8o The Ottawa Naturalist. [June 



THE ALGONQUIN NATIONAL PARK OF ONTARIO— ITS 

 . RESOURCES AND ADVANTAGES. 



By Archibald M. Campbell, Ouavva. 



The Parry Sound division of the Canada Atlantic Railway 

 renders readily accessible for the first time one of the most remark- 

 able regions of lake and stream, primeval forest and rug-g-ed rock 

 that can be found anywhere. It lies between the Ottawa River 

 and Georgian Bay, and is a compact territory over forty miles 

 square, with an area of nearly 2,000 square miles, comprising 

 eighteen townships and six half townships in the District ot 

 Nipissing, and representing in the aggregate a million acres of 

 land and water. The Ontario Government has set apart and 

 reserved for all time to come, " for the benefit, advantage and 

 enjoyment of the people of the Province," this Algonquin National 

 Park. In it, the citizens of Canada have a possession, the value 

 of which they have not yet even remotely realized. It is in reality 

 a huge game preserve, a fisherman's and sportsman's paradise, 

 a source of water supply, a field for reforestry operations, and a 

 natural sanitarium which bids fair to outdo the Adirondack region 

 and other noted health resorts of America. 



RIVERS and lakes. 



In the valleys, between the rocky ridges of the Laurentian 

 formation, are the fountain-heads ol the Muskoka, Magnetawan, 

 Madawaska, Petawawa, Amable du Fond, and South rivers — all 

 important streams, emptying into Georgian Bay, the Ottawa and 

 Mattawa rivers, and Lake Nipissing. Within the limits of the 

 Park is a large part of the watershed which divides the streams 

 flowing into the Ottawa river from those which empty into Geor- 

 gian Bay, and there is probably not to be tound elsewhere within 

 the Province a tract of country which in the same limited space 

 gives rise to so many important streams. Therefore, one of the 

 principal objects that the Government had in view when establish- 

 ing the reservation was the protection and maintenance of their 

 water supply. The interests of the lumberman, who annually 

 floats large quantities of timber to market down their waters, of 

 the manufacturer for whose mill-wheels they supply the motive 



