28 The River Saguenay. 



across. They leave an appropriate opening for the por- 

 poises, which enter at high water, and owing to their timidity, 

 are kept confined by the slender barrier until the tide ebbs, 

 when they are destroyed in great numbers with very little 

 trouble.- 



— When in Quebec the tourist should by all means take a 

 run down to the Saguenay. This he can do by taking the 

 railway at Pointe Levi for Riviere du Loup, and there crossing 

 by steamer ; or during the summer months he can take 

 steamer to the Saguenay, from Quebec. How is it, many 

 are led to inquire, that so little has been known of the 

 Saguenay and its surroundings, until quite recently ? Two 

 reasons may be assigned for this ; it is a portion of that 

 vast territory which has been under the jurisdiction of the 

 Hudson Bay Company, — and the wilderness through which 

 it runs is of such a character that its shores can never be 

 greatly changed in appearance. Only a small proportion of 

 its soil can ever be brought under cultivation, and as its forests 

 are a good deal stunted, its lumbering resources are by no 

 means inexhaustible. The wealth it contains is mineral, of 

 which iron is abundant ; and that it would yield an abundance 

 of fine marble, the observant eye can judge for itself, as it will 

 frequently fall upon a broad vein of that rock as pure as 

 alabaster. The Saguenay is the largest tributary of the great 

 St. Lawrence, and unquestionably one of the most remarkable 

 rivers on the continent. It is the principal outlet of Lake 

 St. John, which is its head-water ; a lake about forty miles 

 long, surrounded with a heavily timbered and rather level 

 country ; its waters are remarkably clear, and abound in a 

 great variety of uncommonly fine fish. Eleven large rivers 

 fall into it, yet it has only this one outlet. Into this lake there 

 is a noteworthy Curtain Fall of two hundred and thirty-six 

 •feet, so conspicuous as to be seen at forty or fifty miles distant 

 — the Indian name of which is " Q-?at Chouan," or " Do you 



