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Presqu'isle Harbour

Table of Contents



Title Page
Preface.
Dedication.
Harbours And Port
Toronto Harbour, Or Bay
The Port Of Liverpool, Or Pickering, Formerly Called Frenchman's Bay
Whitby Harbour
Oshawa
Port Darlington
Raby Head
Bond Head, Or Port Of Newcastle
Port Hope
Cobourg
Grafton
Colborne
Presqu'isle Harbour
Scotch Bonnet Lighthouse
Weller's Bay
Kingston Harbour
Sackett's Harbour
Port Ontario
Oswego Harbour
Little Sodus Bay
Big Sodus Bay
Genesee River
Oak Orchard Creek
Niagara River
Port Dalhousie
Port Of Hamilton & Burlington Canal
Oakville
Port Credit
Wellington Square, And Nelson Or Bronte
Port Britain
Extract From "An Act To Compel Vessels To Carry A Light During The Night And To Make Sundry Provisions To Regulate The Navigation Of The Waters Of This Province." 14 & 15 Victoria, Chap. 126
Royal Humane Society's Directions for the Reocvery Of The Apparently Drowned
Table of Illustrations
Index

Twenty-four miles E. 1/4 N. of Cobourg is the west or bluff point of Presqu' Isle, well wooded, and with 90 feet water within a short distance of the shore.

LIGHTHOUSE.

Five miles N. E. by E. of this point will bring you abreast of the lighthouse, which is 67 feet high, and upon which there is a very good fixed bright light, that can be seen in fine weather from 12 to 15 miles.

Immediately under the lighthouse, to the southward, there is shoal water with boulders; but by keeping half a mile from the shore, this danger is casily avoided.

CHANNEL.

The channel which leads into this fine harbour now becomes difficult, owing to the shoals which surround it being entirely destitute of buoys or beacons to mark them.

When making this harbour in the day time, steer to within 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile S. by E. of the lighthouse ; thence N. by E. for a very large and solitary Pine Tree, which stands on the main land, some distance from the shore; (this object is so conspicuous as to render a mistake impossible;) continue this course for a mile and a quarter, or until the range lights (in the harbour) are brought into line ; then alter your course, and steer S. W. directly for the eastermost of the two lights.

HARBOUR LIGHTS,

At night, as the pine tree cannot so well be seen, steer N. by E. until the range lights are seen in line ; then change your course, steering directly for them, (that is S.W.) keeping within fifty yards N. of the point on which this range light is built, (or even nearer,) as there is from 18 to 22 feet water directly under it. Having passed this point, anchor in the little bay between the two range lights.

DANGERS.

1. Between the main lighthouse on the S. E. point and the range light on the N. E. point, extending in a north-easterly direction for about 3/4 of a mile, is a shoal called the "Middle Ground," having only from 4 to 6 ft. water on it, and formed of coarse gravel, sand, and mud. Captain Halbutt, who has traded to this port for many years, told me, that when the Lake is high, he is in the habit of taking his schooner across this shoal, through a channel close to the two lights, his vessel, when laden, drawing 9 feet.

2. To the north of the lighthouse built on the N. E. point, running out from the main land, there is a low, marshy spit, destitute of timber, but easily recognised by a large dead Elm tree, bearing due N. of the lighthouse : from this point, extending west and south-west, there is another formidable shoal, upon which the Passport got ashore on 29th October, 1856.

I have called this, Elm Tree Point and Shoal : the channel between the beacon light, middle ground, and elm tree shoal, is about 1/2 a mile wide..

3. W. N. W. of the second range light, there is another small shoal called,"Four Acre Shoal," nearly half a mile from the shore, but with plenty of water all round it. The existence of this shoal renders it hazardous at night to stretch too far into the bay beyond the second range light.

4. Two miles E. S. E. of the main lighthouse, there is a dangerous rocky shoal in the Lake, with only from 3 to 5 feet water upon it. It is to the eastward of the course steered from the lighthouse for the Scotch Bonnet; and one mile S. E. of this, again, there is another but smaller shoal.

These shoals would materially obstruct the entrance into Weller's Bay.

 


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electronic edition is based on the original in the collection of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston.