urban settlements, ship canals, and storage reservoirs) have combined to siphon off as much as 75 percent of the natural water flow that once teemed over the falls.
View of the Falls of Niagara (1801), lithograph by A.M. Hoffy, J. Vanderlyn (artist), circa 1840. The Great Falls of Niagara as seen from below Table Rock.
Toronto Reference Library, T-14467.
View from the Head of the Whirlpool Falls of Niagara, C.B.B. Estcourt, artist, circa 1838. A period and modern view, looking north (downriver) along the Niagara Gorge, around the whirlpool, towards Queenston.
Library and Archives Canada, C- 093968.
View from Queenston Heights, F. Hall, artist, 1816. The strategic military importance of the commanding “Heights” on the escarpment is evident in these views. Queenston lies to the bottom left. Beyond lies Newark and Fort Niagara at the mouth of the river (upper centre), and the north side of Lake Ontario (skyline).
Library and Archives Canada, C-003240.
LIFE IN UPPER CANADA IN 1812
To understand just how different life in Upper Canada was in 1812 compared to today, one need only look to a publication called A Statistical Account of Upper Canada produced by Robert Gourlay in 1817. Using a series of detailed surveys and questionnaires sent out to the various townships in the pre-war period, Gourlay produced the following under a variety of headings:
It is bounded north easterly by Lower Canada, from the St. Lawrence to the Hudson’s Bay: northerly by that territory: south easterly by the United States. Its western limits are unknown … In 1784, the whole country was one continued forest. Some plains on the borders of Lake Erie, at the head of Lake Ontario, and at a few other places, were thinly wooded: but, in general, the land in its natural state was heavily loaded with trees; and after the clearings of more than 30 years, many wide spread forests still defy the settler’s axe….[1]
Agriculture
Wheat is the staple of the province … [while] other grains, such as rye, maize (here called corn), pease, barley, oats, buck-wheat, etc. are successfully cultivated. The townships round the bay of Quinte, produce large harvests of pease, and generally furnish supplies of that article of provisions for the troops of the various garrisons…. The principal fruit of Upper Canada is the apple. The various species of this most useful of fruits grow in all the districts; but most plentifully around Niagara and thence westward to the Detroit where they have been cultivated with emulation and success. No country in the world exceeds these parts of the province in this particular…. Peaches flourish at Niagara … cherries, plums, pears, and currants succeed … [while] … Elder, wild cherries, plums, thorns, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, and many other bushes, shrubs, and vines abound…. Strawberries grow freely in the meadow, and are cultivated with success in gardens. The gardens produce, in abundance, melons, cucumbers, squashes, and all the esculent vegetables that are planted in them. The potatoe … finds a congenial and productive soil in many parts….[2]
Trade
There were, in 1810, 132 licensed retailers. At the same time there were no less than 76 licensed pedlars … Much of the trade of the country is a species of indirect barter. The merchant trusts his customers with goods, and at the proper season, receives their produce in payment, and forward it by way of remittance to the importer…. The value of copper coins is not regulated by statute … and no person is obliged by law to receive, at one payment, more than a shilling in copper money…. Most of the circulating specie is gold. Its plenty or scarcity is affected by the fluctuations of crops and markets, and the varying state of commercial intercourse with the United States. Army bills, as a medium of circulation, grew out of the war. They were substituted for specie, of which there was such a scarcity, that many private individuals issued their own notes, which passed for some time instead of cash…. There is no bank in the province….[3]
This situation is not really surprising when Gourlay reported that the hard currency of the province included the use of more than a dozen different coinages, derived from no less than eight different foreign mints, and each having its own rate of exchange.
One of the region’s principal exports was furs, derived from the Native hunting or trapping of: beaver, bear, fox, otter, martin, mink, lynx, wolverine, wolf, elk, deer, and buffalo, to name but a few. In exchange for these furs:
… the Indians receive coarse woolen cloths, milled blankets, arms and ammunition, tobacco, Manchester goods, linens, and coarse sheetings, thread, lines and twine, common hardware, cutlery, and ironmongery, kettles of brass and copper, sheet iron, silk and pocket handkerchiefs, hats, shoes and hose, calico and printed cottons &c.
These goods being ordered in the fall, are shipped from London in the spring, arrive in Canada in the summer, are made up and packed in the winter, forwarded from Montreal in May following, reach the Indian markets the next winter, where they are exchanged for skins, which are received the next fall at Montreal, whence they are shipped chiefly to London, where they are not sold or paid for until the ensuing spring. Thus is the course of this trade, requiring capital, connexions, system, and perseverance….[4]
In addition to furs, the bountiful forests provided a wealth of timber resources including:
Beech, Maple, Birch, Elm, Bass, Ash, Oak, Pine, Hickory, Butternut, Balsam, Hazel, Hemlock, Cherry, Cedar, Red Cedar, Cypress, Fir, Poplar, Sycamore, Whitewood, Willow, Spruce, Chestnut, Black Walnut, and Sassafras … for a number of years past, large quantities of oak and pine timber have been annually cut on the banks of the St. Lawrence and lake Ontario, and its bays and creeks, and floated down on rafts to the Montreal and Quebec markets, for foreign exportation….[5]
Climate
March is the most unpleasant month in Upper Canada. The plough cannot yet move: sleighing is over: wheels sink in the mud; and the eye is out of humour with a piebald world…. During the beginning of May the leaves suddenly burst from confinement, and clothe the forests in their liveliest attire. Nature now strives amain and before June the grass may almost be seen to grow … the autumn is equal, if not superior to that of England; and the months of November and December are certainly so…. It is the belief of the inhabitants here that their winters are less rigorous and snowy than they were when the province was first settled. A snow which fell in February, 1811, about two feet and three inches deep, was every where spoken of as remarkable for its depth….[6]
Social Life
Diversions are similar to those of the interior of New England. Dancing is a favourite amusement of the youth. Athletic sports are common. Family tea parties are the most frequent scenes of sociability. The country is too young for regular theatric entertainments, and those delicacies and refinements of luxury, which are the usual attainments of wealth. Dissipation, with her fascinating train of expenses and vices, has made but little progress on the shores of the lakes…. In winter great use is made of sleighs; and sleighing parties are fashionable; but taverns and provisions for travellers are, in many parts of
