Water transportation was still the key to the interior of Canada. Although shallow water and rapids prevented large vessels from travelling beyond Montreal, small wooden boats, called "bateaux" were able to navigate the upper St. Lawrence River. These boats carried raw materials out of the Upper Canadian hinterland to Montreal and returned inland with manufactured goods and immigrants from Europe. The trip was slow, hazardous, and sometimes expensive as boats often overturned in the rough water between Montreal and Kingston. Beyond Kingston, sailing vessels carried goods and people around Lake Ontario but the western section of the Great Lakes remained cut off from the east by the Niagara Falls.
