cient depth for small craft rigged, and for large vessels when lightened; and it would answer as a good winter harbour for any vessel which navigates the lakes, if she made herself light enough to pass over the bar, and go into the river; and this might easily be effected for all vessels, by having a flat-bottomed lighter stationed at the mouth of the river for that especial purpose.

About 20 miles above Chatham is a village of Moravians, under the guidance of four missionaries from the United Brethren; and here they have a chapel. The converts are Indians, who are peaceable and civil; their principal employment is in attending to their corn-fields, and to the making of maple sugar; above the village, on the river, is a large spring of petroleum. Passing upwards from the Moravian village, the Thames continues a fine serpentine canal, without falls, with a natural tracking path great part of the way.

The windings of the river leave a fine rich bottom; there is beautiful open land on the tops of the banks, which are high, but not broken; passing the Delaware village, and a settlement in the beautiful plains of the Delaware township, where there is a fine pinery and good mills, you arrive at the spot, selected by his Excellency Major-Ge neral Simcoe, for the site of London.

This situation is on the main fork of the river Thames, and considered by his Excellency as the proper place for the seat of government. It offers many striking advantages for the capital of the

province; is centrically situated in regard to the lakes Erie, Huron, and Ontario, and around it is a large tract of land, well calculated for agricultural purposes. It communicates with lake St. Clair and the Detroit, by the river Thames; it communicates with lake Huron, by the northern or main branch of the Thames, and a small portage; and it communicates with the Grand River, or Ouse; and with lake Ontario, by the military way called Dundas-street.

The proposed fortifications on the heights of Charlotteville above Turkey Point, and within the North Foreland, promise it protection from lake Erie. The work at Chatham protects the approach to it up the Thames, and there are several strong posts which guard it from the eastward; add to this, that its local situation secures the interest and attachment of that vast band of Indians, the Chippewa nation.

The township of London is also well situated for health, being plentifully watered with springs; the streams have gravelly bottoms, and the water is very pure. It is an excellent tract of land; a black rich soil; it abounds with black and white walnut, cherry, bass, elm, sugar maple, hickory, beech, white and black ash, and several other kinds of timber.

This tract is extremly well watered by the windings of the Thames, and also receives a principal branch of the river Chenail Ecarté; below the fork of the Thames, is an island made by the river

having broken through a small isthmus; and several springs add to the stream in the vicinity of the island. The banks in general are high, with intervals here and there of fine flats, originally used by the Indians as planting grounds, particularly on the north side of the river adjoining the fork. On the east side of the fork, between the two main branches of the river Thames, on a regular eminence, about forty feet above the water, is a natural plain, interspersed with small groves of wood, affording in its present state the appearance of a beautiful park, cultivated with great cost and taste; the pines which skirt the river shew their tops above the banks, and make a fine termination to the whole.

From London you pass up the Thames to Dorchester, upon another fork of that river, and from Dorchester still higher to Oxford, which is situated upon the upper forks. From hence Dundasstreet extends 42 miles to Burlington bay; from thence you pass immediately into lake Ontario, through a small outlet, from whence it is 35 miles to York, the present seat of the government.