Lawrence Johnstone Burpee

“ The canal, completed at a cost of $2,500,000, has never been of any great commercial importance; it has never been called upon to fulfil its primary object, as a military work to enable gun-boats and military supplies to reach the lakes from Montreal without being exposed to attack along the St Lawrence frontier. The building of the canal created a fair-sized settlement at its Ottawa end, which came to be known as Bytown. As the lumber trade developed Bytown rapidly increased in wealth and importance. In 1854 it was incorporated as a city, the name being changed to Ottawa ”

“ A system of electric railways covers every section of the city and affords easy communication with the suburbs and neighbouring towns.
Built originally along the water-front, Montreal has in the course of years swept back over a series of terraces—former levels of the river or of a more ancient sea—to the foot of Mount Royal. Held there, it has been forced around the mountain on either side. Mount Royal, from which the city derives its name and so much of its natural beauty, is a mass of trap-rock thrown up through the surrounding limestone strata to a height of 753 ft. ”

“ The people of Ottawa possess a number of public parks, both within and outside the city, partly the result of their own foresight, and partly due to the labours of the Government Improvement Commission. Parliament Hill itself constitutes a park of no mean proportions, one of the noted features of which is the beautiful Lover's Walk, cut out of the side of the cliff half way between the river and the summit. ”

“ Montreal began as a religious colony, but its very situation, on the outer confines of civilization and at the door of the Iroquois country, forced it to become a military settlement, a fortified town with a military garrison. ”

“ In shipments of grain Montreal has outstripped all her rivals on the continent except New York and New Orleans, and the building of the Georgian Bay canal will, by materially shortening the distance between the western grainfields and European markets, give her a very considerable advantage over both these ports. In dairy produce she is already the chief export centre of the continent. Montreal is also the financial centre of Canada, and in it are to be found the head offices of more than 25 important banks, of the leading insurance companies, and of the two greatest railways of the country. ”

“ At the foot of Lake St Louis, some distance above the Victoria Jubilee bridge, the Canadian Pacific railway crosses the river on a graceful cantilever bridge with two central spans each 408 ft. long. Montreal is on the Canadian Pacific, Grand Trunk, Intercolonial, Canadian Northern, New York Central, Rutland, Central Vermont and Delaware & Hudson railways. ”

“ Since then the canal has been repeatedly deepened, to keep pace with the requirements of lake shipping, until to-day a 14-ft. channel is available. In the meantime the rival method of rail transportation was taking shape, and in 1836 the first Canadian railway was opened, between Laprairie, opposite Montreal and St Johns, in the eastern townships. In 1848 a second railway, from Longueuil to St Hyacinthe, was opened; both these projects owing their existence to the enterprise of Montreal citizens. The broad St Lawrence, however, still lay between the city and the outside world. ”

“ The main tower of the parliament building is in 45° 25′ 28′′ N., and 75° 42′ 03′′ W.
The city stands for the most part on a cluster of hills, 60 to 155 ft. above the river. It is on the main line of the Canadian Pacific railway, which affords direct communication with Montreal by two routes, the North Shore and the Short Line, one on either side of the Ottawa river. Branches of the same railway lead to Brockville, on the St Lawrence river, passing through the town of Smith's Falls where connexion is made with the direct line from Montreal to Toronto ”

“ The increasing needs of the government have made necessary the erection of several other buildings and an effort has been made to bring as many of these as possible into a harmonious group. The Archives building and the Royal Mint stand on the commanding eminence of Nepean Point, to the eastward of Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal lying between. Two large departmental buildings occupy ground south of the Archives building and facing Parliament Hill, one containing the Supreme Court as well as the Federal Department of Justice. ”

“ Montreal provides for the education of its young people through two distinct systems of public schools, one for Roman Catholics, the other for Protestants, each governed by a board of commissioners. The schools are maintained by an annual tax based upon the assessment, two-fifths of 1% being levied upon the Protestant section of the community for the support of the Protestant schools, and one-quarter of 1% upon the Catholics for their schools. Unlike the neighbouring provinces of Ontario, Quebec makes no provision for a state university. ”

“ A royal charter conferring university powers was obtained in 1821. During early years slow progress was made, but with the appointment of Sir William Dawson as principal, in 1855, the institution entered on a career of prosperity. It now embraces five faculties: arts, applied science, law, medicine, agriculture, and comprises the following: McGill College, Montreal, the original foundation; the Royal Victoria College for Women, Montreal, built and endowed by Lord Strathcona; four affiliated theological colleges in Montreal ”

“ With the gradual opening up of means of communication by land and water, and the development of her facilities for handling the exports and imports of the country, the city has increased rapidly in importance, until to day one-third of the imports of the Dominion come through Montreal, and nearly 30% of the exports. ”

“ This was the Rideau Falls, but a good deal of allowance must be made for exaggeration in Champlain's account. Continuing up the river, “we passed,” he says, “a fall, a league from there, which is half a league broad and has a descent of six or seven fathoms. There are many little islands. ”

“ During the season of navigation several lines of well-appointed steamers maintain communication with Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Bristol and other British and European ports, as well as the principal ports on the river and gulf of St Lawrence and the Great Lakes. ”