NATURAL HISTORY, TORONTO REGION 



minds of our town-planners as the meandering ways 

 of Rosedale. 



We cannot blame the first builders of the city for 

 neglecting the aesthetic. Ample provision was made 

 for the parks and squares of the future city. The 

 original Parliament Buildings were constructed on 

 the shore to the south-east of the little capital, and 

 the road along the shore to the Old Fort at the western 

 entrance to the harbour, while as straight as Appius 

 or Agrippa could have desired, was bordered by 

 groves of oak, and in the early prints suggests a scene 

 of sylvan beauty. By some the name Toronto is 

 said to mean " oaks by the water." If so it ceased 

 to be appropriate with the coming of the railways in 

 the " fifties." 



Long before that date York had received its bap- 

 tism of fire and blood. The war of 1812 was due in 

 great part to the bad feeling that had remained in the 

 South and West, particularly Kentucky, since the 

 Indian wars. This feeling was intensified by the 

 massacre of Frenchtown, or Raisin River, in Jan- 

 uary, 1813, when several hundred Kentuckian pris- 

 oners were killed by the Indian allies of General 

 Proctor. In the following April a large force, under 

 General Pike, of New Jersey, attacked York, which 

 then contained about five hundred inhabitants and 

 a somewhat larger garrison. In the defence of the 

 fort a terrible accident occurred which has been 

 described as follows by an eyewitness : " A gun was 

 aimed at one of the vessels, and the officers, desirous 

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