The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty YearsWerge, John, active 1854-1890
History
The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years
Werge, John, active 1854-1890
Photography -- History
"All aboard," and away we go again as fast as steam and a strong current
can take us, passing an island here and there, a town or a village half
French and English, with a sprinkling of the Indian tribes, on the banks
of the river now and then. But by this time it is necessary to go below
again and dine. Bed, board, and travelling, are all included in the
fare, so everyone goes to dinner. There is, however, so much to see
during this delightful trip, that nobody likes to be below any longer
than can be avoided. Immediately after dinner most are on deck again,
anxious to see all that is to be seen on this magnificent river. The
sights are various and highly interesting to the mind or "objectives" of
either artist or photographer. Perhaps one of the most novel subjects
for the camera and a day's photographing would be "Life on a Raft," as
you see them drifting down the St. Lawrence. There is an immense raft--a
long, low, flat, floating island, studded with twenty or thirty sails,
and half a dozen huts, peopled with men, women, and children, the little
ones playing about as if they were on a "plank road," or in a garden. It
is "washing day," and the clean clothes are drying in the sun and
breeze--indicative of the strictest domestic economy, and scrupulous
cleanliness of those little huts, the many-coloured garments giving the
raft quite a gay appearance, as if it were decked with the "flags of all
nations." But what a life of tedious monotony it must be, drifting down
the river in this way for hundreds of miles, from the upper part of Lake
Ontario to Montreal or Quebec. How they get down the rapids of the St.
Lawrence I do not know, but I should think they run considerable risk of
being washed off; the raft seems too low in the water, and if not
extremely well fastened, might part and be broken up. We passed two or
three of these rafts, one a very large one, made up of thousands of
timbers laid across and across like warp and weft; yet the people seemed
happy enough on these "timber islands;" we passed them near enough to
see their faces and hear their voices, and I regretted I could not
"catch their shadows," or stop and have an hour or two's work among them
with the camera or the pencil; but we passed them by as if they were a
fixture in the river, and they gave us a shout of "God speed," as if
they did not envy our better pace in the least.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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