Government was slack in giving funds to open up the country, and the legislation, for many years, in reference to the subject, seemed as if it was intended to do as little as possible, forgetting the fact that “the first improvement of any country should be the making of good roads.” But it soon became important to have a mail road between Montreal and Kingston, and between Kingston and York, and then by way of Dundas to the Thames, and to Niagara. Says Mr. A. Sheerwood, “I recollect when the King’s highway was established from the Provincial line to Kingston, the line was run by a surveyor named Ponair, with a surveyor under his direction by the name of Joseph Kilborne. The distance from the Provincial line to my father’s farm, three miles below Brockville, was ninety-five miles, and from Brockville to the fort, this side of Kingston, fifty miles; at the end of each mile was planted a red cedar post, marked on it the number of miles from the Provincial line; this line of road was made some years after the first settlement, but I have forgotten the year.” The original mail road between Kingston and York did not altogether follow the present line. At first, from Kingston, the road followed the bay shore to Bath, and continued along the shore to Adolphustown to Dorland’s Point, where was established a ferry to communicate with Marysburg at the Lake of the Mountain; thence the road followed the shore to the head of Picton Bay, and soon to Bloomfold, Wellington, Consecon, by the Carrying Place, and continued to closely follow the lake shore. Subsequently this great highway was called the York Road when going towards York, and the Kingston Road when going towards Kingston. Gen. Simcoe intended to have a grand military road from one end of the Province to the other. This he lined out and gave it the name of Dundas Street. But he left the Province before his intentions were carried out, and but a small portion was then constructed; while settlers had located here and there along the proposed road, and had cleared land and built with the full expectation that the great thoroughfare would shortly be opened up. But years passed away, before this was done. Piece after piece was here and there made passable, until at last the road was made through the length of the Province.