The mail service in these days between Montreal and Kingston was in keeping with the times. It was undertaken by a walking contractor, who with the mail on his back took up his line of march from Montreal, gauging his speed to accomplish the walk to Kingston and return in fourteen days.[43]
A good many years later it was a four days’ journey from Montreal to New York by the most expeditious route then existing. Thus it was advertised in the Montreal Gazette, November 25th, 1827:
DAILY STAGES. Albany and Montreal Line. Season of 1826 and 1827. The only full and perfect line running between Montreal and Albany leaves B. Thatcher’s office, No. 87 St. Paul Street, Montreal, every day, passing through Laprairie, Burlington, Middlebury, Poultney and Salem to Albany, through an old-settled, rich and populous country, and mostly on a smooth gravelly turnpike. Through in three days, and fare very reasonable. Extras and expresses at a moment’s notice. Young, Swain, Esinhart and others, proprietors.
The voyage of the Durham boat was a very tedious one, depending as it did largely on a favouring easterly breeze in traversing the lakes and quieter portions of the river, and on the dexterity of the boatmen who wielded the “setting-poles”[44] in swifter water, as well as their luck in surmounting the rapids, where they were liable to be detained for hours, sometimes for days, contending against the swift currents, subject to the mishaps of grounding or being damaged by big boulders, or, worse still, of being caught by an eddy or an out-current and swept down the rapids, sometimes with the loss of the oxen or horses which had them in tow, and in some instances with the loss of the boat and cargo. Woe to the teamster who was not provided with a knife to cut the rope in such an emergency!
The first Lachine Canal proper, for barges, was commenced July 17th, 1821, and was completed in 1825, at a cost of $438,404. Of this amount $50,000 was contributed by the Imperial Government on condition that all military stores should be free from toll. It had 7 locks, each 100 feet long, 20 feet wide, and with 4½ feet depth of water on the sills. In 1843-49 it became a “ship canal” with 5 locks, each 200 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 9 feet depth of water, costing $2,149,128. The recent enlargement, commenced in 1875, cost $6,500,000. By this the locks were increased to 270 feet in length and 14 feet depth of water throughout the canal.
The Welland Canal.
The necessity of devising means to overcome the stupendous obstacle to navigation caused by the Falls of Niagara had long been apparent, but it was not until 1824 that work was commenced on the Welland Canal which was to connect Lake Ontario with Lake Erie and the west. This important work was completed in 1829, chiefly through the energy and perseverance of the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, son of a U. E. Loyalist family, born in New York State in 1793. A man of great enterprise; he had this project on the brain for years, but like Cunard and his steamships, had difficulty in “raising the wind”—the people and the Government of Upper Canada being at that time both alike poor. He crossed the Atlantic, and, on the ground of military expediency, was said to have secured a subscription of £1,000 from the Duke of Wellington, which greatly aided him in the formation of a joint stock company who carried the work to its successful completion. The original locks were constructed of wood, 120 feet in length, 20 feet wide, with 7½ feet of water on the sills. The entire length of the canal was twenty-six miles. This accommodated vessels carrying 5,000 bushels of wheat. Half a million of pounds were spent upon it up to the year 1841, when it was assumed by the United Canadas[45] and immediate steps taken for its enlargement. With locks 145 x 26 x 9, vessels loaded with 20,000 to 23,000 bushels could pass from lake to lake. A second enlargement (1873-83) increased the depth of water to twelve feet; and a third, in 1887, gave the canal a uniform depth of fourteen feet, admitting the passage of vessels with a carrying capacity of 75,000 to 80,000 bushels. When this depth shall prevail throughout the entire system of the St. Lawrence canals, vessels of 1,600 to 1,800 tons register will be able to bring full cargoes from the Upper Lakes to Montreal, and to cross the ocean if their owners see fit.[46] In the meantime the Montreal Board of Trade are memorializing the Government to have the Welland enlarged so that the largest vessels navigating the lakes may be able to tranship their cargoes at Kingston or Prescott as they now do at Buffalo; in other words, to locate the ship canal projected by the Deep Waterways Commission on Canadian territory instead of on the American side of the Niagara River.
The Rideau Canal, connecting Kingston with Ottawa, was undertaken as a military work by the Imperial Government at the instigation and under the personal superintendence of Colonel John By, of the Royal Engineers, from whom the obsolete Bytown derived its name. A stupendous undertaking it was considered at the time—126¾ miles long, with forty-seven locks, 134 feet by 32 feet each. It was begun in September, 1826, and on the 29th of May, 1832, the works being completed, the steamer Pumper passed through from Bytown to Kingston. The limit of this canal is a draught of five feet. Its cost is said to have been about one million pounds sterling. It was transferred by the Imperial authorities to the Provincial Executive in 1856.
