The Halcyon in Canada. 569 



and eight thousand feet deep (one and a half miles). In fact, the 

 enormous depth of the Saguenay is one of the wonders of physical 

 geography. It is as great a marvel in its way as Niagara. 



The ascent of the river is made by night, and the traveler finds 

 himself in Ha-ha Bay in the morning. The steamer lies here 

 several hours before starting on her return trip, and takes in large 

 quantities of white birch wood, as she does also at Tadousac. 

 The chief product of the country seemed to be huckleberries, of 

 which large quaatities are shipped to Quebec in rude board boxes, 

 holding about a peck each. Little girls came aboard or lingered 

 about the landing with cornucopias of birch-bark filled with red 

 raspberries ; five cents for about half a pint was the usual price. 

 The village of St. Alphonse, where the steamer tarries, is a cluster 

 of small, humble dwellings, dominated, like all Canadian villages, 

 by an immense church. Usually the church will hold all the 

 houses in the village ; pile them all up and they would hardly 

 equal it in size ; it is the one conspicuous object, and is seen afar ; 

 and on the various lines of travel one sees many more priests 

 than laymen. They appear to be about the only class that stir 

 about and have a good time. Many of the houses were covered 

 with birch-bark, — the canoe birch — held to its place by perpendicular 

 strips of board or split poles. 



A man with a horse and a buckboard persuaded us to give him 

 twenty-five cents each to take us two miles up the St. Alphonse River 

 to see the salmon jump. There is a high saw-mill dam there, which 

 every salmon in his upward journey tries his hand at leaping. A 

 race-way has been constructed around the dam for their benefit, 

 which, it seems, they do not use till they have repeatedly tried to 

 scale the dam. The day before our visit three dead fish were found 

 in the pool below, killed by too much jumping. Those we saw had 

 the jump about all taken out of them ; several did not get more than 

 half their length out of the water, and occasionally only an impotent 

 nose would protrude from the foam. One fish made a leap of three or 

 four feet and landed on an apron of the dam and tumbled helplessly 

 back ; he shot up like a bird and rolled back like a clod. This was the 

 only vi<:\\ of salmon, the buck of the rivers, we had on our journey. 



It was a bright and flawless midsummer day that we sailed down 

 the Saguenay, and nothing was wanting but a good excuse for being 



