The Halcyon in Canada. 549 



This fondness for the " bush" at this season seems quite a marked 

 feature in the social life of the average Quebecer, and is one of the 

 original French traits that holds its own among them. Parties leave 

 the city in carts and wagons by midnight, or earlier, and drive out 

 as far as they can the remainder of the night, in order to pass the 

 whole Sunday in the woods, despite the mosquitoes and black flies. 

 Those we saw seemed a decent, harmless set, whose idea of a good 

 time was to be in the open air, and as far into the "bush" as 

 possible. 



The post-road, as the new St. John's road is also called, begins 

 twenty miles from Quebec at Stoneham, the farthest settlement. 

 Five miles into the forest upon the new road is the hamlet of La 

 Chance (pronounced La Shaunce), the last house till you reach the 

 lake, one hundred and twenty miles distant. Our destination the 

 first night was La Chance's ; this would enable us to reach the 

 Jacques Cartier River, forty miles farther, where we proposed to 

 encamp, in the afternoon of the next day. We were now fairly 

 among the mountains, and the sun was well down behind the trees 

 when we entered upon the post-road. It proved to be a wide, well- 

 built highway, grass-grown, but in good condition. After an hour's 

 travel we began to see signs of a clearing, and about six o'clock 

 drew up in front of the long, low, log habitation of La Chance. 

 Their hearth -stone was outdoor at this season, and its smoke rose 

 through the still atmosphere in a frail column toward the sky. 

 The family was gathered here, and welcomed us cordially as we 

 drew up, the master shaking us by the hand as if we were old 

 friends. His English was very poor, and our French was poorer; 

 but with Joe as a bridge between us, communication on a pitch was 

 kept up. His wife could speak no English ; but here true French 

 politeness and graciousness was a language we could readily under- 

 stand. Our supper was got ready from our own supplies, while we 

 sat or stood in the open air about the fire. The clearing comprised 

 fifty or sixty acres of rough land in the bottom of a narrow valley, and 

 bore indifferent crops of oats, barley, potatoes, and timothy grass. 

 The latter was just in bloom, being a month or more later than with 

 The primitive woods, mostly of birch, with a sprinkling of spruce, 

 put a high cavernous wall about the scene. How sweetly the birds 

 sang, their notes seeming to have unusual strength and volume in 



