322 



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



[1855. 



Such being the unsatisfactory termination of my long- 

 continued, and sometimes expensive, disinterested exertions, 

 it will not be thought surprising that I should have felt so 

 chagrined and disappointed that I had ever since refrained 

 from further agitation of the subject. But more propitious 

 times appearing to have at length arrived, I now venture to 

 add to the foregoing naiTative even the following rather lengthy 

 particulars on the subject of Drainage, extracted chiefly from a 

 Topographical Sketch of the Township of Colchester, drawn 

 up by myself, as of sufficient public interest to repay the perusal. 



"The surface of this Township, though partaking of the 

 general flat character of the District, is far from being a dead 

 level, being in many quarters enlivened by large tracts of 

 undulating or rolling land, and in others checkered by detached 

 stony rises, besides being traversed by a rather continuous 

 ridge running irregularly in a west and east direction, two or 

 three miles retired from the lake, which, forming a barrier to 

 the drainage of the interior lakeward, forces a portion of the 

 surface waters westward into the River Canard, and the rest 

 south-eastward by several channels into Cedar Creek.* 



"The existence of similar ridges is a distinguishing feature 

 in nearly all the other lake-shore Townships; in some of which, 

 as in Raleigh, they approach to within half a mile of the beach, 

 and not only arrest the drainage of the back lands towards the 

 lake, but produce a succession of open marshy tracts, which 

 become nearly dry in summer, but are annually flooded until 

 they attain a certain height, when their waters find a partial 

 vent by various outlets, from pools or ponds, which appear 

 to have at one time been of a lower level, and (in this Town- 

 ship at least) to have owed their present elevation to artifi- 

 cial dams, formed by that sagacious amphibious animal, the 

 beaver, once veiy common, but now rarely met with in this 

 part of the countiy.f The ridges alluded to are also remarkable 

 for being in some instances composed of beds of small gravel 

 and sand, mixed with isolated masses of rock ; and in others of 

 a congeries of large imbedded boulders of granite, limestone, 

 and other rocks, some of which measure from ten to fifteen 

 feet in surface. 



" The marshes in Colchester, explored by myself, are four in 

 number, and known by different names, such as Hog Slarsh, 

 Roach's Blarsh, Long Marsh, and Round Marsh. Of these 

 Hog Marsh, which is partly in Gosfield, occupies about 1,200 

 acres, and is generally about three miles and a half long, and 

 one and a half broad, and is remarkable as at the same time 

 draining westerly, and giving birth to the little River Canard, 

 which falls into the Detroit above Amherstburg, and also S. S. 

 Eastwardly into Cedar Creek, which empties itself into Lake 



ing to have attempted any detailed estimate, I had pointedly avowed 

 having refrained from so doing, and had merely hinted that, in the ab- 

 sence of all such, one might hazard a supposition (from a cursory com- 

 parison of several American estimates, from which I quoted a few 

 figured details) that the expense of the proposed Cut between Lakes 

 St. Clair and Erie, would not much exceed £40,000, and that, being 

 no professed Engineer, any misunderstanding on my part was excus- 

 able; and that I, therefore, trusted that Government would still be 

 disposed to authorise the trifling expense required to carry out even 

 the most elaborate preliminary survey, from the results of which the 

 Board would then be enabled to ground an authoritative opinion. No- 

 thing further, however, was ever heard on the subject. 



* See the Township of Colchester in the annexed map, in which the 

 marshy tracts are pretty correctly delineated. 



f It was proposed that wherever these elevated ponds or basins oc- 

 curred the dams should be cut through, so as to allow the water to 

 flow off' into the main drain or other outlet 



Erie. Roach's marsh, which lies further west, and also feeds 

 the Canard on one hand and Cedar Creek on the other, contains 

 about 2,000 acres, and is generally about three miles and a 

 half long. Long Marsh, still further west, contains about 

 1,600 acres, and varies in length from three to four miles, and 

 in breadth from a quarter to three-quarters of a mile. And 

 Round Marsh, connected with the southern extremity of Long 

 Marsh, consists of about 600 acres : making 5,400, or say 6,000 

 acres in all — a rather large proportion of one Township ; exhibi- 

 ting in the wet and winter months extensive sheets of solitary 

 water or ice; but, as they gradually dry up during summer, 

 assuming the more cheerful aspect of broad verdant prairies, 

 hemmed in by dark forests, resorted to alike by roving wild 

 deer and domestic cattle from the neighbouring farms, and in 

 autumn furnishing an abundant supply of coarse hay to whoever 

 may be disposed to cut and stack it. Though thus not altogether 

 worthless, it would, of course, be far more desirable to have 

 these rich flats subjected to the plough; and there seems to be 

 no great difficulty in the way; for it is believed, from a rather 

 careful, though Ho< scientific examination of their levels, that being 

 in general shallow, and the intervening ridges only a few feet 

 in height, they might all be drained and converted into productive 

 farms at little expense, by simply cutting a rather broad ditch 

 due north from Lake Erie, past the village of Colchester to the 

 ninth Concession, until it approaches the River Canard, that 

 would at once serve the purpose of a small Canoe Canal, and, 

 by throwing the excavated materials all on one side, furnish a 

 good elevated road through a part of the country in which, in 

 wet seasons, such a communication is much wanted. Add to 

 which the same cut might perhaps be made to supply a con- 

 siderable water power, for the benefit of the village." 



In further proof that the proposed drainage of the lake-shore 

 Townships in general, and of Colchester in particular, was not 

 altogether a visionary scheme, it may be here added, commenc- 

 ing with my own Township, that after estimating as well as 

 I could the difference of the level inland, I became persuaded 

 that a depth of three or four feet, and a width of six past the 

 village, would be sufficient, and that the greater additional 

 cutting required through the first ridge, about one mile and a 

 half inland, need not in any part be more than six feet, and 

 that the expense, therefore, would not be very great, while 

 the benefits arising from such a measure would be incalculable. 



Impressed with this conviction, and all the other Townships 

 partaking more or less of the same physical character, I had, in 

 1841, been encouraged to open the subject to Lord Sydenham, 

 during a personal interview at Kingston, in the course of which 

 I remarked that as in Colchester the great bulk of the lands to 

 be drained belonged to the Clergy Reserves and the Canada 

 Company's block, the principal part of the expense would have 

 to be borne by them, but that an equitable assessment per acre 

 might also be levied on the lands of private individuals who 

 benefited by the drainage : an arrangement in which his Lord- 

 ship acquiesced, in addition to evincing his general approbation 

 of the project, by particularly requesting me to mention the 

 matter to the then Surveyor General and Commissioner of 

 Crown Lands. I had, however, only an opportunity of seeing 

 the former, when he also seemed to take much interest in the 

 proposal, though he confessed that he saw little prospect of 

 being then able to bring it forward with success. I was, 

 therefore, induced to postpone all further agitation of the subject 

 till I should have an interview with the Commissioner of the 

 Canada Company; and this I had at Toronto on my way 

 homewards, when Mr. TVidder assured me that he approved 

 much of the scheme, and that if I could only get Governmen 



