Kingston to Toronto. 129 



woody, low and marshy ; the water is clear, the bottom 

 muddy. Trolling with a good sized bright spoon, and a 

 thick line, never fails to secure some fine maskelongd and 

 black bass. A short distance from Scugog village is a small 

 island called Bald Point Island. This has been an Indian 

 burying ground, — tradition asserts the scene of a furious 

 contest between two hostile tribes. Great quantities of 

 bones, teeth, pottery, and arrow heads strew the beach, and 

 can be picked out of the clayey banks after the winter's 

 thaw has loosened a fresh stratum of mould. It is a lovely, 

 secluded spot, with a gravelly shore, where the water shoals 

 gradually, making a splendid bathing ground, and save the 

 kingfisher and occasional passing flight of the duck hawk, 

 or the mud turtle sunning itself on the beach, of which 

 there are numbers here, and of very large size, there are no 

 signs of animal life. There are no trout to be found in 

 these lakes or in the streams running into them, probably 

 from their muddy and sluggish nature ; the whole channel 

 of the river and lakes being a slow, deep, and still stream. 

 In the streams south, running into Lake Ontario, trout are 

 numerous, but the only fly-fishing is in the mill-ponds, 

 which are now, as a general thing, well protected. For- 

 merly, in the Trent, below Rice Lake, salmon used to 

 be abundant, but the sawdust of the mills, and the wanton 

 destruction of the fish, have driven them from their old 

 haunts, probably not to revisit them again, unless artifici- 

 ally hatched and turned into them. Splendid duck-shoot- 

 ing can be had near Scugog village, by getting out on a 

 swamped log or tuft of reeds, sending the canoe away for 

 a couple of hours to beat among the sunken timber, and 

 take the teal or ducks on the wing as they fly past your 

 hiding place. From its easy access and nearness to civili- 

 zation, this spot affords a more than usual attraction, and 

 only requires to be seen to be appreciated. From the village 

 there is a tri-weekly mail cart to Bowman ville, twenty miles 



