Part 5

Monsr. Pontarion, another priest, had made thermometrical observations in Montreal, from the beginning of this year 1749. He made use of Reaumur’s thermometer, which he placed sometimes in a window half open, and sometimes in one quite open, and accordingly it will seldom mark the greatest degree of cold in the air. However, I shall give a short abstract of his observations for the winter months. In January the greatest cold was on the 18th day of the month, when the Reaumurian thermometer was twenty-three degrees below the freezing point. The least degree of cold was on the 31st of the same month, when it was just at the freezing point, but most of the days of this month it was from twelve to fifteen degrees below the freezing point. In February the greatest cold was on the 19th, and 25th, when the thermometer was fourteen degrees below the freezing point; and the least was on the 3d day of that month, when it rose eight degrees above the freezing point; but it was generally eleven degrees below it. In March the greatest cold was on the 3d, when it was ten degrees below the freezing point, and on the 22d, 23d, and 24th, it was mildest, being fifteen degrees above it: in general it was four degrees below it. In April the greatest degree of cold happened on the 7th, the thermometer being five degrees below the freezing point; the 25th was the mildest day, it being twenty degrees above the freezing point; but in general it was twelve degrees above it. These are the contents chiefly of Mons. Pontarion’s observations during those months; but I found, by the manner he made his observations, that the cold had every day been from four to six degrees greater, than he had marked it. He had likewise marked in his journal, that the ice in the river St. Lawrence broke on the 3d of April at Montreal, and only on the 20th day of that month at Quebec. On the 3d of May some trees began to flower at Montreal, and on the 12th the hoary frost was so great, that the trees were quite covered with it, as with snow. The ice in the river close to this town is every winter above a French foot thick, and sometimes it is two of such feet, as I was informed by all whom I consulted on that head.

Several of the friars here told me, that the summers were remarkably longer in Canada, since its cultivation, than they used to be before; it begins earlier, and ends later. The winters on the other hand are much shorter; but the friars were of opinion, that they were as hard as formerly, though they were not of the same duration; and likewise, that the summer at present was no hotter, than it used to be. The coldest winds at Montreal are those from the north and north-west.

August the 2d. Early this morning we left Montreal, and went in a bateau on our journey to Quebec, in company with the second major of Montreal, M. de Sermonvile. We fell down the river St. Lawrence, which was here pretty broad on our left; on the north-west side was the isle of Montreal, and on the right a number of other isles, and the shore. The isle of Montreal was closely inhabited along the river; and it was very plain, and the rising land near the shore consisted of pure mould, and was between three or four yards high. The woods were cut down along the river-side, for the distance of an English mile. The dwelling-houses were built of wood, or stone, indiscriminately, and white-washed on the outside. The other buildings, such as barns, stables, &c. were all of wood. The ground next to the river was turned either into corn-fields, or meadows. Now and then we perceived churches on both sides of the river, the steeples of which were generally on that side of the church, which looked towards the river, because they are not obliged here to put the steeples on the west end of the churches. Within six French miles of Montreal we saw several islands of different sizes on the river, and most of them were inhabited; and if some of them were without houses on them, they were sometimes turned into corn-fields, but generally into meadows. We saw no mountains, hills, rocks, or stones to-day, the country being flat throughout, and consisting of pure mould.

All the farms in Canada stand separate from each other, so that each farmer has his possessions entirely distinct from those of his neighbour. Each church, it is true, has a little village near it; but that consists chiefly of the parsonage, a school for the boys and girls of the place, and of the houses of tradesmen, but rarely of farm-houses; and if that was the case, yet their fields were separated. The farm-houses hereabouts are generally built all along the rising banks of the river, either close to the water or at some distance from it, and about three or four arpens from each other. To some farms are annexed small orchards; but they are in general without them; however, almost every farmer has a kitchen-garden.

I have been told by all those who have made journies to the southern parts of Canada, and to the river Mississippi, that the woods there abound with peach-trees, which bear excellent fruit, and that the Indians of those parts say, that those trees have been there since times immemorial.

The farm-houses are generally built of stone, but sometimes of timber, and have three or four rooms. The windows are seldom of glass, but most frequently of paper. They have iron stoves in one of the rooms, and chimnies in the rest. The roofs are covered with boards. The crevices and chinks are filled up with clay. The other buildings are covered with straw.

There are several Crosses put up with the road side, which is parallel to the shores of the river. These crosses are very common in Canada, and are put up to excite devotion in the travellers. They are made of wood, five or six yards high, and proportionally broad. In that side which looks towards the road is a square hole, in which they place an image of our Saviour, the cross, or of the holy Virgin, with the child in her arms; and before that they put a piece of glass, to prevent its being spoiled by the weather. Those crosses which are not far from churches, are very much adorned, and they put up about them all the instruments which they think the Jews employed in crucifying our Saviour, such as a hammer, tongs, nails, a flask of vinegar, and perhaps many more than were really made use of. A figure of the cock, which crowed when St. Peter denied our Lord, is commonly put at the top of the cross.

The country on both sides was very delightful to-day, and the fine state of its cultivation, added greatly to the beauty of the scene. It could really be called a village, beginning at Montreal, and ending at Quebec, which is a distance of more than one hundred and eighty miles; for the farm-houses are never above five arpens, and sometimes but three, asunder, a few places excepted. The prospect is exceedingly beautiful, when the river goes on for some miles together in a strait line, because it then shortens the distances between the houses, and makes them form exactly one continued village.

All the women in the country, without exception, wear caps of some kind or other. Their jackets are short, and so are their petticoats, which scarce reach down to the middle of their legs; and they have a silver cross hanging down on the breast. In general they are very laborious; however, I saw some, who, like the English women in the colonies, did nothing but prattle all the day. When they have any thing to do within doors, they (especially the girls) commonly sing songs, in which the words Amour and Cœur are very frequent. In the country it is usual, that when the husband receives a visit from persons of rank, and dines with them, his wife stands behind and serves him; but in the towns, the ladies are more distinguished, and would willingly assume an equal, if not a superior, power to their husbands. When they go out of doors they wear long cloaks, which cover all their other clothes, and are either grey, brown, or blue. The men sometimes make use of them, when they are obliged to go into the rain. The women have the advantage of being in a deshabille under these cloaks, without any body’s perceiving it.

We sometimes saw wind-mills near the farms. They were generally built of stone, with a roof of boards, which, together with its flyers, could be turned to the wind occasionally.

The breadth of the river was not always equal to-day; in the narrowest place, it was about a quarter of an English mile broad; in other parts it was near two English miles. The shore was sometimes high and steep, and sometimes low, or sloping.

At three o’clock this afternoon we passed by the river, which falls into the river St. Lawrence, and comes from lake Champlain, in the middle of which latter is a large island. The yachts which go between Montreal and Quebec, go on the south-east side of this island, because it is deeper there; but the boats prefer the north-west side, because it is nearer, and yet deep enough for them. Besides this island there are several more hereabouts, which are all inhabited. Somewhat further, the country on both sides the river is uninhabited, till we come to the Lac St. Pierre; because it is so low, as to be quite overflowed at certain times of the year. To make up for this deficiency, the country, I am told, is as thickly inhabited further from the river, as we found it along the banks of the river.

Lac St. Pierre is a part of the river St. Lawrence, which is so broad that we could hardly see any thing but sky and water before us, and I was every where told, that it is seven French miles long, and three broad. From the middle of this lake as it is called, you see a large high country in the west, which appears above the woods. In the lake are many places covered with a kind of rush, or Scirpus palustris, Linn. There are no houses in sight on either side of the lake, because the land is rather too low there; and in spring the water rises so high, that they may go with boats between the trees. However, at some distance from the shores, where the ground is higher, the farms are close together. We saw no islands in the lake this afternoon, but the next day we met with some.

Late in the evening we left lake St. Pierre, and rowed up a little river called Riviere de Loup, in order to come to a house where we might pass the night. Having rowed about an English mile, we found the country inhabited on both sides of the river. Its shores are high; but the country in general is flat. We passed the night in a farm-house. The territory of Montreal extends to this place; but here begins the jurisdiction of the governor of Trois Rivieres, to which place they reckon eight French miles from hence.

August the 3d. At five o’clock in the morning we set out again, and first rowed down the little river till we came into the lake St. Pierre, which we went downwards. After we had gone a good way, we perceived a high chain of mountains in the north-west, which were very much elevated above the low, flat country. The north-west shore of lake St. Pierre was now in general very closely inhabited; but on the south-east side we saw no houses, and only a country covered with woods, which is sometimes said to be under water, but behind which there are, as I am told, a great number of farms. Towards the end of the lake, the river went into its proper bounds again, being not above a mile and a half broad, and afterwards it grows still narrower. From the end of Lake St. Pierre to Trois Rivieres, they reckon three French miles, and about eleven o’clock in the morning we arrived at the latter place, where we attended divine service.

Trois Rivieres, is a little market town, which had the appearance of a large village; it is however reckoned among the three great towns of Canada, which are Quebec, Montreal, and Trois Rivieres. It is said to ly in the middle between the two first, and thirty French miles distant from each. The town is built on the north side of the river St. Lawrence, on a flat, elevated sand, and its situation is very pleasant. On one side the river passes by, which is here an English mile and a half broad. On the other side, are fine corn-fields, though the soil is very much mixed with sand. In the town are two churches of stone, a nunnery, and a house for the friars of the order of St. Francis. This town is likewise the seat of the third governor in Canada, whose house is likewise of stone. Most of the other houses are of timber a single story high, tolerably well built, and stand very much asunder; and the streets are crooked. The shore here consists of sand, and the rising grounds along it are pretty high. When the wind is very violent here, it raises the sand, and blows it about the streets, making it very troublesome to walk in them. The nuns, which are about twenty-two in number, are reckoned very ingenious in all kinds of needle-work. This town formerly flourished more than any other in Canada, for the Indians brought their goods to it from all sides; but since that time they go to Montreal and Quebec, and to the English, on account of their wars with the Iroquese, or Five Nations, and for several other reasons, so that this town is at present very much reduced by it. Its present inhabitants live chiefly by agriculture, though the neighbouring iron-works may serve in some measure to support them. About an English mile below the town, a great river falls into the river St. Lawrence, but first divides into three branches, so that it appears as if three rivers disembogued themselves there. This has given occasion to call the river and this town, Trois Rivieres (the Three Rivers).

The tide goes about a French mile above Trois Rivieres, though it is so trifling as to be hardly observable. But about the equinoxes, and at the new moons and full moons in spring and autumn, the difference between the highest and lowest water is two feet. Accordingly the tide in this river goes very far up, for from the above mentioned place to the sea they reckon about a hundred and fifty French miles.

Whilst my company were resting, I went on horseback to view the iron-work. The country which I passed through was pretty high, sandy, and generally flat. I saw neither stones nor mountains here.

The iron-work, which is the only one in this country, lies three miles to the west of Trois Rivieres. Here are two great forges, besides two lesser ones to each of the great ones, and under the same roof with them. The bellows were made of wood, and every thing else, as it is in Swedish forges. The melting ovens stand close to the forges, and are the same as ours. The ore is got two French miles and a half from the iron works, and is carried thither on sledges. It is a kind of moor ore [25], which lies in veins, within six inches or a foot from the surface of the ground. Each vein is from six to eighteen inches deep, and below it is a white sand. The veins are surrounded with this sand on both sides, and covered at the top with a thin mould. The ore is pretty rich and lies in loose lumps in the veins, of the size of two fists, though there are a few which are near eighteen inches thick. These lumps are full of holes, which are filled with ockre. The ore is so soft that it may be crushed betwixt the fingers. They make use of a grey lime-stone, which is broke in the neighbourhood, for promoting the fusibility of the ore; to that purpose they likewise employ a clay marle, which is found near this place. Charcoals are to be had in great abundance here, because all the country round this place is covered with woods, which have never been stirred. The charcoals from ever-green trees, that is, from the fir kind, are best for the forge, but those of deciduous trees are best for the smelting oven. The iron which is here made, was to me described as soft, pliable, and tough, and is said to have the quality of not being attacked by rust so easily as other iron; and in this point there appears a great difference between the Spanish iron and this in ship-building. This iron-work was first founded in 1737, by private persons, who afterwards ceded it to the king; they cast cannon and mortars here, of different sizes, iron stoves which are in use all over Canada, kettles, &c. not to mention the bars which are made here. They have likewise tried to make steel here, but cannot bring it to any great perfection, because they are unacquainted with the best manner of preparing it. Here are many officers and overseers, who have very good houses, built on purpose for them. It is agreed on all hands, that the revenues of the iron-work do not pay the expences which the king must every year be at in maintaining it. They lay the fault on the bad state of population, and say that the few inhabitants in the country have enough to do with agriculture, and that it therefore costs great trouble and large sums, to get a sufficient number of workmen. But however plausible this may appear, yet it is surprizing that the king should be a loser in carrying on this work; for the ore is easily broken, very near the iron-work, and very fusible. The iron is good, and can be very conveniently dispersed over the country. This is moreover the only iron-work in the country, from which every body must supply himself with iron tools, and what other iron he wants. But the officers and servants belonging to the iron-work, appear to be in very affluent circumstances. A river runs down from the iron-work, into the river St. Lawrence, by which all the iron can be sent in boats throughout the country at a low rate. In the evening I returned again to Trois Rivieres.

August the 4th. At the dawn of day we left this place and went on towards Quebec. We found the land on the north side of the river somewhat elevated, sandy, and closely inhabited along the water side. The south-east shore, we were told, is equally well inhabited; but the woods along that shore prevented our seeing the houses, which are built further up in the country, the land close to the river being so low as to be subject to annual inundations. Near Trois Rivieres, the river grows somewhat narrow; but it enlarges again, as soon as you come a little below that place, and has the breadth of above two English miles.

As we went on, we saw several churches of stone, and often very well built ones. The shores of the river are closely inhabited for about three quarters of an English mile up the country; but beyond that the woods and the wilderness encrease. All the rivulets falling into the river St. Lawrence are likewise well inhabited on both sides. I observed throughout Canada, that the cultivated lands ly only along the river St. Lawrence, and the other rivers in the country, the environs of towns excepted, round which the country is all cultivated and inhabited within the distance of twelve or eighteen English miles. The great islands in the river are likewise inhabited.

The shores of the river now became higher, more oblique and steep, however they consisted chiefly of earth. Now and then some rivers or great brooks fall into the river St. Lawrence, among which one of the most considerable is the Riviere Puante, which unites on the south-east side with the St. Lawrence, about two French miles below Trois Rivieres, and has on its banks, a little way from its mouth, a town called Becancourt which is wholly inhabited by Abenakee Indians, who have been converted to the Roman catholic religion, and have Jesuits among them. At a great distance, on the north-west side of the river, we saw a chain of very high mountains, running from north to south, elevated above the rest of the country, which is quite flat here without any remarkable hills.

Here were several lime-kilns along the river; and the lime-stone employed in them is broke in the neighbouring high grounds. It is compact and grey, and the lime it yields is pretty white.

The fields here are generally sown with wheat, oats, maize, and pease. Gourds and water-melons are planted in abundance near the farms.

A Humming bird (Trochilus Colubris) flew among the bushes, in a place where we landed to-day. The French call it Oiseau mouche, and say it is pretty common in Canada; and I have seen it since several times at Quebec.

About five o’clock in the afternoon we were obliged to take our night’s lodgings on shore, the wind blowing very strong against us, and being attended with rain. I found that the nearer we came to Quebec, the more open and free from woods was the country. The place where we passed the night, is distant from Quebec twelve French miles.

They have a very peculiar method of catching fish near the shore here. They place hedges along the shore, made of twisted oziers, so close that no fish can get through them, and from one foot to a yard high, according to the different depth of the water. For this purpose they choose such places where the water runs off during the ebb, and leaves the hedges quite dry. Within this inclosure they place several weels, or fish-traps, in the form of cylinders, but broader below. They are placed upright, and are about a yard high, and two feet and a half wide: on one side near the bottom is an entrance for the fishes, made of twigs, and sometimes of yarn made into a net. Opposite to this entrance, on the other side of the weel, looking towards the lower part of the river, is another entrance, like the first, and leading to a box of boards about four foot long, two deep, and two broad. Near each of the weels is a hedge, leading obliquely to the long hedge, and making an acute angle with it. This latter hedge is made in order to lead the fish into the trap, and it is placed on that end of the long hedge which looks towards the upper part of the river; now when the tide comes up the river, the fish, and chiefly the eels, go up with it along the river side; when the water begins to ebb, the fish likewise go down the river, and meeting with the hedges, they swim along them, till they come through the weels into the boxes of boards, at the top of which there is a hole with a cover, through which the fish could be taken out. This apparatus is chiefly made on account of the eels. In some places hereabouts they place nets instead of the hedges of twigs.

The shores of the river now consisted no more of pure earth; but of a species of slate. They are very steep and nearly perpendicular here, and the slates of which they consist are black, with a brown cast; and divisible into thin shivers, no thicker than the back of a knife. These slates moulder as soon as they are exposed to the open air, and the shore is covered with grains of small sand, which are nothing but particles of such mouldered slates. Some of the strata run horizontal, others obliquely, dipping to the south and rising to the north, and sometimes the contrary way. Sometimes they form bendings like large semicircles: sometimes a perpendicular line cuts off the strata, to the depth of two feet; and the slates on both sides of the line from a perpendicular and smooth wall. In some places hereabouts, they find amongst the slates, a stratum about four inches thick of a grey, compact, but pretty soft limestone, of which the Indians for many centuries have made, and the French at present still make, tobacco-pipes [26].