Note 28 — INTRODUCTION.

(28) “The settlement on the Red River, distant from Montreal by the Ottawah River about 1800 miles in lat. 50° north, lon. 97° west, is elevated 800 feet above the level of the sea, contiguous to the border of the Red and Asinibourn Rivers, along which the settlement extends for fifty miles. The soil is comparatively fertile, and the climate salubrious; but summer frosts, generated by undrained marshes, sometimes blast the hopes of the husbandman. The Hudson’s Bay Company by the introduction, at a great expense, of rams and other stock, have improved the breed of domestic animals, which are now abundant. Wheat, barley, oats, maize, potatoes and hops thrive; flax and hemp are poor and stinted. The river banks are cultivated for half a mile inland, but the back level country remains in its natural state, and furnishes a coarse hay for the long and severe winter which lasts from November to April, when the Lake Winnipeg is unfrozen and the river navigation commences—viâ Norway house entrepôt—at the north extremity of the lake. The population is in number about 6000, consisting of Europeans, half-breeds and Indians. The two principal churches, the Protestant and Roman Catholic, the gaol, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s chief building, the residence of the Roman Catholic bishop, and the houses of some of the retired officers of the fur trade, are built of stone, which has to be brought from a distance; but the houses of the settlers are built of wood. A great abundance of English goods is imported, both by the Hudson’s Bay Company and by individuals in the company’s ships, to York factory, and disposed of in the colony at moderate prices. There are fifteen wind and three water mills to grind the wheat and prepare the malt for the settlers. The Hudson’s Bay Company have long endeavoured, by rewards and arguments, to excite an exportation of tallow, hides, wool, &c. to England, but the bulky nature of the exports, the long and dangerous navigation of the Hudson’s Bay, and the habits of the half-bred race, who form the mass of the people and generally prefer chasing the buffalo to agriculture or regular industry, have rendered their efforts ineffectual.”—Montgomery Martin, Esq.