1 86 Conclusion. 



But if the spring be short, Canada boasts of an autumn 

 beautifully mild, and lingering on with its Indian summer 

 and golden sunsets until the month of December. The 

 Indian summer is a period of variable duration and of un- 

 certain occurrence. The French habitan styles it — 



"L'(§te St. Martin 

 De soir ail matin." 



The highly stimulating properties of the atmosphere here, 

 which, all things being equal, bear a certain relation to vege- 

 tation, have not only been observed by meteorologists, 

 but also by travellers, especially arresting the attention of 

 George Combe, the author of " The Constitution of Man." 

 New-comers scarcely feel the changes of the seasons for a 

 year or two after their arrival, and the temperate liver may 

 expect to reach an advanced age, provided no accident 

 befall him. 



Touching foreign travel, no quotation is more trite than 

 that of Horace, " Ccelum non animum mutant, qui trans 

 mare currunt." But the celebrated Dr. Arnold said, on 

 returning from his usual summer • continental trip, that he 

 had proved the shallowness and falsity of it, as he had found 

 a refreshment in drinking in every instant a sense of the 

 reality of foreign objects, and a mainspring given to his 

 thoughts and feelings which he could hardly have realized 

 from well worn and familiar English scenes. English and 

 American tourists have been too apt to think that they 

 could not go through the nooks and corners of Lower 

 Canada without a knowledge of the French language ; and 

 that has to some extent acted as a drawback to the beautiful 

 scenery there met with, for the strangeness of a tongue 

 which we cannot use causes more perplexity and discomfort 

 than persons readily acknowledge. But in the Lower Pro- 

 vince English and French culture amalgamate, and the 

 English language predominates ; all know it, except a few 

 of the peasantry. 



