t called Navy Bay, from its being our chief naval depot on Lake
Ontario."--Martin's _History of Canada_.]

[Footnote 140: "The channel of the St. Lawrence is here so spacious that
it is called the Lake of the Thousand Islands. The vast number implied
in this name was considered a vague exaggeration, till the commissioners
employed in fixing the boundary with the United States actually counted
them, and found that they amounted to 1692. They are of every imaginable
size, shape, and appearance; some barely visible, others covering
fifteen acres; but, in general, their broken outline presents the most
picturesque combinations of wood and rock. The navigator, in steering
through them, sees an ever-changing scene: sometimes he is inclosed in a
narrow channel; then he discovers before him twelve openings, like so
many noble rivers; and, soon after, a spacious lake seems to surround
him on every side."--Bouchette, vol. i., p. 156; Howison's _Sketches of
Canada_, p. 46.]

[Footnote 141: "The St. Lawrence traverses the whole extent of Lower
Canada, as the lakes every where border and inclose Upper Canada. There
is a difficulty in tracing its origin, or, at least, which of the
tributaries of Lake Superior is to be called the St. Lawrence. The
strongest claim seems to be made by the series of channels which connect
all the great upper lakes, though, strictly speaking, till after the
Ontario, there is nothing which can very properly be called a river.
There are only a number of short canals connecting the different lakes,
or, rather, separating one immense lake into a number of great branches.
It seems an interesting question how this northern center of the
continent, at the precise latitude of about 50 deg., should pour forth so
immense and overwhelming a mass of waters; for through a great part of
its extent it is quite a dead flat, though the Winnepeg, indeed, draws
some tributaries from the Rocky Mountains. The thick forests with which
the surface is covered, the slender evaporation which takes place during
the long continuance of cold, and, at the same time, the thorough
melting of the snows by the strong summer heat, seem to be the chief
sources of this profuse and superabundant moisture."--H. Murray's
_Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America_, vol.
ii., p. 459, 1829.]

[Footnote 142: "The statements laid before Parliament thus enumerate and
describe the five rapids of the St. Lawrence, which are impa