Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Here may I roam at large; my business is Roaming at large, to observe.' Wordsworth. was upon a ovely summer day that a party of right merrie youths, of which I formed one, left Quebec, upon a sporting excursion to Niagara, Lake Huron, and the North-West Company's establishment at Chepewyan. Deviating from the usual road, that we might enjoy a day's salmon-fishing, we reached Jacques Cartier bridge, about seven miles above the ferry. Here the river falls wildly down, betwixt its wooded shores, and afterforming several cascades, foams through a narrow channel, which seems cut out of the solid rock to receive it. The rock that constitutes its bed, is formed into regular platforms, descending by natural steps to the edge of the torrent. The'Jacques Cartier is famous for its salmon, which are caught of large size, and in great abundance. Certainly we had no cause for complaint, for we had a splendid day's fishing, killing (three rods) fourteen salmon, averaging fifteen pounds each. There is an excellent inn at the foot of the bridge. ' Mine host' was not only an expert disciple of old Izaak, but was a most judicious promoter of gastronomy; and what old Brideau most prided himself for, was, his kettle of fish, as he termed it?a large iron cauldron, filled with water, thickened with salt, in which the fish was immersed the moment it was killed? the boiling apparatus having been brought to the side of the river. After quitting this neighbourhood, the scenery of the St. Lawrence becomes flat and uninteresting. The country, however, the entire way from Quebec to Montreal, is studded with farm-houses, whitewashed from top to bottom, attached to which are log-barns and stables, with commodious and neat plots of garden-ground. The meadows were profusely decorate...