In military reenacting circles the idea of the hunting bag is pervasive. In an English context which in my opinion skews all contexts in the US reenacting community a hunting bag is a leather bag usually slung over the shoulder but sometimes on a belt used to hold wadding and shot used along with a power horn. In a modern context one is generally required to keep paper cartrages in a leather bag sometimes with a wooden block with holes to keep the cartrages from jossiling around and leaking black powder. So for a modern Reenactor doing battle re-enactment a hunting bag is seen as an essential pice of equipment for militia and other soldiers who wouldn’t be issued a cartdrage box.
For the habitant of New France hunting was common place. Early on one New France the Peasantry lived life like in France where hunting was a sport relegated to the nobility. As time wore on Canadians became known for their ability to hunt and commonly used game to supplement their diets. “In fact, the French had consumed increasingly smaller quantities of meat since the mid-16th century, because the nobility had monopolized the forests and made them their private hunting grounds.”
The archeological record confirms that as the 1700’s went on New France colonists ate more game as firearms became more accessible to peasants. Game birds were abundant and relatively easy to get.
https://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/daily-life/foodways/
Jean Baptist’s d alevracs mentions that “The Canadians are well-made, big, robust, adroit in the use of the fusil and the axe. This skill comes from their habitual hunting, making war, and cutting trees to clear land and build their homes.”
So my question is when these Canadians were hunting did they bring a “hunting bag” and if so what did those bags look like?
The pictorial record is scant and there are no images that I know of from the early 18th century showing Canadians hunting.
One candidate is this image
Source unknown, estimated first half of the 18th century
The fact that the man/men are armed and described as “coureures de bois” or “woods runners” in English may indicate that they were hunters but this is pure speculation on my part. Regardless the main function of the hunting bag in context was to keep ammunition and tools, extra flints, etc.
There is this image of a Canadian going to war. Hunting animals and hunting people are very different things but perhaps the items one would bring may be similar?
J.B. Scotin Canadian going to war on snowshoes 1700
Militia records of equipment mention lead shot, muskets, and powder but no bags for carrying this lead are mentioned. Does this mean that they provided their own?
My inspiration for these musings came from this article by Eric Bizet, translated by Isaac Walters
https://frenchinwisconsin.couleetech.com/2016/10/08/a-french-hunting-pouch/
If we look to France my go to is the Diderot Encyclopedia
We find on the Brousier plate, figure 5 described as a “Gibeciere de chasse”
And other depictions of the French upper class show us this type of bag, a waist belted leather bag with a metal cantle, in use.
My question is, are there any records of the manufacture and/or sale of Gibeciere de chasse in New France? If Gibeciere de chasse were an old world item used by the upper class where does that leave the hunting habitant? Were they making use of indigenous style bags for hunting the same way they used native style hide tobacco pouches or did they have European style Gibeciere de chasse?
Sac à feu » is the bag you use to carry your tinder and lighter, your tobacco and your pipe. « Sac à plomb » and « sac à balles » are most likely interchangeable words to designate the bag in which you carry shot or musket balls (with possibly your tools and flints for your musket). In the military, you use a giberne (cartridge box or pouch) or a gargoussier (belly box) to carry your premade cartridges. Cartouchière is a more generic term to designate a container for cartridges.
All this is to say that the average French Canadian’s sac à plomb/sac à balles/ gibecière was likely what is now commonly referred to as a “slit pouch” or a drawstring pouch. Both appear to have been commonly used by the Canadian musket user as each is seen in the only real images we have of them in the period detailed below
The archeological record shows us the form with fantastically elaborate examples:
Figure 12.
Slit pouch from the Messiter collection, possibly Western Great Lakes , c. 1750-1800, leather, porcupine quills, bras cones, red dyed deer hair. 18 15/16” long, 3 15/16” wide (48cmx10cm) courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec. Cat. No. III-X-375, in Christian F. Feest, Slit Pouches of Eastern North America, American Indian Art Magazine, January 2006 31 (3):66-79,96-97. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
Tobacco Bag, 1700–1721, Great Lakes, probably Ojibwa, Native-tanned leather, pigment, porcupine quills, metal cones, deer hair, Length: 20 1/2 in. (52.1 cm)
Width: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm), Musée du quai Branly, Paris (71.1878.32.128)
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/639994
