It has many large churches, the largest being
the Roman Catholic cathedral, and the tin roofs of the houses and
churches glittered in the sun and gave a brilliant effect. We returned
to the boat and rowed again across the river below the bridge, and here,
owing to the strength of the current our boat had to pursue a most
zig-zag path, pulling up under the eddy of each buttress, but our
boatmen knew well what they were about, as they are in the habit of
taking Mr. Hodges daily to the bridge and it was very pretty to hear the
warning of _doucement! doucement!_ from the helmsman as we approached
any peril. Mr. H. said that without the familiarity they had with the
river, the boat would in an instant be carried down the stream and out
of all control. The French language is much more spoken than the
English, there being a large body of French Roman Catholic Canadians
here and at Quebec. I say this to account for the _doucement_; but must
now leave this wonderful bridge, and tell you that after seeing it we
drove to the Bishop of Montreal's. We found him and Mrs. Fulford at
home, and sat some time with them, and they asked us to drink tea with
them, which we did. There was no one there but ourselves, and we passed
an agreeable evening with them, and came home by moonlight with the
comet also beaming on us.
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