"From Rouse's Point we took the Champlain and St. Lawrence line, opened
two days ago, and at Isle aux Noix passed into British-American
territory, and heard the old French patois of the 'habitans' of that
locality, from the mouths of a crowd of curious people awaiting the
arrival of the train. At La Prairie we joined the ferry boat, an
immense vessel as usual, and dropped down the St. Lawrence for nine
miles, to Montreal, where I got to bed at Donnegana's hotel, at one
o'clock on Tuesday morning, desperately tired.
"Montreal is a flourishing town of 50,000 inhabitants. It is built upon
an island formed by the confluence of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa.
The 'island' belonged to the Catholic priesthood of the place, who
still exercise rights over it similar to those of the 'lords' in cases
of English copyholds, and who obtain an annual revenue of some
30,000_l_. or 40,000_l_. from it. The city was founded about
250 years ago, and has still many of the features of a French town,
though the improvements of the last twenty years, by obliterating
single story and wooden houses from the best quarters, have altered its
character. In old times it was the depot for the great fur trades. Now,
however, it receives its furs almost entirely back from England, to
which country the Hudson's Bay Company send their whole supply, to be
dressed and prepared for re-exportation.
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