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Chapter 2: From Halifax to Peterborough
As soon as we had our numerous boxes out of the hold, we proceeded to the custom house, & leaving my husband to settle affairs there we joined another family, & went in our omnibus to the railway station. The mail train by which we should have travelled was already gone, & we had to wait several hours for the emigrant train. Having letters to post, I went to try & find the office, & also to procure stamps, but was unsuccessful. Of the town I saw but little, the part on the opposite side of the water made a pretty view from the station. We went to a small Hotel to dinner, & when in the middle had a summons that the cars were off, we hastily gathered up our belongings, & rushed across to the station, & felt provoked when my husband enquired of an official, what time the train would start? to hear him quietly reply "Oh when it is ready", which was literally the case & we had to wait what seemed a very long time, before we were allowed to take our seats, & we wished we had stayed to finish our meal, it being doubtful when we should get another. The children were greatly pleased with the novelty of the American car, certainly better adapted for a long journey than our English railway carriages, yet we were heartily tired of them long before we reached Quebec, owing to the train being heavily loaded, & impeded by the snow, we travelled very slowly indeed, & during the first night were stationary for 4 hours, as the Pulman car belonging to the mail had become disconnected & was left on the line, we had to wait for its removal, consequently instead of reaching Truro at 7:30 to breakfast as arranged, we did not do so until 11:30. An improvement on our English mode of travelling is that the officials walk from one end of the train to the other several times during the days & nights & passengers can do the same, before coming to a station where the train waits, he enquires how many require breakfast or dinner as the case may be, which he telegraphs to have prepared, there are always two tables 50 cents & 25 cents being the charge. The former is generally very good, but too expensive for a family of 7, so we had only 1 meal each day for the sake of the warm tea, we had provided ourselves with a hamper containing an English ham, Stilton cheese & a tin of biscuits & many times we congratulated ourselves on having done so. The country at this season looked barren & cheerless in the extreme, the snow being still on the ground, the gaunt leafless trees, hundreds of them blackened by forest fires, & looking like specters, gave us anything but a pleasing impression of Canada, & it was with delight on the morning of the second day, that we found ourselves at Point Levi & saw the ancient town of Quebec on the opposite side of the river. We had arranged to stay here that night & going to the Victoria Hotel were shown some comfortable bedrooms, & after a refreshing & very necessary wash after 36 hours travelling we went down to breakfast. Then leaving , my sister & the children to rest my husband & I found our way to the river side, being told it was safe for the small boats to cross we engaged 2 men to take us over. The large blocks of ice appeared to our eyes very dangerous, & we were a long time before we reached the other side so that we felt thankful, when we stepped on to the land.
The St. Lawrence is a splendid river, & we much wished we could see it a few months later, the icy feeling of the air that morning I shall always remember. During the whole of the 4,000 miles we have travelled inland, I do not think any place has given me so much pleasure as the day spent in Quebec, its quaintness has a charm over the modern city & its steep streets & lofty rocks overgrown with Cedars are very picturesque, & the freshness of the bracing atmosphere acted like a tonic after the long confinement in the cars. My husband has business to transact & when finished we went for a walk around the Citadel, much admiring the beautiful view of the river & thought how pretty that part of the town must be in the summer. It was evidently a favorite resort as there were many seats, several kinds of summer houses & places where I imagined the band played. We had not longer time to spare so taking a look at Wolfe's monument we went down a steep street & into what appeared the centre of the town, it was extremely slippery I thought worse than being on deck after a storm & I was often obliged to cling to a lamp post for support.
After enquiring for letters at the Post Office we reached the ferry just in time for the steamer, it seemed so curious to hear the people talking French & to see the sleighs with their drivers in their fur coats & rugs & to hear the merry jingle of the sleigh bells, everything was a novelty which to me was delightful. Arriving at the Hotel we found some of our travelling companions, & hearing that a train left at 7 o'clock that evening & not again until the next day we determined to continue our journey but it was not without a sigh of regret as we looked at the comfortable beds, a luxury unknown for a fortnight that we repacked out travelling bags & after having dinner returned to the station & once more settled ourselves for a night in the cars, this we were glad to find less crowded & in every way an improvement on the last we were in, & being tired & more accustomed to sleeping on the railway we had a fairly comfortable night but were awake early & saw the sun rise with striking splendour about 4 o'clock just after we came in sight of a curious black mountain, which we were told had a lake on its summit, it appeared very high & was unlike anything I had seen before. We were soon in the wonderful Victoria Tubular bridge its great length causing many exclamations of wonder. On reaching Montreal, we found we had 2 hours to wait, so wishing to see a little of the town & especially the English Cathedral, we eat some biscuits & deferring our breakfast until our return, we started for a walk, it was cold & frosty, but very pleasant & we could but admire the handsome streets & buildings of this great commercial city, trees are planted down many of the streets which reminded us of Cheltenham. Hearing the Cathedral bell we steered in its direction & after a few enquiries found ourselves close to the outside of the building, on trying the doors we found them fastened & after several ineffectual attempts to gain admittance, we were obliged to retrace our steps feeling very disappointed. The sun was now shining brightly, & the frost had given place to mud & water, our shoes were soon soaked, & by the time we reached the station, we were hungry & cold, & very glad to take our seats & my husband getting us some tea, we at once had breakfast. Here we parted with the last of our companions on board the Sardinian, & felt quite lonely, after being so many together. We were tired by our morning walk, & the hours passed slowly, it was not until 10 o'clock that night that we reached Peterborough, the children had been bright & cheerful the whole time, a gentleman could hardly believe my husband when he said they had been traveling since Monday morning, & this was Thursday night. They had however fallen asleep before we arrived at our destination & we were all more asleep than awake when the guard told us we were at Peterborough, we had half a mile to walk to the Hotel, we had been recommended to stay at, we could see no vehicle, so with our numerous wraps & bags we dragged our weary steps that far, & felt most thankful to have a bed once more to lie on.
