12 



many temptations to spend money and waji^os are low owing to groat com- 

 petition. 



" The young men who wer.' horn here and those who came wh'.'U 

 very young and have be»'n brought up ht-ri' will, with very few cxci'j^- 

 tion.s, ncvt'r return lo live in Quebec They are essfMitially Americans 

 and on I' might as well try to induce Ca7uidian,s to return to the farms of 

 old France as to induce th' forin''r to r-'turn to Canada. 



" The numb T of French Canadians is increasing to an astonishing 

 exteni in New England. Th;'y have immense advantages over other emi- 

 grants. Factory owners invariably give them the preference, their friends 

 here make arrauLn'm -nts for their reception so that when they come, by 

 entire i;iniiU('s, 1 hey lind their lodgings ready and can obtain credit from 

 their fellow-couiitrymen for what they require during the iirst months 

 of house-keeping. They obtain work at oi.ce ; generally there is a place 

 waiting for tlu i:i in tlie factory. Their naiaral increase is as rapid a^ in 

 the rmviiKc of Quebec. There is no decrease whatever as r<'gards fecuu- 

 dity." 



III. 



15 'fore leavinii' Saint Grabriel, let us cast an eye to our right upon the 

 famous Monnt Comis, with an altitude of two thousand and tiiirl y-six feet 

 above th(! l(n"(d of the river and with which are connected many tra- 

 ditions which would be dv'serving of careful scientific investigation ; 

 amongst others liiat shell-lish, skeletons of whales and various fishes 

 have been discovered on it ; but as these bones could not be found again 

 after several attempts of a more or less earnest nature, the reports remain 

 as tradition ])ut, n.'verlheless, as constant tradition. 



Moiant Comis is situated between Saint Donat and Saint Grabriel. By 

 looking at it attentively one soon observes a kind of dejiri-ssion in its 

 crest. In this depression, between granite flanks, lies a beautiful lake 

 from fifteen t<^ tweutv arpents in lengtli and of unknown depth. There 

 is no known outf-t of this lake, it is supposed that its waters How through 

 subterranean fissures into a second lake which has been found halfway 

 up th ' mountain. The upper lake has no fish in il at all while the lower 

 one abounds in fish. At the foot of Mount Comis, on the south sidi;, 

 there are seven olh"r lakes which the hardiest and most truthful of fisher- 

 men agree upon as lieing the wondrous home of the fiiu'st trout which 

 exist and will evi'r exist in oxir Province. 



15 etweini Saint Gabriel and Saint Marcellin, the (^mntry presents a 

 miserable appearance which it would be wrong, however, to attribute to 

 the cji^idity of the soil. Nearly all the dwellings are log-houses ; very few 

 are of squared timber and a great many have been abandoned. They 

 stand with their doors padlocked, their windows boarded up in the midst 



