Canadian Scenery, Volume 2 (of 2)Willis, Nathaniel Parker
History
Canadian Scenery, Volume 2 (of 2)
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History
“It is generally supposed that the Falls were once as far down as
Queenston, and the supposition seems plausible. The appearance of the
banks on each side of the river affords very strong presumptive evidence
in favour of this notion; and the fact of the constant recession of the
Falls, observed by the people who reside in their vicinity, is no less
confirmatory. That seven miles of limestone strata of such great depth
should be worn away by nothing but water, will appear too preposterous
for belief, by those who have never stooped to the drudgery of
calculation; but if only the fiftieth part of a barleycorn had been worn
away in every hour since the creation, supposing the Falls to have been
then at Queenston, or a little above it, they would now be within a few
perches of their present position. These calculations receive an air of
great plausibility, at least, from the rugged features of the banks
between the Falls and Queenston, which afford numerous and strong
indications of the violence to which the strata have there been
subjected.”
The writer from whom the foregoing account of Niagara is quoted, went
out with his father and a few labourers to settle in Canada. His voyage
up the St. Lawrence is very descriptive of the scenery and adventures
which fell to the lot of all travellers on the same errand at that time,
and may be useful as well as interesting here. He says:—“I embarked at
La Chine with my father and his settlers, twenty days after our arrival
in Quebec. On account of the shallows immediately below this village,
goods and passengers intended for a higher destination up the river are
conveyed by land from Montreal. Previous to our leaving La Chine,
thirty-one of the settlers, dreading, the expense of transporting their
families to the Upper Province, separated from us and accepted of a
settlement at or near Perth, about 140 miles north-west of Montreal.
Owing to the rapidity of the St. Lawrence immediately above Montreal,
ship navigation terminates at that city. Such is the vehemence of the
current in various places, that it is totally impossible to ascend the
river in vessels of ordinary construction. Batteaux, or flat-bottomed
boats, narrow at bow and stern, and made of pine boards, have been found
much better adapted to the river than any others. These boats are about
forty feet long, and six across the centre, and are navigated by four
men and a pilot. Each boat carries about five tons, and is provided with
a small mast and sails, six setting poles about nine feet long, shod at
their lower extremities with iron, which terminates in a sharp point,
and the necessary cooking apparatus. In these boats, all the merchandise
destined for Upper Canada is conveyed; and, fitted out in this style,
they depart from La Chine, four or five of them generally forming one
party. They quickly arrive in Lake St. Louis, which is formed by the
junction of the Ottawa, or Grand River, with the St Lawrence. If the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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