_Manitoba_ only waited for our arrival to cast loose her moorings
and enter the dark blue waters of Lake Huron. "Haste" will not express
the excitement of the scene. Men, rushing hither and thither in search of
friends, traps, and luggage, were goaded to fury by the calmness of the
officials and their determination not to be hurried. Hearing there was no
chance of having tea on board that night, and discovering near the wharf
a signboard announcing that meals could be obtained at all hours (except,
as we were told, that particular one), we with difficulty persuaded the
proprietress to let us have something to eat. Amidst muttered grumblings
that she was "slaved to death," that "her life was not worth a rap," and
so on, every remark being emphasized with a plate or dish, we were at
last supplied with bread, cheese, and beef-steak, for which we were
kindly allowed to pay fifty cents (2s. 6d.) each.

The scene on board the boat beggars description. The other steamers being
still ice-bound on Lake Superior, the _Manitoba_ was obliged to take
as much freight and as many passengers as she could carry, many of the
latter having been waiting in Sarnia upwards of ten days for her
departure. Surveying parties, immigrants of almost every nation on their
way to make homes in the great North West, crowded the decks and
gangways. The confusion of tongues, the shrill cries of the frightened
and tired children, the oaths of excited men, and the trundling and
thumping of the baggage, mingled with the shrieks of adjacent engines
"made night hideous." Porters and cabmen jostled women laden with baskets
of linen, brought on board at the last minute, when the poor tired
stewardess had no time to administer the well-merited reprimand;
passengers rushed about in search of the purser, anxious to secure their
state-rooms before they were usurped by some one else.

It was midnight when the commotion had subsided, and quarters were