A WOMAN IM CANADA MRS, GEORGE CRAN PHILADELPHIA J. B, LIPPINCOTT COMPANY LONDON JOHN MILNE 1910 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR . . . Frontispiece A LAND OF MOUNTAIN AND LAKE . . Facing page 1 6 AN OLD QUEBEC STREET . . . . ,, 2O THE SETTLED EAST I OTTAWA . . . 24 THE WOMAN FARMER ..,. 35 MY HOSTESS AT CALEDONIA SPRINGS . ,, 40 CALEDONIA SPRINGS HOTEL . . . ,, ,, 4 EXPERIMENTAL FARM AT BRANDON 47 A TINY LOG CABIN .....,, 53 CATTLE BY THE POND AT CALEDONIA SPRINGS ...... 58 OTTO THE GUIDE AT LEANCHOIL . . ,, 63 A BIG FELLOW n . . . . , 66 PREPARING LUNCH ,, 77 PISHING LANDED ,, , 5 BRINGING HOME THE MOOSE HEAD ,, , 5 7 SKINNING HEAD OF MOOSE j 9 THE PRAIRIE ,, 35 9 6 GRAIN ELEVATORS . . - - Io WOMEN ARE SCARCE IN THE NORTH-WE T 1 15 NEAR LEANCHOIL, WHERE OTTO LIVES . 3J 3 via LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS INTERIOR OF A LOG CABIN . . . facing fflge 135 WHERE REAL SPORT MAY BE HAD , 152 MOOSE . . . . . . . ,, 1 66 THE FRINGE OF THE WILD . . . 178 MR. MUGGINS 191 OUR CAMP ON MALIGNK LAKE IQ5 MR. MUGGINS GETS A RIDE. 206 OUR DINNER-TABLE 2 19 MOUNT ROBSON 235 THE PACIFIC PROVINCE . . . . ,, 25 PINES IN HIGH WATER KAMLOOPS LAKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA ... 269 THE I ONE SONG ..... 280 A WOMAN IN CANADA CHAPTER I FOREWORD LET me beg any one who does not like Is to avoid this book. It is full of them. The first time I went to Canada I spent the days of preparation for departure in being very sorry for myself. I could not think why I had said I would go. There was no need for it. I wasnt going to settle there, or invest money. I was only going on a visit with friends, and as the date of sailing grew near they noticed my depression. Was I home sick No, not yet 3 Was I a bad sailor No, not specially. What was the matter, then Under pressure of questioning the trouble burst forth. Canada was an ugly, cold, icebergy place it had miles of flat wheat it had no flowers it was ugly, and I hated ugliness. Would they understand if I was morose during my visit, and believed that T loved them and only hated the country Such a way as they teased me A WOMAN IN CANADA Yes they would understand indeed they would. And if I wanted flowers very badly they would take me to a marsh on a moor where purple flags grew, and frogs crooned at night. Goodness knows what idea I had of the country no literature I had ever read had forced an impres sion of beauty into my brain it talked of so many bushels to the acre, so many acres to the farm, so many feet of snow to this month, so many days of drought to this, and so on. One book left a vivid picture of the hardships of homesteading, another told of the political value of the country, but none that I had ever seen talked intimately of the scenery or of the days happenings other than commercially. I knew what grew there because I had seen the Coronation Arch. Hiawatha hung in the memory only as a jargon of interminable names cleverly arranged in trochaics. Lamentable, horrible, unin telligent as it sounds, there is the fact of my ignor ance. It has one advantage which I make haste to point out. I have at any rate viewed Canada through my own eyes, no one elses. And I venture to believe that it would strike hundreds of my fellow-Britons as it did me, especially, perhaps, women Britons. I believe that the average Englishman keeps a 10 FOREWORD small but warm corner of his heart for the word colonies. Pride of possession counts for nearly all the warmth in that corner. When he looks there he finds a few vague notions lying loose, just any how, all warm, all prized in a careless, happy way but none of them loved in laborious detail. The vague notions spell vague things to him. India generally spells, I think, ec Elephants a-pilin teak 3 and whisky-pegs Africa, diamonds and Kaffirs Australia, sheep and cricket Canada, wheat and dis comfort. It sounds foolish and almost impossible, but I believe that for the average Briton that is a fairly accurate description of what the Colonies amount to... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.