570 AiMERiCAN HOKs^ES AND TRAVELLING. 
highest price given for carriage nags. A pair of very beautiful 
handsome brown geldings, which I saw in one of his waggons, 
cost him 200 dollars, or £45, and which horses I am confident 
in London would have readily fetched 120 guineas. Some of 
his saddle horses were uncommonly neat; and a chestnut colt, 
intended for his own charger, as general in the militia, was one 
of the finest and strongest thoroughbreds I ever saw. I may 
remark, too, that this stud was by no means to be regarded as 
the expensive hobby of a rich man ; for, in every part of the 
country, the same superior animals were to be met with, and, 
from the team of almost an ordinary farmer, horses might be se¬ 
lected fit to grace the four-in-hand,^^ 
The following description of waggon travelling is not a little 
amusing:— 
Mr. Fergusson, it appears, hit upon the very worst period of 
the year (spring) for travelling in America; for, during the win¬ 
ter months, the sledge conveys the traveller along with rapidity 
and ease; and in summer, the roads being dry, and having got 
their repair for the season, are tolerably smooth ; but in spring, 
matters are certainly bad enough. The road to‘ La Prairie was 
in such bad condition, that no coach could attempt it; two wag¬ 
gons were therefore substituted in its place for the conveyance 
of the mail and passengers. “ The day,” says our traveller, was 
fine, and our horses all we could desire ; the coachmen seemed 
both smart and civil active fellows. Happening to ask the dis¬ 
tance to Montreal, he received for answer, ‘ ^ine miles hy water, 
sir, and the rest by mud;' a description which our woful expe¬ 
rience proved to be too correct. 
When we had dragged through some half dozen miles of 
mud, and matters seemed rather to get worse than better, the 
coachman entrusted with the mail proposed to our driver that 
they should leave the improved road, and try the old line. To 
this it was objected, that the old line was now closed by autho¬ 
rity, and that notice had been served upon them of its being 
shut, and that part of it was actually an enclosed field. The 
proposal, however, after a little more scrambling, was acceded to. 
We turned down a sort of by-track, and I had very soon a spe¬ 
cimen, which under evidence short of my own senses would have 
been hard to credit, of w^feat men and horses in this country will 
get through. A rough and swampy rivulet lay between us and 
the gate of the field which had been shut by authority, and 
where we now saw two stout fellows drawn up, armed with large 
stakes, to prevent our ingress. The impediment of the brook 
detained us not a moment; down w'e went, plunging to the axles 
through the water, and up the steep and rushy banks to the 
