Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
this place, is named 'Rivière des Prairies' rolls its deep and impetuous
waters up to the end of the island, where it joins those of the Saint
Lawrence. A forest of beautiful trees respected by time and the peasant's axe,
covers a large expanse of the sloping shore. A few, partly uprooted by the
force of the current, bend over the waters, and seem to see their reflection in
the limpid crystal that bathes their feet. A rich lawn stretches like a beautiful
carpet under these trees whose tufted tops offer shade impenetrable by the
sun's ardours.]
The vast space ('grande étendue') of the verbal canvas is one of beauty
and harmony more than of violence and destruction. Despite the natu-
ral corrosiveness of time and the invasion of the farmer's axe, even
those trees most threatened by the force of the current are reflected in
the crystal waters bathing their feet, the personification, like the meta-
phor invoking the 'beau tapis vert' serving to humanize and harmonize
the scene for the spectator, whose presence is already implied by the
shade 'offered' by the forest as shelter from the ardours of the sun. We
are, indeed, far removed from the 'wilderness' or 'la grande nature' (see
Sirois, 'De l'idéologie'), and the next paragraph in
La terre paternelle
in-
dicates to what extent 'nature' has been socialized by economic forces:
'L'industrie a su autrefois tirer parti du cours rapide de cette rivière,
dont les eaux alimentent encore aujourd'hui deux moulins.' (28; In the
past, industry managed to take advantage of the rapid flow of this river,
whose waters still today power two mills.)
The following paragraph brings nature and culture together by em-
phasizing their peaceful coexistence, in a presentation that is increas-
ingly painterly:
Le bourdonnement sourd et majestueux des eaux; l'apparition inattendue
d'un large radeau chargé de bois entraîné avec rapidité, au milieu des cris
de joie des hardis conducteurs; les habitations des cultivateurs situées sur
les deux rives opposées, à des intervalles presque réguliers, et qui se déta-
chent agréablement sur le vert sombre des arbres qui les environnent, for-
ment le coup d'œil le plus satisfaisant pour le spectateur. Ce lieu charmant
ne pouvait pas manquer d'attirer l'attention des amateurs de la belle na-
ture; aussi, chaque année, pendant la chaude saison, est-il le rendez-vous
d'un grand nombre d'habitants de Montréal, qui viennent s'y délasser,
pendant quelques heures, des fatigues de la semaine, et échanger l'atmos-
phère lourde et brûlante de la ville, contre l'air pur et frais qu'on y respire.
[28; The heavy majestic hum of the waters; the unexpected appearance of
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