The completion of the canals prepared the way for a larger class of steamers between Lake Ontario and Montreal, and the “Royal Mail Line” was accordingly re-enforced. The _Passport_ was built of iron on the Clyde and brought out in sections in 1847, and is still in commission and in good running order. The _Magnet_, also built of iron and on the Clyde, and in which Captain Sutherland had a large pecuniary interest, came out shortly after the _Passport_, and under the name of the _Hamilton_, in command of Captain A. J. Baker, is now, in her green old age, and with her hull as sound as a bell, performing a weekly service between Montreal and Hamilton. The _Kingston_, since named the _Algerian_, followed in 1855, and was first commanded by Captain Clarke Hamilton, now of H. M. Customs at Kingston. About this time the _Brockville_, Captain Day, the _Gildersleeve_, Captain Bowen, the _Banshee_, Captain Howard, and the _Lord Elgin_, Captain Farlinger, were well-known and favourite boats. The fifteen years from 1840 to 1855 were the most prosperous in the history of steam navigation on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. The Americans had at that time several lines of steamers plying between Ogdensburg, Oswego, Rochester and Lewiston. Some of these were large and very fine passenger steamers, such as the _United States_, the _Bay State_, the _New York_, the _Rochester_, the _Lady of the Lake_, the _Northerner_, the _Cataract_, and the _Niagara_. The Great Western Railway Company had also a fleet of splendid steamers—the _Canada_, the _America_, the _Europa_ and the _Western World_. At the breaking out of the American civil war, most of these vessels and some others were purchased by the United States Government and taken round to New York. Their places on the lake are now occupied by numerous screw propellers, chiefly doing a freight business, but many of them having excellent accommodation for passengers also. The opening of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1855 proved disastrous to the steamboat interests. Mr. Hamilton, as well as many others, struggled gallantly for a time, endeavouring to stem the tide of competition with the new system of transportation, but about the year 1862 he was obliged to retire from the business which he had created and carried on successfully for thirty years. The steamers in which he had a large personal interest were sold to a joint stock company, which was named the “Canadian Steam Navigation Company.” Mr. Hamilton was appointed General Manager of the new company; Sir Hugh Allan, President, and Alexander Milloy. Secretary-Treasurer. A few years later Captain Thomas Howard became Superintendent of the line, a position which he held until 1881, when he was appointed Harbour-master in Montreal. He died in Montreal on Easter Sunday, 1898. In 1875 the company united with the Richelieu Company, as already stated. [Illustration: “CORONA,” ON NIAGARA RIVER, 1896.]