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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Stre film6s d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 Al'l'KOACH rO CAVK ()!• THK WINDS. PICTURESQUE SPOTS OF THE NORTH; HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES OE THE SCENERY AND LIEE IN THE VICINITY OE GEORGIAN BAY, THE MUSKOKA LAKES, THE UPPER LAKES, IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN ONTARIO, AND IN THE NIAGARA DISIRICT, EDI'IKI) ];\ GEORGE MUNRO (;RANT, D. D. yUEIiX's IMVKKSITV, KlNCiSTdN, (INT. ILLUSTRATED BY WOOD ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY F. HOPKINSON SMITH, F. B. SCHELL, L. R. O'BRIEN, W. C. FITLER, AND OTHERS I CHICAGO ALEXANDER BELFORD & CO, 1899 LP ^lOlS-'QrliK? \. Copyright, 1899 Bv ALEXANDER BELFORD & CO. ^ V / CONTENTS ^1 GEORGIAN BAY AND THE MUSKOKA LAKES By G. MERCER ADAM THE UPPER LAKES CENTRAL ONTARIO EASTERN ONTARIO NIAGARA DISTRICT By GEO. A. MACKENZIE, B. A. By J. HOWARD HUNTER. M. A. By PRINCIPAL GRANT and MISS A. M. MACHAR MISS LOUISE MURRAY PACK 9 53 93 129 149 17322? LAKK COUCHlClllNG. GEORGIAN BAY, AND THE MUSKOKA LAKES. TPHE tendency of commerce to seek the water, and the natural incHnation of the settler to found a home in some favoured spot on the wooded shores of a lake, have been important factors in the gradual, though as yet sparse, settlement of the Georgian Bay. The names of the lakes ami the bays, the streams and the villages of this region speak of a like craving on the part of the redman for the eye-satisf)ing qualities and, to him, modest utilities of both still and running water. In Nottawa- saga, Couchiching, Muskoka, Penetanguishene, and many other Indian appellatives, as well as in the presence here and there of lingering remnants of the great Huron nation by which the region was once peopled, we have abundant evidence of the attractiveness of this section of Ontario for the simple children of the forest and the stream. Comparatively recent as has been the white settlement of the district, the area bounded oii the north by the River Severn, and on the south by the Nottawasaga River, was once populous with the lodges of the Huron tribe, and their villages and hunting-grounds, in a fateful era, were the theatre of events of thrilling interest in the annals of Canada. The story takes us back to the; period covered by tlu; first sixty years of the Seventeenth Century, when the French, English, and Dutch were severally endeavouring to make good their foothold on the continent. ILarly in the century the English led off in the colonization of Virginia ; the Dutch established their posts at Manhattan ro PICTURESQUE SPOTS and at Orange (Albany), on the Hudson ; while a little later the Pilgrim Fathers laid the foundations of Massachusetts. It was a period of unrest in the Old World, and its adventurous spirits caught the contagion of founding colonies in the New, and of carrying the flag of commerce or the standard of the Church into the western wilderness. Earlier by fifty years, Havre had seen Huguenot fugitives from religious despotism go forth to plant in Florida a Lutheran F'rance, alas ! only to meet extermination at the hand of Spanish intolerance and lust of blood. Contemporary with Champlain, and aided by his efforts, the Sieur de Monts, another Calvinist, essayed to found a home on the inhospitable banks of the Ste. Croix, or round the beautiful harbour of Annapolis. But this effort at Acadian settlement, though it had the assistance of Poutrincourt and the historian Lescarbot, met with failure, and the hopes of the colony were for the time buried in the ashes of Port Royal. Champlain himself, however, was to accomplish great things in the New World ; and for nearly thirty years his were the efforts, and his the zeal, that were instrumen- tal, in the stern devotion of the times, in winning souls for heaven and a colony for France. At the solicitation of the Hurons, who were anxious to secure Champlain's co-operation in an attack upon their inveterate enemies, the Iroquois, he had set out on an expedition to the Huron country, desiring at the same time to extend his explorations and, through the agency of the Franciscan Friars, two of whom accom- panied him, to carry more efficiently into the wilderness the story of the Cross. Hence, in 1 615, we find him undergoing a toilsome journey up the Ottawa, across Lake Nipissing, and down the French River, till he came upon the great expanse of the inner sea of Lake Huron — la Mer Douce, Champlain called it — thence, coasting south on its eastern shore till he reached the irregular indentation of Matchedash Bay. Here, in the peninsula formed by Nottawasaga and Matchedash Bays, and skirted on the south by Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching, was the home of the Wyandots. Though comparatively small, the Huron country, at the time we speak of, had a population variously estimated at from twenty to thirty thousand souls. Indian towns were scattered all over the district, to the chief of which, after disembarking near the site of the present village of Penetanguishene, Champlain was, with every demonstra- tion of delight, conducted. At the Huron metropolis of Cahiaque, not far from where Orillia now stands, Champlain met the chiefs of the Huron Nation, and rejoined Father Le Caron, who had preceded him, and who had already made progress in bringing many of his dusky brethren within the pale of the Church. Now was planned that ill-starred expedition from the peaceful shores of Lake Simcoe that was designed to humble the Iroquois, and redden the lakes and streams of Central New York with Seneca blood. But though the spirits of the Huron braves OF THE NORTH 1 1 rose with the war-dance; and the feast, and though Champlain was himself to lead them, the result of the foray was discomfiture. The expedition was absent from the 8th of September to the close of the year (1615), toiling its weary way by Balsam Lake, the Trent River, and the Hay of Quinte, thence across Lake Ontario to the lair of the Iroepiois. Here it came upon the fortified encampment of one of the tribes of the Confederacy, against which it failed to make any impression ; and the expedition returned in sullen mood, leaving a heavy reckoning behind it, to be settled some future day with Iroquois interest. Cham|)lain, who had been wounded in the conflict, returned with his Indian allies and his small French contingent to the home of the Hurons. After visiting some of the towns of the Tobacco Nation Indians, and e.xchanging with his hosts "pledges of perpetual amity," he set out early in the spring over the circuitous way by which he had come, to resume his duties and prosecute his arduous mission, in the half monas- tic, half military, environment of the high-perched capital. For nineteen years farther, with occassional intermissions, Champlain was yet to guide the destinies of the country, and to battle with all the powers of evil in his consecrated dual work of champion of the Faith and Governor of New France. It was well that the grave closed upon him ere his great heart knew of the doom tl , r was to fall upon the nation among whom he had sojourned, of 'C^& martyrdom in store for the lion-hearted priests of the Church, and of the dire consequences of his raid in concert with the enemies of the Iroquois. The banded nations of that confed- eracy were invariably the "upper dog" in the brute fight with the Wyandot or the Algonquin. With or without pretext, they were always to be found hrking in the vicinity of the Huron lodges, and woe to anything human that became t'.eir prey 1 We have seen established the Huron outpost of the Church, and the self-sacrificing zeal of Le Caron, who, with Champlain, had founded it. The mission, during the years 1626-9, had had the benefit of the devoted labours of him who became known as "the apostle of the Hurons" — the great-souled and giant-statured Jean de Brebeuf. At the time of the first conquest of Quebec, Brebeuf was recalled, though five years afterwards he returned to his charge, accompanied by P^res Daniel and Davost — all of whom, ere long, were to win the martyr's crown. Subsequently, the mission was strengthened by the arrival of Jogues, Lalemant, Gamier, and other Fathers. It may safely be said that the records, secular or ecclesiastical, of no country furnish more soul-stirring accounts, than do the Relations des Jesuits, of self-sacrificing devotion to faith and duty. The constancy of the apostleship of the followers alike of St. Francis of Assisi and of Ignatius Loyola, not alone in the hour of mortal peril, but through weary years of toil, discomfort, and discouragement, may well extort our reverential homage. The story is full of terrible episodes, intermingled v.'ith a narra- tive, in its humble trust ^nd sinplicity, almost divine. 12 PICTURESQ I r. si>( ) / ;v It was ill 1 6^4 that Brc'lMuif rctiiriicd to tin; scene of l)is aijostleship, accompanied by I'atliers 1 )aniel ami I )avost, who made their way ovt:r ihi' niiir hiiiulrcd niikrs, with tliirty-five portajfiis, that separated the h)iieiy mission from ihi' succour ami sympathy of tlu! brethren at Ouebec. laieniie Hrule, Champlain's adventurous interpreter, havinff been murdered by the Indians in Hn'ixnif's absence, and llie old mission nl I oanchd havinj; in conse(|iienc(,' been desc d, the bathers now sought the new iluron town of Ihonatiria, just back of the north-, vest basin of I'enetanj^uishene I5a\, ami there estab- lished the mission of .St. Joseph. Here the pri(,'sts laboured incessantly, but with indifferent success, until they could ac(|uire the lluron tongue. I'',vin when that had been .iccomplished, the prospects of the mission were still iloublful, for the white men, i_;arl)ed in blacU, who had com<: anioni.;- them, and who at lirsl hail been received with minified awe and curiosity, were now accused of sorcery and of incantations that showed their black work, it was said, in the pestilence that had broken out among the I lurons. In th('ir distress and disappointment, if the b'athers could not work miracles, they could at least pray, labouriously maintain the offices of tht; Church, ami by the example of their saintly lives manifest the spirit of their relij.(ion and the ardour of their faith. .So the weary years went on, amid outbreaks of pestilence and famine, alternating with forays into the Iroipiois country, the torturing of captives, and even the cannibalism which they sometimes compelled the dismayed priests to witness. With much that is traditionally noble about them, the aborigines of America were a tilthy, brutalized, antl malignant race. Yet th(; following war-song, quoted by Garni'au, in his chapter on " The Aboriginal Nations of Canaila," is enough to give them a rank above that of the mere savage: — "O places which the sun Hoods with his light, and the moon illumi- nates with her paly torch ; places where verdure waves in the breeze, where runs the limpid stream and the torrent leaps; take witness, () earth, and ye heavens, that we are ready everyone to encounter our foes. * * * The war-clubs we snatch from enemies shall testify to our surpassing valour. The scalps we tear from their prostrate heads will ornament our huts. Our door-lintels we shall redden with the blootl of our prisoners. Timid in captivity, as feeble in combat, we shall cause them to perish by slow torturings ; and when life has tied their mutilated frames, we shall burn them up and scatter their ashes to the four winds of heaven." The invocation might be breathed by the inspired in heaven ; the rest could only come from the mouth of devils. The Jesuit Fathers, surrounded by peril on all sides, now determined, as far as possible, to concentrate their force in one central station, " to serve as a fort, maga- zine, hospital, and convent," and be a safe base of operations for other .sections of the peninsula. The site of th.. nev/ station (Sainte Marie) was on the border of what is now known as Mud Lake, an expansion of the little River Wye, and about a mile from or riiH NORTir n SKETCHES AT MEAFORD. where it enters Gloucester Ray, an inlet of Matchedash. Here, for ten years, the Church had its stronghold, some trace of which, after the lapse of two hundred and fifty years, is yet visible. It had, moreover, been strenj^^thened by soldiers, occasionally despatched from Quebec, as an escort to the Fathers, and for a defence of the mission 14 PICT UR ESQ UH SPO TS •i OF THE NORTH »5 * when in jeopardy. Of the interior life of the mission, and the pious men who con- ducted it, Parkman has given us a graphic sketch : — " It was a scene that might recall a remote, half feudal, half partriarchal age, when, under the smoky rafters of his antique hall, some warlike thane sat, with kins- men and dependants ranged down the long board, each in his degree. Here, doubtless, Ragueneau, the Father Superior, held the place of honour; and, for chieftains scarred with Danish battle-axes, was seen a band of thoughtful men, clad in a threadbare garb of black, their brows swarthy from exposure, yet marked with the lines of intellect and a fixed enthusiasm of purpose, Here was Bressani, scarred with firebrand and knife ; Chabonel, once a professor of rhetoric in France, now a missionary, bound by a self-imposed vow to a life from which his nature recoiled ; the fanatical Chaumonot, whose characte- savoured of his peasant birth, — for the grossest fungus of superstition that ever grew under the shadow of Rome was not too much for his omnivorous credulity, and miracles and mysteries were his daily food ; \ ct, such as his faith was, he was ready to die for it. Garnier, beardless like a woman, was of a far finer nature. His religion was of the affections and the sentiments; and his imagination, warmed with the ardour of his faith, shaped the ideal forms of his worship into visible realities. Brebeuf sat conspicuous among his brethren, portly and tall, his short moustache and beard grizzled with time, — for he was fifty-six years old. If he seemed impassive, it was because one overmastering principle had merged and absorbed all the impulses of his nature and all the faculties of his mind. The enthusiasm which with many is fitful and spasmodic was with him the current of his life, — solemn and deep as the tide of destiny. The Divine Trinity, the Virgin, the Saints, Heaven and Hell, Angels and Fiends, — to him, these alone were real, and all things else were nought. Gabriel Lalemant, nephew of Jerome Lalemant, Superior of Quebec, was Brebeuf's colleague at the mission of St. Tgnace. His slender frame and delicate features gave him an appearance of youth, though he had reached middle life ; and, as in the case of Garnier, the fervour of his mind sustained him tiirough exertions of which he seemed physically incapable. Of the rest of that company, little has come down to us but the bare record of tiieir missionary toils ; and we may ask in vain what youthful enthus- iasm, what broken hope or faded dream, turned the current of their lives, and sent them from the heart of civilization to tiiis savage outpost of the world." But we approach the period when desolation was to sweep over these Wilderness Missions. On the 4th of July, 164S, tlie storm burst on the frontier town of St. Joseph (Teanaustaye), five leagues distant from Sainte Marie, and not far from the present site of Barrie. Mass had just been celebrated in the mission chapel by Pere Daniel, and his devout flock still knelt at their devotions. Suddenly the cry of " The Iroquois ! " was shouted by the loungers on the palisades that surrounded the village, and froze on the lips of the womjn as they leapt from their knees in the sancfiary. t6 Pit TURESQUE SPO TS Most of the Huron warriors were absent at the chase, or off on a trading expedition to the French settlements. The woUish dogs that hiy asleep round the lodges crept in fear to a hiding-place. Succour there was none. The palisade was quickly forced. "Brothers," cried Father Daniel, " to-''':y we shall be in heaven!" Immersing his handkerchief in a l)()wl of water, he shook it over his panic-stricken congregation, and baptized them in the; name of the; Triune. His own hour had come ! Wrapping his vestments about him, he strode to tiie door of th'j church, where a shower of arrows perforated his robes and a musket ball tore the way to his heart. Gashed and hacked by Irocjuois tomahawks, his body was tlung into the church, and the latter set tire to. The village itself was soon a heap of ashes ; and of its two thousand inhabitants all were slain save one or two fugitives. Of the three other principal Missions, Sainte Marie, the most inland from the southern borders of the Huron territory, was the only one to escape. On the 15th of March, 1694, a thousand Iroquois crossed the frontier, and before daylight on the following morning had stealthily crept within the enclosures of St. Ignace. Its wretched inhabitants, some four hundred in number — chiefly women, old men, and children — ^were asleep and unsuspecting of danger. The onslaught was as swift as it was remorseless. A few minutes fell play with the hatchet sufficed to take the place captive. Three only escaped, but fortunately they were able to give the alarm at the ne.xt mission-post of St. Louis. Here were the Jesuit Fathers, Brebeuf and Lalemant. Before sunrise here, too, were the Iroquois. Apprised of their coming, many of the inhabitants made good their escape to Sain*^e Marie, though some eighty warriors stood by the dc;fences and thrice beat back their assailants. The Hurons, brought to bay, fought with desperation ; but their invaders were ten times their number. Crushing down the palisades, they poured into the village, captured the ministering Fathers and the surviving defenders, and gave the place to the tlames. Brebeuf and Lalemant, stripped and bound, they carried off, with the unwounded of the Hurons, to .St. Ignace, where, as I'arkman tells us, "all turned out U} wreak their fury on the two priests, beating them savageh' with sticks and clubs as they drove them into the town." For the two priests the end now drew near. Brel)euf, bound to a stake, was scorched from head to foot ; his lower lip was cut away, and a heated iron thrust down his throat. .\ collar of red-hot hatchets was next luing round his neck ; and, in travesty of the rite of baptism, kettlesful of l)oiling water were poured over his head. Not flinch- ing under this torture, the Irotpiois, enraged, cut strips of (lesh from his limbs, scalped him, tore out his heart, devoured it, and drank his l)l()()d. Lalemant, physically unable to manifest the same fortitud(;, had strips of l)ark, smeareil with pitch, bound to his naked body and set tire o. Half roasted, he was tlung into confinement, tortured a whole night, and finally kdled with tlu; hatchet of an Iroipiois who had grown weary of his protracted pastime. To the martyr missionaries, in such plight, was heaven opened. OF THE NORTH 17 The other prisoners met a speedier death. Brained with the hatchet, or bound to stakes bes.de the locl^^es, they peVished in the Hames that wrapt the viUage. Some few escaped, but so mutilated or scarred by the fagot that tiiey were unable to reach succour and d,ed in the wintry woods. The inmates of Sainte Marie were kept in agonies oi suspense. Praying and keeping guard, they hoped that Iroquois thirst for blood would be slaked, and that they might not !„• included in the common ruin. Refugees from the other vdlages were meanwhile massing round the fort. and. taking coura^.- the^• now became the attacking party. Two hundred Iroquois warriors presently Tdvanced on Sanue Marie, and these the Hurons fell upon. The Iroquois were r'outed. and fled for shelter to St. Louis. Thither the Hurons pursued th.m. and they then made for St. Ignace. Here, stung by their losses, they threw themselves like f.ends >-lx>n their assailants. The latter fought with fierce courage, and ere long the blood of a hundred Iroquois braves stained the snow. Victory fell, however, to the invaders though at such cost as to incite them to withdraw from the territory. Hefore leavin-' , "they planted stakes in the bark houses of St. Ignace. and boun.l to then. tho:e of the.r prisoners whom they meant to sacrifice, male and female, from old a-e to ■nfancy, husbands. n.others. and children, side by side. Then, as the^• retreated;\hey set the town on hre, and laughed with savage glee at the shrieks 'of anguish that rose from tJie blazing dwellings." There is but one more chapter to recount in this Iliad of woe. What wonder after the harrow had past over the homes and shrines of the tribe, that the feJ remam.ng lost heart and looked for refuge anywhere but in the places that once knew the-"! Like the dispersed of Israel, they sat by the waters and wept. Nor could the bereft pr.ests give them aught of cheer, for the iron, too. had entered into the soul of each remaining missioner. All. however, were of one n.ind. that in flight Lu- the con, mon safety. The first thought was to remove to the Grand Manitoulin ' but with touchmg pathos, the Hurons begged that they should seek an island nearer the -'-raves o then- kindred. The resort finally was to Isle St. Joseph, or, as it is now known, to Chnst.an Island, off tlu. north-west point of the Matchedash Peninsula. Sainte M.rie was d.smantled and abandoned ; and on rafts all set out for their island refuse H.ther, from cape and islet, drew the fugitives; and for their support the new mission was ta.xed to its utmost. Despair sat upon each face, despondency was in every heart • but provs.on had to be made for the coming winter, and some little clearing- was attempted and corn planted. The few. only, had strength to labour, and the h^lrvest ^^as scanty; yet s,x or eight thousand had to be fed, and by spring the dole of the m.ss.on was reduced to roots and acorns. With famine, in stalked the pestilence, and IK- httle corn-clearing became a charnel pit. But death was not the only enemy to l^eep at bay; for round the ill-fated island hovered the Iroquoi.s. During 'the winter there ha.I been raids upon the asylums of the neighbouring Tobacco Nation Indians i8 PICTURESQ UH SPO TS and there Fathers Garnier and Chabonel had met their doom. Of the cooped-iip colony thousands had died, and all had given up hope. Those that had any life left must yet seek a more distant refuge. The treacherous ice -vas still in the channel, and bands essayed to cross to the mainland. Escaping one peril they fell into another. Those that reached the shore fell a prey to the Iroquois. Only one was known to escape. In this deadly war of extermination how fared it with the missionaries? For a generation they had been the witnesses of an internecine strife almost without a paral- lel. They knew that the Huron brave was not without courage, but they saw that in every contest he was overmatched by the panther-stealth and brute force of the Iroquois. Each year saw the Hurons decimated and the tribe remorselessly being wiped out. The hope they hatl once cherished of establishing a permanent mission in the country had long since been dashed to the ground. Fishers of the souls of men they, too, had become the hunted of beasts. Another week i)assed over, and more of the Hurons essayed to make the main- land, but met the same dire fate. To stay on the island was to die of famine; to go was to meet a worse death. A few stole off to become merged in neighbouring tribes; some sought refuge among the Neutrals and Eries ; ami \.\w. more shrewd threw in their lot with the far-off Andastes. There was yet a residue, and whith(!r should they go? Over-reached cunning was soon ti^ throw light on the question and make escape possible. It occurred in this wise : — A Huron chief, with a few of the tribe, one day fell into an ambuscade on the mainland. As tiiey prepared to defend themselves, the Irocjuois called out that they were among friends, and that their nation wished to conciliate the remaining Hurons on the island, and ha\e them go back with the Iroquois to their country. The Huron chief, concealing his distrust, received the proffered wampum, and accepted their com- mission to open negotiations for peace with his kinsm(Mi. Accompanied by one or two of the Iroquois, he returned to Isle St. Joseph and ostentatiously spread news of the armistice. A council of chiefs was instantly called, and the Iroquois overtures were gravely discussed. The leading men of the Hurons were secretly apprised that the Iroquois meant only to entrap them. Concealing their knowledge of this from the envoys, they gave assent to the proposal that both tribes should bury the iuitchet and smoke the pipe of peace. Before setting out for the Irocjuois country they feigned the desire to confer with more of the Iroquois Chiefs, and asked that a large delega- tion of them siiould cross to St. Joseph. Not dreaming that the Hurons had suspicion of their designs, they fell in with the proposal, and a considerable number joined the council. At a given signal the whole were slaughtered, and the Iroquois on the main- land, quickly divining the situation, rose in a panic and fled. Now was the opportunity for the mission ! All instantly got ready, manned the canoes, bade farewell to the OF THE NORTH 19 cooped-up y life left annel, and ) another, as known > ? For a It a paral- i\v that in J of the sly being- mission in s of men the main- le ; to _t,ro ng tribes ; threw in oiild they •ce escape on the lat they Hiirons e Huron eir com- e or two s of the res were tliat the rom tlie het and ^ned the ielega- uspicioii ncd the ic inain- ortunity to the I I I % I IN THK INSH^K CHANNKI,, OEORdlAN HAY. island, and jiaddled off to the north. Keepintj to^^ether for safety, for days they threaded the islands of the Georj^ian Ba)', and finally reached the I'Vench River. From here they crossed Lake Nipissing, and in time arrived at the Ottawa. Descending this great water-way to comparative civilization, they reached the junction of the Grand River and the St. Lawrence, and rested for a while at Yille ^Lirie. As tharty they returned to the settlements. /Vt Montreal the Iroquois wolves were still on the trail for blood, and the ao PICTURESQUE SPO 7'S Hiirons would not hv. assured of safety un- til tliey could see Quebec. Thither they all set out, and on the twenty-eighth of July, 1630, attained rest and succour at the capital. With the decima- tion of the Hurons and the abandonment of their country, the heroic story of the French Missions in this ])art of the wil- ilerness summarily closes. It is a story sublime in its reccjrd of suffering, peril, ami death. After the lapse of over two centuries, almost all memory of the terri- ble events we have described has passed from even the Cana- dian mind. Nature herself seems to have forgotten the tragedy, for, as the historian we have freely quoted remarks, " the forest has long since re- sumed its sway over the spot." Only to the student of his- tory, the antiquary, or the annalist, has OF THE NORTH 31 the drear story any interest. Even the settler in the (hstrict is far from familiar with the by-gone tale. Modern pioneering in the region where the events occurred troubles its head as little over the drama as it concerns itself with the ravages of Attila or the invasion of the Goths. The story is one of the long past ; and, having recalled it, we may recur to the present. Now we come within the range of living history, and if we again meet the wayward child of the woods, of wiiom our narrative has been so full, and who, fierce INDIAN WOMEN CARKVING BEKIUKS TO MARKET. in tattoo and war-paint, was the one disturbing figure in th(; heroic age of Canada, we shall not find him (juite the barbarian he was, nor retaining in himself or his race the war-like instincts which heredity might be expected to perpetuate. Colonization in the modern era has at least been spared the work of fighting devil.s. The settler has hatl to subdue Nature, not the savage, if wild beasts have at times venturctd about his clearing, their skins have been worth something; and if he was not himself a sports- man, he could relegate the task of keeping vermin at bay to the spring-gun and the trap. His chief toil was not tiie extermination of animal life, but the clearing a hcjme for himself in the forest, the hewing down of great trees, the eradication of stumps, the burning of brush, and tiie turning up, draining, and seeding of the soil. In this was his labour, and in due time he had his reward. Where was once a realm of forest- wealth and tangled growths of interlacing boughs, with here and there a faintly traced pathway or blazed trail, which only the Indian or the experienced woodsman could find his way through, there arc; clearings now open to the sunlight, fertile farms and busy industries, and a net-work of railroads, highwavs, and other means of communication, 13 ricri 'RF.SOl. 7: SPO TS which tap tht- lakes at all points, ami brin^>^ hapi)ily together the outer antl inner world of life, work, and enjoyment. A glance at the map will show what recent years have done for this ilistrict, in i)rin(^ii\t,r it within the embrace of the railway system of the continent ; arul on all sitlcs there is talk of railway extension, of farther invasion into the old realm of the forest, that will open u]) lar<,re ailditional tracts of country and vastly increase the area of this s^rri.'at " Land of Homes." It is not qnile thirt\- years since the first railroad was hiiilt to connect Lake Ontario with Lake Huron ; and now, in addition to the " Northern," which was the earliest railway entt^rjirise in the Province, we have to the east of it the " Midland," extendinir from Port Hope, x'/'a Lindsay, Beaverton, and Orillia, to Gloucester Bay, in the Matchedash Peninsula, and, as it happtMis, |)assin_(,r the very site of the old Jesuit Mission of Sain^e Marie. On the west, the "Toronto, (irey X < < K H X U K C X Z D O t/3 >■ < a. IS sec- H PICTURESQUE SPOTS lion of Ontario, it would be unfair to overlook the laborious jfovernincntal and municipal enterprises, in connection with the construction of the great roadways which preceded the railway age, and gave access to the settlements which, since the Simcoe period, have one after another sprung up in this part of the Province. In point of time, the first of those was the work of the Queen's Rangers, alluded to in our Toronto article, the construction of the highway called after Sir George Yonge, English Secretary of War in 1791, the period of Governor Simcoe's administration. This road, which was partly in the line of the old Indian trail between Lakes On- tario and Huron, extends from Toronto Harbour to tin Holland Landing, where conv munication northward is had by the Holland River to Lake Simcoe, thence, again by road, constructed at a somewhat later date, on to the military station and dock-yard of Penetanguishene. This road, which surmounts a high ridge of drift, lying roughly parallel to Lake Ontario, and some miles back from its shores, was first settled along the Oak Ridges by French Royalist refugees, who had repaired thither after the French Revolution, and had received grants of land from the British government of the day. To the north of this, and outside of the region long known as the Home District, settlement was next made, in the neighbourhood of Fort Gwillimbury, on the Holland River, and round the shores of Kempenfeldt Bay, by military and naval officers, who were pensioned off at the close of the War of 1812-15. This band of settlers, with the Scotch colony in the south-western portion of West Gwillimbury, formed by a returned draft from Lord .Selkirk's Red River settle- ment, by process of evolution and immigration to the region, at a later tlay became the nuclei of the population of what, after the founding of the Municipal system, at the period of the Union of the Upper and Lower Provinces, was known as the county of Simcoe. These good people, with their contemporaries who formed the line of settle- ment along the extent of Yonge Street, took an active part at the Rebellion period in the "irrepressible conflict" of the time — on the one side, in upholding the historical Family Compact and its doings, or, on the other, in siding with the champions of popu- lar rights, even to the extent of sounding the trumpet note of sedition. But neither into the political contests, nor into the municipal history of these northern counties, can we afford to go, save as the story bears on the opening uj) and settlement of the region. Even the record of social and industrial progress we can only incidentally glance at, and express the surprise that our historians are doing so little in collecting the gossip and ana of the various localities of the Province, whose early settlers have a story of heroism to tell which well deserves to be enshrined in the country's annals. Besides the first and chief artery of communication from the Provincial capital to the waters of Simcoe, thence through the townships of Vespra and Flos to Pene- tanguishene, two other post-roads were early opened from Kempenfeldt B;, , in the OF THE NOR 77 r 35 direction of Colliiiyvvood. These were the Sunnidale Road, throuj^h the township of that name, and a road, due west, on tlu! Concession line; that skirts the southern boundaries of tiie townships of Vespra, Sunnidale, and Nottawasa^a, to tiie point where it intersects what is termed llurontario Street, which runs due north from Oran^eville to CoUinjjwond, From the latter, communication is had westwanl hy the Sydenham and Saujreen Koad, 7y the steamboats on the lakes. The district, however, is, in minia- ture, like the west of Scotland, minus the mountains and the heather, a lanil of lochs and isles, hills and dales, and, " bar- 30 PICTURESQUE S^OTS ring " the black fly and the mosquito, a veritable paradise for the devotees of the rod and gun. But we are as yet some hours from Paradise, though the sheen of the waters at our feet beguiles us into the belief that we are within its portals. The view from the junction at Allandale, of Barrie opposite, the long sweep of Kempenfeldt Bay, and the wooded shores of either side, softly receding from the vision, is one of the most per- fect bits of Nature the Province can boast. The outlook over the Dundas Valley, and that from the heights of Queenston, may be bracketed with it, in their appeals to the artist eye and the poetic instinct. Barrie has already been introduced in our pages in connection with the early military highway from Toronto to Penetanguishene. Its town records begin to date from i8iy, when it became a depot for military stores for posts on the Upper Lakes, and for settlers' supplies in the neighbouring town- ships. In its annals is recorded the visit of the ill-fated Sir John I'Vanklin, who, in i S'. EAMBOAT LANDING, OKM-LIA. 1825, made a halt at the town on his way, by this overland route, to the regions of the Far North. Later, by a couple of years, John Gait accepted its as yet rough hospitalities on his land-exploring expedition, in the interest of the Canada Company, to Penetanguishene, which he refers to as " the remotest and most inland dock-yard that owns allegiance to ' the meteor tlag of England.' " The town takes its name from Commodore Barrie, who commanded a British naval stjuadron at Kingston OF THE NORTH 31 during the War of 1812-15. At this period, and for some time after, the military post at Barrie was protected by an armed schooner on the Lake, icept in commission, it is said, by a family of U. R. Loyalists, until the piping times of peace supplanted the war-ship by the non-belligerent craft of commerce. The marine history connected with Lake Simcoe and the county town is really more interesting than that of Harrie itself ; but we must pass it by, with much else of local concern. The present-day aspect of the town is singularly attractive. It is a delightful mixture of the rus in urbe, and its residences on the finely-wooded ridge, that forms the background to the town, have an Old World air of comfort and beauty. It has the advantages of a good market, a handsome town-hall, a court-house, many fine churches, a collegiate institute, with an able teaching staff, and an excellent model school. Its citizens have also been public-spirited enough to lay out and maintain a pleasure park ; and private enterprise has supplied the conventional political organs, warranted to play the whole repertoire of party tunes. At Lake Simcoe, or, if desired, at Holland Landing, Bradford, or Belle Ewart, the tourist can launch himself on the waters of that long chain of lake and river com- munication that stretches, by devious ways, for a hundred miles or so northward. With a canoe or light-draught sail boat, he can start from the Holland River, cross Cooks' Bay and Lake Simcoe, and make for the Narrows, at the entrance of Lake Couchiching, in one day's paddling or sailing. Resting for the night at Orillia, or, if he prefers it, on some island or point of land in the neighbourhood, another day's journey will take him over the beautiful waters of Couchiching, and down the wind- ings of the Severn River, say as far as Sparrow Lake. From this central point he can continue his explorations, in one direction, throughout the length of the Severn to its mouth on Matchedash Bay, and so on, in and about the inlets of this estuary, or by direct flight northward tiirough the maze of islands that gem the inshore waters of the Georgian Bay, to the archipelago of Parry Sound. In another direction, he can quit his camping-ground on the shores of .Sparrow Lake, and, leaving the Severn River, strike northward through Morrison, Rice, Long, Deer, and Pine Lakes, into the southern waters of Muskoka ; or, branching off at Leg Lake, by sundry portages, via Echo, Gull, and Clear Lakes, emerge in the vicinity of the beautiful Palls of Bala. Continuing this latter trip, he may descend the Muskosh River, a continuation of the Muskoka, on the western side of the Lake, and, by way of Go Home Lake, strike the Georgian Bay, in the township of Gibson. P"rom Sparrow Lake another expe- dition might be determined upon eastward, by the River and Lake Kah-she-she-bog-a- mog, on by Housey's Rapids, Bass Lake, and Garter Snake River, to the heart of the township of Ryde, returning from Kah-she-she-bog-a-mog, by the northern branch of the river, past the Falls at Malta, and so on to the point from which he set out. In any and all of the expeditions he will have to be his own caterer. If attached to PrCTURESQUE SPOTS OF THE NORTH 33 a party, he may find one of the number willing to experiment in the culinary art, pro bono publico ; if alone, and with no stomach for the food he cooks, he hail better re- sort to some of the Indian villages on his way up the lakes, and hire a chef dc cusinc, who will also be useful as a guide and an aid in portaging. To those making for the larger waters of the region, and with no craving for the novelties of camping-out, or relishment for un al fresco meal on a bare rock or burnt stump in the "oods, we would bid them keep discreetly to their " Pullman " on the Northern, until the\' arrive at Gravenhurst ami are transferred to the steamers on Muskoka, thence to one or other of the hotels at some point on the lakes. From liarric (to return to our narrative), the "Northern" trends round the upper shores of the old lac des Cla/es ( L. Simcoe), past the sombre woods of Shanty Bay, and on through Oro township to Orillia. Shanty Hay was lirst settled by l.t. Qo\. Wm. O'Brien, who came some sixty years ago to the district on a philanthropic mission in connection with a pro[)osal, on the part of the British Government, to found a coloured colony in the township of Oro. The enthusiasm of the Wilberforce period dying out, the pro- ject was ne\er prosecuted beyond tlu; stage of giving its African name to the town- ship. The region was subsequently in part settled by half-pay officers of the army and navy, Kempenfeldt Bay receiving its name ."^rom a retired naval commander, who was with Admiral Duncan in his engagements with the Dutch. We now approach the pretty town of Orillia and the waters of Couchiching, which, being translated, means the " Lake of Many Winds." Here we begin to feel the exhila- ration of a high latitude, the Lake being 750 feet above Ontario, and almost 400 feet above Superior. On either side of the high plateau the rivers run in opposite direc- tions. Formerly, there was a steamboat service between Barrie and the Lake Simcoe ports and Orillia ; but of late the railways have supplanted the steamers. The latter, however, are still to be chartered for e.xcursion parties, and for the outing of the townspeople. As we draw U|) to the station, a well-known craft on the.se waters steams to the landing, and throngs the wharf with holiday folks, among whom the Indian silenth' stalks, selling his gav bead-work and birch-bark knick-knacks. The settlement of the township of Orillia was begun about the year 1830, and from its thrifty homesteads have come many young men who have taken jirominent positions in the ranks of the professions. The town, however, has jjeen largely associated with Indian history. Near by was the fortified Huron town of Cahiatpie ; and here, from 1828 to 1839, were located, under treaty, large numbers of the Lhippewa tribe, who were subsequently removed to Rama, an extensive Indian re- serve on the other side of the Lake. To this tribe Lord Dufferin, in 1874, paitl a memorable visit. This act of vice-regal courtesy was much appreciated, and brought out on the Lake a large and vivid mustering of the wards of the nation. The modern town of Orillia is attractively situated on ground which shelves up somewhat .u PICTCRRSQ UE SPO TS abruptly from the lake. I'Vom the hcitjhts the outlook on the Lake is charuiiny, the scene, as the writer recalls it on a l)rit,rht summer afternoon, beinj,^ one of warm, soft ORILLIA, IKdM riU'-. NAKROWS.' sunlii^ht anil srlistenintj beauty. On the wharves every facility is j^^Mven for l)oating, tishiny, and i^eneral rusticatinj^; the islands and points round the Lake are invitini; ; and trolling and angling is lively work. ^Lagni^lcent hauls of sparkling brook-trout aiul the finest of bass, on a suitable day, will repay the sportsman ; and, in the proper season, a good showing of partridge or duck can be bagged. Opposite the town is a locality known as " The Narrows," the link of connection between Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching; and in the reeds and clear shallows of the place wing and tin congregate. On a beautifully wooded spur of land, close by, a com- pany some years ago erected a spacious hotel, and laid out a number of acres in ornamental grounds; but not long after its erection the hotel, unfortunately, fell a prey to the tlamc^s. Over the Narrows the two railways pass I)y means of long swing bridges built on piles, and in passing afford to the traveller a pleasing glimpse of Orillia and its vicinity. Leaving Orillia, and crossing the Narrows, our road by rail now lies along the east side of Lake Couchiching, through the township of Rama, until we come to W'ashago and Severn Bridge. At W'ashago tlu! agriculturist, or v.w.n the cattlc- grazier, will be appalled at the abrupt and startling change in the aspect of Nature. Here tlie Cyclops met tlu; poor settler, with his heart in his mouth, as he took his first look of Muskoka through this stern patewa\' of the b'rcc (ir;int Lands. CieoloirjcalK , the district is singularly interesting ; but such an uptilting of the grountl-lloor of primeval rock must have drunted the soul of the sturdiest intending .settler. Yet this OF THE NORTH 35 mass of gneiss, — a com|)oiiiul of quartz, mica, and y[raiiiti;, -is hut an al)riii)tly jiittinji;' barrier. s(;cmin^ly shot up to test his metal, and ere lonj;- mercifully to ilisappear, it he has courage to go forward. Wt; have s[)oken of approaching a Paradise : the first im- pression of tlu! immigrant must he that he has come to tiu,' contines of an inferno. At Severn Bridge, a fi-w miles farther on, the granite frown ui)on Nature's face visibly softens; and as we cross the outlet of the waters of Couchiching, which here find their way to the Georgian Bay l)y the Severn River, W(; (|uit the county of Simcoe and enter the townsiiip of Morrison, the tirst block in tht; territorial heri- tage of the: s(;ttler. Mere, by the bounty of the Crown, a tract of land, with an area, in the districts alom; of Muskoka antl Parry Sound, of over si.x tliousand square miles, lias been set aside, uiulcr tiie Proxincial bree Grant and lloniesieail .\ct of 1868, for tiu,' homes of Immigrants. Under the least irksom<' conditions of settle- ment, the male heat! of a family can actpiire, " without money and without price," two hundred acres of cultivable land ; and each son over the age of eighteen can become possessed of a humlretl acres in his own right, for the purposes of bona fide settle- ment and cultivation. liNTERING INDIAN RIVKR, LAKE KOSSEAU. The P'ree Grant Lands we are entering upon extend, or are designed to e.xteiul, from Severn Bridge, on the south, to Lake Nipissing and the PVench River, on the 36 PICTURESQUE SPOTS north. Their longitudinal area comprises a Ix'lt of varying lireadth, reaching from the Georgian Hay, through Muskoka, portions of Victoria, llaliinirton, Nipissing, and Renfrew, to the Ottawa. For tiic most part, it is only honest to say, that the Free Grant territory is a wild region ; but, though hitiierto the abodes of solitude, tlu; several districts are rapidly being brought within r(;ach of civilization, anil Iutc ami there under a fair measure of cultivation. The district we are at |)resent con- cerned with affords tlu; most convincing evidence of this. It is not many years since the rigours of residence in the district harrowed the heart of the humane, in British journals, to deter immigration hither. liut the same journals that pub- lished the wails of English gentlewomen, who braved the earl)- terrors of the region, have since given gratifying testimony to the improved conditions of its later life. " Misery loves company," says the old proverb, though the attractions of misery will hardly account for an increase in the population of the district from ^^oo in the year 1861, to 30,000 in the year 18S2. But po])ulation has not been its only gain. Population, while giving the settler a neighbour, gives the neighbourhood the benefit of his work. The region has iieen opened up ; clearings have been made ; roads cut ; mills started ; boats chartered ; and communication everywhere e.xtended. The settler can now get not only into his clearing, but he can gel out to a market. He can even have his daily mail ; and in many quarters the morning cit\' papers art- read by thousands in the district each day before dark. This circumstance goes a long way in reconciling the settler to his lot, for in lonely regions there is no cheer more potent than the passing steamboat or stage carrying the mail-bag. The truth about Muskoka is not now a matter of doubt : it has had its day of small things, and the settler his hour of trial. Isolated from his fellows, the pioneer's life was set in shadows. If he had to cross a stream, it was upon logs; and his nearest neighbour may once have been a weeks' journey off. We have heard of a settler who had lost count of the days of the week, and {ihrough a whole winter had been keeping Tuesday as the Day of Rest. Nowadays, unless as a protest against Sabbatarianism, there is little danger of the settler consciously repeating this mistake, for not only is he now surrounded by neighbours, but the permanent missions and the itinerant divinity stutlent may be trusted to jog his memory in regard to the eccles- iastical calendar. His temporal well-l)eing, whatever hardships he has had to undergo, is i.ow beyond dispute. Within the space of ten or twelve years, men who have taken up land in the district, and who brought little with them save their families and their pluck, have each their homestead and clearing, with well fdled barns and more or less stock. The climate is delightful, and, particularly round th(; lakes, has not the extremes of temperature experienced in the older settled portions of the Province. Wheat raising, it is true, is not always to be depended upon, but with the introduc- tion of artificial fertilizers, this objection may soon be removed. Grasses, however, OF THE NORTH 37 SOUTH MUSKOKA FALLS, grow luxuriantly, and coarse grains and root crops are an amazing success. The pasture, moreover, doesn't burn up in midsummer as it does to the south. Hence, for stock-raising and dairying, there is 38 PICTURESQUE SPOTS no portion of the Province so suitable. Cattle live and fatten in the woods for seven months in the year. In the woods, indeed, they find their most succulent pasturage, and from choice they will leave a clover-field to browse on the shoots of the young basswood and maple. For sheep-raising the rocky land of the district is also excel- lent, as vegetation is both nutritious and abundant. There are drawbacks, of course, to settlement in Muskoka, l)ut only such as time will remove. There is want of increased railway communication, and the facilities which the cattle-raiser, in particular, is in need of in reaching a market. For his purposes, also, the command of capital is a necessity, to enable him to import into the district the means of improving his stock. With increased capital, there is also need of the dissemination of more liberal ideas on farming, for it will pay to drain and fertilize the land, and much of the best of it is yet to be reclaimed from the beaver- meadow and swamp. The proportion of good land is said to be sixty jjer cent, of the whole, the soil for the most part being a sandy loam with clay subsoil, and in extensive tracts lying back of the lakes, generally free from stone. The root crops are unusually large, and, if we except the turnip, are unaffected by the attacks of pests. Potatoes yield some three hundred bushels to the acre, and turnips from six to nine hundred bushels. Oats, rye, barley, and Indian corn are the chief cereals; oats, the chief crop, generally yielding fifty bushels to the acre. Wheat, in the absence of lime and the scarcity of salt, rarely yields more than twenty-five bushels to the acre. The hay yield is from one and a half to two tons. The lumberman, too. has his harvest in the district, and though the best of the hardwood is being rapidly thinned out, there yet falls to his axe many sturdy giants of the forest. The timber products of the region include white-oak, black-birch, black-oak, black and white-ash, red-pine, spruce, tamarack, and hemlock. The bark of the latter is to the settler no inconsiderable source of revenue at the hands of the tanner ; and from the lumberman's camp comes much ready money for hay and oats sold to it during the winter operations. The settler who is a good sportsman has also in the district other means of keeping the pot a-boil. The winter brings him, if a Nimrod, many products of the chase, or if a trapper, a variety of more or less valuable fur. Though the bear and the wolf are receding with the advance of civiliza- tion, moose and deer are yet plentiful ; and with a good dog and skill in wood-craft, the settler can supply his larder with no end of venison. The treasure of the trapper includes mink, beaver, marten, and muskrat. The lakes and streams, moreover, abound with fish, and even the novice can always make a good basket of trout, bass, pickerel, perch, and what is termed herring. Whatever his disadvantages, it will be seen, the lot of the immigrant in Muskoka need not be an unhappy one. Passing from this enumeration of the resources of the region, let us now introduce OF THE NOKTIl 39 AT Tllli LANDING, ROSSKAU. the reader to the lakes, at the approacli to which we had for the time left him. Arriving at (i raven hiirst, the railway journey is completed, and the train is shunted down i)y a side line to Muskoka wharf. Both at the town, which lies on the shores of Gull Lake, and at the wharf, the rough picturesqueness of the region is dominated by the lumbering operations of many saw-mills, and the eye is fain to seek the placid beauty of the water as a relief to the uncouth disarray of the scene on shore. Lake- ward all is inviting, and one at least of the trim little steamboats at the moorings is im[)atient to be off. Steam navigation on these water-stretches, thanks to the enter- prise of Mr. A. P. Cockinirn, the Dominion representative of the district, was begun in 1866, when the " Wenonah " made her first trip to Bracebridge, whither she still plys, followed in 1871 by the " Nipissing," on board of which let us seek an appetizing 40 PICTURESQUE SPOTS dinner and passaj^c in the first stajje of our excursion on tlie lakes. I'lie " Wenonah's'" service is confined to the lower Lake (Muskoka. ) plyin^j daily between Hracebridgc and Gravenhurst, anil semi-weekly between liic latter port and Hala. Tiie " NipissinJ,^" in addition to lier service on llu- lower I.ake, makes a daily trip to the heail of Lake Rosseau, and twice a week to Port Cockbiirn, at the head of Lake Joseph. The Icnj^th of the sin^de trip is about tifty mil(;s ; and the steamer is " timed " to make connection with the morninjf trains from Toronto and Hamilton, and, ninninjj the entire Icnj^th of Lakf^s Muskoka and Rosseau. brings the tourist to the hcail of the latter, with its ample hotel accommodation, in time for the evening meal and a comfortable bed. The tourist, if he is not absorbed in the scramble for dinner, as he leaves Graven- hurst will note; the view that almost instantly o])ens up in fine panoramic effect before him. Passing the " Narrows," which seem almost to close the waters of the Lake from intrusion into the port, we begin to thread our way through a succession of islands little, if at all, inferior in romantic beauty to those on the historic St. Lawrence. The interest is varied at every turn. Now we are attracted by some tiny, moss-grown islet, :; mere speck of rock above the water, but upon which, nevertheless, a few stunted specimens of the Red Pine of the region have contrived to gain foothold. Anon, we brush the margin of a densely wooded island, whose shady ravines and hillsides are clothed wiih a vegetation almost tropical in its undisturbed luxuriance. Artist or botanist, here is material in profusion for either ! Yon glimpse, were we not hurrying by, how we should like to transfer to our sketch-book; and there! on the face of that cliff, we are sure there is much we should take away in our specimen-box. The region, as it has its own physical conformation, has its own distinctive flora. Many plants of more than ordinary interest to the botanist here find suitable conditions of growth. The beautiful White Fringed Orchis — the loveliest of all the Habenarias — and the splendid Cinnamon and Royal Osmund Ferns grow to perfection in low and moist situations, while the Polypody and the Shield-fern flourish in the higher grounds. In the district are also found in exceptional abundance Club-mosses of various species, and the curious Pitcher-plant nestles in its moss-setting along the margins of marshy pools. But to describe farther the Muskoka plant-world we should want our native " Macoun and Spotton " or the ample text-books of American botanists. Meanwhile "The Nipissing" has traversed the long reach of gleaming water that fills the lower basin of Lake Muskoka ; and for the next half hour we skirt on our left two of the largest islands in the Lake, their banks laden with a tangled luxuriance of brushwood, bramble, and wild-flowers. The first of these is called Browning's Island, and is partly owned, it will chill the heart of the lover of the picturesque to be told, by the Muskoka Mill and Lumber Company. The second is a veritable Eden, and the taste as well as the wealth of its owner, a well-known and much respected OF THIi NOKriI 4» member of tlic local judiciary, will, it may In; taken for granted, lony; preserve " I*;ilean-Ciowan" from the jsecratinjj hand of Commerce. Lyinjj, a mass of verdure on th{- Lake, the led)res of rock j,distening under the afternoon sun, the stray glimpses we get of the interior beauty of the island are as many voices that cry a halt, and excite unappeascd longing to land and invach; its recesses. There are walks and tlrives in and round about tiiis island of great attractiveness, and no little ingenuity has been displaycKJ in blending art and nature in ont; harmonious whole. Wild masses of rock, fallen or decayed trees, hollows and irregularities in the surface, have been taken advantage of to secure effects as surprising as they are delightful ; whih; landing- stages have been improvised, and cool nooks, commanded by grottoes and embowered lounging-places, engirt the island at successive stages, and woo the sojourner with irresistible attraction to one of the most beautiful of the many woodlanil shrines in this northern " Land of the Lotu'- ' Opposite the eastern front of ■ il,M) as 1615, wcriil Saimu;! dr Cliainplaiii to tlic lliiron louiitry. His immctliati! ohjt-ct was to lead a small fore*-, whosi; arench River and these early voyaj^es. When the country passed from the sway of France, the canoes of lin^^lish traders, keenly alive to the enormous profits to be made out of the fur traffic, were soon found on I'rench River and the northern lakes. The North-west Company, for years the rival of the Hudson's Bay Ad- venturers, but now mertjed with them into one great corporation, for a long time used the French River route as the shortest practicable line of communication between F"ort William, their headquarters in the 56 PICTURESQUE SPOTS interior, and Montreal. Vox many years the forests echoed to the sonjr of the voyagmr and the splash of his paddle, as the fleet of canoes made the annual voyage to or from the east. Derrii'r' ci.ez nous, ya-t-iin ^tang, Kii roiilant ma boule. \Lliorus), , Trois heaux canards sen vont haignant, Roiili, roiilani, ma hoiilc roulant, En roulant ma l)()iile roulant 'Clionts), Kn roulant ma boulc. Trois l)caii\ canards sen vont baignant, \'.\\ roulant ma boi'le. Le tils (III roi s'cn va cliassanl, Rouli, roulant, ma bouli- roulant. En roulant nia boulc roulant. En roulant ma boule. Le tils du roi s'en va cliass.iut \'.\\ roulant nia boule. Avec son grand fusil d'argent, . Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant, En roulant ma boule roulaiu. En roulant m,i boule. Sir George Simp;on, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, under whose rule the amalgamation of the two cor[)orations was effected, describes the trij) by the Ottawa and the French River in his " Journey Round The World." Following the tracks of these early navigators, we are in the heart of that remarkable region of broken, rocky Laurentian country, so called from the Laurentides, or Laurentian Hills. Rising on the Labrador coast and forming the northerly wall of the St. Lawrence valley ; withdrawing from the river some miles below Quebec, and passing north of Ottawa ; sending down a spur to cross the St. Lawrence near Kingston into the State of New York, where it towers into the Adirondack range ; continuing their ])rogress in Canada to the Georgian Bay ; thence around its shores and the north shore of Lake Superior ; leaving Lake Superior to take a majestic sweep northward and westward and sink into the icy sea — ^the Laurentians form a mysterious mountain chain whose age and origin are wrapped in obscurity. And in this Laurentian country is found what is distinctive in the scenery of the eastern half of the Dominion. The crag, hewn and planed into every romantic shape ; the fir rooted in the crag ; the stream pursuing its way between walls of living green, now foaming down a boulder-strewn bed, now widening into a tranquil lake ; the island-rock clothed with verdure, and surrounded by or THE NORTH 57 AT THE PORTAGE. Hudson's Bay Company's Employes on their annual Expedition. 58 PICTURESQUE SPOTS countless companions — these characteristics of Canadian scenery belong to the Lauren- tians. Broken up into astonishin*^ diversity, the Laurentian tract abounds in the picturesque, and affords the p ople of Quebec and (Ontario opportunities for pleasant and healthful summering which few countries enjoy. Hence, also, come the vast sup- plies of timber which create the greatest of Canadian industries. Stores of minerals of incalculaljlc value lie in the bosom of the hills, and extensive tracts of good land in the river valleys and other depressions. True, the tiller of the soil has a hard fight with nature before she yields a fair return, but such struggles produce men of strong wills and earnest natures. "What do you raise here?" asked a stranger, with some- thing of a sneer, as he surveyed a stony field in New Hampshire. " We raise men, sir," was the proud reply. Lake Nipissing is in the centre of one of the most promising tracts in the Laur- entian district. Until lately, but little has been known of the character or capabilities of this unoccupied region, but the active explorations of the government of Ontario have brought to light much important information. The total area of unsettled Crown lands between the Ottawa and Georgian Ray, south of Lake Nipissing, is little short of twelve million acres, or more than half the area of Ireland. At least half of this is well suited for settlement, a country capable of sustaining, at a moderate estimate, a hardy population of five hundred thousand souls. C^f the three sections into which this region is divided — the Red Pine, the WHiite Pine, and the Hardwood country— the latter is much the best adapted for agriculture. This tract, commencing at the headwaters of the Mattawan, and extending sixty miles to the weft, contains some seven thousand superficial miles. It is a singularly isolated region. Between it and Lake Huron, and bordering PVencK River on both sides, lies an expanse of barren country, terminating in bare rock towards the shore of the lake. On the south, also, along or near the division of the waters of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence, it is girded by a belt of rugged, stony land, about twenty miles in breadth, utterly unfit for settlement. To the east it is separated from the inhabited country on the Ottawa by the timber dis- trict. Within these boundaries, for the most part in primeval solitude, is an extensive tract of e-xcellent farming country. Here are found, also, numerous water-powers of value, and timber of the finest description. The forest is full of game — moose, cariboo, red-deer and bears, of the larger sort ; and of smaller game — hares, swans, geese, ducks, wild turkeys, partridges and quail. Of fur-bearing animals, there are the silver-gray, red, and black fox, the otter, marten, mink, and beaver. The lakes and rivers swarm with fish. The climate is clear, bracing, and healthy. There is no testimony to the character of this region more interesting than that of the German-Swiss delegates, who visited it and have already promoted thereto a Swiss immigration. One describes the soil on the slopes of the South River of Lake Nipis- sing, as much resembling that of tiie vine-growing hills encircling the lakes in the OF THE NORTH 59 0.\ KRK.NCll K1V1:K. French cantons of S\vilz(;rlaii(l. It is liis conviction that in the course of time vine ciiltun' will be successfully carrictl on in this part of the Nipissinsj^ district. " The strikinjj^ resemblance which that district bears to tlu; north-west cantons of Switzerland, with its numerous tnie lakes, the mildness and <;reat wholesomeness of its climate, and the extraordinary fertility of its soil, would make it a splendid new home for Swiss immigrants to Ontario, in whose hands would soon llourish a 'New Helvetia' in Canada." A visitor from Wurtembur>,r to the "Free Grant" territory, pleasantly relates his experience of " the Hush." He travels on the colonization road from Rosseau to Nipissinjr. To the right and left of the road there are thousands of acres of the best land. The soil improves as the lake is approached. Now and then a log-house is passed, erected a few months ago, l)ut even now surroundeil by a "clearing" of ten or bo PI CI 'IJKES(J UE SPOTS twelve acres, with splendid potatoes, wheat and oats, corn and veached the Mattawan and is skirting the shores of Nipis- -Tmmmma^^mmamm: " " " WKK^ " |V ■ ^ 1 ^mr-^ ^^^ ^ ^^B^^^B^^^g:^'": A-^ .AA>- |^^^-*»>3tei«---ii^** ,2k'*i*«fc . -**■ ^^B^^^j i^^^ff*^'^ '%«r* --- ■■^- ■■ ■^^^•^f^/mt, >, ^^^ ffK^t^-^''^ '^^ .ta W^ '■ I'J^^Pi^' ^^ " ' .J-. . . *-- •:. ■JT- -T —*** — ^■-'-. -----_ ^^ ^ ''**^ 'z:^'^ "^ •#-«(&*.'. . f^- ...^^r?" ^ >.~fi^.>y ""^ - ^^-v_... .;■>■., TlIK SAUI/r STi:. MAKIi: RAl'lDS. sing, commerce does not yet make its way to the upper lakes by the route which Champlain followed, I'or the present, communication is by rail to .Sarnia, Goderich, Owen Sound, CoUingwood, and Midland, from which jjorts the steamboat commences the circuit of the inland seas. At Killarney, a fishing village on the northern shore of the Georgian Ray, modern travel first comes in contact with the old voyai;ci(r track. An expedition of two, in search of the picturesque, ap[)roached this place by steamer one August afternoon. On the west rose the wooded bluffs of the Grand Manitoulin Island, and on the east and north the Laurentian Hills, which are to be our companions for the greater part of our journey. The neat houses of the hamlet were clustered on the edge of a plain which extended to the base of the mountains, and through which forbidding patches of granite, planed mto curious shapes by glacial action, protruded. In the narrow chan- OF THE NORTH 63 nel, formed by parallel lines of picturesque rocks, and apparently closed altogether at the upper end by a blue wall, rtshing-boats with bright-red sails, scudded before the wind. The upper lakes teem with fish. Samon-trout and white-fish are the most important varieties. These are caught in large quantities and shipped to Toronto and the United States. The old method of salting has been to a great extent super- seded, now that speedier transit is obtained, by packing in ice. The large boxes, or "fish cars," running on wheels, which are seen at Killarney and other fishing stations, carry each from ten to twenty-five hundred weight of fish to the market. White-fish, salmon-trout, and cranberries are the staple products of Killarney — In- dians and half-breeds the staple population. Not feeling moved to linger, we proceeded westward on the quiet waters of the Northern Channel, with the soft outlines of the Grand Manitoulin on one hand and the grim Laurentians on the other. Manitoulin Island is not, geologically, akin to the north shore of the mainland ; it is rather an extension of the peninsula of Ontario. It is laid out into townships, and, like St. Josepl'.'s ii-land farther west, is a flourishing agricultural settlement. There is nothing particularly striking in the Northern Channel above Killarney. In plav.<_s the Laurentians are broken up into islands, as they are where they cross the VILI.AGK. OK SAULT STE. MARIE. St. Lawrence. Below Killarney, the rocky fragments are scattered along the coast in picturesque profusion. At Little Current, on the Manitoulin side, we encounter a stronp- current, due 64 PICTURESQUE SPOTS AT MICHIPICOTEN ISLAND. entirely lo, and varying in di- rection with, the wind. At Bruce Mines, on the mainland, is a pathetic monument of ex- travagance and failure in the shape of great ranges of skele- ton machinery, rusting and decaying around the shafts of an abandoned copper mine. Our next resting-place is Sault Ste. Marie. Originally a Nor'west Company's post, " the Soo," as the place is called, has ex- panded into a village of five hundred inhabitants. Its importance will shortly be enhanced by the construction of a branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway, to cross the strait at this point. We walked to the old trading-post, which has long lost all signs of commercial activity, and thence made our way to the Indian village. Here we met the hereditary chief of the Chippewas, a hard-featured, spectacled old gentleman, engaged in building a boat. Two of his retainers undertook to take us down the rapids. Poling their canoe to the head of the current by a comparatively quiet course, we descended swiftly, but without danger. The river falls eighteen feet, in some places with much fierceness, but the descent is made by a course which can be run without excitement. Indians were catching white-fish at the foot of the rapids. One man holds the canoe with wonderful skill in the swift current, and another stands in the bow with a large scoop-net some three and a half feet in diameter. This he drops over the noses of the fish as they swim up stream. Drawing the scoopnet towards him, the fisherman, by a dexterous twist, closes the mouth of the net and hauls his prize aboard. In the spring and fall large quantities of fish are captured in this way. To the peculiar excellency of the rapids white-fish we bear cordial testimony. OF THE NORTH «^5 It is nearly two centuries and a half since the Saiilt Ste. Marie was first visited by white men. In 1641 two Jesuit missionaries — Fathers Raymbault and Jogues — pushed their explorations as far as this place. They found an Indian village of two thousand souls where the small city opposite the Canadian town now stands. On the 14th of June, 1671, a grand council assembled here, in which fourteen Indian tribes were represented, four ecclesiastics represented the Church, and one Daumont de St. Lusson, with fifteen of his followers, represented the Government of Louis the Four- teenth. A large cross was blessed by one of the Fathers and erected on a hill, while the Frenchmen, with bare heads, sang the I'exilla Regis. After certain other cere- monies, M. de St. Lusson stood forth, with upraised sword in one hand and a clod of earth in the other, and in somewhat bombastic language claimed the Sault, as also Lakes Huron and Superior, the island of Manitoulin, and all countrie.s, rivers, lakes, and streams contiguous thereto, as the sole property of that most high, mighty and renowned monarch. His Most Christian Majesty the King of France and Navarre. In a few hours after leaving the Sault we are on the bosom of Lake Superior, When the surface of the water is stirred by a light breeze, just enough to give it life and energy, when fleecy masses of cloud float over the sky and draw lines of purplq across the deep, it is delightful to sail upon the mighty lake, in its broad, mysterious expanse worshipped by the aborigines as a god. Much of such delightful sailing the traveller in July and August may enjoy. But in any season on the upper lake.s, light breezes have a tendency to swell into what landsmen consider gales. Stiff nor'westers frequently make the progress of the steamboat slow and laboured. At such times the invitation of the dinner-bell meets with no response from two-thirds of the passengers ; social intercourse languishes, and one is thrown upon his own reflections for entertain- ment. And food for reflection the prospect of sea and sky affords. What beauty there is in it all ! though by sea-sick or half sea-sick passengers for the most part unregarded. The rainbow springing from the prow ; the dark-green waves overlaid with glances and flashes of blue ; the fantastic shapes, the mysterious shadings and colourings of the clouds — as restless as the waters below — proclaim that even in the midst of an uncomfortable gale, we are surrounded by infinite forms of divinest beauty. The limit of our knowledge limits our appreciation of these things. If we could trace the cause of each change in the ever-qhanging heavens, marking the invisible ministers of God's power as they " post o'er earth and ocean without rest," what a book of inexhaustible interest would lie always open before us ! Michipicoten House, a post of the Hudson's Bay Company, is almost the only bit of life on the desolate northern shore of Lake Superior between the Sault Ste. Marie and Nepigon River. At Michipicoten Island, opposite the mouth of the river of the same name, the steamer makes a short stoppage. Nine miles from the land-locked harbour are mines of native copper, worked by a wealthy partnership of English I 11 I 1 i lU' 66. PJCTURliSQUE SPOTS o Id a. » y < o a 2 z to OF rilR NORTH 67 •A o 2 z; D capitalists. A \\\x<^v. and profitable yield, comparing favourably with thtit of the famous Hecla and Caliinwl mines on the south shore, is looked for. The existence of minerals on Michipicoten Island was known to the savages who lived about Lake Superior, as appears from the records of the Jesuit l-athcrs, the first luiropean explortirs. Tlu; working of the mineral deposits, however, was not begun till two centuries .ifter the Jesuits announced their existenc(\ Stranger than this, then; is evidence that a race far oKler than the savages with whom the i'athe.a conversed — a race of which little more is now known than that it existed — must have been extracting copper from the mines of Lake Su])eri()r long before Columbus set forth to discover a n('w world. These people arc; supi)()seil to b(; the Mound Builders. In the mounds, which are their only memorials, cojjper ornaments have been found. The Indians of the days of Jesuit exploration had no knowU'dge of mining nor skill in working metals. \V(," are beginning to realize that we have a respectable sea-voyage on iiaiul. The steamer has already made some 460 miles; Duluth, at the end of the lake, is 350 miles farther, so that those who take the round trip — Collingwood to Duluth, ami return- travel in all about 1600 miles by water. Tl^'-r is plainly a demand upon the cordiality of fellow-passengers. "We hadn't a nice crowd on board, outside ourselves," remarked a tourist, " but we amused ourselves by satirizing them all the way down." A method not to be recommended, if the voyage is to be a pleasant one. Every one who has heard of Lake .Superior has heard of the Nepigon. "It is th(; finest trout-stream in America," as an enthusiastic New-Yorker, who met us on the pier at Red Rock, declared. A strait, bay, river, and lake, on the north shore of Superior, about midway between the Sault and Duluth, all bear the name of Nepigon. In the strait the tourist makes the acquaintance of the trap, the characteristic rock of this northern region. Thrust u|) from the interior of the earth in a molten condition, and cooled in perpendicular lines or columns, it forms a massive sea-wall on the north iii.V^^ of Lake .Superior — lofty, abru[)t, and indented. A huge mass of trap fifteen miles long, and in places more than a thousand feet high, cuts off, with some smaller islands, Nepigon Bay from the lake, and l)ears the name of St. Ignace. Entering Nepigon strait to the west of St. Ignace, we passed between frowning walls of columnar tra[), recalling the familiar pictures of Fingal's Cave. b'or two or three hundred feet at the top the rock presents a precipitous face ; below this, the dSris of broken trap, torn down i)y the action of frost and time a confused pile of titanic blocks, slopes into the pale-green waters. Under the cliffs, ranged like battle- ments on either side, we passed into Nepigon Bay. The bay, some thirty miles long and twelve miles wide, is one of three estuaries in this irregular coast lying in close proximity to one another. Black Bay and Thunder Bay, both of which run inland for some forty miles, are the other two. Out of the north-west corner of the bay we 1 hi! 68 I'lCl i RliSQUli S/V/S %h KV.n ROCK. steam into a winding river, and in a short time see the red roofs and white houses of the Hudson's Ray post at Red Rock. Why the place should be so called is not at first apparent. Immediately about the post there is no rock of any kind, though near by there are fine ex- posures of columnar trap. Also in the neighbourhood there is found a soft, red :andstone of which the Indians make their pipes, and this gives its name to the station. OF run north 69 Here we hid fjood-l)y to stcaml)()at navij^ation, ami prepare to take to the canoe and tent. It is no more possihU; to s(!e the north siiore of Lake Superior from a steamboat than it woiiid he to see the Alps from a railway train. John Kiiskin says that travellin<; i)y rail is not travellinjj^ at all — it is simply ^oing from on< phuc to another. As compared with canoeinjj. we are compelled to pass a similar verdict upon travellinjr by steamer. Many people who have heard heforehand of the pictiirescpie shores of the upper lakes make the round trip, and come hack with the conviction that the scenery is overrated. An endless sky-line of inhospitahle cliffs, viewed over seas uncomfortably rough, varied once and ajj^ain by a closer glimpse of some com- manding headland, does not afford an exciting panorama. lUit these same coasts, visited at leisure in a small boat— ^the bays and islands explored, the rivers followed up — reveal scenes of surpassing loveline.ss. If there is disappointment when the north shor(! is visited in this way, \.\w. fault lies with the traveller, not with the country. The Nepigon has become of late years a resort for sportsmen. The trout are magnificent, and in the <;arly jiart of the season — June and July — are caught in astonishing numbers ; si.\ and seven ])ounds are ordinary sizes. There is, too, a peculiar delicacy in a trout caught by your own rod, and cooked before the fire on sticks — spatch-cock fashion — within ten minutes after it has left the water. The fish bite best when the flies do, and neither flies nor fish at this late season were lively ; though the latter would have been considered so in any less famous stream. Though our visit to Nepigon was not for fish, we had the satisfaction of landing some five-pounders, and our table was always sufficientlj' supplied. The trout are caught at the foot of any swift rapid, hut there are certain large "pools" where rare sport may always he relied upon. The pool is a good-sized basin, below a strong rapid or fall. The water rushes over the fall and across the basin with great violence ; it then turns back and swirls around the edge of the pool to the foot of the fall in a strong eddy. In the edtly, under logs half hid in creamy foam, or in holes over which the current runs s\viftl\-, lie the big trout, ready to dart like lightning at the gaudy fly, or later in the season at the shining spoon or minnow. The latter method is of course voted unsportsmanlike ; but sportsmen have to adopt it in August and Septem- ber. In the decline of the fur-trade in these parts the Hudson's Bay Company do a large business in supplying fishermen with stores and tackle. "A. B. & C. D.: "In account with "THE COMPANY OF ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND TRADING INTO HUDSON'S BAY. tion. "To Onk C.\.\ ok Peaciiks, $0.40. 70 PICTURE SQL K SPOTS immm OF THE NORTH >: r* SI'l.ll km K. It Struck lis tiiat Ins woiilil ha\r louki'd miiircssuc 1)111 111 rciKlcniiL; tiu-ir accounts tin- successors of Prince Rupert and his ^ciuleiiiaii associates do not use their lull cor- porate titl iuil; utensils, and t\v Ha\in!:^- secured a canoe, a siiriicient store of i)ro\isions and cam] o lialf-hreeds the pure aboriginal seems still to avoid the borders of civilization — 72 PICTURESQUE SPOTS f\ we commenced our progress up the river. Along the lakes and streams which from time immemorial have been his highways, the red man of the woods has wandered from early spring to late autumn, hunting, fishing, loitering, fighting, bearing with him his family and household gods, and setting up his wigwam wherever for the tin.e it sr.ited him to dwell. Upon these waterways his conveyance has invariably been the birch-bark canoe, and nothing has ever been constructed by man more perfectly adapted to the purposes required. A skin of the tough outer bark of the white birch, sewed together with the fibrous roots of the spruce, tightly stretched over a thin lining and ribs of cedar, the seams daubed with the resinous gum of the pine or tamarack — such is the Indian canoe, light, strong, and buoyant, simply constructed and easily repaired. Modelled somewhat after the fashion of a duck's breast, it floats like a bubble on the water, and, if not too deeply laden, will ride safely over seas sufficient to swamp an ordinary boat. Astonishingly easy to be upset by a novice, it is, in experienced hands, the safest and most stable of crafts, and it is, of all, the most picturesque. Exquisitely graceful in form and curvature, the varied orange and brown of its exterior contrasts brightly with the transparent reflections of the river. Stealing noiselessly along by the banks, under the overhanging branches, or appearing unexpectedly round a point, it forms just the spot of colour, and touch of life and human interest, which make the wild and lonely scene a picture. Between the great Lake Nepigon — Annimibigon, "lake that you cannot sec the end of " — and the post at Red Rock, there are four lesser lakes bearing the commonplace names of Helen, Jessy, Maria, and Kmma. Till we reached the head of Lake Jessy the scenery was not what our imagination had conceived. From this point there is no room for disappointment. Passing through the narrow gate by which the river llows into Lake Jessy, we enter an enchanted land. We are amongst the trap again, having for Some time been in the region of the tamer granite. The stream is deep and swift, flowing in a narrow channel of rock, un- tainted and clear. The lofty walls on either hand undulate, and, jutting out into liead- lands, overlap each other, so that we seem to be travelling, link by link, a chain of beautiful lakelets. The colours of the rocks are most vivid. At a short distance they are suffused with a haze of rose-pink ; on approach we distinguish the different lichens which deck their hard features in gay colours — orange and yellow, green and gray, in ^very shade. The exquisitely pure water, the splintered crags lichen-painted, the silver- stemmed birches, aspen-poplars, and balsams crowning the banks conspire to make ideal scenes. At Split Rock a mountain of tra|) rises from the centre of the river-bed, splitting the stream mto two branches, for a distance of about a (piarter of a mile. The water, crowded into two narrow channels, pours down on each side of this huge wedge in impa.ssable torrents. As we approach the foot of the rapid the way seems barred to OF THE NORTH 72 LAKK HELEN. farther pro_£jres<5, while foam encircles the dividinjT island, and the sheer slopes to the rit^ht and left show little prospect of a practicable pathway. Still our Indians paddle on. A dark cliff projects from the left, prolonijed by a little island. Round this an unexpected edtly sweeps our canoe into a tiny bay, with a cpiiet laniliny;-place. The portafje path winds close to the brink of the rapid, around trees, and over rocks. Alont:^ it, with cautious tread, our guides move liL,ditly, under loads which, to an unaccustomeil eye. would seem incredible. We lins^cr, for this rippliny^ pool, partly shaded by thick foliacje and just flecked with sunlight, must be the lurking-place of trout. From a stone of vantage a lly is cast, well out "n the stream. A (juick tlash, a little whirl on the water, and the reel Hies round. A big trout, in search of a dinni-r, dashes off in short-lived triumph. Finding himself a captive, he darts to and fro in terror. Turning on his side hv. bends double, anil strives again and again to leap from the merciless line. A cruel sport, after all, we cannot help feeling, as with a passing .sense of pity, we hold the bending rod firm, and wait till the death-struggle of the beautiful creature is over. Meanwhile a couple of canoes of Lake Nepigon Indians, on their way home from Red Rock, the metropolitan centre of this region, have landed. Most carefulK the canoes are beached, and their contents lifted out. A strapping young fellow, with copper-coloured face and long black hair, takes the first load. .\ large bo.x is first m 74 PICTURESQUE SPOTS wMmLiiy.:.. * OF THE NORTH 75 CAMI'IXG CROUND AT THK rOUTAC;!-: swiini; at his hack, l)\' a broad leather strap which crosses his I'orelieail. I'his serves for a toundation. L'pon it his comrades ia\' a l)a!4 "f Ihnir. o\u\ iuimh-eil weight at least. Next comes a roll ol blankets, and a miscellaneous i)undle on lop of all. .\n axe is i)ut in his belt, he picks up his ,i;im, and oil he i^^mes contentedly, traversing;" without a stumble tiie rock\' path which we Imd it hard enough to ])ass unincumheretl. All the part} . men and women, are also lailen ; the canoe, turned bottom up anil poised ujion his shoulders, forminj^r the last man's load. .\s a matter of conxcnience the porta_!j^es are usually selected as campinj^-grounds. At the upi)er end of this one we ])itch our tent in a rarely beautiful spot. The; rocks rise hijj^h about us like ihe walls of a mountain carton. Throunh our tent-door we gaze upon a pl.icid |)0()1, in strong- contrast with the cataract hard by, whose voice, 76 PICTURESQUE SPOTS 111 : subdued to a murmur, intensifies the sense of utter stillness sujrgested by the pool. The busy river seems to have turned aside here for a few moments' meditation, as a Londoner might turn into St. Paul's Cathedral. If this be a church, those little emerald islands are two kneeling maidens, and the gaunt pine which just looks in at the entrance is a storm-beaten prodigal, in whose heart ihe resolve is dimly forming to arise and go to his father. Up stream we make but slow way against the strong current of the Nepigon, now helped by the edilies which sweep us up below the bends, now shooting into the cur- rent and plying the i)addles with quick muscular strokes till we pass the jutting point, and regain our breath in the quieter pool above. Down stream we have less work and more fun. Out in mid-channel, courting instead of dodging the current, we glide smoothly down the rippling waters, now swiftly, now slowly, pausing to throw a fly to a big trout in an eddy, or lazily watching the panorama of rock and foliage, moss and lichen, fern and flower, endless in variety of colour and endlessly varied in the mirror below. Lulled by a low roar, like the sound of the distant sea, which, growing louder, warns us of a cataract not to be too closely approached, we scan the shore for the familiar signs of the portage landing. Over a mile and a half of bare, burnt granite ledges, in the blazing noonday sun, the heavy packs and canoes have been carried ; a mile and a half farther across a high hill the portage still stretches its weary length. We reach a small stream which leads into the river proper at a point where, after tos:,ing and tumbling for a mile or more in foaming thunder, it is comparatively quiet. Below are two smaller rapids, over which we are tempted to run the canoe and save the rest of the portage. The In- dians, who are cautiousness itself, consent to go down light ; the packs must be after- wards carried by the path. The canoe is launched again. The first rapid is intricate, and dangerous from the sunken rocks and startling passages through which the canoe is guided with unerring skill. Then a wide still pool, a sharp turn, and a long dark slope, with a white fringe, as to the meaning of which there can be no mistake, at the bottom. The I)owman, who has not been here before, looks at it with some dismay, but it is too late to draw back. He whips off his jacket, quickly unwinds and regirds his sash, and is ready for a swim. "Sit down low!" is his warning shout. With bated breath we are glancing down the swift incline ; with poised paddles we reach the great curls which lift their crests where the dark purple water breaks into white. In mill-stream they are highest, fia.shing up in great masses of spray, but with a few dexterous side-strokes of the paddles, they are avoided, and almost before we know it, we are tossed safely into the eddy far jjelow the fall. "Very big water" is the pitiiy remark of the Indian as he looks hack at the great white waves, already small in the distance, and points the bow to the beach at the lower end of the portage. Gladly would we have lingered in summer idleness upon the lucid stream of beau- OF THE NORTH n tiful Nepifjon, l)iit other scenes called us westward still. Steaming out again between the walls of "^^raiJ, we passed over the rough billows of Superior to Thunder Hay. Thunder Hay is the most westerly of the great inlets which have been mentioned. At its entrance Thunder Cape, the extremity of a long, rock)- peninsula, rising abrupt!)' to a height of thirteen hundred and fifty feet, is the eastern janitor of what the Marquis of Lome has named the "Silver Gate of Lake Superior." To the west, eighteen or twenty miles across tiie water, the dark mass of McKay's Mountain looms up. Pie Island lies in the mouth of the bay, like a huge monitor at anchor. These three gigantic uph(;avals dominate the scene. They sit in massive dignity, superior to all surrounding objects, like the three emperors, each with a cloudy crown about his brow. As we entered the bay on a gloomy and tempestuous morning, Thunder Cape stood out against a fierce red sky. Ragged clouds out of the north- west trailed across his forehead. A fit abode it seemed for the storm-spirit, this cloud- canopied bay, with its three grim sentinels half wrapped in creeping mists. Thunder Cape from the south-west has the outlines of a couchant lion, the highest elevation forming the head and breast, while a spur of lesser height forms the llank. Hut viewed in profile from the north or south, the ridge has the appearance of a sleeping giant. About this colossal form float many vague legends, of SHOOTING THK RAPmS. r « ^^^ [ 1 1 ^ 1 f 7« I'JCTURESQUli SPOTS • r '■1 ' wm^-' './i^/.r! -n 2 — r — T— 1-— i 1: ^^ '• i 1 1 ''^\'M 0^:.. ' • - ,W^ t -if ^f- [■ p-v" ^ ^ ,j If' ; ■^m^m/SI^Km 1 ' > !i pF m$ 1 "'ilii '-/''/.') K a, < 1 ' v' /' 1 ^^^HBxx'C"^'' ' jP^lsBlM* N. „ i; ^< :| ■■'Ip Id Q y. a < /''t''''ii^;'^' -^-'i'^.' '^ J^^^^Klii' ''(Iv^ ^M'- . ' '. '*• ' ft ' ^ 'i'-jffiBtii*i^'%' / \ 1 v' • I Ea ipi^i =1 )^^k- k^'' « ''r'SBl", i< ' Ippp "''■'''^1, V; .^,!.;., . ^^ 'aj;L-ant luded, Leave not ,i r.uk helilnd. Prince Arthur's Landint^. so nainc'd by ihc ot'ticcrs of Colonel W'olsclcy's expedition to the Red River settlcniciU in kS^o, is a town of twelve himdrcd i)co|)lr and larife hojx's. Between the Landin<,( and the town plot of I'ort William, once intended for the Lake Superior terminus ol the Canatlian Pacific Railway, there exists a deadly rivalry. The former stands on the north shore of Thunder Hay. on s^rromid that rises gradualh', and offers an excellent site for a city. What there is of the place is busi- ness-like. The six miles of railway which connect it with the Canadian Pacific roail at the Kaministicjuia, were originally built b\- the pi-ople of the town. The Landing will probably become one of the chief summer watering-places of tin; jx'ople of Mani- toba and the West — a spot where they may meet, amid beautiful scenery and bracing air, their fellow-countrymen of the P^ast. One forgets that tht; Landing is within the limits of Ontario, over 700 miles from the capital of the Province, as it is. The ideas of the people are not those of Ontario. Mining is the chief topic of conversation, and the expected source of wealth. Just outside of Thunder Cape the traveller sees a few wooden structures standing on a pier or crib about a mile from the shore. This is tht; famous Silver Islet, originally a few feet of rock above the surface of the lake, offering the only avenue of approach to vast stores of hidden wealth. Ten years ago an excavation was made in the little protrusion of rock, which disclosed a rich pocket of silv(M-. The lumps of (piartz first taken out, seamed with silver ore, served, for tht: time, in the construction of cribs, to protect the mouth of the shaft from the inroads of the waves. I'arther mining revealed the fact that, under the water, there was a silver mine of unknown extent and value. Three million dollars in silver came out of it in the first ten years, though the expenses of working and protecting the mine are said to have about ecpialled that sum. To-day the roof of the mine contains a fortune in silver, which — oh, bitterness to the cupidity of man I — cannot lie touched without admitting the waters of Lake Superior, to the conclusion of all farther operations. Mining locations and prospect- ings. quartz and blende, amygdaloid and mica, occujjy a large space in the thoughts of most of the Landing peo]jle. We found three silver mines in active operation, with any number of abandon(;d shafts. What the extent of the silver deposit on the OF THH NORTH THUNDER BAY. north shore may be it is impossible to j^iujss. Tht- world may b<; dazzled sonu- day b\- tiic disc()\(;ries of san^^uiiie " prospectors " whom one is sure to meet in the country. L^p to this, however, tht; universal experience has been that there is nothini; truer than the Spanish proverb, "It takes a mine to work a mini;." brom Prince Arthur's Landin*^ west to Pijjjeon River — ^the boumlary between our own country and the Ignited States — the coast is particularly bold and irret^ular. One 82 PICl URliSQL'E srOTS afternoon we steamed away westward in one of tlic tu^s which afford the s|)e(!diest m(!ans of local transit in this rcj^ion. Our way h'cl us tirst to I'ic Islaiul, a chain of unshapely trap uplieavals, incniasinj,' in hcij,'ht till, in tlie Pie proper, 900 or 1,000 feet are attained. To tiiose who connect the idea of "pic" with the tlat and some- what deleterious construction held in esteem hy our American kinsfolk, or the "deep" apple pie whose recesses the I'.nj^dishman explores with zest, there is at first a diffi- culty in traiin>,r any identity between a pii' .ind the cistern-shaped mass of rock in Thunder Hay. Hut in time it dawns upon us that the mutton o dee|) for tears; tilling the mint! with thank- fulness, humility and awe, as they suggest intinilc design, and power, and goodness. This island is a ruin. '\\\v de(!p gashes in its sides ; the huge boulders strewn in \.\^q. water at its feet, or clinging loosely about its summit, threatening to tumble at a breath ; the uprooted trees entangled one with another, ami hanging headlong down t''>e . if, all .speak of ruin. Hut it is ruin softeneil and silvered by the hand of age. Gray mosses droop from the l)oughs of the dea*' cedars, and lichens silver-gray and ^lale gold, deck the rock in milil splendour. Mosses cushion every jutting point and promontory. Ami out of tiu.' decay, like the new life from lM)[)es that are dead, a bright young vegetation springs. The mountain ash and spruce lift a glory of tender ^leen above their fallen companions; the alder thrives in the fissures, and a modest OF THE NORTH 85 blue floweret here anH there finds a home, where it blooms contentedly, on the hard surface of the rock itself. On one side, the island, so eloquent in its silent beauty, meets the full sweep of Lake Superior. The winds have swept the high cliffs almost clean of moss and foliage, and great square boulders bare of lichen show how high the waves reach. Shattering 011 black blocks their breadth ol thi'iuler. rht leau- less pen Hiik- ICSS. 1 i^e It a |)wn [ind luul a llcr jest A vein of quartz, promising silver, has in some past day indin. mining operations on Victoria Island, which, however, have not led to anything but an excavation re- sembling' a natural cave. Out of this, witii niimls probably in a happier frame than those whose unprofitable labour leaves its record here, we gazed, as from a window, upon our own peaceful encampment and the sheltered bay. Then Ijidding adieu to this wonder-land we folded our tents and turned our canoe eastward to the mouth of the Kaministiquia. Vast as Lake Superior is, covering with water an area of some 32,000 square miles, it drains a comparatively small extent of territory, and is fed by no great river. The Nepigon is the largest of its streams; the Kaministiquia next in im- portance ; and both of these are navigable b\ large vessels for only a few miles. The Kaministiquia enters Tluinder l^ay a short distance south of Prince Arthur's Landing by three mouths. Its [)rincipal attraction to tourists consists in the beauti- ful falls, which, by a strange perversion of the true title, have come to bear the name of the Kakabeka h'alls. To visit these falls and make the acquaintance of the Kaministitpiia, we took passage on a construction train of the Canadian Pacific Railway at the Landing. A mile or two from the village.' a powder-car, containing ten tons of pure oil of nitro-glyccrine, was coupled to our train, causing a perceptible sensation amongst the passengers. Nitro-glyc°rine is not a pleasant travelling companion under the most favourable circumstances, still less on a ])artially constructed railway on which the cars, in the expressive dialect of the rail, indulge in the sport of " playing on their bearings." From the Landing for several miles tlie Pacific Railway runs through the low fiat valley of the Kaministi(|uia. The scenery is uninteresting, but the soil gives promise of good agricultural returns. At the Town Plot of I'ort William, we come upon the dark ri\-er washing tlu^ base of McKay's Mountain. Some miles farther on we touch the river again, antl look ilown upon it (lowing swiftly between high wooded banks. Where the railway bridge crosses tiie stream, near its junction with a tribu- tary named the Mattawan, we take leave of tiie train and the nitro-glycerine, and embark upon the water. W^e are now one hundred ami fifty feet or more above the level of tlie lalrn. 86 ''ICTURESQUE SPOTS (A < 2 < OF THE XORTII 87 (IN Mil K AMIMSnyi'IA. riuTc is nf)thin'_;' stnkiiit; in the lirst scN'Mi i-cttily. W'c (lcsc:cn(l nuniridus i-;i|)iils. some 'iicrcly strong (•iirr<'iils. others lia\ ing a considerate iall. !'lv' water is low, and the canoe re^ri//led ',ialfd>reed, is in comuiaud, and excites our 88 PICTl 'R ESQ I rE SP( ) 'fS admiration by his management. He knows the meaning of every swirl and ripple in the stream. Channels which in\ite tin; unwary by their smooth but treacherous flow, he avoids for others which often look threatening and impassable. Innocent- looking circles on the water turn out to be boulders, whose tops are barely wet. Baptiste, w'th a strong pole, stands upright in the; bow, ami coolly and skilfully guides us in a tlevious course between the rocks. Sometimes he checks the speed of tl;. canoe; sometimes holds her still in tlu: swift current, while he deliberately looks ahead for a practicable course. By a slight motion of tiie hand or head he signifies his commands to Pierre, who uses a paddle in the stern. The expedition sits quiet. There is wark here which we know nothing about, and for the time our red brothers are o> r sujteriors. We are eager and watchful. A slip, a false strvjkt, an error of judgment, means a wrecked canoe, baggage soaked and perhaps lost, a plunge nito the boiling fall, and possibly something more serious. We trust Baptiste implicith'. At some of the rapids we are compelled to use the portage, and at a place where the river is straitened in a rocky cleft through whicli it surges impetuously, we haul our canoe ashore and pass the night. The ne.xt iiay we reach the falls. We have said that "Kakabeka" is a |)erversion ; the true name, as inquiry from our intelligent guides taught ur-, is '• Kakapikank," the (^'s havni^ the sound of aza, as in Chippewa. The name signifies " high fall " ; it is evidently the same word as Coboconk. Jean Pierre assures us that there is no such word as " Kakabeka " in the hulian tongue; "white man can't say it right"; that is che origin of the mistake. The fall itself is as beautiful as anything on the continent. Phe river meets a vast barrier of slate, over which it tumbles into a chasm cut out of the rock by the unceasing flow of ages. At the top of the; cliff the water, illumined by the sun, comes to the edge in a band of purple and gold. Thence it descends a heiglu of more than a hundred feet, a mass of creamy, fleecy foam, not to be dc-'Tibed l)\ pen or brush, Along tlie cliff to fall, anil pause and fail, did seem. One may sit by the hour spell-bound and stuil\- tlu' motion and colour of this wondrous creation. The foam is softer in appearance than the tinesi wool, more trans- lucent than alabaster, aiul behind it the more solid mass of falling water is seen, by gleams and flashes, in coloi r and transparency like tiie purest amber. The spray from, the foot of the fall does not rise, as at Niagara, in a slumberous cloud. It shor)ts into the air at a sharp angle with ini'iense velocity and repeated shocks of thumler, giving the impression of a series of tremendous exjflosions. This peculiarity is thie to the fact that the water falls upon a hartl stratum of rock, from which it is dashed upwards in smoke, as from a floor of irarble. As our lingering gaze rests u|)on th.e sJL^ --^-^ OF 77/ E NORTH 89 leisure doAii tlui stream. fall at some distance, the soft, white tiiini^- looks a diffiTeiit order !)t heiiii^ from the surly rocks to which it is chained. I )oomed to dwell in a rock\ prison, which it tiecks in verdant l>eaut\' with m\ riad cool lini'-ers, it is sister to the rainbow which, ever and anon, comes out of the unseen world to visit it. Camping", fishing;, sketcliini,^, ainl ameth}st-huntinL(^ we procc d at our At one campincr-crrountl we tind the frame of an Indian 90 PICTURESQUE SPOTS '(V. ! vapour-bath. A blanket, thrown over the frame so as to exclude the air, a vessel of water, some stones heated in the fire, and a piece of brush to sprinkle the water on tlie hot stones, are the adjuncts necessary to complete tiiis primitive sanitary apparatus. From this point a portaj^e of four or five miles hrouLjht us to a charminij; scene. Hmeririnir sud- denh' from the woods, a prospect quite different in character from anythin^ed country affords else- where, broke upon us at a moment's notice. We stood on the edi^e of a bluff souk; (;i^hty feet hi_i,di. At our feet the wayward river took the shape of a perfect letter S. In out; circle, it embraced a lovely park-like promontory, beautifully wooded with drooping- elms. In the other circU; lay Fointe tie Meuron, some farm-buildings and a fiekl of ripenini; wheat on its well-sunned slope. This bris^ht home- like spot was framed by the bristlinj^ forest and the purple hills, McKay on the flank overtopping all. Pointe de Meuron commemorates in its name the stirring events of by-gone da\s. It is so called from some soldiers of the " de Meuron " regiment in the service of thi- b^arl of Selkirk, stationed here by that nobleman in the year 1816. to farm and trade. The de Meuron regiment was formed principally of Germans and I'icilniontest- who had been forced to act as conscripts in the army of Honaparte. Tlu'y subscfpiently served in the British arm\-, under Col. de Meuron, ami lx;ing disbanded at the close of the Peninsular war, a numiier of them joined the PLarl of Selkirk as settlers for his new settlement in the Ked River country. Mow came tiic de Meuron soldiers to tound a station on this remote river.'* The (pi( stion can be answertnl by a referenc(; to the histor\' of th(; mouldering Hudson's Ha\' post, a few miles down tin; rixcr, known as Fort William. This place was once the i)us\ headquarters of the Nor'west Conqiany. The struggles between the adventurers of fludson's Bay and the N'or'west Comi^any, more particularly in reference to the settlement of the Red River country iiy Lord Selkirk, rcpresiMiting the older corporation, are facts of histor)-. In 1S16, the mild ami just Gov(;rnor Semple, of the Hudson's Ba\- Company, was killed at the Red River, with a number of his associates, and the settlement, for the second time, laid waste. Lord Selkirk heard of these events at Sault Ste. Marie whih; on liis way to his new INDIAN \.\iuLR H.Mll. OF THE NORTH 9> land of promise. He also heard that some of his Red River peo])]e had been brouj^ht down to l-'ort W'ilHam, and were held as prisoners, and that the leading spirits of the Xor'west Company were likewise there. To h'ort William he therefore directed his course. In his capacity of a magistrate he issued warrants against his cne-mies, arrested tiiem, antl by the help of his de Meuron soldiers took possession of the fort. The captive Xor'westers were sent to N'ork, and from thence to (Quebec to be tried for implication in the \\vx\ River massacre. The wcetls flourish peacefull\- in the court of the deserted fort. Little here to remind us of the days when the great traders met to la)' their plans and cast up their profits, antl made the rafters of the big dining-hall ring with iheir jo\ial fellowship. " To behold the Xor'west Comi>any in all its state and grandeur " Washington Irving, in his pleasant style, " it was necessary to witness an annual galh(;ring at the great interior ])lace of sa\ s — 7t 5JK■^^ CANADA l'.\{ U-IC RAII.WAV— KAMlMSTinriA RIVIK. conference establislied at Fort William, near what is called the Grand Portage, on Lake Superior. Here, two or three of the leading |)ann(rs from Montreal pro- ceeded once a year Wi meet the p.irtncrs from the \arious trading-posts of the wilderness, to discuss the aff.iirs of the Compan\ during the precding year, and tr. i. . 02 PICTURESQUE SPOTS arrange plans for the future. On these occasions might be seen the change since the unceremonious times of the old French traders ; now the aristocratical character of the Briton shone forth magnificently, or rather tlie feudal spirit of the Highlander. Every partner who had charge of an interior post, ami a score of retainers at his com- mantl, felt like the chieftain of a Ilighland clan, and was almost as important in the eyes of his retainers as of himself. To liim a visit to the grand conference at l-ort William was a most important event, ami he repaired there as to a meeting of Par- liament. Such was the Nor'west Company in its powc^rful and prosperous days, when it held a kind of feudal sway over a vast domain of lake anil forest. * * * * When as yet a stripling youth, we have sat at the hospitable boards of the mighty North-westers, the lords of the ascendant at Montreal, engaged with wondering ami in- experienced eye at the baronial wassailing, and listened with astonished ear to their tales of hardship and adventures. * * * * '\\\{i feudal state of l*"ort William is at an end ; its council chamber is silent and deserted ; its banipiet hall no longer echoes to the burst of loyalty or to the ' auld world ditty '; the lords of the lakes and forests have passed away, and the hospitable magnates of Montreal — where are they?" The glory of the great fur-traders has departed. Their vast monopoly is broken up ; the husbandman, true lord of the soil, is entering upon their ancient hunting- grounds. Those parallel bands of iron stretching away to the west proclaim that a mighty revolution is in progress. The gray hunter, full of memories of wild days gone by, shall soon hear the trains of the Canadian Pacific rumble past Fort William, and see a vision of goKlen harvests and smiling homesteads on the once desolate plains where he followed the buffalo. or THE NORTlf 93 CENTRAL ONTARIO. A T the dawn of our Provincial History, — two hundred and odil years atjo, — when the -^ -^ tn-st Ht^ht was hrcakins; on Lake Ontario, you nii;,dit have discovered an Inchan village a few miles to the west of Whitby Harbour. The village looked out upon a wide and land-locked mere, which every summer was fringed anew with tloating milfoil, and embroidered witli pond-lilies. This peaceful bayou was so little moved by the Great Lake, that the stormiest wrath outside awoke but a soft response within. It was a welcome retreat in wiUl weather for lake-birds when "blown about the skies." Sedges and sweet-Hag, and tall reed-mace so concealed the entrance that it was known only to the Seneca Indians of the village within. Out of this cpiiet bayou Pickering Harbour has in our day been formed, and the entrance i^.as been dredged, and widened, and lighted. Hut, two centurie;> ago, these blue lake waters had not yet be(;n vexed b^• merchantmen ; antl a sufficient beacon was found in tht natural features of the n f I I i: 94 PICTURESQUE SPOTS OF THE NORTIf 95 land. When t\vili),rlu was coniinj^f on, tlie returning' water-fowl and canoes would seek the low. rec(,'ilinir siiore midway between Scarboro' Heights and Raby Head, — that glooming water of Moore's lines, — "Where the blue hills of old Toronto shed Their evening shadows o'er Ontario's hed " In 1660 the Indians of this shore woidd have called the villas^^t; that lay Ix^yond them to tile west not Toroitto, l)iit Teyoyagon. This we know from tlic contemporary maps of .Sidpician Missionaries — tin; tirst Europeans who e.xploreil ami mapped the nortli shore. "Toronto" was then applied to the water thai is now Lake .Simcoe ; afterwards, i)y extension, the name of the lake descrilunl also the wt-stt-rn portage that led tliitluM' ; and tinalU', in the fiu'-trading era, it described the sotithern vw(\ of tlie portai;<'. which, as early as 1(173, is describeil )))■ La Salle as the chief trading place of tin; Otlauas with the N'orthcrn Iroquois. In reducing the scale of the early maps some geographi-rs carelessl\- neglected the |)recise sites of Intlian \illages ; ami succeeiling geographers, having at hand neither the explorers' maps nor narratives, attempted by conjt;cturc to restore; these sites. French fur-traders had meantime tiansfcrrcd "Toronto" to the southern end of the Simcoe portage. Tin; true Indian name, Teyoyagon, being tlius cut awa\' from its moorings, drifted ilown the lake, and stranded at Port IIo|)e. Hut Port Hope had alrcaily an Indian name, Ganeraske, which, IxMug now ilislodgeil, floated tlowii the lake and was cast ashore at Trenton. By 1 744, Hellin, th( 1 lydrographcr to ti)c Trench Xav\-, found the chart of the lakes in hopeless dis- order. Disregariling, therefore, altogether the maps of Sanson, Coronclli, Delille, and their plagiarists, he went at once to the archives of the Department of Marine, and collateil the original mai)s and reports of exploration. Hellin had also the great advantage of Ciiarlevoix's nicent travels, whicli had been written, compass in hanil. and after observations taken for latitude. .So Bellin's Carle tics Lircs leads us back once more to solid groinid ; it also vindicates the general accuracy of the .Sidpician maps of 1669-70. 'The .Senecas of Pickering Harbour called their village Gamlatsetiagon ; so the Sulpician Trouve, who visited the place in 1670, represents the sound. Piionetic variants of the name appear in contem|)orary maps, and in ofificial documents that passed between Loiu's the Fourteenth and his Canailian Executive. The tribal home- stead of these Seneca.s, as of the four other Iroquois Nations, lay southward beyond the Great Lake, and within the vast fon;st that stretched from the Niagara to the Hudson. This colony of warrior-spori ;men was doubtless attracted northwards by the sheltered shore and the easy landings, as well as by th'- ' uUess fishing and deer-stalking there to be had. To the west were the well-woo' Heights of Scarborough, which I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) y ^ ^ / o (•/ 4. .

^ V ^9> V ;\ >A <^ <>. 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 i &p % 1 96 PICTURESQUE SPOTS It III early French explorers called Les Grandes Ecores. This the Loyalists englished into ■ The High Lands," so that the stream flowing through the Heights is still called "Highland Creek." A little to the west of the Seneca village was a stream that gave kindly shelter to distressed canoes; and so by Indians of the next century, and of a different race, it was named Katabokokonk, or the " River of Easy Entrance." In making its way to the lake it pierced a hill of red tenacious clay, which sufficiently colored its waters to justify the old French name, Rivitre Rotigc. In his attempt to reproduce in Upper Canada the east coast of England, Simcoe re-christened this stream the Nen, just as he had converted .SV. John into the Humber, and La iirandc Riviere into the Ouse. But, like the Grand River, the Rouge fortunately survived the palimpsest maps of Governor Simcoe ; it is still the Rouge, and the name is in- teresting as the sole trace now remaining on this north-west shore, of the old Sulpician Mission and of Louis the Fourteenth's domain. Eastward of the Seneca village flowed into the lake a considerable stream, which for about a century has borne the name of Dufifin's Creek. An early I'Vench name was Riviire an Sauinon ,■ and the name was well deserved. A roll of birch-bark, lighted and thrust into a forked branch in the bow of a canoe, brought within reach of the fishing-spear shoals of the choicest lake-salmon. Then short portages through a famous deer-park led up from the Whitby shore to ^'ne bass-fishing on Lakes Scugog and Simcoe, anticipating the railroads that two centuries afterwards would lead the wayfarer over the same trails to P:)rt Perry and Beaverton. The generation and race of fish- ermen whom Champlain, in 1615, found between these lakes had been swept away in the Iroquois invasion, but the conquerors, no doubt, deigned to imitate the old ways of the neighbourhood. They would encamp at the lake-outlets and ambuscade the fish within such osier-weirs as gave Lake Simcoe its early French name of Lac aiix Ciaics, or "Hurdle Lake." In " Oshawa," the name of the busy manufacturing town between Whitby and Bowmanville, there is still a twilight memory of the ancient days, and of the old portage that led up from this shore to Scugog Lake; for (h/ia^ca means "The Carrying-Place." The Iroquois confederates had now beaten down all resistance from native races; they had become the tyrants of the Upper St. Lawrence, of both shores of the Great Lake, and the magnificent peninsula which in our day forms Western Ontario. P'rom the Great Cataraqui Creek to tlie Grand River Portage the Five Nations occupied a chrin of outposts, whose sites foreshadowed the future Kingston, Napanee, Belleville, Port Hope, Whitby, Toronto, Hamilton, ami Brantford. Lake Ontario was now in fact, as it was in contemporary French maps, the •' Lake of the Iroquois." A dread- ful retribution had been exacted for the foray which Champlain half a century ago led into the heart of Iroquois Land. The Hurons who were his allies on that fatal expedition had been exterminated or dispersed ; their corn-fields and populous villages OF THE NORTH 97 ^lishecl into stili called 11 that gave >', and of a ranee." In sufficiently . attempt to I this stream La Grande ely survived name is in- of the old ream, which rench name \ birch-bark, reach of the gh a famous Scugog and the wayfarer ■ace of fish- ei)t away in old ways of ide the tish aux L laics, )wn between clays, and of neans " The ative races ; f the Great ino. I*"rom ns occupied e. Belleville, was now in ' A dread- iry ago led \ that fatal ous villages were now deserted wastes. Gone, too, were tiieir staiwart kinsmen, the Neutrals ami the Tobacco Intlians, who had dared to shelter some of the llurons in ihcir last agony. And vanished wen; tin; Algonquin races who d\v(.'lt between the Lake of the Manitou and the River of the Ottawas ; even the dread Nipissings t'lemselves, tiiat nation of sorcerers who s[)(,nt their lives in communion with oleics, when not serving at gruesome l-'easts of the; Dead. Magicians though they were, the)' could not turn aside the evil eye of the Ir()([uois. Like their Huron allies, the Nipissings had alrf^ady become mere historical shadows, haunting at earl\- dawn the lake that still bears their name. The Jesuit Missions on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe were now silent and blackened ruins, — mere heaps of embers in the midst of rank jungles that once were smiling fields and gardi;ns. Several of the most eminent of the Jesuit missionaries had fallen in the effort to Christianize Western Canada ; Gamier had recei\ed from a stone-a.ve his coup-de-gracc ; the tires of Brebeuf's martj'rdom lit uj) tiif woods of Medonte. Kxultant in their victory over the native races, the Irocjuois seriously menaced the French colonists on the St. Lawrence. Frequent attempts were made to conciliate or to divide the Five Nations. In 1654, that is within five years of the massacres at the Huron Missions, a Jv,suit was found boKl enough to undertake an embassy to the stronglioUl of the Onondagas, the torturers ami murderers of his brother Jesuits. This Iroquois Nation dwelt, according to the journal which Father Le Moine kei)t of his mission, five days' journey back from the south-east angle of Lake Ontario. Their canton inclosed the now famous salt-deposit, whicli Lc Moine was the lirst of luiropeans to visit. He recovered what he tells us were treasures more precious than a silver or gold mine. — Brc'beuf's New Testament, and Garnier's little Book of Devotion. With mingled joy and grief he recognized Christian women of the Huron race, .some of whom in happier da\s he iiad himself instructed at tlir Huron Mission. They \v(;re now wearing out their lives in stjrvitude. Among their fellow-captives was his anciitnt host of the ToI)acco Indians and a girl of the Neutral Nation. On the friendly assur- ances of the Onondagas, confirmed l)\- the usual exchange; of wampum bells, a brench setllemetit was begun in their midst; also a number of llurons, with their wi'.cs ami children, came uj) from the .Si. Lawrence, antl accepted the urgent iinilalion of ihe Onondagas to reside in liieir canton. On the 3rd .August, 1657, a genera' mass.icre of the Christian llurons took place;; it was now evident that the; I'fench Mission had been tolerated onl\ as a deco\-. The scene of this massacre seems to have been the very ( )nou(laga town that fortx-two \'ears before witnessed the assault and the disastrcju., rejinlse of Cliamplain ;iiid his llurons. It was surely glutting e\en Iroquois rev(;nge to entice llu; I'rench and the |>oor remnant of their ancient allies to this fatal spot, ar.d pri'pare for both a common slaughter! Fortunately the Ouebt;c llurons had not yet accepletl Onondaga hospitality ; this delay saved them and alTordeel the Irench 98 PICTURESQUE SPOTS IM settlers time to plan their es- cape. The wild Indian r(;vel which was to be but the pre- lude to the French mas- sacre; the stealtln- with- drawal of the intendeil vic- tims at the dead of a win- ter's night ; the struggle of those forlorn refugees to reach the outlet of Lake Ontario ; their winter descent of the St. Lawrence ; their terrible experience of the Cornwall Rapids, — then for the first time descendc^d by luno- peans,— all form one of the most thrilling passages in our early Provincial annals. The first exploration of the northern shore of Lake Ontario arose out of an interesting group of events. When, in 1661, the great Col- bert succeeded Fouquet in the councils of Louis XI\', the ad- ministration of Canadian affairs had reached the last extreme of weakness and disorder. Montreal now barely kept the Iroquois out of its streets, and during the preceding sum- OF THE NORTff 99 mer and autumn Quebec itself had been closely invested. The civil administration was in open conHict with the ecclesiastical. 1 (> save the colonj' from annihilation, Laval himself would go ovt;r to I'rance and appeal to the compassion of the y( ) y.s- minister peruses iIk! despalclies of Talon, Courci'lles, ami I'roiile- iiae, he sees ^rowini;' u|) Ixnoiul the ocean a new ami a fairer I'rance, ami i:\en his cold teni- perainent is lired to enthusiasm. 1 U' often writes on the niarj^in an emphatic " bon ! " or hi- records his determi- nation to strengthen the hands of the Canatlian executive. The despatches, with Colbert's autoi^raph noti's, are siill pre- s<-rved in the archives at Paris ; but in the laps(; of e\cn two centuries how failed aliki; are the states- man's handwriting;" and his Colonial \-'.m- pirc I I'rom Colbert's in- structions to the In- tendant Talon, and still more from his cii)her cor res| Kind ence with bronlenac, it is e\ident that it was the [)olic\ of the I'reiich Court to hold baik the Jc'suits from Western Canada, and push forwaixl the Sulpicians. In the autumn of i66S, two .Sulpicians, MM. I'l'iielon and Trouve, establishcil a nds- sion at a \illa,^c ol the Cavut;as on the Uay of OF 77//f A'()A'77/ lOI Quinte. This M. rc'iu'lon lias often lircn mistaken for the ceieljratecl Archbishop of Caiiil)ray. The C'ana' •*'f;^'-&i^«^-^ ■■"'■ m^' uuwMANVii.i.i;, i-'Ko.M Tin. \\i:sr. Cameron Lake into Stur^'eon Lake, and at the head of the i-i\-er there is a pretty cascade which has shared its name with the |)ros|)erous \inai;<' of l-'enehm balls. Under tin; misapprehension al)o\e nijtired a viliai^c towards the south-west of the town- ship has been called Civubrav. 'J'he historic, il error implied in this name originated \Yith easy-^oini;' Father Ilenne])in; then it passed into C";irdinal Hausset's /.i/c of ^lyclibisliop I'^CHcloii. Our Canadian Abbe was not the Abln' lenclon who wroti; Tclniiaijuc and became Archbishop of Cand)ra\-; the missionarx -e\i)lorer of our lake- shon; was the archbisho|)'s elder brother. The}' were both sons of Count bc'm'lon- Sali^nac, though by dilliM'ent marriage's. iSoth bore the n:ime of bi'.uuis, thouL;h the youn;.4(M' iiore the addition .\rmand ; both entered the order of St. Suljjice ; and botii lookeil wistfulK' to \\'estern Cuuida as the Mission-!. and ol I'romise. The Nounijcr I'Ynck)!!, beiuL!' ul ileliiate; constitution, was dissuaded from follouiu''- in Ids brother's I02 rK^rrRi'.sniF. spots steps aiul iinclfjr- takiny tlic priva- tions and danjjjers of a life among' tilt- Northern Iro- quois. While the elder brother was teachinjr the In- dian children of our Whitby shore, the \ounj;(.'r was teaching Lou is . XI\"s grandson and heir appar- ent ; while the elder was endur- ing more than the toils of L'Ksses. the xounger was inditing- the .-/xtend from the villaji[e outwards to ihc lods^n-s that lay scattered in the <;real wilderness. He was undoubtedly llu; lirsl leac her ol languages -VV'V A (.I.INM'SIC OF I'OKl UOI'K. in the County of Ontario — this young scion of most ancient P^'ench nobility — and he had for pupils as lithe, and bright-eyed, and keen-witted young Canadians as t!ver were. Rut whether Abbe i'eneloii's labours foreshadowe-d Pickering College, or the Whitby Ladies' College, or the; Collegiate Institute of Whitby, or the High .School of Oshawa, — -is a (jue-stion that we must reluctantly leave to local anticjuarians. brom a political \iew as well as from an etlucational aii diiy in tt^aching tin; natives through the Indian dialects, instead of moulding them through the b'rench language to the service of France. Tlu; fesuits themselves were perplexed at the disastrous issue of all their heroism and si'fferings ; they laid their failure to tiie abnor- *■ i { pi ' 104 PICTURESQUE S/'C y/'S inal activity of th<> Powers of Darkness. Roth parties went too far for a reason. They overlooked llu: eiionnous chasin tliat separates civilized life from barbarism,- a chasm whith, as Caiiad'ans have since learned, centuries of earnest toil are insufticif.'nt to briilf^e over. Louis the bOurteenth's pride was touched by this Indian problem. To him, and his ministers, and courtiers, it was inconceivable that Iroquois wi].^wams could iidld out ai^ainst b'rench civilization, when even the 'lurk hail bowed in its pres- ence. 1 hi- new Canadian policy, as e.vpuinuled liy Collicrt, was to make the brench lan}.juaj;e the soh; nu;ans of communication, ami, liy this mt.'ans, " detach the native races from their sa\a_<,a; customs;" in sliort, to fuse aborigines and colonists "into out! people and one race, havins,^ but one law anil one master." .M. ()lier had in 1045 founded ;it I'aris the ( )rder of St. SuJpice, and a bnmch of his .Seminar)- iiad been alread)' established at Montreal. Still unwedded to precedents or traditions, .Sulpicians were thoni,rht to be more receptive than older ordiM's of the |)riniiples that were to l;ov- ern the new colonial policy. X'oim^- men of rank and b)rtime had already enrolled them- selves as studt-nts of the Seminars, ami it was expected that the\ and their hiends would defray the (expenses of the Mission without burdenini,^ the public cxchciiuer. The headquarters of the new entcM-prise were to l)e on the peninsida which now forms our Coimty of Prince lulward. A colony of Cayu^as had established themsehcs on the lakeward side of the peninsula, within the cove which, in our time, is called West Lake, but by the e.irliest P^'ench explorers was named after the Indian villa,L,''e /.cii He Kcntd. In the lapse of two centuries this name has been converted into the Hay of Quinte, and transferred to tin; romantic water that s(q)arates the peninsula from the Counties of Hastinijs and Lennox. In 166S a nmnerous deputation had been sent by the villagers of Kente to Montreal, uri^in^ the settlement of a Missionary in their midst. September brou^^dit down Rohiaria himself, the a^cd chief of the \illas4e, to support the application, .and, if he should succeed, to escort the " Hlack Kobe" to Kente. MM. 'Prouve ;ind P'enelon eagerly volunteered for the new enterprise, and pro- cured the consent of their .Sujx'rior, M. de Oueylus. But in the days of Louis Xl\' a French Missionary was an ambassador in a political, as well as a spiritual sense ; and, like Livingstone in oiu" day, the Sulpician was to be explorer as well as evangelist. He would on occasion negotiate and conclude treaties in behalf of .P'rance with the native races; and, on discovering tracts hitherto imexplored by Europeans, he would in solemn form set up a cross bearing the Arms of Fnincc and ajjpropriate the territory to Plis Most Christian Majesty Louis XI\'. Through ;in anticipation, wi; have already witnessed the annexation of the north shore of Lake PLrie by the Sulpicians DoUier and Galinee. The north shore of Lake Ontario was now to be annexed b\- other members of the sami,' Order. MM. 'Prouve and PY-nelon went down to Quebec to obtain their credentials from Bishop Laval ; also from the Civil Government, then represented by Governor Courcelles I in OF THE NORTlf 105 and the Int(;iulant 'I'alnn. TIic two latter, with C'oHxTt's instructions fresh in thrir memory, <;a<;crly forwanicil tiic Mission. IJisiio]) Laval, too, was imicli interested in tiiis new scheme which was to fraitcisrr, or l*'renchif)- the Indians. Actin},;- on Colbert's siij,f}j[estion, he had just foumlcd at Quebec Iiis /V/// Sr nit inn re, and iiad selected ei<,dit French boys and six Indians to live under the same roof aiul to be carefulK tr.iiiK-d toji^ether. 1 iie research of Ai)l)e X'erreaii lias brought to li.nht ;i private letter wriiten by tlu; bishop to Fenelon for his dirtx'tion in the Kenie Mission ; it re(:on\mends the youii;^ missionary when perple.veil to write for .ulvitx; to the j(!suits. This hitter wouhl have made interestinjr readin;.;- for Talon or Colbert I b'rom the scattered annals of this Kente Mission we obtain our first knuwledi^re of Central ( )ntario ; wi; obtain at the same lime most iiUi'restinL;- L;limpses of life .imonitj the ancient Irocpiois Nations. It was the second of ()ct()b(;r before tlu' Sulpici.ins l;oI awa\' from l-atdiine. Two CaN'Uiras were to foi'in their entire coiuo)'. W ith occasional p()rta,<;es and towiniL^fs of cano(!s they surmounteil the obstacles that la_\' between Lakes St. Louis and St. b'rancis. .Smoke was noticed in an inlet ol Lake .St. brancis, anil, on repairinj^ to the spot, the (;\j)l()rers discovered two emaciated scpiaws and a l)oy ten or twelve years oKl. 'I'hese unfortunates had been drixcn as slavtis to the ( )neida village that lay west- ward near the lake ol the same name. They made a desperate alleinpt to escapt; to the French settlements, ami had now been forty days in the wlhh.'rness without other footi than a few scpiirrels. which the boy had contrived to shoot with ruile arrows luade b\- his mother. Ravenously they devoured some biscuits that the .Snlpicians L,rave th(;m ; but, their luuii^'er allayed, ihey were now in terror lest they should sulier the dreadful penalty of fuj^'^itive slaves amom^r the Lidians, — roastinsj^ to death at a slow tire. It was with the utmost ditticuilty that the missionaries saved these poor creatures from the tomahawk of their Iroquois L^uides, one of whom maddenetl himself for murder by drinkin_sj[ from a little kejj;' of brandy procured in Montreal. Through many dangers the fugitives made good their (light, and joined the i)oor remnants of tribes that had escaped the general extermination in the west. To th(; Sulpicians this was no holiday excursion. .Sometimes wading rapids with bruised and bleeding feet, sometimes swim- ming streams and inlets, these \vear\ wayfarers reached Kente on the feast of .St. Simon and .St. Jude, (28th October), 1668. Chateaubriand, in a cynical epigram, observes that of all Indian virtues, hospitality is the last to \ iekl to European civilization. Indian larders were, nevertheless, subject to wide vicissitudes, ranging all the wa\- from a stilling feast to gaunt famine. The pilgrims happeneil into Kente on rather a lean day. Their first nnial was choppetl pumpkins fried in suet. With th(> anciimt sauce of hunger, the worthy fathers found the entertainment excellent ! Another day brought a pottage of maize and sunflower- seeds. This alarming preparation was palled snoaiii/fi'. It woukl sadly disconcert ihe io6 p/rnri^HSQi 7: s/'o rs chef o[ the "Arlington" or the "Diifoe;" but, in tlic pre-historic jfardciis of Criitial Ontario, (cstheticism was cultivated, and sunllo\vt;rs loniiii il ovir sciuashcs, ami ixinip' kins, and Indian corn. In llic woodland kitchen, siintlowi'r-sccds j^mv > : the Seneca villai^c on I'rinch- iiian's iiay already noliceil ; (ianeraske, the Indi.ui \.da_i;i-' on the futun' site of Tort ll(i|ii'; .md ( ianneious, iIk; lro(|uois representali\ <• of our Nap.uKc In the sprini; ol i()()9 the .Xbhe l'"enelon went down to Montreal and i)roUL;ht l)ack with him as a reinforcement M. D'l'rfe. who rem.iiiicd during llie winter at Kenle, whih' I'enelon explored W(;stwaril and wintered at h renchm.in's Hay. Two othiM' .Sulpicians, Dollier and ( ialinee, spent, it may he rememlicreil, the same winter in the lor(;st between the- (iraiid River and l.om; i'oin: ; the\- thankfidly contrast llu; mildness of their season with its e.Ncessive rij^oiu' else- where. In Central and Eastern Canada the winter of 1669-70 was of unprecedent- ed hiiL^^th and se- verity. June found the 14 r o u !i d still frozen in the gardens of Montreal, and all the orchard trees dead. Unlike the tribes across the lake, who kept droves of swim;, and sloretl up maize in laru;e OF Till': NORTH 107 ON THK BKACH, COBOURCi. lie i-e granaries, these Northern Iroquois had sttemins^lx- laid up nothing- for winter. The missionaries were forced to rans^e tlie forest for food, tliankful for a s(iiiirrt;l or chipmunk, and sometimes uiiawin^^ even tlie funi^i th.it ^^vvw witiiin tiie shack; of the pines. Fenelon's experience by the Whitby shore must iiave been worst; tiian his brethren's at Keiite, for \\v. had no one to share his tiioiiLiius or his suffi-rin^^s. He dietl witliin ten years, at the early age of thirty-eight ; and it is probable that his constitution was broken by the hardships of that memorable w'liter. To this delicately- nurtur'^d son of the oUl noblesse what an appalling change from the stilotis of Paris, and from the retined luxi;: \ t)f tiu' ancestral castle at Perigord ! lie would have been either more or less than human not to have been at times profoundly depressed. And he had sacrificed so much tliat his rank would have ensured to him! Mis uncle, the Manpiis de Fenelon, was a distinguished soldier and statesman ; the Manpiis' daughter would presently marry into the great house of Montmorency-Laval. Another marriage alliance would secure for him the influence of the great Colbert. One of his uncles was Bishop of Sarhit ; iiis brother would become the illustrious Archbishop of Cambray ; and for himself, iiad he but \-ielded to the |)assionate entreaties of his uncle of Sarlat, and remained at home, the iiighesl offices in Church or State were open to his legiti- mate ambition ! The life of these warlike Iroquois was an alternation between wild revels and absolute destitution. Hven amid th windint,'- stream and the shadowy elms. The burghers of ancient P)owmanville did not Iniild orL,rans and pianos; nor make luxurious furniture: delicately - pencilled s])ra\s of hemlock served for their repose: and as for s"cet s)-m[)honies, had tliey not the forest with its clustered orL;an-| lines ? After I'renchman's |?a\-, the next easterh' station of the Sulpicians w;is at Ganeraske'. \\\' have alread\- been at some pains to tnice the error by which, in some later I-"rench maps, the name " 're\-ov;iL,''on " was m;irk Ganeraska entered the lake there was lime out of mind a natural covert whither canoes llew for sheitt'r. Canoe-voya^es are over, and now lake-hirds ol longer and stronger llight haunt thest' waters; hut, if a storm breaks, it is just as it STONY I.AKK, NKAK I'KTIKnOKOl'C.lI. no PlCTiliESQL H SPOTS was ot old : steamers and sail-craft scud and flutter towards the ancient covert. This natural gateway to the new-discovered land was not overlooked by the Sulpicians. Fenelon visited the village more than once, and acquired great influence over the Indians, which, in 1673, was turned to ex- cellent political use by Count Fron- tenac. In 1671, DT'rfe made a sojourn at Port Hope. Sometimes he would exchange places with the Superior at Kcnte : and the two Sulpicians would often range the forests and neighl)Ouring ?,\^oxi:\'~, ''citcrclici' Ics bn'bis c'gan'cs" — "to seek the lost sheep,' — that Laval's pastoral had so solemnK- committed to their charge. In such excursions these pioneers must have l)ecome familiar with the sites on which havt; since arisen thriving towns and villages, and which even in pre-historic times were singled out for their natural advantages. Where the i\ied tower of the Collegiatt; School now looks down ui)on Fort Hope, the .Sulpicians have no doubt often stood and looked out upon a waving landscape, of which the neighl)ouring pine-grove still whispers a reminiscence. As of old. Pine .Street leads down to the harbour; but otherwise, how altered the .scene ! For the silence and romantic gloom of sylvan ravines, we have all the bustle and circumstance of a young cit)', through whose arteries is throbbing the trade of the midland lakes. The Sulpicians must have been wel' acquainted with the Co])ourg Beach, which vas but a couph? of leagues eastwartl. Two v-enturies ago. it was in great est('em for salmon fishing. .So the Manpiis de Denonville wrote Louis XIV in 16.S7. The ( iovernor-Cieneral had rested on the site of Cobourg when returning with his army from the campaign OF THE NORTH III in Seneca Land. A force of two thousand men assembled at Fort Cataraqui (Kin_ijston), and embarked on a llotilla of nearly two hundred bateaux. This expedition brouy;ht together names that have since become household words in Canada. Tiie veteran Callieres comhianded under the Governor ; then caini; the Chevalier ile Vau(ilreuil, ancestor of the Mart|uis who governed Canada in iIk; day of Montcalm ; among the junior officers were iierthier, and Longueuil le Moyne. They coasted along the south shore of the Lake, and rendezvoused at the mouth of the Genesee. Here they were joined by Tonty, commandant of I-'ort St. Louis, with his contingent of Illinois Indians; by Durantaye, commandai.t at Mackinac; and b\- Dii Luth, who was then commandant of I-'ort Detroit, and whose own fort on Lake Superior is still com- memorated by a city on those waters. Years afterwards this raid into Seneca Land was traceable by its ruthless de\asta- tion. Leaving a force to rebuild and garrison b'ort Niagara, the expedition returned by the north shore. After an encampment on Burlington Beach, and then at Toronto, where they W(,-r(; detained by a storm of wintl and rain, they reached Frenchman's Bay. WATCIIINi; lOK 1)i;ku. There the Christian Indians feast(!d our warriors with a d()ul)le hecatomb of deer, after which the llotilla of bateaux ran before a light south-west wind to Cobourg Beach : w 112 PICTURESQ LIE SPO PS 10 and here the expedition encamped to reinforce the commissariat with lake salmon. It was the sixth of August, 1687. Denonville and CaUieres would pace the Ijroad strand toirether. They would at times stoj) short to watch tlu; restless lake rockins^' like a mighty loom, and weavinsj^ into endless patterns the gray, and purple, and black sands; while coquettish eddies, likt' I'cnelope, ran their fingers through the web and ravelled it all out again. When night clostal in, the Governor would sit by the; water watching the canoes of the lire-fishers shooting like meteors across tlie harbour. Mis eyes and his thoughts would involuntarily be borne towards that southern horizon so lately red- dened in' the Inirning of the Seneca villages. But no thought of remorse for thousands of helpless women and children left homeless and hungering! He is bethinking him in what terms he will set forth this business so as to flatter his royal master, and advantage himself. Two y irs hence such an anniversary of this August night will come as shall balance up the reckoning, and close Denonville's administration with that page of blood and flame, entitled P/ir Massacre of Lachine. ! Charming lake and landward views may be had at Cobourg. For them you may ascend to the campanile of Victoria Hall, as the stately municipal building here is called ; or, better still, get President Nelles' permission to climb to the roof of Victoria University. The University which, from the in.scription over the portal, was established more than fifty years ago as the " Upper Canada Academy," lies nestling in a leafy covert, like Plato's lecture-room in the grove of Academus. I'araday Hall is a vigorous off-shoot of the older curriculum, showing the President's resolution to keep his University abreast of modern research. .\ saunter through the laboratories anil museums brings into startling neighbourhood the slumberous past and the feverish present. Here we found a powerful Gramme machine in process of evolution ; there calmly slept an Egyptian mummy. Almost at a stride we passed from the era of electrical tension into the presence of a i)yramid-l)uilder ! The people of Cobourg feel a pride in tilling you how many of their college boys have won distinction and influence ; the\- tell you, also, how many students have left the okl 'iw-otifices there to become judges, law-givers, and Cal)inet Ministers. And pray observe in the local names the lires of United I^mpire Loyalism still glim- mering. The village-nuchnis of the |)roposed district-town us(;d to be called Amherst ; but when it was conjectured that the Prince of Coburg-Gotha might become the husbantl of the Princess X'ictoria. the Loxalists grasped the forelock of time, antici- pated even tiie tlomestic (liplomatisi Baron .Stockmar, and called the new district-town Col)ur<;, which has since Ikhmi unnecessarily amplifietl in the spelling. By an auspicious coincidence, the Prince of Wales was with us in i860 when \'ictoria Hall was ready to be inaugurated ; and he threw himself into the occasion with refreshing heartiness. As the Sulpician pioneers ascended from the Cobourg shore and climbed the water-shed that separates the streams of the Trent X'alley from those of Lake OF THE NORTH "3 lave Ami liin- ■rst ; ihc itici- own ious ad)' ;ss. the ,ak(! 114 PICTURESQUE SPOTS Ontario, by gentle undulations the ancient lake-margins would be reached with their sandy soil and growth of pines and oaks. \\'hc:n the highest ridge was gained, the wayfarers would face about and view the great lake now six or seven hundred feet below. To these first European explorers the lake might well seem boundless. Yet, often by mirage, — and sometimes in actual presence, as Colonel Strickland declares, — might have been seen, away in the southern horizon, the farther rim of the primeval lake-basin. Of yonder dim ridge. Colonel Rochester would, more than a century afterwards, make a "coign of vantage" for a great city. Pursuing their route and descending the northern slope, they would see gleaming through aisles of stately forest a great link of that noble lake-chain which, for centuries of centuries before the Trent Valley Canal was thought of, must have led the forest-ranger from the Bay of Quinte to Georgian Bay. As our pilgrims approached the water, they found it deeply fringed with wild rice, over which hovered clouds of wild fowl, — beautiful wood-duck, with summer glistening in their plumage ; also fall and winter duck just returned from the north. Nor did the birds take amiss the presence of a few red-men who were threshing some ripened rice into their canoes. Throughout the lake were scattered conical islets wooded with maples, already aflame with the hectic of tiic dying sum- mer; and at times their bright leaves would fall on the water like flakes of tire. So Champlain had found this lake in .September, 1615; and so, more that half a century later, the Sulpicians saw it, — for in Rice Lake their explorations mingled with the earlier current of adventure. In the days of the .Sulpicians there stood by the north shore, — apparently within the present Indian Reserve on the Otonabee, — the Iroquois village of Kentsio, so that early French geographers called Rice Lake Lac t/c Kentsio. Next century, when Kente became Quinte, Kentsio became Quintio ; and, at the v.'ord, F.nglish geographers taking a long stride eastward, called the water " Lake Ouinte." But, as already seen. Lake Quinte was a cove on the lakeward side of Prince P2dward County. Of this confusion the notable result was that neither of the litigants ultimately got the English title ; it was bestowed on a bay known to the early French as Lac St. I^yon. This is but another instance of the disentanglement necessary before we can recover the early history of our Province. The map of Lake Ontario has within historic memory been over-written with five series of names and settlements: those of the Huron-Algonquin era; tiiose of the Iroquois domination ; those of the; French occupation ; those of the Mississaga or Ojebway Conquest; and those of the English occupation. Of the Huron-Algoncpiin period, but slight traci; survives on Lake Ontario beyond the name of the lake itself. .'\fter alternate fanfares and dist^rdces, it had ijcen rechristened Lake St. Louis, and Lake of the Iroquois; Frontcnac's Lake and Lake Cataraciul : but the grand old Lake went calmly back to the simplicity, — the majestic simplicity, —of its ancient name. OF THH NORTH 115 Even in Charlevoix's day, — a hiincired ami sixty years ago, — the undisputed name was once more Ontario, " The Great Lake." Of the Iroquois domination, also, hut few traces remain, — a few sonorous names hke Niagara and Toronto. The race of athletes wiio lonU.'d it over half tiie Continent, whose alliance was eagerly courted by France and ICngland, were, after all, unable to maintain their foothold against the despised Ojebways. Of these, the Mississagas became specially numerous and aggressive, so that their totem, the crane, was a familiar hieroglyph on our forest trees from the beginning of last century. One of the oldest of Greek legends relates tlie war of the Cranes and Pygmies. Though the foes of our northern Cranes were not Pygmies, but giants, they possessed not the craft of the little ancients who lived by the ocean shore. The Mississagas so muitiplied in their northern nests that presenth', by mere numbers, they overwhelmed the Iroquois. Most desperate fighti.ig there was, and the battle-fields were still clearly traceable when English pioneers first broke grounil. Colonel Strickland, in his ('X|)lorations of the County of Peterborough, found near the Otonabee River the held that gave the Mississagas the lordship of Rice Lake and Stony Lake, and the other lakes beyond, — a domain now all but shrunken to the little village of Hiawatha. These old tragic scenes are fast fading into the twilight of a Homeric legend. With propriety, probably unconscious, a town- ship on the lower edge of Rice Lake has b(!en named Asphodel, — ^no unfit name for well-watered meadows, where the shades of Indian heroes may still linger! While thus saimtering over our ancient battle-grounds, one's thoughts find words in the sonnet-dirge of our native poet, .Sangster : — live he or iiin >lf. " My footsteps press where, centuries ago, The Red Men fought and conquered ; lost and won. VVI;ole tril)es .uid races, gone like last year's snow, Have found ihc ICternal Hunting Grounds, and ,un The tiery gauntlet of their active days, Until few are left to tell the mournful tale ; And these inspire us with such wild ania/e They seem like spectres passing down a vale Steeped in uncertain inoonlight. on their way Towards some bourn where darkness blinds the day, And night is wrapped in mystery prolound. We cannot lift the mantle of the past : We seem to wander over hallowe I grounci : We scan the trail of Thought, but all is overcast.'' le. The Mississagas, though not endowed witli either the Mohawk verve or intellect, were no more destitute of poetry than of valour. Take the names of some of their chiefs. One chief's name signified "He who makes footsteps in the sky"; .mother was Ii6 PICTURESQUE SPOTS li ENTRANC1-; TO IKON ORE MINKS, MADOC. Waivanosh, " He who ambles the water." The Rev. Peter Jones was, throii^-h his mother, descended from a famous line of [joetic warriors ; his grandfather was Waitbuno, " The Morning Light." On occasion, the Mississaga could come down to prose. Scugog describes the clay bottom and submerged banks of that lake, which, taking a steamer at Port Perry, we traverse on our summer excursion to Lindsay and Sturgeon Lake. Chemong aptly names the lake whose tide of silt sometimes even retards our canoe when we are fishing or fowling. Onicmcc, " the wild pigeon," has given its name not only to Pigeon Lake and its chief afifluent, but to the town where Pigeon Creek lingers on its course to the lake. Sturgeon Lake is linked to Pigeon Lake by a OF THE NORTH 117 j-M tloiiI)le jj^ateway. This "rocky portal" the Mississaj^as dcscrilxd hy Bobcays^eon. In our time tlic namo lias been transferred to the romantic viljai^c on tlic upper outlet, and the latter is now the " North River." My a reprehensible levity, the lower outlet is now called "The Little liob." '\'\\v X^-mw^x Bcaulwcagc, \\\w\\ jdit-s between Lindsay and Bobcayj^eon, would evidently take; us back for the latter name to the old b'rcnch explorers, and to their outspoken adniiralion of the /ovr/v iKlack snakes, and black hears. All honcMir to the men whose iiands or brain workeii the transformation I Tiioir services were' but seklom remembereil in tin; naming- of our towns. " I'ort Perry," by an after-thoug^ht, revived tile memorv of the founder of Whitby. Lindsay is nametl, well and worthily, after a poor axe-man, who iK^rished in the survey of tiie cedar swam|), throu_L,di the heart of which Kent Street was carried. Peterborouij^h is now entering- on the tliij^nity of a city; l)ut the name very properly takes back our thoutjhts to ICS25, and to the con- dition of .Scott's Plains, when Peter Robinson led thither his first band of Irish immigrants. After building a long boat, he made a preliminary ascent of the Otonabee with twenty native Canadians ami thirty of tlie healthiest of the immi- grant.s. Mr. Robinson ailds : "Not one of these men escaped the ague ami fever, and two died." Among its first settlers, Lakefield received no less than three of the literary Stricklands, — Colonel Strickland and his sisters, Mrs. Moodie and Mrs. Traill. H) their graceful contributions to our native literature, Lakefield and Rice Lake became known 130 riCTURtiUQUH SPOTS far beyond the limits of Canaila, I )r. Todli-'s liarly Stttlcmcnt of l\ti'rhorough is also an important contrilnitioii to tlu; county annals. In tin: Coiintit!s of l'cti;rl)oroiij,rh and I lastinj^s. \\v lind thr liorderland Ix-tween the oldest si-dinu:ntary rocks and the still more ancient Laincntian sciries. The Silurian limestones ar«! expressed in tlic music of ri( ii woodlands, or in rounded knolls of venlurc ; hut some of the most (harmin); lakes owe their wild beauty to the Lauren- tian formation, which often al)ruptly closes the vista with heetlinj,^ craj^^s of nil or grey gneiss. At Stony Lake, this red granitic gn(;iss rises throu_i;h the lake-lloor, form- ing the islands lately whiteneil hy the tents of the American Canoe Association. That was a joyous occasion not soon to In; forgotten. If you ask how the time was spent, Emerson must answer : 111 "Ask you, how wciil tlio lioiirs? All ilay we swept the lake, searched every cove North from Camp Maple, south to (Xsprey Bay, Walchhi^r whfii the hnid (higs shouhl ...-.v vir .A. " :■' ^c3HE!^^^?< \t^ rt'^ ■ • .. . -' > ..- . -■*--'- '■.•,1.'' ^ f ' 'Mc^m^- :"^^^^:!;^:' ■:'''^-'''\- \y.£ ;- >:- . PAKLKY HARVEST. OF THH NORTH 123 Vines and walnuts - a raw 11 '50 snow L\- be :s of cove lu're of T>ASSING clown the (|iiit;t waters of Ouintd, shut in from the threat Lake outside by the long low-lying shore of Amherst Island, — formerly called Isle of Tonti, in memory of I)e la Salle's trusted lieutenant, — the grey mass of the city of Kingston is seen crown- ing the slope of the curving shore. I'rom tile western extremity of the curve, the setting sun crimsons the wide expanse of Lake Ontario. F.ast- ward, the clian- '. \w\ of the St. Lawrence be- Towards this point, I.AKE OF THK ISLES, THOUSAND ISLANDS. gins to lie tletined by a line of islands. To the north extends a reach of what anywhere else would seem a noble river — the Cataraqiii, which gave to the place its early name, where the lake and river meet," on a midsummer's day more than two centuries ago, there steered its way, up through II I3C PICTURESQUE SPOTS 1 ii ifi H OF THE NORTH 131 the mazes of the Thousand Islands, a flotilla of a splendour never seen before in these remote waters. First, came four lines of canoes, then two large and j^aily-painted flat-boats or bateaux, adorned with cpiaint and mysterious devices, followed by a long train of canoes, a hundred and twenty in all. In the first canoe of the train was a cluster of French officers, conspicuous among them the stately figure of the Count de Frontenac, Governor of New France. The bright sun shone on gold-laced uniforms, and the measured beat of the paddles kept time to the strains of martial music ; but it was no holiday cruise that had been experienced during the fortnight that had intervened between the embarkation at Lachine and the arrival at Cataraqui. The ascent of such a river as the St. Lawrence involved long and toilsome portages, and the labour — now of dragging the flat-boats along the shore, and now of stemming the fierce current in water more than waist deep, Frontenac, in person, spurred on his men to their task, sharing their privations, losing a night's sleep from anxiety, lest the water should have got in and spoiled the biscuit, but never leaving his post even while, — amid drenching rain, — the crews struggled with the wild rapids of the Long Sault. When the last rapid had been safely passed, the flotilla glided in among the placid labyrinths of the Lake of the Islands, past rugged masses of lichened, pine-crested granite, through glassy inlets mirroring the varied green of birch and beech and maple, edged with soft velvety moss and waving ferns, fringed with reeds, and starred, here and there, with the snowy flowers of the water-lily. Beyond this enchanted land the islands grew fewer and larger, and now the blue expanse of Ontario loomed wide in the distance. As the miniature fleet approached the point where the Cataraqui joins the St. Lawrence, it was met by a canoe containing some Iroquois chiefs, magnificent in feathers and wampum, accompanied by the Abbe d' Urfe. In the language of the journal of the expedition, "they saluted the Admiral, and paid their respects to him with evidence of much joy and confidence, testifying to him the obligations they were under to him for sparing them the trouble of going farther, and of receiving their submission at the River Katarakoui, which is a very suitable place to camp, as they were about signifying to him." Then they conducted him to "one of the most beau- tiful and agreeable harbours in the world, capable of holding a hundred of the largest ships, with sufincient water at the mouth and in the harbour, with a mud bottom, and so sheltered from every wind that a cable is scarcely necessary for mooring." The expedition landed and pitched tents on the spot now occupied by the THc du Pont Barracks, commanding the outlet of the Cataraqui River, and protected by the high banks opposite from the eastern winds. The main shore, curving out south- westwardly, sheltered it from the west winds that sweep so strongly down the lake. From the northward, the Cataraqui wound between high and curving banks, begirt with marshes, inhabited by water-fowl, beaver and muskrats, while to south and west, 13a PICTURESQ UE SPO TS I" V \ hill, heatlland, ami loiij; woocknl islaiuls closed in the nobk' harbour, the iiiaiiitcst site of a future centre of trade and shippinj^. This spot had het-n marked out hy the liitendaiit, M. dc Talon, diirinj^ tht: regime of M. de Courcelles, for " a fur dep6t with defences," to protect the },neat trade, and check the forniidahlc lro(|uois. M. de CvKircelles had himself undertaken an exploring journey to Catara<|ui in a canoe, and his list official act was to call a convention of the Indians to secure their assent to the erection ol the proposed fort. F'rontenac, probably prompted by l>a Salle, was not less alive to the importance of an outpost at the entrance of Lake Ontario, which should check the Inxpiois raids, and intercept the flow of the fur traffic towards the Dutch and English settlers of New York. At daybreak, Jul)- 1 v '(^/j. ^it '"-'iit <>f drum, the ['"rench force, some four hundred strong, — including Indians, — was ilrawn up under arms, and the lro(|uois (kjputies ad- vanced, between a double line of men, to the tent of the liovernor, who stood, in full official state, surrounded by his officers. After the usual formula of smoking the pipe of j)eace in silence, the council was opened by a friendly chief named Garakontie, with the usual expressions of respect for the (ireat Ononthio. I'Vontenac replied in his grand paternal style, expressing his pleasure at meeting his Indian "children," and the pacific spirit which animated him ; ami, with gifts of tobacco ami guns for the men, and prunes and raisins for tlu' women ami children, the pow-wow broke up. Meantime, the site of the fort was marked out, — trees were cut down, trenches dug, and palisades hewn, with such energy and industry that, — four ilays later, — suffi- cient progress had been made to admit of calling a grand council of the Indians, at which hrontenac, after a judicious preface of exhortation and veiled threats, announced his intentions, — as a proof of his affection, — of building a storehouse, where they could be supplied with goods, without the inconvenience of a long and dangerous journey. His address seemed to give general satisfaction, and, a few days after, the assembled Iroquois departed to their homes. The expedition also was sent back in detachments ; Frontenac with his guard outstaying the rest, in ortier tf) receive a deputation from the villages to the north of Lake Ontario. In reporting to the minister, Colbert, the successful accomplishment of his object, he intimated that while this fort at Cataraqui, with a vessel then in progress, would give the French control of Ontario, a second fort at the mouth of the Niagara would command the whole chain of the upper lakes. This, indeed, formed part of the comprehensive scheme of tht; man to whom the command of Fort I'Vontenac was assigned, — Robert Cavalier de la Salle. The son of a wealthy burgher family of Rouen, De la Salle had come to Canada at the age of twenty-two. Brave, enterprising and enthusiastic, endowed with indomitable firmness and inexhaustible perseverance, his naturally strong constitution, hardened almost to iron by a ten years' course of discipline among the Jesuits, and with an imagina- OF TlUi NOR I'll m leiits ; from t, tin; i';u|iii, .:c:<)iul akes. tlu- n of :c of mess t to tri na- tion liiid 1)\ till' ilrcaiii of dis- covery, lie was <;a,L;(r to distinj^iiisli himself 1)\ takiiii^ possession, in tile nainr of ll-.mce, ol the 1111- exiilorcd lerrilories In the south III liic lireat Lakes, His early ream was of a north-west passai^c to China !))• ihi' waters of the Ottawa. Hilt his mind, tired by Joliet's report of the Mississipni, was now coiiccMitraled on a more practicable scheme. Fort Frontenac was to be but a step towards industrial colonies in the rich south-western wilderness, and a com- mercial route down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. .\ special journey to I'rance, in 1674, secured to him a tyrant of the fort, a large tract of surroundini:^ territory ami the islands adjacent, alony with his patent of un- titled nobility. Within two years he had re- iiii ■^5f5g vvjiivM _ m •34 PlCTURHSQUli SPOTS ■ % 1| I'lr-'i placed the original wooden fort by a nuicli laryjer one, "enclosed on tlu- landward side by ramparts and basrions of stone, and, on the water-side, by palisades. It contained a ranj^je of barracks of scjiiared timber, a jfiiard-house, a lodging for officers, a forge, a well, a mill and a bakery." The wails were armed with nine small guns, and the garrison consisted of a dozen !,oldiers, two officers and a surgeon, while an additional contingent of some fifty labourers, artisans and voyageurSy added to its strength. In the shadow of the fort, where now stands the oldest portion of the city of Kingston, a small I'Vench village of colonists grew up. A little farther on was a cluster of Iroquois wigwams, and near them the Chapel and Presbytery of the kecollet Friars, Louis Hennepin, the well-known explorer, and Luie Huisset. Here La Salle reigned supreme over his little kingdom, anil here he might have remained, amassing a colossal fortune, and, perhaps, making l-ort I'rontenac as im- portant a settlement as Montreal. Hut his ambition still pointed westward and south- ward, and, despite the persistent opposition of Jesuits and Canadian merchants, he secured, on a second visit to France, permission to undertake the exploration of the country with a view to a route to Mexico, and to build as many forts as he required, provided they were built within five years. His cherished design was eventually to build a vessel at some point on the Mississippi, with which he might follow it to its mouth, thus opening a new commercial route to the Gi If of Mexico. How, in pursuit of this ignis fatuus, he built his brigantine at F"ort Frontenac, in which he sailed to Niagara to erect his fort or "palisaded storehouse," and build and launch the ill-fated Griffin, — lost with her first cargo of furs in the stormy waves of Lake Erie, — how, after reaching at last the Gulf of Mexico, and taking possession of Louisiana, he fell in the wilds of Texas, by the bullet of a false follower, is known to all who have read the history of New France. Under M. de Denonville, Fort Frontenac was the scene of an act of treachery that stamps his name with an indelible brand of infamy. By the influence of two devoted missionaries to the Oneidas and Onondagas, he inveigled a number of their chiefs into the fort, under the pretext of a pacific conference ; and, as soon as they were within the precincts, had them put in irons and carried in chains to Quebec, thence to be transported to France, to wear out their lives in the dismal confine- ment of the galleys. Strange to say, the outrage was not avenged on the missionaries. The elders of the tribe sent them away with a safe convoy, lest the younger members of the tribe might be less forbearing, "and we, aged and feeble as we are, shall not be able to snatch thee from their vengeful grasp." A terrible retribution followed ere long, in which the innocent suffered with the guilty. The Iroquois swept the country around Cataraqui, burning the cabins and destroying the crops of the settlers, covering the lakes with their canoes, and block- ading the garrison. The hostilities culminated in the midnight massacre of Lachine ;i3 ltl_ OF THE NORTH 135 and the capture of I-'ort I'Vonteiiac, whir' , like I'Ort Niaj^ara. was demolished l)y the Indians. De Fronteiiac, recalled to supersede the weak and treacherous !)e Denonville, found the colony laid waste, its villaj^^es heaps of sinokinjj ruins, and his favourite fort in ashes, while an ominous war- loud was risinjr between New Mn^land and N(!W France. Another expedition under his command was soon marshalled at Catara- qui, embracinjj, besid(!s Indians and Colonial troops, a numluT of staunch veterans who had followed the standards of Conde and Turenne. Frontenac, disrejfardinj,^ the opposition of iiis Intendant, M. ih; Champij^Miy, undertook and com])l(:ted the recon- struction of the fort before contrary orders could arrive from I' ranee. It cost about ;^6oo, — a larjje sum for those days, — and is said, in an old record, to have " consisted of four scjuare curtains, 100 feet each, defended by four scpiart; bastions, but without either ditches or palisades." A wooden gallery was built rountl it, leading from one bastion to another, — the platforms of these bastion being mounted on wooden piles, and the curtains pierced by loopholes. During the trancpiil half century which followei ontenac's death, we almost lose sight of the fort and settlement at Cataracpii. Father Picquet's complaint, in 1758, of the quality of the provisions he got there, shows how far the settlers lagged behind in agriculture Hut the contlict was impending which was to wrest from France her possessions in the New World, and Fort Frontenac soon felt the shock. It had been repaired and strengthened to meet the storm. Hut Abercrombie seized the opportunity when its garrison was drawn off to protect another point, and sent Colonel Hradstreet to take it, with 3,000 men and eleven guns. He landed near Cataraqui, on the 25th of August, 1758, and cpiickly erecting a battery on the site o{ the present market-place, besieged the little garrison of seventy men, commanded by the aged and chivalrous M. de Noyau. The garrison held out as long as possible, but, ere the coming reinforcements could arrive, M. de Noyau was forced to capitu- late, stipulating, however, for the safety and transport of his troops, and of the " sacred vessels of the chappel " to Montreal. Hesides the fort, Colonel Hradstreet's prize? included the entire French nav\ in Canada, including two twenty-gun ships, with supplies for other outposts, 80 pieces of cannon, and a quantity of smaller arms. Traces of the old fort, and also of the breastwork thrown up by Colonel Brad- street, were visible many years after the Conquest. The remains of the inner tower were not removed till 1827, and vestiges of the fort were still visible when the Grand Trunk Railway line was opened into the city. A few F"rench and Indian families clung to the site ; but the place was scarcely heard of again until its permanent settlement by the U. E. Loyalists at the close of the American War of Independence. A party of these loyalist refugees, undecided where to go when driven from their old homes, were guided b)- a leader who had formerly been a prisoner in Fort Frontenac, and who considered it an eligible site for settlement. Coming from New If il i i: I;! Vi 136 PICTURESQUE SPOTS ^'()rk by tht; circuitous route of the St. Lawrence, the men of the party, only, at first penetrated to the banks of the Cataraqui, where no habitation was to be seen save " the bark-thatched wigwam of the savage, or the newly-erected tent of the liardy loyalist." They returned for the winter to Sorel, where they had left their families, and, when spring had once more set free the blue waters of the St. Lawrence, they made their way up the river in bateaux, look up their grants of land, and, in their loyal z;;a], changed the name of the place from Cataraqui to Kingstown. Their leader. Captain Grass, observes in a tone worthy of the men of the Mayflower : " i pointed out to them the site of their future metropolis, and gained for persecuted principles a sanctuary, for myself a home." 0::her settlers ere long followed, bearing names still well-known in Kingston, ami founding families, imbued with strong Tory predilections, communicating to the place a conservative character, which it long retained. For years, life at the new settlement was primitive enough. For lack of a mill, the settlers had to grind their corn with an ax<; on a ilat stone, or with pestle and mortar. The clums\- axes and unpractised hand of the military settlers made but slow progress in clearing the land. Their farms, too, were often sacrificed to their necessi- ties, sold sometimes for a horse or a cow, or cxen half a barrel of .salmon. The first beef, accidentally killed by a falling tree, was long remembered by those who had the urivilege of sharing it. In 1788, "the famine year," the dearth was so great that starving families Hocked in from the surrounding country where roots and leaves were eaten l)y the i)eople. Gradually, Kingston became a place of some consequence. The original log-cabins gave place to houses of limestone, of which there was abundance to be had for the quarrying. A grist-mill, built by the Government in 1782, a.' 't six miles up the Catara- qui, and worked by a pretty cascade tumbling out of a picturescjue gorge, added to the importance of the town. As the settlers grew a little richer, ami able to replace their home-made clothing by imported fabrics, and th(' exports of llour and pork increased, new shops were started, and the principal thoroughfare — -now called Princess Street — received the name of .Store Street. The place resumed much of its old consequence when it became a military and naval station ni-.der the British (lag. This honour was at first conferred on Carleton Islantl, near the opposite shore, where the ruins of extensive fortifications excite the wonder of picnic parties to this day ; but when the island was discovered to be within the American lin(;s, Kingston was chosen, and it retained the distinction, until the final withdrawal of the British troops from Canada. "The War of 1812" brought Kingston to the front, as xXw. chief Canadian strong- hold (Ml Lake Ontario, and the rival to the American arsenal at Sackett's Harbour. The Government dockyard occupied the low-lying peninsula opposite the town, which is now graced by the fine Norman structure of the Royal Military College and its il \i OF THE NORTH 137 dependent buildings. Tlir dark yrccii reach of" deep water between tlie colley;(' and liie glacis of l'"ort Henry was the naval moor- ing ground. Where, in our days of pi]3ing peace, nothing more threatening than the skififs of cadets training to be future llan- lans are seen, lay formidable battle-ships. One of them,— the St. Lawrence, — built here in 1814, cost the British Government half a millif logs with an embankment. The woods, which clotiied the long sK ,)ing hill and the A M H iK. 138 PICTURESQUE SPOTS \ i.'ii I "A -1 adjacent country, were cut down to prevent the possibility of surprises, and a ciiain of those essentially Colonial defences, known as block-houses, connected by a picket stockade, defended the city. One ancient specimen of the little wooden forts still remains. Subsequently, the block-houses gave place to a cincture of massive Mar- tello towers and stone batteiies, which present an imposing appearance on approaching Kingston from the water, though to modern warfare they are no more foimidable than the old defences of logs. Twenty years after the war, the present Fort Henry was also built, a most important fortification in those days, with its heavy guns and mortars, its advanced battery and its casemated barracks, providing accommodation for a large garrison. The embrasures of the fort look askance at the foundries and enginery on the opposite side of the harbour. The cannon confronts the locomotive ; and, fit emblem of our time, a solitary warder guards the decaying fort, while in the locomotive shops, between four and five hundred skilled workmen are employed. Still, Kingston retains a military look, not unpleasing to the tourist's eye. There is the fort crowning the glacis. Full in front, a round tower covers the landing. At its base, a semi-circular bastion pierced for artillery is ready to sweep the water. The tower, with its conical red cap and circling wall of compact ball-proof masonry, looks well. It would have scared the Iroquois. It could have defied the raiders of 1812. Against modern artillery, it is as good as an arquebuse. Hard by is the military college, with its fifty or sixty red-coated, white-helmeted cadets. Where the olive-green of Cataraqui Creek blends with the blue of the bay, still stands the old naval barracks, where Tom Bcwling and Ned Bunting were wont to toast "sweethearts and wives." A little up the creek is Barriefield Common, once gay with the pomp and circumstance of glorious war, but now sel 'om marched over by anything more militant than the villagers' geese. From the Common, a causeway, nearly half a mile long, extends across the creek to the THc du Pont Barracks, the headquarters alternately of the very efiicient A and B Batteries. Thanks to the gentlemen cadets and the battery men, the streets of Kings- ton still have a sprinkling of red, white and blue. The Royal Military College is the West Point of Canada. To train young men for a profession that can hardly be said to exist or to have any ground for existing in the New World, to educate oHicers before any one thinks of enlisting soldiers — save on a scale suited to the ancient grand-duchy of Pumpernickel — is perhaps to put the cart before the horse. What is still more anomalous, the Government seems to have no policy on the subject, for it takes no pains to utilize the services of the graduates of the institution it has estab- lished. Still, if we must spend three-quarters of a million annually on a militia department, it is well that some of the money should be spent on education. The greater the number of scientificallv tr-~.ined men a new country has the better. The cadets get a capital training, for the college is admirably officered. Kingston has long had a just pre-eminence as an educational centre. The first IIJ OF THE NORTH 139 Grammar School in Canada was established here in 1786, under Dr. Stuart, — the first teacher as well as the first clergyman in Upper Canada ; and the schools of Kingston are noticed by Rochefoucauld on his visit in 1805. There were elementary schools, on the Lancasterian principle, for the poorer classes, long before our Common School system was organized. In higher education it has an honourable record. The University of Queen's College, whose new local habitation is one of the architectural adornments of the city, was founded in 1840 by a number of clergymen and laymen of the Church of Scotland in Canada. " Queen's," as it is affectionately termed by its sons, has grown with the growth of Canada, — has a noble record of work done in the past, — and, in its new halls and the throng of eager students who fill them, and its largely increased and distinguished staff, — it rejoices in greater usefulness in the present, and has still brighter hopes for the future. Kingston is the seat not only of the Royal Military College, and of Queen's University, with its Faculties of Arts, Science, Law, and Divinity, but also of the Roman Catholic College of Regiopolis, which has been closed since the withdrawal of the government grant in 1869. Two other ey.cellent institutions, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Women's Medical College, are affiliated to Queen's University. Tiie Collegiate Institute represents two older High Schools; and among the school-boys educated in them, Kingston boasts the premiers of the Province and the Dominion. When Upper Canada became a separate province, Kingston might be said to have been the first capital, for it was here, — in an old wooden church fronting the market- place, — that Governor Simcoe was sworn into office, his first cabinet chosen, and the writs issued to convene the Legislative Assembly which met at Niagara, previous to meeting more permanently at York. The city also had the distinction of being the seat of Government of the United Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, from the union in 1840 until 1844, the Legislature meeting in the edifice opposite the new buildings of Queen's College, which is now, perhaps, more usefully occupied as the City Hospital. The impetus received from the residence of the government officials was followed by a corresponding depression on their removal. Nor was the prosperity of the place increased by the building of the Grand Trunk Railway. It has been benefited much more by the Kingston and Pembroke Railway, a new line that opens up a region formerly inaccessible, of much natural beauty and great natural riches, though at first sight it looked unpromising enough. To this wild and rocky district the well culti- vated townships on the Bay of Quinte offer a striking contrast, not often seen within the limits of one county, even in Canada. It is studded with picturesque little lakes, one of which, SharI)ot Lake, is already a favourite resort on account of its scenery and its resources as a fishing ground. Rocky tracts and ridges, that at first were con- sidered worthless, contain lead, j 'losphates, and immense deposits of iron. When all I40 PICTURESQUE SPOTS II i'8i this country in the rear is fully developed, Kingston, the natural port of transhipment for everything that comes by rail, or by the winding way of the Rideau Canal, will attain a greater degree of importance than it has yet dreamed of. Just above the long bridge which spans the embouchure of the Cataraqui, there stretches a reach of placid river, between green, sloping, and often wooded banks, a rank growth of reeds and rushes in many places nearly filling up the stream. Here, a boat may wind its way for miles in an absolute solitude, — only a wild duck or a heron breaking the stillness of the scene. Following this quiet river for six miles from its junction with the St. Lawrence, we reach a bold, rocky gorge, framing a foaming cascade, which, even yet, is a pretty waterfall, though hemmed in by artificial surround- ings, and made to look like a sort of appendage to a mill. The abrupt rocky banks are the most romantic feature of the scene, rising almost sheer above the river, clad with a tangle of foliage and creepers. Just below are the gates of the Rideau Canal which begins here, and is carried by five locks up an ascent of forty-five feet. Suspended above the gorge is the iron line of the Grand Trunk Railway bridge, two of the greatest public works of Canada being thus represented at this point. Walking across the bridge, we get from its giddy height a pretty bird's-eye view of the \>inding Cataraqui, with Kingston in the distance, beyond marshy flats, whose yellow tint in autumn contrasts richly with the soft blue of sky and river. There is nowhere to be enjoyed a more delightful day's sail than that from Kingston down the river. ihe traveller starts in the early dawn of a summer morn- ing, as the sun rises golden over the line of high land on the opposite shore of the harbour,— the wide lake stretching calm and glassy in the blue distance to the west. The opposite islands stand out clear in their relative positions. Garden Island, with its cluster of shipping in front, behind it Simcoe Island to the west, with the Bateau Channel between it and Wolfe Island, whose green fields and clumps of shady trees and scattered farm-houses extend down the river for twenty miles. Kingston rises on its gentle slope, the cool grey buildings and slender spires catching the warm glow of the level sunbeams. Far to the right, beyond the long bridge, the winding Cataraqui shows a misty blue between the high green banks that end in the gorge at Kingston Mills. The city buildings, the Court House, and the tower of Queen's Univer- sity, catch the eye as it travels back along the fringe of shipping towards a point, flanked by a Martello tower, at the extreme left, while, farther back, the outlines of the Asylums can be traced in the distance. Opposite to the city rises the slope of Barriefield, wiih its grey church-tower, and the undulating "common" rising gradually into the Fort Hill, while between this and the city, runs out the long level promontory, on which — irradiated by the early sunshine — stand the old and new buildings of the Military College. Turning the point made by the Fort Hill, with its embankment and sally-ports. ,"*! OF THE NORTH 141 ^T^f'JM^ — '* * -■ '. ^-X; BROCKVILLE. we glide swiftly past Cedar Island, with its Martello tower, and the river channel — some fourteen miles wide — is fairly entered. Cedar Island first shows the peculiar con- tour and formation of " The Thousand Islands," grey gneiss, encrusted with moss am ■''Aiiil^ \^^^^^ her iicnen, bearing a low, luxuriant vegetation of birch and cedar and tangled shrubbery. A short distance above Gananoque, the island mazes begin, y with bold, grey rocks tufted with iSft,, dark pines, or little bosky clusters of foliage nestling close to the clear blue waves. On a calm summer morning, when the rich and varieil colourings of granite rocks, with overhanging foliage of every shade of living green, are reflected in the glassy river, which the steamer's swell raises — not breaks — into long heavy undulalans, the scene is like fairy-land. The first mention of these islands is made in the report of the e.xpedition iiy THE lUVER-SmE, BROCKVILLK. 142 PICTURESQUE SPOTS M. de Courcelles against the Mohawk Indians in 1665-6, where they are spoken of with anything but admiration. We are told that they " have nothing agreeable beyond their multitude," and that they "are only huge rocks rising out of the water, covered merely by moss, or a few spruce or other stunted wood, whose roots spring from the clefts of the rocks, whicli can supply no other aliment or moisture to these barren trees than what the rains furnish them," and the locality is farther referred to as "a melan- choly abode." I'Vom these hints it would appear that, two hundred years ago, the comparatively young vegetation, that now makes the chief beauty of the scenery, may have been only beginning to establish itself, and that, with but a scanty and stunted foliage, the rocky wilderness presented but little attraction. From the French explor- ers — it is said from Champlain — the archipelago took its name of "Lac dcs Mille Isles" though the "thousand" is far under the real number. Recent travellers, however, including the Duke of Argyll, have been disappointed in the comparative tameness and monotony of the "Thousand Islands" as cursorily seen from the deck of a steamer. And, indeed, forty miles of them is apt to produce the toujour s perdrix feeling which attacks the traveller even on the Rhine, after a long, unbroken course of ruined castles. The beauty is that of a wmmmm^tmmmmimmm^mm% succession of charming vignettes, rather than of any one grand picture, and the way to see and feel it is to sojourn among them, watching their ever-changing as- pects from day to day. You should see them glorified in the exquisite ethereal tints of dawn before they " fade into the light of common day," and watch that, again, deepen into the rosy sun- set glow, which often makes the placid river reflect their beauty from " a sea ^"^- of glass mingled with fire," ere it merges into die purple gloaming through which the fire-fly darts its living light, and the plaintive refrain of the whip-poor-will adds pathos to OLD i.iGUT-HousK, I'REscoTT. "'- the beauty of the summer eve. Or, when the full moon rises behind one of the dark islands, throwing its mysterious chiaroscuro over the scene, making a broad, quivering pathway of fretted silver, on which the islands show like silhouettes, — their wavy out- lines of foliage marked out in shadow on the silver sea below. Better, still, if you can OF THE NORTH 143 wander day after day among the hidden rocks and recesses of the island labyrinths, exploring the myriad beauty of lichened granite, and moss, and vine, and Hower, and \A LONG SAULT RAl'IDS, KROM THE CANAL. berry, as well as of the foliage that clusters in rich masses of verdure, or dips into the glassy wave ; or, guiding your tiny skiff through the narrowest of channels, or the most fairy-like of coves, where the limpid water ripples over the pure white sand, or holds in its shaded and shadowy basin a cluster of deep-green leaves and snowy water-lilies. Then, indeed, their gentle beauty grows on you, and in the coup dceil from any elevated point the eye unconsciously reads into the distant outlines the picturesque details with which it has already grown familiar. Nor must we forget the richer beauty which the mellowing touch of autumn throws over the scene, when it turns the delicate green of the birch to gold, and clothes the maple in flame colour and scarlet till it seems like the burning bush of Moses, and flushes the oak to a rich russet or winey red, — while the deep blood-red hue of the low sumach marks some of the smaller islands with a line of crimson. One of the pieasantest points for making a closer acquaintance with the islands, — on the Canadian side, — is the thriving village of Gananoque, about which they are picturesquely grouped. The name of the place is, of course, Indian, signifying "rocks in deep water." A small river of the same name, which winds through the back country, finds its way here into the St. Lawrence between high abruptly-sloping banks, and descends a steep ledge in what was once a spontaneous waterfall, but now is put into harness and made to serve as so much "water-power" to drive numerous factories. Some twenty miles back, near the source of the Gananoque River, lies a prettily wood- F 144 PICTURESQ UH S/'O TS 1^: •?., I OF THE NORTH 145 c/l a t £ U -i M S H O g 2 z ed sheet of water called Charleston Lake, — a resort of sportsmen tluriiig tiie shooting season. Perhaps the most picturescpic bit of the island labyrinth lies about a sudden bend, tailed Fidler's Elbow, — where the channel is too narrow for the larger steamboats, but down which an arrowy little excursion-boat darts and winds, — passing close to rich masses of foliage mirrored in the still waters, or bold ruddy rocks flecked with the exquisite pale greys or greens of encrusting lichens, or still, shadowy bays, kissed by overhanging birch and cedar-boughs, or bristling weather-beaten crags, tufted with solemn pines. Or, suddenly, we come upon a Chinese-looking cluster of summer villas, with pagodas, bridges, and the other well-known features of the willow-pattern plate ; or long avenues of tents and cottages and the bus)- dock of a bustling summer resort, like the "Thousand Island Park" on Wells' Island; or the large gay hotels of Alexandria Bay, where one may step from the untouched wilderness of Nature's solitudes, into all the artificial develop- ments of American fashionable life. The " Thousand Island Park" is a unique collection of tents, light-wooden summer-houses, and a handsome Norman hotel, with a long street of boat-houses extending from its pier along the water's edge. It has also a large "Tabernacle" or canvas church, — its original plan as a Camp Ground including a series of religious meetings. At the lower end of the same island, about eight miles distant, is the quieter " Westminster Park," showing a tall church-tower above the trees. This island was the scene of the inirning of the .S"/> Robert Peel, in 1838, by a band of American outlaws, headed by " liill Johnson," a kind of political Robin Hood, who had conceived the idea of bestowing on Canada the boon of freedom and a Republican Government. The story of his daring and devoted daughter " Kate," who rowed him from hiding-place to hiding-place among the islands, and kept him supplied with food, give a touch of the charm of legend and adventure to these rocky mazes. Cooper has chosen them as one of the scenes of his novel, "The Pathfinder"; and Moore has also touched them with his silver-tongued muse. Below Well's Island, away to eastward, the St. Lawrence opens in a wider vista, with here and there a distant island softly outlined against the soft turquoise blue. Down this widening channel the large river steamers glide on, still amid granite isles on either hand, till at last the long succession ends, and we steam up close to the line of pretty villas that skirt the town of Brockville. Here the river fairly parts company with the rocky isles amid which it has been dreaming, and becomes for a time a comparatively straightforward and prosaic stream, with nothing very striking about it or its slightly rising shores. About a mile below the *^own of Prescott, chiefly notable as the terminus of the Prescott and Ottawa Railway, we pass a point of land on which stands a white-washed stone tower, pierced by narrow loop-holes, and now used as a light-house. This is the historic "Windmill" which, in November, 1837, figured as the stronghold of the 146 PICTURESQUE SPOTS " Patriots," under the command of a Polish adventurer, called Von Schultz. They held the mill for several days against the British forces, under Col. Dundas, but were at last routed and compelled to surrender at discretion. During the action the opposite shore was lined with spectators, who cheered whenever the insurgents appeared to have the advantage. Poor Von Schultz, with nine others of the hundred and ten prisoners, was hanged at Fort Henry after a court-martial, — a victim to the political treachery of those who had led him to undertake the mad enterprise and then aban- doned him to his fate. In our days he would have met with no harder measure than that meted to Arabi Pasha. A few islands in midstream, some of them prettily wooded, are all that vary the blue stretch of river until the quickening current of the Galoups Rapids breaks the dreamy calmness of the stream, — a pleasant foretaste of the larger rapids to come. A canal runs along the shore for the accommodation of small boats. At its eastern extremity lies the prosperous village of Cardinal, formerly Edwardsburg, — notable for its conspicuous starch factory. Near this place the river quickly narrows, till at one point it is only five hundred feet wide. We are now passing, to the left, the old county of Dundas, associated, like King- ston, with the first settlement of the country by the staunch U. E. Loyalists, as well as with some of the most stirring of Canadian warlike associations. Our experiences are of a far more pacific character, — memories of bowery orchards laden with blushing blossoms, of quiet, sequestered farm-houses, of green fields, with lambs and calves at play. Just as we come in sight of Morrisburg, with its many slender spires rising above the embosoming woods, the river, sweeping round a curve, discloses beautiful wooded islands marked with white birchen stems, around which the crested waves of the Rapid Du Plat are seen, swirling in deep-green eddies beneath the luxuriant foliage that overhangs the stream. Some two or three miles below the village, close by a house that stands embossed in foliage, is a curving point, and near it a low, irregular ravine. This, with the adjoining ground, is the scene of the decisive action of Chrysler's Farm, gallantly contested on November 11, 1813, between American troops and a small body of British regulars, reinforced by Canadian volun- teers and militia and a handful of Indians. Many of the dead were buried in common graves, where now green orchard-boughs bend over dappled stretches of emerald turf. Passing a number of little scattered villages, a picturesque point, called Woodlands, catches the eye. Ere long, the increasing rapidity of the current and the bolder shore, give token that we are nearing the grand rapid of the Long Sault. Anon we see the white coursers in the distance, tossing aloft their snowy manes, and feel the strong grip of the current. A densely-wooded island divides the foaming waters. We rush at headlong speed down the south channel, — the other, called the "lost channel," seeming to toss its waves in defiance of the bold hand which might try to guide a OF THE NORTH 147 ; King- as well ;riences lushing Ives at rising autiful ives of xuriant village, near of the etween volun- mmon d turf. Hands, bolder on we el the We innel," lide a boat down the raging waters. Those over which we safely ride are grand enough. Great crystal masses of emerald water leap to meet us, catch us on their breasts, and carry us on with a swift undulatory motion like that of a race-horse, while a shower of foamy spray dashes over the vessel. The green-crested waves seem to be rushing in the opposite direction to the current, an effect caused by the retreating eddies it creates in dashing over the hidden rock below. But our great sea-horses carry us on, till, all too soon, the foaming crests are left behind, and we glide into smooth water and past the steep sides of the island of St. Regis, inhabited by a little colony of Indians, who look very prosaic in their ordinary civilized attire. At the eastern entrance end of the Cornwall Canal, which all craft must use on the ascending journey, since none could hope to stem the Long Sault, stands the town of Cornwall, which, in recent years, has developed into a manufacturing centre, — its enormous blanket factory and cotton-mill being the conspicuous features of the place. Near it runs the " Province Line," and we pass out of Eastern Ontario into Quebec. Near the same point, also, the boundary line, which divides Canada from the United States, recedes from the St. Lawrence. Both sides of the river, gradually opening into the wide expansion of Lake St. Francis, are prettily diversified with woods and farms, while bosky islands at intervals afford a welcome retreat for campers, — white tents and light summer residences gleaming pleasantly under the trees by the river-side. On the left bank, we pass the little town of Lancaster. Some miles inland, are the old Scotch settlements of Martintown and Williamstown. On the right shore are Dundee, Fort Covington, the Salmon River, a region originally peopled also by refugees from Connecticut or the green valley of the Mohawk, — or by sturdy Scotch immigrants, who have given to their new homes names that perpetuate the old ones. One settlement is called the "Isle of Skye," from the number of colonists from "Thule" who farm its fertile acres. But the chief glory of the sail down Lake St. Francis is the distant mountain range, blue against the horizon, filling up the lack which the eye has vaguely felt in the flat, unbroken horizon which bounds the greater part of Ontario. It is the Chateauguay range, — a spur of the Adirondacks, — sometimes drawing nearer, some- times receding into cloud-like indistinctness. At the lower end of the lake, we draw up by the long wooden pier of Coteau du Lac, whose straggling row of little French houses, looking still smaller in contrast with the great stone church and gleaming spire, gives evidence that we are now in French Canada. A charming picture does this old Coteau make as seen at sunset on the return trip, — when Lake St. Francis, still as a mirror, reflects the rich crimsons and purples of the descending sun, while the old brown timbers of the pier, and the equally old and brown French Canadian houses, with the rather Uutch-looking boats moored by the pier, — "compose" a picture to which only a Turner could do full justice. 148 PICTURESQ UE SPO TS .? m I On the southern shore, opposite- to the Coteau, is the distant town of Valleyfield, with its huge cotton-mill, at the upper end of the Ueauharnois Canal. A little farther down, the shore grows bolder, and we see and fool the quickening current of the "Cellars" Rapids. We sweep past a richly-wooded island, — the foliage almost dripping in the tossing waters, lly past a sharp curve, and the eddying water springs forward as if to oppose our progress, — in vain, the 1; am-crested wave is behind, and a calm stretch intervenes. A little farther on, tht silvery " Cascades Hash" in the sun,— broken only by rocky islets, round which tin; rapids toss and ravo. while high on the shore, a picturescpie church-tower rises above a mass of tleep-green woods. Soon, we find ourselves out upon Lake St. Louis, while far to our loft is the famous St. Anne of the Boat-song, where the great brown stream of the Ottawa comes out from its dark hills, mingling, not i)U:iuling, with the blue St. Lawrence, and sending a portion of its stream round the northern siilo of the triangular island of Montreal which we are approaching. ( )n the southern shore, on a high mound, stands a cross for mariners to look to in time of peril, —a mute witness of human need and aspiration. Calm and shadowy the mountain range lies behind undulating masses of wood, lighted up by the slanting rays of thi; rnoon sun, or deepened in tint by the shadow of a passing cloud. Far ahead lo . blue shadowy mass, the "moun- tain " of Montreal. By and by, other cloudy blue hills rise on the horizon, BelcTcil, St. John, and the sugar-loaf of Mount Shefford. The traditional Indian pilot, in a suit of black, glides out in his boat from Caughnawaga, and the steamer slackens speed to take him on board. The current of the river grows swifter, breaks in curves, and circles past Hat, bushy islands ; — then, sweeping round a curve, we see ahead a glittering sheet of snowy breakers, in which nestle two little green islets washed by the spray. The headlong rush of the river bears us towards the treacherous ledge-broken rock, in some places left bare by the foaming rapids, shelving on one side, boldly abrupt on the other. We fly rapidly through the eddies, between Scylla and Charybdis, and in a few moments are gliding into water calm by comparison. This rapid Las not the grandeur of the Long Sault, nor the glittering rush of the Cascades; but the treacher- ous swirling waters, and the half-hidden rocks that we seem almost to graze, make it one of the most fascinating and dangerous. But we speedily forget the perils of the rapids as we pass the beautiful wooded shore of Nun's Island, with its shady green pastures, and come upon the royal-looking city. On the opposite shore, behind the villages of Laprairie and Longueuil, rise the isolated mountains of Montarville. Rougemont, Shefford, and the nearer Beloeil, " bathed in amethystine bloom." We take c wide sweep in front of the city, and come into port near the island of St. Helen's, past great hulls of ocean steamers and full-rigged ships, where the old weather-stained Bonsecour's Market, and still older Bonsecour Church, bid us welcome back to Montreal. tji OF /7//f NORTH I4<) The NiACiARA District. The RAI'IDS AHOVK TIIIO KALLS. X'TT'l'", liave alrcadN' touclicd the ^nat I'rovince of Ontario at two or tlir-e points; ' but from tlic; City of Ottawa we followed the old voyaocin- routt^ to tlie North- west, and pressed on till, like the Verendryes, we came in si<^ht ol the Rocky Mountains. It is time now to trcjat in detail the richest and most populous part of the Dominion. I'erhajis, we should he^in with the capital ; hut Nia,tjara claims pre- cedence, not only because of its world-wide fame, but because in its district was the first capital of Upper Canada, and under its trees the first Parliament of the Province a.ssembled. The peninsula jutting out between lakes Erie and Ontario, and divided from the State of New York by the Niagara River, constitutes what is known as the Niagara District. It is imrivalled in all North .America for its genial climate and the cultivated beauty of it;: fertile and richly-wooded soil, and is closely knit to the hearts ISO PICTURESQUE SPOTS of its people by its noble, historic memories — memories indissolubly blended with the beautiful river which glorifies the region through which it flows and to which it has given its name. These memories and associations of the brave days of old ought not to be less sacred and guarded possessions because the foes who once dyed the Niagara's crystal waters with blood are now friends, and hold its joint ownership in peaceful rivalry. Through the heroic valour, sufferings and sacrifices of the men who defended Queenston Heights a nation was born, destined, we may well believe, to live as long as the famous river on whose banks the first touch of national life was felt. When the city of Quebec, that " great antiquity " of America, was only a palisaded fort, with a few rude dwellings of the white men gathered under its shelter, the cata- ract of Niagara had been heard of in Europe as the supreme wonder of the New World, and now, after all the changes time has wrought, and all the other new regions explored since then, it remains incomparable in beauty and grandeur. Volumes of verbiage have been written about it ; artists have depicted it under every aspect and from every point of view ; holiday-idlers, vacation tourists, and travellers in search of excitement and the picturesque, Hock to it from all points of the civilized world ; the greed of money-making has encompassed it with mean and incongruous surroundings ; but custom cannot stale its infinite variety, nor all the accompaniments of vulgar traffic degrade its sublime and awful majesty. It remains the ideal water-fall of the world. The name, Niagara, has been a subject of much discussion among philologists. Some suppose it to be simply a contraction of the Indian word, Onialigahrak, meaning "thunder of waters." Others find its ori^^in in Onyalirah, signifying a neck, and applied to the peninsula or neck of land between the two lakes. Others again believe it to be derived from the name of a tribe dwelling on the northern bank of the river when the first explorers and missionaries visited the West. The missionaries called them the Neutre Nation, because they maintained peace with both the Iroquois and Huron tribes, who were always at war with each other, but they seem to have called themselves Onghiahrahs. Drake, in his " Hook of the Indians," called them the Nica- rtagas, and supposes them to have been partly destroyed by the Iroquois, partly absorbed by the Hurons. The name of the river has been spelled in many different ways. In Coronelli's map of Canada, published in Paris in 1688, it is spelled as we spell it now, but it was probably pronounced then as in the well-known line, And Niagara stuns with thundering sound." This pronunciation is more in accordance with Indian phonology, but, apparently, the accent is now fixed on the second syllable. Some speakers pronounce the word OF THE NORTH 151 N55 tion to the peaceful " forest primeval " of the west, spent days and nights beside them in an Indian wigwam; and in his romance of "Atala" he has painted them in glow- ing colours. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, whose love of the Irish people and tragic fate has made him one of the most beloved of Irish heroes, visited them in 1789. He saw them at the loveliest period of the Canadian year, when May and June meet together, when spring flowers are yet in all their beauty, and spring foliage is expanding into the richness of leafy June; when the springs and water founts that feed the great flood of waters are all full and overflowing. Young, enthusiastic, and a genuine lover of nature, he was enraptured with the scene. Writing to his mother he tells her how much impressed he was by the immense height and noise of the Falls; the spray rising to the clouds, the greenness and tranquillity of the immense forests around ; and adds: "To describe them would be impossible; Homer could not in poetry, nor Claude Lorraine in painting." He stayed three days, and says he was absolutely obligel to tear himself away at last. It is, perhaps, hardly possible for us now to conceive the awful and mysterious splendour of virgin beauty which must then have enveloped the great cataract. In those early days Nature reigned there supreme, and no puny work of man had dared to invade her sacred precincts. Then the overwhelming grandeur of the sight came sud- denly on the traveller, as he emerged from the narrow Indian path which led to it through the forest, his imagination gradually rising in excitement as the muffled, swelling, vibrating harmony which seemed drawing him towards it grew nearer and nearer. Then it was beheld in the fitting environment of the solemn woods, the stately pines and cedars standing on its banks like faithful sentinels, and the rhythmic cadence of its voice filling the silence that seemed hushed to listen. No wonder that it was an object of superstitious fear and awe to the Indians who made pilgrimages thither at stated times to propitiate its angry waters with wild and cruel rites. To appease its wrath, an offering was made every year of a beautiful young girl, who was first bound in a canoe and then set adrift in the rapids, the singers chantinc^ her death-song till her frail bark was swept over the cataract and swallowed up in the whirling foam and spray. Those horrid rites have vanished, but supersti- tious fancies still cling to the scene, and old inhabitants say that the spirit of the cataract still claims its tribute, and that no year ever passes without some hapless victim falling a prey to its fatal power of attraction. The river Niagara, from its rise in Lake Erie till it enters Lake Ontario at the beautiful old town to which it has given its name, is thirty-six miles in length, following the course of its many bends and windings, but when measured in a straight course the distance it traverses is only twenty-eight miles. It is a mere pigmy compared to the gigantic rivers of this continent, but through it flow the mighty currents of those western inland seas which are said to hold half the fresh water on the globe. •56 PICTURESQUE SPOTS OLD KOKT F.KU:, AND WINDMILL. No |iiece of water of so small an ex- tent has so many attractions for the lovers of pictur- esque scenery and the scientific students of nature ; and from berrinnincf to end it is closely intertwined with historic events, traeii^ic incidents, and the deepest interests and emotions of human life. As it emerr , ; •' I y»? ; '^{ .K*< <^'j ',nry^ ,'>;^ ' Mori'ii oi' nil-; ciiii'I'i;\va kivkk. life. hov^ever. it hiis been outstripped of late by the new town of X'ictoria, between which and Black Rock, a suburb of Buffalo, the International Railway Bridge, -1 hand- some iron structure, crosses the river. At this spot the Niagara is only half a mile wide, and somewhat hurried in its course, as if eager to hasten on its mis- sion of the bearer of so many mighty fountains to the ocean, but it quickly calms down again, expanding to its former breadth ; and as it winds in and out of every tiny bay and little inlet, and ripples round the islands that gem its bosom, one might fancy it was purposely lingering on its way among the fertile fields and rich orchartls that border its shores, conscious of the dark and rock-bound abyss into which it is so soon to fall. During its brief course it makes a descent of three hundred and thirty- four feet, the difference of level between its outflow from Lake Mrie, and its inflow into Lake Ontario, but the greatest part of this is accomplished in the rapids above the Falls, and in the plunge over the cataract. For several miles it continues ^.o flow gently among its many islands, its current only swift enough to give life and bright- ness to the stream, its low banks almost on a level with the water, and its course lying through some of the richest grain and fruit-growing lands in the world. .Six miles below l*"ort Krie it opens wide arms to embrace Cirand Island, which lies within •58 PICTURESQUE SPOTS tlu; United States territory, and divides the river into two great channels. I'hese channels unite again at Navy Island, the only one of the islands above the I'alls which belongs to Canada. It was named Isle cic la Marine by tin; I'rencii who used it as a naval station till their power on the river was lost by the surrender of l"'ort Niagara to Sir William Johnson in 1759. In the bay formeil by Huckhorn and (irand Islands may still be seen some remains of the two ships whicli had been sent with reinforcements to the fort, but on its surrender had been burnt by the I'rench to keep them from falling into the hands of the British. In the rebellion of William Lyon Mackenzie and his party in 1837, Navy Island played a conspicuous part. The insurgents, and their American sympathizers, led by Mackenzie, formeil a camp there, and while the steamer " Caroline " was employed in bringing guns and stores to their aid from the American side she was seized by a few daring Canadian volunteers, cut out from her night quar- ters at Schlosser Landing, se^ (^n fire and sent over the Falls. This gallant exploit nearly brought on a war between America and England ; but the leaders were afterwards rewarded for it by the Canadian Parliament. A GLIMPSK OK \\W. I'ALI.S, KKOM CLUTON. Ul OF THE NORTH '59 '} I Three miles above the Kails is the village of Chippewa (an Indian word, signify- fying "people without moccasins"), where Moore landed from a small trading schooner in 1803, proceeding by the portage road round the I'^alls to Niagara. Chippewa was then a place of some consequence as the southern entrepot for all goods shipped to and from Lake Erie, and had a fort and garrison to protect its large store- houses. The opening of the Welland Canal closed the carrying-trade by the portage road, and destroyed the commercial prosperity of Chippewa as well as that of Queenston and Niagara. The village is built on both sides of the Chippewa River, a full, deep, placid stream, which has its rise fifty miles away in the west, and here falls into the Niagara. Quantities of logs are annually floated down its stream from the rich timber lands through which it flows, and steam-tugs ascend its course nearly all the way. At its mouth its waters are on a level with those of the Niagara, and its turbid stream, discoloured by the lime it holds in solution, can be clearly distin- guished from the crystal waters of the Niagara for some distance after their junction. Chippewa is memorable in our annals for the battle fought on its plains in 1814, when less than three thousand British troops and Canadian militia attacked an Ameri- can force double their number, and attempted to drive them from the field. The assailants were, in the end, obliged to retreat to their entrenchments at Chippewa village ; but the courage and steadiness with which they had maintained the fight against such superior numbers, and especially the heroic valour of the Lincoln militia, under Major David Secord, made this lost battle as worthy of honourable remembrance as if it had been a victory. Below Chippewa the Niagara Is nearly three miles in width, but it suddenly con- tracts to less than a mile, ripples appear on its surface, and no boat can venture within the current, which runs at the rate of from four to five miles an hour. Half-a-mile above the cataract the Grand Rapids begin, and the sudden descent of the bed of the river causes its bank to rise into view, especially on the western side, which increases in height till, above the Horse-shoe Fall, it attains an elevation of a hundred feet over the water. Below it, the river rushes down in those wonderful rapids which add so much to the beauty of the Falls. Piaster and faster they rush on in exquisite curves of green crystalline water with crescents of glittering white foam, keeping, in spite of their wild speed and whirling commotion, an ordered and symmetrical procession of indescribable beauty and fascination, till all blend together in the last desperate leap, and are swallowed up in the abyss below. The cataract of Niagara is divided into two great falls by Goat Island, which lies in the very midst of their thunders, and interposes its wooded and rocky banks between them for a distance of three hundred yards. This island and its small sister islands, Lunar Island and the Moss Islands, are in the United States, but are private property ; and except that they are connected with each other, and with the l6o riCTURESQ UE SPO TS niuinlaiul by picturcs(|ii(! bridges skilfully spanninij tlii' rapids, thcv have lurii kept as much as [jossiblc in their wild |)riin(!\al Ixiauty, j^cms of sylvan lovclintiss slrunj,^ on the brow of the precipice over which the toi , "n sweeps. In the ureal I lorsoshoe ball, however, Canada possesses much the finest half of the cataract, ;ind the mysterious Whirlpool which is, in some respects, even more womlerful than the cataract itself, lies embedded in the- Canadian shor(^ Ami it is only from the Canada side that the soft ethereal veils of vapour, which ,t,nve such mystic beauty to the balls, and the iHttinjj^, chanf^oful rainbows, which throw over them such a halo of glory, can be seen in per- fection. Table Rock, too, or rather the small ]jiece that remains of it, gives at once a nearer, a wiiler, ami a more comprehensive view of the sc(;ne than can be had any- where else -taking in, at the same moment, the magniticent race; of the rapids above, the sweep of the whole cataract, and the se(!thing depths of the great caldron below. To stand on this spot, on sonu; lovely summer's day, and watch tin; rapids madly rushing ilown ; to see the grand ocean-like wav<; rising twenty feet in thickness over the Horse-shoe ball, so massive that it retains its smoothness unbroken for some distance,' after its fall, and so close to whtire you stand that your outstretched iiand might almost touch it ; to look down into the caldron wlu're the water lies strangled and smothered by its own weight, onl)- showing th(> fierce convulsions beneath b)- the faintest stirrings, its crystalline clearness changetl into a mass of slowly seething, curdltHl whiti; foam, which wraps it like a winding sheet ; to see the vast volumes of va])our continually rising and falling, now hiding, now revealing the cataract, while in its deepest curve and centre volcanic-lik(; jets of water, breaking into clouds of spray and soaring high into tin; air, forevc^r hitie its face; to listen to "that vast and prodigious cadence," that melody of n-ian\- waters, which stirred the soul of Father Hennepin to awe and admiration, and still e.xcites the same emotions in all who are capable of feeling them — will give x\\v. truest conception one view can give of the various elements of beauty and gramleur combineil in Niagara balls. Here those incongruous and disturbing concomitants, which elsewhere are perpetually intruding, are put aside and hidden, or, at any rate, absorbed and dissipated in the magnitude and sublimit}- of the scene. And the oftener we behold this magniiicent sight the more wonderful and beautiful we discover it to be. i'he true lovers and constant companions of Nature know how infinite in variety she is, and that every day, every hour, her fairest scenes assume fresh phases of beauty ; how, then, can all that makes this cataract the wonder of the world be grasped and comprehended in one hurried visit? It is with it as with all masterpieces. The mind of the spectator must be gradually u|)lifted to feel and understand its greatness ; and it is only to those who come to it again and again, in sunshine and cloud, by day and by night, in summer antl in winter, that its wonders are fully revealed. t^, are ni tilde sitjht and that how, and Tlie I its shine fully 01- run xoRTir i6i *i ■ If)2 PICTURESQ IE SPO TS \ \ \ "aX The American Fall is eight feet higher than the Horse-shoe, hut less than half its width, and with a mucii smaller volume of water. It has, however, a distinct indi- viduality and picturescjii'' charm of its own, more sparkling and riant, though less grand and majestic, than the Horse-shoe. Its thinner sheet of water is shattered the moment it strikes the precipice, and falls in graceful lines of white, curling foam, lighted up, in sunshine, with all the prismatic hues, every drop of water shining with gem-like radiance through its misty veils. Beyond the clouds of mist and spray, which wrap the base of the great I'alls, and the deep caldron out of which they rise, the river (jmerges, flowing on to meet its divided stream at tlie American l-'all. And here another change takes place in this river, so rich in its varied forms of beauty. Above the I'alls it runs nearly south-west, but after its plunge over the cataract, it turns a sharj) angle, and runs almost north- east. Leaving behind all the foam and fury of the rapids, all tiie grand turmoil of plunging water and breaking s )ray of the Falls, it llows on in a smoolii, steady stream, its darkly-green, slowly-heaving surface hiding tlie fierce currents that run toil- ing and struggling below. Here, antl all round the basin of tlu; cataract, numbers of picturesque gulls are contmually flitting, d.'>"'^!ng to and fro, ami in and out of the spray with swift gjrations, and low, mournful murmurs. ller(!, too, a little ferry-boat plies between the Canadian and American shores. A trip in this boat takes the passengers in front of the cataract, and as near its great gulf as is consistent with safety, giving them one of the grandest views of the Falls that can Ije had. Looking up at them from the bed of the river, which is here almost two hundred feet deep, the height and force of the falling Hood, always lessened in effect by its immense breadth to those who look down on it, can be fully recognized ; while the pulsing and throbbing of the mighty current imprisoned and struggl-ug lor an outlet beneath, and over which the frail skiff glides, gives a thrillintr '-> nse of po-ible danger, and adds another excitement to the wonder of 'hp s A few years ago the " Maid ' allest of all tiny steamboats, built at the railway bridge below T .u. i fro over this eddy, venturing to the very edge of the aby^ i givin. iier passengers a sensational baptism of spray. But after a while she faileei to p expenses, and her owner sold her, the purchaser making the condition that sh' should be safely di vered at the mouth of the river. For this she had to be taken through the -' rs of the whirlpool rapids, of the whirlpool itself, and of the narrow gorge, fro lence to Queenston ; altogether, six miles of wild, whirling water, bristling with formi hie rocks. Anxiously watched along her course by e.xcited spectators, the tiny vessel .nd her daring crew of three men made the perilous voyage in safety, but with a series of almost miraculous escapes the whole way ; and it is said that her pilot, a man of extraordinary skill and courage, was so much shaken in mind and body by the strain that had been put upon ^. or run north «63 him, that lie sfcincil twinity years older when he left tlie boat. Since then no attempt has been made to navigate the Niagara ra[)ids. After a few days of hard frosf in winter, the I'ails in-come more lil\'i^. 1. drops of water s^lcaining with all tlu; colours of the rainbows that come (lashiiii^- in with every ray of sunlij^ht. In these caves the most sublime ami magnificent, the most i)eauliful and enchantins^, aspects of water are prestMUtul. but they cannot be safely enteretl without _L,niides. Clark's Islands, sometimes mort; poetically called Cynthia's Islands, lie close to the Can.ula shore, and are set in the mitist of tlut rapids aboxc the llorse-shoe I'^all, where the current runs with its greatest velocity. They are prettiK- wooiieil, and their picturesque situation, among the leaping rapids, gives tluMii peculiar attractions, which, however, are somewhat marred b\' a hideous structiu'e, built to overlook the Falls. When Lord Uufferin was ( lOvcrnor-Cu'neral of Canada he lormcd the project of i68 PICTURESQUE SPOTS an International Park to extend round the Falls and their environs on both sides of the river. All buildings were to be removed within a proper distance, trees were to be planted and walks made, but everything was to be done with the single purpose of giving such a free, noble, and natural environment to the great cataract as would harmonize with and keep sacred its supreme grandeur and loveliness. This project was brought before the Canadian Government and the New York Legislature, and at first there seemed some hope that the two peoples on whom this glorious gift of Nature has been bestowed, and who hold it in trust for all other nations, would unite in thus showing their desire to act as faithful guardians of so great a trust, and preserve it sacred and unsullied for their children, and the children of other lands. Nothing, however, has yet been done, the great difficulty being, it seems, to find the money retjuired to carry out such a plan ; as it would bring in no return which those who measure the worth of all things by dollars aiul cents could comprehend. A quarter of a mile below the cataract the Suspension Bridge for foot and car- riage passengers crosses the river. It is twelve hundred and sixty-eight feet long, and one hundred and ninety-two feet above the water. The Railway Suspension Till'. \\iin finest possible contrast to the.- lje)ld, perpendicular American cliff, almost bare, but for the scanty fringes eif pines and ceelars which here and there cling to the water-worn rifts that bre;ak its red ami green and blue;-l)lack precipice, and stretch down te) mee't the; white; fe)am e)f the' rapiels that curdles re)und its base. On the Canaelian bank, space for a military re)ael has l)e;(;n reserved and kept free from all buildings, ami those whei fe)lle)w its windings, some ela\- in leafy Jime e)r golden October, till the' path turns e)ul at the; fe)ol e)f Hrock's MonunuMit, a!)ove Oueens- ton, will be; re'wareled by a succession of love;ly pictures, changing with every benel of the winding river. Especially fre)m the; rocks, which project over the bank, where the underlying shale and sandstone have crumbled away, and which eventually must be ckly cular icre lack und ccpt 2 or of the b<- 173 PICTURESQUE SPOTS precipitated into the chasm as Table Rock has berjn, the most magnificent views up and down the river are presented. Geologists tell us that it must have taken the river more than seventy thousand years to excavate the chasm, seven miles in length, through which it runs from the Falls to Queenston ; and the rock formations give evidence that not only at Queens- ton, but at places farther up, the cataract was held for ages before it wore away its barriers, one after the other, till it reached its present site. Just below the whirl- pool, a great promontory or spur of rock stretches far across the bed of the river, which sweeps round it in a confined and crooked channel. Here, we are told, the hard, compact rock kept the cataract for centuries. Lower again, opposite the cavern on the American side, called the Devil's Hole, the Canadian cliff again juts promi- nently out, and the river makes another bend, so closely hemmed in on either side that, looked at from the bank, its course is completely hidden. Between these two head- lands lies a beautiful little glen, a hundred acres in extent, marked on the boundary survey of 181 5 as "Foster's Glen." No doubt it was excavated and overflowed by the river when its waters were pent in by the lower promontory ages ago, and left dry as the stream subsided into its present channel. Lying under the cliffs which project picturesquely above it, richly wooded, interspersed with rocky mounds, leafy dells, and moss-grown hollows, shut in by great lichen-covered rocks, this tiny glen is a perfect epitome of wild natural beauty. Only accessible tiy a winding, precipitous path from the cliffs above, sheltered by its lofty banks and embowering trees, and kept fresh and green in the heats of summer by the moisture from the river, verdure lingers here nearly all the year round, antl its temperature in winter is almost as mild as if it looked up at a southern sky. Beautiful even in winter, tliis favoured spot, in spring, is a perfect paradise of wild llow(;rs and l)lossoming shrubs. Its rocks, worn into caves and grottoes by the water whicii once covered them, arc hung with graceful tapestry of ferns, mosses, and plants ; even tail trees grow on their tops, ami simkI tlown a maze of tangled roots to reach the c;arth below. Rare and lovely shrubs and tribes flourish here uncared for and unheeded, and ferns of every variety grow in \.\\v. most lavish profusion. At one extremity of the glen the river has formed a charming little eddy, smooth and clear as glass, where fish are caught with hook and line ; at the other, a miniature bay lies within the rocky cape that encloses it with a l)each of rounded pebbles, on which the river, torn and tortured by the rocks that oi)struct its way, dashes and breaks like the waves of the sea. Fish abound in ihi-s part of the river, and are speared as they swim over the stones in bits of cpiiet water outside the never-ceasing tumult of the rapids. .Sturgeon, sometimes weighing nearly a hundred pounds, pass down the Falls without injury, and meet their fate here or at Queenston. Birds of every species haunt the glen, and many small wild creatures inhabit it, but nothing more mischievous than a skunk or a raccoon — the enemies of the farmer's OF THE NORTH 173 lews up poultry and Indian corn — is, with one noticeable exception, to be found. Rattle- snak(!s, which Father Henne- housand pin says had their dens about the cataract when he visited rom the Queens- Mrafel it, i)ut which are never seen e away ■H^r tiiere now, still survive among e wiii ri- ^^|lA the cavernous rocks along le river, ^BBni^ ^. .^^^jtfk^ the river, and are occasionally old, the ^^^^HBI ^:^^H[^H met with. A full-grown yel- cavern low and black rattlesnake. promi- '/j^^^^^Hp^: "''<^ ' ' four or live feet long, and de that, as thick as a man's wrist, with 1 o head- 1 • bright-yellow horny armour 3undary t'\ ->•"■' underneath, and ornamented on the back with a variegated ved by ind left ■ '^fM^m:^ pattern of l^lack and gold. s which erecting its flat, yellow head. ', leafy -' -<^^'%^^ 'ih its eyes gleaming like sparks <^len is ■ M^'^tS^K^-' ■ of fire, darting out its slen- us path ^^^^^^C^~ '■'-'-- -^ der black tongue, its rattles, t fresh i^i^™^:^^ ' ten, twenty, or even more, in s here ..J^wQfMM: number, vibrating violently s if it with a loud, whizzing, strange- spring, ^^Hi^^^^'^Li^ifl^^HHI ly-stinging and piercing sound. 1 into K^^BiHL^..fa^i^^^^^Mif''''4^H as it rises to strike, is a sight •accfui at once horrible and beautiful. Dwn a ^^^MMM^a||i I'ortunately, these snakes are t rees extremely sluggish in their i most habits, never bite except when little made angry or stepped upon. il the ^^t^^ '^^^I^^I^I^^^^^^^^^^^HPKaH^^^B^H^^^v^^^^Hn^^HHSnM^fiHKkv/^ .* and even when attacked will h of always at first attempt to :l its (escape. If seen, they are in- 1" the j^^^^r^-^ '■ "^ "^"-^''^^^^m,,^ variably pursued and killed. • the id red antl will probaI)ly soon die RAVINE NKAR WHIRI.I'OOL. out of this district, as they ston. have out of other parts of but 1 < "anada. Other wild creatures, with a beauty not h orriil and baleful like that of the - ner s r attlcsnake, but ideally graceful and majestic, the ea ole and the swan, once inhabi«^ed 174 PICTURESQUE SPOTS V. tl the river and its vicinity. Before the War of 1812 swans made their nests ahove the rapids, and eagles built their eyries close to the cataract ; but durin^^ the war they all disappeared, and have never since returned to dwell in their old haunts. Three miles below the Falls, on the American side, is the Devil's Hole, a cavern in tiie cliff up- wards of a hundred feet in depth, above which a stream called the Bloody Run falls down into the river. The stream owes its unlovely name to the surprise and slauijhter, by Indians, in 1763, of a party of English soldiers, escorting some provision trains sent from Fort Niagara to Fort Schlosser. Many Indian legends THE WUIKl.HOOL, i-'rom American side. are connected with this place, and when La Salle was building his brig- antine, the Gi-iffui, at Cayuga Creek, he was taken to consult its oracles by the famous Iroquois chief, Gironkouthie. On entering the cave he heard a voice issuing from its depths, predicting for him an early death by treacherous hands, if he did OF run NORTH 175 ssuinjT le did not give up his intended voyage. But though it is said that La Salle tied from the cave on hearing this mysterious voice, he was not to be deterred from his schemes of exploration, and in the end met the doom the spirit of the cave had foretold. A few years ago this cavern was occupied by a desperate gang of coiners, who calculated on its evil reputation to protect them from disturbance ; but after repeatedly baffling the detectives, the leaders were captured and the gang broken up. I'rom Lewiston to the side chasm at the Devil's Hole, a railroad track has been cut on the face of the cliff, and it is rather a sensational sight, looking from the opposite bank, to see the cars slowly gliding on an almost imperceptible line along the bare side of the precipice two hundred feet above the gorge through which the river roll.s, and then vanishing, as if by magic, where the track turns off at the chasm. Dashing through the deep carton it has made for its course, the river rushes on in wild waves and torrents of foam over and round the rocks which stem its way, and here and there show their heads above the fierce current, till it nears the village of Queenston. Here there is a great escarpment in the rocky ridge through which the river has cut, the cliffs fall back, and Niagara, so long straitened and obstructed ':: its passage, spreads into the broad expanse of Queesnton Bay, half a mile in width. Rising again, the ridge on the left bank ascends to a lofty and beautifully-wooded height. Beneath lies the village of Queenston, named after Queen Charlotte, the grandmother of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Here, in the early morn- ing of October 13, 181 2, a strong force of American troops crossed the river in boats to take possession of Canada. Climbing the heights above Queenston, they found themselves gallantly confronted by a few British soldiers and Canadian volun- teers, and here the heroic Brock, conspicuous by his tall stature and daring, was shot down as he led his handful against the invaders. In this, their first battle, the Niagara men showed the courage and determination with which, to the end of the war, they defended the land they had won from the forest, and covered with happy homesteads, fruitful farms, and prosperous villages ; and the success of that day, though dearly purchased by the loss of their gallant young general, gave them a proud consciousness of their power to preserve and protect their country which never afterwards deserted them. On the summit of the heights, made glorious by the battle, Canada has erected a monument to the hero so much beloved and so deeply lamented. A graceful column supports a statue of Brock in uniform, one hand resting on his sword, the other extended as if encouraging his soldiers. Column and statue measure 216 feet from the ground, and, with the height of the cliff on which they stand, make an elevation of 750 feet above the river. The monument is surrounded by forty acres of ornamental grounds ; the entrance gates are of wrought iron, with cut stone piers, surmounted by Brock's family arms, and there is a pretty stone lodge for the care-taker of the place. Visitors from Queenston ascend 176 PICTUKLSQL Ji s/nrrs l>- UN Till': PATH lU WIIIKLI'OOI.. OF THE NORTH 177 -«^: to thi! ^atus by a stoep wiiuliiij^ road, thickly shaded at each side by red cedars, whose unfadinjf verdure and aro- matic frajfrance arc in l^eep- inj^- witii all the sinj,uilar]y I)ictures(iiie and appropriate surroundings of the hero's tomb. The i;a]lery at the to|) of the nioiiunieiit is reacheil 1)\- an inner stone staircase of 235 steps, lighteil on the w.'iy up by looplioles in the tlutinj,^ of the column, and above by small circular windows, from which a mai^niticent panoramic view is to i>e had. Close be- iieatii, its houses clustering round the river, lies the village of Oueenston, its i^M'oups of ancient weejjing willows still seeiniiii,'' to mourn the dead hero whose statue looks tlf)wn on them, and to ivhose memory the (Jueeiiston peop have TMi. ki\i;k abo\'i-; u iuki-Pooi. erected a pretty church, with a handsome stained- i^lass window, presented by the \'()rk N'olunteers — a ijallant corps made famous by Brock's last words : " I'ush on, brave York Volunt, for foot broke its violence ien banks fifty feet fill bends e way to Niajrara, close all en atji^ain on which s expec- between -'ps down wiiich is in ^-entle ses and wcllint^s es with rees and w their ecavetl w beecli 111 natu- tij^c of )ni;ario, ve pass three- rattle, i plain, i ' Vh: i^- OF THE NORTH l8i always called the common, was re- served for military purposes. On one side it is bounded by the road lead- ing into the town, bordered by villas, lawns, and shrub- beries ; on the other by the blue waters of Lake Ontario. For many years it was annually the scene of a great Indian encampment, when the Six Na- tions came to re- ceive their yearly gifts and allow- ances. Coming over the lake in their birch - bark canoes, they set u[> their lodges on the com- mon, forming a wild and p ictu rcscjue spectacle, such as can be seen now only in the far North-west. Near the mouth of tlu; ri\er and opposite old Fort Niagara, on the American shore, rise some grassy mounds, the remains of the enibankments of I*\)it deorge, and in the enclosed space below a small l82 PICTURESQUE SPOTS I i fi remnant of the old fort, built of massive brick work, is still in existence. To the left of Fort George, and near the centre of the point, is Fort Mississauga, erected after the retreat of the .'\ niericans, tiie brick stones of the burned town having been used in its construction. Tne tower still stands, though dismantled, with its surrounding block houses, but its iron-studded gates lie open, and the palisades which defended its trenches are nearly all gone. Cattle and horses graze peacefully round these old memorials of wai , and the lake bears friendly ships from shore to shore ; but the inhabitants of ?.'iagara have not yet forgotten what their fathers suffered when, in the frost and sncw of )ecember, 1813, helpless women and little children were turned into the street -.id their houses bur'icd to the ground. On the American point, stretching across the mouth of the river, is the old l-'ort of Niagara, built where La Salle erected a palisaded store-house in 1678, when he was building the (rr/'ffiii, the first vessel, except an Indian birch-bark canoe, ever launched on Lake Erie. La Salle's stockade was afterwards destroyed by che Lidians, rebuilt and strengthened by the brench in 1687, again destroyed by the Indians, an 1 again rebuilt by the French. Finally, a <;tone fort was ercctetl o;i the old site by the Marquis de la JoncpiiiTe in 1749, which was taken by the British under Sir William Johnson in 1759 It remained in the possession of the British till the end of tlvj American War of Independence, when it was ceded to America. It was taken i)y the British and Canadian troopr, in the W'ar of 1812. and held by them till peace was concluded. The town and peninsula of Niagara were settled chielly by U. E. (United Empire) Loyalists, so called .rom their loyalty to the British Empire at the time of the American Revolution. The regiment known as Butler's Rangers, famous for its fierce and reckless daring and devotion to the Rojal cause, was disbanded at Fort Niagara after the war, and nearly all crossed over to Canada and settled in the Ni- agara District, receiving grants of land there. Five thousand acres were allotted to Colonel Butler, with a pension of two hundred pounds a year ; he vvas made agent for Indian affairs in the West, and held other important otifices in Niagara. He was buried in a clump of oaks and pines on part of his property, known as the Butler farm, aliout a mile from tlie town, and in the Episcopal church a tablet has been put up to his memory. Many other U. E. Loyalists refused to tai for its at Fort th< .N'i- Jttcil to e aj^ent ie was Hutler !'en [jut allei^n- and in iking a ini])ort- ui sup- chief leii, in ;pected to become before long a great and prosperous city. General Simcoc held his first Parliament there, and a French traveller, the Duke de la Rochefoucault di Liancourt, witnessed and has described the opening ceremonies, conducted amidst curiously primitive surroundings. The Governor, his council and the representatives of the Province, met in a building adjoining Butler's Barracks, generally used for church services, but finding it somewhat hot and close in sunny September weather, they adjourned to a green slope near by, and there, under the shade of some survivors of the forest primeval, with a flat rock for a table, made the laws and arranged the affairs of the Province. This first Parliament of Upper Canada carried through many measures of great practical utility ; and it must always be remembered to its honour that it gave the death-blow to slavery as a legal institution in the Province, The Upper Canada Gazette, the first newspaper issued in the Upper Province, was published in Niagara during General Simcoe's administration. Fort George was built, various government buildings erected, and a great impetus given to the town. But Simcoe had fought in the War of the Revolution, and never could forgive the success of the Americans ; and when he found that Fort Niagara was actually to be given up to them, and that, if he made Niagara town the seat of government, he would be compelled day after day to see the stars and stripes floating where the British flag then waved, he became disgusted with the place, and removing to York, now Toronto, decided on fi.xing the capital there. This was a terrible blow to Niagara, but it brought with it one compensation which to many will seem far from trivial. General Simcoe, ignoring all the claims of historic and poetic feeling, and we may add of euphony, had changed the name of the town from Niagara to Newark, in allusion to its having been an Ark of Safety for the persecuted U. E. Loyalists ; and it was so railed in Acts and other official documents for a short time, but the old nan-e never lost its hold on the people, and in 1 798 it was formally reinstated by law. In this respect Niagara is more fortunate than some other places in the Dominion, which have lost their beautiful old Indian names, and have had others, b>i h commonplace and inappropriate, conferred on them. Though the honour ot being the capital of the Province was taken away from it, Niagara still retained its importance as a military station, as the principal depot for goods goiufj U( s^^.\%^.,^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 4 /. ..^fe Q, r/. '^ks 1.0 I.I 1.25 i56 IIM ill 2.2 • illitt 2.0 1.8 i-4 IIIIII.6 V] <^ /a e). c^>. o /,. 7 % Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WE3STER,N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 €<. \ "Sr ^nN ^^ \\ o u % % v^ Lfi W- Qr it t 190 PICTURESQUE SPOTS m\ docks vessels that have' made successful voyages to Europe have been launched. Its railway-stations and ship-canals give it facilities for carrying on trade with all parts- of the world. It has an efficient police force and tire company; gas-works which not only light its streets and puldic buildings, but the adjoining banks of the canal ; and a system of water-works supplied from a reservoir fed b\- the pure; water of " De Cew's Falls," four miles from the city. K has man\ handsome buildings; a court-house and jail, banks, hospitals, a Masonic Hall, and several first-class hotels, a public school in every ward, a spacious central school, a well-equipped collegiate institute of the highest rank in the Province, and churches of every religious denomination. Besides the hotels, there is a sanitarium, built exijressly for invalids coming to tr\- the curative efTects of the St. Catharines mineral springs. -Scientific analysis shows that these springs are equal in medicinal properties to an}- of the CJerman Spas; and their fame brings numbers in search of health to St. Catharines every year, especially from tlie southern and south-western States, where it is known as the Saratoga of Canada. Port Dalhousie, on Lake Ontario, three miles from St. Catharines and eleven miles west of the mouth of the Niagara River, is the northern port of entry for the Wel- land Canal and the northern terminus of the Welland Railway. It has a safe harbour, where vessels may find refuge in all weather, and in summer steamers run daily between it and Toronto. Port Colborne, on Lake PLrie, twenty niles from the head of the Niagara, is the southern entrance port of the canal. It has a good harbour, is the southern terminus of the Welland, and one of the principal stations of the (iraiul Trunk Railway. Between these ports of entry several enterprising ami ])rosper()us villages ha/e sprung up along the canal. Merritton, Thorold, Allanburg, Port Robin- son, and Stonebridge, are all places of busy life and energy. Welland, the chief town of Welland County, is built on both sides of the canal, and connected by a handsome swing bridge. It has several mills and factories, handsome churches, a high school, a court-house, excellent hotels, and stores of ev(;ry variety; and it publishes two news- papers. Close to the town is the large fair-ground of the county agricultural society, where annual shows are held. All this activit)', energy, and prosperous industry, have had their source in the Welland Canal, a work of which a brief descri])tion has yet to be given. Crossing the peninsula which lies between Lake Erie and Lake; ( )ntario, it shades the mighty cataract which had so long been an insurmountable obstacle to navigation, aiui lorins the missing link in the chain of na\igai)le waters from Lake Su])erior to the sjreat river St. Lawrence, in whose mighty flood of mingled streams the\- pass on to the ocean. The idea of this great work was first conceived by Mr. .Merritt, during the War of 1S12, when a militia officer, distinguished for courage and enterprise, though little more Of^ THE NORTH 191 than a boy, he let' his patrols up and clown the frontier, and specubted 011 the ad- vantages such a means of transportinfj troops and ammunition throufjh the district NEAR LOCK No. 2, OLD CANAL. would have given its defenders. After the peace, he became engaged in large busi- ness transactions, and the commercial value of an unbroken water-way between the two lakes was forcibly brought before him. The project of a ship-canal gradually as- sumed a practicable shape in his mind, and through his fixity of purpose and indomi- table energy a company was formed, aid from Government obtained, and the scheme oil- I'CJKl |i\l.l..)l'SII'. successfully carried out. (Jn the ;otli of NovtMiiber, 1824, the first sod of the Welland Canal w;is turned, and umlcr Mr. .Merritt's supervision speedily became a scciu- of 192 PICTURESQ UE SPO 7 S Tin; DKi;i' CUT. active industry. "The sharp rattle of the axes hewintj and carvinjr their wav throuirh the old woods, the unceasint,^ hanimerin>f of picks on the hanks, the crash of falling;' trees, mingled occasionally with th(! lond explosion of tjunpowder, broke the ancient silence of the forest." * So the work went on, and in \oveml)er, io-q, five years later, almost to a day, two vessels with flaj^s ilyin soon as his great military highway — Dundas Street — should have been opened, he proposed to make London — or, as he called it, Georgina — the per- manent capital of Upper Canada. Old Newark had felt deepl)- hurt at being deposed from its pride of place; but whe;^ the Welland Canal was projected there came a gleam of hope. As the gateway to the new Canal, it migiit become the great cntrcpdt of lake commerce ! But once more a major-general governed the Province, and military maxims warped civil government and civil engineering. Sir Peregrine had spent the flower of his life amid the clash of sabres and the roar of cannon. He had been continuously on active service for more than a score of years, rounding off a brilliant career by leading at Waterloo two battalions of guards into the very eye of the fiery tempest. The Forty Years' Peace had begun, and Sir Peregrine had put off the sword, but he could not put off the man. To him a canal was the patrol or parade-ground for gunboats, rather than a quiet channel for merchantmen. Grimsby village is picturesquely situated between the lake c»nd " the mountain." The first settlers were U. E. Loyalists, who preferred to encounter the labours of clearing new homes out of the unbroken forest to giving up their cherished tradi- tions of loyalty to the Empire. Slowly and painfully, with their wives and children, on foot or on horseback, they made their way through the woods, guided in their course by the Indian trails ; and many interesting records of the perils and hardships they encountered in these toilsome journeys, and the sufferings and privations they endured in the first years of the settlement are preserved by their descendants. One of these brave pioneers brought his two little children from New Jersey to Grimsby in baskets slung across a horse's back, the mother riding between. The same family sent a member to the first Parliament of Upper Canada, and from it some of the foremost agriculturists and stock-raisers in the district are descended. There are many " creeks," or small streams, in the township, the largest of which, called the Jordan by the pioneers, was known by the Indians as the Kcnochdaw, or lead river, from the lead ore found on its banks, and often used by the hunters, both Indian and white men, to make bullets for their rifles Grimsby is an active place of business, with saw mills, grist mills, a foundry and machine works. The land round the village is literally covered with peach orchards, their masses of pink blossoms flushing all the landscape with a roseate hue in spring, and their shining stems and bunches glowing ruby red in the sunset of a clear winter day. Its large Methodist camp-meeting ground, in a grove of oaks and pines near the lake shore, is celebrated over the Province. An auditorium has been erected and part of the ground laid out with shady walks and flower-gardens ; and temperance OF THE NORTH 205 pic-nics, and Sunday-school feasts, with lectures and concerts for religious purposes, are given through the summer. Besides these popular attractions, the delightful situation of the village and its nearness to Lake Ontario, bring many tourists in the hot months, and a large hotel and some neat cottages have been built for their accommodation. The village of Fonthill is built on the highest land between Lakes Ontario and Erie, and from it on clear days the waters of both lakes and the vessels passing over them can be seen, with all the rich and lovely country, intersected with rivers, rail- roads and the Welland Canal, lying between. It is famous in the district for its ex- tensive fruit nurseries, and for the romantic scenery which surrounds it. Everywhere in this fortunate region the evidences of energy, industry and pros- perity are to be seen ; every year new orchards and vineyards are planted, new buildings erected, new industrial works established. Here all the conditions of a happy existence are widely diffused and easily attained. The bountiful soil supplies not only the necessaries but the luxuries of life ; and no violent extremes of cold or heat, no desolating floods or tornados, come to destroy the labours of its inhabitants or mar its beauty — "Rent by no ravige, but the gentle plough." And the owners- of this beautiful land are not unworthy to possess it ; they are a manly, industrious, independent, and highly moral people ; respecting the laws, and taking an intelligent interest in all that concerns the nation, as well as in their own municipal affairs; and all firmly holding by the faith and traditions of their brave and patriotic forefathers, who first founded a new Province for the British Empire.