of the river. This was only natural, for the great waterway
formed the colony's carotid artery, supplying the life-blood
of all New France so far as communications were concerned.
From seigneury to seigneury men traversed it in canoes
or bateaux in summer, and over its frozen surface they
drove by carriole during the long winters. Every one
wanted to be in contact with this main highway, so that
the demand for farms which should have some river frontage,
however small, was brisk from the outset. Near the river
the habitant began his clearing and built his house.
Farther inland, as the lands rose from the shore, was
the pasture; and behind this again lay the still uncleared
woodland. When the colony built its first road, this
thoroughfare skirted the north shore of the St Lawrence,
and so placed an even greater premium on farms contiguous
to the river. It was only after all the best lands with
river frontage had been taken up that settlers resorted
to what was called 'the second range' farther inland.

Now it happened that in thus adapting the shape of grants
to the immediate convenience and caprice of the habitants
a curious handicap was in the long run placed upon
agricultural progress. By the terms of the Custom of
Paris, which was the common law of the colony, all the
children of a habitant's family, male and female, inherited
equal shares of his lands. When, therefore, a farm was
to be divided at its owner's decease each participant in
the division wanted a share in the river frontage. With
large families the rule, it can easily be seen that this
demand could only be met by shredding the farm into mere