Part 21 (1/2)
And still what changes wait thee, When at no distant day, The s.h.i.+ps of far off nations, Shall anchor in your bay; When one vast chain of railroad, Stretching from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, Shall bear the wealth of India, And land it at your door.
A short distance above the hop ground of which we have spoken, the Don pa.s.sed immediately underneath a high sandy bluff. Where, after a long reach in its downward course, it first impinged against the steep cliff, it was very deep. Here was the only point in its route, so far as we recall, where the epithet was applicable which Milton gives to its English namesake, when he speaks of--
”Utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or _gulphy_ Don.”
This very noticeable portion of the river was known as the ”Big Bend.”
(We may observe here that in retaining its English name, the Don has lost the appellation a.s.signed to it by the French, if they ever distinguished it by a name. The Grand River, on the contrary, has retained its French name, notwithstanding its English official designation, which was the Ouse. The Rouge, too, has kept its French name. It was the Nen. The Indians styled this, or a neighbouring stream, Katabokokonk, ”The River of Easy Entrance.” The Thames, however, has wholly dropped its French t.i.tle, LaTranche. We may subjoin that the Humber was anciently called by some, St John's River, from a trader named St. John; and by some, as we have already learnt, Toronto River.
In Lahontan's map it is marked Tanaouate. No interpretation is given.--Augustus Jones, the early surveyor of whom we shall have occasion frequently to speak, notes in one of his letters that the Indian name for the Don was Wonscoteonach, ”Back burnt grounds;” that is, the river coming down from the back burnt country, meaning probably the so-called Poplar Plains to the north, liable to be swept by casual fires in the woods. The term is simply descriptive, and not, in the modern sense, a proper name.)
Towards the summit of the high bluff just mentioned, the holes made by the sand-martins were numerous. Hereabout we have met with the snapping turtle. This creature has not the power of withdrawing itself wholly within a sh.e.l.l. A part of its protection consists in the loud threatening snap of its strong h.o.r.n.y jaws, armed in front with a beak-like hook bent downwards. What the creature lays hold of, it will not let go. Let it grasp the end of a stout stick, and the sportsman may sling it over his shoulder, and so carry it home with him. When allowed to reach its natural term of life, it probably attains a very great age.
We remember a specimen captured near the spot at which we are pausing, which, from its vast size, and the rough, lichen-covered condition of its sh.e.l.l, must have been extremely old. We also once found near here a numerous deposit of this animal's eggs; all white and spherical, of the diameter of about an inch, and covered with a tough parchment-like skin.
The ordinary lesser tortoises of the marsh were of course plentiful along the Don: their young frequently to be met with creeping about, were curious and ever-interesting little objects. Snakes too there were about here, of several kinds: one, often very large and dangerous-looking, the copper-head, of a greenish brown colour, and covered with oblong and rather loose scales. The striped garter-snake of all sizes, was very common. Though reported to be harmless, it always indulged, when interfered with, in the menacing action and savage attempts to strike, of the most venomous of its genus.--Then there was the beautiful gra.s.s-green snake; and in large numbers, the black water-snake. In the rank herbage along the river's edge, the terrified piping of a pursued frog was often heard.
It recurs to us, as we write, that once, on the banks of the Humber, we saw a bird actually in the grasp of a large garter-snake--just held by the foot. As the little creature fluttered violently in the air, the head of the reptile was swayed rapidly to and fro. All the small birds in the vicinity had gathered together in a state of noisy excitement; and many spirited dashes were make by several of them at the common foe.
No great injury having been as yet inflicted, we were enabled to effect a happy rescue.
From the high sandy cliff, to which our attention has been drawn, it was possible to look down into the waters of the river; and on a sunny day, it afforded no small amus.e.m.e.nt to watch the habits, not only of the creatures just named, but of the fish also, visible below in the stream; the simple sunfish, for example, swimming about in shoals (or _schools_, as the term used to be); and the pike, crafty as a fox, lurking in solitude, ready to dart on his unwary prey with the swiftness and precision of an arrow shot from the bow.
_3.--From the Big Bend to Castle Frank Brook._
Above the ”Big Bend,” on the west side, was ”Rock Point.” At the water's edge hereabout was a slight outcrop of shaly rock, where crayfish were numerous, and black ba.s.s. The adjoining marshy land was covered with a dense thicket, in which wild gooseberry bushes and wild black-currant bushes were noticeable. The flats along here were a favourite haunt of woodc.o.c.k at the proper season of the year: the peculiar succession of little twitters uttered by them when descending from their flight, and the very different deep-toned note, the signal of their having alighted, were both very familiar sounds in the dusk of the evening.
A little further on was ”the Island.” The channel between it and the ”mainland” on the north side, was completely choked up with logs and large branches, brought down by the freshets. It was itself surrounded by a high fringe or hedge of the usual brush that lined the river-side all along, matted together and clambered over, almost everywhere by the wild grape-vine. In the waters at its northern end, wild rice grew plentifully, and the beautiful sweet-scented white water-lily or lotus.
This minute bit of insulated land possessed, to the boyish fancy, great capabilities. Within its convenient circuit, what phantasies and dreams might not be realized? A Juan Fernandez, a Barataria, a New Atlantis.--At the present moment we find that what was once our charmed isle has now become _terra firma_, wholly amalgamated with the mainland.
Silt has hidden from view the tangled lodgments of the floods. A carpet of pleasant herbage has overspread the silt. The border-strip of shrubbery and grape-vine, which so delightfully walled it round, has been improved, root and branch, out of being.
Near the Island, on the left side, a rivulet, of which more immediately, pouring down through a deep, narrow ravine, entered the Don. On the right, just at this point, the objectionable marshes began to disappear, and the whole bottom of the vale was early converted into handsome meadows. Scattered about were grand elm and b.u.t.ternut, fine ba.s.swood and b.u.t.tonwood trees, with small groves of the Canadian willow, which pleasantly resembles, in habit, the olive tree of the south of Europe.
Along the flats, remains of Indian encampments were often met with; tusks of bears and other animals; with fragments of coa.r.s.e pottery, streaked or furrowed rudely over, for ornament. And all along the valley, calcareous ma.s.ses, richly impregnated with iron, were found, detached, from time to time, as was supposed, from certain places in the hill-sides.
At the long-ago epoch when the land went up, the waters came down with a concentrated rush from several directions into the valley just here, from some accidental cause, carving out in their course, in the enormous deposit of the drift, a number of deep and rapidly descending channels, converging all upon this point. The drainage of a large extent of acreage to the eastward, also at that period, found here for a time its way into the Don, as may be seen by a neighbouring gorge, and the deep and wide, but now _dry_ water-course leading to it, known, where the ”Mill road” crosses it, as the ”Big Hollow.”
Bare and desolate, at that remote era, must have been the appearance of these earth-banks and ridges and flats, as also those in the vicinity of all our rivers: for many a long year they must have resembled the surroundings of some great tidal river, to which the sea, after ebbing, had failed to return.
One result of the ancient down-rush of waters, just about here, was that on both sides of the river there were to be observed several striking specimens of that long, thin, narrow kind of hill which is popularly known as a ”hog's back.” One on the east side afforded, along its ridge, a convenient ascent from the meadows to the table-land above, where fine views up and down the vale were obtainable, somewhat Swiss in character, including in the distance the lake, to the south. Overhanging the pathway, about half-way up, a group of white-birch trees is remembered by the token that, on their stems, a number of young men and maidens of the neighbourhood had, in sentimental mood, after the manner of the Corydons and Amaryllises of cla.s.sic times, incised their names.
The west side of the river, as well as the east, of which we have been more especially speaking, presented here also a collection of convergent ”hog's backs” and deeply channelled water-courses. One of the latter still conducted down a living stream to the Don. This was the rivulet already noticed as entering just above the Island. It bore the graceful name of ”Castle Frank Brook.”
_4.--Castle Frank._
Castle Frank was a rustic chateau or summer-house, built by Governor Simcoe in the midst of the woods, on the brow of a steep and lofty bank, which overlooks the vale of the Don, a short distance to the north of where we have been lingering. The construction of this edifice was a mere _divertiss.e.m.e.nt_ while engaged in the grand work of planting in a field literally and entirely new, the inst.i.tutions of civilization.
All the way from the site of the town of York to the front of this building, a narrow carriage-road and convenient bridle-path had been cut out by the soldiers, and carefully graded. Remains of this ancient engineering achievement are still to be traced along the base of the hill below the Necropolis and elsewhere. The brook--Castle Frank Brook--a little way from where it enters the Don, was spanned by a wooden bridge. Advantage being taken of a narrow ridge, that opportunely had its commencing point close by on the north side, the roadway here began the ascent of the adjoining height. It then ran slantingly up the hill-side, along a cutting which is still to be seen. The table-land at the summit was finally gained by utilizing another narrow ridge. It then proceeded along the level at the top for some distance through a forest of lofty pines, until the chateau itself was reached.
The cleared s.p.a.ce where the building stood was not many yards across. On each side of it, the ground precipitously descended, on the one hand to the Don, on the other to the bottom of the ravine where flowed the brook. Notwithstanding the elevation of the position, the view was circ.u.mscribed, hill-side and table-land being alike covered with trees of the finest growth.
Castle Frank itself was an edifice of considerable dimensions, of an oblong shape; its walls were composed of a number of rather small, carefully hewn logs, of short lengths. The whole wore the hue which unpainted timber, exposed to the weather, speedily a.s.sumes. At the gable end, in the direction of the roadway from the nascent capital, was the princ.i.p.al entrance, over which a rather imposing portico was formed by the projection of the whole roof, supported by four upright columns, reaching the whole height of the building, and consisting of the stems of four good-sized, well-matched pines, with their deeply-chapped, corrugated bark unremoved. The doors and shutters to the windows were all of double thickness, made of stout plank, running up and down on one side, and crosswise on the other, and thickly studded over with the heads of stout nails. From the middle of the building rose a solitary, ma.s.sive chimney-stack.