Every House Or Shanty Is Leased Almost Before It Is
Finished.
Winnipeg, as you know, was formerly known as Fort Garry,
and one of the chief trading stations of the Hudson Bay Company.
Of the old fort, I am sorry to say, there is very little left, and
that is shortly to be swept away for the continuation of Main
Street.
The Governor, now occupying the old house, is to have a
splendid building, which, with the Houses of Legislature, are in
the course of construction, rather farther away from the river.
The town is built at the confluence of two great rivers, the Red
and Assiniboine, the former rising in Minnesota, and flowing into
lake Winnipeg 150 miles north, navigable for 400 miles. The
Assiniboine has many steamers on it; but the navigation being more
difficult, the steamers often sticking on the rapids, it is not
much in vogue with emigrants going west, particularly now that the
railway takes them so much more rapidly.
There is a large suburb of the town the other side of the Red River
called St. Boniface face, the see of a Roman Catholic Archbishop;
possessing a beautiful cathedral and a great educational school for
young ladies; for some reason or other we never managed to get over
there to see it, though the cathedral is a grand landmark for a great
distance.
The railway traffic also is enormous. During the flood 4,000
freight waggons were delayed at St. Vincent; now they are coming
in at the rate of 4,000 per week, and still people cannot get
their implements, stores, &c. fast enough.
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