10 



of the wealthiest farmers in the Municipality of Argyle ; Mr. 

 Christian Johnson, implement dealer at Baldur ; Mr. Einar 

 Jonasson, now residing in the village of Gimli ; and the writer. 

 The delegates started for the Northwest on July 2nd, ac- 

 companied by Mr. Taylor, going by way of Milwaukee. There 

 they were 1 joined by Mr. S. Christopherson — now a successful 

 farmer residing at Grund, Manitoba — as a delegate on behalf 

 of the Icelanders in Wisconsin, and then the party proceeded 

 to Moorhead, Minnesota, that being the nearest railway point 

 to what was generally known as Fort Garry. From Moor- 

 head the delegates proceeded down the Red River by one of 

 the old sternwheel steamers, landing at Fort Garry — Winni- 

 peg — on the 1 6th day of July, 1875, which is the date on which 

 the first Icelanders set foot on Canadian soil in the Great 

 Northwest. 



The delegates were at once favorably impressed with the 

 Red River country, although it did not look very inviting in 

 the neighborhood of Winnipeg at the time they arrived, the 

 grasshoppers having eaten up almost every green thing. 



After having seen the country round Winnipeg and made 

 enquiries about the different sections within a radius of one 

 hundred miles or so, the delegates decided to go to Lake Win- 

 nipeg and examine the west shore of that vast inland sea. 



Their reasons for fixing on that part of the country were 

 as follows : 



1. They thought that the grasshoppers would not be as 

 likely to do damage to crops in that region as on the prairie ; 

 2. there was abundant building timber and fuel in that sec- 

 tion ; 3. there was a waterway from that section to Winni- 

 peg ; 4. there was abundance of fine fish in the lake ; 5. a 

 large tract of land could be obtained there as an Icelandic re- 

 serve without interfering with other settlers ; 6. the main line 

 of the Canadian Pacific Railway was supposed to cross the 

 Red River at the present site of the town of Selkirk, and 

 would not be far from a settlement on the southwest shore of 

 Lake Winnipeg. 



The delegates proceeded to Lake Winnipeg in a York 

 boat, supplied by the Hudson's Bay Company, and had for a 

 guide the late Mr. Joseph Monkman from St. Peters. After 



