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Assiniboia, which, in virtue of the Royal Charter of 1670, exercises judicial as well as legislative authority, under an able Recorder.

The currency is one of the best established in any colony. It consists, with the addition of silver and copper coin, of notes issued by the Hudson's Bay Company, which are payable at York factory by bills on the Company in England. This circulation is absolutely essential; gold or silver would soon be hoarded, melted, or lost; and a note issued by the Government of the place, receivable in payments, of acknowledged exchangeable value, devoid of fluctuation in exchanges, and convertible, without loss or risk, into cash in England, is an advantageous monetary circulation for any settlement, and not a grievance or subject of complaint. Commodities to the full value of the notes can always be obtained at New York, Montreal, &c.

The description given by the Bishop of Montreal of the actual state of the Red River Settlement, visited by his Lordship in 1844, is worthy of attention. His Lordship says:- The whole population of the Red River Settlement, according to a census with which I was obligingly furnished, is 5,143: of which number, 2,798 are Roman Catholics, and 2,345 are Protestants. No Protestant worship, except that of the Church of England, has ever been established among the people. The heads of families are 870; of whom 571 are Indians or half-breeds, natives of the territory; 152 Canadians; 61 Orkneymen; 49 Scotchmen; 22 Englishmen; 5 Irishmen, and 2 Swiss. Wales, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, and the United States of America, have each contributed one to the list. There is also one Esquimaux Indian. There are 730 dwelling-houses, 1,219 barns or stables, 18 windmills, and 1 watermill. From the level character of the country, may be conceived there is not much facility for the operations of the latter kind of construction. There are 182 horses, 749 mares, 107 bulls, 2,207 cows, 1,580 calves, 1,976 pigs, and 3,569 sheep. These particulars were taken in March 1843. The soil, which is alluvial, is beyond example rich and productive, and withal so easily worked, that, although it does not quite come up

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to the description of the happy islands-reddit ubi Cererem tellus inarata quotannis-there is an instance, I was assured, of a farm, in which the owner, with comparatively slight labour in the preparatory processes, had taken a wheat crop out of the same land for eighteen successive years- never changing the crop, never manuring the land, and never suffering it to lie fallow; and that the crop was abundant to the last. And with respect to pasture and hay, they are to be had ad libitum, as Nature gives them in the open plains. The Company dispose of their land upon liberal terms, with a frontage along the river, and I think the uniform depth of a mile,-with an understanding that, till further arrangements take place, another mile is at the disposal of the owner, for any benefits which he can derive from it. I speak from memory. It is only a small portion of the farms, next the river, that is ever seen enclosed. The people revel in abundance; but it is all for home consumption: they have no outlet, no market for their produce. The liberality of the Company is also evinced in their permitting private traders to import goods in the Company's ships, although they, the Company, have stores of their own within the forts,-in which articles of the same description are for sale. All these articles are brought across from Hudson's Bay, a distance of several hundred miles, in boats; and these boats are drawn across the different portages upon rollers, or, in some places, carried upon waggons. Hence, those articles which are of a heavy description, are charged at a price seemingly out of all proportion to that of many others, which may be obtained at a moderate rate. A common grinding-stone is sold for twenty shillings sterling. The Company, who by their Charter have the privilege of issuing money, transact all their pecuniary concerns in British sterling, which differs considerably, as is well known, from the currency received in the North American colonies of the Crown. Their issue of paper is in three denominations, the highest of which is one pound; and the three are distinguished from each other, for the convenience of the natives by the different colours of the ink red, blue, and black. The

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boat has been now substituted for the canoe, upon all the lines of route on which the operations of the Company are regularly conducted, except on that which leads into Canada. The country in this direction is not of such a nature as to admit of introducing the roller or the waggon upon the portages. At the Red River, and on Lake Superior, there may be seen, in the service of the Company, small-decked sailing vessels, which ply between the ports. The number of bark and wooden canoes, kept for one purpose or other by the inhabitants of the Red River, is 410. In the palmy days of the North-west Company, when the peltries, now sent home by Hudson's Bay, were taken down to be shipped at Montreal, the brigades of canoes amounted sometimes to forty in the season. The name of brigade is still given to the two or three loaded canoes which start yearly from La Chine for the Red River; but the voyageur's occupation is almost gone.'(Bishop of Montreal's Journal, p. 92 to 1092. Published by Seeley, Hatchard, & Nisbett, in 1845.)

The Bishop of Montreal says of the Red River Settlement, that it affords a wonderfully striking example of good brought by the hand of God out of evil.' His lordship thus describes the churches there:-Along the strip of settlement which occupies, with interruptions, the opposite sides of the river, the four English churches are situated. The Indian church is about thirteen miles below the lower church at the rapids; this again is about six from the middle church; and the middle church about seven from the upper. The Indian church is a wooden building, painted white, fifty feet or upwards in length, with a cupola over the entrance. It has square-topped windows, which, so far, give it an unecclesiastical appearance. The lower church is also of wood, and of the length of fifty feet. The middle church, which is not quite completed, and which has been built by the unaided exertions of the congregation, is an edifice of stone, sixty feet long. The upper church, which is also of stone, is ten feet longer, and will accommodate 500 persons. About 400, upon one occasion, met me there. It contains some respectable mural monuments;

Frazer's River flows through New Caledonia, but is not navigated below Fort Thompson, owing to its dangerous falls. The distances from Fort Thompson to Fort Alexandria by land is 150 miles, and thence to Fort James 120. Commodore Wilkes says that the climate of this region is unfavourable to agriculture, in consequence of its being situated between the two ranges of mountains, viz. the Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Cascade Mountains (of the coast) on the west, both of which ranges are constantly covered with snow, and in the plains or villages snow lies from November to May six feet deep. The Commodore adds, there are many spots of fertile land along the rivers, but the early frosts are a great obstacle to agriculture. At St. James, Babine, and Frazer's Forts only potatoes and turnips can be cultivated.'

Frazer's River has its embouche six miles to the north of the 49th parallel, which defines the United States' boundary. It is about a mile wide, the country around low, with a rich alluvial soil. Fort Langley is 20 miles from the mouth.

Mr. Greenhow says (p. 29) that, 'the territory north of the 49th parallel, and north-west of that drained by the Colombia River (New Caledonia), is a sterile land of snow-clad mountains, tortuous rivers, and lakes frozen over more than two-thirds of the year, presenting scarcely a single spot in which any of the vegetables used as food by civilized people can be produced.'

Sir George Simpson made a journey of 2000 miles in 47 days from the Red River viâ Fort Edmonton to Fort Colvile in 1841. He crossed the Rocky Mountains at the confluence of two of the sources of the Saskatchewan and Colombia, near Fort Kotanie, at an elevation of 8000 feet above the sea, with mountains rising about half that altitude around. The descending country to the Kotanie River was rugged and boggy, with thick and tangled forests, craggy peaks and dreary vales, here and there hills of parched clay, where every shrub and blade of grass was brown and sapless, as if newly swept by the blast of a sirocco; with occasional prairies and open swards, interspersed with gloomy woods or burning pine forests. In one place a valley was seen

thirty miles long by six wide without a tree, and environed by mountains. The natives of these regions were generally in

a wretched condition.

The coast abounds with harbours, inlets, and islands, of which latter, that called Vancouver, or Quadra (to which I shall presently advert), is the largest and the most important to Great Britain, from its position at the termination of the United States' boundary, in the 49th parallel of latitude, and from its fine harbours, there being no haven between the Straits of Juan de Fuca and San Francisco, in California. The north-western Archipelago, which lies north of Vancouver's Island, belongs partly to England and partly to Russia. The islands within the British dominions are of various sizes; the largest, named 'Queen Charlotte's Island,' is somewhat of a triangular form, lying nearly north and south, the south point in the parallel of 52°. The superficial area is less than that of Vancouver's Island: it has several good harbours, viz., on the north coast, Port Estrada, near Sandy Point, and Croft's Sound, a little farther west. On the east side, Skitekis, in 53° 20′ north latitude; Cummashawa, near 53° north; and Port Sturges, farther south. On the west, or Pacific coast, Magee's Sound, in 52° 1′ north latitude; and Port Ingram, near the north-west extremity of the island. The country around some of these harbours, especially Port Estrada, (Hancock's River), and Magee's Sound, is said by the Americans to be fertile, and the climate comparatively mild.

The Princess Royal Islands lie nearer to the main land, between the parallels of 51° and 54° north latitude. Of the interior of the whole of these islands, little or nothing is known; the largest are traversed by mountain ridges in the direction of their greatest length from south-east to north-west. Greenhow says, that, probably, as regards their interior, they are rocky and barren. The adjacent coast is of very irregular outline, with numerous bays, inlets, tortuous channels, forming a labyrinth of passages. Simpson's River, on our north-west boundary, has a deep inlet, and communicates with Babine Lake, where the Hudson's Bay Company have a fort. The Company have also

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