300 ST LAWRENCE AND ATLANTIC RAILWAY. 



and Atlantic railroad, which has already been opened as 

 far as St Hyacinth, a distance of about twenty-seven 

 miles. This railroad, which will afford the easiest and 

 shortest line yet projected from Montreal to the Atlantic, 

 will reach the coast at Portland in Maine. When it 

 is completed, which is expected to be the case in two or 

 three years, it will not only greatly promote the pros- 

 perity of Montreal and of Quebec, to which city a branch 

 is intended to fork off, but it will much assist the city of 

 Portland to compete with the growing neighbour city of 

 Boston, which it is anxious to rival and surpass. To be 

 at the mouth of a long river, or at the terminus of a long 

 inland railway, and upon the Atlantic border, seem, from 

 past experience, to be sure preludes to commercial pro- 

 sperity in a North American city. It is not surprising, 

 therefore, that New York, Boston, and Portland, should 

 all be anxious to perfect, complete, or shorten their lines 

 of communication with the Canadas and the St Law- 

 rence. 



For ten miles we went over a flat country, chiefly 

 of tertiary or post-tertiary light-coloured clays. Here a 

 break-down upon the line arrested our advance, and we 

 considered the most promising way of getting on was to 

 walk the remaining five miles. This gave us an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing to greater advantage the wooden bridge 

 and viaduct, 1200 feet long, which conducts the railway 

 across the river Richelieu. This bridge, though nothing 

 almost when compared with the engineering triumphs of 

 our British railways, is deserving of a visit, both as a 

 difficult work of art, and as an evidence of the enterprise 

 and energy of a young and growing country. We 

 arrived at St Hilaire three hours behind our time, and 

 fully prepared for an unexpectedly late dinner. 



Si'pt. 26. — This morning was wet and unpromising 

 for a rural excursion in a flat and somewhat clayey 

 country, where the roads are bad and walking difficult. 



