These Russniaks are not little Russians in appearance. They are in fact
a race of giants. In the party that came over none of the men were less
than six feet tall, and two or three of them were more than seven feet
in height. The women were also very tall and fine looking.

The party consisted of nine men, ten women, and twenty-five children.
One of the number who could speak a little German said that they were
farmers and goatherds, and had come out to Canada on the advice of a
British agent, who promised them that they would be able to earn lots of
money and be free from taxes in Winnipeg.

The dress of these people was very picturesque.

Both men and women wore sheepskin coats, made with the hair inside, and
laced down the front with leathern thongs. Both wore rough hide boots,
the men having the tops of theirs turned down and covered with handsome
embroidery.

The women and children had white homespun linen skirts, embroidered at
the edges, and the men had trousers of the same material.

Neither women nor children had any stockings, and the children had
their arms and heads bare, as well as their legs.

Each man wore a wide, beautifully embroidered belt, from which hung a
long sheath-knife and two or three pouches made of skin, which held
food, water, and tobacco. On their heads the men wore broad straw hats
with cock's feathers stuck at the side.