BASS FISHING. 337 



where the river takes its departure from the broad lake be- 

 yond. This pleasant little town is built upon a wide sweep 

 of tableland, overlooking the river in front, and the open 

 lake on the west. It is accessible both by the lake and river, 

 having two or three arrivals and departures of steamboats 

 each way daily, and being the terminus of the Borne and 

 Watertown Railroad, the great thoroughfare between King- 

 ston and the central portion of the Upper Provinces and 

 the States. It is a delightful place in the hot summer 

 months, with a climate unequalled for healthfulness, a cool 

 breeze always fanning it from the water, and in the vicinity 

 the best bass fishing to be found on this continent. 



Opposite, and just below the town, is Carlton Island, on 

 which stand the ruins of an old French fortification, the 

 walls and trenches and the solitary chimneys, from which 

 the wooden barracks have rotted or been burned away, re- 

 main as melancholy testimonials of the bloody strifes be- 

 tween the red men of the forest, and the pioneers of civiliz- 

 ation who were driving them from the hunting grounds of 

 their fathers. 



The black bass of the St. Lawrence and Ontario, are the 

 " gamest " fish that swim, and they are nowhere found in 

 such abundance as in the neighborhood of Cape Vincent. 

 On the outer edge of the bar, near the head of Carlton Island, 

 we caught between seventy and eighty in ome afternoon, 

 weighing from three to five pounds each, every one of which 

 fought, like a hero, diving with a plunge for the bottom, 

 skiving with a rush down, across, or up the river ; leaping 



15 



