Heriot,
of the 49th.]

[Footnote 48: The late Admiral Lord de Saumarez, G.C.B., &c.]

[Footnote 49: The present Colonel Le Couteur, Militia Aide-de-Camp to
the Queen, in Jersey. In the _United Service Journal_ for October, 1831,
Colonel Le Couteur has described the winter march of the 104th regiment,
early in 1813, from New Brunswick to Canada.]

[Footnote 50: The present Major-General Thomas Evans, C.B., then a
captain of the 8th foot.]

CHAPTER VII.

It will be assisting the reader, ere we proceed to detail the operations
at the commencement of hostilities, to give a brief description, not
only of the lakes and straits which constitute the water boundaries of
Upper Canada, and of the towns and military posts distributed along
them, as existing in the year 1812, but also of the territory of
Michigan, which was surrendered, with Detroit, to Major-General Brock.
The distances are given in British statute miles.

The most remote piece of water on this frontier worthy of notice is Lake
Superior, a body of fresh water unequalled by any upon the face of the
globe. Lake Superior is of a triangular form; in length 381, in breadth
161, and in circumference about 1,150 miles. Among its islands is one
nearly two-thirds as large as Jamaica. Out of Lake Superior a very rapid
current flows, over immense masses of rock, along a channel of 27 miles
in length, called St. Mary's River, into Lake Huron, at the head of
which is the British island of St. Joseph, containing a small garrison.
This isolated post is distant about 350 miles by water from Amherstburg,
which contained the nearest British garrison.

Lake Huron is in length, from west to east, 218 miles; in breadth, 180;
and in circumference, through its numerous curvatures, 812 miles. Except
the island of St. Joseph, and one or two trading establishments
belonging to the north-west company, the shores of this lake were in a
state of nature, or inhabited only by Indians. When the Americans were
allowed to obtain the dominion of Lake Erie, which they did in 1813, it
was determined at the close of the following year to create a naval
force on Lake Huron in the ensuing season, (1815,) as possessing much
greater security for the construction of vessels than Lake Erie, where
the enemy could at any time destroy them, in the same manner as their
vessels ought to have been previously destroyed by the British. Lake
Michigan, which belongs wholly to the United States, is conn