CHAP. VII. KINGSTON NAVAL ESTABLISHMENT. - DOCK-YARD. - SHIPS OF SHIPS. NEW SETTLEMENTS. - MARMORA IRON WORKS. BAY OF QUINTÉ. KINGSTON, built in 1783, is very conveniently situated, in lat. 44° 8' N. long. 76° 40′, near the spot where old fort Frontenac formerly stood, and at the mouth of the Cataraqui, which joins the St. Lawrence at the bottom of Lake Ontario. Its appearance is pleasing, and the surrounding scenery is agreeably picturesque. It has agovernment-house, a court-house, gaol, church, kirk, Catholic chapel, and meeting-house, barracks, powder magazines, market-house, bank, and hospital. Some of the houses are built of stone, the rest of wood. The streets intersect at right angles. A bridge, 600 yards long, extends above the town to Point Frederick. The population is estimated at from 5000 to 6000: truth probably " lies between." The harbour is excellent; ships of the line can lie close to the shore; and a stone fort and block-house command the entrance. The St. Lawrence, 112 guns, and Psyche frigate, and two or three other ships of war, with several gun-boats, lay since the war in the harbour rotting, and in nearly a sinking state, until last year, when they were sold, on condemnation, for trifling sums. The dock-yard on the west side of Navy Bay, opposite Kingston, is furnished with every article of naval stores required to equip ships of war. Here are two seventy-four gun-ships, a frigate, a sloop of war, and eleven gun-boats, which have reposed on the stocks, and under cover, since the war. They are not planked, and men are employed to replace any piece of timber that may be decaying. It is said they might be sent to sea, completely equipped, in little more than a month. There are large storehouses, naval barracks, dwelling-houses, &c., at Navy Bay. The immense sums which were expended during the last war in Upper Canada arose, in a great measure, from the unaccountable ignorance of those who had the direction of sending the materials to Canada. Besides the vast expenditure of the commissariat department, which for a long time issued about 1200l. daily, the preparations for naval warfare were managed in the most extravagant manner. The wood-work of the Psyche frigate was sent out from England to a country where it could be provided on the spot, in one tenth of the time necessary to carry it from Montreal to Kingston, and at one twentieth part of the expense. Even wedges were sent out; and, to exemplify more completely the information possessed at that time by the Admiralty, full supplies of water-casks were sent to. Canada for the use of the ships of war on Lake Ontario, where it was only necessary to throw a bucket overboard, to draw up water of the very best quality! Kingston Harbour, being the principal entrepôt between Montreal and the Great Lakes, is crowded, during summer, with vessels of from 50 to 200 tons, Durham boats, bateaux, and scows; and its position must always secure to it a great share of the inland trade. Several steam-boats ply between it and various places around Lake Ontario. Its rival, Sackett's Harbour, where the Americans have a naval yard and depôt, is far from being so safe or convenient, as the sea rolls heavily into it when the wind blows from the lake. Here the Americans have on the stocks an immense ship intended to carry 120 guns, which was put together, apparently in a substantial manner, in forty days from the day the first tree used in her construction was cut down. The peace, however, rendered it unnecessary to launch her, as it was agreed that no armed force should be kept on the lakes; and six or seven American ships are now lying half sunk in the harbour, "progressing," as the Americans say, "to dissolution." Lake Ontario opens into full view immediately above Kingston, and unfolds, not the appearance we associate with a freshwater lake, out of which a great stream issues, but a vast rolling ocean, receiving the waters of many rivers. It is about 180 miles long, forty to fifty broad, fifty to nearly 500 feet deep, and 222 feet above the tide level of the ocean. It is navigated by sloops, schooners, and steam-boats; and the sea is frequently so rough, that steam-boats of common size were at first not considered fit to traverse its waters with comfort or safety. The length of the Frontenac steam-ship, which used to run between Kingston, York, and Niagara, was 172 feet, breadth thirty-two feet, and her burden 740 tons. An American writer, describing Lake Ontario, makes the following observations, which to me appear correct, and I quote them as the opinion of a citizen of a country, the government of which possesses half the shores of this inland ocean : "This lake is surpassed in magnitude, but not in importance and beauty. " It is the grand reservoir of all the western lakes, as well as those of Upper Canada and New York, and where, mingled in one vast basin of 500 feet deep, they are poured in a stately stream past the ancient cities of Montreal and Quebec, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. "Situate midway between the Atlantic and the extreme western waters, it has the prospect of becoming, on the completion of the Welland and Rideau Canals, the depôt of articles for consumption thousands of miles in both directions. " It is now no longer to be regarded merely as the path of the fur trader, nor to be remembered only as the upper country of an old French settlement, among whose sparse population, the Jesuits a century and a half since propagated the faith of their order; but as a point of intense observation to statesmen, and a focus for concentrating the produce, trade, and wealth of a more extended, fertile, and flourishing country than is found in all Europe; where, in comparison, lakes sink into ponds and seas into lakes. "A circuit of fifty miles only around it affords an interesting subject of contemplation. "This tract lies in tables which incline a little to the lake, and rise in terraces each a few feet above the other, disclosing, at exposed edges, laminæ of lime, slate, and freestone. They resemble amphitheatres of widely extended fields and forests dotted with villages, whose spires above the foliage denote the progress of rural improvement. "On the north side is the great Canadian highway around its margin, with numerous roads to interior settlements; on the south, the great ridge or natural highway extending a hundred and ten miles upon one level, in a line corresponding with the trend of the lake, and smooth as the Appian way. "On this the traveller rolls through the broad clearings, bordered with tall beech, maple, and whitewood; and adorned with cultivated fields. "Over these vast tracts, without hill, morass, rock, or waste land, he may travel a hundred miles with the circle of his horizon unbroken; and, if disposed to contemplate the beauties of nature, will delight in the serenity of the azure sky, encircled with orange tints, blended far off in the polished surface of the lake. "The climate promotes health and vegetation, is exempt from malaria and blast, and temperate, not subject to frequent or long-continued extremes of heat or cold: the annual range of the thermometer is usually less than in like parallels farther east, while the daily and hourly variations are greater. "The winter is mild and pleasant, the snow falls about Christmas before much frost, and usually lies until near the first of March; and settling upon a lively sod, shields it from blasts, and leaves it verdant in spring. The lake improves the climate; its deep water retains caloric, and thus creates a constant land and sea breeze, that moderates the atmosphere. This breeze, which in regular weather is as uniform as upon the Atlantic, is very grateful to lake mariners; who, after a day's calm, gladly sweep under the land lee, and trim to its influence. " In the district lying in a range of fifty miles along |