There is also a small navy-yard, where a couple of Government
steamboats were building, and getting on vigorously.
We left Kingston for Montreal on the tenth of May, at half-past
nine in the morning, and proceeded in a steamboat down the St.
Lawrence river. The beauty of this noble stream at almost any
point, but especially in the commencement of this journey when it
winds its way among the thousand Islands, can hardly be imagined.
The number and constant successions of these islands, all green and
richly wooded; their fluctuating sizes, some so large that for half
an hour together one among them will appear as the opposite bank of
the river, and some so small that they are mere dimples on its
broad bosom; their infinite variety of shapes; and the numberless
combinations of beautiful forms which the trees growing on them
present: all form a picture fraught with uncommon interest and
pleasure.
In the afternoon we shot down some rapids where the river boiled
and bubbled strangely, and where the force and headlong violence of
the current were tremendous. At seven o'clock we reached
Dickenson's Landing, whence travellers proceed for two or three
hours by stage-coach: the navigation of the river being rendered
so dangerous and difficult in the interval, by rapids, that
steamboats do not make the passage.
Pages:
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392