1

|profession in which he has lived so long, instead of trying
to become a pioneer of a new colony—a task to which
neither his habits nor his acquirements are in the least
adapted? In such colonies, indeed, the experiments of a
‘change of profession are not uncommon. But rarely is
‘such a change a wise one. To see an ex-clergyman at the
tail of a pack-train, and hear him cursing, with a skill
which only a divine could exhibit, his rebellious mules, is

184 KLATSASSAN.

men.

A few, then, of those officer-farmers had found their way
to Alexandria, and joined our expedition. I am sorry to
say, and this is one of the evils of their mistake, the company
they have come to join is not select. They are roughs,—
“Jt is a rough country, and the men in it are rougher
yet,” was a remark I often heard in British Columbia,

,not edifying. Hardly more satisfactory is it to see, as I | and never was truer thing said. Most pioneers are some.

i

TARA
my NA

country be done by hands inured to toil, by “labouring

KELATSASSAN ON THE LOOK-OUT.

have done, an ex-officer of the French navy digging like
a common navvy at William’s Creek, ora British officer at
the plough, or another, ragged and dirty, loading his mule
train. They may be “right men” (and men of indomit-
able courage and perseverance they certainly are) but not
men “in the right place.” They have sunk down upona
lower level in God’s universe than that on which grace
and education had placed them, much better had they
stayed where they were, and let the rough work of a new

what rough. Perhaps they may have been so to begin
with. Possibly it was a certain constitutional tendency
to lawlessness that impelled them to leave the staid old
country, and seek adventures ina new land. Then, for.
years, perhaps, they have hovered on the confines of
civilization, or dwelt on the other side of its boundary-line.
Gold miners are notorious wanderers, ever on the qui
vive for some fresh discovery, and ready to leave even|
diggings by no means unproductive in hope of a nol

ne eee