230 SPORT INDEED 



were on their way to buy land near "Winnipeg. One 

 wanted to sell land up there, and wanted badly to sell 

 it. Merchants were returning from England, Montreal 

 and Toronto, having bought their fall and winter 

 stock ; others were journeying across the continent 

 en route to Japan and China. 



Coming up the Soo (or Sault Ste. Marie) Kiver, out 

 of Georgian Bay, I was deeply impressed with the 

 magnitude of the great Northwest's resources. An 

 almost continuous string of grain and ore-laden 

 schooners, steamers, barges and whale-backs kept pass- 

 ing us for miles, and on arriving at the mouth of the 

 canal, which is but a mile long, we were detained four 

 hours waiting our turn to get through its one lock. 

 The vessel in front of us was the largest steamer on 

 the Lakes — the Mariposa — over 4,000 tons burthen, and 

 while the lock could comfortably accommodate four 

 large schooners at one lockage this steamer so filled 

 it that no other vessel could enter. She belonged to 

 Ashtabula, O., and was going up with a light cargo of 

 coal, and would reload with iron ore for her return 

 trip. The Canadians seemed to think that our Gov- 

 ernment made a mistake in enforcing the retaliation 

 policy on this canal, but after their astonishment and 

 surprise at the action had worn away they became indif- 

 ferent. The Canadian Pacific Eailway was the prin- 

 cipal and about the only sufferer ; and it wasn't much 

 of a sufferer, either, as the total Canadian tonnage 



