594 



that enliven the woods, the thickets, and fhc; 

 meadows, combine to insure a preference to this 

 highly favoured tract for the estabUshment of 

 new settlements. From the Ouse to Lake Ste. 

 Claire the space is occupied by the London 

 and Western districts ; it is watered by many 

 small streams falling into Lake Erie, besides 

 the River Chenail Ecarte and the exquisitely 

 picturesque River Thames, formerly called the 

 Rivifere a la Tranche; it rises far in the interior, 

 about the township of Blandford, and after pur- 

 suing a serpentine course in a direction nearly 

 south-west, discharges itself into Lake St. Claire. 

 It is navigable for vessels full twenty miles from 

 its mouth, and for boats and canoes nearly up 

 to its source, but little less than one hundred 

 miles. The River Chenail Ecarte runs almost 

 parallel to the Thames, at about ten miles from 

 it, and falls into Lake St. Claire. The portions 

 now described are those only that are more or 

 less settled upon ; in the rear of the townships 

 are large tracts of land, stretching far to the 

 northward, covered with immense forests, and 

 little known except to the Indians ; but it has 

 been ascertained that there are many wide 

 spreading extents of rich and fertile soil, parti- 

 cularly bordering on the south-west bank of the 

 Ottawa River. Through these regions, as yet 

 unexplored by civilized man, there q.re many 



