and, in it,
muffled up to the chin in sumptuous skins and also capped in furs, sits
the radiant, lovely Canadienne, the milk and roses of her complexion
enhanced by the proximity of the dark furs. As they skim past over the
white snow, under a glorious sunlit blue sky, I can call to mind no
prettier sight, no more beautiful picture, to be seen on this huge
continent, so far as I have got yet.

One cannot help being struck, on coming here from the United States, at
the number of lady pedestrians in the streets. They are not merely
shopping, I am assured, nor going straight from one point to another of
the town, but taking their constitutional walks in true English fashion.
My impresario took me in the afternoon to a club for ladies and
gentlemen, and there I had the, to me, novel sight of a game of hockey.
On a large frozen pond there was a party of young people engaged in this
graceful and invigorating game, and not far off was a group of little
girls and boys imitating their elders very sensibly and, as it seemed to
me, successfully. The clear, healthy complexion of the Canadian women is
easy to account for, when one sees how deep-rooted, even after
transplantation, is the good British love of exercise in the open air.

Last evening I was taken to a ball, and was able to see more of the
Canadian ladies than is possible in furs, and on further acquaintance I
found them as delightful in manners as in appearance; English in their
coloring and in their simplicity of dress, American in their natural
bearing and in their frankness of speech.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A HOCKEY PLAYER.]

Churches, churches, everywhere. In my drive this afternoon, I counted
twenty-eight in a quarter of an hour. They are of all denominations,
Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, etc., etc. The
Canadians must be still more religious--I mean still more
church-going--than the English.

From seven in the evening on Saturday, all the taverns are closed, and
remain closed throughout Sunday. In England the Bible has to compete
with the gin bottle, but here the Bible has all its own way on Sundays.
Neither tram-car, omnibus, cab, nor hired carriage of any description is
to be seen abroad. Scotland itself is outdone completely; the land of
John Knox has to take a back seat.

The walls of this city of churches and chapels are at the present moment
covered with huge coarse posters announcing in loud