RED RIVER SETTLEMENT. 37 



settlers and half-breeds, who meet there to gossip and 

 treat each other to rum and brandy, as well as to 

 make their purchases. 



The Eed Eiver settlement extends beyond Foi-t 

 Garry for about twenty miles to the northward along 

 the banks of Eed Eiver, and about fifty to the west- 

 ward along its tributary, the Assiniboine. The 

 wealthier inhabitants live in large, well-built wooden 

 houses, and the poorer half-breeds in rough log huts, 

 or even Indian "lodges." There are several Pro- 

 testant churches, a Eomish cathedral and nunnery, and 

 schools of various denominations. The neighbouring 

 country is principally open, level prairie, the timber 

 being confined, with a few exceptions, to the banks of 

 the streams. The settlement dates from the year 

 1811, when the Earl of Selkirk purchased from the 

 Hudson's Bay Company and the Cree and Sauteux 

 Indians a large tract of land stretching along both 

 banks of the Eed Eiver and the Assiniboine. The 

 country was at that time inhabited only by wandering 

 tribes of Indians, and \dsited occasionally by the 

 employes of the North- West and Hudson's Bay Com- 

 panies, who had trading posts in the neighbourhood. 

 Vast herds of buffalo, now driven far to the west of 

 Eed Eiver, then ranged over its prairies, and fre- 

 quented the rich feeding grounds of the present 

 State of Minnesota, as far as the Mississippi. 



The first band of emigrants — Scotch families, sent 

 out under the auspices of Lord Selkirk — reached the 

 colony in 1812, and were reinforced by subsequent 

 detachments until the year 1815. Never did the 



