Aim.—To show general connection between history and geography.
Material Required.—A black-board sketch of that part of Canada adjacent to the St. Lawrence and a set of pictures (or picture post-cards) showing the important historical sites along the banks of the river.
Introduction.—The teacher asks a few questions to make clear the purpose of the map and to fix the location of the principal towns and cities—Kingston, Brockville, Prescott, Ogdensburg, Morrisburg, Cornwall, Lachine, Montreal, Three Rivers, Levis, Quebec, Tadoussac, and Gaspé.
Presentation.—The lesson is assumed to be a pleasure trip by boat from Port Hope to the Atlantic. The teacher will tell of the departure from Port Hope and the arrival at Kingston, the first port. While there, he will ask why the place was given the name of Kingston. (It was named in honour of George III; as Queenston, at the upper end of the lake, was in honour of Queen Charlotte.) Leaving Kingston the teacher will describe (showing pictures) the appearance of the fort on the point and, with the pupils, will recall its establishment by Frontenac in 1673, and its use as a check on the Indians, and will note its use now as a storehouse, barracks, and training camp for soldiers. (Ontario Public School History, pp. 51, 114.)
As the trip is continued down the river, they notice, in passing, the beautiful Thousand Islands, and the town of Brockville—its name commemorating the hero of Queenston Heights. Immediately below Prescott is seen on the bank of the river an old wind-mill, the scene of the Patriot invasion under Von Schultz, a Polish adventurer. (See Ontario Public School History, p. 178, and picture in Weaver's Canadian History for Boys and Girls, p. 227.)
Across the river lies Ogdensburg, the scene of a raid in 1813. Colonel Macdonell, the British leader, who was drilling his small force on the ice, made a sudden attack upon the town, defeated the Americans, captured a large amount of stores and ammunition, and burned four armed vessels which lay in the harbour. (See Ontario Public School History, p. 155.)
From this point the boat passes rapidly through the narrow part of the river at Iroquois (recall the Indians of that name), past the flourishing town of Morrisburg, until, on the north bank, appears a monument of gray granite, erected as a memorial of the battle of Crysler's Farm, fought in this vicinity in 1813. (See Ontario Public School History, p. 159.)
After passing through the Long Sault Rapids, Cornwall, noted as the seat of the first Grammar School in Ontario, is reached. The river now widens into a lake and does not narrow until it passes Coteau, after which it passes through a chain of rapids and nears Lachine, the "La Chine" of La Salle, and the scene of numerous Indian fights and massacres. (See Ontario School Geography, p. 116, and Ontario Public School History of Canada, p. 60.) Ten miles to the east is Montreal, the most populous city in Canada, with its Royal Mount, and its many memories of early settlement in Canada. (See Ontario School Geography, p. 121.)
Just above Quebec the river, now two miles wide, passes the bold cliffs up which Wolfe's men climbed to the Plains of Abraham, and sweeps around the Citadel and Lower Town. On the heights may be seen the monuments erected in honour of Champlain, and Wolfe and Montcalm. In imagination, pictures may be formed of the scenes that marked the close of French Rule in Canada. The river flows on past Tadoussac, long the centre of the Canadian fur-trade, past Gaspé where Cartier landed and laid claim to the surrounding country in the name of the king of France, till its banks fade from sight and its waters mingle with those of the Atlantic.
In teaching such lessons as this, the oral narrative and question method is used. It is a review lesson, and reproduction may follow in a written exercise.