Saguenay

“ The name Saguenay may possibly be Saginaw,—the old Saguenam, the "very deep bay on the west shore of Lake Huron," of Charlevoix, (Book XI.) though it is not necessarily Saginaw Bay itself, as such names shift. "And they gave to understand that in that country the people are clothed with clothes like us, and there are many peoples in towns and good persons and that they have a great quantity of gold and of red copper. And they told us that all the land from the said first river to Hochelagea and Saguenay is an island surrounded by streams and the said great river (St. Lawrence) ”

“ Some seventeen miles above stands Cape Eternity, with Eternity Bay between it and the giant twin-brother Cape Trinity. Many have felt that here the ‘climax of the awe-inspiring scenery of the Saguenay is reached.’ A huge wall of limestone here towers up and projects boldly over the river. Those who pass beneath it give a shudder of apprehension as they realize that a fall would mean annihilation for all below. The great column has been likened to a colossal stairway of three enormous treads, fit ascension to the clouds for the giant gods of the early Indian’s dream. ”

“ It has been said that the village is placed like a nest in the midst of granite rocks that surround the mouth of the Saguenay. It is built on a crescent-like terrace, backed and flanked by mountains, and has a fine view over the harbor, river, and distant shore of the St. Lawrence. The whole life of the place is so tranquil and uncommercial that it does not intrude on the visitor’s pleasure. It does not follow from this that there is an absence of life here—quite the contrary, for Tadousac is a favorite resort of thousands ”

“ At Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, under the shadow of savage and inaccessible rocks, feathered with pines, firs, and birch-trees, they built a cluster of wooden huts and store-houses. Here they left sixteen men to gather the expected harvest of furs. Before the winter was over, several of them were dead, and the rest scattered through the woods, living on the charity of the Indians. ”

“ As the shores narrowed in, they saw the wild gorge of the Saguenay River upon the right, with the smoke from the little fishing and trading station of Tadousac streaming up above the pine trees. Naked Indians with their faces daubed with red clay, Algonquins and Abenakis, clustered round the ship in their birchen canoes with fruit and vegetables from the land, which brought fresh life to the scurvy-stricken soldiers. ”

“ The only curiosity in the place is a rude Catholic church, which is said to have been built by Jesuit missionaries upwards of one hundred years ago. It occupies the centre of a grassy lawn, surrounded with shrubbery, backed by a cluster of wood-crowned hills, and commands a fine prospect, not only of the Saguenay, but also of a spacious bay, into which there empties a noble mountain stream, now known as Chicoutimi River. ”

“ It is a tremendous chasm like that of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, cleft for sixty miles almost in a straight line through the heart of a mountain wilderness. There is not a part of the river that does not impress one with its grandeur and sublimity. The Indians, in their usual direct nomenclature, called the river Saggishsekuss, ‘a river whose banks are precipitous’; and from that name the more pronounceable Saguenay has been derived. Jacques Cartier and Champlain both sailed on this river, and tradition has it that Roberval penetrated far inland and never returned. ”

“ When the adventurers came near the neighbourhood of Trinity River on the north side of the Gulf, the two Gaspé Indians who were on board Cartier's vessel, the Grande Hermine, told them that they were now at the entrance of the kingdom of Saguenay where red copper was to be found, and that away beyond flowed the great river of Hochelaga and Canada. This Saguenay kingdom extended on the north side of the river as far as the neighbourhood of the present well-known Isle aux Coudres ”

“ This is the Saguenay; and in the cold evening light under which the traveller approaches its mouth, no landscape could look more forlorn than that of Tadoussac, where early in the sixteenth century the French traders fixed their first post, and where still the oldest church north of Florida is standing.
The steamer lies here five hours, and supper was no sooner over than the passengers went ashore in the gathering dusk. Mr. Arbuton, guarding his distance as usual, went too, with a feeling of surprise at his own concession to the popular impulse. ”

“ She is commanded by a gentleman who understands his business; and I can assure the lovers of scenery everywhere that a sail up the Saguenay, in this steamer, would be an event they could not easily forget. For the benefit of summer-tourists, I would here mention the fact, that, for about three months in the year, a Quebec steamer makes an occasional trip to the mouth of the Saguenay, by way of the river Du Loup, which is on the Canadian route to Halifax. ”

“ In Lower Canada the net fishing terminates on the first day of August, and the rod fishing on the fifteenth of September, and spearing, the most cruel, unprofitable and injurious mode of destruction, is forbidden altogether.
About one hundred and twenty miles below Quebec the wondrous Saguenay pours its dark waters and fierce current into the placid bosom of the St. Lawrence. It is one of the natural wonders of our still new and scarcely explored country. Hills rise a thousand feet sheer up, and its waters descend a thousand feet deep at their base. ”

“ That portion of the Saguenay extending from Grand Bay to the St. Lawrence, a distance of sixty miles, is greatly distinguished for its wild and picturesque scenery. I know not that I can better pourtray to my reader’s mind the peculiarity of this river than by the following method: imagine for a moment an extensive country of rocky and thinly-clad mountains, suddenly separated by some convulsion of Nature so as to form an almost bottomless chasm, varying from one to two miles in width ”

“ In fine, that, ascending the Saguenay, you reach a country where there are men dressed like us, who live in cities, and have much gold, rubies, and copper.” Now, by ascending the Saguenay, Charlevoix conjectures, and turning west, an Indian might reach Lake Assiniboin, and thence penetrate to New Mexico, where the Spaniards had begun to settle—a conjecture which certainly betrays a rather loose idea of American geography. ”

“ The boat goes some hundred and thirty miles down the St Lawrence, turns up a northern tributary, the Saguenay, goes as far as Chicoutimi, ninety miles up, and returns to Quebec. Both on this trip, and between Quebec and Montreal, we touched at many little French villages, by day and by night. Their habitants, the French-Canadian peasants, are a jolly sight. They are like children in their noisy content. They are poor and happy, Roman Catholics; they laugh a great deal; and they continually sing. They do not progress at all. ”

“ The occupant for forty years was an old and respected Quebec merchant, well known as the "King of the Saguenay," on account of the extensive mills he owned in that region—William Price, Esq., the respected father of a patriarchal family of sons and daughters. Mr. Price added much to the beauty of the place, which enjoys a most picturesque river view. In front of the dwelling there is a fine lawn, shaded by some old thorn and oak trees, with comfortable rustic seats close by the ravine St. Denis. This ravine is a favourite locality for botanizing excursionists. ”

“ It was plain to me that my Indians meant to make a night of it—even those who, dog weary, had but now returned with me from the futile brant chase and sat eating their samp.
The French trappers squatted in a row, smoking their pipes and looking on with that odd sympathy for any savage rite, which, I think, partly explains French success among all Indians.
Firelight glimmered red on their weather-ravaged faces, on their gaudy fringes and moccasins.
Near them, lolling in the warm young grass, sprawled Nick and Godfrey. I sat down by them, my back against a log. My Saguenay crept to my side. ”

“ These Laurentides make the northern shore of the St. Lawrence for hundreds of miles below Quebec, rising into higher peaks and ridges in the interior, and being the most ancient part of America, the geologists telling us the waves of the Silurian Sea washed against this range when only two small islands represented the rest of the continent. Through this vast chasm the Saguenay brings down the waters of Lake St. John and its many tributaries, some of them rising in the remote north, 497 almost up to Hudson Bay. ”

“ Ten minutes later they were having their last breakfast in Quebec for many a long day. A little later, they drove down to the wharf and were soon on board. They found the boat large and roomy and filled with tourists, taking the Saguenay trip, that is, the trip from Quebec to Murray Bay, to Tadousac and up the far-famed Saguenay to Chicoutimi. The scenery is noted all over the world as this is one of the big sight-seeing trips of the Western continent. It was not long until they swung out into the stream and headed for the Ile d'Orleans which lies just below Quebec. ”

“ In their well-supplied fleets they transported several hundred colonists, including many farmers, also soldiers, miners and traders. Roberval’s expedition included some women. They planted near Quebec, building forts there; both tried desperately to reach mythical Saguenay. Each remained through only one Canadian winter among the now hostile Indians.
Both leaders were more interested in finding quick treasure than in any such prosaic business as fur trading. ”

“ On returning to Stadacona, Cartier, by talking with Donnaconna, learnt what showed this land of Saguenay so much talked of by these people, to be undoubtedly the Huron country. "The straight and good and safest road to it is by the Fleuve (St. Lawrence) , to above Hochelaga and by the river which descends from the said Saguenay and enters the said Fleuve (as we had seen) ; and thence it takes a month to reach." This is simply the Ottawa route to Lake Huron used by the Jesuits in the next century. What they had seen was the Ottawa River entering the St. ”

“ Lawrence, and extending to the eastward of the Saguenay as far as Newfoundland, is generally known under the name of Labrador. It is an exceedingly wild and desolate region, and, excepting an occasional fishing hamlet or a missionary station belonging to the worthy Moravians, its only inhabitants are Indians. Of these the more famous tribes are the Red Indians, (now almost extinct,) the Hunting Indians, the Mic-Maks, and the Esquimaux. The latter nation is by far the most numerous, and it is said that their sway even extends to the coasts of Hudson’s Bay. ”

“ The door of my friend’s cabin is always open to the admission of the tourist, and if others who may chance to stop here are as kindly treated as I was, they will be disposed to thank their stars. In front of the trading-post are planted a few cannon, and directly beside them, at the present time, is a small Indian encampment. In a rock-bound bay, about half a mile north of my temporary residence, is an extensive lumbering establishment, belonging to William Price. This spot is the principal port of the Saguenay, and the one where belongs the Pocahontas steamboat. ”

“ In winter the settlement can have little or no communication with the outside world.
To relieve this isolated colony and encourage further development of the St. John region, the Canadian government is building [footnote: Written in 1877] a wagon-road through the wilderness from Quebec directly to the lake, thus economizing half the distance, as the road when completed will form with the old route, the Saguenay and St. Lawrence, one side of an equilateral triangle. ”

“ Saghalien (12) , a long narrow island belonging to Russia, situated close to the E. coast of Siberia, from which it is separated by the so-called Gulf of Tartary; stretches N. from the island of Yezo, a distance of 670 m.; is mountainous and forest-clad in the interior; has excellent coast fisheries, but a cold, damp climate prevents successful agriculture; rich coal-mines exist, and are wrought by 4000 or 5000 convicts. Ceded by Japan to Russia in 1875.
Saguenay, a large and picturesque river of Canada; carries off the surplus waters of Lake St. ”

“ He continued to eat in silence, scraping away at his hot soupaan with a pewter spoon. After he had licked both spoon and pannikin as clean as a cat licks a saucer, he pulled a piece of jerked deer meat in two and gravely chewed the morsel, his small, brilliant eyes ever roving from the water to the mainland.
Presently, without looking at me, he said quietly:
"When I was only a poor hunter of the Montagnais, I said to myself, 'I am a man, yet hardly one.' [23] I learned that a Saguenay was a real man when my brother told me. ”

“ The Etechemins, may be said in general terms to have occupied the territory from St. John, N. B., to Mount Desert Island, in Maine, and perhaps still further west, but not south of Saco. The Algonquins here referred to were those who dwelt on the Ottawa River. The Montagnais occupied the region on both sides of the Saguenay, having their trading centre at Tadoussac. War had been carried on for a period we know not how long, perhaps for several centuries, between these allied tribes and the Iroquois. ”