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The Backwoods of Canada written by Catharine Parr Traill

C >> Catharine Parr Traill >> The Backwoods of Canada




This place will shortly be appropriated for the building of a saw and
grist-mill, which, I fear, will interfere with its natural beauty. I
dare say, I shall be the only person in the neighbourhood who will
regret the erection of so useful and valuable an acquisition to this
portion of the township.

The first time you send a parcel or box, do not forget to enclose
flower-seeds, and the stones of plums, damsons, bullace, pips of the
best kinds of apples, in the orchard and garden, as apples may be raised
here from seed, which will bear very good fruit without being grafted;
the latter, however, are finer in size and flavour. I should be grateful
for a few nuts from our beautiful old stock-nut trees. Dear old trees!
how many gambels have we had in their branches when I was as light of
spirit and as free from care as the squirrels that perched among the
topmost boughs above us.--"Well," you will say, "the less that sage
matrons talk of such wild tricks as climbing nut-trees, the better."
Fortunately, young ladies are in no temptation here, seeing that nothing
but a squirrel or a bear could climb our lofty forest-trees. Even a
sailor must give it up in despair.

I am very desirous of having the seeds of our wild primrose and sweet
violet preserved for me; I long to introduce them in our meadows and
gardens. Pray let the cottage-children collect some.

My husband requests a small quantity of lucerne-seed, which he seems
inclined to think may be cultivated to advantage.




LETTER X.

Variations in the Temperature of the Weather.--Electrical Phenomenon.--
Canadian Winter.--Country deficient in Poetical Associations.--Sugar-
making. Fishing Season.--Mode of Fishing.--Duck-shooting.--Family of
Indians.--_Papouses_ and their Cradle-cases.--Indian Manufactures.--
_Frogs_.

Lake House, May the 9th. 1833.

WHAT a different winter this has been to what I had anticipated. The
snows of December were continually thawing; on the 1st of January not a
flake was to be seen on our clearing, though it lingered in the bush.
The warmth of the sun was so great on the first and second days of the
new year that it was hardly possible to endure a cloak, or even shawl,
out of doors; and within, the fire was quite too much for us. The
weather remained pretty open till the latter part of the month, when the
cold set in severely enough, and continued so during February. The 1st
of March was the coldest day and night I ever experienced in my life;
the mercury was down to twenty five degrees in the house; abroad it was
much lower. The sensation of cold early in the morning was very painful,
producing an involuntary shuddering, and an almost convulsive feeling in
the chest and stomach. Our breaths were congealed in hoar-frost on the
sheets and blankets. Every thing we touched of metal seemed to freeze
our fingers. This excessive degree of cold only lasted three days, and
then a gradual amelioration of temperature was felt.

During this very cold weather I was surprised by the frequent recurrence
of a phenomenon that I suppose was of an electrical nature. When the
frosts were most intense I noticed that when I undressed, my clothes,
which are at this cold season chiefly of woollen cloth, or lined with
flannel, gave out when moved a succession of sounds, like the crackling
and snapping of fire, and in the absence of a candle emitted sparks of a
pale whitish blue light, similar to the flashes produced by cutting
loaf-sugar in the dark, or stroking the back of a black cat: the same
effect was also produced when I combed and brushed my hair*.

[* This phenomenon is common enough everywhere when the air is very
dry.--Ed.]

The snow lay very deep on the ground during February, and until the l9th
of March, when a rapid thaw commenced, which continued without
intermission till the ground was thoroughly freed from its hoary livery,
which was effected in less than a fortnight's time. The air during the
progress of the thaw was much warmer and more balmy than it usually is
in England, when a disagreeable damp cold is felt during that process.

Though the Canadian winter has its disadvantages, it also has its
charms. After a day or two of heavy snow the sky brightens, and the air
becomes exquisitely clear and free from vapour; the smoke ascends in
tall spiral columns till it is lost: seen against the saffron-tinted sky
of an evening, or early of a clear morning, when the hoar-frost sparkles
on the trees, the effect is singularly beautiful.

I enjoy a walk in the woods of a bright winter-day, when not a cloud, or
the faint shadow of a cloud, obscures the soft azure of the heavens
above; when but for the silver covering of the earth I might look
upwards to the cloudless sky and say, "It is June, sweet June." The
evergreens, as the pines, cedars, hemlock, and balsam firs, are bending
their pendent branches, loaded with snow, which the least motion
scatters in a mimic shower around, but so light and dry is it that it is
shaken off without the slightest inconvenience.

The tops of the stumps look quite pretty, with their turbans of snow; a
blackened pine-stump, with its white cap and mantle, will often startle
you into the belief that some one is approaching you thus fancifully
attired. As to ghosts or spirits they appear totally banished from
Canada. This is too matter-of-fact country for such supernaturals to
visit. Here there are no historical associations, no legendary tales of
those that came before us. Fancy would starve for lack of marvellous
food to keep her alive in the backwoods. We have neither fay nor fairy,
ghost nor bogle, satyr nor wood-nymph; our very forests disdain to
shelter dryad or hamadryad. No naiad haunts the rushy margin of our
lakes, or hallows with her presence our forest-rills. No Druid claims
our oaks; and instead of poring with mysterious awe among our curious
limestone rocks, that are often singularly grouped together, we refer
them to the geologist to exercise his skill in accounting for their
appearance: instead of investing them with the solemn characters of
ancient temples or heathen altars, we look upon them with the curious
eye of natural philosophy alone.

Even the Irish and Highlanders of the humblest class seem to lay aside
their ancient superstitions on becoming denizens of the woods of Canada.
I heard a friend exclaim, when speaking of the want of interest this
country possessed, "It is the most unpoetical of all lands; there is no
scope for imagination; here all is new--the very soil seems newly
formed; there is no hoary ancient grandeur in these woods; no
recollections of former deeds connected with the country. The only
beings in which I take any interest are the Indians, and they want the
warlike character and intelligence that I had pictured to myself they
would posses."

This was the lamentation of a poet. Now, the class of people to whom
this country is so admirably adapted are formed of the unlettered and
industrious labourers and artisans. They feel no regret that the land
they labour on has not been celebrated by the pen of the historian or
the lay of the poet. The earth yields her increase to them as freely as
if it had been enriched by the blood of heroes. They would not spare the
ancient oak from feelings of veneration, nor look upon it with regard
for any thing but its use as timber. They have no time, even if they
possessed the taste, to gaze abroad on the beauties of Nature, but their
ignorance is bliss.

After all, these are imaginary evils, and can hardly be considered just
causes for dislike to the country. They would excite little sympathy
among every-day men and women, though doubtless they would have their
weight with the more refined and intellectual members of society, who
naturally would regret that taste, learning, and genius should be thrown
out of its proper sphere.

For myself, though I can easily enter into the feelings of the poet and
the enthusiastic lover of the wild and the wonderful of historic lore, I
can yet make myself very happy and contented in this country. If its
volume of history is yet a blank, that of Nature is open, and eloquently
marked by the finger of God; and from its pages I can extract a thousand
sources of amusement and interest whenever I take my walks in the forest
or by the borders of the lakes.

But I must now tell you of our sugar-making, in which I take rather an
active part. Our experiment was on a very limited scale, having but one
kettle, besides two iron tripods; but it was sufficient to initiate us
in the art and mystery of boiling the sap into molasses, and finally the
molasses down to sugar.

The first thing to be done in tapping the maples, is to provide little
rough troughs to catch the sap as it flows: these are merely pieces of
pine-tree, hollowed with the axe. The tapping the tree is done by
cutting a gash in the bark, or boring a hole with an auger. The former
plan, as being most readily performed, is that most usually practised. A
slightly-hollowed piece of cedar or elder is then inserted, so as to
slant downwards and direct the sap into the trough; I have even seen a
flat chip made the conductor. Ours were managed according to rule, you
may be sure. The sap runs most freely after a frosty night, followed by
a bright warm day; it should be collected during the day in a barrel or
large trough, capable of holding all that can be boiled down the same
evening; it should not stand more than twenty-four hours, as it is apt
to ferment, and will not grain well unless fresh.

My husband, with an Irish lad, began collecting the sap the last week in
March. A pole was fixed across two forked stakes, strong enough to bear
the weight of the big kettle. Their employment during the day was
emptying the troughs and chopping wood to supply the fires. In the
evening they lit the fires and began boiling down the sap.

It was a pretty and picturesque sight to see the sugar-boilers, with
their bright log-fire among the trees, now stirring up the blazing pile,
now throwing in the liquid and stirring it down with a big ladle. When
the fire grew fierce, it boiled and foamed up in the kettle, and they
had to throw in fresh sap to keep it from running over.

When the sap begins to thicken into molasses, it is then brought to the
sugar-boiler to be finished. The process is simple; it only requires
attention in skimming and keeping the mass from boiling over, till it
has arrived at the sugaring point, which is ascertained by dropping a
little into cold water. When it is near the proper consistency, the
kettle or pot becomes full of yellow froth, that dimples and rises in
large bubbles from beneath. These throw out puffs of steam, and when the
molasses is in this stage, it is nearly converted into sugar. Those who
pay great attention to keeping the liquid free from scum, and understand
the precise sugaring point, will produce an article little if at all
inferior to muscovado*.

[* Good well-made maple-sugar bears a strong resemblance to that called
powdered sugar-candy, sold by all grocers as a delicate article to
sweeten coffee; it is more like maple-sugar in its regular
crystallizations.]

In general you see the maple-sugar in large cakes, like bees' wax, close
and compact, without showing the crystallization; but it looks more
beautiful when the grain is coarse and sparkling, and the sugar is
broken in rough masses like sugar-candy.

The sugar is rolled or scraped down with a knife for use, as it takes
long to dissolve in the tea without this preparation. I superintended
the last part of the process, that of boiling the molasses down to
sugar; and, considering it was a first attempt, and without any
experienced person to direct me, otherwise than the information I
obtained from ------. I succeeded tolerably well, and produced some
sugar of a fine sparkling grain and good colour. Besides the sugar, I
made about three gallons of molasses, which proved a great comfort to
us, forming a nice ingredient in cakes and an excellent sauce for
puddings.

The Yankees, I am told, make excellent preserves with molasses instead
of sugar. The molasses boiled from maple-sap is very different from the
molasses of the West Indies, both in flavour, colour, and consistency.

Beside the sugar and molasses, we manufactured a small cask of vinegar,
which promises to be good. This was done by boiling five pails-full of
sap down to two, and fermenting it after it was in the vessel with barm;
it was then placed near the fire, and suffered to continue there in
preference to being exposed to the sun's heat.

With regard to the expediency of making maple-sugar, it depends on
circumstances whether it be profitable or not to the farmer. If he have
to hire hands for the work, and pay high wages, it certainly does not
answer to make it, unless on a large scale. One thing in its favour is,
that the sugar season commences at a time when little else can be done
on the farm, with the exception of chopping, the frost not being
sufficiently out of the ground to admit of crops being sown; time is,
therefore, less valuable than it is later in the spring.

Where there is a large family of children and a convenient sugar-bush on
the lot, the making of sugar and molasses is decidedly a saving; as
young children can be employed in emptying the troughs and collecting
fire-wood, the bigger ones can tend the kettles and keep up the fire
while the sap is boiling, and the wife and daughters can finish off the
sugar within-doors.

Maple-sugar sells for four-pence and six-pence per pound, and sometimes
for more. At first I did not particularly relish the flavour it gave to
tea, but after awhile I liked it far better than muscovado, and as a
sweetmeat it is to my taste delicious. I shall send you a specimen by
the first opportunity, that you may judge for yourself of its
excellence.

The weather is now very warm--oppressively so. We can scarcely endure
the heat of the cooking-stove in the kitchen. As to a fire in the
parlour there is not much need of it, as I am glad to sit at the open
door and enjoy the lake-breeze. The insects are already beginning to be
troublesome, particularly the black flies--a wicked-looking fly, with
black body and white legs and wings; you do not feel their bite for a
few minutes, but are made aware of it by a stream of blood flowing from
the wound; after a few hours the part swells and becomes extremely
painful.

These "_beasties_" chiefly delight in biting the sides of the throat,
ears, and sides of the cheek, and with me the swelling continues for
many days. The mosquitoes are also very annoying. I care more for the
noise they make even than their sting. To keep them out of the house we
light little heaps of damp chips, the smoke of which drives them away;
but this remedy is not entirely effectual, and is of itself rather an
annoyance.

This is the fishing season. Our lakes are famous for masquinonge,
salmon-trout, white fish, black bass, and many others. We often see the
lighted canoes of the fishermen pass and repass of a dark night before
our door. S------ is considered very skilful as a spearsman, and enjoys
the sport so much that he seldom misses a night favourable for it. The
darker the night and the calmer the water the better it is for the
fishing.

It is a very pretty sight to see these little barks slowly stealing from
some cove of the dark pine-clad shores, and manoeuvring among the
islands on the lakes, rendered visible in the darkness by the blaze of
light cast on the water from the jack--a sort of open grated iron
basket, fixed to a long pole at the bows of the skiff or canoe. This is
filled with a very combustible substance called fat-pine, which burns
with a fierce and rapid flame, or else with rolls of birch-bark, which
is also very easily ignited.

The light from above renders objects distinctly visible below the
surface of the water. One person stands up in the middle of the boat
with his fish-spear--a sort of iron trident, ready to strike at the fish
that he may chance to see gliding in the still waters, while another
with his paddle steers the canoe cautiously along. This sport requires a
quick eye, a steady hand, and great caution in those that pursue it.

I delight in watching these torch-lighted canoes so quietly gliding over
the calm waters, which are illuminated for yards with a bright track of
light, by which we may distinctly perceive the figure of the spearsman
standing in the centre of the boat, first glancing to one side, then the
other, or poising his weapon ready for a blow. When four or five of
these lighted vessels are seen at once on the fishing-ground, the effect
is striking and splendid.

The Indians are very expert in this kind of fishing; the squaws paddling
the canoes with admirable skill and dexterity. There is another mode of
fishing in which these people also excel: this is fishing on the ice
when the lakes are frozen over--a sport that requires the exercise of
great patience. The Indian, provided with his tomahawk, with which he
makes an opening in the ice, a spear, his blanket, and a decoy-fish of
wood, proceeds to the place he has fixed upon. Having cut a hole in the
ice he places himself on hands and knees, and casts his blanket over
him, so as to darken the water and conceal himself from observation; in
this position he will remain for hours, patiently watching the approach
of his prey, which he strikes with admirable precision as soon as it
appears within the reach of his spear.

The masquinonge thus caught are superior in flavour to those taken later
in the season, and may be bought very reasonably from the Indians. I
gave a small loaf of bread for a fish weighing from eighteen to twenty
pounds. The masquinonge is to all appearance a large species of the
pike, and possesses the ravenous propensities of that fish.

One of the small lakes of the Otanabee is called Trout Lake, from the
abundance of salmon-trout that occupy its waters. The white fish is also
found in these lakes and is very delicious. The large sorts of fish are
mostly taken with the spear, few persons having time for angling in this
busy country.

As soon as the ice breaks up, our lakes are visited by innumerable
flights of wild fowl: some of the ducks are extremely beautiful in their
plumage, and are very fine-flavoured. I love to watch these pretty
creatures, floating so tranquilly on the water, or suddenly rising and
skimming along the edge of the pine-fringed shores, to drop again on the
surface, and then remain stationary, like a little fleet at anchor.
Sometimes we see an old duck lead out a brood of little ones from among
the rushes; the innocent, soft things look very pretty, sailing round
their mother, but at the least appearance of danger they disappear
instantly by diving. The frogs are great enemies to the young broods;
they are also the prey of the masquinonge, and, I believe, of other
large fish that abound in these waters.

The ducks are in the finest order during the early part of the summer,
when they resort to the rice-beds in vast numbers, getting very fat on
the green rice, which they eagerly devour.

The Indians are very successful in their duck-shooting: they fill a
canoe with green boughs, so that it resembles a sort of floating island;
beneath the cover of these boughs they remain concealed, and are enabled
by this device to approach much nearer than they otherwise could do to
the wary birds. The same plan is often adopted by our own sportsmen with
great success.

A family of Indians have pitched their tents very near us. On one of the
islands in our lake we can distinguish the thin blue smoke of their wood
fires, rising among the trees, from our front window, or curling over
the bosom of the waters.

The squaws have been several times to see me; sometimes from curiosity,
sometimes with the view of bartering their baskets, mats, ducks, or
venison, for pork, flour, potatoes, or articles of wearing-apparel.
Sometimes their object is to borrow "kettle to cook," which they are
very punctual in returning.

Once a squaw came to borrow a washing-tub, but not understanding her
language, I could not for some time discover the object of her
solicitude; at last she took up a corner of her blanket, and, pointing
to some soap, began rubbing it between her hands, imitated the action of
washing, then laughed, and pointed to a tub; she then held up two
fingers, to intimate it was for two days she needed the loan.

These people appear of gentle and amiable dispositions; and, as far as
our experience goes, they are very honest. Once, indeed, the old hunter,
Peter, obtained from me some bread, for which he promised to give a pair
of ducks, but when the time came for payment, and I demanded my ducks,
he looked gloomy, and replied with characteristic brevity, "No duck--
Chippewa (meaning S------, this being the name they have affectionately
given him) gone up lake with canoe--no canoe--duck by-and-by." By-and-by
is a favourite expression of the Indians, signifying an indefinite point
of time; may be it means to-morrow, or a week, or month, or it may be a
year, or even more. They rarely give you a direct promise.

As it is not wise to let any one cheat you if you can prevent it, I
coldly declined any further overtures to bartering with the Indians
until my ducks made their appearance.

Some time afterwards I received one duck by the hands of Maquin, a sort
of Indian Flibberty-gibbet: this lad is a hunchbacked dwarf, very
shrewd, but a perfect imp; his delight seems to be tormenting the brown
babies in the wigwam, or teazing the meek deer-hounds. He speaks English
very fluently, and writes tolerably for an Indian boy; he usually
accompanies the women in their visits, and acts as their interpreter,
grinning with mischievous glee at his mother's bad English and my
perplexity at not being able to understand her signs. In spite of his
extreme deformity, he seemed to possess no inconsiderable share of
vanity, gazing with great satisfaction at his face in the looking glass.
When I asked his name, he replied, "Indian name Maquin, but English name
'Mister Walker,' very good man;" this was the person he was called
after.

These Indians are scrupulous in their observance of the Sabbath, and
show great reluctance to having any dealings in the way of trading or
pursuing their usual avocations of hunting or fishing on that day.

The young Indians are very expert in the use of a long bow, with wooden
arrows, rather heavy and blunt at the end. Maquin said he could shoot
ducks and small birds with his arrows; but I should think they were not
calculated to reach objects at any great distance, as they appeared very
heavy.

'Tis sweet to hear the Indians singing their hymns of a Sunday night;
their rich soft voices rising in the still evening air. I have often
listened to this little choir praising the Lord's name in the simplicity
and fervour of their hearts, and have felt it was a reproach that these
poor half-civilized wanderers should alone be found to gather together
to give glory to God in the wilderness.

I was much pleased with the simple piety of our friend the hunter
Peter's squaw, a stout, swarthy matron, of most amiable expression. We
were taking our tea when she softly opened the door and looked in; an
encouraging smile induced her to enter, and depositing a brown papouse
(Indian for baby or little child) on the ground, she gazed round with
curiosity and delight in her eyes. We offered her some tea and bread,
motioning to her to take a vacant seat beside the table. She seemed
pleased by the invitation, and drawing her little one to her knee,
poured some tea into the saucer, and gave it to the child to drink. She
ate very moderately, and when she had finished, rose, and, wrapping her
face in the folds of her blanket, bent down her head on her breast in
the attitude of prayer. This little act of devotion was performed
without the slightest appearance of pharisaical display, but in
singleness and simplicity of heart. She then thanked us with a face
beaming with smiles and good humour; and, taking little Rachel by the
hands, threw her over her shoulder with a peculiar sleight that I feared
would dislocate the tender thing's arms, but the papouse seemed well
satisfied with this mode of treatment.

In long journeys the children are placed in upright baskets of a
peculiar form, which are fastened round the necks of the mothers by
straps of deer-skin; but the _young_ infant is swathed to a sort of flat
cradle, secured with flexible hoops, to prevent it from falling out. To
these machines they are strapped, so as to be unable to move a limb.
Much finery is often displayed in the outer covering and the bandages
that confine the papouse.

There is a sling attached to this cradle that passes over the squaw's
neck, the back of the babe being placed to the back of the mother, and
its face outward. The first thing a squaw does on entering a house is to
release herself from her burden, and stick it up against the wall or
chair, chest, or any thing that will support it, where the passive
prisoner stands, looking not unlike a mummy in its case. I have seen the
picture of the Virgin and Child in some of the old illuminated missals,
not unlike the figure of a papouse in its swaddling-clothes.