94 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



cultivated tract, six or seven miles, until it meets the tide. 

 There is a tolerable wooden bridge at its mouth, whose 

 large abutments loaded with great boulders, tell of the 

 formidable floods that sometimes sweep down the valley. 

 A respectable church, with its long roof and glittering 

 spire, and a tall elm or two, stands on an elevated point 

 near the junction of the river with the St. Lawrence. 



" A very quiet and moral population of seven or eight 

 hundred people inhabit this secluded valley. We are 

 informed that after the conquest a number of soldiers of 

 Murray's regiment settled here, intermarrying with the 

 Canadians, and leaving traces of their larger stature and 

 peculiar lineaments which are still visible. Some of the 

 customs of the good Jiabitans, too social family worship 

 night and morning, for instance may be of Scotch origin : 

 for, however dissipated the life of a Scotch soldier may 

 have been, he is apt towards the close to show the salutary 

 effect of former religious instruction. The good seed, 

 whose early germination had been checked by the storms 

 of his profession, seldom loses all vitality, but often brings 

 forth fruit when the turbulence of a military life is past. 

 Be this as it may, the cross appears to have improved the 

 breed considerably : the language of the military settlers, 

 however, which may have been half Gaelic half English 

 has yielded to that of the more numerous class, and the 

 whole community now speak French. 



" Many of the Malbaie families are very large, and from 



