More About the Tapis

Found a great resource regarding voyageurs  The Voyageur by Grace Lee Nute, it’s not a new book, the copy I have is a Reprint Edition by the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul 1955.  Here’s what the author says about the tapis, I love the choice of words….”They were decked out with gaudy saddle cloths, fringed and embroidered in the most fantastic manner, with innumerable small bells and feathers.  Many of the voyageur’s hard-earned piastres were squandered on the trappings of his train of dogs.  Usually four dogs constituted a train, pulling five or six hundred pounds and traveling forty to seventy miles per day.  Their sleds were made of two oak boards securely fastened by cross pieces and planed thin at one end.  By a process of steaming the end was rolled to enable the dogs to pull it more easily over rough country.  These sleds wee about ten feet long and sixteen to eighteen inches wide.  The guide usually preceded the leading train, and on him rested the responsibility for keeping to the route.”  Nute also confirms what others have said on this thread, that the early voyageurs were indeed French Canadians…the Métis came later and they did assume a very significant role in the fur trade and also toiled as voyageurs.