60 EMIGRATION, OR 



middle kept full, the butts out and inclining downwards, to 

 shoot the rain ; but I scarcely need add, it is ineffectual to 

 keep it dry and from sprouting; yet it is but of little con 

 sequence while they use it themselves, or in the distillery ; 

 but the Welland Canal will induce them to raise more wheat 

 for exportation, and then it will be essentially necessary to 

 thatch and preserve the grain in the best possible order. 



September 9. Started on foot westward to Bear Creek, 

 thirty miles, to look at a lot of land, in company with a 

 neighbour who is going there to settle. On our road some 

 settlers were clearing the street through a two mile swamp. 

 This is not a good system, to give out lands for the settlors 

 to clear the public roads, as the swamps are never taken up ; 

 therefore the roads remain unopened, or the other settlors 

 near must go and clear them, as well as their own ; and as 

 nine out of ten of the first settlors in the woods have only 

 their own bodily exertions to depend on, they find enough 

 to do the first year or two to build a house and barn, and 

 clear a few acres to grow something to live on, without cut 

 ting and clearing public roads. Crossed from Talbot Street 

 to the &quot; Big-bend&quot; of the river Thames, eight miles through 

 an entire wilderness, having only a slight track, owned by 

 Colonel Talbot : there are numerous such blockades of wild 

 uncultivated land in the province, which have been like fet 

 ters to the country s prosperity. A most judicious tax has 

 since been laid on such wild lands, although violently op 

 posed by the pretended friends of the people. This tax 

 ought to be high enough on those wild lands that are 

 situated in townships partially settled, to compel their own 

 ers to either improve, or sell them to those who would, 

 which is nothing but just. The settlor, as he improves his 

 own land, has the more taxes to pay, at the same time he is 

 enhancing the value of this wild land, without any cost or 

 trouble to the owners. The river Thames is a fine stream, 

 about thirty or forty yards wide, never overflowing, confined 

 in banks ten or fifteen feet high, out of which, every little 

 way, issue numerous fine springs. It is navigable for 

 schooners for twenty or thirty miles from its mouth, and as 

 far again for boats, in the spring. The flats, which in some 

 places are extensive, are the richest land in the province ; 

 the soil in some parts a loamy fat clay, covered by a rich 

 black mould, very similar to the fertile Vale of Aylesbury in 

 Buckinghamshire ; in other places a sandy or gravelly loam, 



