A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 61 
CHAPTEK lY. 
A TKIP TO THE LA YAL. 
A BEAUTIFUL breeze was blowing down between the 
grand old hills of the majestic Saguenay on that first 
day of August when Walton and myself started from 
L'Anse a I'Eau in one of the oddly-shaped pilot-boats of 
the St. Lawrence, for a visit to the Bon Homme la 
Yal. The Bon Homme la Yal, a beautiful and roman- 
tic stream that falls into the St. Lawrence about sixty 
miles below the Saguenay, tradition asserts was named 
by the pious Canadians in the early days of the country 
after a beloved father confessor. But time and the 
English, equally utilitarian, have contracted it into sim- 
ply La Yal, and the origin of the name, together with 
the piety that suggested it, is almost forgotten by the 
present generation. The sun was shining brilliantly, and 
the strong northwest wind curled the waves of the 
ancient river, and crested them with foam ; the dark 
waters surged in their falling tide; the stunted trees 
shivered in the blast; while the granite hills were as 
immovable as they had been mid storm and calm for 
many thousand years ; but the pretty little village was 
all astir with our departure. 
It is a fanciful place, with the white houses 
perched in a nook between the whiter rocks, while the 
