were built those mammoth ships, the Columbus and Baron of Renfrew; the largest masses in one body that human ingenuity or daring enterprise ever contrived to float on the ocean. The Columbus crossed

such a vast mass.

• The Columbus was launched while I was at Quebec in August, 1824. I went down the day before to the island of Orleans, on the west end of which that gigantic ship was constructed, to see her on the stocks. Although I was before aware of her extraordinary dimensions, I had no conception of the huge appearance of Mr. Wood, who superintended the building of the Columbus, very politely showed us all the preparations for launching, and the interior arrangements of the vessel, and we certainly beheld all with astonishment. The length of the Columbus on deck was about 320 feet, breadth something more than fifty, and extreme depth of the body about forty feet. There was then about 3000 tons put on board before launching. Every thing was on a gigantic scale; the launch-ways were laid on solid mason-work embedded in the rock; the chain and hemp cables, capstan bars, &c. exceeded the dimensions of common materials in the same proportion as the Columbus did other ships; yet this huge fourmasted vessel was strongly framed, timbered, and planked, on the usual principles, and not put together like a raft, as many people imagined. We returned to Quebec in the evening; and early on the following morning we proceeded again in a steam-boat to the Isle of Orleans. The day was one of the most lovely I ever beheld; the St. Lawrence, smooth as a mirror, reflecting a fac-simile of the surrounding sublimities, and of a sky the most serene and beautiful. Vast crowds were assembled on the eminences on each side the colossal ship, and on the south banks of the St. Lawrence. Several magnificent steam-boats, filled with much of the beauty, fashion, and gaiety of Canada and the United States, were drawn up to the eastward. In one, there was the band of the 70th regiment; in another, that of the 38th; and in a third, a Highland piper, playing the wild martial music of the Grampians. There were, besides, innumerable boats, filled with people, drawn up in order on the river.

At eight o'clock, when all eyes were directed towards the Columbus, in silent, anxious expectation, the leviathan ship appeared moving onward, gently increasing in speed until she glided into the

i

the Atlantic and arrived safely, after a quick voyage, in the Thames, but on returning next year towards America was lost some few hundred miles west of Ireland. The Baron Renfrew, after being safely navigated by the captain from Quebec, along the St. Lawrence, and the banks of Newfoundland, and the Atlantic ocean, and up the British Channel to the mouth of the Thames, was afterwards lost by the pilots, and wrecked at Gravelines.

St. Lawrence with as much ease, grace, and majesty, as if my Lord Chesterfield himself had the will and direction of her movement. At this moment the band struck up "Rule Britannia;" the spectators huzzaed; and the citadel of Cape Diamond rolled out its thunders. The momentum given to the Columbus carried her a mile from her birth-place before she was overtaken by the steam-boats, which followed, and towed her to the falls of Montmorency, at the mills of which her loading was completed.

1

!

CHAP. XVII.

CITY OF QUEBEC. - APPEARANCE FROM THE RIVER. - LOWER TOWN, WHARFS, HANGARDS, STREETS, HOUSES, UPPER TOWN, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ENGLISH AND CATHOLIC CATHEDRALS, CHURCHES, NUNNERIES, JESUITS' COLLEGE, MARKET, POPULACE, SOCIETY, CANADIAN GENTRY, AMUSEMENTS, SUMMER, WINTER, CLASSIFICATION OF RANKS, HOTELS, TABLE D'HÔTE, PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC., TRADES-PEOPLE, AUCTIONS, WALLS, FORTIFICATIONS, CITADEL OF CAPE DIAMOND. - WOLFE AND MONTCALM'S MONUMENT. - VIEW FROM CAPE DIAMOND, ETC.

THE City of Quebec, the capital of Canada, and the Gibraltar of America, stands on the extremity of a precipitous cape, in latitude 46° 54′ N., longitude 71° 5′ W.

The island of Orleans, five miles below, divides the St. Lawrence into two channels, each about a mile broad. Immediately opposite Quebec, where the river makes a sudden bend, it is little more than half a mile broad, but the depth of water is about twentyfive fathoms. Between this and the island of Orleans is formed the splendid Basin of Quebec, - somewhat more than five miles long, and about four broad in the widest part. On sailing up the river, we see nothing of the city until are nearly in a line between the west point of Orleans and Point Levi. Quebec, and its surrounding sublimities, then burst suddenly into the vast landscape; and the grandeur