ngth. This stream is navigated by canoes for more than
300 miles, traversing an immense valley of rich soil and picturesque
scenery.

At the foot of the Chenaux the magnificent Lake des Chats opens to
view, in length about fifteen miles; the shores are strangely indented,
and numbers of wooded islands stud the surface of the clear waters. At
the foot of the lake there are falls and rapids;[145] thence to Lake
Chaudiere, a distance of six miles, the channel narrows, but expands
again to form that beautiful and extensive basin. Rapids again succeed,
and continue to the Chaudiere Falls. The boiling pool into which these
waters descend is of great depth: the sounding-line does not reach the
bottom at the length of 300 feet. It is supposed that the main body of
the river flows by a subterraneous passage, and rises again half a mile
lower down. Below the Chaudiere Falls the navigation is uninterrupted to
Grenville, sixty miles distant. The current is scarcely perceptible; the
banks are low, and generally over-flowed in the spring; but the varying
breadth of the river, the numerous islands, the magnificent forests, and
the crystal purity of the waters, lend a charm to the somewhat
monotonous beauty of the scene. At Grenville commences the Long Sault, a
swift and dangerous rapid, which continues with intervals till it falls
into the still Lake of the Two Mountains. Below the heights from whence
this sheet of water derives its name, the well-known Rapids of St.
Anne's discharge the main stream into the waters of the St.
Lawrence.[146]

Below the island of Montreal the St. Lawrence continues, in varying
breadth and considerable depth, to Sorel, where it is joined by the
Richelieu River from the south; thence opens the expanse of Lake St.
Peter, shallow and uninteresting; after twenty-five miles the Great
River contracts again, receives in its course the waters of the St.
Maurice, and other large streams; and 180 miles below Montreal the vast
flood pours through the narrow channel that lies under the shadow of
Quebec.[147] Below this strait lies a deep basin, nearly four miles
wide, formed by the head of the Island of Orleans: the main channel
continues by the south shore. It would be wearisome to tell of all the
numerous and beautiful islands that deck the bosom of the St. Lawrence
from Quebec to the Gulf. The river gradually expands till it reaches a
considerable breadth at the mouth of the Saguenay. There is a dark shade
for