The Nepigon and Saguenay. 129 



John and require ninety miles of sandy 

 circumference for the assembly. If you 

 would know which St. John the lake is 

 named after, try to cross it in a birch-bark 

 canoe when a question of north wind is 

 before the conference. The Nepigon 

 River, as a strong individual character, 

 retains its original motives and carries 

 into Lake Superior the same volume of 

 clearest cold water with which it started, 

 water that makes such white foam and 

 spray in the rapids that the Indians could 

 not help calling the river the Nepi-gon, or 

 river-that-is-like-snow. Such a river is not 

 very susceptible to passing influences, and 

 during the whole year it may not rise or 

 fall more than twenty-five inches, while the 

 Saguenay, responding to many influential 

 constituents, rises and falls as many feet 

 in the course of two months, and not only 

 that, but it is warm or cold at the dictation 

 of the season. 



The Nepigon is not afraid to show its 

 true nature at the outset of its career, 

 and it gives honest warning that it is pow- 

 erful. The Saguenay, on the other hand, 



