Inconveniences of first Settlement.--Difficulty of obtaining Provisions
and other necessaries.--Snow-storm and Hurricane.--Indian Summer, and
setting-in of Winter.--Process of clearing the Land.
November the 20th, 1832.
OUR log-house is not yet finished, though it is in a state of
forwardness. We are still indebted to the hospitable kindness of S------
and his wife for a home. This being their first settlement on their land
they have as yet many difficulties, in common with all residents in the
backwoods, to put up with this year. They have a fine block of land,
well situated; and S------ laughs at the present privations, to which he
opposes a spirit of cheerfulness and energy that is admirably calculated
to effect their conquest. They are now about to remove to a larger and
more commodious house that has been put up this fall, leaving us the use
of the old one till our own is ready.
We begin to get reconciled to our Robinson Crusoe sort of life, and the
consideration that the present evils are but temporary, goes a great way
towards reconciling us to them.
One of our greatest inconveniences arises from the badness of our roads,
and the distance at which we are placed from any village or town where
provisions are to be procured.
Till we raise our own grain and fatten our own hogs, sheep, and poultry,
we must be dependent upon the stores for food of every kind. These
supplies have to be brought up at considerable expense and loss of time,
through our beautiful bush roads; which, to use the words of a poor
Irish woman, "can't be no worser." "Och, darlint," she said, "but they
are just bad enough, and can't be no worser. Och, but they aren't like
to our iligant roads in Ireland."
You may send down a list of groceries to be forwarded when a team comes
up, and when we examine our stores, behold rice, sugar, currants,
pepper, and mustard all jumbled into one mess. What think you of a rice-
pudding seasoned plentifully with pepper, mustard, and, may be, a little
rappee or prince's mixture added by way of sauce. I think the recipe
would cut quite a figure in the Cook's Oracle or Mrs. Dalgairn's
Practice of Cookery, under the original title of a "bush pudding."
And then woe and destruction to the brittle ware that may chance to
travel through our roads. Lucky, indeed, are we if, through the superior
carefulness of the person who packs them, more than one-half happens to
arrive in safety. For such mishaps we have no redress. The storekeeper
lays the accident upon the teamster, and the teamster upon the bad
roads, wondering that he himself escapes with whole bones after a
journey through the bush.
This is now the worst season of the year;--this, and just after the
breaking up of the snow. Nothing hardly but an ox-cart can travel along
the roads, and even that with difficulty, occupying two days to perform
the journey; and the worst of the matters is, that there are times when
the most necessary articles of provisions are not to be procured at any
price. You see, then, that a settler in the bush requires to hold
himself pretty independent, not only of the luxuries and delicacies of
the table, but not unfrequently even of the very necessaries.
One time no pork is to be procured; another time there is a scarcity of
flour, owing to some accident that has happened to the mill, or for the
want of proper supplies of wheat for grinding; or perhaps the weather
and bad roads at the same time prevent a team coming up, or people from
going down. Then you must have recourse to a neighbour, if you have the
good fortune to be near one, or fare the best you can on potatoes. The
potatoe is indeed a great blessing here; new settlers would otherwise be
often greatly distressed, and the poor man and his family who are
without resources, without the potatoe must starve.
Once our stock of tea was exhausted, and we were unable to procure more.
In this dilemma milk would have been an excellent substitute, or coffee,
if we had possessed it; but we had neither the one nor the other, so we
agreed to try the Yankee tea--hemlock sprigs boiled. This proved, to my
taste, a vile decoction; though I recognized some herb in the tea that
was sold in London at five shillings a pound, which I am certain was
nothing better than dried hemlock leaves reduced to a coarse powder.
S------ laughed at our wry faces, declaring the potation was excellent;
and he set us all an example by drinking six cups of this truly sylvan
beverage. His eloquence failed in gaining a single convert; we could not
believe it was only second to young hyson. To his assurance that to its
other good qualities it united medicinal virtues, we replied that, like
all other physic, it was very unpalatable.
"After all," said S------, with a thoughtful air, "the blessings and the
evils of this life owe their chief effect to the force of contrast, and
are to be estimated by that principally. We should not appreciate the
comforts we enjoy half so much did we not occasionally feel the want of
them. How we shall value the conveniences of a cleared farm after a few
years, when we can realize all the necessaries and many of the luxuries
of life."
"And how we shall enjoy green tea after this odious decoction of
hemlock," said I.
"Very true; and a comfortable frame-house, and nice garden, and pleasant
pastures, after these dark forests, log-houses, and no garden at all."
"And the absence of horrid black stumps," rejoined I. "Yes, and the
absence of horrid stumps. Depend upon it, my dear, your Canadian farm
will seem to you a perfect paradise by the time it is all under
cultivation; and you will look upon it with the more pleasure and pride
from the consciousness that it was once a forest wild, which, by the
effects of industry and well applied means, has changed to fruitful
fields. Every fresh comfort you realize around you will add to your
happiness; every improvement within-doors or without will raise a
sensation of gratitude and delight in your mind, to which those that
revel in the habitual enjoyment of luxury, and even of the commonest
advantages of civilization, must in a great degree be strangers. My
pass-words are, 'Hope! Resolution! and Perseverance!'"
"This," said my husband, "is true philosophy; and the more forcible,
because you not only recommend the maxim but practise it also."
I had reckoned much on the Indian summer, of which I had read such
delightful descriptions, but I must say it has fallen far below my
expectations. Just at the commencement of this month (November) we
experienced three or four warm hazy days, that proved rather close and
oppressive. The sun looked red through the misty atmosphere, tinging the
fantastic clouds that hung in smoky volumes, with saffron and pale
crimson light, much as I have seen the clouds above London look on a
warm, sultry spring morning.
Not a breeze ruffled the waters, not a leaf (for the leaves had not
entirely fallen) moved. This perfect stagnation of the air was suddenly
changed by a hurricane of wind and snow that came on without any
previous warning. I was standing near a group of tall pines that had
been left in the middle of the clearing, collecting some beautiful
crimson lichens, S------ not being many paces distant, with his oxen
drawing fire-wood. Suddenly we heard a distant hollow rushing sound that
momentarily increased, the air around us being yet perfectly calm. I
looked up, and beheld the clouds, hitherto so motionless, moving with
amazing rapidity in several different directions. A dense gloom
overspread the heavens. S------, who had been busily engaged with the
cattle, had not noticed my being so near, and now called to me to use
all the speed I could to gain the house, or an open part of the
clearing, distant from the pine-trees. Instinctively I turned towards
the house, while the thundering shock of trees falling in all directions
at the edge of the forest, the rending of the branches from the pines I
had just quitted, and the rush of the whirlwind sweeping down the lake,
made me sensible of the danger with which I had been threatened.
The scattered boughs of the pines darkened the air as they whirled above
me; then came the blinding snow-storm: but I could behold the progress
of the tempest in safety, having gained the threshold of our house. The
driver of the oxen had thrown himself on the ground, while the poor
beasts held down their meek heads, patiently abiding "the pelting of the
pitiless storm." S------, my husband, and the rest of the household,
collected in a group, watched with anxiety the wild havoc of the warring
elements. Not a leaf remained on the trees when the hurricane was over;
they were bare and desolate. Thus ended the short reign of the Indian
summer.
[Illustration: Newly-cleared Land]
I think the notion entertained by some travellers, that the Indian
summer is caused by the annual conflagration of forests by those Indians
inhabiting the unexplored regions beyond the larger lakes is absurd.
Imagine for an instant what immense tracts of woods must be yearly
consumed to affect nearly the whole of the continent of North America:
besides, it takes place at that season of the year when the fire is
least likely to run freely, owing to the humidity of the ground from the
autumnal rains. I should rather attribute the peculiar warmth and hazy
appearance of the air that marks this season, to the fermentation going
on of so great a mass of vegetable matter that is undergoing a state of
decomposition during the latter part of October and beginning of
November. It has been supposed by some persons that a great alteration
will be effected in this season, as the process of clearing the land
continues to decrease the quantity of decaying vegetation. Nay, I have
heard the difference is already observable by those long acquainted with
the American continent.
Hitherto my experience of the climate is favourable. The autumn has been
very fine, though the frosts are felt early in the month of September;
at first slightly, of a morning, but towards October more severely.
Still, though the first part of the day is cold, the middle of it is
warm and cheerful.
We already see the stern advances of winter. It commenced very decidedly
from the breaking up of the Indian summer. November is not at all like
the same month at home. The early part was soft and warm, the latter
cold, with keen frosts and occasional falls of snow; but it does not
seem to possess the dark, gloomy, damp character of our British
Novembers. However, it is not one season's acquaintance with the climate
that enables a person to form any correct judgment of its general
character, but a close observance of its peculiarities and vicissitudes
during many years' residence in the country.
I must now tell you what my husband is doing on our land. He has let out
ten acres to some Irish choppers who have established themselves in the
shanty for the winter. They are to receive fourteen dollars per acre for
chopping, burning, and fencing in that quantity. The ground is to be
perfectly cleared of every thing but the stumps: these will take from
seven to nine or ten years to decay; the pine, hemlock, and fir remain
much longer. The process of clearing away the stumps is too expensive
for new beginners to venture upon, labour being so high that it cannot
be appropriated to any but indispensable work. The working season is
very short on account of the length of time the frost remains on the
ground. With the exception of chopping trees, very little can be done.
Those that understand the proper management of uncleared land, usually
underbrush (that is, cut down all the small timbers and brushwood),
while the leaf is yet on them; this is piled in heaps, and the
windfallen trees are chopped through in lengths, to be logged up in the
spring with the winter's chopping. The latter end of the summer and the
autumn are the best seasons for this work. The leaves then become quite
dry and sear, and greatly assist in the important business of burning
off the heavy timbers. Another reason is, that when the snow has fallen
to some depth, the light timbers cannot be cut close to the ground, or
the dead branches and other incumbrances collected and thrown in heaps.
We shall have about three acres ready for spring-crops, provided we get
a good burning of that which is already chopped near the site of the
house,--this will be sown with oats, pumpkins, Indian corn, and
potatoes: the other ten acres will be ready for putting in a crop of
wheat. So you see it will be a long time before we reap a harvest. We
could not even get in spring-wheat early enough to come to perfection
this year.
We shall try to get two cows in the spring, as they are little expense
during the spring, summer, and autumn; and by the winter we shall have
pumpkins and oat-straw for them.