ii8 Down the St. Lawrence. 



enduring the severest hardships they will joke and laugh, and 

 sing their Canadian songs, the majority of which are extem- 

 poraneous, and of a rude character. 



At the lower end of the Long Sault Rapids, the two cur- 

 rents of the north and south channels meet and dash against 

 each other with great impetuosity, forming what is called the 

 " Big Pitch." This is almost directly opposite the pleasant 

 and stirring town of Cornwall, sixty-eight miles from 

 Montreal, which, though very lively from the constant 

 transit of steamers, &c., through the canal, has little other 

 trade than that of being the county town. Excellent duck- 

 shooting is to be had in the fall of the year here, the birds 

 staying at the foot of the rapids for several weeks on 

 their passage southwards ; canoes can always be had in 

 the town with an Indian attendant, who, with a good sports- 

 man, will thoroughly enter into the excitement of the 

 sport, and guide him to the favourite resorts of the teal, 

 the mallard, and widgeon. Nearly opposite to Cornwall, 

 situated partly in the United States and partly in Canada, 

 for the boundary line of 45 ^ strikes the St. Lawrence there, 

 is the Indian village of St. Regis. Here, on a small portion 

 of the hunting-grounds of their once powerful nation, a set- 

 tlement of Iroquois exists. The number of British and 

 American Indians is about 900. Many of the men continue 

 to procure a precarious subsistence by hunting, and the 

 women employ themselves in making up the skins of animals 

 killed in winter into mitts and moccasins, and in manufac- 

 turing splint baskets and brooms. There is a large stone 

 church here, with a steeple and two bells, respecting one of 

 which is the following history : — Purchased in France by 

 means of furs sent out by themselves, it was captured by an 

 English cruiser, taken to Salem, Mass., and afterwards pur- 

 chased for the church at Deerfield. Their priest, hearing of 

 this, excited them to a crusade for its recovery, and they, 

 coming suddenly on that village under cover of darkness, 



