THE CIIRONICLES OF THE ST LAWRENCE

' I pray you, Ict us satisfy our eyes

With the mcmorials and the things of famé

ïhat do renovvn this city."

Shakespeare.

So said Sébastian Avlien lio entered a city in Illyria, rendered famous bv Shakespeare in that most enclianting comedy — "ïwelfth Niglit." So aLso must inany a tourist have said to his compagnon de voyage, when visiting the city of Québec, v.diich is replète with traditionary lore, quaint legends, aiul historié incidents of inen renowned for their deeds.

For Christian service and true chivalry As is the scpulchre in stubborn Jewry Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son.

AU tliG visitors to the ancient capital who have read Mr. LeMoine's dolightfiil volume "Québec : Past and Présent," must hav^e satisfied themselves that there were in the city many meiuorials and things of famé of which they would have knovvn nothing without his friendly guidance. If the stranger, or I should say rather, pilgrim, to Stadacona owes a debt of

Eratitude to Mr. LeMoine, the lover of the romantic shores of the St. awrence froui the Island of Orléans to the Island of Anticosti is so much the more indebted to him for his "Ohronicles of the St. Lawrence." Personally, having been in the habit for many years past, whenever opportunities presented themselves, of making a trip either by steamer, sailing vessel or pi lot boat to the Lower St. Lawrence, and being now tolerably familiar with its shores and the picturesque villages which fringe its hill sides, I most cordially thank Mr. LeMoine for his *'Chronicles," and must confess that I have not, for a long time, read a book with so much interest and pleasure. I am not going to write a criticism on the book, neither to dwell on the skill and abilities of one, whose réputation as an antiquary, archseologist and a scholar is as well known in the Province of Québec as the maple trees are in the autumn for their beautiful and luxuriant foliage, when clothed in a '•proud prosperity of leaves." But I am going to recommend diligent reading of the "Chronicles" to ail who have ever travelled by water from Québec to the Atlantic, and more particularly so to those who have never seen the tliousand natural beauties and the magnificent Laurentian mountains, which everywhere présent themselves to the eye, and so strongly appeal to the imagination and the feelings during the trip down the river.

Perhaps no excursion on this continent can be made where there is such a variety in the phases of the scenery as that existing between Québec and the "Gulf Ports." Again, for convenience, expéditions and safe transit, the Gulf Steamers Secret and 3firamichi, and the River Steamers Saguenay, Union and St. Lawrence afîbrd everything that can be desired. But the mere trip to and fro, beyond a momentary gratification to the eye, and imparting a healthful glow to the cheek, and invigorating the body, is not seeing the St. Lawrence in the wa}^ to appreciate the spirit of Mr. LeMoine's "Chronicles." The rapid passing in a steamboat the Island of Orléans, Isle-aux-Coudres, Murray Bay, The Pilgrims, Riviere-du-Loup, Tadousac, Bic, Rimouski, Métis, Caj^e Chatte, Cape Rosier, Gaspe, Perce and other places en route to Pictou, will not enable the tourist to form even a remote idea of the romantic inland scenery, "where scarce a woodman finds a road, and scarce the fisher plies an oar," but where every mile is rather "raagnificently rude" or sublime in its grandeur. As a hurried walk round the Louvre and the Vatican with an ordinary cicérone, or through such glorious fanes as Canterbury, York and Westminster, Gloster, Wells and Salisbury, accompanied only by the subsacrist or verger, will not let the student or pilgrim, however intelligent or perspicacious lie may be, grasp the beauties, Mhether of sculpture, painting or architecture, presented to his view, jieither M'ill a temporary halting at tlie wharves or landing places of the difïerent villages enable tlie voyageur to find that

ià

"Thero is a pleasure in the pathîess woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society where none intrudes,"

or to find tliat infinité pleasure in the "Chronicles" which the writer has done in conséquence of his famih'arity with the places and the peoples so graphically described by Mr. LeMoine.

It is strange how wonderfully little our American and Canadian tourists, in gênerai, know of the glories which lie concealed here and there, in fact everywhere, en route to the unfashionable régions of Bic, Rimouski, Métis and Gaspe, and it is also strange that poets and artists have not turned for their inspiration and for their pictures to the everlasting hills, the mountain torrents, the secluded valleys, the quiet dells, rivalling in grandeur and beauty those scènes of which such m en as Petrarch and Salvator Rosa have given such wonderful pictures in words and on canvas. It is true there is not the vivid interest attached to the Saguenay or the Metapedia, the Godbout or the Resti^ouche as there is to the Rhine or the Thames, the Tiber or the Po. The German ïeine and the English Thomson have immortalized their rivers, and Byron and Rogers have done the same for the Italian rivers, while such artists as Turner and Stanfield, Roberts and Prout have made us familiar with everything worth seeing or remembering from the Orknevs and the Hébrides to the Archipelago, from the Isle of Man to Cyprus. \Vould that such men as Church and Bierstadt would do for the Lower St. Lawrence what they have done for the Andes, Niagara and the Yosemite Valley, the latter destined, throu^h the liberality of the artist, to adorn the walls of the Benaiah Gibb Art Gallery. There is a field open for Jacobi and Allan Edson.