A very mistaken notion prevails abroad respecting the lands in the vicinity of Kingston. Some one from this establishment, last week had occasion to visit the two townships at the head of this article and from his report, we feel ourselves authorized to say, that better land and finer settlements can scarcely be found in the more highly praised portions of Canada West.

The Township of Camden lies due north of Ernestown, twenty miles from Kingston, and Sheffield back of Camden, both in a north westerly direction. Camden is almost entirely settled with the exception of a few Canada Company and Clergy Lots. The Napanee River runs through the finest portion of the township, affording abundant water power, of which the inhabitants have taken full advantage, in the shape of the following villages; Peter’s Mills, Simcoe High Falls, Camden Village or Clark’s Mills, Hoopers’ Town and Newburgh. There is also another village in the middle of the township called Centerville, formerly Whalen’s Corners, in which the Town Hall is located and in which all township business is transacted. Some of those villages are quite large, such as Newburgh and Camden Village, within two miles of each other and nearly all have Post Offices, Churches, Stores, Mills, Factories and Taverns. The roads are becoming really excellent. A newly macadamized road commences at the junction with the Toronto Road, at champion Smith’s farm and runs due north to Centerville, passing through Camden village, a distance of 14 miles; all of which is graded and most of which is covered with gravel. It has two Toll Gates already erected on it. This road is to be continued to Tamworth, the chief village of Sheffield and part of it is already under contract. It passes through so fine a country, that a mile or two of bush is quite a rarity. The Saw Mills in Camden are numerous and doing great work. The road along the Napanee River, from Peters’ Mills to Napanee is lined with piles of Boards for the New York market and hundreds of teams are daily employed in drawing them to Napanee, there to be shipped in schooners to Oswego in the Spring. It is scarcely possible to conceive the immense quantities of lumber thus piled along the road. The prosperity of the country is displayed in the handsome edifices and the substantial buildings everywhere to be seen in connection with this splendid cash lumber trade. Talk of “ruin and decay” – may such ruin and decay always be seen and felt in the Townships of Camden!

Sheffield is not so fine a township as its southern neighbor, neither is it so well settled. The Salmon River runs through it in parallel lines with the Napanee, emptying itself into the Bay of Quinte at Shannonville, and affording mill sites every few miles, all of which are occupied. Tamworth, the residence of Calvin Wheeler, Esq., the original settler of this township, is a very beautiful hamlet on the banks of the Salmon river, possessing the usual accommodations of Canadian villages, but rather sparse in population. It is 37 miles distance from Kingston, with a good Macadamized road to it nearly all the way and it must, from its excellent position, soon become a rising and prosperous town.

The water power is never failing and 3 mills are in constant operation. The inhabitants complain bitterly of the want of postal accommodation. A weekly mail goes from Kingston, but this is not sufficient for the wants of the settlers, now that so many American and other lumber speculators are flooding the back country. The mail arrives and departs from the villages in Camden three times a week, while that to Tamworth pays only a weekly visit. It was long ere Post Office Authorities would consent to allow of this lonely hebdomadal trip, on the alleged score of want of remuneration; but this can be pleaded no longer; for Mr. Wheeler, the Postmaster at Tamworth, assured our reporter, that the weekly mail greatly overpaid its expense, and that a bi-weekly or tri-weekly mail would be sure to succeed in like manner. It is needless to expect that any thing will be done in the present unsettled state of the Canada Post Office; but as soon as its control passes into the had of the Provincial Authorities, we intend to take up the cudgels entirely for the people of Sheffield, and strive to obtain for them enlarge postal facilities. When a mail route can pay it should be undertaken.

Kennebec is the township back of Sheffield. Our reporter did not visit it, but met some lumbermen in Tamworth who told him strange news. That fully eight hundred men are now in the Kennebec woods, getting out saw logs for the Oswego market, to be driven down the Salmon River to Shannonville and thence rafted across the lake, in tow of a steamboat. There is not so much pine in this portion of Canada that it needs be sent away in an unmanufactured state; and since the United States Government is so inimical to Canadian interests, in the way of Reciprocity, we do not think it improper to lay some restrictive regulation upon the exportation to the United States of saw logs, while Canada possesses so many mills, to manufacture them into boards. One pithy remark must conclude this short notice of two fine townships. Our reporter was out on business and the money that was paid him consisted almost entirely of American Half Dollars and New York notes.