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National Geographic : 1967 May
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Oft-embattled capital of New France, green-roofed Quebec clusters by the river it ruled. Hotel Chateau Frontenac looks across the half-mile-wide St. Lawrence to Levis and Ile d'Orl6ans at left. Although more than once Radisson's beaver saved the near-bankrupt colony, the govern ment of New France-shortsighted and greedy -rewarded his exploits with huge fines for trading without a license. So Radisson de fected to the English and helped found the Hudson's Bay Company. Later he returned to the French fold; and then once again to the English. He died in obscurity, trusted by neither side. Now he lies somewhere in a grave unmarked and unremembered. The nations that owe him so much have never built a monument to that superb woods man. But in Trois Rivieres, where once he lived, a short street bears his name. I could do nothing else to pay my respects, so I walked the length of Rue Radisson. And I thought of how it must have been for that all-too-human Caesar, having to "lye down on the bare 652 ground, & not allwayes that hap, the breech in the watter, the feare in ye buttocks, to have the belly empty, the wearinesse in the bones and drowsinesse of ye body." The street ended shabbily at the railroad tracks. I left it and didn't look back. Sleep well, Pierre Esprit. Soviet Freighter Hurries the Season Just above Trois Rivieres, the St. Lawrence broadens into sluggish eight-mile-wide Lac St. Pierre. For the 20-mile length of this great, quiet pool, the current seems suspended, and ships chug complacently up and down the 800-foot-wide channel dredged through the middle. At least, they do in summer. Winter tells another story. Standing on the bridge of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Montcalm with Capt.
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