Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/41

 country of vast extent, it possesses a salubrious climate and a fertile soil; but summer frosts, generated by undrained marshes, sometimes blast the hopes of the husbandman, and the extremes of abundance and want are experienced by an improvident people. Horses, horned cattle, hogs, and poultry, are exceedingly numerous. Sheep have been brought by the Company, at great expense, from England and the United States, and are reared with success. Wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, turnips, and most of the ordinary culinary vegetables, thrive well. Pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers come to maturity in the open air in favourable seasons. Maize, pease, and beans, have not been extensively cultivated ; hops grow luxuriantly; flax and hemp are poor and stunted; orchards are as yet unknown.

The banks of the rivers are cultivated to the width of from a quarter to half a mile. All the back level country remains in its original state—a vast natural pasture, covered for the greater part of the year with cattle, and also furnishing the inhabitants with a sufficiency of coarse hay for the support of their herds during the winter. The length of this severe season exceeds five months, the rivers usually freezing in November and opening in April, when there is a fine sturgeon-fishery; but Lake Winipeg,