66 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY. 



particularly since vessels of a considerable size are daily buUding for 

 the navigation of the lakes. 



The land in all the before-mentioned townships is for the most 

 part fertile, and under as high a state of cultivation as can be expected 

 from the time it has been settled ; the first improvements being made 

 since the peace of 1783, when all was in a state of nature and heavily 

 timbered. 



There are now between 30 and 40 mills [more than 40 mills : 2nd 

 Ed.] in the extent mentioned, on this river, the most remarkable of 

 which are on the Gananoque. Good roads have been opened, and 

 bridges well constructed ; some of them over wet lands and the 

 mouths of creeks and rivers of very considerable extent ; and the 

 first settlers have been able, by their very great industry, to erect 

 comfortable houses. 



In the rear of these townships, on the St. Lawrence, are upwards, 

 of twenty others in which settlements have been commenced, to the 

 southward of the Ottawa or Grand River, which many of them 

 front ; others are well supplied by the waters of the Rideau [wrongly 

 printed Radeau, occasionally, in both editions] and River Petite 

 Nation, with the Gananoque lakes and streams, all of which afibrd 

 abundance of situations for mills. These rivers, like most others in 

 Canada, abound in carp, sturgeon, perch and cat-fish ; the ponds 

 aflEbrding green and other turtle, with fish of various sorts. The 

 lands in their vicinity are differently timbered according to their 

 quality and situation. The dry lands, which are generally high, 

 bear oak and hickory ; the low grounds produce walnut, ash, poplar, 

 cherry, sycamore, beech, maple, elm, &c., and in some places there 

 are swamps full of cedar and cypress. 



The banks of most of the creeks abound in fine pine timber, and 

 the creeks themselves afibrd in general good seats for saw mills; 

 materials for building are readily procured. 



The heads of the Rivers Rideau and Petite Nation communicate 

 by short portages or carrying places with the waters which fall into 

 the St. Lawrence, and promise to afibrd great advantages to all kinds 

 of inland communication. The forks of the Rideau, about which are 

 the townships of Oxford, Marlborough and Gower, promise to be, at 

 some future period, an emporium for interior commerce. 



The birch canoes which go to the North-west country, pass up the 

 Ottawa River with the merchandize, and descend with peltries. 



