224 



BED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



those to which every other country is liable, the causes 

 which induce these evils must be sought for in other 

 directions than those which may be said to spring from 

 a dislike for agricultural operations, or a characteristic 

 inability to take advantage of the boundless appliances 

 promoting happiness and comfort which lie within their 

 reach. 



The Bishop of St. Boniface, in his letter before referred 

 to, page 220, points to the results of this apathy in relation 

 to agriculture, in the following remarks on the means 

 and resources of a population of about 7000 ; occupying a 

 country possessing a soil of extraordinary fertility, to 

 supply an unexpected demand for the ordinary neces- 

 saries of life. 



" In the present condition of the Ked Eiver settlement, 

 those who have large families are not the persons who 

 should come ; we are more in want of arms than of 

 mouths. A company of soldiers and the exploring par- 

 ties who visit the settlement suffice, as it is, to create a 

 famine. The price of many of the necessaries of life has 

 doubled since last year, and although the harvest was 

 pretty good, and hunting and fishing abundantly success- 

 ful, nevertheless, there is an extreme scarcity of every- 

 thing." 



The description which has been given of the general 

 aspect of the farms and farm-houses in the settlements 

 is not such as to create a favourable impression of the 

 condition of husbandry in this remote region ; but it 

 would be very unfair to form an opinion of the agricul- 

 tural capabilities of the country from the results obtained 

 by the majority, under its present state of isolation, and 

 the direction of the best efforts of the inhabitants to 

 objects the reverse of those which belong to a pastoral 

 life. 



