Meanwhile, the landscape begins to exchange its snowy mantle for a russet brown. A few wild-fowl and woodcocks, with some small birds, cautiously make their appearance; the sheltered bottoms of the pine-woods throw out the earliest flowers; the St. Lawrence and Charles rivers become gradually disburthened of ice, and enlivened by the gliding sail; still, however, the foot of spring seems lingering; the mists, exhaled by the warmth of the sun, frequently encounter the keen north-west, and are again precipitated in heavy snow showers; snow still blocks up the roads, and fills the dells and ditches, sheltered from the influence of the sun, thus preserving the gloomy aspect of winter through the month of May. “The town, or rather city, of Quebec, is built on the northern extremity of a narrow strip of high land, which follows the course of the St. Lawrence, for several miles, to its confluence with the Charles. The basis of this height is a dark slate rock, of which most of the buildings in the town are constructed. Cape Diamond terminates the promontory, with a bold precipice towards the St. Lawrence, to which it is nearly perpendicular, at the height of 320 feet. It derives its name from the crystals of quartz found in it, which are so abundant, that, after a shower, the ground glitters with them. The lower town is built round the foot of these heights, without the fortifications, which, with the upper town, occupy their crest in bleak preeminence: the former, snug and dirty, is the abode of thriving commerce, and of most of the lower classes employed about the navy; the latter, cold and lofty, is the seat of government, and principal residence of the military; and claims, in consequence, that kind of superiority which some heads have been said to assert over the inglorious belly. To speak the truth, neither has much to boast on the score either of beauty or convenience.