Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

THE EDITOE IX CAI^ADA.
YIII.
Leaving Guelph I passed througli the richest portion of Canada on the
way to Woodstock, passing tlirough Gait, Preston, and Paris. As stated
in my last, I had abeady experienced a Canadian winter storm, the glass
having been down to zero ; bnt I did not feel any colder than on an or-
dinary winter day in the Scottish Higlilands. I walked about quite com-
fortably, without an overcoat, while my Canadian friends wrapped them-
selves up to the ears in thick winter clothing and furs. I could not
understand how they seemed to feel the cold so much more than a stranger,
and, to quote my own letters in the Daily Free Press, " I expressed my sur-
prise that people whom one would expect to have found thoroughly
hardened to it, should feel the cold more than I did. I was told, if I
remained for a second winter in the country, that I woidd feel the severity
of the winter as much as they did ; that the heat of summer made
one much less able to stand the winter cold; that the blood became
thinner ; and that one was much less able to resist the cold the second
winter than during the first on Canadian soil. There was some force in
the heat argument, but it did not altogether satisfy me. I am, however,
perfectly satisfied that I have discovered the cause of the non-resisting
powers of the Canadian generally against the winter cold in comparison
with a new arrival from this country. The first article that meets you on
your entrance into a comfortable Canadian house is a reeking stove in the
lobby, immediately inside the front door and opposite the doors of the
principal rooms. In most cases a pipe from this stove passes upstairs and
through all the bedrooms in the house, while generally the sitting-rooms
have independent stoves of their own^ in addition, in some cases, to ordi-
nary fireplaces such as "\ve have at home. You are consequently living in
an oven. Shops and ofiices are heated in the same way, and the railway
carriages I found, in many instances, almost unbearable — positively suffo-
cating. In these otherwise comfortable cars there is a stove in each end,
and, often, steam pipes running along at the sides, making each of them a
sumptuously-seated bake-house in which you are almost stewed. You
put off your overcoat in spite of you. You perspire, and the pores of
your skin are opened vride to receive the cold into them when you get
out into the bitter but bracing atmosphere at your journey's end. This
is what thins the Canadian blood. This is what takes away the natural
cold-resisting power of the new immigrant ; and this is the cause of the
pretty common prevalence of pulmonary disorders to which so many of
the Canadians become the victims."
In Woodstock I remained for only a day, and had little opportunity
of seeing the Highlanders in the place, though there were not a few good
representatives of the race, Here I again met Mr Laidlaw, M.P., referred
to in my last, on a visit to his son, proprietor and editor of the local news-
paper. These gentlemen were kind enough to spend most of the day with
me, and showed me over the place. I had quite made up my mind to