QUE 



293 



QUE 



Quebec beautifully ornamented. Besides these buildings, there 

 ", is the Sects i-hurch, the Lower town church, the se- 

 minary, tlu- union hotel built in IHO.'i, near the castle, 

 , V_^ and the hospital general one of the largest of the houses 

 u-hich is in the suburbs without the walls. 



The iurti'ications of Out-bee have been long cele- 

 brated for their strength. Towards the river, nature 

 has given it ample protection, and where the rock is 

 accessible, very slight walls form a sufficient defence. 

 The principal battery, which commands the bason, is 

 mounted with twenty-two 24 pounders, and two French 

 36 pounders, and two large iron mortars. This bat- 

 tery is flanked by another of six guns, which com- 

 mands the passes from the Lower town. From the 

 great battery proceeds a line of defences past the Hope 

 and Palace gates, and joining the Coteau du Palais. 



The principal exports from Quebec are grain, flour, 

 timber, lumber, ashes, &c. and the imports consist of 

 ell the articles manufactured in Europe. The annual 

 value of the exports and imports is calculated at about 

 one million sterling. 



The climate of Quebec is intensely cold, especially 

 in the winter. The mean temperature is so low as 

 4-1 74 Fahrenheit. The mean temperature of summer 

 is 68, and that of winter 14 18. The river is not 

 always frozen over; but in winter large masses of ice 

 floating up and down with the tide, considerably im- 

 pede the navigation. 



The scenery exhibited from various parts of the 

 Upper town of Quebec, is represented by Mr. Weld, 

 ;!-; surpassing in grandeur, beauty, and diversity, any 

 thing that he has seen either in America, or in any 

 other part of the globe. 



The population of Quebec has been recently esti- 

 mated at 18 (!()(). West Long. 71 5' 29", and North 

 Lat. 46 48' 38". See AMEHICA, Vol. II. p. 6'58 ; and 

 CANADA, VoL V. p. 320. Weld's Travels in Canada, 

 vol. i. ; Gray's Account of Canada, &c. ; arid Marshall's 

 Life f>f Washington, vol. i. &c. - 



QUEDA. See MALACCA, Vol. XIII. p. 293, col. 2. 



QUEENBOROUGH, is a borough town of Eng- 

 land, in the island of Sheppey and county of Kent, it 

 consists of about 200 new houses, all of which are ex- 

 actly two stories high. A new guild hall has been 

 lately erected on the site of the old market house, and 

 the market place and jail are below it. The church, 

 though old, is neatly fitted up. The inhabitants are 

 chiefly employed in the oyster fishery. The town is 

 governed by a mayor, four jurats, and two bailiffs, and 

 sends to parliament two members, who are elected by 

 150 voters. Population about 805. 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLAND, is an island in the 

 Pacific, discovered in 1767 by Captain Wallis. It is 

 about six miles long and one broad, sandy and level, 

 and full of trees. The inhabitants are of a middle 

 size and dark complexion. Their dress was a kind 

 of coarse matting. West Long. 138 4'. South Lat. 

 19 18'. 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLANDS, is the name of a 

 group of islands discovered by Captain Carteret in 

 1767, and consisting of Egmont's Island, or New 

 Guernsey, Lord Howe's Island, or New Jersey, and 

 some others, Mendana first discovered these islands 

 in 1595, and called the principal one Santa Cruz. 

 These islands are in general fertile and inhabited. 

 E. Long. 163 30' to 165 10'. S. Lat. 9 50' to 11 20'. 

 See Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. i. p. 349. 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLAND. SeeZEALAND, NEW. 



QUEEN'S COUNTY, is the name of a county in Ire- 



land, which deriveH its name from Queen Mary, in 

 whose reign it was established. For the same reason County, 

 its chief town was called Maryborough. This county ^ ~r 

 is bounded by King's County on the north and west, 

 by Kildare and part of Carlow on the east; by Kill 

 kenny on the south, and by Tipperary on the south- 

 west. Its form is that of a parallelogram, having one 

 of its sides thirty-two English miles, and the other 

 twenty-five miles long. It contains about 590 square 

 English miles and 378,023 English acres. It has eight 

 baronies and fifty parishes ; and in 1821, a population 

 of about 129,391 inhabitants, being an increase of 

 15,574 since 1813. 



The principal hills of the county .are the mountains 

 of Sliebh-bloom, and the Dysart hills. The former 

 are so steep and impassable, that for fourteen miles 

 where they separate the King's and Queen's Counties, 

 there is only one pass through them, and that a very dif- 

 ficult one, called the Gap of Glandine. The rivers 

 Barrow and Nore have their source in this Ridge. The 

 Dysart hills form a detached part, and command a 

 view of a fine country, ornamented with plantations 

 and magnificent demesnes. The rest of the county 

 is rather flat, and the whole is watered with rivers 

 and numerous mountain streams. According to Sir 

 Charles Coote, the following is the ratio of the different 

 kinds of land, in Irish acres. 



Arable land, pasture and meadow, 

 Bog, mountain and waste, 



Hoads, 



Woods and plantations, 

 Water, , 



210,000 



21,000 



2,000 



1,300 



1,000 



In the map belonging to the Grand Jury, the bogs 

 and mountains are reckoned at 60,000. 



Queen's county is watered with some rivers, and by 

 many mountain streams. Of these, the Barrow and 

 the Nore, which rise among the mountains in the west, 

 are the principal. The Barrow flows in a north-east 

 direction by Portarlington to Monastereven, and thence 

 in a south-east direction to Carlow, where it forms the 

 boundary between Queen's county and that of Kildare. 

 It is navigable throughout from Portarlington, in the 

 neighbourhood of which it widens its bed, and winds 

 through enclosures of fertile banks. From Athy, on 

 the Barrow, there is a canal to Dublin. The Nore, 

 though deep and long, is not navigable ; but it might, 

 without much difficulty, be rendered so, by levelling 

 the numerous weirs. It has a south-easterly course to 

 Kilkenny ; and after the junction of the Rose and Bar- 

 row, near New Ross, it is navigable for large ships to 

 the sea. 



The soil of the county is various, from a very stiff 

 clay to a sandy loam. There is also a good deal of 

 strong gravelly soil, well adapted to the cultivation of 

 corn. " The soil of the Sliebh-bloom mountains is 

 variable, the surface inclining to a black and alternate- 

 ly yellow stiff clay, of unequal depths, covering a loose 

 rotten rock, or a gritty gravel, with occasionally a little 

 appearance of limestone. The western side more ge- 

 nerally inclines to a strong red clay, not unlike the na- 

 ture of the soil in some of the northern counties in Ire- 

 land, where oats and potatoes only are sown; but it 

 generally is throughout spungy, wet and boggy to tho 

 summit, and very rocky.*' 



The general fuel, excepting near Carlow, is bog 

 The depth of the bogs is various ; but the best is iu 

 general only a few spades below the surface. A shaU 



