stirring. The smoke from the chimneys rose straight up into the air,
and appeared unable to disperse through the atmosphere. My horses were
as white as snow from the steam of their bodies freezing upon them; the
reins were frozen as stiff as rods; the air seemed to cut like a knife.
I was only a quarter of an hour upon the road, but even in that time I
felt the cold severely, and was very glad when I got into the house to
a large wood fire. The cold obliged the whole party at dinner to take
their plates upon their knees and sit round the fire. But, as I said
before, this is only an extreme case, and might not happen again for
twenty years.

The excessive cold seldom lasts more than three days at a time, when it
generally moderates, though not sufficiently to soften the snow. The
dryness of the atmosphere and snow makes you feel the cold much less in
proportion than in England. You do not experience that clinging,
chilly, damp sort of cold in Canada that you do in the British Isles.
For my part, I much prefer a Canadian winter, where the roads are good,
the sleighing good, and your health good. Sickness is scarcely known
here in the winter months.

If I could have purchased land on the lakeshore, I should have liked to
settle in Darlington; but I found the farms I fancied much too high-
priced for my pocket. So at last I made up my mind to go back to the
new settlement of Peterborough, and see what sort of a place it was,
and what it was likely to become.

Accordingly, I started on my journey, and travelled east, along the
Kingston road, parallel with the shore of lake Ontario for about
twenty-four or five miles to the boundary line, between the townships
of Hope and Hamilton. After this I walked for twenty-seven miles
through Cavan and Monaghan, to the town of Peterborough, which, at that
time contained one log-house and a very poor saw-mill, erected some
five or six years before by one Adam Scott to supply the new settlement
of Smith with lumber.

I found several hundreds of Mr. Robinson's Irish emigrants camped on
the plains. Many had built themselves huts of pine and spruce boughs;
some with slabs and others with logs of trees. Three or four Government
store-houses and a house for the Superintendent, the Hon. Peter
Robinson, were in course of erection. I had letters of introduction to
that gentleman, and also to the Hon. T. A. Stewart, and Robert Reid,
Esq. The two latter gentlemen resided in the township of Dour