Notes on the Lake St. John Country. 389 
arrangement of its constituents. Here it is seen with the 
ingredients pretty equally mixed, forming a granite; in 
another place, the components are in regular layers, again 
these layers are bent and contorted in every possible way. 
In many places the mountains are much shattered, broken 
into larger and smaller masses as if by some violent 
explosion; sometimes these large masses present a very 
threatening appearance as the train rushes along under 
them, so slightly do they appear to be supported. 
At about sixty-five miles from Quebec, the line of rail- 
way comes to the east side of the River Batiscan, and 
continues its course along the sides of the mountains 
forming its bank for nearly thirty miles. The scenery 
along this river is singularly beautiful. The Batiscan, 
about 150 yards wide, in this part of its course is an 
alternation of foaming rapids, some of them cascades, and 
stretches of less boisterous, beautifully clear water run- 
ning between high mountains, clothed, except where too 
steep, with arborescent verdure from the river to the 
summit. As the track rises—and there are some very 
steep grades in this part—the mountains increase in 
elevation, some of the highest rising to the height of 1500 
or 1600 feet (perhaps more) above us. Towards the south 
their shape is a sort of elliptical curve, on the north side 
they are nearly perpendicular and show bare surfaces of 
rock some hundreds of square feet in extent. 
The whole of the country abounds in lakes. It is said 
that in a rectangle reaching in length from Quebec to Lake 
St. John, and twenty miles wide, 500 lakes have been 
counted by the railway surveyors. Several of these are 
large. Lake Edward, or Lac des grandes iles, is twenty-one 
miles long, and seven and a half miles wide, and contains 
many large islands, which, with the hills which encircle 
the lake, are covered with forest, healthy trees, in no place 
disfigured by the black half-burned stumps which so often 
spoil the beauty of our woodlands, 
Near Lake Kiskisink or Cedar Lake, the railway crosses 
the height of land between Quebee and Lake St. John, its 
