174 SEARCH TOR AN EAST LOTHIAN FARMER. 



which was rushing from the west with the violence of a 

 tempestuous ocean, rendered this route impracticable. On 

 regaining the banks above the lake, I approached a cottage, 

 and enquired the way. A young gentleman asked me ta 

 walk into his house, and he would furnish a hand-sketch 

 of the road. He was employed in mapping for the Canada 

 Company, and his productions did him credit. He told me 



he was from Edinburgh, and brother to , a well-known 



engraver there, and whose name was quite familiar to me. 

 On enquiring the way a second time, a mile or two farther on, 

 I was astonished at a gentleman mentioning my name, when 

 he said he had seen me in Edinburgh, where he was a brass- 

 founder in the Grassmarket, and had only been a few weeks 

 in the country. Notwithstanding the assistance of a sketch of 

 the road, and minute directions received regarding it, we 

 could not find the object of our search, and must have passed the 

 night in the woods, had not the light of the moon, which was 

 fortunately within a night of being full, enabled us to reach 

 Goderich. The road on which we travelled is termed a con 

 cession line, and was marked by a blaze or axe-chip on the 

 bark of trees. From this concession line, the different lots of 

 property diverged, and were distinguished by marks which old 

 countrymen could not readily notice ; and I have no doubt 



we passed over the property of Mr K , without discovering 



the tract leading to his abode. The concession line, a mile 

 from Goderich, was almost an undistinguishable path, on which 

 a horse or sleigh seemed never to have travelled. The cleared 

 spaces on the different lots seldom exceed a few acres ; and 

 while conversing with my friend, I compared our route through 

 the forest to a hare-path in an East Lothian wheat field, and 

 the openings around the dwelling places to the forms of that 

 animal. 



Goderich is situated on the margin of Lake Huron, at the 

 mouth of the river Maitland, and consists of about forty mean 

 wooden houses, scattered irregularly over a considerable space. 

 With exception of half-a-dozen of houses, near what is termed 

 the pier, the rest of the village is about 200 feet above the 

 level of the lake, partly on a cedar swamp, through which 

 there is a street of corduroy. The Maitland river, when seen 

 by me, on 28th August, was incapable of floating a canoe, 



