A Trip to Manitoba | Page 3

a signboard announcing that meals could be obtained at all hours
(except, as we were told, that particular one), we with difficulty
persuaded the proprietress to let us have something to eat. Amidst
muttered grumblings that she was "slaved to death," that "her life was
not worth a rap," and so on, every remark being emphasized with a
plate or dish, we were at last supplied with bread, cheese, and
beef-steak, for which we were kindly allowed to pay fifty cents (2s. 6d.)
each.

The scene on board the boat beggars description. The other steamers
being still ice-bound on Lake Superior, the Manitoba was obliged to
take as much freight and as many passengers as she could carry, many
of the latter having been waiting in Sarnia upwards of ten days for her
departure. Surveying parties, immigrants of almost every nation on
their way to make homes in the great North West, crowded the decks
and gangways. The confusion of tongues, the shrill cries of the
frightened and tired children, the oaths of excited men, and the
trundling and thumping of the baggage, mingled with the shrieks of
adjacent engines "made night hideous." Porters and cabmen jostled
women laden with baskets of linen, brought on board at the last minute,
when the poor tired stewardess had no time to administer the
well-merited reprimand; passengers rushed about in search of the
purser, anxious to secure their state-rooms before they were usurped by
some one else.
It was midnight when the commotion had subsided, and quarters were
assigned to all but a stray man or two wandering about in search of
some Mr. Brown or Mr. Jones, whose room he was to share. Climbing
into my berth, I soon fell asleep; but only for a few moments. The shrill
whistle, the vehement ringing of the captain's bell, the heavy beat of the
paddles, roused me; and as we left the wharf and steamed out from
among the ships and small craft dotting the water on every side, "Off at
last!" was shouted from the crowded decks. Then the opening bars of
"God save the Queen" were sung heartily and not inharmoniously,
followed by three cheers for her Majesty, three for her Imperial
Highness, three for her popular representative Lord Dufferin, and so on,
till the enthusiasm culminated in "He's a jolly good fellow;" the
monotony of which sent me to sleep again.
At four o'clock next morning I scrambled out of my berth at the
imminent risk of broken bones, wondering why the inventive powers of
our Yankee neighbours had not hit upon some arrangement to facilitate
the descent; dressed, and went in search of fresh air. Picking my steps
quietly between sleeping forms--for men in almost every attitude, some
with blankets or great-coats rolled round them, were lying on the floor
and lounges in the saloon--I reached the deck just as the sun rose above

the broad blue waters, brightening every moment the band of gold
where sky and water met. Clouds of ink-black smoke floated from our
funnel, tinged by the rising sun with every shade of yellow, red, and
brown. Mirrored in the calm water below, lay the silent steamer--silent,
save for the ceaseless revolution of her paddles, whose monotonous
throb seemed like the beating of a great heart.
For an hour or more I revelled in the beauty of water and sky, and
ceased to wonder why people born on the coast love the sea so dearly,
and pine for the sight of its waves. When the men came to wash the
decks, a pleasant, brawny fellow told me we were likely to have a good
run up the lakes. The storms of the last few days having broken up the
ice, and driven it into the open, there was hope both of the ice-locked
steamers getting out, and of our getting into Duluth without much
trouble--"unless the wind changes, which is more than possible," he
added abruptly; and walked off, as if fearful of my believing his
sanguine predictions too implicitly.
Later the passengers appeared, grumbling at the cold, and at being
obliged to turn out so early, and wishing breakfast were ready. Of this
wished-for meal the clatter of dishes in the saloon soon gave welcome
warning. Dickens says that when, before taking his first meal on board
an American steamer, "he tore after the rushing crowd to see what was
wrong, dreadful visions of fire, in its most aggravated form, floated
through his mind; but it was only dinner that the hungry public were
rushing to devour." We were nearly as bad on the Manitoba, the
friendly steward warning most of us to secure our seats without delay,
the cabin-walls being gradually lined with people on either side, each
behind a chair. One of the "boys" strode