Chapter I: Preface

You know how long ago, in the earlier-than-Victorian days, the country cousin, in order to see life, went up to the Metropolis. A terrible journey it was, but well worth the labour and anxiety. Accounts are still extant of how the bustle and noise of the streets amazed him, of how endless the houses seemed, how startled he was by the glittering, clattering folk, how innocent and countrified he felt by comparison with them. Nowadays, though the London we know is to that old London as a vast and sleepless city to a small somnolent town, the country cousin is no longer carried off his feet by a visit to it. It is not vast enough or noisy enough or new enough to impress him. Perhaps no single city ever will be again.

But Canada! Some Winnipeg school teachers who came over recently to see London, told a journalist that it seemed so quiet compared with Canadian cities. 'In our cities,' {vi} they said, 'it is impossible to escape from the noise of the streets.' ... Yet the streets and the cities are not really the things that impress one most in Canada. The amazing things are the forests and the fields, the prairies and the lakes and the mountains: all the illimitable space and the irrepressible men who are closing it in and giving it names for us to know it by.

Clearly the English country cousin who wishes to be impressed should go to Canada. It is as easy to reach as London was in the old days, and there are no highwaymen. He will come back--if he comes back--with many stories to tell his friends of the wonders he has seen and of the still more incredible things that will soon be visible. That is at least my position. I went out originally for the _Bystander_, which wanted its Canadian news, like all its other news, up-to-date and not too solemn, and I am indebted to the editor of that journal for permission to make use in parts of the articles I sent him for this book, in which, by the way, I have still endeavoured to avoid solemnity. For some reason or other, many writers upon Canada do fall into a solemn and portentous way of describing the country--with the result {vii} that people who know nothing of the facts say to themselves, 'This is indeed an important Dominion, but dull.' As a matter of fact, of course, Canada is a highly exciting country--from its grizzly bears to its political problems--and having spent delightful months in various parts, some well known, others, such as the French River, the Columbia Valley, and the Selkirks, very little known; riding in trains or on mountain ponies, sometimes trying to catch maskinongés (a tigerish kind of pike), sometimes trying to catch prime ministers (who cannot be described in such a general way)--I have tried to set down my impressions as incompletely as I received them. Never, I hope, have I fallen into the error of describing exactly how many salmon are canned in the Dominion, or what Sir Wilfrid Laurier should do if he really wishes to remain a great party leader. The errors I have fallen into will be obvious, and I need not run through them here.... As for criticisms--if now and then I stop to make some--if I start saying, 'Canada is a great country, nevertheless, we do some things just as well or better at home,' no Canadian need mind. Country cousins have said just {viii} that sort of thing from all time. Every cousin--even the most countrified--makes some reservations in favour of his own place; he would not be worth entertaining otherwise. If the criticisms are pointless, Canadians may say, 'What can you expect from a country cousin?' If there is something in them, they will be entitled to remark, 'This English country cousin shows some intelligence. But then he has been to Canada--the centre of things.'

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CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. THE START FROM LIVERPOOL

II. THE STEERAGE PASSAGE

III. LANDING IN CANADA

IV. A FAIRLY LONG DAY IN QUEBEC

V. THE ATTRACTION OF THE SAGUENAY

VI. STE. ANNE DE BEAUPRÉ AND A TRAVELLER'S VOW

VII. A HABITANT VILLAGE AND ITS NOTAIRE

VIII. GLIMPSES OF MONTREAL

IX. TORONTO, NIAGARA FALLS, AND A NEGRO PORTER

X. MASKINONGÉ FISHING ON THE FRENCH RIVER

XI. SOME SUPERFICIAL REFLECTIONS AT SUDBURY

XII. THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS OF ONTARIO

XIII. THE OLD TIMERS OF KILDONAN AND THE NEW TIMERS OF WINNIPEG

XIV. A PRAIRIE TOWN AND THE PRAIRIE POLICE

XV. IN CALGARY

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XVI. THE AMERICANISATION QUESTION

XVII. AMONG THE READY-MADE FARMS

XVIII. INTO THE ROCKIES WITH A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH

XIX. A HOT BATH IN BANFF

XX. CANADA AND WOMAN

XXI. THE LAKES AMONG THE CLOUDS

XXII. A SOLITARY RIDE INTO THE YOHO VALLEY

XXIII. THE FRUIT-LANDS OF LAKE WINDERMERE

XXIV. THE SELKIRKS--A GRIZZLY-BEAR COUNTRY

XXV. AN EIGHTY-MILE WALK THROUGH THE COLUMBIA VALLEY

XXVI. FROM GOLDEN TO THE COAST

XXVII. A LITTLE ABOUT VANCOUVER CITY

XXVIII. THE HAPPY FARMERS OF THE ISLAND

XXIX. A CHAT WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA AND A BIG FIRE AT VICTORIA

XXX. BACK THROUGH OTTAWA

INDEX

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LOOKING FROM LAKE AGNES DOWN ON LAKES MIRROR AND LOUISE ... Frontispiece

CHATEAU FRONTENAC FROM THE OLD RAMPARTS. DAY. QUEBEC

CHATEAU FRONTENAC AND DUFFERIN TERRACE. NIGHT. QUEBEC

MOUNT LEFROY. CANADIAN ROCKIES

A TRAIL IN THE ROCKIES

THE HALT. SADDLEBACK. LAGGAN

LAKE LOUISE. LAGGAN. ALBERTA

IN THE VALLEY OF THE TEN PEAKS. ROCKY MOUNTAINS

ON THE TRAIL, YOHO VALLEY

THE DEVIL'S FINGERS. ROCKY MOUNTAINS

A SENTINEL OF THE ROCKIES

IN THE SELKIRKS. THE RETURN FROM THE HUNT

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THE FAIR DOMINION