Worcester daily spy., 1860-08-27
A TrIp to Montreal.
THE WORCESTER EXCURsION-A PLEASANT
RIDE BY RAIL-THE CITY OF MONTREAL AND
THE PRINCE OF WALES.

| had particularly agreeable ride by rail, ar.
irving here before eleven o'clock on the night
of the same day. We were not plagued with
dust, heavy rain having settled that matter
along the entire route. With our windows
wide open, and eyes open, also, we fully en-
! joyed the prospect as we sped along the bank
of the useful Merrimac river, and followed our
wild and devious way through the mountain
our regions of New Hampshire and Vermont
to the shores of Lake Champlain.
One or two of our party were more bent on
seeing the mountains, especially Mount Royal,
than II. r. II. Prince of Wales consequently
they rode on the rear platform of the last car,
or kept their heads out of the window all day
long, searching for the peaks, and causing
some Dartmouth students who were returning
to college, to answer very many questions.
Our mountain seekers discovered Kearsage on
the left soon after leaving Concord, and were
gratiiied with fine observation of Cardigan
mountain on the right as they approached the
land OF Canaan. But their enthusiasm was
further raised as we crossed the Connecticut
river and approached the grander peaks of the
Green Mountains. Some of the rocky farms
the owner Of more than one of them, dare
say, knows what it is to ask for bread and get
only stone. In pleasing contrast with such
farms is the Shaker settlement in Enfield,
which looks so quiet and neat, promising
and beautiful, seen on the left, across Shaker
pond, down to which it slopes.
Cros sing from New Hampshire to Vermont,
we arrive in queer state. Her mountain
peaks are not bold and savage as are those of
New Hampshire, and the stones and rocks
are clothed with shrubberry, green moss, or
turf and shun the naked boldness exhibited
in the granite state her mountain slopes are
thckly covered with evergreen trees, and
shrubs and green moses and winter grasses
crown the SUBMITS; her thousand hills and
mounds have the regularity of shape observ-
able in ant hills, and are all carpeted with
green; she has but one city, and that vii
lage OF less than 1900 inhabitants she has
no daily newspaper published within her ter
ritory. Nevertheless, this state is one of the
bNSt1 eRhN S'Nh pOdot Vi Il llllhtl lHtciISGHlJ
republican population and grand and pleasing
scenery. We obtained fine retrospective
view of the Green Mountains after leaving
Bolton with Mount Mansfield and Camels
Hump, the two highest peaks, rising grandly
up above their smaller brethren, and came in
sight OF lake Champlain just as the sun was
setting, with unusual pomp, behind the dis
tant Adrondacks, whose blue peaks were
raised along the western sky, for long way,
like the tents of an army of Titans.
We were soon across Lake Champlain,
named after the brave Frenchman who first
explored its shores, and travelling in Queen
Victoria's possessions, where the men seem
slow of comprehension and like to beat about
the bush half an hour before giving a decisive
answer to simple question. 1t was late in
the evening when we were terried over the
st. Lawrence, and were landed on the sub
stantial quays of Montreal. We were glad to
find plenty of room at the hotels, and prices
the same as if the prince was in England.
The next morning we were called up by the
sound of the big bell of the French Parish
Church-the largest bell and the largest
church in Ame.ica-and found the citizens of
| Montreal building arches of the most elaborate
kind across the streets everywhere, putting up
trasparencies and hanging out fags-all in
honor of queen Victoria eldest son, who is to
be received here this week in loyal manner.
In the vast church priests were chanting mass
for the dead, while a group of mourners gath.
cred about the coffin, which was surrounded
! by lighted candles in the central aisle As
! the bier was borne out another funeral proces.
sion passed in; and people were constantly go.
in to prayer, even at this early hour.
One of the most interesting places to the
stranger here is the great Bonsecours market.
The building is very long and is surmounted
with dome. In the two lower stories mum.
berle:s stalls are fitted up, where may be
found everything in the world that ever found
its way into market The business is main.
ly transacted by the French Canadian women,
who wear white caps or broad brimmed straw
hats, and talk the most lively French. The
market was entirely surrounded by at least four
hundred little two wheeled carts, in which the
country women drive to market with their
wares. Sometimes the old lady would be
seated high up amid her cabbages and penny
royal, to receive the coppers while her buxom
daughter advertised the very fresh and very
large eggs and cucumbers, in the most seduc-
tive French. Here are hundreds of women
who carry on business entirely on their Gown
hook" and it appears to be quite common for
women to act as clerks in the stores. So Mon
treal may be considered very much in advance
of New England cities, in the matter of "wo.
mems rights"
The tervency of the faith of the Catholic
Frenchmen, who long ago settled here, is at.
tested in the way the streets have been named
after all the saints OF the calendar. Sanity
named streets are as numerous as the saw mills
on the Canadian rivers.
A ride through the famous Victoria Bridge
was Of course duty, but it is not till we stop
at the center tube and look down on the fast
rushing st. Lawrence, sixty feet below, and
| get near view of the massive piers of cut
granite which are sunk far below the river bed
i'll one case twenty-five feet, making fifty feet
OF solid bolted masonry below the surface Of
the water, that we fully realize the grandeur
OF the achievement which has never been
equalled by any work of our day 1t cost its
English owners over s7,000,OO0, and is the
longest bridge in the world. Worthy to be
mentioned in connection with this railroad
bridge, are the magnificent canals and the grey
limestone embankment and long substantial