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t called Navy Bay, from its being our chief naval depot on Lake Ontario."--Martin's _History of Canada_.] [Footnote 140: "The channel of the St. Lawrence is here so spacious that it is called the Lake of the Thousand Islands. The vast number implied in this name was considered a vague exaggeration, till the commissioners employed in fixing the boundary with the United States actually counted them, and found that they amounted to 1692. They are of every imaginable size, shape, and appearance; some barely visible, others covering fifteen acres; but, in general, their broken outline presents the most picturesque combinations of wood and rock. The navigator, in steering through them, sees an ever-changing scene: sometimes he is inclosed in a narrow channel; then he discovers before him twelve openings, like so many noble rivers; and, soon after, a spacious lake seems to surround him on every side."--Bouchette, vol. i., p. 156; Howison's _Sketches of Canada_, p. 46.] [Footnote 141: "The St. Lawrence traverses the whole extent of Lower Canada, as the lakes every where border and inclose Upper Canada. There is a difficulty in tracing its origin, or, at least, which of the tributaries of Lake Superior is to be called the St. Lawrence. The strongest claim seems to be made by the series of channels which connect all the great upper lakes, though, strictly speaking, till after the Ontario, there is nothing which can very properly be called a river. There are only a number of short canals connecting the different lakes, or, rather, separating one immense lake into a number of great branches. It seems an interesting question how this northern center of the continent, at the precise latitude of about 50 deg., should pour forth so immense and overwhelming a mass of waters; for through a great part of its extent it is quite a dead flat, though the Winnepeg, indeed, draws some tributaries from the Rocky Mountains. The thick forests with which the surface is covered, the slender evaporation which takes place during the long continuance of cold, and, at the same time, the thorough melting of the snows by the strong summer heat, seem to be the chief sources of this profuse and superabundant moisture."--H. Murray's _Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America_, vol. ii., p. 459, 1829.] [Footnote 142: "The statements laid before Parliament thus enumerate and describe the five rapids of the St. Lawrence, which are impa
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