Champlain and his contemporaries frequently used many different units of measurement. They derived from a customary system of weights and measures, and the customs were complex. Some units referred to objects that were variable in themselves: a grain of barley, or a king’s foot. Marcel Trudel found one measure of length that was “the height of a white horse’s belly.”1 Many units varied from one jurisdiction to another and from one commodity to the next. Champlain tended to record units as they were given to him by others. The result in New France was a gathering of weights and measures from many sources: Indian, English, Spanish, and Dutch, as well as French.
Indian Units of Distance and Time
Champlain frequently recorded Indian units of measurement, which referred to relations in the natural world. Champlain followed the Indians when he reckoned long distances over water in days of travel by canoe. Intermediate distances on land were reckoned in days of travel by foot. Long periods of time were counted in numbers of moons; and directions were recorded in reference to the rising or setting sun.
Measures of Length: French and English
Most of Champlain’s European measures of length derived from the customs of the kingdom of France, where they were specified by “the royal measure”:
Graine d’orge, a grain of barley, was equal to one-half of a ligne, or line.
Ligne (line) was one-twelfth of a pouce.
Pouce, was literally a big toe in the seventeenth century, similar to an English inch but slightly larger; by the king’s measure, the king’s big toe was standardized at 1.06575 English inches.
Pied du roi, the royal foot, was twelve pouces, a little larger than an English foot, just as a pouce was larger than an inch: 1.06575 English feet, or 12.789 English inches.
Pas, or pace, was the length of a footstep, three pieds du roi in most parts of New France but 3.5 pieds du roi in Martinique.
Aune (ell) equaled 3 pieds du roi and 8 pouces.
Toise was six pieds du roi, or 6.3945 English feet, or 1.949 meters. This was the mason’s toise. The carpenter’s toise was 5.5 pieds du roi.
Perche was three toises, 18 pieds du roi, or 19.1835 English feet, or 5.847 meters, or 1.162 English rods. This was the perche de Paris. A perche royale et forestière was 22 pieds du roi. A perche moyenne was 20 pieds du roi.
Arpent, was 10 perches, or 58.47 meters, variously reckoned at 191.8 or 192 English feet. This was the linear arpent, as distinct from the arpent superficiel, a measure of area, below.
Measures of Distance
Lieues, or leagues, were Champlain’s most common measure of distance, and also the most variable.
Nautical lieues were 3 nautical miles, or three minutes of latitude, or 18,228 English feet, or 3.452 English statute miles. It is the origin of the “three-mile limit.” An English statute mile is 5,280 English feet; a nautical mile is 6,076.11549 English feet or 1,852 meters, or exactly 1 minute, which is 1/60 of a degree of latitude. Each degree of latitude is equal to 60 nautical miles, or twenty nautical leagues.
Spanish lieues or leagues were 3.428 nautical miles. A degree of latitude was roughly equal to 17.5 Spanish leagues.2 This was Champlain’s conventional measure of maritime distances.
Common lieues or leagues in French usage were of two types. A common land league was 84 linear arpents, or 16,128 English feet, or 3.05 English statute miles, or 2.654 English nautical miles. C. E. Heidenreich makes it 2.43 statute miles.3
Lieue de poste was 2.13 statute miles, commonly used by Champlain for overland distances. His inland leagues averaged 2.1 statute miles.
Petites lieues were 2.03 statute miles.
In practice, leagues tended to be elastic in Champlain’s usage. Scholars have attempted to measure their actual length in particular instances, with various results. W. F. Ganong reckoned Champlain’s leagues at “about two and a half of our geographical miles.” S. E. Morison measured Champlain’s leagues on his charts and found that they varied by about 10 percent, mostly between 2.2 and 2.7 nautical miles.4
Heidenreich found that Champlain’s leagues differed on land and water. He observed that Champlain’s maps contain bar scales reckoning 17.5 leagues as equal to one degree of latitude. The only league that matches this measure is the Spanish league. Heidenreich found that most of Champlain’s estimates of distance in open water were consistent with this number, about 3.5 statute miles. But on land and interior waterways Champlain’s leagues were approximately 2.1–2.3 English miles per league in 62 measurements compiled by Heidenreich. In overland journeys he also used the postal league. In coastal waters, Champlain’s leagues were highly variable.5 Heidenreich’s estimates are based on the largest samples.
Measures of Area
pouce carré, comparable to a square inch.
pied carré, equals 144 pouces carrés, comparable to a square foot.
toise carrée, equals 36 pieds carrés.
perche carrée, equals 9 toises carrées.
arpent, equals 100 perches carrées, or 5/6 of an English acre.
lieue carrée equals 7,056 arpents.
By comparison:
An English acre equals 120 perches carrees. Arpents and acres are not the same. A hectare equals 2.47 English acres.
Measures of Depth
Brasse was Champlain’s most common way of reckoning depth. It was similar to an English fathom, but not the same. To be precise, a French brasse was six pieds du roi, or 1.06575 English fathoms, which equaled six English feet. Champlain’s brasse was 6.6 percent larger than an English fathom.
Measures of Weight
once, comparable to an English ounce, avoirdupois.
livre equals 16 onces, comparable to an English pound.
quintal equals 100 livres, comparable to an English hundredweight.
short ton equals 2,000 livres; not to be confused with nautical tonnage in its various meanings, for which see Appendix M, Champlain’s ships and small craft.
Measures of Wet Volume
roquille equals an English gill, 4 ounces liquid measure, or one half of an English cup.
demiard equals two roquilles or half a chopine, 8 ounces.
chopine, about the same as an English pint, equals two demiards or half a French pinte.
pinte, about the same as an English quart, equals two chopines, or half a pot.
pot, a basic unit, 2.2648 litres, or approximately half (49.8164%) of an English exchequer gallon of 1601.
barrique, usually 110 pots, but sometimes 120 pots, or even as many as 180 pots. pipe, 220 pots.
tonneau de Bordeaux (tonneaux de mer), 440 pots, or two pipes, or four barriques. tonneau de vin, about 440 pots.
French merchants used many specialized cask-measures, for particular purposes:
velte, 4 pots.
ancre, 32 pots, was a cask used only for brandy, 7.45 or 7.61 litres.
baril or barril, variously given as 35 to 40 pots, or 55 pots.
quart about 80 pots, a quart français has nothing to do with an English quart.
poinçon, 93 pots, similar to an English puncheon.
muid, about 140 pots, similar to an English hogshead.
tonneau d’Orléans, about 280 pots.
Measures of Dry Volume
litron half a quart.
quart equals to 2 litrons.
boisseau (bushel) equals 4 quarts.
minot equals three boisseaux.
setier equals 4 minots, or 12 boisseaux.
muid equals 12 setiers.
pipe equals 1.5 muids.
These measures varied from one commodity to another. They tended to be gross weight. The net weight equaled the gross weight minus the tare which was the weight of the container.
Measures of Bulk in Commercial Transactions
These units varied by commodity.
Beaver pelts were measured by the ballot or bale, which normally weighed 120 livres.
Bois de brûler, or firewood was reckoned by the corde, which was a stack of wood, four feet wide, four feet deep and four feet high and eight feet long, similar to the English cord, but reckoned in French pieds du roi, which made a corde française, 6.575 percent larger in each of its three linear dimensions; thus 21.05034 percent larger in cubic volume than an English cord.
Bacon was sold in ancres du lard, of 70 livres and up.
Cereals: a minot of grain could be 37 litres or 1.05 bushels.
Salt (sel) was sold by the barrique de sel, which was equal to 6 minots.
Peas (pois) and small beans (but not fèves) were sold by the poinçon de pois, equal to 9 minots.
Flour (farine) was sold in barils de farine, 180 livres and up.
Sugar (sucre) was sold in barriques de sucre, up to 1000 livres.
Cod and other fish were sold à la poignée, or by the handful. Larger quantities were sold au cent, but this “hundred of cod” was 132 codfish; a quarteron of that unit was 33 cod.