capacity of an Assistant Engineer during the siege of this city, invested during the years 1775 and 1776 by the American forces under the command of the late Major General RICHARD MONTGOMERY. That in an attack made by the American troops under the immediate command of General MONTGOMERY, in the night of the 31st December, 1775, on a British post at the southernmost extremity of the city, near Près-de-Ville, the General received a mortal wound, and with him were killed his two Aides-de-Camp, McPherson and Cheeseman, who were found in the morning of the 1st January, 1776, almost covered with snow. That Mrs. Prentice who kept an Hotel, at Quebec, and with whom General Montgomery had previously boarded, was brought to view the body, after it was placed in the Guard Room, and which she recognised by a particular mark which he had on the side of his head, to be the General's. That the body was then conveyed to a house, (Gobert's,)* by order of Mr. Cramahé, who provided a genteel coffin for the General's body, which was lined inside with flannel, and outside of it with black cloth. That in the night of the 4th January, it was conveyed by me from Gobert's house, and was interred six feet in front of the gate, within a wall that surrounded a powder magazine near the ramparts bounding on St. Lewis-Gate. That the funeral service was performed at the grave by the Reverend Mr. de Montmolin, then Chaplain of the garrison. That his two Aides-de-Camp were buried in their clothes without any coffins, and that no person was buried within twenty-five yards of the General. That I am positive and can testify and declare, that the coffin of the late General Montgomery, taken up on the morning of the 16th of the present month of June, 1818, is the identical coffin deposited by me on the day of his burial, and that the present coffin contains the remains of the late General. I do further testify and declare that subsequent to the finding of General Montgomery's body, I wore his sword, being lighter than my own, and on going to the Seminary, where the American officers were lodged, they recognized the sword, which affected them so much, that numbers of them wept, in consequence of which I have never worn the sword since.

“Given under my hand, at the city of Quebec, Province of Lower Canada, 19th June, 1818.

"JAMES THOMPSON."

*Gobert's house was at the corner of St. Lewis and St. Ursule streets, on the site of the house now numbered 42, St. Lewis Street.

COLONEL LE COMTE DUPRE'.

This gentleman commanded the Canadian Militia during the siege of 1775-6. He had first received a commission from the Marquis DUQUESNE, Governor General of Canada, as Captain. In June, 1755, he was appointed Major, and in the following November, Lieutenant Colonel. In consequence of his behaviour during the siege, on the 4th March, 1778, he was appointed Colonel Commandant for the City and District of Quebec, by General Sir GUY CARLETON. He continued in this extensive command for more than twenty years, and his conduct deservedly obtained the friendship, confidence, and gratitude of all the Militiamen of the District.

The following anecdote deserves to be known, it occurred in November, 1775:

The enemy was at the gates of the city, when three serjeants of the Canadian Militia formed a conspiracy to admit the Americans through a small wicket near the powder magazine, where one of them commanded a guard. Colonel DUPRE', going his rounds one night about eleven o'clock, became suspicious, and soon discovered this plot, and communicated it to Lieutenant Governor CRAMAHE'. The serjeants were secured, and kept in prison until the following May. They were then tried, and admitted that the city had been saved by the sagacity of Colonel DUPRE'. The Americans, enraged at the discovery of the plot, did all the damage they could to the Colonel's property. Four hundred were quartered at his house and land near Quebec, which they ruined. At his seigniory they destroyed his flour, and broke in pieces his furniture. On being offered a grant of land as a reward for his services, and as a compensation for his losses, he refused to accept it, saying, that he served out of regard to his country and his king, and required no remuneration.

CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH.

GEOLOGY.-GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE ENVIRONS. CONCLUSION.

No Picture of Quebec, in these enlightened days, will be considered complete, if it do not contain some information upon the geological structure of the site of that City and its environs, which are the subjects of its delineations. It is not consistent with the nature of the work, to enter into details; but, avoiding these, we propose to give a condensed outline of those geological features which will be most likely to come under the observation of the intelligent traveller. As, however, it it is usual to introduce geological descriptions by a topographical outline of the country they embrace, in conformity with that custom, the following slight one is offered.

The site of the metropolis of Lower Canada, when viewed from the river, must in all times, have fixed the eye of the stranger, whether crowned with modern architecture, as in the present day, or by the primeval forest, as Champlain first saw it; a sight which might well draw from his followers the exclamation of Quel bec, whence some writers derive Quebec. *

* This, however, is a disputed point. It appears by a reference to page 118 of this volume, that so far back as the time of Henry V. the word Quebec occurs in the Arms of the Earl of Suffolk. This interesting fact was introduced for the first time by A. Stuart, Esq. into a paper which he read before the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.

This promontory, which forms so conspicuous a feature in the river scenery immediately above the Island of Orleans, is the narrow north-eastern termination of an oblong tongue of land which, rising from the valley of Cap Rouge, about 8 miles southwestward of Quebec, attains at the latter place its extreme altitude of 330 feet above the St. Lawrence, whilst its greatest breadth, which lies towards the western extremity and nearly opposite to the parochial church of St. Foy, is about 2 miles.

The whole of this feature is insulated by a valley out of which it appears to rise, like the back of a leviathan from the deep. Through the southern branch of this valley flows, between rocky precipices, the noble St. Lawrence, pressed by its hundred wings of commerce, and here attaining an extreme breadth of two miles, * while the northern branch spreads out into low alluvial lands, through which meander the St. Charles and St. Michel rivers, whose waters, though from western and northern sources in the mountains which close the visual horizon on this side from east to west, become nearly simultaneously confluent with the St. Lawrence at the Vacherie.

The valley of Cap Rouge, which breaks the continuation of the tongue of land before mentioned to south-westward, is in the present day, characterized only by an insignificant stream; but it appears to be probable that the St. Lawrence once passed an arm this way round, thereby insulating all the land to the right of it.

The breadth of the river from the Queen's Wharf across to McKenzie's Wharf, has been measured on the ice, and found to be 1133 yards, 2 feet 9 inches.

Casting the eyes around from any elevated position in this metropolis, they will pass over all the four Grand Divisions into which rocks have been divided, viz. the Primary, the Transition, the Secondary and the Tertiary; sometimes naked and prominent, at others deeply covered by alluvions, diluvions or vegetable deposits.

Primary Rocks.

The Primary or granitic portion of our formations within view, is confined to that range of mountains and its lateral spurs which, commencing at -Cape Tourment, 30 miles below Quebec, on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, where it forms a conspicuous dome-shaped headland, trends away to the westward in a series of consecutive mountains and vallies, the former holding a course nearly parallel to the St. Lawrence, and preserving an average distance from it of ten or twelve miles. Beyond this line of demarcation to the northward, for many miles, no "Land of Promise" for the settler is met with; and the semi-civilized Indian traverses this inhospitable region, in the pursuit of the moose and the caribou, consoled by the reflection, that here, at least, for many years to come, his wanderings will suffer little interruption from the white

man.

The highest point of this range is considered not to exceed 2000 feet of altitude above the St. Lawrence, but usually falls much short of it. The country which it traverses has been explored, but by no individual possessed of sufficient geological knowledge to allow him to describe the rocky masses met with in language sufficiently scientific to be intelli