with it.

There are two good houses of entertainment for the gentleman traveller
in Toronto; the Club House in Chewett's Buildings and Macdonald's Hotel.
In the former, a bachelor will find himself quite at home; in the
latter, a family man will have no reason to regret his stay.

But servants at Toronto--by which I mean _attendants_--are about on a
par with the same race all over Canada. The coloured people are the
best, but never make yourself dependent on either; for, if you are to
start by the stage or the steamer, depend on your watch, instead of upon
your boots being cleaned or your shaving-water being ready. In the
latter case, shave with cold water by the light of your candle, lit by
your own lucifer match. They are civil, however, and attentive, as far
as the very free and easy style of their acquirements will permit them;
for a cook will leave at a moment's notice, if she can better herself;
and any trivial occurrence will call off the waiter and the boots. The
only punctual people are the porters; and, as they wear glazed hats,
with the name of the hotel emblazoned thereon, frigate-fashion, you can
always find them.

An excellent arrangement is the omnibus attached to the hotels in Canada
West, which conveys you cost-free to and from the steamboat, and a very
comfortable wooden convenience it is, resembling very much the vans
which, in days of yore, plied near London.

My first start from Toronto was to Ultima Thule, Penetanguishene, a
locality scarcely to be found in the maps, and yet one of much
importance, situate and being north-north-west of the city some hundred
and eight miles, on Lake Huron.

The route is per coach to St. Alban's, thirty and three miles, along
Yonge Street, of which about one-third is macadamized from granite
boulders; the rest mud and etceteras, too numerous to mention. Yonge
Street is a continuous settlement, with an occasional sprinkling of the
original forest. The land on each side is fertile, and supplies Toronto
market.

It rises gradually by those singular steps, or ridges, formerly banks or
shores oL antediluvian oceans, till it reaches the vicinity of the
Holland river, a tortuous, sluggish, marshy, natural canal, flowing or
lazily creeping into Lake Simcoe, at an elevation of upwards of
seven-hundred and fifty feet above Lake Ontario, and emptying itself
into Lake Huron by a series of rapids, called the Matchedash or Severn
River.

The first quarter of the route to