64 



Quebec, who are engaged very extensively in the lumber busi- 

 ness ; having, up and down the Saguenay, and the St. Lawrence, 

 and other rivers of auada, thirty-six large lumber establishments, 

 giving constant employment to between three and fouri^housand 

 men. 



" This sajourn of a week, in circumstances so favorable, atChi- 

 coutimi, an old Post of the Hudson Bay Company, added very 

 much, I hardful need say, to the great pleasure of my excursion. 

 It was to me a delighted region in which to rusticate. I was 

 there amidst the wildness and solitudes of primeval nature ; far 

 away from the restraints, and conventionalities of artifical life ; 

 breathing the pure mountains airs ; looking out from some lofty 

 post of observation, upon boundless forests, and far receding 

 mountain ranges ; listening to the lulling sounds of the falling 

 waters, as they came tumbling over the rocks of the Chiooutimi. 

 Though among those whom I never saw before and never heard of, 

 I was treated with the kindness and hospitality of friendship. I 

 scarcely had the feeling of a stranger, but rather looked upon 

 all around me as my friends and brethren, members of one great 

 family — having a common nature and common wants, and com- 

 mon frailties, and a common Father in Heaven, and a common 

 destiny, I was disposed gratefully to cherish the feelings of the 

 man described so beautifully by Cowper, who, as he looks abroad 

 over earth and heaven — 



" Calls the delightful scenery all his own ; 



His are the mountains, and the"valleys_his. 

 And the resplendent rivers, his to enjoy, 



"With a propriety that none can feel. 

 Save who, with filial confidence inspired, 



Can lift to heaven an un presumptuous eye 

 And smiling say — " My Pather made them all,'* 



" You will readily understand that my sojourn of a week, at 

 Chicoutimi, enabled me to learn much of the country and the 

 people, which had I returned immediately in the steamer, as I at 

 first contemplated, would have been impossible. It was a pleas- 

 ing novelty to me, to find myself far aiway in the midst of forests. 



