her railway-train, nor steamboat, nor
stagecoach, to carry us on our way. We shall not even have the help of a
horse. For us no hotel shall spread its luxurious board; no road-side
inn shall hang out its inviting sign and "clean beds;" no roof of any
kind shall offer us its hospitable shelter. Our table shall be a rock, a
log, or the earth itself; our lodging a tent; and our bed the skin of a
wild beast. Such are the best accommodations we can expect upon our
journey. Are you still ready to undertake it? Does the prospect not
deter you?

No--I hear you exclaim--I shall be satisfied with the table--what care I
for mahogany? With the lodging--I can tent like an Arab. With the
bed--fling feathers to the wind!

Enough, brave boy! you shall go with me to the wild regions of the
"North-west," to the far "fur countries" of America. But, first--a word
about the land through which we are going to travel.

Take down your atlas. Bend your eye upon the map of North America. Note
two large islands--one upon the right side, Newfoundland; another upon
the left, Vancouver. Draw a line from one to the other; it will nearly
bisect the continent. North of that line you behold a vast territory.
How vast? You may take your scissors, and clip fifty Englands out of it!
There are lakes there in which you might _drown_ England, or make an
island of it! Now, you may form some idea of the vastness of that region
known as the "fur countries."

Will you believe me, when I tell you that all this immense tract is a
wilderness--a howling wilderness, if you like a poetical name? It is
even so. From north to south, from ocean to ocean--throughout all that
vast domain, there is neither town nor village--hardly anything that can
be dignified with the name of "settlement." The only signs of
civilisation to be seen are the "forts," or trading posts of the
Hudson's Bay Company; and these "signs" are few and far--hundreds of
miles--between.

For inhabitants, the country has less than ten thousand white men, the
_employes_ of the Company; and its native people are Indians of many
tribes, living far apart, few in numbers, subsisting by the chase, and
half starving for at least a third part of every year! In truth, the
territory can hardly be called "inhabited." There is not a man to every
ten miles; and in many parts of it you may travel hundreds of miles
without seeing a face, red, white, or black!

The physical aspect is, therefore, entirely wild. It i