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193

Voyage up Lake Ontario in 1841.

On the 18th of June I left Kingston
in the war Steamer Traveller at 12 o clock for Port
Dalhousie with a detachment of Royal Marines
to relieve those stationed on board the Steamers
stationed on the Upper Lake A fog hung over
the Ontario so that we could not see a quarter of
a mile from the vessel, which I am informed is
very frequently the case during the summer season,
and continued so during the whole day and night
But the rising sun next morning dispersed the
fog and we reached port Dalhousie situated near
the head of the Lake, at which point the Welland
canal enters and conveys vessels to Lake Erie
a distance of forty one miles

This canal is not of sufficient
dimensions to answer the great and growing
commercial communication so absolutely required
between these two great Lakes, the Locks
being only twenty two feet in width and one
hundred in length, the water at the greatest eight
feet and a half deep

Population and enterprize between
Upper and lower Canada may be judged of
from the rapid growth of Prescot a port on the
St. Lawrence in the route from Montreal to Kingston
and distant 127 miles and from the latter 62
miles In 1815 the largest vessel employed
for the transit of merchanize between Kingston