The affection
was mutual; and our happiness was completed by the approbation of our
friends. We were married; and it seemed that there was a goodly
prospect of many years of wedded happiness before us.

But it was necessary that I, who was now a husband, and might become a
father, should become a settler on my own account, and look about for
lands of my own. I examined, therefore, several locations in the
neighbourhood; but one objection or another presented itself, and I
declined fixing my settlement at Darlington. Ultimately, I bought two
hundred acres of land in the township of Otonabee, within a mile of the
newly laid out town of Peterborough. It was arranged that I should stop
at Darlington, and assist my father-in-law, until it was time to
commence operations in the spring. This arrangement proved very
beneficial to me, as I was able to learn many useful things, and make
myself acquainted with the manners and customs of the people with whom
I was going to live.

We kept two pair of horses and a yoke of oxen to work the farm. One
pair of our horses were French Canadian. Generally speaking, they are
rough-looking beasts, with shaggy manes and tails, but strong, active,
and stout for their size, which, however, is much less than that of the
Upper Canadian horse. I have seen, nevertheless, some very handsome
carriage-horses of this breed. Of late years, both the Upper and Lower
Canadian breed of horses have been much improved by the importation of
stallions.

The working oxen of this country are very docile and easily managed.
They are extremely useful in the new settlement; indeed, I do not know
what could be done without them. It is next to an impossibility to
plough among the green stumps and roots with horses the plough being
continually checked by roots and stones therefore, till these obstacles
are removed, which cannot be effectually done for seven or eight years,
oxen are indispensably necessary, particularly for logging up new
fallows. Yet notwithstanding their usefulness, I do not know a worse
treated set of animals than Canadian oxen. Their weight, when fat,
varies from seven to eight hundred weight. A yoke and bows, made of
birch or soft maple, is the only harness needed; and, in my opinion,
for double draught, better, and certainly less troublesome than the
collar and traces used in England.

The ox-yoke is made of a piece of wood, four feet in length, and nine
inches deep in the centre, to which a