p and pigs
are seen standing, as if alive, but in a thoroughly frozen state. The
winter lasts from November till April. Sleighing is the universal and
only mode of travelling. The sleighs, which are very gay, are covered
with bells, and the travellers in them are usually clothed in expensive
furs. Pic-nics are carried on in the winter, to arrange which committees
are formed, each member inviting his friends till the parties often
number 100. They then hire a large room for dancing, and the guests
dress themselves in their ball dresses, and then envelope themselves in
their furs, and start at six in the evening for their ball, frequently
driving in their sleighs for several miles by moonlight to the place of
rendezvous. Open sleighs are almost always used for evening parties, and
apparently without any risk, although the evening dress is put on before
starting. There is great danger without care of being frost-bitten
during a Canadian winter, but it must be a very gay and pretty sight to
see sleighs everywhere, and all seem to enjoy the winter much, though
the cold is very intense.

We left Quebec early in the afternoon of the 28th, having called at the
post-office on our way to the train, and got our English letters. We now
passed during the day what we missed seeing the night before, on our
approach to Quebec. In crossing the Chaudiere we could see the place
where this large river plunges over a perpendicular rock 130 feet high,
and the river being here very broad, the falls must be very fine, but
though we passed close above them, we could only distinguish the
difference of level between the top and the bottom, and see the cloud of
spray rising above the whole. The road till night-fall passed chiefly
through forest lands. The stations were good, though sometimes very
small, and at one of the smallest the station-master was the son of an
English clergyman.

At Richmond we parted company with the Bailys and got on to Island
Pond, where we slept at a large and most comfortable hotel. From
Richmond the road passes through a very pretty country, but its beauties
were lost upon us, as the night was very dark and there was no moon.
This also caused us to miss seeing the beauties of Island Pond on our
arrival there, but we were fully repaid by the sight which greeted our
eyes in the morning, when we looked out of our window. The Americans
certainly have grand notions of things, this Island Pond being a lake of
considerable