n the clay that when it hardened
the chimney was all one piece. If it fell, it would not break.

July 11--Brodie, Auld, and myself accompanied Jabez on his going to
Toronto. Mr Bambray had arranged everything and in an hour we had paid
him and each of us had his deed. We asked him about securing a road to
our lots. He said two blocks of bush lay between them and Yonge-street.
Both were owned by a man who was holding to sell, and he was afraid any
influence we could exert would not compel him to make the road, though
that was the condition on which the government had given the land. Met
in the tavern several emigrants eager to get lots, all discontented with
their treatment at the government office. One said he would go to
Illinois. Asked how he would get there. Told me by Buffalo and lake
Erie; land sold there at $1.25 an acre and no bush to clear.

July 12--Tired and rainy. Auld and Brodie came over to square our
accounts. From the time we left the ship till we got into our shanties,
we lived in common. Found Brodie had least money and more mouths to
fill. His wife said she did not fear--they would strachle through until
they got a crop. We had a long talk about getting a yoke of oxen, which
we must have. Offered, if I got them, they would pay me in days' work. I
decided to put up a stable to be ready when I bought a yoke.

July 13--Took a tramp to see rear of my lot, Gordon guiding with a
compass. All of a sudden the bush ceased, and on finding I stood on the
edge of a swamp, I got angry at my being fooled into paying for a
cattail marsh. There is quite a stretch not very wide, angling across
the width of my lot. On thinking it over, am satisfied Bambray knew no
more about its existence than I did. Returning home I followed the
creek, which starts from it. There was a little water flowing. Noticed,
where the creek leaves the marsh, a stretch of tall wild grass.

July 14--Could not sleep thinking about the swamp. Got Gordon to make a
dozen cross-staffs and started for it to take levels. Found the marsh
sloped towards the creek, and between where it entered and a hundred
yards down the creek there is a fall of three feet, so the marsh can be
drained. Dug down in several places and found the marsh to be a deposit
of black soil on top of clay.

July 17--The Simmins family spent the afternoon with us. He knew about
the swamp, and called it a, beaver-meadow. The grass that grew at the
head of the creek would make hay go