With honest Jean Baptiste, more deeply read in the _Petit Catéchisme_ than in heathen mythology, the dreaded god of the sea and his truculent trident were ominous, in his simple eyes, they symbolised the Prince of Darkness, "_Le diable et sa fourche_," the terrors of a hereafter. This did not, however, prevent Neptune from standing sentry, in the same exalted spot, for close on forty years, until in fact, having fallen to pieces by natural decay, it was removed about the time the Old Neptune Inn became the _Morning Chronicle_ office; the whereabouts of its _dejecta membra_ are now a dead secret. The origin of the famed statue had defied the most recondite searchers of the past. For the following we are indebted to the retentive memory of that eminently respected authority, the "oldest inhabitant." The statue of Neptune, says the octogenarian, Robert Urquhart, so well remembered at the foot of Mountain Hill, was presented to the landlord of the hotel, George Cossar, formerly butler to Hon. Matthew Bell, who then owned the St. Lawrence Chambers. It had been the figure-head of the _Neptune_, a large king's ship, stranded in 1817 on Anticosti. Would the stranded _Neptune_ of 1817 be the same as the flagship of Admiral Durell in 1759, the _Neptune_ of 90 guns, to whom the large bell bearing the word "_Neptune_, 1760," inscribed on, belonged? This bell, which formerly stood on the Royal Engineers' workshop at Quebec, was recently taken to Ottawa. The wreck had been bought by John Goudie, of St. Roch suburb, then a leading ship builder, and, having to break it up, the figure-head was brought to Quebec, and presented as above stated. The following respecting press gangs and the presence of Lord Nelson, whilst at Quebec in 1782, was contributed by one of the "oldest inhabitants" to QUEBEC PAST AND PRESENT, but reached too late for insertion:-- _MY RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PAST._ J. M. LEMOINE, Esq., _Spencer Grange_.