This Is Owing To The
Influence Of A Large Sheet Of Frozen Water Interposed Between Us
And Lake Ontario, Which Is Never Frozen.
The county of Prince Edward is a peninsula connected with the main
land by a narrow isthmus of low
Swampy land about four miles wide.
Through this neck of land it has long been in contemplation to cut
a canal to enable the lake steam-boats to take Belleville in their
route between Kingston and Toronto, thus affording a safe navigation
in stormy weather. The effect of such a work on the prosperity of
the counties of Hastings and Prince Edward would be very great, as
European emigrants would have an opportunity of seeing a country
which has hitherto escaped their notice, from the causes already
mentioned.
Besides the usual variety of churches, there is a grammar-school,
and also four large common schools, which latter are free schools,
being supported by assessments on the people of the town.
Every Saturday, which is the great day for business from the
country, the streets are crowded with farmers' waggons or sleighs,
with their wives and pretty daughters, who come in to make their
little purchases of silk gowns and ribbons, and to sell their butter
and eggs, which are the peculiar perquisites for the females in this
country. The counties of Hastings and Prince Edward are celebrated
for female beauty, and nowhere can you see people in the same class
more becomingly attired. At the same time there is nothing rustic
about them, except genuine good nature and unaffected simplicity
of manners. To judge by their light elastic step and rosy smiling
countenances, no people on earth seem to enjoy a greater share of
health and contentment.
Since the establishment of the county municipal councils, plank and
macadamised roads have branched out in all directions from the
various central county towns, stretching their ramifications like
the veins of the human body, conveying nourishment and prosperity
throughout the country, increasing the trade and the travel,
connecting man with man and promoting intelligence and civilisation;
while the magnetic telegraph, now traversing the whole length of
the country, like the nervous system, still further stimulates the
inhabitants to increased activity.
The people of this county have not been behind their neighbours in
these improvements. The first plank-road which they constructed was
from Belleville to Canniff's Mills, a distance of three miles over
a road which at the time was often knee-deep in mud, with a solid
foundation of flat limestone rock, which prevented the escape of the
water. So infamous was this road, that, on some parts of it, it was
a matter of serious doubt whether a boat or waggon would be the
better mode of conveyance. Notwithstanding the badness of this road,
it was the greatest thoroughfare in the county, as it was the
only approach to a number of mills situated on the river, and to
Belleville, from the back country. It was, however, with the utmost
difficulty that the warden could induce the other members of the
county-council to sanction the construction of a plank-road at the
expense of the county; so little was then known in Canada of the
effects of such works.
The profits yielded by this road are unusually large, amounting,
it is said, to seventy or eighty per cent. This extraordinary
success encouraged the people to undertake other lines, by means
of joint-stock companies formed among the farmers. All these
plank-roads are highly remunerative, averaging, it is stated,
fourteen per cent. over and above all expenses of repair. More than
thirty miles of plank-road is already constructed in the county.
In a few years plank or gravel roads will be extended through every
part of the country, and they will be most available as feeders to
the great line of railway which will very soon be constructed
through the entire length of the province, and which has been
already commenced at Toronto and Hamilton. A single track plank-road
costs from 375 to 425 pounds per mile, according to the value of the
land to be purchased, or other local causes. The cost of a gravel
road, laid twelve feet wide and nine inches deep, and twenty-two
feet from out to out, is from 250 to 325 pounds, and it is much more
lasting, and more easily repaired than a plank-road. Macadamised or
gravel roads will no doubt entirely supersede the others.
In the present circumstances of the colony, however, plank-roads
will be preferred, because they are more quickly constructed, and
with less immediate outlay of money in the payment of labourer's
wages, as our numerous saw-mills enable the farmers to get their
own logs sawed, and they thus pay the greater portion of their
instalments on the stock taken in the roads. In fact, by making
arrangements with the proprietors of saw-mills they can generally
manage to get several months' credit, so that they will receive the
first dividends from the road before they will be required to pay
any money. The mode of making these roads is exceedingly simple.
The space required for the road is first levelled, ditched, and
drained, and then pieces of scantling, five or six inches square,
are laid longitudinally on each side, at the proper distance for
a road-way twelve feet wide, and with the ends of each piece sawn
off diagonally, so as to rest on the end of the next piece, which
is similarly prepared, to prevent the road from settling down
unequally. The pieces of scantling thus connected are simply bedded
firmly in the ground, which is levelled up to their upper edges.
Pine planks, three inches thick, are then laid across with their
ends resting on the scantling. The planks are closely wedged
together like the flooring of a house, and secured here and there by
strong wooden pins, driven into auger-holes bored through the planks
into the scantling.
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