Excerpt from The Hand-Book of Toronto: Containing Its Climate, Geology, Natural History, Educational Institutions, Courts of Law, Municipal Arrangements, &C. &C In the Summer of 1855 the proof sheets of a Guide to Toronto with Niagara Falls as its starting point - were put into my hands by a Bookseller in town, to be corrected and revised - as the Work was going through the press, the gentleman who had prepared it having left the City. In order to verify and give a few additional touches to the description, I made a special trip to the Opening scene, and having gazed and gazed again upon that endless roll of living waters surging down into the foaming abyss, I took a conveyance at the Clifton House and proceeded leisurely along through the fine old district, taking special note of Lundy' s Lane, and the ancient Battle Field, on which the little village of Drummondville now quietly reposes; passed on through the village of Stamford to the summit of the Queenston Heights, - now sacred to the memory of the gallant Brock, Where, standing some 300 feet above the level of the Lake, you obtain a magnificent view of the surrounding country, and of the river now freed from its angry foam, silently pursuing its tortuous course and catch a stray glimpse of the Scarboro' Heights in the distance. I then descended to the little village of Queenston, crossed the river and took steamer for Toronto. In this way the incidents necessary to fill up a few pages of a Guide Book were carefully sketched. But the work appeared to me altogether too ephemeral, and although the greater part of it was in the press, the Bookseller at my request postponed its publication, until there was a field for something of more permanent value and on a broader basis. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.