feeding the line and creating populations along its route. The cars which
carry to distant markets the crops raised by the settlers, bring back to
them the necessaries of civilized life.

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 _regime_ 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