Readers who ask with the post-office authorities, "Where is Manitoba?" [Footnote: Pages 58, 59] may be answered that Manitoba is a province in the great north-west territory of the Canadian Dominion, lying within the same parallels of latitude as London and Paris. It has one of the most healthy climates in the world—the death-rate being lower than in any other part of the globe,—and a soil of wondrous fertility, sometimes yielding several crops in one year. Immense coal-fields exist within the province; its mountains abound with ore; and its natural wealth is enormous.
While the province of Manitoba formed part of the Hudson Bay Company's territory, its resources were undeveloped. But in 1869 it was transferred to the Dominion Government, and received a Lieutenant-Governor and the privilege of sending representatives to the Parliament at Ottawa. Under the new régime enterprise and industry are amply encouraged.
The original population consisted chiefly of Indians and French half-breeds; the abolition of the capitation tax on immigrants, however, has resulted in a large immigration of Europeans, who, with health and energy, cannot fail to prosper, especially as they are without European facilities for squandering their money in luxury or intoxication. Of how universally the Prohibitory Liquor Law prevails in Manitoba, and yet how difficult it sometimes is to punish its infraction, an amusing instance in given in Chapter XI. Mr. Alexander Rivington, in a valuable pamphlet now out of print ("On the Track of our Emigrants"), says that when he visited Canada it was rare to see such a thing as mendicity—too often the result of intemperance; "the very climate itself, so fresh and life-giving, supplies the place of strong drink. Public-houses, the curse of our own country, have no existence. Pauperism and theft are scarcely known there—income-tax is not yet dreamt of." Free grants of one hundred acres of prairie and meadow land are still being made to immigrants, and the population is rapidly increasing.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
The Grand Trunk Railway—Sarnia—"Confusion worse confounded"—A Churlish
Hostess—Fellow-Passengers on the Manitoba—"Off at
last!"—Musical Honours—Sunrise on Lake Huron—A Scramble for
Breakfast—An Impromptu Dance—The General Foe.
CHAPTER II.
Saulte Ste. Marie—Indian Embroidery—Lake Superior—Preaching, Singing,
and Card-playing—Silver Islet—Thunder Bay—The Dog River—Flowers at
Fort William—"Forty Miles of Ice"—Icebergs and Warm
Breezes—Duluth—Hotel Belles—Bump of Destructiveness in Porters.
CHAPTER III.
The Mississippi—The Rapids—Aerial Railway Bridges—Breakfast at
Braynor—Lynch Law—Card-sharpers—Crowding in the Cars—Woman's
Rights!—The Prairie—"A Sea of Fire"—Crookstown—Fisher's
Landing—Strange Quarters—"The Express-man's Bed"—Herding like
Sheep—On board the Minnesota.