82 Dr. Bigsby's Sketch of the Topography 



eacli other ; the narrow interspaces being covered with rich 

 soil, ami occasionally with pure red ciay or siliceous sand, in 

 very great quantity. Butinterspersed among these rough tracts, 

 and more frequently towards the limits of the fifty-eight miles, 

 there are plains of several square miles in extent. The largest 

 I saw is twelve miles from Kingston ; — based on limestone. 

 Others are on the west of and near Brockville; — more uneven 

 indeed, and based on sandstone. 



The points of reference on the north main of the outlet are 

 very few. It is thinly inhabited. Eighteen miles N.E. of 

 Kingston is the village and river of Gananoque : the former 

 consisting of five or six houses, and a good saw-mill on the 

 west side of a fall near the mouth of the latter, which is a good 

 hai'bour for vessels, and has a commodious natural quay. The 

 river rises in a picturesque chain of lakes eighteen to twenty 

 miles direct from the St, Lawrence, and in its route undergoes 

 three descents. It is small in breadtii, but dischai'ges a good 

 deal of water. Half-way between Kingston and Gananoque 

 there is a tolerable inn on the land-route, and at the same di- 

 stance between that village and Mallory's Town there is an- 

 other. Mallory's Town consists of five or six tolerable houses 

 on the road from Kingston to Montreal, in a large cleared plain 

 two miles from the St. Lawrence, chiefly of clayey soil, and 

 sprinkled with primitive mounds. Passing thence north-east- 

 wards about one mile and a half, we find ourselves, for five or 

 six miles, among an increased number of ridges with the usual 

 imperfect and dreary clothing, when they again become less 

 and less frequent ; habitations become numerous, the ground 

 merely undulates, and is often strewn with wide-spread but 

 low heaps of ferruginous sand ; and so it continues to Brock- 

 ville, a very thriving town on the banks of the St. Lawrence, 

 many of whose houses would be respectable in the first city in 

 Europe. There are about 150 houses, in a principal street 

 parallel to the St. Lawrence and some cross-streets. It is 

 sheltered in the rear by woody heights with a winding creek 

 interposed, which, after turning a saw-mill, falls into the River 

 St. Lawrence, on the west side of the town. 



The outlet itself flows over a surface the same as that which 

 has just passed under review, but in a state of inundation. It 

 may be said to commence 2\ miles S.W. of Gravelly Point* 

 at the nameless angle of a considerable bend to the S.E. The 

 distance from this angle to the opposite Canadian shore is 

 nearly that between Cape Vincent and Kingston, which in 

 a straight line carried over Grand Island is 9 miles 1490 



* Sometimes called Cape Vincent. 



yards. 



