winding of that noble river!

"Every perception of my mind became absorbed into the one sense of
seeing, when, upon rounding Point Levis, we cast anchor before Quebec.
What a scene! Can the world produce another? Edinburgh had been the
_beau ideal_ to me of all that was beautiful in nature--a vision
of the Northern Highlands had haunted my dreams across the Atlantic;
but all these past recollections faded before the _present_ of
Quebec. Nature has ransacked all our grandest elements to form this
astonishing panorama. There, frowns the cloud-capped mountain, and
below, the cataract foams and thunders; woods and rock and river
combine to lend their aid in making the picture perfect, and worthy of
its Divine originator. The precipitous bank upon which the city lies
piled, reflected in the still, deep waters at its base, greatly
enhances the romantic beauty of the situation. The mellow and serene
glow of the autumn day harmonized so perfectly with the solemn
grandeur of the scene around me, and sank so silently and deeply into
my soul, that my spirit fell prostrate before it, and I melted
involuntarily into tears."

Such the poetic visions which were awakened in the poetic mind of the
brilliant author of "_Roughing it, in the Bush._" Charles Dickens also had
his say in this matter, on his visit to Quebec, in May 1842, where he was
the guest of the President of the _Literary and Historical Society_, Dr.
John Charlton Fisher:--

"The impression made upon the visitor by this Gibraltar of America,
its giddy heights, its citadel suspended, as it were, in the air; its
picturesque steep streets and frowning gateways; and the splendid
views which burst upon the eye at every turn, is at once unique and