The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-18
AT QUAINT OLD TADOUSAC.
sIGHTs nv THE FIRST SETTL EnrBNT
MADE Nv CANADA.

~ hhHuh y Ooiot-AHKeuu OF
Iather DO In Rrosse-Ths Cemetery.
TADousAo. Canada, July 1A.-tts name Is not
tho only queer thing about Tadousac. Every
thing is mixed up here; fact and fiction, fashion
and primitive simplicity. shifting sand and
,aimoval granite hill. Everything seems the
Srtremo opposite Of something else right beside
4. Tho little Jesuit chapel. the oldest church,
90 they say, In Canada, sits persistently In its
forlorn burying ground between the big white
hotel and the villa which Lord Dufferin built.
Up-to-dato tourists sit on the back seats Of the
buckboards and shout English questions into the
uncomprehending ears of the hdbfdnt who oo-
oupies tho front seat. "White whales" disport
themselves In the bay. and tho black Saguonay
waters run one way In the morning and another
In tho afternoon.
From the very moment Of your arrival on tho
steamer the confusion begins You are sure TO
arrive by steamer for the reason that there Is no
ether way Of getting here. The pier is in n
little cove between immense granite hills, and
the big steamer pokes her nose in amid q great
0latter OF bells, above which rise the patois
greetings Of the natives on tho pier. You are
distinctly panicky at first. You see q few houses
up the ravine. and you fancy them to DO
Tadousao. Nothing can induce you to stop in
ouch a hole In the ground-so you think. The
purser treasures you. however. One Of the habi-
tants gets you into his buckboard-which Is un.
Nike anything else ever dreamed Of In the buck
board line-and once there, escape Is impossible.
Tho little Canadian pony scampcrs up tho hill
Tor q quarter OF q mile, turns over the brow, and
then you SEQ the real Tadousac lying along the
shores of a lovely little bay. The pony rattles
down the hill ut rs vigorous a pace as he went
mp. fourishes past several immense old out-of.
door ovens. past tho big new church and the
little old one, and draws up with a jerk In front
OF the hotel. You feel yourself quite as much Of
. discovercr AS did jacques Cartier when no
cast anchor in the bay away back in l545.
Tadousac was the earliest settlement made in
Canada. 1t had a long way the start of Quebec
and the other places which have now become
hourishing cities, while Tadousac is scarcely az
populous as 1t was three centuries ago. 1t 10
true that Father Lacasse, n missionary who has
travelled on snowshoes all over this part OF
Canada, predicts that tho village will some day
become the New York of Canada.
"Tadousac," he says. !" is the terminus of the
Atlantic by sea. and will be the terminus OF the
Pacific by land"
In the mean time, while awaiting the fulfil
ment Of the s~anguiTe fathers prophecy, Tadou-
0ac is worth a visit for its own peculiar sake.
Ono can enjoy more violent contrasts hero in
Che course of an hour or two than are generally
obtained by weeks of travel.
The village, as before explained. lies on the
chores OF a pretty little bay. At the right hand
10 a promontory OF rocks called the Point Of All
Tho Devils. The lcft-hand shore is n long, high
bluff Of sand. This is called Cow Point. From
the wild. sandy Cow Point to the promontory of
All the Devils is a gamut upon which the
weather clerk plays some remarkable meteoro-
logical tunes. The point which honors the dev.
lis is washed by the inky. treachorous currents
OF the strange Saguenay. Cow Point pastures
0pon the sunds OF the st. Lawrence.
The figure is not a bad one, although 1t might
be more correct to say that the st. Lawrence
pastures itself upon the sands OF the shore, since
every year 1t eats away a foot Of the bank. But
there is some strange kind of retaliation. rs you
will see when you take the concession drive"
Everybody takes this drive because it is the
ching to do and is so well worth the doing. A
lew hardy souls-or spirits, rather-takc it more
Than once. But they are few. The concession
drive deserves a chapter all to itself. 1t also de-
serves the attention of a few of the artists who
gre painting In Algiers, and from there up TO
Norway.
Rome wasn't built in a day. and the conces.
sion drive cannot be described in a word. First.
your ha6itdnt driver says " Marche done - 10
the pony, and the queer blackboard reels away.
Up the single village street toward Cow Point
you 60. rolling like a ship in a gale. At one side
there is a hill Of solid rock; not any parvcnu,
aay-before-ycsterday formation. but the prime
val backbone of the earth. These Laurcntian
mountains are tho geological first families OF
Che globe. Queeriy enough. however. the gran
fte ledge Is capped with q hill Of fine white sea
beach sand. High and dry 1t lies cleaning
against the blue sky as II the whole thing was
cut of a topsy-turyy book, and the granite hills
were standing on their heads, with tho sandy
beaches inclosing the blue sky-ocean above.
But the pony. with his stubborn head almost
between his knees. and the haJitdnt, with his
Nernptuol =. ITrrrbs 1onct' do not ~ -. hal,
YOU. readjust your conception of things. The
blackboard reels down to the st. Lawrence shore
fields in which Apologize grain is making q pre-
tenee Of growing. You have heard SO much
and you have driven out for the express purpose
Of seeing them. When, therefore, you reach this
liver you wonder il those roof garden sea
beaches back there were tho only features IN the
@ shade OF disappointment.
In five minutes. however, you know better.
Gradually the grain fields become sand fields.
The sand seems to creep in among the stalks as
. tide would. Then you see rlvulets which
deepen and broaden. and then the grain stands
the, advancing Water; and thcn-thore { Is nc AZ,
graia. NoIhihg but sand .nd SKI and. to the
sTadasslly TeaFs Itself into an M. enorn ssas
dcceives Tho Vision. u" You ~ w seeHa1e v sMSs
II to be several hundred feet high. only
Bird f black % %s poii sh sdu eb SGS a an SsnG' Gre"s
wings against the sky. where the blue meets the
white sand. The bird Is aalarge as an eagle or a
buzzard or a hawk. 1t can't be a crow. Still, AN
inward conviction that IL is a CROW, though il
looks as big as nm eagle. makes you hesitate
about computing the height of that great ridge
OF sand.
The effects of light and color are marvellous.
Algiers comes lFrcsistibly before the minds eye,
As You go on II great ledge OF polished pink
rocks crops out OF the sand at the base OF the
ridge. The tints are exquisite. The pony Is moi
scamporing now. Heis plodding, and you heal
the sound OF his painting above the swish OF The
sand On the wheels. The driver, uneIpectedl,
t%rudging along ankle deep behind tho vehicle
even over the roof of u house. FIFTY
years ago they called this the Jesuits' Gar
dem" II was the Jesuit missionaries who IRA
settled Tadousac, and this stretch of shore bore
good crops, and there were flowers and treel
and thrifty homes. The sand has swallowed
them al. You come upon one house now stand
ing with Its outbuildings on what was once
hill, but is now almost level with tho san,
around Il. Its fields and fences have disap
pearod. Before long the house itself must b.
abandoned. One might as well try TO live in tn,
middle of "a desert whore all tho cases were pre-
0mDted. Somehow the ulace makes Won thinl