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of curious enquiry. At the Palls of the Montmorenci a little be- 

 low Quebec, that river has cut through the junction of the sienite 

 with the superincumbent limestone, and illustrated not a few of 

 the recondite secrets of the early history of rocks. At Beauport, 

 in the same neighbourhood, enormous quantities of marine shells 

 in a state of remarkable preservation — the colours even yet per- 

 fect — are found imbedded in blue clay. Farther down the North 

 shore, the country becomes more purely granitic and mountain- 

 ous to the very edge of the St. Lawrence : the bold capes and 

 head-lands Increasing in boldness and altitude, until they are in- 

 terrupted by the singular and enormous fissure through which 

 the Saguenay runs. The waters of this great tributary, beneath 

 a perpendicular bank, from six to nine hundred feet high, and only 

 a yard from the shore, are one thousand feet deep, and in some 

 places no bottom has yet been found. 



" It was a iine afternoon when we left Malbaie ; the river was 

 calm, and the white porpoises, those unwieldy looking creatures, 

 were tumbling about in all directions. We had guns and tried a 

 few shots without effect — the balls ricochetting off their smooth 

 and oily skins, whenever they struck them. As it approached 

 sunset our Canadian boatman began a quartette, by no means in- 

 harmonious, though the voices were rough enough — and kept it 

 up with great spirit nearly all the rest of the voyage. At mid- 

 night we arrived at the mouth of the river, where we found a fine 

 dry sandy beach, with a line of creamy surf rippling gently 

 against it, in a wild and uninhabited country. We landed, found 

 plenty of wood to kindle a large fire. At our supper, which 

 we shared with our voyageurs, they gave us another song under 

 the exhilirating influence of a coup or two of brandy. We 

 then wrapped ourselves in our cloaks, looked out for a soft stone 

 for a pillow, placed our guns by our sides, put our feet to the 

 fire and soon fell asleep. 



" The morning sun awoke us : we started up and took a re- 

 freshing swim in the salt water, whilst our attendants were getting 

 breakfast ready. When the meal was over we prepared our rods 

 and set out to reconnoitre the stream, the banks of which were 



