Quebec maintains a constant communication with Point Levi on the opposite shore, whence it derives a great part of its provisions. A steam ferry-boat plies every half hour, making the trip in about ten or fifteen minutes. The navigation also being very properly left free, the river is constantly covered with numerous canoes, generally hollowed out from the trunks of trees. The boatmen brave the most tempestuous weather; and, though often driven several leagues out of their course, are scarcely ever wrecked. Even in winter, when they must encounter blocks of ice, with which the channel is encumbered, they contrive with ropes and iron-pointed poles to raise their vessels upon the surface of the masses, and drag them along till they find open water on which to launch it. When this channel is frozen entirely over, the communication becomes still more easy. A line is marked with beacons placed by the Grand Voyer, over which hay, firewood, with other bulky articles, are transported abundantly and at reduced prices. This advantage occurs only occasionally; but every year the channel between the Isle of Orleans and the northern coast is frozen over, when the produce of that fertile spot, reserved for the occasion, finds a ready conveyance. Formerly, milk and vegetables were brought in a frozen state from distant quarters, but now these commodities are procured in abundance from the neighbourhood. The society of Quebec is more gay and polished than is usual in colonial cities, where the pursuit of wealth forms too often the sole object of the inhabitants. Here, besides merchants, there are a number of British civil and military officers, and a body of French noblesse, living on their domains. These different classes do not, it is said, always thoroughly amalgamate. The French, though often superior in manners and habits, are in some degree disdained by the ruling people, which they do not well brook. Among the English themselves, the chief test of rank is an introduction at the castle, without which strangers will find themselves placed below those whom they would have been classed above in the mother country. The hotels are good, and, after the fashion of the United States, the inmates commonly dine at a table d’hôte, which often affords to the visitor the opportunity of meeting with interesting characters. He can, however, if he wishes, have private apartments.