made a visit through Red River Settlement, on their way to the
North Saskatchewan to observe an eclipse. The disappointment of the
party was very great, for, after travelling three thousand miles, their
fate was "to sit in a marsh and view the eclipse through the clouds, so
heavy was the rain."

The three astronomers have given their account under assumed names in a
little book, of which there are few copies in Canada. Their view of Red
River Settlement in 1860 is a vivid picture.

What an extraordinary Settlement! Here is a Colony of about ten
thousand souls scattered among plantations for thirty miles along the
Red and half as many along the Assiniboine River, almost wholly
dependent for intelligence from the outer world on one stern-wheeled
steamer. That breaks down; and before word can be sent of their complete
isolation, weeks must pass before the old and painful canoe-route by way
of Lake of the Woods can be opened, or the wagon make its tedious
journey to the headwaters of the Red and back, improvising on the way
its own ferries over the swift and deep streams which feed it.

Finding haste of no avail, and despatching our luggage on carts to the
Upper Fort and centre of the Settlement, twenty miles away, we start
there on foot the next day to view the land and its inhabitants. The
road, "the King's road," is a mere cart-track in the deep loam, taking
its independent course on either side of the houses, all of which front
the river in a single wavering line; for the country is given up
absolutely to farming, for which the rich mould, said to be three or
four feet deep, eminently fits it; and the lots each with a narrow
frontage at the bank of the river, extends back two miles into the
prairie. All is at a dead level. John Omand had asked us to dine at his
house; but accidentally passing it without recognizing it from his
description, we select a fair representative of the common class of
houses, and ask for dinner. It is a log-cabin, like all of this class
(some far better ones have walls of stone) with a thatched roof and a
rough stone and mortar chimney planted against one wall. Inside is but a
single room, well whitewashed, as is indeed the outside and
exceptionally tidy; a bed occupies one corner, a sort of couch another,
a rung ladder leads up to loose boards overhead which form an attic, a
trap door in the middle of the room opens to a small hole in the ground
where milk and butter are kept cool; from the