a whole duck from the dish on to his own plate, and, after totally demolishing it, proceeded with the rest of his supper. There are exceptions to all rules, and some half-breeds, of course, do not eat to excess. In fact, there are some in every respect like full-blooded whites.

Half-breeds naturally can adapt them selves with ease to the habits of the Indians. The half-breed whose gastronomic feat is mentioned above, was a most respectable and intelligent fellow, could read and write well, had a good farm in the settlement, stocked with forty or fifty head of cattle, and was accustomed to living very comfortably. He once took the writer into a wigwam tenanted by an old squaw, her daughter and grandchild. The owner, just returned from a long journey, had taken up his grandchild and was kissing and fondling it, with a greater appearance of feeling than one would expect to find in an Indian. The writer stood at the door, afraid to touch the sides of it for fear of vermin (Indians always being very dirty), while my friend walked in, sat down on some blankets, picked up an old pot filled with water, in which a fish had been boiled, and drank a quantity, seemingly with great relish. After he had held a long conversation with them in the Indian tongue, we came away. All half-breeds can speak some Indian dialect. The French and English can always communicate freely with each other by their common language. The women generally dress in dark coloured clothes; out of the house they invariably wear a black shawl over their heads, which serves the place of bonnet and cloak, and looking out, with a sly glance from the corner of their eyes, with their bright red or bronzed complexions, they appear rather attractive.

On Sundays the French women may be seen in crowds crossing the ferry at St. Boniface. When delayed there, they have a way of resting themselves by squatting down on the ground, not caring whether there is grass

or not a habit they have inherited from their Indian mothers.

It is not an uncommon thing to see a leather tent standing near the houses of the half-breeds, and used a good deal in the summer months; it is cooler for sleeping in, and they can have their smudge for keeping off the musquitoes, and can gratify a taste for out-door life.

It has always been considered totally unnecessary to have locks on the doors of the houses; doors can be left open, articles left lying about in the most careless manner, without any danger of their being stolen or the house being entered. Till lately crime was almost unknown in the settlement. There was only one Judge for the whole place, who held court at Fort Garry about every three months. The jail was a wooden building, and nearly always unoccupied.

During the summer many of the settlers employ their time in what is called "tripping," that is, in making trips between Fort Garry and St. Paul's, in Minnesota. They go with loads of fur, and return with all sorts of merchandize for the shopkeepers of Red River. They take with them all their working oxen, of which some have only six or eight, others thirty or forty. The oxen are harnessed singly to carts made completely of wood, without tires, these being the most convenient, as they can be floated over the streams on the route where there are no ferry-boats. As a general thing there is a man in charge of every five or six carts. to load and unload, attend to the oxen morning and evening, and other work. The leading ox of the train is an old stager that walks fast. He usually has blinds on, so that the driver need not be always at his head goading him on, a call being enough. The second ox is tied by the horns with buffalo thongs to the leading cart, the third to the second, and so on all through the train, consequently they are unable to lag.

All summer these trains are arriving and leaving the settlement, from the small ones

of eight or ten carts to a string of a hundred or more. They are often heard before they are seen; the wheels, through want of greasing, emit a sound anything but agreeable to the ear. A good-sized train can easily be heard a mile off.

As winter sets in this traffic is stopped, and many then go for the winter buffalo hunting. Those left devote themselves to pleasure, drive about in their little carioles, or in small sleighs with racks, their own handiwork, and appear to enjoy life as well as the best of us. After the snow falls all long journeys into the interior are made with dog trains, consisting of three or more dogs harnessed in tandem fashion, with Dutch collars, to small carioles, or, as we should call them, toboggans, a half-breed driver with a whip completing the turnout. The "huskies," or Esquimaux dogs, from the north, are considered the best for this purpose.

They are only fed once a day, that is in the evening, the meal consisting of fish or about a pound of pemmican. This keeps them in good condition. In camp, with the dogs about, unless they are very well fed, nearly everything has to be hung up out of their reach, even moccasins and snow shoes. The cariole itself (on account of the deer thongs about it,) has also to be hung up, otherwise it would be destroyed. In the

dog cariole the passenger can sit or lie down with the greatest comfort and warmth; it being low, little wind is caught. The driver by practice can run all day, making from forty to sixty miles, and only occasionally jumping on the rear of the cariole, which projects beyond the place where the occupant sits, or where the load is placed.

The inhabitants of Red River, Scotch or half-breed, invariably wear moccasins made of moose or buffalo skin, called by them shoes. Winter or summer, cold or warm, dry or muddy, they always wear their moccasins in summer generally without socks or stockings. When it is muddy their feet of course are always wet or damp; they are accustomed to this, and it does not appear to injure their health in the least. During the cold weather they wear inside the shoes pieces of warm cloth like blanket, technically termed "duffel."

They are the fortunate possessors of a splendid country. As regards soil, it is one of the gardens of the earth. It is impossible to travel over those countless acres of waving grass, without meditating on the great future which awaits Canada when they shall have been converted into thriving farms by our industrious and loyal fellowsubjects.

his visitor had a grievance, thought that, if it had been his own case, he would hardly have been able to restrain himself so well, and speak with so little regard to self-interest, as Mr. Brassey had done. Of all the persons whom Mr. Helps had known, he thought Mr. Brassey most resembled that perfect gentleman and excellent public man, Lord Herbert of Lea.

ness.

Mr. Helps commences his work with a general portrait. According to this portrait, the most striking feature in Mr. Brassey's character was trustfulness, which he carried to what might appear an extreme. He chose his agents with care, but, having chosen them, placed implicit confidence in them, trusting them for all details, and judging by results. He was very liberal in the conduct of busiHis temperament was singularly calm and equable, not to be discomposed by success or failure, easily throwing off the burden of care, and, when all had been done that could be done, awaiting the result with perfect equanimity. He was very delicate in blaming, his censure being always of the gentlest kind, evidently reluctant, and on that account going more to the heart. His generosity made him exceedingly popular with his subordinates and workmen, who looked forward to his coming among them as a festive event; and, when any disaster occurred in the works, the usual parts of employer and employed were reversed the employer it was who framed the excuses and comforted the employed. He was singularly courteous, and listened to every body with respect; so that it was a marked thing when he went so far as to say of a voluble and empty chatterer, that "the peas were overgrowing the stick." His presence of mind was great; he had in an eminent degree, as his biographer remarks, what Napoleon called " two o'clock of the morning courage," being always ready, if called up in the middle of the night, to meet any urgent peril; and his faculties were stimulated, not overcome, by danger. He had a perfect hatred |

of contention, and would not only refuse to take any questionable advantage, but would rather even submit to be taken advantage of -a generosity which turned to his account. In the execution of any undertaking, his anxiety was that the work should be done quickly and done well. Minor questions, unprovided for by specific contract, he left to be settled afterwards. In his life he had only one regular law-suit. It was in Spain, about the Mataro line, and into this he was drawn by his partner against his will. He declared that he would never have another, "for in nineteen cases out of twenty you either gain nothing at all, or what you do gain does not compensate you for the worry and anxiety the lawsuit occasions you." In case of disputes between his agents and the engineers, he quietly settled the question by reference to the "gangers." In order to find the key to Mr. Brassey's character, Mr. Helps made it a point to ascertain what was his "ruling passion." He had none of the ordinary ambitions for rank, title or social position. "His great ambition-his ruling passion-was to win a high reputation for skill, integrity, and success in the difficult vocation of a contractor for public works; to give large employment to his fellow-countrymen; by means of British labour and British skill to knit together foreign countries; and to promote civilization, according to his view of it, throughout the world." "Mr. Brassey," continues Mr. Helps, "was, in brief, a singularly trustful, generous, largehearted, dexterous, ruling kind of personage; blessed with a felicitous temperament for bearing the responsibility of great affairs." In the military age he might have been a great soldier, a Turenne or a Marlborough, if he could have broken through the aristocratic barrier which confined high command to the privileged few; in the industrial age he found a more beneficent road to distinction, and one not limited to the members of a caste.

Mr. Brassey's family is stated by Mr.