About the Book
INTRODUCTION. - THE NOOKS AND CORNERS OF CANADA, and more especially of the Lower Province, in addition to the interest they awaken as important sources of Commercial and Agricultural wealth, are invested with no ordinaiy attraction for the Naturalist, the Antiquary, the Historian, and the Tourist in quest of pleasure or of health. We have often wondered why more of the venturesome spirits amongst our transatlantic friends do not tear themselves away, even for a few months, from London flags, to visit our distant but more favoured clime. How is it that so few, comparatively speaking, come to enjoy the bracing air and bright summer skies of Canada With what zest could the enterprising or eccentric among them undertake a ramble, with rod and gun in hand, from Kiagara to Labrador, over the Laurentian Chain of Mountains, choosing as rallying points, whereat to compare notes, the summit of Cape Eternity in the Saguenay district, and the Peak of Cap Tourmente, or the Cave of the Winds under Niagara Falls. We imagine the atmosphere of those airy positions is as brisk, to say nothing of the diverse incidents of travel and of sport combined, as that in the fiords of Nonvay, or as the heath-clad peaks of the Dovre-feld afford to so many an English Tourist and Sportsman. Volumes have been written to make known the inexhaustible mineral, agricultural, industrial, and commercial wealth of this Colony, but few efforts have yet been made to lay before the public, or rather the travelling portion of the piblic, the natural beauties of its scenery, -its streams, rivers, lakes and forests, -lakes that in beauty, number, and variety of size, no other country in the world can vie with, -replete with fish of every description, within access alike of the million and the millionaire. To the Botanist, during the summer months, perhaps no country offers such varied inducements, -plants flourishing here of almost every class, from the Lichens and Mosses of the Arctic Zone, to the Azalia, Kalmia, wd Ladys Slipper of the Sunny South. The very woods are sacred to Flora, and hers may be culled specimens of plants within a days journey of civilization, that erst have led the adventurous seeker after Natures gems to wander for days away from the beaten track, in the far-off prairies of the west, or the tangled swamps and thickets of the South. To thle Ornithologist, the Geologist, or the Student of any branch of Natural History, we would say, take a run through the Canadas to increase your collection. Does not almost every British Mail bring out enquirie and orders for the finest specimens of our Fauna and Flora If weary of naturalizing during the July and August heats, steam down and take a briny dip at Murray Bay, or Kakouna, or Tadousac. Do you fancy Canadian Highlands --seek the pleasant shades of Cap B lAigle, or Pointe B Pie. Are you inclined for French gaiety and killing toilets -steer for Kakouna. Do you prefer the gmrrd morrde, the fashionable piace far exceIIerzce -then try Tadousac Each and all of these localities we mill en- deavour to lay alike before you, with their associations, their scenery, their attractions, and their inducements for the traveller to linger on his journey, and enjoy what he might othenvise pass by, in search of some wider known and less gifted ace. Every traveller in Canada from Baron. La Hontan, who preferred the forests of Canada to the Pyrddes of France, to the HA. A. Murray, Charlevoix Lanman, Peter Kalm, Isaac Weld, Heriot, Silliman, Rameau, Augustus Sala, have united in pronouncing the landscape of Lower Canada so majestic, so wild, so captivating withal, as to vie in beauty with the most picturesque portions of the Old or New World and though we have no