Chapter V

DEPARTURE FROM TADOUSSAC FOR THE FALL.--DESCRIPTION OF HARE ISLAND, ISLE DU COUDRE, ISLE D'ORLEANS, AND SEVERAL OTHERS--OUR ARRIVAL AT QUEBEC

On Wednesday, the eighteenth day of June, we set out from Tadoussac for the Fall. [147] We passed near an island called Hare Island, [148] about two leagues, from the northern shore and some seven leagues from Tadoussac and five leagues from the southern shore. From Hare Island we proceeded along the northern coast about half a league, to a point extending out into the water, where one must keep out farther. This point is one league [149] from an island called _Isle au Coudre_, about two leagues wide, the distance from which to the northern shore is a league. This island has a pretty even surface, growing narrower towards the two ends. At the western end there are meadows and rocky points, which extend out some distance into the river. This island is very pleasant on account of the woods surrounding it. It has a great deal of slate-rock, and the soil is very gravelly; at its extremity there is a rock extending half a league out into the water. We went to the north of this island, [150] which is twelve leagues distant from Hare Island.

On the Thursday following, we set out from here and came to anchor in a dangerous cove on the northern shore, where there are some meadows and a little river, [151] and where the savages sometimes erect their cabins. The same day, continuing to coast along on the northern shore, we were obliged by contrary winds to put in at a place where there were many very dangerous rocks and localities. Here we stayed three days, waiting for fair weather. Both the northern and Southern shores here are very mountainous, resembling in general those of the Saguenay.

On Sunday, the twenty-second, we set out for the Island of Orleans, [152] in the neighborhood of which are many islands on the southern shore. These are low and covered with trees, Seem to be very pleasant, and, so far as I could judge, some of them are one or two leagues and others half a league in length. About these islands there are only rocks and shallows, so that the passage is very dangerous.

They are distant some two leagues from the mainland on the south. Thence we coasted along the Island of Orleans on the south. This is distant a league from the mainland on the north, is very pleasant and level, and eight leagues long. The coast on the south is low for some two leagues inland; the country begins to be low at this island which is perhaps two leagues distant from the southern shore. It is very dangerous passing on the northern shore, on account of the sand-banks and rocks between the island and mainland, and it is almost entirely dry here at low tide.

At the end of this island I saw a torrent of water [153] which descended from a high elevation on the River of Canada. Upon this elevation the land is uniform and pleasant, although in the interior high mountains are seen some twenty or twenty-five leagues distant, and near the first fall of the Saguenay.

We came to anchor at Quebec, a narrow passage in the River of Canada, which is here some three hundred paces broad. [154] There is, on the northern side of this passage, a very high elevation, which falls off on two sides. Elsewhere the country is uniform and fine, and there are good tracts full of trees, as oaks, cypresses, birches, firs, and aspens, also wild fruit-trees and vines which, if they were cultivated, would, in my opinion, be as good as our own. Along the shore of Quebec, there are diamonds in some slate-rocks, which are better than those of Alencon. From Quebec to Hare Island is a distance of twenty-nine leagues.

ENDNOTES:

147. _Saut de St Louis_, about three leagues above Montreal.

148. _Isle au Lieure_ Hare Island, so named by Cartier from the great
number of hares which he found there. Le soir feusmes a ladicte ysle,
ou trouuasmes grand nombre de lieures, desquelz eusmes quantite: & par
ce la nommasmes l'ysle es lieures.--_Brief Recit_, par Jacques
Cartier, 1545, D'Avezac ed p. 45.

The distances are here overestimated. From Hare Island to the northern
shore the distance is four nautical miles, and to the southern six.

149. The point nearest to Hare Island is Cape Salmon, which is about six
geographical miles from the Isle au Coudres, and we should here
correct the error by reading not one but two leagues. The author did
not probably intend to be exact.

150. _Isle au Coudre.--Vide Brief Recit_, par Jacques Cartier, 1545,
D'Avezac ed. p. 44; also Vol. II. of this work, p. 172. Charlevoix
says, whether from tradition or on good authority we know not, that
"in 1663 an earthquake rooted up a mountain, and threw it upon the
Isle au Coudres, which made it one-half larger than before."--
_Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres_, London, 1763, p. 15.

151. This was probably about two leagues from the Isle aux Coudres, where
is a small stream which still bears the name La Petite Riviere.

152. _Isle d'Orleans.--Vide_ Vol. II. p. 173.

153. On Champlain's map of the harbor of Quebec he calls this "torrent" le
grand saut de Montmorency, the grand fall of Montmorency. It was named
by Champlain himself, and in honor of the "noble, high, and powerful
Charles de Montmorency," to whom the journal of this voyage is
dedicated. The stream is shallow, "in some places," Charlevoix says,
"not more than ankle deep." The grandeur or impressiveness of the
fall, if either of these qualities can be attributed to it, arises
from its height and not from the volume of water--_Vide_ ed. 1632, p.
123. On Bellm's Atlas Maritime, 1764, its height is put down at
_sixty-five feet_. Bayfield's Chart more correctly says 251 feet above
high water spring tides--_Vide_ Vol. II of this work, note 308.

154. _Nous vinsmmes mouiller l'ancre a Quebec, qui est vn destroict de
laditt riuiere de Canadas_. These words very clearly define the
meaning of Quebec, which is an Indian word, signifying a narrowing or
a contraction.--_Vide_ Vol. II. p. 175, note 309. The breadth of the
river at this point is underestimated. It is not far from 1320 feet, or
three-quarters of a mile.