ness having been adjusted, the
whip cracks, and you start to the exhilarating cry of "_marche donc_,"
at the rate of six, and often seven miles an hour.

The village of "_Trois Rivieres_" stands at the three mouths of the
_River St. Maurice_. It contains an Ursuline convent, which marks it for
a place of some note, in a catholic country; but it is still more worthy
of distinction, as being the residence of the amiable Abbe de la
Colonne, brother to the unfortunate French minister of that name.

Having engaged two experienced boatmen, and a bark canoe, Mr. Hall
ascended the St. Maurice, to visit the _falls of Shawinne Gamme_,
distant somewhat more than twenty miles. At his return, he left the St.
Maurice, and, having been ferried from _Berthier_ to _Contrecoeur_, he
proceeded, "_en caleche_," with two crebillions, towards _St. Ours_, in
the direction of the _Beloeil Mountain_, which was seen before him in
the misty horizon. The meadows were profusely decorated with orange
lilies; and the banks and dingles with the crimson cones of the sumac,
and a variety of flowering shrubs. Several brigs and merchants' ships
were dropping down with the tide, their crowded sails scarcely swelling
in the languid summer breeze.

The Canadian summer, observes Mr. Hall, is hot in proportion to the
severity of the winter; and the heat is sufficient to enable the
cultivator to raise Indian corn, water-melons, gourds, capsicums, and
such vegetables as require a short and intense heat. Hence the country
assumes the aspect of a Portuguese summer, by way of appendix to a
Russian winter.

Mr. Hall passed through the village of _Beloeil_; again crossed the
river, and proceeded towards the mountain, which towered, like an
immense wall of rock, above the flat surrounding country. Scattered at
its base were a few wretched houses, the inhabitants of which subsisted
by the produce of their apple-orchards.

The weather was excessively hot; and volumes of smoke, from the casual,
or intentional burning of the woods, every where clouded the horizon,
and seemed to give additional heat to the glowing landscape.

The basis of the _Montreal Mountain_ is freestone; the ascent is
consequently less steep, and the surface less broken, than that of
Beloeil: it is thickly wooded, and, from the river, forms an elegant
back-ground to the city.

_A Description of Montreal._

When approached from the water, the town of _Montreal_, which is
situated on an isla