suits' estates. There are also various municipal officers in the towns. The postmaster-general is paid by his own department. Several offices have been abolished, and pensions given to those who held them.

The roads in Canada along the St. Lawrence were first opened through the seigniories by the censitaires or habitans, each of whom still repairs the road crossing his own farm. The erecting bridges, and opening new roads in difficult parts of the province, have been either accomplished, or the inhabitants assisted, by numerous grants of money voted by the legislature, and placed under the management of special commissioners. * There are scarcely any public burdens; no taxes, nor poor laws. Whenever cases of distress occur, relief is afforded by benevolent contribution.

The militia laws are much the same as in Nova Scotia, and the Canadians are ever ready to observe them. Their officers are chiefly Canadians; and the habitans, who are drilled in their own language, attend to their orders without dispute or hesitation.

In 1828, the total strength of the militia of Lower Canada consisted of 81,649 men liable to march in case of invasion; divided into sixty-two battalions, and commanded by 2434 officers. There are also four companies of cavalry troops, and two battalions of volunteers, which, added to the militia, makes the effective force of the province about 85,000. The whole force is now about 92,000.* The staff of the militia consists of the governor-general as commanderin-chief, three aides-de-camp, eight lieutenant-colonels, four majors, adjutant-general, deputy-adjutant-general, assistant adjutant-general, paymaster-general, quartermaster-general, judge-advocate-general, superintendent-general of hospitals, and surgeon-general.

The Indian department of Lower Canada consists of a chief superintendent, under superintendent, resident agent and secretaries, four residents, one clerk, four interpreters, one schoolmaster, and four missionaries.

The naval department of Lower Canada is almost too trifling to notice, and consists of a small establishment at Isle aux Noix, on the Richelieu, near Lake Champlain, where there are a captain and lieutenant superintending.

There are also stationed in Lower Canada the greater part of three regiments of foot, two companies of artillery, and two companies of royal engineers.

The several departments connected with the army are, the military secretary's office, which has an assistant military secretary, and four clerks; the quartermaster-general's department, the officers of which are, the deputy-quarter-master-general and two clerks; the governor and lieutenant-governor of the garrison at Quebec; the town-majors of Quebec and Montreal; a foot-adjutant and commandant at Isle aux Noix; а foot-adjutant at Côteau du Lac; a commandant at Quebec, at Montreal, and St. Helen's.

The royal engineer department, stationed in Lower

Canada has a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, two captains, two lieutenants, an assistant engineer, twelve clerks of the works, three overseers, two master smiths, a master carpenter, a master mason, and a foreman of labourers.

The ordnance department has two ordnance storekeepers, two deputies, and eight clerks; and the barrack department has a barrack-master at each of the garrisons at Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, Côteau du Lac, William Henry, Chambly, Laprairie, and Isle aux Noix.

The commissariat department is superintended by a commissary-general, under whom there are a deputy-commissary-general, assistant commissary-general, eighteen deputy-assistant commissary-generals, and four treasury clerks; and in the department of commissary of accounts, there are one deputy commissary-general, one assistant commissary-general, three deputy-assistant commissary-generals, and one

clerk.

The medical department consists of a deputyinspector of hospitals, an apothecary to the forces, two staff-surgeons, two hospital-assistants, a medical attendant, and purveyor's clerk.

The post-office department is under the same regulations as in England. The general post-office of Quebec is superintended by the deputy-postmastergeneral of British North America; and there are sixty-two post-offices established for the convenience of the inhabitants in various parts of Lower Canada, and sixty-four in Upper Canada. This department, however, is far from being so satisfactorily regulated as in the United States; and it forms a subject of complaint both in Upper and Lower Canada, which

may lead to the adoption of better and more convenient regulations.*

His Majesty's customs for the port of Quebec controls the entries at all the ports of the province. The officers at Quebec are, the collector, controller, surveyor, naval officer, three clerks, four searchers, and waiters, tide-surveyor, two tidesmen, admeasurer of ships, warehouse-keeper, locker, and messenger. At Montreal there are three officers: the surveyor, waiter, and searcher, and tide-surveyors. At St. John's, Lake Champlain, there are a collector, controller, gauger, and two land-waiters. At Côteau du Lac there are a collector and a controller; at Sherbrooke, and at Nouvelle Beauce, there is at each a collector; and at Gaspè, New Carlisle, and Magdalene Islands, there is at each place a sub-collector. There are land-waiters at Lacole, Compton, and Stanstead; and inspectors of merchandise, scows, and rafts, at Chateauguy and Côteau du Lac. Before all the fees were abolished, and salaries established, the incomes of the officers of the customs, that of the collector in particular, were enormous; and the merchants of Quebec addressed the Treasury afterwards, complaining of the illegal exaction of fees by the collector, for which he was prosecuted in the Court of King's Bench; and the legislature passed several resolutions, charging him with illegally retaining 6424l. of the monies collected at the customs. The fees of the Court of Vice-admiralty are also considered just causes of complaint.

CHAP. XIV.

CONFIGURATION AND GENERAL ASPECT OF CANADA. - GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. - ORGANIC REMAINS. - STEPS. - MINERALOGY. - WESTERN REGION. - ROCKY MOUNTAINS, CLIMATE,

ETC.

CANADA may be said to present the most extraordinary and grand configuration of any country in the world. From the eastern extremity of this vast region, rising abruptly out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Rocky Mountains, the natural features of its lands and waters exhibit romantic sublimities and picturesque beauties, amidst the variety and grandeur of which the imagination wanders, and loses itself, luxuriating among boundless forests, magnificent rivers, vast chains of mountains, immense lakes, extensive prairies, and roaring cataracts.

The mind, on sailing up the St. Lawrence, is occupied under impressions, and with ideas, as varied as they are great and interesting. The ocean-like width of this mighty river where it joins the gulf, the great distance (about 2500 miles) between its vast débouché and the source of the most westerly of its streams, - the numerous lakes, cataracts, and rivers, which form its appendages, - the wide and important regions, exhibiting mountains, valleys, forests, plains, and savannahs, which border on these innumerable lakes and rivers, - their natural resources, - their discovery and settlement, and the vast