| Title: | Samuel Bruce Junior, Mingan Camp, Quebec to James Bruce, Belfast. |
|---|---|
| ID | 374 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Bruce, Samuel Jr/9 |
| Year | 1862 |
| Sender | Bruce, Samuel Jr |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | fisherman & hunter |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Quebec, Canada |
| Destination | Belfast, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Bruce, James |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | brothers |
| Source | T2919/1/30: Copied by Permission of Michael R. Bruce, Corriewood, Castlewellan |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland |
| Doc. No. | 9501104 |
| Date | 15/07/1862 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT/JW, 11:01:1995. |
| Word Count | 2341 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | To: James [Bruce?] [Belfast?] [County Antrim?] [Ireland?] From: Saml [Samuel?] Bruce jr. [Junior?] Mingan Camp, Quebec, Canada Mingan Camp. July 15th., 1862. My dear James, This must be a circular letter for the flies and mosquitoes are so bad that it will be as much as i can do to write one letter let alone two or three. The day after I sent my last letter to you I was joined here by a very nice fellow called Lamont who was travelling about in his yacht the "Ginevra", 140 tons, a schooner. He had come up from the West Indies to fish along the coast here, and was a good taken aback to find all the rivers let; however the Chief Factor of the H.B.C. [Hudson Bay Company?] at Mingan sent him up to me, and as I liked his looks I asked him to stay and fish the river with me, and I am very glad I did so as he turned out a very nice fellow and a capital sportsman, although he had not much luck here. He had rented the Namsen (the best river in Norway) for 3 years and had had splendid sport on it. When I say he rented the Namsen I mean part of it, for there are 20 miles of fishing on the Namsen. He had been on a sporting excursion into Central Africa and had shot Lions and all sorts of African wild beasts, and he had been on an expedition to Spitzbergen twice for shooting there and Walruss [Walrus?] hunting and has written a book about it called "Seasons with the Sea-Horses." which I think you would like. He is a Scotchman [Scotsman?] from Argyllshire and is altogether a very pleasant fellow and as unlike a Scotchman [Scotsman?] as anyone ever you saw. We used to go down sometimes to the yacht and have a comfortable evening away from the flies. Moisic [Moisie?], July 25th, 1862. I had commenced this letter some days ago, but I really could not write for the flies, so I must make extracts from my log-book and tell you as well as I can what I have been about. We got our first salmon on the 30th of June, when we killed two each. I shall not however give you here a long detailed account of our fishing as I send you a regular return of what I did. Lamont and I however knocked about fishing in the day and smoking at my tent door at night till the 5th of July; when we were getting very much disgusted at not getting more fish for the river had lots of fish in it, but they would not rise at all hardly, so we made up our minds to off the next day and see what the Normaine looked like. We started that afternoon intending to sleep on board the yacht and go on the next day in the long boat and fish the Normaine [Romaine?] and come back at night. On our way down river we met Howson, the man Dr. [Doctor?] Adamson had written to, to tell him about my being at Mingan and wanting someone to join me; he had just arrived from Quebec after a 14 days passage in an infernal little schooner. He came back with us to the yacht and slept on board and the next morning we all started for Normaine [Romaine?] but it came on to blow so hard we had to turn and go back to the yacht where we stayed all day as it rained awfully We went back to camp the next day to see if the rain would have improved the river at all when I had a very good morning's sport. I killed 7 salmon in about 3 hours and lost 4 others by Fortin's (my boatman) bad gaffing. I was very near kicking him out of the boat two or three times; one fish broke my rod striking him but I killed him so dead that he was lying at my feet in water 3 inches deep and I had hold of the casting line but the infernal fool hit the casting with the gaff and broke it so the fish got away of course; however he improved afterwards and latterly did not lose many fish. On the 9th of July Lamont went off in disgust with the river as it was so awfully uncertain and he had very bad luck. He was to go down to Normaine [Romaine?] the next day and come back to see us at the Fort and report on the river, but the day was so bad he was not able to get so far; however we went down in the evg. [evening?] and dined with him & slept on board the yacht and saw him under way for Scotland the next morg. [morning?] at 6 a.m. When at the Fort we met Capt. [Captain?] Fortin, commander of the Napoleon, a screw steamer of the Canadian Navy; he told us he would be here (Moisic [Moisie?]) today and that he would give us a passage up to Quebec with him if we were here, so here we are waiting for him. When he got back to camp after seeing Lamont off we found the river in such a flood that fishing was impossible for some days, but on 13th we went down to the mouth of the river and got some trout. We were very glad to get them as we were getting tired of salmon, and trout was a pleasant change. We made an excursion up the Manitou on the 20th., and had a fair day's sport; indeed the sport seemed to be getting good as we had to begin to talk of starting. I made out a list of my fishing which I send you; you will see by it that I have killed 52 Salmon, average weight 11 lb. [pound?], and my largest fish 20 lbs. [pounds?]. I am on the whole disappointed with my season but people tell me I should not be so as for the number of days we were able to fish we did very well, but I was very unlucky in weather and the fish were a fortnight later coming up the river than usual, and when they did come were very sluggish and sulky. I am now as you see at Moisic [Moisie?] waiting for the Napoleon to call for us which we hope she will do today or tomorrow at latest. We came down from Mingan in an open boat and very near shave we had of it. We started from Mingan at 9.30 with a nice fair wind the day before yesterday, intending to put in at Sheldrake harbour for the night, but we made Sheldrake sooner than we expected, and as we had still about 4 hours of daylight we went on intending to stop at another harbour some miles on, but before we got there the wind rose and an awful sea got up so that it was quite impossible to get in either to it or another harbour we tried for, so we had nothing for it but to run before the gale all night and carry as much sail as we could with safety to keep her out of the way of the seas breaking over us, for if one of those seas had come aboard of us we would have gone down like a stone. As it was nothing but first-rate management on the part of the boatman that got us through it at all. And then when we did get to Moisic [Moisie?] we could not get into the harbour for the sea which was on and the surf which was breaking over the bar of the river, so we tried to run for 7 islands [Sept Iles?], but we were beat there again and had to come back and try Moisic [Moisie?] again with the rising tide, when we got in and landed here, wet to the skin from a sea we had taken on board crossing the bar, and having eaten nothing but some bread and potted meat for 24 hours. However we are here now and precious glad we are of it, for I do not think one on board expected to get to land again, for a gale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in an open boat is no trifle, I can assure you. I have now told you all about my fishing that you would all care for, except about Howson who as I told came a few days before Lamont sailed. He is a Captain in the Canadian Rifles and is a very good fellow; I like him very much. His father is a great old foxhunter in Linconshire with the Duke of Rutland's hounds, and he is a cousin of Sir Richard Sutton, the late Master of the Quorn; he is a very good fellow and good sportsman. He & I killed fish for fish with each other after he came and as I had just 9 before he came, he had 43 & I had 52 when we left off. Howson had a magnificent tent where we used to get a fire lit in the evg. [evenings?] to smoke out the mosquitos and there we used to sit ans [and?] smoke on wet days and in the evgs [evenings?]. I had to have a fire in my tent too to keep the damp out and to smoke out the flies, but this was so much larger we always used it as a sitting room. I suppose you may hardly believe me but the day we left we slept at the Fort and sleeping in the house gave me an infernal cold; I had got so accustomed to sleeping out in a tent. However the next night at sea in the open boat set me all right again. Howson brought me letters from Quebec from you and Wm. Robt, [William Robert?] and Robt. [Robert?] Dunville. I have them packed away somewhere but I will see if there is anything to be answered before I send this letter. I was very glad to hear of such a good account of Sam. [Samuel?] Bruce; I hope he continues to go as well as he was. I was prevented from going to Anticosta to shoot bears as Howson was so late in coming and as the fishing was so late also, so we had to make the most we could out of it. However there have been bears seen close to this, and if tomorrow is a fine day the steamer is not here I shall go off for a hunt, but the Indians here are a cowardly set and I can cowardly set and I can hardly get them to come with me; if they will not I shall go off alone or with Fortin with me and lie out all night and watch for them, but I must get a shot if I can at one. Moisic [Moisie?], 29th July. I am still here; that infernal steamer called the other day, but the Captain said he had such a lot of places to call that he would not be in Quebec for a fortnight, so we are waiting for a schooner which will sail from this the day after tomorrow, and which will set us down at Niviere de Loup on the South Shore, where we can get a train to Quebec. I have been getting very anxious to get on as it will take me nearly 3 weeks to get to Red River and I should be there as soon after the 1st Sept. as possible. I shall not have time to go and see Uncle Frederick before I come back from the Far West, but I shall write him a note telling him that I am in the country. I went out on a bear hunt the other with a young fellow who is here with Mr. Holliday. We got an Indian to go with us and set off in the afternoon in a canoe about 5 miles up the river, where there is a portage. Here we crossed, the Indian carrying the canoe and by walking about 20 minutes cut off about 4 miles of river. We then crossed the river to where the bears were last seen and looked about for traces but we could find none at all; we then as it was getting dusk started down stream for where there was a bait set, but we could see nothing either at it or another bait which was set lower down, so as it quite dark we had to go back without having seen one at all. However I shall soon have lots of shooting I hope in the Far West; all chance is up for here now as the Indians are all off to their hunting-grounds this morning, and there is no way of getting up river and over the portage but in a canoe. It was a queer thing to see the Indians break up their camp here and start today; just before they started there was some delay, and we could not make out what they were waiting for, as the canoes were all loaded, when we saw 2 men & 2 women carrying something or other in a blanket by the corners. This was a woman who had been confined about 10 minutes before. The wigwam had been broken up but a few strips of bark to keep the sun off her, and as soon as the job was over they got her into a blanket and put her into a canoe and started at once, and tomorrow or the day after she will be hard at work again paddling the canoe and carrying her share of the baggage over all the portages. Quebec, Aug 8. Here I am arrived yesterday, and start for Montreal in an hour. I shall have a letter ready to send before I start for the West. Show this to R. [Robert?] Dunville. ever your Affec. [affectionate?] bro. [brother?] Saml. [Samuel?] Bruce jr. [Junior?] |
