allan Line return tickets from Liver- pool to Quebec, available for a whole year, cost only 25^. Canada is nearer to England than the United States. The distance from England to New York is 3095 miles ; from Liverpool to Quebec 2(549 miles. The latter voyage is 446 miles shorter, and for fully one-third of the way between Derry and Quebec the ships of the Allan Line (from the Straits of Belkisle to Quebec) are in compara- tively smooth water : whereas from Liverpool to New York the traveller is all the time on the stormy Atlantic. The route from Derry to Quebec admits of a great im- provement, which will no doubt come in a short time. IT^ NATIONALITIES OF IMMIGRANTS. 25 after they ;he country [ind this in of life are a drug in over every , that :t is ik tliat this es he emi- Lipodes pro- p his mind ite the con- ad personal Ireland and i old friends immigrant ome he can I loss of but from Livsr- )st only 25?. ited States. 3095 miles ; itter voyage of the way Allan Line in compani- ool to New uy Atlantic, a great ira- short time. ' Wlien Newfoundland comes into the Dominion, St. John twill become the summer port of Canada. Here passen- gers will land after a five days' ocean voyage, and crossing the island by rail, will re-embark in a steamer for Mira- miclii or Restigouche, two ports on the Intercolonial Eailroad, within fifteen hours' rail of Quebec. The total journey from Loudon to Quebec will thus only occupy seven days, and the route will touch some very charming scenery. The Dominion of Canada, and especially the province of Ontario, is the most English of all Her Majesty's colonies. From the year 1820 to 1873, both inclusive, 1,325,000 immigrants in round numbers came from the Old World to Canada. Of these 543,000 were English, 506,000 Irish, 146,000 Scotch, and the remainder of other nationalities. Comparing the returns of the English immigration with those of the Irish, it will be found not only that the number of the former are greater, but also that the Irish :' araigration has been steadily decreasing since 1848, whilst the English immigration has been as steadily increasing. The great bulk of Irish immigration to Canada took place in those decades from 1829 to 1849, These people have now become assimilated with the Canadian people, and their children are thorough Cana- dians. Again, of the 506,000 Irish immigrants, a very large proportion are north of Ireland men. The real Irish element in Canada is scarce ; the bulk of the emi- gration from the south of Ireland has always been directed - to the United States, where they cluster in the cities in I such multitudes as to outnumber all the other people put 1 together. I do not wish to make any reflections upon the V m H'jt 1 '\ I 26 THE EMIGRATION QUESTION. \\ \ Irish character, indeed I ought to be one of the last persons in the world to do so ; but I must mention as a significant fact, that the one of England's colonies which has least of the Irish element in it is also the one whicL is most loyal to England, and through good report and evil report most devoted to British connexion. A large proportion of the 506,000 immigrants returned under the head of " Irish " are, t i mentioned before, Ulstermen, or Scotch-Irish, as they are called in the United States. Many of these are settled in Ontario, and wherever you find an Ulster settler you find a man who is doing well. There are two reasons for this success, of which the first of course is character. The Ulster farmer is frugal and industrious, a staunch Pro- testant, and a law-abiding good citizen. He can drive a hard bargain and stick to it. He does not cringe before wealth or power, neither does he stand bareheaded before his landlord at one moment and take a shot at him the next. Treat him with respect, and he will do the same to you. He has not been brought up to look to any one for help, but to depend upon his own shrewdness and his own strong arm. Hence he possesses a rugged inde- pendence of character, which fits him well for a settler's life in Canada. The second reason of his success is, that as a rule he possesses the means for a fair start in a new country. Thanks to Ulster tenant-right and the enor- mous competition for land, he can always get a good price for his farm. He can get an extra good price for it, because land both in England and Ireland is at a fictitious value ; but there is this difference between the two countries, that whereas in the former the excess of I ^^ DEPRESSION OF TliADE. 27 of the last mention as a denies which le one whicL i report and I. mts returned ioned before, ailed in the in Ontario, you find a isons for this tractor. The staunch Pro- can drive a cringe before leaded before shot at him will do the look to any rewdness and rugged inde- br a settler's iccess is, that art in a new nd the enor- get a good ood price for land is at a between the he excess of Talne goes into the landlord's pocket, in the latter, i.e. in Ulster, it goes into the tenant's. In Canada popu- lation is comparatively small and land is plentiful, there- fore tliis fictitious value does not exist, and the immigrant can acquire a freehold farm at a fair commercial price. It is a well-known fact that trade and commerce are not in a very flourishing condition at present all over the con- tinent of North America. This depression of business has Its origin in the wild extravagance and over-speculation of Americans. The native American citizen is above working for his neighbour, and considers that he is born with an inherent right — whether he has the capital or not — of setting up in business on his own account. It is a free country, and he has an undoubted right to put up a store and to look out for customers under his own sign- board. But this course does not tend to the prosperity of his country, and the evil even extends to a neighbouring country, for the business relations of the United States and Canada are so interwoven together that failure and Oommercial depression in the former country are felt more Or less in the latter also. It is a noteworthv fact that in the year 1873, 9000 Canadians returned from the United States to Canada. Times of commercial depression iall comparatively lightly on the latter country, where the actual cost of living is less than one-half that it is in the United States. The most remarkable circumstance in the history of Canadian immigration, however, is the fact that in the last two or three years Americans have com- menced to emigrate to Canada and to settle there. i I ^11 ! I ^V 28 ONTARIO. CHAPTER ir. ONTARIO. The province of Ontario is in many respects the most highly favoured region in all the continent of America. Though situated far enough to the west to be within the wheat-growing and fruit-growing region, it has an extended coast-line and direct communication with the ocean. The lakes, besides the economic advantages they confer, have a most favourable effect on the climate, modifying alike the excessive cold of winter and the heat and drought which parch up some of the Western States. Farming is carried on in other provinces of the Dominion with more or less success, but in most of them it is asso- ciated with other industries, such as lumbering, but Ontario is essentially an agricultural country. Its area is 80,000,000 square miles, about the same as that of Great Britain and L eland; three-fourths of this are suitable to agriculture, while at present only one-fourth is under cultivation. Land is so abundant in Canada that as yet only those places most ftivoured by nature as to situation, soil, &c., have been chosen for settlement. When manufactories spring up they will hold out other inducements to the settler in the shape of good markets, which will bring into cultivation land that is at present neglected. Ontario is in my opinion the most suitable place in the ORIGINAL SETTLERS. 29 n he most America. 3 within has an ,vith the ges they climate, the heat n States. )ominion t is asso- g, but ts area is of Great itable to is under Britisli empire to which the small capitalist can emigrate. A farmer with a growing family and a capital too small to enable him to make a comfortable living in the old country, is the very man to succeed in Ontario. 1 believe many men of this class are under the impression that if tliey emigrate they will have to settle down in the wilderness, and with painful toil and privation hew themselves farms out of the forest. This is quite a mistake. No immigrant pos- sessed of a little means and with some knowledge of farming need ever dream of taking such a course in Canada. He can make far better use of his knowledge and experience, and of his capital also, no matter how small that capital may be. The original settlers in Ontario were not as a rule good farmers. Even if they were, the process they pursued spoiled them. They found laud which when cleared of forest produced splendid crops of wheat. So they grew wheat year after year till the land would grow wheat no longer. Then, when they discovered tliat in order to make their farms reproductive it would be necessary to farm in a more scientific way, many of them, instead of taking the trouble to establish a system of rotation of crops, flitted to other localities where they cleared new farms on which they were able to repeat the process of scratching the soil for wheat. Even at the present day, although there are many good farmers in Canada, this system is still pursued, and the consequence is that there are always in the market numbers of farms, well situated, with good buildings, fences, orchards, &c., the soil of which, although temporarily unfitted for one particular crop, is admirably suited for many others, and is capable, I if \ 1 1. \ i ' l\ ii^ ,7W^ 30 ONTARIO. "];r '! » 1 'i with a very moderate outlay of labour and capital, of being brought into a high state of fertility. These farms seem to me to offer most favourable conditions of success to the practical farmer who, owing to the fierce com- petition for land in an old over-populated country, is unable to obtain a farm on such terms as will enable him to make a profitable living out of it. Those are the men — good practical farmers with a moderate capital — who are also of most value to Ontario. The Canadian- born farmer is the man to clear the forest and to act as the pioneer for the skilled farmer from the Old World, who in turn possesses just the necessary qualifications to take up the land his predecessor has left, and while making out of it a valuable property for himself and his heirs, to add thereby largely to the wealth of Canada. I repeat there- fore that no old- country farmer with capital should settle in the backwoods, where his previous education in farming will be wasted, and his money, in all probability, lost. Two other causes have tended lately to throw a larger number than usual of improved farms in Ontario into the market. One is the opening up for settlement of the fertile lands of Manitobah, and the other is the rapid extension of railways through the hitherto unsettled parts of Canada. This opportunity for acquiring farms on profitable terms may not last. Ontario is growing very rapidly in population and in wealth. In 1830 the population was about 200,000, at the present moment it is two million. And wealth has increased even in a greater ratio than population. As we have seen before, there is no country SOIL, climate: 31 pital, of sse farms f success ce com- antry, is 1 enable le are the capital — Janadian- to act as ^orld, who as to take aking out irs, to add teat there- )uld settle cation in ■obability, V a larger io into the at of the the rapid ttlod part:^ protitablc rapidly in iliition was vo million, ratio than no country in the world better suited by nature for a manufacturing country than the Dominion, and as soon as manufactures arise, land and the produce of laud will double in value, not in the manufacturing districts alone, but all over Ontario. That good farming pays in Ontario has been proved wherever it has been tried. Tlie land is capable of pro- ducing any crop that the climate will ripen, and the climate, while suited to the growth of all the crops grown H in England, admits many others that are supposed to be JDeculiar to hot climates. Thus wheat, oats, rye, barley, potatoes, turnips, peas, beans, clover, and grass, grow side by side with maize, grapes, peaches, pumpkins, &c. Many other crops, such as flax, hemp, and tobacco, could also be profitably grown, and probably will be grown when the rise of manufactures creates a demand for ithem. Highly bred cattle imported from England thrive Swell in Ontario. The progeny of imported shorthorns, lAyrshire cattle, and Leicester and Southdown sheep, so far from deteriorating in quality, have decidedly im- proved. The climate and soil of Ontario are both suited to stock raising. Epidemics are as yet unknown. The Englishman in the best settled districts will see as good cattle as he has left behind him at home. Large quanti- ties both of live stock and butcher's meat are sent from Ontario to the New England States, where meat is almost '. at famine price, also to the eastern provintei of the ■I Dominion, whose inhabitants are so much taken up with lumbering, fishing, shipbuilding, aud other pursuits, as to neglect stock raising. .IS' 32 ONTARIO. li ■( '! !)1 ■J ■;' The capital necessary for a practical man to commence farming in Ontario is from 500?. to 3000?. With the latter sum he can buy and stock an excellent 200-acre farm in a good accessible situation. On a farm such as I am speaking of, tliere will be a good house and out- buildings, 100 acres or more of arable land, garden, orchard, and a patch of woods. The latter is perhaps the most essential item. Coal is the dearest, in fact I may say the only dear necessary of life in Ontario, and some wood for fuel as well as for fencing and other purposes is most desirable on a farm. A man who owns a well- cultivated farm in Ontario is as comfortable and indepen- dent as a farmer can be. His farm gives him and his family all the necessaries and most of the comforts of life, and in a new and rapidly growing country he has tlie satisfaction of knowing that each year as it rolls away adds to the value of his property, and that every hour's well-directed labour spent on his land will be entirely for his own advantage and that of liis heirs. Gentlemen farmers sometimes complain that in settling in the country districts of Canada, they are out of reach of congenial society. This is to a certain extent the case at present. In a new country one cannot expect to find men of leisure like country gentlemen in England. Men who have acquired an independence in Canada naturally live in or near the cities, where there is plenty of society and amusements. But after all, what society can a man of this class have in England, whose sole income is derived we will suppose from a capital of 2000?. or 3000?. ? He may perhaps dine once a year with the squire, and his wife will probably pay a formal visit once in a way at the rents. CO-OPERA TI VE EMIGL'ATIOX. 83 )mmencc Vith the 200-acre such as 1 and out- , garden, rhaps the ,ct I may and some urposes is is a well- l indepen- n and his irts of life, 3 has the rolls away ery hour's ntirely for in settling ; of reach lit the case ect to find md. Men naturally of society can a man is derived OOZ.? He e, and his way at the parsonage or the doctor's house. This sort of shabby gentility is, I should imagine, more aggravating oven than downright seclusion. When a man makes up his mind to emigrate, he emigrates not for amusement or for society, but to make a living, and to provide for a family. The only way by whi(di men of this class can secure r. certain amount of congenial society for themselves and their families is by co-operation. There are many fertile districts in Canada West, where several im^jroved farms can be bought in a cluster, sometimes even two or three lying alongside each other. These farms are in almost every case too large for one man to farm well and thoroughly. Each one of them might be subdivided into farms of from 50 to 100 acres, and these smaller farms well cultivated would yield more than the original farm badly cultivated. A Com[)any of gentlemen, each one possessing a capital of from 5U0Z. to lOOOZ. up to any higlier amount, might associate together and purchase several contiguous farms in a Canadian townsliip, divide the laud amongst them- selves according to their means and inclinations, and in addition carry out Avith them from England a certain number of agricultural labourers with their families. By this means not only might a little friendly society be organized, but also expensive implements of agriculture purchased for the joint use of the settlement, which would be beyond the means of a single fiirmer. I feel convinced that a (Jay will come when Ontario will be farmed like ;?|he lichest distri(;ts of England, and when wheat will be :^iterally manufticturecl by steam power. i| Good iarms can be rented in Ontario for very moderate its, but the leases given are short, and the system does D :i i; I 84 ONTAItlO. if ? (1: ii :b! I not fhicl favour either with the native-born Canadian or with the immigrant. The great object of the latter in coming to a new country is to acquire a property of liis own. lically good wiieat bind cannot bo rented, and it is the height of folly to rent a run-out farm for a short period. Eented farms, as might be supposed, are the worst kept and most untidy in Canada. I was shown a fair farm in Ontario of 100 acres half cleared, to let for seven years at 20Z. per annum. Another of 150 acres, 100 cleared, to let for six years at 30Z. per annum. The immigrant has great facilities for travelling about, and should avail himself of thorn to the full before tying himself down to a locality or a farm. Travelling is very cheap in Canada West, as tlicre is plenty of competition. From Quebec to Montreal, for instance, a distance of something like 180 miles, the steamboat fare is i|2. This includes cabin and supi)er. The voyage occupies ten or eleven hours, and the traveller is quite as comfortable as at an hotel. Both on water and land there are two classes of passengers. Canadians, though a thoroughly democratic people, have yet the sense to know that in all countries there are at least two classes who require separate accom- modation — the dirty and clean, the drunken and sober — butrthe industrious man who does not drink is always first class in Canada. A great breadth of land in Ontario has the last year or two been under barley. Bushel for bushel this grain sells for nearly as much as wheat, and the land, acre for acre, produces a great deal more of it. The potato crop suffered severely from the ravages- of the Colorado beetle for some seasons, and farmers conse- CROPS. 35 mndian or B latter in 3rty of \\\i \, and it is >r a short e the worst lown a lair t for seven acres, 100 ling about, tefore tying ling is very om petition, distance of ■i$2. This ipies ten or ifortable as two classes democratic 11 countries rate accom- md sober- always first last year or s grain sells n-e for acre, ravages- of mors conse- quently have reduced their crops. Last season, however, the potato bug, as the animal is called, did but littlo damage. These bugs attack the leaves of the potato when the plant is about half grown, and if not checked strip the stalk bare. The remedy for them is, when the second bud begins to appear, to sprinkle the plants with Paris green dissolved in water. Flax grows well in Canadii, and will perhaps some day be largely cultivated. It is a crop not well adapted to a new country as it requires so much manipulation. It is not an easy matter to get at the average yield per acre of crops in a country, so much depends on tlie season, on the district, and last, but not least, on the farmers themselves ; but taking a fairly good farming district in Canada West and a fairly good farmer, I think the fol- lowing will not be far from the mark : Fall Wheat 20 bushels. Spring „ 15 „ Barley 30 „ Oats •ii> ,> Rye 15 „ Inrlian Corn SO ., Potatoes 250 ,, Turnijis 400 „ Mangold 500 „ Ciirrots 450 „ Pens 25 „ Beans 20 „ Hay IMoii. V. With high farming the yield of many of the aiiove jToots, such as turnips, mangold, &c., and also hay, could Ibe doubled. The prices are about one-third less than in \\\ old-country market town. Beef, mutton, pork, and veal '1 it H 36 ONTAUIO. ;':;'i are about half the price iu Canada that they are iii Ens aro a great institulioii in Ontario. Eacli county has one of its own, and so liavo many of tho townshi[).s. ^I'lio snhs('ri[)tion of nicniUcrs is triilin^^ gene- rally 'fil per annum. Th(> JiOgishitnreaids ouch society with a grant. This money is ('X[)en(lc(l in improving tlie breed of cattle and tho quality of seed. Th(>se societies have yearly shows, which arc well attended l»y tho farmin;,' community, and to a certain extent take the place of old* country fairs. Prizes aro {^iven at thes(; shows not onlv for stock but for all sorts of farm produce; emulation is thereby arouped, and farmers have an opi)ortunity of seeing the difference between good and bad farming, as evidenced by the produce displayed, and have thus an opportunity of educating themselves. Each member gets- a copy of a weekly or n;onthly farmer's journal. High farming, rotation of crops, and drainage of land are en- couraged. Tho latter is a very necessary step to higli farming in Canada. Drained land is fully a fortnight earlier than und rained land. In wet seasons it is of course an advantage, and, strange to say, in protracted summer droughts drains have also been I'ound to be an advantage to the crops, preventing the soil from baking. Canadians, as a rule, dislike sinking much capi' il in improvement and cultivation of the soil a is moii plentiful than money, and they see tha u the fort is cleared, the soil for the time brings iiMih abundantly without much labour ; therefore they go on eho^ ping and sowing. As we have seen before, this gives a favourable opportunity for the immigrant former who has been brought m •"^; STOCK IIJISIXG. CHEESE FACTOIUES. 37 [«y are lu 11 Ontario, iinv of the liii^ir, i^Giw Dcii'ty with ; the breed i(!ti(js litivo lie hirniiii;: hice of ohl- VB not only •innlation is ortunity nt iiirniing, as ive thus iiu ember gets i-iuih High and nre eii- tep to liijili a fortnight ms it is ot I protracted id to be an rom baking. pi' il in is moi' u the fore lib' .ulantlv u.^ping and a iavourable ;een brought nj) ill another .s(!liool, and who knows that capital pru- dently invested in the iinproveinent of the soil is money well spent. There can be little doiil)t that in years to como stock raising will largely take the place of wheat growing in Ontario. Yvom its extremely central and uccessibh^ position on the map of North America, Ontario is able at a trilling cost to suiiply the markets with beef and mntton in those portions of the continent where butcher's meat is as high or liigher in [aiee than it is in London. Cattle, as we have seen, thrive particnlarly well in Ontario, which in respect to stock raising oecu})ies the sjime position towards the New England States as Ireland does to Englaml, with the considerable exception that in Canada it costs little more to raise an ox than it does to raise a sheep in Ireland. Stock raising naturally succeeds to wheat growing, and it is this branch of farming which most commends itself to immigrant farmers from the Old World. To winter stock well, roots are necessary, and roots can be grown in Canada as well as in Englaml. I have seen 80 tons of turnips to the acre, 45 of mangold wurtzel, 25 of carrots, and the same of parsnips. It is (piite a mistake to suppose that the severe Canadian winter is against stock raising. In England good farmers keep their cattle in the house almost if not quite as long as cattle have to bo housed in Ontario. Under these circumstances it is all one to the farmer whether his land is in iron or in mud, I mean as far as his stock are concerned ; in many other ways the balance is in favour of the Canadian farmer. Land that has been ^ plough ed in the fall harrows into dust in the spring. No lod crusher is so efficient as Jack Frost. Vegetation at iri I ! m 38 ONTARIO. 1 1 ' ii this season is wonderfully rapid. This is one reason why roots such as turnips, mangolds, and other crops, to which a quick start is essimtial, do so well in Canada. In great measure owinji to the instrumentality of these Agricultural Societies, cheese factories have been largely established in Ontario. This is a doubly valuable industry. In the first place, the export of cheese from Ontario amounts to some ij>;2,000,U00 per annum ; and in the second place, the process of converting milk into cheese saves the farmer an infinity of labour. Butter making has to be carried on at that season of the year when other farm work is at its height, and labour not always abundant. Therefore, some years ago, Canadian farmers laid their heads together and formed joint-stock companies for the manufacture of cheese. The factories are in central situ- ations, each member is paid so much a gallon for the milk he sends in, and at stated times over and above this amount he gets the profits that have arisen by the sale of cheese on the shares of the company which he holds, Anotlier joint-stock association worthy of notice is the Grangers Society of Ontario. The grain growers of the province, thinking that the merchants and shippers de- rived too large a profit from the grain which passed through their hands, formed themselves into an association with the above name, which, under good management, secures to each member the entire profit tliat can be made on eacli bushel of grain grown on his land and shipped from Montreal to European markets. Ontario is as well adapted for the culture of a great variety of fruits as any part of the world. Its climate closely resembles that of the grape-growing provinces of the ason why to which r of these n largely industry. L Ontario he second saves the bas to be ther farm abundant, laid their 38 for the [itral situ- n for the ibove this he sale of olds. ice is the ers of the ippers de- (;h passed issociation nagement, at ran be land and of a great ts climate roviuces of ORCHARDS. 39 the lihine. The western portion of Ontario has been -pronounced by antlioritios to be the most suitable part >?of the American continent for grape culture. There is ample sun to ripen tlic li'uit, and the vines can stand the frosts»of winter without artificial proti^ction. Vineyards require too much labour for a new country, but in process of time no doubt Canada will be able to make its own wine. Peaches, apricots, and uectai'ines ripen in the ex- treme south and west — I mean as orchard crops. In favournbie situations these fruits ripen in gardens here and there all through Canada West. The ap[)le orchards of Ontario, both as regards the (quantities and qualities of the fruit, are second to none "in the world. The export of apples has been found such u profitable business, that farmers through the province have been adding largely to their orchards during the last few years. A ten-acre orchard is not an unusual sight, and I have seen orchards as large as forty acres* Many of the so-called American apples that we see in the shops at homo are grown in Canada; the following are some of the iuvouiite kinds : Rhode Island Careening, Northern Spy, Baldwins, Swurzes, Pomme Grise Fameuse, Duchess of Oldenburgh, Swaar, Gravensteins, .Blenheim Orange, Keswicks' Codling, Holland Pippin, Alexander, American (j olden Ivusset, Red Astracan, Ribston Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, and King of Tumkin's County. T'lu* Fruit-growers' Association of Canada recommend the ibllowing varieties, viz.: — "For summer, the Early Harvest and Red Astracan, as sour ajiples; and the Sweet i; Bough. For early autunni, the Duchess of Oldenburgh, " ravenstein. Primate, and Jersev Sweet. For late autumn ;1> ')! il ^ 40 ONTARIO. •! 111 and early winter, the Ilibston Pippin, Ilubbardston Non- such, Full Pippin, and Snow Apj)le. For midwinter tn ]March, the Ilhode Island Greening-, Nortliern Spy, Esopu.< Spitzenburg, Ponime Grise, and Tolinan Sweet ; for spring, the Golden Russet, and Roxbury Russet. » " For market, the most profitable varieties are Red Astra- can, Duchess of Oldenburf^h, Gravenstein, and Hnbbard- ston Nonsuch, ripeninj^ in the order in which they are named, for a near or home market ; and for shipping, the Rhode Island Greening, Raldwin, Golden Russet, and Rox- bury Russet will yield the largest pecuniary returns." * Apples are barrelled in the orchards, and dispatched there and then to market. The orchard in Canada West, with very little labour and moderate attention, is a source of a clear annual income to the farmer who possesses one, To make an orchard 25 cents per tree is the estimated cost. The trees commence to bear in ten vears. Farmers who do not like the risk or the trouble of marketing their apples, can sell them in the orchard for from $1*50 to ^2 per barrel. Pears do equally Avell as apples, but being a tenderer and more delicate fruit they are more difficult to bring to market. Tlie following are the chief varieties grown :— Louise Bonne de Jersey, Bartlett, Beurre d'Anjou, Beurre Clairgeau, Flemish Beauty, Duchess d'Angouleme, Graslin, Sheldon, and Winter Nelis. JMelons, both sweet melons and water melons, ripen throughout Canada. The habitants of Lower Canada grow musk and citron melons in their little gardens that would throw in the sliade the melons forced at great cost in good English gardens. ♦ ' Report of Canadian Fruit-growers' Association.' Li'dston Non nidwinter tn Spy, Esopus ; ; for spring, # re lied Astra- id Hubbard- icli they are flipping, tlie set, and liox- returns." * 1 dispatched Canada West, a, is a source lossesses one. timated cost, arniers wlio keting their m $1-50 to a tenderer t to bring to es grown :— njou, Beurre me, Graslin, elons, ripen wev Canada ardens that ,t great cost on. S2IJLL FRUITS. 41 I All the well-known English small fruits, except the gooseberry, do admirably in Ontario. The cultivation of Ithese fruits for market is now a very profitable business in certain localities. In the vicinity of Oakville, on Lake Ontario, there is a large breadth of land under straw- berries ; an acre or so on every farm, and occasionally as much as ten acres. Both climate and soil in the vicinity of Lake Ontario seem admirably adapted to this fruit. The fitcilities for marketing fruit or vegetables either by land or by water carriage are unrivalled, and the demand for both, but especially for strawberries, seems to be un- limited in tlie Eastern States. The capital required for imall fruit farming is not large, and I know of no way in which an industrious immigrant with some knowledge of this species of agriculture could do better than by buying a small farm in Ontario and devoting himself entirely to fruit furijiing. He might, along with strawberry plants, plant apple, pear, and currant trees, which would be an ample provision for his old age. Or three or four small capitalists might buy one of the large Ontario wheat farms between them and divide it into small fruit ferms. . Strawberries in Ontario are planted in rows about three or four feet apart. The plants bear in the second year. In the fall they aie top-dressed with litter or stable manure. After the Iruit is picked in th esummer, hor.se- hoes are worked up and down the drills, the .eoil well loosened, and the weeds taken out. This is all the culti- vation strawberries require. The plants bear abundantly lor two or three seasons, and should at the end ot that riod be ploughed down, when a crop of turnips can be ken off the land without extra manure. The land can- m \v) [I i 1 II m '^ i ill \ ^'1 11 42 ONTARIO. not be too highly manured in which the plants are put. To do the strawberry culture properly, and keep up a rotation of crops, a man would require four fields, say of four acres in each. The chief labour connected with strawberry culture is picking the fruit. This is gene- rally done by cliildren, who pick at 1 cent the quart. The demand for strawberiies is so great that buyers come to the country and give 8 or 9 cents a quart for the fruit on the spot, thus saving the cultivator all trouble of marketing. At the latter price I havt* known of $500 worth of strawberries being sold off one acre of land. The variety of strawberry most in favour among fruit growers is Wilson's Albany. The wages of a good man in Ontario accustomed to this work is $1 per diem if hired by the whole year, or $1 • 25 if hired for eight months of the year. There are those who think that it is the fate of Canada to be absorbed into the great Eepublic. I think ^t will be found that the people who hold this opinion are (1) either English or Americans who, for some reasons of their own wish for this result ; or (2) people who are fond of theo- rizing, but who have no knowledge of the circumstances of the case. I believe, on the contrary, every day that rolls by, instead of bringing the two peoples together, helps to build up an impassable barrier betM'een them. In character and temperament, as well as in appearance and physique, the two English-speaking peoples, Cana- dian and American, diverge more and more. The lan- guage is the only common ground between them, and that, as we know, has not always proved itself a sure bond of union. The native American is a compound of English, Irish, German, Spanish, African, Indian, Chinese blood. ANNEXATIOX. To delineate the compound character he lias derived from this heterogeneous stock is beyond my power. The Cana- dian is simply an Englishman, who has learnt by expe- rience to take care of himself instead of depending upon his Government to do it for him. The native-born Ameri- can is a slight, sallow, lanky man, A\ith poor muscular development. He is like the weakly child who has all gone to head, and neglecting boyish games has stuffed his brain at the expense of his body. The Canadian is robust and strong, and presents as favourable a type of the Anglo-Saxon race as can be met with in any part of tiie world. This wide difference of physique arises from two causes: 1. Climatic conditions. The climate of the United States, taken as a whole, is undoubtedly not favourable to the develo^jment of a robust and vigorous manhood. The climate of Canada, on the other hand, like that of northern Europe, matures a hardy and powerful race of men. 2. The native-born American, as a rule, comes of a stock that has had servants to do its hard work for it — hewers of wood and drawers of water from Africa, from China, and from Ireland. He directs their labours ; his brain expands in the action, his limbs shrink from want of exercise. These traits are reproduced in his children, and exaggerated in the third generation. The native-born Canadian, on tiie contrary, is sprung from a well-grown and muscular parentage, and preserves the type. He is not the " tenth transmitter of a foolish face," but he is the transmitter of a sound mind in a sound body. . It might be supposed that the society of Americans would charm Canada into union with the United States. ,■ '( H \ n :; ' 11 1^ m fr 1 i 1 ,.i ; '' rr !f' !ii V:i| 1:1 1^ 44 ONTARIO. I believe the intercourse between the two people, such as it is, has the opposite effect. It so happens that the very scum and refuse of American society frequent the borders of Canada. The cost of living in Britisli America is just one-half the cost of living in the United States. The price of liquor is about three-fourths less. It therefore happens that idlers, loafers, drunkards, smugglers, and a host of disreputable Yankees infest the borders of Canada, to the disgust of the Canadians. Wliite men are like Indians in some respects ; the real, true, unspoiled, and unconverted red man is a gentleman. The semi-civilized Indian is a scourge. So the roughest back-settler in the remotest township in Canada is a thoroughly good fellow and an obliging one to boot. The pests of Canada are these border rowdies — men who have come in contact with civilization, who wear good coats and sometimes wash their faces, but who, beyond this slight veneering of decency, have derived no benefit from civilization, and, like the semi-civilized Indian, have learnt everything that is bad. These vile pests flourish in the neighbourhood of rum shops, and in border towns congregate about the corners of streets as affording a good position for outraging respectable passers-by. They hold the theory that one man is as good as another, and take a peculiar way of illustrating their theory, viz. by being on all occasions as brutal and disgusting as possible. They never give a civil answer to anyone, for fear that such politeness might be construed into a mark of inferiority. Even the American tourists who travel in Canada for amusement and economy — for, strange as it may seem, it is cheapei* to travel in Canada than to live at home in the nOUDER itowniES. 45 it ('^l U United States— are uot of a stamp likely to eliarm Cana- dians into annexation. The better classes of Americans do not travel on the beautiful Canadian lakes, for fear of the rouL'h and motley crowd of their own countrymen that they encounter on the steamboats. I do not think these latter people derive much enjoyment from the scenery of *' Kennedy," as they call it, although they undoubtedly enjoy the good living. I recently had the pleasure of travelling in company with some four hundred of thes3 tourists. One hour before dinner, though at the time our boat was running down one of the finest reaches of the St. Lawrence, these people crowded the dinner tables in the saloon. The waiters told them that nnless they left the tables, the cloth, &c., could not be laid. Upon this they drew back their chairs a foot or two to enable the waiters to pass to and fro, and there they sat for one hour, their hungry regards fixed on the table, their black- panted extremities tucked under their chairs, like rows of carrion crows waiting for a dying horse. At last dinner was put on the table, and a fierce joy lit up the solemn, yellow laces of the four hundred, and in the words of the captain they " went it strong," so strung indeed that the outsiders preferred bread and cheese on deck to partaking of that horrid repast. The political relations between the two countries have not tended to make Canadians enamoured of the United States. The latter country, in revenge for supposed Cana- dian sympathy for the South, abrogated the Iteciprocity Treaty that had existed between the two countries, and put a prohibitory tarifl' on Canadian goods'. This, although it will serve Canada in the long run and develop home f; r If -f'J w I ' i! ii i tiii 46 OyTAIilO. manufactures, was yet a temporary inconvenience, and has left a soreness behind it. The refusal of the United States Government to compensate Canada for the Fenian raids tliat were organized in American territory, and car- ried destruction to life and property into an unoffending and peaceable neighbouring country, has not tended to diminish that soreness. For many years a conflict has existed between the two nations on the subject of the fisheries of Cnnada ; the American fishermen, by fair means or by foul, by riglit or by wrong, have always en- croached upon the fishing grounds of the St. Lawrence. Their persistency has had its reward at the expense of Canada, for these fisheries have been finally thrown open to America by tiie mother-country in an outburst of that cheap generosity which gives away other people's pro- perty. Even now the American Government refuses to give adequate compensation for this encroachment. Of He})ublican institutions it may be said that "dis- tance lends encliantment to the view." Close observers like the Canadians are not enchanted. The best class of American citizens are not enchanted. The latter hold themselves aloof from their own jobbing Government, look down upon the class of " politicians " who pull the wires at Washington, and make it their proudest boast thftt, low as their families may have descended in the social ladder, they have never furnished a member of Congress. In Canada all this is different ; the best men in the colony, as in the mother-countrv, esteem it an honour to write M.P. after their names. Twenty times I have heard such words as these from intelligent Americans : " You Cana- dians ought to be the most contented people on the face man, }'J XKEE SMARTXESS. 47 ice, and J United ) Fenian and car- •ffending }nded to fliet has t of the by fair ivays en- awrence. pense of wn open i of that le's pro- fuses to k at "dis- bservers class of ;cr hold nt, look lie wires hftt, low ladder, less. In col on V, write rd such 11 Cana- he face of the curlh ; your taxes arc low, your food is cheap, you have all the advantap^os of self-government without the curse of a presidential election every four years, yqiir laws are good, your judges are above bribery, you have no army or navy to maintain, if you want protection from an enemy all you have to do is to telegraph for it across the Atlantic." Yankee smartness is proverbial. Smart tricks, as a rule, do not tend to make neighl)onrs good friends. As with individuals, so with states. I will give one instance of this '* smartness." V>y the treaty of Washington, Cana- dian fish were admitted free into American marlcets. Sidinon, lobsters, and other sorts of tlsli are made up for market in hermetically sealed tin cases. The Yankees, though obliged by the letter of the treaty to take the duty off the fish, transferred it to the tin cans, and so, no doubt to their satisfaction, drove a four-horse team through the spirit of the treaty. Canadians revolt from this un- gentlemanly treatment, and each one of the.'-e "smart" or *' shabby " tricks, call them which you will, strengthens the bonds which unite Canada to old England. There is a small and insignificant anti-British party in Ontario who are probably working for annexation. A. certain Oxford professor, whose own country became too hot for him, and who then tried America, where he was not appreciated, finally lionoured Ontario with his pre- sence. This gentleman nourishes an implacable animosity against England and everything English. Being an able man, he manages to attract to him every man and every- itile to the old country. He finds little difiicultv ;i i; 1 % w i 'It' 'g in picking holes in the colonial jiolicy of the empire, and 48 i li OM'AIilO. in lioldiiii,' up cortuin acts of Eii<^lish stutosmcn to con- tempt. Under tlie specious prctc^xt of fostering; a national sentiment, lie endeavours to inflame the minds of Cana- dians a<.^ainst Eiij^land and England's policy. In a less loyal country lie might work mischief. If he transferred himself and his pen to the Ejuerahl Isle, one-half the malignity ho displays would give him a proud jjlaee in the roll of Ii-ish patriots. Ikit in Canada he is harmless. Party spirit runs high there, and both sides are glad to avail themselves of the assistance of able men with grievances at tlu.'ir command. It is therefore saying something for the loyalty of Canada that each party has discovered in this discontented stranger an enemy of England, and as such lias tabooed him. The province of Ontario has a preponderating power in the Dominion of Canada, and this will undoubtedlv in- crease, as it is by far the most growing province. Ee- presentation by population, one of the main principles adopted at the confederation of the Ihitish North Ameri- can coloni(.\s, gives Ontario 88 members in the House of Commons, as against Quebec 05 and the maritime pro- vinces 45. Some years ago there was amongst certain people at home a feeling that Englimd would be better without her colonies, that the old couutrv should be turned into a gigantic shop to sell to all the nations of the world, that her colonies were a waste of money, and that if they were gone no army or navy would be necessary ; that Prussia, France, and Russia might do police duty in the world, but that John Bull would dwell at peace for evermore, and sell cottons and ironware to all the world. This policy showed I {I FCTriiE OF CA NA DA . nELIO TO I'S MA TTEIiS. 49 to con- uitionul [' Cana- i a less isfcrred lulf the )lace in aimless. j^lad to 311 with saying h party . enemv power in ledlv in- e. Ee- ineiples Ameri- louse of me pro- Bople at lout her into a Id, that ey were Prussia, jrld, but and sell showed itself the'Ti In its coll Canada was for even m tne 'Times, m its columns L/anaua Ha while sneered at and told that it was a useless burden, 'that it was wanted no longer, and that the sooner it assumed its indopt'iidcnco the better England would be pleased. These insulting taunts originated the annexation party above referred to. ]>ut things iire very diflerent in England now, and the leading men on both sides re- pudiate the idea of casting ofi' the colonies. If the world lasts long enough there is a glorious future in store for Canada. The northern countries and tlie hardy northern races possess an energy and a vitality which in all times have enabled them, in the long run, to win the race and go ahead of tiieir Southern rivals ; but any attempt to hurry on the manifest destiny of Canada • would invite disappointment and defeat. Its place for the present, as the most important colony in the empire, is at England's right hand. When manufactures die away in England and spring up in Canada, when capital and popuhition by little and little leave the former country for the latter, then it will be time enough for the son to set up house for himself, and not only to support himself , and his family in independence, but if necessary to lend a helping hand to his parent. The emigrant going to Canada from England will find religious controversies and creeds much the same in the new country as in the old, with one exception in favour of the new country, that there is less acerbity between Churchman and Dissenter. There is no State Church to provoke envy and discontent. In the United States a common expression among men is, "We leave religious matters to the women and children." It would no doubt I; ii'' \'k rt- « ,'1 n I' m ONTAniO. do very woU if tlio women nnd (jliilJreu atlondod to tli08(; miittors ; tlio rest would Ibllow in dno time. J]ut liere is the hitch ; the women say, *' Wliat is not worth tho attention of the men is not worth our attention — wo are as good men as they are ; wo want to make money in trade, to vote at eh:>otions," &c,.,&c.,&(i. So reli^j^ion {^ocs to the wall. This is partly the effect of carryinj^ toleration to excess. The peoi)Ui who hold these opinions are the descendants of the old Puritan fathers. As has been often the case in history, a generation of bigots has been followed by a generation of freethinkers. Few native-born Americans are Roman Catholics, few belong to the Church of England. They are Congregationalists, followers of Mi\ Ward Beecher, or of any otlier gentleman who tickles their fancy. j\[any of them " take their religion around,' AngUce, they go to listen to any new ])reacher they hear of. And yet these very people have the consummate impudence to send missionaries to con- vert benighted Britishers. . ' Things are very difterent in Canada. There in every city or village the Cliurchman can attend his own church, the Roman Catholic, the Presbyterian, and the ]\[ethodist can do the same. There is tolei-ation here too, but not carried to excess. There is not war to the knife, as in Ireland, between Protestant and Catholic. Political parties are not divided according to religion ; Protestant and Catholic, Churchman and Dissenter, vote together at the polling booth, and yet each loves and supports his own church. In Lower Canada, where the Roman Catholic church is predominant, the Church, as might bo expected, is driven to an extreme, and, as in Ireland, may !..> do go( TKKrOTALISM. 51 l)p voo-nnhMl us ultrji-Protostant. On the other Imnd, in Oiitiirio, wliei-o tlio bulk of tlu; popnlatioii is ^Eotliodist, tlif (-hnrcli takes the opposite extreme, iukI is hi<^h. Ciiimdu is a relijjjions, witliuut beiii-,' u hi^'oted, country. There is a stronj^' ptirty in Ontario who believe that it would bf an advantajre to apply the 3[aino Liquor Law to their province. These pL'oi)lo cannot iind much to encourage them across tlio border in those states where it has been trieil. I believe that one reason why Canadians are a healthier and more robust race than the Yanlcees is that they drink better liquor. Perhaps they would bo better still if they drank none at all ; I do not venture to oft'er an opinion on this point, but we know that men will have alcoholic stimulants, and prohibitory laws have never banished the bars from Elaine or [Massachusetts, though they have driven them to the cellar and the attic. They have never prevented drinking, though they have made men drink in a skulking, guilty way, as if they were about to commit a murder or a robbery. They have had the effect, however, of damaging the liquor and making it poisonous. It is a misfortune for paupers to marry and beget pauper children ; granted ; but try and check the pauper po[)ulation by prohibitory laws, and the result will be a still worse quality of pauperism. If the good people who shout so lustily under the temperance banner would onlv turn their energies towards substitutin;r jrood un- adulterated liquor in place of alcoholic poison they would do good service. Ai present they are spending their time, their brains, and their money in an attempt which is about as impracticable as to cheek the ebb and How of the tide. I I, if i 't '! I 52 ON T All 10. Tlio hotels ill Canada are very fair, and the charges reasonable, viz. from §2^ to ^3^ per diem. la Toronto there are two excellent hotels. Hotel life is pleasant enough for a short time, until one gets tired of the crowd, the racket, and the din. The ordinary crowd in the dining room of a largo Canadian hotel is an interesting study. There are the commercial travellers who do congregate together, and are charged at lower ratey tlian the ordi- nary travelling public, as are also the residents, who are boarded by the week or the month at less than half the rates chari^cd to tourists. Uncle Sam is sure to be there with his wife and daughters, who dress to astonish the natives, and succeed. There is the travelling theatrical or operatic troupe, the members of which are contracted for at so rach a head; the temperance men, who make up for no drinking by eating enormously, and who get a little surreptitious stimulant out of the pudding sauce, which the cook, who knows their tastes, furnishes in gallons ; the burly senator from the country, who carries his senatorial labours liuhtlv : the M.P.'s and M.P.P.'s, who, perhaps, enjoy themselves all the more as their grateful country pays the bill ; the judge on circuit ; the militia colonel on his rounds, and the English tourist and his wife ; the former is strictly on the defensive, and the latter shows her sovereign contempt for the smartness of the ladies by her austere simplicity of costume ; and last, but not least, there are the inevitable bride and bride- groom. These unfortunate jiersons have always the knack of blundering or simpering into the great dining hall in such a way as to attract as much attention as possible. ^: m-m: IP" wmm^ hargos orontu leasant crowd, dining study, ^regale le ordi- vlio are lalf tlie je there lish the leatrical Qtracted 10 make 10 get a g Gaiice, islies ill o carries M.P.r.'s, as their uit; the urist and and the •tness of and last, lid bride- Yays the at dining ention as nor ELS. 53 As for the dinners, they are generally very good, but barbarously put on the table. Although Canadian hotels have made a great stride in civilization — I mean late dinners — the art of dining in these places is still in its infancy, What can a man possibly do \vith a dozen difterent dishes all at once before him? This style of living suits the Yankees, I believe, but Canadians ought to nianaire these things better in their hotels. On one occasion I sat next to a lady from Vermont who fed pro- miscuously off nine dishes, viz. one fish, three entremets, two rots, three vegetables ; she then topped off with pudding, cheese, and a cup of tea, and the whole meal from first to last only occu[)iod twelve minr.tes by my watcli. This hasty feeding would kill an Englishman ; it does make the Yankee bilious, but it seems to have no bad effect on the Canadian traveller. Actual living, i. e. food and bed are very reasonable in Canadian hotels. I cannot say so much for the extras, which seem to bo out of all proportion; in the St. Lawrence Hall, IMontreal, the charge for board is $2 50c. per diem, for a tub 50 cents, for a pint of ale 25 cents. The little hotels in the backwoods, as might be ex- pected, are rather ron^ii. 1 had the misfortune to le travelling at night once in the lower province in a tremendous snow storm ; our horses done out, pitch dark, and very cold. We were blundering tlirough the drifts at the rate of a mile an hour. " How far to the nearest stopping place ?" I asked the driver. *' Only a mile," lie replied. This cheered me up somewhat, and I said, "Oh, that's all right, we'll soon be there;" but my cheerfulness was not shared by my driver. Qji my asking what sort 1'. I ! 'li mmm ■■p wmmmmmmmmm i,f, 51 ONTAUIO. of hotel it was, he made the following mysterious reply : " First-rate, when Dickey's not on tlie beer." In my innocence I imagined that any hotel or house, " even if Dickev waj on the beer," would be all riii^lit. I soon found my Diistake, On arrival at the "hotel," I opened the door of a comfortable-looking house, and was on the point of ordering supper, when an immense fellow, brandishing the leg of a chair, and backed up by half-a-dozen drunken companions, made at me, and with terrific threats ordered me out. A man who is half frozen, as well as tired and liuno;rv, is not much in the humour to fifjlit, so " I retired." IMy driver had already made off. He told nie afterwai-ds that Dickey had once killed a hungry traveller, but that when not "on the beer" he was one of the whitest men on the earth. The book-keeping at some of these little country hotels M is very primitive. Here is a specimen, with the trans- 1 lation. Dates, as may be seen, are quite unnecessary. Uotel Booh. Translation. John Smith L John Smith , " a grub find a sleep." H 51 L- " )) two grubs aiul a sleep. >' 1) a 11 11 three do. do. »t I» •• \l )> 11 four do. do. P] •obablj' J. S. had a friend witii Totel .. 10 grubbes & f(jre sleeps. ' him on this occasion. The cost of "a grub" and "asleep" being the same, viz. 25 cents, making up the accounts is an easyl matter. Ontario is unquestionably the best jirovince in tliei Dominion to which the agricultural labourer can emi- grate. It costs emi^-rants no more to go to Toronto thauj s reply : In my " even if (HI found med the the point .ndisliing drunken s ordered tired and t, so "1 B told me traveller, le of the trv hoteU he traiih- ssary. nd a sleep." ar.d a iv ice in tilt can emi- ronto thaii GOVEBNMENT AID TO EMIGBANTS. m to Quebec, as their railway fares are paid from the latter place to the former. The regular steerage fare by the Allan line from Liverpool to Quebec, or Halifax, is GZ. Qs. for adults. To encourage emigration the Dominion Government reduce this to 4Z. 15s. for adults, 21. Is. M. fur children under eight years, and 15s. lOd. for infants. " But io meet the case of domestic servants, and of farm labourers desirous of emigrating with their fjimilies, and who from their circumstances are unable to pay the forejjoincr rates, airangements have been made to carrv a limited number of such passengers, at certain periods, at the following reduced rates, viz. each person of eight years and u])\vards, 21. 5s. ; children under eight years, 1/. 25. Q)d. ; infants under a year, 7s. Gd. ; and to each e ^ ,dult passenger a bonus of six dollars (about 1/. 5s.) will be paid after three months' residence in Ontario, and in some spe(!ial cases this bonus may be paid in advance. These special privileges are, however, strictly confined to the cLisses above mentioned, and all applicants must I'urnish the Government agents with satisfactory proofs of their good faith before they can obtain the necessary warrants. " Unmarried farm labourers also receive the Govern- ment bonus of six dollars after three months' residence in the province, and in certain exceptional cases it may be advanced to them also in reduction of their passage- money." * By this it will be seen that approved emigrants of the working cksses can, for the sum of 1/. each adult, obtain passages from Liverpool to Toronto. In addition to this * Euiigr.ition Circular. i I • ! w > : ' t '■■'I III! M ' ' .a; .•■'JL.i. .1!.. *mm^^^9^'^immi^m^m >h\ '.; !i hi 56 ONTAIiJO. they require bedding, and knife, fork, tin mugs, &c. Ten cubic feet (equal to a box 2^ feet long, 2 feet wide, and 2 feet deep) is allowed for luo^ga^^e for each adult ; for all over that quantity a charge of one shilling for each cubic foot will be made for ocean I'reight. In the ships of the Allan line, when they are not much crowded, steerage passengers are made fairly comfortable. The food is of good quality, fairly cooked, and ample in (juantity. I have seen provisions enough to feed one hundred hungv men thrown overboard in one day. I have frequently, when at sea, been through the steerage of the Allan vessels, and, with the one exception of over- crowding, which I su[)pose is an evil not to be avoided in emigrant ships, I have never seen anything to complain of in the tieatment of the emigrants. And after all they are not more crowd-^d than are H.M. soldiers in a transport ship. In this little work I only desire to touch upon the emigration of working men and their families, in con- nection with that of the farmer and small capitalist. The paid emigration agents of the Dominion appeal chiefly to the working classes, and no doubt explain very fully all the advantages that Canada has to offer them. But it soems to me that among the advantages Canada offers to the emigrant farmer with small capital, the favouiable terms on which he can import labour from the Old World are especially to be remembered. Newly arrived emi- grants in Canada, of the working classes, are now liired through the medium of the local emigration agents. They are hired by the year, alter a probationary term of a month. Able-bodied men get from §10 to j«il2 per ■m .-, ■ WAGES, won KINO MEN. m mouth, \vith board, and raw girls about $5. They can generally earn higher wages than this after the first year. I cnn see no reason why farm labourers and domestic servants should not be hired before they leave the old country. It would be a g]-eat comfort to these poor pt'ople to liave a berth ready for them on their arrival in the colony. It would often save them much anxiety and great liardship. Tlie emigration agent in England or in Ireland would be quite as capable of recommending a man as the agent in ]\[ontreal or Toronto. In either case the employer has to run his chance as to character and so on. Given an employer iu Canada who wants a man, and a man in England who wants employment in Canada, and surely some plan could be organii^ed for bringing the two together. Indeed, I believe this has been successfully carried out on a small scale by an Ottawa Immigration Society. To the poor working man emigration is even a more serious matter than to ^he man of capital. The latter (especially fiom a country like Canada) can return home if the new country does rot come up to his expectations. The former, if a family man, has only managed to emi- grate by a great effort, and must take the new country for better or for worse. As a rule I believe that working men do as \^e^l iu Canada as in any other part of the world, but there are two or three things that emigrants from England of this class should guard against. They should not go out with the idea of settling down upon wilderness land, not in the lirst instance, at least, until they have become inured to the ways of the country. They should not herd in great droves to any one par- I ■' if i h li I *§. ^ i ii <;'l 58 NT A mo. I i 1 1 i ' ticular ])laco. In a now country the labour market is easily drugged, and farmers in Canada do with less than half the labour required by farmers at home. They should not go out in the autumn or the winter. In the winter montlis farmers require no extra help ; indeed many of the small i'armers do AAithout all hired labour during that season. The Dominion is a large and growing country, capable of absorbing a great proportion of the overplus population of the mother-country to the mutual advantage of all parties concerned ; but the process must be gradual, and not spasmodic or forced. Capital and labour should go together as well as possible ; and I think it would be both for the interests of Canada and of the working people at home if the system could bo introduced of hiring working men before they left their old country, instead of after they landed in the new. "Weak or sickly men do wrong in emigrating to Cana4a. In return for better wages and better food men have to work harder than in England. The Canadian farmer, as a rule, does not spare himself nor his men either when work has to be done. In hay-making and harvest time especially the hours are long and the work hard. In return for his hard work the emigrant workman re- ceives better wages and better food, as we have seen before, and he has the prospect, if he is only industrious and oAving, of becoming a farmer himself. Then his social position from the very first is better than it was at liome. If frugal and industrious, he can afford to buy better clothes, read his paper, and generally polish him- self up more than the working man at home, thus quali- fying himself to mix on more equal terms with his richer uirket is ess than :. They 111 the ; iDcleed d labour growing n of the } mutual ess must )ital and 1 1 think d of the troduced country, 1 Canacla. L have to armer, as ler when s^est time ard. In cm an re- ave seen dustrious rhen his it was at d to buy lish liim- lus quali- lis richer OTTAWA. m fellow-eitizons. The mean of civilization is fully as high as tlie mean in England, even though the extreme may not be. Ottawa, tlie capital, thongli in the ])rovince of Ontario, is on the borders of Quebec, and in the very heart of the Dominion, It was chosen as the capital for two reasons, (1) central position and distance from frontier; (2) because to liave made tlie capital in one of the then great cities of Canadfi, viz. ^lontreal, Quebec, or Toronto, would have created jealousy in the others. Although at the time Canadians were dissatisfied that a small lumbering village, called By town, should liave been selected for their capital, yet events have quite justified the selection, and it is now generally conceded that Ottawa is a fit capital for their Dominion ; Montreal, the commercial capital, is unfit to be the political capital. In the first place, it is on the frontier; in the second place, it is just the point in Canada where two races and two religions meet, and where conse- quently in time of pulitieal or religious agitation popular feeling and popular demonstration run highest. In the third place, it is no doubt wise to separate as much as possible politics from commercial jobbing. As matters stand at present, this is not always an easy task, but if ]\Iontreal, the centre of commerce, was also the centre of government, the difficulty would be the greater. The Government buildings are beautiful, and beautifully -ituated. On the summit of a rocky bank they rear their stately heads above the river. With the same good taste which led to the sounding and peculiarly Canadian name of Ottawa being given to the capital instead of calling it Siuith-ville or Jones-ville, the rock and the spruce 'i il ; -1 M m m i m ■ if SI' IT I Uh r !i :i' GO ONTARIO. bushes arouud the buildings have been left as much as l)o.ssiblo as nature fashioned them. There are no terraces, no statues, no tawdry railings, or ornaments on the river side. Where nature is so grand these would be quite out of phu'e. The House of Commons grows out of the spruee-clad rock, emblematic of a great and powerful country growing out of the pine forest and the prairie. The view from the library of tlio House of Commons is magniiiceiit ; on one hand the Ottawa river, foaming through countless little wooded islands, dashing itself over the falls; on the other a fine reach of the river presents itself to tiie eye. All around, as far as the eye can reac^h, and this is a long way in the clear (dimate, is the great forest in its glory of colour and form. Ottaw'a city is at present in the condition of an un- finished house. Stone, bricks, and wood lie about in piles. Private houses, banks, churches, &c., are springing up here and there, not in a desultory way, but with an ulterior plan. Ottawa is not a cardboard city; there are no shanties, no shoddy. Everything is solid, substantial, and handsome, giving promise of a great future. Much civilization is centred here. There is indeed a peculiar charm in these Canadian cities, which combine the advan- tages of civilization with the charm of a wild country. Ottawa has some resemblance to the country-seat of a rich English nobleman, whose house is hospitably filled with pleasant people, while his park stretches far around him in the midst of a quiet rural landscape. But there is one great difference between the two. In an old country, side by side with immense wealth and excess of luxury, squalid poverty and extreme want are always to be seen. It is a uncli as terraces, le river te out of uce-cltid growing rom the ; on one 'ss little lie other ye. All oug way glory of ■ an un- in piles, giiig up with an here are )stantial, Much peculiar e aclvan- country. of a rieh led with und him re is one try, side '■, squalid It is a TT'J TPn rUIVILEOE. 61 8igiiificant fact that in Ottawa all the public buildings found ill Enulish cities exist, all but one — and that is the poor-house. ]\liin st'izi'd ui>i.ii that beautiful work of nature, the Cliaudierc falls, and turned it into a ten million horse- power saw-niill. 'i'hc beauty of the fall is much impaired, but it is a wonderful sight to see the logs drawn out of the water by the water into twenty different saw-mills. Eiich log is first squared by one saw, then cut into boards by another. I'lic rough edges are not wasted. Cnculars whirling round with inconceivable rapidity, rip them up mU^ thinner boards. Even the edges are utilized and made into laths by a very ingenious process ; nothing is wasted but the sawdust. As the Americans say, Ottawa possesses a first-class water privilege. Each house has a hose with which the doorsteps, pavements, windows, &c., are watered in dusty weather. It speaks volumes for the steadiness of the rising gerc ration of Ottawa that to them these hoses are generally entrusted. Fancy the English boy of ten in uncontrolled possession of a water hose ! The child is father to the man, and the colonial boy grows up a steady and sober though somewhat phlegmatic man. Tiieir edu- cation makes men of them earlier than with us. They begin from their earliest youth to incur responsibility. The public conveyances in Ottawa will excite the w^onder of the tourist. They are skeleton lord mayors' coaches : silver springs, painted glass windows, oak facings, hug(, crt^sts in gaudy colours, &c., (Src. The lumbermen have a great weakness for these coaches, and spend many of their hardly earned dollars in driving about the city in J! ■ !■ ni 02 OSTAUIO. thoin. 1 was mucli aimisetl l)y sodiig u liiniboniiaii without foat ur waistcoat — a inai^iiilieent fellow about G feet 2 iiurhes iu lieif^ht, and as sluif^^yas a bear — .solemnly taking liis pleasure on a hot July day in one of tlios^' gori>;eou8 vehicles, drawn by two horses. Jlo drove all round the town, stopping here and there to have a friendly glass with a comrade. When he wanted to get out he stopped the driver with a whoop that could bo heard twn miles off on the river. lie disdained to open the door, but stepped backwards and Ibrwards over it — a pr(K;eeding that somewhat detracted from the dignity of the turn- out. In the Ottawa district there are plenty of improved farms always in the market. In an accessible locality a farm of 200 acres half cleared, with fair house and out- buildings, can be bought for from 800?. to 1000?. Close to the cit}' the price of good fiirms is 20?. an acre. In the more remote sections of this district equally good farms can be bonght for half the money, viz. for 400?. or 500?. The latter are situated i2;enerallv on the borders of the lumber woods, and the objections to them are, (1) the difficulty of obtaining labour, the best men being picked up by the lumberers ; and, (2) distance from society, &e. As regards markets, the proprietors of these back farms are as well off as their neighbours near the cities. They can dispose of all their surplus produce at high prices to the lumber merchants. In foct, the nearer to the lumber woods the higher are the prices of farm produce such as hay, oats, pork, and beef. These back farms are gene- rally in the hands of native-born Canadians, who, as we have seen elsewhere, are in the habit of selling out their as. I'; i 111! II I FAHMS. MhWEIiAL^. 03 iniprovod ur run-out t'arnis in the sottlomoiit, and pushiui,' bick further in tlio forest. Tho wtij^es of nirricultural labourers in tlic Ottawa dis- trict are rulijd by the lumber trade. Where the latter is tiourishinj;, waf^es are high, and vice versa. At present a labourer hired by the year, ^^ets from islO to $12 per month with board. Without board, but with free house, fuel, patch of land for garden, about $18. On tho latter terms a man and wife can be hired f(jr about $25 per mouth. The.se wages are rather below tho average, as the lumber market is somewhat depressed at present, and cou.se(piently a number of men who usually earn their living in the woods are now competing with emigrants lor farm labour. Excellent iron ore is found in Ontario. IJut there is no means of smelting it on the spot. It is therefore sent to the United States, where it is manufactured, and then returned to Canada as pig iron or in the shape of iron tools and implements. This should not be so. There is both iron and coal in abundance within the Dominion. Both silver and copper in large quantities are found on the shores of Lake Superior. 13ut more valuable than either of the.se are the petro- leum wells. Some of these wells in the county of Lamb- ton yield 100 barrels of crude oil per day. And the -wells of Canada West, as at present worked, yield over 10,000 barrels per week. The oil region of Ontario is supposed to be very extensive, and the supjdy is apparently inex- haustible. The capital now employed in the trade is upwards of 2,000,000^. In the British Islands there is plenty of Uionoy and very i EMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 m 1^ - IIIIIM " m IIM 2.0 111= U III 1.6 i Va ^ /2 /a '^A e". el '3 %v-' /A '<3 om/ m Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ ^^ \ O % v <«► 6^ '-b-^ '^■^^^^ ^9) -^%- 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ?n? ; m 'M\ 1^ mm wmmrmnmtm I f' < !. i J I ■ 1 ii' 61 OXTAinO. little land. Ono consequenco of this is that land possesses a fictitious vahio and cannot b3 bought at a fair commercial value. Another is that money is cheap. Interest is only 2 or 3 per cent. The immigrant in Canada sliould bear in mind that land is cheap and money dear. Farms are seldom paid for at the time they are bought, but generally by instalments, spread over a number of years, Therefore, if the immigrant is prepared to pay cash down, he will be able to buy at great advantage. In the mean- time he can always get 8 or 1 per cent, for his money in Ontario. I certainly am not exaggerating when I say that 8 per cent, can be obtained for money in Ontario, upon as good security as that on which 4 per cent, can be got in an old countr)\ The following is a synopsis of tlie game laws of Canada West:— IMoose, cariboo, and deer may be killed from the first day of September to the first day of December. Wild turkeys, grouse, pheasants, or partridges, from the first day of September to the first day of January. Quail, from the first day of October to the first day of j January. Woodcock, from the first day of July to the 1st of January. Snipe, from the 15th of August to the 1st of May. Water fowl, which are known as mallard, grey duck, black duck, wood or summer duck, and all the kind of j duck known as teal, from the 15th of August to the 1st of January. Hares or rabbits from the 1st of September to the 1st of ]\Iarch. GAME LAWS. Go ssessef? a imercial t is onlv I should i: Farms ^ ^ht, but I of years, | sh down, I lie mean- t money in ^ Bn I say > Ontario, - it. can be f Canada the first % j;es, from No person shall have in his possession any of the said animals or birds, or any part or portion of such animals or birds, during the periods in which they are so iiro- tcciud ; provided that they may be exposed for sale tor ojitj month and no longer al'tor such periods, and may be had in possession for the jjrivate use of the owner and his family at any time ; but in all cases the proof of the timo of killing or taking shall be upon the party in possession. It is enacted that no beaver, musk-rat, mink, marten, raccoon, otter, or fisher shall be hunted, taken, or killed, or had in possession of any person, between the first day of ^lay and the first day of November. The penalties attaching to transgressions of this law are as follows : In case of moose, cariboo, or deer, i»;50, and not less than SiO. In case of birds or eggs, $2d, and not less than ss5. In case of fur-bearing animals, J*;25, and not less than ijkS. The principal s})ort in Ontario is shooting. There is I no salmon fishing, and for really good trout fishing the [angler has to go far back to the streams that flow into [Superior. The maskinonge, bass, and pickerell fishing in ^ the lakes hardly comes under the head of sport. The only big game is the red deer {Cervus Vlrginianns), jan animal very much smaller than the red deer of Scot- I land, and much like the fallow deer. The range of this [deer is very wide ; it is found in all the Northern States of the Union, in New Brunswick, in Upper Canada, at the [base of the Rocky ]\Ionntains, and on the Pacific slope. During the long winters these animals, like the moose, make yards in the greenwoods, and feed on the browse. l\ \ i !ill Hi; I'll Hi % I If i i ■ ■■''. - 11 66 OyTAIilO. In the deep snow they arc unfortunately very easily run down by hunters on snow shoes. I do not know a more pitiable object than a Virginian deer endeavouring to escape from its pursuer in deep snow. When i'orced out of the well-beaten paths of its yard, the active creature makes a succession of desperate bounds, each one shorter than the one before. At each plunge it sinks to its withers in the snow. The cold-blooded pursuer knows that his game is safe, and does not even waste a bullet. He comes up leisurely behind the totally exhausted quadruped, disregarding the pleading glance of tiie wild and beautiful eye, and getting on its back, holds it down in the snow till he cuts its throat with his knife. Of all butchery this is the worst. 13ut creeping deer in the early winter, when the snow is light, is really good sport, and requires a very good hunter. The old bucks shed their antlers in November, but the young ones retain theirs till January, or even February. In summer deer feed very much on grass that grows in the open places in the forest and on the edges of lakes and rivers. Paddling my canoe noiselessly along the shores of a backwoods lake, I have often ap- proached quite close to them. In districts where deer are plentiful they make roads or paths through the bush, and hunters in the fall of the year, stationing themselves in the vicinity of these paths, or in passes between lakes, have the deer driven up to their rifles with dogs. The ilesli of the Virginian deer is capital venison, better than the cariboo, or even than the moose ; and the antlers of the bucks are branchy and handsome. The bpst sport in Canada West is unquestionably the WILD-FOWL SIIOOTIXa. 67 duck shooting. Notwithstanding the vast numbers that jiro shot every year, the wild fowl manage to hold their own. Numbers hatch their y(ning in the marshes, ishmds, swamps, and woods of Upper Canada ; but much greater nundjers hatch in the inaccessible northern regions, from whence they come in renewed multitudes every ''fall," to rest on the lakes and marshes of Up[)er Canada, and feed on the wild rice that grows round the edges of the lakes and in the creeks. The ^t. Clair Hats and Long l\)int, Lake Erie, are two of the most famous i)laccs for wild- fowl shooting ; but in the whole province, from the Oorgian Lay and Lake Nepissing down to the Thousand Islands, there is an abundance of wild fowl. I have had good sport along the shores of Lake Ontario, both in the Thousand Islands and in the Bay of Quinte ; and there are also many smaller lakes, such as Ixice Lake, Simcoe, Holland Marsh, &c., where the duck shooting is vei-y good. Duck shooting is much the same all the world over, but one great charm of this sport ii Canada is that there are so many different varieties of birds. At the head of them, both as regards sport and the pot, I place the black duck (-4. ohseura). Great numbers of these hatch in Canada, but many more come from the north, and I have noticed that these latter are finer and heaviter birds than the home-bred ones. As regards their nesting and habits, they are almost, it not exactly, identical with those of the mallard duck. They are shot in spring and fall, either by the system of flight shooting in the evenings and mornings, or in the beginning of autumn, by paddling a canoe silently along I • I i h rii ;A im ! :tM li'i tf w \ 68 oxTAnin. i I .j! ■;: Id tlio odfres of tlto lakes and swamps — tlio sportsman soatcd in tlie bow, and the Indian paddling with that skill and total absence of splash and noise for which the Indians are unrivalled. The black duck, when taken on the rise, is a very easy shot; wdien in the full swinj^ of its flight, it is a very diflicult one. It is the shyest bird that I know. Even in remote lakes, whore it Iias never been disturbed, and where one might expect to find it pretty tame, I have never caught the black duck napping, though they decoy weU, particularly in the spring. Shooting out of a canoe requires a great deal of practice, and it is a much more ditlicult matter than when on one's legs, owing to the cramped ])osition of the shooter and the corky motion of his craft. Putting pot-shots out of the question, the sportsman who can show ten black ducks for twenty empty cartridges has done well. The mallard {A. Boschas) is identical with our English wild duck in every respect. It b.:is not nearly so wide a range on the American continent as the black duck. The mallard goes no farther east than the great lakes, neither is it found in the far north. When it leaves Upper Canada at the commencement of winter it migrates to the Southern and South-western States. The wood duck (A. Sjmisa) is the most beautiful of all ducks. - To describe the plumage of an old drake would simply be impossible ; it must be seen. Fishermen know the value of its feathers. They make their a}>pearance in April, and leave early in the fall; for, unlike most other wild fowl, they cannot stand the cold. In spring they may be seen in pairs, swimming about the most sheltered lakes and rivers, or else roosting like crows on the trees. DUCKS. 00 I hive never been able to iiiul a nest, but I am tokl tlmt thcv build in a hollow stumii, or in the fork of a large tree, near the water. They bring out about eight or ten of a brood, and manage to carry them from their lofty birthjdaee to the water— in their bills, I presume. In the fall the sportsman frequently oomes across them when blaek-duck shooting. They are tamer than the latter, and much more easily shot. They are excellent birds on the table, and sometimes give very pretty si)ort in the early fall as they rise out of the marshes and. wild rice swamps. The famous canvass-back [Aytlnja Vallisneria) is a visitor to the Canadian lakes. This bird, which is considered such a deli(!acy in the Southern States, is in Canada not considered better than the black duck and two or three other species. The pochard {Nyroea Ferina) ; very numerous on Cana- dian lakes ; is often mistaken for the canvass-back, which it resembles in ;ippearance and flight. Thi.' widgeon (Mareca Americana) is very like our own widgeon in habits. Tlie gad wall (Chauhlasmus Strejierus), the shoveller (Spatula Chjjyeata), and the pintail (Dajila Acuta) are three ducks known to the English wild-fowl shooter, but which are very numerous on the Canadian hikes. The blue-winged teal {Qnerquedula discors) and the green- winged teal (Nettlon Carolinensis) are both beautiful little birds, and give good sport. To be a successful duck-shooter in Canada a man must not only be a good shot, but he must be well up to the habits of the birds ; he must know their haunts by day t.'\- CB ■> !4 ''t 70 ONTAIUO. 11 I, m iiiii I III; i ■ ' 1' and nif^lit, and tlicir line of flight ; he must also under- stand many devices by whicli to circumvent them. Even to get a pot-shot at ducks requires the most careful stalk- ing. I know of no deer or otlier animal so hard to a|> proach as a flock of black ducks on a lake or pond ; a lumdred eyes are on the watch and a hundred ears are listening, and I even think they can wind a man. Even the actual shooting is an art of itself; it is quite different from snipe, cock, or i)artridge shooting ; in fact, I am inclined to think that the one spoils a man for the other. In vild-fowl shooting one must necessarily follow one's bird and calculate how far to fire ahead of him. Tliis does not answer at all for snipe, cock, or general shooting. In flight shooting it requires a long experience to know exactly when a bird is in range, and what allowance to make for the speed of his flight. I have seen excellent shots at general game signally fail at wild fowl, and vice versa. Elsewhere I have alluded to the absence of animal life to be met with in Canada in winter. The swamps and lake shores present a total contrast to this in the spring and fall of the year. The sportsman in his canoe, hid away in the long grass, by the edge of a lake, need never be lonely in a fine autumnal evening. The ducks, sweep- ing round their feeding ground with outstretched necks, chiefly occupy his attention ; but if they give him a few- minutes' leisure, he can watch the musquash hauling rushes to his house, and listen to him paddling in the mud. Great flocks of the *' field-oflicer bird," or red- winged starling {Agelaius Fhoenicem), alight chattering on the reeds around him. The osprey (Pandion Caro- Qi'AiL snooTixa. 71 linensis) may be seen oircling about high up in the clouds. The kiugfisher (Alcedo Ahijon) screams and throws hini- pclf into the water. Nund)er8 of snipe fly shriekin) CIIAPTKR III. (^r!'.I5EC. Tin; farthor one tmvols west in tho fontiiiont of North Aniorlca, tlio more Anioriean do tho citios become, and less like the old-counti y type. St. J. 'm, Newfonnd- liuid, in tlio extreme east, mi^dit well pa; for an Irish town. 'Die str(>ets are dirty and irref/'dur, the side wnlks iieL-^Jfcted. Tiie ixilieenian and the iiot less inevitable ! .; . r may bo observed prowling abouo ;ii pursuit of their respective avocations ; even tho stray pig may be occasionally mot with, and a touch of tho bi.i^ue may be heard. Quol)ee is a French city. "What a \niy it was, by the way, that the old Indian name of Stadacona was not preserved! From the flagstaff of the citadel, a spot to which every newly arrived immigrant ov tourist naturally turns his steps, a magnificent panorama presents itself to his eyes. The old city nestles close under the guns of the citadel as if for protection. A dozen steamers lie at the wharf close under the ramparts, and the sight- seer can look down upon the decks of forty or fifty large sailing ships lying at anchor in the stream. Opposite is Point Levi, with its acres and acres of floating lumber and its high lands, which in the old wars were out of the range of the guns of the citadel, but which in these days of improved ordnance would command them. But up the river and down the river, what glorious views ! "What an i I 70 QUEBEC. I')'' a h^ expanse of bliio water and glorious sky ; what masses of rock and forest, with the rugged and sharply defined Laurentide mountains in tlie background, rising appa- rently sheer out of the water ! There are not many cities in the world so favoured. But everyone to his taste. Yankees look upon Quebec (" Quecbec " as they call it) as a miserable place, a " finished city," a place that does not go ahead. It is in fact an Old-World city, and as such inexpressibly refreshing to the Old-World tourist, whose eye is wearied of the level uniformity and terribly regular rectangular cities of the west. It is devoutly to be hoped that no improving lord mayor or energetic municipfil council will ever try to adapt Quebec to the sealed pattern of American cities. But even if they did their worst, I ftmcy that nature would thwart them. The old war-worn parapets of the citadel are crumbling away. Peace bears harder upon them than war. One cannot help thinking that the richest country in the world might well aftbrd to keep such a fortress in repair. In former times large sums of money were lavished on the fortifications, as well as on others at Kingston and elsewhere. By-and-by came a change of government, and the historic guns of Quebec were sold by auction as old iron, the sentry-boxes sent to Woolwich, and the whole affair left to go to ruin, while millions were laid out in constructing new fortresses in other outlying portions of the empire, such as Bermuda, Malta, &c., which some future change of policy will probably also leave to ruin. A regiment or two of soldiers (like the old Canadian rifles), made up of picked men who had served their time in the line, would be invaluable to Canada, both for the QUEBEC. 11 purposes of garrisoninjj^ and keeping in repair the for- tresses, and also as forming the nucleus of a Canadian urmy. 13y this course another imperial purpose would also be gained, viz. to make the army more popular, for a period of reserve service in Canada would bo a great boon to the British soldier, who in former times looked upon Canada as his best station. There is no city in the New World that has a more inter- esting liistory of its own than Quebec. A statue to the memory of AVolfe and Montcalm, reminds the visitor of a passage in this history. On one side is inscribed "Wolfe," ou the other " Montcalm." Notliing more ; but what a glorious junction of names, equal honour alike to vicv,or and vanquished ! There is nothing after all like a fair fight. Tiie French and English fought it out in Canada, and have ever since been the best of friends. If the Irish- man, instead of asking everyone to tread on the tail of his coat, and being generally "blue-moulded for want of a bating," had only fought it out with the Sassenach, the neighbours on each side of St. George's Channel might now be as good friends as are the people who live ou the banks of the St. Lawrence. The province of Quebec is of such extent that it is really liard to tell where it ends. On the south and west the boundaries are plain, but to tlie not thward and east- ward the province has practically no bounds. It is com- puted to contain about 130 millions of acres, over 100 millions of which have not even as yet boon surveyed. At a rough calculation, about one-tenth of this vast territory is good farming land, the remainder is rocky and bai-ren. The best lands ere generally found near the rivers and ;Mi m mw 9*11*^ I m ' I 78 QUEBEC. lakes. Along the banks of some of the former there are as productive intervales as can be found anywhere. The island of Montreal, for instance, is a garden, and along both banks of the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Quebec, there are many fertile districts and rich settle- ments. Eelow Quebec the land is of inferior quality, the seasons are shorter, and the people poorer. In many districts the high lands are clothed with hard-wood timber, and when this is the case they make good tai'ms when cleared. The best farms are, however, those which com- bine upland and intervale. The latter is easily cleared, and produces a yearly crop of hay without any further labour, a great matter where winters are so long as in Lower Canada. To every sportsman who has been much in the Cana- dian forest, the log hut of the back settler and the new settlement are familiar objects. If approached from the side of the forest the first sign of civilization is the sound oi' the cow-bells, which are strapped to the necks of the cattle to enable their owners to find them. A good-toned bell ou a still day can be heard two or three miles off. The roads leading out from these back settlements are of the very roughest description in summer, but in winter, thanks to the snow, are level and excellent. Of courso as the settlement progresses the roads improve, and in a very few years the back settler's house of to-day is in the centre of the settlement, accessible by good roads and possessing every advantage. For the first seven or eight years, however, the back settler leads a hard life. Having chosen his land and purchased it (one-fifth of the purchase money being paid down and the remainder in four annual r'" THE BACK SETTLER 70 instalments), he proceeds to build himself a log house about 18 feet by 20 feet, which he roofs with sjilit pine or cedar. Externally these log huts are of the roughest description, no tool being laid upon them but the axe. Internally liowever, when the good woman is tidy, they are comfort- able enough. The back settler, though content with a lui^ hut for himself, puts up a more pretentious building for his hay and his cattle. His barn is generally built of boards hauled from the nearest saw-mill, and roofed either with shingles made by his own hands, or with spruce bark. Those buildings are situated in the centre of an open space in the forest, from which it is fenced off by the half- burnt poles arranged in what is commonly called a " rip- gut fence." The crops, potatoes, oats, hay, and buck- wheat, grow in patches amongst the black, charred stumps, and grow so well, too, as almost to hide the latter, though they are two feet in height. Outside the fence the back settler's stock roam about the neigh- bouring forest, where I am afraid most of his leisure time is taken up in hunting for them. But, indeed, his leisure moments must be few, for a back settler has to turn his hand to everything; he must be his own carpenter, his own blacksmith, &c., &c. There is no division of labour in the backwoods. The man and woman of the house do everything. The knowing old settler never breaks his back in tearing green stumps out by the roots. His modus operandi is somewhat as follows; in winter, when he has ihe time to spare, he chops a few acres of forest, hauling off the soft wood for logs, fence rails, &c., and the hard wood for firing. The waste wood and branches he makes !! H 1' H ^i' fii 'W i- . .,< n:» m 80 QUEBEC. into piles, and Ifurns, when dry, in tlie spring. In the space thus cleared and burnt he plants potatoes with the hoe, here and there, in little hills amongst the stumps. The following year he sows grass seed and lays it down as pasture. After seven years the hard-wood stumps are rotten and come out easily. The pine, owing to its resinous nature, does not rot so quickly, and gives a little more trouble. The land is now ready for the plough, and in the eighth year he takes a crop of wheat off it and brings it into regular rotation. Say five acres of forest are chopped every year, he will thus have (after the seventh year) ten acres of new land coming in each season, viz. five of burnt land for potatoes, and five to stump and plough for wheat. The virgin soil needs no manure, and yields magnificent crops. When the settler has new land coming in each year, he, from time to time, lays down portions of his longest cleared land in permanent pasture. One of the greatest if not the greatest annoyance to the back settlers are the flies. The larger his clearin": becomes, the less he is annoyed by these pests, which disappear with the forest. Where his house is near water or swampy land the flies are intolerable. In the valley of the ]\Ietapedia I have known families who were put to rout and driven out of the country by the black flies. Where the house is built in a high exposed situation the flies are not so troublesome, but they annoy the back settlor more or less for the first eight or ten years, that is to say, until he has made a large hole in the forest. His cattle, too, are terribly annoyed by a large fly called the cariboo fly, whose bite is only a shade less severe EASTERN TOWN SHIPS. 81 tlian the bite of a dof^. The poor creatures conform to the habits of the moose, wliich animals, wlicn tortured by these ])ests in the months of June and July, plunge into the lakes and rivers and remain there during the heat of the (lay with nothing but their heads above water. As a set- off to the plague of Hifs in summer, tlie back settler is well situated as regards the cold of winter. He is sheltered from all winds by the surrounding forest, and fuel in profusion of the clioicest quality is ready at his hand. Tiie back settler's life is a life of toil, but it is one also of great independence. Every hour's work he spends on his clearing makes him a richer man, every acre he ploughs, every stump even he takes out, makes his farm more valuable. All his work bears fruit, and at the end' of ten or fifteen years it is wondt-rful to see what a trans- I'ormation the industrious back settler has made in the forest. In the eastern townships of Canada there are very good farms. This district is most favourablv situated as rejjards markets. Its staple })roducts are beef, mutton, pork, and butter, and for all these articles there is a great demand in the adjacent New England State>!, where they sell at even higher prices than they do in England. The farming season in the eastern townships is somewhat loi'gcr than in other parts of Lower Canada, and the land when cleared is well suited to jrriiss and stock raisinu'. Iu)proved farms with buildings can be bought in the eastern townships for from 4(jOZ. up to 12U0?., and about half as much more capital as the price of the farm would enable an immigrant with a good knowledge of farming and stock to do very well there. G 1 1 n i'l iH I 1 i-.j ^ifl I '"T" h t I i 82 QUEBEC. There are large blocks of suiveyed laud in Lower Canada which are offered free to hondjide settlers. These free-grant lands are situated for the most part on coloniza- tion roads rniniiug through remote districts of the country, and are not of very good quality. Unless he has been at least a year or two in the country and has acquired an intimate knowledge of the locality, no immiurant should be induced to settle on these free-grant Lmds. It cannot be too often repeated that in a country like Canada, where iniproved land can be bought reasonably, and where good wild land in the vicinity of settlements and railways can be bought for iSl per acre, that no immigrant should be tempted to bury himself in a remote wilderness by the offer of a fiee grant. By working for a year or two for wages he will be able to lay by enough to buy a farm, and he will thus acquire experience of the country to boot. The free-grant lauds of Quebec are chiefly on the south shore of the St. Lawrence along military and colonization roads which lead from the back settlement towards New Brunswick and the peninsula of Gaspe. The latter district is both from its soil and climate unsuited to farming ; it is, however, rich in minerals, and the fisheries on its shores are the richest in the world. Although the farmer pure and simple cannot make a good living in this district, yet here and there on the mouths of rivers and elsewhere in the valleys there are patches of good hind on which the families of fishermen can raise sulficient crops lor household consumption. Much the same may be said of the corresponding district on the north shoi'e of the St. Lawrence, with the doubtful exception of the Saguenay valley, in which there is an agricultural population who THE SAGUEXAY 83 fiud a ready market for their produce in the luiuber woods, where hay, oats, pork, dfcc, eoinniaiid higher prices than in the cities. I said tlio valley of the Saf^iieimy was a "donbtCul" cxcf'ption, and for tliis reason, that a place in which the welfare of agriculturists depends upon lumbor- in"- cannot bo called a good farming district. But the I'arms, such as tlioy are, on the upper waters of the Sagueiiay, surprise the tourist, >vho sees on his way up that river fioin the sea nothing but barren rocks and inaccessible cliffs until he comes to Ha Ila bay, a distance of GO miles. From here to Lake St. John and all round the shores of the latter large sheet of water there is good land which cnn be bought for about a shilling an acre. Here the hardy French Canadians, wdio are at home in the woods, can, with tlie help of lumbering, make a good living, but it is not a place for the old-country immigrant to settle in. Below the mouth of the Saguenay there is positively no land fit for farming, and no roads. The inhabitants of this country, fishermen and trappers, are entirely dependent upon water communication, and for six months in the vear are shut off from the world. But although the land is rocky and sterile along the lower r^t. Lawrence, the waters are rich beyond conception^ From the Avhale down to the capelin the quantities and varieties of fish are an)azing. This wealth ot the waters amply compensates for the sterility of the soil, and renders tlie lower St. Lawrence by no means the least valuable part of the Dominion. It would be of great advantage to Canada and to Canadian farmers if some industrv could bo originated and carried out which would give employment to hands in i I :■ ! i ■■i I y ppf^ 84 QVEIihC. ■winter, leaving tlicm free to farm in sunimor. Liiin])ci'ing in Lower Canmla does this to a certain extent, but only to a certain extent. Lumbering operations, including streani driving, vS:e., last till near midsummer, and arc conmienced again early in the fall. Besides, tin? lumberman as a rule has no greater liking to farm drudgerv than the sailor has. The raw materials in Lower Canada are varied and abundant ; besides the products of the vast forests there are many different sorts of minerals, but manufactures to use up this raw material are scarce. Iron ore is mined in Canada, sent to the Lnited States to be smelted, and bought back again by Canada. \\'ant of ctqtital and want of labour, though helping to explain tin's state of aifairs, do not quite account for it. A\'e must look for the reason outside of Canada. The commercial relationship between Canada and the United States is unsatisfactory in the extreme. Canadian manufactures are shut cnit from the American markets by an insuperable barrier — protec- tion. But even that is not all. When anv commoditv happens to be manufactuied in tin; United States in {>xc( ss of the demand, then the uveri)lus is thrown into ihe Canadian market and sold off at a sacrifice. 'Jhis is very hard upon the Canadian manufacturer who is under- sold, but it is a decided convenience to the iVmerican manufacturer, who, by selling off his surplus produce in a foreign market, keeps up the prices in his home market. The fisheries of Canada are of twofold value; firstly, as aftbrding a most valuable article of export, second only in value to the lumber ; secondly, as breeding a biave and hardy race of seamen. The mother-countrv beini; of FISUElilKS. 85 coiirso the first, Cannda, one of her colonics, takes rank as tlie fil'tli or sixth greatest sliip-owning country in the world. This is a fact wortli noting l)y those who are always predicting tlic decay of the Britisli J'impire. As a school for seamen the fisheries of the lower St. Lawrence are invaluable, (xreat numbers of forc^-and-al't schooners of from 2') to 50 or GO tons are employed in this business, l»ut a great deal of the cod-fisliing is done in opi-n boats. These are of the Avluile-boat shajx', stem and stern alike ; the rig is generally two spritsails and a jib. Two men fish in each boat ; erich man has a pair of lines, one at each side of the boat, and when fish are plentiful in 20 fathoms water the work is very laborious. These boats live in the most tremendous seas, and their owners fear no weather. The baits used for codfish are capelin and squid, the former of which is cast up by the sea at the doors of the fisher- men's cottages in incredible quantities. The peculiar I'eatnres of a fishing village on the shore of the St. Lawrence are the stages, or phitforms, for drying cod- fish. They look like huge ladders lying side by side in a horizontal position, some three feet from the ground. These ])latl'orms are covered with layers of spruce boughs, on top of which the fish, wdien split and salted, are spread to dry in the sun. In the front of each cottage, where one expects to see a garden, there is, instead, one of these stages redolent of codfish. The average annual take of a boat such as I have described is about 10,000 codfish. It might naturally be supposed that these fishermen are well off. This, however, is not the case. The great Jersey merchants who monopolize the fisheries have made ? ' ■ ; ^ :. il J i r ^^mmmm* ■IPH«i wtm^mmmm ■I ' '^1 L !, I !! iJ' 'Ji'.i :|i. s:; 86 QUEBEC. immenHO fortunes out of the codlisli, l)ut their fisljerinfii are poor and (lopcjuk'iit. The hitter are <;en<'rally in debt to the f(»rmer for their lioats, their lisliiiif^ tacUk% their clotiies, their [)r()visioiis, and often even for their lioiises and potato ason when moose are chieilv slanj^htered, and it is found to be inijtDssihle to enforce the; law I'nr their jirotection over siieli an immense and thinly po])ulated district as the forests of Lower Canada. (wuihoo arc fonnd all over J.ower Caiuula on both banks of the 8t. Lawrence: sometimes these Wandering deer are found in the <^reenwooils, sometimes on the barrens and on the bare mountains. The best hunting grounds are below (Quebec on both baidvs ol' the river. Li i)art8 of the peninsula of Gaspe they are very i)lentii'ul and quite undisturbed by the hunter. In the Shickshock mountains and in the barrens at tlui heads of the rivers very good bags can be made. In the deep snow in spring cariboo often come quite eh)se to the settltMuent. I have never seen the Virginian deer in Lower Canada, but I am told there are a lew on the borders of the New England States and probably also on the Ottawa. There is excellent wild-fowl shooting in spring and autumn in many places along the St. Lawrence, both above and below Quebec, (jleese are shot chiefly in the spring. The most recent enactment as regards wild-fowl shooting is as follows: — "No person shall fire at, hunt, take, kill, or destroy any wild swan, wild goose, or any kind of wild duck, sea duck, widgeon, or teal, between the first day of May and the first day of September of any year spoiir. 80 in tlmt part of tlio provinfo west of Tliroo llivors; nor l)('t\V(Mii till' 15th of JMiiy niid tlio 1st September in any year to the eiist of Three llivers, ex('(»pt in that ])art of tlio |)roviin'(> to the east of tlie Ihaiidy J*ots, in wliicli part of tlio province the iiiliMhitants may kilJ wild fowl at any tiinn of tlio year for food, but for no other purpose." From the 1st of Sej)tendicr till tlie eojumencement of December, and apain from the 1st of April to the middle of June, the lower St. liawrenee swarms with wild fowl of inanv dift'erent varieties. ]\Iost of them bn-ed in Ijower Caiiac ' ; u few, such as the brant jjooso {Bernida Brenta), the old squaw {llan-lda Glacialis), and a few others, go further north to hatch. There are two sorts of grouse in Lower Canada, the T. UiiiheUiis and T. Canadensis. The Xewloundland grouse (21 Bupedris) occasionally migrate to the adjacent mainland, and I believe specimens have been shot not far from (Quebec. There is fair snipe shoot- ing on some of the islands in the St. Lawrence (whore they breed) in the months of September and October. This is also the cock-shooting season, but cock are more plentiful in Canada West on the one side, and in the maritime l)rovinces on the other, than in Quebec. The trapper flourishes in the less frequented parts of the province. Some of the French habitants are good fur- hunters, but the best are the INFontaignais and Squawpe Indians of the north shore, who spend half the year in the fur countries. Beaver are still pretty numerous on the heads of most Lower Canadian rivers, so are otter and mink. Of land fur bears and loup-cerviers are the most plentiful. Marten and foxes are getting scarce. The best ground for llllil Irl 1 b ' ! r (.mm ;i"« K'i 90 QUEBEC. bears and foxes is in Anticosti and the adjacent mainland. Jjotli these animals come to the seashore for fish at cer- tain seasons. There is a law for the protection of the fur- bearing animals in summer (except the boar, the wolf, and the loup-cervier), and it is forbidden at any time of the year to kill them with ])oison or s[)ring guns. .1 "ll NEW BRUNSWICK. i»l CHArTER IV. NKW BRUNSWICK. New Brunswick is not ca farming country ; such at least is the character it bears, and cousecpiently there is little or 110 ('migration to the province. The vast army of emiirnuits that vear alter vear crosses the xVtlantic, leaving the British colonies on one side, pushes o:; farther west, and distributes itself among the great cities and the fertih^ prairies of the United States. Without pretending to the gift of prophecy, I may fairly predict that at a future period something will occur to divert this stream of eniiiiration elsewhere ; and, looking forward to this contingency, it might not be amiss to glance at this wilderness, and see why ** New Brunswick is not a farming country." Is it impossible to clear the land? When cleared, does it not yield good crops ? Is the climate too vsevere ? Are the markets too remote ? With an area of about 20,000,000 acres, New Brunswick has a po])ulation of about 250,000, or, deducting the population of the city of St. John, one to every hundred acres. If the province were equally partitioned out amongst the adult males, each one might have a farm of fi\e hundred acres. But every man in a country Ciinnot be a farmer — some must be shoemakers, tailors, &c. ; even doctors and lawyers are necessary evils. With this scanty population it does not seem so strange \ , ;? i ! i,:.1 !' ^ l^^lij W. rr- (1 h \ f r;' i '., i r • .1 I i\ ,. I 92 .V^ n^ BR UNS WICK. that nine-tenths of tlie province is still forest; nor is it tn be wondered at that a easiial visitor, seeinj^ tliis iirimeval forost, slionld carry away with him the impression that ." New ]>riins\vick is not a farminjx countrv." But this population, small as it is, does not live hy agriculture. Like the Americans, they look upon farming as too slow a means of makinij^ money, and prefer occu- pations which, toii^cther with greater risks, combine quicker returns. Both these desiderata liave hitherto hef'n supplied by the lumbering and shipbuilding trades; but, now iron ships are taking the \Aace of wooden ones, the lumber trade is depreciated, and farming, if farming can be made to pay, must be entered upon largely. The best way to judge what can be done is to look at what has been already accomplished by the comparatively few individuals who have devoted themselves entirely to the cultivation of the soil. These men, so far from being worse off than their neighbours, are in/ariably more prosperous and well-to-do ; they cannot, it is true, amass fortunes, but they can live well and comfortably, and give their children a fair start in life. In travelling through the jjrovince, if one sees a more than ordinarily comfortable and prosperous looking homestead, one may be quite sure that it bidongs to a man who has stuck to farming. This fact tends to upset the notion that New Brunswick is not a farming country ; and looking more closely into the matter, comparing the crops grown hero with those of other countries, and weighing well the drawbacks of climate and the difficulty of clearing the land, I am led to the conclusion that at a future period FARMING, 93 New Brunswick, stripped of its forests, will maiutain by iigricultnre a population pro[ortionate to its area. \\\\\\ the rich prairie lands and the seini-tro})ical climate of the south-we.^t it would be folly to attempt" 11 comparison. These regions would be the El Dorado ot the farmer were it not for certain drawbacks in the shape of scarcity of labour, heavy taxation, fever and ague, &c. In British America the difliculty of procuring farm labourers is also felt ; but, on the other hanti, taxation falls lightly oil the farmer — in no part of the world can ho enjoy greater security of life and pr()[)erty, or a healthier and more invigorating climate. I'hese advantages, combined with gri'at and growing facilities for marketing his produce, go far to compensate for the hard labour of clearing the land and for the shortness of the farming season. rv The land may be divided into three lots — viz. upland, intervale, and swamp. The latter, so far from being low- lying, is often the highest land in the province — either cariboo barrens clothed with lichens and stunted bushes, or else densely wooded with spruce, fir, and cedar; for farming purposes it is almost useless. The best farms contain a certain portion both of upland and intervale. Stock has to be housed and fed for nearly six months ; but nature, us a set-off against the length of winter, gives most bountiful crops of grass. The intervale lands along the rivers and lakes are periodically flooded by the freshet, top-dressed by the sediment that remains after the waters have receded, and year after year, without cultivation, yield an abundance of hay. Nothing strikes the stranger more forcibly than the rapidity of the vegetation : hardly ■■:r: ' ' i3 ! = 1 .ill 'il 'I ; i.b I i ^'„ i I ■r^ 94 NEW BRUNSWICK. m has tho snow vanished, when the trees burst into foliage as if by mngic ; and the grass — I was going to say one might see it grow — but this I can say, that I have seen a first-rate crop of hay cut off a fiehl that seven weeks before was as bare and bi-own as a worn-out carpet. Excellent crops of wheat aie grown in parts of the province, chiefly on the bay of Chaleur; with a better system of farniinn: I believe it could be universally cultivated with success. Barley is not grown, chiefly I'or want of a mar]rnias, a very large but coarse variety, take the place of turnips for stock feeding. All the vegetables grown in English gardens do as well or better here. Cucumbers, pumpkins, and tomatoes rij^en in the open air, and so does Indian corn, which, however, is only grown as a garden crop. IMelons and grapes require a little forcing. The market for farm produce is very good, and can \.m \ MARKETS. CLIMATE, 95 never be overstocked, fur the large cities of tlie Northern States will always be ghid to get any overplus that New Brunswick may have to (lisj)ose of. The facilities for sciuhtig goods to market are, as I said before, unsurpassed. Besides roads, wliich are numerous and tolerably good, the whole province of New Brunswick is intei'seeted by rivers and lakes; many are navigable in smnnier, and all form capital roads in winter when bridged over by the frost. Railways too are springing up in all directions, and the feelings of the moose and the carii)oo are rudely shocked by the scream of the locomotive. There are now over 700 miles of railway in New Brunswick, or a mile of lailway to every 350 of the population. Tlie coast-line of the province is of great extent — about 400 miles — with innumerable good harbours. The inland navigation is considerable ; steamers run 200 miles up the St. John in high water, 80 miles at all times. As regards the climate, the principal drawback — and it is a serious one — is that the total work which the English I'armer spreads over twelve months, must in New Brunswick all be compressed into six or seven months. It is said, and I believe with truth, that an acre of land here will yield as good, or better crops, than an acre of equally good land in Eno-land. In estimating: the advantages and disadvantages of climate, there are several things that must be set aijainst the len;rth and severitv of the wintei's — amongst others, the pulverization of the land by frost, which saves labour ; the small number of days in the season in which the farmer is impeded in his operations by rainfall, and consequently the ease and rapidity with which he secures his crops ; great heat of '\r\ I 11 \ 1 I , ^. 9(3 NE W Bll UNS WICK. Sim in summer, and raiiid vefi;etation. Even the long winter itself is not wholly without its advantages ; it affords the fanner great facilities for hauling firewood, manure, fence lails, &(i., on sleds, and the long housing of his stock enables him to accumulate a larger ])ile of manure. Although extensive lumbering operations are incom[iatible with funning, there is no reason why farmers should nut in winter cut and haul materials for building purposes, fences, &c. ; on the contrary, no farm sliould be without a certain qnuntity of forest at its back, which may little and little be cleared, and in the meantime furnishes necessary lumber and fuel in winter, and a run for young cattle in summer. New Brunswick is a good j)rovinco for emigrants of the working classes. If wages are not nominally so high as in the States, they are actually higher, because living is one-third less. A hard-uDrking man, accustomed to farm labour, can earn from ten to fifteen dollars a month all the year round, with his keep, and in two or three years save enough to commence farming on his own account. It is not one of those countries (are there any such?) where a man can invest a small capital in land and in a few years make a fortune; but it is a country in which a man with a certain small income, can live much more comfortaldv than he can in Eniiland, have some shooting and iishiug, and do everything that he sees his neighbours doing, which I believe to be half the battle. It is a mistake here, as elsewhere, for a man with little or no idea of farming, tn rush out and invest all his capital in land. He should rather take plenty of time to look about him, and in the meantime can always get from 6 to 8 per WILDERNESS LAND. ST. JOHN. 97 cent, for liis money. Good cleared farm?, with houses aud buildings, can be bought, stocked, and furnished lor about lUOO/. A good method for a gentleman to pur- sue, is to get a countryman to farm lor him on shares. This man, under the owner's eye, and guided by his orders in all matters of importance, cultivates and crops the land, and pays the labour bill of the farm, receiving fur his share one-half of the crops, or an equivalent. Wilderness lands can be bought for about three shillings an acre. In choosing them, the settler is guided by the timber. Wiiere black birch, majtle, and beech grow is always the best land. The trees are first chopped down and then burnt. The stumps, as I have said before, do not come out for seven years, but in the meantime a crop of oats, and another of potatoes, is taken off the land without manure, and it is then laid down in grass for the remainder of the time. Fuel is inexhaustible, both wood and coal ; the latter crops up to the surface in some parts of the province, and is sold in the city of St. John for about 1?. per chaldron. St. John, next to Quebec, is the greatest lumber port in America. There is a good deal of friendly rivalry between this city and Halifax. The latter, besides being a large naval and military station, is also the nearest port to Europe, and has its line of ocean steamei'S. The harbour of Halifax is one of the finest, if not the finest in the world, but in exceptionably severe winters it is liable to be frozen over. Although navigation is never impeded for more than a week or two at a time, and that only at intervals of two or three years, yet it enables the St. John people to draw a comparison between the two harbours in H h''1 ,\''^ W: ^1' . S'- ^.^i''^!vi 98 NEW BRUNSWICK. W 4 fiivonr ofthoir own, which has never been known to»frceze over. 'y\\(i hiirbour of St. John is the mouth of the river of that Diinie, and tlie rapid current of the latter to- |j:ether witli tlie higli tides of the liay of Fnndy, wliich rise from 40 to GO feet, are an effectual remedy against ice. The river St. Jolni, wliidi formerly drained only tlie ])rovince of New Brunswick, is next to the St. Lawrence the finest river in Canada. By the Ashburton Treaty, an immense tract of land, including in its area several fine tributary streams of the St. John, was handed over to the United States. It thus happens that American lumber has to be rafted down the St. John river, and shipped from St. John harbour. This arrangement has been a continual source of trouble in the regulation of the tariff, and might at anytime be a cause of ill-feeling or quarrel between the two countries. From the Grand Falls of the St. John to the Bav of Fundv, a distance of 220 miles, the river flows through a level fertile country ; it averages from a mile to half a mile in width, and is dotted with rich alluvial islands, and its banks well settled. AVhen the river is high, steamers run up to the falls. They run to Fredericton every day during the summer. Fredericton is to New Brunswick what Ottawa is to the Dominion. It is commercially overshadowed by St. John as Ottawa is by IMoiitreal. The New Brunswick Legislature meets at Fredericton, which is also the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of the province. Fredericton is a charming town, beautifully situated on the banks of the St. John ; it has a splendid library a beautiful little cathedral, a real English bishop, and a FliEDEniCTON. 99 sooiiiblo little socioty. Besides tlio ordinary ways in which pleasant people are able all over the world to amuse and be amused, in their leisure liours the inhabi- tants of Fredericton have the most ample opportunities tor delightful rides, drives, canoeinj^ parties, skatinf; parties, slei/^hing parties, trabogening, &c., &c. It is also a very good central position for the sportsman. There are two or three new settlements on the upper St. John river, one of Danes at a place called New Hellei'up, a short way below Grand Falls, another of Scotchmen at Glassville. This is a fertile tract of country, and although the winters are long and severe, good crops can be grown. This district was formerly (when the navigation of St. John river was closed) very inaccessible. It is now c lunected with both the United States and the chief cities of the Dominion by the recently constructed railways. In old times the Indian when he travelled "porta;7ed" his canoe from the St. Lawrence to the head waters of the St. John, a distance of only a few miles. At the present day a canoe voyage down the St. John is one of the pleasantest imaginable. For a distance of nearly 400 miles there are only two " portages," and, unlike most Canadian rivers, the St. John is quite free from rocks or dangerous rapids. The scenery is beautiful ; forest-clad hills in the background, pretty settlements sloping down to the banks of the river, and charming islands in endless numbers and of many sizes and shapes. On these the voyageur finds famous camping grounds and abundance of firewood. Every here and there rivers and pretty streams discharge their waters into the parent stream, sometimes tumbling over picturesque falls. The St. John only requires to be i m ^] ■V} n nm •I I , ' i Ifi I I 100 NEW BRUNSWICK. better known to the tourist world in order to enjoy as widp a reputation as the far-i'amed Hudson. Tlie soil of New Brunswick is fertile and produces ns good crops of certain kinds as any part of the Dominion. A great deal more than onohalf of tlio total area of the province is ungranted. Free grants of 200 acres are given in certain parts of the province to heads of families, and any adult male can obtain a grant of 100 acres. But even where free grants are not given, wild land is obtainable for next to nothing, viz. hondjide settlers can get 100 acres in return for three years' statute labour on the roads, say one week's labour in each year. Improved farms can be bought for very little in most parts of New Brunswick. This is the case in all lumber countries, where the first settlers are in the habit of moving back after the forest. From 200Z. to 500?. will buy a farm of 100 acres, 20 or 30 acres being arable, with buildings sufficient for the immigrant to commence with. The terms of payment are very easy. There is not a great demand for immigrants of the working classes in New Brunswick ; the main business of the province is lumbering, an industry that requires skilled labour ; a limited number of farm hands and domestic servants can, however, get good wages. A good man able to turn his hand to any sort of farm work gets from 3Z. to 3/. 10s. a month and his keep, women servants from 1?. to 21. Carpenters can always get work at from Gs. to 8s. a day. Wages, like almost everything else, depend very much upon the condition of the lumber market. There are numbers of alluvial islands on the St. John, and marshes along its banks, which are flooded over in NA TURA L MEA D WS. 101 the sprinir-timo. Tlu-so are the most valuablo lands in tlio jiroviiici', as tliey give a heavy crop of hay every year with no hibonr but the cutting and saving. Tlio New Ihiinswiciv limner who owns a farm on the bank of the (St. John, and an island or a ])ortion of an island, is a hicky man. He can keep a large stock, for wliidi he has always a good market, as the price of meat in the mari- tinio provinces is very high. A good farm on tlie St. John, w itii luiMiiigs, and inchiding a portion of island or marsh, can be bought for about 1500?. A man witli a capital of 2000/. and money enough besides to keep him going for one year can make a very good living on a farm such as this. On the New Brunswick side of tlie Bay of Chaleur there is also good laud, as there is also in Sussex vale and along thej\liramichi river. Tlie New Brunswickers are famed for their achievements on the water as canoe-men and boatmen. In boat-racing St. John has taken the lead in America, beating all coiners both from the United States and Canada, and holding her own against any English crews she has com- peted with. It is to a certain extent the water that makes the waterman. In the harbour of St. John — the mouth of the river of that name — the tide rises to a height of 40 feet, and the boatmen have alwavs a tremendous current to contend against. The man who can row here can row anywhere. But independently of this, the fact of a small city in Canada turning out a crew of four men who are able to beat any crew in the United States, and to hold their own against any crew in the world, goes far to prove that the Anglo-Saxon settler in Canada i)ossesses an unimpaired vitality. m V i ■■' s vi a :: iir |Jr 1 Jiii'Ti hi MV i: ; I m I !i ■: "I i 102 .vAir njii'yswTf'h'. Tlioro is very good angling in Now l*rims\vick. I liiivo miide mention of tlio salmon rivt'i'.s olscwhoro. All tlio rivers tlmt inn into tlio Gnlf of St. Luwrcnco and tlio many linndrods of lakes which dot over the province aro t'nll of tront. There is, I believe, one sjiecies of trout peculiar to Now Jirunswiek and tho eonti;jjuoiis State of i\raino. I allude to tho *'lake shiner" {S. Gloverii), a very beautiful and sportin;^ fish, as liUo as possible in size, shape, and colour to a grilse, and also in its mode of taking tho fly and juni{)ing out of water when hooked. There is a chain of larg(! lakes on the St. Croix river, in which sliiners are very plentiful. They are also eanglit in the Schoodie lakes, in Skiilf lake near the St. .John iiver> and in several other lakes in that locality. They rise very freely towards tho latter end of j\ray and bcfynning of Juno at any sea trout or grilse fly, and tho season being so early does not interfere with salmon fishing. On Grand Lake in the beginning of Juno there is often a little canvas town inhabited by anglers. It is a very accessible place for Americans, and consequently tho shiner fishing is in danger of being overdone. A very fine fish that runs np some of the largest of the New Brunswick rivers, such as the St. John and the Miramiclii, is the striped bass {lioccus Lineatus). Bass run up the St. John r;ither earlieV than salmon, viz. about the beginning of June. They take a bait freely, and I have heard instances of their having risen at the fly. Bass spearing in the St. John is capital sport. At the extreme head of the tide on that river, a few miles above Fredericton, on the fine June evenings dozens of bark canoes may be seen darting about the broad surface of the river. They JiASS Sl'EAIilNa. 103 arf piirsuiiif? liitlicr imd thither shoals of bass which every now Mild tlieii rise to tlio surface of tlio water, i)lun^'o uiul roll fi>r a few sccoiids, iiiul then i)oars, but the wooden shaft soon causes it to rise to the surface a;,'ain, when iish and all are secured by the owner, t^triped bass average 8 or 10 lbs. in weight, but I have frequently speared fish that weighed 20 and 30 lbs. They are fairly good fish on the table. I do not think the reason is (piite understood why the striped bass perform these antics at this particular time and place, and at this time and this place ouly. It has something to do, however, with the propagation of their species. I have more than once observed that when a shoal comes to the surface there is a slight milky discoloration of the water, which can only bo accounted for by the supposition that the male fish void their milt on these occasions. The llsheries are so marvellously rich in Canada, and fish of the choicer qualities are so abundant, that tl.e coarser varieties are passed by. The fresh-water fisheries, except salmon and shad, are almost entirely neglected. The striped bass are only killed for sport. Sturgeon, which are very abundant in the St. John river, are not caught at all. I do not know whether caviare can be made from the roe of this fish, but certainly isinglass could. The Canadian sturgeon {Acipemer Oxijrhynchus) is a fish of from 6 feet to 12 feet in length. It ascends the rivers in June, and may be seen at this season on fine evenings throwing itself out of the water. I believe it li »f 1 i : fiE' i Irft" 104 xj:w nnuxswiCK. does tlii-! to free itself from some salt-water parasite, because after its first arrival it never jumps. Later on, when the rivers get clear and shallow, sturgeon may be seen lying at the bottom like logp of wood. Ppearing sturgeon by torchlight is great spoi-t. A well-tempered speaihead and a strong stroke are rec^uired to pierce the armour-plated back of the monster. A float or bladddT is attached by a string to the spear handle, because when a large fish is struck the spear has to be let go, otherwise the canoe would bo upset. There are immense numbers of eels in some of the New Brunswick rivers, but these very excellent fish are treated with contempt by the people of the country, who have a strange prejudice against them, founded, as far as I can discover, on their fancied resemblance to the snake. There are at least two, probably three, varieties of the eel. The lamprey eel is a coarse fish, wliich almost justifies the prejudice which exists, but the common eel is an excellent fish, and when canght in season is fully equal to our best English eels. The eel ascends the rivers in June and July, descending again in the month of October. In winter they remain in the mud at the mouths of the rivers or in the bays or estuaries into which the rivers flow. At this season they are in splendid condition, and are speared by the Indians through holes made for the pur- pose in the ice. The Indians say that in their ascent of the rivers they " poitage " round the fjilK They certainly can go, like the late President Lincoln's gunboats, wherever the ground is the least damp. I have seen them, old and young together, wriggling themselves in vast quantities over a large flat rock, which was not covered with water, EELS. SHOOTING. 105 but simply wet with tlie wash and spray of an adjoining rapid, which, I presume, the eels considered too strong fur them. At the outlet of the Grand Lake near the St. John river in the month of October I have seen the eels so plentiful that two men bobbing nearly filled a canoe with them in a couple of hours. Some day or other, when fish shall have become scarcer than they are at present, people will begin to find out the value of the eel. There is good shooting to be had in New Brunswick by a man who knows where to go for it and when to go for it. Among the ]\Iilicete Indians who live on the St. John river there are some good guides — none better than old " Gabe." Moose were very plentiful in ISew Brunswick some fifteen years ago, but have been shamefully slaughtered for the sake of their hides. There are still some of these fine animals left on the New Brunswick side of the St. John river, and in that district of country drained by the Nepisiguit. Cariboo are plentiful enough all through the centre of the province, from the Bay of Chaleur down to the Grand Lake. This is a district generally of spruce woods interspersed with barrens, old burnt woods, and patch * of hard woods near the banks of rivers. Theve ai*> ah.o a few beavers in this district. Deer are foun^ ..'. the country bordering on tht Bay of Fundy between tiie fit. John river and the St^te "<" Maine. Bears are plentif d, but rarely met with by the sportsman. The fur-bearing animals, except otters, musquash, and loup-cervier, are scarce. In some of the settled distiicts there ii fair snipe and cock f;i.ooting. The latter part of l?ept( mbe: tnd October 13 the season for these birds. Hoie, i^^f.t^-. a man who 4 .r^ v. m 106 NEW BRUNSWICK. \\\ I knows the covers and the particular spots on the marshes freque^ited by tlio long-bills will have good sport, while the man who does not know the ground will probably come home with an empty bag. The knowledge cannot be picked up second-hand, as there are very few mf^n in the province wlio shoot snipe and cock. Partridge shooting is a more common occupation. There is not much similitude between the sport as prac- tised in New Brunswick and in England. On the 1st of September, when the English sportsman is in the tu^'uips and stubble, the New Brunswick " pattridge '•••in«r'' may be seen leisurely driving in his waggon a, i.;' an unfrequented wood road, 'vliile his little dog roams the woods around. Here a steady set, a ntat right-and-left shot, and the first birds of the seasori are brought to bag ; there an exceeditig yelping warns our gnnAar that partridge have been "treed," and, leaving his well-trained nag to stand on the road, he snatches up his gun and runs through the woods to the spot where his noisy cur is located. By dint of some peering about, he discovers his game seated on a branch and clucking like a hen ; boldly he advances, and when withirt ten or fifteen yards distance takes steady aim and knocks its head off, then fights witli his faithful hound for the mutilated remain. In England the " partridge " is a partridge, in Canada it IS a grouse. There are two sorts of so-called partridge in Canada, and of these the " birch" (Tetrao Umhellus) is tlie better bird for the pot, and the more numerous. For these reasons it is known as the " pattridge " in contradistinc- tion to the "spruce partridge" (T. Canadensh). ~' If i: :.). ■ ! .*llj % St.; BIRCH PARTRIDGE. 107 birch partridge is rather larger than the Scotch grouse, it is capital eating, not unlike an English pheasant, and though it is the game most sought after by gunners, it does not, except in the immediate vicinity of the towns, seem to decrease in numbers as fast as one might suppose. This is owing to the fact tliat there is still a thick belt of woods for these birds to fall back on and to breed in, and the fur- bearing animals which prey upon them are being rapidly thinned off. They are, moreover, very prolific. The hen brings out twelve or fifteen of a brood in June ; she is a capital mother, and will face a dog in defence of her family. On coming suddenly on a brood in the woods, the old lien will advance defiantly to within a yard or two of the intruder's feet, and occupy his attention till the young ones have hidden themselves away. I have never been able to catch a chicken. They fly in a very few days after they leave tlie shell, and this is lucky for them, as they have many enemies on the ground ; the fox, the loup-cervier, the sable, the black cat, and the weasel are all great partridge hunters, but none of these animals t Mi catch them on tlie trees. The birch partridge has been cJb'd a stupid bird, because when disturbed by the •rimner or his dogs, it takes refuge on the nearest branch, oheii it considers itself perfectly secure, and peers curiously at the strange animals underneath ; but this seems to me no sign of stupidity. How is tlie poor bird CO know that the strange animal, whom it has never seen before, carries in his hand a weapon which can reach the top of the liighest trt " By similar tactics it has no doubt often before baffled its other enemies, all except tho hawk ; aou when the latter appears, the partridge knows well ■ilH 1 1 Ifia II. m . I |l^ f! * 108 NEW BRUNSWICK. '"■i\ enough that its perch is no place of security, and takes rapid and prolonged fliglits to avoid its sharp talons. In the late summer and early autumn partridge frequent tlie low-lying thickets and alder swamps, the females remaining with their broods, while the old cocks live apart in solitude. Later on, as the ground becomes wet and the broods get thinned by the " gunners," they J'^'ve the swamps and are found scattered about among th hwH. woods, where they feed on beech nuts and berries> parudu aly the tea berry. In dull weather, in the late fall and uaiiy spring, a low regular noise is often heard by the hunter, as if a drum was being beaten by a practised hand far off in the bush. This is the cock partridge "drumming." It is a rare thing to see him thus cm- ployed, for at the least alarm he ceases ; and, moreover, the sound is very deceptive, and seems to come from a much greater distance than it really does. Nevertheless, 1 have managed to stalk a cock drumming, and have had the satisfaction of watching his curious manoeiivres. First of all he looks round to see that the coast is clear, and then, puffing out his ruff and cocking his tail, he seems to swell to twice his natural size with importance as he beats tattoo with his wings and sidles along the log which he has chosen for his stage, his audience consisting, as he believes, only of the hen, who is no doubt deeply im- pressed by her lord and master's pantomime. As winter commences, the birds may be seen, either singly or in pairs, along the edges of brooks and springap where they resort for gravel. Later on, when the snow gets deep, they are rarely seen, as they spend most of their time either on the trees or under the snow. At this season PAUTRIDGE SHOOTING, 109 tlieir food consists mainly of browse, the tender buds oF the black birch, from which tree they take their name. Tlie most comfortable, I may say the most aristocratic way to shoot partridge, is to drive slowly along a wood road ; but this luxurious spoit is not within reach of everyone, and a few words about the regular "pattridge gunner " of the country may not be amiss. There is one in every back settlement, sometimes in every house — a tall, powerful, long-haired young fellow, in a red shirt, and homespun continuations tucked inside his boots. His accoutrement consists of a long single barrel, a cow- lioru full of powder, and a bag of shot. He is also the proud owner of a "pattridge dog," which ranges the woods in an independent way, scorning either call or whistle, now close to its master's heels, now a mile off in the bush. But this matters not, for the beast knows his business : mutely he hunts every likely - looking spot, treating hares, squirrels, &c., with contempt; perseveringly he puzzles over cold scent, till at length it grows hot, and he runs right into the middle of a covey. With a great whirr and rustling, they " tree " all round him. Now is the time that calls forth the good qualities of the " pat- tridge dog." Finding birds is nothing, any dog with a nose can do that ; but the thing is to show them to his master, who is jierhaps half a mile off. Does he point or set? No! he sits down calmly on liis tail, and fixing his eye on the " treed " birds, he commences to bark and yell and howl with ail his might, and never ceases nor stirs from the spot until his master comes up. Be it long or short, five minutes or five hours, there he remains, making all I i r I I ,1 rawfT" 110 NEW B SUNS WICK, Id the noise he can. When our sportsman arrives lie takes careful and deadly aim at the nearest bird, and seldom fails to lay it low (for is he not the best sliot, or, as tliey quaintly say, the "boss gunner," of the settlement?). Rushing in, he secures his game, if possible, before his faithful cur gets his tooth into it. It might reasonably be supposed that the remainder of the covey would take warning by the sad fate of their comrade and disappear ; but this is not the case, for, charmed by the yelping of the dog, they remain chained to their perches till the single barrel has been again and again loaded and fired mth deadly effect. It must not be supposed that anyone can go into the voodb and kill as many pai-tridges as he likes. A good dog is absolutely essential, and a thoroughly good partridge dog is as hard to get as a thoroughly good dog for any sort of shooting. I doubt if the partridge dog does not show more sagacity than the iiointer, the setter, or the retriever. Although the shooting part of the business is easy enough, the walking is tough, and it requires sharp eyesight and some practice to see the birds when they " tree." They are exactly the colour of the branches, and sit so close that it is sometimes impossible to make them out. Sometimes, when beating the low alder covers for cock, the dogs put up a brace of partridge. As they have no trees to light on, they must fly, and on these occasions it takes a good shot to stop them. The spruce partridge, as its name implies, frequents the spruce woods. It is a handsomer bird than the other, but inferior eating. These also "'tree," and feel so secure on their perch that they suffer themselves to be noosed with a piece of string at the end of a stick. I SPliVCE rAElTdDGE. WILD FOWL 111 think this species may fairly be called stupid, for, when pelted with stones, the spruce partridg(3 will rarely stir !^ill it is either struck or shaken off the branch. I was once out with an old Indian and his son, and finding a covey of these birds in a place where stones were scarce, we set the old man to cut boomerangs with his axe. This he did almost as fast as the young fellow and I could throw them, and the partridge remained stolid'y on their perches till two of their number had been brought duwn by these primitive weapons. Their favourite haunts are in swampy land, and along the banks of lakes and rivers. At certain periods of the year their food consists entirely of the buds and leaves of the spruce and fir. The flesh then both tastes and smells strongly of these trees, and is not good to eat ; but in the fall of the year the flavour is better. There is very good wild-fowl shooting in New Brunswick. It is a sort of half-way house where a moiety of the vast myriads of wild fowl that hatch their young every summer in the extreme north of the continent stop for a month or two in spring and autumn on their way to and from more southern latitudes. Few breed in the province, and none winter in it, for obvious reasons, save a few of the hardier of the Ftdigulinx, who weather out the cold in open bays and in the mouths of rivers which are not frozen over. The wild-fowl shooter in most countries has to expose him- self to a great deal of hardship, and New Brunswick is no exception to this rule. Fine weather, dry feet, and good shooting seldom iro together. A bark canoe is an essential for the New Brunswick duck shooter. A network of rivers, lakes, streams, and creeks covers the whole province, which can be traversed from one end to another in a canoe. ' ^ t?. , ■ ^f n v^ -i i I 112 NEW BliUNSWICK. There is f^ood duck sliooting on tlie swamps, marshes, and islands of the St. Jolin river, and on its tributary, Salmon river, and all along the north shore of the province a man cannot go wrong for wild fowl. The wild goose (-4. Canadensis), so well known over all this continent, makes its first appearance on the north shore of New Brunswick in the first fortnight in Septem- ber, and from this time to the Ist of November fresh flocks are continually coming in. They then commence to leave, and whenever the wind blows from the north and east large flocks take advantage of the fair wind, and may be observed flying south and west. In an early winter they are all gone by the 1st of December, but I have seen them passing over as late as the 15th. Thus people learn from their flight whether the winter will set in late or early. Winter never catches them napping ; instinct enables them to anticipate Jack Frost's arrival. For some days before their departure they assemble in great flocks on sandy islands and spits, where, according to the natives, they take in sand as ballast. They are expected back about the 1st of April. In Prince Edward Island they are said always to make their first appearance on Patrick's Day (17th March). A welcome sight to everybody is the first flock of geese, for it is also the first sign of spring. Not a bright look-out for the geese though ; for, save in a few bays and inlets where the tide runs strong, there is nothing to be seen by the first comers but snow and ice. They remain during the daytime seated on the ice in long rows, with their heads tucked in, looking like so many sticks or stones. At night they rise and fly to the open water, tideways, &c., where they pick up some little food ; I WILD GEESE. 113 but, as niiglit be expected, they fall off rapidly in condition at this time of year. They remain on the New Brunswick water, till the middle of l^lay, when they fly to their nesting grounds across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I am told that thousands of geese hatch in tliat boundless wilderness, full of lakes and swamps, to the northward and westward of the Labrador coast. A great number breed in the island of xVnticosti, but none remain in New Drunswick during the summer. They make their nest a1)()ut the middle or end of May. It is a small, hastily ('onstructed affair, made of dry grass and their own feathers. They generally select a dry " tummock," or little islet, in a lagoon or swamp. Their great enemy at this season is the fox, and the fox, like the cat, does not care to wet his feet. Although at other times a shy and wary bird, the goose at this period is quite the reverse, and will do battle w itli a fox or other enemy in defence of its young with great gallantry. They allow a man to approach within shot, and if fired at and missed will merely fly a few yards and alight again. On one occasion, in Anticosti, I shot a gander, and sent my dog (a poaching terrier) into the swamp to fetch it. The dog, while looking for the gander, stumbled upon the old goose in her nest, and endeavoured to fetch her to his master, but he soon found he had caught a Tartar. She hissed and struck at him most viciously, and, taking him at a disadvantage as he struggled through the swamp, the poor dog got a good thrashing, and was compelled to fall back on the dying- gander, which, terrier like, he worried unmercifully. Shooting geese in the spring is always a cold, and not always a very safe, amusement. The gunner, on the :M :| I "t .' 'i ' siS< lUl i' 'ii \ ' - ! Ill NEW BRUNSWICK, very first appearance of goeso, selects a field of ico wliicli he thinks is well anchored to the shore and not likoly soon to move, bnt yet as near the open water as possible. lie then chops eight or ten sqnare blocks of ico with which he constructs his hide. A load of brown sea- weed has next to bo hauled from the nearest beach, and, when wet, is made up into little bundles about the size and shape of the body of a goose. This seaweed is exactly the colour of a goose's back, and a little block of ice in front of each bundle makes th white breast. Sixty or seventy of these decoys are arranged artistically on the ice within about thirty yards of the hide. To a dozen or so of them he adds necks and heads roughly cut out of wood and then charred blaclc, the white markings of the goose's neck being whittled out with a knife. These decoys freeze to the ice during the night, and never blow down or give any further trouble. If the site be judiciously chosen these arrangements will last for ten days, or even longer; and the gunner, whose camp is in the immediate vicinity, by watching the turn of the tide, can always be at his post when geese are on the move. He should have a liglit flat-bottomed punt, sharp at both ends, and decked in; this is painted pure white, and finished oft' with a coating of oil, which gives it an ice-like gloss. Two parallel runners shod with steel are fixed to the bottom of this craft, which serves either as a hand sled or a boat, and should always be within reach of the gunner, in case of ice running, or wounded birds taking to the water. 1 usually propel this craft with a single paddle in preference to sculls, and carry a little boathook to cling on to the ice. Over his usual clothes the sportsman wears a blouse and OOOSE SHOOTING. 115 cap-cover iniule of white linen, and some even paint their (runs white. Jli.sarraiigenionts being completed, our sportsman S(|uats iu his hide on a bundle of hay or dry seaweed. When the wind is southerly he is kept all his time on the qui vive. The geeso give him fair warning of their apjiroach, yelling most vociferously, and to them he must resi)ond " Aw-auk, aw-auk, auk-auk," yelling with all his might; indeed, his success in a great measure depends upon his ability to call them. J^Iy notes are rather cracked, so I have to get someone to do this part of the business for me, not a diffi- cult matter, as goose-calling is a part of the education, otten tlie sole education, of the Indian boys who live on the coast. Although my voice is inferior, as I said before, my ear is good, and I usually have a class of boys up for examination — much as one would test a number of musical instruments — and enlist the best into my service. The calling serves to attract the geese's attention to the decoys, and if they are new comerji, or have not been too much lired at, they never fail to descend to them. Goose shooting, at first sight, does not strike one as a very high branch of the art of *•' gunning " — indeed, I have heard it compared to shooting at a haystack by men who have never tried it ; but, on the contrary, I can bear witness to the fact that many men whom I have known to be good shots at partridge, cook, snipe, &c,, have en^rt^ly failed to distinguish themselves at goose shooting. There are two reasons for this: the first and principal one is, they do not know the right time to fire ; and, secondly, they do not fire far enough in front of their bird. The flight of geese is very deceptive ; they loom so large in the aii-, and f. i' ■; I: h : ■!'!!' r 'I : I 1' f : lu; NKW lillVSSWICK. move tht'ir \vin;j;H ((•(nn|ninitiv('!y) ho slowly, tlmt the li»'<:iiiut'r does not give tljcin crcclit for the great riij)iility ot'thoir flight, wiiich o(iuals, if it docs not oxceod, that ot iiny ollior wild fowl. Tho boginner, too, is up \rticii- liirly if an oxt'itablc [icrson — to fiddle with hjo gun and hob his head about when ho sees and hears the approaoli (if tho gecso ; and any movoniont, no matter how sliglit, is I'atal to his chanco of succpss. Tho sight of the decoys is the signal for the geese to give tongue, which tlufy (1(» with a will, making a deafening row, and Hying past or over the decoys at the distance of lUO yards or so. During this time the sportsman must not move, any more than the bhickof ice he represents; and the geese, having satisfied themselves that all is right, sweep round in tho jiir, and lower rapidly towards the decoys. .^ loon as they come directly o})posite to the gunner hi gs his gun, and the geese, alarmed by the movement, hurl them- selves up ten yards or so in the air with a couple of powerful strokes cf their wings. This is the moment to pull the trigger, selecting, if })Ossiblo, a broadside shot. The dead birds are made to do service as decoys, by propi>ing up their heads with forked sticks, and all stains of blood must be effaced from the ice, as, wheio all is white, a small spot of colour serves to alarm the geese. Although in very stormy or foggy weather geese come (juite close to the hide, and even have been known td alight among the decoys, yet, as a general rule, the sports- man rarely gets a chance under forty or fifty yards, con- sequently good guns and good powder are requisite to ensure success. I have done great execution with a single muzzle-loader No. 6-bore, which I used to load with seven nons/': suooti ya. 117 dniclnns of powder and jin onnco nml alitdfof slidt, iinswors the |»urj)os(^ well enun<;l», tliou fail of tint year when in fjood condition, even ashi^h as ilftccn or sixteen pounds. Tlieir bones are mucji harder, longer, and stronj^iT than those of the tamo f?oose, and tlioir featliers are much thicker, so that they require a ' J!B'i mB 1' ':■! ' m ;f r < 1( i ( •■'ifiillr' ....P-iJl., ,!. !^T' 118 NEW Bit UNS WICK. •'4 I'l i' 1 and anchored in the feeding ground of tlio geese. Tlie sportsman either liides his punt under the lee of a clumpet (miniatui-e iceberg), or else dresses it out with cakes of ice, and waits in it for the geese. At this season brant geese and ducks of different sorts are coming in also, and sonio- tinies give him plenty of emjdoyment. If the gunner possesses a " paddle boat," now is the time to make use of it, nnd very large bags of both Canadian and brant g<.'ese have been made by aid of this contrivance. The paddle boat is a light, handy, canoe-shaped punt. The paddle wheels are constructed so that the sportsman can use both arms and legs in working them, and are completely hid from view by white linen curtains. It is, of course, painted white, and the deck garnished with ice cakes. In front of the paddle boxes an 8-inch board, with a peephole in the centre and an embrasure for the gun, is adjusted athwart the punt to hide the gunner, who when stalking birds reclines on his back, and slowly propels the punt with his feet, holding the rudder strings in his hands, nothing visible from the outside but the tip of his white cap and the muzzle of his gun, the latter of which reclines in the embrasure. These craft so thoroughly resemble the lumps of floating ice with which the bays are covered, that on one or two occasions I have been stalked by a friend to within a few yards distance without having detected his approach. When near enough to the geese, the gunner drops his rudder strings and lets fly, having previously, if the birds are on the feed, given a low whistle to make them put up their heads and club together. Eight or ten geese are sometimes bagged to one shot of a shoulder gun. A punt gun I have never tried, but I am sure it would do great Q008E SnOOTINQ. 119 execution at times. No one Mho does not thoroughly undeistand the tides, \h.e ice, and the weather, should attempt this punting business ; for to be swept out to sea at this season of the year is certain death. Although wild geese are very partial to the seaboard, they cannot live without fresh water ; this they procure in the spring on the surface of the ice ; but in the fall of the vear, when there is no ice, they have to seek for it, once at least in the twenty-four hours, in the inland ponds, swamps, and lakes. In very stormy weather, when the ice is rough, and in spring tides, when their usual feeding grounds are submerged, they take refuge altogether in these more sheltered spots. Perhaps in the course of the autumn there are halt'-a-dozen days of this sort when really good shooting can be got. I have been out more than once for ten days without getting anything worth mentioning, and on the eleventh I have quite made up for lost time. Can my reader picture to himself a vast swamp, miles in extent, surrounded by forest and remote from human abode, full of little lakes, ponds, gullies, reeds, long grass, stumps of trees, bushes, and " rampikes " ? The time is evening, at the close of an October day. The north-east wind is howling dismally over this dreary waste, bringing now and then a shower of rain or sleet. In the centre of this howling wilderness may be observed the gunner of the period, squatting in the driest spot he can find, his retriever at his feet, and surrounded by geese and ducks and empty cartridges. How ho ever got to this spot appears a mystery at lirst; but look behind that bush, and you will see a log canoe or a catamaran, in which he has managed to paddle laboriously through the swamp. jralB ; 1 H^B ) H 9 I^B "II B '-n^Hl' ■ / i 1 1 i ■ II I >'i \m •• -I Jkf -lU.IWBipW*, l,ll"l 120 XEW BRUNSWICK. I i;''-a ■!i Every five minutes may be seen a flock of geese or of black (luck, flying low for shelter, and wheeling round our gunner in search of their comrades, who liave gone before. ]]ang, bang ! goes our friend's gun, and again and agaii) bang, bang ! I'or here the geese must come, and no amount of shooting can drive them away. In such weather, and in such a place, I have got through t" • ty-eight pounds of shot in two davs, and that with a mi. ,zlo-loader. Occasionally geese can be approached by moonlight on their feeding grounds by a very skilfully handled canoe; but 1 have observed that a few shots at night do more to frighten away the birds than as many hundred in the day- time, and on this account it has been made illegal to shoot wild fowl at night in Lower Canada. On very dark nights the Indians sometimes chase the geese by torchlight. .A number of canoes, each with a blazing torch in the bow, circle round a bay or inlet in which the geese are feeding, surround them, and gradually edge tiiem in to some little creek surrounded by forest, where they are easily killed by the poles and paddles of the canoers, and by the boys on shore. The Canada goose is easily domesticated, and in this state is invaluable to the sportsman as decoys. They also seem to fraternize very well with the tame goose ; the hybrid bird is very handsome and in every way superior to the domestic goose. I have on one or two occasions seen individuals of the white wild goose {A. Hyperborem) on the coast of Nev,' Brunswick, along with the Canadian geese. Of sea ducks so called {FuliguUnm), and divers, there are great numbers and many varieties, nearly all of them migratory, on the coasts of New Brunswick. Although SEA DUCKS. 121 inferior for the pot, tliey aflford capital sport, and they hold out great attractions to collectors of bird skins and plumes, as the plumage of some of them is very fine. In a morning's or evening's flight shooting it is no rare thing for tlie sportsman to bag six or seven different varieties. They are ranch less shy than the Anatidse ; indeed, some of tliem seem to think that when on the wing they are perfectly safe, and fly in a bee line, regardless of shot or anything else. They take straight and strong shooting to bring to bng. The Fuligulinoi, as a rule, do not leave the salt water. With one or two exceptions they are never found on tlie lakes and rivers, except after tremendous gales. Among the most common are the Scoter (Oidemia Americana), the velvet duck (Melanetta Vehetina), the whistler {Clangula Glaucion), this bird, so called from the whistling noise made by the wings, is often seen on the lakes and rivers, and is one of the first of the spring visitors, being occa- sionally seen even in the depths of winter in places where there is open water. The spirit duck {Clangula Albeola) is like the former, only much smaller. The surf duck (Pdeoneita Persjncillata), so called, I suppose, because no sea seems too rough for it. T'lie old squaw (Harelda Gla- cialis) is very common on thc3 coast, but when seen in the interior is a sign of tremendous weather. The red head {Aytlnja Americana) breeds in some rivers in the north of the province, so does the shell drake {Mergits Americanus), and leads its young brood down to the sea in the fall of the year. The goosander (Mergns Merganser) is a rare visitor in Lower Canadian waters. I have oidy shot one of these handsome birds. The red-breasted shell drake I ! i., II' 122 NEW BRUNSWICK. s • ,i m :l 'i ■'' {Mergus Serraior) is another handsome bird, and quite common. The little shell drake {Mergus Alhellus) is also common ; the iiooded shell drake {Mergus CucuUatus) is a rare visitor. Eider duck (Somateria MolUssima) are some- times shot, but they do not frequent tlie Kouth shore of the St. Lawrence in anything like the numbers that are found on the north shores. The scaup {Fulix Marila), the Labrador duck (Camptolastnus Lahradorius), the harle- quin, or pied duck {Ristrionicus Torquatus), and several other sea ducks are occasionally shot by the wild-fowl shooter on the coast; indeed, in a good day's shooting it is no unusual thing for the wild-fowl gunner to have eight or ten different sorts of birds in his canoe. There are three very handsome divers, the loon (Colym- hu3 Glacialis), the red-throated diver (G. Septentrionalis), and the black-throated diver (C. Ardicus) ; the plumage of these birds is very pretty and glossy. The two last- named are more plentiful on the north than on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, but the loon hatches on the less frequented lakes, and may be seen at all timps of the year, both on the salt water and the fresh water. The settlers hiive a.^ idea that this bird cannot be shot on the water, that it dives at the flash, and thus escapes the shot. This may be the case when the sportsman uses an old flint firelock ; but I have often known the shot too quick for it. They are easily enticed within range of the banks of a river by imitating their cry, and waving a coloured handkerchief. But it is a great pity to shoot these beau- tiful birds. Thev are ornaments to the lakes of Canada. Those who are accustomed to the sound of their wild laugh, and who have watched their pretty manuers, half DIVEnS. 123 shy and Imlf inquisitive, become quite attached to them. They only hatch one young one, which sometimes sits on its mother's back as she sails about the placid surface of a backwoods lake. The best stations in New Brunswick for the wild-fowl shooter are Points Miscou and Escuminac, and tlie lagoons adjacent to these points ; but all the north coast is good, from the Bay of Chaleur down southward to Bay Verte, on the Nova Scotia side. : ^ : • w 1 i .11; ■ ! i 1 ' > ,,| 1 h ^ ■ ' %\ ' .'■■('■ TTT^ if I "'a ■ I i % I I !f i CHxVPTER V. NOVA SCOTIA. Nova Scotia, from the fact of its being the principal naval station and the only military station in Canada, is better known to Englislimen than any other province of the ])ominion. But yet many Englishmen spend years in Nova Scotia and go away with a very limited know- ledge or perhaps no knowledge at all of the capabilities of the province. The reason of this is evident. Halifax, the capital, where the mail steamer lands these people, is situated on as barren and as rugged a tract of land as is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. Men therefore who never get beyond a day's drive or two from the capital are apt to carry away with them a very unjust estimate of the resources of the province. Nova Scotia is not an agricultural country. Scarcely one-half of its total area is capable of cultivation, and of this moiety less than a half would at present repay tlie cultivator. In process of time, when the other resources of the province become developed, farming will no doubt be stimulated, but more as an auxiliary to mining, manu- factures, &c., than as the main business of the people. The land, though not so well adapted for extensive farm- ing operations as some other parts of the Dominion, is yet well calculated to afford comfortable homes to a large manufacturing population, and to give these people what WILDERNESS LAND. 125 they sigh for in vain in the crowded and smoky manufac- turing districts of the Old World, viz. pure air, pure water, little homesteads, and little patches of land for gardens, potatoes, &e., &c. When I say that Nova Scotia is not an agricultural province, I am well aware that it comprises tracts of country which produce as good crops as any land iu the Dominion, but these are the exception, not the rule. Conspicuous among these is the vale of Annapolis. In this charmhig valley, which is sheltered from the cold winds by a high range of hills, and consequently favoured with a slightly higher temperature than any other part of the province, Indian corn ripens and fruits grow to perfec- tion. The Annapolis orchards are famous, and send to Europe some of the best qualities of the "American apple" of commerce. In King's county and in Cumberland there are also some fertile tracts, but for every good farm the traveller sees in Nova Scotia he sees many hundreds of acres of rocky barren land. In many places there is such a crop of mighty granite boulders deposited by the ice in the glacial period, that the only wonder is how the stunted s[)ruce and birch trees and other hardy bushes and plants have found soil enough to take root in. There are some four million acres of Crown lands in the province which are offered for sale at 8Z. 16s. per 100 acres. But of this a very small quantity, if any, is fit for profitable cultivation. The labour of clearing this land is hercu- lean. The young man who takes a ^ract of forest with the intention of turning it into a good farm by the labour of his own hands, has his life's work cut out for him. If he has to clear rocks and stones as well as timber, it will be more than he can accomplish. There are always, '■ a\ urn wr, :. 126 NOVA SCOTIA. ! 1 i H u however, some really good and productive cleared farms ill tlio market. These vary iii price from 500?. up to 1500Z., or I'rom say $5 an acre up to $30 or $40. But if the surface is rough and rocky, there is vast wealth hid underneath it. Nova Scotia is intended for a manufacturing country — one of the great workshops of the world. Everything that nature can eflect for this purpose will be found here. Its position is most central. Two steamers of equal speed, one sailii-'g cast from the great lakes, the other west from Liverpool, would meet at Nova Scotia, which lies just half-way between the great bread- producing country of the world, and the great markets of the world. The harbours are numerous and excellent ; some of the best of them open to navigation all the year round. Close to these harbours there is excellent coal in inexhaustible quantities; iron also in abundance, and many other minerals. The climate is bracing and healthy ; the necessaries of life plentiful and moderate in price. There is water power on all sides; in fact, the whole interior of the province is one network of lakes, which form natural milldams and reservoirs, discharging their waters by humlreds of rapid streams into the At- lantic below. The forests of this and the neighbouring provinces supply timber of many varieties, at less than half the cost of timber in the Old World. Nature, in fact, has done everything she can do, and man must do the rest. 1 know no other part of the globe so well adapted by nature as Nova Scotia to become a manufacturing centre. It is strange that English capitalists have made no effort to utilize these natural advantages. B3--and-by, no doubt, as coal becomes scarcer and dearer at home, and labour also more expensive, manufacturers will have to turn COAL FIELDS, 127 ll-'. thoir attention to Nova Sootiii, where coal lias not to bo raised from the bowels of the earth, but lies comparaiively near the surface in apparently inexhaustible quantities. The coal field of Pictou, Nova Scotia, is said by mineral- ogists to be the most extraordinary carboniferous deposit in the world. A seam of coal occurs here 40 feet in thickness, and not more than a couple of hundred feet from the surface, besides many other lesser ones of 18 feet, 20 feet, and so on. Coal can be delivered on board ship at Pictou harbour for Ss. or 9s. per ton ; and I presume if there was more capital employed in the mines and improved machinery, the cost would be very much less. In Cape Breton county the productive coal measures cover 250 square miles. In Cumberland county a seam of coal 12 feet 9 inches lies near the surface ; and another 11 feet 9 inches, about 200 feet below the surface. Around the coast of Cape Breton seams of coal many feet in thickness are exposed along the cliffs. The quality of the coal is excellent. For domestic purposes the Cape Breton coal is fully equal to the best English coals, and little, if at all, inferior to the best Welsh. For steam purposes. Nova Scotia coal is superior to English and Scotch coal, and equal, if not superior, even to Welsh coal. In an inquiry instituted by the Admiralty into the steam-producing qualities of certain samples of coals, the following results were arrived at : \m M*>; M Description of Coal. Welsh Newciistlo . Lauoateliire Sootcli Djrbyiliiie rouiiiis of Water cvrtpiiruteil by 1 lb, otCuul at •IVi''. !)-05 8-37 7-91 7-70 7-58 i:y '■}' I 'I' . ;, t ; i m ifi'l. ' 1 \ ■;:[* 1lf i VIS NOVA SCOTIA. Professor I low, an eminent mineralogist, ascertained, by experiment, that at the same temperature, viz. 21*2", the evaporative power of 1 lb. of coal from the Albion mines of Nova Scotia is 8 '49 lbs. ; from the Acadian mines 9*26; and from the Montreal and Pictou mines 1 lb. of coal evaporates 9*41 lbs. water. Tho coal fields in Nova Scotia were, until recent years, monopolized by an English company, who obtained their monopoly from the late Duke of York who obtained it — I do not know how ; England, has always been most generous in giving away the land and the wealth of her colonies. In 1857 this monopoly was broken, the company retaining, for their own advantage, the mines they had actually in work, but opening the rest of the coal fields to the province. For a short time after this, coal mining received u stimulus. But a check soon followed. To punish the Canadians for their unwavering loyalty to England at the time when the "Trent aifair" seemed likely to em- bioil the two nations in war, the Eeciprocity Treaty was abrogated by the United States, and one of the conse- quences of this was the imposition of a prohibitory tarifit' upon Nova Scotia coal. At one blow its best market was closed, and the Nova Scotia coal mines languished. But the Northern States damaged themselves even more than they damaged Nova Scotia. Dear coal is one of the causes why the manufactories of New England are doing so badly. ^J'hey find they can get no coal elsewhere to replace Nova Scotian coal at the same cost. There is now a growing trade between Canada West and Nova Scotia. Steamers carrying flour to Nova Scotia return laden with MINING. 129 coiil to Toronto. Tl»c Ainerioau's curse, like Balaam's, bids fair to turn into a blessing, and to be the means of cuiisiii^f nianulactories to rise up in the Dominion, which ishull su[)ply the heavily-taxed people of Now England witii the commodities they cannot themselves alVord to nuiko. Mining licenses are granted as follows : " An exploration license, giving a power to search for iiiinorals, other than gold, over a tract not exceeding 5 scpiare miles in extent, is grant(»d on payment of $20, or ■1/. sterling. This license is for twelve months. At any time before the expiration of the license, the holder may seb.'ct 1 square mile, which must be in one block, and must not exceed 2| miles in length, for the pui^pose of uoiking the minerals therein ; and on application being made, in writing, to the Commissioner of IVlines, a license to work is granted for a term of two years from the date of the ap[)lication, the cost of such license being $50, or lOZ. sterling. On the termination of that period the holder is entitled to a lease, provided eifective mining operations have been begun and carried on. Before these licenses are issued a bond must be given to the Com- missioner, with sufficient sureties, that in the event of entry being made upon private lands, recompense shall be raade for damages. The conditions of the lease are similar to those usually inserted. The lease is for twenty years, with a power of a second and third renewal for a similar period, but not to extend beyond sixty years from the 25th August, 1866, and with a liberty to the Legislature to revise and alter the royalty in or after the year 1886. The royalty at present is 10 cents, or 4|cZ. per ton of «. Im ^■i •f'fv ill vr ':■■ i i :'l 'ill! 1! . Hi i ;!^ ii ?.!!, m W 130 NOVA SCOTIA. 2240 lbs., up to 250,000 tons, sold in each or any year, and about 'Ml jter ton on every ton over that quantity. It is jiayablo only on tbe round coal sold ; slack and coal tised by iigents, workmen, and engines, being exempt. A statement is required quarterly, of all coal worked and sold, and of tbe expenditure in extending tbe works ; also payment of the royalty incurred. Tbe other conditions of the lease are of tbe usual character with respect to a proper working of tbe muie, the right to examine the workings, and books of accounts, surrender of the lease, right of transfer, &c." * • Coal and iron have been the making of England, and there is no reason why they should not make a second England of Canada. Nova Scotia is rich in iron of a very superior quality. I again take tbe liberty of borrowing some figures from Professor How's ' Mineralogy of Nova Scotia ' to show the relative value of English and Nova Scotian iron : ij s. Stnffoidshirc pig iron averages 4 10 Ditto bar iron „ DO Nova 8cotian pig iron „ 7 Ditto bar iron ,, 15 10 d. per toil, „ „ .. There is said to be only one iron in the world— a Swedish ore — superior to that found at the Lond' "dorry mines, Nova Scotia, in the manufacture ^ "^ -1. Nova Scotia is essentially a maritiu vince. A p-^ Mt extent of coast-line (it is almost an uid), Tnagniiii- ut harbours, a central position, vast supplies of coal and of timber, all these advantages favour both ship building and ship owning; while the large j roportion of the popula- * Eeport of Commissioner of Mines. FonnsTK 1:51 tinn onf^aged in tlie lishories keeps up a supply of liiinly and excellent s(>ainon. At present only wooden ships are built, but when Canada comes to be one of tlin great countries of the world, her dockyards, winter liarbours, and buil(lin