I
Saw Something Of Montreal Society, Which Seemed To Me To Be Quite On A Par
With That In Our English Provincial Towns.
I left this ancient city at seven o'clock on a very dark, foggy evening
for Quebec, the boats between the two cities running by night, in order
that the merchants, by a happy combination of travelling with sleep, may
not lose that time which to them is money.
This mode of proceeding is very
annoying to tourists, who thereby lose the far-famed beauties of the St.
Lawrence. It is very obnoxious likewise to timid travellers, of whom there
are a large number both male and female: for collisions and striking on
rocks or shoals are accidents of such frequent occurrence, that, out of
eight steamers which began the season, two only concluded it, two being
disabled during my visit to Quebec.
Scarcely had we left the wharf at Montreal when we came into collision
with a brig, and hooked her anchor into our woodwork, which event caused a
chorus of screams from some ladies whose voices were rather stronger than
their nerves, and its remedy a great deal of bad language in French,
German, and English, from the crews of both vessels. After this we ran
down to Quebec at the rate of seventeen miles an hour, and the
contretemps did not prevent even those who had screamed the loudest from
partaking of a most substantial supper, which was served at eight o'clock
in the lowest story of the ship.
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