One of the first projects of Governor de Montmagny, after having fortified the place, was to prepare a plan for a city, to lay out, widen and straighten the streets, assuredly not without need. Had he further extended this useful reform, our Municipal Council to-day would have been spared a great amount of vexation, and the public in general much annoyance. On the 17th November, 1623, a roadway or ascent leading to the upper town had been effected, less dangerous than that which had previously existed. "As late as 1682, as appears by an authentic record (_procès-verbal_) of the conflagration, this steep road was but fourteen feet wide. It was built of branches, covered with earth. Having been rendered unserviceable by the fire, the inhabitants had it widened six feet, as they had to travel three miles, after the conflagration, to enter the upper town by another hill."--(T. B. Bédard.) In the summer season, our forefathers journeyed by water, generally in birch-bark canoes. In winter they had recourse to snow-shoes. To what year can we fix the advent of wheeled vehicles? We have been unable to discover. The first horse presented by the inhabitants to the Governor of the colony arrived from France on the 25th June, 1647. [11] Did His Excellency use him as a saddle horse only? or, on the occasion of a New Year's day, when he went to pay his respects to the Jesuit Fathers, and to the good ladies of the Ursulines, to present, with the compliments of the season, the usual New Year's gifts, was he driven in a _cariole_, and in the summer season in a _calèche_? Here, again, is a nut to crack for commentators. [12] Although there were horned cattle at Quebec in 1623, oxen for the purpose of ploughing the land were first used on the 27th April, 1628. "Some animals--cows, sheep, swine, &c.--had been imported as early as 1608. In 1623, it is recorded that two thousand bundles of fodder were brought from the pasture grounds at _Cap Tourmente_ to Quebec for winter use."--(Miles.) On the 16th of July, 1665, [13] a French ship brought twelve horses. These were doubtless the "mounts" of the brilliant staff of the Marquis de Tracy, Viceroy. These dashing military followers of Colonel de Salières, this _jeunesse dorée_ of the Marquis de Tracy, mounted on these twelve French chargers, which the aborigines named "the moose-deer (_orignaux_) of Europe," doubtless cut a great figure at Quebec. Did there exist _Tandems_, driving clubs, in 1665? _Quien sabe?_ A garrison life in 1665-7 and its amusements must have been much what it was one century later, when the "divine" Emily Montague [14] was corresponding with her dear "Colonel Rivers," from her Sillery abode in 1766; she then, amongst the vehicles in use, mentions, _calèches_. [15]