460 Canadian Record of Science. 
ascertaining some facts of interest which I desire to here 
mention. It has further occurred to me that here also 
might be a fitting place for a short resumé of the facts— 
almost unknown now in this country—connected with the 
inception and construction of the canal. These facts Ihave 
abbreviated from the extensive manuscript notes—taken 
from the Dominion archives and other sources, as well as 
from personal recollection—of Mr. Andrew Drummond of 
Ottawa, whose association and close family connection with 
two of the leading builders of the canal and personal 
acquaintance, formed in 1832, with others who planned its 
construction, enables him to speak with not only some 
interest, but even some authority. 
The canal may be divided into the river and: the lake 
divisions, the former comprising the Rideau River which 
was the original outlet to the Ottawa of the Upper and 
Lower Rideau Lakes lying beyond Smith’s Falls. The lake 
division, besides these two lakes, includes Mud, Clear, 
Indian, Opinicon, Sand, Whitefish and Cranberry Lakes, to 
which may be added the long artificial lake, known as the 
“drowned lands,” created between Washburn and Kingston 
Mills, by the erection of the Kingston Mill’s dam. The 
waters of Upper Rideau Lake form the summit level of the 
canal system, and are admitted by the locks on either side 
of the lake to the Ottawa River slope or to the St. Law- 
rence River slope as the traffic on the canal requires. The 
‘immense importance of keeping a sufficient supply of water 
in this lake is so obvious that every means should be taken 
to husband the waters of its feeders, Clear, Wolfe and Sand 
Lakes, which empty into it at Westport. The forest coun- 
try around these outer lakes should be kept, as far as pos- 
sible, in its virgin state by protecting it from forest fires 
and absolutely withdrawing it from settlement, in order to 
hold back within these forests the accumulations from the 
melted snow and the rain which otherwise will be too 
quickly drained off into ithe lakes. Were Upper Rideau 
Lake allowed in midsummer to fall seriously in level at the 
