246 
past has been very marked, and the extensive 
hotels upon its banks are constantly thronged 
with tourists and travelers from every part of 
the country. Two fine side-wheel steamers 
make regular trips from Geneva to Fontana 
and intermediate points of interest affording | 
the richest enjoyment to the seeker of plea- 
sure. The waters are remarkably clear and 
cold, being supplied by springs, and in many 
places are known to be very deep. The lake 
was called by the Indians “ Kish-wa-ke-ta,” 
signifying ‘crystal water.” In later times it 
was known as Big Foot Lake from its slight 
resemblance to a mammoth humen leg and a 
monstrous foot. 
was named for Geneva Lake, in New York, 
which in turn was named for Geneva Lake in 
Switzerland. 
forests of oak, there openine out into a wide 
rolling stretch of country, dotted with fields 
of waving grass and grain, and beautiful farm- 
houses. Mansions of great size and immense 
cost, displaying exquisite architectural taste, 
and surrounded by grassy terraces and rarest 
flower gardens, adorn the shores near the vil- 
lage, while the lands for some miles out have 
lately been purchased by capitalists, and some 
day not far distant will be adorned with all 
that money and skill can do to render a rural 
home lovely and inviting. Springs of mineral 
properties have been discovered at the head 
of the lake, where a large summer boarding- 
house has been erected. 
are pickerel, rock and black bass, and perch ; 
but the most important of all is the celebrated 
“cisco,” which comes to shore and is usually 
seen but once during the year, which is from 
the 10th to the 15th of June, when a certain 
fly becomes unpleasantly abundant about the 
shore, and which becomes food for the cisco 
during this their spawing season. Cisco-fish- 
ing is a sport relished by many, who travel 
ofttimes long distances to partake of it with 
the villagers, who gencrally turn out and make 
it a gala week; it is, in fact, the principal June 
* sport for man, woman, and cbild for a radius 
twenty miles round the lake. The cisco may 
be taken with bait or fly, though the latter is 
the most natural food. The cisco is consider- 
ed excellent game of its size, and will rise as 
vigorously as a book trout, often meeting the 
fly before it touches the water. They should 
Its shores are in places bold, at | 
others undulating; here topped with grand old | 
The fish of the lake | 
The lake as itis now known | 
THE SPORTSMAN’S AND TOURIST’S GUIDE. 
be fished for with a single-hauded fly-rod, like 
the trout; though a sixteen-feet perch-rod is 
recommended, as perch and small black bass 
occupy the same feeding-grounds, and ofien 
rise to the fly or take the bait. But the cisco 
shows to best advantage when properly cook- 
ed and temptiugly displayed to a hungry fish- 
man on the table. 
Lake Geneva is on the Chicago & North- 
western Railway, eighty-six miles from Chica- 
go via Elgin, and. seventy miles from Chicago 
via Crystal Lake. During the Winter, through 
trains are run only via Elgin. 
CAPE BRETON. 
Many fancy that Cape Breton is a de-olate 
sort of place, inhabited by the waifs and 
strays of mankind, who earn a precarious liv- 
ing on the coast by cod fishing, and in the in- 
terior by no one knows what; that ice and 
snow are the portion of the inhabitants for 
eight months of the year, while the balance is 
| divided about equally between fog and fine 
weather. Ilowever true this may be of the’ 
seasons, the impression one forms of the peo- 
ple does not suggest any great struggle in the 
fight for existence. In traveling from Haw- 
kesbury, in the Gut of Canso, to Fort Hood; 
from there to the Margaree Forks; thence to 
Baddeck and back again, by the Bras d’or 
Lakes to the place of starting, one traverses a 
country in some places thickly settled, but all 
apparently well settled by a race of men phy- 
sically the superior of any other on the face 
of this continent. They are chiefly of High- 
land Scotch descent, with a sprinkling of 
French Canadians. The accommodations in 
the way of innsin the villages are of the poor- 
_ est and dirtiest description, the only really 
decent place being the Bras d’or Hotel at Bad- 
deck. 
In regard to salmon fishing, the Margaree 
River is considered the best in Cape Breton; 
but there are doubtless many smaller streams 
on both shores of the island where good sport 
might be had. The banks of the river are 
quite open and clear of trees, and there are 
few rocks or impediments of any kind to pre- 
vent one fishing it with the greatest ease. 
The owners of the pools up and down the 
river, within a mile or so of the forks, are in 
| the habit of renting their rights to certain fish- 
ermen, and unless one engages these pools 
