Page images
PDF
EPUB

6

shelter of the forest was at hand, and the pines waved their 'dark branches in token of an asylum.'

We turned our shoulders to the blast, and comfortless and weatherbeaten sought our refuge. The scene, though changed, was still not without interest; the frequent crashes of falling trees, and the cracking of their vast limbs as they rocked and writhed in the tempest, created awful and impressive sounds; but it was no time to be idle : warmth and shelter were objects connected with life itself, and the Canadians immediately commenced the vigorous application of their resources. By means of their small, light axes, a good-sized maple tree was in a very few minutes levelled with the earth, and in the mean time we cleared of snow a square spot of ground, with large pieces of bark ripped from the fallen trees. The fibrous bark of the white cedar, previously rubbed to powder between the hands, was ignited, and blowing upon this, a flame was produced. This being fed, first by the silky peelings of the birch bark, and then by the bark itself, the oily and bituminous matter burst forth into full action, and a splendid fire raised its flames and smoke amidst a pile of huge logs, to which one and all of us were constantly and eagerly contributing.

Having raised a covering of spruce boughs above our heads, to serve as a partial defence from the snow, which was still falling in great abundance, we sat down, turning our feet to the fire, making the most of what was, under circumstances, a source of real consolation. We enjoyed absolute rest! One side of our square was bounded by a huge tree, which lay stretched across it. Against this our fire was made; and on the opposite side, towards which I had turned my back, another very large one was growing, and into this latter, being old and decayed, I had by degrees worked my way, and it formed an admirable shelter. The snow was banked up on all sides nearly five feet high, like a white wall; and it resolutely maintained its position, not an atom yielding to the fierce crackling fire which blazed up close against it.

The Canadians were soon busily employed cooking broth in a saucepan, for they had provided themselves much better with provisions than I had. I had relied upon being able to put up with the fare I might meet with, not taking into consideration the want of traffic, and distance from the civilized parts of the province; owing to which, the scanty provision of the inhabitants could not allow them to minister to the wants of others, although they might be provided with a sufficiency for themselves. And I now saw the guides pulling fresh meat out of the soup with their fingers, and sharing it liberally with my servant, whom they had admitted into their mess. The poor fellows, seeing that I had nothing but a piece of salted pork, which I had toasted at the fire on a stick, offered me a share of their supper, but this I felt myself bound to decline. My servant had fewer scruples, and consequently fared better. In return for their intentions, I gave them a good allowance of whiskey, which added to their comfort and increased their mirth. One by one, they lighted their tobacco pipes, and continued to smoke; till, dropping off by degrees, the whole party at ast lay stretched out snoring before me.' pp. 122-125.

On the fourth day, they reached the station near the Grand Falls, the description of which is worth giving. They are about a mile and a half from the guard-house.

'On arriving at them, I was amply remunerated for my trouble, by the magnificence of the spectacle; not that the fall was on such a scale of grandeur as of itself to excite wonder, for it is not larger, perhaps, than the fall of Foyers, in the neighbourhood of Inverness, in Scotland; but the garb of winter gave a character to its features unusually brilliant and pleasing; for the vaporous mist which arose from it, as from all cascades of any degree of magnitude, was so increased by the intense cold, the condensation was so extremely rapid,-that it is difficult to describe the effect it produced. Volumes of cloud rushed upwards, propelled from the abyss with most extraordinary force, so as nearly to resemble the escape of steam from the valve of an engine. The cascade was bounded on each side by craggy rocks disposed in huge, disjointed fragments, and the tops of them were covered with snow, which had been affected by the action of the spray in a singular manner, and had received, by the constant impression of its finer particles, an appearance exactly resembling that of sculptured marble. The dead whiteness of the snow had been changed to a yellowish tinge, and it seemed like fleeces of wool hanging over the rocks as drapery, and arranged in the softest and most elegant foldings. The more distant, the more soft they became, and all were fringed at the base with icicles; some of these, especially those the nearest to the cataract, were of an enormous size. The boughs of the trees also in the vicinity were laden with small ones, like beads of crystal; and altogether they reflected the prismatic rays of the sun with magnificent splendour.

The scene was charming; for the day, though piercingly cold, was particularly bright, and a clear, dark-blue sky enlivened the whole to a great degree. One gazed with delight as upon fairy grottoes and the works of magic.' pp. 130, 131.

On the seventh day, the route left the St. John's river, and turned up the Madawaska, which flows into it. Having passed the head of this river, it crossed Lake Tamasquatha, at the further extremity of which is a portage extending to the high 'road to Quebec.' This portage lies over the ridge which parts the head waters of the St. John from those which fall into the St. Lawrence. Our Traveller had to cross several ravines, and to climb steep acclivities; and it took him two days, crippled as he was, to accomplish the remainder of the journey to Rivière de Cape, (the last six miles by means of a sleigh,) where the St. Lawrence broke upon his view in splendid magnificence.' It is, in this part, twenty-one miles across, and forms a reach quite straight of very considerable length. A post-cariole, or small one-horse sleigh, transported our Traveller along the banks of the river to Point Levi, a distance of 111 miles, in two days. But crossing the river was another matter. It was now frozen, on each bank, at least three or four hundred yards from the

[ocr errors]

shore, the mid channel being filled with floating ice, driven backward and forward by the eddies of an impetuous tide. Sometimes, huge masses would meet with a tremendous crash, piling flake upon flake, and presenting a curious conflict. Mr. Head was told, nevertheless, that at slack water, there was little danger, and six Canadian boatmen were engaged to take him

across.

The canoe was nothing more than fourteen or fifteen feet of an entire tree, rounded at both ends alike, and hollowed by the adze. A piece of rope, six or eight feet long, was fixed at the head, and a similar piece at the stern. Each of the men carried an axe stuck in his sash, and a paddle in his hand; and thus equipped, they dragged the canoe from the shore along upon the ice, chopping away the last six or eight feet (where it became unsound) with their axes, till the head of the vessel was brought close above the water.

The tide was now nearly at the ebb, and its rapidity, of course, much abated; still the ice was continually in a state of violent motion, and presented a very formidable appearance. I now got into the canoe with my servant, and, according to the direction of the boatmen, who were chattering, arguing, and swearing on the subject of their plan of proceeding, we both sat down at the bottom of the canoe, in midships. And here we waited in readiness for a launch. A large flake floated by, leaving a clear channel of perhaps one hundred yards across, and this was the signal to begin. I had nothing to do but to sit still. "Tenez firme!" they all cried at once, and without further warning they pushed the canoe off the ice plump into the water with a splash. The fall was about two feet, and she was no sooner in, than every one of the fellows, with uncommon activity, were on board, and each in his place, paddling with eager haste, in order to avoid a large piece of ice which was bearing down hard upon us, and to gain a frozen surface right a-head. Succeeding in the attempt, they with equal adroitness jumped upon it, and seizing the rope which was fixed at the head of the canoe, drew her by main force out of the water, and, three at one side and three at the other, they pushed her along, running about a hundred and fifty yards across, till a second launch into clear water called again for the paddles. We were less fortunate in this than in the one preceding, for we were splashed all over, and the water almost immediately froze hard on our clothes. But we had not time to shake ourselves, for a large quantity of loose ice, which appeared just to have risen up from the bottom of the river, was bearing down upon us in a very formidable manner. The men paddled, and strained, and abused each other, but all would not do, and we were in a very few seconds hemmed in and jammed on both sides by a soft, pulpy mass, together with which we were helplessly carried away by the current sidewise from the point we were endeavouring to reach. I could not help admiring the determination and address of the men at this moment; for they jumped out, above their knees in water, sometimes up to their hips, while they used their utmost strength to drag the canoe forward by the rope. Although the surface gave way continually under their feet, letting them down upon the large slabs of ice which were floating

underneath, they managed, by pulling and hauling, and with their axes occasionally cutting and breaking away the obstructing blocks which stood in their way, to get free of all impediments, and gain once more a channel of clear water.

While this was going forward, it was extremely annoying to be perfectly helpless in the midst of so much bustle and energy; and when the fellows shouted, "branlez! sacre Dieu, branlez!" they meant that we should rock the canoe from side to side as we sat, to prevent her freezing on to the ice; which disaster was only to be avoided by keeping her in continual motion. If this had taken place, the consequences might have been serious, as the day was intensely cold, and we must have floated away with no very great chance of assistance. However, by the skill of the men we avoided it, and the thirty shillings were certainly fairly earned, for they were three or four minutes at this spell in the water, sometimes up to their knees, and now and then nearly up to their middle. It seems almost incredible, that men should be able to work at all upon ice so unsound as not to afford a surface capable of supporting the weight of the body; but on their part there seemed to be no sort of apprehension of absolute danger, owing to the vast thickness of the floating substance, a comparatively small part of which was, as they knew, that which appeared above the water. And there was invariably a lower stratum upon which they were received and supported as often as they sank in.

Such was the manner of making the passage across the river St. Lawrence, at the season of the year and under such circumstances as it happened to me to undertake it; and I have only to add, that the time occupied in going across was somewhat more than an hour, and that the varieties already cited followed each other in rapid succession, till the moment of our disembarkation at the opposite shore. At one time we were in clear water; the next moment struggling through congelated heaps of melted snow; then rapidly driven along over sheets of ice, and pushed over obstructing blocks which opposed our progress in ridges seven or eight feet high. The Canadians were, however, indefatigable. Every obstacle, so soon as encountered, was surmounted in a moment. Hard ice was hewn down with the hatchets. They were active as ants. All was energy, spring, and bustle. They were in the canoe and out of the canoe, paddling and cutting, pushing with the boat-hook, and hauling on the rope, all with instantaneous impulse, and appliance of strength in different ways and with the most effective success.

But notwithstanding all, it was with unmixed satisfaction that I found myself at last safely landed in the town of Quebec.'

pp. 153–159.

Here, we must leave our Traveller. His subsequent journey to the new station of Penetangushene on Lake Huron, his residence in the woods, and his summer journey from Lake Simcoe, by Niagara, to Quebec, would afford extracts equally lively and interesting; but we forbear further to rifle a volume which is already in the hands, probably, of many of our readers. If

not, they will wish to obtain a sight of it.

There are some sensible remarks on Emigration, at the close of the volume ; but this is a wide subject, upon which we cannot now enter.

Art. III. 1. Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School, and the other Parochial Institutions of Education, established in that City in the year 1812; with Strictures on Education in General. By John Wood, Esq. 12mo. Edinburgh. 1828.

2. Principles of Elementary Teaching, chiefly in reference to the Parochial Schools of Scotland; in Two Letters to T. F. Kennedy, Esq. M.P. By James Pillans, F.R.S.E. Professor of Humanity in the University of Edinburgh. Second Edition, with Corrections and Additions; and a Postscript containing Answers to Objections, and additional Illustrations. Edinburgh. 1829.

3. A Manual of the System of Teaching Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic in the Elementary Schools of the British and Foreign School Society. Third Edition, revised and improved. 1825.

FIFTEEN or twenty years ago, popular education in Eng

land was a subject of almost absorbing interest. The question, whether advantageous or injurious consequences were to flow from the education of the poor, called into action the best energies both of friends and focs. On the one hand, the connection of such a scheme with the overthrow of the constitution, the breaking down of the orders which distinguish society, and the spread of irreligion and vice, was confidently predicted; and on the other, its necessary tendency to meliorate the condition of mankind, to repress crime, and to promote the best interests of piety, were as positively asserted.

Since that time, years have rolled on; the schoolmaster has been abroad; but the constitution still remains stable, the poor and the rich are more widely separated than ever, and crime and misery still abound in our land. Elementary Schools have been succeeded by Mechanics' Institutes; and these, again, by Infant Schools. One new mode of education after another has been propounded; yet, the great mass of the people still remain in little better than brutal ignorance, and altogether insensible 'to the important duties which rest upon them as parents, citizens, or Christians.

We are aware that a variety of causes have operated to produce this result, and that the efforts of the enlightened friends of instruction have been considerably impeded by circumstances over which they have had no control. The opposition which was originally raised against their exertions, has, indeed, long ago subsided; and although there are still to be found among us, many individuals who dread the progress of knowledge,

« PreviousContinue »