JOURNEY TO GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE 175 



Bull." The mouth of the river forms the Bay of Tadoussac, 

 said to be the finest and safest harbour in the estuary of 

 the St. Lawrence. To my surprise, I saw quite a fleet 

 of sailing ships and small craft in the bay, all frozen in, 

 and waiting for the spring to load with timber, which 

 would be floated down the river from the interior as 

 soon as the thaw set in. Some trade in dried fish also 

 takes place here. From Tadoussac the opposite shore 

 of the gulf is visible, showing as blue-gray mountains, 

 which must be of considerable height. It is only in 

 clear weather that they can be seen ; but thick weather 

 is not of frequent occurrence in the gulf at any season 

 of the year. 



I thought it strange that ships should find it con- 

 venient to pass the whole winter here in idleness, but 

 the explanation was that ships cannot enter the gulf in 

 the spring until the heavy ice has cleared away, but by 

 that time ships which have wintered here have their 

 cargoes on board and are ready to sail on theh home- 

 ward voyage. The ice on the rivers up country thaws, 

 and permits the timber to be floated down, long before 

 the St. Lawrence is clear of ice. 



St. Catherine is quite a seaport on a small scale. Jack 

 can get drunk there and kick up a bobbery ; and I am 

 sorry to say that here I, for the first time since I have 

 been in the country, found Indian women who, like the 

 sally-port sirens of Portsmouth, make a trade of robbing 

 Jack of his hard-earned wages. 



The ships engaged in the timber trade are woefully 

 undermanned. Some of the crews make money by 

 timber felling during their stay ; others, and especially 

 the ofiicers, go up the river to the big towns to take it 

 easy till the break-up of the frost recalls them to their 

 duty. 



At Tadoussac there is a big saw-mill, but the post to 

 which my friend was bound was seventy miles off on a 

 creek tributary of Saguenay, and it was his intention to 



