2$ TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA ! 
means of oars, and they are obliged to pole 
entirely round the bays. Whenever the wind 
is favourable they set their sail; but it is only 
at the upper end of the river, beyond the ra¬ 
pids, or on the lakes or broad parts of it, where 
the current is not swift, that the sail by itself is 
sufficient to impel them forward. 
The exertion it requires to counteract the 
force of the stream by means of poles and oars 
is so great, that the men are obliged to stop 
• very frequently to take breath. The places 
at which they stop are regularly ascertained ; 
some of them, where the current is very ra¬ 
pid, are not more than half a mile distant one 
from the other; others one or two, but none 
of them more than four miles apart. Each 
of these places the boatmen, who are almost 
all French Canadians, denominate “unepipe,” 
because they are allowed to stop at it and fill 
their pipes. A French Canadian is scarcely 
ever without a pipe in his mouth, whether 
working at the oar or plough; whether on 
foot, or on horseback; indeed, so much ad¬ 
dicted are the people to smoking, that by the 
burning of the tobacco in their pipes, they 
commonly ascertain the distance from one place 
to another. Such a place, they say, is three 
pipes off, that is, it is so far off that you may 
smoke three pipes full of tobacco whilst you 
go thither. A pipe, in the most general ae- ■ 
