208 FACE OF THE COUNTRY AND SOIL. 



of Tilbury, and round the lake to Amherstburgh, seems badly 

 watered, not having- seen above two rills passing into the 

 lake. In Colchester and Maldon, there are occasionally 

 stagnant branches of the lake, like canals or channels of a 

 stream, jutting into the land to a considerable distance, and 

 which I was told terminate in swamps, and prove the greatest, 

 if not the only, natural objection to the country. 



About a mile from Amherstburgh, on the river Detroit, 

 commences a tract of country known by the name of the Huron 

 Reserve, extending seven miles along the banks of the river, 

 and seven miles back from it. 



For the first four miles of this Reserve, in passing from 

 Amherstburgh, the river, which is here perhaps the most 

 beautiful in the world, is upwards of twenty feet below its 

 banks, the soil a rich crumbling clay, and is one of the love 

 liest spots in Canada. Above this, the banks sink to the 

 level of the river, and there is an extensive tract, six or seven 

 miles in length, and two or three in breadth, covered with 

 tall aquatic plants, which impart a pestilential aspect to the 

 country, and must form one of the best nurseries in the world 

 for ducks and mosquittoes. On approaching Sandwich, the 

 banks again rise above the river, and maintain their elevation 

 until a little above the ferry at Detroit. 



From the termination of the Huron Reserve to Sandwich, 

 the soil on the river is inferior, and the road, on entering the 

 village, passes through what has originally been an oak open 

 ing of poor gravelly soil, and is still covered with oak bushes, 

 intermingled with inferior pasturage. Above Sandwich the 

 soil is good on the banks, and continues so as long as the 

 elevation above the river is maintained. This part of the 

 country is inhabited by the descendants of the French, and 

 not a trace of the original forest remains. 



A mile or two above the ferry at Detroit, and approaching 

 Lake St Clair, the banks are low, and tracts of marsh fall 

 back into the country. Around Lake St Clair there is some 

 tolerable soil, elevated about two feet above its waters, and a 

 small wet prairie or two, besides that at the mouth of the 

 Thames. There are few settlers, scarcely a vestige of culti 

 vation, and one or two recent clearings of insignificant extent. 



