omestic animals, which are now abundant. Wheat, barley,
oats, maize, potatoes and hops thrive; flax and hemp are poor and
stinted. The river banks are cultivated for half a mile inland, but the
back level country remains in its natural state, and furnishes a coarse
hay for the long and severe winter which lasts from November to April,
when the Lake Winnipeg is unfrozen and the river navigation
commences--via Norway house entrepot--at the north extremity of the
lake. The population is in number about 6000, consisting of Europeans,
half-breeds and Indians. The two principal churches, the Protestant and
Roman Catholic, the gaol, the Hudson's Bay Company's chief building, the
residence of the Roman Catholic bishop, and the houses of some of the
retired officers of the fur trade, are built of stone, which has to be
brought from a distance; but the houses of the settlers are built of
wood. A great abundance of English goods is imported, both by the
Hudson's Bay Company and by individuals in the company's ships, to York
factory, and disposed of in the colony at moderate prices. There are
fifteen wind and three water mills to grind the wheat and prepare the
malt for the settlers. The Hudson's Bay Company have long endeavoured,
by rewards and arguments, to excite an exportation of tallow, hides,
wool, &c. to England, but the bulky nature of the exports, the long and
dangerous navigation of the Hudson's Bay, and the habits of the
half-bred race, who form the mass of the people and generally prefer
chasing the buffalo to agriculture or regular industry, have rendered
their efforts ineffectual."--_Montgomery Martin, Esq._

(29) "It is true there is another communication via Montreal, but the
country in that direction is not of such a nature as to admit of
introducing the rollers or the waggons upon the portages."--_Bishop
of Montreal._

(30) Mackenzie says, "There is not perhaps a finer country in the world
for the residence of uncivilized man, than that which occupies the shore
between the Red River and Lake Superior; fish, various fowl and wild
rice are in great plenty: the fruits are, strawberries, plums, cherries,
gooseberries, &c. &c."

(31) "Of this profitable trade the citizens of the United States possess
at present all but a monopoly. Their whaling fleet consists of 675
vessels, most of them 400 tons burden, and amounting in all to 100,000
tons. The majority of them cruise in the Pacific. It requires between
15,00