INDEX TO VOL. XVIII. OF LITTELL'S LIVING AGE. Byrne's British Colonies, Books, New,. 337 Ghosts and Ghost Seers, . Hudson's Bay, by R. M. Bal- Saviour, Osgood's Head of the,. These Three, Tupper, (M. F.,) to Brother Jonathan, Goldsmith, Life and Adven 271 490 239 1 260 What felt the world's sur 458 Italy, Late Events in, 609 47, 191, 383 Brougham's Last Escapade, 129 Ireland, Rebellion Improved, 385 132 135 France and England in, 610 Royal Classes, Distress among 263 Lamartine and the Republic, 226 Russia, Thompson's Life in, 359 dispose of them, 131 Martineau's Eastern Life, 341, 419 Miami Expedition, Cholera, The, Seymour's Pilgrimage to Rome, 223 them, 232 236 253 Scottish Kidnapping, . 78 561 Slavery, Anti, and Free Trade, 139 145 209, 404 Somerville's, (Mrs.) Physical 294 Geography, Skerryvore Lighthouse, State Dress-making, 235 Sclavonic Nationality, 238 Spielberg, Life in, Mexico and the Treaty, 526, 527 gins, Costume, Character of, Cockroach on Shipboard, Clement XIV. and the Jes 212 375 O'Connell, Daunt's Recollec- 559 459 Ormerod on Continued Fever, 590 130 Paris, Revolt in, Sea Voyage, The Invalid, 291 Shiraz to the Persian Gulf, Stephenson, George,. 200 Times, Men for the, .. 195 Torpidity of Animals, 283, 324 TALES 134 Piracy in the Oriental Archi- 41, 92, 140, 179, 285, 327, 376,| 427, 474, 518, 572, 612 Europe, Duty of Statesman Armada, The Invincible,. Come, Love and Memory, 386 Diary . 261 . 567 569 308 60 3 Honeymoon in 1848, . 556 137 403 Marston of Dunoran, .23, 61, 108 417 6018-4 LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 216.-1 JULY, 1848. From the Spectator. LIFE IN THE HUDSON'S BAY SERVICE. * MR. BALLANTYNE is a young man, who in 1841 was appointed an "apprentice-clerk" of the Hudson's Bay Company; and, after voyaging to York Factory through ice in summer, remained in the territories of the great fur-traders till 1847, when he returned to England. During this interval he became acquainted with the routine of the Hudson's Bay business; made various journeys, from factory to factory, in the territory of the company lying between the 50th and 60th degrees of latitude; and passed his leisure hours in sporting excursions, in observing the habits of the Indians, or partaking of the rough, rollicking pleasures of the company's servants. As the term of his service approached its close, he made a long journey from Lake Winnipeg along the frontiers of Canada to Quebec, and thence down the St. Lawrence to the stations of Tadousac and Seven Islands-as comfortless places as one would wish an enemy to be in, especially the latter. Hudson's Bay, or Every-day Life in the Wilds of North America, contains an account of Mr. Ballantyne's journeys and adventures during his six years' absence, some of the most remarkable incidents that occurred, sketches of the Indians and their customs, together with descriptions of his own hunting adventures or those of his friends, and the general results of his observation on the country and the service. From the novelty of the subject -very few but Arctic explorers entering the Hudson's Bay territories, and then only bestowing a passing glance upon the people-the matter is mostly new as well as informing. Mr. Ballantyne has some literary skill, and he appropriately varies his composition with his subject; the boyish excitement, the troubles of his voyage, the flat landscapes and level life of Hudson's Bay, are told in a manner very different from that which describes the Indian's night visit to his traps-the journeys by land and water-the bivouack-the Christmas festivities with the thermometer below zero, and the Indian stories with which the author varies his other matter. Still, the attraction of the book is greatly owing to the novelty of its subject. Mr. Ballantyne's style is somewhat literal; and the repetition of journeys, which, though they have an end, have no object for the reader after he becomes acquainted with the first descriptions of the manner of travel, infuse into the Hudson's Bay book a little of that monotony which seems very greatly to prevail in Hudson's Bay life. Perhaps, too, the narratives THE MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE. Trade is carried on with the natives by means of a standard valuation, called in some parts of the country a castor. This is to obviate the necessity of circulating money, of which there is little or none excepting in the colony of Red River. Thus an Indian arrives at a fort with a bundle of furs, with which he proceeds to the Indian trading-room. There the trader separates the furs into different lots, and, valuing each at the standard valuation, adds the amount together, and tells the Indian (who has been gazing all the time at the procedure with great interest and anxiety) that he has got fifty or sixty castors; at the same time he hands the Indian that the latter may know, by returning these in payfifty or sixty little bits of wood in lieu of cash, so ment of the goods for which he really exchanges his skins, how fast his funds are decreasing. The Indian then proceeds to look round upon the bales of cloth, powder-horns, guns, blankets, knives, &c., with which the shop is filled; and after a good This being given him, the trader tells him that the while makes up his mind to have a small blanket. price is six castors; the purchaser hands back six of his little bits of wood, and proceeds to select something else. In this way he goes on till all his wooden cash is expended; and then, packing up his goods, departs to show his treasures to his wife, and another Indian takes his place. The value of a castor is from one to two shillings. The natives twice a year-once in October, when they bring in generally visit the establishments of the company the produce of their autumn hunts, and again in March, when they come in with that of the great winter hunt. a The number of castors that an Indian makes in winter hunt varies from fifty to two hundred, according to his perseverance and activity, and the amount I ever heard of was made by a man called part of the country in which he hunts. The largest Piaquata-Kiscum, who brought in furs on one occasion to the value of two hundred and sixty castors. his relatives, who were jealous of his superior abiliThe poor fellow was soon afterwards poisoned by *Hudson's Bay, or Every-day Life in the Wilds of North America, during six years' residence in the territories of the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company; with Illustraties as a hunter, and envied him for the favor shown tions. By Robert M. Ballantyne. him by the white men. CCXVI. LIVING AGE. VOL. XVIII. 1 ASCENDING RAPIDS. The current, the stern slipped, and almost before I knew what like a cask. Our second attempt proved more suc- From the Spectator. BRITISH COLONIES. The reasons he gives for publication are, that most other books on colonies and emigration are devoted to some single settlement; or are written by persons with insufficient information, or who have some ulterior objects that prevent them from truly advising upon the question-which is the best colony to go to? Mr. Byrne, on the other hand, brings together in one work New Zealand, New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, Port Phillip, South Australia, and Swan River. He also vouches for his own practical knowledge, the extent of his experience, and the soundness of his advice. Rapid after rapid was surmounted; yet still, as we rounded every point and curve, rapids and falls rose, in apparently endless succession, before our wearied eyes. My Indians, however, knew exactly the number they had to ascend; so they set them-descent, it would have been rolled over and over selves manfully to the task. I could not help admiring the dexterous way in which they guided the canoe among the rapids. Upon arriving at one, the old Indian, who always sat in the bow, (this being the principal seat in canoe travelling,) rose up on his knees, and stretched out his neck to take a look before commencing the attempt; and then, sinking down again, seized his paddle, and pointing signifi- BYRNE'S TWELVE YEARS' WANDERINGS IN THE cantly to the chaos of boiling waters that rushed swiftly past us, (thus indicating the route he intended to pursue to his partner in the stern,) dashed MR. BYRNE has been "wandering" for the last into the stream. At first we were borne down with twelve years through the British colonies of the the speed of lightning, while the water hissed and southern hemisphere, and has turned his experience boiled to within an inch of the gunwale, and a per- to account in the form of two goodly octavos. son unaccustomed to such navigation would have thought it folly our attempting to ascend; but a second glance would prove that our Indians had not acted rashly. In the centre of the impetuous current a large rock rose above the surface, and from its lower end a long eddy ran like the tail of a comet for about twenty yards down the river. It was just opposite this rock that we entered the rapid and paddled for it with all our might. however, as I said before, swept us down; and when we got to the middle of the stream, we just reached the extreme point of the eddy, and after a few vigorous strokes of the paddles were floating quietly in the lee of the rock. We did not stay long, however-just long enough to look for another stone; and the old Indian soon pitched upon one a British Colonies is scarcely equal to the time it The value of Twelve Years' Wanderings in the few yards higher up, but a good deal to one side; so, dipping our paddles once more, we pushed out has cost and the space it occupies. If not brought into the stream again, and soon reached the second together in one book, probably the substance of rock. In this way, yard by yard, did we ascend Mr. Byrne's facts and information has been already for miles; sometimes scarcely gaining a foot in a published on various occasions; as regards form. minute, and at others, as a favoring bay or curve he pursues the usual routine of books on the colopresented a long piece of smooth water, advancing nies-a history of the settlement, done in encyclomore rapidly. In fact, our progress could not be likened to anything more aptly than to the ascent pædic style; its statistics, exhibited pretty much of a salmon as he darts rapidly from eddy to eddy, after the same fashion; and then, a general account taking advantage of every stone and hollow that he of the capabilities and customs of the country, with finds; and the simile may be still further carried the character of its people for morality, honesty, out; for as the salmon is sometimes driven back manners, and other social characteristics; winding tail foremost in attempting to leap a fall, so were up with the pros and cons in favor of emigration we in a similar attempt driven back by the overor against it. And we may here state, that powering force of the water. It happened thus. We had surmounted a good many rapids, and made Southern or Western Australia (Swan River) are a few portages, when we arrived at a perpendicular the only two colonies that Mr. Byrne's description fall of about two feet in height, but from the rapidity would induce one to settle at. New Zealand he of the current it formed only a very steep shoot. represents as unfavorable to the reception of memHere the Indians paused to breathe, and seemed to bers, from the mountainous nature of the country doubt whether it was possible to ascend; however, and the cost of clearing. New South Wales and after a little conversation on the subject, they deter- Van Diemen's Land are objectionable on moral mined to try it, and got out their poles for the purpose, poles being always used when the current is grounds; Mr. Byrne repeating, with additions, the Felonry of New South too strong for the paddles. We now made a dash, pictures of Mudie's " and turning the bow to the current, the Indians Wales;" but sometimes, perhaps, in each case, fixed their poles firmly in the ground, while the crimes, peculiar to individuals, and such as may water rushed like a mill-race past us. They then be matched at home, are attributed to the country pushed forward, one keeping his pole fixed while although honesty and morals are no doubt as the other refixed his a little more ahead. In this way we advanced inch by inch, and had almost got up; the water rushed past us in a thick black body, hissing sharply in passing the side of our canoe, which trembled like a reed before the powerful current; when suddenly the pole of the Indian in bad as well can be. The advantages of Australia Felix in point of climate and society are superior to either of its neighbors; but its close vicinity to the old penal settlements favors an influx of the felonry leaven. South and Western Australia form the respectability of Australasia; and proba- | management and incapacity so conspicuous in all bly the west has the advantage in society, if not our colonial matters, but in few more so than in in riches. It has more of an old county cast— the regulation of emigration, by which the colony Cheshire or Shropshire against Lancashire. is starved at one time for want of hands, and at another overwhelmed with unsuitable labor. The compilation of matter almost as common as the materials of an almanac, or general views by a mind not very competent to form them, although the principal part of this book, are not the whole. Mr. Byrne undertook an overland journey from New South Wales to South Australia, on a cattle speculation, in the early days of that trade, and gives an account of the expedition. He has experienced several colonial adventures, which he narrates; and he occasonally exhibits particular observations in the form of an anecdote to support a general conclusion. Here is one. THEATRICALS AT SYDNEY. General society cannot be said to exist there, particularly in the shape of public balls, réünions, and concerts, when you may expect to find the person on your right hand a murderer-him on the left, a burglar. The theatre is even avoided by respectable families for this reason; as in all probability the box next that which you occupy may be tenanted by a family whose seniors have borne chains, or have graduated in the Paramatta convict factories. The writer was once present on a command night, that is when the governor has specially intimated his intention of being present, and patronizing a particular piece this was an exciting occasion, as his excellency but seldom indeed extended his countenance to the theatre. The governor's box was fitted up specially for the occasion; the box next was occupied by the commander-in-chief and his family; whilst the adjoining one was tenanted by a wealthy linen-draper, his wife, and two marriageable daughters. The father of this family had, some ten years before, been convicted of a mailcoach robbery, and transported for life; his wife had followed him to the colony, with the large produce of the robbery, set up the drapery business on her own account, and got her husband assigned to her as her convict servant! A few years passed on; the convict obtained a ticket of leave, then a conditional pardon, allowing his freedom in the colony, but not permitting him to leave it. By degrees, the produce of the mail adventure was developed, and the convict draper became a wealthy man, making his appearance wherever money was the introducer. Except on such occasions as a command night, the Sydney theatre is almost abandoned by the families of respectability, and surrendered to the occupation of young men and the families of Emancipists. The proprietor of the Sydney theatre is a person of this class, as is also its manager; both of whom drive about in their gaudily decorated carriages. THE BOAT HORN. BY GEN. WM. O. BUTLER. O, BOATMAN! wind that horn again, And melody in every tone. Unmindful of the lapsing hours, I've loitered on my homeward way By wild Ohio's brink of flowers, While some lone boatman from the deck Poured his soft numbers to that tide, The boat where all his fortunes ride! To catch the sounds far off, yet dear- |