176 THE SAGUENAY. 



Bay is the terminus of the steamboat route. Here two little 

 Yillages, Bagot and Bagotville, each with its chapel-spire, 

 cluster upon the undulating shores. They are about three 

 miles apart, and are located each upon a river which fur- 

 nishes water-power for saw-mills belonging to the Prices, of 

 Quebec, gentlemen who are said to own no less than thirty- 

 six lumber establishments upon the Saguenay, St. Lawrence, 

 and other rivers of Canada. At one of these villages a long 

 pier juts out, and here the steamer lands her passengers for 

 a two-hours' frolic on shore. Around the bend of the bay 

 there is a very fair drive of three miles between the two vil- 

 lages, and it is considered " quite the correct thing " to char- 

 ter one of the many French caleches which cluster on the 

 pier, and scurry off at a rattling pace. Occasionally parties of 

 ladies and gentlemen stop by the wayside to taste the native 

 red wine at a primitive Acadian inn, where, as advertised 

 in black and gamboge letters, they sell " liqneAirs en detail" 

 It is quite interesting to notice how gracefully they patronize 

 the modest maitre dliotel, and how they smirk, and titter, 

 and blush at the seeming little breach of propriety, just as 

 "quality folks" used to do when they first ventured into Ful- 

 ton Market for bivalves such as they could get nowhere else. 

 And these unsophisticated Acadians are not so simple as not 

 to know on "which side their bread is buttered." Four 

 steamers a week during two months of summer, crowded 

 with passengers whose purses are plethoric with money, and 

 whose business is pleasure, afford an opportunity not to be 

 innocently thrown aside. Hence, all the young men of the 

 village not employed in oflfices equally remunerative, borrow 

 money enough to pay for a five-pound horse and wagon, and 

 become extemporized cab-drivers. And that improvised 

 Jehu who cannot clear the price of his outfit, with a margin 

 sufficient to pay for his annual church dues, his mamage 

 fees to the priest, and the pension of himself and " femme." 

 till next season, is no business-man at all. 

 The hyperborean hack-drivers of Ha Ha Bay do not im- 



