witnessing the productive and
excellent garden of the family that occupies it, I returned to
Toronto in my skiff, by the way of Niagara river, sailing in one
day between sun-rise and sun-set (stopping for three hours at Port
Colborne) from Grand River to Chippewa, within two miles of the
Falls. I had my skiff conveyed on a waggon over the portage from
Chippewa to Queenstown (ten miles), and started from Niagara to
Toronto about noon of the first Friday in July. When a little more
than half way across the lake, I encountered a heavy north-east
storm of rain and wind, and a fog so thick as to completely obscure
the Toronto light-house, which was within a mile of me. When it
became so dark that I could not see my compass, I laid my course,
with the sail reefed, by the wind and waves, reaching (a mile west
of my due course) the east side of the Humber Bay, between ten and
eleven in the evening, and making my way, by a hard pull, to the
Toronto Yacht Club House a little before midnight.

About four weeks since my son and myself made the voyage in the
same skiff from Toronto to Long Point, but proceeding by railroad
from Port Dalhousie to Port Colborne, intending to spend a week or
two on the farm, and two or three days on the Island.

I conclude this epitomised sketch with three remarks. I am satisfied of
the truth of what I have long believed, that a small boat is as safe, if
not safer, than a large one, if properly constructed, fitted out,
trimmed, and managed. I believe that many a large open boat, if not
capsized by the wind, would have been swamped by the waves over which my
little craft rode in safety.

I have never experienced the benefit of out-door exertion and the
comfort of retirement to the same degree as during these excursions,
besides daily riding on horseback and preparing all the wood consumed at
my cottage. Between two and three years ago I found it painful labour to
walk one mile, I have since walked twelve miles in a day, besides
attending to other duties--an improvement of my general system, which is
already acting sensibly and encouragingly on the seat of thought and
nervous influence. In my lonely voyage from Toronto to Port Ryerse, the
scene was often enchanting, and the solitude sweet beyond expression. I
have witnessed the setting sun amidst the Swiss and Tyrolese Alps, from
lofty elevations, on the plai