at the school have obtained a
considerable amount of learning, and some are ordained ministers of the
gospel, and others catechists and schoolmasters at various missionary
stations scattered throughout the wide extent of Rupert's Land.

You may like to hear something more about that wonderful land, that
_terra ignota_ of British Central America. At the time of which I have
been speaking it was supposed that the only fertile land was to be found
on the banks of the Red River, but it is now ascertained that an
extremely rich and fertile belt extends from the Red River right across
the continent, for eight hundred miles or more, to the base of the Rocky
Mountains, where it unites with the new province of Columbia. This
fertile belt is capable of supporting innumerable herds of cattle,
flocks of sheep, and droves of horses, and of giving employment and
happy homes to millions of the human race. It produces wheat and
barley, and oats, and Indian corn, or maize, in great perfection, and
potatoes and a variety of other roots and vegetables of all sorts, and
the finest grass for hay, and hemp and tobacco, and many other plants
with difficulty grown in England. The rivers are full of fish, and game
of all sorts abound. The climate is very uniform throughout, like that
of Upper Canada--warm in summer and very cold in winter, but dry and
healthy in the extreme.

When, as I hope the case may be before long, those lakes and rivers
along which we travelled on our journey from Lake Superior to the Red
River are made navigable for steamers, this country will become the
great highway to British Columbia, to China, Japan, and the
wide-spreading shores and isles of the Pacific. With a line of
settlements established across it, the journey may easily be performed,
and some day, Harry, you and I will run over, and we will pay a visit to
the very scenes which I have been describing to you; but instead of
roving savages, murdering and scalping in every direction, living by
hunting and fishing, I hope that we may find the Indians settled down as
Christian men, and persevering cultivators of the soil which Providence
will compel to yield a rich return for their labour. You will wish to
know more of your uncle Malcolm's and my proceedings. We soon became
acquainted with the good clergyman I have mentioned, and after a time he
suggested to us that, as our education was far from perfect, it would be
wise if we recommenced our studies. T