brated millionaires, F. and J. G., the principal owners of the line, one in the uniform of an admiral, the other of a general. When they were put up the two millionaires asked another well-known man in New York to admire them. On being asked his opinion, his only remark was, "Well, if Well, if you will put a crucifix between the two you will be about right.'

In the States passengers "express" their baggage, and in the towns travel by trams or street railways. We, being strangers, engaged a pair-horse cab-hacks they are called. We took half an hour getting to our hotel the fare was just 6d. a-minute. The Fifth Avenue, where we stayed, was very comfortable, and the cost per head, paid in greenbacks, came to 15s. English money: this included everything. The only custom I did not like was that of serving one's dinner in little dishes all placed on the table at the same time. Now it may be different. New York, with its avenues and streets in the principal district all at right angles to each other, is not a picturesque city. We did the usual sights, including the Brooklyn cemetery and a lunch at Delmonico's. What interested me immensely was the Stock Exchange, my first experience of the visible worship of the almighty dollar; the hoarsevoiced bookies of a racecourse were not in it in comparison. Looking down from the gallery, the great floor below was covered with what to the uninitiated was a seething, shrieking mass of lunatics yelling to obtain the contents of other people's pockets.

Much has been written about the brusqueness of American waiters and public servants. All I can say is that from hotel waiters, and even policemen, we always met with the greatest civility and attention, they many times going out of their way to oblige and

help us. In the train from Albany I was much pleased with the conductor, who, as soon as he saw we were strangers, requested us to come into a special saloon, and then pointed out objects of interest as we went along. At Niagara, going into a curio-store on the American side, I had spent all I intended, and told the proprietor I could not buy more, having only enough money left for our return journey home. His answer was, "Take anything you like; like; when you get to Halifax you can send me a cheque."

We went north from New York by boat to Albany, and then by night-cars on to Niagara. How any one having business in the capital, and who can do so, does not live on the banks, or rather shores, of the Hudson, and go by train or boat to his daily work, I cannot imagine. The scenery all along the great river is grand, and as for associations, historic or legendary, there is not a prominent point without them, commencing with the ancient Dutch days and going on to the stirring times of the revolutionary war. Half-way up the river are the Catskill Mountains, vividly recalling Rip Van Winkle and his demoniacal hard-drinking friends. West Point with

its military college had special interest for me; unfortunately a whole day at least, if not more, would have been necessary to have gone into all the particulars of the system of education there, and we could not afford the time.

At Niagara we put up at the Cataract Hotel on the American side, an excellent establishment in those days. The black servants, thoroughly well trained, were in themselves a recommendation, to say nothing of the good cooking. I ventured to try a cataract bath in the morning; it was in a sort of large

NIAGARA AND QUEBEC.

165

cellar. I got into the bath, and must have pulled too vigorously or pulled the wrong string, for out of the square-mouthed wooden shoot rushed a solid block of Niagara. Fortunately I was stooping down at the time; it struck my back, and from there ricochéd into the room. None went into the bath. Next day I begged to be allowed to use the simple tin of ordinary life.

Niagara has been so often described that I will do no more than say I quite agreed with the young lady who, when requested to write something in the visitors' book, was so overcome by the magnitude of the Falls and thunder of the water rushing over a precipice that all she could put on paper was, "Niagara, Niagara, you are indeed a staggerer!"

Going on, we went through the thousand islands— very pretty, but not to be compared to the tropical island scenery between Singapore and Anger. Toronto and Montreal had in our eyes nothing very special to recommend them except their great prosperity. The hotel at Montreal was in those days very indifferent, as were all the Canadian hotels. Shooting the rapids in a steamer was interesting, but it was not until we arrived at Quebec that we were enraptured with any city in Canada. That picturesque old capital, standing high above the river, with its dominating citadel and its quaint crooked streets and tin-roofed houses, with its old-world French population and speech, is in itself worth coming to Canada to explore. As for associations of former days and deeds of valour, in no other place in North America are they so numerous; every name, every mile almost, in the vicinity of Quebec is grandly historic. It might be as well that special appointed by the authorities to

guides should be

take visitors round the old battlefields near Quebec. A party from the States were rather startled when asking the soldier who was conducting them to show them where Montgomery fell (the American general who was killed at the attack on Quebec). The man looked rather startled that a regimental occurrence of the previous week should already be known outside the barracks. "It was here, sir, just outside the mess-room. Poor young gentleman, it was the first time he had dined at mess, it was guest night, and his head wasn't strong." We stayed as long as we could at Quebec, but my leave was running out, and I mentally saw far away my birch bark canoe waiting for me. We returned to Halifax via St John and the Bay of Fundy, and then I dashed away north, rod in hand and alone, to enjoy that greatest of all human felicity -a strand of single gut, oneself at one end and a 30 pound salmon at the other.

CHAPTER XII.

INSTRUCTIONAL WORK, HALIFAX AND GIBRALTAR.

My instructional work at Halifax was almost too technical for "recollections." I went fully into the subject in a lecture on Education and Professional Instruction of Officers, at the U.S. Institute, June 1873. An extract from it may, however, be of sufficient general interest to permit of its being given :

I commenced my first course with a class composed of four officers, who must have made a favourable report of what happened to them, for afterwards I rarely had less than a quarter of the captains and subalterns in the garrison under instruction at a time, and with two exceptions only, more willing pupils it was impossible to wish for. The only obstacle I had to contend with was the imperfect education which many of the officers had received when boys at school. You will be rather startled to hear that I never yet had a class in which I was not obliged to teach some of the officers composing it vulgar and decimal fractions, and on one occasion a very simple rule-of-three sum was too difficult a problem for any one in the room. Equations were things which many had apparently never heard of, and the officer who could write a concise report, especially in a legible hand, was in some classes rather a rara avis. As regards subjects of general information, I also found in two or three instances