MONTREAL, 
307 
nails, and to particular parts of it are attached 
small bells, of no use that I could ever discover 
but to annoy the passenger. 
The boos die ox are large wooden crucifixes, 
sometimes upwards of twenty feet in height, 
placed on the highway; some of them are 
highly ornamented and painted : as the people 
pass they pull off their hats, or io some other 
way make obeisance to them. 
La Prairie de la Madelaine contains about 
one hundred houses. After stopping an hour 
or two there, we embarked io a bateau for Mont- 
real. 
Montreal is situated on an island of the same 
name, on the opposite side of the river St. Law¬ 
rence to that on which La Prairie stands, but 
somewhat lower down. The tw r o towns are 
nine miles apart, and the river is about two 
miles and a quarter wide. The current here is 
prodigiously strong, and in particular places 
as you cross, the boats are hurried down the 
stream, in the midst of large recks, with such 
impetuosity that it seems as if nothing could 
save them from being dashed to pieces ; indeed 
* this would certainly be the case, if the men were 
not uncommonly expert; but the Canadians are 
the most dexterous people perhaps in the world 
at the management of bateaux in rapid rivers. 
After such a prospect of the River St. Law¬ 
rence, it was not without astonishment that on 
