304 



ON THE FORMATION OF A CANAL BETWEEN LAKES ST. CLAIR AND ERIE. 



[1855. 



its range, and would ultimately lead to much good, and, in the 

 mean time, though I could not help lamenting that our Rulers 

 should have allowed the credit of the construction of the Sault- 

 Ste. Marie Canal to pass into the hands of our American 

 neighbours, I also felt justly proud of the many signal improve- 

 ments either already accomplished or now in progress in the 

 navigation of our magnificent inland waters. 



While thus reflecting, I had more than once stniek a chord 

 in unison with my own feeling.s, and called up, with mingled 

 sensations of pride and mortification, the recollections of long 

 by-gone times when I had, — in vain, — been the zealous 

 though humble advocate of various local improvements con- 

 nected with the remote quarter of the Province in which I had 

 for 10 years been a resident, and of which many disjointed 

 memoranda have ever since remained idle in my possession. 



Having ventured on so querulous a prefatory remark, it may 

 be as well to state at once, even at the risk of being deemed 

 egotistic, as the most natural though rather narrative introduc- 

 tion to the subject of this paper, that having about 19 years ago 

 been led to emigrate with my family to Canada, and to settle 

 in the Western District, as best suited to a constitution long 

 accustomed to the warm climate of India, it so happened that 

 I was in a short time placed in prominent positions that 

 afforded me favourable opportunities for acquiring information 

 and judging of the capabilities of the surrounding country,* 

 which .soon enabled me to perceive that the remote cjuarter of 

 the Province which I had selected as my home, was "a land 

 of great promise," both in a commercial and agricultural point 

 of view, but more especially the latter, as being from .soil and 

 climate pre-eminently entitled to rank as the garden and 

 granary of Canada, though, in its then neglected and misman- 

 aged state, not soon likely to assume that prominent distinction.. 



I may farther add that in the course of a hasty tour of 

 observation through the Province during the previous year, I 

 had visited Chatham by land from the London District, and 

 and from thence travelled along the alternate marshy and sandy 

 border of Lake St. (Jlair to Sandwich ; from whence I made a 

 detour by water up the river St. Clair to Port Sarnia, and back 

 to Sandwich and Amherstburgh ; and from thence by land, 

 through the Lake-shore townships, as far as St. Thomas, by 

 which I had good opportunities of noticing both the physical 

 structure and actual state of that line of country. 



Thus prepared — and feeling, as every true pati'iot possessing 

 any local influence ought to do, under similar circumstances — it 

 was not long before I resolved to endeavour to throw into 

 the scale whatever weight might be in my power ; and I ac- 

 cordingly ventured to take rather a leading part in various 

 local good works, such as founding an Agricultural, an Emigra- 

 tion, and even a Literary Society, as well as advocating the 

 advancement of popular education. In the course of these 

 sometimes expensive "labours of love," I very soon saw the , 

 necessity of some extra stimulus being given to mercantile 

 enterprise, — with so inviting a highway as our magnificent 

 inland waters at our command ; at the same time that I felt 

 persuaded that without some direct encouragement from 

 (iovernment in the establishing of a few village harbours — 

 were it only of refuge, — along the coast of Lake Erie, little 

 could be accomplished by individuals ; and I was therefore 

 induced to make a commencing effort in both directions by 

 prevailing on my fellow townsmen of Colchester to petition 

 Government for the establishment of, at least, one village and 



* First as Sheriff, and afterwards as Magistrate and Chairman of 

 the Quarter Sessions. 



small harbour, on a "Reserve," within a mile ofmy own property; 

 — a project in which 1 at last succeeded, after several years of 

 ojjicial delay. The objects aimed at will be best understood 

 from the following extract from the BJemorial alluded to. 

 "Your Memorialists would respectfully draw the attention of 

 Your Excellency to the remarkable fiict, that while numerous 

 ports and harbours have been long established along the 

 opposite American Coast, the (more exposed) Canadian shore 

 is still without a single port for Refuge of any kind from 

 Amherstburgh to Port Stanley — a distance not less than 130 

 miles, — and that it has been justly remarked that until there 

 shall be harbours of some kind at which Vessels can touch, 

 neither sailing craft nor steamers can be expected to frequent 

 our coast, far less be Indlt, for the purpose of carrying on any 

 thing like coasting trade, on the Canadian side of the Lake." 



The bearing of the foregoing cjuotation may not at first be 

 apparent, but will be readily understood when it is added that 

 by having in the first instance devoted my attention to the 

 outline of the Coast, along Colchester, in connection with the 

 prevailing winds and frequent storms on Lake Erie, on the 

 bank of which my own property lay ; coupled with a rather 

 laborious examination of a marshy tract lying beyond a gravelly 

 ridge a short distance inland, I was thereby insensibly led to 

 extend my thoughts to devising some inexpensive mode of 

 general drainage. My first efforts however were directed to 

 the more limited scheme, above alluded to, for reclaiming about 

 6,000 acres of valuable marsh land in my own Township, in 

 connection with the Village since established in it ; and I then 

 extended my inquires as to the feasibility of introducing the 

 same system into other Lake-shore Townships, and thereby 

 effecting the redemption of perhaps a million of fertile acres, 

 besides favouring the establishment of several much wanted 

 harbours of refuge, and more especially of a very desirable one 

 at the mouth of "Two Creeks," in the Township of Romney 

 which I had long had at heart, and the merits of which are now 

 to form the chief burthen of this Paper.* 



But though I had thus acquired much useful and even 

 valuable information, my disjointed memoranda on the subject 

 would perhaps have remained unacted upon, but for my hav- 

 ing in 1845 been agreeably roused by learning that the 

 Municipal Council of the District had petitioned Government 

 for a preliminary survey, in behalf of one of the very objects 

 which I had so long in view, — namely, the establishment of a 

 harbour at the mouth of Two Creeks, but unfortunately, it 

 appeared, without furnishing any documents or arguments 

 demonstrative of its feasibility. Finding such to be the case, 

 I lost no time in addressing a long official letter to Mr. Secre- 

 tary Higginson in support of the Council's Petition, in which 

 I endeavoured to supply such information as I deemed 

 desirable. f 



The nature of the reply vouchsafed by the Government to 

 the very reasonable appeal of the Municipal Council I know 

 not. With regard to my own efforts it will for the present be 

 sufiicient to premise that though my letter was very flatteringly 

 acknowledged by the Governor-General, on its being referred 

 to the Commissioner of public works for his opinion, and 

 " weighed in the balances" opposed to the great " Rondeau" 

 BUBBLE, "was found wanting" and, as such-'doomed to 



* See the prefixed map, or any good map of the Western District. 



f Though savouring somewliat of egotism, it is but justice to note, 

 that having been personally known to the Governor-General in India, 

 I bad been condescendingly honoured with an invitation to submit to 

 him at any time whatever suggestions I might think would be beneficial 

 (to my adopted Country. 



