4

'1.

x... > der by which, at much personal hazard, its flat and slip- r'"pcry surface was gained, has been swept away by the

' a

‘i r

. ‘i‘: you have stood when you have reached the last offl

K 4 caps from your lisz are inaudible even to yourself, so

i

‘2

inantage Of his own experience, he divides hi

' 5‘

fish, and fatigue; but it repays all your exertion; for " when ‘you have reached the edge, close to the rainbow

v

, mass of vapour arid water before you, around you, be-

five" our.

‘ water in their conflict for mastery.”

I _ .Ofthe Split Rainbow Rock :—

’ rock above.

7 dron. I shuddercd at the liardihood displayed, for a

v

, of Niagara many months, and'had constant opportuni-

' is a glance at the view from the rocky edge

k, .5,

»

objects Were purposely left, to as . hipwrecltedyef' ., sons on their way along shore .to the other-pyovisrofi a,“ . In thesecond room we found every requisne for 51 i fig",

and a large iron kettle, probably for boiling the sea fia ,

and the whole space round the house wascoyered with 1‘ I rels, 63c. On the seaward side ofthebuildmg w‘aaga arlge . board,son which was deeply cut in relief— ‘_Twe .ve

leagues west to provision post.” This was for informa-

tion of wrecked mariners, who would here find a coni-

fortable temporary shelter, the-Windows. being made air-

tight, and there being a stove in the building.

The provision post, however, was empty: These posts

fill the mind with a feeling of desolation, arising from the

very loneliness of which they are the only witnesses. It

may be doubted, however, whether much reliance can be

placed upon t

he people to whom they are entrusted, and who must be in circumstances of the utmost, despair before they can be induced to accept suc

h "appoint-

merits .-— l , ‘ M ~

“There is another provision post at Gamache s, on the west point. of the Island, who is the. superintendent of that part, and lives there; and there is also one (that pointed out by the board) between his house and. the iiver next to Gamaché's ; and fifty miles east, of him is the new light-house, which is twelve miles eastlof Jupi- ter river, iri which llves Lieutenant Harvey, an officer 0: half-pay, who has chosen, With an amiable Wife an large family, to 'reign over desolation ; and fortunate for the poor Weather-beaten and unhappy -Vlctlm of the storm is it that he has done so, for he Will control and check the residents of the other posts, who adopted their solitary mode of existence from other causes.”

A few years ago one of these provision posts was kept by a Mr. Godin. A melancholy and horrible story is connected with the place :—

“On the l5th ofNovember, 1828, the brig“ Granicus” left the port onuebec on her voyage to Britain or Ire- land, with timber. It is supposed she was wrecked on the east point, as parts of the ship were found there, _and that the crew must have met with one of the direction- boards, which indicated a supply of provision twelve miles off, in the direction of Fox Cove;'as the board was found, as ifbronght by one of ‘the unhappy sufl'erers, at the place where the tragedy'afterwards happened.

“Upon arriving at the provision post, after what must have been‘to them a dreadful and perilousjourney, they must have found it deserted, and nothing but an empty log hut and store-room to receive them, weary as they were. Godin had left it in the autumn for Quebec, where he is said to have been imprisoned for'debt; and in his subsequent examination he averred that he had received orders to withdraw, and that the provisions, consisting chiefly of salt pork, biscuit, and flour, had rotted. He has been accused of plundering it; but it is said that he proved his orders to withdraw, and was ac- quitted of all blame. '

“The scene that now ensued harrows the feelings. The boat was found at Fox Cove, not far from another post, with provision in it, by some of the Magdalen Island fishermen, in May, 1829, and it: is probable that the crew had been too much exhausted, after the ship was wrecked, to make any further use of it.

“The fishermen stated that they found in the house many bodies, or parts ofbodies, suspended, and a chest filled with human flesh. There was a rude alinanack scribbled on the boards of the house, which terminated on the 23d of April, the 22d being the last day legibly executed. The beams were literally hung, like a but- cher’s stall, with human carcases ; and a pot was found resting on the ashes, in which some of the undevoured and monstrous meal still remained. Bones and putrid flesh were found strewed about the place; money, watches, rings, and a note in pencil, signed “ B. Har- rington,” desiring that forty-eight sovereigns, which were found as therein stated, with his body in his hammock, should be sent home to Mary Harrington, Barrack-street, Cove ofCork. This unfortunate being, true to his filial or marital duty even amidst all his wretchedness, was the only unmutilated form amid the heap of dead. He had fed on the last surviving relic of the horrible mor- tality!

“ The fishermen gathered together as much of the sad remains of their fellow-creatures as they could, and decently interred them. They thought they could per- ceive the skeletons and part ofthe flesh of three children, two women, and eight men; and the loathsom skele- tons of two others were also found in the forest, to which give the reader a peep into this strange and startling it is supposed they must have retired to suffer the excru- scenery :— _ ciating pangs of_hunger, and thus, by meeting the death

“The white cliffs of Anticosti are very remarkable Of‘mlurei ‘0 “Old bemg PleYEd uP0n by these maddened from the sea, and so dangerous is the whole neighbour- canmbals' ,The fiShermen reported the dreadfifl Sight hood, that at the most projecting part, about twelve they had Wllf‘ess?d, and a vessel was soon afterwards miles east, 0,. on the southwest point of the island, a sent to examine into all the evidence which could be very elevated and magnificent “glyphojjse, equal to any collected. Godin returned to his domain, the theatre of ofthe best on the coast of England, has been construct- ‘ll‘ese honors, and there he mlgnsi With tWO fit asso- ed’ of, Species “white marble found there, ciates, as we are told, a ferocious-looking one-eyed

“On rounding the corner of the white cliffs, we came ‘V'emhr and a half idiom-n \ suddenly upon one ofthe most singularly romantic scenes The desolate Labrador—abandoned to “the beasts of which it has fallen to my lot to survey,—tlie mouth of the forest, the birds of the air, and the denizens of the Jupiter River—lonely, desolate, beautiful, and wild, watcr”—i5, if possible, still more appallin than Anti- plliere, ifstern and destructive winter never held his aw- costi. g u court, we might suppose that a Crusoe had dwelt. . The - ‘ -

“ A deep recess in the curiously formed hills gave the nirv coigpggafyjlutsodgifigiflt.and the entrance mto T“- many windings of the secluded stream unexpectedly to ' '—

runs towards the north-eaSt, still heroined in by the. Pfe' cipice, which now increases in “altitude. Here it has scooped out a vast basin in the rocks, of a circular form, and the‘rushin’g and roaring waters, entering the nar- row gor e-trom the south-east, strike by their amPems with suc force on the perpendicular wall of the oppo- site gorge, that an under-current is immediately created, and the waters whirl in a dizzy vortex until they find egresstowards the north-east, between the precipitou5 walls of the chasm.

“As the rock is very lofty ,here (between two and Tthrée hundred feet) the view from above is so distant, that very—little but the faint whirling or concentrically enlarging circles ofthe water can be, traced ‘, ‘for the largest trunk trees which are spinning in its eddies seem there no bigger than sticks. It is from below that the curious visitant must see the effect. But the descent is dangerous, from the vicinity .of the Table Rock, and It is necessary to go back about a mile on the road, and ask permission to cross a farmer’s grounds, whgre there is a path more accessible. '3 " _ "Here, after crossing a field ortwo, you enter into a beautiful wood, and, going through it for a quarter of a mile, begin to descend by a narrow, obscure, and Wind- ing path, cut out of the, mountain, which is cOvered with the primeval forest. The descent is not very diffi- cult, perfectly safe, and with alktle expense would be pleasant. It leads to the centre of the bay-coast ofthe whirlpool, where thereare but few rocks, and a narrow shingle beach. Here you see the vastness ofthe scene, the great expanse of the circular basin, the mass of mountain which encloses it almost to its very edge, ,and the overhanging Table Rock, nearly like that at the Falls, and probably produced by a similar cause, the disintegration of the slate beds under the more unyielding limestone.

“So extensive, however, is the surface of water, that the huge trunks of trees floating in the concentric cir- cles ofthe whirling waters, when they reach their ulti- mate doom in the actual vortex, appear still not larger than small logs. They revolve for a great length of time, touching the shores in their extreme gyraticns, and then, as the circles narrow, are tossed aboutit'witli in- creasing rapidity, until, in the middle, the largest giants of the forest arelifted perpendicularly, and appear to be sucked under, alter a time, altogether.”

The whole account of Niagara and its neighbourhood is full of interest, and is written in such detail as to form an indispensable companion to all future tourists in that part ofthe world.

Let us now turn to scenery of a different kind. ' At the extremity of Lower Canada the vayrigcur finds him- self in Gaspé Bay, an arm of the sea, with Cape Gaspé on one side and the high land of Percé on the other, at a great distance. The panorama here is one of the most magnificent in British America; but we must ap- proach the shore for a close view to suit our columns 2——

“ Here one of the most singular scenes we had ob- Served in our whole progress presented itself, and part of which has been already mentioned. The small neat whitewashed houses ofthe tovvn and fishing station of Perch, with long lines of stages to cure the codfish, and a handsome clean beach, aré backed by a lofty and sharp mountain, and surmounted by a mass of beetling and overhanging bright red rock lower down on the right. This rock was cut into fantastic and abrupt cliffs, des- cending sheer into the ocean, beyond the promontory of Mont Joli; and was contrasted by belts of cultivated fields carried up, by man’s industry and patient toil, the steep mountain as far as appeared practicable; and‘ these fields were intersected and frowned over by dark and dismal woods, except where a deep stratum, or project- ing ledge, ofthe Indian red sandstone broke the gloom with its vivid colouring.”

The mirage, white squalls, and optical illusions are fre- quent in these latitudes. The inhabitants are almost’ exclusively fishermen, and the imagination can hardly compass the sort oflife they lead in such remote solitudes. Except an occasional visit on some such tour of in- spection as Sm RICHARI‘ was engaged upon, or a des- cent of the Indians, it does not appear that the people who carry on these extensive fisheries have any opportunities of enjoying much human intercourse.

The island of Anticosti, buried in lurid fogs, with its reefs and rocks, presents quite as terrible a picture to the navigator as the iron-bound cliffs of Gaspé, upwards of five hundred feet in perpendicular altitude. We must

.gq—h' *—

LITERATURE.

3’

' Canada: in 1841. '33] so Richard H. Bonnycaslle, med. ' col. R. E., and Liam. Cal. in the Militia of U. C. 2 vols. Henry Colburn. London, 1841. ‘ - Sir RICHARD Bomvvcas'rus resided close to the Falls

ties of‘viewing them under every aspect for four year. .His account, therefore, is not that of a hasty, tourist, butot' one who has really examined every inch of the“ ground, and taken deliberate pains to inform himself thoroughly upon the minutest points connected with this marvellous scene. For th? sake of being as explicit as possible, and of afl'ording the future traveller the full ad- s descrip- “tion'into sections, taking different points of site, so that riotrasingle fraction‘tff thewonder shall escape. Here above the to the cauldron 2-—

“ To see them “ aright,” you must not only visit them .f‘ by fair moonlight,” but you must descend to the very ‘fldg'e’ ofthe trembling rocky brink ofthe cauldron on the "British side, immediately under the stairs, ,and sixty or severity feet below the narrow platform of rock on which iese

Lucite. This is not to be efi‘ectcd without some trouble,

or split rock, you are. as it were, at once in a new world: chaos seems there to have never been disturbed by the regularity of itattird, but reigns solitary and su- preme. ' y

‘“ Place your back against the projecting, blackened, and slime-covered rocks, and look towards the mighty

[tenth you, and above you. Hearing, sight, feeling, he- cohie, asit were, blended and confounded. You are ii‘cnsible that youexist, perhaps; but in what state of insistence has, for a few minutes, vanished from your imagination; The rocks vibrate under your feet; the [flak-white boiling and mountain surge advances, swells jgpflribsidcs, recoils, lashes, and mingles with the thick ' An indescribable and terrific, dull, yet deaf- ening sound shakel the air; your nerves feel the con- clusion, and thelgords of surprise which at length cs-

“ awfully stem is the uproar ofthe contending air and

Few visgtors venture to the edge of the cauldron and , “ These form a huge mass, buried cables deep in the “gulph, fallen headlong from above, rent by the fall in twain nearly to its base, wedged into the lip of the caul- dron, and towering twenty or thirty feet above the V’mounting surge. How it became so transfixed baffles .-conjecture, for it was evidently hurled from the table

“ This rainbow rock, as it is called, or Iris’ throne, from the extremity of the arc appearing to rest upon it, when you view the great fall from the rocky table above, cannot now be approached so easily. The lad

raging {flood ; and it i ,haps, fortunate that it is so, fogw’hpcrimcnt of thing and standing on the sur- fa attended with great risk. one person, whilst I was sketching tliescene, fulctually’ lying down at full length upon the edge of it, with head projected over, to look into the very caul-

falso movement would be inevitable and instant destruc- tion on that slippery platform. When he descended the ladder, I told him what I had felt, and he was fully aware of his danger, but said that, from his childhood, he had been a ranger in the Alps.

“To add to the difficulties of your situation on the edge of the cauldron, the descending and ascending spray is so great that you are wet through very soon ; whilst the clouds of arrowy sleet driving in your eyes render sketching not very pleasant; whilst to add to yot stock of ideas, you behold a truly Freisclmtz dis- play; for crawling at your feet, amidst a mass of ground and splintered timber, bones, and shivered rocks, are the loathsome and large black toad, the hideously de-

\,fo‘rmed black lizard eels, of a most equivocal appearance, \ud even that prototype of the eel, the fierce black water Be"'ient.”

'fiview of the Ilorse-shoo from the edge of the caul-

‘tt‘ ‘ imited, but ofa most awful grandeur :—

io $22??th require much stretch of the imagination “earning fog on see, amidst the huge mountains of king combatingnd vapour, the dim form of the water ’ l’oulruncc, thh the monarch of air

and the battle hurtiw b l u . . h d f {mime fantastic Shh e ween . ieir mig ty squa rons, 7‘ on which mystic Light is con-

tinually impressing ne . . wonderful ponion of thereations is, perhaps, the most henomcna of a near View of

the cauldron; whilst the rost, I . 1. t

Oil-he aimosphem, which per? ,ustmfi m pew "H 5 ales beauty oftints, and an indescriSF. ‘ ispmy,’ crass a combined with the partial glimpE grory °b§° curing. ofliquid deep marine emerald in the? we “ghltl “la” shoe, which it is useless to write about‘}, 5 Mule “53' can convey even a faint idea of its gorgeotn” Smguage

sublimity.

But one ofthe most strikin as ects is tha. . . . ' “Eve tl ’ ' ' . me tablaka on a tempesmfus 52mm), day. 11m above View; and although a large‘river for Anticosti, its mouth, played :gugangtéio‘? a grnd scale or Wildness' thles face of the magnificent scene is changed :_ a. whole barred by a deep belt of shifting sand, which some storm ' esse ’ the grampusi the polPO‘Se:

and the seal, were busy in their vocations; and a gram- pus actually drove a shoal of the brilliant and delicate lance-fish against the sides of the vessel, where they re- mained darting about in great quantities. / “ In this cove we found the river which I have depic- ted, wliich proved to be a place where the Indians of the coast, called Montagnards, or Esquimaux, occasionally resort to for. salmon. The estuary ofthis river is a sin- gular place. Aii accumulation of enormous stones of gueissmd and feldspathose boulders, of the-granite fa- mily, have been hurled into the mouth, and into the sea on each side, for a quarter of a mile, and the river forces itself through them. ' The sparkling sand in front co- vered with large sea-shells; the roaring river ' the dark spruce woods, with thetr beautiful but stunted s ir - formed trees in the background; the hedge of follies); actually impenetrable, which closes in the river «inter, mixed as it is with the pure white ofthe silver,birch : the innumerable boulders; the foaming and ’

had thrown up, left its confluence with the ocean almost reduced to nothing, and only known to us in the boat by our being, by the violent commotion ofthe pent up wa- i'ss, prevented from landing near it. The river here and‘ Imore than twenty yards wide, and has the true force from ,‘HLre ofa Canadian rapid. t gained its name which sums ofa large French frigate, the “ Jupiter,” ‘ wreck on its treacherous margin.”

From this j. , boundless forest ,the “var expands-

as the eye could r green clearing wher

“The- blacker and more gloomy the sky, the i.‘ grand and awful the contrast of the white, foaming, a . indescribable flood. It forms an exact opposite to the View on a fine and tranquil afternoon of autumn, with the gloriously tinted forest; the. blue—the peculiar blue —-sky of Canada; the glittering of the waters; their thousand hues, from the emerald to the diamond, through every shade of green, yellow, brown, purple, red, blue; th ft and wool-like mountains of vapour in the caul- dron”; the rainbow stealing into the very depths of it; and that mellow and peculiar shade, the slightest imaginable, of rose colour, thrown over the ascending vapour.” .

About four miles along the river towards the cape the traveller comes upon the whirlpool ofNiagara, which is almost as great a wonder as the Horse-shoe itself. ,Sir

~ Richard attempted to construct a road to this place, , but he found so many conflicting interests that he was

Farther on, a grunted fir covered the region as far §,_broken at one place by a small ago endeavoured to find8 “"haPP)’ mariners had long wreck :—- “he‘ll”, probably after ship-

“ Advancing along the ridg. _ barred up the river, we came, itf Shingle, Which here space in which it winds its way be‘tfientre of the flat small wooden house, or shed, round“. the Ollfl'S, to a ofvetches, with their lovely purple blosisi.h *1 Prorusion

I obliged to abandon the project. At present the whirl- uriantly growing; whilst all along the shore Were lux- water, with the little space clear of trees bisittmggllng pool is approached by a difficult and hazardous track on vestiges of recent wreck, masts, spars, and pit: strewn With blue berry and pigeon-berry plants I all tomatiied the top 0 the rocky wall that .hems in the Stream. But, «This hous,e we at first supposed to he a shy, formed a picture of which the engraving get er

will afford a open space, . which here logs with the n a dark glen, rest, and deep

having acheived this labour, the result will abundantly reward the courageous traveller :—

~ “The river, which has gradually contracted its chan- nel very much, after passing the great white sheet ofthe American Fall, proceeds in a curved form towards.th’e north-west, and, after falling over tremendous rapids, suddenly turns, at right angles, to its former course, and

fishermen,as, on opening both the doors which led ‘for very fair" conception' we thBTSEd the

its two apartments, and were only fastened by a late and came suddenly on the bend ofthe river and string, we found in one a wooden bed, like 11,; st all its rushing and contentious striv ’ guard-bed used for soldiers; a basket, with a few sea- hi“. and its black solemn flood flowed i biscuits; 3 tin cannister, with the apparatus for striking ended in to the very edge by the fibre a light; a knife, formed out ofa razor-blade; bottles we we night,"