as too late for them. An offer was made to us through the kindness of Sir Edmund Head, who was then the Governor-General, of the use of a steam-tug belonging to a gentleman who carries on a large commercial enterprise at Chicoutimi, far up the Saguenay; but an acceptance of this offer would have entailed some delay at Quebec, and, as we were anxious to get into the Northwestern States before the winter commenced, we were obliged with great regret to decline the journey.
I feel bound to say that a stranger, regarding Quebec merely as a town, finds very much of which he cannot but complain. The footpaths through the streets are almost entirely of wood, as indeed seems to be general throughout Canada. Wood is, of course, the cheapest material; and, though it may not be altogether good for such a purpose, it would not create animadversion [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] if it were kept in tolerable order. But in Quebec the paths are intolerably [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] bad. They are full of holes. The [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] boards are rotten, and worn in some places to dirt. The nails have gone, and the broken planks go up and down under the [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] feet, and in the dark they are absolutely dangerous. But if the paths are bad, the road-ways are worse. The street through [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] the lower town along the quays is, I think, the most disgraceful thoroughfare I ever saw in any town. I believe the whole of it, or at any rate a great portion, has been paved with wood; but the boards have been worked into mud, and the ground under the boards has been worked into holes, till the street is more like the bottom of a filthy [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] ditch than a road-way through one of the most thickly populated parts of a city. Had Quebec in Wolfe’s time been as it is now, Wolfe would have stuck in the mud between the [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] river and the rock before he reached the point which he desired to climb. In the upper town the roads are not as bad as they are below, but still they are very bad. I was told that this arose from disputes among the municipal corporations. Everything in Canada relating to roads, and a very great deal affecting the internal gover
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