The Promised Bread Was To Be Obtained From A Small
Steam-Boat, Which Plied Daily Between Quebec And The Island,
Transporting Convalescent Emigrants And Their Goods In Her Upward
Trip, And Provisions For The Sick On Her Return.
How I reckoned on once more tasting bread and butter!
The very
thought of the treat in store served to sharpen my appetite, and
render the long fast more irksome. I could now fully realise all
Mrs. Bowdich's longings for English bread and butter, after her
three years' travel through the burning African deserts, with her
talented husband.
"When we arrived at the hotel at Plymouth," said she, "and were
asked what refreshment we chose - 'Tea, and home-made bread and
butter,' was my instant reply. 'Brown bread, if you please, and
plenty of it.' I never enjoyed any luxury like it. I was positively
ashamed of asking the waiter to refill the plate. After the
execrable messes, and the hard ship-biscuit, imagine the luxury of
a good slice of English bread and butter!"
At home, I laughed heartily at the lively energy with which that
charming woman of genius related this little incident in her
eventful history - but off Grosse Isle, I realised it all.
As the sun rose above the horizon, all these matter-of-fact
circumstances were gradually forgotten, and merged in the
surpassing grandeur of the scene that rose majestically before me.
The previous day had been dark and stormy, and a heavy fog had
concealed the mountain chain, which forms the stupendous background
to this sublime view, entirely from our sight. As the clouds rolled
away from their grey, bald brows, and cast into denser shadow the
vast forest belt that girdled them round, they loomed out like
mighty giants - Titans of the earth, in all their rugged and awful
beauty - a thrill of wonder and delight pervaded my mind. The
spectacle floated dimly on my sight - my eyes were blinded with
tears - blinded with the excess of beauty. I turned to the right and
to the left, I looked up and down the glorious river; never had I
beheld so many striking objects blended into one mighty whole!
Nature had lavished all her noblest features in producing that
enchanting scene.
The rocky isle in front, with its neat farm-houses at the eastern
point, and its high bluff at the western extremity, crowned with
the telegraph - the middle space occupied by tents and sheds for the
cholera patients, and its wooded shores dotted over with motley
groups - added greatly to the picturesque effect of the land scene.
Then the broad, glittering river, covered with boats darting to and
fro, conveying passengers from twenty-five vessels, of various size
and tonnage, which rode at anchor, with their flags flying from the
mast-head, gave an air of life and interest to the whole. Turning
to the south side of the St. Lawrence, I was not less struck with
its low fertile shores, white houses, and neat churches, whose
slender spires and bright tin roofs shone like silver as they
caught the first rays of the sun.
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