152 SIB WILLIAM EAMSAY 



reminded us of the old Fenimore Cooper days. Most of these 

 people look like very decayed gentlemen, grave and sedate, but 

 very seedy. The Rockies are rocky and bare, the Selkirks like 

 the Alps ; all covered with snow and with pine trees on the 

 lower slopes. 



Then we came back. Most of our friends went on to Van- 

 couver and Victoria ; but we wanted to spend as long a time as 

 possible with Pat Buchanan. So we turned at Medicine Hat 

 the oddest of a lot of odd names along this route and took a 

 narrow gauge line south to Montana. At Great Falls, on the 

 Missouri, we found Pat, and were introduced to his numerous 

 acquaintances there. It is a pretty town and perfectly civilised. 

 By the way, in all American towns the electric car is the chief 

 feature. There are overhead wires and cars like our tram cars, 

 run at a prodigious rate, careless of life apparently, yet there 

 are very few accidents. I suppose the fittest, i.e. those who 

 don't get killed, survive. They are delightful as a form of motion 

 and almost rival the bicycle. That creature, too, has penetrated 

 everywhere, and is used even over the prairie. We drove out to 

 Pat's ranche, and stayed there for 11 days. It is a fine place. 

 He and his partner must possess at least 20 miles square of 

 territory, as much say as Stirlingshire. It is not all theirs, 

 but they hold all the water, and the rest of the land is useless 

 to anyone else. They lead an Arcadian life, have a comfortable 

 house and many helps, men, horses and cows and innumer- 

 able sheep. They are doing first rate now that the wool is 

 looking up. 



To cut a long story short, we came back via Niagara and stayed 

 three days at Springfield, Mass., with South worth, Bemsen's 

 brother-in-law, very pleasantly ; caught the steamer at Quebec, 

 and after a good passage got home last Monday. It seems as 

 if I had never been away. Such is the perversity of human 

 nature." 



