requisite, and it was therefore arranged that I should give the timeone, two, three, accordingly; and having arrived without difficulty at the same stage of affairs as before, we brought our chins over the gunwale, and I had got as far as two, when the intensely grave and anxious expression of B.'s. countenance appearing. above his naked leg and arm, the absurdity of his whole attitude, and the consciousness that my own corresponded exactly to it, presented to my imagination a tableau so exquisitely ludicrous, that, instead of uttering three, I rolled off the canoe in such a fit of laughter, that I was almost incapacitated from ever trying to get into it again, from the quantity of water I swallowed. By this time we had both become so exhausted, that it was no laughing matter, and I never felt more disposed to be serious in my life than when, once more in similar graceful attitude, I gave the word three. It was followed by a well-timed spring; and although the canoe was half full of water, we put on our dripping clothes with the greatest possible satisfaction.

Towards evening the stages arrived with a large and nondescript cargo of passengers-emigrants from Europe, speculators from the States, tourists from all parts of the world, rough backwoodsmen, and mysterious characters, journeying towards the limits of civilisation, for reasons best known to themselves. All joined in the scramble for the berths which lined the saloon of the steamer. Our early appearance had obtained for us the first choice; and having paid our late host his charge or rather having charged ourselves a sum which seemed reasonable, as he was too drunk to be able to make a demand-we turned in. Drawing our curtains, we were only reminded of the presence of the slumbering population which surrounded us, by a chorus of snores, which soon lulled us into a like condition. To a person who has never made a voyage upon the American lakes in the steamboats which traverse them, the first effect is very singular. The whole passenger accommodation is upon deck. Sometimes there are cabins opening off the saloons; but in the boat we were in, the berths were screened off simply

by curtains suspended to bars, which projected a little beyond the berth, so that there was just room enough allowed for the process of dressing. Few persons, however, thought it necessary to make use of these, and the great majority of toilets, therefore, took place in the saloon. Morning found us entering a large bay, with undulating, well-wooded shores. At the further end lay the prettily situated town of Penetanguishene, which, being interpreted into English, means "moving sand." It is now chiefly inhabited by pensioners, French Canadians, and half-breeds. The fort, about three miles distant, was formerly garrisoned, as its position is such as to cause it to be considered the key to Upper Canada. There is no country in the neighbourhood to render it a place of any mercantile importance; and although one of the oldest settlements in this part of Canada, other towns upon the same coast are destined soon to surpass it both in wealth and population. We did not stay long at Penetanquishene ; though I should have been glad to linger awhile amid the lovely scenery which surrounds the town. Threading our way through narrow channels, we passed the Christian Island, now uninhabited, but so called, because 200 years ago the first missionaries established themselves there. Then crossing the extensive bay of Wottawasaga, at the head of which is situated the newly-formed town of Collingwood, we reached Owen Sound in the afternoon —a deep inlet, the natural advantages of which have given birth to Sydenham, a thriving place, containing 1500 inhabitants, and adjoining the Indian village of Nawash.

Nothing can exceed the avidity with which the land in the immediate neighbourhood is being taken up by settlers. I

crossed over the narrow peninsula which divides Georgian Bay from Lake Huron, and on every side met with evidences of an enterprising and rapidly augmenting population. It was interesting to pass through this district in the very first stage of its development. The road had quite recently been opened. It was nothing more than a trace through the wood, of regulation width. Many of the fallen trees still lay rotting in the mud; or, in the form of huge charred logs, blocked up the way. Not a stump

had been eradicated. There they stood, obstinate and firm, with spreading roots impeding the passage of the wayfarer, as if indignant at the sacrilege which had laid so many forest giants low, and determined in consequence to cause as much inconvenience to the public as possible. The road from Balaklava to the camp was a joke compared with that which connects Sydenham with Saugeen. It was with the greatest difficulty that we managed on horseback to pick our way through the mud and stumps; and every now and then we came upon a waggon hopelessly imbedded, which a team of bullocks were struggling in vain to extricate, and around which strong sturdy backwoodsmen, with flannel shirts, and boots reaching up to their thighs, were congregated, imploring, imprecating, belaboring, and pushing by turns. A woman and some children were tramping it through the mud ahead, and a few more children were thrown carelessly on the top of the chattels in the waggon, looking helpless, and straddling like puppies in a hay-loft. The road is very straight, as there are no hills of any consequence. Sometimes there are long cypress swamps, and over them felled trees are placed, making a corduroy causeway, most dangerous to the horses' legs. However, it is a comfort to get a swamp that is so bad as to require artificial means to keep one from disappearing altogether, and slippery logs are an agreeable change from deep mud; and occasionally, but very rarely, a bit of snake-fencing indicates a settler, and a little log cabin is seen, surrounded by an acre of stumps and a few square yards of potatoes the population of the clearing being half-a-dozen chickens, a dog, a man, and a cow. They all look drooping and melancholy, and watch the waggon toiling through the mud, in a dejected, compassionate way, as if they thought that the proprietor was taking a great deal of trouble to discover a spot in which to be thoroughly miserable for the rest of his life. Occasionally the scene is more cheerful. There is a logging bee, and the neighbours have come to assist a new settler to roll up the fallen trees into heaps and burn them. Oxen and men are noisily and busily engaged, and

huge fires make a jovial crackling, as though they rejoiced to do their share of the work of civilisation. Gradually these sounds die upon the ear; the forest is more silent than ever. As we pass between rows of tall, stately trees, it is difficult to believe that in a few years the eye will range over smiling fields of waving corn, and the locomotive will dart over ground where we are now so wearily picking our steps.

It was towards evening that I found myself gloomily making invidious contrasts between my present progress and that of future travellers, when, reaching the brow of a hill, I was reproved for indulging in such a discontented frame of mind, and such utilitarian ideas, by one of the most brilliant sunsets I ever beheld, and the full effect of which I never could have appreciated in a railway. The sky was like burnished copper. The sinking sun seemed to illumine the long vista before us. It cast its fiery light upon the already glowing leaves of the maple; made the stumpy, muddy road look bright and cheerful; polished up the old waggon and its occupants; and the avenue itself looked so endless, and led so straight into the blaze, that these seemed jolting away to the celestial regions by a route known only to themselves. When that delusion was dispelled, and the heights grew so dark as to render onward progress impossible, they pulled up by the wayside, and, lighting a fire under the trees, grouped picturesquely round it, and made their evening meal, preparatory to a common couch inside the waggon. We pushed on. In spite of the promising sunset, the sky became overcast. Large drops of rain began to fall. I could not see my horse's head, and trusted to his instinct entirely to find, or rather make, his way. There was no danger of losing it, for it was impossible to go in any direction but the right, and difficult enough to do that. At last we gave it up, and were preparing to follow the example of our friends in the waggon, when the bark of a dog invited us to persevere a little longer, and we rapped, with feelings of gratitude, at the door of a log cabin, which was opened by a heartylooking young fellow, whose pretty

wife sat rocking a cradle near the fire, and whose cantankerous dog snarled at the unusual visitors. However, an old traveller makes himself at home anywhere, and never allows an enemy to remain one long. These rules are easy to follow in the backwoods, how difficult soever may be their application in more civilised life; and we all sat down to tea round a table of our host's own manufacture, in an easy, social way, and listened to the pelting rain as if there had never been a possibility of our being exposed to it during the whole night. When our kind entertainers found that I had but recently come from Scotland, and actually knew their former laird, their hospitality knew no bounds. Buttered toast immediately suggested itself to the fertile imagination of the good lady, as a worthy delicacy to so distinguished a personage. Her husband was positively cruel to the child if it dared to cry; the dog was summarily ejected, much to his astonishment; the cow was equally taken aback at being called upon for an unexpected supply of milk; all sorts of hidden dainties were produced from a large chest, which principally contained wearing apparel,-in fact, nothing was omitted to do us honour; and so confidential and comfortable did we become over our pipes, that it was late when we thought of going to bed. There was a little difficulty here, as the log-hut consisted of only one room, and boasted only one bed. It was useless our insisting upon being allowed to stretch ourselves upon the floor, neither the gudeman nor the gudewife would hear of a gentleman that knew their laird sleeping on the floor, and they in the bed. Fortunately, there was a sort of half loft filled with potatoes, &c., and approached by a ladder, and up this the worthy couple clambered, hauling up baby, cradle, and all, in spite of our remonstrances; though, perhaps, as the baby was of very tender years, or rather months, we were undertaking a responsibility for which we were scarcely qualified, in begging that it might be left below.

We were on horseback again soon after daylight, and, in spite of the remonstrances of our kind hosts, bade adieu to them during a pitiless storm,

which drenched us through long before we arrived at the remote settlement of Saugeen, which was for the present our destination. The town only contains a few hundred inhabitants, and is quite in its infancy. It is situated at the mouth of a river of the same name, and derives its advantage of position from the harbour which is thus afforded upon a coast where harbours of any sort are scarce. Its value in this respect is materially reduced, from the difficulty of running into the river, and the shallowness of the water over the bar. It is, however, susceptible of improvement, and the rapid increase of population in the neighbourhood will insure this.

There is scarcely an acre of government land left throughout the counties of Grey and Bruce, in which the towns of Sydenham and Saugeen are situated; and we found the bars at the road-side taverns filled with squatters or speculators, inveighing loudly against the alleged dishonesty of the governmentland-agents, organised into gangs, bound upon the charitable mission of forcibly ejecting peaceable unprotected settlers, and appropriating their premises. All sorts of chiselling goes forward upon these occasions; and there is plenty of scope for it, according to the present system pursued by government. The most satisfactory way to all parties is to allow them to buy their land by auction, and not to acquire it by establishing pre-emptive claims to it by previous squatting. Almost the whole of the peninsula to the north of Saugeen, containing about 500,000 acres, has recently been surrendered by the Indians resident at Saugeen and Owen Sound to the Crown for sale; and it is of such a quality as to insure the speedy occupation of the whole tract. Considerable rivalry exists between the towns of Saugeen, Sydenham, and Collingwood, since the prosperity of each is in some degree contingent upon its becoming the principal emporium of the traffic to and from Lake Superior and the North-west. A railway is already finished from Toronto to Collingwood; but the soil of the adjoining country is not nearly equal to that of the neighbourhood of the other towns, while it is questionable whether, in spite of the efforts that are being made

the harbour will ever be a very safe one. The passage down Georgian Bay is long and intricate, and frozen up at an earlier period of the year than Lake Huron itself. Sydenham is also exposed to this disadvantage, but its harbour is good and the country fertile. Saugeen is perhaps more favourably situated than either of the two, as the passage thither from the Sault Ste. Marie is the shortest and longest open, and most direct; and a railway from thence to Toronto will pass through 150 miles of the finest land in Upper Canada. The town stands upon a promontory of considerable elevation, formed by the river and the lake. The American shore opposite is of course not visible. There is an Indian village two miles up the river, and a number of their wigwams were pitched upon the opposite bank. I crossed over to them in a bark canoe, but there was nothing tempting in the aspect either of the interiors or their occupants.

We determined to return to Sydenham by the Indian trail; and turning our backs one fine morning upon the rough backwood tavern at which we had been lodging, we swam our horses across the river, and dived into the woods. Our party was a large one, consisting of five whites, and six or seven Indians. These latter picked their way over fallen trees, and through cypress swamps, with such rapidity, that it was often difficult to keep up with them upon horseback. At last we got tired of following the devious course of the trail, and one of our party proposed a short cut, of which he avowed himself cognisant. In a moment of credulity we allowed ourselves to be persuaded to take his advice, and parted from our Indian guides.

As the forest was clear of underwood, we had no difficulty in making our way without a path, following simply the notches-or blaze, as it is called-which backwoodsmen make upon the trees to guide them through these trackless forests. It required a sharp eye to detect these scars in the bark, often so nearly healed over as to be scarcely discernible; and we were often thrown out and obliged to hark back some hundreds of yards to the last blaze, and make a fresh start.

The difficulty of finding our way was always increased at the cypress swamps, which involved detours of great extent; and upon these occasions the blaze always ceased, and required to be picked up again when we got into our direction upon the other side. There was only one river to cross; and in searching for a ford, our party got separated. Three of us waded the river at a shallow place higher up, and lost the blaze on the other side. We then pursued our way by instinct, breaking twigs as we went along, to enable us, if necessary, to retrace our steps, and keeping as far as possible apart, so as to insure, to some extent at least, a straight course. To add to our miseries, it began to rain heavily. We had been for some hours wandering disconsolately through the wood, and I was beginning to wish myself back again upon the Indian trail, when we unexpectedly came upon two roughlooking characters, with hatchets in their hands, prowling about through the wood, and blazing the trees as they went along. We found, upon speaking to them, that, all the government land having been taken up, they were coming to squat surreptitiously upon Indian territory, trusting to the remote situation in which they intended to commence operations to save them from discovery; and, determined to defend their own against all comers, should it be necessary. We told them that, by waiting for a few months, they would have an opportunity of purchasing the land instead of appropriating it illegally, and thus avoid the liabilities to which, by their present conduct, they were exposing themselves. In return for our information they offered us the only shelter they possessed themselves, which was nothing more than a slanting screen made of branches, and protected from the weather by its snug situation under the bank of a small river. Getting as far back as the limited space allowed, we rested our weary limbs upon dry leaves and bushes-refreshed our sinking interiors with hot green-tea and biscuits-dried our damp clothes, and warmed our damp bodies by the fire-unsaddled our steeds, and otherwise availed ourselves of every accommodation for

man or beast which the place afforded. The lateness of the hour, however, did not admit of any very lengthened stay with our good-natured entertainers. They directed us to follow the blaze until we reached the trail, and we started again with some hopes of reaching our journey's end. Nobody, however, who has had much experience of back-woods ever thinks of hallooing until he is out of them; and as the night drew on, there did not seem any immediate prospect of our having thus to exert our lungs. It soon got so dark that we were obliged to feel for the blaze, and there is a hopelessness attending this operation which induces one very soon to give it up. We were just beginning to feel anxiously in our pockets for matches in anticipation of camping it out, when one of our party joyfully announced that he had struck the trail, and we soon after came upon all the Indians resting themselves at a log bridge. It was now pitch dark. For hours we plodded on. After this, our horses were so done up that we were obliged to lead them. Sometimes the mud and water reached to our waists, and we narrowly escaped being bogged. It was with intense delight that, at about ten o'clock at night, we saw the lights of Sydenham, having scarcely tasted anything since the morning. We were thoroughly exhausted by our day's work. For a week past I had undergone considerable fatigue; and it was but a melancholy satisfaction to find that I stood it better than my horse; the poor beast could scarcely stagger into his stable, and died there from his exertions a day or two afterwards. A great proportion of the population of Sydenham seemed composed of land-hunters. Parties were continually exploring the neighbourhood; some returning after an unsuccessful search; some, having hit upon a location, and made a beginning, came into town for supplies, leaving it again immediately for their shanties in the woods, fearing lest they should find them appropriated on their return if they remained too long absent; others there were who had long since passed through this stage of squatting, and, secure in their possession of a well-stocked thriving farm, or prosperous saw-mills, had come to spend their hard-gotten

VOL. LXXVII.—NO. CCCCLXXV.

earnings sociably, by lounging for a week at tavern-bars, where they discoursed upon their prospects, congratulated one another upon towns which were springing up upon their respective farm-lots, and searched old novels, or taxed their powers of invention, for "neat and appropriate" names to bestow upon these embryo cities.

Steaming out of Owen Sound, we found ourselves once more in Georgian Bay, and the following day entered a deep harbour, at the further end of which was situated the Indian village of Manitowaning. All the islands in Georgian Bay, which Captain Bayfield, who surveyed them, numbers at 2700, belong to the Indians. Of these the most important is Manitoulin, which is more than 100 miles in length, and is said to be the largest fresh-water island in the world. It contains a population of about 2000 inhabitants; the principal settlement in it is Manitowaning. At the period of our visit, it was also the resort of some thousands of Indians from all parts of Canada, and even some from the Hudson's Bay territory, who flock hither to receive the supply of presents annually granted to them by Government. An admirable opportunity was thus afforded of seeing these people in a somewhat more unsophisticated condition than was our friend John Storm and his companions. In their wildest and most savage, and therefore, in some respects, in their most interesting state, however, they were miserable, poverty-stricken creatures, wretchedly clad in rags and skins; as they crawled in and out of their birch-bark wigwams, looking as lean and mangy as the curs that shared with them their grilled fishheads, which seemed to form the staple of their food. Both men and women had that peculiar besotted look, which is an invariable characteristic of the Mongolian type of countenance; indeed, it is an interesting physiological fact, that people with very long straight black hair, long half-closed eyes, flat noses, and high cheek-bones, never look respectable. I put my head into some of their dwellings, but was nearly choked with smoke and stench. Sometimes these wigwams are very close together, the interme

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