The banks of the river Detroit are the Eden of Upper Canada, in so far as regards the production of fruit. Apples, pears, plums, peaches, grapes, and nectarines, attain the highest degree of perfection, and exceed in size, beauty, and flavour, those raised in any other part of the province. Cider abounds at the table of the meanest peasant, and there is scarcely a farm that has not a fruitful orchard attached to it. This fineness of the fruit is one consequence of the amelioration of climate, which takes place in the vicinity of the Detroit river and Lake St. Clair. The seasons there are much milder and more serene than they are a few hundred miles below, and the weather is likewise drier and less variable. Comparatively little snow falls during the winter, although the cold is often sufficiently intense to freeze over the Detroit river so strongly, that persons, horses, and even loaded sleighs, cross it with ease and safety. In summer, the country presents a forest of blossoms, which exhale the most delicious odours; a cloud seldom obscures the sky; while the lakes and rivers, which extend in every direction, communicate a reviving freshness to the air, and moderate the warmth of a dazzling sun; and the clearness and elasticity of the atmosphere render it equally healthy and exhilarating.[76] The fort of Detroit was originally constructed to overawe the neighbouring Indian nations, and its military importance as the key of the upper lakes appears to have been well known to them. But, neither possessing battering cannon nor understanding the art of attacking fortified places, they could only reduce them by stratagem or famine, and Detroit could always be supplied with provisions by water. In the year 1763, the Indian chief, Pontiac, whose name has already appeared, (page 164), formed a powerful confederacy of the different tribes, for the purpose of revenging their past wrongs and of preventing their total extirpation, which they were erroneously led to believe was contemplated. In a sudden, general, and simultaneous irruption on the British frontier, they obtained possession, chiefly by stratagem, of Michilimakinack,[77] Presqu'île, and several smaller posts; but there still remained three fortresses formidable alike by their strength and position, which it was necessary the Indians should subdue before they could reap any permanent advantage from their successes. These were Detroit, Niagara, and Pittsburg; and the first and last, although so remote from each other, were invested almost at the same moment. The consummate address, which the Indians displayed in this alarming war, was supported by a proportionate degree of courage, determination, and perseverance; nor ever did they approve themselves a more stubborn and formidable enemy than in this final stand against the encroachments of European dominion and civilization in North America. General Amherst, sensible of the danger, sent immediate succours to those two western