The Lower St. Lawrence. 41 



from the main land and the island by the breaking up of the 

 ice field with the ebbing of the tide, which commenced to 

 hurry them, near the close of a short December day, down 

 the Gulf, till a bold fisherman, launching a frail canoe at the 

 peril of his own life, rescued them four at a time, and hap- 

 pily succeeded in saving all. The cross was erected by 

 the inhabitants of Notre Dame des Anges, as a silent wit- 

 ness of God's mercy in the hour of peril. 



Journeying on, 1 14 miles below Quebec lies Riviere du 

 Loul* (en bas). This is the eastern terminus of the Grand 

 Trunk Railway, and is another favourite summer resort for 

 sea-bathing and fishing. It is very prettily situated at the 

 confluence of the Du Loup with the St. Lawrence, and con- 

 tains a more general mixture of English, Scotch and French, 

 than is usually found in the smaller towns of Lower Canada. 

 It commands an extensive prospect of the St. Lawrence, 

 which is here upwards of twenty miles wide, and studded 

 with islands ; ships are constantly passing and re-passing, and 

 when, from their great distance, with the mountains in the 

 back ground, all these objects are enveloped in a gauze-like 

 atmosphere of summer haze, there is a magic influence in 

 the scenery. The principal local attraction is a water-fall, 

 about a mile in the rear of the village. At this point the 

 waters of the rapid and beautiful Du Loup dance joyously 

 over a rocky bed, until they reach a picturesque precipice of 

 perhaps 80 or 100 feet, over which they dash in a sheet of 

 foam, and after forming an extensive and shadowy pool, glide 

 onward placidly to mingle with the mighty river. The 

 traveller who wishes to go from Quebec to Halifax, must 

 come to this point to take the Grand Portage Road, which 

 commences here and extends to Lake T^miscouata, a distance 

 of thirty-six miles. The first ten miles of this road are 

 dotted with the cottages of the Canadian peasantry ; but the 

 rest of the route leads up mountains and down valleys, as 

 wild and desolate as when first created. The streams, which 



