This compound substance is already yielding to the weather, and probably will not long resist the effects of this rigorous climate. To the north of the town, there is a hill covered with timber, which contributes much toward giving the place a picturesque appearance. In the neighbourhood there are a few neat villas, and many luxuriant orchards. In the streets people are to be seen driving small carts drawn by dogs; {301} they are usually loaded with sticks, ashes, and other light articles. Montreal has a great trade, being the emporium of the upper country, and the residence of the principal agents of the North West Company. The port is accessible to large ships from the ocean, but is not a tenable harbour in the winter, on account of its being exposed to the breaking up of the ice. Montreal is the seat of justice for the upper district of Lower Canada. The court is composed of a chief justice, and three puisne judges. There is in the city, a barrack occupied by a small body of troops. A square in the form of a terrace, called the Place d'Arms, for the exercising of soldiers; a college, and a convent, where a considerable number of nuns are kept. The clergy of the Roman Catholic religion retain the tithes of the island.
Early on the morning of the 25th I sailed in a steamboat for Quebec. There are now twelve large vessels of this kind which ply between Montreal and that place, and one that crosses between La Prairie and Montreal.
The steam-boats, on their passage between Montreal and Quebec, touch at the town of Sorel, at the mouth of Sorel river. Sorel is a small town, and its principal business is ship-building. It was formerly called Fort William Henry, known as the place of the earliest settlement of Europeans in North America, and as the scene of the
