ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, 711 



Coming to the second phase, we have to introduce farmers of Perche, 

 Beauce, Normandy, and Picardy, numbering forty-five, from 1632 to 1640, 

 besides twenty-six from Champagne, Lorraine, Brie, Poitou, Maine, during 

 the same nine years. This period gives an average of eight settlers per year 

 only, which may be considered the proportion for twenty years afterwards. 



The group of Perche took the lead from 1632 and kept it for ever. 

 They came married, bringing their farm implements, cattle, &c., and in 

 less than two years after their arrival conquered the soil, learned how to 

 face the climate, and made themselves literally at home, where their pre- 

 decessors had miserably perished by scores during many years. 



The typical Percherons knew the way to clear the forest, because their 

 country was covered (especially in those days) with trees. They produced 

 all sorts of grain, poultry, cattle, pigs, &c., and so they did in Canad^ from 

 the outset. Every woman had a trade of her own — the men also. Take 

 Beauport, near Quebec, as an example : the first ten or twelve agricultural 

 families located there were composed of a stonemason, a carpenter, a 

 tiler, slater or thatcher, a blacksmith (often called armourer), a miller, a 

 shoemaker, a ropemaker, a leather-dresser, and two or three weavers. 

 Before the clothes brought from France were worn out the ' Canadian ' 

 manufacture supplied the little colony with fresh woollen stuff of various 

 fabrics from serge and camlet to much thicker cloths, as well as linen 

 made of their culture of flax. It soon became a saying that the ' habitant ' 

 (so named by contrast with the roving fur-trader) needs no help from 

 France, except in the line of iron and steel tools and firelocks. From 

 head to feet they could provide for themselves ; their table was well sup- 

 plied, their houses comfortable ; in fact they lived in luxury. The 

 culinary art had many adepts amongst them, and this has been trans- 

 mitted through generations. 



The hygienic aspect of the situation must have been well understood 

 by those early settlers, because not even the children were affected by the 

 influence of the new climate and habits of life. Scorbutic diseases dis- 

 appeared from 1632 — that is to say, never prevailed amongst actual 

 settlers or habitants, but continued to follow the men sent to the advanced 

 posts for a winter or two in the pursuit of the fur trade. 



Boots and shoes brought from France soon became known as bottes 

 et souliers fran(^ois, to be used indoors on special occasions only. Bottes 

 et souliers sauvages served all other purposes at every season. The long 

 overcoat, or capot, made of coarse woollen cloth with a nap on one side 

 (frieze) called biore in French, is a remarkable instance of their 

 ingenuity. This coat has a hood attached to the collar and dropping 

 behind : it is buttoned up and down, double-breast, and made tight around 

 the body by a wide and long woollen sash of bright colours, altogether an 

 immense improvement over the ' caban ' or dreadnought-coat of the 

 mariners, well known in England and France. Their mode of colonisation 

 also differed from that which could have been expected, considering that 

 in France the country people are centralised in villages somewhat away 

 from the fields they cultivate. The first attempt made in Canada to lay 

 out farms (1632) consisted in having them in a row facing the river and 

 distant from one another about four arpents : each lot of land measured 

 forty arpents deep, making one hundred and sixty square arpents for a 

 farm. This system was adopted by the whole of the colony a.s it gradu- 

 ally got settled — notwithstanding the authorities who were in favour of 

 the formation of villages in preference to what they styled a ' dispersed 

 order.' The advantage of such an arrangement is to bring the house a 



