204 ELEPHANT YORKSHIREMEN. 



measure, may have been owing to their respective breeds, 

 but I could not resist auguring unfavourably of the land from 

 the poverty of the animals grazing on it. 



On leaving the prairie I found my horse getting tired ; and 

 on applying to a farmer on the banks of the Thames, he 

 readily consented to furnish oats, for which he would not 

 accept of payment. I also was asked into his house, and 

 partook of his hospitality. I could not with propriety enquire 

 the gentleman s name, but learned his farm was Lot tenth, of 

 Concession first. I need not, through this medium, ask him to 

 accept of my thanks, however grateful I may feel, as there is 

 little chance of his seeing 1 or hearing of my lucubrations. 



I reached the inn at the mouth of the Thames, where I 

 remained for the night, getting a clean and good bed, fried 

 pork morning and evening, and acting as my own ostler. 

 In the morning I walked over a considerable extent of the 

 shores of Lake St Clair, and the mouth of the Thames. The 

 soil is exceedingly poor, and so wet that animals cannot walk 

 over much of it. Here I saw the Thames steam-boat coming 

 down the river from Chatham, which had a singular appear 

 ance when viewed from the prairie, the river being about two 

 feet below the surface, the ground so perfectly level, and 

 without an object of any kind, that the vessel seemed gliding 

 on land. 



I left the inn after breakfast, and reached Detroit in 

 the afternoon, with my horse nearly done up. By the way 

 I met an elephant walking on the road towards Chatham, 

 covered with canvass, and attended by two men on horseback. 

 A waggon led the cavalcade, in which I was told there was a lion 

 and some other animals. The exhibiting of animals must yet 

 be an indifferent trade in Canada, when population is so thin 

 and poor. 



I met many old-country Yorkshiremen at Detroit. The 

 ostler who received my horse was from that county ; a 

 flash fellow, strutting the streets with a scarlet frock coat, 

 collar and pocketlids of black velvet, with top boots and 

 buckskins, was a Yorkshire tailor ; and a Yorkshireman was 

 entertaining many listeners in the bar-room of the hotel while 

 dinner was preparing for me, having arrived after the regular 



