These half-breeds are squatters, many of them.

They have introduced the same system of survey on the Saskatchewan as their ancestors had on the St.Lawrence, and later on the Red, the system of 'Strip Farms.' That is, farms with narrow fronts upon the river and extending back from a mile to four miles, a poor arrangement for farming but mighty fine for social purposes.

I tell you, it takes the loneliness and isolation out of pioneer life.

I've lived among them, and the strip-farm survey possesses distinct social advantages.

You have two rows of houses a few rods apart, and between them the river, affording an ice roadway in the winter and a waterway in the summer.
And to see a flotilla of canoes full of young people, with fiddles and concertinas going, paddle down the river on their way to a neighbor's house for a dance, is something to remember.