Honore Beaugrand was a French Canadian journalist, politician, author and folklorist, born in Berthier County, Quebec. Fantastic tales is founded on a popular superstition dating back to the days of the coureurs des bois, under the French regime, and perpetuated among the voyageurs in the Canadian Northwest. The shantymen of a later date have taken up the tradition, and it is in the French settlements, bordering the St. Lawrence River, that the legends of la chasse-galerie are specially well known at the present time.