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 ^ 
 
 f. fr^^ 
 
 ^- ?. J. I 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 St Ldwtence J^oute 
 
 BY 
 
 JItihur Wdr, B.JIp.Sc. 
 
 X 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE SCIENCE 
 
 STUDENTS OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 JANUARY. 1899. 
 
 CONTAINING MUCH MATTER HITHERTO 
 f UNPUBLISHED. 
 
 .1 
 
 VlAM'^ 
 
 w- /» 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 BIGGAR, SAMUEL & CO. 
 1899. 
 
 t t 
 
." ■',^:■ i ■ ■y.-r^^.:r. 
 ^..v^ ■ _.,- ./...-,' /■■■ 
 
 ■1 
 
 
I 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ST. LAWRENCE ROUTE.' 
 
 (rF.FKINTHO I-R0.\! the CANADIAN ENGINIiEk). 
 
 There is a river which contains more salt water than 
 fresh, which has a seaport almost a thousand miles from 
 any ocean, a ri\er that twice in the day flows backwards. 
 At one season it affords navigation to the largest vessels, 
 and at another it has upborne upon its crystal surface a 
 train of loaded cars, with busy locomotives. It flows past 
 virgin woodland, past cultivated fields, and past cities, is 
 sentinelled for hundreds of miles by the oldest mountains 
 in the world, expands into vast lakes, swept by sudden 
 storms, and contracts in narrow gorges, toothed with 
 rock, where its wrath and strife are titanic. It pene- 
 trates a continent like a wedge, and makes a maritime 
 people where the phenomenon of the tides is wanting. It 
 has been the haunt of pirates, of smugglers, the route of 
 heroes and of savages, the scene of wreck and the arena 
 of glory. It is to the Canadian what the Tiber is to the 
 Roman, the Nile to the Egyptian, the Rhine to the 
 German; for that river is the St. Lawrence. 
 
 The St. Lawrence gives the Province of Quebec a sea- 
 coast of 2,500 milts or 500 miles more than that of England. 
 From theStraitsofBelleisleto Duluthit has a length of 2,384 
 statute miles. Montreal, at the head of ocean navigation, 
 is 986 miles from Belleisle, and the river is salt as high as 
 St. Thomas, 766 miles from the ocean, while the tides are 
 regular as high as Three Rivers. The great lake system 
 with connecting waterways has an area of 98,000 square 
 miles, a coast of 2,1 12 miles and the basin area of the system 
 's 330,000 square miles, a generally fertile country cap- 
 
 *Abridgecl by the author, Arthur Weir, B.Sc, from a lecture delivereiJ 
 before the Applied Science students of McGill University, Montreal, January, 1899. 
 
able of accommodating 108,500,000 inhabitants if as 
 densely populated as the United Kingdom. From the 
 ocean to Quebec the river varies from seventy to ten miles 
 in width* with a proportionate depth. It is, however, 
 dotted with reels and islands and subject to fluctuating 
 currents and summer fogs, which render necessary the 
 present magnificent system of lighthouses, sirens and 
 buoys. From Quebec to jVIontreal the river is rarely less 
 than two miles in width, and its depth is never less than 
 thirty feet, except where a score of shoals aggregating 
 fifty miles in length have had to be dredged, giving at 
 present a navigable channel of 27.5 feet. 
 
 The current of the river is usually gentle, but in its 
 descent of 235 feet from Lake Ontario it traverses a 
 series of steps creating about forty miles of rapids, which 
 have had to be overcome by the construction of some 
 seventy odd miles of canals. The continuity of navigation 
 on the great lakes is interrupted by the Niagara Falls, to 
 overcome which a canal nearly 28 miles long has been 
 constructed, and by the Sault Ste. Marie, where there is a 
 canal, short, but otherwise on a gigantic scale, to accom- 
 modate vessels almost as large as those that brave the 
 tumult of the Atlantic. 
 
 The St. Lawrence route in whole or in part is the 
 natural outlet of the interior of the continent to the Atlantic 
 seaboard. Its headwaters are equi-distant between the 
 Atlantic and the Pacific, and engineering work of an 
 easy nature might render continuous navigation possible 
 from the foot of the Rockies to Montreal. The old canoe 
 route by way of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, French 
 River, Lake Nipissing and the Ottawa, while studded with 
 difficulties, is even shorter than the Great Lake and St. 
 Lawrence route for traffic originating west of Lake 
 Huron, but would use the St. Lawrence from the mouth 
 of the Ottawa downwards. A short distance below Mont- 
 real the Richelieu enters the St. Lawrence, giving access 
 to Lake Champlain and the Hudson Valley, and to New 
 York, the distance from Montreal to the United States 
 metropolis being 457 miles by this route, of which 372 
 miles would be natural navigation. The present objections 
 to the St. Lawrence route are several. In the first place 
 there is no Canadian lake harbor sufficiently equipped or 
 deep enough to compete for trade with the United States 
 lake ports, many of which have been deepened at large 
 
1 
 
 expense. Secondly, the river cannot be said to be open 
 more than seven or eight months in iht year. And thirdly, 
 the existence of tolls militates against the natural advantages 
 of the route. The competition of railroad's and of the P2rie 
 Ci-nal, which is free of toils, renders the advantage of the St. 
 Lawrence route almost useless to stay the tide of traftic 
 by way of the United States. Of course, the Erie Canal is 
 not navigable in winter. 
 
 Champlain's escapade (m the lake named after him, in 
 which he shot an Iroquois chief, closed the St. Lawrence 
 against the French until 1653, and in that year it was open 
 only for a short time. 
 
 In Champlain's day, Tadousac was the leadjjig harbor 
 of Canada, subsequently being displaced by Quebec an(^ 
 then by Montreal, for it is a rule of trade that it will ever 
 go to the head of navigation. 
 
 During the French regime the St. Lawrence was the 
 centre and not the boundary of Canada. Her trappers had 
 overrun the country south to the Gulf of Mexico, had 
 skirted the flanks of the Rocky Mountains, and d'Iberville 
 had performed feats of valor against the British posts on 
 Hudson's Bay. Lake Mistassini was known, and there 
 was scarcely a pellucid stream west of the AUeghanies 
 which had not rippled to the paddle of the courier de bois. 
 The trade of Canada was chiefly in furs, and but for the 
 expenditures from the military chest the country would 
 have been in a state of chronic bankruptcy. Foreign trade 
 was prohibited, and anyone engaged in it was treated as a 
 pirate. Huguenots were forced to leave the country 
 every fall, the more important trades were always in the 
 hands of a monopoly, prices of commodities were fixed by 
 Government officials ; as also were freight rates. Non- 
 resident merchants were not permitted to trade with the 
 Indians, and could do business only below Quebec, and 
 then only during three months of the year. But there was 
 nevertheless some traffic in the country. The fur trade 
 just before the outbreak of the war of the Conquest 
 averaged from 200,000 to 300,000 livres per annum, and in 
 1615 there were, according to the Jesuit Biard, fully 500 
 French ships engaged in the fur, whale and codfish trade. 
 Licenses for the fur trade were ultimately issued, costing 
 from 500 to 1,000 livres at first hand, and good for one 
 canoe. In 1754 the trade with the western posts amounted 
 to 90 canoes. According to Lt. Gov. Miles the beaver 
 
trade never exceeded £ 140,000 stg. per annum, and it was 
 not half that in 1754 and 1755. In 1688 Canada produced 
 101,000 bushels of wheat, increased by 1734 to 738,000 
 bushels. The exports of wheat at the latter period were 
 about 60,000 bushels. At the close of the French period 
 the exports were still only raw materials, furs of all kinds, 
 porpoise oil, cod, s£.lmon, eels, lumber, and such like, while 
 even bacon and flour were imported, the imports amounting 
 to about 8,000,000 livres, against 2,500,000 of exports. Dur- 
 ing '759 the requirements of the colonists were met by 
 !2,ooo tons of shipping, although they were in the throes of 
 war and depending almost entirely upon external support. 
 I may here remark that these figures are not entirely 
 reliable. The science of statistics did not come to any- 
 thing like perfection in Canada until after Confederation. 
 The imports of 1765 are placed by a memorial of the time 
 at 4,000,000 livres and the exports at 1,500,000. I give 
 the figures I find to hand, merely because they will in a 
 measure give some idea of the early trade via the St. 
 Lawrence. 
 
 The intendant Talon, to whom all honor, came to 
 Canada in 1665 and may be looked upon as the father of 
 commerce in Canada. He established a brewery that the 
 money the people spent on liquor might at least be kept at 
 home. In 1667 he built the first Canadian Ixiilt ship at 
 Quebec, the beginning of a very important trade, carried 
 to particular extent in the Maritime F'rovinces. This 
 ship he sent to the West Indies to open a trade with those 
 islands. It carried out salt cod, pease, salmon, eels, fish 
 oil, staves and planks, and brought back sugar. Later, 
 wheat was exported, of which 54,000 bushels were sent out 
 in 1685. Attempts were also made to establish an export 
 trade to France, exclusive of peltry. The season of navi- 
 gation on the St. Lawrence has been placed at about eight 
 months. During the French regime it was only four 
 months, the ships from France arriving in July, August and 
 September, and sailing agam in November. The duration 
 of a voyage in those days was uncertain. The Jesuits 
 Biard and Masse were four months between France and 
 Canada, from January to May, Talon himself was 117 
 days en route, and de Levis was to be congratulated in 
 crossing the ferry in 56 days in 1756. Sometimes the 
 shipo were blown back to France after sighting America, 
 
 % 
 
 'X 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
as was de la Roche in 1598; sometimes they became 
 plaf^ue stricken, as was the " Riibis" in 1740 ; and wrecks 
 were freriuent, that of ''la Providence;" in ijiS.'Me Chameau" 
 in 1725, " riilepliant " in 1729, the " Beaiiharnois "in 1731, 
 " la Trinite " in 1752, and the " Chamelion " in 1753. The 
 ships of the day were of very small tonna^'e. Chan.plain 
 crossed in one of 12 tons. One could wash in the sea 
 from the deck of the vessel of " la Roche." 
 
 The cost of a passage m one of these ships was 33 
 livres in 1664, increased to 40 livres by 1672. In 1740 
 freight charges were 25 francs per ton. Every ship coming 
 to Canada from France, and it might come only from a 
 French port, had to conform to the tariffof prices in sell- 
 ing its cargo, had to bring out, if desired, one immigrant 
 for every ton of its burden, refrain from trade with the 
 Indians, and carry a certa'n proportion of salt, iron and 
 coal, although the St. Maurice forges were in operation 
 and the outcrops of coal in Acadia were utilized by the 
 French in that district. From the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
 to Ouebec during the French regime there was not a single 
 friendly light to guide tlie mariner through the sometimes 
 tortuous channels. And the Gouffre and the Traverse, 
 stiJl somewhat boisterous at certain stages of the tide, were 
 then as dangerous as the maelstrom. These once danger- 
 ous spots, a little below Quebec, have now been largely 
 silted in, and are of small consequence to vessels of to-day. 
 In the days of sailing vessels, however, many a wreck took 
 place there and the first buoying of the St. Lawrence was 
 done at the Traverse. 
 
 As already stated, the lower portion of the St. Law- 
 rence is a seacoast with all the dangers of one ; and it was 
 early charted. There is a chart of the ri\er in the 
 Archives Department at Ottawa, bearing date 1695. ^t 
 was, however, between 1717 and 1737 that the charting of 
 the St. Lawrence was first developed to any extent. In 
 1723, I'Hermite, the father of charting on the river, began 
 his labors. He and Richardiere, harbor master at Quebec, 
 took soundings in the Gulf and river, and in 1737 the 
 latter was busy cutting landmarks for the mariner. In the 
 same year was first lit the fire tower of Louisburg, the 
 only beacon that flamed along those shores for maritime 
 purposes during the French regime. In passing, I may 
 mention that the Indians in early times in crossing from 
 
1 
 
 Cape North to Newfoundland and back were wont to lif^lit 
 beacons upon that lowering mass, which they called 
 Sakpt;e(liah or Smoky Point in consequence. 
 
 Above Quebec there were no impediments to the 
 vessels of the day, as far as Montreal, although Jacques 
 Cartier ran aground in Lake St. Peter. The usual means 
 of conveyance was by canoe and subsequently by rude 
 batteaux, which were days and sometimes weeks upon the 
 trip. The usual duration of a voyage between Queliec 
 and Montreal was six days, Three Rivers being the mid- 
 way point. It was customary to land each night and 
 billet upon some seignory. The luxurious Bigot had a 
 most suuiptuous barge with silken awnings when he made 
 his customary visits to the future metropolis. 
 
 The only important engineering work begun in 
 connection wit' the St. Lawrence route during the I'rench 
 regime was the attempt to construct a canal between 
 Montreal and Lachine, to overcome the Sault St. Louis or 
 Lachine Rapids. In 1700 a contract was signed by Dol- 
 lier du Casson on the one part and Sieur de Catalogue on 
 the other to construct a canal some twelve hundred feet 
 long and twelve feet wide from Lachine to connect with 
 a little lake, called St. Pierre, which in turr^ connected 
 with two streams, one of which ran through what is now 
 Craig street. The work was interrupted in 1701 by the 
 death of Du Casson, and although many attempts were 
 made to complete it, the Seminary spending some 20,000 
 francs in work begun in 1717, a heavy rock cutting that 
 was encountered finally brought all operations to a stand- 
 still. 
 
 It may be interesting to remark in view of the 
 present endeavor to find a winter outlet for the St. Law- 
 rence that during the French regime the harl)or of Bic was 
 designed to be improved and fortified to make it what 
 Louisburg was to Acadia and what Halifax is to-day, a 
 naval depot and winter port for trade. French shipping 
 on the great lakes began as we all know with the journey of 
 LaSalle, who built a vessel to navigate Lake Ontario, left 
 it at the upper end of the lake, passed Niagara and on Lake 
 Erie built the " Griffon " in 1679. She made one trip into 
 Lake Michigan, and was lost on her return journey. As 
 early as 1700 there were two or three brigantines on Lake 
 Ontario, and in 1756 from six to ten schooners and brigs, 
 as well as a number of large batteaux. 
 
 •3 
 
.1 
 
 '4 
 
 I will close this sketch of the French regime by 
 remarking that the priesthood, who do all things ciet ently 
 and in order, had a series of regulations regarding travel 
 which read rjuaintly to-day. They were to tuck up their 
 robe on getting into a canoe, and were not to wear their 
 shoes or stockings, though they might don these when 
 portaging. Above all, they were to be careful that they 
 took no sand into ihe canoe upon their feet and that the 
 brim of their hat should not annoy the savages, an item 
 which alight bear quotation to-day in theatres, although 
 the alternative that they should wear their nightcaps 
 because there is no such thing as impropriety among 
 savages, might be asking too much of the ladies. 
 
 The first canals of Canada were constructed for mili- 
 tary purposes, by the royal engineers. They v.'ere the 
 direct result of the American Revolution. During this 
 war there were about six thousand troops in ihe Great- 
 lake region who depended upon Montreal for supplies, no 
 fewer than 670 boats being required to transport provisions 
 in six months. These batte'iux sailed in brigades of ten 
 or a dozen to aid one another .n surmounting the sluicing 
 cataracts of the upper St. Lawrence, particularly the Long 
 Sault, which required an entire day to ascend. This was 
 an object lesson not lost upon the authorities, and im- 
 provements were begun at these rapids in 1779 by Captain 
 Tvviss, R.E. The first canal was begun at Coteau du Lac, 
 the first plan being to make the lock walls of timber, but 
 they were subsequently made of masonry. It was begun 
 in 1779 and completed by 25th October, 17S0, with three 
 locks and iron flood gates. The locks were forty feet long, 
 six feet wide and less than thirty inches of water covered 
 the sills. It would have been useless to make them deeper 
 without undertaking a much greater length of canal. Mr. 
 de Longueuil, who had built a mill a little above the 
 Cascades, had thereby somewhat improved navigation, but 
 Captain Twiss further improved tlie canal here, which 
 ■ivas designed merely to overcome the current, and he was 
 shrewd enough to make Mr. de Longueuil <' jfray part of 
 the expense. In 1781 work was begun on canals at the 
 Cascades and Cedars, and the Split Rock channel was 
 deepened. Cornish miners were employed upon the vari- 
 ous rock cuttings and blasting work, vvhich was carried on 
 in various perilous places throughout the series of 
 rapid^, dangerous rocks being blown to atoms. The 
 
8 
 
 Cascades Canal was at Cascades Point, where a shallow 
 and rapid channel discharges from the St. Lawrence into 
 the Ottawa, known as Les FauciHc'^, between the main 
 river and Ileie Moyne. It was a b?tteau canal with two 
 locks, and about 200 yards long. The Split Rock Canal 
 was at a point where the current is greatly accelerated by 
 the projection into the stieain of Point an Buisson, on the 
 southern bank. The remains of tliis lock are still to be seen. 
 
 These canals were all batteau canals. The batteau 
 had about the dimensions of the Venetian gondola, but 
 there the reseuiblance ended. It was built of pine wood, 
 about 5A feet beam, 35 feet long; was flat bottomed, 
 pointed at both ends, and drew very little water. A bat- 
 teau containing 25 persons, their baggage and 25 barrels 
 of flour, is said by a traveler of the time to have drawn only 
 eight inches. But this must have been a very large bat- 
 teau, as the average batteau load was 30 barrels of flour 
 and the crew of four or five meii. When these canals 
 were constructed the annual traffic on the upper St. 
 Lawrence to Carieton Island amounted to from 240 to 320 
 batteaux. On the completion of the Coteau du Lac Canal, 
 Twiss, with *^he cordial consent of the merchants, imposed 
 a toll of ten shillings currency per batteau, increased to 
 twenty-five shillings when the series of canals was com- 
 pleted- Ten barrels of flour being reckoned as a ton, we 
 find that the early canal tolls were ^1.66 per ton. The 
 present rate on the Beauharnois Canal, which replaces 
 these canals, is $0,15 per ton. 
 
 The canals remained in th's condition until 1800, after 
 ;he formation of Uppf^r Canada, which took place in 17-33. 
 The effect of the improvement in the rapids is well shown 
 by the toll receipts, although we must not forget that Upper 
 Canada was being rapidly populated by exiled United 
 Empire Loyalists. In 1781 seme 263 batteaux, two 
 canoes and one boat used the Coteau Canal. The tolls 
 for a time declined, probably because no ships were per- 
 mitted upon the Great Lakes except the King's vessels, 
 but subsequently increased and in 1799 Vv^eie double what 
 they had been in 1795. By iSoo the tral c was so great 
 that improvements were demanded, and although to detail 
 ther.e here is to trespas" upon our third period, it may be 
 well to do so and complete the history of canals at this 
 point prior to the Union. In 1800, Col. Gother Mann pro- 
 posed to increase the capacity of these canals. The 
 
 M 
 
 I 
 
Coteau Canal was to be widened to 9^ feet in the lock 
 gates, the lock itself to be widened four feet and the canal 
 prism two feet. This would make the locks ten feet wide, 
 and the dimensions are from the report of our Archivist, 
 although Mr. Keefei in his admirable monograph on the 
 canals of Canada states that they were enlarged to twelve 
 feet. So also the two differ as to the length of the locks 
 which Mr. Keefer places at no feet and Dr. Brymner at 
 120 feet, the first probably allowing for the opening of the 
 gates. Col. Mann proposed to replace Mill rapid and 
 Cascades canals by one canal across a neck of land from 
 the St. Lawrence to the Ottawa about 900 yards above the 
 Cascades, and 300 yards wide. His suggestions were 
 accepted and work was commenced, the work bemg com- 
 pleted by 1805. Old documents enable us to estimate the 
 depth of the enlarged canals at 3^ feet, and Mr. Keefer 
 places theni at four feet. Rock cutting was here encount- 
 ered, the first of importance since the ill-fated French 
 Lachine Canal. 
 
 The Durham boat was introduced after the war of 
 1 81 2, and compared with its predecessors it was a levia- 
 than. How the habitant must have swelled with pride to 
 see a ship ascend the St. Lawrence with ten times the 
 capacity of the early batteau. The Durham boat was flat 
 bottomed, with keel and centreboard, rounded in the bow 
 and decked at bow and stern with a wide gunwale running 
 its entire length for purposes of poling. Its capacity was 
 350 barrels of flour, or 35 tons. To accommodate these 
 vessels it was necessary to further enlarge the canals in 
 1817, to 12 feet between the gates. Bythat time nearly 900 
 batteaux passed the canals annually, and in 1833 some 863 
 batteaux and 612 Durham boats carried the trade of the 
 Upper St. Lawrence. In early ('ays the western country 
 had to be fed from the east. Where now waves the golden 
 wheat of Manitoba the traders were exposed to starvation 
 if the supply boats did not arrive at the grand portage in 
 due season. The first shipment of wheat from Chicago 
 did not take place until 1838. This must be borne in 
 mind in connection with what I now propose to review, the 
 struggle for supremacy on the Great Lakes between the 
 navy and the fleets of commerce. Before describing this 
 struggle, however, it will be desirable to review briefly the 
 history of the great fur-trading days, in order to show the 
 volume of commerce that depended upon the result. 
 
10 
 
 In 1802 the Montreal North-West Fur Company had 
 117 trading posts, 20 partners, 161 clerks and interpreters, 
 877 common employees in addition to loo free hunters and 
 540 canoe men on the Ottawa. The London sales of 1801 
 were ^371,139 stg. and they paid ^"22,000 stg. in duties. 
 In 1780, according to Charles Grant, the trade from Mont- 
 real was from go to 100 canoes, and the furs brought dov/n 
 were estimated at ^200,000, or $8 per capita of the popula- 
 tion. Each canoe load cost ;^30G stg. in England. The 
 freight charges across the Atlantic v/ere fifty per cent. To 
 transport it from Montreal to Machillimackinac cost fifty 
 per cent, more on the original price, so that each canoe 
 load was valusd at over ^700, much over $3,500 as com- 
 pared with the present day ; no inconsiderable treasure 
 to trust to the rush of im etuous rapids day after day for 
 weeks at a time. The work of the voyageur was highly 
 specialized. His skill has not entirely passed from among 
 us, but it is not now an integral portion of the trade of the 
 day. He engaged as " devant " or in the bow, or " Gouver- 
 neuil," that is as steersman, or if not quite so skilled as the 
 ethers as "milieu," or in the midships seats. The pole was 
 quite as much in vogue as the paddle, and ailyone using 
 it had to keep the bow true against the current or the boat 
 would be swept round and capsized, perhaps where no man 
 could fall in and live. 
 
 In connection with cost of transportation I may say 
 that the Hudson's Bay route to the interior in those 
 early days, was 25 per cent, less, that is, it was 75 per 
 cent, of the original price. Som«^ three hundred men were 
 employed west of the carrying place, men who exposed 
 themselves to hostile Indians, to rapids and starvation so 
 keen that cannibalism was not unknown among them. 
 They straggled from the peaks of the Rockies, from the 
 shores of the Saskatchewan and from the far north, even 
 from the Mackenzie River, back to the carrying place 
 between loth June and loth July each year, laden with 
 ixch furs, but with scarcely a mouthful of food, and if the 
 supply canoes were delayed the results were terrible to 
 think of. It was this that made the conflict for supremacy 
 upon the lakes so bitter, and which ultimately led to the 
 triumph of the merchants. 
 
 In 1755 the British built two sloops at Oswego on 
 Lake Ontario, naming them after lake and site respectively, 
 and in the same year General Shirley placed a sloop and 
 
 
 I 
 
II 
 
 schooner, each of ninety tons, on the same lake in addition 
 to a number of whale boats and galleys, which we might 
 call batteaux. After the Conquest, merchants began to 
 establish themselves to tap the rich fur routes, and Oswego 
 was for some years the most important fur trading post on 
 the continent. The Lake Superior copper mines attracted 
 the attention of English capitalists and in 1770-71 a sloop 
 of forty tons was built at Point aux Pins and sailed to 
 Ontenagon. There was no difficulty in opening up the 
 fur trade, so far as navigation of the lakes was concerned, 
 until the outbreak of the United States revolution, almost 
 immediately after which all private trade on the lakes was 
 prohibited, and merchants' goods were permitted to be 
 transported only on the king's ships. One may regret, 
 but should not unduly complain of the hardships which 
 war imposes upon trade, and the merchants of Canada, 
 while very much put out by ihe new regulation, bore it 
 with some equanimity until peace was restored, but while 
 the number of ships of the navy was reduced to two ships 
 on each lake after the war, the authorities refused to 
 accord the merchants their former rights of free navigation. 
 Then the storm broke. The merchants did all in their 
 power to make the authorities see reason. They even 
 offered to have their vessels commanded by a naval officer 
 and pay his salary. Haldimand, on the other hand, 
 thought it sufficient to place a third war vessel on Lake 
 Ontario and Lake Erie. It will save time to quote Haldi- 
 mand's own words in connection with the matter : 
 
 " The navigation of the Great Lakes by the king's 
 vessels only," he said, " is an object so nearly connected 
 with the entire preservation of the fur trade, that I have 
 withstood various appl'cations for building and navigating 
 private vessels and boats upon the lakes ; the rivers and 
 outlets from them to the American States are so numerous 
 that no precautions which could be taken in that case, 
 would be effectual in preventing a great part of the furs 
 from going directly into the American States, ... I 
 would therefore recommend by all means that a sufficient 
 number of king's vessels be kept up on the lakes, and all 
 other craft whatever prohibited not only for foregoing 
 reasons, but in all events to preserve a superiority upon 
 the waters of that country." 
 
 That sufficient of the king's ships were not kept up on 
 the lakes is indicated by the fact that in 1784 the goods 
 
1^ 
 
 12 
 
 ilr 
 
 i. 
 
 I 
 
 "I" 
 
 intended for the interior trade were so long delayed at 
 Kingston and Niagara that they could not be sent forward, 
 while on the i6th July, 1785, there was little, if anything, 
 short of 100 batteaux loads of goods to cross Lake Erie, 
 besides thirty or forty loads at Kingston. Some of these 
 goods hau been awaiting transport for twelve months. 
 Benjamin Frobisher put the case of the merchants in a 
 nutshell when he wrote, sending a memorial : " All the 
 company (N.W. Fur Co.) wishes for is on any terms to be 
 left to the management of its own business." The mer- 
 chants of Detroit (then under the British tlag) declared that 
 they were paying ;^3,700 stg. interest upon the goods 
 detained at Carleton Island, and that the action of the 
 Government would involve them in ruin. It required five 
 years in those days to begin and complete a transaction in 
 furs in Canada. The goods were ordered from England 
 in one year, they came out the following year, went west 
 the third year, the furs for which they were bartered 
 reached Montreal in the fourth year and were sold in Lon- 
 don in the fifth year, during- all of which period 
 interest was accumulating. An extra year's delay meant 
 a great deal to the merchants, many of whom went into 
 debt for their goods. 
 
 By 1785 a relaxation in the regulation was made by 
 St. Leger at Detroit, and merchant vessels were once 
 more spreading their sails on the lakes in 1791. The 
 '* York," one of the pioneers of the now gigantic fleet, was 
 launched at the mouth of the Niagara in 1792. One of 
 the historic vessels of the lake trade was the " Beaver,'' 
 built in Detroit in 1784. She was built for the navigation 
 of Lake Superior, by the North-West Fur Company, but 
 could not be got up the Sault Ste. Marie. As the com- 
 pany declared that she was built at inconceivable cost 
 ($7,374), and altogether looked upon her as a phenomenon, 
 you may like to learn her dimensions. She was 34 feet 
 long in the keel, 13 feet beam and 4 feet deep in the hold. 
 On Lake Superior to-day are vessels exceeding 300 feet in 
 keel length, 42 feet in the beam, and drawing 16 feet ; I 
 am speaking of the " Pope," which has carried 126,000 
 bushels of corn, weighing 3,527 tons. In 1797, by the way, 
 was launched the first United States vessel on Lake Erie, 
 the " Washington," which after one season was bought by 
 a Canadian, taken on wheels — you can imagine her size — 
 around the Niagara Falls, and sailed for Kingston from 
 Queenston in 1798 as the " Lady Washington." 
 
 - 
 
 
13 
 
 m 
 
 Let us now pass to the consideration of the early 
 coasting and foreign trade of Canada by way of the St. 
 Lawrence. Quebec was then the metropolis, the great 
 seaport. In its narrow streets the drunken sailor stag- 
 gered, and the press gang snatched him from the siren's 
 lure. Often the merchant vessels had to put to sea danger- 
 ously short-handed because His Majesty — God bless him — 
 wanted sailors and took them when he would. The brandy 
 dram of the Ehzabethan age had now become rum. It was 
 part of the wages of a sailor. Tommy Atkins must needs 
 have rum also, and the roll of the kegs followed the roll of 
 the drum into the western country, and the commissariat 
 was often hard pushed to satisfy his wants. 
 
 While glad to throw off the colonial yoke, the United 
 States was not willing to relinquish colonial advantages, 
 and it may seem strange to you to be told that United 
 States traders made a strong effort to continue enjoying 
 the advantages of the Navigation Act. The Navigation Act 
 was an act under which trade to British ports was permit- 
 ted only in British ships, and when at last the United 
 Statesians found themselves formally and by legal opinion 
 declared foreigners and not eligible to come into Canada 
 under the act, they resorted to forging the registers of their 
 vessels, some two hundred being issued between 1788 and 
 1790, being chiefly Mediterranean certificates, with which 
 region Can ida had for many years a fairly extensive trade. 
 The Navigation Act was repealed for Canada in 1849. 
 
 Canada's trade with the rest of the continent towards 
 the close of the eighteenth century was not very extensive. 
 From 1768 to 1783 inclusive, the entries at Quebec averag- 
 ed only twenty-four per annum, the average burden being 
 64 tons. The largest number of arrivals was 76 in 1774, 
 and the largest average tonnage was 97 tons in 1780. The 
 average annual clearings during that period was 26, and 
 the average tonnage cleared was eighty tons. The largest 
 number of clearings was 38 in 1778 and the largest average 
 tonnage was 136 in 1781. In 1782 there were only two ar- 
 rivals and in 1780 only twelve vessels cleared. The average 
 tonnage in 1769 was 41 tons and the lowest yearly average 
 of tonnage cleared was 49 tons in 1771 and 1773. Such 
 were the cockle shell coasters of a century ago. These 
 vessels brought in the bulk of the rum used in the country, 
 and a very large portion of the coffee, sugar and molasses, 
 although the last two were most extensively brought from 
 
I 
 
 i:: 
 
 the West Indies. Large quantities of pease were exported 
 between 1770 and 1775, with much lumber, wheat, b'«5cuit 
 and flour. The exports of flour between 1768 and 1783 
 averaged 2,334 barrels per nnnutn. In 1802 Canada ex- 
 ported 1,010,033 bushels of wheat, all countries, 28,301 
 barrels of flour and 22,051 cwt. of biscuit. The average 
 tonnage of the ships that entered at Quebec from Great 
 Britain from 1768 to 1780 was 145 tons and the average 
 crew was ten men. In 1793 two fairly large vessels, one of 
 299 tons and the other of 301 tons cleared from that port, 
 but there was one mere jolly boat of 72 tons and the average 
 had risen only to 176 tons. Great Britain was Canada's 
 chief port for potash, fish oil and lumber. Before the 
 United States revolution thirty-four ships and four hundred 
 men satisfied the commerce of Britain with Canada annu- 
 ally. The West Indian trade and trade to ports other than 
 British or American was not large in those days, and was 
 confined chiefly to codfish, salmon, boards, planks and 
 wheat exported ; and imports of molasses, sugar and salt. 
 Wines and teas were brought usually from England. 
 Canada did a good trade in masts in those early days, 
 these being usually sent to Gibraltar. 
 
 The position of Governor-General of Canada was by 
 no means a sinecure in those early days. Canada was cut 
 off for the six winter months from all communication with 
 the Motherland, except via Halifax by couriers to 
 Acadia. Mails were not frequent even in summer, and 
 the Governor was a Governor indeed. One of Haldimand's 
 first proposals was the establishment of a line of fast ves- 
 sels, to sail once a month or every six weeks for the con- 
 veyance of the mails to and from Europe. It was not, 
 however, until 1787 that a monthly mail was established 
 between London and Halifax. The European news of the 
 Quebec Gazette in 1764 was seventy days old. The trade 
 fleet usually left Great Britain for Canada towards the end 
 of March, and a second fleet followed in July. It may be 
 inferred from the register of shipping at Quebec that the 
 season of the port opened ist July and closed ist October, 
 a period of three months, now doubled. Mention has 
 already been made of the early efforts of the French to 
 chart and landmark the St. Lawrence. Under early 
 British rule further progress was made. It is not generally 
 known that the celebrated Captain Cook was with Wolfe 
 at the capture of Quebec and aided that commander 
 
 ^1 
 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
15 
 
 very greatly by taking soundings in and about the liarbor 
 of Quebec, being so nearly captured on one occasion that 
 his foes had leaped into one end of his boat as he sprang 
 out of the other. He also charted the river below Quebec 
 in places that had been found intricate and dangerous, and, 
 so said his biographer in 1788, " his work was so accurate 
 that it hath not since been found necessary to publish any 
 other." He surveyed Miquelon and St. Pierre and the 
 coast of Newfoundland in 17637, and held from the latter 
 year the title of Marine Surveyor of Newfoundland and 
 Labrador. Captain Bayfield, who charted the river very 
 extensively, was no unworthy successor. 
 
 As early as 1785 the London Merchants trading to 
 Canada offered to place buoys in the Traverse, if the auth- 
 orities would maintain them, and the proposal was received 
 with favor. As early as 1783 the buoying and lighting of 
 the river had been proposed, and attached to the recom- 
 mendation was a report showing that sixty vessels had 
 been wrecked in the river between 1776 and 1783. In 
 1788 the Council declared that it could not afford the 
 expense of lighting Green Island, and it was not until 1809 
 that a light shone upon that dangerous strand, which is 
 almost opposite the Saguenay. This, I believe, was the 
 first lighthouse in the St. Lawrence. 
 
 We come now to a period which we cannot treat in 
 such detail as has hitherto been done. Improvements 
 began to come rapidly. The influx of exiles from the 
 United States had begun to give the upper country an air 
 of civilization,. and in 1793 the province of Upper Canada 
 was created. Its wonderful prosperity had all to do with 
 the development of the St. Lawrence route, up to Con- 
 federation at least, and we will begin our consideration of 
 the third period by describing the advance of shipping on 
 the Great lakes up to the Union of the provinces in 1841. 
 The first canal on the lakes was built by the North West 
 Fur Company, at Sault Ste. Marie about 1800: Mr. Keefer 
 says, in 1798. The United States had a canal in i8co 
 from the Mohawk river to Wood's Creek, the first effort 
 to establish communication with the Hudson river, that is 
 to say, forerunner of the Erie canal. The canal of the Fur 
 Company was built at the lower end of the rapid on the 
 northern or Canadian side, and supplemented a road by 
 which the goods of the company were transported to the 
 landing on Lake Superior. The commerce on Lake 
 
i6 
 
 Superior was developed later than that on the other lakes. 
 Canadian companies navigated it from about 1800, one of 
 the first vessels being the " Recovery," owned by the British 
 Northwestern Company. She was of 150 tons burden and 
 a brigantine. The ''John Jacob Astor," the first United 
 States vessel on this lake, was launched in 1H35. 
 
 Coming to the next obstruction in navigation on the 
 lakes, there is the historic Niagara portage, which was in 
 a good state of development in the French regime and 
 over which the bulk of the carrying remained in the hands of 
 Canadians until the United States passed the embargo and 
 non-intercourse acts of 1807 and 1809. This portage was 
 usually leased to one firm, which had a fixed tariff. There 
 was another portage from Toronto to Georgian Bay, 
 avoiding the navigation of Lake Erie. 
 
 For many years there were no roads worthy the name 
 in what is now Ontario. All travel was by water, and in 
 time a class of packet schooners arose which reached a high 
 state of development. Then came steam, first used in 
 Canada at Montreal, by Hon. John Molson in 1809, 
 and used on the great lake's by Canada before it 
 was used by the United States. The "Frontenac," built in 
 i8i5,and the"(,Jueen Charlotte," built in 18 16, both antedate 
 the United States vessel the "Ontario," which was so poorly 
 constructed that her paddle shaft was thrown from its 
 bearings during the first trip. But the heat of the furnaces, 
 the clank of the engines, and the smell of the whale oil 
 lamps in the cabins of the early steamboats were not con- 
 ducive to hearty appetites, and it was not until the thirties 
 that the competition of a line of steamers from Toronto to 
 Prescott was able to place the schooners in the background. 
 The speediest of these steamers made four miles per hour 
 against a stiff breeze, and her walking beam was as broad 
 as it was long. She was subsequently transferred to the 
 lower lakes on the St. Lawrence proper, and the "Sir Robert 
 Peel" took her place on the route from Cobourg to Toronto. 
 In 1 841 the propeller came into use on the lakes through 
 the instrumentality of a Canadian, who had read of Ericson's 
 invention, and urged an Oswego friend, then in New York, 
 to look into the invention and let him know the result. 
 The friend took one Van Cleve, of Lewiston, N.Y., to see 
 the invention, and Van Cleve left the place with the mono- 
 poly of propeller traffic on the lakes in his pocket, the result 
 of which was the " Vandalia " — such is the consequence 
 
17 
 
 sometimes of consulting one's friends on matters of im- 
 portance. 
 
 In the early years of the century there was not a light- 
 house on the great lakes and the harbors were still in a 
 state of nature. Some charting had been done, and it had 
 been ascertained that the harbor of Toronto was rapidly 
 shoaling. Measures to prevent this were proposed by 
 Captains Richardson and Bonnycastle, but nothing was 
 done I? "til after 1841. Towards the close of the twenties 
 some ot the harbors, such as Port Stanley, Port Hope, 
 Cobourg and Oakville, had been supplied with wharves, 
 chiefly by private enterprise. The Queen's wharf at Tor- 
 onto had been constructed prior to 1M41, i,ogi feet long, 
 with a depth of water varying from 9 to 12 feet. There 
 was not a lighthouse on the lakes until after 1825, and the 
 totalexpenditureof UpperCanadauponlighthouses, beacons 
 and buoys, prior to the Union, was less than $100,000. 
 
 We allknowthatsteamnavigation inCanadabeganwith 
 the Molson Ime between Montreal and Quebec, the pioneer 
 of which was the "Accommodation," launched in iSog. 
 
 In 1826 the firm now known as that of David Torrance 
 & Co. purchased from John Handyside & Co. the tug and 
 passenger steamer" Hercules," and placing Captain Brush 
 in command began a competition with the Molson line. 
 This was the origin of the Richelieu and Ontario Navi- 
 gation Company. 
 
 Steam navigation speedily spread beyond Quebec and 
 Montreal. Above the latter city on Lake St. Louis, a 
 steamboat was placed as early as 1824, and there was one 
 on the Ottawa above Carillon in i8ig, followed by one on 
 the lower Ottawa in 1826. The first steamer to run. the 
 Lachine Rapids was the "Ontario," Capt. Hilliard. She 
 made the perilous trip igth August, 1841. The name of this 
 vessel was subsequently altered to the "Lord Sydenham." 
 In 1814 Lower Canada had a population of 335,000 and 
 Upper Canada had 95,000, increased by 1825 to 479, 188 and 
 157,923 respectively, an increase of nearly 70% for Lower 
 Canada and quite 60% for Upper Canada. Side by side 
 with this increase in population came an increase in trade, 
 which added to the need of good communication experienced 
 during the war of 1^12, led to the devotion of a good deal 
 of attention to the improvement of the St. Lawrence route 
 and of the connections between the upper lakes. 
 
 The first important improvement in the St. Lawrence 
 route was the construction of the Lachine Canal. Adam 
 
i8 
 
 Lyml)urner in 17(^1 had proposed a canal from Montreal 
 to Lachine, and as a compromise, in 1805 a vote of $4,000 
 for the improvement of the river had been applied by the 
 Commissioners to improvements in the Lachine rapids. 
 In the following year a similar sum was applied to further 
 improvements as well as for work between Montreal and 
 Laptairie, at Point St. Charles and in the rapids above 
 Lachine. In 1815 a company was incorporated to con- 
 struct the canal, but failing eventually to. secure the re- 
 quisite capital, the Legislature took over the work in 1821, 
 ground being broken 17th July by Hon. John Richardson. 
 The canal was opened as far as the outskirts of Montreal 
 by August, 1824, and the first vessel passed through in 
 1825. The canal was a barge canal with five feet depth of 
 water and locks 100 feet by 20 feet. The advisability of 
 canal construction by Government instead of a private 
 company is well shown in the history of the W'elland canal, 
 which was begun in 1824, and completed after much mis- 
 management and many difficulties, including the falling in 
 of the Deep Cut, in 1829, but so-poorly that much subse- 
 quent work was requisite. 
 
 We now approach the period when (Quebec lost to 
 Montreal the proud and lucrative position of the ocean 
 port of Canada. This came about through the construc- 
 tion of the lake St. Peter channel, which is one of the most 
 unique canals in the world. Its length is about eighteen 
 miles, and it affords a depth of twenty-seven and a half feet, 
 its submarine walls being sometimes sixteen feet deep, and 
 ranging from one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards 
 in width. The history of its construction is interesting. 
 In L826 the merchants of Montreal presented a petition 
 that aid be granted in '^learingthe St. Lawrence at He Plat 
 and in Lake St. Peter. The matter was referred to a com- 
 mittee of the Legislature, who examined pilots and ship 
 captains, all of whom thought that any channel which 
 might be dredg'^d would be almost immediately refilled by 
 the quicksands. In 1830 Capt. H. W. Bayfield surveyed 
 the lake, and in his reports of 1831 and 1835 expressed the 
 opinion that it was doubtful whether a channel for vessels 
 of deep draught were possible. Montrealers, however, do 
 not acknowledge that anything is impossible to them, and 
 in 1838 the Committee of Trade again brought the matter 
 forward and asked for a sixteen feet channel in place of the 
 natural one of only eleven feet and a half. A new survey 
 
19 
 
 was ordered immediately after the I'nion of 1841, and tlie 
 engineer, D. Thompson, declared a sixteen feet chan- 
 nel practicable. In that year the Legislature appropri- 
 ated lifty-eight thousand live hundred pounds sterling 
 towards the undertaking. The machinery and dredges 
 recjuired for the work were completed by 1843, and work 
 was begun in the following yt>ar, a straight channel 150 
 feet wide and 14 feet deep being projected through the 
 flats. This appears to have been an injudicious proceeding, 
 as the currents drifted large quantities of sand into the ex- 
 cavations. Work was, however, continued until it was 
 ascertained in 1845 that the appropriation would not be 
 sufficient. A committee visited the work and decided that 
 it would be better to abandon it and enlarge the natural 
 but crooked channel, a proposal in which Capt. Bayfield 
 concurred, only that he thought it more economical to 
 complete the straight cut now that it had been so nearly 
 finished. He advocated increasing the width to a hundred 
 yards. The work was resumed, and discontinued in 1847 
 for want of funds, some seven miles out of nine having 
 been dredged and seventy-one thousand pounds sterling 
 having been expended. 
 
 Montreal would not accept its defeat. Its citizens 
 kept up their agitation, and an act was passed in i»5o em- 
 powering the Harbor comnnssioners of the city to excavate 
 a channel through the lake to a deptli of sixteen feet, they 
 being authorized to raise the necessary funds by a toll of 
 not more than one shilling per ton on vessels drawing ten 
 feet of water and upwards, and by borrowing thirt) thou- 
 sand pounds currency. The commissioners abandoned the 
 straight cut and adopted the natural channel eleven and 
 a half miles long, which by the following year they 
 had dredged to a depth of thirteen feet, an increase of two 
 feet, at low water. It was with pride and keen anticipa- 
 tion of a bright future that the pe')ple of Montreal in that 
 year watched the " City of Manchester" pass down the river 
 en route for sea, drawing fourteen feet. In 1S52 the com- 
 missioners were authorized to effect an additional loan of 
 $160,000, supplemented in iS^-; by a further authorization 
 for i$40o,ooo. In 1852 the depth of the channel was 15 
 feet 2 inches at low water, and by the end of 1833 an addi- 
 tional foot had been gained, bringing the chani.-el to the 
 depth which had been contemplated. But ocean vessels 
 had been growing larger, and the commissioners had 
 
20 
 
 determined not to stop there, [n 1855 they had received 
 authorization to excavate a twenty feet channel, rind prO' 
 ceeded with the work with energy. In i>>^i) the Govern- 
 ment advanced them !?6o,ooo, on their plant. By 1H60 a 
 channel of seventeen and a quarter feet at low water had 
 been reached, and the Ilarhor commissioners had con- 
 tracted a debt of !j68o,ooo, not including the !?6o,ooo due 
 the Government. It is with some surprise that the writer 
 notes a considerable difference in the statistics given by the 
 Board of Trade and the Government on this subject. -He 
 has followed the Government report, although the Board of 
 Trade declares that there was an eighteen feet channel by 
 1857. In J 860 the Government determined to reduce the 
 toll imposed by tiie commissioners, and assumed the debt 
 of $680,000, an action confirmed by Act of Parliament in 
 1864. When the channel had been brought to the depth 
 mentioned, it was decided to make it twenty feet, the 
 Government consenting to wipe out the !*>6o,ooo indebted- 
 ness and pay a further sum of $160,000 on the completion 
 of the works, leaving the plant, which they had loaned the 
 commissioners, in the hands of the latter. The twenty 
 feet canal was completed by the autumn of 1865. But 
 again it was determined to dee[ien the channel, and by 
 1878 it had reached 22 feet 6 inches. A depth of twenty- 
 five feet was reached in 18S2, and by 1888 a great celebration 
 was held in honor of the passage of a vessel drawing 
 twenty-seven and a half feet from Montreal to Quebec, 
 making Montreal by the energy of her citizens the most in- 
 land seaport of the world. In that year the Government 
 took over the works. 
 
 Canadians are too familiar with the history of the 
 "Rcyal William" fo: me to more than refer to it here. Let 
 it suffice to say that this vas the first bona fide ocean 
 steamship to cross the Atlantic, that she was built at 
 Quebec, engined at Montreal, and performed her memor- 
 able voyage in 1833, sailing from Pictou on i8th August 
 and arriving at Gravesend, seventeen days later. She 
 was subsequently sold to the Spanish Government. 
 The first company to run a regular line of steamers 
 between Montreal and Great Britain was chartered 
 in 1853, being granted a subsidy of $19,000 per annum 
 by Government to carry a fortnightly mail. It also 
 received $4,000 from the St. Lawrence & Atlantic 
 Railway and $i,oco from Portland, which city it 
 
31 
 
 made a port of call. On loth May of that year the 
 '•Geneva," 350 tons, arrived in port, tliepioneerof Montreal's 
 ocean steamships, if we except the "Royal William." The 
 ♦• Geneva " was followed by the " Lady ICglinton " and the 
 "Sarah Sands." The Canadian Steam Navi^^ation Company 
 did not, liovv'ever, succeed, and was replaced as a mail car- 
 rier in 1S56 l)y the Allan Line. 
 
 This famous Canadian line was founded by Captain 
 Alexander Allan, of Galtcoats in Ayrshire, whr^^e ship 
 " Jane "carried stores to the Dukecf Wellington in the Pen- 
 insula in 1S15, andshoitly after the peace began runninpf be- 
 tween Montreal and the Clyde. His business prospered, 
 and packet after packet was added to his Heet. When the 
 deepening of the channel to (,)uebe>- had been partly ac- 
 complished, the Allans began to build steam vessels, the 
 first in 1853, and were carrying a weekly mail to Lngland 
 by 1856. Their mailing fleet had reached sixteen in num- 
 ber. From 1S57 to 1864 inclusive, the line suffered the 
 loss of nine vessels by wreck, but the cloud passed away, 
 and there is perhaps no line more fortunate in this respect 
 to-day and for years back than that of the Allans, whose 
 commanders never assume the risks which L'nited 
 States liners take. The line owes its rapid advancement 
 to the labor of Sir Hugh Allan, son of the old sea captain, 
 who came to Montreal about 1826 and there received his 
 business training. 
 
 Prior to the development of steam navigation on che 
 Atlantic, the sailing vessel had been brought to a high sta^e 
 of development, in the form of clipper ships, whose races 
 with one another across the ocean were as much subject 
 for excitement then, as a big ocean race to-day. I under- 
 stand that Montreal has owned the fastest sailing ship 
 ever built, the " Thermopylae." She was built by Walter 
 Hood & Co., of Al)erdeen, and ran from the Lizard to 
 Melbourne, Australia, in sixty days, a r'istance ot 13,222 
 knots. On one day she made 380 statute miles. Her run 
 from Foo Chow, China, to London, 91 days, has been 
 beaten by sail only by the " Sir Lancelot," which accom- 
 plished the voyage in 8g days. 
 
 I have already occupied too much of your time. We 
 must hasten to a conclusion. The Union of the Provinces 
 took place in 1S41 and attention was at once turned to the 
 completion of the various canals projected by the two pro- 
 vinces. During the period of the Union, notwithstanding 
 
22 
 
 the political deadlock which ultimately rendered Confeder- 
 ation necessary, a very great deal was accomplished. At 
 the time of the Union the Erie canal and the Rideau navi- 
 gation vere overshadowing the St. Lawrence route from 
 the lakes. The Rideau was the freight route to the great 
 lakes. But work upon the St. Lawrence canals was 
 pushed forward. The Lachine canal had been opened in 
 1824 with seven locks 100 x 20 x 5 ieet. In 1843 an en- 
 largement was begun with locks 200x45x9 feet, five in 
 number, the lowest two of wliich hy urgent request of 
 Montreal were altered to 16 feet of water on the sills, to 
 admit ocean vessels. The canal prism was 120 feet wade 
 at ihe surface and 80 feut wide at bottom, when Confeder- 
 ation took place. 
 
 The necessary plans for the Beauharnois canal were 
 prepared in 1842, work was begun in 1843, and completed 
 in 1845. It had at the time oi Confederation a length of 
 II I statute miles, 9 locks 200 by 45 feet by 9 feet, and the 
 prism was the same as that of the Lachine canal. The 
 Cornwall canal to overcome fhe Long Sault was begun in 
 1834 and completed in i8|2, the first vessel through being 
 the steamboat " Highlander." The canal was formally 
 opened in June 18+3. The depth of water on the sills was 
 the same as in the Lachine and Beauharnois canals, 9 feet, 
 but the locks, seven in number, were ten feet wider, and. 
 the canal prism 100 feet at bottom and 150 at the water 
 surface. The Farrans Point canal lock completed in 1847 
 had the same dimensions as that of Lachine, and the Rapide 
 Plat canal, opened in 1847, the Galops canal, opened in 
 1846, and the Point Iroquois canal opened in 1847, were of 
 the same demensions also, the canal prism in all three 
 cases being, however, only 50 feet at bottom and 90 at top. 
 Thus at the time of Confederation there was a channel for 
 ocean steamers to Montreal 20 feet deep, the two lower 
 locks of the Lachine canal had a depth of sixteen Ieet, and 
 the rest of the navigation on the St. Lawrence was only on 
 a 9 feet basis. The Welland canal was on a 10^ feet basis, 
 and the only canal in use from Lake Huron to Lake 
 Superior v/as that of the United States. 
 
 In 1793, 114 vessels, of 15,758 tons and 933 men, arrived 
 at Quebec. By 1841 this shipping had increased to 1,221 
 vessels, 425,118 tons, and 16,4.13 men, of which 13 
 ships and 5,057 tons were steamers. The "Unicorn " navi- 
 gated between Quebec and Nova Scotia from 1840 to 1844 
 
2i 
 
 inclusive. In 1866 the shipping was 1.041 ships, 590,120 
 tons, and 15,695 men, 73 of the ships being steamers. The 
 dangers of the route may be exempHfied by the statemen,- 
 that between 1840 and 1849 inchisive 238 ships were 
 wrecked of those engaged in the Quebec trade. In 1854 
 258 seagoing vessels arrived at Montreal, with a tonnage 
 of 70,910 tons, and the river vessels in theptjrt were 3,047 
 of 234,866 tons. In 1866, 516 seagoing ship, of 205,775 
 tons arrived and 4,016 river ships of 417,349 tons. The 
 million ton mark was lirst passed .11 1892. 
 
 From comparatively early days it has been the ambi- 
 tion of the interior provinces and states to secure a direct 
 route to Europe without trans-shipment, an ambition 
 which the future may see realized. As early as 1S58 a vessel 
 passed from Chicago to Liverpool. Thi;3 was the " Dean 
 Richmond," which left Chicago on 17th July and arrived 
 at Li'^erpool by the St. Lawrence route and the Straits of 
 Belle Isle on 17th September, in sixty-two days and a half, 
 about 12 of which were consumed in lightering and other 
 delays. Her trip from Quebec to Liverpool consumed 29 
 days. The canal tolls on the St. Lawrence route during 
 the Union may be taken as sixty cents per ton, a reduction 
 of over 64% from the period of the Twiss canals, still farther 
 reduced 75% in these modern times. I am taking the 
 tolls upon flour and wheat. 
 
 The improvement of the St. Lawrence route opened 
 up a fertile territory. Ihe canals were to early Canada 
 what the railroads have been since Confederation. 
 In 1838 the exports of wheat from Canada were 296,000 
 bushels; in 1852 this had risen to nearly 5,500,000 bushels. 
 Instead of the bulk of the trade going up the river, the 
 shipments downward began that preponderance which 
 have since characterized them. In 1854 the follow- 
 ing was the relative standing of our exporting cities : 
 Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Coaticook, Dalhousie, King- 
 ston, St John's (Que.) and Whitby. In imports Montreal 
 led, followed by Quebec, Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston, 
 Stamford, Prescott and Port Stanley. The period closing 
 with Confederation witnessed the establishment of the 
 railway in Canada, which has since been an important 
 rival and support of the water route The earliest railway 
 and railway station, that at Laprairie, was opened in 1836 
 to connect with St. John's, Quebec. It closed down in 
 winter, there being no traffic. There was also very short- 
 
24 
 
 Iv after a railway from Montreal to Lachine, and the Grand 
 Trunk railway had united Montreal and Toronto with 
 their present winter port at Portland. In 1868-69 the 
 trade of Canada amounted to $127,^76,000, exports and 
 imports entered for consumption. As already stated there 
 was only one lighthouse in the St. Law-ence in 1809. By 
 Confederation there were no fewer than two on Labrador 
 22 between the Gulf and Quebec, 27 between Quebec and 
 Montreal, and 80 others above Montreal on the river the 
 great lakes and the Ottawa, a total of 131, of which 11 
 belonged to private individuals and companies. Dur- 
 ing the Union, over ?.i,ooo,coo was spent on lighthouses, 
 
 beacons and buoys. 
 
 Before Confederation Canada possessed within her 
 own boundaries no winter port, nor any satisfactory com- 
 munication with her sister colonies in Acadia. Civilization 
 stopped at the head of Lake Superior. The far west was 
 in ^he hands of the Hudson Bay Company. At the time 
 of the Union, Quebec and Ontario had a population of 
 2 soo,ooo souls, yet with the exception of the canal at 
 s'ault Ste. Mane, they had developed the St. Lawrence 
 route to a point which left it necessary only for the new 
 Dominion to carry out the plans and develop the tra.e of 
 our fathers.