generally speaking, of a rich quality, and the colonist has fire-wood
for the labour of cutting, fish for the catching, game for the pleasant
exercise of hunting and shooting in Nature's own preserves, without the
expense of a licence, or the annoyance of being warned off by a surly
gamekeeper.

The climate of Canada West is healthier and really pleasanter than that
of England or Ireland. The cold is bracing, and easily mitigated by
good fires and warm clothing; but it is not so really chilling as the
damp atmosphere of the mother-country. Those who have not visited the
Canadas are apt to endow the Upper Province with the severe climate of
the Lower one, whereas that of Western Canada is neither so extremely
hot nor so cold as many districts of the United States.

Emigration to Canada is no longer attended with the difficulties and
disadvantages experienced by the early settlers, of which such
lamentable, and perhaps exaggerated accounts have frequently issued
from the press. The civilizing efforts of the Canada Company have
covered much of the wild forest-land with smiling corn-fields and
populous villages. Indeed, the liberal manner in which the Company have
offered their lands on sale or lease, have greatly conduced to the
prosperity of the Western Province.

If the facts and suggestions contained in the following pages should
prove useful and beneficial to the emigrant, by smoothing his rough
path to comfort and independence, my object will be attained, and my
first literary effort will not have been made in vain.

CONTENTS
OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.
Embarkation for Canada. -- Voyage out. -- Sea-life. -- Icebergs. --
Passage up the St. Lawrence. -- Quebec. -- Memorials of General Wolfe.
-- Cathedral. -- Hospitality. -- Earthquakes. -- Nuns. -- Montreal. --
Progress up the Country. -- My Roman Catholic Fellow-traveller. --
Attempt at Conversion. -- The Township of Whitby.

CHAPTER II.
Arrival at Darlington. -- Kind Reception. -- My Friend's Location. --
His Inexperience. -- Damage to his Land by Fire. -- Great Conflagration
at Miramichi. -- Forest Fires. -- Mighty Conflagration of the 6th of
October. -- Affecting Story of a Lumber-foreman. -- His Presence of
Mind, and wonderful Preservation. -- The sad Fate of his Companions.

CHAPTER III.
Inexperience of my Friend. -- Bad State of his Land -- Fall Wheat. --
Fencing. -- Grasses. -- Invitation to a "Bee." -- United Labour. --
Canadian Sports. --