Golden autumn days were those when the emigrants’ long journey was nearing its end. Provision must first be made for the cattle and horses. October was upon them and winter near.
[Illustration: ROGER CONANT’S FIRST SETTLEMENT IN DARLINGTON, CO. DURHAM, UPPER CANADA, 1778.]
At Arnall’s Creek--then known as Barber’s Creek--they found a flat of marsh-grass quite free from the forest trees which then were universal above the water’s edge of Lake Ontario.
Here they pitched their tents, the creek and lake forming two sides of a triangle for defence from wolves, leaving one side only to be protected. Salmon would run in November, and the winter’s supply of fish could be secured from the creek, and the marsh-grass gathered for the stock from the flat at its mouth.
The illustration opposite is of the first house built by Roger Conant in Upper Canada. The foundation of it yet remains close by the waters of Lake Ontario. The man in the foreground of the picture is pounding or crushing grain with a burnt-out stump as a mortar, using as a pestle a billet of wood which is attached to a spring pole, thus raising it easily. There was no mill nearer than Kingston where the corn could be ground. At Port Hope (then called Smith’s Creek), in 1806, Elias Smith erected a grist-mill. Previous to that date the settlers took their grist by boat to Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, 110 miles distant. The journey occupied several days, necessitating their camping on the shores at night.
At the home by the broad waters of Lake Ontario the settlers led a truly idyllic life. The unerring rifle supplied them with meat, the waters with fish, and the distant mill with flour until a crop could be grown from the cleared land next season. They spent the days “logging” (felling the trees) and the nights burning. The bright flames among the trees and against the dark background of the dense forest made a picturesque scene. A singular fact about “logging” is that the log-heaps burn better at night than by day; therefore the logging was done in the day-time and the burning by night. (See illustration, page 40.) But to make money in this new country, where there were no neighbors nor any travellers to buy, nor any money to buy with, was a more difficult feat than making a home.
