134 FACE OF THE COUNTRY AROUND MONTREAL. 



the Ottawa, passing up the banks of the stream by Terre 

 Bonne, and reached St Therese in the morning. Early next 

 day, we examined a property for sale, and after breakfast pro 

 ceeded in a northern direction twelve or fourteen miles, and 

 returned to St Therese. Here we changed our horses for 

 those brought with us the day before ; and after crossing a 

 branch of the Ottawa by Porteous Bridge to the Isle of 

 Jesus, and over a second branch of that river to the Island of 

 Montreal, we reached our destination by six in the evening, 

 having encountered several thunder-storms in the course of 

 the journey. 



The face of the country on the banks of the Ottawa, in 

 the neighbourhood of Terre Bonne, St Therese, and from 

 thence by St Rose and St Martin s, to Montreal, is truly 

 beautiful, and the softness of the scenery is in many places 

 heightened by the small wooded islets, encompassed by the 

 smooth gliding branches of the Ottawa. The scenery in 

 creases in interest on approaching the mountain over which 

 the road passes by a kind of glen, clothed with fruit and other 

 trees. From the brow of the hill passing to the south, the 

 majestic St Lawrence, flowing in broad expanse down La- 

 chine rapids, bursts on the view, and the declivity of the 

 mountain, adorned with villas, and the city of Montreal lying 

 at the foot, with shining tin-roofed houses, giving it the 

 appearance of a distant camp, form a scene seldom equalled 

 in America or any other part of the world. The general 

 aspect of the country from St Therese to Montreal, closely 

 resembles that of some of the finest parts of England. 



The soil from Montreal to St Therese, a distance of nearly 

 forty miles, by the banks of the St Lawrence and Ottawa, 

 is strong clay, and I do not recollect of having travelled over 

 the like extent of continuous good wheat soil in any part of 

 the world ; but the management which it was under is 

 wretched in the extreme, although the crops in many parts 

 were good. Pasture and spring sown wheat succeed each 

 other, year after year, almost unaided by manures, with one 

 ploughing previous to wheat sowing. Clover seeds are never 

 sown, yet cow grass and white clover everywhere abound, 

 and often attain the utmost luxuriance. Heaps of manure 4 



