LETTER I. 15 



man, while betting on the various teams runs 

 very high. Amateurs are rare in the extreme 

 at least, so we were informed by a Canadian 

 gentleman with whom we travelled. Ah, well ; 

 I expect the fact is that the ardent spirits who 

 could find no better battlefield than the cricket- 

 ground if they were at home in England are in 

 Canada measuring their strength against the wild 

 woods of untamed nature, and winning, not a 

 match, but a livelihood by the work of their own 

 hands, knocking down trees with a girth of thirty 

 feet instead of hitting sixes to leg. 



