3^4 



The American Angler. 



makes its waters pure ; the great lakes 

 that feed it absorb any sediment washed 

 into their waters ; they are alike its 

 parents and its purifiers. 



The sail down the St. Lawrence from 

 Kingston to Montreal is the most ex- 

 traordinary and exciting river journey 

 in the world. The scenery of the Hud- 

 son is certainly finer than that of the 

 St. Lawrence ; but the Hudson, glori- 

 ous as it is, is only an estuary. Its 

 banks are beautiful, but its waters are 

 sluggish. If the St. Lawrence had the 

 mountain scenery of the Hudson, its 

 fame would reach the ends of the earth. 

 But in sailing down the St. Lawrence 

 from Kingston to Montreal, one's whole 

 attention is taken up with the river it- 

 self. There is no time to gaze around, 

 for soon after the boat leaves the mazes 

 of the Thousand Isles the rapids begin. 

 Any sensation more delightful than 

 being carried along at the rate of fif- 

 teen miles an hour by rushing waters it 

 would be impossible to imagine. If 

 mountains were piled on mountains on 

 either side, not one in fifty would care 

 to look at them while shooting the Cas- 

 cade, Long Sault or the Lachine Rap- 

 ids ; and it must be borne in mind that 

 the greater part of the sail from the 

 Thousand Islands to Montreal is through 

 rapids more or less swift. No passen- 

 ger, not even the most timid, feels any 

 nervousness in shooting through the 

 Cascade or Long Sault Rapids. On 

 approaching Montreal, however, the 

 greatest rapids on the river, those of 

 Lachine, are encountered. To stand on 

 the bank of the river and gaze across 

 more than a mile of rushing, roaring 

 waters, leaping and tumbling over the 

 "precipitous black jagged rocks " that 

 rise here and there out of the foam, one 

 would imagine that to take a great 

 steamboat drawing six or eight feet of 

 water down such a cataract would be 



certain destruction both to passengers 

 and craft. But such is the immensity 

 of the volume of water that there is 

 very little danger. No serious accident 

 has ever occurred to a steamboat going 

 down the Lachine Rapids. It must, 

 however, be confessed that many a 

 brave man has turned pale where, in 

 one place, the boat has to take a plunge 

 of six or seven feet perpendicularly. In 

 less than ten minutes after the boat 

 takes the big leap she is in the harbor 

 of Montreal and has no more rapids to 

 shoot. 



The voyage from Kingston to Mon- 

 treal is made in a day. The boats leave 

 Kingston early in the morning in order 

 to make the entire trip by daylight ; 

 this they always do, although the dis- 

 tance is 198 miles. The boats are not 

 nearly so large as those in the Hudson, 

 but they are as safe and commodious as 

 care and skill could make them. To 

 those who want to make the most beau- 

 tiful as well as the most curious trip 

 perhaps on this continent, and to any 

 one who wants to experience a new 

 sensation of the most delightful kind, I 

 would say, " Shoot the rapids of the St. 

 Lawrence." 



From Montreal to Quebec the St. 

 Lawrence is very unpicturesque ; it is 

 too big to be beautiful, and is more 

 like great arm of the sea than a river. 

 As Quebec is approached, the scenery 

 becomes of great interest, especially 

 from a historic point of view. The 

 river narrows to less than a mile in 

 width, and Quebec, the great fortress 

 of not only the St. Lawrence, but of 

 half the continent, is seen towering "on 

 an apparently perpendicular rock some 

 hundreds of feet over the narrow water- 

 way it effectually guards. It was near 

 here that the fate of half a continent 

 was decided a hundred and thirt3'-five 

 years ago in the memorable battle of the 



