might even venture to say, that it surpasses them all. It is difficult to imagine a more happy blending of art and nature;-villages, country houses, cottages, corn fields, -are combined with primeval woods, fine rivers, beautiful islands, magnificent waterfalls, towering hills, and lofty mountains.

From the scenery which surrounds Cape Diamond let me return to the Cape itself. -I had heard that Cape Diamond, and the country in the neighbourhood of Quebec, abounded with marble. I am no great mineralogist; but, from every thing I can observe (and I have taken some pains to examine), I do not find any species of calcareous rock in the whole extent of the ridge, from Cape Diamond to Cape Rouge. What generally prevails, is a coarse incomplete sort of schistus, the laminæ of which, when exposed to the operation of the atmosphere, moulder into a dark brown coloured earth; it never can be used for building to any advantage, unless it is defended from the action of the air.

Cape Diamond abounds with very fine specimens of quartz, or rock crystals.-I have myself, in walking on the banks of

the river at the foot of the rocks, found many of them. They are discovered from the brilliancy of their reflecting surfaces:they sparkle like the diamond;—and hence the place had its name. On examination, I have generally found that they are pentagons, terminating in a point, and possessing naturally much of the brilliancy and polish of a cut diamond; and they are so hard, that like a diamond they cut glass.

LETTER VII.

Quebec, August, 1906.

FORMERLY observed to you, that Quebec seems admirably situated to become the capital of an empire. Allow me to mention the circumstances which induce me to think so.

The uninterrupted navigable part of the St. Lawrence is of great extent,near five hundred miles, which is the distance between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Montreal, where, are found vessels of from 3 to 400 tons burden. In its course it receives a number of fine rivers, which open a communication with the country on both sides. The lake Champlain, 120 miles in length, communicates with the St. Lawrence by means of the river Sorel (or Chambly, as it is sometimes called), and is the natural channel for the produce of the fine country surrounding this lake.

Although the ship navigation ends at Montreal, another species of navigation

commences, suitable to the waters to be navigated, and to the commodities to be transported. Bateaux, and canoes, convey to Upper Canada, and the country round the lakes, and to the north-west territories, the European commodities they want; and with the aid of scows*, floats, and rafts, carry down to Montreal and Quebec the surplus produce of these immense regions, as yet of trifling amount 'tis true, compared with the commerce of Europe; but when one reflects on the variety of climate, of soil, and of productions, which these extensive countries display; and the facility given to the transportation of goods by means of so many fine rivers and large lakes; one cannot help concluding that it is destined at some future period to be the most commercial country on earth.

The river St. Lawrence must ever be the grand outlet to the ocean for the productions of all that tract of country between the United States and Hudson's bay, including the lakes Erie, Ontario, Michigan, and lake Superior†; and there can

* 'T'hese, described in another place.

+ Although the lakes are not immediately connected

be no doubt that Quebec is the key of the river St. Lawrence.

When we consider the many millions of

with the Atlantic by any other river than the St. Law rence, yet there are several rivers that fall into the Atlantic, which rise so near the sources of others that run into the lakes, and each navigable for boats so near their sources, that by means of them, and of a very short land carriage, trade may be carried on between the Atlantic, and the lakes. There are three channels for this trade which particularly demand attention; the first by the Mississippi and Ohio, and thence up the Wabash, Miami, and Muskingum, from the heads of which there are portages of from 1 to 15 miles, to the rivers which fall into the Lake Erie: secondly, along the Patowmack river (which flows past Washington City), and from thence into the Cayahoga, Bigbeaver, and Yahogany, to Presque Isle, on Lake Erie: thirdly, along Hudson's River (which falls into the Atlantic at New York), and the Mohawk River, Wood Creek, Lake Oneida, and Oswego River, which falls into Lake Ontario. In the course of time there will be a competition amongst the settlers on these different routs, which shall have most of the trade of the Western territory, but they must all yield to the St. Lawrence, which commands a decided preference, because the distance to a port where vessels from the ocean can load, is shorter than by any of the other routs, and the portages are not so long; and besides, during the summer months, the rivers in the United States have so little water near their sources, that the length of the portages must be greatly increased. In the St. Lawrence they are always the same.

It