ut; and, taken as a _coup
d'oeil_, I do not hesitate to say this was by far the finest I ever
beheld.

Sunday though this was, there was much bustle in the harbour. Little
dwarfish steamers were flying across the channel in opposite directions;
long boats, laden with sea-worn emigrants, were rowing from the shore
back to their respective ships.

It was pleasant to look on these poor people coming back from a first
attendance at the altars raised, by their predecessors in exile, amidst
a wilderness now made, by the industry Heaven has blessed, so glorious.

How cheering in their eyes must have been this sunny view of the land of
their adoption! How must their hearts have leaped within them as they
pressed for the first time its shores, and heard once more the sound of
the church-going bell, and kneeled in gratitude before that type of
salvation which they came to bear yet deeper within the bosom of the
desert, themselves the hardy pilgrims of a new crusade! their _haches
d'armes_, their stout wood-axes; their lances, the goads of the patient
steer; their artillery, the plough and harrow; their advance, the
progress of industrious hardihood; their bloodless victory, a blessing
to the field they win, a glory to the banner under which they strive:
braving peril, toil, and exile for a country to be made holy by their
triumph, and consecrated at once to freedom and to God!

It was impossible to contemplate unmoved this rustic chivalry, this
banding of men of every European tongue for a common purpose, so
pregnant with good for themselves and for their posterity.

Let the healthful tide roll on, here is boundless space for all comers;
and ages must pass before willing toil shall fail to find present
employment, cheered by the prospect of ultimate independence.

About five P.M. we were landed. In company with Captain W----s, U. S. A.
I ascended the mountain; and, as our time was limited, we had no sooner
secured good quarters at the hotel than we sallied forth to survey the
works, which are, I understand, of the strongest and most perfect
description, sufficiently guaranteeing Quebec against all surprisal for
the time to come.

The finest view is that offered from the Signal-tower.

The city, Point Levi, the winding river, with the Isle of Orleans, lay
clearly spread beneath our feet as in a well-designed panorama, with
such light and shadow as the artist is seldom favoured with, except in
imagination.

Coming down f