340 



CANADA. 



'Mauufac 

 cures. 



Canada, tight by a species of gum, which becomes very hard, 

 and adheres very firmly. They are generally about 

 thirty feet in length, and six in breadth, tapering to 

 a point at each end, and rounded in the bottom with- 

 out any keel. Each of these carries from four to 

 five tons ; and they are rowed along with paddles, 

 instead of oars. When they meet with falls and ra- 

 pids in their progress, the canoe must be unloaded, 

 and carried, with its cargo, to the next navigable 

 water. On these occasions, six men will carry one 

 of the largest, and one man will bear four or five 

 packages, about 80lbs. each, over a portage of se- 

 veral miles. 



Another fur company has lately been established, 

 under the title of the South West Company, because 

 they collect their furs chiefly from the south-west 

 parts of America ; and they are sometimes called also 

 the Michillimackinac Company, because they have an 

 establishment in that quarter. The capital employ- 

 ed in these speculations is generally about three years 

 without procuring any returns ; and would thus re- 

 quire almost triple the profits of any other trade. 

 It is rather a remarkable and apparently incredible 

 fact, that manufactured furs can be procured at a 

 cheaper rate, and of a superior quality, in England 

 than in Canada, tn the latter country, these articles 

 are very large and heavy ; and a Canadian furrier puts 

 into one muff a greater quantity of materials, than 

 would be employed in London for three. 



The manufactures of Canada, though daily in- 

 creasing, are still very limited in their number and 

 extent. Previous to its conquest by the British, and 

 during several years after that event, the inhabitants 

 easily provided, by their own industry, the few ne- 

 cessary articles, which their simple mode of living 

 required ; and every family then prepared for their 

 own use, druggets, coarse linens, stockings, worsted 

 caps, hats, bonnets of straw, &c. As their wants 

 increased, they imported, chiefly from Great Britain 

 and the United States, a great variety of articles 

 for domestic purposes ; but the greater part of 

 those they have of late years begun to manufacture 

 for themselves. Among their principal manufactures 

 for the purpose of exportation may be mentioned the 

 conversion of their wheat iniojlour and biscuit, which 

 gives employment to a great number of hands ; the 

 building of ships, which is peculiarly useful in the 

 country, as it is almost the only occupation, which 

 can be followed, during the six months of winter ; 

 bar-iron, stoves, cooking utensils, for which there are 

 two considerable iron forges in the province, one 

 near Three Rivers, which was established by the 

 French king, and another near St Anns, on the road 

 from Quebec to Montreal, with others of less im- 

 portance. Potash, of which the country could easily 

 supply any quantity, though the inhabitants prepare 

 little more than what is necessary for the manufac- 

 ture of the soap, which they make in every family. 

 Soap, candles, and snuff", for the manufacture of 

 which last article Canada has long been celebrated, 

 and the use of which is remarkably common among 

 the females of the country, of ail ranks and ages ; 

 while the men, and even boys, on the other hand, are 

 seldom without a tobacco pipe in their mouths, from 

 the moment that they awaken in the morning till 



they return to bed at night. Among the articles, Canada. 

 which they prepare for their own consumption may '.-.n y .w* 

 be particularly mentioned, hats, of which, however, 

 the bodies, as they are called, are still chiefly imported 

 from England, where they can be procured at a 

 cheaper rate, than they can be made in Canada ; 

 leather, for the preparation of which several consi- 

 derable tan-works are lately established ; and sugar 

 from the maple tree, of which so much is made as 

 nearly equals two-thirds of the whole consumption 

 of that article in the country, and which might be 

 prepared for trade and exportation, if the West India 

 sugars were not so abundant and cheap in the pro- 

 vince. In March and April, when the sap begins 

 to rise, those, who wish to make sugar, provide 

 themselves with the proper apparatus ; make an ex- 

 cursion into the woods, where maple trees abound ; 

 collect the sap from incisions made in the trunk ; 

 erect their boilers on the spotj and return in a few 

 days with sugar ready for use, which, when proper- 

 ly purified, is of an excellent quality. There is a 

 large distillery established at Quebec, and several 

 breweries in the lower province, which export con- 

 siderable quantities of ale. 



In addition to the principal products of agricul- Vegetable 

 ture, which have been already particularly noticed, antl *nimal 

 in a preceding paragraph, it may here be mentioned, P 

 that various other kinds of grain and pulse are raised 

 in Canada, especially rye and beans ; the last of 

 which are of a smaller size than the European, and 

 are much used by the Indians, who eat them when 

 boiled, as an accompaniment to bear's grease and 

 lard. Gourds, and water melons, are cultivated, as 

 field crops ; and are used, as bread, by many of the . 

 native tribes. The orchards and gardens, especially 

 in the neighbourhood of Montreal, abound in a great 

 variety of fruits and vegetables of the finest quality. 

 The apples are particularly good, and yield an ex- 

 cellent cyder. Peaches, plums, gooseberries, rasp- 

 berries, and currants, are found in the greatest per- 

 fection and abundance; and, with the protection of 

 glass, grapes may be raised for the table equal to any 

 in Portugal. The natural and indigenous produc- 

 tions of the country are remarkably numerous ; and 

 many of them are of considerable value. 



The forests abound with an immenhe variety of trees, Trees, 

 of the different kinds of which even the names are not 



yet known. Of oak there are various sorts ; the black, 

 white, red, yellow, grey, according to the colour of 

 the wood, when cut by the saw; the swamp oak, 

 which grows only in a moist gravelly soil, has a 

 smaller leaf and smoother bark, than the other kinds, 

 and is so remarkably tough, as to be frequently used 

 in place of whale bone ; and the chesnut oak, the 

 leaf of which resembles that of the chesnut, and 

 which is neither so tough as the last mentioned, nor 

 so strong as the other sorts, but is peculiarly suited 

 for being split, and for enduring a long time, in pal- 

 lisades and fences : all the oaks in this country grow 

 so straight, that, in ship building, the knee timbers 

 are generally made of the roots of pine. Oi pines, 

 there are the white and red in great abundance, the 

 former of which, chiefly, grows to an amazing 

 height, and yields excellent turpentine. Theirs are 

 perhaps the most numerous class, one of which called 



