TORONTO OF OLD. 575 



the toat advancing — the land in considerable mass moved bodily towards the boat, like a cake 

 of ice set free from the main floe. Much of the ground and marsli in the great estuary of tlie 

 Holland river is said to be simply an accumulation of earthy and vegetable matter, resting on 

 water. 



The SiTOCoc was succeeded by the Pefer J2o6i)iso?i, Capt. Bell; the Beaver, Capt. Laughton, 

 and other steamers. 



Standing on the deck of the Beaver, we have ourselves more than once threaded the windings 

 of tlie Holland river ; and we well remember how, lilie sentient things in a kind of agony, 

 the broad floating leaves of the lilies along its eastern margin writhed and flapped as tlie 

 waters were drawn away from under them by the powerful action of the wheels in the middle 

 of the stream. 



"The navigation of the Holland river," Capt. Bonnycastle observes in his "Canada in 1841," 

 " is very well worth seeing, as it is a natural canal flowing through a vast marsh, and very 

 narrow, with most serpentine convolutions, often doubling on itself. Conceive tlie difficulty of 

 steering a large steamboat in such a course ; yet it is done every day, in summer and autumn, 

 by means of long poles, slaclcening the steam, backing, &c., though very rarely without run- 

 ning a little way into the soft ground of the swamp. The motion of tlie paddles has, however, 

 in the course of years, widened the channel, and prevented the growth of flags and weeds." 

 We have been told that in the bed of the Holland river, near its mouth, solid bottom was not 

 reached with a sounding-line of 90 feet. 



LVII.— YONGE STREET FROM HOLLAND RIVER TO PENETANGUISHENE. 



To render our narrative complete, we give in a few parting words some of the early accounts 

 of the route from the Landing, northward as far as Penetauguishene, which, after the breaking 

 up of the establishment on Drummond's island, was for some years the most remote station in 

 Upper Canada where the naval and military power of England was visibly represented. 



"After leaving Gwillimbury [i.e., the Landing]," saj's the Gazetteer of 1799, "j'ou enter the 

 Holland river and pass into Lake Simcoe, by the head of Cook's bay, to the westward of which 

 are oak-plains, where the Indians cultivate corn ; and on the east is a tract of good land. A 

 lew small islands shew themselves as the lake opens, of which Darling's island in the eastern 

 part, is the most considerable. To the westward is a large deep bay, called Kempenfelt's bay, 

 from the head of which is a short carrying-place to the river Nottawasaga, which empties itself 

 into the Iroquois bay, in Lake Huron. In the north end of the lake, near the Narrows leading 

 to a small lake is Francis island, between which and the north shore vessels may lie in safety." 



It will be proper to make one or two remarks in relation to the proper names here used, 

 which have not in every case been retained. 



Cook's bay, it will be of interest to remember, had its name from the great circumnavigator. 

 Kempenfelt's bay recalls the name of the admiral who went down in the Royal George 

 "with twice four hundred men." Darling's island was intended to preserve the name of Gen. 

 Darling, a friend and associate of the first governor ; and Francis island bore the name of the 

 same governor's eldest son. Canise island retains its name. The name of another island in 

 this lake, "parallel to Darling's island," is elsewhere given in the Gazetteer as Pilkington's 

 island— a compliment to Gen. Pilkington, a distinguished engineer ofllicer. Darling's island, at 

 the present day, is, we believe, known as Snake island : and Francis island and Pilkington's 

 island by other names. Iroquois bay •is the same as Nottawasaga bay : the interpretation, in 

 fact, of the term " Nottawasaga," which is the " estuary of the Nodoway " — the great indenta- 

 tion whence often issued on marauding expeditions the canoes of the Nodoway — so the Ochib- 

 ways called the Iroquois. Lake Simcoe itself, the Gazetteer of 1799 informs us, was so named 

 by its first explorer, not in commemoration of himself, but of his father. " Lake Simcoe," we 

 read in a note at p. 138 of the work just named, was " so named by Lieut. -Governor Simcoe in 

 respect to his father, the late Capt. Simcoe of the Royal Navy, who died in the River St. 

 Lawrence on the expedition to Quebec m 1759. In the year 1755, this able officer," the Gazetteer 

 adds, "had furnished Government with the plan of operations against Quebec, which then took 

 place. At the time of his death, Capt. Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator, was master of 

 his ship the Pembroke." We here see the link of association which led to the application of the 

 great circumnavigator's name to the bay into which the Holland river discharges itself. The 

 Holland itself also, as we have abeady heard, had its name from a companion of Gen. Wolfe. 



