The Lower St. Lawrence. 27 



government ; a rare thing in Canada, for natives to pay for 

 the privilege of shooting game. 



Grouse shooting also affords amusement on the wooded 

 slopes of the hills ; but go into the interior about forty miles, 

 in September, and the whirring of the grouse from every 

 covert will amply repay your toil ; perhaps too you may be 

 lucky enough to have a shot at the king of birds, the golden 

 eagle or his pilfering compeer the bald eagle, soaring high 

 above your head among the crags. And if perchance camped 

 for the night in a deserted sugar-hut, you hear the horrible 

 hooting of the great horned owl, fear nothing ; wait until the 

 nocturnal marauder lights on the large tree near your resting 

 place, and by the light of the moon you will soon add to your 

 museum, one of the noblest andfiercest birds of the Canadian 

 fauna. 



That portion of the St. Lawrence extending between Goose 

 Island and the Saguenay River, is about twenty miles wide. 

 The spring tides rise and fall a distance of eighteen feet ; the 

 water is salt, but clear and cold, and the channel very deep. 

 Here may be seen abundantly the black seal, the white por- 

 poise, and the black whale. The white porpoise yields an oil 

 of the best quality, and the skin is capable of being tanned into 

 durable leather. It is far from being a shy fish, and when 

 seen in large numbers, presents a beautiful and unique 

 appearance. There are two methods used for capturing it, 

 the first of which affords most exciting sport. A boat is used 

 with a white bottom, behind which the fisherman tows a 

 small wooden porpoise, painted of a dark slate color, in 

 imitation of the young of this species. With these lures the 

 porpoise is brought into the immediate vicinity of the 

 harpoon, which is then thrown with fatal precision. The 

 other method is by fencing them in. Tins fish is fond of 

 wandering over the sand bars at high water, for the purpose of 

 feeding. The fishermen enclose one of these sandy reefs 

 with poles set about fifty feet apart, and a net stretched 



