THE ST. LAWRENCE RESERVATION. 83 



as many were going there in the fall of each year to hunt ducks. The following 

 kinds are found here, viz. : Redhead, Black, Wood Duck, Black Coot, Whistler, 

 American Widgeon, Broad Bill, Sprig Tail, Sheldrake, Goosander, Hooded Mer- 

 ganser, Shoveler, Bufflehcad, Old-Squaw, Mallard, Canvas Back, and Blue and Green 

 Wing Teal. Duck hunting is probably not as good as it was fifty years ago, because 

 the birds were allowed to be taken during the breeding season. A recent law 

 protects them during the spring and summer months, and as a result thfc number 

 found now is considerably greater. The sportsman will also find in this region 

 Grouse, Woodcock, Plover, Canada Geese, Loons, Gulls, Divers, Curlew, Cranes, 

 Kingfishers, Bittern and Snipe. 



The St. Lawrence River has been a favorite route of travel for seventy-five years. 

 Long before the building of the railroads through northern New York a large 

 through passenger traffic had grown up between Montreal and Ogdensburg at the 

 east, and Lewiston at the west. Large side-wheel steamers, rivaling in size even the 

 modern steamers of Lake Ontario, were built and they did a lucrative business. 

 Many of them were constructed at Clayton, and the old residents of that town 

 relate with pride various incidents connected with the construction and operation of 

 these large, palatial boats. There were two lines — one American, the other 

 Canadian. Some of the steamers of the Canadian line are still in service, although 

 new and larger ones have recently been put on the route for the lake and island 

 part of the travel. The steamers of the American line were, some of them, sold to 

 the National Government for transport service during the Civil War, and the others 

 were dismantled upon the building of railroads. Succeeding the American line, in 

 part, came the Northern Transportation Company, operating about thirty steamers 

 between Ogdensburg and Chicago, stopping at Clayton and Alexandria Bay for 

 passengers and wood. They were propellers of convenient size, seaworthy, and 

 made a daily line during the open season, nearly as reliable in the hour of arrival 

 and departure as a railroad service. However, the building of the railroad to Cape 

 Vincent, and later to Clayton, brings the matter of to'urist travel nearer to the times 

 and subject of which wc write. 



At first one small steamer accommodated the tourist travel from the railroad, 

 and nearl)- all of the arrivals were at Cape Vincent. Some time after the building 

 of the line to Clayton the connection down the river from Cape Vincent was discon- 

 tinued, and now the principal part of the arrivals for the many hotels, parks and 

 cottages are at Clayton, a line of half a dozen steamers being required to meet all the 

 trains at that railroad terminus. Some people find it more convenient to go to the 

 Islands by way of Morristown and Ogdensburg ; some go to Charlotte or to Oswego. 



