48 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



miles, are collected innumerable bodies of water, som.e of 

 them immense, like Lake Mistassini, larger than Ontario, and 

 others mere lakelets, out of which they discharge the melted 

 accumulations of winter in turbulent streams, which usually 

 plunge over lofty escarpments into the ocean and Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, in falls from one hundred and fifty to four hundred 

 feet high. This feature is peculiar as well to the north shore 

 of the St. Lawrence River, from its mouth nearly up to Que- 

 bec. The celebrated Montmorenci Falls afford a striking 

 illustration thereof. Some of these falls impinge directly on 

 the river, while others are set back from one to four miles. 

 In many cases, however, the waters of the interior find their 

 exit through great gorges and rifts in the rocks, and in all such 

 cases become Salmon rivers, unless there are obstacles to 

 obstruct their ascent. There are perhaps sixty of these rivers 

 catalogued for lease at the Crown Lands Department in Que- 

 bec. The most notable of these are the LeVal,i8o miles below 

 Quebec; Trinity, 276 miles; St. Margaret, 340; the Moisic, 

 364; the St. John du Nord, 454, constituting the boundary 

 line between the Province of Quebec and Labrador; the Min- 

 gon, 465 miles; the Natashquan, 571 miles, and the Esqui- 

 maux, 720 miles from Quebec. Seven hundred and twenty 

 miles are a good many to make for a few Salmon. The St. 

 John du Nord used to be a favorite river of the Harriotts and 

 the Havemeyers, of New York, and actor W. J. Florence 

 used to fish the Natashquan. One summer, I think it was 

 in 1879, he went down with E. A. Sothern (Lord Dun- 

 dreary), the Duke of Beaufort, and Sir John Reid, and 

 the party captured ninety-eight Salmon, weighing 1,328 

 pounds, in the course of about three weeks, though the 

 actual fishing time was but fifty-eight and one-eighth hours. 

 That bunch of Salmon must have cost the party about $3.50 

 per pound. The steamer which they chartered to take them 

 down from Quebec to the fishing-ground cost $1,000. and the 

 other expenses must have brought the bill up to $6,000, for 



