MONTREAL, Canada the largest and most important city of the Dominion, and fourth in population among American cities, is in the province of Quebec. It lies on the left of north bank of the Saint Lawrence, at the head of ocean navigation, 985 miles from the Atlantic, 180 miles southwest of Quebec and 420 miles north of New York.
Montreal lies in the middle of that great plain which stretches from the Laurentians to the Adirondack Mountains and extends from the sea into the middle of the Continent. The rivers which traverse this plain, the Saint Lawrence and the Ottawa, fall together at the head of the Island of Montreal, which is 32 miles long and 10 miles wide at the broadest part. The city is built upon the south east side of this island, at a point where the Lachine Rapids make further navigation impos sible. It owes its importance to this situation, Immediately behind the city Mount Royal rises to a height of 753 feet above the level of the sea. Upon three sides the mountain ends in a sheer cliff, but toward the west it extends in broken ridges for three miles. Mount Royal gives to the city its character. It was con verted into a park by Frederick Law Olmstead, who succeeded admirably in bringing to light its characteristic beauties, by obeying the de sign which nature had already laid down. By following the terraces a roadway was con structed, devious, but always ascending until after a complete circuit the summit is reached. From the various levels and the different points of outlook a wide and diversified view is ob tained. To the south, the White, Green and Adirondack mountains may be descried upon the horizon. In the middle-distance a number of rounded eminences arise from the plain, which are, like Mount Royal itself, the roots of old volcanoes. Villages, Longueuil, Saint Lam bert and La Prairie, mark the southern bank of the Saint Lawrence, which at this point is two miles wide. Away to the westward the valley of the Ottawa opens out, and the river, dividing on the Island of Montreal, sends its waters on either side to mingle their dark col ors with the blue of the Saint Lawrence. Fur ther to the west Lake Saint Louis is spread out like a sea. The Lachine Canal threads the
plain, and upon occasion one may see the leap and sparkle of the Rapids. To the north the Laurentians extend their dark purple irregular masses. Immediately around the mountain and upon its lower terraces lies the city.
Fourteen distinct geological for mations or horizons have been described within a radius of a few miles from Montreal. Four of these belong to the quaternary or newest sys tem; one is doubtfully but probably referable to the Devonian, one to the Silurian (Upper Silurian of Murchison), seven to the Ordovi cian (Lower Silurian and Cambro-Silurian of many authors), and the remainder to the Lau rentian or part of the great Archaean Complex.
The site of Montreal was first visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535. He landed upon the island and followed an Indian path way: °And we, being on the road, found it as beaten as it was possible to see, in the most beautiful soil and the fairest plain; oaks as fair as there are in any forests of France, under which all the ground was covered with acorns. . . . And about a league thence, we com menced to find the lands tilled, and fair large fields full of the corn of their lands, which is like Brazil rice, as large, or more, than peas, whereof they live as we do on wheat. And in the midst of these fields is situated and fixed the said town of Hochelaga, near and adjoining a mountain which is in the neighborhood, well tilled and exceeding fertile: therefrom one sees very far. We named that mountain Mont Royal." The next European to visit the spot was Samuel de Champlain in 1611. He landed at a place which he called Place Royale, a name it still bears. He found °in the middle of the river an island about three quarters of a league in circuit, fit for the building of a good and strong town, and I named it the Isle of Saincte Heleine. The rapids come down into a sort of lake, where there are two or three islands and fine meadow-lands.'° By this time all trace of Hochelaga had vanished, leaving only ob scare legends of a Huron Helen and of the evil which had been wrought by her.