is fonder of books, is anxious to get a little
education, associates more with his father's
race, generally aims, like Isaac, at having
a wife "from his father's house," and is
more of a farmer than a hunter.

Many of the French have good farms,
and, when industrious, make excellent
agriculturists. No sooner do they get
their crops housed, than they are off to
the buffalo hunt "on the plains" for several
weeks. The greater portion of the winter
is spent in balls and other festivities.
Perfectly unthinking, they go on in their
easy way, hunting a good deal, farming a
little, dancing, fighting, and marrying.
Only a few winters ago, a voyageur of my
acquaintance came all the way from Moose
Factory, on Hudson's Bay (a distance of
upwards of a thousand miles), on snow
shoes, to ask a damsel if she would have
him? She would not; so he only vented
an impatient sacré or two on womankind,
and returned, merrily singing one of the
endless voyageur ditties.

There are a good many Scotch and
English settlers of a more staid character,
who pride themselves on the purity of
their blood, as the Spaniards in Central
America do under similar circumstances.
There are also a few members of other
nationalities—Germans, Swedes, Norwegians,
and Danes especially—in very small
numbers however. The most substantial
settlers are the retired officers of the Hudson's
Bay Company. There are several hundreds
of people engaged in the service of
the Hudson's Bay Company who, in
addition to several farms, have a number of
large forts scattered through the territory.

The weather is generally pleasant and
the climate healthy. Winter begins in
November and ends in March or April;
when the cold once sets in, there are no
more thaws or rains until spring time;
hence the weather is much healthier at that
season than at a similar period in England.
The spring is very bright and cheerful, the
summer is not too warm, and the autumn is
the most pleasant season of the year. Here,
then, is a fine home for the overflowing
population of this country, if they would
only believe it. Though in places the soil
is light, yet there is a vast amount of rich
land entirely unoccupied. Instead of
fourteen thousand people, it could support
several million agriculturists, not to speak of
other trades. At present division of labour
is practically unknown. The rude carts are
all home made, the wheels being merely
transverse sections of trees. A Red River
farmer is his own blacksmith, coachwright,
and carpenter, and on a pinch his own tool-
maker too. The richness of the soil is
shown by the growth of wild vegetation.
In some places the wild peas cover the
plains, and are from two to three feet in
height, producing abundant pasturage.
Horses, when once acclimatised, run at
large during the winter. The half-breeds
and Canadians never think of cutting hay
for their horses. Farming is successfully
followed, though hitherto there has been
but little energy shown in that department,
on account of the want of a proper
market. Wheat, barley, peas, and various
root crops, succeed admirably. Coal has
been found in abundance, and gold is washed
out of the Saskatchewan sands in paying
quantities. Though there are not on the
Lower Saskatchewan any large forests like
those of Canada, yet there is abundance of
firewood. North of the Saskatchewan there
are large forests of excellent timber, while
along the base of the Rocky Mountains
there is any quantity of excellent pine. So
accessible is timber by river carriage, that
the Hudson's Bay Company procured the
timber for Fort Carlton, from the Upper
Saskatchewan, though that fort is six
hundred miles east of "the Mountains." If
there were only a route opened out to
British Columbia, to the United States,
and to Canada, the settlement would be
one of the most flourishing of the British
provinces; but at present it is terribly
isolated from the world. Accordingly the fur
trade is still the staple business, everybody
being more or less interested in it, though
the trading of furs is a monopoly of the
Hudson's Bay Company. There is little
or no cash in the settlement, and the
settlers who dispose of their surplus crops
to the Hudson's Bay Company to be used
in supplying the forts scattered through
their territory, are all paid in Hudson's
Bay notes. A great deal of money—or its
equivalent—is also circulated through the
settlement, in the shape of payment for
goods freighted across the plains from St.
Cloud and Fort Garry to the interior ports
of the company. Numbers of the young
men find employment in this business.

The money of the company is kept
chiefly in England and Montreal. The
currency of the company is their own notes
for five shillings and one pound sterling,
which they redeem by granting bills of
exchange at sixty days' sight on their house
in London. To meet these bills, as well
as other liabilities for goods to carry on