32 ME. KITSON'S OPINION 



themselves during the winter by hunting ; .and in the following 

 spring, by unheard-of exertion, succeeded in bringing seed 

 from the valley of the Mississippi. From this time to 1826 

 they were unharmed, but in that year and 1852 their crops 

 were submerged by river floods. The grasshoppers again re- 

 turned in 1856, were most destructive to the crops in 1857, 

 and threatened destruction in 1858, but were providentially 

 stayed. Notwithstanding these repeated calamities, 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, Mr. Kitson, 

 the mayor of that city, a man of great intelligence, who has 

 been during the last fourteen years engaged in the fur trade 

 at Pembina, on the American side of the boundary line at 

 Ked Kiver. He has been at the British settlement during all 

 seasons of the year, and knows no country in which the peo- 

 ple live such an abundant and easy life. Their farms extend 

 for thirty miles along the river. With very little labour they 

 produce every thing that they require. 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 dan- 

 ger in the climate arises from early frost, which generally 

 comes in September, but sometimes in August, and prevents 

 the corn from ripening. The crops, however, are rarely lost 

 from this cause. The grasshoppers are more to be feared. 

 But the population, now about 4,000, increases. The peo- 

 ple are chiefly Scotch and French Canadians. Mr. Kitson 

 had never been on the Saskatchewan, but had often heard 

 the valley described as very fertile. The soil in all the val- 

 leys he had ever seen in that country is a rich black loam, 

 and near the rivers there is plenty of timber. Cultivation has 

 been very little tried, as the Indians here live on game and 



