Transportation in Canada, 1897
The modes of conveyance in Canada are as peculiar as the rest of its adjuncts of civilization.
From: 1897 C.E. To: 1897 C.E.
Location: Canada
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Canadian Folk-Life and Folk-Lore by William Parker Greenough, 1897.
The modes of conveyance in Canada are as peculiar as the rest of its adjuncts of civilization.
As a winter vehicle for common use on country roads there is nothing that answers so well as the old-fashioned cariole. It is neither handsome nor capacious, but can stand work that would wreck a New England sleigh very quickly, and at the same time is extremely comfortable. It sits low, on solid wooden runners about two inches thick, to which the shafts are attached by rings some two and a half inches in diameter, thus giving them a considerable amount of play, which is oftentimes a great advantage. The traces of the harness are fastened directly to the shafts, so that the draught comes where it is most immediately needed. The arrangement is probably not so easy for the horse as where whiffletrees are used. The back of the cariole is high, protecting the passenger from cold winds. When two seats are used the forward one is a foot higher than the other and not more than four inches wide. The driver is thus always ready to stand up, or to throw his weight to one side of the vehicle or the other, as occasion demands.
Well ensconced in furs, with a good horse and a good driver (charretier—translated "charioteer" by one of my friends) the passenger may settle himself in a cariole for a long drive without anxiety. He need not concern himself much about his driver, who will be a hardy person, well wrapped up and accustomed to all weathers.
There is one good thing about travelling in Canada, and that is that in almost every village of the slightest importance there may be found in winter or summer from two to half a dozen of these "charioteers" ready to drive the traveller wherever he wants to go, and at very reasonable prices.
The old fashioned caleche has entirely gone out of use in this region, having been supplanted by the buckboard. In the very hilly country east of Quebec it is still in use. in the city of Quebec also many are employed as hackney vehicles, and few tourists think their visit complete without a ride in one of them.
The buckboard is in common use in the country. It is not at all like the well-known Adirondack buckboard, but is the simplest kind of a vehicle. The seat, which is double (facing back and front), is placed in the middle of its length, and as the only spring comes from the springiness of the boards, sometimes there is considerable jolting; but for regular travelling over rough roads it is more useful and convenient than almost any other carriage.
In speaking of means of conveyance the snowshoe must not be forgotten. Everybody knows what snowshoes are, and not a few wonder how anybody can walk with them. They are an embarrassment of course, but less inconvenient than might be supposed. On an unbroken sheet of snow, two, three, or four feet deep the snowshoe is a necessity. If the snow is firm and hard the shoe will leave only a slight track, but if the snow is light and soft it will sink some inches, although it will always find sufficient support somewhere. The required step is so different from an ordinary walk that the movement is at first fatiguing, but one soon becomes accustomed to it. It ought not to be supposed, however, that snowshoes are an indispensable part of every Canadian's ordinary foot-gear. Farmers and villagers who seldom go far into the woods or fields in winter rarely make use of them.
For the snowshoe no substitute has ever been proposed. The Norwegian ski would not answer at all well in. this country. A first-rate pair of snowshoes is a rare treasure. If the rawhide netting is not well stretched and bags under the foot when the snow is a bit soft or damp, it makes hard work, and is a perpetual annoyance. If you get a pair that is strong, light, and springy, take good care of them. Dozens of plans for fastening on the shoes have been contrived, but the practised snowshoer will have none of them. He sticks to the old plan of fastening with leather thongs, and will not bother with straps and buckles.
The three articles, the cariole, the snowshoe, and the bark canoe, answer the purposes for which they are made better than anything else yet invented. The bark canoe can be equalled or surpassed in every respect but one, and that is the convenience with which it can be repaired in case of accident, with materials always at hand. With other materials canoes may be built both stronger and lighter in proportion to their carrying capacity, but they are not so easily mended if they meet with a serious mishap. With a piece of bark from the nearest birch tree, a bit of gum, and the long slender root of the spruce, the experienced canoeman can repair almost any amount of damage.
In country villages dogs were formerly often used for drawing moderate loads, but nowadays their principal occupation in that line is the amusement of the small boys, who delight in harnessing them up and driving them. The dogs, too, enjoy the fun, and like a race as well as their young masters. A large dog is quite a powerful animal, and can draw on a sled or toboggan, if he has good footing, fully as much as a man. An Indian has been known to start out with his team of four dogs harnessed tandem, drawing a load consisting of a barrel of pork, two barrels of flour, some small parcels and himself on top of all. Some may remember when the usual manner of distributing milk to customers in Quebec was from hand-carts managed by a woman who held the shafts, aided by a dog harnessed to the axle-tree. The use of dogs for such purposes is now forbidden in the cities. An old friend who happened to see the drawing from which the following cut was made remarked, "Yes, that is just the way they used to steal my wood when I lived out on the Gomin road."
Greenough, William Parker. Canadian Folk-Life and Folk-Lore. George H. Richmond, 1897.
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