My Canadian journal, 1872-'78; extracts from my letters home, written while Lord Dufferin was governor-general; . ve our house-upon-wheels, and to em-bark upon the boat, which friendly hands have decoratedwith flags, wreaths of leaves, and flowers. She—thesteamer—is a stern-wheeler, such as we had on theFraser River ; she draws very little water, and certainlyhas an extraordinary passage to perform. The river,which to all intents and purposes is the Red River (thefirst few miles it is called the Red Lake River), is verymuddy, very narrow, and extremely sinuous. I canscarcely convey to you an i
My Canadian journal, 1872-'78; extracts from my letters home, written while Lord Dufferin was governor-general; . ve our house-upon-wheels, and to em-bark upon the boat, which friendly hands have decoratedwith flags, wreaths of leaves, and flowers. She—thesteamer—is a stern-wheeler, such as we had on theFraser River ; she draws very little water, and certainlyhas an extraordinary passage to perform. The river,which to all intents and purposes is the Red River (thefirst few miles it is called the Red Lake River), is verymuddy, very narrow, and extremely sinuous. I canscarcely convey to you an idea of the extraordinarymanner in which it twists and turns itself about: thinkof a braiding-pattern, or of a zigzag path up a verysteep hill; or imagine sailing through hundreds of smallponds all joined together, the second being concealedby the curve of the first, and you may form an ideaof it. I can only tell you that we go from one bank to theother, crushing and crashing against the trees, whichgrow down to the water-side; the branches sweep overthe deck, and fly in our faces, and leave pieces behind. AUG. i877 THE RED RIVER. 343 them. I had just written this when 1 gave a shriek as Isaw my ink-bottle on the point of being swept overboardby an intrusive tree; and hat was knocked off hishead by it. The consequence of this curious navigationis that we never really go on for more than three min-utes at a time: we run against one bank, our steam isshut off, and in some mysterious manner we swing roundtill our bow is into the other ; then we rebound, and goon a few yards, till the sharp curve brings us up againstthe side. Our stern wheel is very often ashore, and ourcaptain and pilot must require the patience of saints. Itold you when the last branch came on board ; well, Ihave been writing as fast as possible since, and now weare ashore on the other side ; so you may easily believethat we travel seventeen miles for two that we make,and were it not a lovely day, and had
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