DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS FOR 1933 71 



by a highway leading either west to the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario 

 Railway or ncrth to the Canadian National Railway. The northern fringe of 

 the lake is traversed by the C.N.R. for 33 miles. 



If settlement were allowed in the northern part of this area first, it 

 would develop exactly as it has done in Quebec where it has been a splendid 

 success. The parts of this fringe, viz. around the southwest and west sides of 

 the lake would be reached gradually. The settlers would have a splendid 

 revenue from sale of their pulp and timber just as was done in Quebec. 



At present splendid highways run east from Cochrane to this limit and 

 stop; and west from Amos in Queberc to the boundary and stop. The linking 

 of these highways would be one of the finest pieces of development for the 

 north country. This gap is about 50 miles long and lies in country very easy 

 for road building. 



Here is sufficient land to settle, at present hundreds, and eventually 

 thousands of people. Transportation crying for freight right at their doors, 

 revenue for the settlers from the day they go in, land whose fertility and pro- 

 ductiveness has been proved beyond doubt, climate second to none in Canada ! 

 There is no doubt but that the agricultural produce from this land would be 

 of far greater value than that derived from the slow growing timber and it 

 seems to us that little or no argument can be urged for this close-in-area to 

 transportation to be much longer withheld from settlement. 



Abitibi Lake has undergone a certain amount of change since power 

 development has made of it a reservoir. The water may by arrangement be 

 kept up to an elevation of 878.5 feet, a datum arrived at as being as near as 

 could be determined a natural high water or flood level. Naturally the level 

 of the lake is kept to a much higher average than it was formerly. This is 

 seen in drowned areas in bays and up rivers, in former islands now being sub- 

 merged, in former points now being islands, and in a raised beach line. 



No doubt Lake Abitibi will some day be a tourist resort. It is a lake 

 about 50 miles long, varying in width from 3 to 20 miles. By survey it is found 

 to contain over seven hundred islands, large and small. In places are found 

 the finest of sand beaches. Rocky islets, wooded islands, clumps of white 

 pine, groves of poplar and birch, high rocky points and grassy promontories 

 provide a variety of camp locations, while motorboating, sailing or canoeing 

 can be had in all its forms. Fishing is carried on commercially proving that 

 fish are there in considerable quantities. Transportation via the Canadian 

 National Railway touches the lake in places. 



From Lake Abitibi a particularly fine trip for the canoeist leads from the 

 easterly end via Duparquet River and Lake, thence up Kanasuta River to 

 Dasserat Lake, thence over a small portage at the Nipissing Central Railway 

 and into Opasatika Lake, Remigny Lake and Lake des Quinze to Angliers. 

 This is the terminus of the C.P.R. at present, reaching north from its main 

 line at Mattawa, Ont. 



At Raven Lake, the boundary crosses the old canoe route followed by the 

 early voyageurs from the St. Lawrence to James Bay. This leads via Lake 

 Temiskaming, Blanche River, Raven, Opasatika, Dasserat and Duparquet 

 Lakes to Abitibi Lake and so on to the Bay. This was the route followed by 

 Sieur D'lverbille in 1689 when leading an expedition of 100 men to James Bay. 

 Presumably they lived off the country and he made his way in about three 



