THE HALCYON IN CANADA 193 



anomaly of a mediaeval European city in the midst 

 of the American landscape. This air, this sky, these 

 clouds, these trees, the look of these fields, are what 

 we have always known ; but these houses, and streets, 

 and vehicles, and language, and physiognomy are 

 strange. As I walked upon the grand terrace I saw 

 the robin and kingbird and song sparrow, and there 

 in the tree, by the Wolfe Monument, our summer 

 warbler was at home. I presently saw, also, that 

 our republican crow was a British subject, and that 

 he behaved here more like his European brother than 

 he does in the States, being less wild and suspicious. 

 On the Plains of Abraham excellent timothy grass 

 was growing and cattle were grazing. We found a 

 path through the meadow, and, with the exception 

 of a very abundant weed with a blue flower, saw 

 nothing new or strange, — nothing but the steep tin 

 roofs of the city and its frowning wall and citadel. 

 Sweeping around the far southern horizon, we could 

 catch glimpses of mountains that were evidently in 

 Maine or New Hampshire; while twelve or fifteen 

 miles to the north the Laurentian ranges, dark and 

 formidable, arrested the eye. Quebec, or the walled 

 part of it, is situated on a point of land shaped not 

 unlike the human foot, looking northeast, the higher 

 and bolder side being next the river, with the main 

 part of the town on the northern slope toward the 

 St. Charles. Its toes are weU down in the mud 

 where this stream joins the St. Lawrence, while the 

 citadel is high on the instep and commands the whole 

 field. The grand Battery is a little below, on the 



