134 Toronto to Collingwood. 



ancient walls and citadel. One great drawback its citizens 

 have to contend with, in regard to their public buildings, is 

 the absence of any stone quarries in its neighborhood, thus 

 compelling them to either have resort to brick, or bring at 

 an increased expense stone from a distance. There is a 

 total absence too of any beautiful scenery around the city, 

 the only really pretty drives being out on the lake shore 

 road, over the River Humber, and up to Dundas Street, re- 

 turning through Mimico Village ; — up by the Don and 

 Danforth Plank Road, on the edge of the Don River, pass- 

 ing the cemetery, going through Yorkville, and returning 

 down the Davenport road; or up Yonge Street, past the 

 romantic dell of Hogs Hollow, celebrated in the rebellion of 

 '37 as being the rendezvous of Mackenzie's party at Mont- 

 gomery's tavern, still existing, near which, in some gravel 

 pits, good fossils of the tertiary formation can be found. 

 Shooting in the neighborhood, except in the spring and fall, 

 when a few ducks, and they very wild, may be had on the 

 bay, is not worth looking after. At the mouth of the Etobi- 

 coke River, some ten miles west, there is a large bayou 

 affording good duck shooting, but there is (or till quite 

 recently was) only one boat there, and that not easily obtain- 

 able. On the Northern Railway, some thirty miles distant, 

 is a " Pigeon Rookery," at a place called Harrison's crossing. 

 Here in certain seasons the passenger pigeon congregates 

 in thousands to breed, and is the object of pursuit to who- 

 ever is master of even a rusty firelock. April is the month 

 in which to go out after them. You may leave Toronto by 

 the morning train, get off at Gilford or Lefroy, enjoy a day 

 among the birds, and return with a well filled bag the same 

 evening. But it is only in certain seasons, about once in 

 four or five years that they are numerous; probably the 

 abundance of beech mast the previous year, their principal 

 food, attracting them, and its absence compelling them to 

 seek other quarters. Of fish, the only kind to be met with 



