An extensive gathering of pleasing to the eye Black and White plus some color and hand-coloured images - A collection of superb Gallery Prints on archival quality Fine Art Paper or Artists Quality Matte Canvas - Creating a fabulous History, Nostalgia and Decorative Wall Art Centre of images dating back through the 1800s to early 1900 Niagara

Note: Each picture holds a story from long ago.
The facts about the event or location depicted in each of these pictures are noted in a related to the image document that is included with your artwork and is suitable for display with your picture. You’ll find these true stories fascinating and many are stranger than fiction

Decorate your home or place of business walls with some interesting conversation pieces from the past.

Niagara Writer Old Time Gallery Prints – Official Gallery Print Edition

Subject:
1892 Niagara – The (Second) Welland Canal - waterway from the heart of the North American continent to the Oceans of the world... It’s a collection of scenes and stories that residents and tourist from that time in long ago Niagara experienced…

If a thread be stretched upon a globe from any point in the English Channel to Toledo, on Lake Erie, it will be found that the deviation of the St. Lawrence from it does not exceed thirty miles, this straight line connecting the greatest food-consuming country in Europe with the greatest food - producing country in America. The distance from Chicago to Liverpool by this river is 4,500 miles, one-half of which is covered by the great inland route through the Lakes to the Straits of Belle Isle. This line of communication comprises four of the great lakes, with the connections between them and the St. Lawrence River, about seventy miles of which are obstructed by obstacles in the channel.

With respect to the Atlantic, these waters are closed by ice from the 25th of November to the 25th of April; the irregularity of the tides and currents, the severity of the climate, and the frequent fogs, are also difficulties which call for vigilance and ability in navigating the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. Upon the lakes the conditions are milder, and the ice season shorter by, perhaps, one month ; for, while the tourist there is often reminded in summer of the equator and in winter of the poles, yet the thermometers show that the warmer means are not excessively high nor the colder ones unbearably low.

Chicago is more than 1,200 miles inland from Montreal, the nearest seaport of the St. Lawrence. As if to accentuate its commanding position as the head of the greatest internal water-route in the world, and as the depot and distributing point for the products of the great Northwest, it has an elevation of 578 feet above the Atlantic terminus.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126270 is available in the following folio sizes

Its shipping is second only to that of New York; from it the cereals of the Northwestern States are transported through Lakes Huron and Erie to Buffalo, whence they are forwarded to New York by rail or by the Erie Canal; grain intended for Montreal may be carried over the lakes and down the St. Lawrence without once breaking bulk; and it is contemplated even to run steamers direct to England.Some idea of its lake traffic may be formed from the statement that the aggregate entrances and clearances in 1890, for the great lakes, numbered 88,280, of which 21,054, measuring 10,288,688 tons, were at that port. The corresponding aggregate for New York is 15,283, and for the entire seaboard of the United States, 37,756. The tonnage has nearly doubled itself in the last ten years ; and it is possible to conceive of a like increase by 1900, for 54,411 miles of railway terminate here, and in a year move 43,000,000 tons of freight. Besides, in the central Northern, and the Northwestern States, the total freight moved is 196,000,000 tons, a fair proportion of which goes to Europe.

Each year shows a steady increase in the trade of Chicago, which not only maintains its standing as the centre of manufacture and distribution in the West, but promises in time to acquire that position with regard to the entire United States. The situation of the city, its facilities as the centre of the greatest railway system in the world, stretching westward into fertile and immense grain fields, bringing to its storehouses their almost inexhaustible products, and supplemented by great waterways feeding both domestic and (272) foreign markets ; combined with its proximity to supplies required by manufacturing establishments, are remarkable advantages for trade and commerce, which account for a growth almost without parallel, and assure a still greater activity and wealth.

Its total trade for 1890 is estimated at $1,442,500,000. The wholesale trade is stated at $462,500,000; but it is as a manufacturing city, especially in iron and steel, that Chicago shows the greatest advance. There are now six rolling-mills, twenty-eight foundries, eighty-nine machinery and boiler works, seventy galvanic iron, tin, and slate roofing works, besides car-wheel, stove, steam-fitting, and many other manufactories. In all there are 3,250 manufactories in operation, and their total output is valued at $555,000,000. Ship-building too is becoming an important industry; a fine steel steamer of 4,600 tons displacement was launched last February from the yards of the Chicago Ship-building Company for the Minnesota iron trade, and three others are now building.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126271 is available in the following folio sizes

This city of industry, indomitable will, and immense material resources, has been well chosen as the site of the Columbian Exposition; over the waterway to it will be borne much of the treasures and exhibits of foreign nations, and this highway thus attains a prominence more than ever in keeping with its magnitude and importance.

The course from Chicago to Lake Huron measures 330 miles; its greatest width is one-fourth of this distance, and lies between Milwaukee and Grand Haven; its only interruption is Manitou County, which consists of Beaver and several other islands near the northern end of the lake, but which cannot be regarded as obstacles, for the channels are wide and deep, the bottom in many places being far below the level of the ocean. The southern shore is but a few feet above the lake level, its chief feature lying in unprepossessing and far - stretching vistas of lumber yards.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126272 is available in the following folio sizes

Perhaps the most pleasing prospect of the lake is Milwaukee, whose cream-colored buildings produce a peculiar and most agreeable effect. Eight railways centre here after traversing a rich and rapidly improving country, whose grain forms the chief element in the city's prosperity. In entrances and clearances, it follows closely upon Chicago, the number last year exceeding 20,000 ; one of the chief contributors to this record is the line of wooden steamers to Ludington, in the service of the Flint & Pere(274) Marquette Railroad. Its vessels are built especially to contend with the lake ice ; they run regularly in winter and are never detained more than a few hours.The most important shipping port for the Lake Superior iron-ore district is Escanaba, also on Lake Michigan, from which 3,003,632 long tons were shipped in 1889, this amount being nearly one-half of the total shipments by vessel of Lake Superior ores during the year. The docks here are operated by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, and represent an aggregate length of 4,898 feet and 828 pockets, which will contain a total of 95,-500 tons.

The steamers of the Lake Michigan & Lake Superior Transportation Company, running through the centre of the lake, afford the inhabitants of this region the novelty of being in mid-sea for twenty-four hours ; a better opportunity to view the industries is found in the northern Michigan steamers, which stop at the important points on the east coast. The passage to Lake Huron is through the Straits of Mackinac, which are formed by the Michigan shore on one hand, and by Bois Blanc and Mackinac Islands and Point St. Ignace on the other.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126273 is available in the following folio sizes

The chief point of interest on Mackinac is the headquarters of the American Fur Company, built in 1809 by John Jacob Astor, and within which the nucleus of the Astor millions was formed. The approach to the island is beautiful and impressive ; it rises abruptly from the clear waters of the Strait, and its jutting crags, perfect harmony, and brilliant colors are a pleasing contrast to the extreme monotony of the more southern coast. Its atmosphere is bright, pure, and invigorating. The view from it is Italian—a deep sapphire in a cloudless sky ; a delicate emerald extending along shore ; and beyond the azure and the lilac resolving into an endless sheet of darkest blue.

Incidental to this trade-route, and entering Lake Huron almost within sight of Mackinac, is the St. Mary's River, the outlet of Lake Superior. The St. Mary's Falls Canal, somewhat aptly termed the keystone of the great arch of water transport on this continent, is over a mile long and absorbs eighteen feet of the fall between the lakes. A lock, 575 feet long and 80 wide, was opened in 1881, but the traffic doubled in the next four years, and has increased so rapidly that greater accommodations are necessary. A new lock, 800 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 21 feet deep on the sills, is now building at an estimated cost of $4,738,865. When finished it will be the largest single lock in the world. One-eighth of the entire commerce of the United States passes through this canal. In 1880, its traffic measured 1,734,800 tons, valued at about $29,000,000 ; in 1890, it had increased to 10,557 vessels, of 8,454,435 tons, carrying 9,041,213 tons of cargo, valued at $102,214,949. The freight for last year exceeded by 2,257,876 tons the entire tonnage of all nations which passed through the Suez Canal in 1889.

1892 Niagara #1892-126275
Welland Canal at Port Colborne

A smaller lock (600 feet long, 85 wide, and 19 deep) is building on the Canadian side of the river ; as the United States has a supremacy of shipping on the upper lakes amounting almost to a monopoly, it is not probable that much traffic will be diverted thereby from New York to Montreal.

During last October, a blockade near the canal was caused by a collision, in which a steamer sank and closed the channel. As nearly a week was required to release the steamer, a fleet of one-hundred and forty vessels, most of them of the largest class, was delayed for that period in the river or on the lake.

It is 270 miles from Mackinac to the St. Glair River, the outlet of Lake Huron. A run of seven hours along the southern shore brings Alpena into view, where nothing is to be seen of the city but immense piles of lumber, flanked by towering black funnels emitting much odorous smoke. The annual product of its mills is 175,000,000 feet of lumber. Another journey oi equal length across Saginaw Bay, and Sand Beach is reached, unless a visit be made to Bay City, which, again, owes its prosperity to lumber, and where wooden shipbuilding has reached such perfection, that the steamers of its yards are marvels of structural strength. Sand Beach has a special interest tc mariners on account of its fine harbor of refuge, formed by a breakwater eight thousand feet long; it is the only port on the lower lakes to which vessels can fly in case of storms. This is the last stopping-place for the steamer on its way to Detroit, in full view of the comparatively flat, and extremely fertile shores. It is interesting to note on this lake, the terraces corresponding to former levels, and extending for miles at heights of 120, 150, and 200 feet. On Georgian Bay, entirely within the region of Canada, are Collingwood and Owen Sound, two points of departure for the upper lakes. From them the steamers of the Canadian Pacific, of the Owen Sound Steamship, and of the Canada Transit Lines, wend their way through the countless islands, north of the Man-itoulin group, to Lake Superior. The attractions of the southern shore are served by the Northern Steamship Company, from Buffalo, and by the Northwestern Transportation Line from Detroit, after stopping at Goderich and Kincardine, where salt-works and railway connections supply valuable freight.

Port Huron, at the foot of the lake, is important as a railway terminus, a marine headquarters, and the site of a shipyard, dry-dock, and machine shops. Across the St. Glair is Sarnia, a popular resort for Southerners. A railway tunnel under the river connects these towns. After a course of thirty-eight miles, the St. Glair spreads out into the lake of the same name. The navigation of the river is easy throughout. The regular steamer stops at St. Clair and Marine City, two small communities of interest as summer - resorts ; the latter has a ship - building establishment, and a vein of rock - salt gives it a place among the producing centres of the State.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126275 is available in the following folio sizes

The mouth of the St. Clair is a wide marsh, penetrated by several deep and tortuous channels. To improve this entrance the Government has constructed a ship canal, 8,200 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 16 feet deep, at a cost of $650,000; and plans underway contemplate a depth of 20 feet. The lake is so shallow that its navigable channel must be followed carefully; its transit occupies less than two hours, during which the steamer seems constantly surrounded by other vessels, the traffic being such that a vessel passes any given point every seven minutes. Upon reaching Belle Isle, the steamer enters Detroit River, which eighteen miles farther on enters Lake Erie, after a descent of eleven feet. Nearly opposite is Grosse Pointe, where, facing the dreamy expanse of the lake, are clustered the summer residences of Detroit's wealthy men.The Detroit River is from one to three miles wide, and its rapid current of dark-green water is unsurpassed by any mountain stream. The channel varies from thirty to fifty feet in depth, and only at the Lime Kiln Crossing, near Amherstburg, is government work necessary in keeping it navigable to twenty feet. Several islands line the banks, some so large' as to pass for part of the mainland. The shores are laid out in sloping meadows, groves, and orchards; and wealthy men are rapidly occupying available spots with handsome villas.

Detroit, though smaller than Cleveland, is more fortunate in being the metropolis of the State, with all parts of which it is connected by rail. Its location is not favorable for the enormous iron industries of its sister city, and the bulk of the lake carriers therefore pass its fine harbor for the smaller quarters across the lake. Its inhabitants have the consolation of knowing, however, that many of these vessels are owned by fellow-citizens. Its system of lighting is by towers from 100 to 200 feet high; and 150 of which produce a beautiful effect, when seen from a steamer's deck. Detroit's water-front is nine miles long; and more tonnage passes it than any other point on the globe. The returns of entries and clearances of the great seaports of the world for 1889 give New York 11,051,236 tons ; all seaports in the United States, 26,983,315 tons ; Liverpool, 14,175,200 tons; and London, 19,245,417 tons. The tonnage passing Detroit River during the 234 days of navigation of that year amounted to 36,203,606 tons ; nearly 10,000,000 tons more than the entries and clearances of all the seaports in the United States ; and nearly 3,000,000 tons more than the combined foreign and coastwise shipping of Liverpool and London.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126276 is available in the following folio sizes

The mouth of the St. Clair is a wide marsh, penetrated by several deep and tortuous channels. To improve this entrance the Government has constructed a ship canal, 8,200 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 16 feet deep, at a cost of $650,000; and plans underway contemplate a depth of 20 feet. The lake is so shallow that its navigable channel must be followed carefully; its transit occupies less than two hours, during which the steamer seems constantly surrounded by other vessels, the traffic being such that a vessel passes any given point every seven minutes. Upon reaching Belle Isle, the steamer enters Detroit River, which eighteen miles farther on enters Lake Erie, after a descent of eleven feet. Nearly opposite is Grosse Pointe, where, facing the dreamy expanse of the lake, are clustered the summer residences of Detroit's wealthy men.

The Detroit River is from one to three miles wide, and its rapid current of dark-green water is unsurpassed by any mountain stream. The channel varies from thirty to fifty feet in depth, and only at the Lime Kiln Crossing, near Amherstburg, is government work necessary in keeping it navigable to twenty feet. Several islands line the banks, some so large' as to pass for part of the mainland. The shores are laid out in sloping meadows, groves, and orchards; and wealthy men are rapidly occupying available spots with handsome villas.

Detroit, though smaller than Cleveland, is more fortunate in being the metropolis of the State, with all parts of which it is connected by rail. Its location is not favorable for the enormous iron industries of its sister city, and the bulk of the lake carriers therefore pass its fine harbor for the smaller quarters across the lake. Its inhabitants have the consolation of knowing, however, that many of these vessels are owned by fellow-citizens. Its system of lighting is by towers from 100 to 200 feet high; and 150 of which produce a beautiful effect, when seen from a steamer's deck. Detroit's water-front is nine miles long; and more tonnage passes it than any other point on the globe. The returns of entries and clearances of the great seaports of the world for 1889 give New York 11,051,236 tons ; all seaports in the United States, 26,983,315 tons ; Liverpool, 14,175,200 tons; and London, 19,245,417 tons. The tonnage passing Detroit River during the 234 days of navigation of that year amounted to 36,203,606 tons ; nearly 10,000,000 tons more than the entries and clearances of all the seaports in the United States ; and nearly 3,000,000 tons more than the combined foreign and coastwise shipping of Liverpool and London.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126277 is available in the following folio sizes

The peculiar features of Lake Erie are its shallowness and generally low shores, which, on the south, are bordered by an elevated plateau, through which unimportant rivers have cut deep channels. Its mean depth is only ninety feet. Owing to its shallowness it is easily disturbed by the wind, and, of all the great lakes, is therefore the most dangerous to navigate. Its length is two hundred and fifty miles, and its greatest breadth sixty. Its islands—all near Sandusky—are adapted to grape and fruit culture; vineyards are to be seen on every hand, and wine is the principal article of commerce. Put-in-Bay, the best known, is the centre of a large excursion territory and amusement enterprises.

Toledo, at the western extremity, is nearly on the same parallel with Buffalo and Chicago ; it is separated from the former by the length of the lake, and is nearly the same distance from Chicago and from the Mackinac Straits. It has a fine harbor, of sufficient depth to accommodate the largest vessels ; it has direct communication with Cincinnati by the Miami & Erie Canal, and is the centre of fourteen railways. A union depot of immense size affords them facilities for ready transfer of freight, and there are a dozen elevators with storage for more than 4,000,000 bushels of grain ; for its chief imports and exports are grain and flour, in which its trade is very large and steadily growing. The manufactures in lumber, flour, iron, and steel are extensive and show a most encouraging growth.

1892 Niagara #1892-126278
GTRR Tunnel under Welland Canal

Fifty miles to the eastward is San-dusky, whose wharves, in all seasons except winter, are thronged with vessels receiving or discharging cargoes. It has several machine shops, and manufactures of railway cars, engines, boilers, and .cutlery; and exports large quantities of flour, fruit, and wine. It is on the line of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, and is the terminus of other lines to Newark, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.

The position of Cleveland as the centre of twelve different lines of railways draws to its wharves a large proportion of the shipping of the lakes. An excellent harbor and extensive dock frontage along the Cuyahoga River, for four miles from its mouth, give this port many advantages over others along the southern shore of Lake Erie as a shipping point by water. Thirteen lines of steamers ply between this city and the other ports of the lake system. Along the shore, inside the breakwater, are immense piles of iron ore that have been brought over this highway. Upon other docks, coal is being bucketed into holds just emptied of iron ore, to be carried to the towns from which the latter was shipped. Cleveland, however, handles only a part of the coal and ore that go to make up the record of lake traffic: Buffalo, Ashtabula, and other harbors get their share. But it is interested particularly in building and owning the fleet that handles the commerce of the lakes, and is in a fair way to become a leader among the shipbuilding cities of the country. Here are the works of the Globe Shipyard, and the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, in which were built most of the new fleet, comprising more than seventy steel and iron vessels. From its yards came the six vessels of the Northern Steamship Company, by which the Great Northern Railway makes freight communications between the head of Lake Superior and Buffalo; those of the Mutual Transportation Line, plying between Ashtabula and Escanaba; and of the Minnesota Iron Company, of Chicago; all of steel, costing $200,000 each. But the largest line of the lakes is that of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad; sixteen vessels make up the flotilla of its Western Transit Line, as it is styled, some of steel and some of iron. Two of the former, the Harlem and the Hudson, cost $250,000 each, and are equal in style, speed, and carrying capacity to any ocean vessel of the same dimensions.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126278 is available in the following folio sizes

The Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company, operating between Cleveland and Mackinac, ranks among the finest passenger lines in the country. Its vessels, of which there are five, are of iron or steel, with latest devices for comfort, safety, and speed. They compare favorably with the famous steamers of Long Island Sound, and were built by the Detroit Dry Dock Company. One of them, the City of Detroit, is 300 feet long, and 72 feet wide, has engines of 2,700 horse-power, is steered by steam, lighted by electricity, carries 2,500 passengers, and 800 tons of freight; its grand saloon is finished in mahogany and stamped leather. Cost $350,000. This vessel and the City of Cleveland run between Cleveland and Detroit, and are very fast. Their average speed exceeds 18 miles an hour, and they have steamed at the rate of nearly 21 miles.

Cleveland is also connected by canal with the Ohio Biver at Portsmouth. It has more than 400 manufacturing establishments, with an aggregate capital exceeding $30,000,000, iron and oil being the largest interests.

The commercial advantages of Buffalo, its rival, are derived from its favorable position with respect to the sources of its grain, coal, ore, lumber, and other receipts, and the ready means for the distribution of these articles ; added to which are the benefits of cheap fuel, an excellent water-supply, rapid elevating and transfer of grain, quick handling of coal, extensive storage and dockage facilities, and a good harbor. Grain is received, transferred, stored, and forwarded with greater dispatch than at any other port in this country. The river, for about a mile from its mouth, is lined with immense elevators and provided with the most improved appliances for handling cereals. The iron and steel interests are second in importance to grain and flour only, and rank next to Pittsburg; they employ a force of 30-000 men, and the capital invested exceeds $35,000,000. By a recent estimate the annual product was valued at $55,000,000. They included eleven engine and ten boiler works, five steam forges, nineteen foundries, forty-eight machine shops, six furnaces, three bridge builders, and two iron works. Within an hour's sail of the Welland Canal, with the lakes stretching to the westward and the Erie Canal to the eastward, together with the New York Central, the New York, Lake Brie & Western, the Buffalo, New York & Philadelphia, the West Shore, and the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroads leading east, and the Lake Shore, the Canada Southern, the Grand Trunk, the Nickel Plate, and (281) the Buffalo & Southwestern Railroads running west (with other lines and branches to a total of twenty), great facilities are furnished for shipping products to all parts of the United States and of Canada. Five large steamer lines ply regularly to ports in Lakes Erie, Huron, Superior, and Michigan. They are the Union, the Western Transit, the Commercial, the Lehigh Valley, and the Anchor lines. Their combined fleets number about sixty steamers, with a capacity ranging from 1,750 to more than 3,000 tons. The Union Steamboat Company owns the Owego and the Chemung, of 4,800 tons displacement and 15J feet draught, the largest vessels on the lakes ; they were built by the Union Dry Dock Company at this port, after the models of the Mallory Line of ocean steamers. Their length is 353 feet, their breadth 41 ft. 2 in., and they are equipped with the most powerful triple-expansion engines on the lakes. Intended for fast freight traffic, they combine cargo capacity with high speed. The Owego has made the run of 889 miles between Buffalo and Chicago in 54 hours and 16 minutes, or at the rate of 16.4 miles an hour. They cost together $560,000. The Saranac, of the Lehigh Valley Line, has averaged 16 miles an hour, for a run of 240 miles.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126279 is available in the following folio sizes

Half of Buffalo's water-front is along the Niagara River, whose falls and rapids are overcome by the Welland Canal. By it vessels are made to traverse readily the Niagara escarpment, which is 326 feet above Lake Ontario, and stands out the chief abrupt elevation between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains. This canal is the most important part of the Canadian line of inland navigation. It runs in a general northerly direction, distant from the Niagara River eighteen miles at Port Colborne, on Lake Brie, and ten and one-half miles at Port Dalhousie, the Lake Ontario terminus; its length between the entrances is nearly twenty-seven miles. The Old and the New Welland Canals form two distinct routes between Port Dalhousie and Allanburg; but from Allanburg to Port Colborne there is but one channel, an enlargement of the old one. There is one entrance from Lake Ontario at Port Dalhousie; two from Lake Erie— one for the main line at Port Colborne, and one for the feeder route at Port Maitland; and there is also an entrance from the Niagara River at the town of Chippewa.

The lake ports present novel and picturesque features. Unlike the rule of cities by the sea, their harbors are often open roadsteads; islands and landlocked bays are the exception and not the rule; and, instead, breakwaters or costly piers protect ships and cargoes from the waves and tempests. Their situation is generally at the mouth of rivers, whose channels, sometimes navigable to the heart of the city, become the harbor proper; it is thus that the river, instead of the lake front, is frequently the scene of mills, docks, shipyards, immense elevators, warehouses, and railway depots. The water is covered with graceful yachts, puffing tugs, great four-masters and steel propellers, a confusion intensified at nightfall by the many-colored lights and the whistling din of departing steamers. Chicago is divided by its river into three sections, thus securing a water front greater than Liverpool's; its waterworks, among the wonders of the world, comprise a tower, from the base of which a tunnel extends two miles under the lake, the water entering through a grated cylinder, enclosed in an immense crib on which are a lighthouse and dwelling. Milwaukee, similarly divided, is built partly upon high bluffs; its atmosphere seems bracing and healthful, an impression confirmed by a delightful drive along the cliffs overlooking the lake. Detroit is on lower ground, but offers the cupolas of great wheat elevators for a fine view of St. Glair and Erie; its opera-house is one of the finest in the country; and its avenues, radiating from the Grrand Circus, intersect the other streets as do those of Washington, and form small parks that diversify and ornament the place. Cleveland is so embowered in trees that little save the spires of churches can be seen through the green; a great stone viaduct spans the river valley between the two divisions of the city; and Euclid Avenue, the street of millionaires, is lined with costly residences in beautiful grounds. Buffalo, on a plain sloping gently to the water, seeks recreation in superb parks, connected by boulevards ; and from the suburban homes on the uplands are magnificent views of the city, of the lake, of the International Bridge and Canadian shores, and of that river whose thundering torrent, perhaps more than any single work of nature, symbolizes its power and grandeur, and offers a perpetual incense that reflects the token of the everlasting covenant.

The Old Welland Canal passes to the westward of St. Catharines and Merritton, and to the eastward of Thorold, the total rise (326f feet) being overcome by 27 locks. Its route lies also to the westward of the New Canal, and at distances from it varying from 1 to li mile at St. Catharines and Merritton, to only a few hundred feet near Thorold ; the junction, as already stated, occurring at Allanburg. The entrance lock at Port Dalhousie has the standard dimensions for the new canal — length, 270 feet; breadth, 45 feet; and 14 feet depth on the sills; that to this route at Allanburg is 200 feet long, and a tidal lock above Thorold has a length of 230 feet, both being 45 feet wide ; but the remaining 24 locks are only 150 feet long and 26i feet wide, having with the former a depth of 9 feet. The depth in the upper reaches of this route is such that vessels drawing 12 feet can ascend to the shipyard at St. Catharines. Within the entrance lock is a wide basin, forming a safe inner harbor that would accommodate a large fleet of vessels drawing 15 feet.

The New Welland Canal lies to the eastward of St. Catharines. In a distance of twelve miles from Dalhousie to the summit-level, near Allanburg, there are twenty-five lift locks and regulating weirs; piers and abutments for twelve road and two railway bridges; six culverts to carry water-courses under the canal, and one for a public road ; and a tunnel for the Great Western Railway. The level is also above the surrounding country, as a rule.

The southern division, from the junction at Allanburg to Lake Erie, is nearly fifteen miles long; it is crossed by six road and three railway bridges; there is a guard lock at Port Robinson, an aqueduct of large dimensions through the Chippewa River, a lock down to the Chippewa at Welland, and at Port Colborne a lock with four sets of gates, two heading each way. The part between the junction and a point two miles south of it is known as the Deep Cut.

At its intersection with all roads the canal is crossed by good swing-bridges, central-pivoted, and made of iron and wood ; the central pier on which the bridge rests reduces the passage on each side to fifty feet in width. Up to 1889, the amount expended on this work was $23,787,950.

St. Catharines is the principal point on the canal and is regarded as the head of navigation on Lake Ontario. The surrounding country is very fertile, and was covered originally with maple and other hard woods; it is now a region of pretty farms, owned by people of Scotch and English descent. The advantages of water-power are seen in the manufactories springing up, at this place, Thorold, and Merritton particularly, as well as in the rapid growth of the towns; these advantages are especially great between Thorold and St. Catharines, owing to the fall of three hundred feet in the elevation of the two places.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126280 is available in the following folio sizes

The whaleback steamers of the American Steel Barge Company are the largest vessels that have passed through the Welland Canal; they are 265 feet long, 38 feet beam, and have an average draught of 15 feet, when loaded; they ran the rapids of the St. Lawrence.

Lake Ontario, the smallest of the great lakes, is 190 miles long and more than 50 miles wide; its mean depth exceeds 400 feet, and its elevation above the sea is 234 feet. It never freezes, except near the shore. Oswego and Rochester are its principal ports on the south. The former has been in direct communication with the Hudson since 1822, by means of a small canal as far as Syracuse, and thence by the Erie Canal to Troy and Albany. Four railways converge here, and steamers ply daily to the eastern and western ports. Large quantities of grain and lumber are received, and twenty or more mills make it one of the largest flour manufacturing cities in the Union. There are also several foundries, machine shops, and shipyards.

Rochester, though seven miles from the lake, receives a large quota of shipping through Charlotte, its port; and has two important channels of trade in the Erie and the Genesee Valley Canals, the latter here uniting with the former, its elevation above the lake is 226 feet, and its situation on the Genesee River secures the immense water-power due to its falls, and thus makes it naturally a manufacturing city. Though ranking as one of the greatest flour-producers in the world, its manufactures in clothing, iron, glass, and rubber are extensive. It is connected by rail with every city of importance in this country and Canada.

1892 Niagara #1892-126283
Map of Welland Canal

On the Canadian side, Toronto is the largest city of this and of all the great lakes. Entered by six railways, possessing a good harbor, situated in the centre of a rich agricultural district, and being at once the religious, educational, political, literary, legal, and commercial centre of the most populous province of Canada, it has advanced with great rapidity. Its population is about 160,000. To the English people of Canada, Toronto is what Quebec is to the French inhabitants. Quebec is French; Montreal, as the meeting-point of all, is cosmopolitan; and Toronto is English. It has several foundries and engine works, car-shops, rolling-mills, breweries, a mammoth distillery, and many other varieties of manufacture.

The Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company runs a daily line of steamers between this city, Montreal, Quebec, the Saguenay, and intermediate ports; it owns twenty-five vessels, the largest being nearly 300 feet long and having a stated speed of twenty miles an hour. It has virtually a monopoly of the steam traffic over its itinerary.

Hamilton, at the extreme west end of the lake, is the second city of Ontario in population, and the first in manufacturing industry. Its railways furnish communication with the principal points of the Dominion and of the United States. It is often styled the Birmingham of Canada, and, though the comparison is presumptuous, it is not altogether unwarranted. Its factories are equipped with modern plant and the latest labor-saving devices, and maintain a daily output of metal, wood, and leather products, textile fabrics, glassware, engines, and boilers. The capital invested in industrial operations is about one-thirtieth of the entire capital invested in manufacturing industries throughout the Dominion, and the proportion of goods is in nearly the same ratio.

Cobourg, though small, boasts of a university, and ships annually to the United States 30,000,000 feet of lumber, 30,000 tons of iron ore, and 150,000 bushels of grain. Daily steamers run to Charlotte; and after leaving here, eastward - bound vessels pass well out into the lake, to avoid the great peninsular county of Prince Edward.

Kingston, at the foot of the lake, has 16,000 inhabitants, is the seat of the Royal Military Academy of Canada, and ranks as a fortress next to Quebec and Halifax. Its bay is broad, deep, and well sheltered, and in war it would become an extensive naval depot. Being the port of trans-shipment for Montreal of three-fourths of the grain arriving from the upper lakes, it is a city of some commercial importance; the grain is sent down the St. Lawrence in barges, the cost of such transfer being about one-half cent per bushel. Kingston is also the south terminus of the Rideau Canal, which connects it with Ottawa. There are manufactories of iron castings, machinery, locomotives, marine engines, and leather; boat-building is carried on to a great extent, and vessels for lake and river navigation are built and fitted out.

From Lake Ontario to Montreal the distance is 183 miles. Just below Kingston, the lake contracts into the funnel-shaped head of the St. Lawrence River, enclosing the Thousand Islands. In reality they number 1,692 and extend forty miles, with a width in some places of seven miles. The descent of the river through them is made in well-defined channels, which, with their extensions, (285) are so deep that vessels of the greatest draught can pass readily between the lake and Ogdensburg. As early as 1673, the waters of this archipelago were traversed by a flotilla of two-gun barges and one hundred and twenty canoes, led by Frontenac, Governor of Canada, attended by the celebrated Abbe de Fen-elon. Steamers ply between Cape Vincent, Clayton, and Alexandria Bay, on the arrival of trains at the two former places. Overlooking the islands, on the Canadian side, is Brockville, of 6,000 inhabitants, a railway junction, and below which the Thousand Islands are left, and the open river, two miles wide, is entered. Thirteen miles farther lies Prescott, a stone-built town, whose chief business is done by a great distillery and brewery, and two iron foundries. The bastions of Fort Wellington are seen on the east. The Grand Trunk Railway is nearly one mile from the town, and the St. Lawrence & Ottawa Railway begins at the river side. The river is a mile wide here, and opposite stands Ogdensburg, with two miles of •wharves and extensive flour and lumber mills. It is the terminus of three railways; and its situation at the foot of sloop navigation on the lakes gives it peculiar commercial advantages. Ten million bushels of Western grain pass this point annually; last year 16,000 tons were transshipped here for Montreal—a new departure, for up to 1890 such transfer was made only at Kingston.

1892 Niagara Welland Canal #1892-126283 is available in the following folio sizes

About seven miles below Prescott begins the chain of the St. Lawrence canals proper, constructed to overcome the rapids which they flank and a total rise of 206i~ feet, with locks enabling lake vessels to descend and exchange cargoes with the sea - going ships at Montreal. They are, in order of descent, the Galop, Eapide Plat, Farran's Point, Cornwall, Beauharnois, and Lachine Canals, of the dimensions given in the table on p. 293. Their combined length is 43J miles, the distance between Prescott and Montreal being 119 miles. The first three are also styled the Williamsburg Canals. The Galop formerly comprised two distinct channels, known as the Iroquois and the Galop Canals; they were joined and now form one line.

Originally, this system of canals was designed for a depth of 9 feet, but the fluctuations in the stage of the river render it difficult to maintain; at times it falls to 6 feet 7 inches. On account of the increased size of vessels, the Canadian Government decided in 1871 to make a navigable depth of 12 feet through all the canals and river - shallows, which soon after was changed to 14 feet. Since then work has been carried on with this object in view, but it has not been completed. Two new locks of the Cornwall Canal are of the standard dimensions (Welland size); and the Lachine Canal has been completed for 12 feet navigation, with locks and bridges adapted for 14 feet navigation, the untouched work in it consisting of the excavation of the canal prism to a further depth of two feet for more than six miles of its length.

The river channel has been cleared of obstacles to 14 feet navigation from the head of Galop Rapids to the Cornwall Canal; from the foot of the latter to the Beauharnois Canal it is navigable by the largest vessels; and a depth of 14 feet again exists through Lake St. Louis, excepting the lower four miles, in which the channel must be deepened and widened at a number of places.

The Cornwall Canal overcomes the Long Sault Rapids; at St. Regis, near the foot, the forty-fifth parallel intersects the St. Lawrence, which now becomes exclusively Canadian. It is also interesting to observe the small width of the river near this point, and that the narrowest width between the United States and Canadian territory is about 600 feet, measured between the northwest side of Croil's Island and the Canal bank. The St. Lawrence now expands into Lake St. Francis, 25 miles long and 5 miles in maximum breadth, and dotted with islets at its lower end.

The Beauharnois Canal lies on the south side of the river and overcomes the Cascades, Cedar, and Coteau Rapids. Surveys for a new route have been made on the northern bank. It connects Lakes St. Francis and St. Louis, the latter in turn being connected with Montreal Harbor by the Lachine Canal.

The latter consists of one channel with two distinct systems of locks, the old and the enlarged, both of which are (286) in use. On its banks are the Canal and Grand Trunk offices and sheds, occupying a point of land on which the celebrated Victoria Bridge finds its terminus. Opposite the upper entrance is the Indian village of Caughnawaga, the terminus of the Montreal & New York Railway, with which the Grand Trunk connects by ferry; a railroad from Montreal to Lachine borders the northern bank of the canal. Sea-going vessels can now pass into the basins between the lower locks with coal, sugar, and plaster for the factories in this part of the city and for the Grand Trunk works. They can also reload at the same points, where there is ample dock room.

After leaving Lake St. Louis, the St. Lawrence dashes wildly down the La-chine Rapids, a descent of forty-two feet in two miles; and eight miles farther on, after passing beneath the twenty-five spans of the Victoria Bridge, one and three-quarter miles long, reaches the quays of Montreal.

The purposes had in view by the Canadian Government in determining upon a depth of fourteen feet, were to enable the largest class of lake vessels at that time to carry their cargoes direct to Montreal without breaking bulk; to secure for Canada all the advantages which the possession of this magnificent waterway ought to give it; to make the St. Lawrence in its whole length the highway by which the surplus products of the West would seek an outlet to the sea; and to put it into a position to compete successfully for the export trade of the continent with the several lines of communication on our side of the boundary.

The total expenditure on the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals is about $41,250,000; it wiU require $12,750,-000 more to complete the work, or $54,000,000 in all. The construction of the lock at Sault Ste. Marie and other necessary improvements will swell this sum to $60,000,000, the final result being a navigable depth of fourteen feet between Lake Superior and Montreal.

Many careful students of the question have doubted whether the large expenditure already incurred on the Welland Canal will ever be justified by the result. It is, of course, the connecting link between the great lakes and the principal seaports of the Dominion ; and the government of the latter has been animated doubtless by the belief that the great commerce now passing from Duluth, Chicago, and other United States ports on the lakes to New York, and thence to Europe, would take the Welland Canal route, thereby making Montreal the chief port on this continent. This impression was supported by the consideration that Montreal is nearly three hundred miles nearer than New York to Liverpool.

A review of the traffic shows that, in 1859, thirty-six of the largest lake propellers averaged about 700 tons register, with a maximum draught of 111 feet. In 1890, the lake fleet consisted, according to Lloyd's Inland Register, of 2,055 vessels, aggregating 826,360 net register tons, the total value being $58,125,500. The Census Bureau regards these figures as excessive, though valuable in showing the development of lake commerce through comparison with Lloyd's previous estimates ; its own statistics assign, instead, to the lakes a shipping of 2,784 vessels, of 924,472 register tons, the valuation by experts being $48,809,750. [See table, p. 293.] Of these vessels, 232 are steamers of over 1,000 register tons ; 110 are over 1,500 tons ; and many are from 1,600 to more than 2,100 tons, with a carrying capacity of 3,000 to 3,700 cargo tons. The draught of these vessels is limited by the depths of the channels and harbors, but many of them could load safely to 19 and 20 feet. The average depth at present in the larger ports is 16 feet, but the policy of our government is to increase it to 20 feet.

The history of marine architecture does not furnish another instance of so rapid and complete a revolution in the material and structure of floating equipment as has taken place on the great lakes since 1886. In that year the total valuation of the vessels by Lloyd was about $30,600,000. In 1889, sixty new steamers and eleven sailing vessels, aggregating 70,000 tons, and valued at $6,650,000, were added to the fleet. During the four winters of 1886-1890, the tonnage of the lakes was nearly doubled; 206 vessels, measuring 399,-975 tons, were turned out of the shipyards with a valuation of $27,389,000. During the same time, the number of steamers of more than 1,500 net register tons increased from 21 to 110. The two valuations of the fleet already presented differ by more than $9,000,000; but either one emphasizes the fact of the very recent and extraordinary growth of this commerce, and renders it difficult to predict the increase in the tonnage and in the size of vessels upon the lakes during the nine years that remain till the opening of the next century.

More than one - half of the vessels on the great lakes are assigned to Chicago, Port Huron, Detroit, Milwaukee, Grand Haven, Cleveland, and Buffalo.

The number of Canadian vessels on the lakes is 647; tonnage, 132,971; valuation, $3,989,130. For further comparison, it may be stated that the total of coast and inland shipping registered in Canada is 7,153 vessels, of 1,040,481 register tons, valued at $31,213,430.

The increase in population of the lake ports indicates the great increase that must follow, necessarily, in the business of the lakes and also of the railways tributary to them. Buffalo has increased from about 42,000 in 1850 to 255,000 in 1890; Cleveland, from 17,000 in 1860 to 262,000 in 1890; Chicago, from 30,000 in 1850 to 1,100,000 in 1890 ; while Detroit and Milwaukee exhibit a remarkable parallelism in growth, the former having increased from 116,340 to 205,876 during the last ten years, and the latter from 115,587 to 204,468.

The simplicity of lake commerce is one of its chief characteristics. Coal, iron ore, and lumber comprise three-fourths of the total cargo tonnage of the lakes ; add to these corn, wheat, and mill products, and nine - tenths of the total traffic will be accounted for.

The total dock space for ore on the lower lakes is over 10,000,000 square feet; if extended in one line, the ore docks would show a frontage of eight and three-fifth miles, with an average width of 180 feet. The total storage capacity of Lake Erie ports is 6,485,000 tons, sufficient to accommodate the total product for this year ; for it seems now, from the diversion of the lake fleet to the grain trade, that the entire output of the Lake Superior region for 1891, including rail shipments which will not be more than 400,000 tons, cannot exceed 6,750,000 tons, as against a little more than 9,000,000 tons in 1890.

Ashtabula leads in dock space and daily handling capacity of coal and iron ore, though Cleveland is so close behind that the race is very even.

The sailing vessel has almost disappeared from the lakes. The square-rigged ship is no longer seen, and only a few of the great cargo - carrying schooners are left. The sailing fleet was succeeded by the propeller, as it is known locally, with its tow of one or more consorts ; and it in turn is giving way to the modern steamer, maintained at little more than one-half the cost, while having a carrying capacity quite as great, a speed double that of the propeller and consort, and making two or three round trips for one of the tow.

The rapid growth, too, of steam transportation, and the competition of lake lines with the railways, have caused continual reductions in the cost of transportation. The cost per ton per mile of carrying freight an average distance of eight hundred miles, was one and one-half mill in 1889. The value of all the cargoes —27,500,000 tons — carried on the lakes during that year was over $305,000,000. Had this been carried at railway rates, Mr. E. L. Corthell, of the Society of Engineers, estimates that the cost to the public would have been over $143,000,000 ; by the lake rates it was about $23,000,000 only ; so that transportation on the lakes saved to the public about $120,000,000 in one year. A large part of the heavy freight has been carried for less than one and one - half mill per ton per mile. Anthracite coal is carried from Buffalo to Duluth, 1,000 miles, for 30 cents per ton. The water-rates from Chicago to Buffalo, on wheat, were two and one-half cents per bushel in 1890.

The average distance for which freight on the lakes is carried is 566 miles. From this, the Census Bureau estimates the ton mileage for the season of 1889 to be 15,518,360,000 ton miles. The aggregate ton mileage of railways for the year ending June 30, 1889, was 68,727,223,146 ; which shows that the ton mileage of the lakes is nearly one-fourth of the total ton mileage of railways in the United States. In no other way could the relative importance of lake commerce be more effectively shown.

The ship - builders of the lakes are progressive, and keep pace with all improvements in marine architecture. Steel vessels are built with double , bottoms, water - tight compartments, triple-expansion engines, and modern electrical and steam appliances. The structural strength may be realized from the fact that a large proportion are built for the trade in iron ore. At a time trial in Escanaba, during the summer of 1887, a steamer was loaded with over 2,000 tons of ore, and steamed away from the dock in forty-five minutes after being placed under the chutes. The record shows that another vessel was loaded with 2,800 tons of coal in one hour and fifty minutes ; 300 tons for fuel were put on board in another hour, so that in two hours and fifty minutes after opening the hatches, the vessel was loaded and coaled. That ordinary sea-going ships will not stand the strains of this traffic is demonstrated by the fact that four steel steamers, built on the Clyde for Canadian owners, had to be repaired and strengthened throughout, after one season's work, to fit them for further service. These vessels steamed across the Atlantic, were cut into halves on the lower St. Lawrence, the sections being then towed through the canals and put together on the lakes. Two more were built on the Clyde, with the benefits of this experience and of the builders' visits to our Northwestern ship-yards.

The record of large cargoes is equally creditable. The Maryland, belonging to the Inter-Ocean Transportation Company, of Milwaukee, has carried 3,737 net tons of ore from Escanaba to South Chicago, on a draught of 16J feet; the E. C. Pope owned by Eddy Brothers, of Bay City, transported 3,628 net tons from Escanaba to Buffalo, on 16 feet draught, and 3,167 tons from Ashland to Lake Erie, drawing 14 feet.

The firm of Pickancls, Mather & Co., of Cleveland, has contracted with the American Steel Barge Company for a steam barge and consort, to be constructed after the whaleback model. They will be the largest yet built, the dimensions of the steamer being 325 feet length, 42 feet beam, and 24 feet depth; those of the tow are four feet less in length and beam, but the same in depth. They will carry 3,000 tons each on 14i feet draught.

While the lake business has thus increased rapidly, the waterways east of Lake Erie have hardly maintained their former traffic ; this is true of the Wei-land and St. Lawrence Canals. The decline is due partly to the numerous competitors by lake and rail for the transportation of products to the east, but principally to the inadequacy of these canals for the shipping that, otherwise, might come to them. For example, in. 1889 there were 330 United States vessels, of 444,192 tons, in the lakes above Niagara Falls, which drew too much water, when laden, to go through the Welland Canal, of 14 feet depth." This is about one-half of the entire lake tonnage.

The wharves for the unloading of ships at Montreal are ten feet below the level of a revetement wall, which extends along the entire river-front of the city ; so that one standing upon the wall may see the shipping of the port spread out before him. Near the Lachine Canal are the basins for the Allan steamers to Glasgow and Liverpool; then follow steamers from the Maritime Provinces and European ports, then sailing ships and the sheds of the London Line and of the Dominion Line from Liverpool; next are the river boats plying between Quebec and Montreal; then succeed the smaller river steamers, barges, and finally sailing vessels and steamers as far as Hochelaga. Here, nearly 1,000 miles inland from the Atlantic, are vessels from all parts of the world; from England, with iron, drygoods, and general goods ; from the Mediterranean, with wines and groceries; from Germany, with glass and general goods: from China with tea — alongside of vessels loading with return cargoes of grain, cattle, lumber, mineral phosphates, and other products of Canada. The wharves are not disfigured by unsightly warehouses, but the river-street is as clear as a Parisian quay.

Leaving Montreal, the steamer glides swiftly down the St. Mary Current, leaving on the right St. Helen's Island, a prettily wooded spot, named after Helen Boulle, the young wife of Cham-plain, who charmed the wild Hurons in 1620 with her gentle manners. Still further to the right opens out Longueil Bay, exhibiting in the tinned steeple and steep roof of its village church the characteristic picture of the lower St. Lawrence in parish after parish. The river flows through a wide alluvial plain, the Laurentian Mountains far on the north, and on the south the Green Mountains ; everywhere long stretches of arable land, broken only where the Lombardy poplar rears its formal shape against the sky.

Below Longueil the Ottawa joins its flood finally with the St. Lawrence, hiding its union in a cluster of low islands. Opposite Berthier, on the right bank, the Richelieu falls into the St. Lawrence, after draining Lakes Champlain and George. On its eastern bank stands Sorel, where most of the steamers on the river have been built. The Richelieu is rendered navigable to Lake Champlain by a small lock twelve miles above Sorel, and by the Chambly Canal, thirty two miles farther up-stream; these give a navigable depth of seven feet, and accommodate vessels 114 feet long and 23 feet wide.

The St. Lawrence now opens out to a width of nine miles ; and for twenty-five miles the steamer passes through Lake St. Peter, a vast expanse of flats through which a ship channel has been dredged. At several places between Montreal and Quebec, there were formerly shoal places, preventing large vessels from reaching the former city. Their aggregate length was nearly forty miles, divided between twenty different places, the widest being in Lake St. Peter. The work of dredging the channel here began in 1844, and continued with the increase in trade and size of ocean steamers, till, at the end of 1885, a depth of 27£ feet was reached, the total cost being $3,503,870. This channel varies from 300 to 450 feet in width. As a consequence of these river improvements, the size of vessel able to ascend to Montreal has increased from the Canadian of 1,045 tons and 12 feet draught, in 1856, to the Pomeranian of 3,211 tons and 23 feet draught in 1878; and now that the works are completed, ships of 4,000 tons or even more can navigate the St. Lawrence with safety. Another result is that the shipping of Montreal increased from 245,000 tons in 1873 to 1,149,534 tons in 1891.East of the lake lies Three Rivers, the third city of importance on the lower St. Lawrence. Here the river first meets the tide ; the St. Maurice falls in from the north, after a course of three hundred miles through an important lumber region. Further east, and running parallel to it, is the St. Anne, twenty miles below which, in the St. Lawrence, occur the Richelieu Rapids, where large ships usually wait for high tide before passing, as the rocks are dangerous. The scenery now begins to lose its flatness, and in the distance the mountains around Quebec can be seen, blue and dim. On the right, near the city, is the mouth of the Chaudiere River ; and gliding on, past ships, rafts, and booms, the steamer sweeps under Cape Diamond, into the basin of Quebec, shadowed by precipitous cliffs from •which the Queen of the St. Lawrence looks down in all her quaint beauty upon a scene rarely equalled in the new world.

The lower town of Quebec is built on reclaimed land, around the base of the Cape, one of its sides being washed by the St. Charles, which here flows into the St. Lawrence. At the mouth of the St. Charles, is the Princess Louise Embankment, enclosing a tidal basin of twenty acres, which is 24 feet deep at low water; connected with it is a wet dock, of 27 feet depth, and forty acres area. On the opposite side, at Point Levis, is the Lome Dry Dock, 500 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 25J feet deep on the sills. The commerce of this city began with the fur trade, and this remains an important element. Enormous transactions in lumber go on here annually. The whole lower valley of the St. Lawrence and the northern lumber regions draw their merchandise from this centre.

On leaving Quebec, far off to the left is the Montmorenci, whose white foam shines out from the green hillside. As the steamer moves across the basin, beautiful views are afforded on all sides, including a fine retrospect of the citadel, towering over the river. The fine island of Orleans is soon reached on the left, with its village of St. Laurent, where the expedition under Wolfe landed in 1759. An intervening island hides St. Anne, a pretty village to which pilgrimages are made, and where the patron saint has worked as many miracles as any in Europe. Thirty miles below Quebec is Grosse Isle, the quarantine station, and about which linger the memories of 1847, when the famine-stricken Irish poured into Canada, and six thousand are said to have been buried here in one long grave. Opposite rises Cape Tourmente, 1,800 feet high, the north shore now being wild and mountainous, and rising so boldly from the river as to permit no roadway along its base, and so rocky and desolate as to prevent habitation for many miles ; while the south side for more than one hundred miles is a continuous settlement. Yet far off in the latter direction, the mountains are beginning to approach nearer, and while watching the ever-changing views, the Traverse is reached, where the river is thirteen miles wide, but the only channel available for large ships is not more than 1,400 yards across. The Isle-aux-Coudres and two large shoals obstruct its navigation, the bottom is irregular, and currents run in all directions.

The traveller's interest is now apt to pass from the water and the mountain-heights to the seigniory of Les Eboulements, remarkable as an earthquake centre. Jesuit tradition relates that in 1663 the mountains were thrown down and the face of the country was changed as far as the Saguenay. Ice was thrown up in great heaps, the river ran of a changed color, a mountain was cast into the sea and became an island, the piety of the inhabitants grew more earnest, and there were never so many confessions or conversions ; even liquor dealers saw the error of their ways and repented.

A short run brings the steamer to a wharf where passengers land for Riviere du Loup and for Cacouna, the paradise of fair Quebecers and famous for dancing and flirting. Nearly opposite enters the Saguenay, cleft through the mountains and nearly nine hundred feet deep for many miles. In the little harbor at its entrance died Chauvin, the enterprising Huguenot, who induced Champlain to visit Canada. Perched high above it on the cliffs, is a quaint little chapel, evincing the zeal of its founders, in a wilderness of cliffs where roads are impossible.

Bic Island is the next point of interest; it is the last anchorage in the river, where outward bound vessels leave their pilots and many ships are found during the summer. Here in December, 1861, a Cunard steamer landed a regiment of the Guards during the crisis of the Trent affair. Finally, Rimouski is reached; the Intercolonial Railway to Halifax passes through it, and ocean steamers receive passengers and mails for the last time. The town is two miles from the wharf, and is the most important settlement in the province east of Quebec.

The south bank now rapidly becomes bold and grand; the mountains have receded from the north shore, so that all the scenery is on this side. At Point des Monts, the Gulf of St. Lawrence is entered; the left shore trends rapidly to the north; little fishing stations only are seen at the base of the steep hills. Anticosti becomes quickly visible in the distance, with a flora indicating a subarctic climate; while opposite, near the western shore, are the Seven Islands, green with turf and flowers, and forming a beautiful landlocked bay where the largest fleets could ride in safety. Whittier has made them the scene of a touching ballad, in which he aptly styles them "the last outpost of summer upon the dreary coast." All along to Belle Isle are deep fiords, broad bays crowded with rocky islets, salmon streams without number, and myriad inlets, the haunts of innumerable aquatic birds ; from these forbidding shores, whose cold waters teem with fish in inconceivable numbers, greater wealth has been carried than from the mines of Potosi. Nor has time deprived them of a place in romance; as the steamer bids adieu to St. Lawrence waters, the eye has a final glimpse of the pretty island of Meccatina, where Koberval, the stern Huguenot, abandoned his niece, Lady Margaret, and her duenna, when her love became evident. Her lover jumped overboard and swam to the island to share her fate. The duenna died, and the lover died; and after two years of solitary struggle, the lady was rescued by a passing vessel and carried to her home across the ocean.

Click Here to return to the table of contents on the previous page for other Old Time Gallery Prints Listings headings