222 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



are sometimes placed near the public road, and rarely in 

 the depression formed by the ancient course of the 

 stream. Above Mill Creek, on Eed Eiver, there does 

 not appear to be any rise of land sufficient to afford 

 security against extraordinary floods, such as those of 

 1826 and 1852, when the waters rose above the road, or 

 more than thirty feet above the present river level. On 

 the west of the road, as already remarked, is a boundless 

 expanse, in which are enclosures, offering to the eye 

 perfectly level fields of waving grain, or luxuriant pas- 

 ture. Where no enclosures west of the road have been 

 made, the prairie often passes into what are locally termed 

 swamps or marshes ; but which are so susceptible of 

 drainage, and conversion into the richest pasture lands, 

 that they do not deserve the title which has been 

 assigned to them. 



Familiarity with the settlements dispels the favourable 

 impression with which a stranger at first regards them. 

 At a distance, the neat whitewashed houses, with their 

 gardens and farmyards, continuing without interruption 

 for twenty miles between the forts, the herds of cattle, 

 horses, and sheep, feeding on the plains, the vast expanse 

 of what seems to be meadow of the richest description, 

 lead one to suppose that universal prosperity and con- 

 tentment would here be won without anxiety or trouble. 

 Nevertheless, no one can fail to be struck with the 

 indifference to the future, which seems habitually to 

 characterise the people, especially the French portion of 

 the population, and to show itself in their unfinished 

 dwellings, neglected farms, and extravagant indulgence 

 in dress, or in articles they covet. Many of the apparent, 

 efforts of industry which, seen from a distance, excite 

 admiration, shrink upon a nearer approach into sluggish 

 and irregular attempts at improvement, often abandoned 



