Lake Ontario, out of which the river St. Lawrence flows, is nearly two
hundred miles long, and in some places seventy miles wide. It has
generally low shores and but few islands, and the name given it by
Champlain was Lake St. Louis, after the King of France. The original
Indian name, however, has since been retained, Ontario meaning "how
beautiful is the rock standing in the water." Three well-known
Canadian cities are upon its shores--Hamilton at the western end,
Toronto on the northern coast, and Kingston near the eastern end.
Hamilton is a busy, industrial and commercial city of fifty thousand
people, having a good harbor. The great port, however, is Toronto,
with over two hundred thousand inhabitants, the capital of the
Province of Ontario, and the headquarters of the Scottish and Irish
Protestants, who settled and rule Upper Canada, the richest and most
populous province of the Dominion. Toronto means "the place of
meeting," and the word was first heard in the seventeenth century as
applied to the country of the Hurons, between Lakes Huron and Simcoe,
the name being afterwards given to the Indian portage route, starting
from Lake Ontario, in the present city limits, over to that country.
Here, in 1749, the French established a small trading-post, Fort
Rouille, but there was no settlement to speak of for a century or
more. The United Empire Loyalists, under General Simcoe, founded the
present city in 1793 under the name of York, and it was made the
capital of Upper Canada, of which Simcoe was Governor. The location
was an admirable one. The portage led up a romantic little stream, now
called Humber River, while out in front was an excellent harbor,
protected by a long, low, forest-clad island, making a perfect
land-locked basin, sheltered from the storms of the lake. The nucleus
of a town was thus started on a tract of marshy land, adjoining the
Humber, familiarly known for nearly a half century as "Muddy Little
York," which characteristic a part of the city still retains, as the
pedestrian in falling weather can testify. Yet the site is a pleasing
one--two little rivers, the Humber and the Don, flowing down to the
lake through deep and picturesque ravines, having the city between and
along them, while there is a gradual slope upward to an elevation of
two hundred feet and over at some distance inland, an ancient terrace,
which was the bank of the lake.
The town did not grow much at first, and during the War of 1812 it was
twice captured by the Americans, but they could not hold it long. As
the back country was settled and lake navigation afterwards developed,
however, the harbor became of importance and the city grew, being
finally incorporated as Toronto. Then it got a great impetus and
became known as the "Queen City," its geographical advantages as a
centre of railway as well as water routes attracting a large
immigration, so that it has grown to be the second city in Canada, and
its people hope it may outstrip Montreal and become the first. It has
achieved a high rank commercially, and in religion and education, so
that there are substantial grounds for the claim, often made, that it
is the "Boston of Canada." It contains a church for about every
thousand inhabitants, Sunday is observed with great strictness, and it
has in the University of Toronto the chief educational foundation in
the Dominion, and in the _Toronto Globe_ the leading organ of Canadian
Liberalism. The city spreads for eight miles along the lake shore; the
streets are laid out at right angles, and there are many fine
buildings. Yonge Street, dividing the city, stretches northward from
the harbor forty miles inland to the shore of Lake Simcoe. There are
attractive residential streets, with many ornate dwellings in tasteful
gardens. St. James' Cathedral, near Yonge Street, is a fine Early
English structure, with a noble clock and a grand spire rising three
hundred and sixteen feet. There is a new City Hall, an enormous
Romanesque building with an impressive tower, and Osgoode Hall, the
seat of the Ontario Superior Courts, in Italian Renaissance, its name
being given from the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada. In Queen's
Park are the massive Grecian buildings of the Provincial Parliament,
finished in 1892 at a cost of $1,500,000. This Park contains a bronze
statue of George Brown, long a leading Canadian statesman, and a
monument erected in memory of the men who fell in repelling the Fenian
invasion of 1866.
The buildings of the University of Toronto, to the westward of the
Queen's Park, are extensive and form a magnificent architectural
group. The main building is Norman, with a massive central tower,
rebuilt in 1890, after having been burnt. There are fifteen hundred
students, and the University offers complete courses in the arts and
sciences, law and medicine. To the northward is McMaster Hall, a
Baptist theological college, tastefully constructed and liberally
endowed. From the top of the tall University tower there is an
admirable view over the city and far across the lake. The town
spreads broadly out on either hand, running down to the harbor, beyond
which is the narrow streak made by the low-lying island enclosing it.
Far to the southward stretch the sparkling waters of Ontario, reaching
to the horizon, while in the distance can be seen a faint little
silver cloud of spray rising from Niagara. In the northern background
villas dot the green and wooded hillsides, showing how the city
spreads, while in every direction the incomplete buildings and the
gentle distant noises of the builder's hammer and trowel testify to
its robust growth. Many steamers move about the harbor, and among them
are the ferry-boats carrying crowds over to the low-lying island, with
its many amusement places, the city's great recreation ground. At
Hanlon's Point, its western end, was long the home of Hanlon, the
"champion sculler of the world," one of Toronto's celebrities.