134 FRl'lT RAXCIIIXn. 



for that same palate " eaiu!}- " has as irresistible an 

 attraction as " sweets " liavc for the young son or 

 daughter of Old England. 



At a Canadian meal, especially if you take it in 

 an hotel, you select your food from the menu, and 

 you are served with what you select — meat, potatoes, 

 cauliflower — each on a separate small dish, so that, 

 if you exercise your privilege pretty widely, you 

 speedily find yourself entrenched behind quite an 

 array of culinary bastions, which would excite the 

 dismay of an ordinary diner, unless pricked on by the 

 stimulus of an extra dose of mountain air. As a rule, 

 all the meals in an hotel are table d'hote aflairs. You 

 have to eat at the times when meals are ready, or wait 

 until they are. Fortunately, the opportunities for 

 eating while you travel are ampler and more con- 

 venient than they are when travelling in England. 

 Nobody need arrive late at his hotel and go to bed 

 supperless. Three meals are generally taken — break- 

 fast, dinner at noon exactly, and supper at 6 p.m. 

 Tea or coffee, preferably tea, is drunk at all three 

 meals, even at dinner. On the other hand, in the 

 ordinary course of things, intoxicating drinks never 

 appear on the Canadian dinner-table, and even at 

 formal banquets they are generally absent. 



Into the mysteries of " sweet corn " (maize ears 

 boiled), maple syrup, squash pie, pumpkin pie, and 

 so on, my courage will not avail to conduct me. These 

 things must be eaten to be appreciated. On the . 

 whole, from what I have observed, the Canadians 

 would appear to be moderate eaters, although good 

 cooks can everywhere command unusually high 

 salaries. A skilled man cook, who can wrestle sue- 



