NATASHQUAN AGAIN. 269 



complain of the ^' catch," and all the men were hard at work cu- 

 ring and packing a lot of splendid large fish recently brought in by- 

 one of the fishermen from a short distance down the shore. The 

 captain was an intelligent and excellent appearing fellow, and 

 extended to us the usual courtesies, for which the French generally 

 are so well noted, when he found we were Americans and strangers ; 

 and I should do him injustice did I not make particular mention of 

 the excellence of his table, to which he cordially invited us, and 

 which invitation we as cordially accepted. After dinner we were 

 shown all over the steamer, and she was indeed a beauty. She 

 was almost new, and her engines in perfect trim, while all her ap- 

 purtenances showed the signs of newness and solidity. Her tonnage 

 was a httle over one thousand. Though the captain showed us 

 everything freely, he would not describe to us the new freezing 

 process to which he subjected the fish he preserved, claiming it to 

 be a new invention and not that of vaporization of ether or any 

 kindred process in use at the present time. One of the steamer's 

 tug boats was put at our disposal for an excursion the next day, 

 but the rain deprived us of this very great anticipated pleasure. 



Saturday the i8th. Quite an excitement was caused this even- 

 ing by the arrival of a jewelry peddler. He had sold a large quan- 

 tity of this artificial and counterfeit material, and now was eager to 

 get away from the village by the quickest possible conveyance, and 

 I cannot wonder if a sample of his goods that came under my eye 

 is a fair sample of all of which he disposed to this honest-hearted 

 community. It was that of a very poorly plated ring worth about 

 a shilling that was sold for ten shillings. The young fellow who 

 purchased it intended it for his young lady, but, finding that it 

 tarnished the first night his rage may be easily imagined. 



At Natashquan we obtained a fresh supply of provisions, and a 

 few pounds of most excellent fresh maple sugar; it was put 

 up in square cakes of five pounds each and sold at the surprisingly 

 cheap price of ten cents a pound. 



Our next stopping place was at Agwanus river, twelve miles 

 above Natashquan and but a few miles below Nabisippi, which 



