gloom of the cliffs, and the melancholy incident I have just related, would subject Queenston heights to the suspicion of any people more under the influence of imagination than the Canadians are, and make them conjure up half a dozen bleeding sentinels at the top of the precipice every night after sunset.

"At the ferry, the Niagara river is twelve hundred and fifty feet in breadth, and from two to three hundred in depth. The current is very rapid, and the wreathing and perturbed appearance of the water shews that its course is much impeded by the narrowness of the channel, which must be entirely composed of rocks; for, otherwise, the continual and rapid attrition of such a large river as that which flows through it, would undermine and wear away the banks, and thus gradually enlarge and widen its course. I could not survey this noble stream without awe, when I contrasted it in the state in which it flowed before me, with the appearance it has when mingling with the ocean. I recollected having beat about the mouth of the St. Lawrence during two days, and having been alarmed by the prospect of shipwreck, while in the vessel that conveyed me to Lower Canada; but now the waters which formed the dangerous gulf all passed silently before me, within the narrow limits occupied by the Niagara river. The St. Lawrence derives but a small proportion of its torrents from tributary streams, the Ottawa being the only river of great magnitude that joins it. The rivers Chaudière, Saguenai, Pepechaissinagau, Black River, &c., are trifling indeed, when compared with that into which they discharge themselves.

"The Niagara river is subject to those periodical alterations in height, which, as I have already mentioned, occur in the lakes. This can be satisfactorily proved by the wharfs at Queenston, some of which are five feet higher above the surface of the river than they were in the year 1817, and also by the water marks left on the perpendicular sand banks near the ferry.

"General Brock was killed at the battle of Queenston heights, and the place where he fell was pointed out to me. The Canadians hold the memory of this brave and excellent man in great veneration, but have not yet attempted to testify their respect for his virtues in any way, except by shewing to strangers the spot on which he received his mortal wound. He was more popular, and more beloved by the inhabitants of Upper Canada, than any man they ever had among them, and with reason; for he possessed, in an eminent degree, those virtues which add lustre to bravery, and those talents that shine alike in the cabinet and in the field. His

manners and dispositions were so conciliating as to gain the affection of all whom he commanded, while his innate nobleness and dignity of mind secured him a respect almost amounting to veneration. He is now styled the Hero of Upper Canada, and, had he lived, there is no doubt but the war would have terminated very differently from what it did. The Canadian farmers are not overburthened with sensibility, yet I have seen several of them shed tears when an eulogium was pronounced upon the immortal and generous-minded deliverer of their country.

"General Brock was killed close to the road that leads through Queenston village, and an aged thorn bush now marks the place where he fell, when the fatal ball entered his vitals. This spot

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may be called classic ground, for a view of it must awaken in the minds of all those who duly appreciate the greatness of his character, and are acquainted with the nature of his resources and exertions, feelings as warm and enthusiastic as the contemplation of monuments consecrated by antiquity can ever do.-Pages 70 to 76. The prospect from the top of Queenston mountain is the finest and most extensive that Upper Canada affords, and, in an eminent degree, combines the beautiful and the magnificent. The wild and majestic precipices which engulf one part of the Niagara river, the windings and mirrored expanse of that noble body of water, the dim and undiscoverable extent of Lake Ontario, together with the verdant orchards, thick forests, and improved fields, glowing beneath a pure sky, collectively form a scene of admirable effect and composition. Even York, which is thirty-six miles distant, and lies very low, can be seen from the summit of this hill during clear weather.-Page 87.

"The Detroit river, which connects Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, is forty miles long, and divides that part of Canada, which it traverses, from the United States. Its banks are in many places thickly peopled, and in a high state of cultivation. The inhabitants here are chiefly French Canadians, who began to occupy the country when Canada was still under the jurisdiction of France. They still retain that amenity of manners which distinguishes them from the peasantry of most countries. The houses are so numerous and so close together upon the banks of the Detroit river, that there is the appearance of a succession of villages for more than ten miles. The farms are very narrow in front, and extend a great way back. The lots were laid out in this awkward and inconvenient form, that their respective occupants might be able to render one another

assistance when attacked by the Indians, who were at one time very numerous and troublesome in this part of the country.

"The banks of the Detroit river are the Eden of Upper Canada, in so far as regards the production of fruit. Apples, pears, plums, peaches, grapes, and nectarines, attain the highest degree of perfection there, and exceed in size, beauty, and flavour, those raised in any other part of the province. Cider abounds at the table of the meanest peasant, and there is scarcely a farm that has not a fruitful orchard attached to it. This fineness of the fruit is one consequence of the amelioration of climate, which takes place in the vicinity of the Detroit river and Lake St. Clair. The seasons there are much milder and more serene than they are a few hundred miles below, and the weather is likewise drier and less variable. Comparatively little snow falls during the winter, though the cold is often sufficiently intense to freeze over the Detroit river so strongly, that persons, horses, and even loaded sleighs, cross it with ease and safety. In summer the country presents a forest of blossoms, which exhale the most delicious odours; a cloud seldom obscures the sky; while the lakes and rivers, which extend in every direction, communicate a reviving freshness to the air, and moderate the warmth of a dazzling sun; and the clearness and elasticity of the atmosphere render it equally healthy and exhilarating.

"About twenty miles down the Detroit river stands the village of Sandwich, which contains thirty or forty houses, and a neat church. Below this the soil becomes rather inferior in quality, being somewhat cold and swampy. The settlement is likewise partial and circumscribed, and a tract of land six miles in length, which belongs to the Huron Indians, does not contain a single inhabitant. A little above the mouth of the Detroit river, and head of Lake Erie, is the town of Amherstburgh, which forms the most westerly settlement in the Upper Province. The population of this place amounts to more than a thousand souls, a proportion of whom are merchants, who derive support in the way of trade from the farmers residing upon the shores of Lake Erie. Many of the inhabitants of Amherstburgh are persons of wealth and respectability, and the circle which they collectively compose is a more refined and agreeable one than is to be met with in any other village in the province.

"The mouth of the Detroit river, in which there are several islands, forms a safe and commodious harbour. The river itself is navigable for vessels of any size; and a chain of water communication extends westward, without interruption, to the head of Lake

Superior, which is more than a thousand miles distant from Lake Erie. The country north-west of Amherstburgh being entirely uninhabited, except by tribes of wandering Indians, is but little known; however, it would appear that many parts of it are well adapted for agriculture."-Pages 199 to 202.

No. 11.

"This chief of the branch of the once great tribe of the Hurons visited England some time ago. I afterwards saw him in Quebec, and had a good deal of conversation with him. When asked what had struck him most of all that he had seen in England, he replied, without hesitation, that it was the monument erected in St. Paul's to the memory of General Brock. It seemed to have impressed him with a high idea of the considerate beneficence of his great father, the king of England, that he not only had remembered the exploits and death of his white child, who had fallen beyond the big salt lake, but that he had even deigned to record, on the marble sepulchre, the sorrows of the poor Indian weeping over his chief untimely slain."-Hon. F. F. De Roos' Travels in North America, in 1826.

No. 12.

"To Colonel Brock, of the 49th, who commanded at the fort, I am particularly indebted for his kindness to me during the fortnight I remained at Niagara. Among many pleasant days which I passed with him and his brother officers, that of our visit to the Tuscorora Indians was not the least interesting. They received us in all their ancient costume; the young men exhibited for our amusement in the race, the bat game, &c., while the old and the women sat in groups under the surrounding trees, and the picture altogether was as beautiful as it was new to me."-Note in Moore's Epistles, Odes, &c.

"At Queenston the battle was fought in which General Brock fell, and the inhabitants point out a thorn bush at the bottom of the heights, where it is said that he received his mortal wound. His career was a short but a brilliant one; and had the direction of the affairs of the Upper Province, after his death, been characterized by an equal degree of courage, prudence, and humanity, a very different series of subsequent events would have claimed the attention of the historian.”—Duncan's Travels in the United States and Canada, in 1818 and 1819.

"Close to the spot where we landed in Canada there stands a monument to the gallant General Brock, who was killed during the battle of Queenston, in the act of repelling an invasion of the frontier by the Americans, during the late war.. . . . . The view from the top of the monument extended far over Lake Ontario, and showed us the windings of the Niagara, through the low and woody country which hangs like a rich green fringe along the southern skirts of that great sheet of water."-Captain Basil Hall's Travels in North America, in 1827 and 1828.

Travelling in the state of New York, the author observes: "The late Sir Isaac Brock was, by some accident, mentioned. The canal agent spoke of him in terms of great respect, as the best commander the British had ever sent to Canada,-equally regretted on both sides of the St. Lawrence..

"From Niagara Falls we proceeded by the stage first to Queenston, (seven miles,) near which a monument has been erected to the memory of Sir Isaac Brock, from the top of which, about one hundred and twenty feet high, there is a noble view of Lake Ontario and the adjoining country, and thence to the village of Newark, (seven miles,) formerly called Fort George, on the Niagara river."- Stuart's Three Years in America.

"Immediately above Queenston stands Brock's monument, on the heights where the battle was fought in which that hero was killed. His body was removed to it from Fort George in 1824. The view from this fine column is probably the most beautiful in Upper Canada.-M'Gregor's British America, Vol. II.

"Seven miles south of Fort George, and at the foot of the romantic heights of the same name, which have become famous in Canadian history as the scene of a battle wherein General Brock fell, is the village of Queenston, pleasantly situated on the Niagara, and opposite to the American village of Lewiston. The monument, built to the memory of the gallant general and his companions, on the loftiest part of these heights, forms a prominent object to the numerous voyageurs who are constantly arriving at this portage, in elegantly fitted up steam boats, from York and Kingston, to view the neighbouring falls of the Niagara. The village contains a church, court house, large government stores, and a population of between four hundred and five hundred inhabitants."-The Canadas, by Andrew Picken.