It may be that of mines the best,
Will be found in Ontario West,
Stretching towards the interior,
Three hundred miles west of Superior.
Essex is our sunny south,
At the Detroit river's mouth,
There the sun doth cheerful smile
On the grape vineyards of Pelee Isle.
Pioneer's axe it now doth ring,
On the shores of Nipissing,
And some do locate claims away
To distant north around James' Bay.
CANADIAN RIVERS AND LAKES.
We have here a sight as fair
As bonnie Doon or banks of Ayr,
Like modest worth meandering slow
The quiet waters gently flow,
Rose, thistle, shamrock, all combine,
Around the maple leaf to twine,
Whose outstretched arms so gigantic
Clasp Pacific and Atlantic,
Embracing lakes like burnished gold,
With joy a Shakespeare might behold,
For either Poet Burns or Moore[B]
Such scenery they would adore.
[B] Tom Moore paddled his own canoe along the Canadian shore of Lake Erie and was enraptured with the view. He landed and remained over night at a farm house. His Canadian Boat Song is immortal.
NIAGARA DRY.
It happened once in early spring,
While there did float great thick ice cakes,
That then a gale did quickly bring
Them all down from the upper lakes.
And from Buffalo to Lake Erie,
Across the entrance to river,
It was a scene of icebergs dreary,
Those who saw will remember ever.