The suburbs of Montreal are composed of narrow dirty streets. The houses are of stone, plastered over with lime. A few private houses, and the court-house and jail, are built of hewed stone. The roofs of many of the houses are covered with small plates of tinned iron, which preserves its metallic lustre well, and produces a disagreeable glare during sunshine. In the end of the market place, is a monument in memory of Lord Nelson. It is a Doric column, with a plaster bust of the hero on the top, and some naval figures in relief upon the pedestal. This compound substance is already yielding to the weather, and probably will not long resist the effects of this rigorous climate. To the north of the town, there is a hill covered with timber, which contributes much toward giving the place a picturesque appearance. In the neighbourhood there are a few neat villas, and many luxuriant orchards. In the streets people are to be seen driving small carts drawn by dogs; {301} they are usually loaded with sticks, ashes, and other light articles. Montreal has a great trade, being the emporium of the upper country, and the residence of the principal agents of the North West Company. The port is accessible to large ships from the ocean, but is not a tenable harbour in the winter, on account of its being exposed to the breaking up of the ice. Montreal is the seat of justice for the upper district of Lower Canada. The court is composed of a chief justice, and three puisne judges. There is in the city, a barrack occupied by a small body of troops. A square in the form of a terrace, called the _Place d’Arms_, for the exercising of soldiers; a college, and a convent, where a considerable number of nuns are kept. The clergy of the Roman Catholic religion retain the tithes of the island. Early on the morning of the 25th I sailed in a steam-boat for Quebec. There are now twelve large vessels of this kind which ply between Montreal and that place, and one that crosses between La Prairie and Montreal. The steam-boats, on their passage between Montreal and Quebec, touch at the town of Sorel, at the mouth of Sorel river. Sorel is a small town, and its principal business is ship-building. It was formerly called Fort William Henry, known as the place of the earliest settlement of Europeans in North America, and as the scene of the cruel massacre committed by the Indians under the French General Montcalm, in 1757.[168] The Lake St. Peter’s is another expansion of the river, about twenty miles long and fifteen broad. The great lakes in the upper country, and the smaller ones in the course of the St. Lawrence, have the effect of equalizing the stream, and prevent {302} inundations, which are very injurious to the neighbourhood of most large rivers.