io6 Up the Ottawa. 



Buildings of United Canada. Sparks Street, named after the 

 founder, is now one of the principal streets of Ottawa. 



One mile and a half above Ottawa we come to the " Little 

 Chaudiere Falls," a pretty fall of thirteen feet, and two miles 

 above that the rapid known under the name of "The Re- 

 moux," between which and the Little Chaudiere the river 

 expands into wide lake-like basins. Four and a half miles 

 above this are the De Cheine rapids, opposite the Village of 

 Britannia, formed by a ridge of limestone crossing the course 

 of the river, and having a fall of about nine feet. Above 

 this, nine miles from Ottawa, on the Lower Canada side, is 

 Aylmer, situated on a splendid open reach of the river, 

 twenty-six miles in length, called Lac de Chcinc, and naviga- 

 ble for vessels of the largest class. Proceeding onwards we 

 come to the celebrated Chats Portage or Chats Falls, 

 which are a series of cascades, of about twenty feet high, 

 extending for about three miles, broken by islands, along 

 the edge of which the*steamer runs, covered with hemlock, 

 cedar, pine, many of them unvisited by man, with about a 

 dozen deep channels, presenting a most remarkable appear- 

 ance, not unlike the Lake of the Thousand Islands in minia- 

 ture. At one point no less than thirteen falls are visible at 

 once. A tramway of four miles in length connects the 

 navigable reaches above and below. An attempt was made 

 by the Provincial Government to construct a canal for the 

 purpose of overcoming these falls and rapids, which have an 

 aggregate height of fifty feet ; but after nearly all the exca- 

 vation was complete, and a large portion of" the stone for the 

 lock prepared, the work was suspended in 1857, and is now 

 lying unprofitable and useless, leaving a monument of ill- 

 directed efforts, painful to contemplate. Above the rapids 

 the magnificent Lake des Chats, is about twenty miles 

 long and one mile wide, though its spacious bays extend it 

 to three miles. On the south shore is Kinnel Lodge, near 

 Arnprior, at the confluence of the Madawaska and Ottawa 



