Lake Huron Map Description

Right at the beginning of this century a map was produced that had been commissioned by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe just before he retired in 1796. Although no lakes appear north of the Severn River the details of Lake Simcoe, the Severn River and the southern parts of Georgian Bay itself are a great improvement over any before it. The stage had been set for moving north into native land.

Captain Henry Bayfield surveyed Georgian Bay and the bay of Parry Sound in 1822 giving many of the modern names to the bays and islands he found including the name Georgian Bay after King George IV. The War of 1812 between British North America and the young United States prompted effort on the behalf of the British to secure its holding.

The land then improves a little, soil a black sandy loam but not sufficiently deep for agricultural purposes, and timbered with a small growth of hardwood, at one mile I intersected the shore of Lake Huron, but could not see any extent of the lake, in consequence of the numerous islands and bays, that indent this part of its coast*. I then explored northerly 2½ miles keeping at the medial distance of half a mile from the lake — land as last described namely soil shallow and timbered with small hardwood. From there I returned going about north-east, the land undulates and is of a good quality, soil clay and timbered with large

In support that I did I have only to observe that I was then seven days traveling westerly from the line and the distance from it to the lake does not exceed twenty-five miles.

There is obviously a debate about where Richardson was on August 25. However, later knowledge of the area shows that this indeed was Blackstone Lake and not a bay of Lake Huron clogged with islands. Using his own figure of 25 miles from the `line ', the Walker-Hawkins line that delineates the eastern boundary of Watt Twp at Skeleton Lake, he is much closer to Blackstone Lake than Lake Huron about a further 5 mi.

The weather during this lateral excursion was terrible. Although Richardson does not indicate the weather, the main party of Hawkins, still near Lake Rosseau does and it mostly rains from August 24 through to August 31, delaying significantly their progress. This inclement weather, the remoteness and difficult terrain causes significant problems with their supplies and the surveying parties are placed under half rations. A normal ration for the team was a quarter pound pork, 2 bowls of pea soup and a quarter of a cake. It was reduced to two times a day instead of three. This forced the party to hunt for several partridges every day — and then it got worse! The rest of the party did not receive their next consignment of provisions. All of the men were in danger of starving.