Ontario

Ontario, the easternmost and smallest (7240 sq. m.) of the five great lakes of North America, receives at its south-west corner the waters of the upper lakes by the Niagara River, and at its north-east corner it issues into the St Lawrence. Its surface, which is subject to periodical variations (4 to 7 years) of about $3\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ feet, and which it is attempted to explain on the supposition of there being a subterranean river out of the lake, is $326\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ feet below the surface of Lake Erie and $246\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ feet above the ocean-level. Its mean depth is about 300, its maximum depth 738 feet. It is 190 miles long, 55 in its widest part, and over 500 in circumference. It has many thriving ports, of which the chief are Kingston, Coburg, Port Hope, Toronto, and Hamilton on the Canadian shore, and Sackett's Harbor, Oswego, and Charlotte in the United States. It is connected with Lake Erie by the Welland Canal, with the Erie Canal and river Hudson by the Oswego Canal, and by the Rideau Canal with the Ottawa; and in 1890 a ship-railway (69 miles) was projected, to connect this lake with Lake Huron. Lake Ontario is subject to violent storms, and it is probably owing chiefly to the constant agitation of its waters that it freezes only for a few miles from the shore. The shores are generally very flat, but the Bay of Quinte, near Kingston, a long, crooked arm of the lake, which stretches about 50 miles, possesses some attractive scenery. Burlington Bay, on which Hamilton lies, is a large basin almost enclosed by a natural bank of sand, which forms a beautiful drive. See Crosman's Chart (1888).