168 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



or trappers here to be hired, and I soon found that the 

 expense of a properly equipped boat-expedition would be 

 beyond my means. Ultimately my journeyings about 

 the gulf were reduced to a few trips along certain 

 portions of the north shore, and a visit to the great 

 island (about 2000 square miles in extent) of Anticosti. 

 My sojourn on the latter was so short that I had ab- 

 solutely no time to study the natural history of the 

 country. That portion of it that I visited was low and 

 swampy, and covered with forests of trees of stunted 

 growth ; but there were black bears in abundance at 

 certain spots, which were not at all inferior in size to 

 those found in other parts of Canada. This seems to me 

 rather strange, since the larger quadrupeds are usually of 

 much smaller size on islands ; as may be instanced by 

 the elephants of Ceylon, which are not a distinct species, 

 and the tigers of Sumatra, &c. The bears are certainly 

 of the same species as those on the continent, and they 

 must have got hither on the ice, since it is impossible to 

 believe that the breed could exist for untold ages in so 

 confined a space without degenerating in size, or could 

 have swam the sea-channel, which is at least thirty or 

 forty miles wide in the narrowest portion. 



Having passed down the river to Quebec, and snow 

 being by this time on the ground, I made arrangements 

 with a Mr. Finnock, boss of a party of lumberers, to 

 journey with him to his station on the gulf. Before 

 quitting Quebec I went to see the Montmorenci Falls. 

 I do not think that I have ever read a description of 

 them in which the epithet " celebrated "' or " famous " was 

 not used by the writer. There is nothing remarkable 

 about them ; and after seeing Niagara they are positively 

 tame, though their height is as great, and appears much 

 greater, on account of the smallness of their width. 

 Niagara and Montmorenci are too hackneyed to be 

 described here ; but there was a singular phenomenon at 

 the latter which I have never seen referred to, though I 



