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Jiave been carefully attended to, and by conti- 

 nual additions and rebuildings, are now im- 

 proved into bulwarks that may stand in com- 

 petition with some of the best constructed and 

 strongest fortifications of Europe. From ] 690 

 the increase was gradual while it remained 

 under the French government ; but since that 

 period its progress towards prosperity has been 

 much more rapid. The situation of Quebec is 

 unusually grand and majestic, in form of an 

 amphitheatre ; it is seated on a promontory on 

 the north-west side of the St. Lawrence, formed 

 by that river and the St. Charles : the extremity 

 of this headland is called Cape Diamond, whose 

 highest point rises three hundred and forty-five 

 feet above the level of the water ; it is composed 

 of a rock of grey granite mixed with quartz 

 crystals (from which it obtains its name), and 

 a species of dark-coloured slate ; in many places 

 it is absolutely perpendicular and bare; in 

 others, where the acclivity is less abrupt, there 

 are patches of brownish earth, or rather a de- 

 composition of the softer parts of the stone, on 

 Avhich a few stunted pines and creeping shrubs 

 are here and there seen ; but the general aspect 

 of it is rugged and barren. From the highest 

 part of the Cape, overlooking the St. Lawrence, 

 there is a declination towards the north by 

 flattish ridges of a gradual decreasCj as far as 



