k in the Canadian stile, _the
bridge_, being of a thickness not less than five feet, a league in
length, and more than a mile broad, resists for a long time the rapid
tide that attempts to force it from the banks.

We are prepared by many previous circumstances to expect something
extraordinary in this event, if I may so call it: every increase of
heat in the weather for near a month before the ice leaves the banks;
every warm day gives you terror for those you see venturing to pass it
in carrioles; yet one frosty night makes it again so strong, that even
the ladies, and the timid amongst them, still venture themselves over
in parties of pleasure; though greatly alarmed at their return, if a
few hours of uncommon warmth intervenes.

But, during the last fortnight, the alarm grows indeed a very
serious one: the eye can distinguish, even at a considerable distance,
that the ice is softened and detached from the banks; and you dread
every step being death to those who have still the temerity to pass it,
which they will continue always to do till one or more pay their
rashness with their lives.

From the time the ice is no longer a bridge on which you see crowds
driving with such vivacity on business or pleasure, every one is
looking eagerly for its breaking away, to remove the bar to the
continually wished and expected event, of the arrival of ships from
that world from whence we have seemed so long in a manner excluded.

The hour is come; I have been with a crowd of both sexes, and all
ranks, hailing the propitious moment: our situation, on the top of Cape
Diamond, gave us a prospect some leagues above and below the town;
above Cape Diamond the river was open, it was so below Point Levi, the
rapidity of the current having forced a passage for the water under the
transparent bridge, which for more than a league continued firm.

We stood waiting with all the eagerness of expectation; the tide
came rushing with an amazing impetuosity; the bridge seemed to shake,
yet resisted the force of the waters; the tide recoiled, it made a
pause, it stood still, it returned with redoubled fury, the immense
mass of ice gave way.

A vast plain appeared in motion; it advanced with solemn and
majestic pace: the points of land on the banks of the river for a few
moments stopped its progress; but the immense weight of so prodigious a
body, carried along by a rapid current, bore down all opposition with a
force irresistible.

There is