The Islands Of Saint-Pierre And Miquelon.

THE ISLANDS

 

OF

 

SAINT-PIERRE AND MIQUELON.

 

(Notes of a lecture given at the Institut Canadien, before the Quebec

Geographical Society on the 29th April, 1880, by His Excellency the Count

of Premio-Real, Consul General for Spain.)

 

Translated by Crawford Lindsay, chief English Translator, Legislative

Assembly, Quebec.

 

How many persons in Europe and in America, even amongst those who lay

claim to a certain amount of knowledge, are ignorant of the very names of

those little islands, lost to sight on the coast of New-Foundland, that

colossus of which they are the humble attendants.

 

How many Frenchmen are there to whom their name is unknown, and in

whose minds they give rise but to vague and hardly realized ideas: like unto

the distant murmur of ocean waves which barely reaches the ears of those

who dwell away from the sea-shore.

 

And yet these islets are the wreck of an immense empire, which once

stretched from the Polar regions to the mouths of the Mississipi, the great

Father of Waters. They once formed but an infinitesimal portion of that vast

domain, which the sons of St. Louis made fruitful with their labor and

hallowed with their blood but which, after having opened up to civilization,

they allowed to be taken from them by a vigilant and practical adversary.

 

These humble rocks under the shadow of the tri-color are inhabited by quite

a little world of fishermen rendered hardy by the icy breath of Arctic

breezes. This little corner of the world, which, at first sight, would be

deemed unfit for habitation is surrounded with inexhaustible natural riches,

by shoals of cod and herring, more precious than mines of silver and gold, such as those which endowed a small country, Holland, in the first place

with the means of existence, then with wealth and finally, during a certain

period of its history, with power.

 

The flowery style of this introduction should not surprise any one. Before

the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, have passed all the celebrated

navigators who discovered or explored Canada. From their waters France

derives an important portion of its food supply. To their ports Spain yearly

sends enormous quantities of salt for preserving the precious gifts of the

sea. In their waters, during the proper season, hundreds of vessels and

fishing-boats and thousands of French fishermen repair for the double

purpose of collecting an ever abundant harvest for their country and of

training themselves in the arduous duties of a sailor's life.

 

When we consider all this, what matters it that during one-half of the year

their shores are buried in snow or hidden in dense fogs; what matters it that

they are beaten by the thundering waves of that terrible Northern Ocean

whose green waters, laden with sea-weed and wreckage of every kind, dash

upon them and seem, in their wild fury, to desire to wash them off the map

of the world?

 

A livelihood is there provided, not only for the inhabitants, but also for

thousands and thousands who live beyond the Atlantic. The sea, that rough

foster-mother opens its bosom to all who fear not the never ceasing motion

of its waters.

 

There, are to be found none of those dreadful cases of hardship, those

famine-stricken creatures which exist in large centres of population, in the

very midst of all the resources of civilization.

 

The hardy and weather beaten seamen, have never any cause to dread

famine. A constantly renewed manna is ever rising from the depths of the

sea. It would seem as if God wished to show his power and point out to man

the vanity of worldly wealth by causing life and natural riches to teem along

these shores which, at first sight, seem devoted but to misery and death.

Notwithstanding the above considerations, the choice of my subject may

have surprised you. Not long ago Professor Bell came before you and

related his personal experiences, his explorations of a field so vast and

grand as Hudson's Bay and its neighborhood, and it seems like an abuse of

your good nature to come and speak of three little islands which, from a

physical point of view, have no extraordinary interest. But I have a special

affection for them, which may perhaps be due to the smallness of their

dimensions. Canada, with its unlimited extent, inspires me with a feeling of

admiration. But it is easier to concentrate our affection on a smaller object

which the mind can embrace without effort. Burke in his celebrated work

"On the sublime and beautiful" points out that, as a rule, objects of a grand

or terrible nature excite admiration, whilst those which are comparatively

small and pleasant, give rise to love.

 

As I have already stated, the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon are all that

remain to France of an empire which comprised the present British

Possessions in North America and the Valley of the Mississipi or, in other

words, one-half of the North American Continent. The fleurs-de-lys had to

withdraw successively from New-Foundland in 1713, from Cap Breton and

Prince Edward's Island in 1745, from Canada and Nova Scotia in 1763, as

well as from the territory to the west of the Mississipi and the British Lion

left to the old French monarchy only the right to fish on the coast of New

Foundland, with the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

 

These islands are situated at the entrance of Fortune Bay which extends to a

great depth into the southern coast of New Foundland, near the bank of St.

Pierre which is frequented by cod-fish and not far from the Grand Banks of

New-Foundland. They are distant 135 miles from Cape Ray and Cape Race,

which respectively form the south-western and south-eastern extremities of

what the Spaniards call the land of the Bacalaos.

 

They are 6,470 kilometres from Brest the nearest point in the mother

country. According to the French geographer, Onezime Reclus, the Islands

of St. Pierre and Miquelon have a superficial area of 21,000 hectares and a

resident population of 3,000 inhabitants. That, was 10 or 15 years ago. But,

at present, according to the report of my able subordinate in those islands,

the population amounts to 5,000 souls. The little archipelago is composed, on the north, of Grande-Miquelon, situate about 47° 4' north latitude and

56° 20' west longitude, on the south, of Petite-Miquelon or Langlade and, to

the south-east of the latter, of St. Pierre which is much smaller but has a

population three times greater than the two former.

 

It is hardly necessary to mention a few insignificant islets, which are

nothing but bare granite rocks with no vegetation and uninhabited. Since

1783 the Grande and Petite Miquelon have been united by a sand-bank.

 

Saint Pierre contains the chef-lieu or capital of the same name where resides

the governor of the whole group. This modest town is surrounded by low

hills covered with dwarf resinous trees, which barely reach to the height of

a child's shoulder. In the busy season, the floating population of fishermen

and seamen from France and other countries greatly exceeds the number of

the residents. The movements of the ships, the fishing and curing, then give

a great animation to these poor islands, whose soil is sterile and whose

climate is severe but very healthy.

 

A very small portion of St. Pierre and Miquelon is under cultivation; a few

potatoes and cabbages and a little hay are all that a farmer can find.

Vegetation is generally stunted. The hills in certain places are 500 feet high;

in the lower portions are many swamps and morasses. Fishing is the chief if

not the exclusive occupation of the inhabitants. Owing to the scarcity of

wood the fuel is coal which comes principally from Nova Scotia and Cap

Breton. The climate greatly resembles that of the ports of the Gulf of St.

Lawrence. The shores are frequently covered with dense fogs, which arise

suddenly and hang over them for several days. St. Pierre on the north-east

side of the island of the same name has an excellent harbor capable of

containing a large number of vessels, with a very good anchorage.

Sometimes as many as 60 fishing vessels are there at a time. The other

harbours of the group offer neither the same advantages nor the same

security. When certain winds blow, vessels which are anchored in them

have to go out to sea to avoid being dashed by the gales upon the rocks.

 

To conclude these data upon the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon I may

say that Nature seems to have specially intended them for excellent fishing

stations.

The waters around St. Pierre and Miquelon teem with numbers of various

kinds of fish. Herring is often found in great shoals, but as the French

fishermen who go there fish almost exclusively for cod, I will only speak of

the latter.

 

Naturalists call it gadus morrhua; its chief characteristics are three dorsal

fins, two anal fins and a wattle or bunch of filaments attached to the lower

jaw. It is a malacopterygian or soft-finned fish. There are several species of

this. The best known is the common cod. Its length varies from 70

centimetres to a metre. Its head is large and pointed, its mouth enormous, its

eyes large and veiled with a transparent membrane, its scales are gray on

the back and white on the belly with golden spots, and its fins are yellow

and gray.

 

Such are the chief external characteristics of this denizen of the deep. If to

this be added teeth simply imbedded in the flesh and which can be moved at

will by the fish, a very capacious stomach, a voracious appetite and

prodigious fecundity, you will have an idea of the hecatombs of small fish

which the cod devours before it becomes the prey of that terrible destroyer,

that omnivorous being, called man.

 

The cod sometimes attains the weight of one hundred pounds; but, large or

small, heavy or light, it is always a precious treasure and a wholesome food

for human beings. I alluded just now to its fecundity; you may judge of this

for yourselves. The females carry from 4 to 8 millions of eggs: what

romancer's dream can be compared to this living reality? One of those

savants, who respect nothing and who compel nature to unveil the most

mysterious of its hidden secrets, calculates the number of animalculae in the

milt of a single male cod at 150,000,000. This species abounds in all the

northern seas of Europe and America, in the entrance to the channel and on

the coast of Ireland. On the latter and on those of Sweden, Norway and

Scotland, it gives occupation to many fishermen but it is on the Banks of

New Foundland or in their neighborhood that fishing is carried on on a

large scale.

 

The season runs from February to November. At the Grand Banks of New-

Foundland it begins in May. When the cod is taken it is salted or dried. In

the first case it is gutted, the liver and eggs removed after cutting off the head and tongue which are put to one side. It is then known as green cod-

fish. It is highly important to have on board each vessel a man who is skilful

in opening the fish and cutting off the heads. White cod is that which is

salted but dried quickly and on which the salt leaves a kind of whitish crust.

To complete the drying it is exposed to the sun, and afterwards smoked; it is

then known as dry cod-fish. It is sometimes confounded under the name of

stock fish (merluche), with the sea-fish prepared in the same manner on the

shores of Provence. Cod fishing is carried on either on rocky shores or on

sand banks where the largest fish are taken at depths varying from 25 to 50

fathoms.

 

It is impossible to find exactly how cod fishing originated. Some endeavor

to give the credit to the Portuguese Gaspar Corterreal, at the beginning of

the 16th century; but it is thought, with far more reason, that the Basque

fishermen, while in pursuit of whales, discovered the grand and lesser

Banks of New-Foundland a century before the expedition of Christopher

Columbus. These hardy fishermen had explored the coast of Canada and

assuredly knew New-Foundland, the land of the Bacalaos as they called it,

before the great Genoese navigator cleaved the Caribbean sea with the prow

of a European vessel. The Dutch and English appear also to have engaged

in cod fishing as early as the 14th century, the latter on the coast of Iceland,

and the fishermen of La Rochelle and Brittany had cast their lines in the

waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence long before Jacques-Cartier had unfurled

the standard with the golden fleurs-de-lys, to the astonished gaze of the

Hurons of Stadacona.

 

Cod may be caught in various ways, with ordinary and deep sea lines,

seines and large nets. But the first of these means, while productive of

excellent results, is the best as regards the future of the fisheries, and this is

established by many facts. However prolific the cod might be, man's blind

avidity would succeed, if not in destroying the species, at least in

considerably lessening the value of the fisheries, if a wise legislation did not

by far-seeing enactments oppose the insatiable cupidity of those who think

only of the present. It is a fact well-known in this country that the fishermen

from the United States, after having, like prodigals, wasted their own cod

fisheries, would have done the same with those in Canada if they had not been prevented. How could it be otherwise, when some of the boats had

from 4 to 6 deep sea lines with 1,000 hooks to each. The American

fishermen have by this means destroyed several species in Canadian waters.

As was stated in the famous speech delivered on the 3rd May, 1879, in the

House of Commons at Ottawa, by the Honorable Mr. Pierre Fortin the

member for Gaspé, the first president of this Geographical Society, and one

whom I have the honor of counting among my personal friends, these

interminable deep-sea lines kill off the female fish. Seining is equally

prejudicial, for, with the larger fish, there are caught numbers of small fry

which have to be thrown back into the sea, where their remains frequently

poison the waters or supply such a quantity of food to the fish that they for

a long time disdain the bait of more conscientious fishermen.

 

The flesh of the cod-fish is not the only portion of it which is used.

Amongst other things, its liver yields the celebrated oil which is so useful to

science and industry.

 

It is obtained chiefly from the common cod gadus morrhua of which we

have spoken. In addition to Newfoundland the principal places where it is

manufactured are Dieppe, Dunkirk, Ostend, England, Holland and the

Loffoden Isles. The processes vary and produce oils of different qualities;

they maybe reduced to two: 1. Preparing the oil by means of putrefaction

and the heat of the sun or artificial heat; 2. Preparing it exclusively by

means of artificial heat. In New-Foundland the livers taken from the fish are

thrown into large vats in the bottom of which numerous holes are pierced

and which serve to drain off the oil as well as the blood and serum into

other vats which are placed beneath. The oil which rises to the surface is

then collected, in large barrels.

 

There are five varieties of cod-liver oil: 1°. The light coloured; 2°. The

brown; 3°. The black; 4°. The pale; 5°. The golden green. The first is a

golden yellow with a very faint smell; it at first tastes sweet but afterwards

has a sharp taste. The second is of the color of brown ochre, has a strong

fishy smell similar to that of salt herring and a fishy taste. The third is of a

dark brown, almost black, color with a nauseating smell, bitter and

empyreumatic in taste. The fourth is yellowish with no particularly pronounced smell and taste. The fifth is transparent, golden green in color,

sweet to the taste and smell. Ordinary cod-liver oil is that prepared with

perfectly fresh livers with a soft, dry heat, kept free from contact with the

air, in jars of earthenware or crockery. According to the chemists Delattre,

Girardin and Riégel, its composition is as follows:

 

Oleine 988.700

Margarine 8.760

Chlorine 1.122

Iodine 0.327

Bromine 0.043

Phosphorus 0.203

Sulphur 0.201

Phosphoric acid 0.108

Sulphuric acid 0.236

Loss 0.300

——

Total 1,000,000

 

Cod-liver oil is the object of much adulteration. The oils, which are

substituted in its stead, are generally: refined fish oil, either alone or mixed

with iodine or, iodides; cod-liver oil itself mixed with ordinary fish-oil;

olive oil or the oil of poppyseed and even sometimes with colza oil.

Chemists have sought in vain for the proper means of discovering these

various kinds of adulteration, or at least they have all arrived at different

conclusions which do not give the desirable scientific certainty. The only

real result that has been obtained is that the presence or absence of cod-liver

oil in any given oil can be ascertained. The test employed is concentrated

sulphuric acid. If a few drops are poured into a small quantity of cod-liver

oil spread on a piece of glass laid upon white paper, a violet ring will form

which soon becomes crimson and in a few minutes brown.

 

There are some who consider iodine to be the active principle of this

therapeutic agent and their preference of one kind over another is due to the

greater or less quantity of that principle which may be present.

Cod-liver oil is used in medicine for all kinds of diseases, scrofulous and

tuberculosis affections, softening of the bones, rheumatism, gout and

affections of the nervous system.

 

As to the theory of the therapeutic action of this powerful medical agent it

is beyond my province.

 

Tanners and chamois-dressers use cod-liver oil to make leather soft and

bright.

 

Substitutes for cod-liver oil or substances which have the same medical

properties, are numerous; they are taken from the cetacea, from fish,

amphibia, mammals, birds, reptiles, crustacea and even from the vegetable

kingdom. I will only mention the best known: such as the oil derived from

the liver of the ray, from the shark and herring; whale and seal oil; milk,

suet, neats-foot oil; yolks of eggs; snake-oil; oil of poppy seed, linseed, nuts

and sweet almonds. I leave to the disciples of Hippocrates, both present and

future, the task of deciding what amount of confidence must be given to

these various substitutes for cod-liver oil and I make way for them with the

pleasant satisfaction of a man who has not felt the necessity of making use

either of this famous remedy or of its substitutes.

 

I have already stated that France derives the greater portion of the codfish

which it consumes from the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

 

In order to understand why the French fishermen are so anxious to come to

such distant waters, one must have an idea of the profits to be realized and

one or two examples will suffice to show this. On the banks of

Newfoundland some fishermen have been known to take from 400 to 550

cod in 10 or 11 hours. On one occasion 8 men took, in one day, 80 score on

the Dogger bank.

 

Besides, there is another inducement. The French government which, from

the very outset, has been fully alive to the importance of these fisheries,

gives to each vessel a bonus in proportion to the amount of its take. These

bonuses vary from 16 to 20 francs per metric quintal according to

destination. Moreover, each fishing-boat gets fifty francs for every member of its crew, for fishing and curing, either on the coast of New Foundland, at

St. Pierre and Miquelon or on the Grand Banks, while many vessels if they

be at all fortunate may make more than one trip to Europe during the same

season, as it commences in May and ends in November.

 

The part of the sea reserved for French fishermen is very extensive.

Towards the north it stretches to within three miles from the coast of New-

Foundland.

 

The average annual value of all the French fisheries is £3,500,000 or

87,000,000 francs. In 1876 they yielded 88,990,591 francs or 16 millions of

dollars. 21,263 vessels or fishing boats, manned by 79,676 men, were

employed in the various fisheries.

 

The catch of cod in the colony of Saint Pierre and Miquelon according to

official returns averaged, during the five years ending in 1871, 15,425,086

kilogrammes. The same returns show that for the five years ending in 1874,

the average number of vessels employed was 76 and of boats 590, the total

tonnage of which was 12,386 and the number of men employed 5,335.

 

The French take yearly 25,000,000 kilogrammes of cod and sometimes

more, over three fifths, sometimes four fifths, come from the waters of

Saint Pierre and Miquelon and this is not only for recent years. If we go

back to 1863 we find 25,349,681 kilogrammes of cod representing

12,281,073 francs, imported into France. In 1864 there was an increase and

the catch gave 27,795,392 kilogrammes representing a value of 19,733,700

francs.

 

In conclusion, I may add that in the Iceland seas the French catch more fish

than the Icelanders themselves and bring to France each year cod-fish to the

amount of £270,000 or 6,750,000 francs. They have a fleet of 290 vessels

manned by 4400 men, the average tonnage of each vessel being 90 tons.

 

The fishermen of the Iceland seas as well as those of New-Foundland,

receive bonuses. You will, thus see, Ladies and Gentlemen, that a country

invests its money wisely when it spends it in developing an industry of this

kind. In saying this, I only refer to pecuniary benefit, but we must not

overlook the fact that fishing develops the sea-going instincts of a maritime population and by its stern apprenticeship makes excellent seamen for the

navy of a State.

 

Since some years attempts have been made in England and even in Canada

to contest the rights of France to the New-Foundland fisheries. But, if we

examine the various treaties between England and France, we find full

confirmation of the latter's rights, which it has never ceased to claim on all

occasions and with the same persistence. The treaty of Utrecht in 1713

compelled His Most Christian Majesty to cede New-Foundland to the

English but it confirmed his right to the fisheries on the coast and in the

bays of that Island.

 

The treaty of Utrecht, in so far as the fisheries were concerned, was

confirmed by article 5 of the treaty of Paris in 1763, Art. VI of which cedes

to France in addition, the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon to "serve as a

shelter to the French fishermen."

 

A pamphlet published in Quebec, in 1876, and intituled: "The New

Foundland fisheries." Les Pêcheries de Terre-Neuve, bears the following

sub-heading. "The rights of France set forth, in reply to the assertions of the

Colonial Institute." Droits de la France exposés en réponse aux assertions

de l'Institut Colonial. This carefully prepared treatise successfully

establishes the rights of the French.

 

The convention of 1857 shows that England, through the organ of its

government and of its official transactions, has admitted the claims of

France as founded.

 

KEY.

 

To assist those who wish to study the history of the right of fishing in the

waters of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

 

The treaties and articles of treaties upon which France bases its claims are

the following:

Treaty of Utrecht, 1713—Art. 13.

Treaty of Paris, 1763—Art. 5.

Treaty of Versailles, 1783—Arts 4, 5, 6.

Treaty of Amiens, 1802—Art. 15.

Treaty of Paris, 1814—Arts 8 and 13.

Treaty of Paris, 1815—Art. 11.

 

The great difficulty in the question of the fisheries is to know whether the

French have the exclusive right to fish on that part of the Newfoundland

coast assigned to them by the treaties.

 

As my position requires me to be strictly impartial, I will now cite the

articles upon which is based the opposition to the claims of France by the

British Colonial Institute.

 

Treaty of 1783. Art. 3.

Convention of 1818 between Great Britain and the United

States.

 

I will not speak of the most ordinary uses of salt nor of the usefulness of

this condiment, which is indispensable for the preservation of food. I will

not deal at length with the industrial applications of salt which serves to

make artificial soda, and prepare chlorine and sal ammoniac and to varnish

certain kinds of earthen-ware. Neither will I plunge into the darkness of the

past to show how salt was employed in religious worship. By the Jews and

Pagans it was used in sacrifices to purify and consecrate the victim. The

lustral water was salted, as is the holy water of our days, which proves, as

Solomon said, that there is nothing new under the sun. But there is a subject

of the highest importance for this very country, which I cannot pass by

without devoting a few words to it; I refer to the use of salt in agriculture.

Mixed with a certain proportion of soot, it improves lands under cultivation

and increases the fertility of wild lands. It is an effectual remedy against

rust and, when mixed with seeds, it preserves them against the ravages of

insects. It promotes the vegetation of oily seeds and particularly flax, that

flax which is used in making fine fabrics.

Salt also increases the amount of fodder in pasture lands and meadows; it

improves the quality of hay, renders coarse forage more nutritious and

damp food less injurious to cattle and horses. It preserves animals from

disease, makes their flesh more palatable and increases the yield of milk in

cows and goats. Moreover, salt, if used as a fertilizer, can change the

climate. The inhabitants of Canada may, if they wish, raise the temperature

of their shores and shorten their winters. They will not, in all probability

have an Andalusian sky, for the effects of chloride of sodium can hardly go

so far. But seriously speaking, the cold may be made less intense in the

following way. Some soils absorb salt and become heated by it. But there

are others which do not absorb it completely; the salt washed by the rains is

carried to the waters of lakes and rivers and after a certain number of years

when it accumulates in sufficient quantities, it prevents and delays the

freezing of the waters. Now, it must be admitted that all these watery

surfaces made solid by frost and which are scattered all over fair Canada's

bosom are famous ice-houses which contribute to no slight degree to bring

down the thermometer to 40° below zero.

 

Finally, it is a well known fact that salt exists in large quantities throughout

the world, either in beds of greater or lesser thickness in the bowels of the

earth (known as rock salt) or in solution in the waters of the sea, of certain

lakes and springs. In Spain, Aragon and Catalonia have considerable

deposits of rock-salt. Sea-water contains about 3 per cent of salt which is

obtained by evaporating the water in extensive basins hollowed out on the

sea-shore and known as salterns. As a rule they are composed: 1° of a vast

reservoir placed in front of the saltern proper, deeper than them and

communicating with the sea by a canal closed by a sluice. It is filled at high

tide, and is intended to keep the water until the impurities it contains settle

at the bottom and to feed the other basins, as the water they contain is

evaporated; 2°. Of the salterns proper, situate behind the reservoir and

divided into a multitude of compartments separated by small dykes, which

are intended to increase the exposed surfaces so as to hasten evaporation

and to receive the waters as they become more and more condensed. These

compartments communicate with each other, but in such a manner that the

water goes from one to the other, only after having passed through a long

series of canals.

When the water begins to redden, it is a sign that the salt will soon

crystallize; the water then becomes covered with a salt film which falls to

the bottom. The salt is drawn up on the small dykes which separate the

compartments and it is then drained oft. This process is repeated two or

three times a week from the month of May to the month of October.

 

Salt means life to a great many men and a very large proportion of the

whole amount used comes from my country.

 

It is the chief article of commerce between Spain and the islands of Saint

Pierre and Miquelon.

 

The lecturer then gave detailed information on the following subjects:

 

The trade between the Islands of St. Pierre, and Miquelon,

and Spain,

and France;

 

The trade with Canada and New Foundland;

 

The nature and value of the exports to St. Pierre and

Miquelon, by each

of the provinces of Canada and expecially by the Province

of Quebec;

 

Navigation.

 

He then concluded in these terms:

 

I thought you would not be sorry to hear something of that corner of the

world, the last remnant of French grandeur in North America and as my

noble friend, Lord Dufferin, so eloquently says when speaking of Iceland in

his "Letters from high latitudes" translated into French by your fellow

countryman, Mr. Bedard, the modest archipelago of which I have spoken,

"shares with the Dominion of Canada the Aurora's ruby affluence and is

wrapped in the same silver mantle." For you, French Canadians in particular, the subject cannot be altogether devoid of interest. Your

forefathers, before landing on the shores of the St. Lawrence, all passed

close to the rocks of St. Pierre and Miquelon, and they would have then

been greatly surprised if they had been told that they would one day be the

last and only sentinel of their mother country in these waters, over which

sailed all those gallant cavaliers who founded Canada or defended it,

Cartier, Champlain, d'Iberville, &c., Sic transit gloria mundi. But another

conquest did not arrest in their flight the prolific seeds which were to give

birth to a numerous posterity. The 60,000 colonists sent to this country by

France multiplied in an almost miraculous manner, and there is every

reason to believe that she will one day be represented on the American

continent by a great people which will speak her language and be proud to

trace back its origin to her.

 

And how could it be otherwise! Never was a nobler cradle given to a young

nation. How can one describe that majestic river, those stately forests, and

glorious sites which make of Canada one of the finest countries in the

world! Your winters are severe, but they cannot but develop strong

constitutions which defy the coldness of the weather. Your dazzling sheets

of snow contain no miasma to undermine health and in your extensive

fields the lungs inhale the purest air to be found under the sun. In summer,

luxuriant vegetation and foliage enable you to breathe your fill of oxygen,

while the resinous trees diffuse a health-giving aroma all around them.

 

Extensive tracts of land well suited for cultivation, await but willing hands

to return a hundred-fold what is confided to them. May you therefore grow,

youthful branch of the grand Latin race, may you flourish in this land of far-

distant horizons and become in turn a powerful tree deep-rooted in a

glorious past, whose crown will point to a brilliant future.

 

End of Project Gutenberg's Saint-Pierre & Miquelon, by Comte de Premio-Real