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+Project Gutenberg's A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba, by Mrs. Cecil Hall
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+Title: A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba
+
+Author: Mrs. Cecil Hall
+
+Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6732]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 20, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LADY'S LIFE ON A FARM IN MANITOBA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark Hamann, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+This file was produced from images generously made available by the
+Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.
+
+
+
+
+A LADY'S LIFE ON A FARM IN MANITOBA.
+
+BY MRS. CECIL HALL.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+These letters were never intended for publication, and were only
+the details written to our family of an every-day life, and now
+put in the same shape and composition; not as a literary work, but
+in hopes that the various experiences we underwent may be useful
+to future colonists intending to emigrate and farm, either in
+Manitoba or Colorado.
+
+M. G. C. H.
+
+
+
+
+A LADY'S LIFE ON A FARM IN MANITOBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Queenstown, April 14th.
+
+What joy! four hours in harbour given us to recruit our emaciated
+forms and write you a few lines of our experiences and trials. You
+wished us to keep a diary with every detail, which we will try our
+best to do, beginning by telling of the cheerless journey to
+Liverpool in rain, the elements even seeming to lament our
+departure. The bad weather has lasted more or less ever since,
+just one gleam of sunshine brightening us up on leaving the wharf,
+but we saw nothing of the Mersey or the surroundings. The only
+thing that struck us most forcibly was the smallness of our ship,
+though it was 6,000 tons. It has just been re-docked and
+overhauled, and still smells horribly of paint and full of
+workmen, whom, however, we drop here, in exchange for 1,200
+emigrants. These, with about sixty first-class passengers and a
+hold full of potatoes, form our cargo. We began life bravely last
+night, enjoying a very good dinner, and after playing a rubber of
+whist retired to our berths congratulating ourselves on what
+excellent sailors we were going to be; but alas!... Dressing this
+morning was too difficult, the ship rolled fearfully, even the
+friends who came with us thus far, and consider themselves first-
+class sailors, think that it will be more prudent to go by train
+through Ireland home, instead of waiting for the return boat of
+the same line which calls here on Sunday and is to take them to
+Liverpool. We almost wish we could turn tail; the prospect of ten
+days more of the briny ocean is not what at this moment we most
+fancy. However, in the short time we have been in harbour we have
+been recruiting to start afresh, and hope for better weather.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mid Atlantic.
+
+Dearest M.
+
+I sadly fear I must have contributed more paving-stones for a
+certain region; for many good resolutions did I make in starting,
+and not one of them has been kept, not even so much as writing
+daily a portion of a letter to be sent home from New York. And now
+my long story will have to be cut short, and the doings of the
+last fifteen days will have to be crowded into a very limited
+space; for we are in sight of land, and our excitement can only be
+compared to that of school boys the last day of the term. The joy
+of landing will not be unmingled with regrets in parting from our
+fellow-passengers, with whom we have become fast friends; and we
+are inclined mutually to believe in transmigration of souls, and
+that we must have known each other in some prior state. Some are
+going into Minnesota, three of them having bought 13,000 acres in
+the Red River valley, which they are going to farm on a large
+scale, and hope in four years to have made fortunes, another owns
+mines in Colorado, having been one of the first pioneers of the
+San Juan district; he is in a fair way to a princely fortune. I
+fear golden apples will not be strewn on our paths, even though we
+are bound the furthest west. Fifteen days have we been out of
+sight of land; two days out from Queenstown we broke a piston-rod,
+which obliged us to lay to, in a fearfully rough sea, for five
+hours. Next day one of our four boilers burst, and again another
+piston-rod; which accidents, combined with contrary winds and
+heavy seas, reduced our speed to nearly half for the remainder of
+the journey. Our spirits have not flagged, as, thanks to various
+small games such as pitch-and-toss, running races when the ship
+was rolling, quoits, and cards, we have not found time unbearably
+long. The last few days we have had big sweepstakes on the run of
+the ship; but, unfortunately, none of our party have won them. One
+evening we had a concert; but you may imagine the talent on board
+was not great when they had to call upon one of us to accompany
+the _prima donna_, and the other to sing a second in a duet;
+another evening we danced--or rather tried to--our band consisting
+of a concertina and a flute, played by two of the steerage
+passengers, but the vessel rolled so persistently that we often
+lost our equilibrium and reeled like drunken men and women.
+
+I must stop: curiosity bids me go on deck. We shall shortly be in
+the quarantine harbour, the entrance of which is said to be very
+fine; though I very much doubt our being able to see anything, as,
+in spite of being in this much boasted climate of the new world,
+it is raining and is dull enough to rejoice the hearts of true
+John Bulls like your daughter's.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+NAVY YARD, NEW YORK, April 30th.
+
+I hope you will have got our letters sent off by the ship's boat
+the night before we were allowed to land, as, though we arrived in
+the quarantine harbour at 7 o'clock, it was too late for the
+Custom-house and medical officers to inspect us; we therefore had
+to lay to, and only moved up to the wharf about 8 o'clock the next
+morning. We were greeted by a most kind letter of welcome, and the
+first thing we saw as we got to the dock was the Navy Yard Tug
+with the Commodore and daughters on board to receive us; and,
+thanks to them, we had no difficulties or bothers. The Custom-
+house men went through the form of opening two of our boxes and
+inquiring into the age of our saddle, which had been used but
+looked terribly new, hardly as if it had been in wear six months,
+which is the given period for things to pass in free of duty. We
+then steamed round New York through much shipping and under a most
+marvellous new suspension bridge, which is to join New York and
+Brooklyn, to the dockyard; where we had another most hearty
+reception from our hostess. They had all been in a fidget at our
+being so many days late, and directly the ship was telegraphed off
+Sandy Hook the last night, in spite of the pouring rain, the
+Commodore had gone down in the tug to the Quarantine Harbour to
+try and get us off.
+
+Since our arrival we have been "doing" New York, and are woefully
+disappointed in the size of the streets. Fifth Avenue I expected
+to find a Parisian Boulevard with trees lining the "side walks,"
+instead of houses of all shapes and sizes, which are good inside,
+judging by one of the large ones we went to see, but nothing much
+from the outside. Day-light in the streets is almost shut out in
+the "City" part of the town by the endless telegraph wires and
+advertisements hung across, to say nothing of the elevated
+railroads built on iron girders, which circulate round at the
+height of second-floor windows. We have made a good deal of use of
+the railroad; it is pleasanter than our under-ground, the
+atmosphere being "rather" clearer, though at first it is startling
+to see the twists and curves the trains give to get round the
+corners of the streets, and to watch the moving of objects at
+about forty feet below you.
+
+I am not at all surprised people do not care to drive much, as
+tramways pass through every street almost, and all are so badly
+paved that paint and springs would suffer. The ferry-boats which
+ply between the cities, starting every five minutes from different
+wharves, astonished us most; waggons, carriages, &c., all drive on
+twenty at a time, and three or four hundred foot-passengers, the
+latter paying two cents per passage.
+
+On the whole I think we have seen almost everything that is to be
+seen. We spent an afternoon in the Central Park, lunched at both
+of Delmonico's restaurants, dined at the invitation of our banker
+at "Pinards," where the roses were lovely, the centre bouquet
+measuring two feet across, and each lady having different-coloured
+bunches on her serviette; a play at Walleck's, theatre both pretty
+and well-ventilated, and a most splendid exit, the stalls on the
+same level as the street--the whole place seemed to empty itself
+in about five minutes; and a day's expedition to Statten Island,
+from which we had a lovely view of New York, its surroundings, and
+the whole harbour. To-morrow we are to go for three nights to
+Washington, returning here to start westwards on Monday, though
+everybody tells us we are going too early in the year. The spring
+in Manitoba has been very late. A----, writing on the 26th of
+April, says they are just starting work, but cannot do much at
+present on account of the water from the melted snow not having
+run off. The rivers have broken up. The Red River carried away one
+of the two bridges at Winnipeg. He happened to be in town at the
+time, and although he didn't see the bridge go, saw it afterwards
+and the jam. The ice was blocked for about a mile above, tumbling
+all over the place, making the river rise about ten feet an hour,
+washing out all the neighbouring houses. It lasted about ten
+hours, then crash it all went, floating quietly down the stream,
+the water receding at the same time. There has been so much snow
+this year, which makes everything backward; but it has all gone in
+a week. It must be quite marvellous how quickly it disappears, as,
+going from one farm to the other, distance about seven miles,
+starting at 4 o'clock A.M. with the thermometer showing twenty
+degrees of frost, when the sun got up it was so hot he, A----,
+couldn't get back. Next morning, starting equally early, he only
+travelled two miles; the snow was so soft the horses sank at every
+step above their knees. He was trying to take a sledge-load of hay
+over to his "Boyd" farm. The cattle there having run very short
+lately, they even had to take some of the thatching, which was of
+hay, off the roof of the stable to feed the animals. We may have
+difficulty in getting up to Winnipeg, as the railroad is washed
+away within about eighty miles of the place, and the passengers
+are transferred to a steamer, which takes them twenty miles to
+another train. There was a fear of famine in Winnipeg, as no
+provisions could be got up. Lots of emigrants, when they saw the
+water, turned back. Good-night, we have packing to do to be off
+early in the tug which takes us over to Jersey city to catch our
+train to Washington at 10 o'clock on the Pennsylvanian Railway.
+The Commodore's son, who is home on leave, goes with us, and we
+have many introductions. We are bidden to a reception at the White
+House, and have been vainly endeavouring to get into some of our
+hostess's smart gowns; but, alas! they are all too short, so we
+shall have to be content with our own black foulards.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+RIGG'S HOUSE, WASHINGTON, May 2nd.
+
+We had our first experience of drawing-room cars coming down here,
+with very comfortable arm-chairs, and one seems to do the journey
+of 200 miles easily, in about six hours, through very pretty
+country. I never saw such people as Americans for advertising; all
+along the line, on every available post or rail, you see, "Chew
+Globe Tobacco," "Sun Stove Polish," &c.
+
+We enjoyed the reception at the White House. Our invitation was
+from 8 to 10 o'clock P.M.: we arrived before the doors were open,
+and had to wait some few minutes in the entrance, which is glazed
+in, and where the drums of our ears were sorely tried by a noisy
+military band, which when you get into the rooms and at a distance
+sounded well, but not just alongside. After depositing our cloaks,
+we filed by two and two past the President, shaking hands with him
+and the wife of the Secretary of State, who receives when there is
+no Mrs. President, and then wandered through the six remaining
+rooms, being introduced to several people as Mrs. H---- of
+England, and Miss W---- of England, which we thought would not
+convey much to their minds excepting that we were two very un-smart
+Englishwomen; though we were much consoled about our clothes
+which did not look so peculiar, every sort of costume being worn,
+even to bonnets. No refreshments are given, so that we were glad
+that supper was included in the "Menu du jour" at our Hotel.
+
+I shall not pretend to describe Washington to you. Any guide-book
+would give a more satisfactory account, but it is much more my
+idea of a city of the New World; the streets are well paved, are
+nice and broad; then the houses are generally standing in their
+own grounds, with trees and flowers; altogether it may be called
+an "elegant" city. The people were most kind and civil to us. One
+afternoon we made two "cabinet" calls on ministers, but the other
+afternoon we went for a drive across the Potomac to Arlington, the
+ancestral place of the Lees, which was confiscated after the war
+and is now a soldier's burying-ground. It has an exquisite view
+across the river. The only thing that distressed us was the
+bearing-reins on the nice little pair of chesnuts in the buggy.
+The reins are crossed over their nose, passed between the ears,
+and fastened tight to the saddle, which forces the head right back
+and nearly saws the mouth in two. We never rested until we had
+loosened them, which was supposed to be the reason why the horses
+broke in their trot afterwards, as they were supposed to require a
+support.
+
+The weather has been quite delightful, bright sunny days but not
+hot; and if only the houses and hotels were not kept at such a
+suffocating temperature, we should be very happy both in and out
+of doors. The artificial heat has completely knocked us up in
+Brooklyn. We had a lovely big room with a large bay window besides
+another window, where we often retired for a blow of fresh air;
+the result has been that we both have had bad crying colds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHICAGO, May 11th.
+
+We are now half way to Manitoba, and have really done the journey
+thus far so easily that it seems nothing of a drag; and if it
+wasn't for the Atlantic, A---- would not seem to be at the end of
+the world, which we fancied whilst in England.
+
+We left Brooklyn on Wednesday morning, very sorry to part from the
+Commodore and his family, who have been most kind and friendly,
+trying their best to make us feel at home. Unfortunately, having
+only just got the appointment and lately taken up their residence
+at the Navy Yard, they could do no entertaining. Anyhow, we have
+had a very pleasant insight into the home life of America, which
+differs in small ways a good deal from ours, and in character,
+habits, and everything there is a widish gulf between the two
+races.
+
+Our train here was a splendid one, stopping only about sixteen
+times, and doing the nine hundred miles in thirty-six hours. We
+had a section in the Pullman, which makes a double seat facing
+each other by day, and at night the two seats are converted into a
+bed, with the second bed pulled down from the roof, on which
+mattresses, blankets, and sheets are all arranged with a
+projecting board at the head and foot, and a curtain in front, so
+that one is quite private, and we slept like tops. We had also a
+dining-car on, where every luxury of the season, to strawberries
+and cream, were served by the blackest of niggers in the whitest
+of garments, for the sum of a dollar a head per meal.
+
+Only fancy our delight, after leaving Harrisburgh about 3 o'clock
+in the afternoon, to find friends in the train, people from an
+adjoining county in England who knew all our friends, and with
+whom we had much in common. I need hardly tell you that we did
+"chin" it until our ways parted at this station, they going to the
+Grand Pacific, we to the Treemont which had been recommended to us
+as being a quieter hotel for ladies alone.
+
+Men make these hotels their club, where they smoke and lounge all
+day; but as there is a second door for ladies, one is not bothered
+in any way unless you want to go to the office for information.
+
+We are astonished at the enormous piles of buildings in this city;
+land, one would think, must be cheap. All the shops cover an
+equally large area, though, in many, several offices are on one
+floor. It is too marvellous to think, when one looks at this
+place, that three and a half square miles in the centre of the
+town, which is now in regular handsome broad streets, the fire of
+eleven years ago should have so completely burnt everything to the
+ground, though now not a vestige of the conflagration is left. The
+houses have even had time to get quite blackened with the smoke of
+the soft coal they use, which is found in great quantities all
+through Pennsylvania; the mines and furnaces we passed on our way
+up.
+
+The country the whole way was very pretty. We crossed the
+Susquehana river, which is grand in width and scenery, and started
+the Juanita through a chain of mountains turning in and out with
+every bend of the river, so that one felt always on the slant and
+could generally see either end of the train. Unfortunately it
+poured with rain the whole way, so any distant views or tops of
+mountains were invisible. Some of the country is like England,
+undulating, rolling, well-cultivated fields, enclosed with
+pailings which overlap each other and would be awkwardish
+obstacles in a hunting country; but one misses, like abroad, the
+cattle--we saw one or two stray cows, but little else. Around
+Chicago it is a flat plain, and, as there has been a good deal of
+rain lately, water is out everywhere. For the last hour of our
+journey we came through the suburbs, and, as there is no
+protection whatsoever to the line, we had to come very slowly
+(about seven miles an hour), ringing a great bell attached to the
+engine to announce our arrival, as children, cows, vans, &c. go
+along the line in the most promiscuous way; it is extraordinary
+that more accidents do not happen. By law, I believe, the train
+ought to go very slowly wherever lines cross each other; anyhow
+they must ring the bell, the result being that the bells seem
+going all day when you are anywhere near the station. We were
+given introductions to one or two people here, one gentleman
+putting himself at our disposal to show us "around straight away;"
+and we visited the principal shops, streets, park, which is land
+reclaimed from the lake, and the tramways, which are worked with a
+pulley from a centre about six miles off. A Chinaman in San
+Francisco was once heard to describe the said tramways as "No
+horsey, no steamy, go helly."
+
+The weather has, unfortunately, been wet and much against sight-
+seeing, the streets in consequence are too indescribably dirty,
+mud inches deep, and everyone is so busy making money that they
+have not time to pull up those who are responsible and insist on
+the streets being cleaned, though the money is yearly voted by the
+municipality, and generally supposed to be pocketed by the
+authorities. We leave this to-night for St. Paul, much impressed
+on the whole with Chicago. There are one or two more sights I
+should like to have seen, such as the two tunnels under the river,
+but I fancy one leaks and the other is unusable for some other
+reason. I should also have liked to have been to one of the
+Niggers' revival meetings; but not to the pork manufactory, where
+pigs go in alive, are killed and cured ready for exportation in
+less than twenty minutes. Our friends went there this morning, and
+the descriptions they gave were not particularly inviting. The
+lady hadn't been able to touch a mouthful of food all day
+afterwards, and declared it would be years before she could eat
+pork. I also have been dying to see a house on the move, but had
+to content myself with looking at a large brick house, which not
+three years ago had been moved back 150 yards bodily. Chicago is
+getting too old a city, and ground is too expensive, for people to
+be able to change the sites of their houses when the fancy takes
+them; in St. Paul or Winnipeg we may have the satisfaction of
+meeting one coming down the street.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MERCHANT'S HOTEL, ST. PAUL, May 16.
+
+We left Chicago Friday night for this place at about 9 o'clock,
+and, thanks to a letter of recommendation to the conductor, two
+lower berths were assigned to us, and we even had the privilege of
+not having the uppers pulled down. It is a curious regulation in
+the Pullman cars, that should the upper not be tenanted it must be
+opened or else paid for by the occupant of the lower; so unless
+one takes a whole section one is bound to have a great board just
+above one's head, which in nine cases out of ten prevents our
+sitting up in bed, and one never can have much ventilation.
+
+We were awoke earlier on Saturday morning than we either of us
+quite appreciated, to be in time for breakfast at La Crosse at 7
+o'clock. La Crosse is a large settlement of sawmills on the banks
+of the Mississippi, for cutting up the wood brought down by the
+curiously flat-bottomed steamers worked by a paddle in stern the
+same width as the boat, and which push innumerable rafts of wood
+before them. We saw several of these steamers, and were detained
+for a long time on the bridge which crosses the Mississippi, said
+to be a mile and a quarter long, whilst the farther end of it was
+drawn aside to allow of two steamers passing through. Our railroad
+skirted the banks of the river, and we were very excited at seeing
+an Indian and his squaw in a canoe going down stream. The
+conductor of the car conversed with us a good deal the whole way,
+was most anxious to know all about our comings and goings, and
+told us he would be glad to "learn the train by which we returned,
+as no ladies would ever be allowed to leave Manitoba."
+Unfortunately we took his advice about the hotels in this place,
+and on arriving came to the wrong inn. This one is the most
+frequented, being close to the station, but certainly is not as
+pleasant, either as regards company or situation, as the other,
+the Metropolitan. We found one of our fellow Atlantic passengers
+at the last-named, and I never saw anyone so genuinely glad to see
+friends. He is one of the three men we told you about, who have
+invested in thirteen thousand acres in Minnesota. He is down here
+trying to hurry the contractors who are to build their houses and
+stables at Warren; also to buy farming implements and lumber. His
+horses and mules he intends buying at St. Louis. He gives a most
+vivid account of all the roughing they have under gone. They are
+living in a small way-side inn, nine men in one room with no
+furniture. One of them managed one night to get hold of a
+stretcher in lieu of a bed, and just as he was settling down to
+his first beauty-sleep a carter came and told him to move on, as
+the stretcher was his. He suggested that as we are to pass Warren
+we should pay them a visit on our way up; that he would take up a
+tent and furniture, besides provisions; but I do not think it
+sounds inviting enough, as, though I do believe we should do the
+community a good turn, besides the pleasure of our company, they
+would have a tent and a few luxuries after our departure, instead
+of feeding, as they daily do, on beans and bacon, living in a
+filthy hotel and having had nothing to wash in until they bought
+themselves a bucket. Last night, just after we had gone to bed, a
+loud knock was made at our door, and a man asked "if we intended
+getting up to-night," at which we were furious; but he persisted
+in the most determined way in questioning us as to whether "it
+wasn't Mrs. H----'s room," and we had time to get more than angry
+before we recognised A----'s voice and simultaneously both jumped
+out of bed to receive him, _en deshabille_. It is very nice
+of him coming all this way, four hundred miles, to meet us. He
+looks much the same as ever, only as brown as a berry from the
+reflection of a fortnight's sun on the snow. He is wonderfully
+cheery, seems glad to see us, has so many questions to ask of you
+all, and swears by the healthiness of the Canadian climate and the
+life they lead at the farm. We are none of us ever to be sick or
+sorry again!
+
+We have been a long drive to-day, starting at 11 o'clock, and only
+back just in time to do our last packing, send off this letter,
+and dine before we go on to Winnipeg at about 7 o'clock. We drove
+across a bridge on the Missouri to Fort Snelldon, a miniature
+Aldershot, with huts and tents, and a beautiful stretch of grass
+for manoeuvres or galloping, on to the Minhaha Falls, where, we
+stayed some time gazing and admiring and even walking under the
+falls. The volume of water falling seemed extraordinary, but was
+completely eclipsed by the falls of St. Anthony at Minneopolis,
+which we saw later. The latter originally fell perpendicularly;
+but to utilise them for the enormous saw-mills built at the
+water's edge they have been under-planked, so that the water goes
+down in a slant. We were most fascinated by the sight, and watched
+the torrent from various points of view.
+
+Minneopolis is much like other Western towns we have seen, semi-
+detached houses standing in their own grounds, the grass in many
+instances well kept, but utterly destitute of flowers, which one
+misses so much. This place, St. Paul's, is beautifully situated,
+built on both sides of the river, the banks of which are very
+steep. Good-night; in twenty-four hours more we hope to be at our
+destination in the far North-west. But we are not to go out
+immediately to the farm, as we are arriving rather earlier than
+A---- expected, and the men who have been living with him all the
+winter cannot turn out before Friday to make room for us; so we
+are to stay in Winnipeg for a day or two.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WINNIPEG, May 18th.
+
+Here we are, and we do feel ourselves really landed in the far
+North, after a most prosperous journey the whole way. We arrived
+"quite on time" last night, rather an unusual thing with these
+trains, particularly since the floods, when the passengers were
+dependent on the steamer, we saw yesterday as we passed high and
+dry on the prairie, which had to convey them from one train to
+another across the floods close to St. Vincent.
+
+O the prairie! I cannot describe to you our first impression. Its
+vastness, dreariness, and loneliness is appalling. Very little is
+under cultivation between this and St. Paul, so that only a house
+here and there breaks the line of horizon. There are a few cotton
+and aspen trees along the Red River Valley, but with that
+exception the landscape for the last fifteen hours' travelling has
+been like the sea on a very smooth day, without a beginning or an
+end.
+
+We were met at the station here by one of A----'s friends, who
+drove us out about a mile and a half from the town across the
+Assiniboine over a suspension bridge built exactly opposite the
+old Fort Garry, and somewhere close to the spot where our first
+English pioneers must have landed from the river steamer some
+twelve years ago to a very comfortable house belonging to another
+mutual friend, a dear kind old gentleman whose wife and daughter
+being away has placed the whole house at our disposal until we can
+get out to the farm, which we find is sixteen miles off.
+
+It will be very difficult to describe everything to you. To begin
+with, the depot or station presented a curious appearance, such
+crowds of men loafing about with apparently no other object but to
+watch the new arrivals; so different to English stations where
+everyone seems in a hurry either coming or going. And then the
+roads we had to drive along defy description. The inches (no other
+word) of mud, and the holes which nearly capsize one at every
+turn. Even down Main Street the roads are not stoned or paved in
+any way. We bumped a good deal in our carriage, and for
+consolation at any worse bumping than usual were told, "This is
+nothing, wait until you get stuck in a mud-hole out west." Then
+our route, thanks to the floods which have been very bad this year
+and are still out enormously--the upper floors of two-storied
+houses only being visible in many places,--was most intricate. We
+had to be pioneered over a ditch into a wood, supposed to be
+cleared, with the stumps of trees left sticking about six inches
+out of the ground for your wheels to pass over, on to a track, and
+then through a potato garden to the house.
+
+We were quite ready for our supper, it being about 8 o'clock when
+we got here; and the food at Glyndon, where we stopped twenty
+minutes in the middle of the day to "put away" the contents of
+sixteen dishes of some various mess or another, had not been of
+the most inviting of meals; and though the chops here were the
+size of a small leg of mutton and had the longest bones I ever
+saw, hunger was the best of appetisers, and we did credit to our
+meal, which had been cooked by our host.
+
+This morning we were awoke by the same kind person depositing a
+can of water at our door for our baths. He gets up very early, as
+he has to fetch the water, milk the cow, feed the calf, etc., all
+before breakfast and starting off for his office.
+
+There is a man-servant here who gets 5 to 6 pounds a month, apparently
+to do nothing, as he is the only one on the premises who can
+afford to be idle and smoke his pipe of peace; but servants are so
+difficult to get in this country, and our host being on the move,
+having got a better Government appointment at Perth, is anxious
+not to change now, so, like everybody else, puts up with anything.
+The last servant they had in this house was the son of a colonel
+in the English Army, who was described as "a nice boy but very
+lazy"; but this man-servant hasn't even the recommendation of
+being nice. He was out at the farm working for his board and
+lodging, and no wages for some months, but A---- could not stand
+his idleness.
+
+We all had to cook our breakfasts this morning, and as everyone
+was, by way of helping, either making toast, poaching the eggs,
+cooking hunks of bacon, or mending up the fire, the stove was
+pronounced much too small. The moment we had finished our meal we
+had to retire upstairs and make the beds and tidy up a little; a
+half-breed woman living about half-a-mile off is supposed to come
+in for an hour and wash up and clean the house, but if it is bad
+weather she is unable to get through the mud; therefore when the
+ladies of the establishment are away the house is left a good deal
+to its own devices, the dust and cobwebs not often disturbed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C---- FARM, May 21st.
+
+Our last letter to you was written with the first impression of
+our colonist life whilst in Winnipeg, where we had a very good
+insight of the way English people will rough it when they come
+out. It would horrify our farmers to have to do what gentlemen do
+out here. They are all their own servants. That lazy servant in
+Winnipeg, we were told, gave notice to leave, because one night he
+was requested to keep the kitchen fire in so that we might have a
+kettle of hot water when we went to bed.
+
+We spent as little time as we could at our suburban residence, so
+as to save him any extra trouble, always lunching and sometimes
+dining in Winnipeg; and though all the restaurants are bad, still
+the food was almost as good as what we cooked ourselves. Our chief
+mistake for our first meals was that we put everything on the fire
+at the same time, and, funnily enough, our fish boiled quicker
+than the sausages, and they again much quicker than the pudding.
+Once there was a bread-and-butter one, about which there has been
+a good deal of chaff, as it was supposed to be first cousin to
+bread-and-milk!
+
+The weather was very bad, constant rain, and we had a fair specimen of
+Winnipeg mud. To these buckboards (which is a buggy with a board
+behind for luggage), or to any of the carriages, there are no wings to
+protect one from the mud, so that we always came in bespattered all
+over, a great trial to our clothes. But in spite of the rain and bad
+weather we were determined to come out here on Friday. We hired a
+democrat, a light waggon with two seats, and started during the
+afternoon in the rain, hoping it might clear which it eventually did
+when we were about a third of our way. It was awfully cold, and the
+jolting of the carriage over the prairie so fearful that our wraps
+were always falling off. I had always understood the prairie was so
+beautifully smooth to drive over; but found it much resembling an
+English arable field thrown out of cultivation, with innumerable
+mole-hills and badger-holes, and natural cracks about an inch wide,
+which drain the water off into the marshes. If your carriage is
+heavily weighted it runs pretty easy; but woe betide you if driving by
+yourself--you bump up and down like a pea on a shovel.
+
+We nearly upset, shortly after leaving Winnipeg, as a house was on
+the move, or, more properly speaking, had been, as it was stuck in
+a mud-hole; a load of hay, trying to get round it, had stuck as well;
+and the only place given us to pass was fearfully on the slant down to
+a deepish dyke, into which a buggy had already capsized. We caught the
+first glimpse of our future home eight miles off, the house and
+stables looking like three small specks on the horizon. It is very
+difficult to judge distances on the prairie, and the nearer we seemed
+to get to our destination the further the houses were removed. The
+farm had an imposing appearance as we drove up to it. Mr. B----, who
+met us at the gate, was most anxious that on arrival we should be
+driven to the front door and not to the kitchen one, which, being the
+nearest, is the handiest. He, poor man, has given up his bed and
+dressing-room to us, and we find ourselves very comfortable.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C---- FARM, May 24.
+
+The two young men, Messrs. H---- and L----, who inhabit a tent
+about two miles from here, and who are building themselves a
+stable, are going into Winnipeg to-morrow for more lumber; and as
+I don't know when I shall have another opportunity of sending
+letters in, I send you a few lines. These two men have been living
+with A---- all the winter, and only turned out for us the day we
+arrived. It was such bad weather they hoped and speculated on our
+not coming; so that when we were seen in the distance there was a
+general stampede to clear out. I must say I should have been very
+loth to turn out, during this cold weather, of a comfortable house
+into a tent, and, had I been they, should have wished us somewhere. We
+have already had a taste of the cold in these regions. Friday, when we
+drove out here, was bad enough; but on Saturday, when E---- and A----
+went into town again to take our carriage back, they were nearly
+frozen with the biting wind and sleet they had to face the whole of
+the sixteen miles home. On Sunday the thermometer was down to 22, or
+ten degrees of frost, with a bitter north-west wind, and we had an
+inch of snow on the ground; and though the sun melted most of it, the
+thermometer at night went down again to 24. I don't think I ever felt
+so cold in bed, in spite of a ton weight of clothes. Luckily the
+stoves are still up in the house--in summer they are generally put
+away in the warehouse to give them room--so that we have been able to
+make a light both night and day. We are told the weather is most
+unusual; anyhow, it is mighty cold. Those poor men in the tent
+have suffered a good deal; one night the pegs to the windward
+gave, and the snow drifted against their beds as high as their
+pillows. They luckily have got a stove, but are obliged to leave
+their door open to allow of the pipe going out; unfortunately they
+have no extra tin or iron to put on the canvas round the pipe,
+which is the usual way to prevent it catching fire.
+
+To describe our life here will take some doing, and, after the
+novelty has worn off, it will not amuse us quite so much; nor
+shall we be so keen of helping our Abigail, who is the wife of the
+carpenter and maid-of-all-work, in everything, excepting that she
+must always have a great deal to do for a large household like
+ours, consisting of four men and our two selves, and we shall
+always want employment, and I don't think we shall either of us
+care to ride or drive much.
+
+We have fallen into it (the life) wonderfully quickly; completely
+sunk the lady and become sort of maids-of-all-work. Our day begins
+soon after 6 o'clock by laying the breakfast, skimming the cream,
+whilst our woman is frying bacon and making the porridge for the
+breakfast at 6.30. Mr. B---- and A---- are out by 5 o'clock, in
+order to water, feed, and harness their horses all ready to go out
+at 7 o'clock, when we get rid of all the men. We then make the
+beds, help in the washing-up, clean the knives, and this morning I
+undertook the dinner, and washed out some of the clothes, as we
+have not been able to find a towel, duster, or glass-cloth, whilst
+Mrs. G---- cleaned out the dining-room. The dirt of the house is,
+to our minds, appalling; but as Mrs. G---- only arrived a few days
+before we did, and all the winter the four men were what is called
+in this country "baching it" (from bachelor), namely, having to do
+everything for themselves, it is, perhaps, not surprising that the
+floors are rather dirty and that there is a little dust. The
+weather is much against our cleaning, as the mud sticks to the
+boots and, do what you will, it is almost impossible to get it
+off; not that the men seem to have thought much about it, as,
+until we arrived and suggested it, there was no scraper to either
+door. Poor Mr. B---- was rather hurt in his feelings this morning
+on expressing some lament at the late sharp frosts, that all his
+cabbages would be killed, when we said that it was a pity he had
+sown them out of doors, as he might almost have grown them on the
+dining-room carpet. He also amuses us by lamenting that he did so
+much cleaning and washed the floors so often; he might just as
+well have left it until we arrived. Our time is well filled up
+until dinner, at 12.30, at which we have such ravenous appetites,
+we are told, no profits made on the farm will pay our keep. At
+half-past 1 when the men turn out again, we generally go out with
+them, and some out-door occupation is found for us; either driving
+the waggons or any other odd jobs. There is a lot of hay littered
+about, and that has to be stacked; also the waste straw or rubbish
+which is burnt, and the fires have to be made up. Three-quarters
+of an hour before either dinner or supper (the latter meal is
+about half-past 6) a flag, the Union Jack, is hoisted at the end
+of the farther stable--if neither A---- nor Mr. B---- is about, we
+undertake to do it--to call the men in; and they declare the horses
+see the flag as soon as they do and stop directly. The class of horse
+here is certainly not remarkable for its good looks; but they are
+hard, plucky little beasts, and curiously quiet. The long winter makes
+them, as well as all the other animals, feel a dependence upon man,
+and they become unusually tame. The cows, cats, and everything follow
+the men about everywhere. They used to have to keep the kitchen door
+shut to prevent one of the cows walking in. A---- has got a jolly old
+cat who follows him like a dog, sleeps on his bed, and sits next to
+him at meals. Mr. B---- has a dear colley with whom he carries on long
+conversations, particularly on the subject of the coolness of the
+morning and the water in his bath; so you see we have plenty of animal
+life about. The men at the tent have a black water-spaniel, which
+greatly prefers our fare and warm house to the tent, so is nearly
+always here.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+May 25th.
+
+We over-slept ourselves this morning, it being a dull day and no
+sun to wake us up, so that it was past 6 before any of us made our
+appearance. The way we work here would rejoice Uncle F----'s heart
+and amaze some of our farmers' wives and daughters. My advice to
+all emigrants is to leave their pride to the care of their
+families at home before they start, and, like ourselves, put their
+hand to everything. We have had some funny experiences; but for
+all our hard work we get no kudos or praise, it is all taken as a
+matter of course. I would not live in such a place for worlds, but
+while it lasts it is great fun; and I think we have done good by
+coming out, if only to mend up all the old rags belonging to these
+four men. We were much in want of dusters, etc., the first days,
+and were told that when the three months' wash which was in
+Winnipeg returned we should find everything we wanted, instead of
+which there was a fine display of torn under-linen, and stockings
+by the dozens, which we have been doing our best to patch up and
+darn, but no house linen. We shall do as much washing as we
+possibly can manage at home, I expect, as the prices are so
+fearful, to say nothing of the inconvenience of being ages without
+one's linen. I will just quote a few of the prices from our bill
+of the Winnipeg Steam Laundry. Shirts 15 cents, night ditto 10
+cents, vests and pants 25 to 50 cents, blankets 50 cents,
+counterpanes 35 cents, table-cloths 15 to 35 cents, sheets 10
+cents, pillow-slips 5 to 15 cents, night-dresses 15 cents to 1
+dollar, petticoats 30 cents to 1 dollar, etc., everything in
+proportion. We thought one dollar per dozen all round was
+exorbitant, but when hardly anything is less than eightpence (as a
+cent, according to the exchange, is more than a halfpenny) it
+seems ruinous.
+
+We get 4 dollars 80 cents only for the sovereign here, being
+tenpence short of the five dollars.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+May 28th.
+
+Our weather is improving, to-day has been lovely; but alas! with
+the warmth have come the mosquitoes. I don't believe you will ever
+see us again; they (the mosquitoes) bite so fearfully, even in the
+day-time, that they will devour us up entirely. A---- is having
+wire coverings made for the doors and windows; but, unfortunately,
+owing to the floods after the melting of the snow, all the stores
+which ought to have arrived in Winnipeg a month ago have been
+delayed, and the shops are very short of goods of all sorts and
+kinds. There are said to be 4,000 cars with provisions, etc.
+between this and St. Paul. A---- and I spent an afternoon at the
+other farm, "Boyd," which he rents of a Mr. Boyd, three thousand
+acres for 40 pounds a year. It is covered with low brushwood with a
+few trees here and there, and a good deal of marsh, and therefore
+unfit for cultivation, so they keep it entirely for their cattle
+and for the cutting of hay in summer. It is a much prettier place
+than this, the house being surrounded by trees, whereas here we
+haven't one within seven miles, though last year they did their
+best and planted nearly five hundred round the house as avenues to
+the drive; but only a few survived the drought of last autumn and
+severe cold of winter, the rest are represented by dead sticks. We
+tried to see the cattle at Boyd's, but they were away feeding on
+the marsh and could only be looked at from a distance, as we
+neither of us felt inclined to run the chance of being bogged or
+of wetting our feet.
+
+In coming home we called at the tent, and I was surprised to find
+how quickly Messrs. H---- and L---- were building their stable,
+which is to be large enough to hold two stalls and a room beyond,
+which, when they have a house, will make a good loose-box; but for
+the time being they intend to live in, either sleeping in the loft
+or tent.
+
+To build a house or stable is not very difficult; but with no
+carpenter or experienced man to help it wants a certain amount of
+ingenuity. You lay out your foundation by putting thick pieces of
+oak called "sills" on the ground in the shape of your house. In
+town these "sills" are nailed to posts which have been driven
+eight feet into the ground; but on the prairie are simply laid on
+the flat; on to the sills come the joists, planks 2 x 6 placed on
+edge across, two feet apart. Then the uprights, which stand on the
+sills two feet apart, form the walls. To these you nail rough
+boards on each side, with a layer of tar-paper in between if
+building a stable; if a dwelling-house, on the inside you put
+against your rough board, laths, and then plaster, on the outside
+the tar-paper and siding.
+
+The floor is made by nailing rough boards on the joists, then
+tar-paper, and on the top of that tongued and grooved wood fitting
+into each other, to make it air-tight.
+
+The roofs, which are almost always pointed on account of the snow,
+are composed of rafter 2 x 4, two to three feet apart, with rough
+boards across, then tar-paper and shingles; the latter are thin,
+flat pieces of wood laid on to overlap each other.
+
+We send you a small sketch of our buildings, which will give you a
+better idea of these "frame" houses than any description. They can
+be bought ready-made at Chicago, and are sent up with every piece
+numbered, so that you have no difficulty in putting them together
+again.
+
+Our own house is twenty-four feet square with a lean-to as
+kitchen. The dining and drawing-rooms are each twelve feet square,
+separated by sliding-doors; A----'s bedroom, the entrance-hall,
+and stair-case dividing the remainder of the house. Our front-door
+is not quite in the centre; but, thanks to the verandah, one does
+not perceive it. Above, looking due south, we have a bed-room,
+dressing-room, and large cupboard for our clothes. There are two
+other rooms at the back for the men.
+
+The other house is for the labourers, of whom there are eleven, with
+a woman as cook, the wife of one of them; it is also for a warehouse,
+where all the spare implements and stores are kept.
+
+Besides these houses we have two good stables, one holding
+fourteen horses, the other the remaining six (also the cows, pigs,
+and chickens during the winter); piggeries; and last, but not
+least, my chicken-house. A---- has presented me with a dozen hens,
+for which he had to pay thirteen dollars, which with the seven old
+ones are my special charge, and are an immense amusement and
+occupation.
+
+His farm here, as he has other land elsewhere besides the Boyd
+Farm, consists of 480 acres; half of one section and a fourth of
+another.
+
+All the surveyed country in the North-west Territory has been
+divided into townships thirty-six square miles, and they again
+into sections of a mile square, which are marked out by the
+surveyors with earth mounds thrown up (at the four corners) in the
+form of right-angled pyramids, with a post about three feet high
+stuck in the centre. The mounds are six feet square, with a square
+hole on each side. To the marking of sections a similar mound is
+erected, only of smaller dimensions.
+
+The sections are numbered as shown by the following diagram:--
+
+                  N
+   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
+   | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 |
+   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
+   | 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26 | 25 |
+   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
+   | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
+ W +----+----+----+----+----+----+ E
+   | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 |
+   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
+   |  7 |  8 |  9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
+   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
+   |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 |  2 |  1 |
+   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
+                  S
+
+
+The Townships are numbered in regular order northerly from the
+International Boundary line or 49th parallel of latitude, and lie
+in ranges numbered east and west from a certain meridian line,
+drawn northerly from the said 49th parallel, from a point ten
+miles or thereabouts westward of Pembina.
+
+When the Government took over the territory from the Hudson Bay
+Company in 1870, two entire sections in every fifth township and
+one and three-quarters in every other, were assigned to the
+Company as compensation. There were also two sections reserved as
+endowment to public education, and are called School Lands, and
+held by the minister of the Interior, and can only be sold by
+public auction.
+
+The same was done for the half-breeds; 240 acres were allotted to
+them in every parish. Their farms are mostly on the rivers, along
+the banks of which all the early settlers congregated; and to give
+each claimant his iota the farms had to be cut up into long strips
+of four miles long by four hundred yards wide.
+
+On every section-line running north and south and to every
+alternate running east and west nine feet, or one chain, is left
+for roads. Our farm-buildings are not quite in the centre of the
+estate, on account of having to make the drive up to the house
+beyond the marsh on the eastern boundary.
+
+I have drawn you a plan of the farm; the spaces covered with
+little dots are the marshes: the one on the west extends for
+miles, and has a creek or dyke dug out by Government to carry off
+the water. From the drawing it looks as if there was much marsh
+around us; but this bit of ground was the driest that could be
+found not already taken up. As it was, A---- purchased it of a man
+who has some more land nearer Winnipeg, giving him five dollars
+per acre. The Nos. 30 and 31 mean the sections of the townships.
+
+For emigrants wishing to secure a "homestead," which is a grant of
+160 acres given by Government free, with the exception of an
+office-fee, amounting to ten dollars on all the even-numbered
+sections of a town-ship, he will now have to travel much further
+west, as every acre around Winnipeg is already secured, and has in
+the last two years risen most considerably in value.
+
+The Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, which was given by Government
+25,000,000 acres, besides the 25,000,000 dollars to make the line
+across the country from Thunder Bay on Lake Superior to the Rockies,
+sell their land (which is on odd-numbered sections of every township
+for twenty-four miles on each side of the track, with the exception of
+the two sections, 11 and 29, reserved for school-lands) for two
+dollars fifty cents, or ten shillings per acre, to be paid by
+instalments, giving a rebate of one dollar twenty-five cents, or five
+shillings per acre, if the land is brought into cultivation within the
+three or five years after purchase.
+
+A man occupying a "homestead" is exempt from seizure for debt,
+also his ordinary furniture, tools, and farm implements in use,
+one cow, two oxen, one horse, four sheep, two pigs, and food for
+the same for thirty days; and his land cultivated, provided it is
+not more than the 160 acres; also his house, stables, barns and
+fences; so that if a man has bad luck, he has a chance of
+recovering his misfortunes.
+
+In one of your letters you ask if a poor man coming out as labourer,
+and perhaps eventually taking up land as a homestead or otherwise,
+would encounter many difficulties. I fancy not, as both the English
+and Canadian Governments are affording every facility to emigrants,
+who can get through tickets from London, Liverpool, or Ireland at even
+a lower rate than the ordinary steerage passenger. They can have
+themselves and their families booked all the way, the fares varying
+from nine pounds five to the twenty-eight pounds paid by the saloon.
+
+On board ship the steerage have to find their own bedding and
+certain utensils for use; otherwise everything else is provided,
+and, I am told, the food is both good and plenty of it. Regular
+authorised officers of the Dominion Government are stationed at
+all the principal places in Canada, to furnish information on
+arrival. They will also receive and forward money and letters; and
+everyone should be warned and put on their guard against the
+fictitious agents and rogues that infest every place, who try to
+persuade the new-comers into purchase of lands or higher rates of
+wage.
+
+We heard the other day of an English gentlemen being taken in by
+one of these scoundrels, and giving a lot of money for land which
+on examination proved to be worthless. Luckily for him, there was
+some flaw in his agreement, and his purchase was cancelled. Men
+who intend buying land should be in no great hurry about their
+investments; the banks give a fair percentage on deposits, and it
+is always so much more satisfactory to look around before
+settling.
+
+E---- has been very busy arranging the garden; a most fatiguing
+process, as she has to cart all her own sods to make a foundation
+and then heap soil on to them; but having brought a quantity of seeds
+from England she feels bound to sow them, and hopes they will make a
+grand show later on, and the place quite gay. You should have seen the
+beam of delight which shone on the countenance of a stranger who had
+come out from Winnipeg for the night, when on arrival he was
+immediately pressed into E----'s service to carry water for these said
+seeds. The temperature is now at 64 degrees, and, as things grow as if
+by magic, we hope they  will soon put in an appearance. Oats planted
+only a week ago are now an inch above ground. We have had a nice
+breeze the last two or three days, so that the mosquitoes have not
+worried us so much.
+
+The prettiest things to see here are the prairie fires at night.
+The grass is burnt in spring and autumn so as to kill off the old
+tufts and allow of the new shoots growing for hay. The fires look
+like one long streak of quivering flame, the forked tips of which
+flash and quiver in the horizon, magnified by refraction, and on a
+dark night are lovely. In the day-time one only sees volumes of
+smoke which break the monotony of the landscape, though I don't
+know that it is picturesque. With a slight breeze the fires spread
+in a marvellous way, even at the rate of eight or nine miles an
+hour. The other day A---- and Mr. H----, whilst putting up their
+tent, did not perceive how near a fire they themselves had lighted
+at some distance was getting, until it was upon them. They then
+had to seize hold of everything, pull up the tent pegs as best
+they could, and make a rush through the flames, singeing their
+clothes and boots a good deal.
+
+The pastures on the burnt prairie are good the whole summer, and
+animals will always select them in preference to any other. The
+wild ponies, be the snow in winter ever so deep, by pawing it
+away, subsist on these young shoots and leaves of grasses, which
+are very nutritious and apparently suffer little by the frost,
+which only kills the upper leaves but does not injure what is
+below. The mirage is also very curious; the air is so clear that
+one often sees reflected, some way above the horizon, objects like
+the river, trees, and even the town of Winnipeg, which we could
+not otherwise see; we could actually one evening, at sunset,
+distinguish the gas-lights.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sunday.
+
+This is a real day of rest, and the men really do deserve it. We
+all have a respite, as regards breakfast, it being at 9 o'clock
+instead of 6.30; and do we not appreciate the extra forty winks!
+The whole day is spent more or less in loafing, we having no regular
+church nearer than Winnipeg, sixteen miles, though an occasional
+service is given at Headingley, eight miles off. The men lie stretched
+on the straw-heaps in the yard, basking and snoozing in the sun. We
+generally have some stray man out from Winnipeg, and are much struck
+with the coolness of their ways. Colonial manners, somehow, jar a good
+deal on one; they take it quite as a matter of course that we ladies
+should wait on them at table, and attend to their bodily comforts. On
+the other hand, they never seem to object to any accommodation they
+get, and are perfectly satisfied with the drawing-room sofa for a bed,
+even with sheets taken out of the dirty linen bag, which has been once
+or twice the case when our supply has run short. I don't object to
+their coming, only that our Sunday dinners have to be in proportion,
+and as all our provisions come out from Winnipeg it is rather
+difficult catering. We have no outside larder or anywhere to keep our
+meat and butter, so have instituted a lovely one by putting all our
+things down the well, which is nearly dry and is under the kitchen
+floor. In winter there is never any need of a larder, as the meat is
+frozen so hard that it has to be twelve hours in the kitchen before
+they can attempt to cook it.
+
+Our food is very good and we have the best of all receipts,
+ravenous appetites for every meal. Our breakfast consists of
+porridge, bacon, and any cold meat, jam, and any quantity of
+excellent butter and bread. Dinner, a hot joint and a pudding of
+some sort, finishing up with coffee. Supper, much the same. We
+have coffee for every meal, and, as the pot is always on the hob,
+anybody can have a cup when they like. The men have about two cups
+apiece before breakfast when they first get up. We never mind any
+amount of coffee, but wage war against the cocktails, taken before
+meals as appetisers. A cocktail is a horrid concoction of whisky,
+bitters, sugar and water, which are all mixed together with a
+"swidel" stick, which stick is always on the wander and for which
+a search has to be made. Nipping is too much in vogue in this
+country, but we are told that a lot of support is wanted, the air
+is so rarefied and the water has so much alkali in it, and
+therefore not supposed to be healthy, but it is most beautifully
+clear and delightfully cold to drink.
+
+It certainly does disagree with the horses and cattle when first
+imported into the district.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+June 3rd.
+
+If you happen to know of anybody coming out here, and so many do, and
+you would like to give A---- a present, I wish you would kindly send
+him a few table-cloths, dusters, towels, and pairs of sheets; in short
+any linen would be most acceptable as we are so short. How these men
+managed when the linen went into Winnipeg to be washed, and was
+sometimes kept a month ere it came home, is a mystery. These extra men
+living in the house have none. They facetiously describe their ideas
+of dirt by saying, if the table-cloth, however filthy it might look,
+when flung against the wall didn't stick, it went on for another week;
+if it stuck, was then and there consigned to the dirty-linen bag.
+
+Since we have been here we have instituted a weekly wash, every
+Monday and Tuesday. E---- and Mrs. G---- preside at the tub all
+day, and even then our sheets and towels often run short.
+
+Every colonist ought to provide himself with two pairs of sheets,
+half a dozen towels, two table-cloths, and a few dusters; and as
+those things and his wearing apparel, if in use six months
+previously, are allowed into the country free of duty, they might
+as well bring them over as everything of that sort in Winnipeg is
+so fearfully dear I do not like buying anything there. We sent for
+some unbleached calico the other day, worth twopence-halfpenny;
+was charged twelve cents or sixpence a yard. Besides the four
+yards of calico there were ten of bed-ticking, also ten of
+American cloth; and the bill was six dollars seventy cents, nearly
+seven-and-twenty shillings. Everything is equally dear, the demand
+is so much greater than the supply. Beef is tenpence to
+thirteenpence a pound, mutton about the same, bacon tenpence, pork
+tenpence, chickens four and twopence each. We use a good deal of
+tinned corned beef; and very good it is, it makes into such
+excellent hashes and curries and is so good for breakfast.
+
+A---- also wants a pair of long porpoise-hide waterproof boots
+sending out; they are quite an essential, as after the heavy rains
+water stands inches deep in our yards, and he has so much walking
+into the marshes. In the spring, when the snow has melted, the
+"sloughs" or mudholes along all the tracks and across the prairie
+are so deep that horses and waggons are repeatedly stuck in them,
+and the men have to go in, often up to their waist, to help the
+poor animals out. The only way sometimes to get waggons out is to
+unhitch the horses, getting them on to firm ground, and by means
+of a long chain or ropes fastened to the poles, pull the waggons
+out which as a rule have previously had to be unloaded. The
+clothes these men wear are indescribable. A---- at the present
+moment is in a blue flannel shirt, a waistcoat, the back of which
+we are always threatening to renew. Inexpressibles somewhat
+spotty, darned, and torn, and, thanks to one or two washings, have
+shrunk, displaying a pair of boots which have not seen a blacking-
+brush since the day they left England. Coats are put on for meals,
+to do honour to the ladies, but seldom worn otherwise. The coarser
+and stronger the clothes are the better. A----'s straw hat is also
+very lovely, it serves periodically for a mark to shoot at with
+the rifle on Sunday mornings, or when company come out from town.
+We both of us feel much like our old nurse when we are doing our
+mendings, cutting up one set of old rags to patch another; but
+thanks to ammonia and hot irons, we flatter ourselves we make them
+almost look respectable again.
+
+There is a half-breed called L'Esperance who lives about eight
+miles from here, on the banks of the Assiniboine; and one of our
+neighbours telling us the other day he had several buffalo robes
+to sell, we drove over to inspect them, and saw some real beauties
+for ten or twelve dollars; at the Hudson Bay stores, in town, they
+ask sixteen for them. L'Esperance himself wasn't at home when we
+got there; but his wife, a fine, tall woman, speaking a peculiar
+French patois, showed us "around," also the pemmicain, which is
+buffalo-meat pounded, dried, and pressed into bags of skins, it
+keeping good for years in that way. It looked nasty, but the
+children were chewing it apparently with great relish. Whilst in
+the shanty we heard a great noise, and, running out, found our
+horse, which had either taken right or been stung by some fly,
+tearing past us with the buggy through the old lady's potato-field
+into the bush. E---- tore after it, and in a few hundred yards
+came up to the horse standing trembling, and gazing at the shattered
+remains of our poor vehicle. He had tried to turn the corner, when
+the whole thing capsized topsy-turvy, and he had almost freed
+himself of all the harness; luckily he was considerate enough not
+to have given that "one more struggle" which would have indeed
+settled the whole question, and obliged us to foot it on our ten
+toes home. Curiously enough the shafts were not broken, but the
+splinter-bar was. There was quite a procession back to the shanty,
+the half-breed woman and one girl dragging the buggy, one child
+carrying the cushion, another the whip and wraps, and E---- leading
+the horse. We set to work to make good the damage as best we
+could, with thin strips of buffalo-hide, and started homewards;
+but without buying our robes, not daring to add to our weight. The
+man at the ferry-boat gave us an extra binding up, and by going
+cautiously we got home, though we feared every moment would be our
+last, as regards driving, as the bound-up parts creaked most
+ominously all the way, and we fully expected at every rough bit to
+go in half. The horse is generally so quiet that we never mind
+where we leave him standing. I luckily have just given A---- a new
+carriage, which will come in very handy. It is to be a "democrat,"
+double seats, and one long enough to be able to carry luggage.
+These small buggies are beautifully light, but will carry next to
+nothing; and we always have difficulty in accommodating all our
+parcels every time we come out of Winnipeg.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+June 6th.
+
+A waggon is going into town to-morrow to fetch a sulky and a gang-
+plough, and some potatoes for seeding; and we hope a few also of
+the latter for eating, as hitherto our only vegetables have been
+white beans and rice. You may be wondering what these ploughs are:
+a sulky is a single-furrowed sixteen inch plough, to which are
+harnessed three horses, a man riding on a small seat and driving
+them instead of walking; and a "gang" is a two-furrowed twelve-
+inch plough, and drawn by four to six horses, and which will break
+over four acres a day; the sulky about three. A---- has had one
+for some time, but as yet only the deep ploughing or backsetting
+of last year's breaking has been going on, and until the seeding
+and harrowing is finished, which ought to have been done before
+now, but this year has been delayed by the lateness of the spring,
+and the snow being so long in melting, no fresh breaking has been
+begun.
+
+There are still about two hundred and eighty acres to break, or, more
+properly speaking, two hundred and forty, as forty acres are in marsh,
+in which water stands so deep no cultivation would be possible,
+though, later on, the marshes yield beautiful crops of hay; rather
+coarse-looking stuff, but undeniably nutritious, and not distasteful
+to either horses or beast. It has often been speculated as to whether
+there was any means of draining the marshes, but, owing to the extreme
+level character of the country, you could get no fall, and tiles would
+not do on account of the severity of the frosts, which penetrate
+deeper into the ground than the drains could be carried. The
+Government have cut good-sized ditches at right angles to the river,
+and they are found to be the only practical drainage which is
+feasible, and, when once cut and the water set running, have no
+tendency to fill up, but gradually wear deeper and broader, so that in
+time they almost become small rivers. We have one running through our
+west marsh, and on a bye-day we sometimes fish in it for pike; not
+that any of our party have been successful, but some of our neighbours
+catch fish, and very fair-sized ones.
+
+The land is wonderfully rich and good. A black loam (which colour is
+no doubt due, partly, to the gradual accumulation of the charred
+grasses left by prairie fires), of about two feet in depth, with a
+clay and sandy sub-soil, and in which, they say, they will be able to
+grow cereals for the next twenty years, without manure or its
+deteriorating; though if there was only time to do it before the snow
+falls, it seems a pity not to put the manure on to the land instead of
+burning it, as they do at the present moment. Perhaps when all the
+land is broken, which they hope will be by the end of next summer,
+they won't be so pushed for work as they are.
+
+The ground here requires a great deal of cultivation. It is first
+of all broken with a fourteen or sixteen inch plough, so shaped
+that it turns the sod over as flat as possible, generally from the
+depth of two to two-and-a-half inches deep, the shallower the
+better, and then left to rot with the sun and rain for two months
+and a half.
+
+It has often been tried, and with very good results, to put in a
+crop of oats on the first breaking, sowing broadcast and turning a
+very thin sod over them; and the sod pulverizes and decomposes
+under the influence of a growing crop quite as effectually as if
+only turned over and left to itself. There are also fewer weeds,
+which is of importance, as it often happens that the weeds which
+grow soon after the breaking are as difficult to subdue as the
+sod. If the soil is nice and soft a man and team of horses will
+break an acre and a half a day, and average throughout the season
+an acre. The breaking goes on until the middle of July, and the
+end of August the "backsetting" begins, which is ploughing the
+same ground over again about two inches deeper.
+
+The following spring the harrows (which are "disc" of a peculiar
+shape, twelve to eighteen razor-wheels on an axle, and in going
+round cut through and break any sods), are run over repeatedly
+both before and after the seeding; the ground is also rolled and
+then left, and for the two-and-a-half bushels of oats or two
+bushels of wheat-seed per acre, hopes for a grand return being
+always entertained.
+
+By some experts late autumn sowing is strongly advocated, as,
+during the fall, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere, there is
+scarcely any growth; so that the grain sown late cannot germinate,
+nor can it absorb water or rain enough to rot it, the winters
+being so dry. And when the first days of spring come the snow
+melts, the starch of the seed has changed to grape-sugar, and
+begins to germinate; so that the young plants will in no way be
+damaged by subsequent droughts, nor by the frosts which sometimes
+come after heavy rains in August and much injure the crops. At the
+present moment we are craving for rain, and should the crops not
+be as plentiful this year as expected, on account of the drought,
+I should feel much inclined to try autumn sowing.
+
+Before the prairie is broken, the turf is very tough, and requires
+a great deal of force to break it; but when once turned the
+subsequent ploughings are easy.
+
+Our chief difficulty and trouble are the stones; they generally
+lie just beneath the surface, differing very much in size. Some
+are huge and have to be regularly trenched round and horses
+harnessed to a chain put round them to raise them out of the
+ground; when they are put on to the stone-boat and conveyed to the
+boundary fence. It generally falls to E----'s and my special lot
+to drive the stone-boat or the waggons, whilst the men with
+crowbars and spades go before the ploughs clearing them all away,
+for fear they may blunt the shares and throw them out of the
+furrow.
+
+The last two or three days, when not stone-picking, A---- and Mr.
+B---- have been stretching the barb-wire with which they are
+enclosing the property; and there has been great chaff about our
+"Jehuship." The wooden posts along which the wire is run are put
+in the ground, and they then have to be rammed down with a
+fearfully heavy wooden mallet, which I can hardly lift. To get
+purchase on the mallet A---- mounts into the waggon, which
+accordingly has to be driven quite close up to the post without
+touching it.
+
+The two old mares we drive are more than difficult to turn or stop
+to a nicety, the result being that once I went too near and broke
+off a piece of the waggon. Another time, after a corner-post had
+been driven in most securely with props, E---- drove up against
+it, taking the whole concern away bodily.
+
+The weather is quite delightful, no mosquitoes as yet to speak of;
+but the two big marshes on either side of the farm harbour them
+dreadfully.
+
+Wild duck also abound in these marshes; there are thousands about,
+and we have found many nests and been revelling in the eggs, a
+delightful change to our regular _menu_. The nests are very
+difficult to find; we two went one afternoon in the buggy to look
+for some, and the men declare we looked in the marshes themselves
+for them, which was not certainly the fact; though after driving
+round all the outsides, and not having been warned that the marsh
+on the eastern boundary of the farm was very deep, we came home
+that way, not at all liking the water coming up to the axle-trees
+and the horse floundering about at every step. To turn back was as
+bad as to go on, and as we saw wheel-tracks along the fence we
+stuck to them, thanking our stars when we got through safely.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+June 12th.
+
+We have had a real visitor lately--I mean one who has brought a
+change, and a toothbrush; and for the auspicious event we rigged
+him up a stretcher bed, the most comfortable of things, canvas
+stretched on to a wooden frame, with a mattress on the top. You
+could not wish for anything softer. He was one of our ocean
+companions; his nickname of Mike still sticks to him. On getting
+to Winnipeg at night he had great difficulty in finding our
+whereabouts; even at the Club he was told the only W---- known
+kept a store in Main Street. Luckily from the Club he went to
+A----'s livery stable, which is exactly behind it, where a man
+offered to drive him out forthwith, having driven another man here
+only four days ago; but he preferred waiting till the morning,
+getting here somewhere about 9 o'clock, when he was set down
+immediately to work to stone the raisins for a plum cake, and when
+tired of that had to help A---- planting potatoes. He declares he
+never will come here with his best clothes and a "boiled" shirt on
+again, as we have worked him so hard.
+
+The accounts he gives, in an exaggerated Irish brogue, of his
+experiences in Minnesota have kept us in fits of laughter. The
+description of their first drive, when both he and his companions
+were all bogged; and how that twenty-seven mules and twenty-eight
+horses bought at St. Louis all arrived one night at the station
+about 5 o'clock, after sixty hours' travelling with no food or
+water, had to be unloaded from the cars, and they hadn't a halter
+or even a rope to do it with. Eventually they got all the poor
+beasts into a yard with wooden pailing round, but, something
+startling them, they made a rush, the fence gave way, for which
+damage the proprietor charged them ten pounds, and all galloped
+straight on to the prairie, and it took the men all night getting
+them together again. One pair of horses disappeared altogether;
+but were brought back when a reward of thirty dollars was offered;
+they had wandered nineteen miles.
+
+Mike slept in A----'s room. They talked so much, and told so many
+funny stories, that we despaired of ever getting them down to
+breakfast; Mike declaring he would like to bring his bed along
+with him, as he hadn't slept in one, or been between sheets since
+leaving New York, six weeks previously. We drove him over one
+afternoon to fish in the creek about two and a half miles off; but
+as we had to go in a light waggon, and with only one spring seat,
+both Mike and A---- had to hang on behind, with a plank as seat,
+which was always slipping and landing them on their backs at the
+bottom of the waggon. When we were about half a mile from home
+E---- made a wager that she would get through the wire fence and
+home across the prairie before we could get round and the horses
+be in their stable. We had a most exciting race; the gates, which
+are only poles run from one end of the wire to another, were a
+great impediment, and I believe it was really a dead heat, through
+all the labourers entering into the joke and rushing to unhitch the
+horses, which were disappearing into the stable as E---- was at
+the kitchen-door.
+
+I fancy that on the whole, in spite of his hard work, Mike enjoyed
+his visit, not only for the pleasure of our society, but as he had
+never seen a piece of meat, nor anything but pork and beans and
+bad coffee at Warren, nor had a bed to lie on, nor as much water
+as could be held in a tea-cup to wash in; he must have felt he had
+dropped into a land of Goshen by some happy mistake.
+
+To give you a clearer insight into our daily life, and as I have
+nothing really to write about this week, I think I cannot do
+better than copy out our journals, which we try to keep regularly,
+though in our monotonous every-day life it is sometimes difficult
+to find incidents to chronicle.
+
+_Monday_.--Wash and cook all the morning; E---- and A---- plant
+willows in the marsh during the afternoon. I wander about the prairie
+in search of a duck's nest I saw yesterday and thought I had marked;
+but the tracks, stones, and ridges on the prairie are so alike, that
+it is almost impossible to remember any place; anyhow, I cannot find
+the nest. I could not take it yesterday, as I was riding, and the
+animal will not stand still to let you mount, and had I had to
+scramble up on to her I should certainly have broken all the eggs I
+took. An exhausting day with a hot wind blowing; we are craving for
+rain, and thankful for the slight showers that fell during last night.
+It is marvellous how quickly vegetation will grow. Some sample wheat
+planted in the garden, of which there was no sign yesterday, thanks to
+the rain and sun has grown quite an inch by 6 o'clock this evening.
+The grass is beginning to look so green and nice.
+
+_Tuesday_.--E---- and Mrs. G---- finish their wash which they could
+not get through yesterday. I go up to the tent, with Mr. H---- to
+drive his waggon, and help to unlumber the wood he brought out
+yesterday from Winnipeg. Riding on these waggons loaded, and
+without a spring seat, is anything but pleasant over the prairie,
+but Mr. H---- is so accustomed to it now that he can stretch
+himself on the top and sleep soundly; and once or twice, coming
+out from town, has found himself in quite the wrong direction by
+allowing the horses to go their own way.
+
+E---- and I spend our afternoon cleaning up the tent.
+
+_Wednesday_.--A---- and I drive into Winnipeg. We have had various
+commissions to do, and A---- had to attend a meeting at the Club. Mr.
+W. H---- has most amiably put his house, consisting of two rooms and a
+kitchen below, at our disposal whenever we want to rest; so I spent my
+whole afternoon there, nominally reading the "St. James's Gazette,"
+but, I fancy, indulging in "forty winks" whilst waiting for A----. We
+afterward dined with the judge in his very nice pretty house called
+"The Willows," driving home later. The cold was so great that A----,
+who had brought no great-coat, was forced to run behind the buggy some
+way to get warm and produce circulation. The prairie fires quite
+lovely, on all sides, quivering high flames for miles, and the night
+being dark, they looked very bright.
+
+_Thursday_.--Was so tired after my day in town that I breakfasted in
+bed; disgraceful! By the time I get down the family have all dispersed
+to their various works. After dinner E---- and I drive a waggon over
+to the Boyd Farm to fetch oats for Mr. H----. The students, who
+haven't much to do, are enlisted into the filling and loading of the
+sacks; rather glad, we fancy, of some occupation. On our return we
+found a friend of Mr. B----'s, who, having heard of our proximity, he
+living at Headingley, has come over to dine and sleep. Our "parlour"
+sofa, as usual, is called into requisition. It will soon be worn out,
+so many sleep on it. I think last week it was occupied nearly every
+night.
+
+_Friday_.--We have had very smart company to-day, as the judge, his
+wife, niece, and another man came over. We hoped they would star to
+dinner, and had "killed fatted calf"; but I fancy the ladies dreaded
+the prairie by night, and insisted upon returning--we could hardly
+persuade them to take a cup of tea--fearing that they might be
+benighted.
+
+_Saturday_.--Hard at work cleaning all the morning. Mr. B----'s friend
+leaves after dinner, and I drive the mares in the waggons whilst the
+men stretch the wire-fencing. E---- rides to the tent with letters. We
+sustained rather a shock to our nerves to-day; about 12 o'clock a
+buggy was seen coming towards the house just as we were sitting down
+to dinner, and as our food was scanty we did not know how we possibly
+could feed three extra men. Luckily they only came to enquire their
+route to the tent, and it was a relief when they drove on; though we
+felt we ought to have given them some food, as the tent could only
+provide bacon and biscuits.
+
+_Sunday_.--Mrs. G----, our factotum, has a holiday, and goes over with
+some of the other labourers to spend the day at the other farm. E----
+and I have to undertake the _menage_ for the whole day. Our mutton, a
+leg, was very nicely done, also our vegetables, rice, and beans; but
+the "evaporated" apples, which we use much, required boiling previous
+to being put in a tart, which we neither of us knew. Therefore they
+were not done, and the crust was all burst. The men from the tent, who
+generally spend their Sundays here, were allowed some dinner, on
+condition they washed up afterwards.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+June 18.
+
+I am afraid our letters will not be so interesting as the novelty
+wears off: the monotony of our life may begin to pall upon us. We
+hardly ever go two miles beyond the farm; to take our neighbours
+at the tent their letters or parcels brought out from town, is
+about the limit to our wanderings. We did drive one of the waggons
+to our neighbour Mr. Boyle to fetch home some oats the other
+night, and we also have been into town to pay our respects to the
+Governor and his wife. We happily don't want much outside
+attraction, for we have so much to do on the farm. The men work us
+pretty hard, I can tell you; as, besides all our indoor work, we
+have had three afternoons cutting potatoes for seed, until our
+hands are too awful to look at, and the water is so hard that we
+never shall get them a decent colour again. Some "white elephants"
+potatoes, planted three weeks ago (thirty in number we cut into
+420 pieces) already make a great show, and will want banking up
+next week. About ten acres of ground close to the house have been
+reserved and are called "the garden," in which have been planted
+turnips, flax, beet-root, lettuce, tomatoes, and potatoes; in
+short, all the luxuries of the season. But I am afraid none will
+be ready before we leave, if we carry out our idea of going to
+Colorado early in August.
+
+We have been craving for rain, and at last, luckily, had a
+delightful shower a few days ago, which has freshened us up and
+will make things grow. There is no grass as yet above four inches
+in height, and this time last year they were hay-making. The men
+are beginning to fear there will be none; but with a little warm
+weather and a certain amount of rain everything grows as if by
+magic, so we may still hope to have a good season.
+
+Only very few of the garden-seeds have made their appearance,
+which is disappointing after all the trouble they were; but the
+wild flowers are beginning to come out on the prairie, small
+bushes of wild roses are all over; there are also very pretty
+sunflowers, a tree maiden-hair, several different vetches,
+sisters, yellow-daisies, &c.; many we cannot name, indigenous to
+this country we conclude.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+June 26.
+
+We quite feel as if we had been here years instead of about five
+weeks; and though it was prophesied before we left England that,
+after turning the house up-side down and making the men very
+uncomfortable with our cleanings, we should then go on strike, it
+has not been altogether fulfilled. We certainly did try to clean
+up a bit, but we still help in housework, and have to do as the
+servants at home. If we expect visitors, or on a Sunday, put on a
+tidy gown; otherwise we generally live in the oldest of frocks
+(which are more or less stained with either mud or the red paint
+with which we have been painting the roofs of both the stable and
+the labourers' house), very big aprons, sleeves to match, and our
+sun-bonnets. E---- has concocted for herself a thin blue-and-white
+shirt, and as she generally lives with her sleeves tucked up, her
+arms are getting quite brown and sunburnt. Our boots are the only
+things we do not much like cleaning, they get so soon dirty again;
+and we have come to the happy conclusion that unblacked boots have
+a "cachet" that blacked boots have not. When we first arrived the
+men promised to do them for us every Sunday; which promises, like
+so many, have partaken of the nature of pie-crusts.
+
+We are both of us delighted to have come, the whole experience is
+so new, and what we couldn't have realised in England; and I am
+sure, in spite of the _bouleversement_ of the bachelor _regime_, it
+is a great pleasure to the men we are here. Our Winnipeg acquaintances
+tell us that A---- is quite a changed man, so cheery and even
+bumptious, and that everything is now "What we do at the farm."
+
+It is all very well, however, in the summer; if obliged to stay
+through the winter, it would be quite another "pair of shoes." The
+thermometer often registers forty degrees of frost, though the
+effects of this extreme temperature in the dry exhilarating
+atmosphere is not so unpleasant as might be imagined, but the
+loneliness and dreariness of the prairie with two or three feet of
+snow would be appalling. The cold is so great that you have to put
+on a buffalo coat, cap, and gloves, before you can touch the stove
+to light the fire, and notwithstanding the coal stove which is
+always kept going in the hall to warm the up-stairs room (through
+which the pipe is carried), the water in buckets standing
+alongside gets frozen.
+
+Then the blizzards, which are storms of sleet and snow driven with
+a fierce wind, and so thick that it is quite impossible to get out
+of doors, or see at all, would be too trying.
+
+Even to get across the yard to the further stable the men have to
+have a rope stretched as guide so as not to lose their way; and
+these storms sometimes, as they did this last year, continue for
+three weeks consecutively.
+
+The snow on the prairie is never very deep, but it drifts a good
+deal, and was to the depth of twelve feet on the west side of the
+house.
+
+No work can be done much in the winter on account of the cold and
+snow, so that from the middle of April, when the snow begins to
+go, until the beginning of October everything has to be rushed
+through and as many hands put on as they can possibly get, who are
+all discharged at the end of the summer and only two or three kept
+to look after the animals. After threshing, these men have little
+or nothing to do: digging out the well to water the horses,
+teaming hay into the town on sleighs, and fetching timber over
+from the other farm, is about their only outdoor occupation. All
+the animals in the shape of horses, cows, pigs and chickens are
+huddled together in the stables for warmth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+July 5th.
+
+We have received our letters most unexpectedly to-day; two of our
+gentlemen coming out last night from town brought sundry parcels,
+newspapers, etc., but never thought of turning round to see if all
+was safe in back of carriage, declaring it was such rough driving
+they could only think of how to hang on and not be jolted out, so
+that by the time they got home, letters, a horse-collar, spare
+cushions, etc. were all gone. It was too late to send after them;
+but one of the men started back at 3:30 this morning, finding most
+of the lost things strewn broadcast over the prairie, even to
+within a short distance of Winnipeg. He went on to feed and bait
+his horses, at the same time enquiring for letters, finding ours
+just come in, and which would have lain there until our next
+opportunity.
+
+Our variety to-day has been the absence of our cook, and we are
+again left in charge, and we flatter ourselves the dinner was
+"immense." Stewed-beef, rice, mushrooms, (of which some were
+rather burnt, others not quite done enough, but that is a trifle),
+yorkshire pudding (baking-powder making an excellent substitute
+for eggs), and an apple tart. What more could you want? We are
+quite ambitious now, and have curries, rissoles, etc. A---- used
+to say he hoped, we should not expect either him or his friends
+to eat our dishes, as they would have to go to bed afterwards for
+at least three or four hours; but they very much appreciate any
+change made in the _menu_.
+
+We are longing to make bread, which takes up a great deal of our
+factotum's time, as it has to be set over night and kneaded three
+or four times the following day; but are begged to defer that
+amusement until within a few days of our departure, as it would so
+entirely upset our American trip if we had to attend A----'s
+obsequies. The bread is perfectly delicious, so light and so white
+in colour. The flour is excellent. It is not made with brewers
+yeast, but with a yeast gem dissolved in warm water, to which is
+added a handful of dried hops boiled beforehand for about ten
+minutes, and strained. To that is added a cupful of flour a
+teaspoonful of salt, and one of sugar, and the whole is put into a
+warm place to ferment; when fermented, which takes about twelve
+hours, into a cool place, where it will remain good and sweet some
+time.
+
+_A Receipt for Bread-Making_.
+
+Put ten large spoonfuls of flour in a breadpan, and add enough
+warm water to make it into a thin batter, add half a pint of
+yeast, mix well, and, having covered the bread-pan with a cloth,
+put it in a warm place near the stove over night. During the night
+it should rise and settle again. In the morning add enough flour
+to make it in into a thick dough, and knead it on a bread-board
+for ten minutes. Put it back into pan for two hours and let it
+rise again. Grease your baking-tins, knead your dough again, and
+then fill the tins half full, put them close to the stove to rise,
+and when they have risen thoroughly, grease the tops of your
+loaves with a little butter (preventing the crust breaking and
+giving it a nice brown colour) and put them into the oven and bake
+for an hour to an hour and a quarter.
+
+As E---- had not Mrs. G---- to wash up with her, she enlisted one
+of the men, and it was very funny to see him in a hat three times
+too big for his head, pipe in his mouth, sleeves turned up, drying
+the dishes and putting a polish on them. Talking of hats, E----
+has at last got one and a half, it literally covers even her
+shoulders, and at midday she declares she is as much in shade as
+under a Japanese umbrella; for trimming a rope is coiled round the
+crown, the only way to make it stay on the head. Of her gloves
+there is only the traditional one left; the other is among the
+various articles we have left on the prairie, bumped out of the
+buggy one day when she took them off to take care of them in a
+shower of rain.
+
+That driving on the prairie is loathsome, but if we want to get
+about at all we must do it, as we don't like the riding horses. At
+the present moment we have got one of the plough animals, which is
+rideable. The poor beast was frightened one night three weeks ago,
+during a fearful storm of thunder and lightning, and ran into the
+barb wire, wounding itself horridly on the shoulders and neck. The
+skin had to be sewn up, and it cannot wear a collar for the
+present so we have it to ride if we like. It is not a slug like
+the other two.
+
+The thunder-storms here are frightful; they are also very grand to
+watch, as we can see them generally for miles before they come up.
+We, luckily, have about ten lightning conductors on the houses and
+stables, so that we feel safe. A thunder-bolt fell pretty near the
+other day, destroying about six posts and the wire of our north
+fence. Thanks to the rain we have lately had, and the warm sun, we
+find such quantities of mushrooms all over the prairie. They grow
+to such a size! We measured two, one was 21 1/2 inches round, the
+other 21, very sweet and good, and as pink underneath as possible.
+The labourers have been so pleased with them that last Sunday they
+began picking and cooking them in early morning, going on with
+relays more or less all day, so that by the evening they couldn't
+look another in the face, and it will be some time before they
+touch them again. We have them for every meal.
+
+Our diaries here are more or less public property, and as we have
+been nowhere or seen anything at all exciting since we last wrote,
+I am going to copy down from the journals the incidents, if any,
+of the last week. You seemed to appreciate it the last time we
+sent you home a copy, but you must forgive if it is somewhat of a
+repetition to our numerous letters. The weather, for one thing, is
+daily chronicled, as it takes up much of our thoughts, so much in
+the future depending on its being propitious just at this time of
+year, when the seeds are all sown and the hay almost ready to cut.
+
+_Tuesday_.--Beautiful day, so warm and nice, without being
+hot; everything growing, too, marvellously; even the seeds in the
+garden, which we began to despair of, are coming up.
+
+The men have been very low, on account of the scarcity of rain;
+but we have had one or two thunder-storms lately which, have done
+good, and in this climate I do not think one ought ever to give up
+hopes. E---- has been painting wild flowers, which at this moment
+are in great profusion and variety all over the prairie, most of
+the day, varying her work by painting the doors of the room, which
+were such an ugly colour, a pale yellow green, that they have
+offended our artistic eyes ever since we have been here. I am said
+to have wasted my whole morning watching my two-days-old chickens,
+supposed to be the acme of intelligence and precocity. The
+afternoon was spent in shingling the hen-house. It was only roofed
+over with tar-paper laid on to the rafters, which answers well if
+the wind doesn't blow the paper about, or that it has not any
+holes; but as the hen-house is only a lean-to of the stable, the
+roof of which we have been very busily painting, it has been
+trodden upon a good deal in getting on and off the roof, and, in
+consequence, the paper is much like a sponge, letting any rain in,
+and drenching the poor sitting fowls; but with the shingles
+overlapping each other on the tar-paper, the roof, will be quite
+water-tight.
+
+_Wednesday_.--Our factotum has gone into town, and we are
+left in charge, E---- parlour-maid, Mr. B---- scullery-man, and I
+cook. We have heaps of mushrooms at every meal, a most agreeable
+change to the rice and white beans we have only hitherto had.
+
+_Thursday_.--Hot day. A---- went into town to some meeting at
+the Club. We have been dreadfully tormented with mosquitoes today,
+also the big "bull-dog" fly, which, whenever the kitchen door was
+left ajar, came into the house in myriads; but we find that
+Keating's powder most effectually destroys them, and in a very few
+seconds. We have been busy making a mattress and pillow for Mr.
+H----, really one does not realise how clever one is until our
+genius is put to the test in an establishment like this. E---- and
+I drove up to the tent after supper with our handiwork, and had
+great pleasure in seeing it filled with hay. Our drive was not of
+the most enviable: we had a waggon with no spring seat, only a
+board, which was always moving, to sit upon; one horse would tear
+along, the other not pull an ounce, in spite of applying the whip
+a good deal, and we were nearly smothered with mosquitoes, I never
+saw such clouds of them, and on our return home there was a
+general rush for the bottle of ammonia, which is the only thing
+that allays the irritation.
+
+_Friday_.--Excitements have been crowding in upon us to-day.
+Bob, one of the labourers, who went into Winnipeg yesterday, only
+arrived home at 3 A.M. this morning. He left town at 6, but the
+night being dark he lost his way, and finding himself on the edge
+of a marsh, having a feed of oats with him, wisely unhitched his
+horses, tied them to the wheels, and waited patiently for
+daylight. Just as we were sitting down to dinner, three men who
+have been surveying the Government ditch near here, came and
+begged to be fed. Luckily we had soup and plenty of cold meat; but
+our pudding--the less said about that the better. We always have
+the evaporated apples as a stand by, and they are delicious; so
+with quantities of butter and milk we never need starve.
+
+Then in the evening, when Mr. B---- was going to the stable to
+serve out the oats for the horses, he came in for the finish of an
+exciting race between two of the plough horses. The jockeys or
+riders were told forthwith that a waggon was going into town the
+following morning, and that their services would be dispensed with
+in future. Just as we were going to bed we heard A---- coming in,
+and with him a stranger who turned out to be our cousin, only
+fifteen days out from England, _via_ Canada. He looks very
+delicate.
+
+_Saturday_.--We had made no preparation for E. P---- last night, so he
+had to occupy the "parlour" sofa, and says he slept like a top;
+doubtlessly did not require much rocking, as he had travelled through
+almost without stopping. We were busy all this morning writing letters
+for the discharged miscreants to take into town. It has been very hot
+and close all day. I, rode up to the tent, and hurried home, seeing a
+thunder-storm coming up, which was grand; and it was very lucky that I
+got home, as it began to rain at 3 o'clock, and is still pouring in
+perfect torrents at 10 o'clock P.M.
+
+_Sunday_.--The yard is in such a fearful state of dirt, and the water
+standing inches deep, that it has been nearly impossible to move
+beyond the door. I put on A----'s long waterproof boots, and managed
+to get as far as my hen-house, and found two of my chickens dead.
+
+Another sitting hen has been a source of great anxiety, as she
+will peck her chicks to death as they hatch, and out of a sitting
+of eleven eggs we have only been able to save five birds. A wet
+Sunday hangs very heavily on our hands here, as there is nothing
+to be done.
+
+_Monday_.--Big wash as usual all the morning, and just as E---- and I
+were to drive a waggon over to Mr. Boyle for some oats which required
+fetching, we had quite a scare. A _lady_ and gentleman were seen to be
+riding up. We both of us rushed up-stairs to put on some clean aprons
+to do honour to our guests, who, with another man, also out from town,
+remained the whole afternoon. We have never dined as many as nine
+people in our vast apartments before, but we managed very nicely.
+
+We have had heavy showers with a high wind, and the thermometer
+down to 50 all the afternoon. We tried to persuade our lady
+visitor to stay the night, A---- offering to give up his room; but
+she persisted in going back, and, I am afraid, will have got very
+wet, in spite of E---- lending her waterproof jacket.
+
+_Tuesday_.--The household had a long turn in bed this morning,
+Mr. B---- only getting down at about 7.15, when various things
+were offered him to prop open his eye-lids when he did appear.
+
+The weather has been slightly better than yesterday, but the wind
+has been high, and it was really quite cold; varied by slight
+showers of rain in the morning. In the afternoon we all made hay.
+I worked my rake until my horse beat me by refusing to move in any
+direction excepting homewards; and I had to call A----, who was
+stone getting, to my rescue. He, with judicious chastisement in
+the shape of a kick or so, made the horse work. E---- and E. P----
+loaded hay. Thanks to the late rains the marshes were heavy, and
+they very nearly stuck once or twice in going through them. There
+were no mosquitoes, which was a blessing, but one is never
+troubled with them in a high wind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+July 9.
+
+You should have seen A---- and his equipage start into Winnipeg
+two days ago. He and the men from the tent had to go in and bring
+out a waggon and the new "Cortland waggon" (my present), and they
+had to take in the broken buggy to be mended. So they started with
+a four-in-hand to their cart, the broken buggy tied on behind, and
+another pair of horses behind that again. The buggy they say very
+nearly capsized going over the bridge of the creek when near
+Winnipeg, otherwise they got on beautifully; but it was a funny
+arrangement altogether, and they seemed to cover a quarter of a
+mile of ground as they left here. Winnipeg grows in a most
+astonishing way; every time we go in, a new avenue or street seems
+to have started up. Emigrants, they say, are coming in at the rate
+of a hundred a day. A few years ago the population was about five
+thousand, in 1878 about ten, now over forty thousand, a fourth of
+whom are living under canvas.
+
+It was estimated last winter that the building operations this
+season would amount to four million dollars, but double that
+amount is nearer the mark, and many are obliged to abandon the
+idea of building on account of the difficulty of getting timber
+and bricks. Every house or shanty is leased almost before it is
+finished. Winnipeg, as you know, was formerly known as Fort Garry,
+and one of the chief trading stations of the Hudson Bay Company.
+Of the old fort, I am sorry to say, there is very little left, and
+that is shortly to be swept away for the continuation of Main
+Street. The Governor, now occupying the old house, is to have a
+splendid building, which, with the Houses of Legislature, are in
+the course of construction, rather farther away from the river.
+
+The town is built at the confluence of two great rivers, the Red
+and Assiniboine, the former rising in Minnesota, and flowing into
+lake Winnipeg 150 miles north, navigable for 400 miles. The
+Assiniboine has many steamers on it; but the navigation being more
+difficult, the steamers often sticking on the rapids, it is not
+much in vogue with emigrants going west, particularly now that the
+railway takes them so much more rapidly.
+
+There is a large suburb of the town the other side of the Red River
+called St. Boniface face, the see of a Roman Catholic Archbishop;
+possessing a beautiful cathedral and a great educational school for
+young ladies; for some reason or other we never managed to get over
+there to see it, though the cathedral is a grand landmark for a great
+distance.
+
+The railway traffic also is enormous. During the flood 4,000
+freight waggons were delayed at St. Vincent; now they are coming
+in at the rate of 4,000 per week, and still people cannot get
+their implements, stores, &c. fast enough. We have asked several
+times for some turpentine at one of the shops, and the answer
+always given is, "It is at the depot, but not unloaded."
+
+We have been wanting turpentine to mix with the brown paint with
+which we are painting, the dining-room doors. But first of all the
+paint fails, and then the turpentine, and I fully expect our
+beautiful work of art will not be finished before we leave.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+July 12th.
+
+It is very certain that no gentleman ought to come out to this
+country, or, when here, can expect to prosper, unless he has some
+capital, heaps of energy, and brains, or is quite prepared to sink
+the gentleman and work as a common labourer.
+
+The latter command the most wonderful wages, there is such a
+demand for them that one can hardly pick and choose. A plough-boy
+gets from four to six pounds a month, an experienced man from
+eight to ten pounds, besides their board and lodging; a mechanic
+or artisan from fourteen to sixteen shillings a day; women
+servants are very scarce, they get from four to six pounds a
+month. We were so astonished at the wages in New York; the head
+gardener in the Navy Yard was receiving one hundred and fifty
+pounds a year, his underling, seventy-five pounds, the groom one
+hundred pounds. It is surprising to me that the whole of the
+poorer classes in England and Ireland, hearing of these wages, do
+not emigrate, particularly when now-a-days the steerage in the
+passenger ships seems to be so comfortable, and that for about six
+pounds they can be landed on this side of the Atlantic. We have
+nine Britishers and two Canadians on this farm, and the amount of
+ground broken up does everyone great credit, considering that the
+whole place is only of a year and a half's growth. Since we
+arrived we can mark rapid and visible strides towards completion.
+The house has been banked up and grassed, a fence put to enclose
+all the yard, and we have actually had the audacity to talk about
+a tennis ground, which would take an immense deal of making, from
+the unevenness of the soil. The water, having no real outflow,
+makes itself little gullies everywhere, which would be very
+difficult to fill up level; but I don't know that, until we are
+acclimatized to the mosquitoes, said to be the happy result of a
+second year's residence, that we should feel inclined to play
+tennis, as we could only indulge in that diversion of an evening
+when work was ended, and that is just the worst time for these
+pests. They spoil all enjoyment, we never can sit out under the
+verandah after supper which we should so like to do these warm
+evenings. They bite through everything, and the present fashion of
+tight sleeves to our gowns is a trial, as no stuffs, not even thin
+dogskin, are proof against them, and our faces, arms, and just
+above our boots are deplorable sights. Ammonia is; the only remedy
+to allay the irritation. I am not drawing a long bow when I say
+that in places the air is black with them.
+
+The poor horses and cows are nearly maddened with them if turned
+out to graze, and the moment the poles across the road are
+withdrawn they gallop back into their stables. The mosquitoes are
+great big yellow insects, about half an inch long.
+
+The house and country at Boyd's farm is much prettier than this,
+from the lot of trees round it, and the ground not being so flat;
+but we wouldn't change for all the world, it is so stuffy, and the
+flies and mosquitoes are much worse there than here, where we
+catch the slightest breeze of wind, which always drives them away.
+We were dreading making the hay in the marshes on account of them.
+
+I do not think we shall suffer much from the heat, as nearly
+always, even in the hottest part of the day, there is a breeze;
+and as yet the nights are deliciously cool, we have never found
+one blanket too much covering.
+
+We talk of going an expedition up west next week, taking the
+carriage and horses, and driving as far as Fort Ellice. I don't
+know that we either of us look forward to the expedition very
+much, as we fear we shall have to rough it too greatly; but, on
+the other hand, it seems a pity not to see something more of the
+country. There are hardly any inns or resting-places; the
+accommodation may be fearful. We hear that about fourteen people
+are lodged in one room as an ordinary rule. A---- has gone into
+Winnipeg to make arrangements; and if he finds we cannot depend on
+the inns, we shall take a tent, and camp by the towns, going in
+for our meals to restaurants.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ In the Train 200 miles West of Winnipeg, July 24, 1882.
+
+As we seem to stop every two or three miles for some trifling
+cause or another, I am in hopes I may get through a long, maybe
+disjointed letter to post to you on our way through Winnipeg
+to-night, which we wish to reach about 6 o'clock, giving us time to
+drive out to the farm before it is quite dark. I told you we were
+proposing a trip up North-west, and we really have had a most
+successful journey. A---- has a friend, Manager of the Birtle Land
+Company, who with others has bought up land, intends breaking so
+many acres on each section and then reselling it, hoping thereby to
+clear all expenses and make a lot of money besides; and as he had
+to go up and look after the property, it was settled we should all
+go together, and very glad we are that we did do it, though we have
+had some very funny experiences. We are pleased to find that all
+the North-west is not like the country around Winnipeg, so awfully
+flat and without a tree; on the contrary we have been through
+rolling prairie, almost hilly and very well wooded in places.
+
+We started last Monday, the 18th, having got up at 4:15, which we
+did not think so terribly early as we might have done before the
+days we were accustomed to breakfast at half-past 6, but had even
+then a terrible run for the train. We had had some heavy thunder
+storms on the Sunday; and though we allowed two hours and three-
+quarters, to do our sixteen miles into Winnipeg station, the roads
+were so heavy, and the mud so sticky and deep, that we really
+thought we should be taken up for cruelty to animals, hustling our
+poor little mare. As it was, we arrived just in time to get into
+the cars, our packages and bundles being thrown in after us as the
+train was on the move. Luckily we managed to get all on board, and
+found plenty of friends travelling west; one a Government
+inspector, a most agreeable man, who has to certify and pass the
+work done on the line before Government pays its share of the
+expenses. He was telling us how he and two other men spent three
+hours finding names for all the new stations along the line, and
+could only think of three! The stations are placed at the distance
+of eight to ten miles apart, and they are bound not to have any
+name already taken up in Canada, so that for a railway extending
+over three thousand miles to the Rocky Mountains names are a
+difficulty. We did him the favour of writing out a few, taking all
+the villages one was interested in in the "Ould Countrie," for
+which attention he seemed much obliged, and has promised a time
+table of the line with the nomenclature of its stations when
+opened. They are building the Canadian Pacific at the rate of
+twenty-five miles a week, and every available man is pressed into
+the service, so that it is not so surprising the poor farmers
+cannot find labour. The wages, two dollars to two-and-a-half a
+day, are more than we can pay. There has not been much engineering
+required or shown on this line, as we went up and down with the
+waves of the prairies, had only two small cuttings between
+Winnipeg and Brandon, three hundred miles, and were raised a few
+feet above the marshes; but considering how fast they work and how
+short a time they have been, it is creditably smooth.
+
+We disembarked at a city called Brandon, which last year was
+unheard of, two or three shanties and a few tents being all there
+was to mark the place; now it has over three thousand inhabitants,
+large saw-mills, shops, and pretentious two-storied hotels. We
+found our carriage, which had been sent on two days previously,
+waiting for us at the station, as we were to have driven on that
+night to Rapid City; but, owing to the Manager not being able to
+get through all his business, and his not liking to leave the two
+labourers he had with him on the loose, for fear they should be
+tempted by higher wages to go off with someone else, we decided to
+remain that night at Brandon, and were not sorry to retire to bed
+directly after dinner, about 8.30. We were given not a very
+spacious apartment, the two double-beds filling up the whole of
+it. In all the hotels we have been into, they put such enormous
+beds in the smallest of space, I conclude speculating on four
+people doubling up at a pinch. We luckily had brought some sheets;
+the ones supplied looked as if they had been used many a time
+since they had last been through the wash-tub. I cannot say we
+slept well, chiefly, I think, owing to lively imaginations and the
+continual noise of a town after the extreme quiet of the farm; and
+as there was only a canvas partition between us and the two men,
+who snored a lively duet, we had many things to lay the blame to.
+
+We were on the move again about 5.30, intending to breakfast at
+half-past 6, and start on our travels directly after; but somehow,
+what with one thing and the other, the various packing away of our
+different packages and parcels into our three waggons, it was past
+8 o'clock before we got off.
+
+We were rather amused at the expression at breakfast of our
+waiting-maid when asked to bring some more bread and then tea. She
+wanted much to learn if we had any more "side orders."
+
+Alcoholic spirits are quite forbidden in this territory; to bring
+a small keg of whisky and some claret with us we had to get a
+permit from the Governor. I am afraid the inhabitants will have
+spirits. The first man we met last night was certainly much the
+worse for liquor; and though in our hotel there was no visible
+bar, an ominous door in the back premises was always on the swing,
+and a very strong odour of spirits emanated therefrom.
+
+Our cavalcade, A---- and the Manager in the democrat, we two in a
+buggy, and the two labourers with a man to drive in another
+carriage, produced quite an imposing effect. We had to cross the
+Assiniboine on a ferry, and then rose nearly all the way to Rapid
+City, twenty-two miles, going through pretty country much wooded
+and with hundreds of small lakes, favourite resorts of wild duck.
+The flowers were in great profusion; but we saw no animals
+anywhere, excepting a few chipmunks and gophirs, which are sort of
+half-rats, half-squirrels. The chipmunks are dear little things
+about the size of a mouse, with long bushy tails and a dark stripe
+running the whole length of the body.
+
+Rapid City is a flourishing little town of some fifty houses, and
+is growing quickly. It is prettily situated on the banks of the
+Little Saskatchewan, and has a picturesque wooden bridge thrown
+over the river. We had lunch, picnic style, and a rest of two
+hours. There was a large Indian camp just outside the town, and as
+we sat sketching several Indians passed us. Their style of dress
+is grotesque, to say the least of it; one man passed us in a tall
+beaver hat, swallow-tail coat, variegated-coloured trousers,
+mocassins, and a scarlet blanket hanging from his shoulder. The
+long hair, which both men and women wear, looks as if a comb never
+had passed near it, and gives them a very dirty appearance. They
+all seemed affable, and gave us broad grins in return for our
+salutes.
+
+The Indian tribes on Canadian territory are the Blackfeet and
+Piegans. The former used to number over ten thousand, but now are
+comparatively few. The small-pox, which raged among them in 1870,
+decimated their numbers; also alcohol, first introduced by
+Americans who established themselves on Belly River, about 1866,
+and in which they drove a roaring trade, as the Indians sacrificed
+everything for this "fire-water," as they called it, and hundreds
+died in consequence of exposure and famine, having neither clothes
+to cover them nor horses nor weapons wherewith to hunt. Luckily in
+1874 the mounted police put an entire end to this abominable sale
+of whisky.
+
+The Indian is naturally idle--to eat, smoke, and sleep is the sole
+end of his life; though he will travel immense distances to fish
+or hunt, which is the only occupation of the men, the women doing
+all the rest, their condition being but little better than beasts
+of burden. The Indian of the Plain subsists in winter on buffalo
+dried and smoked; but in spring, when they resort to the
+neighbourhood of the small lakes and streams, where innumerable
+wild fowl abound, they have grand feasting on the birds and eggs.
+
+The tribes living near the large lakes of Manitoba, Winnipeg, and
+Winnipegosis have only fish as food, which they dry and pack for
+winter use, and eat it raw and without salt--which sounds very
+palatable?
+
+When the Dominion Government obtained possession of the North-west
+Territories, by the extinction of the Hudson Bay Company's title
+in 1869, it allotted to the tribes inhabiting the country, on
+their resigning all their claims to the land, several reserves, or
+parcels of ground, which were of sufficient area to allow of one
+square mile to every family of five persons. On these lands the
+Indians are being taught to cultivate corn and roots. Implements,
+seeds for sowing, and bullocks are given them, besides cows and
+rations of meat and flour, until they are self-sustaining. They
+are also allowed five dollars a head per annum, so that several
+wives (polygamy being allowed) and children are looked upon as an
+insured income by a man.
+
+This treatment by Government has been very successful, and many
+tribes are abandoning their precarious life of hunting.
+Horsestealing in former days was looked upon by the young men as
+an essential part of their education; but now the settler need be
+in no dread of them, as they are peaceably inclined and kept in
+check by the mounted police, a corps of whose services and pluck
+all who have had any dealings with them cannot speak two highly.
+The officers are men of tact and experience, and the corps numbers
+about 500 strong. They move their head-quarters from fort to fort,
+according to the movements of the Indians and the advance of
+emigration.
+
+On leaving Rapid City, we took a shorter track than what is
+generally taken, thereby saving ourselves at least forty miles to
+Birtle. Our first night, distance about twenty miles after
+luncheon, we spent alongside of a small store-house on the Oak
+River; we had passed some very comfortable-looking settlements
+that afternoon, one, where we got information about our road,
+belonging to a man called Shank, who had been settled about four
+years, and had quite a homely-looking shanty covered with
+creepers, and garden fenced in. At Oak River we had rather
+speculated on getting both food and lodging; but when we found the
+fare offered no better than ours, we decided to have our own
+supper, getting the woman to boil us some water for our tea. We
+also refused the lodging. The house was scrupulously clean, ditto
+the woman, but we couldn't quite make up our minds to share the
+only bedroom with her, her husband and two other men, one ill with
+inflammation of the lungs, rejoicing in an awful cough, and rather
+given to expectoration; so we had our first experience of real
+camping out. Our tent was an A tent, just big enough to allow of
+two people sleeping side by side; the only place to stand up in,
+was exactly in the middle, but we arranged it very fairly
+comfortably by putting some straw under our buffalo robes, and our
+clothes as pillows. The men had to make their couch under the
+carriage with whatever cloaks we didn't want, to keep the dew off
+them; and by lighting a large "smudge" to keep off the mosquitoes,
+we all slept pretty well, though Mother Earth is very unrelenting.
+If, however, we wanted to change our position we were sure to
+awake. The following morning, Tuesday, the men had a bathe in the
+river, which we very much envied them; though, having brought our
+india-rubber bath, and there being plenty of water handy, we did
+very well. We were off again at 7 o'clock. Our breakfast bill of
+fare not much varied from that of last night--tea, corned beef, ox
+tongue, and bread and butter. The country through which we passed
+was not so pretty as on Monday, with fewer trees. Our cavalcade
+was increased by another man in his buggy, who was on his way to
+Edmonton, and he travelled with us most of the day. Mid-day, after
+eighteen miles, we came on a small settlement of four Canadians,
+who were just finishing their dinner. They were very nice,
+delighted to see ladies, placed the whole of their place at our
+disposal, and though, of course, they could do but little for us,
+we were not allowed to wash up our plates nor to draw our own
+water. They had everything so tidy and nice, rough it was bound to
+be. Like thousands of Canadians, they have taken up land, 240
+acres apiece, and are working them together, with two yoke of oxen
+and a pair of Indian ponies. Whilst we were resting, the Manager
+drove on to find his farm; but as they have bought several
+sections in different townships from the railway company, it was
+difficult to find out on which section his men were working. The
+only thing he knew was two of the numbers of the section and that
+the Arrow river ran through the property. The Canadians told us
+that Ford "Mackenzie," for which we had been steering all the
+morning, was six miles further on; so that when we left them about
+2 o'clock (amidst many expressions of regret; they repeated to us
+several times how delighted they were seeing ladies, not having
+seen a petticoat since they came up last spring), we had to wander
+many a mile before finding either the ford or the farm. As it was,
+we mistook the ford and had to cross and recross the river three
+times, which we, in our buggy, didn't at all appreciate; the banks
+were so steep we felt we might easily be pitched out.
+
+At Mackenzie's Ford we found a wretched man who, having settled
+here two years ago, and was getting on well, had last month
+brought his wife and children up by steamer on the Assiniboine,
+where they had caught diphtheria; two children had succumbed to
+the disease, and his wife, he greatly feared, couldn't live. We
+luckily had some whisky with us, and were glad to be able to give
+him some, as the doctor had recommended stimulants to keep up the
+poor woman's strength.
+
+From him we heard where the Manager's camp really was, and reached
+it, very tired, about 7 o'clock, to find everything in the most
+fearful state of disorder and mismanagement; not even a well dug
+to provide water for man or beast. The men had mutinied, ten of
+them gone off, and only three and a woman as cook left; she had
+known much better days, and was perfectly helpless and unable to
+manage the stove or the cooking in a shed made of a few poles with
+a tarpaulin thrown over.
+
+A---- is the most splendid man; whatever difficulties there are he
+makes light of them; and directly the horses had been unharnessed
+he set to work to put our tent up and lay out our supper, which
+was improved by the addition of some fried potatoes. Our table was
+the spring seat of the waggon, our seats the boxes; the stores
+have come in, or our bundle of rugs; and though the ground was
+harder to sleep on, as we had no straw under our buffalo-robe,
+still we got a fair amount of rest at night. Two very pretty
+Italian greyhounds we had brought up with us kept our feet warm,
+as it was quite chilly, the dews being very heavy. The men were
+horribly disturbed all night by the mosquitoes, which were in
+myriads. No smoke of the smudges really keeps them off, though it
+stupifies and bothers them a good deal.
+
+On Wednesday, contrary to expectation, we got some water to wash
+with, the Manager having had a hole dug. Water is so easily
+procured with digging, and at no great depth, that there is no
+excuse for not having it in abundance. We then spent our morning,
+whilst the men were going over the various sections, in trying to
+teach the woman to, cook, making biscuits, which were not a
+success, mending clothes, and writing up our diaries; so that the
+time flew all too quickly.
+
+We drove on twenty-two miles in the afternoon, and, being all down
+wind, were pestered with mosquitoes and most fearfully bitten.
+
+The country much the same as the previous day, very little taken
+up; but the wild flowers lovely. We counted forty-two different
+specimens; those yellow orchids you are so proud of at home, also
+red tiger-lilies, phloxes, and endless other varieties. Birtle,
+another mushroom town, looked so pretty and picturesque as we came
+down upon it, by the evening light, situated in a deep gorge much
+wooded on the Birdtail-Creek.
+
+You would have laughed to see us arrive at what we thought our
+destination--a nice house on the top of the opposite hill
+belonging to a friend of the Manager's, where we were to be
+hospitably entertained. The house was locked up, but that was no
+obstacle; we forced the windows open, and whilst A---- put the
+horses up, the Manager went down the hill for water, I foraged for
+eatables, E---- for wood to light the fire, and we very shortly
+afterwards sat down to a very fair meal; our neighbours' bacon and
+tea, but our own bread. Luckily a Winnipeg lady, hearing of our
+arrival, came up to offer her services in the shape of food or
+lodging; the latter we two gladly accepted, instead of pitching
+our tent outside the house, which was already full, three
+bachelors living there and our two men intending steeping between
+the walls, _coute que coule_. The house we spent our night in
+was a log one, and though unpapered, looked very comfortable, and
+was prettily hung round with Japanese fans and scrolls, and
+various photographs. We had a funny little canvas partition in the
+roof allotted to us; but were not particular, and did great credit
+to our feather bed.
+
+And how excellent our breakfast was next morning, porridge and
+eggs; we hardly knew when to stop eating. We started early to Fort
+Ellice, one of the Hudson Bay forts, hoping to find the steamer on
+the Assiniboine to take us back to Winnipeg; but unfortunately it
+had stuck on the rapids. So after waiting twenty-four hours at the
+fort, we determined to drive down to the end of the Canadian
+Pacific Railway, and so home. The old fort is very little altered
+from what it used to be, surrounded by its wooden pailings, and
+having a store on the left side of the entrance gate, where all
+the Indians come to make their purchases in cotton-goods and
+groceries in exchange for their blankets, moccassins, or furs. The
+Assiniboine we crossed just before getting to the fort, on a
+ferry. It is a grand winding river with fearfully steep banks, 380
+feet almost straight up, which was a pull for our horses, the
+tracks being very, bad, and not well engineered, going perpendicularly
+up the hill. Mr. Macdonald is the "boss" at the fort, and had known
+two of our friends who were up here several years ago.
+
+There is a Lincolnshire man farming on a large scale settled not
+very far away from the fort; but we had neither time nor
+inclination to go further north. We hoped against hope that the
+steamer might get up, but on Saturday gave it up as useless, and
+settled to drive towards Gophir Ferry, trying to find a friend
+who, when out at C---- Farm, told us he was living on section xxvii
+by 13, and near two creeks. For the first five miles our road lay
+along the Beaver Creek, which was pretty; but afterwards the
+scenery much resembled Winnipeg, flat and uninteresting, not a
+tree, and without even the beautiful vegetation and flowers we had
+had on our previous drives. We had to stop several times to look
+at the section-posts, it was quite an excitement to mark every new
+number we came to. Our road took us pretty straight to the Mouse
+Mountain trail; but at a shanty being advised to leave the track
+and go straight over the prairie, we overshot the tents we were in
+search of by a short distance.
+
+Our friend had not returned from Winnipeg, but we made ourselves
+quite at home, pitching our tent alongside of his men's. He had
+four Englishmen working for him, two of them were tenant-farmers
+at home; one man, who had been out two years, had had a large farm
+near King's Lynn, and has taken up a section close by; but as he
+bought his land too late in the spring to do anything to it;
+beyond hoping to build himself a shanty before the winter set in,
+he is working for our friend, who has 2,000 acres. Another of the
+men was a newly-arrived emigrant; he and his three children were
+nearly devoured by mosquitoes, and were most grateful for some
+concoction we gave them to allay the irritation. He had been quite
+a "gent" in his own country, but bad times and alcohol I had been
+too much for him. I don't think he at all relished the work he had
+to do, ploughing with oxen all day, &c. They plough almost
+entirely with oxen up in this country. The oxen are easier to
+feed, and don't suffer so much from the alkali in the water. But
+most of the Englishmen when they first get out here dislike using
+them, they are so slow; and I should agree with them.
+
+A great many new-comers find the ways and means difficult to
+conform to, and would give a good deal to go back; but after they
+have been out a year or two they drop into fresh habits and seem
+to like the life.
+
+On Sunday we started late, for two reasons. The horses which had
+been very restless all night, driven mad by the mosquitoes, could
+not be found, having wandered over the brow of the hill to the
+river edge, to catch the slight breeze blowing; and secondly we
+thought we would have a rest, and did nothing but regret it all
+day, as the heat, was fearful, and as we went down wind the
+mosquitoes were ditto. Also we got into camp very late at Flat
+Creek, where we had hoped to find a freight train, to get on as
+tax as Brandon, whereas we had to camp close to a marsh just
+outside the city--the "city" comprising a cistern to provide the
+engines of the train with water and half a dozen tents all stuck
+on the marsh. We were rather amused by the name of one lodging
+tent, "The Unique Hotel"; in other words, beds were divided off by
+curtains, so that you were quite private!
+
+We pitched our tent on the highest spot we could find; but the
+mosquitoes, to accommodate us, left the marshes and came in
+perfect myriads around us. We lit smudges on all sides, but as
+there was hardly a breath of air the smoke went heavenwards, and
+consequently we had to sit almost into them and could hardly see
+to eat for the denseness of smoke. Query, which was the worst, the
+evil or the cure? That last night was the most uncomfortable of
+the whole lot, and I don't think any of us disliked the prospect
+of a comfortable bed. But in spite of all our roughing we have
+enjoyed it, and very glad we went. It is satisfactory to know that
+all the prairie is not as flat as around us at C---- Farm, that it
+is rolling, and covered with bluffs or brushwood. A---- is pleased,
+as he has seen no ground as good as his own, and declares he
+wouldn't exchange his 480 acres for thousand up west. The land is
+certainly of a much lighter nature, having more sand in it, and is
+easier to get into cultivation in consequence, but he doesn't
+think it will stand the same amount of cropping.
+
+The trails, which are only tracks made by the half-breeds and
+Indians on the prairie, have been good throughout, but in spring
+are full of mud-holes or sloughs.
+
+The new carriage has turned out quite a success and been very
+useful, as it has carried all our clothes, buffalo robes, buckets
+and oats for the horses, our provisions, etc., even to our tent,
+the poles of which were slung along the carriage just above the
+wheels, and the whole so light that A---- pushed it easily three or
+four hundred yards when we were moving our camp at Fort Ellice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+QUEEN'S HOTEL, WINNIPEG.
+
+July 25.
+
+We cannot fancy ourselves in this elegant brick edifice; but it's
+an ill wind that blows no one any good, and had we not been
+nervous of driving sixteen miles in a raging thunderstorm last
+night you would not have received a letter by this mail. The heat
+is so great that I am afraid my ideas won't flow. It is a hot
+thundery day, cloudy and close, the thermometer is at 109 degrees in
+the shade, and everything one touches seems to be at melting point!
+Unfortunately we have had all our cool things for our journey, and
+they are too dirty to wear in a "live" town. These three last days
+are the only days we have had to grumble at the heat; and, I
+expect, if we bad been out at the farm, quietly doing our various
+works, we should not have felt it so much; but a tent on a hot day
+is like a stove-house, quite fearful.
+
+We have had a very successful tour of seven days, sleeping five
+nights on Mother Earth, which was mercilessly hard. Lived chiefly
+on corned beef, tea, and marmalade, three times a day. Driven 173
+miles, nearly the whole time in pretty, sparely inhabited, wooded,
+and undulating country. Had another 300 miles to and fro in the
+train, and arrived here last night hoping to get home to our own
+beds, when we distressed at finding no buggy from the farm, though
+we sent them a telegram early in the morning before leaving Flat
+Creek, which we conclude they haven't received.
+
+Just as we were starting, and before our small packets could be
+fetched from the station, a fearful thunder-storm, preceded by a
+dust-storm, came on; and we had to take refuge in an hotel, which,
+contrary to our expectations, was not only clean, but comfortable.
+The climax to all our troubles has been that the man from the
+livery-stable was unable to get our hand-bags, so that we actually
+had to go to bed last night and get up this morning without a
+sponge, comb, toothbrush, or any blessed thing. We were nearly
+sprinkling ashes on our heads and rending our garments when the
+fact was broken to us; but, considering we had no other clothes to
+fall back upon, we suppressed our feelings (and drowned our tears)
+in sleep, putting in nearly twelve hours, as it was 9.15 when we
+woke this morning, and it was not very late when we retired. We
+had neither of us slept well the night before, and it had been a
+hot, suffocating day for travelling, so that we were very tired
+when we got in. What useful things hair-pins are! I have always
+found them excellent bodkins, button-hooks, wedges for misfitting
+windows, &c., but until to-day had never realized what a capital
+comb they would make, held tightly.
+
+I don't know that we have had any very amusing adventure; but the
+whole expedition has been an adventure, and therefore, as it
+proved the business of the day, it was taken seriously--I mean, we
+hardly laughed when we all shared the same drop of water in a
+bucket to wash our face in turns, and then hands, drying ourselves
+with the same towel, which was not always of the cleanest, and
+when we shared the same tin cup to drink out of. Of course we
+managed to get in a very fair amount of chaff. I used often to
+drive, and it was said that if ever there was a hole or stone on
+the trail I used to bump, bump over it, shooting the others almost
+out of the carriage, so that there were cries of "danger ahead,"
+when they declared they had to hang on to each other for safety.
+
+We had to leave A---- behind us yesterday at Flat Creek with the
+carriages and horses, to follow us in a freight train, and he has
+just turned up, very hot and weary and out of temper with the
+railway authorities, as they make so many unnecessary difficulties
+in unloading. Instead of following us directly yesterday, as he
+was told he would do when he first put the horses on the train,
+they did not start until late in the afternoon, and have been
+travelling all night, A---- sleeping very peaceably in the
+horsebox.
+
+We are to go out to the farm as soon as the horses have been fed
+and we can reclaim our lost baggage of last night.
+
+I am thankful to say that we never came across any snakes during
+our expedition, though they are said to abound by Brandon and
+further west. The only one we saw was when the conductor on our
+train brought us a parcel and showed one coiled up inside. It was
+a trial to our feelings, but I believe it was dead. There are none
+around Winnipeg, not even a worm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C---- FARM, July 30th.
+
+We found the most lovely batch of letters, almost worth being away
+from home for ten days, on our arrival here at 12 o'clock P.M. on
+Tuesday, which completely revived our drooping spirits; we were
+feeling rather limp and tired after a long day in Winnipeg, and
+losing our way across the prairie coming home. It was very dark,
+and the only guide we had was when the vivid flashes of lightning
+reflected the farm-buildings; as it was, we drove through the big
+marsh, the mosquitoes nearly eating us up; and A---- so worried by
+them that he couldn't think of the trail, and trusted to the
+horses finding their way. The joy of coming upon our own fence is
+better imagined than described. I pictured to myself that we
+should be like one of our labourers, who, having gone into town
+just before we started up west, lost his way coming out,
+unharnessed his horses and picketed them, and sat down quietly,
+waiting for daylight before he ventured on. It is marvellous that
+anyone finds their way on the prairie. There are numberless trails
+made during the hay-harvest, which may mislead; and in a country
+which has been surveyed, some time back, the section-posts have
+almost entirely disappeared, the cattle either knocking them down
+or they having been struck by lightning.
+
+We found our bedroom very full of mosquitoes, so that our sleep
+was much disturbed, in fact we never slept properly till after the
+sun rose; but our letters cheered us up and were far more
+refreshing than ten hours' sleep.
+
+The netting over our windows had got torn from the tacks, so that
+the mosquitoes had come in by shoals just to show how they
+appreciated the attention of having things made easy for them.
+Otherwise, we are not generally much bothered with them in the
+house, netting being over every door and window.
+
+The cat sometimes thwarts our protection by jumping through them in
+the morning, and no thumpings seem to impress her with respect for the
+said net.
+
+We are told the mosquitoes will be gone in a fortnight; certainly
+the big yellow ones have lived their time and are, not so
+plentiful, but they have been succeeded by a small black species
+which is quite as venomous, and not so easy to kill.
+
+We went to Church yesterday at Headingley: quite a red letter day.
+It was only the second time we have been able to manage it in the
+ten weeks we have been here; and though it was very hot in Church
+we were ashamed to take our gloves off, on account of the scars.
+
+The Church is quite a nice little building, and the service
+delightful after so many weeks of not hearing it. We had to take
+our horse out, tie it to the churchyard paling, and put the dog,
+in the buggy to take care of our goods and chattels.
+
+We are getting quite low at the thoughts of leaving this in ten
+days' time; being rather like cats, attached to any place where
+one has heaps of occupation, and where one is kindly treated and
+well fed, however ugly that place may be.
+
+We have been very busy haymaking since we got home, and a grand
+stack is in the course of erection nearly opposite the dining-room
+window. You never saw anything so astonishing as the way the oats,
+potatoes, etc., have shot up in our absence. Even the puppy, which
+we left a fluffy ball, seems to have grown inches. Then, all my
+chickens are hatched, and are an endless pleasure and anxiety. I
+am supposed to spend hours over them.
+
+We have received four sheets of official paper from Mr. W----,
+full, of directions about our journey to Colorado, describing his
+home, etc., even to the nickel-plated tap we shall find in his
+kitchen, which is to supply us with an unlimited amount of water.
+He tells us we need bring nothing but a saddle and a
+toothbrush,--he will find all the rest; and that we are to make it
+a note that it is one of the strictest rules of mining camps that
+guests are never allowed to pay for anything. As we hope he is
+making a fortune by his mines, we shall not have so much
+compunction of accepting these terms. We are to sight-see, climb
+I mountains, go into the mines, fish for trout, and do nothing the
+live-long day but amuse ourselves.
+
+I am afraid A---- will miss us terribly, dear old soul! He is very
+fond of having us here, and is always bemoaning our departure. I
+think it will make a great difference to him and to his humdrum
+hard-working life, as we are always cheery and have never had a
+difficulty or annoyance of any sort.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+August 6th.
+
+We are rejoicing now that we have settled to go to the Rocky
+Mountains, as the hot weather we speculated on avoiding has come
+in with a rush, and for a whole week the thermometer has been at
+80 to 85 degrees. One morning before a thunder-storm, when it fell
+forty degrees in a few hours, it was up to 90 degrees. We have had
+some rain, but not the heavy if storms we have seen wandering round
+which generally follow the course of the Assiniboine--a relief to our
+minds, as our hay is still out.
+
+It has been cut nearly all round the property outside the fence,
+in spite of the risk one runs of having it subsequently claimed by
+the owner of the section, who is generally a half-breed, a loss
+only to be avoided by leading it home at once, which we are doing.
+
+This has happened to our neighbour, with whom, I am afraid, we do
+not sympathise very keenly, as he had taken up the marsh which our
+men cut last year, and had the full intention of doing again this
+year, so they looked upon it in the light of their special
+property.
+
+We have only two waggons working here, as nearly all the men and
+horses are gone over to Boyd's; and as our hay is a mile and a
+half away, we don't get much more than five loads a day, so that
+the stack does not grow very fast.
+
+Our excitement this week has been a cricket match with Boyle's
+Farm; four of their men we challenged. It really was too amusing.
+They had a bat and ball, stumps, but no bales, and played on the
+prairie, which was so fearfully rough that it was almost
+dangerous, the ball shot in such various directions after hitting
+the tufts of grass. Everybody fielded, but a ball going into the
+wheat-field behind the wickets was not counted as a lost ball. The
+total score of the two innings was only ten, and in one our
+opponents went out without a single run; so you may fancy the
+howls of either applause or derision at every ball.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+August 17th.
+
+The Farm with all its toils and pleasures is a thing of the past;
+we were both very low when we turned our backs upon it and its
+inhabitants just a week ago. We have been in such robust health
+the whole of our three months, hardly a headache or finger-ache.
+Our maid-of-all-work life has suited us, and we have acquired such
+an immense deal of practical knowledge that for those reasons
+alone, we might be gratified and pleased we came. Since then we
+have been staying with Mike in Minnesota, where we were either
+riding or driving (anything to do with horses) all day long.
+Driving four miles, jumping the horses over a pole, taking them
+down to water, having a mule race (which was truly amusing as the
+course was just in front of the house and several bolted home),
+and driving, a gang plough, were a few of the "diversions" found
+for us. Our host was most kind and anxious to make us comfortable;
+he worked heaven and earth to get his house ready, the contractors
+having taken so much more time than they said; anyhow, he turned
+the carpenters out of the house the day previous to our arrival,
+carried in the furniture, nailed up mosquito blinds, and did many
+things himself, so that everything should be in spick and span
+order.
+
+As these men, Mike having two partners, are farming thirteen
+thousand acres, they are on a much larger scale as regards
+buildings, numbers of horses, etc., to anything we have seen
+before. Their living-houses are about double the size of C----
+Farm; they have also huge stables, which A---- fancies will be cold
+in winter, but have a most imposing appearance, as have also their
+implement house, sheds, etc. The land seemed much the same as
+ours, a rich black loam, but very much wetter, marshes everywhere.
+They have broken two thousand acres since the beginning of June,
+and were busy, whilst we were there, cutting hay, Mike hoping he
+had already got over five hundred ton up!
+
+We drove one day to see a neighbouring farm which is said to be
+the "boss" one in all the country, belonging to a man who has been
+out five years. He was just starting to cut his two square miles
+of wheat, and we watched the seven self-binding machines with
+great interest. They seem as light as a reaper, and the machinery
+comparatively not intricate.
+
+We were driven through some standing corn, which was rather
+agonizing to our British ideas, but he thought nothing of it. The
+straw was four and a half feet high, and he hopes to get forty-two
+bushels to the acre. His farm being on the Snake River, and having
+many creeks running through as drainage, is a great advantage. His
+vats were pronounced no better, if so good, as ours at C---- Farm.
+
+We remained at Warren a day longer than we had intended, as we got
+to the station just in time to see our train move off. We accused
+Mike's Irish groom, who is quite a character, of bringing round
+the carriage too late on purpose. If he did, I think all the party
+forgave him; we were very happy, it gave us another night of
+A----'s society. Mike was low at our going. Poor man! one cannot
+be much surprised at his liking to keep us, as, besides the
+fascinations of ladies' society, he has no neighbours whatsoever,
+and, excepting the two men he has in the house, there is not a
+gentleman nearer than Winnipeg. He offered me seventy-two dollars
+a month to be his housekeeper. E---- was to have two dollars a
+week as parlour-maid, which she considers an insult; or she might
+have seventy-five cents a day if she would drive the ploughs.
+
+Servants and labourers get higher wages there than in Manitoba,
+all the men were averaging thirty-five to forty dollars a month
+and their keep. They were all Swedes and Germans, of whom there is
+an enormous colony in the state.
+
+We are now trying to spend our day at Council Bluff, a large
+junction of the Grand Pacific Railway, having come in here at 8
+o'clock this morning, and our train to Denver not leaving till 7
+o'clock this evening. The hotel is right on the station. The
+weather is so hot, that as yesterday, at St. Paul's, where we also
+had to spend a whole day, we have never summoned up courage to go
+beyond the door. It was suggested we might take the tram and go up
+into the City; but E---- has a notion that one city is much like
+another, particularly on a hot day.
+
+It is curious how Americans live in hotels; there are several
+families in this, and if my letter is not very intelligible you
+must forgive me, as I am writing in the grand corridor to try and
+catch the slight draughts of air blowing through, at the same time
+that half a dozen children are playing up and down.
+
+The scenery yesterday from St. Paul's all along the banks of the
+Missouri was very pretty. We both of us sat outside the Pullman as
+long as daylight lasted, feasting our eyes oh the water, trees,
+etc. The height and luxuriance of the latter seemed quite
+incomprehensible after the total absence of forest scenery for so
+many months. It is pretty round here; and by the time we get to
+the Rocky Mountains we shall have got beyond the stage of thinking
+a hillock a mountain, and fairish-sized trees not so wonderful
+after all; but at the present moment we are in that pleasing
+state, ready to admire anything and everything. We hope to get to
+Denver on Saturday night, and rest there Sunday and part of
+Monday, and we also hope to get to Church there. Mike offered to
+drive us into Warren last Sunday; but as the service was a Swedish
+Presbyterian, we didn't think we should be much edified.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DENVER, August 2lst.
+
+We arrived here Saturday evening, very tired and not at all sorry
+to exchange the Pullman for a comfortable room and bed, which we
+had telegraphed for, and therefore not, like so many of our
+fellow-passengers, obliged to seek shelter elsewhere. The
+Pullman's are most comfortable, and for a long journey like ours
+nothing could be so good; but I am glad that in England we don't
+have either these or the ordinary American car in general use. The
+publicity is so odious, and one does get bored by the passengers
+constantly wandering up and down the train, and the boys who pass
+and repass every ten minutes selling books, newspapers, cigars,
+candy, and the unripest of fruit, which they are always pressing
+you to buy; to say nothing of chewing, spitting Americans one has
+to countenance all day long. The last four-and-twenty hours of our
+journey have been very tiring. The scenery has been so monotonous;
+endless long undulating plains like the waves of the sea, covered
+with grass quite dried up, a few flowers, and a bee-shaped cactus.
+The heat was very oppressive, a hot sirocco, wind blowing which;
+obliged us to keep our windows shut on account of the fine
+alkaline dust. E---- had her window open last night, and awoke this
+morning to find herself in a layer of ashes.
+
+We skirted the South Platte River most of the time; it was only a
+bed of shingles, wide and shallow, with not a drop of water in it.
+These plains, extending for thousands of miles in all directions,
+are the great "ranching," or cattle-farming districts, formerly
+the favourite breeding-grounds and pastures of the buffalo, which,
+alas! have all disappeared. We only saw a few tame ones amongst
+the herds of cattle; they have been killed in the most ruthless,
+indiscriminate way for their furs, and will soon be "things of the
+past."
+
+We wondered much, with the river and every visible stream so dry,
+how the large herds of cattle and horses were watered; but have
+since been told that water is so near the surface the herdsmen
+have no great depth to dig to procure any quantity. We thought we
+could have made a good pick or two amongst the horses, but we
+didn't care for long-legged ugly big-horned cattle brutes. Here
+and there was a herdsman mounted on a small Indian pony with a
+high Mexican saddle, enormous spurs, and a long lasso, galloping
+and dexterously turning his animals.
+
+Our train had to pull up several times and whistle loudly to turn
+the animals off the track, there being, as usual, no rail or
+protection; but pulling up for them was not half as exciting as on
+Thursday night, when we stopped repeatedly to turn a man off the
+train who, not having paid his fare, nor apparently intending to
+do so, had swung himself in some marvellous way under the cars,
+hanging on by the break. Whenever we slackened speed he jumped
+off, walking quite unconcernedly alongside; but the moment we
+moved on he got on again. We never knew how far he continued his
+perilous ride, I fancy that even the officials gave up
+remonstrating; anyhow, as long as daylight lasted and we could
+watch the men, no efforts on their part seemed to make the
+smallest impression.
+
+Three hours before getting into Denver we had our first glimpse of
+the Rockies, and although they were then only in the blue distance
+we were quite excited about them; and at Greely Station (much
+impressed on our minds by having read Miss Bird's book just before
+coming here), we came in full view of Long's Peak,--almost wishing
+"Mountain Jim" might still be alive to ascend it with us,--and
+the whole of the gorgeous range; and quite one of the loveliest
+sights I ever saw was watching two thunder-storms on either side
+of the Peak break and disperse, whilst the reflections from the
+sunset-glow lit up the rest of the heavens. The railway and Denver
+City itself is about thirty miles distant from the mountains, but
+the atmosphere is so clear that they look as if quite within an
+easy gallop.
+
+It is difficult to understand why the town has been built so far
+from the mountains, situated as it is on a sandy, treeless plain.
+It is growing, like most of the western towns, at a tremendous
+pace, and we are lodging in a luxurious hotel, our room on the
+fourth floor numbers 454. We found the avenues of trees lining
+every street an immense boon this morning in going to church at
+the cathedral.
+
+The heat, though great, is not so oppressive as either at St.
+Paul's or Omaha, but then we are at the height of 5,000 feet; and
+this afternoon the air has been cleared by a thunderstorm preceded
+by a great sand-storm, which we watched from our windows
+encircling the town, so thick that mountains and all view was
+obliterated for the time being.
+
+Denver is a great resort for invalids, chiefly those suffering
+with asthma.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+August 22.
+
+Before leaving Denver we went to a gunsmith and invested in a
+fishing-rod and numberless flies, with which we intend to do great
+execution. We also went to the exhibition, opened a month ago and
+still unfinished; one of the leading men, to whom we had a letter
+of introduction, showed us everything. It is chiefly interesting
+to miners, as the display of minerals from Western America is
+unrivalled. There seemed, in the specimens, enough gold and silver
+to make us rich for ever; unfortunately our ignorance on the
+subject of ore is too great to thoroughly appreciate it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OURAY, August 24.
+
+It is not easy to sit down and write after forty-eight hours
+travelling, as we have been doing since leaving Denver on Monday night
+at 7 o'clock; but in such scenery and air so exhilarating we do not
+feel as tired as we expected. You should have seen the omnibus,
+stage-coach, charridon, or any other name you please to give the
+lumbering vehicle in which we performed our last twelve hours' drive;
+it looked truly frightening when it drove up to Cimarron depot, one
+tent, last night, to pick us up, intended for twenty passengers and
+any amount of luggage, and swung on great straps. It was wonderfully
+well horsed, and we changed our teams every ten miles; but only then
+came at the rate of five miles an hour. We both of us started for our
+sixty-four miles' drive on the box-seat with the driver, who happened
+to be an extremely nice man and an experienced whip; in former days he
+had driven the stage-coaches across from Omaha to San Francisco, a
+journey of three weeks. But he took up much room on the seat, and
+every time he had to pull up his horses his left elbow ran into me,
+until "he guessed my ribs would be pretty-well bruised."
+
+About midnight, when our only other fellow-passenger turned out
+from the inside of the coach, I entered it, though I expected
+nearly every moment would be my last, the bumping was so fearful.
+I managed to get a few winks of sleep towards morning. E---- sat
+outside all night, finding it very difficult not to drop off the
+coach from drowsiness. The early hours of the morning, after the
+moon went down until dawn, were truly wretched, what between the
+outer darkness, the flickering of our lamps, the unevenness of the
+road, and the clouds of dust, and one almost began to wonder if
+the journey was worth so much trouble.
+
+But with daylight we quite altered our opinions; as really I do
+not think, if you searched the whole world over, you would find
+anything more beautiful than the Uncompahgre valley and park
+looked in the morning light.
+
+Mr. W---- met us at 5 o'clock A.M. at the "Hot Springs," so called
+from the boiling water that gushes out of the ground, and which is
+said to give the name of "Uncompahgre" to the district, that being
+the Indian word for hot water. He brought us out hot coffee and
+food to refresh us, and drove us the last nine miles up the
+valley. We came slowly, thoroughly enjoying the scenery. On either
+side of the road are well-cultivated farms. Within two miles of
+Ouray the park narrows into a magnificent gorge, bounded on each
+side by precipitous cliffs of red sandstone, covered with pines
+and quaking aspen, the whole crowned by arid peaks. From this
+gorge you suddenly come upon the town, situated in an amphitheatre
+of grand gray, trachyte rocks.
+
+Our house is in Main Street. The ground floor is an office; our
+four rooms are on the first floor, to which we ascend by a wooden
+staircase outside.
+
+Every nook and corner is filled with some curiosity or mineral
+specimen. Our host being a great sportsman, there are various
+trophies of the chase--a mountain lion, wild sheeps' heads, bears,
+cranes, even to a stuffed donkey's head; there are also cabinets
+of fossils, specimens of ore, etc., and great blocks of the same
+piled on the floor.
+
+Our family consists of our two hosts, Messrs. W---- and B----, two
+Indian ponies, a mule, two setters, and two prairie dogs, which
+are reddish-buff marmots. We are only to remain here one night,
+and, if thoroughly rested after our journey, go up to the log
+cabin in the Imogene Basin, 3,000 feet higher. We are both looking
+forward to it immensely. It is right in the heart of the
+mountains, 10,600 feet, and with no one near us, as all the mines
+surrounding the cabin belong to a company which had to suspend its
+works last month for want of funds, so that they are not being
+worked. The air is glorious, and we feel already perfectly
+restored to our usual health, though we are warned that strangers
+cannot walk much at first, the air is so rarefied, that one is
+soon out of breath. Anyhow the atmosphere has been so clear that
+it much added to our enjoyment in seeing the ever varying beauties
+and distant mountain view all along our journey from Denver here.
+
+We unfortunately came through the "Grand Canyon" at night. Had it
+been clear the porter on the car was to awake us to see it; we
+could quite picture to ourselves its beauties by the scenery in
+the Black Canyon we came through yesterday by daylight. The
+engineering all along the line is marvellous, the way we rose
+nearly 7,000 feet by a zigzag over the Marshall Pass, or the Great
+Divide, going down nearly as many feet on the other side and then
+through these canyons, which are only narrow gorges for a raging
+torrent to rush through on its headlong career.
+
+Our train was a very narrow gauge with bogie wheels, and we
+twisted so, in and out of the bends of the river, that the engine
+often looked as if it might easily come into contact with our
+carriage which happened to be the last. It is the great advantage
+of the Pullmans they are always on last to the train when passing
+through any pretty country, and when there are no other carriages
+of the same, so that one can sit on the rear platform and see all
+the scenery.
+
+We entered into conversation with two Germans, and were amused by
+one of them surreptitiously bringing us two pink trout from his
+luncheon at the wayside hotel, we having remained in the carriage
+for our frugal meal; and though we had got to the "Sweets" stage
+felt hound to begin again, and much enjoyed our fish. The food
+provided at these wayside inns is generally so bad and dear, a
+dollar a head charged for sixteen to eighteen dishes, of almost
+uneatable messes, that we prefer the tinned meats and fruits we
+have, in our luncheon basket; and for drinks we have beautifully
+iced water in all the carriages, the ice being replenished at
+every big station.
+
+The last forty miles of our railroad journey was over a line only
+opened ten days ago, by which, I am thankful to say, we avoided
+twelve hours more of the stage-coach and a night in a Colorado
+inn, which, we are told, is anything but pleasant, there always
+being many more bed fellows than what one bargains for; and we
+should not have seen the Black Canyon and its thirteen miles of
+grandeur and sublimity. The railway track is cut out of the sides
+of the over-hanging rocks, and in places is built on a bed of
+stones in the creek itself.
+
+The rocks at times almost seemed to meet overhead, then widened,
+we crossing and re-crossing the torrent by wooden bridges which
+shortly are to be replaced by iron ones. The colouring was so
+beautiful, the chasm being generally in shade with the mountains
+above standing out in glorious sunshine, covered as they were in
+many places, even as far down as the water's edge, with pines.
+Nature is marvellous in its productions, but the ingenuity of man
+is also wonderful, and we quite came to the conclusion that the
+scenery of that canyon was worth coming all these thousands of
+miles to see.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OURAY, August 27th.
+
+The name of Ouray, given to this town, is from the last chief of
+the Utes, who, with his tribe, lived to within a couple of years
+on a reserve down in the Park. The first stake is said to have
+been struck by white men in 1865, but no cabin was built until
+1874, and from that time the town has been growing rapidly, having
+now about 1,000 inhabitants. In the south-west portion of the
+basin in which it stands, and where the waters of Canyon Creek
+flow into those of the Uncompaghre, there are some lovely canyons
+and picturesque gorges, and here, in places where the hot springs
+overflow the banks of the main stream, the rocks are covered with
+maiden-hair and other ferns. These hot springs serve to keep the
+river unfrozen even in the severest weather.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MOUNTAIN BAT'S NEST, IMOGENE BASIN,
+
+August 29th.
+
+This is a glorious region, and we send you the enclosed sketch to
+show our picture of comfort and perfection. I assure you, nightly
+as we sit down to our evening repast, or later round our wood fire
+in our "parlour," we congratulate each other, and fancy we would
+not change places with the highest of the land, the air and life
+are so intoxicating.
+
+After twenty-four hours in Ouray we came up here, sending the
+darkie Henry and our luggage on before us in a waggon. We have
+brought nothing but the bare necessaries of life--all our heavy
+boxes are gone to Chicago to await our return--being warned to
+bring as little as possible, on account of the difficulties of
+transport in the mountains, also of only being allowed 50 lbs.
+weight on the coach, every extra lb. charged ten cents. We
+ourselves rode up here, arriving about 6 o'clock, and found poor
+Henry waiting outside, not having been able to get into the cabin,
+the door-key being carefully in Mr. W----'s pocket; but as
+everything is always left in order it didn't take us long to make
+ourselves comfortable; and as at sunset the cold had been piercing,
+a fire soon lit was very acceptable.
+
+This cabin is quite unique. It consists of two rooms on each side
+of the front door, with a tiny passage used as larder, wood-hole,
+saddle-room, &c.
+
+Our room is our bed and drawing-room combined, which is hung all
+round with every imaginable skin, wolf, skunks, lynx, &c., stuffed
+animals and birds, guns and traps, to say nothing of shelves
+covered with different specimens of ore taken out of the adjoining
+mines. It was quite creepy, the first night, having to sleep with
+a bear's head at the foot of our bed, with a stuffed fox just over
+our head, which has the most awful squint, and is the first object
+that catches the eye on awaking, and a dried root, the fibres of
+which so much resemble a man's beard that it looks horridly like a
+scalp. The hay-mattress on our bed has to be; shaped into grooves
+for our poor bones to rest comfortably. In the day-time it is
+covered up with skins, and then is called the "lounge."
+
+Our washing-stand is primitive, a box standing on end, in which
+our tin bason and cans are concealed, so that we can consider our
+"parlour" quite correct. Our other room is the kitchen, and fitted
+up with four bunks against the wall, which Mr. W---- and Henry
+occupy. We breakfast and dine out of doors, at a table placed just
+outside the cabin, and on the only bit of flat ground we have
+near, as we are situated on the slope of a mountain, and a most
+beautiful stream of water runs about forty feet below us with the
+clearest and coldest of water. One of our first occupations in the
+morning is to take the animals down to water, and afterwards to
+picket them in amongst the long grass, growing in great profusion
+and height during the short summer on all the foot hills and
+wherever there is an open space. The first afternoon we were up
+here we went for a ride round Imogene basin, and were delighted
+with the wild flowers, which are quite innumerable--columbine,
+phloxes, blue gentian, dandelions, harebells, vetches, and fifty
+other species. E---- picked a good many, and hopes to draw them
+for the benefit of you all at home. The flowers shoot up almost
+before the snow has melted, and make the most of their short
+existence which lasts about two months and a half. We tasted the
+"bear berry," which grows as a bush and has a round brown berry,
+quite bitter, but, as its name shows, is much appreciated by the
+bears, who come any distance to get it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+September 4th.
+
+We are enjoying this mountain life; the weather is all we can
+desire, and we are in the most robust of health. We live almost
+entirely out of doors, sketching all the morning, in the
+afternoons making expeditions either into some of the mines, or
+over a mountain-pass; and for "tender-feet" the name given to all
+new-comers, are pronounced to be good mountaineers; but our ponies
+and mules are so sure-footed and pleasant that we follow any
+trail, however narrow and uneven, with the greatest confidence.
+
+The scenery everywhere is far beyond our sketching capacities, but
+we find spoiling many sheets of drawing-paper a never-failing
+amusement and occupation; and we can sit out anywhere, as neither
+snakes nor mosquitoes are known in these altitudes. Our darkie's
+criticism might be discouraging, he saying he cannot understand
+our wasting so much time on "things not at all like nature," were
+it not counterbalanced by the praise given us in the "Ouray Times"
+which paper we sent home to you last week. The balsam pine, which
+is about the only tree we have, is rather monotonous and sombre-
+looking, being of a blackish-green; and we have not here, as in
+the valley around Ouray, the beautiful sandstone and porphyry
+rocks for background; only never-ending blue distances, brought
+out so clearly on account of the extraordinary dryness and purity
+of the atmosphere.
+
+We have been escorting two men to-day over a pass 12,500 feet,
+part of the way to San Miguel, going as far as the ridge, from
+whence we had a most glorious view and panorama, as we could see
+into the valleys and canyons some miles below; Mount Wilson, which
+unfortunately was shrouded in dark, stormy clouds; a range of
+mountains in Utah called Sierra la Sal, about 120 miles distant;
+and a long way into New Mexico.
+
+In returning home we got into clouds, and could hear a thunderstorm
+raging in the valley below us, for some little time losing our trail,
+and not sorry when we found it again and were able to descend from
+higher regions, the cold was so intense; not so surprising, as we
+found when the mist lifted that snow had fallen on all the surrounding
+peaks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IMOGENE BASIN, September 12th.
+
+Two days' after our expedition to San Miguel we awoke to find
+ourselves in a "white world," the snow being two inches deep. It
+is said to be a most unusually early storm, but it was not
+altogether a surprise: the glass had been falling and storms had
+been audibly growling all round us. The snow only lasted about
+twenty-four hours, just long enough for us to realise and admire
+Imogene in its winter garb, and enable us to try and walk in snow-
+shoes. We did not attempt either going up or down hill in them, so
+that our performance was confined to the small space in front of
+the cabin.
+
+With the exception of this one storm our weather continues lovely;
+bright, sunshiny, warm days--we do not even require an extra
+jacket out of doors until after sunset--with a slight frost every
+night.
+
+Last Monday we started early, taking provisions with us, and spent
+a long day in Red Mountain Park, sketching the marvellously
+brilliant scarlet peaks, whilst Mr. W---- shot grouse, of which he
+got three and a half brace. The grouse are much like ours, only
+larger, and roost in trees. These parks abound in game. We have
+been wishing to see a bear; at a safe distance, perhaps, but have
+never succeeded, though several have been killed since our
+arrival. Whilst shooting, Mr. W---- came upon the fresh trail of
+one and its unfinished meal of a gophir not very far from where we
+lunched; only fancy what a stampede there would have been had the
+bear appeared. We are always looking out for thin trees round
+which a bear's claws would overlap, and therefore they could not
+climb, to take refuge up in case of danger; but they very seldom
+attack, unless wounded or a she-bear with cubs. In the spring and
+autumn these parks abound in deer; but in summer they go above
+timber line to graze on the succulent bunch grasses and to be free
+from flies. There are also mountain-sheep, coyotes, and foxes, and
+along the streams several beaver; but we never have seen any
+animal bigger than a prairie-dog, or smaller than a coney.
+
+Chipmunks and the mountain-rats disturbed our slumbers at night,
+running about the cabin, and I do not at all think we should like
+our dormitory were we not watched over during our slumbers by a
+cat, the most sociable of beasts, who as a rule sleeps between us,
+and protests loudly if we either of us move or wake him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+September 7th.
+
+By degrees we are learning something of the mines and miners; also
+are beginning to know all the packers who daily go up and down the
+trails, each with a train of ten donkeys carrying the ore from the
+mines. The men's appearance is of the roughest, but they, one and
+all, are most civil, both of speech and manner. Women are rare in
+these districts, the wife of the manager of the Wheel of Fortune
+Mine being the only one living up here. She has been here two
+years, and is quite idolized by the miners and trappers, as she
+has never been known to refuse hospitality to any. We were much
+amused, whilst going through the Wheel of Fortune tunnels last
+Saturday, to hear one of the miners ask who we were, and when told
+with the ready answer, natural to this country, that "we were
+Duchesses," he wished much to know if that was not something like
+the Prince of Wales.
+
+We went into a lower shaft whilst two fuses were fired in an
+upper. The anticipation of the shock was worse than the
+realisation. Each of us carried a candle, and the concussion blew
+them all out; but beyond that, the smell of gunpowder, and smoke,
+we experienced no harm, and as we had matches and the candles were
+soon relit, we had not to grope our way back in darkness.
+
+We have been into several of the tunnels on the eight well-defined
+lodes in this basin, also into some in Sneffels; these veins may
+be all traced through into Red Mountain Valley, which seems to be
+the volcanic centre of this neighbourhood. The porphyry vein
+matter or ore-bearing quartz, having decomposed more readily than
+the trachyte of the mountains which they intersect, in some
+instances, as in the peak just above our cabin, they have cut deep
+notches in the summit of the ridges, making the outline very
+jagged and rugged looking.
+
+The mineral wealth around us is astounding, hundreds of rich mines
+have been discovered in all the surrounding mountains, and are
+being discovered now. Three men, whilst at dinner a month ago in
+Red Mountain Valley, in picking round with a small axe where they
+were sitting, knocked off a piece of rock which, when analysed,
+proved to be so valuable a lode, that they have since then sold
+their claim for 125,000 dollars.
+
+Any man can stake a claim of 1,500 feet on a vein if not previously
+done; but he has to expend 100 pounds on it in the first five years to
+enable him to obtain a patent from Government, which secures the
+property to him for ever.
+
+There must be a certain amount of excitement to miners as to what
+treasure will be produced after every blast of gunpowder; but oh!
+how I should hate the life, living underground in these
+subterranean passages, which are all more or less wet from the
+water percolating through the rock, and never able to see the sun
+or the beauties of nature. The wages of the men are enormous, able
+miners getting four dollars a day; sorters, or the men who break
+and turn over the stone, three and a half.
+
+Mr. W---- had a hard life when he first came out here in 1877; as
+he and his partner worked with no other help for four years
+underground mining, besides having to build their cabin, being
+their own blacksmiths, assayer, cook, &c., and he declares he
+enjoyed it immensely, with the exception, perhaps, of the first
+winter, when, getting in their supplies very late, they had to
+live on bacon (and that rancid) and flour, but little else.
+
+Stores for the winter have to be brought up in October, as the
+trails early become impassable, and all outer communication can
+only be kept up on snow-shoes. The snow averages about seven or
+eight feet, though in this basin it has been known to be thirty-
+eight deep, but in the Uncompaghre Valley and down by Ouray it
+averages only a few inches. Animals are left out to graze there
+all the winter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE RANCH, UNCOMPAHGRE PARK, September 16. Ten miles below Ouray.
+
+Amidst many tears and regrets, we have torn ourselves away from
+the cabin, where we could have spent another month or six weeks in
+perfect contentment; but a storm being predicted, and duck-shooting
+and fly-fishing being part of our Colorado programme, we accepted the
+loan of a house on a farm down in the valley, and are installed in it.
+It wanted a certain amount of pluck, on first seeing our
+accommodation, to come down. Our house is one room, thirty feet long
+by about eighteen wide, an open roof with plenty of air-holes, and no
+partition whatsoever, excepting what we have made by hanging three
+blankets from a rafter, behind which is our bed (or lounge in
+day-time), the washing-stand, a box set up longways, and a tin bason,
+an arm-chair which consists of two pieces of wood, and an old
+wolfskin, much worn, and a rickety table, at which I am writing now,
+lighted by a candle stuck into a bottle. On the other side of the
+blanket-partition is the kitchen stove, big table, store shelves, a
+pile of saddles, &c. Mr. W---- sleeps in a tent outside; Henry in a
+waggon: he, poor man, is not at all happy, as he imagines bears and
+coyotes are nightly intending making their evening meal off his portly
+form. He is the greatest coward I ever saw, and came in horror
+confiding to me that he had seen a snake, yards long, which Mr. W----
+killed the day following, and it proved to be a small water-snake,
+hardly ten inches.
+
+Henry affords us a great deal of amusement; he does not at all
+presume, but, in his quaint way, wishes to tell, and asks so many
+things, queries which often are almost unanswerable. The day we
+spent in Ouray on our way down from the cabin here, we much
+distressed him by not "striking a show" in the street, and not
+wearing smart clothes which had a "tong," if it were only to show
+that we consider Mr. W---- a "big bug."
+
+He left his wife in the South eleven years ago, and, in spite of
+all our protestations and lectures, informs us he is going to
+marry again, as in the Bible he reads "that it is wrong for man to
+live alone."
+
+It is a matter of infinite surprise to him how we can remain out
+of doors with no covering to our heads, he could not stand the
+rays of the sun as we do; and why our complexions in consequence
+are not as dark as his is a mystery to him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE RANCH, UNCOMPAGHRE PARK, September 24th.
+
+Although this house does consist of only one room, is situated in
+a stony field, with not a tree near us, and that we are not having
+good sport, either trout-fishing or duck-shooting, we should be
+quite happy and contented were it not for the B flats which
+abound, the first we have come across, which, Henry assures us,
+are not from dirt, but grow in the pine-wood. Why are they not,
+then, in the log cabins which are entirely built of pine? We have
+not disclosed the fact to Mr. W----, he is so thoroughly enjoying
+his holiday, as we know that we should be instantly ordered back
+to Ouray, where he would have to begin his work. Whilst he is out
+shooting, we make expeditions, exploring over all the foot-hills.
+One day, after wandering up a beautiful valley, we came upon a
+Park or "Mesa," and I do not ever remember having seen such a
+view: miles of grass on which wild cattle and horses were feeding,
+with clumps of trees artistically dotted here and there, and for
+background the orange and scarlet tinted foot-hills, pines on
+higher regions, and a glorious panorama of snow-capped mountains
+beyond. But for the mountains, one might almost fancy oneself in
+some English park, and at every turn we felt we ought to come upon
+an Elizabethan House. There were many tracks of deer, but none
+were visible. We overtook a man driving a team of ten oxen with
+lumber, and of him asked our way, as one might very easily lose
+oneself in these rolling park-like glades, intersected with deep
+canyons, with no trails or roads, excepting here and there one
+made by lumberers. In coming down the hill again, close to a large
+saw-mill, we watched a man breaking in a horse of five years old.
+He had secured a dozen, all wild, in a corral or fenced enclosure,
+and had thrown a noose over this one's head. He was trying to draw
+it up by means of a thick rope to the fence, the rope getting
+tighter and tighter as the animal backed or tried to gallop round
+with the other horses. Finally, when the poor brute was almost
+choked, and perspiration was streaming down him, he allowed the
+man to go up to him, who very dexterously and quickly slipped a
+halter over its head. The horse then was tied up to the post, the
+others turned out, and the man intended keeping him there until
+the following morning without any food, when he would put a saddle
+on, and ride him, and hoping to sell him as broken for eighty
+dollars.
+
+Many of these horses are not broken at all; we were shown a
+good- looking mare of thirteen years old who had never had a bit
+in her mouth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE RANCH, September 29th.
+
+This is the country I should like to have a farm in, were I bound to
+emigrate. In this valley every sort of grain and vegetable seem to
+grow in the most luxuriant way, and we have been feasting on tomatoes,
+cabbages, beets, lettuces, etc. The butcher, who is also greengrocer,
+sent a potato twelve inches long by nine round, "hoping the ladies
+would take it in their trunks to England as an average specimen." Then
+on the "Mesa" or parks above the foot-hills, large herds of cattle can
+always graze through the winter. We have had jelly made of
+squawberries and the Oregon grape, which is excellent. There are also
+wild gooseberries and black currants, both of which we have found.
+This ranch is 160 acres; the only buildings the owner has put up are
+the dwelling-house and one shed as a stable and implement-house. Hay
+last year was selling at 10 to 12 pounds a ton, potatoes 3d. to 6d. a
+lb., oats 4d. a lb., and everything in proportion; eggs 3s. to 4s. a
+dozen all the year round, milk 6d. a quart; so that any man ought to
+make a very large profit, the land originally costing him nothing,
+and, excepting in hay or harvest time, very little labour required.
+Oats are cut very green and stacked for winter fodder. These fertile
+valleys are very limited in number, and as the consumption must be on
+the increase, mines being discovered and opened out, some time must
+elapse and the railway come nearer, ere competition reduces the
+prices, or the farmer's profits are lessened.
+
+The people round are most kind and friendly, and would be more so
+had they received the slightest encouragement; but Mr. W---- gave
+out we wanted to know no one, that we were not to be in Ouray, and
+that all our time was to be taken up seeing the country. We went
+one day up Bear Creek, as Mr. W---- was asked to see a mine, and
+dined with the manager and his wife. They gave us a sumptuous
+repast, and tried to persuade E---- and I to remain the night,
+though we were only about four miles from home; but even we two
+are not enough un-Englishified as yet not to object to sleeping
+with two other people. They had only one room for kitchen, bed,
+sitting-room, &c.; and it is curious how little one now thinks of
+the bed standing in one corner, the washing-stand in another,
+whilst kitchen-stove, and scullery fill up a third. I suggested
+that when strangers did sleep there they gave them the adjoining
+cabin; but was told that a trussel bed put alongside of the host's
+"took no room whatsoever." Mr. W---- tells a funny story of a
+picnic party in the mountains in an old cabin of his, which only
+contained one room, and where five women and six men had to sleep
+the night, the women occupying the bunks, the men (after
+promenading outside whilst the women were getting into bed)
+sleeping on the floor. They all laughed and talked so much that
+daylight almost appeared before any of them got to sleep, and
+there was a regular stampede under the blankets among the ladies
+when a match was struck, one of the men objecting to his neighbour
+lying alongside of him with all his clothes on.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+October 3rd.
+
+How the time flies! in forty-eight hours from now we shall have
+said good-bye to the most fascinating of regions, and Ouray and
+the Rocky Mountains, with all the glorious scenery, will only live
+in our memories and be things of the past.
+
+I fancy one could never tire of it, and wish so much I could describe
+the view we had from our Ranch looking up the Uncompahgre.--the valley
+bright yellow with the grasses and aspen trees turning colour from the
+frosts, the scarlet dwarf oak on the foot-hill, and the mountains lost
+in the blue distance. During our six weeks' stay we have tried all the
+different phases of life. The cabin life in amongst the mountains and
+miners, the Ranch, and town, and certainly give the palm to the
+first-mentioned. As we anticipated, our Ranch life was brought to an
+abrupt end the moment we owned to Mr. W---- how our slumbers were
+disturbed with the B flats; we had to return into Ouray, and have been
+living here some days.
+
+Mr. W---- found such an accumulation of work on his return, that,
+excepting at meals, we never see him; and have to content
+ourselves wandering and exploring on our ponies all the different
+trails, and we shall soon be acquainted with every one within
+miles. The only ride we do eschew is the Toll Road up the park,
+the only piece of flat ground anywhere about, and fit for
+cantering along. It is the favourite resort of the ladies of the
+town, who are smartly arrayed in very long-skirted habits
+ornamented with brass buttons and velvet jockey-caps, and who must
+naturally look down upon us as disgracefully turned out in our
+every-day gowns and broad-brimmed hats, which, to say the least,
+have seen better days.
+
+Ladies riding alone are required to pay no toll; a custom we think
+ought very much to be encouraged all over the civilized world.
+
+We have spent one more night at the cabin in Imogene, leaving
+Henry in Ouray and "doing" for ourselves; and whilst Mr. W---- and
+the "expert," for whom we went up, were inspecting mines, we two
+fetched the water, made bread, and had a general sweep out. The
+cat was supremely delighted to see us, and could not apparently
+make enough of us when not allowed on our knees, stood up against
+or walked round us.
+
+The heavy snow-storm of last week destroyed all the grass and
+flowers; they were so high when we left that a mule could hardly
+have been seen whilst grazing, and now they are laid quite flat
+with not a vestige of their beauty left. The wind was very high as
+we went up the canyon, so we had to hurry past the patches of
+aspens growing on the rocks and having very little hold for their
+roots, which were being blown over unpleasantly near us.
+
+This will be the last letter you will receive, as when once
+started we shall go as fast as the stage-coach, rail, and steam-
+boat can take us to England, I having had a telegram which hurries
+us home.
+
+Good-bye, we look forward immensely to seeing you all again; but
+we have had such a pleasant trip throughout, without a single
+_contretemps_, that we can but be delighted we came, and shall
+always look back with immense gratification on our six months'
+sojourn in the Western hemisphere.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LONDON, December, 1882.
+
+Since arriving in England I have received the following letter
+from my brother in Manitoba, and as I want this book to be a sort
+of guide to colonists I think it well to add it:--
+
+C---- FARM, November 14th.
+
+I am writing now to send you a kind of statement of our farm
+accounts; though it cannot be quite correct, this year's crop of
+oats not having been thrashed out, so that the calculation can
+only be approximate.
+
+1st. _The Land_.--The cost of the land is taken as the first
+purchase-money and the amount it has cost to bring 410 acres under
+cultivation.
+
+2nd. _The Buildings_.--They consist of two dwelling-houses and two
+stables; one of the houses, being for the men, is also used as a
+warehouse and granary.
+
+The contract price was very low, and also the price of timber; now
+both gone up, but put down at the original cost.
+
+3rd. _The Horses_.--Valued, I think, rather low at 250 dollars a team;
+500 dollars for the stallion. The 4,326 dollars include their cost;
+the amount of oats and hay they have eaten.
+
+_The Cows_.--Include their original cost, hay and percentage of keep.
+The price of cattle now is high; we sold two cows this summer at an
+average price of 75 dollars.
+
+_Implements_ have been reduced about 35 per cent for their two years'
+wear.
+
+_Carriages_ being new, we have taken nothing off them.
+
+_Pigs_ have the cost of their feeding added; the young ones taken at
+an average of ten dollars.
+
+_Furniture_.--A slight deduction for wear and tear.
+
+_Oats_.--We are calculating 2,500 bushels off 181 acres.
+
+_Hay_ is difficult to calculate; I do not think we have 400 tons. The
+price now is very low; 5 dollars a ton, and it would cost us three
+dollars to get it into Winnipeg.
+
+_Potatoes_ are uncertain. They are worth one dollar a ton now, and if
+we can manage to keep them during the winter they will be worth a good
+deal more; but they are difficult to keep, although we have a good
+root-house; If the frost happens to get to them they will all spoil;
+and it is difficult to keep the frost out, going as it does twelve
+feet into the ground.
+
+_The Fence_ is quite worth the money; so you see that putting most
+things at a low price, one has a certain profit, though not in hard
+cash; and it is satisfactory to find that one hasn't been working for
+two seasons for nothing. No one expects a farm to pay in this country
+during the first two years.
+
+Original Value. Dollars. Present Value Dollars
+Land, 480 acres     4,110      worth 30 dollars an acre     14,400
+Building 2 houses and 2 stables 4,814                        4,814
+Horses--2l horses   4,326                                    3,000
+       1 stallion
+Cattle--84 cows     2,668       80 cows and 46 calves        3,700
+Carriages             229                                      229
+Harness               407                                      300
+Implements          1,810                                      800
+Pigs                  125       Pigs and 29 young              350
+Poultry                20       33 chickens                     40
+Furniture             495                                      400
+Profit and Losses  10,681
+Oats                            2,500 bushels at 50 cents    1,250
+Hay                             400 tons at 5 dollars        2,000
+Potatoes                        1,000 bushels at 1 dollar    1,000
+Flax                                                           100
+Wire Fence                                                     500
+                   ______                                   ______
+                   29,180                                   32,888
+N.B.--The profit and loss comprises the wages to labourers and cost
+of living of both masters and men.
+
+This estimate is given after two years' farming.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba
+by Mrs. Cecil Hall
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LADY'S LIFE ON A FARM IN MANITOBA ***
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+This file should be named 6732.txt or 6732.zip
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