Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 22, 2025
Their services to the authorities, both civil and religious, were therefore at certain periods exceedingly valuable. It is among these men that we may fittingly seek for the founders of the Canadian race. The second class of settlers, or winterers, as they were termed, will be spoken of later.
With regard to the subject of Free Trade in the Saskatchewan, it is at present conducted upon principles quite different from those existing in Manitoba. The free men or "winterers" are, strictly speaking, free traders, but they dispose of the greater portion of their furs, robes, etc., to the Company. These free men are nearly all French half-breeds, and are mostly outfitted by the Company.
The experienced voyageurs who spent the winters in the woods were called hivernans, or winterers, or sometimes hommes du nord; while the inexperienced, those who simply made the trip from Montreal to the outlying depots and return, were contemptuously dubbed mangeurs de lard, "pork-eaters," because their pampered appetites demanded peas and pork rather than hulled corn and tallow.
Cobairdy's winterers and their prices were an interesting topic of conversation every spring, as the season came round. The great English dealers were the Armstrongs, James and Thomas, the Millers, Murphy, Robert M'Turk, Billie Brown, John Elliot, the Carmichaels, &c. &c. The Armstrongs were from Yorkshire; they bought largely of our good beasts at Falkirk, Falkland, and Kinross.
Ironical toasts to the North-West Passage, whose myth Sir Alexander had dispelled; toasts to the discoverer of the MacKenzie River, which brought storms of applause that shook the house; toasts to "our distinguished guest," whose suave response disarmed all suspicion; toasts to the "Northern winterers," poor devils, who were serving the cause by undergoing a life-long term of Arctic exile; toasts to "the merry lads of the north," who only served in the ranks without attaining to the honor of partnership; toasts enough, in all conscience, to drown the memory of every man present.
This gentleman seems equal to all the hardships and privations of a voyageur's life, having performed the journey from Athabasca hither, a distance of at least six hundred miles, on snow-shoes, without appearing to have suffered any inconvenience from it; thus proving himself the ablest mangeur de lard we have had in the country for a number of years: there are many of our old winterers who would have been glad to excuse themselves if required to undertake such a journey.
"The drove can pe gang two, three, four miles very pratty weel indeed" said the cautious Highlander; "put what would his honour pe axing for the peasts pe the head, if she was to tak the park for twa or three days?" "We won't differ, Sawney, if you let me have six stots for winterers, in the way of reason." "And which peasts wad your honour pe for having?"
More serious still, the food they had to eat was the common fare of such isolated winterers; it was chiefly salt meat. The effect of this was seen as early as December. Some of the party became listless and sluggish, their faces turned sallow and their eyes appeared sunken. They found it difficult to breathe and their gums were swollen and spongy.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking