fourteen feet from the ground. There are several others of this species
near to the one I have described, of very large growth, which
apparently are sound, but not equalling it in size.

I left a noble oak-tree standing in the middle of one of my fields in
the township of Douro, which I hoped I should have been able to
preserve, as it was such a remarkably fine tree. It, however, was
doomed to destruction; for in the summer of 1838, it was twice struck
with lightning in the space of a week. The first time, the bark only
was furrowed by the electric fluid, but at the second stroke it was
split from the top to the bottom, and thrown down by the violence of
the shock. I measured this tree correctly, and found the diameter,
twenty-four feet from the ground, to be five feet three inches. The
length of the trunk was forty-eight feet up to the first branch, and it
was perfectly sound to within three or four feet of the soil.

Generally speaking, the white or American pine, from its vast length of
trunk, contains a larger number of cubic feet than any other tree in
the Canadian forest. I have seen several of these pines sold for masts,
the trunks of which were upwards of one hundred feet in length, and
full three feet in diameter, a third of the way up from the butt-end.
There is very little pine-timber on the Huron tract, which, though a
disadvantage in regard to building, is all the better in respect to the
land, hard wood being the best indication of a good soil.

I did not--as I have said--regret my transfer to Goderich, though that
flourishing town was then in its infancy, the most unpleasant aspect in
which any Canadian settlement can be viewed. Still, I am pleased that I
have had the opportunity of tracing some of these important places from
their dawn to their present prosperous condition.