158 BAIE DES CHALEUKS. 



with their polished floors, the antique, wood-bottomed chairs, 

 the low settles, the bedsteads set in niches, the loom and the 

 spinning-wheel, the rude little crucifixes and the pictures of 

 the Virgin and saints that ornament the walls — do they not 

 perpetuate a history purely Acadian ? And the impassive 

 maitre de 7naison in his blue homespun blouse and capote, 

 madame in kirtle and snowy cap, the lasses with plaited hair 

 and blue woolen petticoats, and the group of reserved and 

 passive children — are they not the reproductions of the pen 

 that sketched Evangeline? It is a beautiful web of fancy 

 and fact that Longfellow wove, aiid truthful in all its colors, 

 lights, and shades ; but who that pays his addresses to the 

 charming maiden, can dissipate the pungent odor of garlic 

 and melted fat that constantly pervades the homely kitchen ? 

 Who will dare confide the custody of his epicurean palate to 

 a sylph-like creature whose daily diet is black buckwheat 

 bread and hard-fried eggs minced with pork scraps? and 

 who will dare trust himself, with this knowledge, to gaze into 

 the jet of her lustrous eyes, or taste the peach bloom of her 

 cheeks, or listen to the iEolian of her musical voice ? 



Why should the poets tantalize us thus ? 



To continue : At Temiscouata Lake the angler can stop 

 over at Fournier's, known by all travelers and stage-drivers 

 for many years, and fish for "tuladi." In the broad waters 

 of this lake, and in the neighboring chains of lakes, this 

 remarkable species of the Salmo family, the great gray trout, 

 may be found. And when he has surfeited himself with 

 sport, he may resume his journey, and by pleasure of kind 

 Providence reach his destination at the railway terminus at 

 Eiviere du Loup. Thence to Point Levi, opposite Quebec, 

 it is 114 miles through the Catholic country of the pious 

 habitans. Here every parish has its chapel, and eveiy 

 chapel its patron saint. And there are saints enough to 

 exhaust the calendar. Of twenty-five stations on the rail- 

 road, seventeen are designated by the names of saints. The 



