]56 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



bring up the business of the country to a parallel with its 

 population. The first has moved on with a slow and laggard 

 step, while the last has pressed on with a series of continued 

 strides outstripping the imagination. Men and capital, men 

 with capital, and men skilled in the arts, and enterprising, are 

 they who are wanting there. Mill-wrights, and millers, tan- 

 ners, and leather-dressers, saddlers, shoe-makers, wool-card- 

 ers, brick-makers, brick-layers, stone-masons, and carriage- 

 makers — traders with capital, knowledge, and liberal views 

 of trade, will all find a broad field and a fair chance. 



The emigrant comes to this country frequently in his large, 

 covered freight wagon, drawn by four horses, containing his 

 household utensils, called, in the language of the country, 

 plunder : his wife, and girls, and small children, put in to 

 make stowage, and himself, and one or two of the bigger 

 boys on foot, driving the cows and hogs. In this way he 

 travels day after da}^, and week after week, sometimes month 

 after month, stopping by the side of a brook at night, cooking 

 his food with the wood lying near, making his supper Avith 

 spice superior to that of the Indies — a good appetite — and 

 sleeping at night on the bank of the stream, where he had 

 before spread his table : his board and couch supplied by 

 nature. If the weather is inclement, all bundle into the wagon 

 or on the ground, beneath its cover, and slumber there. When 

 he finds a place that suits him for settlement, if it is unoccu- 

 pied, he is of course at no loss for accommodation. He has 

 the same lodging that he had upon his journey, and, being his 

 own entertainer, any defects in the entertainment will not 

 make a difference between such good friends. He lodges in 

 the wagon or by its side, cooking his repast from the faggots 

 lying in the grove, till he has laid up a log cabin for his resi- 

 dence. This is generally constructed of logs as taken from 

 the grove, unshaped, and with the bark on : with a puncheon 



