THREE YEARS IN CANADA: AN ACCOUNT OF THE ACTUAL STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN 1826-7-8. COMPREHENDING ITS RESOURCES, PRODUCTIONS, IMPROVEMENTS, AND CAPABILITIES; AND INCLUDING SKETCHES OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY, ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS, &c. BY JOHN MACTAGGART, CIVIL ENGINEER, IN THE SERVICE OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1829. LONDON : PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTtEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street. PREFACE. The great and growing interests of the Cana- das, and the readiness shown by Great Britain to promote the advancement and prosperity of a country of such extent and importance, must ren- der any account of its actual state, at the present moment, highly desirable. The encouragement given to emigrants to settle at such a distance from their native land ; the magnitude of the improve- ments at present in active operation ; and the imperfect knowledge we have hitherto possessed of the internal resources, productions, and capa- bilities of one of the most valuable of our colonies — have excited a very lively curiosity in the public mind for any new particulars on these interesting points, on the truth of which the fullest reliance may be placed. Having obtained, from personal observation and experience, the most minute and accurate informa- IV PREFACE. tion on a variety of subjects almost entirely un- known, I have considered it a duty which I owe to my countrymen, to lay before them the results of my investigations. Early in the year 1826, Mr. Rennie was request- ed by Government to furnish a Clerk of Works to the Rideau Canal, in Upper Canada, then about to be commenced, and proposed to extend between the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario, a distance of 160 miles, through an uncleared wilderness. Being selected as a proper person to fill this situation, I undertook the arduous duties attached to it, and immediately proceeded to the active scene of operations. Having zealously pursued my avocations, the nature of which will be found detailed in the work, my health began to suffer in the summer of 1828, from the malaria of the swampy wastes, to which I was necessarily much exposed. With a view to benefit by the change of climate, and to regulate other affairs, I returned to England at the close of last year. The following extract, from an official letter, PREFACE. v may serve to show how far my humble exertions have been appreciated. “ Royal Engineers’ Office, Rideau Canal, 5th August, 1828. “ SIR, “ I have the honour to state, for the information of his Lordship the Master-General, and Right Honourable and Honourable Board, that Mr. Mac- taggart, Clerk of Works at the Rideau Canal, is so much recovered of a dangerous fever, as to ena- ble him to return to England according to order. And I beg leave to report, that I have found him a man of strong natural abilities, well grounded in the practical part of his profession, and a zealous, hard-working man in the field. “ I most respectfully recommend him to your pro- tection and that of the Honourable Board. He is fond of research, and of exploring this untracked country ; his reports are faithful, and I have always found him a man of honour and integrity. “ I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, (Signed) John By, Lieut- Colon el Royal Engineers, Commanding Rideau Canal. ” 44 To General Mann, Inspector-General of Fortifications, Board of Ordnance.” VI PREFACE. In conclusion, I may be permitted to observe, that our possessions in North America embrace a large but ill-defined property, the nature of which we have yet failed to investigate, and re- specting whicli the most erroneous ideas have been entertained. In proof of this assertion, the follow- ing letter, from the very first authority, may prove acceptable. “ Glengarry, Upper Canada, 9th September, 1828. “ SIR, “ The warm zeal which you have displayed in forwarding the improvements of the Canadas since you have been at the head of the Colonial depart- ment, induces me to believe that it would not be unacceptable to you, Sir, to recommend the bearer, Mr. Mactaggart, to your notice, as, perhaps, the ablest practical engineer and geologist, and the properest person that has ever been in these Pro- vinces for exploring the natural productions and latent resources of the country. “In recommending Mr. Mactaggart, I rely much more on the testimony of Colonel By, of the Royal Engineers, and other gentlemen of superior talents and science in' those branches, who have spoken highly of him to me, than on my own judgment. PREFACE. Vll “From the knowledge which my own travels in the discharge of my pastoral duties, through this Province for thousands of miles annually, for the period, of four-and-twenty years, enabled me to acquire, I have no hesitation in saying that very little more than the borders of some of the lakes have yet been explored, and that the inex- haustible resources and capabilities of these inde- terminable forests remain yet to be discovered. “ I have the honour to be, Sir, Your faithful and devoted servant, (Signed) Alexander MacdoNell, Catholic Bishop of Upper Canada.” 44 To Lieut-General the Rt. Hon. Sir George Murray, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, &c. &c. &c.” CONTENTS OP THE FIRST VOLUME. PAGE Notes on the Atlantic . . 1 Banks and Island of Newfoundland 1 8 The Isle of Bic . . . 21 Notes on the St. Lawrence, beneath Quebec 27 Canadian Cities . 33 Rummaging . . 44 Frosts and Floods . . 66 The Lakes . 81 The Forest . • 91 The Rideau Canal . . 103 Wilderness of Rideau 105 Long Island Rapids 121 Burrett’s Rapids • 125 Nicholson’s Rapids 126 Rapids of Merrick’s Mills . • 127 Merrick’s Falls . • 128 Maitland’s Rapids . * .131 Edmund’s Rapids ’ 132 X CONTENTS. PAGE Rapids of Smith’s Falls * 3 ^ Smith’s Falls • 135 First Rapids of the Rideau . ^ 33 River Tay, or Perth River • 140 Oliver’s Ferry . • • 143 Upper Narrows, Rideau Lake • ^ • Isthmus of Kideau Lake • 144 Isthmus of Clear Lake . . 145 Chaffey’s Rapids . • Davis’s Rapids , .147 Jones’s Falls . .148 Cranberry Marsh . .151 Round Tail . ib* Brewer’s Upper Mill 152 Brewer’s Lower Mill . 153 Billydore’s Rifts . ib. Jack’s Rifts . 154 Kingston Mills and Mill Creek . ib* System proposed for conducting the Works of the Rideau Canal, in Upper Canada . 157 Society for the Promotion of Natural History . . 170 Settlers and Squatters . 192 Letters and Remarks respecting the Americans . 209 Curiosities in Natural History — Snakes . 223 The Avrill, or Wood Worm , . 224 Carrion Crows . . 229 Lachine, Granville, and the Petite Nation Canals . 235 Lumbermen . 240 Character of the Canadians, and their Boat Songs . 249 Prophecies and Dialogues of Jonathan . 258 Celebrated Original Characters . 266 Philemon Wright, Esq. ib . Capt. Andrew Wilson, R.N. . 269 To Dr. Dunlop, Warden of the Woods and Forests for the Canada Company 274 CONTENTS. XI PAGE Chief Mac Nab . , 277 The Canadian Mississippi . 280 Disputes and Crimes . . . 290 Burlington Bay and Forty Mile Creek . 296 The Forty-Mile Creek . . . 303 Canoes and Cottages . 305 Canadian Improvements . .312 Canadian Mintage and Cash Circulation . 320 The Union Bridge . 326 THREE YEARS IN CANADA. NOTES ON THE ATLANTIC. Before entering on subjects immediately relat- ing to Canada, I may be allowed to make a few introductory remarks connected with that expanse of waters, which Europeans have to cross ere they can visit America. They are given as taken down on shipboard, without any touching up whatever ; as to do so might efface the rust contracted by coming in contact with the salt ocean, — which it may be better to avoid, in order to show things as they are. The best place in the world for composition is not always the academic grove, where all is quietness and harmony. Only on the deep can its scenes be faithfully depicted according to nature. VOL. i. b 2 THREE YEARS IN When quite out of soundings, the general ap- pearance of the ocean becomes considerably al- tered, — the waves are much longer, while the hollows between seem extensive valleys. When an undulation bursts, the broken water spreads in froth over an extensive portion of the sur- rounding surface of the deep ; and should the ship be where one of these bursts takes place, the surges and surf roar gloriously over the deck. It is a singular thing to find dew falling on the ocean : not so plentiful indeed as on land, but still after a warm day it is found descending in the evening, — not to cool the tender herb cer- tainly, but for some purpose, no doubt, which we have not yet discovered. When about 600 miles west from the Land Vend of England, we were surrounded by a winged moth or butterfly in swarms, with ash -coloured wings. They kept bobbing and dancing about in the air, sometimes alighting on the smooth face of the deep, then starting up again. The weather for some time previous had been very warm. These insects must have been engendered in the ocean. Before we were half-seas-over, we met with many American ships, seemingly bound for Eu- rope. The sailors knew them by their mould, CANADA. 3 method of painting, and form of sails. The name is often printed in large characters on the fore-topsail. They will not deviate from their course one yard in order to speak with any strange ship ; their pride even in this respect is great. They are particularly fond of flashing their flag with its stars and stripes, when they have no notion of an enemy being near at hand ; were such the case, the stars would be haw led down from the firmament, and something of a deceptive cast stuck up in their place. The scenes of the sun rising and setting on a Midsummer ocean are beautiful. The nearer the face of the deep the glorious orb comes, the beams condense the more in the liquid mirror. What a blaze of radiance meets the eye, when the under-edge touches the horizon, which, from the decks of common merchant-ships, is about five miles distant. Much depends on the man at the helm for keeping a dry vessel. A bad steersman has her often shipping seas ; he does not know how to meet her, as the sailors say, — that is, to hu- mour her with the helm. The sailors will some- times yaw the ship for fun, when the passengers are walking the deck, and the surges will come lashing over them; but if grog has been given b 2 4 THREE YEARS IN them now and then, the poor fellows will never play this trick. Persons who have never been at sea, fancy that the wooden crib for the bed is too narrow in dimension ; but when the ship begins to roll and toss amongst the billows, they soon find the error of the supposition. Were the beds not of circumscribed width, they would be tumbled about from one side to the other, and very like- ly hove out altogether. Many have their beds widened in harbour, but are glad to reverse mat- ters again on the ocean. Strangers soon become acquainted with each other; for the natural disposition will show itself there sooner than any where else. How pleasant a voyage is, when a few good-hearted, sensible creatures meet together ; and how disagreeable, when they are otherwise, as they most common- ly are. He who has had what some will term comforts ashore, finds them not aboard ; — then the poor wretch frets himself to death ; while the wanderer, who has roughed out life in many a dismal climate, laughs at such trifles. Fe- males are always our best companions both on sea and land : although they may be more troubled with sickness in ships than we, still the soft-soothing remark, the resigned state, and CANADA. 5 sometimes cheerful smile, counterbalance that. The ladies often make cowards of us there; they brave storms with fortitude, at which we tremble. Fogs off Newfoundland Banks generally arise with a little westerly breeze. They are extreme- ly dense ; so much so, that the bowsprit of the ship cannot be seen from the quarter-deck. While the fog continues, the weather is very cold, and the thickest woollen clothes and mits that we have, are in request. Often it will not clear away for a month or six weeks after it comes on : such duration, however, is rare about Midsummer ; in the spring and fall it is more common. Fog-horns are blown in the ships at intervals, night and day, so that they may not run foul of each other. Lights of any kind cannot be seen very far off ; the sun is quite obscured, and about the summer solstice the day is nearly as dark as the night ; in order to read, we must burn candles. The sailors argue that the fogs raise the sea, — that is, create a commo- tion in the waters. The cause of this is not known, nor the reason why the fogs prevail more on the Banks than elsewhere. The gulf- stream being- of a warmer nature than the sur- rounding ocean, may have some effect, while its 6 THREE YEARS IN exhalations are condensed by the cold westerly wind. The fog is not so thick immediately on the surface of the ocean, as it is about one hun- dred feet above it ; hence lighthouses should not be built higher than this. In the lamp of Humphry Davy, the flame keeps at a little distance from the wire immersed in it ; and steam issuing from a tube is not resolved into smoky vapour the instant it leaves it, but at a small distance from the mouth : this may apply to the exhalations from the tepid waters of the Banks not being turned to fog by the cold wind immediately on the surface of the ocean. Those immense masses of vapour, called fog banks, often assume a singular appearance as to form and variety of colour, before they shroud the sun from the observer ; the tints are quite differ- ent from those of the common clouds ; the shades of black, blue, and red, are surprising. To obtain the set of a current of the ocean, a pitchpot is let down by a rope probably one hun- dred fathoms long, — this anchors a small boat, as it were : the log is then hove, and whichever way it trends is taken by the compass, and velocity per hour by the sand-glass ; currents being always considered to increase in velocity the nearer they run to the surface. This may be well exemplified CANADA 7 by setting coloured fluids in motion on the same inclined plane ; those above outrun those below. The muddy-tinged floods of rivers also represent the truth in a natural point of view. Complex machinery is a bad thing anywhere, but of all places it is worst at sea ; many appa T rently valuable improvements on the land, when transported to the waves lose their effect. To manage any piece of mechanics well in a turbulent ocean, requires it to be made extremely simple. Cod-fish are caught on the banks of Newfound- land by hook and line ; one man can attend to four lines, although fishing in forty fathoms water : the bait is generally a piece of white pork. Thus, as the poet says, “ They wind them up by barrelfulls, To feed a hungry world.” The greatest quantities are caught in the latitude of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The fishermen change their fishing-ground with the season. The old cod-fish are lousy, and not good food, haunting deep banks. The fish are generally salted aboard the schooners, and dried on the shores of New- foundland. This trade might be greatly improved, and better methods applied for procuring the fish ; something after the trowling mode, and not by 8 THREE YEARS IN chapsticks. The banks require the investigation of very able naturalists. Numbers of various fish are met with in a voyage over the Atlantic. Porpoises gambol and plunge about the ships in shoals, while the sai- lors harpoon them beneath the bows. Sharks are often seen prowling round, with dorsal fins above the water, and sometimes will take the bait hung out for them astern : when the weather is extremely fine, the ocean unruffled and pure, they may be seen playing with the bait in the chambers of the deep — this is an interesting scene ; fain would they grasp it, yet are suspicious. Dog-fish play round it in the same manner, turning up the edges of their white bellies, while they munch at it with their singular cross-set mouths : — they are much like the shark, but not so large : they bring forth their young alive; after they have been caught, the pregnant females deliver themselves on the deck. It is said that the shark cannot suffer the smell of tobacco-smoke : he is not singular in this respect, for there are human beings who do not relish it either, — at least they pretend so. The In- dians are aware of this fact, and dare not smoke while they are crossing the bays of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or the river itself, lest they rouse the ire of the shark. They have a story of an Indian CANADA. 9 and his squaw, who were crossing, but forgot the precaution regarding the tobacco-smoke : an in- furiated shark, of enormous size, came whack against their canoe, and cut it in two with his tail, when the poor wretches were devoured by the monster. There may be some truth in this state- ment. Beating up the St. Lawrence, while the pilot, a Canadian, was relating the above story, an immense shark approached the ship, swimming with great swiftness, and was seen distinctly by all on the deck ; the water frothed about him, and he seemed much in wrath at something, which was concluded to be the cloud of smoke issuing from the sailors’ pipes. Small fish are often found squatting on his back along the side of the fins, called pilot-fish. Where sharks, dog-fish, and other rapacious fish are met with, all else are rare ; in- nocence flees the domain of the savage : sharks and salmon, tigers and sheep, hawks and linnets, all feel the instinct to keep as much out of one ano- ther’s company as possible. Whales, or what are called finners, are common about the Gulf ; they will come up and blow so near alongside sometimes, that the spray from their nostrils will fall aboard the ship. When they throw their tails out of water, they take a deep dive, and are seen no more for that time. B 5 10 THREE YEARS IN Much oil might be obtained from them, if a method was found of playing the rocket-shot on them to advantage. A species of porpoise, very large, called bot- tlenoses by the sailors, is also very plentiful. This fish is of a white colour in the river St. Law- rence : and when they turn up above the surface, they resemble a wreath of snow. How they be- come white is not known, their natural colour being black ; some think it is the water that effects this change, the same being fresh or brackish. The young ones are grey. Probably this is a fish of a different kind from either the porpoise or bottle- nose ; the Canadian says, that he changes his skin by rubbing it off beneath the ice. It is to be re- gretted that they are rarely caught ; and when that happens, there is seldom any body present who makes any inquiry about the matter. Salmon and herrings are extremely plentiful in the Gulf, as also mackerel and halibut. Drying- houses should be built on this coast where so much timber grows, and these valuable fish properly cured ; and, were it wished that they should be smoke-dried with scented wood, the juniper, which gives the relish to the Westphalian hams, is here in abundance. Birds are met with in great variety. How CANADA. 11 many species of gull can there be ? more than fifty have already been discovered. Some are almost white, others have black-tipped wings ; again, black behind the head ; black upper side of the wings; black and white speckled ; black breast, &c. : others with broad green bill ; yellow, narrow, .and black bill; brown tufted crest; black legs; yellow legs, &c. The gulls and wild ducks would form, if stuffed, a very interesting museum of them- selves. The gulls of the middle Atlantic are quite different in plumage and bulk from those on the coasts. Those found out at sea, are in general very light, as if they did not there find food very plentiful, which is not unlikely. They are sometimes met with asleep in large flocks, “ rocked on the billows” as the poet has it. They will follow in the wake of the ships, and are easily caught with hook and bait. The large herring- gull is quite common over all the American coast : he follows the herring shoals, and seems to be a substantial, well-fed bird. When fully out at sea, we fall in with the stormy petrels, better known by the name of Mother Carey’s chickens : on the eve of a storm, they gather in to the wake of the ship in great numbers. Mother Carew was an old witch, it is said, good at raising the wind. These birds are about the size of the swallow, 12 THREE YEARS IN only their tails are not so long; with brown plu- mage, short bills, feet not webbed ; they keep on the wing — sometimes they let their little legs droop, and trip along the water with their wings ex- tended, but at rest. They seem to be fond of any little crumbs of food that fall from the ships. The sailors will not shoot them on any account ; they pay them great respect, that their mother’s wrath may not be roused. They gather about the ships in storms for this reason, that the ships afford them a kind of shelter from the surge and spray, and also a little food ; they get weary of buffeting storms, like every thing else, and seem not to relish the spray lashing over them. Those birds that hover ever on wing close on the surface of the ocean, when it gets agitated, have more trouble, as it were, in watching the sudden undula- tions — in short, have more ups and doivns to make. How these birds breed, has not been known ; they are not found on any shores, but over the ex- panse of the widest oceans— “ Their home is on the deep.” The sea parrot and pied diver, are met with on the margin of the banks of Newfoundland ; seldom any where else this diver is much like the puffin, only rather blacker in plumage. There CANADA. 13 is also another sea-bird found with these, called the bank pigeon. Specimens of all are difficult to be obtained. The white birds of the tropics, and sea eagles, hover about the ships ; and when in soundings, either on one side of the Atlantic or the other, soland geese are met with. Sailors say, when a string of them are seen flying together, “ that they are going out to the mackerel fishery .’ 1 Some- times they are met with near the middle of the ocean ; it is not always the fact, as argued, that they are never found “ out of soundings they are a shy bird, and keep well out of the reach of fire-arms. Icebergs are met with aground on the Banks at Midsummer : I saw one at rest in seventy fathoms water, and taking its altitude, found one of the peaks one hundred and fifty feet above water : which nearly corresponds with the reports of Arctic voyagers, that two-thirds of them are below, while one-third is above. Had this iceberg been afloat, the truth of the proposition could not have been so easily obtained; but sounding gave the depth below, while the angle of altitude and distance gave the height above. It caused the atmosphere around to be very cold. The appearance was not unlike the chalk cliffs of the south of England at 14 THREE YEARS IN a distance ; when the sun shone on it, the scene was beautiful ; the regions above were illuminated at night to a certain extent. Various fish kept swarming about. Ships are not allowed to run near them, as the attractive power is considered to be great by the sailors. They go ashore on them frequently with the boats and bring off fresh water, streams of which are found flowing down their sides : they have often relieved ships in distress for this article. There are currents setting from the north, or else how would icebergs drift into south- ern latitudes ? — perhaps in eddies of the Gulf stream. A bird was flying about this iceberg of the diver species, called willock by the sailors. The depth of the ocean has amused spectators ; it is likely to be as deep in some places as the moun- tains are high above. Fish are not supposed to be found on the bottom everywhere, any more than birds in the higher regions of the atmosphere ; beyond a certain depth darkness reigns, and life is considered extinct. Many laden ships which foun- der at sea, do not sink to the bottom ; but so far towards it as specific gravity will allow, and no far- ther. How deep, for instance, will a cast-iron CANADA. 15 box sink in the ocean, twenty tons in weight, and inclosing a cubic yard of air ?” The ocean may be considered the best place for burial; that is, a sufficient weight may be hung to a dead body to sink it beyond the reach of all voracious fish, where no shark can follow,— and also where no resurrectionists of earth can disturb him ; from thence he cannot be served up to the dissection-table : this is a consolation to the friends of the deceased. Admirals, and other great men who die at sea, are seldom thrown overboard, but brought home preserved in casks of spirits, which are not unfrequently tapped by the sai- lors : — all this is wrong, for no family-vault can equal the sepulchre of the deep ; there, no monu- ment can be raised, no false epitaph engraved. What would be said in an obituary, might run thus : “ Buried in such a latitude and longitude, having a sinking weight attached of ten miles deep.” Common sailors, with a shot at their feet, never sink above half a mile. Sailors are ever taking observations of some- thing or other : about meridian time, or a little before it, they try for the altitude of the sun with Hadley’s quadrant. The captains have generally sextants, mates inferior instruments. So long as the sun keeps rising, the index is advanced on 16 THREE YEARS IN the rhomb ; when his reflected form lingers on the horizon, he is said to dip. There is much art required to use the sextant properly. When there are clear skies and moonlight nights, lunars are taken. This is the art of measuring the de- grees between sun and moon, or between known stars and the moon ; which being obtained, and referred to the tables of the nautical almanack, give (as well known to many) the longitude. La- titude they find, too, by taking double altitudes of the sun or stars ; that is to say, when clouds clear away, the latitude may always be had either by night or day. Not so the longitude, if the moon is changing, unless a good Harrison be aboard, which is a chronometer, and its rates of going be properly ascertained. On the Banks, the soundings tell where the ship is by the chart ; and when in the Gulf stream, the green bunchy weed, called the gulf weed. Common merchant-ships are sailing well at seven knots or miles an hour ; few of them with the strongest wind will go ten. In storms, they dare not run before the wind, for fear of the sea dashing in the dead-lights — which are the shut- ters of the cabin windows — and broaching too, as the term goes, — that is, sinking stern foremost. Feathery clouds and brassy skies betoken storms. CANADA. 17 There is something terrific in sailing under bare poles ; man then feels his insignificance strongly. If the breeze blows fresh off the Canadian con- tinent, the smell of fir forests prevails for fifty miles and more out at sea. Small birds that live by insects, such as the brown fly-catcher, about the size of a sparrow, hover about the ships ; and large dragon-flies, with eyes composed of many minute sparkling stars. These may be easily caught and examined. The nautilus, or Portuguese man-of-war, a little sea-snail with a sail up, is common ; it can veer this sail according to the course it means to steer. The sea-marygold, a species of sting ray, is met with between the Gulf and the Banks ; it is of many colours, but yellow prevails, — whence it takes the name. Passengers, generally, are anxious to see land : some of them boast of having good watches, equal to the best chronometers for regularity of move- ment. They keep reckonings by their account, which, according to their hopes, are far ahead of the ship ; and it not unfrequently happens, that the vessel is found to be beating about on the Banks of Newfoundland, instead of being, according to them, snug at anchor in the harbour of Quebec. 18 THREE YEARS IN BANKS AND ISLAND OF NEWFOUNDLAND. These famous shoals seem to be formed, as all minor sand-banks are, by the deposits which take place wherever contending tides, ed- dies, and currents prevail. The great discharge from the fresh-water rivers of Canada by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Hudson’s Bay, uniting with the Gulf stream and western setting tides of the Atlantic, creates that singular commotion in the waters, distinctly felt at a considerable distance from the shores of North America, while their various sediments incline to the bottom. That these Banks continue to shift is almost obvious from the soundings taken upon them at various periods. In some instances, they have risen so high as to become flats of dry land : Sable Island and others are instances of this. These islands continue to enlarge, and the waters round their shores to grow shallow : they may therefore be- CANADA. 19 come, in course of a few years, very fertile lands And what seems singular, when these banks have emerged above the ocean any considerable time, they get covered with forest trees. Whe- ther the seeds of such trees are naturally in the soil, or floated to it from the distant wilderness, is a question. Thus, it seems, we have reason to suppose that, in the course of time, the present Banks of Newfoundland will expand above the waves to the extent they do below, and be then as eagerly prized by the agriculturist, as they are now by the fisherman. The continent of Ame- rica will then have advanced on that of Europe by several hundred miles; whilst other banks, with their myriads of fish, may be encircling the islands of the Azores. And would we push the specu- lation farther, who can tell but that Great Britain and America may be united, or Europe swallowed up by the great western continent ? The Banks at present are macadamized with crabs, cockles, and shell-fish of various kinds, to many of which we are yet strangers. On these, cod, turbot, halibut, and such fish feed ; while other larger fish come hither and devour them : so the Banks absolutely seem to live and grow from the nu- merous aquatic animals that resort to them. The Island of Newfoundland appears to have been 20 THREE YEARS IN produced after the same manner as those we have been considering ; and it is a lamentable thing that only the coasts of it should have been explored, and those but imperfectly. The interior is doubt- less full of various excellencies in natural history, some of which might be ultimately turned to our benefit ; but no one has yet dared to penetrate its wilderness and minutely examine its contents. As a fisherman’s island, it is certainly unequalled in the world ; but the dreary fogs and long cold winters that beset it, render it gldomy and cheerless. Fishermen should try the effects of the lobster-trap on the Banks. The seal-trade, too, ought to be better attended to now, as gas- lighting has become so general in the luxurious world. The small rivers which fall into the Bay of Chaleur swarm with the finest salmon fish, which are also very much neglected in this and all the other bays opening into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The tides generally rise in Chaleur to three feet, in spring tides to six. Trap-nets might, there- fore, be fixed to some advantage in the shallows. Snow and ice are both very plentiful in their season, and proper houses might be constructed to preserve them in the summer ; a small steam- boat would then carry the fish while sweet to CANADA. 21 Quebec, where a ready sale could at once be obtained ; or to Montreal, where they would be always very graciously received. Such things require a little cash at the outset ; but, as the thing is now represented, fishermen will soon be seen there. THE ISLE OF BIC. This is a large uninhabited island in the river St. Lawrence, about three miles from the south shore, and one hundred and fifty from Quebec. The following account is from my Journal, kept during the voyage. 'ote . — The modesty of the Indians is very great. Their noble chief, De Campsie, being at a party once where English ladies w'ere showing off their snowy necks and lovely heaving bosoms, on being asked what he thought of them, replied, shak- ing his head, “ They show much too great face for me.” The Indian children are nursed in a case of wood, and the poor little dears seem very happy in this shell, as it were: when the mothers give them the breast, one would think, they were hold- ing up a violin to play. Perhaps it is from keep- ing their infants in this position, that they are so erect in stature ever afterwards, although they generally walk in-toed. 66 THREE YEARS IN FROSTS AND FLOODS. During the winters, I used to indulge in re- flections respecting the ice and snow, and make a few experiments on them. It was found that about six cubit feet of lake ice made five feet of water when melted ; and of river ice, which was not so compact, particularly if near to a fall or ra- pid, eight cubic feet required to be dissolved for five of water : the most compact black ice any- where to be found, will be about five and three- quarters to five. Canadian ice is not so compact as that to be found in Britain : the thinner the ice, the more solid it is ; when thick, it is more full of little air cells, and of a greyish colour. It is not of so hard a nature, either, as that at home ; a per- son can cut a hole through it with a hatchet as quickly as they can at home, although it may be four times as thick. CANADA. 67 In the winter of 1826, the ice of Lake Ontario, when at the thickest, was within half an inch of two feet ; the Lake of Chaudiere was three feet and a half : they are not so thick, by about half a foot, towards the middle, and begin to take (that is, freeze) round the sides first before the middle ; sometimes towards the centre they will not freeze at all, unless the frost be very severe. The road for sleighs is, therefore, round the sides. The Ca- nadian adopts this for two substantial reasons : first, that the ice is more safe there, and, secondly, that should it break in, he has a better chance to get out. Often horses and sleighs will break smack through, sink beneath the ice, and be seen no more : the drivers generally contrive to escape, although sometimes they get entangled or con- fused, and sink with the rest. An honest settler and his wife were cantering along the Ottawa to hold their merry new year in Montreal : what a gay set-out ! and what a span of beautiful Ame- rican bay horses ! they went like the wind ; while the cutter (an elegant species of sleigh) tilted over the cracks and cahots in glorious style. My much respected friend John Sherriff, Lsq. was a passenger aboard, — who would not have had his interesting company if it were to be obtained ? — a profound connoisseur in the news and manners 68 THREE YEARS IN of Canada, deeply read in the periodical literature of the old country, a great traveller all over the world, ever retaining a good and cheerful dispo- sition. Often would he warn the farmer to take care of the ice, as about the eddies of Long Island it was never to be fully depended upon ; but the other still replied there could be no fear, seeing by the track that two laden traineaux had lately passed before them. Thus gliding along with a swift and smooth velocity, down they went with a plunging crash. My humorous friend, whose presence of mind never forsook him, vaulted on to the solid ice, and very politely handed out the lady ; while her husband, poor fellow, kept touch- ing up the cattle slightly with the whip, unconscious of his dangerous situation, and, had my friend not caught him by the coat-tail, he would have sunk, like his horses, beneath the cold casement of the river, to be seen no more. If the horses are al- lowed to plunge much, there is no chance of saving them : they have therefore to hang them, to keep them quiet, until they are pulled out, when the noose on the neck is slackened, and life permitted to return. While on this subject, I may mention a question which was once laid before me for de- cision. A gentleman sent his servant with a sleigh and two valuable horses to a neighbouring village CANADA. 69 for some purpose or other, when this servant and another servant of the same gentleman, who was likewise there on some business of his master’s, happened to meet : the one who had charge of the sleigh getting intoxicated with rum, the other insisted on driving the vehicle home for him : while doing so, the ice towards the middle of a river gave way, and the horses, sleigh, and cargo, were lost. “ Was it proper, or not, to dis- miss those servants from their master’s employ ?” The voice of the multitude was in favour of the servants, but I doubt if that was right ; humanity, however, ought to be coupled with rigid justice. In England such servants would have been turned off ; but there they can soon find other masters, and masters other servants : — not so in Canada. The large lakes have never such a thick flooring of ice as the lesser under the same parallel of la- titude. Thus a lake twelve miles long by six broad, will not only have thicker ice than one a hundred miles long by fifty, but also surpass a lake three miles long by one broad : in the first case the waters are prevented from freezing fast by winds, eddies, &c. and in the other by trees. A quantity of virgin snow will be dissolved by thawing to about one-fortieth part its bulk of water ; if having undergone the greatest compres- 70 THREE YEARS IN sion, one-tenth will be about the mark : the weight, dissolved or not, is the same, if no evapo- ration during the process of thawing take place. I had to regret my want of good apparatus in these wild and distant places, but found with the rough tools I had to work with, that the fresh water in winter was heavier than it is in summer ; even the water of melted snow was lighter than the common water of winter. When swimming in the lakes or rivers in summer, that degree of buoyancy which we feel in the ocean is much re- duced ; we are often troubled to keep the mouth free : hence one of the causes for so many people being drowned in the hot season. The great river St. Lawrence discharges to the ocean annually about 4,277>880 millions of tons of fresh water, of which 2,112,120 millions of tons may be reckoned melted snow ; the quantity dis- charging before the thaw comes on being 4,512 millions of tons, at an average per day, for 240 days, and the quantity after the thaw begins being 25,560 millions per day for 125 days, the depths and velocity when in and out of flood duly considered. Hence we find that if a ton of water be nearly equal to fifty-five cubic yards of pure snow, this river frees a country of more than 2000 miles square covered with it three feet deep. CANADA. 71 There are rivers in Canada, such as the Ottawa, and Gattineau, that have two floods every spring. The first flood, which is of small note compared with the second, comes on in April — the great flood in June. From this cause, I infer that there are not many large lakes in the courses of these rivers, and that their sources are more northerly than those of the St. Lawrence ; for w r ere there large reservoirs to receive the waters of dissolving snows, then there w r ould be but one flood, which would keep rising, as the altitude of the sun in- creased, so long as any unmelted snow remained in the region valleys, as it were, of these rivers. The April flood arises from the early action of the sun on the southern regions : all the small drainers flowing in from the south, are flooded to the brim ; while those coming from the north and north-west, are almost unaffected by it ; — and these are of much more extensive dimensions; they have to await the progress of the sun for nearly six weeks longer, before they are set in foaming commotion. The thaws are not attended with much rain generally - : the sun is partly obscured wdth a verv luminous vapour, — a kind of hot mist, if the term might be used: such weather dissolves ice and snow sooner than if the sun w as unobscured by clouds, or if torrents of rain fell. The floods which fall 72 THREE YEARS IN into Hudson’s Bay and the North Pacific Ocean, are not at their height until the middle of July. The more elevated the sources of rivers are, the greater, of course, will be their velocity ; and those having the greatest velocity, have the straightest courses. Serpentine rivers are all of small eleva- tion ; the banks never rise high ; but in the other case they do, as where the greatest currents are, the deeper is the channel’s ground. The eleva- tion of the banks of a river at the bottom of a rapid, is generally equal to the height of that rapid : this is a natural consequence from a rapid forming through a succession of ages in a country of table lands. If a river, then, has two floods at periodical times, and the days between those times are known likewise, the quantity of water in each flood, and the velocity, together with the quan- tity and velocity when the river is at the lowest, — “ the length of it may be nearly obtained from the main source to the point of discharge, and the elevation of the said source above said point, with the general course of the river.” Such information is useful, before we set about exploring a wild river which no one knows any thing about ; and many such rivers there are in Canada. The Ottawa for instance, which is larger than all the rivers in Great Britain, were they running in one, which CANADA. 73 divides the civilized parts of Upper and Lower Canada, and forms the great highway through the interior of the country, is, I may say, quite unknown. Raftsmen penetrate and procure some of their timber for market about three hundred miles up it; and fur-traders pass from it into Lake Neppising, and from thence into Lake Huron, when going to their great Indian territories. Thus, there is one of the largest and noblest rivers in the world, running through the heart of one of our greatest colonies, and yet we are strangers to it : few have the means to explore such a river alone, and those who have will never attempt it. In the absence of all farther information, I should infer, from observations made with care, that the most distant source of this large river is in that tract of country between Lake Superior and Hudson’s Bay ; that there are few large lakes in its course ; that its utmost length is about 1800 miles, and its elevation above the ocean, nearly 1100 feet. The lake ice, freezing to the thickness it does, cannot be supposed to remain level ; it swells and gently curves upwards, when enormous cracks from side to side take place along the crown of the curve. The roaring of these cracks when forming was a sound such as I never before heard ; VOL. I. E 74 THREE YEARS IN it was not at all like thunder, except in loudness ; it might probably resemble the sound of cannon fired in a wide rocky cavern. These cracks open upwards, and are dangerous to be passed with horses and sleighs; they yawn, as it were, to re- ceive them. When the thaw comes on, large tablets of ice, formed by these cracks, sail about the lakes from side to side, according as the winds or currents prevail, trending always toward the outlet, where there generally is a ra- pid : away they tumble, and are broken into a thousand fragments, while they vault down the roaring chute, turning up their transparent glories to the gleaming sun. After the ice and floods have passed away, large round stones are sometimes found at the bottom of these rapids : they are generally of quite a different nature from the rocks which compose the banks or bottom of the river. Some think that they are conveyed on these ice-floes from the sides of the lake, and hurled with them down the rapids. I think also that they are indebted to the frost for mov- ing them about ; but that they have not fallen from the banks upon the ice-floes, as suspected, but are taken up, by being frozen into them, from the shallow shores of the lakes. When the floes are compelled to move before the floods, they take the boulders with them, like plumbs in a cake. They are chiefly formed of hornblende and gypsum, and are not unlike the potted head-stone, well known to the Scotch curlers. On the shores of the great Gulf of St. Lawrence we met with boulders of an enormous size ; many of these de- tached stones could not be less than twenty tons. These are quite a different kind of boulder-stone from those we have been considering : they are ten times larger, and not to be found on the shores of any of the lakes, nor by the rapids of any of the rivers. What their component parts are is beyond my mineralogical skill, but the specimens brought home may elucidate them. The colour is very black grey, having pointed particles of a brilliant nature ; they are very hard ; the blocks without veins, generally all of one colour ; those which deviate in this respect incline to brown. There is evidently trap about them, but altogether I have seen no stones like them. What cause has brought them to where we find them, is hard to say, or even where they have come from, as the rocks of the Gulf shore are generally a slaty lime- stone. To venture a humble opinion, however, methinks they are some of the products of the arctic regions, and therefore I shall call them, un- til we find out a more proper name, the arctic 76 THREE YEARS IN boulder ; and that they are frozen into, and con- veyed to the Gulf shores by the icebergs, or thick- ribbed ice-floes, which visit the Gulf every season, where some of them are left on the shore after the ice is dissolved. At low-water mark I found the largest ; the smallest are found higher up the beach : from which I would infer, that the largest come in the largest floes, and these require deeper water to float in, and that those of the greatest magnitude are probably deposited where the water never ebbs sufficiently low that they may be seen. Independent of there being nothing valuable about them as minerals, that is to say, nothing to please the lapidary and man of com- merce, still, to the naturalist, they are gems not to be sneezed at. If they come with the Polar ice, as I have every reason to think, they come from where the eye of the most intrepid man will never see them, — perhaps from under the Pole it- self : bowled, as it were, by the hand of the frost, on a theatre where they may be inspected : a curiosity conveyed by Nature in a singular manner, from dreary, frigid regions, for us to look at : — and, lay- ing poetry aside, they seem to be, after all, the best of mill-stone metal. Amongst the ledges of limestone which occur in the neighbourhood of rapids, there are round CANADA. 77 holes discovered, some of which are two feet in diameter. When they happened, as they often did, to be in quarries opened for the use of the public works, the quarriers, after a time, came to the bottom, and found a round stone there in each, of a very hard nature, like a cannon-ball, of six inches diameter. These boulders were of a flinty spar, of a yellow colour. Sometimes the holes would reach twelve feet in depth, quite perpendicular, bored through the limestone strata with great regularity ; and the blocks of stone raised off the holes had a singular appearance. But what may seem strange, al- though these holes generally began at the sur- face, they were sometimes met with beneath it, in the heart of a solid limestone stratum, more than ten feet down. On examining the matter minutelv, it was always found that a crevice led from some part of the hole, between beds of strata ; and where this crevice ended — which might have been five hundred yards off, for any thing that appeared to the contrary — we never knew. From this I inferred, that Nature made use of many kinds of machinery, in order to grind away the rocky banks and channels of her rivers, so as to give work to her various agents. The bullet-stone found in the hole, was evi- 78 THREE YEARS IN clently what had ground it, by a pressure of water whirling it round like Barker’s mill, and then es- caping out of the crevice. A mass of waters pass- ing down a rocky channel, would be a long time in grinding it deeper, or forming a ledge so as to have a fall ; but millions of unseen grinding-mills, at work as described, are able to make great altera- tions. Where we found these holes in greatest abundance, was fifty feet above the present bed of the Ottawa. The Falls of Chaudiere, which are now thirty-one feet in height, were evidently once as high as the Lake of Chaudiere, which is sixty-four feet above the level of the present wa- ter below the Falls. How long these thirty-three feet have been grinding away, it would be difficult to say. Old Indians state, that they have gone with their canoes where they cannot go now ; that the passage of Chaudiere is more difficult to make than formerly ; they will even point out the an- cient passage of their fathers : however, the data of tradition do not satisfy mathematicians. All frozen lakes, toward their outlets, have what are called their breathing-places. These are of great extent, and although seemingly tranquil, never freeze. They are evidently, however, sub- ject to tremulous motion from the action of the CANADA. 79 frost on the lake, and from the surplus waters smoothly discharging themselves. The “ treasures of the snow” are wonderful ; we may peep at, but cannot “ enter into” them : it is ordered to be on the earth, and “ out of whose womb it comes” even Job himself durst not say. It has been thought that we are going to lose in some distant day our grand Canadian ri- vers ; the St. Lawrence and Ottawa begin to dwindle : — so the natives will argue, and will point out marks on the banks of those noble streams, where they remember the waters at Midsummer to have had their margin. These marks are several feet above the present Trinity data. A few feet higher are the marks of the grandfathers, and higher still, those of the great- grandfathers. Thus do the banks of the rivers afford a scale whereby the generations of mankind may be numbered ; by them we may know near- ly the exact age of the world, and quibble no longer with the Chinese, or any other nation, about the time when “ Adam delved and Eve span/’ Now the truth is, that the beds of the rivers are always changing, but the rivers themselves 80 THREE YEARS IN remain as they have probably done from the first formation. The rapids grind down the rocks over which they roll, leaving the still lake to cover the spot where they once roared ; yet neither does the number of the lakes nor that of the rapids diminish in consequence. Niagara Falls and Lake Erie may translate themselves, but will never be annihilated : for how can they, when the height of the head water remains the same above the level of the ocean, whither they are ever de- scending ? We may, therefore, draw a conclusion from this, that if the lakes and rapids of any Ca- nadian river become fewer in number than they are at present, their dimensions will be larger, and in the course of time there may be waterfalls in Canada to the height of five hundred feet. CANADA. 81 THE LAKES. These are many in number, and several of them of great extent, as is well known. The waters of those which may be said to belong to the river St. Lawrence, are very pellucid. On a calm sum- mer’s day, a white object of about one foot square may be seen to a depth of about forty feet. The waters near their shores are neither so clear nor so pure as they are towards the middle : some argve that they are not very wholesome to drink, but this, I think, is incorrect. Lake Ontario is about 183 miles long, 42 miles wide; in some places, more than 450 feet deep, and 220 feet above the level of the tide waters of the ocean ; consequently, in some places, it must be about 230 feet below the level of the ocean. The water is very fresh-tasted, and allays thirst very well. The wind blows strong on the lakes sometimes, and the waves are of that short, jump- e 5 82 THREE YEARS IN ing nature, so disliked by sailors. When much agitated, a small boat finds great difficulty to live amongst them; the ground-swell, and the shore deflection, create a most singular kind of undu- lation. The oldest salt-water sailors will fre- quently get sea-sick on them. There are no tides on any of the lakes, as reported, — none, at least, from the moon’s influence ; the floods of spring generally raise them from three to four feet. It is said that Lake Ontario rises once in every seven years higher than it usually does, by two feet. The people ascribe this to some supernatural cause. In the spring of 1827, it had one of those periodic tides, rising nearly three feet higher than it had done the previous year, and keeping high the whole summer. Being in the neighbourhood, I paid the utmost attention to the phenomenon ; and found that there fell during that summer much more rain than had fallen for many years before ; that there was little sunshine through- out the season; and consequently, I concluded, the exhalations from the lake were not so copious. There was another circumstance which puzzled me that season. Lake Ontario, and, indeed, all the lakes, were up at their very highest surface- marks, but the rivers flowing out of them were not. These surface-marks are very obvious on CAM A DA. 83 the rocky shores of all the lakes ; they are drawn, like so many chalk lines, by Nature herself. Rivers do not rise exactly from the same cause as lakes : if in spring the snow melts off the country on a sudden, and the frozen swamps break up and disembogue their contents, then the rivers swell to their utmost height, as water pours into them on all sides by gully, vale, and creek ; but when the sun has effected this, when the snows have been dissolved, and hurried down with the contents of the swamps to the ocean, the rivers begin to fall. The lakes swell, it is true, from the same cause, but not with the same com- parative haste ; their surfaces being of great ex- tent, the floods can only spread over them by slow degrees; and if the sky keep cloudy, and the weather moist, so that little evaporation is going on, the surface of the lake will continue to swell, while that of the river will fall, as the country on either side is drained, and nothing tending to keep up its flood but the mere dis- charge from the lake ; but while the lake keeps up, the river will not fall so low as it would were it down ; it will continue as it were, for the season, under the influence of a partial flood. Ri- vers and lakes are, therefore, never at their utmost pitch of flood together, neither are they ever at the 84 THREE YEARS IN lowest ebb at the same time ; for when the floods of a river have subsided to a certain extent, the intense heat of the sun, acting on the shelving sides of rocky channels, and even on the rocky bed of the river itself, tends greatly to promote the absorption of the waters ; whereas, in the deep wide lake, this action cannot take place. Hence the quantities of water which immediately flow from lakes into rivers are greater than at the points of discharge, so long as hot sunny weather continues ; there is much more, as it were, flows into them, than flows out. Lake Erie is about 270 miles long, and may nearly average about 25 in width ; it is considered to be about 220 feet deep in some places, and is generally laid down by the American levellers at 565 feet above the tide waters of the ocean at Albany. But this I consider rather too much ; for, by even allowing the medium rise of tide at Quebec to be twenty feet, I can only bring the le- vel of this lake to be 5*J0 feet ; and by the Albany tide-table, I find ten feet difference, making the height of level 560 feet, which is five feet less than the Americans make it. However, as none of these beautiful and extensive lakes have yet been sur- veyed with that care they deserve — a thing much CANADA. 85 to be regretted — little differences will occasionally occur in the calculations of casual travellers. The Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Green Bay, have been considered all on one level. Lake Hu- ron is strewn with beautiful large and fertile is- lands ; it is generally considered to be about 250 miles long, 120 miles in width, 860 feet in depth, and 590 feet above the level of the ocean. Now, as there seem to be about 370 feet between the level of this lake and Ontario, in some places then, (if all soundings be taken correctly,) its bottom must be 490 feet beneath the surface of Ontario, so that their bottoms may be considered not far from a level. Lake Ontario being, as I said before, about 450 feet deep, if any subterraneous passage exist between those immense sheets of water, the one having a head level so much above the other, a quantity of water will find its way into Lake Ontario, without tumbling over the Falls of Nia- gara. That such a passage may exist is merely one of my own conjectures, deduced from the above data of heights, depths, floods, &c., and from observing, that the proportion of waters, that comes over the falls, is less than one would reasonably expect from seeing the discharge out of Lake Ontario. 86 THREE YEARS IN The noble reservoir and head fountain of all, Lake Superior, is accounted to be 480 miles long, 420 wide, 930 feet in depth, and 1050 above the ocean. Numerous streams fall into it in all directions : and its shores are generally composed of fine sand. When the fur-trading canoes are caught on it in a storm, they fly into the creeks for safety, and the mouths of these are often shut up with the fine drift sand, and the water dammed up above its natural level. When the storms abate, a slight rut is made through the sand-bank ; and out runs the water, forming a channel wide enough to let out the laden canoes in a very short time. These great lakes of North America seem to answer some of the ends that the mountains in South America do ; they are the means of wa- tering extensive territories. The Andes attract the vapours ever rising out of the huge oceans on either side of them, by which means their great rivers are supplied ; while the lakes, by evapora- tion, do the same thing. Hence, where there are large mountains on the globe, there are no extensive lakes ; and vice versa. It is singular too to remark, that the loftiest mountain is generally found to be the farthest inland, and also the most capacious lake. Chimborazo stands in majesty CANADA. 87 towards the centre of his realms, while Superior is an ocean in the heart of a splendid wilderness. A hill, or a pool, in such places would, so far as we may judge, produce thirst and sterility. Turn where we will, observe what we can, we must ac- knowledge and adore the wisdom of Providence. Once while on Lake Ontario, I dropped a letter to my old friend ; perhaps it may be acceptable in this place. “ DEAR SAUNDERS, “ V/earied out at York, I flung my corpus aboard the first schooner that dared this year to navigate Lake Ontario, and away I came. A puff of wind ran us out of the harbour about forty miles, and then came on a calm, and the most wonderful scenes of refraction ever beheld by man. Refrac- tion, thou knowest, is a kind of game that the light indulges in occasionally — optical delusions, or the whims of the French mirage. Islands turn up- side down, while the trees depend on the tops of those below — tops to tops ; the white surf of the ground beach swells, is also translated aloof, and seems like the smoke of artillery blazing away from a fort. At one time we fancied ourselves in the midst of a splendid ewer, water pouring in all directions round to the seeming depth of 88 THREE YEARS IN twenty feet ; again, the distant American shore would rise above a sheet of something like a white haze, then would it fall away again out of sight, while large mountains of water would seem to swell up on the horizon. But I am rather getting Brewsterized , so shall content myself some morning with explaining these spectacles. They arise from the state of the atmosphere and the condition of the surface of the waters. When long, smooth, oily tracks, as formed by the spawn of fish, are surrounded by what sailors call the cats- paw or ripple, then begins the gambol of light, changing with the undulating waters. “ When night came, it brought wind, rain, thunder, and all manner of stormy materials ; so we bared our sticks, and were driven in with a vengeance to the harbour of Presqueisle. — Coming to anchor in the morning, I espied some ducks near the head of the bay, seemingly very impudent ; so I went ashore, like Robinson Crusoe, with a gun over each shoulder to salute them. I rattled some slugs amongst them, seem- ingly to their amusement, for they were too far off. I therefore had recourse to a method taught me by Dr. Dunlap, which is, to send a bullet into the flock with one barrel, and then meet them on the wing, as they come overhead, with the other, CANADA. 89 well filled with small shot. By this plan we had some black ducks for dinner. “ The wind drawing south, we set out to the lake again. How pure are its waters ! — what a luxury to drink, and to wash one’s face in the morning ! The lakes are the reservoirs that purify the St. Lawrence, and water the huge con- tinent of America. At length we ran the extent of the lake, and found ourselves becalmed once more amid the Thousand Islands. These brought the vision of Mirza before me, and I felt some- thing like what people term poetry entering my mind. If you had been here, Saunders, you would have been raving in rhyme like a mad bard, and frightening the skipper of the boat, honest lad, who sat beside me by the tafferel and whistled ‘ Blow , breeze , blow.' “ On the bank of one of the islands my eyes, roaming about, met with the solitary grave of some poor individual. This was one of the thou- sand instances I have observed of the want of proper respect being shown to the dead in Canada. I like to live, said I to myself, very well in this country, but I should not like to die here and be buried : for spite of all the immense tracts of land there are here, a poor fellow cannot have so much of it at the last as will make a grave for him. The 90 THREE YEARS IN churchyards are always placed on the most bar- ren, sterile, rocky spots that can be selected, sel- dom or never fenced in, but left to the mercy of the pigs and geese, the former to grub, the latter to gabble — Shame that things should be carried on in this way ! I like to see the dead attended to as well as the living. How pleasing to find people weep- ing over the dust of their departed friends ! — how easily do we enter into their feelings and weep with them. But I am getting melancholy, and there is a melancholy peculiar to Canada. There, many strangers meet from many nations : in a great wilderness, reflection begins to work ; while the songless birds and hollow sounding waters add to the sombre situation of the whole. “To counteract this, the Canadians have their boat-songs and their convivial meetings ; they laugh, they live in herds together : for this they have their bells upon horses to cheer along the caravan of sleighs, while they travel their long snowy journeys. “ But, Saunders, I find I am getting out of my latitude ; far too serious to-day ; yet, though in a doldrum , still your friend.” CANADA. 93 THE FOREST. The enormous extent of Canadian forest has baffled naturalists to account for its general utility. Trees of various kinds are to be found thickly growing together for thousands of miles. That they serve to allay the severity of climate, is surely one of the uses for which they are in- tended ; it neither being so hot amongst the trees in summer, nor yet so cold in winter, as it is in the cleared country. In the former season, the rays of the sun are chiefly withheld from the soil by the leaves and branches ; and in the latter, the cold which is generated in the atmosphere, is also prevented by them from darting down and freezing up the pores of the earth : they may, therefore, be said to act both as a shade and co- vering. When rain falls, they imbibe and re- tain more cooling moisture than the land would do without them ; hence the many springs we find 92 THREE YEARS IN in the woods. Perhaps the rivers and lakes will become affected differently, if once these immense territories are shorn of their trees ; some of them may dry up altogether in summer : although this is a question, there being more rain in the cleared than the uncleared countries, and less snow. What is termed cultivation, does not improve climate, in my estimation. The United States of America were more salubrious sixty years ago than they are now. The laws of Nature, when too much disturbed by the hand of man, are apt to retaliate to his injury ; disease and sickness seem to follow those, or their descendants, who annihilate the stately forests. The Americans, as they are termed, are not a healthy people, they are evidently much dege- nerated and degenerating ; so are those in the cleared townships of Canada. What a difference between them and the athletic Indian of the wild ! We are certainly acting diametrically against the laws of nature by levelling the forest, but not im- proving it by any means. Before Europeans ar- rived in America, there were as many people, and some will say more, in it, than there are now; these existed, and what are left do yet exist, with- out cutting down the trees ; yet it seems we can- not get on now at all, without going through this CANADA.. 93 fatigue with the hatchet. Our wish seems to be to despise the good things which the country na- turally affords in abundance, and to introduce into it, with much care and labour, those things which we and our forefathers were accustomed to. We cut down the beautiful umbrellas that Nature has prepared to hinder the sun from glowing upon us ; we frighten and extirpate the game which breed and thrive so plentifully in the woods. Where are the herds of deer, and flocks of turkeys now ? — they are retired with theif friend the Indian to the remote territories. And where are the fish that gambolled in the shady pools ? — why, the pools are dried up in the summer’s drought, and the trout are no more. Where, then, are our boasted improvements ? — for my own part, I do not know where to find them. I can see as many beauties in the forest, — in truth, more than in the cleared and cultivated country ; and had I been an Indian instead of a Scotchman, there is no doubt but I should have seen many more — and an Indian is as good a man as I, and, I would hope, much better. We are taking, and have taken, large domains from him for the purpose of ex- tending our race and multiplying it over the face of the earth ; in fact, we are labouring to extirpate a set of people as good as ourselves, even much su- 94 THREE YEARS IN perior, and thus evidently subverting the order of Nature. We think our way best, and will have it best, be the consequence what it will. W e cut down the woods, and set the plough and harrow to work, that bread may be produced ; we spread our arts, manners, morals, and learning over the world, for we are right, and all others are decidedly wrong ! — we are the only people regularly enlightened of the race of Adam ; all else are in the dark, and their situation is miserable ! Just so, boasting Civilians ! Wretched is the lot of the poor savage, according to you, both here and hereafter : but many others besides me have met with him in this world, more happy and contented than you are, with all your refinements and exquisite com- forts ; and, as far as humble mortals can j udge, as befitting subjects as any of us for entering the kingdom of Heaven. But, laying these speculations aside, let us exa- mine the trees of this Canadian forest, and see what stuff they are made of. The oak is not so endurable a wood as that of Britain ; the fibre is not so compact and strong. It grows in extensive groves near the banks of some of the large lakes and rivers. I have seen it square to two feet six inches, and fifty feet in length ; but such a stick of timber is rare. The medium is about eighteen CANADA. 95 inches, and of the same length as stated. It will ondure the seasons, when put in work, for about fifteen rears ; it will not swim by itself in logs, being more than the specific gravity of water ; so the rafts of oak are bound up with cross-bars of pine, that they may float down the rivers and lakes to market. When a raft of oak arrives at a water-fall, it has to be dragged past it by oxen or horses on the land ; for, if allowed to run over as other timber is, when it broke up in the cataract and boilers, it would sink. It is a timber easily squared by the hatchet, answers for ship-build- ing and heavy work well, and does not decay in England so soon as in Canada. There is ano- ther kind of this oak, called scrubby oak, which grows on rocky hills : — the wood of this is much like the British gnarly oak ; it is difficult to work with the hatchet, but of a very durable nature, and might be employed for many useful purposes. The worst species for art or commerce seems to be the swamp oak : it grows in marshy places, is full of branches, soft to work, and irregular in form : the butts are often found very thick, and when water- soaked, that is, in a certain state of decay, it would be found extremely useful in forming wharfs and jetties, in sandy bays where there are no stones, and where piles will not drive. 96 THREE YEARS IN As it is extremely heavy, and might be packed like sacks of coal, I have often recommended its use in the construction of the harbours of the lakes, where it surely could be employed to much advantage. The quantity of good oak in Ca- nada is great, and might furnish navies for Britain as often as she required them ; for this alone, in a political point of view, the colony ought not to be lost sight of ; but we have ever been endeavour- ing to oblige it, (and for our own benefit at some time, which is all perfectly right,) without making those diligent inquiries that we ought, regarding the best method of acting. What we have hitherto done, has been to her and our own injury, as I shall prove elsewhere. The pine grows on sandy soils, which are considered not good for agricultural purposes ; and this I consider a blessing, as pine stumps being full of resinous matter, will not quite decay in less than twenty-five years ; there- fore, the farmer on the good land is not troubled with them. White pine is the most common tim- ber in Canada for mercantile purposes, it is found chiefly in large quantities growing together, called pineries. I have seen it square to three feet, but the medium is about twenty inches, and sixty feet long. It is not of a very durable nature in Ca- nada ; it is far gone in six years, but in England CANADA. 97 pine is generally not of such large growth as the white. It is a very useful wood, and much used in house-building ; it has a considerable quantity of resin in its composition ; as a valuable wood it stands next to the oak. The pitch-pine is the same with that well- known tree called the Scotch-fir : it has much resin, which is extracted by cutting into it about three inches ; no resin is near the heart of the tree. Sometimes, in Canada, this wood goes under the name of the Nor way-pine : it is seldom wrought into any thing. Besides all these pines, there ere various firs and larches of small growth met with, according to their soils. The spruce-fir is very common, and furnishes materials for spruce-beer, a beverage in high request amongst the Canadians ; and spruce knees, which are the roots of this tree, are found to be a good substitute for crooked oak, in boat and ship-building. The pine is the loftiest tree that grows in the forest ; it looks down on the oak, and is often to be seen nearly a hundred feet high before a branch appears. I have seen it tower to near two hun- dred feet in height. Travellers tell me that beyond the Rocky Mountains, towards the Pacific Ocean, they have met with them much higher than this, VOL. I. F 98 THREE YEARS IN and girthing fifty feet ; but these things are not all to be believed : let the tape or foot-rule be applied, and these will tell the truth. — The fir spe- cies is more numerous than that of any other tree. There are many kinds of ash — the swamp ash, white ash, and prickly ash, all varying according to soil : it is not a very serviceable wood. The prickly ash is ornamental, of a wavy nature ; tables and furniture for houses are made of it, which look very well ; it produces a berry consi- dered to qualify bitters extraordinarily, as will elsewhere be considered. Black and white birch are very useful timber, and tolerably plentiful. It is with the bark of the white birch that the Indians make their beautiful canoes. The beech, elm, sleek-skinned and shaggy hickory, are very common on the fertile soils, along with maple, curly and sugar maple. The curly or bird’s-eye maple, makes beautiful house furniture, and is an ornamental wood highly prized : a figure like a bird’s-eye is brought out on polishing, which looks beautiful. From the sugar-maple the sugar is derived, a process else- where to be considered. Butter-nut is also a tree which furnishes orna- mental wood : it is not a large tree, and has many CANADA. 99 branches, knots, and holes, in which squirrels lodge. The nuts are as large as hen-eggs, rough skinned, of an olive colour, and taste something like butter. Iron-wood may also be accounted one of those which grow on what is called hard- wood land : it is neither a thick nor a tall tree, about the size of hickory, and may be converted into a useful wood for many purposes. In the deep gullies we meet with the white sy- camore and button-wood tree. In the marshes, alder, spotted alder, willow shrub, and a variety of thorn appear ; and in the swamps, red cedar, tama- rack, hemlock of many shades. From the tama- rack the gum is extracted with which the Indians make water-tight the seams of their canoes. The hemlock grows large, but often with a hollow heart ; it is a useful wood for house frames. There are great varieties of shrubs ; the shu- mack may be accounted one, and also the leather- wood tree, of which beautiful hats are manu- factured. The briers are of numerous kinds, as wild raspberry, black-currant and gooseberry. Wild plumb, apple, hazel, walnut, and cherry- trees are in abundance ; while the vines, like the ivy, twine luxuriantly round the aged cedar of the loamy marsh. Barrel-staves are made of oak and pine ; hoops of ash, and withies of birch. This f 2 100 THREE YEARS IN subject would require a learned botanist to ex- plore it ; the world, however, must accept such as can penetrate through thickets, albeit they may not have Linnaeus every moment at the tip of their tongue : it is difficult to carry a college about on one’s back everywhere ; and probably by attending too much to classification, genera, &c. broad views of the subject are often overlooked. The bush is the native title of the boundless forests of Canada. How different from a mere shrub, as the English language has it ! Is the term from the F rench bois (wood) ? or where is its root ? The matter is worthy philosophical consi- deration. To the bush goes the settler, hungered out of the old world, and there he finds food for his family. To the bush goes the lumber-man, and there is a supply of timber for the Quebec market for ever and a day. To the bush goes the furrier, and there are his otters and beavers, the muffs and the tippets. In exploring the bush, a person fancies at times that he has got into complete solitude : he bustles along, and the rustling he makes in getting through the brushwood, deafens his ears to other sounds, while musquitoes, &c. are too apt to ob- scure the functions of the eyes ; but let him listen a little, and various singular sounds meet the ear, as CANADA. 101 do also strange prospects the eye. Birds fly about, screaming piteously, as if their nests had been lately robbed : these remind us of the lapwings in England. None of the feathered tribe in the woody wilderness perch upon boughs, and warble sweet notes ; no linnets, no nightingales there : the music is melancholy, the cadence is sorrow, creating similar sensations in the wanderer. Par- tridges there sit on the branches, and there is the robin redbreast as large as a thrush, yet a much greater coward than the British robin ; he turns tail on the proffered crumb, and fears to enter the most hospitable mansion, although the doors may be flung open to receive him. In the bushy hemlock the owl is found dozing ; while the swamps croak with bull-frogs and bitterns. During the cold frosty nights, the trees creak, as if ten thousand bucherons were at them with their hatchets. On the banks of the wild rivers, are cu- rious trodden paths — these are the walks of the wolves, foxes, deer, &c. These roads the Indians always adopt, when on their journeys. Places called deer-licks are also frequent : these are salt- marshes, where the deer assemble to lick the sa- line soil. Hunters looking for the animals await them at these marshes with their guns, and shoot scores of them. 102 THREE YEARS IN The bush is an interesting scene. There is, as Byron says — “ A pleasure in the pathless woods.” When a man loses his way, he follows down the first running brook he comes to, and this never fails to conduct him to the banks of some river, where he generally may obtain information of his situation. The Indian writes his letters on the bark of a tree, and places them in some post-office well known to his tribe ; which post-office is, generally, an old hollow cedar. Thus they conduct their business in the bush, and breathe sighs to their squaws from Lake Simcoe, perchance, to beyond the Rocky Mountains. — Think what ye will, ye denizens of gay luxuriant cities ; ye who boast of your wealth, your wines, your comforts, your society — give an honest Canadian a bit of pig, his wife, and his pipe, and he is as happy in the bush as you are ; and treads his brushwood-way as pleasantly as you do a Turkey carpet. CANADA. 103 RIDEAU CANAL. Every man to his business ; and this being mine in Canada, of course I am more at home on this than on any other subject. It claimed the greater part of my attention while in the country, and by confining me to it, prevented me from ex- ploring much which I should otherwise have done ; yet, by this very confinement, I was better enabled to examine things minutely ; and the statements about to be given, will form safe data for various deductions, which may be applied to the whole of North America. The two great rivers of Canada, viz. the St. Lawrence and Ottawa, meet at the Island of Montreal ; the former forming the south bound- ary, the latter flowing through the interior of Ca- nada, and dividing the Upper and Lower Pro- vinces. There are great rapids on both rivers ; 104 THREE YEARS IN and during the Canadian wars, it was found ex- tremely difficult to get stores dragged up the St. Lawrence, to supply our forces on the lakes ; the rapids and the enemy greatly hindered the forward- ing of the necessary supplies along the frontier. On the return of peace, various methods were pro- posed to remove this obstacle, by canalling the St. Lawrence, constructing better roads, or connecting a chain of small rivers and lakes, that lay between Lake Ontario and the Ottawa river. The last of these methods was considered the best ; since, if found practicable, it was conceived that it might not only answer for transporting stores safely , either in times of war or peace, but might also be the means of opening an important tract in the inte- rior of Canada. Various persons considered capa- ble of forming a proper judgment of this scheme, were sent through the route to report on the same, by orders both of the Provincial and Imperial Parliament; and all accounts seeming very favour- able, the construction of the Rideau Canal, by the latter, was determined upon. In the autumn of 1826, I was ordered to make a survey, and after a very fatiguing task, reported thus to my worthy commander, Lieutenant-colonel By. CANADA. 105 “ Wilderness of Rideau. “ December 28, 1826. “ DEAR SIR, “ Having by your orders explored the country in all directions, between the Bay on the Ottawa river, called Rafting Bay, in lat. 45° 30' north, long. 77° -0' west, where the Rideau Canal is pro- posed to commence, and the sheet of still-water at Captain Wilson’s, being a part of the River Rideau, embracing in the survey an interesting tract of country about eight miles long and four broad : I feel disposed to report to you as follows. “ From the level of the low water in the Ottawa river to the head of the entrance valley which runs into Rafting Bay, in the above river, the height is eighty-three feet, which is proposed to be surmount- ed by locks and a basin to eighty feet; the distance from the shore of the entrance bay, to this sum- mit-level, is 1090 feet. A distance of six chains farther brings the Canal into an extensive beaver meadow of about twelve acres, where a beautiful basin, or lay-by, may be constructed. From this place the route of the Canal leads gently away in a southerly direction, on the line of a number of small swamps, which have their origin in the bea- ver meadow, until it comes to a celebrated spot called the Notch of the Mountain, a distance of F 5- 106 THREE YEARS IN about three miles. Throughout this part of the route the levels are extremely favourable, and a natural gully greatly assists our business. The Notch of the Mountain is a break in a ridge of hills, about seven chains broad : the hilly ridge is about thirty- four feet high, and runs east and west ; east about three miles, and west half a mile : a place seemingly designed by Nature to allow the Rideau Canal to pass through. On the west side of the ridge the swamps fall away rapidly towards the Bay of the Chaudiere. After passing through the Notch, the summit-level holds good for a quar- ter of a mile, when a sudden depression takes place into Dow’s Great Swamp. This swamp runs directly across the township of Nepean from the River Rideau to the Ottawa. The ridge of moun- tains, already spoken of, terminates here on their western extremity, and forms a partial ridge across it, sixteen feet beneath the summit-level, dividing the swamp, so that two-thirds of it fall into the Rideau, and the other third into the Ottawa above the Falls of Chaudiere : when the floods in the Rideau rise above sixteen feet, a part of them na- turally fall into the Ottawa. The plan, however, as delineated, will convey a clearer idea of the ex- tent and nature of this. Where this swamp falls into the Rideau, below Stegman’s Falls, it is more CANADA. 107 than a mile broad ; and where it falls into the Ot- tawa it is much broader. At the spot which we have termed the ridge of the swamp, it was ex- pected that the canal might have been carried over ; but, as it lay so far to the westward of the line, it was thought prudent to save distance, and hold on directly through the swamp, where it is thir- teen chains broad, and averages thirty-two feet deep beneath the summit level. Although this extensive swamp may be considered a great ob- stacle in the way of the canal, I am inclined to think otherwise. As there was no possibility of avoiding it, the closest examination took place in order to discover some method to cross it in a tolerably easy manner : an account of this method I shall soon give, after explaining another point, which seems to be much connected with this swamp, and which no surveyor could fail to pass without noticing. ‘ c A swamp of this nature, lying directly between the Rideau and the Grand River, a distance of four miles and a half, seems to be a favourable line for the canal ; but, on farther examination, we find that the currents in the Ottawa, below the bay called Bellows Bay, are very much against that supposition ; and, as the swamp below Stegman’s Falls in the Rideau is only forty-eight feet above 108 THREE YEARS IN the Ottawa, there is fifty-two feet to surmount before the still-water at Captain Wilson’s can be gained. If, therefore, a summit-level of eighty can be any way preserved from Rafting Bay, that route is surely the most advantageous, as it always holds its place in the elevations of the rapids of the Rideau. For, as the difference between Captain Wilson’s still- water and the waters of the Ottawa, beneath the Falls of Chau- diere, is one hundred and ten feet ; that height must always be surmounted, whatever plan be adopted. If locks are not constructed on the Ottawa side of the country, they must be on the Rideau side; the same number being necessary, according to their lifts, whichever side they be put on. “ Having stated thus much, I proceed to explain the method which seems to me the most practi- cable for crossing the swamp; although in so doing I may incur a little ridicule. The plan, so far as 1 am aware, is new, and has never been tried before ; but the situation of the place, and many other circumstances, justify the method proposed. At first view, one would suppose that a mound of earth might be formed to carry the canal over, or that an embankment of thirty-four feet, with another smaller one at the ridge of the CANADA. 109 swamp, of sixteen feet, would answer well, and form an extensive sheet of water for boats to rest and pass one another between them ; but, after considering a little, we find, that to raise such embankments would be no easy matter, and would consume much money. An aqueduct of wood would be much better, and an aqueduct of wood I propose. Instead, however, of supporting it on piles or arches, as is the case commonly, I propose that the heads of the cedar-trees, which grow as thickly in the swamp as they possibly can grow, and average fourteen inches thick, and seventy feet high, be sawn off to the proper level, in the route of the canal, so as to form props for the bottom, sides, and towing-path. Upon this foundation, with clay, puddle, and planking, I con- sider there can be little difficulty in carrying the canal over, as is shown in the design. A cedar- tree, when cut down, will remain fresh fifty years ; and surely, a tree standing on, and fixed by its roots, is a stronger and steadier support for an aqueduct, than any pile of the height requisite, let it be driven in the best manner possible. Nevertheless, the idea of carrying a canal over the trees in Canada, may raise the laugh against us. However, it seems the best plan I can sug- gest, though you may probably devise some- 110 THREE YEARS IN thing better still when you see the place — a place which cost us much trouble to explore, owing to the cold weather, thick brush-wood, and the waters in the swamp not being strong enough to bear a person properly. 44 A stop-gate will require to be placed near this aqueduct at the swamp, so that the water may be let out of this part of the canal during winter, that the frost may not injure the works. At this place too a junction may take place with a branch- canal coming from the Lake of Chaudiere, on the Ottawa river. I have taken the level up to this lake, and find it to be only thirteen feet beneath the summit-level, which is, as stated before, eighty feet ; so that the Lake of Chaudiere is sixty-seven feet above the waters of the Ottawa, under the Falls of Chaudiere. From this swamp to the lake the distance is about five miles, and almost level ; so that with two small locks of seven-feet lift each, and this distance of five miles of canal, a navigation may be opened for forty miles and more up the Ottawa, into a fertile country, now rapidly increasing in population. To do this will be much cheaper than building locks to lift sixty- seven feet, and cutting six miles through a rocky country ; which would have to be done if ever the Falls of Chaudiere, the Rapids of Du Chene, &c. CANADA. Ill be surmounted as proposed; and if a junction cannot take place with the Rideau Canal and the Chaudiere branch in Dow’s Great Swamp, 1 know of no other place where it can be accomplished without much more trouble and expense ; since, to join at Captain Wilson’s, the distance is thirteen miles, and difference of level forty-three feet. At some distant day, perhaps, the Mississipi Lake and the Rideau Lake may be united; but the Rideau Lake, by Mr. Clowes, is two hundred and eighty-seven feet above the Ottawa: so here is two hundred and twenty feet between the Lake of the Chaudiere that must be surmounted, before that takes place, — a thing that will not be done for a trifle. But to return to our subject. “ After the swamp is passed, we come upon a dry flat of land, averaging eight feet beneath the sum- mit-level ; and instead of raising an embankment even here, we propose that the aqueduct should continue over it for ten chains farther, and, as the trees grow thin upon it, we propose to bring cedars out of the swamp for that purpose. As this aqueduct is embosomed in the wood, it will be endangered by fire ; and to insure it against the casual flames of the forest, we propose that the wood shall be cut back from it on each side for the distance of four chains, and that this wood be ap- 112 THREE YEARS IN propriated for constructing the aqueduct. Hav- ing finished this wooden fabric, one hundred and fifty chains more bring us to the summit-level, which we no sooner gain, than a ridge of high land presents itself before us, and a gully running up into it, which I have termed Likely Gully, because we here fancied that we could lift to the summit- level of the still-water at Captain Wilson’s, by placing three locks together in this gully. But after having risen to this summit-level, and ex- plored the country in all directions, both with the level and without it, I found that this coun- try ascended much, and formed, what is termed, the Mountains of Nepean. At one time we were upwards of sixty feet above the summit-level, and fell into the still-waters, where the banks were at their lowest, at thirty-five feet above the summit. This was at the mouth of Cockburn’s V alley, a great gully, or drainer, two hundred feet wide, running to the south-west, and draining the swampy uplands. “ Finding, therefore, this route through the Mountains of Nepean to the still-water to be im- practicable, we returned to the bottom of Likely Gully again, and crept on with the eighty-feet summit along the skirt of the mountainous ridge. After crossing in this route two small gullies which CANADA. 1J3 may either be filled up or passed with two small aqueducts, we fell into the Rideau two miles from the swamp, being about five miles from the shores of Rafting Bay, in the Ottawa. At this place the banks of the river are thirty-eight feet high on the Nepean side, and eighty feet high on the other, sloping to the water’s edge at an angle of thirty-one degrees. This place is on the east side of Peter’s Gully, a large gully named after an axe-man, who very faithfully assisted me to explore it. At this place the summit-level is thirty feet above the level of the waters in the Ri- deau, which must be raised to it by a strong dam of that height ; and as the bank is thirty-eight feet high, we shall have to cut through a distance of about two chains, to the depth of eight feet over and above the depth of the canal. This will be of little consequence, as this rock will have to be excavated, at any rate, to assist in constructing the dam. The dam which we propose for this place is one of ninety feet base, having two-thirds of that base opposed, as it were, to the rapids, and the other third behind, that the slope may rise gently against the great pressure of the waters, and fall away steeper on the under side. A better idea of its proposed form will be obtained from the sec- 114 THREE YEARS IN tions on the plan. It must curve gently over the top, to have heavy rubble-stone next the casing, and a body of clay, four feet thick, running verti- cally down the middle, so that it may be water- tight. The casing must be rectangular stones, six feet by three, and not less than a foot thick, packed vertically on the slopes, side by side, and breaking bond regularly throughout. At this place, the width of the Rideau is two hundred and forty-three feet ; the banks and bottom are limestone rock. We would propose that the first courses of the sloping stones should be let three feet into the solid rock in the bottom of the river, so that the eddies may be prevented from working their way under the fabric. “ A strong dam, then, of the above dimensions, will not only lift the Rideau to the summit-level, but throw back from it a sheet of still-water, ac- cording' to the levels, for about half a mile, to a place called Willow Point, and into a channel on the Gloucester side of the river, opposite the point just mentioned, nearly a quarter of a mile farther. This channel is called the Gloucester Snie, and seems by Nature made to receive the Rideau Canal ; for it is not only a channel, or snie, winding through a low descending country, as it may be termed, all the way from the still- water, but on each side of it CANADA. 115 there are pretty high banks, as the plan of the survey shows. The land-bank is twenty-four feet high, and the river-bank twenty-two feet on an average, and they are about four hundred and twenty-six feet apart in general. This great dam on the Rideau may also be found of utility as an engine for excavating the canal between it and Dow’s Swamp ; for, after the canal is formed, and the trees, earth, &c. loosened, if the flood-gate of the dam be opened, the waters of the Rideau will sweep these loose substances before it into the great swamp. “ This dam will back the water up Peter’s Gully, in such a manner that the canal may enter it with less cutting than it would require to drive it through the bank on the brow of the river as stated, and will also form an entrance for it out of the way of the current ; so that between this and the dam there will be a corner reserved for the drift-wood of the Rideau. “ Farther up the river, 250 chains or thereabout, as near as could be measured owing to the thick trees, and about fifteen feet below the summit-level, is a noted ridge of rocks, called the Hog s Back, from the circumstance of raftsmen with their wares sticking on it in coming down the stream. “ Here the river is narrower than at Peter’s 116 THREE YEARS IN Gully, being two hundred and twenty feet wide ; and the banks on each side rise abruptly to the height of ninety feet. Did the banks not rise so high, we should have proposed at this place a dam of larger dimensions than the former one, of forty-five feet, so as to back the Rideau into the still-water at once, which is two miles and a half above it. By this arrangement the next three locks, or numbers nine, ten, and eleven, could have been placed together immediately behind it. This is by far the boldest plan, but by no means the safest. Its advantages, though seemingly great, will not, in our opinion, balance those of the other pro- posal. The length would be less, certainly ; but then it would create more cutting through rocks, and embankments over gullies, as the section of the bank, taken from one dam to the other, will show. The question, however, is well worthy of consideration, and as such we submit it with much deference. I am very sure that both may be done, but the former we conceive to be an easier method than the latter, and not subject to such risk of being swept away by the great spring-floods of the Rideau, which we are told sometimes rise more than fourteen feet. “ Now that we are got into the Gloucester Snie, as before mentioned, our difficulties diminish greatlv; CANADA. 117 for a dam of ten feet across the snie, from bank to bank, at the point where the backed-up waters from the Rideau-dam end, will throw the waters back another quarter of a mile up the snie. By placing a lock before this dam, we get into the second sheet of still-water in the snie ; and where this ends again, another lock and dam bring us to the entrance of the still- water at Captain Wilson’s. “ At this place, for a few chains, we come up the line of Mr. Clowes, and both routes fall into the still-water at the same place. Mr. Clowes here proposes, as will be seen in his Report, to run a dam of seven feet across the Rideau, so as to deepen the still-water : and I perfectly agree with my brother surveyor, that a dam at this place to deepen the still-water is requisite, as it is full of little shoals, over which a canoe can with difficulty be passed. I should, however, think that a dam of seven feet is too high ; as the banks on the Gloucester side of the river are here not more than six feet high, and therefore a dam of Mr. Clowes’ dimensions would be apt to flood the beautiful fertile country on the banks of the river, which are cleared, and under the cultivation of very respectable settlers. We will, however, go the length of five feet with him, putting our last 118 THREE YEARS IN lock directly behind its end on the Gloucester side of the river. By doing so, we shall have depth sufficient in the still-water, and if not better, we may deepen the shoals a foot or so, and then a free navigation is opened to the Black Rapids. “ From the rigours of a Canadian winter, and ex- treme roughness of the wilderness, I will not too confidently promise that all my measurements and levels are perfectly correct ; but under all un- toward circumstances I conceive that I have made an approximation to the truth. It now remains for me to return you a correct estimate of the works proposed to be constructed equally good with those of the Lachine Canal ; and this shall be done to the best of my experience, knowledge, and calculation.” The estimate of this work, including all bridges, towing-paths, and minute things, came out to 87,500/. Various other business engaged me until the middle of the following summer, treating with con- tractors, instructing people how to work, and com- mencing the excavations in the valley on the Ot- tawa; at length I received an order to proceed CANADA. 119 and finish the survey of the Rideau Canal. Colo- nel By had examined all that had been done the previous winter, and was quite satisfied as to the correctness of the report. After labouring hard in the wilderness through the months of June and July, I got back to the Ottawa alive, and returned the following information. Ottawa, August 3, 1827- “ DEAR SIR, “Having surveyed, examined, and explored with all my industry, attention, and ability, the nature, character, and connexions of that stupendous un- dertaking the Rideau Canal, I fail not to lay be- fore you my ideas of the same, and to offer you whatever information I have gathered on this im- portant subject. To do this in a systematic and brief manner, I divide the work into its natural sections, and treat of each as they occur in regu- lar order. Last winter, I detailed to you the line of canal from its commencement at the Grand River Ottawa to the Black Rapids on the Rideau ; and now it is thought proper to proceed where that report left off, and continue through to King- ston, the whole extent of the canal. 120 THREE YEARS IN “ Black Rapids. “ These rapids exist between Wilson’s and Long Island still-waters, difference of level 8 feet 10 inches. The Rideau river at this place is 180 feet wide. To surmount these rapids, a dam of 220 feet in length, 12 feet in height above water- surface, with a lock of 10-feet lift, and an embank- ment averaging 250 feet long and 5 feet high, will be necessary. The dam to run from bank to bank, at the foot of the rapids, where the bottom of the river is of a rocky nature, banks of clay, and of best quality for canal purposes. In a ravine good rock appears for building : this ravine and brook are on the west side of river, where also a bight is found out of the water-way, suitable for building the lock in. The depth of water in this bight averages 4 feet, but will be deepened 1 foot 6 inches more, by the waters set back from the 45 feet dam at Hog’s Back. Coffer-dam must in- close a water-surface of about five acres, so that the entrance to the lock may be safely cleared of all obstructions. Excavation for lock pit will average 8 feet in depth, and these excavations will be of use in forming the coffer-dam. No guard-lock will be required here, but a guard gate may be of service in the season of floods. The embankments to be made of clay, and to rise 2 feet above the CANADA. 121 surface of dam or caul , that the waters may not run over them. This caul, or waste- weir, to be constructed after the usual manner, cored, cased, &c. with care, according to the proper slopes, and with duly curved parabolic at top, according to the laws of hydrostatics. “The banks of the river accord with the height of the dam. This dam will deepen the Long Island still- water to the required depth, and back two feet of water into the river-lock at the foot of Long Island, a distance of nearly five miles from the works at Black Rapids. On the whole, these works may be constructed at a very moderate rate, and are now in active operation. “ Long Island Rapids. “ Having come up the Long Island still-water, where the banks of the river are high, woody, and destitute of settlers, Long Island and the foot of the Rapids present themselves. This island is about four miles in length, and may contain two hundred and fifty acres ; the rapids continue the whole length of the island, and from the still- water at head to that at bottom, the difference is nearly twenty-four feet. At this place an ex- cellent situation discovers itself for the works which seem requisite to construct a link of the G VOL. I. 122 THREE YEARS IN Rideau Canal, which will afford an uninterrupted navigation of twenty-eight miles. This is on Mr. Hurlburt's farm, east bank of river. “ Here, as at Black Rapids, a bight is formed by the bank, out of the water-way, in which the locks can be most advantageously placed, to strike the river fair at both entrances when the dam is raised. There must be three locks at this place, of nine-feet lift each, so that a dam above surface- level be got over : this dam requires to be so raised above the level of the rapids, which is, as before stated, twenty-four feet, that the long sheet of still-water extending from the head of Long Island over Hurd's Shallows to the bottom of Burrett's Rapids, be deepened ; as in many places of the above sheet, the natural water in the river, from bank to bank, will not average more in summer flood than . two, and three feet in depth. The banks of the river along both sides of Long Island are perfectly sufficient for the retention of the waters raised by the above dam ; as they have been faithfully explored, in con- sequence of there being doubts of their not being adequate for this purpose. A piece of rougher wilderness could with difficulty be found in Ca- nada ; a road opened through it, would greatly benefit the progress of the works. CANADA. 12 « k< It is true that, immediately at the west end of the proposed dam, a valley is found stretching into the country, about two hundred yards im width, which, unless embanked to the height of eight feet, would allow the river to get round behind the dam, and so into its natural channel below. But the expense and trouble of form- ing this embankment are not comparable to the building another dam at White Horse Falls, (a place about two miles up the Rapids,) and building one of the proposed three locks there ; which would have to be done, were the banks not found sufficient for the purposes of the dam. A guard-gate may be necessary here as at Black Rapids ; but a guard-lock may be dis- pensed with. A paltry saw-mill, the property of Mr. Hurlburt, will be drowned by the dam, to- gether with a few hundred acres of swamp wil- derness, on the banks of the still-water, with about the one-third of Long Island. Let the locks be placed as they may, still the same aver- age of swampy wilderness will be drowned ; there is no possibility of avoiding this, as the river must be deepened. About one half of the proposed drowned part of Long Island might be saved ; but this is of such small consideration g 2 124 THREE YEARS IN that it seems unnecessary to take it into account ; and as to seeking for remedies to preserve lands from being totally flooded, which are always so in the season of floods, and partially so every day in the year, it seems to me an unnecessary trouble, unless Government is obliged to pay dear for acres of land not worth a farthing. “ This dam at the foot of Long Island will be about 280 feet in length, and as it will throw the waters of the Rideau back on the thriving town of Richmond, by way of the valley already alluded to, the River Jocque may be dammed, and a connexion opened at a very moderate rate with the Rideau Canal, a plan which will greatly promote the prosperity of that town and of the surrounding country. “ Thus, dams on a river are engines of the first importance ; not only because they overcome ra- pids and make rivers navigable, and thus save the great trouble cf inland cutting, (which in Canada, from the nature of its wildernesses, ought to be avoided,) but also because they make canals of all creeks, gullies, valleys, &c. within their influ- ence — an object, surely, of much more conse- quence than the preservation of sickly and un- fertile swamps. CANADA. 125 “ Barrett's Iiapids. “ Having got over Long Island Rapids, the fords in the still- water above, and Hurd’s Shallows — which, after all the water proposed to be thrown back over them, may yet require farther deep- ening in some instances by caissoon-work, which is more proper than attempting to raise the dam another foot, — we come to Burrett’s Rapids. There, instead of damming the river, or cutting through the rocky country, it is proposed to incline the canal into a natural snie , called the Oxford Snie, being in the township of that name on the east side of the river. This snie is about one mile and a half long, running parallel with the river ; commencing, as is usual, with snies at the head of the rapids, and terminating at the still-water at the head of Hurd’s Shallows. In this snie no excavation for the canal is required ; it only requires to be cleared of trees and brush - wood. At its lower end a lock of eleven feet two inches lift is proposed to be placed ; and at its head, where the river is 240 feet wide, the water of the river is proposed to be carried into it by a dam 8 feet 6 inches above the surface of water-level. By this means Burrett’s Rapids are overcome, which are 2 feet 7 a inches; as well as Suter’s Rapids, 1 foot 71 inches ; and I)och- 126 THREE YEARS IN erty’s Ripple, of 8 inches ; while Cox’s Still- Water is deepened, and also Cox’s Rapid of 3 feet 6 inches, sending hack 5 feet 6 inches in depth of water to the dam proposed at Nicholson’s Rapid. Thus we avoid an intricate tract of coun- try for canal purposes, where the banks of the river are ever varying, alternately low on one side, and high on the other, where the fertile and old clear lands of the lower Rideau settlement in- terfere, and where the private interests of settlers are almost at open variance with one another. “ Nicholson' s Rapids. “ At this place, where there is one of those na- tural bights of the river already commented on as suitable for building a lock in, we again set to work. This is on the east side of the river : I say on the east side, though, perhaps, more strictly it may be called south side ; yet, as the Rideau River, taken upon the whole, runs north and south, for the sake of brief distinction I say always that one of its sides is east and the other west, although perhaps a bend or wimple may at times not accord with the rhomb of the compass. 200 feet will be about the length of Nicholson’s t)am, and sixteen feet the height, requiring 300 feet of embanking, on an average of eight feet in height. CANADA. 127 The lock is of eleven-feet lift. It may be remarked that, in putting in this river-lock, no coffer-dams will be requisite, as at Long Island and Black Rapids ; because at those places the river is deep ; but here it is quite shallow, requiring all the water for the lock-chamber backed up from the snie-dam below. 44 The lock may thus be built on a dry level bed of limestone ; the excavation will average ten feet rock, and will answer for backing and wing- walls to the lock. 44 Rapids of Merrick's Mills. 44 Nicholson’s Rapids being levelled by the above dam, and surmounted by the above lock, we reach the limestone quarry of Mr. James Clowes, about three quarters of a mile above. Here a dam and lock, of nearly the same dimensions as the former, will be required, in order that deep water may be obtained over Merrick’s Rapids, Shallows, Fords, &c. and six feet backed up to Merrick’s Falls, so as to meet the river-lock pro- posed there that these falls may be overcome. 44 The situation of this proposed dam and lock is extremely favourable, as a quarry of limestone fortunately occurs close to it : sixteen feet will be the height, and 200 feet the length, requiring 128 THREE YEARS IN about eighty feet of embankment : when I say 200 feet in length, I mean that of water-way, and the embankment from water-edge to hanks. The lock will he on the west side of the river, directly at the quarry, where the river is circumscribed in dimensions, and the banks are very favourable. In general, I have always found that the banks and rapids of the rivers of Canada correspond to one another in this particular ; that is to say, the height of the banks at the bottom of a rapid, is always about equal to the fall of that rapid, and only decreases as the rapid decreases, and vice versa. From this dam to Merrick’s Falls, the distance is about two miles and a quarter. “ Merrick' 1 s Falls. “ At Merrick’s Mills we have to contend with a fall of twenty-seven feet ten inches ; that is, from Macrea’s still-Avater to the still-water beloAv Mer- rick s Falls ; and this is proposed to be surmount- ed by the following method. Passing the east end of Merrick’s Mill-dam, Avhich is 368 feet in length, twenty-nine feet wide, and Avhich raises the water tAvelve feet, there is a snie, which has been converted into a rafting-channel. In this snie, or rafting-channel, Ave propose to place three CANADA. 129 locks, each of eight feet four inches lift. The channel is shelving limestone, and tolerably fa- vourable for such buildings. No coffer-dam for river-lock will be required, as six feet is thrown hack from the dam, at the foot of Merrick s Rapids, which is sufficient for the chamber of river-lock. Where the rafting-channel termi- nates in Merrick’s Mill-pond, the distance is 1250 feet to the waters below. The channel runs straight ; and when it leaves the Mill-pond, a distance of two hundred and ten feet, a wooden truss-bridge, sixteen feet wide, well-constructed, passes over it. The width of the channel at the bridge is forty-six feet. Twenty-four feet four inches is the elevation of Mill-pond above the still-water below, leaving a fall of three feet six inches from Macrea’s to the Mill-pond. In the middle of this fall, directly above Mill-pond, where the river is narrow and shallow, a six-feet dam in height is proposed : one hundred and fifty feet is the width of the river at this place, the bot- tom of which is hard limestone. The object of this dam, which is two hundred yards from the bridge, is to lift the river into a snie on the east side, which snie terminates in the mouth of the rafting-chan- nel, where are the proposed locks. Now this g 5 130 THREE YEARS IN snie, by a little deepening and stone embanking, can be connected with the entrance of the locks, which not only brings the Canal above Merrick’s Mills, but over the Rapids above them, and into Macrea’s still-water. This is seven miles in length, being all the way to Maitland’s Rapids, and there raises the river one foot six inches ; there will, ne- vertheless, for about five hundred yards at Mac- rea’s, be one foot of rock excavation required, which will be a troublesome thing to execute ; but. as the banks of the river alongside will bear nothing more, an obstacle that cannot be avoided must be encountered. There is a possibility of passing Merrick’s Mills with the Canal at the west end of the dry stone dam ; but some rock excavation, averaging twelve feet in depth, for two hundred and fifty yards, would have to be encountered ; and moreover, by taking the Canal this way, it would be injurious to a grist-mill, forty feet by thirty, and a saw-mill, thirty-four by twenty-four, which are almost in the line on this side the river. On the whole, the masonry and building in the works at Merrick s Mills will be considerable. The locks, wing-walls, stone embankments, dam, See. will form altogether a large piece of work ; yet the ma- terials of all kinds being on the spot, make the business comparatively easy. CANADA. 131 “ Maitland's Rapids. u Between these Rapids and Macrea’s, the river is deep, but filled with grassy sedgy islands, which must be cleared out of the way. Indeed, in other parts of the river, before coming to this section, there are various floating marshes metwith, which must be shoved out, and the banks and bottom freed from rotten trees, and other dissolving vege- table matter. A dam of three feet is required here to cross the river at the Ferry, opposite Mait- land’s house ; one hundred and eighty-six feet is the width of the river at this place, and ninety feet the distance to the west bank. The use of this dam is to deepen Edmund’s Shallows, three and a half miles above, and to lull a small rapid between. A snie exists at this place, by which we pass the rapid with trifling cutting. In this snie a lock of four-feet lift is proposed : this lock is 700 feet distant from the river above, and 791 feet from the river below, to be placed at a bend in the snie. For the *J00 feet, four feet of excavation is required; but for the other dis- tance, merely scouring out will answer, with a little deepening towards the mouth of the lock. Small deepenings of this nature will be required at other locks already noticed, but these are of such a trifling nature that they scarcely deserve a remark. 132 THREE YEARS IN “ A little way above this snie, there is another, which probably may require a small embankment thrown across it, as in floods the waters above the rapids find vent that way. Above the rapids, likewise, is a considerable creek, striking out into the country, called Vandozer’s Creek : where it comes from is unknown, — my time would not afford me leisure to explore it. Beneath the ra- pid, comes out Irish Creek, from Irish Lake, to be afterwards examined. “ Edmund's Rapids. “ These are met with between the head of Mait- land’s still-water, already mentioned, and Phillips’ Bay, consisting of a chain of small ripples, not worthy the name of rapids, for about three miles in length ; yet, small as they are, their aggregate amount is considerable (being 12 feet) ; and as the banks are extremely low, two dams and two locks are required. The first dam to be placed nearly opposite Mr. James Edmund’s house, to raise the water eight feet perpendicular ; but as two feet are proposed to be thrown back from Maitland’s Dam, a lock of six-feet lift will get over it. This lock to be built on the east side of the river, and in the middle of Edmund’s Shallows, 450 feet down the bank from the end of the dam. The dam has 123 CANADA. 133 feet water-way from Edmund’s shore to an island, whose width is 200 feet, and the snie beyond 100 feet. The island will require an embankment, aver- aging four feet, and the embankments on either shore to come to the top of them : 68 feet on Ed- mund’s, or west shore, and 98 on east shore. “ The reason of dropping down the east bank so far with the proposed lock, is to pass a small rapid, and part of Edmund’s Shallows, the remainder of the Shallows being expected to be deepened enough by the two feet thrown back from Maitland’s Dam. The excavation for the Canal along this bank will average eight feet, and probably some rock will appear as an interruption. — I may here, re- mark, that laying out canals in Canada is a busi- ness perfectly different from that in Britain ; for there the order of engineers is to fly the rivers, but here it is quite the reverse. The rivers are shunned, because the freshets in that country are sudden, and in a few hours bring destruction on works of art placed in them ; by leaving rivers, also, inland marts are benefited ; — whereas, in this country, no inland towns are known ; and the sea- sons, though running on extremes, are not sudden in their degrees — neither with heat nor cold, dry- ness nor moisture. “ The second, or upper dam of Edmund’s Rapids 134 THREE YEARS IN is proposed to be placed within one quarter of a mile of Phillips 1 Bay, about four miles above the former, at a spot where the river is narrow and banks are favourable. Water-way at this place is 160 feet, and there are 150 feet of five feet embank- ing ; height of dam eleven feet : the lock to be placed on the east side of the river, where there is a convenient place : lift of lock 5 feet 1 inch and a quarter; excavation for lock and entrance 6 feet deep, partly rock. This dam will drown a little rapid above of 2 feet 1 inch and a quarter, and throw up 4 feet to Sly’s Dam, at the foot of the rapids of Smith’s Falls, a distance of two miles. It will also raise the river into a snie on the east side of the river, beside Phillips’ Bay, by which means an ugly bend in the river will be avoided.. “ Rapids of Smith's Falls . “ At an old settler’s house of the name of Sly, a dam is proposed, called Sly’s Dam, to do the business of these rapids, and form a free naviga- tion to the foot of Smith’s Falls, four miles above. Dam 19 feet in height, width of river 150 feet, and length of embankment 250 feet, averaging six feet high. The banks are extremely favourable for retention on both sides, and there is plenty of white free-stone rock. Two locks are proposed to CANADA. 135 be placed here on the west side of the river, where a favourable bight is discovered ; one lock will require to be 8 feet lift, and another 7- By this dam no land of any consequence will be drowned or molested, but the lower part of old Sly’s house will be inundated, and a new one will be required for him at 50/. value. At this place the cubic feet of w T ater passing down the Rideau per hour are 345,000 ; a sufficient supply for ten locks of ten-feet lift every hour ; but when the large lakes and reservoirs are filled, they will be able to supply more than a thousand locks per hour, without being sensibly diminished in level. In estimating the quantity of waters in the Rideau, we find them, when they leave the Rideau Lake at Oliver’s Ferry, to be double what they are at Burrett’s, thirty miles down the river : the cause of this seems not to be accounted for, by suppos- ing that there are subterranean ducts which swallow a portion of the waters ; but may rather be explained by evaporation, since for the above distance the river flows rapidly in thin sheets over horizontal beds of warm limestone rock. “ Smith's Falls . “ To the minds of people accustomed to canalling business, these Falls become as appalling an object 136 THREE YEARS IN as any that is to be met with : they fall over beds of hard bastard marble rock, 36 feet in less than one quarter of a mile. At this place, there are num- bers of islands formed by snies winding round the F alls. Between one of these and the west bank of the river, we propose a dam of 23 feet ; this dam is directly in the middle of the rapid, and nearly opposite to Ry kerf’s Store : 96 feet at bottom, 200 at top, will be the length of the dam. This dam is proposed to check the water oozing through the fissures at the above rocky island, and to throw the vater over the Falls, so that the still-water above may be deepened 2 feet 7 inches, and also that the snie immediately behind the island may be filled with water ; for in this place we propose three locks of 11 feet 2 inches lift each, the dam forming the waste-weir to the same. “The width of the Rocky Island, from dam to snie, is 290 feet, and of height sufficient for the dam. The snie has low banks for 420 feet on its east side, which wall require a stone embank- ment, so as to get above the rapid from wing-wall of upper lock, and save Ward’s Farm from inun- dation. At the bottom of the snie, about 50 feet from the Rideau, the locks begin to be put in. At the bottom, the rock is of a shelving nature, doing awav with the necessity of having inverted ■' •• o CANADA. 137 arches ; indeed, few inverted arches seem to be necessary throughout the whole work. The first lock-pit will have to be excavated seven, the second two feet ; the bottom of the third is five feet above level. Considerable backing-in and retaining wing- wall work are required about the Hornet’s Snie — we denominate it so, from the trouble these insects gave us ; while patiently measuring and surveying it we were severely stung, yet this snie could not be lost sight of : its average width is 60 feet, its banks, at lower end, are 20 feet, and width 86 feet. The banks of the Rideau, oppo- site the mouth of the snie, are 86 feet, and the mouth is 220 feet, beneath a saw-mill. This mill is 150 feet beneath the end of the proposed dam, being nearly between Saw-mill Dam and the saw- mill. We are thus particular, as the dam to be built nearer the mill would destroy it, and if farther up the stream, the water would get out of the snie behind it. By the above means, therefore, we surmount the Falls without being obliged to cut three miles round them, through a rocky country averaging ten feet deep to canal bottom, with rock that defies the strength of gunpowder or crow-bars to remove it, and would weary the British treasury with expenses. “ Behind Smith’s Falls, about three miles on the 138 THREE YEARS IN west side of the river, there is a large swampy tract of country, a chain of extensive beaver mea- dows winding-in, and terminating somewhere nigh to Merrick’s Mills, fifteen miles below. These swamps, from the river levels, must form some- thing like an inclined plane, having an elevation of nearly 100 feet. Now, to cut through these swamps for fifteen miles, and miss six miles of natural river navigation, and to construct ten locks in a swamp, and all apart from each other, the whole, too, remote from reservoirs which such works re- quire, seems to me a preposterous idea. Yet it is advanced, and I must own it preferable to the one almost adopted, of cutting through the above- mentioned long ledges of Plutonic rock. “ First Rapids of the Rideau. “ No sooner have we struggled over our difficul- ties at Smith’s Falls, than we encounter others al- most equally irksome, but different in their nature These are a chain of small rapids, where the river banks are low and swampy, where the bed of the river is the above-mentioned rock, and where, in short, we neither can dam, deepen, nor yet cut through the country. At the head of the chain of rapids, it is true, the banks of the river can bear a dam of four feet ; but what avails that when it is CANADA. 139 above the rapids ? nevertheless, a dam of four feet in height is proposed there. This place is about eight miles from Oliver’s Ferry, and about three from Smith’s Falls. The Rideau here is 260 feet wide, running shallow over a smooth bed of lime- stone, to the depth of six inches. This dam will deepen the shallows at the mouth of the Perth River, as it falls into the Rideau ; also those of the Upper Narrows, Rideau Lake. It will also deepen the Tay, or Perth river, and throw 3 feet 6 inches of water upon the Fishing Falls there. Past its east end a quantity of water will flow, which can be diverted down the swampy bank, to the still- water below the rapids, a distance of about a mile. This swamp has 3^ feet of black mud, resting on a smooth bed of the above limestone. We propose to widen the cutting of the Canal through this swamp, and scrape the black mud from the rock, forming with it the necessary embankments. At the bottom of the rapids stands the lock of seven- feet lift to bring the Canal into the still- water. Notwithstanding all our precaution in avoiding this rock, I am afraid that at times we may be obliged to undertake the excavation of a foot or two of it, which would be a serious matter, if it even con- tinued 60 yards. By the above dam, and the one at Smith’s Falls, some of the swampy wilderness 140 THREE YEARS IN must be transformed into lakes. Altogether, the land required for the Rideau Canal, by keeping the river, is small ; for if the average of the sur- face of the river be taken into account', and the same for forty feet from either brink up the banks, which is Government property, there remains not half the quantity of land to be purchased from in- dividuals, as there would have been if the Canal had taken an expensive inland route, and forsaken the river. Moreover, the dams proposed to be placed in the Rideau will drown but very little more land than the river at present drowns when in flood. The extensive swamps along many places of its banks, are the property of no private indi- viduals, from which cause Government may treat them as is thought proper. An acre of water is generally more valuable than an acre of land This is a truth nowhere better known than in England. “ River Tay , or Perth River. “ Having now climbed up by a great succession of dams and locks to the noble summit pond of the Rideau Lake, I digress a little, and give an account of a survey made of the Perth River. About five miles from Oliver’s Ferry, the mouth of the Tay opens into the Rideau : for two miles CANADA. 141 lip, it may be easily made navigable, requiring only a little mud scraping, and rushy matters taken out of the way. After this distance we come to the Fishing Falls, so named by the inha- bitants from the fishing-nets placed there. These rapids are about a mile and a half in length, with limestone horizontal rock, but shelving, and fall about 19 feet throughout the rapids. The banks of the river are generally low. At one place, however, about 200 yards below, where the waters make a sudden fall of 4 feet at once, a dam of 12 feet and lock may be obtained ; the dam 140 feet long, sufficient to lull the rapids above. The remainder of the rapids below can only be overcome either by deepening the channel, or quitting the river, and digging about half a mile through loamy wilderness. These rapids or Fish- ing Falls surmounted, we come to M‘Vittie’s still- water, of three feet in depth, for two miles, and pass- ing it to the Upper Rapids, there are only 550 yards in length, with a fall of four feet to overcome, when the river must be left again, and the country cut through for the above distance, putting in the lock where it falls into the still-waters below. We next gained the Perth still-water, a sheet of about five miles long, average depth three feet, banks swampy, and river choked with sedge-grass, bul- 142 THREE YEARS IN rush, and wild rice, which being cleared away, a navigation of three feet in depth is open to Perth ; to go one foot deeper, would require much money and labour. “ Between the Fishing Falls and Upper Rapids, a creek runs out on the south side of the river, call- ed Jebb’s Creek, after the intelligent man of that name who first explored it. This creek flows from Otty Lake, which is about a mile ^from Rideau Lake ; perhaps a route might be found up this creek. There are also good accounts of a swamp snie which leaves M‘ Vi trie's still-water, and falls into the Rideau Lake. All these snies and creeks I would have searched, had there not been much more important service on my hands ; but I regret they are not thoroughly examined. Had the Tay, like the Jocque, fallen into the Rideau, beneath some of the Rideau Falls, the dams and locks on these rapids of the Rideau would have opened up the Perth navigation ; whereas it is only aided two feet, which are thrown into it by the last dam, as already mentioned. The land around Perth is tolerably fertile, but the situa- tion of the town is unhealthy, from its surround- ing swamps. It is about 30 feet above the level of Rideau Lake, and nearly 400 feet above the city of Montreal ; it is almost on a level with the Mis- CANADA. 143 sissipi Lake, and it seems to me, that if the navi- gation of Cockburn Creek, which falls into the Rideau at First Rapids, was opened to the above mentioned lake, (an object, by all reports of an easy nature to perform,) then a navigation through Perth Settlement, by way of creek and lake, might become an advantageous concern. “ Oliver's Ferry. “ This will become an important station on the Rideau Canal, as the public road between Perth and Brock ville passes by here; from Perth, 8 miles, from Brockville, 35 miles. Rideau Lake, at this place, is 464 feet wide and 35 deep, and rises in spring 3t punishments that can be inflicted on a feeling heart, and to associate with them requires either the firmness and deliberation of the philoso- pher, or the sneaking manners of the low unedu- cated vagabond. The cause of this ari>es chieflv from droves of discontented people pouring an- nuallv into the country — people, who from stress of weather, or more often from bad behaviour, are CANADA. 205 obliged to quit the mother shore. These, on coming hither, meet with tribes of wanderers like themselves, destitute of almost every thing save pride and presumption, and boasting of something they term independence, which baffles me, I con- fess, to know what it is. All that Britain does, or proposes to do, for Canada, is laughed at ; they would take from John Bull all the cash in his coffers, but would not thank him for it : — a cold, indifferent race, equal, any day, to Jonathan and his brood ; in fact, I sometimes think them worse, and feel inclined to box them one by one as long as my strength will hold out. If you happen to travel on a rough tract, — a thing you generally have to do if you travel at all, — then the Govern- ment is blamed at every jolt for not making better roads ; and the constitution of my country is sure to be cursed every time a carriole is overset by running over a stump. If you have to pass through a swamp, you will hear honest John blamed for not draining it ; and if through a settlement made fertile by his influence, not a word to his praise will be uttered. Law without justice prevails greatly all over the country, and the villages swarm with lawyers ; owing to the manner in which the lands are laid out and sur- veyed. Never were such codes of practical mathe- 206 THREE YEARS IN matics displayed. Those gentlemen of the robe are to be met with everywhere in the country beating up for trade in law, much like English travelling merchants with their packs of prints and muslins. They fill their petty prisons with debtors, and scores are there incarcerated for sums not exceeding a dollar. Once I popped into a court-house to hear what was going on, and by so doing got my ears well filled with lengthened orations respecting an old dirty thief, who had stolen a shirt. I retired perfectly disgusted, from one of the most trivial scenes ever beheld. “ As to teaching and preaching, these are things but very little regarded : the best schoolmaster that ever appeared would be baffled, in my opi- nion, to make one solitary scholar ; and the ablest pulpit speaker would succeed no better in making a good Christian out of a bad one, for the predo- minant feeling seems to be to detest all forms, trammels, and restrictions, and to trample under foot those glorious functions of man, which bv making him lord of Creation, uplift him above the beasts of the field. When any of such characters happen to die, holes are carelessly dug, and the bodies tumbled therein, without any regard to solemnity. Churchyards are seldom fenced — few are the monuments erected over graves — and CANADA. 207 the visits made bv the living to the narrow beds of the departed, are, ‘ like angels visits, few, and far between.' “ Let those come to Canada who wish to study anatomy ; here they may have as many subjects to examine as they please ; here resurrectionists may do their dutv in the open dav, and no one will scare them. In winter, the French Cana- dians (and these are by far the most respectable people in the country, for what is worthy of hu- man nature) lay their coffined dead in their churches until the thaws of spring soften the ground, so that they may be buried in an easier manner than when frost binds up the earth : — so the anatomist walks through the churches unmo- lested, and takes away to his dissecting-rooms as many subjects as he will. “The French Canadians are a singular people. They scorn to improve the country, because it be- longs to Britain : and if their farms happen to lie on the banks of rivers, they conceive themselves comfortably situated, as the rivers will carry away from them all the manure which they can throw into them, and so rid their hand, and the land, of what thev consider to be a nuisance. “ In Copper Canada the feeling is totally Yankee, and the inhabitants care not a fig for the institu- 208 THREE YEARS IN tions of Great Britain. In Lower Canada it is French, and there it is not much different with respect to England, only the French have better hearts, and are naturally of a kinder and more social nature than turn-coat Englishmen. “ I will not say, that the people of Canada wish that the country should belong to the United States, and that it should be taxed and governed by the laws of Congress ; but it seems they would wish it not to belong to the present owner : yet I think they hardly want to manage and rule the roast themselves. The truth is, they are dis- contented, and know not what they want ; they will growl and complain without any cause, purely for growling’s sake. They are as able a set of grumblers as you can meet with in the world, and certainly deserve to be given up by Great Britain altogether ; but this she will not do, as I think she will yet be able to make a reformation in the country : — not that she will reform the bad spirits, the insignificant spawn that is engendered in it. From her may yet spring up a race of wholesome characters, who will live unpolluted amid the refuse that may encircle them ; who will hold up with manly front for the noble institutions of their na- tive country ; who will introduce common sense and morality, and be an honour to the nation they left, and a blessing to rising generations.'” CANADA. 209 LETTERS AND REMARKS RESPECTING THE AMERICAN’S. "MY DEAR FRIEND. ” What you have heard respecting the cha- racter of the people on this side the Atlantic, is generally true : the books of Howison and other authors may be perfectly relied on ; I have not found them once wrong. Neither do I con- ceive it at all criminal to let you know all about them we possibly can. You will not, of course, believe the half of it : this is the way with you ; but no matter, it is truth nevertheless, and will be found to be such by all who follow our paths, or have been in similar routes. And as to ‘ stirring up animosity between nations,' a thing that tra- vellers are blamed for if they attempt to pourtray people properly, I hold it to be no sound doctrine; the nearer the truth they are drawn, the less bick- ering there will be in the matter. \\ e cannot 210 THREE YEARS IN bear to see the Scotch or Irish represented on the stage, unless the absolute manners in every respect be attended to : — it is the same with Jonathan ; hit him fair, and he will by no means be offended. ‘ He will guess as how we are pretty considerably damned clever, that we get along slick, and by the jumping Jesus, are not to be made wheelbarrows of. 1 I therefore say, let us not slacken our exertions ; let our attention be frequently turned to the Americans ; let us be- lieve more about them than we have done, as our travellers tell the truth. They certainly have ac- quired singular manners and customs in a short time, comparatively speaking, and make use of expressions that are perfectly destitute of wit and humour, but grafted on the roots of blasphemy and blackguardism ; and this language gains ground. The genuine English is vanishing from the land. One of their members of Congress, a long time ago, proposed an act for doing away with it, which was then laughed at ; but now it is going into effect, without being passed or enforced — a vo- luntary act of the people. In the course of a cen- tury, the English will not understand the twen- tieth part that will be spoken here. “ You may think that the British books in cir- culation amongst them will preserve the lan- CANADA. 211 guage : — no such thing. Few of these are now read, and fewer will be, unless our writers conde- scend to please them by vile compositions in slang diction. But do not imagine that, because they despise your books, they do the same with their own : the press teems with newspapers, pam- phlets, and tracts, which are greedily devoured, written in that kind of strain that pleases them, ma- king use. of course, of all those words and phrases they are accustomed to. Even in their colleges this is attended to ; — the voice of the people in a Republic is sure to be heard. Nothing like solid learning is known ; the arts and sciences are skimmed. Men of common sense and shrewdness arise among them occasionallv ; but these, vou know, are never indebted for their sense to scho- lastic knowledge. Any tiling that smacks of de- licacy of taste, refinement of feeling, S:c. is utter- ly despised. Whatever deals in generalisms, what- ever seems sanctified grossness, is sure to go well down. All threats, invitations, advices, orders, &c. are whistled at ; to dictate to Jonathan how he should get along , is certainly presumption. ; Hey, Jem, cocktail won’t hurt; damn all, let's have a phogmatic.* With such exclamations will they clear out from the sanctums of the Solons. “ Peace be with you !" 212 THREE YEARS IN “ DEAR SIR, “ The Americans are no great guzzlers, or wine-bibbers. They hurry in to the dinner-tables at the sound of a bell in the hotels : — you would laugh to see them bustle about at this important period, every one carving for himself : — hut no sooner have they done eating, than they bolt ; that is, leave the table as quick as they came to it. Fifteen minutes is about the average time they consume at their dinners. There is little con- versation going on while employed in this busi- ness ; it is in the bars, and on the side benches out of doors, where dialogues are held. Our peo- ple from home here have a saying amongst them, ‘ That they take at dinner what no Y ankee does.’ At first, we think this to be some pudding or other ; but on a short consideration we find it to be what I have been speaking of, — namely, time. I have often found that watch-note of use to me while travelling amongst them , — i help yourself.’ Although this will not be told you by any Yankee, still you must act accordingly. On coming to one of their taverns, it is in vain to ask for any thing to eat or drink ; — if you get an answer at all, (but most likely you will get none,) it will be quite evasive and inconclusive. Look spry, as they say, and walk through the bar and pantry, as CANADA. 213 if at home, and if you can find any thing to eat or drink, as you probably may, then snap it up, and you will be thought the more of for so doing. They may guess as how you are an almighty odd sort of a man ; but no matter for that. You must take no heed of what you get to eat, or drink, or where is to be your bed ; ‘ sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ If they guess that you are mighty particular, conclude yourself no favourite. They seem to pay but little attention to health, and look wasted and sickly ; they drink vast quantities of hitters and other deleterious mixtures. When sick, they listen to every quack who offers an opi- nion, and, after all, take their own ; they are often troubled with a kind of dysentery, for which they swallow burnt-brandy and pepper. They seem to have no great stamina, yet they can en- dure hardships well, for they can put up with anv thing, and will not murmur although they should receive the harshest treatment. They have no idea of comfort. They have a national set of features ; I could point out brother Jonathan any where ; he has a countenance of his own, on which apathy and indifference are strongly marked. The eyes never roll wildly, he seems never in a phrenzy ; the ebullitions of a warm heart are never to be heard ; his enthusiasm is of a cool determined 214 THREE YEARS IN cast. This pervades all ranks ; it is this that we have to dread in the event of a war. He is not a strong man, but a crafty intrepid fellow ; he will be upsides with us either by fair play or foul, so there is nothing like keeping a sharp look-out. It is true, that they care nothing about discipline ; and why should they, when every one of them understands the cause they are engaged in ? Our soldiers look to their officers to lead them on, and give the needful directions : it is all one to them whether it be the French or Turks they are engaged with, or what is the aim : they are there to fight and will fight. But Jonathan leads on himself ; his brethren are all alive to the same cause; he is not to be beaten, or disheartened, for a trifle. “ Ever your’s,” See. It has been said, that owing to the small rise of the tides on the coast of America compared with that of Britain, which never exceeds ten or twelve feet, they can have no dry or graving- docks, wherein the large ships of their navy may be repaired, in case they require it at any time : a circumstance very likely. But let us not console ourselves with this idea ; for they may have as many repairing docks as they please. There is CANADA. 215 scarcely any of their harbours that have not con- siderable streams of fresh water flowing down the country into them. One of these, suppose it to be of the very smallest class, will answer the pur- pose required ; it will fill a graving-dock, if it has nothing else to do, in a very short time, and into this dock the largest ship may be lifted by means of a lock, the dock so contrived as to make part of the lock ; only one gate and a sluice will be required to bring in the water, confine it, and let it out again, when the ship may stand high and drv in the dock ; when repaired, it may be filled, and the vessel floated back to the ocean again. I think it perfectly proper thus to expose the real strength of this Republic wherever I consider it to lurk, that my dear countrymen may make any use of it they please ; for although, in this instance, I have pointed out something that the Americans may not have conceived, still, whenever they re- quire docks of the kind, they are sure to have them : so, whether I inform them or not, it is a thing of trivial consequence ; let us, if possible, look round us and beware. If bees be fed with sugar, they invariably get lazy and indolent, and will not visit their native flowers for a draught of sweet independence this is the state of the Canadians. The British Govern- 216 THREE YEARS IN ment makes drones of them : — is it not obvious ? Look at the Americans, placed only on the opposite side of a river from them, with land not so fertile, taxed too, more remote from market, in every re- spect worse situated ; and yet they thrive much more chan the others. Indeed, when matters are rightly sounded to the bottom, we find that it is the United States we are assisting, instead of Ca- nada ; but probably this may be all for the best. Britain will never be injured, methinks, by the prosperity of any country, whether that is hostile or friendly, so long as she keeps empress of the ocean. Let Jonathan’s internal resources be un- checked, let him and his brood swarm into Canada, yes, to the pole if they will, — it will ever be a dis- tinct territory of itself ; and if we manage matters properly, it will always be friendly with, and of the greatest consequence to us. But watch him on the ocean ; let him be snubbed there ; fear not his wrath. If we laugh at Jonathan for guessing and tell- ing stretchers , he profits largely by this kind of fun ; and as long as we remain such a nation of doubters as we are, his gains will increase, while we may console ourselves with being considerable losers. We seldom give implicit faith to the nar- rative of any common traveller : we doubt some CANADA. 217 part or other of his statements ; we suspect we see a little cloud rising out of the sea, no larger, perhaps, than a man’s hand, which soon spreads, and often involves important truths in mys- terious gloom. During the late wars in Ca- nada, we sent out lots of water-butts to the ships on the lakes, because we would not believe but that they were arms of the sea, and conse- quently must be salt-water. It is this doubting of ours that has lost for us so much of the territories of America. We willingly enter into treaties with people who know it well, not w ishing to expose our ignorance ; and, indeed, w~e have as much cause to know it as they ; and well we might, even much better than the Americans, for we have at all times been greater travellers than they, though we refuse to profit by our own labours. Every person cannot be expected to wander abroad and examine into the nature of foreign countries ; so, because we all cannot see, we will not all believe, and so we lose ourselves. Jonathan is no such doubter : he takes our tra- vellers at their word, and acts accordingly ; he “ guesses” they are right. It is we who give him the chief part of his information : he receives it, indeed, without thanking us, and adds it greedily to his general stock ; w hile we reject the things VOL. I. L 218 THREE YEARS IN which are our own, and give them away without regret. What we consider to be lies, he receives as profound truths ; and should they even be as we suppose, he is induced to make enquiries, and obtains a considerable accession of knowledge. He is an astrologer and astronomer at the same time ; he will swallow any nonsense, but digest it after- wards. When looking out at sea for snakes twenty miles long, he not unfrequently sees water-spouts, and other phenomena, which would escape his no- tice, were it not for the serpents that haunt his mind. When we scout at his power, his untrained army and untried navy, he affects to dislike our sneers. But this is not the case in reality ; he loves them, because he sees that we are inclined to under-rate his exertions, and therefore it would not be policy to contradict us ; it is best to let us remain in our ignorance, if we seem willing to be so. What we make a boast of, he will never say much about, particularly if he imagine that he may receive injury by doing so. On those subjects where he keeps comparatively silent, he has the greatest cause to boast. Let his navy, then, and his steam-boat science, be marked ; for these we have yet to meet, depend upon that. Let us not deceive ourselves respecting them, for they ex- hibit strength, and will probably be the greatest of CANADA. 219 the kind we have ever had to encounter. I sin- cerely wish this were not so, from my heart ; but am afraid, that our harsh treatment to naval offi- cers and sailors, who bled for us, and who are now heard growling against us in every part of the world we can turn to, together with the destructive dry-rot, will tell against our best exertions. Let us look to the encouragement of our veterans, our men of talent, in defiance of all private interest. There are few in Britain who will complain of the taxation which is necessary to uphold the glory of the navy. It is to be regretted that our official travellers, most in whom we seem to place confidence, are selected either from the army or navy ; those who have a real genius for the business are overlooked. The French manage business of this kind much better ; they select theirs out of scientific societies, the resort of those who are famed for learning, enterprise, and general knowledge. A person properly qualified will generally suc- ceed much better by himself than with a host of others ; but we, fearful of being deceived, al- ways send out large parties, that may act as so many checks on one another. The Americans, as a people, have many weak sides, which, by paying minute attention to them, we may discover. L 2 220 THREE YEARS IN They are certainly plotters ; yet we could outplot them, were we to study the art as much as they. For instance, were we to tell them a manifest lot of lies respecting some concern, and they to be- lieve them, as they would , were we not to contra- dict them ourselves, we might lead them some pretty dances ; but our honesty and honour re- strain us from this. We pride ourselves in being considered trustworthy by foreigners, yet we dare hardly trust ourselves. They are, in short, a race possessing so much in- difference and apathy, that it is of no use how you dress, or how you speak, or whether you are "a lord or a raftsman. They value you for nothing that you can possibly acquire. Were you covered with gold to the heels, had you the genius of Milton or Newton, it would be all the same thing: they have not much envy. Their enterprise is great ; there is nothing they conceive too hard to be done ; they are very ambitious, but by no means inventive ; they are good copyists, and can some- times make new appliances and improvements. They are not very cowardly, nor are they easily thrown off their guard; they can die without much growling. They have not keen feelings, and as for affection and friendship, they are nearly strangers to them ; neither do they bear great hatred, nor do CANADA. 221 they study revenge. They boast a good deal, more than enough. They are not extremely honest, yet not to be generally blamed for dishonesty. They have no great love for war nor money, but are par- ticularly anxious for large farms, states, and terri- tories. They are not religious, neither are they very vicious ; they are not luxurious nor volup- tuous ; they are not learned, neither are they ex- tremely ignorant. Their passions are not fiery, nor furious ; ever aiming after what neither they themselves nor their great-grandchildren will ever, probably, obtain ; prophesying wonderful things, and expecting huge alterations to take place. When there is any thing of a dark and doubt- ful nature, the Yankee is sure at once to ex- plain it, and to assume all the merit of it. Thus he positively claims the invention of steam-boats as being his own ; whereas Miller, of Dalswinton, is the undoubted author ; and these boats were first plied in Miller’s fish-pond, which is near the town of Dumfries ; afterwards in the Clyde, where Fulton first saw them, and took the inven- tion over to America: — these facts have been often authenticated. So long as the celebrated Walter Scott (I hate to put Sir to his name, for that does it injury) did not come forward and pub- 222 THREE YEARS IN licly claim the Waverley Novels, Jonathan did it for him ; and had the great poet been taken out of this world before he acknowledged himself their author, he would have stuck to his impious claim. Names stamped on inventions he greatly detests. When Wilkie, the plough-maker, not the painter, first sent his iron ploughs out to the United States, with his name engraved in legible letters on the principal casting, a Scotchman in New York remarked, that “ the ploughman had done them for once ; they would not rub his name in a hurry off the moulboard.” CANADA. 223 CURIOSITIES IN NATURAL HISTORV. Sna kes. Black WATER snakes are common in lakes which have their shallow shores flagged with horizontal beds of limestone. They are very much like eels, from two to five feet in length. They move swiftly along the bottom on being alarmed, and when they have got to what they suppose to be a respectable distance from danger, they fling their tails into a spiral, and pop their heads above water. The Canadians will hunt them in their canoes, and on coming near them will cut off* their heads by striking at them with their paddles. They do not seem to relish deep cold water, but where it is not above three inches deep and tepid, they lay their eggs, about the size of schoolboys’ marbles, of a yellow dirty colour, about one inch and a half in diameter : the ova is 224 THREE YEARS IN not shielded in a shell, as those of birds, but in a very thick tough skin, covered with minute tuber- cles. Doubtless, the warm situation in which they are deposited is the means of hatching the young snakes. They seem to be perfectly harm- less ; at least, the Canadians have no dread of them : were they otherwise, my friends would cer- tainly flv from them sooner than any people, as they will sport with nothing of a dangerous and mischievous nature. The A t rill, or Wood TFom. Resting mvself, one excessively warm day, on a projecting block of moor-stone rock on the shore of the Rideau Lake, I took a large clam shell that was lying beside me bleaching in the sun, and pitched it into the pellucid waters. My eye fol- lowed it as it sunk in zig-zag fashion to the bot- tom, which seemed to be about twenty feet down : but on trying it with our sounding apparatus, it astonished me to find the depth forty-two feet. How much deeper the eye could have pur- sued the object, there is no saying, as it seemed to increase in size the deeper it went. While pondering on this matter, one of our Canadian party brought me. a large black worm out of the wood in the hollow of his hand, — the same I had CANADA. 225 often seen before, but never having had leisure to examine him minutely, I now set about that very important matter. He was four inches and a quar- ter long, one quarter of an inch in thickness ; had sixteen legs on each side of his belly, making in all, thirty-two ; the body was of one thickness from end to end. The tail and head were rounded in the same manner, only in the head there seemed to be a mouth, wimble-shaped, — no doubt set round with cutting edges, if a microscope were brought to assist the vision, as it can bore holes into trees that are in a certain state of decay as neatly as any gimlet ; hence its French name of avrill. On minute examination we also found, that it had eight vertebras or divisions, with four legs to each. The trees which this singular ani- mal seems to admire, are those which have been deprived of their bark by age ; it crawls into them first at some crack, or at a hole from which a knot has fallen out ; for be it known, that when a tree gets shrunk from the want of sap, the knots being of a hard nature, do not shrink so much, but ge- nerally either drop out, and leave a hole behind them, or a vacant space partly round between them and the tree: — the reverse being the case when it is young and growing; the knots are then formed by being acted upon by the pressure of l 5 226 THREE YEARS IN timber that keeps swelling about them. Once in, this strange worm keeps boring holes to the outer rind, and through it ; for although the tree has no bark, a hard casement incloses the rotten interior. Now this would seem to be done for the purpose of introducing moisture, and promoting the decomposition ; as Nature seems as anxious to encourage decay as growth, and this certainly does it. A capillary action is brought about by these worms, and moisture conducted through the tree ; were no holes made, the casement alluded to would remain for many years, being rendered almost as hard as stone by the dry weather and heat of the sun. This worm and the woodpecker are never at work on the same tree : the season for the bird is before the bark falls off, which it greatly promotes ; that of the worm, after. The movements of this worm are not very quick ; when laid down on the warm horizontal rock, it travelled about at a yard in a minute. One of the Canadians, unknown to me, took it up and threw it a little way into the lake, where the water was about ten feet deep. This rather dis- pleased me : the poor fellow seeing this, was as sorry as myself; so we went down on the lower ledge of the rock, and w r hat was to me extremely curious, we beheld the avrill crawling slowly on CANADA. the bottom beneath the deep water. In about five minutes time it reached the bottom of the rock, and continued very slowly to clamber up to the surface, in doing which it seemed to have great difficulty, and was frequently about to relinquish its hold, and fall again to the bottom. Had the lake at this time been the least agitated, it would not have succeeded in ascending the face of the rock. At length it came out very much exhaust- ed, having been beneath the water about twenty minutes. How it can live in such a situation so long, I leave it to anatomists to judge ; and how it knew the way direct towards the shore, instead of steering its course farther out, is also a mystery. It must have seen the rock rising up from the water ; or the small declivity of the beach might have given it some information as to this. I am thus minute, for worms and their ways are things not sufficiently attended to by us, although they sret our bodies to themselves at last. The manner in which they work out their holes is very curi- ous ; the borings are passed beneath the belly, in a hollow between the rows of legs. These, being strong move about the dust of the rotten wood. The hollow is not unlike the groove of a gimlet. In Plymouth Sound there is a marine worm, about three-quarters of an inch thick, and about the same 228 THREE YEARS IN length as the avrill, which bores holes through the limestone rocks in the bottom of the sound, where the salt-water is from forty to twenty feet deep. I have seen many of these stones so bored, and when inspecting the bottom with a diving-bell for a good foundation to a sea-wall that was about to be erected, we found acres of it bored as with a wimble, to a considerable depth ; even many of the limestone blocks that compose the Breakwater in the Sound are bored like a sieve, and actually devoured by this worm. It succeeds in making these holes by putting a quantity of sand before its head, when it works away like a marble-cutter, making a circular aperture. It may not be pro- per, perhaps, to say, that this worm will gnaw the Breakwater so that the damages may take some cash to repair : this work keeps sinking every year, perhaps it may be mainly attributed to that cause. Thus do we see very insignificant animals per- form wonders. The interminable forests of Ame- rica are cleared of their dead timber by a worm that grinds its hard particles, when the friability of the substance absorbs moisture, and decomposition rapidly ensues. We observe the bottom of the. ocean changed in a strange manner, and the hard rocks reduced to powder ; the sand, in due time, CANADA. 229 after shifting about from one coast to another, be- comes consolidated again somewhere else, by meet- ing with minerals of a plastic composition. In short, look where we will, the constant transition of Nature is sufficiently obvious. Carrion Crows. These birds are very common in Canada, but the rook is not to be seen ; it could not live through the snows of winter : yet there are rookeries in the southern States of America. When nearly in the middle of the Atlantic, re- turning to England, the ship w r as visited by a couple of carrion crows. After flying round the vessel several times, one of them dared to alight on the maintop-gallant-mast ; it seemed very much exhausted, and flung its extended wings around the ropes. When one of the sailors went up the rigging to catch it, no symptoms of fear were observed about the bird ; it calmly submitted to be taken alive. When brought below to the deck, it refused both fresh mutton and biscuit, and even w ould not take a drink of fresh water, w hich induced the sailors to remark, that it was not his grog-time yet. Poor fellow ! he had not come to his senses properly. When taken into the cabin of the half-deck, he speedily recovered ; so we 230 THREE YEARS IN brought him home to Old England. As a carrion cron , he is a very beautiful one, plump, sleek, and glossy of plumage. After securing this one, its partner came hovering round, and alighted on the ship also; but he disdained to be caught. Perhaps it was the male bird. He preferred plunging into the surge and drowning himself, to a cabin- passage along with his mate. — perhaps at free board. These crows must have been on the wing a long time, as there was no land nearer the ship at the time than the Azores Islands, and these must have been more than 400 miles distant. It is probable that they might have lost their reckon- ing, by taking a voyage on the wreck of some ship that was floating about the shores : — who knows, whether attracted by a barrel of beef, or perchance the corpse of some of our poor fellow-creatures ! Black 1 Vi Id Ducks. These ducks are nearly as large as geese, and make excellent roasting birds. While coming home over the ocean, one of them continued to follow the ship the greater part of a day : it would come up on wing almost to the cabin win- dows ; and had am fowling-pieces been on board, it would certainly have lost its life for its audacity. It had evidentlv gone adrift, as the sailors term - © CANADA. 231 it ; that is, lost the flock it belonged to ; and was driven out to perish in the deep, as there is no food for such birds far in the Atlantic. When the ducks quacked in the ship’s coops, it seemed to delight in the sound, and quacked in reply : how anxious did the poor bird seem to enjoy the sweets of society again ! this is the more remark- able, as wild-ducks are very timid birds. In Ca- nada, duck-hunting is carried on as largely as in England ; but were the people to form decoys, such as those in the Fens of Lincolnshire, or make use of the swivel-armed raft, the quantity that might be procured would surely be greater. The Camerons were the best hunters I ever knew in Canada. They were brothers, of High- land extract, hardy fellows, and extremely fearless : they would go out a deer-hunting, and sometimes bring home fifteen in a couple of days ; and as for shooting ducks, they w r ere unmatched, and filled the canoe with large fat fowls when nobody else could get a shot : they would go out on a morning and procure four and five dozen with ease. The black wood duck is the best of all the wild-duck tribe : it is of a sooty colour, with a dirty yellow speckled breast, and nearly as large as a goose. They feed on the wild rice, which grows plenti- fully in the small streams in the remote woods : 232 THREE YEARS IN' thev are not met with in large flocks : manv of them remain during summer, and are met with large broods following after them. C? C7 One of the Camerons having observed a large flock of wild geese on the Lake of the Chaudiere, used every means in his power to have a shot at them, but could not : he crawled round the rushy banks, from one point to another, but it would not do, still the flock kept aloof, and vexed him with their shvness. At length he took his canoe, and having cautiouslv got into it. allowed himself to drift out into the Big Bay towards his prey : and when he had got. as he considered, within shot, he let fly. and. dreadful to relate, the canoe upset from the percussion of the musket, and launched the keen sportsman into the deep. This, how- ever. did not concern him much ; instead of cling- ing to the canoe, or even catching a paddle, as many others would, he quietly swam ashore, with- out saving a word, with the g«/i in his hand, a distance nearly of a mile. His brothers on the bank did not seem at all alarmed : thev got out on a point, and rode a tree to the canoe : that is. took a branch of some one or other that had tumbled down — these are always in superabund- ance — sat on it as we would on a saddle, and pad- died away in the water to the canoe, which having CANADA. 233 uprighted, they easily succeeded, with the aid of the branch, in embarking by the stern, when away they hunted the wounded wild-geese, and brought a good shot ashore, where, on arriving, they found their brother had prepared a fire, was drying his clothes, and broiling something to eat. This is an instance of the advantage friends derive from “ working into one another’s hands.” Wild ducks may be scared from one end of a lake, or from one bay of a river to another, but it is no easy matter to frighten them out of a lake or river en- tirely : so the sportsmen take their stations, and keep the flocks in exercise, — that is, when they fly to one end or corner, they are graciously saluted by a volley, and when the remainder return, they are greeted in like manner, until consultations in loud quacks announce that they mean to make themselves scarce, by visiting distant waters, where the thunder of the hunter is not heard. When the buds begin to come on the trees, the pigeons arrive in immense clouds from the south- ern regions of America. Some of these clouds I have seen seemingly above five acres in extent. They move with great rapidity, not in strings or any regular kind of figures, as waterfowl do, but in irregular clouds ; those before are often flung behind, while they warp and veer round one ano- 234 THREE YEARS IN ther. The shooters plant themselves on rising ground, and bring them down in great plenty, as they fly over them. They are not near so large as the wood-pigeons of England, but of the same colour, and have longer tails ; they seem to live in the wilderness, on the buds of various hard- wood trees, as the contents of their crops affirm. Those skilful in pigeons say, that they are fre- quently shot in Canada with the rice of Mexico in their stomachs, inferring from this, that they can easily go two thousand miles, or so, for a din- ner, without being fatigued. They breed together in the woods by millions, and the singular noise they make in their crowded nursery, or matri- monial haunt, surpasses any sound I have ever heard — it is a loud and confused buzz of love. CANADA, 235 LACHINE, GRANVILLE, AND THE PETITE NATION CANALS. The Canal of Lachine was the first thing of the kind constructed in Canada; it began in 1821, and was completed three years afterwards. The civil engineer was Mr. Burnett, a gentleman of great practical experience in such works, more particu- larly in heavy masonry, sent out from Britain by the celebrated Mr. Telford. This work does Mr. B. the greatest credit ; its construction is equal in merit to any canal in the world ; and such work being quite new in that country, he found great trouble in getting it done thus well. His anxiety brought on a disorder that carried him off before he had the pleasure of ^seeing his work completed. His son was with us at the Rideau, a young man of natural strong talents ; but the swampy wilder- ness was too much for his constitution, — he died of a lingering disease, and left us all in tears. This 236 THREE YEARS IN canal begins at Montreal, and extends up the side of the Island of Montreal for nine miles, until it gets to the still-water at the head of the Rapids of Lachine. It is twenty-eight feet wide at bot- tom, forty-eight at the water-line, slopes generally two to one, has five feet depth of water, and a towing path. The whole fall is forty-two feet ; it has six locks, and two elegant stone-bridges. Much of the cutting was through rock, pretty deep. It cost, when completed, about 115,000/. which was defrayed by a spirited company of merchants, while the Provincial and Imperial Go- vernments assisted. It does, during the season, much business, and will soon leave the sharehold- ers a handsome per-centage yearly ; it is frozen up about four months in winter. The Canal of Granville was begun some time after Lachine, but it is not yet above one-half completed. It is about forty miles from La- chine, at the Rapids called Long-Sanlt and Chute of Blundo, Ottawa River. It is of the same magnitude as the above in almost every respect. The expense is all defrayed by the Imperial Go- vernment. I have often thought that a dam might have been raised across the Ottawa, be- neath the rapids, and the rock-cutting have been thus partly avoided. CANADA. 237 Between these canals, a steam-boat lock has been built by Mr. Drummond, of dry stone, on a new principle, which answers well ; and as it gives him the command of this part of the naviga- tion with his steam-boat, it is to be hoped he will be fully rewarded for his enterprise. It is somewhat curious to remark, that in the estu- aries of rivers, and at the head of rapids, there are always islands. In the first case, these are formed by the whirling eddies of contending currents : the larger the rivers, the more extensive the islands. In the last case, their formation arises from quite a dif- ferent cause ; the bottoms of rivers near to rapids being uneven, owing to water being spread over a large surface, which still keeps trending away to the narrow outlet by numerous winding ripples, which, in time, get deeper, while the bumps be- low approach nearer and nearer the surface. In due course of time, as these sinuous streams and the great rapids themselves grind away their channels, the protuberances of the bottom come above the water, and become islands. These con- tinue to enlarge for a certain length of time, so long as the waters surrounding them do not make a very quick descent ; but when this takes place, decay comes on, though unseen, and gradually wears them down, until they find their situation 238 THREE YEARS IN on the brink of the rapid, when they are under- mined, and conveyed in pieces down the ‘rumbling cataract. Thus, by a curious process of Nature, the islands in rivers change situations. People have generally fancied that, the distance being only about sixty miles, the Petite Nation River would be the best route for a canal, if it were intended to connect the St. Lawrence and Ottawa. The fall was reported to be trifling ; and the source, near the above large river, where, by a short cut, plenty of water for supply might be obtained. But, considering the matter, I found the fall to be 1 56 feet ; distance of cutting, eleven miles, through rocky gravel, and averaging twenty feet deep, in order to bring in the St. Lawrence, at St. Johnstone’s, to the Black Creek source of the Petite Nation River ; — and these were no trifles to encounter. Moreover, St. Johnstone’s is about fifty miles from Lake Ontario, along the States’ frontier, which was to be avoided. Casual travellers, passing through a chain of Canadian rivers and lakes, conceive that, as they meet with plenty of water on all sides, and smooth sheets deeply gliding for many miles, the whole could easily be converted into an extensive inland navigation at a very small expense. Would they examine the rapids with care, and CANADA. 239 not the still sheets, the truth would be guessed much nearer. But these are not looked at, as the canoes in which they travel have to be carried past them, and this part of the journey travelled on foot by a path through the woods, so that the rapids are not seen in many instances at all. Would they, in making the portages , as this business is termed, examine the rapids, and obtain something near the number of feet of fall they have, and then say 1500/. is about the expense of every foot-lift of a good commercial canal, they would pretty nearly hit the estimate. There are always, too, a host of interested persons making assertions by no means to be depended on We must see with our own eyes, feel with our own hands, and tramp with our own feet, before we can hunt out any thing near the truth ; and this is but. as it should be: it gives a certain class of beings something to do, and obliges them ta do it. 240 THREE YEARS IN LUMBERMEN. Lumbermen are persons who procure logs of timber, deals, planks, spars, staves, &c. in the forest, and bring them down the wild lakes and rivers to market. The term ‘ lumber ' is quite applicable ; for what are these wooden wares but lumber ? In winter they make it on the remote banks of small streams ; and when these swell with the spring freshets, it is floated into the larger, of which they are branches, where there is never any scarcity of water, and where they can have no dread of being detained for the season. Often the thaw is such, that the small rivers do not rise; the consequence is, that the lumber must remain, in hopes that the next spring will be more favourable. This is a misfortune, however, to those in the trade ; at least, with those who have it in such a situation. Those who can get it to CANADA. 241 market, however, obtain a better price for the commodity. The tributary streams of the Ot- tawa, or Grand River, such as the Madawaska, Bonchere, and Calumie, are those where the lum- berman's operations are, at present, the most ex- tensive in Canada. They will average about 700 miles from Quebec. Lumbermen and Shantymen are nearly synony- mous ; with this difference, that the former are generally the masters, or, what the Canadians call, the Bourgeois of the latter. The Shanty- men live in hordes of from thirty to forty to- gether ; throughout the day they cut down the pine trees, and square them in the pineries , or the oaks in the groves, and afterwards draw the logs to what is termed the bank , with oxen. When spring draws on, they form the lumber into small rafts, called cribs, and drop away down the rapids to market. When they come to any extensive sheets of still-water, the cribs are brought into one grand flotilla; masts, white flags, and sails are sported ; while, with long rude oars, they con- trive to glide slowly along. Thus they will come from Lake Alumet, on the Ottawa, to Wolfe’s Cove, Quebec, a distance of nearly 800 miles, in about six weeks. On these rafts they have a fire for cooking, burning on a sandy hearth ; and VOL. 1. m 242 THREE YEARS IN places to sleep in, formed of broad stripes of bark, resembling the half of a cylinder, the arch about four feet high, and in length about eight. To these beds, or lairs, trams or handles are attached, so that they can be moved about from crib to crib, or from crib to the shore, as circumstances render it necessary. T\Tien they are passing a breaking-up rapid, they live ashore in these lairs, until the raft is new withed , and fixed on the still - water below. As these people live in huts in the woods, as stated, which huts are houses only for a season, they are called shanties, and hence, shantymen ; but there is something more attached to the name shanty than mere hut, in the lumberman’s dic- tionary. Thus, so many men, oxen, so much pork, flour, &c. compose a shanty. A beehive, with him, is not one, unless it be stocked with bees, combs, honey, &rc. In these shanties they pass the time pretty well, considering" them to be made up of Highlandmen, Irishmen, and Yankees. Great quantities of spurious whisky are swallowed, many battles fought, and so forth ; yet these things being perfectly natural to the shantyman, he could hardly endure life without them. In the conceited towns he is held in abhorrence by the clerk and counter-jumper, who know no more of CANADA. 243 the laws of Nature, or the elements of human life, than a parcel of magpies. They fancy that the wood-cutter from the wilderness should be made up of nods and smiles, starch and ruffles, like their dear affected selves, never thinking that he is a creature by himself, like the sailor, bred amid dangers and difficulties, and made somewhat roguish by the sharking rogues of the cities. For the storekeepers cram their stuffs into their shan- ties, almost whether the poor fellows will or no, giving long credit ; and if they do not get three times the value for them, they decoy the lumber- man, who probably had himself nearly drowned in the rapids, and his raft spread about in all directions, the chief part never to be obtained again. The truth is, that the lumberman can do very well without the storekeeper , but the latter not without the former; so the man of intrusion decoys the man of real business. The lumberman, with all his roughness of manner, is the person who does good to the country. He brings an article to market with much risk — the only staple commo- dity, in fact, that is ; and, consequently, he is the means of bringing the greater portion of cash to Canada. What is the storekeeper but a person living on his exertions, — a person that might be m 2 244 THREE YEARS IN dispensed with ? He is the rogue, not the lumber- man. His intent is to have three values for goods, which, were they not forced on the poor woods- man, he would not take. He thus contrives to get him into what he calls his debt, although in com- mon justice he is no such thing, and then abuses him for being so; although, to get a lumberman in debt, is the drift of the storekeeper, as there he keeps his victim, feeds, clothes, kicks, and tanta- lizes him to madness, making him a character far worse than he otherwise would be. Let this matter be better considered than it has been — let the saddle be put on the back of the right horse. The lumberman has a rough beard, a wild counte- nance, is in the habit of using uncouth language, and performing many ugly actions, certainly ; but there is the sleek-shaven storekeeper > mild as a lamb, and tame as a dove, uttering delicious phra- ses, and, nevertheless, behaving abominably. Craf- ty old fellows ! but we see through them. The poor lumbermen and shantymen are not properlv represented ; we have the tales of the cities re- specting them, and these are false. To know them, we must visit their wigwams afar in the depth of the forest ; we must live with them for a time, and partake of all their joys and sorrows; we must run the rapids with them, and get well wet with CANADA. 24-5 spray and sweat alternately : then begin to judge of the character. But to hear it attempted to be deve- loped over a counter by a smart-looking fellow with a quill behind his ear, is all humbug and falsehood. The greatest care and attention ought to be paid to the lumberman in Canada ; without him, what is she? His rights ought to be better considered; and lawyers mistake themselves much on this very subject. At Quebec, there are people called Cullers , who are appointed to select lots of timber according to quality. The refuse wood is called culls , and brings an inferior price. There is a good deal of corruption and bribery going on in this bu- siness, and many rafts of timber get a worse character than the}' deserve. The honest Eng- lish captains of ships are the best cullers , in my opinion ; and our merchants at home would be acting wisely, if they allowed them to select their own cargoes, instead of their agents there. Nearly two-thirds of all the timber that comes to market is the white pine , which generally brings five-pence currency per cubic foot at Quebec, red pine eight-pence, and oak ten-pence. A duty of one penny per foot is paid for it by the timber-merchant, as it passes the Falls of Chau- diere, on the Ottawa. This cash is meant to be 246 THREE YEARS IN expended on the improvements of the rapids, that the rafts may pass them without breaking up ; and about 2000/. has already been expended for this purpose at the Chaudiere, in building dams and deepening channels ; but it is a difficult matter for science to improve a chute. When the water is deep enough to run rafts down, the turbulence of it, thundering against the sides, and rebound- ing in a frightful ridge towards the centre, breaks up the rafts. A fall of 31 feet in 200 yards is a pretty steep inclined plane. I have thought that, if its bottom had been blasted out to something approaching the logarithmic curve , steep above, and taking the lake below nearly in a line, this might be found to answer, as we found it to do where the waters reeling down the chute struck the smooth sheet below, so that the rafts were knock- ed asunder. Being called on to give my dis- tinct opinion respecting this business, I proposed to abandon the chute entirely, and build two rough strong si one-locks in an adjoining gully , where every kind of material lay at hand, and the situation was very favourable: — this is meant to be adopted. The scene of passing rafts down the Big Ket- tle is. one of the most beautiful we can look at. The lumbermen cautiously proceed from off CANADA. 247 Rafting Bay, above the falls, with the raft , to which a boat is attached. When they have pushed sufficiently out, and come between a small island and the Great Cauldron, where the suction or draught begins, they hurry into the boat, and make for the island, leaving the raft to its fate. Away it comes, and when descending into the Big Kettle , it generally makes a somerset in magnifi- cent style, and spreads amid the foam, every log swimming by itself. Sometimes the raftsmen will venture too far, and in the hurry to get into the boat, are caught by the descending ripple : no- thing for them then but to fly into the rock which stands at the head of the falls ; and when there, it is a business of great difficulty to bring them off to the main-land. Three men had almost died of hunger before this could be effected : at length the log thrown drifted to the rock, to which a rope was fastened ; they got upon it, stride-legs, hav- ing bound themselves by the rope, and so were dragged through the waterfall, on the brink of the Kettle, to the shore, by their anxious friends. The lumbermen have also to pay so much per hundred cubic feet to the Provincial Government, or to those to whom the land is located whereon they obtained their timber ; so the lumber is not had for nothing, as some are led to conceive. 248 THREE YEARS IN Sticks, or pines suitable for making masts of, are rare, and not to be found in the forest but by very intelligent lumbermen ; nor can they be got out of the woods to the rivers without a great deal of trouble : 50/. is the common price of a good pine, such as a main-mast may be made of answerable for a ship of 800 tons burthen. CANADA. 249 CHARACTER OF THE CANADIANS, AND THEIR BOAT-SONGS. Travellers have all been pleased with these people, and so have I, to a great degree. They are kind, tender-hearted, very s social, no way very ambitious nor industrious, rarely speculative. The French blood freely circulates through their veins, nor will they leave any of their old habits. How proud they are when they see us adopting any of their customs. If we can speak their lan- guage but indifferently, they are sure to help us out with the words, and will never laugh at our blunders. The girls are, many of them, very good-looking, their faces oval-shaped, of fair olive complexion, while, as the Poet sings, “ Their glossy locks to shame might bring The plumage of the raven’s wing.” None of them are very tall, or yet slender ; they are amorous, but never presumptive or disgust- m 5 250 THREE YEARS IN ting ; generally, they enjoy good health, but sel- dom have very large families ; they rarely wrinkle before three-score years have passed over them, and, quite unlike the American ladies, they keep their teeth entire to the last : this is, because they live according to the laws of Nature, the former do not. In winter, they neither wrap themselves up from the cold so much, nor, in summer, strip for the heat, as the former ; they love to run barefoot in the country during summer, and wade in the waters ; even the young peasant boys are to be seen jump- ing about amongst the snows, without any cover- ing on their feet. They commonly marry young, and almost never with any other than their own people ; they make affectionate wives ; and old cou- ples are to be seen as fond of one another as the young. In the country, they make their own simple clothes, and purchase as few luxuries out of the shops as possible . S ugar they obtain from the B u sh , and also Indian tea. The young ladies, however, are at times fond of little trimmings for bonnets, yet they never make any foolish display of ribbons, rings, beads, or ear-rings. Their ideas of sense and simplicity are just; they have abundance of fine feelings, and few fierce passions ; very little calcu- lation, and generally seem to have a large share of contentment. They keep their houses very warm CANADA. 251 in winter, and are seldom without plenty to eat and drink. Some of them, however, on barren lands, are not very well off ; for this they have to blame their own industry, — they will not improve their land by manuring it : however, they are fre- quently compelled by the urgent calls of hunger to do so. They make very good tradesmen, and monopolise the stone-cutting business. The wood- en houses they build are very strong and substan- tial. When we go into any of their houses, they very kindly salute us ; if the men or boys have on their hats or caps, they instantly doff them, while the girls curtsey : chairs are quickly ranged round the fire, if the weather is cold, and you are invited to rest yourself ; if the sun is hot out of doors, milk and spring- water are produced : they seem to know our very wishes ; we have no need to speak, only that they like to hear us speaking, — and who would not gratify them ? If hungry, bacon and eggs are soon set a broiling ; if fatigued, a bed is made ready ; if seeking for fun, the fiddle is uncased, and we all fall a dan- cing. How different from the treatment we meet with from Jonathan ! Should we lose our way through the woods, a common thing, the boys run out, glad to conduct us : to be sure, they like to get a few coppers , but this is not the main motive 252 THREE YEARS IN to the action; it is their very nature to oblige, their disposition is kindness. The Canadian has no plots, he cannot intrigue; it is perfectly easy to see the drift, if a little duplicity be meant ; — he makes a wretched rogue — the most pitiable scoun- drel ; he dare not steal above a dollar, at most ; beyond this, the idea would crush him. During summer, they sit in large parties beneath the verandas of their houses, and enjoy their pipes iind the cool breeze, while the endless chat is kept up, and we wonder what they have got to say, as so little pausing takes place. Fun , as Burns says, seems to be their cronnie dear ; with their dogs, sleighs, fiddles, and canoes, they pass through life very merrily. When they meet each other in their sleighs on the snow roads, they will not steer much aside; an upset in a deep wreath is a source of great enjoyment. For some years, the Americans coming from the States with their notions to the Montreal great mart, were in the habit of running the Canadians off the road7 their lumber-sleighs being much heavier. This did by no means please Jean Baptiste, my hero : he took his sleighs to the forge, and got a hoop of strong iron round them at the point of concussion ; and one day, being apprised of a huge caravan of Yankees coming across the St. Law- CANADA. 253 rence from Laprairie, the Canadians took to their iron-bound sleighs to meet them. Off at the full gallop they started, hurraing, and made a famous charge on the enemy, broke and overset their laden lumber-sleighs, wheeling pork, flour, eggs, and frozen hogs into the snow. How the whips did crack ! Jonathan yielded, growling ; he could do nothing else ; and never after that did he dare to abuse the Canadians on the roads, but divided the path with them pleasantly. They have bells on their horse-harness, which add to the jangling confusion, and help greatly to cheer up their snowy exploits. They make very good soldiers, yet, in times of peace, are greatly astonished with any symp- tom of war's alarms. At an electioneering busi- ness in Montreal, an immense mob of them assem- bled : a friend of mine loaded a double-barrelled horse-pistol, and plunged in amongst them, firing off* the shots in the air, at the same time uttering a hideous yell, when the greatest bustle took place about ‘who should be home first in an instant the streets were cleared. What a difference between this and an Edinburgh mob ! Shots may make them cling closer together, but will not disperse them. Coming once past a village called the Grand Brulee, Mr. Mackav and one of them had an altercation 254 THREE YEARS IN about a luggage-bearing business, when the whole village turned out, as if they would devour us at once; but Mac, knowing their nature, lifted up the porter , and gave him a shake or two be- fore them, when the whole crowd quietly retired. Mr. Burnett used to keep a portable gallows in his pocket, with the effigy of a person hanging from it. When they displeased him at any time, and would not work as directed, he would display the terrific engine, when they instantly reformed their ways. As voyageurs, or ramblers of any kind, they find much delight, so that a number of them be toge- ther. They will endure privations with great pa- tience ; will live on peas and Indian corn for years together. They are seldom troubled with melan- choly ; suicides are very rare amongst them ; and madmen and lunatics as much so. They are good at composing easy, extemporaneous songs, some- what smutty, but never intolerant. Many of their canoe-songs are exquisite ; more particularly the air they give them. Could I do justice to such, a few should be inserted here ; for I have all their good boat-songs, and mean to publish them with the music attached, without which they are use- less. Indeed, let me do mv best with them, it will be impossible to inspire those who have never CANADA. 255 heard them sing, with much emotion. We must be in a canoe with a dozen hearty paddlers, the lake pure, the weather fine, and the rapids past, before their influence can be powerfully felt. Music and song I have revelled in all my days, and must own, that the chanson de voyageur has delighted me above all others, excepting those of Scotland. Our military bands in Canada pay much atten- tion to these airs, a thing which charms the Cana- dians. In cases of war, they will be doubly valua- ble ; although none of them are of a martial nature, they will nevertheless serve to rouse some of the noblest faculties of the mind. I may here give one of them : the poetry is trivial, but when sung in full chorus, as stated, it has an exhilarating effect. PETITE JEUNETTON. Quand j’^tois chez mon pere — bis Petite Jeunetton, Dondaine et don, Petite Jeunetton, Dondaine. M'envoye a la fontaine — bis Pour remplir mon cruchon. Dondaine, &c. La fontaine est profonde — bis Je suis coulee au fond, Dondaine, &c. Par ici il y passe — bis Trois cavaliers barons, Dondaine, &c. 256 THREE YEARS IN Que donneriez-Yous, belle — Qui vous tirois du fond ? Dondaine, Sc c. Tirez, tirez, dit-elle — bis Apres cela nous Yerrons, Dondaine, Sc c. Quand la belle fut tir6e — bis S*en va a la maison, Dondaine, See . S’asseoit sur la fenetre — bis Composer une chanson, Dondaine, Sc c. Ce n’est pas cela, belle — bis Que nous yous demandons, Dondaine, See . Votre petit cceur engage — bis Savoir si nous l’aurons, Dondaine, See . M on petit cceur engagd — bis N’est point pour des barons, Dondaine, See . C*est pour un Homme de guerre — bis Qui a de la barbe au men ton, Dondaine et don, Qui a de la barbe au menton, Dondaine. The translation may run as follows. When Jeunetton was a little girl at her father's, she was sent to the fountain to fill her little pitcher ; it was deep, and she fell to the bottom : when there passed by three titled knights. ” What will you give, my beauty, to him who draws you out ?” said one of them. “ Draw ! draw !“ she replied, “ and after that we shall see." When CANADA. 257 they had drawn her out, they went together home, and she sat down in the window to write a song. 4t It is not that we ask of you, sweet love,” quoth they; “it is to know if your little heart’s en- gaged.” — “ It is engaged,” she replied ; “ it is not for the knights — it is for a warrior who has a beard like a goat." The zest of this seems to be, “ that warriors are the favourites of the fair, and that truth lies at the bottom of a draw-well .” 258 THREE YEARS IN PROPHECIES AND DIALOGUES OF JONATHAN. Hath not the day come when that which was foretold by Congress is come to pass ? True were thy words, O Benjamin Franklin ! and the speeches which came out of the mouth of General W ashing- toH were clothed with wisdom. We are become the great and the mighty nation, and our arms are but yet stretching out. We feel our strength waxing daily ; our bones are filling with marrow. Have we not kept off our foes ? have we not beaten them ? They came forth with their heavy black ships, and their well-dressed armies ; the coats of their soldiers were without a rend, and the buttons, well-gilt, did sparkle in the beams of the sun but we battered their hulks out of our channels ; we tore off the garments of their troops ; with our rifles did we riddle them ; they will mind CANADA. 259 Bunker’s Hill, and Saratoga they have not forgot. W e shall drink from the herb of tea, and our fami- lies for ever, but the tax shall not be paid. We will go forth to the coasts of Orient with our own barks, and we shall lade them there, sayeth Congress. We have gone over the Eastern seas, and we have done accordingly. The days were, when keep what we had was the watch-note of the brave ; now it is, take what we please. We have long passed the towering hills of the Alleghany, and have spread our domains from the ocean of the East even to the great Pa- cific of the West. Behold Kentucky now ! let the heart be charmed with the glories of Indiana ! Look at the wheat waving in the country of Gene- see, at the cities and villages growing in grandeur : they come forth in a day, and will last for ever. Great are we, and ten times greater we will be ! Few are the years gone by since Europe made us a laughing-stock ; but she will yet bend the knee be- fore us, and supplicate the help of the powerful. The sea shall be ours, sayeth Congress, and every ship that sails therein ; they will yet have to im- plore a port for shelter, and permission to pull up the anchor ; — but we will be liberal, we will let the voice of freedom be heard — meanness is not for our breasts. Let the low idea have no harbour 260 THREE YEARS IN there — ours are the noble doings of enterprise and excellency. The land beyond the great lakes is ours ; look on it as such, for it is nothing else. The treasures of haughty England may build her forts, may run her canals : she doeth us good, vea, a great good thereby, sayeth Congress. The land of Canada is ours, and every tree therein. The time draws nigh, when a stick shall not be taken across the At- lantic — no oak then for Old England ! We will give them a tree now and then for pity’s sake ; yea, we will furnish her with a navy, if she will pay us for it — we will build her ships of high rate — we 'will give unto them three decks or four — we will fill them with sailors, and cannons, and shot : they may launch forth — we will meet them — down shall they sink, sayeth Congress. We have sunk them before, and may guess we will do it again. Ours are gallant seamen ; we feed them with manna, clothe them with silk and cotton : when in harbour, they are ashore with their dears; thither they come from all nations. The scholars fill our colleges now ; yea, the men of great learning and profound reflection. What is Shakspeare to us ? and as for Milton, let not his name be heard : the genius of poetry is here — where else could it be ? Is not poetry the musical CANADA. 261 language of Nature ? and here it is for the mere sitting down. Here are the waterfalls and woods, the rivers and mighty lakes : in reality they are before us, far beyond what fancy could furnish, or the eyes that have never seen convey to the mind. And here, too, the artists : — look to our steamers , how they swarm on the noble sheets of inland wa- ter ! If the ocean is yet to be ruled by steam , what a nursery here for our sailors ! sayeth Con- gress; and much greater we will be. England to us is a mere mussel-reef. We are between Asia and Europe ; the one on our right, the other on our left. The Pole is our northern boundary ; and the Canal of the Isthmus of Darien shall be dug, and for a time may become our Southern bourne ! Dialogue between John Bull and Jonathan. John Bull. — It seems to me, son Jonathan, that you are grown excessively greedy of late : I have been blamed for having an appetite myself, but nothing to yours : if you had all the earth, it is my opinion, you would long to have the moon too. This is something like one of our Dukes, who was ever asking his King for some favour or other ; when the monarch replied, that if he gave him the three Kingdoms, he would wish to have the Isle of Man also, to cure herrings on. 262 THREE YEARS IN Jonathan. — Ay, ay, father Bull; but I should not term ye father, for the rough treatment you gave me when young. You attempted to crush me then, but could not ; now I am got strong, in spite of your disposition, and will treat you as I think proper. You may sav revenge is a mean thing, and all that, but your revenge has been ten times worse than mine. What did ye burn Washington for, ye old rogue ? Here ’s at ye like a stranger, as the Irishman said, not like a father at all. J. B. — That was more an accident than any thing else, and should be hushed up and forgotten. I certainly never meant to hold the blazing faggot to the capital of the States ; while, you know, I have allowed you to fish on the Banks of New- foundland for that little blunder, and given you many things else. Jon. — Given ! yes ! nothing but what you could not help ! Forget such accidents ! the thing is very likely, when the infernal story is in cur popular school-book ! Let it be read there ; let it be mingled with the teaching of youth. May the young mind suck it in, and hate you for ever ! W hat was a barrel of codfish to archives of valuable records ? You burnt up the deeds of our lands; you consumed our charters; vou CANADA. 263 broke down our civil laws, and disordered our in- ternal policy ; threw private property into con- fusion, set the lawyers abroad amongst us, and ruined thousands of honest, worthy men. Can the peasant forget you ? — the tea-tax was nothing to this ! J. B. — Be cool, Jonathan ; thy disposition is to calculate, and really thou shouldst not get into a passion, for thou knowest I can burn W ashington again and again, and not allow thee to pluck up one codfish : and I dare say it would be good for me to do so, seeing that thou art so ambitious and headstrong, but I will consider the matter a little. Nevertheless, do not wrap thyself up in the idea that 1 will not do it , for whenever I find thee troublesome amongst my colonies, and abusing my mercantile trade, a few ships will be sent out to set thy boasted sea-board a-flame; New York shall be laid in ashes, and your representatives roasted in the House of Congress ! Jon.— -You are perfectly welcome to come any day you can find it convenient ; you will find me at my post, with a handsome fleet to receive ye, — your Nile and Trafalgar will be nothing to the meeting. Come on ; I shall hunt you over the At- lantic. My steam-boats will ruin your Plymouths and Portsmouths, and send Liverpool and London 264 THREE YEARS IN to the devil ! Can you stop us P I defy ye ! What is a battery of cannon to quick-moving steamers in a duskv evening ? Pass them right away, and consume ye. Stay at home, if you are wise ; if you come out, depend on a drubbing. J. B. — Why, really, Jonathan, you grow mightily in conceit, and in pride you wax great. The fact is, that I ’ll bid the Canadians lick ye whenever I find ye troublesome : they will give you tit for tat, my chap. They broiled your bacon at Lun- dies-lane for the roasting you gave them at Platts- burg ; they will be upsides with ye, never fear. They have roads and canals now to get up their strength to the Lakes; so where are ye? You may shut up your sea-board ; clap on the tariff when you will; my goods go up to the Lakes, and there are your smugglers to receive them. Jon. — Just so, talk away ! Canada! all fudge. Roads and canals ! what are they ? what s our Lockport ? why, a pound of gunpowder would ruin the New York Canal. Canada ! we will not hurt a hair of its head ; no, no, it is a drain for your odd dollars ; you fling them carelessly into it ; so much the better for me ; they all float into the State ; were there not such a place on our con- tinent, we could not catch them so well. I might CANADA. 265 easily extend my territories to the Pole, but won’t think of that. You must have a decoy, old fool. J. B. — So, my lad, you hate me yet, yea, as you do truth itself. You were ever bad, and will never improve. The ways of thy wickedness crave my attention ; they deserve my reprobation and disgust. Thou art, in thine own language, pro- gressing to the Devil. VOL I N 266 THREE YEARS IN CELEBRATED ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. The chief of these is Philemon Wright , Esq. of Hull , a Bostonian, who came to Canada about thirty-six years ago with 30,000 dollars. Rum- maging through the country in quest of land, he came upon the Ottawa River, and proceeded up it to the Falls of Chaudiere, in a canoe. “ There," says the Squire , “ I clambered up a tree, and on looking round, found myself at the head of the navigation : there I saw a number of rivers, as it were, pouring into one : the country, by the ap- pearance of the timber, seemed fit for agriculture. ‘ Here shall I take up my abode,’ I exclaimed, ‘ for this will become a place of vast importance in due time, although it is now nothing but a howling wilderness.’ ” Being pleased thus far, he hastened back to Quebec, and took out his deeds, invited some of his people to follow him, CANADA. 267 came back up the river 100 miles from any neigh- bours, and there commenced operations in earnest, levelled down the forest, built houses, raised large crops of grain, and bred many cattle, pigs, and poultry. In a short time, he had more than a thousand acres cleared, and the township swarm- ing with people. The Indians could not under- stand this : they became alarmed lest their whole territory should be taken from them ; but Mr. Wright quieted their fears, gave them tobacco, and granted them many indulgences. Struggling on for about fifteen years, he found himself as wealthy a man as any in the whole country. He kept an extensive store, and supplied the traders with timber and fur, of which they stood in need ; he also put up a saw and grist-mill; and numerous were the wares he conducted down the river to Quebec. Had all the people who have gone to Canada as much genuine enterprise as Philemon, the country would have presented a different ap- pearance to-day from what it does. He soon be- came well-known far and near ; improved the breed of his cattle ; became a great favourite at the court of his Governors, and colonel of his own regiment of militia ; sent his son Ruggles to Eng- land and France, to observe the manners and im- provements of Europe — a trip that cost the old N 2 268 THREE YEARS IN gentleman something to the tune of 3000/., but that he grudged not. How contented was he when his son returned, w ith a beautiful bull, and a he- goat, of the most renowned ancestors ! The township of Hull now became a fashion- able resort ; a splendid hotel was built ; livery stables were well stalled; a steam-boat set a-going ; flag-staff and bell erected : w hile a magazine was filled with gunpowder ; and an armourv richlv filled with cannons, muskets, and swords. The how ling wilderness vanished ; the bears and wolves sought more remote regions. But this was not all, nor the half of all ; churches, and chapels, and schools were built ; and priests, surgeons, school- masters, and lawyers, were frequently to be met with at Hull. Yree-masonry also flourished : the squire was a Royal T/cA-mason ; procured a char- ter; opened a lodge in high style ; while all the men of character about flocked in, and became mem- bers of the ancient craft. He was a perfect Jacob, and yet is truly an American; but a loyal man to Hull — and that is quite enough. He has also a kind heart ; and will differ w ith none, unless an in- fringement be attempted on his lands. He is about six feet high ; a tight man, with a wonderfully strange, quick, reflective, wild eye. No one is more the father of his people than he ; when he has CANADA. 269 been from home at any time, on his coming back guns are fired, bells rung, and flags waved. He is now about seventy years of age, but quite healthy, and can undergo any fatigue ; the most severe cold is nothing to him, and as for the heat, he minds it as little. All his enjoyments are of a sin- gular kind ; there is some domesticity about him, but not much. Talk of schemes of the wildest en- terprise, and he is then in his glory ; and if he can get any one to meet his views, how happy he is ! It was he who first proposed the Rideau Canal ; and I have heard him, with pleasure, pro- pose many other works equally great and inge- nious. Mr. Galt amused the people of Quebec, by producing him on the stage, in the character of Obadiah Quincy, Bunker , from Boston : the worthy old gentleman used to sit in the box, and laugh heartily at himself. Captain Andrew Wilson, R.N. This gentleman is one of the most notable fac- totums to be met with in Canada. He is at once a profound lawyer , with all the acts of the provin- cial legislatures on the top of his tongue, at a mo- ment’s warning ; and at home, a farmer of the first rate — will talk you blind about raising bullocks, wheat, onions, what not ; an author too— has pub- 270 THREE YEARS IN lished in three volumes octavo a naval history , fraught with tactics and sea affairs. At his house on the banks of Rideau, — Ossian Hall , as he is pleased to term it, — there is the best library that ever was taken into the wilderness ; books of all 'sorts ; and a vade-mecum full of sea scenes, and drawings of ships in action and out of it, while the outline of many a headland, cape, and bay, is there pourtrayed : this valuable album he terms the sailor's hornpipe. Set the captain fully a-going, get him out to sea, some grog a-board, and how he dashes away ! One would imagine, to hear him, that there never was a battle fought on the ocean but he had the pleasure of being in it. Thus will he speechify : “ We had given the fel- low chase for three days, d — n him ; and on the morning of the third, a slight fog came on, so who could see him ? One looked out from the top after another, but no signs of him. Up went I, glass slung at my back, and after looking out a full quarter of an hour, I bawled down to the men at the wheel, ‘ I have him ! — starboard — set the compass — off the w eather-bow — mark the direction .of the glass; 1 — in an instant round came the ship. ‘ Yet I have her !’ I bawled down. ‘ Steady, — all steady , Sir, was the reply ; when I with- drew the glass, and went below. We bore up, CANADA. 271 came in view, and in two hours we had him, — a Spanish prize worth ten thousand dollars. Cap- tain Andrew Wilson did that by the Lord /” — He was often with me in the woods. On engineering exploits the captain was an excellent rummager, and understood the nature of creeks and gullies well. Presenting him with a map of a part of the wilderness he was well acquainted with, “ Yes, Sir,” he exclaimed, “ it is the thing, Sir : there is Otter son’s House to an inch, Sir ; you have marked the Deer Lick, Sir, — I know it well, — many a day I have been there with my gun, Sir. You have made your name immortal in the woods, Sir — or I’ll bed— d, Sir.” There was a dam, however, which we were building, that did not please the Captain ; and he used to reprobate it thus. “ You are no engi- neers, I will tell you to your faces, gentlemen ; where will ye be when the floods come fifteen feet at a start, — when the ice of the lakes gives way, — when the snows, trees, houses, and all the banks come before it ? — where are ye, gentlemen ?” Matters did not turn out just so ill, however, as he suspected they would. One time at the Hull hotel, I observed the Captain present at a party who were singing in full chorus a Canadian boat- song ; the famous Judge Macdonnel was leading ; 272 THREE YEARS IN but our hero did not seem to enjoy the hilarity. The song was long, and he was mute : getting perfectly weary, he dashed down his wig on the table in great wrath, and burst forth with, “ D — n your fresh-water nonsense ; come out to the salt ocean, my boys, and I ’m with ye !” He is a Justice of Peace , and Notary Public too ; signed not only R.N. to his name, but J.P and N.P. Married many an amorous couple; although this is said to be against the law, if a clergyman be within fifteen miles : however, what cared the noble captain ? “ he had soul and body to look after ; he had the county of Bathurst to govern ; the Perth lawyers to regulate ; the roads to lay out ; and more to do than all Downing- street.” However, his importance was not so great as he would have us believe ; indeed, with those who really knew him, he seemed quite aware of this, and would good-naturedly laugh at his own nonsense. There was one thing he insisted on, but never could prove to me its correctness, that every tree in the forest, great and small, was worth a dollar. If such be the case, Canada is much more valuable than I am led to believe it is. He held his weekly courts at By-town , where the following alarming case, amongst others, came before him. CANADA. 273 And really, to see the Captain on the bench, with his anchor-button coat, attending gravely to the examinations of witnesses, taking off his spectacles, occasionally wiping them, and then carefully laying them across his nose again, while the court of ignorance was marking his every motion, — the scene was highly ludicrous. Of this he was perfectly sensible, but it was an amusement to him ; he liked to be consulted , to make speeches , to have his pockets crammed with documents , and all the world following him. A couple of housewives becoming intimate, one of them made the other a present of a fine breed- ing hen. But chucky, not quite happy in her new abode, made her nest in a gentleman’s hayloft, and commenced hatching there. During the period of incubation, she regularly returned to the home of her old mistress, and received her food. When the brood came forth, a dozen in number, the gen- tleman laid claim to them, as being part of his property ; the woman to whom the hen was pre- sented , also put in her claim ; while the original owner, because she had fed her, considered she had the best right to the flock of any. In such an embarrassing case, the justice called up all his learning, and recalled all the statutes ; when, after N 5 274 THREE YEARS IN considerable bickering, the woman to whom she was made a present, received her once more into her holy keeping. To Dr. Dunlop, Warden of the woods and forests for the Canada Company , fyc. “ Well ! bless my life, Doctor, what earnest en- quiries you make after Mother Firth. N ow the fact is, she never, so far as I am aware, was a mother ; that is to say, she never had children. Yet she is a good motherly body for all that, and, indeed, has the folk of the Grand River under her holy charge. But I see what you would be at, so shall go a little into particulars. Her maiden name is Dal- mahoy, and she was originally a milliner girl in Edinburgh. She still makes for the rummagers in these parts most beautiful black otter caps. She wandered, for some cause or other, to London ; and there a clerk in a sugar-warehouse, a young Yorkshire lad, of the name of Firth, fell deeply in love with her. They have told me this tale many a time themselves, with a degree of simplicity and warmth, which has much pleased me. Her mother having been married to a serjeant engaged in the wars of Canada, Miss D. started off from her dear lover, Isaac Firth, crossed the Atlantic, came up the wild Ottawa River to the Falls of Chaudiere, CANADA. 275 and there on Point Nepean became a squatter of eminence. There her mother and her mother’s husband (who by the way was her stepfather) built a log house, after they had burrowed in the snow for some time ; and there they began to keep a house for refreshing the weary wet raftsmen, as they dabbled up and down the rivers : during which time our young woman was much courted by the beaux of the neighbourhood. A raftsman of my beloved acquaintance, a half-pay navy cap- tain, ditto ditto, and some Americans from the famous township of Hull, struggled hard for the prize ; but whilst the contest ran high, out came the London clerk, and Miss D., like a compassion- ate, good-hearted soul, clasped him to her bosom. The log-hut on the Point now received an enlargement, and two or three small rooms were added. These were furnished in an elegant man- ner by the tasteful Mrs. Firth ; so much so, that when the late much-lamented Duke of Richmond, Governor of Canada, came up the Ottawa River to establish his military townships, he was perfectly surprised to meet with such a neat furnished cabin in the heart of an endless wilderness. He stopped several days about the place, and examined the singular Falls of Chaudiere. He then went to Richmond, which was about twenty miles off ; and 276 THREE YEARS IN after having examined the state of his township, he was hastening back to Mrs. Firth, when that most dreadful of all diseases, hydrophobia, broke out on him. I have been at the place, Doctor, where this happened, on the small river Jocque, about five miles from the now Clauchan of Richmond. He was crossing this stream in a birch canoe, when the spasmodic affection first appeared, and was taken into a hut by the bank, where he died. I have been in the hut, and shed a tear to his memory. “Alas, the poor Duke ! he did not return alive to Mrs. Firth’s public-house, but his dead body was brought there by his attendants. Really, Doctor, she keeps a snug little inn, and has plenty of dogs and tom-cats, which I am sure would please you. We hold all our big flights here with much hilarity : our Halloweens, St. Andrew’s, and so forth. She is all in all with the other Governors of Canada and their ladies, — the first woman, in fact, at court; and were I wishing to have interest in the country amongst big folk, there could none be found to equal hers : — you may, therefore, conclude with me, that this lady from Auld Reekie is no joke in the wilderness of Canada. She is governess, truly, whenever she pleases ; and should ever Walter Scott or you give a biographical account of eminent Scottish women, I hope neither of ve CANADA. 277 will be so unmerciful, or so unjust, as to exclude from the valuable work the meritorious Miss Dal- mahoy, alias Mother Firth. “ The Indians are allowed to retain all the islands in the great rivers ; but this law is often broken through by settlers. In truth, they are often lo- cated on islands, and are not aware of the fact until the land is cleared ; they are then, perhaps, astonished to meet with a channel, or side , leaving the river above the rapids, winding far into the country, then returning to the river again beneath the falls. Squire W right built his town on an island of this kind. Mrs. Firth squatted on one too, unknown to herself ; and when she made the place famous, various people came forward, and began to claim the property according to their location tickets ; but Point Nepean being an island, they could not molest her : — so far, good.” Chief Mac Nab. This is a real chieftain from the Highlands of Scotland, domiciled in Canada, with a numerous clan about him. He received the grant of a whole township of good wild land on the banks of the Lake de Chats : — this is a beautiful place ! Here stands the castle of Mac Nab , surrounded by the houses of his followers. He annually sells off his 278 THREE YEARS IN estate an immense quantity of fine pine-timber ; and moves about through the provinces occasion- ally with his tail, dressed always in full Highland costume, the piper going before, playing perhaps the Hacks o’ Cromdale, or the Campbells are coming. We were well acquainted; and on my once addressing him Mr. Mac Nab, he checked me — “ Sir, (said he) I thought you had known better : nothing but Mac Nab, if you please ; Mr. does not belong to me.” I held myself corrected, and kindly thanked him, of course. Many emi- grants come out to him every year ; some lovely Highland girls; he meets them at Quebec, and escorts them up to the land of timber instead of heather. He is yet but a young man, very cheer- ful, and full of enthusiasm about Scotland : a thing rarely met with amongst people beyond the Atlantic. Any person wishing to know the nature of the Indians, their manners, t customs, language, &c. should apply to Judge Macdonnel , at Point For- tune. No man in Canada knows them and the French Canadians so well as he. For many years he was amongst them, and is yet to a certain de- gree. He means to favour me with his notes. This gentleman is brother to the celebrated Miles, now no more, who behaved so well in CANADA. 279 the trying scenes which happened at Red River between contending fur- companies. For local in- formation respecting men and things, there is no equal to my friend Theodore Davis ; he knows every concession line , can put his hand on all sacred post-marks, lead you up all wild rivers, show you all mines and minerals, and explain to you the lumber trade. I have his notes. He lives near the Judge above mentioned ; and I believe there are not two individuals on better terms in Canada : they will quarrel and be friends twenty times in one day. Fortune favoured me one frosty winter with a month of their company. 280 THREE YEARS IN THE CANADIAN MISSISSIPI. Massapi is the proper Indian name for this district, which signifies a small river falling into a large one. Mississipi means a large river falling into the great deep. Our Canadian river disem- bogues into the Ottawa at the rapids of Chats , about one hundred and fifty miles from Montreal, and thirty-five from Bytown. This is a most in- teresting stream, and so deserves a minute account. It rises out of large lakes behind Kingston. One of them is near the Crow Lake, where the famous Marmora iron-mines are situated ; its highest lake is about 415 feet above the level of the ocean. The country round these lakes, as far as it has been explored, is of the richest quality of any I have met with in Canada. Settlers thrive about them, and on every waterfall there is a mill. On one of these, called the Norway Falls, is to be CANADA. 281 met Sawny Sneddoti s mill, very ingeniously con- structed, and the water let upon it by a tunnel through a clay bank. Mr. Bolton, the miller, gave me much information respecting business in this quarter, with rude sketches of the lakes, for which he has my best thanks. The flourishing settlement of Lanark is here ; and it was in this part of Upper Canada where Peter Robinson, Esq. made his experiment with Irish emigrants : which did not very well succeed, his people, as all from Erin are, being so difficult to manage, so disposed to riot. The most beautiful bridge in the world may, some day or other, be built over the great river Ottawa, at the rapids of Chats ; here it is about one mile broad, rushing down between fifteen islands, nearly equidistant from one another, each of which will form a pier for the future noble bridge. At this place is the settlement of Mr. Sherriff, — a lovely place ! One branch of the Mississipi falls into the Ottawa above these rapids ; the other below, forming a large island between of 2500 acres. On this island a town is proposed to be built. This river might be made navigable at no great expense, were the portages locked with dry-stone locks , the stone laid on edge and well puddled behind. This seems to be the sort 282 THREE YEARS IN of lock most suitable for the country, as they may be constructed for much less than those built of ashler : the table limestone is common, and answers for this kind of work so well. The navigation of the river might be much more easily opened than the making of suitable roads : to form these in a woodv countrv is a verv difficult thins : and. as the hmh trees seclude the wind, thev are seldom c ■ so dry as to be passable. Were this river locked . it would open lip an immensely large fertile coun- trv. more than all the emigrants from England would require these ten years ; while a connexion by Cockbum Creek, and the Rideau Canal, would be soon effected. The entrance to this great na- vigation would be Fitzroy Harbour, then up the Channel of Dingwall and Mac Millan. blending together the great Lakes of Chaudiere and Chats with the rich Mississipi. My excellent friend Mr. Quinn, the surveyor, kindly sent me the fol- lowing very valuable letters, which confirm my own observations. Amesbrook, the 5th January. 1828. SIR, •* Agreeably to promise. I beg leave to trans- mit to you the following description of all I am able to state on the subject of the several falls and rapids CANADA. 283 on the River Mississipi, from its confluence with the Ottawa to the Mississipi Lake, in the town- ship of Beckwith, — not taken by rule, but by esti- mation, which I state from my long knowing the place, and from many times and at differ- ent seasons traversing the same in a bark canoe, and which I hope, on future investigation, will be found near the truth, having been taken with care at low water. First, The rapids below Hub- ble’s Falls commence about a mile and a quar- ter from the Ottawa : about 20 chains long will give a fall in perpendicular descent of about 12 feet; the great chute, about 8; then at about 10 chains up stream, north-west of the island, about 4, making in the whole about 24 feet. Then comes smooth gliding water, about 18 feet deep, running at the rate of about half a mile in the hour for the distance of 7 miles, to Mr. Har- vey’s mills: first fall, or mill-site, from 11 to 13 feet ; then at about 15 chains distance, a fall over the second dam, about 8 feet : the whole may be supposed at about 24 feet, including the fall of the swift water between both dams, of about 3 feet. Then follow about 6^ miles of a gliding river, nearly the same as already described, to the Norway Falls, on which Mr. Sneddon’s mill stands. The canoeing side, in the north-east branch, will 284 THREE YEARS IN admit of a fall of about 6 feet from the foot of the rapid to the mill-place, which is in distance about 8 chains: the mill-fall I suppose is 14 feet; making in the whole 20 feet. Flat water immediately commences at the mill, and continues for about 2 miles to the foot of Brown or M'Quin's Rapids, which are about three-quarters of a mile long, of very swift water, without breaking its surface until within a few chains of the foot of the rapid, where the water changes colour and breaks, and would, I suppose, admit of a fall of about 16 feet. Then about 2 miles farther of flat running water commences. The first of Mr. Shipman's Falls, on the north branch of the river, falls perpendicu- lar ; on the south side it runs rapid, with no such fall, and would form a descent of about 20 feet. Then it continues, for a distance of about 12 chains, up to the foot of the grist- mill, about 4 feet : then the mill-fall, about 14 feet; then very little fall for about 6 chains up the stream to the saw-mill, which is rather taken out of the side of the river to a natural hollow : then a fall : — but I will suppose the whole together at that part would be about from 40 to 42 feet. Then there is a flat rapid river for about 4 miles to the foot of Appletree Falls : the main chute thereof I will suppose at 12 feet of a CANADA. 285 fall ; the rapid above it, about 6 feet ; making in the whole 18 or 20 feet of a fall. Then Mr. Glendenning’s Falls, about 4 miles up the stream, of no great magnitude, nor fit for any kind of machi- nery. Then, next and last, at about a distance of 1? miles, come Murphy’s Falls, on which Mr. Bailey’s and Mr. Bolton’s mills stand : from the foot to the head, is about one mile in length, and will give a fall of about 40 feet. Then are about 12 miles of a lake to Friar’s Falls, which are scarcely great enough for the mill thereon ; and very little fall from that to the Mississipi Lake, in the town- ship of Bathurst. Then, through the Sherbrooks, the river is mostly lost in lakes, and runs through a flat country, until the river divides into two branches ; — the south branch thereof, I am in- formed, takes rise near the Bay of Quinty. Should a more exact account be required, it would do me great honour to be your most hum- ble servant in the execution of the work, which I trust you will find me well qualified for. “ With due deference, I am, Sir, Most obediently yours, (Signed) On. Quinn, D. S. Or Deputy Surveyor Provincial.” 286 THREE YEARS IN u Amesbrook, the 6th of March, 1828. “ Your favour of the 17th of January has only a few days since reached my hands ; through what means its delay has been occasioned I am not able to discover. The approval of my former explana- tory detail loads me with great acknowledgements to you. I now beg leave to proceed to state, on an abridged scale, all that I know of this section of the country, through which my professional capacity has from time to time called me ; hoping, at the same time, you will perceive that I am not wilfully going to make a false report to our government, or any of its ministers. Under the latter, I presume, I may class you ; and will first commence on the fertile banks of the Mississipi, from the Ottawa to Hubble’s Falls, in the township of Fitzroy. About one mile and a half is low, marshy, and inundated for about half-a-mile from the mouth on the western shore ; then the banks become prominent : soil not good for about half-a-mile back, then becomes more fertile, as you proceed, for a distance of about fifteen miles in a westerly course, but is not much inhabited : the northern shore rocky : on the banks of the river there is an island reserved here to the Crown, about 2500 acres, which is not land of first quality ; it is very little known : it is bounded by the Chats Lake and CANADA. 287 Falls on its north-west, by the Mississipi on its south-west, and by the Snie on which Mr. Ding- wall’s saw-mill stands, on the south-east. From thence to Harvey’s mills, in the township of Paken- ham, is a distance of six miles. On both sides of the river lies the best tract of land, for about four or five miles distance on each side, that I have seen in my travels, where a mare and foal let loose in the woods the first day of May, will come home pork-fat in December, from grazing on the marlweed, or horsepipes, with which it abounds : cows and oxen feed similarly : all here abounding with innumerable brooks and rivulets, (many of them of a saline nature,) all of which empty into the Mississipi. There is also the township of Huntly connected with the above tract ; about six miles from the river is its northern boundary ; and a well-settled, good township, in which rises the river Carp, which empties into the Ottawa below Fitzroy Harbour. Much timber is in the above tract ; a vast quantity of oak, maple, beech, and basswood ; large quantities of pine on the east side of Fitzroy, with very few swamps intervening. A great want is felt of stones for building, from Hub- ble’s Falls to Harvey’s mills ; none but what are ob- tained at these places. At Harvey’s mills is the best of limestone. One hundred maple trees tapped 288 THREE YEARS IN in April, with the attention of one man , for fifteen days, will make one hundred and twelve pounds of sugar, ten gallons of molasses, and one barrel of vinegar. “ From Harvey’s Falls to Norway Falls, about six miles, rather more indifferent soil, with more stones and pine, but still very fit for cultivation, partlv settled. About three miles above Harvey’s mills is the mouth of the Indian River, coming into the Mississipi : about one mile up there is a fall of about forty feet ; it averages about one chain wide throughout its extent, and rises in the township of Lanark. About one mile above the Norway Falls, similar in size and source, is the Ramsay Indian River, on which stands Bellomie’s saw and grist-mill, about eight miles from its con- fluence with the Mississipi ; then through the townships of Ramsay and Beckwith, for about twelve miles, to Murphy’s Falls, is a well-settled, productive country, particularly on the western shore. About one mile above Murphy’s Falls commences the Mississipi Lake, about twelve miles long, dividing the townships of Ramsay and Lanark on the north-west, and Beckwith and Drummond on the south-east. Close to the banks, the land is not generally good, but has several handsome settle- ments made thereon. Beckwith, on its south- CANADA. 289 easterly shore, abounds with a shallow soil, and a flat rock of limestone underneath, with very much swamp, but, like Ramsay, closely settled. On the western shore its mines abound with ada- mant ore : I have known two side lines, run by the magnetic needle, to intersect each other from the force of attraction, until the surveyor had to establish an astronomical meridian to remedy the same. About ten miles from the head of the Beckwith Lake, is the Bathurst Mississipi Lake. I am not able to enter into distinct details on the subject of the waters higher up than the first lake extends ; but can say, one lake is ten miles from the other. The river divides itself into several branches, each of considerable magnitude, falling into the stream, which Ben Bolton’s mills in Ba- thurst are on. Capt. Playfair and Grunlies mills are all on the divided branches of the Mississipi. The country throughout abounds in mill-seats, and is excellently watered. The soil is of the very first quality either for tillage or pasture; the rivers and lakes breed many fish ; and there are ores in the hills.” VOL. I. o 280 THREE YEARS IN DISPUTES AND GRIMES. DISPUTES of a very serious nature, and even murders, are not unfrequent. The French Cana- dian dislikes both the Irish and Yankees; his hatred seems rooted. “ Sacre Bourgeois,” he will swear at the former, because they wear breeches that bind at the knees, and stockings ; and “ Sacre Yankee Crapo,” at the latter d — d Yankee toads. In the towns they have frequent broils, and the noise that the French make in battle is excessively loud. Jean Baptiste is by no means a boxer ; his blows are very light : he makes “ much cry and little wool,” as the Devil said when he sheared his hogs ; indeed he never can fight alone, he must always have a large flock of his countrymen about him before he dare strike a blow ; and when requested to desist, or caught by the arms by one of his friends, how he foams and roars ! Indeed one who knew him not, might be foolishly led to sup- CANADA. 291 pose he would drive all before him, were he let loose. The Irish have frequent raws, and carry the spirit of party with them wherever they go ; the orange and ribbon - men have often dreadful rencounters. A man was murdeied in one of these riots on the banks of the Ottawa ; a fellow knocked him on the head with the knotty root of a tree, and stove in his skull. The poor man died in an in- stant ; the murderer fled aw r ay above sixty miles, was pursued, caught, brought to trial, and acquit- ted. The saying is, that “ it takes great interest to hang a man in Canada,” which is, indeed, true. Another was killed at a raft beside where 1 was stopping at Point Nepean. He had been fighting on the shore, and pursued his foe into the water, who got upon a raft of timber, and struck him with a paddle on the head. The man fell in two-feet water, dead. No investigation took place : a kind of sham coroner’s inquest, by a few drunkards, was held ; the murdered person was buried, and there was no more said about the matter. Colonel By, myself, and some others, were travelling in the wilderness in the month of December 1827 ; the weather was bitter cold. Having got into a considerable clearing, we bore away for a large house of an American settler. o 2 292 THREE YEARS IN On getting in, we found all the rooms on the ground floor crammed full of people of all de- scriptions : such an ugly, suspicious, dirty-looking set I had never before seen. The back-slums of Holborn, London, where villains and vagabonds congregate, never were honoured with such a crew By the language and general appearance, I found the majority to be of the landlord’s na- tion ; the others were poor wandering Irish emi- grants. With some trouble I got through the crowd, and had my frozen feet and hands partly brought round at the fire. Potato whisky and pipes of tobacco seemed in request, and were served out by a bar-maid of such exquisite beauty as Hottentot hath never yet beheld. Not having rested our bones for a long time, fatigue be- gan to overcome us, but there was no place to lie down on : as for beds, such machines were always perfectly out of the question. A plank, partly clean, w'as all that ever could be expect- ed in such houses, and indeed over all the semi- civilized part of the country ; but in this there was not room to stretch on the floor : — we mierht have space for the vertical, but not for the hori- zontal position. Wearied out, the Colonel asked me if I could by any means learn if there were any apartments up-stairs. With some trouble the CANADA. 293 landlord was discovered. This is a difficult thins; in an American free and easy, as the host appears so much a guest, that it requires some nice dis- crimination to find him : however, I succeeded, and having put the question, “he guessed there was considerable of room ; that I might surmount and see ; and if we would kipple up by threes or fours, he had buffaloes would kiver us . 11 Accord- ingly, the Colonel, and a few of our party, went up a narrow, frail, dirty staircase; I was afraid of the steps giving way. We then entered a large room, exceedingly cold, round the sides of which a number of weary mortals were stretched. The candle I carried would scarcely burn ; for there were many windows in the room, and few panes of glass in any of them, so that the frosty wind poured in cold and strong. While looking round, and muttering to one another, “ This won’t do, we shall be frozen to death here,” we observed some- thing laid upon an old table, and covered with some- thing by way of a sheet. What was this P On removing the same, and holding forth the glimmer- ing candle, we saw the dead body of a young man, seemingly about fifteen years of age. One side of his head seemed to be mangled in a shocking man- ner, and covered with clotted blood. “No; this place, indeed, will not do,” we all agreed, and 294 THREE YEARS IN down stairs we went. On coming below, we found the greater part of the company had “ cleared out,” as they say. Venturing to make some in- quiries about the dead lad, we met with nothing but evasive answers, — as much as to say, it might be better for us all to keep a “caum sough,” alias, make no noise about it. However, I found this to be impossible ; and although some of our party sunk down in sleep on the floor, where melted snow, brought in by the travellers’ feet, had flood- ed, some of us hung on by the wall by the sides of the fire. In the course of our distant inquiries, we found that the greater part of the guests had gone to the barn and the stable, there to kennel up amongst hay ; — that the dead body up-stairs was that of a young Irishman, who had been killed two days be- fore by a shot from a gun, carelessly let off by one of the sons of the landlord. In the morning, the father and mother of the lad came crying after us in great tribulation, wishing us to interfere, and bring, what they called, the “ murtherer of their dear child” to justice ; but this was a thing to us impossible, unless by engaging in an affair we had nothing to do with ; and, after having done our best, the Imvs of the country would not probably have been exercised then, as we had often seen. To CANADA. 295 account for all the whys and wherefores , is what I am not able to do. I have stated some cases, and given the results : this is all that can reasonably be expected from an humble traveller. There is something faulty in the administration of the cri- minal laws, no doubt; but energy and exertion lie dormant in Canada ; humanity begins to be neither much felt nor talked about. Where no encou- ragement is held out to virtue and talent, the noble spirit of man begins to droop, and Vice to show her ugly visage. 296 THREE YEARS IN BURLINGTON BAY AND FORTY-MILE CREEK. This is one of the most beautiful bays in all Canada, and also one of great importance. It is situ- ated at the head of Lake Ontario, is about 12,000 acres in surface, shaped somewhat like an equila- teral triangle, and is from thirty to forty feet deep. The country encircling this bay is uncommonly fer- tile; the settlers are chiefly Dutch. The orchards are of great extent ; apple and pear trees loaded to the ground in the proper season. Burlington and Montreal vie with one another in fruit. I was called here by the Provincial Government of Up- per Canada, to examine a small cut that had often been attempted to be made through the beach be- tween the bay and the lake, but could never be ef- fected properly, although nearly 10,000/. had been expended on it. This beach forms, as it were, the base to the triangle, and is about six miles long, CANADA. 297 composed of the finest grey drift sand. It is about 180 yards wide, curved concave to both bay and lake. This bay being shaped out by Nature to become part of Lake Ontario, the waters which gather into it from the adjoining country, rushing out, meet with those of the lake, frequently driven by a strong north-easterly wind, so that a com- motion and deposition of mud and drift-sand take place, which has formed, in the course of time, and yet continues to add to Burlington Beach. Were there less water coming out of the bay, or stronger winds on the lake, the beach would not be in the situation it now is ; being exactly where the ba- lance of power takes place between the contending causes. A cut through this beach to admit schoo- ners which navigate the lake, had long been at- tempted, as it is said ; but the fine drift-sand con- tinued to choke it up as soon as it was excavated. A dredging machine had long been at work, but could not keep the channel clear to the depth of ten feet, as required. Piles were extremely diffi- cult to drive, the sand being very compact beneath water, although of a shifting nature. No stone was near the place ; and the piers of the cut, or artificial channel, were formed with cribs of wood, filled with pebbles ; but, after these had been laid down, the fine drift-sand ran out from beneath O 5 298 THREE YEARS IN them, and so they were undermined, while it flowed through beneath, and filled up the chan- nel’s mouth towards the lake. A breakwater had been built, in hopes of preventing this ; but it went the way of the piers, and did no good. Under those perplexing circumstances, I humbly proposed the following plan : That in the absence of stone, wooden cribs , filled with pebbles, were good, but they ought not to have a bottom; if they inclosed the pebbles on the sides , that seemed the only thing wanted; — for where the storms of the lake had broken the cribs , and floated the wood which composed them out of the way, the fine sand was unable to find its way through the pebble wall. That this wall would answer well without timber inclosures, or trailing, but only, if such were used, fewer pebbles would be required to con- struct the piers ; and as they were rather expen- sive to be obtained, it was advisable to make use of timber inclosures. If the latter failed to confine the pebbles and spread, let more pebbles, or muffin stones, be added. It was easy to see that, the cribs being bottomed with cross-bars , these formed apertures for the drift-sand to get through into the channel. The north-east line formed the angle of storm, when the wind had the full sweep of the lake ; therefore the pier, to oppose the CANADA. 299 storm, must be three times stronger than the other, and must have a return-head , as in Eng- land, that the fine sand coming before the storm, may be washed past the mouth of the channel, and spread on the beach, when the wind sweeps from one end of the lake to the other. It is called the ocean-wind , as it prevails on the ocean at the same time : this is a curious circumstance, the reason of which I was unable to fathom. These winds prevail in the spring and fall. Storms on the lakes are not so tempestuous as on the ocean ; the waves are short jumping seas , as the sailors term them, and will undermine walls built within their influence, and ultimately upturn them sooner than will those of the ocean. The short swells run easily into eddies, and filter fine sand through orifices with great rapidity. That the undula- tions of the lakes are different from those of the ocean is obvious, from old sailors, and people long accustomed to the deep, getting sea-sick upon them. Surmising thus much, the piers ought to be flanked with water-soaked oak, — there was plen- ty of this in the adjoining forests, — which (oak) ought to be laid along in horizontal ranges ; or if it were wished to make a better job, let them be laid on their ends by one another’s side, on the vertical slope of the stormy side of the pier, and 300 THREE YEARS IN thickly round the pier-head. In building sea- walls in America, where stone cannot be obtained, this water- soaked timber seems to be an excellent substitute, as it is very heavy, and, when sunk beneath water, may last for ages. As to excava- ting the channel by means of the dredging machine, it seemed it might be more easily done without it, if the operations of Nature were properly attend- ed to ; for the truth was, that when a north-east storm came on, the waters rushed through the cut into the bay at a velocity often between six and seven miles an hour, forming a tide in the bay, and raising the waters round its shores, flood- ing Coofs Paradise above, almost up to the town of Dundas ; so that, when the storm abated, the pent-up waters returned to the lake with a similar velocity. Let advantage be taken of this to scour out the channel through the beach ; let the fine sand be stirred when the current is flowing out, and that will certainly make it deep enough in a very short time, and preserve it so, without the aid of any dredging machine whatever. These hints have been somewhat attended to, I believe, and the channel is now kept free ; while there is not a finer harbour than Burlington in the world. Burlington Heights , at the head of the bay, are almost of impregnable strength by Nature; during CANADA. 301 last war, a Block-house and militarv-store were roughly built on them of timber. These Heights are a narrow neck of high land, about 250 feet above the level of the waters in the bay, which wash one of its sides for about two miles, while the great swamp of Coot’s Paradise ranges along the other, about 100 yards broad, where it joins the main-land. Ships drawing 20 feet of water may come in beneath the Heights ; and Grindstone Creek , just beside them, may be very easily con- verted into a beautiful dock for repairing them : a stream of water comes down it, which might fill a lock to lift them out of the waters of the bay into the stocks. This lock, with its small wing- walls, would also effect a most desirable object it would back up deep water over the unhealthy pest-hole of Coot's Paradise, so that ships might go up to the town of Dundas, which will yet be one of the largest towns in all Upper Canada. Coot's Paradise is a very singular place. It is also, like the Bay of Burlington, of a triangular shape, but not one-fortieth part the size. Banks all round it are very high. It derived its name from a sportsman called Coo/.s, who considered himself in Paradise when he got amongst the im- mense flocks of wild water-fowl that haunt it : he would move about with his punt amongst the 302 THREE YEARS IN rushes, and shoot them by dozens. I have never seen such a variety of wild-fowl as comes to this place. Had time permitted me, some curious stuffed birds might have been obtained from this Paradise . It is, therefore, strongly recommended to ornithologists and sportsmen, as a place, above all others yet known in Canada, most deserving of attention. It is a swamp acted upon by a tide : this is a very rare thing to meet with. The waters rush over it from the bay when a lake storm exists ; and when it lulls, the waters fall back, and leave it a paradise for water-fowl. As these tides irrigate the ivild rice that grows luxu- riantly in it, perhaps it might be made a most valuable rice-farm; as such the agriculturist should examine it. If suitable for this purpose, it would form the richest farm in Canada ; there is no doubt of it. It may contain about 350 acres. Mr. Brandt, the celebrated Indian Chief of the Mohawk Indians, lives on the banks of the bay ; a polite, kind gentleman, a great favourite of mine, and well beloved by all who know him. We were talking about his schools, which he has erected to teach his Indian youth, when two of the Mohawk hunters brought him a present of wild ducks and pikes from the bay : they threw them down on the carpet of the parlour without any ceremony, CANADA. 303 and he never seeftied to thank thetfi, nor did they seem to expect any thanks ; some Words and a nod or so passed between, and they went away as they came, quite contented. Burlington Bay, with the adjoining country, is the loveliest place in civilized Canada. The na- tural beauty, the fertility, the amusements which may be obtained in hunting and fishing, are greater than I have met with in any other place. The swamp creates sickness, however ; and until it be buried by a depth of water, will continue to trou- ble the worthy inhabitants. The Forty-Mile Creek. All round the head of Lake Ontario, large creeks or valleys are met with, running far into the country, — at right angles, generally speaking, with the lake. The fertility of these valleys is great, and they are all in a high state of cultiva- tion, and full of settlers ; in the greater number there are villages, with churches and mills. Some of these mills are the largest I have seen, and well managed. Wherever stone can be procured, the houses are built of it in preference to timber. These creeks are named by their distance from Little York or Niagara; the forty-mile one seems the largest of them. Here is a neat vil- 304 THREE YEARS IN lage, chiefly built of stone ; and when there in 1827, I observed a stone wall being built round the churchyard, which greatly pleased me ; for these sacred receptacles for the dead are not paid that attention to they deserve : they are generally laid out in a piece of the worst land that can be selected, where a grave cannot be dug without much labour. I love to see a church built in a rich pleasant spot, closely flanked by little houses, with people in the church-yard now and then, let- ting a tear drop over the graves of their departed friends. When I see a church without houses, and a churchyard unfenced, doubts arise respect- ing the morality of the people. In these lovely glens of the lake, nothing was met with of a ha- rassing nature to the feelings ; the people seemed all to be enjoying life, were tolerably fat, and always well clad. In the little inns they were very kind : this is universal in Dutch settle- ments, or amongst the French Canadians. The Dutch, however, make better farmers than the French , and spare no pains in improving their lands to the utmost. They grow enormous quan- tities of the finest apples, and make a correspond- ing quantum of excellent cider. CANADA. 305 CANOES AND COTTAGES. The canoes are generally made of birch bark , extremely neat, light, and altogether constructed with the greatest ingenuity ; improvements one after another have been added through a lapse of ages, and now they may be said to be really bor- dering on perfection. No straight lines are here made use of in the moulding, but aquatic curves of the very first order, so that they may carry an immense load, and yet meet the water with the least resistance possible — formed light, yet very tight and strong. Birch bark of a yellowish colour, without wrinkles, is generally considered the best, and will last the longest : this bark is found in the remote woods, and the canoes from the inland territories of the north are always pre- ferred. It is rare to meet the Indian carpenters at work : they will walk through the yards with 306 THREE YEARS IN us, which are commonly to be met with on the obscure banks of some lonely lake, and show every thing ; but they will not let us see them actually applying their moulds, like the artists of Britain. The dimensions of a canoe are not given by breadth of beam, depth of hold, &c. but by fathoms in length, from the shoulder of the bow to the bends of the stern. They will live in very agitated waters, where our boats would inevitably founder. The largest kinds of canoes are those of four and fve fathoms. It is truly frightful to see them running rapids of rivers, in which, every moment, they are either expected to be upset or swamped, by those who do not understand them ; but the Indians and Canadians can manage them in a superior style. They will, with the largest, pass a portage of a mile, in less than half an hour, although they may have nearly a ton of luggage to carry. Three men will easily run along with a canoe on their shoulders, which in the water is laden with the before-mentioned burthen, and probably twelve paddlers. No boats in the world can carry, or be carried, like them ; but they do not sail very fast : perhaps five miles an hour may be about the medium rate of sailing. They swim in very little water; one drawing nine inches is consi- CANADA. 307 dered to be deep. Sometimes a mast and sail are raised to a fair wind, and then they fly along the lakes like swallows. They are carried with the bottom up, the gunwale resting on the shoulders of the bearers, who have a cord over the bow and stern, to balance the huge-looking burthen. On the sides of the return bows and sterns, various animals, such as serpents and beavers, are beauti- fully painted. The timbers , as I may say, are fine split pine or cedar : they are sewed with stripes of the leatherwood-tree , and the seams gummed with the juice of the tamarack-shrub. When they spring a leak, they run them instantly ashore, pull them from the waters, and turn the bottom up ; a fire is then kindled, and a burning cleft faggot is taken and run along the seams, while the voyager blows through the cleft ; this melts the gum, which is then pressed down by the thumb, and so the cure is effected. If a hole has been punched in the bark, the piece is extracted, nd a new piece inserted. When done, she is soon in the water, and away again on the voyage. Log canoes are likewise very common, but chiefly Used amongst the settlers. They are scooped and moulded, as every one knows, out of the trunks of trees, and are quite inferior, in every sense of the word, to the birch canoes, being heavier, more 308 THREE YEARS IN liable to upset, and more difficult to be repaired when out of order ; they likewise draw more water, crack with the sun, and rot very soon. They have a singular method of applying oars to them, by fixing an arm on each side, with a pin through the end, to act as a fulcrum to the oar : so rigged, a single rower can send a canoe of this kind very rapidly forward. It is a singular fact respecting canoes, that a couple of paddlers in a small one, will outrun another manned with twenty. There are few finer scenes than a Ca- nadian Regatta : fifty canoes on the smooth broad lake, voyagers fancifully adorned, the song up in full chorus, blades of the paddles flashing in the sun as they rapidly lift and dip, while the watery foambells hurry into the hollow of the wakes. The orders of architecture baffle all descrip- tion : every one builds his cottage or house ac- cording to his fancy ; and it is not a difficult thing, in passing through the country, to tell what nation the natives of the houses hail from , if we are aware of any of the whims or conceits that charac- terize them. Thus a plain rectangular house of brick or stone, with five windows and a door in front, and a window, perhaps, in either gable; the barns, sheds, stables, and offices at a respect- CANADA. 309 able distance behind ; a kitchen-garden off at one end, full of turnips, melons, onions, cabbages, & c. and at the other an orchard, full of fruit-trees, with a range of beehives in a corner, is the- dwell- ing of an honest English farmer. — The wealthy Lowland Scotchman follows the same plan nearly : there is not such an air of neatness and uniformity, but there is more live stock about the doors : the pool, or river, is full of geese and ducks, while round the barn are numerous flocks of hens and turkeys ; a favourite cow, perhaps, hangs on for friendship about the gate ; a sow comes forth with her litter; and the cur-dogs seem not to be scarce. A house larger than either of these, chiefly built of wood, and painted white, with nine windows and a door in front, seven windows in either gable, and a semicircular one above all, almost at the top of the angle of the roof, the blinds painted green, the chimney stalks highly ornamented, and also the fanlight at the door ; the barns, stables, &c. off from the house at a great distance ; the arches of all the shed-doors turned of wood in eccentric elliptics; live stock not very plentiful about the place ; a disposition to be showy and clean, without neatness, proportion, or substan- tiality; a good-looking girl, I might say, about the head, but the shoes not shining with Warren’s 310 THREE YEARS IN best , with a tolerably well-made gown on, not very tawdry, the petticoats, which may sometimes be seen if we mind our eye, having no charms, and any thing but the colour of the snow,— it is almost needless for me to say, that this is the mansion of Jonathan, or the U. E. Loyalist from the United States. A house nearly as large as the American’s, but built of stone, and high roofed, having two tall chimney stalks growing out of either gable ; an attempt to be showy and substantial, without rhyme or reason ; an air of great miscalculation, and a woeful sacrifice made with the intention to gain something, which something does not seem to have been properly defined ; a disposition evi- dently for a house like no other person’s, beyond the reach of architecture, generally met with in a state of dilapidation and decay, the window-panes sadly mutilated, old straw-hats stuck in to keep out the wind, and so forth, — this (and there are many such places) was intended for the abode of a person who had made a few thousand pounds by the fur-trade — a wild pushing Highland-man, who had often seen the remotest regions of the north-west. The French Canadian has a little house with verandas all round, few windows, and few fan- cies; every thing done with an air of humble CANADA. 311 comfort ; a windmill, perhaps, turns round on the top of one chimney, and a cross is stuck up on an- other ; if a large pole stands before the door with a cock perched on the top of it, the owner is a captain in the Native Militia. — The Dutch copy the Canadians : have their houses small and com- fortable, but without much uniformity, and they seem to dislike little toys, such as windmills : if the house can be surrounded with an orchard, they will have it done ; and above the well is sure to be placed the long Dutch lever, a large spar, often nearly thirty feet long, balanced on a fulcrum of about twelve feet high ; a chain is fixed to the upper end, and a hook, by which the can or pail is let down into the well, and when full, the lever, to return to its equilibrium, assists the drawer of water to bring it up — a simple and useful in- vention. 312 THREE YEARS IN CANADIAN IMPROVEMENTS. The improvements already proposed are some- what carious in their way, and to those who may never have heard of them, may become both amus- ing and instructive. On St. Paul’s Island there is a light-house to be built, to assist in conducting mariners through the dreary Gulf of St. Lawrence. This light should be eighty feet above the level of the ocean : if any higher, it will be frequently ob- scured by fog ; if lower, the curvature of the wa- ters will prevent it from being seen at the entrance of the gulf. The lower a light can be kept, the better, so as, nevertheless, to be seen twenty miles distant, as the density of the fogs are less near the surface than they are above. This light should be either a revolver or a galloper; the latter is pre- ferable, as more distinct, and not to be mistaken for any other light, — a thing very necessary on the CANADA. 313 coasts of America, particularly on those of the United States, where every rock and headland has a light, so that their multiplicity tends more to be- wilder than guide. To obtain this required ob- ject, coals should not be used, but gas from resin- ous wood , which abounds on the shores of the Gulf. Nothing but a small portable retort and furnace is required. The expense of this light- house will be about 5000/. Captain Lambly, of Quebec, is certainly a worthy harbour-master, and ever looking round him for the benefit of the maritime public. An harbour in the Island of Anticosti is evidently required, as there is no port open for ships in distress, or ships detained by unfavourable winds, between Quebec and the Gulf, and a harbour could be made there which would answer every purpose. The expenses of forming it would be about 10,000/. A dock at Quebec, which would keep the trade from being transacted in the wild current of the river, is certainly a desideratum to wharfs sur- rounding a basin of still-water ; and it can be easily obtained at the mouth of the River St. Charles. The French saw this proposed improvement long ago, and made some attempt to put it into execu- tion. This dock requires only wharf- walls, a lock, and pair of gates, with their wing-walls ; the exca- VOL. I. P 314 THREE YEARS IN vation of the whole would be simple and easy. At present merchants about Quebec object to this dock ; but why should trade suffer by petty in- terests ? The expense of this grand improvement would be 32,000/. Water- works at Quebec are an object proposed by every body, and it is sometimes thought that this needful element will be brought to the city in pipes from a distance of five miles. It may be got more easily out of the river, by a sixty-horse power steam-engine. The best plan, probably, would be to make a reservoir somewhere about Louis Gate , and there is water always springing round the skirts of Cape Diamond which would keep it full. From this it might be carried in pipes all over the town, high and low ; and this supply might answer for the citi- zens both in time of war and peace. And should the water for some purposes prove hard, as it is sometimes termed, more ductile river fluid might be had, by placing a hydraulic forcing-engine in the current of the St. Lawrence. This engine would be endowed with tremendous power, by a proper appli- cation of the current. About 15,000/. would sup- ply water to Quebec. The half of this sum would light it up with gas, an object greatly desired. The gasometer might be placed on the side of the CANADA. 315 River St. Charles. Seal oil would produce good gas, and so would that of the porpoise and gram- pus ; also resinous wood, and gum of turpentine, found in the bush. Were companies to form and execute the water and gas-works, about 8/. per cent, would be their profit. Private companies should not be allowed to work in a garrisoned town like Quebec ; — these ought to be Government works. A chain-bridge at Quebec has been discussed very frequently, and the practicability of the same much doubted bv many individuals. Cer- tainly, a chain-bridge to stretch across the St. Lawrence from Cape Diamond to Point Levi, a distance of more than a mile, where the current is strong and water deep, seems no easy task ; yet it might be performed, if sufficient caution, patience, and money, were produced for its con- struction. The Chain-bridge would require five jloating-piers ; and these may be so constructed, and so anchored, that even the heaviest drift ice rushing before a flood, would not be able to sweep them away. If, then, a bridge be reallv desired across the river at Quebec, it is hoped that those who ought to speak in its favour, will sav nothing against it on the score that it cannot be performed ; for the work can be done, and in such a manner, p 2 316 THREE YEARS IN that the navigation will not be interrupted thereby in the least degree. The expenses attending such an undertaking, considering contingencies, might probably amount to 40,000/. ; nothing less, at least, could possibly answer. Between Quebec and Montreal, the River St. Lawrence spreads out, at a certain place called Lake St. Peter, and becomes rather shallow for vessels of 400 tons, drawing twelve feet of water. The channel through this lake is proposed to be deepened, and engineers of eminence have care- fully bored, sounded, and explored the same. The public await their plans and conclusions with much anxiety. Doubtless, they will employ the steam-dredging machine ; but if the current be strong, and bottom running sand, the steam-drag will be found to be useful ; and if danger be ap- prehended that the channel, after being deepen- ed, will fill up again, probably skids along the banks, for the sand to back against, might answer a good end ; as, the higher banks can be raised, the deeper will get the channel. Dredging-ma- chines and diving-bells are engines much required in Canada, and may probably appear at work in it before long, to deepen this channel. Report says 1 4,000/. will be necessary. The harbour of Montreal requires attention, CANADA. 317 and is really not receiving so much as it ought, for this will be a large city in a short time, and should be properly regulated. Why have the citizens filled up that beautiful dock or basin which Nature, out of her extreme kindness, has given them ? This is absolutely a shame. No man loves a dock more than a merchant, arid no man is blinder than he as to where a dock should be made. For the sake of all parties, let not this place be built up with houses. Keep the builders back ! Confound brick and mortar ! When the day comes, as come it will, when up to this basin by the creek come the steam-boats, and wharfs are all along its sides from the Current St. Mary’s, and when the merchant-ships meet them by the creek from the harbour, what a trade in the very heart of the city will there then be ! Montreal is the Liverpool of Canada ; to it, by the canal and river, will flow the wealth of all the Upper Pro- vinces ; it will become an emporium for the trea- sures of the interior. This city, like Quebec, should be lighted up" with gas. Canadian Signals. Along the whole extent of the boundary line between Canada and the huge American republic, telegraphs might be placed to the greatest ad- 318 THREE YEARS IN vantage on the summits of the lofty mountains, by which we might easily learn the movements of the enemy, or of the ships in the Gulf and River St. Lawrence : they ought to be placed from ocean to ocean, and would serve to define our unknown property more distinctly : it was the method our forefathers took when claiming their rights to disputed lands. At night the signals might be well conveyed by placing lights in cer- tain order, which lights might tell the transac- tions of the day, or the discoveries of the teles- cope. Perhaps there is no improvement that can be suggested better than this for the country. Confines to look at, are cheerful ; boundless wilds are discouraging and dreary. How delight- ful to us Britons to see the ocean rolling round us ! Were it a wilderness of trees and rocks instead, the effect would not be so great. Let us, therefore, have telegraph stations on Cape Breton ; on mountains along the banks of the St. Lawrence and shores of the Great Lakes; on the Rocky Moun- tains, and by the mouth of the Columbia, nigh the Pacific Ocean. To plant them would be a thing of the greatest ease. Let huts be built at them, and the Indians would be delighted to ma- nage them : they would do it for nothing almost in time of peace; and in war, of course, we CANADA. 319 find it our interest to watch them ourselves. Gourlay, I dare say, hinted at this, when he talked of erecting cast-iron posts along the boun- dary lines, with the Highway of George the Fourth stamped upon them. Having mentioned Mr. Gourlay, I may add, that whatever opinion the public may have formed of this unfortunate per- son, his hook on Canada is by far the best that has yet been written : it contains more local informa- tion than all the rest put together. As to his political creed, his furious enthusiasm, and “ grand scheme of emigration,” as he is pleased to term it, — these things are no favourites of mine. The author was basely and inhumanly treated abroad, nor does it seem that we used him much better at home. 320 THREE YEARS IN CANADIAN MINTAGE AND CASH CIRCULATION. The money in circulation is chiefly what is called dollar-bills , being provincial bank-notes, and Yankee half-dollars , which are about the size of half-crown pieces ; silver coins having eagles , stars , and emblems of liberty stamped upon them. British coins are very rare, and are eagerly in- quired after ; a sovereign is worth 24s. currency. Money matters are of a perplexing nature ; a Stock Exchange broker would be baffled, for some time, to manage them properly, the exchanges and pre- miums vary so much. The troops are paid in army sterling , with dollars valued at 4s. 4 d. — with merchants, 4s. 6d. 100/. sterling is 115/. 7 s. 8 Id. currency, and 100/. currency is 86/. Is. 4c/. ster- ling. On a bank bill of exchange for 100/. ster- ling, I have paid 125/. 12s. currency. There are numbers of shillings in circulation, CANADA. 321 out being the mintage of all nations, few can tell the exact value of them, unless weighed as old silver , which is never done, except one has a quan- tity of them. Who can be bothered with weighing single shillings, as we require them for casual pay- ments ? and more than that, we cannot do it every, where, were we willing ; for where is a sensitive pair of scales to be had in every shop, with the necessary drachms for balancing the matter ? and then to carry a weigh-beam about would be trou- blesome. While the French keep gabbling about quinze sous, and trente sous, which are perplexing to comprehend ; every sort of a copper-piece is an halfpenny. I have no less than 120 different kinds, the greater part of them old copper coins of Bri- tain, and merchants’ tokens all over the world. If a lot of farthings be taken into a smithery , and receive a blow from the sledge-hammer on the anvil, they will then be excellent Canadian cop- pers, or half-pennies. Some attention, by those who oaght to give it, if any such there be, should be bestowed on the money business of Canada. In the trade of sovereigns and British coin, consi- derable profits are, and might be made : I am sur- prised to find so few regular trading Jews in this business. Take over a bagfull of coins, and they may be disposed of to much advantage, and keep p 5 322 THREE YEARS IN the Yankee dollars out of the market ; for the very coins of a realm, like the songs , affect its charac- ter. The emblems on the current coins of Canada help to make Yankees of the Colonists. At the same time, it would be difficult to establish a Canadian mint ; the Americans must coin for us there, so much the more pity. Rich men are by no means plentiful ; indeed, a 20,000/. man is very rare. Ladies with fortunes are, therefore, not in Canada, so fortune-hunters may seek for game nearer home. There are banks in the chief towns: rags and rag-cooks , as our doughty Cobbett has them and their bills. The American system of banking is indeed curious : wherever a canal, road, bridge, &c. or other large work is going on, a bank is started beside it; not a branch bank of some large establishment, as in Britain, but a bank purely for the business of that work alone, whatever it may be — as the Erie Canal Bank. In these dens of knavery, contractors can so manage their labourers and artists with Jlash cre- dit, that payments in full can never be effected : and the contractors themselves are so led by the nose, by the agents of the work, and the bankers, that they are often cheated of large amounts ; but there are few complaints heard, not a mur- mur will come from the lips of Jonathan. It is CANADA. 323 a truth that their public works are constructed without any one knowing who paid for them, and therefore they are public works indeed, and may well be exempted from tolls and taxes. A regular set of rogues employed together is a scene worthy the contemplation of a mannerist. An American contractor on the Rideau Canal paid a visit to the States, and returned with a budget of Auburn bills, seemingly bank-notes : these he flashed about everywhere, and some of the unknowing were a little deluded. He also brought with him a sleigh and span of horses , not to be matched in the country for elegance. While eating our bread and onions at dinner one day, he drove up to the humble cottage, and requested me to take a drive with him. Away we went de- lightfully, for the sleighing was fine, and pulled up at the Columbian Hotel , en passant , where we jumped out to taste a little of something, but more evidently with the intent of showing off. While cutting an important swell through the halls of the hotel, before a number of people, he pulled out a bunch of Auburn bills, and, without my paying much attention, pushed them into my hands, saying, “ Take these, Mac, my boy ; I guess you’ll never want money while one of them here bills is in your pocket.”— “ No, no, my good fel- 324 THREE YEARS IN low,” I replied, returning them to him ; “ that big dam you are building must not have a blind gauger.” He took the hint, the story took wing, and I afterwards met it in various parts of the country. America is not a laughing nation; a hearty laugh is not to be heard, except amongst the Canadians; — the crafty , chatty laugh is fre- quent. The tears of laughter never bedewed the Yankee’s cheek; they are too full of plots for giving way to this, and “ the loud laugh that bespeaks the vacant mind,” as the poet says : however, the Auburn bills created some fun in the wilderness of Rideau. All the labourers on the Canal were paid in Yankee half-dollars ; -the commissariat furnished these to the contractors, brought up in boxes from Montreal. It was curious enough to see the contractors crawl- ing through the woods with their dollar-bags on their backs. Poor fellows ! the trouble Govern- ment found in making ready cash payments in- volved many of them in great distress. The vouchers required so many signatures that they were difficult to be obtained, as one officer was here, and another there, over the whole extent of the line ; but this difficulty is unknown where the work and the officers are at one place. Had the contractors been people who had had plenty of CANADA. 325 money of their own, then the Government might have taken its own time to pay them for work performed ; but being poor, the case was differ- ent, and much distress arose from this cause. Sometimes the whole of the necessary officers, clerks, &c. forming a moveable Somerset House , as it were, would go through the line, and make payments according to progress and measure- ments ; but this plan, again, was attended with much expense. In other large works, not con- ducted by Government, an agent is deputed to pay the money, so that distress arising from the procuring of signatures is avoided. This voucher- hunting business, as we called it, did much injury to the character of all persons connected with the public works, and to the Canal itself. We were blamed because ready payments , according to the system of accounts, could not be made, and for the works being neglected by the contractors hunting up and down in quest of names , that they might have the military chest opened by producing the required documents, and the money drawn out. Government requires so many checks, that her very securities become bewildering ; and accounts, which at first are simplicity itself, become filled with various perplexities : we managed, however, to keep them correct. 326 THREE YEARS IN THE UNION-BRIDGE. This is the largest bridge in the country : it is over the Ottawa river, 120 miles from Montreal. The following letter, sent to a friend shortly after I arrived at it, will describe the place. “ Falls of Chaudiere (Ottawa River), Oct. 18, 1826. “ Sin ce I left Clamp’s Coffee-house, I have been quite in my element, plunging amongst woods and waters, exploring and engineering. On my wan- dering thither, I found that the Governor and my commander, Colonel By, had laid me out plenty of work to superintend. What think ye of a bridge of stone over the Grand River, — a Union Bridge to connect Upper and Lower Canada ? A more imposing situation for such a piece of archi- tecture could no where be found. The arches are to curve between a chain of rocky islands, di- CANADA. 327 rectly over the magnificent and splendid Falls of Chaudiere ! Behold but the scene, look at the mass of waters coming smoking over the shelving pre- cipices, formed of the hardest horizontal strata of laminated limestone : — down they tumble, in some places more than one hundred feet, into the caul- drons or kettles beneath ; where, instead of their furiously driving, as you may imagine, down the channel, they in some instances vanish fairly, work their way through subterranean passages, and come up boiling white half a mile down the river. It has been told me by one of my countrymen here, that a cow one morning tumbled into the Little Kettle , or Chaudiere, and came up again at Fox Point, ten miles down the river ; and on my inquiring if she came up alive, he exclaimed, with all the water kelpie enthusiasm of his own old Scotland, ‘ That she did sae ; she came up rowting, and lived fat and fu’ for years after.’ “ But, to lay joking aside, this bridge, if we ma- nage to build and finish it off as we ought, will sur- pass almost any other in the world as a wonderful piece of superstructure. It is to have eight arches : five of 60 feet span, two of 70 feet, and one of 200 feet over the Big Kettle , where sounding-line hath not yet found a bottom at 300 feet deep. One of these bridges, of 60 feet span, we are just finishing, 328 THREE YEARS IN and putting up the centering for one of the 70 feet arches. Materials are just for the lifting, of the best quality. Nature never was so kind; plenty of timber, plenty of stone, good abutments — the truth is, we build no abutments, but spring with the arches directly from the rocks themselves. The road-way will be about 30 feet wide ; and as the spring floods of the Ottawa rise 24 feet, we are obliged to raise the arches high to keep out of harm’s way. “ Our master-mason is M‘Kay, from Montreal, he who built the locks of the Lachine Canal, from the plans of poor Burnett, the engineer. Mac is a good practical mason, and scorns to slim any work : this is to my liking, as I cannot suffer sliming and shuffling on any account. We are also busy forming a channel through the rapids, for the sake of the raftsmen. This is done by building two strong dams, and deepening what is called a dry snie. Can this word snie, for a channel, be French, or Indian ? I am inclined to think the latter. By the way, the Indians here amuse me ; often they come by the works, canoe on their heads, and there they will stand and wonder sometimes for a quarter of an hour together. Not so the Canadian voyagers ; they have no curiosity, but pass the portage without looking to the right or left. The CANADA. 329 Indians are full of reflection, and some of them vastly clever: one in particular, a young man be- longing to the Lake of the Two Mountains, who came thither as a guide to two officers of engi- neers from Lake Simcoe, drew out the whole line of the route travelled, and, when shown to the en- gineers he had conducted, they agreed with him at once, that the whole was executed most cor- rectly ; more so, I doubt, than many of our sci- entifics could do — for all I love the Canadians. Give me plenty of Canadian labourers and Irish- men, but let them work apart, and wonders may be wrought : as to Jonathan, I know not what to think. He comes here guessing , and after he has pried about for two or three days, goes away, and calculates that we have 4 pretty considerable of a work in hand but it won’t suit him ; he wants to fill his pockets, he cares not how ; but so long as a Scot is the Gauger, I’ll be hanged if he shall ! “ We have laid out two villages, and all the lots are taken up ; it surprises me to see the anx- iety people have to become citizens here. On a morning, I have sometimes about me such swarms, that I cry out with the goose in the fable, 4 that all the world and his wife are here.’ I love to oblige all but I find that, the more I oblige, the less thanks I have. There are no females here, 330 THREE YEARS IN except an old, smoked, Canadian’s wife — no other woman is to be seen ; and there are 150 young men. “ The grand entrance-bay for the canal lies be- tween the Falls of Chaudiere and the Falls of the Rideau. The land on both sides of this bay, which is not more than 400 feet wide, rises high — about 250 feet. On one side, Colonel By has pro- posed a battery to be built, or fort, and on the other his own house : in this valley the trees and brushwood are clearing out, and chateaus build- ing. At the beach, two large wharfs are construct- ing, on which to land Government stores. Not less than 500 yards from the shore the grand canal will have eight locks, as the land rises quickly, which, on coming up the river, will look beautiful, as these locks will take in steam-boats of large dimensions. The weather keeps fine, and I do not think we shall have any snow at all this winter : at all events, we mean to continue the works, be the weather foul or fair. We are set to it in earnest, and expect to drive the levels through as far as between Perth and Gananoque this fall. So much towards the Rideau Canal ; — and had we got over the Atlantic sooner, more of course would have been done. “ You jog on, as usual, I expect, in Montreal. CANADA. 331 What think you of putting a wharf round the harbour there, and opening a basin at that creek in the centre of the same for the shipping, while the Steam-boat Canal runs up to it from the Cross, and from thence to Porteus’ Basin, on the Lachine Canal ? It strikes me, some way or other, that Montreal is going to be a large town at some future, but no distant period, and that a few of you are spoiling it : — look to these Nuns, how they have filled up, during the last month, one of the chief streets with a rumble of a building, in- tended as a hospital, but that looks more like a jail. Excuse me, my good Sir, for so much non- sense ; I got upon my hobby, and the Devil would not unhorse me.” The following account was drawn up in a more careful manner : — “ Report on the Chaudiere Bridge. “ Having surveyed and examined the site for the proposed bridge of communication between Upper and Lower Canada, at che great Falls of Chaudiere, Grand River Ottawa, we now dare to report thereon as follows “ On each side of the main channel, or Big Kettle, there are several small channels, four of which must be passed on arches Two of these 332 THREE YEARS IN channels are on the north, and two on the south side of the main channel. The first arch on the north side will require to be 57 feet span, and 15 feet 6 inches rise, with abutments, as the rock is not sound. The second will require no abut- ments : the span is 25 feet, and height 10 ; this little arch will spring from the solid rock. The first channel, on the south side, viz. that over the new timber snie, will require to be 80 feet span, and 20 feet rise, with abutments 4 feet high on each side, so that rafts and raftsmen may freely pass through beneath. The second, 70 feet span, and 18 feet rise over the lost channel : no abutments for this one will be necessary ; the arch may spring from the solid rock ; and from the nature of the banks and the waterfalls at this place, this arch will have the most beautiful situation of the whole. These arches are all proposed to be formed of blocks of limestone, hammer-dressed and rough-picked to their respective radii ; to be all laid without mor- tar. For the arch of 57 feet span, we consider that blocks three feet depth of face by one foot thick, may answer. That of 25 feet span will re- quire them 2 feet and a quarter by 8 inches. And the 70 and 80 feet arches should have arch stones at least 3 feet 6 inches in the face, and 1 foot 3 inches thick. We would hope, howeyer, CANADA. 333 that if any stone of a stronger quality could be found than that about the Falls, and could be obtained without much trouble, such ought surely to be received for building the arches. 44 To get safely and economically across the main channel, or Big Kettle, becomes the only question of interest as regards this wonderful Union Bridge. The mind of the engineer flies first to wood for this purpose, and considers it might do very well ; but after measuring, sounding, boating, and pondering the subject maturely, he finds wood would not answer so well as at first supposed ; for the distance is full 200 feet across, which would require an immensely strong frame truss, as no support can be had from the bottom of the kettle, which is out of soundings, nor can a boat live very comfortably on the surface of the boiling cauldron ; moreover, were it even possible to get a wood bridge trussed over this romantic place, it would always be wet with the spray of the Falls, and consequently be subject to rapid dissolution. Were this ever done, however, we would propose that this wooden truss should form the centering for a stone bridge of 200 feet span. Plenty of fine granite blocks are to be had in the mountains of Hull, about four miles from the place, which would answer well : these blocks 334 THREE YEARS IN should be about 5 feet deep in the face, and not less than 18 inches thick. Were this work ever done, and done without mortar, it would evi- dently, from its situation, be the most beautiful in the world. We should also suggest, that if this grand arch be ever built of stone, it should be the segment of a circle, 40 feet the rise or height of arch, and 30 feet wide. “ As an arch, however, of this description can- not at the present time, and in the present state of the infant colonies, be carried into effect, we are obliged, therefore, to look around us for the best substitute we can find ; and this, we imagine, is a catenary chain-bar-bridge ; a detailed account of which may not be uninteresting, and we therefore give it. “ Iron chain-bridges are an invention of the ingenious Capt. Samuel Brown, R. N. also paten- tee of the chain-cable. The first chain-bridge ever constructed in Britain was that across the River Tweed, at Berwick. Iron chain-bar-bridges are an invention of the celebrated Mr. Telford, and he has used them with wonderful ingenuity in his grand bridge over the Straits of Bangor, 517 feet wide. Since then they have been used suc- cessfully in many smaller bridges ; as at that over the Thames at Hammersmith, where the river is CANADA. 335 400 feet wide. They consist in forming chains of wrought-iron bars, bolted together ; sometimes four bars go to form a chain, sometimes five ; the bars are bolted, and of a thickness thought pro- per for the weight they have to support. The chain we should think proper for the Union Bridge should be formed of the: common bar iron of the country, three-quarters of an inch thick, 4 inches broad, and 10 feet long ; the bolts should be 1^ inches diameter, with a head, linch-pin, and hole : four of these bars should form a chain, and there should be five chains, each 5 feet asunder, giving thus a bridge of 25 feet wide. Great pains should be taken in punching the holes in the iron bars to receive the bolts ; no welding is allowed, and if a cracked bar is observed, it should in- stantly be condemned. The smith-work should be particularly well done ; in this department no pains ought to be spared, and nothing should be hurried out of hand before it is properly finished. “ On the north side of the main channel is a singular island of rock, called Pier Isle, because it seems formed by nature for the pier of a chain- bridge. By referring to the section, this will very strikingly appear. Over this we propose the chains to come, and to continue 120 feet farther, where they will pass over a small pier of eight feet high, 336 THREE YEARS IN and then be fastened to the solid rock by cross- bars, bolts, &c. according to the common method. “ Were the chain-bridge to terminate abruptly at Pier Isle, two stone arches more of 60 feet span each would be necessary, which would be much more expensive than continuing the chains ; and if the chains were suddenly checked at Pier Isle, which they would have to be if stone bridges were to be built, then the chains would be in danger of snapping, as they would have to turn an angle too acute ; and an allowance ought al- ways be made for this, as also for the contractive and expansive nature of iron. “ With respect to this iron-bridge, which is by far the most economical we can propose, the road- way, instead of being suspended beneath the chains, as is the common method, is supported above them. This method, we own, is not so pro- per as the common way, as it throws the centre of gravity above the centre of suspension. The one way, however, is equally strong with the other, but not equally steady ; and this last has been erected by Mons. Brunei, the celebrated French engineer, with much success, over some of the wide rivers of France. The plan and specification will detail the whole minutely. CANADA. 337 c< The expenses of this Bridge may seem large, but they are not so great as they really should be. We hope such an interesting undertaking as the Union Bridge, which will confer great benefit on both Provinces, will meet with every attention and regard ; and that not only the Imperial but the Provincial Legislatures of the Canadas, will liberally assist in the erection of the superstructure.” To build a stone-bridge over one of the wildest rapids, and in the depth of a very severe winter, was amongst the most arduous of my undertak- ings in Canada. Had I known what a winter was absolutely like in the country, perhaps I might have shuddered to make the attempt; but this being my first, the business was set about without much dread. The idea was, it .would be ex- tremely cold ; and the general opinion, that the thing could not be done during that inclement season ; it would be difficult to construct it even in summer, bridge-builders being rare, and me- chanics very scarce in the colony; moreover, no mortar could be used, and nobody knew any thing about dry-stone bridges. To attempt the rearing of such a structure in England, in winter, with all our tools about us, in such a situation — VOL. I. Q 338 THREE YEARS IN but such a one is nowhere to be found — would be considered madness. However, we dared this in the wilderness, and succeeded. It somewhat vexed me to find the master-mason amongst those who reasoned 66 that it could not be built in such a place, in such a season of the year, and according to such a plan of arching with dry-stone and to do away with quibbles that might afterwards arise regarding opinions, he was made to sign his name to his views as given, he being the only person whose ideas were valued, and not only the best mason in the colony, but one of the most sensible and worthy of men. He vowed to stick by me through thick and thin, as he has done most faithfully; and so he set to work with his people, under my directions. The span was 60 feet, rise 18 feet, width 24 feet. Banks of shelving limestone were 20 feet high ; ex- cellent blocks to be obtained about 500 yards from the proposed bridge. I was actuated by various causes to set about this work. A temporary bridge had been thrown over the same place before, which had fallen. There were a number of masons also out of employ, and the finding work for them a month or two in winter, by keeping them together near the public-works, was likewise a consideration. I was also anxious to learn if Canada. 339 people could quarry and dress stone during the cold half of the Canadian year; moreover, to know if such an arch could be constructed of limestone-blocks, sledge-picked to the radius of the circle of which it formed a segment. The trial was rather daring ; and looking to the fate of the former, to the original plan of this, and the situation I held respecting it, it created in my mind some anxiety. There was a climate to contend with, and a plan to execute according to that climate, — to both of which I was a stranger, having never seen, far less built, a dry-stone bridge. I felt reputation at stake; but then a proof would be obtained, if the thing succeeded, whereby much work might be done in the same way, to the be- nefit of many countries. Accordingly very deter- mined resolutions and resignations had to be en- tered into on my part. A wandering mill-wright lad from Aberdeen succeeded admirably with the centering; and when put up, he was employed to form a scarf-screen , to keep the spray of the falls from the workmen. Morning, noon, and night he had to examine the centres, to be informed if the frost, which was intense, had any effect upon them. Every morn- ing, the first thing done was to sweep the snow away, which generally fell, more or less, during 340 THREE YEARS IN the night, and to cut clear the immense floats of ice which came down the Rapids, and were ar- rested by the frost round the abutments. Some- times they would come in such quantities as to choke up the Rapid altogether, while the water backing up would freeze over, forming the bridge and all into one huge mass of ice. But now a curious circumstance took place: the Rapid being as it were dammed up, the water found its way round the rocky island, and down a gut on the other side, while a considerable portion tumbled into a cauldron called the Little Kettle, and went out by its subterranean passage to the Ottawa. The master-mason also was very active amongst the quarriers and at the bridge ; he saw every block cut to its proper mould. These were gene- rally three feet long by two broad, and about sixteen inches thick ; they were dressed chiefly in the quarry, and afterwards drawn upon a trai- neau, or sledge, to the bridge, by both oxen and horses. When there, they were moved into their courses by the masons with crow-bars, - and set- tled down on the coomhead by a large mallet of hard wood. When the haunches of the arch were thus raised, for the blocks could be taken across on the ice to the island on the other side, the mill- wright erected a triangle ; and. C AN ADA. 341 by a block and tackle, they were hoisted on to a stage made of three-inch plank, which acted as an inclined plane, and brought up the arch-stones to the crown- The key-stones were afterwards put in by Lewis , that is, an iron bolt of a construction well known to artists, let into a hole at top ; a fulcrum was raised, and the lever over it, laid them quietly into their places, ever fearing lest the frost should spring the centres ; bundles of straw were laid on the coomhead , for the stones to fall on when putting into their courses, so that percussion might be obviated as much as possible. Thus we wrought on, day after day. The artists were well looked after ; their master found them in the best food and lodging the dismal place could afford, and grog was served round once, and sometimes twice a day, as we found the store to hold out. No man was frost- bitten but one ; and there were only two days in the whole winter they could not work for absolute cold : — those indeed were dreadful ; the snow drifted into huge wreaths ; my hands were bitten while in the act of shaving, in a room where there was no fire. That day the mercury froze in the thermometer in many parts of the country. Having built the bridge, we set off to Montreal, and on telling the people there what we had done, Q 3 342 THREE YEARS IN they would hardly believe us ; but as we had not struck the centres , that is, taken away the frame from under the arch, we were considered not to have done the job entirely. Accordingly, these were to be struck without delay. I re- monstrated something against this, as the frost had destroyed friction to a great degree, so that the arch-stones were packed along side one ano- ther, as if they were lumps of ice ; and also it had rendered them brittle, so that if the centres were knocked out, then the pressure of the arch might squeeze the stones out of their places, and probably break many of them ; thinking that it would be much safer to let the bridge remain as it was until the thaw came, when the frame should be removed, some day, between the thaw and the flood, — as if the flood came on, and the cen- tres unstruck, it would sweep all before it. How- ever, the public would have them out, and a cau- tious carpenter from Edinburgh was sent to do it. Before he left town, however, I gave him my best instructions, and a letter to the mill-wright how to act. Having got up the Ottawa to the place, after having the ice and snow cleared away, the wedges were slackened with great care, the arch sunk not an inch, away went the centres, and left it to its own equilibrium ; for the blocks were CANADA. 343 well dressed to the radius, as in doing this pro- perly the main secret lay. The great floods of the Ottawa, which in spring rolled foamingly down the Rapids, bringing hills of ice and snow before them, were yet to be dreaded : they came in due season, crammed the waterway of the bridge to the parapet ; but it defied their power — * there it stands, and likely will for a length of time. It has been a model for several others, now con- structed, with this difference, that mortar has been used in them. Strong examples will not do away with old habits ; but it seems certain, that mortar, or cement, is of no use in rough arch-building. Such is the detail of a concern that brought me both friends and enemies. There are situations in this life where a person will be blamed whether he act well or ill. I have always calculated on this, and have never been much disappointed, ever remaining regardless of receiving either praise or censure, acting to the best of my knowledge, and fortifying myself against abuse, misfortune, and flattery, whether the sun shines forth, or hides himself behind the clouds. The following letter appeared in the public newspapers, when this bridge was built, from the pen, I believe, of Dr. Christie, who was once Editor of the Herald : 344 THREE YEARS IN “ Falls of the Chaudiere, 21st of February, 1827. “ SIR, “As a transient passenger brought here yester- day by the grand provincial object of attraction, the reported Rideau Canal, I witnessed an event to me no less interesting than novel, namely, striking the wooden supporters from under the first arch in the chain of bridges to be passed across the Falls of the Chaudiere. The time and circumstances led me to delay my journey for one day : this, then, was employed in making inqui- ries ; and the answer to these confirmed in my mind the importance of the imposing operation to which I had been an eye-witness. I find this beautiful arch was suggested by Lieutenant- Colonel By, of the Royal Engineers ; planned by Mr. Mactaggart; and executed under the ap- propriate superintendence of Mr. M‘Kay, of Mont- real, architect. At the same time it ought not to be forgotten, that the important duty of strik- ing the centres was entrusted to Mr. Drummond, architect. To all equal praise is due in their respective situations, for each and all have done their duty. Such has been the result of my in- quiries on the spot. But there are other cir- cumstances connected with this business equally deserving of notice to a passer-by. The bridge is one of the most beautiful specimens of rough CANADA. 345 masonry in the continent of America ; it is built of stones hammer-dressed to the size of the arch : the work has been carried on in the depth of a Canadian winter, and during a season unusually severe, — an effort reflecting the highest credit on both the artificers and superintendents. During the evening, I was led to other reflections, to which the event I had witnessed naturally gave rise. This bridge on the Chaudiere is the only point where the two Provinces can be connected on their water boundary. This, therefore is a solid step to the union of the Provinces, a question long in agita- tion among our politicians. This bridge is one of communication with the Chaudiere Canal, a work which, when finished, will penetrate into the very centre of the Upper Province, and by this bridge will lead directly to the central point of the Lower. It will open up a fertile and rich coun- try, for which generations yet unborn will grate- fully thank the projectors, and applaud the me- mory of those w r ho shall execute this great work. “ Yours, &c. v> A chain-bridge over the Big Kettle , as proposed in the Report, was not sanctioned. A wooden one, of a peculiar construction, was to be made. Chains and cables, however, had to form the scaffolding ; in fact, a chain-bridge had to be thrown across, 346 THREE YEARS IN before the wooden one could be erected. While the carpenters were at work on this scaffold one even- ing, the chains, which had been got over the gulf, snapped, and precipitated twelve of them into the awful cauldron ; but as a number of boards fell with them, it fortunately happened, that while they laid hold of these, they were whirled round by the eddies to the little rope-bridge for pas- sengers fixed below, by which means they were all miraculously extricated from their fearful si- tuation, except one, who was probably entangled amongst the ropes and chains. It is singular, that one of these carpenters having put his handsaw be- neath his arm before he fell, brought it out with him in the same situation, perfectly unconscious that it was there. This accident was always brought forward in the argument against chain- bridges being suitable for Canada, the frost being severe ; but there was no frost at the time when these chains snapt, to have any contracting effect ; the truth was, they were stretched by tension more than they could bear. Chain-bridges will an- swer in Canada as well as in England : the ex- tremes of heat and cold are certainly much greater, but proper allowances can always be made to meet them ; while iron does not corrode by rust to the twentieth part of the extent ; the atmosphere CANADA. 347 seems to contain no salt vapours. The tin-tiled churches remain for many years untainted, beaming in the rays of the sun with unsullied brightness. My worthy friend Colonel By amused himself with the Big Kettle , after the former accidents. The cauldron kept so turbulent that no boats could live near it, so there seemed to be some difficulty in getting over the chains again ; but he ingeniously planted a loaded cannon on the ledge, took a small rope, and, according to Manby , fired it sheer over the rocky island. Thicker ropes being attached to this, the chains were dragged over with the crabs, good strong iron cables from the naval store at Kingston, and on them he succeeded in raising a beautiful wooden-frame bridge : the view from which no pen can pourtray. The whole bridging cost about 2500/. and afterwards became of great service to the Rideau Canal. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LONDON : PRINTED BY S. AND It. BENTLEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street.