the way, several gentlemen's houses, neatly built, shew themselves at intervals, and there is all the appearance of a flourishing colony. Passengers who chuse to travel by land, may either have a calash to go the whole way, or from post-house to post-house. Between the two towns they genereally make twenty-four posts; and you get into Montreal on the morning of the third day, without travelling by night. The usual charge for posting is only 1s. 3d. a league, or 5d. an English mile. The road runs the whole way along the St. Lawrence, and may be said to be almost a continued street; one house succeding another so quickly, that there is not a mile vacant throughout the whole extent. Except the town of Trois Rivieres, there is scarcely any place that deserves the name of a town; but every parish church has a village in its neighbourhood; and of these there are, between Quebec and Montreal, upwards of twenty. Many of these villages are probably the beginnings of large county towns; for here the parishes contain as much ground as many of the counties do in England. All the houses have a remarkably handsome appearance at a distance, and the churches are kept in the neatest repair; most of them have spires, covered with tin, that, from being put on in a particular manner, never becomes rusty. It is pleasing beyond description to behold one of these villages opening to the view, as you sail round a point of land covered with trees, the houses in it overhanging the river, and the spires of the charches sparkling through the groves with which they are encircled, before the rays of the setting sun.

The houses in Lower Canada are in general well furnished with beds, all in the French style, very large, and raised four or five feet high, with a palliasse, a mattress, and a feather bed. The dwellings for the most part are built of logs; but they are very compact and well furnished, the logs are made to fit closely together; instead of being left rough and uneven on the outside, are planed and whitewashed, and in the inside the walls are lined with deal boards.

Before dismissing the account of Quebec, it will be proper to briefly notice two scenes particularly deserving of attention, viz, the Fall of the river Montmorenci, and that of the Chaudiere; both in the vicinity of Quebec. The Montmorenci fall has been already noticed in page 357, and is tremendously magnificent. The fall in the river Chaudiere is not half the height of that of the Montmorenci, but it is 250 feet in breadth. The scenery round this cataract is much superior in every respect to that in the

neighbourhood of the Montmorenci. Contiguous to the latter there are few trees of any great magnitude, and nothing is near it to relieve the eye; there is the fall, and nought but the fall, to contemplate. The banks of the Chaudiere, on the contrary, are covered with trees of the largest growth, and amidst the piles of broken rocks, which lie scattered about the place, you have some of the wildest and most romantic views imaginable. As for the fall itself, its grandeur varies with the season: when the river is full, a body of water comes rushing over the rocks of the precipice that astonishes the beholder; but in dry weather, and during summer, the quantity of water is but trifling. At these times, the Montmorenci fall claims the superiority over the fall of La Chaudiere.

Montreal is the next town of any consequence upon the St. Lawrence; it is situated on the island of Montreal, which is thirty miles in length and ten in breadth, and has its name from a very high mountain about the middle of it, which it seems to overlook like a monarch from his throne; hence the French called it Mont-real, or Royal Mountain. The town is situated on the south side of the island, and near the upper end of it, at the distance of 170 miles south-west of Quebec, 110 north-west of Crown Point, on lake Champlain, 308 north-west of Boston, and 350 north-east of Niagara.. N. lat. 45° 35′, W. long. 73° 11' from London. It is a large and handsome place, containing about 14,00 houses (whereof 500 only are within the walls) and 9,000 inhabitants, the mass of whom are French Canadians. The principal part of the houses are in the suburbs, built chiefly of wood; the others of stone: none of them are elegant, but there are many comfortable habitations. This town has, at various times, suffered much by fire; to guard against which, most of the houses have sheet-iron shutters to the doors and windows, and the roofs of the houses are covered with tin plates instead of shingles, which gives them a dull and sombre appearance. The streets are all very narrow, three of which run parallel to the river, intersected by others at right angles, but not at regular distances. There are six churches in Montreal; one for English Episcopalians, one for Presbyterians, and four for Roman Catholics. The cathedral church belonging to the latter is a very spacious building, and contains five altars, all very richly decorated. There seems something in the Canadian climate unfavourable to the growth of Protestant churches, though the English inhabitants are great friends to Protestant ascendancy; a feeling less costly than church building. The college,

or seminary, is a capacious stone building, and has been lately repaired and enlarged; it was originally endowen as a branch of the seminary of Paris, and has afforded ad asylum, through the British government, to several of the members of the latter, who fled at the revolution. There are also four convents in Montreal, one of which is of the order of St. Francis. The barracks are situated near the river, at the lower end of the town, and will contain about 300 men.

The walls round the town are decaying fast, but the gates remain perfect. The walls were built principally as a defence against the Indians, by whom the country was thickly inhabited when Montreal was founded, and they were found useful in repelling the open attacks of these people in 1736: however, in their best state, these walls were not sufficient to protect the town against cannon.

Most of the eminent merchants in Montreal are either English, Scotch, Irish, or their descendants. The French retain the manners and customs of their ancestors, as well as language; they have an unconquerable aversion to learn English, and very few speak it: but the English inhabitants are well acquainted with the French language. The people of Montreal are extremely hospitable and attentive to strangers, sociable in private life, and fond of convivial

amusements.

The soil of Montreal is luxuriant, and much cultivated. The fur trade is carried on here to a great extent; most of the furs imported from Canada to England being shipped at this place. This very lucrative trade is carried on by the North West Company, and by some private individuals on their own account. The company has no peculiar law privileges, but from its great capital is enabled to trade into remote parts, to the exclusion of other traders. It was formed originally by the merchants of Montreal, who wisely considered that the trade could be carried on to those distant parts of the continent, inhabited solely by Indians, with more security and greater profit, if they joined together in a body. The stock of the company was divided into forty shares; it is now more numerous. The trade is principally carried on by means of the Utawas, or Grand River, which falls into the St. Lawrence about 30 miles above Montreal, and which forms by its confluence with that river, "Le Lac de Deux Montagnes et le Lac St. Louis," the lake of the two mountains and the lake of St. Louis; wherein are several large islands. Besides the furs and pelts conveyed down to Montreal from the north-western parts of the continent, by means of the Uta

was River, there are large quantities brought across the lakes, and down the river St Lawrence.

Trois Rivieres is situated on the St. Lawrence, 55 miles S. W. of Quebec. It contains 400 houses, and about 2,000 inhabitants, and ranks as the third town, in point of size, in the provinces. It is one of the oldest settlements in the country, but has increased very slowly in size, owing to the country bordering upon the St. Maurice not being yet settled. The streets are narrow, and the houses in general small and indifferent; many being built of wood. There are two churches in the town, the one English Episcopalian, the other a large Roman Catholic parish church. An old monastery of the Franciscan order, a large stone building, is now quite deserted; and many of the neighbouring houses are also uninhabited, giving to the whole a dull gloomy aspect. The college or monastery of the Jesuits has been converted into a gaol. The only religious order at present existing in the town is that of St. Ursule; the sisterhood are tolerably numereus. It was foueded by M. de St. Vallier, bishop of Quebec, in 1677. It is a spacious building, containg a chapel and hospital.

Between Trois Rivieres and Montreal, and forty-five miles below the latter, stands the town of Sorel, at the mouth of a river of the same name, which runs from lake Champlain into the St. Lawrence. It was laid out about the year 1787, and on an extensive plan, with very wide streets and a large square; but it does not yet contain above 120 houses, and most of these are meanly built. This is the only town on the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Quebec, wherein English is the predominant language. The inhabitants consist principally of loyalists from the United States who took refuge in Canada. The chief business carried on here is that of ship-building; there are several vessels annually launched from fifty to 200 tons burden; these are floated down to Quebec, and and there rigged. The river Sorel is deep at the mouth, and affords good shelter for ships from the ice, at the breaking up of winter: it is not navigable far beyond the town, even in boats, on account of the rapids.

The birch-tree is found in great plenty near this town; but it is from the more northern parts of the country, where the tree attains a very large size, that the principal part of the bark is procured that canoes are made with This bark somewhat resembles that of the cork-tree, bu. is of a closer grain, and more pliable, for it admits of being rolled up like a piece of cloth. The birch canoes made at Three Rivers are put together with the utmost neatness, and on the water they appear very beautiful.

The villages between Trois Rivieres and Montreal are very numerous, and the face of the adjacent country is pleasing to the eye of the traveller as he passes on; but there is nothing in this part of the country particularly deserving of mention.

UPPER CANADA.

Situation, oil, climate, &c.-Upper Canada lies to the north of the great lakes, and is separated from New York by the river St. Lawrence, and the lakes Ontario and Erie.

The soil of Upper Canada is well adapted to the growth of hemp; and iron ore is found in many parts of the country. Copper is also found here, in much greater abundance than iron, and is extracted from the earth with considerably less trouble: on the borders of a river, which falls into the south-west side of Lake Superior, virgin copper is found in the greatest abundance; as also on most of the islands on the eastern sides of it. The face of the country is invariably flat; the picturesque is but scantily spread through this tract of country: occasionally, however, on emerging from a dark clump of pines, or hickory wood, the eye dwells with pleasure on the course of the river, broken with wooded islands, and foaming over a thousand rocks.

The winters in Upper Canada are very severe whilst they last; but the snow seldom lies longer than three months on the ground. The summers are intensely hot; Fahrenheit's thermometer often rising to 96°, and sometimes above 100°. There are luxuriant crops of Indian corn, some of the stems of which grow as high as seven or eight feet: between the rows they sow gourds, squashes, and melons, of which last every sort attains to a state af great perfection in the open air, throughout the inhabited parts of the two provinces. Peaches, in this part of the country, likewise come to perfection in the open air; but in Lower Canada the summers are too short to permit them to ripen sufficiently.

Towns, settlements, inhabitants, &c.-Kingston is situated at the mouth of a deep bay, at the north-eastern extremity of lake Ontario, containing about 250 houses, and 2,000 inhabitants. It contains a fort and barracks, and an English episcopalian church. The fort is of stone, and consists of a square with four bastions; it was erected