Voyages of Samuel De Champlain Volume I Part 19

Raspberries _framboises_. The American raspberry, _Rubis strigosus_.

Currants, red, green, and blue, _groizelles rouges, vertes and bleues_. The first mentioned is undoubtedly the red currant of our gardens. _Ribes rubrum_. The second may have been the unripe fruit of the former. The third doubtless the black currant, _Ribes nigrum_, which grows throughout Canada.--_Vide Chronological History of Plants_, Pickering. p. 871; also Vol. II. note 138.

_Orignas_, so written in the original text. This is, I think, the earliest mention of this animal under this Algonquin name. It was written, by the French, sometimes _orignac, orignat_, and _orignal_.--_Vide Jesuit Relations_, 1635, p. 16; 1636, p. 11, _et pa.s.sim_; Sagard, _Hist. du Canada_, 1636, p. 749; _Description de l'Amerique_, par Denys. 1672, p. 27. _Orignac_ was used interchangeably with _elan_, the name of the elk of northern Europe, regarded by some as the same spccies.--_Vide Mammals_, by Spenser F.

Baird. But the _orignac_ of Champlain was the moose. _Alce America.n.u.s_, peculiar to the northern lat.i.tudes of America. Moose is derived from the Indian word _moosoa_. This animal is the largest of the _Cervus_ family. The males are said to attain the weight of eleven or twelve hundred pounds. Its horns sometimes weigh fifty or sixty pounds. It is exceedingly shy and difficult to capture.

Stags, _cerfs_. This is undoubtedly a reference to the caribou, _Cervus tarandus_. Sagard (1636) calls it _Caribou ou asne Sauuages_, caribou or wilde a.s.s.--_Hist. du Canada_, p. 750. La Hontan, 1686, says harts and caribous are killed both in summer and winter after the same manner with the elks (mooses), excepting that the caribous, which are a kind of wild a.s.ses, make an easy escape when the snow is hard by virtue of their broad feet (Voyages, p. 59). There are two varieties, the _Cervus tarandus arcticus_ and the _Cervus tarandus sylvestris_.

The latter is that here referred to and the larger and finer animal, and is still found in the forests of Canada.

Hinds, _biches_, the female of _cerfs_, and does, _dains_, the female of _daim_, the fallow deer. These may refer to the females of the two preceding species, or to additional species as the common red deer, _Cervus Virginia.n.u.s_, and some other species or variety. La Hontan in the pa.s.sage cited above speaks of three, the _elk_ which we have shown to be the moose, the well-known _caribou_, and the _hart_, which was undoubtedly the common red deer of this region, _Cervus Virginia.n.u.s_.

I learn from Mr. J. M. LeMoine of Quebec, that the Wapiti, _Elaphus Canadensis_ was found in the valley of the St. Lawrence a hundred and forty years ago, several horns and bones having been dug up in the forest, especially in the Ottawa district. It is now extinct here, but is still found in the neighborhood of Lake Winnipeg and further west.

Cartier, in 1535, speaks of _dains_ and _cerfs_, doubtless referring to different species.--_Vide Brief Recit_, D'Avezac ed. p. 31 _verso_.

Bears. _ours_. The American black bear, _Ursus America.n.u.s_. The grisly bear. _Ursus ferox_, was found on the Island of Anticosti.--_Vide Hist. du Canada_, par Sagard, 1636, pp. 148, 750. _La Hontan's Voyages_. 1687, p. 66.

Porcupines. _porcs-espics_. The Canada porcupine, _Hystrix pilosus_. A nocturnal rodent quadruped, armed with barbed quills, his chief defence when attacked by other animals.

Hares, _lapins_. The American hare, _Lepus America.n.u.s_.

Foxes, _reynards_. Of the fox. _Canis vulpes_, there are several species in Canada. The most common is of a carroty red color, _Vulpes fulvus_. The American cross fox. _Canis decussatus_, and the black or silver fox. _Canis argentatus_, are varieties that may have been found there at that period, but are now rarely if ever seen.

Beavers, _castors_. The American beaver, _Castor America.n.u.s_. The fur of the beaver was of all others the most important in the commerce of New France.

Otters, _loutres_. This has reference only to the river otter, _Lutra Canadensis_. The sea otter, _Lutra marina_, is only found in America on the north-west Pacific coast.

Muskrat, _rats musquets_. The musk-rat, _Fiber zibethecus_, sometimes called musquash from the Algonquin word, _m8sk8ess8_, is found in three varieties, the black, and rarely the pied and white. For a description of this animal _vide Le Jeune, Jesuit Relations_, 1635, pp. 18, 19.

180. The Vercheres.

181. Summits of the Green Mountains.

182. From the Vercheres to Montreal, the St. Lawrence is full of islands, among them St. Therese and nameless others.

183. This was the Island of St Helene, a favorite name given to several other places. He subsequently called it St Helene, probably from Helene Boulle, his wife. Between it and the mainland on the north flows the _Rapide de Ste. Marie.--Vide Lauru's Chart_.

184. This landing was on the present site of the city of Montreal, and the little island, according to Laverdiere, is now joined to the mainland by quays.

185. The island of Montreal, here referred to, not including the isle Jesus, is about thirty miles long and nine miles in its greatest width.

186. The Isle Perrot is about seven or eight miles long and about three miles wide.

187. Island of St Paul, sometimes called Nuns' Island.

188. Round Island, situated just below St. Helene's, on the east, say about fifty yards distant.

189. The mountain in the rear of the city of Montreal, 700 feet in height, discovered in October, 1535. by Jacques Cartier, to which he gave the name after which the city is called. "Nous nomasmes la dicte montaigne le mont Royal."--_Brief Recit_, 1545, D'Avezac's ed. p. 23. When Cartier made his visit to this place in 1535, he found on or near the site of the present city of Montreal the famous Indian town called _Hochelaga_. Champlain does not speak of it in the text, and it had of course entirely disappeared.--_Vide_ Cartier's description in _Brief Recit_, above cited.

190. Riviere St Pierre. This little river is formed by two small streams flowing one from the north and the other from the south side of the mountain. Bellin and Charlevoix denominate it _La Pet.i.te Riviere_.

These small streams do not appear on modern maps, and have probably now entirely disappeared.--_Vide Charlevoix's Carte de l'Isle de Montreal; Atlas Maritime_, par Sieur Bellin; likewise _Atlas of the Dominion of Canada_, 1875.

191. The River St. Lambert, according to Laverdiere, a small stream from which by a short portage the Indian with his canoe could easily reach Little River, which flows into the basin of Chambly, the lake referred to by Champlain. This was the route of the Algonquins, at least on their return from their raids upon the Iroquois.--_Vide_ Vol. II. p.

225.

192. Laverdiere supposes this insignificant stream to be La Riviere de la Tortue.

193. The Falls of St. Louis, or the Lachine rapids.

194. Lachine Rapids.

195. Pa.s.sing through Lake St. Louis, they come to the River Ottawa, sometimes called the River of the Algonquins.

196. The Cascades, Cedres and Rapids du Coteau du Lac with subdivisions.

_Laverdiere_. La Hontan mentions four rapids between Lake St. Louis and St Francis, as _Cascades, Le Cataracte du Trou, Sauts des Cedres_, and _du Buisson_.

197. Lake St. Francis, about twenty-five miles long.

198. Long Saut.

199. Hardly a lake but rather the river uninterrupted by falls or rapids.

200. The smaller rapids, the Galops, Point Cardinal, and others.--_Vide_ La Hontan's description of his pa.s.sage up this river, _New Voyages to N. America_, London, 1735. Vol. I. p. 30.

201. Lake Ontario. It is one hundred and eighty miles long.--_Garneau_.

202. Niagara Falls. Champlain does not appear to have obtained from the Indians any adequate idea of the grandeur and magnificence of this fall. The expression, _qui est quelque peu eleue, ou il y a peu d'eau, laquelle descend_, would imply that it was of moderate if not of an inferior character. This may have arisen from the want of a suitable medium of communication, but it is more likely that the intensely practical nature of the Indian did not enable him to appreciate or even observe the beauties by which he was surrounded. The immense volume of water and the perpendicular fall of 160 feet render it unsurpa.s.sed in grandeur by any other cataract in the world. Although Champlain appears never to have seen this fall, he had evidently obtained a more accurate description of it before 1629.--_Vide_ note No. 90 to map in ed. 1632.

203. Lake Erie, 250 miles long.--_Garneau_.

204. Detroit river, or the strait which connects Lake Erie and Lake St.

Clair.--_Atlas of the Dominion of Canada_.

205. Lake Huron, denominated on early maps _Mer Douce_, the sweet sea of which the knowledge of the Indian guides was very imperfect.

206. The Indians with whom Champlain came in contact on this hasty visit in 1603 appear to have had some notion of a salt sea, or as they say water that is very bad like the sea, lying in an indefinite region, which neither they nor their friends had ever visited. The salt sea to which they occasionally referred was probably Hudson's Bay, of which some knowledge may have been transmitted from the tribes dwelling near it to others more remote, and thus pa.s.sing from tribe to tribe till it reached, in rather an indefinite shape, those dwelling on the St.

Lawrence.

CHAPTER IX.

RETURN FROM THE FALL TO TADOUSSAC.--TESTIMONY OF SEVERAL SAVAGES IN REGARD TO THE LENGTH AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT RIVER OF CANADA, NUMBER OF THE FALLS, AND THE LAKES WHICH IT TRAVERSES.

We set out from the fall on Friday, the fourth of June, [207] and returned the same day to the river of the Iroquois. On Sunday, the sixth of June, we set out from here, and came to anchor at the lake. On Monday following, we came to anchor at the Trois Rivieres. The same day, we made some four leagues beyond the Trois Rivieres. The following Tuesday we reached Quebec, and the next day the end of the island of Orleans, where the Indians, who were encamped on the mainland to the north, came to us. We questioned two or three Algonquins, in order to ascertain whether they would agree with those whom we had interrogated in regard to the extent and commencement of the River of Canada.

They said, indicating it by signs, that two or three leagues after pa.s.sing the fall which we had seen, there is, on the northern sh.o.r.e, a river in their territory; that, continuing in the said great river, they pa.s.s a fall, where they carry their canoes; that they then pa.s.s five other falls comprising, from the first to the last, some nine or ten leagues, and that these falls are not hard to pa.s.s, as they drag their canoes in the most of them, except at two, where they carry them. After that, they enter a river which is a sort of lake, comprising some six or seven leagues; and then they pa.s.s five other falls, where they drag their canoes as before, except at two, where they carry them as at the first; and that, from the first to the last, there are some twenty or twenty-five leagues. Then they enter a lake some hundred and fifty leagues in length, and some four or five leagues from the entrance of this lake there is a river [208] extending northward to the Algonquins, and another towards the Iroquois, [209] where the said Algonquins and the Iroquois make war upon each other. And a little farther along, on the south sh.o.r.e of this lake, there is another river, [210] extending towards the Iroquois; then, arriving at the end of this lake, they come to another fall, where they carry their canoes; beyond this, they enter another very large lake, as long, perhaps, as the first.

The latter they have visited but very little, they said, and have heard that, at the end of it, there is a sea of which they have not seen the end, nor heard that any one has, but that the water at the point to which they have gone is not salt, but that they are not able to judge of the water beyond, since they have not advanced any farther; that the course of the water is from the west towards the east, and that they do not know whether, beyond the lakes they have seen, there is another watercourse towards the west; that the sun sets on the right of this lake; that is, in my judgment, northwest more or less; and that, at the first lake, the water never freezes, which leads me to conclude that the weather there is moderate.

[211] They said, moreover, that all the territory of the Algonquins is low land, containing but little wood; but that on the side of the Iroquois the land is mountainous, although very good and productive, and better than in any place they had seen. The Iroquois dwell some fifty or sixty leagues from this great lake. This is what they told me they had seen, which differs but very little from the statement of the former savages.