per so to do.]

[Footnote AP: _Vide_ Chapter on the "Constitution of the United
States."]

CHAPTER XIX.

_A Trip to the Uttawa_.

Having spent a fortnight in the enjoyment of lovely scenery and warm
hospitality, and taken a last and lingering gaze at the glorious
panoramic view from the citadel, I embarked once more on the St.
Lawrence. It was evening; and, as the moon rose bright and clear, the
wooded banks and silvered stream formed as charming a picture as the eye
of man could wish to rest upon. Morning found us at Montreal. Among my
fellow-passengers were two members of the Cabinet, or Executive Council,
Mr. Hincks and Mr. Drummond, both on their way to the Ottawa, the
commercial importance of that river to the prosperity of the colony
having induced them to take the trip with a view of ascertaining, by
actual observation and examination, what steps were most advisable to
improve its navigation.

My intention was to start at once for Kingston; but when they kindly
asked me to accompany them, I joyfully accepted, and an hour after I
landed at Montreal I was on the rail with my friends, hissing away to
Lachine, where the chief office of the Hudson's Bay Company is fixed.
There we embarked in a steamer on Lake St. Louis, which is a struggling
compound of the dark brown Ottawa and the light blue St. Lawrence. The
lake was studded with islands, and the scenery rendered peculiarly
lovely by the ever-changing lights and shades from the rising sun. We
soon left the St. Lawrence compound and reached that part of the
Ottawa[AQ] which the poet has immortalized by his beautiful "Canadian
Boat Song."

St. Anne's is a small village, and the rapids being impassable in low
water they have built a lock to enable steamers to ascend; but
fortunately, when we passed, there was sufficient water, and we steamed
up the song-famed rapids, above which the river spreads out into the
Lake of the Two Mountains. It is proposed to build a railway bridge for
the main trunk line, just above the rapids. How utterly the whizzing,
whistling kettle spoils the poetry of scenery, undeniable though its
utility be! There is no doubt that the Lake of the Two Mountains has
many great beauties; but, whatever they may be, a merciless storm of
rain effectually curtained them from us, and we traversed the whole lake
to Point Fortune in a mist worthy of the Western Highlands. There we
took coach, as the locks at Carillon are not yet large enough