20 



his old home, there to unite himself to the intrepid partner of his > 

 labor and his life. 



How These Settlers Succeed in the Forest. 



These settlers leave home, each in Ins own direction, seldom in im- 

 portant groups. They generally select the nearest spot, follow the 

 roads opened in the forest, or leave the road for some notion that 

 strikes them, or from some information they receive ; they bury them- 

 selves sometimes in the bush, separated from the rest of the world by 

 the absence of roads. Aftex years of misery of all kinds, the govern- 

 ment perhaps comes to their aid and gives them means of exit. There 

 are people established thus, 20, 30, even 50 miles from our establish- 

 ments. Snowshoes in winter, canoes in summer : such are their 

 modes of travel. Again, have they chosen good land for themselves? 

 How often, after having laboriously cleared off the bush, have they 

 not found that, to their grief, the soil was ungrateful and would al- 

 ways be so. 



There are thus whole parishes that never ought to have been cut 

 out of the bush. The timber was large and stout, but the farmer's 

 land will never bear full crops. The wood was valuable, but the 

 crops that succeed are no great things. 



The elementary part of settling has thus been left to itself ; it ar- 

 ranged itself as it could, rather by chance. Can we guide these precious 

 elements, urge them on in groups towards those rich valleys where 

 the thick layer of alluvium promises them success ; make them re- 

 nounce the rule of each one for himself, his own way to each, put a stop 

 to isolation, which paralyses everything, and replace it by the bene- 

 fits to be derived from the group, the beneficent effect of the parish ? 

 This is really what I aim at, and for my encouragement I have the 

 experience of what has been done among us during the last three or 

 four years. With an object, excellent from their point of view, per- 

 sons whose position commands the respect of the public, have come 

 among us for the purpose of recruiting the population of whole 

 parishes to people our Canadian North- West. Aided by the facilities 

 80 freely granted by the C. P. R., they send off in spring several train- 

 loads of entire settlements. These families, transported with their 

 furniture, and even with their stock, are carried to places two or three 

 thousand miles away. There, is an entire parish moving otf along the 

 line, and about to settle under other skies. 



