IN A FISHING COUNTRY 



way. The mountains drop behind, the 

 river sobers to an easy gait, the rapids are 

 playthings; with the sun yet on the steeple 

 of the old French church we slip under the 

 bridge to the meeting of the brown water 

 and the blue.' 



These last ten miles were run many 

 times in the season with all the 

 canoes that could be mustered, and a 

 stranger must sometime have stood 

 amazed at the line of charettes carrying 

 them inland. A string of caleches fol- 

 lowed the fortunes of the canoemen by 

 road, and the watchers might fairly count 

 upon seeing 'The Teaser' temporarily dis- 

 solve the bond between some ship and its 

 incompetent crew. The faultless perform- 

 ance was to go through it all without so 

 much as grazing a rock; this was more 

 than once managed by a gentle pilot. 



The vehicles of those times were the 

 caleche (spelled 'calash' in England 

 two hundred years ago, and so pronounced 

 there and in France, as in Quebec today), 

 the quatre poteaux^ and the charette. The 

 planche was a late importation from the 

 South Shore which supplanted the caleche, 

 as fitter for the country roads; various 

 types of quatre roues followed on its heels. 

 50 



