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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. f errata d to u le pelure, con ck n t a 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 I I. t "■■vp, I .-^ (. » ^ » ■• w •^s *v^*v*v *;i. m^^w*»':kTw^v^i»*^** ^,,^, rORONIO (miC L.'BRABy -•^-^^^^ THE LETTERS OF RUSTICUS. INVESI'IGATIOXS IX MANITOBA AND THE XOHTH-WESr, FOK IHK JtKXr.F'T < )F IXTKNDINc; K.\FI( IRANTS. A •^KKIKS or I.KTiKHS KI<(JM TfiK SPKCIAI. < :().\1M ISSION liK < )K THE ••M(J.\TJt f 11 THE LETTERS OF RUSTICUS. / INVESTIGATIONS IN MANITOBA AND THE NORTH-WEST, FOR THE BENEFIT OF INTENDING EMIGRANTS. A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM TIIK SPIX'IAL COMMISSIONER OF THE "MONTREAL WITNESS." \ JoHK DouoALT. & Son. 33 to 37 St. Bonaventure Street, 1 880. INTRODUCTION. Two or thrtte yean Ago the Montreal Witnrbs devoted much attention to thetiaettiunuf fiudioK work for the nnempluyed in agrii-'ultur*! purauitu and opened iti colurani to detcriptioni of the attracti tni of different parta of the country. It waa a on found that the hope and interest of the people centered largely in the prairiea of the North-West, and numeroua were the lettera of enquiry with regard to that land of promine. In the published aocounta within reach thvre was much evidence of one-.sidedness and some con- tradiction. Another defect which waa too ap- parent in almoit all North-Westem literature was the fact th%t the writers were not practical agriculturiiits themselves, and it might be as wise to send a doctor to examine and teat a steam engine as send a man who never did a day's work on a farm to write of the agricultural capabilities of a new country. Still another defect in the writings referred to, was the lack of Bjnnpathy, or fellow feeling, between the writers and the class of readers who, above all others, needed correct information. Perhaps a doctor after having carefully examined a steam engine, might be able to make a report on its condition, which would be underst >od by other doctors as well, if not bet'.er, than if the roport had been made by an engineer ; but ic certainly would not be so well understood by engineers as if made by one of their number— so a book- learned gentleman might write correctly and intelligently about farms and farming, but he could make himself much better understood by fanners if he had previously worked for many years on a farm. Again, although a person travelling rapidly for SHveral weeks over a large country will have opportunities for seeing a good deal, yet a great deal more will remain unseen by him, and for a knowledge of what he does not see he must trust to the statements of others who have seen it ; but if his informants are all of one class, their statements will be more or less biased to suit the views and interests of that pifticular class. Hitherto nearly all the writers about the North-West have either been specula- tors themselves, or were the guests and friends of speculators, conse^iuently their writings have been chiefly derived from, and made in the in- terests of, that class, but in variance with the interests of the great majority of the people who propoaa to make that country their future home, who, from the nature of things, cannot b« all tpeculaton. Having been bom and brought up on a baokwo«)ds farm, and having afterwards cleared one for iny^ulf, the proprietors of the WlTNEHB thought I would be a suitable person to send to the North- Weit to glean inforniatiim among the settlers there, which might be of u«e to many of the reader* of that pai>er, as some of them or their friends might be thinking of removing to that land of |)ro.iiise. It was their desire that I should avoid as much as possible the beaten paths in which others had sought for information, and strike out afreih for myself, and to this end I was given carte blanche both as to time aud means to be used. I did not at fir(*Mt tiiuo, HltliiMuli H ii«r4tiit c<)mlng i, ami hI'io i-.tUe a CKHMiJeral)!* (Top the tir>*t Niiinincr, wliicli he doiitil nut do if he came latiT ; Imt I kmiw of a ){oo(| many people who came to Miiiiitolia at the l>e;{innin|{ of April, yet hail not done ax nuiuh work on their farms iiy the linit of ()ctid)er, ax they ndt{ht have done in one month'* Mtoaily work. Travellinh' in Auj^iHt here ix very i:iexpenf4ive, and almoitt a» pleasant as a pic-nic, if yon have a tent and team of your own. TIiIh in also the lie.st time for jur how rich the soil may look, avoid it, as there is too much alUali present. I have also remarked that thei» is s(uircely any alkali in land where tif.ibui or liiishes grow, although small alkali spotii are often met with almost surrounded by timber. 1 w>Mild advice all new comers to receive with (!auti>in a great deal of the advice which they will be sure to receive, perhaps while on the way, but certainly after their arrival In the ^forth•^Vest. Some of the persons giving the atlvloe may seeUi to be ipiite disinterested, but even if they may have no axe to grind for them- selves, there is great likelihood that some of their frieny thi) till, liiit I h«v« If the Hiirfot'e ireuilN tine nnd ' rirli tliu i4()il Id much all;ali tliat them in ire tit:ibei <>r kali H|iotM are by timber. ,() receive with ce whiuh they while on the irrival in the IM KiviiiK the iitereMteil, but rind fur them- it Home of their ry to Biiy that munt otticiali, en at Uttawa thu l)eHt in- painplilet may inittructiuii or Id, ► currip:. apera that the > allow Hettlei'H e for their own erate act they D. C. TUT] liF/ITKRS OF lUTSTICUS. ON TIIH WAY TO TUVl NOllTH-WKST. THI TBIP TIIROL'GII CANADA — THB PMOKKUm' I'AIIADIBB -A HAICWAT roNlircTOR WFIO DNIlKKSTANIH Hia IIOSINUS-TRAVILLIHH' NOTKH in THI OMITRII HTATE3— TO lit: KKMLMIIKHfll. St. VAVh, March 'JS, BiR,— HavioK for some time been affi'ctfd, iiore or le'in, with the "iM^iiitoba f'-ver," which hsH been iiiurfa«in(( in virulence throutfhiiut th<< Krent^-r part of thn older provinces nf Canada. ar.d Ih ir>w ypreailinK to the ( nited Staten, I aocepti-d witii plraxure a favorable opixirtunity o( vinitiriK ttii'(JrtutNorth-\V»'Ht. On tlmevMninn of Tuesday, li'illi iniit., T purchoHed fur .?J!I u »econd-cla«n ticket from Montreil to Ht, Vinwnt, near KmerHcm, Manltfd.a, and left the IViiiaven- ture l)o|j(it at ten o'clock p.in. The j iurn«-y over the Urand Trunk Railway to Detroit wa" made in twenty-live houri, inclcdioK a deten- tion (if two and a half hount on the trafk near Scarboro, owin'.; to the engine of a frei'^^bt triin having h.'come disabled. IJnfnrtunati'ly for tiiy- Ktlf, I have a great aversion to the cmell of to- bacco, and in the close, cr.iwd>'d Hc-cond-cla h cars of the Grand Trunk Railway a:i ASTI TOBACCO STOMACH ban but a poor chance, and niino bi i'.ip; of thin sort very noun l>eRan to cauaa mo coi Hiderahl' uneatincsH. I endeavored for some time to in du-H the tra'diers in the Becnnd-olass car to id) »tain from their inceni>e (flPerinjjs, or else go t" the Hinokiog car while at their devotionc, ai my liealth was not good and the smnkin;; made m- sick. Some of them were conniderato enough t" cea«e sioi'kin^f, but otliers would not ; so I coraplaiiud to the conduotnr, but he got)d- naturr-dly told me that he could not help it, but if I paid 81 ,iti additional he would allow nip to occupy the ti^flt-ula^H car. Whtn we reached Sarnia, the cars with all their occupants were shunted on board a boat and ferried over to Port Huron, and during the paH- sage cu^tom-hou-te oHiciala examined our satcheU and valises, which was more a matter of form to tho M.initoba travell"is than anything else. At }*ort Huron our buK^tapro had to undergo a similar examination ; every box, trunk or bundle hod to be opened, but a very strict search was not made. We reached Detroit Junction at a little after 11 p.m., and there transferred ourselves to the cars of the Michigan Central Railway. I soon mado the diaijovery that there were r.o second- class cars attached, and we had very superior travelling accommodations the only oVj-'ction being to the crowded state of the car, and the impossibility of letting in fresh nir exeept.by the door. A very OBLIGIKa AMEllICAK nRAKLBMAN kng until he found aneat with only on" liuiiian ofjcn|iant. Then, no iii:itter how in iry v.itinea IT ii\< Ti-oats there Uit^tit L') on be wnilil call out, " Hnru'n a s"i«t, fir," and if the forni'-r oecii- punt made any ol j ctioriH to company, lui would an.twrr, " l.t-t tlii* gentleman sit tloivii," and Would iK't take " no" for an annwcr. I couM not but admire the good sen-ie disjilayiil by thi« brakei,' what kind cf ticltit bti held, " If ynu tuko «o muih aboard that y u can't stand tho pressure, you bad better t;ftinto the second cla-u cir," and as ho did not obey readily, the brnkennan took him by the coat col- lar nnil miirclied biin to tho sicokiag-cnp. It was a'v'u^. '.t ;<() a.m when v« rcnch'-d Chf> cni'o, where not n ve.!tiii;eof miow wa:H to Im seen. We weru then traiirfcrred to (ity Olnn^l)il'^e.^ and ilrivpn abrint fi. ndlo ardah.iU to thu d<.'p:)t of the Chi'ML'o, S*. Paul fc Minneapolis Railway, and at 10. li) si.iTtcd ISorth westward, leavivf? our b.iK-iai.'e in t'lrli'i;,'!) to f.illow by the m'xt train, a** thvra was not tiroe to transfer it across •he cit3', and these trains stem to bo very punc- tual on time. While we were in and around '.,'hicago, tlie weathor was quite foirgy, biit it soon afterwards cleared up, and tho (lun lihouo out beuutifnlly over THE rUETTIKST FARMING COCNTHY that I bavo ever seen. The beautiful prairifs, lit tir.it level but afterwards roUincr, teemed to 1)0 a delightful place for a farmer. The dwelliDf.?- houi-es were mostly fine, but the barns and other buildings s rail and often not very good. The farm-yard was generally disfigured with one or more unsi^'htly htacks of straw or Lay, which seem to be an eye-sore in these Western States, and are not unfrequent in Canada. These stacks look more natural than artistic in shape, and are of various sizes and physical features, a very common form being th.it of an enormous "grave- motmd" at the Bides ct which i. PACK OF UHNORT HYENAS htd been endeavoring to bring about the prema* ture resurrection of the dead (the cattle having made similar excavations in the sides of the stack). The prairie got quite rolling as we drew towards the southern boundary of Wisconsin, It was generally very fertile, but I was told that The Letters of Rusticus. IP in many places the water is very bad for drinking purpoaes. We reached Madison, the capital ot the State of WiscoDBin, at four p.m. This ia the moat beautifully located city that I have seen, bein;; built on a hill almost completely surrounded by three or four pretty large lakes, one of them at least ten miles long and four miles wide. Shortly after passing Madison we came into a rou^h, mountainous country stronttly resembling the Gatinean region. In some place<) we passed through immeriKe rock and sand cuttinjjs and be- tween hiifh towering rocky hills clothed with brushwood and fcrnbby white pines. The curves are numerous and pretty sharp ; the train often seeir.ing as if it were rnnning up Against stupendous rocks. At one place called " Devil's Lake" the railway is dug out of the side of a nearly perpendicular mountain of bare rocks some two hundred feet high, on the other side of which is the laku a'lont a quarter ot a miln wide, and over five hundred feet deep. It is called by the Indians the " i,AKE OF THE BAD SPIBIT," from a tradition that all persons who fell into its waters were at once dragjjed under water by the evil one, and could not be rnscued. The real cause of the almost certain death by drowning of all who fall into the lake, is the nearly per- pendicular banks gi«e no chance for any but swimmers to get out again. Tbe Indians tbn.i^ht the lake was bottomleea, but the white man found bottom at less than one hundred fathoms. The rocks on the bides of the mountains wb''ca enclose this beautiful little lake with the uUy name, resemble somewhat the perpendi lular columns of the "Giant's Causeway," but ani not so regular , There is a lai ge hotel nn its banks, which ia a 'iummer resort for persons from Chicago and other Western cities. A little while after passing the lake we came to a town of some importance called Baraboo which ia romantically situated on a little river of that name, which empties into the Wisconsin River not far from the town. The railway follows the bed of this river abou*, twenty-five miles, between pretty high mountains, during which tbe railway, river and public highway setm to bo PLAYING HIDB-AND 811 K with each olher, crossing and re-crossing back t.mi '. Tth T. don't know how often. A good deal K," t," ir-) hereabout is of poor quality, a con- ddtv. ',.1'.' : .'"tion ot it having been bought about t'A ".. 1 ■• yoar-j ago by people dwelling in the Easit- fiu iJt'iteH, who purchased it from agents with- (!•• h ';,^<'-«g pre .-iously seen it. There is consider- J.^.^ ',vl.> . \,\n«: timber in this part, although iih ox the better kinds has been already re- ijoved. The land between this and St. Paul is not nearly as good as in South- em Wisconsin, a great deal of it being very pcnr.and sandy hillocks covered with bruahwomi. We got to St. Paul at eix o'clock this morn- ing and got our first view of the " Father of Waters," the Mississippi. At this point it re- sembles very much the Back River near St. Vin- cent de Paul, at ordinary summer level. The trains ruunirg to Breckenridge, on the Red River, made some changes in their rnnning time this week ; consequently, we were detained here nntil five o'clock this afternoon, when we will (D. V.) pursue our journey to the North-Weat. Now for A WOBD OF ADVICE to those who may think of coming this way, al- though my experience is not very extended as yet, Fir»t, It is bettter to come in companies of tbiriy c; oiore, as in such cases the Grand. Triink Railway will furnish good, though old, first-claea cars, but a person coming alone, or with only one or two others will have to travel in the Recond-clasa cars, which are made hnrdly habitable for common cleanly people, by the amount of tobacco smoking, chewing and spit- ting which is done in them. The Montreal Anti- Tobacco Society would secure the lasting gratitude of many good people in Canada, if it ccv.Id ^Vivail on the G. f. R. authorities to stop the smoking, as they have already nearly stopped the drinking on their passenger cars. A person ought also to carry with him an ample supply of provii-ions, as he is charged at the refreshment rooms iifty cents for about ten cents worth of food, swallowed down in a hurry, while every moment he is dreading to hear the well-known call " All aboard !" In my own cmo, I got a good lonf of home-made bread, worth say 16o ; a small tin can filled with preserves, worth about 15c ; a small jar containing nearly a pound of honey in the comb, worth 20c, and a snnall parcel each of tea and sugar, and a bottle of pain killor,— but I have had no need for the latter yet. I also got a tin flask for holding i.ilk to drink by the way, as the water is some- times no better than it ought to be. I had this mi!k-fic, and gave a cup of tea or coffee, with plenty of sugar and milk, for five cents. I might also add another word or two of advice to induce intending emigrant's to Manitoba to havo all their arrangements completed and affairs settled several days before starting, so that their sleep may be disturbed as little as possible. The separation from friends will cause enough of sleeplessuess without the mind and body being racked with preparations for a day or two before starting. I had several i)retty sleepless nights myself before starting, and the sleep got during the two first nights spent on the train could scarcely be called sleep, but only short dozing. Last night, as we had plenty of room and first-class car cushions for a bed, I slept Boondly, and feel very much better to-day. ■« ST. PAUL TO EMERSON. A DISINTERESTED LOOKING IRISHMAN— A SOFT- BEDDED RAILWAY— THE ARRIVAL IN MANI- TOBA—A WORD TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. Emebson, Marsh 31. We were detained at St. Paul on Friday from six a.m. to five p.m., and, as usual, were swindled by "mine host" of the "St. Paul House." His runner at the station assured us that we would only be charged twenty-five cants per meal, and be driven to and from (he hotel free. While we were hesitating about accepting the good offer, a ditiinterested-looking old Irish- man passed by, and told us that we ue«d not hesi- tate about the charges, as he knew the house well, and the charf es were only 23u per meaL Although we had been caught in a similar way in Chicago, about tventy of us accepted the offer, because we cotud do no better, and were driven to the hotel, where we got a good wash — tbe first really good wash since starting. We had breakfast and dinner here, and on settling our account had to pay 70o. each -that is the more fortunate ones. One of onr party was a young man, who with his two sisters was going to Manitoha. He trave a $4 bill to p.iv the account ($2.10), but GOT NO CHANGE BACK. The bustling bar-keeper said that he gave the change to another of the party and would not pay again. Although several of the party were present and pointed out that thn change given to the other party was only the change which was due him, we conld not get the money back. When we got to the station we bad an ( houses about half a miie distant, but did U' t feel like wading out to them. We were not ki-:>t lon.s' waiting, however, before the ftation aKeut arrived in a wa^'gon aud consolfd us with the information that it was uncertain when we could get on to Winnipt-g, hut we might rest for the present sa iii> truin w.nilii Jmvo until > and cornea along without any coax ing, I h;ive travelled on luore sticky roads near Ottawa, where the mud would like to keep your Iwots and let you go ahead yourself ; but if you are determined to go, the greater part of the mud would prefer waiting where it was. Here, on the contrary, you tiu'ige along until the load of mud Beta too heavj ; then you ecrape it ( ff with a (ttick and go ahead, the only dilKculty being the weight of mud, and not its adhesion to the reat of the road. At EMERSON we foimd four hotels overcrowded, and were told that the best that cou'd be done for us was a "shake down" on the iloor. After a good sup- per we wanted to go to bed, having had little Bleep since leaving JMontrcal. Contrary to ex- i:ecta1ion, I was furnished with a regular bed, the excuse being that one of their regular lodgers had goi'o away for the night; but there miglit have been other reasons, as our landlord had made the discovery that I had BOinethii?g to clo with the Witness. Many of the transit- nt in- habitants of Emerson slept that and the follow- ing- night on the floor, without any extra bed- clothes, and not a few camped ot»t in htables or wherever they could get a little hay to sleep on. On Sunday morning the Ottaw.-i party arrived, .•vnd I met some of the members of the Jtobin- K'.n party from Montreal. These had hit Mont- real on Monday morning, thiity-cix hourii before, and reached St. Vincent fifteen hiuirn after me. They complained badly of their treatment aud delays along the road, for although they had been detained several hours at vaiioua Btations, yet they could never learn how long they were go- ing to stop, HO they had to stick to the train, and could not go and look for refreshments. The conductors, when asked for information about the length of time they were likely to remain, either could not or would not give any informa- tion further than that the train mi^ht start at any moment. This treatment of the passengtra waa bad enough, but the CUCKLTT TO THE HORSES was many time-k from crubhiog, to accumpliBh th's result. Two or three of the hordes gave out by the way and were left to recuperate, a man being always left to take care of them. When the cars reached St. Vincent on Sunday morning the ownera of horses were anxious to get them off the cars, as they had been cIoko prisoners since Wtdiieaday at noon ; but through some red-tapeism some of the boiiiliiig patera had not bten forwaided, and altlough it waa no fault of the horse-owners, the poor horses were kept iu the crowded cars until after four o'clock Sun- day afternoon. Some of tb^'i^e horses I did not see, as they were sent on to Winnipeg, but about six o'clock twenty- five vt them reached Emer- son and were at once taken across the ice on the Red River as they were destined fc Pembina Mountains. This mode of crossing the river is not altogether unknown in the Ottawa region. The river is about 250 feet wide aud has been rising pretty rapidly of late, bo that the centre ice is above water for over 100 feet wide, while on each side there is a space of 50 or 60 feet under water, which, near the shore, is 3J feet deep, but slants upward towarda the centre ice. The poor horses, some of which showed signs of recent hard work in the shanties, looked rather d( jected after their long ride, and were averse to going into l«he water, but one of the men would mount the tallest horse and lead one or two others into the water, while the rest were driven after. When they got on to the centre ice, some of the horses ran away down the river on the ice, but were caught and brought back, and again had to go through the water to the west side, having got wet about halfway up their sides. The reason for hurrying them across on Sunday evening was the dangerous condition of the ice, aad I have been told to- day that the ice attached to the weatern shore Laa bince broke up. Thu poor nags had to stand all night on the opposite shore without the least shelter, although a cold north-west wind was blowing, and I can I'ee them standing there Btill as I am writing this letter. They are being fed with prairie hay, but no oats can be gotten for them here at pre> sent. Emerson, April 2, 1879. HOW EMIGRANTS ABE THEATED- CROSSIKQ THB BED ItlVER— SOME IJlbCLOHUllKS 1 HAT N£KD THE ATT£NTIOIf OP THE GOVEUSMliNT. Sib,— As most people aro uv.are, the first im- prei-sions made on the mind of a traveller oa reaching a new country are difficult of removal ; couaequently, it should be the object of any government who wishes to attract and retain immigrants from other lands to make all p(>ssi- ble provision for their comfort on arrival. I will in this letter give a short account of my first three days' experience in the great North- West. The iirst day at Eiueraon being Sunday I visited the three city churches, aud heard three sermons. The first was iu the Episcopal church at 11 am. .where there were just a dozen hearers. At three p m , alx ut thirty-five people i embled at the Presbytt-rian church. There wculd probably have been mire hearers at this church were it not that the churcii The Letters of Rusticus. lU tre .ut ian ( re icii is Bitnated at some distance from the inhabited portion of the city, and could not be reached without wading through mud and water from two to four inches deep. The little Methodist Oburch was well filled in the evening, it being the moE.t convenient to the places where immigrants were stopping. In the evening I strolled by my- self alonir the banks of the Bed River, and hod occaBion to remark the doings of a ferry-man who was busily "paddling his lioht oanoe" near the opiMsite shore. The water in the river having lately risen between three and four feet, liad borne up the ice in the centre of the river, leaving the sides, which were attached to the lihoro, submerged to a distance of from fifty to i.-ixty feet from each side of the river. Both oxen and horse teams were crossing back and forth . On the eastern, or Emerson side, a couple of planks served as a bridge for foot nassenr^ers, while on the other side the licensed ferryman for five cents took travel- lers across the small strip of water between the ice and the river bank. He was kept quite busy, while I was watching, and as the canoe would carry four persons tiod had to go only a few lengths of herself, the trips were speedily performed, although the craft frequently took in water over the sicio when the pa^'Sengers, from fright or other cause, did not keep perfectly atilL On Monday morning, the ice near the opposite shore had riseu in broken pieces to the surface, so that the citnoe could not be used ; but the ferryman b.id taken his station at THE END OF HIS PLANK and still collected five cents fare from every passenger', for crossing on the plank, leaving the unforturate travellers to pick their way, at the risk of tbeir lives, over the flofiling chunks of ice near the opposite shore. It a woman carried a child in her arms across the plank, she had to pay ten cents, and if a man carried a moderately sized bundle, he too was mulcted in double fare. A man carrying several small bundles in his hands, was about to cross the plank, when he unfortunately dropped a spare coat, not into the water, but on the Emerson shore. He did not miss it until he had paid his toll. He now wished to return a few steps for the coat, but Cerberus who guarded the plank would not per- mit him to do so until he "forked over" five cents, which operation had to be again repeated when he returned with the lost coat. An im- migrant from Ontario informed me that he had to pay in all fifty cents for the privilege of convey- ing a couple of trunks and a few bags across the Emerson plaok. After dinner I went back to St. Vincent to see about forwarding my baggage, which had been checked to that station. The wind wap blowing strongly from the north, and the weather was getting uncomfortably cold. At the St. Vincent station there were a good many mtmbers of the Ottawa party, and also the Greenwey party from Exoter, Ont, , all anxious to get their horses out of the cars. Some of these horses had now been crowded in the Grand Trunk cars for eight days, during which time they bad never been allowed to get out . At one station where they were delayed for some time the own- ers of the horses in one car insisted on taking the suffering animals out for exercise and feed, but the train left before they conid be replaced in the car, and they, consequently, had to wait for another train. The delays at St. Vincent were most aggravating, caused by the NIOLKOT on the part of the Custom House cfiSciala at Port Huron in not forwarding the proper papers in time. I saw a number of these horses as Uiey were unloaded from the cars, and felt almost sick to witness the starved-like appearance of most of them. Some of them had also ugly-look- ing wounds, which they had received in the cars, owing to the peculiar way they have in the West of jerkine cars when staitintc or shunting them at the stations. 1 did nc i hear that any horses had died, but several had been left to recuperate at the way stations, and some of those that reached St. Vincent were scarcely able to walk alone. About half- past five p.m. the train from St. Paul arrived at St. Vincent, and was detained nearly two hours before it could go on to Emer- son. The weather was getting uncomfortably cold, owing to the steady northwestern breeze which was blowing, and I went into the passen- ger cars, where my nympathies for the horses gave place to sympathy for a few women and children who were among the passengers. I heard several fervent wishes expressed by worn- out looking mothers, who were striving to pacify crying children, that they had but known what they had to endure, in which case they would not have come on this journey so early in the season. The following night was very windy and cold, yet a number of the people newly arrived in Emerson had to BLEEP in ODT-HO0BES, without any bed-clothes whatever, except the clothing they wore. As there was sufficient ac- commodation in the old Grovemment police sta- tions at Dufferin, on the west side of Red River, and about a mile and a half further down to- wards Winnipeg, many of the immigranta were exceedingly anxious to get there, and tried to make arrangement with an individual who owned a team on the west side of the river, to take a waggon-load of travellers and their baggage from theshoreoppoBiteEmerson down toDufferin, but Jehu would accept no less than §2 for his ser- vices, and as it would take about a dollar and a half more to get past the plank-tollman, the trip was abandoned. Things began to look blue to the new-comers in Emerson. But as the shore ice had risen the previous day, and the frost the succeeding night had cemented the pieces of ice along the ebore pretty well together in some places, some of us thought a temporary bridge might be ir ade with a few planks so that the horses and all might get across. I nt once started acrops on foot to iJufferin to solicit aid from the emigrant agent, Mr. Tetu, to construct a timpuraiy bridge . I found Mr. Tetu and also Mr. Grahame, the Dominion Emigrant Agent at Duluth, in a pnug, warm room. They had evi- dently juiUFF£U8— A OENEBAL OPINION OF THE PBOVINCJC WiNNiPKO, April 5th. Sir, — Daring the first three days of April 1 remained at Emerson, being mo^t of the time on the ice assisting immigrants to cross over. Daring the first day of the " new bridge" the tollman t«t mained at his plank, and finding his trade gone, he frequently threatened vengeanca to the oppo- sition ; but seeing we wero not to be frightened, he drew his plank ashore, and went to more com- fortable quarters at the hotel, leaving us MA8TEB8 OF THE SITUATION. On Thursday forenoon, as very fe^r people wer.» crosjicg, I strolled up the west side of Red Iliver, through the towns of West Lyn in Manitoba and Pembina in the State of Dakota, then crossed to the east side of the river to St. Vincent in the State of Minneuota, and went northward along the east bank of the river until I reached Emerson again. The distance tra- velled was between eight and nine miles. The soil was the richest I ever saw ; yet, during my joamey, I did not find le hundred acres cf laud that had ever been cultivated, nor as much fencing as could be found on many lots of only 100 acres in Quebec. Part of the land was cov- ered with bushes, chiefly hazel, willow and poplar, with a fair share of elm and oak. There were also a great many berry bushes, which grow from one and a half to three fett high, and were l')aded with a small red berry rather smaller than red currants. There wtre also a good many bashes which bore larger berries, about the size of cranberries, and although they had been on the bushes all winter, they were still soft and good tasted, but I did not care to eat them not knowing if they were wholesome. In some places there were some attempts at cultivation, but the rank weeds seemed to crowd out what- ever grain had been sown. Part of this country has been wooded, but almost all the large trees were cut down some years ago to supply the Red River boats with fuel ; and at the present time, were all the trees within four miles of Emerson, of four inches and over iu diameter, cut into firewood, they would not produce as much wood as could be got from oS fifty acres of good hard- wood bush in Ontario or Quebec. There were a few houses standing here and there, but chiefly of very small size. One of these houses I took a special fancy to, owing to the BIHFLIOITT AND CHEAPNESS of its construction. I walked around it and ob- served that it was built in about the same way that we used to make pigeon-traps in Hull. The building was aoout fourteen feet by twelve, and was made of oak and poplar poles. There might have been other kinds of timber, but from the way it was covered with clay it was difficult to tell. When the perpen- dicular walls got about eight feet high, the eidu logs were placed in about a foot and a half on each side and an end log was placed on it, three feet shorter than those below it, when another 1 The Letters of Rusticus. 1 piir of Bide logs were pnt on, alao a foot and a hall nearer the centre of the building than thH last pair, and thoa the congtruction went on until the building waa closed at the top ; elm bark was then placea on this blanting roof and all the seams iilled up with clay, while a stove-pipe pro- jected through the pitch of the rouf . Below is a rough sketch of the frame of this building : ^ In this drawing 1 are the regular end logs about 12 feet long ; 2 are the cide logs 14 feet long ; 3 are the rocf-logs which support the elm bark, they are 14 feet long ; 4 are the short end logs which go to construct the gable-end of the house ; 5 is a part of the completed roof, two lengths of bark reaching from the eaves to the rideeboard ; C is the windnw ; the door being on the other side of the house and having a small porch of rough boards . If the poles could be got conveni- ent to the place where the house tvas to be built, four men with a pair of oxen could cut the tim- ber, draw it to its place, and erect the building, rooting, plastering and all, in lees than a week. While I was making my observations here, I heard CBIEB OF DISTRESS among the bushesdown near the river, and observ- ed a boy about nine years old coming up carrying a pai' of water. As the thermometer was about z::ro, and a keen north wind «vas blowing, I did not wonder at the poor boy crying with the cold ; but I did wonder at the people who say that you do not feel the cold here as you do in Quebec. Although I have been but a few days in Manitoba, I have felt the cold worse in the month of April here, than I remember having ever felt it in the month of March in the Pro- vince of Quebec. At the hotel where I stopped, I waa obliged to slaep with my clothes on while in bed, and yet was so cold that to keep from shivering I had to place my big overcoat on top of the bed-clothes. I may eay that the houses here are chiefly constructed on the bal- loon fashion, and are not hnished with care, so that the cold wind finds a too easy ingress. Before 1 left Montreal I heard a good deal about what they call here "croakers." They are people who have paid a short visit to Mani- toba and, becoming disgusted, have returned to old Canada, bringing an evil report of the good land. I have not met with any of this claxs yet ; although I have met with several who on coming to Manitoba and seeing the difficulties of travelling at this season of the year, and also the way they were being fleeced on every hand,have abandoned the i:d started for the Pembina Mountains, so I returned the planka which we borrowed from Mr. Carney, and that gentleman would accept nothing for their use, except twenty- five cents for one which had got broken . I am sure a good many of the new set- tlers in Pembina Mountains wiU remember Mrith pleasure UB. oarnet's kindness, the more so as such conduct is not common in these parts. During the three days in which we had these planks, we assisted about three hun- dred people to cross the river with their effects, which consisted of about one hundred horses, forty waggons, about eight sleighs, a dozen yoke of oxen, thirty other beef critters, and I don't know how many sheep and poultry of various kinds, including a pig from Ottawa, and various dogs and cats from different places in Ontario. The cars from South going to Winni- peg should reach Emersou Station at 7 p.m., but this evening (Thursday) they did not arrive untQ after nine, and as there is no telegraph on the line nor any means of telling when the train would arrive, we remained with a good many others walking up and down the track to keap ourselves warm with the thermometer about zero, and no place where we could sit down except on a pile of ties or on somebody's luggage. Th^ 10 The Letters of Rusticus. reason we had to remain out in tbe coia waa that the Btatiou U nearly half a mile from the hotels, and if we went to the hotels to waim ourselves the train iiAnlit come along and pass on without our Itnowinc it. We reached St Boniface, opposite Winnipeg, at a little after two o'clock on Friday morning, and, after paying a man fifty cents to convey my chebt over to Winnipeg, I started on foot to travel the two intervening miles between St. Boniface Station and the centre of Winnipeg, crosaiog the Ked Kiver on the ice, which was quite good, the once open space of water at the eides being covered with about three inches of ice. Air. . Lapthorn, who came with me from Montreal, told me that on Mon- day night he had to pay fifty cents to get his irunk convtyed from the station to the edge of the river, which was open at tho sides, wl)ile small temporary foot bridges co'-jc.ected the solid ice in the centre with the laud on both sides. For the privilege of carrying his trunk across these little bridges, Mr. Lapthorn was charged ten cents, and nad afterwards to con- vey it to where he was to put up for the rest of the night. I do hope that all who coutem- plate coming here, especially those who are bringing their families, or live stock, will defer their journey until the warm weather in May or June. OBOSSINa THE RID BIVEB AT WINNIPEQ— THE APFEABANGK, CONSISTENCY AND OIH£B AT- TBIBUTES OF MANITOBA MUD. Winnipeg, April 9. Sib, — I arrived at tho St. Boniface Railway Station, about two miles from Winnipeg, at a little after two am. on Friday, 4th instant, and after making arrangements fur having my lug- gage forwarded, I started, along with many others, to walk over to the capital of Manitoba, and crossed the ice on the Ked River, which, owing to the late fro:it,had become strong enough to carry horses. The river at this place is some SOO cr 900 feet wide, and the water has been ritiug of late, bearing up the ice in the centre of the tiver. Thus, as at Emerson, there was a stream of open water at each shore, from 80 to lOO feet wide, and about four feet deep in the dtepeet p^rt A few days before I came here, the corporation of Winnipeg had erected a tem- porary footpath across these ttvo streams, and had placed a toll-man to collect five cents toll from all passengers. The toll-man, however, had an eye to but-iness, and secured the services uf an asi-istant, whom he placed at one of the corpora- tion bridges and collected another fare hiinseli at the other. Thus, as some of the new comers re- marked, they had to pay to get into the show and then PAT TO GET OUT again. Some of these people told me that they had to pay fifty cents to get one trunk conveyed from the railway station to the eastern bank of the river, and after paying ten cents for the pri- vilege of carrying it across the river, had to pay another fifty cents to h&ve it taken to the hotel where they proposed Rtnpping. When I got here Jack Frost bad i .t bis veto on such work, and aa sleighs were cro».-iog on the ice, trunks and boxes were taken from the station to the city at a cost of fifty cents each. I spent the greater part of Friday and Saturday searcning for a boardiug-house, but could get none to suit, as they were all crowded. The hotels alsu were pretty weil crowded, and the charges not very modtrate, considering t&e accommodation given. The food proviHed was good enough, but the bed-clothes were rather scarce for a cold night, and you could not got a bed exclusively to yourself, but had to sleep along with some stranger whom perhaps you never saw before, and you were by no means certain of the company he might or might not bring with him. In the hotel at which I step- ped tor a few days there was a large billiard- room with five billiard tables ; and on Saturday evening I counted over seventy persons at one time in it,and bar-rooms, that were separated only by folding doors, wbicQ on this occasion were wide open. The charge for board akd lodging at the hotels la $1.50 per day, if yon remain for less time than nue week ; but if you continue more than a week, the charge is but a dollar per day. The boarding house-keepers charge from five to si.\ dollars per week for board and lodging. On Saturday afternoon the weather having become mild, I went dowutothe river to see how the crossing went on, and observed that although the shore ice was sutficiently strong to carry foot passengers, yet it would not Bust tin horses. A large amount of freight and luggage was being taken over on sleighs, having first bieen brought to the banks on waggons. Two horses were employed drawing these loaded sleighs from side to side, the horses remaining on the more solid centre ice and by means of long ropis drawing the sleighs across the weaker ice at the sides. Several horses and waggons were also brought over, but befuld have gone down with all on boatd, but iottunatfly no g'irious accident took place. Un some occasions when there were no ho^^t•^ to bring acntH, the proprietor of the ac.tw would briof; over mernhandise and immigrants' c-Secta, iucluding boxes and trunks, for which he charged the handsome Bum of twenty-five cents per box. If any persona felt desirous to hear a variety of iMrntssivii: lakguage Ibey would be Rrutifn-d by waiting on the river biiiik uiid liHteniDf, to the immigrants as they aet fool in VVinnipe^;, after having paid fifty centti perbix fur the conveyance of their bag»;ago from the station to theeaeteru bank of the river, and twenty-five cents per box more for gettinptittaken across the river, where the carters demanded fifty cents more to take it to the hotel. Some of the Ontario men seemed to think that they could cive Winnipegers a lesson in profane 8wearing,but they almost invariably found their match, and sometimes a little more. This work of ferrying over horses, cows, shepp and lugkiage continued all Monday and until 'i'ntsda} evening, when the centre ice began to get b:id in some places, and at last the ferry- man's horse and also the man who was leading him , broke throuzh the ice. With some difficulty the man wan got out, but the poor nag was per- mitted to take a submarine journey towards Lake Winnipeg, where he may help to fatten the fiahes. During this day, Beveral men who were assiiiting in taking goods across the river, broke through the ice near the edge of the open water, but were all got out with to greater injury than a good friiifht and a thorou>:h ducking. To day (Wednesday) foot passengers are still croscin^' tho river, A. (•mall fi-rry boat on each side takes them over the open water, and there ia a footpath of planks l.nd arrcfs the interven- ing ice. No heavy frei;,'ht ii heiiig conveyed over, and feveral iuirnignHita who have yet con eiderable effects, and alco borfiH, to bring over are anxiously waiting fir the ice to leave the river, while others who have got all their effects c>ver are startitg out for the Little Saskatche wan. Most people in Canada have already heard of MANITOBA MUD, but I think very few have any just conception of its fiiendly adhesivenesa. Whtre there ia consi- derable water along with the mud there is not mu-h greater difficulty in travtlling through it than ou many of the roads in the eastern pro- vinces. If the surface water is drained off the mud dries, with a bright sunshine, in a siur- prisioyly short lime, aud the surface of the road soon uMiU'iit s the apiiearaucH <;f Home of the as- phalt feidewalks in Montreal, b>'tng a little apringy, and very pleasant to walk on. Last night we had a considerable shower of rain, and this forenoon I walked around the city a good deal to study the peculiaritit- s of thia black mud, which you can hantly pei>uaiie yourself is not mixed with tar. You don't need to get off the niJewalks to ^'et your boots clogged to almost any desirable weight, aB the waggon wheels gather up a cubic foot or two of mud each, and uc the plank street- croshinga the jolting t'hakes it off. It is taken up by the fett uf travellers and conveyed to the sidewalk, where it is distributed along ia curiously- shaped lumps ranging in aize from A MABBLE TO A OOOSK EGG, In a abort time the sidewalks in the most travelled lucalitiea become nearly covered with these lumps, which are ready to adhere to the first boot that cornea along. If you happen to cross the street where there is no sidewalk you will noon have cauae to repent your temerity. This morning I crossed the strett at a place where yesterday I passed over what seem- ed to be a beautiful asphalt pavement, but to day, although my boots did not sink more than half an inch, the mud soon rolled up on ea.-h side of my boots until the ascending mud walla met together on the top, or instep of the boot, causing them to look more like a pair of malleta than anything else— the weight, also, was not to be despised. When I reached the side- walk, I succeeded in getting free from the greater portion of the superfluous weight by stamping violently on the hard boards, but a considerable Dortion would still remain, and required a good deal of scraping with a stick before I could pro- ceed with any facility. Under these circumataacec the BOOT-BLAOKS get a good deal to do, but they spend much more time in scraping the boots than iu brushinG' them. Ic was amusing to see how the mud would gather on the tires of the wheels, sometimes creeping uu the spukes until the hub was reached, and the wheel became neatly a solid black mass, I have been informed by several persona that even empty vehicles are brought to a atand- Btili on the street owing to the accumula- tion of mud on the wheels. Such mud accumulations are always worst on unfrequented portions of the streets and iu placea that are not very wet. The mud, however, dries up very rapidly, and after two or three houra of bright sun, the roaen prairie and divides into two trails, one going West past Ilt^adingly post-otfice, the other trail going north-weat towards the half-breed reserve in townfthip eleven, range one, eaiit. (The readers of the Witness will pfrceive by the map that the meridian line from which the ranges of townshipn in Manitoba, Keewatin and thu North- West Territory are numbered to the oast and west, passeB acmes the Asxiniboine near the dividing line liutween the parishes of Head- ingly and St. Francois Xavier, or about fifteen miles west from VVinriioeg.) The trail going north-went is the one most used at present, and is said to be much the better for travellicg on just ROW, although there are some prntty deep sloughs to he crosecd without any bridges ; bnr, there are eighteen miles to be gone over before any houee can be rt';<.oh(-d, the first being the hotel kept by U. G. House at Pigeon Lako post-office, near th'3 further end of the parish of St. Francois Xavier. Even in coming to House's Hotel, a coDsiderable detour to the left has to be made, and many Western tra- vellers who are prepared for camping out, do not call here at all, but continue going north-west through the half-breed townships number twelve in the second and third ranges west, into the set- tled township thirteen in ranges three and four west, nrid, after p'isi front roaii ne.-vr to PopUr Point, or fifteen to eighteen milea f i om Portr.rje la Prairie. As several of the oxen had already begun to develop sore shoulders, it waa evident that they could not reach House's Hitel thivt ni(!ht,and not being prepared to camp in the jjrairie, we chose the front trail, and reached Headingly post-office at noon. My travelling companions drove to the banks of a coulie or small creek, which chanced to be clo°e by, and there prepared their own dinners, but as I had little or no provisions with me, I went to the hotel, where a number of returning travel- lers were taking dinner. Most of these had se- lected homesteads on the Little Saskatchewan, and were returning to Winniiwg to look for work on the railway or elsewhere ; but two or three of them had not taken np land, and seemed diasat- iofied with the country, especially the wet roads. One young man acknowledged that he had gone only thirty miles west of Winnipeg, when his feet, having been wet all the time, got too sore to travel further, so he engaged his passage to Winnipeg with a man who was returning there with a waggon, intending to return to On* tario at once, from which he was sorry that he had ever wandered. I may say here that I have met with tew who expressed a determination to ads. had hen too mge ling On- he ave to The Letters of kirsTicus. IS return to Ontario, but a good many say that they i will go back to Dakota, where re bridires had been re- paired, but one of the largest was still without a bridge. I learned from a half breed that the way travellers get ov«r this stream is to wade around the head of the coulie among bushes and grass with water over two feet deep in some places. As I hsd already wet my feet on several nccasicns, and was already beginning to feel the admonitions of an old enemy called rheumatian., whoee first acquaintance I had nadn while driving sawlogs in the Ottawa County, I con- cluded to turn back and defer my visit to the places west of St. Paul's Bay until there were drier roads. During this short journey I had seen numerona large Hocks of BNOW-BIBDS, BLACKBIHDS, ROBINS, sparrows, quails, prairie chickens, wild ducka and geese, and one loon. A good many of the farmers had done considerable ploughing, and some of them had sowed more or less grain . The cattle were out feeding on the prairie, which in some places showed a green tint, yet in many places there were patches of snow among bushes where it bad been drifted from thn prairie. The weather had been most delightful, which made travelling on the open prairie very pleasant, al- though in some places I had to wade for a con- siderable distance in water. When returning about half-way between Baie St. Paul and Pigeon Lake post-offices, I got a last look at my forme'' acquaintances, Mr. Garret and his nephews, and the Englishman with his wife and family. They were more than a mile distant to the north-east of the road I was travelling on, and as a large slough intervened, I preferred to pass on without paying them n last visit, but I took out my glass and watched their movements for a short time. It waa now four o'clock on Thursday, and they had already travelled but twenty-eight miles of their journey of 175 miles. While taking a last look at my late acquain- tances, I also made a aorvey around the horizon, if. rm; I-KTTRRR OK KlSTK US. f WMt, eut kotl north, aud coantsd fifteen WAggont »nd o»rt«, ohiffly the former, which were »11 owned by IniininranU im the way " to their homo iu the f«r buund traveller* ny the way. DHtiiKnta Aim oamblino in wimrirKo— facth, KiaOBlH ANIXlOODADVICi-WHBKlTHlTALL HTOUIIS COM! rHOM. WiNNiPKi, April aird. StB,— "That man who apent hit time in the bil- liard-roon),(lriiiklnK and HmokinK Hatunlay night, until a late hour, has luet confidence in himaelf, in b\n fellow man, in the value of indtiitry, in the laws ut economy and in the virtue of uood moralB. And, the wtiler reiaeta to Btatu that by far too many spent laet Saturday ni;;ht in tbiii manner. A viait was paid to moit of the drink- ing places in the city oetween the hours of tun and twelve and, without any exception, a flourishing buBinesa wa;s going on in each place. PRIMKIKO waa too freely indulged in. and the kind ef drinks nsed evidenced bad taste . Beer waa frequently called for ; but, whiskey, ntraight whiskey, and bad whixkoy at that, was the chief drink. The orowdfl were. a« a rak<, quite orderly, but profan- itv waa indulged in beyond all bar-room etiquette Money wan freely spent, but there was scarcely a saloon in which sign*) of the credit system did not E resent themitelveg. A brave, good hearted, onest, whole-souled fellow would lead his jolly good-natured companions to the bar— nor was he particular aa to the number who joined hitu, for the invitation to drink here in Winnipeg is to the treater's friendu, and his friends' friends, and to his friends' friends' friends, and their friends,— and when all had been served the leader not unfreqnently, with a familiar toes of the head and a well known wink of the eye, In- structed the bar-man to mark it on ' A PUCK OF lOK,' which the latter responded to with an 'All right, my lord 1' calculated to bust all the cash sys- tem theories in the city. There was a ring in his voice which at least impressed the debtor that his account mifiht be increased with a wel- come on tbn part of the creditor. After making the round, ^t Winnipeg the writer is of the opin- ion that a' lut thrive nundred persona spent Sat- urday evening as above desotibed, that is, either drinking, playing bllliarda or pool, treating or getting treated, and in many cases mingling th.-ir acta with words of nselesn profanity. If this nnmber is not an over statement, and the re- porter thinks it is not (I believe it is an nnder- estimate), an XB-mfATll OF THK COST may easily be made, counting one dollar a bead, which ia much below the average, and here we have three hundred dollars worse than nselessly apent in this citj: on a single evening by men who should be saving their money, and spending their valuable leisure time in the improvement of their minds, or attending to the wants, it may bs, of a honsehold. But enditure of money. Thia fell upon the few, the liberal- hearted, thonn who were for the time being Muah in iNNskct. There were thoae— the down-hearted fellowa with a touch of the blue*, and a feeling akin to homesickneaa— who drank at the expense of others. Nor was there mo Much want of e(|u(tT In this after all, for, more than likely, they each bad their DAT OF TBBATIMU, and were popnlar while their money lastei." The foregoing extract ia from the Winnipeg Timi» of Monilay, 'ilst April, and as it states exactly what I have niyaelf witneaaed (except as to the lateness of the hourB— between ten and twelve o'clock— as I have not been out so late), I can vouch for its correctness, and might add that all the other nights in the week except Hunday are very little better than on Haturday nights. It is a matter of surprise to many where so many young men conce from as are to be seen around the hotelri every evening. A good many of them may be called WliraiPia LOAFKKfl, who do little jobs during the daytime for which they charge exorbitant fees, and at evening go to the hotels and play billiards or cards, and are ready to spin out long yarns of their wonderful adventures in the North- West to those newly ar- rived from the eastern provinces, and also offer any amount of advice as to the best modes of Retting along i *ihis country. Of course they are always read> to take their places at the bar when some farmer's son from Ontario, or some laborer from the O. P. Railway, is desirous of giving tffect to his generous impulses by stand- inc a treat for all hands. I believe that many young men belonging to respectable parents in the eastern pro- vinces, who sent them up here that they might take up land of their own, never go beyond Winnipeg, or perhaps a few miles out on the prairie, and after spendinp; their funds acting the good fellow in a Winm- peg saloon, return home to their parents dis- gusted with the country, and telling wonderful tales of their imaginary adventures, which they had learned from Winnipeg loafers. A great many of the laborers on the Canada Pacitic Hall- way come here to have a good time of it no .*" and again, squandering their means and destroying their health in the taverns and other places which abound in this little city of the North. It is a great pity that intoxicating drinks were ever permitted to be sold anywhere in this fau country, and I fear it will be difficult to root it out, as it canses so much money to be spent here which is supposed to benefit the whole city. It is rather snrpHsinghow little quarrelling or fighting is done, and I can only account for it by the presence of so many strangers ; so that, like a lot of strange cattle in a yard, everyone is afraid to begin a quarrel since he does not know who he may have to encounter. Gould I reach the ear of each fond parent who intends sending his boy to this provinoe to posh his fortune, I would say with all earnestness, " Do not send him until he has become a pledged teetotaler of at lewt » year's standing." Ttii: Letters of Rusticus. '7 uir.noiTAN— KT. PACt'ii- t«t,KinK— " leATrvn" J OH " llALrimttlllt "— WOMM WHO OAN ' WOUK— BUOAK-MAUINO -'* LAW DP." StR,- I left Wionipog oo WednMy floods, and the 'iceasional troubles .-^nd disturhaucca which have distracted and decimated the people of this paiiih. During the wars between the rival fur- tradincr companies twenty- three old countrymen were slaughtered in one day, and all their build- in^) and crops destroyed. In view of these facts I think tbattho people of Kildonan have done pretty well, and also, had it not been fur the CIVILIZING ISPLU£NCB of this section, exercised by the presence here of so many Scotch familiei previons to the influx of Bottlcra from the E i3t and confederation, the great majirity of half-breoda would have been at present but little better than the Indian. The Rev. Mr. Black, Presbyterian min- ister, who has been here for nearly thirty years, is, and always has been, a staunch upholder of the Witness. From present appearances he is good for another quarter century's work in the Ni'rth-West. I have rea'^on to fear that the Fur: tan characteriatice of this section are becoming baadiBtinct, aa "tripping the light fon- taatio toe" amonest the yonng is becominir much too common for the growth of healthy Presby- terianism. The nt xh pariah below Kildonan on the Bed Eiver is St. Paul, where there ia visible a marked change in the appearnnce of fences and farm-buildiuga. Shingled-houaea now become the exception and not the rule, thatch being used as the covering of more than half the dwelling-houBes from hero to Lake Winnipeg. While posBing through St. Paul I climbed on the fence and took a survey of the large id-^ from tho bonlera uf Winnipeg city north- along the third range of townahips ea«t. marsh tn this parish. By the aid of a small glsas I could dlatinctly a<"t thn Provincial IVni- tantiary at ItM'kwood, nine itiI'** dhtant., with only onq farmhouse ocjupyint; the Inttiveoirg rpace. This WIT, USINUABITII) OOCMTBT exttnd ward until the Ixirder of the province la reached weit of thn Icniandli! aet(lement4. Tho ninr-h it eight miles wide in tho narroweat place, but U In soout places twice tliat breadth. A good deal of it la fine hay lam), with here and tlitre a dry a|Kit, but muoh the greater part la what they call here "swampy," nut I think that name u inapplicable to a tract of country which can boaat of bullruihea and cat tails (lligH) like iti largest forest treea. All thia marbhy apace can be reao tho btoad Scotch as if they were but a few years fro"\ the heather-clad hills of Old Scotia ; yet if these aame ladies were clad in a blanket and mocci'iiina they would pass in any part of Ontario or Quebec as FULLBLOODSD 8QOAW3, and this conviction would biootne muoh atrongei should they convene in the Ojibwuy language, which they speak fluently. I may here remark that the Scotch natives uluig much more tena- ciously to the use of the bt aufciful ScotII8 HANDLKD THE AXI showed plainly that they were no strans^rs to that occupation. Although possessiog lands of extraordinary fertility, and situated on the bank« of the liver, many of these people are pretty hard>up, and have not yet paid the Government for the seed wheat obtained at the time of the grasshopper invasion. Drinking and smoking are much too prevalent here for the intellectual or material progress of the inhabitants of this portion of Her Majesty's dominions. Here and there along the liver may be seen the residence of some old employee of the Hudson Bay Company, somt of whom have passed through rather interesting adventures, I called at the residence of Col, James Stewart, an old Nor'-wester, and who, in company with James Anderson, commanded the expedition which left the north-east corner of Great Slave Lake on the 23rd May, 1855, to search for traces oi BIB JOHN FEANELIN'S LOST SHIPS. After ascending a smtdl river which flows into the north-east end of Slave Lake, they crossed the height of land to the head waters of the Great I'ish Biver, which they descended to the Arctic ocean, and on an island at the mouth of this river found various relics of the lost expedi- tion, among which was a board belonging to a boat m^ which the name Terror was painted. Col. Stewart and his companions returning reached the north-east end of Great Slave Lake on the 18th September. I also spent a night at tlie hospitable residence of Capt. William Kennedy, a native of this country, and who also spont two winters in the Arctic seas commanding e.'^ expedifion which was sent in quest of Sir John Franklin. Capt. Kennedy seems to be considerably exercised about the way the Gov- ernment agents here treat the Indians, and, although he is a very good man, I fear that he overdraws his pictures of their wrongs. I reached Selkirk on Friday evening and, after enquiry, was directed to what was 8<«id to be the most orderly of six hotels which do business here. On Saturday I travelled around a good deal to see the environments of this the future great city of the North-West, and started numerous ducks and prairie chickens from among the bushes and small ponds which at present cover the greater part of the city. I also travelled along the lower banks of the river below the place whe.e the line of the C. P. Bailway crosses, and visited numerous Indian camps, the inhabitants of which have lately been engaged in sugar- making from the pretty ABB-LBATED MAFLIS which abound here, and which have viven the name of " Sugar Point" to this locality, and also to a somewhat similar place a little above the dty. Several thousands of these sjiall trees, varying in size from three to fifteen inches in diameter, and from twenty to forty feet in height, were tapped by the Indians, the tapping being done with axes and seemingly with very little regard to the future growth of the trees. These very pretty maple trees often grow five or six and up to a dozen trunks from one stump. I saw one case where a dozen trees varying from two and half to nine inches in diameter grew from one stump, and nine of these trees were tapped, making a little sugar bush in itself. These trees are rapid growers, are easily transplanted, and will grow from young shoots stuck into the ground like currant bushes. I have also seen in some places where these maples have been made into fence pickets. After being driven into the giouni they have started to grow healthy branches, aud were rapidly becoming trees. I have seen some of these trees with very beautiful tops on them, very much resembling an inverted spinning top, and an informed that with a little care in training almost any desired shape of top can be attained. It is a matter of surprise that thtse beautiful trees are not planted more frequently around Winnipeg, the only difficaltv in their culture being the delight the cattle take in browsing on the young shoots. After travelling down along Sugar Point for more than a mile, a heavy c\now and rain Htorm came on, and as it was very wetting I turu( d t(t the left at right angles to reach the main road, which I knew to be not vdry distant, bat was much disappointed by coming to a lagron of deep watek' with a two-masted schooner tilling at anchor in it, which compelled me to travel back through the bush by the way I came, the result being a wetting wMch did me mi good. This lagoon extends up in the rear of Sugar Point almost to where the railway crosses, from a point a mile and a half below, and u a most convenient place to winter boats in, as they will be entirely free from danger when the ice is passing out of the river in the spring. There is a similar lagoon of deep water extending from the east bank of the river up to tho C P. Railway near the place where the Pembina. Branch joins it, and making ONE OF THE MOST CONVENIENT NATDRAL HARnOBS in the Dominion. When I reached my hotel I was both we*; and cold, and as there was scarcely any fire in the bar-room, I got pretty well chilled before a cou- ple of half-intoxicbted individuals could be in- duced to get a little wet poplar i-' kindli> ths fire with. The landlord, who seems to be a clever man, was on this occasion absent in Win- nipeg, A good pa't of the succeeding evening was spent uncomfortably with a lot of half- drunken young men who blasphemed in some of the most disgusting forms that I have ever beard. After I retired to my bedroom these indivi- duals got into a free fight and made a great deal of noise and some havoc among the furniture of the barroom. On Sunday moming,aa gros-drinking wns going on with renewed vigor.and feeling unw.U.I left the city of Selkirk and sought the hospitable home of theBev. Alexander MatheSiiii. Presbyterian min- ister at Little Britain Chnrch near Lower Fort Garry. On Monday morning I began to write this letter, but soon became too unwell and had to go to bed. About noon, a snow-storm came on, and as I lay in bed wi- robing the big snow- fiakea whirling past the window, my thoughts fortj' feet in 18, thu tapping igly with eery I of the trees, ften grow Bve inlca from one a dozBn trees nine inches >, and nine of a little Bugor •apid (growers, II grow from id like currant 1 places where fence pickets, groun i they 3he8, HL'd were seen some of on the OQ J very luing top, and re in traiaing n be aHaiae£ htse beautiful lently aronnd their culture browBiog on ?ar Poiot for nd rain Htorm Dg I tnru( d to te main road, tant, bat was } a laKr^on of >ouer tilling at me to travel y I came, the me no good. rear of bugar t cro?eeB, from sind 1.4 a most in, aa they when the ice jring. There er extending to tho C P. ;he Pembina B^L HABDOBS both we*; and ly fire in the )efore a oou' could be in> kindle ths ma to be a Bent in Win- ing evening lot of half- in some of ever heard, ese indivi- a great deal furniture of ig wnK going dl,I left the iblehomeof terian luin- Lower Fort an to write ell and had itorm came big 8D0W- thoughts The Letters of Rusticus. 19 and sympathies tamed towards the hundred of families who were at that time ont on the trail, exposed to the snow and rain, on their journey to the Little Saskatchewan. Should any of them be taken "ick they could scarcely expect to re- ceive Buch kind attention and care from a good Samaritan and his wife as had been my good for- tano during this sickness. Little Britain Manse, County of Litgar, April 28th, 1879, BIMABKABLB OBOFS— KQOALLT RIUABKABLI IH- PBOVIDBNOB — IT PATS TO MANOBB KVBN IN MANITOBA— FENCING — PBBNOH SHAPED FABHS— THE OOVBBNMENT AND THE INDIANS, Sib,— Since coming to this province I have frequently been told almost incredible tales of the productiveness of the soil here, but as there was not sufficient proof of the quantities raised given I did not choose to write undw this bead until I learned more about the matter. During my stay of over two days at the hospitable resi- dence of the Rev, Alex. Matheson, within a mile of Lower Fort Garry, I learned something of the productiveness of the soil in tLese parts, from a perfectly reliable ecurce. Attached to the manse at Little Britain Church, there is a glebe with six chains frontage on the river and extending four miles back. This is nearly all covered with brushwoed and small poplar.', with a good many grassy pastures, making an excellent run for cattle. A little over four acres have been ploughed, from which more produce was raised last year than was grown on many thousands of farms in the Province of Quebec. About an acre of this tilled land is in the form of a garden, on part of which were grown HONSTEB OABBAOEB, BEITS, CABBOTS AND TDBNIP3 ; but no correct account was taken of thequantities. Several common pumpkins (not squashep) grew to over sixty pounds each in weight ; citrons, ten to twelve pounds in weight. A patch of com- mon yellow corn consisting of fitteen rows, with eighteen hills to the row, produced over six bushelfi of shelled c':rn. The hills were about three feet apart each way. There was also a patch of pop-corn, which was also very fine, but no account was kept of the quantity grown. I saw samples of both of these kinds of corn " in the ear," and they were up to any average crop that I have seen grown around Ottawa, On a potato patch measuring twenty-three by thirty- one yards were grown one hundred bushels of very fine early rose potatoes, yielding at the rate of seven hundred and twenty-nine bushulg to the acre. From one hill tixty-two fine potatoes were dug, which ma-le three dinners for a family of four grown persons and as many children. I ate portions of enormously large beets and potatoes, and they were both superior in taste and flivor to anything of the kind which I have eaten in Montreal fur over a year, Mr. Matheson keeps his roots in a pit near the bank of the river, where they are quite safe from frost About half a mile back from the manse there is what is called here a " park," or piece of cultivated land enclosed by a fence. I measured this park myself, and found that it contained le^s than three and a quarter acres of ploughed land, yet Mr. Matheson said that he paid for threshing 180 busheli of Oikta and 38 bushels of wheat which grew on this spot last summer. Besides the above, t«/o small cart-loads of unthreshed oats were brought to the stable and fed to the horse and poultry daring the falL I carefully examined the soil here, and found it to be but little different from all the land which I have seen since coming to this province. It may seem incredible to Eastern farmers to be told that most of the farmers here are liv- ing in a "hand-to-mouth" sort of way. and not unfrequently suffer from want, while living on such rich soil. Very few of them think it worth while to use their manure on the land, but pile it up near the stable or on the banks of the river. The highest mounds in some parts of the country are made of manure, which is sometimes drawn from the stable-door to the manure mound on a dried cowhide by an ox, much the same as we use a stone-boat down east. In some places where the manure is drawn out and spread on the land an ox-cart is used, bat as it has no box an ox-hide is spread inside of tho rock, and the manure piled on it. The Rev. Mr. Matheson uses all the manure produced by a horse and four head of cattle on his garden, and finds that it pays to manure land hare as well as elsewhere, Asall the Episcopal and Presbyterian chnrches in the old settlements have large glebes attached, the parishioners might largely augment their pastor's salaiy by making a bee in the spring to put in a crop in these rich glebes, and another bee in harvest to gather in the grain. Instead of that,Mr. Matheson has to pay much more for getting his land ploughed than would be considered good pay near Montreal or Ottawa. Most of the churches here of every denomination would require Bome such preacher as Dr. Mac Vicar of Montreal to come among them, and preach to them from such texts as 2 Cor. ix., 6, Bom. xii., 11, &c. As Lower Fort Gkurry is situated in a com- paratively well-wooded country the COST OF FlNOINa here is not nearly so high as in other places throughout the province. The fencing of a pquare containing about four acres requires about 200 lengths of fence, consisting of six poplar poles, and two long and one short tamarac pick- et, for each length. The cost of the material for such fence deliver- ed on the spot is as follows : 1,200 Poplar poles, each 12 foet long, at $2 per 100 $24 00 400 Tamnrac pickets, each 7 feet lonir, at $3.50 per 100 14.00 200 Tamarac rickets, each two fett lonir, at$l per 100.... 2.00 Total cost of matcnal ■'? 10.()v> This does not inslude hazel and willow withes to tie the pickets together in two or three places. The pickets after being sharpened at one end, are driven into the ground in pairs, about eleven feet distance between each pair. The pickets in each pair are about six inches apart, and a short picket is driven into the ground between these to support the ends of the poplar poles from resting on the ground. After the pioketB are properly tied with withes the poplar poles are laid in their places, slightly zigzag fashion, but not so much so as is customary in Ontario, There is a strip of bark peeled off each side of the poplar poles to prevent them from rotting as speedily as th' y The Letters of Rusticus. vrould otherwise do. Where tamarao, oak, ash or maple oannot I'a obtained, puplar la used for pickets, but it will only last three years, when is becomes rotten at the gronad. The fence poles also require to be renewed every eight or nine ye.-s, but there is rot much lost by this, as they are tben used for fuel and green poles put in their places. This changing of the fence rails U often dine much more frequently than is needed, as they are often COT UP FOB FOKL during the cold weather by people who neglected to lay by a winter's supply of firewood. On the following spring these individuals are often en- gaged replacing their fences, when they ought to be putting the seed inio the ground. Owing to the very narrow strips of land con- tained in most of the farms on the river, and aUo want of arraD(,'ement among near neighbors in the selection of their parks of cultivated land, fencing becomes very costly sometimes. I have seen strips of land less than two hundred feet wide and more than half a mile long enclosed by a fence from the surrounding prairie, yet part of thid little strip remained uncultivated, After a few days' rest at the manse at Little Britain, receiving the kindest care and attention from the family of the liev. Mr. Matheson, I be- came well enough to proceed down AM3SG9T THE ISDIAN3 living on the reserve north of Selkirk, and passed one night at the house where f eguis post office ia located west of the Red River, near tbo line between township fourteen and fifteen in the fifth range east. I was now nearer to Lake Winnipeg and the north pole than I had ever been before, yet the grass was start- ing to grow vigoromly, and the forests ■were changing considerably from the dead gray color of wiutsr. The people in this locality are called the Saulteux Indians, but they seemed much more like French and Scotch natives. They seem to cultivate nearly as much land per family as do the natives above Selkirk, but they have very few cattle or horse;), which is not very wonderful since the meadow-lands are not as convenient to their homes as is the case fur- ther up the river. A good deal of fishing and hunting is done by these Inc. JiQs, as the fish in the river is very abundant and of fine quality. Most of the dogs have a wolfish look about them, and are pretty generally used ia drawing eledges in winter time. I hid quite a long iu- terview with the Indian Chief, Henry Prince, who received me cordially, a"jd conversed with me through an interpreter, altbou^h I have bsen told that he speaks pretty good Eugliah. He is much blacker in color than I haveseen any In- dian before. He is of coium»nding presence and speaks well iu his own language,and display ;» considerable shrewdness, but I fear he smells the cork toooftin, which gives hi i eyes some- what of a dissipUed cast, although he complains hardly of the Selkirk hotel-keepers selling grog to Indians. He complained very much of the Government having neglected to carry out the proviiious of their treaty with the Indians, saying that they had not supplied them with nearly the number of cattle, nor the amount of seed grain which had been promised. The Government also {promised to support a school for the Indians, but had not done so, liince the school here is entirely controlled by n on- treaty men. He further complained that non- treaty men, white and natives, came into the reserve and bought lands from the treaty Indians, using A BOTTLE OF OROa in making tho bargain, and by this means the treaty lands were slipping out frum under the authority of himself and his council. He had applied frequently to the agents, to prevent these unlawful sales of treaty lands, but nothiog had yet been done, and he feared that nothing would be done until he was compelled to take forcible possession of tho transferred treaty lands. He was very anxious to know if I was an authorized Government agent, and when told that I was only a newspaper man, he desired to know if I would publish a list of his grievances. I told him that if he would make out a list of all cases where the Government failed to c:irry out their promises, I would see that they were print- ed. He promised to have a meeting of his council shortly, when a full list of their grievances would be made out and a copy ot them sent to my address at Winnipeg. We then parted, shaiking hands all round in a friend- ly manner. After leaving the Chief, I interviewed several others, both treaty and non- treaty men, and heard various accounts of the •* Indian troubles" which seem to be about as follows :— These In- dians, or natives (the Saulteuz, came originally from Lake Superior, while the Swampy Crees came from north ot Lake Winnipeg), settled in this locality a good many years ago (I think they all profess Christianity at present), and w^re attended by missionaries from the Church Mis- sionary Society. BEFOBK THE TREATY with the Government was made mariy of these Indiana sold their claims to natives and others who would not come under the provisions of the treaty ; consequently, they have a perfect f-ght to do what they please with their lands. When the treaty was m-Nde, all this tract of country was given to the Indians without any exception being made regarding lands held by persons whs would not come under the treaty. This was an unintentional omission, yet the Chief thicks th%t these land4 rightfully belong to the truaty la- dian, and that the Government should extinguish the claims of non treaty men, and givethe land to the Indians. The old chief says he is willing to forego his authority over these lands it the Gov- ernment will secure to him and his people all the lands held by treaty-men at the time tho treaty was made ; as treaty Indians are selling their lands to nou- treaty natives and whites. I believe the old chief is quite right on this latter point, and that the Government should not per- mit treaty lands to be bought by others without the consent of the whole tribe, and I might add, the Government authorities. THE SCHOOL DIFFIOULTY is about as follows : The Dominion Government having promised to support a school for the In- dians, have been lately paying $oOO a year to that end, but as there are two schools in the parish (some tea miles in length), the grant is only $150 to eaah school. The non-treoty men make up the balance (after the Local Govern- ment grant is received) by taxation laid on the i The Letters of Rusticus. 21 ed by non- treaty that non- treaty into the reserve ty ladiaos, using oa this means the from under the :ouncil. He hod ;ent8, to prevent inds, but LothioK red that nothing as compelled to ransferred treaty to know if I waa it, and when told ian,_ he desired to if his grievanceg. ceout a list of all liled to Cirry out they were print- meeting of hia U list of their t and a copy of Winnipeg. We ound in a friend- lerviewed several ireaty men, and Indian troubles" owa : — These In- came orii;inally »_ Swampy Creea ''P6l?)> settled in ■rs ago (I think )re8ent), and Were ;he Church Mis- ITT e many of these itives and others provisions of the B a perfect p^ght r lands. When tract of country at any exoeption 1 by persons whs y. This was an I!hief thinks th%t the truaty la- hould extinguish d give the land to 1 he is willing to inds if the Uov- I hia people all at the time the lians are selling I and whites. I ;ht on this lattar should not per- 7 others without kud I might add, DLTT ion Government hool for the In- ying $a00 a 9 two Bchouh in Qgtb), the grant non.tre<»ty men Local Govern- tioD laid on the real esbate belonging to themBelvea. As they pty the lion's share of the expense they wish to have control of the schools, which are held in build- ings belonging to the Episcopal Church, but Chief Prince cannot endure that others should have greater authority than himself, and wants to rule the schools and choose the teachers. This could be borne by the others were only properly qualified teachers employed, but the chief will have his own friends appointed, al- though not properly qualified to teach. I think that the Government should tell hia chieftain- ship, kindly but firmly, that any schools receiv- ing Government aid must be under the direction of fully qualified teachers. It seema also that a grant of $300 per year divided between two Hchools, is rather a cheap way of performing a treaty obligation to maintain a scnool for the Indians. About THS SEED OKAIM QUESTION, I have been told by several parties that a little over a year ago a Government agent vieited all the Indians at their homes, and asked them how mach seed grain they would need on the follow- ing spring, which amount was entered in a book ; bat although the Indians went to considerable trouble to prepare the ground for ths rece;;ition of this grain, the quantity afterwards given was but a small fraction of the amount which the Indiana were led to expect, amounting in some cases to a pailful of wheat where several bushels were expected. Aa I will probably treat of the Indian question a little fuller when Chief Prince sends along his budget of grievances,! will leave the subject for the present. Winnipeg, May 2nd, 1879. MINISTERS IN THE NORTHWEST— BACHELOBS AND THEIB HUMES -BBIDaiNO A STBBAM— WIVES WANTED. Sir,— On the morning of Tnesday, 7thinst., I accepted the ofiPer of a drive into the newly settled country lying north-east from Winnipeg. We firdt drove down the west side of the Red Bivcr abmt seven n-iles, to the ferry at Prit- chard'a Mill in St. Paul's parish, and here crossed the river and went over two miles more south- east, crosaing the railway near the western point of Birds' Hill, and drove on (he top of that ridge eastward along near the notthern boundary of Springfield (township 11, range 4, east) to the border of Sunny side, which lies immediately east of Springfield. We then turned southward some distance to a house re- cently visited by death, the Rev. Mr. Robertson having come all this distance to attend the fune- ral and preach a sermon, I might remark here FOB THB COMFORT OF MINISTEBS in Eastern cities who think they are overworked, that my reverend fellow-traveller in this journey had to pay four dollars out of his own pocket for the use of the horse and buggy which took us pver these fifteen miles of (in many places) very bad roads. We were more than three hours making the journey, and after the aervioea were over, went about two miles to Moose Nose Ceme- t'^ry in Sunnyside, where I i>arted with Mr. Robertson at some time after three p.m., neither of us having tasted food since early in the morn- ing. Mr. Robertson had scarcely any previous acquaintanceship with the bereaved family vi2i':- ud en thia occasion, and did not expect to re ceive a cent for his time or travelling expenses. Birds' Hill is from sixty to seventy feet above the adjacent prairie in many places, and aa I had hitherto seen nothing in thiu province that could be called a hill, or even a mound— unless that appellation were given to some of the piles of manure — I enjoyed the drive very much along the crest of this hill, from which I got an ex- cellent view of the country on both sides. To- wards the north very few houses were to be seen, but southward we could see nearly every house and grass swamp in Springfield. The western point of this range approaches near the railway, and a side track is laid to the hill, where an abundant supply of excellent gravel ia taken to ballast the Pembina Branch Railway. Should Winnipeg become an important city »t aome future period, it ia probable that a large quantity of gravel will find its way from Birds' Hill to the streets of Winnipeg. THIS BIBDS' HILL BANOE runs acroaa nearly the whole of the north end of Springfield, then turna north-west to about the centre of Cook's Creek township (township 12, range 5, east). It Is almost entirely gravel.and the soil on the top is of little value for farming pur- poses. The land in Sunnyside, with the exception of Moose Nose Hil), is nearly all wet, and a com- paratively small quantity haa been brought under cultivation. There u very little wood of any kind (except willow bushes), the little poplar which grew in bluffs here and there having been mostly all cut down, and I think it would be difficult to get one hundred and fifty cords of firewood on the whole township without making a raid on the fences or buildings. The settlers here have almost all come from the Eastern Provinces and Britain within the past eight years, quite a number having come in here thia spring and bought their lands from older settlers or ppeculatora, paying from $600 to $1,000 for 180 acres, with more or less improve- ments, the twenty acres of wood land belonging^ to each quarter section being from two to five miles distant. Almost all the settlers here are pretty largely engaged in stock-raising, some of them owning over forty head of cattle, small and large. These cattle receive ver^ little attention during the summer, and sometimes stray away and are never seen again; in winter they are stabled, and fed with prairie hay, of which there is an abundant supply in these parts. There is an exceedingly LABOB PEBOENTAaE OF BAOHELOBB among the settlers here. Cook's Creek school- house is situated at the comer of four town> ships, and the school section comprises nine sec- tions from each tovrnship, or an area of thirty- six square miles in all. It is said that a ma- jority of the voters in this large school district are bachelors, consequently they electa majority of the school trustees of the same persuaaior.. Two of the trustees are living in single blessed- ness, or as it isternied here, "baching it ;" the third trustee has a wife. but his children are too small to attend school. The teacher at present teaching in this school hails from Aylmer, P.Q , where I formerly had considerable experience in the diffi- culties attending the carrying out of the school laws among an unwilling people. I hope he will have better success among his new bache- :rvr acquaintances. I am told that " bacbing if' 22 The Letters of Rusticus. ' : is very generklly practiced throaghout nearly M the settlements in this country, and since anoh a state d many let- rve wa» made, heir lota. The »retty rapidly le gravel ridge led by man, ia barrow boles tr a cat to en- upwards of a I taken out of pretty nume- aces of recent ;et a sight of I ia also much [> sheep. Two een close to a rrived, but al- >ng the woods i, I could dia- I was coming a mile and a- of that town- Ms the creek, size of a >t like to irough brush >ked for some ) fouad lying le found. As tool with me, a of bridging iperlative de- > Western im- with nan. After narrowest place where ide with a leep. Here it in search pl3 supplies re had, some trees, which jy the wind. 00 rotten for were sup- mp or some dvery light Uest and put i, by means larger ones raiy bridge ;h, east. May VIBW OF TXBKBT IN made a cir- 'side, which JOES, found f onr thirty eggs. The dncks when hatching seem to lose a good deid of their former wildneas, and will not leave their nests until yon are within a few feet of them, when they flutter away as if one of their wings were brok--n, much after the same fashion as a nound sparrow when endeavoring to induce a Doy to run after herself and pay no attention to her nest. These ducks seem rather careless in select- ing the place to build their nests, as two of the nests were quite close to a travelled road, and one was in a ploughed field. Prairie chickens are also numerous here, of large size and very tame. I did not see any of their nests, as it is rather early in the season, but was informed that when hatcning they are very loath to leave the nests, and will allow people to come up quite close to them, and siter a while become so familiar with children who pay frequent visits to the nests that they will remain on them and peck at the youngsters who approach too near, juat the way that a cross setting hen would do. Owing to the large amount of wet land here the setuers are few and far between, there being not one inhabited house to every square mile in the south half of Sunny side, and the ratio is not much greater in the north half. At the time of my visit I believe that the half of this township was from two inches to two feet under water, and more than half of the remain- der was too wet to be ploughed even here, where they plough land in a much wetter state than would be done in the esMtem provinces. I be- lieve that I am within the mark when I say that not five per cent, of the land in this township has been ploughed. A COHPLETB STSTKH OF DRAIN AG'. for the two townships of SprinKfield and Sonny- side (it should have been called Marshyside) would not cost over t^renty-five cents per acre, and would increase the value of all the land from $1 to 33 per acre, besides making good roads to market at all seasons ; yet tbe people hesitate about incurring the expense, some of them saying that the wet land is more valuable than the dry, since it supplies them with plenty of hay to feed their live stock with, although the two past seasons were too wet to cut the hay in many places, Darin,? all my joumeyings in this province I have been makiog careful enquiries as to the suitableness of the soil and clinu^ for producing the TAUB aBA33KS, Buch as timothy hay, red-top, clover, Hungarian grass, &c., bat could get no reliable informa- tion about them. Even in Sunnyside, among the Canadian farmers, the general opinion was that only Hungarian grass could be grown with grotit to replace the wild native graeses. They ad heard of large crops of timothy hay hav- ing been grown in some parts of Springfield, but the experiments with that grass in Sunnyside had almoat all been failures . I afterwards visit- ed the farms in Springfield where timothy hay was grown, and was equally surprised at the enormous crops grown, and at the small num- ber of farmers who have tried to raise this valu- able kind of hay. I was shown several pretty large fields where over three tons of timothy hay to the acre was cut three years In sncces- fsioD, and in one or two cases the produce was said to be nearer fonr tons to tbe acre. These farmers all told me that they had never seen BDOH LABOR OBOPS of timothy hay gr<^wn in any of the Eastern provinces, and one farmer who had eight acres of timothy hay, on which three tons of hay per acre bad been cut last season, sold the greater part of it at $12 per ton. I enquired of some of the successful onltivaters of timothy hay, why its culture had failed in Sunnyside, and was told that the land where it had oeen sown was too wet ; but wherever it was sown on dry land it did remarkably well, if not too thickly seeded, as it stools ont here much more than in tbe Eastern provinces. The farmers who raisu timothy hay feed their horses with it while at work, as they do mnch better on it than when fed on pr"iri9 hay. I have not yet found any cases where clover has been successfully grown, nor anyone who has tried red-top ; but Hun- garian grass grows most luxuriaDtfy, and if not sown pretty thick the stalks become rather coarse lor fodder, more resembling wheat straw. I went some (Ustanoe to see a small field of FALL WHIAT, which the owner says is the only one in Mani- toba. The greater portion was pretty well killed out, but a strip about thirty feet wide across the north end of the piece looked well, and promises to produce abundantly. I asked the owner ths cause of such a marked difference in the same field. He said that he had sown Clauson wheat, brought IriJD Markham, Ont., in that strip, while the rest of the field was sown with a variety called " white chaS." The part of the field where the Clauson wheat was sown being near the fence, was covered by a drift of snow, while the rest was more exposed. There are some pretty extensive farmers in the township of Springfield, and in one case I saw a field containing 80 acres of ploughed land, part of it ctreen with the young wheat plants. There seems to be a strange fatality among horses brought from Ontario to this place, one farmer having lost eleven horses during the eight years he has been fanning here. Some of these were raised here from mares brought from On- tario. I tiave not been able to learn the cause of this MOBTAUTY AUONQ HOBSXS, but have strong suspicions that the feed, care, small, close stables, and also bad roads in spring, are the chief causes of it, since Lower Canadian horses seem to do very well. On Saturday afternoon I again visited Moose Nose Cemetery, tor the purpose of getting a good view of the country from the summit of that hill, which is elevated about seventy feet above the surrounding plain. This hill is situ- ated near the north-west comer of the town- ship of Sunnyside, and from it can be seen near- ly all the houses in the townships of Springfield, Sunnyside, Cook's Greek and Bossmore, with a number of the houses in Flympton and Mill- broke (township 10 in the 6th and 6th ranges, east). The view was charming, as the country seemed streaked with a great variety of cclots, among which were black, dark brown, dark grey, light grey, dark green, bluish grey, dappled grey and green, and some spots of olue. The appearance at the dk^anoe of three The Letters of Rusticus. or four milea, when viewed through a small Klasa, tegembled very much uome KALEIDOBCOFIO VIEWS. The black atreaka were the lately ploughed tielda, the dark brown was where prairie firea had been running last fall, burning the graaa and killing the buahea : the dark gray consisted of hazel and poplar buahea. which had not yet leafed out ; the light gray was pretty extenaive, and consisted of unbumt tielda of old prairie graaa and unploughed wheat andoat atubble ; the dark green color adorned the wet ineadow laadn, from which the hay had been tnkeu last year, and although now covered with froim two to six inches of water, yet the young hay haa already got high enough to overshadow the flood ; the bluish gray indicated the manhes, where the bluish-oolored new grass, and alao apota of water, give a bluiah tint to the old and wither- ed marsh grass of the previous year's growth ; the dappled gray and green colors arise from the present half leafed state of the willow bushes, which are very plentiful all over these parta, and the blue apotj were places where the water, while covering the old crop of wild grass, was still too deex) for the new crop to get above its surface. The tops of the higher buildings in Winnipeg are seen from THE MOOSE KOSB —called this name owing to a supposed resem blance which it bears to the nose of the moose —and were ic not for the groves of poplars which grow near St. Boniface, the whole city wouJd be plainly visible in favorable weather. The Government own the land on the most elevated part of this hill, it being a school reserve, and nave given several acres on the summit for a cemetery and also sites for churches The aoil is composed of very beautiful white gravel, with few stones larger than a man's iia';. If near n large city this white gravel, about the size of small marbles, would be in good demand for pav- iog footpaths in gardens and lawns. This school reserve was at one time of considerable value, owing to the large amount cf wood on it, but it has been pretty well stripped of that commodi- ty. Some people here seem to have very mis- taken ideas about the righij of the Dominion Government and the Hudson Bay Company to the timber grown on their reservee, consequent- ly the school lands and the HiKison Bay Com pany'fl lands are plundered without compunc- tion. Not only is the wood grown on these lands taken for farming purpones but a large portion tinda its way to Winnipeg mar- ket. Some people who really do not own any land of their own engage pretty extensively in the firewood business, and ttiey seem to have the sympathy of a good many others who ought to know better. Itecently forty-six cords of tire- wood were seized and sold at Selkirk, for having been cut, contrary to law, upon the Indian re- serve ; but the price at which it waa knocked down waa less than thirty cents per cord, and the press of that gr«at city of the future spoke ap- provingly of the transaction. The thieving of Government wood would not look so bad, if it were only done by poor people who have no wood lota of their own, but some of the wealthiest men in these parts, who own wood lota, raid pretty exteosively on the Government wood, and leave their own for future use. Winnipeg, May 15th, 1879. PRIVATIONS or PBEIOHTINO— MAB8HT PBAIBIB8— THE MKNN0NITE8 — OEaANlZIMO BUMDAT- 8CH00LS— A UIMT. SiB, — On the afternoon of Thursday, 15th Inst, I started on a pilgrimage amongst a number of small Canadian settlements lying east and «outh east from Winnipeg. My course waa along the Uawjon route (trul it should be called) for thirty miles to Pointe dea Chenea; then south- west some seven or eight miles to Clear Springs aettleraeut, which is situated on the south-east quarter of township seven, range six, east, and also includes a strip of land from one mile to one and a half mile wide along the west border of township seven, range seven, east. After crossing tho railway track at St. Boniface I passed through a small strip of poplar woods, and entered on the mos). lonesome and wet piairie I had yet seen, being nearly all covered over by water and willow bushes. The road had been lecently passed over by a large number of French natives, who were freighting goods to the North- West Angle of the Lake of the Woods on ox carts, and waa cut up in a way scarcely ever seen down east. Freightiog on such roads must be hard on the men, oxen and cartsergagedinit, proof of which I saw in a dead ox lying beside the road and several portions of broken carta, but I suppose THE MEM ALL ESCAl^ED WITH THEIR UVSB. Here and there along this dreary road consi- derable streams of water are crossed, which run in a north-easterly direction and help to drown nearly all the land for about tive or six miles wide by ten miles long, reaching from Kildon- an to Protestant Kidge, which is near the east side of range four, and on the dividing line be- tween townships nine and tin. Tiiia oveiflow of water ia caused by an ugly propensity which the amall rivera in this country have of forsak'.ng their proper bed or channel, and spreading themselves into immense muskegs or marshes, which frequently have Satan's most vulgar name prefixed to them. The marshes which are laid down on the map form but a small portion of the overflowed lands in their vicinity, especially during the early part of summer. By referen.-ie to the map you will perceive tha^ a large part of this tract ia owned by the Roman Catholic Church, and to "render this savage wilderness more waste," there are no houses nor signs of cultivation to be seen for over eight miles of the journey which took me near four hours to ac- complish, PBOTBSTANT BIDOE, or Prairie Grove, as the post office here is call- ed, ia situated on the borders of the large float- ing bog where the river Seine loaea itaelf the secmd time, and containaover a dozen Canadian settlers, who have no school as yet, but have the timber out for a building to serve as a school and meeting-hou^e. I stayed over night at the honse of Henry Mc- Quade, sen., who may properly be called the patriarch of the settlement, as he haa six sons and three S3na-in-law among the land-tillera and defenders of British Canadian rights in this portion of Her Majesty's dominions. The old gentleman ia pot>seaiied of a full share of Irbh combativeneaa, and it seems to give him con- siderable pleasure to relate the encounters which he and bis friends had with the French natives The Letters f Rusticus. 25 who were Rent by Father Bichot and Aroh- biahop Tacbi^ to DBIVIS OFF the iatrudinf? Irish Canadiana. From here to Pointe dea Chenes, for a dlBtance of Beventeen or eighteen milea, there are no En^- lishepeaking aettlera that I heard of, and it is cnly very sparsely settled by FrenchOanadiana and natives. The land is of superior quality, if drained, for which there are excellent facihtlea, as the water in the pretty little river Seine is from four to eight feet lower than the adjacent lands in moat places. I called at the housa of a French-Canadian, who hnd formerly worked nineyeara with Gilmour & Co. in the Ottawa region, but who last year bought two hundred acres of lani, with ten chatna frontage on the Seine, having a little house and several acres ploughed ; the price piid was only (1)00 f Jr the whole. The general price of land in this quarter hseeniii to bn from $1 to $2 50 per acre. If a oon- tiiderable tract of thia section of conntry was bonghS by a company of enterprising farmers from Britain or Ontario, and a comparatively email sum spent in draining and improving it, the selling price of it would be thereby increased more than fourfold. When five or six miles from Pointe des Chenes, the road comes out into the largest open prairie in Manitoba east of the Red liiver. This prairie is about ten milea long and five miles wide, and is almost a perfect level with scarcely a bush three feet high in sight, a considerable portion of it beiog DKDXB WATEIt with a good growth of fresh green hay growing up through it. I observed also in one place that a considerable extent of this meadow land had the hay cut last season and raked up with a horaerake and part cf it cocked ; but it was left on the field over winter and continues there still, aa it ia too wet to burn. Ju)t before coming to this open prairie I passed two bands of NATIVE FBBIOHTEBS who were on their road back from the Lake of the Woods, where they hod delivered their loads. There were in all fifty-two ox-carts. The oxen, being unhitched, were grazing on the prairie while their masters were preparing their own mid 'day meal. Most of these carts were loaded with cedar and tamarac posts, which were being taken to Winnipeg, while several carts had fur loads the debris of other carts which had been broken on the journey. The price paid for freighting from Winnipeg to the Lake of the Woods Is $1 50 per 100 Iba. when the roads are bad, ana $1 to $1.25 when the trail is in tolerable condition. Moat of the French natives In this part do little else than freight goods on this road, and will find it hard to make a living when the freighting business ceases through the completion of the railway to Rat Portage. The usual time taken in making the ronnd trip is from ten to twelve days, each man driving three or four carts, hav- ing from seven to ten hundredweight on each cart ; but In some cases it has taken these cara- vans nearly four days going the eight miles be- tween St. Boniface and Protestant Uldge. AT POIRTI DK8 OHIHBS there Is a large new Roman Catholic church, with a considerable number of French natives and Canadians dwell{'!t( en both banks of the Seine, which is here a^xmt thirtv feet wide and from three to four feet deep, and running about three miles per hoar. A rather novel feature tibout this river is the fact that there is here much more water running in It than there is in it thirty milea further down at Its outlet Into Red River, although it receives several tribu- taries by the way. A considerable portion of the surplus water Is no doubt evaporated during its slow progress through the two muskegs and numerous other wet marshes over which it has to travel : but a considerable portion of the lost water finds its way to the Red River through two large couliea, which empty themselves near the lower end of Kildonan. There are about halfa dozvn English -speaking families at Polnta dea Chenes, but they are a small number to support a school ; some of them cent their children to the French school, but the teacher sent the young heretics home again, stating that there was not sufficient room in the sohoolhouse to accommodate them, which Is quite likely, since the teacher occupies a portion A the achoolhouse as a private tosi- denoe. There is here also one of the BIST SAW AND OBI8T MILLS In the province. The price charged for c: inding wheat la one-sixth, and for sawing lu.'aber $10 per thousand feet. On Saturday morning I started for Clear Springs settlement, and In doing so passed through a corner of THE MENNONITE BESEHYB, near to the village of Bloominboff , to which Is attached the land In the north-east quarter of township seven, range six, east. Although Bloominhoff lay about a mile and a half out of my road, and the chance for holding con- versation with its inhabitants was very small, as most of them are abont as ignorant of Kng- lish as I am ignorant of Low Dutch, which they speak, yet I could not resist the temptation to visit these peculiar people in their own homes. I had ample opportunities for seeing whatever I wanted to see, as the people weie very friendly, but our conversation was almost a complete failure, as my small collection of Gaelic and French words were entirely worthless, and I had to keep to the Englif>h, of which they seem- 3d to understand a little, bat could scarcely eprak a word. On my asking for a drink of milk the obliging lady Mennjnite brought along with a jug of rich, sweet milk a a plate with bread on It, and another with but- ter. I gave a copy of the Nobthebn Mxsbenosb to an intelligent young man named Isaac Wark- Ington, and he took it and read it slowly, about as well aa a boy who had got through the fir»t book of lessons would do, but he evidently did not understand all he read. I had a much better opportunity on the following Monday of holding intercourse with the Mennonites, through an interpreter, a Scotchman, named John Peterson, who had learned to speak the Low Datch fluently, and with whom I visited the village of Steinbach, where I got civil answers to all the questions asked without being made to feel like an introder, as I hare often felt when searching 26 The Letters of Rusticus. for news in the Tiobity of Montreal. As the in- formation Kained during this interview will pro- bably form the subjeot of another letter, I will leave the Mennonites for the present, mert. Thia wn LUTD could be readily drained, but the cost would be too great tu he borne by the few setUers living here, who own not more than u fourth part of the land which would be benefited by any drain which would take the surface water from the eet- tlemeut. There is a stream called Fish Creek, which, ftfter a course of five or six miles in a westerly direction, comes out of the woods about two and a half miles from the southeast corner of the township, when it spreads itself into a marsh, and continues in a westerly direction for about five miles, then empties into the Seine through a short coulie. The deepening of this creek would not cost a sixth part of the increased value which the drainage secured by such deep- ening would add to the adjacent lands. There is also a considerable stream, called English Biver, which has its source near the border of the province, in latitude 49. 3o, and longitude 96,26 west. This stream, after a north- westerly course of about twelve miles, partly as a marab and partly as a creek (river they call it), ent«n> the prairie near the south-east corner of town- ship 10, range 7, east, which is called Rich- land, but, like a great deal of rich land in these parts, is nearly all under water— at leastthat portion which I saw of it. When the English Kiver reaches the open prairie, it ia transformed into a marsh and drowns a con- siderable portion of townships nine, ten and eleven in ranges five and six east, the water ultimately finding an outlet ia Oook's Creek, near the northwest comer of Township 11, range 6, east. At the time of my visit to these parts (May 21st and 22nd) there were over seventy-five square miles of good land under the waters of English River in its course of over twelve miles as a marsh from the point where it comes out o! the bush near the southwest corner of Richland until it enters Cook's (Jreek near the nortliweBt comer of Rossmore. I believe that a BUALL STBAU BHOVIL of say twelve or fifteen horse power placed on a flat faioat, say ten feet wide and thirty feet long, would dig a channel twelve feet wide and three feet deep through the whole length of this marsh in one season, at a cost of not over $2,000 for fuel and attendance, while 50,000 acres of wet land wonld be drained. At the point where English River reaches the prairie is a favorite camping-ground of the Indians. I visited the encampment, but none of those present (chiefly squawa and children) could speak English, I was told by their ueighbors that they are SnUi FAOANB. The only remarkable thing about the encamp- ment was the number and variety of the dues, which seemed all anxious to let me know that they could bark and ftrowl the same way that Christians' dogs do. Besides the Indians, there are only two or three settlers living in the town- ship of Richland, which ia moatly wooded. There 14 a Canadian settlement of four or five families in the bush near the centre of Township 9, range 7. Being anxious to know how bush- farming is done in this country, I wimt nearly two miles through brush and mud until I came to a very stony ridge, such aa I had not before seen in this country, the LABQE BODLDIBS protroding out of the soil bo thickly that you might travel a considerable diMtanoe without letting your boots come in contact with the ground, bv jumping from one big stone to an- other. I here saw four inhabited dwellinj^s and several fields under crop, the land being light and dry and in some places pretty free of stone. Most of the land in these parts, except a wet strip of a little more than a mile wiae on the border of the prairie, was overrun by bush fires about eight or ten years ago, and only patches of the larger timber remain, but the second growth is comioff on speedily. There is scarcely any more labor required to bring these brulea under cultivation than most of the willow- covered prairies. The people here, although poor, seem pretty contented with their lot, as their homes are sheltered from the fierce blasts which sometimes in winter blow across th)> prairies, and they have an abundance of wood for fuel and fencing, and plenty of good-tasted water which is not to be had in many places in this country. There is a school in operation in this townnhip (Caledonia), and there are forty children of school age living in the district, but, owing to the \vet state of the roads, the distanco some have to come, and also the number of child- ren who have to help their parents at this season, the attendance of scholars at present is only abnut a dozen. It was after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the 21st May, when I reached Millbrook, and nad to go nearly three miles before reaching any house which seemed to have been inhabited, although I had passed some half a dozen unfinished bcild- ings. Feeling very hungry, I called at the first house to get aOHXTHINa TO lAT, but there was no human inhabitant present, al- though there was a considerable field of young fain growing, enclosed by a fence, near by. went a half mile further to another house, which was also deserted. I next visited two other houses with no better success. I was beginning to get a little anxious, ss I had no provisions with me, and it was now past six o'clock, and I was growing tired aa well as hun- gry. I then climbed upon the walls of an un- ficished building, and with my glass took a view of my surroundings. The country to the south and west was an open prairie with scarce- ly a bush on it ; yet only one house, and it was unfinished, could be seea within a distance of more than six miles. Towards the southeast, from three to eifiht miles distance, could be seen the houses of Caledonia and Richland which I had lately visited. The view towards the north was cut oS by several blufis of small poplars, but towards the northwest, about one and a half miles distance, I discovered a small shanty with two litMe children playing in front of it, a sure sign of civilization. I hastened to this hut and found it to be occupied by a family who came from the Gatineau, not far from where I was 28 The Letters of Rusticus. bora. While the guodwifewaa preparing lup- l>«r I learned that the DUIBTID BOOSIB which I had visited, aa well aa aome others In that locality, belong to youn^f men whose par- ents live in Kildcnan, where the young men are at present stopping, but as tb«re are exten- sive hay-marshes in this quarter, they cut a large ({uantity of hay in autumn and feed it to their dry stoclc, which are stabled here during win- ter, the young farmers keeping bauhelors* hall and attending to the stock during that time, but returning to the old homestead after they have put in a little crop in the spring, leaving the cattle to range over the country at pleasure. Owing to this cau le, and also the lart;e amount of wet laud, there are only two or three inhabi- ted houses at present in the south half of the township of Millbrook. The people living here are very inconveniently situated for receiving letters or papers by mail ; their nearest poRt-ofHce being Cook's Cret^k which is from eight to twelve miles distant, with an immense marsh intervening. This and the adjacent township west of it, called Flympton, are very thinly settled, although not included in the half-breed reserve. I do not think that there ore at present over forty families living in the two townships. I am told that there is a consider- able quantity of Government land here yet, but as it is 80 wet, and also in the railway reserve, settlers do not care to get it, not knowing how much it may ultimately cost. Winnipeg, May 24th. THE PENITKNTIABT AND LUNATIC ASYLUM - ALKALI SPOTS— IN VESXIGATINO A MU8KE0. Sir,— On the afternoon of Tuesday, 27th May, I left Winnipeg to vi^it a number of Canadiau settlements lying north-west of the city. After ajiurneyof fifteen miles (part of it through a wet marsh) I came to a place called STONY MOUNTAIN, in the township of Sockwood. This mountain is a solid ledge of limestone rock, about a mile long by a quarter of a mile wide, and some tjeventy or eighty feet above the surrounding swamp. There is a sfentle slope from the plain up to the top of the mountain, on the east side ; but on the west side it is nearly perpendicular. Several Ume-Vilns are built into the sides of this little mountain, and considera- ble quantities of lime and stone are brousjht from here to Winnipeg. The Provincial Peni- t^ntiary is built on the top of this rock, id commands one of the most extensive views in Manitoba, the city of Winnipeg being plainly seen, although thirteen miles distant as the crow flie?. I was shown all through the penitentiary building by Mr. Bedson, the very eSicient warden, who seems to have a special kaack for keeping order in an institu- tion of this kind, which gives accommodation to the lunatics as well as the convicts of the great North- West. Twenty- four of the latter and fourteen of the former class now find board, lodg- ings and employment in and around this institn- tion. There is a C9nsiderable farm and garden connected with the establishment, which is bting rapidly enlarged, and will soon furnish more prodaco than ia required at the institution. While walking throngh the garden in company with Mr. liedion, a middle aged mun ap- proached the latter gentleman and asked permisBion to go out of the garden to see his son, whom he had not seen fur over four wet-kn, Mr. Beddon replied that he could not go outride the garden, but that he (Bedson) would tell the boy to como and see his father. After we left Mr. Bedrion told me thut the man we had just luftwas a lunatic, and that quite a number of the other persons present ia the garden were of unsound mind, who were sent into the garden io hue weather, where they could work or wa'k around as tbey iileased, while several of thd most trusty convicts were employed to keep watch over their actions and assist in preventing their escape. Several of the penitentiary guardN were also within hailing distance. One of the lunatics bad recently made his escape from the garden and ran nearly three miles across a wet prairie before being caught. Everything around the building ia kept EXCBEOINOLY NKAT AND CLIAM ; yet the convicts sometimes suffer through the lack of proper drainage, which seems the more strange since the building is on the top of a mountain. There is a well in the bailding bored 180 feet down into the solid limestone rock, atid the water drawn from it is very nlear and of g lod taste. From the summit of Stony Mountain I had a good view of the surrounding country, where I saw the evil effects of the alkali in many place?. In every part of the country in which I had yet been, I saw many ALKALI SPOTS, where the ground was slightly crusted with 8om '^^hing like hoar frost, which in some pUces mauo the ground nearly white, with scarcely a blade of graas growing. There are luauy of these alknii spots in ttte city of Winnipeg, but ihey were mostly of small size, covering only a fr'w rods. In the townfihips of Bcckwood and Victoria (Nos. 13th and 14th in range two, east) there are pretty ext-nsive tracks of alkali lands, where very little grass will grow. There are very few cultivated fields on the eastern half of the township of Victoria which are not more or less damaged by alkali spots, amounting ia some fields to nearly a third of the surface. In tlie worst spots no grain whatever will grow, while in others there is a very feeble growth of grain in- termixed with several kinds of weeds, one uf which looked exactly like what we used to ciU " fireweed" in Canada. I have seen some stub- ble fields where in places there was very strong grain stubble, indicating a rank growth of grain, while within a few feet there was not a vesti»:e of stubble to be seen, the alkali having prevented any grain from growing. There is a strip of wooded land about a mile wide which runs northward along the centre of townships 13, 14, 15 and 16, range 2, east. This wooded land ia mostly divided into wood-Iota of twenty acrps each, which are owned by the holders of the adjacent prairie lands. In some places in the township of Victoria and lying to the eastward of this strip of wood, there are mobt BIAUTirUL LITTLB BLUFFS and strips of wood, consisting chiefly of poolar fringed with willosra. These Ktripa of wood often enclose beautiful little l twelve feet deep, and although there ia a ooiiiiiderable cur- reut tl iwing through it. ytt it haa very little water flowing into it, and no visible outlet. Its banka are in nearly all places composed of mus- keg. I visited a part of this creek yesterday, and had to travel for nearly one hundred yards before getting to the water's edge, over a apongy-like surface, where at every step I took I Bank from four to six inches in water, although I was carefully stepping on the moat grassy spots. The jmrney over this place was certainly exciting, if not very dangeroux, as the whole Burrounding surface seemed to tremble at each step, and I was not altogether without fears that I might slip through the top crust into the ui:known depths beneath. When the open water was reached, which was at thatplace abont 100 feet wide, I could not see the bottom, and felt a longing deaire to return to terra )irma, and the journey back to aolid ground waa vuaiIu much more quickly than the one in the opposite uirer- tion. When the aolid land waa regaioed and I drew a long breath of relief, I c )uld distinctly hear my heart beat from the excitement. I in- tend to make aome further investigations about this creek, but the "June freshet" (as the wut Heason in this province is called) seems to be set- ting in, aa it baa beenrainirg more or leea every day for three daya paat, and in such a time it is not pleasant to be investigating the peculiaritiea of a muakeg. Aa the weekly mail leavea early to-morrow morning, I muat conclude for the preaent. Greenwood, Township 15th, Range two, Ea*l, May 30lh. JACK PISH CaHKK— SLAVISH WOBK— WELL DIG- OINO. Sib,— The weather bting wet on Friday, 7tb, and forenoon of Saturday, 8th May, I did not feel inclined to make any further personal ex- plorations of Jack Fish Creek, but waa credibly informed that a little to the northward of the Canada Pacific Railway Telegraph Line tb» surface soil or cruat above tde bog, through which the water of Jack Fish (Creek finda its outlet to Netley's Creek, and through which the pike from Fied River and Netley's Creek find their way to Jack ¥itsh Creek, becomes so firm that teams crossed over it the preaent season. At the croaaing of the telegraph line the bog is pretty bad, tteing nine or ten feet deep and wide alao, and ia by far the worst muakeg on the track of the Canada Pacific Railway be- tween Selkirk and the Narrows of Like Mad- taba. The greater part of the t'>wn8hip8 of Greeo- wcod and Dundas (15 and IG, in range 2, east) is called BRUSH FRAIBIB, being thickly covered with oak, hazel, poplar and willow bushes, with a good many boulders in some places, the land being chiefly a loamy clay, with an occasional aandy ridge. There is also a considerable quantity of wooded land, JO TiiK I.r.riKKs OF Ri'sTicus. frnm which the fkrmera draw % (^ood Idra of tirewood to VVinnipeK in winter tln>« with oi- tfaoii, althnagh the (iiit»nce la from thirty to forty luilM. I h»v« dune m good deal of wood- hauling ia inv younger daya, and alwaya ood- aidered it a ilavinh kind of work, Imt in all my exiMtrience I never met with auch a caa« of WOOD DHAWINO UNUIH DimODLTIIS aa ia experienced by the farmen here. The ox- aleiKh ia usually loaded with from a cord and a half to two corda of dry i)oi>lBr firewood on Mon- day,and a atart ia made bifore daylJKht on Tuea- day mi)rnmg,»nd after (iveor aix hnura travelling a halt (if about two honra ia made to reat and ffed the oxen, when the journey is reaumed. Thia proccia of alternately travelling for five hnura and resting two houra ia continned until WinniDeg ia reacned, aometime durioH the fore- noon of Wednesdav. At each halting place, a tire is kindled and tea made, and, not unfre- quently, the bottle naaaed around aa there are generally several teamatera Koing in company. When the load ia aold in Winni- peg, realizing from $6 to $9, the whiakey 3 ar is ret)lBniRDed and a start made for home, when a second series of ioumeyings and campings is gone through, the bottle being paaaed around more fr« day afternoon, the weather being fine, I atarted to visit the creek, although aaanred that I would meet with more water than waa either pleasant or profitable, tven before reaching the creek Itaelf. Aa there waa no road to travel on, I bad to ateer the beat way I could through wooda, brul^, and willow prairira, the water beinj{ almoat all the time from four to eight inchra deep. The aoil here aeema to be of excellent quality, since it producea immenae cropa of wild hay where there is an open apbre ; and even among the trees, where the ground wai not too wet, the young pea-vinea were growing rank, and aome of them in bloaaom, which eevuis pretty early for the northern borders of Manitoba, on the 24th of May. The large tlmh.r here is chiefly Balm vt Uilead, and is from vix to fifteen inches in diameter near the ground ; but asth* BALM or aiLIAO here, quite nnlike the poplar, is of little or no value for fuel ur building parposes, it detracts from the value of the land ; consequently , this tract of country still remains in the possf salon of the Government. The fact of its being in the railway reserve, while the track of the railway has been removed thirty milei southwards heliis to keep settlers from locating on these lands. The greateat drawback ia undoubtedly the wet condition of the soil and the improbability of i'a being drained fur many years tucome. There is a narrow strip of dry ground on the banks of the creek, but ai>hort distance back it is very wet. The creek is about twenty-four feet wide with five feet depth of water running in it at a velocity of nearly two miles an hoar. Shortly after entering on the prairie, the crvek is lost in a muskeg, through which tne water filters for over five miles, when it assumes the creek form again and runs out to Red River in a stream so large that a email steamboat can ascend it for a considerable distance from the month. On Monday and Tuesday I visited the western side of these townships ; also, the settled parts of the townships adjuining on the first rarge of townships east. The land here is much drier than aluiost any I had seen in this province, and cnnaiorth'ea8t«rn comer of thiii reserve, and is here a pretty stream with gravelly bot- tom, and numerous saiall ponds or enlargements, where the water is four or five feet deep at present. There was more than three times the amount of water running in this creek when I crossed it on Monday evening thanwaa running in it on the previous Thursday, six mileJi fur- ther east, where it joins the bog stream. I wan told by the people living here that this stream has an annual freshet about the bi-Kin- ning of June— the wet season— but by the be- (tincing of August the stream and also the ponds through which it passes are all dried up. On Wednesday I travelled southward, croesirg the large open prairie lying southwards of the townships of Rookwood and Grasamere, to the Asainiboine, and in TEN MILES OF UT JODBNET did not poM a s^gle house, although the land waa dry and qu>ie suitable for settlement. I have not heard of any claims having been sold here the present season, bat was told that from 94 to $8 per acre is the price asked since the Canada Pacific Railway is expected to pass along the northern boundary of this province, while the Winnipeg branch will pass along the south aide. From the parish of St. PanI westward, ex- tending five or six miles on each side of the fifti- eth parallel north latitude to Bale St. Paul, a dutance of thirty miles, there is a track of country containing fully 300 square miles, or yearly 200,000 acres of land, almost all of first (|uaHty, although it needs draining in many places. It ia capable of sustaining a population of 20,000 people, yet, at the present ume, there are not a dozen inhabited bouses on the whole track. So much for the blessings of half-breed reserves, which serve to demorjijize the natives, and enrich speculators to the great material loss of this unfortunate province. WinniparticulAr cases where lexagserated or misHtated anything, I would feel obliged to him, since it would give me an opportunity of proving my statements or of apologizing to the readers of the WiTMKBH for having deceived them. I am the more anxious that Mr. (ireenway would forward bis bill of paiticulars at once, and also give the names of at least a dozen of the leading citizens of Emerson (or one or two res|)ectable persons) "who are fully acquainted with the circumstances," so that I mixht call on them and see it they will under- take " a verification of what I (Greenway) have said in reference to this matter." Mr. Greenway would leorl your readers to infer that tem- porary bridges had been constructed across the open water in the Red River at Emerson, on Sunday, March 30th, while tbera were really no bridges erected until Tuesday, April 1st, except that referred to in my letter as connecting the shore on the eastern or Emerson side of the river with the solid loe on the otntre. I was in- deed told that the plankc which entered Into the construction of this bridge were borrowed from Mr. Carney on Sunday, but I thought that it was the ferryman and not Mr. Greenway who had borrowed them, since the ferrrman collected toll from the people who passed over them. Mr. Greenway blames me for saying that I "called upon Mr. Tetu and Mr. Grahame on Monday in reference to this matter" Mr. Grahame also makes a similar statement, but I DENT THAT I WENT NEAB THESE OBNTLIMEN ON MONDAT. and I leave to the readers of the Witnehs if I said so in any of my letters. Mr. Tetn's "coal oil bottle" seems to have mixed and muddled the senses of these gentlemen so much that they failed in their calculations of time. Mr. Green- way's letter infers that I "stood by and saw men hard at work, lifting and drawing like horsus, without as much as offering to lend a helping hand," I deny the charge, as I assisted in taking across ths tem^orarv bridges the first waggon loaded with goous belonging to Iklr. Greenway's party, and nearly every load or empty waggon beloDging to that party and the Ottawa and Montreal parties wnlch crossed the Bed Biver at that time ; yet, during all that time, DID NOT MEET WITH MR. OBBBNWAT, although I was anxions to see him and had made many enquiries as to his whereabouts, while Mr. James Cretch, of Exeter, seemed to tw the work- ing head of the Greenwar party. Will Mr. Greenway explain where he was during that cold and stormy 1st of April, when so many of hii partv took their teams and waggons across the Red Biver ? Mr. Grahame charges me with " bilng non at at the Ume I ought to have been present to redeem my pledge" to Mr. Carney to 32 TiiK Letters oe Rusticus. return the lumber to him, which was borrowed for the purpose of making temporary bridgea on which to take the effects of the immigrants across the river. That statement, like many others made by Mr. Grahame, is untruthful. On Thursday afternoon, April 3rd, finding that no more immigrants were wanting to cross the Bed River at Emerson, I borrowed a baodsleigh and with it drew the planks which formed the west- em shore bridge, up the river nearly half a mile on the centre ice to where the eastern shore bridge was located. I then went to hire a team to draw them all up to Mr. Carney's lum- ber yard, but while looking for a team I met a man who wished me to leave the temporary bridges undisturbed for some time longer, aurney of about one hundred and fifty yardn, came to a place where the poplar had been cut into firewood the winter before last, but had never been piled, and as a veiy vigorous second growth had since sprung up, there was consider- able difficulty in finding the wood scatteied around. This wood we gathered up and carried on our shoulders down through bruhh and bushes to the tucf, while the hungry mosquitoes assailed us as if we W''re robbing their nest . I have seen Lnosquitoec as bad in the swamps of Hull thirty years 8go, but then I could use both bands in keeping them oflF, but here my hands being en- gaged holding the firewood on my shoulders, the moequitoes had it nearly all their own way, for the hour or more which we spent in wooding up. THE INDIANS— SOMETHINO ABOUT THEIR AP- PBARAKCK, CHARACTER aND HABITS — A BIT OP ADVICE TO THE GOVBBNMKKT. SiK,— There is an Tndian reserve at the mouth cf the Wiutipeg River extending five or six milt B along each bank of the river. Here about two dozen dwolling-hou'ies and about as many more wigwams are erected, in which there are Indian famiJies living at present. The quantity of land cultivated by each family is very small, not exceeding ouo hundred acres in the asrgre- cate, more than half of wh'ch is held by four or tivu families. There is an KiJ?4copal and also a Roman Catholic missionary residing here Mofct of the In< iina tow i rofesa Chri.ntianity and some of them eeem to practice it more closely than do many white prufesBors. Last winter a teamster employed in one of the log shanties up the Winnipeg River, was coming to Selkirk for auppiies, and passed through the Tndian settlemtnt on Sunday. Having only wild hay to feed his horses, h>) sought to buy Bome oats or barley from the Indiana, but found that only one Indian had any grain to spare. The teamster osilled at the house of this Indian, whom he found reading his Indian Testament, but when the teamster proposed to buy a bag of oats or barley the Indian flatly REFUSED TO BELL any on Sunday, since all such transactions were forbidden in that book (pointing to the Indian Testament). The teamster pleaded earnestly the cause ot his hungry horses, but in vain, as the Indian was inexorable ivi his purpose to keep the Sabbath. During the Sunday which I spent at Pine Falls, quite a number of Indiana transport- ed ti.«tr canoes and luggage across the portftge, regardless of the f<)urth commandment, some go* ing up stream and more going down, the latter having been employed to work in the steam saw- mill of Messre. Burrows and Walkley, which in f Ituated at the mouth cf Winnipeg river. The Indians who encamped near the Falls were aho engaged in fishing aa usual, but I think they aro mcstly pagans, although seemingly anxious to be very fiiendly, and will grin, lausih and hold out their hand to t^halce hands with you when you try to hold conversation with them iu Eng- lish. They seem to have a wholesome— or un- wholesome-dread cf an imaginary creature, a species of gorilla, called THE "WINDKaO," which carries death and destruction wherever he goes, and no Indian will remain in the sectinu uf country wuere he is supposed to be. I saw hu Indian who speaks a little English, and who professes to have seen the " Windego," but he has been so often jibed about it by incredulous white meu that he refuses to tell anj^thing fur- ther about it. I fear the "Windego'' is not to be found without the a88i^tince of aboUle. When the steamboat wes paseiL'g u little abo>-e Fort Alexander, I was shown AH OLD INDIAN OEMETBBY m t nsed now, where the dead bodies were p' aced in boxes, wrapped around with the bark of the white birch and placed c" the top of four posts, some eight or nine feet f. 'in the ground. I could see from the deck of the steamboat ore or two of these aerial sepulchres, and was told that there were many more coroealed by the bushes, while the ground in that vicinity id istrewn with human bones and skulls, tne latter having their full complement of teeth, an tooth- ache was almo t unknown amorg the Indiana until they began to use civilized ftxid. The soil iu this reserve is of good quality near the river, and heavily wooded with poplar aud balm of Gilead, requiring a good deal uf l.tbor t:> clear it. The Government had promised to furnish these Indiana with seed grain, but the grain did not arrive until a few days before my visit, when the season was too far advanced to sow ic with any prospects of securing a fair crop. It seems like mocking the Indiana to send them SEED GRAIN IN TE : MONTH OP JUNE to be sown in land which is almost certain to be visited by August frosts. There seems to be considerable room for im- provement in the mode of dealing with the In- dians out West, aa well aa at Oka, and I would make the following SUGGESTIONS for the consideration of those in authority : First- Let all the treaty stipulations be car- ried out to the letter, and in the way and at the time when it will ao the Indiaps the greatest amount of good. Second— The Indians should be encouraged to build dwelliug-houses, raise cattle, and cultivate the soil as much as possible, by furnishing them with the things needful to this end, at as low rates as possible, and in some cases, it may be gratuit msly. Third— A practical farmer, with ^L family, should be stationed in each reserve to conduct a "model farm," where the young Indiana could The Letters of Rusticus. 35 idment, Bome go« down, the latter Q the steam saw- 'alkley, which in peK river. The i Falls were also I think they aro Ingly anxious to lautth hndhold with you when 'h them iu Eng- olesome — or un- laty creature, a ion wherever he in the sectinu of be. I saw hu glish, and who indego," but he by incredulous 1 anything fur- idego" is not to (if a boUle. assiiig a little own rKRT d bodies were I with the baik the top of four i"^ the ground, steamboat ore , and was told sealed by the at vicinity is :ulls, the latter ;eeth, as tooth- g the Indians 'd. qnality near poplar and ealof l*t»r ti) ised to furnish the (frain did re ray visit, oed to BOW it fair crop. Ifc send them )P JUSB certain to be room for im- with the In- and I would hority : ;ions be car- >y and at the the greatest icouraged to pd cultivate iahing them end, at as ases, it may *■ h family, conduct a diaca could be tnrght to woik steadily while young, be- fore thuy learn to skuiu: around like their daddies, which is not very dififerent from what white people would do if brought up in the same way as the Indiats are. The farmers chosen to conduct model farms among the Indians should te something more than poli- tical hi)cks, wh(.:ee cbitf end in all their doings U th'.Ir own aud their party's aggrandizement. Each one should, in udditicn to a complete knowledge of farming, be a j tck-of-all-trades, with a great deal of patience and persever- ance, and, if possible, an enthusiast in hia de- sire to promote the advancement of the Indian race. Uis wife and family should also be a little enthusiastic in the same way, and while hating dirt and I'.ce with a perfect hatred should not be too squeamish and eaeily disgusted by ttitir presience. This farmer should be pnpplied with ail the things needful to begin ai.d carry on the farm, and in addition to a moderate salary receive also a percentage of the p^jduce raised on the farm. A number of Ind'''in ladn and Bome lasses from t'velve to eighteen ye.ars of age should be ergaped permanently working on the farm, and older Inaiutia should be allowed to wcrk in payment for such supplies as they may need. Ail Indians who may desire to cuuivate lauds of thdr own should be funii.'-hrd witn seed ^rain from the model farm by way of a loan, to be paid back the f )llowing fall, when the thresh- ing is done. The ftvrmcr t-hould roo that the full amount cf grain u returned in the f:i]l to be c-gain. lent to the same parties the following spring, and thus the ground would not have to remain idle for l;«ck of seed to sow in it, as is so often the case now, eince want of forethought, more than Ibziness, is the great drawback to the Indians becoming successful farmers. While waiting for the boat to sail to Winnipeg; river, I went out about three miles west of thin city, where a number of Indians are encam;:ed, and tried to interview several Indian chitfs from Qu'Appella, at the head of the Asainiboiuo River, but for want of a proper interpreter I could not get much information. I learned that Bomo cf the Indians iu that country do a gcod deal of f arminsr, but the greater part do nothing in that line. The Indians complained of not having re ceived the cattle promised to them, and were considerably annoyed at a recent order of the G-overnratnt prohibiting the sending of cartridges t'> the North- West. Some of these Indians had their PACTS PAIS TED with yellow, bine and^reen paint, and with large feathsrs stuck in their heads, seemed to think they looked formid:-.blo ; but I think there is not halt the fight in them that is in many ot the French native traders. I have been informed that the Government has issued orders for the persons who bought lai.'da unlawfully from the treaty Indians in St. Feter'a reserve to vacate the lands immediately, which, although it raay involve some casea cf hardship, is a step in the ri/ht direction . Winnipej, Jure 20th. NAVIGATION OF THII ASSINIBOINK RIVER— HELP INO THE STEAMER— A WESTERN THUNDER BTORH— PORTAOB LA VRAIBIX. Sip.— On Ihe after.»oon of June 21st I left Winni^ieg oa the steamer " Cheyenne " to go up the Assiniboine to Pottage La Prairie, which lies nearly due w«Bt of Winnipeg ab.>ut fitty miles in a dirtct line, but is sixt^ miles by the land road and one huudred and eighty miles by the water route, caused by tht extreme crookedness of the river. Owing to the prevailing raina, the water was unusually high, and siill rLsiag, which added to the swiftness of the current against which the good steamer " Cheyenne " had to contend. The boat was heavily laden with frdj^ht and about seventy passengers, and in addition !>ad a detplyladen barge in tow olot^gbide. Under st;ch unfavorable circumstances it was not won- derful that our progress westward was exceed- ingly Blow, so that we were forty hours from leaving Bed Kiver until we reached the landing at Portage La Prairie. This voyage was to me most tedious, c wing to the very blow progress of the boat, as well as the mocotunoua eOEfiZTlT ALONG THE BANKS of the river, which are lined with bm^hwood nearly all the way ; in which there is an occa- sional opening wht-re some French native has erected a house and cultivates a few acrea of ground — whsn he is at home. On some of tbei>o patches of cultivated land the crops looked well, l3ut the greater portion waa sufiering from v>o much rain, aa the growing crops were in many places beiug drowned out by water, which by a vety little tffort at draining would have run i>:t > the Assiniboine and allowed the crops to grow with all the laxurianco which such rich soil is capable of producing. AlthoUi;;h I took cabin pasE^sge, for which I paid 9'i, the number cf ]ar>y passengers was so large that thty occupied iDearly all the sleeping rierths, bo that I and many other gentlemen had to fUvp during two nighta on the cabin floor, v.ith no other bedclothes than our ooat or satchel for a pillow. A few miles west of Winnipeir, when paaaing through the parishes of St. James and St. Churles, there ore what are called THE ABBIBIBOINX BAFIDS. to be overcome by every boat goiug to the Port- age. It ia probable that the "Cheyenne" would have been able to have Bailed up these rapids had she been unencumbered, but with the barge in tow it could not be done without assist- ance from shore. Ten men (hands of the boat) were landed, and, taking the end (if a very long rope, drew it out to itu full lensrth up the banks beside the rapid stream and fastened it to a tree or some ubjeci; ou shore, while the other end of the rop » waa put around the caps&an, which is worked bv steam. The rope was then drawn in, andih) engines kept going at full steam, when thi.' " Cheyenne and her consort oaoended the rapid i at a snail's pace. This process had to be gonn through three orfour times befoie reaching Head- ingly. Toe banks of the river westward from Head- ingly are very low, and in the vicinity of Bskic St. Paul only about two feet above the present high water in the river ; but as the immediate banks are f^enei'.ily higher than the land a shor'i distance back, the back water from the river In many places flooded considerable tracts of other- wise good land. When passing near the lower end of 1 36 The Letters of Rusticus. L0N3 LAKE my attention was attracted to a large drain or cutting, which had been done bv the Public Works Department of tliia province, for the purpose of draiuinK the water of Long Lake into the Assiniboine ; but as the former refused to join the latter at this point, the Assiniboine con- cluded to use the canal to convey a portion of its surplus water into Long Lake. To prevent this untoward event a dam had to be made across the Government canal, and when I passed the water on the Assiniboine side of the dam was fully two feet higher than the surface of the water on the other side of the dam. The latter finds an outlet along the immense marsh of Baie St. Paul and into the Assiniboine, many miles lower down towards the Bed River. The timber along the banks of the river for nearly half the distance to Portage La Prairie is rathir small, but as you approach the Pottage the trees are of respectable size and would com- pare favorably with the low-lying woodlands of Cinebec or Ontario. On the morning of the 22nd June while the "Cheyenne" was sailing from High Bluff to- wArria the Portage, I witnessed the first filliniNB THnNDEB-BTOBU that I saw in this country. The thnnder cloud before reaching us had a peculiar indigo-blue color which I have never seen in the eastern pro- vinces. This strange color drew the attention of the passengers, especially of Mr. Wild, of Lon- don, Ont., and editor of the Canada Farmer, who was with us. The rain which followed wad not M heavy aa I have frequently seen in Lower Canada, but the flashes of lightning and peals of thunder succeeded each other more rapidly than £ hud ever seen before. The storm did not con- tinue more than twenty minutes, but a squaw was struck dead in her hut near High Bluff by the lightDing,and her husband was also stunned; some cittle were also said to havo been killed. The Fquaw who was killed belonged to a band of the Sioux who were driven out of the United States. They are still believers, more or less, in pagan superstitions,and almost immediately after death the poor squaw was buried in a hole dug in the spot where she was killed, and the whole baud removed their huts to another place of en- campment, as they would not venture to remain where such an accident had occurred. Four days after the accident I passed thu encamp- ment and found that they were making prepara- tions to have the corpse taken out of the hole into which it wai> bo uneeremociously placed, in order to its being decently interred in the Pro- testant buryin^-ground at High Bluff. While speaking about the lightning in this country I may state that nearly a week after- wards, during a thunder-storm at night, the flashes of lightning were so continuous f o" several minutes that I believe there would nnc have been much difficulty in reading ordinarily large print by this electric light. During the present Boason several voyages have been made upon the AssiDiboine as far up as Fort Ellice,or five hundred miles from Winnipeg by the course of the river. These western voyaces were made under considerable difficulties owing to the crookedness and in some places shallow- ness of the river, the danger of running against mags, and the ..-oubleuf "WOODIKO up" where there had been no previous prtparati >n. When the boat required a fresh supply of futl she was tied to the shore near to where thero are a number of dry trees which had been kill- ed by fire. All hands were then sent ashore to fell these trees, and cut them in lengths of from twelve to twenty feet, suitable for carry- ing on board, and wnen enough of them went obtained the boat started on her journey, while the boatmen employed their leisure time in cut- ling up and splitting these log-i into suitable size for firing up with. THE TILLAOB OF FOBTAOB LA FBAIBIE is divided into east and west by an intervening strip of beautiful farming country. In front of this there is a very large coulia which, at some former period, not very remote, formed the bed of the river Assiniboine, which seems to have a peculiar fond"><>« for opening new channels for itself. It is quite evident that at some remote period the river Assiniboine emptied into Lake Manitoba, aa the surface of the water in the lat- ter id considerably lower than that in the former, an i there is the mark of the old bed of the river nearly all the way to the lake. I would not be much surprised if the Assiniboine should yet tarn to its former course and mingle with tbo clear waters of Lake Manitoba instead of con- tfnoing its present crooked course to the Reril River at Winnipeg. Some of the older inhabi- tants of the Portage state that at times of un- Dtinallyhigh water in the Assiniboine, the water haa in some cases overflowed its present bankp vaA run north to Lake Manitoba. The farming country near the Ponase seems to be THE GARDEN OF UANITOBA, if not of the North- West. The deep black roil has a slight mixture of sand in it, which m.kes it much less tenacious than nearer to Winni- peg. The land is also slightly rolling, and con- sequently does not suffer from the very heavy rains of the present season . While travelling in this vicinity 1 saw numerous large fields of spring wheat, the growth of which was much ranker than I have ever seen spring wheat in Ontario or Quebec, at so early a pei.'od in its growth. I heard also many accounts of the enormous quantity produced per acre fron^ wheat sown here in former seasons ; but I fear that proper means are not always used to secure correct figures. The people of the Portage (village) are at present considerably exercised by the great probability of being left out in the cold by the railway passing six or eight miles north of the village, and also by the steamboat navigation on the Assiniboine ceaeiog when the railway is completed westward from Winnipeg, since merchandise as well as passen- gers can be much more cheaply as well as ex- peditiously transported westward by rail than by the crooked, rapid, and often shallow river Assiniboine. There are in the village at present two flour mills and a sawmill, all driven by steam power ; there are also numerous stores and hotels, and a court house and jail will probably be added before long. WELLS IN qUICKSAKD— WADINO ON THE PRAIBIK —THE M0SQDIT0E8. Sib,— The distance from the Portage (village) northward to Lake Manitoba is about fifteen The Letters of Rusticus. .17 Age aeems : PBAIBIB miles. The connlry for the first eleven mileaia tz- cellent farming land, but tor tour iiiiun as yon npproach the lake the unrface in at preeent a reed marsh, interspersed with small lakes which ore a irreat resort tor wild ducks. A sportsman fruu Winnipeg vitited this place last fall, anil caring a week's shooting secnrad more than A WAGGON LOAD OF BIBDS. In no place that I visited is the land lying be- tween the Assiniboioe and the lake more than twelve or fifteen feet higher than the snrface of the water in the river at present, yet, owing to the presence of several winr .iog coalies (evidently tho bed uf a river at some former period) the land is mosily dry. Only a few quarter-sections are without good dry sites on which to erect the farm buildings. This tract of country is under- laid by a bud of quicksand from six to twelve feet from the surface of the ground. Wells dug into this bed of sand have a never-failing supply of water, even in the driest weather, as there is evidently some connection between the waters cf Lake Manitoba and the water in the quick sand underlying the country south of it. Seve- ral respectable farmers, livmg from six to eight miles south from the lake shore, have assured me that when the wind blows from the north for several days, causing a rise of one or two feet in the snrface of the water at the southern ex- tremity of Lake Manitoba, there is also a cor- responding rise in the water in tbeir wells. Althou^ this section is so advantageous for farmers, it is, like all other new settlements in this province, very s:~ar8ely settled. I don't believe there are more than five or six inhabited houses in the whole of the township, thirteen in sixth range, west, yet $2,000 is the price asked for some unimproved quarter- sections in the south side of this township. There have been a much larger number of HOmSTIADS taken here, but homesteading in this province does not always imply the building of a dwelling- house or the bringing into cultivation of a por- tion of the soil. I did not notice any spots of alkali lands near the Portage, but about ten or twelve miles north- east towards the head of Lonir Lake there are numerous spots of alkali, and north of L^ngLake they are very frequent. The land lying north of Long Lake is also more or less stoLy on the drier portions, and in travelling across this portion of the country (township 13, ranges 2 and 3 west), the road is most of the time either crossing a stony, an alkali, or a wet strip of land, the alkili growing less frequent as you journey eastward. There is also a gravel ridge of con- siderable heieht crossing the northern part of these townships, which near the comer of Poplar Heights (township 13, ran^e 3 west) is seventy or eighty feet high. This ridge U generally well wooded, where the fire has not been making recent inroads on the forests. Most of the land north of this ridge is also wooded, while the soil is not desirable for cultivation, being mostly sandy and stony ridges, with wet marshes intervening. When approaching towards the north-east comer of Poplar Heights, the high gravel tidge turns northward through a corner of Bonnie Doon (toworb-'p 14, range 3, west). The aummlt of the ridge here is devoid of all bubhes or trees for several miles, and ii A CHAHMINO PLACE TO DBIVE ALONG, as it is elevated some 70 or 80 feet above the ad- jacent plains. I am informed that there n but one settler in the whole township of Bonnie Doon. a good deal of the land being reserved for wood Iota. The townships tf .Mrudowlea and Wood- lands (townships 13 and 14 in range 2, west) are much more thickly settled tha:i the townti k placo in the township of iVIeadowlea n fuw days before my vLeit to that locality. The north-w^st qutrtor of section 31 in township 13, range 2, west, was homestead- ed some six or seven years ago by Thomas The Letters of Rusticus. 39 BuDoe, aen.; bat the old gentleman, althongh oaltiva'anf; stveril acreH ou his homestead, con- tinued to ree de along with an unmarried son, whose homestead i» ou the adjoining quarter flection. The liunces, while they had many friends, hid also several enemies in that locality, and applijations were made to the Grown LanJd agent at Winnipeg to have Mr. Bunce's claim cancelled last fall. Mr. Codd, the agent, re- ferred the case to the authorities at Ottawa, and was instructed to allow old Mr. Bonce an ox- tension of six months' time In which to get lo- cated upon his homestead ; Mr. Codd also wrote a private letter toMr.Bunce, urging him strong- ly to be Hure and have his residence on the lot by the time the six months' extension given him would expire. This FBIENOLT ADVIOB wa>> disregarded by Mr. Bunce, acting, it is said, npon the advice of his sons, who have not a very enviable reputation in these parts, and who Eaid that no one wonid dare to jump the claim in question. This apriog the claim was cancelled by Mr. Codd, on sufficient proof of the require- ments of the homestead law not being complied with, and Mr. G. F. Hyde bad it entered as bia homestead, and proceeded to build a house and remove with his family to his new acquisition. But he did not long enjoy peaceable possession, for on the evening of June 17th, a large party of the neighbors, headed by old Mr. Bunce and his two Bona, came and forcibly ejected Mr. Hyde and Lis family from their new home, and after putting him and all his movables off the lot, pulled down his little house, and carted part of it away to the adjoining road, and burnt the rest of it on the spot. Mr. Hyde started for Winnipeg the following morning, and had war- rants issued for the arrest of the Bunces and a number of their friends, who were taken to Win- nipeg, and aiter a prelimmary examination be- fore Chief- Justice Weod, had to give bonds to appear at the next term of the Court of Queen's Bench in Winnipeg next September, to be there tried oefore a jury of their countrymen. I visit- ed Mr. Hyde, also the Bancee and some of tbeir associates in this transaction, and of course re- ceived different accounts of the affair ; but what caused me great surprise was the respectable appearance of some of the parties concerned in the unlawful ejectment of Hyde, and the destmction of bis house. Among the assailantE of poor Mr. Hyde were two schoolmastem at present in charge of the two public schools near- est to the scene of law-breaking. A neitihbor- *ing magistrate is also blamed w'th being one of the chief plotters and counsellor to these deeds of violence, although not present when it was enacted ; and a clergyman who ministers to the people in holy things, not only expressed his ap- proval of the course pursued by the Bunces and their friends, but also expressed regret that he was not present to assist in the good work ; so that this disgraceful act of lawlessness secured the approval, if not the active assiiitance of the magistrate, the minis- ter, and the schoolmasters of the place. I have been thinking that if the plotting J. P. had been present to read the Riot Act, and the sympathetic divine was there to say prayers, the ejectment of Hvde and his family, and the de- struction of their home, might have been per- formed in a more orderly if not in a more Law- fnl manner. I afterwards learned that the rea- son which led so many respectable people to par- ticipate in such unlawful doings was the f ict that they were nearly all of them personally concerned in crashing out any jumping tendency in that neighborhood, since they all are more or less interested in landii liable to be jumped. Al- though the Homestead Act has declar- ed to be illegal all attempts on the part (f the homesteader to sell his claim until he has received his patent for the land, yet snch sales are often made by means of the "jumping" clause in the Act.aa the purchaser, after paying the price stipulated, 14 allowed peaceably to jump the lot he has already bought. Although a peraon mai..i^j •>■ *" »>'*-8tead entry on any lot is n quired to state on oath (or by affirmation) that he is taking the land for the purpose of making it his home, yet somo respect- able people have secured homesteadii by making the necessary affidavit, while having no inten- tion of ever residing on them ; but after holding them for a few yearo until their value was great- ly insreased, have put scrip on them or else sold them to some one who would then secure pos- session by jumpinc. The tree-planting scheme, so far as this province is concerned, seems also to be only used as a means for securing unlawful posses- sion of Government lands. I have heard of cases where people have taken up land for tree- planting and after retaining possession for seve- ral years without planting a tree on them, have sold them to be jumped into a homstead. Some others are OOLTITATIMO QBAIN OM THEIB TBXE-FLAKTtKO CLAIMS, but I have not yet heard of one acre of these claims being planted with trees, altho-jgh obtain- ed from the Government for that very purpose. I think it is high time that all premiums ou lawlessness were abolished in this country, and especially that jumping should be discontinued, and in all oases where people neglect or refuse to comply with the terms on which they first se- cured their lands, the Government might cancel such claims and resell the lands as they may see fit without giving a jan;r>er the chanca of mak- ing a rich strike at other people's expense. Emerson, July 10. A HEABTT BKSPONBE— A OHAPTBB OF INPMB- BN0E3, QDOTATIONS A»D THANKS. Sib,— Perhaps I should have sooner acknow- ledged the hearty response which many of the Sunday-schools in Ontario, and also private in- dividuals, have made to my appeal for old Sun- day school papers, to be distributed among the children attending Sabbath-schools in the ne;ea into lied River from the eaat. The land near the mouth of this river Is very wet, and is held ai an Indian reserve, but a fow miles up the stream, where the Pembina liranuh Kailway croises.tht-re is a thrifty Canadian Rettlt-ment with a vitla^^e HpriiiKinx up, with u church, sohool, post-olKuu, two btores, u blaclcBmith's forgre and a faniiinK- mill manufactory. The farms on the banks of the Roseau are dry and easily tilled, but a short diatance back from the river the laud is exceed- ingly wet, except where drained by the ditches made on each aide of the railway track. Some farmers who home»tead«d land here five or six years ago have been compelled to leave their homesteads and remove back to "the ridge" (townships 1 and 2, range 4, east) which had been kept for several years as a French reserve, but was opened for general settlement nearly two yearn a.s^o, and is all taken up by English- (•peaking farmers. The soil in these two town- bbipa is a sandy loam, and the surface is moder- ateiy rolling, and seems to be aDFBBIOB FABMINO LAND. A number of small creeks cross these townships, cuiiiiog from the swamps which lie towards the eaBt, but they all get lost in the wet lands in townships one and two in third range east. One of these creeks is of considerable size, and i) called the Jordan, on the banks of which, some three or four miles back, there is a small Mormon settlement, but as they do not practice polygamy, their customs do not eeem to be much different from their neighbors My journey of beven miles made when returning from "the ridge" to the lied Eiver, was over the wettest road on which I bad yet travelled, and as a good deal of rain has fallen since — to-day being about the wettest day I have seen since coDiiDg to this pruviace— the depth of water mn^t be coneiderarity greater now. ^Vinnipcff July 24. THB NEW LAND POLICY, ITS DISADVANrAOES AND BBNBFITB— BUIOHT FBOBPXOIS FOB MANI- TOBA CHANOES NBXOSD. Sib,— The most interesting subject of conver- sation in the country, except the wet state of the meadow lands, is the new regulations regarding the lands reserved for some distance on each tidu of the line of the Canada Pacific Railway. This new land policy, which has some good features about it, seems to be almost universally con- demned here, as tending to drive immigration into Dakota, which is true to a certain extent, as Dakota will absorb nearly all the people comiog to the North- West, for some time to come, whose attachment to the British Government is not very genuine ; but the quantity of desirable lands open for homesteading in Dakota is getting used up rapidly, after which this country will have nearly a monopoly of the good land on this continent remaining unoccupied, and where the climate is all that could be desired. I lett Wmnipeg too early after the new regu- lations were issued to see what the eastern papers had to say about the matter, but I saw a copy of the Toronto Olobc, in which it is stated that parties homesteading land in that portion of THE BAILWiy BISEBVE open for homesteading, will have to pay for their homesteads at the same rate as for their pre-emptions, I was very much surprised to Hee suon a statement in the Olobe, as I saw nothing to justify such a statement in the new regula'.ions as published in the Manitoba papers, and also in the Olobe itself. Th« new land policy id bad enough initMilf without the 69'/o&c charging it with faults which do not exist'. I have seen so many oases where the former land laws in this province have been fboduotivb of oheatino, false swearing and other offences against good morals that I would not regret to see them annulled or greatly changed. I have always thought that it was unjust for the whole people of the Dominion to be taxed to build a railway which will increase the value of a few persons' lands four-fold, while these persons are not charged with the cost of constructing such rail- way any more than if their lands were in Prince Edward's Island, where the increase in price caused by the building of the Canada Pacifia Railway is very small, if increased at all. It seems to me that if the land, lying on each tide of the railway, and more directly bene- tited by its construction, were charged with the full cost of making tne road, the farmers living on such lands would find the money paid for constructing the railway to be profitably in- vested ; for if the ailjacent lacds paid the origi- nal cost of construction. Government would scarcely venture to charge more for carrying passengers and freight than would pay for run- ning expenses, and keeping the road in repair, and the difference would more than pay the in- terest on the monev paid for the land at first. I think, however, that the Government is tryino; to raise too much money, and more than u needed for making the road. As the readers of ^the Witness have all seen the new regulations (I suppose) I will not here repeat them, but if any person will add up THE TOTAL AMOUNT TO BE OHAROED for the land for every mile in length of railway he will find that it amounts to $246,000, which is made up as follows : In belt A, 6,400 ecres nt 96 $38,400 In belt B railway lands, 9,600 acres at $5 dR.flOO Pre-emption3,4,8PO acres at $2.50 12,000 In belt C, rail wiiy lands, 12.800 acres at !f3..'J0 44.eno Pre emptiTiH, 0.400 acres at $2. 50 ." x;,000 In belt D railway lands, 12,800 acres at $2... 25,'?00 Pre-rmiitinns 6,400 aoros at $2 12,800 111 belt E, lailwuy Innds, 32,000 ncies nt $1 32,000 Preemptions, 16,000 acres at$l 16 000 Total $245,600 As a very large proportion of the good land?) in the railway reserve (in the 500 miles length between the Red River anr" the south branch o£ the Saskatchewan) has al.eady passed from tho hands of the Governmept, it may be safely es • timat^'d that for this distance not over one- third the amount estimated above will be realized, or say $81,866 per mile, and as a good part of the land will remain unsold for several years.it will diminish this sum by one-*hird more, say ?27,288, leaving the sum of"$64,578 per mile of road, which is about twice as much as is re- The Letters of Kusticus. 43 48,000 12,000 44. POO : c.ooo 2fl,'?00 X2,800 32,nno KiOOO 1 landil lengtli anch o£ ■orn tho fely 68 jr one- 11 be a good leveral more, ;r raile ia re- quired to build it. OoDieqneDtly,the Oovernment niisbt reduce their prices by one-h»lf, and Htill realize enovRh to build the lood, and thin would be coDHidered fair by tnoat fair-minded meo. If inteniliti); euiiKrabtH to the North- We«t get the idea into their minds that the Qovernment i* Roinsr to 8<|ut'«ze more money out of them than is ahHolutely reeded to make the road through to the Uouky Mountains, many of them will be fthaken in tlieir loyalty and ko over to Unole Sam'rt territory. But immif^rantB coming to thia country under the new re^ulatioua are in a BETTER POSITION TO ORT ALONO than was the oiuo with those who came here six or eight yearH ajjo. Not to count the very gra^t extra cuBt and iuconveDience which they bad to endure bomt* years ago, ah )ve what would be the case weie the Canada Pocitiu Railway opened from Thunder Bay, the very Idw iirice realized for wheat here has scarcely paid the cnsl; of its productior. ; but with a railway ooen the Ence will be increased fully twenty cents per ushel, and a farmer who at the end of three years it utila to tell 1,000 bnahels of wheat an- nually, nnd at an increased rate of twenty cents pur bushel, will have money enough from this Biiurce alone to make the payment re- quired on his eighty acres pro-emptiun land, and altto the payments on more than twice m many more acres of railway land bought by him, T' make thU app«!ar more plaiu let us snpp ite that the immigrant has nothing to sell during the first year, although he has saved a large sum owing to cheaper freight paid on what he re- quires to make a start on his farm. The second year (if his farm ia good and hi indu6trioui>) he will have 400 bushels of wheat for sale, which at an ircreaite of twenty cents per bu»htl in price would amount to $80. The third year h»i will have 1,000 hushela to sell, which at an in jreafe in price of twenty cents p^r buahtl ia $200, or §280 saved in the three years. Out of this he boa to pny ou his 80 acrts pre-emption, four-tenths of ^200 and three years' interest on the same amount, or in all $116. leaving $104 to make the first pay- ment on a half section of railway land which he ia now able to buy at $5 per a3re, paying one- tenth down. The circumstances of our farmer will be improved very much the following year, an he will have much mere grain to sell, and the payment on the 80 acres pre-emption will only be $27.20 ; and so on his payments will be dinjin- ifihing, while his ability to pay them will be always increasing. A change (in the interests of morality alone) is HDOH NKEDIU in the present law of homesteading. I know of many cases where a farmer with two or three sons over eighteen years of age has had homcsteadti taken up for each, which requires that enoh of them should swear that he will for«ake his father's house within six months, and, failing to get a wife, begin to " bach" it un hia own homestead. Now the young men, when taking this oath, seldom intend to keep it, nor would it be desir- able for a young man only eighteen or twenty years of age to leave his father's home tp live alone as a bachelor for several years, since he would be much more likely to fall into evil habits, from which he would in a great measure be protected if still under bis father's roof. It would be much better to BAVI THI LAW OHAKOID, (o aa to coincide with what is nearly always the custom here, and let the youcg unmarried niau secure a homestead on couditicu of making cer- tain improvements ou it without being compelled ti) leave his father's b( uoe l)«fore he can get a wife (or ia even old enough to many), and begin the demoralizing practice of " baching it alone," Many other suggestions might be made, but I have not time at present. Burntide, Au^. 1st. WI8TWABD HO— OOOD CROPS AND OOOD WATBB— POBT OVFICB ACCUMMUIUTIONMKUIU. SlE,— I left Winnipeg on Tuesday, July aOhh, to visit the new settlementa in that part of the North-Wett Territory lying west of Manitoba. I bad not gone three miles when I came to a waggon btuck iu a rjuagmire, which occupied the whole breadth of the road, a thiug by no means rare in this country. The weather bad hitherto been showery and this afternoon a tmart shower of rain fell, which I am glad to say \/m the last rain of any consequence that has fallen to the present. The road from Winnipeg to Poplar Point (about fiity miles as the trail his to pass round north of Long Lake) bad in it frequent mud-holes, and THE CROPS in this part of the country were generally cnn- aiderably damaged by the wet weather, and will not be over haif a crop. A good many of tho farmers were working at haying, but their beat meadows were still too wet to ^ 'it, and some of the farmers had not cut any hay yet m it was all too wet. From Poplar Point westward to the Portage the laud ia dryer and the crops, with a few ex- ceptions, look magnificent ; I NEVEB SAW SUCH CHOPS in my life. From the Portage to Burnside, eight miles, the land ia wetter, but as there are a good many dry fields, the crops on these were good. The road bad, however, many bad mu J holes through which the teams of travellers found it very difficult to drag their loads. I observed here several bad specimens of selfishness only too frequent iu this country, where the new pettlera have fenced acrnss the old trails, which had hitherto kept along the crest of the dry ridges, and compeiltd travellers to drive their team^i through muddy places which would be cousidered impassable in almost any otbt -. country. Often the enclosed patch is very sm&i , yet the loss and injury to teams in having to pass around it in n season like this, ia much greater in value than would buy the produce of the whole farm. As the dry rirlges in thia country run nearly always from north-west to south-west, a long stretch of goc-d road luiiiht often be secured to the western traveller, were new eetf'TS prevented from putting fences across old (rails which had been travelled for many years before the land in this country was surveyed. Another peculiarity of this country is THE TOLLS which Western travellers have to pay for the pri- vilege of passing over some piece of dry road, or for crossing some creek on a bridge. Tra- vellers passing through Baie St. Paul are obliged to pay twenty five cents for every wagon t»keu 44 The Letters ok Ru.stkus. ocfou » Rtnkll patch of dry Und bolonKlnj to % Fr«nL'h-C»n»dian, uit the adjacent iiuaxinire i* too bad for aoy tcani to drive a load tbrouKh. If the traveller pafie* round north of Looi; Lake be then meeti with another tollman who own* a bridge and twenty-tive cental ia eiactvd for every double team pauinK over. About twenty five mileH writ of Burniiide, on the louth trail, there is a brtdxe over a prrtty little atream, for the privilege of croasiDv which twenly-Hve cents i* cbarKed to doublo teama and Miteen centi for Hiiigle teama, and although thia bridge did not coat over 9^1U or 840 fur its uonftruction. yet ita owner (a Mr. McKinnonjreali/.ea about $2,000 aunually fiom the toUa collected from travellera. From Uurnside, on Hat ('retk, weatward to 131k I'lain there aro very few aettlera. From a lilace four milea west of Hurnaide the traveller liy the south trail aeea only foiu or five houaea in a distance of about thirty-five miles. The first twenty miles of this j lurney ia over a very wet, low country, dotted all over with willow Duahvs and small poplar bluffii, with numerous alkali :)ondH, around which the trail haa to wriggle, being as crooked in many places aa ia the courtie of the River AHsiniboine. Nearly all this land ia still owned by the Government, but I think it will lie some year" before much of it ia sold at $;'> per acre. At McKinnon'a the trail reachea the saod hills, and, except in a few placee, the west- ward bonnd traveller has no more mud to con- tend with. When I came over the road between Dumaide and McKicnon'a it waa pretty good, aa the muddy places were moatlv dried up, but I »Avr ample evidence of the sutferiDgs which tra- vellers had to endure while pasniug over this track in wet weather. Moat of the settlera west of this with whom I have conversed have very vivid recollections of the Bufferings endured while paasing over thia part of the road. The jand bills are from fifty to one hundred feet high, run in a north-wett direction, and are evidently the border of what waa once an immense lake, which at oce time covered a good portion of the lied River valley. The sand hilu are in some places nearly all covered with bushes, and in these places the soil ia pretty good, being a deep sandy loam, and at some future time will be oc- cupied by farmers, but not for a long time if $5 FIB ACBS is the price to be paid for it. In other places, whtro tho soil is more sandy, the hills are cov- ered with grass, vith a few Bcrub oak scattered here and there. 'i'^eBo sand hills are generally a succession of small peaks of almost every form imaginable. About fifteen miles west of Mc- Kinnon'fl, Pine Cieek is crossed, which is a lieantifal littla stream of clear, cold water, run- ning in a valley about eighty feet deep, asd fed by numerous springs from the sand lulls. On the east side of Pine Creek the land ia of fair quality, and several lots of land have been here located, and some breaking ground done, and alfo the walls of two houses put ap, but we xaw no signs of the inhabitants. The sand hills continue for about two miles west of Pine Creek, which latter is crossed by a bridge made by the ■ettlers on BIO PLAIK. Big Plain conauts ot townships 11, 12, 13 14 and 15, in ranges 14, 15 and 16 west. This large tract ij nnarly all level or slightly rolling, and the land generally of good quality, being a ■andy loam. It la nearly all aettled, although the houavs ara not very numerotu, as from two to four families occupy a good many of the houaea, I aaw the wmUh of a good many mora boUHea which will be roofed in thia fall, and al- though timlMir ia ao scarce in this country.thtre is a great deal of valuable apruce wasted in ''aiding down, " Large apruce loga, which were from two to two and a half feet in diameter, were aided down and made into houae timber, aeveu incbet thick. As this timber is got on Government lands and will all be re<|uir«d thia waste ihould be stopped, aa much smaller timber could be tlattvd for good building timber at less expenae. TBI caoi'S here, where the ploughing wm done laat sum- mer, and even on places that were brrken up for the firat time thia apring were pretty fair. The soil here is a sandy loam, with a rubpoil of four to aix feet of clay when the aand ii again rettched ; and in some oaaea wells have bten dug twenty-four feet without reaohin<< the bottom of the aand, but plenty of good water is found. The aettlera here (about two hundred in all) are badly oS for pnat otiice accommodation, aa their nearest post oiiije, Bumaide, ia from forty-five to aixty miles dj^tant. Several petitions have been forwarded to the authorities at Ottawa to get POST OFFICE AOOOHMODATIOM, but they have been hitherto unsuccessful. A great injustice will be done to a large body of settlers here if better post office accommodation is not given soon, for the people lose many of their letters, and most of their papers which are sent here by post, beside the great delays which have to be endured. As there is a weekly mail to be started on the 1st of next October, between Palestine and Rapid City, and which will cross the north end of Big Plain, a post-office should at once b«t established there, and another twelve miles fur- ther uouth and a third at the south trail,wbich is about twelve miles still further southward, and there aru still numerous settlers from fix to eight miles sooth of the south trail. The establishing of these i>ost-ofiice8 should be done immediately, as there are more families located in this quarter than are in the local county of Woodlands, Mani- toba, yet there are three or four post-offices ia that county and applications are being made for more. I know that often the establishment of post-offices are aaked from the Ottawa authori- ties in places where they are not needed ; bub this case of the people on the Big Plain should be attended to at oace. Taking the trail towards the rapids of the Assiniboine, the road for four or five miles winds among the peaks of the sand hills, then emerges on to a dry.plain, and for several miles crosses a sandy county not fit for farming, although gene- rally nearly level. At Boggy Crtek (which is the first stream crossed since Pine Creek), some twenty-four miles away, the coil improves and there are a good many lots taken up here, and five or six settlers have dwelling-houses erected. Boggy Creek is the first stream crossed, since leaving Poplar Point, that runs southward to the Aesiciboine, and t)etween this place and the rapids of the Assiniboine, or a distance of eight miles, several beantiful little streams of running water are crossed which have a few boulders on their banks, which latter is The Lktif.ks of Kusticus. 45 A siaHT FOB sosa ■TU, H I (Inn't I Miembor bi 'qr «een any bouMen •inue leaviok ' .ftan L»ke. There U • oimiider- able nmouiu ( good Unci . long h«re. whiuh it moHtly all takt-n up, and leVvTitl of tbe leUlHiit (who all oaoie in this maimer) ^ave little muil- oover«d hutc ertcted, while others dwell in tenU. More or le«a breaking of the prai.de i» also bu- ing done. Tho acenery here is muol more plea- aanttban in Manitoba, aa the Deer H.-ad Moun- tains are plainly viaible lome twci -n miles south of thirt ; also, the vuUcy of tbe Ahuiui ine is within a mile or two towards the south. The water in the little creeks in pleasing to the tastu, and where wells have bjen dug tbe water iit first rat«, which to me was a oreat treat after being so of cen sickened by drinking the waters of Manitoba. I purpose this evening (coing aorots the Assinibolne nnd south to Ueer Head Mountains, where tbe Kev. Mr. Uoddiok and a number of Nova Scotiausare located. Rapidaof Astmiboinc, Aug. 5th. A DIOBIPHION— " BDBTI008 " VISITS DaKOTA- BAPIU OBOWTH — 0AKAUIAK8 IS DAKOTA- TUB OUAHBHOFi'EB. SiB,— Having often seen, while travelling through this province, siid to take more than 320 acres in his own or her ^ wn namt-, but additional land could be bought with holt- breed scrip ; but this scrip is now very scarce and dear. Mr. Ewing also told me that over fifty re- expatriated French-Canadians had taken landi in Pembina County within the last eighteen months, Oa the morning of July 11th I accepted the proffer of a ride up the SOnTH-EASTEBN BANK OF THE TONODK BIVCR, which flows into the Pembina River, about four miles above its outlet into Red liiver. My com- panion on this trip was a well- informed and obliging, naturalized American citizen, who was taking a waggon load of lumber eighteen miles to his home on tbe Tongue River. He told me that his name is Beachy, and that he was born and brought up in the County of Peterborough, Ont., but some nine or ten years ago had re- :'.,jve;l with hia faadly to tho State of MiKJO'ari 46 The Letters of Rusticus. where he settled with a number of othrr C»n»diauB, The climate of Miaaonii proviug to be very nohealthy, some of them bad visited Manitoba five j-eara ago fur the purpose of se- curintc a home in a moie salnbrioua climite. After viaiticg a number of placea they cbobe one of the townabiim (aotv in the Mennonitu reserve) at the foot of the Pembina Mountaina. They next applied to the authorities at Octawa to get uhia townahip reserved for a numl^er of Canadians who wiahed to leave Mieaouri and settle in Mani- toba. After Bome correspondence with Ottawa, they were assured that the township in question wurJd be granted to them, provided a sufficient nunjber came forward to occupy it. Trusting to ttuH promise, sixteen families left Miaaonri in the )-pring of 1875 bouad for Manitoba, and taking with them $40,000 worth of stock, csah, and ftirining impleaiei . * supply of wood and water. While travelling up the Tongue i>.i...- I ob- BPrved several email houses recently erected, and preparatiuiis being made for the erection of more, but in nearly all cases they were near the river banks. I saw OSnt MUD H"!, which I was told U occupied by an Icelander. I was also luld that some of these Icelanders when coming over to Dakota had tht?.r live stuck taken from them by Government agents in Manitoba on account of moneys advanced to them when they firat came to the province . ^Viter a drive of twelve miles with Mr. Beacby, I left him at the place where we stopped to take dinner. At this place (ilao taking their dinner) were a party of five Cauadianp, who had hired a team in Pembina, and wnre out on the hunt after land. I afterwards called at several houses, and bad numerous conversations about the prospects of the Gani-.dian settlers in Dakota. Numerous and various excuses were mads for their having to dweil in Dakota and bfcsme American citi.-.ens, in preference to remaining under the benignant sway of Queen Victoria. The large amount of good land . locked up as reserves in Manitoba wa^ painted at as proof that EnG;liah-speakicg Canadians were not welcome there. The very great consideration Riven by Government agents to Mennonitea and French-Canadians, while English- Canadians were often treated with iucivilit;, , if not rude- ness, was abo brought forward to show that Canadians from Ontario were NOT WANTED AS BKTTLEBS IN MANITOBA. The unjust exactions of the National Policy were also described at full length, by which the new settler was compelled to pay so much higher prices in Manitoba than in Dakota fcr everything needed in making a commencement ou a new farm, such aa live stock, waggons, ploughs, and all other farming implements, as well as lumber forbuildir^ Gtvxl lands were al-.o much more convenient iu Dakota than in British territory, and as there was really little or no difference in ctie form of government on either aide of the line, why should people aettle ou poor or inconveniently aitoated lands with lower prices received for their grain on the north aide of the boundary, rather than settle in American territory 7 This last excuse, althongh not put forward so frequently as the othera, seemed to be the chief one. Indeed in a country like Manitoba, where land-speculating seems to per- vade (I almost srma there at a large profit (aa some of them have already done with their farms in Mani- toba), and removing with all their effects to the great Canadian North- West territory. There i^ some comfort in knowins that ALL THE BEST LANDS IN DAKOTA ABB ALBSADY APPBOPBIAT£D, and that succeeding settlers in that territory will have to make their homes on treeless prairies, with the chances of having to pay pretty high for their fuel and fencing. J might say that very little fencing ia required hero except a man goes into stock-raising, as every man has to take c&re of his own live stock and the fields of grain are left without fences. There seems also to have been much less rain in Dakota the present season than has fallen in Manitoba, consequently, the ground is much drier at present; but this btate of thing&is sometimes reversed, when the Dakota lands suffer from excessive rain-falls which have r.voided Manitoba. The two days which I f pent in Dakota were extremely hot, the theiinomtter being above ninety in the shade, making travel- ling in the open prairie at mid-day very ex- hausting. I reached Pembina on my return on the afterroo:: "! J uly 12th, end found the people there iu a somewhat excited state about the flight of a few grascboppers, which could be seen like thistle-down passiig in the air northwards, by looking towards the aun from behind some ob- ject whicti shielded the sight from itnr.irect rays. A. bouth wind had l)een blowing lightly for f everal days. Some of these hoppers fell on the streets, seemingly considerably exhausted by their flifiht. I caught one of them mycelf. and other pereona The Letters of Rusticus. 47 alsosecared specimens which they all pronocnced to be the genuine grasi>hopper which canses bo much desti'uction in the coantrieB west of t'he Misniesippi. Winniptg, July2l8t. A OLIMPaB TO THE WEBTWABD Sib,— Oa the afternooa of Aug. 5th I crowed to chu aaatb nide oi the ABsiaibuiDe, there being a ferry here kept by a man named McVioar, who charges tweoty-five centa for ferryiue; a horse across the river. As this i» on the regular west- ern trail to the Cypress hills, a good deal of trade passes over the Assiaiboine at this place. Before Mr. McVicar built his scow here, the traders used to have great trouble, and Bometimea loss in crossing over the Assiniboine at this place. When the water is low there is not much 'UCS- culty in fording the etream, but this cannot be done in high wuter, and traders were compelled to make TBMPORABT BOATS with poles covered with cowhides to convey themselves and their goods over the river, while the ponies and oxen had to swim. I met bere a man who lives at Deer Head mountain and was taking a cow to Big Plains, thirty- five miles, to the ball. I used to think it no joke to take a cow two or ;hree miles to the bull, but here was a settler who, in order to perform this necessary part of farm- work, had to travel seventy miles and lose four days doing it, also pay fifty centa for crowing and re-crossing the Assiniboine. South of the Assiniboine the land is litiht and i-tony for several miles, but begins to im- prove as you approach the Little Souria River, which runs at the northern base of DEEB HEAD UOUNTAINS. Here the Bev. Mr. Roddick and a number of Nova Scotiana are located ; there are also sev- eral Canadians and three men who came here from Connecticut. There is a considerable amouDt of good land here iu patches, but there is a ^reat deal of iuferior quality, being either too light and sandy, or else alkali, wet land. As this land has not yet been surveyed, the fiettlers are in great trouble about the new laud regulations, and they all declare that they will leave the country and go to Dakota, if their homesteads are confined to eighty acres iu ex- tent. It seems to me to be utter folly to try to enforce the new regulationa in this part of the country,aa a person would require half a sec- tion of land before he would have enough of good land to make a fair farm. Settlement in this part of the country will cease until the new land regulations are changed, arid no sane man would ever think of paying $5 or $3.60 per acre for land in this part of the cuntry. The BCbnery is very fine around the DEEB HEAD MD0NTAIN8, which are from two to three hundred feet high, and although not rocky are pretty stony, and nearly all covered with poplar bush and scrub oak. A good deal of the poplar is fit for f encin;;, but very litMe of it is latere enough for building purposec. There is a l^eautiful lake south-west of these mountains. It is about three-quarters of a mile long, and over a qvarter of a mile wide, with beautiful gravelly beach on the north Ride, while the couth side nas a good deal of bullrushes in it, which twarms with ducks. Tbirf is the only lake that I have seen west of Muu' toba, although I have Been scores of ponds. There, is no stream running out of it at present, but in wet weather it overfliw'4t8 banks. This pretty little lake it called Lake McPberson (I suppose after the pamphlet- writing Benator), and would be a prettv place to live near, as the water ia very clear, but slightly alkaline in taste. The land around it is not very good, although ore or two farmers might get enough good land to grow wh:it [ro visions they would require for home use, and ntock-raising and dairying could be profitably followed. There are several other mountains south of this, with apparently pl»«ty of wood for ordinary farming purposes. Away towards the west extends an IMUKNSE TBEELISS PLAIN, slightly rolling ; and I am told that there are some pretty good spots of land on it. I could not Ben its western limit from the top of Deer Head Monntaina, although I could with my glass see plainly from twenty to thirty miles away. The people here also snSer for want of postal accommodation, as th«y get their mail matter by way of Rapid City, which ia twenty- eight mUea distant, and a man on horseback losea two days going to the poat-oiiice, and has to pay fifty cents for crci^siog and re-crossing the Assiniboine; but then the mail only comes to R'lpid City once in three weeks. A post-oflice established at the crossing of the Assiniboine would greatly oblige some fifty or sixty settlers in these parts. The people have all come here this season, and are yet mostly living in tents. They are very anxious to get hold of a news- paper, and read it eagerly, although it may be a month old. I returned to the ferry on the evening of Aug. 6th, and the following day went some eighteen or nineteen miles north-west, to RAPID onr, on the Little Saskatchewan, situated on section 20, township 13, range 19, west. For about nine milca north-west from the Assiniboine, the land is pretty level, bv*^ >■» good deal of it is alkali, and only a few of the best lots are taken up. There are trees on this part and very few willow bushes, all the high ridges being ptony. At about the south-east corner of township 12, range 20, the land improves very much, and has numerous bluffs of poplar and scrub oak, but is consider- ably broken by small ponda, most of which conld easily be drained . This land is nearly all taken up, and will be a fine farming country in a few years, a& the land is very rich and generally dry enough for profitable cultivation in any wet sea- son, and not too dry for any dry weather which will probably take place. The VALLEY OF THE LITTLE 8A3KAT0HBWAN is very wide at Rapid City, with gradually slop- ing banks, while immediately north of this the valley gets narrow and the banks steep. I sup- pose that the bed of the river ia about one hun- dred and fifty feet below the adjacent prairie. The river is a pretty, rapid stream, about sixty feet wide, and there are about a dozen dwelling- houses in the city with two stores and a saw- mill in opera*^:on ; there is also a grist mill, which will be mnning in a short time. As I propose going weatward from here to Oak Elver, thence 48 The Letters of Rusticus. to Shoal Lake, Bird-tail Greek, and perhapa to Fort EUice, it may be some time before I will have a chance to write-again . Rapid City, Little Saakatchewan, Aug, 8. FAriTlIKR WmSTWAHD— THB OOVKRSMENT AND THK CANADA PACIFIC— A NIGHT WITH THE MOSQ01TOH8— AN EDDCAMD INDIAN — THE COUNTKY WB8T. Stb.— I did not expect when I last wrote to the Witness that four weeks would paea before writing again ; but the postal facilitiea in the North- West are so defective that there U little inducement to write letters or aubecribe for neivspapers when the chances are largely in favor of their going astray. The amount of pro- fane language which A DEFECTIVE POSTAL BTSTEU (or want of pystem) draws out of the people in- habiting this country i3 painful to contemplate ; b'-l; aa I intend referring more at length to this subject at another time.I will say no more about it at present. When I was at Rapid City the first time its inhabitaLta were in a state of considerable ex- citement about THE LOCATION OP THE CANADA PACIFIC RAIL- WAT, as an enKineeriug party under the direction of Mr. W. D. Barclay was approaching the city from the wee , having located the Canada Pacific Kail way line from the iliouth of the Qa'Appelle River to within a few milea weat of Rapid C'ity ; and as the latter place is some four miles north of the fourth base line, fears were felt lest Rapid City would be left out in the cold. These fears were, however, changed to re- joicing as the line was afterwards made to cress the Little Saskatchewan at the Eouth part of the ambitious little city, the enginebr in charge believing it to be the most favorable point for crossipg the atream. The baoka of the river at this point slope gently down from the higher country on each side, and on these banks there are many stony spots, many of the boulders being limestone, which will come handy in building the foundations of houses and paving thd atreeta in Rapid City. General dry goods and groceries, as well as farming imple- ments, can be bought here >tt moderate prices (conqideriug the difficulties of transportation), but iu some other ai'ticles hitrh prices with large pro- fits prevaiL There is a small steam saw-mill here, which is supplied with spruce logs brought down the Little Saskatchewan at a cost cf only six dollars per thou! vines were so high and so matted that it waa very difficult to ride or walk through them, which made our progress very slow. The even- ing came on before w<> reached the bridge at St. Clair City, and I had to again camp out, although the evening threatened rain and the mosquitoes assaailed me with their wonted vigor. My supply of bread had become exhausted, but as I had plenty of tea and sugar, I made the most of them. During this night it was very difficult to keep my now , TOO FBUtNDLT PONT from trampling on me in hia eagernesa to get near the tire. Having no bed.clothea of any kind nor tent, with so man} mosquitoes to con* The Letters of Rusticus. tend with, my rest was not of the most refresh- ing kind, yet it was quite as good aa on the previous or following nights. Portage du Prairie, Sept 2ud. 1^ TBKE DESTKCCTION, AND 1NDCCFSIENT8 TO OBOW TKKBS -SUaOESTIONB TO THE OOVBENMBNT — L4KD 8PKC0LAT0US— HOW ABSBNTEES MAY OBTAIN LAND. Sib,— To every one interested in the future prosperity of this country the rapid diminution in the supply of wood for fuel and fencing purposes in the North- Wett must be a source of considerable auxiety. Some people who have been carefully watching the progress of events in this country state that should the conaumption of wood continue and increuse for half a dozen years more as it has done in the past six years, there will be very little timber of any kind left in Manitoba, and in many parts of the country fuel will command exceedingly high prices, caus- ug a great deal of Buffericg, especially during the cold winters. TBEE CDLTUBB has hitherto been almost a complete failure in the north-western prairies of Canada and the United States, Although liberal inducements are given by Federal and State Governments to such as will engage in it. Under the " Timber Culture Act " of the United States any citizen, or those who have declared their intention to be- come such, can make an entry, not exceeding 160 acres of prairie lands, either within or with- out the limits of a railway grant, on condition that one-sixteenth of the land so taken shall be planted with trees, four feat apart each way, and cultivated and protected for eight years, when final proof can be made and the patent secured. This liberal law of the Federal Government is supplemented by a law in the Territory of Dakota, which provides that for every five acres of timber cul- tivated, forty acres, with all the improve- ments thereon, not exceediug one thousand dol- lars in value, shall be exempt from tax.-ition for a period of ten years from the time of planting, and further that no laod shall be deemed in- creased in value for asfcessment purposes by rea- son of such timber culture, no matter how much its real value may be enhanced thereby. In Minnesota, by legislative enactment, the grower uf forest trees on the prairie, is given $2 for every acre planted with trees, payment commencing the third year after planting, and continuing teu years ; that is, the grower of forty acres of tim- ber on the prairie will be given A BONDS OF $800 from the St-^te, besides owning the wocd. In the Canadian North- West a person can secure 160 acres of prairie land on his undertaking to plant twenty acres of it with trees within ten yean from the date of entry. Notwithstanding these liberal inducements to tree-culture, and al- though a great many persons have taken up land as tree claims on both sides of the lines, yet, so far as I could learn, not a single case has oc- curred on the Canadian side where the person owning a tree-claim has made any attempt to fulfil his obligations by planting with tress even half an acre of land. I am informed that in the United States a number of persons have made an attempt at tree-planting, but none of them, so far as I could learn, have fulfilled their engagements on this head. I believe that with the exception of the trees planted on the farm of Mr. Thomas Scissions, at Portage la Prairie, fewer trees have been planted by the hand of man in the Canadian North-West than have been planted within the limits of the city of Montreal ; and were all the trees hitherto plant- ed in this country permitted to grow unmolested for twenty years they would not be suflicient to furnish wood to meet the present consump- tion of the country for one week. Yet mott people here, including Government officials, seem as careless about the preservation of grow- ing timber as if the supply were inexhaustible. It is generally supposed that all timbered lands are reserved by the Government for the purpose of supplying small wood lota to the settlers on prairie lands, and were this plan faithfully followed from the commencement of settlement very few sections in this part of the country would remain without a sufficient sup- ply of timber for ordiuary purposes within a distance of twelve miles at mo.^*-, yet, I believe, that fully one-third of the fertile lands fn this province have no bush lots repsrved to mtec the requirements of the future tillers of these large tracts of agricultural lands. It is very annoy- ing to a person about to settle on a prairie lot to be told that there is no wood lot to be had for love or money, while within si^ht of his home- stead there are, fterhaps, hundreds of acres i;f excellent timbered lands, owned, it may be, by one individual who has secured them at less than one dollar per acre ; and it is still more annoy - ing when this prairie farmer is compelled to pay his more fortunate neighbor from ONE TO TWO DOLLABB FEB TBEE for the larger sticks required in building his house. I have seen rases where from one to E>ix hundred acres of well- wooded lands have been scripped by one man, while many farmers within a few miles of this timber are unable to obtain a wood lot at all, except at exorbitant raten. My reason for writicg absut this condition of things at present is with the hope that the Gov- ernment may take immediate steps to secure the small portion of favorably situated bue^h lands which have not yet been grabbed by laud speculators, so that the cultivators of the adj,i- cent prairies may each have a chance to get a small wood lot. Extending over townships one, two and three on over a dozen of the ranges west of the twelfth range west, extending from the Cy- press creek to the Souris river, there is the most extensive open prairie, country that I have yet seen in the Canadian North- West— most of it excellent farming land«i —yet there are only two comparatively small tracts of wooded lands within reasonable distance, from which the future settlers on this extensive prairie can draw their supply of wood. One of these wooded tracts is at the Turtle Mountain?. It is being surveyed at present and will shortly be open, tie even numbered sections for homesteading and the odd numbered sections for sale at one dollar p<>r acre, and which will, without doubt, be speedily appropriated by speculators, leaving tens of tboosanis of acres of prairie land within eight of it for which there will be no wood lots, except the Government ofii- ciala should torn over a new Ie»f and attend to The Letters of Kusticus. S» their bnainesR aa they ought. The other tract cf wood-land lies nortbeaiit of Pelicao L:ike iu townahipB four and tive, ranges fifteen and six- teen west, and I believe that it i^ ehurtly to be surveyed and thrown on the market ; but itperEed with patches of scrub or else open prairie. Neatly all this tract would soon become a f jrest if protected from the ravages of prairie fires, and since it has been found so difficult to raise tree^ on the open prairie, it would seem to be wl^e policy on the part of the Government to reserve the greats;r portion of these partially timbert-d landt) so that they mi^ht be afterwards sold in small wood lots to settlers on the prairie, who would often be glad to get even these. Some of the settlers who have already gone to the Turtle Mountains seem anxioui to secure for them- selves large tracts of these partially wooded Unds, one party having already fenced in 1,200 acres of it, using about 20,000 fence rails, which were cut from Govertimt-nt lands. It would certain ly be a great benefit to the gerneral settlement of the com. try were the Government to prevent all further monopolizing of its timbered or partially timbered land-i by sharp speculators. The new land regulations are also likely to operate injuriously with the settlement of the two rows of townships next to the international boundary, as these townships are included in belt E, and the railway lands can be bought for $1 per acre, payable in ten annual instalments . with interest at six per cent, on the unpaid b tl ance. Mr. Landerkin, th>^ land agent in Pem- bina Mountains, told me that almost the entire business dine at his ofii^e Kince the first of lat.t .Auguat was in dispTsing of these railway lands, and I know personally that a considerable number of land ppecuUtotH are watching to secure the lauds which are now being surveyed as soon as they are open I for sale, which will be early in the c jming win- j ter ; and should there be no chani,'e in the land policy all the good railway land's in belt E, the two ranges of townships next the interna- tional boundary, will be secured by speculator->, to the great hindrance of the settlement iu this part of the country. To show how easily LAND CAN BB SEODBED BT ABSEBTEXS I may state that a person dwelling in Montreal— or any other place— may become owner of a sqnare mile of first-class land by paying down 3()4, and at the end of the year paying another $64 of the principal, and $34.56 interest. Atthe end of the second year another payment of $64 has to be made, and $30 72 paid in intereat, and the yearly payment will continue, the interest diminishing at the rate of $3 84 each year, until mi the end of nine years the whole payments (prindpftl and Interest) are completed, and the parohaaer gets hia patent. The greatest hindrance to the growth of timber in this oonntry are the frequent prairie fires, y*t ■oaroely any attempt haa thus far been nutde to enact laws to prevent their frequent occurrence ; but as I intend to treat this subject more large- ly at another time I will say no more about it at present. Lcwe's Farm, Manitoba, Oct. 1st. I r^AIRIE FIRIS— THFIR CAUSE AND MEANS FOB THKIB PKEVE^TION. Sib,— It is probable that all the drv lands ' i Manitoba, if not in the whole North-West, were at not a very remote period covered with forests, just as t^e eastern provinces were previous to their settlement by white men Some of your readers will be ready to ask, " How did it c >me to pass that the forests disappeared from the I western plains, while the trees in the east cnn- j tiaued to grow and flourish until cut down by j toe axe of man ?" Prairie tires are uo doubt the I cause of this difference, but I THE ORIGIN" OF THE8E FIHES I U perhaps not so easily accounted for, nor why ^ fires should be so destructive to the forests in the ! West, while they were comt>aralively harmless : to the timber growing further east. I br-li.'ve I that this difference can be accounted for hy the I presence of so many great tracts of marauy , land in the West wnich were too wet for trees to grow upon, but which produced lar^jn j qnautities of wild grass, reeds and ru«>hes, which I m Very dry seasons supplied iiiimer:Be quantities of combustible matter, giving streutLth to the I fires, which would thus extend to the adjacent I woodland, and in process of time change them into I prairies. The absence of such txtencive marshes ' in the eastern provinces, together with a moister J climate, helped to prevent the spread of fires ; thus the forests continued to grow until disturbed I by the inroads of settlers. 16 is also probable I that the greater intensity of the electrical dis- I charges in the NorthWest has helped to mbke fires more numerous ia that quarter. Even dur- ing the memory of some of the older inhabitants, I pretty extensive tracts of wooded lands in Mani- j toba have become almost open prairies ; but this I continued diminution in the area of the f )rfet4 I gave no cause of unea;jineBBa recurring annual- ly until more effective measures are adopted to prevent the kindling an 1 spread of fires. Iji it n t high time for those in authority to bestir them- selves in order to prevent so much needlera waste? Perhaps some one will be ready to aay that $2OO,0OU is not a very serious loaaa for a whole province to auatain by fires in one aeaaon, bnt thia loea will appear greater when the amallneaa 52 Tifi: Lr.TTEKs ok Kusticus. <,f tlie population ia considered, also th»t nearly »:i thin lues falls on new settlers who are moiitly in straitened citcumBtarces and cannot well Hparu any portion of their eubatance to feed the rupacioua tire- fiend. So far as I have been able to learn, few or no precautionary meaeures by legal enactments or ■it.herwiBB, have yet been taken iu the Canadian Nr)rtb-Weat to prevent the spread of these tires, and before eupgestlDg means for their preventicn, I would tint refer to a few of the principal OAUSEB WHICH LEAD TO THBIB FBKQOENT 00- CUBBBNCU. On the 17th of last April I was returning across an uxieuBive prairie called White Uorae Plaiuu in the parish of St. Francois Xivier, and met three men in a waggon going westward, leaving behind them a fiery trail by lighting bits ol uaper and throwing them among the dry grass, just for the fun of seeing it burn without ap- parently thinking of the danger to fences and bui'.lings caused by such wanton sport. A little further on I came to where several French natives were actively engaged in preventing this prairie fire from destroying their fences, and one of them told me in brok<»»» English how " the bad Canadian man in the waggon, he burn my fence." I believe that a good many prairie fires are kindled to gratify wicked sport, and were such "phunny phellows" sent for a few months to iiport themselves at hard labor in some prison, it would tend to make them more cautious about sportiog themselves at other people's^ expense. Another fruitful source of prairie fires ia the cus- tom of smoking tobacco, which prevuilti largely in this country. A very disastrous prairie tire was recently started in Pembina Mountains by a rev, gentleman while lighting his pipe ll bopi- the churches will have the good sense to cease sending " SMOKING Miaaio:sAHiE8" to the North- West), and no doubt many con- 9agrations have a similar origin. Another '.luurce of prairie fires is from the smouldering Ambers of camp fires, or where travellers have halted to warm their dinners. It is a very easy matter to quench such embers with water, or else cover them with earth, and thus prevent ell danger cf their igniting the adjacent dry grass, and this would no doubt be done were every person (travellers or otherp) compelled to foot the bill of costs which might result from their carelessness in leaving live coals where they may do harm. The chief cause of prairie lirea is the custom of burnirg the dry grass iu the vicinity of stacks, fencts and buildings iu order to protect them from danger hy running fires. These fires are usually kiudltd in the avening and during calm wfutber ; but often the wind rises, and the tires are driven out to the open prairie and perhaps extend for many milee, doing a large amuuut uf damage in their course. This kind of fire seems in some places to be a necessity, because if the long dry gra^s is al- lowed to stand in the vicinity of buildings, should a large prairie fire, fanned by a strong wind, approach, it would be almost impossible to prevent the whole from being consumed. When I was at Mr. Lowe's farm, ten miles west of Morris on the trail to Tobacco Creek, prairie fires had been burning in various places for some days, and on the afternoon of the day I was there (Sept. 30) a high wind prevailed, and an im- menao cloud of smoke arcie In the direction oi Tobacco Creek, and very soon a furious prairie fire came swooping down towards us, travelling at a rate which would have put horses to their ntmost speed to escape out of its track. OOL. WISTOVEB, who is in charge of Mr. Luwe'a farm, had pre- viously taken the precaution to burn all the dry gra<^s near the buildings and stacks, and had this not been done, no human power could have saved them from total destruction, I went out to the border of the burnt grass to see the firo approaching, but could scarcely see anything, bting almost blinded and suffocated by the smoke and heat even before the fire reachea where I was. It strongly reminded me of the scenes which I had witnessed during the great tire near Ottawa in AugURt, 1870, In many placts the settlers are in the habit of ploughing a strH< of land around their buildings and stacks, and this is sufficient protection from ordinary fif('?i ; but it sometimes happens that I HE FIBE, F.VNNRD BY A QALE, leaps across the strip of ploughed land and con- sumes the stacks or buildiues which it was intend- ed to protect. Prairio fires (and some very mis- chievous ones) are often started in the spring by persons desirous of clearing the old withered grass from off meadow lands where they intend to cut their hay in the following summer. This mode of clearing meadow lauds of their last sea- son's crop should be prohibited, for although it may save a little present labor, it often causes the destruction of large numbers cf young trees which would in a few years be of great value to their owners. I balieve also that the burning of the old grass on the land is injurious to the succeeding crop, more especially iu places where there is alre^tdy too much alkali. I have also often observed places in a portion of the field where the old grass had not been burnt last year, that the young grass showed a much more vigorous growth than in places where it had been burnt off. This might be partly accounted for by the old grass holding the snow during the severe cold weather of winter, while in places where the grass hi>d been burnt the wind blew the snow all away, leaving the roots of the grass too much exposed. What I would propose IN OBDIB TO PBBVKNT THE BHPBATED LOSSES from prairie fires is a statute prohibiting the burning of grass on the fields from the middle of September to the first of June following. Frnm the first of June until the grass is killtd by frost, fires will not run, owing to the gra:;^ and weeds being too green to bum. "Fire brakes," to protect buildings, stacks, fences and forests, should be made about the beginning of September by cutting with a mowing machine a strip uf grass i»everal rods in breadth, around the pUces requiring protection, and then burn- ing this mown ((rasa where it lay, and thus se- curing a strip of burnt land all around tbo farmt:r's premises while there was no danger of the tire spreading owing to the green conaition of the adjacent grass. It would also be well for the local authorities to cause to be cut ani] burnt numerous strips of grass across the opeii pruiriea and around timbered lands, which wonld have the tff^ct of confining fires to a imaii Thk Letters ok Rusticus. 53 ■psu;e »} )uld they chance to be itarted by aoji- deat or otherwise. 1 believe that the preven- tion of prairie fires is one of primary importance to the people of the North-West, and shouM secure the early attention of those in authorty . (HINT PER CENT— AN ATTACK BY A Mf'SQDITO HOBUB— AN EFFICIENT SHEVANT— WAITING FOB PAYMENT. Sib,— Early on the morniDg of Wednesday, August DStb, after riding about a mile over a most bt^autifnl and feitile rolling and partially wooded ccnntry, I reached the house of Mr. Alfred Morton, near to the site of the future St Clair City. Being wearied aa well as hungry, I waited here for breakfast, and abo purchased a fresh supply of cooked provisions, which I got at very reasonable rates, considering the high x^ricespaid here for raw material. Fort Ellice. distant thirteen miles,is the nearest place where supplies can be got, Imt the prices charged at the Hudson Bay Company's stores (where they have no competition, as is the case here) are sacfa as tend to lighten your pocket without over-weighting your travellins bag. One of the settlers here went to Fort Ellice to purchase common salt and had to pay $2 for twenty pound weight ; I paid myGtlf twenty-five cents for a pound of sugar which 1 bought there on the afternoon of that day. The price of flour is $6 per 1(10 Dounda, which cost the Company but V-'K 25 delivered at their store by the steamboats from the portage, 100 per cent, profit on sales here seeming to be considered ABOUT THE PAIB THING, but in some other places larger profits are sought and obtained. After breakfast Mr. Morton took me around to see his growing crops, which were very fine, although mostly growing on land ploughed for the first time last spring. He stated his inten- tion of abandoning in future the custom of ploughing land nearly a year before it is Kown with grain, which has hithert'> been almost the universal custom on prairie lands, as it wa? a needless waste of tiit.e and labor, especially in this part of the country. The valley of the Bird Tail Creek here is about 200 feet deep, but the banks are not nearly so steep as they are eight miles further down, in the Sioux Beeerve, ST. CLAIR CITY at this time consiiited of three bouses, all utifin- ished.the walls of several others.and a few tents The Bird Tail is very rapid here, and having a considerable volume of water, furnishes the best water power that I have seen in the North- West, except on the Winnipeg river in Kewat- tia. There are also on its banks numerous springs of the best water I have tasted in thim country, and equal to any I have seen in the Ottawa valley. After a short delay at St. Clnir City, I started for Fort Ellice, accompanied by an army of THB HOST FBR0CI0D8 HOSOniTOEa I have yet eetn, whose appetites seemed to be whetted by the warm, murky weather, and which, out of epite apparently, wreaked their vengeance on n:y littlo inustang because my net prevented them from breeding myself. Their tortures made him very revtless, and to assist in drivijg away hh tormentcrn, I got a willow bush and with it Crushed his sides, shoulders and neck, but c^uld n^t reach thote that attacked the under part of Lij belly. The poor animal in trying to drive these away by a forward fling with hi-t hind feet, (truck my heel twice with his hoofa and to prevent further damage I dis- mounted, preferring to walk rather than be kicked in this manner. I had not gone far when he, after sevt-ral trials, succeeded in placing his hind foot in the stirrup and nearly threw himself on the groiiiid. About neven miles from bird Tail Creek 1 crossed the dry bed of what is sometimes a ciince the date when tQe yearly payment should have been made, and no doubt their protits will be large on those transactions when the Governaieut comes to settle with them. These Indians had c.>me to Fort Ellice some time before the date iixed for receiving their annuities, and being on the border of starvation they helped themselves to four head of fat cattle belonging to the Hon. Mr. McKay, but which they thought were Gov- ernment stock. This act of appropriation was done civilly but determinedly, and gave a great deal of uneasiness to Capt. Herchimer, but that !*iBer did not like to interpose his authority be- ..ween starving Indians and fat beef critters The country around and beyond this point has ample tupplies of wood, but the soil is mostly of inferior quality and in some cases is a bare sandy waste. Except in the immediate vicinity of tbf river, I don't believe there will be much seUle- ment done here for several years, although thf land on the whole is equal to many settled portions of the eastern provinces. Having gone as far us I wanted towards the west I turned back across the Assiniboine and tried to find an old trail, which was said to lead from this point to the Pelly Grossing on the Bird Tail Creek, near the Riding Mountains, but after considerable pearcb, bad to eive it up and return by the way I came. When I reached the valley of Snake Creek it was getting dark, and being cloudy and warm, the mosquito army re- newed their attack of the forenoon, which put my pony nearly wild, so I thought it best to camp here rather than prosecute my journey seven miles further under such circumstances, Montreal, Nov. 2l8t, 1879. AN OBDINABY PCKNK AT THE WINNIPEO POST- OFFICE — NEEDED POSTAL BEFOBMS, Sir— While reading in the Witness of last Saturday how speedily mail matter is distribu- ted, delivered, or despatched in the Montreal Post office, I waa reminded of the very different way they do these things in Manitoba, especially at the Winnipeg Post-office, where the delays are very trying to the patience, and frequently cause considerable loiia to the people of that pro- viace. The mails fr ^m the Ea^t generally rraoh Winnipeg about miduigbt, and when the Poal- (illlce opens at eight o'clock the following morn- ing a number ot people enter it to get their letters before gaing to their ordinary avocations, but often they find that the general delivery wicket remains closed until near nine, as the clerks are too busily en^iaijed in sorting the previous night's mail. When the wicket U (jpened there is such a crowd pressing around it as to resemble the window of a polling-place (luring elections twenty years ago. Two clerks are usually placed to serve the general public until the first crush is over, but sometimes there ii only one to serve. TUR EAGER CROWD. The person standing next to the wicket calls out his name, aod the clerk pulls a handful of letters from a pigeon-hole and looks them over. Per- haps the waiting individual gets all Lia letters, but sometimes he does not get them until two or three days afterwards, or it may be not at all (as I have found by experience). When the handful of letters is examined the clerk goes to another and larger pigeon-hole, and takes out of it an armful of newi^papera and looks them uver on*) by t^ne, returns them to their place, and in- forms the waiting individual that there ia nothing more for him. The latter is not, how- ever, to be put oS so readily, aa he has been de- puted by several of bis neighbors to ask for their mail, and the clerk has again to go over the same process of searching for letters and papers for each of these. The first person retires from the wicket (^cmetimes a difficult task, owing to the eagerness of the crowd behind him), and another takes his place, while the post-Jtfice man goes through the same tedious process as before. I have sometimes waited half an hour before I could get near enough to the wicket to receive my letters and papers. Often the eastern pipers were not all borted until noon ; so I had to return again in the after- noon, or leave the city without them. The mechanics and laborers generally call at the post-office between the hours of twelve and one o'clock, when there is another jam at the wicket, but only one clerk to attend to all their wants, which often includes selling postage stamps, and receiving or delivering registered letters. I have en several occasions remained to watch the eagerness of the poor workmen to get away to their dinner or work, but in some cas( a they arc detained over fifteen minutes before getting their turn. I believe that during the greater part of the suuimer an average of five or i»ix persons were kept waiting in Winnipeg poet* office during the hours it wt>8 kept open. The weekly mails for many places in Matitnbt and the North-West Territory are dispatched from Winnipeg and Emerson, on Monday morn- ing, but do not contain letters and papers wbich may have reached there from thirty to forty hours previously, and such letters have to lay over for another week btfore being forwarded to thi-ir destination. For example, the Weekly Wit- nibs for Manitoba, leaves Montreal on Tuesday evenings, andgenerally reaches Emerson on Satur- day evenings at six o'clock, and Winnipeg about midnight, and might easily be forwarded to the West on Monday morning, in which case they would reach most of their readers by Wed- nesday, or eight days after publication , but instead tf that they are delayed seven days more. TiiK Letters of Rusticus. S5 Of conrae people K^nerally do not care fcr Buh- vcribiDg for papers that du not reach them until iiftKHD to twenty days after publi'.-^tion, if at all. At the time of my vinit, tb«'re v/yro ONLY TWO BBGDLAB POS'fOFrrCES in ^hat part of the North- West Territory immeHi. ate'y jjinins M^^uitoba; theHewerea*' Sho«l Ii-.'ke and at T.iuneM Croneinn on th»< LittiH HaHkatcl'e. wan. Frnt»i the^e two "(ffiieji. nvat two thousand f.itniUes, Hcattf^rt ov"i aw m'>ay square mil**" of territory, had to Ret their leUers and papers The mail rcac^ied t>'«'*e (•ffloes only once in three weeks, and wf mail matter, and ^nds that some of it is directed to H. Brown. Mr. Jones baa A NKIOHBOB NAMED BEOWN, but be does not know hia Brst name, and to make certain be takes Mr. Brown's letterii and papers along with the rest. Mr, Jones' neigh- bor's name ia noi H, Brown, but R, Brown, and when he looks at the papers which Jones brought him he finds that he is not the owner at all, as they belong to Mr H. Brown, who lives south-east from Bapid City, distant some forty or fifty miles. The stray letters and papers are laid away to be returned at the first oppor- tunity, but often have to wait several months before sent back to the post-office, there to take their chances of being again sent off in the wrong direction. There is generally some chance of the letters reaching their properdestination atlastjbut I have heard of several ca»i-8 where it Ui' k six months to do it. Soaie half dozen or more letters posted in Montreal latt suoimer, and a'airie without either blanket or tent, and a short account of how it was done may be amus- ing if not instructive to your readers. Finriiug that night was coming on while there was still seven miles of an indifferent trail to be passed over before reaching St. Clair city, where the accommodation for travellers was none of the best, and knowing that the passage over every rod of the way there would be contested by in- numerable hosts uf mosquitoes, I THOUGHT IT PRUDENT to halt for the night, and so looked around to see if there were signs of dead timber in any of the adjacent bluffs with which to make a hre. I had to be more particular in selecting my camping place where there were ample supplies of dry wood, than most other travellers, since I had no axe with me, nor any thinglarger than a small jack> knife with which to prepare the night's ^rewood. When a suitable place was found I unsaddled and hobbled my pony and turned him out to feed, while I kindled a tire with which to warm my supper and drive away the mosquito battalions. But first of all I had to gather a store of fael to last the whole n>ght, as on the preceding evening I neglected to gather enough of wood until after dark, when I found it was no easy task groping around among a thick bluff of tmall poplars until 1 met with a dry tree, not too large for me to pull down. B> starting wood-gathering while there was still hufticient daylieht to look around me, I generally got plenty of fallen timber, which I drew out in lengths of sometimes more than twenty feet, and placing several of these acro-'S each other kindled a tire at the point of contact which soon burned each of them through, when X again placed the longer pieces acroaa the fire, and before I went to sleep they were all cut into convenient lengths by means of the fire. My next work was to prepare tea for aupper, uuDg water which I had taken with me in a tin tl »Bk from a spring which issued out of the banks of the Assiuiboine, near Fort Ellis. The immediate vicinity of water is generally chosen by travellers for campicg ground, but I found that where other people were in the habit of camping they used up all the dry wood, so I carried my tea-water with me oft<'n for half a day before using it. Alter supper I ^BEPABSD a bed by gathering an armful of bushes or weeds and spreading them on the groand to leeward of the 56 'I'm; I-i'.iTKR.s oi- RusTicus. fire, ULlog my travellinR bag lor m pUlow. I would then remove from my iiaiits anddraweri) anyKraiua of wildoata which might have intruded their unwelcome presence there, and whicli they were not slow to make known by a prioking sen- aation on aome part of my leji;*. By the r;ay, I may here state that I liave kuow,!> seveial per- ROUS who were laid up from woik for a longer or shorter period, owing to the iutrusiou o( a wild oat (ihey itrongly resemble porcupine quilU) through a > 'de in the bjot, into and throuk(h the fkin of then .'eet. Having gathered the burniug brands closer together, then wrapping around me a waterproof coat, and adjusting the moEcpiito net, also drawing a pair oi socks over my hands to guard against the "skeeters," I would lie down to sleep. On snme other nichtB while camping cut, I beard the prairie-wolves singing thei • sweetest carolp, but on this occasion ther« was nothing unusua' to disturb my rest except Stutt (the pony) and bit tormentorc, both of which kept in closer proximity to my bed than w:.8 conducive to slumbfr. It also rained some during the night, and on such occasions I ha^i to assume the perpendicular instead of the horizontal position iu order to avoid being drenched too much This mode of sleeping is not very refreshing, and when frequently repeated becomes wearisome. At break of day I started for the fiird Tail, and reached the dwelling of Mr. Chambers, one of the Hamiltonian colcnistB, in time for break fast. Upon remarking THE ABflEKCS OF Mlt.K, Mrft. Chambers told me that they owned the only cow in the colony, but she had wandered away two days before and had not returned, leav- ing the whole stttlement to drink t heir tea and fkatche- wan. The land h'-re is excellent, but has very few settlers located on it, as some twelve sections here have been bought by an English nobleman, Lord Elphinstone, who purposes to make it ar immense cattle farm . The people in the viciL.uy would, however, much rather have people than cattlf) for neighbors, as there would then be greater likehht od of their early securing schools, churches and gir:d mads. A few miles north- wrrd from here there is a somewtat eccentric in- di''i',r'.\l in good circui'i*tacoes, who owns a good ileal of )jtnd in this nei^bbr>rhood and eome sixty or Hi^venty bead of cattk. A iHtle after m' T lay I reach-ni the Indian ileserve near the Hiding Mountain House and The Lettf-rs of Rusticus. 57 found tho IcdlaiiB all oongre((at«d in one place huldiog A " BIO TALK " WITH UB. MABTIMIAn, the Government agent, who was to pay the In- diana their annuities the foIlowiuR Monday. After liateniDK a while to Oree eluquenoe and its English tranttlation, I le't to visit aome set- tlerH li .'ing aniith-weBt fmn) here, prumiH^ng the Kev . George Flett, the Presbyterian naiBhionary, that I would return on the afternoon of the next (lay (Sunday) to kee the Indian children at their Sunday-school exercifes. At the appoint ed time, 4 p.m. tiunday, in company with Mr. Flett and liia wife, we came to the place of meeting—a email log dwelling house enclosed in a field of barley, potatoes, Indian corn and other garden v.'getabl«B. The building and crops belong to a young Cree who has shown consider- able aptitude iu adopting the cutttoma of civi lizatiou. The Indians at first began to gather round the house in considerable numbers from the adjacent enca*^ pment, but unfortunately at this juncture Mr. Martineau called atthe "tepee" of the chief, wanting to have another "big talk." The interpreter (a young Indian in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, who epeaks Eng- lish, il'rench and Indian fluentlj) was at the house where Mr. Flett was about beginning religious services, but a messenger came requiring his presence at headquarters, and he had to go, while a number of tl.e other Indiana followed from curioKity. M.r. Flett and I began to fear that the religioas services of tile day would suffer for lack of an audience, but ad a few of tho better-disposed young men and women remained, we gathered in front of the house and started to sing some of Hankey's hyuins, they singing in Vae and I in English ; but there was no discord, as the tunes were the ones usually sung to these hymns'. We had not Bung through cne hymn when nearly all the women and children in the camp came up to our place of meeting, followed soon after by all the younger men, leaving only about half a dozen of the older Indians to continue the conference with Agent Martineau. I counted in all about eighty pereons, old and young, at our meeting. Several more hymns were then sung, and the Kev. Mr. Flett, after reading a chapter in the Grre language, from an Eoglish Bible, preached a short sermon, but as I did not understand a word ut it, I employed my leisure in scan- niag the personal appearance of the audience, by no means a very pleasing spectacle, owing to the amount of aquiilor and dirt visible. Most of the children were literally in rags, though some of them had a scanty supply of even those. After the sermon the younger per- sons in the company were divided into classes and teachers put in charge of each. Some of th-; teacberf were more youthful than some members of their class, yet with a card in band on which the Cree alphabet had been written by Mr. Flett, they pointed out with a short stick each character and called out its proper name. Mr, and Mrs. Flett bad each of them classes of the smaller children gathered around them, to whom they were teaching the English alphabet and also to spell little words in that language. Mrs. Flett seemed to enter icto the work most heartily, althoueh her pupils were in suc'u a con- dition ihat few of the lady teachers in Montreal Sunday-BRhools would care to tonoh their cloth- tog or persons with a pair of tongs. AM INDIAN HIBHION'-BGATEBB AB PONIIM AND MAHHHEH. A OAHBE OF The night of August 17th was spent by me in the house of the Itev. George Flett, a short dit- tance north from the Hiding Mountains House, Mr. Flett's house is one of the best that I have seen west of Manitoba, yet it was built en- tirely by INDIAN LABOB. The doors, windows, flooring and part of the shingl'-B were brought up from Winnipeg, but the logs were hewed and put togetlier by Indians, who also sawed with a;whii)-saw all the rough lumber ueeded.and a made considerable por- tion of the shinglei), besides doing all the joiner work requisite in putting up the rafters, bearding and shingling the roof, laying the floors, making the door and window cases, &o. On Monday morning I walked around the Reserve gathering wild H:>wer8, (which I brought with me to Montreal.) and observing the build- ings, fences, and crop^ belonging to the Indians. Ttie two latter were much ]e?a than I was led to expect from the civilzed appearance of many of these people, but there were several houses already built, and the (log) walls for six or seven more were up (the cornering being remarkably well done,) and will probably be occupied by this time, at least I hope so, aa the supply of clothing belonging to the Indiana, especially the children, is altogether too scanty to permit of their dwelling in *' Tepee's" through the cold weather. When fur-bearing animals were plenti- ful, and their pelts brought high prices, many of these Indians and their squaws were clothed in broadcloth ; but the two past seasons have been very disappointing to Indian hunters, and as the demands of the belly are more pressing than the wants of the back, the latter will have to bear the brnnt of " bard times" aa best it may. I was informed that much more land would have been cultivated by the Indians, but for lick of oxen to do the ploughing. It appears that the Government supplied a number of ploughs and harrows (which I saw piled up be- side one of the Indian houses,) but they got only one pair of oxen to furnish the motive power re- quired to put them to good use, besides hauling out of the bush an annsual quantity of building and fencing timber, consequently but little ploughing could be done. At eleven o'clock I returned to the Manse to witness a marriage ceremony, whereby two Crees were made one, (that is,if they were not such already, as they had for some time been living aa man and wife, but wished the knot to ba further tied in a Christian manner.) The haopy pair were under thirty years of ago and decently dressed, and in appearance com- pared favorably with many couples that are married within sight of Montreal. After dinner I went down to see the Indiana BICEIVE THIIB ANNCITIES, a somewhat tedious afiair, since Indians, like HO many of their white brethren, are generally willing to accept more than is lawfully due to them, I was sorry to learii that only three or four 'jut of this large band of Indians had any mordy really coming to them after their debts were paid. It is true that the money was paid to each Indian who touched the pen by way of giving a receipt, but the payments were made in 58 TlIK LKiriiUS OK RUSTICUS. the iircKiice of an a.^fnt of the Hudson Bay Couiuany to whum th« cnih wm, in all but tbi«e or luar uutttH, trauitferrecl in payment ut Kooda alrt>aily received, so that in obm the Indian wishufi to malte any frtiih furcbaiiea he haa to do lo on credit, have l)««u informed that the ofiicen of the Hudson Day Company are in the habit of niriDH the Indiana vr«dit to the amount of their nt xt annual payment to be rtx^eived from thn Giv- ernment ; thuo pcKir Lo ia kept almont oon- atautly in debt, and ia unable to um bia annuity luoneya in purcbaiing from any other tradera who moy have wares for ■ale. I do not preteua to nay that tbi« ia altogether to hi^ dixadvantaRt-, for, although the Uudaon Day Company charge fuormounly high prioea for the ^uoda they supply, yet they are generally of excellent 'luality, and good measure ia alwaya given, while nccasional tradera are not very particular aa to the ([uality or amount of goods given even when the Indiana are paying twice its value. Itseemaa great pity that the Indiana whose annuities are ao small ($o per head) could not have an opportunity of giving it In exchange for nearly ita worth of auch artiulei< aa he really requirea. At about 4 p.m. 1 bid good bye to Mr. Flett and his Indian misainn, and turned Btutt'a head towards Winnipeg, an arrangement which did not meet with hia approval as he aeemed to pre- fer waiting where he was, to enjuy the company of a number of other ponirs like himself. As I rode away from this Indian reserve meditating on the scuuea I had lately witneesed, I was very much impressed with the sense of the large debt of gratitude which the government and people of this Dominion owe to THB MI89I0NAIIIES IN THH NOBTH WEST for the civilizing effect of their presence among the Indians, who all seem to have great regard for the advice given by the miaaionariea, even while they continue to cling to many of their ancient ideas about religion. I believe that were the Gevernment to supplement the work of the missionaries by paying a number of traatworthy persona as teachers to impart to the Indian youths and maidens a rudimentary knowledge of the three K'a, the services of the North- West Mounted Police might be dispensed with, in a few yeara, at least in so far as the Indiana are personally con- corned. The plan of doing the teaching at or near to the Indiana' homes is much better than the plan proposed in the States of taking a num- ber of Indian youths east and placing them in Bome educational institution, there to get a lib- eral training Such a course would, I fear, do as much hatm as good to the young Indians, as their surroundings while at scjiool would b« so totally difl'erent to what they would find when they returned home that they would not remain there lon^', or if they did remain, they would return to their former mode of life in preference to trying the apparently hope- less tafak of ingrafting eastern customs into the every day life of a Western Indian. The very presence of the teacher would also have a moat beneficial eSect on the induatrial habita of the whole tribe where he dwelt. I alao think that during the present winter, when many of the Indians will require a little extra Government aid, it might be given most advante^eonaly through the hands of the missionaries. From the Big Bend in the Little Saskat- chewan down to within a few miles of Tanneri' Croaaing, the country southweat of that stream is a beautiful rolling prairie, with occaaioual amall blutTa of poplar, whiih are alto- gether too amall and too lew in number to aup* ply all the timber needed by the future aettlera, but there is an abundant supply of tim- ber across on the north-eaot akie of tbe river, where the country la nearly all wood- ed, with a lar^e portion of it lately overrun by fire and ia at present a *' brulie," bat if pro- tected for a few yeara will be covered with a aecond crop of timber. There are here numer- oua siuall Ulres and graaay ponds, especially among the timber, many of which are evidently tbe work of beavera at some former period, and a few hours work with a apade would drain a good many of them. One of these lakes which i Haw in township sixteen, range seventeen, covered an area i.( more than fifty acres, with aa much more in a marshy condition, yet it could be drained bv an ordinary Irish spadesman in about a week. There are no settlements that I heard of on the north-east side of the .Saskatche- wan, and westward from the Kolling lllver, ex- cept two houses and a aawmill on the batiks of the latter stream, Eastward from the Roiling River the country ia more open, and there are a few aettlers located on what ap- peara to be nearly all excellent soil- but moatly covered with scrub. THE BOLLIKU BIVKB strongly resemblea many of the creek) in tbe Gatiiieau country. The valley ia very deep and narrow, while tbe stream for miles ia a auccea- sion of rapids over a bed of boulders. The banks are chit fly clay, with occasional layers of sand and gravel. A abort distance up the east bank of this stream there ia a comfortable- looking^ farm house, with several outhouses around it. It belongs to a French native, and ia marked on tbe last mapa, and I um informed that a few years ago the main trail to the Eig Saskatchewan paeaed near this place. There la a small aawDjill near the outlet of thia river, but it had been idle for some time previous to my visit, because the mill-dam had burst. There ia also a plentiful supply of spruce timber about twelve miles up atream, from which loga can be brought readily during the high water in spring, THB PB08PECT8 OF WINNIPIO A»D BAPID CITY COMPABKD— A MEETIKO WITH MKSSBa. THOMAS WHITE, M P., AND 0. J, BaYUOES. On the afternoon of August 2lKt I left the vicinity of Rolling River and, taking a southern direction reached Rapid City the following day at noon. The country through which I passed had rather more timber growing on it than iathe case further westward, but it was also wetter in parts and more or leaa rolling. In one ot the largest settlements here the people are all Pres- byterians, and I waa informed tnat all the land in that vicinity was owned by the professed followers of Knox and Calvin. After careful en- quiries made. I believe that fully half of the English speaking, white inhabitants of Manitoba and more than two-thirds of the settlers in tlte North- West Territory are FBXSBYTEBIANB, yet the Board of Home Missions in the eastern provinces propose to reduce by $2,.30O, the grant Tiir, Lktters ()!• Ri'sricus. 59 Rivan to luppr.rt the PrcibytarUn m!ytHri»tiri, Mttled over 'HM) •((uaru iiiilm <>( new tcrritdty. What would the UteDrR. Chalnier*, linrni, and Diitfiay of suuh uoniliict wrre they ttill liviiiK? I have brvn thinkinK thut the Prtiihyt«-ri«n Hoard of }{o[r« IVlinHioiiH uiii«t either have an oveiweeoing coii- iiclfnce in the iteadfaiit adherauce of Preeby- teiiitiia to their creed under the most trying clr- ctiuiHtauceH, or eUe have altogether too low an *itiniMt« of the enterprise and plnok of their Methodint and Baptist brethren, or they w >uld not be BO slow to ocoupv the moRt ptuHiinnx Preehyterittu iield on this continent, if not ifU the Klobe. When I reached Ilkpil City the second time, I saw at once an evidf i oi« of its pruHress in the form of four new dwellii r houses, _ which had been coanieuced since iny formrr vi^it, a little over two weeks before, iSiuce returniuKto Mont- real I have received numerous letters of enquiry about HAPID OITT AND ITS PHO8PK0T8 of becoming n large city compared with Winni- peK. Should the more Houthern (which I believe to be much thu bext) of the two surveyed routes for the Oaanda Paoifio Kailway be cboBen, it will run for about five miles in the valley of the Little Saxkatchewau at Rapid city. This place stronuly reminds me of the valley of the Gatineau at Kirk'H Ferry, except that the Cratiiieitu river is about twelve times as large ax the liittle HaKkatchewan, Rud also has about twelve titnes more timber on its high batiks. There ia a descent of about twenty-five feet in the bed of the river in about two miles ofitH courfe here, and a considerable water power could be developed by the construction of two or three dams across the stream; but any mills or maiiufauturies erected here, would reiiuire to have steam engines in addition to water-wheels, as in timer of drouKht, the water in the river would be too low to supply the motive power, ex- cept in the form of steam. As C'impared with Winnipeg, Rapid city pes- EesBes the following advantages— it has a much more beautiful and healthy site, it has an abun- dant supply of stone and gravel for paving its BtreetM and building its cellars. Timber for fuel and building purposes can be had at a much legs cost by floating it down from the Riding Mountains. Its high banks give it a great ad''antaKe in the construction of water-works, when the city becomes large enough to require them. There is no danger of its suflFeriug from floods, while the very existence of Winnipeg is yearly menaced by a spring flood, and her muni cipal debt is already assuming alarming dimen- BioQB, causing high taxes, which with other high prices will prevent the possibility of large manu- f actorit 8 being established in Winnipeg. Besides, Rapid City is much nearer the immense coal field of the Saskatchewan. The advantages which Winnipeg has over Rapid City are : The poseession of a good start both in build- ings and trade. The unscrupulous clever- neaa of Fome of the largest proprietors, who, in addition to large worldly possessioDs, have a rare amount of the cat like ability of light ing on their feet after every turn of the po- litical kaleidoscope (and the more turns the bet- ter for them). It does not require very careful •oaroh to dlicover traces of the handiwork of these cute gentlemen in th>i various reserve and laud policies which hel^ to ciiri'h tproulntors at the expense of the wbolit country. I fear that itaptd City will yet suffer seventy by the in- trigues of such men at Ottawa in (b'termlning IhH route of the ('unada Pacific Railway. Froii) Rapid City I w ut up the southeast banks of the river some eighteen miles to I'rairie City, calling at several places on the way, and among others at the farm of John Ralston, where I four.d the (iroprietor looking as well as when I saw liiui lust at bis house on the (iatineau, while taking the ceuriUH in the epriug of 1871. His residence is in Winnipeg, but he owns some twelve sections of land beretttxiU^M (iiiore gond land than there is in anyiownship on the liu- tineau ab )ve Hull). Mr. Raiitton ia one ol the many perHona who have benetited by the iguo- rancM of Northwestern matters which prevailed ut Ottawa, but I believe that he secured his lands by less objectionable measures than were resorteil to by numerou^i parties who have fol- lowed him, until the (iovemment put a stop to this mode of public plunder, I hope that the Government will yet cause an investigation into these and other ways by wbiuh the public lands were secured by cunning fpeculators. rUAIIUH! CITY contains three or four houses, located on the north bank of the river, and as I wished to viitit the Dominion Land Utbce, I bad to leave Stutt on the south banks of the stream (here about sixty feet wide and from three to four feet deep), and paia twenty-five cents to the ferryman who took nie over and back. A bridge has since been built at this point. About three-quarters of a mile east from here ier's Crossing, at the furthest east point on the Little SaBkatchewan river, I had hoped that the mail which was then due would bring me some news from the east, as I had got none since leaving Winnipeg, but as it bad not yet arrived, on the following day I went some eight or nine miles north from this along the banks of a beautiful stream which flows in a deep broken valley. Some of the land here is very fertile and there is an Abundance of good wood, water and mosquitoes. Most ( f the good land here ia already secured by settlers and others, but some of the land is rather gravelly for profitable culture in dry seasons. Returning to Tanner's Crosfing the following day I found that the mail had not arrived, so I started eastward. Only three or fonrhou-es were seen for a distance of about twenty miles when the trail crossed Stony Creek, about three miles above the junction with the White Mud River, From Tanner's Crossing to Stony Creek the land appears to be good, but mostly covered with pcrub, and is all, or nearly all, owned by iirivate persona. After crossing Stony Creek the land gets more level, and also the soil is of lighter quality (and in some places altogether too pandy for profitable cropping) ; the country is also much more open. While riding along here leisurely taking » look a every object in sight, I eaw, coming to meet me TWO DOUBLB BCOOIIS (a rather unusual sight in these pavts). When the strange teams drew near, I was both aur- priaed and pleased to aee the well known, cheer- ()0 Till- Li;iTr.Ks ok Rlstrts. fnl face of Thomas White, Esq. , M. 1'.. in the rear cairiage, auil :o get a warm shake of h » haad. My i'lrasure waa somewhat alloyed, however, at the eight of Mr. VVbite'a compauioD in travel, Not bat Mr. BrydKea ia a uice ^eut^'iman to meet with in any place ; but aa he ia the cbit-f agent of a ^reat landed company, I thou;^ht that if Mr. White had been accompanied in his travels only by some intelligent native, who wai Well piiated in all the wanta, &c , of the aettlera, what a otore of uaefnl information he wuuM ha\e drawn out, to be uatd afterwards with prreat udvim'axe in hia newspaper and ako in the '{( ni>e I i 0.)miiiunu at Ottawa. I staytd the two following nighta and inter- vening Sunday at the house of Mr. William Campbell on the banka ot Whi*« Mud Kiver which ia here a beautiful atr^'am oi clear water running on a sandy bottom. The land about here is «andy loam with aand for the aubnoil, yet pretty good crops are grown on it ; but it will not, btand to be cropped so often without manuring,' as would the laud near the Little Saskatchewan. On Monday I went norihward some 18 milt a over loamy land, rather wet in some places, to Ibehouaeot John Stephenson, near the Kiding Mountains, and the duy following I made a journeying of r )me t i:{ht or .liu' miles on font along an old trail leadiug acroa' <;he mo\mtains towards the North- Weht. Thj mouutains ri!-y used to do a couple of years ago. There are several 'org narrow gravel ridges rnntiing southward from oppoBite the k>a8t end of the Hiding Mountain. One of these i) called the DBAUTIFCL PLAIN ; but why it should be called a plain seems strange, as it is a narrow ridge about eighteen miles long and from ens . undred and tiicy to two hundred yards wide, with low wet land on each side, es- pecially towards the east, which seems to be an immense marish without a aiu^le settler, on about iiuu hundred equare miles of country. There are a number of streams ru'ming out from the ca^t end of the Riding Mountaina which hun tlieir waters in this mari-h, but a few miles fur- ther eastward there waters gathtriuto a little river, which ia oeain lost in the big grass marsh, Oa the evening of August 2l)th I rode south- ward on the lieautiful i'lain ridge, for u distance of aboi't tiCteeu miles to the Government depot at tht White Mud Kiver. The land to- wards the vVes-ti was more or less wooded, aud although rather wet ia all, or nearly all, taken up by settlers and others. Towards the eaat, although there were numerous bluffs of timber, yet most of the land seemed t.) be cover- ed with water and wild grass, where wild geese tiud a convenient feeding place, some of wbir.h I heard calling to their fellows. The laud here ^eeius to be a sanely loam, not nearly so rich as the wet lands further enHt, nor so easily drained. The farm of AHam McKenzie, Eaq , ai'joins the tJovernment IJepot at the south end of tlie Hcau- lifiil Plains, on which were abnut two hundred and pixty ftcrea of grain, wheat and oata, nicst of it in the stack, while two reaping machima with about a doien men were at work on th-i standing grain. I believe that more wheat was grown on thia farm during the past season than was grown in THB WHOLl CODNTT OF HOCHBLAQA, and fully one-quarter the quantity of oats. The following morning I started eastward aero^iH a very wet country, t>ome fourteen miles to Glad- xtone, having passed oi 1y one hnuBe on the w.-)y. The country here ia pretty well timbered, and us there ia a eradual decline towards he east, I think it would not be didicult lo drain. I observed in one jjlace whero the cart wheels had cut through the sod, that the running water had forn-.d a pretty lar^re ditch, carrying the Hue Baud and depo-iitiuK it in the next flnngh where it help, d to improve the road. While passing alung here I met a cayote on the road, but he obligingly gave mo the whole way. and going aside a E-hort distance he stood glowerinu at me, bu''. aa I turned towards him he moved off, and Stutt seeming very un- willing to follow him up, J. turned toward (rlad- Ktone again, snd after croaaing a number of wet eloughs reached that village a little afttr one o'clock p.m. Before leaving Winnipeg I directed the Post Ottio«< anthorities there to forward my letters and papers to Gladstone, as that was the fur- thtP.t west point in the North- West where they had a weekly mail. I had now been a month without getting any letters from home and was getting homesick and quite fidgety, although otberwiae in much better iiealt''. than when I left Winnipeg, bui I was promising uiypelf a literary feast and a day's rest when I would reach txladstone. It would be ditiicnlt, nl least for bachelors, to imagine my diriBed to see the valley of the Assiniboino a little over a tuile to the norcb, while south of me there was a considerable extent of level land, which turned into av txtensive marsh near the foot of the Tiver Hills, which seemed to extend about fourteen or fifteen milts further towards the south west, and then abruptly sink down out of sight, at what I uf terwurda found to be the north west point of Pelican I aka. I returned to the set- tlement near the Cyprei sr >ver, and spent the next day (Sunday) with them, and on Monday morning started south-west, steering by my own and Stutt's noses, to find a track across the marsh in the direction of Itock Lake. By an error in the Government maps I was led to go further west than I should, and came to tbo northern edge of a long, narrow mareb, close to the foot of the Tiger Hills. This msrsh swarmed with ducks, which found a large field for sport and feed among the tall reeds. I went a considerable wajr aloDK the north border of the marsh, hoping to reach some p.'ece where I 3ould crom over to the hiils which looked HO temptingly near, bnt my efforts in this direction were vain and I had to return back to within a few feet of the west bend of the Oyprus River, at the dividing line between townships seven and eight, in range thirteen, be- fore I found land dry enough to cross over to the high lands towards the south. The creek which here comes out from the Tiger Hills, parallel with the Cypress River, and about a mile west from it empties into this long marah and the water flows westward until beyond the surveyed lands, where it again asumes the creek form and fl )W8 north into the Assioiboine. Large quanti- ties of hay grow in the vicinity of these marshes, which will at some future time serve to feed in the winter time the immense flock which will tind splendid pasture lands among the adjacent hills in summer. About four o'clock in the .ifter- noon I crosjed the nameless creek at the foot of the Tiger Hids and startec. south amoEg the hills, where I found the land to be of fair quality, although rather broken. There was also a con- siderable quantity of oak scrubb, and a good many bluffs of poplar timber. I camped for the night at a little stream near the centre of Town- snip flve, range thirteen, and went to sleep lulled by the mid-night carols of the prairie wolves. NOMBNOLATDRK— THE CO0NTUT OP THB LAKES— THE BOOTH WEBT LIMIT. On the morning of September 9:h I left my camping ground among the Tiger Hills, and, after travelling south a short distance. came to a beautiful stream of clear.sweet water.running eastward in a valley about twenty feet deep. This is about the centre of township 5, range 1.3, west, and would be a BEACTIFUL PLACE FOR A 8ETTL1MEKT, the range of hills nearly surrounding it on the north and east side, with a large open prairie to- wards the south and west. The soil is of excel- lent quality, although not nearly so deep os ntar tbe Red River ; but the water is delicious, and there is plenty of small timber. From this creek south to the alkaline lakes the land is an open, slightly rolling prairie, with timbered hills to- yards the east, north and south, but west and northwest there is an extensive open prairie. Some of the so-called alkaline lakes are very beautiful, with timbered banks and fljcks of wild geese feeding on the shcie — I counted twenty-seven in one flock. South of the lakes the country again becomes hilly, and covered with scrub oak and poplar. After vainly trying for nearly an hour to force my way through the scrub, I was compelled to turn westward and skirt the border of the prai- rie land which gradually turned southward towards the north-west end of Rock Lake. When within a little more than a mile from the lake, I came to a well beaten waggon trail running south-east across the tinabered bills. This trail was a most welcome sight to me, as I did not know that there were any settlers north of Rock The Letters of Rusticus. 65 Lake. I took this trail croeeiog the bills which are pretty well timbered, and the land is of excel- lent quality. In some of the more open places, there are lovely farm sites, and I am sure that hardy varieties of AFPUB THUS would do well here. After lees than an hour's ride I came to a large open plain with several huto and tents in view. The soil in this plain is different from anythint; I had yet seen in thi!< country, bRing a black loam to a depth of about a foot, beneath which there is a taaid bed of gravel, eo compact that I could not dig it with a epade. This kind of soil is rather dry and I fear the crops will not amount to much in seasons of great drought. I remained over night at the hut of a man named Walsh, who belonged to Chateauguay County (I saw several people here who came from near Montreal). Duriog the evening I went down to see Bock Lake and found the water in it to be very shallow and muddy from the action of the wind an') waves on the clayey bottom and sides. The binka are nearly precipitious and about two hundred feet high and well wooded with a large growth of timber, such as oak. Balm of Giliad, poplar and ash. There are also nnmeroua beautiful spricgs floivingout from the banks. The following morniag I set out for the Turtle Mountains, goio^ about five miles north- west, back along the trail I had come on the previous day — which trail leads to several haystacks belonging to the i>eo- pie whom I stayed with the previous night. I then turned south-west and crossed a good sized creek, which flows into the north-west end of Rock Lake. I proceeded on still, towards the south weet steering by my noee for several miles, until I came to the Pembina River near two lakes, each about a mile square, called by the surveyors Lome and Louise. There appears to be no system in the naming of lakes and rivers in this country. The chain of lakes along the Upper Pem- bina are called Swan. Rock, Lome, Loniae, Pelican and White Water, which is rather a strange mixture. Below I give what I believe to be a mush better pystem of nomenclature, with the dimrniiout4 cif each lake. Swan Lake, ~) milts lung, 1 mile wide. Goose Lake, 7 do. Snipe Lakp, 1 do. Duck Lake, 1 do. Pelican Lake, 1.5 do, Crane Lake, 13 do. All theise lakes, except the last, are situated in a valley about 200 feet below the surrounding country. The country north-east of Pelican Lake, and the two small lakes below it, is very beautiful, with plenty of good land, wood and water ; but the only persons living here yet are two families of Frenca natives who live by hunt- ing and fishing. As it was threatening to rain, and the Turtle Mountains were still thirty miles distant, I accepted the kind invitation of one cf these men (who spoke pretty good English) to lodge with bim over night. During the evecing I walked around a good deal, and must say that I do not knoK of a place in the Noith-West which took my fancy 'jo much as this quarter. The following morning, before starting on my journey, I got all the information I co;ild regard- ing the way to the Turtle Mounts, from my obliging entertainer, who aiao ooosoled 1 do 1 do 1 do 1 do 6 do me by stating that the last man who sought to reach Turtle Mounts by this route had lost his way, and after wandering about for some time managed to get back to Pelican Lake, having in the meantime lost all desire to go fur- ther Westward. After descending the steep banks of the valley here and crossing the slug- wish stream of bitter water which issues out of Pelican Lake— the water in thii* lake is so bad that fi-h won't or can't live in it- I ascended the opposite bank ju't above the mouth of the Lit- t'e Pembina, which is a considerable stream coming in from the we^t in a large gully. I bere foun d traces of surveyors' work in running • the line between townships three and four ia range fifteen, and going west along their trail for nearly a mile came to the corner post of these townships and those immediately a''joining them in range sixteen west. This post stands about a mile south from Pelican Lake, and about "00 yards north from the Little Pembina River. I followed this line westerly for seven or eight miles more ; and during the fir&t three or four miles of this route travelled over good land, but the latter half, was over a good deal of dry, arid, gravelly hills of moderate altitude, with fair soil in the lower places. From the top of one of these elevations I got the first sight of Turtle Mounts, lying a little west of south. I turned Stutt'a head in that direc- tion, and Eoon crossed a considerable oreek, a branch of the Little Pembina. After cooking and eating my dinner in the usual fashion, I proceeded southward over an extepsive tract of excellent land which is pearly level, with occa- sional ponds Bwarmiog with ducks. I also i^aw a good many sandhill cranes, both gray and white, fhese latter are NOBLE-LOOKINO BIRDS, and stand between four and five feet high, and at a distance remind you of the processions of white robed girls which may be seen in Montreal streets in the spring. When T wonld come too near them, they would spread their immense wings and fiy away, uttering a loud call, which seems to be half-way between that of a gander and a turkey gobbler, and sounds like " kat-er-hone," with the emphasis ou the last syllable. When within three or four miles from Turtle Mounts the land got more rolling, some of the knolls being rather stony, with the soil not so good as it ia further north. About two miles from the Mounts there is a good deal of low alkali land, but near the timber the land is slightly rolling and dry enough, but has not such deep soil as in Mani- toba—yet it produces good crops at present, and is as good, if not better, than the average soil along the north shore of Lake Ontario. A French-Canadian named Lapierre has lived here for the past five years, and has considerable land under cultivation and keeps a store to sup- ply goods to the ludians at exorbitant prices. I am told that he sometimes gives his customers "fire-water," but the North Western Police nabbed him last year, and it cost him about •SIOO. TtiS man comes irom Ottawa, where he formerly kept a hotel. I stayed that night at the housb of Mr. Finley Young, formerly from Chateauguay, but more recently from Montreal, «bo, with a man named Philip Scott, alao from Montreal, are "baching" it together. The following morning was wet, so I did not 66 The Letters of Rvsticvs. travel much, but shot half a drzen ducks in the numeruUB ponds which abound here The next morninf; (Saturday, September 13! I was anxiuu« to visit a Very lar^e lake, diBtant atmr. 18 or 20 mUes towards the north-west, which some of the Betkl^rs said was nearly as laige as Lake Mani tob> but although some of then: bad seoi'. part of 't in the diatance, none of tbem bad evnr rec jh d its shores. It is called Wtiice Water lake, /om the white or rather sky blue appear- ance of the water in the lake when seen from a distance. As Mr. Scott wished to accompany me, we borrowed an old cart and sha^nappi har- • nesB from Mr. Lapierre, and after considerable trouble managed to break in Stntt sufficiently to draw the rii?, and so started on our journey, but could travel no faster than a walk for fear cf wrecking both cart andhntness. We also took two guns with us, but as we expected to return that night, we did not take as much proviaions with UB as we ought. After travelling about fourteen miles we got a si^^ht of the lake, still discant about ten miles and probably four hun- dred feet lower than we then were. For two hours more we travelled over a rolling prairie and ^rhen about four miles from the lake came to a nteep descent to wnat was evidently at oct-^ time the border of the lake, which has since retreated several miles over a gravelly plain. _ From the highest point here I got a good view of the lake with my glass and could distinctly truce its border all ronnd, although with the raked eye it seemed to be boundless towards the weat. There ia not a bush or tnie to be seen within fieveral miles of this remarkable lake, ex- cept on an island near the north shore. The greater part of the eastern end seema to be very shallow, as bnllrushes could be seen growing in places here and there. I think that this lake ia About thirteen or fourteen miles long, and from five to six miles wide, and from the north- east end there extends a long, marshy track, which, I believe, to be its outlet into the head of Pelican Lake. When we got down to the low land we almost lost sight of the lake, and after travelling for about an hour over dry, gravelly, poor land, we came to the borders of the marshy land, yet were a long distance from the open water. As the sun was near set- ting we had to give up all hopes of getting near- er the lake, and returned about three miles to where we saw a bluff of timber in a gully, where we camped for the night, feeling rather cheap that we could not continue our explorations on the following day, it being Sunday. TJKCOMFOBTABLB WHiTHEB— COAL PROSPECTS— A MODBL POBTMASTaa — THK LAND IN THK FKMBINA MOUATAIN BEGION- THE MENNON- iiEa. On Sunday morning, Sept. 14ti'j, we rose from our prairie bed not much refrenhed by the broken sleep of the previous night A cold wind blew hard the whole night and as we had no bed- clothes, we were rather too cold to sleep soundly. We had still sufficient provicions left for a good breakfast which we ate with a zest, little known to dyapeptic people in the Eastern Provitces, then started on our journey homward, and about one o'clock came to where a surveying party were camped at a small lake near the northwest comer of township one, range twenty, west. There we refreshed onrselver with an ex- celleut diuner of bread and tea, with pork and beans, which was kindly given to \\» by the sur- veyors, who all seem to be a very hospitable lot of men, The surveyor himself, Mr. Cloata, was absent, but that made no difference so far aa the food was concerned. We reached Mr Young's house in the evtcing and found there an English miner named Norton, who had just returned from examining the coal fields on the Souris, He showed us specimens of the coal found on the surface there, and spoke verv hopefully of IBM COAL PBOSPIOTS in that vicinity, but wished us to say nothing about it until his employers could secure their title to the land where the coal abounds. To my unpracticed eye, the coal Eeemed to be rather light colored and dull looking, like some of the inferior coal br'^-^'ht from Nova Scotia, but Mr. Norton said that while camping at the Souris, he piled a lot of the surface coal onhis camp lira in the evening and was able to cook his breakfast on it the lollowing morning without the addition of any moro fuel. The following morning (Monday) I had in- tended to start eaat along with Mr. Norton, but Stutt (who had for some time past been taught to observe the Sabbath day aa a day cf rest) entered his silent protest against the previoua day's doing and slunk off tvith himself during the night, and we did not find him until noon of the following Thursday. While searching for Stutt I had ample opportunities for observing the face of the country here, some of my journeyj extending into Dakota. The land on the Turtle Mounts is of better quality than prevails gene- rally in the Eastern Townships, but a'? it ia well wooded, I hope that the government will pee the necessity of protecting it carefully from speculators, or even settlers who moy claim more timbered lands than they actually vera, as this track of timbered land will all be need- ed to supply the wants of the numerous settlers who will soon occupy the immense open prairin country lying east, north and west of it. On Friday morning I bid goodbye to my kind friendis at Turtle Mountains, and started east along the Boundary Gommiesion Trail. As I expected to find lodgings at a settlei's house near Badger Creek the followin,? night, I did not make an early start. After a journey of thirty miles I reached Badger Greek at sunset to find an unoccupied house, its owner having gone to Emerson, so I had again to camp out in an ad- jacent bluff of timber, where I slept soundly, al- though there was a considerable frost during tho night. A good deal of the land about Badgov Oreek(in townships land 2,near the dividing lini between ranges 14 and 15, west) has already been taken up, and considerable ploughing done, with preparations for building in several places. Tho next day at eleven o'clock I reached the Cyprean Creek, near the west side of township 2, rango 12, west. I may here remark that I observed more or less slaty gravel mixed with the gray clay subsoil through all the land I had pass- ed over since leaving the Cypress River on the 8th of September at a point about thirty miles north of where the trail crosses Cyprus Creek ; eastward from here to where the trail crosses the Pembina River near the east boundary of township 2, range 9, west, the sub- soil IB nearly pure slate to a great depth, with a The Letters of RrsTicus. 07 few f e«t of day above it, in many places, tnrf ace aoil The IS A BIOH LOAM ftnd will produce excellent crops in damp seasonR, but I fear that the crops will hv light in seaRons uf drought, dunday Sept. 2iBt 1 i-pent in tho Paisley settlement four miles east from Crystal City, to which place I returned in the af teicooa to attend relii;i<>U4 servicefi held by Kev. Mr. Greenway, Bible C'hrstan A^iuiater, a brother of Mr. Thouiae Greenway, exM. F. P., fur Huron, Ont , and now r. member of the Pro- vincial Parliaiuent of Manitoba. At thia place I met with several people whose acquaint »ce I had tirst made while helping them to take their effects acroiost office there fur several years, but last fall it has been removed co a country store about a mile west. Mr. Thompson appeals to be a vtry fine mas, and one of the few postmaeters in this pro- vince who has had no complaints made about the way he attecded to Her Majesty's mails, al- though he has a prettv large farm to look after. iEIis dwelling house is situated in a pretty ex- tensive grove of oak, which abounds to a con- siderable extent on the eastern alopeii of thfj Pembina Mountains. Some of thesu OAK OBOVKS ABI BBIMa KILLED BT OATBBPILLABb which eat the young leaves as fast as they grow, and have already killed many acres of excellent oak timber. From Alexandria I went about four miles southeast to Mountain City, where there are f onr or five houses and a imaU saw and grist mill. Fro.n here I went a little north of east for three or four milet. more to the Men- nonite village of Vi altina, where I stopped the rest of that day and the fcllowing night enjoy- ing the hospitality of this peculiar people and learning a good deal about th:;ir habits, oustoms and religious opinions. The reason why I preferred lodging with the Mennonites, when there were English-speaking Canadians living within two miles of them, was, that I might find ont more about them, for there seems to be a strange and nnaccountable antipathy held by many Canadians here against the Menno- nites, whom they blame for being slovenly in their habits, although they cannot but allow that they are honest, peaceable and in dustrious. I had formerly visited the Menno- nite villages of BlumenhofF and Steinbacb, in the Rat River Settlement, near Clear Springs, where the people appeared to be MOBB TIDT IN TBEIB HABITS than most new Canadian settlerp, but when speaking to many Canadians about the neat appearance of these Llennonites and their sur- touodings, they would anstver that the Mennc- nitt-B amona whom I had been were the morrt wealthy ones, but if I would go into some of the poorer villages, I would find things differen*'. Consequently, I visited Waltine, as it was one of the newest and poorest villages, and I also found the people here both neat and cleanly. There is one custom, however, which I think the Men- nonites would do well to abandon, that is, the rather common practice of building the stable against the end of the dwelling house so that a perron can pass out of the kitchen into the stable without exposing himself to the cold of winter, or the rain of the summer. In several cases I fonnd that the wells were situated in the end of the stable next to the kitchen, and although it was carefully boxed over, I fear that the water will become more or less saturated with unwholesome juices. The reason that they k»eptheir wells in the stable is for convenience in watering their stock in winter time, and also to prevent the wells from freezing. I saw no plank floors in the houses in this village, but the hard baked clay floors which are kept well swept and clean, and seem to stand a great deal of wetting without forming a muddy surface, I also examined their ovens, or straw burners, and had the process of heating fully explained. These ovens (a picturH of one of them appeared in the Witness a few years ago), are built with sun-dried bricks (the process of manufacturing these bricks was also explained and exhibited), and form part of the partition about the centre of the houee, (many of the partitions are also built of sun-dried brick). It requires the consumption of about two large armfuls of straw to heat the house properly t»r twelve hours in winter. The straw is brought into the kitchen and laid in a pile in front of the oven door, and one of the little folk, (>r women, ia set to put thia straw Into the 6S Lettrrs of Rusticus. liven fn handfals where a Bmall wood fire has been kindled, and bo soon as one handful is consumed another is put in its place, and this procets continues fur about half an hour, whf n tbewalls of the oyen have become so heated that Uiey keep the whole temperature of the house WARM KMOUOH TO DO WITHOUT FOBTBEB HIATINO for twelve honn, when another " firing up" takes place. Bread, meat, po^toea &c. are generally oooked in the ovens during the time when the firing is being done. I believe that these ovens are seldom used ex- cept in winter, when the h< .aes rei^uire extra heat, and that common cooking stoves are uaed in summer time. As the stables are nearly all con- nected with the houses by a door, they r'lneive a good deal of heat from them in very cold weath- er. The hens also, which inhabit the stables, lay plenty of eggs in cold weather, and the Mennon- ites derive a considerable inccme from the large amount of eggs they supply to Winnipeg, They also make a good deal of the butter which is sold in that market, for they are wide awake to the great advantage of stock raising and dairy- ing in the Northwest. I had intended to write about the religious beliefs and customs of these Mennonites, but I don't think that many Canar^itinB will follow their example in this respect, so I need not spend time and paper over it. THE MRNN0NIT18 AND THIIE VILtiAOS— THE FU- TDRB OF THE NORTHWEST AS A DAIBTINO COUNTRY — nOTNE BIVEB SETTLEMENT— A BMALL FBAIBIE FIRI. The house in which I stayed over night in Waltine belonged to a widow who with her huHband and children had come here from Bussia a little more than two years ago, but the good man only lived a few weeks in his new home When he was removed by death. As the family were 7ery poor, the oldest girl and tlie second rildest boy were sent to hire out with the Ca- badian8,and by this means learned to speak pretty good English, and the young man seems to take quite naturally to various English customs includ- ing many of their slang phrases. I have been in- formed that the elder Mennonites look with dis- favor on their younger brethren and sifters, for hiring out with Canadians, and means are being used to prevent it as much as possible. The old folk have a rather sad expression of countenance, but the young people are about as j oUy and laugh as heartily as most other yonng folk do. The villages of Waltine and SheindcS which I passed through on this occasion, consist each of a very Wide street with about ten or eleven houses on each side of it, extending about a quarter of a tnile in length. In rear of each houRe, and less than one acre in breadth, the cultivated farm of ea^h family extends back to a greater or less dJH- tance, according to the working force at ttie command of its occupant. As timber is very scarce here, there are no fences except along on each side of lihe street through the length of the village and also a small enclosure or yard in the rear of each house to keep the cattle in at night, and some of the gardens were also fenced. In the village of Bloominboff, near Clear Springs, the houses (tovae 18 or 19 in all) are ALL ON ONI SIDE OF THI wmi BTBBIT, and directly across the strett there is a larnc fieldfenced all around, and containing 320 acres of tillage land, each family owning an equal share in this field. In addition to this every one has more or less cultivated land ehewhere, where it ii most convenient, or the soil suitable, amounting to three or fo.r hundred acres more. The berdman of each village is paid in various ways. When he has no family he boards around with his employer the way tbe country school- master used to do in Lowcl Canade-. The berd- man at Bio minhoff b ng lairied had a free house and . -*Qrep , oug^/'d land allotted to him, and en n»:. ... :he ' ili ige gave him two days' work, -i'.''.,T ii;. ■ ■"'■ag or harvest time, and also assisted h %:'.<'. - .ne his fuel in winter time. In ado .-- k «. Is he got one hun- dred dollars iL iasb, ^' : -h I think was very good pay for a little in.j , an five months' work. Every murning he pa^ata through the village taking each mau's cattle from the yard and driving them out to the open prairie, where he keeps them from doing mischief or straggling, and at evening he returns all these cattle ^ their different owners, each of whom contribute 'to the pay and board of the herd in prepivation to the number of cattle tbey own. On the foliowlng morning as I left Waltine I passed through their herd about half a mile from the village, and counted in all 127 head which included only three oxen, the rest of the oxen being absent at work. By far the greater number were It'bs than three years old and a very large peiccntage were calves of last cprin;;, from which I inferred that thexe Mennonites have not eaten much vet>l i-ince coming to Monitoba, and in addition have been purchasing calves from Canadian settlers, and thus unduly raising the price of veal to tbe people in Winnipeg. The Mennonites seem fully alive to the superior advantages which tin North-West possesses for stock-raii'ing and dairying, but in their anxiety to got cattle they have apparently overlooked the advantage of raising only superior breeds, conneqnently their stock resembles very much the general run of beef-critters in the Province of Quebec. There was KOBE HAT BURNT by the prairie fires last fall, on that low tract of land lying north from tile Menuonite settlement to the Assiniboine, than would have sufficed to feed, through the winter, every cow in the whole Dominion front which th? milk supplied to the various cheese factories and creameries was taken last summer, and thia is comparatively a very small portion of the fertile land in the North- West ; but until the hay grown on this and tbe other extensive meadows in that country has been nearly all utilized, the cost of feeding cattle there, will be only a fraction of the cost of cattle feeding in the Eastern Provinces, Tbe cool nights and dry air of the north western Hummers are very favorable for making superior butter that will keep good long, and I would not be surprised if, within a quarter of a century, tbe butter made in that poiuon of the Dominion will nearly monopolize the foreign butter trade of Britain. When passirg tb- owing to the large groves of oak which abound on the banks of the stream. The Government seem to have made a serious mistake in permit ting so much valuable timber to be appropriated by a few indivir'uals who now charge t-xorhit- ant rates for building timber sold to the later settlers on the open prairie, who hive not a single acre of bush liud. I spent the two following days (Saturday and Sunduy) in the Bojne Battlement, and on ttie afternoon of tht 'atter duy drove out some ten miles south-west along with llev. W A. Ross, tu one of bis preaching Htatious near the foDt of the Pembina range at Miami Poat Office (by the way, post < ffices seem to be rathtr thick iu this thinly settled ptrt of the couutry ; iu other larger and more thickly settled parts they have no gcst ufiicta at all) The services were held in thr- ouse of two young (Scotch gentlemen named Kiddle, who have latflytak<-n up 9000 acres ot land in this vicinity and have started to farm it vigorou-ly. On Monday afternoon 1 started iu company with the Uev. Mr. Boss to cross the large uniuhabited tract of wet land — tome tweu ty mi'es wide— lying between the Boyue Settle nrieLt abd the Scratching Kivt-r at Mortia. Al though there had been 10 rain to signify for nearly two Uiontbs, yet we had to travel across nearly two miles of water-covered marsh, th soil in which was »o hoft iu many places that 1 preferred to wa'k thrDU^h it on foot rather ttian be guilty of such grocs cruelty to Stutt as to riiJe on fii^ back. Mr, Ross' nag seemed to have all it could do to draw the bui:kboard with Mr Iliiss on it thr/ugh the mud ai.d wati-r. Id was aluiost dark before we got across tLe m>irt-h and we were still ten miles from Morris, bun H8 VTr. Lowe's farm buildiuKS coulii be sten aboi'.t ur miles iis^ant to the right of the trail, I left lie K>-v. Mr. Ross to continue his jouruey to Morris while I turned Stutt's ht-ad towards Lu«e's farm, where they had just he^un to light firts iu the prairie grass around their buildiu^H and btacks. The night was uuu»ually dark, anart of Ihj country on the afternoon of the fol- owing day. I got a hearty iec^|)tion and a good supper and bed that night from Cul. Westover who was in charge of the farm and felt elated that 1 bad no more wet marshes tu cross, and mi^ht now get back to Montreal dry shod, al- though my boots were out at the toes and the Ugs of my trousers were worn off half wny up to the knees while travelling through vte'; grass and scrubb, especially while searching for iitutt in the vicinity uf Turtle Mounts. 8H03TINO PR4IBIB OHIOKtNS-A PBAIRIB PIRB— HOUBtS PHUH OI'TABIO— THOOBLKBUMBUOBI- PANIOKa, On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 30tb, I went with Colonel VVestover to shoot prairie chickens, he using a rifle, while I had a shot gnn belonging to one ot the men. Our hunting ground was a ploughed field about 450 acres in <■ stent, which teemed to offer considerable attrac- tion tu the prairie chickens. Perhaps they bad some presentiment of the storm of fire which was that afternoon to sweep over the surrounding prairies. They were very wild, however, and would not let me near enough to shoot them with a shot gun; but Colonel VVestover could spot 'hem at longer distances with bis rifle. I fired unsuccessfully at aeveral wht "^ Hying pa<)t, and iQen tritrd a new trick. Observing that a good many of the birds flow from the ploughed land to tue long grass on the adjacent prairie, I uaed to mark the spot where they alighted and, going straight towards it. would come up quite close before they would fly, and thus I got time to fire before they got too far distant fur the shot to take t^ffect. I soon got pretty expert in this mode of " 6HOOTINO ON THE WING," >icd baggrd ten fine birds, and wound up the rport by shooting a very large bkunk. Ou tbe afternoon ot that, day I began to write a letter for the WiTNa^a and while thus engaged, observed that the tky became darkened and the air full of smoke which was furiously driven by a vale liom tbe west. Going out of the house I ohBrrved a monster prairie tire approaching rapidly from the direction of Tobicco Creek, but 'is a considerable extent uf ploughed land inter- vened between the farm buildii ga and the long ry grass through which the tire was approach- ing at a two-forty rate, we were not appreheu- .Mvo for our safety ; tint had not the dry grass around tbe bay btocks been burned the {jrevions •-vt-nmg, no human power could have saved them from destriictiou. I went out to the western border of ttie ploughed laud to BEE THE FIBEFIEND APPBOACH, but was obliged to keep at a respectful distance owing to tbe beat and Emwe's bouse and took a survey of tbe borizim all aro-md— the whole country seeming as black as ink, \^ horses ; but it is probable that the food aad water helps to a greater or lees degree. Oil We' pOHed to buy iStutt, not that he need< d him, but f»!ariiig that I might have araie dii- Goulty, and pr'hapi delay, at Winnipeg it I took nim tb' re i»r sale, owing to the duloesa in the tior.ie market, cauaed by the notorious land ret^uiiitiona that had come into force on August l^t, which deterred immigranta from HHttliiig lu the country. This kind offer of Mr. L'.'we I gladly accepted and returned with him to his farm aud left S'u'.t with hia new owner. The following moruirg Colonel Weat- nver took me to Morris in hia buggy and I parted witb him at the houae of tbe Itev. James D 'Uglaa where wo had oinner. Aa the boat from iOmeroon had not yet arrived, and there being couaiderable uncertainty about her movementi, owing to tbe lowueas of the water in Il-jd Hl\'tir, in the afternoon I nbooldered uy kuapuack and BTABTED ON rOOT f'jr Winnipeg, walking nearly twenty miles bo- fui6 stopping for the night, which 1 did at the house of a French native who keeps a kind oi Htopping place about two miles north of St. Agatbe 'hnrch, where I spent an uncomfortable night with four or five species of vermin a-* bed fel> lows. One kind in particular I had never seen but once before in my life, and I bope never to ree again, for they seumea to b^ proof against soap and hot water or the fine tooth comb, and I diU not grt entirely rid of their company until I reached Montreal. I would much rather Hpend another night in a blufif among the Tiger Hills, with liz>krds and prairie wolves to disturb uiy dreams, than in that stopping- place in St. Agathe. The next morning at break of day I atarted on my journey, and reached Stinking lliver a little before noou. This appears to be a pretty place, although it haa such an offensive name, but t.h« water in tbe river ia bad-tasted owing to tbe water received from several pretty large sale springs. The soil here seems to be very rich, but except on the banks of the river, is very wet. I reached Winnipeg at about two o'clock, having come from Morris in about twenty-four hours, carrying samu twenty -five or thirty pounds on my back. Having arranged my business here, I purchased i A TICKET TO MONTBSAL, having to pay ten dollars more fur it than if I were going the other way, viz.: from Muntre:-.! to Winnipeg. Having he4.rd a good deal about the bad usage which secoud'Class parsengera have to endure when traviilliug by tbe boats of the Beaty Line from Sarnia tu Luluth, I determined tu return by \hat route and see tor myself, although a fall voyage ( n the lakes is not general^ desirable. On Monday, September 6th, I bade good-by to my friends in Winnipeg and crossed the Bed lliver to St. Boniface, and on Tuesday morning sometime before daylight embarked in a box car to make the tedious journey to St. Vincent. The reason we had to travel in a box car was because there were no passenger cars at the station, they having been prevented from coming north the prevlona evening by dam- age done to the road by prairie fires. The Letters of Rusticus. 7» As we moved slowly aoathward we iiw I bat a goitd deal o( the couutry had boen burnt ov«r lately and that eeveral houseii, aa well as a large amount of feaur party to a hori zintal poaition on the flaDf of the car, A-i Roon aa we coald we haatened to the oar door and found that the two cars in rear of ua had got oS the track, the furtbeat back ont- haviog turnea over, but the one next to us wbh still right side up, a very lucky arrangement for the twenty-five or thirty pai)H<'ngera who were boxed up in it and were geuerally MOBI SCABKI) TH\N HUBT. After considerable delay the pasaengera in thia car were transfi-rred to the oar in which we were, and to a platform oar in (runt of us, and we proceeded on to St. ViuoBnt to find that Wf were too late for that day's train for Daluth and St. Paul. Had it not been for the deten^'on on the Pejabina branch. I woald have reaohed Montreal a whole week sooner. BOMB RODOH EXPIHIBN0E3 ON A VB83BL OF THI B£&T1'T UNI— HOME AUiklN. After twenty four houra detention at th« boundary line, during which time I again visited the four cities (in proRp>-ct) of Kuuersoa, West Lyn, Pembina, and St Viacent, I started south on the St. Paul and Manitoba Railway, passing a good many prairie fires by the way. Owing to the smoky coudltio^i of the atmosphere, I did not see much of the country until Grookstown waa reached, WHSBB THB B.\ILWAT OBOSSSS BED LAKH KIVBB a short distance above Fishers Landing. This place has developed wonderfully since spring and the country around seema to be pretty well settled, but the soil is rather shallow, resting upou a whitish gravelly clay The light crop of prairie grass in places where it had not been burnt by the recent fires, showed plainly that the land ^"rz la .lot nearly so fertile as in the greater part of Manitoba. The country here is nearly a dead level, the well water not desirable, and fevers are said to prevail. We reached Glyndona little after dark and transferred ourselves to the cars of the Northern Pacific Rail way, and soon started eantward, reach- ing Brainard about three o'clock the following morning. The train was delayed here for some time and I walked around soiii-i, although it was yet dark This place is prettily situated amongst pine and apruce trees, the white pine trees being especially attractive to me, as I had not seen any for over six mouths. The country abjut here seems to ("a rather low and wet, and I was in- formed that fevers prevail to some extent. The road from here to Thompson is through a rather uninviting wooded' country, where there b no lack of sand or water. From Thompson to Dnluth the railway passes down along the banks of a very rapid river, very beautiful to behold. The journey over this part 3f the road is rather exciting, and some adventn- roua lady travellers got on the locomotive to get TUB FULL BCMIFIT FBOM TUB HHUCK given to their nerves aa the train tnrna *harply round tome protruding point on the bauki), or glidea rapidly acroos yawning chsfms on frail- l(K)kiog treaael work, more than one hoadred feet high. Duluth ahowi tlgna of having aeen mu'ih better timea, and at pre»ent contaioa abiut 2 nOD in- hahitanta. It ia built ohi»fl; on the xloping sidea of a rather nigged mountain, anri some of the houses are sevtral hundred leet abive the lake, I had been recommended by several per- s.ins in Manitoba, to put up at the Wakelin House if I was detained in Duluth, as good board and accommiKlations could be had at very iboderate rates, and I found the place fully up to my auticipatlonH iu every way. Aa tho Dominion Government have vtryex- tenaive and well appointed buildings ,-ented from the N')rth>-rn Pacific Railway ('ompauy, 8peci;tlly for the accommodation of Canadian immigrants paasing through here, I thought it bast to try BOW I COCLD OET ALONO AS AN IVMiaBANT. This building would accommodate over 2U0 per- sona in a pinch, but 100 people could live in it very comfortably. I went up town and pur- chaaed a aupply of bread, beef, butter, tea and augar, and returned to the Government buildinga and got the beef roasted by the caretaker of the building, without any charge to me aa the Gov- ernment supplies the fuel, stoves and cooking utenails. I made my own tea as I still had the dishes with me wbich I found so convenient while travelling in the North-West. There was ample room for sleeping, but aa I had no blankets T preferred sleeping at night iu the Wakelin House. The Government agent here Sfems to keep a large supply of Western States literature with which to tempt Cai adian immi- grants from their loyalty to their Queen and country. In addition to this I saw several copiea of a local paper scattered around the building, containing the m >i)t disgusting blasphemy which I ever have Been in print, I took one of these papers with me in order to show any one ia Montreal who may have a curiosity that way, the kind of reading that some government agents supply to Her MHJesty's subjects when on their travels. On Sunday evening, Oiit. 12th, the steamer "Asia" of the ** Beatty Line" reached Duluth 4Dd began unloading her cargo I bad intended Mailing iu her the following day, but some of the passengers who came np on tier advised me to wait for another boat as the "Asia" had no ac- commodations at all for second class passengers, who were compelled to "den up" on the main deck among bales of goods, cattle, or whatever else there might be around. She was also said to be a rather small b^at for the heavy seas which we mii;ht expect at this season of the year. On Monday morning the "Quebec" arrived and as she is one of the finest boats on the line I em- barked on her and a little before noon on Tues- day SAIL1D FBOM DULUTH, having Bojonrued six days at that place. The following morning at break of day we reached Prince Arthur's Landing, where we took on board several passengers, one of whom was 7« The Letters ok Rusticus. formerly a Uwyer, who had dixd at thli plaoe and wan now boioK takt-n ti> Turonto fur burial. Tha cotfin wa« placed on the main dt>ck on the top of a larRe quantity of tl mr which wan being •hipped eaitward. From here we lalled fur Silver Islrt, patiin^ vome grand mountain ■cenery. Several hundred batti of flour and frtd wt-re landed here, durincr which tluie I paid a viiit to the cruibing mill and witneiud the oufratinDi of (luartz cru«fore coal oil waa diaoovered. Thia lamp waa not alwaya to be depended on, and we had to apend one night IN TOTAL UABKNESa. A French half breed who, with his wife and one child, came on board at Silver lalet, refused to take bia nuartera in our cabin, preferring to Bleep on the deck. The next morning there wan a considerable fuea cautied by the half breed dia- coveriog that hia trunk had been broken open during the night and some thiogs atolen from it. Although considerable searching was made tbe loatarticlea were never found by their owner. During the early part of Friday, when opposite Saginaw Bay, we encountered a strong gale and heavy sea from the south -weat which aet » number of the paeaenKers to " oast up accounts," and furthtr helped to make our quarters unbearable. Being too aick to atand upright, I turned into my bunk, but soon had to leave aa the water came dashing in through aome cracka about the small gla«s light beside my birth. I managed to t-cramble up on deck and get forward to the middle of the boat aniocg the cargo and found that '.'t made little difference here how the boat rocked or tossed as I was seated near her axis of motiou. Towards evening, aa we ceared the aouth end of Lake Huron, tbe wind and waves abated, and we were comforting ourselvea in prospect of soon leaving the " Quebec " and her many un- pleasant asBociatione. I engaged in conversa- tion with A TODNO ENQUSHMAN, who told me that his name was Bishop, and that he had gon.^ aboard tbe "Quebec" at Prince Arthur's Landing, on her upward voyaee, to work hia passage back to Sarnia. He stated that he had been kept at work nearly all tbe time since last SatTirday at noon, either loading or unloading tbe boat or forwarding coal in tbe fire-hold, and had been forty-eight hoora with- out aleep at on« tlm*. While we were talking together one of the firemen came up out of the bold and ordered ray companion to go down and forward more coal. He replied that he would not d" it until aome ol the other men had taken tbeir turn. The firo- man then drew hia fiat h.tting poor Bishop a violent blow on the nose and before we ba swear at us for dating to interfere. 1'wo other posiengera who had teeu tbe whole fray I'ame along and began to "apeak up" to tbe mate for hia ungentlemanly conduct, but several of the boat hands came along and we tsgan to realize that we were IN DANaiBODB COMPAMT, and I had some fears that we would all get a Kood thrashing, but aa young Binhop's noae was bleeding profusely the boatmen seemed to relent a little and I took tbe wounded man away to wash the blood from hia face. He asked me to wait at Sarnia a day or two as he intended to have his assailant arrested and he wanted me for a witness, but I was sorry that I could not comply. When we reached Sarnia the mate re- fused to take our luggage to the Grand Trunk Railway depot, although it was not a quarter of a mile from the steamboat wharf, ao I had to go and get a man to help me, and had to pay thirty cents for bis services. The journey from Sarnia to Montreal was vdry pleasant, there being a de- cided improvement in the second class car, which we now occupied, aa compared with the one in which we went over the same road in thn spring, I reached home on the evening of Oct. 20th,after an absence of nearly seven months. oil It Wl • ti- wt Wl T» DIBADVANTAOES OF TUB OANADIAN NORTH-WIBT AND HOW THKT MAT BU BEMOVEU. Sib, — I propose n hia communicati3D to re- fer to the principal drawbacks in the North- Weat, in tne ordti in which I believe they afifect, or are likely to ailtct, the settlement of the country. They are aa follows : The scar- city of water, and its quality ; the scarcity of wood for fuel, fencing and building purpoaes ; land reserves of all kinds ; mosquitoes ; dis- tance from markets and manufactories ; prairie fires ; grasshoppers ; alkali lands ; adhesive mod ; hard frosts ; wild oats, &c. thb watib diffiooltt I place at the head of the list aa being the great- est drawback, if not greater than all the others taken together, m it will continue to be a vexed queation when itie others have nearly all disap- peared ; but the greater part of the country is but alightly affected by it. A ayatem of drain- age carritd out by the Government may remove the surface water and possibly tbe fevers, but nothing, co far as I know, will remove tbe bad taste and quality of the water in welU dug in the white clay hub^oil of a considerable portion of the Red River Valley. This strata of white clay is usually only a few feet in thickness, and tbe greyish blue clay baueath it does not affect the tAste of the water much, and some people are in the habit of billing out their wells frequently to keep the Burfaue of the water below the white LeTIERS Of RfSTICUS. el»y, for, »■ % fBrm«r'« wlf» laM to ma once, *' When thH waUr In the Wfll it«ea up tu the WHITK SOAPY OLAT, It Rrta unfit for b«a«t or ho^y to drink." It the witlli of the w«lU wttfH madtt Wkttr-tlKht ti> Romtt iliitauue holow the whit« i^lay, aud packed around with i>a'l-r in the itreama h Rcneritlly Rond, al- though ruther uiuddy in «i)me iilitci-H. and I have noticed that the water in wrilit duK near thn banks of a stream, or in a Kr 'Va of tliubHr, in pretty Rond, while thn water in a well duK a ■hnrt diHtance out in the open prairie, is seme- times Kcarcely 6c for uae. In some placfS where the water i* to > sally, cii*teruB will be required by the settlers. In t>«a«ous of fireat drought, wa^er wi!l be ho iroH in somn parts of the country. Wond f ( r fuel and fencing ii already scarce in nanny p«rts of the country, and unleos eneri,'etiu nieaeures be taken to pr tect what remains, and to plant more, preat S'ifleriiig will reHult. Mr Thoaias Hcl'sims, of PurtaKo La Prairie, de serves the thituks of his countrymen for having demuns'.ra'ed how rp.iedily and cheaply large OUANTITI&H OP TBBEB CAN BE OKOWN on the open pniirle, and there are very many iilaces wtiete tim'u>r would SDon groiv up if it werd protected from prairie tirefl It may be «oma consolation fur loyal (^an.k- dians to knov? that so far as the Kup[ily of wood and water are concerned, the prairie lands of III) Western States nre much worse iff than the CaLadian North-West ; but timber for build ing purposes, especially pine timber, i» much more plentiful and cheaper in the former country than in the latter, thunks to the promoters of the National Policy. But when the railway i^ opened to Thunder Bay on Liake Superior, lum- ber can then bs supplied munh cheaper to Cana- dian settlers in the North- West, and several of the older farmers there stated in my hearing that they were waiting for the opening of that rail- way to supply cheaper lumber nefore they would build more commodious dwell: uita ; in the mean- time th«y live in rather small huts, and I think their decision is a wise one, THE EVIL BFFEOIS OF THB L&ND BB3BBVES are felt over the whole country, and are the more aggravating when we consider that they might have been easily avoided had our Canadian rnl- UM known a little more about the value of thiu country when it wai annexed to the rest of tfa- Domiuiiin. The giving of betwnen two am three million acres of land to the UadsDu Bay Company in part payment of their supposed rights to the country, and then undertaking to baill a railway to these lands, thereby in- creasicg tboir value tenfold, shows a too great umouat of Bharpnens somewhere and a lack of "harpners somewhere else, by n-i menn^ credita- ble to Canadian statexmen. The Hudson Bay Oojapany are now selling some of this land at ten dollars per acre, which ten years ago cculd not have been sold fi)r ten cents an acre. Tbe granting uf more than a million acres of land to half- breed miners was more than a blunder— it was a crime, not only against the new eettlers, bat against the poor half-bretds themselves, who were remorselessly plundered and also demoral- ized by land sharks, who seem in nearly all cases to have got lite oyster while the half-breedi have TUB IMITT BHILLH. The land scrip Issued to the older half-brerd-* ai well as to all the white natives of the country, was a little better both to thDim to wl.oin it wi< granted and to the country g-mera'ly, but a few rich ■[inculators have reaped the liou'rt shnrx of the profits and by its meanH secured fr .m t«t nty to fifty thouaand acres of land ea:h, which tliey are holding over until it« value i-i iucreaKed ui^ny f'>ld at thn expense of all the other iuhal>it.intH of the Dominion. The railway rexerve was in a certain sense the crowning act of BBSBBVB rOLLT, but there li inme comfort in the thonght that I', can and will be repealed before it has time to fully develop Its bad (lualities. Although I am not enamored with the si called statesinatisbip displayed by some uf th<>KU wno rule at Oitawu, >et I believe that the least knowing among them, were they posxetsed of any practical knowie Uo of the country, would hive seea the folly of iUj present railway reaerve system as a means ot raising any cunsiiieruble sums of money withir the next tenor a d /.ia years. Except a cim- oaratively Hmall tract place the amount of 'jTitt-clasH railway iau lew a small annual tux on all the lands to be benefited by the railway.to be in- cri-ased ur diminished iu proportion to the benefit which such land receives, ur is increased in value by the opHuiog of the railway. Such a tax would lead to a much more dente settlement of He cuuutry, as the large land speculator) would M ll the greater part of tbeir lands iuBtead of hold- iutr them vacant to be increa<at in some li the farm houses in Mani- toba during the evenhiga when the mo8qui*^oeg were at thrir worst, yet the windows were opsQ withimt any screens, and scarcely a " akeeter" was to be heard or seen. The cause of this freedom from a pest which were so annoy- ing elHewhere, was explained by the pro- prietor of the house statini; that the land tor a short dietauce around the house had ill been cultivated, but before the wild grass had been ploughed up it would have been almost im pos^i'ile to remain in the house without mo>quito nets being; over the open windows xiearly all of the time, in warm calm weathor. Consequently the moFquito-persecuted new .et- tler can drive away his enemies by cultivating the lai.d around his dwelling. Distauce from markets and manufactories is euvertly felt at present, but will yearly become of lean consequence as manufactur- ing towns spring up in the country and railivay connections are opened through Cana- <)ian territoiv. In the meantime. I think it would be wisdom on the p »rt of North-Weatern Canadjana to refrain from raising more wheat than can be consumed in the country, for the American railways will absorb all the profits on exported grain urUl the Canada Pacific Railway is opened to Thander Bay. CATFLB EAIi INQ FOR DAIRYING PURPOSES should be large y engaged in by all farmers in that country, as the profits in thia department are certain to be many fold greater than for exported grain, b'nce the freight charges, which would absoru all the profits on a bashel of wheat, wouiu scarcely be felt on a box of cheese or a tub of butter, and the cost of ctttle feeding ia a mere trifle orapar- ed with the cost in other countries. But (»nd here comes the pinch) those who would engage in cattle raising are placed in peculiarly difficult cir- cumstances in Manitoba and the North -Weet. Our Government, for reaaona which I never could comprehend, prohibited the importation of American cattle into that country last summer, still considerable numbers of cattle continued to be imported from Ontario at a cost of about $12 per head for railway freight. Now the American authorities will not allow Canadian cattle to be transported through this territory, and as very few good cattle are to be found in Manitoba, its prospective cattle raisers must Tiake their nelections from herds of scrub- by cattle which should never be raised In any country but the province of Que- bec, and dealing in them should, if possible, be ' cnfined to Viger Market. I may have said 4ia sutficiently dry, but before the adjacent grass losea it« g>"erB had eaten all they choose to, ami b;.d pretty well cleaned out all the grain wichin several rods of the bor- ders of the Held, that the interior p )vtion of thu fi-ld remained almost untouched and the yield on the whole field was from sixteen to twenty bushels per acre. Some of the owners of small grain fields, especially the Mennonitet<, disputed with the hoppers their right to the gr.iia. A young man named Anderson, from near O ^tawa, told me that he hud a small field of wheat which the gratshoppeis seemed about to devour, but be and bis wife armed themselves with bushes de- termined to contest to the last their rights to the wheat field. Observing that the g.-asshop- pers when disturbed always dew towards the south-east Mr and Mrs. Anderson commence-i operations on the north-west side of the field, going backward) and forwards waving their bushy weapons, and starting the intruders from the grain next to them, and continued to p'lraue them until they had all been Iri.enoutof the field. This process of warfare was resumed each time a fresh band of marauders came that way : and the young farmer and his wife had the L^fisfaction of BATING THBIR OWN WHEAT. It is probable that grasshoppers will not return again for a good many years to come, by which time the quantity of grain trrown in the country will be so large that the hoppers will be able to make but vary little impression on it. Alkali lands are not very extensive, and in most cases the efifects of the alkali can be effec- tually removed by the application of a heavy coating of manure. There are some considerable tracts of alkali lacd^, and also a few spots of Letters of Rusticus. 75 "apouliy" landi, which it would be wrll for settlera to avoid, although I believe that even theae can be made to yield ezcallent crops. Adhesive mud seems to belong almost ex- clusively to the viciuity of the Red Biver, but its effeiits are only fult in wet weather. Hard front, were it not for its destructive effects UP' 'ii fruit trefs, can hardly he cont>idered M a dr > '"h ntk, ad every person whom I met. with thtt bad epeut a winter iu the North West, declared that the winters wr-re much more plead when not attend>-d to in time they Rome- timo3 kO deeper than tlie skin. It is said that, they sometimes get stuck in the throats of cattle, hut I scarcely bnlieve it, as Stutt was very fond »f eating the'^e oats, and they seemed to go down all right. Their greatest danger is to sheep, as they get stuck in the wool, and from that tind th-ir way inside the -kin, otherwist- tliun Hy the mouth, and c-tu-iu i. tl tmiiiatioa aod (''ci'tWy during the mouth when the wild (an ^fd >H in a coi>dit.ion to do harm, B ack nrls in some parts of the country cauHe a CO icideraMe loss when the ^raia is abou' tip', >-HpFci;uD a d a few pounds of powder aud sho' would erve Co protecu a large tit-Id of grain from their I'tpr dations, and most boys would con i-ider Much tvotk almoHt equal to play. I havt been urp i^ed \o seH fodj. fields of vrain nearly devoured hy blackbirds wtiru acouple of weeks herding could have saved the whole. THl ADVANTAOFS OP THE GREAT NOHTHWKST — WHAT KIND DP StrTIiEBB ABB WANTKM. Sib —As others have written so glowingly ix and hops grow wild in abundance, and could not be distinguished from the cultivated plants. There is also a kind of pea growing wild, but it is somewhat different irooQ the cultiv tted, Timothy hay and Hun* ijarian grass produce enormous crops, and white clover aeema to thrive well, but where red clover hua been trier) on the low lands it wab winter- killed ; yet I am satisfied that it will grow on the rolling laudpi farther west. Wild graeaea grow in profusion and yield an abun- , aa well as liver complaints, I know by peraonal experience during my short tour throui^h tbe high landa of the North-West, my chief regre'. being that I could not continue there loisger. Owing to ita proximity to the dry arid plains of the Upper Missouri and South Saskatchewan, the air haa a peculiar dry buoyant feeling— even a few hours after a wet spell— that is almost unknown further east. Although last summer y&a an unusually wet one, yet with the excep- iion of a few wet daja in April and a large por- tion of the months of June and July, the weather waa most deliuhtful duriag the more than six months spent by me in the North West. One of the greatest advantages of the North Weat is the abundance and variety of ITS CHEAP LVKD3. Although the various reeervea have monopolized a very large amount of good lands, yet there is plenty left for tbe most fastidious settler to choose from. Those who prefer a level open prairie can get it here without any perceptible nnevenneaa ; ao also if a rolling prairie, a brasby prairie, a partially wooded or entirely woodec^ lauds are wanted, there is an abundant supply of each from which to select a homestead costing only SIO for 160 acres of better land than can be gut in tbe Eastern province for love or money. The smaller coat and greater epeed with vrnizh the land can be brought into a state of cnltivft- tioD ia a most important advantage which the new settler in the NorthWest hfla over hia con- frire in the Eastern provincea. H^iving cleared with iny own hands Rome sixty or seventy acres of bui-.U land in tho Province of Quebec, I know something of the enormous amount of chopping, logging, hurriing, stumping, and often ciraiuing lind gpthering atones required to transform a bush faim into grain or pasture fields and meadows ; and if strong native Canadians, who were trained from childhood to this sort of work, find it eo difficult, how much more difficult must it be for those who never aaw such work done before in theix- lives ? How often have I aeen e^mart young men become prematurely o'.d and stooped in the shoulders while endeavoring to bring their farm into such a state of cultivation that they ncight live comfortably on it, but had these farmers begun their operations upon a prairie farm (or bet and spent their inv)ney, looking over the whole country before they would settle down, and even thtn, many of them did not aeem iuclioed to t, i.r> cm lio he ml dr. Letters of Rusticus. 77 loako ranch iloiproveiueLt, bat baviog E>ecared rr hnm.Htc&d hud pre-c-mptiou, thtty aru luiterinK iii'dii id, pnttiiiR ia their iiiii» vtntil Chey o«n pe- I'.di'o tbc piitent of thciir claim», which vhty then hopi to 8(-ll at larpcly euLaiiCfrt prices. I \m- hev« thai H ai n to ]>TC'-su)|>t I^iid at (ill, »a ouo hnn- rired »> d n'xty acnH of a homestead was qu\tn miticicnt 'or ibeir occupation. Ab I laave previouidy iv fer.rt-d to the tJaiucnEie NATOBAI. ADVANTAOKa FOU KTOCK KAI8INO in tbia conatry, I need not gay rauch about ft now ; but a fartucr who h's worked hard for eighn nr ten years to clear suffiiiout tueadow and paatnre lands to fefd an ordinary iiuiDher of live tto.k.cin ftppreinafcfi the advantage of hav- ing all this and ruucb laore ready to hU hand without any JabT on hia part ; and a family that has p'enty of cows to milk ev-ninij^ and moraiiiga, will icarcfly e^uSer the pangn oi: hnn g*r, even when there is little tl-te ia the lariler. I nm f-orry to fay that I have Beea uumbera of families living from 150 to 2C0 miles west f re m Winnipeg who hod not a drop of milk to whiten their black tea, or a bit of butter to eat with their bread, becau«e forsooth, tiomebody thought that the N. P. wau a good thing to encourage settlement in the North- West, even if it entirely previnted Mon tana drovers from bringing gooi grade cows ti the settlers' doors and eellins; them at abou'. ha'f the price that they uow cost in Winnipeg The trifling cost of ruadmaking in the North- Weet, where at certain seasons you can drive a loaded team almost anywhere you please, may HHem of no'; much advantage to some people who hive not bad this difRsulty to contend with ; but BOADMAKINa me 1 y road nearly half a mile loner leading frnm bis farm to the main road, and I have no hesitation in faying that there was more work performed in making thai; bit of road, than was pel formed in opening and making the more than 2,000 miles of trails travelled over by me last Humnaer in the North West, excepting the Pembina Bracch Railway nnd a few miles in and around Winnipeg. The good clasa of settlers, especially in the V/eatern settlements, ia a considerable advan- tage to those who may wish to locate in that country ; but I may refer to this more at length at some other time. HOnSB BDILOINO AND FSN JB MAKING IN THB NORTH WiST— A NOVBL MBTHOD OP 8IHKING P0BT8. Sib, — In a country where timber is scarce the erection of houses and fences will always be an important consideration, e^p^cially to the fir^it Hettlers ; and perhaps some readers of the Wit- ness may have a curiosity to learn some*;hiot; more about the way houDes and fences are built in Manitoba and the Nortl -West Territory £ixcept at the Stony MountaiLS, pouth of Rock- wood, and in the bed of the lied River at St, Andrews, I did not see in the whole country any- thing like a quarry from which large quantities "f limestone could be got for building purposes, I 8:kW Boma VBBT OOOD SAHDSTONB QUAUBIES on the shores and islands of Lake Wianipeg from which the future city of Selkirk can secure nn abundant fupply of building and paving f.tones. The lock which underlies the whola country c.ousists of svhite limeBtono, but it i eems to be fio pihclly its mout places as to be unfit for builclioe purposen, Toere are only a fow ctone buildiugn ia thu country,, and, excepting the Pcniteutiavy at Knckwood, they tre all rough built. Excellent white brick i.^ made from tnn clay which atxiunrls ia nearly the whole country, and at eoine future tiiiio brick will be used ex- tensively both in towns and country places ia the ccmHCtuctiori of bnildingfl, but hitherto ecarcely n«iy brick buildings havo been erected, except i.u W).nnip'K, aud even here thsou6 six inches. There are also fqnare posts about seven feet long, standing uprinht above the cen- tre of the end plates to Buppurt the ild^e-pole, which is usually a round stick of the samelengtit aa the building, and five or six inches in diame- ter. Near each end of the ridj^e-pole there ia 78 Letters of Rusticus. placed A brace (the only brace in the wholcibuii'^- ing) to prevent it Ra^iting out or in, end wayn, the buUdiDf? logs when put in their plaoe brac- ing it sufficiently towards tbe. Bides, All the poBta have eiroovce, abont two txichea wide aari nearly aa many deep, inortiged nlong the centre Fio. I. of two of their eides tbe entire length, to re- ceive a two inch tenon made on the ends of the logs, which Aurm the walls of the building. Ttaese- filling I>igs are, when large enongb, hewed on two eides, but in eome cases thay r.re imerely round poles, ivith the cracks between them plastered with Simo luortar, or clay if lime is scarce. Tbe l^)gs forming tiie gable ends iiave u tendon only on the end next to the centre i^iosts, the other ends being cut slant- ing to suit the iiicch of the roof ; and these slant- ing ends dre always pinned together, and to the tnd platbS, with wooden pins. Tbe toot consists of fimall i.oaad poles, considerably smaller than T.-aftern, rmd placed like rafters, but close togeth tr, brum the tide platea to the ridge-fK>le,' as fiiown ia the cut, where s, few of these poles are placed ia yjoaitioo. Sometimes the roof ni com- pleted by }ulaoing a. layer of wfld hay* over the rafters, and above all a layer of sods, for the double purpose of keeping out the cold ic winter and preventing the wind from blowing the hay covering away. These soddy hay roofs are no- THB THATOHINO tS DONI AS follows : All the larger crevices l)etween tut rafters are filled up with small splits of wood, kept in position with uails. The fissures are then all filkd with uortar, when the thatch is placed in position, each layer teceivirg n soating of uortar on the upper end as (he work prnceeda to hold it Oast in its place, and the whole m top- ped with a heavy layer oC mortar iu v>lace of the ridge-board. ('lay U often used rnbtead of thH mortar but it is mot neatly so good, ss v/hen it gtts dry it keeps dusting down <.hrough the raft- ers, especially when there rs high vinds. making it very uncomfortable for fhe people heneath. es- pecially fior those who sleep with their Buonths op^n. In pome of the large open prairiei towards the south- west corner of Manitoba, there are a good many DWaLLIKO-HOUSBS BUILT WITH SODS. A fjrame, resembling the one in the cnt, ih first made, only there are no sills required, the comfortable In wet weather, ai aiore than is good for the health i. tbe inhabitants. Most of the country places is done with thatch, »IC> . »t> or long wild grass being osed for this pnrpost FxQ, 4 ends of the posta being inserted about two feet into the ground. There is no attempt made at squaring the postsi or plates, which do not re- quire to be so large aa in a log building. A. piece of prairie land Li then ploughed with a 'breaking plough," the furrows iM-iog ten inches wide and three inches thick. These ar& next out into proper lengths (from twenty to twenty- fonr inches) with a epade and used like bricks in building up the walls of the house, and the roof is covered with sods as before described. _ I hove seen a few houses built on the following i;i>.n, which I think to be a very good one for structures in which to spend a few years .tfter arriving in the countrj , especially where timhfi is scarce. A "balloou frame" ia first made with poles \u\ boarded on \,b'> outside (or ir.aide i f you .orefei f.) with rough boards, which '^y rights ought to be gTii ivcd and tcngued. Tl)^ roof, which need not be steep, is made ot f I r same ■"■,■ 1 ■'■».}■: »"(.»■ iiapn.k sj'i o£ cots^ '.a il'e j ri.%teri6l, and the ;i'ui!s are built kroixnd ^lioont "'' ' ori. up t<> the roof with sods to keep do'; ':lif.i cold ) 1 wintei'. The roof (s L^ned oo the lis : n with 11 t( w r* tl tl VI li V ii I Letters of Rusticus. i thick paper-like pasteboard, the aeams ba. tween the sheets bfing pasted to make the whole air tight. A floor of boards can be laid if r'esired, bnt the greater number of the honses in the new eettlements have no wooden floors, and the partitiouR, whTe there are any, are made of cotton sheets. The Mennonites make VIBT BIOI I'AB'i.^IONB with Bun-dried brick and wbitewa«hed with lime. The cost of the kind of bonse which I have been just describing and of th»> ftrdinary » z». twenty by twenty-four ft- et inside, with side witlls eight feet high, and four feet pitch of rocf, ia about as follows: ISonnls for walla 8.50 feet, at $28 i>er M. . . «23.80 IJoi Uner boa-Us, G50 feet, at $30 per M. . . . 19..=>0 l!i)aids for floonne, .500 feet, at §■28 per M. 14 (X) I'upcr liDinp, wiiitlows and door 12.0(i ( :o9t of f uime 5 00 Twerty diys' labor in buildiup, at $2 per day..... 40.00 Nails aud binges tJ.OO Total cost 7it"0 30 ifc' ..^^i^^m^i- iJM •■^i i-- t5s^-t>^--^-^ "" In some parts of tho country atid at some pea- FODS of the year, the cost of drawing the material to the place needed would probably exceed $50 more, while if the settler wished to have more accommodations he could make bis house two or three feet higher and flour bis garret, putting a small window in each end and partition the lower story into three parts at an additional cost nf about $50, making a total of about $220 in all. In parts of the country where timber is plenti- ful, the houses have been built with very little cash outlay by their owners. The hoiu>es in Winnipeg are nearly all shingled, the shinglet. costing about $6 per 1,(KW. The stables are often very temporary aff*ir»i with four walU built with poles and pla<'tered with mud. The roof ia also formed of poles on the top of which a large quantity of wild hay or straw has been piled. Sometimes straw in lar^re quantitiei is piled all over and around the stables, so that th«y resemble large straw stacks with a door j^jlaced CQ one Bide. THE FXNOia IN THB NOBTH-W£ST are more varied than even the honses, but the moat common kind is the zig zag rail fence, liko thd greater part of the fences in the eastern prn- vinceg, but with the angles more obtuse, ard bavins; upright pickets at each comer (see figure 1). For the cost of this kind of fence see a for- mer letter dated May 2. The pickets are Hscaliy of tamarac or oak, as poplar rots too readily near the jronnd. The pickets are bound to- gether in two or three places with withes, (Fig, ' 2) which also serve to hold up the ends of the fence poUs to the proper height, when they are v-tiie down comfortably at once. _ People to Mani- here lonj! 1 the first 8," which arrival in to secretly country at afterward am to live i^er 18 rot I Winnipeg r, although ople livinjc poterit for intemper 'aila to an as in bigh thftt rriftDf md pwentu r, but never fell amoug :b ^oanded the erusftlfin to ro(>p«'y end 1 1 ... -ies and ir Imaainary rt about the very little er. think thera- ^ are to re- or thv^y will number of taking conn- ;tl8 wheth&t »s!»e9 o'' per- S"orth West, 1046 who are fir homes Id hose patri- isoular deve- n the North- know of, if raugh it" for IDS beintt de- ,y food, and hich can be ch a young bodied witb ,e should !o»e .6 mftttr), the Beem a very natters vry knowledge of farming ia ao lO POTTIB At cily of Rrnw?! ,n etart then); iditiouBty and cheaply in the Canadian North- West than in any other part of the globe that I have heard of, auu Ihid can be done without their being eeparuted far apart from each other. There are a great many farmers in the Eastern Provinces who own email or poor farms, where their courage baa become low, ow.ijgto their hav- ing no proepecte of anytbiog but hard work and' hard times while thty continue in their preeent eituation, whose courage would rise and whose prospects would brighten by their " riding" at once from ont of their present locations, and tak- ing the moat direct and speedy route to any of the following places, viz , Oak Hiver, Bird IVil Creek, Pelican Lake, or Turtle Mounts, Persons tr inteutioii of setcliug upon, and afterward selling th"ir " claims" to others At a good profit, Hi certAia eraineut divines have already dune, to my certain knowledge, iiat allow me to say a nuiet word or two by way of caution : — >!^ir«t,— Di"''. iorest largely ia real estate.' i a aod around Winnipeg, as it ia already overdone there, and you might avaken some apriag luoi-u- iiig to find that a conHiderable portion of your jiTOperty, and nearly all your bright proBpetta. were fl'>*ting toward the North Pole. Second, —Be ciieful ana avoid purchasing pro- perty from profrfSoioui).! gentlemen, such as doe tors, ministerd aud I twyern. The well authenti cated stories which £ h'lard about the s(>eculative doings of profeS'iioual K'l-aUeinen in the North- West, would surprise tho stock and land epi-cu- I»torK, about Montteal, aod ;t ao happens, espe- ciikUy in the case of a well-kno^vu doctor, that t.he victim finds out th^t he is fleeced before he really knows whose hands puide the shears. Foi tae sake (»f our commoo Christianity, and the honor of His name, who said, " Ye cnu.nct hwrvu 6iod aii i Mammon," I hope that no more Sficou- Uttvety diitpuaad mlsdonaries wUl be uent tu this part of our Oouiiriion. Now for a few woi-cU about the beat time for going to the North- West, preparaiions for the J lurney, i'.j. Except when aom« of the mem- bjrs of tne family are not very etroag, THS MinULB OF MABCB i*ab' -. th'j best time to start, aa you can pro- ceed westward from Winnipeg to your deatina tiou before the breaking up of sleighing, and even should the buow be gone, the frost aud ice will oontiou.i in the soft places until about the lOih of Apill, greatly facilitating the passage of lokded veb'clHS over theoi. If the women and children are not very roggeJ, perhaps it would be better fur them tu lemtiu at their old home until abcut the beginning of August, or later if they wi.ih, when the Western journey can be made with greater ease and pleasure, and with consid- erable It as expense, the husband and father in the meanwhile going ahead to make preparations to receive them. Except in cases where a number of peraons go together, so that their extra luggage can be loaded in one or more oars and sent directly through to Manitoba, it is not good to take much ext.ra luggage. Have it alao put into strong boxes, noc over 15U lbs. in weight, and hve to buy a carload of working oxen in Home part of the lumber districts of Minnesota or Wiocouein, although the N P. ia not favorable to such transactio-.is, After Winnipeg or Emersuu is reached, no time should be lost in securing a pair of oxen and wagii:on, or better still, two Ked JCiver carts, as a much heavier load can be drawn over soft roads by » pair of oxen when each ia harue»6ed iu a cart, than if they were hitched to- i^etLer to a waggon. Take a long rope along with you if there are soft sloughs to be crossed, aud when your team seta stuck in the wor-t places, unhitch the Whipple trees and drive the ceam ahead until solid footing ia reached, and '.hen with the long rope j >ln the Whipple trees to i^he end of the waggon pole, when your team will draw out a much heavier load than they othw- wiee could, and with much leaa risk of straining obemselves. A good many horses werj perman- ently injured last summer by drawing loaded waggons through Mauituba mud, for lack of tbia precaution. It the sroads are bod, leave, a!; Emer- son or Winnipeg, all your baggage that can be spared, and take only 'uch thmgs as are likely to be required for immediate use. Afterward, when the roads are good, you can return and bring up the rest of your stiitf dome people are in the hdbit of renting farms 82 Letters of RrsTurs. near the Red River, or Portage LaPrairie for the firRt yekr after cotnlnK to the North- West ; but I do not think it a (?ooJ plan, unlegu yon In- tend buying Bome farm in that locality, in which ca»e it will give yon ample time to look aroand. There are some vniy pretty farms having ex- tremely rich soil, which c»n be bought on the river fronts, but for myself, J. would prefer going to the HIOHEB AND MORK HBALTHT LANPS toward the west. A person who prefers tinn- bered lani's can cet wbat he wants near the Riding Mountain. If part timbered and part prairie is wanted, near Uak River or Bird Tail Creek will be the best and uxcit conver '; place to go to, although there is a large bl dnt of this kind of land near Pelican Lake and the Tur- tle Mounts ; but it is likely that it will be some time before railway communication Is opened to these places. There is also a large amount of hare prairie lands of good iinality lying between Pelican Lake and Turtle Mounts. There are i-ome very suitable places for stock- raising at varioas points along the Assiniboine, from the biiundary of Manitoba westward, but the bes*. localities for producing hay are in the Province ;if Manitoba, espncially near Lake Manitoba, ISuyne, Sole and R^" . .%u rivers. Tf von choose to go to Manitoba in summer time I think THE LtiKt BOnTK 18 CHFAPKBT AUn BB8T, l)ut if you take my advice, and the advice of a good many others, you will avoid the boats ol the Beaty Line, between Sarnia and Unluth, until the proprietors think fit to provide better accommodation for second-class passengers, and also emplny respectable officers to maintain proper order on board. The " Quebec," on which I came from Duluth to Harnia, is a safe boat to n:iil on, so (m as storms are concerned, and I believe Captain Anderson to be a goo' navigator, and a gentleman, but his time, in Rtoraiy weather, is takeM up too much in sailing the boat, leaving the passengers to the care of the other officers, whose conduct and con- versation on some occasions were far from proper, wliere unprotected females were among thr pap- sengers, and I might add, scarcely fit to be re- peated in a respectable paper. The accommoda- tion for second class passengers is not of the kind which should prevail in a civilized community, and much behind the rival American lines, which I would patronizw if I were going with my family to the North West, which I hope to do before many years. Thk E^D. 5-i i- "^ -& ii':'."i«;^ iM- ;-;V ^\>t^3. ■- ■■'.^v■ >er k W^ ''taettm/tinal. . \ \ TTS. ^ri'a the iO; an(j nipeg in •plication irectly or for their I MADE. )N. r. C. B. iteist emi- rraation. ee. ' tg their o settle II and s aside is sub- >o acres ccupied rices at sections the Red lipiecl to e ci the t \\Over. i^iiiiii ihijn iifci REFERENCE St ^ Zcelantlie Jfcwrrve Snyiish Htserre tSkt^ C tH^tmyi mkif iiMiiirTeAMiMCM N9 2.. . . f/'W Jii-njef tends. ..% N9 % . Saidk. Churchef h 101' j^ jio! ML. m M m, ^ ilSt^yMiii^ivittht manner oh »^NUMBCPffNQ«ic SeOTIONS BJ* ; 4.5-' if- 9S° IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A z 1.0 I.I 1.25 Sf I- 2.0 llll|m U III 1.6 V] <^ /2 v: '^j>' > '/ /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. MS80 (716) 872-4503 \. 4 DIRECTIOlir S FO R EMIGRANTS. r^ ..^ :eh. JB s . The Fares for Emigrants are $25.50 from Quebec, n'a the Lakes and Duluth, to Winnipeg ; from Montreal, $23.50 ; an(j from Toronto, $10. By the All Rail route the Fares are $5 more. Special arrangements may be made for emigrants going to Winnipeg in parties. To obtain the benefit of such arrangements special application should be made in the case of each party. This may be done either directly oi through any of the Dominion Emigration Agents. Emigrants going in parties may engage one or more special cars for their luggage, and so get cheaper rates. DOMINION QOYERNMENT AGENTS TO WHOM APPLICATION MAY BE MADE. Halifax, N.S., St. John, N.B., QuKiiKC (City) Montreal, Ottawa, - Toronto, Hamilton, London (Ont.) E. Clay. S. Gardnkr. L. Stafford. J. J. Daley. W. J. Wills. J. A. Donaldson. John S.mith. A. G. Smythf,. j^T idtjxjTJTh:, During the season of navigation, a special agent is placed, Mr. W. C. B. Grahame. He will be in attendance on the arrival of all steamers, to assist emi- grants in the bonding of their baggage, and otherwise to give them information. AGENTS IN MANITOBA. DUFFERIN, J. E. TeTU. Winnipeg, .-'-.-- W. Hesi'eler. These agents will give emigrants all possible information and advice. Emigrants may obtain from them directions how to go about getting their lands. SPECIAL CAUTION TO SETTLERS. It may save a great deal of trouble if emigrants will be careful not to settle on sections 8 and 26, these being Hudson Bay Lands, or on sections 11 and 29, these being school lands. The Dominion Lands Act specially sets aside these reserves ; and they are not open to the public. aOVERNMENTliAND RBaULATIONS. An extract from the Government Land Regulations, now in <'orce, is sub- joined. It will be seen that a settler can get a FREIi GRANT of 160 acres in any part of Manitoba, or adjoining Territory where there is unoccupied GOVERNMEN T LAND, in an Even Numbered Section. The Prices at which RAILWAY LANDS can be bought in the Odd Numbered sections are also given : — EXTRACT PBOM THE QOVBHNMENT LAND BBQULATIONS. " Until further and linal survey of the said Pacific Railway has been made. West of the Red P.ivcr, and for the purposes of these provisions, the line of the said Railwc.y shall be assumed to be on the fourth base westerly to the intersection ol the said base by the line between ranges 21 and 22 West of the first principal meridian, and.thence m a direct line to the confluence of the Shell River with the River Assiniboine. [Over. ailjoiiiini; itfit H. to he called ndjdiiiini; \Mt <■. to he i-alle-i .ulioininL' Melt 1). to he cnlkMl ( Continih'it from piiviotis piXi;<\) " The comitry lying on cacli >i(ic of tlie lini" <>( rnilway shall ho respectivelr'divifled into l»elt«, a>. follows : - ■' (i) A helt. of five miles on either side ofiiie i:iilxv:iy, :ni(l iniinediately adjoining; the same, to Iv callfil Helt A ; "(2) A l>"lt of fifiecii miles on either side of the railway, adjoininn Hell A. to he called Helt 1. : "(p A lieli of iwfniv miles on either side nl the railway. Iklt (■ • "i4) A lu'li of twenty miles on either side nf ihr railwav. Bell D ; and "(5) A hell of liftv miles vnslii|) tiiroui^hoiii the several helts shall he open for entry as lioniesteads, and i)re-enii)li')ns of l()o acres each rvs|H'Clively. ■' The Ci/f/-////w/vr(v/ sections in each of such to\\nslii)is shall not he open lu homestead or prc-em|)tion, Iml >hall hi' specially reserved and desii^naled as Railway Lands. "The Railway Lands within the several hells shall he sold at the following rates, viz : — In Helt A, $5 (live ilnjiars) per acre ; in Hell H, $4 (fuur d'tllars) jier acre; in Belt C, $3 (three dollars) ]ier acre ; in Hell 1), $2 (I wo dollars) i)er acre ; in Hell K, $! (one ilollar) per acre ; and the terms of sale of such lands shall he as follows, viz : One-'enlh in cash al the lime of purchase ; the halance in nine equal annual insialnients, with intercut at ihe rate of six per cent, per annum on thi' halance of purchase nioiii-y from lime to linv reniaininjj unpaid, to he paid with each instalment. "The Pre-emption Lands within the several belts shall he sold for the prices and on the terms respectively as folhnvs :—. In the Hells .\, H and C, at $2.50 (two dollars and fifty cents) per acre; in Hell 1), at $2 (two dollars) per acre ; and in Helt 11. at $1 (one dollar) ])er acre. The terms of paynieni to he four-ientlis of the jnirchase money, together with interest on the latter al I'.ic r.i'.e of (> jier cent, pei annum, to he paiil a! the L-nd of three years froni the date of entry ; the remainder to he |)aid in six equal inslalinents^nnually from and after the said date, with interest al the rate above mentioneil on such portions of the ])urchase money as may remain unpaiil, to he jiaid with each i'.istahnenl. " All payments f(u- Kaihvay Lands, and also for I're-emj)tion Lands, within the several Belts, shall he in cash, and not in scrip or mdii-'ry or police houniy warrants. " All moneys received in payment of I're-emption Lands shall inure to and form part of the fund for railway pur[)oses, in a similar manner to the moneys received in payment of Railway Lands. "These provisions shall l)e retroactive so flir as relates to any and all entries of Homestead and I're-emptioii Lands, or sales of Railway L.inds oln.iined or made under the Regulations of Qlh of July, hereby su|>frseded ; any paynienls made in excess of the rale hereby fixed shall be credited on account of sales of such lands. " All entries of lands shall be subject to the following ])rovisions respeclUig the right of way of the Cana be called Iklt I). l<) be railed belts shall be open for open i'> homestead or lids. luwing rates, viz : — In c ; in Belt C, $3 (three i dollar) vier acre ; and at the time of purchase ; X per cent, per annum to be paid with each or the jirices and on the dollars and fifty cents) I (one dollar) i)er acre. I er with interest on the | years from the date of | nd after the said date, I I money as may remain | within the several Belts, lo and form part of the in payment of Railway II entries of Homestead nder the Regulations of te hereby fixed shall be IS respeclM.g the right of 1 railway connected there- , the right of way thereon, ree to the (lovornment. ntered subse(iuenl to the of as mav be required lor only be 'entitled to claim J paid the Government for eyed, or surveyed but not may be desirable in the isMon of such land, paying e thereof, in territory un- •ithin the limits allected by iial territory, will be ulti- lie lands in the particular to the operation of sub- Saskatchewan Agency will )f the territories has been with these provisions, as ound to lie situated, subject, ions. . ,t of building material, the V under Section 52 of the s situated within the several n, the territory covered by ich licenses." ^tl0imif-~i,tS "gj j.Sfu r "J»*r