OF WESTERN CANADA. 3^5 



Effingham Wilson, the publisher of Picken's book in 1832, pub- 

 lished in 1833, " Sketches of Canada," by W. L. McKenzie. In this 

 work, which had a political object, there is no systematic topography, 

 but the writer very truly says : " Without giving occasionally, 

 minute sketches of the progress of the new settlements from a state 

 of wilderness to cultivated farms, villages, dwellings, chapels, school- 

 houses, orchards, barn-yards, and fruitful fields, the property of a 

 happy and intelligent population, a correct knowledge of America is 

 unattainable." Accordingly, we have numerous graphic notices, 

 with statistics, of localities in Upper Canada scattered about, amidst 

 articles on public affairs and public institutions, and characteristic 

 anecdotes of public and private personages of the United States and 

 British America. 



In 1836, Dr. Thqmas Rolph, of Ancaster, Gore District, Upper 

 Canada, published a Statistical Account of Upper Canada, in con- 

 nection with " Observations made during a visit in the West Indies, 

 and a tour through the United States of America." 



In his Preface, Dr. R. says (1836) : "The inhabitants of Great 

 Britain have been too apt to consider Canada as merely a region of 

 ice and snow, of pine forests and lakes, of trappers and Indians, with 

 a few forts and villages intermixed, and producing only moccasins? 

 furs, and ship limber. But this is a very imperfect view of that 

 interesting country, which is growing in. population, and improving 

 in cultivation more rapidly, perhaps, than any part of the United 

 States, if we except the territory of Michigan, and which must 

 become, at no veiy distant period, a wealthy, powerful, and populous 

 Province." Di*. K.'s account of Belleville contains some archaeological 

 information, such as one would like to see recorded whenever it 

 exists : " The site of the town of Belleville is situated between 

 Kingston and Toronto, on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, originally 

 claimed by the Mississaga Indians as a landing-place, and called by 

 them Saganashcogan, where they usually received their presents from 

 Government, demanding a yearly acknowledgment from its settlers 

 for their possessions. The late J. W. Myers afterwards claimed it 

 under a 99 years' lease, said to have been granted to him by that 

 tribe ; hence the creek or river running through the adjacent lot 

 took the name of Myers' Creek, described in a grant to one Singleton, 

 as Singleton's Biver. Since the town has been laid out, it has assumed 

 the new and more appropriate name of. the Biver Moira. * * * 



