Landnahme und Kolonisation in Canada am Beispiel Südontarios by Von Carl Schott (review)

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 443 When camethe stifledcry of liberty in a foreignland, Vermontheard. In 1837a dozenmassmeetings passed resolutions condemning not onlythe Canadian government for opposing the patriots,but alsothe UnitedStatesgovernment for maintainingneutrality. The bordertownsbecame military campswhereaid and succour weregivenwithoutstint to Canadianrefugees, andarmedforces werefitted out for a whole series of raids over the border. Not until 1839 did the frontier burnings and riotingscease and the embattledVermontsympathizers admit that they werebackinga lost cause. The great migrationwas, of course,to the west--steamboatto Whitehall on Lake Champlain, packet-boat to Troy on theChamplain canal,anotherpacketboat to Buffaloon the Erie canal,a steamerup the great lakesto Clevelandor Detroit, or GreenBay or Chicago. That wasthe favouriteway--andonly four weeksfrom Whitehall to Chicago. It was also the cheapway, the canal rate half a cent a mile. Deck passage,Buffalo to Detroit, cost $3.00. In winter familiesundertookto make the long, slow trudge entirely by wagon. Some, indeed, went on horseback,and someon foot at least as far as Ohio. Before1830the movement hadmountedto the tensof thousands.By 1820 genuine pioneers fromVermontweretrailingthe emptyprairielandsof northern Illinoisandthehinterlandof Detroit. Conspicuous in thedrift werepedlars and printers,new-fledged attorneysand physicians, but outnumbering them all were common farmerssearching for cheapland. Bankruptsjoinedthe procession for the rigoursof the debt lawsdrove them out. After 1830 the freshetbecamea flood,andin 1836forthefirsttimeemigrationbecame a publicquestion in thestate. Forty yearslater it wassaidthat every man of prominence in the Republican state organizationof Wisconsinwasa Vermonter. By 1840the ebbhadbecome a flowtidewith the firstappearance of Irishmen and FrenchCanadiansin the industrialtowns. By 1850 the namesof 14,000 Canadians appearin the census, but the samecensus showsthat nearly 100,000 Vermontershad madedomicilein otherstates,to say nothingof thosewho had goneto LowerCanada. TheseVermontmencarriedtheir place-names with themto the newwestand, on a later trek, numbersof thesenameswere carried to new frontier abodes. One finds Middleburg, Michigan, derived through Middleburg, New York, from Middleburg,Vermont;andWoodstock in Minnesotatracingits genealogy to the Green mountainsby way of Woodstock,Illinois. The bookis wellwritten. Canadian readers will findit interesting, not only for information bearingdirectlyor indirectlyonCanada,but alsoasanillustration of the methods whichare usefulin sucha studyof localhistory. For thosewho love foot-notesthere are 1,200 of them. There is no index. Lo•s B•,,•x•. Landnahmeund Kolonisationin Canadaam Beispiel Siidontarios. Von Ca_m. Scao•r. Mit 59 Figurenim text und 55 Abbildungenauf Kunstdrucktafeln. (SchriftendesGeographischen Institutsder UniversitlitKiel, herausgegeben yonO. SCmaIEDER, H. WENZEL, undH. WmaE•mr,BandVI.) Kiel,Schmidt& Klaunig. 1936. Pp. xvi, 330. IN Dr. Schott'sinteresting bookon southern Ontariowe possess a firstandvery valuablecontributionto the historicalgeography of the province. The taskof the historicalgeographer is nevereasy,for evenin a countryasyoungasCanada,the landscape whichmeets thegeographer's eyeto-dayoftenpresents a veryfalsepic- 444 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW ture of the past and presentrelationshipof the settler and his environment. To reconstruct, therefore,the originalcharacterof the southern Ontario landscape and to trace stepby step,as the author hasdone,its gradualtransformationunder Indian, French,and British occupation,hasbeena task requiringwide geographic knowledgeand historicalresearch. Both the breadth of the author's researches andthedifficulties naturallyinherentin the interrelating of historyand geography may perhapsbestbe seenin the organizationof the bookitself. In its organizationthe book falls into three major divisions. The first three chapters, someforty pages, discuss the geological structureandclimateof southern Ontario and attempt a detailed reconstructionof its physicalappearancein the early daysof Europeancolonization. There follow two very brief chapterson the Indian and French occupationof the region,after which the author turns to the period of British colonization,a sectionwhich absorbs somefour-fifths of the entire work. The author'streatment of the British periodfallsagaininto several, •omewhat less clearly marked divisions. The first twenty pagesdeal with the character and country of origin of new settlers to the provinceand discusstheir shifting distribution andinfluence fromearliesttimesto the present dayl Someseventy pagesare then devotedto the all-importantquestionof land-surveyand landdistribution ,in which the author discusses in detail the consequences of colonial land policyfrom the time of Simcoeuntil the settlementof the "Queen'sBush". Having thus.soto speak,placedthe settleruponthe land, the concluding sections of the book trace the gradual developmentof the countryside,its agriculture, transportation routes andindustry,growing urbancentres,andchangingarchitectural idealsfromthe beginning of the British periodto the presentday,with special emphasis, however, ontheperiodbefore1850. The bookiswellsupplied with maps and concludes with an excellentselectionof photographsand a very full and admirablyarrangedbibliography. The two chapterson structureand climate,whileperhapsundulybrief from a geographer's pointofview,formaninterestingbackground fortheremainderof the...