114 Down the St. Lawrence. 



good Newfoundland dog or retriever when shooting from the 

 shore. These islands, too, have been the scene of thrilling 

 romance. From their great number and labyrinth-like chan- 

 nels among them, they afforded an admirable retreat for the 

 insurgents in the last Canadian insurrection, as well as for 

 the American sympathizers with them, who, under the ques- 

 tionable name oi patriots, sought only to embarrass the British 

 Government. In 1 838, a band of men, headed by one Johnson, 

 took refuge among these islands, setting all authorities at 

 defiance, and provided with boats of surprising lightness, 

 they committed the most audacious outrages both up and 

 down the river, and baffled all pursuit. The story is told of 

 them, when he was obliged, from close pursuit, to separate 

 from his band, his daughter, with a devotedness and courage 

 that was inimitable, supplied him herself with the necessaries 

 of life in these solitary retreats, and rowed him in her canoe 

 from one island to another under cover of night. 



The passage through the " Thousand Islands" by steamer 

 is generally made in the early morning, leaving Kingston 

 about daylight. You pass close to, and near enough often 

 to cast a pebble from the deck of the steamer on to them, 

 cluster after clustef of circular little islands, whose trees, 

 perpetually moistened by the water, have a most luxuriant 

 leaf, their branches overhanging the current. Again, you 

 pass little winding passages and bays between the islands, 

 the trees on their margins interlacing above them, and form- 

 ing here and there natural bowers ; yet the waters of these 

 bays are so deep that steamers might pass under their shade. 

 Then opens up a magnificent sheet of water, many miles 

 wide, with a large island apparently dividing it into two great 

 rivers ; but as you approach it, you discover that it is but a 

 group of small islands, the river being divided into many parts, 

 looking like silver threads. Again, the river seems to come 

 to an abrupt termination four or five hundred yards in ad- 

 vance of you, but as you approach the threatening rocks, a 



