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 we 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 of the first view of this city is so irresistibly striking, that few who have beheld it can, I think, ever forget the magically impressive picture it presents. Bay of Naples is not more enchanting.

The

An abrupt promontory, 350 feet high, crowned with an impregnable citadel, and surrounded by strong battlements, on which the British banners daily wave, - the bright steeples of the cathedral and churches, - the vice-regal château, hanging over the precipice, -the house-tops of the upper town, -the houses, wharfs, hangards, or warehouses, &c., of the lower, -a fleet of ships at Wolfe's Cove, and others at the wharfs, - steamers, - multitudes of boats, several ships on the stocks, - the white sheet of the cataract of Montmorency tumbling into the St. Lawrence over a ledge 220 feet high, the churches, houses, fields, and woods of Beauport and Charlebourg, mountains in the distance, - the high grounds, church, and houses of St. Joseph, - some Indian wigwams near Point Levi, with some of their bark canoes on the water, and vast masses of timber descending on the river from the upper country, may impart to the fancy some idea of the view unfolded to the spectator who sails up the St. Lawrence, when he first beholds the metropolis of the British empire in America.

On landing at Quebec, and ascending from the lower to the upper town, we pass through narrow streets, lined with old-looking houses, with small windows and iron shutters, built apparently in all the confusion of antiquity. The ascent, which is commanded by well-planted cannon, is either by a winding of Mountain Street through the city walls near the Parliament House, or by a flight of steps

called "Break-neck Stairs." The land descends about 100 feet in its level across the heights from Cape Diamond to Côte Ste. Généviève.

The lower town is the seat of activity and commerce, and stretches below the walls, from Anse des Meres, or Diamond Harbour, along the foot of Cape Diamond, to the Cul de Sac, and Saut au Matelot, round by the St. Charles to the suburb of St. Roch. Most of the ships anchor above the town at Wolfe's Cove, where there is less rapidity of current, and where the timber rafts are landed for inspection. Here are timber yards and booms. In this place are also the huts of the lumberers, and a few houses. The Custom's House, Government Warehouses, Quebec Bank, and Exchange Reading-room, in which the English, colonial, and United States papers and periodicals are taken, and to which an excellent extensive library is attached, is in the lower town; the streets in which are exceedingly steep and dirty: in one place, there is a descent by stairs from the head of Champlain Street to the Cul de Sac, of most fatiguing length. Some of the streets in the upper town are macadamised, the rest paved like the old streets at Paris, or rather those of Rouen or Amiens, some however with flagging or side paths. The most crowded part of the Old Town of Edinburgh is not more irregular or more confused than the lower town of Quebec, and particularly in that part which is immediately under the height crowned by the château. Between the lower town and the River St. Charles there are extensive flats, dry at low water. The great rise of tide (about twenty-five feet) adapts these for the site of docks. The French contemplated building wet and graving docks in this place; and would, it is thought, have done so, had they remained masters of the country.

A pier carried across from the Exchange to Beauport might be constructed so as to dam in the St. Charles, and form either wet or dry docks. The ship yards are principally on the side next the River St. Charles. In the Cul de Sac, vessels lie aground to be repaired; and here small vessels are laid up during winter. The great rise of tide at Quebec, about forty feet, renders it easy to construct wet and dry docks.

On arriving in the upper town from the lower, we find ourselves in a very different place; the streets are rather narrow, but in general they are clean, and tolerably well paved. The houses are chiefly covered with glittering tin. Many of the buildings are, it is true, in the style of olden time, yet there is an air of respectability, a fashion, a je ne sçai quoi, which at once tells us we are in a metropolitan city.

The public buildings are substantial rather than elegant. The Château St. Louis, the residence of the governor-general, is a huge plain-looking building, projecting so far over the precipice of Cape Diamond, here 260 feet high, that the outer walls are supported by piers or buttresses, much in the same manner as viaducts are. The principal apartments in this castle are large and comfortable. The view from the veranda is magnificent. There is a garden attached to the château, and several buildings on each side the entrance. In front there is the parade, too confined for the purpose, and the open space between the gates Louis and St. John's supplants it as an esplanade. Nearly opposite the gates of the palace stands the Protestant Cathedral, a