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S.. ■'^^ ^ V GUIDE BOOK TO THK CANADIAN DOMINION, CONTAINING FULL INFORMATION FOB THE EMIGRANT, THE TOURIST, THE SPORTSMAN, AND THE SMALL CAPITALIST. BY HARVEY J. PHILPOT, M.D. (CAKADA), „.„.c.aL., ETC., I.ATE ASSISTANT SUBOKON TO HER MAJESTY'S rORCCS IN THE CRIMEA AND TURKEY. WITH A PREFACE, BY THOMAS HUGHES, Esq, M.P. ' LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD, G AND 7, CHARING CROSS. 1871. fc-i PS7 J ■■ o mmm DetifcatetJ bg |3crmissioii TO H. R H. PRINCE AETHUll, WHOSE AFFABILITY AND MANLIlfESS OF CHAHACTER WON THE HEARTS OF HIS IIOYAL MOTIIEIi's FAITHFUL CANADIAN SUBJECTS, WHEN HE WAS PLEASED TO VISIT THEM IN 1367. -! PREFACE BT THOMAS HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. The present moment is well chosen for the pub- lication of a Guide Book to the Dominion of Canada; and, if one who is not a native of that noble country may be allowed to express an opinion, this book of Dr. Philpot's is precisely the sort of book which was wanted, and deserves to take a place amongst standard works of the kind. The first object of such a book should be, to give careful infor- mation in an attractive form as to the climate, pro- ductions, and physical geography of the country, and the character, conditions, and manner of life, and material prospects of the people. The political institutions and prospects do not necessarily come within the scope of a Guide Book, nor perhaps, as a rule, is it desirable that they should do so. There are circumstances, however, in relation to the very peculiar and exceptional political position of the Dominion at the present moment, which make it diflBcult to pass over these matters in silence, and this Preface will therefore be mainly devoted ■^^^^•^■^■11 ^^mmrmimt Vlll PREFACE, BY Ml to tlio political and Imperial side of the work of a Guide Book. British North America is in a period ot" crisis and transition, feeling about like one awakening out of sleep, and scarcely yet conscious of the new powers and responsibilities which have been silently matur- ing and gathering, within and around him. The Dominion, in two words, cannot remain as she is, and it is well that her own children, and those who mean to become so, and the two great countries of her blood, her mother and elder sister — in short, that all who are interested in her future, should make this fact thoroughly clear to themselves. It is now just four years (March 29, 1867) since, in compliance with the expressed wish of the pro- vinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, the Imperial Parliament passed the Act known as the British North America Act, for the purpose of " federally uniting " those great colonies " into one Dominion under the Crown, with a constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom." This Act estabhshes the constitution of the Do- minion of Canada, and was intended practically to bind the whole of the provinces into one nation. It has accomplished its object to an extent which has astonished Englishmen, and which many of the lead- ing statesmen and public writers of the Dominion are apparently unable to recognize, or unwilling to T. nuanES, esq., m.p. IX admit. In fact the work of unification has been done so rnpidly and thoroughly that the Act of 18G7, and the Constitution which rests on it, are already obsolete (or '' played out," to use the more expres- sive Transatlantic phrase). Wo may regret tliat this should be so, or rejoice, as our political and natural temperaments sway us ; but there the fact remains, amongst the most pressing which England has to deal wiih. Many of those who voted for the Act of 186 7 did it with rpen eyes, and a distinct recognition that, if the exp riment of confederation sliould succeed, and so ,oon as it ^^liould succeed, one of two issues became ine>itable for the Dominion, independence, or a more intimate and equal union with the mother country. The experiment of confederation hn^ now suc- ceeded, and, at one bound, Canada has become a great power, from whatever point of view you like to look. Take population. The last census was that of 1801. At that time the inhabitants of the four provinces numbered 3,090,561, and, from subsequent returns, it may safely be assumed that the census of the present year will add at least another 1,250,000 to this figure. But keeping to 1861, let us compare the progress of the Dominion with that of her great neighbour since the beginning of the century. In 1800 the population of Canada was 240,000, so that in the sixty years she increased more that twelve- PREFACE, BY i! fold. In 1 800 the white population of the United States stood at 4,304,489, and the census of 1870 gives 38,272,112 as the present figure, or an in- crease in the seventy years of less than ten-fold. Take trade. In 1869 the grand total of Canadian exports reached $60,474,781. In the same year her trade with the United Kingdom alone stood at £7,734,531 for exports, and for imports of British home produce £5,157,083. In 1870, the returns just come to hand show her exports to have reached $73,573,490, and her imports $74,814,339, an in- crease in one year of upwards of 13 million dollars. Take enterprize. Thirty years ago the St. Law- rence was not navigable above Quebec for vessels of more than 300 tons burthen. Now the channel has been made perfectly safe for ocean steamers, and you see the vessels of the Allan line lying by the quays of Montreal. The Welland Canal, the Grand Trunk Railway, and the Tubular Bridge over the St. Lawrence, as notable works as any the world can yet show, may perhaps fairly be placed to a great extent to the credit of the mother country. But this Allan lino of ocean steamers, the most numerous in the world, is the product of Canadian energy and Canadian capital. The same may be said of the woollen manufactures of the Dominion, which are more than holding their own already against the best goods which Leeds and Bradford o T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. XI can turn out. If we prefer the test of general prosperity as evidenced by the wealth of the country, an even more startling state of things meets us. There are more people in the Dominion in propor- tion to population than in any other country in the world who are worth $1000. Such results speak for themselves as to the character of the people, who are as enterprizing and thrifty as any branch of the English speaking race. They are already far more numerous, and more united, than the thirteen colonies were at the declaration of Independence ninety-five years ago. It is idle to suppose that they can any longer be kept in leading strings. But, it is said, they are not in leading strings. The Constitution of 1867 has made them indepen- dent for all practical purposes. Let us see, then, how far this is true. ^ • And first with respect to revenues and public pro- perty. The Act of 1867 created a Consolidated Revenue Fund, consisting of all public duties and revenues of the several provinces, the exceptions being too trifling to require statement. Out of this Consolidated Fund the intci'est of all the provincial public debts is paid as a first charge, the Governor General's salary of £10,000 a year as a second charge, and the remainder is appropriated year by year by the Parliament of Canada. xu PEEFACE, BY ' 1 The public works and property of all the Provinces — again with some trifling exceptions, but includ- ing harbours, railways, canals, lighthouses, custom- houses, fortifications, and public buildings — are made the property of the Dominion of Canada, and liable, therefore, to be dealt with by the Parliament of Canada as common property. So far then the constitution of the Dominion is that of an homogeneous and independent nation, dealing with its own resources for its own purposes; but now comes in a serious limitation. Every bill for appropriating any portion of the consolidated reve- nue, or for imposing any tax or impost, must indeed originate in the Canadian House of Commons ; but the House can make no appropriation whatever of consolidated revenue, or of the proceeds of any tax, which has not been first recommended by message of the Governor- General in the session in which such bill or vote is proposed to be passed. Such a limitation is obviously inconsistent with autonomy, as the word is understood amongst English speaking people. It is indeed maintained that the sj^stem is only a reproduction of that of Great Britain; but leaving other differences aside, there is this funda- mental one between the two cases, the Sovereign, of whom the Governor- General is the representative, resides 3000 miles from the Dominion, and acts on M, T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. Xlll the responsible advice of the ministry of the mother country, and not on that of the Colony. The same disturbing element runs through the whole constitution. The legislative power is vested in the Queen, a Senate, and a House of Commons. The powers, privileges, and immunities of these two Houses are to be defined from time to time by Act of the Parliament of Canada, ^' but so that the same " shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act " held enjoyed and exercised by the Commons House *' of Parliament of the United Kingdom.'* It would be difficult, perhaps, to define the exact powers and privileges of the British House of Commons in 1867, but the intention of this part of the Act was, un- doubtedly, to give the Parliament of Canada sove- reign control in their own domestic affairs. But such control is obviously not given so long as the even nominal initiative in the matter of expenditure, and a real ultimate control of other legislation, is left in the Crown. Either, therefore, the Crown must in practice waive the control given by the constitution; and become the mere registrar of ihe measures of the Parliament of the Dominion; or must insist jpon exercising such a discretionary control over Canadian legislation as would lead to constant collision and embarrassment. In order to make this clear it will be only necessary ^ ^ XIV PREFACE, BY to state shortly the position in which the Crown stands in the Dominion under the constitution of 1867. The whole executive power, includiog the com- mand in chief of all military and naval forces, is vested in the Queen, and is exercised by the Gover- nor-General, assisted by his Privy Council. The Privy Council of Canada consists of persons from time to time chosen by the Governor- General, and sworn in as Privy Councillors, and removable at will by him. They constitute practically the ministry for the time being. ^ But although all executive powers, authorities and functions are thus vested in the Crown and its servants, and nominally taken from under the direct control of the legislature, there is a reservation which must have the effect of raising the most serious questions between the Crown and the Dominion, whenever Imperial and Colonial interests or policy may chance to be opposed. For power is reserved to the Canadian Parliament '^ to abolish or alter any of the powers, authorities, or functions of the Gover- nor-General in Council," "except such as exist under Acts of the United Kingdom." Any such abolition, or alteration, would of course have to pass the Canadian legislature, to which we must now turn. As already stated, all legislative power is vested in the Quepn, the Senate, and the (ti T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. XV House of Commons, but the position of the Crown is far from being in the Dominion, as it is at home, that of a sleeping partner. We have seen that every money vote, or bill, must not only have the sanction of the Governor-General, but must be re- commended in the first instance by him to the House of Commons. In the case of all other Bills he can either declare or withhold the Queen's assent at once, or reserve the Bill for the signification of the Queen's pleasure. Even after assent by the Governor-General, the Act must be sent home, and at any time within two years the Queen in Council may disallow it. Again, where a Bill has been re- served for the signification of the Queen's pleasure, it has no force until the expiration of two years, unless the assent of the Queen in Council lias been received within that time. But the legislative power of the Crown in the Dominion does not rest here, but extends, indirectly at any rate, through the Upper House, or Senate. This body consists of 72 members ; of whom 24 re- present Quebec, 24 Ontario, and 12 each of the maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- wick. A senator must be thirty years old, he must own 8000 dollars of property, of which 4000 dollars must be in real estate in the province ho represents, and in v/hich he must be rctiideut. The appoint- ■ I XVI PREFACE, BT i ' I- meDt of tlie whole of this Upper House rests with the Crown, and is exercised by the Governor-General by summons under the great seal of Canada. It is true that the appointment of a senator is for life, if he retains his qualification, and therefore that the power of nomination is not so important a con- trolling element as it would be if the Senate were only nominated for a term. On the other hand, with the single exception of money bills and votes, which must originate in the House of Commons, the two Houses have equal powers, so that the right of nominating the whole of one of them, cannot be treated as an unimportant one. The remaining portion of the Lc ^islature of Canada, the House of Commons, is entirely under popular control, and as free from, all Crown influence as ours at home ; but as a component part of such a partnership it is necessarily far less powerful, and is in practice more timid than the House of Com- mons of the United Kingdom. It is composed, under the Act of 1867, of 181 members; of whom Ontario sends 82, Quebec 65, Nova Scotia 19, and New Brunswick 15. Power, however, is reserved to the Canadian Parliament to increase this number after each decennial census. The rule by which such increase is to be re*^ulated is determined by the proportion which the population of the other / T. HUGHES^ ESQ., M.P. XVU / provinces bear to that of Quebec. The old Frerch province will retain the fixed number of 65 repre- sentatives, and the representation of each of the other provinces will be so modified, after each census, that the number of members from each province shall bear the same proportion to the number of its population as the number G5 bears to the population of the province of Quebec. Such, then, in short outline, is the present con- stitution of the Dominion of Canada, as settled by the British North America Act of 1807. That Act may be fiiirly looked upon as a successful piece of legislation on a most dijficult question. The problem which English and Canadian statesmen had before them was, to provide a federal constitution which would not be repudiated by any one of a group of colonies of first class importance, differing from one another as widely as the Western States of the American Union differ from New England. It is a proof of fore- sight and wisdom in the two Legislatures, that the Act has done its work so quickly and effectually. The object was confederation, and the constitution was framed to meet the needs of a transition period. That period has passed. Whatever their future may be, the provinces comprised in the Dominion are bound together, for better or for worse, and will go henceforth as a whole. The Constitution of 1SG7 h •m^mmiff XVIU PREFACE, BY was a bridge to pass over, not a house to live in. The Dominion has passed safely over, and has now to build a permanent house. And so we get back again to the consideration of the alternatives from which we started. Is the House to be a semi-detached one ? Well, there are many persons, both at home and in Canada, who answer. Yes, unreservedly. The Canadian press, with a few exceptions, is exceedingly angry when the contrary theory is mooted. The word " inde- pendence " acts on them like a red flag on a bull. They shut their eyes, down with their heads, and go at it. They seem to wish to burk all discussion of the question, treating it as though the time for argu- ment had passed, and endeavouring to fix the stigma of " disloyalty," the most odious and ofiensive of all accusations to a Canadian, on any one who will insist on looking the crisis fairly in the face. But meantime what do they advocate in the place of independence ? for not one of them, so far as I know, believes that the Constitution of 1867 can stand. Imperial Federation will probably be the answer, and the name, no doubt, has a grand sound. Other races, we are told, are grouping themselves together, according to their nationalities, and it is •monstrous that the English race alone should be allowed to split up. But in the first place one has T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. XIX to remark, that there is no question of splitting up. This tendency to confederate is as strong in our race as in the German or Italian, or any other, as is evidenced not only by the confede- ration of the North American provinces into the Dominion of Canada, but by the effort for a federal union of the Australian Colonies, which is even now pending. Our case is not analogous to that of Italy or Germany. If three or four of the Western States of America were German colonies, or the Argentine republic Italian, we might hope, perhaps, for some hints for our guidance from Bismarck, or the suc- cessors of Cavour. As it is we must be our own councillors, for no other race has grown up children. What then do we at home, or the Canadians, or the Australians, mean by Imperial Federation ? Many different things apparently. A Council of the Empire composed of representatives from all the Colonies, sitting with representatives of the United Kingdom in London, in which the ultimate Imperial power of making war and treaties should bo vested, was warmly advocated at one time, but has now I believe few supporters. The Victoria Commission dismiss it at once as " foreign to the genius and traditions of the British constitution," and most persons will entirely agree with them. A Federal Imperial Parliament, in which every portion of the Empire is to be :reprcsented in proper- XX PREFACE, BY tion to population, is another idea which has still warm and able advocates. As yet, however, the difficulties of detail which surround such a scheme, have not been seriously considered, and the more they are considered the more hopeless does the plan become. The experiment of legislation on im- perial questions for the United Kingdom, the Domi- nion of Canada, the Australias, South Africa, and New Zealand, by an assembly representing these countries in proportion to population, would probably result in absolute separation at the end of the first session. A third plan (supported by the Victorian Royal Commission) is, that the right to make treaties should be ceded to each of the great confederated groups of Colonies by the mother country, other things re- maining as they are. Supposing this were done, and an offensive and defensive alliance made between England and each confederation, determinable by either side on six months' notice, would not the problem be satisfacto- rily solved ? On the one hand, the danger to the Colonies of being involved in war by the mother country without their consent, would be avoided, on the other, England would not be pledged in every case to defend the Colonies by force of arms. But if she is not so pledged she abandons her T. riUOHES, ESQ., M.P. XXI supremacy ? Certainly she does. The advocates of this plan insist that she must do so if she is to main- taui any connection at all with her Colonies. This one point ceded, and (in the case of the Dominion) the veto of the Crown on the acts of the Colonial Parliament, and the right of appointing a Governor- General, abandoned, and the Colonies become at once sovereign powers, with all the risks and responsibi- lities of national existence. Precisely so ; but, with these risks and responsibilities, they will nevertheless retain a voluntary connection with the mother coun- try, the value of which may be above all price to new commonwealths. The bond will be certainly a slight one, but it may prove for that very reason to be all the stronger. Let us see what it would amount to in the case of the Dominion. Every Canadian would retain his full English citizenship, and be eligible for every office in the United Kingdom and India, from the Premiership and Governor- Generalship downwards. The Parliament of the Dominion would have the power of electing their chief executive officer (Gover- nor-General, President, or whatever they may call him) from the roll of English statesmen, if they found it expedient to do so, and Englishmen would retain their full citizenship in the Dominion, and be eligible to all offices. Either power before making a treaty rr XXll PREFACE, BY would have to consult the other, in order that the option of separation after notice might be fairly and freely exercised. This would keep the obligations of the alliance constantly before the statesmen and people of both countries. No independent action of a serious kind would bo taken by either country without a careful weighing of how it would affect the alliance. It may well bo that the ease with which that alliance could be terminated, would mako both sides the more careful of it, and that so the notice that might bo given at any moment might remain ungiven for generations. For there is no question that the English people are anxious to keep the connection, if it can bo done in any way which will be acceptable to the Colonies, and not burthensome to the mother country. The Colonies, it would seem, and before all the eldest of them, the Dominion of Canada, are at present as anxious as the mother country. Apart from and below all question of the commercial advantage to them of forming part of the Empire, there is a strong appreciation of the sentimental value of British citizenship, which, whatever clever writers of articles and essays may say in its disparagement, is not a possession to be lightly cast aside. Such a connection with the mother country as would leave the Dominion the entire mistress of her T. IIUOHES, ESQ., M.P. XXIU own (Icstiuics, and givo her the power to declare formally her absolute independence at any moment, seems to be the only hopeful alternative hitherto proposed for entire separation at a very early date. But, after all, would not absolute independence bo better for her, and for England ? In looking at this question her relations with the United States should be the first consideration, as her future prosperity and development depcndfb upon the terms upon which she lives with the great neighbour, whose boundary lino .'Uiis now side by side with hers to the Rocky Moun- tains, and, on the accession of British Columbia to tho Dominion, will extend side by side to the seaboard of the Pacific. * Let us first clear away, if possible, one of tho wildest notions which has ever found serious advo- cates at home, or in the Colony, that, if England were to retire, the United States, if they could not annex or absorb Canada by peaceful means, would do so by a war of aggression. One has hardly patience to argue with those who entertain such fears. Their case rests on the assumption that Brother Jonathan is a fool, and no one who has any regard for the value of time will care to argue this point. From a somewhat large and intimate acquaintance with American politicians, and with the periodical political literature of the United States, I venture ir XXIV PREFACE, BY l\ to say, tbat there is no leading man, and no leading journal in the Union, which has ever seriously put foinvard such a proposal. A very large majority of Americans believe that the union of Canada with the United States is only a question of time. A majority, not so large, but still I think, considerable, are quite willing that their Government should use any means at their disposal, short of hostilities, to hasten the day when British North America will range itself under the stars and ssripes. Amongst politicians Democrat will vie with Republican, pro- bably, in handling tariffs and reciprocity treaties with a view to this end, and the best men in the country, the most thoughtful and patriotic states- men, lawyers, merchants of the New England states — the power which in the long run holds the great Republic true to its traditions and its political faith — will not interfere, even when they may not like the methods pursued, because they appreciate so keenly the value of bringing another New England into the Union, as a make-weight and counterpoise to the vast un-English and anti-English emigration, which they are receiving so fast, and find it no easy task to absorb and civilise. But, with the exception of Butler, and three or four politicians of his stripe, there is, I repeat, no man of recognised position in politics, who dare, even for election purposes, to T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P= XXV advocate the conquest of Canada. The American people are anxious to get half a dozen free states of the best old northern typo into the Union, as a set oflf in the direction of permanence, stability, steadi- ness, against the thinly-veiled sullen disloyalty of the Southern whites, and the restless ferment of the colluvies gentium as it settles down on the great west. They do not want another group of Carolinas and Georgias on their northern frontier, smarting under the humiliation of defeat, and ready at any moment to make common cause with the South for the destruction of an Union, which would be to them, not the symbol of Freedom, but of conquest. I omit all consideration of the chances of defeat in an invasion of a country, so hardy, vigorous, and prosperous as the Dominion. Whether practicable or not in a military sense, it is just the one impossible issue. The attempt would be forbidden, at once by the highest conscience, and the shrewdest self- interest, of the American people. I think we may safely start then with two assump- tions, that the United States will accept the inde- pendence of Canada as a satisfactory fulfilment of the Monro doctrine, and that Canada has her own future in her own power, and has only her own interests to consider in determining what that future shall be. Perhaps the strongest argument for independence II II f XXVI PREFACE, BY pure and simple, is, that in this way only can the Canadian statesmen and people be made to feel the full responsibility of their own acts and words. So long as the present connection with England con- tinues, the temptation of shifting that responsibility will be overwhelming, and what has been grotesquely called the "national policy,'' (or, in other words, irri* tating speech and retaliatory tariffs,) is not likely to be abandoned by the Dominion. The leading Jour- nal of Canada lately summed up the case in a few words, in an article on the High Commission w sitting at Washington. " Our strength and satety " consist in throwing on Great Britain, and making " her ministers feel, the sole responsibility of ensuring the harmony of our relations with, and protecting our rights against foreign powers." The fact that her premier is a member of that Commission should be enough to warn her that this position has ceased to be possible. It may be doubted, perhaps, whether the " sub- dued colonial feeling," as Mr. Webster termed it, from which such policies spring, and upon which they depend, can ever disappear except in the bracing air of absolute independence. The passage in which that expression occurs was spoken in New York a quarter of a century ago. " Who is there '' amongst us," said the great orator, " that supposes C( (( \ T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. XXVU f( ft (t (f " that anything but the independence of the country " could have made us what we are to-day. Suppose that mother England had treated us with the ut- most indulgence. Suppose that the councils most favourable to the colonies had prevailed. Suppose we had been treated as a spoilt child. I say that " it is not possible for any Government at a distance " to raise a nation by any line of policy to the height "which this has attained. It is independer: ce, it is '' self-government, it is the liberty of the people to " make laws for themselves, which has raised us above " the subdued feeling of colonial subjugation, and " placed us as we are." Self-reliance is the soundest foundation for national manliness and moderation ; and any alliance or connection, however advanta- geous or honourable, which hinders its full develop- ment, should be abandoned. I am sure that English- men will unhesitatingly acquiesce in this view. England wants, before all things, to see Canada a nation; if in alliance with herself so much the better, but in no sense dependent on her. If she cannot rise to the full stature of a nation while even one of the old ropes remains, let the last drop gently into the water by the side of the vessel, and wish her God speed ! But if there is no danger whatever of forcible, is there not a strong likelihood of peaceable, annexa- tion of Canada to the United States ? Undoubtedly f p iff 1 I ; I ^f^ 4 • I i 1 i 11 1 i XXVlll PREFACE, BY there is such a likelihood. At present there is no material inducement to Canada to join the Union. Taxation is heavier in the States, and their fiscal policy is opposed to that of the Dominion. But the war debt is fast disappearing, and the free trade movement is gaining strength, as the recent repeal of the protective duties on coal and salt shows. Whenever the United States assimilate their tariff to that of the Dominion — which is a revenue tariff, with a wide free list of raw materials — the pinch will come. If at that time, which is nearer than people generally expect, Canadian statesmen are still half awake, drifting along purposeless, with a constant sidelong or backward glance to England, the great Republic will most probably absorb them. If, on the other hand, the Dominion is then practi- cally self-reliant, and independent, the result will probably be, a Zolverein or Customs Union between the two countries — a commercial but not a political union, in which England might not be included, but which in any case would be greatly to her advantage, and enormously increase her present exports to North America. But in any case would not annexation be disas- trous, and humiliating to England ? I answer, why should it be ? It will not be disastrous to us com- mercially, if it cannot (as I hold) take place until /■ \ T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. XXIX re IS no Union i ir fiscal But the e trade b repeal shows. ir tariff e tariff, 3 pinch 3r than en are with a ngland, them, practi- ilfc will >etween )olitical eluded, to her present 1 disas- er, why is com- 50 until the United States assimilate their tariff to the Canadian. It will not be disastrous politically to us, as it will throw a vast English vote into the party struggles of the Union. It will not be humiliating, for England will have done her part by the Dominion, and started her eldest child in the world with a single eye to her advancement and prosperity, and no nation can be humbled which has done its duty to the best of its power. At the same time I must own that in one sense I think it would be a misfortune, not specially to England, but to Christendom. The world, and more particularly the new world, wants variety and colour. If Canada is annexed she becomes an un- distinguishable unit in a vast confederation, already too uniform, constantly tending,' spite of their mar- vellous material prosperity, to a deeper and more colourless uniformity. ' . I would not for a moment deny that one of the best and strongest characteristics of our time is a craving for union, amongst nations, churches, people, but there is a good and a bad way of reaching it. I doubt whether union reached by the lion swallow- ing the lamb in all lands, and the big fish the little ones in all ponds, is what we ought to work or pray for. It seems to me that it would be better for the United States themselves to have a kindred nation m ITT ■tlf 't\ XXX PREFACE, BY by their side, with a character and history of its own, and institutions as free as, but not identical with, theirs. The traditions of the Dominion and the States have been for a century not only distinct, but to some extent antagonistic. A large proportion of the Tory exiles frora the triumphant colonies settled in the northern provinces after the war of Inde- pendence, and from that day to this the two people have drawn their nourishment from different springs. Forty years later the old wounds were torn open again, when England's high handed proceedings on the seas brought on the war, in which the Capitol at Washington was burnt, and the bravest soldiers of famous old Peninsula regiments were mown down before the cotton bales of New Orleans. At this moment a clear majority of the people of the Do- minion are natives of the old country. All such considerations may yield before the prospect of great material advantage. They are chiefly sentimental no doubt, but sentiment is not the least noble in- gredient in national character ; and, if Canada should be absorbed, the tradition of her national life will be rudely severed, and she and the world will be by so much the poorer. There are likely to be too few chances of welcoming a new member into the sisterhood of nations, and I own I should be sorry to sec this one lost. I 4 ,^ T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. XXXI y of its identical e States t, but to Drtion of )s settled of Inde- 'o people ; springs. Dm open dings on ) Capitol fc soldiers ;vn down At this tlic Do- All such of great Itimental oLle in- |a should life will [11 be by be too into the )e sorry On the other hand, if so it must be, the sight of a whole continent confederated under one Govern- ment, but needing very little government of any kind, will be an excellent lesson to the old world. One would prefer to see Canada independent, and the three English speaking powers knit together in an alliance which might keep peace over at least half the globe. But whether she shall stand alone, or merge in the Union, her future can scarcely fail to be a noble one, for she carries within herself all the elements of healthy and beneficent prosperity. Her people are a brave, hard-working, simple-living folk, contact with whom freshens up and braces the spirit of the wanderer from the old world, as the superb climate does his body. Her soil teems with wealth for the worker, coal, iron, sulphates, oils, copper ; her vast forests are of the finest timber ; the motive power lying almost unused in her inland waters, is probably the cheapest and best in the world. Plenty and comfort are in all her borders, and nowhere (as yet at any rate) are there signs of the corruption and feebleness, which cling and fester round the huge accumulations of material wealth, raising problems which weigh so heavily on the brain, if they do not daunt the heart, of the bravest and truest men in older lands. Let me give two instances, which came under my IT ■ ii / ' i XXXll PREFACE, BY own observation, of what the English mechanic may do in the youngest England, ten days' sail from his own door. On my voyage out we had some 700 emigrants on board; and, on an exqui- site sunny day in mid- Atlantic, in accordance with the national view of the proper method of utilizing spare time, a public meeting was improvised, and several gentlemen, including a London clergy- man who was taking out his third batch of emi- grants, and a district judge from Ontario, spoke of the prospects and openings in the Dominion from the top of a skylight. Amongst the audience, just under this rostrum, stood a sturdy elderly man, with a stubby grey beard of five days' growth, who resolutely chorused " that's true," to every allusion to the rewards of hard work and sobriety which fell from the speakers. One of these presently sug- gested, that the old man should come up and give them his experience, to which he consented, after a hunch or two of Lis heavy shoulders, and a hitch at his greasy fur cap. He was hauled up accordingly, and in a mellow western accent told his short story. He was born in Cornwall, and brought up to smith's work, and thirty-four years ago had landed, under the citadel of Quebec, where they would be in a few days, with a wife and two children, and nine shillings in his pocket. He had had four more T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. XXXlll ir more children since then, three girls and three boys alto- gether. All his girls were married, and ho had given each of them $1600 as a marriage portion. He had been able to give each of hia boys a good start, and now every one of them had a good farm of his own, while ho himself owned another, on which he was living with every comfort he cared for. He had just been across, for the first and last time, to see the old home, and was glad he had been there, but more glad to be going back. Every man amongst them might do as well as ho had done, or better, if he would only stick to work. Some folk said times used to be easier and better than they were now. It wasn't true. Times were as good as ever they were. 'Twas only wastrels that made bad times in Canada. In the summer of last year, Mr. Hugh Allan, the head of the great firm of shipowners, advertized for tenders for a large job of carpentering and joinery work of a high class, to be executed (if I rightly remember) in his fine house on the mountain, behind Montreal. The tenders came in, and he selected one of them, and the man who had sent it in came to him to arrange for the com- mencement of the work. After the interview, a very satisfactory one in all ways, Mr. Allan asked the man whether they had not met before, as he could not help thinking that his face was familiar c XXXIV PREFACE, BY to him. The man laughed, and said, do you remem- ber about three years ago a journeyman carpenter, who came out in one of your ships, coming to you, the day after ho landed, and begging you to give him a passage back, and he would work out the money at your place in Liverpool. You would'nt, and you told him in a year or so he would look upon you as his best friend for having refused to let liim go back. Well, and was*nt I right ? said Mr. Allan. Yes, said the man, it would have been the worst day's work I ever did if you had done what I asked. He went on to say, that he had done well ever since that day ; had a house, and workshop of his own, and other property, worth, he reckoned, not much less than $3000, which sum he thought he might very possibly double before he had done with his present job. Such instances might be multiplied to any extent. It is not perhaps every mechanic who can do as well as the carpenter, or the old Cornish man, but there is a career for every one with a pair of hands, and the will to use them diligently. There are no bad times in the Dominion " except for wastrels," and for them there can be no good times anywhere that I know of, either in the old world or the new. I may be allowed perhaps, in conclusion, to say a few words on a personal matter. I should not have T. UUanES, ESQ., M.P. XXXV undertaken tlio present task had it not been that my opinions with respect to the political prospects of the Dominion, and tho duties of her statesmen, have of lato attracted an attention in Canada which has astonished no one so much as myself. I believe I owe this to a quotation from a letter of mine to my friend Mr. George Stephen of Montreal, which was introduced by tho Hon. Mr. Hunting- ton in a speech which he made to a large and im- portant gathering of his friends and constituents towards tho end of last year. An isolated extract of this kind is liable to mislead, and I find in the present case that views have been attributed to me in Cana- dian Journals which I do not hold. As a rule this would matter very little, but in tho critical state of the relations between England, the United States, and the Dominion, it is undesirable that there should be any mistake as to tho opinions of public men in either of the three countries ; and I am anxious to set my- self right with many valued friends in the Colony. I wish then to state, that I have never advocated the annexation of tho Dominion to the United States as the best thing for the Colonists, or for the Mother Country. I do not think that it would be so, and I should be sorry to see it happen, as I believe in a Canadian nation with a magnificent industrial future, if only the governments on both sides of IT fl p rw I XXXVl PREFACE, BY T. HUGHES, ESQ., M.P. the Atlantic have foresight and courage enough to profit by the present opportunity. On the other hand (if it be the other hand) I have said, and repeat, that I do not look upon annexation as a contingency to be greatly dreaded, or deprecated, as a sore mis- fortune or discomfiture to England. If Canada has not strength or character to stand alone it is pro- bably the best thing that can happen to her. At the same time if she sees her way to practical inde- pendence (which she has not attained under the con- stitution of 1867) without severing her connection with the Mother Country, there is no Englishman who will be more rejoiced than I. In auy case the decision is with her, and the worst thing she can do is to allow the initiative to slip from her hands. These are my views, in the fewest words in which I can state them, and I have reason to believe they are shared by a large number, if not by the majority, of those Englishmen who are most deeply interested in colonial politics. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The subject of Emigration to the Colonies being brought so prominently before the public at the present time, and the demand for authentic informa- tion being proportionately great, I felt it almost incumbent upon mo, as a disinterested person, pos- sessed of considerablo knowledge of one of our most thriving poor men's Colonies, to come forward and impart some of that knowledge to those who con- template forming new homes across the Atlantic, or may have a desire to become better acquainted with the Colony, where so many of their friends and countrymen have cast their lot. I have expressly avoided filling up my pages with useless statistics and other dry details, which I con- sider valueless to the emigrant to Canada, and most uninteresting to the general reader. The necessity of restricting my little work to the proportions of a i i In If r Mi ! XXXVlll PREFACE. Colonial Handbook, obliges me to treat many of my topics with brevity, but those of my readers who desire further information upon details, from year to year liable to change, can always obtain it from any of the Emigration Offices in London. My interest in the Colony solely arising from the respect and esteem I have formed for the worthy settlers, amongst whom I spent seven pleasant years, I have had nothing to bias me in the sketches I have drawn of the life in its woods Nor have I been tempted to paint in too brilliant colours the prospects before the earnest worker in that delightful country, have endeavoured to lead the stranger emigrant by the hand, holding my lantern to his feet during the earlier stages of his colonial journeyings, steering him clear of the difficulties he meets with, pointing out to him the shortest track whereby he will arrive at the goal of ultimate success ; showing him which path to take and which to avoid, till I have finally brought him out wiser by his experience into the sunshine of the " Forest Clearing.'^ He will find at first that his life partakes of the sombre hue of I lii... it ■^sm^-.' PREFACE. XXXIX ly of my ers who 1 year to 'rom any from the 3 worthy nt years, js I have I I been )rospects country, grant by ring the steering Dointing 11 arrive m which e finally into the will find e hue of ^^mS the forest when clothed in its summer apparel, but as days, weeks, and years rapidly succeed each other, so, like the lovely autumn woods of his adopted country, brilliant with the most gorgeous colouring of brightest crimson, red, orange and brown of every variety of shading, he will perceive it break- ing forth into many bright and joyous domestic pleasures. That I have not over-rated tho re- sources of the Dominion, nor held out too en- couraging hopes to the industrious settler, I think the letters I have inserted from tried emigrants will amply testify. The sportsman, when he comes homo at night with his bag well filled with feathered fowl, or his *' cutter" loaded with delicious venison, will not have cause to rail at me for having made game of hint, nor will the tourist, when his eyes haVe been enchanted with the beautiful scenery around him, either during his cruise upon a Canadian lake, or when following the courses of those superb rivers, have cause to wish he had never read my Guide- book to the Dominion of Canada. And lastly, I hope to obtain the blessing and not the curse of tho m - * 11 I H ;;i> xl PREFACE. i^ltf 4 « (i r, small capitalist, whon lie finds himself living like a gentleman upon the interest of his well invested savings " in the West, in the West, in the land of the free/' > ' I practised my profession in a county town in Upper Canada, as it was then called, the centre of an old settled and thriving agricultm'al district. The roads were excellent, the farms well cleared, most of them so well as to admit of the operations of machinery. The farmers themselves for the most part lived in handsome brick and stone houses, fur- nished with much taste, their drawing-room graced by the pianoforte, carriages and buggies standing in their coach-houses, whilst fast trotting horses fed in their stables. The owners, present and original, had commenced in the same way in which I expect my ideal settler to commence, namely, in a log shanty. Tho war however between the Northern and Southern States inflicted a considerable amount of damage whilst it lasted, involving as it did great stagnation in the reciprocal trade. Added to this the failure of the crops owing to the ravages of the TEEFACE. xli weevil. Consequently money became scarce, and the farmers were compelled to draw in their horns. It was however a wholesome lesson to them, for they were becoming too extravagant and too speculative, and the credit system was beginning to tell with most mischievous results upon colonial society. Now, however, the country is upon its legs again, and may it continue to thrive, and prosper, and prove, while time shall last, a happy resort for the English- man who is imbued w4th the praiseworthy desire of becoming a landed proprietor under the flag of Old England^ in the ^' Great Dominion." Harvey J. Philpot, East DulwicU. January, 1871. I ! f ' i^- \ ; i ..:,. ,; f.'i ■. ■' ' ' •^' ■ ■■■' h I i CONTENTS, ,j, I Preface by T. Hughes, Esq., M.P. Preface by tlic Author Page. vii xxxvii SECTION I. CHAPTER I. General Remarks — Reason for so many Emigrants going to America — Canadians after 1872 will no longer be dependent on the Americans during the Winter months for admission into their own country— My arrival at Portland in the Spring of 1857, and Journey through the State of Maine — Exhila- rating effects of the frosty air 1 CHAPTER II. Geographical Extent of British North America — The various Colonies comprising it — How the Hudson's Bay Company originated — Purcliase of their Territory by the Canadians — The Dominion of Canada — Population — Government — Edu- cational System — Facilities of Internal Communication- Pacific Railroad — Timber Trade — Number of hands employed in it— Agricultural Productions — Minerals— Coal-fields and where found 12 ?' ' it . }-. . • * I- CHAPTER III. Description of a Canoe Trip over Two Thousand Miles in the Interior— Gulf of Saint Lawrence — Island of Orleans— Falls if; m h«nf xliv CONTE^'TS. J liii ' ' ■ PAGE. of Montmorcnci — Quebec — Plains of Abraham — Montreal — Running the Eapids — Kingston — Toronto — Hamilton — Fearful Railway Catastrophe at Desjardin Bridge — Mighty Falls of Niagara — Exploring behind them — The Yankee Captain's perilous adventure in the Maid of the Mist Steamer — The celebrated Long Point Wild Rice Marshes — Lake Huron 23 CHAPTER IV. Fauna of the Dominion — Bears — Wolves— Deer — Beavers — The'r Habits — Mode of Building their Lodges and Dams- Musk -rts— Porcupine— Ground-Hogs, or "Wood Chunks" Ilare*; foxes — Squirrels — Racoon — Ornithology of the Dominion —Varieties of Snakes — Rattlesnakes — Description tf twr kept "''.-"I by the Author— Insect Life in the Forest . 47 CHAPTER V. Climate of Canada, its Charms — Squaw Winter — Indian Sum- mer—" Fall " Weather— New Year's Day Visiting — Sleigh driving and its Enjoyments — Snow, a boon to the Farmer- Skating Rinks — Sanitary aspect of Canada — Low Mortality from Consumption — Native Canadians, a very hardy race — Spring and its harbingers 61 CHAPTER VI. Pleasures for the Sportsman — Deer-Hunting — Wild-Fowl Shooting in the Long Point Marshes — " Coon " Hunting — " Still Hunting " for Bears—" Bar " Story— Panthers— Ad- venture in the Forest— Fishing in Canada— Lower Canadians — Salmon Fishing — Fish Spearing at night on the Lakes- Fishing through holes in the Ice— The sudden break up of Ice on the Lake— A Run for Life— Air-holes in the Ice, and the dangers attending them — Practical Hints for Sportsmen— ' Measurement of the various Lakes 69 CONTENTS. xlv SECTION 11. CHAPTER I. PAQi:. The Settler in Canada— Essential points in a good Settler — Emigration of Domestic Servants — Training institution at Niagara — The Marriage noose — Persons who are unfitted f-^r Emigration — Those who are most likely to succeed — Pros- pects for the Capitalist — How the Emigrant is to reach Canada — The way in which the Agricultor should begin his new life in theColony— His prospects of success — Rapidity of Vegctatlun — Beauties of the opening Spring^Canadian Nightingales — The means to be adopted by the more experienced Settler for bettering himelf — The purchase of the Lot — How to set about it— Government Grants, better disposed of than for- merly — The proper spirit in which the Settler should seek advice and assistance 'jO 3 «'e m < ! CHAPTER n. Life in the Backwoods — Building the Forest Shanty — A "Logging Bee" — Felling Trees — Clearing the Land — Burning the Brush — Peculiarity of the Canadian Axes — Cost of clearing — Manufacture of Potash in the Forest — Cultivating the newly cleared Lot — Snake Fences — In- vigorating effects of the Snow on the young Wheat— Happi- ness of Independence — The Settler's gradual advance to prosperity — Duties of the Settler's "Wife — Blessing of Boys and their precocity — Early Marriage of the Daughters — Philosophical views of Marriage in England— Prospects of the Man of small means — Improvement in his social position — Poverty no disgrace — Prospectus of the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works for Ontario — Rapid progress of the Colony— Loyalty of the Colonists .... u 100 i L i r m ■ li ll. ' ii- l'\ 1 V i !i I xlvi COliTENTS. CHAPTER III. PAGE. Useful Information for the Emigrant — Various Occupations which he vnll be called upon to leai-n in the Bush — First year's Expenditure on the clearing for Man and Wife — Their first year's Equipment— Colonial Taxation and Revenue — Metallic and Paper Currency — Postal and Telegraphic arrange- ments — Rapid transit of a Telegram from Ontario to London —Laws — Her Majesty's Commissioners' Report, giving the number and class of Labourers of which the Colony stands in immediate requii'ement — Comparison between Wages given in the United States and in Canada — Wages for different classes of Mechanics, Farm and Domestic Servants throughout the . Dominion — Prices of Provisions — Darcy McGce's Ten Rea- sons why persons should Emigrate to Canada . . .127 CHAPTER IV. Conditions upon which free Grants of Land are obtained — Where situated — How to reach them — Crown Lands' Agents' Addresses — The Canada Company — The Canadian Land and Emigration Company — The inducements offered by them to Emigrants — Employments in the Bush during the Winter Months for Men and Teams, with good Wages — Assistance given by Guardians of Parishes under the directions of the Poor Law Board to persons chargeable on the Union — A brief notice of Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence — Prospects there for a few adventurous Sportsmen and Emi- grants .... 142 CHAPTER V. Division of Counties into " Concessions" and " Side" Roads — Statute-labour — Corduroy, Plank, and Gravel Roads, and how constructed — Unpleasant Recollections of these Corduroy Roads— Forcgt "Bees" — Forest honey — Bee-hunting— Night attack upon a "Bee-tree" and its reward — Bears and Honey 149 I4f CONTENTS. xlvii •>■ CHAPTER VI. PAGE. Proper Season for Emigration— Addresses of Emigration OflSces in London — List of Railroad Towns in the Dominion, and Fares to them from London — Inducements lield out in the different Sections of the Country — Comparisons drawn between the prosperity of Ontario and the United States — Salt Works —Petroleum Springs — Trade in the Oil—Ottawa: its Beauties —Parliament Buildings — Work in the Ottawa Valley for the Emigrant — Wooden Railroads in Quebec — Distance from home 160 "it ^ f! St I . ■ i\ CHAPTER VII. Military Organization of the Dominion — Unsuccessful attempt of the Yankee Fenians to invade Canadian Territory — Pluck of the Canadians fully appreciated by their brethren in the " Old Country" — Proposal of Lord Caernarvon's to return them a vote of Thanks — Why the Lords rejected it 171 SECTION III. Copies of Letters received from Emigrants to the Dominion, all speaking in the highest terms of the reception they have met with, and the success attending them in their new sphere of labour 177 1. APPENDIX. Summary of Rules connected with Patents in Canada and the United States — Railroad Fares in the Dominion — Public Companies and their Addresses — Great International Route — Prospectus issued by the Montreal Ocean Steam Ship Com- pany (Allan Line)— Statements of Exports during the year 1868 189 ; 1 1' n 'A'tt . TT if xlviii CONTENTS. CHIPS" FOR THE BACKWOODSMAN. PAQE. How to make a simple Weather-glass — How to treat Snake- bites—How to check Htemorrhago from a cut Wound — Tonic properties of the Wild Cherry-tree Bark — The Wich-Hazel useful in cases of Varicose Veins — A Specific for Ague— The Wild Scavish Root a cure for some cases of Dropsy — Slippery Elm bark in Bronchial affections— Cherry Whiskey — Dandelion Coffee — Applications to Mosquito Bites— How to obtain "Coon" Oil — " Shoe Packs," how made — How to prepare Soap 200 ? id It I GUIDE BOOK TO THE CANADIAN DOMINION. S E C T I O N I. CHAPTER I. General Remarks — Reason for so many Emigrants going to Ame- rica — Canadians after 1872 will no longer be dependent on the Americans during the Winter Months for admission into their own Country— My arrival at Portland in the Spring of 1857, and Journey through the State of Maine — Exhilarating Eflc'cts o£ the frosty Air. Many books and paraplilets have been written and circulated descriptive of tlioso great and rapidly developing British possessions in the Western Ile- misphere, comprising one-half of the North American Continent. Some of these publications have bee« written to amuse stay-at-home readers, more than to edify by genuine, disinterested and reliuvjlo infor- mation the earnest seeker after some knowledge of that poor man's country, which is within ten days' journey of his native land. Others have been written by persons peculiarly interested in the colony. Many >» • i (.' HI ' i . i] i\ GUIDE BOOK TO i 1 rill books, moreover, have been written by travellers who profess to have taken but a cursory view of the country which they describe. If the author's visits had been made agreeable to him by a combii ' n of pleasing circumstances, why then his publication was all in favour of going there, and so " vice versa.'* A very slight infusion of the amaro with the dolco would suffice to throw over his descriptions an unattractive cast. I am determined that the picture I am about to draw shall neither be over tinted nor too sombre in its colouring, nor my description of that pleasant land too enthusiastic, but a simple statement r*" facts without fancies, tho truth, the whole tri and nothing but the truth. It is most distressing to all of us to see so much poverty in this wealthy kingdom, and more so to fmd that year after year our r61e of paupers lengthens. As the system of emigration has been carried on of late years I can see no hope before us of our shoulders beiug relieved from this great national burden. The poor, who up to the present time have emigrated from our shores, have been bui: as little droppings escaped from the vast pestilential stagnants of pent up poverty. And until this important matter is made a national one, of w^hich I am glad to say there is now at least every prospect, I see but little chance THE CANADIAN DOMINION. O of tliiit wliolosomo drainage, by wliicli alone our over- crowded popidatiou can be effectually relieved. It is the land of Canada that requires cultivating. The Canadians don't expect emigrants to bring out much money with them, what they stand in need of is bono and muscle j industrious men with stalwart limbs, never caring how ignorant they are, or how little they know of husbandry ; they will soon train them to do tho work required. The clearing and Bottling of theso mighty wastes of forest must be done by emigrants assisting eadi other. And for this purpose the tailor is as good as tho cobbler, tho able-bodied pauper as the skilled artisan, the unedu- cated as well as the taught. • The question frequently asked is, Why do so many emigrants go to America ? Simply because the enterprising Yankees have 5000 paid agents scattered through the length and breadth of our land, who are always ready to push the canso of emigra- tion, and whose interest it is to put inquirers into the right way of getting to the far west of America. We have had up to the present time comparatively speaking few agents, and until lately the subject of emigration has not occupied the attention of tho public as it ought to have done, but now our eyes are open to the necessity of finding employment for our country people w^ho " have no work to do.'' ml' m GUIDE BOOK TO Those wbo have gone to the great Republic from the British Isles, and those who have crossed over the frontier from Canada are by no means reconciled to American Institutions, and are especially at this time greatly discontented at the enormous amount of taxation laid upon them by the Government at Washington ; that Republic having at this moment a national debt contracted during one short Presi- dency of four years — not far short of ours in Eng- land — a debt which they hope to pay off by taxation in twenty years. They make their great inter-oceanic railroads an inducement to emigrants to settle in their vast western territories ; but for my own part I prefer keeping within the pale of the laws of England, a preference which I find corroborated in a leading daily paper, which says as follows in a critique upon Elihu Burritt's book {alias the "Learned Black- smith I'O"^ • ' . "^ ' " Wc arc sorry to see the name of Elihu Burritt to the titlc-pngo of the little volume before us. Wasldngton^s Words to Intendimj Einiijrants arc a mere peg upon "which to hang the apiiciulix, which constitutes the main body of the book. This appendix professes to be a fair examination and statement of the advantages and capabili- ties which each of the states of North America offers to emigrants. Now, we must warn English working men against believing all the fiowciy statements contained in this httle manual, and of telling them that the statements of nineteen out of every twenty English THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 5 travellers who visit the United States, as to the condition of tho people, and as to the advantages to emigrants, are very strongly op- posed to the delightful prospect held ojit by Mr. Burritt. We do not mean to say that people may not go on well in the United States, or that the accounts of tho products, &c., given are incorrect; what wo do say is, that the picture is an unfairly coloured one, and that the very many disadvantages are not alluded to, that the accounts of tho climate, &c., of the different localities are very much too favourable. The only thing to be said is, that the book can do no harm. The advantages offered by each of the states are so extraordinary and tempting, that the intending emigrant would, like the donkey be- tween the bundles of hay, die at a good old age before he could mnko up his mind which would be the most desirabl* locality. Tho book, in fact, is a puff, and an exceedingly broad one, of the United States, and we think that the prospectus of '• The International Land and Labour Agency, Birmingham," printed upon the last page of the book, shows how it came to be written. The Agency has already on its list upwards of a thousand farms from Maine to California, and will furnish a list of those in any state, together with other informa- tion, for the sum of £l., in order that an intending emigrant may buy his farm before he starts. We should strongly advise the in- tending emigrant to do nothing of the sort. To purchase a famx without seeing it would be the worst and most foolish form of buying a pig in a poke which could '^e well imagined. Let the emigrant read Mr. Burritt's book if he chooses for the figures and statistics of produce of each state, but let him also read it by the side of other and more impartial authorities, and if he does finally make up his mind to select the United States in preference to our own colonics, let him keep his money in his pocket until he arrives there, and can there see in the newspapers the lists of the farms on sale, and can inspect them before making his purchase. Transatlcmtic Sketches are a good corrective to Elihu Burritt's flat- tering picture. Mr. Chester's pictures of i.n6 " States," both as regards education, morals, and the state of tho working class, are dismal la n f ^ {■ ;h-^- f 6 GUIDE BOOK TO the extreme. The miserable shanties, the plains of mud, the absence of roads, the want of means of instruction, all seem strange after tlie glowing pictures of Mr. Burritt." I am glad to say that Canadians, Nova Scotians, (or Blue Noses as they are calledj and New Bruna- wickers have at last awoke to their own interests, and have formed their three provinces into one huge Confederacy, and are now busy construe' ' g a rail- road from east to west, through Nova ocotia and New Brunswick, to connect the main line in Canada. This is to be called the Inter-colonial Railroad, and is being built by the Canadian Government. I have authority for stating that the whole line will in all probability be completed by July 1872. The Ca- nadians will then have an unbroken line of connec- tion between the provinces forming the great Cana- dian Confederacy. Its total length will be 488J miles, and it will connect with the Grand Trunk at Riviere du Loup. It will run parallel with the St. Lawrence as far as the Matapediac road ; it will then traverse the counties of Rimonski and Bonaventura, and will enter New Brunswick, which it will leave for its terminus Halifax, Nova Scotia, thus affording at all times of the year to the provinces of Quebec and all parts of the dominion free access to the Atlantic. Now the colony of Canada is inaccessible for nil THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 7 ships during the winter months, owing to the frost king effectually blockading her seaboard with ice. During the long months of winter, whilst this blockade lasts, we have no means whatever of reach- ing the colony, except by passing through American territory, and as troops are not permitted by the laws of nations to march through the country of another power without its permission, why we have no means left to us of throwing forces into Canada to assist our fellow-countrymen, except by marching them over three or four hundred miles of snow. Many of our readers must remember what disastrous results nearly befel her Majesty^s troops when they were sent out to the assistance of the colonists against the Fenians, and how our ships were nearly caught by the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and how the regiments had to be conveyed by sleighs for hundreds of miles over the snow through the almost impenetrable forests of New Brunswick to Quebec. This will be effectually remedied when the Inter- colonial Railway is completed. Now that the country is being opened out by railroads, etc., I know of no better field for the in- dustrious emigrant, and this not only on account of its nearness to the old country, but I think its climate, and the occupations engaged in by the colonists are more thoroughly adapted to the English- •i;:i I'' n I 8 ! Il \' ' ,1- ■- :i i i. i 1 1 atJIDE BOOK TO man than those of any other country. I lay great stress upon that qualification industry. No idle man is of any use in the colony ; he may exist in the old country, where there are so many uninquiring wealthy people ready to assist him when he is too lazy to keep himself, but in Canada idleness and existence are incompatible. There a man must put his shoulder to the wheel, if he wishes to keep body and soul together. I was much struck, upon returning to England after some years* absence, on perceiving how a spirit of dependence had crept over her poor, and how it was leading them to throng her charitable institu- tions in order to obtain that assistance which ought to be obtainable only by those actually incapable of helping themselves. I could not but wonder how these people could be content to live on the earnings of others, when there are such glorious fields for making an independence for themselves in a colony so near at hand. How difierent do these dependent individuals become when thrown upon their own resources in Canada. Perhaps they are at first inclined to go too much the other way, and to become a little self- opinionated, as indeed many of us Englishmen are, but they soon find this won't do, and a short expe- rience teaches them that it is better to throw off LX ''^U THE CAXADIAN DOMINION. their John Bullism, and submit like wise men to the advice and opinions of the more practical and shrewder colonists around them, who they will find at all times ready to assist them by every means in their power, whenever their help is called for in a proper spirit. It was in February, 1857, when the Crimean war had terminated, and the British army of occu- pation had been disbanded, that I, with another officer, who had served like myself with her Majesty's forces in the Peninsula, turned our backs upon our mother country, and followed the sun across the Atlantic to try our fortunes in the West. It was a cold reception we met with upon our arrival off the coast of America, for the country looked like a huge wedding cako^ snow and ice encased it from north to south. The ice-encrusted bows of our ship the " North American,^' gave her the appearance of an iceberg, and so enveloped were our anchors in ice, that the men had to work with pickaxes before they could inake them run clear, but this, I must inform my readers, was an exceptionally severe season. We arrived at Portland, the great American winter harbour for English ships, 300 miles from Montreal, and situated in the State of Maine, from thence we took our tickets per cars on the Grand Trunk Railway for Montreal. The great Victoria J m A 10 GUIDE BOOK TO Bridge was not built then, so we had to cross in sleighs over the frozen St. Lawrence, at this point two miles wide. The cold did not strike us as being BO very intense, and I shall not forget our astonish- ment upon looking at the thermometer (as we were standing shortly after our arrival out of doors, with- out our great coats, and indeed without our hats on) to find the mercury several degrees below zero ; how- ever, the secret was soon discovered, we had left behind us the damps of England, and were now luxuriating in a dry air, without a stir in it to chill the body, and a bright clear sun overhead, which rarely disappeared behind gloomy clouds. So ex- hilarating was the air we breathed, our spirits felt buoyant to a degree we had never experienced before, and we felt already capable of any amount of physical exercise, in fact, our spirits were like cham- pagne when the cork has blown from the bottle, they completely effervesced. The heavy atmosphere of England no longer weighed them down. I wish my readers fully to understand that it is the north- eastern part of the United States I am describing. The climate, as I will shew further on, of Upper Canada or Ontario is very different, being much less severe. I chose this for my route as it was the nearest one to Canada during the winter months. Most people going to the Dominion of Canada, select the spring THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 11 or summer months, and go direct to Quebec or Mon- treal by steamer. The country through which the American portion of the Grand Trunk Railway passes^ is wild, but in some places very picturesque, for miles nothing is met with but pine trees, until the eye wearies with them. Suddenly we dash out of the forest, and find ourselves whirling along in a storm of fine snow, hurled up into the air by the wind from our car- riages and engine wheels, under a ridge of precipi- tous mountains ; now flying over a spider-like bridge, which rattles like a snake, as if to warn us of its in- security. We look down from the car windows and see a frozen torrent deep below, and we remark upon the apparent danger, but are met with a smile of pity at our English fears from the reckless Yankee we are simple enough to address, or else the reply, " I guess you Britishers have not woke up yet,'' meaning we are behind the age. But however we arrive safely at the frontier, and are delighted to find we are surrounded by so much that is English in the new country, * • a '1 1 i 1* : :f f •f i 12 GUIDE BOOK TO ■\ ; CHAPTER n. Geographical extent of British North America— The various Colonics comprising it — How the Hudson's Bay Company originated— Purchase of their Territories by the Canadians — The Dominion of Canada — Population— Government — Educational System — Faci- lities of Internal Communication — Pacific Railroad— Timber Trade — Number of hands employed in it — Agricultural Produc- tions—Minerals—Coal Fields, and where found. Few people are aware of the geograpLical extent of the British possessions in North America, and of the fact that England possesses as much territory on that great continent as the Americans do them- selves. Our maps inform us that British North America stretches from Newfoundland, in 52° longi- tude, to Vancouver's Island, in 130° longitudo^ showing a length of over 3000 miles, and from north to south a breadth of nearly 1500 miles. This enormous stretch of country is divided into the following colonies, all dependent upon the British crown, and peopled by loyal and devoted British subjects :— Ontario, which covers an area of 121,260 sq. miles. Quebec „ 210,020 New Brunswick „ 27,105 Nova Scotia .. 18,660 )i j» »» Giving a total area for the Dominion of ... 377,045 i3 i> tlii THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 18 Then we have^ Newfoundland, covering an area of 40,200 sq. miles. Prince Edward's Island „ 2,100 British Columbia „ 220,000 This includes Vancouver's Is- land, which is 20,000 miles in extent. Labrador, Hudson's Bay, and North- West Territory . . . 2,750,000 „ i> Giving a total area for British America . , . 3,389,345 By an arrangement lately entered into by Lord Granville on behalf of the British and Canadian Governments, the Hudson Bay Territory has been ceded to Canada for the consideration of £300,000, and 45,160 acres of land in one of their richest vallies through which the Atlantic and Pacific rail- way will pass. This negotiation gave rise to a good deal of discontent amongst the half-breed settlers in the Red Eiver country, which resulted in a most serious opposition to their new possessors. This, however, soon terminated, and peace was restored upon a proper explanation having been made, and certain liberties granted them. For 200 years the powerful Hudson's Bay Company had its sway over this enormous territory. They received their charter :! ,. ♦ II t - \ u GUIDE BOOK TO from Charles II. Prince Kuperfc, his cousin, first organised an expedition to this, at that time, un- known country. Canada was a French colony at that early period, and remained so for a hundred years afterwards. In the meantime the active inter- prising Frenchmen penetrated into the interior, prosecuted a fur trade of their own, and formed a second great company, called the North West Com- pany ; this gave rise to a perpetual warfare between the French and English, who were jealous of one another's success. In 1821, however, an amalga- mation took place between them, and since then a most lucrative trade in furs has been carried on with England. These internecine wars, together with those carried on against the Americans, drew from the pens of Cooper, and other sensational novelists, such exciting tales as " Nick-of-the-Woods," the " Scalp Hunters,'' " The Prairie-lily," " The War-path," and others, which used to, and I suppose still, keep boys awake at night in a delirium of excitement. The Dominion of Canada contains a population of 4,000,000 people, or about 10 to the square mile. It is governed by a representative of her Majesty, and a Parliament, consisting of a Legislative Council and a Honse of Commons. In the former, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, are rcpre- LMiiiii^' THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 1 le. sented by 24 members each, who must bo over 30 years of age, and have a property qualification amounting to £800; they are appointed by tho Crown for life. The Lower House is composed of 181 members elected by tho people from each province. Ontario returns 82, Quebec 65, Nova Scotia 19, and New Brunswick 15. Each province has a local government, presided over by a Lieu- tenant-Governor appointed by the Governor in Council. Each elector must have a small property- qualification, namely, of the assessed value of £00, or an annual rental of £6. Only in New Brunswick do the elections take place by ballot, in the other provinces they are open. The local government of Ontario consists of a Lieutenant-Governor and 82 members, who form the legislative assembly; of Quebec, of a Lieutenant-Governor, a nominated legislative council of 24, and a legislative assembly of 65 members. A national system of education extends its advantages over the whole Dominion. Grammar schools have long since been established in all the principal towns, and every township is divided into school sections for the education of tho child re;^ of the poorer classes. These schools in the towns, cities, and villages, are managed by trustees, and luo expenses are met by a rate ; but the common school i scattered throughout the various townships. I" St ! '■'! if ii, i 16 GUIDE BOOK TO aro supported partly by a Goverument grant and partly by a self-imposed taxation. Sometimes the scholars themselves pay fees. Teachers are supplied to these excellent schools from the Provincial Normal School, which sends out annually about ono hundred and fifty young men and women thoroughly well grounded in useful and practical knowledge. Roman Catholic schools are also provided through- out the colony. In the grammar schools the educa- tion is very perfect, the pupils being thoroughly well taught Greek, Latin, French, algebra, Euclid, arithmetic, ancient and modern history, natural philosophy, zoology, chemistry, physiology, draw- ing, book-keeping, music, &c. Colleges, academies, and private schools abound. In Upper Canada there are excellent universities amply provided with most efficient teachers and professors. In Lower Canada or Quebec Province, there are three univer- sities, equally well managed. , The facilities of communication are very nearly per-« feet, those of water consisting of eight canals which comprise nearly 2400 miles of inland navigation. The Great Western and Grand Trunk Railways pass directly through the country, sending of .aches and spur lines in every direction. Passe. There are not, as in some of our other possessions, arid deserts, huge lagoons, or inaccessible moun- tains to check the advance of agricultural operations, and prevent Ihe entire settlement of the colony. Nearly tho whole of tho land is arable, and will, in time, doubtless, all become well populated. In many of the older settlements we still see the fangs of the giants of the forest scattend over the ground ; and so toiigh and rich in turpentine are these old pine- THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 19 stumps that fifty years have not served to rot them out of memory. It is this yellow pine which is so valuable for timber, running up as it does without a knot or branch for over 120 feet, with a butt of seven feet in diameter. These will sell in New York for $800 or £160, and in England for £200. The chestnuts, hemlocks, whitewood, and other trees attain a greater size, but their wood is comparatively valueless. It is in the fall of the year that these huge trees are felled, and a fine time the lumbermen have of it. They encamp in the forest, and in a short time will have felled trees enough to give them plenty of occupation for the whole winter in hauling them to the creeks, and rolling them down the banks ready to be carried by the floods of Spring into the Lakes where they are rafted. Space will not permit me to describe the pleasant life these careless j(jlly fellows lead in the woods ; nor how they float their timber down the creeks flooded into torrents by the thaws of April ; nor how thousands of logs form what is called a " jam" in the river; and how the active little lower Canadian raftsmen spring from log to log like squirrels, utterly regardless of life and limb, and with poles in their hands dislodge the imprisoned wood; — suffice it to say that it is a very free and easy life which they lead, and one full of excitement and adventure ; a very different one, as their physical % ii H ii n 1 ■ B ll : J - i • N I;:! 20 GUIDE BOOK TO powers clearly testify, to that led by their fellow men in our over-crowded districts in England. Upon looking over some Colonial statistics, I find that 25,000 men are employed in the Canadian forests as lumbermen, and 2000 in its mills ; while 1200 vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 1,200,000 tons are engaged in the lumber trade, worked by 15,000 men. Saw-mills, both steam and water, are plentiful, and lumber being very cheap, we find, as a consequence, wooden houses, wooden roads — those forest luxuries which are made as even as the floor of a room — wooden ''side-walks," bams, stables; in fact every- thing is made out of wood which it is possible to construct from that material ; indeed a Yankee firm, more ''cute" than honest, once sent a cargo of wooden hams and nutmegs to Canada ! the first few which came to hand were of course genuine, the rest of the cargo were most excellent imitations. Wheat is the next great source of wealth, and then come the various other grains. A great deal of barley and buckwheat is exported, and a useful grain the latter is. I only hope my readers may have the pleasure some day of eating " Buckwheat cakes," and cakes made from Indian corn, which is grown there in large quantities. This same corn makes a most delicious vegetable when boiled, and is eaten with salt, pepper, and butter. What is called THE CANADIAN DOMINION. " popped corn" is now to be seen for sale about London. • ' " Valuable minerals are found extensively scattered through Canada. Coal mines are worked in some parts of our American possessions. I will quoto what M. Simonin remarks in his very interestiog work upon Mines and Mining, respecting these coal- fields. He says : — " Let us end our course by way " of North America. There are coal-fields thero " extending to the Pole, in Greenland, and in Baffin's " Bay; but it has been ascertained by a recent exami- " nation of the country, conducted by Mr. Alexander " Murray, of tho Geological Survey of Canada, " that the coal-field of Greenland is of much less " Gxtent than was previously supposed, and it is " besides covered by ice. * * On the coast of tho " Atlantic we notice first the extensive and pro- *' ductive coal-field of British North America, at *' Cape Breton, at the eastern extremity of Nova " Scotia, and in tho southern provinces of the Gulf " of St. Lawrence." Copper mines are in process of working in tho Huron and Lake Superior districts. I have been told there are the remains of workings here several hundred years old. Iron of the best quality is found in large quanti- ties in what ia termed the Laurentian formation. k ,so huge is the gulf of St. Lawrence at this its easterly part. It is near this extremity of New- foundland where the Atlantic cable terminates at Port aux Basques. As we steam into the gulf wo perceive on our port-bow Prince Edward's Island j.r ; 1 ,. K i f it H 24 GUIDE BOOK TO sirngly ensconced in a large bay formed by Cape Breton Island on the east, New Brunswick on the west, and Nova Scotia on the south. Right ahead of us are several small islands constituting the Magdalen group, and a very treacherous rock, called the Bird Rock. Prince Edward's Island, separated from the main land by only one mile, is over 2100 square miles in extent, and is chiefly celebrated for its tim- ber. We continue our course, and right ahead of us in mid gulf we pass an island which is dignified by the title of "Anticosti ;" it contains about 100,000 acres of land, and is well supplied with game ; we steam 300 miles up the gulf and pass the Saquenay, a noble river navigable for 70 miles of its course. Higher up we come to the Riviere du Loup, the summer retreat of the Lower Canadians. We are now getting into smoother water, and can enjoy with greater pleasure the glorious prospect before us. We are approaching the lovely island of Orleans, studded over with pretty clusters of snow-white houses; its rich and luxuriant gardens teeming with melons, peaches, pears, and other luscious fruits, and more especially noted for its delicious plums of every variety. We have chosen the sum- mer-time for our expedition, and the cloudless sun is shining in the exquisitely blue sky above us; the water around partakes of the rich colouring, and the THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 25 Rurrouncling coast-line is standing out briglit and clear against it. Far away upon our starboard bow wo observe a fleecy cloud hanging in mid air over one spot on the distant shore; — this is the spray from the lofty Falls of Montmorenci, about eight miles from Quebec, a deservedly favourite resort for ex- cursionists from that city, especially in the winter time, when the huge "ice-cone," a hundred feet high, has formed in front of the cataract by the constant freezing of spray. From its lofty summit the experienced " Toboggoner " will hurl himself down, lying flat upon his " Toboggon,'' which is a kind of hand sleigh, rusliing down the polished sur- face of the cone with such force as will carry him hundreds of yards along the plain of ice below. It is, in fact, skating on the chest down an almost perpendicular hill of ice. Passing Montmorenci, the next feature in the land- scape is the lofty promontory upon which stands the noble old city of Quebec, a name derived from the two French words " Que-beo " (what a beak !) . It is crowned by its strong citadel, from which issued the French under Montcalm, in 1759, to try and hurl back Wolf and his redcoats from the scarp of the precipice which they had so nobly scaled ; but the old Wolf was not to be shaken off so easily. Before that eventful day had terminated he and his brave •i| 4 I m \\\ n D « ■ ' M 26 GUIDE BOOK TO soldiers had won the heights, beaten the French in a desperate fight upon the plains of Abraham, and the gallant general had closed his eyes in death amidst the glorious shouts of " They run, they run." ITie monument we see above on the heights reminds us of what British pluck did for us on that ever- memorable day. The whole scenery around us is beautiful in the extreme : I can compare it to none other than the lovely shores of the Sea of Marmora, where the Bosphorus leaves it; the sky above is Italian in its purity, and the great expanse of water around is as calm, clear, and blue, as the Bay of Naples. We must steam ahead after this burst of rapture, and, leaving the famous old city and its fortifications behind us, will steer our course up the St. Lawrence till we come to the Island of Montreal, 180 miles above Quebec. It is here where the broad waters of the " Otawa,'' or grand river of the north, join those of the St. Lawrence, reddening its otherwise clear stream. Upon this island stands the beautiful and prosperous city of Montreal. It is well worth going ashore to see its cathedrals and many fine churches, and to take a drive round the mountain, from the summit of which we shall obtain an excellent view of the town and the St. Lawrence river. We are still in the Lower or French Province, nearly 600 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 27 miles from the ocean. We will now leave our steam- vessel, although the inland navigation will permit of our going the whole distance in almost any sized steamer, and henceforth "paddle our own canoe'* up the mighty river, and the chain of great inland lakes. As we are leaving Montreal the first object of our admiration is the great Tubular or Victoria Bridge, thrown over the river like a gigantic gun-barrel two miles in length. Through this the trains of the Grand Trunk Railway are shot over into American territory not many miles from the opposite bank. This line extends down to Portland in the State of Maine, the great winter harbour for ships from English ports. Passing under this magnificent work of art we ply our paddle up stream. As wo ascend the river we find the current is already becoming very strong : we are in fact getting within the influence of the Lachine Rapids, nine miles above Montreal, op" posite a village of the same name. As we near the Rapids we find the stream too strong for the efforts of our frail skiff; we will therefore paddle ashore, and enter the Lachine Canal, built purposely to permit of ships circumventing the Rapids, having arrived at the other end of which we emerge upon the water of the St. Lawrence, pausing only to ad- mire the beautiful scenery of the river. The waters i *i •:> ': ^i I 1 T 28 GUIDE BOOK TO 'lli come dasLing headlong down upon rocks and tiny islands with such fury as effectually to bar tho up- ward passage of vessels. It is not however so for- midable to ships going down stream. " To shoot the rapids*' is one of the most exciting pleasures in Canadian travel. We will imagine ourselves on board one of the strongly-built steam vessels about to make the descent. We have already signalled to our pilot at an Indian village on the south shore, called Caughawaga, and while he is boarding us we will just take a careful inspection of him. His name is Baptiste, and a fine type he is of the " red skins." For nearly a quarter of a century has this brave old fellow steered the passenger boats down these terrific rapids and never lost a spar. No one but this Indian has ever piloted a steam vessel down the Lachine. He is about sixty years of age, but his eye is as keen, and his grasp of the wheel is as firm as it was when he first engaged in his hazardous undertaking. As he takes his position at the helm, he appears as composed as he did in old times, when he used to squat in his wigwam smoking his calumet of peaoe. Not so, however, the inexperienced passenger, who expresses by his looks his sense of the approaching danger. The steamboat is now within the full in- fluence of the rapids, which at this part of the river is increased a hundred-fold by the proximity of the rocks on either side, THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 29 We feel as though we were rushing down hill j ahead of as is a small island, upon which it appears we must inevitably be lost. Our bows are almost upon it; and it requires an immensity of faith in our Indian pilot to believe that certain death is not before us. We glance hurriedly round and are instantly reassured when we see the calm eagle eye of Baptiste fixed unflinchingly upon the dangerous obstruction ; one moment more and the trusty wheel flies round, and our ship nobly answering to it brings her head round and dashes at railroad speed down the very centre of the boisterous channel, and we all once more breathe freely. Let us now, however, return to our old course, and continue our voyage up stream. The scenery on both sides of us is very picturesque. We are able for the next 120 miles to keep to our canoe, until we come to the next series of rapids, namely, the Long Sault. We must here make a " Portage," as the French Canadians term it, and convey our canoe along the shore until we arrive at smoother water higher up near the town of Prescott, These rapids are nine miles in length. Captain Maxwell of the " Gildersleeve" was, I believe, the bold man who first steered a ship down them ; since then this desperately exciting passage has been run by steam ships and rafts. It may give the reader some idea !'< ^ ■V.- i 'i II' 1 ii;t '-til ii n 1 m 30 GUIDE BOOK TO ''\ '■ I i of what the Long Sault Rapids are, and of the impe- tuosity with which they pursue their downward course, when I mention that vessels take a wliolo day to ascend them, and that they run them on the return voyage in fifteen minutes. Once beyond the influence of these rapids our course is clear up stream to Lake Ontario : before however reaching that great inland sea, we must thread our way among the " Thousand Isles," which commence to stud the river, at this part of its course nearly twelve miles broad, opposite the town of Kingston, and which are scattered over its broad bosom for fifty miles of its course downwards : and a complete fairy cruise ifc is. Some of these beautiful little isla,nds are richly clothed with vegetation, wild animals diminutive in size, innocuous in disposition, being their principal denizens. A few deer, foxes, racoons, rabbits, squir- rels, muskrats, minx, partridges, or more correctly speaking wood-grouse, quail, and wild fowl of every variety luxuriate in their solitude. Nearly every kind of fresh-water fish swims in the clear deep water flowing past them. There is such a charm in theser beautiful islands of the St. Lawrence, and the air is so pure and exhilarating, that for the time being you may well imagine that you have landed upon some western Eden. We must however dispel this delusion, and continue our iv'\]) onwards into THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 81 Lake Ontario, not many miles ahead of us. During ou" passage up the river nothing has attracted our attention so much as the huge rafts whicli we have met coming down stream. These rafts arc made up, some with enormous timbers called by the lum- bermen ' square-sticks,' cub in the upper districts of the Province, others with round saw -logs ; these are strongly lashed together with massive chains and thongs made from the bark of the bass-tree. Thoso queer-looking shanties which we saw upon them aro the only shelter the daring raftsmen have during their long and dangerous passage down the chain of lakes and rivers to Montreal and Quebec. It is ». grand sight to witness one of these gigan- tic structures shoot the rapids, and it gives one, per- haps, a new idea of the power of water. We are now fairly in the lake, and*, skirting the shore, the first town of any magnitude we pass is Kingston, situated east of the lovely bay of Quinte, opposite Wolf Island. It is built of blue limestone, is well forti- fied, and contains a fine city-hall, court-house, market buildings, college, hospitals, penitentiary, lunatic asylum, and numerous churches. It was formerly the capital of the Province of Upper Ca- nada. Having spent a short time ashore, we will paddle westwards, and passing consecutively Brock- villu and Port Hope, we find ourselves in the Lon"* ~1\ : 11.1 k 1 ■■ ■ . I ( I- m It ii, ' .32 GUmE BOOK TO Bh: n I Harbour fronting Toronto, or as it was called for- merly Little York. Toronto, the great seat of learn- ing, means in English, " Place of Meeting ;" this name was given it by the Massasauga Indians. It is a most flourishing city, and, to my mind, one f the pleasantest in Canada. Not long ago it was the political capital; but now that tlie new and magnifi- cent Houses of Parliament have been built at Otawa, the seat of Government has been removed to that new and thriving town, situated on the line of division between Upper and Lower Canada. We will come to an anchor here, and go ashore to in- spect the lions of the town, which are well worthy the time we shall devote to seeing them. Its cathe- drals, colleges, and churches are very fine, and we shall be sure of meeting plenty of agreeable people ; while those of us who are sportsmen can take a turn up the " Don," and may-be shoot a few wild-fowl. Forty miles further up the lake we come to Hamil- ton, a very beautiful town containing over 50,000 inhabitants. It is built round Burlington Bay. Backing up the town is a long ridge of elevated land dignified by the title of the Mountain. Issuing from the cast end of the town we see the Toronto and Hamilton Railroad. The beautiful bridge high up above is the Desjardins, spanning the canal of the same name. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 33 On the 12th of March, 1857, the day, as it hap- pened, upon which I iSrst landed in the colony, this bridge was the scene of a frightful accident. A great meeting of directors and other nabobs of the country, headed by Zimmerman the railway king, had assembled in Hamilton. This bridge was inad- vertently left open, and, as the express train bearing them all to the city came up, the guard saw the danger. Too late to ward it off, he sprang to tho ground and escaped ; but the engine, dragging its human freight after it, sprang headlong down the abyss, falling through the ice tv/o feet thick below, smashing it like thin glass. Eighty-two dead bodies were found amongst the debris, some borned and others drowned, but the greater part crushed to death. ; . . . ^ j it .■;.;. • . i This is a very picturesque part of the lake shore scenery ; and when the clear \A\ie waters of the bay are covered with pleasure boats, sailing vessels, steamboats, and row boats, the scene is animated in the extreme. Let us now, however, bid farewell to the '' ambitious little city," as it is called, and cross over this the western exliumitv of the lake, to Niagara . !ver, passing on the right the town of St. Catherine. ' We find a very old town at its raoutli, bearing the name of the river which gives to tho world r [ If n wm ;■ i :| 1 1 \'i i l» I ^i^ 34 GUIDE BOOK TO one of ita greatest wonders, namely, Niagara Falls. We cannot ascend higher than Queenston, so we will stop at that town and look about us. Crowning the heights above stands the monument erected to the memory of the great General Brock, who fell whilst driving the Americans over the pre- cipice at the battle of Queenston Heights. We must make a portage here, and convey our canoes over a few miles of country till we reach the Welland Canal, cut to enable ships to pass from Lake Ontario into Lake Erie above the Falls. We must pass through any number of locks till we find ourselves almost at the summit of a long ridge of high ground : there Is not much to look at, so we will go forward till we reach the village of Welland, at the east end of Lake Erie. We will here moor our canoes in a place of safety, and, having spent a few hours in this little lake town, will prepare ourselves for a week at least of real enjoyment at the Falls. To get there we must foot it across to Fort Erie, a tiny village on Canadian soil, exactly opposite the town of Buffalo, and separated from it by the river Niagara as it flows out of Lake Erie. This river is really the St. Lav,Tence, only bearing a different name. The rail- way carriages of the Buffalo and Lake Erie Railroad are conveyed across on board a huge ferry-boat. So we will take advantage of the delay, and spend a short 113 jre it Il- iad Iso )rt THE CANADUN DOMINION. 35 time in this beautiful city. We find its broad streets laid out with aFenues of trees^ forming a pleasant shade. There is much to look at, but we have not time to stop ; so we will board one of the steamers off the town and go down stream to Chippewa, a picturesque village twenty miles below Buffalo, and two and a half above the Falls. We dare not go lower down by water, as we are already nearing the great rapids, and can hear distinctly the roar of the mighty cataract ; so we will land at Chippewa. And now, leaving behind us steamship, boats, and canoes, we will skirt the edge of the river and follow it onwards to its fall. Downward it rushes, foaming and splashing, and roaring and dashing, like a thou- sand Lodores rolled into one, over rocks and between little islands which lie in its bed, forming the cele- brated rapids of the Niagara river. The scenery on the Canadian side is very picturesque, though on the opposite side it is low and flat. The mad river seems to get madder and more furious as if in anti- cipation of the fate in store for it ahead. We follow on fascinated by the grandeur of the sight before us, and now arrive almost at the Falls themselves. Wo now observe the waters to be less turbulent, as if preparing for the final plunge. Looking a little fur- tftier on we notice a very long, smooth, rounded edge ; —this is the top of the Horseshoe Fall, separated , ': .j^^it- ^ ■■'• ; li :i: I p GUIDE BOOK TO from the American Fall by Goat Island and Three Sisters. The water has ceased its fury and appears to glide placidly into the gorge below. On the other side the Fall has a straight edge. This is called the American Cataract. Upon the margin of the Falls Btands Terrapin Tcyer. High above hangs a gauzy cloud of fine spray. Had we looked carefully in this direction when wo were at Toronto, upon the other side of the Lake, we might have observed this fleecy cloud high in mid-air. It is the perpetually rising mis* from the seething cauldron below, that in winter freezes upon every object in the neighbourhood of the Falls, giving them a beautiful crystallised ap- pearance. Every twig upon the surrounding trees and shrubs becomes thickly encrusted with white glistening ice, The bridges and rocks are one mass of it, giving *^^he scenery an appearance of fairy-land. The whole aspect inspires one with awe, and it is some time before you cau rouse yourself to look more closely into the individual beauties of the sight before you. • You will hear some people express their first im- pressions of Kiagara as exquisite, fine, splendid, gorgeous, and even as pretty, but such adjectives arc simply foolish, applied to such a work of nature as that wnic now engrosses our whole souls. The thundering noise produced by a million gallons of vyatey falling down a precipice 170 feet in height ii ! M r^ THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 37 is heard for miles around, making tlie very earth itself vibrate, and all the windows of the houses in the neighbourhood shake and rattle; but no one must be so dull and prosaic as to grumble at being kept awake by the thunder of Niagara. One never wearies of the Falls. I have been to see them several times, and have explored them above, below, behind, and under, and I yet feel as if I had not seen enough of them. I visited them once during the severe weather of 1857. It was certainly a glorious sight to see the bright sun sparkling upon the millions of crystals, and lighting up the great caverns, making them appear as if hung with endless numbers of unearthly diamondtj. We dress up in waterproof clothes, and with a guide descend the rocky steps, now fallen away, till we arrive at the foot of the Falls. We then crawl carefully over the blocks of ice and slippery rocks behind the great curtain of water, till we iiud ourselves standing upon a narrow ledge directly under and behind the falling torrent. No one, who has not experienced the sensations produced, can form the least idea of them. It is twilight, the only light being that transmitted by the green curtain of water in front of you. You are almost deafened by the terrific roar, the spray half suffocates you, the roof over your head is water, the green wall before you is the same. If your nerves are not steady you are I m i Ih f 'i' 33 GUIDE BOOK TO apt to get bewildered ; an irresistible desire creeps over you to plunge into the seething cauldron at your feet, but your more experienced and perhaps less imaginative guide signals you away. It must have been a grand sight when the American steamer, the " Caroline,*' went over the Falls, " all standing " in a sheet of flame. I have often heard from the lips of an old friend of mine, Mr. Brock Hall, how the British cut her from her moorings below Buffalo, when laden with munitions of war for the Canadian rebels. Mr. Hall was engaged that night in the daring undertaking. It was a bold idea this of Sir Allan McNab, and it was bravely and successfully carried out under the command of Captain, now Ad- miral Drew, who has published a graphic account of the exploit. Below the Falls the water is quite smooth, and a small ferry boat plies backwards and forwards from the Canadian to the American side of the gorge, close to the foot of the Falls. Deep below the waters must rage and boil horribly, but the surface itself is smooth for two miles down. There they appear to come to the surface again with unabated fury, and roll headlong down under the Gossamer Suspension .3ridge, which spans the ravine about two miles below rthe Falls, till they are abruptly checked by a lofty wall ^of rock which has the effect of turning them upon them- THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 39 selves, forming a terrific whirlpool. They then make their escape down the abyss at right angles to that through which they flowed down, and so roll out into Lake Ontario, fourteen miles below. It was across this deep abyss higher up, near the bridge, that Blondin walked upon his rope carrying a man upon his back. The distance across is 800 feet, the depth 250 feet. Opposite Queenston, seven miles below the Falls, the river Niagara is crossed by a magnificent suspension bridge, 1045 feet in length, supported by ten massive wire cables. A third sus- pension bridge has lately been constructed over the gorge just below the Falls, near the Clifton House Hotel. All these bridges are of the most compli- xjated structure, and are very similar to that which has been thrown across the Avon at Clifton in Eng- land. Owing to the softer strata yielding to the constant action of such an immense body of water, huge ledges of grey sandstone and limestone are left, which keep breaking away, thus causing the Falls gradually to recede southwards. Since I first visited them in 1857, the shape of the great Canadian Fall has ceased to be that of a horse- shoe, and now more resembles the letter V, so acute is the angle formed by the falling away of the rocky ledge, over which the water is precipitated. Table Bock has broken away, and indeed the whole outline ^.WIHB 1 "lii 1 ( ■■'■v^ R ' 1'^ il M>' 1 VI W'^ .1 iv ; III '' ^}f r I! . ; 1, *' Mil .i J 40 GUIDE BOOK TO ^1' i of the Falls is different at tlie present moment to what it was even fifteen years ago. A pretty little steam vessel used to ply up and down between the Suspension Bridge and the Falls, which went by the name of the '* Maid of the Mist." She was built in her tiny harbour. Crowds of excursionists used to avail themselves of the deck of this vessel to gain a view of the Falls, but the little maiden has now disappeared, and as the circum- stances of her escape are so extraordinary, I will give them at length. Never was a more reckless deed done than that consummated by the Yankee skipper of this little craft. Her American owner having got into pecu- niary difficulties offered him £100, and £50 to each of his men, if he would take her into Canadian waters. No sooner was the offer made than it was acted upon. The reckless skipper lashing himself to the wheel, told his engineer, the only volunteer he could find to second him in his wild scheme, to put on full steam, and, with hatches battened down, he turned the bows of the vessel straight down the foaming rapids below, and off she shot like a sea- bird. Those spectators who were fortunate enough to be standing on the Suspension Bridge at the mo- ment describe the sight as being inconceivably excit- ing. Far below, the little " Maid of the Mist" w^s THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 41 seen struggling with the boih'ng waters, which bore her onwards with delirious speed. Several times her smoke-fur.; el was all that could be seen of her as she dashed headlong down the very centre of the stream, where the ridge of water rises to the height of nearly thirty feet. She was carried round the whirlpool, and then, by the impetus given her, was hurled onwards down the gorge till she floated out into Lake Ontario, nearly as " tc"t" as when she left her moorings above the bridge, minus only her funnel. j I have occupied time enough over this part of our cruise, but the grandeur of my subject must be my apology. To give you an idea of what brother Jonathan thinks of Niagara, I must mention a story told of a " Down Easter," when conversing with an Italian upon their respective national wonders. Tlie Italian argued that Vesuvius was the greatest wonder of the world, but the Yankee checked his patriotism very quickly by saying, " FU tell you what it is, stranger; if you bring your Vesuvius here and put it under that 'ere Niagara, I guess he will soon put the fire out." Of course that was con- vincing, so we will henceforth allow that the Falls of Niagara are the greatest wonders of the world, at all events until we hear more of those of Victoria and of Demt^'ara. Once more we find ourselves in our canoes^ anci rJ ^'"1 '^i' ■''n b * >\ 42 GUIDE BOOK TO skirting the shores of Lake Erie, nearly eleven hundred miles from the sea, paddle round the many beautiful bays which indent the shores, noticing as we cruise along many little villages, but few towns of any note ; and, passing the mouth of the grand river of the West, arrive at the pretty little bay east of Port Dover, on the shores of which I formed my first impressions of Canada in 1857. Before settling down in the beautiful and pros- perous county of our colonial Norfolk to the more serious duties of my profession, I thought to rub off the effect of my arduous work in the pestilential hospitals of Scutari and the Crimea by a long holiday in the forest. It was a wild life, but a very enjoyable one ; and I have much pleasure in recommending it to anyone who wishes to drive away dull care and enjoy sport. And now we come to the celebrated " Long Point," which encloses the great wild rice marshes swarming with water-fowl, but I shall speak more of this anon. We notice as we pass along a tall and handsome lighthouse situated upon its ex- treme easterly point. It recalls to my mind many scenes of shipwreck and exposure, destitution and deaths ; none so terrible as on the dreadful night when fifteen stout fellows were frozen to death, when that old hulk, which we see yonder stranded in the bay, came to grief on this wild coast. The bodies of THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 43 the poor fellows were found next day lying about in all directions between the wreck and the lighthouse, cold, stiff, and coffined in ice. The vessel's name was the " Pocahontas." Some years before this a crew more fortunate was saved by the humane occupants of this same lighthouse. The keeper's wife, a second Grace Darling, rushed into the break- ing waves, and single-handed saved several poor fellows one after the other, dragging their exhausted bodies safe ashore. She received for her prowess the thanks of the Colony, a medal from its Govern- ment, and, we may well hope, a place in the King- dom of Heaven for her muscular Christianity. I recollect being lost myself here one night, whilst crossing in a yacht to the mainland in a blinding snow-storm; fortunately we had with us a cele- brated punter, named Bill Hellmer, as daring a fellow as ever paddled a canoe. He volunteered to punt me in a skiff which we had on board, in the direction of the land, in order that we might discover our where- abouts, none of us being particularly desirous of being carried over the Falls before the savage gale. The Lake at this point, I must tell my readers, is seventy-five miles wide, rather a big pond to lose ourselves in. Having taken in our canvass, and let go our anchor, we launched our fragile skiff into Egyptian darkness, trusting our lives in the hands of ■ . < M 'i i :J:'i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I m im m .- IIIIIM " llltt = • ilia 12.0 M 2.2 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ■• 6" ► V] <^ /2 '(^1 e3 .1-* . -^.- A. '/ /A Photographic Sciences Corporation 4. ^ .•V s ,v \\ "% .V A' ^? C^ w^ <> X V "%^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 A L.fl i'\: 1 *a II 50 GUIDE BOOK TO ' IP I flllii ■I frozen, and into them the various lodges com- municate, so that the inhabitants can run from one parlour to another, and have a quiet gossip without appearing above ground at all. When dinner-time arrives the gentleman of the house dives to the store-room of logs, all kept in readiness, and having stripped the bark oflf the one selected, allows the now useless log to float down stream and serves up the bark for dinner to the establishment. As among men, so amongst beavers we find some who will not work, preferring to live upon the earnings of others ; the beavers however turn their lazy comrades out of the community, and they soon fall victims to the trapper. Near the root of the tail the beaver has two small glands secreting a very powerful odoriferous fluid called Castor. This some of my readers may have seen in chemists' shops, or may have had it applied to their noses when feeling hysterical. A trap baited with this strong smelling antispasmodic will be sure to catch a beaver, especially should he or she be a nervous subject. This clever little architect is only 3^ feet in length; its colour is a light chestnut, the tail is about a foot long and quite flat. There is no better model to place before the newly-arrived emigrant than the industrious beaver. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 51 U ij The musk-rat is a very large edition of our common English rat, being about two feet long. Numbers may be seen in the evening, sporting about in the huge wild rice-marshes and mill-ponds. Their fur is valuable, each skin being worth a shil- ling, and as thousands are killed every year, they are a source of profit to the hunter. The marshes in an evening smell so strongly of musk as to be quite overpowering to those not accustomed to it. During the winter months, as you glide over the smooth ice on your skates, or in your cutter or ice- boat, you perceive high mounds, like haycocks, on all sides of you ; these are musk-rat houses, com- posed of rushes piled up several feet high, having com- partments in the centre, where the inmates lie snug and warm during the bitter cold weather. Beneath they communicate with the water, so that when disturbed the rats easily escape. Included in the family of rodents, we find the porcupine, ground-hog or wood-chunck, hares — or as some term them rabbits, being a cross between the two ; black, grey, red, and flying squirrels ; the pretty little ground-squirrel, or hackee, the smallest and most beautiful of the squirrel family. Of all the " stinking little varmints " which com- prise the offensive family of weasels, none can M ! f:l:! ml I! m 52 GUIDE BOOK TO Vio with the skunk in the fetid character of their odour. So utterly noisome and so penetrating is the fluid which they squirt from their secreting glands, that it is hardly possible to expunge it from any article with which it has come into contact. Un- trained dogs which have incautiously approached them in the hunt and received the discharge, will howl with distress, and sometimes have been known to isolate themselves for weeks from the society of man and beast. This beautiful but liaise little crea- ture, is about the size of a cat, with shorter legs. It is covered with fine thick black fur, with a dash of pure white running the whole lengh of its back. The tail is long and bushy, of a creamy white colour. Its habits are anything but active, and it is a regular night forager, '^making night hideous" with its stench. The most beautiful and engaging little animal in our Canadian forests is the racoon, or ringtailed coon ; it bears some of the ursine characteristics, but only zoologists would recognize in this graceful little creature any of the uncouth and bearish man- ners of its big brother Bruin. It is a most amusing and sociable creature when tamed. Its fur adds to the beauty of some of our London equipages in the L_ THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 53 form of rugs. I will hereafter describe how it is hunted by the settlers. The foxes of Canada are very valuable ; we find every variety, from the jet black fellow, whose skin fetches fifteen pounds or more, to the grey fox. Every hair of the black fox is tipped with white, which gives him a silvery look as he gallops in the sun. The red ones are very common ; they are larger and of a lighter colour than ours in England, with very thick fur and heavy brushes. Hunters shoot them whenever they come across them. I shall not, however, forget the feeling of shame I experienced after shooting one of these sacred ani- mals for the first time ; but in Canada it ceases to be a crime, as there is no regular fox-hunting, ex- cept near the larger towns. Wolves are still met with in parts of uncivilized Canada, and very destructive they are to the settler's flocks of sheep. A savage animal when hungry and loose, any man with an ordinary amount of nerve can tackle him when taken in a pitfall. Tho old settlers used to dig deep holes covered over thinly with bushes, placing a live sheep on a plat- . form in the centre. I suppose it was after these pits we named the holes which our soldiers used to dig in front of our camps in the Crimea, for the enemy to stumble into on dark nights when making sorties* :! Wi ''■ * ' i i ' t Ih ^'i:^^ % > -i i ■ !-| 54 GUIDE BOOK TO i Tho French called them, " Trous de Loup," which our fellows Anglicised into " Tooraloos/' Of birds the Dominion of Canada can boast of a goodly number of species. In the order, " Eap- tores," or birds of prey, we find all kinds, from the lAagnificent baldheaded eagle to the pretty little Sparrow-hawk. No country is richer in its variety of wild-fowl. Song-birds, I am sorry to say, are few in variety, but those which do sing have the most exquisitely beautiful notes. At their head is the rufus-thrush. It chooses for itself the highest tree, from the summit of which it pours forth tha most rapturous music. What however the birds lose in song they gain in colour. The scarlet tan- ninger, or warrior bird, the golden or orchard oriole, the blue-birds, canaries, and humming-birds, are lovely in the extreme. "Woodpeckers we find in very great variety, from the huge ivory-headed cock of the woods to the little speckled fellow we see popping in and out of the timber by the roadside, insect hunting ; but I must not dilate further upon the ornithology of the colony, though a most inter- esting subject, and one, I think, enjoyed by all of us who have the opportunities of wandering in the sylvan shades. I will now make short mention of the reptiles of Canada, which to a naturalist give a wide field for THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 55 i:; research. If it were not for an instinctive prejudice we all inherit against the snake, I am sure we could not but admire these lithe and graceful creatures. The most formidable is the rattlesnake, with its deadly fangs crouched down in its jaws ready to fly up the moment the animal opens its mouth to seize the prey, and horny joints at the end of its tail, which number the years of ita age, and are rattled at the advance of a foe. Tt is most providential that these deadly snakes should be provided with such excellent danger e'^nals, and tnat they should have the goodness always \ > spring their rattles before they make their attack. I brought home in my caniage one day a couple of these venomous reptiles, which I kepc ali ve for seven months in a cage in my room. In a little while I became so familiar with their habits that I got on very good terms with them, although I took good care that my familiarity was not of that kind which breeds contempt, for I never put my hand into their cage without keeping a very suspicious and sharp look out upon the deadly coils in the comer. When asleep or lazy they lie coiled with their rattles in the centre, and their triangular heads resting on one of the outside coils, as bull dogs when asleep rest their muzzles upon their fore paws, all ready for action the instant they are disturbed. The snake ii n. ,'-?.- 1"^' '•;■!£; GUIDE BOOK TO i p ■ '& when irritated springs his rattle, which sounds like dry peas shaking in their pod, and at the same time erects his head, curving his neck backwards ; should the enemy advance any nearer, without further notice, and with the rapidity of lightning, he strikes downwards, and with such force as to drive his long fangs through the skull of a rat. As his jaw opens, the fangs, which work upon a hinge, stand erect ; and when they penetrate the object struck, the small muscle attached to the fang is put upon .the stretch, and passing over the sac or bag con- taining the deadly poison at the base of the tooth, squeezes out, as it tightens, a tiny drop of the poison fluid into the hollow fang, which conveys it down into the bottom of the wound through a pin-hole near its point. During the seven months I had these pets in my possession they never ate one morsel of food. Frogs and a mouse which I kept in confinement with them, maintained with them the most amicable relations. I must question, however, if the popular belief be a correct one, that they can exist without food a year and longer. Had they lived over the seven months, I should certainly have hired a nurse to watch their appe- tites. It was the cold carried them off prema- turely. You can soon detect the venomous from the harmless snake, the former having a broad tri- Hi THE CANADIAN DOMINION. ®)f angular shaped head, and a thick blunt tail ; whilst the innocuous snake has a long thin head, and a tail tapering and elongated, and is much more rapid and graceful in its movements. Perhaps, however, all my readers have not the self-possession of the great Cuvier, and would not care to stop and inspect a reptile " glittering and basking in the sunny ray,'' when they have heels to " shun the danger near." There is a great variety of snakes in the colony, many of them very beautiful in colour. There is the milk-snake, marked with alternate rings of white and black ; and the grass-snake, of a lovely green colour, hardly larger than a whip lash. Then there are the garter, and bead-snake, the black snake, the puff-adder, and many others. The most com- mon, however, is the black water-snake, of which numbers are to be seen sunning themselves on the edges of the ponds and marshes. So still do they lie that you are apt to mistake them for pieces of Btick. I well remember the disgust of my late part- ner in Canada, who, when creeping through some bushes one day, by way of a short cut to a patient's house, caught hold of what he thought was the stem of a sapling to help himself along. It gave a convul- sive wriggle in his grasp, and to his horror he found he had seized upon a huge black snake suspended from the branch above him. These snakes I have ij 58 GUIDE BOOK TO now mentioned are all harmless, I am glad to say, or our woods would be anything but agreeable to the rambler. Nature in Canada is all alive during the summer months with insect life. The cedar-swamps in the evening are made brilliant by the dancing of myriads of fire-flies through the still calm air, their fitful flashes almost dazzling the eye of the traveller as he rides along. The light is emitted from a little light- coloured spot on either side of the fly's body. But- terflies of every hue and variety charm the sight, and creeping insects of ten thousand varieties abound, as the sportsman soon finds out ; but the insect with which the emigrant to Canada will become most familiar is the weevil. When the wheat is in the milk, this noxious little fly creeps beneath the hull of the grain and deposits its egg, which in the course of a little while is hatched, and the insect begins to feed upon the young and soft kernel ; so when the farmer comes to thrash out what appeared to be a splendid crop of wheat, he finds to his dis- gust more than half empty hulls, and upon closely examining the residue, he will find amongst it thousands of minute orange-coloured grubs. The army-worm is another pest to the farmer, but it for- tunately does not make its appearance very often. When it does invade the country it comes in myriads, THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 69 blackening the earth, and devouring every particle of vegetable matter before it. • • Grasshoppers are also very plentiful, but not so much so, or so destructive as they appear to bo in America, from a story I once heard. A farmer told a friend, that one of his fields of tobacco had been BO entirely devoured by grasshoppers, that when he went to it next day, the gorged insects sat upon the fence round the field and spurted tobacco-juice at him. Space will not permit of my enlarging further upon the natural history of this pleasant land, in- teresting as the subject may be. I must refer those who desire to become better acquainted with its animal life to the works of Audubon, the king of American naturalists, who devoted a life-time, beset with hardships and privation, and varied by many adventures, to the practical study of the subject which immortalizes his name. No country in the northern hemisphere is richer in beasts, birds, fishes, and insects, than the great continent of America. The summer sun of Canada has too benign an influence upon the insect world, as the settler knows to his cost, as also does the intrepid sportsman or entomologist who ventures unprotected, while "the insect tribe is on the wing," during the months of July, August, and m^ . < - , 60 GUIDE BOOK TO September, into her forest retreats; for he will have to run the gauntlet of deer flies, black flies, the ubi- quitous mosquito, and many other tormenting ephe- meral pests, whose chief pleasure in their brief life appears to be to give pain to the lords of the crea- tion and the beasts of the forest. It is not for man to solve that puzzle of creation which has con- stituted men and animals to victimise one another, but the quaint old lines are painfully correct which say — - ' i / ' ''Big fleas have little fleaa ^ Upon their backs to bite *ein, And those again have lesser fleas, And so ad injmitum.** i i t: THE CANADIAN DOMINION. CHAPTER V. Climate of Canada — Its charms — Squaw winter— Indian summer— "Fall" weather — New Year's Day visiting — Sleigh driving, and its enjoyments — Snow, a boon to the farmer — Skating rinks— Sanitary! aspect of Canada — Low mortality from consumption^ Native Canadians a very hardy race — The spring season and itg harbingers. Many of my readers will shrug their shoulders upon perceiving the heading of this chapter, as they picture to themselves blue noses and frozen ears; but I know full well that, before they have concluded it, the faithful picture which I shall draw of the Canadian winter will have eradicated from their minds all their preconceived notions of the intensity of its cold, and of the horrors attendant thereon. They will find that the rigour of the climate, instead of forcing people to hybernate like bears and snakes, is the season of all others in which the settlers, both old and young, of both sexes, and of all classes, most enjoy themselves. In Canada the animal spirits rise and fall in an inverse ratio to the mer- cury ; whereas in the damp, foggy, depressing winters of England, the ratio is mostly direct ; their i 1,4 : ' ;-'i ..ii 62 GUIDE BOOK TO i ' I Mi' capacity for enjoyment seeming to sink with the thermometer, and vice versa, ' ■- The true winter season of Canada is generally ushered in by what is termed " squaw-winter/' which lasts for about a fortnight, and much resem- bles an English one. It makes its descent upon the country during the month of October. After this cold " snap '' has passed away, the Canadians can generally reckon upon a few weeks of most delicious weather, termed the Indian summer. The sun looks blood-red; there is a misty haze throughout the whole atmosphere, while a feeling of languor steals over man and beast, and everything on the face ©nature seems to be in a state of repose. It is the calm before the storm ; when this delightful season has come to a close we may then expect the first rush of winter. I have heard many opinions mooted re- garding the cause of this ever-recurring atmospheric phenomenon, one being so far fetched as to attribute the Indian summer, with the hazy sky, to the burn- ing prairies, hundreds of miles away ; but, be that as it may, it is a charming dolce far niente kind of weather, and most enjoyable while it lasts. Snow and heavy rains in alternation now set in, and the whole country for a short time looks uninviting in the extreme. There is a saying in the colony, which generally speaking comes true. V4 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. that winter will not in earnest set iu till tlie ditches be full. And so it goes on raining and blowing, freezing and thawing, till all the ditches and ponds, lakes, rivers and swamps are filled to overflowing; after this the rains cease, the waters slightly abate, winter descends, and with its icy fetters imprisons the whole land. The plea- sure of sleighing usually does not however com- mence in real earnest in Canada West till the day before Christmas, or New Year's day. This is just what is required, for the colonists have a pleasant custom of devoting the first, often the second, and even the third days of the New Year to calling upon every one with whom they have even a bowing acquaintance, and so beginning the year upon good terms. In the small as well as the large towns of Canada, the society is very " good," being composed in great measure of aristocratic families from the old country who migrated in years long gone by, and who have either entered into business there, or are living in comparative comfort upon means too small to have allowed them to maintain their position at home. On the 1st of January in each year, almost every gentleman who owns a cutter, or small sleigh, brings it out from its summer quarters, and furnishing it with buffalo robes and eilver bells^ sets out to pay Mi! t \ I i ■ ill ^m 64 GUIDE BOOK TO J f his respects to the gentler sex. The bright sun ma- terially adds to their enjoyment. The air is clear and most exhilarating, the sky of a velvety hue, and the ground beneath purely white : even the horses appear to enjoy the fun, as they fly before the light cutters of their Jehus, with their belts of silver bells chim- ing musically in the frosty air. In order that my readers may understand how the horses travel along the roads when the snow has fallen to a great depth, I must explain that as it falls, the constant traffic over it packs it down hard, so that in a few days it becomes like ice, and the sleighs glide over it with- out the smallest obstacle to impede their progress. I have trotted my horses for hours, without urging them by whip or voice ; and they would come home at night almost as fresh as when they left their stable. The nights are as beautiful, with the moon for their queenly mistress, as the days are with the sun for their royal master. The midnight sky is of a deep blue, brilliant with stars which appear to stand out in high relief in the firmament. As long as the air remains quite still, the cold is not so very severe in its effects upon travellers j but, should a light breeze disturb it, let him draw his capote over nose and ears, for they will most certainly freeze if not protected. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. This is not, however, so CDmmoii an occurrence as people at home imagine. The great winter amuse- ments of Canada are, " par excellence" sleigh driv- ing, skating, and " Tobogoning ;" lakes, and rivers all become so many high roads. Often when night comes on and the moon is at its full, making tho night almost as bright as the day, sleighing parties are formed, and away go the happy pleasure seekers snugly wrapped in buffalo robes and bear skins. With sleigh bells ringing merrily through tho still night air, they spin along over the slippery ground for twelve or fifteen miles, till they arrive, perhaps a dozen sleigh-loads strong, at the appointed rendez- vous, generally the house of a friend, where dancing and other indoor amusements while away the earlier hours of the night. Snow is a great boon to the farmer as well as to the tourist and the sportsman. It covers up his wheat warm through the long cold winter, and he thinks no more about it till the thaws of spring melfc the snow, and the crops shoot up as if by magic, green and healthy. The colonists, however, com- plain that they do not now enjoy the good old- fashioned winters with their four months of snow, after which spring used to burst upon them with marvellous beauty in April, forcing all the long hid- don treasures of the earth into fresh existence, and 5| 66 GUIDE BOOK TO suddenly metamorpliosing the country from its winter aspect of snow into one of rich and luxuriant vegeta- tion. NoW; the Canadian winters are too often broken into by sudden thaws, by which the crops are materially injured. Skating is a very great source of amusement to both the ladies and gentlemen. Circular buildings are erected in every town of any importance, over artificial ponds — these are called Skating Kinks — and when well lit up with gas and filled with skaters of both sexes, the lady portion tastefully dressed in bright and appropriate costumes, the scene is really very gay and animating. They frequently skate to music, and many '^ charming" balls and carnivals are held upon the ice. Those who have been to the Crystal Palace, and seen the American skaters per- form upon the ice there can form an idea of the per- fection to which this very graceful science is brought by ladies and gentlemen in the west. The country is very healthy in spite of the great extremes of temperature, and where the forests are being cleared off and quinine brought into general use, fevers and ague are fast disappearing. Canada is without doubt an exceptionally healthy country. I do not hesitate to make this statement after an experience of seven years in the colony, en- gaged in an extensive medical practice, The most THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 67 common complaint among the settlers, is simple func- tional derangement of the digestive organs, mainly attributable to the habit of eating in too great a hurry, and occupying themselves with severe manual labour immediately after meals. Canadians, as a rule, live very well. Meat, vegetables, puddings, tarts, dried fruits, plenty of cheese, milk, eggs, and butter being supplied ad libitum at all their meals. The percentage of death from pulmonary consumption is far lower than in England. In the Lake Superior country it is almost unknown. As a race the Ca- nucks are fine, tall, handsome, powerful men, well built, active, tough as pine-knot, and " bearded like pards.'' The good food upon which they have been brought up, appears to develop them to the fullest proportions of the " genus homo." - - - That the air is very dry is proved by the roofs of the houses remaining bright so long. In Lower Canada the weather is much more severe, and the winters begin earlier ; the change in both Provinces from one season to the other is very rapid. In January, in Ontario or Upper Canada, there is a three days thaw, and if much snow has fallen pre- viously, the floods are terrific, and often do great damage, bursting through dams and carrying away bridges with their impetuous rush. After this, the conntry becomes once more ico and snow-boupcL 1:1- -I uikiii 68 GUIDE BOOK TO Westerly winds prevail in the spring with plenty of warm rain. The pretty little song-sparrow has already warned us of a more genial season j the frogs take up the song ; all the animal world is alive agoin, and the busy season has begun in earnest. W-Jl THE CANADIAN DOMINION. (39 cv CHAPTER VI. m Pleasures for tlic Sportsman— Deer Hunting — Wild fowl shooting in the Long Point Marshes — "Coon"Hunting— " Stilo" Hunting for Bears — *' Bur" Story — Panthers — Adventures in the Forest — Fisliing in Canada — Lower Canadians— Salmon Fishing— Fish Sjicaring at night on the Lake — Fishing through holes in the ice —The sudden break up of ice on the Lake— A run for life — Air Holes in the ice, and the danger attending them — Practical hiuti> for Sportsmen — Measurement of the various Lakes. The true sportsman will find mucli to amuse him in the wilder part of the great Dominion. Deer hunt- ing is I think the most exciting for the lover of really wild sport ; he may hunt them with hounds, which arc thrown off at a likely spot for a find whilst the sportsmen station themselves perhaps some miles away at what are termed deer-crossings, and where the hunted animals are sure to give them the chance of a shot. But, in my opinion, the most legitimate sport is still hunting, one that is generally adopted by the real sportsman. As the morning dawns, the hunter enters the forest with his rifle, and having started the deer from his " form '' in the deep snow, where he has been spending the night, he follows him by hia track perseveringly, hour "i^. :?:t 70 GUIDE BOOK TO !' ! after hour, until an opportunity occurs for his getting a shot at him. This may not happen until the deer begins to get hungry towards evening and stops to browse upon the buds and tender twigs on either Bide of him ; a true sportsman howcA'-er will stick to his quarry, till either it has fallen by his rifle, or till darkness puts an end to his fatiguing tramp. There is more excitement attending this kind of sport than my meagre description might lead one to believe, for the expectation of the deer suddenly presenting itself over on eminence or from behind a fallen tree at any moment serves to keep up the excitement of the pursuer. Other means are resorted to for killing deer, such as driving them into the lakes and shooting them from canoes or punts ; dropping down the stream at night with blazing torches in the bows of your boat, and shooting the poor deer whilst half dazzled by the glare in the water ; they stand quite still, having fled thither for refuge from the mosquitoes. This is a cowardly way of deer hunting, and one which we may leave to the less scrupulous Indians and pot-hunters. In my opinion wild-fowl shooting is a sport which is most relished by Englishmen. There is a fascina- tion in it wiiich seems completely to enslave the whole senses of the sportsman. In Lake Erie there is a long sandy ridge which runs out from the main- laud near Port Boyal to a distance of 30 miles in a . ll|j '*-»~- THE fANADIAN DOMINION. 71 diagonal direction to the shore. This ridge is about a quarter to half a mile in width in some places and densely wooded, and is the celebrated Long Point. I called my reader's attention to it during our canoo trip. Between it and the shore is enclosed a huge bay, on the margin of which are wild rice marshes several hundred thousand acres in extent. These marshes are intersected by deep creeks, concealed by the tall reeds which grow on either side. In these tempting feeding grounds accumulate countless numbers of ducks of every variety, with swans and geese. Here we find mallards and grey-hens, canvass back (the pink of all wild-fowl), red heads, black ducks, the variegated wood or summer duck, blue and green winged teal, butter-balls and widgeon, bitterns of several varieties, herons, coots and moor- hens ; divers innumerable, from the magnificent spotted diver of the north to the little grebe whose white satiny breast adorns the winter costume of our English and Canadian ladies. The very sight of these wild rice-beds teeming with game is enough to turn the head of the oldest sportsman, when, for the first time, he stands upon the blufis commanding the Bay and looks down upon the scene below him, stretching as far as his eye can reach on either side and far away into the distance before him. I know of no sport so exhilarating and ! I I 72 GUIDE BOOK TO enjoyable for those who have the time, health, strength and money to spend upon it. I could devote chapters to a description of the various means which are resorted to by sportsmen upon Long Point to bag their game upon these inexhaustible shooting grounds, and to the wild life led during the few days spent there. I must now pass on to the larger game. Bears are not very common now in settled districts, but when they are met with, and a trail struck, they give excellent sport. If you hunt them alone you r it make up your mind to stick to the track night and day, until the game is brought to bay. They will sometimes keep a hunter for two and even three days in pursuit, and if he is not prepared to sleep in the woods and pick up their trail by sunrise his labour will be all in vain. A great many "bar" stories are told by old hunters, some of which are very apt to choke you in the endeavour to swallow them. I recollect one which nearly had a fatal effect upon myself once, which I must relate as I heard it. An old hunter one day saw a bear's cub sitting in the forked boughs of a tree ; the hunter climbed the tree, and followed Master Bruin down the hollow trunk ; in his eagerness to capture his prize, he never reflected how he Was to climb up again, until he found himself a prisoner at the bottom. He was not how- m V THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 73 ["ound how- ever kept long in suspense, for presently he discerns above him the young gentleman's mamma, who, un- conscious of the presence of the intruder in her parlour, began leisurely to descend into her den ; a happy thought flashed across him, he draws his hunting knife, and when her ladyship comes within reach of him, of course stern first, he suddenly seizes her by her short tail with one hand, and with the other gives her a sharp dig with his knife ; the astonished bear scrambles up again as hard as she can, dragging the quick-witted hunter with her. As soon as he found himself lifted fairly out of his dun- geon, he dropped down outside the tree and sked- addled without a word of thanks to his astonished deliverer. Panther and lynx hunting is capital sport. The latter animal is still common and is hunted with dogs : after a run of a few miles they generally '' tree," leaving the dogs giving full tongue below. When the hunter comes up he drops him with his rifle ^rom his perch into the mouths of the baying pack. The panther or painter is a more formidable animal, but is now rarely met with, except in the un- cleared western forests. They are ugly customers when they catch you ofi* your guard, but so long as they know they are watched will not dare to attack. 11 it' ii GUIDE BOOK TO i ! I but will follow you for days awaiting an opportunity to spring upon you in an unguarded moment. A fire burning at night by your camp will keep them ofi*. Their general mode of catching their prey is by lying full length along the limb of a tree, overhanging a well frequented path in the forest ; and as their colour BO closely resembles the bark of the tree upon which cat-like they crouch, the unsuspecting traveller or deer falls an easy victim to them. An old hunter will tell you he don't mind a painter, but he runs away from a "grizzley" — ^but these old hunters always keep their "eyes skinned," as Jonathan says. I remember a story told once of a man, who when riding late one evening through the woods in a thunder-storm, suddenly felt a blow upon his shoulder and at the same moment his horse bolted with him. At every stride the animal took the blows fell harder and heavier, till the poor fellow was frightened nearly out of his senses. Naturally concluding a panther had sprung upon the horse, and was prepar- ing to make a supper of him, he pictured during those few moments of mental agony a most horrid death, and tried to prepare himself for it ; but he had not been brought up like a good little boy at an English National School, and he knew no prayers, the only remembrance left of his childhood being his grace before meals, "for what he was about to mm THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 75 lU t receive," &c. and this lie kept repeating most earnestly, (like the drowning sailor who consoled himself when his ship was sinking under him by reading from his Prayer Book, several times over, the Thanksgiving for the Churching of women). How- ever, our nervous friend in a little while discovered his fears were groundless, the imaginary panther being only the loose flap of his heavy riding cloak containing a bottle of whiskey, which was punishing him with every gust of wind. These are samples of yams one hears spun round the camp fire, which amuse, perhaps, more than they edify the reader. What is called coon-hunting is excellent fun. The racoons come into the corn or maize fields at night to have their supper. Trained dogs, sent into the standing crop, drive them out, after a •short run which is desperately breakneck work, as they always take to the forest. The coon " trees" like the lynx ; the tree containing them is soon cut down, although generally of very large size, and a tremendous scrimmage takes place between coons, men, and dogs as soon as ever they are brought to ground. Fishing in Canada affords much amusement to the sportsman. In the larger rivers of the Lower Province salmon are found in abundance. I vrrj^a 76 GUIDE BOOK TO informed, some little time ago, by Capt. Holyoake, a gentleman well-known as an indefatigable sports- man and an excellent fisherman, that be and a couple of friends killed ninety salmon dm*ing a short fishing excursion he made to the Saguenay, below Quebec, the largest being 40 lbs. in weight. Fine mascanonghi are found in most of the lakes and rivers of both Provinces, as well as sturgeon. I need hardly remind my readers that the lakes in Canada are all freshwater. Speaking of sturgeon h,nd other fish as freshwater fish, when they are so well known to us at home as belonging to the sea, might perhaps raise a doubt in their minds as to their real nature. The Indians troll for these river- fish with the " spoon bait ;" hanging the line over their great toe, and paddling up stream, while they spin their spoon, with the hooks attached, in the wake of their canoe. They are not the only dark-skins wh(J employ their feet in canoe-fishing. I have seen the natives on the Hooghly, ofi" Calcutta, sculling away with one foot and one hand, while with the other hand they managed their nets : their toes seem to be far more prehensile than the white man's. The very unscientific way in which the latter encases his feet in unyielding splints of leather and iron effectually destroys their contractile qualities, and unfits him for that amount of pedestrian exertion endured by the m ' "I THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 77 Indians with such perfect ease and comfort in their moccasin-covered feet. Pike are found in vast numbers, congregating in the creeks running into the great rice-marshes of the lakes. During the months of April and May, just about the time the ice is breaking up, a single discharge of a gun will tupi up half a dozen of them. I have frequently seen them over three feet long : but I never thought it worth while to waste a charge over them, or to run the risk of frightening up any ducks there might be in the neighbourhood. It is a strange coincidence that you seldom find marks of shot upon the fish your fire has brought to the sur- face. I conclude it is the sudden and violent agita- tion of the water that stuns them pro tern., for if you are not sharp in landing them, many will become resuscitated and struggle out of reach. Spearing fish is capital sport along the lake shores after dark. I recollect standing one afternoon with a patient of mine upon the high shores of Lake Erie, when suddenly my attention was directed to a large dark shoal of broad mullet coming in-shore. It was a lovely day, and the gentle air off the water added to its charms; the lake was as clear as a gold-fish pond, and we could see every fin as dis- tinctly as possible. We hurried ofi" to the fishing punt, which was upon the beach, containing a net ; M^q iiii ii '-si- 78 GUIDE BOOK TO and poled off into the lake, leaving, as usual, one end of the long net attached to the shore ; and made what the Yankees would term a " circum- bendibus," with an arc of about a quarter of a mile, paying out the net as we paddled along. We hauled up our prize, and made the boat end of the net also fast to the shore. We had by these means enclosed a great multitude of jBsh. I then mounted my horse, and started off to complete my round of pro- fessional visits. . " . ■ ■ Darkness having fairly set in, I returned to the lake shore accompanied by a friend, each of us armed with a fish-spear. These spears consist of long barbed steel points fastened to a slender shaft of " hickory," about ten feet in length, very different in construction to the eel-spear, or glaive, used so much in England, to be seen at nearly every water mill in the country. We next searched about in the forest adjoining for some " light wood," by which is meant the knots of the pine tree which are left intact, being saturated with turpentine, and thereby almost imperishable after the tree itself has completely decayed away. We soon collected enough of this very inflammable material, and having well filled an iron crate with it, we firmly planted it in the bows of our punt ; to this we set light and launched out into the part of the lake which our net had 'i:l|l THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 79 enclosed. Our fire burnt brightly in the pitchy night, throwing its rays deep down into the limpid water; one propelled the punt very slowly and noiselessly with the single paddle, while the other stood firmly in the head of the boat ready with tho spear. We soon found our labour had not been in vain, and that we had entrapped in our isolated portion of lake a good haul of mullet. We had to be careful in spearing not to miss our aim, or the pro- babilities were that we should have gone a header overboard, like the poor southerner of whom Russell speaks in his "North- South," who missed his stroke whilst devil-fish spearing inCarolina Bay, and pitched over into the water ; he, unhappy fellow, was seized in the arms of the devil -fish and carried to the bottom of the bay. This is an accident which is very likely to happen to a green hand, especially if he gets over-excited and the bottom of the punt is wet and slippery. We succeeded in an hour's time in spearing twenty-six mullet, weighing from four to six pounds each. The following sketch of fishing in the Thousand Islands in the river St. Lawrence is from the pen of an American : — " The fishermen here have splendid boats, supply " you with all tackle, and act as guides to the fishing " grounds as well as guide you in and out of the i I li : .i'": 80 GUIDE BOOK TO « t( tt " labyrinths of islands that seem hopelessly complex to the stranger. The landlord of the hotel makes a speciality of fixing up nice lunches, and the oarsmen agree, before leaving the hotel, at what '' particular island six or ten miles away the party " will meet at one o'clock. And to this point, '^ loaded with bass, pickerel, and maskallonghi, wo " tend about the appointed hour. The boatmen " are experienced cooks, and soon the lunch is " spread, the coffee boiling, and the odour of frying *' pickerel and broiling bass increases the already '' vigorous appetites. " The style of fishing here is mostly by trolling. " Two poles are set, with lines each 100 feet long. " These you need not handle, except when the fish ^' strikes them. The third line of 125 feet from the " stern, you hold in the hand as you go sailing '' around rocks, cliffs, and through shallow little '^ bays that every few minutes unexpectedly open '^ up to the beholder. I have never had finer fishing '' or more enjoyed the sceniDry than upon the great '' St. Lawrence. I have been accustomed to call " the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; but the St. " Lawrence, ranging from eight to ten miles in '^ width and five to ten times the average depth " of either — neither rising nor falling more than a *' few feet from one year's end to the other, — mrikea *' either of them saccrs in comparison. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 81 iplcx nakca l1 the wliat party point, rbi, wo Datmen inch is f frying already trolling, set long. L the fi»h from the o sailing ow little ,dly open >r fishing |the great id to call the Bt. miles in ^ge depth )re than a .^uvakea " The water is beautifully clear, and at a depth of " ten feet you can see tlio white rocks that mark a " large portion of its bottom. It abounds in fish. " Black bass, pickerel, and maskalonge, which is " thouofht to be of the finest flavour and is most " sought after by the fishermen — perhaps the more " from the idea that they are gamier fish, and aro '' more seldom caught, than others, and require " more careful management after they are hooked '' to save them for your string. The largest fish I " caught was a pickerel, which weighed six and a " half pounds. The bass ranged from one to four " pounds." The pleasantest kind of angling is for the little spotted trout, similar to our English brook-trout, although you have to fish with paste, red worm, and grubs, and not with a fly; a sport which perhaps some of "our Lugg and Arrow '^ fishermen might be loth to recognise. These delicious little luxuries are seen shooting meteor-like about in most of the clear streams which meander through the forests of Canada. Some of these streams, though deep, are so narrow that 'their waters have the effect of silver threads; every here and there they will entirely disappear under ground, their course being only denoted by small holes, at the bottom of which the water is seen bubbling as it flows. If the hook is a I' 82 GUIDE BOOK TO il-l dropped down any of these, baited with a nice clean worm, the angler is sure of a fish. The best basket that two of us ever made was nine dozen ; but the pleasure not only consists in the amusement afforded, but quite as much in the charms of the forest itself; only one thing detracting from the general feeling of satisfaction, and that is the awful stillness of the air around. The ivory-billed woodpecker, or '■ Cock of the Woods," when he begins suddenly to peck away at a tree nearly half a mile distant, makes you start. Larger trout are to be found in the deep, dark, still waters of the ponds in the forests. Some of these ponds are centuries old, and were originally formed by the beavers building their dams across the streams, and thus efl'ectually obstructing their flow. Others are formed by settlers in order to obtain a sufficient supply for the saw and grist mills. It is in the older ponds that the dark coloured trout, weighing as much as 4 or 6 lbs., are to be caught. A minnow or o. live frog are the most tempting baits for these patriarchs of the forest pools ; sweetened paste or a lob-worm will catch them, but the fish caught by the last mentioned bait are smaller. Lucky is the fisherman who happens to be standing on his log when the drops from a thunder cloud begin to fall on the water, for he may be sure of I ! t I I ! m clean asket Lt the )rdecl, itself ; 'eeling CSS of cer, or only to listant, ), dark, 5omo of "iginally 1 across • their obtain It is d trout, caught. 3mpting pools ; em, but ait are ns to be thunder e sure of THE CANADIAN DOMINION. catching a basket of good fish before the rain is over. Suckers, huge round-mouthed fisli, have, I am sorry to say, found their way into some of the ponds and streams, and cause the fishermen many momentary pangs of disappointment. I recollect once seeing half-a-dozon of these useless lubbers swimming about in a shallow part of the stream, and I fired one of my barrels at tlicm; to my astonishment four of them turned up and floated upon the surface, but on none of them could I find the mark of my shot. This bears out tlie remark whicli I made before, that a fisli when shot is not killed by the penetration of the load, but stunned by the concussion. The best sport I ever had on Lake Erie was off tho pier head at Port Dover, in the County of Norfolk. Two of us at the foot of the Lighthouse pulled out fish of all sorts and sizes as fast as we could bait our hooks. Myriads of tiny silvery fish resembling whitebait kept springing out of the water of tho harbour in glistening clouds, evidently pursued by pike and pickerel. They reminded me of miniature flying fish, such long springs did they make through the air. We kept catching them in butterfly nets, and using them as baits. Our baskets consisted of pickerel, green and black bass, fresh-water herring, white fish, and other delicious denizens of tho lake. , ' 84 GUIDE BOOK TO I The white-fish is certainly the king of the fresh- water fish, and >veighs up to 8 lbs. It is caught in gill -nets in large quantities in all the lakes. The white-fish of Lakes Huron and Ontario are the finest, whitest, and fattest. As many as 18,000 have been taken at the latter lake in one haul of the nets, as much as a mile of net being used at a time. The fishermen barrel them down and send them ofi" to the nearest markets. The Indians have a way of spearing the lake fish, by cutting a hole the size of a bushel measure through the ice. This together with them- selves they cover with a blanket, so as to keep out the light of day from the water beneath : they then light a small torch, and spear the fish as they come to the surface to breathe, or to satisfy their curiosity which is excited by the glare of the torch. I remember once being engaged in fishing through the ice for perch and those beautiful little fish called sun-fish, quite a mile from shore, when indications presented them- selves of a sudden break-up of the ice. A gentle breeze sprang up, and I heard distant cracks and loud reports from where it began to yield. I thought it high time to " skedaddle," and, gathering up my tackle, made for shore, half- running, half-sliding, and frequently tumbling. I had barely landed myself safely upon "terra firma" when a huge crack, a mile or two in length, took place along the shore. As I THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 8( drove home tlio wind kept freshening, and I could see from my elevated position on " the lake shore road" the crack widening until it became a chasm. The ice in the lake was now breaking up rapidly, and I heard explosive noises of its splitting and smash- ing in every direction. Before I left the edge of the cliffs I had the satisfaction of seeing the ice upon which I had just before been fishing, and which had covered the lake for the last three or four months, fast disappearing ; and before the following evening it was completely broken, and was floating away by degrees over the Falls of Niagara. Whilst I am upon this subject let me caution the sportsman, or traveller upon the ice, against the " air-holes " which are here and there met with. Horses are sometimes drowned in these traps. When you are spinning along at the ratq of twelve or fifteen miles an hour over the lake in your light cutter or sleigh, your horse or horses are very apt to plunge headlong into them, and will sometimes quite vanish under the opposite shelf of ice. The only way to get them out is to slip your reins round their necks and partly choke them for a minute or so, by doing which you prevent their strug- gling, and render them more buoyant; you must now fasten another horse on to the neck of each and haul him out. Should you be unable to do this, and no help be at hand, your horses will be lost to a dead certainty. ' -r-^ 86 GUIDE BOOK TO I MJ The Fish and Game Clubs of Montreal and Quebec have assisted Parliament in framing laws, which are now strictly carried out, for the preser- vation of game. Deer, fawn, elk, moose, or cariboo, are not allowed to be shot between the first day of January and the first day of September, and at no season of the year are they permitted to be trapped. The season for turkey and ruff-grouse (called very frequently "Spruce Partridge'') is from the 1st of September to the 1st of February ; for quail, or more properly speaking, Canadian partridge, from the 1st of October to the 1st of February; for woodcock, from the 15th of July to the 1st of March ; for wild- swan, geese, duck, widgeon, or teal, from the 1st of August to the 1st of April. The smaller animals, such as beaver, musk, mink, sable, and otter, may be trapped between the 1st of May and 1st of November. Speckled trout may not be caught between the 20th of September and 1st of April. The most serviceable weapon for deer-shooting I consider to be the ordinary double-barrelled fowling- piece. In the first place, it comes most handy to the Englishman's shoulder; and a good strong barrel will drive a round bullet with quite sufficient accuracy for a hundred yards. Should a deer spring up close to you, a snap shot will be more likely to THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 87 tt drop him before lie has run fifty yards, whereas, if the hunter carry his rifle, the deer, while he ia taking aim, will most probably have bounded oflT amongst the trees. Another advantage of double-barrels is that a charge of shot can be carried in one of them ready for a grouse, quail, hare, woodcock, or any other smaller game that may be flushed, such as a racoon, skunk, mink, ground-hog, wild-cat, or — let not my English reader be shocked, for the fox is not the sacred animal hero that he is within sound of a Leicestershire kennel — Reynard himself ! An English rifle, by reason of the large bullet which tho smallest reliable bore carries, is not much in favour with the old deer hunters, who always shoot with a very small grooved rifle, provided with compressed, not moulded, conical bullets, running from sixty to ninety to the pound. Their stocks are brass-bound, and deeply notched to fit the shoulder, hence tho difficulty the inexperienced hand finds in bringing them up with sufficient readiness for a snap shot. An old friend in Norfolk-county told me he had used nothing but the double-barrelled gun which he had brought y^ith him from England twenty-five years before, and had killed scores of deer with that weapon. The regular deer hunter will never use a large bullet, because, in the first place, it injures the ' \-.^Lt'i' •"■t i i lit k i T 88 GUIDE BOOK TO venison ; and, for a second reason, he . tells you a deer will run for miles when struck by it, on account of the large wound permitting the blood to flow freely, till at last he drops from faintness; whereas the small cone penetrates deeply, the minute passage that it makes preventing by its instant closure the flow of blood, which rapidly collects internally, pro- ducing death by its fatal pressure upon the vital organs. The precision of these men in firing is marvellous. One amusement, cruel enough, is to place a turkey in a hole in the ground with its head exposed, and to fire at it from a distance of 300 yards. Their rifles weigh over 20 lbs. in the barrel alone, and are furnished with long ruler-like tele- scopes fixed along the barrels. Two threads are crossed over the crystals at their further end which serve as a most accurate sight. The sportsman had better purchase his fishing tackle at home; but I would advise him not to spend much money upon rods, except he intend "going in for" salmon fishing. . The best rod is that l^hich he can make for himself out of a piece of hickory or ash. He can construct his own punts or skiffs, not with the delicate materials used by the Indians in their birch bark canoes, but out of ordinary lumber. I made a couple out of the lateral roots of the young hemlock with half a dozen 14 ft. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 89 thin pieces of lumber or deal planking. The whole did not cost me more than a few shillings. Canvas stretched over it fore and aft, leaving a place in the stern to sit and paddle in, will make the skiff water- tight, and thus equipped, " By the sedgy stream I steal, And various wildfowl shoot, The widgeon, wild goose, duck, and teal, The water-hen and coot : The plover, too, that haunts the moor. The bittern in the reeds, The curlew on the lone sea shore. The rail that loves the weeds, The sea lark and the dotteril. The ruff, and reeve, and knott, And whimbril with its bending bill, By river sides I ' pot.' ** Much more might be said of the sports in this truly sporting country; but I must bring my remarks upon this very agreeable subject to a close, and pass on to my next chapter of more practical matter. 90 GUIDE BOOK TO i ! M' SECTIOlSr II. CHAPTER I. The Settler in Canada — Essential points in a good Settler— Emigra- tion of Domestic Servants — Traijing Institution at Niagara- town — The marriage noose — Persons who are unfitted for Emi- giT 'on — Those who are most likely to succeed — Prospects for tlifc capitalist — How to get to Canada — The way in which the Agricultor should hegin his new life in the Colony — His pros- pt. "■ oi .ulccss— Rapidity of vegetation — Beauties of the open- ing Spring — Canadian Nightingales — The means to be adopted by the more experienced Settler for bettering himself — The pur- chase of the" Lot"— How to set about it— Government Grants, better disposed of than formerly— The proper spirit in which the new Settler should seek advice and assistance. • My object in the first section of this little publi- cation has been to give those who purpose emigrat- ing to the Dominion a fair knowledge of the country which they are about to adopt as their own. If my readers are dissatisfied with the picture I have drawn of it, which I trust they may have no cause to be, they had better throw the book aside, and save themselves the trouble of reading this its second sec- tion, containing as it does particulars appreciable only by those who have been interested in what has gone THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 01 Imigra- iagara- r Erai- ects for liich the [is pros- le open- adopted :he pur- Grants, lich the before. I have endeavoured to awaken the interest of the general reader by a faithful description of tho Great Dominion in its entirety; of the Tourist, with a sketch of its picturesque scenery ; and of the Sports- man with some account of its venatorial pleasures. I purpose in this section to describe, as far as I am able, what prospects there are for the poorer settlers, both agricultural and mechanical ; and also for our more fortunate countrymen who land in the colony in the enjoyment of a small annuity, and who aro therefore not solely dependent upon the labour of their own hands. , : v In making use of the terra emigrant, let me be understood to mean a person in any class of life who expatriates himself from the country in which he has been born and brought up, in order to try and better himself in a new and more flourishing field for his labours. I use that little verb, try, with great emphasis, because I do not wish to leave the impression upon the reader's mind that Canada, or indeed any colony, is an El Dorado, where a man can go and become rich without great struggles and daily hard work, backed up by a determination to succeed, let the obstacles be what they may. Steady perseverance is the '' sine qua non** of ultimate success in Canada. A man must phoose his line of life, his sphere of .. T 92 GUIDE BOOK TO Mil liill I <€ (( it daily toil, the groove he intends to run in ; and he must stick to it patiently, till success eventually crown his efforts. I have rarely met a case in which honest plodding labour was not ultimately rewarded, provided only the field for it had been well and judiciously chosen; hence the secret of that success which almost invariably attends the Scotch and German emigrants wherever they go. Lord Macaulay, in the first volume of his History of England, alluding to the Scotch, says of them :— In perseverance, self-command, and forethought, they were never surpassed, and their prudence and industry carried all before them." They pre- serve this character to the present day in Canada as elsewhere. No difiiculty has been found in providing em- ployment for the newly-arrived emigrant. One thing, however, let me impress upon the man who goes to Canada ; that is, he must be prepared to turn his hand to anything that presents itself in the shape of work. As I stated some little time ago in one of the daily papers, my impression is, we are sending out too many mechanics, holding out to them prospects of a brilliant career in their own particular calling or trade. In the first place we do not desire to get rid of our good workmen and intelligent artisans ; nor, if they are wise men, will Bv^ai THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 98 they wish to leave a rich country like England, where good workmanship will always command fair wages ; nor ought we to be selfish enough to palm oflf upon the colonists our useless hands merely with the view of reducing our own Poor-rates. As the country opens up, there will be a greater demand for artisans ; but this will not be sudden, and therefore we shall do wrong to overstock the market. Those who go to Canada must go out into the agri- cultural districts, and earn a living for themselves from the unoccupied soil. They who write home dis- couraging reports of the prospects for our emigrants, are the idle fellows who hang about the towns and villages. The following letter, apropos of my sub- ject, appeared in the London Thaes, a short time since : — " Sir,— In The Times of the 12th inst. is a letter from the Rev. Thomas L. Harrisofi, of Canada, on the subject of emigration to Canada. Will you permit me, in reply, to make an extract from a letter received recently by the Canadian Emigration Agent in this city, from one of last year's emigrants ? It so fully meets the case, and is so completely in accordance with fact, that its publication may do good. The letter is dated from Guelph, a flourishing town in the western part of Ontario, on the 25 th of January last, and the >:riter, after some reference to his family, says ; — •• I arrived here last September, and, as you are aware, the season " was too far advanced for brickwork for me to do much good before •* the winter set in. I was fairly besieged with men wanting to engage " me for almost every kind of work. I went with a farmer for two 94 GUIDE BOOK TO " days' harvest work, and am with him now. I have never lost an liour " since 1 have been in Canada. I am going to stay where I am nntil " Easter, then I hope to go to work at my tiade. My present ' boss' •* has to-day offered me $150, with board, lodging, and washing, if ** I will stay with him during this year. Were I not a mechanic, I ** should accept his offer, but I hope to do better through the summer " months, and work with a farmer in the winter until I can get a few " dollars by me ; then, if God spare my life and give me health, I " intend to take a bush farm, and my four boys, I hope, will help me *' clear it, and in a few years I hope to be the owner of a good farm. *' I am much pleased with the prospects of Canada, and I feel certain " that any man, if he will onl}' give his mind to hard work for a time, " and not be particular what he docs, and keep outside cf the taverns, " can in a very few years place himself above the frowns of the world. '* It is no use men coming out here if they are nice about what they do. " It is these fickle-minded emigrants that get such a bad name in this *' country, and they get others a bad name that will work, and they ,*' write home to England and give Canada a bad name, say they are ** starving, and all the rest of it, when it is entirely their own fault. " There are three men wanted now on three farms near me. I saw •* two young men from the East-end of Loudon in Guelph the other " day. They told me they had been out of work two weeks. I " offered to take them out with me; but no, they won't leave the town •* for the countiy, and of course they can nevw expect to prosper. I " think this a good country for a man with a family. Provisions ** are plentiful and cheap." " It is perhaps unnecessary to add one word to this extract; but as your rev. correspondent refers to the periodical visits of emigration agents, and charges them with giving *' only the bright side of the picture, carefully concealing all the darker features," I may add that life in Canada, as in every other part of the world, has its dark as well as its bright side. It is idle for any man to imagine that prosperity awaits him there without effort on his part. The emigrant liiii ;!f TEIE CANADIAN DOMINION. 95 to succeed must work hard — harder, perhaps, than he has been ac- customed to work — iu Canada ; but if willing thus to work, there is no danger of failure. During the coming season, four railways will be in course of construction in Ontario alone, thus affording employ- ment to a very largo number of men. The farmers of the country are most anxious to secure labour, and would readily employ a very large number willing to work in the rural districts, while such me- chanics as shoemakers, tailors, bricklayers, stonemasons, carpenters, &c., can find abundant employment in our towns and cities. The one condition of success, however, is a willingness to accept whatever employment offers to commence with, and to work hard iu perform- ing it. " 1 arrived in London only last night, hence my delay in noticing the letter of your correspondent. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, " Thomas White, Jan., " Special Commissioner of Emigration for the Province of Ontario. ** London, Feb. I9th:' • ^ I am sorry to say that female emigration was at one time checked, owing to a wrong class of domestic servants being sent out. Through the untiring energy of Miss Rye, this evil is in a great measure being remedied, and now a more intelligent and better trained class of servants is being sent to the Colony, who are eagerly sought after by the ladies of the country. A training school ^:vi been instituted at Niagara for the younger classes oi i^iUglish servants, where they are trained to the exigencies of the colo- nial households. But the great difficulty the house- holders have to contend against, is the propensity 96 GUIDE BOOK TO existing among the gallant young farmers of Canada to throw the marriage-noose round the necks of our pretty English servant maids as soon as they make their appearance in the rural districts. There is a certain class of people w ire, I con- sider, totally unfit for a settler's life in the vast forest lands of the Dominion of Canada. At the head of this class I would mention the "old country'' farmer, who has very extravagant ideas upon the culture of the soil, and who has been accustomed to work his farm with agricultural instruments. Unless he throw aside all his high notions I fear his first essay in the backwoods will thoroughly discourage him ; nor are young men who have Ir n brought up as clerks fitted for the rough l upon the clearing, for they would most assuredly break down under it. They had better remain at home, unless they go to the colony to fill a situation already secured for them. I cannot recommend professional men to go out to Canada; there is no room for them. The sons of the old settlers, who are a most intelligent class, have all the opportunities of obtaining a first-rate education, and turn out, many of them, very shrewd and clever men, and naturally enough obtain the support of their country people. Let me warn the disappointed parent against '.I THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 07 sending to Canada the son, who through his dissi- j)ation and extravagant habits has brought discredit upon his family in England, hoping thereby to give him a chance of " sowing his wild oats," and eventually becoming respectable. Never was a more cruel mistake made, nor one attended in most cases with more disastrous consequences. The poor youth feels himself cut adrift from all endearing ticL and influences, which if kindly and wisely excrcisjd might in time have subdued and brought him to a sense of his folly. His hands, more accustomed to dealing cards and handling champagne glasses, are totally unfit to haudl a plough, or cradle a field of wheit ; his ideas do not harmonize in the least with the ruder ones of his practical neighbours ; he soon becomes discouraged, and finally, thoroughly dis- gusted with the life he has been compelled to enter upon, his natural pride forsakes him; he sinks lower and lower in the human scale. We find him at last an outcast from society, living with a few more of his own stamp in some remote settlement, long ago lamented as dead by liis friends in the old country, and where known at all, known as a " loafer " among his more fortunate neighbours. Another class of persons apt to fail at first as emigrants are those self-opinionated people who think no one has a good idea in their heads but thcm- : i' : : i. w r ■i 98 GUIDE BOOK TO selves, and who refuse to be guided by those who are wiser ; their prejudices and self-conceit will soon lead them into trouble and misfortune, and when they have sacrificed their last shilling they begin to see their error, and are better and fitter men to recommence than when they had money in their pockets, and no experience to guide them in the use of it. Many an Englishman when he first goes abroad keeps himself enveloped in a fog of reserve which sadly obscures the natural warmth and frank- ness of his character, and is therefore a long time making friends; by degrees, however, his ideas expand, which they cannot fail to do in a country where everything is on so large a scale ; this chilly fog gradually becomes dissipated, and his latent good qualities develop with genial rapidity, and ho becomes a very good fellow,, possessed of excel- lent common sense. The capitalist can invest his money in Canada to very great advantage and without running any risk ; the system of enregistration being so complete. I have extracted the following from the Quebec govern- ment reports : " With a system of enregistration so complete as ours, it is evident that capitalists who desire to lend their money on the security of real estate, run no risks whatever in doing so. The average interest paid upon first mortgages. 'i .': THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 99 se who ill soon d wlien jegin to men to in their L the use rst goes f reserve id frank- ong time [lis ideas I country ihis chilly is latent iity, and of excel- Janada to any risk ; iplete. I c govern- Tiration so llists who of real lortgages, or preferential loans of this nature, is between six and eight per cent, per annum, and there is very little available capital but what is bespoken in advance by some one who has property to mort- gage. " The Banks of the Province of Quebec, beyond a doubt the safest in Canada, perhaps in America, offer to capitalists great inducements to invest their surplus means. Our banks are eighteen in num- ber, with an average capital of $2,000,000 each. The capital, divided into shares ranging from $40 upwards to $200, is to-day in all of the banks paid np. The operations of the banks resting upon so solid a basis, invariably enable their directors to declare to the shareholders a dividend of eight per cent, per annum, while, at the same time, they offer to the trade of the Province an impetus, and the means of expansion. " Our telegraph, insurance, navigation, gas, and manufacturing companies and building societies are based, as the banks, upon paid up capital stock, and like them also, pay eight per cent, per annum, and sometimes more, to their shareholders. "Bank dividends, and those declared by joint stock companies, are pr^' ^. semi-annually. " The vicissitudes of trade, and fluctuations of the market, leave constantly available to the purchaser i^ilj ■UMB i : I ' 1 i I 100 GUIDE BOOK TO bank and capital stock companies, shares, at com- paratively low premiums in the majority of cases/' The Canadian Dominion is without doubt the land for the jyoor man who is able and willing to cultivate the soil, the man who has strong bones and muscles and plenty of determination to back him up. There was a time when business men goi'^o' out to Canada with money in their pockets did , ary well indeed, and many grew rich and are at this time living in affluence upon beautiful properties, and taking a pro- minent position in the country, but I think the day has passed for fortune making, the competition in every line of life being so great ; in fact there is now no such thing as monopoly in any trade in the colony. Shops in all the towns and villages are as plentiful as private buildings, professional men, as I have said, abound everywhere ; it is day labourers that are lacking, and men with a few pounds in their pockets to settle upon the rich soil of our vast possessions. When the emigrant arrives in Canada he must not be in too great a hurry to purchase land ; he had better by far hire himself out as a labourer to some respectable farmer, and remain with him till he has thoroughly learned practical farming; he will bo earning good wages and will live on the fat of the land. At the pnd of his apprenticeship, what with i i 1 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 101 f ; kt com- ases." the land mltivate musclea . There Canada indeed, iving in agapro- the day tition in ire is now e in the •es are as men, as abourers s in their our vast must not he had to some 11 he has will be ,t of the hat with his saved wages and his few pounds which have been drawing interest all this time in the bank, he will have suflficient capital wherewith to buy a small lot of uncultivated land, and some left in his exchequer to help him over the breakers at starting, and to pi^y for the assistance he may require to clear his land of trees. If he has not the means to pay for clearing, why he must work all the harder him- self to clear a small space for the cultivation of what wheat, potatoes and other vegetables he will require for the use of himself and family, until by steady work he has converted his freehold, acre by acre, into a snug little farm. It costs but five guineas to get from Liverpool to Quebec by the Allan Line, and from London to Liverpool the fare is 17s ; from Quebec to Toronto, a distance of 500 miles it only costs £1. ; so that for £7. an emigrant can get from the unwholesome and overcrowded districts of London to the future sphere of his labour in the bright, clear, and healthy at- mosphere of the West. Having arrived at Toronto, he must at once apply to the Government agent there, who will put him in the way of getting work. He must, however, be sure to stop his ears to the seduc- tions held out to him by those on the look out for fresh arrivals, who will offer him all kinds of gratuitous advice as to where he should go, and what ma I ! 102 GUIDE BOOK TO he should do. The Agent alone is the person from whom to seek advice, and by him only should he be guided in the selection of a place to go to, and of a farmer with whom to obtain employment. The newly arrived settler will of course find everything strange to him, and he will doubtless at first feel very like a fish out of its natural element. The climate, as I have shewn, is different from that to which he has been accustomed, the manner of farming is novel to him, and the country itself is unlike the " old country." The food he eats, and the company he mixes with are new altogether. He may f iel a little down-hearted at first, but his spirits will soon rise as things become more familiar to him, and when he has got bravely over his home sickness, he will become as happy as the day is long. The poor man who all his life long has fared hard upon bread and cheese, with the occasional luxury of a piece of pork to vary the monotony of his daily meal, will be agreeably surprised to find placed before him at his meals in the Canadian farm-house, all he can eat of good meat and potatoes, pickles, puddings, tarts, bread and cheese, &c. One luxury he will sadly miss at first, and that is, his beer, of which very little is drunk in the Colony, the substi- tute for it being a good wholesome whisky, distilled from Indian corn and rye. There is a spruce beer THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 103 now brewed in the country districts which, although far inferior to our English beer, is very pleasant to the palate of the thirsty labourer or hunter. Another change which will come over the English- man's life, is the greater amount of labour which he will be called upon to endure. This is the result of the rapid changes of the seasons. Agricultural work must be done in a given time, else the husband- man will sadly fall behind in his farm culture ; for- tunately the exhilarating nature of the climate admits of far greater physical exertion, and the labourer feels himself capable of enduring greater fatigue than he did in the more humid climate of England. When the thick snows of winter have melted away, and the frozen ground has yielded to the warm influence of thf? 'ipring sunshine, then begins the hard work of the husbandman. Although a great part of the wheat has been sown in the fall of the year previous, still there is a great deal of spring wheat to be put into the ground, besides Indian corn, potatoes, turnip seed, &c. No sooner is seed time over than the hay is ready to be cut, and with a rapidity that astonishes the uninitiated Englishman, the wheat is ready to be harvested immediately hay harvest is over. It appears quite incredible to those who live in this damp chilly climate, that wheat which is sown in May should be ready for cutting early in August, but so it is. 104 GUIDE BOOK TO In the early part of the year the country becomes one huge hotbed, owing to the warm sun of the later spring shedding its invigorating rays (uninter- rupted by passing clouds) day after day, week after week upon the earth, which has been soaked with the nourishing water of the melting snows, and the warm rains which usher in the spring. It is quite impossible for those who have not lived in the Western hemisphere, fully to appreciate rapid growth in the vegetable kingdom during this de- lightful season of the year. All nature seems alive. Spring flowers, such as crocuses, snowdrops, and anemones, as if impatient of tlieir long restraint in subterrene confinement, burst through the yet frozen ground, the former of the three brilliant little flowers giving the first relief to the eye so long wearied with the whiteness of nature. Shortly after this old " Sol," becoming still more northerly in his declination, softens and warms the ground, melts the ice, which has for months past kept the greater part of nature fast bound as if in an iron safe, and sets free every bud. The huge swamps which have so long been frozen over -now become alive with myriads of frogs, making the forest around ring with their melody. Those who have passed near a swamp during the season which I have been describing, will never forget the music 't :'f! THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 105 lecomes L of the minter- ek after ed with and the is quite in the e rapid this de- ns alive, ops, and traint in 3t frozen ) flowers led with bill more irms the [ths past as if in fhe huge rer -now :ing the lose who which ie music given forth by the swarms of frogs which have been hybernating so long in their cosy beds. They aro justly called " Canadian nightingales/' for so clear and beautiful is their whistling in the spring evenings that the stranger cannot but bqlieve himself to be surrounded by numberless wood warblers. An old bull frog, as large as a cheese plate, is the first to lead off with his deep bass voice. In less than a minute thousands of other frogs of different sizes and species will take up the tune, and a deafening chorus echoes through the circumjacent forest. Trees and shrubs now burst into full foliage ; the forest becomes carpeted with anemones, hepaticas, spring beauties, ranunculuses, violets of numberless varieties, from the large dog-tooth to the little purple one nestling among its green leaves, and many other wild flowers of brilliant hue add to the charm of the Canadian forest, quite beyond the comprehension of the dwellers in some of our confined districts of London. A year or two has now elapsed since the settler first landed in the country of his adoption. He will by this time (as the Yankees say) have " cut his eye teeth," or (as the Canucks say) ' know how many blue beans make five.' He will in polite English have gained sufficient experience to permit of his managing a small farm of his own, or to settle upon A.^ kli 106 GUIDE BOOK TO an uncleared lot, and commence making one for himself. If he takes my advice he will purchase only to the extent of his available funds, and not be persuaded to buy a large lot, paying so much down, and giving so much for the balance redeemable in so many years. Land (uncleared) in some districts may be pur- chased for 4s to 6s per acre. It is far better to buy ten acres and pay the money down, adding an acre or two year by year, or, if this is impracticable, saving up his money, and in the course of time purchasing a larger and better cleared lot, when sufficient capital has accumulated. I hold that it is a great deal better to do this than to begin on a large scale and feel oneself in debt all the while. A man, whatever his circumstances may be, should always think well before he buys anything without having the means at hand to pay for it. It is the credit system which has done so much harm in Ca- nada to legitimate trade, and which is leading to so much ruinous speculation in England. We will now suppose our new settler to have been " out west," and thoroughly surveyed the great wooden country he has found there. He has looked at many uncleared lots, some very much cheaper than others ; he is at first strongly tempted to pur- chase in the cheapest market, but here his well- i ^^1. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 107 )iie for r to the auaded . giving y years, be pur- 3 money r, if this id in the p cleared I hold to begin he while, should without It is the m in Ca- ing to BO Lave been le great as looked cheaper d to pur- his well- earned experience is brought to bear, and upon look- ing carefully over them he finds the timber growing upon the cheaper lots is principally pine and scrub oak, without perhaps a creek near to water it, and so he makes up his mind to buy a smaller and more ex- pensive one, where he finds the best tokens of fertile land, viz., beech and maple growing in abundance. Light or soft wood only grows on poor sandy soil unfit for cultivation, without the expenditure of much time, labour and money ; the wood itself being unfit even for cordwood, which is one great source of profit to the settler. In some parts of Canada, or rather British North America, the emigrant can obtain a grant of 100 acres of land, of course uncleared, upon condition that he builds himself a wooden house upon it, and clears two acres of it every year. At the termi- nation of five years ho receives a free grant of it, provided he has complied with the conditions spe- cified. So badly managed were these free grants however at one time, that the probability was when the receiver came to take possession of his estate, he found it to be either in the middle of a lake, or of a huge swamp, I remember one instance of this in particular. An old soldier came to me once in Ca- nada to have a bullet extracted from his shoulder, which he had received during the Crimean war Ml 108 GUIDE BOOK TO whilst charging up hill at the Alma. He wag very badly off, and I asked him how it was he had not " located'' himself upon his Government grant of land ; he told me with great indignation that when he had spent his all to get to it, he found his boasted 200 acres to be situated in the centre of the Great Enniskillen Huckle-berry Marsh, and that he was not the only one who had been bitterly disappointed. Can it therefore be wondered at that bad accounts did sometimes come home of the prospects in Canada for the agriculturist ? Things however are different now. The land having been purchased, after all inquiries have been made at the local Registry Office, and satisfactorily answered as to title, &c. for the mode- rate charge of Is — the purchaser must set to work and put up a dwelling-house upon it, and clear a small patch round it for his daily supply of vege- tables, &c. It does seem to be a Herculean task at first sight, and one that may well daunt the bravest heart, but our emigrant has plenty of British pluck and deter- mination about him, and he is not so easily daunted. The first thing he does is to consult with the few settlers in his immediate neighbourhood, who are probably older hands at the work than he is ; he candidly tells them what his difSculties are, and the means he has at hand for overcoming them. His THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 100 very d not mt of when tasted Great e was tinted, its did ida for it now. quiries !e, and mode- work clear a vege- neiglibours only too glad to welcome a stranger amongst them soon put him in the way of commenc- ing his new life in the bush, and readily offer him all the assistance in their power. This is only backwoods etiquette, and they expect neither thanks nor remu- neration for what they so cheerfully do for him,hoping only in return that he will help them when in need of assistance, on the principle of the old adage — " One good turn deserves another." 110 GUIDE BOOK TO CHAPTER II. Life in the Backvvoo Peas, per bush. ^ 0,40 to 0,00 Buckwheat, per bush. 0,30 to 0,U0 Timothy, per bush. 4,00 to 6,00 Clover, per bush. 6,50 to 7,00 PROVISION AND PRODUCE. (Corrected by Mr. J. Cattle, Market Clerk.) Beef, per 100 lbs. 6,00 to 7,00 Pork, do. 6,50 to 7,00 Hams, smoked, per lb. 0,10 to 0,13 Shoulders, do. 0,13 to 0,00 Mutton, quarter, per lb. . 0,06 to 0,07 Potatoes, per bush. 0,37 to 0,00 Apples, per bush. 0,37 to 0,50 Eggs, per dozen . 0,10 to 0,00 Butter, per lb. 0,16 to 0,00 Cheese, per lb. 0,11 to 0,12 Lard, per lb. 0,12 to 0,00 Oats, per bush. 0,32 to 0,00 Hides, per 100 lbs. 5,00 to 0,00 Calf-skins, per lb. 0,09 to 0.00 Pelts, each 0,15 to 0,20 Lamb-skins 0,00 to 0,05 Wood — Dry, per cord 2,00 to 2,75 Green, per cord 2,25 to 0,00 Hay, per ton 6,00 to 7,00 White Beans . , 1,00 to 0,00 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 m 1^ '■' MM JIM 1.4 IIIM 122 M 1.6 vQ ment he may be engaged in, can secure for them remnnerative employment in the numerous manufactories throughout the country. Capitalists who understand manufacturing have an excellent field at present in Canada, for many branches of manufactures have yet been only partially established, whilst our union with the maritime provinces is adding greatly to the extent of our market. IV. Because Ca/nada is a healthy covntry. — Fever and ague, the bane of the Western prairies, is almost unknown. Our winters are no longer than in many parts of the west, and. contrary to the genera] idea abroad, they are the most lively, healthy, and invigo- rating part of the year. It is the season of " merry-makings," both in town and country. Statistics prove the climate of Canada to be among the most healthful on the globe. V. Because in Canada ta^xation is low. — This is a point of vital importance. Calculations made by an Ohio paper go to shew that that State pays as much in taxes in one single year as the entire public debt of Canada, which is about 70,000,000 dollars ! It quotes the annual amount paid for Federal and State purposes at 23 dollars per head ; and in another State, New York, we have seen about the same given. There is not a country in Europe taxed so heavily as this. In Great Britain the rate per head is under 12 dollars, and in Canada it is less than 4 dollars for each individual ! The indebted- ness of the United States is over 2,600,000,000 dollars. This great load presses heavily on all classes, and must continue to do so for many years to come; in Canada, on the other hand, the emigrant will find the public burdens light and easily borne. VI. Becaitse Ca/nada is one of the cheapest cotmtries in tlie world to live in. — Being an agricultural country, with low taxation, the price of commodities is very moderate. Food, clothing, rents, fuel — almost everything is from fifty to one hundred per cent, dearer in the United States than among us. These circumstances, combined with their depreciated currency, render the nominally high wages offered across the lines really lower than those of this country. In other words, a mechanic or labouring man in Canada can save more money than the same class in the States, because he can live at nearly one-half the cost. 140 QtJiDE BOOK TO Vir. Because tlie institutioiM of Canada are unsurpassed. — iJnJer oar political system, whilst the erilsof universal suffrage are avoided, no man need be without a voice in the Government of the country. Education is principally supported by an assessment on property, and most of the schools are open to all on terms of perfect equality and without cost I Our Grammar Schools and Universities are not surpassed on the continent. The widest toleration exists in religious matters, all Churches standing on the same level. Civil and religious liberty is fully enjoyed by all citizens. VIII. SecdMse Canada has swperior Railway and Water CommU' mcation, and good Mourkets. — The want of these advantages is a great drawback to the " Far West." The farmers there are so far from the Eastern markets that their com and other produce is compara- tively valueless. So cheap is com sometimes that it is burnt for fuel I In Canada we have numerous railways, fine lakes, and su- perior canals, which render almost every village a market where the highest prices can be obtained for everything the farmer has to dis> pose of. IX. BecoAise Canada is now Building Importamt New PvhUc TFor^.— These works will necessitate a large expenditure, render money more plentiful, increase the demand for labour, and give a healthy stimulus to business throughout the whole country. Emigrants could not settle in Canada at a better time for themselves— one in which they would more readily secure employment or lay the foun- dation of future prosperity. X. BecoMse Canada is a beautiful eowntry. — It abounds in fine scenery — hill and dale, lake and river. The forests contain game and the streams abound with fish. Nature has been lavish in bestow- ing her gifts upon Canada, where a happy home, enlivened by all the advantages of modem civilisation, can be secured by all who devote to it a few years' steady labour, economy, and perseverance. Having given these *' Ten Reasons why Emigrants should settle in Canada," we would say to all ^e working classes in Europe who are unable to better their position there — Emioratb. It is hard to break the ties which bind one to his native land, but it is better to do that than remain in comparative poverty and obscurity. To any who have made up their minds to emigrate, we have no hesitation in THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 141 saying — Come to Canada! The star of our new Dominion is in the ascendant. As we have endeavonred to set forth in the reasons given above, Canada offers every advantage calculated to attract those wishing to improve their circumstances. If settlers do not suc- ceed well in this country, it will be their own blame. At the present time, in particular, we believe that no part of America — indeed, we might say the world — offers greater inducements to able-bodied emi- grants than Canada does, and those who see fit to settle among us will, we are sure, have no cause to regret their choice. I 142 GUIDE BOOK TO CHAPTER lY. Conditions upon which free grants of land arc obtained— Where situated— How to reach them — Addixjsses of Crown Lands' Agents — The Canada Company — The Canadian Land and Emigration Company— The Inducements oflfered by them to Emigrants — Employments in the Bush during the winter months for Men and Teams with good Wages— Assistance given by Guardians of I^anshes under the directions of the Poor Law Board to persons chargeable on the Union — A brief notice of Anticosti Inland in the Gulf of St. Lawrence — Prospects there for a few adventurous Sportsmen and Emigrants. Vast tracts of uncleared land are still in the hands of the Canadian Government, ready to be disposed of to any persons who are willing to ab^de by the conditions attending the transfer. Those in the Province of Ontario are especially worth the atten- tion of the settler. The following are the conditions upon which they are given away : — Every head of a family can receive gratis 200 acres, and any person, without distinction of sex, who has reached eighteen years of age 100. So that a family consisting of father and two or three grown sons can obtain a very large grant. Upon each 100 acre grant, 15 are to be cleared, of which 2 must THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 143 -Where ' Agent8 ligration rrants — klen and dians of persons island in enturous 3 hands Lsposed by the in the atten- ditions Itis 200 ix, who that a grown ich 100 must be cleared and cropped in each year for the first five years. A habitable house muse be built, in the way that has been described before, in size at least 16 ft. by 20 ft. and the recipient must reside upon his grant six months out of the year. These free grants com- prise nearly 41 Townships, each containing from 60,000 to 80,000 acres. Some of these Townships are situated in the Muskoka and Parry Sound Territory, the extensive district lying east of Georgian Bay, and north of Lake Simcoo. Penetanguishine, where the great Government Penitentiary was established some years ago, is situated on a promontory of Georgian Bay. A settler proceeding to these Townships must take the train from Toronto to Lake Simcoe, and then take the steamboat to the river Severn. From there he must go by stgge to Gravenhurst, thence by steamer on Lake Muskoka to Bracebridge, whence he can find his way by any of the Parry Sound roads to the Townships mentioned. A Rrilway is now in contemplation, which will connect with the Great Northern at Barrie, and be extended up into the Muskoka territory. All inquiries respecting these Government Grants can be made of C. A. Lount, Esq., Crown Lands' Agent for the Townships of Watt, Stephenson, Brunei, Macaulay, McLean, Muskoka and Draper, 144 GUIDE BOOK TO •I r whose office is at Bracebridge in the Township of Macaulay. The office of John D. Beatty, Esq. Crown Lands' Agent for the Townships of McDou- gall, Foley, Humphrey and Cardwell, is at Parry Sound. Another route by which the settler may reach this Territory is by rail direct from Toronto to Col- lingwood, a large and thriving town situated upon the Bay of Nottawasaga, in the extreme south of Georgian Bay. From Collingwood a steamer will take him to Parry Sound, half way up the eastern shore of Georgian Bay. The other Townships are reached by rail from Port Hope or Coburg on Lake Ontario to Peter- boroughj and thence by excellent roads. These Townships are Cardiff, Chandos, Monmouth and Anstruther. The Agent for them is W. Armstrong, Esq., at Cardiff, in the Township of the same name. A great many other Townships have been surveyed higher up North, the Crown Lands' Agents for these being James P. Moffat, Esq., at the town of Pembroke ; Samuel G. Lynn, Esq., at the village of Eganville; J. R. Tait, Esq. of York Eiver; and Joseph Graham, Esq., at the village of Bobcaygeon. Of the 2,000,000 acres of land which were taken up by the Great Canada Company only 400,000 now remain on their hands. The "Huron tract" also THE CANADIAN DOMINION. Ii5 Lip of Esq. cDott- Parry reacli io Col- dupon outh of ler will eastern lil from o Peter- These [utli and strong, e name. [surveyed lents for town of iUage of er J oji^ •caygeon. \ve taken ,000 now ,ct" also belonged to them. The first Township which was settled was Blanchard. To this there took place such a rush of emigrants, that in two years it was all occupied, and it is now one of the richest Townships in the flourishing County of Perth^ with an agricul- tural population of 377 i. The part of the Colony in which Perth is situated is now intersected by railroads, several of which meet at Stratford, Their office is at Toronto. The Canadian Land and Emigration Company of London holds out very great inducements to settlers in Canada. This was started in 18G1, and the lands were divided off into the ten Townships of Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guildford, Harburn, Buxton, Handock, Eyre and Clyde, in the County of Peter- borough and Longford. In the County of Victoria the survey alone cost the Company $31,810; deduct- ing the average taken up by swamps, &c., 302,125 acres still remain of excellent arable land. The land costs at the rate of 2* per acre. The ordinary Settlement duties upon these lands are to be performed in eighteen years, dating from January, 1865, and 10 per cent, of the purchase money is to be refunded to the Company by the Government for the construction of roads. The village of Haliburton is rapidly increasing. Severed stores have been established, and there is a saw and L 146 GUIDE BOOK TO I I ! grist mill already in full play. Haliburton is beau- tifully situated upon Lake Kushag. The Company pay half the stipend of a clergyman who resides there, and have also given grants of land for churches and schools upon their extensive property. An arrangement has been entered into by a firm who have undertaken to fell some of the valuable timber upon it, and they offer work for all willing and industrious hands in their shanties during the winter. By this means a ready market is secured to the farmer for years to come, and an opportunity is given them for earning good wages for themselves and their teams through the winter season. Half acre lots in Haliburton are sold for $20 or £4. each. In Dysart the land is sold at 6s, and in their other townships 4* per acre for cash, and at 8s and 6s in five annual instalments, with interest at 5 per cent. The sales have been made to Canadians, but the Company have opened an actual agency in Eng- land. Should further information be desired, I must refer my reader to No. 23, Great St. Helen's, Bishops- gate- street, where full particulars may be obtained of Frank Lynn, Esq. The Colonial OflGlces are at Peterboro', Ontario. By the Poor Law Act, passed 1834, the Guardians of parishes ^e empowered to expend a sum not THE CANADIAN DOMINION. U7 oeau- ipany ssidea id for perty. a firi^a aluablo ing the secured ortunity jmselves aalf acre ,4. each, eir other Is and 5« at 5 per [ians, but inEng- [ J must Bishops- obtained tea are at ruardians Bum not exceeding £10. upon persons chargeable upon tho Union. Besides State and Parochial aid, there are certain societies supported by voluntary contribu- tions which, when they have funds, afford assistance to emigrants. The British and Colonial Emigration Fund have their Offices at No. 2, Westminster Chambers, Vic- tor'a-street, Westminster ; and the National Emigra- tion League at 120, Salisbury-square, Fleet-street, London. Should any one be desirous of obtaining fuller particulars relative to Government disposal of lands, statistics of exports and imports. Acts of Par- liament, municipal institutions, manufacturers, public works, and other information interesting to tho general reader, if he will enclose 9d to the Canadian Government's Emigration Office, Adelphi, London, W.C., he will obtain a copy of the "Year Book and Almanac of Canada," which is a compendium of all official information. The British Government Emigration Office is in Park-street, Westminster. In the commencement of this little work, I called attention to a small island in the Gulf of St. Law- rence, called Anti-Costi Island. It is about 1,000,000 acres in extent. Mr. Richardson, who has surveyed this little island, states that not a yard of it is culti- vated. There is plenty of furred game upon it. I lis GUIDE BOOK TO and multitudes of seals. In my opinion, if a few enterprising persons were to go out and settle upon it, they might have excellent sport, especially among the seals, with the skins of which they might drive a fine trade at Quebec. It would cost about £50 for a man to get there, and set himself up with a boat, nets and provisions to last him for twelve months. They would find the winter very severe ; but in furs they could clothe themselves as warmly as the Esqui- maux, and with the timber which is cast upon the islai a from wrecks and broken-up rafts, they might build themselves a house as strong and substantial, as a feudal castle. v . ~ I THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 140 a few upon mong drive 50 for k boat, lontlis. in furs Esqui- »on the r miglit stantial- CHAPTER V. Divisions of Counties into " Concession " and " Side" Ronds— Stntute Labour — Corduroy, Plank and Gravel Roads, and how Con- structed — Unpleasant Recollections of these (Corduroy) Roads- Forest " Bees " — Forest Honey —Ike Hunting — Night attack upon a '• Bee Tree," and its Reward— Be.i»-« nnd Honey. The Counties of Canada are divided into Town- ships, and the Townships su^ ividedintj Lots. Each ^ot or farm consisting of 200 acios. They are in- tersected by what are termed concession roads, run- ning parallel at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile ; and these are crosdod by what are termed side roads, which run north and south, and are farther apart than the concession roads. By this arrangement every lot has a road fronting it which iv, of incalculable use to the farmer. Besides these statute roads, enterprising Companies have made others, to which I will allude further on. Every able-bodied Canadian is obliged by law to do two or more days " statute labour," according to the extent of his farm, upon the public roads. If the farmer do not feel inclined to work himself he must provide a substitute, or pay 2s 6d a day for 150 GUIDE BOOK TO exemption for the days on which he is supposed to work. Should a road be required into a settlement newly opened up, the able-bodied men unite to- gether and construct one in an amazingly short period. Should its direction be through a swamp, a " corduroy road," as it is termed, has to be made. This term is I suppose derived from the ribbed or corded material of which trousers are made. They are constructed in the following manner : — Large quantities of brush and underwood are cut and flung down upon the swampy ground. Upon the top of this are placed, side by side, trunks of trees about 14 or 20 feet in length, and as nearly of a size as possible. Over these again, if the traffic is expected to be pretty brisk, earth and sods are thrown and left to be compacted by the waggons and teams which will eventually pass over it. Should any of my readers be desirous of forming some idea of the sensation produced through their organism by travelling over a " corduroy road," especially if it has been sometime in use, I would suggest to them to get into a Bath-chair and allow themselves to be dragged for a mile or two over the sleepers of a neighbouring railway. Were some of our East Indian warriors who come home to the Old Country to reduce their livers at THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 151 some of our alkali fountains, to go to Canada instead, and take a daily drive in a " lumber waggon " over one of these backwood abominations, I would guarantee tbem a cure, providing the alternative be not a kill. I shall not forget, in a hurry, my first experience of a journey over one of these timber pontoons. I hung on with my hands to the wooden seat of our waggon, my feet played vigorously like castanets the "devil's tattoo" upon the floor of the springless conveyance, whilst my teeth rattled one against another like dice in a box ; my hat was soon shaken off, and my body jarred and strained in every joint and ligament. The best of the joke was, my driver kept conversing with me all the time quite unconcernedly, expecting me to keep up a conversation with him as easily as if we were riding together in a carriage in Hyde Park. In the course of a few years some of the logs rot away ; your waggon under these circumstances simply plunges to the "hules" of its wheels into the chasms, with a thud that will send' you over the " Whipple trees," or splinter bars. An accident like this will sometimes break a tire or a felloe of your wheels. The plank roads of the better settled districts make amends for the discomforts and de- cidedly alterative effects of these corduroy roads. They are constructed by pegging down 2 -inch or \ 152 GUIDE BOOK TO ' evenly sawn pine or deal planks, side by side over squared and securely laid down sleepers. The planks are long enough to permit of two vehicles passing with ease, and are all sawn to the same thickness. In some parts of the Colony these luxurious roads extend for miles, being kept in order by tolls taken every fovr or six miles. Even these roads, however, have their disadvantages. After a time should the funds of the Company who originated them fall low, and the repairs not be kept up, the planks here and there get worn out from constant traffic, and dan- gerous gaps are left, which, if the travellers are not very careful, "will be the means of breaking their trap or throwing their horse. The gravel roads are cer- tainly on the whole the best, if kept in proper re- pair and well covered with fine gravel. Tramways are now talked of in many parts, which will throw every other road into disrepute. Among the other incidents of forest life, I have not described in extenso what are termed " forest bees." By a " bee,'' in forest parlance, is meant a collecting together of the settlers of a certain locality, in order to carry out by their combined efibrts any under- taking which might be beyond the efibrts of a single family or individual. There are what are termed " logging bees," " raising bees," and " sugar bees,** among the male settlers j and " quilting bees," and THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 153 over )laiik3 issing sa. In jxtend every r, have ) funds w, and re and id dan- are not eir trap are cer- per re- imways throw ave not bees/' Llecting In order under- single Itermed bees/' ," and " apple-paring bees ;" among the ladies of the settlement : we may term these " queen bees ;" and great fun they all seem to have at these sociable gatherings. The men work hard all day long, and the barn or house rises, or the logs are rolled up into heaps, or the maple sap is boiled down into syrup, the syrup into molasses, and the molasses into sugar, the whisky disappearing all the while like magic. When the curtain of night is completely folded over the forest, tired with what to a stranger would appear almost superhuman exertion, (for the backwoodsmen do not " let the grass grow under their feet'' when at work), they muster at the shanty, and, having well washed themselves, they all sit down, the head man presiding, to a sumptuous repast of meats, poultry, vegetables, pies, puddings, tarts, cakes, jams, cheese, salt risen bread, white as snow, with good wholesome tea and milk ad libitum. This over, pipes and tobacco are introduced, with plenty of good native whisky, and songs, tales, and jokes are the order of the hour. At the expira- tion of that time, the neighbouring ladies appear upon the scene, a violin is soon forthcoming, and dancing fills up the night. I well remember my first intro- duction to one of these forest carnivals. I was called up in the middle of the night to see a person who was suddenly taken ill at a house situated on a creek 154. GUIDE BOOK TO a mile or two oflT. Upon my arrival I found a dance had been going on, and one of the young people had become very hysterical, which frightened the dancers out of their senses. I soon set their minds at ease, however, upon discovering the nature of the case, which I heartily wished afterwards I had not done, for as soon as my opinion was heard, screech went the fiddles again, and simultaneously a sort of kiss in the ring dance, known as " Prinkums," commenced most vigorously. I was carried, nolens volens, into the gyratory circle of buxom lasses, and was soon whiriing round with them kissing and being kissed, as if we were all infected with the mistletoe mania. My good nature, as far as it went, assisted me to endure this novel, and to me, very disagreeable amusement, till I felt myself embraced by a lady who no doubt was usually a decorous, but was by no means a decorative member of society. Don Quixote himself could not have borne with perfect placidity such an encounter as hers. I seized my hat, as soon as I could release myself from her ursine hug, and with wild gestures of farewells, rushed out of the house, and jumping on my horse, which 6tood " hitched'' in a neighbouring shed, I fairly bolted. I will endeavour to describe the nature of the " Queen's Bees." The fairer portion of the commu- nity have as much enjoyment, and at the same time THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 155 lance Lehad mcers I ease, ) case> done, 1 went kiss in aenced IS, into as soon kissed, mania, d me to reeable a lady was by . Don perfect my bat, ursine jbed out Ich Stood olted. of the commu- ,me time make themselves quite as useful upon the occasion of a bee as the men. At what is termed a " quilt- ing bee,'' the wives and daughters of the settlers meet at each other's houses, in order to manufacture counterpanes or quilts for the use of the family during the winter season. Of course a supply of these articles is not required every year, and there- fore bees of this kind are not of such frequent oc- currence, except the settlement be large. The quilfc is made by making a sandwich of cotton or carded wool between pieces of new print, and sometimes old dresses, or other useless materials ; and then stitching them through and through " criss-cross," like a diamonded window. Andvery warm and com- fortable are these home-made bed coverings, and especially serviceable to those who cannot afford to spend much money in blankets. An " Apple Bee" is for the peeling, slicing and stringing of apples for winter use. In almost every house and shanty you may see the rafters hung thickly with strings of these dried slices of apple, which make most delicious tarts and preserves. Little hand machines, like miniature turning-lathes, are used for paring and coring the apples, and it is ex- traordinary to witness the velocity with which the peel is thrown off in unbroken, evenly cut coils. The ladies all appear to make themselves happy at these 156 GUIDE BOOK TO social gatherings, and naturally enough do a great deal of " talkee talkee," and pretty freely discuss the private and public affairs of the settlement, an amusement by no means peculiar to Canadian " Queen-Bees." "Whilst upon the subject of " Bees" I must men- tion the way in which the backwoodsman discovers honey in the forest. What is termed " Bee hunting" is a favourite pursuit with some woodsmen, and it requires an experienced eye to ensure success in the search. The sport, if such it may be termed, is carried on in the following manner. Having marked a honey-bee into the forest, the hunter goes to the spot where his eye has ost sight of him. He then lights a few dead leaves on the top of a stump or fallen tree, and within a short distance of it deposits a little honey or syrup. In a little time a passing bee, attracted by the unusual smell, is arrested in its course, and flying round the spot goon discovers the bait laid for it. Having loaded itself with the nectar, it makes off in a straight line — hence the expression " to make a bee line"— in the direction of its store-house. The hunter (hunters are always expected of course to have keen eyes) marks him like his predecessor to the limit of his vision, and at that spot he repeats the original process. The eyes are shaded by the hand THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 157 i great LiscTiss nt, an nadian t men- scovers mting" , and it ,s in the rmed, is rest, the pst sight the top distance Lttle time Ismell, is the spot ig loaded straight line"— hunter to have ►r to the leats the the hand expanded over them to assist them in concentrating their vision, in the same way as those who have not a piece of burnt glass look at an eclipse of the Sun. I should be thought to exaggerate were I to state the distance an experienced bee-hunter can follow the flight of the insect with his eye, but suffice it to say a great many yards. He must keep on enticing the bee to lead him to his fraternity, till he is at last gratified by seeing one incline upwards in his flight ; he then knows that he is in the immediate neighbourhood of the " honey tree." Should any doubt exist in his mind as to the particular tree, if he applies his ear to a few of the trunks, he will soon detect, by the low humming sound, which con- tains the bees. I was asked one evening by a settler in Haldeman County, where for a few months I was living a shanty life, to accompany him, when the night had fairly set in, to a tree in the forest in which he had discovered honey. About ten o'clock three of us started with a large tub and lantern, each carrying an axe over his shoulder. After half an hour's walking we came to the hemlock which he had " blazed," a tree measuring nearly six feet in circumference. We soon set to work, but not being so experienced as professed woodsmen, we spent nearly three quarters of an hour in felling it. I shall not soon forget the tremendous crash it made 168 GUIDE BOOK TO in its fall, nor how glad we were to hear the inevit- able crack which announced the loss of its centre of gravity. We had in true Bush-fashion cut out two enormous notches on either side, each about two feet in height, thus bringing the trunk to a fine edged wedge, balanced vertically on its own stump. One stroke more, and we heard a rustling overliead, and felt a shudder pass through the giant's whole frame. This was the moment to take care of " number one," which we did by springing on one side of the falling tree, of course glancing our eye upwards to mark its inclination. Down it came with a crash that re- sounded for miles through the forest in the still night air, carrying with it a dozen other smaller ones grow- in ^^ in it« line of descent, and leaving a gap as large as if it had been left by a hurricane. Now commenced our sport, the hemlock having snapped near its top, and disclosed the bees* nest in its interior. We had taken the precaution of tying string round the bottom of our trousers and the cuffs of our coats, in order to prevent the revengeful insects from invading our persons. Fortunately, however, the season was getting late, and the bees were not so active as is usual in the summer months ; we escaped conse- quently with only a few stings, which the applica- tion of a little whisky inside and out soon cured. I do not exaggerate in the least when I say there THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 159 nevit- itre of it out at two edged , One id, and frame, sr one," faUing :o mark that re- iU night ;s grow- as large rnenced its top, We had bottom [order to ing our on was ^ctive as Id conse- applica- cured. lay there were tens of thousands of bees in the bottom of the tree ; we had to shovel them iway before we could get at the delicious honey, with which we soon filled our tubs. The way in which the settler separates the honey from the comb is by filling worsted stockings and flannel bags with it, and then hanging them up and allowing them to drip into crocks below. Bears are very fond of honey, and nature prompts them to eat all they can find before their hybernating season comes on in the latter part of October. So much saccharine food gives them a good coating of fat, which serves the double purpose of nourishing their bodies through the long winter, and supplying their blood with an excess of carbon, which serves to keep them in a state of lethargy. 11 160 GUIDE BOOK TO CHAPTER VI. Proper Season to Emigrate in— Addresses of Emigration Offices in London— List of Railroad Towns in the Dominion and P'ares to ihem from London — Inducements held out in the different Sec- tions of the Country — Comparison drawn between the prosperity of Ontario and the United States — Salt works— Petroleum Springs — Trade in the Oil — Ottawa, its Beauties, Parliament, and Buildings — Work in the Ottawa Valley for the Emigrants- Wooden Failroads in Quebec— Distance from Home. It is of veiy great importance for emigrants to arrive in Canada in tlie spring, as early as naviga- tion opens, which is generally about April. Arriving at this season he will just come in for spring- work, when wages are good and labour in great demand ; but his main object must be to obtain permanent work by the year, so as to secure for himself a home for the winter. It must be borne in mind that, until he becomes acquainted with the ways of the country his services are not of so much value to the farmer as those of the more experienced la- bourer ; he should therefore be particularly careful not to fall into the common error of refusing rea- sonable wages when offered to him on his first arrival. Should he reach the country utterly ig- THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 161 Rccs in tires to nt Scc- ►sperity ;r oleum ;nt, and •rants— LutS to laviga- :riving work, maud; aanent liome that, of the alue to ed la- careful g rea- s first fly ig- norant of what he ought to do, let hiln go at once to the Emigrant Office in Quebec. In England he may obtain all the information he requires at the ' office of Mr. Dixon, the Canadian Emigration Agent, 11, Adam Street, Adelphi, London; at the Grand Trunk Railway Offices, 21, Old Broad Street, City ; Messrs. Allan, Bros., James Street, Liverpool; Messrs. J. & A. Allan, Glasgow; and at the Briti«h American Land Company's Office, 35^, New Broad Street, E.G. I quote a list of some of the principal Eailroad Stations in the Dominion, with the fares to each from London. A List of Third Clabs Through Fares from London to tub Principal Towns in Canada by Koyal Mail Steamers leaving liverpool every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and Satur- day. Children under Eight Tears Half Fare, and under One Tear, £1. 15. STAT Name of Place. Barrie , IONS IN CANADA. Name of County or State . Simcoe Through Fare Third Class by Ship. .£8 7 4 Belville Brockville ^ . Hastings . . Leeds . 7 1« 6 . 7 11 2 Cobourg CoUingwood Goderich , . Durham . . Siiucoe * . Huron . 7 17 2 .896 .870 Hamilton . Wentworth . 7 19 U Ingcrsoll . . Oxford . , .817 K I I 1 52 GUIDE BOOK TO Kingston Frontenac • . 7 13 8 London Middlesex . 8 2 6 Montreal Montreal . . 7 2 8 Kiflgara Falls Welland . . 7 18 3 Ottawa Carleton . 7 14 3 Feterboroagh Peterborough . 8 2 4 Fort Hope Durham . 7 17 2 Quebec Quebec . 6 18 6 Bichmond Drummond . 7 2 8 Sarnia Lambton . . 8 3 6 Sherbrooke Sherbrooke . 7 7 2 Stratford Oxford . 8 3 6 Toronto York . 7 19 2 Woodstock Oxford . 8 1 7 An arrangement has been made lately with the Cunard vessels to carry Emigrants to Boston, whence they will travel per rail to Hamilton or Toronto for the same fare as is charged by the Quebec route. Farm hands will find plenty of work just now in the neighbourhood of Hamilton, To- ronto, and Peterborough. The Eastern Townships in that part of Canada south-east of the St. Lawrence, near Montreal, form chiefly a grazing country, the soil being suited for stock raising. There is a good deal of mining work and quarrying going on there at this time (1870). That portion of the Province between Lakes Erie and Ontario is the best farming county in the whole Pominion, THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 163 13 « I 2 6 r 2 8 ? 18 3 ^ 7 14 3 B 2 4 7 17 2 6 18 6 7 2 8 8 3 6 7 7 2 8 2 6 7 19 2 8 1 7 tely with ;o Boston, .milton or Bd by the y of work alton, To- 3f Canada treal, form suited for minpf work (1870). lakes Erie the whole According to the census of 1861, Ontario pro- duced 2,000,000 bushels of wheat more than the State of New York, 28,000 acres having been sown in Ontario more tlian in the whole of that American State, whilst the average of oats per acre in Ontario is 31 bushels, that in tho State of New York is 17 ; and whilst in nine years the population in the Province of Ontario increased 45.65 per cent, that of the wholo of the United States in ten years showed an increase of about 35.38 per cent. I do not make these statements with the object of producing the least feeling of jealousy, but just now we hear so much from a certain class of persons, whose sympathies tend towards the States, of tho superior attraction there for the Emigrant, that I think it right to tell them a few plain truths which cannot be contradicted. I would compare the mor- tality of Ontario with that in the United States. In the former we find there are 71 deaths in every 10,000, while the average for the whole of Canada is 98. In the latter there are 124. In England the rate is 211, just about 3 to 1 of deaths in the Pro- vince of Ontario. The increase in population in the Dominion is about 2.67 per cent, or 0.60 per cent, greater than in the United States, and from 1 to 3 per cent, greater than in the European States. Between Lakes Erie and Huron are the Salt 164 GUIDE BOOK TO mining districts. This precious commodity is found near Goderich. It is obtained by evaporating the brine from wells sunk to a great depth, and is ex- ceedingly good for table use, being found by che- mical analysis to be almost of perfect purity. As evidence of its quality, it may be mentioned that it received a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and the first prize at the New York State-fair in the same year. Although the manufacture has only been carried on two or three years, there is now produced a great deal more salt than is required for consumption in the province of Ontario, and large quantities will consequently be exported. In November, 1866, the manufacture was 45 barrels per day ; in August, 1867, it was 90 barrels, and now it is upwards of 300 barrels per day. Over 70,000 dollars have been expended, 13 wells are now sunk, and 200 kettles are in operation. The country extending from the north end of liiike Simcoe to Bobcageon, near the town of Peter- borough, is very sterile ; to the north of that ridge, however, the land is very good. Petroleum is another source of wealth in Canada. For a few years so many rapid fortunes were made in this natural production, that if you met a hand- somer equipage than usual in any of our large towns, THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 165 Ls found ting tlie i is ex- by che- ity. As d that it bition of State-fair 311 carried ed a great mption in ttities will ,1866, the in August, ipwards of have been ,00 kettles ^th end of of Peter- that ridge, in Canada, were made let a hand- large towns, or heard of a man who was leading a more luxurious life than his neighbours, you would immediately con- clude he had *' Struck He." The first springs were struck at Oil Springs, County of Lambton, in 1862, and by March, 1863, over four million gallons had been obtained. Other regions have also yielded this valuable mineral in large quantities. Both well and Petrolea, the former in County Kent, the latter in Lambton, are now the most productive springs. In 1867, 130 wells were sunk with snccess, which yielded 120,000 barrels and 200,000 tanks of the oil. Canada herself requires for consumption 120,000 barrels, so that there is ample surplus for exporta- tion. For some time the American oil kept the Canadian out of the market, our ingenious neigh- bours having discovered a method of deodorisa- tion. A like process has, however, been lately discovered by the Canadians, so that the oil yielded by their wells having a greater illuminating power, and being less explosive, now finds a much more ready sale. Large refineries have been erected, and when the export trade is fully established it will be- come of great value to Canada. There is one part of the Dominion about which I have said but little, although it has now become one of the most important places in the British posses- sions. I allude to Ottawa, formerly called Bytown, 166 GUIDE BOOK TO I I t ! after Colonel Bye, of the Koyal Engineers, who con- structed the famous Eideau Canal, which connects Ottawa with Lake' Ontario. This town has been elevated from its humble position of a backwood village to an important city, owing to its central position, natural beauties, splendid river adapted for the navigation of vessels, the richness of the country by which it is surrounded, and many other advan- tages. It has been chosen as the seat of govern- ment for the Dominion. The Parliament Houses are one of the sights of Canada, being built of grey- stone of very handsome architectural design, at " almost fabulous cost. It is said that no city in tnu world can boast of such magnificent waterfalls as Ottawa. I will quote what Charles Mackay says of them in his " Life and Liberty in America,'' after he had witnessed all the beauties of America :— *' The two falls of the Rideau into the Ottawa, at " the commencement of the suburb of New Edin- burgh, would be of themselves objects of great beauty and grandeur, were they not eclipsed by the " Chaudi^re, or falls of the Ottawa ; a cataract that " possesses many features of sublimity, which even " the great Niagara itself cannot surpass. To stand '^ upon the rock below the Saw Mill, looking down the boiling and foaming flood below the suspension bridge that spans the fearful abyss, is to behold a (( (( ft (€ \ ;!! THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 167 '** scene of greater turbulence, if not of greater ma- " jesty than Niagara can show, with all its world of " waters. The river does not pass precipitously " over a sudden impediment as at Niagara, but " rushes down a longitudinal plane, intersected by " ledges of rock, with a fury that turns giddy the " brain of those who gaze too long and earnestly " upon the spectacle, and that no power of painter " or poetic genius can describe " K Niagara* may claim to be the first and noblest " cataract in the worlds the Chaudifere at Ottawa may " claim to rank as second ; and if ever the day comes " when American travel shall be as fashionable and " attractive as travel in Europe, no ona will cross " the Atlantic without paying a visit to the multi- *' tudinous waterfalls of Canada, or think his jomney " complete unless he has visited both Niagara and " the Ottawa." I am sorry to say that the vast number of saw- mills which are at work unceasingly above the Falls, are defacing the natural features of this " Hell of waters." The stream is becoming perceptibly * According to the Indian pronunciation of " Kiagara," Gold- smith, in his " Traveller,*' is right in his emphasis-* " Where wild Oswego spreads his swamps around, And Niagara stuns with thundering sound." II u-h 168 GUIDE BOOK TO Hi shallower, owing to the immense deposit of chips and saw-dust and other refuse which is floated down from them. A large accumulation of saw-logs and useless timber-lumber add their share to the general untidiness of the stream and its banks. But all this is an evidence of wealth, and spectators must not be too fastidious, as tourists don^t generally look upon nature through a Dutchman's spectacles. This collection of debris is becoming a very serious matter, and the attention of the authorities is already drawn to the impediment thus offered to the navi- gation. These myriads of saw-logs are floated down from up the country, and conveyed to the lower river by means of a huge '' slide," which has been constructed by the side of the cataract. One of the principal amusements the tourist has in prospect when he visits Ottawa is running the slide on a raft. The Prince of Wales entered into the amusement with great gusto on the occasion of his late visit. The river Ottawa, which falls into the St. Law« rence at the western extremity of the Island of Montreal, divides the provinces of Quebec and On- tario. Its length is 600 miles, running from north- west to south-east. One of its tributaries, the Gatineau,is 300 miles long. These magnificent rivers, with their tributaries, drain nearly 30,000 square m\ THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 169 cliips and ed down -logs and e general lit all this ist not be ook upon s. Thi3 ry serious J is already ) the navi- down from er river by onstructed principal t when he raft. The sment with it. St. Law- Island of and On- pom north- mes, the [5ent rivers, |00 square miles of territory. In 18G1 the population of the valley of the Ottawa comprised 41,000, this year nearly 60,000, half French and half English. Of late the Germans have founded a settlement there, and appear to enjoy great prosperity. It will be remembered that I alluded to the plodding nature and consequent success of these foreign emigrants in a previous chapter. There is another source of employment only just now offered to able-bodied men in Canada, and that is the construction of wooden railroads. These novel institutions are now in course of construction in several parts of Quebec province, and in the eastern townships south-east of the St. Lawrence. No less than seven companies have been already started at Quebec and Shorbrooke. The cost of the road is 5000 dols. or about £1000 per mile; the cost of the ordinary railroads amounting to 3000 dols. or £6000 per mile. The idea originated in Norway, and was taken up by the enterprising Americans, from whom the people of Quebec " cribbed" it. An interest of 3 per cent, is guaranteed by the Province upon the sum expended upou every mile of railway built. No line must be less than fifteen miles in length, and the subsidy is guaranteed for twenty years. Quebec is only 2649 miles from Liverpool by the Straits of Belle Isle, and 2808 by Cape Race ; 170 GUIDE BOOK TO 8t 1 whilst Boston is 2895, and New York is 3095. 865 miles of the Belle Isle route is in the waters of the St. Lawrence, leaving only 1823 miles of ocean navigation. Vessels drawing twenty feet of water can ascend the river to Montreal, 986 miles from Belle Isle, the Straits separating Newfoundland from Labrador. ,* .!; ,' THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 171 CHAPTER VII. Military Organization of the Dominion — Unsuccessful attempt of the ' Fenians to invade Canadian territory — Pluck of Canadians fully appreciated by their brethren in the " Old Country " — Proposal of Lord Caernarvon's to return them a Vote of Thanks — Why the Lords rejected it. A FEW words relating to the Military Organization of the Dominion may perhaps be interesting to my readers. " It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good/' is an old saying, very applicable to the mur- derous and cowardly attacks made of late upon the peaceful Colonists by those poor deluded creatures the Fenians ; seeing that their attempted incursions upon the frontier of Canada have forced her Govern- ment into thoroughly organizing the Militia and Volunteers, thereby placing the Colony upon a safer footing, and preparing it for the withdrawal of Her Majesty's forces. It is to be hoped that for the future our neighbours in the United States will show themselves more energetic in preventing the Fenians maturing their plots against Canada upon American soil, and . thereby save the Colony the anxiety, expense, and great inconvenience to the 172 GUIDE BOOK TO i! ,11 public of a general resort to arms to repel these troublesome invaders. This is not the first time they have acted in this unneighbourly manner. The Canadians feel, if the English Parliament does not, that something more should have been done by the Washington Government than quietly to stand by till all the Fenian plans were concocted, and the in- vasion made, and then, when the mischief was done, to send a cab to the front to carry off the defeated quasi-general, the chief actor in the military bur- l3sque. During the year 1869 the law respecting the Militia and defence of Canada was carried into effect, and the organization contemplated under its pro- visions has by this law assumed a practical form. The Militia consists of all the male inhabitants of Canada of the age of 18 and upwards, and under 60, not exempted by law, being British subjects by birth and naturalization ; but in case of " levy en masse " being made by Her Majesty, all the male inhabit- ants of the Dominion may be called upon to serve. The male population liable to service as Militia- men are divided into four classes :— Class I. Comprises those between the ages of 1 8 years and 30, who are unmarried, or widowers with- out cbildren. Class II. Those between 30 and 45 who are un- married, or widowers vdthout children. THE CANADIAN DOMINION, 173 epel tliese first time mer. The does not, me by the ) standby tnd the in- i was done, le defeated ilitary bur- )ecting the Linto effect, Jer its pro- itical form, habitants of under 60, jts by birth en masse ' ble inhabit- to serve, as Militia- ages of 1 8 lowers with- rho are un- Class III. Those between 18 and 45 who are mar- ried, or widowers with children. Class rV. Those between 45 and 60. In the above order they may be called out to serve. The Militia is divided into Active and Reserve Militia. The Active consists of the Volunteer, the Regular, and the Marine Militia, The Reserve con- sists of all those men who are not included in the Active Militia. The four Provinces are divided into nine Military districts. The law provides for annual drill for 40,000 men and officers, in addition to officers of Reserve Militia, for not less than eight, nor more than sixteen days, the number being regulated by the money-vote of Parliament in each year. The following persons are exempt from enrolment and active service at any time — judges, clergy, and ministers of religion of all denominations, professors and religious teachers, wardens, keepers and guards of the penitentiary, persons disabled by bodily in- jury, the only son of a widow being her only sup- port ; and the following, though enrolled, shall be exempt from service except in case of war, invasion, or insurrection, viz. — ^haJf-pay or retired officers of Her Majesty's army, seafaring men and sailors i fl m ^ 174 GUIDE BOOK TO \ I j- ml: I'll actually employed in their calling, pilots and ap- prentice pilots, masters of public and common schools actually engaged in teaching. The Active Militia are to be organized from time to time, clothed and armed with breech-loading rifles, and equipped ready to take the field at a short notice. According to the latest return the Active Militia number 43,077 men, viz. — Cavalry, 1500; Field Batteries, 7^0 ; Garrison Artillery, 3500 ; Naval Brigade, 233 ; Kifles and Infantry, 37,094. A scheme is now on foot for the formation of a small standing army, consisting of three battalions — one for Ontario, one for Quebec, and one for the Marine Provinces. The Government will, I believe, take it into consideration this session. The Canadians fully appreciate the compliments paid them by their countrymen at home upon their gallant conduct in repelling the attacks made upon their thriving and peaceful colony in this last year by the Fenians from America. They have clearly proved that although they have left the Mother- Country to form a new nationality of their own, they have still the innate pluck of '' those Britishers that come on like a red brick wall in a charge,'' to quote a remark a friend of mine heard an American prisoner make in the year of the rebellion, 1837. A little disappointment, however, was felt at first THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 175 and ap- common Q Active to time, ifles, and rt notice, e Militia }0; Field ; Naval lation of a battalions ,ne for the . I believe, miplinicnts [upon their lade upon lis last year yve clearly ,e Mother- own, they iishers that )," to quote American ,n,1837. felt at first when the Canadians heard how Lord Caernarvon's proposal in the House of Lords for a vote of thanks had been rejected. I have quoted the following from the Halifax Express, which fully explains the diffi- culty in which the Lords were placed :~^ " The despatch of this morning, announcing that " the Lords had refused to thank the Canadians for " the promptitude and courage which they exhibited " in beating off the Fenians may cause some surprise " among those who do not see the cause of the refusal, " and may afford some matter of rejoicing to those " who insist on an unpleasant construction upon it. " It will be observed that the proposal to thank the " Canadians was made by Lord Caernarvon, who " has made himself conspicuous as a most determined " opponent of the Government poHcy in regard to '' the Colonies. We quite agree in much of what " Lord Caernarvon has said ; and wish that his pro- " posal in this case, a proposal in itself at once so '' graceful and so worthy of acceptance, could have " been put in such a manner as would insure its *' acceptance by the Lords. But Lord Caernarvon " is so determined, so sleepless, and busy an oppo- " nent of the Government, that any proposition *' coming from him is looked upon as a device of " the enemy, and is treated accordingly. His pro- *' posal in this case was one which placed the Lords ill '■'•1 ■'■-■i I I ;■ m ' I 176 GUIDE BOOK TO i< in a delicate position, and there was nothing to do *' but negative it. " We may take it for granted that Lord Caer- " narvon did not spare to condemn the neglect of " the Government, and the Government could not, " therefore, pass a vote of censure on itself. If on " the first reading of the despatch our readers should " feel a flush of anger, a little consideration will " show them that not the Lords but Lord Caer- '' narvon should bear the weight of condemnation. *' It was he who exposed the Dominion to the danger " of a seeming insult — a danger so great that it " could not have been avoided except by a humilia- " tion of the Government ; and we could not expect * that. The despatch, then, means that Lord Caer- " narvon, with the best of motives, may be, but with " a certain amount of suspicion attaching to him, " introduced an impertinent motion which the House of Lords in self-defence was compelled to ne- gative, not intending the smallest offence to the " Colonies.'' (f (C i ! THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 177 ng to do rd Caer- ?glect of )uld not, f . If on rs should ttion will rd Caer- jmnation. iie danger it tliat it a humilia- lot expect jord Caer- I, but with to him, the House d to ne- ce to the SECTION III. LETTERS RECEIVED FROM EMIGRANTS. As I consider the true position of our emigrant in Canada is best gathered from reports sent home by those already out there, I insert the following letters from emigrants who have this year settled in dif- ferent sections of the country. " London, Ontario, Canada West, Oct. 3. " To the Editor of the Standard. " Sir, — Amidst the din of war and bloodshed, perhaps a few words from the heart of our peaceful colony of Canada will not be deemed amiss. I have undertaken a long and arduous journey to see for myself whether emigrants from the old country aro progressing satisfactorily. Most thankful am I to i^eport favourably of their present good positions and their future prospects. I find the country prospe- rous, with every facility for emigrants to advance in life. All at first experie^Tce troubles and difficulties, but after a short residence most are contented and happy. The number of those who disparage the good results of emigration are comparatively small 178 GUIDE BOOK TO mi and insignificant. I have travelled much in Canada, and am convinced that this is an especially good country for a poor man. Any industrious, sober, and persevering person after seven years work generally acquires a good position, and has money in the savings' bank. The system of giving 200 acres of land free to married people, and 100 for all over 18, is working well. The government here is not quite alive to the great benefits of emigration, and they would do well to encourage it more liberally, and let the people in the old country know there is work and food here for all who are willing to labour in any calling or occupation. To the patrons of emigration, I would urge them to proceed in this blessed work, and collect funds to send out many more respectable but poor people, who have scarce any work to sup- port life with. None need starve here. There are no workhouses or stone-yards, and most of the inha- bitants seem happy, contented, and prosperous. Praying God to abundantly bless this glorious move- ment in aiding our unemployed out to this pros- perous country, "I remain. Sir, your obedient servant, " A. StYLEMAN llEKKINa.*' St. Paul's, Clerliemcell. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 179 Canada, obcr, and generally ,y in tbo 10 acres of 11 over 18, i not quite I, and they lly, and let s work and bour in any emigration, osscd work, respectable ovk to sup- There are of the inha- prosperous. )rious move- this pros- 'ant, liElUUNQ it " 45, Colobrooko Row, Nortli Islington, Nov. 28, 1870. " Sir, — My impressions of Canada are favourable, especially as regards tlio prospects of the working classes. Labour I found was good and fairly paid for. I met men whom I knew in London in a stato of poverty and misery, now living in comfortablo circumstances. All must work, and work hard too . but every stroke of the axe brings a man nearer to independence. " Land was cheap and abundant. The Ontario Government offers 200 acres free to every married settler, and 100 to all over eighteen years. A handy man from Islington I met in the Parry Sound dis- trict, with 500 acres thus acquired, and who spoko most cheeringly of his prospects as a backwoods farmer. '' As a general rule the immigrant of the last two years are happy, comfortable, and contented. The wealth of Canada is undoubtedly in her land, and I found those immigrants who boldly located them- selves on the land, had made more substantial pro- gress than those who would stick to the towns. The great curse of Canada is its whisky and other drinks. If a man takes to drinking he soon falls under it, either as an inmate of a lunatic asylum, or as an outcast of society. I travelled during this " fall" 180 GUIDE BOOK TO tlirough the Moskoka (free grant district), and found about 60 per cent good land. They are opening up this district, and a rail is expected to penetrate to Bracebridfife, and even beyond. This, with the water carriage, will soon make this locality well filled in. About 100,000 acres have been located since April last. Mostly by the sons of Canadian farmers or immigrants of one or more years standing. " The Canadian Government are being aroused by the almost universal voice of the people to pro- mote emigration. They might soon populate Ca- nada, and she wants it badly enough. About 40,000 have settled in the Dominion during the past two years. " At present, when an emigrant arrives at Quebec, if he is in needy circumstances, the Government Emigration Association forward him and his family directly to the spot where work is to be had. This the Government gathers from the municipal autho- rities. Emigrants are well cared for, and everything is made as comfortable as circumstances will allow. * ** I would advise every emigrant or traveller to take with them a pocket filter (Atkins, Fleet Street, London) as the water is treacherous. The free school system works admirably. The churches are well supported, and the ministers zealous. *^ Their Post Office system (especially for delivery) THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 181 md found [>eiiing up netrate to L the water 11 filled in. since April farmers or [ng aroused pie to pro- (opulate Ca- .bout 40,000 the past two 53 at Quebec, Government ,d his family ,ehad. This licipal autho- d everything ■a will allow, r traveller to Fleet Street, |he free school ;hes are well for delivery) wants reforming.* Perhaps a prohibitive law to pre- vent any matches except those which strike only on paper of a chemical nature (like Byant and May's) would prevent those terrible conflagrations which are a terror to every neighbourhood, as I witnessed at Ottawa this fall. I am more and more convinced (after travelling 6000 miles in Canada, and visiting many districts and people) I say I am more convinced that emigra- tion is a blessing to both countries, and most sin- cerely do I hope to see it extended. ^ • "1 can only say, after helping 1700 poor but worthy people to emigrate, I can confidently recom- mend Canada as a place worthy of the notice of farmers, tradesmen, mechanics, and labourers. I remain yours sincerely, " A. Styleman Herring." ft A Woolwich Dockyard Emigrant writes home as follows : — " We arrived at Kingston on a Sunday, and landed several emigrants, and we went ashore for two hours. It is a very clean, nice place, and the further we went the better wo liked it. We reached Toronto * ThiB opinion is contrarj to the author's experience. ■■ 182 GUIDE BOOK TO on a Monday — three weeks from the day of starting from Woolwich. We were well received, and sup- plied with breakfast and dinner, after which I was draughted off to Aurora, about thirty miles from Toronto. There are two more families with us, and we are going to take a house between us until we can arrange matters better. I am going to try my hand this afternoon at what they call * lumbering,' which is stacking timber. Men are very scarce hereabouts, and there is room for a great many. I don't know what money I am to get. I shall make some arrangement with the ' Boss' when I see how I can manage it. The people about here are very friendly, and though I have only been here a few hours I feel quite at home. A young woman can do well out here. No matter what port they call at, they can meet with good masters at libeml wages. It is a beautiful country. No one at home can con- ceive the splendid prospect of the lakes, with hun- dreds of little islands dotted here and there. Wo stayed at an hotel last night, and the poor little child was so pleased to be undressed, for we had none of us properly undressed since we came from England. House rent is very cheap here — two dollars a month. I don't think I need send any more letters, for I could only tell them the same news, and I am sure you will use your best endeavours to give them all THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 183 f starting and Bup- licli I was iiles from tb. ns, and IS nntil we ; to try nay anabering/ evy scarce t many. 1 shall make I see how I e are very here a few woman can tliey call at, leml wages, ^e can con- t, with hun- there. Wo »r little child had none of ,m England, [arsamonth. letters, for I Id I am sure [ve them all the information in your power. There is plenty to do — foundries, boiler- shops, and other trades. Please to tell everybody you know if they have a mind to come out here, and they are willing to work and keep from the public-house, they need never go short of a meal or a dollar in their pockets." — Greenwich and Doptford Chronicle, , , - " Ingcrsoll, Canada West, August 3. " Dear Mr. Lynn, — I write you a few lines thank- ing you for the advice you gave me before I left England. I find this a fine country. I think I can do well here if I could only get my wife and chil- dren here. I have six children, and I believe wo could all live for very little more than what I pay for board and lodging, which is 2 dollars 75 cents, a week. Do you think there are any means by which I could get them out ? If there is, I would pay the passage-money back by instalments. I am sure there would be more charity in sending them here than some they have sent here. I have seen some that were sent out by a Society dissatisfied and grumbling, and I think very ungrateful for all that has been done for them. I don't know what they want ; provisions here are very cheap, and we live on the very best of everything. The working people 184 GUIDE BOOK TO \l in England cannot live in the way they do here ; they could not afford it. '' I have been now here two months. I wish I had come ten years ago, but better late than never. I send this in a letter to my wife, she will forward it to you from Gateshead, where she is living, (or scarcely living compared with the living here.) Will you be kind enough to write a few lines to her in answer. She will send her address to you. " I am, dear Sir, respectfully, " James Wardhaugh.'' Tc W. F. Lynn. Esq. " Gatineau Mills, Chelsea, near Ottawa, Canada. May 31, 1870. ''Deab Sir, — According to promise I take the first opportunity to write to let you know how I have got on since I came out. I was rather disap- pointed I did not see you again on board the " Prus- sian," at Liverpool, for I wished to tell you about a person who wants to come out, but I will do so here. " After a pleasant passage we got into Quebec on the 3rd inst. and up here on the 6th. I commenced work here on thQ 7 th, and like it very well. We THE CANADUN DOMINION. 185 Lo here ; I wisb I fcii never. )rward it ring, (or re.) Will to her in ally> IDHATJOn >j I, Canada. ,^ 570. take the LOW liow I [her disap- le " Prus- )u about a rill do so Quebec on )innienced rell. We work rather long hours, but I am getting used to that. I like the country very well so far, and think I shall continue to do so. " Agricultural hands are much wanted, and would meet with immediate employment here at wages ranging from twelve to sixteen dollars per month with board, the year through. If you know any good strong labourers coming out, advise them to come up to Ottawa. Mr. Wills will soon find them employment. He told me the demand for agricul- turalists far exceeds the supply. Twenty or thirty smart active young men could find employment up at these mills, as we are very busy, working both day and night with changes of hands. Previous know- ledge would not be necessary, only they must make up their minds to work, and they will soon get to like it. I like the work better than I did the first week, as I am getting more used to it. , *' If you come over this summer do not return with- out seeing these mills, for you will find them worthy of a visit I can assure you, I should be pleased to see you and to give you any information that lay in my power. . " The bearer of this, Mr. Richard Forrow, I wish specially to recommend to your notice. He is very anxious to come out with his family, but has not the means to do so himself. He is a carpenter by W!3§ Nrl 186 GUIDE BOOK TO trade, a Christian man, and a total abstainer from all intoxicating liquors. If you can meet with any- one who would assist in sending him and his family out I will advance £8. or £10. towards this desirable object, and gladly be responsible for the repayment of the remainder. I know you are acquainted with gentlemen interested in emigration, and I think this a case which fully deserves the attention of the benevolent. Will you kindly use your best exer- tions on his behalf and get them out if possible. Mr. F. will communicate any further particulars you may wish to know, and I shall be pleased if you can get them sent out here. If I can be of service to you in any way, either by collecting information, or otherwise, I shall be glad. You are at liberty to make use of this letter in any way you please, if you can gain anything that will be of sei-vice to emi- grants by it; but I would not like my nanie or address to appear in print. Allow me to thank you kindly for the trouble you have taken on my hehalf, and trust you will be able to do something for Mr. Forrow. " I remain, dear Sir, ■ " Yours very truly, "To W.F.Lynn, Esq." THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 187 iier from vitli any- lis family desirable epayment Lnted witli think this on of the best exer- f possible, iculars you sed if you 3 of service nformation, Lt liberty to .ease, if you Lce to emi- naiyie or thank you my hehalf, ,ething for Iruly, tt "Ingcisoll, May 22nd, 1870. Dear Sir, — Feeling sure that you would bo glad to hear of the welfare of the emigrants sent out by you in the ship ' Germany/ I now write to let you know that I and my mate Joe Warratt have both got employment at Ingersoll, and like it very much, although the wages are not what we expected to find them ; but provisions are very cheap and the country very healthy. The only diflBculty I have now is getting my wife and children out before the winter sets in. T have sent her to you and should feel very grateful if you could in any way assist me in getting her out, and give her all the instructions that lay in your power. I have two children, one under 12 months, the other 3 years old, and I should feel grateful for any assistance you could render. ''The general prices of wages are, — mechanics, one dollar and a quarter to one dollar and a half ; labourers, one dollar per day. Provisions are, — meat, 4>d. per lb., butter, 8d. per lb., potatoes, is. 8d, per bushel, flour. Id. per lb. " All manufactured goods are expensive. House rent, tiiree dollars to six dollars per month. I remain, yours very respectfully, " TiioMAs Mitchell. « II (( To W. F. Lynn, Esq.' 188 GUIDE BOOK TO :(i^r "Hamilton, Canada AVest, May 5, 1870. " Dear William, — ^We received your letter when we were lying in the river. * * * * ^Te hope when you receive this you will be thinking of coming out, and will come to us. This is a beau- tiful place and plenty of work; if you were here you could get work at painting ; Alfred 'would have taken a job if he had not gone with his father, where your uncle agreed for his work. There was another gentleman sent for him ; there is plenty of work here for people that will work, but it is of no use for any one to come out here if they will not work, they had better stay at home. When you come bring all you can — bring your beds and your carpet if you can, and your crockery. No clothing unmade, for perhaps they will open your box ; they did not open mine. Bring as much money as you can. Clothing as cheap here as it is at home; but they tell me it does not last quite as long. " I remain, your affectionate mother, "M. A. Davis." h I- THK CANADIAN DOMINION. 189 i, 1870. or when IVe bope iking of } a beau- ere here >uld have is father, ^liere was plenty of it is of no iy will not VV^en you s and your clothing box; they ,ney as you Ibome; hut lother, Ia. Davis." APPENDIX. PATENT LAWS APPLYINa TO CANADA. General Eules for Canada. 1. There is no necessity for any personal appearance at the Patent Office, unless specially called for by order of the Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner, every transaction being carried on by writing. 2. In every case the applicant or depositor of any paper is responsible for the merits of his allegations and of the validity of the instruments furnished by him or his agent. ... 3. The correspondence is carried on with the applicant, or with the agent who has remitted or transmitted the papers to the office, but with one person only. 4. All papers are to be clearly and neatly written on foolscap paper, and every word of them is to be distinctly legible, in order that no difficulty should be met with in the taking cognizance of, and in registering and copying them. 5. All communications are to be addressed in the following words : — " To the Commissioner of FatentSt Ottawa:' 6. As regards proceedings not specially provided for 190 GUIDE BOOK TO in the following forms, any form being conformable to the letter and spirit of the laws will be accepted, and if not 80 conformable will be returned for correction. CopYBianT. 7. An application for the Registration of a copyright shall be made after the following form, when the ;q>plicant is a resident of Canada : To the Minister of Agriculture , Oliaioa : — l, (name of person) being a resident of Canada, and now residing in the (citj/f towtij pariahy iownsltip or locality,) in the Pro- vince of Ontario {Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, as the case may he,) hereby declare that I am the Proprietor of the {look, map, chart, statuary, ^'c. ^c. as the case may be) called {title of the book, ma^ Sfc. as the case may be,) and hereby request the Eegis nation of the same, and for that purpose I herewith forward the fee required by the Copyright Act of 1868, together with two copies of the {book, map, chart, ^c, as the case may he ; and if the object is a painting, a sculpture, or any other work of art, a written description of such work of art.) In testimony thereof, I have signed, in the presence of the tw^o undersigned witnesses, at the place and date hereunder mentioned. {Place and date.) {Signature of the Proprietor.) {Signature of the two witnesses.) THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 191 able to , and if ^pyrigl^t pplicaut (name of Hiding in the Pro- i/ja, New that I am ry, ^'c- ^c- fi; *^- izisj VI action ,rward the ither with \e case may \re, or any \uch work presence and date To THE United States. All persons may take patents provided the iuveutiou has not been in public use for more than two years. No discrimination is made against Canadians. The law requiring foreigners to put their inventions on sale within eighteen months is abolished. Asftignments void, as against a subsequent purchaser- unless recorded within three months from date. All cases can be appealed from the Commissioner to the District Court, except interference cases. In cases where a patent is refused by the District Court, an ajipcal by bill in equity may be taken. Disclaimers may be filed. Designs may be taken by all persons — no discrimina- tions. This will enable foreign manufacturers to protect themselves against having their designs copied, which has hitherto been quite extensively practised in this country, especially in the production of textile goods. Trade-marks may also be protected by firms or indi- viduals, $25 for thirty years, with right of renewal. The above are the more important changes made by the new law. They are simple, and on the whole com- mendable. meter.) 192 GUIDE BOOK TO k.: 'i Ea-Ilugad Faees iir English Monet, FEOM Q UEBEC TO THE PeINCIPAL ToWHS IN CANADA. ( . ; £ ff. d. Quebec to Riclimond . 4 2 a Montreal . 4 2 w - Sherbrooke 8 8 » Prescott . 12 8 »> Brookville . 12 8 it Ottawa • •'* 15 9 it Kingston • *' 14 8 it Coburg • ' »• . 18 8 U Port Hope • * 18 8 it Peterboro', change at Port H( ype 3 10 iV ^ Lindsay . * ■ . ♦ 2 10 J? Toronto 8 » Hamilton . 2 9 n W oodstock 7 10 n . London 4 it Gait 5 10 )> Stratford . • *- 4 »i Sarnia 7 It Barrie^ change at Toronto . 8 10 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 193 Quebec A. £ 8. d. 4. 2 4 2 8 8 12 8 12 8 . 15 9 . 14 8 . 18 8 . 18 8 1 3 10 . 1 2 10 .10 8 12 9 1 7 10 14 1 6 10 .14 17 1 8 10 1870. GREAT INTEBNATIONAL ROUTE. 1870. GRAND TRUNK BROAD GUAGE RAILWAY s 1377 MILES UNDER ONE MANAGEMENT! • » THE GBEAT DIRECT CANADIAN MAIL AND EXPRESS ROUTE BETWEEN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN STATES. The Cheapest and Best Route to all Points East and West. Close Connections made with all Connecting Lines, and Through Tickets issued to all important points. fi^ For San Francisco, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Omaha, and intermediate places on the Pacific Railway , the Grand Trunk is the most direct route. Splendid Palace Sleeping Cars' are now run between Chicago and Sarnia withow"^ change. Prom Passengers holding Through Tickets, American Money is received, at par, for Sleeping Berths and Refreshments. Be sure and ash for Tickets via the Grand Trunk Bailwaij. H. Shackell, J General Passenger Agent. C. J. Betdges, M-'naging Director. 194 GUIDE BOOK TO MONTREAL OCEAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY. ALLAN LINE. Tinder Contract with the Government of Canada for the conveyance of the CANADIAN AND UNITED STATES MAILS. • Kunning in conuectiou with the Grand Trunk and other Railways, and forwarding Passengers on easy terms to all Stations in Canada and the Western States, iS./S. Scandinavian S.S. Prussian S.S. Aw "an J) a u a Nestorian Hibernian Germany Saint David Norway Assyrian >» il/t Avian North American Ottawa Saint Andrew Saint Patrick Peruvian Nova Scotian Damascus European Sweden Caspian SAIL FROM LIVERPOOL TO PORTLAND EVERF TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, Calling at Londonderry (Ireland) on the following day to take on board Passengers and Mails ; and . . , FROM GLASGOW TO PORTLAND EVERY TUESDAY, Calling at Dublin to embark Passengers, i : Cabin Eaee : ' FROM LIVERPOOL BY THE MAIL LINE, 18 & 1 5 GUINEAS ; AND BY THE GLASGOW LINE, 13 GUINEAS. Cabin Pare includes Provisions, but not Wines or Liquors, which can be obtained on board. Steerage Passage, £6. 6*, to either Portland, Quebec, Boston, or New York, including a liberal supply of cooked provisions. A few intermediate berths at £9. 9*, THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 195 X for the AILS.- runk and asy terms btes. 'an man h American wa t Andrew t Fatrick rrXJESDAT wing day to and TUESDAY, lers, " , 15 GUINEAS; llNEA-S. )t AVines or land, Quebec, lal supply of Baggage taken from the Ocean Steam Ships to the Railway Cars free of expense. For Fi'eight or Passage apply — In Glasgow, to J. & A. Allan ; in London, to Montgomerie and Greenhorne, 17, Gracechurch Street ; in Londonderry, to Allan Bro- thers & Co., Foyle Street; in Quebec, to Allang, Eae, & Co. ; in Montreal, to H. & A. Allai;i ; or in Liverpool, to Allan Brothers and Co., Alexandra Buildings, James Street, and 85, Foyle Street, Londonderry. .' >: , *. During the Summer Months — from beginning of April until the first week in November — the steamers go to Quebec instead of Portland, the same railway facilities being in operation there. ' ^ PUBLIC COMPANIES Connected w^itu Canada, New Buunswick, Nova Scotia, etc., iiavino Offices in London. Secretaries, Offices. J. M. Grant .21, Old Broad Street. . 126, Grcsham House. . Great Winchester St. Buildings. . 2, Queen St. Place. .-13, Gresham Street. Railways. Grand Trunk Great Western of Canada , Buffalo and Lake Huron Welland . . . . Great Northern of Canada . Railway and Land Companies. Canada Company . British North American As bociation . B. Baker Thomas Short H. D. Stead T. CutbiU • . G. Molincux . Irving Hare 1, East India Avenue, E.G. , 118, Pall Mall. SM 196 GUIDE BOOK TO Offices. . 1, King's Arms Yard. 2, St. Mildred's Ct. E.C. Railway and Land Companies. Secretabies. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia . . . . W. Aggas . British American Laud Company . , . A. H. Brown . 35i, New Broad St. Canadian Land and Emigra- tion Company . . H. W. Crace . 84, Gresham House. British Columbia Spar, Lum- ber, &c., Company . . H. W. Crace . 85, Gresham House. Vancouver Coal Mining and Land .... Colonial Securities Company A. R. Roche . 80, Lombard Str«H'$. Trust and Loan Company of U. C. . . . F. Fearon . , 66, Moorgate Stre<;t. Canada Landed Credit Com- Brunton & Sons, Auction Mart Cham- pany .... (Agents) . bers. Canadian Loan and Invest- H. E. Bennett ment Company . , (Man.) . . 120, Chancery Lane. Hudson's Bay 0}mpany .W.G.Smith . 19, Leadcnhall Street, E.G. West Canada Mining Com- W. G. Williams . 6, Queen St. Place, pany .... E.G. Banks, Etc. Bank of British North America . . • . C. M'Nab . .124, Bishopsgate St. Bank of Montreal , .Agents — Union , Within Bank of London t Steam. British Colonial Steam . R. Camming . 3, White Lion Court, E.C. Montreal Ocean Steam . Montgomerie and Co. (Agents) . 17, Gracechurch St. THE CANADIAN DOMINION, SUMMAET STATEMENT 197 C£9> .rmsYartl- Broad St. Etm House. lam House, lildred's Ct. ,bard Str - ,T. I know of no medicine which act lore power, ily upon the kidneys than the common Stra\ Ish- oot, which grows wild upon most fallows. The root is dug up in THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 205 L stage— come on idian ; or jundan) ; rn, quar- Is return e) Of rycb-hazel night and TOMACH. a decoc- 1 powdered wine-glass latable, add made and T. powerl ily oot, which dug up in the fall of the year, dried in a warm oven, and made into a tea, of which several pints may be drunk through the day. Bemedy for Bronchial Affections. Slippery Elm-bark infused in water makes an excel- lent emollient remedy, deserving of all praise. Dandelion, ob Tabaxacum Coffee. Dig up the DandelioD plants when done flowering, slice and dry the roots in a warm oven, grind in a mill, and use as coffee. A pleasant and wholesome beverage, and an excellent alterative for the liver. Chebet "Whisky. Put a gallon of wild Black Cherries into four gallons of whisky. (The price of this native whisky is from 3» to 6« a gallon), and let the liquor stand for two months. Application fob Musquito Bites. Wash the bites with either Aniseed or Penny-royal tea : Lemon or Lime-juice will remove the pain more quickly than any thing. How TO OBTAIN " Coon" OiL. Boil down Bacoon flesh and fat, and skim off" the oil which collects on the surface of the water. This is a remarkably >?«e oil, and most useful to the machinist and mechanic. 206 GUIDE BOOK TO THE CANADIAN DOMINION. Shoe Packs Are made of untanned leather, without any additional soles: they are indispensable to the Settler in snowy weather, and are to be purchased at all the country " stores." They must be kept well greased, and worn over thin boots or thick worsted socks. How TO MAKE Soap in the Forest. Make a ley by the addition of water to wood ashes, in a wooden cradle, and the grease and fat which accu- mulates from cooking, &c. the end. H Buper royal 1 6rno. cloth, ^'rice 5» Gi. VICTORIA, THE BRITISH " EL DORADO," CONTAININO A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THAT COLONY AND ITS CAPITAL^MELBOURNE ; AND ALSO 8HOWINO THE Advantages of Victoria as a field for Emigration. BY A COLONIST OF TWENTY YEARS' STANDING, AND LATE MEMBER OF A COLONIAL LEGISLATURE. With two coloured Views and a Map. " All who would tftke a part in promoting the welfare of their wenker brethren may peruse this little volume with real proflt. It presents culonial life in a favourable aspect, yet without conoealment of its drawbacks, a few of them permanent, but most of them temporary Two pretty little views ami a small but careful and correct map add to the satisfactory get-up of this useful and opportune work of a bonajide colonist" — Atlienceum. " A more useful work can scarcely be imagined."— Weekly Dispatch. " The book contains a great amount of information, brought up to the latest date, and communicated in a matter-of-fact style, and in plain intelligitle lan- guage." — Melbourne Argm. Uniform with the above, super royal 1 6mo. cloth, 5s Gd. POUR YEARS IN QUEENSLAND, By E. B. KENNEDY. With Photograph of a *' Squatter's Honse, and a Coloured Map, (Scale 64 miles to an inch; size, 23 inches by 18) showing nil the latest Discoveries from Private and other Sources, with the Agiicultural Districts and Gold Fields clearly defined. •' We close with re; ret Mr. Kennedy's useful and compact little volume. It contains in a small conD^is a mass of useful suggestions to intending emigrants, while it will furnish to 8tay-at,home readers an admirable nummary of tlie posi- tion and prospects of one of the most promising of England's colonies. • • • Thoroughly interesting and readable from beginning to end." — Examiner. " Gives much information to the intending emigrant The map seems exccl< lent." — Athenasum. '• There is more valuable matter in this small book than will be found in many volumes of much larger size and much greater pretensions. It is marked by tiiorough conscientiousness ; it reads like an honest book."— l^an«Ae4(er Guardian, LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 6 and 7, CHARING CROSS. S.W. CANADA. STANPOBD'S MAP of CANADA, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward and Breton Islands, extending from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Lake Superior, including the adjacent parts of the United States, from New York to Chicago, with the Railways, Roads, and Canals. Second Edition. Scale, 29^ miles to an inch. Size, 60 inches by 33. Four Sheets, 12«,' Mounted in Case, 18« ; also in separate Sheets, 3s 6d ; in Case, 5s each. CANADA. — Upper and Lower Canada, with the Railways. Maps of these Provinces. Scale, 26^ miles to an inch. On two Sheets, 17 inches by 15 each. Folded, Is 6d ; Mounted in Case, St 6