Boat travel

Your article on the batteau — a flatbottomed boat suited to travel turbulent rivers — struck a personal note ( Canada’s History, “The Unbeatable Batteau,” April-May 2019). My first ancestors in Canada, John and Latetia Hunt, led a family party of fifteen people to Canada from Ireland in 1832.

After a stormy six- week passage from Belfast, they arrived off Quebec City in June. They ascended the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers by batteau to Fitzroy Harbour, about thirty-two kilometres west of present-day Ottawa. My ancestors then walked eleven kilometres through the bush to the fiftyacre lot they purchased sight unseen. Their descendants still live in the area.

Russ Stewart Victoria