l6o Sarnia to Toronto. 



oil seems to be distributed over the whole of this section of 

 the country, between Sarnia and the Thames, as wells are 

 being worked in many places throughout the district, and 

 prospecting is still going on. London, which has grown 

 from a wilderness in 1825, situated at the junction of the 

 Port Stanly Railway, is a city of fine appearance, of wide 

 streets, running at right angle's to each other, and with ex- 

 cellent buildings. The English Church here is one of the 

 few in this country possessing a peal of bells. London is a 

 sort of diverging centre of railv/ays, it being the junction of 

 a branch of the Great Western to Sarnia from the main line, 

 the northern terminus of the Port Stanly road, and having 

 a branch of the Grand Trunk from St. Mary's, connecting it 

 with that line. It is 107 miles from Windsor, and "jG from 

 Hamilton. Paris, 30 miles from Hamilton, at the intersec- 

 tion of the Great Western and Grand Trunk Railways, is 

 quite an important place. Gypsum, or plaster of Paris, is 

 found in large quantities in the vicinity, and as the neces- 

 sity for this manure increases year after year, the trade in it 

 will probably become very large. Situated at the confluence 

 of the Nith with the Grand River, it possesses excellent 

 water-power. There are several petrifying springs on the 

 river banks, and a mineral spring lately brought into notice,, 

 analogous to the Caledonia Sulphur Spring, bids fair to 

 attract considerable attention. From Paris we would re- 

 commend the sportsman to take a team to Simcoe, 28 miles, 

 and thence by a fresh team (21 miles) to Long Point, on 

 Lake Erie, a noted duck-shooting place in the fall. It is a 

 strip of land nearly twenty miles long, and from one to three 

 miles in width, covered for the most part with a stunted 

 growth of forest trees. It was formerly a peninsula, running 

 out from the land in an easterly direction, nearly half-way 

 across the lake ; but the water, having made a wide breach 

 across its western extremity, has converted it into an island. 

 On the east end is an important light-house, to guide the 



