Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a TouristLanman, Charles
History
Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a Tourist
Lanman, Charles
Fishing -- North America; United States -- Description and travel
lumberman, who will treat him with marked politeness; but he must not
lay the “flattering unction” to his soul that he will receive any
civilities from the agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company whom he may
happen to meet in that northern wilderness.
A large proportion of these streams run through an unknown mountain
land, and are yet nameless; so that we cannot designate the precise
localities where we have been particularly successful; and we might add
that the few which have been named by the Jesuit Missionaries can never
be remembered without a feeling of disgust. Not to attempt a pun, it can
safely be remarked that those names are decidedly _beastly_; for they
celebrate such creatures as the hog, the sheep, and the cow. The salmon
taken on this coast vary from ten to forty pounds, though the average
weight is perhaps fifteen pounds. They constitute an important article
of commerce, and it is sometimes the case that a single fisherman will
secure at least four hundred at one tide, in a single net. The cities of
Montreal and Quebec are supplied with fresh salmon from this portion of
the St. Lawrence, and the entire valley of that river, as well as
portions of the Union, are supplied with smoked salmon from the same
region. The rivers on the southern coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are
generally well supplied with salmon, but those streams are few and far
between, and difficult of access. But a visit to any portion of this
great northern valley, during the pleasant summer time, is attended with
many interesting circumstances. Generally speaking, the scenery is
mountainous, and though the people are not very numerous, they are
somewhat unique in their manners and customs, and always take pleasure
in lavishing their attentions upon the stranger. The weeks that we spent
voyaging upon the St. Lawrence we always remember with unalloyed
pleasure; and if we thought that fortune would never again permit us to
revisit those delightful scenes, we should indeed be quite unhappy.
The most agreeable of our pilgrimages were performed in a small
sail-boat, commanded by an experienced and very intelligent pilot of
Tadousac, named Ovington, and our companions were Charles Pentland,
Esq., of Launce au Leau on the Saguenay, and George Price, Jr., Esq., of
Quebec. We had everything we wanted in the way of “creature comforts;”
and we went everywhere, saw everybody, caught lots of salmon, killed an
occasional seal, and tried to harpoon an occasional white porpoise; now
enjoying a glorious sunset, and then watching the stars and the strange
aurora, as we lay becalmed at midnight far out upon the deep; at one
time gazing with wonder upon a terrible storm, and then again happy,
fearless, and free, dashing over the billows before a stiff gale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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