Washika (40 page)

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Authors: Robert A. Poirier

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c'est rien
: it's nothing. Don't worry about it.

cÃ©libataire
: a single man or woman.

Chemin de Notre-Dame
: Notre Dame Street.

collÃ¨ge
: A Catholic college where children were taught at both primary and secondary levels.

commissions
: errands.

coup de foudre
: love at first sight. (literally: a lightning strike)

crochet
: hook. A curved metal hook, wide at one end with a handle of wood or metal. The pointed part of the hook has an L-shaped figure at the extreme end of the point. Men could lift and manipulate the four-foot pulp logs with it.

crosseuses
: from the slang word
crosser
meaning, “to masturbate.”

Ãglise de Saint-Germain
: Saint-Germain church.

Ã©tudiants
: students

et bien
: oh well.

et misÃ¨re
: oh damn, or some such expression to lament one's wretchedness or misery.

gaffe
: a blunder.

hein
?: eh?

la cabane:
the hut; the name of the tavern where Henri's father spent his Saturday mornings.

maman:
mom.

merci
: thank you.

merci monsieur:
thank you sir.

monsieur
(name): mister (name); plural,
messieurs

non merci
: no thank you.

papa
: dad.

petites amÃ©ricaines
: young American girls.

relÃ¨ve
: next generation.

sage
: wise

salut
: hi

van
: a store within the camp office where soft drinks, chocolate bars, tobacco and papers, leather boot laces and wool socks, etc. were sold.
vraiment libre
: really free.

English Words and Expressions
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beaver dog: usually a small breed of dog used by trappers to locate a beaver hut entrance or trail to the hut entrance. The dog's keen sense of smell allowed it to locate the beaver through snow and/or ice.

Beaver on floats: a de Havilland single-engine bush plane fitted with floats to be able to land on lakes or rivers. The Beaver was the most popular bush plane used during the time period of this novel.

boom timbers: squared timbers (often B.C. Fir), more than twenty feet long with holes bored at both ends to allow for the passage of boom chains. The chains joined the boom timbers together to form a sort of corral around the logs to be towed by tugboats. The tugboats would tow the boom down the lakes or reservoirs to the nearest dam and, from there, the logs floated downstream to the mills. If the tugboat was unable to tow the boom with its engine only, the captain would drop anchor at a great distance from the boom. The tug would then return to where the logs were and hook onto the boom. Then with tug engine working and the winch pulling the tug towards the anchor, the tug would haul the boom downstream.

Cabonga: pronounced, Cabunga. The name comes from the Algonquin
kakibonga
meaning, “completely blocked by sand.” This refers to the great expanse of beach sand surrounding the waters of the Cabonga Reservoir.

chore boy: a yard man in the camp, responsible for the smooth running of the camp.

cookee: a bush-camp cook's assistant.

drive (or river drive): collecting logs cut during the winter months and dumped into rivers or large lakes (reservoirs) in the spring. The logs are floated down river or towed down lakes leading to a river in booms. The logs are then directed along rivers to pulp-and-paper mills downstream.

drive boats: long wooden double-bowed boats often used by workers while maneuvering the logs with their pike poles.

fly oil: insect repellent. From the QuÃ©bÃ©cois slang word,
huile Ã mouche
.

mackinaw: short (usually plaid) coat of thick wool; also called a bush jacket, the red-plaid version is often used by hunters and bush workers.

pÃ gwÃ shka
: Algonquin word meaning, “a place where a body of water is shallow,” very appropriate for PÃ gwÃ shka Bay in this novel.

peavey: stout wooden handle (about four or five feet long) with a sharp metal point at one end and a movable metal hook just below the point. The peavey is used in maneuvering logs, especially rolling larger logs. The pointed end is driven into a log and, as the handle is moved forward, the pointed hook grabs onto the log below where the pointed end is. The worker can then roll the log forward. (NOTE: the “cant hook” is similar to the peavey with one exception: instead of a pointed metal end, there is a double set of short metal teeth at the extremity with a movable metal hook below this point.)

pike pole: a long (about six feet) wooden pole fitted with a double metal point at one end. The metal point consists of a single spear point plus a hook point perpendicular to the latter. The pike pole is used for manipulating logs in water. The spear point is used to move logs forward and the hook point, to pull them towards the worker.

pulpwood: mostly spruce and balsam logs, four feet long, used in the production of paper. Other logs on the drive consist of twelve and sixteen-foot logs used in saw mills for lumber.

rubby: a drunk, an alcoholic.

Russel: a two-cylinder tugboat, of a smaller size, used most often inside and around pockets of boom timbers. The boat's caged-in propeller allowed it to work in among the logs without problems.

scaler: a forestry company employee whose task is to measure logs (length, diameter, cubic feet, etc.) after they have been cut and before they have been sent down river during the drive. The company can thus determine the amount to pay loggers and what stock is available prior to the drive.

sweep: the final operation of a log drive. After all of the logs (floating) on the lakes or reservoirs have been rounded up and delivered to the nearest river that will take them to a pulp and paper mill or sawmill, workers on the sweep are sent out to search the bays and swamps for stray or entangled logs.

timber cruise: before aerial photos were used to assess the amount of wood available, people on the “timber cruise” would go through a stand of trees and could calculate the number of feet of timber that could be harvested.

washika: pronounced, “Washeeka.” The area used to be referred to as Washega Bay. The Algonquin word
washega
means a natural clearing in a forest or shoreline. The change to “Washika” probably took place after the arrival of French-speaking lumberjacks.

Zippo: a very popular cigarette lighter during the period of this novel; extremely wind-proof, inexpensive, and available in the vans at most of the lumber camps.

I
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Many of these words were used in the forestry industry in QuÃ©bec during the time period of this novel; the rivers were highways, used earlier by fur traders and later by loggers.

Acknowledgements

F
irst off, I would like to thank two people without whom this book would never have left the confines of my little cabin near the woods. I am especially indebted to Mary Bialek who has read and reread the novel, I don't know how many times, and probably typed as many pages of notes and suggestions for me. Without her support and the patience and encouragement I have received from Robin Philpot, my publisher, this book would certainly not be what it is today. To both of these people, I humbly say,
Kichi MÃ¬gwech.
I would also like to thank Julia Philpot for her illustration and photos.

I wish to offer many thanks to my friend Mr. Gaston Lavoie of Maniwaki, QuÃ©bec, for his technical support and salvation each time my antiquated computer decided to manifest an independent life of its own.

Thank you to my longstanding friend Douglas Gagnon for allowing us to use his photographs of tugboats that were once part of the annual log drives on both the Cabonga and the Baskatong Reservoirs.

Finally, I would like to say
Kichi MÃ¬gwech
to my friend Dean Ottawa of Kitigan Zibi AnishinÃ beg for the cover painting of this novel.