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