NO EMIGRATION. 81 



Dec. 18. Arrived once more at Port Talbot on foot. 

 The Canadians and settlers think little of travelling 100 or 

 200 miles out at a time. 



Dec. 25. - Christmas day. Frost has set in sharp, and 

 plenty of snow fallen, (about six or eight inches) and of 

 course good sleighing. Started in a cutter, or one horse 

 sleigh, for the river Thames and Bear Creek. The settlers 

 on the former, generally speaking, have the character of 

 being idle and inhospitable, quite a contrast in the latter 

 feature to most parts of the Province. This inhospitality 

 is the more inexcusable, on account of there being but few, 

 if any, taverns on the river. 



Dec. 28. Passed up the river, along the Westminster 

 Road, for York. The flats of the river are extensive, as 

 high up as Moravian Town, where they get narrow, and 

 the country more broken into gentle hills and dales : rich 

 land, well watered with springs and small streams. A sin 

 gular spring of oil issues out of the banks of the river near 

 here, on the land belonging to the Indians. It is of the con 

 sistence and colour of tar, with a peculiar smell. It is ge 

 nerally supposed to be coal tar, (Petrotium) arising from 

 a bed of coal said to run across the country. There are 

 sulphur springs also in the neighbourhood, and in various 

 other parts of the Province. The oil is gathered from the 

 surface of the water, (by Indians and others), by blankets 

 extended and lightly dropped on the surface, when they 

 absorb the oil. It is sold from 2s. 3d. to 4s. 6d. per quart, 

 and sent to all parts of the Province, and even the States, 

 as a cure for rheumatism, sprains, &c , and is sometimes 

 taken internally, in small quantities, for strengthening the 

 tone of the stomach, and other complaints. In the Long- 

 wood settlement, I saw a spot of twenty or thirty acres of 

 wood torn up, and broken off some fifty years ago by a hur 

 ricane or whirlwind, and the trees scattered in heaps on the 

 ground. I have seen similar places in different parts of 

 the Province ; I have been told there has been none in the 

 settled parts of the Province since its settlement. The 

 country is rough and broken by ravines through the neigh 

 bouring high lands, bounding the flats of the river ; the 

 roads in some places not cleared, because not settled, till 

 near Delawar Town, at which place I crossed the river on 

 the ice, between unfrozen springs on each hand, kept so by 



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