Morning journal and courier., 1888-09-29

Two things here, however, touch the
American heart and spirit a bit; aud my
| asthmatic guide, Willum, removed bis white
cotton gloves and produced his white cotton
| mentoes, and he, the subject matter.
"This ere, said he, with pathetic trem-
BILE in his voice and the mist of tear in his
round, red eye, "is very painful subject"
We were standing at the edge of the Kings
Bastion, looking down the almost perpendic-
ular rocks to the narrow street of Lower
Town. nearly three hundred and fifty feet
below. "Hi s'pose ye'v'e the sorry story be
art ye know2" Half way down the cruel
height. where more desperate charge than
at Lookout once was made was a tablet bear.
ing the legend, "Here Fell Montgomery,
ITO" ''Wery painful; weryl" sighed Will
lum heavily. placed coin in his timor-
ous, timely hand and turned from the spot
He followed briskly, good souIl Frightening
up the subject with: "But it cawnt appen
hagain ye know. Dear, mol" In a moment
more We had reached the center of the Pa
rade, to which spot he had dextrously guided
me. There stood bright, saucy little field
piece of brass, polished until it almost mir
rorsd the sky-the only thing in the whole
Citadel of Quebec with a clean face and a
snappy, good look about It. Really now,
Hi"-began Willum, with downcast, COM
miserating face-"Hfts a very unpleasant
subject, wery!" The very little gun had a
''Taken at Bunker HILL" 'Dear mel but
hits very =" I placed another coin in
his timorous, timely hand. Radiantly
beamed his honest face. He put the coin
away; slapped the gun familiarly, kindly, in
trospectively, sympathetieally as he unused
aloud in tone of anctuous permissabiIity,
charity and forgiveness:
"But hit caw'nt 'appen hagain, ye knowl"
If you can bride your guide to few mo-
ments' severance of these sympathetic afilia-
tions, and will stand alone on the fartheet
edge of the Kings Bastion, one of the
most magnificent cycloramas to be seen in
America is all your own. To the north lie
the Plains of Abraham terminating to the
vision in the heights of Abraham, where
Wolfe fell as his bloody victory was won.
To the west the St. Lawrence, broadening
for distance, winds its splendid course
towards the Thousand Islands and the
Great Lakes. To the south, beyond whose
horizon line lies your own loved land, are
the peaceful wales of Becancour. Chaudiere
and the upper st. John. Between slope
the heights of Point Lewis in gentle de-
scents, disclosing here a great hospital,
there handsome chateau and again sui
len fort Below these Lewis straggIes to
the southern riverside in bright and pleas
ing opulence. Then comes the river deep,
| blue and with anchorage for countless craft,
here and there dotted by huge men, -of~war
and ocean steamers looking like toy vessels
from the great height where we stand. I'M
mediately beneath your feet are few nar~
row streets chiseled from the rock like ter
races, on which nestle and wind some of the
most picturesque thoroughfares in the world,
where grotesque habitations house a motley
| people This is Lower Town. Then before
you on the crest of the half mountain where
Champlain's old city is perched "like an ca
gle's nest upon crag, runs the magnificent
Dufferin Terrace, from the rampaIt's base for
| a full fourth of mile, and the finest known
| work of the kind extant. Along and above
this the eye greets the middle ages in archi~
| tecture and the city tops are a eommingling
of old Nuremberg, Angouthme and Constan-
tinople itself. Gable, dormer, spire, nina
| ret dome, cluster and blend in bewildering
| confusion. Then, threading like the Nurem-
| berg wall, winds the city's wall behind, bro
ken here and there by imposing castellated
| gates; and behind this the magnificent Par
| lament building like white and absshed
| modern presence awed and shrinking near q
| SURPRISING antiquity. In the morning sun
| light the timed domes and spires CLEAN like
| FURNISHED silver, intense and painful to the
/ sight. But beyond all the .restfulness anC
beauty of the matchless scene to the east car
| be nowhere excelled. Majestioally SWEEP
the waters of the ST. Lawrence seaward
parting a few miles below to wash the lovely
| shores of the villa covered Isle of Orleans
| To the south and stretching far to the foot
/ hills of mountain ranges are the farms and
| white villages of the happy pious habitans
! To the north the eye ranges along the gleam,
| ing housetops of BEAUFORT and over the no
| BILE valley of the Charles river, between
/ which and the city the brave but i'll starred
/ Arnold fell wounded at the head of his hall
starved troops. Beyond are the purple
/ heights of the Laurentian mountains. And
| in the far distance through the gray, Gutter-
/ ing clouds above the wondrous Falls OF
| Nontmorency, is caught faint glimpse of
| the dark outlines of grim old Cape Tour
mente. Over all, like the witch wands of q
| dream, ever hover gently floating, delicate
| threads of mist, endlessly changing in color,
| texture and phantom like seeming, as If in
| benediotion of ancient and forgotten hero.
l ism, martyrdom and glory. For here on the
Rock of Quebec once hourished the power
/ beneath the lilies of France which ruled
| the American continent from Newfoundland
| to the Mexican Gulf.
Once aboard your steamer sailing Europe
| ward until the final plunge into the sea al
Belle Isle is made, such splendid scenes are
presented as might fill an enhancing and no.
| BILE volume Proud as you may be of the
glorious faee of nature in our own country,
| the lower st. Lawrence, the mighty reach o1
| Anticosti Island, the ghostly headlands oi
| Newfoundland and the sublime coasts o1
Labrador, behind which, in the awful North
| Silence sits frozen at the feet of God, pre-
sent scenes and contenplations impossible oi
|
| country, though in Individual instances they
| may possibly be surpassed. An interesting
| feature of the Belle Isle Channel region Ii
the "French Shore" of Newfoundland, ovel
one hundred miles of which was visible from
our steamers deck. By the treaties of 1713
1853 and 1888 Great Britain conceded the
right to the French, then, and still, in pos
session of the most productive fishing
grounds of Newfoundland, to catch and cure
fab, erect habitations and trading stores
and practically exclusively occupy the lanc
and sea along these shores. They have witt
wonderful tensclty and thrift clung to anc
largely extended their original privileges
The territorial concession extends from Cap
Ray on the Newfoundland southwest coast
north along the entire western shore, wholly
around the great northern arm past the Belle
Isle Strait separating it from Labrador, ant
south again on its eastern shore, around tn
magnificent White Bay, to Cape St. John,
shore line distance of nearly FIVE hundret
miles This undoubtedly comprises the mos
gigantic and endlessly profitable fishing
| privilege on the globe. While there are scat
tered diminutive British colonies along tn
coasts, the population is almost who'll,
French-citizens of a foreign power perpetu
ally occupying neutral ground within the dc
| main of government debarred from exer
cising iuriediction or establishing laws. TIL
| situation would seem to be an anomaly Il
| the relations of nations; and added interee
is given to the region from the facts tina
both the east and west shores where thes
humble French fishermen live their almos
silent lives, are nearly exempt from fogs
possess an exceptionally fine climate for th
latitude; and that these strange and isolate
people have, for nearly two centuries, existe
| in absolute peace without authority or laws
save such as may have been yielded by com
mon consent to their priests and clergymer
. In this, the most northern route to Eu
rope, there is an almost startling conscious
ness and fascination, at first realization, i
the knowledge, especially if it be known a
, you are passing an occasional wandering
ghostly iceberg, that at leaving Belle Isle 70
are less than two hundred miles from tn
haunts of the Esquimaux, and that you
, steamers course lays but seven hundre
miles south of Greenland. But in one thor
|, sand six hundred and forty miles distance
and less than Eve days time from losin
sight of Belle Isle, the ancient Isle of d.
mons where the dolorous Lady MarRuerit
languished, you have sighted the heathe
covered heights of weird old Donegal on th
northwest Irish coast; and in few houl