‘I came out here seven years ago,’ said a gentleman to me as we sat on one of the rocks which line Port Arthur, ‘and could find nothing to do. I was brought up in a foundry, and had saved 1,100 dollars. I went all round; no one could give me a job. Then I began buying a few hides; this brought me into contact with a great fur merchant at Chicago—he employed me as his agent at 80 dollars a month. Then I gave that up and turned miller, and the year before last I traded to the extent of a quarter of a million dollars. Last year I was too eager, and lost a lot of money; but this year I hope to get it all back again.’ Why cannot an English emigrant be equally successful? Is it because we do not send out the right sort of men? ‘There is not one man in a hundred that comes out here from London who is of any use,’ said an old Toronto trader—himself an Englishman—to me. ‘I never call myself an Englishman,’ said he. ‘When I go to London I always say I am a Canadian. I am ashamed of the name of Englishman. What would Sir Garnet Wolseley have done when he was here had it not have been for the Canadian Volunteers?’ I am glad to hear, however, that he had nothing but praise for the Scotch settlers Lady Cathcart was sending out. She advances them money, and they pay her back a good rate of interest. Why cannot other people do the same? Another question, also, may be asked: Why cannot certain Canadian land companies, who really offer purchasers a fair bargain, put up a few houses on their separate farms? The settler has to build his house under every disadvantage. I am sure they could build the houses by contract at half the expense; and they could have a mortgage on the farm, which would ensure them in every case against loss, and which might add materially to their profits as well. If the crops this year turn out well in the North-West, and, according to present prospects, there is every reason to suppose they will, the farmers will pour into the country in a way which they have never done before, and the prosperity of the North-West will be placed on a solid basis. Be that as it may, there are bright days in store for Port Arthur. On the green forest, rising up above the town and overlooking Thunder Bay, it is intended to build a first-class summer hotel for the comfort of holiday makers and health seekers. There the visitor will enjoy fine cool air in the sultry heat of summer, while bathing in the lake will invigorate his enfeebled frame. The waters abound with fish. Islands and lakes and rivers tempt the yachtsman. If the workmen who squander their hard-earned wages in reckless drunkenness would but learn to be sober, few places on the Canadian lakes would be more enjoyable than Port Arthur. [Picture: Thunder Bay, Lake Superior]