425 



After this short preliminary sketch of the geography of the Province, some 

 further details are necessary as to the waters bounding and inclosed by the sub- 

 divisions desci'ibed. Most important, of course, are the Great Lakes, indeed, it is 

 they alone which are at present important from an economic standpoint, but it is 

 desirable from a scientific point of view that both of the great water-systems 

 should be considered with the view of eliciting^ information as to the differences 

 in the fish-fauna of each. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 



These magnificent expanses of fresh water form ])art of a semicircle of lakes 

 stretching from the Pacific ocean to the Atlantic concentrically with Hudson's Bay, 

 viz. — Great Bear Lake, Slave Lake, Athabasca, Wollaston, Deer Lake, Lake 

 Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba, Lake ot the Woods, Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario 

 and the St. Lawrence. They are considered to represent the ancient shore of the 

 ocean retiring before a rising continent. Many curious facts as to the inhabi- 

 tants of these lakes are intelligible if we bear in mind the physical changes which 

 geologists tell us they have undergone in the past. 



Lake Superior, the largest expanse of fresh water on the globe, forms an in- 

 exhaustible reservoir for the St. Lawrence system, containing, as it has been es- 

 timated to do, some 4,000 cubic miles of water. Its north shore is bold and 

 picturesque, varying in height from 300 to 1,360 feet, and deeply indented in 

 some parts, where innumerable harbours facilitating commerce and fisheries are 

 formed. 



Its greatest length is some 420 miles, measured on a curve from east to west ; 

 its greatest breadth is 160, while its area has been calculated at 32,000 square 

 miles. Taking into consideration its great depth (in some places it reaches 1,200 

 feet), it is not wonderful that such a large body of water should materially in- 

 fluence the temperature of its shores, and should not be easily affected by sea- 

 sonal alterations. The temperature of its surface waters in July has been ob- 

 served to be 39'^F (= 4^ C), that of the atmosphere being 51*^. (10.5^ C), while 

 the thermometer at some distance in the interior registered TO'' and 80*^ ( = 25'^- 

 26° C). 



The waters of the lake are derived from a basin drained by more than two 

 hundred streams ; several of these are of considerable size, but almost all are im- 

 petuous torrents, descending from the height of land for 50 to 150 miles. Pro- 

 ceeding from the head of the lake eastwards, the most considerable are the Kam- 

 inistiquia, the Neepigon, the Pic on the north, the Michipicoten, the Agawa, the 

 Montreal, the Batchawaung and the Goulais on the east side. Of these, the Kam- 

 inistiquia is the only one navigable for large vessels for any distance from its 

 mouth ; it flows into Thunder Bay at Fort William. The Kakabeka Falls^ 

 situated near the fork of the branches draining Lake Shebandowan and Dog 

 Lake, are said to be scarcely inferior in grandeur to the Falls of Niagara. 



The Neepigon River, the largest on the north shore, takes its origin in Lake 

 Neepigon, an oval sheet of water 8U miles north-west of Lake Superior, and 313 

 feet higher than that lake ; it discharges itself through several small lakes and a 

 wide deep channel into Neepigon Bay. The water of this river and lake, so 

 celebrated for the large speckled trout with which they swarm, has earned for 

 the lake its Indian name, which signifies " Deep Clearwater Lake." The lake^ 



