— 337 — 



people in town have coaches, the rest make use of open 

 horse-chairs." 



Could this be the traditional calesche which our 

 American tourists style " rocking chairs ? " " It is," he 

 continues, " a general complaint, that the country peo- 

 ple begin to keep the many horses, by which means 

 the cows are kept short of food in winter. The cows 

 have likewise been imported from France and are of the 



size of our common Swedish cows 



The beef and veal at Quebec 



is reckoned fatter and more palatable than at Montreal. 

 Some look upon the salty pastures below Quebec as the 

 cause of this difference. In Canada, the oxen draw with 

 the horns, but in the English colonies they draw with 

 their withers as horses do. " Those " horses, oxen, cows," 

 and other cattle kindly loaned by Europe to Canada two 

 centuries ago, are now returning by scores, (1) fat and 

 improved ! ! ! 



Let us now see what Kalm has to say of a very 

 valuable and time-honored industry; shipbuilding, in 

 1749. We quote : " They were now building several 

 ships below Quebec, for the king's account. However, 

 before my departure, an order arrived from France 

 prohibiting the further building of ships of war, except 

 those which were already on the stocks, because they 

 had found that the ships built of American oak do not 

 last as long as those built of European oak. Near 

 Quebec is found very little oak, and what grows there 

 is not fit for use, being very small, therefore they are 

 obliged to fetch their timber from those parts of Canada 

 which border upon New England, But all the North 

 American oaks have the quality of lasting longer and 

 withstanding putrifaction better, the farther north they 

 grow and vice versa. The timber from the confines of 



(1) See Appendix, verbo " Exportation of Canadian Cat- 

 tle to Europe." 



22 



