Down the St. Lawrence. 117 



used its medicinal waters. Massena is a place of popular 

 resort among the northern New Yorkers and Vermonters, and 

 of late years numbers of Canadians have visited the springs : 

 and from their beautiful surroundings and vicinity to the Long 

 Sault Rapids, only four or five miles distant, they are a very 

 pleasant summer watering-place. The United States Hotel 

 is a large first-class, house, where may be had good horses 

 and carriages, boats and fishing tackle. Visitors coming from 

 Montreal can take the Montreal steamers to Louisville Land- 

 ing, and by stage, or via Rouse's Point and Potsdam Junction. 

 Proceeding onwards we come to Dickinson's Landing, 77 

 miles from Montreal, a station on the Grand Trunk, and lying 

 at the head of the Cornwall Canal and the Long Sault Rapids. 

 These rapids are nine miles in length, divided in the centre 

 by several islands in a continuous line. Both the north and 

 south channel can be used, but the south is generally pre- 

 ferred ; the velocity of the current here is exceedingly swift, 

 a raft drifting through in forty minutes. The Cornwall Canal, 

 built to avoid these rapids, is the longest of all the St. Law- 

 rence canals, being 11 J miles : it is only needed for vessels 

 bound up the river, as from the size and regular inclination 

 of the rapids steamers and other vessels have no difficulty in 

 descending the river. The scenery of the Long Sault Rapids 

 is excitingly beautiful ; here and there the surging waters 

 present all the appearance of the ocean in a storm, in other 

 places their surface is perfectly unruffled, — a deceptive still- 

 ness from their very velocity ; and the raft that meets the 

 eye in its passage over, apparently doomed to destruction, 

 swiftly rounds some threatening obstacle, leaving it far in its 

 wake. Great strength, dexterity, and courage, are required 

 and employed in passing them. The voyageurs who man the 

 rafts are a peculiar class, and a slight description of them will 

 not be amiss here. Gay and mirthful by nature and habit, 

 patient and enduring at labour, seeking neither ease nor 

 wealth — they let the morrow take care of itself. When 



