Documents found
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445.More information
Drift ice has a double effect in tidal marshes along the eastern shore of James Bay (51°09' - 54°37' Lat. N.). First, they cut off most stems, scratch the vegetated and soil surface digging long furrows and shallow circular depressions, and tear away peat blocks producing depressions, 15 to 30 cm in depth, and of various forms and sizes. Secondly, at breakup, they left at the surface of marshes a large amount of coarse detrital material ranging from the size of large boulders, often exceeding 200 cm in diameter, to the size of fines, including sand and gravel, and peat blocks. Generally speaking, the morpho-sedimentological aspects of tidal marshes are strongly modified by drift ice, which controls their ecology and allows one to classify them into the category defined as "cold regions tidal marshes".
Keywords: Glaces flottantes, sédimentologie, schorres, géomorphologie, écologie, Baie de James, Nouveau-Québec, Drift ice, Sedimentology, Shore, Geomorphology, Ecology, James Bay, Nouveau-Québec
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446.More information
AbstractIn the second half of XVIIth century, during the reign of Louis XIV, there was a spectacular increase in the number of voyages, and of narratives made about them. Among these, the narrative of commercial voyage occupies an important place. Travellers like Tavernier (Six voyages of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier…, 1676), and Chardin (Journal du chevalier Chardin en Perse et aux Indes orientales, 1686), both expert jewellers, typify the cultivated and daring trader representative of this period. Working for their own fortune, these travellers are also in phase with the national ambition of conquest. The commercial venture is heightened by an ideological ennoblement, and the trader of higher stature, suddenly becomes a protagonist. With him, the real world, generally absent from XVIIth century literature, comes to the fore : money as a tool to social climbing is everywhere. But the commercial voyage also serves to valorise the concepts of trade, work and effort. Beyond that, one witnesses the literary promotion of certain «middle-class» values, which had been until then rather marginal. The narrative often becomes tangible proof of a social and material success and a sum of knowledge, with intellectual and material profit becoming equals.
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447.More information
ABSTRACTBy virtue of their internal contradictions, and a number of narrative " holes ", Louis Hennepin's Description de la Louisiane (1683) and his Nouvelle Decouverte (1697), which relate the Recollect missionary's participation in the Mississippi-Valley explorations organized by Cavelier de La Salle from 1678 to 1681, are often considered to be unreliable sources, riddled with mistakes or even untruths. This paper argues instead that the narratives' contradictions and silences may have been deliberate rhetorical devices aimed at masking some of the missionary's or the explorer's more dubious actions. In particular, when the two relations are examined in conjunction with other sources, such as La Salle's letters, they suggest new hypotheses about the canoe sent by La Salle in 1689. More generally, this close literary analysis of Hennepin's texts invites historians to reconsider and revisit what amount to rich, information-laden sources.
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448.More information
At the zenith of his life, the baron Pierre-Joseph-Victor de Besenval de Brünstatt (1721-1791), after having distinguished himself in battle under the reign of Louis XV as a colonel in the regiment of Swiss guards, had become the most seasoned courtier of Versailles. Assiduous member of Marie-Antoinette’s entourage, witty and attractive, he excelled in the two arts which were the mainstays of the Queen’s coterie at the Trianon château: the art of conversation and that of gallantry. Besenval had a prevailing passion; he was one of the finest art collectors of his time. In the aftermath of the storming of the Bastille, a momentous event he could not prevent despite commanding the Royal troops in Paris, he left the capital hastily, was caught, imprisoned, judged, and miraculously freed. The aim of this article is to examine different portraits of this aristocrat who embodied the Ancien régime and its downfall who, at the dawn of the Revolution, wanted to bow out gracefully from these tumultuous times leaving behind an exceptional portrait of himself as an art collector. A unique painting of its kind amongst 18th century French works, this fascinating and intimate fireside portrait immortalises Besenval’s wit and taste for posterity.
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449.