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 1 
 
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 FACTS ABOUT MANITOBA 
 
 FROM 
 
 C t 
 
 W. FRASER RAE'S 
 
 ^* NEWFOUNDLAND TO MANITOBA'^ 
 
 REPRINTED, WITH LARGE ADDITIONS, FROM 
 
 t!ri)( Cimes 
 
 n 
 
 WITH TWO MAPS 
 
 -^^^wers I tas 
 
 BIBUOTHECA 
 Otta>Ment\* 
 
 i 
 
 Eoution 
 
 CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited 
 11, HENRIETTA STREET, CO VENT GARDEN 
 
 1882 
 lAll rights reserved] 
 
LONDON 
 PBINTED BY GILBEBT AND EIVINGTON, LIMITED, 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUAEB. 
 
 FC 
 3367.3^ 
 
PEE FACE. 
 
 This work is issued in a cheap form for 
 general circulation at the request of the Govern- 
 ment of Canada, conveyed to me through the 
 High Commissioner for the Dominion, Sir Alex- 
 ander Gait. It is composed of the chapters in 
 " N'ewfoundland to Manitoba: through Canada's 
 Maritime, Mining, and Prairie Provinces," de- 
 scribing the best way in which to reach Manitoba, 
 and the attractions of the great Prairie Province 
 of the Dominion. Chapter VII., containing the 
 ** Opinions of Manitoba Farmers," the substance 
 of which appeared in The Times, is now reprinted 
 for the first time. An Appendix, in two parts, 
 contains the authentic experience of a working 
 man in Manitoba, and the regulations of the 
 Canadian Government for the guidance of set- 
 tlers. I hope that every reader of this work 
 who is going to the Canadian Far "West, or who 
 is desirous of information concerning it, will 
 gather from its pages practical hints about the 
 journey thither, what to expect on arrival, and 
 the conditions under which land can be acquired 
 there. 
 
 W. Fkaser Rae. 
 
 
 
 n 
 
f'fm'''- 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ;ni.: 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. To THE Canadian Far West . 
 II. The City of Winnipeg .... 
 
 III. Canada's Prairie Province 
 
 IV. Mennonites and Icelanders in Manitoba 
 V. The North -West Territories 
 
 VI. The Canadian Far West 
 
 VII. Opinions of Manitoba Farmers 
 
 Appendix I. — A Working Man on Labour and 
 Wages in Manitoba 
 
 Appendix II. — Regulations for the Disposal of 
 Free Grant and other Public Lands in Mani- 
 toba and the North- West Territories . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 20 
 43 
 
 58 
 
 71 
 
 88 
 
 109 
 
 121 
 
 125 
 
 Map of the Dominion of Canada . . . .121 
 Map of Manitoba, showing New Towns, Villages, 
 
 and Post-Offices 43 
 
:M. '--^■ 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TO TEE CANADIAN FAR WEST. 
 
 All the lines of Atlantic steamers lead to Mani- 
 toba. The emigrant or traveller who embarks at 
 Liverpool, Glasgow or London, at Bristol, Hull 
 or Southampton, at Londonderry or Queenstown, 
 at Havre, Antwerp, Hamburg or Bremen on a 
 steamer bound for the North American Continent 
 will find it easy after landing at any port there 
 to continue his journey to the Canadian Far West. 
 In oases where economy has to be practised 
 and time saved, the emigrant generally begins 
 his journey in a line of steamers running to 
 Canada. If an emigrant, he should start from 
 this country early in April; if a traveller, he 
 should start at the end of August. The fare 
 from British ports to Winnipeg, the capital of 
 Manitoba, ranges from £9 5s., for an emigrant who 
 obtains an " assisted passage ** in the steerage, to 
 £28 for accommodation in the saloon. An inter- 
 mediate or second-class through ticket costs from 
 £12 8*. to £14 35. Children at sea — children 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 n 
 
To the Canadian Far West, 
 
 above twelve — are treated and charged as adults on 
 board sliip ; from one year up to twelve they pay 
 half -fare ; infants under one year are allowed to 
 cross the Atlantic for a guinea. On land the 
 children under twelve travel more cheaply; if 
 they are under five no charge is made ; between 
 five and twelve they pay half-fare. 
 
 The passenger who has crossed the Atlantic in 
 an Allan liner, or in any other steamer plying 
 between British and Canadian ports, reaches 
 Toronto by rail after landing at Halifax, Eimouski 
 or Quebec. Unless he make up his mind and 
 obtain a through ticket before leaving home, he 
 finds at Toronto that he has the choice of three 
 routes to Manitoba. First, he may proceed to 
 Winnipeg by rail — the journey, if continued 
 without stoppage, occupying three days and a 
 half. Second, he may proceed to Sarnia, on Lake 
 Huron, over the Grand Trunk Railway, embark 
 there in a steamer for Duluth, at the head of Lake 
 Superior, where he enters the train for Winnipeg. 
 Third, he may proceed to Collingwood, on 
 Georgian Bay, over the North of Canada Railway, 
 where a steamer will carry him to Duluth, whence 
 he continues his journey as in the second case. 
 The time occupied in the third of these cases is 
 four days and a half, being one day shorter than 
 by the Sarnia route, and one day longer than the 
 
On the Red River of the North, 
 
 direct route by rail. In addition to the saving in 
 time, the third route has the advantage over the 
 second that the voyage is made along the north 
 shore of Lake Superior, where the scenery is 
 bolder and more vrried than on the south. 
 During five months out of the twelve, Lake 
 Superior is closed to navigation ; the open season 
 begins at the end of April and closes at the end 
 of November. 
 
 Though the trip to Manitoba by rail through 
 United States territory is generally uninteresting, 
 yet the trip by water is sometimes diversified by 
 incident. The railway attracts all the passengers 
 in winter; but the steamers on the Eed River 
 of the North are eagerly patronized during 
 the summer time. Having made the trip all the 
 way by rail and partly by rail and partly by water, 
 I can afiirm from experience that, by journeying 
 partly by rail and partly by water, an adequate 
 notion can be formed of the country and its insects, 
 while much more can be learned about the people. 
 Besides, the Eed Eiver is a stream of sufficient 
 volume and importance to deserve notice. Com- 
 pared with the Mississippi, the Eed Eiver of the 
 North appears insignificant. Nevertheless, as its 
 length from Elbow Lake, in which it rises, to Lake 
 Winnipeg into which it flows, is 900 miles, it merits 
 a place among the great rivers of the world. 
 
 B 2 
 
 
 
 n 
 
4 Course of the Red River. 
 
 Two Red Rivers are numbered among the notable 
 streams of the North American Continent. One 
 of them rises in the Territory of New Mexico, 
 flows through the States of Texas, Arkansas, and 
 Louisiana, and, joiningthe Mississippi,helps to swell 
 the volume of the mighty flood which the Father of 
 Waters pours into the Gulf of Mexico. The other, 
 which is known as the Red River of the North, rises 
 in Elbow Lake, in the State of Minnesota. Its 
 source is not far distant from Lake Itaska, which 
 is the fountain-head of the Mississippi. Though 
 that river's course is southward and the course of 
 the Mississippi is northward when both streams 
 first issue from their parent lakes, yet they soon 
 follow the direction which they keep till their race 
 is run. The Red River, in its northerly progress, 
 divides the Territory of Dakota from the State of 
 Minnesota; it enters the Canadian Province of 
 Manitoba at Fort Pembina ; it passes by the city 
 of Winnipeg, the capital of that Province, where 
 it is joined by the Assineboine, flowing from the 
 west ; it enters Lake Winnipeg, whence it issues 
 under the name of Nelson River ; and, finally, it 
 finds its level and a last resting-place in the icy 
 waters of Hudson's Bay. The valley bearing the 
 same name through which it runs is still more 
 remarkable than the Red River itself. For a space 
 which is 400 miles in length by 70 in breadth, that 
 
 li 
 
On the Red River of the North, 
 
 valley is the finest wheat-growing tract on the 
 continent of North America, if not on the habitable 
 globe. 
 
 Farming on a scale unparalleled except in 
 California is prosecuted in the Red River Valley. 
 This dates from the year 1875, when several 
 capitalists bought vast tracts of land there. Mr. 
 B. P. Cheney, or Boston, and Mr. Oliver 
 Dalrymple, of St. Paul, purchased 5000 acres of 
 which 3500 were under cultivation in 1879. In 
 1877 they harvested 42,000 bushels of wheat, 6000 
 of oats, and 3000 of barley. The machinery on 
 this farm comprises 40 ploughs, 16 seeders, 40 
 harrows, 16 harvesters, 3 steam thrashing 
 machines, and 3 portable steam-engines. As many 
 as a hundred men are employed at the busiest 
 season. Mr. Cass has a farm of 6000 acres, 
 nearly the whole of -which is sown with wheat. 
 Large though these farms are, yet they seem small 
 in comparison with that belonging to Mr. William 
 Dalrymple ; it covers 30 square miles. The area 
 sown with wheat in 1878 was 20,900 acres; the 
 yield was 250,000 bushels. Seventy-five reaping 
 and binding machines were used to harvest the 
 crop, the work being done at the rate of 1000 
 acres a day. This farm is managed on the plan 
 of a factory. It is divided into sections of 2000 
 acres, over each of which an overseer is placed ; 
 
 
 
Mammoth Farms, 
 
 •I 
 
 he carries out the orders of Mr. Dalrymple just as 
 a Brigadier-General carries out the orders of the 
 Commander-in-Chief of an army. Comfortable 
 dwelUngs are provided for the overseers, while 
 there is a boarding-house for the accommodation 
 of the farm-labourers. Each section has its 
 granary, stables, machine-shop, and engine-house. 
 Indeed, the vast estate is really divided into a 
 number of separate farms, each complete in itself, 
 and all subject to a common head. Four hundred 
 and nf ty labourers and upwards of three hundred 
 horses and mules are employed on this farm ; 
 three bookkeepers are required to register the 
 accounts, and two cashiers to receive and disburse 
 the money. Indeed the whole arrangements are 
 designed to assimilate the production of grain to 
 the operations of a manufactory. The idyllic side 
 of farming has no place here. The farmer is a 
 capitaUst ; the farm-labourer is called a " hand ** 
 and treated as one. Advocates of spade-husbandry 
 will see nothing to admire in this wholesale method 
 of cultivating the soil, and they will maintain that 
 if this system should grow in favour, the day 
 must arrive when, in the United States as in 
 certain European countries, there will be a perma- 
 nent and rigid separation between the tillers of 
 the soil and its owners. However, while land 
 continues as plentiful and as easily acquired in 
 
On the Red River of the North, 
 
 North America as it was in Europe during the 
 Middle Ages, when the existing large estates were 
 formed in England, the citizens of the United 
 States will disregard gloomy forebodings and will 
 continue to lavish their admiration upon a success- 
 ful capitahst like Mr. Dalrymple. His farm is a 
 common topic of glorification among the citizens 
 of the new North- West, and of admiring envy 
 among the dwellers in less fertile parts of the land. 
 My present purpose is not to linger and describe 
 what may be observed on the Red River within 
 the United States, but to journey along it to the 
 Canadian Province of Manitoba. That river is 
 the silent highway of intercourse between the 
 citizens of the Union and the citizens of the 
 British Empire. A few years ago an Indian 
 canoe was the only kind of boat which traversed 
 its surface. Now steam vessels pass backwards 
 and forwards between St. Vincent, a station of 
 the St. Paul and Manitoba Railway and the capital 
 of Canada's Prairie Province. There has been a 
 settlement of British subjects on this river since 
 the year 1812. Then the Earl of Selkirk, chair- 
 man of the Hudson's Bay Company, induced 
 Highlanders, who could not live in comfort on 
 their native heatli, to seek a new homo in the 
 heart of the North American Continent. Nearly 
 half a century after this settlement was formed, 
 
 q 
 
 
 
 n 
 
8 
 
 By Water to Winnipeg^ 
 
 Dr. Rae, the famous Arctic explorer, informed a 
 Select Committee of the House of Commons that 
 about two months were required to journey from 
 Toronto, in Upper Canada, to ^he Red River Settle- 
 ment in Rupert's Land. The Earl of Southesk, who 
 went to hunt in the Hudson's Bay Territory in 
 1859, saw a steamer on the Red River for the 
 first time. In 1862 the late Lord Milton and 
 Dr. Cheadle experienced on the Red River a pain- 
 ful foretaste of the perils which had to be faced 
 and surmounted before they could begin their 
 toilsome journey across the North- W(istern Wil- 
 derness. Finding that the steamer sailed but once 
 a fortnight, and not caring to wait for it, they 
 started down the rapid stream in a canoe, and 
 endured extraordinary hardships before they 
 reached Fort Garry. Eight years latter Captain 
 Butler was commissioned by Colonel (now Sir 
 Garnet) Wolseley, the chief of the expedition which 
 was sent to suppress Ricl's rebellion, to proceed 
 to Winnipeg through the United States. He 
 passed along the Red River in the steamer hiieY^ 
 national, and suffered by the way as others have 
 done before and since. The tale of his misery 
 is graphically told in " The Great Lone Land." 
 
 The inconvenience of this route caused the 
 Government of Canada to devise another within 
 the limits of the Dominion. This was known 
 
On the Red River of the North, 
 
 9 
 
 as the Dawson route. A traveller over it, wh? 
 started from Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior, 
 reached Fort Garry in the course of three weeks. 
 The Red River expedition, under Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, which first passed over this part of 
 the country, took three months to make the 
 same trip. As the Dawson route proved unre- 
 munerative to its promoters, it has long ceased 
 to be a regular pathway for traflSc and travel 
 between the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. 
 The traveller who started from the capital of tho 
 former province for that of the latter either went 
 to Chicago by rail, thence by another line of 
 railway to St. Paul and Fisher's Landing, where 
 he stepped on board a steamer which carried him 
 to his destination, or else he took the train to the 
 shore of Lake Superior, where he embarked in a 
 steamer for Duluth ; thence ho proceeded by rail 
 to Fisher's Landing, and by steamer to AVinnipeg. 
 But, whichever route was chosen, tho time occu- 
 pied was not less than 11 days, so that Manitoba 
 remained as far apart from the Eastern Provinces 
 of the Dominion as Oanada is from England. 
 My first trip to Manitoba was made by rail from 
 St. Paul to Fisher's Landing, thence by water 
 to Winnipeg. Since then tho landing-place has 
 been changed to St. Vincent, thus saving the 
 tedious navigation of Red Lake River. 
 
 c 
 
 
 
lO 
 
 Lake Mtnneionka, 
 
 l|!l|M 
 
 In the spring, wlien the river is in flood, the 
 500 miles which separate the two places can be 
 traversed in 48 hours. In the autumn the river 
 is very low and then the passage is very tedious. 
 The return voyage which I made occupied five 
 days and nights. The first part of the journey 
 northwards is easy and pleasant. Leaving the 
 capital of Minnesota by the St. Paul and 
 Manitoba Railway at 5 o'clock in the evening, 
 the passenger reaches Fisher's Landing shortly 
 before noon the following day. Twenty-five 
 miles from the starting-place a stoppage is made 
 at Wayzata, on Lake Minnetonka. This Lake is 
 one of the natural attractions of the State of 
 Minnesota,; it excites even greater admiration 
 than the falls of Minnehaha, which owe much of 
 their popularity to Mr. Longfellow's poetry. The 
 Lake consists of a series of bays, each of which is 
 a lake in miniature, and many are studded with 
 wooded islands. There are 25 of these bays. The 
 Lake is navigable for a length of 17 miles. In 
 olden time it was the favourite haunt of Dakota 
 Indians ; they encamped on its margin or on one 
 of its islands. They caught fish in the lake, 
 gathered wild fruits on the islands, hunted deer 
 and other game in the surrounding forests, and 
 procured sugar from the maple trees which 
 beautified the scene. The places of the wild 
 
On the Red River of the North, 
 
 II 
 
 Indians are now filled with thousands of civilized 
 tourists, who enjoy themselves during the hot 
 months of summer along the shores or on the 
 bosom of the lake. As we proceed northward 
 there is a change in the aspect of the land. The 
 southern part of Minnesota is diversified with 
 wood and rising ground ; the northern is genuine 
 prairie, extending to the horizon without any- 
 thing but a few log houses to vary its flat sur- 
 face. 
 
 The monotony of the night journey was broken 
 by an incident of which I do not desire a repetition. 
 About midnight the car was filled with an acrid 
 and stifling odour ; such a smell I had never ex- 
 perienced before. If the pungent and nauseous 
 effect produced by throwing water upon hot 
 CiUders were intensified a hundredfold and if all 
 the worst stenches were combined with it, the 
 result would not equal the reality on this 
 occasion. In the morning I learnt that the train 
 had passed over a skunk. The small town, called 
 Fisher's Landing, from which the steamers started 
 was on the model of "Western cities. It had two 
 hotels, between which there was nothing to 
 choose, both being as comfortable and attractive 
 as the cabin of an Irish bog-trotter. There were 
 several drinking-saloons and one general store ; a 
 sensible notice in the latter was to the effect that 
 
 d 
 
 
 
12 
 
 Stern Wheel Steamers. 
 
 
 IN 
 
 persons who came to make purchases were more 
 welcome than those who merely wished to gossip. 
 Fisher's Landing is on the Red Lake Eiver, a 
 stream which joins the main one at Grand Forks. 
 Steamers plied between it and WinnipDg twice 
 weekly between the months of May and Septem- 
 ber. The Manitoba was the one in which I went, 
 and the Minnesota the one in which I returned. 
 They are the property of the Kittson Transpor- 
 la .on Company. I gladly acknowledge that the 
 officials of the company and the officers of the 
 steamers did what they could to render the 
 voyage as pleasant as possible. The boats are 
 unlike anything to be seen in England. Their 
 appearance can best be realized by supposing a 
 Thames coal-barge to have a deck and two long 
 furnaces, with boilers above them, placed near 
 the bow, and two steam-engines further aft. 
 The engines work a paddle-wheel which is the 
 breadth of the boat, and revolves at the stern. 
 Above the boilers and engines is a wooden house, 
 containing the saloon and state-rooms. The top of 
 this house forms the upper deck. Pipes convey- 
 ing steam from the boilers to the engines run 
 under the thin flooring of the state-rooms, which 
 are situated at the sides of the saloon. As the 
 thermometer seldom indicated less than 95 deg. 
 in the shade during this journey on the Red 
 
Ojt the Red River of the North. 
 
 ix 
 
 River, the oxtra heat from these steam pipes was 
 a superfluity with which the occupants of the 
 state-rooms could easily dispense. 
 
 Though the heat was intolerable almost beyond 
 endurance and far in excess of what most of the 
 passengers had ever experienced, yet it was not 
 the worst infliction. Myriads of hungry and 
 ruthless mosquitoes plied their sanguinary trade 
 in every corner of the steamboat where a human 
 being could be approached. Many black flies 
 rivalled them in assiduous efforts to get food and 
 inflict pain. At a competitive examination a 
 black fly could bear away the prize from a 
 mosquito. He bites with greater force and to a 
 greater depth, and he clings to the surface of the 
 skin with more firmness than a mosquito, while 
 the irritation which he leaves behind lasts longer 
 and is more painful than that produced by his 
 fellow pest. It is a beautiful provision in nature 
 that a real or imaginary remedy is provided for 
 every plague. Everybody knows that there are 
 several " infallible '* cures for sea-sickness. Pro- 
 vision of the same kind exists for the protection 
 of the human skin against the bites of venomous 
 insects. A passenger on board the Manitoba was 
 the happy possessor of one of these infalHblo 
 remedies. He had being fishing in Labrador, 
 where the streams are alive with fish and tho air 
 
 d 
 
 
 
14 
 
 Onslaughts of Insects. 
 
 IHllll I 
 
 is dark with stinging insects, and he had been able 
 to pursue his sport in comfort by smearing him- 
 self with a mixture of tar and sweet oil. He was 
 loud in praise of this panacea before the mosqui- 
 toes and black flies pounced upon their prey. He 
 prepared himself for the onslaught, and he was 
 kind enough to allow myself and others to do the 
 same by rubbing the skin with the mixture. It 
 was not long before he stated with extreme 
 emphasis that the insects of the Eed Eiver must 
 be differently constituted from those of Labrador, 
 because what repelled the latter seemed to attract 
 the former. 
 
 The distance from Fisher's Landing to Grand 
 Forks is 12 miles by land. It is about 50 miles 
 by water. The time taken to go between these 
 two places when the water is low varies from 18 
 to 30 hours. Ten hours were consumed in 
 passing over the worst part, the distance being 
 four miles. I was surprised, not that the steamer 
 made slow progress, but that it made pny. The 
 river winds to a degree which is unprecedented. 
 At few parts is the course a straight one for a 
 quarter of a mile in length. What renders the 
 navigation more laborious is that a barge, laden 
 to the water's edge, is generally lashed alongside 
 the steamer; hence the difficulty of rounding 
 sharp curves is materially increased. The stop- 
 
On the Red River of the North, 
 
 15 
 
 pages are frequent and tedious. Sometimes they 
 are caused by the barge and the steamer ground- 
 ing on a shoal, and then a rope has to be sent on 
 shore, fastened round a tree, and dragged in by 
 the steam winch, or "nigger" as it is here called, 
 till the tree is torn up by its roots or the steamer 
 is moved into deep wpter. At other times long 
 halts are made to repair the stern wheel, the floats 
 of which are often broken by striking against the 
 bank. It is strange, indeed, that the steamer is 
 not seriously injured every voyage. At the 
 narrowest and most curved parts of the river the 
 steamer's bow is forcibly sent against one bank, 
 while its stern is swung round by the force of the 
 current, and each shock shakes it from stem to 
 stern so terribly as to produce the impression 
 that the entire structure must fall to pieces. 
 
 When a steamer runs aground or stops for 
 repairs during the day, the cabin-boys, and the 
 crew, who are not on duty, set to work and catch 
 fish. They use long lines weighted with sinkers ; 
 a piece of raw meat forms the bait. Cat-fish, 
 gold-eyes, and pike abourd in the river, and a 
 good catch of fish is often secured during the 
 interval of waiting. The anglers and the on- 
 lookers are kept awake and excited by the insects, 
 which increase in number and energy when the 
 vessel is stationary. If any one is tempted by the 
 
 of 
 
i6 
 
 Scmery on the Banks* 
 
 I- 
 
 III'!: 
 
 wild grapes or wild plums to go ashore and pluck 
 them, he gladly returns on board. The mosquitoes 
 are even more plentiful and savage on land than 
 on water. On each bank there is a belt of timber ; 
 outside this fringe of trees, the prairie stretches its 
 apparently illimitable expanse. The wood, which 
 comprises elder, oak, box, ash, and elm trees, 
 constitutes the supply for fuel and building pur- 
 poses over a very large area. Rafts formed of 
 the fallen trees are floated down to Winnipeg, 
 where they are broken up and the logs sawn into 
 boards. One of the rafts which we passed was 
 navigated by a woman; a man lay in a rude 
 structure erected upon it. Household furniture 
 was piled up at the sides, the whole being the 
 worldly effects of a couple changing theh' place of 
 abode. The man, who had kept watch during 
 the night, now slept while his helpmate took her 
 turn in steering. 
 
 The steamer stopped at four stations between 
 Fisher's Landing and Fort Garry. The first was 
 Grand Forks, a town in Dakota Territory ; the 
 second Fort Pembina, on the frontier between 
 the United States and Canada; the third West 
 Lynn, a Canadian settlement, where is Fort 
 Duft'erin, a trading-post of the Hudson Bay 
 Company ; and Emerson, on the opposite side of 
 the river, which is one of the rising: towns of 
 
 
On the Red River of the North, 
 
 17 
 
 Manitoba. A flag sliowing the letters H.B.O. in 
 white on a red ground was the mark of the Hud- 
 son Bay Company being in possession of the fort. 
 An American citizen told mo that some of his 
 countrymen were puzzled when they saw this flag 
 for the first time. One of their number thought 
 he had solved the engima of the three letters by 
 saying that they meant " Here before Christ," as, 
 from the appearance of the country, there had not 
 been any change since then. 
 
 Sixty miles intervene between the frontier and 
 the capital of the Province. There is very little 
 wood left along this part of the river, the greater 
 part having been cleared away by settlers or by 
 speculators. Farms are to be seen at short 
 intervals; the crops which cover the ground look 
 exceedingly well. The passengers in the steamer 
 experience a change since the stream has run 
 between banks denuded of timber — in other words, 
 the mosquitoes have ceased from troubling. The 
 only insect which skims the surface of the river 
 and which fills the saloon when the lamps are lit 
 is a white- winged one called a " miller." I have 
 seen these insects on the Ehine in the autumn 
 months, but I never saw so many as on this occa- 
 sion. A constant stream of them is borne along 
 by the breeze ; it has the appearance of a bank of 
 
 snow. The glasses of the steamer's lanterns are 
 
 c 
 
 d 
 
 01 
 
i8 
 
 First View of Winnipeg, 
 
 ,1 • 
 
 I' 
 
 covered with these insects ; they dash against the 
 glass and then fall down to die among the mass 
 on the deck. They fill pails when the dock is 
 swept in the morning. Though they obscure the 
 light, they give no other annoyance, and they are 
 mere objects of curiosity. ^ c 
 
 The first I saw of Winnipeg was in the autumn 
 of 1878. Fort Garry, a rectangular building, with 
 a turret at each comer, then stood where the Assi- 
 niboine enters the Eed Eiver. The steamer stopped 
 a few minutes to land passengers, the permanent 
 landing-place being a short way further down the 
 river. The houses which form the city have a 
 substantial look ; the villas on the river's bank are 
 tasteful in appearance. On the opposite side of 
 the river to that on which the capital stands is the 
 parish of St. Boniface, with its cathedral, the 
 palace of Archbishop Tache, its college, and its 
 convent. When Mr. Whittier was here a quarter 
 of a century ago the journey down the river in a 
 canoe seemed to him a wearisome undertaking. 
 He wrote a poem on the " Red Eiver Voyageur," 
 which opens with this vivid and correct descrip- 
 tion of the river itself : — 
 
 I: ! 
 
 Out and in the river is winding . 
 
 The links of its long, red chain 
 Through belts of dusky pineland, 
 
 And gusty leagues of plain. 
 
 'II ii ; 
 
On the Red River of the North » 
 
 19 
 
 He depicts the **voyageur," when tired and 
 exhausted, regaining his spirits and vigour on 
 hearing the chime of the bells of St. Boniface. 
 Then the poet, as his manner is, ends his verses 
 with a comparison and points a moral : — 
 
 Even so in our mortal journey 
 The bitter north winds blow, 
 
 And thus upon life's Red River 
 Our hearts, as oarsmen, row. 
 
 And when the Angel of Shadow 
 Rests his feet on wave and shore, 
 
 And our eyes grow dim with watching 
 And our hearts faint at the oar, 
 
 Happy is he who heareth 
 
 The signal of his release 
 In the bells of the Holy City, 
 
 The chimes of eternal " peace." . 
 
 d 
 
 2 c 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CITY OP WINNIPEG. 
 
 j'flii" ' 
 
 Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, surprised me 
 more at first sight than any one of the countless 
 cities which I have visited on the North American 
 Continent. The older ones frequently surpassed 
 my utmost expectations ; the younger as fre- 
 quently fell below the most moderate estimate 
 which I had formed of them in imagination. 
 Indeed, a pretentious city in the Far West is 
 commonly on a par, in external appearance, with 
 a paltry village elsewhere. I had read much 
 about Winnipeg before visiting it, and the im- 
 pression left on my mind was not favourable. 
 The Earl of Southesk, who was here in 1859, 
 writes that " there were houses enough to form a 
 sort of scattered town." Lord Milton and Dr. 
 Cheadle, who followed him three years later, saw 
 nothing worthy of note. Captain Butler, who 
 paid it a visit in 1870, refers to it, in his " Great 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 21 
 
 Lone Land," as "the little village," and "the 
 miserable-looking village of Winnipeg." I knew 
 that changes had been made since Captain Butler 
 came hither on duty connected with the Bed 
 Biver expedition under Colonel (now Sir Garnet) 
 Wolseley; but I was not prepared to find that 
 they had been so great and startling as those 
 which I actually beheld. 
 
 Walking down Main-street, on my way to the 
 Pacific Hotel, I could hardly realize that I was 
 in a city incorporated so recently as 1873 and 
 supposed to be far beyond the confines of civiliza- 
 tion. The street is 132 ft. wide and it is lined 
 with shops, churches, and public buildings which 
 would do credit to a much older and more famous 
 place. The solid looic of the majority of the 
 edifices is as noteworthy as their ornamental 
 design. They are built of cream-coloured brick. 
 It is at a comparatively late stage in the growth 
 of a western city, either in the United States or 
 Canada, that the buildings are composed of any- 
 thing but wood; hence, a stranger in one of them 
 is apt to arrive at the conclusion that the build- 
 ings are erected for a temporary purpose. Here, 
 however, the effect is the reverse. The Town 
 Hall and the Market, the Post Office, the Do- 
 minion Land Office, and the Custom House, to 
 name but a few of the public edifices, are as sub- 
 
 of 
 
22 
 
 University of Manitoba, 
 
 I't ' 
 
 stantial buildings as can be desired. No one 
 looking at tliem can feel here, as is so commonly 
 felt in other places of rapid growth on this conti- 
 nent, that the citizens apprehend their city will 
 decay as rapidly as it has sprung up. While the 
 progress of Winnipeg is one of the marvels of 
 the Western world, there is good reason for be- 
 lieving that it will continue at an accelerated rate, 
 and that Winnipeg will hereafter hold in the 
 Dominion of Canada a place corresponding with 
 that now held in the United States by Chicago. 
 In 1870 there were 300 people in the miserable- 
 looking village of those days ; now, the popula- 
 tion is approaching 15,000. There are eight 
 churches — one belonging to the Eoman Catholics, 
 three -to the Episcopalians, one to the Presby- 
 terians, two to the Wesleyan Methodists, and one 
 to the Baptists. There are several schools and 
 colleges — two common schools, Si;. John's College 
 Schools, for boys and for girls ; a Central School ; 
 St. Mary's Academy ; Manitoba College, in con- 
 nexion with the Presbyterian Church, and a Wes- 
 leyan Institute. Most remarkable of all, if not 
 altogether exceptional among seminaries for the 
 advancement and diffusion of sound learning, is 
 the University of Manitoba. It grants degrees 
 in arts, sciences, law, and medicine. Its govern- 
 ing body is composed of representatives of re- 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 23 
 
 ligious societies which have not succeeded in 
 working harmoniously for a common end in other 
 parts either of the Old or the New World. The 
 colleges afl&liated to it are the Episcopal College 
 of St. John, the Eoman Catholic College of St. 
 Boniface, and the Presbyterian College of Mani- 
 toba. Others may and are expected to join a 
 University which, if as successful as it deserves 
 to be, will become a model for other places, both 
 on the North American continent and on the con- 
 tinent of Europe. The governing body consists 
 of a Council, composed of a Chancellor and Vice- 
 Chancellor, representatives of each college, three 
 representatives elected by the graduates, and two 
 representatives of the Provincial Board of Educa- 
 tion. The first Chancellor chosen to preside over 
 the Council is the Bishop of Rupert's Land, and 
 the Vice-Chancellor is the Hon. J. Royal, the 
 Secretary of State for the Province, and a highly- 
 respected member of the Catholic Church. Pro- 
 vision is made for the colleges affiliated to the 
 University granting theological degrees. No ob- 
 jection can be raised to this by the most advanced 
 and uncompromising educational reformer; in- 
 deed, the educational reformer would be hard to 
 please, if he were not satisfied with the constitu- 
 tion and government of the University of Mani- 
 toba. While those persons merit unstinted praise 
 
 c 
 
 D 
 
H 
 
 Historical and Scientific Society, 
 
 who have worked and made no mean sacrifices to 
 render the University successful, the Legislature 
 of the Province is equally worthy to be held in 
 honour for having contributed to aid the experi- 
 ment by endowing the University. Thus nothing 
 has had to be paid by the colleges which are now 
 in connexion with it, nor will those which may 
 hereafter become affiliated to it have to provide 
 any funds. 
 
 Another institution which I did not expect to 
 find in so 3'oung a city is the Historical and 
 Scientific Societ}^ of Manitoba. Though it lias 
 been only two years in existence, this Society has 
 rendered a, service to the Province by collecting 
 its records, exploring its Indian mounds and 
 collecting specimens wherewith to illustrate its 
 mineralogy and geology. It is unfortunate that 
 the Society could not persuade the Hudson Bay 
 Company to spare old Fort Garry, instead of 
 levelling it to the ground and using the stones to 
 form the foundation of a new store. However, 
 the Company have wisely presented many volumes 
 of records to the Society's library, where they 
 will be safely kept, and accessible for t^cudy. 
 From a personal inspection of the works in the 
 library, and the curiosities in the museum, I can 
 vouch for a good beginning having been made, 
 and I have no doubt that, if the members continue 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 25 
 
 to display the same energy, the Historical Society 
 will prove of infinite advantage to the inhabitants 
 of the Canadian Far "West. 
 
 The great width of Main-street, which runs 
 north and south, adds to its effect; Portage- 
 avenue, which, like it, is 132 ft. wide, runs west, 
 and is an important thoroughfare ; Burrow's- 
 avenue is 99 ft. wide ; and the other streets are 
 66 ft. Indeed, the city is laid out with an eye to 
 its future increase in population. This '^ spe- 
 cially shown in the care which has been taken to 
 secure open spaces, which will prove of much 
 benefit when the area is more thickly covered 
 with buildings. There are three public parks — 
 Victoria, Burrow's, and Mulligan ; the first covers 
 eight acres, the second five, and the third three. 
 There is a race-course and a rifle range. The 
 young men take delight and are very expert in 
 rifle-shooting, their ambition being to obtain a 
 place in the Canadian team which pays a yearly 
 visit to Wimbledon, and there displays a vigorous 
 and fraternal rivalry with the volunteers of the 
 United Kingdom. Several tali chimneys in diffe- 
 rent parts of the city denote the presence of 
 manufactories. I learn that there are two flour 
 mills, three saw mills, and four planing mills ; 
 that there is a carriage factory, a biscuit and con- 
 fectionery bakery, a distillery ; and that there is 
 
 
26 
 
 Public Markets, 
 
 :l||l 
 
 "III I 
 lllll'' ' 
 
 a brewery five miles distant, where the hops used 
 in combination with malt are the wild hops which 
 abound in the district and can be obtained by any 
 one who chooses to gather them. Hotels of 
 various classes are plentifully provided for the 
 entertainment of strangers, the Pacific Hotel and 
 the Queen's being the two best and largest. The 
 public-houses, or saloons as they are called 
 throughout the West, are many in number ; they 
 are under rigid supervision and each is licensed. 
 The licence, which costs $240 annually, is liable 
 to forfeiture in the event of the saloon being 
 badly conducted. 
 
 The public markets I found well supplied with 
 butcher's meat, poultry, game, fish, and vege- 
 tables. The fish come from the lakes and the 
 rivers, comprising pike, cat-fish, gold eyes and 
 white-fish. I have always thought that none 
 but persons who are nearly starving can really 
 eat pike with any relish. A good imitation pike 
 could be manufactured out of white blotting-paper 
 with small pieces of fine wire interspersed; on 
 being cooked the taste of the fish would be well 
 reproduced by the moist blotting-paper, while the 
 sensation of finding a sharp bone at each mouth- 
 ful would be perfectly rendered by the stray 
 pieces of wire. One of the fish on the bill of fare 
 at the Pacific Hotel bore the name of Eed River 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 salmon. I tasted it and thought it doHcious, 
 though not at all like any salmon which I had 
 eaten. It was quite as rich as salmon and had 
 scarcely any bones, resembling a lamprey in this 
 respect more closely than any fish with which 
 I am acquainted. A travelling-companion was 
 quite as much pleased with it as I was. Before 
 eating and praising it, he had warned me against 
 ever eating the cat-fish, which he had seen taken 
 out of the river, and of which he disliked the look 
 as well as the name. He was T^ather surprised to 
 learn that he had heartily enjoyed and commended 
 cat-fish under the name of Red River salmon. 
 
 The vegetables for sale in the market reminded 
 me of stories which I had read at home in the 
 months of autumn. No imaginative writer in a 
 country newspaper ever penned a paragraph about 
 gigantic vegetables that could not be justified by 
 the potatoes, cabbages, and turnips which I saw 
 for sale here, and others which 1 have seen se- 
 lected for exhibition. It is a common thing for 
 potatoes to weigh 2 lbs. each and turnips 20 lbs. 
 and for them tc be as good as they are heavy. A 
 SQuash has been produced weighing 138 lbs. and 
 a vegetable marrow 26. Cabbages measuring 
 4 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 1 inch in circumference 
 have excited the astonishment of other visitors as 
 well as my own, while a cucumber, grown in the 
 
 
28 
 
 Fruit and Flowers, 
 
 ! 
 
 III! 
 
 Ik. 
 
 open air and measuring 6 feet 3 inches in length, 
 was rightly considered a curiosity. The display 
 of fruit was not equal to that of vegetables, the 
 culture of fruit having been neglected owing to 
 the supply of wild fruit being so varied and 
 abundant. Experiments made in growing apples 
 having proved successful, the gardens here will 
 soon be filled with fruit-bearing trees. Yet it is 
 not wonderful that the early settlers should have 
 been satisfied with what Nature has provided for 
 them, seeing that they had nothing to do but 
 gather and consume an abundance of wild plums, 
 grapes, strawberries, currants, red and black 
 raspberries, cherries, blueberries, whortleberries, 
 marsh and high bush cranberries. If the settlers 
 have not busied themselves about the culture of 
 fruit, they have not neglected the culture of 
 flowers. The little gardens which adorn the 
 fronts of the houses are filled with roses, mig- 
 nonette, and other flowers dear to English eyes. 
 Ne^er have I seen flowers with more brilliant 
 tints than those of Manitoba, and the brightness 
 of their colours is in 1 eeping with the strength 
 and sweetness of their perfume. 
 
 An enumeration of the principal sights in the 
 streets of Winnipeg would be incomplete if I 
 omitted to mention that it contains many stores 
 which for size and variety of the goods kept 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 29 
 
 would do credit to any city, as well as several 
 banking-houses, which have not only a solid look 
 as buildings, but which enjoy the reputation of 
 being sound financial establishments. First there 
 is the Post-office Savings-bank, where depositors 
 receive interest at the rate of 4 per cent., with 
 the advantage of perfect security ; secondly, there 
 are branches of the Merchants' Bank of Canada, 
 of the Ontario Bank, and of the Bank of Montreal. 
 In the newest western cities it is customary to 
 find churches and schools, manufactories and 
 markets, shops and banks; but I think no 
 other city than Winnipeg has ever been able 
 to boast of a club-house at so early a stage of its 
 existence. The Manitoba Club was founded in 
 1874 — that is, one year after the incorporation of 
 the city. The club-house in Main-street presents 
 a neat appearance externally, while its internal 
 arrangements are as comfortable as the most 
 fastidious person could expect. Its members 
 number about 80. I can write with the greater 
 confidence in praise of the Manitoba Club, because 
 I had the gratification of being made an honorary 
 member of it and of enjoying its advantages. 
 Though acquainted with many clubs, I know of 
 few wherein dinners are supplied of equal quality 
 at so moderate a charge as in the Manitoba Club. 
 I found that the members enjoyed some articles of 
 
 
30 
 
 A yotirnalistic Experiment. 
 
 €. 
 
 * 
 
 food which would be accomted startling novelties 
 in any English club, among them being sturgeon, 
 an excellent fish, and roast bear, a tender and 
 finely flavoured meat. I was more struck with 
 this club than with the fact that Winnipeg pos- 
 sesses two excellent daily newspapers, the Manx- 
 toha Free Press and the Daily Times. A club- 
 house is regarded as a luxury in the Far West, 
 whereas a newspaper is held to be a necessary of 
 Hfe. In the town of Selkirk, twenty miles farther 
 north, the few inhabitants decided that they must 
 have a newspaper, and, as there was no printing- 
 press in the town, the difficulty to be overcome 
 was considerable. They agreed among them- 
 selves to pay a sum of $500 to the founder of a 
 wee'ily newspaper in Selkirk, and they advertised 
 this offer, adding that a circulation of 400 copies, 
 at $2 each, was guaranteed for a year. The 
 result was that an enterprising gentleman started 
 from the older part of Canada with a printing- 
 press, and became printer, editor, and newspaper 
 proprietor in Selkirk. The experiment was not 
 successful ; the weekly journal lived a year when 
 it ceased to appear and a monthly magazine was 
 issued in the hope that the reading public would 
 give it the support which had been denied to the 
 weekly venture. 
 
 Before crossing the Red River and describing 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 31 
 
 tho thriving suburb of St. Boniface, I must devote 
 a few sentences to the Company which was once 
 supreme and which is still a power in Winnipeg. 
 There was a time not very long ago when no per- 
 son could buy, sell, or reside here without leave 
 from the Governor of Assineboia, the old name 
 for this Province. The Hudson Bay Company 
 had then an actual monopoly of the country and 
 exercised an exclusive jurisdiction over it. It 
 had not been disputed in a court of law that the 
 charter conferred on the Company by Charles II. 
 gave them all the authority to which they laid 
 claim, neither could it be denied that the attempt 
 to keep a fertile region vaster than Europe as the 
 hunting-ground of savages and a breeding-place 
 for wild beasts, was opposed to the spirit of the 
 age. The monopoly ended in 1869, when the 
 Company surrendered its claims to Canada in 
 return for 300,000?. in cash, the retention of land 
 round the trading-stations estimated at 50,000 
 acres, and of one-twentieth part of the remainder 
 of the land. Thus the Hudson Bay Company 
 became the largest possessor of landed property 
 in the world. 
 
 In past times no company could well be more 
 prosperous than this one ; the proprietors received 
 enormous returns for their investments ; the divi- 
 dends were sometimes as high as 300 per cent. 
 
 1 
 
32 
 
 The Hudson Bay Company, 
 
 "111 
 
 ("'"111 I 
 
 Not even the East India Company in its palmiest 
 day was a greater financial success than this great 
 fur company of the North- West. And just as the 
 East India Company had among its servants men 
 of genius like Clive and Hastings, so was the Hud- 
 son Bay Company served by men whose ability 
 was not inferior to that of the conquerors and 
 rulers of the East. The factors who conducted the 
 Company's trade were proud of their position and 
 did their utmost to uphold it. Once a year they 
 met at Norway-house, reviewed the operations of 
 the previous year, planned those of the following 
 year, and carefully scrutinized each other's per- 
 formances. The factor who had been weighed in 
 the balance and found wanting was excluded from 
 acting with his colleagues. Indeed, merit was 
 then the indispensable qualification for the ad- 
 vancement of a Hudson Bay Company's servant. 
 In treating the Indians of th. North- West, the 
 policy of that Company has been both humane 
 and exemplary. No one, indeed, who has studied 
 the subject and who has had the good fortune 
 to enjoy the acquaintance of the pioneers of 
 civilization in the North- West can refrain from 
 praising the servants of the Hudson Bay Com- 
 pany in the strongest terms. Though that Com- 
 pany is as ably served as of old, yet its excep- 
 tional prosperity is a thing of the past. The 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 II 
 
 fur trade must dwindle in importance as the 
 settlers cover the region where the desultory 
 efforts of wild Indians to kill wild animals alone 
 checked their multiplication. The Company must 
 look for its future profits from the sale of land. 
 It is dijQ&cult for any body which has certain tradi- 
 tions, and which has prospered by observing them, 
 to forget them altogether and begin an entirely 
 new career, and this is the difficulty with which 
 the Hudson Bay Company have been confronted. 
 Fort Garry, the original post of the Hudson 
 Bay Company, was at the southern end of Main- 
 street. A large store adjoins it, in which all the 
 articles can be purchased which are required 
 either by the simple savage or the exacting white 
 man. Next to the store is the Governor's resi- 
 dence, now occupied by the Lieutenant-Governor 
 of the Province. Formerly this store was the 
 only place where the Red River settlers, for several 
 miles round Fort Garry, could make purchases, or 
 where they could dispose of their produce. Even 
 now the articles sold here are as good and quite 
 as cheap as in the Winnipeg shops ; in making 
 this statement, I do so from experience, having 
 been a customer both to the store and to some of 
 the shops. Now, if the Company desired that 
 their store should be able to cope most thoroughly 
 yvith rival establishments the obvious course was to 
 
 P 
 
 
34 
 
 Mr. Brydges. 
 
 lip I ' 
 "ill 1 1 
 
 'lilt I 
 
 4 
 
 promote settlement in its vicinity. This was not 
 done ; on tlie contrary, the chief business part of 
 the city was driven northward. Five hundred 
 acres of land at Fort Garry remained the property 
 of the Company at the transfer of its dominion to 
 Canada in 1869. Instead of selling this land to 
 the highest bidder, a price was set on it far in 
 excess of the sum for which land equally good 
 could be bought elsewhere. Hence it is that, 
 instead of the neighbourhood of the Fort and 
 store being covered with dwellings, it lay waste, 
 while dwellings covered the opposite end of Main- 
 street, nearly two miles distant. 
 
 A change has taken place in the conduct of the 
 Company's business which is likely to redeem all 
 the errors once committed. Mr. Brydges, who 
 had been Manager of the Grand Trunk and Super- 
 intendent of the Intercolonial Railway, was ap- 
 pointed Commissioner for the sale of the Company's 
 land. He has brought his large business-know- 
 ledge and tact to bear upon the matter with the 
 best results. There are still changes to be 
 effected in the management of the Company's 
 affairs before they can be said to be conducted in 
 the most efficient manner. Nevertheless, so much 
 has been done in the right direction that the 
 financial success of the Company ought to be far 
 greater in the future than in recent years. About 
 
 m 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 35 
 
 the value of tlieir property there can be no ques- 
 tion. To use a phrase common in the United 
 States, ** there are millions in it.*' But prudent 
 management both in London and Winnipeg is 
 required to extract the millions from it. 
 
 II. 
 
 It is time, for the sake of variety, to pass across 
 the river to the interesting suburb of this city. A 
 few minutes spent in a ferry-boat, and then the 
 passenger sets foot in St. Boniface. The change 
 between any part of the English and French coast 
 is very great ; crossing the Straits of Dover and 
 landing in France is like entering a new world. 
 Much the same effect is produced on him who 
 leaves Ottawa, passes through the suburb of Edin- 
 burgh, crosses the river, and enters Hull. This is 
 not only a change from the Province of Ontario 
 to that of Quebec, but it is also a change from an 
 English to a French speaking locality. Such a 
 contrast may also be perceived, both in the 
 oldest and youngest States in the North American 
 Union. When the river is crossed which separates 
 New York from Hoboken, one passes from an 
 English to a German speaking city ; indeed, there 
 
 are shops in Hoboken where German is under- 
 
 D 2 
 
 
36 
 
 SL Boniface, 
 
 ''Ml 1 
 
 J^'lllll I 
 
 'Illll I 
 
 ij!|P'*'illli I 
 
 1;^ 
 
 I/: 
 
 stood better than English. In Chicago and Mil- 
 waukee there are quarters where German is the 
 prevailing speech, and in St. Paul there are 
 quarters where Norse ^s the only tongue fluently 
 spoken. But none of these cases is so curious as 
 that of St. Boniface. In the cities of the United 
 States, though the people may speak a foreign 
 tongue, there is yet no external token of the popu- 
 lation being foreign. On the western side of the 
 Bed Biver, the wayfarer who looks at the street- 
 corners sees such truly British names as Alfred, 
 Gladstone, and Macfarlane ; on the eastern side he 
 sees Bue St. Boniface, Bue St. Joseph, Bue du 
 Moulin, while he hears the passers-by converse in 
 the French language. It is not so much the fact 
 that French is spoken, as that everything looks so 
 French which renders this suburb of the city of 
 Winnipeg unlike any other which I have seen in 
 any city on the continent of North America or of 
 Europe. 
 
 The settlement of French half-bree^.s at St. 
 Boniface dates from the year 1818. Since then it 
 has been the Boman Catholic mission centre of the 
 North-Wcst. Bishop Provencher laboured here as 
 a priest from 1818 till his death as bishop in 1853. 
 His successor, Archbishop Tache, has spent the 
 greater part of a long life a3 a missionery priest 
 among the Indians. Archbishop Tache' s worl^ 
 
The City of Winnipeg. 
 
 31 
 
 entitled " Twenty Years of Missions in the North- 
 West of America" is not only an interesting 
 record of personal experience, but till recently it 
 has been the only trustworthy guide to that 
 obscure region. He is very popular, and his great 
 authority over the Half-Breeds and the Indians is 
 exercised with much discretion. He chiefly con- 
 tributed to allay the irritation which occasioned 
 and succeeded the rebellion headed by Louis Riel ; 
 and, though he was said to have rather strained 
 his powers as a mediator by promising an absolu- 
 tion to the rebel leaders which the Canadian 
 Government did not intend to accord, yet he un- 
 questionably acted in good faith and with a suc- 
 cess proving that his interpretation of the mission 
 which he undertook was justified by events. 
 
 The most conspicuous buildings in the suburb 
 of St. Boniface are connected with the church of 
 which Archbishop Tachd is a worthy representa- 
 tive. First in importance is the Cathedral, a stone 
 building in simple Gothic style, and one of the 
 best edifices of the kind in the North-West. Its 
 organ is one of the finest in the country ; it was 
 a gift to the Archbishop from his friends in 
 Quebec on the 25th anniversary of his accession to 
 episcopal rank. The interior of the Cathedral 
 is principally remarkable for the absence of the 
 tawdry decorations which so often offend the eye 
 
 I***! 
 
 
3< 
 
 Archbishop Tachd, 
 
 w. 
 
 v 
 
 
 \Mm\ 
 
 Jlf^iiiiii 
 
 in such places. The Archbishop's palace is close 
 to the Cathedral, and is also built of stone. It is 
 a plain, comfortable dwelling-place, with a well- 
 kept garden in front, filled with flowering plants 
 and trees. I had the pleasure of conversing with 
 the Archbishop and of learning his views with 
 regard to the settlement of the country. He has 
 that polish of manner which seems to be the 
 inheritance ^ most persons whose mother-tongue 
 is French. bough no longer young and though 
 much of his life has been passed among hardships 
 which render a man old before his time, yet he has 
 the look of a man much younger than his years. 
 Ho is a living witness to the salubrity of the 
 climate, having been hero upwards of CO years ; 
 his predecessor. Bishop Provencher, lived long 
 enough to show that residence near the Red River 
 was conducive to longevity. 
 
 Archbishop Tache has a strong faith in the 
 progress of this region of the country and in its 
 adaptability for settlement. Some parts further 
 westward he considers too poor for cultivation, 
 but he admits there is ample space and attraction 
 for millions to take up their abodes and prosper. 
 The task of civilizing the Indians he holds to be 
 much less difficult than is commonly supposed, 
 and the success which tiie missionaries of his 
 Church have had among the Indian tribes between 
 
 4'.,>i,l ! 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 39 
 
 the Red River and the Rocky Mountains is strongly 
 in favour of the sanguine views entertained by the 
 Archbishop. His own exertions to promote edu- 
 cation are worthy of high praise and have yielded 
 good fruit. Several educational and charitable 
 institutions over which he exercises supervision 
 are within a short distance of his palace. First 
 there is the College of St. Boniface, where the 
 students number between 60 and 70 ; secondly, 
 there is St. Boniface Academy for the education 
 of girls, where the teachers are Sisters of Charity ; 
 thirdly, there is the Convent of St. Boniface, where 
 orphans and destitute old women are cared for and 
 supported by the Sisters ; and, fourthly, there is 
 a hospital in connexion with the convent for the 
 relief of the sick. Having read some extracts 
 from the pastoral letter issued by Archbishop 
 Tache at the time of the last general election in 
 Canada, I was desirous of seeing the document 
 itself, and, on stating this, the Archbishop kindly 
 presented a copy to me. I shall translate a few 
 passages from it in order to show the kind of 
 advice which is given to electors by this excellent 
 representative of the Catholic Church in the 
 Canadian West. 
 
 He begins by claiming for priests, as citizens, 
 the duty to take part in elections and the right to 
 do so in virtue of their education and sacred office. 
 
 
40 
 
 Advice to Electors. 
 
 t: 
 
 «: 
 
 |«iiii|n 
 
 #»« 
 
 lirflj" 
 
 He sets forth the importance of the elections on 
 account of the results which may follow, and the 
 necessity of having a well-constituted Legislature. 
 He insists on the value of every vote in a Legisla- 
 tive Assembly, seeing that a single vote may turn 
 the scale for good or evil, and he contends that 
 this consideration ought to be borne in mind 
 in choosing representatives. He controverts the 
 generally prevailing view that any man is fitted 
 to be a legislator, saying that to represent one's 
 fellow-countrymen, to undertake the preservation 
 of the interests of one*s country, and to become a 
 legislator are such very difficult and important 
 duties that one is often surprised at the ease with 
 which certain persons set up as candidates and 
 solicit the votes of electors. A proper candidate 
 ought to possess common sense, a thing which the 
 Archbishop holds to be rarer than is commonly 
 supposed, and of which the absence is almost in- 
 variably marked by ignorance of the precept there 
 is ** a time to keep silence," adding, ** Discretion 
 in speech is so charactistic of prudence that we 
 are assured in Solomon's Proverbs that even a 
 fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise, 
 and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of 
 understanding." He thinks it imperative that a 
 good member of Parliament should be a well- 
 instructed man, " it being possible to be a worthy 
 
The City of Winnipeg, 
 
 41 
 
 man without instruction, but not a good legislator." 
 Equally necessary is it to be an honest man, to be 
 received in good society, to be sober and God- 
 fearing in order to merit being sent to Parliament. 
 The Archbishop remarks that these consideratiors 
 prove that the requisite Parhamentary qualifica- 
 tions are not possessed by all men, and then he 
 goes on to show what are the duties incnibent on 
 electors. The first is to pray for enlightenment, 
 the second to consult wise and discreet persons, to 
 avoid being influenced by passion or personal in- 
 terest, to widen the sphere of their contemplation, 
 and to consider the public weal. He warns them 
 against the curses of elections, which are lying, 
 drunkenness, venality, and violence, and he 
 implores them to allow the result to be achieved in 
 opposition to their wishes rather than to gain an 
 electoral triumph through perjury, calumny, or 
 falsehood. He denounces bribery as a crime 
 which stains both parties, both the briber and the 
 bribed being bad citizens, traitors to duty and 
 honour. He styles a member who owes his 
 election to corrur>tion as an intruder in Parliamert. 
 He charges the electors not to commit any acts of 
 violence and to refrain from copying the bad 
 example in this respect which had been set else- 
 where, adding, ** Above all show yourselves 
 Christians, and you cannot fail to be good citizens/* 
 
 D 
 
42 
 
 A French Newspaper, 
 
 ii! I 
 
 ! Ml! 
 
 ■''"111, 
 
 ' ,„ 
 
 ii**'»lllll 
 
 He concludes by forbidding the holding of political 
 meetings at the church doors on Sundays and by 
 desiring that such gatherings should be held on 
 weekdays only. The foregoing summary of this 
 pastoral letter not only shows the opinions which 
 the Archbishop inculcates, but it justifies me in 
 asserting that if other dignitaries of his Church 
 displayed the same tact and good taste there 
 would never be any cause for protesting against 
 priestly interference at elections. 
 
 Before leaving St. Boniface, I must note that 
 this suburb of Winnipeg promises to thrive even 
 better in the future than it has hitherto done. 
 The terminus of the Pembina branch of the St. 
 Paul and Pacific Railway is here, and this has 
 given an impetus to b"ilding. A newspaper in 
 French, called Lg Metis, is published weekly. It 
 is the only French journal published in the Cana- 
 dian North-West and taking cognizance of the 
 wishes and wants of the large class there which 
 preserves the use of the French language. There 
 is no part of Canada where speech is more diver- 
 sified than in the Province of Manitoba, nor is 
 there any in which the ordinary routine of 
 existence is more varied. 
 
tical 
 dby 
 i on 
 this 
 hich 
 le in 
 urch 
 ihere 
 ainst 
 
 tliat 
 even 
 lone. 
 eSt. 
 Las 
 er in 
 . It 
 )ana- 
 l the 
 srliich 
 ^here 
 liver- 
 or is 
 le of 
 
 3 
 ^ 
 
ENLARGED SKETCH MAP OF 
 
 MANITOBA, 
 
 SHEWING NEW TOWNS, VILLAGES, 
 AND POST OFFICES, 
 
 SOMERSET 
 
 STLEC 
 
 
 s>s 
 
 ^ D0NCA8TER ""w/%^ 
 ^ TURTLE MOUNTfKIN '"%^ 
 
 ^ 
 
J 
 
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 h€ 
 
 m t> \^^ 
 
 ■ ▼T> III 
 
 'mi. 
 
 CIMU 
 
 OAK POINT F 
 
 ^'^'\\\1FALLS 
 
 LADSTONE 
 DSI 
 
 GOLDEN 
 STREAM 
 
 WELUNCt&N 
 
 (OAKLAND 
 
 LTBOURNI ^^ 
 
 lOSPEC 
 
 X>1^^ 
 
 (OWA 
 
 >PLAR 
 lEICHT 
 
 )FOKTON 
 
 IWOOD^ 
 
 CLAN^ 
 
 DYI 
 ^VICTORIA 
 
 tOCKWOODv 
 
 1QUI8 
 
 SELKIRK 
 
 BURNSIDI 
 
 )INT ♦' 
 
 Eks cri 
 
 .A PRAIRIE 
 
 ^'>C 
 
 J1EADINGLY 
 
 WINNIPEG 
 
 — ^ 
 
 9" 
 
 oat firiDIAN FORI 
 
 OLIVE 
 
 blythfiIld 
 
 FREHERNE 
 
 ^RMIAI 
 
 ST Ap/ITHI 
 
 m 
 0M 
 
 i^TCHING RIVERA 
 
 J5EAC0NSFIELD - ,. SUTTERVI^E 
 
 TTLETOjJk f CAMPBfiLLVlllE 
 
 SOMERs'e^ VOBACCO CRe£^ U^ENOY B^li^^^ 
 
 ) / u Vil^ MORRIS., 
 
 A.o ARClWLt/<<y^Sftfl^ 
 
 SS^S-^^J^aK/cD^SSr^ \ 7MINNIEWASHTA I 
 
 — ^-^-WCStfeR SPRHMG mt\ / CAUTHIfR' 
 
 TRAU_,.,^:^--fiLEXANDRl3ci!^UNTAINCITY LETEUIEt * Xpl 
 S>EMBINA ^'•^WDDERyiLLE ^.^^-^ vN I 
 
 "^^^^^-Vennonite J*»einland^ 
 
 Weston 
 
 JRYST 
 
 9 MOUNTAIN 
 
 ^PEMBINA % 
 
 % 
 
 INNYSIDE 
 »LYMPT( 
 
 urie creek 
 
 LTTE 
 
 »RBERT 
 iNIVERVILLE 
 
 clear spring 
 'rat river 
 
 MENNONITE 
 SETTLEMENTS 
 
 Varnaud 
 
 tGREEN RIDGE 
 ^RIDGEVILLE 
 
 EMERSON 
 
c 
 
 r 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OP MANITOBA. 
 
 The surprise wliicli I felt on first walking along 
 the , streets of Winnipeg and seeing so many 
 tokens of progress and civilisation was increased 
 when I journeyed through the Province of which 
 "Winnipeg is the capital. I had vead that the 
 country was totally unfit for settlement. I had 
 read that it was pre-eminently adapted for 
 farming and that no other part of the Continent 
 was a more desirable place of abode. Indeed, 
 few regions of the world have been the subjects 
 of greater controversy than Manitoba, the Prairie 
 Province of Canada. It has had many indiscreet 
 eulogists and as many unscrupulous defamers. 
 If the former are right, the Province must be an 
 Earthly Paradise; if the latter set forth the 
 whole truth, it must be the counterpart of Dante's 
 Inferno. Though the discussion as to the ad- 
 vantages or drawbacks of this place has been 
 
 > 
 ^ 
 
44 
 
 Opinions about the Region. 
 
 c 
 
 specially keen and persistent of late years, yet tlio 
 difference of opinioa concerning it is of old date. 
 Since the Hudson Bay Company received their 
 charter from Charles the Second in 1670, doubts 
 have been expressed and uncertainty has pre- 
 vailed as to the character of the region out of 
 which this Province has been carved. The 
 matter was carefully investigated by a Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons in 1749 
 and again in 1857. Mr. Gladstone was a member 
 of the Committee which sat in 1857 and he was 
 not so ready as some of his colleagues to conclude 
 that the officers of the Hudson Bay Company 
 were justified in maintaining that the entire 
 Canadian North West was unsuited for settlers 
 and had been evidently designed by Providence 
 to be a perpetual breeding-ground of wild beasts 
 and a congenial habitation for wild Indians. 
 
 Sir George Simpson, who had been Governor 
 of the Hudson Bay Company's territory during 
 thirty-seven years and who had traversed every 
 part of it, emphatically assured the Committee 
 that the region now known as Manitoba was 
 cursed with a poor soil, a variable and inhos- 
 pitable climate and disastrous and frequent 
 inundations. The Right Hon. Edward Ellicc, 
 speaking on behalf of the governing body of the 
 Company in England, confidently asserted that 
 
The Province of Manitoba, 
 
 45 
 
 the Red River district was no place for settlers 
 and that the State of Minnesota, now so prospe- 
 rous, was no place for them either. Sir John 
 Richardson, the famous Arctic explorer, agreed 
 with the officers of the Company in pronouncing 
 the land utterly worthless for settlement ; and he 
 declared that he could not understand why any 
 one should go thither except to prosecute the fur 
 trade. He made a statement which caused an 
 impression on his hearers but which seems very 
 strange to me. It was to the effect that the vine 
 does not grow naturally on the Xorth American 
 Continent to the north of 43 degrees of latitude. 
 Now, I have eaten and plucked grapes on the 
 banks of the Red River to the north of the 49th 
 parallel of latitude, and I have drunk wine made 
 from wild grapes grown on the Assiniboine River 
 at the 50th parallel. When men of experience 
 and eminence like Mr. EUice and Sir John 
 Richardson made such extraordinary mistakes as 
 to matters of fact relating to this part of the 
 country, it is not to be wondered at if they 
 grievously erred in matters of opinion. In truth, 
 many of the facts and opinions current about. 
 Manitoba have been either palpable fictions, or 
 absurd blunders. 
 
 The Province of Manitoba occupies the centre 
 of North America, being equidistant from the 
 
 1 
 
46 
 
 Extent of the Province. 
 
 c 
 C. 
 
 pole and the equator, the Atlantic and Pacific 
 oceans. Its area when formed into a Province was 
 14,310 square miles; since then its boundaries 
 have been extended and it now covers 120,000 
 square miles. In Canada the Provinces of 
 Quebec and British Columbia are the only two 
 covering a larger area than Manitoba, while in the 
 Union two States only, Texas and California, are 
 A-aster than it. Yet Manitoba covers but a 
 fraction of the Canadian Far West, there being 
 ample space therein out of which to carve fifteen 
 other Provinces of the like extent. Its peculi- 
 arity and advantage consist in the fact that 
 settlement there is of an old enough date to 
 enable its capacity for producing food and 
 affording pleasant homes to the landless to have 
 been thoroughly tested. W^hen I visited it in 
 1878 for the first time the novelty of the scene 
 fell short of my expectation. I had been accus- 
 tomed, in common with many other persons, to 
 regard it not only as outlandish and inaccessible, 
 but as a region where life must be spent under 
 even less favourable conditions than in those 
 remote parts of the Far West with which I was 
 acquainted. With a feeling of amazement, then, 
 I discovered throughout Manitoba innumerable 
 indications of a long- settled and well-governed 
 country. Many of the farms which I visited had 
 
The Province of Manitodd. 
 
 47 
 
 an antiquated look which produced a striking 
 impression. I had expected them to resemble 
 other Prairie farms, which appear as if they had 
 just been established, or were on the point of being 
 abandoned, everything about them being unsub- 
 stantial and unfinished. The rude dwelling-houses 
 seem intended to serve a temporary purpose. No 
 trim gardens give evidence of long residence and 
 the expenditure of leisure time. An unenclosed 
 plot of ground, in which cabbages or potatoes are 
 struggling for existence among a mass of weeds, 
 is the only attempt at gardening to be seen on a 
 new prairie farm. The fields bear testimony to 
 the haste with which the settler has striven to 
 grow and garner a crop. He has sown the seed 
 before the land has been wholly reclaimed from 
 its wilderness state, caring nothing about appear- 
 ances so long as he can harvest a quantity of 
 grain sufficient to repay his outlay and to leave 
 him a surplus wherewith to feed himself and his 
 family. Tidiness is not the forte of a prairie 
 farmer. 
 
 In Manitoba, however, many prairie farms have 
 as finished and comfortable a look as any in Great 
 Britain. An enclosed garden, filled with flowers 
 and vegetables and free from weeds, is attached 
 to most of them ; the fields are in excellent con- 
 dition; the dwelling-house seems built to last 
 
 1 
 
48 
 
 Farming in Manitoba, 
 
 if*"" 
 
 '!'-:■' 
 
 and to afford a comfortable shelter; an air pre- 
 vails which can best be rendered by the epithet 
 home-like. This was not what I had come so far 
 to see. Yet, if I had pondered more carefully 
 the history of the country, it is precisely 
 what I ought to have expected. It is a common 
 but an entire mistake to regard Manitoba as a 
 region of the globe in which farming is an ex- 
 periment. The truth is that farming has been 
 practised there on a considerable scale and with 
 remarkable success since the year 1812. 
 
 At the beginning of this century the problem 
 of how to deal with the poorer Highlanders 
 caused much anxiety to philanthropists and 
 statesmen. The semi-patriarchal state in which 
 the Highland clans had lived was a thing of the 
 past, and there appeared to be no place for the 
 members of these clans in the new state of things. 
 Shortly after the bloody suppression of the re- 
 bellion of 1745, many Highlanders emigrated to 
 North America. Expatriated Highlanders con- 
 stituted the bone and marrow of the colony which 
 General Oglethorpe conducted across the Atlantic 
 in order to found what is now the State of 
 Georgia. Others had chosen North Carolina as 
 their dwelling-place, and, siding with Congress in 
 the war of Independence, they proved themselves 
 sturdy and dauntless soldiers in battle 
 
The Province of Manitoba, 
 
 49 
 
 In the introduction to Scott's Legend of Mon- 
 trose an account is given of Sergeant More 
 M'Alpin who, having served his time in the army 
 and been discharged with a pension, went back 
 to his birthplace in the North of Scotland and 
 found that a single farmer occupied the ground 
 where two hundred persons had lived in his boy- 
 hood. He meditated following them to Canada 
 and settling in the valley which they had called 
 after their native glen. Lord Selkirk persuaded 
 some of these evicted Highlanders to unite in 
 founding a colony on the banks of the Red River 
 of the North. He had become Chairman of the 
 Hudson Bay Company and he had acquired a 
 tract of land covering 116,000 square miles, 
 whereon he wished to form a settlement. In the 
 spring of 1811, a party of Highlanders, the 
 majority being natives of Sutherlandshire, em- 
 barked at Stornaway and sailed for York Factory 
 on Hudson Bay. It was autumn before the 
 party reached York Factory, and the land journey 
 to Fort Garry, on the Red River, could not bo 
 begun till the following spring; the emigrants 
 did not reach their destination till the autumn of 
 1812. The weary and dispirited Highlanders 
 found that they were expected to fight as well as 
 to farm, hostilities being then in progress between 
 the Hnuson Bay Company and the North-Wcsb 
 
 1 
 
;o 
 
 Red River Farmers. 
 
 m 
 
 )■ 
 
 if*?" 
 
 Fur Company of Canada and they were told that, 
 if the latter Company were victorious, tliey would 
 be deprived of the land which they hc*d bought. 
 So hard did their lot seem that they resolved to 
 quit the country, and they had actually started 
 in 1816 when, on Lord Selkirk appearing with a 
 fresh band of emigrants, they agreed to remain. 
 Their descendants in the third generation are 
 now successful and prosperous farmers, and it 
 was their farms which struck me as very different 
 from the Prairie farms which I had seen else- 
 where. Their experience demonstrates how fertile 
 the soil is along the Red Eiver Valley. 
 
 I visited farms in the parish of Kildonan where 
 wheat had been sown and where crops had been 
 reaped for sixty years in succession without 
 manure being applied. Indeed, the Red River 
 farmers have long regarded the natural fertilizers 
 of the soil as an incumbrance of which they try 
 to rid themselves with the least possible trouble. 
 Their habit was either to cast manure into 
 the river or else to build out-houses in such a way 
 that it might fall down and be no more seen. 
 When this region passed from under the juris- 
 diction of the Hudson Bay Company and became 
 a Province of Canada, one of the earliest legislative 
 enactments provided that the farmer who polluted 
 a river with manure should pay a fine of $25, or 
 
The Province of Manitoba. 
 
 51 
 
 else be imprisoned for two months. Even now it 
 is more common to collect the manure in heaps 
 th-^n t'^ strew it over the land. The only fertilizer 
 added to many fields is the ash from burned 
 straw. I often saw the straw, remaining after 
 the grain had been thrashed, set on fire as the 
 quickest way to dispose of it. However, as the 
 country becomes more thickly peopled, straw will 
 be taken to market and sold for money instead of 
 being converted into ashes. 
 
 That a piece of land should bear wheat for three 
 generations in succession is extraordinary, but 
 that the yield at the end of that period should 
 amount to 25 bushels an acre is more extraordi- 
 nary still. On virgin soil the yield is enormous. 
 The best evidence on this head, because it is per- 
 fectly authentic, is that furnished by Mr. Senator 
 Sutherland, a native of the Province, to a Com- 
 mittee of the Dominion House of Commons in 
 1876. Mr. Sutherland then said that he had 
 "raised 60 bushels of spring wheat per acre, 
 weighing ^% lbs. per bushel, the land having been 
 measured and the grain weighed carefully. I 
 have also received reliable information to the 
 effect that 70 bushels of wheat have been pro- 
 duced J.om 1 bushel of wheat sown." Another 
 interesting fact rests on the same trustworthy 
 
 authority; this is the abundance of grass and 
 
 E 2 
 
 :> 
 
52 
 
 Prairie Grasses, 
 
 C 
 
 C" 
 
 clieapness of liay. The prairie grasses, of which 
 there are six varieties in this Province, con- 
 tain much nutriment; they can be converted 
 into hay at the cost of $1 a ton. These wild 
 grasses often grow to the height of 5 feet ; the 
 yield of hay is as much as 4 tons an acre. 
 
 While the descendants of the original settlers 
 are living in comfort, the new-comers are pros- 
 pering also. They have to struggle against cer- 
 tain drawbacks as is the lot of all prairie farmers ; 
 ir their case, however, it is emphatically true that 
 patience and perseverance have their reward. I 
 conversed with many of the later settlers. One 
 of them was a very intelligent man who had 
 emigrated from the North of Ireland to Ontario 
 fifteen years ago and who had migrated to Mani- 
 toba a year before I saw him, being induced to 
 do so because the return from his farm did not 
 keep pace with the increase and the demands of 
 his family. His flock of a dozen children gave 
 him no concern in his Manitoba home. His 
 eldest daughter had found a good place at a 
 'liberal wage in a clergyman's household, while 
 his crops were so abundant that he could easily 
 feed all the mouths dependent upon him and lay 
 something aside for the future. 
 
 He had but one fault to find with the country, 
 and he was not singular in his complaint. The 
 
The Province of Manitoba. 
 
 1^0 
 
 violence of tlie thunderstorms appalled him. I 
 was not surprised to hear him say this. I have 
 had some experience of thunderstorms and I am 
 prepared to maintain that those of Manitoba are 
 so terrific as to be beyond all rivalry. In Ontario 
 the flashes of lightning are more vivid and the 
 peals of thunder are far more resonant than ia 
 England, but a Manitoba thunderstorm is to 
 one in Ontario what one in Ontario is to one in 
 England. When Manitoba is visited with such a 
 storm the rain falls as if the windows of heaven 
 were open, the thunder crashes as if the celestial 
 combat imagined bj Milton were at its height, 
 the lightning fills the air with sheets of dazzling 
 brightness athwart which dart tongues of flame. 
 The air is so charged with electricity that the 
 simplest operation reveals its presence. It can 
 be made manifest by merely combing one's hair. 
 At times it appears in a startling fashion. The 
 Earl of Southesk records in the narrative of his 
 travels here that, when about to wrap himself in 
 a fur robe, "a white sheet of electrical flame 
 blazed into his face, for a moment illuminating 
 the whole tent." 
 
 The Manitoba farmer who reaps fabulously 
 large crops can afford to bear the discomforts of 
 occasional thunderstorms of exceptional violence. 
 When locusts, or grasshoppers as they are hero 
 
 1 
 
54 
 
 Grasshoppers, 
 
 c 
 
 called, visit the country they cause greater un- 
 easiness because they occasion far greater loss 
 than all the thunderstorms. This plague is not 
 peculiar to Manitoba ; it is dreaded by farmers in 
 the Western States from Minnesota to Colorado. 
 At Denver, the capital of Colorado, I once saw a 
 flight of grasshoppers, resembling a scintillating 
 "brown cloud, pass over the city, and many were the 
 speculations among the onlookers as to the part 
 of the State on .vhich it would descend and work 
 destruction. The settlers in Manitoba have 
 suffered less from this pest than their neighbours 
 in the United States. Since the first settlers 
 came here in 1812 the grasshoppers have ap- 
 peared thirteen times, whereas they have visited 
 the State of Minnesota six times since 1855 ; in 
 the former case the visitations having been thir- 
 teen during sixty-eifht years and in the latter, 
 six during twenty-five years. The Indians wel- 
 come grasshoppers ; they catch, roast and eat them 
 and pronounce them very good. Happily for the 
 farmers, who prefer bushels of grain upon which 
 they can live, to bushels of grasshoppers which 
 de\^our their crops, the voracious insects are not 
 regular visi fcors. As many as thirty-five years have 
 elapsed between their successi^^'e appearances. 
 Moreover, the farmerFi are better able now to ward 
 off their ravages than they were in bygone days. 
 
 
The Province of Manitoba, 
 
 55 
 
 Grasshoppers are an infliction which is not 
 very frequent nor very greatly feared ; the spring 
 floods are annual torments for which no remedy 
 has yet been adopted. They cause the farmer 
 much annoyance and serious loss. The deposit 
 left upon the land which has been inundated fre- 
 quently lessens its fertility for a season. There 
 is a remedy which would cure all this, or better 
 still which would prevent the mischief altogether. 
 A lightning-rod guards the farmer's house and 
 barns from injury by the electric fluid. A proper 
 and general system of drainage would shield his 
 fields from the destroying flood when the snow 
 melts in the spring and the streams are swollen to 
 a great height. The Government of the Province 
 have a comprehensive scheme of drainage in 
 contemplation. If it were carried out and if it 
 proved efiectual, the wealth of the Province would 
 be vastly augmented, the waste now produced by 
 the floods being incalculable. 
 
 The Red River cart is a relic of Manitoba in the 
 old time which is destined to follow the buffalo 
 and be seen no more. Indeed, it cannot outlast 
 the buffalo, because buffalo hide is one of the 
 chief materials used in its construction. The 
 cart is entirely made of wood and buffalo hide, no 
 metal being employed or required in its construc- 
 tion. It was an ingenious device of the first 
 settlers who, having no iron at their disposal, had 
 
56 
 
 Manitoba Homesteads, 
 
 #11 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 to contrive to dispense with it. Such a cart costs 
 $10 ; it is light as well as cheap, and a heavier 
 load can be drawn in it hy an ox over the soft 
 prairie than in a cart of another build. With one 
 of these carts carrying a load of half a ton, a yoke 
 of oxen, a plough and a few other implements, 
 the Manitoba farmer is equipped for tilling the 
 soil. Farming on the prairie is very different 
 work from farming in the backwoods of Canada. 
 It has been aptly and truly said, "Where the 
 Ontario farmer ends, the farmer of Manitoba 
 begins." The latter has merely to plough the 
 prairie, sow the seed and wait till his grain is 
 ready to be reaped ; he has neither trees to fell, 
 nor land to clear. 
 
 Any citizen of the British Empire can get a 
 farm in Manitoba on very easy terms. The 
 Canadian Homestead Act provides iihat he may 
 secure 160 acres of land on paying an office fee of 
 $10, living there three years, erecting a dwelling 
 on it not less than 18 feet long by 16 feet wide, 
 and cultivating a part of the land. On complying 
 with these conditions, he becomes the absolute 
 owner of the land. His task is not hard. He 
 may grow a crop the first year of occupation 
 which will reimburse him for all his outlay. 
 Should he have cattle, they can graze free of cost 
 on the prairie grass and be fed in winter on hay 
 which he obtains for the trouble of cutting and 
 
The Province of Manitoba, 
 
 57 
 
 curing it. In order to succeed he must start with 
 capital ; the minimum sum which he ought to have 
 on beginning to farm is $500 ; the larger his 
 capital the greater his chance of success. In any 
 case he must make up his mind to endure some 
 privations, to eat very plain food, to sleep little 
 and work very hard. Should he be diligent in 
 toiling with his hands, he may count upon being 
 in comfortable circumstances Jit the end of five 
 years and a rich man at the end of ten. The 
 fault will be his own if he fail. Nature has done 
 everything for the Manitoba farmer that nature 
 can do for any farmer, and it rests with him 
 to do the rest. The Manitoba farmers whom I 
 visited and with whom I conversed are so con- 
 scious of this as to indulge but seldom in the 
 grumbling which is the failing of the farming 
 class. I found them more ready to express 
 thankfulness than to find fault. It was their rule 
 to use nearly the same form of words in which to 
 convey their reply to my question as to what they 
 thought about the country as a whole, the phrase 
 being " Manitoba is the finest land that God's 
 sun ever shone on,"* 
 
 * Among the many pamphlets, Bhio Books and works relating 
 to ^Manitoba which I have read, none contains a more interesting 
 
 « 
 
 and valuable account of its early history than a book entitled 
 Red Rlver^ by Mr. J. J, Hargrave, published at Montreal in 
 1871. 
 
 > 
 I 
 
I 'V: 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MENNONITES AND ICELANDERS IN MANITOBA. 
 
 
 The emigration of the Mennonites from t^ieir 
 Eussian homes near the Sea of Azoff to new ones 
 near the Eed Eiver of the North, is an interesting 
 fact in contemporary history. These Mennonites 
 are German Protestants who reject infant baptism, 
 who will not bear arms or take an oath. Their 
 ancestors took refuge in Eussia a century ago 
 because they were not allowed to practise their 
 religion in Western Prussia. They found an 
 asylum in Eussia where the edicts of successive 
 Emperors allowed them to till the soil and live in 
 peace. It was decreed, however, that the immunity 
 which they had enjoyed from military service 
 should terminate in 1871 ; hence, they had either 
 to submit to the conscription or leave the country. 
 The majority chose the latter alternative. 
 
 A large number of Mennonites emigrated to the 
 United States, settling in Nebraska and Kansas. 
 
Mennonites and Ire landers in Manitoba. 59 
 
 A small body went to Brazil, suffered much and 
 returned to Eussia after undergoing great priva- 
 tions and after being the objects of English 
 charity during their stay at Southampton, on 
 returning from Brazil, and till permission to re- 
 enter Russia was granted. While the exodus was 
 in progress, Mr. Hespeler was commissioned by 
 the Canadian Government to proceed to Russia and 
 suggest to the Mennonites that Manitoba would 
 be a suitable place for them. A few Mennonites 
 had settled in Ontario, had prospered, had grown 
 rich and were disposed to succour their unfortunate 
 brethren in the dominions of the Czar. They 
 agreed to become sureties to the Government of 
 Canada for the repayment of any sum which it 
 might be necessary to advance to the Russian 
 Mennonites by way of loan. The amount lent by 
 the Government was $80,000, at 6 per cent, 
 interest, repayable in eight years. 
 
 Before deciding to leave Russia for Canada, the 
 Mennonites sent three agents to survey the land 
 and empowered them, if satisfied with it, to 
 select a tract for settlement. These agents 
 reported very favourably of Manitoba, and they 
 chose two places one to the East, the other to 
 the West of the Red River, as suitable for their 
 brethren. The Canadians were not impressed 
 with the penetration of these agents, because the 
 
 > 
 1 
 
6o 
 
 Mcnnonite Homes, 
 
 c 
 
 C" 
 
 land whicli tliey deliberately selected seemed far 
 inferior to other land which they might have had. 
 When the main body of the Mennonites arrived 
 at the Red Eiver about five years ago, they had 
 much to endure. They had to encamp on the 
 open prairie in the cold winter months. "Water 
 was scarce and trees were few in number. They 
 dug wells and met the first difficulty ; they built 
 houses of sun-dried brick and overcame the second 
 and, what was still more wonderful, they heated 
 their dwellings and cooked their food with fires 
 made without wood or coal. I mentioned in a 
 previous chapter that the early settlers had a 
 habit, which they bequeathed to their descendants 
 and from which the latter are not yet weaned, of 
 burning the straw in their fields and casting their 
 manure into the river. The Mennonites carefully 
 save both. They thatch their houses and barns 
 with part of the straw ; the remainder they mix 
 with the manure, press the two together and cut 
 the mass into cakes, which serve admirably as 
 fuel to burn in their clay-built stoves. These 
 stoves are so arranged that three sides of each 
 form parts of three rooms, thus distributing heat 
 over the greatest surface and economizing fuel. 
 
 More cosy dwellings and better arranged farm 
 offices than those of the Mennonites are not to bo 
 found iu Manitoba or in tho Canadian Far AYest, 
 
Mennonites and Icelando^s in Manitoba, 6 1 
 
 )d far 
 B had. 
 rrived 
 sy had 
 n the 
 Water 
 
 They 
 J built 
 ;econd 
 tieated 
 h fires 
 [ in a 
 had a 
 idants 
 ed, of 
 
 their 
 e fully 
 I barns 
 mix 
 id cut 
 
 h as 
 'hese 
 
 each 
 
 heat 
 
 lel. 
 
 farm 
 
 to be 
 
 IVest. 
 
 The furniture is plain but substantial, and well 
 adapted for its purpose. It is the handiwork of the 
 people themselves. They employ their leisure in 
 carpentry during the frost-bound winter months. 
 The men think it as absurd not to make their own 
 chairs and tables, their writing-desks and chests of 
 drawers, as the women consider it inexcusable not 
 to suckle their infants and make the clothes 
 used by their families. It is the custom of both 
 sexes to buy anything which they can fabricate 
 for themselves. They arc thoroughly practical 
 Christians ; they hold that their duties to them- 
 selves and oheir neighbours consist in dressing 
 plainly, being diligent in business and rendering 
 to every one his due and no more. They are 
 ready to help those who help themselves; but 
 they will not lend a hand to keep the idle by 
 nature in a state of blissful indolence. The men 
 are farmers from choice. No drones are suffered 
 to remain in their community. Every one in 
 sound health is obliged to labour with his hands 
 or to pay the penalty of starving. A clergyman 
 toils in the fields during the week and ministers 
 to the spiritual wants of his flock on Sundays. 
 Nor is the schoolmaster exempted from manual 
 labour during seed-time and harvest ; the rest of 
 the year he is permitted to teach the children. 
 The women have to labour as hard and as un- 
 
 > 
 
Ml '>: 
 
 62 
 
 Mennonite Doctrines and Habits, 
 
 (0i 
 
 I ii' 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 remittingly as the men. No distinction of sex is 
 made when a field has to be weeded, a house 
 plastered, seed sown or cattle tended. All who 
 can use their hands are obliged to do so when the 
 occasion arises. 
 
 The Mennonites will not fight on any provoca- 
 tion. They will not take an oath whatever the 
 consequences. They will not go to law if they 
 can possibly help it, and they carry their in- 
 dependence to such an extreme that each one 
 acts as his own physician without thinking that 
 he is chargeable with folly. They can the more 
 easily dispense with drugs and doctors because 
 they enjoy exceptionally good health. The country 
 and the climate suit them. I was told by those 
 whom I questioned on the subject that, in 
 Manitoba, they had far less sickness, especially 
 among the children, than in Southern Russia. 
 They are temperate; but they are not water 
 drinkers on principle. They relish a glass of 
 whiskey and still more a glass of brandy if they 
 can enjoy it without payment. Their chief 
 objection to strong liquors consists in having to 
 pay for them. They also delight in a pipe, if 
 tobacco be supplied to them gratis. 
 
 I spent a night in one of their settlements ; 1 
 visited many of their farms ; I conversed with 
 several of them in their own tongue. It is a 
 
 
Mennonites and Icelanders in Manitoba. ^ 
 
 
 proof of their innate and intense conservatism 
 that they have preserved their German speech 
 till now. It is doubtful whether they will not be 
 driven to speak English as well as German and, 
 in time, to speak English exclusively. In Russia 
 they had no temptation or inducement to learn the 
 language of the country. They were a compara- 
 tively educated body placed among an ignorant 
 and, in their estimation, an inferior race. If the 
 Russians by whom they were surrounded wished 
 to converse with them, they held it to be the 
 business of the Russians to acquire their language. 
 Now the tables are turned. They fiiid it necessary 
 to learn English in order to do business with their 
 neighbours, these neighbours not caring to take 
 any trouble for the purpose of being able to 
 converse with them. Whereas in Russia they 
 looked down with contempt upon their ignorant 
 neighbours, in Manitoba they recognize that their 
 neighbours are better educated and far more 
 advanced in the ways of the world than themselves. 
 The agricultural implements which they saw in 
 Canada were as much superior to those which they 
 had used in Russia as a railway train is to a stage 
 coach. They felt that the people who made and 
 employed such improved ploughs, thrashing 
 machines and harvesters must be infinitely their 
 superiors. They showed their tact and good 
 
 > 
 
64 
 
 Failings of the Mennonites, 
 
 c 
 C 
 
 sense, not only in recognizing this, but also in 
 buying the novel implements of agriculture where- 
 with to cultivate the soil. 
 
 Their satisfaction with the soil and climate is ex 
 pressed without reserve and in the strongest terms. 
 Each of those to whom I addressed a question on 
 this head informed me that the soil of Manitoba 
 was more fertile, that the yield of grain was larger, 
 that the quality of the grain was better there 
 than in Southern Russia, while the climate, espe- 
 cially in summer, was far superior. Some of 
 them waxed enthusiastic when speaking of their 
 Canadian home. They have nothing to complain 
 of. The Canadian Government have pledged 
 themselves to respect the religious scruples of the 
 Mennonites. The Mennonites, on the other hand, 
 desire nothing so much as to be left iu the un- 
 disturbed enjoyment of what they style " a 
 beautiful, a heavenly land.^' Their feelings are 
 manifested in the names given to their villages, 
 these being " Schonthal," " Blumenort,*' " Schon- 
 wiese,'* ** Rosenthal,'* signifying Beautiful Valley, 
 Flowery Spot, Beautiful Meadow, Rose Valley. 
 
 Though the Mennonites possess many virtues 
 and make excellent settlers in a nevv country, 
 they ivre yet far from being model citizjns. Their 
 very virtues are not easily distinguishable from 
 vices. Thoy are as avaricious and niggardly as 
 
Mennonitcs and Icelancteys in Manitoba, 65 
 
 French peasant proprietors. They are morbidly 
 suspicious of persons who do not belong to their 
 body and, when dealing with strangers, they drive 
 bargains which are so hard as to verge on sharp 
 practices. To get money is their chief aim in 
 life, and their whole enjoyment consists in labour- 
 ing for that object. Like other assiduous cul- 
 tivators of the soil, they allow their minds to lie 
 fallow. They can read and write ; indeed, they 
 would be ashamed of being unable to do both ; 
 but they consider it no reproach to be indifferent 
 to literature other than school-books, hymn-books 
 and the Bible, and never to look at a newspaper. 
 They are utterly heedless as to the affairs of the 
 world, so long as they can reap their crops and 
 make a profit by selling their produce. If they 
 learn what is the market price of what they have 
 to sell, they have learnt all the current information 
 which they care to possess. 
 
 Even the charity of \hQ Mennonites has its dark 
 side. The poorer brithren are assisted by the 
 richer, but the richer take care lest the poorer 
 should be so well paid as to grow independent 
 and make their own terms. Eicli Mennonitcs 
 ire thoroughly convinced of the advantage of 
 employing cheap labour. Their astuteness as a 
 communityis sometimes carriedfar beyond permis- 
 sible limits^ I was present when the heads of one of 
 
 ••••I 
 
 'Y 
 
66 
 
 Memtonite Exclusiveness. 
 
 4 
 
 C 
 
 C 
 
 tlieir Municipalities were taken to task for the 
 following conduct. In common with others in the 
 Province, this Municipality had received §400 
 from the Provincial Government to be applied 
 in drainage. The grant was accepted by the 
 MunicipaUty 'n q^^ st on, but nothing was done in 
 draining the \v^A. Unless each Municipality did 
 its duty, the e^ vu oF the work would be impaired. 
 The result of investigation was to show that the 
 Mennonite Municipality had expended §75 in buy- 
 ing two drainage ploughs which were carefully 
 stored away, and had lent the rest of the sum 
 at interest to a member of their own body. 
 
 It is the desire and hope of the Mennonites in 
 Manitoba to live apart from their neighbours and 
 to preserve their own speech and customs as they 
 did in Russia. There are many places on the 
 North American Continent where colonies have 
 been established which have preserved most of the 
 characteristics of their founders. In Nova Scotia 
 and Ontario there are German settlements; in 
 New Brunswick there is a Danish settlement ; in 
 Ontario there is a Highland settlement ; in many 
 parts of the country there are French settlements. 
 But these settlements are chiefly characterized by 
 two languages being spoken by the people ; those 
 among them whose ancestral tongue is German, 
 Gaelic or French learn English also and the fact 
 
Mennonites and Icelanders in Manitoba, 6"] 
 
 of the people speaking two languages is the chief, 
 if not the only distinction between them and other 
 Canadians. Every year the possibility of remaining 
 a class apart is more difficult owing to the increase 
 of intercommunication. The present generation 
 of Mennonites may practise all the exclusive rules 
 to which they have been accustomed and their 
 ignorance of English will render it easier for them 
 to resist any external influence which mif^t cause 
 them to modify or alter their views anJ; i ibits. 
 Their children will assuredly succumV). -o these 
 influences. They are learning Englisn • ud they 
 will acquire ideas which must alter t '>ir mode of 
 life. Moreover, the Mennonites are making money 
 more rapidly than they ever did before and the 
 sons of rich parents may cease to labour with their 
 hands as their forefathers have done for gen^ - 
 tions. It is to be hoped, however, that they ..ill 
 preserve some of their simple tastes and all their 
 domestic virtues. The Mennonites have taught 
 the Canadians many less' ns, and they have learned 
 much in return. The progress of their community 
 deserves to be watched with interest. As tillers of 
 the soil they have no superiors. As pioneers in 
 subjugation of the wilderness they cannot be 
 rivalled. Their gospel of labour is sour'i and 
 profitable doctrine for settlers in the Far West, 
 and it ig their merit to practise it with diligence 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 Nciu Iceland, 
 
 i 
 
 's*.^ 
 
 Oi 
 
 i ( 
 
 and zeal. As Lord Dufferin remarked in an 
 admirable speech delivered when visiting their 
 reservation, they are useful recruits and comrades 
 in a contest wasrea ivith Nature where no blood is 
 shed or misery wrought. Yet the war " is one of 
 ambition, for we intend to annex territory, but 
 neither blazins: villao^es nor devastated fields will 
 mark our ruthless track ; our battalion will march 
 across the illimitable plains which stretch before 
 us as sunshine steals athwart the ocean ; the rolliug 
 prairie will blossom in our wake, and corn and 
 peace and plenty will spring where we have trod." 
 
 II. 
 
 Fifty-six miles northward of Winnipeg is Gimli, 
 the Capital of New Iceland. The territory set 
 apart for the Icelanders covers 27,000 acres; the 
 population did not much exceed 1029 at the close 
 of 1879 ; about 500 Icelanders of both sexes were 
 scattered over the Province, the men working on 
 farms, the women as domestic servants. Lord 
 DufTerin was an enthusiastic advocate of immi- 
 gration into Canada from Iceland. He had 
 learned from personal observation how hard life 
 was in Iceland itself, the people there existing as 
 he phrased it " amid the snows and ashes of an 
 
Mennonites and Icelanders in Manitoba. 69 
 
 arctic volcauo." The first Icelandic settlement in 
 Canada was made in 1875 near Burnt Kiver in 
 Victoria County, Ontario. The spot reminded tho 
 Icelanders of their native land far too well, tho 
 chief product of the locality being rock. It was 
 then resolved to offer them a tract of land in the 
 Far West on the shore of Lake Winnipeg, provided 
 that they would remove thither and induce their 
 countrymen to join them. The removal was 
 effected the following year and as many as 2000 
 took up their abode near Lake Winnipeg, an 
 inland sea as long as England and not less 
 abundantly stocked with fish than the salt ocean 
 around Iceland. Immediately after arriving, 
 small-pox broke out among them and they were 
 subjected to a species of quarantine ; they com- 
 plained of being kept too strictly isolated and 
 that intercourse with the rest of the world was 
 forbidden them long after all risk of contagion had 
 ceased. 
 
 Perhaps no settlers in the Far West have had 
 more difficulties to surmount than these Icelanders; 
 certainly, none have found anything so strange and 
 unlike what they had seen before. As Lo^'d 
 Dufferin justly remarked, the business of the 
 Canadiar settlers is to fell wood, plough fields, 
 make vc is ; these Icelanders, however, had never 
 seen ii ilieir native isle, a tree, a cornfield or a 
 
 % 
 
■-) 
 
 Discord among the Icelanders, 
 
 CStt 
 
 road, and they were ignorant of the very elements 
 of agriculture. It is highly creditable to them 
 that they have learned very quickly how to 
 cultivate the soil, the neat gardens round their 
 comfortable houses being pleasing tokens of their 
 progress. They have been successful in rearing 
 cattle and they have now added beef to their 
 dietary; formerly they lived entirely on fish, 
 vegetables and bread. I am not sanguine, however, 
 ^bout the hopes of the promoters of the settle- 
 ment being realized. Immigration from Iceland 
 does not continue. For a time the desire of the 
 Icelanders to persuade their brethren at home to 
 join them was so marked that Mr. Lowe, Secretary 
 to the Department of Agriculture, informed a 
 Committee of the Dominion House of Commons, 
 ** almost every settler in New Iceland appears to 
 be an immigration agent." The great changes 
 which these Icelanders have undergone appears to 
 have created in their minds a longing for further 
 change and fresh wandering. Some of them have 
 proceeded to the United States and those who 
 remain are not satisfied with their lot. They are 
 a good-tempered and harmless race, they make 
 excellent servants, but they appear lacking in the 
 qualities which constitute successful colonists. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE NORTH-WEf>T TERBITOUIKS. 
 
 "Go west, young man, and grow iip with the 
 country," was tlie pit!*;;, sensible and often- 
 quoted advice which Horace Greeley gave to such 
 of his countrymen as were unable to get suitable 
 employment in the Eastern States of the Union. 
 The result has been to people the Western States 
 with men who find it easier to grow rich there 
 than in the place of their birth. What the 
 younger citizens of the United States have been 
 doing for many years back, the young Canadians 
 are doing now. They, too, have a Far West 
 which is as rich in golden opportunities as that 
 which Uf, ed to be regarded as the most favoured 
 part of the North American Continent. Large 
 and important though Manitoba undoubtedly is, 
 there is a region beyond it still larger and Btill 
 more attractive. Many persons fancy thfit Mani- 
 toba is far enough west, yet others regard it as on 
 
 > 
 
72 
 
 Western Roads, 
 
 Illi 
 
 K 
 
 
 1 
 
 ':v I; 
 
 the tlirosliold of the new and marvellous country 
 for which they are bound, and they treat it as a 
 mere halting-place in their journey towards the 
 setting sun. 
 
 When the Canadian Pacific Railway is finished 
 and open for traffic the journey westward through 
 Manitoba will be an easy one. At present it 
 is tedious and trying. During a part of the year 
 there is communication by water between Winni- 
 peg and Portage la Prairie, 70 miles to the west, 
 and it is also possible to go in a steamer as far as 
 Battleford, the Capital of the North- West. But 
 the more general mode of travel, and the one 
 which will be followed till the railway can be used 
 is for travellers thither to start in a light spring 
 waggon, carrying a tent and other encumbrances 
 in view of the probable necessity of having to 
 camp out. The traveller and the emigrant do not 
 require long experience of Manitoba to thoroughly 
 understand its greatest drawback, the absence of 
 good roads. The word road has seldom a place 
 in the language of the people, the common ex- 
 pression to designate the patliway between two 
 places being " trail.'* It may be said, indeed, 
 that each traveller makes his own road. If he be 
 aware of the direction which he ought to follow, 
 he chooses the part of the prairie wiiere the 
 ground is best fitted for driving. Nothing is 
 
The North- West Territories* 
 
 11 
 
 easier tban to drive over the stoneless and 
 springing turf of the virgin prairie and, if the 
 traflSc be not too great, an excellent" trail'* is 
 made by the passage of successive vehicles. But, 
 when the traffic is heavy and continuous and holes 
 are formed in which water settles and the soft 
 mould resembles a mass of tenacious mud, then 
 following the " trail " is a weariness to the flesh 
 of man and beast. The roads of Manitoba must 
 have much in common with the famous roads 
 in the Highlands before the advent of General 
 AVade. 
 
 When England was supposed to be the land 
 of mirth and song, the persons who regard 
 those bygone days with regret would feel 
 themselves disenchanted if they were suddenly 
 transplanted to the gold age of their dreams. 
 English roads were then in much the same state 
 as those in Manitoba now. The Slough of 
 Despond through which Bunyan makes Christian 
 struggle at the beginning of his heavenward pil- 
 grimage to the Celestial City, was doubtless copied 
 from something which he had seen near Bedford. 
 No clearer or more aocurate representation of a 
 Manitoba ** slew " has ever been furnished than 
 that which Bunyan wrote by way of illustratiii-^' 
 the obstacles which Christian had to face and 
 surmount at the outset of his journey. Christian 
 
 ^ 
 
74 
 
 Mud holes. 
 
 •^ir. 
 
 ln« 
 
 il 
 
 had but one to cross, whereas the pilgrims bound 
 for the Canadian North-West have to cross 
 hundreds. The stoutest-hearted emigrant who 
 has resolved to settle on the Saskatchewan River 
 and who has begun what he considers the last 
 stage of his journey at the Capital of Manitoba, 
 has felt his courage and confidence fail him long 
 before he has reached the first town of importance. 
 Between Winnipeg and Poi^tage la Prairie the 
 mudholes are so many and so difficult to cross 
 that, if they had intercepted Christian's path, he 
 would inevitably have returned in despair. to the 
 City of Destruction. Many emigrants have seen 
 them and turned back in dismay. Some explorers 
 of the land have done likewise. One of the latter 
 warned me against making an attempt which 
 must end in failure, if not in the fracture of my 
 lieck. It is simply impossible to depict the diffi- 
 culties caused by those **mudlioles ;" as difficult 
 is it to persuade the new comer that the "mud'* 
 which he regards with horror and disgust is the 
 finest alluvial soil which can be found anywhere. 
 It is no uncommon occurrence for a train of 
 freight waggons, bound westward, to be detained 
 several days in the " mudholes " which intersect 
 the beaten path a few miles to the west of Winni- 
 peg. The emigrants who have surmounted these 
 obstacles to their progress and who remain con- 
 
TJie No7't/i' IVesi Territories. 
 
 75 
 
 fident of ultimate success are the persons who 
 not only deserve success but reap it. 
 
 An emigrant who has made up his mind to seek 
 a new home in Manitoha can easily prepare himself, 
 before leaving home, for what he must encounter 
 on the way to his homestead in the Canadian 
 Far West. Let him practise crossing a newly- 
 ploughed field for hours together with a horse 
 and cart and pitching a tent at the end of his 
 journey. Let him arrange so that there are fi'e- 
 quent ponds in the field, these ponds being at least 
 five hundred y^trds in width, having an average 
 depth of four feet and a muddy bottom. If he be 
 not disheartened by exercise of this kind he is well 
 qualified for starting on a trip to the Canadian Far 
 West during the wet season. He may be agreeably 
 surprised at other seasons by finding the roads in 
 a very different condition. In the autumn they 
 are sometimes as dry and hard and smooth as a 
 road paved with asphalte. During the winter 
 months they are always good, for then the hard 
 frozen snow covers the prairie and any vehicle in 
 the form of a sledge skims over it as easily as 
 a train runs along a line of rails. 
 
 The emigrant or traveller who is prepared to 
 camp out will find life on the prairie far less un- 
 bearable than if he depend for shelter at night in 
 a settler's hut. It is trying to toil along the miry 
 
 % 
 
;6 
 
 Prairie Hotels, 
 
 ^'^ 
 
 C" 
 
 paths over which thirty inilos are all that can be 
 conveniently passed between sunrise and sunset, 
 but the accommodation at the few stopping-places 
 on the beaten track is quite as great a trial to tlie 
 fastidious wayfarers. These prairie hotels are 
 the rude log-houses erected by settlers who add to 
 their incomes by entertaining travellers. They 
 are commonly 18 feet long by 16 feet wide and 
 are divided horizontally into two parts. On the 
 ground floor is the place where the family and the 
 visitors sit and take the meals which are cooked 
 in a stove at the one end, the stove serving the 
 double purpose of heating the house and affording 
 the requisite facilities for cooking. In the upper 
 story the occupants of the house pass the night. 
 The food is plain and simple enough to satisfy 
 the greatest foe to high living, consisting of fried 
 salt pork, bread, potatoes and tea. Eggs and 
 milk are luxuries rarely obtainable. Why the 
 settlers do not rear poultry or ke3p cows is a 
 question which I cannot answer. A few of them 
 add to their incomes, not only by entertaining the 
 strangers who present themselves-, but also by 
 levying a toll upon their vehicles. If a stream 
 near their dwellings be difl&cult to ford, or if the 
 *' trail' be in good condition over their land, they 
 construct a rud" bridge across the stream and 
 "•iinke tlu* persons who use it or who pass over 
 
The North' West Territories, 
 
 77 
 
 IS a 
 them 
 tlie 
 
 by 
 
 and 
 over 
 
 their land pay 25 cents each. I found that some of 
 these astute men put as much as §50 weekly into 
 their pock.ts by so acting. The emigrants curse 
 these imposts, but they have either to pay them or 
 submit to serious inconvenience. The Govern- 
 ment ought to see that the roads are kept in 
 better order and that they are free to all who pass 
 over them. I was told that the Provincial Govern- 
 ment are awakening to their duty in this respect. 
 If they give effect to their praiseworthy intentions, 
 many a settler who has to travel over the prairie 
 to his homestead, and to whom every dollar is 
 precious, will grumble less about a matter which 
 ought never to have formed one of his troubles. 
 
 When I left Winnipeg for the Far West, the 
 first place at which I halted for the night was 
 Whitehorse Plains where Mr. House combines 
 farming with innkeeping. He has been twenty 
 years in the country and he likes it verv much. 
 He regrets the good old days when ae was 
 plentiful, life was easy, when the set rs were 
 few in number and hunters were in th« majority. 
 The road between Winnipeg and ''ortage la 
 Prairie, the first place of any import;. nee on the 
 Western road and about 70 miles distant from 
 tlie Capital, is worse than in any other part of 
 the country I have visited. The population of 
 Portage is 1200. It is. the most weslr.-ly place 
 
 ■<• 
 
 I 
 
78 Royal Commissioners in Manitoba* 
 
 t : l! 
 
 CHI 
 111 
 
 OSI: 
 
 M 
 
 visited by Mr. Pell and Mr. Reade, the represen- 
 tatives of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, 
 during their scamper through Manitoba. I found 
 that these gentlemen had made a deep impression 
 upon those with whom they came into contact. 
 It was admitted that, if they saw but little of 
 the country, they were assiduous in rigorously 
 questioning everybody they met. Both gentle- 
 men expressed themselves greatly struck with 
 what they saw and both admitted that Manitoba 
 was a wonderful land. Mr. Roade embodied his 
 feelings as a British fariner in terms which wei'e 
 certainly emphatic. Being asked what he 
 thought of the country, he replied that he re- 
 garded it iu the same light iliat a lamb does the 
 butcher. It is impossible to view the vast ex- 
 panse of land covered with crops of wheat and of 
 a still larger area of as good land still unculti- 
 vated without arriving at the conclusion that the 
 Manitoba farmers, who pay no rent, are dangerous 
 rivals to British farmers who both pay rent and 
 obtain a far smaller return for their labour. The 
 average yield of wheat here is thirty-five bushels 
 an acre. If the land were farmed with as much 
 cure as is the rule in Great Britain, the yield 
 could be nearly doubled. 
 
 The Hudson Bay Company have a store at the 
 western division of Portage, \mder the care of 
 
The North' West Territories, 
 
 79 
 
 Mr. Gigot. I found him a well-informed and 
 most courteous gentleman of German origin. I 
 learned from him that the supply of furs has not 
 yet fallen off. He told me that some wild 
 animals are more plentiful now than before the 
 arrival of so many settlers ; he explained this by 
 saying that these animals have always been more 
 numerous in particular years and that the last 
 two years are remarkable in this respect. More- 
 over, the hunters use moi*e effectual weapons for 
 killing them than in bygone days, so that the 
 return is necessarily larger. It is obvious, how- 
 ever, that the fur-bearing animals which still 
 abound here miist disappear beft ** the advance 
 of civilization. 
 
 I shall not mention in detail all the places at 
 which I halted during the ten days that I 
 journeyed through the North-West Territory. The 
 farthest point I reached was Enpid City which, 
 by the devious route I followed, is 200 miles to 
 the west of Winnipeg. The weather ay as very 
 bad during a part of the time and those persons 
 who have traversed the prairie in an open waggon 
 when snow or rain is falling will not wonder that 
 I curtailed my journey. I could not, then, visit the 
 young and aspiring city of Gladstone in the 
 township of Palestine, of which I saw a plan 
 representing it to possess many fine buildings 
 
 •■«»i 
 
 \ 
 
So 
 
 Journalism at Rapid City. 
 
 0|: 
 
 and parks, but which, like other young prairie 
 cities, doubtless looks most attractive on paper. 
 Not far from it is the township of Beaconsfield 
 which is less advanced than Gladstone city. In 
 Beaconsfield there are only a few shanties and a 
 post-ofiice, whereas Gladstone has a population 
 large enough to support a weekly journal, tlie 
 Gladstone Neivs. 
 
 Rapid City is situated on the Little Saskat- 
 chewan River and seems destined to grow in size 
 and importance, being the centre of a splendid 
 agricultural district. It was two years old at the 
 time of my visit. I counted 64 houses and a 
 saw mill, and I was told that the population 
 numbered 400. A weekly journal the Rapid City 
 Enter prise, after a life of six months, had just 
 ceased to appear and the citizens were occupied 
 in devising measures for supplying a successor to 
 it. A young Canadian journalist arrived at the 
 same time as myself, his purpose being to make 
 an arrangement with the citizens. It was agreed 
 that he should receive a bonus of §500, an office 
 rent free and a lot of land in a good situation, in 
 tlio event of his publishing a journal for twelve 
 months. The citizens were well pleased with the 
 success of the Show of the Rapid City Agricultural 
 Society, the first which had been held and one 
 which they were glad to think was far better tlian 
 
The North- West Territories, 
 
 8i 
 
 the first held in the City of Winnipeg. A thousand 
 visitors came to see the sight and the articles 
 exhibited were highly creditable. They com- 
 prised all those commonly seen at Agricultural 
 Exhibitions and some which would not be found 
 at such an Exhibition in England. The latter 
 consisted of articles manufactured in the locality 
 and of needlework, prizes being offered for the best 
 set of horse-shoes and the best pair of gentle- 
 man's or lady's boots, for the best panel door 
 and window sash and the best pair of woollen 
 socks and mitts, for the best rug or mat and the 
 best sack of flour. All varieties of needlework, 
 from plain sewing to the most elaborate em- 
 broidery, figured in the prize list. I thought it 
 perfectly sensible to encourage local skill in all 
 the cases where it can be turned to profitable 
 account. When the railway is open the articles 
 which have now to be made on the spot, will be 
 made by machinery, and though brought from a 
 distance, will be sold at a lower price than hand- 
 made goods produced at home. It does credit to 
 the managers of the Show that they offered a 
 special prize to the Indians for the best display 
 of agricultural products. 
 
 The land in the vicinity of Rapid City is rolling 
 prairie interspersed with small lakes ; the soil is 
 lighter than that of Manitoba, yet it is not less 
 
82 
 
 Successful Fa7'mers, 
 
 
 c 
 
 productive. Three miles to the South-West is 
 " the English Eeserve," a tract of land covering 
 12 miles square and chiefly occupied by immi- 
 grants from England. I visited some of the 
 farms and I conversed with many of the settlers. 
 Several had emigrated with too little capital, 
 others had done so under the delusion that a 
 knowledge of farming was not essential, and both 
 those who had too little money and too little 
 practical knowledge had found their task very 
 severe. But I heard no other complaint than 
 one to the effect that the country was too thinly 
 peopled. All the practical farmers had done well, 
 having reaped large crops and obtained good 
 prices for their produce. The wheat was pro- 
 nounced by an expert who accompanied me to be 
 the finest he had ever seen. An Ontario farmer, 
 who had been here a year only, was enchanted with 
 the country. His seed sown in a shallow furrow 
 on the wild prairie had yielded a vast increase. 
 The root crops surprised him most of all, potatoes 
 grown on the prairie sod averaging 2 lbs. in 
 weight and turnips from 15 to 20 lbs. each. Some 
 of the farms were very charming. One of 320 
 acres, obtained at the cost of 33Z. by a Hereford- 
 shire farmer who had left England owing to the 
 failure of his crops in 1879, was everything that 
 any one could desire. A small lake lay in front 
 
The North' West Territories, 
 
 83 
 
 of the house; a few trees grew close at hand, 
 about twenty acres had been sown with wheat, a 
 smaller portion had been devoted to root crops. 
 A small patch before the door had been sown 
 with flower seeds brought by his daughter from 
 the old home, and the sight of the flowers was as 
 delightful to my eye as the large yields of grain 
 and vegetables. More luxuriant mignonette I 
 never saw before ; the flowers were gigantic and 
 the delicious perfume was not impaired by the 
 size of the plants. I was so struck with these 
 flowers as to carry away specimens, being con- 
 vinced that they were as curious as any specimens 
 of agricultural products and quite as striking 
 testimonies to the goodness of the soil and 
 climate. If the settler in Manitoba be not con- 
 tented, he has but to migrate to the North-West 
 Territories in order to find a still better farming 
 country. There is plenty of room for all comers 
 in these Territories ; they cover more than two 
 and a half million square miles. A low estimate 
 of the finest land available for settlement shows 
 that there is ample room here for a population 
 three times larger than that of the British Isles. 
 
 The Hon. David Laird, Governor of the North- 
 West Territories, was on a tour of inspection 
 during my visit, and I had the gratification of 
 
 much personal intercourse with him. He is a 
 
 G 2 
 
 "••••I 
 
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 1.0 
 
 li£|2£ 12.5 
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 Hiotographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 as WIST MAIN STRUT 
 
 WHSTIR.N.Y. 14910 
 
 (716) •72-4S03 
 
 

 2l 
 
84 
 
 Home of tJie Buffalo » 
 
 '•Xll. 
 
 
 native of Prince Edward Island ; he admits that 
 the fertile soil and pleasant climate of his island 
 home are quite matched by those of the great 
 country over which he is now placed in authority. 
 He even thinks that Battleford, the capital of 
 these Territories, is healthier than that of any 
 other part of Canada. Though the attention of 
 the world has been concentrated on this region 
 owing to its reputed value for grain producing, 
 yet, in Governor Laird's opinion, the region is 
 even better adapted for rearing cattle. He de- 
 scribed a tract of country not far from the base 
 of the Eocky Mountains which has long been the 
 home of the buffalo, and which is unrivalled for 
 stock rearing; it is 360 miles long by 100 broad; 
 it is covered with rich grasses, and the climate is 
 so temperate that cattle can remain all the winter 
 in the open air with impunity. Underneath the 
 soil, throughout the whole of this tract, there are 
 beds of Hgnite of the best quality, the lignite 
 burning nearly as well as ordinary coal. 
 
 I was pleased to learn that the Indians are 
 giving no further trouble than to make appeals 
 for food when the season is unusually inclement. 
 Some of these Indians are setting an excellent 
 example to their brethren. When Governor 
 Laird went to Battleford in 1877 he found a body 
 of Crees, numbering 600, encamped there. He 
 
The North' West Territories. 
 
 ^s 
 
 that 
 sland 
 great 
 ority. 
 :al of 
 f any 
 on of 
 'egion 
 acing, 
 ion is 
 [e de- 
 e base 
 en the 
 led for 
 )road ; 
 aate is 
 winter 
 ,th the 
 jre are 
 lignite 
 
 QS are 
 ppeals 
 3ment. 
 cellenfr 
 vernor 
 a body 
 J. He 
 
 persuaded them to leave a place where they had 
 no right to remain, and to settle on a spot to the 
 south which belonged to them. The Rev. Mr. 
 Clark, a Church of England missionary, was 
 labouring among these Crees. He had gained 
 their confidence, and he induced them to begin 
 cultivating the soil. He showed them how to set 
 to work, and in 1878 they had good crops of 
 potatoes. In 1879 they had crops of various 
 sorts of vegetables and of some kinds of grain 
 sufficient to provide for their wants, and 
 leave them a surplus to sell. Other Indians 
 are copying what the Crees have done, and it 
 is probable that the experiment so successfully 
 begun on a small scale will prove of inestimable 
 benefit to the Indians as a body. They must 
 cultivate the soil, be fed by the Government 
 or starve. Year after year buffalo are growing 
 scarcer. Once the Indians become habituated to 
 tilling the soil, they will give even less trouble 
 than they now do to the Canadian Government. 
 
 Out of consideration for the Indians and in 
 continuance of the policy of the Hudson Bay 
 Company, the sale and manufacture of intoxicants 
 are absolutely prohibited throughout the North- 
 West Territories. The Governor-General of the 
 Dominion is alone empowered to give a licence 
 for manufacturing intoxicants there, while the 
 
86 
 
 Sale of Intoxicants Prohibited. 
 
 . 1 
 
 T\ 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the Territories may issue 
 a licence allowing them to be sold or kept, under 
 the condition of making an annual return to the 
 Minister of the Interior of the licences issued and 
 of the quantity and nature of the intoxicants to 
 which they refer, that return to be laid before 
 Parliament. Owing to attempts to defeat the 
 operation of such an Act the definition of intoxi- 
 cants is made to include every conceivable form 
 of intoxicating beverage or solid substance, the 
 
 words of the Act being : " The expression * intoxi- 
 cating liquor* shall mean and include all spirits, 
 strong waters, spirituous liquors, wines, fer- 
 mented or compounded liquors or intoxicating 
 fluids; and the expression 'intoxicant' shall 
 include opium or any preparation thereof, and 
 any other intoxicating drug or substance, and 
 tobacco or tea mixed, compounded or impregnated 
 with opium, or with any other intoxicating drug, 
 spirit or substance, and whether the same or any 
 of them be liquid or solid." Though not himself 
 
 a total abstainer on principle, the Governor has 
 become one during his term of office on the 
 gi'ound that he could not well enforce the Act if 
 he made himself an exception to its provisions. 
 He is beset with applications for licences ; indeed, 
 the enforcement of the law against the use of 
 intoxicants gives him more annoyance and labour 
 than any other of his duties. He thinks the pro- 
 hibitive system works well on the whole. Whether 
 
The North' West Territories, 
 
 87 
 
 ' issue 
 under 
 to the 
 jd and 
 nts to 
 before 
 it the 
 intoxi- 
 3 form 
 ;e, the 
 
 intoxi- 
 jpirits, 
 !, fer- 
 icating 
 shall 
 f, and 
 e, and 
 srnated 
 drug, 
 or any 
 limself 
 or has 
 Dn the 
 Act if 
 risions. 
 ndeed, 
 use of 
 labour 
 le pro- 
 hether 
 
 it can be upheld when the country is more densely 
 populated remains to be seen. The newly-arrived 
 settlers complain bitterly about the Act. An 
 English farmer's wife told me that she missed her 
 glass of beer at dinner more than anything else, 
 and that if she could enjoy it again, she would not 
 regret having left her old home. 
 
 At present, the Governing body of the North- 
 West Territories is nominated by the Governor- 
 General in Council ; provision is made, however, 
 for the nominated being transformed into an 
 elected body. Whenever any district of 1000 
 square miles contains a population of not less 
 than 1000 adults, exclusive of aliens or unenfran- 
 chized Indians, the Lieutenant-Governor may pro- 
 claim it an Electoral District and desire the people 
 to return a representative. Should the number 
 of adults rise to 2000 then a second representa- 
 tive may be returned. When the Council shall 
 consist of 21 elected members then it shall cease 
 to be a Council and will become the Legislative 
 Assembly of the North- West Territories. This 
 transformation is now in progress and, when it is 
 completed, it will be seen whether the people 
 desire to continue the prohibitions as to intoxicants 
 which are now imposed upon them by the Dominion 
 Parliament, 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CANADIAN FAR WEST. 
 
 Id 
 
 >l/l 
 
 It is a misfortune that the most widely-read 
 descriptions of the vast and sparsely peopled 
 region of Canada, extending from Lake Superior to 
 the Rocky Mountains, chiefly relate to its appear- 
 ance in the winter season. Hence the notion 
 prevails that the " Great Lone Land " is an illimit- 
 able wilderness, covered with snow and intersected 
 with frozen rivers over which people journey on 
 sledges drawn by unruly dogs. All countries in 
 the temperate zone have their winter, yet it pro- 
 duces a misleading impression to depict them as 
 if the winter state were the normal one. I have 
 seen snow lying thickly in sunny Provence and 
 in the Riviera along the Mediterranean which is 
 supposed to be an Earthly Paradise, and I have 
 felt the cold more keenly there than I have done 
 when Fahrenheit's thermometer indicated 20^ 
 below zero in the coldest part of the North 
 
The Canadian Far West 
 
 89 
 
 ly-read 
 peopled 
 5rior to 
 bppear- 
 notion 
 illimit- 
 [•sected 
 ley on 
 
 ies in 
 it pro- 
 lem as 
 I have 
 ce and 
 hich is 
 
 I have 
 3 done 
 led 20° 
 
 North 
 
 American Continent. A lesson soon learnt, and 
 not rapidly forgotten by the visitor to the part of 
 North America where the winters are most severe, 
 is that the position of mercury in a thermometer 
 is no criterion of the cold experienced. So long 
 as the air is still, any person warmly clad is 
 almost insensible to cold. When the tempera- 
 ture is at the lowest point in Manitoba, it is the 
 rule for the air to be absolutely still. At Pau, in 
 the Pyrenees, the thermometer frequently falls 
 far lower in winter than at Nice on the Mediter- 
 ranean; but, as the atmosphere is so calm at 
 Pau that, for days or weeks together, not a 
 breath of wind stirs the withered leaves on the 
 trees, the sensation of cold is much less than in 
 the warmer but more agitated air of Nice. 
 During a Canadian winter, the sky is clear and 
 the sun shines brightly day after day, and hence, 
 though the mercury may be very low and the 
 indicated cold very great, the feeling is one not 
 of depression but of exhilaration, and the fact of 
 the cold seems to be forgotten. Admiral Sir 
 George Back told a Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons in 1857, that at Fort Reliance, 
 near the Arctic Oceau, he had seen Fahrenheit's 
 thermometer indicate 70° below zero. Beiug 
 asked as to the effect of the extreme cold on 
 himself and his party, he replied, " I cannot say 
 
90 
 
 Western Winters, 
 
 41' 
 
 
 that our health was affected differently to T^at 
 it would be in any other extreme cold ; perhaps 
 the appetite was considerably increased.** 
 
 Professor H. Y. Hind, being questioned on the 
 subject of climate by a Committee of the Dominion 
 House of Commons in 1878, said, " The winter 
 cold of Manitoba is greater than the winter 
 cold on the coast of Labrador. But it is a dry 
 uniform cold, and it is very far less inconvenient 
 to the senses, or in any other way, than the 
 moist cold of Labrador.** Professor Bryce of the 
 
 University of Manitoba, gives the following cor- 
 roborative testimony; ** The winters of the North- 
 West, upon the whole, are agreeable and singularly 
 steady. The mocassin is dry and comfortable 
 throughout, and no thaw, strictly speaking, takes 
 place till spring, no matter how mild the weather 
 may be. The snow, though shallow, wears well, 
 and differs greatly from eastern snow. Its flake 
 is dry and hard, and its gritty consistence re- 
 sembles white slippery sand more than anything 
 else. Generally speaking, the further west the 
 shallower the snow, and the rule obtains even 
 into the heart of the Rocky Mountains. In 
 south-eastern Ontario the winter is milder, no 
 doubt,' than at Red River ; but the soil of the 
 North- West beats the soil of Ontario out of 
 comparison; and after all, who would care to 
 exchange the crisp, sparkling, exhilarating winter 
 oi Manitoba for the rawness of Essex in South 
 Ontario?*' 
 
Tlie Canadian Far West, 
 
 91 
 
 erhaps 
 
 on the 
 minion 
 
 winter 
 winter 
 s a dry 
 i^enient 
 an the 
 ) of the 
 ag cor- 
 North- 
 igularly 
 portable 
 p^, takes 
 veather 
 s well, 
 }S £ake 
 nee re- 
 nything 
 est the 
 IS even 
 ns. In 
 der, no 
 of the 
 out of 
 care to 
 r winter 
 South 
 
 A common mistake is to assume that what 
 applies to one part of the Canadian Far West is 
 true of the whole. No man can speak of the 
 whole from personal knowledge. A great part 
 has not even been explored. The extent of this 
 territory is so vast that the mind cannot form a 
 clear conception of it from statistics. To say that 
 its area is 2,764,340 square miles is merely to set 
 forth large figures. A clearer and more striking 
 idea of the enormous expanse may be formed 
 when I add that it is seven hundred thousand 
 square miles larger than the German Empire, 
 France, Spain, Italy and Russia in Europe put 
 together. These countries support a population 
 exceeding 180,000,000. In the Canadian Far 
 West, the population, including Indians, is 
 probably under 200,000. It is not thought an 
 extravagant estimate to put the future popu- 
 lation of this territor}'^, when it shall have been 
 rendered easily accessible, and when its advan- 
 tages have exercised their full eiTect in attracting 
 settlers, at nearly 100,000,000. Sanguine ob- 
 servers maintain that the country can support a 
 population of twice that amount. 
 
 A territory so vast is exposed to varied natural 
 conditions. The fauna and flora differ in 
 different places ; the soil is not everywhere the 
 same, and the climate is as diverse as the soil. 
 
92 
 
 ClimatCy Soil and Minerals, 
 
 Q 
 
 O 
 
 Every hundred miles to the west of Winnipeg 
 there is an increase in the temperature and, when 
 the part is reached where the warm wind from 
 the Pacific — the Chinook as it is called locally — 
 makes its influence felt, the change in the climate 
 is very marked. There the snowfall is light. 
 Indeed, at the summit of the Yellow Head pass 
 through the Rocky Mountains, snow melts as it 
 falls. In the grazing-ground at the eastern 
 base of these mountains cattle remain out all 
 winter, finding their own food. Everything 
 necessary for the sustenance of man is provided 
 in this region. Farming or cattle-rearing is not 
 the only industry by which wealth may be ac- 
 quired. There is ample scope for the miner and 
 even for the manufacturer. Beds of lignite and 
 ironstone extend over hundreds of miles, so that 
 a little enterprise is alone wanted for the esta- 
 blishment of iron foundries and factories of all 
 kinds at the base of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 I cannot too often repeat that farmers act 
 unwisely in going to the fertile West, unless 
 they can get their produce conveyed to market at 
 a low price. If the price of grain be very low at 
 New York or Liverpool, the farmer who is at the 
 furthest point from either place is at the greatest 
 disadvantage. The price which he obtains for his 
 grain is lessened by the cost of carrying it to 
 
The Canadian Far West^ 
 
 93 
 
 mnipeg 
 i, when 
 d from 
 >cally — 
 climate 
 8 light, 
 ad pass 
 its as it 
 eastern 
 out all 
 rything 
 rovided 
 I is not 
 be ac- 
 ler and 
 ite and 
 so that 
 le esta- 
 3 of all 
 • 
 
 ers act 
 , unless 
 irket at 
 low at 
 s at the 
 greatest 
 I for his 
 g it to 
 
 market, while his own outlay in growing it will 
 be as great as that of a farmer who is within 
 easy reach of the place of sale. It is certain that, 
 if the Canadian Far West be peopled in pro- 
 portion to its capacity, and if the population 
 grow wheat to the extent that is possible, then 
 the conveyance of this surplus to market will be 
 the most important problem to solve. Farmers 
 have found in the United States that, by settling 
 too far West, the cost of transport eats up all the 
 profit which they would make by growing grain 
 if the market were nearer at hand. 
 
 The Canadian Far West cannot be fully 
 peopled until it is more accessible to immigrants; 
 hence it is that the Canadian Pacific Eailway is 
 imperatively necessary. Upon that railway the 
 agricultural population must chiefly depend for 
 transporting their produce to market. There is 
 room and there will be employment for a second 
 trunk line two hundred miles to the north of the 
 one now in course of construction. An inde- 
 pendent line, the South Western, is to run three 
 hundred miles west of Winnipeg, between the 
 boundary-line and the Canadian Pacific, opening 
 up the rich country in what is called the Turtle 
 Mountain district. 
 
 I have journeyed over several hundred miles of 
 the Canadian Pacific between Winnipeg and 
 
94 »5'/> George Simpso^^s Prophecy, 
 
 O 
 
 Thunder Bay and I was impressed with the 
 advantage of the line for developing local, as well 
 as for accommodating through traffic. This part 
 of the country has attracted less notice of late 
 than the Western prairie land. It is a region of 
 lakes and wood, interspersed with tracts of fertile 
 soil where crops could be grown, and expanses of 
 meadow whereon cattle could be reared. In 
 several parts mineral discoveries of importance 
 have been made. I saw specimens of gold quartz 
 taken from an island in one of the lakes. I was 
 told that an abundance of quartz equally rich had 
 been found ; if it be true that quantities of quartz 
 rich in visible gold are obtainable, then gold 
 mining will become a most r'emunerative industry 
 here. This, added to its other advantages, will 
 lead to the peopling of the region between Lake 
 Superior and Winnipeg quite as rapidly as that 
 of the agricultural region farther west. It may 
 be that the prophecy made by Sir George 
 Simpson in 1841, after he had been twenty years 
 Governor of the Hudson Bay territory, may be 
 speedily fulfilled, a prophecy which, it is fair to 
 add, he stated in 1857 was made in a fit of 
 enthusiasm. Writing about Kainy River which 
 connects the Lake of that name with the Lake of 
 the Woods, Sir George stated: — "From Port 
 Frances downwards, a stretch of nearly one 
 
The Canadian Far West, 
 
 95 
 
 hundred miles, it is not interrupted by a single 
 impediment, while yet the current is not strong 
 enough materially to retard an ascending 
 traveller. Nor are the banks less favourable 
 to agriculture than the waters themselves to 
 navigation, resembling, in some measure, those 
 of the Thames near Richmond. From the very 
 brink of the river, there rises a gentle slope of 
 greensward, crowned in many places with a 
 plentiful growth of birch, poplar, beech, elm and 
 oak. Is it too much for the eye of philanthropy 
 to discern, through the vista of futurity, this 
 noble stream, connecting, as it does, the fertile 
 shores of two spacious lakes, with crowded 
 steamboats on its bosom, and populous towns on 
 its borders ? " 
 
 The impression made upon me when I passed 
 over nearly a hundred miles of the line to the 
 West of Winnipeg was that there, too, local 
 traffic would be developed. The total length of 
 line required to connect the present Canadian 
 railways with the Pacific ocean is 2627 miles. 
 The struggle over the choice of routes, and over 
 the way in which to carry out the undertaking, 
 has been protracted and severe. A Syndicate 
 has been entrusted with the execution of the 
 gigantic work. The conditions under which the 
 Syndicate enters upon its labours were thus set 
 forth in the Dominion Parliament by Sir Charles 
 Tupper, Minister of Railways : ** For that portion 
 
96 
 
 Canadian Pacific Railway, 
 
 ■|{;5 
 
 D 
 
 of the line from Fort William to Selkirk, 410 
 miles, the Pembina branch, 85 miles, and that 
 portion from Kamloops to Burrard Inlet, 217 
 miles — all of which, amounting to 712 miles when 
 the line is completed, is to be handed over as the 
 property of the Company. The total amount 
 expended and to be expended by the Govern- 
 ment, including everything, is 28 million dollars. 
 For the construction of the road from Lake 
 Nipissing to Fort William, 650 miles, and 
 from Selkirk to Kamloops, 1350 miles — 2000 
 miles in all — the Government have agreed to pay, 
 in addition to the 28 millions, 25 million dollars 
 and 25 milUon acres of land; making a total 
 subsidy, in cash, of 53 millions, and in land 
 estimating the 25 million acres at the same rate 
 that I have estimated the land under the contract 
 of 1873, and under the estimate of the Act of 
 1874, one dollar an acre, of 25 million dollars, or 
 a total amount to be expended by Canada for the 
 construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway of 
 78 milhon dollars." 
 
 While the Canadian Pacific Eailway will shorten 
 the journey between Liverpool and Yokohama or 
 Hong Kong, and while it will both link together 
 the Provinces of the Dominion and aid in deve- 
 loping their resources, it will not entirely solve 
 the problem of transporting agricultural produce 
 at the cheapest rate from the Canadian Far West 
 to Europe. In the United States the route by 
 way of the Mississippi has an enormous advantage 
 
The Canadian Far West, 
 
 97 
 
 :, 410 
 I that 
 b, 217 
 ; when 
 as the 
 mount 
 overn- 
 oUars. 
 Lake 
 ;, and 
 -2000 
 :o pay, 
 dollars 
 \ total 
 tt land 
 le rate 
 Dntract 
 Act of 
 ars, or 
 for the 
 way of 
 
 shorten 
 ama or 
 ogether 
 n deve- 
 y solve 
 produce 
 :ir West 
 oute by 
 vantage 
 
 over any other; wheat can be carried from St. 
 Paul, the capital of Minnesota, down the Missis- 
 sippi in barges to New Orleans, where it is trans- 
 ferred to steamers bound for Glasgow, at 38 cents 
 a bushel. It ought to be possible to sell this wheat 
 on arriving at its destination at a lower price than 
 the prevailing one. With the great river as a 
 silent and easy highway, the farmers in the 
 Mississippi Yalley can successfully compete with 
 farmers in other parts of the Union. 
 
 In the important matter of water-carriage the 
 farmer in the Canadian Far West has unrivalled 
 advantages. The navigable rivers cover a dis- 
 tance of 11,000 miles, of which 4000 only have as 
 yet been turned to account. The distance from 
 Winnipeg to the mouth of the St. Lawrence is 
 2500 miles, and the transit of bulky articles over 
 this intervening space would be costly. But, if 
 instead of choosing the route of the St. Lawrence 
 as the outlet to the Atlantic, the route by Hudson 
 Bay be chosen, then Winnipeg may be brought 
 within two days' journey by rail and water from 
 the sea. 
 
 For two centuries the Hudson Bay Company 
 sent their stores into what is now the Canadian 
 Far West, and took their furs out of it in sailing 
 ships which plied between England and the Bay. 
 The Nelson River connects Lake Winnipeg with 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 Hudson Bay Route. 
 
 JO 
 
 Hudson Bay ; it is a vast sfcreara, draining an area 
 of 360,000 square miles, and is six miles wide at 
 its mouth . There are impediments to the continuous 
 navigation of the river by large vessels, but these 
 have not hindered canoes being used for the pur- 
 pose. It is proposed, however, to make a railway 
 over the 370 miles which intervene between the 
 lower part of Lake Winnipeg and the mouth of 
 the Nelson River. Grain could be stored at 
 Port Nelson and conveyed to England in steamers 
 during the season of navigation. Professor 
 Hind considers " the head of tide- water in Nelson 
 River may yet become the seat of the Archangel 
 of Central British America, and the great and 
 ancient Russian northern port — at one time the 
 sole outlet of that vast empire — find its parallel 
 in Hudson Bay." The water-route by Nelson or 
 Hayes River from Hudson Bay to the interior has 
 proved available for the purposes of trade since 
 the incorporation of the Company in 1670. In 
 1846 the route was used to convey troops and found 
 suitable. A force consisting of a wing of the 6th 
 Foot, a detachment of Artillery and a detachment 
 of Royal Engineers, with one 9-pounder and three 
 6-pounders and numbering 18 officers, 329 men, 
 17 women and 19 children, made the journey by 
 boat from Hudson Bay to Red River in about 30 
 days. Colonel Crofton, who was in command, 
 
The Canadian Far West, 
 
 99 
 
 .n area 
 ide at 
 inuous 
 b these 
 le pur- 
 •ailway 
 en the 
 uth of 
 red at 
 earners 
 ofessor 
 Nelson 
 3hangel 
 at and 
 me the 
 parallel 
 si son or 
 ior has 
 e since 
 rO. In 
 d found 
 the 6th 
 chment 
 id three 
 19 men, 
 rney by 
 bout 30 
 nmand, 
 
 made the journey in seven days* less time. The 
 current being strong, it takes far longer to make 
 the journey up stream; including stoppages it 
 has been made down stream, in loaded boats, 
 within nine days. If steam launches were substi- 
 tuted for the boats propelled by hand, the time 
 would be decreased. But it is proposed to dispense 
 with the river altogether, and to make a narrow 
 gauge railway from the northern end of Lake 
 "Winnipeg to Hudson Bay and a charter has been 
 granted for such a railway. There is a difference 
 of opinion whether Fort Churchill may not be 
 a preferable port to Port Nelson. But there is 
 agreement as to the feasibility of reopening com- 
 munication between England and the Canadian 
 Far "West by way of Hudson Bay. 
 
 It is true that the navigation of Hudson Bay is 
 only open for steamers during five months in 
 each year, yet, during that time, it would be easy 
 to export all the produce wliich may bo destined 
 for the markets of Europe, and to import all the 
 goods which might be required in exchange. 
 The distance from Port Nelson to Liverpool is 
 nearly a hundred miles less than from New York. 
 It is estimated that when stcninicrs shall ply 
 between Hudson Bay and the Mersey, the Clyde 
 or the Thames, it will bo possible to sell Mani- 
 toba wheat in the United Kingdom at 28s. a 
 quarter and to do so at as lat' ge a profit as that 
 
 BIBLIOTHECA 
 
lOO 
 
 Rival Regmis, 
 
 Q, 
 
 r\ 
 
 •now obtained from the sale of United States 
 wheat at 48s. Should that day arrive the British 
 farmer must renounce growing wheat; he can 
 barely hold his own now with his rival in the 
 United States ; he cannot possibly compete here- 
 after with his brother in Manitoba. It may then 
 be found that the desperate struggle in progress 
 between farmers in this country and their com- 
 petitors across the Atlantic will arise between the 
 farmers on the opposite sides of the boundary- 
 line in North America. The Manitoba farmer 
 will hereafter be able to defy rivalry in the 
 markets of Europe. 
 
 No question is more fiercely debated than the 
 relative advantages of different parts of the North 
 American Continent. If a stranger to the 
 country listened to the evidence adduced in 
 favour of a particular State in the Union, or a 
 particular Province of Canada to the exclusion 
 of any other State or Province, he would think 
 that a conclusive case had been made out. 
 Should he listen to the statements made about all 
 of them, he will be either completely puzzled or 
 remarkably acute in sifting and weighing facts. 
 Instead of giving my own conclusion concerning 
 the Canadian Far West as a place for settlers, I shall 
 cite the conclusion of a thoroughly competent and 
 impartial investigator, who has long studied the 
 matter on the spot and who is justly regarded as 
 
The Canadian Far West. 
 
 lOI 
 
 States 
 British 
 he can 
 
 in the 
 e here- 
 ly then 
 rogress 
 [r com- 
 een the 
 iindary- 
 
 farmer 
 
 in the 
 
 lan the 
 e North 
 to the 
 iced in 
 )n, or a 
 ^elusion 
 Id think 
 de out. 
 ,bout all 
 5zled or 
 g facts, 
 icerning 
 y, I shall 
 tent and 
 lied the 
 irded as 
 
 an authority. This is Mr. J. W. Taylor, the 
 
 United States Consul at Winnipeg, who has 
 
 served his country there since 1870. Like all 
 
 his countrymen, he is a firm believer in the great 
 
 destiny reserved for the United States, yet his 
 
 patriotism has not blinded him to the attractions 
 
 and resources of the part of the Canadian 
 
 Dominion wherein he resides. 
 
 Mr. Taylor's opinion, enunciated in many 
 
 speeches and writings, is that the North American 
 
 Continent is divisible into three zones, the southern 
 
 being the Cotton-growing zone, the mid-zone being 
 
 specially adapted for the growth of Indian corn, 
 
 and the northern for the production of wheat. 
 
 He holds that the mid-zone extends to Southern 
 
 Minnesota: he stated in a public speech "that 
 
 three-fourths of the wheat-producing belt would 
 
 be north of the International boundary." In a 
 
 letter to the Tioneer Press of Saint Paul, he gave 
 
 the following reasons, among others, upon which 
 
 he based his conclusion: "In 1871, Mr, Archi- 
 bald, the well-known proprietor of the Dundas 
 Mills, in Southern Minnesota, visited Manitoba. 
 He remarked that the spring wheat in his vicinity 
 was deteriorating — softeniug, and he sought a 
 change of seed, to restore its flinty texture. He 
 timed his visit to Winnipeg with the harvest and 
 found the quality of grain he desired, but tho 
 yield astonished him. 'Look,* said he, with a 
 
I02 
 
 Perfect Wheat Plants* 
 
 lO 
 
 liead of wheat in his hand ; * we have had an ex- 
 cellent harvest in Minnesota, but I never saw 
 more than two well-formed grains in each group 
 or cluster, forming a row, but here the rule is 
 three grains in each cluster. That's the difference 
 between t\>ontj and thirty bushels per acre.* 
 More recently, Professor Maccoun, the botanist 
 of the Pacific Railway Survey, has shown me two 
 heads of Avheat, one from Prince Albert, a settle- 
 ment near the forks of the Saskatchewan, latitude 
 53 degrees, longitude 106 degrees, and another 
 from Fort Vermillion, on Peace River, latitude 
 59 degrees, longitude 116 degrees, and from each 
 cluster of the two I separated five well-formed 
 grains, with a corresponding length of the head. 
 Here was the perfection of the wheat plant, 
 attained according to the well-known physical 
 law, near the most northern limit of its successful 
 growth. Permit me another illustration on the 
 testimony of Professor Maccoun. When at a 
 Pludson Bay post of the region in question — 
 either Fort McMurray, in latitude 57 degrees, or 
 Fort Vermillion in latitude 59 degrees, and about 
 the longitude of Great Salt Lake, an employee of 
 the post invited him to inspect a strange plant 
 in his garden, grown from a few seeds never 
 before seen in that locality. He found cucumber 
 vines planted in April in the open ground, and 
 with the fruit ripened on the 20th of August." 
 
 There is a physical cause why wheat grown in 
 the northern region of Manitoba should be su- 
 perior to that grown in the United States to the 
 
The Canadian Far West, 
 
 103 
 
 m ex- 
 
 p saw 
 group 
 ule is 
 srenco 
 acre.' 
 )tanist 
 le two 
 settle- 
 ititude 
 ncilier 
 ititudc 
 HI eacli 
 brmed 
 3 head, 
 plant, 
 hysical 
 cessful 
 on the 
 
 at a 
 5tion — 
 ees, or 
 
 about 
 oyee of 
 e plant 
 
 never 
 3umber 
 id, and 
 
 St." 
 
 'Own in 
 be su- 
 to the 
 
 south of it. The nearer the northerly limit 
 at which wheat will grow, the finer is its 
 quality. At the northern limit of its growth on 
 this Continent, not only is the soil adapted for it, 
 but the duration of sunshine is longest there when 
 the ears are ripening. From the 15th of June 
 till the 1st of July nearly two hours more daylight 
 prevail in northern Manitoba than in the State of 
 Ohio. It is not heat alone which is required to 
 bring the wheat plant to perfection even in places 
 where the soil is best adapted for its growth. 
 This is true of all grain as well as of all vegetables. 
 Other conditions being present, the greater the 
 amount of solar light the better the result. Now, 
 wheat grown in the Canadian North-West is 
 grown under incomparable advantages with re- 
 spect to the length of sunlight ; hence, that wheat 
 is of the hardest description, is adapted for pro- 
 ducing the very finest flour and is certain to prove 
 the most remunerative crop. The acreage suited 
 for the growth of wheat in this region is large 
 enough to furnish bread for the whole of Europe. 
 
 II. 
 
 The facts which can bo adduced in support of 
 the Canadian Far West being second to no part 
 of the Northern American Continent cannot be 
 gainsaid. It does not follow, however, that every 
 
104 
 
 The " Land of Misery r 
 
 %: 
 
 lo 
 
 In 
 
 settler tbere is entirely happy. Many settlers have 
 failed to profit by their opportunities. Some have 
 expected too much; others are unsuccessful be- 
 cause they do too little. There is no royal road 
 to fortune in any new land. In the fairest spot 
 on the earth the hardest worker will reap the 
 richest harvest, while the idler will be unable to 
 earn c living. Last year, the 'Rew Yorh Herald 
 gave publicity to letters from settlers in Manitoba 
 who complained that the country was utterly un- 
 fitted for cultivation. That enterprising journal 
 thereupon dubbed it the ** Land of Misery.'* If 
 the early settlers in Virginia and New England 
 had been men of the same calibre as these 
 grumblers, they would never have developed the 
 resources of Virginia or made New England the 
 home of a prosperous community. The first 
 comers in any undeveloped country are like the 
 first occupants of a new house. The house may 
 be well built, yet it lacks innumerable appliances 
 which reader it a comfortable dwelling. The 
 next tenants find it far better fitted for occupation 
 than their predecessors, and every succeeding 
 dweller in it profits by something which has been 
 added to render it more habitable. So with land 
 which may be capable of growing crops and feed- 
 ing millions, but which, in its virgin state, is little 
 better than a desert. The next generation will 
 
The Canadian Far West, 
 
 105 
 
 s have 
 ehave 
 [ul be- 
 ll road 
 3t spot 
 ap the 
 able to 
 Herald 
 mitoba 
 fly un- 
 journal 
 
 fr If 
 
 ngland 
 i these 
 )ed the 
 md the 
 le first 
 ike the 
 se may 
 )liances 
 . The 
 upation 
 ceeding 
 as been 
 th land 
 id feed- 
 is little 
 ion will 
 
 find the Canadian Far "West a very different 
 countiy from what it is to-day. Marshes will 
 have been drained, roads will have been made, 
 railways will be in operation ; the soil will yield 
 more abundantly, and the labour of living will be 
 lightened. When its inhabitants hereafter read 
 that it was once styled the " Land of Misery," 
 they will marvel at the credulity, or the ignorance 
 which dictated the phrase. 
 
 Eulogy from those personally interested, cannot 
 permanently render a tract of country, which is 
 naturally unsuitable for human beings, a pleasant 
 land wherein to dwell, nor will depreciation on the 
 part of the envious or uninformed hinder a tract, 
 possessing every advantage which Nature can 
 confer, from being appreciated and developed. 
 Unless the Canadian Far West possess all the 
 charms which retain aj well as attract settlers, 
 it will relapse into a wilderness over which 
 the savage will again roam and the wild beast 
 multiply. I have no apprehension as to its 
 future. My opinion is based upon what I have 
 beheld. I admit that persons who implicitly 
 trust the fascinating tales circulated by specu- 
 lators in land maybe grievously disappointed. It 
 is as hazardous to buy land anywhere without 
 personal inspection, as it is for a person who has 
 no special knowledge of horseflesh or art to rely 
 
io6 
 
 A Terrestrial Paradise, 
 
 JO 
 
 upon the assurance of a speculator in horses or 
 pictures. In North America, it is easier to buy 
 land than to sell it. The risk is diminished when 
 the purchaser of land in the Canadian Far West 
 deals with respectable and responsible bodies hke 
 the Hudson Bay Company or the Pacific Eailway 
 Syndicate, yet in all cases, the purchaser ought to 
 examine his bargain before paying his money. 
 He will display both shrewdness and prudence 
 should he visit the Homestead of 160 acres, which 
 he obtains as a free grant from the Government, 
 before occupying it. 
 
 The predominant feeling in my breast as I 
 traversed a part of what the late Earl Beaconsfield 
 termed the '* illimitable wilderness " of Western 
 Canada was deep regret that such a region should 
 remain untenanted by busy men. There, year 
 after year the summer sun floods with warmth 
 millions of acres where beautiful prairie flowers 
 bloom and wither, and nutritious grasses spring up 
 and decay. The snows of winter cover the earth 
 with a garment which, though apparently a cold 
 shroud, is really a warm mantle. Game breeds and 
 dies without yielding food to more than a few 
 hunters. Fish spawn and fill the lakes and rivers 
 without being utilized to vary or constitute the sub- 
 sistence of more than a few Indians. When I thought 
 of the millions of people who might be fed and rear 
 
The Canadian Far West, 
 
 107 
 
 es or 
 buy- 
 when 
 West 
 js like 
 lilway 
 ght to 
 loney. 
 idence 
 wliicli 
 iment, 
 
 i as I 
 
 asfield 
 estern 
 should 
 >, year 
 armth 
 lowers 
 ingup 
 ) earth 
 a cold 
 ds and 
 a few 
 rivers 
 le sub- 
 lought 
 id rear 
 
 families on the untrodden prairies, and enjoy the 
 game and the fish which abound, it saddened me 
 to contemplate the neglect with which Nature's 
 banquet was treated. And the sadness deepened 
 when I reflected how many landless millions in 
 Europe were struggling for the necessaries of 
 life, or were longing to be the possessors of land 
 which they might call their own, whilst food 
 was easily procurable here by all who might desire 
 it, and land could be had for the asking by all 
 comers. I have seen a large part of the North 
 American Continent. I have marvelled at the 
 enterprise which has converted so much of it from 
 a wilderness into a garden. No other tract can so 
 easily undergo the same transformation as the 
 Canadian Far West. I cannot believe that it will 
 long remain unappreciated and unpeopled. 
 
 The result of the settlement of the Canadian 
 Far West will be of paramount importance in 
 shaping the destiny of Canada. Many persons 
 speculate as to the future of the Dominion. The 
 theme is a tempting one, but its adequate discus- 
 sion is not easy. Confederation dates from the 
 year 1867; the Dominion, as now constituted, 
 dates from the accession of Prince Edward Island 
 in 1873. The settlement of Manitoba, the con- 
 struction of the Pacific Kailway, the opening of 
 steam navigation through Hudson Bay to Europe, 
 
io8 
 
 Canada s Future, 
 
 ID 
 
 are elements of the greatest moment in determin- 
 ing the destiny of Canada, and several years must 
 yet elapse before the influence of these elements 
 is apparent. Men for whom I have the highest 
 respect have pronounced incorporation with the 
 United States to be Canada's inevitable fate. In 
 such a matter as this I hold prediction to be 
 wholly vain. It Avould not be hard to frame a 
 plausible argument to the effect that the " manifest 
 destiny " of Switzerland was to be absorbed by 
 adjacent and more powerful countries; yet the 
 Swiss entertain no doubt about preserving their in- 
 dependence and they consider that they are fully 
 warranted in so doing. It is clear to my mind that 
 the future of Canada is in the hands of the Cana- 
 dians. Upon them rests the responsibility, and with 
 them is the opportunity of shaping the issues which 
 determine their destiny. A heavier responsibility or 
 a grander opportunity never fell to the lot of a 
 people. Should they fail in making Canada what 
 it may become, the fault will be their own and not 
 that of their magnificent Far West which, in 
 all physical advantages and potentialities, cannot 
 easily be matched and cannot anywhere be sur- 
 passed. 
 
rmin- 
 j must 
 ments 
 ighest 
 th tlie 
 e. In 
 to be 
 aine a 
 anifest 
 )cd by 
 'et the 
 heir in- 
 G fully 
 nd that 
 3 Cana- 
 ad with 
 s which 
 nlity or 
 ot of a 
 la what 
 md not 
 ich, in 
 cannot 
 be sur- 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OPINIONS OF MANITOBA FARMEUS. 
 
 I HAVE before me a collection of remarks made by 
 farmers in Manitoba and the Canadian North- 
 West. I shall set forth in an abridged form 
 what these farmers say, and, as I shall give 
 their names and addresses, their statements can 
 easily be tested by any one desiring to do so. 
 On the important subject of climate there is a 
 remarkable consensus of opinion as to its salubrity. 
 But few cases of sickness are mentioned ; a farmer, 
 who pronounces the climate very healthy, adds 
 that his family have had measles, and two add 
 that they have had rheumatism. Mr. James 
 Davidson, writing from High Bluff, states that he 
 " has had some sickness, caused by drinking bad 
 water;" Mr. James Fergusson, of the same place, 
 makes the significant remark, " I consider Mani- 
 toba very healthy ; no ague known." Mr. Jonathan 
 Troop and Mr. Philip M'Kay, of Portage-la- 
 Prairie, both think the climate healthy, but " hard 
 on consumptive patients." The latter remark 
 applies to the climates of a good many countries. 
 
no opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 
 
 
 Mr. James Streton, of Nelsonville, moved tliitlier 
 for his family's health, " and it has been good." 
 Mr. Julius Galbraith, of the same place, states 
 that "his family has had no sickness for five 
 years ; " while Mr. A. P. Stevenson, a fellow- 
 citizen, ** has had no sickness for seven years." 
 In the family of Mr. J. S. Higginson, of Oakland, 
 " there has not been one case of sickness for six 
 years." The doctor has been but once in the 
 family of Mr. W. A. Farmer, of Headingly, during 
 ten years. Mr. Beckstead, of Emevson, has not 
 only been free from sickness, but he has gained 
 251bs. in weight. Mr. J. J. Edwards, of Poplar 
 Point, " was unhealthy when he left Ontario, but 
 is now well and hearty." The Kev. Thomas Scott, 
 of "Westbourne, pronounces the country "de- 
 cidedly good for repairing health." Mr. D. R. 
 M'Dowell, of Cook's Creek, has had no need for a 
 doctor in his family. Mr. C. Begg, of Stone 
 Fort, " has had a remarkably healthy experience 
 of forty-seven years ;" while Mr. George Turner, 
 of Lower Fort, thinks " the climate is the 
 healthiest in America." 
 
 These farmers are as well pleased with the soil 
 as with the climate of Manitoba; they declare 
 that it is a black mould from two feet to four feet 
 in depth, and so rich as to produce withpufe 
 manure large crops of vegetables and grain. 
 
opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 
 
 III 
 
 bliither 
 good." 
 
 states 
 )r five 
 fellow- 
 years." 
 ildancl, 
 for six 
 in the 
 during 
 las not 
 gained 
 Poplar 
 'io, but 
 3 Scott, 
 jr "de- 
 
 D. R. 
 )d for a 
 
 Stone 
 jerience 
 Furner, 
 is the 
 
 the soil 
 declare 
 our feet 
 withput 
 grain. 
 
 They state that water is abundant and good; 
 that the finest hay can be procured with little 
 trouble at a trifling cost ; that there is no lack of 
 timber ; that the minimum yield of wheat is nine 
 bushels an acre in excess of the average yield in 
 Minnesota, and the weight of each bushel is lib. 
 heavier; that the average yield of oats is 57 
 bushels an acre ; of barley, 40 ; of peas, 38 ; of 
 rye, 60; and of potatoes, *' mealy to the core," 
 318 bushels. It is not uncommon for 500 bushels 
 of the best potatoes to be obtained from a single 
 acre of land. Some of the potatoes weigh 4f lbs. 
 These results certainly justify Mr. Robert Bell, of 
 Burnside, in writing : ** I have been in Scotland, 
 England, and the United States, and in Ontario, 
 but this country beats them all for large potatoes." 
 They grow fast as well as large. Mr. George C. 
 Hall, of Portage-la-Prairie, writes : "I planted 
 potatoes on the 1st of June, and in eight weeks 
 we had our first meal of them ;" he ends his 
 letter with the words, ** It was a happy day that 
 I first landed on this soil." 
 
 Extracts from a few letters containing expres- 
 sions of opinion, may be as interesting as the 
 foregoing statistics. Mr. Jamos Stewart, of 
 Meadow Lea, writes : " I am a native of Western 
 Ontario, and have been farming fifteen years. 
 This is my fifth year here, and I much prefer this 
 
IT2 
 
 Opinions of Manitoba Fanners, 
 
 t) 
 
 Q: 
 
 JO 
 
 country to anywhere else." Mr. Beckstead, of 
 Emerson, thinks "there is no person need be 
 afraid of this country for growing. There never 
 was a better country under the sun, for either 
 hay or grain." Mr. Vidal, of Headingly, after 
 nine years* trial of the country, would not return 
 to any other part of Canada, adding, "I have 
 prospered better here with less manual labour or 
 trouble than I could possibly do elsewhere. The 
 soil is good, the climate is excellent, and every- 
 thing is in a prosperous condition." Mr. Thomas 
 H. Ellison, of Scratching River, who has farmed 
 in Europe, in the State of New York, and the 
 Province of Ontario, holds that " any man with a 
 family of boys, as I have got, that intends living 
 by farming and raising his boys to farm, is only 
 fooling away his time in other places when he can 
 average 100 per cent, more each year with his 
 labour, as I have done." Mr. James Owens, of 
 St. Anne, Point-du-Chene, after expressing his 
 own satisfaction with the country, and stating 
 that he had grown Black Sea wheat yielding 
 thirty-five bushels to the acre, and that the straw 
 was 6-J- feet in height, adds : "I would be glad if 
 half of the people of Ireland were here; they 
 would then be in the best part of the world." 
 Mr. George Taylor, of Poplar Point, Long Lake, 
 " really thinks one cannot get a better farming 
 
 C( 
 
opinions of Manitoba Farmers. 1 1 3 
 
 ad, of 
 ed be 
 never 
 either 
 , after 
 return 
 '. have 
 our or 
 . The 
 every- 
 i^homas 
 farmed 
 md the 
 with a 
 s living 
 is only 
 he can 
 rith his 
 7ens, of 
 ing his 
 stating 
 yielding 
 e straw 
 glad if 
 they 
 world." 
 g Lake, 
 farming 
 
 
 
 country than this. I tell you, sir, I have cropped 
 five acres of land on my farm for six years succes- 
 sively without a rest, and this year a better crop 
 I never saw. That is soil for you. I think 
 immigrants will be satisfied with this country 
 when they come here. You can't say too much in 
 praise of it." Mr. Julius F. Galbraith, of Nelson- 
 ville, states that ** the longer a farmer lives here 
 the better he likes it." Mr. John Kelly, of Morris, 
 *'hkes the country well, and would not change." 
 Mr. Neil M'Leod, of Victoria, " thinks a farmer 
 cannot make a mistake by settling here," while 
 Mr. Archibald Gillespie, of Greenwood, holds that 
 for " any one who wants land this is the place." 
 Mr. Joshua Appleyard, of Stonewall, *'Avould 
 advise any young man with good heart and §300 
 to come to this country, for in five years he can 
 be independent.'* Mr. John George, of Nelson- 
 ville, " considers this country the place to come to, 
 provided any 3''0ung man wants to make a home 
 and knows something of farming, and has about 
 $400 or $500 to begin with;" while Mr. Alexander 
 Adams, of Clear Springs, is also of opinion that 
 " any man with §500, willing to work, can soon 
 be independent here." As it is still more valuable 
 to learn what men have done than to read what 
 they think on a given subject, the two following 
 letters are specially noteworthy. Mr. Benjamin 
 
 I 
 
ii4 Opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 
 
 D 
 
 Bruce, of Poplar Point, writes : "I started 
 with one cow, one horse, and a plough eighteen 
 years ago, and to-day my assessment was for 
 $13,000. I did not fail one crop yet in eighteen 
 years of my farming here, and I must say this 
 year's crop is better than I have had before. 
 You can depend upon me.'* Mr. John A. Lee, of 
 High Bluff, is even more emphatic in his asser- 
 tions, and has had a still more rapid success : "If 
 folks would work four months in the year they 
 might be independent in this country. I came 
 here in 1873 with only §30 in my pocket, ten of 
 which I paid for my homestead of 160 acres. It 
 is going on two years since I began to cultivate 
 the place I am now living on, and I have seventy- 
 four acres under cultivation, with a suitable house 
 and other fixtures, and I could get $3000 for one 
 of my quarter sections. I can be found in High 
 Bluff any time with $50 to back my words.'* 
 
 The foregoing figures and statements con- 
 clusively disprove the assertion that the Province 
 of Manitoba is the uninhabitable Arctic wilder- 
 ness that some persons who have no personal 
 knowledge of it represent it to be. Most of the 
 misrepresentations which are circulated concern- 
 ing Manitoba and the North-West originate with 
 speculators who depreciate Canadian territory in 
 order to persuade settlers to buy land on the 
 
opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 1 1 5 
 
 jtarted 
 ghteen 
 
 as for 
 ghteeii 
 ay this 
 before. 
 Lee, of 
 J asser- 
 : "If 
 ir they 
 came 
 
 ten of 
 
 3S. It 
 
 ultivate 
 eventy- 
 e house 
 for one 
 in High 
 
 bs con- 
 *rovinoe 
 
 wilder- 
 personal 
 it of the 
 joncern- 
 ate with 
 •itory in 
 
 on the 
 
 United States side of the boundary line in Dakota. 
 
 If the accounts of Dakota which these persons 
 
 supply were correct, it would resemble Eden 
 
 before Adam was evicted. The attractions of the 
 
 Red River Valley in Dakota are many and great ; 
 
 but a still larger and more fertile part of that 
 
 fruitful Valley lies within Canadian territory. 
 
 Other parts of Dakota have several drawbacks 
 
 from which Manitoba is free. In all the pamphlets 
 
 praising it vs^hich I have seen, I notice many 
 
 important omissions. Notl- hig is said of the wind 
 
 storms which frequently rage and devastate vast 
 
 parts of it. How serious they are may be inferred 
 
 from a paragraph in a recent number of the Fargo 
 
 Baihj Argus summoning the citizens to " wake up '* 
 
 and prepare for the wants of another year, their 
 
 attention being thus called to one special require- 
 ment : — 
 
 "That Tornado Insurance Company is one 
 thing that ought to be very thoroughly considered 
 and agitated, because the successful establishment 
 of such an institution with home capital and home 
 officers is quite feasible, while its value to the 
 leading productive industry of the section is 
 plain.'* 
 
 The advice is commonly given to form large 
 cellars when building a house in Dakota, as they 
 are convenient places of refuge during the wind 
 iStorms. I met with a family that had to remain 
 
 I 2 
 
1 16 Opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 
 
 JO 
 
 three days and nights in the cellars last year, the 
 storm having levelled their house to the ground, 
 and its violence being so great that no one could 
 face it. Sometimes railway communication is 
 suspended ; in the spring of 1880 no train reached 
 Bismarck for two months, owing to the line being 
 blocked by ice. 
 
 The spring floods often work as much destruc- 
 tion as the tornadoes. In the spring of the 
 present year the Missouri and other rivers over- 
 flowed their banks, sweeping away much property 
 and several human beings. For a distance of 
 forty miles the Missouri was a raging flood fifteen 
 miles wide. Captain Clagne, being commissioned 
 by General Terry to investigate the losses thus 
 caused in the southern part of Dakota, reported 
 that, from the mouth of the Big Sioux River to 
 Yankton, the bottom land on both sides of the 
 river was entirely covered with water, resembling 
 an inland sea, in which huge masses of black ice 
 were floating. He estimated that 250,000 acres 
 of fertile land were submerged. This tract was 
 the scene of the oldest and most prosperous 
 settlements in Dakota, thei*e being a family to 
 every twenty acres ; thirty villages which formerly 
 stood there had disappeared altogether. 
 
 There is a consideration which emigrants from 
 Great Britain and Canada ought to bear in mind 
 
 a 
 
 1( 
 fi 
 
jar, the 
 rround, 
 e could 
 fcion is 
 [•cached 
 e being 
 
 iestruc- 
 of the 
 rs over- 
 iroperty 
 ance of 
 1 fifteen 
 issioned 
 les thus 
 'eported 
 liver to 
 5 of the 
 embling 
 lack ice 
 00 acres 
 [•act was 
 jsperous 
 imily to 
 formerly 
 
 uts from 
 in mind 
 
 Opinions of Manitoba Farmers. 117 
 
 before determining to settle in Dakota. In 
 Manitoba, any citizen of the British Empire who 
 is the head of a family, or who, being a male, is 
 eighteen years of age, can obtain a homestead of 
 160 acres on paying an office fee of §10, cultivat- 
 ing a part of the land during three years, and 
 erecting a dwelling upon it 18 feet long by 16 feet 
 wide. The settler may be absent from his home- 
 stead for six months in each year out of the 
 three, while, if his family remain on and cultivate 
 it** to a reasonable extent," he may be absent 
 during the whole term. He has a rii^ht to pre- 
 empt another 160 acres — that is, become the 
 absolute owner of the land at a price varying from 
 £36 to £84, payment being made in instalments 
 spread over six years. In Dakota and all other 
 parts of the United States where Government 
 land is unoccupied, a settler who is the head of 
 a family, or who has attained the age of twenty- 
 one, can obtain 160 acres under the Homestead 
 Act. He must pay a fee of $20, erect a house 
 on the land 18 feet by 16 feet, cultivate a part 
 of it during five yearp and not be absent from 
 the homestead for six months consecutively. 
 The provisions about pre-empting an additional 
 160 acres and obtaining 160 for the purposes of 
 free culture are substantially the same in Canada 
 and the United States. In both an ahen must 
 
10 
 
 1 18 Opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 
 
 become naturalized before participating in the 
 benefits of the Homestead Acts. ,. . 
 
 An alien, if a citizen of the British Empire, 
 who desires a homestead in Dakota, must begin 
 by making the following declaration on oath : — 
 
 " I, A. B., do declare on oath that it is hond-fide 
 my intention to become a citizen of the United 
 States, and to renounce for ever all allegiance and 
 jfidelity to all and every foreign Prince, Potentate, 
 State, and Sovereignty whatever, and particularly 
 to Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of 
 Great Britain and Ireland.'* 
 
 At the expiry of five yearS; and before the alien 
 can obtain a patent for his homestead, he has to 
 take the following oath : — 
 
 ** I, A. B., do solemnly swear that I will support 
 the Constitution of the United States, and that I 
 do absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all 
 allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, 
 Potentate, State, or Sovereignty whatever, and 
 particularly to Yictoria, Queen of the United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, of whom 
 I was formerly a subject." 
 
 The alien who bears a title of nobility must, in 
 addition to taking the foregoing oath, formally 
 renounce such title or distinction. 
 
 Any alien can obtain a homestead in Manitoba 
 on applying for it in the ordinary way, fulfilling 
 the prescribed conditions, appearing in Court at 
 
 ( .1. 
 
opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 119 
 
 tbe end of three years, and taking, first, the fol- 
 lowing oath of residence : — 
 
 " I, A. B., do swear (or aflfinn) that I have 
 resided three years in this Dominion, with intent 
 to settle therein, without having been during that 
 time a stated resident in any foreign country." 
 
 And, second, the following oath of allegiance : — 
 
 "I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear (or 
 affirm) that I will bo faithful and bear truo 
 allegiance to Her Majesty Queon Victoria, as 
 lawful Sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland and ci the Dominion of 
 Canada, dependent on and belonging to the said 
 United Kingdom, and that I will defend her to 
 the utmost of my power against all traitorous 
 conspiracies and attempts whatever which shall 
 be made against her person. Crown, and dignity, 
 and that I will do my utmost endeavour to 
 disclose and make known to Her Majesty, her 
 heirs and successors, all treasons and traitorous 
 conspiracies and attempts which I shall know to 
 be against her or any of them, and all this I 
 do swear (or affirm) without any equivocation, 
 mental evasion, or secret reservation." 
 
 Whether the soil and climate of Manitoba are 
 as much superior to the soil and climate of Dakota 
 as many persons assert them to be, may remain a 
 matter of controversy. There is no doubt, how- 
 ever, that the Homestead Act, as regards both 
 citizens of the British Empire and aliens, is far 
 more liberal in Manitoba than in Dakota. K^or 
 
I20 Opinions of Manitoba Farmers, 
 
 10 
 
 can there be any dispute about the satisfaction of 
 the Manitoba farmers with their lot. They cor- 
 dially admit that their lines have fallen in very 
 pleasant places. Some of the difficulties which 
 tho first settlers in Manitoba had to surmount 
 have been faithfully set forth in this work. Much 
 that was true when its contents were first printed 
 has ceased to be so now. At present the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway transports the settler for a small 
 sura and in a speedy fashion over parts of the 
 Canadian Far West which I had to traverse at a 
 high cost and at a slow rate. Day after day that 
 ircn road is rendering the Prairie Province of 
 Canada as accessible as any part of the North 
 American Continent. Moreover, the Government 
 have arranged for making good highways where 
 none existed before, and for bringing into proper 
 condition those which I found often impassable. 
 An extensive and systematic system of drainage, 
 which has been devised by the Government, and 
 which will soon be completed, will hereafter 
 lighten the labours of the Manitoba, farmer and 
 increase his gains. I am confident that the 
 emigrant from the older provinces of Canada, or 
 the still older countries of Europe, w^ill have no 
 reason to repent his choice should he elect to form 
 for himself a new home in the Great Canadian 
 Far-West. 
 
 il^ 
 
70 
 
 O 
 
 -^JL. 
 
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miTgssmi^watn 
 
 M .'ir.iii uW.; "I,i„i'". i'liiiii'.iit.l"iiliiii.NW 
 

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 85 
 
 
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 80 
 
 75 
 
 70 
 
 65 
 
 MAP 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DOMINION OF CAM 
 
 — Vf \fr ' VIEPICON 
 
 iZlaApL l£AO 
 
 
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 Jit^^ 
 
 
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 ^tj 
 
 
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 Tfw 
 
 
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 MO 
 
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 WASHINGTON! 
 
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 76 
 
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 t jmEUL-iliU^llll... ).. 
 
 "^ftlMttttft^ 
 
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 ,/ 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 A WORKING MAN ON LABOUR AND WAGES IN MANITOBA. 
 
 The following Memorandum respecting labour and wages in 
 Manitoba, and other general information about the country, 
 has been prepared by a working man now residing in Winni- 
 peg, who recently came to England to visit his friends for a 
 few months: — 
 
 " Having received many inquiries for additional information 
 respecting Manitoba, which, as I am sailing from Liverpool 
 to-morrow, I am unable to reply to separately, I have decided 
 to write in the form of a Memorandum the particulars mostly 
 desired, by which course each of the applicants will obtain 
 the benefit of the answers to the questions put by others as 
 well as by himself. 
 
 There are no free passages to Manitoba, but mechanics and 
 labourers are allovs^ed to have the benefit of a reduced rate on 
 filling up a form, to bo obtained from the Canadian Govern- 
 ment Offices in London. This enables adults to travel from 
 Liverpool or London to Quebec for £5. The rail fare from 
 Quebec to Winnipeg is £4 5s. by the " Lake route " (open in 
 the summer months), and £5 I5s. by the "all-rail" route. 
 The latter is quicker by a couple of days. On the ships, 
 children between one and twelve are charged half fares, and 
 under twelve months ten shillings; on the railways, those 
 between five and twelve at half fares, those under five free. 
 On the ships, passengers are supplied with food, but on the 
 railway they must find tbomselves. I may add that the as- 
 sisted passages are also available from Glasgow, Dcrry, and 
 Queenstown. 
 
 When a man gets to Winnipeg, ho must look out for work 
 himself, just in the same way as ho would do in England, but 
 
 •I 
 
122 
 
 Appendix /. 
 
 I 
 
 the Government Agent, who shoiiUl be applied to, will oiFer 
 every information and assistance in his power, Winnipeg is 
 the principal city in Manitoba, and its population is estimated 
 at from 12,000 to 15,000. It is extending rapidly. 
 
 The wages of the different classes of men are as follows: — 
 Carpenters, 12.5?. to 14s. per day; bricklayers and plasterers. 
 20s. to 28s. (I have known plasterers to get as much as 40s. 
 per day at piece-work); blacksmiths, 12s. to 22s.; general 
 labourers, 10s. to 12s.; farm labourers get from £30 to £50 
 per year, and board, or %s, to 8s. per day. The cost of board 
 and lodgings for single men last year ranged from 12s. to 20s, 
 per week. 
 
 For families, the best course would be to rent a house, or to 
 build one on a plot of land rented for the purpose; the latter 
 is tho cheaper. Sufficient ground could be had for about £6 
 per year, and the cost of putting up a shanty with two or 
 three rooms would be about £25. A man's wife could also 
 obtain washing and other work to add to the income of the 
 family. Men are generally paid by the day. The day's work 
 for mechanics and labourers is from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., one 
 hour being allowed for dinner, Saturday is no exception. 
 
 The climate is hot in summer, but not so hot as in the 
 States, and by no means unpleasant. I have never known the 
 Leat exceed 101 degrees. The winter is cold, and the ther- 
 mometer is sometimes, though only rarely, as low as forty 
 degrees below zero. Generally, it ranges from zero to five or 
 six degrees belov/. As the atmosphere is so dry, the effects 
 of this cold, are nothing like what they would be in other 
 countries where the climate is more humid. The winter sets 
 in about the middle of November. Until ea?"ly in January the 
 weather is often dark and stormy, the coldest weather coming 
 in December. In January the back of the winter is broken, 
 and there is for two or three months after that a most brilliant 
 unclouded sky. In March, or early in April, the snow passes 
 away, spring is at once present, and summer soon follows in 
 its wake. It has been my experience to see the snow gone, 
 and the most balmy weather prevailing, on March 31st in 
 several years; and in two years of the last ten in the middle 
 of March. When the winter breaks up, the roads are bad for 
 a few weeks, this is owing to there practically being no roads 
 
Appendix I. 
 
 12^ 
 
 will offer 
 inipeg is 
 3stimated 
 
 allows: — 
 lastcrerp. 
 ;h as 405. 
 : general 
 
 to £50 
 of board 
 
 s. to 20s. 
 
 ise, or to 
 he latter 
 [ibout £6 
 
 1 two or 
 ould also 
 e of the 
 y's work 
 xm., one 
 )tion. 
 
 IS in the 
 
 lown the 
 
 he ther- 
 
 as forty 
 
 o five or 
 
 e effects 
 
 in other 
 
 Qter sets 
 
 luary the 
 
 L' coming 
 
 broken, 
 
 brilliant 
 
 w passes 
 
 )llow8 in 
 
 )w gone, 
 
 31st i)i 
 
 middle 
 
 i bad for 
 
 10 roads 
 
 at all; but this will soon be remedied now that Mnnicipalitics 
 are being formed in the different parts of the Province. 
 
 Work is not so brisk in -winter as in the summer, but there 
 is a certain amount of work done inside houses by bricklayers, 
 carpenters, plasterers, and labourers; the foundries are going; 
 a large quantity of timber for the railways and other purposes 
 has to be cut, and there is much liauling performed. 
 
 I should not advise any one to go out in the winter, as 
 things are not so brisk as at other times, and extra men are 
 not as a rule employed in the building trades or for agri- 
 cultural pn )ses. But the city is cxtendiug rapidly every 
 year, other new places are springing up, and, with the ex- 
 tension of railway construction, the outlook for working men 
 is very good for some years to come. Masons arc not much 
 in demand at present. Very good bricks are made in the 
 vicinity of Winnipeg. The requirements in the way of 
 Saddlers are limited, but good men can always make openings 
 for themselves. Bootmakers stand a chance of doing well, 
 especially if i\\Qy fake up a grant of land in some new and 
 rising district. Good men can also always rely upon employ- 
 ment in the towns. 
 
 Free grants of good land can be had about 200 miles from 
 Winnipeg. This distance is no disadvantage now, owing to 
 the way the country is, and will continue to be, developed by 
 means of railways. Land near new towns and villages can be 
 had from about ^2 to $10 per acre, according to position and 
 distance. 
 
 The men I should advise to go out in the spring — say the 
 latter end of March — are farmers, millers, farm-labourers, 
 carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, smiths, moulders, and 
 handy men willing to turn their hands to any rough work. 
 The demand for fem»'e domestics is also great. The wages 
 range from $10 to $15 per month, all found; good cooks get 
 more. The cost of a through ticket to females of this class is 
 £1 less than the assisted passage before named. 
 
 Men should take out what clothes they can. The better 
 class of clothes are dearer in Winnipeg than here ; but work- 
 ing suits are much about the same price. 
 
 Speaking of luggage, the steamers and the railways only 
 taKO a certain amount fr3e — say a box about 2\ feet long by 
 
f> 
 
 •fe 
 
 124 
 
 Appendix I. 
 
 2 feet broad, and 2 feet deep. Anything over has to be paid 
 for ; and tue distance is so great, that to cumber one's self 
 with baggage would be expensive — indeed, the carriage might 
 cost more than the things could be obtained for in Winnipeg. 
 The following are the average prices of necessaries in 
 Winnipeg : — 
 
 *>: 
 
 Bread 
 
 . M. per 4 lb. loaf. 
 
 Butter 
 
 . 10 J. to 1/8 per lb. 
 
 Beef. 
 
 . \d. per lb. 
 
 Mutton 
 
 . b\il. per lb. 
 
 Pork 
 
 . M. per lb. 
 
 Bacon 
 
 . ^\d. per lb. 
 
 Flour 
 
 Ki\d. per quartern. 
 
 Milk . 
 
 . 3f/. to 5rf. per qt. 
 
 Tea . 
 
 . 1/7 to 3/6 per lb. 
 
 Coffee 
 
 . lOr/. to 1/4 per lb. 
 
 Sugar 
 
 . 4f/. to 6f/. per lb. 
 
 Potatoes . 
 
 . \d. per lb. 
 
 Cheese 
 
 . 8t/. to Is. per lb. 
 
 Salt (Common) 
 
 . \d. per lb. 
 
 Salt (Fine Talk 
 
 ) . \\d. per lb. 
 
 Pepper 
 
 . Is. per lb. 
 
 Bice . 
 
 . \\d. to 4(/. per lb. 
 
 Coals 
 
 . £3 to £5 per ton. 
 
 Wood 
 
 . $3 to $5| per cord 
 
 (2J- cords of wood arc considered equal to a ton of coals.) 
 
 It will be seen that coal is dear; this is because it has to be 
 brought from a distance ; as soon as the railways open up the 
 country, it will get cheaper. I may add that so much coal is 
 not wasted as here — I mean that the heat is carried through 
 the houses and utilized before passing out j and the stoves are 
 more economical than open grates. Workmen should take 
 their tools out, bearing in mind the extra carriage. These 
 articles are very little dearer in Winnipeg than here. 
 
 An ' further information can be obtained from the Secretary, 
 Canp Jian Government Offices, 9, Victoria Chambers, London, 
 SW." 
 
 (Signed) E. H. LEWIS. 
 
 London, Fehruart/ lith, 1882, 
 
bo paid 
 le's self 
 ;e might 
 lanipeg. 
 aries in 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 REGULATIONS FOR THE DISPOSAL OP FREE GRANT, PRE- 
 EMPTION, AND OTHER PUBLIC LANDS IN MANITOBA AND 
 THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY OF CANADA. 
 
 3oals.) 
 
 las to be 
 n up the 
 h coal is 
 through 
 toves are 
 uld take 
 These 
 
 ecretary, 
 London, 
 
 i:wis, 
 
 " The following Regulations for the sale and settlement of 
 Dominion Lands in the Province of Manitoba and the North- 
 West Territories shall, on and after the 1st day of January, 
 1882, be substituted for the Regulations now in force, bearing 
 date the twenty-fifth day of May last : 
 
 1. The surveyed lands in Manitoba and the North-West 
 Territories shall, for the purposes of these Regulations, be 
 classified as follows : — 
 
 Class A. — Lands within twenty-four miles of the main line 
 or any branch line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, or either 
 side thereof. 
 
 Class 5. — Lands within twelve miles, on either side, of any 
 projected line of railway (other than the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway) approved by Order in Council, published in the 
 Canada Gazette. 
 
 Class C. — Lands south of the main line of the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway not included in Class A or B. 
 
 Class D. — Lauds other than those in Classes A, B and C. 
 
 2. The even numbered sections in all the foregoing classes 
 are to be held exclusively for homesteads and pre-emptions. 
 
 rt. Except in Class D where they may be afiected by colo- 
 nization agreements as hereinafter provided. 
 
 b. Except where it may bo necessary, out of them, to 
 provide wood lots for settlers. 
 
 c. Except in cases where the Minister of the Interior, under 
 provisions of the Dominion Lands Acts, may deem it expedient 
 to withdraw certain lands, and sell th^m at public auction 
 
is- 
 
 126 
 
 Appendix II, 
 
 or otherwise deal with them as the Governor iu Council may 
 direct. 
 
 3. The odd-numbered sections in Class A are reserved for 
 the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. 
 
 4. The odd-numbered sections in Classes B and C shall be 
 for sale at 32*50 per acre, payable at time of sale : 
 
 a. Except where they have been or may be dealt with 
 otherwise by the Governor in Council. 
 
 5. The odd-numbered sections in Class D shall be for sale 
 at $2 per acre, payable at time of sale : 
 
 a. Except where they have been or may be dealt with 
 otherwise by the Governor in Council. 
 
 h. Except lands affected by colonization^ agreements, as 
 hereinafter provided. 
 
 6. Persons who, subsequent to survey, but before the issue 
 of the Order in Council of 9th October, 1879, excluding odd- 
 numbered sections from homestead entry, took possession of 
 land in odd-numbered sections by residing on and cultivating 
 the same, shall, if continuing so to occupy them, be permitted 
 to obtain homestead and pre-emption entries as if they were 
 on even-numbered sections. 
 
 
 il 
 
 
 
 PRE-EMPTIONS. 
 
 7. The prices for pre-emption lots shall be as follows : — 
 
 For lands in Classes A, B and C, $2*50 per acre. 
 
 For lands in Class D, $2*00 per acre. 
 Payment shall be made in one sum at the end of three years 
 from the date of entry, or at such earlier date as a settler may, 
 under the provisions of the Dominion Lands Acts, obtain a 
 patent for the homestead to which such pre-emption lot 
 belongs. 
 
 COLONIZATION.— Plan Number One. 
 
 8. Agreements may be entered into with any company or 
 person (hereinafter called the party) to colonize and settle 
 tracts of land on the following conditions: — 
 
 a. The party applying must satisfy the Government of its 
 good faith and ability to fulfil the stipulations contained in 
 these regulations. 
 
 
Appendix II. 
 
 127 
 
 oil may 
 
 ved for 
 
 shall be 
 
 lit with 
 
 for sale 
 
 lit with 
 
 3nts, as 
 
 he issue 
 ng odd- 
 ssion of 
 tivating 
 jrmitted 
 ey were 
 
 s :- 
 ere. 
 
 ee years 
 ler may, 
 obtain a 
 ion lot 
 
 ipany or 
 d settle 
 
 it of its 
 lined in 
 
 h. The tract of laud granted to any pavty shall be in Class D. 
 
 9. The odd-numbered sections within such tract maybe sold 
 to the party at 32 per acre, payable, one-fifth in cash at the 
 time of entering into the cout. ict, and the balance in four 
 equal annual instalments from and after that time. The party 
 shall also pay to the Government five cents per acre for the 
 survey of the land pr.'chased by it, the same to be jDayablc in 
 four equal annual instalments at the same time as the in- 
 stalments of the purchase money. Interest at the rate of six 
 per cent, per annum shall be charged on all past due 
 instalments. 
 
 a. The party shall, within five years from the date of the 
 contract, colonize its tract. 
 
 h. Such colonization shall consist in placing two settlers on 
 homesteads on each even-numbered section, and also two 
 settlers on each odd-numbered section. 
 
 c. The party may be secured for advances made to settlers 
 on homesteads according to the provisions of the 10th section 
 of the Act 44 Vic, chap. 16. (The Act passed in 1881 to 
 r«mend the Dominion Lands Acts.) 
 
 d. The homesteads of 160 acres shall be the property of 
 the .settler, and he shall have the right to purchase the pre- 
 emption lot belonging- to his homestead at 32 per acre, payable 
 in one sum at the end of three years from the date of entry, or 
 at such earlier date as he may under the provisions of the 
 Dominion Lands Acts obtain a patent for his homestead. 
 
 e. When the settler on a homestead does not take up the 
 pre-emption lot to which he has a right, the party may within 
 three months after the settler's right has elapsed purchase the 
 same at $2 per acre, payable in cash at the time of purchase. 
 
 10. In consideration of having colonized its tract of land in 
 the manner set forth in sub-section b of the last preceding 
 clause, the party shall be allowed a rebate of one-half the 
 original purchase-money of the odd- numbered sections in its 
 tract. 
 
 a. During each of the five years covered by the contract an 
 enumeration shall be made of the settlers placed by the party 
 in its tract, in accordance with sub-section h of clause 9 of 
 these regulations, and for each ho)X(X fide settler so found 
 therein a rebate of one hundred and twenty dollars shall be 
 
128 
 
 Appendix II, 
 
 credited to the party; but the siiiiis so credited shall not in 
 the aggregate at any time exceed one hundred and twenty 
 dollars for each bond fide settler found within the tract, in 
 accordance with the said sub-section, at the time of the latest 
 enumeration. 
 
 h. On the expiration of the five years an enumeration shall 
 be made of the bond fide settlers on the tract, and if they are 
 found to be as many in number and placed in the manner 
 stipulated for in sub-section b of clause 9 of these regulations, 
 a further and final rebate of forty dollars per settler shall be 
 credited to the party, which sum, when added to those 
 previously credited will amount to one-half of the purchase- 
 money of the odd-numbered sections and reduce the price 
 thereof to one dollar per acre. But if it should be found that 
 the full number of settlers required by these regulations are 
 not on the tract, or are not placed in conformity with sub- 
 section b of clause 9 of these regulations, then, for each 
 settler fewer than the required number or not placed in con- 
 formity with the said • sub-section, the party shall forfeit one 
 hundred and sixty dollars of rebate. 
 
 c. If at any time during the existence of the contract the 
 party shall have failed to perform any of the conditions 
 thereof the Governor in Council may cancel the sale of the 
 hind purchased by it and deal with the party as may seem 
 meet under the circumstances. 
 
 d. To be entitled to rebate the party shall furnish to the 
 Minister of the Interior evidence that will satisfy him that the 
 tract has been colonized and settled in accordance with sub- 
 section b of clause 9 of these regulations. 
 
 Plan Number Two. 
 
 11. To encourage settlement by capitalists who may desire 
 to cultivate larger farms than can be purchased where the 
 regulations provide that two settlers shall be placed on each 
 section (but without diminishing the number of settlers 
 required to be placed within each township), agreements may 
 be entered into with any company or person (hereinafter called 
 the party) to colonize and settle tracts of land on the following 
 conditions : — 
 
Appendix II, 
 
 129 
 
 |l not in 
 
 twenty 
 
 [tract, in 
 
 le latest 
 
 on shall 
 they are 
 
 manner 
 
 ulations, 
 
 shall be 
 
 to those 
 
 lurchase- 
 
 he price 
 
 und that 
 
 ions are 
 
 vith sub- 
 
 for each 
 
 d in con- 
 
 >rfeit one 
 
 1 tract the 
 londitions 
 ie of the 
 lay seem 
 
 sh to the 
 \ that the 
 ^ith sub- 
 
 ly desire 
 here the 
 on each 
 settlerd 
 nts may 
 er called 
 bllowing 
 
 a. The party applying must satisfy the Government of its 
 good faith and ability to fulfil the stipulations contained iu 
 these regulations. 
 
 h. The tract of land granted to any party shall be in 
 Class D 
 
 c. All the land within the tract may be sold to the party at 
 two dollars per acre, payable in cash, at the time of entering 
 into the contract. The pui'ty shall at the same time, pay to 
 the Government five cents pe • acre for the survey of the land 
 purchased by it. 
 
 d. The party shall, within five years from the date of the 
 contract, colonize the township or townships comprised witiiiu 
 its tract. 
 
 e. Such colonization shall consist in placing one hundred 
 and twenty -eight bona Jlde settlers within each township. 
 
 12. In consideration of having colonized its tract of land in 
 the manner set forth in sub-section e of the last preceding 
 clause, the party shall bo allowed a rebate of one-half of the 
 original purchase-money of its tract. 
 
 a. During each of the five years covered by the contract, 
 an enumeration shall be made of the settlers placed by the 
 l)arty in its tract, in accordance with sub-section e of clause 
 1 1 of these regulations, and for each bona fide settler so found 
 therein, a rebate of one hundred and twenty dollars shall be 
 repaid to the party ; but the sums so repaid shall not, in the 
 aggregate, at any time exceed one hundred and twenty dollars 
 for each bond fide settler found within the tract, in accordance 
 with the said sub-section at the time of the latest enumeration. 
 
 b. On the expiration of the five years, an enumeration shall 
 be made of the bond fide settlers placed by the party in its 
 tract, and if they are found to be as many in number, and 
 placed in the manner stipulated for in sub-section e of clause 
 1 1 of these regulations, a further and final rebate of forty 
 dollars per settler shall be repaid, which sum, when added to 
 those previously repaid to the party, will amount to one-half 
 of the purchase-money of its tract, and reduce the price 
 thereof to one dollar per acre. But if it should be found that 
 the full number of settlers required by these regi.^itions are 
 not on the tract, or are not placed in conformity with the said 
 sub-section, then, for each settler fewer than the required 
 
 K 
 
I30 
 
 Appendix II, 
 
 number or not settled in conformity with the said sub-section, 
 the parly shall forfeit one hundred and sixty dollars of 
 rebate. 
 
 c. To be entitled to rebate, the party shall furnish to the 
 Minister of the Interior evidence that will satisfy him that the 
 tract has been colonized and settled in accordance with sub- 
 section e of clause 11 of these regulations. 
 
 OFFICIAL NOTICE. 
 
 13. The Government shall give notice in the Canada Gazette 
 of all agreements entered into for the colonization and settle- 
 ment of tracts of land under the foregoing plans, in order that 
 the public may respect the rights of the purchasers. 
 
 TIMBER FOR SETTLERS. 
 
 14. The Minister of the Interior may direct the reservation 
 of any odd or even numbered section having timber upon it, to 
 provide wood for homestead settlers ; and each such settler 
 may, where the opportunity for so doing exists, purchase u 
 wood lot, not exceeding twenty acres, at the price of $5 per 
 acre in cash. 
 
 15. The Minister of the Interior may grant, under the pro- 
 visions of the Dominion Lands Acts, licenses to cut timber on 
 lands within surveyed townships. The lands covered by such 
 licenses are hereby withdrawn from homestead and pre- 
 emption entry, and from sale. 
 
 PASTURAGE LANDS. 
 
 16. Under the authority of the Act 44 Vict., chap. 16, 
 leases of tracts for grazing purposes may be granted on the 
 followingconditions : — 
 
 a. Such leases to be for a period of not exceeding twenty- 
 one years, and no single lease shall cover a greater area than 
 100,000 acres. 
 
 h. In surveyed territory, the land embraced by the lease 
 shall be described iu townships and sections. In unsurveyed 
 territory, the party to whom a lease may bo promised shall, 
 before the issue of the lease, cause a survey of the tract to be 
 made, at his own expense, by a Dominion Lands Surveyor, 
 
 
Appendix II, 
 
 131 
 
 b-section, 
 ollars of 
 
 h to the 
 that the 
 /ith sub- 
 
 Ja Gazette 
 ud settle- 
 >rder that 
 
 ?servatioii 
 ipon it, to 
 ch settler 
 urchaso u 
 
 of $5 per 
 
 I' the pro- 
 timber on 
 d bj'- such 
 and pre- 
 
 chap. 16, 
 ed on the 
 
 ig twenty- 
 area than 
 
 the lease 
 nsurveyed 
 ided shall, 
 tract to be 
 Surveyor, 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 \ 
 
 under instructions from the Surveyor- General ; and the plan 
 and liekl notes of such survey shall be deposited on record in 
 the Department of the Interior. 
 
 c. The lessee shall pay an annual rental at the rate of SIO 
 for every 1000 acres embraced by his lease, and shall within 
 three years from the granting of the lease, place on the tract 
 one head of cattle for every ten acres of land embraced by the 
 lease, and shall during its term maintain cattle thereon in at 
 least that proportion. 
 
 d. After placing the presci'ibed number of cattle upon the 
 tract leased, the lessee may purchase land within his leasehold 
 for a home, farm, and corral, paying therefor 82*00 per acre in 
 cash. 
 
 e. Failure to fulfil any of the conditious of his lease shall 
 subject the lessee to forfeiture thereof. 
 
 17. When two or more parties apply for a grazing lease of 
 the same land, tenders shall be invited, and the lease shall be 
 gro.nted to the party offering the highest premium therefor in 
 addition to the rental. The said premium to be paid before 
 the issue of the lease. 
 
 GENERAL PROVISIONS. 
 
 18. Payments for land may be made in cash, ?crip, or 
 Police or Military Bounty Warrants. 
 
 19. These Regulations shall not apply to lands valuable for 
 town plots, or to coal or other mineral lands, or to stone or 
 marble quarries, or to lands having Avater power thereon ; or 
 to sections 11 and 29 in each township, which are school 
 lands, or sections 8 and 2(), which belong to the Hudson's 
 Bay Company," 
 
 By order, 
 
 LINDSAY RUSSELL, 
 
 Snrveyov-'Genprdl, 
 
 Department of the Interior, Ottawa, 
 23rd December, 1881.