INTRODUCTION 7 



This introductory chapter cannot be made long 

 enough to contain a reference to all of Mr. 

 Comeau' s many activities. At Godbout, where 

 he resides, he is postmaster, telegrapher, deputy 

 coroner, Dominion Government fishery overseer, 

 and nuardian of the salmon fishing. He has 

 served as agent for the Hudson Bay Company, 

 and speaks the language of the Montagnais In- 

 dians as well as he does English and French. 

 Having practically lived all his life upon the 

 coast, his knowledge of many tragic scenes and 

 incidents has been acquired at first hand, and 

 some of these are described in the following pages, 

 and in the native simplicity of language and man- 

 ner characteristic of the author. 



Special urging has been necessary to induce 

 Mr. Comeau to tell of his heroic crossing of the 

 Lower St. Lawrence, with his brother, in an 

 open canoe in midwinter, through forty miles of 

 ice, exposed to a temperature of many degrees be- 

 low zero, for two days and a night, in the suc- 

 cessful effort to save the lives of two of his 

 friends- Only for the purpose of correcting ear- 

 lier and erroneous reports of this dramatic event, 

 has Mr. Comeau consented to tell it, as he has 

 done in the chapters modestly entitled ACROSS 

 THE ST. LAWRENCE and OUR RETURN JOUR- 

 NEY; notwithstanding that all the newspapers 

 of Canada and the United States sounded the 

 praises of the rescuers, and that the Governor- 



