of eight or ten carts to a string of a hundred or more. They are often heard before they are seen; the wheels, through want of greasing, emit a sound anything but agreeable to the ear. A good-sized train can easily be heard a mile off. As winter sets in this traffic is stopped, and many then go for the winter buffalo hunting. Those left devote themselves to pleasure, drive about in their little carioles, or in small sleighs with racks, their own handiwork, and appear to enjoy life as well as the best of us. After the snow falls all long journeys into the interior are made with dog trains, consisting of three or more dogs harnessed in tandem fashion, with Dutch collars, to small carioles, or, as we should call them, toboggans, a half-breed driver with a whip completing the turnout. The "huskies," or Esquimaux dogs, from the north, are considered the best for this purpose. They are only fed once a day, that is in the evening, the meal consisting of fish or about a pound of pemmican. This keeps them in good condition. In camp, with the dogs about, unless they are very well fed, nearly everything has to be hung up out of their reach, even moccasins and snow shoes. The cariole itself (on account of the deer thongs about it,) has also to be hung up, otherwise it would be destroyed. In the dog cariole the passenger can sit or lie down with the greatest comfort and warmth; it being low, little wind is caught. The driver by practice can run all day, making from forty to sixty miles, and only occasionally jumping on the rear of the cariole, which projects beyond the place where the occupant sits, or where the load is placed. The inhabitants of Red River, Scotch or half-breed, invariably wear moccasins made of moose or buffalo skin, called by them shoes. Winter or summer, cold or warm, dry or muddy, they always wear their moccasins-in summer generally without socks or stockings. When it is muddy their feet. of course are always wet or damp; they are accustomed to this, and it does not appear to injure their health in the least. During the cold weather they wear inside the shoes pieces of warm cloth like blanket, technically termed "duffel." They are the fortunate possessors of a splendid country. As regards soil, it is one of the gardens of the earth. It is impossible to travel over those countless acres of waving grass, without meditating on the great future which awaits Canada when they shall have been converted into thriving farms by our industrious and loyal fellowsubjects. THE OLD AND THE NEW. BY HENRY RAINE. E crept along the pine-clad shore, WE 'Mid looming hills that vaster grew, And said,-" Farewell, for evermore,- We came across the tossing foam, Athwart the restless sea-walls borne, And said " Adieu to thee, dear Home," With faces to the brightening morn. The land grew large; and manifold The cycle of the long, long year, Once more there breaks the sunlit glow I stand upon the rugged shore, And look, and list across the main ; I stand upon the rugged shore, And watch the homeward ships go by, And hearken through the breakers' roar, For music that will never die. There is sweet music fancy-bred, The shadows flee, back rolls the pall, There stand the maidens on the shore, They wave their beckoning hands, and call To one who loves them more and more. Transfigured! in the shining track, They breathe-"O summer winds bring back BARRIE, Ont. O white-winged sea-bird flying far, Take my fond love-words o'er the wave, Before me waves a shadowy throng, Behind, the snow-clad armies lurk, I draw my hand across mine eyes, A TRUE CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY. THE self, feeling that a son could not speak impartially of his father. HE vast works of the railway and Et steamboat age called into existence, besides the race of great engineers, a race of great organizers and directors of industry, who may be generally termed Contractors. Among these no figure was more conspicuous than that of Mr. Brassey, a life of whom has just been published by Messrs. Bell and Daldy. Its author is Mr. Helps, whose name is a guarantee for the worthy execution of the work. And worthily executed it is, in spite of a little Privy Council solemnity in the reflections, and a little "State paper" in the style. The materials were collected in an unusual way-by examining the persons who had acted under Mr. Brassey, or knew him well, and taking down their evidence in short-hand. The examination was conducted by Mr. Brassey, jun., who prudently declined to write the biography him-knowing well the matter in respect to which Mr. Helps had been acquainted with Mr. Brassey, and had once received a visit from him on official business of difficulty and importance. He expected, he says, to see a hard, stern, soldierly sort of person, accustomed to sway armies of working-men in an imperious fashion. Instead of this he saw an elderly gentleman of very dignified appearance and singularly graceful manners"a gentleman of the old school." "He stated his case, no, I express myself wrongly; he did not state his case, he understated it; and there are few things more attractive in a man than that he should be inclined to understate rather than overstate his own case." Mr. Brassey was, also, very brief, and when he went away, Mr. Helps, his visitor had a grievance, thought that, if it had been his own case, he would hardly have been able to restrain himself so well, and speak with so little regard to self-interest, as Mr. Brassey had done. Of all the persons whom Mr. Helps had known, he thought Mr. Brassey most resembled that perfect gentleman and excellent public man, Lord Herbert of Lea. ness. Mr. Helps commences his work with a general portrait. According to this portrait, the most striking feature in Mr. Brassey's character was trustfulness, which he carried to what might appear an extreme. He chose his agents with care, but, having chosen them, placed implicit confidence in them, trusting them for all details, and judging by results. He was very liberal in the conduct of busiHis temperament was singularly calm and equable, not to be discomposed by success or failure, easily throwing off the burden of care, and, when all had been done that could be done, awaiting the result with perfect equanimity. He was very delicate in blaming, his censure being always of the gentlest kind, evidently reluctant, and on that account going more to the heart. His generosity made him exceedingly popular with his subordinates and workmen, who looked forward to his coming among them as a festive event; and, when any disaster occurred in the works, the usual parts of employer and employed were reversed-the employer it was who framed the excuses and comforted the employed. He was singularly courteous, and listened to every body with respect; so that it was a marked thing when he went so far as to say of a voluble and empty chatterer, that "the peas were overgrowing the stick." His presence of mind was great; he had in an eminent degree, as his biographer remarks, what Napoleon called "two o'clock of the morning courage," being always ready, if called up in the middle of the night, to meet any urgent peril; and his faculties were stimulated, not overcome, by danger. He had a perfect hatred of contention, and would not only refuse to take any questionable advantage, but would rather even submit to be taken advantage of -a generosity which turned to his account. In the execution of any undertaking, his anxiety was that the work should be done quickly and done well. Minor questions, unprovided for by specific contract, he left to be settled afterwards. In his life he had only one regular law-suit. It was in Spain, about the Mataro line, and into this he was drawn by his partner against his will. He declared that he would never have another, "for in nineteen cases out of twenty you either gain nothing at all, or what you do gain does not compensate you for the worry and anxiety the lawsuit occasions you." In case of disputes between his agents and the engineers, he quietly settled the question by reference to the "gangers." In order to find the key to Mr. Brassey's character, Mr. Helps made it a point to ascertain what was his "ruling passion." He had none of the ordinary ambitions for rank, title or social position. "His great ambition-his ruling passion-was to win a high reputation for skill, integrity, and success in the difficult vocation of a contractor for public works; to give large employment to his fellow-countrymen; by means of British labour and British skill to knit together foreign countries; and to promote civilization, according to his view of it, throughout the world." "Mr. Brassey," continues Mr. Helps, "was, in brief, a singularly trustful, generous, largehearted, dexterous,ruling kind of personage; blessed with a felicitous temperament for bearing the responsibility of great affairs." In the military age he might have been a great soldier, a Turenne or a Marlborough, if he could have broken through the aristocratic barrier which confined high command to the privileged few; in the industrial age he found a more beneficent road to distinction, and one not limited to the members of a caste. Mr. Brassey's family is stated by Mr. Helps to have come over with William the like that of all with whom he came into contact, he had won. Railway making was at that time a new business, and a contractor was required to meet great demands upon his organizing power; the system of sub-contracts, which so much facilitates the work, being then only in its infancy. From George Stephenson Mr. Brassey passed to Mr. Locke, whose great coadjutor he speedily became. And now the question arose whether he should venture to leave his moorings at Birkenhead and launch upon the wide sea of railroad enterprise. His wife is said, by a happy inspiration, to have decided him in favour of the more important and ambitious sphere. She did so at the sacrifice of her domestic comfort; for in the prosecution of her husband's multifarious enterprises they changed their residence eleven times in the next thirteen years, several times to places abroad, and little during those years did his wife and family see of Mr. Brassey. A high place in Mr. Brassey's calling had now been won, and it had been won not by going into rings or making corners, but by treading steadily the upward path of honour. Mr. Locke was accused of unduly favouring Mr. Brassey. Mr. Helps replies that the partiality of a man like Mr. Locke must have been based on business grounds. It was found that when Mr. Brassey had undertaken a contract, the engineer-in-chief had little to do in the way of supervision. Mr. Locke felt assured that the bargain. would be not only exactly but handsomely fulfilled, and that no excuse would be pleaded for alteration or delay. After the fall of a great viaduct it was suggested to Mr. Brassey that, by representing his case, he might obtain a reduction of his loss. "No," was his reply, "I have contracted to make and maintain the road, and nothing shall prevent Thomas Brassey from being as good as his word." As a contractor on a large scale, and especially as a contractor for foreign railroads, |