To the Earl of ----.
Silleri, April 20, Evening.
We are returned, my Lord, from having seen an object as beautiful
and magnificent in itself, as pleasing from the idea it gives of
renewing once more our intercourse with Europe.
Before I saw the breaking up of the vast body of ice, which forms
what is here called _the bridge_, from Quebec to Point Levi, I
imagined there could be nothing in it worth attention; that the ice
would pass away, or dissolve gradually, day after day, as the influence
of the sun, and warmth of the air and earth increased; and that we
should see the river open, without having observed by what degrees it
became so.
But I found _the great river_, as the savages with much
propriety call it, maintain its dignity in this instance as in all
others, and assert its superiority over those petty streams which we
honor with the names of rivers in England. Sublimity is the
characteristic of this western world; the loftiness of the mountains,
the grandeur of the lakes and rivers, the majesty of the rocks shaded
with a picturesque variety of beautiful trees and shrubs, and crowned
with the noblest of the offspring of the forest, which form the banks
of the latter, are as much beyond the power of fancy as that of
description: a landscape-painter might here expand his imagination,
and find ideas which he will seek in vain in our comparatively little
world.
The object of which I am speaking has all the American magnificence.
The ice before the town, or, to speak 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 no describing how beautiful the opening river appears,
every moment gaining on the sight, till, in a time less than can
possibly be imagined, the ice passing Point Levi, is hid in one moment
by the projecting land, and all is once more a clear plain before you;
giving at once the pleasing, but unconnected, ideas of that direct
intercourse with Europe from which we have been so many months
excluded, and of the earth's again opening her fertile bosom, to feast
our eyes and imagination with her various verdant and flowery
productions.
I am afraid I have conveyed a very inadequate idea of the scene
which has just passed before me; it however struck me so strongly, that
it was impossible for me not to attempt it.
If my painting has the least resemblance to the original, your
Lordship will agree with me, that the very vicissitudes of season here
partake of the sublimity which so strongly characterizes the country.
The changes of season in England, being slow and gradual, are but
faintly felt; but being here sudden, instant, violent, afford to the
mind, with the lively pleasure arising from meer change, the very high
additional one of its being accompanied with grandeur. I have the
honor to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's, &c.
William Fermor.