REPORTS ON TORONTO HARBOUR. 



35 



I shall not enter upon the theory of its original formation, it is 

 sufficient for my present purpose to assume -what a quarter of a 

 century's observation bears me out in, that all the drift comes 

 from the East, mainly the debris from the high lands of Scarboro', 

 that the Peninsula is the crest of a large shoal, that its maintenance 

 above water is essential to the preservation of Toronto Harbour. 



This drift is always more or less in motion by the lateral actions 

 of the waves of the N.E. and S.AY. winds. 



Whilst the N.E. wind supplies the Peninsula with drift, it also 

 by the violent action of its stormy wave erodes the beach and car- 

 ries the produce gradually West. The S.W. wind more constant, 

 but its waves less violent, brings back by a more gradual process 

 much of this drift and mainly repairs the damage done by the 

 former wind. But for this counteraction the Peninsula would 

 erode and be extended more rapidly West. Were the tides always 

 one way erosion would be constant on one side of an island, and 

 accumulation on the other. 



At right angles to this moving beach it is proposed to project 

 out into deep water some eighteen hundred feet or more piers for 

 the purpose of a navigable canal, intercepting the motion of drift 

 both from the East and from the West. 



The effect of these piers would be to cut off the supply of drift 

 from the N.E., and bring it down from the S.W., filling in the 

 angles until it ultimately made a passage round them. But so 

 extended would these be, and so considerable the body of water to 

 be filled in, that bays would form both East and West, giving 

 greater force to the wave to act upon any attenuated part of the 

 Peninsula ; and it is more than probable that a very serious 

 breach would be made in it East of the piers. The West end of 

 the Peninsula no longer supplied would assume another shape, 

 bearing down from West to East, and wasting away at the West. 



This is the effect to be expected, presuming the piers built upon 

 a sandy foundation and broadside on to the N.E. sea, which is 

 heavier here than at any other part of the Lake, withstood its re- 

 peated concussions. It is common to allude to the piers of the 

 Burlington Canal, to svipport an argument in favor of the facility 

 of erecting piers for the Canal in question. The piers of the Bur- 

 lington Canal are placed in the strongest possible position for piers 

 to be, that is end on, to the only sea that can affect them. Whereas 

 those of Toronto would be placed in the weakest possible way to 

 resist the sea, that is, broadside on, and would require to be doubly 

 massive, compared with those of the former, to stand at all. 



The interior effect of a Canal, two hundred feet wide and twelve 

 feet deep, would be to create such a current through the Harbour, 

 with a strong south-west wind from west to east, as to bring down 

 the sands of the Bar into it, sweep those of the north margin of 

 the Peninsula down upon the Canal and the east end of the Bay, 

 whilst the evil consequences of some extraordinary gale could not 

 be calculated. I think I have seen such a hurricane upon the Lake 

 from south-west, as might render both channels unnavigable for a 

 time. 



The action of the current last season, the breach open about 

 one hundred feet wide and two-and-a-half feet deep during a south- 

 west gale, illustrated, upon a small scale, what would be the effect 

 of a large opening and deep water, and amply confirms the opi- 

 nions that I publicly expressed twenty years ago, when the subject 

 of a Canal was then in agitation, that it would create such a cur- 



rent through the Harbour, whose bar and boundaries were com- 

 posed of sand, as to prejudice the existing channel. 



Nautically. — The Canal, if constructed, would be useless to sail- 

 ing vessels in calms. AVith the wind off the land, it would be 

 useless for entrance, but useful for exit to all vessels bound down the 

 Lake. AVith the wind at S.AV., and not stormy, it would be valu- 

 able again for exit, but for entrance from the east every nautical 

 man would prefer making a stretch out into the open Lake, wea- 

 thering the light at one long board, and rounding into the Harbour 

 with a fair wind, to hauling through the Canal, coming in dead upon 

 a lea shore, and having to beat up the Bay in short tacks. AVith 

 the wind at south, it could only be used for entrance with the wind 

 at north-east, and moderate, it would be useful to all vessels from 

 the east, but useless to them for exit. 



For steamers, to all bound inwards from the east, or outwards 

 to the east, it would be useful in moderate weather. In high 

 winds, either north-east or south-west, it could not be used. 



Commercially. — There have entered the Port of Toronto last 

 year, by the Harbour-Master's books, during the whole season for 

 navigation, 2433 vessels of all sizes and classes, which include the 

 daily steamers, and 1012 visits of wood and stone boats. Add to 

 these 100 vessels in transit or weather-bound, not reported, say 

 2533 in all. Double these, upon the presumption that every vessel 

 that comes into port goes out again, and say that 5066 vessels, in 

 all, pass the entrances of the Harbour during the year. Now, 

 taking every advantage of numbers, admit that one-half of the 

 whole pass by Canal, or 2533 craft of every description. AATiat 

 toll would you put upon these vessels or cargoes to make the Canal 

 self-paying, where the interest alone of the expenditure, at the 

 lowest calculation, must be betwixt £3000 and £4000 ? 



But take a view of it approximating to its true light, and say 

 there are two entrances to the Port — the one tolled, and the other 

 free. The tolled Canal would about share the fate of a turnpiked 

 road, where there are two roads to the same place — the one a little 

 round-about but free, the other taxed — the greater part of the traffic 

 would go out of the way to avoid toll. 



It is looking upon it in the most favourable light, to say that 

 one half of all the vessels entering or going out of Port could, if 

 they would, take the Canal. Deducting the Niagara, the Hamil- 

 ton, the Port Dalhousie vessels, and nearly all the wood and stone 

 boats, the casualties of wind and weather upon all vessels, and 

 not one-fourth of the whole for entrance or exit, if both channels 

 were free alike, could take the Canal. 



Then there remains the only possible way of compensating for 

 the large outlay of constructing and maintaining this Canal and 

 another channel, that is, to make them both free alike, and resort- 

 ing to compulsory Harbour dues upon all vessels or cargoes coming 

 in or going out of Port. 



AVhat must be the amount of Harbour dues collected to pay in- 

 terest on the capital invested in this Canal, reduce the principal, 

 and maintain two channels to the Harbour instead of one ? 



"Will it not be a great commercial disadvantage to a town like 

 Toronto, surrounded by small Harbours, connected by railroad, 

 and in close proximity to the rival Port of Hamilton, and hitherto 

 enjoying light Harbour dues, and just relieved of all export dues, 

 to be saddled with enormous charges, and those to sustain two bad 

 channels instead of one good one ? 



