ogical _savant_, declares that the name arose from
the Spaniards, who were the first discoverers of Canada, exclaiming, on
their failure to find the precious metals, "_El Capa da nada_," or Cape
Nothing. There seems to be some support of this alleged presence of the
Spanish among the early navigators of the St. Lawrence, by the finding
in the river, near Three Rivers, in the year 1835, an ancient cannon of
peculiar make, which was supposed to be of Spanish construction.

The origins of the names of Montreal and Quebec are equally open to
discussion. Many stoutly assert that Montreal is the French for Mount
Royal, or Royal Mount; others, that by the introduction of one letter,
the name is legitimately Spanish--_Monte-real_. _Monte_, designating any
wooded elevation, and that _real_ is the only word in that language for
royal.

The word Quebec is attributed to Indian and French sources. It is said
that it is an Algonquin word, meaning a strait, the river at this point
being not more than a mile wide; but although Champlain coincided in
this view, its root has never been discovered in any Indian tongue. Its
abrupt enunciation has not to the ear the sound of an Indian word, and
it could scarcely have come from the Algonquin language, which is
singularly soft and sweet, and may be considered the Italian of North
American dialects.

Those who claim for it a French origin, say that the Normans, rowing up
the river with Cartier at his first discovery, as they rounded the
wooded shores of the Isle of Orleans, and came in sight of the bare rock
rising three hundred feet from its base, exclaimed "_Quel bec!_" or,
What a promontory! The word bears intrinsically strong evidence of
Norman origin.

Cape Diamond received its name from the fact that in the "dark colored
slate of which it is composed are found perfectly limpid quartz crystals
in veins, along with crystallized carbonate of lime, which, sparkling
like diamonds among the crags, suggested the appellation."

Famous Firesides

--OF--

French Canada

THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY.

A few yards from the busy municipal centre of the city of Montreal,
behind an antique iron railing, is a quaint, old building known as the
Chateau de Ramezay. Its history is contemporary with that of the city
for the last two centuries, and so identified with past stirring events
that it has been saved from the vandalism of modern improvement, and is
to be preserved as a relic of t