Manitoba. A flag showing the letters H.B.C. in white on a red ground was the mark of the Hudson Bay Company being in possession of the fort. An American citizen told me that some of his countrymen were puzzled when they saw this flag for the first time. One of their number thought he had solved the engima of the three letters by saying that they meant "Here before Christ," as, from the appearance of the country, there had not been any change since then.

Sixty miles intervene between the frontier and the capital of the Province. There is very little wood left along this part of the river, the greater part having been cleared away by settlers or by speculators. Farms are to be seen at short intervals; the crops which cover the ground look exceedingly well. The passengers in the steamer experience a change since the stream has run between banks denuded of timber-in other words, the mosquitoes have ceased from troubling. The only insect which skims the surface of the river and which fills the saloon when the lamps are lit is a white-winged one called a "miller." I have seen these insects on the Rhine in the autumn months, but I never saw so many as on this occasion. A constant stream of them is borne along by the breeze; it has the appearance of a bank of The glasses of the steamer's lanterns are

snow.

C

18

First View of Winnipeg.

covered with these insects; they dash against the glass and then fall down to die among the mass on the deck. They fill pails when the deck is swept in the morning. Though they obscure the light, they give no other annoyance, and they are mere objects of curiosity.

The first I saw of Winnipeg was in the autumn of 1878. Fort Garry, a rectangular building, with a turret at each corner, then stood where the Assiniboine enters the Red River. The steamer stopped a few minutes to land passengers, the permanent landing-place being a short way further down the river. The houses which form the city have a substantial look; the villas on the river's bank are tasteful in appearance. On the opposite side of the river to that on which the capital stands is the parish of St. Boniface, with its cathedral, the palace of Archbishop Taché, its college, and its convent. When Mr. Whittier was here a quarter of a century ago the journey down the river in a canoe seemed to him a wearisome undertaking. He wrote a poem on the "Red River Voyageur," which opens with this vivid and correct description of the river itself:

Out and in the river is winding
The links of its long, red chain
Through belts of dusky pineland,
And gusty leagues of plain.

He depicts the "voyageur," when tired and exhausted, regaining his spirits and vigour on hearing the chime of the bells of St. Boniface. Then the poet, as his manner is, ends his verses with a comparison and points a moral :

Even so in our mortal journey
The bitter north winds blow,
And thus upon life's Red River
Our hearts, as oarsmen, row.

And when the Angel of Shadow
Rests his feet on wave and shore,
And our eyes grow dim with watching
And our hearts faint at the oar,

Happy is he who heareth

The signal of his release

In the bells of the Holy City,
The chimes of eternal "peace.”

CHAPTER II,

THE CITY OF WINNIPEG.

WINNIPEG, the capital of Manitoba, surprised me more at first sight than any one of the countless cities which I have visited on the North American Continent. The older ones frequently surpassed my utmost expectations; the younger as frequently fell below the most moderate estimate which I had formed of them in imagination. Indeed, a pretentious city in the Far West is commonly on a par, in external appearance, with a paltry village elsewhere. I had read much about Winnipeg before visiting it, and the impression left on my mind was not favourable. The Earl of Southesk, who was here in 1859, writes that "there were houses enough to form a sort of scattered town." Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle, who followed him three years later, saw nothing worthy of note. Captain Butler, who paid it a visit in 1870, refers to it, in his "Great

Lone Land," as "the little village," and "the miserable-looking village of Winnipeg." I knew that changes had been made since Captain Butler came hither on duty connected with the Red River expedition under Colonel (now Sir Garnet) Wolseley; but I was not prepared to find that they had been so great and startling as those which I actually beheld.

Walking down Main-street, on my way to the Pacific Hotel, I could hardly realize that I was in a city incorporated so recently as 1873 and supposed to be far beyond the confines of civilization. The street is 132 ft. wide and it is lined with shops, churches, and public buildings which would do credit to a much older and more famous

place. The solid look of the majority of the edifices is as noteworthy as their ornamental design. They are built of cream-coloured brick. It is at a comparatively late stage in the growth of a western city, either in the United States or Canada, that the buildings are composed of anything but wood; hence, a stranger in one of them is apt to arrive at the conclusion that the buildings are erected for a temporary purpose. Here, however, the effect is the reverse. The Town Hall and the Market, the Post Office, the Dominion Land Office, and the Custom House, to name but a few of the public edifices, are as sub