In the winter time communication with the outside world was almost entirely suspended.  In case of emergency it was possible indeed to pass on snow shoes by Cap Tourmente, over which there was still no road, and so reach Quebec by the north shore.  But this was a severe journey to be undertaken only for grave cause.  Partly frozen over, and often with great floes of ice sweeping up and down with the tide, the river was dangerous; the south shore, lying so well in sight, was really very remote.  Yet news passed across the river.  On February 12th, 1797, Malcolm Fraser, who was on the south shore, found some means of sending a letter to Nairne.  Anxious to get word in return he planned a signal.  He said that on March 6th he would go to Kamouraska, just opposite Murray Bay, and build a fire.  If Nairne answered by one fire Fraser would be satisfied that nothing unusual had happened; if two fires were made he would understand that there was serious news and would wish as soon as possible to learn details.  Signalling across the St. Lawrence attained a much higher development than is found in Fraser’s crude plan.  Philippe Aubert de Gaspe tells how the people on the south shore could read what had happened on the north shore from Cap Tourmente to Malbaie.  On St. John’s eve, December 26th, the season of Christmas festivities, there was a general illumination.  Looking then across the river to a line of blazing fires the news was easily understood.  “At Les Eboulements eleven adults have died since the autumn, three of whom were in one house, that of Dufour.  All are well at the Tremblays; but at Bonneau’s some one is ill.  At Belairs a child is dead,”—­and so on.  The key is simple enough.  The situation of the fire would indicate the family to which it related.  A fire lighted and kept burning for a long time meant good news; when a fire burned with a half smothered flame it meant sickness; the sudden extinguishing of the fire was a sign of death; as many times as it was extinguished so many were the deaths; a large blaze meant an adult, a small one a child.  Before the days of post and telegraph these signals were used winter and summer; so great an obstacle to communication was the mighty tide of the St. Lawrence.[16]

At all seasons but especially in winter the news that reached Malbaie was of a very fragmentary character.  With his kin in Scotland Nairne exchanged only an annual letter but since each side took time and pains to prepare it, the letter told more, probably, than would a year’s bulk of our hurried epistles.  Newspapers were few and dear and only at intervals did any come.  Books too were scarce.  Occasionally Nairne notes those that he thought of buying—­St. Simon’s “Memoirs;” an account of the Court of Louis XIV; “A Comparative View of the State and Facultys of Man with those of the Animal World;” “Elegant Extracts or Useful and Entertaining passages in prose,” a companion volume to a similar one in poetry, and so on.