. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
XI. NAVIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

{xi}

[Transcriber's note: The page numbers below are those in the original
book. However, in this e-book, to avoid the splitting of paragraphs,
the illustrations may have been moved to preceding or following pages.]

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE VOYAGEURS ON A MISTY MORNING . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
From a painting by Verner.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAKES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Facing page_ 12
By Lorado Taft, in the Chicago Art Institute.

SHIPS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . . . . . . " 44
From Winsor's 'America.'

CHAMPLAIN'S SHIP, THE 'DON DE DIEU' . . . . . . . . " 54
From the model at the Quebec Tercentenary.

A FRENCH FRIGATE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . " 64
From Winsor's 'America.'

SHIP 'BATAVIA,' 2000 TONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 92
Built by F.-X. Marquis at Quebec, 1877. Lost
on Inaccessible Island, 1879. From a picture
belonging to Messrs Ross and Co., Quebec.

TRANSPORT 'BECKWITH' AND BATEAUX, LAKE ONTARIO, 1816 " 136
From the John Ross Robertson Collection,
Toronto Public Library.

THE 'ROYAL WILLIAM' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 140
From the original painting in possession of the
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.

{1}

CHAPTER I

A LAND OF WATERWAYS

Canada is the child of the sea. Her infancy was cradled by her
waterways; and the life-blood of her youth was drawn from oceans, lakes,
and rivers. No other land of equal area has ever been so intimately
bound up with the changing fortunes of all its different waters, coast
and inland, salt and fresh.

The St Lawrence basin by itself is a thing to marvel at, for its mere
stupendous size alone. Its mouth and estuary are both so vast that their
salt waters far exceed those of all other river systems put together.
Its tide runs farther in from the Atlantic than any other tide from this
or any other ocean. And its 'Great Lakes' are appropriately known by
their proud name because they contain more fresh water than all the world
beside. Size for size, this one river system is so pre-eminently first
in the sum of these three attributes that there is no com