70 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



into the Ottawa near this place, the Gateno from 

 the north and the Rideau from the south, and gen- 

 erally a good surrounding country. All these things 

 were Haltering even to overcome the disagreeable 

 sensation of thinking that I was 120 miles from all 

 business, and 80 miles from any settlement ; however, 

 I was determined to use every exertion that lay in 

 my power, with a full hope and expectation that at 

 some future period, it would become a second 

 Montreal ; such was then my opinion and is now, 

 from convincing proofs from twenty years' experi- 

 ence. Since that time I have commenced clearing 

 and building, and have also laid down the site of a 

 village fit for business, which has answered my 

 expectations in every respect." 



There were several organized settlements directed 

 into this region at a later date, and some of the s;tes 

 may have been as deliberately chosen as the above 

 with regard to water power. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that most of the locations were chosen with 

 regard to suitable farming land first and the site for 

 the mills decided on later. 



In 1806, Mr. Wright sent the first raft of logs 

 from Hull township to Quebec and we read else- 

 where that lumbering on the Bonnechere river was 

 begun in the year 1820. It is probable that much 

 of the early settlement followed in the wake of 

 lumbering operations, as the settlers in the outlymg 

 districts were able to sell grain and pork to the 

 lumberman, who was in fact their only customer. 

 Skilled labour, such as coopers, millwrights, black- 

 smiths, and wagon-makers, was in much demand 

 both by the lumber companies and the farmers. 



We find many instances of settlers taking up 

 land within the borders of the Laurentian plateau in 

 preference to the valley plain lands, because the 

 bottom lands were either too wet or the forest growth 

 was so heavy that much labour and time had to be 

 expended before a crop was sown and harvested. 

 On the other hand the upland contained patches of 

 thinly-wocded, light soils, on which with very little 

 expenditure of labour a crop of potatoes could be 

 grown during the first season of occupation. 



While the upland farm provided an immediate 

 support for a settler and his family he generally 

 found before many years had passed that it would 

 be wise to secure land in the valley plain if possible. 

 The necessity for this change became apparent when 

 the light soils of the upland became exhausted unless 

 replenished with stable manure which, however, was 

 not always available in sufficient quantity, and also 

 because of a certain degree of isolation, which was 

 inevitable owing to the rugged character of the land. 

 Hence the farmer often acquired clay land in the 

 valley plain adjacent to the upland, and making 

 this the mainstay for his support, turned his upland 

 farm into a pasture and wood lot for fuel. 



The construction of colonization roads over the 

 valley plain gave access to those lands which were 

 not accessible from the rivers and gradually the 

 process of clearing, draining and cultivation was 

 accomplished over the whole area. 



Whatever prosperity and growth the towns 

 achieved since the first settlers began cultivation 

 have been due almost entirely to the productiveness 

 of the land and the variety of products which could 

 be raised upon it. Lumbering, railways, industries, 

 and mining have contributed their share but the 

 fundamental cause of prosperity was and still is 

 agriculture. 



MINING. 



Although mining of various minerals has been 

 carried on for the last 70 years in portions of the 

 Ottawa valley we cannot point to any town or 

 village which has grown up in the neighbourhood 

 of an ore body and supported wholly by mining such 

 as the towns of Cobalt, Timmins, and Sudbury in 

 Northern Ontario. One very evident reason is that 

 so far there has not been an ore body of the right 

 kind of sufficiently large dimensions to ensure the 

 building of a mining town in its vicinity. 



Iron mining never fulfilled its early promise to 

 become one of the permanent industries of the region, 

 and although there are several bcdies of iron ore in 

 Pcntiac, Lanark and Renfrew counties, they are 

 not commercial ores from the present day point of 

 view. These ores, however, constitute a reserve for 

 the future when economic conditions permit of their 

 treatment for use. 



The village of Bristol Mines in Pontiac Ccunty, 

 Quebec, is an example of the beginnings of a centre 

 due to mining development, but it never attained 

 to any size and is now practically deserted. 



Pyrite and molybdenite are the principal metallic 

 minerals mined now in the Ottawa valley. The 

 occurrence and exploitation of the large deposit of 

 the latter mineral in the vicinity of the village of 

 Quyon, in Pontiac county, has recently caused a 

 considerable influx of business to that point. The 

 non-metallic minerals have been the most important 

 sources of revenue in this region. These include 

 graphite, mica, phosphate, feldspar and limestone as 

 the principal ones, with celestite, barite and fluorite 

 as minor occurrences. 



Mining is generally a costly business when com- 

 pared with agriculture, and much money is expended 

 in hardware and other equipment and for labour 

 among the communities where it is carried on. It 

 gives employment to the farming population of the 

 upland districts during their spare time especially in 

 the winter, when they formerly depended on lum- 

 bering operations as a source of wages. 



(To he continued) 



