arriving at the tiioiith of the canal, which is but a mile 

 long, we were detained five hours waiting our turn to get 

 through its one lock. The vessel in front of us was the 

 largest steamer on the lakes — the Mariposa — over 4000 

 tons burthen, and while the lock comfortably accommo- 

 dated four large schooners at one lockage, this steamer 

 just about filled the lock, so that no other vessel could 

 enter. She belonged to Ashtabula, O., and was going 

 up with a light cargo of coal and would load iron ore for 

 her return trip. The Canadians seem to think that our 

 Government made a mistake in enforcing the retaliation 

 policy on this canal but don't care very much about it, 

 now that the astonishment and surprise at the action have 

 worn away. The Canadian Pacific Railway is the prin- 

 cipal and about the only sufferer, and they cannot be very 

 severely hit, as the total Canadian toiuiage passing through 

 the canal last year was, as I have said, but a fraction over 

 4 per cent, of the whole. 



On reaching Fort William (an old Hud.son Bay 

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

 was a big wagon load of fine French clarets, brandies 

 and Canadian whiskies, marked ' ' Hudson Bay Company. ' ' 

 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 intelligent and well informed commer- 

 cial traveler, Robert Atkinson, of London, Canada, I 

 learned that the head offices of the Hudson Bay Company 

 for this district are at Winnipeg, and that on his last trip 

 to that town there were no less than thirty-two drummers 



44 



