, Canada
1899 - Winter in Canada

Canada is so far north of our country that you might think of the winter as exceedingly cold and severe, and picture the Canadians shivering before great logs blazing in their open fireplaces. But such is not the case.

It is true the weather is at times intensely cold ; the thermometer falls to points so far below zero, as almost to frighten a citizen of the United States. But the skies are clear and blue ; the air is dry ; and the cold is so bracing that one is inspired to unusual outdoor exertions.

Here there are no fogs, sleet, slush, or east winds, such as make winter in some regions of the United States very unpleasant. There are rarely any sudden changes of weather. When the snow comes, it comes to stay ; and the Canadian boy, looking out at the first shining snowstorm of the season , realizes that three de lightful months of uninterrupted pleasure lie before him .

Winter in Canada begins in December. Christmas Day always finds the earth clad in its mantle of snow. The most intense winter days come in January. By the end of March, the winter is over in Ontario, and spring ploughing and planting begin with the coming of the warm April days. Spring is three weeks later in the more northern province of Quebec.

The Canadian rejoices in his winter. He would not change it for the sunny, flower -scented winters of Florida or of Spain. These three months are the crown of the year to him, for they are filled with most delightful and healthful pastimes, —with skating, sleighing, snow shoeing, tobogganing, and ice boating. Young and old are wild with excitement at the first snowstorm. The grandfather becomes as youthful as the grandchild, and joins as eagerly as any one in the sports of the hour.

Canada is the land where King Winter holds high court. In 1883 the first winter Carnival was held in Montreal, and it was such a success that almost every year since, a similar Carnival has taken place.

We will suppose that you are a bright, intelligent schoolboy from the United States, who is spending Car nival week in Montreal. What are some of the inter esting sights you would see, and what are some of the pleasant sports you would enjoy ? You, like many of your countrymen, have imagined that life in Canada during winter was a dead -and -alive sort of existence . So you are very much surprised by the glimpses of the city of Montreal that you catch on driving to your hotel.

Every one seems to be outdoors and enjoying himself. Skaters are on the river, gliding to and fro ; graceful sleighs, furnished with buffalo robes, and carrying bright, rosy faces, speed past you ; jingling bells and snatches of song and laughter are the sounds that greet your ears. Every one seems to be having a thoroughly jolly time.

On Monday evening, the first night of the Carnival, the whole city goes to Dominion Square to see the illumination of the Ice Palace. This is a great build ing which is made entirely of ice and snow. The blocks of ice used in making it are four feet long by two wide. They are cemented together by snow , and then water is pumped over the whole, so that the palace is frozen into a firm , compact structure. If any one wished to separate the ice into blocks again, he would have to saw them apart. The palace is square, with square towers at each corner, and a larger tower, one hundred feet high, in the centre.

In the sunlight or the moonlight, the Ice Palace is a wonderfully dazzling sight. And now , on this inauguration night, illuminated by electricity, it is marvelously beautiful. It seems to you like a fairy palace, which the wand of some powerful magician has called into being. Purple, green , crimson, and gold lights are burned within , and in their radiance the palace looks like glass. It is like a brilliant bubble or a rainbow ; and, almost unconsciously, you hold your breath for fear the slightest motion of the air will cause the magic structure to vanish.

The snow begins to fall, but the crowd still linger in front of the Ice Palace, as if expecting something. You decide to wait, too, and soon from far away you hear the tramp, tramp, tramp, of human feet. The steady sound is like the march of an army. Presently fifteen hundred men on snowshoes march into the square, each carrying a torch in one hand and a Roman candle, shooting off brilliant lights, in the other. It is a procession of snowshoe clubs.

Each company has a differently colored dress, which forms the badge of the club. First, marches the oldest club of all, the Montreal, known by the blue cap . The St. George follows; then come the Emerald, St. Andrews, Prince of Wales Rifles, Mount Royal, and the representatives of the snowshoe clubs at Ottawa and Quebec.

The costume of the snowshoers consists of a blanket coat, reaching halfway to the knees, and short blanket trousers. The blankets are white, bordered with stripes of various bright colors. They are made up with the stripes edging the coat. A sash is wound around the waist many times and knotted over the hips. A hood, very much like the hoods worn by the monks of the Middle Ages, hangs midway down the back of the coat. That is merely for ornament, as the real covering for the head is a conical, knit cap, ornamented with a tassel at the top. It is worn low over the ears, and is allowed to droop on one side . Thick gloves or mittens, long stockings, and moccasins, together with the snow shoes, complete the suit.

The costumes of the various clubs differ from one another merely in the colors chosen . The dress is always of the same material and make.

The purple and white costume of the St. George Club is very pretty . The stripes on the coat and hood, the sash, stockings, and mittens are purple. The remainder of the suit is white. The cap has wide purple and white stripes, with a purple tassel. A purple St. George's cross adorns the chest.

The snowshoer's costume is very warm and convenient, and is the dress worn by tobogganers as well. Ladies are often members of these clubs. Their dress is like that of the men, except that their coat is a long ulster reaching to the ankles.

All this time the procession has been winding around and through the palace, which, by the light of torches and fireworks, appears more splendid than ever. Now , followed by a portion of the crowd, it leaves the city, and winds away through dark , quiet roads to pine-clad Mount Royal. The procession resembles a fiery serpent, as it curves in and out among the trees ; now pausing to wait for the stragglers, and now pressing on again sturdily. At last it reaches the summit, and, waving its lights to signal good by to those watching far below, it vanishes on the other side of the mountain.

You gaze upward fascinated, long after the lights have gone. You still hear the hoo-oo-oo of the snowshoers, and the crunch of the wet snow under the feet of the sturdy Canadians. What fine, strong, athletic fellows they are ! You admire them with your whole soul, and resolve that, if you can, you will learn to use snow shoes, and will join them on their next tramp over the country.

You obtain a pair of snowshoes, and wisely spend an hour in studying them before attempting to use them . Roughly speaking, their shape is like that of a tennis racket. They are about four feet long.

A strip of tough ash, about three- quarters of an inch thick, is bent to form an oval, and the ends are strongly bound together. These ends form the heel of the snowshoe. The shape of the shoe is kept by means of two crosspieces, one near the front of the shoe, the other near the heel. The whole interior is then covered by a strong network of raw hide. Just back of the first crosspiece is an open space about three or four inches square. This is where the toes come when the shoe is on, and, owing to the absence of the network, they can move up and down as freely as in ordinary walking. The shoe is fastened to the foot by straps of deerskin .

The snow most common in the United States is very moist. It is the kind useful in making snowballs and snow forts, and is called by schoolboys, sticky snow. Although this kind of snow sometimes does fall in Canada, yet the kind with which the people are most familiar differs very much from this .

It is dry, hard, and gritty. Roll in it, and, on rising, it can be shaken off as easily as grains of sand. When your mother sweeps a room , she sometimes sprinkles wet tea leaves on the carpet. The dust clings to the leaves, and both are brushed up together. In Canada, they use snow instead of tea leaves, when sweeping rooms. It can be brushed up as easily as sand.

However convenient this kind of snow may be at times, it is very difficult to walk upon, as it rarely forms a crust. It is so very mealy and yielding that it cannot support the weight of a man . The Indians, forced to hunt for food in all seasons, invented the snowshoe, by means of which the weight is thrown upon and supported by a larger surface than it is in the ordinary walking boot. The Canadians have adopted it, and it now makes walking after a heavy snowstorm a delightful possibility.

In attempting to use snowshoes you make the usual mistake of keeping the feet too far apart, and of walking with unnatural movements. But after several tumbles into snowdrifts, you learn to move the feet just as in ordinary walking, merely lifting one snowshoe up and over the other.

A few hours' practice enables you to feel fairly confident in your powers, and arouses an eager longing for the day of the tramp of the St. George Club, which you have been asked to join.

At three o'clock on the appointed day, you find a throng of eager fellows in the McGill College grounds. Some are chatting gaily, some are examining the straps of their snowshoes, others are studying the weather, and consulting about the prospects of a storm before night. At length the captain gives the signal, and they march out of the city.

When they have arrived at the crossroads, where the deeper snow is found, a halt is ordered . Here the snow shoes, which have been slung on the backs, are put on, and in single file the procession moves on again. And now, with shouts and halloos, the club breaks into a wild run across the country .

You and a few others, who are taking a first run to day, are left far in the rear. An officer called the whipper-in ,” whose duty it is to assist the laggards, keeps near by to encourage you.

There are scores of fences to be climbed in the course of the tramp. The freshest of the club vault the fence at a run ; some climb pantingly over ; while a few catch their shoes in the bars and fall headlong into the deep drifts. Then what shouts of good -natured laughter arise, poor fellows are drawn out by the heels !

The course is now over a level plain . The captain orders the company to charge it ; and with a wild hur rah, away they go, as fleet as the wind. They seem to be beside themselves with excitement and delight in the snow. Gray-haired men leap fences like boys, while others attempt a race with a locomotive. The horses on the road are frightened by their shouts, but the snow shoers are lost to everything but their own pleasure.

At last, in the gray January twilight, they arrive at the little inn where they are to rest and take supper, before returning.

Snowshoes are thrown off ; snowy coats and caps are beaten and piled in corners ; the icicles hanging from beards and mustaches are melted ; and all due preparation for supper is made. What an appetite every one has ! The hot joints of meat are soon disposed of, and the weary snowshoers throw themselves down to rest a few on sofas and chairs, but the majority on the floor before the blazing fire .

Then a curious entertainment begins . The whole party sing one of their choruses, and then different members of the club are called upon to sing, dance, and tell stories.

And now they proceed to “ bounce “ you and the other newcomers . Two lines are formed, and those at the top take a firm grip of your clothes, telling you to “ hold yourself as rigid as possible.” You are a little frightened, and close your eyes, as you find yourself jerked down the line, and caught in the arms of those at the end. Then you are sent back in the same man ner ; and when , very much bewildered, you are set upon your feet again, you conclude that, after all, “ bounc ing ” was pretty good fun.

Finally there is a consultation of watches, and all rise to sing “ God save the Queen,” the national song which always closes an evening's entertainment. Coats and snowshoes are slipped on ; and, with a ringing cheer to the little inn and its hospitable keeper, the club troop homeward under the clear, blue sky and brilliant stars.

However popular snowshoeing may be, skating is truly the national sport of Canada. This will not seem strange to any one who thinks of the great frozen sur faces of the country, —the St. Lawrence and its five Great Lakes.

During the Carnival, races and skating contests take place on the river. The spectators stand about on the ice , just beyond the course marked for the skaters. First comes a two-mile race on skates, followed by a quarter-mile backward race ; then a hurdle race ; and then a barrel race.

A hurdle is something like a barred gate, with all the bars except the top one removed. The hurdles are placed along the course, and the skaters are obliged to leap them in the race . You would suppose that, with their feet, they could never be successful, or, if they cleared the hurdle at all, they would fall in a heap upon the other side. But many of the skaters are wonderfully proficient in this art. They skate along at full speed, leap the hurdle, alight on their skates, and move along as swiftly as before. Many of them look very funny as they jump. Some double up with their head and knees together, while others lean so far to one side as to seem to have lost their balance.

The barrel race for boys is still more amusing. Common barrels with the heads removed are placed on the ice, at certain distances apart, along the race course, for a quarter of a mile. Then, at a given signal, all the boys skate for the first barrel. Many reach it together, and there is considerable of a scramble to get through the barrel. A skater has to pass through every barrel on the ice to win the race. Sometimes a barrel turns around while a boy is working his way through it. The boy is confused on coming out, and skates away in just the wrong direction, until, through the laughter of the spectators, he discovers his blunder. How the boys and the barrels bob about while the race is going on !

There are two kinds of skating rinks, -the covered and the open . The open skating rink has no roof. On clear, bright nights it is much more thronged than the covered rink . How beautiful the sight as you look up and see the dark blue sky and the bright, twinkling stars overhead ! The skating rinks inclose acres of clear, level ice, and are illuminated with electric lights. Seats are arranged for spectators around the sides of the building, fountains sparkle here and there, and the changing throng of skaters is a fascinating picture.

The Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal is the largest covered skating rink in Canada. On the evening after the inauguration of the Ice Palace, you and your friends attend the masquerade given there.

On entering the rink you are dazzled by the great expanse of smooth, carefully scraped ice. Several acres of ice are inclosed by the great walls of the rink. In the centre is built a small copy of the Ice Palace in Dominion Square. It is lit by electric and colored lights, and fountains play within its walls. The spectators ' seats are crowded, and it is with difficulty that you secure a place.

Presently the band begins to play, and throngs of skaters glide from the cosey dressing rooms out upon the ice . Every one wears a mask, and is arrayed in some fancy dress, grotesque, interesting, or beautiful.

Here are characters illustrating the early history of Canada, —Jacques Cartier, Champlain, Montcalm , and many others. Steel-clad warriors, countesses in silk and satin, and Indians in paint and wampum, mingle with delicate fairies, fiends clad in red jerseys and armed with frightful horns, and animals from fairyland. Here is our friend Bruin in shaggy fur, skating away as if that were the usual means by which bears journeyed across the country. Here is Red Riding-Hood hand in hand with the wolf. See that child in quaint Highland dress. The plaid stockings are as becoming to the sturdy legs as is the Scotch cap and feather to the curly hair. Queen Elizabeth passes, arm in arm with a humble shepherdess.

Fascinated by the pretty sight, you gaze long at the shifting scene, which is rendered more beautiful by its perfect reflection in the mirror of ice below . What is it that comes lumbering this way ? It is an elephant. It is the immortal Jumbo ! Two fine skaters are representing him. Their disguise is capital; for Jumbo appears as natural as life, and seems quite at home on the ice .

Now the music changes to a lively waltz, and the skaters take part in the dance with perfect ease and grace. A square dance follows. Some of the skaters give an exhibition of fancy skating in a less crowded corner of the rink.

While watching them , you wonder if anywhere in the world there are their equals. You doubt it . A maypole, decked with colored ribbons, is set up on the ice . A dozen of the best skaters seize the ends of the ribbons, and waltz about the pole to the sound of music, until all the ribbons have been wound around it .

At nine o'clock the masks are removed, and the merry, laughing faces of the skaters are revealed. Prizes are then awarded to those wearing the most historically correct or most ideally beautiful costumes. When the band plays “ God save the Queen ,” at the close of the entertainment, you realize that one of the most enjoyable of the Carnival evenings is at an end.

But there are plenty of other joys remaining, among them the sleighing. The Russians are the people most devoted to sleighing in the Old World, and the Canadians in the New. The Canadian roads are hard and perfectly adapted to sleighing throughout the winter. There are no sudden changes of weather, which make runners necessary one day and wheels the next. The ordinary sleigh, or cutter, is a very pretty vehicle. It has slender, delicately curved runners, and a beautifully shaped, yet commodious body.

An afternoon ride in Great St. James Street, during Carnival time, is thoroughly enjoyable. All the fine equipages are out, and everywhere are seen handsome sleighs, prancing horses, and fine liveries.

There are sleighing clubs in Montreal and other cities of Canada. These clubs, like the snowshoeing clubs, have their meeting places, their excursions into the open country, their jolly suppers or dinners at some distant little inn , and their gay moonlight returns to the city. The Tandem Club is one of the noted of the sleighing clubs of Montreal.

The Canadian is indebted to the Indian , not only for the snowshoe, but also for the toboggan . On snow shoes the Indian is able to follow the deer into its deepest forest retreats, and, after he has brought down his prey , to draw it home on his toboggan. This is a kind of sled, built so that it can move over the lightest and most powdery snow without sinking.

In making the toboggan, two pieces of basswood six feet long and two feet wide are planed down to one quarter of an inch in thickness ; they are steamed to make them flexible ; and then they are fastened together by four or five bars of wood. One end is curved upward and backward like the dashboard of a sleigh , and is held in this position by wires. Two thin strips of wood are fastened along the sides, and the toboggan is complete, so far as its Indian maker is concerned. The Canadian purchaser adds a cushion .

The toboggan can be used on any hillside; but as there are apt to be inequalities in the surface of a hill, artificial slides are also built. The toboggan slide on Mount Royal, which is thronged during Carnival time, is artificial. It consists of a steep inclined plane, built of logs and planks and covered with ice . Up one side of the slide, steps are cut for the tobogganers to climb while drawing their toboggans after them . There is a small platform at the top, where one can place his toboggan in position, and seat himself before taking the desperate plunge.

A Canadian boy has asked you to go tobogganing this evening. The slide is a cheerful sight. Torches are stuck in the snow on each side of the slide ; while here and there are huge bonfires, about which gather gay groups of young men and women. Most of them are attired in the blanket suits of the snowshoers.

As you climb upward, and see the toboggans dash ing down the perilous incline, you almost repent of your promise to your friend. It seems as if every one was going to destruction. Here and there are seen the pale, frightened faces of visitors who are taking their first slide ; and you are sure that they will never be seen or heard of again . But in a few moments they appear, climbing up to the top, eager to try it again.

This encourages you. Your friend invites you to take the front seat, carefully looks to see that there is no dragging end of a coat or sash, gives the toboggan a short, strong push, leaps on , and you are off.

Now you are falling into space ! Your breath is whisked from your body ! Fragments of snow and ice dash themselves against you ; you are forced to hide your face behind your knees. Then you look up. What are those black objects flying by like rockets on one side ? They must be tobogganers climbing up to the top of the slide . Then you are still on the slide after all. No, not on the slide, but at the bottom ; for, in another second, with a long, slow , creeking glide, the toboggan comes to a standstill. You catch your breath, rise, and look about you.

Far away up in the air stand tiny, black figures. They are the people at the top of the slide, whom you left just half a minute ago. Your friend still holds the two small “ steering sticks. " By sticking their metal points into the snow from time to time, he has directed your mad flight. He turns, and asks if you are ready for one more ride .

You give a relieved smile. " One more ! A dozen, if you please,” you say, and, seizing the toboggan rope, you hurry up the hill, only too eager, now that the first desperate plunge has been taken safely, to enjoy the delightful sport for hours.

“ Oh , yes ! it is very fair fun , ” says your friend, in answer to your enthusiastic praises of the sport. “Very fair indeed ! But you should try a real hill to know what tobogganing is ! Here there are no hollows in the slide to give the toboggan desperate jounces and leaps into the air. Those we find on the Côte St. An toine Slide. That has a descent of two thousand feet, and then a glide across the lowlands at the foot of the hill of several hundred yards.

“ But after all, the very finest toboggan slide I ever saw was at Montmorency Falls, near Quebec. You see, the spray, dashing upward from the foot of the falls, freezes in winter into a perfect cone over eighty feet high. Then the slide is not only down the cone, but across the St. Lawrence as well. That is toboggan ing indeed .”

The newest of the sports of Canada is ice boating. But if you wish to see this in its perfection, you must leave Montreal and its gay Carnival doings, and journey to one of the towns of Southern or Western Ontario.

The frosts in this region are very sharp and keen . The ice formed on lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario stretches outward from the shore for some miles. On this shore ice, and on the frozen rivers, ice boating is pursued.

The ice boat consists of a triangular framework of wood, held in shape by several crosspieces. A small box, constituting a kind of cabin to this novel yacht, is fastened upon the framework . A mast, for the sup port of a few sails, is set well forward . Each of the three points of the triangular ice boat is set upon a steel runner, something like the blade of a skate ; and, pro pelled by the winds that blow against its canvas, the ice boat skates along over its glassy way. There is a small metal rudder for steering, which acts upon the ice something like a brake.

Next to a balloon or a railroad train , the ice boat is the swiftest means of traveling. Indeed, under favor able circumstances it can hold its own for a short time with a railroad train. Its average rate of speed is from twenty to twenty -five miles an hour.

Whirled along at this speed, you feel yourself grow colder and colder. You are curled up in the little box, with warm fur robes piled above you ; but they afford slight protection. The keen wind cuts through every wrap like a knife . The boat speeds on. It is charming to watch her as she moves, first with one blade in the air, and then with two. Rarely are all three blades moving upon the ice at once.

Under any but very skilful pilotage, the boat would come to grief. An incautious movement of the rudder, the spreading of an unnecessary sail, or the catching of a runner in a rough bit of ice, would be apt to wreck the unstable little craft. It needs a quick eye and a steady hand to pilot her safely on her course . But it is with ice boating as it is with tobogganing, the very dangers which are involved in it are its chief recommendation .

These sports are pursued by young and old all through the keen, but profoundly enjoyed winter. As a result of all these hardy exercises, the Canadians are a robust, happy, healthful people. Care does not seem to make the fathers of families grow old as early in life as in our own country. Boys who take prizes in the snowshoeing or skating contests often please their par ents quite as much as if they had won a prize for good scholarship.

The girls are strong, healthy creatures, quite as much interested in outdoor sports as the boys. They steer toboggans, skate, and go on long snowshoe tramps with a right good will.

Nervous invalids from our country and Europe find themselves cured on passing an active winter in Canada. And, in short, all who have been there in Carnival time will say that Canada is the winter paradise of the world.


The World and Its People, Book IV, Our American Neighbors by Fanny E Coe, 1899, Page 49-67

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