432 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



sn tlie United States army, in the war of Independence, and was in the receipt of a pension 

 from the other side of tlie lakes. He was familiar, he alleged, with the personal appearance of 

 Washington. His abode on the Don was an excavation in the side of the steep hill, a little way 

 above the level of the river-bank. The flue of his winter flre-plaoe was a tubular channel, bored 

 up through the clay of tlie hill-side. His sleeping-place or berth was exactly like one of tlie 

 receptacles for human remains in the Roman catacombs, an oblong recess, likewise carved in 

 the dry material of the hill. To the south of his cave he cultivated a large garden, and raised, 

 among other things, the white sweet edible Indian corn, a novelty here at the time ; and very 

 excellent tobacco. He moreover manufactured pitch and tar, in a little kilu or pit dug for the 

 purpose close by his house. He built for himself a magnificent canoe, locally famous. It con- 

 sisted of two large pine logs, each about forty feet long, well sliaped and deftly hollowed out, 

 fastened together by cross dovetaU pieces let in, at regular distances, along the interior of its 

 bottom. "While in process of construction in the pine woods through which the '-Mill road" 

 passed, on the high bank eastward of the river, it was a wonderment to all the inquisitive youth 

 of the surrounding neighbourhood, and was accordingly often visited and inspected by them. 

 In this craft he used to pole himself down the windings of the stream, all the way round into 

 the bay, and on to the landing-place at the foot of Caroline-street, bringing with him the produce 

 of his garden, and neat stacks of pine knots, ready split for the fishermen's lightjacks. He 

 would also on occasion execute the function of a ferryman. On being hailed for the purpose, he 

 would put across the river persons anxious to make a short cut into the town from the east- 

 ward. Just opposite his den there was for a time a rude causeway over the marsh. At the 

 season of the year when the roads through the woods were impracticable, Tyler's famous canoe 

 was employed by the Messrs. Helliwell for conveying into toAvn, from a point high up on the 

 stream, the beer manufactured at their Breweries on the Don. We are informed by Mr. William 

 Helliwell, of the Highland Creek, that twenty-two barrels at a time could be placed in it, in two 

 rows of eleven eacli, laid lengthwise side by side, still leaving room for Tyler and an assistant 

 to navigate the boat. 



The large piece of meadow land on the east side of the river, above Tyler's abode, enclosed 

 by a curve which the stream makes towards the west, has a certain interest attached to it from 

 the fact that therein was reproduced, for the first time m these parts, that peculiarly pleasant 

 English scene, a hop-garden. Under the care of Mr. James Case, familiar with the hop in 

 Sussex, this graceful and us-eful plant was here for several seasons to be seen passing through 

 the successive stages of its scientific cultivation ; in early spring sprouting from the surface of 

 the rich black vegetable mould ; then trained gradually over, and at length clothing richly the 

 poles or groups of poles set at regular distances throughout the enclosure ; overtopping these 

 supports ; by and by loading tlieni heavily with a plentiful crop of swaying clusters ; and then 

 finally, when in a suflSciently mature state, prostrated, props and all, upon the ground, and 

 stripped of their fragrant burden, the real object of all the pains taken. From this field many 

 valuable pockets of hops were gathered ; and the quality of the plant was pronounced to be 

 good. Mr. Case afterwards engaged extensively in the same occupation in the neighbourhood 

 of Newmarket. 



About the dry, sandy table-land that overlooked the river on each side in this neighbourhood, 

 the burrows of the fox, often with little families within, were plentifully to be met with. The 

 marmot too, popularly known as the woodchuck, was to be seen on sunny days sitting up upon 

 its haunches at holes in the hill-side. We could at this moment point out the ancient home of 

 a particular animal of this species, whose ways we used to note with some curiosity. Here 

 were to be found racoons also ; but these, like the numerous squirrels, black, red, flying and 

 striped, were visible only in the height of summer, when the maize and the nuts began to ripen. 

 At that period also, bears, he-bears and she-bears, accompanied by their cubs, were not unfa- 

 miliar objects, wherever the blackberry and raspberry grew. In the forest, moreover, hereabout, 

 a rustle in the underbrush, and something white seen dancing up and down in the distance like 

 the plume of a mounted knight,, might at any moment indicate that a group of deer had caught 

 sight of one of the dreaded human race, and, with tails uplifted, had bounded incontinently 

 away. 



Pines of a great height and thickness crowded the tops of these hills. The paths of hurricanes 

 could be traced over extensive tracts by the fallen trunks of trees of this sijecies, their huge 



