THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES. 



•207 



pleasing nor tasteful, although at a distance the two tinned 

 spires, 100 feet high glittering in the sunlight, give an im- 

 posing aspect to the building. They can be seen from a 

 great distance, and with the spire of St. James's Church on 

 the Assinniboine, are well-known landmarks. The inter- 

 nal decorations of St. Boniface, for so remote a region, 

 are very striking, and must necessarily exercise a potent 

 influence upon the large and singular congregation who 

 worship every Sunday within its walls. Two or three 

 very sweet-toned bells ring at matins and vespers, and to 

 a stranger just arrived from a long journey through un- 

 peopled wastes, no sight or sound in Eecl Eiver creates 

 such surprise and melancholy pleasure as the sweet tones 

 of the bells of St. Boniface, breaking the stillness of the 

 morning or evening air. 



The body of the cathedral is 100 feet in length, 45 in 

 breadth, and 40 in height. The three bells weigh up- 

 wards of sixteen hundred pounds, and their chimes are 

 deservedly listened to with pride and emotion by the 

 Eoman Catholic population of Red Eiver. 



The parish of St. Norbert is thinly peopled, but the 

 chapel, which is constructed of wood, is 90 feet long, and 

 33 broad. The chapel of St. Francois Xavier is in a very 

 dilapidated condition, but there is every prospect that a 

 new and commodious structure will soon be erected on 

 the White Horse Plain. (See Appendix, Vol. II.) 



The appearance of the congregations of the different 

 churches in the settlements, produces a very favourable 

 impression upon a stranger. From whatever direction 

 Eed Eiver may be approached, the journey has to be 

 made through a wilderness in which no signs of civiliza- 

 tion are to be seen for several hundred miles, much less 

 a church in which divine service is celebrated to attentive 

 and intelligent worshipers. 



