Some Notes on the Rideau Canal. Aral 
£693,449 stg. All of the official papers connected with the 
Canal do not appear to have been printed as parliamentary 
returns, but the last estimate published brought up the cost 
to nearly £800,000 stg. 
As the city of Ottawa owes its inception to the construc- 
tion of the Rideau Canal, it is interesting here to note that 
the first settler at Hull was Philemon Wright. the founder 
of the Wright family there, who on the 3rd January, 1806, 
obtained a crown patent covering lot 2 in the 3rd range 
including the water privileges at the Chaudiere Falls on 
that side of the river. The original locatee of the corres- 
ponding lot and water privilege on the Ontario side was 
Robert Randall, whose rights were however in 1820, bought 
at sherifi’s sale by Lieutenant Le Breton, from whom, and 
from the large exposed areas here of level, Trenton lime- 
stone, the locality acquired the name of ‘“‘ Le Breton Flats.” 
In 1820, Earl Dalhousie bought for the government, the 
Fraser property, lying between the Sparks and Besserer 
properties on the one side, and the Ottawa River on the 
other, and on instructions from him in the end of Septem- 
ber, 1826, Col. By, laid out in town lots the upper part of 
this, and Dr. A, J. Christie became apparently, the first 
locatee of a lot upon the site. In 1827, the swamp then 
covering a considerable area east of the Canal entrance, was 
drained, divided into lots, and became known as Lower 
Town, to distinguish it from the part surveyed during the 
previous year which was called Upper Town. The name 
of Bytown—in honor of Col. By—was then given to the two 
settlements, which were separated not only by the Canal 
but also by what was known as Barrack Hill, now the site 
of the Parliament Buildings. The name Bytown, soon 
became thoroughly established. Reference is made to it in 
the Imperial Commissioner’s report of the 28th June, 1828, 
and on the 18th July, 1829, a petition from “some of the 
inhabitants of Bytown ” was forwarded to Sir James Kempt, 
complaining about the conditions on which town lots had 
been sold. Thus originated the present city of Ottawa, 
