0} be. But
even more remarkable are the sea terms universally current among the
French Canadians, who come from the seafaring branch of a race of
landsmen. Under the French regime the army officers used to say they
felt as if they were on board a man-of-war as long as they stayed in
Canada. The modern Parisian may think the same to-day when he is told
how to steer his way about the country roads by the points of the
compass. The word _lanterne_ is unknown, for the nautical _fanal_
invariably takes its place. The winter roads are marked out by 'buoys'
(_balises_), and if you miss the 'channel' between them you may 'founder'
(_caler_) and then become a 'derelict' (completely _degrade_). You must
_embarquer_ into a carriage and _debarquer_ out of it. A cart is
_radou'ee_, as if repaired in a dockyard. Even a well-dressed woman is
said to be _bi'n gre-yee_, that is, she is 'fit to go foreign.' Horses
are not tied but moored (_amarres_); enemies are reconciled by being
re-moored (_ramarres_); and the Quebec winter is supposed to begin with a
'broadside' of snow on November 25 (_la bordee de la Sainte-Catherine_).

No wonder Canadian French and English speech is full of sea terms. Even
when the {11} Canadians themselves forget, as they are very apt to do,
the indispensable naval side of sea-power, they can account for most
kinds of nauticality by their economic history, which all depended,
directly or indirectly, down to the smallest detail, on the mercantile
marine--especially if we give the name of mercantile marine its
justifiable extension so as to cover all the craft that ply on inland
waterways as well as those that cross the sea. It is calculated at the
present day that it is as easy to move a hundred tons by water as ten
tons by rail or one ton by road; and this rule, in spite of many local
exceptions, is fairly correct in practice, especially as distances
increase. Now, Canada is a country of great distances; and by land she
once was in nearly every part, and she still is in a few parts, a country
of obstructive wilds. What, then, must have been the advantage of water
carriage over land carriage when there was neither road nor rail? As
even pack-horses were not available in the early days, and good roads
were few and only established by very slow degrees, it is well within the
mark to say that the sum-total of advantage in favour of water over land
carriage, up to a time which old men can remember, must