"Chicago to the Sea." Eastern Excursionist / A complete guide to the principal eastern summer resorts, including: Niagara Falls, the White Mountains, Saint Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers, Montreal and Quebec, the New England sea beaches, etc., and how and when to enjoy them.

by William C. Gage

PALACE GATE, QUEBEC.

ST. LOUIS GATE, QUEBEC.

FRENCH CANADIAN HOME.

THE FALLS OF MONTMORENCI

Are among the most interesting of the objects which secure the visits of tourists to Quebec, both on account of their own attractiveness and the pleasant drive by which they are reached. The “carters” of Quebec are as numerous as those of Montreal, and the roads around the city and in the country adjacent are among the finest to be found anywhere. Securing your driver, you leave the city by one of the gates, and, crossing the St. Charles River, are soon in the suburbs, passing here and there a house or villa of modern style, but speedily coming to the realm of the ancient; the road leading through quaint old hamlets, the cottages with their picturesque dormer windows, the thatched-roofed outbuildings, and the peasant-like appearance of the people, combined with the universal employment of the French language, strengthen the fancy for the time being that America must be far away, and that the rural districts of France or Switzerland are the scenes through which your trip is made. Children run beside the carriage, asking alms or offering flowers, while the women and older girls are at work in the fields, or spinning with their rude wheels in the open doorways or on the porches of the little houses. The antiquated implements of agriculture, the rude carts by the roadside, and the rustic crosses by the way, at which some devout pilgrim, perchance, is tarrying
to breathe a Pater Noster, all tend to complete the illusion of a remoter age or more distant clime than the few hours’ ride from bustling, modern, Yankee civilization.

FALLS OF MONTMORENCI.

The ride of eight miles all too quickly brings you to the River Montmorenci, and here you gaze upon historic ground, it being the scene of the battle of Montmorenci which immediately preceded Wolfe’s final victory at Quebec. Leaving your carriage, and paying a small fee for the privilege of crossing private grounds, you descend the bank of the river to look up at the fall from below. The river here pours over the cliff into the St. Lawrence, broadening at the edge to about 50 feet, and falling 250, in a sheeny vail, half water, half spray, not sublime, nor even grand, but exquisitely beautiful.