40 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



waters into the river Ste. Marie. Not producing a 

 large variety of fish, those that dwell in its bosom 

 are the finest of their species. The speckled trout, 

 the Mackinaw salmon, and the black bass are large 

 and vigorous; sturgeons are plentiful, although 

 valueless except as an article of food ; and the white 

 fish are the daintiest fresh-water fish in the world. 



The forests are mainly composed of the sombre 

 evergreen trees, relieved frequently by the beautiful 

 white birch, and along the low lands by a consider- 

 able number of other varieties ; the shore on the 

 north is a bold bluff five hundred feet high, but 

 where it descends to the water it forms occasionally 

 tracts of fertile interval ; on the south the coast is 

 more level and apparently more sterile. Both shores 

 are as yet totally uncultivated, and from the severity 

 of the winters will probably long so remain. 



Immediately upon our arrival at the Sault we 

 made our preparations for a campaign against the 

 fish, and engaged as guides Joseph Le Sayre, a 

 Melicete chief, and Alexis Biron, a Canadian half- 

 breed. Old Joe, as we called him, though he did 

 not seem over forty, was a fine looking Indian with 

 an erect graceful shape, and pleasant open counte- 

 nance ; Alexis, though apparently a good man, was 

 not so prepossessing. 



We embarked in a large, stout canoe, and paddling 

 across the broken water at the foot of the fall, com- 

 menced fishing the streams into which the river is 

 divided by numerous islands near the opposite shore. 

 A small, brown caddis fly, or, scientifically speaking, 



