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A Yankee in Canada
by Henry D. Thoreau
Chapter II. Quebec and
Montmorenci
About six o'clock
we started for Quebec, one hundred and eighty miles distant by the river; gliding past
Longueil and Boucherville on the right, and Pointe aux Trembles, "so called
from having been originally covered with aspens," and Bout de
l'Isle, or the
end of the island, on the left. I repeat these names not merely for want of more
substantial facts to record, but because they sounded singularly poetic to my ears. There
certainly was no lie in them. They suggested that some simple and perchance heroic human
life might have transpired there. There is all the poetry in the world in a name. It is a
poem which the mass of men hear and read. What is poetry in the common sense but a string
of such jingling names. I want nothing better than a good word. The name of a thing may
easily be more than the thing itself to me. Inexpressibly beautiful appears the
recognition by man of the least natural fact, and the allying his life to it. All the
world reiterating this slender truth, that aspens once grew there; and the swift inference
is, that men were there to see them. And so it would be with the names of our native and
neighboring villages, if we had not profaned them.
The daylight now
failed us and we went below, but I endeavored to console myself for being obliged to make
this voyage by night by thinking that I did not lose a great deal, the shores being low
and rather unattractive, and that the river itself was much the most interesting object. I
heard something in the night about the boat being at William Henry, Three Rivers, and in
the Richelieu Rapids, but I was still where I had been when I lost sight of Pointe aux
Trembles. To hear a man who has been waked up at midnight in the cabin of a steamboat,
inquiring, "Waiter, where are we now?" is as if at any moment of the
earth's revolution round the sun, or of the system round its centre, one were to raise
himself up and inquire of one of the deck hands,—Where are we now?
I went on deck at
daybreak, when we were thirty or forty miles above Quebec. The banks were now higher and
more interesting. There was an "uninterupted succession of white-washed
cottages" on each side of the river. This is what every traveller tells. But it is
not to be taken as an evidence of the populousness of the country in general, hardly even
of the river banks. They have presented a similar appearance for a hundred years. The
Swedish traveller and naturalist Kalm, who descended this river in 1749, says, "It
could really be called a village, beginning at Montreal and ending at Quebec, which is a
distance of more than one hundred and eighty miles; for the farm-houses are never above
five arpents, and sometimes but three asunder, a few places excepted." Even in 1684
Hontan said that the houses were not more than a gunshot apart at most. Ere long we passed
Cap Rouge, eight miles above Quebec, the mouth of the Chaudière on the opposite or south
side; New Liverpool Cove with its lumber rafts and some shipping; then Sillery and Wolfe's
Cove and the Heights of Abraham on the north, with now a view of Cape Diamond and the
citadel in front. The approach to Quebec was very imposing. It was about six o'clock in
the morning when we arrived. There is but a single street under the cliff on the south
side of the cape, which was made by blasting the rock and filling up the river. Three
story houses did not rise more than one fifth or one sixth the way up the nearly
perpendicular rock, whose summit is three hundred and forty-five feet above the water. We
saw, as we glided past, the sign on the side of the precipice, part way up, pointing to
the spot where Montgomery was killed in 1775. Formerly it was the custom for those who
went to Quebec for the first time, to be ducked, or else pay a fine. Not even the Governor
General escaped. But we were too many to be ducked, even if the custom had not been
abolished. [Thoreau's note: Hierosme Lalemant says in 1648, in his relation, he being Superior:
"All those who come to New France know well enough the mountain of Notre Dame,
because the pilots and sailors, being arrived at that part of the Great River which is
opposite to those high mountains, baptize ordinarily for sport the new passengers, if they
do not turn aside by some present the inundation of this baptism which one makes flow
plentifully on their heads."]
Here we were, in the
harbor of Quebec, still three hundred and sixty miles from the mouth of the St. Lawrence,
in a basin two miles across, where the greatest depth is twenty-eight fathoms, and though
the water is fresh, the tide rises seventeen to twenty-four feet, a harbor "large and
deep enough," says a British traveller, "to hold the English navy." I may
as well state that, in 1844, the county of Quebec contained about
forty-five thousand inhabitants (the city and suburbs having about
forty-three thousand), — about twenty-eight thousand being Canadians of French
origin; eight thousand British; over seven-thousand natives of Ireland; one
thousand five hundred natives of England; the rest Scotch and others.
Thirty-six thousand belong to the Church of Rome.
Separating ourselves
from the crowd we walked up a narrow street, thence ascended by some wooden steps, called
the Break-neck Stairs, into another steep narrow and zigzag street, blasted through the
rock, which last led through a low massive stone portal, called Prescott Gate, the
principal thoroughfare, into the Upper Town. This passage was defended by cannon, with a
guard-house over it, a sentinel at his post, and other soldiers at hand ready to relieve
him. I rubbed my eyes to be sure that I was in the nineteenth century, and was not
entering one of those portals which sometimes adorn the frontispieces of new editions of
old black-letter volumes. I though it would be a good place to read Froissart's
Chronicles. It was such a reminiscence of the middle ages as Scott's novels. Men
apparently dwelt there for security! Peace be unto them! As if the inhabitants of New York
were to go over to Castle William to live! What a place it must be to bring up children!
Being safe through the gate we naturally took the street which was steepest, and after a
few turns found ourselves on the Durham Terrace, a wooden platform on the site of the old
Castle of St. Louis, still one hundred and fifteen feet below the summit of the citadel,
overlooking the Lower Town, the wharf where we had landed, the harbor, the Isle of
Orleans, and the river and surrounding country to a great distance. It was literally a splendid
view. We could see six or seven miles distant in the north-east an indentation in the
lofty shore of the northern channel, apparently on one side of the harbor, which marked
the mouth of the Montmorenci, whose celebrated fall was only a few rods in the rear.
At a shoe-shop,
whither we were directed for this purpose we got some of our American money changed into
English. I found that American hard money would have answered as well, excepting cents,
which fell very fast before their pennies, it taking two of the former to make one of the
latter, and often the penny which had cost us two cents did us the service of one cent
only. Moreover, our robust cents were compelled to meet on even terms a crew of vile
half-penny tokens and bung-town coppers, which had more brass in their composition, and so
perchance made their way in the world. Wishing to get into the citadel, we were directed
to the Jesuits' Barracks,—a good part of the public buildings here are
barracks,—to get a pass of the Town Major. We did not heed the sentries at the gate,
nor did they us, and what under the sun they were placed there for, unless to hinder a
free circulation of the air, was not apparent. There we saw soldiers eating their
breakfasts in their mess room, from bare wooden tables in camp fashion. We were
continually meeting with soldiers in the streets, carrying funny little tin pails of all
shapes, even semicircular, as if made to pack conveniently. I supposed that they contained
their dinners, so many slices of bread and butter to each, perchance. Sometimes they were
carrying some kind of military chest on a sort of bier or hand barrow, with a springy,
undulating, military step, all passengers giving way to them, even the charrette drivers
stopping for them to pass,—as if the battle were being lost from an inadequate supply
of powder. There was a regiment of Highlanders, and, as I understood, of Royal Irish, in
the city; and by this time there was a regiment of Yankees also. I had already observed,
looking up even from the water, the head and shoulders of some General
Poniatowski, with
an enormous cocked hat and gun peering over the roof of a house, away up where the chimney
caps commonly are with us, as it were a caricature of war and military awfulness; but I
had not gone far up St. Louis street before my riddle was solved, by the apparition of a
real live Highlander under a cocked hat, and with his knees out, standing and marching
sentinel on the ramparts between St. Louis and St. John's Gates. (It must be a holy war
that is waged there.) We stood close by without fear and looked at him. His legs were
somewhat tanned, and the hair had begun to grow on them as some of our wise men predict
that it will in such cases, but I did not think they were remarkable in any respect.
Notwithstanding all his warlike gear, when I inquired of him the way to the Plains of
Abraham, he could not answer me without betraying some bashfulness through his broad
Scotch. Soon after, we passed another of these creatures standing sentry at the St. Louis
Gate, who let us go by without shooting us or even demanding the countersign. We then
began to go through the gate, which was so thick and tunnel-like as to remind me of those
lines in Claudian's Old Man of Verona, about the getting out of the gate being the greater
part of a journey;—as you might imagine yourself crawling through an architectural
vignette at the end of a black-letter volume. We were then reminded that we had
been in a fortress, from which we emerged by numerous zigzags in a ditch-like road, going
a considerable distance to advance a few rods, where they could have shot us two or three
times over, if their minds had been disposed as their guns were. The greatest, or rather
the most prominent, part of this city was constructed with the design to offer the deadest
resistance to leaden and iron missiles that might be cast against it. But it is a
remarkable meteorological and psychological fact, that it is rarely known to rain lead
with much violence, except on places so constructed. Keeping on about a mile we came to
the Plains of Abraham; for having got through with the Saints, we come next to the
Patriarchs. Here the Highland regiment was being reviewed, while the band stood on one
side and played—methinks it was La Claire Fontaine, the national air of
the Canadian French. This is the site
where a real battle once took place, to commemorate which they have had a sham fight here
almost every day since. The Highlanders manœuvred very well, and if the precision of
their movements was less remarkable, they did not appear so stiffly erect as the English
or Royal Irish, but had a more elastic and graceful gait, like a herd of their own red
deer, or as if accustomed to stepping down the sides of mountains. But they made a sad
impression on the whole, for it was obvious that all true manhood was in the process of
being drilled out of them. I have no doubt that soldiers well drilled are as a class
peculiarly destitute of originality and independence. The officers appeared like men
dressed above their condition. It is impossible to give the soldier a good education
without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him. What
would any philanthropist who felt an interest in these men's welfare naturally do, but
first of all teach them so to respect themselves that they could not be hired for this
work, whatever might be the consequences to this government or that;—not drill a few,
but educate all. I observed one older man among them, gray as a wharf-rat and supple as
the devil, marching lock-step with the rest, who would have to pay for that elastic gait.
We returned to the
citadel along the heights, plucking such flowers as grew there. There was an abundance of
succory still in blossom, broadleaved golden-rod, butter-cups, thorn-bushes, Canada
thistles, and ivy, on the very summit of Cape Diamond. I also found the
bladder campion in
the neighborhood. We there enjoyed an extensive view which I will describe in another
place. Our pass, which stated that all the rules were "to be strictly enforced,"
as if they were determined to keep up the semblance of reality to the last gasp, opened to
us the Dalhousie Gate, and we were conducted over the citadel by a bare-legged Highlander
in cocked hat and full regimentals. He told us that he had been here about three years,
and had formerly been stationed at Gibraltar. As if his regiment, having perchance been
nestled amid the rocks of Edinburgh Castle, must flit from rock to rock thenceforth over
the earth's surface, like a bald eagle, or other bird of prey, from eyrie to
eyrie. As we
were going out we met the Yankees coming in in a body, headed by a red-coated officer
called the commandant, and escorted by many citizens both English and French Canadian; I
therefore immediately fell into the procession, and went round the citadel again with more
intelligent guides, carrying, as before, all my effects with me. Seeing that nobody walked
with the red-coated commandant, I attached myself to him, and though I was not what is
called well dressed, he did not know whether to repel me or not, for I talked like one who
was not aware of any deficiency in that respect. Probably there was not one among all the
Yankees who went to Canada this time, who was not more splendidly dressed than I was. It
would have been a poor story if I had not enjoyed some distinction. I had on my "bad
weather clothes," like Olaf Trygvesson the Northman when he went to the Thing in
England, where, by the way, he won his bride. As we stood by the thirty-two pounder on the
summit of Cape Diamond, which is fired three times a day, the commandant told me that it
would carry to the Isle of Orleans, four miles distant, and that no hostile vessel could
come round the island. I now saw the subterranean or rather "casemated barracks"
of the soldiers, which I had not noticed before, though I might have walked over them.
They had very narrow windows, serving as loopholes for musketry, and small iron chimneys
rising above the ground. There we saw the soldiers at home and in an undress, splitting
wood,—I looked to see whether with swords or axes,—and in various ways
endeavoring to realize that their nation was now at peace with this part of the world. A
part of each regiment, chiefly officers, are allowed to marry. A grandfatherly
would-be-witty Englishman could give a Yankee whom he was patronizing no reason for the
bare knees of the Highlanders, other than oddity. The rock within the citadel is a little
convex, so that shells falling on it would roll toward the circumference, where the
barracks of the soldiers and officers are; it has been proposed therefore to make it
slightly concave, so that they may roll into the centre, where they would be comparatively
harmless, and it is estimated that to do this would cost twenty thousand pounds sterling.
It may be well to remember this when I build my next house, and have the roof "all
correct" for bomb-shells.
At mid-afternoon we
made haste down Sault-au-Matelot Street, towards the Falls of Montmorenci, about eight
miles down the St. Lawrence, on the north side, leaving the further examination of Quebec
till our return. On our way, we saw men in the streets sawing logs pit-fashion, and
afterward with a common wood-saw and horse cutting the planks into squares for paving the
streets. This looked very shiftless, especially in a country abounding in
water-power, and
reminded me that I was no longer in Yankeeland. I found on inquiry that the excuse for
this was, that labor was so cheap, and I thought with some pain,—how cheap men are
here! I have since learned that the English traveller Warburton, remarked soon after
landing at Quebec, that every thing was cheap there but men. That must be the difference
between going thither from New and from Old England. I had already observed the dogs
harnessed to their little milk-carts, which contain a single large can, lying asleep in
the gutters, regardless of the horses, while they rested from their labors, at different
stages of the ascent in the Upper Town. I was surprised at the regular and extensive use
made of these animals for drawing, not only milk, but groceries, wood, &c. It reminded
me that the dog commonly is not put to any use. Cats catch mice; but dogs only worry the
cats. Kalm, a hundred years ago, saw sledges here for ladies to ride in drawn by a pair of
dogs. He says, "A middle-sized dog is sufficient to draw a single person when the
roads are good," and he was told by old people that horses were very scarce in their
youth, and almost all the land carriage was then effected by dogs. They made me think of
the Esquimaux, who, in fact, are the next people on the north. Charlevoix says that the
first horses were introduced in 1665.
We crossed
Dorchester Bridge over the St. Charles,—the little river in which
Cartier, the
discoverer of the St. Lawrence, put his ships, and spent the winter of 1535,—and
found ourselves on an excellent Macadamized road, called Le Chemin de Beauport. We had
left Concord Wednesday morning, and we endeavored to realize that now, Friday morning, we
were taking a walk in Canada, in the Seigniory of Beauport, a foreign country, which a few
days before had seemed almost as far off as England and France. Instead of rambling to
Flint's Pond or the Sudbury Meadows, we found ourselves, after being a little detained in
cars and steamboats,—after spending half a night at Burlington, and half a day at
Montreal,—taking a walk down the bank of the St. Lawrence to the Falls of Montmorenci
and elsewhere. Well, I thought to myself, here I am in a foreign country, let me have my
eyes about me and take it all in. It already looked and felt a good deal colder than it
had in New England, as we might have expected it would. I realized fully that I was four
degrees nearer the pole, and shuddered at the thought; and I wondered if it were possible
that the peaches might not be all gone when I returned. It was an atmosphere that made me
think of the fur-trade, which is so interesting a department in Canada, for I had for all
head covering a thin palm-leaf hat without lining, that cost twenty-five cents, and over
my coat one of those unspeakably cheap, as well as thin, brown linen sacks of the Oak Hall
pattern, which every summer appear all over New England, thick as the leaves upon the
trees. It was a thoroughly Yankee costume, which some of my fellow travellers wore in the
cars to save their coats a dusting. I wore mine at first because it looked better than the
coat it covered, and last because two coats were warmer than one, though one was thin and
dirty. I never wear my best coat on a journey; though perchance I could show a certificate
to prove that I have a more costly one, at least, at home, if that were all that a
gentleman required. It is not wise for a traveller to go dressed. I should no more think
of it than of putting on a clean dicky and blacking my shoes to go a fishing. As if you
were going out to dine, when in fact the genuine traveller is going out to work hard and
fare harder, to eat a crust by the way-side whenever he can get it. Honest travelling is
about as dirty work as you can do. Why, a man needs a pair of overalls for it. As for
blacking my shoes in such a case, I should as soon think of blacking my face. I carry a
piece of tallow to preserve the leather, and keep out the water, that's all; and many an
officious shoe-black, who carried off my shoes when I was slumbering, mistaking me for a
gentleman, has had occasion to repent it before he produced a gloss on them. My pack, in
fact, was soon made, for I keep a short list of those articles, which, from frequent
experience I have found indispensable to the foot traveller, and when I am about to start,
I have only to consult that to be sure that nothing is omitted, and, what is more
important, nothing superfluous inserted. Most of my fellow travellers carried carpet-bags
or valises. Sometimes one had two or three ponderous yellow valises in his clutch at each
hitch of the cars, as if we were going to have another rush for seats; and when there was
a rush in earnest, and there were not a few, I would see my man in the crowd, with two or
three affectionate lusty fellows along each side of his arm, between his shoulder and his
valises, which last held them tight to his back, like the nut on the end of a screw. I
could not help asking in my mind,—what so great cause for showing Canada to those
valises, when perchance your very nieces had to stay at home for want of an escort? I
should have liked to be present when the custom-house officer came aboard of him, and
asked him to declare upon his honor if he had anything but wearing apparel in them. Even
the elephant carries but a small trunk on his journeys. The perfection of travelling is to
travel without baggage. After considerable reflection and experience, I have concluded
that the best bag for the foot traveller is made with a handkerchief, or if he studies
appearances, a piece of stiff brown paper, well tied up, with a fresh piece within to put
outside when the first is torn. That is good for both town and country, and none will know
but you are carrying home the silk for a new gown for your wife, when it may be a dirty
shirt. A bundle which you can carry literally under your arm, and which will shrink and
swell with its contents. I never found the carpet-bag of equal capacity which was not a
bundle of itself. We styled ourselves the knights of the umbrella and the bundle, for
wherever we went, whether to Notre Dame, or Mount Royal, or the Champ de Mars, to the Town
Major's, or the Bishop's Palace, to the Citadel with a barelegged Highlander for our
escort, or to the Plains of Abraham, to dinner or to bed, the umbrella and the bundle went
with us, for we wished to be ready to digress at any moment. We made it our home nowhere
in particular, but everywhere where our umbrella and bundle were. It would have been an
amusing circumstance if the mayor of one of those cities had politely asked us where we
were staying; we could only have answered that we were staying with his honor for the time
being. I was amused when, after our return, some green ones inquired if we found it easy
to get accommodated, as if we went abroad to get accommodated, when we can get that at
home. There was no crowd where we put up. The best houses, in my opinion, are never
crowded. But to proceed with my story.
We met with many charettes bringing wood and stone to the city. The most ordinary looking horses travelled
faster than ours, or perhaps they were ordinary looking because, as I am told, the
Canadians do not use the curry-comb. Moreover, it is said that on the approach of winter
their horses acquire an increased quantity of hair to protect them from the cold. If this
is true, some of our horses would make you think winter was approaching even in mid
summer. We soon began to see women and girls at work in the fields, digging potatoes
alone, or bundling up the grain which the men cut. They appeared in rude health with a
great deal of color in their cheeks, and if their occupation had made them coarse, it
impressed me as better in its effects than making shirts at four-pence apiece, or doing
nothing at all, unless it be chewing slate-pencils, with still smaller results. They were
much more agreeable objects with their great broad-brimmed hats and flowing dresses, than
the men and boys. We afterwards saw them doing various other kinds of work; indeed I
thought that we saw more women at work out of doors than men. On our return we observed in
this town a girl with Indian boots nearly two feet high taking the harness off a dog. The
purity and transparency of the atmosphere were wonderful. When we had been walking an hour
we were surprised on turning round to see how near the city with its glittering tin roofs
still looked. A village ten miles off did not appear to be more than three or four. I was
convinced that you could see objects distinctly there much farther than here. It is true,
the villages are of a dazzling white, but the dazzle is to be referred perhaps to the
transparency of the atmosphere as much as to the white-wash.
We were now fairly
in the village of Beauport, though there was still but one road. The houses stood close
upon this, without any front-yards, and at any angle with it, as if they had dropped down,
being set with more reference to the road which the sun travels. It being about sundown
and the falls not far off, we began to look round for a lodging, for we preferred to put
up at a private house, that we might see more of the inhabitants. We inquired first at the
most promising looking houses, if indeed any were promising. When we knocked they shouted
some French word for Come in, perhaps Entrez, and we asked for a lodging in
English; but we found, unexpectedly, that they spoke French only. Then we went along and
tried another house, being generally saluted by a rush of two or three little curs which
readily distinguished a foreigner, and which we were prepared now to hear bark in French.
Our first question would be, "Parlez vous Anglais?" but the invariable answer was,
"Non
Monsieur;" and we soon found that the inhabitants were exclusively French Canadian, and
nobody spoke English at all any more than in France; that in fact we were in a foreign
country, where the inhabitants uttered not one familiar sound to us. Then we tried by
turns to talk French with them, in which we succeeded sometimes pretty well, but for the
most part pretty ill. "Pouvezvous nous donner un lit cette nuit?" we would ask, and
then they would answer with French volubility, so that we could catch only a word here and
there. We could understand the women and children generally better than the men, and they
us; and thus after a while we would learn that they had no more beds than they used. So we
were compelled to inquire "Y a-t-il une maison publique ici?" (auberge we
should have said perhaps, for they seemed never to have heard of the other,) and they
answered at length that there was no tavern, unless we could get lodging at the mill, le
moulin, which we had passed; or they would direct us to a grocery, and almost every
house had a small grocery at one end of it. We called on the public notary, or village
lawyer, but he had no more beds nor English than the rest. At one house there was so good
a misunderstanding at once established, through the politeness of all parties, that we
were encouraged to walk in and sit down and ask for a glass of water; and having drunk
their water, we thought it was as good as to have tasted their salt. When our host and his
wife spoke of their poor accommodations, meaning for themselves, we assured them that they
were good enough, for we thought that they were only apologizing for the poorness of the
accommodations they were about to offer us, and we did not discover our mistake till they
took us up a ladder into a loft and showed to our eyes what they had been laboring in vain
to communicate to our brains through our ears, that they had but that one apartment with
its few beds for the whole family. We made our adieus forthwith, and with gravity,
perceiving the literal signification of that word. We were finally taken in at a sort of
public-house, whose master worked for Patterson, the proprietor of the extensive saw-mills
driven by a portion of the Montmorenci stolen from the fall, whose roar we now heard. We
here talked or murdered French all the evening with the master of the house and his
family, and probably had a more amusing time than if we had completely understood one
another. At length they showed us to a bed in their best chamber, very high to get into,
with a low wooden rail to it. It had no cotton sheets, but coarse home-made dark-colored
linen ones. Afterward we had to do with sheets still coarser than these, and nearly the
color of our blankets. There was a large open buffet crowded with crockery in one corner
of the room, as if to display their wealth to travellers, and pictures of Scripture
scenes, French, Italian, and Spanish, hung around. Our hostess came back directly to
inquire if we would have brandy for breakfast. The next morning when I asked their names
she took down the temperance pledges of herself and husband and children, which were
hanging against the wall. They were Jean Baptiste Binet and his wife Genevieve
Binet. Jean
Baptiste is the sobriquet of the French Canadians.
After breakfast we
proceeded to the fall, which was within half a mile, and at this distance its rustling
sound, like the wind among the leaves, filled all the air. We were disappointed to find
that we were in some measure shut out from the west side of the fall by the private
grounds and fences of Patterson, who appropriates not only a part of the water for his
mill, but a still larger part of the prospect, so that we were obliged to trespass. This
gentleman's mansion-house and grounds were formerly occupied by the Duke of Kent, father
to Queen Victoria. It appeared to me in bad taste for an individual, though he were the
father of Queen Victoria, to obtrude himself with his land titles, or at least his fences,
on so remarkable a natural phenomenon, which should in every sense belong to mankind. Some
falls should even be kept sacred from the intrusion of mills and factories, as water
privileges in another than the mill-wright's sense. This small river falls perpendicularly
nearly two hundred and fifty feet at one pitch. The St. Lawrence falls only one hundred
and sixty-four feet at Niagara. It is a very simple and noble fall, and leaves nothing to
be desired; but the most that I could say of it would only have the force of one other
testimony to assure the reader that it is there. We looked directly down on it from the
point of a projecting rock, and saw far below us, on a low promontory, the grass kept
fresh and green by the perpetual drizzle, looking like moss. The rock is a kind of slate,
in the crevices of which grew ferns and golden-rods. The prevailing trees on the shores
were spruce and arbor-vitae, the latter very large and now full of fruit; also aspens,
alders, and the mountain ash with its berries. Every immigrant who arrives in this country
by way of the St. Lawrence, as he opens a point of the Isle of Orleans sees the
Montmorenci tumbling into the Great River thus magnificently in a vast white sheet, making
its contribution with emphasis. Roberval's Pilot, Jean Alphonse, saw this fall thus and
described it in 1542. It is a splendid introduction to the scenery of Quebec. Instead of
an artificial fountain in its squares, Quebec has this magnificent natural waterfall to
adorn one side of its harbor. Within the mouth of the chasm below, which can be entered
only at ebb tide, we had a grand view at once of Quebec and of the fall. Kalm says that
the noise of the fall is sometimes heard at Quebec about eight miles distant, and is a
sign of a north-east wind. The side of this chasm, of soft and crumbling slate too steep
to climb, was among the memorable features of the scene. In the winter of 1829 the frozen
spray of the fall descending on the ice of the St. Lawrence made a hill one hundred and
twenty-six feet high. It is an annual phenomenon which some think may help explain the
formation of glaciers.
In the vicinity of
the fall we began to notice what looked like our red-fruited thorn bushes grown to the
size of ordinary apple trees, very common and full of large red or yellow fruit which the
inhabitants called pommettes, but I did not learn that they were put to any use.
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Note on the Text:
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Source:
Excursions and Poems [The Writings of Henry David Thoreau
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906) p. [20]-39.
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