In Old Times It Was The Depot For The Great Fur Trades.
Now,
however, it receives its furs almost entirely back from England, to
which country the Hudson's Bay Company send their whole supply, to be
dressed and prepared for re-exportation.
It is the commercial emporium
of this district; and, though it has suffered from the equalization of
duties, it is now recovering. The facilities for communication with the
United States, by the systems of railroad made and making, which may
bring it within twelve hours of Boston and New York, will doubtless
urge forward its prosperity.
* * * * *
"Montreal has considerable general commerce, commanding, as it does,
the St. Lawrence, now connected by railway directly with the United
States, and being at the outlet of the Ottawa river district. The
island upon which it stands is some thirty miles long, and contains
much fine and valuable land, mostly under cultivation, and abounding in
good farms and gardens, and fine orchards. From the 'Mountain' above
Montreal, a splendid view is obtained of the St. Lawrence and its
wooded shores; the dark forests of the Ottawa valley; the fine bright
lands of the islands; the city, and its villaed suburbs. In the
distances, north and south, the 'green mountains' of Vermont, and the
distant summits which separate the cultivated parts of Lower Canada
from those far-off and savage regions, in which the trappers of the
Hudson's Bay Company and some scattered Indians are the sole monarchs
of the woods - are visible.
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