Fantastic tales

This narrative is founded on a popular superstition
dating back to the days of the coureurs des bois, under
the French régime, and perpetuated among the
voyageurs in the Canadian Northwest. The shantymen
of a later date have taken up the tradition, and it is in
the French settlements, bordering the St. Lawrence
River, that the legends of la chasse-galerie are specially
well known at the present time. The writer has met
many an old voyageur who affirmed most positively
that he had seen bark canoes traveling in mid-air, full of
men paddling and singing away, under the protection of
Beelzebub, on their way from the timber camps of the
Ottawa to pay a flying visit to their sweethearts at
home.