LETTER XVII. ST. LAWRENCE-STEAM BOATS-SORELL-LAKE ST. PETER THREE RIVERS-RICHELIEU RAPID-RIVER JACQUES CARTIER -CAPE ROUGE-RIVER CHAUDIERE-PLAINS OF ABRAHAMWOLFE'S COVE- QUEBEC - LOWER TOWN -UPPER TOWN STREETS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS-LEGISLATIVE BODIES-UR- EMIGRANTS-FORTIFICATIONS RELIGION IN CANADA-SERMONS. Quebec, November, 1818. FROM Montreal to Quebec the distance is 180 miles, and till within these few years the customary mode of travelling was by calashes, along the bank of the river, where there was a regular establishment of post houses under government regulation. There are now several steam boats of a very large size employed between the two cities, and I have made two passages in the Car of Commerce,' one of the most modern and most elegant. The fare The Car of Commerce measures about 600 tons, and yet has only one engine of about 60 horse power. Her shortest passage down the river was performed in 164 hours including stoppages, her shortest up in 28. On one occasion she took up 1360 emigrants from Quebec to Montreal; the fare paid by each was two dollars, making in all £612 sterling for a single trip. It is said that three births took place on board, between the one port and the other. including provisions is 10 dollars, £2, 5s. sterling, down the river, and 12 dollars, £2, 14s. sterling, up; the difference is occasioned by the increased length of time which it usually requires to stem the current. The steam boats on the St. Lawrence convey goods as well as passengers, and it is probable that they will soon supersede almost entirely the arrival of square rigged vessels at Montreal. There are some strong rapids between the two cities, and the passage must always be uncertain, and often tedious, to vessels that are entirely dependent on the force of the wind; it has even on some occasions been known to consume more time than the crossing of the Atlantic. It is now becoming common for vessels from Britain to discharge their cargoes into a steam boat at Quebec, by which they are brought up to Montreal in two or three days. The banks of the river below Montreal are flat and uninteresting; a little village appears here and there with its tin-covered steeple, but in general the white-washed houses of the habitans are scattered individually at pretty regular intervals along the shore. About forty-five miles below Montreal, on the right, the river Sorell flows into the St. Lawrence, and upon its eastern shore is the town of William Henry, formerly called Sorell. Here our steam boat stopped to receive a supply of fire-wood. The town is a dull looking place, built principally of wood, and originally peopled by loyalists who left SORELL-LAKE ST. PETER. 177 the United States at the revolution, and by a few disbanded soldiers. The Sorell is the outlet of lake Champlain, and were it possible to render it navigable by vessels of considerable size, it would afford a most convenient means of commercial intercourse with the interior of the State of New York, and form a direct chain of communication with the great western canals. For the present, however, it is only passed by small open boats and rafts of timber; rapids and shallows begin within fourteen miles of its mouth, and continue with little intermission to the village of St. John's near lake Champlain. It is remarkable that the Sorell, unlike most rivers, contracts very considerably as it approaches its outlet. At St. John's the channel is more than 500 yards wide, which gradually diminishes towards the basin of Chambly, and after issuing from it, the average width is not more than 250 yards. Immediately below William Henry, a whole archipelago of islands are scattered in the stream, dividing the river into a multitude of channels. Issuing from among them we enter lake St. Peter, one of those expansions which are so common in American rivers. This one is about twenty miles long, and from seven to ten broad. Extensive shallows run along both shores, and contribute very much to preserve that smoothness on the surface which harmonizes with our usual ideas of a lake. About ten miles below its termination we reach |