teachable servants, neat, clean, and careful, but have not constitutional
strength to endure hard work, and when separated from their friends
become lonely and dispirited. There is a large settlement of them at
Gimli, about sixty miles from Winnipeg, on Lake Winnipeg. Some of the
authorities in Winnipeg told me that, as an emigration speculation, they
were not a success. The grasshopper plague which visited Manitoba during
two consecutive seasons destroyed their crops, and the ravages of
smallpox during the fall of '76 and spring of '77 told upon them so
severely that they have so far only been an expense to the Canadian
Government.

The Hudson Bay Company's store had a great attraction for me. It was a
long, low building within the precincts of Fort Garry, stocked with
everything either useful or ornamental, from a ship's anchor to a lace
pocket-handkerchief; a sort of curiosity shop of all the necessaries and
luxuries of life; an outfitting establishment where one could not only
clothe oneself from head to foot, but furnish one's house from attic to
cellar, at very reasonable prices. Whatever the charges may be at the
outlying posts, competition keeps them within bounds in Winnipeg. As a
rule the goods are excellent in quality, and to judge by the number of
carts, carriages, and saddle-horses always grouped about the door of the
store, a thriving business is done there.

The Red River at Winnipeg is much wider than at any other point, yet so
high are the banks, that until quite close to it one cannot see the
water. On the opposite or western shore is St. Boniface, the terminus of
the branch line from Selkirk, and the site of the Roman Catholic
cathedral, convents, and schools. The cathedral, a large square building,
has a musical chime of bells, and the ringing of the "angelus," whose
sound floated over the prairie unmarred by steam whistles, factory bells,