120 CANADIAN GUIDE BOOK. six, is handsome and substantial, and contains the turning-table. This is a most ingenious and extraordinary mechanical contrivance, and is well worthy of being inspected by such as are not familiar with rail ways. This piece of machinery is forty feet in diameter, and so perfectly is the mechanism adjusted that the strength of a boy can move round the immense weight of the locomotive and tender, amounting to about thirty tons. For about ten miles from Longueuil the road stretches through a level and well cultivated country to the South of the Montarville Mountain, which is called after a proprietor of that name. At that point there is a slight curve to the north, and thence a straight line of about five miles and a half brings the traveller to the banks of the Richelieu, which is spanned by a stupen dous bridge or viaduct, twelve hundred feet in length, at an eleva tion of upwards of fifty feet from the water. This bridge cost £22,000, and its construction is considered as unsurpassed on this continent, A short distance from the bridge is the St. Hilaire Sta tion. Here the traveller can avail himself of a few minutes’ stoppage to admire the beauty of the surrounding landscape. In truth quite a bird’s eye glance of this lovely tract of country is here obtained. Behind towers aloft Bcloeil with its woods and rugged outline ; in the fore ground are the grounds and delightful residence of Major Campbell, the Governor’s Secretary, and at the foot of the hill is seen the pleas ant village of St. Hilaire on the banks of the Richelieu. On the occasion of the opening of the Rail-road Major Campbell entertained the hope of being able, during the summer of 1849, to establish a hotel of a superior description, not far from the romantic lake at the commencement of the ascent to the chapel and cross on Beloeil- We trust that the Major’s hopes may be realized, as such a hotel would no doubt prove a delightful and healthful place of resort to the citizens of Montreal who may wish for a brief season to leave the dust and heat of the city and to inhale the pure air by an excur sion into the country. Here, too, travellers, who wish to see French- Canadian manners, &c., might sojourn pleasantly. From St. Hilaire to St. Hyacinthe, a distance of about twelve miles, the road passes in a straight line through a fertile table-land. The Depot here is one hundred feet long by sixty-seven, and has offices and waiting-