Note 32 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

The river St. Lawrence, is exactly a quarter of a French mile, or three quarters of an English mile broad at Quebec. The salt water never comes up to the town in it, and therefore the inhabitants can make use of the water in the river for their kitchens, &c. All accounts agree that notwithstanding the breadth of this river, and the violence of its course, especially during ebb, it is covered with ice during the whole winter, which is strong enough for walking, and a carriage may go over it. It is said to happen frequently that, when the river has been open in May, there are such cold nights in this month, that it freezes again, and will bear walking over. This is a clear proof of the intenseness of the frost here, especially when one considers that which I shall mention immediately after, about the ebbing and flowing of the tide in this river. The greatest breadth of the river at its mouth, is computed to be twenty-six French miles or seventy-eight English miles, though the boundary between the sea, and the river cannot well be ascertained as the latter gradually looses itself in, and unites with the former. The greatest part of the water contained in the numerous lakes of Canada, four or five of which are like large seas, is forced to disembogue into the sea by means of this river alone. The navigation up this river from the sea is rendered very dangerous by the strength of the current, and by the number of sand-banks, which often arise in places where they never were before. The English have experienced this formation of new sands once or twice, when they intend to conquer Canada. Hence the French have good reasons to look upon the river as a barrier to Canada32.