202 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



iiising only as law that which was announced from 

 their altars ; devoid of education, except such as 

 their priestly teachers thought fit to give them ; 

 taught only the patois which passes current there 

 for French, so that they should be unable to read 

 English papers ; and only just sufficiently well off in 

 that fertile land to enable them to lead a lazy, idle 

 life. In fine, both Company and priesthood were de- 

 termined to oppose an immigration which would be 

 destructive to the trading monopoly of the one, and 

 to the unquestioned authority of the other. Both 

 combined in describing the coiintry as unfit for settle- 

 ment ; and quite recently a Eoman Catholic bishop, 

 who has long resided in the north-west, published an 

 interesting work upon that country, biit full of start- 

 ling statements as to the fearful severity of its climate, 

 and of its general unsuitability for farming purposes. 

 He endeavoured as far as possible to depreciate its 

 value politically, so as to have deterred the Govern- 

 ment of Canada from taking steps towards opening 

 out communication with it. 



Canada, a thickly-wooded country, only affords a 

 home to settlers after years of toil spent in clearing 

 the land. The western province, now known as 

 Ontario, has long been the go-ahead portion of British 

 Xorth America, whilst that to the east, now called 

 Quebec, was always lethargic, progress being neither 

 known nor desired there. 



The inhabitants of these two provinces lying side 



