One could not be found elsewhere and is not mentioned by John Minto in correspondence in 1904 to the Oregonian on voyageur songs and other pioneer songs, from which the following statement has been condensed:
...from 1844 to 1847 the refrain of the Canadian boat song:
The rapids are near and the daylight's past.
was not an uncommon sound on the great river, while "Hail to the Chief" (meaning the American citizen) was more often and more loudly sung on the river, and it was a dull camp indeed in which there was not singing of some kind at the firesides. It was all the music possible, except an occasional violin, until 1849.... And as to the violin, few companies crossed the plains without one.... There is not nearly as much use of folk song now as during the pioneer period. Instrumental music in homes and in churches has superseded it, but does not meet the want.
It is unfortunate that John Minto did not supplement his lament with the words of some of the songs so they could have been saved to us in the columns of the Oregonian. It is thus in the whole vast volume of pioneer reminiscence—references to indicate that the pioneers did a great amount of singing but scant record of the songs themselves.
