18 OTTAWA AS A CAPITAL. 



and allow no wharf to be made in case it might encourage 

 traffic. 



We escape another series of rapids by changing to railway 

 for ten miles, through a wooded country, which, where partially 

 cleared, is nearly covered with huge boulders of granite, a poor 

 country, supporting a poor French population. We then again 

 embarked on the river. Its banks nearly all the rest of the way 

 to Ottawa, sixty-five miles, are low and swampy, farther back 

 partially cleared, with wooded highlands on the north shore in 

 the background. At the outlets of the rivers falling into the 

 Ottawa there are generally saw-mills and large piles of "lumber " 

 or sawn timber, the Rideau Falls thus being made to cut up 

 170,000 logs in a season. 



The city of Ottawa is finely situated on the summit of the 

 bank. From the flagstaff on the hill the view of the falls, the 

 river, and the surrounding country is extremely fine, and noth- 

 ing can excel its position as the site of a town, strongly placed 

 for defence if need be. But except with a view to a future 

 plan, if such were contemplated, of a shorter way to Lake Hu- 

 ron from the Atlantic, one cannot imagine why a place like 

 this, in the wilderness and out of the present line of traffic al- 

 together, should have been chosen by the home government in 

 preference to Montreal as the capital of Canada. Even if Ot- 

 tawa should become the route to the West, Montreal is still the 

 outlet to the ocean through which all must pass, and is already 

 a rich and populous city, with all the necessary public build- 

 ings, barracks, and accommodation for the seat of government. 

 It would be little more absurd to decree the removal of the seat 

 of government from London to Norwich than it was to prefer 

 Ottawa to Montreal. 



There can be no doubt that sooner or later a shorter and 

 better water route from the Atlantic to Lake Huron than that 

 through the Welland Canal must be constructed. Not only 



