SUNSET AT QUEBEC. 329 



been purchased by the Lower Canadians, as experience 

 had shown it to be better adapted to the climate. This 

 may be because of the extreme heat of the summers on 

 the river St Lawrence. 



Formed from softish, somewhat calcareous slates, which 

 in many places are near the surface and crumble readily, 

 the soil is inclined to be heavy, and rests often on an 

 impervious bottom. Drainage, therefore, generally, and 

 the use of lime in many places, are indicated as means 

 of improvement. The latter, if I may judge by the 

 frequent lime-kilns I passed on my way to Montmorenci, 

 is tried to some extent by the farmers around Quebec. 



New settlers seldom remain in this county. The 

 average value of uncleared land is about 5s., and of 

 cleared from 15s. to 17s. 6d. an acre. During the last 

 ten years, the value of land has increased one-fourth. 



On my way back from Montmorenci, about six in the 

 evening, the quickly setting sun shone on the tinned roofs 

 and spires and glittering windows of Quebec, pro- 

 ducing an ever-varying but very beautiful effect. I had 

 in my life before seen only two sunsets more striking, 

 and of which it reminded me — that of Paris from Mont- 

 martre, on a clear autumnal evening, when the sinking 

 rays of the sun lingered still on the Panthee, on Notre 

 Dame, and other prominent objects, singling them out 

 as individual pictures from the countless mass of objects 

 of less elevation ; and that of Moscow from the Sparrow 

 Hills, when its thousand domes of gold and silver, with 

 intermingled green and azure, and its ten thousand orna- 

 mental crosses, glittered around the ancient Kremlin, and 

 the massive central palace-fortress itself rose as a huge 

 dark pile, frowning from its Eastern towers on the con- 

 gregated churches and other buildings of the city beneath. 



Sunday^ Sept. 30. — After a brief visit to the Boman 

 Catholic cathedral, where I saw the venerable, white- 

 haired, old Archbishop of Quebec, the Primate of the 



