44 Field and Forest Rambles. 



words, the vigorous, and healthy, and the happy survive and 

 multiply ; and it would be well if all intending reclaimers 

 of the wilderness, whether bound for Canada or elsewhere, 

 did fully realize the hard struggles before them, — inasmuch as, 

 however inviting the prospect may be beforehand, or to the 

 casual ori-looker, in serious practice there are many obstacles 

 to be overcome which demand the full exercise of vigorous 

 manhood, and unusual patience, energy, and perseverance. 

 We can easily suppose, therefore, that the privations of the 

 early Canadian settlers must have pretty well demonstrated 

 these facts with reference to the climate. 



The most unhealthy seasons of the year are during the thaws 

 of spring, and in autumn at the setting in of the cold months, 

 when the rapid transitions of temperature invariably create 

 sickness. Consumption is always most fatal in midsummer, 

 after the variable weather. Inflammations of the lungs, es- 

 pecially pneumonia, are prevalent in winter, the latter being 

 the disease par excellence of the climate, which carries off 

 the aged and persons whose constitutions have been under- 

 mined by intemperance, and is the chief exciting cause of 

 consumption. It seems that alcoholic drinks here, as in all 

 very cold countries, recommend themselves, arid no doubt, 

 under certain conditions, are beneficial ; but both whites and 

 Indians seem perfectly unable to withstand the allurements of 

 whisky drinking, so that they are either confirmed drunkards 

 or teetotalers, the latter to an extent often injurious to weakly 

 individuals. It is a frequent subject of remark that the second 

 and third generations of Europeans born and brought up in 

 the colony have not the strength nor stamina of their fore- 

 fathers, and this is evidently a general rule, — the result, per- 

 haps, of several influences. Looking at the subject in what 

 seems to me its proper bearings, it will be observed that the 

 original reclaimers of these vast forests must of necessity have 

 been a temperate and hardy race, dependent entirely on their 

 own exertions, distant from the demoralizing temptations of 



