Part 13

The sulphureous springs (if I may so call them) are at the foot of the mountain, which contains the silver, or lead ore. Several springs join here, and form a little brook. The water in those brooks is covered with a white membrane, and leaves a white, mealy matter on the trees, and other bodies in its way; this matter has a strong sulphureous smell. Trees, covered with this mealy matter, when dried and set on fire, burn with a blue flame, and emit a smell of sulphur. The water does not change by being mixed with gall-apples, nor does it change blue paper into a different colour, which is put into it. It makes no good lather with soap. Silver is tarnished, and turns black, if kept in this water for a little while. The blade of a knife was turned quite black, after it had lain about three hours in it. It has a disagreeable smell, which, they say, it spreads still more in rainy weather. A number of grasshoppers were fallen into it at present. The inhabitants used this water, as a remedy against the itch.

In the afternoon we went to see another vein, which had been spoken of as silver ore. It lies about a quarter of a mile to the north-east of bay St. Paul, near a point of land called Cap au Corbeau, close to the shore of the river St. Lawrence. The mountain in which these veins ly, consist of a pale red vitrescent spar, a black glimmer, a pale lime-stone, purple or garnet-coloured grains of quartz, and some transparent quartz. Sometimes the reddish vitrescent spar is the most abundant, and lies in long stripes of small hard grains. Sometimes the fine black glimmer abounds more than the remaining constituent parts; and these two last kinds of stone generally run in alternate stripes. The white lime-stone which consists of almost invisible particles, is mixed in among them. The garnet-coloured quartz grains appear here and there, and sometimes form whole stripes. They are as big as pin’s heads, round, shining, and strike fire with steel. All these stones are very hard, and the mountains near the sea, consist entirely of them. They sometimes ly in almost perpendicular strata, of ten or fifteen inches thickness. The strata, however, point with their upper ends to the north-west, and go upwards from the river, as if the water, which is close to the south-east side of the mountains, had forced the strata to lean on that side. These mountains contain very narrow veins of a white, and sometimes of a greenish, fine, semidiaphanous, soft spar, which crumbles easily into grains. In this spar they very frequently find specks, which look like a calamine blend [92]. Now and then, and but very seldom, there is a grain of lead-ore. The mountains near the shore consist sometimes of a black fine-grained horn-stone, and a ferruginous lime-stone. The horn-stone in that case is always in three or four times as great a quantity as the lime-stone.

In this neighbourhood there is likewise a sulphureous spring, having exactly the same qualities as that which I have before described. The broad-leaved Reed Mace [93] grows in the very spring, and succeeds extremely well. A mountain-ash stood near it, whose berries were of a pale yellow fading colour, whereas on all other mountain-ashes they have a deep red colour.

They make great quantities of tar at bay St. Paul. We now passed near a place in which they burn tar, during summer. It is exactly the same with ours in East-Bothnia, only somewhat less; though I have been told, that there are sometimes very great manufactures of it here. The tar is made solely of the Pin rouge [94], or red Pine. All other firs, of which here are several kinds, are not fit for this purpose, because they do not give tar enough to repay the trouble the people are at. They make use of the roots alone, which are quite full of resin, and which they dig out of the ground; and of about two yards of the stem, just above the root, laying aside all the rest. They have not yet learnt the art of drawing the resin to one side of the tree, by peeling off the bark; at least they never take this method. The tar-barrels are but about half the size of ours. A ton holds forty-six pots, and sells at present for twenty-five francs at Quebec. The tar is reckoned pretty good.

The sand on the shore of the river St. Lawrence, consists in some places of a kind of pearl-sand. The grains are of quartz, small and semidiaphanous. In some places it consists of little particles of glimmer; and there are likewise spots, covered with the garnet-coloured sand, which I have before described, and which abounds in Canada.

September the 4th. The mountains hereabouts were covered with a very thick fog to-day, resembling the smoak of a charcoal kiln. Many of these mountains are very high. During my stay in Canada, I asked many people, who have travelled much in North-America, whether they ever met with mountains so high, that the snow never melts on them in winter; to which they always answered in the negative. They say that the show sometimes stays on the highest, viz. on some of those between Canada and the English colonies, during a great part of the summer; but that it melts as soon as the great heat begins.

Every countryman sows as much flax as he wants for his own use. They had already taken it up some time ago, and spread it on the fields, meadows, and pastures, in order to bleach it. It was very short this year in Canada.

They find iron-ore in several places hereabouts. Almost a Swedish mile from bay St. Paul, up in the country, there is a whole mountain full of iron ore. The country round it is covered with a thick forest, and has many rivulets of different sizes, which seem to make the erection of iron-works very easy here. But the government having as yet suffered very much by the iron-works at Trois Rivieres, nobody ventures to propose any thing further in that way.

September the 5th. Early this morning we set out on our return to Quebec. We continued our journey at noon, notwithstanding the heavy rain and thunder we got afterwards. At that time we were just at Petite Riviere, and the tide beginning to ebb, it was impossible for us to come up against it; therefore we lay by here, and went on shore.

Petite Riviere is a little village, on the western side of the river St. Lawrence, and lies on a little rivulet, from whence it takes its name. The houses are built of stone, and are dispersed over the country. Here is likewise a fine little church of stone. To the west of the village are some very high mountains, which cause the sun to set three or four hours sooner here, than ordinary. The river St. Lawrence annually cuts off a piece of land, on the east side of the village, so that the inhabitants fear they will in a short time lose all the land they possess here, which at most is but a musket shot broad. All the houses here are very full of children.

The lime-slates on the hills are of two kinds. One is a black one, which I have often mentioned, and on which the town of Quebec is built. The other is generally black, and sometimes dark grey, and seems to be a species of the former. It is called Pierre à chaux here. It is chiefly distinguished from the former, by being cut very easily, giving a very white lime, when burnt, and not easily mouldering into shivers in the air. The walls of the houses here are entirely made of this slate; and likewise the chimnies, those places excepted, which are exposed to the greatest fire, where they place pieces of grey rock-stone, mixed with a deal of glimmer. The mountains near Petite Riviere consist merely of a grey rock-stone, which is entirely the same with that which I described near the lead-mines of bay St. Paul. The foot of these mountains consists of one of the lime-slate kinds. A great part of the Canada mountains of grey rock-stone stand on a kind of slate, in the same manner as the grey rocks of West-Gothland in Sweden.

September the 6th. They catch eels and porpesses here, at a certain season of the year, viz. at the end of September, and during the whole month of October. The eels come up the river at that time, and are caught in the manner I have before described. They are followed by the porpesses, which feed upon them. The greater the quantity of eels is, the greater is likewise the number of porpesses, which are caught in the following manner. When the tide ebbs in the river, the porpesses commonly go down along the sides of the river, catching the eels which they find there. The inhabitants of this place therefore stick little twigs, or branches with leaves, into the river, in a curve line or arch, the ends of which look towards the shore, but stand at some distance from it, leaving a passage there. The branches stand about two feet distant from each other. When the porpesses come amongst them, and perceive the rustling the water makes with the leaves, they dare not venture to proceed, fearing lest there should be a snare, or trap, and endeavour to go back. Mean while the water has receded so much, that in going back they light upon one of the ends of the arch, whose moving leaves frighten them again. In this confusion they swim backwards and forwards, till the water is entirely ebbed off, and they ly on the bottom, where the inhabitants kill them. They give a great quantity of train-oil.

Near the shore, is a grey clay, full of ferruginous cracks, and pierced by worms. The holes are small, perpendicular, and big enough to admit a middling pin. Their sides are likewise ferruginous, and half-petrified; and where the clay has been washed away by the water, the rest looks like ocker-coloured stumps of tobacco-pipe tubes.

At noon we left Petite Riviere, and continued our journey towards St. Joachim.

Between Petite Riviere, which lies in a little bay, and St. Joachim, the western shore of the river St. Lawrence consists of prominent mountains, between which there are several small bays. They have found, by long experience, that there is always a wind on these mountains, even when it is calm at Petite Riviere. And when the wind is pretty high at the last-mentioned place, it is not adviseable to go to Quebec in a boat, the wind and waves, in that case, being very high near these mountains. We had at present an opportunity of experiencing it. In the creeks between the mountains, the water was almost quite smooth; but on our coming near one of the points formed by the high mountains, the waves encreased, and the wind was so high, that two people were forced to take care of the helm, and the mast broke several times. The waves are likewise greatly encreased by the strong current near those points or capes.

September the 7th. A little before noon, we continued our voyage from St. Joachim.

They employ tree-mushrooms very frequently instead of tinder. Those which are taken from the sugar-maple are reckoned the best; those of the red maple are next in goodness; and next to them, those of the sugar-birch. For want of these, they likewise make use of those which grow on the asp-tree or tremble.

There are no other ever-green trees in this part of Canada, than the thuya, the yew, and some of the fir kind.

The thuya is esteemed for resisting putrefaction much longer than any other wood; and next in goodness to it is the pine, called perusse here.

They make cheese in several places hereabouts. That of the isle of Orleans is, however, reckoned the best. This kind is small, thin, and round; and four of them weigh about a French pound. Twelve of them sell for thirty sols. A pound of salt butter costs ten sols at Quebec, and of fresh butter, fifteen sols. Formerly, they could get a pound of butter for four sols here.

The corn-fields towards the river are sloping; they are suffered to ly fallow and to be sown alternately. The sown ones looked yellow at this distance, and the fallow ones green. The weeds are left on the latter all summer, for the cattle to feed upon.

The ash wood furnishes the best hoops for tuns here; and for want of it, they take the thuya, little birch-trees, wild cherry-trees, and others.

The hills near the river, on the western side, opposite the isle of Orleans, are very high and pretty steep. They consist, in most part, of black lime-slate. There are likewise some spots which consist of a rock-stone, which, at first sight, looks like a sand-stone, and is composed of grey quartz, a reddish lime-stone, a little grey lime-stone, and some pale grey grains of sand. These parts of the stone are small and pretty equally mixed with each other. The stone looks red, with a greyish cast, and is very hard. It lies in strata, one above another. The thickness of each stratum is about five inches. It is remarkable, that there are both elevated and hollow impressions of pectinites on the surface, where one likewise meets with the petrified shells themselves; but on breaking the stone, it does not even contain the least vestige of an impression or petrified shell. All the impressions are small, about the length and breadth of an inch. The particles of quartz in the stone strike fire with steel, and the particles of lime-stone effervesce strongly with aqua-fortis. The upper and lower surfaces of the strata consist of lime-stone, and the inner parts of quartz. They break great quantities of this stone in order to build houses of it, pave floors with it, and make stair-cases of it. Great quantities of it are sent to Quebec. It is remarkable, that there are petrefactions in this stone, but never any in the black lime-slates.

The women dye their woollen yarn yellow with seeds of gale, [95] which is called poivrier here, and grows abundant in wet places.

This evening, M. Gaulthier and I went to see the water-fall at Montmorenci. The country near the river is high and level, and laid out into meadows. Above them the high and steep hills begin, which are covered with a crust of mould, and turned into corn-fields. In some very steep places, and near the rivulets, the hills consist of mere black lime-slate, which is often crumbled into small pieces, like earth. All the fields below the hills are full of such pieces of lime-slate. When some of the larger pieces are broken, they smell like stink-stone. In some more elevated places, the earth consists of a pale red colour; and the lime-slates are likewise reddish.

The water-fall near Montmorenci is one of the highest I ever saw. It is in a river whose breadth is not very considerable, and falls over the steep side of a hill, consisting entirely of black lime-slate. The fall is now at the bottom of a little creek of the river. Both sides of the creek consist merely of black lime-slate, which is very much cracked and tumbled down. The hill of lime-slate under the water-fall is quite perpendicular, and one cannot look at it without astonishment. The rain of the preceding days had encreased the water in the river, which gave the fall a grander appearance. The breadth of the fall is not above ten or twelve yards. Its perpendicular height Mr. Gaulthier and I guessed to be between a hundred and ten and a hundred and twenty feet; and on our return to Quebec, we found our guess confirmed by several gentlemen, who had actually measured the fall, and found it to be nearly as we had conjectured. The people who live in the neighbourhood exaggerate in their accounts of it, absolutely declaring that it is three hundred feet high. Father Charlevoix [96] is too sparing in giving it only forty feet in height. At the bottom of the fall, there is always a thick fog of vapours, spreading about the water, being resolved into them by its violent fall. This fog occasions almost perpetual rain here, which is more or less heavy, in proportion to its distance from the fall. Mr. Gaulthier and myself, together with the man who shewed us the way, were willing to come nearer to the falling water, in order to examine more accurately how it came down from such a height, and how the stone behind the water looked. But, being about twelve yards off the fall, a sudden gust of wind blew a thick fog upon us, which, in less than a minute, had wet us as thoroughly as if we had walked for half an hour in a heavy shower. We therefore hurried away as fast as we could, and were glad to get off. The noise of the fall is sometimes heard at Quebec, which is two French miles off to the southward; and this is a sign of a north-east wind. At other times, it can be well heard in the villages, a good way lower to the north; and it is then reckoned an undoubted sign of a south-west wind, or of rain. The black lime-slate on the sides of the fall lies in dipping, and almost perpendicular strata. In these lime-slate strata, are the following kinds of stone to be met with.

Fibrous gypsum. [97] This lies in very thin leaves between the cracks of the lime-slate. Its colour is a snowy white. I have found it in several parts of Canada, in the same black lime-stone.

Pierre à Calumet. This is the French name of a stone disposed in strata between the lime-slate, and of which they make almost all the tobacco-pipe heads in the country. The thickness of the strata is different. I have seen pieces near fifteen inches thick; but they are commonly between four and five inches thick. When the stone is long exposed to the open air or heat of the sun, it gets a yellow colour; but in the inside it is grey. It is a lime-stone of such a compactness, that its particles are not distinguishable by the naked eye. It is pretty soft, and will bear cutting with a knife. From this quality, the people likewise judge of the goodness of the stone for tobacco-pipe heads; for the hard pieces of it are not so fit for use as the softer ones. I have seen some of these stones shivering into thin leaves on the outside where they were exposed to the sun. All the tobacco-pipe heads, which the common people in Canada make use of, are made of this stone, and are ornamented in different ways. A great part of the gentry likewise make use of them, especially when they are on a journey. The Indians have employed this stone for the same purposes for several ages past, and have taught it the Europeans. The heads of the tobacco-pipes are naturally of a pale grey colour; but they are blackened whilst they are quite new, to make them look better. They cover the head all over with grease, and hold it over a burning candle, or any other fire, by which means it gets a good black colour, which is encreased by frequent use. The tubes of the pipes are always made of wood [98].

There are no coals near this fall, or in the steep hills close to it. However, the people in the neighbouring village shewed me a piece of coal, which, they said, they had found on one of the hills about the fall.

We arrived at Quebec very late at night.

September the 8th, Intermitting fevers of all kinds are very rare at Quebec, as Mr. Gaulthier affirms. On the contrary, they are very common near Fort St. Frederic, and near Fort Detroit, which is a French colony, between lake Erie and lake Huron, in forty-three degrees north latitude.

Some of the people of quality make use of ice-cellars, to keep beer cool in, during summer, and to keep fresh flesh, which would not keep long in the great heat. These ice-cellars are commonly built of stone, under the house. The walls of it are covered with boards, because the ice is more easily consumed by stones. In winter, they fill it with snow, which is beat down with the feet, and covered with water. They then open the cellar holes and the door, to admit the cold. It is customary in summer to put a piece of ice into the water or wine which is to be drank.

All the salt which is made use of here, is imported from France. They likewise make good salt here of the sea water; but France keeping the salt trade entirely to itself, they do not go on with it here.

The Esquimaux are a particular kind of American savages, who live only near the water, and never far in the country, on Terra Labrador, between the most outward point of the mouth of the river St. Lawrence and Hudson’s bay. I have never had an opportunity of seeing one of them. I have spoken with many Frenchmen who have seen them, and had them on board their own vessels. I shall here give a brief history of them, according to their unanimous accounts.

The Esquimaux are entirely different from the Indians of North-America, in regard to their complexion and their language. They are almost as white as Europeans, and have little eyes: the men have likewise beards. The Indians, on the contrary, are copper-coloured, and the men have no beards. The Esquimaux language is said to contain some European words. [99] Their houses are either caverns or clefts in the mountains, or huts of turf above ground. They never sow or plant vegetables, living chiefly on various kinds of whales, on seals, [100] and walrusses [101]. Sometimes they likewise catch land animals, on which they feed. They eat most of their meat quite raw. Their drink is water; and people have likewise seen them drinking the sea water, which was like brine.

Their shoes, stockings, breeches, and jackets are made of seal-skins well prepared, and sewed together with nerves of whales, which may be twisted like threads and are very tough. Their cloaths, the hairy side of which is turned outwards, are sewed together so well, that they can go up to their shoulders in the water without wetting their under cloaths. Under their upper cloaths, they wear shirts and waistcoats made of seals skins, prepared so well as to be quite soft. I saw one of their womens dresses; a cap, a waistcoat, and coat, made all of one piece of seals skin well prepared, soft to the touch, and the hair on the outside. Their is a long train behind at their coats, which scarce reach them to the middle of the thigh before; under it they wear breeches and boots, all of one piece. The shirt I saw was likewise made of a very soft seals skin. The Esquimaux women are said to be handsomer than any of the American Indian women, and their husbands are accordingly more jealous in proportion.