LETTER II. 



Falls of Niagara. Canada "West. Mode of Farming. Short "Wheat Crop. 

 Average Produce. London. Price of Land. Climate. Diseases produced 

 by Malaria. Rich Lands more subject to them than poor. Proposed Route to 

 British Columbia. Red River and the Valley of the Saskatchewan. The 

 Hudson Bay Territory. Alleged Fertility of the Country. Failure of the 

 Selkirk Settlement. Plague of Grasshoppers. Mr. Kitson's Account of the 

 Settlement on Red River. Policy of Abandoning that Country to Canada. 

 Probable Over-estimate of its Value. 



TOWARDS evening the train landed us at Niagara, but we 

 caught no sign, either by sound or sight, of the great Falls till 

 we found ourselves seemingly close in front of them at the Clif- 

 ton House Hotel. The doors and windows of this hotel shake 

 day and night, though it is really a mile distant from the Falls, 

 and the sound seems no greater when you are close beside them 

 than it is here. Following Sidney Smith's example at Wood- 

 houselee, I pinned or wedged my door and window with com- 

 plete success, then took a moonlight view of the Falls, during 

 which we had the good fortune to see a lunar rainbow. After 

 a two-mile walk to the suspension bridge, I regret to be obliged 

 to confess that my first impression was one of disappointment. 

 The country is tame and flat though wooded, and the river 

 leaps from this flat into a deep gorge, on which you look down, 

 instead of finding yourself in a valley from which you might 

 look up. During the night you are roused by a sound like a 

 fearful storm, but it continually changes, and presently you 

 might imagine that you were close to 1000 railway engines 

 blowing off their steam. How eagerly one springs up to get 

 the first view in the morning sun ! 



