40 EMIGRATION, OR 



my home, whenever convenient. Travelled up the Lake 

 beach, in company with a man from the Talbot settlement, 

 whither I am proceeding to take up a lot of government 

 land. Good walking along the white sandy beach, except 

 in a few places round points of land where it is rocky 

 (some of it lime stone), or rough with coarse gravel. Tra 

 velled thirty- one miles to day, and stopped at a miserable 

 log tavern to sleep ; my companion having remained behind 

 at a farmer s to make some shoes. This part of the 

 province is settled chiefly by Dutch, most of them a sturdy, 

 old fashioned, and honest race of people; high sand 

 banks back the beach, covered with pines, juniper, and 

 other evergreen trees and shrubs. Behind these sand banks 

 are marshes and swamps in some places ; in others, and 

 behind the swamps, is a rich black soil on a lime-stone rock, 

 and in places, a considerable quantity of loose stones are 

 scattered over the surface. It has evidently been overflown, 

 at some remote period, by the lake. Saw a woman washing 

 on the beach, her family of small children playing around, 

 and rolling on the sand ; her husband looking- after the 

 yoke of oxen, that had drawn down on a sled the washing 

 tub and pot to boil the clothes in, &c. This is a common 

 way in dry seasons, when good soft water is not to be 

 had near home. I passed a remarkably peaked hill to day, 

 in the form of a sugar loaf, which name it bears ; it is 

 covered with timber to its very top. It is a good sea-mark 

 for sailors on the lake. Some of the people about here 

 have a half Indian appearance ; dirty habits, sallow thin 

 visages, and meanly dressed ; living in the woods, sur 

 rounded by swamps, they are half hunter and half farmer. 

 July 25. Walked on for Grand River or Ouse 



&quot; Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, 

 Or on the woody banks or beech below, 

 Or onward where the free Canadian boor, 

 Welcomes the houseless stranger to his door.&quot; 



A heavy shower coming on, I took shelter in the Naval 

 Depot. Several old vessels of war lie sunk in the mouth of 

 the river rotting, and a number of cannon and cannon-balls 

 strewed about the beech. This depot consists apparently of 

 one well furnished, low, but rather large, house, for the 

 officers, and twelve or fourteen small log-huts as bar 

 racks, for about eighteen or twenty soldiers arid sailors. 



