13 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA : 
of Trois Rivieres than to Quebec or Montreal* 
that is shipped there. These furs are laden on 
board the Montreal ships, which stop opposite 
to the town as they go down the river. 
The country in the vicinity of Trois Ri¬ 
vieres has been represented by some French 
travellers as wonderfully fertile, and as one of 
the most agreeable parts of Canada; but it is 
totally the reverse. It is a level barren tract, 
and so sandy, that in walking along many of 
the streets of the town, and the roads in the 
neighbourhood, you sink into the sand at every 
step above the ankles. The sand is of a 
whitish colour, and very loose. The air also 
swarms with musquitoes, a certain proof of the 
low damp situation of the place. In none of 
the other inhabited parts of Canada, except in 
the neighbourhood of Lake St. Charles, were 
we ever annoyed with these troublesome in¬ 
sects. In Quebec, indeed, and Montreal, they 
are scarcely ever seen. 
The streets in Trois Rivieres are narrow, 
and the houses in general small and indifferent; 
many of them are built of wood. There are 
two churches in the town, the one an Eng¬ 
lish episcopalian, the other a large Roman 
catholic parish church, formerly served by the 
Recollets, or Franciscan friars, but the order 
is now extinct in Trois Rivieres. The old 
monastery of the order, a large stone building. 
f 
