xxxii] CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC 189 



rock-ledges, requiring good steering ; but there is nowhere any 

 perceptible fall of the water, and on the whole the scenery of 

 the St. Lawrence was somewhat monotonous. We passed 

 under a fine girder bridge and the great Victoria Tubular 

 Bridge before reaching Montreal, the appearance of which is 

 much spoilt by factory chimneys and the usual but quite 

 unnecessary pall of smoke. For all this unsightliness in 

 almost every city in the world, land monopoly and competi- 

 tion are responsible. If each city owned its own land, it 

 would be no one's interest to destroy its beauty and healthi- 

 ness with smoke and impure water ; and if every parish, 

 district, or county owned its own land, factories would only 

 be permitted away from centres of population, and would be 

 so regulated as to prevent all injury or even inconvenience to 

 those who worked in them. 



I had been kindly invited by Mr. lies, the manager of the 

 Windsor Hotel, to stay there a day or two as his guest He 

 was a great admirer of Herbert Spencer, who had visited 

 him when in America, and through him I obtained a fine 

 photograph of our great philosopher, the very best I have 

 seen, both for likeness and expression. The next morning 

 he took me for a drive round the city, and up to the top 

 of Mount Royal, whence there is a magnificent view of the 

 sloping plain below, on which the city stands, with its 

 abundance of churches and of trees, which give it a character- 

 istic aspect. It is c arious to see all public notices in French 

 and English, even in this comparatively English part of 

 Canada. Mr. lies is a literary man as well as a hotel 

 manager. He lent me an article of his on " Mathematics 

 and Evolution," in which he made use of the theory of per- 

 mutations and combinations to illustrate Spencer's principle 

 of " multiplication of effects," applied especially to sociology 

 — an ingenious and well-written paper. He is also a student 

 of Emerson and Darwin, and he entertained Butler, the 

 author of " Erewhon," a few years before, and gave me a 

 copy of the inimitably humorous rhapsody on Montreal, 

 which I have quoted in Chapter XXVIII. 



In the evening at 9.30 I went on board the steamer 



