358 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CAN ADA: 
sceads with a very slow motion. The spray 
at the bottom is considerable, and when the sun 
happens to shine bright in the middle of the 
day, the prismatic colours are exhibited in it 
in all their variety and lustre. At the bottom 
of the precipice the water is confined in a sort 
of bason, as it were, by a mass of rock, ex¬ 
tending nearly across the fall, and out of this 
it flows with a gentle current to the St. Law¬ 
rence, which is about three hundred yards 
distant. The banks of the Montmorenci, be¬ 
low the precipice, are nearly perpendicular on 
one side, and on both inaccessible, so that if a 
person be desirous of gettingto the bottom of 
the fall, he must descend down the banks of 
,the St. Lawrence, and walk along the margin 
of that river till he comes to the chasm through 
which the Montmorenci flows. To a person 
sailing along the St. Lawrence, past the mouth 
of the chasm, the fall appears in great beauty. 
General Haldimand, formerly governor of 
Canada, was so much delighted with this ca¬ 
taract, that he built a dwelling house close to 
it, from the parlour w indows of which it h, 
seen in a very advantageous point of view. In 
front of the house is a neat iawm, that runs 
down the whole way to the St. Lawrence, and 
in various parts of it little summer-houses have 
been erected, each of which commands a view 
of the fall. There is also a summer house* 
