THE GREAT NORTHWEST 231 



passing through the canal, as I have said, is but a small 

 fraction of the whole. 



On reaching Fort William (an old Hudson Bay 

 Company's fort) the first thing to attract my notice 

 was a big wagon-load of fine French clarets, brandies 

 and Canadian whiskies, marked " Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany." I know not how strong the proof of the 

 liquors may have been, but I do know that the load 

 itself was to me proof strong as Holy Writ, that the 

 people up this way have expensive tastes and the 

 wherewithal to gratify them. From an unusually in- 

 telligent and well informed commercial traveler of 

 London, Canada, I learned that the head offices of the 

 Hudson Bay Company for this district are at Winni- 

 peg, and that on his last trip to that town there were 

 no fewer than thirty-two drummers at the principal 

 hotel ; that these represented the dry-goods and ready- 

 made clothing interests alone, and that the buyers for 

 these departments of the Hudson Bay Company looked 

 at every man's samples before they bought a dollar's 

 worth. Now, as this company also sells groceries, 

 wines, crockery, hardware, drugs, stoves and tinware, 

 guns, ammunition, etc., the reader will easily see what 

 an enormous trade they still monopolize up here. 



At Fort William the C. P. E. E. has three big grain 

 elevators, and though the railroad ships the grain by 

 lake and through the canal as fast as boats can be 

 loaded, yet the elevators are often full to the roof. 



