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Show TRAVELS Tl1ROUGI1 LOWER CANADA: go thither. A pipe, in the mofl: general acceptation of the wo ·J, fc mcd to be nbout tbrce quarters of an Englilh mile. Lnke 't. Louis, commen ing, or rather tt.:rminatin(r, nt La Chinr, for that village f1:ands at the lowe r end of it, is about twelve mile i.1 h:n,v,: th and four in breadth. J\t its upp rmo11: extremity it receives a l:.u ge branch of the Utawas River, and ~lio the fouth-wcft branch of the Riv~.:r St. Lawren ·e, which by fame geographers i called the 1 iver Cada::aqui, and by others the River lr quois; but in the country, generally fpeaking, the wh k of that river, run ning from Lake Ontario to the Gulph of t. La wrencc, goes fimp y umkr the name of the St. Lawr nee. J\t the upper end of Lake St. Louis the water i. very !hallow, owing to the banks of mud and fand wa!hed up by the two rivers. Thcfc v ry extenfive banks, arc entirely covered with reeds, fo that when a ycfrcl fails over them {he appears at a little diflance to be abfoln tely !ailing over dry land. As we pa!reJ along this part of the lake we were enveloped with clouds of little infeCls, diftcrcnt from any I ever faw before or afterward in the country, but they arc common, it is ftid, on various parts of the River St. Lawrence. Their fizc was fomewhat larger than tb ::tt of the gnat; their colour a pure white; and fo dc:licately 'vere they formed, that by the Oi~htdl: touc l they were d O:roycd and rcdu cd to powder. They were particubrly attr. Cl: d by any wl1itc object, and h~tving once alighted were not to be driven away but by force. The leaves of a book, "hich I happened to have in my hand, were in ::t few feconds fo thicHy covered by them that it was i-mpoffibk to difccrn a Jingle letter, and no fooncr was one [warm of them brulhc ff than a frdh one immediately ali•dlt ·d Thcfc in re ... s have l.) • 1• very broad wing' in proportion to their fizc, and fly heavily, fo that 1t 1 only when the air is remarkably c. m that thLy can venture to make their appearance. About fun[ct on thi , the firft cveni1 arr of our VO)'ana-e ' we reached chc if1and of I crot, fitu.lted at the mouth of the Utaw::ts I ivc ·. 'I his i!lantl is about fourteci'l mile· in ircumfercncc; its f>il is fertile, and it is well ultivatcd. There arc two confidera le villages near its ent r, but towards l"oint St. Claire, at its lower ext ·cmity, the fettlcments :-~n.: R A P I D S. ~rc but very few. vVc landed t the point, and pit ·hcd our tent in a meadow which fioocl bordering upon the water. Here the bateaux wcr dr~twn_ up, and having been properly fecLr·d, the difTerent rcw, amountmg 111 'll to upwards of fifty m ·n, divided thcn•fdvcs into fmall p~rtics, and kindlecl ~res along the ihore, in order to cook their p:oVl_ fions for thc_fuccccdmg day, and to 1 cep the 14fdve warm during the mght. Thclc men, who arc engaged in conduCl.ing bateaux in Canada, arc, as I have bdorc obfcrvcd, a very hardy race : whc11 the wcath r is fair, they Deep on the grafs at night> w"thout any other covcri,1 ~ tlun a {hort blar_1l·ct, fi arccly rc,H.:hmg do\ n to their knees; during wet weather a f<u or a hla 1kct t tl c we, thcr fide, fpr a I on poles !luc.k into the ~ro~nd in an in lined dire ~ ion, is all the fhclter they J~cm ncceOary. On fcttmg out each m::m is fumia1eJ with a certain allowan c f falted pork, bifcui , pcafc, and brandy; the pea[c and biCenit they boil with fome of the pork into porrid.sc, ani a large vdTd fuJl of it, is g ncr, lJy ~cept at the head of the bateau, for the ufe of the crew when they fiop 111. the courfe of the day. This porridge, or cllc cold fat f<1ltcd pork, W1th ucumbers, confiitutcs the prit cip:1l part of their food. The cucumber is a fruit that th lower claffcs of the French Canadians arc cxtr mely fond of; they ufc it howevtr in a very indifferent fiate, as they never pull it until it has attained a large fiz , and is become ye!low and_ feedy. Cucumbec thus mellow, chopped into fmall piece Without bcm3· peeled, and afterwards mixed with iour cream, is one of their fa vo uri tc cliChes. _ At day break on the {( cond morning of our voy.tgc, we quilted the 1l1and of Perot, and crul1cd the U awa R"ver, in or lcr to gain the mouth of the fouth-w 0: br. nch of the St. Lawr ·nee..:. A tremendous :ccnc is here prcfcntcd to the v·cw; each river comes ru01ing do vn mto the lake, o er immenfe rocks, with an impetuolity which, fccmingly, nothing can refift. The waves are as high as what are commonly met with in the Britif11 Chann 1 during a fmart breeze, and the breakers fo numcron anl t ngcrous, that one would i111aginc a batca.u could not poOibly live in tl c niclfl: of them; and indccc,l, unkf- it were navigated by m n in imat Jy a quaintcd with the place, and v TY e. pert at the fame |