with music, dancing, card-playing, and every social entertainment that can beguile the time. At Montreal, in particular, such a constant and friendly intercourse is kept up amongst the inhabitants, that it appears then as if the town were inhabited by one large family.

Though the cold is so very intense in Canada, yet the inhabitants never suffer from it; constant experience having taught them how to guard against it effectually. In the first place, by means of stoves they keep their habitations as warm and comfortable as can be desired. In the large houses they generally have four or five stoves placed in the hall, and in the apartments on the groundfloor, from whence flues pass in different directions through the upper rooms. Besides these stoves, they likewise frequently have open fires in the lower apartments; it is more, however, on account of the cheerful appearance they give the room, than for the sake of the warmth they afford, as by the stoves the rooms can be heated to any degree. Lest any cold blasts should penetrate from without, they have also double doors, and if the house stands exposed, even double windows, about six inches apart. Nor do the inhabitants suffer from cold when they go abroad; for they never stir out without being nearly covered with furs. Their caps entirely cover the ears, the back of the neck and the greatest part of the face, and their large and thick cloaks effectually secure the body; besides which they wear fur gloves, muffs, and shoes.

The rapid progress of vegetation in Canada, as soon as the winter is over, is truly astonishing. Spring has scarcely appeared when you find it is summer. In a few days the fields are clothed with the richest verdure, and the trees obtain their foliage. The various productions of the garden come in after each other in quick succession, and the grain sown in May affords a rich harvest by the latter end of July. This part of the year, in which spring and summer are so happily blended together, is delightful beyond description; nature then puts on her gayest dress, at the same time the heat is not found oppressive before the beginning of August, when a few days often intervene when the heat is overcoming. The fall of the year is a most agreeable season in Canada, as well as the summer.

Though the winter be long and tedious, and the climate cold, yet the soil is in general very good, and in many parts both pleasant and fertile, producing wheat, barley, rye, with many other sorts of grain, fruits, and vegetables.

The style of farming amongst the generality of the French Canadians has hitherto been very slovenly; manure has been but rarely used, the earth just lightly turned up with the plough, and, without any other preparation, the grain sown: more than one half of the fields also have been left without any fences whatsoever, exposed to the ravages of cattle. But since the amazing influx of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland into Canada, the people are beginning to be more industrious and better farmers. They are also greatly encouraged by the merchants at Quebec and Montreal, who send agents through the country to the farmers to buy up all the corn they can spare; which they are bound to have ready on a certain day on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and boats are then sent by the merchants to receive and convey it to the place of destination.

The cultivated lands do not extend far back in general. Nearly all the settlements in Lower Canada lie contiguous to the St. Lawrence, and on the banks of streams flowing into it. This is chiefly owing to the disposition of the French Canadians, who, like the Germans in the United States, are fond of living near each other; nay more, as long as the farm of the father will admit of a division, a share of it is given to the sons when they are grown up; and it is only when the farm is very small, or the family numerous, that they ever think of taking up a piece of fresh land from the proprietor.

Besides the different kinds of grain already mentioned, garden vegetables of every description come to the greatest perfection in Canada, as well as most of the European fruits; the currants, gooseberries, and raspberries, are in particular very fine. The latter are found in profusion in the woods, as is also the vine; but the grapes which it produces in its uncultivated state are very poor, sour, and but little larger than fine currants. The variety of trees found in the forests of Canada is amazing, and it is supposed that many kinds are still unknown: beech trees, oaks, elms, ashes, pines, sycamores, chesnuts, walnuts, of each of which several different species are commonly met with. The sugar-maple tree is also found in almost every part of the country; a tree never seen but upon good ground. A maple tree of the diameter of twenty inches, will commonly yield sufficient sap for making five pounds of sugar each year; and instances have been known of trees yielding nearly this quantity annually for a series of thirty years. The maple is the only sort of raw sugar made use of in the country parts of Canada; it is very

generally used also by the inhabitants of the towns, whither it is brought for sale by the country people who attend the markets, just the same as any other kind of country produce. The sap of the maple tree is not only useful in yielding sugar, but most excellent vinegar may likewise be made from it: good table beer may also be made from the sap, and if distilled it affords a very fine spirit.

Towns, settlements, inhabitants, &c.—Quebec, the capital, not only of Lower Canada, but of all British America, was founded in the year 1607, by a colony from France, as already noticed, page 8 It is situated on a prominent point of land, on the north-west side of the river St. Lawrence, about 400 miles from the sea, in N. lat. 46° 52′, W. long. from London 71°, and 6° E. from Washington. It is eighty miles distant from the nearest point in the United States, in the state of Maine; 170 from Montreal; 243 from Plattsburgh, in the state of New York; and 421 from Albany, in the same state. The town is divided into upper and lower. The upper town stands on a high lime. stone rock, of great natural strength, and it is well fortified. The citadel is constructed on the highest part of Cape Diamond, 350 feet above the river, and is very strong the whole works have of late years been much improved. The lower town occupies the ground at the basis of the promontory, which has been gained from the cliffs, on one side, by mining, and from the river, on the other, by the construction of wharfs. This is the prin cipal place of commerce, and the residence of the merchants, being conveniently near their business; but it lies much exposed to an enemy, being defended merely by a small battery towards the bason, which, at the time of high tides, is nearly on a level with the water, and by batteries towards the river, in which guns may be planted when there is any danger of an attack.-The upper town, however, is a place of prodigious strength, and may justly be called a second Gibraltar.

In consequence of the peculiarity of situation, the streets are generally irregular and uneven, many of them very narrow, and but few of them are paved. The houses are for the most part built of stone, and are very rough and unsightly, the interior being plain and deroid of taste. The public buildings are numerous; but the greater part of them are equally destitute of taste and elegance with the private buildings; though much labour

i

and expense must have been bestowed upon their construction. The principal public buildings are the Catholic cathedral church, the Jesuits college, the seminary, Protestant metropolitan church, the court-house, the hotel Dieu, convent of Ursuline nuns, library, general hospital, &c. The monastery, once a building of considerable importance, was destroyed by fire in 1796, and the order became extinct.-In the year 1785, this city contained 6,472 inhabitants; the present population, from the most recent accounts, appears to be about 16,000; about twothirds of whom are of French extraction, who are gay and lively, and the inhabitants generally are represented as being polite and hospitable.

The river, opposite the city, is from 900 to 1,000 yards broad, and its greatest depth, at high water, thirty fathoms, the anchorage being every where safe and good. The flow of the tide is very strong, rising usually to eighteen feet, and at spring tides to twenty-four. The river, in winter, is mostly frozen over, when the scene becomes very amusing and interesting, affording the country people, on the south side, an opportunity of bringing their produce to market over the ice; and presenting a field for the exercise of the citizens, who are frequently seen driving their horses and carriages on the frozen surface of the river. Below the town, the river widens out into a spacious basin, capable of containing a vast quantity of shipping, of the largest size. Immediately below this, it is divided by the island of Orleaus into two streams, from whence it widens out to fifteen miles; at Saguenai river, 110 miles lower down, it is eighteen miles wide; at Cape Cat, 120 miles nigher the sea, it is thirty miles in breadth; and at its mouth, 120 miles further, it is no less than ninety miles wide, and discharges one of the largest collections of fresh water on the surface of the globe. It is navigable with ships of the line to Quebec, and, with vessels drawing fourteen feet water, to Montreal, 170 miles higher: small craft can proceed to Kingston, on lake Ontario, 193 miles above Montreal.-The tide flows to Three rivers, about eighty-five miles below Montreal.

Quebec was besieged by the British in 1711, without success; but was taken by them in September, 1759, when the gallant general Wolfe, who commanded the army of besiegers, lost his life. In December, 1775, it was at. tacked by the Americans, under the command of the brave general Montgomery, who was slain, and his army repulsed. Independent to what it owes to its fortifications, and situation on the top of a rock, Quebec is indebted

for much of its strength to the great length and severity of the winter; as in that season it is wholly impracticable for a besieging army either to carry on any works, or to blockade the town. It requires about 5,000 soldiers to man the works completely. A large garrison is always kept in it, and abundance of stores of every description. The troops are lodged partly in barracks, and partly in block-houses near Cape Diamond. The cape is strongly fortified, and may be considered as the citadel of Quebec; as it commands the town in every direction, and also the plains at the outside of the walls. Notwithstanding the great height of the rock, water of very good quality may readily be had even at the very top of it. About 10,000 stand of arms are kept in the armoury, arranged in a similar manner with the arms in the Tower of London; but, if possible, with greater neatness, and more fancy.

The market of Quebec is extremely well supplied with provisions of every kind, which may be purchased at a very moderate price. It is a matter of curiosity to a stranger, to see the number of dogs yoked to little carts that are brought into this market by the people who attend it. The Canadian dogs are found extremely useful in drawing burdens, and there is scarcely a family in Quebec or Montreal that does not keep one or more of them for that purpose. A single dog can draw a man of ten stone weight for a considerable distance; and people, during the winter season, frequently perform long journeys on the snow, with half a dozen or more of these animals yoked in a cariole* or sledge.

The society in Quebec is agreeable, and very extensive for a place of the size; owing to its being the capital of the lower province, and therefore the residence of the governor, different civil officers, principal lawyers, &c. These circumstances, added to the large garrison always 'supported here, render the town a gay and lively place.

From Quebec to Montreal, 170 miles, in sailing up the river, the eye is entertained with beautiful landscapes, the banks being in many places very bold and steep, and shaded with lofty trees. The farms lie pretty close all

The Canadian cariole, or sledge, resembles the body of a chaise placed upon two iron runners or slides, similar in shape to the irons of a pair of skates. It is culculated to hold two persons and a driver; and, unless when dogs are employed, is usually drawn by one horse, at the rate of eighty miles a day: if two horses are made use of, they are placed one before the other, as the track in the roads will not admit of their going abreast. The carioles glide over the snow with great smoothness, and so little noise do they make in sliding along, that it is necessary to have a number of bells attached to the harness, or a person continually sounding a horn, to guard against accidents.