The _Lake Huron_ was wrecked on Anticosti. The year 1875 saw the first steamers of the Beaver Line afloat. They were the _Lake Champlain_, _Lake Megantic_ and _Lake Nepigon_, snug little ships of about 2,200 tons each, such as would pass nowadays for cruising steam yachts, but much too small for cargo ships on the Atlantic, to say nothing of the passenger business. The _Lake Manitoba_ and _Lake Winnipeg_, of larger size and higher speed, were added in 1879, followed by the _Lake Huron_ and the _Lake Superior_. The last-named is a fine ship of 4,562 tons, and credited with thirteen knots an hour. It was not long before three of the steamers came to grief. The _Lake Megantic_ was wrecked on Anticosti in July, 1878; the _Lake Manitoba_, on St. Pierre Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in June, 1885; the _Lake Champlain_, stranded on the north coast of Ireland in June, 1886. To keep up the weekly line, the _Lake Ontario_, built at Sunderland in 1887, was purchased at a cost of nearly $300,000. She is a vessel of about 4,500 tons, with midship saloon, triple expansion engines, and a maximum speed of thirteen knots. She is an excellent sea boat, with good accommodation for one hundred cabin passengers. The ships of this line all carry live cattle, sheep and horses, for which they are well adapted. The Beaver Line led the way towards the reduction of transatlantic cabin passage rates on the St. Lawrence route. It also introduced the custom of embarking and landing passengers at Montreal instead of Quebec as formerly. Unfortunately the line had not been a success financially. In the winter of 1895 the boats were all tied up, the company went into liquidation, and the entire fleet was sold at a nominal price to the bondholders. During the following winter, however, the ships of this line maintained a weekly service from Liverpool to St. John, N. B., receiving from the Canadian Government a subsidy of $25,000, and in 1897 the Beaver Line was awarded the contract for carrying the Canadian mails, to be landed at Halifax in the winter months. The annual subsidy for this service is understood to be $146,000. This arrangement, however, is necessarily of a temporary nature, pending the development of the long-expected “fast service.” In the meantime the Beaver Line has added to its fleet the fine SS. _Gallia_, of the Cunard Line, and the _Tongariro_, of 4,163 tons, formerly belonging to the New Zealand Shipping Company. The service has thus far been satisfactory.