270 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



bearing beasts — districts as large as European 

 countries lying unnoticed in the vast territories 

 of British North America. 



All that is changed, though a great trade is still 

 carried on by means of these primitive but most 

 useful and graceful boats. Steamers ply upon 

 the lakes and ascend the rivers, the country is 

 being rapidly opened up, wrested from wild nature, 

 and turned into a habitation fit for civilised man. 

 One of the pleasantest canoe voyages I ever made 

 was from Fort William, at the mouth of the 

 Kaministiquoya, to Fort Garry, situated close to 

 the junction of the Assineboin with the Red 

 River of the North, and near to the shores of Lake 

 Winnipeg. That was but a few years ago ; but 

 how all that country has changed since then ! 

 Winnipeg was a very small place then, scarcely 

 knovm to the outside world. I remember I met a 

 family in the steamer on Lake Superior, a lady and 

 gentleman and their children, and when in the 

 course of the conversation it came out that they 

 were going to Winnipeg, I felt almost as much 

 astonished as if they had told me they were on 

 their way to spend the summer at their country 

 residence at the North Pole. Now Winnipeg has 

 become a flourishing town. The trading post of 



