of his legs, and held it in the grasp of death, and by a stronger cord than Mezentius ever knew, the dead and the living were bound together. Each together had taken the sacrament of Christ a little more than an hour before; but in the last desperate effort for life, no thought of charity, no overwhelming motive of selfsacrifice had play. Around was the whitening waters, in his ear their dreadful hum. Quickened fancy formed and framed pictures of the past; the happy fields of busy men ; the sun climbing up the sky; the myriad mirroring dew-drops, spangling expanding meads, and making glitter on low-lying leas; the sunsets-those grand rose windows of the cathedral of heaven; the sweet domesticities of life, the friendship of man, the love of lovely woman; all passed in a moment; his heart dilated with the passion to live: he clutched his companion; a struggle and his spirit is mingling with the waters; and the dead hand keeping the last command of the will, carries within the cold ghastly knuckles poor Somers' doom.

Every effort was made to set the fated captain free. But while those fruitless attempts at deliverance were going forward, Captain Somers' grasp of the tree relaxed; he cast around a glance of fearful meaning, and sank lifeless in the waters, leaving behind him a wife and eleven children. Tiffany was now at liberty to direct his attention to Mr. Flood, whom he succeeded in getting ashore. The names of those who perished were Captain Somers, James Rawlins, George Robinson, and William Edmonds. Mr. Flood had held Edmonds above the water until he was a corpse and was himself well nigh exhausted. Poor fellow, when he was nearly powerless, asked Mr. Flood if there was any sign of the raft? The reply was: "Dear friend, Christ is the only raft of which I can now assure you."

A son of Mr. Flood, Mr. Edward Flood, is settled at Lindsay, where he ably edits the Victoria Warder, a paper of which he is the proprietor.

There were emigrants, a contrast in every way to the Blakes, who illustrate not less strikingly the subject and object of this book. At the very time the Blakes were leaving Irland in their chartered vessel, another emigrant ship was sailing out of Dublin Bay, from one of whose passengers I have received a letter, in

WHAT CANADA HAS DONE.

309 which he says that Canada has done more for Irish, English and Scotch, than they have done for Canada, which is quite true. Canada is the bountiful mother which only needs a little coaxing to lay bare all the wealth of her life. The writer of the letter left Dublin with his father. When the vessel was out three weeks the cholera attacked the passengers. In eight days they lost forty-five persons. Throwing bodies overboard became monotonous. The writer's father and mother, a sister and child of tender years, all died. When he arrived at Montreal, about seventy were dying daily. He got to Middlesex. Up to this time he and his brother never owned a new pair of shoes or boots. Each had only one clean shirt for Sunday, and very little of any other clothes for Sunday or Monday. They used to be sent with a small dish of dirty grain to feed about eight or ten hogs. It was hardly safe for a boy to go near so many starving hogs; about half of which would die of starvation ere spring. "One of these same boys is now worth $20,000, not by speculation, but by hard work on a farm, and he is respected everywhere. I remember," continues my correspondent, " when a brother of mine would not be let eat only out of the pot, when the family which he lived with had had their share taken out of it. He was knocked about from Tom to Dick and Harry, and had scarcely a home. Now some people say he is worth $30,000."

About the same time there came to Middlesex a young man with large feet, and when he saw the "minister" coming his way he stood in a great bunch of weeds to hide his bare feet till the "preacher" had passed. That man is now well to do in a flourishing county of Ontario, and "it is likely that if the Prince of Wales came to Canada, his daughter would be invited to the Prince's ball. Does a man," asks my correspondent, in bad English and bad spelling, but with much strength of observation, "think that the Irish are a more superior race than English or Scotch? Not so. The Irish need mixing with the canny

Scotch."

The mixture is a good one. But even without the mixture Irishmen can show themselves canny, and have shown themselves so. The great thing is to insist on education, and wide and

varied reading. Nothing makes men differ so much, even in bodily appearance, as mental development.

"Forty years ago," the same gentleman writes, "I happened to pass by a poor man's house. I saw that he had, by some means, bought a yoke of steer, and they having some vermin on them, the man shook some wood ashes on their backs. One lay dead, the other was dying, leaving the man as poor as Job's turkey. Some years afterwards I passed that way. There was a house fit for the Governor, made from hard industry on the same farm."

The man who has thus supplied my palette with colours is himself worth $20,000.

There are several counties which have been wholly, or almost wholly cleared by Irishmen. Foremost among these stands the County of Carleton, which comprises the Townships of Nepean, North Gower, Marlborough, Goulburn, March, Huntley, Torbolton. Fitzroy, the Village of Richmond and the City of Ottawa. Throughout the county the Irish element predominates, save in the Townships of Fitzroy and Torbolton, which are chiefly settled by that other branch of the Celtic race whose hardihood has been nourished in the land of heather and shaggy wood, amid the stern sublimities of mountains and mountain streams. In the northern part of March, too, there are a great many of the Imperial English blood. Part of the Township of Goulburn, including the Village of Richmond, was settled by the Duke of Richmond, about 1815, with officers of the 99th. Among these military settlers were Irishmen such as Captain Burke; Lieutenant Maxwell, to whom we shall have again to refer; Captain Lett; Rev. Dr. Short, military chaplain; Captain Lyon, Lieutenant Ormsby, and Lieutenant Bradley. Into this settlement some naval officers also found their way. The northern part of the Township of March was settled by Captain Monk, an Englishman, and Colonel Lloyd, an Irishman. With such exceptions, the whole of the metropolitan county of the Dominion was settled by the Irish emigrant, with no assistance from anybody; his capital, his friends, his patrons, were his strong right arm, his resolute will and the axe upon his shoulder. Some particulars relating to the two classes of pioneers will not be uninteresting.

George J. Burke, of the 99th Regiment, and Colonel of the

SOLDIER.

JOURNALIST. LUMBERER.

311

Carleton Militia, was a native of Tipperary. He served in the Peninsula, and afterwards in Canada, during the war of 1812. During his campaigns here he contracted that fondness for Canada which has made of many who intended no more than a flying visit permanent settlers. When he retired from the service he took up his residence at Richmond. He was an Irish gentleman of the old school, a Conservative and a staunch Loyalist. He was the first Registrar of the County of Carleton, a position which he retained until his death.

His son, James Henry Burke, early gave evidence of literary and even poetical, talents. Feeling himself walled in from congenial opportunity in the wild region round Richmond-Ottawa being then the small landing-place, Bytown-he made a voyage to the Arctic Region, and saw something of the great world outside. In 1854, he, having gained much experience and enlarged his views, settled at Ottawa, and started the Ottawa Tribune, in the Irish Roman Catholic interest. This paper he conducted in a very able manner until his death. On the decease of John Egan, in 1857, he ran for Pontiac, but was defeated by Mr. Heath. With the exception of Mr. Egan, he did more for the Ottawa district than any man of his day. The opening up of the Ottawa Valley was a subject on which he held enlightened views, and one on which he spoke and wrote well. He died on the 8th of January, 1858, at the early age of thirty-seven, having given promise of great things, both in statesmanship and literature.

John Egan was a native of Aughrim. He emigrated in 1832. He died at the early age of forty-seven. In the fifteen years he was spared to his adopted country he did as much as any man ever achieved in so brief a period. Few men were better acquainted with the trade of the Ottawa. The resources of the country and its requirements were thoroughly mastered by him. He worked. his way from nothing to the head of the largest business on the river. It was he first gave system to its lumber trade, a trade which has yielded a return equal to one-fourth of the entire revenue of Canada. Before his time lumbering on the Ottawa was a wild venture. The annual business of his house ran up a few years before his death to from $800,000 to $1,000,000. It gave employment directly to over 2,000 men. It required 1,600 horses

and oxen. His living machinery consumed annually 90,000 bushels of oats, 12,000 barrels of pork, 15,000 barrels of flour. The ramifications of the house occupied a portion of nearly every stream on the Ottawa's course.

A handsome man, whose life was divided between business and generous deeds, he was very popular. He represented the County of Ottawa until it was divided, when he was returned by acclamation for Pontiac. His name has become part of the topographical nomenclature of the Ottawa, he having, with his clerk, the late Mr. Michael Joseph Hickey, founded and named Eganville.

Mr. Hickey was born at Nenagh, County Tipperary, in 1825. He was the oldest son of Mr. Patrick Hickey of the same place. He came to Canada while quite a young man and entered as clerk the employment of Mr. Egan, who soon selected him to take charge of his important business on the River Bonnechere, wherea large number of emigrants from Donegal were settled. Hickey induced Egan to build grist and saw mills, and the advance of civilization was soon attested by the erection of a tavern. The nucleus of a village was now formed. Hickey suggested the name of Eganville to the Post-office authorities. Eganville is now a considerable place with churches, mills, numerous stores. The population is about six hundred.

Here Hickey commenced business under the name of Hickey Brothers. But owing to the depression in the lumber trade he retired leaving the business to his brothers, John and Thomas, men of ability and genial popular manners. Michael Joseph Hickey had literary ability, and edited for a considerable time with great success the Ottawa Tribune. It was in connection with Hickey that McGee started the New Era. Differing on the seat of government question-Hickey being stoutly in favour of Ottawathey severed business connection but maintained their friendship. Hickey then went to the bar and practised his profession in Ottawa. Business took him to Toronto in the November of 1864. As he was walking along the Esplanade he fell into the Bay and was drowned. He was a constant contributor to Harper's Magazine and a paper contributed to that periodical, entitled "The Capital of Canada," deservedly attracted a great deal of attention.

When speaking of those connected with lumbering, Robert and