591 



the aggregate quantity of 9>6945400 acres, that 

 may be arranged under the following heads ; 

 about 3,000,000 of acres are granted in free 

 and common soccage, 2,7695828 are reserved 

 for the crown and clergy, and 3,924,572 still 

 remain to be granted. The extent of country 

 thus laid out] reaches from Pointe au Baudet 

 along the north shore of the river St. Lawrence, 

 Lake Ontario, Lake Erie up to Lake St. Claire 

 and the communication between it and Lake 

 Huron, a distance little less than one hundred 

 and ninety leagues. Through this range, wide 

 as it is, and for a depth that varies from forty to 

 fifty miles, the soil for the most part is scarcely 

 excelled by any portion of the continent of 

 North America ; it is so happily varied in its 

 nature as to present situations where agriculture 

 may be successfully carried on in all its nume- 

 rous branches ; but perhaps the particular spe- 

 cies that most prevails is a fine dark loam mixed 

 with a rich vegetable mould. A sameness of 

 appearance overspreads almost the whole coun- 

 try, from which very little deviation is per- 

 ceptible. Between Pointe au Baudet and the 

 Bay of Quinte, comprising the eastern, Johns- 

 town, and midland districts, the land presents 

 an almost uniform level of exquisite beauty, 

 rising only a few feet from the bank of the St. 

 Lawrence, finely intersected, and admirably 



