64 A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 



a broader and flatter boat, drawing little water and bet- 

 ter suited for shoals and rapids. They are mostly 

 manufactured on the south side of the St. Lawrence, 

 birch-trees of the requisite size having almost disappeared 

 from the no*rth shore. The bark is composed of innu- 

 merable layers, and is the only known substance that 

 would stand the rough contact with rocks that canoes 

 experience. A volume could be written on the wondrous 

 qualities of birch bark, the woodsman's invaluable trea- 

 sure ; to him it is a boat, a tent, a table, a plate, a cup, a 

 basket, a pail, a basin, a frying-pan, a tea-kettle, a candle, 

 a flambeau, a cooking oven, writing paper, kindling 

 wood, and almost all the other conveniences or necessa- 

 ries of life. 



The chaloupe being loaded, a long farewell shouted 

 loudly that our spirits might not fail, and we turned our 

 backs on L'Anse a l'Eau, the pretty bay at the water- 

 side. The jib was set, and the grcmde voile, or foresail, 

 together with the tapecu, or jigger, while the mainsail, 

 called by the Canadians mizzin — for we were a three- 

 masted schooner — was brailed up, not only to give us 

 more room, but because the open boat was then under 

 all the sail she could stagger to. The French are a won- 

 derful people; strange and incomprehensible are the 

 sailing vessels they have produced ; but in Canada, aided 

 by the antiquated notions of the English, they surpass 

 themselves and manage to combine in their pilot-boats 

 all the defects of which either system is capable. "While 

 the rest of the world has discovered that the more sails a 

 small boat carries the slower she will go, they have care- 

 fully cut up what should have been one sail into four ; 



