This important region (the valley of the Ottawa) takes the name by which it is designated in popular parlance from the mighty stream which flows through it, and which, though it be but a tributary of the St. Lawrence, is one of the largest of the rivers that run uninterruptedly from the source to the discharge within the dominions of the Queen.  It drains an area of about 80,000 square miles, and receives at various points in its course the waters of streams, some of which equal in magnitude the chief rivers of Great Britain.  These streams open up to the enterprise of the lumberman the almost inexhaustible pine forests with which this region is clothed, and afford the means of transporting their produce to market.  In improving these natural advantages considerable sums are expended by private individuals.  L50,000 currency was voted by Parliament last session for the purpose of removing certain obstacles to the navigation of the Upper Ottawa, by the construction of a canal at a point which is now obstructed by rapids.

[Sidenote:  Demand for labour.]

From the nature of the business, the lumbering trade falls necessarily in a great measure into the hands of persons of capital, who employ large bodies of men at points far removed from markets, and who are therefore called upon to make considerable advances in providing food and necessaries for their labourers, as well as in building slides and otherwise facilitating the passage of timber along the streams and rivers.  Many thousands of men are employed during the winter in these remote forests, preparing the timber which is transported during the summer in rafts, or, if sawn, in boats, to Quebec when destined for England, and up the Richelieu River when intended for the United States.  It is a most interesting fact, both in a moral and hygienic view, that for some years past intoxicating liquors have been rigorously excluded from almost all the chantiers, as the dwellings of the lumbermen in these distant regions are styled; and that, notwithstanding the exposure of the men to cold during the winter and wet in the spring, the result of the experiment has been entirely satisfactory.

The bearing of the lumbering business on the settlement of the country is a point well worthy of notice.  The farmer who undertakes to cultivate unreclaimed land in new countries, generally finds that not only does every step of advance which he makes in the wilderness, by removing him from the centres of trade and civilisation, enhance the cost of all he has to purchase, but that, moreover, it diminishes the value of what he has to sell.  It is not so, however, with the farmer who follows in the wake of the lumbermen.  He finds, on the contrary, in the wants of the latter, a ready demand for all that he produces, at a price not only equal to that procurable in the ordinary marts, but increased by the cost of transport from them to the scene of the lumbering operations.  This circumstance, no doubt, powerfully contributes to promote the settlement of those districts, and attracts population to sections of the country which, in the absence of any such inducement, would probably remain for long periods uninhabited.[4]

[Sidenote:  Wild land.]