A Trip to Manitoba

Mary Fitzgibbon

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• Publié par: thawyeg
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 45
• Langue: English

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Manitoba, by Mary FitzGibbon
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Title: A Trip to ManitobaAuthor: Mary FitzGibbon
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7099]
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Edition: 10
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK A TRIP TO MANITOBA ***
Produced by Bill Keir, Juliet Sutherland, Charles
Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team.
A TRIP TO MANITOBA
BYMARY FITZGIBBON.
"Manitoba, the great province which now forms
part of the Canadian
Dominion"
The Rt. Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, MP at West
Calder.
DEDICATED TO LADY DUFFERIN.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The Canada Pacific Railway, so frequently referred
to in the following pages, is now almost an
accomplished fact. It will, after traversing for over a
thousand miles the great prairies of the Swan River
and Saskatchewan territories, thread the Rocky
Mountains and, running through British Columbia to
Vancouver's Island, unite the Pacific with the
Atlantic. Of the value of this line to the Dominion
and the mother country there cannot be two
opinions. The system of granting plots of land on
each side of the railway to the Company, with
power to re-sell or give them to settlers, has been
found most advantageous in, as it were, feeding
the line and creating populations along its route.
The cars which carry to distant markets the cropsraised by the settlers, bring back to them the
necessaries of civilized life.
Readers who ask with the post-office authorities,
"Where is Manitoba?" [Footnote: Pages 58, 59]
may be answered that Manitoba is a province in
the great north-west territory of the Canadian
Dominion, lying within the same parallels of latitude
as London and Paris. It has one of the most
healthy climates in the world—the death-rate being
lower than in any other part of the globe,—and a
soil of wondrous fertility, sometimes yielding
several crops in one year. Immense coal-fields
exist within the province; its mountains abound with
ore; and its natural wealth is enormous.
While the province of Manitoba formed part of the
Hudson Bay Company's territory, its resources
were undeveloped. But in 1869 it was transferred
to the Dominion Government, and received a
Lieutenant-Governor and the privilege of sending
representatives to the Parliament at Ottawa. Under
the new régime enterprise and industry are amply
encouraged.
The original population consisted chiefly of Indians
and French half-breeds; the abolition of the
capitation tax on immigrants, however, has
resulted in a large immigration of Europeans, who,
with health and energy, cannot fail to prosper,
especially as they are without European facilities
for squandering their money in luxury or
intoxication. Of how universally the Prohibitory
Liquor Law prevails in Manitoba, and yet howdifficult it sometimes is to punish its infraction, an
amusing instance in given in Chapter XI. Mr.
Alexander Rivington, in a valuable pamphlet now
out of print ("On the Track of our Emigrants"), says
that when he visited Canada it was rare to see
such a thing as mendicity—too often the result of
intemperance; "the very climate itself, so fresh and
life-giving, supplies the place of strong drink.
Public-houses, the curse of our own country, have
no existence. Pauperism and theft are scarcely
known there—income-tax is not yet dreamt of."
Free grants of one hundred acres of prairie and
meadow land are still being made to immigrants,
and the population is rapidly increasing.CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
The Grand Trunk Railway—Sarnia—"Confusion
worse confounded"—A Churlish
Hostess—Fellow-Passengers on the
Manitoba—"Off at
last!"—Musical Honours—Sunrise on Lake Huron—
A Scramble for
Breakfast—An Impromptu Dance—The General
Foe.
CHAPTER II.
Saulte Ste. Marie—Indian Embroidery—Lake
Superior—Preaching, Singing,
and Card-playing—Silver Islet—Thunder Bay—The
Dog River—Flowers at
Fort William—"Forty Miles of Ice"—Icebergs and
Warm
Breezes—Duluth—Hotel Belles—Bump of
Destructiveness in Porters.
CHAPTER III.
The Mississippi—The Rapids—Aerial Railway
Bridges—Breakfast at
Braynor—Lynch Law—Card-sharpers—Crowdingin the Cars—Woman's
Rights!—The Prairie—"A Sea of Fire"—Crookstown
—Fisher's
Landing—Strange Quarters—"The Express-man's
Bed"—Herding like
Sheep—On board the Minnesota.
CHAPTER IV.
Red Lake River—Grand Forks—The Ferry—
Custom-house Officers at
Pembina—Mud and Misery—Winnipeg at last—A
Walk through the
Town—A Hospitable Welcome—Macadam wanted
—Holy Trinity Church—A
Picturesque Population—Indians shopping—An
"All-sorts" Store—St.
Boniface and its Bells—An Evening Scene.
CHAPTER V.
Summer Days—The English Cathedral—Icelandic
Emigrants—Tableaux—In chase of our Dinner—
The Indian
Summer—Blocked up—Gigantic Vegetables—
Fruitfulness of the
Country—Iceland Maidens—Rates of Wages—
Society at
Winnipeg—Half-castes—Magic of the Red River
Water—A Happy
Hunting-ground—Where is Manitoba?CHAPTER VI.
Winter Amusements—A Winnipeg Ball—Forty
Degrees below Zero—New Year's
Day—"Saskatchewan Taylor"—Indian Compliments
—A Dog-train—Lost in the
Snow—Amateur Theatricals—Sir Walter Raleigh's
Hat—A Race with the
Freshets—The Ice moves!—The First Steamer of
the Season—Good-bye to
Winnipeg.
CHAPTER VII.
A Manitoban Travelling-carriage—The Perils of
Short Cuts—The Slough of
Despond—Paddy to the Rescue!—"Stick-in-the-
Mud" and his
Troubles—McQuade's—An Irish Welcome—
Wretched Wanderers.
CHAPTER VIII.
Faithless Jehu—The "Blarney Stone"—Mennonites
in search of
News—"Water, Water everywhere"—A Herd of
Buffaloes—A Mud
Village—Pointe du Chêne and Old Nile—At
Dawson Route—A Cheerful
Party—Toujours perdrix—The "Best Room"—A
Government Shanty—Cats
and Dogs—Birch River—Mushroom-picking—TheMosquito Plague—A Corduroy
Road—The Cariboo Muskeg.
CHAPTER IX.
The "Nor'-west Angle"—The Company's House—
Triumph of "Stick-in-the-Mud"—On the Lake of the
Woods—A Gallant Cook—Buns à l'imprevu—A
Man overboard!—Camping out—Clear Water Bay
—Our First Portage—A Noble Savage—How Lake
Rice and Lake Deception won their Names—At our
Journey's End.
CHAPTER X.
Making a New Home—Carrière's Kitchen—The
Navvies' Salle-à-Manger—A
Curious Milking Custom—Insect Plagues—
Peterboro' Canoes—Fishing
Trips—Mail-day—Indian dread of drowning—The
Indian Mail-carrier and
his Partner—Talking by Telegraph—Prairie Fires.
CHAPTER XI.
Irish Wit—Bears?—Death on the Red Pine Lake—
A Grave in the Catholic
Cemetery—The First Dog train—A Christmas Fête
—Compulsory
Temperance—Contraband Goods—The Prisoner
wins the Day—Whisky on the