22 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA : 
non and ordnance stores that had been taken 
from the different military posts on the lakes, 
preparatory to their being delivered up to the 
United States. 
On the north-west side of the St. Law¬ 
rence, except for about fifty miles ox there¬ 
about, are roads, and also scattered settle¬ 
ments, at no great distance from each other, 
the whole way between Montreal and King¬ 
ston, which is situated at the eastern extremity 
©f Lake Ontario; but no one ever thinks of 
going thither by land, on account of the num¬ 
berless inconveniences such a journey would* 
be attended with; indeed, the difficulty of get¬ 
ting horses across the many deep and rapid 
rivers falling into the St. Lawrence, would in 
itself be sufficient to deter travellers from pro¬ 
ceeding by land to Kingston, supposing even 
that there were none other to encounter. A 
water conveyance is by far the most eligible,, 
and except only between Quebec and Mont¬ 
real, it is the conveyance universally made use 
of in every part of the country, that is, when 
people wish merely to follow the course of the 
rivers, in the neighbourhood of which alone 
there are any settlements. 
The rapids in the St. Lawrence are so very 
strong just above Montreal, that the bateaux 
are never laden at the town, but suffered to 
proceed empty as far as the village of La 
