y Canal in embryo--Trent River--Percy and Percy
Landing--Forest Road--A Neck-or-nothing Leap--Another perilous leap,
and advice about leaping--Life in the Bush exemplified in the History
of a Settler--Seymour West--Prices of Land near the Trent--System of
Barter--Crow Bay--Wild Rice--Healy's
Falls--Forsaken Dwellings 205

CHAPTER XVIII.

Prospects of the Emigrant in Canada--Caution against ardent spirits
and excessive smoking--Militia of Canada--Population--The mass of the
Canadians soundly British--Rapidly increasing Prosperity of the North
American Colonies, compared with the United States--Kingston--Its
Commercial Importance--Conclusion 260

CANADA

AND

THE CANADIANS.

CHAPTER X.

Return to Toronto, after a flight to Lake Superior--Loons natural
Diving Bells--Birds caught with hooks at the bottom of Niagara
River--Ice-jam--Affecting story--Trust well placed--Fast Steamer--Trip
to Hamilton--Kekequawkonnaby, alias Peter Jones--John Bull and the
Ojibbeways--Port Credit, Oakville, Bronte, Wellington
Square--Burlington Bay and Canal--Hamilton--Ancaster--Immense
expenditure on Public Works--Value of the Union of Canada with
Britain, not likely to lead to a Repeal--Mackenzie's fate--Family
compact--Church and Kirk--Free Church and High Church--The vital
principle--The University--President Polk, Oregon, and Canada.

After a ramble in this very desultory manner, which the reader has, no
doubt, now become accustomed to, I returned to Toronto, having first
observed that the harvest looked very ill on the Niagara frontier;
that the peaches had entirely failed, and that the grass was destroyed
by a long drought; that the Indian corn was sickly, and the potatoes
very bad. Cherries alone seemed plentiful; the caterpillars had
destroyed the apples--nay, to such an extent had these insects ravaged
the whole province, that many fruit-trees had few or no leaves upon
them. A remarkable frost on the 30th of May had also passed over all
Upper Canada, and had so injured the woods and orchards, that, in
July, the trees in exposed places, instead of being in full vigour,
were crisped, brown, and blasted, and getting a renewal of foliage
very slowly.

My return to Toronto was caused by duty, as well as by a desire to
visit as many of the districts as I possibly could, in order to
observe the progress they had made