APPENDIX. 183 



grasshoppers, which have more than once nearly 

 destroyed their crops. Notwithstanding these cala- 

 mities, and though they have no market for their 

 produce beyond a small demand by the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, the Selkirk settlement is in a flourishing 

 condition. 



"I had the pleasure of meeting at St. Paul's (250 

 miles from the Red River) Mr. Kitson, the Mayor of 

 that city, a man of great intelligence, who is engaged in 

 the fur trade at Pembina, on the American side ot 

 the boundary line at Red River. He has been at 

 the British settlement during all seasons of the 

 year, and knows no country in which the people 

 live such an abundant and easy life: their farms 

 extend for 30 miles along the river; with very 

 little labour they produce everything that they re- 

 quire ; the rivers and lakes swarm with fish, and 

 the land has an abundance of game. But the 

 summer is short and the winter long. The chief 

 danger in the climate arises from early frost, which 

 sometimes prevents the corn from ripening. The 

 crops, however, are rarely lost from this cause. The 

 grasshoppers are more to be feared. But the popula- 

 tion increases. Mr. Kitson had never been on the 

 Saskatchewan, but had often heard the country de- 

 scribed as very fertile. The soil in all that country 

 that he had seen is a rich black loam, and near the 



