THE HALCYON IN CANADA. 219 



terrible Saguenay. On the map it looks like a great 

 cuttle-fish with its numerous arms and tentacula 

 reaching out^in all directions into the wilds. It is a 

 large oval body of water thirty miles in its greatest 

 diameter. The season here, owing to a sharp north- 

 ern sweep of the isothermal lines, is two or three 

 weeks earlier than at Quebec. The soil is warm and 

 fertile, and there is a thrifty growing settlement here 

 with valuable agricultural produce, but no market 

 nearer than Quebec, two hundred and fifty miles dis- 

 tant by water, with a hard, tedious land journey be- 

 sides. In winter the settlement can have little or no 

 communication with the outside world. 



To relieve this isolated colony and encourage fur- 

 ther development of the St. John region, the Cana- 

 dian government is building a wagon-road through 

 the wilderness from Quebec directly to the lake, thus 

 economizing half the distance, as the road when com- 

 pleted will form with the old route, the Saguenay and 

 St. Lawrence, one side of an equilateral triangle. A 

 railroad was projected a few years ago over nearly 

 the same ground, and the contract to build it given to 

 an enterprising Yankee, who pocketed a part of the 

 money and has never been heard of since. The road 

 runs for one hundred miles through an unbroken 

 wilderness and opens up scores of streams and lakes 

 abounding with trout, into which until the road-mak- 

 ers fished them, no white man had ever cast a hook. 



It was a good prospect, and we resolved to commit 

 ourselves to the St. John road. The services of ft 



