The Great North-West— The Territories. 407 



those attained in any of the great cities in the world. Unknown a 

 few years ago, except for some differences which had arisen amongst 

 its people, we see Winnipeg now with a population unanimously 

 joining in happy concord, and rapidly lifting it to the front rank 

 amongst the commercial centres of the continent. We may look in 

 vain elsewhere for a situation so favourable and so commanding — 

 many as are the fair regions of which we can boast. 



"Nowhere can you find a situation whose natural advantages 

 promise so great a future as that which seems ensured to Manitoba 

 and to Winnipeg, the Heart City of our Dominion. The measure- 

 less meadows which commence here stretch without interruption of 

 their good soil westward to your boundary. The Province is a green 

 sea over which the summer winds pass in waves of rich grasses and 

 flowers, and on this vast extent it is only as yet, here and there, that 

 a yellow patch shows some gigantic wheat-field. .... 



" Like a great net cast over the whole are the bands and clumps 

 of poplar wood which are everywhere to be met with, and which, 

 no doubt, when the prairie fires are more carefully guarded against, 

 will, wherever they are wanted, still further adorn the landscape. 

 The meshes of this wood-netting are never farther than twenty or 

 thirty miles apart. Little hay swamps and sparkling lakelets teem- 

 ing with wild fowl are always close at hand ; and if the surface 

 water in some of these has alkali, excellent water can always be had 

 in others, and by the simple process of digging for it a short distance 

 beneath the sod with a spade, the soil being so devoid of stones that 

 it is not even necessary to use a pick. No wonder that under these 

 circumstances we hear no croaking. .... 



" There was not one person who had manfully faced the first 

 difficulties — always far less than those to be encountered in the 

 older Provinces — but said that he was getting on well, and he was 

 glad he had come ; and he generally added that he believed his 

 bit of the country must be the best, and that he only wished his 

 friends could have the same good fortune, for his expectations were 

 more than realized. It is well to remember that the men who will 

 succeed here, as in every young community, are usually the able- 

 bodied. . ....... 



