Canada and the Canadians, Vol. 2 | Page 2

them. A
remarkable frost on the 30th of May had also passed over all Upper

Canada, and had so injured the woods and orchards, that, in July, the
trees in exposed places, instead of being in full vigour, were crisped,
brown, and blasted, and getting a renewal of foliage very slowly.
My return to Toronto was caused by duty, as well as by a desire to visit
as many of the districts as I possibly could, in order to observe the
progress they had made since 1837, as well as to employ the mind
actively, to prevent the reaction which threatened to assail it from the
occurrence of a severe dispensation.
I heard a very curious fact in natural history, whilst at Niagara, in
company with a medical friend, who took much interest in such
matters.
I had often remarked, when in the habit of shooting, the very great
length of time that the loon, or northern diver, (colymbus glacialis,)
remained under water after being fired at, and fancied he must be a
living diving-bell, endued with some peculiar functions which enabled
him to obtain a supply of air at great depth; but I was not prepared for
the circumstance that the fishermen actually catch them on the hooks of
their deepest lines in the Niagara river, when fishing at the bottom for
salmon-trout, &c. Such is, however, the fact.
An affecting incident at Queenston, whilst we were waiting for the
Transit to take us to Toronto, must be related. I have mentioned that, in
the spring of 1845, an ice-jam, as it is called here, occurred, which
suddenly raised the level of the Niagara between thirty and forty feet
above its ordinary floods, and overset or beat down, by the grinding of
mountain masses of ice, all the wharfs and buildings on the adjacent
banks.
The barrack of the Royal Canadian Rifles at Queenston was thus
assailed in the darkest hours of the night, and the soldiers had barely
time to escape, before the strong stone building they inhabited was
crushed. The next to it, but on higher ground, more than thirty feet
above the natural level of the river, was a neat wooden cottage,
inhabited by a very aged man and his helpless imbecile wife, equally
aged with himself. This man, formerly a soldier, was a cabinet-maker,

and amused his declining years by forming very ingenious articles in
his line of business; his house was a model of curious nick-nackeries,
and thus he picked up just barely enough in the retrograding village to
keep the wolf from the door; whilst the soldiers helped him out, by
sparing from their messes occasionally a little nourishing food.
That night, the dreadful darkness, the elemental warnings, the
soul-sickening rush of the river, the groaning and grinding of the ice,
piling itself, layer after layer, upon the banks of the river, assailed the
old man with horrors, to which all his ancient campaigns had afforded
no parallel.
He heard the irresistible enemy, slowly, deliberately, and determinedly
advancing to bury his house in its cold embrace. He hurried the
unmindful sharer of his destiny from her bed, gathered the most
precious of his household goods, and knew not how or where to fly.
Loudly and oft the angry spirit of the water shrieked: Niagara was
mounting the hill.
The soldiers, perceiving his imminent peril, ventured down the bank,
and shouted to him to fly to them. He moved not; they entreated him,
and, knowing his great age and infirmity, and the utter imbecility of the
poor old dame, insisted upon taking them out.
But the man withstood them. He looked abroad, and the glimmering
night showed him nothing but ruin around.
"I put my trust in Him who never fails," said the veteran. "He will not
suffer me to perish."
The soldiers, awed by the wreck of nature, rushed forward, and took the
ancient pair out by strength of arms; and, no sooner had they done so,
than the waters, which had been so eager for their prey, reached the
lower floor, and a large wooden building near them was toppled over
by waves of solid ice. Much of the poor man's ingeniously-wrought
furniture was injured; but, although the neighbouring buildings were
crushed, cracked, rent, and turned over, the old man's habitation was
spared, and he still dwells there, waiting in the sunshine for his

appointed time, with the same faith as he displayed in the utter
darkness of the storm.
He had built his cottage on land belonging to the Crown; and, in
consequence of an act recently passed, he, with many others who had
thus taken possession, had been ordered to remove. But his affecting
history had gained him friends, and he has now permission to dwell
thereon, until he shall be summoned away