128 KINGSTON RATE OF WAGES. 



the fort and naval yard ; the former is renewing- with the best 

 materials ; the vessels in the docks are hastening to decay. Re 

 garding war in every case an evil, and its engines too often 

 misapplied^ the rotting vessels excited more pleasing ideas than 

 the rising fort. 



We learned masons employed at the fort got 31 a-day, 

 without finding or board; and in town considerably more, 

 when store pay is given. One gentleman said he would rather 

 give 8120 store-pay than $100 cash; and a workman said he 

 preferred 89 cash to 812 store-pay. I could not learn that 

 employer and store-keeper unite for the purpose of plundering 

 workmen. At present store-keepers constitute the most 

 wealthy and powerful class in the community, landowners and 

 workmen being generally indebted to them, hence enormous 

 profits. The common per centage on retailing provisions at 

 Kingston, being stated at 70 per cent, dry goods 100. Potash 

 sells at Montreal for L.24 a-ton ; the farmer at Kingston gets 

 L.I 7 store-pay, equal to L.I 2 cash. 



In the neighbourhood of Kingston grasshoppers weiv 

 numerous, many of them having wings, and flying a consi 

 derable distance. This insect is numerous throughout Ame 

 rica, and sometimes seriously injures grass crops. As culti 

 vation extends, its numbers are likely to decrease. 



Having perambulated Kingston and the surrounding coun 

 try, the soil of which was inferior, with limestone everywhere 

 protruding, we got on board a steam-boat for Prescott, where 

 we arrived at midnight, and again sailed for Longsault in the 

 Iroquois steamer, a light vessel with paddles in the stern, 

 built for navigating the rapids of the St Lawrence, and which 

 has been found to answer well. From Longsault we passed 

 to Cornwall by a stage, and again by a steamer to Coteau-de- 

 lac, where we got into a stage to Cascades, and by steam to 

 Lachine, and from thence by land to Montreal. 



On leaving Kingston I anticipated much pleasure in sailing- 

 through the Lake of the Thousand Isles, which forms the 

 passage of Lake Ontario into the river St Lawrence, but the 

 curtain of night fell before we had well entered, and the light of 

 the moon did not render objects distinct. There was a pleasing 

 novelty in the lake from the number of low islands like tufts 



