, mind, in a capacious tumbler; pour thereon two glasses of good
sherry, and a good spoonful of powdered white sugar, with a few small
bits, not slices, but bits of lemon, about as big as a gooseberry. Stir
with a wooden macerator. Drink through a tube of macaroni or vermicelli.
_C'est l'eau benite_, as the English lord said to the _garcon_ at the
Milles Colonnes, when he first tasted real _parfait amour_.--_C'est
beaucoup mieux_, _Milor_, answered the waiter with a profound
reverence.

Gin-sling, cock-tail, mint-julep, are about as vulgar as blue ruin and
old tom at home; but sherry cobbler is an affair of consideration--only
never pound your ice, always rasp it.

It is a custom on board the Canadian steamers for gentlemen to call for
a pint of wine at dinner, or for a bottle, according to the strength of
the party; but it is a custom more honoured in the breach than the
observance; for sherry and port are the usual stock, both fiery as
brandy, and costing the moderate price of seven shillings and sixpence a
bottle, the steward having laid the same in at about one shilling and
eight pence, or at most two shillings. Why this imposition, the only one
you meet with in travelling in Canada at hotels or steamboats, is
perpetrated and perpetuated, I could never learn.

Many American gentlemen, however, encourage it, and have told me that
they do so because they get no good port in the States. Ale and porter
are charged two shillings and sixpence a bottle, which is double their
worth. Be careful also not to drink freely of the iced water, which is
always supplied _ad libitum_. Few Europeans escape the effects of
water-drinking when they land at Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto,
&c. There is something peculiar, which has never yet been satisfactorily
explained by medical men, in the sudden attack upon the system produced
by the waters of Canada: this is sometimes slight, but more often lasts
several days, and reduces the strength a good deal. Iced water is worse,
and produces country cholera. The Americans use ice profusely, and drink
such draughts of iced water, that I have been astonished at the impunity
with which they did so.

Perhaps the change from a moist sea atmosphere to the dry and
desiccating air of Canada, where iron does not rust, may be one cause of
the malady alluded to, and another, in addition to the water, the
difference of cookery; for here, at public tables and on board the boats
generally, where bla