and after a time even that was abandoned. It was some years after this before a stage was established between Lake Ontario and the Detroit River, and not until 1842 that a daily line was established throughout the province, which was done in consequence of Deputy Postmaster-General Stayner's requirements with regard to the mails.

Benjamin Franklin, Deputy Postmaster-General of North America in 1766, stated before a committee of the House of Commons that the only post-road then in Canada was between Montreal and Quebec. In 1791 the post-road extended eastward to New Brunswick, and westward as far as Kingston. As late as 1807, the mail to Amherstburgh was only quarterly, a Canadian once in three months appearing with a mail-bag on his shoulder.

Our progress, as gathered from the number of miles of established post-roads, is as follows:

In 1852, the number of letters per annum was 3,700,000; the revenue, $230,629; expenditure, $276,191. In 1860, the number of letters per annum was 9,000,000; the revenue, $658,451; expenditure, $534,681. This expenditure is exclusive of railway and steamship subsidies. The former costs $110,000 and the latter $416,000 per annum.

PROGRESS OF ROADS.

The land communications of the copper-colored nomads, eastward of the prairies, were natural routes subordinate to their water ones, being mere portages from one stream or lake to another; and in this respect they differed essentially from those of a fixed population. But, as with the savage, the track of the wild animals, the deer, moose, elk, or cariboo,-indicated the hardest ground or lowest pass for the war-path, so with the colonist the same guides or the instincts of domestic animals turned loose in the forest,often marked out the "bridle-road," the pioneer route of land transport from point to point. In later times, since the surveyor has preceded the settler, the roads have been either arbitrarily determined for a country presenting no special obstacles, or carefully explored as a basis of settlement. But as, until a comparatively recent period, the squatter preceded the surveyor, the original roads have been established either by the accidental conditions noted above, or by the more extensive and careful explorations of the lumberman, who has been the pioneer of the agriculturist over the greater portion of cultivated America.

The progressive stages of improvement, from the track of the wild animal to the metalled road, are,

1. The Bridle Road;

2. The Winter Road;

3. The Corduroy Road;

4. The Common or Graded Road;

5. The Turnpike; Macadam, Gravel, and Plank Roads.

BRIDLE AND WINTER ROADS.

Before the era of wheeled vehicles, communication between back settlements, save in winter, is restricted to "bridle roads," by which men and women on horseback may assemble for worship, visit their neighbors, and attend upon all those occasions of births, marriages, and deaths so

On pack

much noticed in the forest and so little in town. horses, also, grain is taken to and from the mill, and other movables transported. These roads are formed simply by clearing away the branches and logs, so that a man on horseback may ride, and are most frequently old lumbermen's roads, which have become impassable from fallen timber, and the growth of underbrush. In winter, however, the snow and ice, the great democratic elements in the physical constitution of Canada, make all roads alike, and the humblest settler in the most remote back-township has not only an excellent road, but can make himself a vehicle capable of transporting the largest loads; and, sheltered by the forest, the once broken track is protected from those drifts which are the only drawbacks to the snow-roads in the clearings.

It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the frost and snow to the people of Canada, or to place any money value upon them. That which most Europeans have deplored as the only drawback to this country is in truth the source of its rapid prosperity. The operations of agriculture and commerce do not necessarily require perennial communication with a market. As there is but one crop of grain and lumber in the year, it is sufficient if once in the year an opportunity is afforded to transport it, and this Canada possesses in a higher degree than any other "more favored clime." In the dead of winter, when all agricultural out-door operations have ceased, the farmer, after having threshed his grain, can sally forth to any market he may select, even if distant one hundred miles or more, and combine other business or pleasure in the town with that of the sale of his products. He can go any where while the snow lasts, for all roads are alike; and he can take as large a load as can be transported by the same power on the best wheel roads in Europe. For domestic purposes the ice and snow are equally valuble to him; for, while unable to cultivate the fields, he can make

the forest resound with his axe, and every swamp is accessible to his horses and his sledges; thus securing his annual supply of fuel without the necessity of money or barter. If he has a family of grown-up sons, he may cut the timber and fuel and transport it to the market, because there is not a week in the whole winter in which out-door work is unpleasant; and there is, therefore, less loss of time than in milder and more rainy climates. The presence of the ice and snow at the season when horses and cattle and their owners can not be employed in field operations, and its certain continuance over the greater part of the country for several months, define the mode of conducting the business without inconvenience and to the best advantage. Whatever is intended for export is, where good summer roads are wanting, hauled down to the shipping ports while the snow lasts; and if a house is to be built, the stone is quarried and hauled when little else can be done, and all preparations are made before the season for building commences. The statistics of shipments show that only about one-third of the crop is sent forward in the year in which it is grown; and although in many instances the produce can not be brought out until the snow falls, it is evident that from choice the greater part will be held back until that season. The autumnal plowing and sowing after harvest, ditching, fenc ing, and other duties, often make it inconvenient to commence threshing before the winter: moreover, there is also the hope that better prices, when western exports are suspended, and cheaper transportation on the snow, will more than compensate for any loss of interest.

The frost which bridges every river and makes a hard and level causeway of every swamp, with the snow, which fills every rut and cavity and buries boulders, logs, and stumps, enable the lumberman to send supplies for a whole year to his shanties; and, in like manner, the pioneer settler takes advantage of this season, to prepare for his summer's

work of establishing a home in the heart of the forest. It is only by contrasting this state of things with India, the Turkish Empire, or other snowless and roadless countries of the world, that we can determine what it is worth to have, as Canada has for months in every year, the best possible road, not only on all main lines, but to every man's door and to every corner of his property.

The winter road is too narrow for wheeled vehicles; in summer it is but a bridle road on the hard ground, and impassable through the swamps.

CORDUROY ROADS.

In forming a road for wheeled vehicles or in converting a winter road into a summer one, there are necessarily as many degrees of excellence (or rather badness) as are afforded by the character of the route, the number, wealth, and intelligence of the settlers. But, whatever the means at their disposal, there seems to be a universal resort to the axe and log-chain, where the pick and shovel should be used. This wide-spread error is the result of habit: axes are in the hands of all, and familiar to all; the pick and shovel are regarded as only fit for "canallers" and railway "navvies." Not only in the case of swamps (in many of which the corduroy system is indispensable), but wherever water at stated seasons collects on the surface, so as to soften the soil and cause the wheels to sink, whole hecatombs of trees are sacrificed to form a corrugated causeway of their round trunks, laid side by side, over which wagons can be slowly dragged or bumped, any attempt at speed being checked by immediate symptoms of approaching dissolution in the vehicle. When the country becomes cleared most of these vegetable causeways remain high and dry throughout the year, from the mere admission of sun and wind; but though no longer of any service, the logs are too often permitted to remain, because, half-buried as they are, the