64 A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 
a broader and flatter boat, drawing little water and bet- 
ter suited for shoals and rapids. They are mostlv 
manufactured on the south side of the St. Lawrence, 
birch-trees of the requisite size having almost disappeared 
from the noi'th shore. The bark is composed of innu- 
merable layers, and is the only known substance that 
would stand the rough contact with rocks that canoes 
experience. A volume could be written on the wondrous 
qualities of birch bark, the woodsman's invaluable trea- 
sure ; to him it is a boat, a tent, a table, a plate, a cup, a 
basket, a pail, a basin, a frying-pan, a tea-kettle, a candle, 
a flambeau, a cooking oven, writing paper, kindling 
wood, and almost all the other conveniences or necessa- 
ries of life. 
The chaloupe being loaded, a long farewell shouted 
loudly that our spirits might not fail, and we turned our 
backs on L'Anse a I'Eau, the pretty bay at the water- 
side. The jib was set, and the grancle voile^ or foresail, 
together with the tapitue^ or jigger, while the mainsail, 
called by the Canadians mizzin — for we were a three- 
masted schooner — was brailed up, not only to give us 
more room, but because the open boat was then under 
all the sail she could stagger to. The French are a won- 
derful people; strange and incomprehensible are the 
sailing vessels they have produced ; but in Canada, aided 
by the antiquated notions of the English, they surpass 
themselyes and manage to combine in their pilot-boats 
all the defects of which either system is capable. "While 
the rest of the world has discovered that the more sails a 
small boat carries the slower she will go, they have care- 
fully cut up what should have been one sail into four ; 
