The women dye their woollen yarn yellow with seeds of gale,[95] which is called poivrier here, and grows abundant in wet places.
This evening, M. Gaulthier and I went to see the water-fall at Montmorenci. The country near the river is high and level, and laid out into meadows. Above them the high and steep hills begin, which are covered with a crust of mould, and turned into corn-fields. In some very steep places, and near the rivulets, the hills consist of mere black lime-slate, which is often crumbled into small pieces, like earth. All the fields below the hills are full of such pieces of lime-slate. When some of the larger pieces are broken, they smell like stink-stone. In some more elevated places, the earth consists of a pale red colour; and the lime-slates are likewise reddish.
The water-fall near Montmorenci is one of the highest I ever saw. It is in a river [[228]]whose breadth is not very considerable, and falls over the steep side of a hill, consisting entirely of black lime-slate. The fall is now at the bottom of a little creek of the river. Both sides of the creek consist merely of black lime-slate, which is very much cracked and tumbled down. The hill of lime-slate under the water-fall is quite perpendicular, and one cannot look at it without astonishment. The rain of the preceding days had encreased the water in the river, which gave the fall a grander appearance. The breadth of the fall is not above ten or twelve yards. Its perpendicular height Mr. Gaulthier and I guessed to be between a hundred and ten and a hundred and twenty feet; and on our return to Quebec, we found our guess confirmed by several gentlemen, who had actually measured the fall, and found it to be nearly as we had conjectured. The people who live in the neighbourhood exaggerate in their accounts of it, absolutely declaring that it is three hundred feet high. Father Charlevoix[96] is too sparing in giving it only forty feet in height. At the bottom of the fall, there is always a thick fog of vapours, spreading about the water, being resolved into them by its violent [[229]]fall. This fog occasions almost perpetual rain here, which is more or less heavy, in proportion to its distance from the fall. Mr. Gaulthier and myself, together with the man who shewed us the way, were willing to come nearer to the falling water, in order to examine more accurately how it came down from such a height, and how the stone behind the water looked. But, being about twelve yards off the fall, a sudden gust of wind blew a thick fog upon us, which, in less than a minute, had wet us as thoroughly as if we had walked for half an hour in a heavy shower. We therefore hurried away as fast as we could, and were glad to get off. The noise of the fall is sometimes heard at Quebec, which is two French miles off to the southward; and this is a sign of a north-east wind. At other times, it can be well heard in the villages, a good way lower to the north; and it is then reckoned an undoubted sign of a south-west wind, or of rain. The black lime-slate on the sides of the fall lies in dipping, and almost perpendicular strata. In these lime-slate strata, are the following kinds of stone to be met with.
Fibrous gypsum.[97] This lies in very thin [[230]]leaves between the cracks of the lime-slate. Its colour is a snowy white. I have found it in several parts of Canada, in the same black lime-stone.
Pierre à Calumet. This is the French name of a stone disposed in strata between the lime-slate, and of which they make almost all the tobacco-pipe heads in the country. The thickness of the strata is different. I have seen pieces near fifteen inches thick; but they are commonly between four and five inches thick. When the stone is long exposed to the open air or heat of the sun, it gets a yellow colour; but in the inside it is grey. It is a lime-stone of such a compactness, that its particles are not distinguishable by the naked eye. It is pretty soft, and will bear cutting with a knife. From this quality, the people likewise judge of the goodness of the stone for tobacco-pipe heads; for the hard pieces of it are not so fit for use as the softer ones. I have seen some of these stones shivering into thin leaves on the outside where they were exposed to the sun. All the tobacco-pipe heads, which the common people in Canada make use of, are made of this stone, and are ornamented in different ways. A great part of the gentry likewise make use of them, especially when they are on a journey. [[231]]The Indians have employed this stone for the same purposes for several ages past, and have taught it the Europeans. The heads of the tobacco-pipes are naturally of a pale grey colour; but they are blackened whilst they are quite new, to make them look better. They cover the head all over with grease, and hold it over a burning candle, or any other fire, by which means it gets a good black colour, which is encreased by frequent use. The tubes of the pipes are always made of wood[98].
There are no coals near this fall, or in the steep hills close to it. However, the people in the neighbouring village shewed me a piece of coal, which, they said, they had found on one of the hills about the fall.
We arrived at Quebec very late at night.
September the 8th, Intermitting fevers of all kinds are very rare at Quebec, as Mr. Gaulthier affirms. On the contrary, [[232]]they are very common near Fort St. Frederic, and near Fort Detroit, which is a French colony, between lake Erie and lake Huron, in forty-three degrees north latitude.
Some of the people of quality make use of ice-cellars, to keep beer cool in, during summer, and to keep fresh flesh, which would not keep long in the great heat. These ice-cellars are commonly built of stone, under the house. The walls of it are covered with boards, because the ice is more easily consumed by stones. In winter, they fill it with snow, which is beat down with the feet, and covered with water. They then open the cellar holes and the door, to admit the cold. It is customary in summer to put a piece of ice into the water or wine which is to be drank.
All the salt which is made use of here, is imported from France. They likewise make good salt here of the sea water; but France keeping the salt trade entirely to itself, they do not go on with it here.