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established upon the plan of those in England 

 between the former place and Quebec, and 

 also the principal intermediate post-office sta- 

 tion, makes it a place of great resort and con- 

 siderable traffic : several inns are kept, where 

 travellers will always find good and comfort- 

 able accommodation. On passing through the 

 Chenail du Nord, the village with its gardens, 

 orchards, meadows, and surrounding cultivated 

 fields, form together an agreeable and pleasing 

 assemblage of objects, although from the flat- 

 ness of the country it is not marked by any of 

 those traits of grandeur so frequently observ- 

 able on the north side of the St. Lawrence, de- 

 scending towards Quebec. Indeed, it is so little 

 above the level of the river, that in the spring, 

 when the melted snow and ice occasion a rise 

 of the waters, it is sometimes overflowed to a 

 considerable distance inland, causing much da- 

 mage to the lower parts of the houses in the 

 village, and goods deposited in the stores; so 

 great has been the rise as to make it necessary 

 to remove large quantities of wheat from the 

 upper stories of the granaries to save it from in- 

 jury. A similar inconvenience happens at Ver- 

 cheres and its vicinity, on the south side of the 

 river. Besides the village of Berthier, there is 

 another in the upper part of the seigniory call- 

 ed Pierreville, of about twenty houses, all of 



