The master of the hotel was an American, and he had struggled hard “under the depressing influences of the British aristocracy” to establish an American hotel, and he only succeeded in introducing the least agreeable features of the institution; but the attendants were civil and obliging, and there was no extravagant pressure on the resources of the place, so that we fared better than if we had been down south of the frontier. Even the landlord, though not particularly well-disposed towards one so unpopular among his countrymen as myself, yielded so far to the _genius loci_ as to be civil. The rooms were small, and not particularly clean; but as painting and papering were going on, those who follow me may be better provided for. A short rest was very welcome; but what fate is like that which drives the sightseer ever onwards, and forces him, with the rage of all the furies, from repose? “The Falls of Montmorenci were but a drive away, and the ‘Cone’ was in great perfection.” “What is ‘the Cone?’” The effect of our ignorance on the waiter was so touching--he was so astonished by the profound barbarism of our condition--that we felt it necessary for our own character to proceed at once to a spot which forms the delight of Quebec in the winter season, and to which the _bourgeoisie_ were repairing in hot haste for the afternoon’s pleasure. A sleigh was brought round, and in it, ensconced in furs, we started off for the Falls, which are about eight miles distant. It was delightful to see anything so old on this continent as the tortuous streets of the city, which bear marks of their French origin, after such a long contact as I had endured with the raw youth of American cities in general, but it was impossible to deny that the antiquity before us had a certain air of dreary staleness about it also. The double-windowed flat-faced houses had a lanky, compressed air, as if they had been starved in early life, and the citizens had the appearance of people who had no particular object in being there, and set no remarkable value on time. A considerable sprinkling of priests was perhaps the most remarkable feature in the scene, and occasionally knots of ruddy-faced riflemen, in all the glory of winter fur caps and great coats, disputed the narrow pavement, alternating with the “red” soldiers of the line.