WINOOSKI FALLS, VERMONT.
From Montreal the journey was continued over the Canadian Pacific Railroad to Quebec, distant one hundred and thirty-five miles, and along the north shore of the St. Lawrence, in sight of that river most of the way, so that the view is a very attractive one. Quebec, the third largest city in the Dominion of Canada, with a population of 70,000, has much to recommend it, both commercially and scenically, for it is the center of vast lumber and mining interests, the head of navigation for the largest steamers of the line, and is advantageously located on a headland commanding the St. Lawrence. A large part of the city lies under what is known as Cape Diamond Promontory, upon the summit, of which, 350 feet above the river, is the Citadel, a fortification so nearly impregnable that Quebec has been called the American Gibraltar, a designation more deserved because of the many attacks which its garrisons have repulsed. The Plains of Abraham are southwest of the suburb of St. Louis, and from that eminence a wide and truly magnificent view is obtained, extending to the Green Mountains on the south and the Laurentian Range on the north, with glimpses of numerous rivers and lakes between.
The entire province of Quebec is remarkably well watered and timbered, with sections of forests so dense that much of it still remains to be explored. Eight miles from the city are the famous Montmorenci Falls, which have a leap over natural steps of 250 feet and pour down an immense volume, whose roaring may be heard on calm days for a distance of many miles. Near the falls is a hotel called the Haldimand House, which was once the residence of Queen Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent. Sixty miles north, and reached by the Quebec and Lake St. John Railroad, is Lake St. John, a large and pellucid body of water whose outlet is the Saguenay River, and one of the most wonderful streams on earth. Bayard Taylor says of it: “It is not properly a river, but a tremendous chasm, like that of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, cleft for sixty miles through the heart of a mountainous wilderness. Everything about it is hard, naked, stern, silent. Dark-grey cliffs of granite 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.”
A SYLVAN STREAM IN VERMONT.—Vermont is rich in scenery as well as historic and classic associations. The Green Mountains, extending through the entire State from north to south, with their many spurs and outlying peaks, and the numerous lakes and small streams in the intervening valleys, afford a variety of scenery of the most pleasing and picturesque character. There is a wealth of splendid views along the Winooski River, whose source is in the spurs of the Green Mountains, whence it flows northwestwardly, cleaving the range near its junction with the Waterbury River, and then speeds through a wild gorge until it empties into Lake Champlain a few miles distant.
PEACOCK FALLS, GREEN MOUNTAINS.