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diff --git a/42309-0.txt b/42309-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84b7a95 --- /dev/null +++ b/42309-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6386 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42309 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 42309-h.htm or 42309-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42309/42309-h/42309-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42309/42309-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/americaj04cookrich + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + The Title Page and Table of Contents for this book refer + to it as Volume IV. The page and chapter numbering is + consistent with this being the second half of the previous + volume (whose title page says it is Volume III but whose + Table of Contents refers to it as Volume II.) + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original + document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors + have been corrected. + + + + + + [Illustration: _Brandt Lake, Adirondacks_] + + +_Edition Artistique_ + +The World's Famous Places and Peoples + +AMERICA + +by + +JOEL COOK + +In Six Volumes + +Volume IV. + + + + + + +Merrill and Baker +New York London + +THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS +LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS +COPY IS NO. 205 + +Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1900 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME IV + + + PAGE + + BRANDT LAKE, ADIRONDACKS _Frontispiece_ + + MONUMENT TO JONATHAN EDWARDS, STOCKBRIDGE, + MASS. 256 + + OLD FORT TICONDEROGA 290 + + WATKINS GLEN 362 + + IN THE THOUSAND ISLANDS, ST. LAWRENCE 412 + + CHAUDIÈRE FALLS, ST. LAWRENCE 450 + + MONTCALM'S HEADQUARTERS, QUEBEC 474 + + + + +A GLIMPSE OF THE BERKSHIRE HILLS. + + + + +XI. + +A GLIMPSE OF THE BERKSHIRE HILLS. + + Berkshire Magnificence -- Taghkanic Range -- Housatonic River + -- Autumnal Forest Tints -- Old Graylock -- Fitchburg Railroad + -- Hoosac Mountain and Tunnel -- Williamstown -- Williams + College -- North Adams -- Fort Massachusetts -- Adams -- + Lanesboro -- Pittsfield -- Heart of Berkshire -- The + Color-Bearer -- Latimer Fugitive Slave Case -- Old Clock on the + Stairs -- Pontoosuc Lake -- Ononta Lake -- Berry Pond -- Lily + Bowl -- Ope of Promise -- Lenox -- Fanny Kemble -- Henry Ward + Beecher -- Mount Ephraim -- Yokun-town -- Stockbridge Bowl -- + Lake Mahkeenac -- Nathaniel Hawthorne -- House of the Seven + Gables -- Oliver Wendell Holmes -- Lanier Hill -- Laurel Lake + -- Lee -- Stockbridge -- Field Hill -- John Sergeant -- + Stockbridge Indians -- Jonathan Edwards -- Edwards Hall -- + Sedgwick Family and Tombs -- Theodore Sedgwick -- Catherine + Maria Sedgwick -- Monument Mountain -- The Pulpit -- Ice Glen + -- Great Barrington -- William Cullen Bryant -- The Minister's + Wooing -- Kellogg Terrace -- Mrs. Hopkins-Searles -- Sheffield + -- Mount Everett -- Mount Washington -- Shays' Rebellion -- + Boston Corner -- Salisbury -- Winterberg -- Bash-Bish Falls -- + Housatonic Great Falls -- Litchfield -- Bantam Lake -- + Birthplace of the Beechers -- Wolcott House -- Wolcottville -- + John Brown -- Danbury -- Hat-making -- General Wooster -- + Ansonia -- Derby -- Isaac Hull -- Robert G. Ingersoll's Tribute + -- Berkshire Hills and Homes. + + +BERKSHIRE MAGNIFICENCE. + +IN ascending the Hudson River, its eastern hill-border for many miles +was the blue and distant Taghkanic range, which encloses the +attractive region of Berkshire. When the Indians from the Hudson +Valley climbed over those hills they found to the eastward a +beautiful stream, which they called the Housatonic, the "River beyond +the Mountains." This picturesque river rises in the Berkshire hills, +and flowing for one hundred and fifty miles southward by a winding +course through Massachusetts and Connecticut, finally empties into +Long Island Sound. Berkshire is the western county of Massachusetts, a +region of exquisite loveliness that has no peer in New England, +covering a surface about fifty miles long, extending entirely across +the State, and about twenty miles wide. Two mountain ranges bound the +intermediate valley, and these, with their outcroppings, make the +noted Berkshire hills that have drawn the warmest praises from the +greatest American poets and authors. Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, +Hawthorne, Beecher and many others have written their song and story, +which are interwoven with our best literature. It is a region of +mountain peaks and lakes, of lovely vales and delicious views, and the +exhilarating air and pure waters, combined with the exquisite scenery, +have made it constantly attractive. Beecher early wrote that it "is +yet to be as celebrated as the Lake District of England, or the +hill-country of Palestine." One writer tells of the "holiday-hills +lifting their wreathed and crowned heads in the resplendent days of +autumn;" another describes it as "a region of hill and valley, +mountain and lake, beautiful rivers and laughing brooks." Miss +Sedgwick, who journeyed thither on the railroad up the Westfield +Valley from the Connecticut River, wrote, "We have entered Berkshire +by a road far superior to the Appian Way. On every side are rich +valleys and smiling hillsides, and, deep-set in their hollows, lovely +lakes sparkle like gems." Fanny Kemble long lived at Lenox, in one of +the most beautiful parts of the district, and she wished to be buried +in its churchyard on the hill, saying, "I will not rise to trouble +anyone if they will let me sleep here. I will only ask to be permitted +once in a while to raise my head and look out upon the glorious +scene." + +To these Berkshire hills the visitors go to see the brilliant autumnal +tints of the American forests in their greatest perfection. When +copious autumn rains have made the foliage luxuriant, much will remain +vigorous after parts have been turned by frosts. This puts green into +the Berkshire panorama to enhance the olives of the birch, the grayish +pinks of the ash, the scarlets of the maple, the deep reds of the oak +and the bright yellows of the poplar. When in such a combination, +these make a magnificent contrast of brilliant leaf-coloring, and +while it lasts, the mantle of purple and gold, of bright flame and +resplendent green, with the almost dazzling yellows that cover the +autumnal mountain slopes, give one of the richest feasts of color ever +seen. This magnificence of the Berkshire autumn coloring inspired +Beecher to write, "Have the evening clouds, suffused with sunset, +dropped down and become fixed into solid forms? Have the rainbows that +followed autumn storms faded upon the mountains and left their mantles +there? What a mighty chorus of colors do the trees roll down the +valleys, up the hillsides, and over the mountains!" From Williamstown +to Salisbury the region stretches, the Taghkanic range bounding it on +the west, and the Hoosac Mountain on the east. The northern guardian +is double-peaked Old Graylock, the monarch of the Berkshire hills, in +the Taghkanic range, the scarred surfaces, exposed in huge bare places +far up their sides, showing the white marble formation of these hills. + + +WILLIAMSTOWN TO PITTSFIELD. + +The Fitchburg railroad, coming from Troy on the Hudson to Boston, +crosses the northern part of the district and pierces the Hoosac +Mountain by a famous tunnel, nearly five miles long, which cost +Massachusetts $16,000,000, the greatest railway tunnel in the United +States. This railroad follows the charming Deerfield River Valley up +to the mountain, from the east, and it seeks the Hudson northwestward +down the Hoosac River, the "place of stones," passing under the shadow +of Old Graylock, rising in solid grandeur over thirty-five hundred +feet, the highest Massachusetts mountain, at the northwest corner of +the State. A tower on the top gives a view all around the horizon, +with attractive glimpses of the winding Hoosac and Housatonic +Valleys. Nearby is Williamstown, the seat of Williams College, with +four hundred students, its buildings being the chief feature of the +village. President Garfield was a graduate of this College, and +William Cullen Bryant for some time a student, writing much of his +early poetry here. Five miles eastward is the manufacturing town of +North Adams, with twenty thousand people, in the narrow valley of the +Hoosac, whose current turns its mill-wheels. A short distance down the +Hoosac, at a road crossing, was the site of old Fort Massachusetts, +the "Thermopylæ of New England" in the early French and Indian War, +where, in 1746, its garrison of twenty-two men held the fort two days +against an attacking force of nine hundred, of whom they killed +forty-seven and wounded many more, only yielding when every grain of +powder was gone. + +Journeying southward up the Hoosac through its picturesque valley, the +narrow, winding stream turns many mills, while "Old Greylock, +cloud-girdled on his purple throne," stands guardian at its northern +verge. There are various villages, mostly in decadence, many of their +people having migrated, and the mills have to supplement water-power +with steam, the drouths being frequent. Of the little town of Adams on +the Hoosac, Susan B. Anthony was the most famous inhabitant, and in +Lanesboro "Josh Billings," then named H. W. Shaw, was born in 1818, +before he wandered away to become an auctioneer and humorist. The +head of the Hoosac is a reservoir lake, made to store its waters that +they may better serve the mills below, and almost embracing its +sources are the branching head-streams of the Housatonic, which flows +to the southward. This part of the intervale, being the most elevated, +is a region of sloughs and lakes, from which the watershed tapers in +both directions. Upon this high plateau, more than a thousand feet +above the tidal level, is located the county-seat of Berkshire, +Pittsfield, named in honor of William Pitt, the elder, in 1761. The +Boston and Albany Railroad crosses the Berkshires through the town, +and then climbing around the Hoosac range goes off down Westfield +River to the Connecticut at Springfield. The Public Green of +Pittsfield, located, as in all New England towns, in its centre, is +called the "Heart of Berkshire." Upon it stands Launt Thompson's noted +bronze statue of the "Color-Bearer," cast from cannon given by +Congress,--a spirited young soldier in fatigue uniform, holding aloft +the flag. This statue is reproduced on the Gettysburg battlefield, and +it is the monument of five officers and ninety men of Pittsfield +killed in the Civil War. At the dedication of this statue was read +Whittier's eloquent lyric, "Massachusetts to Virginia," which was +inspired by the "Latimer fugitive slave case" in 1842. An owner from +Norfolk claimed the fugitive in Boston, and was awarded him by the +courts, but the decision caused so much excitement that the slave's +emancipation was purchased for $400, the owner gladly taking the money +rather than pursue the case further. Thus said Whittier: + + "A voice from lips whereon the coal from Freedom's shrine hath been + Thrilled as but yesterday the breasts of Berkshire's mountain men; + The echoes of that solemn voice are sadly lingering still + In all our sunny valleys, on every wind-swept hill. + + "And sandy Barnstable rose up, wet with the salt sea-spray; + And Bristol sent her answering shout down Narragansett Bay; + Along the broad Connecticut old Hampden felt the thrill, + And the cheer of Hampshire's woodmen swept down from Holyoke Hill: + + "'No slave-hunt in our borders--no pirate on our strand! + No fetters in the Bay State--no slave upon our land!'" + +Bordering this famous Green are the churches and public buildings of +Pittsfield, while not far away a spacious and comfortable mansion is +pointed out which for many years was the summer home of Longfellow, +and the place where he found "The Old Clock on the Stairs"--the clock +is said to still remain in the house. The Pittsfield streets lead out +in every direction to lovely scenes on mountain slopes or the banks of +lakes. The Agassiz Association for the study of natural history has +its headquarters in Pittsfield, there being a thousand local chapters +in various parts of the world. This pleasant region was the Indian +domain of Pontoosuc, "the haunt of the winter deer," and this is the +name of one of the prettiest adjacent lakes just north of the town on +the Williamstown road. Ononta is another of exquisite contour, west of +the town, a romantic lakelet elevated eighteen hundred feet, which +gives Pittsfield its water supply, and has an attractive park upon its +shores. On the mountain to the northwest is Berry Pond, its margin of +silvery sand strewn with delicate fibrous mica and snowy quartz. Here, +in various directions, are the "Opes," as the beautiful vista views +are called, along the vales opening through and among the hills. One +of these, to the southward, overlooks the lakelet of the "Lily Bowl." +Here lived Herman Melville, the rover of the seas, when he wrote his +sea-novels. The chief of these vales is to the northwest of +Pittsfield, the "Ope of Promise," giving a view over the "Promised +Land." We are told that this tract was named with grim Yankee humor, +because the original grant of the title to the land was "long +promised, long delayed." + + +LENOX. + +A fine road, with exquisite views, leads a few miles southward to +Lenox, the "gem among the mountains," as Professor Silliman called it, +standing upon a high ridge at twelve hundred feet elevation, and +rising far above the general floor of the valley, the mountain ridges +bounding it upon either hand, being about five miles apart, and having +pleasant intervales between. There is a population of about three +thousand, but summer and autumn sojourners greatly enlarge this, when +throngs of happy pilgrims from the large cities come here, most of +them having their own villas. The crests and slopes of the hills round +about Lenox are crowned by mansions, many of them costly and imposing, +adding to the charms of the landscape. At the head of the main street, +the highest point of the village, stands the old Puritan +Congregational Church, with its little white wooden belfry and a view +all around the compass. This primitive church recalls many memories of +the good old times, before fashion sought out Lenox and worshipped at +its shrine: + + "They had rigid manners and homespun breeches + In the good old times; + They hunted Indians and hung up witches + In the good old times; + They toiled and moiled from sun to sun, + And they counted sinful all kinds of fun, + And they went to meeting armed with a gun, + In the good old times." + +Far to the northward, seen from this old church, beyond many swelling +knolls and ridges, rises Old Graylock, looking like a recumbent +elephant, as the clouds overhang its twin rounded peaks, thirty miles +away. From the church door, facing the south and looking over and +beyond the village, there is such a panorama that even without the +devotion of the inspired Psalmist, one might prefer to stand in the +door of the Lord's house rather than dwell in tent, tabernacle or +mansion. This glorious view is over two valleys, one on either hand, +their bordering ridges covered with the fairest foliage. To the +distant southwest, where the Housatonic Valley stretches away in +winding courses, the stream flowing in wayward fashion across the +view, there are many ridgy hills, finally fading into the horizon +beyond the Connecticut boundary. The immediate hillside is covered +with the churchyard graves, and then slopes down into the village, +with its surrounding galaxy of villas, among which little lakes glint +in the sunlight. It is no wonder that Fanny Kemble, who lived here at +intervals for many years, desired to be buried at this church door, +for she could not have found a fairer resting-place, though Henry Ward +Beecher, another summer sojourner, in his enthusiasm expressed the +hope that in her life to come she would "behold one so much fairer +that this scenic beauty shall fade to a shadow." + +The earliest settlements in this part of the Berkshires, then a +dangerous Indian frontier, were in 1750; and a few years later, when +peace was restored, lands were bought and two towns started, one +called Mount Ephraim and the other Yokun-town, after an Indian chief. +The Duke of Richmond, whose family name was Lenox, had taken strong +ground in favor of the American colonists, and in gratitude these +towns, when subsequently incorporated, were called, the former +Richmond, and the latter Lenox. The duke's coat-of-arms hangs upon the +wall in the village Library of Lenox. In 1787 Lenox was made the +county-seat of Berkshire, so continuing for eighty-one years, and its +present church was built in 1806, replacing an older one. It began to +be a summer resort at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and +became fashionable after Fanny Kemble, then the great celebrity, +visited it about 1838, and stopped at the "Berkshire Coffee House," +setting the fashion of early rising by requiring her horse to be +saddled and bridled and promptly at the door at seven o'clock in the +morning, for a daily gallop of ten or twelve miles before breakfast. +Lenox has now developed into so much wealth, fashion and luxury, that +it is known as "the Newport of the Berkshires." Its one long village +main street contains the Library and hotels, and in all directions +pleasant roads lead out to the hills and vales around, which are +developed in every way that wealth and art can master. The broad and +charming grass-bordered main street, under its rows of stately +overarching elms, leads southward down the hill among the villas. The +deep adjacent valleys, with their many and varied knolls and slopes, +give such grand outlooks that dwellings can be placed almost anywhere +to advantage, most of them being spacious and impressive, their +elaborate architecture adding to the attractions. + + +THE STOCKBRIDGE BOWL. + +Southward from Lenox is the outer elevated rim of the "Stockbridge +Bowl," a deep basin among the hills, and one can look down within this +grand amphitheatre upon Lake Mahkeenac nestling there, with the rocky +and chaotic top of the distant Monument Mountain closing the view +beyond. There are attractive villas perched upon all the knolls and +terraces surrounding this famous "Bowl," and one modest older mansion +overlooks it among so much modern magnificence--Nathaniel Hawthorne's +"House of the Seven Gables," the remains of which are still shown. +Here he lived for a few years in a quaint little red wooden house, +looking as if built in bits, and having a glorious view for miles away +across the lake. Mrs. Hawthorne once described this house in a letter +to her mother as "the reddest little thing, which looks like the +smallest of ten-foot houses." Nearby is the farm where he got milk, +the route to which he called the "milky-way." They have named the road +leading out from Lenox to this house, in his honor, "Hawthorne +Street." The view over the lake from its back windows was so +enchanting that he was very proud of it, and Mrs. Hawthorne records +that one day Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who then lived near +Pittsfield, rode down to make a call. They insisted on his coming in +"to get a peep at the lake through the boudoir window," while +Hawthorne himself held the doctor's horse at the door. The humorist, +on returning, acknowledged the kindness with a pleasantry, saying, "Is +there another man in all America that ever had such honor as to have +the author of 'The Scarlet Letter' hold his horse?" + +The rides around the "Stockbridge Bowl" are delicious. Over the hills +they go, up and down the terraces widely encircling the grand basin, +now under arching canopies of elms, then through the forest, past +little lakelets, with fascinating views in all directions, and always +having the placid lake for a central gem down in the "Bowl." There are +villas on all the points of vantage--red-topped and white-topped--the +princely palaces of wealthy bankers and merchants. One of the most +noted of these villas on Lanier Hill, high above the "Bowl" and the +surrounding vales, gives opportunity to overlook several lakes, and +study the rock-ribbed structure of the charming region, thrust up in +crags and layers of white marble. The walls and stonework of the +buildings are chiefly white, contrasting prettily with the foliage and +greensward. Here is seen the Laurel Lake, and beyond is the village of +Lee, nestling in the deep valley along the winding Housatonic, its +tall white church spire rising among the trees, yet far down among the +surrounding hills. All the adjacent slopes are covered with villas, +and the marble-quarries and paper-mills have made the town's fortune. +There are about four thousand people, and the Lee quarries are among +the most noted in America. The pure white marble, cut out of deep +fissures alongside the Housatonic, has built many famous structures, +including the two largest buildings in the country, the Capitol at +Washington and the Philadelphia City Hall, and also St. Patrick's +Cathedral in New York. Lee was named in the Revolution, after "Light +Horse Harry" of Virginia. + + +STOCKBRIDGE AND ITS INDIANS. + +Across an intervening ridge beyond the "Bowl" is the village of +Stockbridge. The wayward Housatonic encircles Lee, and flows athwart +the valley towards the west, thus making a meadow on which this +pleasant settlement stands. In the autumn, turkeys strut about, and +pumpkins lie profusely in the fields, preparing for the annual New +England feast of roast turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day--the +great Puritan holiday that has spread over the country. Monument +Mountain and Bear Mountain to the southward guard the smaller glen +into which the highway leads, with Stockbridge scattered through it +upon the winding river banks. This region was settled earlier than +Lenox, the first colonists from the Connecticut Valley venturing out +upon the Indian trail across the Hoosac range in 1725 to take up a +grant in the Southern Berkshires. They found here, on the river bank, +the Mohican Indian village of Housatonnuc, and established relations +of the greatest friendliness. Field's Hill overlooks the town, where +Cyrus W. Field, of Atlantic cable memory, and his brothers were born. +Stockbridge has been described as one of "the delicious surprises of +Berkshire," quiet and seemingly almost asleep beneath its embowering +meadow elms under the rim of the hills upon the river-bordered plain. +Upon the wide green street stands a solid square stone tower, with a +clock and chimes, bearing the inscription, "This memorial marks the +spot where stood the little church in which John Sergeant preached to +the Indians in 1739." This handsome tower, standing in front of the +Congregational Church, was the gift of David Dudley Field to his +birthplace. + +These Indians called themselves the Muhhekanews, or "the people of the +great moving waters," and Sergeant was sent as a missionary among +them, laboring fifteen years. They were afterwards called the +Stockbridge Indians. Jonathan Edwards, the renowned metaphysician, who +had differences with the church at Northampton, succeeded Sergeant, +and came out into the Berkshire wilderness, living among these Indians +and preaching by the aid of interpreters. This great pastor lived +happily at Stockbridge for six years on an annual salary of $35, with +$10 extra paid in fuel, and in one of the oldest houses of the village +wrote his celebrated work on _The Freedom of the Will_. He left +Stockbridge to become President of Princeton College in New Jersey. +The Stockbridge Indians had a wonderful tradition. They said that a +great people crossed deep waters from a far-distant continent in the +northwest, and by many pilgrimages marched to the seashore and the +valley of the Hudson. Here they built cities and lived until a famine +scattered them, and many died. Wandering afterwards for years in quest +of a precarious living, they lost their arts and manners, and part of +them settled in the village on the Housatonic, where the Puritans +found them. They gladly received Sergeant's ministry, and he baptized +over a hundred of them, translating the New Testament and part of the +Old into their language. When Edwards came, in 1751, there were one +hundred and fifty Indian families, and but six English families. Many +were in the Continental army in the Revolution, and a company of these +Indians won distinction in the battle of White Plains, near New York. +They were dispersed in later days, some going to Western New York and +others to the far West; but on the slope of a hill adjoining the river +remains their old graveyard, a rugged weather-worn shaft surmounting a +stone pile to mark it. + + [Illustration: _Monument to Jonathan Edwards, Stockbridge, Mass._] + +Upon the green village main street is Edwards' little old wooden +house, having three small windows above the ponderous door. It is now +called "Edwards Hall," and a granite obelisk out in front, erected by +his descendants in 1871, preserves the memory of the great divine. +Over opposite is the venerable Sedgwick Mansion, the home of the +famous Sedgwick family. Farther up the street is the Cemetery, where +the most interesting feature is the enclosure set apart for their +tombs, the graves being arranged in circles around the central tomb of +Judge Theodore Sedgwick, the founder. He was a native of Hartford, +born in 1746, migrated to Sheffield in Berkshire, and finally settled +at Stockbridge after the Revolution, becoming one of the leading +statesmen of New England, prominent in the old Federal party, Member +of Congress and Senator from Massachusetts, and Speaker of the House. +He was subsequently made Judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, +dying in office in 1813. His children and descendants surround his +grave, among them his daughter, the distinguished authoress, Catherine +Maria Sedgwick, born at Stockbridge in 1789, who died in 1867. + +A few miles to the southeast is Monument Mountain, the Indian +"Fisher's Nest," one of the most curious and attractive of the +Berkshire hills on account of its position and form, although the +summit is not very high, less than thirteen hundred feet. Its rock +formations are fine, being of white quartz, and on the eastern side is +a detached cliff with a huge pinnacle nearly a hundred feet high, +known as the "Pulpit." Hawthorne greatly admired this mountain, at +which he looked from his boudoir window across the lake, and in its +autumn hues he said it appeared like "a headless sphinx wrapped in a +rich Persian shawl," seen across a valley that was "a vast basin +filled with sunshine as with wine." The mountain received its modern +name from a cairn found on the summit, the tradition telling of a +mythical Indian maiden who got crossed in love, and as a consequence +jumped off the topmost cliff, being dashed to pieces. Her tribe, when +they passed that way, each added a stone to the pile, thus building +the cairn. There are many stones thrown all around this peculiarly +rugged mountain, which is piled up with white marble crags in a region +where abrupt peaks are seen almost everywhere. In among these cliffs +is the Ice Glen, a cold and narrow cleft where ice may be found in +midsummer, it is so secluded from sunshine. The appearance of Monument +Mountain made a strong impression on William Cullen Bryant, who thus +described it: + + "To the north, a path + Conducts you up the narrow battlements. + Steep is the western side, shaggy and wild, + With many trees and pinnacles of flint, + And many a haughty crag. But to the east + Sheer to the vale go down the bare old cliffs, + Huge pillars that in middle heaven uprear + Their weather-beaten capitals--here dark + With the thick moss of centuries, and there + Of chalky whiteness, where the thunderbolt + Hath smitten them." + + +GREAT BARRINGTON. + +To the southward farther, the widening Housatonic circles about the +valley, bordered with willows and alders, and hidden frequently by +cliffs and forests. Hills terrace the horizon, with mountain peaks +among them. Through the gorges the road follows down the circling +river, which constantly turns more mill-wheels, its waters pouring +over frequent white marble dams and bubbling upon rapids, with steep +tree-clad slopes adorning the banks and making attractive views. +Monument Mountain's long ridge gradually falls off, and the intervale +broadens as the Housatonic winds in wider channel to Great Barrington. +This is another typical New England village, embowered by the +stateliest of elms, spreading along its broad green-bordered street, +with a galaxy of hills encircling the intervale in which it stands, +and lofty Mount Everett rising grandly over its southwestern verge. To +the eastward is the special hill of Great Barrington, giving the town +its name. Beecher described it as "one of those places which one never +enters without wishing never to leave." William Cullen Bryant for +several years, ending with 1825, was the town clerk of Great +Barrington, and the records of that time are in his handwriting; his +house is still preserved. For a quarter of a century Dr. Samuel +Hopkins lived here, the hero of Mrs. Stowe's novel, the _Minister's +Wooing_. On the lowlands by the river is the costliest country-house +in the Berkshires, Kellogg Terrace, built by Mrs. Hopkins-Searles, a +magnificent structure of blue and white marbles, with red-tiled roofs, +and most elaborately fitted up, upon which $1,500,000 was expended. +It is carefully concealed from view from the village street by a +massive stone wall and well-arranged trees. This mansion principally +illustrates the affection the New England emigrant always bears for +the home of youth. Mark Hopkins went away from the Berkshires to +California to make a fortune and die. His childless widow, a native of +Great Barrington, had $30,000,000, and came back to live on the farm +where she had spent her childhood. She determined to rear a memorial, +and built this French-Gothic palace of the native Berkshire marbles, +exceeding at the time, in costliness and magnificence, any other +private dwelling outside of New York City. As the building gradually +grew, she became so enamored of it and its designer that she took the +architect, Mr. Searles, for a second husband. Then she died, and he +became its possessor. Yet it cannot be seen, except by climbing up a +high hill to the eastward, where one can look down upon its red-tiled +roofs on the low-lying meadow almost by the river side. The +Congregational Church of Great Barrington has the Hopkins Memorial +Manse, regarded as the finest parsonage in the United States, which +cost $100,000 to build. + +Following farther down the Housatonic, the village of Sheffield, +another domain of marble quarries, is reached, with the same broad, +quiet, green-bordered and elm-shaded village street, and famed for +having furnished the marble to build Girard College and its +magnificent colonnade at Philadelphia. The "Sheffield Elm" in the +southern part of the town, a noble tree of great age, was given fame +by the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." To the westward is the broad +and solid mass of Mount Everett, often called Mount Washington, the +southern outpost of the Taghkanic range, and the sentinel guarding the +southwestern corner of Massachusetts, as Old Graylock guards the +northwest corner. This mountain rises over twenty-six hundred feet, +the "Dome of the Taghkanics." From its summit can be surveyed to the +westward the valley of the Hudson, while beyond, at the horizon, the +distant Catskills hang, in the words of Dr. Hitchcock, "like the +curtains of the sky." The Connecticut boundary is not far away, and +beyond it, southward, are successive ranges of hills. The Housatonic +winds through productive valleys, with herds quietly grazing, and +tobacco and other crops growing. This is in the town of Mount +Washington, which was part of the great Livingston Manor that +stretched in front of the mountain over to the Hudson, and the first +settlers were Dutch, who came up from that valley. This region was the +scene of the close of Shays' Rebellion in 1787, the insurgents who had +convulsed western Massachusetts, and attacked and plundered +Stockbridge, being chased down here by the troops, and a considerable +number killed and wounded before they were dispersed. + + +TO SALISBURY AND BEYOND. + +The southwestern corner of Massachusetts, projecting westward into New +York outside the Connecticut boundary, is known as Boston Corner. To +the southward, in the northwestern corner of Connecticut, is +Salisbury, where the Taghkanic range falls away into lower hills. +Beecher described this country as a constant succession of hills +swelling into mountains, and of mountains flowing down into hills. +This is a quiet region, formerly a producer of iron ores, and it was +early settled by the Dutch, who came over from the Hudson in 1720. +They were a timid race, however, fearing the rigors of climate, and, +coming thus to the edge of what looked like an Alpine land of +dreariness beyond, they would not venture farther into the forbidding +hills. The mountainous region to the north and east they inscribed on +their maps as a large white vacant space, which they coolly named +"Winterberg." The township has two noted ravines, solitary, rugged and +attractive, and both containing cascades. In one to the westward is +the celebrated Bash-Bish Falls, and the other to the northward is +Sage's Ravine, just beyond it being Norton's Falls. The Bash-Bish is +said to have got its name in imitation of running, falling waters. It +descends nearly five hundred feet in cataracts and rapids, the finest +cascades in the Berkshires, and then flows out westward to the Hudson. +The Housatonic, going southward through Salisbury, plunges down its +Great Falls over rocky ledges for sixty feet descent, making a +tremendous noise and a fine display. To the eastward of the Housatonic +Valley, at an elevation of eleven hundred feet, on a broad plateau, is +Litchfield, consisting chiefly of two broad, tree-shaded streets +crossing at right angles, the chief buildings fronting on the central +village Green. On the southwestern outskirts is Bantam Lake, the +largest in Connecticut, covering a little over a square mile of +surface. The most famous house in Litchfield, which has been moved, +however, from its original location, is unpretentious, the old-time +wooden mansion in which Rev. Lyman Beecher lived when pastor here, +from 1810 to 1826, and where was born the famous authoress, Harriet +Beecher, in 1812, who married Rev. Calvin E. Stowe, and the famous +preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, in 1813. In the Wolcott House at +Litchfield was born Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, he and +his father both having been Connecticut Governors. To this house was +brought, in the Revolution, the leaden statue of King George III., +which stood on the Bowling Green of New York, to be melted into +bullets. These were the favorite Indian hunting-grounds of Bantam +around the lake, and when Litchfield was first settled, about 1720, +the village was surrounded by a palisade, lest the savages should +return to their coveted region to take forcible possession. Litchfield +for a half-century after the Revolution had the most noted law school +in America. To the northward, at Wolcottville, where there are now +large factories, lived Captain John Brown, a noted Revolutionary +soldier, and here was born in 1800 his grandson, "Old John Brown of +Osawatomie." + +Yet farther southward, but still among the hills, west of the +Housatonic Valley and near the New York boundary, is Danbury, famous +for its hat-factories, a town of about twenty thousand people. The +first hat-factory in America was opened at Danbury in 1780 by Zadoc +Benedict, three men making three hats a day. The factories now turn +out several thousand a day. In May, 1777, the Hessians attacked +Danbury and destroyed a large amount of the Revolutionary army +supplies, and it is recorded of the tragic event that Danbury was +"ankle-deep in pork-fat." On that memorable occasion it is said that +when the raiders were advancing up a hill a bold and reckless Yankee +farmer rode to its crest and shouted loudly, "Halt, the whole +universe; break off by kingdoms!" This demonstration alarmed the +Hessians, who thought a formidable force coming, and they halted to +defend themselves, deploying skirmishers and getting up their cannon +to the front. It was in an attack upon these raiders near Danbury that +General Wooster was mortally wounded, and the Danbury Cemetery +contains his monument. The constantly broadening Housatonic River +winds among the Connecticut hills in its steady course southeastward +to its confluence with the Naugatuck, a smaller stream coming down +through a pretty valley from the north, its Indian name meaning "one +tree," referring to an ancient tree on its banks which was a landmark +for the aborigines. The Naugatuck tumbles over a waterfall in the +Indian domain of Paugussett, furnishing power for the mills of +Ansonia, noted for its clocks. Near the confluence of the rivers is +the great Housatonic dam, six hundred feet long and twenty-three feet +high, constructed at a cost of $500,000 for the manufacturers of +Derby, who make pins, tacks, stockings, pianos and many other +articles. Commodore Isaac Hull, born in 1773, was the most +distinguished native of Derby, the commander of the frigate +"Constitution" when she captured the "Guerriere" in 1812. Then in +stately course the broad Housatonic flows southward, to finally empty +into Long Island Sound. The beauties of the Berkshire hills, so much +of which are made by the Housatonic's wayward course, have been the +theme of universal admiration, and their praises abound in our best +American literature. It was after a visit there that Robert G. +Ingersoll made his happy phrases in contrasting country and city life: + +"It is no advantage to live in a great city, where poverty degrades +and failure brings despair. The fields are lovelier than paved +streets, and the great forests than walls of brick. Oaks and elms are +more poetic than steeples and chimneys. In the country is the idea of +home. There you see the rising and setting sun; you become acquainted +with the stars and clouds. The constellations are your friends. You +hear the rain on the roof and listen to the rhythmic sighing of the +winds. You are thrilled by the resurrection called Spring, touched and +saddened by Autumn, the grace and poetry of death. Every field is a +picture, a landscape; every landscape a poem; every flower a tender +thought; and every forest a fairy-land. In the country you preserve +your identity, your personality. There you are an aggregation of +atoms, but in the city you are only an atom of an aggregation." + +The historian of the Berkshires, Clark W. Bryan of Great Barrington, +thus poetically describes the Berkshire hills and homes: + + "Between where Hudson's waters flow + Adown from gathering streams, + And where the clear Connecticut, + In lengthened beauty gleams-- + Where run bright rills, and stand high rocks,-- + Where health and beauty comes, + And peace and happiness abides, + Rest Berkshire's Hills and Homes. + + "The Hoosac winds its tortuous course, + The Housatonic sweeps + Through fields of living loveliness, + As on its course it keeps. + Old Saddleback stands proudly by, + Among Taconic's peaks, + And rugged mountain Monument + Of Indian legend speaks. + + "Mount Washington with polished brow, + Green in the summer days, + Or white with winter's driving storms, + Or with autumn's flame ablaze, + Looms up across the southern sky, + In native beauty dressed-- + The home of Bash-Bish, weird and old, + Anear the mountain's crest. + + "And still each streamlet runs its course, + And still each mountain stands, + While Berkshire's sons and daughters roam + Through home and foreign lands; + But though they roam, or though they rest, + A thought spontaneous comes, + Of love and veneration for + Our Berkshire Hills and Homes." + + + + +THE ADIRONDACKS AND THEIR ATTENDANT LAKES. + + + + +XII. + +THE ADIRONDACKS AND THEIR ATTENDANT LAKES. + + The Great North Woods -- Mount Marcy or Tahawus -- Schroon Lake + -- Raquette River -- View from Mount Marcy -- Door of the + Country -- Lake George -- Horicon, the Silvery Water -- Isaac + Jogues -- Sir William Johnson -- Lake George Scenery and + Islands -- Sabbath Day Point -- Lake George Battles and + Massacres -- The Bloody Morning Scout -- Colonel Ephraim + Williams -- Baron Dieskau Defeated and Captured -- Fort William + Henry -- Fort Carillon -- General Montcalm -- Massacre at Fort + William Henry -- Alexandria -- Ticonderoga -- Abercrombie's + Expedition -- General Lord Howe -- Rogers' Slide -- Howe Killed + and Abercrombie Defeated -- Amherst's Expedition -- Carillon + Captured -- Fort Ticonderoga -- Conquest of Canada -- Ethan + Allen Captures Ticonderoga -- Lake Champlain -- Samuel de + Champlain Explores It -- Defeats the Iroquois -- Crown Point -- + Port Henry -- Bulwagga Mountain and Bay -- Fort St. Frederic -- + Westport -- Split Rock -- Rock Reggio -- Port Kent -- Vermont + -- The Green Mountains -- Bennington -- John Stark -- Rutland + -- Killington Peak -- Mount Mansfield -- Forehead, Nose and + Chin -- Camel's Hump -- Maple Sugar -- Burlington -- University + of Vermont -- Ethan Allen's Grave -- Winooski River -- + Smuggler's Notch -- Montpelier -- Hessian Cannon -- St. Albans + -- Ausable Chasm -- Alice Falls -- Birmingham Falls -- Grand + Flume -- Bluff Point -- Lower Saranac River -- Plattsburg -- + Fredenburgh's Ghost -- McDonough's Victory -- Chateaugay Forest + -- Clinton Prison -- Rouse's Point -- Richelieu River -- + Chambly Rapids -- Entering the Adirondacks -- Raven Pass -- + Bouquet River -- Elizabethtown -- Mount Hurricane -- Giant of + the Valley -- Ausable River -- Flats of Keene -- Mount Dix -- + Noon Mark Mountain -- Ausable Lakes -- Adirondack Mountain + Reserve -- Mount Colvin -- Verplanck Colvin -- Long Pond + Mountain -- Pitch-Off Mountain -- Cascade Lakes -- Mount + Mclntyre -- Wallface -- Western Ausable River -- Plains of + Abraham -- North Elba -- Whiteface -- Old John Brown's Farm and + Grave -- Lake Placid -- Mirror Lake -- Eye of the Adirondacks + -- Upper Saranac River -- Harrietstown -- Lower Saranac Lake -- + Ampersand -- Canoeing and Carrying -- Round Lake -- Upper + Saranac Lake -- Big Clear Pond -- St. Regis Mountain and River + -- St. Germain Carry -- St. Regis Lakes -- Paul Smith's -- + Raquette River and Lake -- Camp Pine Knot -- Blue Mountain and + Lake -- Eagle Lake -- Fulton Lakes -- Forked Lakes -- Long Lake + -- Tupper Lakes -- Mountains, Woods and Waters -- The Forest + Hymn. + + +THE GREAT NORTH WOODS. + +The Adirondack wilderness covers almost the whole of Northern New +York. This region is an elevated plateau of about fifteen thousand +square miles, crossed by mountain ranges. It stretches from Canada +down almost to the Mohawk Valley, and from Lake Champlain northwest to +the St. Lawrence, in rugged surface, the plateau from which its peaks +arise being elevated about two thousand feet above the sea. Five +nearly parallel mountain ranges cross it from southwest to northeast, +terminating in great promontories upon the shores of Lake Champlain. +The most westerly is the Clinton or Adirondack range, beginning at the +pass of Little Falls upon the Mohawk River and crossing the wilderness +to the bold Trembleau Point upon the lake at Port Kent. This range +contains the highest peaks, the loftiest of them, Mount Marcy or +Tahawus, rising fifty-three hundred and forty-five feet, while Mounts +McIntyre, Whiteface, Seward and several others nearby approximate five +thousand feet. A multitude of peaks of various heights are scattered +through the region, over five hundred being enumerated. They are all +wild and savage, and were covered by the primeval forests until the +ruthless wood-chopper began his destructive incursions. The stony +summits of the higher mountains rise above all vegetation, excepting +mosses and dwarf Alpine plants. The geological formation is mainly +granitic and other primary rocks. In the valleys are more than a +thousand beautiful lakes of varying sizes, generally at fifteen +hundred to two thousand feet elevation, Schroon Lake, the largest, +being the lowest, elevated eight hundred and seven feet, while the +highest is "The Tear of the Clouds," at forty-three hundred and twenty +feet elevation, one of the Hudson River sources. Some of these lakes +are quite large, while others cover only a few acres, and most of them +are lovely and romantic in everything but their prosaic names; and +their scenery, with the surrounding mountains and overspreading +forests, is unsurpassed. The labyrinth of lakes is connected by +intricate systems of rivulets which go plunging down myriads of +cascades, their outlets discharging into several well-known rivers, +the chief being the Hudson. The largest and finest stream within the +district is the Raquette River, rising in Raquette Lake and flowing +westward and northward to the St. Lawrence. Around it, in the olden +time, the Indians gathered on snowshoes to hunt the moose--the +snowshoe being the French Canadian's "raquette," and hence the name. +The Ausable and Saranac pass through romantic gorges and flow +northeastward to Lake Champlain. This "Great North Woods," as it was +called by our ancestors, is being so greatly despoiled of its forests, +that to preserve the water supply of the Hudson, as well as to protect +its scenic attractions, New York is making a State Park to include +four thousand square miles, of which nearly one-half is now secured, +having cost about $1,000,000. Railways are gradually extending into +the district; it is becoming dotted with summer hotels and +camping-grounds; and is one of the most popular American pleasure +resorts. + +The highest peak, Mount Marcy, has a summit which is a bare rock of +about four hundred by one hundred feet, elevated more than a mile, and +its outlook gives a splendid map of the Adirondacks. All about are +mountains, though none are as high; McIntyre and Colden are close +companions, with the dark forests of the St. Lawrence region +stretching far behind them to the northwest. To the northward is the +beautiful oval-shaped Lake Placid, with Whiteface rising beyond it, +and nearby, to the westward, is the Indian "Big Eye," Mount Seward, +which, with the "Giant of the Valley," rises far above the attendant +peaks. Behind these, the hills to the northward gradually melt into +the level lands along the St. Lawrence, out of which faintly rises the +distant Mount Royal, back of Montreal. The Vermont Green Mountains +bound the eastern horizon, with the hazy outline of Mount Washington +traced against the sky through a depression in that range, thus +opening an almost deceptive view of the distant White Mountains. The +Catskills close the southern view. The vast wilderness spreads all +around this noble mountain, its white lakes gleaming, its dark forests +broken by a few clearings, and smokes arising here and there +disclosing the abiding-places of the summer sojourner. Off to the +northeast stretches the long glistening streak of Lake Champlain, +low-lying, the telescope disclosing the sails of the vessels like +specks upon its bosom, and the Vermont villages fringing the +farther shore. This narrow, elongated lake, filling the immense +trough-like valley between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains of +Vermont, the Indians called as one of its names (for it had several) +Cania-de-ri-qua-rante, meaning "The door of the Country." Naming +everything from a prominent attribute, to their minds the chief use of +this long water way was as a door to let in the fierce Hurons from +Canada when they came south to make war upon the Mohawks or the +Mohicans. Many a brave warrior, both Indian and white, has gone +through that door to attack his foes, one way or the other. As far +back as tradition goes, the dusky savages were darting swiftly along +the lake in their canoes, bent upon plunder or revenge. Then came +Champlain, its white discoverer, to aid the Hurons with his arquebuse +in their forays upon the Mohawks and Iroquois. In the ante-Revolutionary +days many a French and Indian horde came along to massacre and destroy +the English and Dutch settlements in the Hudson Valley. Then the +current changed, and the English beat back their foes northward along +the lake. Again it changed, as Burgoyne came in triumph through that +door to meet defeat at Saratoga. Finally, in 1814, the last British +forces moved southward on the lake, but they, too, were beaten. Since +then this famous door has stood wide open, but only tourists and +traders are passing through, though zest is given the present +exploration by its warlike history of two centuries. + + +LAKE GEORGE. + +Upon the southeastern border of the Adirondacks is Lake George, its +head or southern end being nine miles north of Glen's Falls on the +Hudson River. No American lake has had so many songs of praise; it is +a gem among the mountains, its picturesque grandeur giving it the +deserved title of the American Como. It reminds the Englishman of +Windermere and the Scot of charming Loch Katrine, for while it is +larger, it holds a place in our scenery akin to both those famous +lakes. Embowered amid high hills, a crystal mirror set in among +cliffs and forest-clad mountains, their wild and rugged features are +constantly reflected in its clear spring waters. Its scenery mingles +the gentle and picturesque with the bold and magnificent. George +Bancroft, referring to its warlike history, says: "Peacefully rest the +waters of Lake George between their ramparts of highlands. In their +pellucid depth the cliffs and the hills and the trees trace their +images, and the beautiful region speaks to the heart, teaching +affection for nature." It is long and narrow, having more the +character of a river than a lake, lying almost north and south, in a +deep trough among the mountains, its waters discharging from the north +end into Lake Champlain, and while thirty-six miles long, it is +nowhere more than two or three miles wide. Washing the eastern verges +of the Adirondacks, the bold ranges give it the rare beauties of +scenery always presented by a mountain lake. Its surface is two +hundred and forty-three feet above tide-water, and in some places it +is over four hundred feet deep, the basin in which it rests being +covered with a yellow sand, so that the bottom is visible through the +pellucid waters at great depth. It is dotted with romantic islands, +beautiful hill-slopes border the shores, and the background rises into +dark and bold mountains. This magnificent lake was Horicon, or the +"Silvery Water" of the Mohicans, a name which Cooper, the novelist, +vainly endeavored to revive for it. The Mohawks called it +Andiatarocte, or the "Place where the Lake Closes." The Hurons, as it +appeared much like an appendage to Lake Champlain, named it +Canaderioit, or the "Tail of the Lake." The first white man who saw it +was the young French Jesuit missionary, Isaac Jogues, who had been +captured on the St. Lawrence by a band of Mohawks, and was brought +through it a captive in 1642, and after horrible maltreatment escaped +to Albany. He went home to France, and in 1646 came out again, +determined to convert them. His canoe entered its quiet waters on his +beneficent mission on the eve of the festival of Corpus Christi, and +he named it Lac du Saint Sacrament. He went on to the Mohawk Valley +and ministered to them, but soon they murdered him. The French prized +its clear and sparkling waters so highly that they were sent to Canada +for baptismal uses. When Sir William Johnson came along more than a +century later and took possession for England, he brushed aside all +these romantic names, and in honor of his King George II., called it +Lake George, the name which remains. + +A charming steamboat ride over the lake best discloses its delicious +scenery as one glides among the lovely islands, and through scenes +like a fairy-land, their brilliant prospects constantly changing. At +almost every hour from noon to eve, or in the gathering storm, the +islands of Lake George--which are said to equal in number the days of +the year--exhibit ever new phases. They may sleep under the +cloud-shadow, and then the sun brightly breaks over them; they present +a foreground of rough rocks or of pebble and shingle-covered beach, or +an Acadian bower of rustic beauty, while the landscape is filled with +the spreading waters and the distant-tinted hills. Tea Island, near +the head of the lake, is a picnic-ground; Sloop Island has its +tree-trunks looking like the spreading sails of a single-masted +vessel; Diamond Island yields beautiful quartz crystals. Near the +centre of the widest portion of the lake is Dome Island, richly +wooded, and resembling the noted "Ellen's Isle" of Loch Katrine. The +Sisters are diminutive islets, lonely in their isolation. The +beautiful Recluse Island has a picturesque villa, while all about it +rise high mountains. Green Island bears the Sagamore, and behind it +the encircling shores of Ganouskie Bay are lined with villas at +Bolton, which look out upon a grand archipelago. Green Island covers +seventy acres, and is a perfect gem of rich green surface. On the +shores and islands all about are numerous summer camping-places, a +favorite resort being the Shelving Falls, coming through the Shelving +Rock, an impressive semicircle of Palisades, behind which rises the +lake's greatest mountain, ever present in all its views, Black +Mountain, elevated twenty-nine hundred feet. Just beyond, the towering +hills thrust out on either hand contract the waters into the Narrows, +dotted with a whole fleet of little islands, the most picturesque +part of the lake, and here a brief fairy-like glimpse of the hamlet of +Dresden is got, nestling under these great mountains, down Bosom Bay. +Northward from the Narrows, a long projecting point of low and fertile +land stretches out on the western side, still retaining that air of +restful peace which in the eighteenth century secured it the name of +Sabbath Day Point. Farther on, and near the outlet, Rogers' Slide is +on one side and Anthony's Nose on the other, these bold cliffs +contracting the lake into a second Narrows. Beyond these are lower and +less interesting shores, and finally, at the foot, its waters are +discharged through the winding Ticonderoga Creek into Lake Champlain. + + +LAKE GEORGE BATTLES AND MASSACRES. + +The historical associations of Lake George are of the deepest +interest, for it was the route between the colonial frontier and Lake +Champlain, and the scene of great military movements and savage +combats. For over a century this attractive region was the sojourning +place of religious devotees coming down from Canada to convert or +conquer the heathen Iroquois, or of hostile expeditions moving both +north and south--Indians, French, Dutch, English--all passing over its +lovely waters; and it was the scene of two of the most horrid +massacres of the colonial wars. Whenever there was war between France +and England this lake saw fierce conflicts, the red men taking part +with the whites on both sides. In 1755 Sir William Johnson's +expedition started northward from the Hudson to capture Crown Point on +Lake Champlain, advancing from Glen's Falls to Lake George, over the +route still taken. Colonel Ephraim Williams of Massachusetts commanded +part of this expedition, and was ambushed by the French and Hurons +near the lake, in what was called the "Bloody Morning Scout." Upon the +road still exist grim memorials of the ambush and massacre in the +"Bloody Pond" and "Williams' Rock." He had twelve hundred troops and +two hundred Mohawk Indians, and both Williams and the white-haired +Mohawk chief, Hendrick, were slain, with hundreds of their followers, +and the bodies of the dead were thrown into the pond. When the brave +Williams started on this sad expedition he had a presentiment of his +fate and made his will at Albany, giving his estate to support a free +school, and from this bequest was founded the well-known Williams +College, at Williamstown, in the Berkshire hills of western +Massachusetts. A monument on the hillside, resting upon "Williams' +Rock," was erected in 1854 by the College Alumni, to mark the place of +his death, while deep down in the glen is the sequestered pond which, +tradition says, had a bloody hue for many years. + +After the surprise and massacre, Johnson's main forces, which had been +at the head of Lake George and heard the firings came up and engaged +the French, defeating them with great slaughter, wounding and +capturing Baron Dieskau, their commander, who was badly maltreated +until Johnson, learning who he was, sent for surgeons, took him into +his own tent, and, although wounded himself, had Dieskau's wounds +dressed first. The Mohawks, furious at the massacre and loss of their +old chief, Hendrick, wanted to kill Dieskau, and a number of them, +going into the tent, had a long and angry dispute in their own +language with Johnson, after which they sullenly left. Dieskau asked +what they wanted. "What do they want!" returned Johnson. "To burn you, +by God, eat you, and smoke you in their pipes, in revenge for three or +four of their chiefs that were killed. But never fear; you shall be +safe with me, or else they shall kill us both." A captain and fifty +men were detailed to guard Dieskau, but next morning a lone Indian, +who had been loitering about the tent, slipped in and, drawing a sword +concealed under a sort of cloak he wore, tried to stab the disabled +prisoner. He was seized in time, however, to prevent the murder. The +distinguished captive, as soon as his wounds permitted, was carried on +a litter over to the Hudson, and sent thence to Albany and New York. +He was profuse in his expressions of gratitude, and remarked of the +provincial soldiers that in the morning they fought like good boys, +about noon like men, and in the afternoon like devils. He returned to +Europe in 1757, but he never recovered from his wounds and died a few +years later. Johnson after the battle built a strong fort at the head +of Lake George to hold his position, while the straggling French and +Indians, who had retired to the foot of the lake, entrenched +themselves at Ticonderoga. Thus was built the famous Fort William +Henry by the English, named in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, +brother of King George II., the hero of Culloden, while the French +named their entrenched camp at Ticonderoga Fort Carillon, or the +"Chime of Bells," in allusion to the music of the waterfalls in the +outlet stream flowing beside it between the lakes. + +Bitter enemies thus holding either end of Lake George, it became a +constant battleground. In 1757, after numerous skirmishes, a +considerable British and Colonial force was collected at Forts Edward +and William Henry, intended to attack Carillon and Crown Point and +drive the French down Lake Champlain. General Montcalm then commanded +the French, and learning what was going on, and that the main British +force was at Fort Edward, he swiftly traversed the lake with a large +army and cut off and besieged Fort William Henry, garrisoned by +twenty-five hundred men. The commander at Fort Edward was afraid to +send reinforcements, and after a few days the British garrison, their +guns dismounted and their works almost destroyed, were forced to +capitulate. No sooner had they laid down their arms and marched out +of the fort and an adjacent entrenched camp, than the Indian allies of +the French, the fierce Hurons, fell upon them, plundering +indiscriminately and murdering all they could reach, there being +fifteen hundred killed or carried into captivity, and over a hundred +women slain, with the worst barbarities of the savage. Montcalm did +his best to restrain them, but was powerless. The fort was an +irregular bastioned square, formed by gravel embankments, surmounted +by a rampart of heavy logs laid in tiers, the interstices filled with +earth, and it was built almost at the edge of the lake, the site being +now occupied by a hotel. The French spent several days demolishing it. +The barracks were torn down and the huge logs of the rampart thrown +into a heap. The dead bodies filling the casemates were added to the +mass, which was set fire, and the mighty funeral pyre blazed all +night. Then the French sailed away on the lake, and Parkman says "no +living thing was left but the wolves that gathered from the mountains +to feast upon the dead." When the English on the subsequent day sent a +scouting party from Fort Edward they found a horrible scene; the fires +were still burning, and the smoke and stench were suffocating, the +half-consumed corpses broiling upon the embers. The fort had mounted +nineteen cannon and a few mortars, a train of artillery which Johnson +had highly prized. The French carried these guns off with them to +Carillon, and they afterwards had a chequered history. The English +subsequently retook them at Carillon, and changed the name of that +fort to Ticonderoga. At the dawn of the Revolution, Ethan Allen and +his Vermonters surprised Ticonderoga and got them. Then the guns were +drawn on sledges to Boston, and did notable service in the American +siege and capture of that city, afterwards going into many engagements +with Washington's army. + + +ATTACKING CARILLON. + +The Lake George outlet stream, which the French called Carillon, from +its waterfalls, was known by the Indians as Ticonderoga, or "the +sounding waters." It winds through a ridge about four miles wide +between the lakes, is pretty but turbulent, and falls down two series +of cascades, giving music and water-power to the paper and other mills +at the villages of Alexandria and Ticonderoga, the descent being two +hundred and thirty feet. The upper cascade at Alexandria goes down +rapids descending two hundred feet in a mile, and the lower cascade is +a perpendicular fall of thirty feet at Ticonderoga, this village being +called by its people "Ty," for short. Here stood the original French +Fort Carillon guarding the pass at the verge of Lake Champlain. After +the horrible massacre at Fort William Henry, the British colonists +determined upon revenge, and General James Abercrombie, who had been +made the Commander-in-Chief of all the British forces in North +America through political influence, gathered an army of nearly +sixteen thousand men at the head of the lake, while Montcalm was at +Carillon with barely one-fourth the number. Abercrombie, however, was +little more than the nominal British commander. General Wolfe +described him as a "heavy man;" and another soldier wrote that he was +"an aged gentleman, infirm in body and mind." The British Government +meant that the actual command should be in the hands of General Lord +Howe, who was in fact the real chief, described by Wolfe as "that +great man" and "the noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, +and the best soldier in the British army;" while Pitt called him "a +character of ancient times; a complete model of military virtue." This +young nobleman, then in his thirty-fourth year, was Viscount George +Augustus Howe, in the Irish peerage, the oldest of the three famous +Howe brothers who took part in the American wars. The army, Parkman +says, "felt him from General to drummer-boy." In that army were also +two future famous men, Israel Putnam and John Stark. + +They advanced northward on Lake George, July 5, 1758, in a grand +flotilla of over a thousand boats, with two floating castles, the +procession brilliant with rich uniforms and waving banners, and the +music from its many bands echoing from the enclosing hills. Fenimore +Cooper, in _Satanstoe_, gives a vivid description of this pageant. +Passing beyond the Narrows, Abercrombie, on a Sunday morning, landed +upon the fertile Sabbath Day Point to refresh his men before making +the attack, thus naming it. Among them was Major Rogers, the Ranger, +and in front could be seen the steep and rugged cliff of Rogers' +Slide, named after him, its face a comparatively smooth inclined plane +of naked rock, rising four hundred feet. The tale, as Rogers told it, +was, that the previous winter, fleeing from the Indians, he practiced +upon them a ruse, making them believe he had actually slid down this +rock to the frozen surface of the lake. He was on snowshoes, the +savages following, and ran out to the edge of the precipice, casting +down his knapsack and provision-bag. Then turning around and wearing +his snowshoes backward, he went to a neighboring ravine, and making +his way safely down, fled over the ice to the head of the lake. The +Indians saw the double set of shoe-marks in the snow, and concluded +two men had jumped down rather than be captured. They saw Rogers going +off over the ice, and believing he had safely slid down the face of +the cliff, regarded him as specially protected by the Great Spirit and +abandoned the pursuit. Thus has his name clung to the remarkable rock, +though he was said to be a great braggart, and there were people who +suggested that he ought to have been a leading member of the "Ananias +Club." Beyond the slide, at the foot of the lake, is the low-lying +Prisoners' Island, where the British kept the captives they took, and +nearby Howe's Landing, where the army landed to attack Fort Carillon. + +There was then a dense forest covering almost all the surface between +the lakes, greatly obstructed by undergrowth, and Montcalm had +protected his position at Carillon with massive breastworks of logs, +eight or nine feet high, having in front masses of trees cut down with +their tops turned outwards, thus making it almost impossible for an +enemy to get through, the sharpened points of the broken branches +bristling like the quills of a porcupine. As the British troops +advanced in four columns, they got much mixed up in the forest and +undergrowth, and Howe, with Putnam and a force of rangers at the head +of the principal column, although they could not see ahead, suddenly +came upon the French, were challenged, and a hot skirmish followed, in +which Howe was shot through the breast and dropped dead. Then all was +confusion, but they beat this French advanced force and killed or +captured most of them. The loss of Howe, however, was irretrievable, +for Abercrombie, deprived of his advice, seemed unable to direct. The +fort was attacked after a fashion, but the troops floundered about in +the woods and the network of felled trees, suffered from a murderous +fire, and were beaten and hurled back discomfited to the shore of the +lake. A few days later the shattered army, having left nearly two +thousand dead and dying in front of Carillon, sailed back up the lake +again to Fort William Henry. Leadership had perished with Lord Howe. +His monument is in Westminster Abbey, London, having been erected to +his memory by the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts, who +voted £250 for it. So proud was Montcalm of his victory that he caused +a great cross to be erected on the battlefield, with an inscription in +Latin composed by himself, which is thus translated: + + "Soldier and chief and rampart's strength are naught; + Behold the conquering Cross! 'Tis God the triumph wrought." + + +TICONDEROGA. + +Abercrombie was superseded after this disaster and went home, his +successor in command being Baron Jeffrey Amherst, who the next year +led another grand martial procession northward along the lake to +attack the French. His expedition had better success, for it resulted +in the conquest of Canada, and the treaty of peace which followed +closed the great "Seven Years' War" most triumphantly for England. +Fort Carillon, the name of which the English changed to Fort +Ticonderoga, stood upon a high rocky promontory, the termination of a +mountain range, the extremity, then called Sugar Loaf Hill, but since +named Mount Defiance, rising eight hundred and fifty feet above Lake +Champlain. It is a lofty peninsula, nearly a square mile in surface, +almost surrounded by water, with a swamp on the western side. When +Amherst advanced, the French garrison was meagre, for Wolfe was +threatening Quebec, and Montcalm had gone with reinforcements to repel +him; so that actually without a struggle they abandoned the fort, +after blowing up the magazine and burning the barracks. Amherst then +pushed on to conquer Canada, and the war ending, the British regarded +this and Crown Point, ten miles northward on Lake Champlain, as among +their most important posts, commanding the route to the new Dominion. +Both were greatly enlarged and strengthened, over $10,000,000 being +expended upon them, an enormous sum for that day, so that they became +the most elaborate British fortresses in the American colonies, the +citadel and field works of Ticonderoga including an area of several +square miles, having buildings and barracks and defensive +constructions anterior to the Revolution, covering almost the entire +surface. In 1763 France ceded Canada to England, and afterwards +Ticonderoga was neglected and partially decayed. When the Revolution +began in 1775 it was one of the earliest strongholds captured by the +Americans. Ethan Allen, with eighty men, crossed over Lake Champlain +from Vermont, surprised the small and unsuspecting garrison of fifty +men in the night, and Allen, penetrating to the bedside of the +astonished commandant, made his famous speech demanding surrender. "In +whose name?" asked the surprised officer. "In the name of the +great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The Americans held it for +two years, when Burgoyne, on his southern march in 1777, besieged it, +and discovering that Mount Defiance, not then in the works, completely +commanded it, he dragged cannon up there and erected batteries, which +soon compelled the garrison to abandon it, and the British were in +possession until the war closed. + + [Illustration: _Old Fort Ticonderoga_] + +Ticonderoga has since fallen into utter decay, but parts of the ruins +are now preserved as a national memorial. A portion of wall and a +dilapidated gable enclosing a window still stand, and make a +picturesque ruin on top of a high slope rising from Lake Champlain, +with a background of timbered hills. These forests to the west and +south have grown during the nineteenth century, and are full of the +remains of the old redoubts and entrenchments. Well-defined dry +ditches are traced beyond the ramparts, with the barrack walls +surrounding the parade-ground, an old well, and also the sally-port on +the water side where Allen and his bold Green Mountain boys effected +their entrance. During many years after the fort fell into ruins, the +neighbors carried off its well-cut brick and stone work to build the +growing villages on Lake Champlain's shores. All the surroundings are +now eminently peaceful. The invaders, no longer warlike, are on +pleasure bent; the inhabitants make paper and textiles, saw lumber, +and also manufacture good lead-pencils from graphite found nearby. +Sheep contentedly browse amid the relics of the great fortress, and +vividly recall Browning's pastoral: + + "Where the quiet-colored end of evening smiles + Miles and miles + On the solitary pasture where our sheep, + Half-asleep, + Tinkle homeward through the twilight, stray or stop + As they crop-- + Was the site of a city, great and gay, + (So they say.)" + + +LAKE CHAMPLAIN. + +The elongated and narrow water way of Lake Champlain stretches +northward one hundred and twenty-six miles, dividing New York from +Vermont, and its head, south of Ticonderoga, extending to Whitehall, +is so contracted between generally low and swampy shores, that it +there seems more like a river than a lake, in some places being +scarcely two hundred yards across. Northward, however, it broadens +into a much wider lake, the greatest unobstructed breadth being about +ten miles, opposite Burlington, Vermont, where it seems to expand +almost into a sea. The widest part of all is beyond this, being about +fifteen miles across, but with intervening islands. Over sixty islands +are scattered about this attractive lake, the contour of the shores +being very irregular, with numerous indenting bays. The northern +outlet is by the Richelieu River and the Chambly Rapids into the St. +Lawrence. Lake Champlain fills a long trough-like valley, bordered by +mountain ranges. When compared with Lake George, however, its shores +present a striking difference. There the declivities generally descend +abruptly to the water, but on Champlain the distant ranges, usually +far away on either side, have in front, bordering the water, wide +stretches of meadow and farm land and broad green slopes. Upon the +Vermont shore the prevailing aspect is a pastoral region, having the +Green Mountains rising in the distant eastern background. These are +the "Verts Monts," which the earliest French explorer of the St. +Lawrence, Jacques Cartier, saw from afar off, when the Indians of +Hochelaga, where Montreal now stands, took him to the top of their +mountain--"Mont Real"--to show him the glorious southern landscape. +These mountains gave Vermont its name, their highest peaks rising +behind Burlington, Mount Mansfield and the Camel's Hump. The New York +shore of the lake to the westward presents barren and mountainous +scenery, the terminations of the Adirondack ranges being occasionally +pushed out as bold promontories to the water's edge, while behind them +the higher peaks loom in dark grandeur against the horizon. + +The adventurous French warrior and pioneer Samuel de Champlain was the +first European who sailed upon the waters of Champlain, and he gave +it his name. Anxious for exploration and adventure, in 1609 he joined +a band of Huron and Algonquin warriors on an expedition against their +enemies, the Mohawks and Iroquois in New York. After a grand war-dance +at Quebec they set out, ascending the St. Lawrence and Richelieu, and +on July 4th they entered the lake, Champlain having two French +companions, and the three being armed with arquebuses. As they +progressed towards the south, nearing the haunts of the Iroquois, they +travelled only at night, hiding by day in the forest. On July 29th, +while thus hiding, Champlain fell asleep and had a dream, wherein he +beheld the Iroquois drowning in the lake, and, trying to rescue them, +was told by his Huron companions that they were good for nothing, and +had better be left to their fate. When he awoke he told them of his +vision, and they were delighted. That very night they observed a +flotilla of Iroquois canoes, heavier and slower than their own, in +motion on the lake before them. Each saw the other, and mingled +war-cries pealed over the dark waters. The Iroquois, not wanting to +fight on the lake, landed and made a barricade of trees, which they +cut down. The Hurons lashed their canoes together and remained a +bowshot off-shore, shouting and dancing all night on their frail +vessels. It was agreed they should fight in the morning, and until +dawn the two parties abused each other, shouting taunts and defiance +"much," writes Champlain, "like the besiegers and besieged in a +beleaguered town," Champlain and his two companions, as day +approached, put on their light armor and lay in the bottom of their +canoes to keep hidden. Soon they all landed unopposed, and then the +Iroquois, some two hundred in number, came out of their barricade to +fight. The Hurons, who had surrounded Champlain, now opened their +ranks, and he passed to the front, levelled his arquebuse and +fired,--a chief fell dead, and soon another rolled among the bushes. +Then the Hurons gave a yell, which Champlain says would have drowned a +thunderclap, and the forest was filled with whizzing arrows. The +Iroquois for a moment replied lustily, and the other Frenchmen, who +were in the thicket on their flank, gave successive gunshots, which +they could not withstand, but soon broke and fled in terror. The +Hurons pursued them like hounds through the bushes, some were killed +and more were taken prisoners, and the arquebuse, till now unknown to +them, had won the victory. Then the victors, with their captives and +spoils, withdrew to the St. Lawrence; and Champlain had thus assisted +at the beginning of the awful series of conflicts which these lakes +witnessed during two centuries. This fight was in the neighborhood of +Crown Point, on Bulwagga Bay. + +The latest of these conflicts on the lake was Commodore McDonough's +brilliant victory over the British fleet in 1814, since which time the +history of Lake Champlain has been peaceful. Despite this early +discovery and naming, however, it was not until long afterwards that +it was generally known by the present name. The Mohawks and Iroquois, +as already explained, called it the "Door of the Country." Among their +other bitter foes were the Abenaqui Indian nation of New England, who +called it Lake Potoubouque, or "the waters that lie between," that is, +between their country and the land of the Iroquois. For similar +reasons the French in Canada called it the "Iroquois Sea." A Dutch +officer having afterwards been drowned here, both the French and the +English for a long time styled it after him, "Corlaer's Lake." These +names, however, all long ago vanished, and since the eighteenth +century it has borne, undisputed, the name of Champlain, the great +Father of Canada. + + +CROWN POINT. + +Progressing northward from Ticonderoga, the lake suddenly makes a +right-angled narrow bend to the westward, its channel compressed +between a broad, flat, low promontory coming up from the south, and +the protruding opposite shore that encircles and almost meets it. +These are the Champlain Narrows, the southern promontory being Crown +Point, and the opposite rock compressing the channel Chimney Point. A +broad bay opens behind Crown Point to the westward, and under the +shadow of Mount Bulwagga, the end of one of the long Adirondack +ranges, is the village of Port Henry, a producer of iron-ores, there +being furnaces here as well as on the shore south of Crown Point. Upon +the southern promontory, thus thrust out between the lake and Bulwagga +Bay, are the ruins of the famous fortress of Crown Point, which so +well guarded the narrow crooked channel and its approaches, and closed +the "door of the country" leading from Canada. Soon after Champlain's +time the French, who held all this region, built a stone fort on the +opposite point, and ambitiously planned a province, stretching from +the Connecticut River to Lake Ontario, of which this was to be the +capital. A town was started, with vineyards and gardens, and the +"Pointe de la Couronne," as it was called, became widely known. Early +in the eighteenth century the French built Fort St. Frederic here in +the form of a five-pointed star, with bastions at the angles, and its +ruins yet remain, showing traces of limestone walls, barracks, a +church, and tower. For thirty years this fort was the base of supplies +for forays on the colonial settlements, but it fell before Lord +Amherst's march northward in 1759. This English conquest translated +the "Pointe de la Couronne" into Crown Point, and then the British +Government constructed enormous works to control the lake passage. +There thus was built the great English fortress of Crown Point, +covering the highest parts of the peninsular promontory southwestward +from the old French fort. The limestone rocks were cut into deeply, +and ramparts raised twenty-five feet thick and high, the citadel being +a half-mile around. The ruins of these heavy walls, the ditches, +spacious parade and demolished barracks, give an idea of the costly +but obsolete military construction of that time. These extensive works +were blown up by an exploding powder magazine. + +From the northeastern bastion of Crown Point a covered way leads to +the lake, and here a well was sunk ninety feet deep for a water +supply. Tradition told of vast treasures concealed by the French, and +so excited did the people become that a joint-stock company was formed +to search for them, clearing out the well and making excavations, but +nothing was found but some lead and iron. The ruins are in lonely +magnificence to-day, the red-thorn bushes brilliantly adorning them, +and the place is a popular picnic-ground. From the northern ramparts +there is a magnificent view of the distant Green Mountains on the +right hand, with their gentle fields and meadows stretching down to +the lake, and the rugged Adirondack foothills on the left, the distant +dark mountain ranges looming far away behind them, with the huge +broad-capped "Giant of the Valley" standing up prominently. Gazing at +their sombre contour, the reason can be readily divined why the +Indians called this vast weird region Cony-a-craga, or the "Dismal +Wilderness." The higher Adirondack summits, composed of the hardest +granite, are said by the geologists to be the oldest land on the +globe and the first showing itself above the universal waters. Some +distance above Port Henry is Westport Landing, the village standing in +the deep recesses of Northwest Bay, where the long ridge of Split Rock +Mountain, stretching towards the northeast, makes a high border for +the bay. This curious ridge is of historical interest. The outer +extremity is a cliff thirty feet high, covering about a half-acre, and +separated from the main ridge by a cleft twelve feet wide cut down +beneath the water. This cliff was the ancient Rock Reggio, named from +an Indian chief drowned there, and was for a long time the boundary +between the New York Iroquois and the Canadian Algonquins, whose lands +were held respectively by the English and the French. It is mentioned +in various old Colonial treaties as fixing the boundary between New +York and Canada, but during the Revolution the Americans passed far +beyond it, conquering and holding the land for seventy-seven miles +northward to the present national boundary. + + +THE GREEN MOUNTAINS. + +Above, the lake gradually broadens, and at the widest part are seen, +on opposite sides, the village of Port Kent with its furnaces, and the +flourishing Vermont city of Burlington. The great Adirondack ridge of +Trembleau runs abruptly into the water as a sort of guardian to Port +Kent, and just above, Ausable River flows out through its sandy +lowlands into the lake. Vermont, which makes the entire eastern shore +of Champlain, is a region of rural pastoral joys with many herds and +marble ledges, a land of fat cattle and rich butter-firkins, +overlooked by mountains of gentle slope and softened outline. +Southward from Lake Champlain is Bennington, in a mountain-enclosed +valley, near which was fought in August, 1777, the famous battle in +which Colonel John Stark's Green Mountain boys cut off and signally +defeated Baum's detachment of Burgoyne's army. It is now a flourishing +manufacturing town. East of the head of Lake Champlain is Rutland, the +centre of the Vermont marble-quarrying industry and the site of the +great Howe Scale Works, a city of twelve thousand people. +Three-fourths of the marble produced in the United States comes from +this district of Vermont, and the Sutherland Falls Quarry at Proctor, +near Rutland, is said to be probably the largest quarry in the world. +These quarries are in the flanks of the Green Mountains which stretch +northward, making the watershed between the upper Connecticut River +and Lake Champlain. The Killington Peak, forty-two hundred and forty +feet high, is not far from Rutland. + +Mansfield, the chief of the Green Mountains, is behind Burlington, and +rises forty-three hundred and sixty-four feet. Seen from across the +lake, it presents the upturned face of a recumbent giant, the southern +peak being the "Forehead," the middle one the "Nose," and the +northernmost and highest the "Chin." The latter, as seen against the +horizon, protrudes upwards in most positive fashion, rising three +hundred and forty feet higher than the "Nose," about a mile and a half +distant. This decisive-looking Chin is thus upraised about eight +hundred feet from the general contour of the mountain, while the Nose +is thrust upward four hundred and sixty feet, its nostril being seen +in an almost perpendicular wall of rock facing the north. Mansfield is +heavily timbered until near the summit, and a hotel is perched up +there at the base of the Nose, both Nose and Chin being composed of +rock ledges, which have been deeply scratched by boulders dragged over +them in the glacial period. These Green Mountains extend down from +Canada, and terminate in the Taghkanic and Hoosac ranges of Berkshire +in Massachusetts. They do not attain very high elevations, the Camel's +Hump, south of Mansfield, rising forty-one hundred and eighty-eight +feet. This was the "Leon Couchant" of the earliest French explorers, +and it bears a much better resemblance to a recumbent lion than to a +camel's back. The western slopes of these mountains are chiefly red +sandstone, while their body and eastern declivities are granite, +gneiss and similar rocks, and they are filled with valuable mineral +products, marbles, slates and iron-ores. Their slopes have fine +pastures of rich and nutritious grasses, and the green and rounded +summits present a striking contrast to the lofty, bare and often +jagged peaks of the White Mountains of New Hampshire beyond them. +There are cultivated lands on their slopes, at an elevation as high as +twenty-five hundred feet, and in and about them are the forests +producing the dear, delicious maple sugar: + + "Down in the bush where the maple trees grow, + There's a soft, moist fall of the first sugar snow; + And the camp-fires gleam, + And the big kettles steam, + For the maple-sugar season has arrived, you know; + And these are the days when you'll find on tap + The sweetest of juices, which is pure maple sap." + + +BURLINGTON AND MONTPELIER. + +Burlington, the chief Vermont city, is built on the sloping hillside +of a grandly curving bay, making a resemblance to Naples and its bay, +which has inspired a local poet to address the city as "Thou lovely +Naples of our midland sea." It has fifteen thousand people, and its +prosperity has been largely from the lumber trade, the logs coming +chiefly from Canadian and Adirondack forests. It is attractive, with +broad tree-embowered streets, the elm and maple growing in luxuriance, +while the hills run up behind the town into high summits. One of +these, the College Hill, rising nearly four hundred feet, has the fine +buildings of the University of Vermont, attended by six hundred +students, its tower giving a superb outlook over Lake Champlain, which +at sunset is one of the most gorgeous scenes ever looked upon. +Lafayette laid the corner-stone of this college on his American visit +in 1825, and his statue in sturdy bronze adorns the grounds. The +finest college building is the Billings Library, presented by +Frederick Billings, a projector, and once President of the Northern +Pacific Railway. All about these hills there are attractive villas and +estates, enjoying the view, of which President Dwight wrote, when +wandering over New England in search of the historic and picturesque, +that "splendor of landscape is the peculiar boast of Burlington." On +the northern verge of College Hill is the city's burial-place of the +olden time--Green Mount Cemetery. Here Ethan Allen is buried, a tall +Tuscan monument surmounted by a statue marking the spot, which is +enclosed by a curious fence made of cannon at the corners and muskets +with fixed bayonets. Allen lived at Burlington during his later life, +dying there in February, 1789. + +College Hill falls off to the northward to a broad intervale, down +which winds the romantic Winooski or Onion River, flowing into Lake +Champlain a short distance above Burlington. It comes out of a gorge +in the Green Mountains, where it falls down pretty cascades and +rapids. This Winooski gorge was a dreaded defile in the early days of +the New England frontier, for by this route the fierce Hurons came +through those mountains from Champlain and Canada to make forays upon +the Massachusetts and New Hampshire border settlements. This gorge +passes between Mount Mansfield and the Camel's Hump. To the northward +is the noted "Smuggler's Notch" beyond the Chin of Mansfield, between +it and Mount Sterling beyond, the name having been given because in +the olden time contraband goods were brought through its gloomy +recesses from Canada into New England. An affluent of the Winooski, +the Waterbury River, comes out of this notch, a rapid stream. Upon the +upper Winooski is Montpelier, the Vermont State Capital, pleasantly +situated among the mountains near the centre of the commonwealth. Its +State House is a fine structure of light granite, surmounted by a +lofty dome. Massive Doric columns support its grand portico, under +which stands the statue, in Vermont marble, of Ethan Allen, by +Vermont's great sculptor, Larkin G. Mead. Here are also two old cannon +which Stark captured from the Hessians at Bennington. They were +afterwards used by the Americans with good effect throughout the +Revolution, and subsequently were part of the army equipment taken to +the western frontier. In the War of 1812 the British captured them in +Hull's surrender at Detroit, but they were recaptured in a subsequent +battle in Canada, and were sent as trophies to Washington. Congress +ultimately gave them to Vermont, and they were placed in the State +Capitol as relics of the battle of Bennington. Admiral George Dewey is +a native of Montpelier, born there December 26, 1837. St. Albans, a +great railroad centre and market for dairy products, is north of +Burlington, near Lake Champlain, a picturesque New England town, with +the elm-shaded central square. It is fourteen miles from the Canada +border, and an important customs station. Of it, Henry Ward Beecher +wrote that "St. Albans is a place in the midst of greater variety of +scenic beauty than any other I remember in America." + + +AUSABLE CHASM. + +One of the chief Adirondack rivers flowing into Lake Champlain is the +Ausable. Its branches come out of the heart of the mountains, one +through the beautiful Keene Valley and the other through the +Wilmington Notch, and uniting at Ausable Forks, it flows along the +northwestern side of the long ridge terminating in Trembleau Point at +Port Kent, and enters the lake just above. The river escapes from the +mountains through the wonderful gorge of Ausable Chasm. It is an +active stream, bringing down vast amounts of sand, which wash through +this gorge and are spread over the flats north of Trembleau, where the +river flows out through two mouths. These prolific sand-bars, when +first seen by the French, caused them to name the stream Ausable, the +"river of sands." This renowned chasm, in its colossal magnificence +and bold rending of the hard sandstone strata, is one of the wonders +of America. A local poet has written on a little kiosk adjoining the +river chasm this rhythmic explanation of its origin: + + "Nature one day had a spasm + With grand result--Ausable Chasm." + +This splendid gorge, cut down in getting out of the highlands, is +carved in the hardest Potsdam sandstones. It is a profound, and in +most of its length a very narrow chasm, with almost vertical walls +from seventy to one hundred and fifty feet high, the torrent pouring +through the bottom being compressed within a width of eight to thirty +feet, and rushing with quick velocity. The chasm is about two miles +long, having several sharp bends, the stratified walls being built up +almost like artificial masonry. The sides are frequently cut by +lateral fissures, making remarkable formations, and the tops of the +enclosing crags are fringed with a dense growth of cedars. The river +of dark amber-colored water first comes out of the forest past +Keeseville, where mills avail of its water-power, and then pours over +the ledges of the Alice Falls, the finest in the Adirondacks. This +splendid cataract of forty feet descent is above the entrance to the +gorge, much of it being an almost sheer fall, having magnificent +foaming watery stairways down the ledges, bordering it with their +delicate lacework on either hand. The dark waters tumble in large +volume into an immense amphitheatre, which has been rounded out by the +torrent during past ages. Then bending sharply to the right, the +river goes down some rapids and over a mill-dam built just above the +chasm. The opening of this extraordinary rent in the earth is +startling. Suddenly the river pours over a short fall, and then down +another deep one strangely constructed, the line of the cataract being +almost in the line of the stream. These are the Birmingham Falls, down +which the Ausable plunges into the deep abyss, while high above stands +a picturesque stone mill whose wheels are turned by the waters, and +just below a light iron bridge carries a railway over the gorge. + +It is difficult to describe the profound chasm opening below the +Birmingham Falls. It is a prodigious rent in the earth's crust, making +sudden right-angled turns. The visitor at first goes down a long +stairway and walks on the rocky floor adjoining the torrent, enormous +walls rising high above. There are various formations made by the +boiling waters, ovens, anvils, chairs, pulpits, punch-bowls and the +like, and, judging by their names, the Devil seems to be the owner of +most of them. The chasm turns sharply around the "Elbow," and the +waters rush through the narrow passage of "Hell Gate." There are many +caves and lateral fissures, all the masonry being hewn square, as in +fact the whole gorge is, such being the regularity of the +stratification and the accuracy of the angles and joints,--the +ponderous walls, reared on high, sometimes almost close together, +making the deep pass narrow and gloomy. The gorge finally contracts so +much there is no further room for walking, and a boat is taken for the +remainder of the journey down the "Grand Flume." The torrent carries +the boat along swiftly, guided by strong oarsmen both at bow and +stern, swinging quickly around the bends, shooting the rapids and +whirling through the eddies. After rushing along the "Flume," +embracing the narrowest portions of the profound chasm, the boat +finally floats out into the "Pool," where the waters at length settle +into rest as they pass from the broken-down sandstone strata to the +flat land beyond, where the river flows through its two mouths into +the lake. + + +PLATTSBURG AND ITS NAVAL BATTLE. + +Northward from Ausable River, Lake Champlain contains a number of +large islands. Valeur Island is near the New York shore, and in the +narrow channel separating them, in 1776, a desperate naval contest was +fought between Arnold and Carleton, resulting in the defeat of the +Americans. Beyond are the large islands of Grand Isle, South Hero and +North Hero. Standing in an admirable position on Bluff Point, a high +promontory on the western shore, is the great Hotel Champlain, +elevated two hundred feet above the lake. To the north the Saranac +River, coming from the southwest, flows out of the Adirondacks through +its red sandstone gorge into Cumberland Bay, and at its mouth is the +pleasant town of Plattsburg, having a population of seven thousand. +The broad peninsula of Cumberland Head, projecting far to the +southward into the lake, encloses the bay in front of the town. +Plattsburg's greatest fame comes from its battle and Commodore +McDonough's victory in 1814. The earliest settler was a British army +officer, one Count de Fredenburgh, who built a sawmill at a fall near +the mouth of the Saranac; but he was made way with early in the +Revolution, and many have been the startling tales since told of his +ghostly figure, in red coat and knee-breeches, stalking about the +ruins of the old mill at Fredenburgh Falls. After the war, New York +State confiscated the property and gave it to Zephaniah Platt and his +associates, who established the town, and in 1785 rebuilt the mill. +Plattsburg had become a place of so much importance that in the War of +1812-15 the English sent a large force from Canada for its capture. +They attacked it on a Sunday morning in September, 1814, Sir George +Prevost commanding the land forces and Commodore Downie a fleet of +sixteen vessels. General Macomb had a small American detachment +entrenched on the southern bank of the Saranac in hastily constructed +earthworks, some remains being yet visible. The naval contest, +however, decided the day, the superior British fleet being overcome by +the better American tactics. McDonough had but fourteen vessels, +anchored in a double line across the mouth of Cumberland Bay. As the +British fleet rounded Cumberland Head to make the attack, a cock that +was aboard McDonough's flag-ship, the "Saratoga," suddenly flew upon a +gun and crowed lustily. This was esteemed a good omen, and giving +three cheers, the Americans went to work with a will. After two hours' +conflict the British fleet was defeated and captured. Downie was +killed early in the action, and with fifteen other officers sleeps in +Plattsburg Cemetery. McDonough was crushed by a falling boom, and +afterwards was stunned by being struck with the flying head of one of +his officers, knocked off by a cannon-shot, but he was undaunted to +the end. Honors were heaped upon him, Congress giving him a gold +medal, and he was also presented with an estate upon Cumberland Head +overlooking the scene of his victory. + +Plattsburg has the chief United States military post on the Canadian +border, there being usually a large force stationed at the extensive +barracks. It is also the terminus of railways coming from the +Adirondacks, originally built to fetch out the iron-ores, of which it +is an active market. One of these railways comes from Ausable Forks. +Another is the Chateaugay Railroad, which has a circuitous route +around the northern and eastern verges of the wilderness, from the +Chateaugay and Chazy Lakes, where are the ore beds in a dismal region. +Lyon Mountain, one of the chief ore producers, has its mines at two +thousand feet elevation above the lake. Stretching far away to the +northward is the immense Chateaugay forest and wilderness, extending +into Canada. This railroad passes Dannemora, where is located the +Clinton Prison, a New York State institution, at which it is said +"they always have a number of people of leisure, who pass their time +in meditation, making nails, cracking ore, and in other congenial +pursuits." The railroad route cuts into the red sandstone gorge of the +Saranac, and follows its valley out to Plattsburg. Some distance north +of Plattsburg, and at the Canadian boundary, is Rouse's Point, a +border customs station. This is the northern end of Lake Champlain, +which discharges through the Richelieu or Sorel River into the St. +Lawrence, the waters descending about one hundred feet, and mostly by +the Chambly Rapids. The Chambly Canal, which locks down this descent, +provides navigation facilities from Champlain to the St. Lawrence +waters. + + +ENTERING THE ADIRONDACKS. + +From Westport on Lake Champlain is one of the favorite routes into the +Adirondacks. The name of this dark region originally came from the +Mohawks, who applied it in derision to the less fortunate savages that +inhabited the forbidding forests. The luxurious Mohawk, living in +fertile valleys growing plenty of corn, could see nothing for his +dusky enemy in this dismal wilderness to eat, excepting the dark +trees growing on its mountain sides, and therefore the Mohawk called +these people the Adirondacks, or "the bark and wood eaters." The +actual derivation of the word is thought to come from the Iroquois +root "atiron," meaning "to stretch along," referring to the mountain +chains. Starting from Westport, we penetrate the region by a steep +road into the Raven Pass, known as the "Gate of the Adirondacks," +going through one of the ridges, among juniper bushes and aspen +poplars, and thus get to the pleasant valley beyond, where flows the +lovely Bouquet River. Here are a bunch of red-roofed cottages +surrounded by elms contrasting prettily with the green fields, with +boarding-houses and hotels interspersed, making up the village of +Elizabethtown, the county-seat of Essex, which is hereabout called +E-Town, for short. It spreads over the flat bottom of a fertile +valley, encompassed around by high mountains. Circling all over the +valley and yet concealed in deep gorges is the Bouquet River, which +flows out to Lake Champlain, near the Split Rock. To the westward +rises the sharp bare granite top of Mount Hurricane, nearly +thirty-eight hundred feet, and to the southwest the towering Giant of +the Valley, over forty-five hundred feet. Cobble Hill, rising two +thousand feet, closes up the western end of the main village street, +its ball-like top being a complete reproduction of a huge +cobble-stone. Out to the northward goes a wild mountain road, through +the Poke o' Moonshine Pass, leading to Ausable Chasm, twenty-three +miles away. + +Travelling westward from E-Town, we mount the enclosing slope of the +Pleasant Valley, and through the gorge alongside Mount Hurricane, up +the canyon of the western branch of Bouquet River. Crossing the summit +among the granite rocks and forests, we then descend into another +long, trough-like valley, stretching as a broad intervale far away +both north and south, through which flows Ausable River. This +intervale includes the charming "Flats of Keene," the sparkling +Ausable waters meandering quietly over them beneath overhanging maples +and alders, quivering aspens and gracefully swaying elms, occasionally +dancing among the stones and shingle in some gentle rapid. Here are +farmhouses, with many villas, the great mountain ridges protecting the +valley from the wintry blasts. This intervale has in the eastern ridge +the Giant of the Valley, with Mount Dix alongside, rising nearly five +thousand feet, and to the southward, reared thirty-five hundred feet, +exactly at the meridian, is the graceful Noon Mark Mountain, which +casts the sun's noon shadow northward over the centre of the "Flats of +Keene." The river, coming from the south, flows out of the lower +Ausable Lake or the Long Pond, and dashes swiftly down its +boulder-covered bed. Its waters are gathered largely from the eastern +flanks of Mount Tahawus, and also from the galaxy of attendant +peaks--Dix, Noon Mark, Colvin, Boreas, the Gothics, and +others--grandly encircling the southern head of the attractive Keene +Valley. The Ausable River rises under the brow of Tahawus, and flowing +through the two long and narrow Ausable Lakes at two thousand feet +elevation, traverses the whole length of the Keene Valley northward, +to unite with its western branch at Ausable Forks, and thence goes +through the great chasm to Lake Champlain. The head of the Keene +Valley with the adjacent mountain slopes, extending through parts of +three counties and covering a tract of forty square miles, is the +"Adirondack Mountain Reserve." This reservation gives complete +protection to the fish and game, and also preserves the forests and +sources of the water supply. The Lower Ausable Lake is about two miles +long and the Upper Ausable Lake nearly the same length, there being +over a mile's distance between them. Some of the highest and most +romantic of the Adirondack peaks environ these lakes. The sharply-cut +summit of Mount Colvin rises forty-one hundred and fifty feet +alongside them. The Ausable Lakes are in the bottom of a deep cleft +between these great mountains, their sides rising almost sheer, two +thousand feet and more above them. The lake shores are steep and rocky +walls, reared apparently to the sky, the deep and contracted cleft +making the lakes look more like rivers, surmounted high up the rocks +by overhanging foliage, the trees diminutive in the distance. Of the +Upper Ausable Lake, Warner writes that "In the sweep of its wooded +shores, and the lovely contour of the lofty mountains that guard it, +this lake is probably the most charming in America." + + +ADIRONDACK ATTRACTIONS. + +The western guardian peaks of the Keene Valley are the main range of +the Adirondacks, including Mount Marcy or Tahawus. Mount Colvin, +alongside the Ausable Lakes, was named in honor of Verplanck Colvin, +the New York surveyor and geologist, who devoted years of energy to +the survey of this wilderness, and perhaps knew it better than anyone +else. He was always in love with it, and thought that few really +understood it. He described it as "a peculiar region, for though the +geographical centre of the wilderness may be readily reached, in the +light canoe-like boats of the guides, by lakes and rivers which form a +labyrinth of passages for boats, the core, or rather cores, of this +wilderness extend on either hand from these broad avenues of water, +and in their interior spots remain to-day as untrodden by men and as +unknown and wild as when the Indian paddled his birchen boat upon +those streams and lakes. Amid these mountain solitudes are places +where, in all probability, the foot of man never trod; and here the +panther has his den among the rocks, and rears his savage kittens +undisturbed, save by the growl of bear and screech of lynx, or the +hoarse croak of the raven taking its share of the carcass of slain +deer." The tangled Adirondack forest may to some seem monotonous and +even dreary, but Mr. Street, the poet-writer of the region, thus +enthusiastically refers to it: "Select a spot; let the eye become a +little accustomed to the scene, and how the picturesque beauties, the +delicate minute charms, the small overlooked things, steal out like +lurking tints in an old picture. See that wreath of fern, graceful as +the garland of a Greek victor at the games; how it hides the dark, +crooked root, writhing snake-like from yon beech! Look at the beech's +instep steeped in moss, green as emerald, with other moss twining +round the silver-spotted trunk in garlands or in broad, thick, velvety +spots! Behold yonder stump, charred with the hunter's camp-fire, and +glistening black and satin-like in its cracked ebony! Mark yon mass of +creeping pine, mantling the black mould with furzy softness! View +those polished cohosh-berries, white as drops of pearl! See the purple +barberries and crimson clusters of the hopple, contrasting their vivid +hues!--and the massive logs peeled by decay--what gray, downy +smoothness! and the grasses in which they are weltering--how full of +beautiful motions and outlines!" + +From the Keene Valley we climb up the gorge of a brisk little brook to +the westward, and passing through the notch between Long Pond Mountain +and the precipitous sides of the well-named Pitch-Off Mountain, come +to the pair of elongated deep and narrow ponds between them,--the +Cascade Lakes,--stretching nearly two miles. Huge boulders line their +banks with a wall of rough and ponderous masonry, entwined with the +roots of trees, and like the Ausable Lakes, they are another Alpine +formation, their surfaces being at twenty-one hundred feet elevation, +yet resting in the bottom of a tremendous chasm. An unique cascade, +falling in successive leaps for seven hundred and fifty feet down the +southern enclosing mountain wall, has given them the name--a delicate +white lace ribbon of foaming water, finally passing into the lower +lake. The grand dome of Mount McIntyre, in the main Adirondack range, +rises in majesty to an elevation of fifty-two hundred feet, a sentinel +beyond the western entrance to this remarkable pass. Formerly +iron-ores were found here, but iron-making has been abandoned for the +more profitable occupation of caring for the summer tourist. Beyond +these lakes the summit of the pass is crossed, and there is a farm or +two upon a broad plateau, at twenty-five hundred feet elevation, the +highest cultivated land in New York State. Comparatively little but +hay, however, can be raised, the seasons are so short and fickle. Deer +haunt this remote region, and their runways can be seen. Emerging from +the pass, with the little streams all running westward to the +Ausable's western branch, there is got a fine view of the main +Adirondack range, with the massive Mount McIntyre and the almost +perpendicular side of Wallface rising beyond, the deep notch of the +famous Indian Pass, cut down between them, showing plainly. Both peaks +tower grandly above a surrounding galaxy of bleak, dark mountains. + + +OLD JOHN BROWN OF OSAWATOMIE. + +This broad flat valley of the Western Ausable, the stream winding +through it in a deeply-cut gorge, and surrounded on the south and west +by an amphitheatre of the highest Adirondack peaks, is the township of +North Elba in Essex county; and the valley and its fertile borders are +the "Plains of Abraham." It is a farming district, so well enclosed by +the mountains that the soil is fairly tillable. These plains gradually +slope northwestward to the banks of two of the most noted of the +Adirondack waters, Lake Placid and the Mirror Lake, with old Whiteface +Mountain for their guardian, "heaving high his forehead bare." Here +are the scattered buildings of the village of North Elba on the +plains, and the more modern and fashionable settlement beyond at the +lakes. To the southward is the great rounded top of Tahawus, the +highest Adirondack peak, displayed through an opening vista, and at +the northern border grandly stands Whiteface, the black sides abruptly +changing to white, where an avalanche years ago denuded the granite +cliffs near the top and swept down all the trees. Here at North Elba +was the home and farm of "Old John Brown of Osawatomie." He had been +given this homestead by Gerrit Smith, the great New York Abolitionist, +in 1849, and there had also been founded here a colony of refuge for +the negro slaves. It was then a remote and almost unknown place in the +wilderness. Brown settled in the colony and built his little log house +and barn near a huge boulder which stood a short distance from the +front door. Here he formed his plan for liberating the slaves, and +from here went to engage in the Kansas border wars of 1856. Returning, +for three years he brooded on plans to liberate the negroes, and after +further conflicts in Kansas projected the expedition into Virginia for +the capture of Harper's Ferry in October, 1859. He declared his object +to be to free all the slaves, and that he acted "by the authority of +God Almighty." After his capture and conviction he discouraged efforts +at liberation, saying, "I am of more use to the cause dead than +living." After his death his body was brought up here to his home in +the wilderness, for he had said, "When I die, bury me by the big rock, +where I love to sit and read the word of God." Here he was buried on a +bitterly cold day in December, 1859, a few sorrowing friends +conducting the services and covering up his body in the frozen ground. + +The old gravestone of his grandfather was brought from New England and +put at the head of the grave, but it was soon so chipped off and +broken by relic-hunters, it had to be enclosed in a case for +preservation. Behind the grave rises the huge boulder on which has +been carved, in large letters, "John Brown, 1859." The old gravestone +is full of names both front and back, containing the record of his own +death, and that of three sons, two losing their lives at Harper's +Ferry and one in Kansas. The record of his life, graven on the stone, +is: "John Brown, born May 9, 1800, was executed at Charleston, Va., +Dec. 2, 1859." It is here that + + "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + And his soul goes marching on." + +Forty years afterwards, in 1899, the remains of seven of his +companions in the Harper's Ferry raid were removed here and interred +beside him. This region no longer knows Brown's kindred, for all have +disappeared. Yet in the world's mutations, nothing could be more +strange than that this remote wilderness, originally selected as a +refuge and hiding-place for runaway slaves, should have become one of +the most fashionable and popular health resorts in America. The farm +and graves are now kept by New York State as a public park. + + +LAKE PLACID TO PAUL SMITH'S. + +Lake Placid, nestling at the base of old Whiteface and elevated +eighteen hundred and sixty feet above the sea, is often called the +"Eye of the Adirondacks." Its mountain environment has made it almost +a rectangle, four miles long and two miles wide. Down its centre, +arranged in a row, are three beautiful islands, named respectively the +Hawk, Moose and Buck, two being large and high and the third smaller. +These divide it into alternating spaces of land and water much like a +chess-board. To the eastward is the pretty Mirror Lake, about three +miles in circuit. Both lakes have high wooded shores, and around them +are gathered the hotels, cottages and camps of a large summer +settlement. Surrounded by a grander galaxy of finer and higher +mountains than any other lakes of this region, here is truly the "Eye" +that views these dark Adirondacks in all their glory. These mountains +are all sombre, and some almost inky black; many are hazy in the +distance. To the northeast the Wilmington Pass, alongside Whiteface, +lets out the western branch of Ausable; to the southward, the Indian +Pass opening between McIntyre and Wallface is a source of the Hudson; +to the westward, on the spurs of lower ranges, are the forests +separating these lakes from the Saranacs. There are more than a +hundred peaks around, of varying heights and features, among them the +greatest of the Adirondacks. Embosomed within this wonderful +amphitheatre is the glassy-surfaced lake, protected from the winds and +storms, which is so attractive and so peaceful that it fully deserves +its name, Lake Placid. + +Crossing again to the westward through the forests and over the +ridges, we come into the valley of the Saranac, with its lakes, and +the ancient village of Harrietstown under the long ridge of Ampersand +Mountain. Here on the Lower Saranac Lake is another summer settlement +of villas, hotels and camps. Behind the mountain there is a little +lake out of which flows a stream so crooked and twisted into and out +of itself, turning around sweeping circles without accomplishing much +progress, that its discoverers could not liken it to anything more +appropriate than to the eccentric supernumerary of the alphabet, the +"&." Thus the name of the "Ampersand" of the old spelling-books was +applied first to the stream, and then to the lake and mountain, the +latter being the guardian of the many lakes of this region. The Lower +Saranac Lake is at fifteen hundred and forty feet elevation, and the +Ampersand Mountain rises a thousand feet above it. A pretty church in +the village is appropriately named for St. Luke the Physician, and +here is located the Adirondack Sanitarium, this district being a +favorite refuge for consumptives. The Chateaugay railroad comes in +here, but the district beyond to the south and west has neither +railroads nor wagon roads. It is such a labyrinth of lakes and water +courses it can only be traversed in boats. + +The whole western part of the Adirondacks is an elevated tableland, +containing many hills and peaks, but saturated by water ways. +Therefore "canoeing and carrying" is the method of transportation. +The Lower Saranac Lake is five miles long, and beyond it is Round +Lake, over two miles in diameter, beyond that being the Upper Saranac +Lake, nearly eight miles long and dotted with islands. There are +portages between them where the canoes have to be carried. The outlet +of the Upper Saranac is a magnificent cataract and rapid, descending +thirty-five feet in a distance of about one hundred yards. From the +Upper Saranac Lake other portages, or "carrys," as they are called, +lead over to the Blue Mountain region, the Raquette River and the +Tupper Lakes to the westward. The Adirondack ranges here are lower, +and the forests get denser, but all about are dotted the summer +settlements, some of them displaying most elaborate construction. +Every place has its boat-house and canoe-rack, and boats are moving in +all directions. At the head of the Upper Saranac is St. Regis +Mountain, and a long "carry" of about four miles through the forest +goes over to the Big Clear Pond, the head of the Saranac system of +waters. Crossing this lake, yet another "carry" takes us over the +watershed. This is a famous portage in the liquid district, the "St. +Germain carry" of over a mile between the Saranac headwaters and the +sources of St. Regis River, flowing out westward and then northward to +the St. Lawrence. It leads to the series of St. Regis Lakes, and +finally on the bank of the Lower St. Regis to the great hotel of the +woods--Paul Smith's--with many camps surrounding the shores of the +lake. Apollus Smith, a shrewd Yankee, came here many years ago, when +the locality was an unbroken wilderness, and built a small log house +in the forest as an abiding-place for the hunter and angler. It was +repeatedly enlarged, and with it the domain, now covering several +thousand acres, until the hostelrie has become an unique mixture of +the backwoods with modern fashion, and is everywhere known as the +typical house of the Adirondack region. Upon the hill behind the hotel +is the attractive little church of "St. John in the Wilderness," +appropriately built of logs hewn in the surrounding forest. + + +ADIRONDACK LAKES. + +To the westward is the water system of the Raquette River, leading to +the St. Lawrence; this stream, the chief one in the district, flowing +out of Raquette Lake. This lake is irregularly shaped, about ten miles +long, and surrounded by low hills, its elevation being nearly eighteen +hundred feet. The dense forests that are adjacent teem with game, and +its hotels and private camps are among the best in the region, "Camp +Pine Knot" being especially famous as the most elaborate and +attractive of its kind in America. Blue Mountain rises to the eastward +nearly thirty-eight hundred feet, and at its southwestern base is the +Blue Mountain Lake, having on its southern edge the small Eagle Lake, +where lived in a solitary house called the Eagle's Nest the noted "Ned +Buntline," the author. To the southwest of Raquette are the chain of +eight Fulton Lakes. North of Raquette are the Forked Lakes, and +northeast of it, following down the Raquette River, Long Lake, which +is fourteen miles long and barely a mile wide in the broadest part, +having Mount Seward rising at its northern end. To the northwest, +still following down the Raquette, are the Tupper Lakes. These are a +few of the larger lakes in this labyrinth of water courses, there +being hundreds of smaller ones; and, as the forest and water ways +extend northwest, the land gradually falls away towards the great +plain adjoining the St. Lawrence. These regions, however, are remote +from ordinary travel, and the western Adirondack forests are rarely +penetrated by visitors excepting in search of sport. + +This wonderful region has only during recent years attracted general +public attention as a great sanitarium and summer resort, but its +popularity constantly increases. Its dark and forbidding mountains +have become additionally attractive as they are better known, probably +for the reason, as John Ruskin tells us, that "Mountains are the +beginning and the end of all natural scenery." Its universal woods and +waters have a resistless charm. As one wanders through the devious +pathways, or glides over the glassy surface of one of its myriad +lakes, the vivid coloring and richness of the plant life recall +Thomson, in the _Seasons_: + + "Who can paint + Like Nature? Can imagination boast + Amid its gay creation hues like her's? + Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, + And lose them in each other, as appears + In every bud that blows?" + +But after all, the great Adirondack forests, vast and trackless, much +of them in their primitive wildness, are to the visitor possibly the +grandest of the charms of this weird region. The "Great North Woods" +still exist as the primeval forest on many square miles of these broad +mountains and deep valleys, recalling in their solitude and grandeur +William Cullen Bryant's _Forest Hymn_: + + "The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned + To hew the shaft and lay the architrave, + And spread the roof above them--ere he framed + The lofty vault, to gather and roll back + The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, + Amidst the cool and silence he knelt down + And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks + And supplication." + + + + +CROSSING THE EMPIRE STATE. + + + + +XIII. + +CROSSING THE EMPIRE STATE. + + The Mohawk Valley -- Cohoes and its Falls -- Occuna's Death -- + Erie Canal -- De Witt Clinton -- New York Central Railroad -- + Mohawk and Hudson Railroad -- Schenectady -- Union College -- + Amsterdam -- Fort Johnson -- Sir William Johnson -- Johnstown + -- The Iroquois or Six Nations -- Senecas -- Red Jacket -- + Cayugas -- Onondagas -- Oneidas -- Tuscaroras -- Mohawks -- + Joseph Brant -- The Noses -- Little Falls -- Herkimer -- Utica + -- Classic Names -- Rome -- Trenton Falls -- Lake Ontario -- + The Lake Ridge -- Black River -- Cazenovia Lake -- Oneida Lake + -- Oneida Community -- Oswego River -- Oswego -- Onondaga Lake + -- Syracuse -- Salt Making -- Syracuse University -- Otisco + Lake -- Skaneateles Lake -- Owasco Lake -- Auburn -- William H. + Seward -- Cayuga Lake -- Ithaca -- Fall Creek -- Cascadilla + Creek -- Taghanic Falls -- Cornell University -- Ezra Cornell + -- John McGraw -- Seneca Lake -- Havana Glen -- Watkins Glen -- + Geneva -- Hobart College -- Seneca River -- Keuka Lake -- Penn + Yan -- Hammondsport -- Canandaigua Lake and Town -- Canisteo + River -- Hornellsville -- Painted Post -- Corning -- Chemung + River -- Elmira -- Genesee River -- Portage Falls -- Genesee + Level -- Mount Morris -- Council House of Cascadea -- Geneseo + -- Rochester and its Falls -- Sam Patch -- Medina Sandstones -- + Lockport -- Chautauqua Lake -- Chautauqua Assembly -- + Pennsylvania Triangle -- Erie -- Perry's Victory -- Captain + Gridley's Grave -- Dunkirk -- Buffalo -- Sieur de la Salle and + the Griffin -- Grain Elevators -- Prospect Park -- Fort Porter + -- Fort Erie -- Niagara River -- Grand Island -- Niagara Falls + -- Niagara Rapids -- Father Hennepin's Description -- Charles + Dickens -- Professor Tyndall -- Anthony Trollope -- Geological + Formation -- Appearance of Niagara -- Goat Island -- Luna + Island -- Cave of the Winds -- Terrapin Rocks -- Three Sisters + Islands -- The Horseshoe -- Condemned Ship Michigan -- Lower + Rapids -- Whirlpool -- Niagara Electric Power -- Massacre of + Devil's Hole -- Battles of Queenston Heights, Chippewa and + Lundy's Lane. + + +THE FALLS AT COHOES. + +The valley of the Mohawk River provides one of the best routes for +crossing the Empire State, from the Hudson over to Lake Erie. Within +sight of the Hudson, the Mohawk pours down its noble cataract at +Cohoes. This is a waterfall of nearly a thousand feet width, the +descent being seventy-eight feet. The banks on either side are quite +high, with foliage crowning their summits, and between is a +perpendicular wall of dark-brown rocks making the cataract, having a +sort of diagonal stratification that breaks the sombre face into +rifts. In a freshet this is a wonderful fall, the swollen stream +becoming a dark amber-colored torrent with adornments of foam, making +a small Niagara. The river is dammed about a mile above, so that at +times almost the whole current is drawn off to turn the mill-wheels of +Cohoes, making paper and manufacturing much wool and cotton, one of +its leading establishments being the "Harmony Knitting Mills." In +digging for the foundations of its great buildings alongside the +river, this corporation several years ago exhumed one of the most +perfect skeletons of a mastodon now existing, which is in the State +Museum at Albany. Cohoes has about twenty-five thousand population, +and its name comes from the Iroquois word Coh-hoes, meaning a "canoe +falling." A brisk rapid runs above the falls, and a touching Indian +legend tells how the rapid and fall were named. Occuna was a young +Seneca warrior (one of the Iroquois tribes), and with his affianced +was carelessly paddling in a canoe at the head of the rapid, when +suddenly the current drew them down towards the cataract. Escape being +impossible, they began the melancholy death-song in responsive chants, +and prepared to meet the Great Spirit. Occuna began: "Daughter of a +mighty warrior; the Great Manitou calls me hence; he bids me hasten +into his presence; I hear his voice in the stream; I see his spirit in +the moving of the waters; the light of his eyes danceth upon the swift +rapids." The maiden responded, "Art thou not thyself a great warrior, +O Occuna? Hath not thy tomahawk been often bathed in the red blood of +thine enemies? Hath the fleet deer ever escaped thy arrow, or the +beaver eluded thy chase? Why, then, shouldst thou fear to go into the +presence of the Great Manitou?" Then said Occuna, "Manitou regardeth +the brave, he respecteth the prayer of the mighty! When I selected +thee from the daughters of thy mother I promised to live and die with +thee. The Thunderer hath called us together. Welcome, O shade of +Oriska, invincible chief of the Senecas. Lo, a warrior, and the +daughter of a warrior, come to join thee in the feast of the blessed!" +The canoe went over the fall; Occuna was dashed in pieces among the +rocks, but the maiden lived to tell the story. The Indians say that +Occuna was "raised high above the regions of the moon, from whence he +views with joy the prosperous hunting of the warriors; he gives +pleasant dreams to his friends, and terrifies their enemies with +dreadful omens." Whenever the tribe passed the fatal cataract they +solemnly commemorated Occuna's death. + + +THE ERIE CANAL. + +Just above Cohoes, the Erie Canal crosses the Mohawk upon a stately +aqueduct, twelve hundred feet long, and it then descends through the +town by an elaborate series of eighteen locks to the Hudson River +level. This great water way made the prosperity of New York City, and +is the monument of the sagacity and foresight of De Witt Clinton, +Governor of New York, who, despite all obstacles, kept advocating and +pushing the work until its completion. The construction began in 1817, +and it was opened for business in 1825. The first barge going through +had a royal progress from Buffalo, arriving at Albany at three minutes +before eleven o'clock on the morning of October 26, 1825. There being +no telegraphs, a swift method was devised for announcing her arrival, +both back to Buffalo and down the Hudson River to New York. Cannon +placed within hearing of each other, at intervals of eight or ten +miles, were successively fired, announcing it in both cities, the +signal being returned in the same way. By this series of cannon-shots +the report went down to New York and came back to Albany in +fifty-eight minutes. When the first barges from Buffalo reached New +York they were escorted through the harbor by a grand marine +procession, which went to the ocean at Sandy Hook, where Governor +Clinton poured in a keg of water brought from Lake Erie. The original +Erie Canal cost $7,500,000, but it was afterwards enlarged and +deepened, and further enlargements are still being made. It is +fifty-six feet wide at the bottom and seventy feet at the surface, +with seven feet depth of water. The barges are stoutly built and carry +cargoes of seven to nine thousand bushels of grain. The canal is three +hundred and fifty-five miles long, and gradually descends from Lake +Erie five hundred and sixty-eight feet to the tidal level of the +Hudson River, there being seventy-two locks passed in making the +journey. This work, with its feeders and connections with the St. +Lawrence River by the Champlain and Oswego Canals and the +enlargements, has cost New York $98,000,000, and the maintenance costs +$1,000,000 a year. It carries a tonnage approximating four millions +annually, and is now free of tolls. Usually it carries half the grain +coming to New York City. There are various projects for its further +enlargement to twelve feet depth to accommodate larger boats, and its +future usefulness is a theme of wide discussion. Its route across New +York State is naturally the one of easiest gradient, passing from +Buffalo over the flat plain of Western New York, descending to the +lower level of the Genesee Valley, then crossing the plain immediately +north of the central lake district of New York, and finally by the +Mohawk Valley, getting an easy passage through the narrow mountain +gorge at Little Falls, and thence alongside that stream to the Hudson. + +Closely accompanying the canal, the great Vanderbilt line, the New +York Central Railway, crosses New York from Albany to Buffalo. It runs +for seventeen miles, from Albany to Schenectady, and then follows up +the Mohawk Valley. This seventeen miles of road is probably the oldest +steam railroad in the United States--the Mohawk and Hudson Company, +chartered in April, 1826. The commissioners organizing it met for the +purpose at John Jacob Astor's office in New York City, July 29, 1826, +and sent an agent over to England to inquire into its feasibility, and +he came back with the plans, and was put in charge at $1500 salary. +This was Peter Fleming, the first manager. The original power was by +horses, and afterwards steam was used in daytime only, horses +continuing the night work, it not being considered safe to use steam +after dark. One car, looking much like an old-fashioned stage-coach, +made a train. There were fourteen miles of level line, the remainder +being inclined planes, where horses did the most work. When the car +approached the station the agent met it, blocking the wheels with a +wedge, which was removed when the car started again. As business +increased, more cars were added to the trains, and then a guard was +put on top of the first car back of the locomotive, to watch the train +and see that everything moved right. He frequently notified the +engineer to stop when a car was seen bobbing about sufficiently to +indicate that it was off the track. This primitive road was the +beginning of the New York Central Railroad, which was gradually +extended westward. + + +ASCENDING THE MOHAWK. + +Schenectady on the Mohawk is a quaint old town of Dutch foundation, +now devoted considerably to hops and butter, and largely to the trade +in brooms. The Indians called it Skaunoghtada, or "the village seen +across the plain," and hence the name. It was an early outpost of the +Patroon at Albany, who sent Arent Van Corlaer to build a fort and +trade in furs with the Indians in 1661. There were two horrible +massacres here in the colonial wars. This comfortable city spreads +broadly on the southern bank of the river and has over twenty thousand +people. It is the seat of Union College, the buildings, upon a height +overlooking the valley, being prominent. The college is part of the +foundation of Union University, organized by the coöperation of +various religious denominations, embracing medical, law and +engineering schools, and also the Dudley Observatory at Albany. Such +eminent men as Jonathan Edwards and Eliphalet Nott have been its +presidents. Some distance up the Mohawk is Amsterdam, another +flourishing town, and the whole region thereabout is covered with +fields of broom-corn, the Mohawk Valley being the greatest producer of +brooms in America, and the chief broom-makers the Shakers, who have +several settlements here. To the northward of the river above +Amsterdam is Fort Johnson, a large stone dwelling which was the home +of Sir William Johnson, the noted pioneer and colonial General. In +1738, at the age of twenty-three, he came out from England to manage +Admiral Warren's large estates in the Mohawk Valley. He soon became +very friendly with the Indians, the Mohawks adopting him as a sachem, +and he had much to do with the Indian colonial management. He finally +became the superintendent of the affairs of the Indian Six Nations, +the Iroquois, and got his title of baronet for his victory over the +French in 1755 at Fort William Henry, on Lake George. He was in the +subsequent campaigns, captured Fort Niagara in 1759, and was present +at the surrender of Montreal, and finally of Canada, the next year. +For his services in these important conflicts the King gave him a +tract of one hundred thousand acres north of the Mohawk, long known as +"Kingsland" or the "Royal Grant." He brought in colonists and started +Johnstown on this tract. He was active in his duties as head of the +Indian Department, his death in 1774 resulting from over-exertion at +an Indian Council. He was the great pioneer of the Mohawk, his +influence over the Indians being potential, and his village of +Johnstown, about eight miles north of the river, now having about five +thousand people. He had a hundred children by many mistresses, both +Indian and white, his favorite, by whom he had eight children, being +the sister of the famous Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. + + +THE LEAGUE OF THE SIX NATIONS. + +All this region, and the lands westward beyond the Central Lake +District of New York, was the home of that noted Indian Confederation +of America which the French named the Iroquois. When the earliest +French explorers found them, they were the "Five Nations"--the +Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks. Their name as a +league was Hodenosaunee, meaning "they form a cabin,"--this being +their idea of a combination, offensive and defensive, and within their +figurative cabin the fire was in the centre at Onondaga, while the +Mohawk was the door. They were great warriors, and their tradition was +that the Algonquins had driven them from Canada to the south side of +Lake Ontario. Subsequently a portion of the Tuscaroras came up from +the South, and being admitted to the Confederacy, it became the "Six +Nations." They had considerable warlike knowledge. Near Elmira, which +is close to the Pennsylvania boundary south of Seneca Lake, their +ancient fortifications are still visible, having been located with the +skill of a military engineer as a defense against attacks. Fort Hill +at Auburn was also an Iroquois fortification that has yielded many +relics, and other works constructed by them are shown in various +places. The league carried on almost continuous warfare against the +neighboring tribes and the frontier colonists, and were conspicuous in +all the colonial wars. When in their greatest prosperity they numbered +about fifteen thousand, and over ten thousand now exist, being located +on Canadian reservations adjacent to the St. Lawrence River, and on +eight reservations in New York, where there are about five thousand, +in civilized life, chiefly engaged in agriculture. In the ancient +league they were ruled by the Council of Sachems of the various +tribes, the central council-fire being upon the shore of Onondaga +Lake, and the Atotarho, or head sachem of the Onondagas, being chief +of the league. + +In colonial New York the westernmost tribe was the Senecas, whose +hunting-grounds extended from the Central Lake District to Lakes +Ontario and Erie. When the Dutch pioneers encountered these Indians +they were found to have the almost unpronounceable name of +"Tsonnundawaonos," meaning the "great hill people," and the nearest +the Dutch could come to it was to call them "Sinnekaas," which in time +was changed to Senecas. The Quakers took great interest in them, with +such fostering care that three thousand Senecas now live on the +sixty-six thousand acres in their reservations. They have their own +Indian language and special alphabet, and portions of the Scriptures +are printed in it. In their days of power they had two famous +chiefs--Cornplanter, also called Captain O'Beel, the name of his white +father, he being a half-breed, and Red Jacket. The latter lived till +1830 in the Senecas' village near Buffalo. His original Indian name +was Otetiani, or "Always Ready," and the popular title came from a +richly-embroidered scarlet jacket given him by a British officer, +which he always had great pride in wearing. He was a leader among the +Indians of his time and an impressive orator. Next eastward of the +Senecas were the Cayugas, who, when discovered by the French on the +banks of their lake, had about three hundred warriors, and in the +seventeenth century, under French tutelage, their chiefs became +Christians. A remnant of the tribe is in the Indian Territory. The +Onondagas were the "men of the mountain," getting their name from the +highlands where they lived, south of Onondaga Lake. There are about +three hundred now on their reservation and as many more in Canada. +Their language is regarded as the purest of the Iroquois dialects, and +its dictionary has been published. Farther eastward, where the granite +outcroppings of the southern Adirondack ranges appeared, were the +Oneidas, the "tribe of the granite rock," now having on their +reservation at Oneida Castle over two hundred, with many more in +Wisconsin and Canada. The Tuscaroras came into the league in 1713, and +were given a location on the southeastern shore of Oneida Lake, and +they are now on a reservation in Western New York, where over three +hundred live, with more in Canada. Their name was of modern adoption, +after they had assumed some of the habits of the whites, and means the +"shirt-wearers." + +The Mohawks lived farther east, in the Mohawk Valley, among the +limestone and granitic formations of the Adirondacks and Eastern New +York, and they were the Agmaque, meaning "the possessors of the +flint." Within the league their name was Ganniagwari, or the +"She-Bear," whence the Algonquins called them Mahaque, which the +English gradually corrupted into Mohawk, the name being also adopted +for their river. The early Dutch settlers at Albany made a treaty with +them which was lasting, and the English also had their friendship. +Their most noted chief was Thayendanega, better known as Joseph Brant, +who espoused the English cause in the Revolution and held a post in +the Canadian Indian Department, his tribe then extending throughout +the whole region between the St. Lawrence and the Hudson. He visited +England in 1786 and collected money to build a church for his people, +and published the Prayer-Book and the Gospel of Mark in Mohawk and +English. He steadily exerted himself after the Revolution to maintain +peace between the frontier Indians and the United States, being +zealously devoted to the welfare of his tribe. He had an estate on the +shore of Lake Ontario, where he died in 1807. + + +LITTLE FALLS AND UTICA. + +In ascending the Mohawk valley the distant view is circumscribed on +the south by the Catskills and Helderbergs, and on the north by the +Adirondack ranges. The outcrops of the latter compress upon the river +in long protruding crags covered with firs and known as the "Noses." +There are various villages, started in the eighteenth century as +frontier posts among the Indians. There are also hop-fields in plenty +and much pasture, and finally the hills become higher and the valley +narrower as Little Falls is reached, where the Mohawk forces a passage +through a spur of the Adirondacks, known as the Rollaway. The river, +approaching the gorge, sharply bends from east to south, and plunges +wildly down a series of rapids, the town being set among the rocky +precipices right in the throat of the defile. The place is heaped with +rocks, the stream falling forty-two feet within a thousand yards, the +descent forming three separate cataracts, which give power to numerous +mills on the banks and clustering upon an island in the rapids. They +make cheese and paper, and on either hand precipitous crags rise five +hundred feet above them. The pass is very narrow, compressing the +Erie Canal and the New York Central and West Shore Railways closely +upon the river; in fact, the canal passage has been blasted out of the +solid granite on the southern river-bank. Here can be readily studied +the crystalline rocks of the Laurentian formation, which are described +as "part of the oldest dry land on the face of the globe." It is this +pass through the mountains, made by the Mohawk, that gives the Erie +Canal and the Vanderbilt railways their low-level route between the +Atlantic seaboard and the West. All the other trunk railways climb the +Allegheny ranges and cross them at elevations of two thousand feet or +more, while here the elevation is not four hundred feet, thus avoiding +steep gradients and expensive hauling. The Rollaway stretches for a +long distance, clothed to its summit with pines and birches. + +Beyond, the amber waters of Canada Creek flow in from the north, +giving the Mohawk a largely increased current, and the land becomes a +region of gentle hills, with meadows and herds, a scene of pastoral +beauty, the great dairy region of New York. Here is Herkimer, which +was an Indian frontier fort, and a few miles farther is Utica, the +dairymen's and cheese-makers' headquarters, a city of fifty thousand +people. The whole Mohawk valley for miles has an atmosphere of +peacefulness and content, innumerable cows and sheep grazing and +resting upon the rich pastures. The river is narrow and meanders +slowly past Utica, which is built to the southward along the banks of +the canal. This city also grew up around an Indian border post. +General Schuyler, who came westward from Albany, seeking trade, built +Fort Schuyler here in 1758, the grant of land being known as Cosby's +Manor. Then a block-house was built, but the settlement, known as Old +Fort Schuyler, grew very little until after the canal was opened. +Utica had the honor of producing two of the leading men of New York, +Roscoe Conkling and Horatio Seymour, the latter having been Governor +of New York and the Democratic candidate for President when General +Grant was first elected in 1868. The city rises gradually upon a +gentle slope south of the Mohawk, until it reaches one hundred and +fifty feet elevation, Genesee street, the chief highway, wide and +attractive, extending back from the river and across the canal, +bordered by elegant residences, fronted by lawns and fine shade trees. +Its leading public institution is the State Lunatic Asylum, but its +pride is the regulation of the butter and cheese trades of New York. + +In journeying through New York, it is noticed that there is an +ambitious nomenclature. The towns are given classic names, as if there +had been an early immigration of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Thus +we were at Troy on the Hudson, and coming up the Mohawk have passed +Fonda, Palatine bridge and Ilion on the route to Utica, while farther +on are Rome and Verona. It seems that in the primitive days of New +York old Simeon de Witt was the Surveyor General, and under his +auspices the remorseless college graduate is said to have wandered +over the country with instrument and map and scattered broadcast +classic names. These flourish most in Western New York. Albion and +Attica, Corfu and Palmyra, are near neighbors there, the latter being +chiefly known to fame as the place where the original Mormon apostle, +"Joe Smith," claimed to have found the sacred golden plates of the +Mormon bible and the stone spectacles through which he interpreted the +signs written upon them. Memphis is near by, and Macedon and Jordan +are adjacent villages. Pompey, Virgil and Ulysses are named up, and +Ovid is between Lakes Seneca and Cayuga, with Geneva at the foot of +Seneca and Ithaca at the head of Cayuga. Auburn--"loveliest village of +the plain"--is to the eastward, and Aurelius, Marcellus and Camillus +are railway stations on the route to Syracuse, one of whose former +names was Corinth. To the southward is Homer, having Nineveh and +Manlius near by; Venice is not far away, and Babylon is down on Long +Island. The Mohawk thus heads in classic ground, rising in the +highlands of Oneida about twenty miles north of Rome, past which it +flows a small and winding brook through the almost level country. +Rome, unlike its ancient namesake, has no hills at all, but is built +upon a plain, having grown up around the Indian frontier outpost of +Fort Stanwix of the Revolution, the battle of Oriskany, in August, +1777, which cut off the reinforcements going to Burgoyne at Saratoga, +thus helping to defeat him, having been fought just outside its +limits. There are about seventeen thousand people in Rome, which is a +prominent lumber market, being at the junction of the Erie and Black +River Canals, the latter fetching lumber down from Canada, which has +come through Lake Ontario. From Rome the narrow Mohawk flows to Utica, +and thence with broadening current onward to the Hudson, its whole +length being about one hundred and forty miles. Its gentle course and +pastoral beauty remind of the pleasant lines of that poet of nature, +John Dyer: + + "And see the rivers how they run + Through woods and meads, in shade and sun, + Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,-- + Wave succeeding wave, they go + A various journey to the deep, + Like human life to endless sleep!" + + +TRENTON FALLS. + +In the hills north of Utica, the West Canada Creek cuts its remarkable +gorge at Trenton Falls. It is a vigorous stream, rising in the western +slopes of the Adirondacks and flowing to the Mohawk. In getting down +through the limestone rocks from the highlands to the plain adjacent +to the river, it passes into the ravine, giving a magnificent display +of chasms, cascades and rapids, in a gorge of such amazing +construction that it is regarded as a wonder second only to Niagara. +During the ages, the torrent has cut through over four hundred layers +of the stratified limestone, exposing the geological formation to full +view, with the fossil organic remains deposited there as the world was +built. In descending the ravine, there are five prominent cataracts, +besides rapids, all compressed within two miles distance, the +aggregate descent being three hundred and twelve feet. This wonderful +gorge was the Indian Kauy-a-hoo-ra, or the "Leaping Water," and from +its color they called the stream Kahnata, the "amber water," a name +readily corrupted into Canada Creek. The Dutch called the place after +the Grand Pensioner of Holland, Oldenbarneveld, he having sent out the +first colonists under a grant known as the "Holland Patent." It was in +this region Grover Cleveland spent his early life. A grandson of Roger +Sherman, who had charge of the Unitarian church here, is regarded as +the discoverer of the ravine in 1805, and he did much to make it known +to the world. His grave is within sound of the Sherman Fall. + +Entering the chasm at the lower end, where the stream passes out from +the rock terrace to the plain, the ravine is found to be about one +hundred feet deep, the almost perpendicular rocky walls built up in +level layers as if by hands, the well-defined separate strata being +from one inch to a foot in thickness, and narrowest at the bottom. +Hemlocks and cedars crown the blackened rocks, their branches hanging +over the abyss, while far below, the boisterous torrent rushes across +the pavement of broad flagstones forming its bed. Descending to the +bottom, the impression is like being in a deep vault, this +subterranean world disclosing operations lasting through ages, during +which the rocks have slowly yielded to the resistless power of the +water and frost that has gradually cut the chasm. Fossils and +petrifactions found in the deepest strata are trod upon, and each thin +layer of the walls, one imposed upon the other, shows the deposit of a +supervening flood happening successively, yet eternity only knows how +long ago. And ages afterwards the torrent came, and during more +successive ages carved out the gorge, until it has penetrated to the +bottom of the limestone. + +The torrent flows briskly out of the long and narrow vault, while some +distance above is the lowest of the series of cataracts--the Sherman +Fall--where the water plunges over a parapet of rock forty feet high +into a huge basin it has worked out. The amber-colored waters boil +furiously in this cauldron. Above the Sherman Fall the stream flows +through rapids, the chasm broadening and the lofty walls rising higher +as the hill-tops are more elevated, mounting to two hundred feet above +the torrent at a lofty point called the Pinnacle. The floor of the +ravine is level, and becomes quite wide, with massive slabs, weighing +tons, resting upon it, showing the power of freshets which bring them +down from above, and will ultimately carry them completely through the +gorge to its outlet, so resistless is the sweep of the raging flood at +such times, when every bound these huge stones make over the rocky +floor causes the neighboring hills to vibrate, the stifled thunder of +their progress being heard above the roar of waters. At the head of +this widened gorge is the High Falls, in a grand amphitheatre, the +cataract broken into parts and combining all the varieties of cascade +and waterfall, being one hundred feet high, and the walls of the chasm +rising eighty feet higher to the surface of the land above, which +keeps on rising as the ends of the limestone strata are surmounted. +The top of this High Fall is another perpendicular wall stretching +diagonally across the chasm, and below it the protruding layers of +rock form a sort of huge stairway. Down this the waters fall in +varying fashion, finally condensing as a mass of whirling, shifting +foam into a dark pool beneath. This splendid cataract is fringed about +with evergreens and shrubbery, for between the dark thin slabs of +limestone are inserted thinner strata of crumbling shale, and these +give root-hold to the cedars and other nodding branches clinging to +the walls of the ravine. The waterfall begins at the top with the +color of melted topaz, and is unlike anything elsewhere seen, for the +hemlocks and spruces of the mountain regions impart the amber hue to +the torrent. Descending, the changing tints become steadily lighter, +until the brown turns to a creamy white, which is finally lost under +the cloud of spray at the foot of the lower stairway slide, while +beyond, the water rushes away black in hue and driving forward almost +as if shot from a cannon. + +Above is another great amphitheatre, floored with rocky layers, upon +which the stream flows in gentler course. In this is the Milldam Fall, +a ledge about fourteen feet high, over which the waters make a uniform +flow all across the ravine. This has above it an expanded platform of +level slabs almost a hundred feet wide, fringed on each side with +cedars, the attractive place being called the Alhambra. At the upper +end a naked rock protrudes about sixty feet high, from which a stream +falls as a perpetual shower-bath. The creek rushes down another +complex stairway in the Alhambra Cascade. The ravine above suddenly +contracts, and the walls beyond change their forms into shapes of +curves and projections. Another cascade of whirling, foaming waters is +passed, and a new amphitheatre entered, where great slabs of rock have +fallen from the walls and lie on the floor, ready to be driven down +the ravine by freshets. The torrent here develops another curious +formation, known as the Rocky Heart. Curved holes are being rounded +out by whirling boulders of granite, which are kept constantly +revolving by the running water, and thus readily act upon the softer +limestones. The chasm goes still farther up to the Prospect Falls, a +cataract twenty feet high, near the beginning of the ravine. + +Canada Creek passes out of the lower end of the gorge, where the +limestone layers are exhausted, and their edges fall off in terraces +sharply to the lower level, and almost down to the surface of the +stream. All about the broadened channel, as it flows away towards the +Mohawk, lie the huge slabs and boulders driven down through the chasm +by repeated freshets, with the amber waters foaming among them. This +wonderful ravine is a geological mine, disclosing the transition +rocks, the first containing fossil organic remains. In the lower part +of the chasm they are compact carbonate of lime, extremely hard and +brittle, and a dark blue, almost black, in color. At the High Fall, +and above to the Rocky Heart, the upper strata are from twelve to +eighteen inches thick, and composed of the crystallized fragments of +the vertebræ of crinoidea and the shells of terebratulæ. These fossils +of the Silurian period are numerous. The strata throughout the chasm +are remarkably horizontal, varying, as they ascend, from one inch to +eighteen inches in thickness. They are very distinct, and separated by +a fine shaly substance which disintegrates upon exposure to the air or +moisture. From the top to the bottom of the ravine small cracks +extend down perpendicularly, and run in a straight line through the +whole mass across the stream. These divide the pavements into +rhomboidal slabs. The most interesting fossils are found, among them +the large trilobite, a crustacean that could both swim and crawl upon +the bottom of the sea. This extraordinary place is in reality a +Titanic fissure, cracked through the crust of mother earth, down which +roars and dashes a tremendous torrent. + + +THE LAKES OF NEW YORK. + +The northwestern boundary of the State of New York is formed by Lake +Ontario, of which the St. Lawrence River is the outlet, flowing +northeastward into Canada. Ontario is the smallest and the lowest in +level of the group of Great Lakes, its name given by the Indians +meaning the "beautiful water." It is about one hundred and eighty +miles long, and its surface is two hundred and thirty-one feet above +tide, but it is fully five hundred feet deep, so that it has more +depth below the ocean level than the lake surface is above. It has a +marked feature along its southern shore, where a narrow elevation +known as the "Lake Ridge" extends nearly parallel with the edge of the +lake, and from four to eight miles distant. The height of this ridge +usually exceeds one hundred and sixty feet above the lake level, and +in some places is nearly two hundred feet, and it is, throughout, from +five to twenty feet above the immediate surface of the land, there +being a width at the summit of some thirty feet, from which the ground +slopes away on both sides. This ridge is regarded as an ancient +shore-line formed by the waters of the lake, and the chief public +highway on the southern side of the lake is laid for many miles along +its summit. The main tributaries of Ontario from New York are the +Black, Oswego and Genesee Rivers. The Black River gathers various +streams draining the western slopes of the Adirondacks, and its name +comes from the dark amber hue of the waters. It flows northwest +through a forest-covered region, pours down Lyons Falls, a fine +cataract of seventy feet, passes the manufacturing towns of Lowville +and Watertown, and finally discharges by the broadened estuary of +Black River Bay into the east end of Lake Ontario. From Rome, on the +Mohawk, a canal is constructed northward to the Black River. + +Westward from Rome the land is an almost level plain, rising into the +Onondaga highlands to the southward. Cazenovia Lake, among these +hills, sends its outlet northward over the plain to Oneida Lake. There +are various little lakelets between, but the ground is impregnated +with sulphur, so that their waters are bitter, and one is consequently +named Lake Sodom. Oneida is a large lake, twenty-three miles long and +several miles broad, with low and marshy shores. In the fertile dairy +region to the southeastward is located the "Inspiration Community" of +Oneida, founded in 1847 by John Humphrey Noyes, a Vermont preacher. In +1834, when twenty-three years old, he experienced what he called a +"second conversion," and announced himself a "perfectionist." He +preached his new faith and finally established the Oneida Community +for its demonstration, with about three hundred members. They maintain +the perfect equality of women with men in all social and business +relations, and have become quite wealthy as manufacturers, farmers and +dairymen. The outlet of Oneida Lake, and in fact the outlet streams of +all the lakes of Central New York, discharge into Oswego River, which +flows northward into Lake Ontario. Oswego means "the small water +flowing into that which is large," and the port at its mouth, noted +for its flour and starch-mills, has about twenty-five thousand people, +and is the largest city on the New York shore of Lake Ontario. This +was an early French settlement in the seventeenth century, when the +river was known by them as the "river of the Onondagas." + +The great plain south of Lake Ontario, which is believed to have been +itself formerly a lake bed, rises into highlands farther southward, +and the noted group of lakes of Central New York are scattered in the +valleys which are deeply fissured into these highlands. Most of these +lakes are long and narrow, and they nestle in almost parallel valleys, +their waters occupying the bottoms of deep ravines. These lakes +present much fine scenery, and their shores are among the most +attractive parts of New York. They display vineyards and fruit +orchards and extensive pastures, and their present names are the +original titles given them by the Iroquois, many of whom still live on +reservations near them. Southwest of Oneida is Onondaga Lake, and +farther west Skaneateles and Owasco. Then beyond is the larger Cayuga +Lake, and to the westward Seneca, the largest of the group, sixty +miles long, elevated two hundred feet above Lake Ontario, and of great +depth, estimated to exceed six hundred feet. This lake was never known +to be frozen over but once, and that was late in March many years ago; +steamboats traverse it every day in the year. Cayuga Lake is of +similar character, but of slightly less size and elevation, and in +some places is so deep as to be almost unfathomable. These parallel +lakes are separated by an elevated ridge only a few miles wide, and +their great depth, descending much below the level of Ontario, into +which they discharge, gives evidence to the geologists that their +waters originally drained to the southward. Westward of Seneca is +Keuka or the Crooked Lake, the Indian name meaning "the lake of the +Bended Elbow." It is a pretty sheet of water, having an angle in its +centre, from which starts out another long and narrow branch, so that +its spreading arms make it look much like the aboriginal +signification. It is elevated two hundred and seventy-seven feet +above the level of Seneca Lake, which is only seven miles away. +Beyond Keuka is Canandaigua Lake, the westernmost of the group. + + +THE SYRACUSE SALT-MAKERS. + +Onondaga Lake is comparatively small, being six miles long and about a +mile broad, and it is noted for its salt wells, which have made the +prosperity of the city of Syracuse, the largest in Central New York, +built along Onondaga Creek south of the lake, and upon the slopes of +the higher hills to the eastward. An Indian trader started the town in +the eighteenth century, and soon afterwards Asa Danforth began making +salt at Salt Point on the lake, calling his village Salina. When the +Erie Canal came along the place grew rapidly, and it is now a great +canal and railroad centre, with lines radiating in various directions, +and from it the Oswego Canal goes northward to Lake Ontario. The city +has a population approximating a hundred thousand. The salt springs +come out of the rocks of the Upper Silurian period, and are located +chiefly in the marshes bordering Onondaga Lake. The brine wells are +bored in the lowlands surrounding the lake to a depth of two hundred +to over three hundred feet. The State of New York controls the wells +and pumps the brine to supply the evaporating works, which are private +establishments, a royalty of one cent per bushel being charged. The +main impurity that has to be driven out of the brine is sulphate of +lime, and the finer product has a high reputation, the "Onondaga +Factory-Filled Salt" being greatly esteemed. The salt wells were known +to the Indians, and the French Jesuit missionaries found them as early +as 1650, taking salt back to Canada. In 1789 they yielded five hundred +bushels, and they have since produced as high as nine millions of +bushels a year, the annual product now being about three millions. The +brine is first pumped into small shallow vats, where it remains until +the carbonic acid gas escapes and the iron is deposited as an oxide. +It is then led to the evaporating vats, all processes being used, +solar as well as boiling. The land bordering the marshy shores of +Onondaga Lake is framed around by rows of factories and heating +furnaces, while out on the marshes are clusters of little brown +houses, each covering a well and pump. From there the brine is led +through conduits made of bored logs, called the "salt logs," to the +evaporating vats and factories, some going long distances. Everything +throughout the whole district is profusely saturated with salt. + +Syracuse is one of the handsomest cities of the Empire State. The New +York Central Railroad passes through the centre of the business +section, the locomotives and ordinary traffic sharing the main street +in common, in front of the chief hotels and stores, for thus has the +town grown up. Just northward, the Erie Canal also goes through the +heart of the city, giving on moonlight nights scenes that are almost +Venetian. The streets are broad, and ornamental squares are frequent, +the chief residential highways--James, Genesee and University +Streets--being bordered with imposing dwellings surrounded by +extensive grounds. Magnificent trees line the streets and broad lawns +stretch back to the dwellings, everything being open to public view, +so that in these parts the town is practically a vast park. To the +eastward rises University Hill, crowned by the buildings of Syracuse +University, a Methodist foundation having eleven hundred students. +Holden Observatory adjoins the grand graystone main college building, +and from this high hill there is a magnificent view over the city and +the oval-shaped lake and its salt marsh border off to the northwest. +The southern view is enclosed by the Onondaga highlands, out of which +Onondaga Creek comes through a deep and winding valley. Back among +these dark blue distant hills still live in pastoral simplicity the +remnants of the "Men of the Mountain,"--the Onondagas,--the ruling +power of the famous Iroquois Confederation. + + +AUBURN, ITHACA AND CORNELL. + +Westward from Syracuse the country is full of lakes. Otisco Lake,--the +"Bitter-nut Hickory,"--is an oval four miles long, embosomed in hills. +To the northwest of Otisco is Skaneateles Lake--the "Long Water"--the +most picturesque of all, set among most imposing hills, which, +notwithstanding the lake is elevated eight hundred and sixty feet, +still rise twelve hundred feet above its surface, giving the waters +the deeply blue tinge of an Italian scene. This lovely lake is sixteen +miles long, and in no place more than a mile and a half wide, its +outlet having a fine cataract. To the westward is Owasco Lake--"the +bridge on the water floating"--eleven miles long and a mile wide, +walled in by rocky bluffs, yet having its shores diversified by +meadows and farm land. About two miles northward, on its outlet, is +the busy manufacturing city of Auburn, with thirty thousand people, +which was the home of William H. Seward, Governor and Senator from New +York, who was President Lincoln's Secretary of State during the Civil +War. Its most extensive establishment is the Auburn Prison, covering +about eighteen acres, enclosed by walls four feet thick and twelve to +thirty-five feet high, there being imprisoned usually about twelve +hundred convicts. The surface of the city is varied by hills, making +handsome villa sites, and the Owasco Lake outlet flows down a series +of rapids, falling one hundred and sixty feet, and utilized by no less +than nine dams to turn the wheels of many mills. Captain Hardenburgh +was the first settler here in 1793, the original name being +"Hardenburgh's Corners." On Fort Hill, one of the highest elevations, +the top of which is supposed to be an eminence originally raised by +the ancient Mound-Builders, and was an Iroquois fortification, is the +Cemetery where are interred the remains of William H. Seward, who died +in 1872. + +After crossing a rich grazing country, farther to the westward is +Cayuga Lake--the name meaning "Where they take canoes out"--stretching +from the level plain of Central New York southward into the highlands, +making the watershed between the affluents of the St. Lawrence and the +Susquehanna. Progressing southward along the long and narrow lake, the +hills are found to grow steadily higher, and they reach an elevation +of several hundred feet above its surface. The bordering rocky +buttresses rise up as columns and walls, with accurately-squared +corners, their perpendicular stratification making the flagstone +layers that have been loosened by the frost stand on edge and +separately, seeming almost ready to topple over, while heaps of broken +fragments are strewn at their bases, which, being pulverized by the +action of frost and water into small particles, produce a smooth and +narrow beach. At the head of the lake the deep valley is prolonged +farther southward between even higher enclosing ridges, the Cayuga +Inlet winding through it. Here, about a mile from the lake, is a +flourishing town of twelve thousand people, reproducing the name of +the Ionian Island that was the fabled kingdom of Ulysses--Ithaca. It +is the centre of a grazing region, producing cheese, butter and wool, +and its water-power has given some manufacturing activity, but it is +chiefly known to fame from the surrounding galaxy of waterfalls and +the possession of Cornell University. + +Cayuga Lake, at its head, has a rugged verge, and in the glens and +gorges descending four to five hundred feet from the hills to the lake +and its prolonged southern valley, are some of nature's most beautiful +sanctuaries. Fall Creek has eight cataracts within a mile, all of them +charming. It comes tumbling down the Triphammer Fall into a basin, +then over one cascade after another until it plunges down a foaming +precipice and finally goes over the Ithaca Fall, one hundred and sixty +feet high and about as wide. Alongside the lake, near the outlet of +this brook, are remarkable formations,--Tower Rock, a perfect columnar +structure forty feet high, and Castle Rock, a massive wall with a +grand arched doorway opened through it--both strange freaks of nature. +The ravine of Cascadilla Creek to the southward is also filled with +cascades, and on an elevated plateau between the two gorges is Cornell +University. The most noted waterfall of Cayuga is the Taghanic--the +original Indian word meaning "Water enough." A stream flows in from +the western hills a short distance north of Ithaca, and the fall is +two hundred and fifteen feet high and some distance back in the ridge. +Its interesting features are the great height, the very deep ravine +and its sharply-defined outlines, and the splendid views; and its +admirers regard it as a worthy rival of the much-praised Swiss +Staubbach. The water breaks over a cleanly-cut table-rock, falls +perpendicularly, and excepting in freshets, it changes into clouds of +spray before reaching the bottom. The rocky enclosing walls rise four +hundred feet high around it, being regularly squared as if laid by +human hands, and this is the highest American waterfall east of the +Rockies. + +High above Ithaca, standing upon the brow of the ridge making its +eastern border, are the imposing buildings of Cornell University, +devoted to the free education of both sexes in all branches of +knowledge, the spreading college campus elevated four hundred feet +above the lake. Here are educated eighteen hundred students, who have +about one hundred and eighty instructors. The College of Forestry, +established in 1898, is the only one in the country. The University +has munificent endowments, becoming constantly more valuable, as lands +of steadily increasing worth are among the holdings, the aggregate +being estimated at $8,000,000. At the edge of Ithaca is the mansion +which was the home of Ezra Cornell the founder, who amassed a fortune +mainly in telegraphy, he then being at the head of the Western Union +Company. To his generosity was added the proceeds of the ample school +lands of New York State, the gift of the Federal Government, which he +selected with scrupulous care, and these gave the University its +start. He died in 1874. Others gave supplementary gifts. John McGraw +of Ithaca gave McGraw College, the central building on the campus, two +hundred feet long, with a tower rising one hundred and twenty feet, +containing the great University bell with full chimes, and having a +view forty miles northward along the lake and almost half as far +southward through the deep valley. This structure is flanked by the +North and South University buildings, each one hundred and sixty-five +feet long, all three substantially constructed of dark blue stone with +light gray limestone trimmings. There are also the Sibley Building, +and the magnificent Cascadilla Hall, nearly two hundred feet long, +which is a residence for instructors and students. The Sage College +for females and other handsome buildings adorn the campus, including +an armory, for everything is taught, and a battery of mounted cannon +guards the approach to the grounds. + + +HAVANA AND WATKINS GLENS. + +Seneca Lake, the largest of the group, is a short distance west of +Cayuga, and its prolonged southern valley is bordered by ridges rising +even higher, through which the streams have carved remarkable gorges. +Two of the larger torrents coming into the prolonged Seneca Valley +have hewn out of the hillsides, one on either hand, romantic fissures +of wide renown,--the Havana and Watkins Glens. The Havana Glen is +three miles south of the lake and about a mile long, being cut out of +the eastern wall of the valley. The ravine is steep, having quite a +large stream. Its characteristic is that the water and frost have made +great fissures and caverns, but so fashioned them that all the joints +and corners are right-angles. The cascades are successions of ledges, +the water apparently running down a staircase. If the stream runs over +a waterfall, it comes from a level ledge as if running over a wall. If +it rushes through a gorge, all the corners are square, the sides +perpendicular and the bottom level. If a brigade of stonemasons had +built the place it could hardly have been more accurately constructed. +Several of the cascades are magnificent, the "Bridal Veil" and the +"Curtain Falls" going down a maze of rocky ledges, their frothy waters +making resplendent sheets of exquisite lacework. In one place the +stream flows through a perfectly square grotto known as the "Council +Chamber," entering this great hall by a right-angled bend from an +adjoining square-cut grotto of similar character. Each is a perfect +apartment, the water rushing from one to the other through an +entry-like passage, from which it makes a square turn. The glen is +quite steep, and its "Central Gorge" is a narrow fissure, clean-cut +and deep, making a half-dozen right-angled bends, each lower than the +other, the torrent rushing around the sharp corners and over the +straight edges with wild swiftness and clouds of spray. The visitor +mounts ladders and steps through the spray, and the glen can be +followed a long distance upward past many cascades, its +picturesqueness being enhanced by the huge tree-trunks the torrent +occasionally brings down and lodges in the many angular bends. + + [Illustration: _Watkins Glen_] + +Watkins Glen, carved out of the western wall of the valley just at the +head of Seneca Lake, is constructed upon a grander scale, yet entirely +different. The torrent has hewn it among similarly laminated rocks, +but the erosive processes have made vast amphitheatres, their great +size dwarfing the diminutive brook flowing like a thread at the +bottom. The entrance, level with the floor of the valley, presents the +same squared and angular features as Havana Glen, but inside it is a +grand amphitheatre enclosed within perpendicular stone walls three +hundred feet high, and is proportionately spacious. It is quickly +seen, however, that within the grand hall the rocky layers, instead of +being squared and angular, have been smoothed and rounded by the +waters, the small but dashing stream flowing over the floor by +graceful curves through circular pools and winding channels. This glen +is built on a prodigious scale, being over three miles long, and its +head rising eight hundred feet above the valley. A narrow cascade +eighty feet high falls at the far end of the entrance amphitheatre, +and climbing up, the visitor enters "Glen Alpha," the first of the +vast chambers. There are successive glens and caverns as one proceeds +onward and upward through the "Cavern Gorge" and "Glen Obscura," where +a hotel and chalet are perched on the rocky ledges at four hundred +feet elevation. Above is the "Sylvan Gorge," and then the fissure +broadens out into its grandest section, the "Glen Cathedral," a +magnificent nave, with walls rising nearly three hundred feet, the +rocky layers giving it a level stone floor. It has the "Pulpit Rock" +and "Baptismal Font," and climbing out one hundred and seventy feet +upward alongside a cascade, the visitor then goes onward past more +grottoes, falls and gorges for a long distance, until the "Glen Omega" +is reached at the top. Here an airy railway bridge of one of the +Vanderbilt roads spans it at two hundred feet height above the floor. + +The shores of Seneca Lake, as one progresses northward, present +various pretty little glens cut deeply into the bordering hills, and +as these become lower there are vineyards and pastures displayed. +Gradually the bluffs disappear, giving place to extensive farm lands +as the level plain at the outlet is reached. Here, in imitation of a +noble Swiss example, the town of Geneva has been built at the foot of +the lake, its chief street extending along the western bank, with +villas peeping out from the foliage. This is a prominent nursery town, +florists and seedsmen being its chief merchants, and a large part of +the adjacent country being devoted to seed-growing and propagation. +Hobart College, a leading Episcopal foundation, is at Geneva. The +outlet of the lake is the Seneca River, having an attractive +waterfall, and after gathering the outflow of this group of Central +New York lakes, it goes away northeastward to Oswego River. + + +CANISTEO AND CHEMUNG RIVERS. + +There are yet two other lakes westward of Seneca, Keuka and +Canandaigua. This region was generally first peopled by the Puritans, +but others also came in, and at the outlet of Keuka is the town of +Penn Yan, so called from the Pennsylvanians and Yankees who settled +it, their descendants being the shrewd and thrifty race known as the +"New York Yankees." There are extensive vineyards on Keuka where are +made some of the best American clarets and champagnes, the centre of +that industry being Hammondsport, at the head of the lake. Beyond is +Canandaigua Lake, the town of Canandaigua standing at its northern end +upon a surface gently sloping towards its shores. The word means the +"place chosen for a village." The heads of all these lakes are in the +southern highlands, making the watershed, south of which the streams +are gathered into the Canisteo River, meaning "the board on the +water," which flows into the Chemung, the "big horn," and thence by +the Susquehanna down through Pennsylvania to the Chesapeake. The Erie +Railway, coming eastward by a wild and lonely route across the +Allegheny ranges, goes down the pretty Canisteo Valley to +Hornellsville, a purely railroad town of twelve thousand people, which +has grown up around the shops and stations. Below, the valley +broadens, and is picturesque between its high bordering ridges, the +stream meandering in wayward fashion over the almost flat intervale. +It passes Addison and the town with the unique name of Painted Post, +so called from an Indian monument inscribed in colors, and as the +Canisteo River broadens with the contribution of its swelling +tributaries, it reaches the active manufacturing city of Corning, +having ten thousand people, and here falls into the Chemung, which +comes up northward out of the Allegheny ranges in Pennsylvania to meet +it. The Chemung Valley is a broad and fertile section of flat and +highly cultivated bottom lands, having in its heart the city of +Elmira, with thirty-five thousand inhabitants and many industrial +establishments, making it a busy railroad centre. Here is the Elmira +Reformatory, the Elmira Female College, and the various "Water Cures," +a species of remedial establishment flourishing throughout Western New +York, where there is apparently no limit to the efficacy or +bountifulness of the water-supply. The broad Chemung flows through +Elmira and beyond down its rich and wide-spreading valley, until at +Athens it loses itself in the swelling waters of the Susquehanna. + + +THE VALLEY OF THE GENESEE. + +Among the rugged mountains of Potter County, in the northern part of +Pennsylvania, the highest land in the State, are the springs feeding +the headwaters of three noted rivers, seeking the ocean in opposite +directions. The Allegheny flows westward and afterwards southward to +the Ohio; the west branch of the Susquehanna goes eastward to break +through the entire Allegheny chain in seeking the Atlantic; and the +smaller stream, the Genesee, flows northward through New York between +two long Allegheny ridges, the chief affluent of Lake Ontario. The +Genesee passes through a valley of great beauty and gives water-power +to many mills, a canal also being constructed to improve its +navigation. After a romantic course of one hundred and fifty miles it +empties into the lake at Charlotte, seven miles north of Rochester. +For much of the distance its course is through a magnificent gorge, +with a succession of cataracts that are renowned in American scenery. +Where it first attacks the highlands of New York to break out of them, +it plunges deeper and deeper down a series of grand cataracts at +Portage. Here the Erie Railway, coming from the westward, has boldly +thrown a stupendous bridge across the tremendous chasm and almost over +the top of the highest cataract. The river makes a gorge in the +yielding rocks, sinking from two hundred and fifty to six hundred +feet deep, and here are the Portage Falls, one cataract after another +making the stream-bed lower, the walls of the wild ravine rising +almost perpendicularly. The railway, crossing at the most favorable +place, has built one of the highest bridges in the country, elevated +two hundred and thirty-five feet above the river, resting upon +lightly-framed steel trusses. From the car windows the river can be +seen far below in what seems a narrow fissure, the current boiling +along and then tumbling down the cataract, the edge of which crosses +the river diagonally almost beneath the bridge. The waters pour into a +chasm seeming almost bottomless as the spray obscures it. The ravine +extends northward, and in the distance the waters go over a second +fall and then a third, the chasm finally curving around to the right, +making a bend, closing the view more than a mile away, with an +enormous wall of bare rock. The three cataracts fall respectively +seventy, one hundred and ten and one hundred and fifty feet--called +the Upper, Middle and Lower Portage Falls--and for several miles +below, the river flows through the deeper ravine amid equally +magnificent surroundings. + +This descent brings the Genesee River down from the higher plateau to +what is known as the "Genesee Level," for at the end of the defile, +fifteen miles below Portage, it flows out of the highlands over +pleasant lands and with gentler current. Here on the "Genesee Flats" +is the village of Mount Morris, and near it has been placed, alongside +the ravine, the rude log cabin, which was originally on the higher +land above Portage, the Indian "Council House of Cascadea," where the +Iroquois chiefs often met. At the removal in 1872, the services were +conducted in the Senecas language, several Indians attending, and the +identical "pipe of peace" given by Washington to Red Jacket was passed +around. Nearby the river emerges through a Titanic gateway in the +rocks to the pastoral region stretching far to the northward, while +far over on the eastern verge is the village of Geneseo, sloping up +the ascent. Its Indian name, meaning the "beautiful valley," is also +given the river. After meandering placidly for miles across these +flats, the Genesee River reaches the "Flour City of the West," +Rochester, the storage and distributing mart for this fertile valley, +getting its original start and title from the prolific wheat crops. +And here the Genesee plunges down another waterfall which gives power +to the Rochester mills. + +When De Witt Clinton, in 1810, exploring the route for the Erie Canal, +crossed the river here, there was not a house. The place was +afterwards the "Hundred Acre Tract," planned in 1812 for a settlement +by three adventurous frontiersmen, and the town was named for one of +them, Nathaniel Rochester. After a few years, the spreading fame of +the fertility of the Genesee Valley attracted a large population, and +it became known as the garden spot of the then "West," so that out of +this grew the flour-mills which have continued to be Rochester's chief +industry. The Genesee River flows through with swift current, the Erie +Canal being carried over on a massive stone aqueduct and the New York +Central Railroad upon a wide bridge, and about a hundred yards beyond, +the river plunges down the great Rochester Fall. The ledge over which +it tumbles is a perpendicular wall, straight and regular in formation, +and almost without fragments of rock at the foot, so that the fall is +a clear one. The shores below are lined with huge stone mills and +breweries, to which races on each bank conduct the water from a dam +above the railroad bridge. This Rochester Fall, down which Sam Patch +jumped to his death, is ninety-six feet high. Below it, the river +flows through a somewhat wider channel, gradually bending to the left, +and then it goes down a second cataract of twenty-five feet height, +and finally, at some distance, over a third and broken fall of +eighty-four feet. As at Portage, this second succession of triple +cataracts sinks the river bed deeper and deeper into the gorge, so +that the enclosing walls are in some places over three hundred feet +high. This gorge is all within the limits of the city, the falls and +rapids having a total descent of two hundred and sixty feet. This +immense water-power, with the traffic facilities of canal and railway, +have made the city, so that there is a population of a hundred and +forty thousand around the Genesee Falls, and manufactures of flour, +beer, clothing, leather and other articles, valued at $75,000,000 +annually. In the neighboring region there is also extensive +seed-growing, the Rochester nurseries occupying miles of the level +surface. Rochester University has two hundred students and valuable +geological collections. The city has been a headquarters for the +Spiritualists and advocates of Women's Rights. The Genesee emerges +from the rocky gorge below Rochester, and flows in more tranquil +course northward through a ravine carved deeply into the table-land, +to Lake Ontario, at the little port of Charlotte. + + +LOCKPORT, CHAUTAUQUA AND ERIE. + +Westward from Rochester the country is underlaid by red sandstones, +and at Medina quarries are plentiful, this reproduction of the Arabian +"City of the Prophet" being an extensive supplier of these dark-red +Medina sandstones, as the geologists call them. Beyond, at Lockport, +the higher terrace is reached, and here the Erie Canal is raised by an +imposing series of five double locks from the Genesee level up to the +Lake Erie level. Through these locks and by means of a subsidiary +canal an immense water-power is obtained which is utilized by the +Lockport mills. The much lower Genesee level is marked by the base of +a bluff, stretching through the town and across the adjacent region, +evidently the bank of an ancient lake. + +In western New York a high ridge crosses the country south of Lake +Erie, and to the southward of its most elevated portion there +stretches the elongated Chautauqua Lake, almost bisected by two +jutting points at its centre. This charming lake is eighteen miles +long, three or four miles wide, and elevated seven hundred and thirty +feet above Lake Erie, its outlet draining southward into a tributary +of the Allegheny River. Its elevation above tide is nearly thirteen +hundred feet. The low hills enclosing it are popular summer resorts, +and on the western bank in the season are drawn enormous crowds to the +Chautauqua Assembly, which has established the "Summer School of +Philosophy" for education. There are often twenty to thirty thousand +people here at one time, and the plan has been so successful that it +has various imitators elsewhere, the "Chautauqua idea" being varying +instruction with recreation. The Indians named this lake, from the +mists arising, Chautauqua, or "the foggy place." Beyond this popular +resort the land falls away, and crossing the New York western boundary +into the "Pennsylvania Triangle," a jutting corner thrust up to Lake +Erie, a fine harbor is found at Erie, known in earlier history by its +French name of Presque Isle. This triangle of the Keystone State, +giving about forty miles of coast-line on the lake, has a history. +The early surveyors discovered that, owing to misdescriptions in +various English grants, this large triangular tract was, from a legal +standpoint, "nowhere." It was north of Pennsylvania, west of New York +and east of the Connecticut Western Reserve, which became part of +Ohio. Pennsylvania finally bought it, paying the United States +Government, in 1792, $150,640 for it, and also getting the Indian +title for £1200. It was a good purchase, for Erie harbor is the best +on the lake. Erie has about fifty thousand people, and is in a +picturesque situation, owing to the beauty of the bay and the outlying +island, which was formerly a peninsula. There is additional protection +by a breakwater, making an extensive basin with spacious docks that +have a large trade. The French were the early settlers, building their +"Fort de la Presque Isle" in 1749, which was one of the chain of +outposts they projected between the St. Lawrence and the Ohio. It was +here that Commodore Perry hastily built the rude fleet with which he +gained the noted victory over the Anglo-Canadian fleet on Lake Erie in +1813, and back here he afterwards in triumph towed his prizes. The +remains of his flagship lie in the harbor. Perry's guns were the +heaviest in that memorable contest for control of the lake, and +therefore he won. In Lake Side Cemetery is buried Captain Charles +Vernon Gridley, who commanded Admiral Dewey's flagship, the "Olympia," +at the battle of Manila Bay in 1898. + + +THE CITY OF BUFFALO. + +Dunkirk, in New York, northeast of Erie, is another harbor on the +lake, and a terminal of the Erie Railway, the land hereabout being the +monotonous level plain of western New York. Rounding the eastern end +of Lake Erie, at the head of its outlet stream, the Niagara River, is +Buffalo, the chief port of the lake and the metropolis of western New +York. It is surrounded for miles upon the level land with railway +terminals and car-yards, amid which factories, breweries, +coal-pockets, cattle-pens and grain elevators are distributed. This +great city, which has grown to four hundred thousand population, takes +it name from the American bison, who roamed in large herds over the +lands adjacent to Lake Erie as late as 1720, and thus gave the name to +Buffalo Creek. The city covers a broad surface at the foot of Lake +Erie, and is coeval with the nineteenth century, having been founded +in 1801; but in the earlier years it was only a military post, and did +not assume a commercial standing or begin to grow much until after the +opening of the Erie Canal. The neighboring post of Niagara, a short +distance down that river, was of more importance in the early days of +the frontier, for it was on Niagara River, in 1669, that the Sieur de +La Salle, who described the frozen stream as "like a plain paved with +polished marble," built and in the following summer launched the +"Griffin," the first rude vessel that explored the Upper Lakes. +Afterwards one or two trading cabins appeared on Buffalo Creek, and +then there was constructed a stockade fort. For thirty years the +hunters and traders fought the savages and captured wild beasts, and +then, after an interval of peace, the War of 1812 came with new +ravages, during which the little settlement around the stockade at +Buffalo was burnt by the British, who held the fort at the entrance to +Niagara River. When the Erie Canal was opened, the expansion of the +settlement became rapid, and its eligible position at the point where +the lake commerce had to connect with the canal and the railways +leading to the Atlantic seaboard has since given full scope to +business enterprise and made it a large and wealthy city. + +The Buffalo suburbs are gridironed by railroads, and their terminals +spread along the water-front and the sinuosities of Buffalo Creek. The +grain elevators, as in all the lake cities, are a prominent feature, +and they stand like huge monsters, forty of them, with high heads and +long trunks along the creek and canal basins as if waiting for their +prey. The fleets of vessels come over the lakes laden with grain from +the West; tugs take them to one of these monsters, and down out of the +long neck is plunged a trunk deep into the vessel's hold, which sucks +up all the grain. It is stored and weighed and sent on its journey +eastward. If this is by canal, the barge waits on the other side, and +the grain runs down into it through another trunk; if by railway, the +cars are run under or alongside the elevator and quickly filled. Then +the lake vessels are laden with coal for the return voyage. While an +American gives these elevators scant attention, being used to them, +not so the foreigner, who regards them with the greatest curiosity. +Thus wrote Anthony Trollope about them: "An elevator is as ugly a +monster as has yet been produced. In uncouthness of form it outdoes +those obsolete old brutes who used to roam about the semi-aqueous +world and live a most uncomfortable life, with their great hungering +stomachs and huge unsatisfied maws. Rivers of corn and wheat run +through these monsters night and day. And all this wheat which passes +through Buffalo comes loose in bulk; nothing is known of sacks or +bags. To any spectator in Buffalo this becomes immediately a matter of +course; but this should be explained, as we in England are not +accustomed to see wheat travelling in this open, unguarded and +plebeian manner. Wheat with us is aristocratic, and travels always in +its private carriage." + +The extensive commerce of Buffalo is varied by iron manufacturing, +breweries, distilleries, oil refineries and other industries, but the +elevators, coal chutes and railroad and canal business seem to +overshadow everything else. The city has wide tree-lined streets, and +is most handsome with its many fine buildings. There is an extensive +system of attractive parks connected by boulevards; broad streets +lined with well-built residences, and in the newer parts the level +surface is filled with ornamental homes, some most expensively +constructed and elaborately adorned. The well-kept lawns and gardens +are fully open to view, and Delaware Avenue, thus bordered, is one of +the most attractive streets. On the Main Street, among many impressive +structures, is the huge Ellicott Square Building, said to be the +largest office-building in the world, housing a business community +approximating five thousand persons. There are also two public +Libraries and many handsome churches. + +The locality of greatest interest in Buffalo is probably the little +Prospect Park out at the edge of Lake Erie, where its waters flow into +Niagara River. The basins and harbor making the beginning of the Erie +Canal, which we have traced all across New York State, are down at the +edge of the lake, and a steep bluff, rising about sixty feet, makes +the verge of the Park, and continues around along the bank of the +river. Here it is crowned by an esplanade surrounding the remains of +old Fort Porter, a dilapidated relic of bygone days of frontier +conflicts. A couple of superannuated cannon point their muzzles across +the water towards Canada, but otherwise the locality is peaceful. A +small military force is kept here, probably to watch the British Fort +Erie over on the opposite river bank, a few hundred yards off, but +the worst conflicts now are bouts at playing ball. The protecting +harbor breakwater is out in front, and seen down the Niagara River are +the light trusses of the International Railway Bridge, spanning its +swift current, and the Erie Canal alongside the bank. Into the narrow +river sweeps the drainage of the Great Lakes, an enormous mass of +water, and in the centre the city has placed a large crib, tapping the +clear current for its water-supply. The powerful torrent flows +steadily northward out of Lake Erie, with a speed of six or seven +miles an hour, to make the Niagara cataract, twenty miles away, and +show its tremendous force in the Niagara gorge. In the words of +Goethe: + + "Water its living strength first shows, + When obstacles its course oppose." + + +NIAGARA. + +The Indians who first looked upon the world's greatest cataract gave +the best idea of it in their appropriate name, "The Thunder of +Waters." There is no setting provided for it in the charms of natural +scenery; it has no outside attractions. All its beauty and sublimity +are within the rocky walls of its stupendous chasm. The approaches +from every direction are dull and tedious, the surrounding country +being flat. The forests are sparse and there are few fine trees, these +being confined to the verge of the abyss, and being generally of +recent planting. The Niagara River flows northward from Lake Erie +through a plain. The Lake Erie level is five hundred and sixty-four +feet above the sea, and in its tortuous course of about thirty-six +miles to Lake Ontario, the Niagara River descends three hundred and +thirty-three feet, leaving the level of Ontario still two hundred and +thirty-one feet above the sea. More than half of all the fresh water +on the entire globe--the whole enormous volume from the vast lake +region of North America, draining a territory equalling the entire +continent of Europe, pours through this contracted channel out of Lake +Erie. There is a swift current for a couple of miles, but afterwards +the speed is gentler as the channel broadens, and Grand Island divides +it. Then it reunites into a wider stream, flowing sluggishly westward, +small islands dotting the surface. About fifteen miles from Lake Erie +the river narrows and the rapids begin. They flow with great speed for +a mile above the falls, in this distance descending fifty-two feet, +Goat Island dividing their channel at the brink of the cataract, where +the river makes a bend from the west back to the north. This island +separates the waters, although nine-tenths go over the Canadian fall, +which the abrupt bend curves into horseshoe form. This fall is about +one hundred and fifty-eight feet high, the height of the smaller fall +on the American side being one hundred and sixty-four feet. The two +cataracts spread out to forty-seven hundred and fifty feet breadth, +the steep wooded bank of Goat Island, separating them, occupying about +one-fourth the distance. The American fall is about eleven hundred +feet wide and the Canadian fall twice that width, the actual line of +the descending waters on the latter being much larger than the breadth +of the river because of its curving form. Recent changes, caused by +falling rock in the apex of this fall, have, however, made it a more +symmetrical horseshoe than had been the case for years. The Niagara +River, just below the cataract, contracts to about one thousand feet, +widening to twelve hundred and fifty feet beneath the new single-arch +steel bridge recently constructed a short distance farther down. For +seven miles the gorge is carved out, the river banks on both sides +rising to the top level of the falls, and the bottom sinking deeper +and deeper as the lower rapids descend towards Lewiston, and in some +places contracting to very narrow limits. Two miles below the cataract +the river is compressed within eight hundred feet, and a mile farther +down, at the outlet of the Whirlpool, where a sharp right-angled turn +is made, the enormous current is contracted within a space of less +than two hundred and fifty feet. In the seven miles distance, these +lower rapids descend about one hundred and four feet, and then with +placid current the Niagara River flows a few miles farther northward +to Lake Ontario. + +The view of Niagara is impressive alike upon sight and hearing, and +this impressiveness grows upon the visitor. From the bridge just below +the American fall, and from the Canadian side, the whole grand scene +is in full display, and quickly convinces that no description can +exaggerate Niagara. The Indians first told of the falls, and they are +indicated on Champlain's map of 1632. In 1648 the Jesuit missionary +Rugueneau wrote of them as a "cataract of frightful height." The first +white man who saw them was Father Louis Hennepin, the Franciscan, in +1678, who described them as "a vast and prodigious cadence of water +which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch +that the universe does not afford its parallel. The waters which fall +from this horrible precipice do foam and boil after the most hideous +manner imaginable, making an outrageous noise more terrible than that +of thunder, for when the wind blows out of the south their dismal +roaring may be heard more than fifteen leagues off." Upon Charles +Dickens the first and enduring effect, instant and lasting, of the +tremendous spectacle, was: "Peace--peace of mind, tranquility, calm +recollections of the dead, great thoughts of eternal rest and +happiness." The falls had a sanative influence upon Professor Tyndall, +for, "quickened by the emotions there aroused," he says, "the blood +sped exultingly through the arteries, abolishing introspection, +clearing the heart of all bitterness, and enabling one to think with +tolerance, if not with tenderness, upon the most relentless and +unreasonable foe." After Anthony Trollope had looked upon the cataract +he wrote: "Of all the sights on this earth of ours, I know no other +one thing so beautiful, so glorious and so powerful. That fall is more +graceful than Giotto's Tower, more noble than the Apollo. The peaks of +the Alps are not so astounding in their solitude. The valleys of the +Blue Mountains in Jamaica are less green. The finished glaze of life +in Paris is less invariable; and the full tide of trade around the +Bank of England is not so inexorably powerful." + + +GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF NIAGARA. + +The estimate is that nine hundred millions of cubic feet of water pour +over Niagara every hour, and great as this mass is, there is a belief +that half the water passing into Lake Erie from the upper lakes does +not go over the falls, but finds its way into Ontario through a +subterranean channel. Nothing demonstrates this theory, but it is +advanced to account for the difference between the amount of water +accumulated in the upper lakes and that going over the falls. The +actual current is sufficiently enormous, however, and steadily wearing +away the rocks over which it descends, it has during the past ages +excavated the gorge of the lower rapids. The land surface, which is +low at Lake Erie, scarcely rising above the level of its waters, +gradually becomes more elevated towards the north, till near Lewiston +it is about forty feet above Erie. The Niagara River thus flows in the +direction of the ascent of this moderately inclined plane. Beyond this +the surface makes a sudden descent towards Lake Ontario of about two +hundred and fifty feet down to a plateau, upon which stands Lewiston +on the American side and Queenston on the Canadian side of the river. +There thus is formed a bold terrace looking out upon Ontario, from +which that lake is seven miles away, and from the foot of the terrace +the surface descends gently one hundred and twenty feet farther to the +lake shore. The gorge through which the river flows is three hundred +and sixty-six feet deep at this terrace. There is no doubt the first +location of the great cataract was on the face of the terrace near +Lewiston, and it has gradually retired by the eating away, year after +year, of the rocky ledges over which the waters pour. This, however, +has not been done in a hurry, for the geologists studying the subject +estimate that it has required nearly thirty-seven thousand years to +bring the falls from Lewiston back to their present location. In fact, +from the stratification, Professor Agassiz expressed the opinion that +at one time there were three distinct cataracts in Niagara River. + +During the brief time observations have been made, great fragments of +rocks have been repeatedly carried down by the current pouring over +Niagara, the frosts assisting disintegration. This caused not only a +recession but decided changes in appearance. Since 1842 the New York +State geologists, who then made a careful and accurate topographical +map, have been closely watching these changes, and the average rate of +recession is estimated at slightly over two feet annually. In Father +Hennepin's sketch of 1678 there was a striking feature, since entirely +disappeared, a third fall on the Canadian side facing the line of the +main cataract, and caused by a large rock turning the diverted fall in +this direction, this rock falling, however, in the eighteenth century. +The rate at which recessions occur is not uniform. No change may be +apparent for several years, and the soft underlying strata being +gradually worn away, great masses of the upper and harder formations +then tumble down, causing in a brief period marked changes. At the +present location of the cataract, sheets of hard limestone cover the +surface of the country, and from the top of the falls to eighty or +ninety feet depth. Shaly layers are under these. All the strata slope +gently downward against the river current at the rate of about +twenty-five feet to the mile. Above the falls, in the rapids, the +limestone strata are piled upon each other, until about fifty feet +more are added to the formation, when they all disappear under the +outcropping edges of the next series above, composed of marls and +shales. Through these piles of strata the cataract has worked its way +back, receding probably most rapidly in cases where, as at present, +the lower portion of the cutting was composed of soft beds of rock, +which being hollowed out and removed by frost and water, let down the +harder strata above. The effect of continual recession must be to +diminish the height of the falls, both by raising the river level at +their base and by the sloping of the surmounting limestone strata to a +lower level. A recession of two miles farther, the geologists say, +will cut away both the hard and the soft layers, and then the cataract +will become almost stationary on the lower sandstone formation, with +its height reduced to about eighty feet. This diminution in the +Niagara attractions might be startling were it not estimated that it +can hardly be accomplished for some twelve thousand years. + + +APPEARANCE OF NIAGARA. + +The best view of the great cataract is from the Canadian shore just +below it, where, from an elevation, the upper rapids can be seen +flowing to the brink of the fall. A bright day is an advantage, when +the green water tints are most marked. The Canadian shore above, +curves around from the westward, and in front are the dark and +precipitous cliffs of Goat Island, surmounted by foliage. The Canadian +rapids come to the brink an almost unbroken sheet of foaming waters, +but the narrower rapids on the American side are closer, and have a +background of little islands, with torrents foaming between. The +current passing over the American fall seems shallow, compared with +the solid masses of bright green water pouring down the Canadian +horseshoe. There, on either hand, is an edge of foaming streams, +looking like clusters of constantly descending frosted columns, with a +broad and deeply recessed, bright-green central cataract, giving the +impressive idea of millions of tons of water pouring into an abyss, +the bottom of which is obscured by seething and fleecy clouds of +spray. On either side, dark-brown, water-worn rocks lie at the base, +while the spray bursts out into mammoth explosions, like puffs of +white smoke suddenly darting from parks of artillery. The water comes +over the brink comparatively slowly, then falls with constantly +accelerated speed, the colors changing as the velocity increases and +air gets into the torrent, until the original bright green becomes a +foaming white, which is quickly lost behind the clouds of spray +beneath. These clouds slowly rise in a thin, transparent veil far +above the cataract. From under the spray the river flows towards us, +its eddying currents streaked with white. A little steamboat moves +among the eddies, and goes almost under the mass of falling water, yet +finds a practically smooth passage. Closer, on the left hand, the +American fall appears a rough and broken cataract, almost all foam, +with green tints showing through, and at intervals along its face +great masses of water spurting forward through the torrent as a rocky +obstruction may be met part way down. The eye fascinatingly follows +the steadily increasing course of the waters as they descend from top +to bottom upon the piles of boulders dimly seen through the spray +clouds. Adjoining the American cataract is the water-worn wall of the +chasm, built of dark red stratified rocks, looking as if cut down +perpendicularly by a knife, and whitened towards the top, where the +protruding limestone formation surmounts the lower shales. Upon the +faces of the cliffs can be traced the manner in which the water in +past ages gradually carved out the gorge, while at their bases the +sloping talus of fallen fragments is at the river's edge. Through the +deep and narrow canyon the greenish waters move away towards the +rapids below. It all eternally falls, and foams and roars, and the +ever-changing views displayed by the world's great wonder make an +impression unlike anything else in nature. + + +GOAT ISLAND. + +Niagara presents other spectacles; the islands scattered among the +upper rapids; their swiftly flowing, foaming current rushing wildly +along; the remarkable lower gorge, where the torrent making the +grandest rapids runs finally into the Whirlpool basin with its +terrific swirls and eddies--these join in making the colossal +exhibition. Added to all is the impressive idea of the resistless +forces of Nature and of the elements. Few places are better fitted for +geological study, and by day or night the picture presents constant +changes of view, exerting the most powerful influence upon the mind. +Goat Island between the two falls is a most interesting place, +covering, with the adjacent islets, about sixty acres, and it was long +a favorite Indian Cemetery. The Indians had a tradition that the falls +demand two human victims every year, and the number of deaths from +accident and suicide fully maintains the average. There have been +attempts to romantically rename this as Iris Island, but the popular +title remains, which was given from the goats kept there by the +original white settlers. It was from a ladder one hundred feet high, +elevated upon the lower bank of Goat Island, near the edge of the +Canadian fall, that Sam Patch, in 1829, jumped down the Falls of +Niagara. He endeavored to gain fame and a precarious living by jumping +down various waterfalls, and not content with this exploit, made the +jump at the Genesee falls at Rochester and was drowned. A bridge +crosses from the American shore to Goat Island, and it is recorded +that two bull-terrier dogs thrown from this bridge have made the +plunge over the American falls and survived it. One of them lived all +winter on the carcass of a cow he found on the rocks below, and the +other, very much astonished and grieved, is said to have trotted up +the stairs from the steamboat wharf about one hour after being thrown +into the water and making the plunge. + +From the upper point of Goat Island a bar stretches up the river, and +can be plainly seen dividing the rapids which pass on either side to +the American and Canadian falls. A foot-bridge from Goat Island, on +the American side, leads to the pretty little Luna Island, standing at +the brink of the cataract and dividing its waters. The narrow channel +between makes a miniature waterfall, under which is the famous "Cave +of the Winds." Here the venturesome visitor goes actually under +Niagara, for the space behind the waterfall is hollowed out of the +rocks, and amid the rushing winds and spray an idea can be got of the +effects produced by the greater cataracts. Here are seen the rainbows +formed by the sunlight on the spray in complete circles; and the cave, +one hundred feet high, and recessed into the wall of the cliff, gives +an excellent exhibition of the undermining processes constantly going +on. Upon the Canadian side of Goat Island, at the edge of the fall, +foot-bridges lead over the water-worn and honeycombed rocks to the +brink of the great Horseshoe. Amid an almost deafening roar, with +rushing waters on either hand, there can be got in this place probably +the best near view of the greater cataract. Here are the Terrapin +Rocks, and over on the Canadian side, at the base of the chasm, are +the fragments of Table Rock and adjacent rocks which have recently +fallen, with enormous masses of water beating upon them. In the midst +of the rapids on the Canadian side of Goat Island are also the pretty +little islands known as the "Three Sisters" and their diminutive +"Little Brother," with cascades pouring over the ledges between +them--a charming sight. The steep descent of the rapids can here be +realized, the torrent plunging down from far above one's head, and +rushing over the falls. This fascinating yet precarious region has +seen terrible disasters and narrow escapes. The overpowering view of +all, from Goat Island, is the vast mass of water pouring down the +Canadian falls. This is fully twenty feet in depth at the brink of the +cataract, and it tumbles from all around the deeply recessed Horseshoe +into an apparently bottomless pool, no one yet having been able to +sound its depth. In 1828 the "Michigan," a condemned ship from Lake +Erie, was sent over this fall, large crowds watching. She drew +eighteen feet water and passed clear of the top. Among other things on +her deck were a black bear and a wooden statue of General Andrew +Jackson. The wise bear deserted the ship in the midst of the rapids +and swam ashore. The ship was smashed to pieces by the fall, but the +first article seen after the plunge was the statue of "Old Hickory," +popping headforemost up through the waters unharmed. This was +considered a favorable omen, for in the autumn he was elected +President of the United States. + + +THE RAPIDS AND THE WHIRLPOOL. + +The surface of Niagara River below the cataract is for some distance +comparatively calm, so that small boats can move about and pass almost +under the mass of descending waters. The deep and narrow gorge +stretches far to the north with two ponderous international railroad +bridges thrown across it in the distance, carrying over the Vanderbilt +and Grand Trunk roads. An electric road is constructed down the bottom +of the gorge on the American bank, and another along its top on the +Canadian side. The water flows with occasional eddies, its color a +brilliant green under the sunlight, the gorge steadily deepening, the +channel narrowing, and when it passes under the two railroad bridges, +which are close together, the river begins its headlong course down +the Lower Rapids leading to the Whirlpool. With the speed of an +express train, the torrent runs under these bridges, tossing, foaming +and rolling in huge waves, buffeting the rocks, and thus it rushes +into the Whirlpool. Viewed from the bottom of the gorge alongside the +torrent, the effect is almost painful, its tempestuous whirl and +headlong speed having a tendency to make the observer giddy. The +rushing stream is elevated in the centre far above the sides, the +waves in these rapids at times rising thirty feet, tossing wildly in +all directions, and coming together with tremendous force. Huge rocks, +fallen in earlier ages, evidently underlie the torrent. It was in +these terrible rapids that several daring spirits, and notably Captain +Webb in 1883, attempted, unprotected, to swim the river, and paid the +penalty with their lives. More recently these rapids have been safely +passed in casks, peculiarly constructed, although the passengers got +rough usage. The Whirlpool at the end of the rapids is a most +extraordinary formation. The torrent runs into an oblong pool, within +an elliptical basin, the outlet being at the side through a narrow +gorge not two hundred and fifty feet wide, above which the rocky walls +tower for three hundred feet. Into this basin the waters rush from the +rapids, their current pushing to its farthest edge, and then, rebuffed +by the bank of the abyss, returning in an eddy on either hand. These +two great eddies steadily circle round and round, and logs coming down +the rapids sometimes swim there for days before they are allowed to +get to the outlet. Upon the left-hand side of this remarkable pool the +eddy whirls around without obstruction, while that upon the right +hand, where the outlet is, rebounds upon the incoming torrent and is +thrown back in huge waves of mixed foam and green, the escaping waters +finally rushing out through the narrow opening, and on down more +brawling rapids to the end of the deep and wonderful gorge, and thence +in placid stream through the level land northward to Lake Ontario. + + +NIAGARA INDUSTRIES AND BATTLES. + +The town of Niagara Falls, which has about seven thousand people, long +had its chief source of prosperity in the influx of sight-seers, but +it has recently developed into an important industrial centre through +the establishment of large works utilizing the power of the falls by +means of electricity. Some distance above the cataract on the American +side a tunnel starts, of which the outlet is just below the American +fall. This tunnel is one hundred and sixty-five feet below the river +surface at the initial point, and passes about two hundred feet +beneath the town, being over a mile long. Part of the waters of the +Upper Rapids are diverted to the head of the tunnel, and by falling +through deep shafts upon turbine wheels the water-power is utilized +for dynamos, and in this way an enormous force is obtained from the +electricity, which is used in various kinds of manufacturing, for +trolley roads and other purposes, some of the power being conducted to +Buffalo. A similar method is to be availed of on the Canadian side. It +is estimated that in various ways the Niagara Falls furnish fully four +hundred thousand horse-power for industrial uses, and the amount +constantly increases. The largest dynamos in the world, and the most +complete electrical adaptations of power are installed at these +Niagara works. + +But the history of Niagara has not been always scenic and industrial. +In 1763 occurred the horrible massacre of the "Devil's Hole," +alongside the gorge of the Lower Rapids, when a band of Senecas +ambushed a French commissary train with an escort, the whole force but +two, who escaped, being killed, while reinforcements, hurried from +Lewiston at the sound of the muskets, were nearly all caught and +tomahawked in a second ambush. Many of the victims were thrown alive +from the cliffs into the boiling Niagara rapids, their horses and +wagons being hurled down after them. There were repeated actions near +Niagara in the War of 1812. In October, 1812, the battle of Queenston +Heights was fought, the Americans storming the terrace and killing +General Brock, the British commander, whose monument is erected there, +but being finally defeated and most of them captured. There were +various contests near by in 1813, and the battle of Chippewa took +place above the falls on July 5, 1814, the British being defeated. On +July 25th the battle of Lundy's Lane was fought just west of the +falls, between sunset and midnight of a summer night, a contest with +varying success and doubtful result, the noise of the conflict +commingling with the roar of the cataract, and the dead of both armies +being buried on the field, so that, in the words of Lossing, "the +mighty diapason of the flood was their requiem." + + "O'er Huron's wave the sun was low, + The weary soldier watched the bow + Fast fading from the cloud below + The dashing of Niagara. + + "And while the phantom chained his sight + Ah! little thought he of the fight,-- + The horrors of the dreamless night, + That posted on so rapidly." + +Thus majestically wrote Mrs. Sigourney of this matchless cataract of +Niagara: + + "Flow on forever in thy glorious robe + Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on, + Unfathomed and resistless. God hath set + His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud + Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give + Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him + Eternally--bidding the lip of man + Keep silence, and upon thine altar pour + Incense of awe-struck praise. Earth fears to lift + The insect trump that tells her trifling joys, + Or fleeting triumphs, 'mid the peal sublime + Of thy tremendous hymn. Proud Ocean shrinks + Back from thy brotherhood, and all his waves + Retire abashed. For he hath need to sleep, + Sometimes, like a spent laborer, calling home + His boisterous billows from their vexing play, + To a long, dreary calm: but thy strong tide + Faints not, nor e'er with failing heart forgets + Its everlasting lesson, night or day. + The morning stars, that hailed Creation's birth, + Heard thy hoarse anthem mixing with their song + Jehovah's name; and the dissolving fires, + That wait the mandate of the day of doom + To wreck the Earth, shall find it deep inscribed + Upon thy rocky scroll." + + + + +DESCENDING THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE. + + + + +XIV. + +DESCENDING THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE. + + The Great River of Canada -- Jacques Cartier -- The Great Lakes + -- The Ancient Course -- The St. Lawrence Canals -- Toronto -- + Lake of the Thousand Islands -- Kingston -- Garden of the Great + Spirit -- Clayton -- Frontenac -- Round Island -- Alexandria + Bay -- Brockville -- Ogdensburg -- Prescott -- Galop, Plat and + Long Sault Rapids -- Cornwall -- St. Regis -- Lake St. Francis + -- Coteau, Split Rock, Cascades and Cedars Rapids -- Lake St. + Louis -- Lachine -- Caughnawaga -- Lachine Rapids -- Montreal + -- St. Mary's Current -- St. Helen's Island -- Montreal + Churches and Religious Houses -- Hochelaga -- First Religious + Colonization -- Dauversière and Olier -- Society of Notre Dame + de Montreal -- Maisonneuve -- Mademoiselle Mance -- Marguerite + Bourgeoys -- Madame de la Peltrie -- The Accommodation -- + Victoria Tubular Bridge -- Seminary of St. Sulpice -- Hotel + Dieu -- The Black Nuns -- The Gray Nunnery -- McGill University + -- Place d'Armes -- Church of Notre Dame -- Cathedral of St. + Peter -- Notre Dame de Lourdes -- Christ Church Cathedral -- + Champ de Mars -- Notre Dame de Bonsecours -- Rapids of St. Anne + -- Lake of the Two Mountains -- Trappists -- Mount Royal -- + Ottawa River -- Long Sault Rapids -- Thermopylæ -- Louis Joseph + Papineau -- Riviere aux Lièvres -- The Habitan -- The Metis -- + Ottawa -- Bytown -- Chaudière Falls -- Rideau Canal -- Dominion + Government Buildings -- Richelieu River -- Lake St. Peter -- + St. Francis River -- Three Rivers -- Shawanagan Fall -- St. + Augustin -- Sillery -- Quebec -- Stadacona -- Samuel de + Champlain -- Montmagny -- Laval de Montmorency -- Jesuit + Missionaries -- Father Davion -- The French Gentilhomme -- Cape + Diamond -- Charles Dilke -- Henry Ward Beecher -- Castle of St. + Louis -- Quebec Citadel -- Wolfe-Montcalm Monument -- General + Montgomery -- Plains of Abraham -- General Wolfe -- The + Basilica -- The Seminary -- English Cathedral -- Bishop + Mountain -- The Ursulines -- Marie Guyart -- Montcalm's Skull + -- Hotel Dieu -- Fathers Brébeuf and Lalemont and their + Martyrdom -- Notre Dame des Victoires -- Dufferin Terrace -- + Point Levis -- Beauport -- French Cottages -- Faith of the + Habitans -- Cardinal Newman -- Falls of Montmorency -- La Bonne + Sainte Anne -- Isle of Orleans -- St. Laurent and St. Pierre -- + The Laurentides -- Cape Tourmente -- Bay of St. Paul -- Mount + Eboulements -- Murray Bay -- Kamouraska -- Riviere du Loup -- + Cacouna -- Tadousac -- Saguenay River -- Grand Discharge and + Little Discharge -- Ha Ha Bay -- Chicoutimi -- Capes Trinity + and Eternity -- Restigouche Region -- Micmac Indians -- + Glooscap -- Lorette -- Roberval -- Lake St. John -- Montaignais + Indians -- Trois Pistoles -- Rimouski -- Gaspé -- Notre Dame + Mountains -- Labrador -- Grand Falls -- The Fishermen. + + +THE GREAT RIVER OF CANADA. + + "The first time I beheld thee, beauteous stream, + How pure, how smooth, how broad thy bosom heav'd! + What feelings rushed upon my heart!--a gleam + As of another life my kindling soul received." + +Thus sang Maria Brooks to the noble river St. Lawrence, which the +earlier geographers always called "the Great River of Canada." The +first adventurous white man who crossed the seas and found it was the +intrepid French navigator, Jacques Cartier, who sailed into its broad +bay on the festival day of the martyred Saint Lawrence, in 1534. When +this bold explorer started from France on his voyage of discovery he +was fired with religious zeal. St. Malo, on the coast of Brittany, was +then the chief French seaport, and before departing, the entire +company of officers and sailors piously attended a solemn High Mass +in the old Cathedral, and in the presence of thousands received the +venerable Archbishop's blessing upon their enterprise. Cartier, like +all the rest of the early discoverers, was sent under the auspices of +the French Government to hunt for the "Northwest Passage," the short +route from Europe to the Indies, or, as described in his instructions, +to seek "the new road to Cathay." The Church naturally bestowed its +most earnest benisons upon an enterprise promising unlimited religious +expansion in the realms France might secure across the Atlantic. +Carrier's chief ship was only of one hundred and twenty tons, but the +little fleet crossed the ocean in safety, and on July 9th entered a +large bay south of the St. Lawrence, encountering such intense heats +that it was named the Bay de Chaleurs, being still thus called. After +an extensive examination of the neighboring coasts and bays, Cartier +returned home, reporting that the Canadian summers were as warm as +those of France, but giving no information of the extreme cold of the +winters. This the sun-loving Gauls did not discover until later. +Cartier came back the next year, and sailed up what he had already +named the "Great River," describing it as the most enormous in the +world. The Indians told his wondering sailors "it goes so far that no +man hath ever been to the end that they had heard." The explorers +carefully examined the vast stream, its shores and branches, and were +sure, as they reported, that its sombre tributary, the Saguenay, +"comes from the Sea of Cathay, for in this place there issues a strong +current, and there runs here a terrible tide." They saw numerous +whales and other sea-monsters, but found the water too deep for +soundings, and in fact the river St. Lawrence cannot be sounded for +one hundred and fifty miles up from its mouth. + + +ITS VAST EXTENT AND FEATURES. + +The St. Lawrence is an enormous river, having much the largest estuary +of any river on the globe, the tidal current flowing five hundred +miles up the stream, and its mouth spreading ninety-six miles wide. It +is the outlet of the greatest body of fresh water in existence, +draining seven vast lakes--Nepigon, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, +Ontario and Champlain--besides myriads of smaller ones, including the +Central New York lakes, hundreds in the Adirondack forests, and +thousands in the vast Canadian wilderness. The St. Lawrence basin +covers a territory of over four hundred thousand square miles, and has +been computed as containing more than half the fresh water on the +planet. The main St. Lawrence river is seven hundred and fifty miles +long from Lake Ontario to the head of the Gulf, while the total length +of the whole system of lakes and rivers is over two thousand miles, +and has been computed by some patient mathematician to contain a mass +of fresh water equal to twelve thousand cubic miles, of which one +cubic mile goes over Niagara Falls every week. The early geographers +usually located the head of the system in Lake Nepigon, north of +Superior, but it is thought the longer line to the ocean is from the +source of St. Louis River, flowing through Minnesota into the +southwestern extremity of Lake Superior at Duluth. The bigness of the +wonderful St. Lawrence is shown in everything about it. Thoreau, who +was such a keen observer, has written that this great river rises near +another "Father of Waters," the Mississippi, and "issues from a +remarkable spring, far up in the woods, fifteen hundred miles in +circumference," called Lake Superior, while "it makes such a noise in +its tumbling down at one place (Niagara) as is heard all round the +world." The geologists, however, who usually upturn most things, +declare that it did not always reach the sea as now. Originally the +St. Lawrence, they say, flowed into the ocean by going out through the +Narrows in New York harbor, and its immense current broke the passage +through the West Point Highlands in a mighty stream, compared with +which the present Hudson River is a pigmy. Professor Newberry writes +that during countless ages this enormous river, which no human eyes +beheld, carried off the surplus waters of a great drainage area with a +rapid current cutting down its gorge many hundred feet in depth, +reaching from the Lake Superior basin to the Narrows, where it +dispersed in a vast delta, debouching upon a sea then much lower in +level than now, and having its shore-line about eighty miles southeast +of New York. By some stupendous convulsion this channel was changed, +drift banked up the old valley of the Mohawk, and the outflow was +deflected from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario into the present +shallow and rocky channel, filled with islands and rapids, followed by +the St. Lawrence down to Montreal. + +The system of navigable water ways from Duluth and Port Arthur on Lake +Superior to the Strait of Belle Isle is twenty-two hundred miles long. +At Lake Ontario the head of the St. Lawrence River is two hundred and +thirty-one feet above the sea level, and its current descends that +distance to tidewater chiefly by going down successive rapids. There +are ship canals around these rapids and around Niagara Falls, and also +connecting various lakes above. The Sault Sainte Marie locks and +canals, at the outlet of Lake Superior, have already been described. +The admirable systems conducting navigation around the rapids in the +river below Lake Ontario also carry a large tonnage. Between +Ogdensburg and Montreal, a distance of about one hundred and twenty +miles, the navigation of forty-three miles is through six canals of +various lengths around the rapids, each having elaborate locks. The +Gulf of St. Lawrence is also constructed upon an enormous scale, +covering eighty thousand square miles, and with the lower river +having a tidal ebb and flow of eighteen to twenty-four feet. The mouth +of the river and head of the Gulf are usually located at Cape Chatte, +far below the Saguenay, and from the Cape almost up to Quebec the +river is ten to thirty miles wide. In front of Quebec it narrows to +less than a mile, while above, the width is from one to two and a half +miles to Montreal, expanding to ten miles at Lake St. Peter, where the +tidal influence ceases. Above Montreal the river occasionally expands +into lakes, but is generally a broad and strongly flowing stream with +frequent rapids. The largest ocean vessels freely ascend to Montreal, +at the head of ship navigation, Lachine rapids being just above the +city. For several months in winter, however, ice prevents. + + +THE CITY OF TORONTO. + +Lake Ontario, out of which the river St. Lawrence flows, is nearly two +hundred miles long, and in some places seventy miles wide. It has +generally low shores and but few islands, and the name given it by +Champlain was Lake St. Louis, after the King of France. The original +Indian name, however, has since been retained, Ontario meaning "how +beautiful is the rock standing in the water." Three well-known +Canadian cities are upon its shores--Hamilton at the western end, +Toronto on the northern coast, and Kingston near the eastern end. +Hamilton is a busy, industrial and commercial city of fifty thousand +people, having a good harbor. The great port, however, is Toronto, +with over two hundred thousand inhabitants, the capital of the +Province of Ontario, and the headquarters of the Scottish and Irish +Protestants, who settled and rule Upper Canada, the richest and most +populous province of the Dominion. Toronto means "the place of +meeting," and the word was first heard in the seventeenth century as +applied to the country of the Hurons, between Lakes Huron and Simcoe, +the name being afterwards given to the Indian portage route, starting +from Lake Ontario, in the present city limits, over to that country. +Here, in 1749, the French established a small trading-post, Fort +Rouille, but there was no settlement to speak of for a century or +more. The United Empire Loyalists, under General Simcoe, founded the +present city in 1793 under the name of York, and it was made the +capital of Upper Canada, of which Simcoe was Governor. The location +was an admirable one. The portage led up a romantic little stream, now +called Humber River, while out in front was an excellent harbor, +protected by a long, low, forest-clad island, making a perfect +land-locked basin, sheltered from the storms of the lake. The nucleus +of a town was thus started on a tract of marshy land, adjoining the +Humber, familiarly known for nearly a half century as "Muddy Little +York," which characteristic a part of the city still retains, as the +pedestrian in falling weather can testify. Yet the site is a pleasing +one--two little rivers, the Humber and the Don, flowing down to the +lake through deep and picturesque ravines, having the city between and +along them, while there is a gradual slope upward to an elevation of +two hundred feet and over at some distance inland, an ancient terrace, +which was the bank of the lake. + +The town did not grow much at first, and during the War of 1812 it was +twice captured by the Americans, but they could not hold it long. As +the back country was settled and lake navigation afterwards developed, +however, the harbor became of importance and the city grew, being +finally incorporated as Toronto. Then it got a great impetus and +became known as the "Queen City," its geographical advantages as a +centre of railway as well as water routes attracting a large +immigration, so that it has grown to be the second city in Canada, and +its people hope it may outstrip Montreal and become the first. It has +achieved a high rank commercially, and in religion and education, so +that there are substantial grounds for the claim, often made, that it +is the "Boston of Canada." It contains a church for about every +thousand inhabitants, Sunday is observed with great strictness, and it +has in the University of Toronto the chief educational foundation in +the Dominion, and in the _Toronto Globe_ the leading organ of Canadian +Liberalism. The city spreads for eight miles along the lake shore; the +streets are laid out at right angles, and there are many fine +buildings. Yonge Street, dividing the city, stretches northward from +the harbor forty miles inland to the shore of Lake Simcoe. There are +attractive residential streets, with many ornate dwellings in tasteful +gardens. St. James' Cathedral, near Yonge Street, is a fine Early +English structure, with a noble clock and a grand spire rising three +hundred and sixteen feet. There is a new City Hall, an enormous +Romanesque building with an impressive tower, and Osgoode Hall, the +seat of the Ontario Superior Courts, in Italian Renaissance, its name +being given from the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada. In Queen's +Park are the massive Grecian buildings of the Provincial Parliament, +finished in 1892 at a cost of $1,500,000. This Park contains a bronze +statue of George Brown, long a leading Canadian statesman, and a +monument erected in memory of the men who fell in repelling the Fenian +invasion of 1866. + +The buildings of the University of Toronto, to the westward of the +Queen's Park, are extensive and form a magnificent architectural +group. The main building is Norman, with a massive central tower, +rebuilt in 1890, after having been burnt. There are fifteen hundred +students, and the University offers complete courses in the arts and +sciences, law and medicine. To the northward is McMaster Hall, a +Baptist theological college, tastefully constructed and liberally +endowed. From the top of the tall University tower there is an +admirable view over the city and far across the lake. The town +spreads broadly out on either hand, running down to the harbor, beyond +which is the narrow streak made by the low-lying island enclosing it. +Far to the southward stretch the sparkling waters of Ontario, reaching +to the horizon, while in the distance can be seen a faint little +silver cloud of spray rising from Niagara. In the northern background +villas dot the green and wooded hillsides, showing how the city +spreads, while in every direction the incomplete buildings and the +gentle distant noises of the builder's hammer and trowel testify to +its robust growth. Many steamers move about the harbor, and among them +are the ferry-boats carrying crowds over to the low-lying island, with +its many amusement places, the city's great recreation ground. At +Hanlon's Point, its western end, was long the home of Hanlon, the +"champion sculler of the world," one of Toronto's celebrities. + + +THE LAKE OF THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. + +Out of Ontario the great river St. Lawrence flows one hundred and +seventy-two miles down to Montreal, being for much of the distance the +boundary between the United States and Canada. Kingston, with +twenty-five thousand people, guarded by picturesque graystone +batteries and martello towers--the "Limestone City"--stands at the +head of the river where it issues from the lake. To the westward is +the entrance of the spacious Bay of Quinté, and on the eastern side +the terminus of the Rideau Canal, leading northeastward to the Rideau +River and Ottawa, the Canadian capital. This was originally the French +Fort Cataraqui, established at the mouth of Cataraqui River in 1672, +the name being subsequently changed by Count Frontenac to Frontenac. +The Indian word Cataraqui means "Clay bank rising from the water," and +after the fort was built the meaning changed to "fort rising from the +water." Here the Sieur de La Salle, in 1678, built the first vessel +navigating the lake. The British captured the fort in 1762, naming it +Kingston, after the American Revolution, and by fortifying the +promontories commanding the harbor, made it the strongest military +post in Canada after Quebec and Halifax, the chief work being Fort +Henry. Its garrisons have been long withdrawn, however, and now the +old-time forts are useful chiefly as additions to the attractive +scenery of its harbor and approaches. At the outlet of Ontario the +course of the St. Lawrence begins with the noted archipelago known as +the "Lake of the Thousand Islands," there being actually about +seventeen hundred of them. This is a remarkable formation, composed +largely of fragments of the range of Laurentian mountains, here coming +southward out of Canada to the river, producing an extraordinary +region. This Laurentian formation the geologists describe as the +oldest land in the world--"the first rough sketch and axis of +America." During countless ages this range has been worn down by the +effect of rain, frost, snow and rivers, and scratched and broken by +rough, resistless glaciers, and we are told that, compared with these +fragmentary "Thousand Islands" and the almost worn-out mountains of +the lower St. Lawrence basin, the Alps and the Andes are but creations +of yesterday. + +Wolfe Island broadly obstructs the Ontario outlet between Kingston and +Cape Vincent on the New York shore, and from them, with an +island-filled channel, in some places twelve miles broad, the swift +river current threads the archipelago by pleasant and tortuous +passages nearly to Ogdensburg, forty miles below. These islands are of +all sizes, shapes and appearance, varying from small low rocks and +gaunt crags to gorgeous foliage-covered gardens. On account of their +large numbers, the early French explorers named them "Les Milles +Isles," and in the ancient chronicles they are described as +"obstructing navigation and mystifying the most experienced Iroquois +pilots." Fenimore Cooper located some of the most interesting +incidents of his _Pathfinder_ in "that labyrinth of land and water, +the Thousand Isles." The larger islands in spring and summer are +generally covered with luxuriant vegetation, and the river shores are +a delicious landscape of low but bold bluffs and fruitful fields +spreading down to the water, with distant forests bounding the +horizon. The atmosphere is usually dry, light and mellow, and the +Indians, who admired this attractive region, appropriately called it +Manatoana, or the "Garden of the Great Spirit." Howe Island adjoins +Wolfe Island, and below is the long Grindstone Island. Here on the New +York shore is the village of Clayton, where the New York Central +Railroad comes up from Utica and Rome, the leading route to this +region. Below is the almost circular Round Island with its large +hotel, and everywhere are charming little islets, while ahead, down +the St. Lawrence, are myriads more islands, apparently massed together +in a maze of dark green distant foliage, the enchanted isles of a +fascinating summer sea: + + "The Thousand Isles, the Thousand Isles, + Dimpled, the wave around them smiles, + Kissed by a thousand red-lipped flowers, + Gemmed by a thousand emerald bowers. + A thousand birds their praises wake, + By rocky glade and plumy brake. + A thousand cedars' fragrant shade + Falls where the Indians' children played, + And Fancy's dream my heart beguiles + While singing of thee, Thousand Isles. + + "There St. Lawrence gentlest flows, + There the south wind softest blows. + Titian alone hath power to paint + The triumph of their patron saint + Whose waves return on memory's tide; + La Salle and Piquet, side by side, + Proud Frontenac and bold Champlain + There act their wanderings o'er again; + And while the golden sunlight smiles, + Pilgrims shall greet thee, Thousand Isles." + + [Illustration: _In the Thousand Islands, St. Lawrence_] + +Sailing down the river, group after group of big and little green +islands are passed, the winding route and tortuous channels marked by +diminutive lighthouses and beacons, while nearly every island has its +cottages and often ornate and elaborate villas. Everywhere the shores +appear to be granite rocks, bright green foliage varying with the +darker evergreens surmounting them. All the waters are brilliantly +green and clear as crystal, rippled by breezes laden with balsamic +odors from the adjacent forests. Attractive cottages everywhere +appear, with little attendant boat-houses down by the water side, and +canoes and skiffs are in limitless supply, as the chief travelling is +by them. Everything seems to be full of life; in all directions are +pleasant views, the surface is dotted with pleasure-boats and +white-sailed yachts, the whole region being semi-amphibious, and its +people spending as much time on the water as on the land. The river, +too, is a great highway of commerce among these islands, many large +vessels passing along, and timber rafts guided by puffing little tugs. +Much of the product of the Canadian forests is thus taken to market, a +good deal going to Europe, and the sentimental and often musical +Metis, who live aboard in huts or tents, are the raftsmen, working the +broad sails and big steering-paddles on the tedious floating journey +down to Quebec. There are many large hotels, and the big one on Round +Island is named for Louis XIV.'s chivalrous and fiery Governor of +Canada, Count de Frontenac. His remains are buried in the Basilica at +Quebec, and his heart, enclosed in a leaden casket, was sent home to +his widow in France. She was much younger, and, evidently piqued at +some of his alleged love affairs, refused to receive it, saying she +would not have a dead heart which had not been hers while living. The +Baptists have a summer settlement on Round Island, and a short +distance below the extensive Wellesley Island has on its upper end the +popular Methodist summer town of the Thousand Island Park, where +little cottages and tents around the great Tabernacle often take care +of ten thousand people. Upon the lower end the Presbyterians have +established their attractive resort, Westminster Park, which faces +Alexandria Bay. + + +ALEXANDRIA BAY. + +The chief settlement of the archipelago is the village of Alexandria +Bay on the New York shore, and in the spacious reach of the river in +front are the most famous and costly of the island cottages. Here are +large hotels and many lodging-places, with a swelling population in +the height of the season. Some of the island structures are +unique--tall castles, palaces, imitations of iron-clads, forts and +turrets--and many have been very costly. As most of the summer +residents are Americans, those cottages are chiefly on the American +side of the boundary, but there is also quite a group of island +cottages over near the Canadian shore adjacent to the village of +Gananoque. Alexandria Bay is a diminutive indentation in the New York +shore, with a little red lighthouse out in front, while over to the +northeast is spread a galaxy of the most famous islands, having fifty +or more pretentious cottages scattered about the scene, amid the green +foliage surmounting the rocky island foundations. In every direction +go off channels among them of sparkling, dancing, green water, giving +fine vista views, the dark crags at the water's edge underlying the +frame of green foliage bounding the picture. The population has an +aquatic flavor, and everybody seems to go about in boats, while the +place has the air of a purely pleasure resort, evidently frozen up and +hybernating when the tide of summer travel ebbs. In the season, the +village presents a nightly carnival with its many-colored lights and +dazzling fireworks displays over the rippling waters. For miles below +Alexandria Bay, the islands stud the waters, although not so numerous +nor so closely together as they are above. The largest of these is the +long and narrow Grenadier Island in mid-river. Farther down they are +usually small, some being only isolated rocks almost awash. The last +of the islands are at Brockville, twenty-five miles below Alexandria +Bay--the group of "Three Sisters," one large and two smaller, +apparently dropped into the river opposite the town as if intended to +support the piers of a bridge over to Morristown on the New York +shore. This is an old and quiet Canadian town of nine thousand people, +perpetuating the memory of General Sir Isaac Brock, who fell in the +battle of Queenston Heights in October, 1812, and which is developing +into a summer resort. Such is the charmed archipelago of attractive +islands, unlike almost anything else in America, which brings so many +pleasure and health seekers to the St. Lawrence to sing its praises: + + "Fair St. Lawrence! What poet has sung of its grace + As it sleeps in the sun, with its smile-dimpled face + Beaming up to the sky that it mirrors! What brush + Has e'er pictured the charm of the marvellous hush + Of its silence; or caught the warm glow of its tints + As the afternoon wanes, and the even-star glints + In its beautiful depths? And what pen shall betray + The sweet secrets that hide from men's vision away + In its solitude wild? 'Tis the river of dreams; + You may float in your boat on the bloom-bordered streams, + Where its islands like emeralds matchless are set, + And forget that you live; and as quickly forget + That they die in the world you have left; for the calm + Of content is within you, the blessing of balm + Is upon you forever." + + +SHOOTING THE RAPIDS. + +Ogdensburg is an active port on the St. Lawrence about twenty miles +below Brockville, having a railroad through the Adirondacks over to +Rouse's Point on Lake Champlain. Here flow in the dark-brown waters +of the Oswegatchie, the Indian "Black River," coming out of those +forests, which commingle in sharp contrast with the clear green +current of the greater river. Prescott, antiquated and time-worn, is +on the Canadian bank. The shores are generally low, with patches of +woodland and farms, and the St. Lawrence below Ogdensburg begins to go +down the rapids, having tranquil lakes and long wide stretches of +placid waters intervening. The first rapid is the "Galop," flowing +among flat grass-covered islands, with swift moving waters, but a +small affair, scarcely discernible as the steamboat goes through it. +The next one, the "Plat," is also passed without much trouble, and +then a line of whitecaps ahead indicates the beginning of the "Long +Sault," the most extensive rapid on the river. This is the "Long +Leap," a rapid running for nine miles, its waters rushing down the +rocky ledges at a speed of twenty miles an hour. All steam is shut +off, and the river steamer is carried along by the movement of the +seething, roaring current, the surface appearing much like the ocean +in a storm. The rocking, sinking deck beneath one's feet gives a +strange and startling sensation, and looking back at the incline down +which the boat is sliding, it seems like a great angry wall of water +chasing along from behind. An elongated island divides the channel +through the "Long Sault," and there are other low islands adjacent; +the boat, swaying among the rocks over which the waves leap in fury, +being now lifted on their crests, and then dropped between them, but +all the while gliding down hill, until still water and safety are +reached at Cornwall. Here begins the northern boundary of New York, +which goes due east through the Chateaugay forests across the land to +Lake Champlain, and large factories front the river, getting their +power from the waters above the rapid. + +Below Cornwall, which has an industrial population of some seven +thousand, and the Indian village of St. Regis opposite, the St. +Lawrence is wholly within Canada, and far off to the southeast rise +the dark and distant Adirondack ranges. Soon the river broadens into +the sluggish Lake St. Francis, at the head of which two well-known +Adirondack streams flow in, the Racquette and St. Regis Rivers. The +ancient village of St. Regis has its old church standing up +conspicuously with a bright tin roof, for the air is so dry that tin +is not painted in the Dominion. The bell hanging in the spire was sent +out from France for the early Indian mission, but before landing, the +vessel carrying it was captured by a colonial privateer and taken into +Salem, Massachusetts. The bell, with other booty from the prize, was +sold and sent to a church in Deerfield, then on the Massachusetts +frontier. The St. Regis Huron Indians heard of this, and making a long +march down there, recaptured their bell, massacred forty-seven people, +and carried all the rest who could not escape, one hundred and twenty +of them, including the church pastor and his family, captives back to +Canada. Thus they brought the bell in triumph to St. Regis, and it has +since hung undisturbed in the steeple, although the Indians who now +hear it have become very few. The lake is twenty-eight miles long and +very monotonous, although a distinguishing landmark is furnished by +the massive buildings of St. Aniset Church, seen from afar on the +southern shore. + +Coteau, at the end of the lake, has a railway swinging drawbridge, +carrying the Canada Atlantic Railroad over, and below is another +series of rapids. These are the "Coteau," with about two miles of +swift current, making but slight impression; and then the "Cedars," +"Split Rock," and the "Cascades." The "Cedars" give a sensation, being +composed of layers of rock down which the boat slides, as if settling +from one ledge suddenly down to another, producing a curious feeling. +It was here, in 1759, that General Amherst, by a sad mishap, had three +hundred troops drowned. The "Split Rock" rapid is named from enormous +boulders standing at its entrance, and a dangerous reef can be +distinctly seen from the deck as the steamer apparently runs directly +upon it, until the pilot swerves the boat aside, seemingly just in +time. Then, tossing for a few moments upon the white-crested waves of +the "Cascades," the steamer glides peacefully upon the tranquil +surface of Lake St. Louis, which is fifteen miles long, and receives +from the north the Ottawa River. Each little village on the banks of +the lake and rivers is conspicuous from the large Roman Catholic +Church around which it clusters, the steep bright tin roof and spire +far out-topping all the other buildings. At the lower end of the lake +a series of light-ships guide vessels into Lachine Canal, which goes +down to Montreal, avoiding Lachine rapids, three miles long, the +shortest series, but most violent of them all. Here, at the head of +the rapids, stood the early French explorer, sent out to search for +"the road to Cathay," and looking over the great lake spread out +before him, with a view like old ocean, he shouted "La Chine!" for he +thought that China was beyond it. The Canadian Pacific Railway bridge +spans the river, and skirting the southern shore is the Indian town of +Caughnawaga, with its little old houses and light stone church, the +"village on the rapids." The steamboat then slides down Lachine +rapids, the most difficult and dangerous passage of all, though it +lasts but a few minutes--the exciting inclined plane of water, with +rocks ahead and rocks beneath, indicated by swift and foaming +cataracts running over and between them, and by stout thumps against +the keel, sometimes making every timber shiver, and the apparent +danger giving keen zest to the termination of the voyage. These rapids +passed, the current below quickly floats the steamboat under the great +Victoria tubular bridge, carrying the Grand Trunk Railway over, and +the broad stone quays of Montreal are spread along the bank, with rank +after rank of noble buildings behind them, and the tall twin towers of +Notre Dame Cathedral rising beyond, glistening under the rays of the +setting sun. + + +THE CITY OF MONTREAL. + +The delta of the great Ottawa--the "river of the traders," as the +Indians named it, debouching by several mouths into the St. Lawrence, +of which it is the chief tributary, makes a number of islands, and +Montreal stands on the southeastern side of the largest of them, with +the broad river flowing in front. St. Mary's current runs strongly +past the quays, and out there are the pretty wooded mounds of St. +Helen's Island, named after Helen Boullé, the child-wife of Samuel de +Champlain, the first European woman who came to Canada. She was only +twelve years old when he married her, he being aged forty-four, and +after his death she became an Ursuline nun. The miles of city +water-front are superbly faced with long-walled quays of solid +limestone masonry, and marked by jutting piers enclosing basins for +the protection of the shipping against the powerful current. At the +extremities of the rows of shipping, on either hand, up and down +stream, loom the huge grain elevators. The piers are about ten feet +lower than the walled embankment fronting the city, this being done to +allow the ice to pass over them when it breaks up at the end of +winter, the movement--called the "Ice Shove"--being an imposing sight. +The elongated Victoria Bridge stands upon its row of gray limestone +piers guarding the horizon up-river to the southward. Many storehouses +and stately buildings rise behind the wharves, and beyond these are +myriads of steeples, spires and domes, with the lofty Notre Dame +towers in front. The background is made by the imposing mountain +giving Montreal its name, called Mont Real originally, and now known +as Mount Royal, rising to an elevation of nine hundred feet. Few +cities of its size can boast so many fine buildings. The excellent +building-stone of the neighborhood, a gray limestone, is utilized +extensively, and this adds to the ornamental appearance, the city +rising upon a series of terraces stretching back from the river and +giving many good sites for construction. Numerous, massive and +elaborate, the multitude of costly houses devoted to religion, trade +and private residences are both a surprise and a charm. Mount Royal, +rising boldly behind them, gives not only a noble background to the +view from the river, but also a grand point of outlook, displaying +their beauties to the utmost. The city has wide streets, generally +lined with trees, and various public squares adding to the +attractiveness. + +But the most prominent characteristic of the Canadian metropolis is +the astonishing number of its convents, churches, and pious houses +for religious and charitable uses. Churches are everywhere, built by +all denominations, many being most elaborate and costly. The religious +zeal of the community, holding all kinds of ecclesiastical belief, has +found special vent in the universal development of church building. +This commendable trait is their natural heritage, for the earliest +French settlements on the St. Lawrence were largely due to religious +zeal. When Jacques Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence upon his second +voyage in 1535, he heard from the Indians at Quebec of a greater town +far up the river, and bent upon exploration, he sailed in boats up to +the Iroquois settlement of Hochelaga. Wrapped in forests behind it +rose the great mountain which he named Mont Real, the "royal +mountain," and in front, encompassed with corn-fields, was the Indian +village, surrounded by triple rows of palisades. Landing, Cartier's +party were admitted within the defensive walls to the central public +square, where the squaws examined them with the greatest curiosity, +and the sick and lame Indians were brought up to be healed, the +ancient historian writes, "as if a god had come down among them." No +sooner had Cartier landed and been thus welcomed than he gave thanks +to Heaven, and the warriors sat in silence while he read aloud the +Passion of Our Lord, though they understood not a word. The religious +services over, he distributed presents, and the French trumpeters +sounded a warlike melody, vastly pleasing the Indians. They conducted +Cartier's party to the summit of the mountain and showed them an +extensive view over unbroken forests for many miles to the dark +Adirondacks far away and the distant lighter green mountains, which he +called the "Monts Verts," to the eastward. There is a tablet placed in +Metcalfe Street near Sherbrooke Street which marks the supposed site +of the Indian village of Hochelaga. In 1608, when Champlain came, +Hochelaga had disappeared. The fierce Hurons had destroyed the village +and driven out the Iroquois, who had gone far south to the Mohawk +Valley. + +For three-quarters of a century the French seem to have waited after +Cartier's voyages, before they made any serious attempt at settlement. +Then there came a great religious revival, and they planned to combine +religion and conquest in a series of expeditions in the early +seventeenth century under the auspices of patron saints and sinners +whose names are numerously reproduced in the nomenclature of Quebec +Province, in mountains, rivers, lakes, bays, capes, counties, towns +and streets. It was chiefly due to Champlain, however, that the French +foothold was obtained. This great explorer, known as the "Father of +Canada," was noted alike for personal bravery and religious fervor. +His occupations in the New World were perilous journeys, prayers and +fighting. He firmly planted the French race in America, and every +characteristic then given "New France," as Canada was called, remains +to-day in the Province of Quebec. His noted saying is preserved in the +Canadian chronicles, that "the salvation of one soul is of more +importance than the founding of a new empire." His system was to take +possession for the Church and the French king, and then erect a cross +and a chapel, around which the colony grew. During the half-century +succeeding Champlain's first voyage, many Recollet and Jesuit +missionary priests came over, traversing the country and making +converts among the Indians, so that there were established +settlements, half-religious and half-military, forming alliances with +the neighboring Huron and Algonquin Indians, and ultimately waging the +almost perpetual wars with their English and Iroquois foes to the +southward. Champlain, in 1608, founded Quebec, where Cartier had +previously discovered the Indian village of Stadacona, meaning the +"narrowing of the river." Champlain also, in subsequent voyages, +discovered Lakes Champlain, Ontario and Nipissing. + + +RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION OF MONTREAL. + +The original settlement of Montreal was probably the most completely +religious enterprise of the many early French colonizing expeditions +to Canada. Dauversière, a tax-gatherer of Anjou, was a religious +devotee whose constant scourging with small chains and other +torments, including a belt with more than twelve hundred sharp points, +filled his father confessor with admiration. One day while at his +devotions, an inward voice commanded him to found a new order of +hospital nuns, and establish at the island called Mont Real in Canada +a hospital or Hotel-Dieu for these nuns to conduct. But Mont Real +being a wilderness where the hospital would be without patients, the +island must be colonized to supply them, and the pious tax-gatherer +was sorely perplexed. There was in Paris a young priest, Jean Jacques +Olier, who was zealous and devout, and signalized his piety by much +self-mortification, and one day while praying in church he thought he +heard a voice from Heaven saying he was destined to be a light to the +Gentiles, and that he was to form a society of priests and establish +them on the island called Mont Real, in Canada, for the propagation of +the true Faith. The old writers solemnly aver that both these men were +totally ignorant of each other and of Canadian geography, yet they +suddenly found themselves possessed, they knew not how, of the most +exact details concerning the island, its size, shape, soil, +productions, climate and situation; and they subsequently saw +apparitions of the Virgin and the Saviour encouraging them in the +great work. Dauversière went to Paris seeking aid to carry out his +task, and met Olier in a chateau in the suburbs; the two men, who +never before had seen or heard of each other, became at once +familiar, and under holy inspiration fondly embraced each other; the +tax-gatherer received communion at the hands of the priest; and then +for three hours they walked together in the park forming their plans. +They determined, as the pious chronicler records it, to "plant the +banner of Christ in an abode of desolation and a haunt of demons, and +to this end a band of priests and women were to invade the wilderness +and take post between the fangs of the Iroquois." They believed in the +mystic number, three, and proposed to found three religious +communities--one of secular priests to direct the colonists and +convert the Indians, one of nuns to nurse the sick, and one of nuns to +teach the Faith to all the children, white and red. + +But money and men and women were necessary for the work. Soon, four +others were found who had wealth, and the six formed the germ of the +"Society of Notre Dame de Montreal," and among them seventy-five +thousand livres were raised, equal to about as many dollars. They +purchased the island, and their grant was confirmed by the king, and +then they got together a colony of forty men, and needing a +soldier-governor, Providence provided such a man in Paul de Chomedey, +Sieur de Maisonneuve, a devout and valiant gentleman who had kept his +faith intact, notwithstanding long service among the heretics of +Holland, and loving his profession of arms, wished to consecrate his +sword to the Church. The interest of the women was awakened, and +ultimately the Society was increased to about forty-five persons, +chosen for their devotion and their wealth. Among the women who +founded the new colony was Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance, who was about +thirty-four years of age when the Society was organized, and to whom +we are told that Christ had appeared in a vision at the early age of +seven years, and at the same tender age her biographer says she had +bound herself to God by a vow of perpetual chastity. Mlle. Mance, by +the divine inspiration, was filled with a longing to go to Canada, and +she went to the port of Rochelle seeking a vessel. She had never +before heard of Dauversière, but by supernatural agencies she met him +coming out of church, had a long conversation in which she learned his +plan, declared she had found her destiny in "the ocean, the +wilderness, the solitude, the Iroquois," and at once decided to go +with Maisonneuve and his party. + +In February, 1641, with the Abbé Olier at their head, all the +associates of the Society assembled in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in +Paris, before the altar of the Virgin, and by a most solemn ceremonial +consecrated Mont Real to the Holy Family. It was henceforth to be a +sacred town, called "Ville Marie de Montreal," and consecrated +respectively, the Seminary of priests to Christ, the Hotel-Dieu to St. +Joseph, and the Nuns' College to the Virgin. Subsequently to the +colonization there appeared, in 1653, as the head of the latter, a +maiden of Troyes, Marguerite Bourgeoys, a woman of most excellent good +sense and a warm heart, who is described as having known neither +miracles, ecstasies nor trances, her religion being of the affections +and manifested in an absorbing devotion to duty. Late in the year the +colony under Maisonneuve set sail, arriving too late, however, to +ascend the St. Lawrence above Quebec, where they wintered. Here the +Governor of Quebec, Montmagny, tried his best to dissuade them from +going farther, desiring them to settle at Quebec, but Maisonneuve +said, "It is my duty and my honor to found a colony at Montreal, and I +would go if every tree were an Iroquois!" Here they gained an +unexpected recruit in Madame de la Peltrie, foundress of the Order of +Ursulines at Quebec, who abandoned their convent and carried off all +the furniture she had lent them. In May, 1642, the party left Quebec +in a flotilla of boats, deep laden with men, arms and stores, and a +few days later approached Montreal island, when all on board raised a +hymn of praise. Montmagny, who was to deliver possession of the +island, was with them, and also Father Vimont, Superior of the +missions, for the Jesuits had been invited to take spiritual charge of +the young colony. On May 18, 1642, they landed at Montreal, at a spot +where a little creek then flowed into the St. Lawrence, making a good +landing-place, protected from the influence of the swift current of +the river. There was a bordering meadow, and beyond rose the forest +with its vanguard of scattered trees. The triangular graystone +building, which is now the Custom House, down by the river, marks this +spot where the city was founded. The historian Parkman, who has so +faithfully delved into the ancient Canadian archives, thus relates the +story of the original settlement: + +"Maisonneuve sprang ashore and fell on his knees. His followers +imitated his example, and all joined their voices in enthusiastic +songs of thanksgiving. Tents, baggage, arms and stores were landed. An +altar was raised on a pleasant spot near at hand; and Mademoiselle +Mance, with Madame de la Peltrie, aided by her servant Charlotte +Barré, decorated it with a taste which was the admiration of the +beholders. Now all the company gathered before the shrine. Here stood +Vimont in the rich vestments of his office. Here were the two ladies +with their servant; Montmagny, no very willing spectator; and +Maisonneuve, a warlike figure, erect and tall, his men clustering +around him,--soldiers, sailors, artisans and laborers,--all alike +soldiers at need. They kneeled in reverent silence as the Host was +raised aloft; and when the rite was over the priest turned and +addressed them: 'You are a grain of mustard-seed, that shall rise and +grow till its branches overshadow the earth. You are few, but your +work is the work of God. His smile is on you, and your children shall +fill the land.' The afternoon waned; the sun sank behind the western +forest, and twilight came on. Fireflies were twinkling over the +darkened meadow. They caught them, tied them with threads into shining +festoons, and hung them before the altar where the Host remained +exposed. Then they pitched their tents, lighted their bivouac fires, +stationed their guards, and lay down to rest. Such was the birth-night +of Montreal." Thus was piously planted the "grain of mustard-seed" of +the devout and enthusiastic Vimont, which has expanded into a great +city of probably three hundred thousand people, over half of them +French and more than three-fourths Catholics, there being also a large +Irish population. + + +MONTREAL INSTITUTIONS. + +Montreal covers a surface five miles long by two miles wide, and its +situation gives it great commercial importance. The people call it +"the Queen of the St. Lawrence," standing at the head of ship +navigation, where cargoes are exchanged with the internal canal and +lake navigation system, the Grand Trunk Railway and the Canadian +Pacific Railway crossing the continent, and both also having many +connections with the United States. In 1809, the "Accommodation," the +second steamboat in America, was built in Montreal, and began running +to Quebec. The lion of Montreal is the Victoria Tubular Bridge, which +was formally opened by the Prince of Wales on his American visit in +1860. It was designed by Robert Stephenson and built by James Hodges +at a cost of over $6,000,000. It is nearly ninety-two hundred feet +long and stands upon twenty-six piers and abutments, the centre being +about sixty feet above the summer level of the river, which flows +beneath at the rate of seven miles an hour. Elaborate ice-fenders are +on the up-stream side of the piers, there being an enormous +ice-pressure when the spring freshets are running. It is the greatest +bridge in the Dominion, and near it stands a huge boulder, marking the +burial-place of the army of Irish emigrants who came over in 1847, +sixty-five hundred dying at Montreal of ship-fever. + +The Sulpician Order has always been the great educator of priests in +all French-speaking peoples, and it was founded by the Abbé Olier. +Carrying out his intention, the "Seminary of St. Sulpice" was opened +in Montreal in 1647. This is now an enormous and prosperous religious +establishment, holding large possessions in and around the city. The +"Gentlemen of the Seminary," as the members of the Order of Sulpicians +are called in Montreal, are the successors of the first owners of the +island, and they conduct a large secular business as landlords. Down +in the heart of the old city, at the Place d'Armes, they have an +antique quadrangle, surrounding a quiet garden, which is the official +headquarters, and was the location of their ancient house. The curious +French-looking towers fronting the Seminary were at one time +loop-holed for musketry, and were garrisoned, when necessary, to beat +off Indian raids upon the infant settlement. In the western suburbs +there is a broad domain, known as the "Priests' Farm," where are an +elaborate mass of buildings, making their present noted foundation, +the "Great Seminary" and Montreal College, the former for the +education of priests and the latter for the general education of +youth, the delicious surrounding gardens being regarded as the finest +on the fertile island. + +The "Hospital of the Hotel-Dieu de Ville Marie" is on the northeastern +edge of the city, almost under the shadow of the mountain, and is one +of the largest buildings in Canada, its dome rising one hundred and +fifty feet over the spacious chapel. It was in this hospital, when +first founded in a small way in 1647, that Mademoiselle Mance took up +her abode. There are now over five hundred persons in the building, +and it is conducted by eighty cloistered nuns, who never go outside +the grounds. They are of the Order of St. Joseph, caring for the sick, +the orphan, and the old and infirm. The "Sisters of the Congregation +of Notre Dame," the "Black Nuns," as they are called, have their +Mother House in Montreal, this being the teaching order founded by +Marguerite Bourgeoys in 1653, she having then come out to Canada with +Maisonneuve on his second voyage. "To this day," writes Parkman, "in +crowded schoolrooms of Montreal and Quebec, fit monuments of her +unobtrusive virtue, her successors instruct the children of the poor +and embalm the pleasant memory of Marguerite Bourgeoys. In the martial +figure of Maisonneuve, and the fair form of this gentle nun, we find +the true heroes of Montreal." These "Black Nuns" conduct seventeen +schools in the city, with over five thousand pupils. Their most +extensive establishment is just out of town, on what are known as the +"Monk Lands," and is called "Ville Marie." There are no less than six +hundred nuns and novices in this order, and their pupils number twenty +thousand in Canada and the United States. + +Another important Montreal institution is the "General Hospital of the +Grey Sisters," popularly known as the "Grey Nunnery," occupying an +extensive array of stone buildings in the southwestern part of the +city. This order was first founded in 1692, but languished for nearly +a half century, when a pious Canadian lady took it up. Originally it +cared for the aged and infirm, but in 1755 this lady, Madame de +Youville, discovered the body of a murdered infant, where is now +Foundling Street, then a stream of water, into which the child had +been thrown, and this led her to extend the objects of the institution +so as to embrace orphans and foundlings. This is the great foundling +hospital of Montreal. The order has the revenues of large estates, and +there are about four hundred nuns and novices, over half being +detailed in a large number of establishments throughout Canada. +Several hundred foundlings are received every year, and over five +hundred patients are cared for in Montreal, mostly the aged and +infirm. The daughter of Ethan Allen, of Vermont, was a nun of this +order, dying in 1819. This nunnery has many visitors, who attend +worship with the Sisters in the beautiful chapel, and then go through +the hospital, where the poor are cared for both in the morning and the +evening of life. The crowds of little French children, dressed in the +curious clothing of past centuries, sing for their visitors, and then +comically scramble for the small coins tossed among them, which, after +doing duty as playthings for a brief time, find their way into the +charity box. + +Montreal is the headquarters in America of the well-known teaching +order of the Christian Brothers. The Jesuits have St. Mary's College; +and the Convent of the Sacred Heart and Hochelaga Convent, the Asylum +of the Sisters of Providence and the Convent of the Good Shepherd are +also prominent. The chief Protestant educational institution is McGill +University, with a thousand students and seventy-five instructors, +originally founded in 1821, through a bequest of $150,000, by James +McGill, a native of Glasgow, who was one of the early successful +merchants of Montreal. It has since been richly endowed, its +properties being valued at over $1,000,000, and it has fine buildings +and grounds near the mountain. Closely affiliated is the Presbyterian +College of Montreal, devoted to the training of missionaries and +clergymen, also provided with noble buildings. There is also a +Wesleyan Theological College affiliated with McGill University. The +peculiar religious conditions of Quebec Province have vested the +educational management of the public schools in two Boards, one +Protestant and the other Roman Catholic, separately governing each +class of schools, and working in harmony under the Provincial +Superintendent of Education, each Board having an office in Montreal. + + +MONTREAL CHURCHES AND BUILDINGS. + +The Place d'Armes, down in the old part of the city, where is the +original Seminary of St. Sulpice, is surrounded by famous structures. +Here are the chief banks and insurance buildings and the head office +of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The most noted of them is the +Grecian-fronted Bank of Montreal, the largest financial institution in +Canada, and believed, with the Canadian Pacific management, who are +closely connected, to be the most potential force in the Dominion. +Adjoining the old Seminary, and facing the square, is Montreal's most +famous church--Notre Dame--its lofty front rising into the twin spires +that overlook all the country round. Its pews seat ten thousand, and +when crowded it accommodates fifteen thousand people. In one of the +towers hangs "Le Gros Bourdon," the largest bell in America, called +Jean Baptiste, and weighing nearly fifteen tons. The church is +mediæval Gothic, built of cut limestone, the spires rising two hundred +and twenty-seven feet, and containing ten bells, making a chime upon +which, on great occasions, tunes are played. The interior, like all +the French Catholic churches, is brilliantly decorated, for the +religious development is the same as that of France in the seventeenth +century, everything contributing to the intensity of the devotion and +the elaborateness of decoration and paraphernalia of the service. At +High Mass, when crowded by worshippers, the choir filled with robed +ecclesiastics officiating in the stately ceremonial, the effect is +imposing. The original church of Notre Dame was built in 1671, a long, +low structure with a high pitched roof. It was pulled down in 1824 and +replaced by the present church, which was five years building, and is +one of the largest churches in America, two hundred and fifty-five +feet long. We are told that the architect, James O'Donnell, who is +buried in the crypt, was a Protestant, but during the work became so +impressed by his religious surroundings that he was converted to a +Roman Catholic. The church is never closed, and at any time one can +enter, and with the silent worshippers kneel at the shrine in a solemn +stillness, in sharp contrast with the activity of the business quarter +without. This remarkable contrast deeply impressed the ascetic +Thoreau, whose boast was that he never attended church. "I soon found +my way to the Church of Notre Dame," he writes. "I saw that it was of +great size and signified something. Coming from the hurrahing mob and +the rattling carriages, we pushed back the listed door of this church +and found ourselves instantly in an atmosphere which might be sacred +to thought and religion, if one had any. It was a great cave in the +midst of a city, and what were the altars and the tinsel but the +sparkling stalactites into which you entered in a moment, and where +the still atmosphere and the sombre light disposed to serious and +profitable thought? Such a cave at hand, which you can enter any day, +is worth a thousand of our churches which are open only Sundays." When +General Montgomery's American army captured Montreal in 1775, the +square in front of Notre Dame was his parade-ground, and thus it got +the name of Place d'Armes. + +The greatest church of Montreal is the new Cathedral of St. James, +popularly known as St. Peter's, as yet incomplete, designed to +reproduce, on a scale of one-half the dimensions, the grand Basilica +at Rome. It is three hundred and thirty-three feet long, the transepts +two hundred and twenty-five feet wide, and the stone dome two hundred +and fifty feet high, making it the largest church in Canada. Four huge +stone piers, each thirty-six feet thick, and thirty-two Corinthian +columns, support this grand dome. The outside walls, built of the +universal gray limestone, are massive but rough, and the roof, on +account of the heavy snows, is sloping, but otherwise it reproduces +all the special features of St. Peter's at Rome, including the +portico, to be surmounted by colossal statues of the Apostles. The +interior is being decorated with brilliant paintings representing +scenes in the life of St. James. It is located on Dominion Square, and +the Bishop's Palace adjoins it. One of the remarkable churches, though +small, is Notre Dame de Lourdes, built and adorned with the single +idea of expressing in visible form the dogma of the Immaculate +Conception, with the appearance of the Virgin to the maiden in the +grotto at Lourdes. It is superbly decorated, and is the only church of +the kind in America, being well described as "like an illuminated +Missal, which to a Protestant has interest as a work of art, and to a +Catholic has the superadded interest of a work of devotion." Adjoining +the Jesuit St. Mary's College is their solid stone Church of the Gesu, +its lofty nave bounded by rich columns, and with the long transepts +adorned by fine frescoes, some giving representations of scenes in +Jesuit history and martyrdom. The great Episcopal Cathedral of Christ +Church, a Latin cross in Early English architecture, reproduces the +Salisbury Cathedral of England, with a spire two hundred and +twenty-four feet high. There are also many other fine Protestant +churches; and when it is realized that Montreal has a church for about +every two thousand inhabitants, the care for its religious welfare +will be realized. The Royal Victoria Hospital, a gift to the city in +honor of the Queen's Jubilee, cost $1,000,000. + +The largest public square in the city is the Champ de Mars, formerly a +parade-ground, adjoining which are two noble public buildings, the +handsome Court-house, three hundred feet long, and the adjacent Hotel +de Ville, nearly five hundred feet long. The Victoria Skating Rink, +the largest in the world, is the most noted amusement structure. The +city is noted for athletic sports, and toboggan slides abound, some of +enormous length, down the mountain slopes. The Montreal Bonsecours +Market is famed everywhere, and presents an imposing Doric front +nearly five hundred feet long upon the river bank, surmounted by a +domed tower. Here gather in force the French Canadian peasantry, known +as the _habitans_, to sell their produce and wares, and it gives a +quaint exhibition of old-time French customs. The ancient Church of +Notre Dame de Bonsecours is alongside, originally founded by +Marguerite Bourgeoys in 1673 for the reception of a miraculous statue +of the Virgin, entrusted to her by one of the associates of the +Society founding Montreal, Baron de Faucamp. The church was burnt and +then rebuilt in 1771, and is a quaint structure of a style rarely seen +outside of Normandy, having shops built up against it after the +fashion common in old European towns. Thus does this famous city +combine the methods and styles of the Middle Ages with the manners and +enterprises of to-day. It is an impressive fact that notwithstanding +the prodigious religious development, all the denominations get on +without friction. There is an underlying spirit of toleration, and it +is recorded that after the British conquest of Canada the Protestants +who came into Montreal occupied one of the Catholic churches for +worship, assembling after the Catholic morning mass; and that for +twenty years after 1766 the Church of England people occupied the +Catholic church of the Recollets every Sunday afternoon. The +Presbyterians are said to have also used the same church prior to +1792, and then having removed into a church of their own, they +presented the priests of the Recollet church a gift of candles for the +high altar and of wine for the mass as a token of good will and their +thanks for the gratuitous use of the church. Then the churches were +few, but now all denominations have their own, and numerously. + + +MONTREAL SURROUNDINGS. + +The suburbs are attractive, and gradually dissolve into the gardens +and farms of the French husbandmen, living in comfortable houses with +steep roofs, fronted by and sometimes almost embedded in foliage and +flowers. Occasionally an ancient windmill is perched on a hill, +stretching out its broad gyrating sails, as in old Normandy. There are +frequent villages along the St. Lawrence, each clustered around its +church. At Caughnawaga, already referred to, there is an extensive +church with a tall and shining white tin-covered spire, and in a +rather sorry-looking group of houses around it live the few who are +left of the descendants of the once warlike and powerful Mohawks, +known as the "praying Indians," here long ago gathered by the zealous +missionary priests of St. Sulpice. At Lachine, spreading opposite on +the western shore of the St. Lawrence for several miles, is a popular +place of suburban residence, with rows of pleasant villas lining the +banks of Lake St. Louis. Over beyond this lake comes in the main +channel of Ottawa River, with the rapids of St. Anne flowing down from +another inland sea made by its prolonged enlargement, the "Lake of the +Two Mountains." A canal flanks these rapids, and the village of St. +Anne has grown around its ancient church, which is deeply reverenced +by the Canadian boatmen and voyageurs on these waters as their special +shrine, for in the early days all the fur-trading with the great +Canadian northwest was by canoes and bateaux on the Ottawa and Lake +Nipissing, and thence by portage to Lake Huron. Here came many years +ago, on a bateau down the St. Lawrence, the minstrel bard, Tom Moore, +and inspired by the locality, he composed in a cottage, still pointed +out, his noted "Canadian Boat Song": + + "Faintly as tolls the evening chime, + Our voices keep tune, and our oars keep time. + Soon as the woods on shore look dim, + We'll sing at St. Anne's our parting hymn. + Row, brothers, row; the stream runs fast, + The rapids are near, and the daylight's past. + + "Ottawa's tide! this trembling moon + Shall see us float o'er thy surges soon. + Saint of this green isle! hear our prayers: + O, grant us cool heavens, and favoring airs! + Blow, breezes, blow; the stream runs fast, + The rapids are near, and the daylight's past." + +On the northern shore of the "Lake of the Two Mountains," with Oka +village nestling at the base, where an Indian colony live, are the two +mountains from which the lake is named. One, surmounted by a cross, is +Mount Calvary, having various religious shrines on its summit, and +seven chapels on the road up, representing the seven stations of the +cross. Here is also a monastery of the French "farmer Monks," the +Trappists, who cultivate a large surface. They live a secluded life +under ascetic rules, are not allowed to talk to each other, and only +men enter the monastery, all women being stopped at the threshold. +They rise at two o'clock in the morning, take breakfast soon +afterwards in absolute silence, this being the only meal of the day, +and retire to rest immediately after prayers at sunset. They devote +twelve hours daily to devotions, and labor in the fields the remainder +of the waking time. Their food is a scant allowance of water and +vegetables. They sleep on a board with a straw pillow, and never +undress, even in sickness. They are a branch of the Cistercians, and +their abode overlooks the placid lake, with Montreal spreading beyond. +But the city's finest suburban possession is its Mountain, the summit +being a pleasant park, and the slopes covered with luxuriant foliage, +which in the autumn becomes a blazing mass of resplendent beauty when +the frosts turn the leaves. From the top the view is of unrivalled +magnificence. + + +THE GRAND RIVER. + +The Ottawa River is the most important tributary of the St. Lawrence, +over seven hundred miles long, and draining a basin of one hundred +thousand square miles, the most productive pine-timber region +existing. It was the "Grand River" of the early French-Canadian +voyageurs, and the name of Ottawa, changed considerably from the +original form, comes from the Indian tribe and means "the traders." It +has a circuitous course; rising in Western Quebec province, it flows +northwest and then west for three hundred miles to Lake Temiscamingue, +on the border of Ontario province; then it turns and flows back +southeastward, making the boundary between the provinces for four +hundred miles, until it falls into the St. Lawrence, the vast volume +of its dark waters pressing the latter's blue current against the +farther shore. It is a romantic river, filled with rapids and +cascades, at times broadening into lakes, and again contracted into a +torrent barely fifty yards wide, where the waters are precipitated +over the rocks in wild splendor. For twenty-five miles above its mouth +it broadens into the "Lake of the Two Mountains," from one to six +miles wide. Above the city of Ottawa there are rapids terminating in +the famous Chaudière Falls, where the waters plunge down forty feet, +and part are said to disappear through an underground passage of +unknown outlet. It has an enormous lumber trade, and by a canal +system, avoiding the rapids, has been made navigable for two hundred +and fifty miles. The Rideau River enters from the south at Ottawa, +making the route by which the Rideau Canal goes over to Lake Ontario +at Kingston. The Gatineau River also flows in at Ottawa, being of +great volume, over four hundred miles long, and a prolific timber +producer. In the villages around Montreal all the saints in the +calendar are named, so that, starting on an exploration of Ottawa +River, the route goes by St. Martin, St. Jean, St. Rose, St. Therese, +St. Jerome, St. Lin, St. Eustache, St. Augustine, St. Scholastique, +St. Hermes, St. Phillippe, and many more. But when the great religious +city is left behind the saints cease to appear, and everything in the +Ottawa valley above is generally otherwise named. This valley is +usually a broad and level intervale, with only an occasional rocky +buttress pressing upon the river. At one of these passes, in 1660, a +handful of valiant men held the stockade at Carillon, the foot of Long +Sault rapids, sacrificing their lives to save the early colony from +the Indians, the place being known as the "French Canadian +Thermopylæ." The full force of the Iroquois warriors were in arms up +the Ottawa, over a thousand of them, threatening to drive the French +out of Montreal. Dollard des Ormeaux and sixteen companions took the +sacrament in the little Montreal church, made their wills, and bound +themselves by an oath neither to give nor take quarter. A few +Algonquins joined them, and going up the river they hastily built a +stockaded fort at this pass. Soon the Iroquois canoes came dancing +down the rapids, and discovering the fort, they surrounded and +attacked it, but were repulsed day after day, until every one of the +brave garrison had been killed, when the Iroquois had lost so many of +their own warriors that they tired of the fighting, and avoiding +Montreal, returned southward to their own country. Some fugitive +Indians told the heroic story, which George Murray has woven into his +ballad: + + "Eight days of varied horror passed; what boots it now to tell + How the pale tenants of the fort heroically fell? + Hunger and thirst and sleeplessness, Death's ghastly aids, at + length, + Marred and defaced their comely forms, and quelled their giant + strength. + The end draws nigh--they yearn to die--one glorious rally more, + For the dear sake of Ville Marie and all will soon be o'er; + Sure of the martyr's golden Crown, they shrink not from the Cross, + Life yielded for the land they loved, they scorn to reckon loss." + +Some distance above, at the Chateau Montebello, lived in the early +nineteenth century Louis Joseph Papineau, the "French-Canadian +O'Connell," the seigneur of the district, who was the local leader in +resistance to English aggressions, of whom the French are very proud, +and his portrait hangs in the Parliament House at Ottawa. He was +defeated, banished and then pardoned, and lived here to a ripe old age +to see many of the reforms and privileges for which he had contended +fully realized under subsequent administrations. The Riviere aux +Lièvres rushes into the Ottawa down a turbulent cascade, through which +logs dash until caught in the booms at the sawmills below, where are +vast lumber piles. This river is two hundred and eighty miles long, +and just above its mouth has a fall at Buckingham of seventy feet, +giving an enormous water-power. The whole region hereabout is devoted +to lumbering. The French _habitan_ from Lower Quebec comes up into +this wilderness of woods with scarcely any capital but his axe, in the +use of which he is expert. These Canadians do not like leaving their +homes, but are compelled by sheer necessity. When the old Quebec farm +has been subdivided among the children, under the French system, until +the long, ribbon-like strips of land become so narrow between the +fences that there is no opportunity for further sub-division, the +young men must seek a livelihood elsewhere. The old man gives them a +blessing, with a good axe and two or three dollars, and they start for +the lumber camps. They catch abundant fish, can live on almost +nothing, and need only buy their flour and salt, with some pork for a +luxury. These lumbermen often wear picturesque costumes like the old +voyageurs, and they like flaming red scarfs. They are as polite as the +most courtly French gentleman, and pass their evenings in dancing, +with music and singing the ancient songs of their forefathers, +scorning anything modern. Many of them are Metis, or half-breeds, the +descendants of French and Indians. These are more heavy featured and +not so sprightly as the pure French, but they are equally skillful +woodmen, and have inherited many good traits from both races, though +they rather regard with pity their full-blooded Indian half-brothers, +whose lot is scarcely as favorable. All these people are devout +Catholics, and going up into the woods in the late autumn and +remaining until after Easter, the priests always visit their camps to +attend to their spiritual wants. An impressive scene in these vast +forests in the dawn of a cold winter morning is to see the priest +standing with outstretched arms at the rude altar, the light of the +candles revealing the earnest faces of his flock as they reverentially +attend the mass. These woodmen are firm believers in the +supernatural, convinced that the spirits of the dead come back in +various shapes. If a single crow is seen they are sure a calamity has +occurred; if two crows fly before them it means a wedding. An owl +hooting indicates impending danger. They are always hearing strange +voices at night, or seeing ominous shapes in the twilight wood +shadows. The Metis are good hunters, and great is their joy when a +belated bear is found near the camp, or a deer or moose is tracked in +the snow. Their lumbering is done near the streams, so the logs may be +thrown in and floated down by the spring freshets. They make a vast +product of timber, sold throughout the lakes and St. Lawrence region, +much going across the Atlantic. + + +THE DOMINION CAPITAL. + +The earliest settler at the portage around the Chaudière Falls of the +Ottawa was Philemon Wright, of Woburn, Massachusetts, who came along +in 1800, and not getting on successfully, sold out about twenty years +later to cancel a debt of $200. Subsequently there was established at +the confluence of the three rivers, Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau, by +Colonel By, a British military post and Indian trading-station, around +which in time a settlement grew which was called Bytown, distant about +a hundred miles from the St. Lawrence River. It was incorporated a +city in 1854 by the name of Ottawa; and when the Dominion +Confederation was formed in 1858 there was so much contention about +the claims of rival cities to be the capital--Montreal, Toronto, +Kingston and Quebec all being urged--that Queen Victoria, to finally +settle the matter, selected Ottawa. There is a population of about +sixty thousand, but excepting from the noble location of the +magnificent public buildings, the political importance of the city +does not attract the visitor so much as the business development. The +lumber trade makes the first and greatest impression; landing among +boards and sawdust, walking amid timber piles and over wooden +sidewalks, with slabs, blocks and planks everywhere in endless +profusion, the rushing waters filled with floating logs and sawdust, +busy saws running, planing-machines screeching, the canals carrying +lumber cargoes, the rivers lined with acres of board piles--an idea is +got of what the lumber trade of the Ottawa valley is. The timber is +almost all white and yellow pine. Alongside the Chaudière Falls at the +western verge of the town are clustered the great sawmills, while +capacious slides shoot the logs down, which are to be floated farther +along to the St. Lawrence. There are also large flour-mills and other +factories getting power from this cataract. + + [Illustration: _Chaudière Falls, St. Lawrence_] + +The Chaudière, or the "Cauldron," is a remarkable cataract, and the +Indians were so terrified by it, that to propitiate its evil genius we +are told they usually threw in a little tobacco before traversing +the portage around it. The rapids begin about six miles above, +terminating in this great boiling cauldron with a sheer descent of +forty feet, which is as curious as it is grand. Owing to the peculiar +formation of the enclosing rocks, all the waters of the broad river +are converged into a sort of basin about two hundred feet wide, +plunging in with vast commotion and showers of spray. Efforts have +been made to sound this strange cauldron, but the lead has not found +bottom at three hundred feet depth. The narrowness of the passage +between the enclosing rocky walls, just below the falls, has enabled a +bridge to be built across, connecting Ottawa with the suburb of Hull. +Here is given an admirable view of the foaming, descending waters, +clouds of spray, and at times gorgeous rainbows, flanked by timber +piles and sawmills, sending out rushing streams of water and sawdust +into the river below. Near by a chain of eight massive locks brings +the Rideau Canal down through a fissure in the high bank to the level +of the lower Ottawa, its sides being almost perpendicularly cut by the +action of water in past ages. The locks are a Government work, of +solid masonry, well built, and the fissure divides Ottawa into the +Upper and the Lower Town, pretty bridges being thrown across it on the +lines of the principal streets. The Rideau Canal follows the Rideau +River upwards southwest to the Lake Ontario level, and in the whole +distance of one hundred and twenty-six miles to Kingston, overcomes +four hundred and forty-six feet by forty-seven locks. Much of the +suburb of Hull and a considerable part of Ottawa, with enormous +amounts of lumber, were destroyed by a great fire in April, 1900, a +high wind fanning the flames that were spread by the inflammable +materials. + +Upon Barrack Hill, at an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet, +surrounded by ornamental grounds, and having the Ottawa River flowing +at the western base, stand the Government buildings. They are +magnificent structures, costing nearly $4,000,000, the Prince of Wales +having laid the corner-stone on his visit in 1860. They are built of +cream-colored sandstone, with red sandstone and Ohio stone trimmings, +the architecture being Italian Gothic, and they stand upon three sides +of a grass-covered quadrangle, and occupy an area of four acres. They +include the Parliament House, the chief building, and all the Dominion +Government offices. The former is four hundred and seventy-two feet +long, the other buildings on the east and west sides of the quadrangle +being somewhat smaller. All are impressive, their great elevation +enabling their towers and spires to be seen for many miles. The +legislative chambers are richly furnished, and Queen Victoria's +portrait is on the walls of one House, and those of King George III. +and Queen Charlotte upon the other. The Parliamentary Library, a +handsome polygonal structure of sixteen angles, adjoins. The +Governor-General resides in Rideau Hall, across the Rideau River. +From a little pavilion out upon the western edge of Barrack Hill, high +above the Ottawa, there is a long view over the western and northern +country, whence that river comes. To the left is the rolling land of +Ontario province, and to the right the distant hills and looming blue +mountains of Quebec, the river dividing them. Behind the pavilion is +the stately Parliament House, its noble Victoria Tower, seen from +afar, rising two hundred and twenty feet. + + +MONTREAL TO QUEBEC. + +The broad St. Lawrence River flows one hundred and eighty miles from +Montreal to Quebec. A succession of parishes is passed, each with its +lofty church and presbytère, reproducing the picturesque buildings of +old Normandy and Brittany, with narrow windows and steep roofs, all +covered with shining white tin which the dry air preserves. Little +villages cluster around the churches, with long stretches of arable +lands between. Among a mass of wooded islands on the northern bank, +the turbid waters of the lower Ottawa outlet flow in, the edge of the +clearer blue of the St. Lawrence being seen for some distance below. +The delta makes green alluvial islands and shoals. Thus we sail down +the great river, past shores that were long ago very well settled. + + "Past little villages we go, + With quaint old gable ends that glow + Bright in the sunset's fire; + And, gliding through the shadows still, + Oft notice, with a lover's thrill, + The peeping of a spire." + +In the eighteenth century, Kalm, a Swedish tourist in America, said it +could be really called a village, beginning at Montreal and ending at +Quebec, "for the farmhouses are never more than five arpents apart, +and sometimes but three asunder, a few places excepted;" and two +centuries ago a traveller on the river wrote that the houses "were +never more than a gunshot apart." All the people are French, retaining +the language and old customs, simple-minded and primitive, the same as +under the ancient French régime, and excepting that one village, +Varennes, has put two towers upon its stately church, all of them are +exactly alike. It is recorded that in Champlain's time some Huguenot +sailors came up the river piously singing psalm tunes. This did not +please the officials, and soon a boat with soldiers put off from one +of these villages, and the officer in charge told them that +"Monseigneur, the Viceroy, did not wish that they should sing psalms +on the great river." The first steamer that came along the St. +Lawrence created unlimited dread, horrifying the villagers. Solemnly +crossing himself, an old voyageur, who probably thought his trade on +the waters endangered, exclaimed, in his astonishment, "But can you +believe that the good God will permit all that?" + +The Richelieu River, the outlet of Lake Champlain, comes in at Sorel, +the chief affluent on the southern bank, its canal system making a +navigable connection with the Hudson River. Cardinal Richelieu took +great interest in early Canadian colonization, and Fort Richelieu was +built at the mouth of this river, being afterwards enlarged to prevent +Iroquois forays, by Captain Sorel, whose name is preserved in the +town. Below, there is an archipelago of low alluvial islands, and the +St. Lawrence broadens out into Lake St. Peter, nine or ten miles wide, +and generally shallow, this being the head of the tidal influence. On +its southern side flows in the St. Francis River, the outlet of Lake +Memphremagog and of many streams and lakes in the vast wilderness +along the boundary north of Vermont and east of Lake Champlain. At its +mouth is the little village of St. François du Lac. As the shores +contract below Lake St. Peter, the town of Three Rivers is passed +midway between Montreal and Quebec. Here the fine river St. Maurice, +another great lumber-producing stream, flows in upon the northern +bank, two little islands dividing its mouth into a delta of three +channels, thus naming the town. The St. Maurice is full of rapids and +cataracts, the chief being Shawanagan Fall, about twenty miles inland, +noted for its grandeur and remarkable character. The river, suddenly +bending and divided into two streams by a pile of rocks, falls nearly +one hundred and fifty feet and dashes against an opposing wall, where +the reunited stream forces its way through a narrow passage scarcely a +hundred feet wide. The two lofty rocks bounding this abyss are called +La Grande Mere and Le Bon Homme. The headwaters of St. Maurice +interlock with some of those of the gloomy Saguenay north of Quebec. +An enormous output of lumber comes down to Three Rivers, and the +district also produces much bog iron ore. Here are extensive sawmills, +iron-works, and one of the largest paper-pulp establishments in +America, the unrivalled water-power being thus utilized. Below the St. +Maurice, as the outcropping foothills from the Laurentian Mountains +approach the river, the scenery becomes more picturesque. The +Richelieu rapids are here, requiring careful navigation among the +rocks, and Jacques Cartier River comes in from the north. In front of +St. Augustin village, years ago, the steamer "Montreal" was burnt with +a loss of two hundred lives, and on the outskirts is an ancient ruined +church, which is said to have fallen in decay because the devil +assisted at its building. This was in 1720, and the tradition is that +His Satanic Majesty appeared in the form of a powerful black stallion, +who hauled the blocks of stone, until his driver, halting at a +watering-trough, where there was also a small receptacle of holy water +for the faithful, unbridled the horse, who became suddenly restive and +vanished in a cloud of sulphurous smoke. Many pious pilgrimages are +made to the present fine church of the village, having a statue of +the guardian angel standing out in front, commemorating the Vatican +Council of 1870. As Quebec is approached, the "coves" are seen on the +northern shore, arranged with booms for the timber ships, for easier +transfer of lumber from the rafts floated down the river, and the +steep bluffs behind run off into Cape Diamond, projecting far across +the stream. Old Sillery Church stands up with its tall spire atop of +the bold bluff, with a monastery behind it. Here Noel Brulart de +Sillery, Knight of Malta, in 1637, established one of the early Jesuit +missions. Point Levis stretches from the southern bank to narrow the +river channel. The low gray walls of the citadel surmount the highest +point of the extremity of Cape Diamond, and rounding it, we are at +Quebec. + + +ORIGIN OF QUEBEC. + +Whence comes the name of Quebec? "Quel bec! Quel bec!"--(What a +beak!)--shouted Jacques Cartier's astonished sailors, when, sailing up +the St. Lawrence, they first beheld the startling promontory of Cape +Diamond, thrust in towering majesty almost across the river. Thus, +says one tradition, by a natural elision, was named Quebec, when the +Europeans first saw the rock in 1535. Another derivation comes from +Candebec on the Seine, which it much resembles. The Indian word +"Kebic," meaning "the fearful rocky cliff," may have been its origin. +The Indian village of Stadacona was here when Cartier found it, a +cluster of wigwams fringing the shore in front of the bold cliff, its +people bearing allegiance to the Montaignais chief, Donnacona. Here +the ancient chronicle records that Cartier saw a "mighty promontory, +rugged and bare, thrust its scarped front into the raging current," +and he planted the cross and lilies of France and took possession for +his king. Returning to Europe, he took back as prisoners the chief, +Donnacona, and several of his warriors, their arrival making a great +sensation. They were fêted and prayed for, and becoming converted, +were baptised with pomp in the presence of a vast assemblage in the +magnificent Cathedral of Rouen. But the round of pleasure and +feasting, with the excess of excitement, overcame these children of +the forest, and they all died within a year. Colonization on the St. +Lawrence, after Cartier's voyages, languished for seventy years, +various ill-starred expeditions failing, and it was not until 1608 +that the city of Quebec was really founded by Samuel de Champlain, who +was sent out by a company of associated noblemen of France to +establish a fur trade with the Indians and open a new field for the +Church, the Roman Catholic religion being then in the full tide of +enthusiasm which in the seventeenth century made what was known as the +"counter reformation." Champlain built a fort and established the +province of New France, but his colony was of slow growth. There +subsequently came out the military and commercial adventurers and +religious enthusiasts, who were the first settlers of the new empire. +The Recollet Fathers came in 1615, and the Jesuit missionary priests +in 1625 and subsequently. The famous Canadian bishop, Laval de +Montmorency, Father Hennepin, and the Sieur de la Salle, all came out +in the same ship at a later period. Thus was founded the great French +Catholic power in North America. + +The Church thoroughly ruled the infant colony of Quebec. In the fort, +black-garbed Jesuits and scarfed officers mingled at Champlain's +table. Parkman says, "There was little conversation, but in its place, +histories and the lives of saints were read aloud, as in a monastic +refectory; prayers, masses and confessions followed each other with an +edifying regularity, and the bell of the adjacent chapel, built by +Champlain, rang morning, noon, and night; godless soldiers caught the +infection, and whipped themselves in penance for their sins; debauched +artisans outdid each other in the fury of their contrition; Quebec was +become a mission." Champlain died at Christmas, 1635, after a long +illness, at the age of sixty-eight, the "Father of Canada," and Quebec +was without a Governor for a half-year. Finally, the next summer, the +Father Superior, Le Jeune, who had been directing affairs, espied a +ship, and going down to the landing, was met by the new Governor, de +Montmagny, a Knight of Malta, with a long train of officers and +gentlemen. We are told that "as they all climbed the rock together, +Montmagny saw a crucifix planted by the path. He instantly fell on his +knees before it; and nobles, soldiers, sailors and priests imitated +his example. The Jesuits sang Te Deum at the church, and the cannon +roared from the adjacent fort. Here the new Governor was scarcely +installed, when a Jesuit came in to ask if he would be godfather to an +Indian about to be baptized. 'Most gladly,' replied the pious +Montmagny. He repaired on the instant to the convert's hut, with a +company of gaily-apparelled gentlemen; and while the inmates stared in +amazement at the scarlet and embroidery, he bestowed on the dying +savage the name of Joseph, in honor of the spouse of the Virgin and +the patron of New France. Three days after, he was told that a dead +proselyte was to be buried, on which, leaving the lines of the new +fortification he was tracing, he took in hand a torch, De Lisle, his +lieutenant, took another, Repentigny and St. Jean, gentlemen of his +suite, with a band of soldiers, followed, two priests bore the corpse, +and thus all moved together in procession to the place of burial. The +Jesuits were comforted. Champlain himself had not displayed a zeal so +edifying." The spiritual power thus so zealously exerted thoroughly +controlled Quebec, and its masterful force always continued. + + +THE FRENCH-CANADIAN MISSIONARIES. + +Boundless was the power exerted when the religious envoys of this +wonderful colony spread over the interior of America. When the heroic +bishop Laval de Montmorency stood on the altar-steps of his Basilica +at Quebec, he could wave his crozier over half a continent, from the +island of St. Pierre Miquelon to the source of the Mississippi, and +from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. The Jesuits' College at +Quebec was started in a small way as early as 1637, and from it, year +after year, issued forth the dauntless missionaries, carrying the +gospel out among the Indians for over three thousand miles into the +interior, preaching the faith beyond the Mississippi, and down its +valley, throughout Louisiana, many suffering death and martyrdom in +its most cruel forms. Nowhere in the church annals exists a grander +chapter than the record of these missionaries. Unarmed and alone, they +travelled the unexplored continent, bravely meeting every horrible +torture and lingering death inflicted by the vindictive savages, whom +they went out to bless. The world was amazed at their sufferings and +achievements. Even Puritan New England, we are told, received their +envoy with honors, the apostle Eliot entertaining him at Roxbury +parsonage, while Boston, Salem and Plymouth became his gracious hosts. +These devoted men loved the new country. "To the Jesuits," we are +told in their annals, "the atmosphere of Quebec was well-nigh +celestial. In the climate of New France one learns perfectly to seek +only one God; to have no desire but God; no purpose but for God. To +live in New France is in truth to live in the bosom of God. If anyone +of those who die in this country goes to perdition," writes Le Jeune, +"I think he will be doubly guilty." For years old France sent over a +multitude to reinforce these missions. They were urged on by rank, +wealth and power in the great work of converting the heathen, and the +noblest motives gave these missions life. Solitude, toil, privation, +hardship and death were the early French missionary's portion, yet +nothing made his zeal or courage flag. The saints and angels of their +faith hovered around these Jesuit martyrs with crowns of glory and +garlands of immortal bliss. It was no wonder that the French and +Jesuit influence soon extended far beyond the mere circle of converts. +It modified and softened the rude manners of many unconverted tribes. +Parkman, from whom I have already quoted, records that "in the wars of +the next century we do not often find those examples of diabolic +atrocity with which the earlier annals are crowded. The savage burned +his enemies alive, it is true, but he seldom ate them; neither did he +torment them with the same deliberation and persistency. He was a +savage still, but not so often a devil." + +The French missionary priests survived the period of torture and +trial, and became, in fact, the revered rulers of many of the Indian +tribes. They thoroughly assimilated and learned the languages. The +priest, regarded with awe and affection, knew so much, and was so +skillful as counsellor and physician, that the untutored savage came +to look upon him almost as a supernatural being. The biographer of the +venerable Father Davion, who governed the Yazoos in Louisiana, tells +how the Indians regarded him as more than human. "Had they not, they +said, frequently seen him at night, with his dark solemn gown, not +walking, but gliding through the woods like something spiritual? How +could one so weak in frame, and using so little food, stand so many +fatigues? How was it that whenever one of them fell sick, however +distant it might be, Father Davion knew it instantly and was sure to +be there before sought for? Did any of his prophecies ever prove +false? What was it he was in the habit of muttering so long, when +counting the beads of that mysterious chain that hung round his neck? +Was he not then telling the Great Spirit every wrong they had done? So +they both loved and feared Father Davion. One day they found him dead +at the foot of the altar; he was leaning against it with his head cast +back, with his hands clasped, and still retaining his kneeling +position. There was an expression of rapture in his face, as if to his +sight the gates of Paradise had suddenly unfolded themselves to give +him admittance; it was evident that his soul had exhaled into a +prayer, the last on this earth, but terminating no doubt in a hymn of +rejoicing above." But great as may be the spectacle of triumphant +martyrdom, there are yet men unwilling to change places with the +missionary priest. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in _The Problem_: + + "I like a church; I like a cowl; + I love a prophet of the soul; + And on my heart monastic aisles + Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles: + Yet not for all his faith can see + Would I that cowléd churchman be." + +But others also came to New France besides priests and martyrs; the +adventurers and beggared noblemen--poor, uneducated, yet bold and +courageous. The historian tells us of "the beggared noble of the early +time" who came over, "never forgetting his quality of _gentilhomme_; +scrupulously wearing its badge the sword, and copying, as well as he +could, the fashions of the court which glowed on his vision across the +sea with all the effulgence of Versailles and beamed with reflected +ray from the Chateau of Quebec. He was at home among his tenants, at +home among the Indians, and never more at home than when, a gun in his +hand and a crucifix on his breast, he took the warpath with a crew of +painted savages and Frenchmen almost as wild, and pounced like a lynx +from the forest on some lonely farm or outlying hamlet of New +England. How New England hated him, let her records tell. The reddest +blood-streaks on her old annals mark the track of the Canadian +_gentilhomme_." + + +QUAINT OLD QUEBEC. + +Thus created a thoroughly French region, Lower Canada still maintains +the religious character of the original colony. The geographical names +are mostly those of the saints and fathers of the Church, and much of +the land is owned by religious bodies. The population is four-fifths +French, and nowhere does the Church to-day show more vitality or +command more thorough devotion. The city of Quebec almost stands still +in population, having about seventy thousand, of whom five-sixths are +French. It is now just as Champlain made it, though larger, a +fortress, trading-station and church combined, and quaintly attractive +in all three phases. No finer location could have been selected for a +town and seaport, and no more impregnable position found to guard the +St. Lawrence passage than its junction with the river St. Charles. An +elevated tongue of land stretches along the northwestern bank of the +St. Lawrence for several miles, and from behind it comes out the St. +Charles. Below their junction the broad Isle of Orleans blocks the +way, dividing the St. Lawrence into two channels, while above, the +noble river contracts to the "Narrows," less than a mile in width, +making a strait guarded all along by bold shores. At the northern +extremity of this tongue of land, and opposite the "Narrows" of the +river, rises the lofty cliff of Cape Diamond, three hundred and fifty +feet above the water, the citadel crowning the hill and overlooking +the town nestling at its foot. The fortifications spread all around +the cliff and its approaches, completely guarding the rivers and the +means of access by land; but it is now all peaceful, being only a +show-place for sight-seers. As may be imagined, this grand fortress is +magnificent to look at from the water approach, while the outlook from +the ramparts and terraces on top of the cliff is one of the finest +sights over town and rivers, hills and woods, in the world. + +Quebec is quaint, ancient and picturesque, presenting strange +contrasts. A fortress and commercial mart have been built together on +the summit of a rock, like an eagle's nest. It is a French city in +America, ruled by the English, and was held mainly by Scotch and Irish +troops; a town with the institutions of the middle ages under modern +constitutional government, having torrid summers and polar winters, +and a range of the thermometer from thirty degrees below zero to one +hundred degrees above. When Charles Dilke came here he thought he was +back in the European Middle Ages. He found "gates and posterns, cranky +steps that lead up to lofty gabled houses with steep French roofs of +burnished tin like those of Liége; processions of the Host; altars +decked with flowers; statues of the Virgin; sabots and blouses; and +the scarlet of the British linesmen. All these are seen in narrow +streets and markets that are graced with many a Cotentin lace cap, and +all within forty miles of the Down East Yankee State of Maine. It is +not far from New England to Old France. There has been no dying out of +the race among the French Canadians. The American soil has left their +physical type, religion, language and laws absolutely untouched. They +herd together in their rambling villages; dance to the fiddle after +mass on Sundays as gaily as once did their Norman sires; and keep up +the _fleur de lys_ and the memory of Montcalm. More French than the +French are the Lower Canada _habitans_. The pulse-beat of the +Continent finds no echo here." Henry Ward Beecher thought Quebec the +most curious city he had ever seen, saying, "It is a peak thickly +populated, a gigantic rock, escarped, echeloned, and at the same time +smoothed off to hold firmly on its summit the houses and castles, +although, according to the ordinary laws of nature, they ought to fall +off, like a burden placed on a camel's back without a fastening. Yet +the houses and castles hold there as if they were nailed down. At the +foot of the rock some feet of land have been reclaimed from the river, +and that is for the streets of the Lower Town. Quebec is a dried shred +of the Middle Ages hung high up near the North Pole, far from the +beaten paths of the European tourists--a curiosity without parallel +on this side of the ocean. The locality ought to be scrupulously +preserved antique. Let modern progress be carried elsewhere. When +Quebec has taken the pains to go and perch herself away up near +Hudson's Bay, it would be cruel and unfitting to dare to harass her +with new ideas, and to speak of doing away with the narrow and +tortuous streets that charm all travellers in order to seek conformity +with the fantastic ideas of comfort in vogue in the nineteenth +century." + + +THE FORTRESS OF QUEBEC. + +Up on the cliff, in 1620, Champlain built the ancient castle of St. +Louis, which stood on the verge of the rock, where now is the eastern +end of the Dufferin Terrace, at an elevation of about one hundred and +eighty feet above the river. This was of timber, afterwards replaced +by a stone structure used for fort and prison, and burnt in the early +part of the nineteenth century, the site being now an open square, +with some relics, on the verge of the cliff. The great Quebec Citadel +upon the summit of the promontory, three hundred and fifty feet above +the river, is one of the most formidable of the former systems of +stone fortifications. It covers forty acres, and has outlying walls, +batteries and defensive works enclosing the entire ancient city, the +circuit being nearly three miles. There are batteries guarding the +water approach, gates on the landward side (some now dismantled), and +four massive martello towers on the edge of the Plains of Abraham +above the city, with long subterranean passages leading to them and +other outlying works. The Quebec rock is a dark slate, with an almost +perpendicular stratification, and shining quartz crystals found in it +gave it the name of Cape Diamond. The portion of the works overlooking +the St. Lawrence is called the Grand Battery, while the surmounting +pinnacle of the Citadel, containing a huge Armstrong gun, is the +King's Bastion. While Quebec's magnificent scenery and its tremendous +rock-crowned fortress remain as they were during the great colonial +wars, yet the military glory is gone. England long ago withdrew the +regular garrison, and only a handful of Canadian militia now hold the +place, and the guns are harmless from age and rust, only two or three +smaller ones doing the present ceremonious duties. In fact the old +rock is so given to sliding, that salutes are forbidden, excepting on +rare occasions, lest the concussion may bring some of the fatal +rock-slides down upon the people of the Lower Town. There is a little +bronze gun preserved as a trophy in the centre of the Parade, which +the British captured at Bunker Hill. Grand as this Citadel is, it no +longer protects Quebec, for in fact the defense against an enemy is +provided by the newer modern forts across the river behind Point +Levis, which command the river approach and cost some $15,000,000 to +construct. + +Yet great has been the conflict around this noted rock fortress in the +past. The earliest battles were at the old Castle of St. Louis, and +after the repulse of the New England colonial expeditions sent against +Quebec in 1711 it was determined to fortify the whole of Cape Diamond, +and then the Citadel and chief works were built. Two monuments, +however, record the greatest events in its history. The Wolfe-Montcalm +monument is the chief, erected just behind the Dufferin Terrace, in a +little green enclosure known as the "Governor's Garden," recording the +result of the greatest battle fought in Colonial America, the fateful +contest in 1759, on the Plains of Abraham, where both commanders fell, +which changed the sovereignty of Canada from France to England, and +the crowning victory of the "Seven Years' War," which Parkman says +"began the history of the United States." This is a plain shaft, +almost without ornamentation, and bears the names of both Generals. +The other monument is the little stone set up in the face of the cliff +on the river-front below the citadel, marking where the American +General Montgomery fell, in the winter of 1775. He had crossed the St. +Lawrence on the ice, and in imitation of Wolfe's previous exploit, +rashly tried to scale the almost perpendicular cliff with a handful of +troops, but was defeated and slain. Wolfe's successful ascent of the +bluff in 1759 had been made from the river three miles above Quebec, +at what is now known as Wolfe's Cove, where the timber ships load. A +little stream makes a ravine in the bank, and Wolfe and his intrepid +followers, having floated down from above with the tide, landed and +climbed through this gorge, the route they took being at present a +steep road ascending the face of the bluff among the trees, a small +flag-staff being planted at the top. The Plains of Abraham--so called +from Abraham Martin, a pilot living there--are now occupied by the +modern residences of the city and the massive buildings of the Quebec +Provincial Parliament. There is also a prison, and near it a monument +marking where Wolfe fell, being the second column erected, the first +having been carried away piecemeal by relic-hunters. Upon it is the +inscription: "Here died Wolfe victorious, Sept. 13, 1759." This marks +the most famous event in the history of the great fortress. Wolfe had +evidently a premonition. A young midshipman who was in the boat with +him, as they floated on the river at midnight to the ravine, told +afterwards how Wolfe, in a low voice, repeated Gray's _Elegy in a +Country Churchyard_ to the officers about him, including the line his +own fate was soon to illustrate, "The paths of glory lead but to the +grave," saying, as the recital ended, "Gentlemen, I would rather have +written those lines than take Quebec." William Pitt, describing the +great result of the battle, said, "The horror of the night, the +precipice scaled by Wolfe, the empire he, with a handful of men, +added to England, and the glorious catastrophe of contentedly +terminating life where his fame began--ancient story may be ransacked +and ostentatious philosophy thrown into the account, before an episode +can be found to rank with Wolfe's." + + +QUEBEC RELIGIOUS HOUSES. + +Various streets and stairways mount the great Quebec rock in zigzags, +and there is also an inclined-plane passenger elevator. In the Lower +Town, the narrow streets display quaint old French houses with +queer-looking porches and oddly-built steps, high steep roofs, tall +dormer windows and capacious stone chimneys. The French population +cluster in the Lower Town and along St. Charles River. Churches and +religious houses seem distributed everywhere. The great Catholic +establishments are prominent in the Upper Town, nearly all founded in +the seventeenth century. The Holy Father at Rome, recognizing the +exalted position Quebec occupies in the Church, has made its +Cathedral, like the patriarchal churches of Rome, a Basilica, its +Archbishop being a Cardinal. It occupies the place of the first church +built by Champlain, is not very large, but is magnificently decorated +and contains fine paintings. Within are buried Champlain and +Frontenac, and the great Bishop Laval de Montmorency. Adjoining is the +palace of the Cardinal Archbishop, who is the Canadian Primate. Also +adjoining are the spacious buildings of the Seminary, founded and +richly endowed by Laval,--one of the wealthiest institutions and most +extensive landowners of Quebec Province. This is still regarded as the +controlling power of the Church in Lower Canada, as it has been for +two centuries. There is also a Cathedral of the Church of England, a +smaller and plain building, where the war-worn battle-flags of the +British troops, carried in the Crimea, hang in the chancel, and the +fine communion service was presented by King George III. Here is also +the memorial of the early Anglican bishop of Quebec, Jacob Mountain, +of whom it was said he happened to be in the presence of that king +when the king expressed doubt as to who should be appointed bishop of +the new See of Quebec, then just created. Said Dr. Mountain, "If your +Majesty had faith there would be no difficulty." "How so?" asked the +king; whereupon Mountain answered, "If you had faith you would say to +this Mountain, be thou removed into that See, and it would be done." +It was; Quebec getting a most excellent bishop, who labored over +thirty years there, dying in 1825. There are also the splendid +building of Laval University, one of the first educational +institutions of the Dominion; the Hotel Dieu, and Ursuline Convent +originally started by Madame de la Peltrie, in the Upper Town. + +These establishments all had their origin in the religious enthusiasm +attending the settlement of Canada, in which France took great pride, +although Voltaire afterwards derided it as "Fifteen hundred leagues of +frozen country." From Sillery, where the first Jesuit Mission was +founded, went out the zealous missionaries and martyrs, who followed +the Hurons into the depths of the forest, and sought to reclaim the +Iroquois, as has been well said, "with toil too great to buy the +kingdoms of this world, but very small as a price for the Kingdom of +Heaven." From Sillery went the Jesuit Fathers, who explored all +America, and also Jogues, Brébeuf, Lalemont, and others, to martyrdom +in founding the primitive Canadian mission church. It was also the +religious French women as well as the devoted men, who laid so deep +and strong the pious foundation of Canada. Little do we really know of +the nun, who in her religious devotion practically buries herself +alive. Down in the Lower Town, near the Champlain Market, originally +lived the first colony of Ursuline nuns, who came out with Madame de +la Peltrie to teach and nurse the Indians. She afterwards left them, +as already stated, and went to help settle Montreal. Later their +establishment was removed to the Upper Town, where it now has an +impressive array of buildings, with about fifty nuns, who educate most +of the leading Quebec young ladies. The great success of this Order +was due to its Superioress, Marie Gruyart, known as Mother Marie de +l'Incarnation, a remarkable woman, who mastered the Huron and +Algonquin languages, and devoted herself and her nuns to the +special work of educating Indian girls, being called by Bossuet the +"St. Theresa of the New World." In the shrines of this convent are +relics of St. Clement Martyr, and other saints, brought from the Roman +Catacombs. Its most famous possession is the remains of Montcalm, who +was carried mortally wounded from the battlefield into the convent to +die. His skull is preserved in a casket covered with glass, and is +regarded with the greatest veneration. His body is buried in the +chapel, and his grave is said to have been dug by a shell which burst +there during the fierce bombardment preceding his death. This convent +has had a chequered history, being repeatedly bombarded, and twice +burnt during attacks on the city, and at times occupied as barracks by +the troops of both friend and foe. Of late, however, the lives of +these sisters of St. Ursula have been more tranquil. + + [Illustration: _Montcalm's Headquarters, Quebec_] + +The most extensive collection of religious buildings is the Convent +and Hospital of the Hotel Dieu, in the Upper Town. There are some +sixty cloistered nuns of this Order, founded in 1639 by Cardinal +Richelieu's niece, the Duchess d'Aguillon. They care for the sick and +infirm poor, their hospital accommodating over six hundred. The oldest +structure dates from 1654, and much of the collection is over two +centuries old. The most precious relics in their convent are the +remains of two of the Jesuit martyrs who went out from Sillery, +Fathers Brébeuf and Lalemont. There is a silver bust of the former, +and his skull is carefully preserved. Jean de Brébeuf was a Norman of +noble birth, who came out with Champlain, and he and Lalemont were +sent on a mission beyond Ontario to the Huron country, establishing +the mission town of St. Ignace, near Niagara River. They lived sixteen +years with these Indians, learning their language, and gaining great +influence over them. The Iroquois from New York attacked and captured +the town in 1649, taking the missionaries captive and putting them to +death with frightful tortures. Brébeuf, who frequently had celestial +visions, always announced his belief that he would die a martyr for +Christ. The story of his torture is one of the most horrible in the +colonial wars. He was bound to a stake and scorched from head to foot; +his lower lip was cut away, and a red-hot iron thrust down his throat. +They hung a necklace of glowing coals around his neck, which the +indomitable priest stood heroically; they poured boiling water over +his head and face in mockery of baptism; cut strips of flesh from his +limbs, eating them before his eyes, scalped him, cut open his breast +and drank his blood, then filled his eyes with live coals, and after +four hours of torture, finally killed him by tearing out his heart, +which the Indian chief at once devoured. The writer recording this +terrible ordeal says, "Thus died Jean de Brébeuf, the founder of the +Huron mission, its truest hero, and its greatest martyr. He came of a +noble race,--the same, it is said, from which sprang the English Earls +of Arundel, but never had the mailed barons of his line confronted a +fate so appalling, with so prodigious a constancy. To the last he +refused to flinch, and his death was the astonishment of his +murderers." Gabriel Lalemont, his colleague, was a delicate young man, +and was tortured seventeen hours, bearing the torments nobly, and +though at times faltering, yet he would rally, and with uplifted hands +offer his sufferings to heaven as a sacrifice. His bones are preserved +in the Hotel Dieu. The burning of St. Ignace village dispersed the +Hurons, but years afterwards a remnant was gathered by the Jesuit +Fathers, and their descendants are at Lorette, up St. Charles River. + +From the Ursuline Convent the Champlain Steps lead down the cliff to +the Champlain Market, having alongside it the ancient little church of +Notre Dame des Victoires. This is a plain stone church of moderate +size, built in 1688 as the church of Notre Dame, on the site of +Champlain's house. The interior, which has had modern renovation, +displays rich gilding, and the church's interesting history is told by +two angels hovering over the chancel, each bearing a banner, one +inscribed "1690" and the other "1711." The fiery Count de Frontenac, +who was Louis XIV.'s Governor of Quebec, had ravaged the New England +colonies, and in 1690, shortly after the church was built, Sir William +Phips, from Massachusetts, retaliated. The Iroquois, who were English +allies, menaced Montreal, and all the French troops were sent thither. +Suddenly, in October, Phips and his fleet appeared in the St. Lawrence +below Quebec. Urgent messages were sent the troops to return, and the +devout Ursuline nuns prayed for deliverance with such fervor in the +little church, that Phips was struck with a phase of indecision, +wasted his time, summoned the town to surrender, a message which the +bold Frontenac spurned, and then, without making an attack, Phips +wasted more time, until the French troops did return, so that when the +demonstration was made it was successfully repulsed, and after +repeated disasters Phips and his fleet sailed back to New England. +Great was the rejoicing in Quebec, a thanksgiving procession singing +Te Deums marched to the little church, and then the Bishop, with an +elaborate ceremonial, changed its name to Notre Dame de la Victoire. +Twenty-one years afterwards, in 1711, another British invading force +came up the river under Sir Hovenden Walker, and again the +intercession of Notre Dame was implored. The reassuring answer quickly +came by fog and storm, producing dire disaster to the fleet, eight +ships being wrecked and many hundreds drowned. Quebec again was saved; +there was the wildest rejoicing, and in honor of the double triumph +the church was re-named as Notre Dame des Victoires. An annual +religious festival is held on the fourth Sunday in October to +commemorate these miraculous deliverances. But the famous little +church was not always to escape unscathed. One of the Ursuline nuns +prophesied that it would ultimately be destroyed by the British, who +would finally conquer, and when Wolfe's batteries bombarded Quebec in +1759 it severely suffered. It was repaired, and exists to-day as one +of the most precious relics in the ancient city, in its oldest +quarter, adjoining the market-place, and revered with all the +unquestioning devotion of the _habitan_. + + +THE DUFFERIN TERRACE. + +There is a fine outlook from the Dufferin Terrace, high up on the +cliff above the river, the favorite gathering-place of the townsfolk +on pleasant afternoons. The St. Lawrence flows placidly, with a narrow +strip of town far down below at its edge, and a few vessels moored to +the bank. At one's feet are the Champlain market and the famous little +church, and a mass of the peaked tin-covered roofs of the diminutive +French houses crowded in along the contracted street at the base of +the cliff. High above rises the towering citadel with its rounded +King's Bastion, the black guns thrusting their muzzles over the +parapet and the Union Jack floating from a flagstaff at the top. +Across the river is Point Levis, with piers and railroad terminals +spread along the bank, and various villages with their imposing +convents and churches crown the high bluff shore for a long distance +up and down. Farther back upon the wooded slopes of the hills are the +great modern built forts which command the river and are the military +protection of Quebec, their lines of earthworks just discernible among +the trees. The river sweeps grandly around the projecting point of +Cape Diamond and the surmounting citadel, passing away to the +northeast with broadening current, where it receives the St. Charles, +and beyond is divided by the low projecting point of the green Isle of +Orleans. The main channel flows to the right behind Point Levis, and +the other far away to the left with the Falls of Montmorency in the +distance, and the dark range of Laurentian Mountains for a background +with the noble summit of Mount Sainte Anne, and the huge promontory of +Cape Tourmente at the river's edge. Nearer, the Quebec Lower Town +spreads to a flat point at St. Charles River, ending in the broad +surface of Princess Louise Basin, containing the shipping. Beyond +this, a long road extends along the northern river bank, through +Beauport and down to Montmorency, bordered by little white French +cottages strung along it like beads upon a thread. Such is the +landscape of wondrous interest seen from the cliff of Quebec. Across +the St. Lawrence, elevated one hundred and fifty feet above the river, +between Quebec and Point Levis is about being constructed a great +railway bridge with the largest cantilever span in the world. + +A ride along the attractive road through Beauport gives an insight +into the home life of the French Canadian _habitan_. The village +stretches several miles, a single street bordered on either hand by +rows of unique cottages, nearly all alike; one-story steep-roofed +houses of wood or plaster, almost all painted white, and one +reproducing the other. The first Frenchman who arrived built this sort +of a house, and all his neighbors and descendants have done likewise. +They, like him, do it, because their ancestors builded so. The house +may be larger, or may be of stone, but there is no change in form or +feature. The centre doorway has a room on either hand with windows, +and a steep roof rises above the single story. The house, regardless +of the front road, must face north or south. The long, narrow strips +of farms, some only a few yards wide, and of enormous length, run +mathematically north and south. It matters not that this highway, +parallel with the river, runs northeast. That cannot change the +inexorable rule, and hence all the houses are set at an angle with the +road, and all the dividing-fence lines are diagonals. The sun-loving +Gaul taboos shade-trees, and therefore the sun blazes down upon the +unsheltered house in summer, while the careful housewife, to keep out +the excessive light, closes all the windows with thick shades made of +old-fashioned wall-papers. The little triangular space between the +cottage and the road is usually a brilliant flower-garden. Crosses are +set up frequently for the encouragement of the faithful, and there +are imposing churches and ecclesiastical buildings at intervals. Along +this road ride the French in their queer-looking two-wheeled caléches, +appearing much like a deep-bowled spoon set on wheels, and in +elongated buckboard wagons of ancient build, surmounted by the most +homely and venerable gig-tops. These French cottages are more +picturesque than their vehicles. + +The French Canadian _habitan_, the _cultivateur_, and peasant of +Quebec province, is about the same to-day as he was two or three +centuries ago. The Lower Canada village reproduces the French hamlet +of the time of Louis XIV., and the inhabitants show the same zealous +and absorbing religious devotion as when the French first peopled the +St. Lawrence shores. Within the cottage, hung above the _habitan's_ +modest bed, is the black wooden cross that is to be the first thing +greeting the waking eyes in the morning, as it has been the last +object seen at night. Below it is the sprig of palm in a vase, with +the little bonitier of holy water, and alongside is placed the +calendar of religious events in the parish. The palm sprig is annually +renewed on Palm Sunday, the old sprig being then carefully burnt. +Great is its power in warding off lightning strokes and exorcising the +evil spirits. The central object around which every village clusters +is always the church, with its high walls, sloping roof, and tall and +shining tin-clad spire. The curé is the village autocrat; the legal +and medical adviser, the family counsellor, and usually the political +leader of his flock. He blesses all the houses when they are built, +and as soon as the walls are up a bunch of palm is attached to the +gable or the chimney, a gun being fired to mark the event. When the +_Angelus_ tolls all stop work, wherever they are, and say the short +prayer in devout attitude. Before beginning or completing any task the +reverent _habitans_ always piously cross themselves. They do this also +in passing churches, or the many crosses and statues set up along the +roads and in the villages. They are temperate, industrious and +thrifty, live simply, eat the plainest food, are abundantly content +with their lot, and usually raise large families. In fact, there is a +bounty given, by act of the Quebec Provincial Legislature, of one +hundred acres of land to parents having more than twelve living +children. It is not infrequent to find twenty-five or thirty or more +children in a single family. In personal appearance the _habitan_ is +generally of small or medium size, with sparkling brown eyes, dark +complexion, a placid face and well-knit frame. He has strong endurance +and capacity for work, but usually not much education, the prayer-book +furnishing most of the family reading. The Church encourages early +marriages, and domestic fecundity is honored as a special gift from +Heaven. The pious veneration, like the creed of this simple-minded +people, is the same to-day as it was in the seventeenth century. +Their faith is fervent and their belief complete. They typify the +beautiful idea the late Cardinal Newman exemplified in his exquisite +poem: + + "Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, + Lead thou me on; + The night is dark, and I am far from home; + Lead thou me on; + Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me. + + "I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou + Shouldst lead me on; + I loved to choose and see my path; but now + Lead thou me on! + I loved the garish day, and spite of fears + Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years! + + "So long thy power hast blest me, sure it still + Will lead me on + O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till + The night is gone, + And with the morn those angel faces smile, + Which I have loved long since and lost awhile!" + + +LA BONNE SAINTE ANNE. + +This road leads to the Montmorency River, a vigorous stream flowing +out of Snow Lake, ninety miles northward, down to the St. Lawrence. +For a mile or so above the latter river it has worn a series of steps +in the limestone rocks, making attractive rapids, and the waters +finally pitch over a nearly perpendicular precipice, almost at the +verge of the St. Lawrence, falling two hundred and fifty feet in a +magnificent cataract, the dark amber torrent brilliantly foaming, and +making vast amounts of spray. In winter there is formed a cone of ice +in front of these falls, sometimes two hundred feet high. The cataract +goes down into a deep gorge, worn back through the rocks, some +distance from the St. Lawrence bank, and protruding cliffs in the face +of the fall make portions of the water, when part way down, dart out +in huge masses of foam and spray. A large sawmill below gets its power +from this cataract, and it also provides the electric lighting service +for Quebec. Farther down the north shore of the St. Lawrence, through +more quaint villages--L'Ange Gardien and Chateau Richer--the road +leads along breezy hills and pleasant vales in the Coté de Beaupré, to +the most renowned shrine of all Canada, about twenty miles below +Quebec, the Church of "La Bonne Sainte Anne de Beaupré." This famous +old church is the special shrine of the _habitan_, the objective point +of many pilgrim parties from Canada and New England, where there now +is a large population of French Canadians, as many as a hundred and +fifty thousand pilgrims coming in a single year, and it is the most +venerated spot in all Lower Canada. The Coté de Beaupré, the northern +St. Lawrence shore below Montmorency, is an appanage of the Seminary +of Quebec. The little Sainte Anne's river comes down from the slopes +of Sainte Anne's Mountain among the Laurentides, and after dashing +over the steep and attractive cataract of Sainte Anne, flows out to +the St. Lawrence. Upon the level and picturesque intervale of this +stream is a primitive French village, whose people get support partly +by making bricks for Quebec, but mainly through the entertainment of +the army of pilgrims coming to the miraculous shrine of "La Bonne +Sainte Anne." The village spreads mostly along a narrow street filled +with inns and lodging-houses which are crowded during the pilgrimage +season from June till October, culminating on Sainte Anne's festival +day, July 26th. To the eastward of the village is the beautiful +church, not long ago built from the pious doles of the faithful, a +massive and elaborate granite building. Just above it, upon the bank, +is the original little church of Sainte Anne, which is so highly +venerated, and wherein the sacred relics of the saint are carefully +kept in a crystal globe, and are exhibited at morning mass, when their +contemplation by the pilgrims, combined with faith, works miraculous +cures. The old church of 1658, threatening to fall, was taken down in +1878, and rebuilt with the same materials on the original plan. It is +quaintly furnished in the French-Canadian style of the seventeenth +century, and one of its features is the mass of abandoned crutches and +canes piled along the cornices and in the sacristy, left by the +cripples who have departed relieved or healed. + +This is probably the holiest ground in Canada, consecrated by nearly +three centuries of the most fervent devotion of the ever-faithful +_habitans_. Just below Sainte Anne is the companion village of St. +Joachim. Sainte Anne was the mother and St. Joachim the father of the +Virgin Mary. The tradition is that after Sainte Anne's body had +reposed quietly for many years at Jerusalem, it was sent to the Bishop +of Marseilles, and later to Apt, where it was placed in a subterranean +chapel to guard it from heathen profanation. The church at Apt was +swept away by the invader, but some seven centuries afterwards the +Emperor Charlemagne visited the town, and marvellous incidents took +place, light being seen emanating from the vault accompanied by a +delicious fragrance, whereupon investigation was made and the long +lost remains of Sainte Anne recovered. Ever since, her sacred relics +have been highly venerated in France, and it was natural that the +early French Canadians should bring their pious devotion into the new +Province. Various churches were built in her honor, the chief being +this one at Beaupré, by the devout Governor d'Allebout. With his own +hands the Governor began the pious work of erecting the church, and as +an encouragement, the Cathedral Chapter in France sent to the new +shrine a relic of Sainte Anne--a portion of a finger-bone--together +with a reliquary of silver, a lamp, and some paintings, all being +preserved in this church. The legend of the building is, that upon its +site a beautiful little child of the village was thrice favored with +Heavenly visions. Upon the third appearance, the Virgin commanded the +child that she should tell her people to build a church there in honor +of her saintly mother. Thus was the location chosen, and while the +foundation was being laid, a _habitan_ of the Coté de Beaupré, one +Guimont, sorely afflicted with rheumatism, came there with great +difficulty, and filled with pain, to try and lay three stones in the +wall, presumably in honor of the Virgin, her father and mother. With +much labor and suffering he performed the task, but instantly it was +completed he became miraculously cured. This began a long series of +miracles, their fame spreading, so that devotion to Sainte Anne became +a distinguishing feature of French-Canadian Catholicity. + +The great Bishop Laval de Montmorency made Sainte Anne's day a feast +of obligation. During the French régime, vessels ascending the St. +Lawrence always saluted when passing the shrine, in grateful +thanksgiving that their prayers to Sainte Anne had been answered by +deliverance from the perils of the sea. Pilgrims flocked thither, and +many cures were wrought by pious veneration of the relics. As religion +spread among the Indians, sometimes the adjacent shore would be +covered by the wigwams of the converts who had come in their canoes +from remote regions, and the more fervent of them would crawl on their +knees from the river bank to the altar. To-day the pilgrims bring +their offerings and make their vows, pleading for relief, many +crossing the ocean from France, and it is said of these votaries at +the shrine that they now come, "not in paint and feathers, but in +cloth and millinery, and not in canoes, but in steamboats." It is +noteworthy that in all the vicissitudes of war repeatedly waged around +the famous place, the village being sacked and burned, the church was +always preserved. When the British under Wolfe, prior to capturing +Quebec in 1759, attacked Beaupré, they three times, tradition says, +set fire to the church, but by the special intervention of Sainte Anne +it escaped unscathed. Upon Sainte Anne's festival day, in 1891, many +thousand pilgrims poured into the village, and Cardinal Archbishop +Taschereau came down from Quebec, bringing another precious relic of +Sainte Anne--a complete finger-joint--which he had obtained for the +shrine from Carcassonne, in Languedoc, France. The Holy Father had +raised the new church to the dignity of a Basilica, and two years +previously he also sent from Rome a massive golden crown, set with +precious stones, and valued at $56,000. This crown was worn by the +rich statue of Sainte Anne, holding the infant Virgin in her arms, +which stands before the chancel. There was an elaborate ceremonial, a +large number of priests participating, and a solemn procession +translated the precious relic to the church, where, after the +services, it was venerated, the reliquary containing it being +presented to the lips of each communicant kneeling in the sanctuary. +Several miraculous cures were announced, but it is recorded that most +of the cripples taken into the church had to be carried out again +unrelieved. Around this sacred shrine crystallizes in the highest +degree the pious veneration of the faithful French-Canadian +_habitans_. + + +THE LOWER ST. LAWRENCE. + +The river St. Lawrence below Quebec is a mighty arm of the sea, +stretching in from the Atlantic, through a vast valley enclosed by the +primeval forest. The northern shore shows the domination of +ruggedness, for here begins the mountain wall of the Laurentides, +stretching far away northeastward down the river towards Labrador. The +southern shore is less forbidding, having wide fertile slopes rising +to a background of wooded hills. Along the river bank is a sparsely +scattered strip of humanity, which is likened to a rosary, having the +primitive farmhouses for beads, and at every few miles a tall, +cross-crowned church spire. Set in between the river banks, just below +Quebec, is the broad and fertile Isle of Orleans, but beyond this the +St. Lawrence is six miles wide, and steadily broadens, attaining +twenty-four miles width at Tadousac, the mouth of the Saguenay, and +thirty-five width at Metis, one hundred and fifty miles below Quebec. +The Isle of Orleans is twenty miles long and very fertile, largely +supplying the markets of Quebec. To the northward Mount Sainte Anne, +the guardian of the famous shrine, rises twenty-seven hundred feet. +Jacques Cartier so liked the grapes grown on the island that he called +it the Isle of Bacchus, but the king, Francis I., would not have it +so, and named it after his son, the Duke of Orleans. Here were +massacred the Hurons by the Iroquois, who captured from them the great +cross of Argentenay, carrying it off to their stronghold, on Onondaga +Lake, New York, in 1661. On the northern shore of the island is the +old stone church of St. Laurent and farther along that of St. Pierre, +the meadows hereabout providing good shooting. The faithful at St. +Laurent were said to have been long the envied possessors of a piece +of the arm-bone of the Apostle Paul, a most precious relic, which was +clandestinely seized and taken over to St. Pierre Church. This made a +great commotion, and some of the young men of St. Laurent made an +expedition at night, entered the church, recaptured the relic, and +brought it back with some other articles, restoring it to the original +shrine. A controversy between the villagers followed, growing so +fierce that an outbreak was threatened, and the Archbishop at Quebec +had to intervene to keep the peace. He ordered each church to restore +the other its relics, which was done with solemn ceremony, processions +marching along the road between the villages, and making the exchange +midway, a large black cross since marking the spot. + +The great promontory of the Laurentides, Cape Tourmente, stretches to +the river, with the dark mass of ancient mountains spreading beyond in +magnificent array, the cliffs rising high above the water, firs +clinging to their sides and crowning their worn and rounded summits. +On top of Tourmente the Seminarians have erected a huge cross, seen +from afar, with a little chapel alongside. The old Canadian traveller, +Charlevoix, said Cape Tourmente was probably so-called "because he +that gave it this name suffered here by a gust of wind." + + "At length they spy huge Tourmente, sullen-browed, + Bathe his bald forehead in a passing cloud; + The Titan of the lofty capes that gleam + In long succession down the mighty stream." + +Here are Grosse Isle, the quarantine station for the river, and the +Isle aux Coudres--Hazel Tree Island,--behind which a break in the +Laurentides makes a pleasant nook, the Bay of St. Paul, having little +villages named after the saints all about. Below, the mountain range +rises into the great Mount Eboulements, twenty-five hundred feet high, +its sides scarred by landslides brought down by various earthquakes, +which were once so frequent that the Indians called the region +Cuscatlan, meaning "the land that swings like a hammock." The name of +this mountain means the "falling, shaking, crumbling mountain," but +it is nevertheless now noted as the haughtiest headland of the +Laurentides. This whole region has been a great sufferer from volcanic +disturbances, the chief being in 1663, when the historian says "the +St. Lawrence ran white as milk as far down as Tadousac; ranges of +hills were thrown down into the river or were swallowed up in the +plains; earthquakes shattered the houses and shook the trees until the +Indians said that the forests were drunk; vast fissures opened in the +ground and the courses of streams were changed. Meteors, fiery-winged +serpents and ghostly spectres were seen in the air; roarings and +mysterious voices sounded on every side, and the confessionals of all +the churches were crowded with penitents awaiting the end of the +world." Below this frowning mountain, the little Murray River flows +in, making a deep bay and sandy beaches, and far back, under the +shadows of the bordering hills, are the parish church and the French +village of St. Agnes up the river. This place is Murray Bay, a +favorite watering-place, known as Malbaie among the French, the hotels +and wide one-story cottages of this Canadian Newport being scattered +in the ravine and on the hill-slopes. When Champlain first entered +this bay in 1608 he named it Malle Baie, explaining that this was +because of "the tide that runs there marvellously." It is said that an +attempt was once made to settle Murray Bay with Scotch emigrants, but +the families who were sent out soon succumbed to the overwhelming +influence of the surroundings, and their descendants, while having +unmistakable Scottish names, have adopted the French language and +customs. Over on the southern bank, thirty miles away, for the river +is now very wide, is another favorite resort, Riviere du Loup, with +the adjacent village of Kamouraska, the great church of St. Louis and +a large convent being prominent in the latter. + +Riviere du Loup is the best developed of the watering-places of the +Lower St. Lawrence. The shore is gentle, and in sharp contrast with +the rugged northern bank. The village spreads on a broad plateau, +formed by the inflowing stream, there being hotels and boarding-houses +scattered about, a tall-spired church back of the town, and a long +wharf stretching out in front. To the eastward the sloping shore +extends far away to Cacouna, eight miles below, another favorite +resort also sentinelled by its church. The Riviere du Loup (Wolf +River) naming this place flows out of the distant southern mountains +to the St. Lawrence, and is said to have been so called from the +droves of seals,--called by the French "loups-marines"--formerly +frequenting the shoals off its mouth. Just back of the village the +stream plunges down a waterfall eighty feet high. Cacouna is the most +fashionable resort of the southern shore, and a place of comparatively +recent growth, its semicircular bay with a good beach and the cool +summer airs being the attractions. In front and connected by a low +isthmus is a large peninsula of rounded granite rock, shaped much like +a turtle-back and rising four hundred feet. From this came the Indian +name, Cacouna, or the turtle. + + +THE GRAND AND GLOOMY SAGUENAY. + +Far over to the northward, across the broad river, is ancient +Tadousac, enclosed by the guarding mountains at the entrance to the +Saguenay. The harbor and landing are within a small rounded bay, +having the Salmon Hatching House of the Dominion alongside the wharf, +a cascade pouring down the hillside behind, and a little white inn +prettily perched above on a shelf of rock. The village spreads over +irregular terraces, encircling three of these little rounded bays, +beyond which the narrow Saguenay chasm goes off westward through the +mountains into a savage wilderness. This place has been a trading-post +with the Indians for over three centuries, and the ancient buildings +of the Hudson Bay Company testify to the traffic in furs, once so +good, which has become almost obsolete. It was visited by Cartier in +1535, and afterwards was established as one of the earliest missions +of the Jesuits, who came here in 1599 and raised the cross among the +Nasquapees of the Saguenay--the "upright men," as they called +themselves,--and the Montaignais, both then powerful tribes, which +have since entirely disappeared from this region, having withdrawn to +its upper waters, around and beyond Lake St. John. The old chapel, +replacing the original Jesuit church--said to have been the first +erected in North America--stands down by the waterside, a diminutive, +peak-roofed, one-story building, kept as a memorial of the past, for +the people now worship in a fine new stone church farther up the +rounded hill-slope. These knoll-like rounded hills or mamelons named +the place, for they are numerous, and Tadousac, literally a "nipple," +is the Indian word for them. The most valued possession of the church +is a figure of the child Jesus, originally sent to the mission by King +Louis XIV. This is the oldest settlement of the Lower St. Lawrence. + +The stern and gloomy Saguenay, the largest tributary of the Lower St. +Lawrence, is one of the most remarkable rivers in the world. Its main +portion is a tremendous chasm cleft in a nearly straight line for +sixty miles in the Laurentian Mountains, through an almost unsettled +wilderness. These Laurentides make the northern shore of the St. +Lawrence for hundreds of miles below Quebec, rising into higher peaks +and ridges in the interior, and being the most ancient part of +America, the geologists telling us the waves of the Silurian Sea +washed against this range when only two small islands represented the +rest of the continent. Through this vast chasm the Saguenay brings +down the waters of Lake St. John and its many tributaries, some of +them rising in the remote north, almost up to Hudson Bay. This lower +portion of the river goes through an almost uninhabitable desert of +gloomy mountains, the tillable land being in the basin of the Upper +Saguenay and Lake St. John, the people of that valley living there in +almost complete isolation. Logs and huckleberries are the crops +produced on this savage river, the only things the sparse population +can depend upon for a living, and the fine blueberries bring them the +scant doles of ready money they ever see. The Saguenay's inky waters +have the smell of brine as they break in froth upon the shore, and +then the air-bubbles show the real color to be that of brandy. The +upper tributaries give this color as they flow out of forests of +spruce and hemlock and swamps filled with mosses and highly colored +roots and vegetable matter. Almost all the lakes and rivers of the +vast wilderness north of the St. Lawrence present a similar +appearance, their rapids and waterfalls, seen under the sunshine, +seeming like sheets of liquid amber. + +The vast accumulations of waters gathered from the heart of the +Laurentides by the tributaries of Lake St. John flow down the rapids +below the lake in a stream rivalling those of Niagara. Thus the +Saguenay comes into being in the form of lusty twins--the Grand +Discharge and the Little Discharge--deep and narrow river channels +worn in the rocks. For some miles they run separately through rapids +and pools, finally joining at the foot of Alma Island, where begin +the Gervais Rapids, four miles long. The Grand Discharge is a +beautiful stream of rapids, the rippling and roaring currents flowing +through a maze of islands, while the Little Discharge is a condensed +stream, so powerful and unruly that it actually destroys the logs in +its boisterous cataracts, the government having made a "Slide," down +which the timber is run past the dangerous places. After passing +Gervais Rapids the Saguenay has a quiet reach of fifteen miles to the +Grand Ramous, the most furious cascade of all, and then a few more +miles of rapids and falls bring it to Chicoutimi, ending its wild +career where it meets the tide above Ha Ha Bay. The first bold +Frenchmen who ventured up through the stupendous and forbidding chasm +of the Lower Saguenay gave this bay its name, to show their delight at +having finally emerged from the gloomy region. At Ha Ha Bay the tide +often rises twenty-one feet, and below, the river forces its passage +with a broad channel through almost perpendicular cliffs out to the +St. Lawrence. Its great depth is noteworthy, showing what a fearful +chasm has been split open, there being in many places a mile to a mile +and a half depth, while the channel throughout averages eight hundred +feet depth. For most of the distance the river is a mile or more wide. +The original name given the river by the Montaignais was Chicoutimi, +or the "deep water," now given the village below the foot of the +rapids. The present name is a corruption of the Indian word +Saggishsékuss, meaning "a strait with precipitous banks." The sad +sublimity of the impressive chasm culminates at Eternity Bay, where on +either hand rise in stately grandeur to sixteen hundred feet elevation +above the water Cape Trinity, with its three summits, and Cape +Eternity. Ten miles above is Le Tableau, a cliff one thousand feet +high, its vast smooth front like an artist's canvas. + +This sombre river, whose bed is much lower than that of the St. +Lawrence, is frozen for almost its whole course during half the year, +and snow lies on its bordering mountains until June. It makes a +saddening impression upon most visitors. Bayard Taylor compared the +Saguenay chasm to the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley, describing +everything as "hard, naked, stern, silent; dark gray cliffs of +granitic gneiss rise from the pitch-black water; firs of gloomy green +are rooted in their crevices and fringe their summits; loftier ranges +of a dull indigo hue show themselves in the background, and over all +bends a pale, cold, northern sky." Another traveller calls it "a cold, +savage, inhuman river, fit to take rank with Styx and Acheron;" and +"Nature's sarcophagus," compared to which, "the Dead Sea is blooming;" +and so solitary, dreary and monotonous that it "seems to want +painting, blowing up or draining--anything, in short, to alter its +morose, quiet, eternal awe." + + +EXPLORING THE SAGUENAY CHASM. + +Ha Ha Bay, where the exploring Frenchmen found such relief for their +oppressed feelings, is a long strait thrust through the mountains +southwest from the Saguenay for several miles, broadening at the head +into an oval bay, practically a basin among the crags, with two or +three French villages around it, named after various saints. The +modest one-story huts of the _habitans_ fringe the lower slopes near +the water's edge along the valleys of several small streams, each +cluster having its church with the tall spire. The basin is two or +three miles across, enclosed by bold cliffs and rounded hills, the +wide beaches of sand and pebble showing the great rise and fall of the +tide. There is a sawmill or two, and lumber and huckleberries are the +products of the district. Chicoutimi village is above the chasm, at a +point where the intervale broadens, the savage mountains retiring, +leaving a space for gentle tree-clad slopes and cultivated fields. +Standing high on the western bank are the magnificent Cathedral, the +Seminary, a Sailors' Hospital, and the Convent of the Good Shepherd, +and not far away a tributary stream pours fifty feet down the +Chicoutimi Falls in a rushing cascade of foam. There are extensive +sawmills, and timber ships come in the summer for cargoes for Europe, +and the place has railway connections with Lake St. John and thence +southward to Quebec. There is a population of about three thousand. +The universal little one-story, peak-roofed, whitewashed French +cottages abound, some having a casing of squared pieces of birch-bark +to protect them from the weather, making them look much like stone +houses, and peeping inside it is found that the inhabitants usually +utilize their old newspapers for wall-paper. + +From Chicoutimi down to Tadousac the region of the Saguenay chasm is +practically without habitation. There are two or three small villages, +chiefly abodes of timber-cutters, but it is otherwise uninhabited; nor +do the precipitous cliffs usually leave any place near the river for a +dwelling to be put. As the visitor goes along on the steamboat it is a +steady and monotonous panorama of dark, dreary, round-topped crags, +with stunted firs sparsely clinging to their sides and tops where +crevices will let them, while the faces of the cliffs are white, gray, +brown and black, as their granites change in color. A few frothy but +attenuated cascades pour down narrow fissures. The scene, while +sublime, is forbidding, and soon becomes so monotonous as to be +tiresome. This gaunt and savage landscape culminates in Eternity Bay. +Ponderous buttresses here guard the narrow gulf on the southern shore, +formed by the outflow of a little river. The western portal, Cape +Trinity, as the steamboat approaches from above, appears as a series +of huge steps, each five hundred feet high, and the faithful +missionaries have climbed up and placed a tall white statue of the +Virgin on one of the steps, about seven hundred feet above the river, +and a large cross on the next higher step, both being seen from afar. +Passing around into the bay, the gaunt eastern face of this enormous +promontory is found to be a perpendicular wall of the rawest granite, +standing sixteen hundred feet straight up from the water. At the top +it grandly rises on the bay side into three huge crown-like domes, +which, upon being seen by the original French explorers when they came +up the river, made them appropriately name it the Trinity. This is one +of the most awe-inspiring promontories human eyes ever beheld, as it +rises sheer out of water over half a mile deep. Across the narrow bay, +the eastern portal, Cape Eternity, similarly rises in solemn grandeur, +with solid unbroken sides and a wooded top fully as high. The entire +Saguenay River is of much the same character, repeating these crags +and promontories in myriad forms. While not always as high, yet the +enclosing mountains elsewhere are almost as impressive and fully as +dismal. The steamboat, aided by the swift tide, moves rapidly through +the deep canyon, one rounded peak and long ridge being much like the +others, with the same monotonous dreariness everywhere, and every rift +disclosing only more distant sombre mountains. The chasm throughout +its length has no beacons for navigation, the shores being so steep +and the waters so deep they are unnecessary. A sense of relief is +felt when the open waters at Tadousac and the St. Lawrence are +reached, for the journey makes everyone feel much like a writer in the +London _Times_, who said of it: "Unlike Niagara and all other of God's +great works in nature, one does not wish for silence or solitude here. +Companionship becomes doubly necessary in an awful solitude like +this." + + +THE ANGLING GROUNDS OF LOWER CANADA. + +Quebec province, on the Lower St. Lawrence, for hundreds of miles +north and east of the river is filled with myriads of lakes and +streams that are the haunts of the hunter and angler, and the +Government gets considerable revenue from the fishery rentals. As far +away as five hundred miles from Quebec, up in Labrador, is the +Natashquin River, and eight hundred miles down the St. Lawrence is the +Little Esquimau, these being the most distant fishery grounds. Among +the noted fishing streams are the grand Cascapedia, the Metapedia, the +Upsalquitch, the Patapedia, the Quatawamkedgewick (usually called, for +short, the "Tom Kedgewick"), and the Restigouche, on the southern side +of the Lower St. Lawrence, their waters being described as flowing out +to "the undulating and voluptuous Bay of Chaleurs, full of long folds, +of languishing contours, which the wind caresses with fan-like breath, +and whose softened shores receive the flooding of the waves without a +murmur." Around the great Lake St. John there is also a maze of lakes +and fishery streams. The most noted Canadian fishery organization is +the "Restigouche Salmon Club," having its club-house on the +Restigouche River, at its junction with the Metapedia, and controlling +a large territory. The guides in this region are usually Micmac +Indians, who have been described on account of their energy as the +"Scotch-Irish Indians." This tribe originally inhabited the whole of +Lower Canada south of the St. Lawrence, being found there by Cartier, +and the French named them the Sourequois or "Salt-Water Indians," +because they lived on the seacoast. They were staunch allies of the +French, who converted them to Christianity from being sun-worshippers. +They have a reservation near Campbellton, on the Restigouche, and a +populous village surrounding a Catholic church. There are now about +seven thousand of them, all told, throughout the provinces. Glooscap +was the mythical chief of the Micmacs, whose power and genius were +shown throughout all the region from New England to Gaspé. He was of +unknown origin, and invincible, and he conquered the "great Beaver, +feared by beasts and men," on the river Kennebecasis, near St. John. +Glooscap's favorite home and beaver-pond was the Basin of Minas, in +Nova Scotia, where afterwards dwelt Longfellow's Evangeline. Micmac +traditions describe him as the "envoy of the Great Spirit," who lived +above in a great wigwam, and was always attended by an aged dame and +a beautiful youth. He had the form and habits of humanity, and taught +his tribe how to hunt and fish, to build wigwams and canoes, and to +heal diseases. He controlled the elements and overthrew all enemies of +his people; but the tradition adds that on the approach of the +English, the great Glooscap, "finding that the ways of beasts and men +waxed evil," turned his huge hunting-dogs into stone, and his huntsmen +into restless and wailing loons, and then he vanished. + +The route to the angling waters of the great Lake St. John is by +railway northward from Quebec. It goes up the valley of St. Charles +River, past Lorette, where beautiful cascades turn the mill-wheels. +Here are gathered the scanty halfbreed remnant of the Hurons, once the +most powerful and ferocious tribe in Canada, who drove out the +Iroquois and compelled their migration down to New York State. These +Indians are said to have been Wyandots, but when the French saw them, +with their hair rising in bristling ridges above their painted +foreheads, the astonished beholders exclaimed, "Quelles hures!" (what +boars!) and hence the name of Huron came to them. The railroad goes +for two hundred miles past lakes and streams, and through the dense +forests of these remote Laurentian mountains, until it finally comes +out on the lake shore at the ancient mission town of "Our Lady of +Roberval," now become, through the popularity of the district, a +modern watering-place. This great Lake St. John, so much admired by +the Canadian and American anglers, was called by the Indians the +Picouagomi, or "Flat Lake," and it is in a region shaped much like a +saucer, lying in a hollow, with hills rising up into mountains in the +background all around. The lake is thirty miles long and about +twenty-five miles across, having no less than nineteen large rivers, +besides smaller ones flowing into it from the surrounding mountains, +the vast accumulation of waters being carried off by the Saguenay. The +immense flow of some of these rivers may be realized when it is known +that the Mistassini, coming down from the northward, is three hundred +miles long, and the Peribonka four hundred miles long, while the +Ouiatchouan from the south, just before reaching the lake, dashes down +a grand cascade, two hundred and eighty feet high, making an elongated +sheet of perfectly white foam. + +Until the middle of the nineteenth century, this wonderful lake and +its immense tributaries were scarcely known to white men, yet upon its +shores stood Notre Dame de Roberval and St. Louis Chambord, two of the +oldest Jesuit Indian missions in America. For more than two centuries, +until the angler and lumberman began going to this remote wilderness, +it was a buried paradise in the distant woods, without inhabitants, +excepting a few Montaignais and their priests, and a scattered post or +two of the Hudson Bay Company, whose occasional expeditions over to +Quebec for supplies were the only communication with the outer world. +The solid graystone church and convent stand in bold relief among the +neat little white French cottages at Roberval, there are an immense +sawmill and a modern hotel, while in front is the grand sweep of the +lake, like a vast inland sea, its opposite shore almost beyond vision, +excepting where a far-away mountain spur may loom just above the +horizon. Here lives the famous ouananiche of the salmon family, called +"land-locked," because it is believed he is unable to get out to other +waters. He is a gamey and magnificent fish, with dark-blue back and +silvery sides, mottled with olive spots, thus literally clothed in +purple and fine silver. He has enormous strength, making him the +champion finny warrior of the Canadian waters. The chief fishery +ground for him is in the swirling rapids of the Grand Discharge. The +native Montaignais, or "mountaineer" Indian of this region, is a most +expert angler, seducing the royal fish with an inartistic lump of fat +pork on the end of a line from his frail canoe among the rapids, and +hooking the game more effectively than the costliest rod and reel in +the hands of a "tenderfoot." These dusky, consumptive-looking, +copper-colored Indians spend the winters in the unexplored wilds of +the Mistassini, and wander through all the wilderness as far as Hudson +Bay. When the snows are gone, they bring in the pelts of the beaver, +otter, fox and bear, to trade at the Company posts, and living in +rude birch-bark huts on the bank of the lake, spend the summer in +fishing, and pick up a few dollars as boatmen and guides. + + +THE ST. LAWRENCE ESTUARY. + +Below the mouth of the Saguenay, the St. Lawrence stretches four +hundred miles to the ocean, its broad estuary constantly growing +wider. On the southern shore, below Cacouna, there is another resort +at a little river's mouth, known as Trois Pistoles. It is related that +in the olden time a traveller was ferried across this little river, +the fisherman doing the service charging him three pistoles (ten franc +pieces), equalling about six dollars. The traveller was astonished at +the charge, and asked him the name of the river. "It has no name," was +the reply, "it will be baptized at a later day." "Then," said the +traveller, anxious to get the worth of his money, "I baptize it Three +Pistoles," a name that has continued ever since. This diminutive +village seems rather in luck, for unlike most of the others, it has +two churches, each with a tall spire. The Lower St. Lawrence shores +maintain communication across the wide estuary by canoe ferries, +established at various places. A stout canoe, twenty feet or more +long, and having a crew of seven men, usually makes the passage. The +boat is built with broad, flat keel, shod with iron, moving easily +over the ice which for half the year closes the river, not breaking up +until late in the spring, and sometimes obstructing the outlet +through the Strait of Belle Isle until July. Farther down the southern +shore, below Trois Pistoles, is Rimouski, a much larger place, +described as the metropolis of the Lower St. Lawrence, and the outlet +of the region of the Metapedia. This town has a Bishop and a +Cathedral. Beyond are Father Point and Metis, and the land then +extends past Cape Chatte into the wilderness of Gaspé. When Jacques +Cartier first entered the river in 1534, he landed at Gaspé, taking +possession of the whole country in the name of the King of France, and +erecting a tall cross adorned with the fleur-de-lys. Very +appropriately, Gaspé means the "Land's End." They found here the +Micmac Indians, who were then reputed to be quite intelligent, knowing +the points of the compass and position of the stars, and having rude +maps of their country and a knowledge of the cross. Their tradition, +as told to Cartier's sailors, was that in distant ages a pestilence +harassed them, when a venerable man landed on their shore and stayed +the progress of the disease by erecting a cross. This mysterious +benefactor is supposed to have been a Norseman, or early Spanish +adventurer. An old Castilian tale is that gold-hunting Spaniards, +after the discovery by Columbus, sailed along these coasts, and +finding no precious metals, said in disgust to the Indians, "Aca +náda," meaning, "there is nothing here." This phrase became fixed in +the Indian mind, and supposing Cartier's party to be the same people, +they endeavored to open conversation by repeating the same words, "Aca +náda! aca náda!" Thus, according to one theory, originated the name of +Canada, the Frenchmen supposing they were telling the name of the +country. Another authority is that the literal meaning of the Mohawk +(Iroquois) word Canada is, "Where they live," or "a village," and as +it was the word Cartier, on his voyages up the river, most frequently +heard from the Indians, as applied to the homes of the people, it +naturally named the country. + +The surface of the southern country behind Cape Chatte, and of Gaspé +(Cape Gaspé being a promontory seven hundred feet high), rises into +the frowning mountains of Notre Dame, the most lofty in Lower Canada, +the chief peak elevated four thousand feet. In 1648 a French explorer +wrote of these stately ranges that "all those who come to New France +know well enough the mountains of Notre Dame, because the pilots and +sailors, being arrived at that point of the great river which is +opposite to these high mountains, baptize, ordinarily for sport, the +new passengers, if they do not turn aside by some present the +inundation of this baptism, which is made to flow plentifully on their +heads." The bold southern shore of the St. Lawrence finally ends +beyond Cape Gaspé, where its mouth is ninety-six miles wide in the +headland of Cape Rosier, described by dreading mariners as the +"Scylla of the St. Lawrence." + +The northern shore of the great river, beyond the mouth of the +Saguenay, is almost uninhabited. There is an occasional fishing-post, +but it is almost an unknown region, though once there were Jesuit +missions and trading-places, the Indians having since gone away. The +iron-bound coast goes off, past Point de Monts, the Egg Islands and +Anticosti, to the Strait of Belle Isle. This strait is named after a +barren, treeless and desolate island at its entrance, about nine miles +long, which has been most ironically named the Belle Isle, but the +early mariners, nevertheless, called it the Isle of Demons. They did +this because they heard, when passing, "a great clamor of men's +voices, confused and inarticulate, such as you hear from a crowd at a +fair or market-place." This is explained by the almost constant +grinding of ice-floes in the neighborhood. The Mingan River, a +beautiful stream where speckled trout are caught, comes down out of +the northern mountains, opposite Anticosti Island, and is occasionally +visited by enthusiastic anglers. This is the boundary of Labrador, +which stretches almost indefinitely beyond, comprising the whole +northeastern Canadian peninsula, an almost unexplored region of nearly +three hundred square miles. It is described as a rocky plateau of +Archæan rocks, highest on the northeast side and to the south, more or +less wooded, and sloping down to lowlands towards Hudson Bay. It is a +vast solitude, the rocks split and blasted by frosts, and the shores +washed by the Atlantic waves, where reindeer, bears, wolves and a few +Esquimaux wander. Its great scenic attraction is the Grand Falls. To +the northward of the headwaters of Mingan River is a much larger +stream, the Grand River, draining a multitude of lakes on the higher +Labrador table-land, northeastward through Hamilton Inlet into the +Atlantic. In 1861 a venturesome Scot of the Hudson Bay Company, +prospecting through the region, first saw this magnificent cataract. +For thirty years the falls were unvisited, but in 1891 an expedition +was made to them, and they have been since again visited. The cataract +is described as a magnificent spectacle, the river with full flow +leaping from a rocky platform into a huge chasm, with a roar that can +be heard twenty miles and an immense column of rainbow-illumined +spray. The plunge is made after descending rapids for eight hundred +feet, and is over a precipice two hundred feet wide, the fall being +three hundred and sixteen feet. The water tumbles into a canyon five +hundred feet deep and extending between high walls of rock for about +twenty-five miles. The distant Labrador coasts on bay and ocean abound +in seals and fish, and the adjacent seas are vast producers of codfish +and herring. There are few visitors, however, excepting the hardy +"Fishermen," of whom Whittier sings: + + "Hurrah! the seaward breezes + Sweep down the bay amain; + Heave up, my lads, the anchor! + Run up the sail again! + Leave to the lubber landsmen + The rail-car and the steed; + The stars of heaven shall guide us, + The breath of heaven shall speed! + + "Now, brothers, for the icebergs + Of frozen Labrador, + Floating spectral in the moonshine, + Along the low, black shore! + Where like snow the gannet's feathers + On Brador's rocks are shed, + And the noisy murr are flying, + Like bleak scuds, overhead; + + "Where in mist the rock is hiding, + And the sharp reef lurks below, + And the white squall smites in summer, + And the autumn tempests blow; + Where, through gray and rolling vapor, + From evening unto morn, + A thousand boats are hailing, + Horn answering unto horn. + + "Hurrah! for the Red Island, + With the white cross on its crown! + Hurrah! for Meccatina, + And its mountains bare and brown! + Where the Caribou's tall antlers + O'er the dwarf wood freely toss, + And the footstep of the Micmac + Has no sound upon the moss. + + "Hurrah! Hurrah!--the west wind + Comes freshening down the bay, + The rising sails are filling,-- + Give way, my lads, give way! + Leave the coward landsman clinging + To the dull earth, like a weed,-- + The stars of heaven shall guide us, + The breath of heaven shall speed!" + + +END OF VOLUME II. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42309 *** |