1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 93 



therefore, of maintaining the sporting fisheries generally throughout the 

 Province to a high level of exeellen€e is apparent, as likewise of safe- 

 guarding even those waters which are at present practically beyond the 

 reach of even the most adventurous tourist. The greater the dispersion 

 of the visitors the greater will be the benefit to the Province at large, for 

 it is prceisely in the more sparsely-settled regions that their cash will be 

 productive of the most immediate good, seeing that it is the poor settler 

 or farmer, with whom ready money is almost invariably scarce, who will 

 first secure it and benefit by it as it passes on its way into the ordinary 

 channels of trade in the Province. 



The summer visitor, however, is not merely advantageous to the Pro- 

 vince from the ready cash which he leaves behind him. In Ontario there 

 are abundant opportunities for the investment of capital, and there is 

 no better method of attracting capital to a locality than giving ocular 

 proof of its potentialities to those who possess or control it. Men may 

 read at a distance of great chances and great developments, and remain 

 apathetic or unimpressed, but if those great chances or developments 

 come under their own immediate notice they will, as a rule, commence 

 to take a lively interest in them. In addition to the capital launched into 

 the Province for the purchase of real estate or timber limits, many an 

 instance could be adduced to-day of a thriving industry or concern in 

 this Province which owed its initiation to the fortuitous chance of a 

 summer visit, and in the majority of cases the prime cause of the visit 

 would b6 found and acknowledged to be the quest of some variety of 

 sport. Each successful investment, as also each satisfactory enlighten- 

 ment of a responsible business nuan from abroad as to the favorable con- 

 ditions for the investment of capital in the Province cannot but act as 

 an advertisement for Ontario and result, in some measure at least, in 

 turning the eyes of those with capital to invest towards her. It is evi- 

 dent, therefore, that nothing that will in any Avay assist in bringing into 

 the Province tlie more wealthy class of visitors and sportsmen-tourists 

 should be ignored, especially not such a prime factor in this regard as 

 the sporting fishes. 



There are, of course, in the Province certain localities, such as the 

 Ki<leau Lake System, tlie Kiawartha Lakes and Muskoka district, Avhere 

 the value of the tourist traffic is recognized, and wliere also the sporting 

 fishes are accorded at least a measure of their true worth as a factor in 

 the attraction of tourists, but it is, perhaps, in the extreme west of the 

 Province that the beneficial attributes of the sportsman-tourist and the 

 attractive power of the sporting fishes are most appreciated and under- 

 stood. At Kenora, with all the advantages of its location on the shores 

 of beautiful Lake of the Woods, already a great summer tourist traffic 

 has been develo])ed by tlie energy of its citizens. At Port Arthur and 

 Fort William, the rivers fi(»\ving into Lake Superior, notably the noble 

 Nipigon River, have played no small part in attracting tourists to the 

 district, eager to land the sporting speckled trout. But at Kenora, as at 



