Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/111

Rh in thspring, and a month in the fall of the year; nor does the thermometer, in winter, even fall so low or remain so long at extreme frost, as in the former. They reckon upon four, or four and a half months of hard winter; but the cold is never so severe as to prevent people going abroad. Winter is indeed the season of festivity and amusements, and the streets and roads resound with the jingling carioles and sleighs gliding over the frozen survace of the snow. On the other hand, the heat is sometimes excessive in summer, the thermometer, in the months of July and August, often rising above 90. even to 96. and 98. in the shade. At this season, the thunder-storms are frequent and tremendous: the light, ning sometimes strikes the glittering turrets and spires of the public buildings, which, as already observed, are all covered with tin. These extremes of weather are not productive of diseases, which are mostly acute, the offspring of imprudence and intemperance. Epidemics are scarcely known, whilst great longevity is by no means uncommon: yet it is remarkable, that the signs of premature age, such as early grey hairs and the loss of teeth, are almost universal.

Horticulture is well understood at Montreal; the town is surrounded with gardens, whose productions arrive at great perfection. Five or six sorts of apples, in particular, are esteemed equal, if not superior to those of any other country.

The excellence and comparative cheapness of the markets can scarcely be over-rated: they are abundantly supplied with butcher's meat, fowl, fish, venison, and a variety of game. They even bring sea-fish frozen 400 miles from Boston, which is notwithstanding perfectly fresh and good.

Montrel, considere as a military post, never could sustain a regular assault, even when the fortifications were perfect; it is on the land-side every where surrounded by commanding ground: yet, as an open town, its situation secures it from a sudden attack. The strong country between Lake Champlain and the right bank of the St. Lawrence, must be first conquered, and a flotilla constructed on the river or the lakes, which also must be possessed by an enemy, before Montreal can be taken.

But it is in a commercial point ot' iew that Montreal must be con- sidered as highly Lmpottant. It lies at the • tion of the ii: » r -. i There arc ra] ti» town,over which m i an can be navi ited ; ships of no less lb bur* then lie a! mg the whari large vessels, I rer, I '. " balf their - whi< i are after- wards completed at Quebec. '1 is qo other river. world, th - bottchure. T is pi:.. he juncture of two im- mense St. 1 the forrin i from its south. n a north-east CO to the ocean, connei chain, five inland I 'the other, with [y inferior, runs A union, through