e at present lodged.

We found some difficulty in getting on shore, owing to the badness of
the landing. The river was full of floating timbers, between which it
required some skill to guide the boat. A wharf is now being built--not
before it was needed*. [* Some excellent wharfs have since been
completed.]

We were struck by the dirty, narrow, ill-paved or unpaved streets of the
suburbs, and overpowered by the noisome vapour arising from a deep open
fosse that ran along the street behind the wharf. This ditch seemed the
receptacle for every abomination, and sufficient in itself to infect a
whole town with malignant fevers*.

[* This has since been arched over. A market has been erected above it.]

I was greatly disappointed in my first acquaintance with the interior of
Montreal; a place of which travellers had said so much. I could compare
it only to the fruits of the Dead sea, which are said to be fair and
tempting to look upon, but yield only ashes and bitterness when tasted
by the thirsty traveller**.

..........

[** The following description of Montreal is given by M'Gregor in his
British America, vol. ii. p. 504:--"Betwixt the royal mountain and the
river, on a ridge of gentle elevation, stands the town. Including the
suburbs, it is more extensive than Quebec. Both cities differ very
greatly in appearance; the low banks of the St. Laurence at Montreal
want the tremendous precipices frowning over them, and all that grand
sublimity which characterizes Quebec.

"There are no wharfs at Montreal, and the ships and steamers lie quietly
in pretty deep water, close to the clayey and generally filthy bank of
the city. The whole of the lower town is covered with gloomy-looking
houses, having dark iron shutters; and although it may be a little
cleaner than Quebec, it is still very dirty; and the streets are not
only narrow and ill-paved, but the footpaths are interrupted by slanting
cellar doors and other projections."

"It is impossible (says Mr. Talbot, in his Five Years' Residence) to
walk the streets of Montreal on a Sunday or holiday, when the shops are
closed, without receiving the most gloomy impressions; the whole city
seems one vast prison;"--alluding to the window-shutters and outer doors
of iron, that have been adopted to counteract the effects of fire.]

..........

I noticed one peculiar feature in the buildings along the suburb facing
the river--that they were mostly furnished with broad wooden bal