Graham FROZEN CONE OF MONTMORENCI FALLS. save when they are called into being by an ephemeral summer: in a word, rime which can easily be found and enjoyed, and as easily left behind when the enjoyment palls-that is the rime we sing in all its attractive or repulsive shapes. Our long-talked-of snowshoe tramp had been finally determined upon. Wilkins preceded me by several days to the region about Quebec. Like most tourists, he had visited Canada only in the summer. He had passed many happy days upon the Saguenay and the lower St. Lawrence; had enjoyed the short-lived season among the limestone cottages and wooden ceilings of and only as high above it as might serve for a dog to look over. Indeed, one might feel inclined to test their security by leaping upon and over them, like another Remus before his brother, the first legendary Emperor of Rome. "They are beating their swords into ploughshares, and are also improving the sanitary condition of the city," said Wilkins, "by building these large stones from the Cacouna; had surveyed with his lorgnette | then degrading the ramparts to simple rethe occupants of the small piazzas while taining walls for the adjacent interior street, they made futile attempts to ape the Saratogians; had admired the capacity of the neighboring farmers for bargaining; and had mingled in many scenes of pleasure, quorum magna pars fuit; but Canada in the winter was to him a laud all unknown and untried. No wonder, therefore, that Wilkins became fascinated by the novelties which were daily revealed to his delighted gaze, and that he sent for me to join him in Quebec, rather than in Ottawa, as we had originally planned. His appeal to a favorite author of my boyhood helped to turn the scale in favor of my going. Among other things, he wrote: "Tacitus somewhere speaks of the barbarians, with their blue eyes and gigantic stature, who slid down the snowy slopes of the Alps on their broad shields, and made the legionaries tremble as they surged against the gates of Rome. The Canadians also show their Berserker origin by sliding down the frozen cone of Montmorenci ESPLANADE HILL, QUEBEC. with an ease and nonchalance worthy the ancient barbarians, or the modern natives of Madeira as they dash down the steep incline at Funchal." "Dear old Quebec," said I, alighting from the miserable ferry-boat and fighting my way through a persistent crowd of carters, "the memory of heroic lives sacrificed on your hallowed ground will endure forever." fortifications into the new sewers. Why should the walls be kept in repair at such great expense? The English forces were withdrawn from Canada years ago, and the two hundred men in yonder citadel could not defend themselves against modern artillery. Besides all that, how are they going to cut those new streets through without destroying the walls?" This rhapsody ended with a cordial greet- My antiquarian spirit was aroused against ing from Wilkins. We ascended the narrow the iconoclastic tendency of the age. "Our and crooked streets of the Lower Town, and countrymen of the United States take pride passed through a gap in the walls which un-in their streets numbered from 1 to 100, and til recently had been closed by the solid por- in their avennes labelled from A to Z. A tals of Prescott Gate. Workmen were even grand old historical town like this does not THE TOBOGGAN. suit their practical ideas, and perhaps the city authorities here agree with them. I am glad to know that the walls are to be preserved as far as possible, and that towers are to be erected to break the uniform line of the ramparts." Meantime we had taken a circuitous route past the Chien d'Or and the Université Laval, and stood upon La Grande Batteriemore formidable in appearance than any other part of the walls. Thence we passed through the Rue Port Dauphin, past the Archevêché, and stood at last upon the heights of Durham Terrace, with its great guns captured at Sevastopol. We looked down upon the roofs of the Lower Town, and into the very street where Benedict Arnold was wounded for his country in the earlier part of the Revolution. Below us was the broad expanse of the St. Lawrence River, stretching far away to the east, until its identity was lost in the horizon. On the right the quartz crystals of the promontory above us glistened in the morning sun, and gave their name to "Cape Diamond." Upon its rugged slope the battlements of the citadel converged at their nearest angle into the Prince of Wales Bastion, whence a lonely cannon frowned down upon us with the warning that we were at its mercy. So doubtless thought poor Montgomery, as in the dead of night he reconnoitred upon this very slope, and gave his life-blood for freedom with the closing hours of 1775. The clear, bracing air of that height was the best of tonics. Why will travellers persist in visiting Quebec only in the summer? True, the winter is cold, but it has been reduced to a science. It is not the tricksy sprite, now warm, now cold, that it is 500 miles to the south; but its very uniformity. makes it reliable. Its terrors are discounted in advance, and the proceeds are turned into pleasures of the hyperborean sort. Where else in the world would you think of having a picnic with the thermometer at zero? Do not understand by this term a spread in the woods, but rather a combination like the following: a drive to Montmorenci, a short tramp on snow-shoes, an ascent of the cone of frozen spray (which rises 100 feet above the foot of the Falls), a ride on a "toboggan," and a night in an adjoining ball-room. Or a "tobogganing expedition" is pro posed, and your party can start for the hills in calèches, towing their toboggans at the rear. These toboggans are peculiarly Canadian, and were first used by the Indians for the carrying of furs. They are made of long and thin boards or pieces of bark, bent up at one end and prevented from splitting by cross pieces on the upper side. Their seating capacity varies from two to ten persons. If ladies ride, they are placed in front, as in the picture. The vehicle is guided by the gentleman at the rear, with a stick, or, less gracefully, with the feet. A toboggan runs easily and rapidly down any hill-side which is covered with a thin snow-crust, and the effect of a "bump" at such a time can not be readily described. If you are piscatorially inclined, you can spend a night on the St. Lawrence, and screen yourself from the severity of the weather within one of the temporary houses upon the ice. Comfortably seated in a chair and warmed by a stove, you almost lose sight of the fact that a splendid fish is nibbling at your hook. You pull him up through a hole in the ice, light a fresh pipe, and drop your hook for the next favor. Then we might walk to the St. Louis Gate-or rather to the gap where the gate once was-whence Montcalm marched forth to give up his life, and the French supremacy in America as well. Just outside the walls we might enter the Glaciarum, or rink, and enjoy some of the numerous contests. There will be races of all kinds-snow-shoe, three-legged, hurdle, and flat; but most amusing of all, the wheelbarrow and barrel races. The human wheelbarrow is made by one skater sitting upon his left foot, then extending the right foot forward, and finally turning the arms upward for handles. In this position he is trundled off by a companion. When the barrel race opens the contestants skate at full speed across the rink toward a number of headless barrels. Partially sliding for the last twenty feet, they endeavor to dart through, but the refractory barrels persist in rolling over and over the mirror-like surface, while the display of anatomical extremities is something remarkable. From the rink we might walk down the Esplanade Hill, admiring on the way the interior slope of the walls. By an abrupt turn to the left we can pass out beneath Quebec's only remaining gatethe one known as St. John's. This is the most prosperons suburb of the city, and the street leads us to the Indian hamlet of La Jeune-Lorette. Should we choose for our exit the gap where Palace Gate once stood, we shall pass the endless rows of Normandy cottages called Beauport; but, alas! the pretty petites Canadiennes of the summer are not visible to offer their ST. JOHN'S GATE, QUEBEC. flowers or a cup of cold water. A few bright blossoms even now beam their gladness upon us through small double windows, and in the background it may be that we recognize the countenance of our summer flower girl, saying, like the roses at her side, "Ne m'oubliez pas." you to your abiding-place. One need not be long upon the street to feel that an appropriate sign for an occasional shop window would read: "English is spoken here." Amid this variety of entertainment weeks might be spent at "the Gibraltar of America," and the pleasures would not pall. They certainly did not pall to us, for it was with sincere regret that we turned our backs upon the citadel, and took the prosaic cars from the opposite bank of the river named after the gridiron saint. If our pleasure does not consist so much in out-of-door exercise, we may confine our selves within the square mile of territory which limits the Upper Town, and wander through the splendid library of the university, attend the Provincial Parliament, sup "I think," said Wilkins, "that we Ameriwith Père La Gacé at the Ecole Normale on cans will have to yield the palm of endurbread baked in the solid jail of the old Châ-ance to the 'Canucks,' as they are often tean St. Louis, visit the seminaries and en- called. Statistics show that in the hardijoy the paintings in the chapel, or wander hood of their inhabitants Norway and Swethrough the cathedrals-both French and den stand first among the nations. Then English and examine the bijouterie in the come, in order, Canada, Germany, the United chapel of the Ursuline Convent. Whichever States, England, France, and Ireland. I reway we turn we are greeted with, "Bon-call a passage from Charlevoix, the historijour, monsieur;" or the more inquisitive, an, which describes the ancestry of the CanaRestez-vous longtemps dans cette ville?" from some expectant carter, whose "Où logez-vous?" shows not only his wish for a job, but also his determination to follow dians: A healthy thongh rigorous climate, frugal modes of life, protracted marches in war-time, hard work on the lands-to which combined all the feebler constitutions suc |