beam is suspended a
hammock, used as a cradle for the baby; shelves singularly hung held a
scanty stock of plates, knives and forks; two windows on either side,
covered with mosquito netting, admit the light, and a modicum of air;
chests and boxes supply the place of seats, with here and there a keg by
way of easy-chair. An open fireplace of whitewashed clay gives sign of
cheer and warmth in the long winter, and a half-dozen books for library
complete the scene.

Our hosts feel so "highly honored to have such gentlemen enter the
house"--these are their very words--that it is with the greatest
difficulty they are forced to take any compensation for the excellent
meal of bread, butter, and rich cream which they set before us, and to
which we do ample justice.

This was not the only interior we saw; we had before called on the
single scientific man of the Settlement, Donald Gunn, and later in the
day are forced by a thunderstorm to seek shelter in the nearest house;
where we are also warmly welcomed, and the rain continuing, are glad to
accept the cordial invitations of its inhabitants to pass the night.
This is a larger house, but only the father of the family and his buxom
daughter, Susie, a lively girl of eighteen or nineteen, are at home, the
others being off at the other end of their small farm, where they have
temporary shelter during the harvest.

We have each a chamber to ourselves in the garret, reached in the same
primitive method as before mentioned--and are shown with a dip of
buffalo-tallow to our rooms. The furniture of these consists of a sort
of couch, with buffalo skins for mattress and wolf skins for sheets and
coverlet, a chest for a seat, a punch-bowl of water on a broken chair
for a washstand, and a torn bit of rag for towel; while a barrel covered
with a white cloth serves as a centre-table, and is besprinkled with
antique books. Among those in his chamber our naturalist discovers one
which appears to be a catechism of human knowledge containing, among
other entertaining and instructive information as an answer to the
question, "What is a shark?" the highly satisfactory reply that it is
"An animal having eighty-eight teeth."

The wants of the Colony were few, the peasantry simple and industrious,
and their lot in life did not seem to them hard. The earth yielded
bountifully, and in time of temporary disaster fishing and hunting stood
them in good stead. When they hunt, they go accompanied by Indi