68 EEPOET OF THE No. 3 



the base line Zavitz and Hutt near 4 M. and base line Hutt, Halliday, at 3 M. 

 and continuing south across the south boundary of Halliday, turns west and north 

 across the south boundary of Sothman entering a chain of small lakes and debouching 

 into Sinclair Lake at its north-east corner. Turning a point in the last mentioned 

 lake the water proceeds north through the Kapiskong or Grassy Eiver and its 

 lake widenings on its way to the Matagami Eiver. In its passage through Hutt 

 and Halliday this river occupies a wide marshy valley, containing a luxuriant 

 growth of wild rice, rushes and other grasses, through which it winds from side to 

 side with slow current. Numerous canoe routes cross the country in every direction. 

 One of these leaves Wing Lake, through which the eastern branch of the Grassy 

 Eiver passes on its way to Sinclair Lake, and traverses several small lakes and 

 portages to Lake Washagami and presents the peculiar circumstance, that a person 

 taking this route may travel a distance of about fifty miles, returning to 'his start- 

 ing point, and with the exception of a mile or so at the beginning and the crossing 

 of a few light portages, may travel down stream all the way. Another important 

 canoe route leaves the bay extending east across the meridian Nursey and Sothman 

 between 2 M, and 3 M., and traverses the country north through Sothman, Semple 

 and English to Lake Muskasenda. There are two lakes of considerable size crossed 

 by this canoe route. Birch Lake lying to the south and extending up to the base line 

 Semple-English ; and Trout Lake lying between that line and Lake Muskasenda. 

 Our information of these lakes, however, is not sufficient to show them properly on 

 the plan returned. 



As the numerous portages attest, and as the natural features of the country 

 would lead one to surmise, this section has been the trapper's paradise, and many 

 furbearing animals are still to be found within its confines. Moose are very plenti- 

 ful and the high ground covered with thick growth of moosewood or scrub maple, 

 which occupies so large an extent of the land surface, affords ample winter provis- 

 ion for large numbers of these animals; while the numerous shallow lakes and 

 sluggish river stretches provide an abundant supply of succulent lily roots for 

 summer feed. The wide valley of the Grassy Eiver in its eastern branch, with its 

 miles of rice beds, gives great promise of ducks for fall hunting, and indeed many 

 of these birds breed here. We need only say that grouse are becoming plentiful, 

 pickerel may be caught in all the deeper waters and the fcuxigry pike everywhere 

 but in the tree tops, while by dropping a few miles further down river toward the 

 Matagami the angler may fill as large a creel as his conscience will permit with 

 speckled trout ; that he may make the acquaintance 61 the black bear, see the beaver 

 at work, enjoy magnificent scenery, and with a little effort spent in clearing out 

 portages, travel comfortably in almost any direction his fancy may suggest. 



This picture is true to-day. Should there be a recurrence of the drought of 

 the past two seasons, no better means devised of protecting the country from fire, 

 and no improvement in the personnel of these licensed to wander through the 

 woods at will and disposed to destroy at leisure, a person reading the above descrip- 

 tion a year hence and on the ground it fits may have cause to regard it as a satire. 

 Much of this country is littered with dry windfallen timber, is higth and ridgy, and 

 only needs a fair start on a breezy day to leave behind a blackened waste. That 

 matters are serious in this respect is amply attested by the Porcupine disaster of 

 the present summer, and yet aside from the loss of life, it is probable that no greater 

 loss of timber was occasioned by that fire than by numerous others raging at the same 

 time. On the day of the above disaster we were camped in the valley of the Grassy 

 Eiver on the base line Halliday-Hutt, where the opening gave a horizon denied 



