298 MR. SPRUCE'S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
and the steep ascent from the old to the new town is by flights of steps, 
covered with mud in wet weather, and with refuse at all times. The 
odd old-fashioned grey houses, with their high-pitched roofs, have a 
picturesque quaintness about them, but a quaintness of the commonest 
kind, since there is neither richness nor variety of architectural detail 
in these pseudo-antique abodes, as in the really old towns of France, 
which Quebec resembles, chiefly in their worst features and incon- 
veniences. The publie buildings—chiefly churches and convents— 
are absolutely hideous, both in design, and from being in most in- 
stances incased, side-walls as well as roofs, in plate armour of tin, 
which has the unlucky effect of snow on a dull day, recalling, in the 
midst of the fleeting summer, the unwelcome images of a seven months’ 
winter. Most of the private dwellings are thus roofed, if not wholly 
covered with tin, the advantage of which over slates, tiles, or shingles 
it is not very easy to see, as, though said to be durable, the cost in the 
first instance must be considerable. The reflection of the sun’s rays 
from so many polished tin plates must be very annoying on a bright 
day, but Phoebus considerately spared me the pain of recording this 
amongst my other objections to the ancient capital of Lower Canada 
from personal experience, by scarcely once shining out during my stay 
in the town. The few hotels in Quebec (of which Payne’s is the 
principal) are very indifferent establishments, contrasting most un- 
favourably with the excellent ones at Montreal. The city had not 
recovered from the calamitous fire which a year or two before had laid 
waste a great part of it; the blackened walls and ruined masonry had 
in a few spots only been partially cleared away. The population I 
thought looked squalid and listless, nor did I see a single good shop 
in the town. Everything bespoke stagnation and apathy since the 
removal of the seat of government to Montreal, for the trade of Quebec 
is carried on at the Coves, a little lower down the river. 
Journal of an Excursion from SANTAREM, on the AMAZON River, to 
OBIDOs and the Rio TromBetas ; dy RICHARD SPRUCE, Esa. 
(Continued from p. 276.) 
I had observations to-day for time and latitude : there was too much 
wind to make use of a plate of water as an artificial horizon, but the river 
