Excerpt from The Canadian Engineer, Vol. 7: August, 1899 An examination of any good map of our broad Dominion reveals, as its most striking feature, an extraordinary wealth and remarkably uninterrupted succession of lakes and rivers, suggestive of ample rain fall, the first great requisite in the occupation of any country. This feature would be still more impressive if all the waters could be shown on the map. Over large areas only the more important rivers have been explored and delineated; while in the surveyed districts many are necessarily omitted to leave room for other informa tion to be given. These rivers and lakes have been the most important factors in the settlement of the country, as they formed the earliest lines of approach for the penetration and exploration of the interior, and for the exploitation of our forests. The lumberman followed the trapper and the fur trader, the axe supplanted the rifle, and thus the country was opened up by men who knew not only where to begin, but, by their calling, were best equipped as pioneers. The frontier, where not already occupied by the French, was necessarily rapidly settled in the first place by the Loyalists of 1776. Who could not stand upon the order of their departure after their homes were confiscated. These found the rivers their earliest friends, from whence they obtained the means of shelter and of employment in the only ih dustry by which money could then be obtained, viz., the floating of timber and potash to Montreal and Quebec. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.