182 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 



preferred lying in the open air to the nasty beds. This was 

 a sensible and well-informed woman, although she had not 

 got quit of her home prejudices in some little matters. The 

 difficulty of obtaining water to wash her children might soon 

 have been got over, by going for it herself to the lake or creek, 

 neither of which were seventy yards distant; and if a vessel 

 for holding water had been denied her, she might have taken 

 the children to the water. People brought up in an artificial 

 state of society must often wonder at their own helplessness 

 on first arriving in Canada. I quite agree with my country 

 woman in the dirtiness of the beds in some parts of western 



Canada. My friend C much oftener slept on the floor than 



in the beds ; but long before this time my notions of delicacy 

 in this respect had been overcome by reflection, if not blunted 

 by habit, and I reposed as soundly while in Canada, as ever I 

 did in the most luxurious night of my life. 



The surface between the village of London and Lake Erie 

 is undulating, varying from clay to sand, and a very small 

 portion can be termed rich. Three miles from Port Stanley 

 the soil is oak openings of the poorest sand. There is a 

 scarcity of running water, Kettle Creek being the only instance 

 seen in a distance of thirty miles. Many orchards are to be 

 met with, and soil and climate seem highly congenial to the 

 apple-tree. 



The settlers on what is known by Talbot road, running 

 through St Thomas, and at no great distance from Lake Erie, 

 live in mean log-houses, with miserable barns and fences. The 

 clearances extend from thirty to sixty acres, and improvement 

 of every description seems at a stand amongst them. Labour 

 ers wages were stated at Si 20 a-year, with bed and board. 

 Wheat, crop 1832, was 2s. 9d. cash, and 3s. sterling, store- 

 pay, per bushel. Mr Gregory told me he had purchased good 

 wheat at St Thomas at Is. 9d, per bushel, and it has been, 

 known as low as Is. sterling. 



