Of Walks and Walking Tours: An Attempt to find a Philosophy and a CreedHaultain, Arnold
Philosophy
Of Walks and Walking Tours: An Attempt to find a Philosophy and a Creed
Haultain, Arnold
Outdoor life; Walking
My next walks were in quite another hemisphere--to wit, in the great and
growing colony of Canada.--From many points of view Canada is one of
the most interesting of countries. From the rank of a somewhat humble
dependency, made up of a heterogeneous collection of provinces, she
has sprung within the last few decades into the rank of a proud and
self-conscious nation. The contrast is notable. Indeed the country is
one of contrasts. Her climate, her scenery, her sentiments, her people,
her politics, all exhibit extremes the most extraordinary. A winter
of Arctic severity is followed by a tropical summer. Within sight of
luxuriant pastures glide stupendous glaciers. Flattest prairies spread
to the feet of mountain ranges the rivals of the Alps; prim fields,
orchards, and vineyards encroach upon primæval forests. Along with the
hardy apple and the far-famed No. 1 Manitoba wheat, this land produces
strawberries, peaches, grapes, and melons. Constitutionally content with
British connexion, her people are intimately influenced by ideas and
manners American. Indeed, her people are as heterogeneous as herself.
The Maritime Provinces of the extreme east hardly call themselves
Canadian; Quebec is French; Ontario is Canadian to the core; so is
Manitoba; in the North-West Territories are settlers from almost every
nationality in Europe; British Columbia, in the extreme west,
again, fights shy of the cognomen Canadian. Newfoundland holds aloof
altogether. A rude and toilsome social life goes hand in hand with
patches of refinement and culture unmistakable. Canadian cheese took
the prize at Chicago; Canadian poetry has been crowned by the Academy.
Lauding democratic institutions to the skies, Radical to the last
degree, Canada nevertheless contains within herself castes and cliques
in their horror of such principles almost rabid. With a political
system the counterpart of the British, her politics are rife with
personalities, election protests, corruption trials.
However, I am not here concerned with political or social tendencies or
delinquencies.
§ 16
Soon after I arrived I betook me, one spring, in my canoe, down the
banks of the River Otonabee. Pitching a tent, I made this a focus from
which I radiated in any direction I chose--dawdling and sauntering and
lounging and seeing what there was to be seen.
And what is there to be seen? Well, let me give you here another little
photograph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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