The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty YearsWerge, John, active 1854-1890
History
The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years
Werge, John, active 1854-1890
Photography -- History
Next morning I rose early, and, with a photographic eye, scanned the
city of Montreal. The streets are narrow, but clean, and well built of
stone. Most of the suburban streets and villa residences are "frame
buildings," but there are many handsome villas of stone about the base
of the "mountain." I visited the principal buildings and the Cathedral
of Notre Dame, ascended to the top of the Bell Tower, looked down upon
the city, and had a fine view of its splendid quays and magnificent
river frontage, and across the country southwards for a great distance,
as far as the Adirondack Mountains, where the Hudson River bubbles into
existence at Hendrick Spring, whence it creeps and gathers strength as
it glides and falls and rushes alternately until it enters the Atlantic
below New York, over three hundred miles south of its source. But the
mountain at the back of Montreal prevented my seeing anything beyond the
city in that direction. I afterwards ascended the mountain, from the
summit of which I could see an immense distance up the river, far beyond
Lachine, and across the St. Lawrence, and southwards into the "States."
Being homeward bound, and having no desire at that time to prolong my
stay in the western hemisphere, I did not wait to obtain any photographs
of Montreal or the neighbourhood; but, taking ship for old England, I
leave the lower St. Lawrence and its beauties; Quebec, with its glorious
associations of Wolfe and the plains of Abraham, its fortifications,
which are now being so fully described and discussed in the House of
Commons, and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, where vessels have sometimes
to be navigated from the "masthead," in consequence of the low-lying sea
fog which frequently prevails there. A man is sent up "aloft" where he
can see over the fog, which lies like a stratum of white cloud on the
gulf, and pilot the ship safely through the fleet of merchantmen which
are constantly sailing up and down while the river is open. The fog may
not be much above the "maintop," but is so dense it is impossible to see
beyond the end of the "bowsprit" from the deck of the ship you are
aboard; but from the "masthead" the "look-out" can see the highland and
the masts and sails of the other ships, and avoid the danger of going
"ashore" or coming into collision by crying out to the man at the wheel
such sea phrases as "Port," "Starboard," "Steady," &c.; and when
"tacking" up or down the gulf, such as "luff," "higher," "let her off."
Indeed, the whole trip of the St. Lawrence--from Lake Ontario to the
Atlantic--is intensely exciting. While off the coast of Newfoundland, I
witnessed one of those beautiful sights of nature in her sternest mood,
which I think has yet to be rendered in the camera--icebergs in the
sunlight. A great deal has been said about their beauty and colour, but
nothing too much. Anyone who saw Church's picture of "The Icebergs,"
exhibited in London last year, may accept that as a faithful reflection
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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