1013-14 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 87 



There are sixteen summer cottages on Cache lake and two schools. The 

 cottagers pay a land rental of from $7.50 to $15.00 according to the size of lot 

 held. The schools pay a rental of $75.00 for five acres. The boys' school is 

 presided over by Prof. G. G. Brower of New Jersey, the girls' school of some fifty 

 odd girls is under the care of Miss F. L. Case of Rochester, N.Y., and is, 1 

 believe, the model camp of America. On Lake of Two Rivers there is another 

 camp, the Borden town (N.J.) Military Institute, under the management of 

 Prof. W. L. Wise. These camps are a splendid thing for the young people. I 

 regret none of our Ontario people have taken this work up, financially and from 

 an educational point of view it offers great inducements. We expect to have 

 another such camp at Source Lake next year. Fishing during the past year has 

 been good. Some fine specimens were taken : one fine salmon trout caught in 

 Smoke lake by Lady Conan Doyle has been mounted and sent to her home in 

 England. Nearly all the prizes offered by sporting journals won this year were 

 taken by fish from Algonquin Park. A numljer of fingerling bass were put into 

 Cache lake; they were in splendid condition when planted. I should like to see 

 some more next year, also salmon and speckled trout, as it is important to keep 

 the lakes near the hotels stocked, so that those who are not able to go far afield can 

 have some sport. 



I regret to have to report several bad fires, which although they did not destroy 

 a great deal of valuable timber, ran over a large territory, a great deal of which 

 had been burnt over some sixteen years ago. Of course the young growth was 

 destroyed. Every possible effort was put forth to check these fires, but the con- 

 tinual dry weather and high winds constantly from the same quarter, made it 

 almost a hopeless task. In nearly every ease these fires were caused by the engines 

 of the Grand Trunk Railway. It would almost seem necessary to make it com- 

 pulsory to burn oil in the engines running through the Park. One year's loss 

 would convert the engines into oil burners. 



As instructed by you a gang of fifteen men and a team were last August 

 put to work to clean up the debris on the right-of-way and for some distance into 

 the woods on each side, the Grand Trunk people paying half the expense. A 

 splendid job was made of it and the work continued until late fall, when the 

 snow stopped it. I would strongly recommend the continuance of this work next 

 spring and until the entire length of the railway within the Park limits is cleaned 

 up. It will very materially lessen the danger from fire. I would also recommend 

 building a telephone line along the railway through the Park a distance of some 

 forty miles. This would cost in material between $500 and $600. The expense of 

 putting it up would be very small as the work could be done by the Rangers. We 

 now have telephones at headquarters and Joe Lake, and also have connection with 

 Smoke lake eight miles to the south and Island lake ten miles to the north, using 

 the wires of the Grand Trunk. These phones were of great assistance during the 

 fires. With a phone in each shelter house between Rainy lake and Whitney our 

 men could get in touch with headquarters quickly and report help wanted, etc. 

 I think the Grand Trunk Company would not object to our using the poles along 

 the railway for this purpose. 



We had two bad fires on the limits acquired by the Government from the 

 Munn Lumber Company. A great part of the section burnt over was old burn 

 and slash, but some small pine was also injured. This was put up for sale, but 

 owing to the great depression in the lumber business no offers were received. The 

 hardwoods were not badly burnt, and I think in most cases will revive, it being 



