there by
rocks, around which the rapids leap in unceasing frenzy, ere they take
their last plunge into the maddened gulf below, thence rolling their
dark waters beneath your feet. Below the falls the river is spanned by a
very light and beautiful suspension-bridge. This part of the scene is
enlivened by the continual descent of timber-rafts rushing down the
slides, skilfully guided by their hardy and experienced navigators.
Around you is a splendid expanse of waving field and sombre forest, far
as the eye can stretch, and bounded towards the north by mountains
looming and half lost in distance, whence comes the mighty Gatineau--a
watery highway for forest treasure, threading its course like a stream
of liquid silver as the sun's rays dance upon its bosom,--the whole
forming one of the most beautiful panoramas imaginable.

No place was ever better calculated for the capital of a great country.
Bordering upon Upper and Lower Canada, only twelve hours from Montreal,
easily capable of defence, with a trade increasing in value as rapidly
as the source thereof is inexhaustible, at the confluence of two rivers
whose banks are alike rich in timber and arable land--requiring but
nineteen miles of lockage to unite the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the
Gatineau with the boundless inland lakes of America--possessing the
magnificent Rideau Canal, which affords a ready transport down to
Kingston on Lake Ontario--rich with scenery, unsurpassed in beauty and
grandeur, and enjoying a climate as healthy as any the world can
produce,--Nature seems to have marked out Bytown as the site for a
Canadian metropolis. In short, were I a prophet instead of a traveller,
I should boldly predict that such it must be some day, if Canada remain
united and independent.

I must here explain the slides for lumber, before alluded to. In days
gone by, all lumber was shot down the rapids, to find its way as best it
could, the natural consequence being that large quantities were
irrecoverably lost. It occurred to Mr. Wright that this waste of toil
and timber might be obviated, and he accordingly, after great labour and
expense, succeeded in inventing what is termed a slide--in other words,
an inclined wooden frame--upon which a certain number of the huge logs
that compose a portion of a raft can be floated down together in perfect
security, under the guidance of one or two expert men. The invention
answered admirably, as is proved by the fact that, through