62 EMIGRATION, Ott 



and by whom many are much trusted and esteemed. A 

 minister of the Moravian persuasion is settled among 

 them. 



September 10. Cross over from the river at Cornwall 

 Mill, where we slept last night, to Bear Creek, five miles, 

 mostly dry good land, yet some swamps. The flatness of 

 this western part of the province is the cause of the 

 swamps : a greater part of them are made by the beavers 

 forming dams across narrow water courses, between two 

 little risings of the ground, thereby backing the water 

 over large pieces of level land above them, which in many 

 places has destroyed the trees, and left au open prarie, or 

 wet meadow, which, generally, would be easily drained by 

 merely cutting through these beaver dams. There is a 

 string of swamps on each side of the river Thames in many 

 places, between the flats and the rising ground, where the 

 water springs out. To drain these, some general plan 

 ought to be adopted, not only to recover the rich land now 

 covered with stagnant water, but to destroy the chief, if 

 not the only cause of agues, so prevalent in this neigh 

 bourhood. Bear Creek is a fine stream of clear water, 

 running parallel with, and about six or eight miles from 

 the Thames, and about two-thirds of its size, arid is navi 

 gable nearly as far up as that stream from Lake St. Clair, 

 into which they both empty. The land on Bear Creek in 

 the township of Zon, or Zone, are now settling ; and, ge 

 nerally, is of an excellent quality and dry, not so clayey as 

 on the river flats. There is in the bottom of the creek, in 

 many places, a hard slaty rock, some of which will burn, 

 and is supposed to cover a bed of coal. There is some 

 lime stone also. In one of the shallow rapids, I saw two 

 large stones of the size of millstones, embedded in the bot 

 tom of the creek, perfectly round, and flat on the upper 

 surface ; but I believe rounded on the other side, with a 

 groove on the upper sides of each, within an inch of the 

 rim all round, about the breadth and depth of those made 

 in the millstones ; but no others. It is evident they have 

 been formed by human hands; but for what purpose I 

 cannot tell, except for grinding grain. The Indians camp 

 much on the creek, and say it is the best fishing and 

 hunting place they lately had, and are sorry they have sold 

 it. There is a fall of water in this creek in the township 

 of Zone, of six or seven feet. It is an excellent place for 



