MONTREAL, a city of the Dominion of Canada, its leading seat of commerce and principal port of entry, as well as the centre of many of its important industries. It is situated on the south east side of the island of Montreal, at the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, in the county of Hochelaga and province of Quebec. The observatory in the grounds of McGill University, in the city, has been determined to be in 3o' 17" N. lat., and 34' 40.05" W. long. The city holds a fine position at the head of ocean navigation, nearly a thousand miles inland, and at the foot of the great system of rivers, lakes and canals upon which much of the commerce of the interior is carried to the Atlantic seaboard.
The ship channel below Montreal, the deepening of which was begun in 1844, now permits the passage of ocean vessels drawing 3o ft. at low water. The Lachine canal, begun in 1821, has been enlarged and deepened from time to time. The depth is now 14 feet. This with the canals above opened the way for the shipping and commerce of the Great Lakes. The first Canadian railway, 1836, ran from Laprairie opposite Montreal to St. Johns, near the international boundary. All these public works owed their exis tence to the enterprise of Montreal citizens. In 1854 work was commenced upon the Victoria Bridge, completed in 1859, which in 1898 was replaced by the Victoria Jubilee Bridge. At the foot of Lake St. Louis the Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the river on a cantilever bridge.
Montreal is the headquarters of both the great transportation systems, the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. The latter has an imposing terminal station on Windsor Square, and the former is planning a very large terminal at the city end of the Mount Royal tunnel. During the season of navigation several lines of well-appointed steamers maintain communication with Liverpool, London, Glasgow and other British and European ports, as well as with the principal ports on the river and gulf of St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes.
Buildings.—Built originally along the water-front, Montreal has in the course of years swept back over a series of terraces— former levels of the river or of a more ancient sea—to the foot of Mount Royal. Held there, it has been forced around the moun tain on either side. Mount Royal, from which the city derives its name and so much of its natural beauty, is a mass of trap-rock thrown up through the surrounding limestone strata to a height of 753 ft. above the level of the sea. Under the direction of Frederick Law Olmsted it was converted into a magnificent park. The city is substantially built, grey limestone, quarried from the mountain, predominating in the public and many of the private edifices. To
the south of the Place d'Armes stands the parish church of Notre Dame, whose Gothic outlines form one of the striking features of the city. The church was built in 1824 to take the place of an earlier structure dating back to 1672. Beside the church stands the historic seminary of St. Sulpice, one of the few remaining relics of the days of French rule. The head office of the Bank of Mont real faces Notre Dame church, and several other of the leading banking institutions of the country have their headquarters in this city. In the Place d'Armes stands a striking figure in bronze erected to the memory of Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal, and the work of a Canadian sculptor, Louis Philippe Hebert. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. James stands upon Do minion Square. It is an almost exact reproduction, reduced to one-half the scale, of St. Peter's at Rome. As this church owes its existence to the energy and enthusiasm of Archbishop Bourget, so Christ Church Cathedral, a fine example of the early English style of architecture, is associated with the name of the first resi dent Anglican bishop of Montreal, Dr. Francis Fulford.
The mixture of races and creeds, which is so striking a character istic of Montreal life, has not only endowed the city with many beautiful churches, but also with varieties of philanthropic insti tutions. Each of the several national societies—St. George's, St. Andrew's, St. Patrick's, and that of the French Canadian patron saint, St. Jean Baptiste, to mention no others—looks after the welfare of its own adherents. Of the several hospitals, the most venerable is the Hotel Dieu, founded in 1644 by Mme. de Bouillon, a French lady of high rank. The original building, in the early days of Ville Marie, stood without the fort, and was fortified to withstand the attacks of the Iroquois. The site is now covered by a block of warehouses on St. Paul Street. The present buildings, completed in 1861, contain both a hospital and nunnery. The Order of the Grey Nuns, founded by a Canadian lady, Mme. d'Youville, in 1737, cares for hundreds of foundlings and aged and infirm people in the great hospital on Guy Street. The Montreal General hospital was founded in 1819 by public subscriptions, and the Royal Victoria Hospital is a monument to the generosity of Lord Strathcona, Lord Mount Stephen and J. K. L. Ross. Besides these should be mentioned the Notre Dame, the Western and the Children's Memorial hospitals.