300 THE PIONEERS OF OLD ONTARIO
unnoticed by them, went to the tub, helped him-self and died directly after reaching home."
In addition to these tragedies the drink habit interfered sadly with the training of the young. Even amongst school teachers drunkenness was common in the early days. One of the Bruce pioneers told of his school being closed for days while the teacher was on a spree.
A TEMPERANCE TOWNSHIP
About 1868 descendants of the Oro pioneers undertook in turn the work of pioneering in the country adjacent to where the Nottawasaga River enters Georgian Bay. Among those who took part in this movement were the Langmans, Cottons, Andersons, Lockes, Hunters, and Camerons. These, locating in what was then unbroken bush, formed the settlement of which Crossland is now the centre.
"When we located," said Noah Cotton, one of these Flos pioneers, "there was nothing but a lumberman's road to Elmvale, five miles away. In the first fall after our arrival we managed to get in five acres of fall wheat. Although we suffered nothing like the hardships met with by the first settlers in neighbouring townships that were opened up at an earlier period, we had it hard enough. On my way home from Elmvale with my first grist I had to drive a good part of the way through mud that in many places flowed over the top of the jumper. The tails of the oxen, standing out straight behind, actually floated over this slimy mass and the bags of flour were coated with mud.