In 1875 an amalgamation was effected with the Canadian Steam Navigation Company (the old Upper Canada Line), under the name of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, which has become one of the largest enterprises of the kind in America, having a paid-up capital of $1,350,000, a fleet of twenty-four steamers, and operating a continuous line of navigation a thousand miles in length. The _Montreal_ and _Quebec_, which ply between the cities from which they are named, though more than thirty years old, still have a high reputation for speed and comfort. They are each over 300 feet long, and have an average speed of about sixteen miles an hour. They have each ample sleeping accommodation for some 300 cabin passengers. They make their trips during the night. Supper on board either of these steamers is an event to be remembered.
The head office of the Richelieu and Ontario Company is in Montreal. The General Manager is Mr. C. F. Gildersleeve. Mr. Alexander Milloy, the Traffic Manager, who was born in Kintyre, Scotland, in 1822, came to Canada in 1840, when he entered the Montreal office of the Upper Canada Line of mail steamers, and continued his connection with the company, amid all its changes, until May, 1898, when he retired from the service.
The navigation of the Ottawa differed from that of the St. Lawrence in that its rapids were wholly impassable for boats with cargo. The necessity for canals thus became urgent. The original Grenville Canal was designed and commenced by the Royal Engineers for the Imperial Government, and was completed in 1832, simultaneously with the Rideau Canal. It was enlarged by the Dominion Government a few years ago, but it is not yet of sufficient capacity to allow the free passage of the larger steamers on this route. Travellers are therefore subject to transhipment at Carillon, and are conveyed by railway to Grenville, a distance of thirteen miles, where another steamer is ready to convey them to Ottawa. This little bit of railway is one of the oldest in Canada, and is further remarkable as being the only one of 5 feet 6 inches gauge in the country. It was purchased by the Ottawa River Navigation Company in 1859, and is operated only in connection with their steamers, not being used in winter.