LOOKING FROM LAKE AGNES DOWN ON LAKES MIRROR AND LOUISE.
THE FAIR DOMINION
A RECORD OF CANADIAN IMPRESSIONS
BY
R. E. VERNÈDE
AUTHOR OF
'THE PURSUIT OF MR. FAVIEL,' 'MERIEL OF THE MOORS,' ETC.
With 12 Illustrations in Colour
from Drawings by
CYRUS CUNEO
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD.
DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.
1911
PREFACE
You know how long ago, in the earlier-than-Victoriandays, the country cousin, in order tosee life, went up to the Metropolis. A terriblejourney it was, but well worth the labour andanxiety. Accounts are still extant of how thebustle and noise of the streets amazed him, ofhow endless the houses seemed, how startledhe was by the glittering, clattering folk, howinnocent and countrified he felt by comparisonwith them. Nowadays, though the Londonwe know is to that old London as a vast andsleepless city to a small somnolent town, thecountry cousin is no longer carried off his feetby a visit to it. It is not vast enough or noisyenough or new enough to impress him. Perhapsno single city ever will be again.
But Canada! Some Winnipeg school teacherswho came over recently to see London, tolda journalist that it seemed so quietcompared with Canadian cities. 'In our cities,'{vi}they said, 'it is impossible to escape from thenoise of the streets.' ... Yet the streets andthe cities are not really the things that impressone most in Canada. The amazing things arethe forests and the fields, the prairies and thelakes and the mountains: all the illimitablespace and the irrepressible men who are closingit in and giving it names for us to know it by.
Clearly the English country cousin who wishesto be impressed should go to Canada. It is aseasy to reach as London was in the old days,and there are no highwaymen. He will comeback—if he comes back—with many stories totell his friends of the wonders he has seen andof the still more incredible things that willsoon be visible. That is at least my position.I went out originally for the Bystander, whichwanted its Canadian news, like all its othernews, up-to-date and not too solemn, and I amindebted to the editor of that journal forpermission to make use in parts of the articlesI sent him for this book, in which, by the way,I have still endeavoured to avoid solemnity.For some reason or other, many writers uponCanada do fall into a solemn and portentousway of describing the country—with the result{vii}that people who know nothing of the facts sayto themselves, 'This is indeed an importantDominion, but dull.' As a matter of fact, ofcourse, Canada is a highly exciting country—fromits grizzly bears to its political problems—andhaving spent delightful months in variousparts, some well known, others, such as theFrench River, the Columbia Valley, and theSelkirks, very little known; riding in trains oron mountain ponies, sometimes