Studies in the South and West, with Comments on CanadaWarner, Charles Dudley
History
Studies in the South and West, with Comments on Canada
Warner, Charles Dudley
Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
Naturally, on the rail we saw little game, except ducks and geese on the
frequent fresh-water ponds, and occasionally coyotes and prairie-dogs.
But plenty of large game still can be found farther north. At Stony
Mountain, fifteen miles north of Winnipeg, the site of the Manitoba
penitentiary, we saw a team of moose, which Colonel Bedson, the
superintendent, drives—fleet animals, going easily fifteen miles an
hour. They were captured only thirty-five miles north of the prison,
where moose are abundant. Colonel Bedson has the only large herd of the
practically extinct buffalo. There are about a hundred of these uncouth
and picturesque animals, which have a range of twenty or thirty miles
over the plains, and are watched by mounted keepers. They were driven
in, bulls, cows, and calves, the day before our arrival—it seemed odd
that we could order up a herd of buffaloes by telephone, but we did—and
we saw the whole troop lumbering over the prairie, exactly as we were
familiar with them in pictures. The colonel is trying the experiment of
crossing them with common cattle. The result is a half-breed of large
size, with heavier hind-quarters and less hump than the buffalo, and
said to be good beef. The penitentiary has taken in all the convicts of
the North-west Territory, and there were only sixty-five of them. The
institution is a model one in its management. We were shown two separate
chapels—one for Catholics and another for Protestants.
All along the line settlers are sifting in, and there are everywhere
signs of promoted immigration. Not only is Canada making every effort
to fill up its lands, but England is interested in relieving itself
of troublesome people. The experiment has been tried of bringing out
East-Londoners. These barbarians of civilization are about as unfitted
for colonists as can be. Small bodies of them have been aided to make
settlements, but the trial is not very encouraging; very few of them
take to the new life. The Scotch crofters do better. They are accustomed
to labor and thrift, and are not a bad addition to the population. A
company under the management of Sir John Lister Kaye is making a larger
experiment. It has received sections from the Government and bought
contiguous sections from the railway, so as to have large blocks of land
on the road. A dozen settlements are projected. The company brings over
laborers and farmers, paying their expenses and wages for a year.
A large central house is built on each block, tools and cattle are
supplied, and the men are to begin the cultivation of the soil. At the
end of a year they may, if they choose, take up adjacent free Government
land and begin to make homes for themselves working meantime on the
company land, if they will. By this plan they are guaranteed support
for a year at least, and a chance to set up for themselves. The company
secures the breaking up of its land and a crop, and the nucleus of a
town. The further plan is to encourage farmers, with a capital of a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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