NATIVE SPORTS 283 



The law in regard to drunkenness itself is strict. It 

 is an indictable offence to be in a state of intoxication. 

 The fact, apart from violence or disorderly conduct, 

 leads to arrest, imprisonment, or a heavy fine. All 

 public-houses are closed on election days and 

 Sundays, when trading, sports, and games are also 

 prohibited. 



The northern climate of Canada is too cold on the 

 whole to give scope for all the sport so general in 

 Australia and the Mother Country. The Canadians 

 have, however, excelled in sculling, the practice of 

 which may be seen carried on on all the great rivers 

 adjacent to large towns. Their national game is 

 lacrosse, said to be of Indian origin. The long 

 winters enable them to indulge in all the exhilarating 

 snow sports — ski-ing, tobogganing and sleighing — in 

 all of which the Canadian is a past master. The 

 ice carnivals at Montreal are universally famous. 



The many opportunities which the Golden West 

 affords have a tendency to monopolize the energies of 

 the inhabitants to the exclusion of other interests of 

 civilized life. In the eager desire to grow rich 

 the sesthetic side generally suffers. Even in the 

 great cities the commercial spirit dominates every- 

 thing. Canada has yet to produce its great masters 

 in art and literature. One might have expected a 

 French Canadian literature, but its growth was checked 

 at the outset by the discouragement of the Roman 

 Catholic Church, which prohibited the perusal, not 



