Goulbourn Twp Survey 1817

4 Sept 2014
  I have to adjust my schedule due to a large number of
personnel in letter, M=33, Will follow letter L which will
follow the next and last post of Goulbourn Survey.
  " The whole area of what was to become Goulbourn twp.
as we know it, was a dense forest at the time, and it can be
readily understood that these survey's were not accomplished
without great difficulty and hardship.
  The surveyors nevertheless finished the ninth line, the tenth
and even all of the eleventh. (The 12th is never mentioned ???)
  During that fall, Mr. Ryder had to return to Perth frequently
for more rations, and, as one can imagine, these trips were no
Sunday drive in the country.
  Take the 16th of November, for instance; here he writes in
his diary the following; - 'Sent my party from Perth to the
Mississippi River with a load of rations and to return next day
for a second load, in order to take the whole down the river
with a raft to the grand falls, from whence I can distribute
them through the rear of said township, which? case the land
road being so very bad and swampy that it is almost impossible
to get rations out that way to any purpose. The distance so far
and so wholly through the wilderness, a man would almost
consume his whole load in going forward and backward-'.
  On the 3rd of November, they battled a severe storm, which
brought them eight inches of snow and confined them to camp
for more than two days, as surveying had been made completely
impossible during that time.
  Then, having run the 11th concession line backwards to lot one,
Ryder's men pounded the last stake of their assignment at the
intersection of the town line and concession 11 (near the former
Ashton [Railway] station on December 8th. Next day they broke
camp and headed for Perth, which they reached on December 10th,
at approximately nine o'clock in the evening"
  Con't next week 11/12 Sept.