"Montreal has considerable general commerce, commanding, as it does, the St. Lawrence, now connected by railway directly with the United States, and being at the outlet of the Ottawa river district. The island upon which it stands is some thirty miles long, and contains much fine and valuable land, mostly under cultivation, and abounding in good farms and gardens, and fine orchards. From the 'Mountain' above Montreal, a splendid view is obtained of the St. Lawrence and its wooded shores; the dark forests of the Ottawa valley; the fine bright lands of the islands; the city, and its villaed suburbs. In the distances, north and south, the 'green mountains' of Vermont, and the distant summits which separate the cultivated parts of Lower Canada from those far-off and savage regions, in which the trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company and some scattered Indians are the sole monarchs of the woods--are visible. There can be no view more beautiful, few more extensive. It gives all the peculiarities of this North American scenery in its largest and finest features. And seen again from the high towers of the Catholic Cathedral (the cathedral will hold several thousand people, and is the largest church in Canada), to which I mounted, up 268 steps, it again delights the eye with its extent and beauty. From this latter point, too, the St. Lawrence is seen just below, and you may watch the rushing of the nearest rapids, and the struggles and windings of the boats and steamers, in passing on their upward voyages.